I got locked out of my actual blog and don't know when I'll get it back, so this is going to be either my new temporary or permanent blog. I'm using the opportunity to start over on a blank slate, but if you were a mutual of mine I'm probably going to tell you my old URL.
Pronouns: he/him, masculine or neutral terms only
Feel free to send me asks or DMs, I see them although I may not always respond. All likes, reblogs, tags and comments are always welcome unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Minors can interact, but I am an adult and have a tag for 18+ posts. If you're not an adult, please stay away from those posts and block the tag if you don't want to see that stuff. You can find it at the bottom under the cut. Also I'd prefer if you don't follow me if you're younger than 18, if you're under 15 I'm going to actively soft block you.
About me:
I'm in my 20s, living with a little purring furball. I'm interested in creating stuff (whether that is drawing, painting, playing guitar, crocheting, 3D printing, soldering, baking or cooking) and taking things apart to fix them, reuse them, figure them out or modify them. I've taken apart most of the electric devices I own at least once.*
I am neurodivergent (autism, CPTSD and chronic depression, maybe ADHD) and queer. I try not to, but I might sound very bored/dismissive/rude/unexcited even when that is not the case. I try to use tone tags to circumnavigate that issue, but if I don't, please don't assume the worst. Criticism is always welcome, as long as it's in good faith and constructive.
(*I work in IT and am qualified as an electrician, so don't do that if you don't know what you're doing.)
About this blog:
I try to tag common triggers, but I might miss something occasionally. Please tell me if I do, as well as when there is a thing I am not tagging you'd like me to tag in the future.
This blog has a 0 tolerance policy for any kind of radfeminism, if you are any flavor of radfem, you're not welcome here (TERF, TIRF, SWERF, TRF, whatever). Nor do I tolerate any other kind of bigotry (racism, ableism, queerphobic, classism, saneism, etc.) or exclusionary behaviour (e.g. biphobia, aphobia, intersexism, transmisia, exorsexism, etc.).
Additionally, I am anti censorship, death penalty, moralising kink and bio-/gender essentialism, and I am pro bodily autonomy, body neutrality, sex neutrality, human rights for all and using conflicting labels. If you take issue with any of that, I suggest you save your time and go somewhere else.
NSFW asks and DMs are also fine, but the same rules as for normal ones still count, on top of no messages from minors. Also no forcefem, detrans, dd/lg or anything involving piss/shit/vomit. I'll probably expand this section in the future.
I might edit this post in the future with new tags/fandoms/rules/etc. I'll tag when it's been the last time I've done so.
Fandoms/Interests:
I'm not always active in all of the fandoms, but I am open for talking about all of them as well as my interests.
✧ Disco Elysium
✧ Pathologic
✧ Marble Hornets
✧ OFF
✧ ƎNA
✧ Undertale/Deltarune
✧ DHMIS
Tags:
#✧ old man yells at cloud <- personal/original posts
#✧ yapping <- reblogs with commentary
#✧ putting them in the plinko <- blorbo/fandomposting
#✧ mdni <- 18+ posts
...
Wowsers, you actually read the whole thing? If you actually read all that, then you get a cookie for your attention -> 🍪
“Haha remember when murder-hornets were gonna be a thing? What a nothingburger.”
Yes, because the Washington state government activated like a sleeper-cell and ruthlessly, systematically hunted them down and annihilated them.
“Y2K came to nothing amirite?”
Yes because an army of software engineers working around the clock, losing sleep, and busting ass till the last minute prevented it from happening.
“Remember the hole in the ozone layer?”
You mean the one that was fixed through rigorous world wide government action?
One of the root problems of our society is a refusal or inability by media to articulate that all those “it’s gonna be an apocalypse” disasters were not disasters because we collectively did something about them.
The good news is this is actually quite correctable. I maintain my firm belief that we as humans are capable of solving almost all of our problems, when we decide to do so.
And I still think that’s going to happen. I don’t know when or how, but I do know that abandoning hope won’t help bring it about.
And I refuse to let the cynics own a chunk of my heart.
I keep seeing posts trying to educate on what a wheelchair "looks like" if someone is using it long-term, often aimed at helping with character design. I have noticed that sometimes people on here can treat certain traits of active manual chairs as more "desirable" or "independent" than others, so here's some pictures of what active manual chairs that are still for independent use can look like. Not everyone's chair has a low back, no handles, no armrests, 90-degree angle frame!
