science wizard-princess @myriad-rainbows - Tumblr Blog

alecscudder1987

going to the eye doctor this week because i have started squinting at stuff......i have had perfect vision for 22 years and now...im so sorry every1.....what do i do how do i pick glasses?????

myriad-rainbows

oKAY so a lot of people will be very happy to tell you all about what colors and shapes suit your undertones and the shape of your face. I will not do this because I don't understand it at all. here are my very AuDHD recommendations:

have a budget in mind before you go. some frames cost like $50 at a brick and mortar, some like $300. maybe more these days/if you go to a fancy place. I actually like to pick two budget numbers: one I'm willing to spend on "I don't love these but they're fine" and one for "okay, if they're perfect in every other respect I might be willing to spend a little extra."

try to go on a day you're not already overstimulated. if they dilate your eyes and you have the option logistically to come back a different day to pick out glasses, do that! (or order them through Zenni or another online retailer; you can often save quite a bit of money this way, but the downside of getting them not-in-person is you can't get them adjusted by a pro right away.)

try on SO many frames. maybe grab a bunch that look interesting right away, or maybe grab just a few that are different styles to start with. (if you're really worried about making extra work for the employees you can always ask them what they want you to do with the ones you try on but don't want; but I promise they're used to people doing this and probably unfortunately worse.)

some initial considerations for picking which frames to try on: what colors tend to show up a lot in your wardrobe? grab some frames that are those colors, and/or whose colors you like in combination with those colors. (note that I don't say "go together"; colors going together is a social construct deeply influenced by white supremacy and cisheteropatriarchy. do whatever you want forever.) what are some styles you like? presumably some people who habitually wear that style also wear glasses. this might be one of the few times pinterest is useful for something but if so you will have to undertake that quest without my guidance, for there I do not tread. you can also look to fictional characters or real life famous people whose styles you think are neat & who wear glasses. check out what kind of glasses they wear. maybe that style looks good on you too! finally, do you just think they look cool?

when you actually try them, consider: are there any that you look at on your face and go "Wow! that looks like ME! that's what a me is supposed to look like!"? If so, these are a STRONG CONTENDER! but still proceed with the rest of the steps before making a final purchase. If any of them make you actively unhappy to see on your face those go immediately into the NO pile. (that's like, in comparison with whatever baseline feelings you have about your face.) If there are maybes, start out by putting them in a maybe pile, then make a second pass through the maybe pile and see if you can figure out what's making each a maybe rather than a yes: color? thickness? angularity/roundness? width? It's also possible you will simply not feel the Right Glasses Euphoria because you're used to the way your face looks without them. (I have been wearing glasses for 23 years so I have the opposite problem.) if that's the case you may need to go with an "eh, good enough" pair looks-wise and hope you adjust.

are they in your budget?

consider comfort/wearability: do they squish your head? if so the frame width might be too narrow. do the arms press on your ear in a way that feels bad? the arms should bend just past the highest point of your ear. are the nose pads a type you find comfortable? typically metal/wire frames will have little wobbly nose pads on wires that stick off, and acetate or plastic frames will not (they kind of have little wings on the inner edges of each lens that help the glasses rest on your nose.

have a budget in mind before you go. some frames cost like $50 at a brick and mortar, some like $300. maybe more these days/if you go to a fancy place. I actually like to pick two budget numbers: one I'm willing to spend on "I don't love these but they're fine" and one for "okay, if they're perfect in every other respect I might be willing to spend a little extra."

try to go on a day you're not already overstimulated. if they dilate your eyes and you have the option logistically to come back a different day to pick out glasses, do that! (or order them through Zenni or another online retailer; you can often save quite a bit of money this way, but the downside of getting them not-in-person is you can't get them adjusted by a pro right away.)

try on SO many frames. maybe grab a bunch that look interesting right away, or maybe grab just a few that are different styles to start with. (if you're really worried about making extra work for the employees you can always ask them what they want you to do with the ones you try on but don't want; but I promise they're used to people doing this and probably unfortunately worse.)

