Keegan Leech

@keeganleech

I'm Keegan Leech! Researcher @africacheck.org. South African. You can follow me on some of the other websites too. Mutuals please feel free to DM me for Signal username/to chat anytime. ✌🏻 Personal site: he/him

1,222 Following838 Followers1,577 Posts

YouTube Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and keeganleech.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· 4d

My cat did one.

NOW Music font:
MEOW
That's how I call
HUMANS

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· 6d

6. What books have you read in the last month? Pretty busy month by my standards. If I had to pick a favourite it might be Fake Work, which you can sample in N Plus One. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-48/ess...

Recently read (from most to least recent):
Dear Stupid Penpal - Rascal Hartley
When We Cease to Understand the World - Benjamín Labatut
Fake Work: How I Began to Suspect Capitalism is a Joke - Leigh Claire La Berge
The Shock of the Fall - Nathan Flier

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· 20d

I think my "hardest correct answers" list on @catfishing.net says something about me. (Also, it's very neat that there are two parrot-related answers next to one another.)

List of "Correct answers fewest other players got right" and percentage of players that were correct. The date that each answer appeared has been blurred to prevent minor Catfishing spoilers.

Alexander Grothendieck 4%
Gerald Durrell 4%
José Saramago 6%
Robert E. Howard 6%
Stephen Jay Gould 6%
Junkie 6%
Cry, the Beloved Country 7%
Punctuated equilibrium 7%
Sons and Lovers 7%
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater 7%
High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program 7%
John Donne 7%
Map–territory relation 8%
Feast of the Ass 8%
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit 8%
Stochastic parrot 9%
Alex 9%
Agnès Varda 9%
E. B. White 9%
Peter Kropotkin 9%

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jul 3

Okay, help me pick what to read next. Both of these look amazing. Both look like pretty quick reads. I'll get to both eventually, but which first? Vote now on your phones! 📲

Fake Work: How I Began to Suspect Capitalism is a Joke by Leigh Claire La Berge

In this genre-bending memoir, Leigh Claire La Berge reflects on her stint at one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the country and what it teaches us about the absurdity of work--for readers of Bullshit Jobs and fans of Office Space and Sorry to Bother You

The year is 1999, and the world is about to end. The only thing standing between corporate America and certain annihilation is a freshly employed twenty-two year old and her three-ring binders.

While headlines blazed with doomsaying prophecies about the looming Y2K apocalypse, our protagonist Leigh Claire was quickly introduced to the mysterious workings of The Process--a mythical and ever-changing corporate ethos The Anderson People (her fellow consultants) believe holds world saving powers. Her heroic task: printing physical copies of spreadsheets and sending them to a secure storage facility somewhere in the bowels of New Jersey. After a series of equally mundane tasks, and one well timed deployment of an anecdote about a legendary quarterback, she soon found herself jet-setting on the firm's dime to thirty-minute lunch meetings in Johannesburg, giving impromptu lectures to Japanese executives about limiting liability at the end of the world, and leaping from burning vehicles on Mexico City's busiest highway.

As present-day Leigh Claire reflects on the inanity of her former employment, we're introduced to a carousel of characters plucked from a Mike Judge screenplay, and are treated to post-facto theoretical interjections about the nature of financialized capitalism that recall David Graeber at his best.

Atticus “Finch” Davani does not want to be an astronaut. He hates space, he hates the ship, and he strongly dislikes his fellow crew members. He makes that painfully clear in his letters to Aku, his corporate-assigned penpal back on Earth.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jun 17

UPDATE: As of today, I can see an actual "Age-restricted adult content" warning that correctly informs me that the post exists, as well as why I can't view it.

Age-restricted adult content. This content might not be appropriate for people under 18 years old. To view this media, you’ll need to log in to X. Learn more [link]

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jun 15

Very frustrating new thing on X. Was looking for posts which included a certain out-of-context video. Presumably because of graphic content, the posts weren't shown to logged out viewers. But this is what those viewers see. Not, "you must log in to view this content" but, "this page doesn't exist".

