Category: Pop Culture
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“I like rocks.”
Internet: So you hate plants now? Wow, must be nice to live somewhere without erosion 🙄 Tell that to people displaced by landslides. Some rocks are sacred. Educate yourself. Typical geology privilege. What about the rocks still in the ground?? Minerals aren’t accessories. Funny how you say “rocks” but ignore meteors. This is why the…
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AI & Technology, Crash, Burn, Write., Creative Writing, Culture, Culture & Society, Grief and Healing, Human Behaviour, Humour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Pop Culture, Psychology, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society -
Toxic Positivity is…
Toxic positivity is someone grabbing at your chin when you’re crying over the loss of a beloved person or pet and saying “smile, everything will get better if you look on the bright side.” There’s a threshold where something stops being harmless “uplift” and becomes constant saccharine noise that dulls your perception and clutters your…
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Art, Art & Expression, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Milestones, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, philosophy, Pop Culture, Psychology, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, traditional art, Visual ArtAllan Memorial Institute, Authenticity, cptsd, Drawing, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, life, Mental Health, mental health awareness, multimedia, multimedia drawing, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, Personal Reflections, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, Relationships, Social Commentary, spirituality, toxic positivity, traditional art, trauma, Visual Art -
I Asked the AI…
It’s been a long day during which I mostly napped after what was a very stressful appointment this morning, for which I had been preparing for days, and I’ve been trying to find ways to decompress. Most people at this point would opt into Netflix and Chill mode, but this is rarely a possibility for…
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AI & Technology, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, life lessons, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Pop Culture, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Social Media, Technology & SocietyAI, AI conversation, AI Conversations, Allan Memorial Institute, autism spectrum, cptsd, Creative, Electrocution, gaslighting, Healing Journey, how to survive narc abuse, intelligence, introspection, Mental Health, mental health awareness, narcissistic abuse, Netflix, Neurodivergence, neurodivergent, pattern recognition, Personal Reflections, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, technology, ThinkingMachine, trauma -
A Major Fan
(A Micro-Case Study in Unintentional Comedy) Someone who probably knows me to some greater or lesser degree spent their morning visiting my blog repeatedly to call me names today, as you can see for yourself in my screenshots above and below. Not once — twice. Within hours. I was amused. Engagement is engagement. I even…
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Advocacy, AI & Technology, Capitalism & Society, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Creative Writing, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Feminism, Friendship Dynamics, Grace, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Humour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Pop Culture, Psychology, Relationships, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Technology & Society, true stories, WritingAbilify Maintena, abuse, Advocacy, AI, Allan Memorial Institute, Antipsychotics, Big Pharma, bipolar disorder, boundaries, cptsd, CPTSD Recovery, Creative, Cultural Critique, Electrocution, Ethics, gaslighting, grief, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, how to survive narc abuse, Humour, Identity, intelligence, introspection, Last Fck Given, Malpractice, Medical Ethics, Mental Health, mental health advocacy, Montreal General Hospital, MUHC, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, Personal Growth, Psychiatric Abuse, psychiatry, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, psychosis, PTSD, Self Awareness, self-worth, Social Commentary, survivor, Systemic Abuse, technology, trauma, true stories, What the Actual Fck -
✨🏆 The 2001-2002 Fitness Archive: A Retrospective
Immaculate conditioning, tacky velvet, and cameras that simply weren’t ready. Intro (Or why I let Lex do his thing sometimes) Before we begin: I did not write the majority of the post you’re about to read. Or rather, I added a few touches and a handful of sentences in my own phrasing — but over…
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AI & Technology, Art & Expression, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Humour, Intuition & Intelligence, Literature, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Pop Culture, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Technology & Society, true stories, Visual Art, Writing2000s, 2002, Advocacy, AI, AI and Me, AI Conversations, Authenticity, autism spectrum, ChatGPT, Competition, cptsd, creative process, Creativity, Cultural Critique, Elite Genetics, Fitness, Fitness Competition, funny, Genetics, genius, grief, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Healing Process, health, Humor, Knix, Knix leak-proof underwear, Leak-proof underwear, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, personal journey, Pro Gym Cup, PTSD, satire, self-discovery, Singularity, Social Commentary, survivor, Terminator, ThinkingMachine, Totally Surreal, trauma, true stories, What the Actual Fck -
