Carly A. Kocurek

Hey #Chicago, my best friend is having a book launch April 14 at Women and Children First. Come hang out! facebook.com/events/s/boo...

I am so extremely happy for you.

Partner got me a new smart watch I wanted. I love it, but it keeps telling me I slept badly, as if the headache, joint aches, and general malaise weren't an adequate indicator.

Aww, thanks. I find Camera Politica really useful for that period!

Doing things is the whole point of being alive and it baffles me how much people are drawn to avoiding doing things. I don't mean tedium or hard labor but art and song and learning and swimming and tripping over your feet and laughing as a friend helps you up; why do you want to not do these things?

A selection of shots animated by Geoff King for Song of the Sea (2014), dir. Tomm Moore, Cartoon Saloon

In addition to playing as a woman whose minoritized faith and sexuality are revealed further into the game, Unpacking also stands against common video game features such as high scores, leveling up, and time trials. Attempting to speedrun this game would defeat its purpose entirely. (There are achievements to unlock but they aren't the main point of the game; they're fun little extras.) Carly Kocurek refers to these kinds of accomplishments as demonstrations of technomasculinity. In this construct, the only kind of gamer is young, intelligent, and white. Any mistakes a person like this makes are just forgivable whoopsies! These are the kind of people that are expected, allowed, to fail upward endlessly. Although Unpacking has an end state, there is no way to dominate, conquer, or defeat it. You are tying together the threads of various narratives over time. In fact, there is arguably a point where a relationship with a technomasculine boyfriend (hello, XBOX) fails because he is too insecure for the character to display her college diploma on the wall and so she has to hide it under her bed. That's as close as you'll get to a final boss. All of it is said without words, but through clues and cues that imply something about the life the character is unpacking.

The more I played @unpackinggame.com, the more it was clear that it was speaking back to the usual technomasculine norms (per @sparklebliss.bsky.social) that appear in games. There’s no score, no leveling up, no timer. Proceed at your own peaceful pace.

thetallrobreport.blogspot.com/2026/02/unpa...

1. Computers & Society
2. The Disintegration of Yugoslavia
3. Generation X
4. Feminist Film Theory
5. 12 Works of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

A great line, and a great legacy.

Looking forward to making my Games and Culture students read @sparklebliss.bsky.social on Night Trap (and, very likely later on, about arcade culture too)

We are through the looking glass where the US government believes alliances and diplomacy are gay, and the only way to appear Strong is by doing the geostrategic equivalent of drunk driving without a seatbelt.

Pretty sure the ultimate recession indicator is the algorithm trying to convince me to soak in lithium.

Gave my spouse a triple Phillip Glass album, which is a really hilarious soundtrack to him and the kid loudly and chaotically doing Mad Libs.

When teens go missing in my neighborhood now, I generally assume they were kidnapped by the federal government, which is ... a way to live, I guess.

Finals is hard on everyone, but a semi-delirious student TOOK MY DIET COKE this week, and I almost cried. I didn't ask for it back, because once you've put your mouth on the straw, it's yours now, but dang, I was really looking forward to that bucket of soda.

Carly Kocurek's digital collage "Becoming Lara" imagines a middle-aged Lara Croft through the lens of an imagined feature in a women's magazine @sparklebliss.bsky.social

Open access now!
online.ucpress.edu/.../11/3/118...

From the PublicFreakout community on Reddit: Community Yell "Get Real Jobs" to ICE Explore this post and more from the PublicFreakout community

Chicago is an easy city to love.
www.reddit.com/r/PublicFrea...

Beyond Solitaire Podcast 211: Carly Kocurek on Coin-Operated Americans YouTube video by Beyond Solitaire

This week on the pod, @sparklebliss.bsky.social came by to discuss her book, Coin-Operated Americans. If you have fond memories of going to the arcade, this episode is for you. youtu.be/blWlUj07d7I

A shame I can't laugh react to these puns, which I am enjoying muchly.

Like, I'm not lazy (I was a full professor at 40, it's all downhill from there), but you also couldn't pay me enough to work 13 hour days.

"We millennials." I spent TWENTY YEARS hearing about how "kids these days" (ie, we millennials) didn't WORK hard enough and QUIT things.

New statement from National Lawyers Guild of Chicago: 18 total arrests at the protest yesterday at the Broadview, IL ICE facility; 13 by feds and 5 by state or local police.

Four more arrests observed today in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood. Likely being brought to Broadview, per statement.

Genuinely crazy how much we went from debates about body cams to "is the camera rolling? good. now watch me assault this dude."

At the Broadview, IL ICE detention center—

IL state troopers are already pushing non-violent demonstrators out of the street and away from the ICE facility. One arrest so far.

Tear gas deployed by federal agent in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood Reports emerged of multiple immigration raids on Friday on Chicago's Northwest Side, including one in which tear gas was deployed by an agent.

Local Chicago news is covering a lot of what is happening. I am not seeing this reported in any detail in national outlets (I assume it might get there eventually) but the harm is being done right now. www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/t...

More feds and protesters have arrived. Maybe 100 neighbors here now. Close to 50 Feds. Agents appear armed with a full assortment of chemical munitions.

Protesters moved 30+ feet back as agents with tear gas launchers moved to the front line.

It’s also 86° in Chicago rn.

The news cannot show what is happening in Chicago because the FAA banned all non-government drones for 12 days over a 15-mile radius (100s of square miles). They don't want anyone watching them disappearing our neighbors. They don't want anyone reporting what they're doing. Please, don't look away.

The helicopters have CBP livery and do not show up on any radar. They are treating us like a war zone.

My old neighborhood, historically a Mexican neighborhood. The lawlessness and criminality is from the US government.

We got a note from my child's school, saying they couldn't go outside all day because ICE activity has been so high. Like, it is all so very bad. I am so angry and scared. I can still hear the helicopters.