Things I Say on the Internet

Transfem, systems programmer, pianist, and miscellany. I want to hear you gush about your interests.

[the-amazing-ms-menagerie]

Hey bro, you ok? Your theme is playing in minor key and slowed down. You wanna take a break?

[toskarin]

🌸 affirmations 🌸

there is nothing wrong with me

it is the world that has to change

it is the world that will change

revenge makes poor anodyne, but it will have to do

that feeling in the pit of my stomach is the dragon

heaven exists to be summited

an eye for an eye gives me two eyes

my polearm technique is unparalleled

[lordtableshark]

[prospitianescapee]

[image description: screenshots of a series of Tweets, transcribed below:]

Joel Burgess (@JoelBurgess) - 2018-08-21, 7:57 AM

Alright, so inspired by @NPurkeypile’s bee post yesterday, here is one of my favorite bits of Skyrim oral history - the myth of the treasure fox.

I’ve told this story before in talks/etc, but I don’t think I’ve shared it with twitter. Here goes.

Keep reading

[30trillioncellsinatrenchcoat]

[hustlerose]

of course you have blood all over you. and pronouns

[hustlerose]

easy website

[cryptid-on-a-string]

^^^ me when I’m trying to calm down my horse named “Website”

[batcii]

weird horse

[validwarriorcatsnames]

"Websight" is a Valid Warrior Cat Name!

[locus-p0cus]

train wreck of a post. hit reblog

[guy-named-reblog]

oww :(

[cat-eared-dollwitch]

A maid without a gun is like an angel without wings.

[bluehairedemon]

I sit in my comfortable room, wearing my pretty dress.

it's time to get out soon and don on my disguise.

I take off my gilded crown, remove my dress, erase my makeup,

and put on the ragged dress.

for that is the me the world knows; a beggar, a nobody.

at times I think: what if I didn't?

what if I stood proud as the princess I am?

but then they must think me a fool - a crazy beggar who thinks herself a princess.

and I will remember why the disguise is needed.

[deathsascension]

why am i so cringe and yet still not free

[fuzzballwithgooglyeyesonit]

Yaoi found in my local Kum & Go

[queer-as-city-folk]

there is no reason to eject the flashdrive before yanking it out og the computer

[roofon]

be nice to her????

[fuzzballwithgooglyeyesonit]

Consent is important!

[fuzzballwithgooglyeyesonit]

Thanks, Tumblr TV

[fuzzballwithgooglyeyesonit]

God gives her harshest commands to her subbiest little soldiers

[fuzzballwithgooglyeyesonit]

We’re living through history, which means some history major 200 years from now will be autistic about us

[toc-the-elder]

They have closed my universal credit claim and as a result I no longer have any income. This is effectively the end of my life unless I can do something quick. I don't want to beg. I just want to survive until I can work out something. Anything. I don't know what to do. If people can reblog this that would be very helpful. Any donations would be very kind. If you want to buy nudes or something idk message me, I have never done that before but this is where we're at. Idk what do do

Go to paypal.me/rachelj1994 and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

[toc-the-elder]

Only two people have actually helped me. Thank you to you two.

[toc-the-elder]

Please im fucking begging. I can't pay for my internet bill. If I can't pay it, I lose my both my phone and my internet. That's my life over. Please. Something. Anything.

[animentality]

[fuzzballwithgooglyeyesonit]

This exactly! The internet could’ve been a haven of free self expression but instead it wound up being the exact opposite for many people. But it wasn’t always like that!

I read a great paper about this, I wish I could remember the author, it was a sociological study of the history of the internet. If you go back far enough, people having an alternate online persona was pretty much the norm; then about how early website designs gushed personality, or how online games like MUDs and MUCKs actively encouraged character roleplaying, sometimes as the sole focus of the experience. Fast forward to today and you don’t really see as many alter egos any more, just people trying to contort their real self into something more popular.

There’s a few speculative reasons why this could be. It could be that as “normies” started to get on the internet, they shifted it to something more like what we see today. It could be that once the internet began to be seen as a professional space in addition to a personal one, people started acting more “serious.” It could be that the concept of a social media redefined how people use the internet. Most likely it’s a combination of many factors. Either way, it sucks.

As a final thought, anyone who made it all the way down here should read Lena Raine’s digital novel ESC. It touches on many themes about identity and the internet, including this one, in a really poignant way that I won’t spoil.

[fuzzballwithgooglyeyesonit]

If you’re ever feeling like a worthless, useless lump of a human, go sign up to edit Wikipedia. It even has a tool to find articles with easy to fix errors so you don’t have to manually comb through articles to feel useful. Then you can correct some spelling/tone errors and sit back with some satisfaction after 10 minutes of work

[fuzzballwithgooglyeyesonit]

A rage-fueled note to anyone who designs surveys: Stop Doing Multiple Choice unless, by the rules of formal logic, there really are only a finite number of valid responses. You’ll quickly find that this very rarely happens. Just use a text box.

Some clarifications:

But text responses are harder to process! True, most things are harder to process when you don’t oversimplify them. When I see a survey lump me unwillingly into a category (or forget me altogether), I don’t think “well at least their data is easier to clean.” Inform your groups based on your responses, rather than the other way around.

It’s ok, I included an “other” option. No, that’s called “othering.” When the only option that fits my identity is “other,” you’re telling me you don’t care about people like me enough to think of them. Same goes for “prefer not to say” or any other catch-all categories. It hurts.

Accounting for all responses makes my project unmanageable! If your project relies on reducing a breathing human person to a category, you should think really hard about the kind of harm your project could cause both on an individual level and a systemic one.

Isn’t this a bit extreme? Maybe, I don’t care. I’m mad on the internet right now because I had to take one too many surveys that forgot trans people existed.

[fuzzballwithgooglyeyesonit]

One more thing: if your project really does rely on marginalizing groups of people, and you decide to go through with it anyway, at least be upfront about it. Fucking say it with your chest so that the people you ignore don’t waste time on your survey.