Desktop Diary #2

some things I saved to my desktop last month

Has this summer felt weird for anyone else? I keep joking that this is a “flop summer,” but the last time I made a joke about being in my “flop era” my life spiraled out of control…So I need to tread lightly here. It’s August now. I’m going to put my manifestation sunhat on and soak up the sun.

Last night, while half-watching an episode of The Bachelorette, I finished my latest Desktop Dump. If you’re not familiar, a Desktop Dump is exactly what it sounds like: it’s a web page that I use to upload all of the contents of my computer’s desktop. Every time I get the urge to clean my desktop, I must first upload and arrange the files for public consumption. Through this blog I’ve added a second layer to the Desktop Dump: the Desktop Diary. I’m cleaning my virtual bedroom and stopping to tell you about something I just picked up off the floor along the way.

For a while, I kept getting tagged in Shein Instagram spam. I have a soft spot for spam. I love the Facebook Ray-Ban ads. Why was it always Ray-Ban? There’s something comforting about digital trash clogging up otherwise clean online interfaces. Every time I get tagged in a new Shein ad (there are variations), I screenshot it. I had this idea that I would superimpose my face onto some of these Shein girls and upload them to my own account, but when I tried to do it, it looked bad. If you are good with face-swapping technology, or just very skilled at Photoshop, send me a message.

I’ve spoken about my love for surfing Flickr on here before. This was found on the account Rebekka The Amazing, which hasn’t been updated since 2006. The image is titled “Skylar eating” with the caption “not surprising… hahaa.” I attempted to recreate this image but couldn’t get the right angle due to the way my fridge is positioned in my kitchen. Nevertheless, I was able to get some good images, which you can see in my new book Chick Magnet. The book was published with Heavy Manners Library and will be debuting at the Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair. You can buy it at their booth or pre-order it from their website.

I recently had the overwhelming urge to purchase a Hooters t-shirt. I offered a man on Poshmark $5 for a Hooters shirt from the Paramus, New Jersey location but he declined. I’m going to go back and see if it’s still up. If it is, I’ll buy it for the $13 he originally listed it for. It sort of feels like Hooters hasn’t been in the cultural consciousness for a while. This sudden interest in Hooters led me down a Flickr rabbit hole, which is where I stumbled upon the account of sockman5. If you can’t tell by the username, this is a fetish account. I find a lot of fetish accounts on Flickr. He seems to be particularly into the socks and tights combination that the Hooters waitresses wear as part of their uniform. I always found those shiny flesh-toned tights somewhat unnerving in their attempt to simulate a desirable leg. I can’t help but think about the time and dedication it takes to find these candid images of Hooters employees. This image stuck out to me the most. The car is a fun-house mirror, warping their bodies in its reflection.

I bought this outfit with the intention of wearing it to a wedding I never got to go to. I ended up getting c*vid for a second time and having to miss it. Was that the beginning of flop summer? I can’t think about it too much. You know how some people talk about wedding season and how many weddings they have to go to every summer? That couldn’t be further from my reality. For now it’ll sit in my closet until I have somewhere to wear it. Buying this dress also prompted a rewatch of Sex and the City (still haven’t seen the reboot) because the ruffles reminded me of Carrie Bradshaw.

I found this .gif of Trisha Paytas meditating on TikTok live while scrolling Tumblr. I’m a Trisha Paytas fan. She’s the exact type of person I think should be famous online. She is flawed and entertaining and chaotic and messy. I relate to her compulsion to post, to remain, for better or worse. I mostly saved this because of the virtual tomatoes being thrown at the screen. I’m interested in the gifting function on TikTok live in particular. I’m not going to talk about NPC streams because someone has probably written about it more eloquently already. I haven’t gone live yet on TikTok, but I’d like to orchestrate some sort of performance using the platform…And maybe these tomatoes.

This is a photo I took of my bedroom floor in high school. I’m not sure why it was on my desktop. I must have gotten excited upon finding it and saved it there for safekeeping. Based on context clues, this was probably taken sometime between 2004 and 2006. I can spot my high school diary under my nightstand, an issue of Seventeen featuring one of the Olsen twins on the cover, a Vans shoe box, and a guitar case. I wish I had more ambient photos of my room or my general surroundings from back then to really round out my memories. This photo of my bedroom floor feels way more meaningful than any photo I would have taken on vacation.

I’ve been going through a bit of a Juliana Hatfield phase. I had always heard her name floating around, but never listened to her music. She’s extremely prolific, so there’s a lot to sift through. The song Girl In A Box by her former band Blake Babies is one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long time. My newfound interest in Juliana Hatfield led me to eBay to investigate the state of her vintage merch. All vintage band t-shirts are $200 now. I don’t have that sort of money to spend on a t-shirt, but this shirt in particular feels special in its humor and simplicity. It looks like something I would write on my yearbooks as a tween, leaving comments on everyone’s photos: nice, mean, ugly, pretty. I want to make my own bootleg version of it with a picture of my face, the word “ugly” scribbled underneath. Would anyone wear this? Should I make a one-off version for myself? Sound off in the comments.

You can see the rest of the images in my July Desktop Dump here or look through the archive.