gonzo the muppet wearing a suit. he is inside an ornate floral frame. below the frame is text that reads "gender failure". the image is textured to look grainy and printed.
gender failure gonzo
PLAY PINK FLOYD DARK SIDE OF THE MOON NASA YOU COWARDS
NASA isn't why the US doesn't have universal healthcare, or a social safety net. The US doesn't have those things because politicians with the power to provide them choose specifically not to (with varying levels of support from voters). Enthusiasm for human spaceflight doesn't drive that choice.
Everyone has blind spots, it's a part of being human!
That last bit is what really gets me, about.... so many things, honestly. People being obnoxious pedants about other people's level of knowledge while blatantly exhibiting that their own isn't perfect drives me "up the wall" far more than anyone's actual grammar or educational background.
Nurse didn't ask me my pronouns but asked if I was a "person of gender"
I'm lucky there's a PhD program willing to overlook the two semesters' worth of withdrawals due to mental health issues caused by being closeted in that period, but I could have sabotaged my entire future just because I was scared I'd lose funding for my undergraduate education as a teenager.
Even uncertainty about this kind of thing can keep people in the closet. My parents have ultimately turned out to be supportive (with some small hiccups, but I'm still very grateful), but I had no idea how they were going to respond to me coming out when I was just starting undergrad at 18.
I have a free day in Providence between admitted PhD student events and decided to check out the Athenaeum.... I think I'm going to be spending a lot of time here.
And if you ever want recommendations for non-fiction more broadly, there were several I was disappointed to learn did not have audiobook versions as I was typing up this reply. Non-fiction is my favorite genre, broadly speaking, and I am always happy to point people towards good books!
Some non-fiction books I can recommend that I know have audiobooks:
Before We Were Trans (Kit Heyam)
The Light Ages (Seb Falk)
Entangled Life (Merlin Sheldrake)
Ghostland (Colin Dickey)
The Devil's Details (Chuck Zerby)
The Disappearing Spoon (Sam Kean)
The Ghost Map (Steven Johnson)
A person in a wheelchair with long purple hair, bending down to pet a cat.
A cat climbing around on the back of a wheelchair.
First outing with the new wheelchair, to go visit a bookstore cat who was VERY curious about it.
Midsummer is SUCH a great play, it's definitely in my top Shakespearen works as well.
It doesn't hurt that I had the chance to play Macduff at a formative age in my elementary school Shakespeare club. Really fun.
(We can all have a laugh about the layers to a young trans kid, who didn't know they were trans but like playing male roles, taking up the role of "no man of woman born")
It's a popular answer, but Macbeth. The spooky, eerie atmosphere can be phenomenal in the right hands, and it's a fascinating "historical" play that reflects then-contemporary anxieties about witchcraft in a way I'm deeply drawn to.
A photo of a person in an adjustable purple wheelchair. She has bright purple hair than matches the chair, and a big smile.
A photo of a person in an adjustable purple wheelchair. She has bright purple hair than matches the chair, and a big smile, and is making a heart with her hands.
My partner finally (finally!!) got her fancy new wheelchair today and she's so thrilled. Really loving the amount of disability joy happening.
In case you were wondering how things are going in the Twin Cities, last night towards the end of my synagogue's Purim spiel they brought out three giant bags of freezer ice and let everyone at them with sledgehammers. Chag sameach.
A photo of 10 shrinky dinks. 1. A unicorn lies down in a field of swirling vines. 2. A dagger on a black background surrounded by vines. 3. A plague doctor's mask on a white background. 4. An inky cap mushroom in a cloche. 5. A tea pot. 6. A human ribcage surrounded by vines. 7. A candle that glows with a yellow flame. 8. Strawberry flowers and leaves. 9. A raven's head in profile. 10. A death's head hawk moth on a black background.
a tiny gallery of shrinky dinks, the sequel 🌿🗡️✨
[ #art ]
Every time I have very overdue books that I need to return directly to the librarians I get so nervous that they will be judgemental about them, and every time they are actually so nice about it. Thank you librarians. True ADHD allies.
Really phenomenal find in an old children's reader from 1887 -- "Don't steal this book for fear of shame" reads like an attempt at a book curse.
According to the name of the child who signed and dated it on the next page, he was 10 years old when he wrote this.
Luath the greyhound, contorting.
The modern greyhound originates in early mediaeval Ireland, where it was bred by monks who needed a dog flexible enough to fit into the initials in their illuminated manuscripts.
Early modern whales are so fun too look at.
Image source: a whale from Conrad Gessner's Nomenclator aquatilium animantium (1606).
I still haven't heard back from most of the places I applied to this cycle, but this program was my top choice. Really emotional about this.
Kind of in shock right now??
I don't know if you're interested in alternatives (entirely fair if not), but I've been poking at Ellipsus and know for a fact that it actually does have several different dark themes!
Tell me 5 classes you took in university:
1. Monsters, Robots, and Cyborgs
2. Vertebrate Paleontology
3. Norwegian
4. The Art of Magic
5. Women, Gender, and Science
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
From the perspective of someone in MSP: I think it's because it de-emphasizes that so many of us are just going about our daily lives when this shit happens. It's one thing to attend a planned protest, it's another to have a whistle on you when you're going to the grocery store, you know?
"ICE OUT" on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, as seen from my flight leaving MSP airport
Having an archivist rite of passage today I think.