Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 47

Visits from future past

If you’ve heard this story before, please accept my apologies and move on. I bring it up again because something similar has happened to my friend. Eight years ago, during a particularly bleak period in my life, I had what I like to think of as a visit from the future. In retrospect, I had […]

How to deny, deny, deny

Fly in the face of confirmed fact! He’s not dead, he’s pining for the fjords.

Do people really want freedom from freedom? 2016 suggests that Loki in The Avengers was right.

The evidence suggests that people do not practise critical thinking. Or do not want to think at all. Or do not think at all. It’s so much easier to surrender your decision-making processes to the nearest strongman who claims to have the answers to everything. Freedom comes with responsibility, and who has the energy for […]

Your holiday book-buying guide for readers, bibliophibians, and especially yourself

If you’re looking for presents for friends, colleagues, family, consider something time-warping, reality-bending, brain-expanding yet extremely affordable: Books. Bad as it was, 2016 doesn’t have to be the beginning of the end of civilization. If we all take up reading, there’s hope. For readers who love a clever adultery-and-revenge plot, from the author of Atonement […]

An interview on cat food with Saffy and Drogon

My feline housemates granted an interview to the distributors of their favorite kibble, Taste of the Wild. Hi Saffy, Drogon, how are you? Saffy: Who wants to know? Drogon: I love everybody! We’re curious, how did you “meet” Jessica? Saffy: I was born in her friend’s house and she brought me home. Drogon: I adopted […]

Here is this week’s Dancing In My Tsinelas playlist for VP Leni exclamation point!

It’s by rickyvvvvv, and it’ll get you through the many traffic jams you have to endure this week. We’re posting a new playlist every Monday so we need a lot of music. Send your happy playlists to saffron.safin@gmail.com or post them in comments.

If you’re disappointed in your species, here’s a story to give you hope (and clean your tear ducts)

The Coma Cluster of Galaxies from the NASA APOD Archive. Allora & Calzadilla collaborated with author Ted Chiang on their video installation The Great Silence, which centers on the world’s largest radio telescope in Esperanza, Puerto Rico— home to the last remaining population of a critically endangered species of parrots, Amazona vittata. (I copy my […]

I have an issue with Uber but they refuse to listen.

I use Uber a lot. It’s convenient, safe, and reduces the stress of getting around the city. I’ve written about how glad I am that Uber exists. I don’t even mind paying the surge rate (up to 5X during the Xmas season last year) as long as I am informed of it beforehand. Hey, traffic […]

Dancing In My Tsinelas: A happy playlist for VP Leni

I am tired of being angry. We all have reasons to be angry, but being angry just makes us angrier, and then the loudest and angriest wins. All that energy expended on nothing, just making everyone feel ill and look worn-out. Today we woke up to the kind of news that makes us angry. I […]

It’s that time of year. If you are not one of the cheery sunshine people, here’s how to deal with it.

The Oatmeal has some thoughts on happiness that puts it into the proper perspective. My solution to seasonal glumness: Read a good book (I’ll post a selection soon). You’re at a party you really don’t want to be in: Find a quiet spot, read a good book. (Though my first solution is: Don’t go. Granted, […]