Isabel Cooper

Oh, that was just my twenties. 😁

Isn't that all media?

I guess sometimes it's about death. But still.

My husband was detained by ICE today

Juan Muñoz, an American citizen, father of 2, and local government official, was peacefully protesting w. other elected officials. He was assaulted and taken away

I have had zero contact or updates since

#SOS
@duckworth.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov

Like, I am a (most of the time) working adult, I'm politically and socially active, and I load the dishwasher. The only thing I "need to" do for pleasure is your mom, bro.

Mostly posted for the line, but also: I'm totally open to "this book isn't in your normal genres but I think you'd like it," or similar. It's the neo-Puritan You Must Do This For Your Own Self-Improvement framing that makes me bristle.

"You need to read books outside your comfort zone!"
"Honey, if I want to do things I'm pretty sure I won't like...well, Worcester has a lot of singles bars."

Flu/COVID/HPV. Did I feel like a zombie the next day? God, yes. Do I regret it? Fuck no, especially because I caught COVID the next week (it takes 14-ish days to reach full strength, I hear) and the vaccine probably kept it down to two days of feeling kinda crappy.

NGL, I would totally join a cult centered on the Hedgehog of Tranquility.

...and whatshisnuts can get multiple people to pay his way through life because he's "channeling" the "twin soul" of Elijah Wood, then by Xenu I should be able to make a living as a fake messiah.

Actually, having seen too much true crime/been online too long, I just need to believe in myself more. If some random Internet lady can support herself and her drug/colloidal silver habit by pretending Robin Williams advises her from the afterlife...

(Farmer voice) Ayuh, that's some good cult country out thataway.

Ooh. We could tie the ticket number to your spiritual level or whatnot. "And one day you will be able to trade these insights in for the Giant Stuffed Octopus of Universal Oneness."

Skee-Ball? I suck at it, but I have a friend who's amazing, and it's got the thrill of all the little tickets coming out...

Friends and I have been saying for a while that you don't get good cults these days*, we need to do something about that. Maybe this calls for a working group. ;P

*NXVIUM was so budge! Not even a music-related eschatology!

The mid-list-sf-author-to-cult-leader pipeline is also established and profitable, come to think of that. Sure, eventually you die of benzos in someone else's RV, but who doesn't?

I hear you can run those over the internet these days.

Here for it! They'd also have to fall for my partner to at least some extent, but why choose *is* my favorite genre. ;P

Maybe this is the universe saying it's time to start that sex cult we keep talking about.

New plan: I go to the UK, put on something slinky and mystical, and hang out around the Houses of Parliament until I can
convince somebody that they have an ancestral curse.

Really I just want the Aleister Crowley gig where some feckless British noble hires me as an "occult bodyguard" for a year or two. I'd rather not take any of my payment in cocaine, though: we can talk about shrooms and weed.

I have an entire closet of LARP costume/props for Added Authenticity and I know where to source bird skulls, so that should help me stand out, just saying.

Job search: 50% applications, 50% wondering how crowded the Etsy Witch market is these days.

Techbro, dammit, autocorrec.

Anyhow it all has the stench of rancid Cheetos and too many Call of Duty opinions.

Really the only function crypto serves is letting you know when you should leave a date early.

If your organization pays only in crypto, you should state that at the start of any offer. Some people may be fine with that, but IMO even the non-scam versions are inextricably tied to the worst type of techero, so that’s a hard no from me.

I guess on "better" we also have to add that most people still vaccinated their kids.

But, like, the stuff that was legit better was opposite to everything the people making these videos want.

Stuff that was worse: "ha ha men in dresses" was still a major point of "comedy," we were starting our forever war and decades of paranoia (although I guess that hasn't gotten better), major medical advances hadn't happened, and PS1 graphics were total shit in retrospect.

Stuff that was better in 2002: less Russia-NATO conflict, the president was...um. Well. Better than the current model, but that bar, as my friend says, is serving drinks in Hell. "Not actively trying to destroy the government" should not be remarkable.

Which is *extremely relatable* but not an excuse for nostalgia-based fascism.

Toys R-Us/Kaybee for me, or B.Dalton/Waldenbooks. Also the random video game demos in the Sears boys' section, which, in retrospect, was pretty creepy and gender-essentialist.

But yeah, those didn't say anything much about the state of the world, just that I was 10 and easily impressed.