Crocheting my way through a PhD

My day to day thoughts and experiences with being both a crochet artist and a scientist.

[thecollectibles]

Art by Jian Guo 

Alignments: ∎ Lawful Good  ∎ Neutral good  ∎ Chaotic good  ∎ Lawful neutral  ∎ Absolute neutrality  ∎ Chaos neutrality  ∎ Lawful evil  ∎ Neutral evil ∎ Chaotic evil

[star-anise]

Don’t get your sex ed from fanfiction!

Get it from

Scarleteen

[ruffboi-mags]

Not even joking, y'all, Scarleteen is an amazing resource that deserves attention and (if you've got the cash for it) donations so they can keep providing thorough education about sex, consent, relationships, etc to folks of all ages who need it.

[mycroftrh]

@sage-derby Yes!!!

Here’s a rundown of their general policy, from literally the first article I clicked on just now:

As you might be getting from that, they’re pretty intersex inclusive, too. Here’s a sample of something that’s a little more directly about sex-specific stuff in case you’re thinking “well but they said that was just about pleasure tho”:

They have a lot of sections on their site, but number two is Gender:

“That’s probably just like hetero gender dynamics stuff tho...” Nay nay! Here’s a few of the articles from the first page of their “Gender” section:

Scarleteen was a huge help to me as a trans person. They have a live chat that has sex-ed type folks giving real-time answers, and even just the staff+volunteers who happened to be attending to the live chat were able to help me with weird niche trans problems - a decade ago, when trans people, it seemed, damn near didn’t exist. They are EFFING AWESOME and want to help you!!!!

[knithacker]

Crochet a Classic Cathedral Rose Afghan, Pattern By Julene Watson For Annie’s Attic: 👉 https://wp.me/pjlln-bLi

[crochetingdoctorate]

I know what my next big project is… damn that’s beautiful

[endangered-justice-seeker]

One of the most important things you can teach your kids is when and how to say no to authority figures.

[crochetingdoctorate]

Teach them to say no. Teach them to ask questions. Teach them to be strong enough to resist the machine that is the modern education system in America. Teach them to value themselves beyond the work they can produce.

We have failed our children so much, but we have a chance to make it right.

[thecollectibles]

The Mighty Nein Portraits by Hunter Bonyun

[crochetingdoctorate]

Absolutely beautiful! Sharing so this gets more love

[transdreamsicle]

no offense but every skein of yarn should be center pull

[samuraiknitter]

And not require yarn gynecology to find the end. 

[ladytemeraire]

Reblogging entirely for “yarn gynecology”

[wordsformurder]

Seconded

[theproblematicblogger]

[jabberwockypie]

“Overuse of Healthcare” Like. How would that even work?

“Huh, this feels kind of . . . weird and “off” and not good, give my Universal Healthcare, I will go get it checked out. It MIGHT be nothing, but they MIGHT check it and find something like serious before it becomes deadly or disabling, instead of just hoping it’s nothing serious and ignoring it until I can’t ignore it anymore”

Oh wait, that’s how healthcare is SUPPOSED TO WORK.

[levynite]

HI, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL IS OWNED BY RUPERT MURDOCH, THAT PUSTULENT STAIN ON JOURNALISM WHO OWNS FOX NEWS AND ITS ILK AND ALL THE AWFUL ENGLISH TABLOIDS THAT WERE DOING PHONE HACKING ON CELEBRITIES AND FAMILIES OF VICTIMS A WHILE BACK

[theconcealedweapon]

"I'm not sick but I'm going on vacation and I need a place to stay. Can I have a room at the hospital?"

[kiwianaroha]

[dkgwrites]

Let me start this by fully disclosing that I am an insurance broker who works in the group health insurance field. If the United States gets Medicare for All, I will be unemployed. I run a small business with one other person, so it’s not like I’m rolling in the cash and will have a multi-million dollar exit strategy. I have been working in some area of the healthcare/insurance field for fourteen years. I say this to be clear that I do have a level of expertise in this, and that I also have a stake in the outcome of this. Literally, I will need to retrain and look for a new career under socialized medicine (not looking for tears, folks, just stating the facts).

