THE WEEK February 21, 2025

i want to add this 🥲

Amazing addition

I have started listening to this sherlock holmes podcast and it's kind of like if BBC Sherlock was....good? And accurate to the source material? And not so far up its own ass that it's an ourobouros of Steven Moffat managing to suck his own dick from within?

And it's weird, because I can feel it building its characters and relationships and a modern complexity in the way it presents different aspects of classic characters and their personalities, and it's just a surprisingly fresh and pleasant interpretation. I didn't know how completely my faith had been destroyed in the notion of a modern Sherlock interpretation, but it's nice to have it somewhat restored. The idea of a podcast as an analogue for Watson's first hand accounts of their cases works surprisingly well, and Sherlock as a character has more warmth and humanity and kindness to him than the BBC version, while still being played with a nod towards neurodivergency. He has some of the same joy that Elementary's Sherlock has, which is desperately missing from the BBC version. Watson himself is an endearingly awkward dork. "Mrs. Hudson" is allowed to be a character who actually makes a material contribution to cases and is if not quite an equal member of this little trio yet, is given a respectable amount of air time and isn't just a bit character.

I highly recommend at least giving it a shot! I like it a lot so far, and it's been interesting to see the take on Sherlock Holmes specifically.

Explicitly in the first episode, Sherlock rattles off a list of disorders he has according to the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-V. I'm not sure exactly how to parse this as representation, but I do know that a lot of his behaviours as depicted in a fictional setting are hashtag relatable.

Meeting one of this version's Baker Street Irregulars for the first time, he calls Watson out for pretending he doesn't have any money, when he knows that he carries a pound coin to use for shopping carts, and says "You lied to my friend." In one scene during a Christmas shopping excursion, they open the door to a shop, and Sherlock announces "TOO MANY PEOPLE. NO." Later, being made to wear a face mask and crimescene coverall for (arguably fairly unnecessary) disguise purposes, he laments the sensory overload of clothing that he hasn't chosen himself for his specific preferences.

I'm not too deep in yet, and I'm listening in a fairly shallow way and without the intent to critically examine this through a representational lens, but as it goes on, it does seem that a lot of the progression of the series is learning to parse Sherlock as someone who is neurodivergent, rather than framed by the narrative as sociopathic/psychopathic/whatever fucking bullshit Moffat was peddling.

I like this better.

How English has changed in the past 1000 years.

the big mans a lad i have fuck all, he lets me have a kip in a field he showed me a pond 

Im at work and nobody knows that im painting Doris from Shrek in Pre-Raphaelite style on my ipad.

In case anyone thought I was lying, here is the proof!

My reference was Hanging the Mistletoe by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Its hard to match with their skill but that lady reminded me of Doris very much)

Edit: fixed some shadows

rip magneto you would have loved killing elon musk

Probably with a cybertruck, let's be honest. And it would have ruled so hard.

YOU CANT LEAVE THIS IN THE TAGS

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

man supernatural might be bad but also ill be damned if thats not the most american show ever. like theres movies and tv that've tried to be this american but 99% have failed. you watch a particularly good episode of supernatural and suddenly you feel the hours of highway winds against your skin and theres more asphalt road than livable terrain for miles and you eat the best meal of your life at a pit stop and you havent gone to church since you were a kid but you still think about praying sometimes and you split a 6 pack with someone you love and a few too many people around you have guns and the land around you is so big when youre right in the center of it you feel like it could swallow you up and you know for a fact theres an unimaginable amount of mythology just beneath the surface. and then you watch the next episode where sam kills paris hilton or something

Happy pride month to HIM

Master Post, April 2025

I'm Juan Santapau (he/him), and I make these short stories in comic form called The Secret Knots. I live in Chile. Hi.

A few of my comics have gone sort of viral over the years: the one about why you can’t sleep, the one about digital preservation, the one about secret names, the one about enshittification. 

The full web archive of past and present stories is here: The Secret Knots.

On Patreon, you get process updates about every new comic, concepts, sketches and more. You may also ask for thematic portraits. (A portrait reward is coming soon).

Newsletter. Where I send reminders about new stories, and miscellaneous art.

I’m on Bsky, and on Instagram where I’m not very active, but may post pictures of my cats from time to time.

Some comics are available on apps:

Webtoon // Tapas // Globalcomix

And some, you can buy and download

Finally, here’s an invitation to the Secret Knots Discord, a community server that always brings nice recommendations, and regular sightings of the weird in the world. Feel free to drop by and say hello.

my dash did a thing

it really is crazy how quickly people were willing to just let chatgpt do everything for them. i have never even tried it. brother i don't even know if it's just a website you go to or what. i do not know where chatgpt actually lives, because i can decide my own grocery list.

What's going to kill all of those stupid AIs is when they're made liable for damages.

You can replace [ACTIVITY YOU ENJOY] with [SCROLLING] but watch out. This sucks bad 👍

Some things about this post since getting quite a few notes:

1. If you see this post, highly recommend taking it as an opportunity to set a timer for 15 minutes and switch over to ACTIVITY YOU ENJOY. if after those 15 minutes, you want to go back to scrolling, that's okay!

2. Huge shout out to this popping up in my notifs often, bc I do go back to activity.

3. I think there are times where scrolling is fine. Right now, for example, I'm being connected to a machine for two hours to donate plasma and platelets. Yes this is a brag but it is also a time where scrolling is one of the few things I can do. (Though I will probably also read or watch something on phone lol)