I've tried to use product promotion or visualiser images where possible to avoid having photographs of any individual's chair; where that's not possible because visualisers don't have every option, I've tried to use photos from second-hand resellers. Image descriptions are in alt text.
Active chairs can have tall backrests.
They might be with or without lateral supports (at the sides to help keep the torso upright). Note that tall backrests often taper to free the shoulders more, so people may still push independently. Pictured: Quickie 5R with Spex Mantaray backrest, Motion Composites Apex with NXT X-Tend backrest. The Spex is much higher support than the NXT.
Active chairs can have headrests.
Nothing wrong with supporting the neck and head. Doesn't make anyone less of an independent active person if they need positioning support. Can even keep people active longer - being able to sit upright does wonders for daily activity compared to sliding into a melted puddle or not being able to hold your head and neck up. Pictured: Ki Mobility Rogue XP (blue) and Tilite Aero Z (pink).
Active chairs can have armrests.
There's even different types, like tubular swing-away armrests and single-post armrests. They can be positioned to not interfere with propelling, or be removable. Pictured: Quickie Nitrum/Quickie Nitrum Hybrid; tubular armrest on blue chair, single-post armrest on orange chair.
Active chairs can have handles.
Sometimes they're attached to the top of the back canes (the posts the backrest is attached to), and sometimes they attach to the rigidiser bar (the horizontal bar between the back canes) or lower down the back canes to keep them out of the way of the user's shoulders. And not having handles does not prevent strangers pushing people. Pictured: Kuschall K-Series; integrated push handles on black and red chair, clamp on handles on pink chair.
Active chairs can have anti-tippers.
Yes, many active users choose not to use them because it makes wheelies easier, but they're very useful for saving you from unexpected falls, and there's nothing wrong with having them. Many are removable and some swing up out of the way to allow wheelies or going backwards down a kerb. Pictured: Tilite Z.
Active chairs can have different frame angles.
No, seriously, 90 degree frame angle can actually kind of suck. That's a really tight angle to have your knees at all day every day, and a lot of people find that painful or it can risk complications. 90 degrees is good for maneuverability, but it's too tight for most users. It's common to see angles from 90 degrees to 70 degrees. Pictured: Kuschall Champion; 90 degree angle on green chair, 70 degree angle on blue chair.
If you're wanting to understand the different parts that can make up an active manual chair, whether because you're a wheelchair user wanting to be informed ahead of a prescription appointment or someone designing a character, try tinkering with the options in Sunrise Medical's Quickie Nitrum visualiser or the several models in the Kuschall visualiser. Being able to see what the options are really helps.
Not all options are in these visualisers because some are considered specialty (particularly headrests and different kinds of trunk and leg supports), and they only cover specific manual active chairs and not powerchairs or custom standard chairs, but it's a helpful place to start.
> Someone reblogs and says “and trans women too”
>people cheer them on
> another person reblogs with “and trans men too”
> people clown on them for even mentioning the stinky stupid men. How DARE a man (who has a reproductive system and is viewed by society as a mentally ill woman) enter himself into the conversation!
trans mens rights are also rooted in womens rights and people do not understand what i mean by that and get really weird about it. until issues like reproductive healthcare, domestic abuse, rape, child marriage/forced pregnancy, corrective rape, ect. are no longer considered womens rights, then trans mens rights will also be rooted in womens rights, because we are affected by all that and more and typically have a way more complicated relationship with these things than women do on account of being trans men
When you manage a fabric store in a midwest town, you see this played out in real time. Young women coming in during that first year of marriage - when their husbands go to dental college - pert, bubbling with creative plans. Then, four years on, you help them shift to the reality of balancing budget with creativity - and they learn the value of that inexpensive flatfold table that they used to badmouth - to make that 2nd & 3rd baby their own quilts. And they're exhausted. And they're scared. And they are 1000 miles away from family.
And you have your staff play with their kids while you hold them in the tiny restroom as they come completely undone because they just found out that their golden boy husband is having an affair with the someone he's been doing residency with for the past three years.
He confessed that he'd rather be with the other woman but she's of a different faith and it's more important to have kids than to be happy. And no. No he will not grant her a divorce. And he will not stop seeing the other woman - because he's a man. It's his right.
TRUE story.
Also - She was NOT THE ONLY ONE to fall to pieces in our store for similar reasons.
I loath the ideology of "tradwives". It is a false doctrine preach by Patriarchy not a divine being.
