white winter hymnal
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Today's Document
Mike Driver

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DEAR READER
Xuebing Du
dirt enthusiast
NASA
YOU ARE THE REASON
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
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AnasAbdin
$LAYYYTER

pixel skylines

Love Begins
One Nice Bug Per Day
almost home
Sade Olutola
wallacepolsom

tannertan36
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@taylor-markham711
white winter hymnal
i saw someone say nobody needs to know what a .txt file is anymore. what the fuck is the world coming to
unironically i think we need to bring back computer labs because APPARENTLY some people WERENT taught basic computer literacy and internet safety in school
things about computers/the internet i think kids should be formally taught in schools because theyre important to know and the amount of soon to be grown adults i know who know NOTHING about any of these is quite frankly almost all of them (and resources to learn if you dont know these things, because its never to late to get better with computers)
how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem
what common file types are
some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)
how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private
how to understand terms of service (hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS)
what a cookie actually is
internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl
basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)
common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)
as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on
vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)
how to not get a virus while pirating something
what a temporary email is and when to use one
red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)
what javascript on a website does and how to disable it to get around paywalls
ok one last addition! if you want to take it one level higher, i think learning the very basics of at least one programming language is good for people. it makes computers less scary and it makes you feel very cool, and a lot of people get discouraged about it because it seems overly complicated and hard to learn outside a formal classroom setting, so heres some resources for learning the very basics of python (because i consider it the easiest language to learn and knowing one language will make it easier to learn others)
an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous
a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps
a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)
some performance tasks to give you things to code to practice and assess yourself
great news, one of the books I was looking for arrived today and it has a whole section on pre french revolution book piracy and the thriving trade in hiding and trafficking banned literature.
people used to mule illegal books through the mountains, and many contraband smugglers refused to carry them because, unlike drugs or guns, if you were caught with proscribed literature you could be executed or (worse) sentenced to hard labour until you died
okay! the hazardous and expensive contraband mule strategy was only for the really hot titles that were considered to promote outright treason or blasphemy. most banned literature at the time was actually sold under the counter by mainstream publishing houses, and was incredibly popular and profitable.
publishers around europe would trade inventories of the books they produced to maintain varied inventories they could sell to clients. e.g. publisher A prints thousands of copies of a hundred french titles, publisher B prints thousands of copies of a hundred german titles, they do swapsies, now they both have a range of 200 titles to trade. this applied to banned books too, and the banned books had higher market values due to the additional complications involved in production and shipping — one proscribed book might be worth 2-4 legal books, depending on the heat and the relationship between the publishers.
this trade was kind of an open secret, mostly conducted using code words and tricks like stuffing a crate with safe books on top and illegal works on the bottom or hidden in the packing materials. clients who ordered banned books from their local booksellers would often include that part of the order as a separate, unsigned slip of paper that could be disposed of after reading. sometimes they would make special requests for discreet packaging — one surviving letter asks for a fake receipt to be made out for legal books, so that the customer could get them past the finance department at work. another fun trick was 'larding', where loose leaf pages of the illegal books would be tucked between pages of respectable volumes. one client asked their bookseller to send a quantity of banned pornography larded inside religious texts.
being such a profitable trade, of course there were corrupt inspectors involved too. certain publishers and booksellers had networks of friendly agents who would let their shipments pass through inspection for a cut of the take. this would sometimes mean sending books by weird circuitous routes around europe to make sure they passed through friendly hands and got their stamp of approval before finally making their way back to the client.
I'm still reading on a lot of this and waiting for some other second hand texts to get to me, but every new thing I learn is improving my life and brain x1000
btw the moral you should take from all this is that the modern publishers and institutions who are currently shaking and shivering and peeing as they cut books on race relations and lgbtq+ topics from their catalogues are uniquely craven and pathetic and would be looked upon with scorn and derision by their forebears throughout human history.
“I think he’s depressed…he regularly drives an hour and a half to what he thinks is the best Burger King, just to eat four original chicken sandwiches, alone.”
I Don't Like My Mind by Mitski x Beef (2023)
There was this woman poet in 4th century China called Su Hui (蘇蕙), a child genius who had reportedly mastered Chinese characters by age 3.
At 21 years old, heartbroken by her husband who left her for another woman, she decided to encode her feelings in a structure so intricate, so beautiful, so intellectually staggering that it still baffles scholars to this day.
Came to be known as the Xuanji Tu (璇璣圖) - the "Star Gauge" or "Map of the Armillary Sphere" - it's a 29 by 29 grid of 841 characters that can produce over 4,000 different poems.