What looks like an error page on X, which reads:

"Nothing to see here
"Looks like this page doesn’t exist. Here’s a picture of a poodle sitting in a chair for your trouble."

The page also features a stock image of a poodle in a chair, and a "Looking for this?" button which links to the X homepage.

Logged-in users would actually see a post with a video, caption, and replies.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jun 14

Yeah, we can tell that Bluesky is built with AI...

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jun 4

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jun 4

If you happen to be anywhere near Belfast next Thursday (11th June) and want to hear some of my favourite music in the world, please go have a first listen to a South African punk compilation I helped put together! 🤘 (And let me know if you'll be there, you can say hi to some lovely people for me!)

Event poster featuring a sick-ass picture of a hadeda, cool yellow fabric patterns, and a juicy-looking vinyl record. It reads:

Sneak preview listen to the new Failed States//Creative Resistances compilation "More Than Hate City"!

Plus Q&A with:
Twenty One Children (skate punk band from Soweto)
We Did This Records (DIY record distro from Joburg)

Thursday 11th June
The Art Shop
Academy St. Belfast (UU York St)
13:00-14:00
Free lunch!

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· May 14

Get the feeling this line from a recent @garbageday.email update is going to be rattling around in my skull often in the near future.

Another assumption I’m going to make is that the average user on a platform like TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram can no longer discern the difference between a legacy media podcast like Popcast, Druski’s one-man Comedy Central on Instagram, Jake Shane sitting on a couch with Kacey Musgraves, and a guy recapping murder trials in his kitchen. Which means all four kinds of videos are held to the same standard, though not how you might think. Instead of users expecting everything on their feeds to be professional, audiences have kind of settled into a weird middle ground where they want videos to feel like a friend with perfect media training casually FaceTiming them from a professional newsroom. A tough balancing act to keep up, for sure.

[The second last sentence of the paragraph, "Instead of users expecting everything on their feeds..." has been highlighted.]

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· May 3

#NW

Very red poster for Tarsem Singh's The Fall.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Apr 30

Lerato Orchestral Collective* is the greatest band in the world.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Apr 30

Tidus & Yuna from FFX!

Tidus from Final Fantasy X. Guy with a kind of blond surfer cut wearing an *unhinged* outfit.

His shoes are pretty normal Timberland-looking boots, but as you look up, things get weird very quickly. One leg of his black shorts is longer than the other, with a red design on the front and some kind of netting on the back. The shorter leg reveals that he's wearing some kind of blue skintight thing underneath?

Further up, he's wearing what I can only describe as, "what if a corset was dungarees?" It's got belts and chains and zippers and stuff on it. Around his shoulders he has a.... short sleeved yellow bolero jacket type thing? Although one arm and hand is completely covered by a crazy shoulder pad armoured glove-type thing (because he plays a dumb fictional sport). The other hand is just wearing a simple black glove and holding a shimmering blue sword.

Yuna from Final Fantasy X. Brunette with shoulder-length hair, and a much more normal-looking outfit than Tidus.

She's wearing lots of flowing draped fabrics, ties, and big flared sleeve-things in floral & pastel colours. She also has a long blue pleated skirt with flower patters on it, and practical-looking black boots.

On her shoulder she's holding a staff with a kind of circular geometric design in gold at its head.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Apr 22

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Apr 22

Huh?

The above post. It's in the "mutuals" feed.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Apr 18

You're arguing with an account that's 19 hours old and has already posted >400 times. I think you've gotta just block and move on.

Screenshot showing that the account "skoomanbean.bsky.social" joined Bluesky 19 hours ago, and has made 461 posts.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Apr 15

Look at this. It's like this article was written to bait a Spike Lee movie into existence.

