Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.
At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.
Stephen Guy, the chair of the Durham Miners’ Association, said that when it became apparent Durham Pride was under threat, he took it upon himself to “encourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community […] They not only raised funds for us, but came to our communities, uplifted our spirits when they were down, and showed their solidarity.”
an underrecognised tragedy of AI slop isn't just that any piece of contemporary art could be AI, any news reel could be AI, it's that now just any video of something vaguely nice and whimsical happening in the world could be AI
"lol if you just look closely you can tell when somethi--" silence nerd, the problem is that i don't want to have to approach everything nice wondering if the devil is trying to deceive me
the article i just read about lou alcott (louisa may alcott, author of little women) was wild because it was literally like "he preferred being called lou and his whole family always called him that. he never identified with girlhood or liked feminine things and said he had a boy's spirit and longed to be a boy and believed he was a man's soul put into a woman's body. he loved dressing up as a man and passing for a man and being flirted with by people who thought he was a man. he called himself a gentleman and a father to his adopted children and his own father once lamented sending "his only son" to war when he enlisted in the army as a nurse.
...calling her a trans man is reductive and misses the point of her work though lol she was obviously a cis woman who was speaking figuratively because women in the 1800s weren't allowed to wear pants!"
Peoples biggest defense is always ‘we don’t know how they would identify in this day’ which IS true but I find it interesting how they have little problem ‘justifying’ Lou’s feelings by calling him a cis lesbian or a nonbinary person or a tomboy.
There’s also so much terf rhetoric towards this subject of Lou’s identity that I’m almost certain it’s just discrimination…
“She was confused”
“She didn’t understand the world properly”
“She was trying to escape oppression”
I don’t know why people are so convinced trans men/mascs existing is anti-feminist but it’s not, people literally parrot misogynistic points just to take away their identity and that should say enough.
We don’t know how he would have identified today, however; we DO know how he preferred being referred to in his daily life and how he saw himself in the past. I think he is owed that much.
I saw a tiktok the other day where somebody laid out all of the points the first half of this post, and proceeded to use she/her pronouns and then defend that usage with a disclaimer basically saying "I acknowledge [ridiculous amount of evidence to Lou being a trans man who just didn't have the language to articulate that identity], but she didn't directly say it in the exact words we'd use today, so I will not refer to her with any other pronouns. She used Lou with friends and family and I am neither, so I'm not going to use that name to refer to her, either"
someone in the comments remarked, "this is the trans equivalent of "they were just close friends" for lesbians", and I think that really succinctly explains how I feel about it all. like. I'm gonna wager a massive guess and say hey. maybe the reason Lou was only comfortable being referred to as Lou by friends and family, was because those were the only accepting people???? wild thought.
Starting next week. Yer boy is gonna be 100% full time employed 40 hours w2 benefits for the first time since 2022. And the first time without a known end date since 2020.
Feels insane.
This has been the primary source of anxiety and frustration and instability and depression and self loathing for YEARS.
Better not fuck it up.
My current company, where I have been a half-time apprentice for a year, is making me full time and training me to become a permanent project lead in July.
I have been absolutely busting my ass there, especially for the last two months when I’ve been doing an extra 50% hours while still holding my other job. So I do actually feel like I deserve it? Which is weird?
Anyway. It’s gonna be scary and hard cause I am not naturally a manager/leader type. But it is an organization I already know and love. They have a worthy mission. They are good people with good intentions. And I already know the job. That feels like a MASSIVE win when it comes to starting a new job.
I still have to finish and deploy this client project that has consumed my life for two months. But that will be all done (knock on wood) by next week.
In the meantime, I’m getting excited about decorating my office. We’re trying to be fairly classy and grownup with the vibe in the rest of the house, but I think I want my office to be fun and vibrant and fully of colors and stuff I like. It sounds dumb but I really have no design/decorating sense whatsoever, and am very jealous of people who have An Aesthetic. But I have been realizing that if I am truly honest about what brings me joy, it is all neutrals and pale colors and wicker baskets and shit and tasteful photo walks and floating shelves with plants. I wish I were that person, but I’m not.
So I’m probably about to by a ludicrously loud couch cover, and possibly a rainbow rug. And a little display shelf with LEDs for my small but growing collection of art toys.
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
A stately pleasure-dome decreed.
