📝A BIG DIARY ENTRY📝
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Angels!! You've got a 🧃juicy🧃 weekend round-up from me today!!! After last weekend's rest/relaxation/rejuvenation vibe, this weekend was nothing less than the most wholesome 3-day-bender you could imagine.
On Friday night I went out with one of my energy-matching soul sistas to celebrate her getting a new job (we must remember to take time to celebrate these things, SYSCAhood.) We had some bubbles and jumped around a few bars before doing the classic 'let's just buy a cheap bottle of wine and drink it together at home eh??' So that's exactly what we did. We picked up a lovely Wither Hills rosé (shout out to my home town!!) and sipped (with a glass of water between each glass of wine thank you very much) and reached that perfect point of the night where you realise you both went through the exact same Lana Del Ray/ Marina and The Diamonds Tumblr phase so you simply must have a two-person emosh rave. We listened to our fave songs from that era (with some One Direction thrown in there because it was aboutta be their 12 year anno 🥺), shared stories, and danced a lot. Then we went out and had a 10pm dinner (very European of us) before calling it a night at the perfect time because we both had hectic days ahead -and that's on maturity. What's also on maturity, is that each night out I had this weekend, I got home, skulled water, took some panadol, removed my make-up/ did my skincare (thanks Flo for teaching me), hung my clothes up and WOKE UP NOT EVEN HUNG OVER?? Honestly feeling v proud of myself.
Saturday was wholesome and gorgeous and a day that I am already cherishing. I woke up and mooched about, felt really good about myself because one of my flatties was deathly hungover and I ✨wasn't✨ for once, so I walked down to the dairy, grabbed him a blue Powerade, and picked up our go-to bacon and egg bap from our lil local cafe!! Then I did some DIY on a dress I'd bought (which included chopping it up to make it shorter - I'm like 5 feet tall) and then turning the lil bit I chopped off into a headband (she's thrifty) before heading to Bel's (yes, your favourite SYSCA universe character) for some 🦩phoenixing time.🦩 We gossiped, we drunk pink bubbles, we analysed everything, we started working on a 🤫secret project🤫 and we just schemed and refueled each other with wisdom and silliness. After that we made our way to a one year anniversary function (this word will come up again soon) for my fave bookshop in Tāmaki Makaurau - Lamplight Books - I literally by all my books/gifts from there because it's THE BEST CURATION to exist and you should all please support them 🥺🥺
While we were at the ✨function✨ I did this annoying/endearing/can't-stop-won't-stop thing where whenever someone says something funny/ iconic to me I whip out my phone and send myself a slack message so that I don't forget about it!!! Here was the moment I felt I had to capture: we were standing by the drinks table and hadn't yet gone over to grab one because there were so many people around it. Someone asked us why we hadn't got a drink yet and my new pal beside me said "oh, we're just being polite." Then, as soon as the person who asked was out of earshot, she said: "I'm not actually being polite, I just have ✨anxiety✨" and I literally lmao'd. Then, Bel came over and saw me typing this scenario out on Slack and said: "Um, why the fuck are you on Slack at a function?" and idk if the memeness of these events has transferred very well via this explanashe, but I promise, it was funny.
Later in the evening someone asked me what I did for work (I usually say just I'm a journalist and leave it there to save the large explanation that often follows when I tell people my job) but I was feeling confident this night, and told this person that I ran something called 'Shit You Should Care About.' They, however heard that I worked for 'Shakira, Shakira' and while my Hips Don't Lie, I think I will continue to, as I revert back to telling new people that I am a journalist! Here are the receipts of the Slack's to myself:
PS, I was also the inspirashe for this tweet:
And I did indeed purchase some books at said function:
After that, Bel and I (and some pals we picked up on the way) went to our workmate's 29th at a good old RSA, where the vibes are always immaculate - and the theme for the party was bold (which is my chosen attire for everyday life) so we ended the night with a final rosé, a bold boogie, and a d&m with Liv in the car on the way home.
And then we have SUNDAY! Once again - I wasn't hungover and was extremely un-humble about it! Some of our pals had come up to go and watch Joy Crookes play, so after a few hours of Animal Crossing (adore it) we went for brunch (and yes, I had my favourite Çilbir eggs, of course!!) before coming home to catch up on Love Island, clean the bathroom, dust my room, and get ready for the gig. The concert was AMAZING - not just because Joy's voice and vibe are unmatched, but also because I had the BEST VANTAGE POINT all night. As a short claustrophobic gal, moshpits aren't usually for me, but this one was actually such a vibe, and people are often just so kind to me in a mosh!! Everyone just sorta ushers me forward til I can see (this never happened in a 1D concert, but fair enough) and I always end up making some sort of new pals. Also! Liv - who is the BIGGEST Joy fan - went in with one of our besties (who's also a huge fan) to interview Joy for the Culture Vulture newsletter, and you'll receive that next Saturday if you're a ✨SYSCA Supporter✨
It's now Monday, and I'm probably going to be feeling the effects of this huge weekend pretty soon - but you'll hear all about it in the newsy over the next few days, I'm sure.
PS DON'T FORGET THAT THIS WEEKEND IS GENUINELY NOT WHAT EVERY WEEKEND IS LIKE - THIS IS A HIGHLIGHT REEL - AND IF ALL YOU DID THIS WEEKEND WAS SLEEP IN AND WATCH TV, THAT IS ALSO THE DREAM!!
