long time, no substack

some thoughts from recent events, plus the signs as movies i've seen recently

i’ll cut directly to the chase: i’ve been feeling very uninspired!

i don’t know what it is, maybe it’s the heat (vancouver this summer has felt like a continuous heat wave since may), maybe it’s that i haven’t been reading or thinking a lot lately, or maybe it’s a general malaise. i’ve started somewhere between 10 and 15 drafts in the last 15 days, all of which have titles and maybe one sentence written. i have ideas, i just can’t seem to get them out.

i don’t want to let this place lay dormant while i struggle to think and write, so i’m writing you with some light stuff. just some little thoughts from my dull little head.

also, if you want to keep up to date with what’s on my mind, feel free to follow me on twitter or instagram, i’m @uglyblender on both platforms. i’m also on bluesky and threads with the same handle, but i don’t use either very much.

the twitter blocking debacle

yesterday elon musk said he wanted to do away with blocking on twitter except for in DMs, in favour of a stronger type of mute. isn’t muting just a softer type of blocking? kinda weird. it might not happen because it maybe goes against the app store and the google play store’s terms of service, but anything could happen.

it’s pretty obvious this is a terrible decision. a lot of users rely on blocking for privacy and safety reasons, like when someone with the username hitlerrules1488 responds to me calling me a slur or when woody allen defenders go nuts in my replies because i said he’s a creep. i don’t wanna have those people looking at my shit, and blocking them makes it a little harder for them to seek me out, so i like the function for that. keeping blocking for DMs is obviously good because the stuff i get in my DMs is even more egregious.

however, it would be funny if i was no longer blocked by chuck wendig. all i did was say he was annoying. what a cromulent fuckcrustable of a day. sammy needy drinky.

venus retrograde, mercury retrograde

okay astrology girlies. venus retrograde has been insane. i’ve been feeling certifiably insane in the venus department. just insanely social and flirtatious and pretty delusional. i’m an aquarius venus if you couldn’t tell. if you’ve had any weird experiences related to the retrograde definitely comment below. i’m obsessed with it right now.

and mercury is going retrograde on august 23! while i kind of love venus retrogrades, mercury retrogrades are another story. communication is kind of my whole thing, i’m a writer after all, and i sometimes do have communication problems in a normal, non-retrograde related way, so i feel like everything gets all kinds of fucked up during mercury retrograde. i might just be blaming normal human problems on a planet. whatever!

the world is on fire

west kelowna, august 17, 2023. photo by Darren Hull/AFP

BC has had a pretty crazy fire season this year, and it got a lot worse this week. earlier this month lahaina, hawaii was destroyed by a wildfire, and then enterprise, NWT, and now yellowknife, NWT and kelowna, BC, among many other places, are being evacuated. seeing so many destructive fires happening all at once has been weighing heavily on my psyche. i think of all the people who will no longer have so many of their belongings, their homes being destroyed, and people losing their lives to the fires. sacred land being destroyed, ecological destruction, traumatizing the earth and the people inhabiting it. it’s all really depressing.

i just feel so helpless. i donate to mutual aid funds, i stay informed on the news, i do my part to reduce my carbon footprint, but climate change only worsens as the major polluters do nothing to change course. they claim carbon offsets that don’t do anything meaningful in comparison to the environmental devastation they cause. and regular people are the ones who pay the price. we inhale the heavy smoke as it drifts into our communities and damages our lungs. we evacuate our homes. we eat less meat and ride bikes and bring reusable cups to the cafe. what the fuck are the richest motherfuckers doing? i hope a day comes where they have to personally pay for their crimes.

crush of the week

i’m bringing back the crush of the week. this week it’s robert de niro. happy 80th birthday mr. de niro!

track of the week

i don’t know if i’ve used this one already. if i have, it’s the song of the week again. i’m angry this week about the powers that be and this song expresses it well. read the lyrics while you listen. here are two of my favourite parts:

Computers never go on strike
To save the working man
You've got to put him out to pasture

We're sorry; we hate to interrupt
But it's against the law to jump off this bridge
You'll just have to kill yourself somewhere else
A tourist might see you, and we wouldn't want that

the signs as movies i’ve seen this month

aries - batman begins (2005)

taurus - the virgin suicides (1999)

gemini - lady bird (2017)

cancer - shiva baby (2020)

leo - juno (2007)

virgo - we need to talk about kevin (2011)

libra - a midsummer night’s sex comedy (1982)

scorpio - taxi driver (1976)

sagittarius - (500) days of summer (2009)

capricorn - american psycho (1999)

aquarius - love and death (1975)

pisces - a clockwork orange (1971)