This is 100% what happened to the host mom I've been au-pairing for. And to many other moms my friends have been au-pairing for.
Married out of college, 4 kids, he spent 15 years building up his career while she took care of the house and the kids. When he was earning $600k a year suddenly he started to pull away - she wasn't as pretty anymore, the kids were loud, the house was a mess... She wasn't good enough anymore. He got himself a flat. He got her me and my precedessors to help with the kids. No, they can't divorce, that would make him pay her money for the kids and he didn't like that. Every once in a while a bill would be unpaid. My weekly checks would bounce. We lived in a $1,5mil house around DC and our gas or water was turned off more than once.
Somehow he was always out of money.
By accident she learned from a friend of a friend that he was actually seeing a young lady lawyer for a few years now. It wasn't her, it wasn't lost interest. He was just a piece of shit.
Thankfully, she had family that took no shit and they stood behind her and borrowed her money for lawyers to force the divorce now that she had proof of him cheating. She's spent tens of thousands to get there while he was resisting every step of the way - because without divorce he wouldn't have to pay her alimony, he could just throw scraps whenever he wanted and still pretend to be a good dad.
She's spent tens of thousands and two years to free herself from this man, and when she could finally go to work (thank fuck she finished college) she was earning $25k a year.
She only managed to get away with the support of her parents and family. Through the au-pair grapevine I've known other families like that. Too many. Lady down the street tried to commit suicide when same happened to her - she was from Taiwan and had no support to get free. And people around scorned her for being "dramatic" - women who held on to their places with their fingertips talked shit about her, because their own husbands would never...! Right?
This? This is the kind of shit that first wave feminists and suffragettes were fighting against. Hell, even into second-wave feminism.
This? Is why conservatives want to take away no-fault divorce--because if some dude says no to a divorce and you don't have any (IRON-TIGHT) evidence of cheating? Then you're stuck in that situation and he doesn't have to pay a drop toward you and your kids. He can go get a flat, fuck his mistress, and you will starve with your kids until you can get some kind of proof of him cheating and a judge who likes you.
Now imagine all of this horror movie shit, AND you can't open a bank account without this piece of shit opening it with you. That was what women dealt with until about the 70s when we were finally allowed to open bank accounts with a man's signature.
That is what conservatives and fundies want to take you back to. When this shit was just the fucking norm.
There are old white guys still alive who remember who damn nice it was when a woman couldn't open a bank account without a man's signature and his dad could go live a double life with a mistress with zero repercussions and oh how they slather and drool for those times. And how they have waxed poetic about these halcyon days to their desperate daddy-issues sons now eager to please and without the social skills or emotional maturity to understand the fucked up nature of it all.
I'm willing to bet there's like 2 or 3 Tradhusbands(tm) out there for every Tradwife you see, they just haven't found someone they can sink their claws into. Which should maybe terrify you. This Tradwife(tm) movement should really be considered a canary in the coal mine.
I think I’d be a lot more open to TMA/TME language if it were actually used to define and highlight oppression instead of just forming an oppressed in-group that needs to constantly fear the outgroup.
and I know I’ve made that post before but the conversation around what we get to call anti-transmasculine oppression and discrimination got me thinking about who is allowed to define their oppression.
I do think transfems and trans women should make their own words and language to define their oppression, discrimination and struggles. I think any minority group should have their right to be heard on their own struggles defended. I think a majority of transfeminist theory (actual transfeminist theory, not just discourse on tumblr (because timely reminder that’s genuinely where we are right now)) has a lot of merit, and a lot of points worth listening to and incorporating into broader feminist theory. Similarly, I think transmisogyny has a lot of mileage as a term, and is a good way to speak up about the injustices faced by transfems and trans women.
but when does language used to define and speak on oppression become a tool against other oppressed groups? Is it when tma/tme language is used to alienate non-transfems from discussions around common experiences of transphobia? Is it when tma/tme language is used to really just mean afab trans folks? Is it when that language is then used in sentences like “kill all tmes” “bomb that explodes all tmes” and “tmes aren’t actually part of the trans community”? The framing of transmascs as exempt from the specific type of transphobia being highlighted by this language then makes it very easy to see taking a swing at us punching up instead of across.
and moreover, my dislike of the use of tma/tme also means I don’t like “transandrophobia-affected” and “transandrophobia-exempt”. The terms have actual criticism beyond just not including transmascs and trans men. The main uses I’ve seen of taa/tae are jokingly, but if they were to become actual terms I’d oppose them too. Black and white binaries of oppressed/oppression exempt are not useful, especially in discussion around communities that will always have exceptions, outliers and fringe cases by the very nature of those communities.
