Websites for silly people doing silly things 🐭

I loved the movie already which I still consider one of the best SF/horror movies out there, so I was really curious to dive into the Southern Reach series especially after hearing the story diverged heavily from the movie. And indeed while the latter borrowed some parts from the book it felt like a separate expedition into Area X so everything felt fresh and full of suspens, and I was on the edge of my page for most of it.

It was really an amazing plus over the movie to be in the main character’s head and see them change through the book from the inside as well. The prose is really dry and methodic while containing lots of beautiful descriptions, overall it does an amazing job at putting you in her head and shoes. I loved also how the “final” scene managed to be transcribed equally beautifully by text than in the crazy visuals of the movie. On that note I thought in terms of showcasing the wildness of the zone’s wilds the book was tamer than the movie, revealing less and playing more on the characters and the psychological horror than the actual “creations” of the zone. So I’m really eager to dig into the rest of the series, especially knowing it’s still ongoing. Now I just need to find them in library 😛

One of those insects that strike fear from the legends around it more than from reality! What is funny is that while both the english and french (ear piercer) share an “ear” theme they do so for different reasons since their wings are ear-shaped. Regardless I remember being told as a kid they crawled into ears and pierced them with their rear-pincers which is more what the french name went for, and that scared me so much cause I was like shit I’m already supposed to be swallowing spiders now I’ll get a piercing in my sleep what the fuck?? Luckily these guys are innocent and really just cool looking in the end 😛

Absolutely adore the retro design, especially the planets navigation. Whole bunch of content to find, and completely unique pages and toys to tinker with, overall a lot of fun to explore!

Websites for people who like to talk about how they were made

While the design of this site stays deceptively simple (to illustrate the values of its author, like resilience), the content is where it shines. A vast personal wiki of handcrafted pages, with poetic illustrations, quotes, explanations and backlinks. Interesting one to get lost in.

Personal websites crafted with love

Websites for people’s various special interests shrines

I love and have always been fascinated by ants by my god did garden ants terrorize me as a kid!! Living in a old house with gardens, it was sometimes a real war between the inside and outside as to who would get the food I’d bring to my bedroom and I lost for many years, and it’s a really horrible feeling to feel your room invaded, to worry about every itch while sleeping, to feel them crawling under the bed or in the dark corners 😭 I’m glad this hasn’t happened in years and I can admire these from afar

People compare this series to Jurassic Park a lot which immediately made me curious. But I wasn’t prepared oh no , not only is this book a FUCKING BLAST but it really reads like a great movie (and would make one too): in the way it describes scenes, in the characters and the way the action moves. But this script-like nature really works and makes for a tight pace that slowly and methodically unravels the horrors of Henders Island, while also having a lot of comedy and suspense, and I liked that it gets really nerdy with the science too even if it’s probably movie-deep there too compared to hard-SF.

And indeed it does feel like a great Jurassic Park very often and I mean this as a compliment as huge dino nerd and JP fan! But I loved discovering the cast of insane arthropod creatures conjured by the author and all the various fucked up things they’re capable of, and holy fuck does this book get extra gnarly at times but it makes the horror really visceral (literally sometimes), I already don’t fuck with ants but the story’s disk-ants send extra shivers down my spine. I really admired Nell for her absolute resolve and lack of fear in the face of so much of this shit but I also her absolute nerdiness in describing this untouched ecosystem and how it all works, and that part really delivers, it’s a very fun and well thought out world to plunge in (before something plunges in you).

Because the author would love to make it a movie he has spent a lot of time gathering/making visuals for the books so it’s also really been extremely fun to see come alive some of the best moments, and to compare with my own take on them 😛 But I do really hope the movie project goes somewhere because this deserves a big screen for sure. Give this shit half the budget of Avatar ffs. There is a sequel to the book that I’m really eager to dig in as well even if I’m sure it’ll be filled to the brim with many more disgusting shit to crawl all over my nightmares 🐜

Websites for people part of the IndieWeb scene (and the broader Web Revival )

Websites from people active in the broader fediverse

Champions of “Being there but not”, I thought this was some more elusive bird than it is before starting to recognise the wingspan and call.

From then they become instead constant distant partners, always looping and whistling high above your head, but never quite there, never quite close enOUGH TO TAKE AN ACTUAL PROPER PIC I WILL GET YOU STOP BEING SO FAST DAMMIT

I discovered this band years ago and instantly it was like finally founding a mix of ingredients I’d been seeking for a while. This dark slow metal with beautiful gloom vocals that could shift to actual screams when needed, harrowing strings melding into doom riffs like one, and so many gripping crescendos that still work on me and whose words resonate in my head years after.

I was almost devastated to learn so close to discovering them that they’d split, and had to loop them in sadness for years until randomly learning of their reforming as The Otolith and it was the best music news of that year because it’s been amazing to see them come back and sing their emotions and opinions to a modern day tune.