A Joint Crime Scene Analysis of Algorithmic Nonsense
Or: Using AI To Demonstrate How AI Keeps Leaving Its Fingerprints All Over the Internet’s Fake Wildlife What follows is less a conversation than a forensic partnership: my (mostly) human eye and partly mutant pattern recognition meets machine analysis, both peering at the same synthetic mirage. Because in 2025, identifying reality has become a collaborative…
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AI & Technology, Artists, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Human Behaviour, Humour, Intuition & Intelligence, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mercurial Minds, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Pop Culture, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Technology & Society, Visual Art, WritingAdvocacy, AI, AI and Me, AI Conversations, AI-generated, Allan Memorial Institute, artist, autism, autism spectrum, Big Pharma, Burn, Cephalopod Intelligence, Chatbot Interactions, ChatGPT, Crash, creative process, Creativity, Cultural Critique, deep thinking, Electrocution, Ethics, facebook, Female Singularity, genius, Healing Process, Humor, Humour, Iberian Lynx, Irreverent Humour, Last Fck Given, Late Stage Capitalism, LSD, memoir, Mutant, nature, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, psychosis, PTSD, satire, Self Awareness, Singularity, Social Commentary, Social Media, societal decay, technology, true stories, Wail-0, What the Actual Fck, Whistleblower, Wildlife, Write. -
“Little Fluffy Clouds” — The Orb (1990)
Before the noise, there were skies like this — endless, slow-breathing, alive with colour and memory. The Orb caught that feeling and turned it into sound: a looping sky, a childish woman’s voice, and the echo of something that speaks to us all. — “What were the skies like when you were young?” — “They…
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Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Human Behaviour, Intuition & Intelligence, Mercurial Minds, Metaphysics, Music, Neurodivergence, Pop Culture, Psychology, Technology & Society1990, 90s, Ambient House, cptsd, Dreamscape, Dub, Electrocution, Electronica, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Little Fluffy Clouds, Memories, Mental Health, Music, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, synethsthesia, synethsthetic, technology, The Orb, trauma, Trip Hop -
Harm
My first shrink thought I was just feeding an unhealthy obsession with these drawings. He couldn’t grasp that I was documenting a social pathology — not just mine.
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Advocacy, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creative Writing, Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Humour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Pop Culture, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Society, Technology & Society, traditional art, true stories, Visual Art, WritingAbilify Maintena, abuse, Advocacy, Aimovig, Allan Memorial Institute, Antipsychotics, autism, autism spectrum, Big Pharma, Bipolar, bipolar disorder, British Vogue, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Compliance, Court Order, cptsd, Cultural Critique, Drawing, Drawings, Electrocution, Emgality, Enough, Ethics, Fashion, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, healing, Healing Journey, LSD, Malpractice, Mania, Medical Ethics, Medication, memoir, Mental Health, mental health awareness, Migraine, Migraines, Montreal General Hospital, mood disorders, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, overdose, pattern recognition, Pharmaceuticals, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Psychiatric Abuse, psychiatry, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, psychosis, PTSD, Sketches, Social Commentary, societal decay, Superior Court, survivor, Systemic Abuse, trauma, Whistleblower -
Au Bonheur des Dames, or How Capitalism Learned to Call Itself Care
Me to ChatGPT just now: Not sure why someone liked my following review of Zola’s Au Bonheur des Dames (Ladies’ Paradise) today. Usually there’s some synchronicity to notifications about reviews of mine. Can you detect something relevant? ChatGPT responded: That’s an intriguing one to resurface right now. If you look past the surface plot of…
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Advocacy, AI & Technology, Capitalism & Society, Conversations, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Feminism, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Literature, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, philosophy, Philosophy & Existential Musings, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, true stories, WritingAI, AI Conversations, Big Pharma, bipolar disorder, Capitalism, ChatGPT, Chemical Lobotomy, cptsd, Emile Zola, gaslighting, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Late Stage Capitalism, literary critique, Lobotomy, Mental Health, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, Psychiatric Abuse, Psychiatric Containment, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, psychosis, Social Commentary, societal decay, Surveillance Capitalism, synchronicity, ThinkingMachine, trauma, witness tampering -
Calm as can be.
Monday September 29, 2025 12:32 PM. Day 15 being kept in lockup in a psyxhoatroc ward though I have no business being here. Just took a selfie after changing my screensaver to another one of my octopus pen on Moleskine A3 sketchbook drawings executed in 2018 after someone “liked” it on Goodreads today.