So I just simultaneously did, and possibly didn't lose my job today :)
Very much did in the sense that I literally do not know where my job is at the moment. But, for the time being I haven't been let go because nobody else including the store owner knows where it is either.
So, I don't wanna risk doxxing myself by posting pictures but goddamn am I tempted because this is not a believable event. This is a cartoon problem. For looneytoons.
But yeah, so, I work(ed?) at a kiosk selling boba tea, right? Freestanding kiosk in the mall with full water and electrical hookups and multiple fridges and sinks and a mini kitchen and the works. Fully functional tea shop. Very important to note that it was there last night, The work chat was discussing another issue last night at closing time. I'll get back to this.
It's been showing signs of being on the way out with how business is being handled lately and I've been considering other options, which is probably why I'm not as torn up about this as I should be, but maybe it just hasn't set in yet, but that's not the point. The point is there's been a lot of shit breaking and not being replaced and nobody mentioning anything about it until I walk into work in the morning and have to figure out why shit like the fucking cash register isn't there today. So I'm kinda used to having to ask questions about big things that nobody bothered to update me on. I was out for two weeks recovering from a surgery, so I came to work this morning assuming there'd be some kind of bullshit, yeah?
So, the question I had to ask the chat this morning was:
Not a text I ever thought I'd have to send in sincerity, but there it is. Because what I found instead was a fenced off patch of discolored tiles and a few holes in the floor where my entire place of employment used to be.
And the answer? Nobody knows! It was there last night when the mall closed, and every single trace of the structure and all its contents including drink making supplies and our safe and cashbox was gone when it opened again. And when I say nobody knows, I mean everyone from last night's closers to the actual (former?) owner of the store jad no fucking clue about this until getting that text from me this morning. For once I am actually the first to know. 🎉.
So. I guess I didn't so much lose my job as had it stolen. Not by AI, but good old fashioned hands-on human beings picking it up and carrying it away somehow. All mall security would tell me was that they were instructed not to tell me anything and have us contact our management. Who also don't know anything. And later on I came across some construction workers around the gravesite of the kiosk discussing filling in the holes, asked them about it, and was told that they "weren't at liberty to say".
So, not only is my job gone in the most literal physical sense of the word, but it was taken in some kind of super secret kiosk extraction in the dead of night without any warning or witnesses and nobody is allowed to speak of it. The store owner said she was gonna figure it out 10 hours ago and still no word back.
I don't know what else to say aside from I've been laughing all day and I'm gonna have a hell of a time explaining Schrodinger's Unemployment to the benefits office.
Update that is not an update because I'm basically certain this isn't what actually happened:
My mother in law thinks the FBI took it.
Not any of the other stores around the state. Just the one little kiosk.
Why? Because she loves a conspiracy and is just a little bit extra.
Also because she was around for the massive crackdown on Yakuza-owned businesses in Waikiki (in her homestate) that did actually involve the FBI seizing stores (no confirmation of making kiosks cleanly disappear in the middle of the night though).
Still no word from my job on what's actually going on, but the most likely theory so far is that maybe the kiosk was on lease and got repossessed? The mystery continues
(also shout out to the person who proposed Carmen Sandiego)
According to the owner, based on what she's been able to find out, the kiosk was not removed legally and they're starting a potentially long process of legal action. I hope she gets to sue the shit out of whoever did it but for now at least I know for sure I'm unemployed.
Really hoping for more details in terms of who/why/how, so I'll keep updating if I learn anything.
For now the summary is: An unnamed entity that is most likely mall management (on account of mall security cooperating with them) stole an entire kiosk and all the contents including money and machinery with barely a trace in the middle of the night grinch-style, with zero warning or explanation, and ensured the silence of both security and the construction crew, in an action that was definitely preplanned and illegal, and as far as I know nobody knows its whereabouts.
So now I'm officially out of a job. Because my workplace was literally stolen in the night.
Actually fuck it let's share some photos cause I wouldn't be inclined to believe this myself. It's not like anyone can stalk me at my job now and I'm not gonna have to see any coworkers that might find my tumblr.
Enjoy the unintentionally funniest text I've ever sent in my life
Aaand a close-up:
The last remains of a once Very Much Solid And Immobile Workplace