Read it forward. Read it backward. Read it horizontally, vertically, diagonally. Read it spiraling outward from the center. Read it in circles around the outer edge. Each path through the grid produces a different poem - all of them coherent, all of them beautiful, all of them rhyming, all of them expressing variations on the same themes of longing, betrayal, regret, and undying love.
The outer ring of 112 characters forms a single circular poem - believed to be both the first and longest of its kind ever written. The interior grid produces 2,848 different four-line poems of seven characters each. In addition, there are hundreds of other smaller and longer poems, depending on the reading method.
At the center a single character she left implied but unwritten: 心 (xin) - "heart." Later copyists would add it explicitly, but in Su Hui's original the meaning was even more beautiful: 4,000 poems, all orbiting the space where her heart used to be.
Take for instance the outer red grid of the Star Gauge. Starting from the top right corner and reading down, you get this seven-character quatrain:
仁智懷德聖虞唐,
貞志篤終誓穹蒼,
欽所感想妄淫荒,
心憂增慕懷慘傷。
In pinyin, it is:
Rén zhì huái dé shèng yú táng,
zhēnzhì dǔ zhōng shì qióng cāng,
qīn suǒ gǎnxiǎng wàng yín huāng,
xīn yōu zēng mù huái cǎn shāng.
Notice how it rhymes? táng / cāng / huāng / shāng
The rough translation in English is: "The benevolent and wise cherish virtue, like the sage-kings Yao and Shun, With steadfast will I swear to the heavens above, What I revere and feel - how could it be wanton or dissolute? My heart's sorrow grows, longing brings only grief."
Now read it from the bottom to the top and you get this entirely different seven-character quatrain:
傷慘懷慕增憂心,
荒淫妄想感所欽,
蒼穹誓終篤志貞,
唐虞聖德懷智仁。
The pinyin:
Shāng cǎn huái mù zēng yōu xīn,
huāngyín wàngxiǎng gǎn suǒ qīn,
cāngqióng shì zhōng dǔzhì zhēn,
táng yúshèngdé huái zhì rén.
It rhymes too: xīn and qīn, zhēn and rén
And the meaning is just as beautiful and coherent: "Grief and sorrow, longing fills my worried heart, Wanton and dissolute fantasies - is that what you revere? I swear to the heavens my constancy is true, May we embody the sage-kings' virtue, wisdom, and benevolence."
That's just 2 poems out of the over 4,000 you can construct from the Xuanji Tu!
At the very center of the grid, the 8 red characters wrapped around the central heart, she "signed" her poem with a hidden message:
詩圖璇玑,始平蘇氏。 "The poem-picture of the Armillary Sphere, by Su of Shiping."
Or reversed:
蘇氏詩圖,璇玑始平。 "Su's poem-picture - the Armillary Sphere begins in peace."
Many scholars, and even emperors, throughout Chinese history have been completely obsessed by Su Hui's puzzle.
For instance, in the Ming dynasty, a scholar named Kang Wanmin (康萬民) devoted his entire life to the poems (kangshiw.com/contents/461/2…), ending up documenting twelve different reading methods - forward, backward, diagonal, radiating, corner-to-corner, spiraling - and extracting 4,206 poems. His book on the subject ("Reading Methods for the Xuanji Tu Poems", 璇璣圖詩讀法) runs to hundreds of pages.
Empress Wu Zetian herself, the legendary woman emperor of the Tang dynasty, wrote a preface to the Xuanji Tu around 692 CE (baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%BB%87…).
Incredibly, there's even far more complexity to the Xuanji Tu than just the poems:
- The name 璇玑 (Xuanji) - Armillary Sphere - is astronomical in meaning and the way the poems can be read mirrors the way celestial bodies orbit around a fixed center. It's a model of the heavens.
- Her original work, with the characters woven on silk brocade, was in five colors (red, black, blue/green, purple, and yellow) which correspond to the Five Elements (五行) - the foundational Chinese philosophical system that explains how the universe operates. So it's also a model of the entire cosmic order according to ancient Chinese philosophy.
- It's also of course deeply mathematical with this 29 x 29 perfect square grid, with sub-squares, lines and rectangles, and a structure which allows for symmetrical reading patterns in all directions
- Last but not least, the content of the poems themselves contain multiple registers. On top of expressing her personal grief and longing for her husband, it's also filled with accusations against the concubine (Zhao Yangtai) he left her for, reflections on politics (with many references to sage-kings) and philosophical reflections.
So the Star Gauge is simultaneously:
- A love letter (expressing personal longing)
- A legal brief (arguing her case against her rival)
- A cosmological model (structured like the heavens)
- A Five Element diagram (encoding the fundamental structure of the world according to ancient Chinese philosophy)
- A mathematical construction with perfect symmetry and precision
And yet, for all this complexity, we should not forget this was all ultimately in service of the simplest human message imaginable: a 21-year-old woman asking the love of her life "come back to me".
