Sasuke by Masahisa Fukase

"What could be better than taking photographs of these two creatures I loved, frolicking around day after day. I wasn't interested in the grace or cuteness of cats. I saw myself reflected in the cats' eyes. I wanted to photograph the love that I saw there. You might say it's a collection of self-portraits more than shots of Sasuke and Momo."

A photo book I own; the thumbnail on the left is a scan of my copy. It mostly contains images of the cat Sasuke, owned by the photographer, Masahisa Fukase. Despite the lighthearted nature of the content, it carries a tragic undertone for me - Fukase's life was not a happy one, and the cat photographed is not the original 'Sasuke' (the first one disappeared) - yet in spite of his melancholic life, he was able to capture the love that he saw in this silly creatures. His pattern of seeing himself in his subjects extended to his wife, to the point where his obsession with photographing her became more of a self-indulgent act than an appreciative one, and he drove her away. To me, these photos are a small look into his mind, through the medium of cute cat pictures.

Ask Polly: Help, I'm The Loneliest Person In The World! by Heather Havrilesky

"The cage is open. You can walk out anytime you want. Why are you still in there?"

A 2013 entry from an advice column on the website The Awl (now defunct). The gist of it is; a very lonely person described her life, how she had no friends, and how a guy she was obsessed is extremely avoidant. But most importantly, how desperate she was for her life to change. Havrilesky responds with the above quote, and a good bit more, detailing the steps she should take to stop having her life revolve around unavailable people, and start living a life of her own. It's a fairly simple piece really, and nothing in it is super revolutionary, or particularly mindblowing. But for me, it serves as a reminder of how much agency I really have in my life, even though at times, it may not necessarily feel like it. I hope one day I'll have the courage to follow the same advice.

I AM VERY YOUNG AND I AM LEARNING HOW TO LIVE.

IN RAINBOWS by Radiohead

"How come I end up where I started?
How come I end up where I went wrong??
Won't take my eyes off the ball again
You reel me out then cut the string"

A 2007 album by Radiohead, their best in my opinion. It ranges from incredibly dense without becoming cluttered, to incredibly sparse, but not simplistic. I don't listen to it all the time, but I know it's an album I can always come back to. (I will also forever be upset that Jigsaw Falling Into Place wasn't recorded as part of the From The Basement session.)

Bibawen

Someone who makes edits of films and shows. They aren't particularly flashy, but from the combination of the choice of source material and the choice of music, you can tell they've seen a damn lot of films. Slighlty controversial at times (recently did a Kevin Spacey edit, and before that a series of 9/11 themed edits), but the art is so good that in this case you must certainly separate it from the artist.

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At

"OpenAI, a non-profit AI company that will lose anywhere from $4 billion to $5 billion this year, will at some point in the next six or so months convert into a for-profit AI company, at which point it will continue to lose money in exactly the same way."

This is a blog maintained by Ed Zitron, which focuses on the tech sector and lately has mainly been about the various goings on at OpenAI. I quite like him because he's an avid OpenAI hater (I am too), so inevitably most of my views are informed by his (lengthy) articles. He's more than just a hateposter though, as he goes into significant detail about the business side of things, which I'd otherwise be too lazy / ignorant to do myself. I greatly appreciate his analysis, and his articles are always a fun and insightful read (if not a little angry).