June/July 2026 Log

I got my top surgery done a week before writing this, and I am going completely stir crazy. I feel best physically when I’m laying in bed on my back doing nothing, but if I’m not asleep, that’s completely destroying me. Like I’m either making my hands tingly by trying to hold up and stare at my phone, getting trapped in spirals in my own head, or overstimulated by all the external noise I have to have playing. I can’t really hold up a book, so I’m pretty much left to staring at screens, as much as that hurts my brain and makes me feel like I’m regressing. My girlfriend, the day before my surgery, mentioned that I should turn off the black and white filter on my phone, since I’ll be on it a bunch. I redownloaded Instagram to mindlessly scroll on, got rid of my color filters, and have let myself rot, and I can feel it. I’ve relaxed my body too much, to where all the work I’ve done to correct my back issues and posture are being reversed by this slouch I’m stuck in as long as the drains and compression wrap are on. I’ll have time to fix it, and I know I’ll be much more active once I’m healed up, that I’ll be extremely glad I did it, blah blah blah, but I’m so damn impatient. I feel like such a wimp for complaining so much about having to do nothing.

Spiderman (2002)

My friend and I watched the first Tobey McGuire Spiderman for the first time in a while the other night, and now I can’t stop talking in a Green Goblin impression. But Jesus Christ, what the hell was up with that Unity Festival?? I was completely in shock when I saw those fuckass parade floats – like MJ’s dress is a bit less shocking and unsurprising, more just in poor taste.

Disclosure Day

What the hell? I love Josh O’Connor, but what the hell?

It was fun to watch in the theater, but like wow. It felt like a lot of things going on and a lot of ideas thrown around, but not edited. There’s a weird religion subplot? And weird actions by the aliens, like what exactly are the gifts they gave the kids, why did there have to be two specifically? And what’s the chance of it being two little white American kids?

What was the point of building her house, did they not need to do that for him too? What does the technology actually do, is it just like this MacGuffin that can do anything you need it to?

also was I supposed to care about this guy and his wife that they mentioned in passing as an attempt to give him depth? What was his relationship to Colman Domingo's character? Why did he just suddenly give up at the end?

Goofy. I dunno, I feel like the whole big eyed gray alien thing is over, unless people are going to meaningfully develop it but this felt pretty lazy with it.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

I got my girlfriend to watch Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter with me – I saw it a couple years ago and remembered it was amazingly terrible, but not much beyond that. It definitely holds up as an insanely fun watch. I found out that the director also made Mercy, that Chris Pratt movie where the guy has to exonerate himself to an AI, which didn’t surprise me. One of the things I love the most is just how ambitious the movie is: the ideas for scenes are so grandiose, so there’s copious amounts of CGI used to make it possible, and it’s just so charming. There’s a scene where Lincoln is fighting a vampire in a stampede of wild horses, and it is just pure cinema.

When I first saw it, I had gotten the urge to compose this whole video essay about it, and watching it again reminded me why: the bastardization of history is so fascinating. Did you know Harriet Tubman saved the Union from losing the Civil War because she helped Abraham Lincoln transport silver to the Battle of Gettysburg so that the soldiers could defeat vampire Confederates? Did you know slavery was actually caused by evil, primordial vampires?

At the end, there’s a scene where the vampire who training Lincoln is in the present, recruiting his next hunter. When we watched it on our TV, my girlfriend was convinced it was supposed to be Obama that he was talking to – which watching it back on my computer it doesn’t look like that, but in that lighting it did, and it would’ve been infinitely better if it was. In the clip I’m linking, they also show the final scene of Lincoln before that, and PLEASE look at the comments section under that video, it is insane.

Braiding Sweetgrass

While stuck in bed for surgery recovery, I finally started listening to an audiobook of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer – it’s been on my to-read list forever, and I got a used paperback copy of it in December. I have a hard time reading these days – I don’t know if it’s a time thing, an attention span thing, or a combo, but when I am able to read/listen I do enjoy it. I’ve been enamored by her writing, and the stories she tells in the book.

update: I didn't finish reading the book, oops. But I did really enjoy the chunk I did. I'm sorry! I've had a hard time getting myself to be able to read a lot these days. I feel soooo much guilt about that.

Other Movies

Around the Internet

Rest is not resistance: Commodification, Capitalism, and the Cult of Self-Care by Jenn M. Jackson on Substack

Once you understand neuroplasticity your life will never be the same again by Tim Denning on Substack

the gen z resilience drought by Jordan Stacey on Substack

Third Space? You Can’t Handle a Third Space. by Anna Pompilio on Substack

In Which I Declare War On Beloved Entertainer Bo Burnham by Jason Pargin on Substack

How to kill a community (before it even starts) by Phil Levin on Substack

algorithms are killing coincidences. what does that mean for language? by Adam Aleksic on Substack

The Decline of Deviance by Adam Mastroianni on Substack

The Amazing World of ASMR by Hidden Rabbits on YouTube

investigating corporate puzzleslop by Juniper Dev on YouTube

Did the Journal Factory Explode? by Hidden Rabbits on YouTube

THAT shrek take by maxwell greene on YouTube

The Dumbest Letterboxd Review I’ve Ever Seen by thiabulock on YouTube

The Internet’s Lesbian Police State by bittnia on YouTube

People Don’t Know the Difference Between Writing a Book and Being a Writer… by Danae Younge on YouTube

Mr. Beast is Hiring, and It’s a Problem by Hidden Rabbits on YouTube

Backroomsession by The Morbid Zoo on YouTube and Nebula

I (don’t) hate to say “I told you so” by lil’ bill’s barbershop on YouTube

I Investigated Quince, the “Affordable” Luxury Brand by David Ou on YouTube

This Brand Was a Joke in Japan, Now It’s Everywhere by Japan with Nao on YouTube