Her husband did, eventually. According to what empress Wu Zetian herself wrote in her preface to the Xuanji Tu, when he received Su's brocade he was so "moved by its supreme beauty" that he sent away his concubine and returned to his wife. As the story goes, they lived together until old age.
The heart at the center was filled after all.
Now they are fake dating.
This drama is just a bunch of old school tropes in a trenchcoat.
Side note - this is fun as hell to watch but I am old enough that inside I am screaming at her taste in men and now in an admiring way. If I were her mother, I'd have a coronary and die on the spot.
ICI TOUT COMMENCE ― E1295
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (trans. Isabel Hapgood) | Tamsyn Muir, Harrow the Ninth
this is what it means to be human
Everything, Mary Oliver
The Breathing, Denise Levertov
A Prayer by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
Like a Small Café, That’s Love by Mahmoud Darwish (translated by Mohammad Shaheen)
Having a Coke with You by Frank O’Hara
Eating Together by Li-Young Lee
The Orange by Wendy Cope
The Quiet Machine, Ada Limón
To Go Mad, Paruyr Sevak
Our Beautiful Life When It’s Filled with Shrieks by Christopher Citro
Hammond B3 Organ Cistern, Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Peace XVIII, Khalil Gibran
Your Unripe Love, Paruyr Sevak (from “Anthology of Armenian poetry")
Here and Now by Peter Balakian
Ich finde dich (I find you) by Rainer Maria Rilke
The Thing Is by Ellen Bass
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
Miss you. Would like to take a walk with you. by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
I Want to Write Something So Simply by Mary Oliver
What's Not to Love by Brendan Constantine
Where does such tenderness come from? by Marina Tsvetaeva
You Are Tired (I Think) by E. E. Cummings
Living With the News by W.S.Merwin
What the Living Do by Marie Howe
what Work is the most important? the work you have to do next. narrow the scope of focus down to that singular glittering point.
How to get out of a rut
I must explain to my American followers. Follow me on this thought experiment.
Read these questions. You do not need to answer, just read them.
Who is the current head of government of Ethiopia?
Are they a king, queen, president, prime minister, dictator, or tsar?
Are they generally liked or generally disliked by their people? Why?
Are they seen as conventionally attractive?
What was their most recent scandal?
What’s a weird outfit they’ve worn while in office?
What are their interior design preferences?
Has anyone tried to assassinate them? How many times?
What’s their favourite food?
Does Ethiopia have a national anthem?
What are the top 3 most iconic symbols of Ethiopia?
What’s the most prevalent religion in Ethiopia?
What are 5 Ethiopian TV series?
What languages are spoken in Ethiopia?
What are 5 Ethiopian celebrities?
Can you draw the Ethiopian flag?
What are 5 rights or privileges granted to citizens of Ethiopia?
What structure do Ethiopian school systems follow?
What are 5 Ethiopian foods?
What are 5 Ethiopian exports?
What countries are allied with Ethiopia?
What is one topic in Ethiopia that you are more educated on than in America?
What are 3 Ethiopian stereotypes?
Does Ethiopia have States, Provinces, or neither?
Where is Ethiopia’s government capital?
What currency is used in Ethiopia?
What animal is the Ethiopian symbol? Do they have one?
What is Ethiopia’s ethnic majority?
Who was their first government leader of Ethiopia? What is an interesting fact about them?
Who has Ethiopia gone to war against? Why?
Can you name 3 wars Ethiopia was involved in?
Can you name 3 Ethiopian women famous for their beauty?
What is the current Ethiopian political climate?
What areas of Ethiopia are considered rural or urban?
Can you name 3 major Ethiopian landmarks?
Can you name 3 Ethiopian amusement parks?
Can you name 3 Ethiopian national parks?
Can a civilian openly carry a gun in Ethiopia?
At what age can a person begin drinking Alcohol in Ethiopia?
What is the age of consent in Ethiopia?
Can you name 3 infamous Ethiopian criminals?
Can you name 3 Ethiopian comedians?
What was the most recent major natural disaster to hit Ethiopia?
Is Ethiopian culture as a whole generally considered more conservative or more progressive than your own?
Roughly how much money goes into the Ethiopian military budget? Millions or billions?
What are the staple crops in Ethiopia?
What is something that was invented in Ethiopia?
Who are 3 famous Ethiopian businessmen?
What are 5 wildly popular Ethiopian musicians?
What was one viral fashion trend among Ethiopian youth?
