I've been inspired by a bunch of other bloggers (mostly Leilukin) to start writing these little monthly recap posts. Work and brainfog makes it hard to write long posts or write super often, and to be honest, I don't think I even do enough to warrant a weekly recap, but a monthly one seems pretty manageable. It's a nice compromise between how frequently I'm currently posting and a challenge like 100 Days To Offload. So, you'll be getting at least 12 blog posts a year, plus my usual other blog posts about various topics, hopefully.
Without any further ado, what've I been up to in January?
I considered adding these to my next post, but I think this is really important and I don't want it to get buried underneath a bunch of unrelated stuff.
These are some online resources I've amassed over the last month or so related to protecting your community from ICE. Some are location specific while some aren't. Many of these are available in both English and Spanish, but some are available in other languages as well.
ICE Out of New York- "A coalition of immigrant rights organizations demanding an end to the brutal ICE operations in NY."
Red Cards - Printable cards that let you know your rights
Resources for Whistle Warriors - Google Drive with resources on making, distributing, and using whistles. Also Includes zines and flyers that you can print out yourself!
Sanctuary Campus Network - "A coalition of students, faculty, and staff organizing to protect and support those most vulnerable against state repression and violence under the current administration."
A little while ago I read Ava's answering the 40 questions for 2025, where she answers Steph Ango's 40 questions to ask yourself every year. I thought it looked interesting, so this is my attempt at answering those same questions. Maybe this'll become a yearly tradition on my blog? Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Merry Chrismukkah! The other night was the last night of Hannukah, but my family didn't do much to celebrate. We made up for it a little today by making latkes for Christmas Eve. I thought it'd be fun to rank/review some of the things you can put on your latkes, so without further ado here we go:
Sometimes I'll mention struggling with brain fog to people and they'll respond something like "ugh, I know right, I hate when that happens 🙄" as if I told them someone cut in front of me at the grocery store. I don't know how to make them understand that this isn't a minor inconvenience to me, it's debilitating. There are certain days where it's so bad, that I straight up can't get anything done. Where doing basic tasks or holding a basic conversation is a challenge for me.
It's come to a point recently where it's not just impacting stuff like chores or work, even just trying to engage in hobbies feels like too much sometimes. Blogging should be so easy for me. It's literally just typing into a box. It should be so. Damn. Easy. And yet, every time I sit down to do it, I feel like I can't think clearly.
I've seen a few different people talk about the uprise of the "zero-click internet". For those unfamiliar, in a nutshell the "zero-click internet" refers to how search engines now use AI summaries to answer questions, so users don't actually have to click on links or visit sites anymore.
There are obviously a lot of problems with this. AI overviews are notoriously buggy. They often get stuff wrong and the sources for said info is often missing or misattributed, but you probably already knew that. Smarter people than me have already pointed all of this out and analyzed it in depth.
Something I haven't seen as many talk about, however, is that even if you turn AI summaries off, the search results still suck.
In 2022, one of my friends told me about a Kickstarter for a then-upcoming, browser-based game called PawBorough. The pitch was basically "Flight Rising, but with cats", I was immediately hooked!
This ones a little different. I like music, I'm sure everybody does, but I'm not a connoisseur. I don't know anything about music theory and I've never written a full album review. Honestly, this is probably better described as "notes I took while listening to the album" than a proper review, so maybe don't hold your expectations too high.