some initial considerations for picking which frames to try on: what colors tend to show up a lot in your wardrobe? grab some frames that are those colors, and/or whose colors you like in combination with those colors. (note that I don't say "go together"; colors going together is a social construct deeply influenced by white supremacy and cisheteropatriarchy. do whatever you want forever.) what are some styles you like? presumably some people who habitually wear that style also wear glasses. this might be one of the few times pinterest is useful for something but if so you will have to undertake that quest without my guidance, for there I do not tread. you can also look to fictional characters or real life famous people whose styles you think are neat & who wear glasses. check out what kind of glasses they wear. maybe that style looks good on you too! finally, do you just think they look cool?

when you actually try them, consider: are there any that you look at on your face and go "Wow! that looks like ME! that's what a me is supposed to look like!"? If so, these are a STRONG CONTENDER! but still proceed with the rest of the steps before making a final purchase. If any of them make you actively unhappy to see on your face those go immediately into the NO pile. (that's like, in comparison with whatever baseline feelings you have about your face.) If there are maybes, start out by putting them in a maybe pile, then make a second pass through the maybe pile and see if you can figure out what's making each a maybe rather than a yes: color? thickness? angularity/roundness? width? It's also possible you will simply not feel the Right Glasses Euphoria because you're used to the way your face looks without them. (I have been wearing glasses for 23 years so I have the opposite problem.) if that's the case you may need to go with an "eh, good enough" pair looks-wise and hope you adjust.

are they in your budget?

consider comfort/wearability: do they squish your head? if so the frame width might be too narrow or the arms might be bent in too far. do the arms press on your ear in a way that feels bad? the arms should bend just past the highest point of your ear. are the nose pads a type you find comfortable? typically metal/wire frames will have little wobbly nose pads on wires that stick off, and acetate or plastic frames will not (they kind of have little wings on the inner edges of each lens that help the glasses rest on your nose. if you bend forward while wearing them do they slip off? if you shake your head with gradually increasing vigor do they feel like they're about to fly away? if yes to either, the frame width might be too wide or the arms might be bent out too far. frame width is often printed on the inside of one of the arms in millimeters, along with lens width and bridge width; the frame width is usually the third number. if your glasses seem too narrow or too wide you can either pick a different frame width or see if you can get the arms adjusted to fit your head better.

ummm yeah I think that's all I got. good luck!

#how to #myriad mutters

gallusrostromegalus

Well. It's the Fourth Of July. Again.

For those of you who aren't familiar, I live in an exceptionally flammable part of the United States, and despite the fact that every goddamn year multiple parts of my state catch fire, destroy homes and kill people, the local assholes insist on getting drunk and setting fire to a bunch of illegal explosives anyway. In 2023, God granted me a Miracle that prevented my house from burning down.

Last year, I had to resort to Psychological and Chemical Warfare to keep the patriotic arsonists at bay.

This year is apparently An Important Birthday for the clusterfuck we have the nerve to call a nation, so despite the fact there is so much smoke in the air that the sun has literally been blood red for the last week, the pyrotechnic fetishists are out in force.

Last year, I hit upon the concept that if my neighbors were going to act like problem animals, it would make sense to use the management techniques on them that you might use on say, a Bear that was doing serious property damage. Thusly, I created The Stench, a nontoxic but FOUL smelling concoction that I could discretely spray around the flammable gatherings and render the area extremely uncomfortable to occupy for the rest of the night, forcing them to give up or move on.

If this seems harsh: There is no story from 2024 because a grass fire was started by fireworks less than 12 miles from me and the high winds put me in the evacuation zone in under an hour. Over fifty people lost their homes. Errant fireworks burning my house down is a very real possibility, and I pay the price in anxiety and insurance premiums.

The Stench is noxious but harmless, and also very effective at building a buffer zone around my home. But sneaking up to parties on foot in this heat is both exhausting and nerve-wracking. There have to be more effective ways to do this

-And there is! It involves Weeds and Business Cards :)

gallusrostromegalus

Well. It's not quite an hour into July 5th. I am very tired, may have destroyed my sense of smell, and am not sure if I'm proud of or VERY disappointed in my fellow citizens.

