Jettison the Ballast
taking out the trash
Post the embarrassing—if not entirely predictable and regressive—stupidity of another American presidential election, I deleted my X and Facebook apps, in order to try and preserve a shred of my dignity and mental health.
Ditching X was long overdue, as my feelings for Elon Musk have historically run from disinterest, to annoyance, to outright disdain, and there being no good reason for me to participate in what is now little more than another arm of Trump’s neo-fascist propaganda machine as filtered through the eyes of a naturally bald silver spoon-fed megalomaniacal dickhead from South Africa who has decided to take a gargantuan shit on our country because he can. That entire platform is toxicity defined. I can keep up with the sort of information I sought on X via other outlets. It will not be missed.
My use of Facebook over the course of its run has allowed to me reconnect with old friends, and has proven to be useful to varying degrees whenever I had something creative to promote. As Facebook has continued to expand its reach into its original intent to be a public meeting place by reducing the newsfeed to a trickle, and replacing the space with more and more ads and posts by pages and groups you don’t follow, it becomes clear that it barely functions on a user level.
Mix in the inane and idiotic commentary on public posts from profiles for news sites and the like, and Facebook has become damn near useless. I liked to spout into it on occasion, enjoyed sharing my creative pursuits for the no one that cared to pay attention to them, and was happy to be able to keep up with folks I know from my hermit’s distance. As it stands, I felt I wasn’t getting anything out of it. Will I change my mind? I might. My intent on deleting the app was a forced break following the election, thinking that I would return when I didn’t feel like hiding in my bed forever. As it stands right now I don’t miss it at all.
If I want to prattle on to nobody, I can just do that right here. And so I will. And just did.
Current interests/audiobooks/movies, shows, whatever…
Audiobooks:
Sonic Life - Thurston Moore
Empire of the Summer Moon - S.C. Gwynne
The Ascent - Ronald Malfi
Middlegame - Seanan McGuire
Reading:
Pulp - Ed Brubaker
Trees I-III - Warren Ellis and Josh Howard
Nameless Bk IV - Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham
The Underwater Welder - Jeff Lemire
The Tenement - Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino
The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic - Alan Moore, Steve Moore
Music:
Sonic Youth - Bad Moon Rising
Apostrophe - Frank Zappa
Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin - Ozzy Osbourne
A Fine Pink Mist - Jake E. Lee
Muuntautuja - Oranssi Pazuzu
1976 - Thin Lizzy 2024 Remaster/Extended
Thundercrest - Pentagram
Watching:
The Penguin
Alien Romulus
Don’t Look at the Demon