Odds and Ends: December 2018

NinaIllingworth January 4, 2019November 17, 2022 blog, blogging, Books, Facebook, left wing literature, News, Offsite Writing, Patreon, quotations, Rec Reads, Recommended Reading, Site Updates, Six Things I Think, Tumblr, update

Editor’s note: I had originally intended to publish this on the very last day of December 2018, but unfortunately I’ve been battling a winter cold or possibly even a flu for about a week now and I spent most of New Year’s weekend holed up in bed with a warm tea; please forgive me in advance if I’m not at my best here.

Since the last time I’ve posted here on ninaillingworth.com, I’ve published somewhere in the range of fourteen thousand words (of various qualities) spread across other platforms, undergone a massive reorganization of my writing and updated the layout on this website. This post and future posts like it, are then intended to be both site update notices and link posts to showcase my offsite writing on a monthly or bi-weekly basis; for now, this means the posts on my Patreon Blog, my Tumblr feed and the occasional Facebook update, but if I end up going back to freelance work, you can expect to find those articles in Odds and Ends posts as well.

On making 2019 better than 2018

I don’t think I would be exaggerating much if I were to describe this past year as one of, if not the worst in my life thus far. While it would be awkward and largely unproductive to list everything that went wrong for me in 2018, it’s safe to say that experiencing multiple major crises in my personal, professional and family life one after another over the course of the past year and change has had a devastating effect on my overall happiness and certainly, my productivity as a writer.

As previously mentioned, I have recently undertaken a number of steps to correct this problem by giving myself outlets for shorter, less formal posts that can be published far more regularly. Unfortunately, the results so far have been mixed; I’m producing a little more informal writing than I expected, but my draft folder is full of half-finished formal pieces I haven’t been able to publish on this website yet.

At this point, I’m extremely leery of making promises the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune may prevent me from keeping, but it is sincerely my hope to spend most of 2019 producing at the twenty thousand to twenty-eight thousand words per month level – we’ll see how that works out in the long run, but starting the year laid up in bed with the flu certainly isn’t what I’d call a promising beginning.

On Site Updates

As those of you with a sharp eye have undoubtedly already noticed, I’ve fine tuned the top navigation bar here on this website to make it easier for readers to find my work, regardless of which platform it happens to be published on. Although I’m fairly certainly you can still find every article ever published on this website by using the drop-down menus on the top bar, at some point over the next couple of weeks I’ll complete the extremely tedious task of ensuring that literally every old post has at least one tag you can find in the top tool bar. Until that time, please feel free to use the search bar or the archive tools on the right hand side of your screen to find the previously published articles you’re looking for.

Additionally, I’ve also redesigned the Library section, cleaned up the Contact page and updated The Circus links so I’m no longer pointing readers towards sites and authors I myself have given up on reading.

Finally, I should mention that sometime in the very near future I intend to transfer a limited number of articles I published on the wrong platform over to this site, purely to maintain organizational consistency. I’m fairly certain that I can avoid automatically sending subscribers an email notification (for articles they may have already read elsewhere) by backdating the publication date of the posts. If not however, please forgive me in advance for what might be between three and four “spam” emails coming from this website – depending on whether or not you already read the articles on Patreon or Facebook that is.

December Patreon Blog Posts & Short Essays

Musings on the Death of the 41st President of the United States of America – this short, but densely sourced opinion piece about the legacy of former president George H.W. Bush and the staggering inhumanity exhibited by media sycophants in the wake of his death, almost certainly should have been published here on this site instead of the Patreon blog. As I mentioned above, I’m still struggling to master a new organizational system for my writing, while simultaneously trying to increase my productivity after an extended layoff period – for the next little while, it’s probably safe to say these kind of filing mistakes will be inevitable until I get the new system down.

Lying Without Lying: the Manipulation of Framing, Context & Depth in Corporate Media – this lengthy think piece about propaganda techniques in the modern, corporate and distinctly elitist western media however represents an ideal look at the kind of casual, but informative essays I want to publish on the Patreon blog. Drawing on the works of Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Michael Parenti and Roy Eidelson, this essay takes an in depth look at how corporate media masters the art of dishonest journalism without strictly relying on outright lies.

Thunderdome 2020 & How I Write About Politics – one part links post and one part author’s pledge, this recent short essay takes a look at the shockingly early, opening salvos against Bernie Sanders and the American left in a 2020 Democratic Primary battle that no sane person wants to even think about yet.

Yanqui Swine #1 – Unacceptable Sacrifices – although this short, angry blog post about the sheer lunacy of using “The Resistance” against Trump to rehabilitate war criminals and CIA torturers was originally published in February 2018, this seems like as appropriate a time as any to share it here on this website so we can be all caught up.

December Image Blog Posts and Facebook Op-Eds

Without a doubt, one of the few positive side effects of my prolonged inability to write in 2018 was suddenly finding myself with the time to build and read what I feel is a truly fantastic library of left-leaning literature and journalism. While reading, I often found myself wanting to share quotations from these wonderful books with my readers, but struggled for months in my efforts to find the proper context or energy to do so. All the while however, I kept writing down enlightening passages as I read them and then transferring these quotations onto easily to post images that could be shared on the internet. This December, I finally decided to open an image-friendly blog over at Tumbler (under the title “Can’t You Read“) to share these quotations with a wider audience. Although the first few posts were painfully sparse, I eventually found a workable combination by posting the quotation image and including a short (400-1,000 word) essay underneath; one part book review, one part educational dive into important left wing literature, I’m reasonably pleased with the direction these posts are headed in at the moment.

Please note: the Tumblr image blog also includes a few comedy meme posts I’m not going to bother linking to here because they’re essentially throwaways designed to give me a day to rest when I simply cannot write. I am however going to include a couple of Facebook op-ed posts that probably should have gone on the Patreon blog originally – once again, primarily in the interests of catching up and organizing my prior writing.

Manufacturing Consent quote: Dec 2nd, 2018

No Left Wing Argument Against Open Borders (original composition): Dec 3rd, 2018

The Establishment And How They Get Away With It quote: Dec 4th, 2018

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate quote: Dec 8th, 2018

Inventing Reality quote: Dec 9th, 2018

Political Mind Games quote: Dec 12th, 2018

Griftopia quote (1) and commentary: Dec 21st, 2018

The New Jim Crow quote, commentary and review: Dec 22nd, 2018

Griftopia quote (2) and commentary: Dec 26th, 2018

Griftopia quote (3) and essay: Dec 29th, 2018

Griftopia quote (4) and commentary: Dec 30th, 2018

Jeff Epstein, Blackmail & Foreign Intelligence Op-Ed (scratch sheet) Facebook: Dec 6th, 2018