Yan Basque
@yanbasque
Writer, artist and musician. Queer. Critic of technology. Grad student (Information Studies at McGill). (He/they)
Cool. But the person whose head was put on a spike was not a reply guy. It was a nonbinary artist with a low follower count minding their own business in their own thread. They were quoted out of context and now everyone is pretending they were harassing women, which never happened. Total insanity.
People acting surprised that Mark Carney is a Conservative when some of us have been screaming it since before the election. Very hard to have any sympathy for these people.
I got it at the same time as the wildly overhyped and overpriced Uniball Zento Signature, which has an extremely satisfying magnetic cap. Mine came with a 0.7mm cartridge that spits out ridiculous amounts of watery ink rather inconsistently. Swapped it for a 0.5mm and it's a little better.
I finally bought a Caran d'Ache 849 and I'm in love. This is going to be my favourite ballpoint pen for a very long time, I feel.
My pens, organized from girliest to manliest. (I'm gonna cancelled for this, aren't I?)
Here's the latest pen I bought. It's a Pentel Sterling (also called Libretto in some markets). It's metal, but lightweight, very elegant, not especially masc, glides over the page smoothly (uses an Energel refill). Also relatively cheap ($22 Canadian). I like it.
My recent interest in metal pens is a good example. My current favourite pen is the rOtring 600. It's German, has sharp edges, looks like an engineer's instrument, very rugged and (if you are so inclined) "masculine" looking. Most popular colours seem to be black and silver, but mine is red.
I'm spending the evening with Janet's masterpiece, The Velvet Rope. What an album!
Found a pile of books by a dumpster on the way home. Grabbed what I could. They appear to be in good condition. I’m inspecting them outside to make sure they don’t have bedbugs or mould.
Follow me on Letterboxd (if you like ambiguous reviews that are nonetheless rated 1 or 5 stars). letterboxd.com/greatvowelsh...
Exciting news! I am joining the Homosaurus Collective as project coordinator to help with the French translation of the LGBTQ+ linked-data vocabulary. Among other responsibilities, I will be reviewing terminology and planning feedback sessions with Quebec-based community organizations.
This graphic illustrates Canada's new "AI for all" policy. The inner circle that says "ADOPTION > ADOPTION > ADOPTION" is literal insanity and summarizes everything wrong with this policy. ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en...
Using AI to write a LinkedIn post about how an AI strategy moved you “as a human.” Cringe.
Here's an example of what I mean. This is a screenshot from Obsidian with the theme Ukiyo. The bars are usually the same colour as the rest of the interface, but sometimes (increasingly often, it seems) they glitch out and appear white. Restarting the app doesn't fix the problem.
I’m reading The Fine Line by Eviatar Zerubavel and was enjoying it despite some dated terminology and ideas. But then I got to this paragraph and, I’m sorry, but what the actual fuck?
I was just testing some awful learning chatbot app for kids. In the setup, it asks you to pick a voice for it. The two options are just male and female, but they call it "melodic" and "deep." 😒😒😒😒😒
These Campus notebooks are great. Smooth paper, standard sizes, open flat, not crazy expensive. Been using them for all my reading and research note-taking. Current writing instrument of choice is my Rotring 600 with a 0.7mm Monteverde ceramic gel refill. No bleed through.
Are you fucking kidding me?! 3 episodes later they interview the same guy again. He mentions (for no reason) that he put his hand on Floyd’s left cheek. And detective adds “LC” to THE SAME NOTEPAD IN WHICH HE HASNT TAKEN ANY OTHER NOTES?!! This show is unhinged! I am losing my mind.
Serendipitous connection between Agamben and the art of the Brancacci Chapel that I did not at all expect to find! Almost makes me believe in a cosmic order.