Less a Poseidon, more Hades himself

[sovay]

Normally even my nightmares have some narrative to them, but almost all I remember of last night's is the grey curve of a shingle beach and the grey blocks of a nuclear power station. It wasn't Derek Jarman's Dungeness, I knew that even in the dream. I was standing on the far side of a wall of chain-link and razor wire with the sea-wind snapping clear through it at us. Awake, I consider the other half of that first person plural to have resembled one of Sapphire & Steel's Elements, although in the dream they just registered to me as a grey-suited male-looking person with a brushed hood of hair the color of dark rust. They had picked up a handful of sea-polished pebbles and were stirring them with a finger as if looking for something and the small shifting clicks as they slid together were a terrible sound. Everything felt storm-coming charged, even though the air smelled cleanly of salt and the sky was a clear sweep of autumn with thick clouds far out over the water, sail-white in the sun. I don't believe the power station was itself in any way involved.

In general I consider it a mitzvah to confuse the advertising algorithms of Facebook, but I can't figure out what I've done to create the current progression. A few weeks ago it was advertising me diapers and other accoutrements of new parenthood. I suppose because I didn't respond like a grateful new mother, it started advertising me IUDs. I didn't respond to those, either. As of last night, I'm getting ads for T. I do not, for the record, post about my biology on Facebook, beyond the fact that it can presumably detect from my photos that I have some. I am fascinated by this sliding scale of assumptions.

I am back to feeling like I spend too much of my time barely existing, which is very familiar and very frustrating. I can't believe we're almost into October. I thought my birthday was much farther off. I thought that about the High Holidays, too.

Comments

[lauradi7dw]

Continuing to be grateful to have nothing to do with Facebook. Twitter tries to sell me pizza, hard seltzer (which is what, exactly?), and credit cards, more or less.
Speaking of algorithms (of a different sort), I have started donating to this group
https://www.ajl.org/

[sovay]

Twitter tries to sell me pizza, hard seltzer (which is what, exactly?), and credit cards, more or less.

I don't think I'd heard about hard seltzer. Watered-down alcohol with bubbles in? I have no idea of the attraction.

Speaking of algorithms (of a different sort), I have started donating to this group

I had definitely not heard of them, but their existence makes me happier to know about. Thank you!