It’s not often that I read contemporary books but this one gripped me before even opening it, from the title and cover alone. What I expected was a modern political horror story and on that front it more than delivered; I loved the elegant simplicity of the full story but the clever way it’s slowly untangled, it reminded me in that way of Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House which was another clever modern spin on the original Shirley Jackson book which serves as self-admitted inspiration for this one.

But beyond that I wasn’t ready for what it would mean to read a first-person horror story narrated from a viewdpoint not unlike my own. While me and the book’s Alice don’t share the same views or the same lives, it often felt like she was in my head. Embedded deep, both when recounting stories of her life which echoed mine but also in all the trauma and fears that society inflicted on her. In that way, her haunting was as much mine as it was hers, and so it felt extremely difficult sometimes to go through the hardest of scenes, because it’s a violent and graphic book that spares no word in trying to haunt you too. As such not only were Alice’s words hard at times, but even more so Ila’s, because she’s of course not just a transphobic character, she’s a transphobic character written by a trans woman. She’s her own self doubts and fears projected back into page, all the ones that society embeds into you. And so again I sometimes found my enemy’s word to be echoing the dark thoughts in my head.

Above all I loved the premise and main metaphor of the book, describing fascism as a haunting of society. One born out of the cumulated trauma, hate and deaths that was inflicted and still permeates our modern world. One that can come back, haunt people, push them to act. One that you can’t just destroy but need to exorcise out the collective mind. I do think the metaphor is perhaps spelled out a bit too much, I think the parallels between the story’s real and theoretical haunting could have been highlighted more subtly. But I also agree with what she says about the time of subtly being over, because time and time again satire falls flat in the ears of the ones who would need it most. Fuck nazis you know! And her living the very real sinking of the UK into fascism I understand wanting to just put out in the open the raw black cruelty of it.

I still think about this book and will maybe take her next one although I believe it’s also in the same vein so I need a pause first to really digest this one and the things it also made me question about myself and my self-esteem. I think it’s maybe a book that affected me more as a trans woman like the author so of course it might not work on everybody the same but I really recommend it.

One of the most haunting and beautiful bands I know, I love how prominently dark the strings are, beautifully accompanied by the gorgeous vocals of Augustus Ghost and that weird glitchy electro that wraps them. I just love that combination of electro folk atmosphere.

And BTW it took me by such surprise to learn the meaning of the band’s name, I was always so enamored with it and I love to imagine the meaning of things! But no it’s just a bash of the member’s respective acts, Snow & Ghost, alas… Although perhaps in the end it just goes to confirm how ghostly the vocals sound that they’re sung by an actual ghost 👻

I bought this anthology to discover more horror authors from South America since it’s my understanding there’s a whole scene of it, just like french extremist horror is its own niche within horror films, and I wanted to get a sample of it. And I was NOT disappointed, this collection is short and to the point (of no return). It was exciting to discover parallel fears to my own, forged by centuries of history that I don’t have. And yet I could feel those stories, it truly felt like I was there in a lot of them. Some of the imagery in the book still stays with me, parts for how abstract and unknown the horror was like with the excellent Bone Animals or In The Mountains. Parts for how cruelly real it was like with That Summer in the Dark, Soroche or The House of Compassion (which resonated with me even more being transgender like the main character and author).

It was also very fun to go from one author’s style to another, which I wasn’t used to since I’ve never read “collections” like that from multiple authors. I’ve learned a bit about the Calico collection this came from and I really love the endeavour and how unique each entry seem to be so I’ll likely pick up more from it!

Another like Iris in a long standing tradition of little adorable tornadoes, but Lilly is on another level of cuteness altogether. She’s been such a loving and cuddling cat from day 0, always looking for you, playing, and YES CHAOS but you can’t stay mad at her even a second with her droopy eyes :3

Like her infamous predecessors Pucki and Kuma, she’s the latest in a long line of adorable weirdos that don’t always work like other cats but whose love you feel all the same if not more. Hedda for example loves to just lick random parts of you, sometimes in a good way sometimes not, sometimes out of curiosity sometimes to try to eat you? sometimes cause she’s happy, it’s a whole language! But she’s very loving and playful and despite having had to have her tail removed which sometimes messes with her balance or make her walk weird, she’s just like any other lovely furry goofball

Discovered back then with that damn Game of Thrones’s trailer that was set to Seven Devils, I was blown away by the atmosphere and me and my wife listened to the early albums hundreds of time, it was even the first band we saw as a couple, and traveled to a whole-ass other country for! By car but still dammit!

And since then she’s accompanied us growing up in life with every release just expanding and bettering the one before. I truly think she’s one of the greatest artists of our times, and her insane vocal range only comes to cement it on top of her incredible talent and songwriting. I love that she doesn’t seem to sacrifice her universe over the years but just follows who she becomes herself as a person, and that’s just better and better, so to the next amazing album she’ll release, whenever that is 🥂

didnt even realize I almost missed 5/12! happy #signalis day!! I wish I had colored #fanart but I only have #drawing in a small notepad :p so heres to my favorite tragic space lesbians ❤️

Was just checking something on my website and it's like the matrix glitched under my feet?? 😅 feels like I took the same photo twice.. but not #photography