I read Iron Curtain by #VesnaGoldsworthy. A page-turner set in the 1980s. A young privileged 'red princess' from a poor unnamed central European country elopes to London in the name of love. The sense of displacement has echoes of the Patricia Engel book I read just before this. There's also enjoyable farce here even if the clichés about the UK are laid on a little thick at times. #bookToot#bookstodon#keefsreads
Given I enjoyed Okwiri Oduor's short story in that collection so much I read her novel Things They Lost. A story of dysfunctional families and love between two girls (Mbiu Dash from the short story is one of them.) Set in a strange shifting world inhabited by wraiths. Feels like visiting a strange dream. #keefsreads#bookstodon@bookstodon
#Warhol after Warhol by Richard Dorment. The story of the charlatans and grifters who ended up deciding what is and is not a Warhol. But given the artist's rather hands-off approach to his work perhaps it is fitting it ended up like this. A real page-turner. Can't remember the last time I read a book in a day. #bookstodon#KeefsReads@bookstodon
has anybody ever received a #medical#diagnosis where the #doctor told you that your illness will likely cause a significant reduction in your #lifespan? Not that you are dying, but that you likely will not live to be an old person? How did you deal with this news? How do you handle that?
For those with #MECFS, do you find yourself struggling with #Depression and/or #Anxiety since becoming ill, especially if it seems different from depression and/or anxiety that you experienced prior to becoming ill? If so, how are you managing your depression/anxiety? Have medications helped? Are you using non-medication approaches that work? @mecfs
@flowerpot@mecfs@actuallyautistic This hit hard, which is probably my sign that it’s accurate. Feeling bad about feeling bad is definitely a trap for me, and it could make a difference to work on reframing my thoughts about this. Back to self-compassion and self-acceptance—which might be the core issue. Maybe I’ll create some 5 minute reprieve coupons and put them where I’ll see them throughout the day. My partner would probably love to be able to hand me one when I spiral. Thank you.
@dsmith@cogsci@cognition@neuroscience Absolutely right, yes. Active ongoing auto-perception triggering pattern completion. I've actually been thinking a lot about this cognitive process recently, particularly in terms of mnemotechniques used by the bards of old to facilitate both learning and retelling of epics. E.g. the first pair in a rhyme propels recollection forward via pattern completion, etc.
Besides semantic and acoustic factors, prosody can also play a role. Like most classroom Ts, I sometimes confused the names of students when I had a lot on my mind (not a memory issue -- it's excellent). I noticed I was much more likely to confuse names with the same # of syllables. While Mitterand is one more syllable than Macron, it rolls out in fluent speech like a 2-syllable word.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s #shortstory “The Bottle Imp” was first published (in English) #OTD, 8 Feb 1891, in the New York Herald. It was originally published in #Samoan translation as “O le Fagu Aitu” in the missionary magazine O le sulu Samoa (The Samoan Torch)
@elonjet these stats always kind of trigger me. so much pollution, so much wasted resources, so much money just to get from A to B as quick as possible. oh boy..
Same but I still prefer eBook/PDF quite a lot. I like it for my text books so I can easily make copies and not carry as much. But paper feels more at home for fun reading.
I've been enjoying Nexomon- Extinction so far, it's a sassy game that's quite fun to play! The game mechanics work as intended and there were only a few things which I questioned before an NPC provided an answer. Leveling up my Nexomon seems like a potential slog though, I've gotten used to experience sharing in Pokémon games; I must unlearn this behavior. There are cores which can act like an Exp Share, which is nice because there are two party members that don't need to hog a large chunk of experience! I've been juggling those cores around to passively level up Nexomon which were behind in levels while using stronger creatures to tank damage.
I appreciate the game's aesthetics because it reminds me of older Pokémon games, while remaining unique. The setting matches up with the desperate situation this world is currently in as there are settlements and camps throughout the land outside of their one big city. Humanity seems to be close to potential extinction. Nexomon Tamers are responsible for desperately keeping the wild Nexomon at bay so others can labor on in safer surroundings. I'm going to keep playing today and get further in! As the need to know what happens next is strong, I felt that similarly with Coromon too.