greys

Total Tangent Times - Issue 4

Published: May 11th 2025, 3:04:48 pm

Reminder that after this issue, these will be published roughly on a fortnightly schedule. This will exclude any weeks where it happens to overlap with the monthly forecast, as it'd be somewhat redundant at that point. But perhaps I might scrap those in favour of this and stick to just the sticker previews at the beginning of each month. Let me know in the comments what you'd prefer!

Last week has been significantly short on studies, but also have been trying to get back into doing more full daily drawings/paintings instead. At some point, the theory must be applied for the material to properly be learned, after all. Perpetually doing studies without application can also be a form of 'procrastivity' (procrastionation + productivity) too, which is not unusual for us neurospicies.

Drawing from imagination is obviously hard, but the studying and fundamentals are meant to be exactly what makes it a little bit easier every time. Whilst there are still many aspects that I can see wrong with what I managed to pull out of imagination within an hour or so, it still was a very important exercise in determining precisely where my skill level is currently so that I know where to focus on going forward.

That said, one can never do enough hand studies. These were a bunch of timed ones because I've also been prone to taking too long with studies, which defeats the purpose of trying to extract the essence or core of the subject rather than being an identical copy.

Current Reads

📕 Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway - Susan Jeffers

One of the recent chapters recommends to "say YES to the universe", and whilst the overly woo-woo-iness of this phrase itself is too much for my personal tastes, the underlying message of what it means is quite valid. Essentially it boils down to acceptance, and understanding that we may not be able to change some circumstances, what we can do is change and adapt the way we handle said situations. The author quotes from the book Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor who, despite having experienced one of the objectively worst circumstances imaginable, was still able to navigate life through such horrific experiences. I read this one some years ago during a difficult time, but the reference in this book reminded me of it again, so I may give this a re-read soon.

Recently Finished

📗 The Baby Dragon Cafe - A.T. Qureshi 2/5

It's rare that I rate books less than 3/5 these days, but this one unfortunately deserved the less-than-stellar rating. Not only does it read as a much younger voice than an 'adult' book should be, the writing is astoundingly subpar for the author's fifth published novel. Apparent plot points that go nowhere within the next few pages, the big 'climax' that was only built up and resolved in the last ten pages, and overall underwhelm left me feeling the opposite of cozy, which this book purports itself to be. The bigger pity is that the main character is from an underrepresented background, and there were plenty of potentially interesting cultural sprinklings, but like everything else in the book, the potential was wasted. To sum up the entire book in a single line: I've read better on AO3. And that's saying something.

Articles, Blogs, & Papers

• What's the origin of the phrase 'Bob's your uncle'? - Gary Martin, Phrase Finder (my uncle is not, in fact, named Bob)

• Ancient secrets of Maya blue revealed - Sara Sader, Archaeology News

• The landscape artist who makes her paint from pearls, crystals, and volcanic dust - Lois Beckett, The Guardian (read with the above article for a modern take on pigment-making)

• What is anti-design, the rising trend that tears up the rule book? - Joe Foley, Creative Bloq (e.g. Charli XCX's Brat album cover)

• The transparency dilemma: How AI disclosure erodes trust - Schilke, O., Reimann, M.

Podcasts

Once again, Ologies nails it. This week's episode is both timely and topical, being about AI Ethics. A number of interesting subtopics also are raised, including the rationale behind why many virtual assistants and bots are female-coded. Coincidentally, there was also an episode of Every Little Thing where they discuss whether it's weird to be nice to the non-human bots that speak back to us--which also uncovers a somewhat more insidious trend in those annoying automated call systems. Speaking of speaking and words, the Etymology encore has me tempted to try out another podcast by the guest of the episode.

A seeming departure from my usual selection, "When Over-Collaboration Leads to Indecision" from the Harvard Business Review podcast on Leadership still has some interesting points underneath all the corporate jargon. It was an interesting look at the more subtle version of 'design by committee' and when something good (collaboration) can sometimes go too far (stalls decision-making).

Videos

• Hear An Elephant Reunion Spark Sounds Even Keepers Had Not Heard Before - Zoos Victoria via IFLScience

• Psychology of a Hero: Eleanor from The Good Place - Cinema Therapy

• From E-Book to Real Book pt 1 - Four Keys Book Arts

• The Hidden Cost of Gamification - struthless

• Originality? Never heard of her - David Achu (whilst I watch Scrubs for the 10000th time)

These are fairly long, so thank you so much if you stuck around to the end of this. Since I'll be posting these less frequently, they may as a result become even longer, but I feel it'll be a much better cadence to digest everything. It'll also put less pressure on me to find new and interesting things every day, hopefully!