On one hand: FAR fewer fireworks parties this year!

- Only nine to last year's thirteen - three of them had the good sense to be firing their recreational explosives out over the local reservoir - That's far from foolproof - and really bad for the fish - also y'all are RIGHT NEXT to where the Bald Eagles are nesting - but congratulations on at least attempting some risk mitigation!

On the other hand.

#story time

queen-breha-organa-archived-dea

This Fourth of July, I ask that you support Native Hawaiian independence.

The Kingdom of Hawai’i was illegally overthrown with the help of American businessmen and we have suffered under the iron grip of America.

Our land is simply seen as a vacation spot, my people are simply seen as tour guides and hula dancers. We have had our culture, our history, and our people turned into a commercialized joke by America.

The rampant tourism kills our islands with endless hotels, attractions and overcrowding. The housing and living costs are out of control because of the false “paradise” narrative. The Navy poisons our water and destroys our land. Covid has killed so many of my people due to the reckless and selfish nature of tourists. I have lost loved ones to this virus, because tourists “couldn’t stay away”.

My people have suffered. I have suffered.

We are more than your vacation. We are more than an aesthetic.

We are a sovereign nation illegally occupied by the United States of America.

Restore Hawai’i to Hawaiians. End the American Occupation.

See the links below to learn more and to read up on your Hawaiian history.

Americans overthrow Hawaiian monarchy | HISTORY

Hawaiian scholar Dr. Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio explains the movement asking the United States to return the lands taken during a 18

‘Āina Momona is a Native Hawaiian led community organization dedicated to environmental sustainability, food security and resilience, and so

The United States Navy has a history of terrorism in Hawaiʻi (and throughout the world). In 1940 the Navy started to build the Red Hill Fuel

The latest number brings the statewide total since the start of the pandemic to 308,695.

myriad-rainbows

okay so I knowwww this book is from the 60s & people have cognitive biases they don't always recognize regardless of how hard they're trying to overcome them and I knowwww making shallow criticisms of Rachel Carson places me among rather distasteful company but like.

ma'am. what are you implying the environment is made of.

myriad-rainbows

weather? climate? except wait, those are also shaped by biological organisms. maybe geology? but geology isn't a whole environment.

now, reading this charitably, we might interpret her as intending to say that the period of time in which life consciously modifies its surroundings has been relatively slight. except, oops, then the last sentence still doesn't work because (a) attributing consciousness/intention to humans only is an extremely Eurocentric/colonizer perspective, (b) while mainline "western" science may still often dismiss (or at least be hesitant about) the idea of nonhuman sapience, a lot of other scientists are like "well, what IS consciousness or intention anyway and how would we prove whether a being does or doesn't have it?" and most saliently (c) HUMANS HAVE BEEN CONSCIOUSLY MODIFYING OUR ENVIRONMENT SINCE WE'VE BEEN HUMAN.

what.

#myriad mutters

okay so I knowwww this book is from the 60s & people have cognitive biases they don't always recognize regardless of how hard they're trying to overcome them and I knowwww making shallow criticisms of Rachel Carson places me among rather distasteful company but like.

ma'am. what are you implying the environment is made of.

#myriad mutters

jadagul

Found myself wanting to say that "consuming text is easy and passive, unlike video which requires active effort to watch" and then realized this is the opposite of what basically every other human being would say.

