Sidetracks - August 18, 2023

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. You can also support Sidetracks and our other work on Patreon.

Renay

Games
1. How EA Killed the Sims Franchise: The Sad State of the Sims 4 is a great video that outlines why I am so mad at EA! I loved Sims 2 and Sims 3 so much so was so excited for Sims 4 when I realized it was out but I have also struggled with the DLC situation. It's just like...you want to be able to play the FULL game but to do that you'll need to drop $1000. In this economy? I hope the executives making these decisions are plagued with flickering lights that no electrician can solve for life.

Politics
2. Long covid has derailed my life. Make no mistake: It could yours, too by Madeline Miller was gutting to read. My bout with COVID in December/January 2023 was a nightmare because I was testing positive for a month and for two months after would get dizzy randomly. I used a cane sometimes when I felt particularly unstable. Now main side-effect is sudden onset fatigue that I can't predict. I can go rollerskating: fine. Change the sheets on the bed: need a four hour nap. Most people seem fine with ignoring everything. No one except my disabled pals mask anymore. Asking for accommodations is met with active hostility. It's rough out there with the lack of community care.

In the same vein, COVID Hasn’t Disappeared — But Empathy, Care and Solidarity Have is so good I could quote all of it. "When someone masks around me, I am made to feel grateful. When I request that someone masks, I am made to feel unreasonable." is so good. And underlining the crisis in which we find ourselves: "In June, I finally get COVID. As does my daughter. Not because I did not take care, but because others did not."

3. What Do We Want From the Bookish Internet? by Molly Templeton is a good essay that focuses on text-based bookish discussion. There's plenty of discussion happening about books on Youtube and TikTok but it's all in video or very unfriendly UI comment sections which makes it hard to follow conversational threads. Youtube is a little better but their comment system is obviously an afterthought.

What I want from the bookish internet is for the collapse of the author/reader divide to end. Social media sucked us all into the same spaces where blogs, as outlined in the article, made it a little bit harder to do and slowed people down. I do love all the friendly relationships I've built with authors I love. I don't think everything has to be in a silo, but with current social media everything is just in your face. People tag authors in over the smallest mention. I have posted negative reviews of books and then had a perfect stranger who apparently name searches their favorite author come in and tag the author. I hate this timeline where snitch-tagging of this type is normal. But just as authors would probably prefer regular readers not to have a front row view of their first draft, readers don't necessarily want authors in our review/analysis spaces. We don't want to have to manage their emotions. I don't know where things are going, but I'm once again reminding everyone that RSS still exists and works with public newsletters.

Music Recs
4. J-Hope is releasing a physical album of his incredible Jack in the Box. It took me a long time to listen to Hope World because the backlist BTS had when I got into them was incredibly large, but when I finally listened I loved the whole vibe.

I didn't expect the same thing for Jack in the Box and was proven correct when he released the first song. It's still got the same frenetic energy that his more bubbly songs have, but the edges are sharper. I can't wait to re-listen to the whole album when my copy arrives.

Watch on YouTube