In the interviews, Garrison confirmed that he had received a hundred and ninety-two thousand dollars’ worth of checks from Alfortish. Federal authorities realized that, with Garrison’s critical evidence, they could construct a major case. On one level, the slammer conspiracy was an amusing example of New Orleans chicanery at its most baroque, a tale of literal highway robbery so antic and absurd that it seemed like the plot of an Elmore Leonard novel. But, on a deeper level, it was an awful parable of economic desperation in twenty-first-century America. Scores of poor Black Louisianans had volunteered for what was effectively Russian roulette, risking their own lives and the lives of their loved ones in the hope of a onetime payout. The attorneys, by contrast, were well educated and mostly white, and would almost certainly have been loath to climb into a car with Garrison and go looking for a truck to hit. Of course, the lawyers had reaped the bulk of the financial rewards. Motta routinely demanded six- or seven-figure settlements, and contingency fees often ran as high as forty per cent. Actual payments to clients, however, could take years to come through, when they came through at all.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Apr 1

Here's the official explanation.

Easter Eggs

Most puzzles contain one or more secret easter eggs. These appear when specific phrases areselected, and can be "collected" by selecting them.

(Example: "joke in spring time" becomes "🤡 April fools?")

When you collect an easter egg, nothing happens in the puzzle. After you complete the puzzle, th summary screen will show the number of easter eggs you found, and your share text will update to indicate that you found one or more easter eggs.

Easter eggs:
* Are most commonly found off the solution path
* Are included in. our game summary and share text if you choose to collect them
* Are not required to enjoy Parseword!

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Mar 31

I wish all trans people a very happy TDOV. 🏳️‍⚧️

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Mar 28

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Mar 26

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

(The now out-of-print Portobello Books edition, which has the best cover of any edition, fight me. It depicts a severed white wing on a purple leaf vein patterned background.)

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Mar 15

Letterboxd recent activity from least to most recent:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- BlackkKlansman
- Bugonia
- Alps

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Mar 9

I continue to have a very good time at the movies. Pictured: two very good Joburg Film Fest showings, and two Luca Guadagnino movies.

Letterboxd recent activity. The four films, in order of least to most recent, are: Challengers, Oca, Nomad Shadow, Call Me by Your Name.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Feb 20

Is there some kind of prize for best #LastFourWatched?

Letterboxd recent activity. From least to most recent, the four films are:
- Before Sunrise
- Drive My Car
- Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Feb 18

Hysterical to see this turn up in my @sill.social digest (because so many of you are quote-dunking on it) slotted in amongst four separate articles about different negative impacts of AI. 🫠

Screenshot of a Sill Daily Digest for 18 February 2026. The first six headlines (and teasers) are:

- WD and Seagate confirm: Hard drives for 2026 sold out
(Hyperscalers are tearing hard drives out of the hands of manufacturers. Prices are therefore also rising for SSDs.)

- “I Have Been Here Too Long”: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE’s Dilley Facility
(Hundreds of children are currently being held with their parents at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas. In letters and drawings, eight kids convey the pain of feeling trapped with no end...)

- Many consumer electronics manufacturers 'will go bankrupt or exit product lines' by the end of 2026 due to the AI memory crisis, Phison CEO reportedly says
(This could go on for another 10 years.)

- 'Students Are Being Treated Like Guinea Pigs:' Inside an AI-Powered Private School
(Leaked documents reveal the inner workings of Alpha School, which both the press and the Trump administration have applauded. The documents show Alpha School's AI is generating faulty lessons that sometimes do "more harm than good.")

- The left is missing out on AI
(As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with AI, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right)

- AI Delusions Are Leading to Domestic Abuse, Harassment, and Stalking
(ChatGPT and other AI chatbots are reinforcing users' delusions about other people — fueling fixations linked to stalking and other abuses.)

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Feb 4

I am going to get so much mileage out of this Ripley clip.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jan 31

If we work hard enough, we can convince Amazon to re-release this in a months time.

The Melania documentary poster, but the M has been replaced with the one from the Morbius poster.

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jan 19

Me, when "Fast Car" comes on in the middle of a workout:

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jan 2

Technically too late for #LetterboxdFriday, but my #LastFourWatched is a veritable glut of Josh O'Connor bangers! (Plus Challengers, which has just slid out of view.)

Letterboxd recent activity from most to least recent:
Wake Up Dead Man
La Chimera
The Mastermind
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Keegan Leech@keeganleech· Jan 1

That sounds kind of good?