Ten days out from my first COVID symptoms, I think I am finally coming off of this illness. It's definitely more than a nasty flu, in my experience. Similar symptoms, just heavier fatigue and load.I managed to get some Paxlovid prescribed to me through this CVS program, so I recommend that if you can get it within 5 days of symptoms.While isolating I watched the 2014 movie Dear White People, whose trailer was full of glorious witty Black critiques of white culture, while the movie itself was one of the most disjointed and meandering films I've ever seen to cross 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. I wonder if the 2017 Netflix series fared better...I also finished the best book I've read in recent memory: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.Let me enumerate its triumphs:Nuanced look at space colonialism through the eyes of a White ‘barbarian’ ambassador in the capital cityplanet of an intergalactic Aztec empire✅Actual Mesoamerican beliefs, customs, and words carried forward into the space age✅Brilliant treatment of brain implants that let the memories of ones ancestors live literally within ones head as a dual personality ✅Most main characters are female, BIPOC, LGBTQ, or all three without being preachy ✅All of the well designed political maneuvering of a palace drama with the same snarky believability as early Game of Thrones or a West Wing episode ✅Space opera staples of mysterious aliens, futuristic wearables tech, interstellar warships, hive minds, and fallible AI ✅Delightful original poems throughout, deployed as diplomatic cipher, intelligentsia art, or imperial newscast prose all in one ✅Thoughtful exploration of self vs other, cultural assimilation and imperialism, and the culture shock differing versions of ‘us’ ✅What else would we expect from an author who identifies as an ‘assimilated Russian Jew’ with an academic background in urban planning, the Byzantine Empire, and Armenia? Needless to say, do yourself a favor and pick this one up, fam!