This Week in Squirrels: 2026-W11

This week in squirrels…

Summary

• Tuck in before reading this, there isn’t a lot to talk about other than the fact that I spent this whole week in a hospital with some serious sickness.
  • At least I feel like I found some engaging articles and topics to talk about with them not ALL being just doom news.
• The Sick
  • The moment the news really sinks in and my brain is like, " Oh, I know what is going on," suddenly all the sickness comes. It kinda hits in waves a bit, less if I move about and keep some very light fitness going. It feels like I am nauseous, not in my tummy but in my whole body.
  • Honestly, I think it is a bit more than just knowing what is going on; things slid fast and continued during the week. Treatments are helping, but life comes fast, so fast.
• The Hospital, Pt 2
  • This week I lived in a hospital! It’s not the hotel I would have chosen, but it makes due. It’s much quieter than the last one, which is a huge bonus.
  • I got a very nifty new accessory that makes bloodwork and other things way nicer, and way, way more comfortable.
  • There is something that always reminds you it’s no hotel room, there is no room for your stuff, no closet, it’s a room with a purpose, spruced up to be somewhat habitable.
  • And of course, the constant company and check-ins.
  • It’s hard to be disconnected from my life and just on this fast track of both everything in some ways, and waiting in others.
  • All the nurses and doctors are super nice, and I am doing everything I can to be quiet and not make a fuss, but the constant misgendering is a pretty major emotional drag when I am already trying to process major life changes. I miss my queer spaces and queer people. It’s not like these people even know my nedcronymn or knew me beforehand, but people will show you how they see you regardless.
• Family, & Friends, & Visitors
  • Got to see my parents, that was a really good visit, it was hard but really needed. Then everybody came in at once, and it really was so heartening having this moment of normalcy where everybody is just their loud selves and just my family
  • Having all my friends come to me is weird. I am not a good conversationalist right now, since everything I have to talk about is mostly hospital and sick things. But having them come see me is the glue that keeps me from doomscrolling social media.
  • And then on top of this I had an amazing phone call with Anthony, where we got into talking about a lot of other various good social and societal thoughts.
• Time away from work
  • I already am getting antsy about not being at work, but with all the distractions and everything going on, it’s hard.
• Trying to learn and switch to Bitwig
  • I have been trying to work on some laptop music from the hospital as an emotional outlet. This means no access to any of my normal hardware or software, so I am taking on trying from scratch in Bitwig.
  • It’s actually stunning how difficult it is to get spun up on something else when i have been using N-I and Ableton for so longs. All my plugins gone, just a whole new DAW.
  • Still, there are plenty of odd sounds to sample here.

Books

• Love Me Like You Shouldn’t ⭐⭐⭐
  • Not her strongest work and a bit deep into the Hollywood toxic game that isn’t really doing it for me. But also not a bad book
• Marrying the Dark Knight (For Her Money) Vol 1 ⭐
  • 100% not for me. This is for somebody, but absolutely not me. I see the attempt at Yuri, but it doesn’t even have a taste of it IMO.
  • If you like some violence and ridiculous things, the art is fine, I guess.

Music

• “Lost Sanctuary” by Dusqk
  • This new Dusqk came in at a great time. It is a good relaxation album
• “URGH” by Mandy, Indiana
  • This is still top rotation for me, a good angsty, powerful album
• “I’ve Seen All I Need to See” by The Body
  • Sometimes I need to go hard with discomfort, and my body, and this is a good album for it
• Marconi Union
  • I have been deep in Marconi Union’s catalogue for both sleeping music and just something to help relax
• DEADLINE by BLACKPINK
  • and sometimes you just need something fun

Reads and Videos

• Plugin Slop And You. - Venus Theory
  • The title says “slop,” but it has nothing to do with AI.
  • With my swap out of tools I am really feeling this.
  • It’s about “solutionism” and getting stuck in the consumerist behavior of buying tools to solve problems and forgetting that those tools still don’t do the work for you; you need to learn to wield them to do so
  • There is also a good tangent on minimalism trends in music in general
• Everything Is Television | Derek Thompson
  • A really fascinating breakdown of the challenges of modern media and how it relates to the past.
  • The part that really caught me is how the VAST percentage of content people look at on “social media” is from people they don’t know, which really makes it not social media but again, much closer to TV.
• LLM-Driven Large Code Rewrites With Relicensing Are The Latest AI Concern | Phoronix
  • I am not even slightly shocked people are slopping things out with AI and completely disregarding how licences work.
• A Scandal in Yuri Publishing & Important Statement | Ozaku
  • Japanese companies are still failing the “don’t protect predators” challenge.
  • This one is doubly ugly because of how you write Yuri content and use it to abuse girls. the fuck.
• A DOGE Bro Allegedly Walked Out Of Social Security With 500 Million Americans’ Records On A Thumb Drive And Expected A Pardon If Caught | Techdirt
  • The DODGE testimonies have been all over the news, and we all called it.
• Ars Fires Reporter For Accidentally Using Fake AI Quotes | Techdirt
  • This really was a huge egg all over Ars’ face and independent reporting in general. I am never happy to see people getting fired, but this is showing more and more how we are making the biggest mistakes by putting too much trust in it
• Should amoral characters pay for their crimes? | Buttondown
  • I saw a lot of people bringing up the old Hayes Code on social media. I understand the deep issues with amoral media and stories that help enable “poor moral values,” but I am not sure we really want to lean back into our censorship era.
• Watching the walls slowly collapse in as a trans person
  • Transgender Chili’s manager fired because ‘personal values and lifestyle did not align’ with chain’s, lawsuit says | The Independent
  • Trump Administration Opens the Door for ICE to Target Anyone Suspected of Being Trans | Transitics
  • ‘Medical conscience’ bills would let providers refuse more health care | Nevada Current
• AI Porn Isn’t Regulated. What Does That Mean for Depictions of Queer Bodies? | Uncloseted Media
  • I feel like I have posted something along these lines a lot recently, but a re-occurring theme in AI-generated content seems to be that people don’t just get to pick their representation, but the sock puppetry and fake representation have a lot of risks.

Quote of the Week

Solutionism isn’t often actually a solution. It’s consumerism masquerading as a form of productivity by the act of participation.

- Venus Theory