PPS, due to this incredibly long diary entry, you will be getting a slightly shorter newsy today. Hope that's chill!! 💘💘💘
It’s plastic free July and I’m literally BEGGING you to hold me accountable
'Quidditch' has been renamed to 'Quadball'
Chess robot breaks seven-year-old boy's finger during Moscow Open
Instagram meme creators held an 'Instarrection'
It’s plastic free July and I’m literally BEGGING you to hold me accountable
This section was brought to you by the literal legends at Ethique!!
Ok, besties - one of me and Liv’s New Year's resolutions was to be more environmentally conscious - and that means limiting our plastic intake. We’ve already jumped on the re-usable period products bandwagon, but now we’re ready for the next step - shampoo bars, conditioner bars, face cleansing bars… we’re switching it ALL up, with the fucking glorious products from Ethique.
Why are we doing this? Because plastic is literally so shit (I know you all know this, but let’s reiterate):
No matter how hard we work as consumers to rinse and recycle plastic, more than 90% of it goes unrecycled
8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the ocean each year - that’s a full dump truck, every minute!
40,000 pieces of microplastic are consumed by us every week - that’s enough to make up a credit card!
Around the world, one million single use plastic bottles are purchased every minute
Five trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year
But it’s not your fault! And there are things we can do!! It’s easy to feel disillusioned considering it’s really up to the big corporations and governments to make moves, but small changes make a big difference - I promise!
The big change that I’m making is swapping out my shower products (did you know that shampoo is in a bottle because it’s diluted with 60% water… and conditioner is 90%!?!?!) with the wonderful products from Ethique!! Ethique is the sickest company - we’re OBSESSED with their shampoo bars (and yes we’re on our high horses about having plastic-free showers!) The bars literally foam up like your average shampoo (better actually!) and they make my hair SHINE!! Ethique is also Aotearoa based (but they ship worldwide from local warehouses, don’t worry), was founded by the wonderful Brianne, and:
Their entire range of solid beauty products are totally plastic-free
They use home-compostable boxes, tubes and sleeves which are designed to disappear – you can literally just chuck them in the compost, bury them in the ground or pop them in a plant pot & they’ll break down
Their bars are vegan and cruelty-free, plus they’re formulated without a drop of palm-oil
They’re climate positive and have offset more carbon than they’ve ever created
Honestly, if there is one change you make today to help save our damn planet, it should be using Ethique products!!! They’ve even given us a spesh discount code which gives you 25% off all full-price items for the month of July - just type in PLASTICISSHIT at the checkout and you’re away!
'Quidditch' has been renamed to 'Quadball'
Quidditch - the fictional sport from Harry Potter (and real-life sport that is literally played in the US) is having a ✨rebrand✨ for a few reasons. The first reason, which was given by the governing bodies of US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch was that they wanted to be able to get sponsors and brands on board with the sport, but couldn't do so due to obvious copyright reasons. Another of the sport’s governing bodies - the International Quidditch Association (who knew Quidditch/Quadball had so many governors??, however, said that JK Rowling’s “anti-trans positions” was another reason for the change.
Liv and I are actually about to record an episode of Culture Vulture about separating the art from the artist (and times when you can and can't) so, let me know how you feel about this as it will help inform my chat on the pod!
Chess robot breaks seven-year-old boy's finger during Moscow Open
I couldn't simply scrolls past this headline without writing about it. As it suggests, a chess robot broke a seven-year-old's finger... which is actually kinda creepy. Here's a video:
The story continues ✨giving✨ with this excellent reporting:
"The robot broke the child's finger," Sergey Lazarev, Moscow Chess Federation President, told Tass news agency. "This is of course bad."
Yes, it is of course bad. And I can't help but wonder... WHY DOES THE ROBOT NEED TO HAVE THE STRENGTH TO DO THAT?? It's literally playing chess???
Instagram meme creators held an 'Instarrection'
Over the weekend, meme creators gathered outside Instagram’s New York City headquarters to protest the company's content moderation policies, and how shadowbanning and the threat of deletion is ruining their livelihoods. Naturally, as it's a protest fronted by meme page admins, it's hard to tell if it's serious or not (according to Buzzfeed's Kelsey Weekman, rallying cries included: “You cannot Zuck me in a way that matters,” “We just want to post,” and “Solidarity with my fallen oomfs”) - but amidst the jokes their concerns were very clear - they want Instagram to do something about their content moderation policies.
I know this sounds very 'there are people dying, Kim', but it's true that a lot of creators rely on Instagram for income or to raise awareness for particular issues - and even us at SYSCA (who don't rely on it for income because we have you, our ✨SYSCA Supporters✨) have had our FAIR share of shadowbanning for no reason - so while I wouldn't go as far as to protest it, it's been a unique story to follow 👀
And finally:
[tweet https://twitter.com/ambernoelle/status/1550986510786347008]
Go plastic-free with me and switch to shampoo and conditioner bars!! Use our discount code ‘PLASTICISSHIT’ for 25% off all full-price items for the month of July!!! (Our partnership with Ethique)
Monkeypox is now a global emergency, World Health Organization says (The Verge)
The Dark History Behind Where The Crawdads Sing (Culture Vulture)
Our Love Island Debrief (Culture Vulture)
Life In Plastic, It’s Not Fantastic (The Shit Show)
SYSCA playlist (✨Supporters only✨)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)
