I haven't posted here in ages (the vibes were just off for me; I'm so glad if they weren't for you!), but I continue to gain followers. Consider this a post to say you can find me on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram as "emilystjams." Ty!!!

Anyway, how's everybody over here?

My friend no longer works at Twitter, but there must be some list buried deep in the system of users to deprioritize, and it seems to only be turned on for me now.

So Twitter remains extremely usable for me, is the point.

People talk a lot about how the huge number of Blue replies make the site unusable, how any semi-viral post gets swarmed by them. But _I am not seeing these replies_. I see _some_ Twitter Blue replies, but they tend to be very anodyne or even vaguely on topic, not particularly enervating.

I've had a few posts go mega-viral in the past couple weeks (the soccer shows tweet esp.), and I didn't see many Blue replies on _those_ either.

He asked if I needed any help, and I said I'd appreciate it. He had somebody somewhere flip some switch, and instantly, the swarm was cut by probably 75 percent. Yeah, I was still getting a lot of bullshit, but it was more manageable. I had friends monitoring my account, and they were amazed how quickly it dipped.

Here's the weird thing: Whatever my friend did for me, I'm pretty sure it's still in effect, and it means I'm seeing barely any Twitter Blue tweets.

I'm going to talk about this over here where it hopefully won't get flagged, but:

In the summer of 2020, I got into a very public feud with a former colleague. In the process of that, a certain annoying journalist who fancies himself an expert on trans issues nitpicked me on grounds of free speech absolutism, I guess. (I've intentionally forgotten a lot of it.) I got swarmed. Death threats and worse.

But I had a friend who worked for Twitter.

Wuthering Heights is great, but definitely goes in the same "People call this a LOVE STORY??" box as Lolita, other Brontes, etc.

Your days may be merry and bright/
If you don't live at Wuthering Heights

@notthathelpful This is my first, yeah! I tried Jane Eyre a while back and couldn't get into it.

Plus, I gotta support my fellow Emilys.

I'm reading Wuthering Heights for the first time, and it fucking rules. Everybody's so miserable!!

Starting next week, I'm going to try my hand at freelancing full-time for a while and see where it gets me. I can already tell it involves one of my favorite things: emailing people.

I kinda like these new Scream movies, and I think I'd like them a lot more if they weren't Scream movies.

I feel like Michelle Yeoh's seemingly successful, late-in-campaign pivot to "Everything Everywhere All at Once is a great chance to honor our mothers!" is a strange read of that film, but, like, it's gonna work, so what do I know? #oscars

Nothing makes me feel more like I'm living in a flashback in a post-apocalyptic story than watching the Oscars.

16 movies I would have loved to see nominated:

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Babylon
Barbarian
The Batman
Catherine/Birdy
Crimes/Future
Decision to Leave
The Inspection
Nope
The Northman
Prey*
Resurrection
Return to Seoul
RRR
We're All Going to the World's Fair
The Woman King

(*-ineligible, but fuck that)

Bearing in mind I _still_ haven't seen Triangle of Sadness (I think it would irritate me too much!), I have RANKED the Best Picture nominees:

Amazing:
1. TAR
2. Fabelmans

Great:
3. Women Talk
4. Avatars
5. EEAAO

Really good:
6. Banshees
7. Top Gun
8. Elvis

BAD:
9. All Quiet

Do you think Roger L. Jackson modulates his performance in the Scream movies, depending on which Ghostface he is meant to be voicing at the time?

Rereading this powerful, empathetic, and accurate article about trans kids by the brilliant @emstjames https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23281683/trans-kids-transition-medicine-surgery

Working on a theory that the reason the Succession pilot is such an impediment to so many people enjoying the show is all due to Adam McKay's love of snap zooms.

Cats will fall in the toilet before they try drinking out of the water dish.