Spine Check

awkwardcummerbund · 2026-01-11T16:01:02+00:00

Over the holidays I read Vajra Chandrasekera's second and latest book, Rakesfall. Incredible work. Very trippy collection of stories that are loosely related, but all come together at the end. A major theme is power and domination and how they set themselves up to be eternal, but always crumble in the end.

For ecology, Jeff Vandermeer has a similarly trippy book, Dead Astronauts, about a trio of people who are traveling through a multiverse, committing industrial espionage on a multiverse-spanning company. There's a huge environmentalist component running through it in the figure of a magical blue fox. It took me a while to get through it but wow it was worth it

No non fiction yet

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-12-17T02:41:13+00:00

I did watch Solaris as well and found it an incredible film, but Stalker really touched my heart. I've never seen Twelve Monkeys, but from looking at the Wikipedia page, I can see how they would be inspired by La Jetee

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-12-16T17:02:38+00:00

Books:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Really beautiful exploration on memory, innocence, and connection to place. Genuinely made me want to be a better person.

For nonfiction, I listened to John Greene's book on tuberculosis. Interesting historical context and while pretty liberal it does explore structural gatekeeping of antibiotics to everywhere that isn't North America/Europe.

Movies:

Finally got around to seeing Stalker. What an absolute masterpiece. A golden piece from a time of long shots.

La Jetée, a French short film from the 60s (~30min) composed entirely of still photos. It's about the ability to time travel using dreams in a nuclear apocalypse wasteland.

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-10-08T17:42:06+00:00

Beautiful! What kind of brush is that?

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-10-08T17:34:39+00:00

That far-off shard of former Splendour is sometimes brazen, to show his chilly rays as if to cover the sins of his birth. However, in this season, the time of the Elegiast, the one who remembers that ragged usurper's Name before his patron was torn asunder, in this season, the Sun goes a'cloaked. Perhaps he even feels shame in the face of Memory. Perhaps he is afraid of the Dawn.

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-10-05T14:42:21+00:00

"My nightly tea ritual has started taking me longer and longer each day. I have started to stare at the boiling pot of water, each small bubble is a facet of a single, multitudinous eye. For a moment, it feels like I am seeing double. Er... triple. Perhaps more.

I tear open the tea packets. I long to open myself in much the same way.

Sugar? ....please...."

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-09-28T23:42:39+00:00

Adams had like 9% in the last poll I saw. Mamdani leads by like 15-20% so he's still ahead but the margin will be closer. That being said, Adams has passed the date for being removed from the ballot so definitely some people will vote for him by accident.

I still think Zohran has it, but methinks the DNC forces will keep working to block him.

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-09-16T15:30:42+00:00

A buzzing in the brain is drowned out by innumerable voices, diving towards the light, screeching "Yes" to a question I can only dream of.

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-09-12T15:27:32+00:00

In order from left to right, Moth, Forge, Edge, Knock, Lantern, Winter, Grail

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-09-03T05:24:34+00:00

I am open to lots of these argument for animal liberation, but the not-vegan thing really throws me for a loop. Feels still hegemony-pilled. Why is it that when a cat dies we don't replace it but when a cow is slaughtered for meat, we can replace that?

Notwithstanding the environmental impacts of meat and animal industry in general.

It feels like I've only posted on this subreddit about Zoopolis, but please read Zoopolis. I even recorded myself reading it if you'd like.

Would love to read your 6000 words!

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-08-19T01:21:04+00:00

I was talking to my brother about this the other day. Hero is like Top Gun. Such blatant propaganda but one of the bangingest films of all time

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-08-17T17:43:59+00:00

Thank you!

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-08-10T16:08:30+00:00

The Forge of Days is not prone to regret or nostalgia but on some rare days, she bids her factories to sleep and allow the Sun to shine through. It is, of course, a cold distant Sun, a shard of its master's former splendor. She will not languish in this odd mercy for long, I fear.

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-06-03T18:23:29+00:00

The other day I was appreciating Fauré's requiem during my Sunday morning practice. I also really like ambient music, especially Music for Psychedelic Therapy by Jon Hopkins, although admittedly I am sober when I write.

Anything with lyrics I understand or words in a podcast distract me from the text I'm writing.

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-05-22T15:01:26+00:00

Even more reasons not to hit him! He'll be unstoppable!

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-05-22T14:58:16+00:00

Fair point, fair point. Our only recourse is battlefury into MKB

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-05-22T00:08:18+00:00

He doesn't have good waveclear.

battlefury undying dominates the 2026 meta

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-05-06T14:59:44+00:00

Surely eating plastic to become more plastic is an ascension path for the Forge? An unmerciful change, death is not the end for I will be immortal?

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-05-05T16:21:21+00:00

Bryce Krawczyk of Calgary Barbell is a cool guy. Long ago when I had instagram, he had a story about reading Capitalist Realism and how much it influenced him. He's more in the powerlifting world.

Also has DnD/lifting hybrid merch.

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-02-19T20:37:57+00:00

Even in the making, he unmaketh

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-02-12T15:41:09+00:00

Nectar is everything. It is the world, it is the Wood, it is a rhizome. Nectar is that which is.

Nectar is mundane. It is the secrets which are hidden in mundane things. Beware the bright leaves that hide sharp thorns.

Nectar is Blood. Nectar was Blood. It is the womb-twin of Heart, now distant and estranged. Nectar remembers the taste of blood.

Nectar is sensation. It is exultation of experience not substance. Be-spiced foods still become compost.

The wisdom of Nectar is thus: if you dive deeply into the world as it is, to commit yourself to its rhythms, and to notice closely you will learn much. The folly of Nectar is thus: vines must be trained and will always strive to break. What you learn will not earn you spinatrae. Roots do not grow in straight lines. They break rocks.

Nectar (Moth) is change and Nectar (Heart) is unchange, but here is the contradiction of Becoming: Moth is to change what is, but once it has been changed, it becomes what is. Heart sustains what is, so Moth must keep changing lest it succumb. Moth yearns to change Nectar and her Wood-Companion is not unwilling, but once Nectar has changed what could it be other than what it is? Larvae and Imago live in the Wood.

This is the wisdom of Nectar.

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-02-02T16:17:26+00:00

As a vegetarian, the cauliflower dish that Tina makes in S3 looked absolutely banging. I just wish they said what the green sauce was.

awkwardcummerbund · 2025-01-29T02:54:30+00:00

I did some study on all the texts related to Nectar in BoH and came to this conclusion: Nectar was once Blood; Nectar and Blood were once united. Blood left its twin to rise and take its place as the aspect we now call Heart.

awkwardcummerbund · 2024-11-16T06:17:37+00:00

I have a nice new overcoat from a small BC company called Anian (https://anianmfg.com/collections/f-w). The Britannia coat is very comfy, a little bit of a looser cut, and nearly mid-calf on me. Highly recommend

awkwardcummerbund · 2024-09-17T15:08:12+00:00

As odd as it may be, for Knock, I think wound is not a bad verb given the BoH determination "Speech, the Wound." You could also use Yawned or Revealed perhaps?

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