Cat over moon

Dyspraxic, artist, ace. Bugs really like my face.  Avatar is from the webcomic "El Goonish Shive". They/Them

[asexual-thot]

With what's going on I'm just Gonna Link my Dreamwidth post where I link all my accounts.

[yorgen-sh]

The Chinese shoe manufacturer decided to demonstrate the indestructibility of their shoes

[scarlettohairdye]

And also the indestructibility of that woman's ankles

[syekick-powers]

saying shit like "you don't have to dress masculine/feminine if you don't want to" and "you're still valid if you don't want HRT" are good things to say in theory if you're talking to like, a GNC trans person who is expressing discomfort with binary gendered norms.

but it is very fucking annoying how certain people who may or may not be aware of their own transphobia have been deploying these platitudes toward trans people who aren't super GNC and want to dress more in alignment with their gender or pursue hormone therapy, in a way that comes across as attempting to prevent transition.

like okay here. let me make a convenient guide:

ACCEPTABLE USE OF THOSE PHRASES:

gnc trans man: i wish i could wear dresses and makeup and still be seen as a man, i love feminine gender expression

other person: you don't have to dress masculine if you don't want to! you're still a man no matter what!

-

gnc trans woman: i wish i could still be seen as a woman without needing to be on HRT. i can't take estrogen due to [medical problem] but everyone makes it sound like i'm not a real woman if i don't go on E

other person: you don't need to take HRT for your gender as a woman to be valid! you're still a real woman no matter

UNACCEPTABLE USE OF THOSE PHRASES:

trans woman: i really wish i could wear skirts and dresses and makeup, i know i'd feel more comfortable if i could be more feminine without too many social consequences

other person: you don't need to dress feminine to be valid as a woman!

-

trans man: i really want to go on HRT so i can stop menstruating and start looking more masculine, my hormonal dysphoria is really bad

other person: you don't need HRT to be valid as a man!

hopefully these illustrate what i mean really well!

[caspercryptid]

I would actually go as far as to say that MOST abuse is unintentional. I think most people will go through their lives without ever experiencing intentional abuse. People are abusive because they're selfish, because they're stressed, because they care more about what society thinks they should do than the impacts of their actions on their children and partners, because they think what they're doing is correct, because they've made it make sense in their own heads, because they think they can fix their victims, they think they can fix their relationships, they think they can stop you from leaving, they think they can make you a better partner to them, they think that means you need to do what they want. We've sort of constructed mental illness in a way that doing this shit to other people counts as a form of mental illness because it is anti social behavior in the literal sense— it is behavior that causes social harm.

I don't say any of this to excuse it. I think everyone needs to be more aware of this because if you think abuse has to be intentional you will never realize you are capable of abusive behavior. You will never realize you are being shitty to the people you love, because YOU know what you mean, YOU know you don't mean any harm. But you're doing harm. You need to pay attention to the impact you have on other people, and you need to do it all the time, Especially when you feel least capable of doing so. Sorry! You live in a society. Get your head out of your ass.

[wolfsteax]

I humbly offer this contribution.

[alphacrone]

i don't really want to weight in on the "using big words in your writing is ableist" discourse happening on tiktok because i'm like 90% certain it's an anti-intellectual psyop to stir up drama in online circles to promote the use of ai to summarize literally everything and thus feeding the LLMs and lowering the populace's mistrust of such tools but i also have to say: dictionaries and thesauruses are the most accessible they've ever been. if you use an e-reader of any kind you can look up a word without leaving the page. there's a plethora of online dictionaries and if you just type a word + "meaning" into google it'll usually give you a definition. we used to have pocket dictionaries we used when reading in class. i have two on my shelf right now that i used in high school. stop letting the fascists purposefully misuse anti-ableism rhetoric to trick you into never thinking again.

[oneheadtoanother]

[mokeonn]

Here's the unedited comic for those curious:

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

The original is from June 18, 1959.

Some have called "they pay me in woims" Sluggo's catch phrase. It's not. He said it once, and folks on Bluesky loved it so much they say it all the time, especially in response to the Nancy Comics by Ernie Bushmiller account. Here's the original "they pay me in woims" from February 22, 1978:

And, another mention of woims from September 13, 1949:

And the Woims Wednesday (aka Woimsday) image that gets posted almost every week because of the popularity of the word:

[sirfrogsworth]

If your hot take about the movie industry involves the blaming of artists, I am begging you to resist that instinct. Because they are rarely at fault.