#well it looks like there's at least ~400 of us #(I wouldn't describe reading as passive for me but it's def way less effortful)

argentconflagration

when the subject of "why do people believe things that are seriously wrong and harmful" comes up it feels like you kinda hear one of two perspectives:

"oh, that's easy! it's because they're fundamentally Bad people who want to hurt others and choose their beliefs to justify that! :) hope this helps"

or

"they just don't have access to the same information we do. look at this person who was raised in a cult! don't you feel sorry for her?"

and like, yes, fine, some people were in fact raised in cults, but what i wish people would understand is that the bulk of it is just normal human flaws, like:

they want to believe stuff that makes them feel smart and cool and like they've figured everything out (you also do this)

they want to believe stuff that makes them feel like their emotions are justified and grounded in reality, and that the people they want to hurt deserve to be hurt (you also do this)

they form conclusions before they've processed all the relevant information, and cling to that first impression even when new info comes to light (you also do this)

they pick up beliefs from the people around them because they want to be liked and fit in, not because the beliefs are good or true (you also do this)

they come up with reasons that the stuff that benefits them (and the people they like and identify with) is actually overwhelmingly best for everyone and obviously the right thing to do (you also do this)

they pay more attention to stuff that supports what they already believe and avoid looking in places that might show them otherwise (you also do this)

they listen to people who talk like 'one of them' and ignore others (you also do this)

they come up with reasons to dismiss people with conflicting viewpoints as obviously in bad faith or ignorant or a shill or evil (you also do this)

they fail to take their own beliefs seriously sometimes, and take their beliefs way too seriously other times, in a selective way that lets them do the things they already wanted to do (you also do this)

the very ways they construct the ideas of 'knowledge' and 'wisdom' and 'belief' and 'understanding' are biased so that what they don't want to believe comes under lots of scrutiny and what they do want to believe receives less (you also do this)

you, dear reader, are presumably right about everything and were correct to die on every hill you've ever died on, but the difference between you and someone who's wrong about important stuff doesn't look like "well they're inherently evil and i'm not", it probably looks like a combination of:

natural environment (they would have been exposed to different information than you regardless of their choices)

being in the right place at the right time (your particular profile of flaws and virtues happened to be what was needed to lead you to the right conclusions, they had the opposite experience)

random luck (you doubled down on what felt right to believe but wasn't, but it turned out to be inconsequential, or even right for different reasons, while they doubled down on what turned out to be a horrible mistake distorting their entire worldview)

you do less of the things in the previous list, and over time the difference between you and them adds up

and, look, i also do these things. the nicest and most thoughtful people i've ever met do these things. if you meet someone who never does any of these things, i dunno, give them a fucking medal or something.

i know you're doing your best. we're all doing our best.

chumbology

derinthescarletpescatarian

People in the notes being like "these are weaknesses of neurotypical people; my autism means I don't have these flaws": yes you do, and this post is about you specifically. People who believe that they're somehow magically immune to cognitive biases are the ones who tend to fall victim to them the hardest.

myriad-rainbows

[image: black and gold calligraphy that says, in parentheses, "You also do this." The word "you" is underlined. End description.]

#okay actually maybe everyone doesn't need to read #Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error #by #Kathryn Schulz #they just need to read this post #but I do recommend the book anyway

elbiotipo

Basically, if you say "this historical thing is a human universal", ask yourself, did it also happen in the Americas? Because the Americas developed thousands of years of civilization completely independent from Eurasia. Many of those broad claims about earliest "human" history and civilization are based on the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Not even China or India are considered most of the time, let alone Africa or the Americas or Oceania, which had multiple different independent origins of agriculture and social organization.

elbiotipo

As a practical example, any theory of the origin of writing cannot only study the Sumerians. You need at least to consider the origin of writing in China and India. Even if you operate with the assumption (highly debatable) that writing from the Middle East influenced them, you cannot just assign the same factors to it.

And you ESPECIALLY have to take into account the invention of writing (Maya scripts) and proto-writing in the Americas. These were created completely differently from other writing systems, sometimes radically differently (Andean quipus). You cannot ignore them.

This is the same with everything: the origin of agriculture, cities, social organization, warfare, anything you consider a "human universal". You cannot only work with Eurasia. You cannot ignore Africa and you cannot ignore Oceania. But America, in particular, is the key to understanding history in a complete picture.

aroundmeblackbats

I actually would love to learn more about how writing and agriculture and trade etc. all developed in the Americas. I’ve researched a lot of that stuff for conworld development/it’s just fun to know things reasons but I do think most of what I’ve read has been about Europe and a little bit about Asia.

