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OK, I think this format is working out well: one item of life news (unfortunately generally of the waily-waily-waily variety these days), and then on to the fun stuff, generally books. :D
This entry's item of life news, of course, is Happy New Year! I hope 2026 brings kinder days for all of us.
2025 was A Year, to be sure. One of the biggest lessons I learned, best put by T. Kingfisher (I think?) is "outrage is not activism." Or, "bearing witness" (aka doomscrolling and feeling awful) doesn't change one single thing about the world; it just makes me a sadder and angrier person. I think there is a balance to be struck between being a well-informed person generally and not drowning in a sea of shit; that balance generally eludes me. That being said, Fix the News (thank you, Ada Palmer!) has been ENORMOUSLY helpful in counteracting that. I've found that most "good news" aggregators are generally of the "man saves puppy from drowning (but you still can't afford health insurance)" or "food pantry serves Thanksgiving dinner to record number of families (and also a record number of people are living below the poverty line because wages are stagnant and inflation is enormous)." Like, did you know that there's a twice-yearly HIV vaccine that's near 100% effective? Or that global hunger has fallen for the first time since 2020, with record harvests using less land? Or that child poverty has markedly declined, even accounting for global population increases? Or that there are now salmon in the Klamath River again? Or that there are now walking wheelchairs that can climb stairs? Seriously, it's some good shit.
Oddly (given the global aaaaaaaa), personally, this year was a pretty darn good one for me, although not unmixed with waily-waily-waily.
( In the waily-waily-waily column (mostly family health stuff)... )
( The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley... )
This entry's item of life news, of course, is Happy New Year! I hope 2026 brings kinder days for all of us.
2025 was A Year, to be sure. One of the biggest lessons I learned, best put by T. Kingfisher (I think?) is "outrage is not activism." Or, "bearing witness" (aka doomscrolling and feeling awful) doesn't change one single thing about the world; it just makes me a sadder and angrier person. I think there is a balance to be struck between being a well-informed person generally and not drowning in a sea of shit; that balance generally eludes me. That being said, Fix the News (thank you, Ada Palmer!) has been ENORMOUSLY helpful in counteracting that. I've found that most "good news" aggregators are generally of the "man saves puppy from drowning (but you still can't afford health insurance)" or "food pantry serves Thanksgiving dinner to record number of families (and also a record number of people are living below the poverty line because wages are stagnant and inflation is enormous)." Like, did you know that there's a twice-yearly HIV vaccine that's near 100% effective? Or that global hunger has fallen for the first time since 2020, with record harvests using less land? Or that child poverty has markedly declined, even accounting for global population increases? Or that there are now salmon in the Klamath River again? Or that there are now walking wheelchairs that can climb stairs? Seriously, it's some good shit.
Oddly (given the global aaaaaaaa), personally, this year was a pretty darn good one for me, although not unmixed with waily-waily-waily.
( In the waily-waily-waily column (mostly family health stuff)... )
( The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley... )
