Even I, professional melancholic and lover of rain, am really sick of this rain

Been waiting on The Pitt being shown in the UK for so long that dream me has started writing it, intermingled with the medical curricular I’ve created and, for some reason, lots of washing up

I will hold up my hands and admit, yes I have too many books. I feel this today when I cannot for the life of me find a particular book which I definitely have, know it is red, but for some reason is not organised according to any of my thematic or colour systems 😩

We talk about the importance of humanities skills in terms of reading, critical thinking, spotting misinformation etc, but one thing we don’t really talk about is the ability to describe something effectively. I see this inability on Vinted for instance, where the item is absurdly explained

Feeling a soupçon of cheer that “Wuthering Heights” is getting such bad reviews

Don’t fall in and out of sleep listening to that bit in the audiobook of The Fellowship of the Ring when the black riders attack The Inn of the Prancing Pony, because it’s TERRIFYING!

The Skoda advert is a crime against people with tinnitus

I’d really hoped to kickstart some exercise today, and just push through the fatigue and PEM, but of course it’s a flare up of the chronic pain. Every cell hurts. Did you know you could feel your own bone marrow rebelling? ☹️

The idea that scientists can sojourn into Roman history is bad for the humanities, bad for the public, and bad for science too, as it reframes even specific scientific knowledge and research as "what smart people know".

Revealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters

I get that everyone who is in the know knows this already but I am quite happy for a publication to be surfacing it again, especially for readers who may not be aware

You’ll have to prise ‘thank you’ from my cold, dead hands! Thank you very much

I’ve signed up for the 3 month Mubi offer. Give me suggestions for films to watch. I’ve got some recent releases and Chaplin bookmarked. I spent ages browsing & adding things to my watchlist only to realise most weren’t even available - no idea why they’d list them!!!

The GALL of this man! But then, that’s the point

I keep accidentally watching dramas about dead children 😣

When I need the tissue I’d previously put in my pocket, it is not there. When I check my pockets for tissues before putting clothes in the wash, they’re not there. When I take my completed washing out of the machine *tissues everywhere*!!!

"we cannot begin to talk about freedom and justice in any culture if we are not talking about mass based literacy movements." bell hooks 1997 we cannot begin to talk about freedom+justice in any culture now if we are not talking about mass de-literacy cognitive-incapacitating industries.

Endless, unsuccessful job applications is like taking a melon baller to both my heart and brain, leaving just mush behind

This kind of ‘actually…’ might be why no one seems to like literature academics

Feeling like a big lump of uselessness and waste of space and oxygen today. And I can’t even cry because I’ve got a bloody painful eye infection

Yet another job I’d bookmarked with driving licence as essential buried deep in the weeds. My options are rapidly diminishing

Ok, my current malady must certainly be an infection because I could only answer 2 questions on University Challenge ☹️

Also add: unemployed and unemployable

Oh my goodness, Paddington the Musical is so incredible! And it’s pro-immigrant, pro-returning stolen artefacts, pro-chosen family, pro-ecological conservation. I cried 3 times. In fact many of us shed a tear. I think that’s the most I’ve heard an audience roar!

Well done everyone, we made it out of January!!! 🥳

You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs) Good tech. Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales) Bad tech.

Even just based on today’s events, let alone the year so far, thank god for fiction to get lost in

Me (to myself): why isn’t it as busy here, at the airport on a Friday night, as it was last time I was here at the same time? How odd. Myself (to me) eventually: because that was the Friday before Christmas, you idiot D’oh 🤦‍♀️

It’s very easy to think ‘oh I only use a few things’, but we all use roads & pavements, rely on maintenance for sewerage & water. You may be lucky to never personally need it, but the emergency services are a call away. You need the staff of amenities to travel to work.

Obviously this logic is ridiculous, but we should all pay for education because we ALL benefit from it! It produces our doctors, the engineers who build our world, artists who give us meaning. We even benefit from (though I hate to admit) the businessmen, the accountants, the politicians

I’m all for calling out AI for the crap it is, but just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it should be called AI slop! Words mean things.

Oh for gods sake!! Stop diagnosing people from their - crucially - fiction writing!!!

I agree that it’s high fucking time that we stopped acting like we need to grovel and constantly justify the existence of some of our most incredibly elemental and ancient human pursuits.

Looks like my hypothesis might be correct that there just aren’t any? Presumably due to the constraints mentioned, but maybe because no one wants to read it

What are some examples of literary analysis in a trade book? Is it possible with regards to fair use/ copyright? (Also always interested in literary books for non-specialist audiences that aren’t just author biographies)

This is beyond infuriating!! 🤬

All together now: 🎶January, sick and tired you’ve been hanging on me 🎶 (Pssst, sometimes I swap ‘January’ for ‘Marie’, doesn’t quite scan, but same effect) m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdcr...

What are some examples of literary analysis in a trade book? Is it possible with regards to fair use/ copyright? (Also always interested in literary books for non-specialist audiences that aren’t just author biographies)

Booooooo! If you can’t deliver a good lecture leave your job so that someone who can gets a job

At night I have the very best intentions for what I’ll do tomorrow. I’ll even be excited by the prospect of exercise and chores. But come the morning I cannot get out of bed. I’ll accidentally fall back asleep for ages. Even when I am awake I just cannot get up. Chronic fatigue is imprisoning.

The exact moment a TV show or film loses me is when someone unlocks a smartphone by holding it up to a dead person’s face Nope. 👎

I’m pretty sure the only reason for the push for him to become leader is so they can make a Burn(h)am Wood joke

I can’t do horror films, and I live alone, but there’s so many I wish I could watch. Thought about watching Sinners in the middle of the day to have daylight, but we’ve not had any daylight in Edinburgh for a good few days

I finally got some royalties from my book!!! I’m certainly no moneybags but might treat myself to some slightly fancy biscuits

How much of a real conversation can you use in a piece of fiction? Can it be verbatim? The truth is stranger than fiction, right? Asking for a…me 🤔

Piazza slippery!! #IYKYK #Taskmaster I can’t visit the BL without Sam Campbell’s voice in my head

That there is no treatment seems to further the idea there is no physiological evidence. I forget that for 5 years my blood tests have shown I’m fighting off an illness, but because nothing is done, it implies it’s just to be pushed through #LongCovid #Fibromyalgia

My tinnitus is really playing up despite managing to keep it at bay with my white noise on my sleep app ☹️ I hope it hasn’t stopped working!

It really is something to teach the ending of Animal Farm on the same day world leaders congregate in the farmhouse of Davos

It’s chilling, actually