5 Quick Things: September 2021

Welcome to 5 Quick Things that I saw since last month that I thought were interesting enough to share with you. None of them are particularly timely so feel free to just enjoy 🙂

>Number One<

Main Street USA

I think I’ve always been fascinated by amusement parks. Part of that was staying up late and seeing those propagandist Disney World shows starring Walt Disney that they showed as reruns at 2am but part of it is also that amusement parks are in someways the hopeful and ideal places that we craft that simulate, or maybe emulate, life. Like a dollhouse or a miniature train set they’re facsimile of places we know made neat and tidy and perfect – controlled and contained. Anyway this article is neat and I saw a tweet last tweet I liked that said something to the effect of ‘Americans love amusement parks because they’re one of the only walk-able spaces in America’ and it really punched me in the gut.

>Number Two<

Who Gets Confirmation?

After being in disabled spaces it’s not hard to run into problems with the medical model of disability, or the medicalization of people as a problem but the medical community itself has always had a problem with not serving all bodies equally and I think as trans issues come to the forefront one of the intersections we need to be think about is how the medical system that already views larger bodies as not worthy of treatment intersects with trans bodies and this article touches on that better than I could.

>Number Three<

It’s Very Important, Please Listen!

I found Transparency‘s channel the extremely normal way: I was googling stuff about Moomins and their video showed up but instead of that video I’d like to point people to this one about the benefits, downsides, and some other observations around pretentiousness. As person who has been called both pedestrian and pretentious within the past 24 hours it kind of hits home in a fun and freeing way that helps me look at the universe just a little differently.

>Number Four<

Freedom: Without Being Free

This touching photo and letter project examines freedom from the lens of people who were previously sentences to prison for life but have been exonerated. Especially after a the past 18 months of being trapped inside and severely limited during the pandemic I feel like more people might be in a space to appreciate and understand wrongful imprisonment and the types of toll it can take on ones life and soul. What happens when it isn’t random chance that locks us away from our lives. What does it mean to be free after something like that?

>Number Five<

Number Go Up

You might not be specifically familiar with Cookie Clicker, a free to play web browser game that you click to make more cookies in to buy more clicks to make more cookies but you are probably familiar with clicker games in general. I have several on my phone because they’re fun time wasters and give my hands something to do when I have a few minutes. This article talks about why Cookie Clicker was created, what it was for, the satire of capitalism, and more and why we’re still playing these far after they’ve exhausted their welcome since they don’t really seem to have much “value” but to be more transparent Skinner boxes than the average game. But no judgement from me.

Alright folks, that’s it for this month, see you next month!

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