Okay it's been literal months but I'm finally posting about this - my art was in the Zine O'Biology 2! (You can download it for free digitally or buy a print copy if you so wish, which is cool af)
I did a piece exploring the tail variation in Cardassians :) I'd love to go into more detail surrounding cultural cropping/amputation of tails in Cardassian culture, I think there's a lot of interesting implications and directions that could go! Much to think about...
Transcription of the text under the cut, for those who may need it!
Transcription Below:
Title: Variation in Cardassian Tails
Subtitle: 57548.9 - Dr Warren
'All volunteers arrived and comfortable disrobing for study. A wide array of tail sizes and styles - really good! Dr Siroc taking cellular diamatron scans, Nurse Jaa'tun interviewing for cultural insight and lifestyle details.'
'Tails range in length. Of the sample group, max size is 122cm and min is 38cm full grown. Vertebral scales continue along length and culminate in a small patch of hair similar in density to head hair.'
Diagram annotation: 'Slender = less lower back strength?'
'Minimal dexterity - mainly used for balance and sparring compared to the prehensile Bajoran or Vulcan tail. Most subjects can move them in all directions at will, but are unable to grasp objects due to thickness of muscle'
'Several subjects of Bajoran/Cardassian origin provide sorely lacking mixed-species input. Most have mild scaling across tail surface and increased hair growth comparable to typical Bajoran tails. Increased dexterity, able to grasp small objects and even use tricorders (!)'
Diagram annotation: 'Lack of spinal scaling a benefit for dexterity?'
'Most older (>70) or military volunteers have cropped tails as traditional before The Fire. Interviews indicate all re-crop their new growth as a personal choice. None report loss of balance or agility but have had years to adjust: no newly-cropped subjects available as the practice has fallen out of fashion. Several report lower back pain and occasional uratel incontinence, all reference 'loyalty to Cardassia' in their reasoning for undergoing the procedure. Further study recommended.'
Diagram annotation: 'Fully healed (<1 season regrowth)'
'A variety of tail-hair styling seen today, both decorative and practical. Handmade beads favoured over replicated ones - a point of personal pride!'
Diagram annotations: 'Bone clasps. Glass beads. Tied up for work. Shorn Short.'
someone needs to write a paper about those southeast asian guys who build mud huts "in the jungle" "with no tools" on youtube. I think it's a fascinating form of digital performance art that capitalizes on self-orientalism and also a beautiful feat of architecture and also an artifact of a specific digital aesthetic
Guess whose car just ~broke down on the highway~ at 11pm at night!
Guess we're back to crowd funding! The tow is going to cost 179$ because I dont have the best insurance. I have no idea what happened to the car yet, just that the oil light came on. When I bought it not long ago the oil was still good, so odds are its a mechanical issue. I'll update when I can about how much help I'll need with that.
You can pitch in at ko-fi.com/rosebijoumme or my cashapp $FaeKhawal. Please help me out here, I'm about to have to move and the Uber from my home to work is crazy expensive
I'm going to try to get a mobile mechanic to come by tomorrow. I checked the dipstick after I got home and it is dry. It was still wet with oil when I pulled it out so there's probably still some oil in there, especially because to my understanding, the oil PAN actually has a liter of oil, even if the dipstick is dry. It was good when I bought it from a mechanic. He did not tell me the last time it got the oil change. I really should have battered him about that. I'm used to my car's oil light coming on to let me know that I need to get it changed soon. Not right before the engine stalls out because there's not enough oil! So I'm hoping that having to crank it to charge my phone so I could call the tow service because my phond battery was so low and the first one canceled on me and wasted my fucking time did not ruin the engine.
Put oil in it and it cranked. To me it mostly sounds fine but I'm still worried and getting it diagnosed. Mechanic says is 50 for the diagnostic but he is coming out today to see whats up
Mechanic diagnosed it as an oil leak and a issue with the EVAP system. He says the low oil is definitely a concern but from the sound of it it hasn't severely damaged the engine and his diagnostic equipment didn't pick up anything there either, but to keep a closer eye on it until I can afford what he's quoted me for fixing the leaks. Other repairs were $160, partially because one of the needed parts WAS IN THE CAR but hadn't been connected properly so he didn't have to buy it. In his opinion it's safe to drive now thank g-d, but I'll probably keep in mind that I should save up in case I need a new car or engine work after this.
That leaves me with a current bill of $293, with 50 already taken care of due to a speedy donation last night.
Also I'd like to try and get an Uber home sorted tonight, I may be able to get my roommate to drop me off at work but picking me up will probably be harder for them. Ubers when I get off for the commute average $25-30. I'll probably make weekly update posts once I have a better idea of how often I can get my roommate to help me, possibly a fucking gofundme at this fucking point like I did when I was trying to fix the Honda last year and got some of the work done
When the health food store unionized, something wild happened that I thought was just a goofy one-off, but makes more sense now.
There was a big push to eliminate "degrading jobs" but the strategy was to eliminate the position, then create a new position outside of the bargaining unit to do the work. So like, we wouldn't have dishwashers, but we'd have people who washed dishes that weren't eligible to be in the union.
I was like A) what the actual fuck? Dish washing isn't "degrading", it's fucking vital. B) What the actual fuck? You want to create a union just to exploit different people?
There were enough of us to be like "Absolutely the fuck not," and put a stop to it, but I was absolutely flummoxed that people involved in a union would say that out loud. Working with more leftists now, it makes sense.
