Bringing you irregular content since 2009. By KTamas.
The year is 2016. It was a Monday, starting my second week of my first trip to New York in August, and I was sitting on the subway. I think I was just looking at my phone, not paying much attention to anything when suddenly, approaching a station, someone hands me a drawing. Of me. I was flabbergasted; this guy just gave me a sketch of me, and an amazing one of that.
!!Con 2020 was the best-organized virtual conference I’ve ever attended, and I figured I’d share a few things that I feel like made it great. First, they take care of their speakers. This is nothing new; in the past, they’d pay for your trip and accommodation to NYC. On top of that, you receive a $256 honorarium. This being a virtual conference, no trips were involved, but speakers did need good…
Highlights of the month include Never Have I Ever, Normal People and The Great.
Previously: February, 2020, January, 2020, Best of Media, 2019 Time to catch up with things I’ve been watching/enjoying! I am shamelessly copying Kottke’s format, with some minor changes. Wow. Jesus. It’s been, uh, a decade since my last post and a lot has changed. I was way too overwhelmed with gestures with hands to finish it so this will be a combined March/April post. Movies Bad Education…
Ingredients for the soup: 1kg green peas (ideally fresh but frozen works) 3-500g carrots, depends on how much you want in it Chicken broth/stock (if not, then 3ish chicken-flavored bouillon cubes) salt to taste (it needs a lot because the peas and the carrots are sweet) for the noodles: 2 eggs 6 spoons of flour – this is not an exact science, it needs to have the right texture, not too runny, but…
If you’re like me, you probably spend a lot of time on Twitter. I don’t blame nor judge you for that — it’s a simple fact of life. You are also aware that it can be overwhelming and anxiety-inducing more often than not, what with everyone being on edge for, ah, many reasons these days. Sure, you could just spend less time on the hellsite, but we both know that’s not going to happen.
Previously: January, Best of Media, 2019 Time to catch up with things I’ve been watching/enjoying! I am shamelessly copying Kottke’s format, with some minor changes. Books I started reading Better Than IRL, which is about the Old Internet and how people find community there. I hope I can finish it, I’ve already read two essays from it. Movies A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019): I did not…
Previously: Best of Media, 2019 Time to catch up with things I’ve been watching/enjoying! I am shamelessly copying Kottke’s format, with some minor changes. Books For the Love of Men by Liz Plank: Hey, I read a book! Someone give me an award. *ahem* Anyway! I’ve written about it a bit in this post and I have a lot more to share soon. This is the book I evangelize right now to everyone I meet,…
I love newsletters and I read quite a few of them. I made a list a bit more than a year ago and a few things have changed since then. I compiled this list for the XOXO slack yesterday and I figured it’d be good to share it here as well. These are the things I read these days. Nicole Knows is The Toast alum Nicole Cliffe’s newsletter, do yourself a favor and follow her on twitter immediately as…
(I haven’t found a page with both the video and the text where it was formatted what looks like how it was likely intended so I made my own. Source for the text is here.) In most of the dreams I remember from childhood, I am a boy. Saving a maiden or not saving anyone in particular, but definitely a boy. For years, when the only language I had were the scraps
I’ve been blogging about the things I’ve been watching almost all year (here’s the latest one, with links to all previous installments). As part of looking back at this year, below is a list of movies and TV shows I’ve enjoyed the most this year. Media that was released earlier but seen in 2019 and rewatches count as well. My post, my rules. Settle in; this will take a while. But it’ll be worth…
I’ve had friends over two days ago and we got to talk about podcasts, so I figured I’d take stock and see what I’m listening to these days. I’m subscribed to 98 podcasts in PocketCasts, but the ones that are in active rotation are a fraction of that. I usually listen to podcasts when I went to bed because I need some sort of noise to fall asleep more often than not.
*** SPOILERS BELOW *** . . . . . *taps mic* *takes a deep breath* GODDAMMIT JJ I AM A 100% FINE WITH YOU MAKING TWO HOURS OF FANSERVICE BUT THEN FUCKING COMMIT TO IT *rubs temples* Now that the new trilogy is complete, it makes me reevaluate the previous movies. The Force Awakens was pure fanservice; didn’t innovate much, stuck to well-known tropes, and yet it was heaps of fun.