OP (or anyone else) do you have recommendations for books I can pick up to learn this stuff? I doubt there’s as many books for interested laypeople specifically because of the biases in this post.

please don’t feel obligated to do my homework for me. I also have Google. I’m not always sure where the line is between “asking people to educate me” (rude, tiring) and “asking people to tell me more about their areas of interest and study” (a friendly interaction one can have). I am aiming for the latter.

myriad-rainbows

A book I love, and think everyone who wants to do worldbuilding (or understand humanity better, frankly) should read, is The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Wengrow and David Graber. It's about wanting to fight both Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau—no, just kidding, it's about the multitudes of different ways humans have organized societies and defined norms over time, and also about how basically any statement of something as a universal human tendency is probably a gross oversimplification at best but often just straight-up wrong, and about the nonlinearity of technological development, and a bunch of other stuff. So it's not *just* about the Americas, it jumps around a lot, but it definitely has quite a bit of material about the Americas, including how a variety of Indigenous societies did trade and ecosystem-management and lorekeeping (including Mayan logograms and Andean knot records) and it's got a hefty bibliography for further investigations.

Also tangentially of interest (these are all more on the ecology/Indigenous science side than like... generally anthropological, because that's part of where my own interests lie, but given the importance of plants to Being Alive, one really neither can nor should separate the two) might be Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do is Ask by Mary Siisip Geniusz, Our Knowledge Is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings by Wendy Makoons Geniusz, and Changes in the Land by William S. Cronon.

#book recommendations #myriad mutters

kuttithevangu

In my utopian future you actually have access to Better Art because the artisans don’t have to work 18 hours at the Identical Pieces of Copyrighted Plastic factory with no PPE and they can make something weird if they want

pansyfemme

sometimes i struggle to use the word ‘bootlicker’ in a negative sense because of sexual desires i will not disclose here

bagofcoldnoodles

Is it licking boots?

pansyfemme

because of sexual desires i will not disclose here.

#laugh rule #apophasis #(I'm collecting examples)

samueldelany

Epithalamion? Not too long back I was being ironic about “wives.” It’s very well to say, creation thrives on contradiction, but that’s a fast track shifted precipitately into. Tacky, some might say, and look mildly appalled. On the whole, it’s one I’m likely to be called on. Explain yourself or face the music, Hack. No law books frame terms of this covenant. It’s choice that’s asymptotic to a goal, which means that we must choose, and choose, and choose momently, daily. This moment my whole trajectory’s toward you, and it’s not losing momentum. Call it anything we want.

--'On Marriage,' by Marilyn Hacker

Born in New York City on November 27, 1942, Marilyn Hacker was the only child of a working-class Jewish couple, each the first in their families to attend college. Hacker attended the Bronx High School of Science before enrolling at New York University, where she received a BA in Romance languages in 1964. She was married to writer Samuel Delany for a time, and they have a daughter.

#!!!#poetry #I need to read all of her works immediately #thank you mr. delany #marilyn hacker #where's she been all my life. why does she look so familiar.

What I'm Reading Wednesday

Recently(ish) Finished:

+ This Wretched Beauty: A Dorian Gray Remix by Elle Grenier: I would not have chosen to read this book if it hadn't been for book club with my teen goddaughter. I can see how it would be an important and validating novel for a young person in particular circumstances, but I was profoundly underwhelmed by the way it seemed to (attempt to) sand off all the moral complexity (but then there was still moral complexity it was just unacknowledged and unaddressed and not-being-done-anything-interesting-with.)(like, it's cool that an updated version of this story did Not include all the casual antisemitism and orientalism and misogyny of the original! but the whole The Only Person She Was Really Hurting Was Herself All Along (or at least, the only person who mattered) is like... cmon, man. I don't need there to be Narrative Consequences For Her Actions, I'm not the Hayes code & I support women's wrongs, but I do kind of want there to be... stakes?) anyway now I'm FINISHED I'm FREE (tho frankly I did kind of enjoy being a little hater about this book while I was reading it.)