If you could correctly answer around 40 of these, then congratulations! That is what every other English speaker feels like living in proximity to America
That is the extent to which American media leeches into everything
Yes, it is weird
And like. Imagine you just KNEW all this stuff. Passively, without looking it up, just from going about your life listening to music and watching TV and talking to strangers and scrolling through your blog
To be as clear as possible: I’m not telling anyone to shut up, or calling anyone annoying, or making any kind of statement at all really
I’m just saying. It feels super weird
And they were right all along, when they said food is better when it is shared.
Us (2025) / In The Kitchen by Ella Risbridger / Cupboard Love by Ella Risbridger / Leftovers by Trista Mateer / Little Weirds by Jenny Slate / Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami / Perhaps The World Ends Here by Joy Harjo / The Poetry Of Kitchens by Shawna Lemay / Our Beautiful Life When It’s Filled With Shrieks by Christopher Citro / Food by Brenda Hillman
Cudjo Lewis, the last surviving captive of the last slave ship to bring Africans to the U.S.
https://www.history.com/news/zora-neale-hurston-barracoon-slave-clotilda-survivor?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1525373347
It’s so significant too that this narrative was collected by Zora Neale Hurston, one of the greatest authors and anthropologists of her time. She was shunned by the “gatekeepers” of both of these professions, largely because of her Blackness, her womanhood, and her uncompromising commitment to honoring and showcasing both in her works. She died penniless and alone in a state-run institution in 1960. All of her works had gone out of publication by then. It took more than a decade before she was rediscovered. A young author by the name of Alice Walker had come across her work and was deeply inspired by it. “In 1973, after an exhaustive search, Walker came across Hurston’s unmarked grave in Ft. Pierce, Fla. She purchased a headstone for Hurston’s tomb and had it inscribed “A Genius of the South.“”
It is through Zora Neale Hurston’s pioneering sacrifice, and the acceptance of that inheritance by Alice Walker that we have found this missing piece of our history. Without the courageous and unfailing work of Black women, we wouldn’t have Cudjo Lewis’s story. We are slowly regaining a narrative that’s been hidden from us, one that continues to be lied about. Trust Black women to lead the way.
Sang Yan☀️ & Wen Yifan 🌙 in THE FIRST FROST 难哄 (2025)
ok I take back what I’ve said about contemporary art. This is amazing.
THIS is what art is about. I bitch about modern art a lot but the problem I have is that most of it (and I've worked in a museum and been an art student) is bullshitting. It is only sometimes you get shit like this, that is 0% bullshit and 100% raw screaming emotion that is demanding you LISTEN and FEEL and CONFRONT. This is art. This is what art is about. Are you mad? Are you horrified? Are you uncomfortable? GOOD.
If you dig this incredible work, may I humbly suggest the art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres:
“Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)”
An installation of candies wrapped in cellophane. Museums or galleries displaying this work agree to replenish the candies daily so that, at opening, the pile always weighs 175lbs, the weight of his lover (Ross Laycock) at his time of death due to complications from AIDS. Viewers of the piece are encouraged to take and consume the candy when they visit.
“Untitled (Perfect Lovers)”
An installation of two clocks that start out as synchronized. Over time, they fall out of sync due to differences in mechanisms, battery life, etc. Our bodies are imperfect mechanisms, regardless or in spite of the strength of our love for each other.
Letter from Felix Gonzalez-Torres to Ross Laycock
When the clocks were installed, they were to touch. The two black-rimmed clocks could be, however, replaced with white store-bought clocks with the same dimensions and design. The two hands, minute and second, were to be set in sync with the awareness that the two hands might eventually go out of sync during display. If one of the clocks required battery replacement, it was to be done, after which the clocks were to be reset at the same time. The clocks were to be exhibited against a wall painted in light blue.
Gonzalez-Torres admitted that the clocks would ultimately fall out of synch, and one sooner or later stopping first. “Time is something that scares me … or used to. This piece made with the two clocks was the scariest thing I have ever done. I wanted to face it. I wanted those two clocks right in front of me, ticking.”
https://publicdelivery.org/felix-gonzalez-torres-clocks/
Gonzalez-Torres’s art was (is) quietly, powerfully confrontational, both in the 80s and 90s when living a queer life (especially as a gay man of color - he was Cuban) was to be under attack/existential threat and now, when so much and so little has changed. His contracts for installation/display also frequently specified that the materials (often impermanent like the candy or otherwise inexpensive - he had a piece that featured plastic beaded curtains) were to be purchased from local suppliers. He enjoyed making the museums and galleries spend money in places they would never ordinarily spend money if they wanted to feature his work.
There are a bunch of books and websites about him and his work. And he’s a favorite subject of several of my favorite poets and writers. Worth checking out.
Embroidery Art on Etsy
@sapphic-corgi
EMBROIDERY???!!!!
@rhysiana look!
Nikita Gill, from Your Heart is the Sea: Poems; "The Difference Between Alone and Lonely,"