long weekend coming
Manila, 25 March—There's a pretty long-ish weekend coming up with Maundy Thursday/Good Friday upon us—also known as the holiest of holy days in the newsroom, because they're the only days when everyone across editorial can take a vacation /with each other/ haha. I have fond memories of organizing beach trips on Maundy Thursdays.
These past few years, however, I have opted to slow down on these days, stepping back from planning mode and turning inward. I think that's a function of age. Or fatigue. Maybe it's perspective.
This year, there's going to be more of that, I guess. We're spending Holy Week in the city, pondering questions from the last quarter (!!!) and even more questions for the rest of the year ahead.
Here are some of the questions I'll be asking myself over this week's downtime.
Will I ever be able to quit Facebook?
Dear Facebook, I wish I knew how to quit you. I wish I didn't have to amplify work-related things through you, or have to use your features to share good reads, sell good products or stay connected with my elderly aunts. I'm fucking mad that a thing that was specifically marketed to bring people together has now been used to drive people apart to serve certain people's agendas, KPIs and targets.
Why can't we have nice things?
The Atlantic says this controversy is indicative of a bigger problem, and I agree. I have yet to download all of my data and maybe I should this weekend, too. (Have any of you done this? Did you manage to skip the ghosts of your late 2000s? Or is this better done with Jack & Coke? Pls advise.)
I've always wondered if I can quit Facebook and migrate all relevant functions—messaging with family, sharing photos and organizing events, etc.—to somewhere less of a cesspool.
Even if it's paid—I'm willing to host my family and close friends' social media activities on a paid server if it means security and lack of ads. The bigger question I'm asking: Is a paid social media platform that has no ads, no trolls a viable business model?
(Wait: Do you have one? Are you building one? Will you build one with me?)
Will I ever be able to read more books this year?
I keep saying I want to read more books but I never seem to get around to actuallyreading. The Big Bad Wolf Sale last month gave us some really interesting books and I have yet to finish one. I'm currently alternating Dorie Clark's "Stand Out" withNaomi Wolf's "Vagina: A New Biography", and, as with all things, I'm hoping against hope that I'll finish something over the long weekend.
Also: I'm re-discovering Kindle Books on Android and the joy of reading fiction with lesbians. There's one I sampled recently and it was about a couples' therapist who is hiring an actress to play her girlfriend so she could sell her book about good relationships. It reads like a fake dating fic and it's lovely. As a semi-permanent fixture in various wlw fandoms for more than a decade, I think it's about time we pay our writers for writing wlw fiction.
That said: Are you reading anything this long weekend? What book are you taking to the beach this summer?
My rec list is already long, but it doesn't mean it can't get longer.
How can I write more this year?
Mnemonics, technically, is not new writing. Think of it as a renovation—I wanted something to play with, and these words were already there, they just needed major restructuring, etc. It was good fun (See comment above re: avoiding old ghosts. Lots of Jack & Coke went into the making of this one, friends).
Words are harder to come by these days, and I'm still struggling to get back to journaling. Days are crazy. Any tips on how you cope, pls advise.
Speaking of coping: This is how War Crimes researchers do it. I failed spectacularly at coping with life as a media researcher in the days of Duterte. Dapat siguro talaga nag-adopt ako ng aso.
Anyway: Another reason I wanted to get back to journaling—I wanted to remember all this shit for when I'm older. Oha. I'm now able to look further into the future again :) I may be foreseeing myself as a bitter and angry lesbian lola, but at least I'm seeing myself again.
Music rec alert: Freya Riding
It's pretty hard to top the Yeah Yeah Yeah's at Maps, but here you go. Who is this girl and why is her voice that solid, hot damn.
(I had to rewatch the Yeah Yeah Yeah's video and oh yes. That intro is timeless.)