Now, here are more facts. The United states needs to move to Medicare for All. Just like we need to move away from coal and go to green energy, we need to move away from private health insurance and move to socialized medicine. Financially, one of the biggest cost drivers today is that we play defense and not offense when it comes to health care. If we have annual comprehensive checkups for everyone in this country (everyone, not just every citizen), we would reduce our overall spend. It’s about ROI, and over the course of a three to five year span, there is provable return on comprehensive preventive care. If we can catch a cancer in stage one or two instead of four we can save not just a life but a lot of money. If we can find undiagnosed diabetics and get them on proper diet and medication, we can stop future high-cost claims. This trend is true with cholesterol, heart disease, etc. Even if we were to ignore the moral reasons why we should be providing comprehensive health insurance to everyone, financially, we’re wrong not to do it. We have this data. Insurance companies have this data. The government has this data. There’s a reason that preventative care is a zero dollar cost under PPACA (aka Obamacare). It saves money.

Don’t let any of this “Medicare for those who want it” talk fool you. The last thing we need is a larger pool open only to the sickest people. That will keep the healthiest people on group health insurance, make the carriers more profitable, make Medicare less cost effective, cripple Medicare, and “prove” that Medicare for all wouldn’t work. Only by having a truly integrated pool of those currently insured and healthy and those currently uninsured and in need or services will we see the actual fair and just returns of the system. Medicare has a much lower admin cost than private insurance carriers, and if we fully empowered Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical manufacturers, we could drive down those prices much, much more. (Ten years ago, Rxs made up 10% - 15% of medical spend and is currently over 30%. In ten more years, it is likely to make up 50% of our medical costs.)

The only reasons anyone opposes this is money. I don’t mean it’s going to cost too much. It’s not. The amount that we pay out of our paychecks and for out of pocket expenses to see a doctor will disappear, and in turn, we’ll pay a higher tax. Does the money come out of your left pocket or your right? It’s the same money. Maybe we don’t even pay as much as per Elizabeth’s Warren proposal which puts in a 6% wealth tax and increase the income tax on the highest earners (unless you make millions of dollars annually, this isn’t you).

I look forward to voting myself out of a job at the next election. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t strongly believe it was best for all of us. Congress needs to start serving the people who have elected them instead of the corporations who feed them money. Please educate yourself. Please ask questions. Please look into the sources of things you hear. Please vote. It matters. This is still our country if we want it. 

[cupids-poison-blog]

trying to prove a point to the boys at school

reblog this if you believe trans men are real men like this if you dont

[godwrensatan]

*likes* *reads it* *vigorously unlikes and reblogs*

[confused-and-all-bi-myself-deac]

*unliked and reblogged angrily*

[bronypodge-deactivated20181119]

look at all this green

makes this trans boy so happy

[chaotic-bastard-demon]

REBLOG REBLOG REBLOG

[juxtafruition]

i AM a real man

[pride-on-a-string]

:))

[xxtechnicolorzombiexx-blog]

[crochetmelovely]

🙌👏🙌

[crabfag]

I'm not goblin myself but this feels like peak goblin to me...think of all the things you can fit in this baby...think of the ease of gathering...the power...

[crochetingdoctorate]

Want…

[disappointingcake]

Humans are unstoppable...Until they aren’t.

I’m not the most eloquent writer, but I’ve had this idea kicking around for a while and figured I’d put it out into the universe.

A lot of the basis for the “humans are space orcs” stuff is the idea that we’re pretty durable compared to many species, yeah? When it comes to physical trauma, we can bounce back from most things that don’t kill us outright, especially given the benefit of hypothetical space-age technology, and adrenaline is one heck of a drug when it comes to functioning under stress. 

But that doesn’t make us unkillable, and even though we can survive debilitating injuries and not die from shock, it doesn’t mean it’s fun. Dying of shock sucks, but at least it’s probably quick.

So - Imagine a ship, adrift in space, slowly being drawn into a star or something. In order to save the ship, someone has to repair the hyper-quantum-relay-majig on the hull or in the engine or whatever. Bit of a problem though- there’s a ton of deadly, deadly radiation (Wrath of Khan style) or poisonous fumes or, I dunno, electrical current, between the crew and the repair. Like, enough to kill most species instantly, so the crew is just like, ‘welp, guess we’ll die then’. But then.

