[metastablephysicist]

i should probably make a pinned post so here it is

i'm a physicist, butch lesbian, long distance runner, and probably some other things that i'm forgetting. i like to paint, read, & train my dog in my spare time.

here are some things i tag my posts with when i remember to:

metaposting. this is a tag for my posts and/or posts about me

soy yo. images of me

physblr. physics stuff

lair uh bee ya. arabic stuff

español. spanish stuff

toki pona. you guessed it, toki pona stuff :)

my art. self explanatory

plance. posting about my plants

aquarium. posting about my fish tank

my discord is @ unbiunium if you would like to keep in touch!

[jetix]

Insect pot by Yui Suzuki, 2025-04-10

[firebatvillain]

One fun thing about learning new languages is reconsidering the structure of words and language in your mother tongue. It seems with each new language I study, I get more little insights into English, either in how it's similar or how it's different.

For example, a couple years ago, while learning Spanish, I encountered the word for a store, "la tienda." I thought "huh, that's a lot like tener (tiene) - the word for store in Spanish literally corresponds to 'to have/keep'. How interesting!"

Then I stopped for a moment, and for the first time in my life, thought about seriously about the meaning of English word for the place where you buy things, "a store."

[metastablephysicist]

feliz bebendo mi awa biernes

[mark-gently]

dog mathematician: arff (arf and only arf)

[thirdity]

“You write the beginning and then you go back and rewrite the beginning, and you never got off page one. It’s kind of a syndrome, and I have a rash piece of advice which is — Go on, page two, page three, and never look back. Get something finished, no matter how lousy it is. […] Perfectionists cannot get going unless they kind of do violence to their own instincts, and just blast ahead.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Last Interview and Other Conversations

[transgenderer]

i dont like how "trust-based" a lot of advanced math is. like, a lot of papers will at various points say "we did this calculation, and got this", (like, two steps in equation manipulation will be related in a very unclear way) and not show you the calculation. and i get it, typing up the calculation is annoying. but often, i will try to replicate the calculation, and will not be able to! and generally i assume this is because i am much worse at math than the author. but like. i guess i just have to take your word for it that the calculation works! this sucks! math isnt supposed to be like this! thats the whole point!

[werothegreat]

The worst part is when this happens *in a textbook*, i.e. the thing that is *supposed to be teaching you*. "The derivation has been left as an exercise for the reader" fuck you

[transgenderer]

yeah i mean the crazy thing about leaving it as an exercise for the reader without putting the answer in the back or something is like. if youre doing advanced math, theres a good chance an explicit derivation doesnt exist in public writing, literally anywhere.

[smokey-eyes-and-bright-ties]

“All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change.”

Octavia E. Butler born on this day in Pasadena, California.

June 22, 1947- February 24, 2006

[libraryleopard]

well maybe i don't wanna work in a fast-paced, flexible environment that requires great verbal communication skills

[hardwrench]

QUARK deserves all of the disgusting cultural ubiquity & power that Yoda and his foul child possess

[romanceyourdemons]

guy currently hurtling toward a migraine at a rate that would impress most astrophysicists: i wonder wgat is happening in my beautiful telephone

[macabrevampire]

i think avoiding everything is going to save me for real this time

[pilferedinstagram]

[birds-in-posts]

California quail (Callipepla californica)

[mapsontheweb]

Map of regional rug patterns of Iran.

[matarsack]

This map is actually accurate. If you go to its source, WikiRug and click on each province, it will direct you to a wikirug page about that particular rug.

[ursula-legun]

ok hi. i've tried doing this several times and i keep getting fucked over by having niche phone models. but does anybody have recommendations for an android phone that's easy to root, AND is compatible with a (functional!!!!!!) alternative ROM, AND is a reasonably durable phone??

Generally I only get "active/sport/rugged" phone models, like the shit made for construction workers, because i am clumsy and also love to jump around a lot. but these are generally incompatible with any easy-to-install ROMs that i've found, and I'm not code-savvy enough to customize anything such that they could be installed anyway.

(functional, btw, means that it needs to be able to run signal, SMS, make calls, and ideally be able to play music files from a large microSD card. i don't need it to have anything else.)

[synjectivism]

okay heres the thing about why being, as a general rule, kind, is politically expedient. people are not primed to be able to

reflect critically on a profound level about themselves and their actions and beliefs and the world they live in

be increasingly open to complexity, nuance, and ambiguity

be open to major change in general

when they feel a sense of hostility. these are things that are most easily and safely done in a supportive and safe environment. & these are also things that are pretty crucial for being able to productively change your worldview.

it suckkkkssss because people are annoying and hateful and hypocritical and infuriating. and yet pressure does not always make diamonds. if you want people to be more leftist than leftist spaces and communities and the relationships people have with these ideas needs to be one which does, foundationally, make people feel seen and heard and encourages them to buy in to the group emotionally and credally.

obligatory disclaimer this is not saying tolerate misogyny racism transphobia genocide denial conspiracy theories etc etc or even to water down leftism to appeal to whoever. its about presenting these ideas in a manner and an environment that is encouraging people to drop their walls and open their mind. you can lead a horse to water and it may choose to drink, but if you try to drag it there or beat it in that direction, it probably won't. or it will take a much longer time and be a lot more stressful for everyone.

so yeah sometimes being nice and compassionate and seeking understanding is in fact the most politically crucial thing to do. and some people are definitely more emotionally / mentally equipped to engage in that work than others! but idk i think if your model of spreading leftism involves a lot of telling people to kill themselves. it may suck ass i fear

[chucktaylorupset]

You can’t just call the “don’t stop me now” essay writing method the second worst essay method you’ve heard of and not tell us the story of the worst one 👀

i know a guy whose patented essay writing method is to, on the eve of the due date, set an alarm so early it should count as an atrocity, open an empty word doc on his computer and then placing it on his bed,

he then goes to sleep, presumably after drinking a full can of coke, as his immunity to caffeine, adderall, and the general life choices about to be described prove that (1) this man almost certainly is a colossal case of adhd and (2) that is the least of what’s wrong with him

when the alarm goes off he immediately starts typing into the word document whilst in a sleep adjacent fugue state. once he hits the required word count, he turns over and goes back to sleep, without ever having fully woken up

he awakens in the morning with however many pages of essay typed up and ready to submit, with no memory of what content is actually contained, as if he’d been visited by santa or a mystical essay delivering fairy or a demon that engaged in a brief bout of possession and then peaced out after rightfully deducing that inhabitation of this particular body and its life was a task said demon was not equal to, nor would continuation of this possession constitute as a desirable state

all of this so that he can have the benefits of an essay, whilst completely avoiding a mental state in which he is at any point fully present in experiencing the pain of writing an essay.

This man is now in graduate school.

[prudencepaccard]

this is how innies were invented