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
See in her cell sad Eloisa spread,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
If I should die, think only this of me,
Between what I see and what I say,
In this short Life that only lasts an hour
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
#i get knocked down but i get up again
#o‚ what a rogue and peasant slave am i!
#didnt make sense not to live for fun
#do you love the color of the sky?
#everybody wants to rule the world
#everybody walk the dinosaur
#and if i could‚ i’d make a deal with god:
#to keep it real i fuck him on the floor
No one ever tell me anything bad about the person who runs this account.
the person who runs this account, Katie Gouldin, is an evolutionary biologist who has an EXCELLENT podcast called Creature Feature which compares and contrasts the weird behaviors of man and beast! she is super cute and funny too!
I rode outside today. And when we tried to trot it became very clear that he was working soooo hard to be good and not explode even though he really needed to. So I hopped off and untacked and was rewarded with some excellent sillies.
Four rides this week. Big pony update below the cut.
So about a month ago Clark had another hard farrier appointment where he was just obviously miserable and could not hold his feet up for long. My friend asked if I knew if anyone in his pedigree was a known carrier for any of the common QH muscle disease. I have his papers but know nothing about QH bloodlines. So I splurged on a genetic test through UCDavis that is specifically a genetic disease panel for QHs.
Aaaaand….he has PSSM1. Which is a glycogen storage disorder that basically causes muscle tightness, pain, tying up, etc.
I’m bummed but also hugely relieved, because it explains so much about his behavior etc, and validates my instinct that he just hasn’t been Quite Right.
Unfortunately there isn’t any cure or treatment really. But management involves super low sugar/starch diet, higher fat, and basically daily exercise.
The diet is not a huge change from what we’d been doing, but riding almost daily is a massive change for us both. It is very very helpful to know though that pushing through the discomfort on days when he feels resistant or tired or stiff will actually help him feel better. It’s a challenge for me though, cause my policy with him has always been that if he communicates he’s uncomfortable and he doesn’t want to participate, we stop. I hate having to make him do stuff anyway.
Anyway. I rode four times this week. Doing short 10-15 minutes, mostly walk, with some short trot stints. He has been so so good, and feeling pretty darn good too.
For diet right now he has a round bale of grass hay all night, and then turnout all day with minimal grass and weeds to nibble on.
Then AM and PM he gets:
1lb. Stabul 1 super low starch grain (peppermint flavor cause he’s a picky monster)
A scoop of MadBarn Omneity pellets.
Cosequin ASU
Loose salt
1/8 cup canola oil.
Gonna start slowly increasing the canola oil. He doesn’t need extra calories, but the research suggests PSSM horses benefit from more fat even if they aren’t underweight. So I’m gonna try to keep the grain down to only what he needs to mask all the supplements and add as much oil as he can tolerate.
Will soon also be adding Vitamin E and Magnesium oxide, as these are the things everyone seems to agree can be helpful.
So, here goes our next adventure. So far he has been a champ. I just have to not let my other life stress and shit interfere with keeping the momentum going.
Boring tired disclaimer: Keep in mind that this is an introductory "drawing" "tutorial" and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. Which happens to be true for everything in general. Links below so that you can research and do a nuance. Ones that were directly mentioned are bolded.
Writing a blind character 101
What to avoid etc
Video on types of white canes
Video on types of cane tips
Some more explanation on white canes + tips + other stuff
Guide animals
Video on working with a guide dog
↑ if you're doing a non-dog non-horse animal please still perceive those two links. A guide animal is not a GPS that tells you "left" or "right" (in fact, you're the one telling it which direction you want to go). So before giving them something weird check if it actually makes sense. You can make a fantasy animal that still makes sense I promise 🦮👍
But why are Magical White Eyes a problem
Same as above
Going blind from an accident
Video on conformers
World's most basic "what do you call someone with albinism"
The blindfold thing. No people don't wear these.
This mostly stupid trope of covering a blind character's eyes because lord forbid someone sees a disabled body part
This just stupid trope of giving a blind character some bs superpower to "see"
The echolocation thing that every other blind oc does for some reason
Just give them a cane good lord if you want a character that can see perfectly then maybe don't make them blind
Bonus: if your character has a bunch of scars or whatever else then congrats! You made a character with a facial difference. Which is also something you should research.