BUT THEN

They ask the human. Because everyone’s heard the stories - you’re basically unkillable, right? Could you survive long enough in there to fix it? And their human goes real quiet for a second, but still says ‘Yeah, I could fix it’. And the rest of the crew is like, ‘Whaaaaaa, it won’t kill you?’ and the human repeats “I can fix it” (which isn’t an answer, but no one catches that, not yet at least), so they send ‘em in. And the human fixes it, they come back, the ship flies to safety, and the crew is thrilled to survive. If the human is a little quiet, well, they’re entitled after pulling off a miracle. Everyone else is just excited to get to the nearest station’s bar to tell their very own human story, cuz, ‘those crazy humans, amiright?’.

The good mood keeps up until the human is late for their next shift. At first it’s just faint unease, but- but they earned a bit of a lie-in, right? No reason to begrudge them some extra rest, even if it is a little weird for them to oversleep. They’ll be fine. Humans are always fine. 

(Right?)

(…Wrong.)

- What is… help. Help!-

- ake up! You have t-

- been days. You need sleep, you-

- nother transfusion. We could-

- out of sedatives!-

A week later, the crew finally reaches the station. They stumble into the bar, haggard and haunted. And over the next months and years a new rumor about humans starts to make its way through space. A rumor unlike any before.

‘Be careful with your humans’ it whispers. ‘Their strength is not always a blessing. Be sure they don’t do something they can’t come back from, because when a human dies… they die slowly.’

[agentladyhawkeye]

The thing is, humans can be tricky. And if they’re sufficiently pack-bonded with a ship’s crew? And that crew is in danger? They’ll willingly offer themselves up to make sure the crew survives.

They won’t tell their crewmates that whatever danger it is will just kill them slowly, that they can endure the exposure but not the long-term effects.

But the idea that humans can be fragile? Can die later from exposure to radiation or toxins or electricity or even smoke inhalation?

It seems preposterous!

There are too many stories about humans surviving all sorts of conditions that would kill their other crewmates. A human dying slowly, later, lingering and in agony? It’s a creepy story but of course it’s not true.

But then… another crew shares their own story. Their human volunteered to go into the danger zone to fix what needed to be fixed. Or maybe she had to retrieve a critical component or resource. And she lingered. Wasted away. Later the human doctors told their medical team there was nothing they could do but make sure she was comfortable, ease her pain before the end.

And yet another crew, whose human plunged through smoke and ash to make sure his crew could escape. He choked and coughed and couldn’t get enough air. Their medical commander performed an autopsy and found his lungs and throat and sinuses all coated in black soot and blackened mucus and red blood.

So the stories spread. Just because they don’t die of shock, just because they don’t die right away doesn’t mean it won’t kill them. They linger in agony or unconscious or waste away slowly.

But what’s most horrifying of all?

When other humans hear the stories from the traumatized crewmembers?

They aren’t surprised or horrified.

They say “Of course”

They say “I would have done the same”

They say “it was the Right Thing to do”

And they’ll smile (what the crew’s human would have called a sad smile) and toast to the dead. For making “The ultimate sacrifice for the folks they loved” and every human listening will say the name and drink a shot of liquor.

[blackqueerblog]

Also: don’t stigmatize HIV+ individuals because they all have different circumstances and might’ve  gotten the virus from a variety of sources (sex, occupational, birth, blood transfusions in other countries). 

HIV-related stigma remains a huge barrier to preventing HIV, and is linked to a low level of people testing for HIV. 

The bad news is that Trump is cutting America’s spending on HIV year after year.  He has taken steps to weaken the Affordable Care Act since coming to power.

[chiribomb-deactivated20220820]

I won’t stigmatise someone for being HIV+ but I sure as hell will stigmatise someone who “forgets” to inform their sexual partner of their status/take protective measures

This is good information and I’ll reblog it for that but if you have sex with someone and don’t tell them you have a sexually transmittable disease, you’re a piece of shit

[viralthings]

A different perspective about shopping local

[writing-prompt-s]

Rewrite a classic fairy tale by telling it backwards. The end is now the beginning.