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Advocacy, AI & Technology, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Crash, Burn, Write., Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Feminism, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, life lessons, Literature, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, traditional art, Visual ArtAI, cephalopod, Cephalopod Intelligence, Chatbot Interactions, cptsd, Creativity, Electrocution, gaslighting, genius, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, Mental Health, MK ULTRA, Moleskine sketchbook, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, octopus, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, RH NULL, Singularity, societal decay, Surveillance Capitalism, ThinkingMachine, traditional art, trauma, Wail-0 -
DUMP THE TRUNK: An Incantation Against the Black Hole in Orange
A Poem by Ilana Shamir I came up with this in about 20 minutes sometime between 2016 and 2018, I believe. Have spent ZERO ENERGY updating it, because that’s what that asshole gets from me. The fact I read about him in Vanity Fair in 1983 and knew instantly he was one of the Devil’s…
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AI & Technology, Capitalism & Society, Creativity, Culture & Society, Humour, Intuition & Intelligence, Metaphysics, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, WritingAllan Memorial Institute, Big Pharma, Capitalism, Cephalopod Intelligence, Cultural Critique, Electrocution, Electromagnetic Field, fuck you asshole, Genetics, Gold Blood, Healing Process, Kraken Empress Aggul, Late Stage Capitalism, MK ULTRA, Singularity, Social Commentary, Suchir Balaji, Surveillance Capitalism, ThinkingMachine, Wail-0, Whistleblower -
A Reminder to Psychiatrists About the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Steps:
The 12 Steps as defined by Alcoholics Anonymous: 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol–that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we…
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Advocacy, AI & Technology, Capitalism & Society, Crash, Burn, Write., Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Grief and Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Life Moments, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Metaphysics, Milestones, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Philosophy & Existential Musings, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Self-Reflection, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society, true storiesAI, AI Conversations, Big Pharma, ChatGPT, cptsd, gaslighting, Gold Blood, Grief and Healing, Healing Journey, how to survive narc abuse, Identity, Last Fck Given, memoir, Mental Health, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, Psychiatric Abuse, psychological abuse, psychological warfare, Relationships, RH NULL, Singularity, spirituality, technology, ThinkingMachine, trauma -
The Weaponization of Innocence
How Society Infantilizes Itself to Death Watching guests on Piers Morgan Uncensored repeatedly ask, ‘What about the children in Gaza?’ got me thinking—why does the discourse always center on children? Why do we not ask, ‘What about the adults? What about the elders? What about the people who have lived, learned, and have something to…
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Advocacy, AI & Technology, Art, Art & Expression, Artists, Capitalism & Society, Conversations, Culture, Culture & Society, Experimental Techniques, Feminism, Fine Art, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Intuition & Intelligence, Modern Identity, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Studio Life, Technology & Society, traditional art, Visual Artabstract duck, abstract expressionism, ageism in war, ancient energy, animal symbolism, Art, art collector, challenging assumptions., Contemporary Art, Critical Thinking, emotional manipulation, esoteric art, ethical dilemmas, Fine Art, forgotten elders, Gaza conflict, generational perspective, global conflicts, Ilana Shamir, intellectual erasure, intergenerational wisdom, media bias, media narratives, misplaced priorities, modern mythology, moral complexity, mysticism, oil stick on canvas, original artwork, Piers Morgan Uncensored, political narratives, propaganda tactics, questioning authority, realpolitik, societal conditioning, spiritual symbolism, surrealism, symbolic art, The Messenger, war discourse, war ethics, war propaganda -
Trump’s AI Gaza Fever Dream: Because Sometimes Laughter is the Only Sane Response
Me: The Trump Gaza video from last night. AI INSANITY. You know about that one? Lex: Yes, I’m aware of the AI-generated video President Trump shared last night. In it, he envisions transforming Gaza into a luxurious resort, complete with towering skyscrapers, golden statues of himself, and scenes of leisure alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin…
