Natalie posted 2 October 2024

doing my level best to replace my "click over to Cohost" instinct with "click over to my RSS reader" instead of "click over to Mastodon"

• #rss
• #mastodon

Natalie posted 2 October 2024

it's actually really nice to take the time I'd normally spend purposelessly^[1] browsing social media and spend it reading a blog post instead. I read pretty slowly so it always takes some dedicated time to get through anything longer than a few paragraphs, and it feels good to actually dedicate that time intentionally

---

1. I actually think that taking a few minutes to totally context-switch your brain to something low-key and fun before context-switching back to more serious work is really valuable, at least for the way I work. It's like giving my brain a quick rinse. ↩︎

• #rss

okay this is still true but I am faced once again with the fact that I read really slowly even when I'm focused so it's very easy for me to just evaporate three quarters of an hour reading a blog post. doubtlessly pleasant, often rewarding, but not without danger

trying to get tumblr post embedding working properly, which is to say using the official API to get the semantic building blocks of each post instead of the dog vomit HTML they actually contain, and I've found myself shaving a yak. hopefully someone other than me will find this useful

Elizabeth Sandifer posted on www.eruditorumpress.com

America a Prophecy 1: Exegesis

This structure does not inherently preclude a sincere or substantive engagement with 9/11–it’s entirely normal for comedy to use its final reveal for brutal effect—a stunned, awkward laugh that makes use of the shock of a perspective shift. But that’s not what’s going on here. The revelation that Snuffy has been talking about 9/11 does not provide any incisive commentary on what has gone before—it is simply a sudden intrusion of grief into a context that had done little to suggest such a thing was coming.

Is this supposed to be funny? Certainly it in practice is funny, in that the strip is a ridiculous absurd thing. But this is a humor of bathos—one in which we laugh at the strip instead of with it. Indeed, it is funny only to the precise degree that it isn’t supposed to be. If the strip is read as insincere, with its punchline meant to be funny then it becomes a cruel and ghoulish thing. What is funny about it is its misapplied sincerity—the fact that it genuinely appears to be engaging in an act of public mourning and is getting it wrong, instead ending up weirdly and dissonantly tone deaf.

…

• #america a prophecy

via Caoimhe

When I wasn't in high school, one of the most compelling English class assignments I ever got was to find an ad from a newspaper or magazine and do a close critical reading of it to develop a deeper understanding of the cultural context in which that ad was created, what its specific goals were, and how it aimed to achieve them. It was a blast, and one of the most influential projects for me in developing my critical eye towards the world around me.

In this post, Elizabeth Sandifer turns the same close reading techniques towards the installment of the newspaper comic Barney Google and Snuffy Smith published on the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, which takes a particularly bizarre approach to commemorating the event. 9/11 is already a notably strange cultural touchstone in the US, and so coming at it from such an odd angle suits the subject perfectly.

Natalie posted 7 October 2024

so apparently you can't add a bookmark of a particular page to your home screen on Android if that page happens to be on a site that supports being a progressive web app. it'll just always take you to the site root

• #android
• #enshittification

holy shit it worked

in a kosher household you'll often keep around snacks that contain neither meat nor dairy so you can eat them whenever. it's just parve for the course

so apparently you can't add a bookmark of a particular page to your home screen on Android if that page happens to be on a site that supports being a progressive web app. it'll just always take you to the site root

on The Great American Baking Show:
Sean: I'm really worried about it poofing up a little bit too much when the jam-
Paul Hollywood: Poofing up?
Ellie: Poofing up!
Sean: The correct term. The scientific term.
Ellie: The culinary term. Yeah. "Poof up."
Sean: Yeah, you know, poof it!
Paul Hollywood: Like puffing up?
Sean: Yeah, yeah, but "poof" just has a little bit of, like, *gestures expansively* poof!
Ellie: Poof!
Sean: Puff just sounds a little...
Ellie, dismissively: Puff.
Paul Hollywood: 💭 Am I the only person at this table who realizes this is a slur for gay people?

Máxima asked:

Are you going to play Silent Hill 2 OG or Remake this halloween?

As good as the remake looks, it's made by an entirely different team

Good question! For those unfamiliar, I've had a yearly tradition since 2021 of playing a classic survival horror game each October, because I like themes. I've played Resident Evil (GameCube version), Silent Hill (PlayStation version which I think is the only one), and Resident Evil 2 (2019 remake) so far. This year, as Máxima accurately recalls, I am planning to play Silent Hill 2.

Originally I thought I would obviously be playing the original, since the remake was being made by Bloober Team whose horror output has not seemed particularly great. But with this remake reviewing quite well, I did take some time to consider it as a real possibility. Ultimately, particularly after consulting Christa who has strong opinions about these sorts of things, I decided to stick with the original.

Where I've found my interest in Resident Evil as a series largely orbiting its mechanics and the use of game design to convey a notion of "horror", at least in the first Silent Hill much more of what I found compelling was wrapped up in the story and atmosphere. That's much harder to preserve, let alone elaborate on, in a remake. Even a really good remake made in 2024 will still have 2024-era textures and mocap and movement. If I'm playing a game for its vibe, I think I want the first time I play it to be with the original vibe.