I have been working on an essay about subtitles and cinematic audio mixing for probably 6 months. It is about 80% complete. It's a complicated, multifactorial issue.

"Audio guys" are asked to take a cinematic timeline that looks like this...

And then make it sound good on a system like this...

While also making that same mult-track cinematic mix sound good on speakers like this...

And then people hate on these artists because they can't violate the laws of physics.

Could studios invest in a second audio mix that is more suited to tiny speakers?

Absolutely.

They literally did it for years on DVDs and Blu-ray discs. You could select a basic stereo mix or a surround mix.

Why don't they do that anymore?

I'm going to try and dedicate any future writing energy I have to finishing the subtitle essay.

Until then, be nice to the audio guys, okay?

[chloebangbang]

because some folks were curious, here's what my phone's keyboard looks like and how I type on it.

[chloebangbang]

I wasn't expecting this to go anywhere but the keyboard is 8vim! it's not perfect, it notably can't do emojis and obviously typing is gonna be slower than proficient two thumb typing, but for my clumsy self this is largely competing with swipe typing, and I'll always take the speed hit to not deal with autosuggest

[chloebangbang]

this post is awesome because it gets everyone in the world thinking they're the funniest people on the planet into my notifications to be gigantic assholes about the thing I use as an accessibility tool. and yet I can't lock it. because its spreading awareness about an accessibility tool and has already gotten several people to give it a shot and install it. so in unrelated news I think I'm going to start killing people

[boomer-mythology-destroyer]

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

maybe I’m too old but I’ll never understand “racist dni, transphobe dni, homophobe dni” not because I condone the harmful beliefs these people hold but because I don’t think the majority of people who are racist or transphobic or homophobic identify themselves as those things. like, to them they most certainly genuinely don’t see themselves as those things. so they’re not gonna read your dnis and think “oh dear! I have to click away from this blog immediately! phew 😮‍💨 almost interact with them accidentally offend the op there!”

on the contrary, you are displaying the things that can hurt or upset or trigger you to strangers on the internet just for what? an extra performative point? obviously I’m not gonna judge people who have these dnis on their blogs because it’s their blogs and what they do is not my business. so I apologize if this post sounds like I am being rude or judgmental or aggressive — sometimes I do have bitchy opinions on the concepts of Things people do, but not about the people who choose to do them. but yeah tbh I really think these dnis are about as useful as putting a “do not rob” sign in front of a bank or a “thief and intruder dni” sign in front of a house.

*I get wanting to take a stand. but I still don’t think it’s gonna achieve anything, which is just my personal opinion. you do you

[asexual-thot]

It's not really about actually stopping those interactions. It's a different flavour of awful.

I've been meaning to get around to this post for a while and have been reminded that it's still relevant.I was always mystified and

"For the kids my friend spoke to, they had no expectation whatsoever that the bad people listed in DNIs would actually listen to them.

Instead, DNIs were intended to be the equivalent of a website saying "only click on this if you're 18," knowing that it'd be ignored.

The goal and purpose of a DNI is a disclaimer that you don't support people in that group and don't want to interact with them, in a desperate attempt to avoid online harassment from your peers if it later turns out you had interacted with (and thus endorsed) someone who was revealed to be Bad.  Or, say, a minor."

[pokemon-translated]

[demilypyro]

it's funny how "press F to pay respects" was such a gigantic meme that it seems to have permanently affected the way we talk online. people use it completely genuinely and unironically. had a bad day? F. died in a videogame? F. I see it constantly in Discord, Twitch and ingame chats. like it's actually being used as common shorthand. when it only gained prominence because of how hilariously stupid this screenshot is

[beaft]

the phrase "but i didn't mean to!" in the context of causing harm is kind of redundant to me, because almost nobody means to cause harm. most of us just want to do the right thing. and i don't mean that in a wishy-washy "oh, we're all good deep down" way, i mean that even people who regularly do the most heinous shit imaginable will have a way of justifying it to themselves. the world is not populated by hollywood sadists and psychopaths.