[immzies-adventures-through-books]

Once upon a time there was a princess who loved so deeply that her heart was worn constantly on her sleeve. She fell in love with a prince, and the next year, her father allowed them to be wed- he remembered his own wife every day, and wished his daughter to be as happy as he had been.

The day of the wedding came, and the girl walked down the aisle in a dress of gentle silver. The Prince took her hand and smiled, and leant in to kiss her.

For luck, he would later say. A kiss for luck, a smile for joy, a laugh for a happy ending. It was a saying his own family had had for years, but it was a saying that failed him.

For the second his lips touched hers, she fell to the floor with a sigh.

Not dead they healers told the prince. not dead but sleeping, not dead but unable to wake.

The prince- so ashamed, so in fear of his life and hers- stole her away from the castle that night, away from her father and her people, so they would never have to watch her waste away.

He hid her in a forest, in a casket of diamond and ice, and he waited. Waited, for he did not even know where to start. He did not even know if the hope for her waking had a point.

He was there for two days when they found him. Seven short folk, small men with beards and axes in their hands, and harsh smiles on their faces.

We can help you they said to him, the six cackling behind the speaker. But, prince, it will come at a price.

I would pay anything. He vowed. Only later, realising he should have asked what it would be.

The Seven disappeared and left him on his own. Alone, other than the silent not-dead princess at his side.

When they returned there was an eighth with them- an old frail woman with a basket in her hands.

We will wake her she said, pulling out an apple and throwing it in their air but you will never look at her, talk to her again, and she will work in the mines with my dwarves here.

He wanted to say no. But knowing she was alive, even out of reach, was better than sleep and near death.

so yes he said. Help her.

The old woman smiled and picked out a knife, cutting the apple into small parts. One, she handed to the prince, the other, she took over to the casket, and opening it, she placed it on the princess’ lips.

A gasp, a flash of her eyes opening, and the prince knew nothing more.

***

The princess woke in a place she did not know, surrounded by people she did not know. An old woman and short men- and her prince, asleep on the ground.

He is not dead the old woman said only sleeping. But around you, he will never wake. He saved you but cursed you both- and now your life is tied to my mines.

The princess tried to fight, to leave. 

But the old woman had magic and she did not, and the dwarves were all she knew for many years. Sometimes as friends, sometimes as enemies, often arguing but always allies, they worked side by sides in the underground mines, looking for fairydust and rubies, magic and gold.

They taught her the songs of work and the songs of marches, and soon she forgot that she had even been a princess.

One evening she was walking back to their home alone, when she heard a noise to her left. She looked, expecting a rabbit, a bird, but out stepped a man with a bow in his hands.

You shouldn’t be out in the woods alone he said to her.

This is my home.

Trees are no home for anyone. She wondered if she should tell him of the many people hidden in the forest, each with no where else to go come with me.

Why?

Because I have a place you can go.

She should have said no- but what was there for her in the trees and the mine? So she took his hand and he led her out into the bright daylight, through winding roads intil they arrived at a castle she did not know.

where are we? she asked.

The Huntsman smiled my home, and the home of my queen.

He led her in through the doors, up to a room where a woman was sat on a throne. The woman stood as she saw the princess, staring at her in wide eyed shock.

You look just like her the queen whispered.

Once, the Huntsman said quietly, seeing the question in the princess’ eyes my queen had a child. A daughter who should have been your age. But she was stolen away by the man my queen loved.

You-

I’m not her  the princess said- but she had never known her mother. Only her father and an empty throne at his side.

No. the queen said, her tone one of disbelief. But I am in need of an heir, and you in need of care. Stay here a while, and let us see.

[archerestarcher]

w o a h

[wordsaremylife]

How…what…wow

[crochetingdoctorate]

Brilliant writing

[ericacrochets]

Morticia Wrist Gloves by Anna Nikipirowicz

Free Crochet Pattern Here

[hookedatweiss]

🕸 🧤 ☠

[crochetingdoctorate]

These look they would be fun and quick to make.

[ericacrochets]

Pumpkin Trio by Elisa’s Crochet

Free Crochet Pattern Here

[crochetingdoctorate]

These look lovely