I think it was coming from a background that viewed labor as necessary to accomplish anything, but advocated for the equitable distribution of the gains made by labor... and then being thrown in with people who just thought labor was icky.
The first time someone told me that busing tables was "degrading", I was like "Oh, uhh, yeah, like it's very necessary work but under compensated for how vital it is?" and they responded "No, touching plates that other people have eaten off of is disgusting."
But I want to eat off of clean plates. So somebody is going to have to touch/clean those plates. And I respect that person and want them to be able to afford to live.
In bargaining, someone on the Union side suggested that we eliminate all the cashiers and exclusively use self-checkouts (they were a cashier and didn't like it). The organizer told them that the union wasn't in the habit of eliminating bargaining unit positions. (This is the same person I've talked about how said that "as a prison abolitionist" we just needed to execute most criminals.)
When I explained holiday scheduling (time off requests granted in order of seniority, shifts assigned in reverse order of seniority). Someone was angry and said that time off requests potentially being denied "wasn't in the spirit of the union". When I pointed out that our departments made like 30% of our annual revenue between Thanksgiving and New Years and that required production staff to be working, they said that we just needed to create a class of positions ineligible for the bargaining unit that wouldn't be able to request time off. (Which again, most of us figured we'd just rotate holidays or something, but assumed that some holiday production was mandatory.)
I was on leftie tiktok (as a creator) for a bit and I saw this attitude there as well. I specifically remember one argument around cleaners where someone said that employing a cleaner was, like, ethically bad, and that "after the revolution" we wouldn't have cleaners.
It got me thinking, along with Ann Russell talking about how to treat cleaners (being a cleaner herself), about how we conceptualise domestic service as particularly degrading in all its forms, when, really, why is that? Why is paying someone to do something intrinsically bad?
Like, even in a moneyless, gift economy society, there would still be people whose primary contribution to their communities would be cleaning. Some people like to clean, and are really rather good at it.
I've talked ad nauseam in the past about how British attitudes towards cleaners and other service based positions today are the descendants of Victorian attitudes. That is, both the attitudes of conservatives and many progressives of that time. The trade union movement was particularly exclusionary towards service workers.
I think people on the left thinking about forms of labour can sometimes be worse than people on the right. People who have taken these positions generally just conceptualise them as something you need to do to get by, and there are particular employers where these positions are degrading but in general the jobs themselves aren't.
Yeah, that really sums it up. There's stuff that needs to get done, so I'll never be of the opinion that it's degrading work. I worked in kitchens for a long time, and every other position is reliant on having clean dishes, so nobody can really be "above" washing dishes. The shitty thing about washing dishes or busing tables is how people treat the people doing it. The work itself is vital.
And some of those jobs are like, sure, you can throw almost any warm body at it and get it done adequately, but you still run into people where you're like "Holy shit, you're good at this."
People doing a job most people don't want to do should be paid MORE in order to get people to do it. That's how it would work if we weren't mired in a schema assuming that less-frequently-desired jobs are the province of people who "can't do better" and "deserve" poverty because they have less value as people.
Peer reviewing the tags: #these attitudes are also why ppl are weird about sex work#and weirdly enough visibly disabled people working - like esp thinking of like#places that employ ppl w LDs as workers and volunteers#what they FEEL is 'these people make me uncomfortable'#and they say 'they shouldn't have to do that'#so the solution is. no visibly disabled people getting to work#the fact that. they want to work. and want jobs#is irrelevant#too many people base their politics off their like. gut feelings of discomfort and unease#which are completely disconnected from both practicality and actual morality
It's rooted in misogyny. Cleaning and domestic labor has gendered expectations & there's taboo around paying or even organizing a time to do it because it's quite literally "supposed to be" invisible work.
Domestic tasks are expected to "just get done" without anyone having to think about it.
You speak to a lot of people who think they're in 50/50 split households who don't realize that their partner is doing a majority of the cleaning. (I'm using gender neutral language, but you know what I'm actually saying.)
I was once helping my ex's mother clear the table, and he said "I feel bad just watching you tidy up," so I said "well, you could always help."
I've been getting into hamilton morris recently and the thing is that I'm like 2 degrees from him so I can't get too weird about him since I'll probably meet him one of these days. but otherwise I would be drawing him getting fucked in the butt. he's just too pretty
"ughh why are all the people I look up to so much more mature and accomplished and capable than me" bro you're literally 21 yrs old please be serious 😭😭 you will get there
unfortunately being in your junior year of college is all about wondering if you're passionate enough about your field to overcome your crippling executive dysfunction/rejection sensitive dysphoria and go to grad school. pics unrelated
this is diabolical on so many levels. sucking face in front of the man that is singing the song he wrote about you and then turning to him, and only him, to immediately justify why because you're still one part of a codependent permanent homoerotic quantum entangled soul bond. paul is trying so hard to be cool but immediately launches into the song only to realize john has used the song to sing about the new person he loves and stops singing mid-sentence. i would kms. heartbreak hard launch singing strawberry fields forever over a bed of newspapers proclaiming john and yoko's love, whilst staring forlornly at john and singing the song paul would later go on to say is quintessential john. they were doing tragedy like no one else
romaincrisis
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
jacobvanloon
andulkaphoto
theartofmadeline
annaxmalina
baratheonpilled