[beaft]

actually i have been thinking about this some more and i want to add on to it:

abuse in caregiving professions (like teaching or nursing) is not solely a result of power dynamics. it's also because people who go into those professions often have a idea of themselves as Good People, and are consequently incapable of recognising or acknowledging when they've hurt someone else. instead, they mentally put 'people who have inconvenienced me' into the Bad People box so they can freely abuse them while maintaining their moral high ground.

i read ross greene a lot when i was working with "difficult" or "behaviourally challenged" children. his refrain is "kids do well if they can" - meaning, in short, that most kids act out only when the demands of a situation exceed their capabilities. punishing them for this is not only cruel but also completely pointless, because they also don't want to be doing what they are doing.

a teacher who believes that there are two categories of people - Good People who Mean Well, and Bad People who Cause Problems on Purpose - is not going to see it that way. they're gonna put themselves in the first category, and the misbehaving kid in the second category. and once they have effectively depersoned the child and placed themselves on a pedestal, the world becomes simple again. because abuse is something that only Bad People do.

[neonprotagonist]

Girls Scouts encounter Bigfoot the most frequently. Part of their oath is to keep him a secret because he’s very kind and makes up 30% of their revenue due to his fervent love for thin mints.

[hlahlahlahlahly]

As a Girl Scout leader, I am telling you that this is NOT true, and any former girl scout that says it is, should think about what they are saying and what oaths they may have sworn in the past

[prismatic-bell]

Yeah, I was a Girl Scout for over a decade. Bigfoot definitely isn’t real and certainly isn’t the reason I won a Hit Clip from the cookie prize list.

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[greatwyrmgold]

The thing about "ye" as "the" is that it's still pronounced "the". The word "the" was spelled "þe" in Middle English; once the moveable-type printing press came along, the letter þ was being written more like the letter y, so a lot of printers substituted y for þ, until þ fell completely out of use. But þ was pronounced as much like "th" as any Modern English letter was pronounced like its Middle English counterpart; "þe" was never pronounced "ye".

Anyways, this bard is commanding your bodies to hit the floor. Be warned.

[aughtpunk]

That Time a Published Author Told Me to Un-Queer My Novel

So, I don't think I ever shared this story on Tumblr before.

As you may know I've spent the past ten years turning my old Welcome to Night Vale fanfic into a stand alone novel called Echo of the Larkspur. Now, I haven't been working on it ten years straight. I'd pick it up, do a bunch of editing and rewriting, submit it to agents/publishers, get turned down, put the book away, wait 2-3 years, dust off the book, re-edit and rewrite, etc etc. A cycle that repeated itself far too many times that I would like.

Well, during one of these cycles when I was in the 'get rejected by every agent and publisher I submit to' stage I asked the writing group I was in what I was doing wrong. Because at this point I had reached a hundred total rejections and I was starting to suspect that the issue was with me.

One of the members of this writing group, a male author who was traditionally published, offered to read my first chapter and give his advice on how to fix it. This was, in retrospect, a mistake. But I was desperate. I sent him the first chapter and waited for his response.

Folks. The email he sent me changed my life.

First he said that agents wouldn't publish my novel because it was Sci-fi with hardcore gay erotica in it. This is curious because while the book certainly is queer, at no point in the conversation with this man did I say it was hardcore erotica. Nor did the first chapter feature any. It's almost as if he assumed that just because something was gay, it had to be hardcore erotica. Interesting.

He went on to say that a Human/Robot pairing was weird and that there was "No Way" my story could seriously address the issues of a relationship like that. Once again, he only read the first chapter. He just...assumed I wouldn't think of that? And that my book wouldn't cover it?

The author then said “I also felt that the LGBTQ inclusion really seems to cloud things.” Direct Quote.

And then this is when he said my favorite quote of them all:

The idea of a book being a sci-fi with romance AND a mystery is a Modern Art Marzipan Owl. It's just too confusing! No one can handle a story that is a mystery in a sci-fi enviroment AND has a romantic subplot! THEIR BRAINS WOULD LITERALLY EXPLODE!