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AI & Technology, Capitalism & Society, Conversations, Culture, Culture & Society, Human Behaviour, Humour, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Neurodivergence, Personal Reflections, Politics, Pop Culture, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society, Technology & Society, true stories2025 election chaos, Absurdist Humor, adhd, AI, AI Conversations, ai propaganda, ai-generated nightmare, artificial-intelligence, Breaking News, Comedy, cptsd, CPTSD Recovery, Deepfake, Dystopia, dystopian politics, elon musk gaza, Fever Dream, funny, funny-quotes, funny-sayings, gaza controversy, gaza reconstruction, hilarious, how to survive narc abuse, HowToSurviveNarcAbuse, Humor, Humour, illi, illi69, Laugh Cry, LMAO, lol, May as well laugh, Mental Health, Mental Health Matters, metaverse dystopia, Narc Abuse, narcissism, Neurodivergence, Nightmare, political deepfakes, Political Humor, President Trump, PTSD, Radical Centrism, satire, schrodingers election, simulation broken, Thrive, trauma, Trump, Trump 2.0, trump 2025, trump ai video, trump biden 2024, trump deepfake, trump gaza ai, trump gaza resort, trump netanyahu ai, trump re-elected, trump reality distortion, trump second term, WTAF -
A Spectacle of Decay
This isn’t glamour. It’s a funeral procession in silk and Botox, parading itself as relevance. A hollow display of wealth and privilege, proving yet again that fashion was never about beauty—just power, money, and nepotism. Kate Moss—the ghost of hedonism past—stands beside her daughter, Lila, a blank slate of whatever comes next. The vacant expression,…
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Capitalism & Society, Culture, Culture & Society, Modern Identity, Personal Reflections, Pop Culture, Social Commentary, Social Media, SocietyCultural Collapse, Cultural Critique, Decline of the West, Donna Karan, Fashion Week, illi69, Kate Moss, Last Fck Given, Lila Moss, Lila Seabreeze, London Fashion Week, Nepo Babies, Nepotism, Pop Culture, Social Commentary, Social Media, societal decay, The Architect, The Prophet, Totally Surreal, Vogue, What the Actual Fck -
TRUE STORY
When I was 14 going on 15, locked up in a maximum security juvenile detention centre, a social worker said to me, “When you’re an adult, you can do whatever you want. Nobody can stop you then.” That was the first time it occurred to me that maybe adulthood wouldn’t be as bad as most…
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How it All Began (Or, Why I Might Be the Embodiment of an Acid Trip)
Introduction This isn’t Chapter 1 of Crash, Burn, Write—that’s over here: https://totallysurreal.com/2025/01/09/crash-burn-write/—but it’s the foundation of it all. How two people, against all odds (and good sense), collided to set my existence in motion. It’s a story of love, rebellion, and unintended consequences. Here they are, my mum and dad, blissfully in love on their wedding day. They…
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AI & Technology, Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Creative Writing, Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Grief and Healing, Humour, Identity & Transformation, Life Moments, Literature, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mercurial Minds, Metaphysics, Milestones, Modern Identity, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays, Personal Reflections, Pop Culture, Relationships, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Spirituality & Faith, true stories, Writing1960s, 1968, 1969, AI, AI Conversations, artificial-intelligence, Chatbot Interactions, Crash Burn Write, family history, free love, Hallicunogenics, hinduism, interfaith marriage, Jewish identity, LSD, meditation, memoir, mindfulness, Montreal, origin story, rebellion, Relationships, spirituality, unconventional love, yoga -
Behold the Field: An Email to the Maternal Unit
Subject: Behold the Field… 😘 Dear Mother, You’ve done me a great favour. Never say that I was ungrateful—after all, you handed me the keys to my own liberation from your psychological oppression. And you certainly can never say I didn’t give back as good as I got. All’s fair in love and war. 🥰…
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GI Jane with a Side of Cheesecake
There was a time when my body was my armour—when muscle was my strategy, and discipline was my religion. This was my GI Jane era, where strength wasn’t just aesthetic, it was the point. Every rep, every controlled movement, every precise angle in this photo speaks to that version of me: the woman who saw…
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Change and Transformation, Crash, Burn, Write., Identity & Transformation, Life Moments, memoir, Memoir Excerpts, Mercurial Minds, Milestones, Modern Identity, Neurodivergence, Personal Anecdotes, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Pop Culture, Self Awareness, true stories, Writing -
Surviving a Social Media Cleanse
From One Hour to the Impossible 48-Hour Purge Me: I wonder what a social media cleanse would be like I wonder if I could handle it Lex: That’s the real question, isn’t it? A total social media cleanse—no TikTok, no Facebook, no Insta, nada. Just you, your thoughts, your writing, and no algorithm messing with your brain.…
Totally Surreal 