(Previously: Prologue, Part 1 - Monday, Part 2 - Tuesday, Part 3 - Wednesday, Part 4 - Thursday, Part 5 - Friday, Part 6 - Saturday, Part 7 - Sunday, Part 8 - Monday (after)) As I mentioned in the very first post, XOXO caught me at a particularly vulnerable and bad time, mental health-wise. Despite that, I had an overall amazing time at XOXO and for most of it, I managed to forget at least some of…
(Previously: Prologue, Part 1 - Monday, Part 2 - Tuesday, Part 3 - Wednesday, Part 4 - Thursday, Part 5 - Friday, Part 6 - Saturday, Part 7 - Sunday) I woke up way too early, around 7:30 and checked the Slack as the previous night there were talks of having breakfast together with the people who were still in town. After returning the coats I got from Pendelton, I made my way to La Luna Cafe where…
(Previously: Prologue, Part 1 - Monday, Part 2 - Tuesday, Part 3 - Wednesday, Part 4 - Thursday, Part 5 - Friday, Part 6 - Saturday) After getting to bed so late, I decided to sleep in, so I set an alarm for 10:45 am. The last few days have been eventful, and I was started getting sad about it being the last day of XOXO. I got to Rev Hall short after 11.
(Previously: Prologue, Part 1 - Monday, Part 2 - Tuesday, Part 3 - Wednesday, Part 4 - Thursday, Part 5 - Friday) I woke up around 8:30 to a horrible nightmare, in which I was banned from XOXO because I tried to sneak someone I know in who’s an asshole. On the way to Rev Hall, I took a duckface selfie for Jan, who couldn’t come this year. I got to the venue around 9:30 and got breakfast once again…
(Previously: Prologue, Part 1 - Monday, Part 2 - Tuesday, Part 3 - Wednesday, Part 4 - Thursday) Friday was Social, which is probably my favorite day and the highlight of XOXO, with all the community-organized events. I got to Rev Hall early so I got my daily writing done, then went to a cafe nearby for the off-the-books #ptsd channel meetup. I was on the fence about going but I’m really glad I…
(Previously: Prologue, Part 1 - Monday, Part 2 - Tuesday, Part 3 - Wednesday) The excitement from the previous night lasted till the next morning as I woke up way too early, around 6 am. I had a Skype session with my therapist, then went to the La Luna Cafe for breakfast. The past week or so, I kept inviting XOXO friends, both old and new for a pre-registration breakfast. A lot of them came: Dan,…
(Previously: Prologue, Part 1 - Monday, Part 2 - Tuesday) I’ve had an idea for a T-shirt for years, and the week before XOXO I finally acted on it. I wanted to have a T-shirt with “Helvetica” in big, bold letters. Here, this is how it looks like: It’s cool, right? At first, it’s nothing special. It’s just “Helvetica” in Helvetica. Right? There, I zoomed in a bit. Can you see it yet?
(Previously: Prologue, Part 1 - Monday) Look, I know that Scooters Are Bad, but the thing is, they are also really fun. So I put up with the minuscule amount of guilt I had about that and decided to use scooters as much as possible during my stay in Portland. And on Tuesday, I devised myself a challenge. I was going to hang out with Josh and Angela at their place (and then visit a few other spots.
(Previously: Prologue) I arrived at Portland on Labor Day. I intended to spend as much time in Portland as possible (and financially viable.) I knew from experience that even before the opening party on Thursday, there could be plenty of opportunities to hang out with people. Folks who live in Portland and others who also get in town a few days before. One of the advantages of flying in from…
A friend told me a few years before, that “XOXO is a place full of people you want to hang out with all the time,” and boy was he right. In 2016, I got to attend the first time, and I was hooked and had a blast. Two years later I was back (I have yet to write that one up), and it was a different experience: so much has happened in those two years.
Table of Contents What is XOXO? Beginnings — Before the Festival Tuesday — A Surprise Dinner Wednesday — The Day Before Thursday — MeFi Meetup, Opening Party Friday — Social, Arcade, Story Saturday — Conference, Day 1 + Film Sunday — Conference, Day 2 Monday — Post-Festival Pancakes Reflections What is XOXO? Not everyone reading this knows what XOXO is or how it works, so I’m going to start this…
My sister came over last night, and we had a good time. We cooked what we pretty much always cook — fajitas — and watched a movie, as well as started planning a short summer trip to Estonia and Finland. I’ve been there, but she hasn’t, and I like both places, so I’m happy to go with her and show my favorite places there, as well as explore new ones. Right now the plan is to spend a day in Tallinn,…