+ Inkpot Gods by Seanan McGuire, book 4 in Alchemical Journeys (was this series previously called Alchemical Fears or am I imagining that?): as always, Seanan McGuire continues to be my jam.

+ A Widow's Charm by Caitlyn Paxson: sweet fluffy fantasy romance about people making bad decisions (but it had stakes! that mattered! Ahem.) If you enjoy romance as a genre and books with a sense of the absurdity of life, I recommend this one (and look forward to reading the next in the series when it's available at my library.)

Currently Reading:

+ still Fresh Banana Leaves by Jessica Hernandez, PhD. It's possible that my perspective is just lacking or that in the first half she's covering stuff that's not really news to me, but despite already agreeing with her points, I'm not finding this book very compelling or informative so far; like yes, I agree stakeholder-led science is important, especially when the stakeholders are indigenous people! I agree there are ways of knowing that the scientific method does not approach! I want more depth!

+ The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger: this book continues to be very intriguing and well-written! Lots of focus on European-origin science, but that was her vector of approach to the question of plant intelligence, and she does acknowledge & reference indigenous and otherwise excluded-from-the-academy perspectives on plant lore (even if not as extensively as I might wish for). (yes, I'm going to read Braiding Sweetgrass and Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do is Ask next. Well, soon. let it never be said I have done anything in order in my life.)

+ Ancient, Ancient: Stories by Kiini Ibura Salaam: not my usual cup of tea but they are Good. like yes this collection absolutely deserved to win the James Tiptree, Jr. Award specifically.

+ The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: new book club book! a downside of 19th century novels is it's difficult-to-impossible to entirely escape physiognomy. but Dumas is much better about it than many of his contemporaries. anyway this book has SO much going on in it. book club is reading the abridged version so maybe the Things Going On density is higher than in the original. I really like Grandpapa Nourtier.

+ Silent Spring by Rachel Carson: it's a seminal work in ecology, I kinda feel like I have to read it if only as context for a lot of other stuff. Just started.

+ Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samharasinha: I started reading this essay collection one thousand years ago and am just picking it back up, partly because I've just been meaning to and partly because I want to grow towards perceiving chronic illness/disability more as a potential axis of solidarity and connection than as an isolating factor.

#myriad mutters #currently reading #books #adult booklr #(mostly)

Hi I got the penguin. stuffed animals get names first and then pronouns and the penguin doesn’t have a name yet. I am waiting for the penguin to tell me their name. I will post a picture when they do! also, how do you like to be referred to by online friends? I didn’t see in your header.

Yay for safe arrival! Online I go by myriad (or maybe myri? Nobody calls me that yet but I kind of want to make it a thing.) Thank you for prompting me to add that info to my header!

#myriad mutters #asks and answers

creepycrag

i think we need copyright reform. currently most works are protected by copyright for the life of the author plus 70 years. here are my two proposals.

18 years. this is enough time for the work to grow to adulthood and begin to care for itself

life of the author + zero years. i like this one because it encourages you to kill people

#laugh rule

mysterycat-official

I lowkey hate when programs talk to me in a friendly way. "don't worry, nearly there!" Shut up. It should say "loading 64.3% completed. Do not turn off device" and absolutely nothing else. You arent my friend you are computer. Act like it

#saaaaaame!#don't get cute with me you are ONES and ZEROES

fibromyalgicaf

Edited to add: Since a lot of people are reblogging this original post, I'm adding the updated version I did that incorporates the intersex circle...

I know intersex people are still getting excluded in a lot of LGBTQIA+ spaces (let alone wider society) and I think it's crucial to show this group is included in the statement that we all deserve equal rights.

koiagain

museum date but i spend the whole time crying over the concept of history and time

myriad-rainbows

@renegade-bisexual-dog-stealer -core (also me but shhhh)

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