Thankfully he had a solution to my book problem. His answer? Turn the book into an Action Spy Thriller and turn S.A.G.E., a robot that identies as a gay man, into a sexy lady robot who needs a MAN to teach her what it means to be human.

(I assume the male lead will teach the 'confused' female robot how to be human via his penis.)

Now my favorite part about this advice is that at no point did he outright say "Remove the gay part". No, instead he sneakily changed the robot love interest into a female robot as if I wouldn't notice. Just sort of swept away the gay bits as something totally unneeded and just mucking up the narrative. Also that's not the plot of my story, I have no idea where this virus thing came from.

(Also note that the female robot can't be robotic-like at all. Must preserve the average straight-man sex drive at all costs I guess)

He then finished his email basically saying that I should remove everything that 'traditional publishers' don't like (aka the queer parts) and make it easier for 'your average reader' to digest and my book will be good as published!

When I said this email changed my life I meant it. Because it made me realize I'd rather be self published and unknown than traditionally publish milquetoast trash like he suggested. Like holy fuck. If I removed all of the "Difficult" to digest stories out of Echo of the Larkspur then there wouldn't be a book left!

So here I am. Self publishing my Marzipan Modern Art Owl of a book. I know it'll never see the inside of a bookstore or top the charts on Goodreads but hey, I'd rather it speak to one person than have a thousand people get excited for the part where the male lead teaches the lady robot how to be human (via his penis).

If a Queer Sci-fi/Romance/Mystery novel sounds like your jam then consider preordering it!

Looking for something to read now? Can't afford the book? Willing to read in exchange for an honest review? You can join my ARC book readers here!

[quinnandersonwrites]

Congratulations! Also that guy was just dead wrong because @hazeldomain published a human/robot gay romance as well.

[hazeldomain]

We need a bookstore that lets us filter with tags like on Ao3, because publishers are losing way too many multifaceted books because they can’t advertise it with three tropes.

[straythoughtshopelesshearts]

Can I get my hands on a physical copy please

[aughtpunk]

For reasons I cannot comprehend Amazon doesn't let you preorder physical copies. They'll be on sale July 23rd, the same day the digital version comes out.

And for those who don't do Amazon (totally fair) my book will be put up for sale on other websites like B&N, Kobo, and Itch.io 90 days after the Amazon release.

Follow me for updates and more general SCREAMING

[aughtpunk]

So uh it has been pointed out that I never actually said what the plot of the novel is in this post so LET ME FIX THAT REAL QUICK: “The sole survivor of a massacre, Dr. Ciro Kwakkenbos, has spent the last six years in intensive therapy. He’s finally capable of working with Artificial Intelligence again—and comes to the Ceres colony determined to prevent robots from committing any future atrocities. When he arrives, Ciro realizes the robot in charge of the colony’s security, S.A.G.E. (Sentient Automated Geo-sentinel Engineer), is dangerously close to complete sentience. S.A.G.E. is more interested in observing the colonists’ everyday lives (and matching them with appropriate musical soundtracks) than following its intended programming. Robots aren’t supposed to be charming, kind, or compassionate, either. But as Ciro investigates, he discovers S.A.G.E. has learned how to lie and—possibly—harm and kill humans. Worse, S.A.G.E.’s memories have been hacked, deleting a deadly secret. Despite the danger S.A.G.E. poses, Ciro can’t deny the feelings growing between them. Now Ciro must unravel the truth behind the missing memories—before S.A.G.E. and the colony are doomed.”

I hope y'all love Ciro and S.A.G.E. as much as I do.

And Huggabot. But Huggabot is a whole 'nother thing.

[aughtpunk]

ATTENTION! Due to a slight hiccup the physical copies of Echo of the Larkspur will be released on July 26th! The ebook will still be available the 23rd! Mark your calendars! And if you want a signed copy drop me a line!

Thank you for your patience!

[aughtpunk]

ECHO OF THE LARKSPUR IS NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!

[aughtpunk]

Echo of the Larkspur is now Darn Near Everywhere! Click here for the list of websites its now available at!

Paperback and Hardcover now available at Barnes and Noble!

[dajo42]

Do a little dance. Make a little love. Get the FUCK down tonight.

[dajo42]

people werent ready for this post in 2011. what about now