🎵Bo Made Us Some Content🎵
Become a ✨SYSCA SUPPORTER✨ and get access to our special 📚bumper book list📚 and 🎶SYSCA playlists🎶 (or just support us coz u love us 🥺)
So last night I watched Top Gun (the OG) for the first time and holy shit, it was so good?? Why has it taken me so long?? Thank god for good friends who make you watch the classics with them eh?? In classic Luce fashion, I had a few wines, so as I’m writing this right now I’m feeling slightly dusty, but that’s nothing we’re not used to round here is it? So we shall and we will push forward!
Hmmm what else can I talk about here… Oh yeah! Yesterday Ariana Grande shared one of our posts on Instagram and even though ‘celebrities’ share our shit all the time IT NEVER GETS LESS WILD!!!
I also got this CUTE AS HELL email from Martha which made me 🦆
Kia ora Luce!
I just listened to the Shit Show episode where you talk about how your brother James loved ducks, which means you love duck-related content. Incredibly wholesome! So I thought I'd share this with you:
At Otago University (where I'm currently studying) we have a resident pair of gay ducks, who are both called Bill. They are a pair of male paradise ducks who hang out together on campus eating grass and doing duck things, and they regularly feature in the student magazine. We also have a couple of campus cats, and a dog that hangs out in the student support centre
Anyway, I hope this brightens your day!! As always, loving all your content and thank u for making the world easier to understand ❤
That’s exactly what I needed to hear rn, go and have the best day ever plz my angels xxx
Is your Kiwisaver funding firearms???
TikTok Explains How the ‘For You’ Algorithm Works
CALLING ALL FOOD LOVERS
A conversation with friends about Conversations With Friends
WE GOT NEW BO BURNHAM
What time do you eat dinner?
Is your Kiwisaver funding firearms???
Thanks to the wonderful ladies over at The Curve & the team at Mindful Money, I found out a shocking stat the other day:
“As at September 2021, there was $190 million New Zealand dollars invested in weapons.... you heard right, $190 MILLION!
Nearly 180 of our KiwiSaver funds are sending money offshore to fuel the production of guns.”
This is despite the fact that 81% of Kiwis don’t want firearms, cluster bombs, nuclear weapons or other military weapons in their KiwiSaver or other investment funds.
Now, finance stuff tends to go over my head - but when I see something like this I sorta can’t look away from it - and luckily, The Curve has put together a wee three-step process to a) find out where your money is b) what it’s being invested in and c) if you’re not happy - how you can change it. It’s actually SO good!!
I found out what my fund was, and then you can search it in a register and it shows you the percentage of that fund that goes to things we definitely don’t want it going to (animal testing, gambling etc.) And then you can find funds that are actually ethical, so you can feel good about where your money is!!!
This seems like a sponsored post - it’s not - I just genuinely want one of the most powerful things we have (our money) to be doing the most powerful thing it can (investing a better future.)
A conversation with friends about Conversations With Friends
New episode of Culture Vulture for ya!! — open.spotify.com
A Winnie The Pooh horror film, another Kardashian wedding, and a huge conversation about Sally Rooney's latest TV adaptation - Conversations with Friends!!!!! Listen wherever you get your pods!
🍆 CALLING ALL FOODIES 🌮
Angels!!! I neeeeeed to put you on to my latest fave newsy - The Boil Up from our besties at The Spinoff!
The entire SYSCA team are massive foodies, but when I tell you I’m the shittest cook in the world I’m not kidding - so I need ALL the recs. That’s what I love about The Boil Up!! If you want some new places to eat, some fun new snack ideas - or if you just want to reinvigorate your love for the humble cheese roll (and if you’re living outside of NZ then let us put you onto these) - I seriously can’t recommend this cozy as hell newsletter enough!
Tuck into The Boil Up here!!!
A lil bit more info on TikTok's algorithm
I mean we kinda already know this, but this is straight from the horses (or Yaks), and I find this stuff kinda interesting). In a 2020 blog post titled ‘How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou’ the powers that be try to pull back the curtain on how their algorithms work. Here’s their lil intro, for anyone wondering what a “For You’ feed is:
“When you open TikTok and land in your For You feed, you're presented with a stream of videos curated to your interests, making it easy to find content and creators you love. This feed is powered by a recommendation system that delivers content to each user that is likely to be of interest to that particular user. Part of the magic of TikTok is that there's no one For You feed – while different people may come upon some of the same standout videos, each person's feed is unique and tailored to that specific individual.”
And now some details on their recommendation systems:
“In general, these systems suggest content after taking into account user preferences as expressed through interactions with the app, like posting a comment or following an account. These signals help the recommendation system gauge the content you like as well as the content you'd prefer to skip.”
What recommendations are based on:
User interactions such as the videos you like or share, accounts you follow, comments you post, and content you create.
Video information, which might include details like captions, sounds, and hashtags.
Device and account settings like your language preference, country setting, and device type.
All these factors are processed by our recommendation system and weighted based on their value to a user. A strong indicator of interest, such as whether a user finishes watching a longer video from beginning to end, would receive greater weight than a weak indicator, such as whether the video's viewer and creator are both in the same country. Videos are then ranked to determine the likelihood of a user's interest in a piece of content, and delivered to each unique For You feed.
They also tell us how to better curate our ‘For You’ pages and how they’re addressing some of the problems with the recommendation system, which you can read about here!
📚Shit You Should Read About📚
Every ✨SYSCA Supporter✨ gets access to our bumper book list as soon as you sign up! It's all the books we loved, hated, and the books that changed us.
What supporters are saying about the book list:
Louise: "Omg there are so many books and little write-ups! I was literally expecting a list (which would have been totally cool) 🥺 but you guyssss 💕
Taylor: "So excited to watch this list grow. From one book lover to another, thank you for this and everything else you do!"
Jessi: "Already loaded three recs onto my Kindle so safe to say early on that this perk is the move. 😍"
🎶SYSCA Playlists🎶
If you’re a monthly or annual ✨SYSCA Supporter✨ then we are opening up our souls to you and gifting you some 🎶playlists🎶
What supporters are saying about the playlists:
Michelle: “Luuucee anybody with Can’t Fight the Moonlight on their playlist is immediately my best friend. I don’t make the rules, I just follow them.”
Allison: "Ahhhhhhh these are amazing—but please especially give my compliments to Chef Ruby for cooking up a playlist that is s e n d i n g m e"
Hannah: “This is the greatest thing. Of all things. At this moment right now. I've been CRAVING new music (cheers Hazza for helping me out) but I don't trust spotify playlists because the ones they recommend to me I never seem to enjoy!!! So thank you. Off I go to listen!”
Become a supporter to get access to all of these perks🥺
NEW BO BURNHAM!! 🎶 Daddy made you some content, open wiiiiide 🎶
I love this man I love this man I love this man I love this man I love this man I love this man. Yesterday Bo made us some content, in the form of an hour-long edit of his ‘Inside’ outtakes (omg that’s totally a missed opportunity for a title: Inside Outtakes) [lol I just checked and it IS what he titled it. Guess I’ve never had an original thought ever.]
I haven’t had time to watch it yet but here it is!!!
What time do you eat dinner?
A very mundane poll for ya today, but interesting results all the same!
7% are 5pm or earlier
37% are at 6pm
37% are a 7pm
19% are at 8pm or later
A conversation with friends about Conversations With Friends (Culture Vulture)
The Museum of Unbearable Sorrow (The New York Times)
Monkeypox, & America's Latest School Shooting (The Shit Show)
SYSCA playlist (✨Supporters only✨)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)