philosapphical truths

if you've ever watched a movie with your film buff friend and chatted about it afterwards, that friend might have pulled hours more of conversation out of the same 90 minutes of screentime, and wondered how the fuck they did that - it's not raw intelligence, it's a skill that's been honed. And I learned a lot about film from talking to friends who knew about film, and reading critique by film scholars

literature works exactly the same. so if you want to get more out of your reading, there are things you can do to train that. Find a book or short story you think you've got a pretty good grasp on, preferably from a widely read & respected author like Ursula K Le Guin or Ray Bradbury (if you're new at this don't swing for the Toni Morrison or the Samuel Beckett yet unless you feel very comfortable with the complexity of the text - the point is to develop a complicated new skill on good foundations). Then go to JSTOR, create a free account, and look up criticism on the story you've chosen. Find something that looks readable to you and at least somewhat interesting. Read that article, and look at what that writer got out of the same story you've read that you didn't get. Do you see the critic's points? Did they teach you something about the text? Go reread that story and see if the criticism has changed how you read it. Are you seeing more? Are you thinking about the implications of a line that you hadn't noticed before? Does the story feel richer now?

you don't have to read more deeply if you don't want to (but i'd recommend it, i genuinely think it makes you a better person)

if you want to learn to read more deeply, the resources are out there. try to find critical literature (that is, academic writing that analyzes the text) on works your familiar with so you can get a sense for how to do that analysis too

learning to deep read literature can help you deep read many areas of your life

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.

Nemoy’s voice is PERFECT in this!

Stop assuming that everyone dislikes you by default. Do you automatically hate people before you’ve gotten to know them? I don’t. I’m open minded & generally feel neutral to positive about new people that I’m meeting. So why should I assume that other people intrinsically dislike me? That doesn’t make any sense.

Insecure people are annoying. This may sound counterintuitive given the previous point, so let me first say that being insecure ≠ having insecurities. Everyone has a few insecurities, but some people are fundamentally insecure. I used to feel bad about saying this, but it’s genuinely so exhausting to constantly have to reassure someone, to calm them down, about the same exact things over & over again. Don’t get me wrong, I love to support & care for my friends & we all have bad days, but I am not a mental health professional, there is only so much that I can say & do to help when the issue has the same root cause. At a certain point, you need to learn how to push past whatever makes you insecure on your own. Having to deal with insecure people forced me to improve my self confidence because I did not want others to drain others of their energy & their attention. I want to support my loved ones when they need it & be supported by them when I actually need it.

The only person who has to live with you, is you. I used to worry about what others would think of my choices, my lifestyle - anything & everything. One day, I was thinking about the people who (I assumed) were judging me. I realized that I don’t care about their choices or their lives - they don’t really impact me. So why should I care if they judge my life when it doesn’t even impact them? The only person who has to live my life & with the consequences of my actions is me. I worked to hard to build a life in which I can look around at all of my past decisions & actions & stand by them. If there’s something that I don’t like about my life or about myself then I address it, I fix it, I learn from it, & I move on. I can live with myself & that’s all that matters.

(Source) August 2nd, 2026.

Highlights include:

For your first two years (when you were small) you lived in a foster home with people who raised you into a very polite young man. Two is like you plus me, that's what two is.

Some people adopted you before me and they called you Timmy (which is a stupid name) and they returned your ass almost immediately because you were so annoying at that age.

Like think about how annoying you are right now at seven years old, but way worse.

I'm better than them though, I don't call you Timmy and I wore earplugs to bed for three years because you love to scream at bedtime. Earplugs are like when I roll over and go back to sleep even when you are yelling so so so loud.

I got you at a time in my life when I was really sick (being sick is like when I'm up late because I'm throwing up and you are a very handsome good boy who sits with me) and they had to put me asleep for a procedure. A procedure is like what happened to you when they put you asleep and took your balls away.

It's the Royal Academy of Art Young Artist's Summer Show. One of my favourite exhibitions of the year. Like. Not only are the older kids insanely talented, the younger ones' artist statements will just punch you right in the face.

Jeffrey is my cat and he feels like my heart

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