![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancefloorlandminelnrcosmolinguistThe one thing about discord that I wish I could get on Signal is different names for different group chats. I'm the only Firstname Lastname LinkedIn-sona in this new trans group I've joined; everyone else has a single lowercase noun for a name, like a normal person.
I hosted a hybrid meeting today, and when D asked who was coming, the names I gave him were one animal, two vegetable, and one mineral.
wychwoodnanilasidereakaberettReading. I continue to make slow progress with both What An Owl Knows (Jennifer Ackerman) and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke).
Writing. Grumpy e-mails to Labour, mostly? Grumpy e-mails to Labour. Oh, and separately to the DWP courtesy of My UC Journal.
Playing. I have tripped and fallen back into 2048. I do not know why I have tripped and fallen thus. There are other things I would rather be doing. Brain whyyy.
I Love Hue current status: just started The Alchemy/Knowledge/12.
Cooking. Two new-to-us recipes from East: caramelised fennel and carrot salad with mung beans and herbs, of which I am a fan but about which A is a bit meh; and Amritsari pomegranate chickpeas, with the decaf English Breakfast I bought the other week, which I also quite liked but A was mildly dubious of.
Today has featured a different Welsh cake recipe, from one of the charity-shop books I acquired for the purposes of the special interest in EYB indexing. This one includes honey and ground mixed spice; I am decidedly disconcerted by how much they taste like Wrong Texture Mince Pies when cool.
Eating. ... yeah it's been A Migrainey Week, and has consequently contained two rounds of Wagamama. TRAGICALLY I decided on the first of these to branch out and try Not My Usual. Not My Usual turned out to contain The Dread Mayonnaise (I had been lulled into a false sense of security by the number of things called "slaw" I had recently encountered that did not contain mayo). It was mostly salvageable...
Exploring. ADVENTURES in VAN HIRE for the purposes of moving SHED. This involved heading out to Hatfield, because the one fifteen minutes up the road was already Thoroughly Booked. We got to observe MORE FLOWERS and lo they were good.
... I think that's it? I think that's it. (A also went on another adventure to acquire roof box and appropriate rack, but I stayed at home for that one.)
Making & mending. I have not, technically, actually resumed A's pair of gloves, BUT I have now got the information from A I need in order to do so! So that's a progress.
... there has also been. Event prep. So much event prep. The meal ticket booklets for crew are all done; the potions are all sliced and folded ready for laminating (except for the one that needed someone to actually finish writing what it did); ... progress?
Growing. SO MANY SQUASH. Not all of the ones I sowed, but... a lot... have come up.
Somewhat irritated that somebody found my Bravest Dwarf Pea, which had actually managed to find and attach itself to the pea sticks, and severed the stem a little below said attachment. :|
Main infrastructural progress this week was getting all the railway sleepers and shed bits up to the plot (with significant and indispensable help from A). I've not done anything with them yet but they are there, I have plans, necessary hardware is en route, etc.
What else what else? First of the beans are in the ground. I was feeling decidedly surly about my redcurrant but this turns out to have been premature and unfair -- since last weekend it's unfurled a little more and is looking much more promising in terms of potential harvest. The raspberries also seem to be very much enjoying the mulch + semi-regular watering, which is pleasing.
Observing. I totally forgot to mention in last week's section on this topic that on the ride back from Anglesey Abbey we observed Many Cowslips, including at least one that was red!
Tulips continue fantastic. Irises are getting into the swing of things at this point. The bindweed is definitely waking up...
sidereakaberettConveniently I can no longer find the bit of the allotment rules that says No Bringing In Gravel, so I am making plans to blithely bring in gravel for the sake of a base for The Shed, which is Definitely going to Happen this time, Honest.
The chief component I am now missing is a floor. Conveniently, there's an almost-complete house being built just up the road, with a big skip outside it, which currently contains several large sheets of plyboard. I can't actually get at them (it's all behind gates), but I am intending to show up on Tuesday morning and look hopeful at whoever's working there then.
(I am also missing enough sharp sand to level, and the gravel, but gravel at least should be fairly readily acquirable. It is possible I am also missing Some Important Bits Of Wood, but I care less about that because I have so many bits of misc wood at the allotment that I am pretty sure I can cobble something together.)
I am not going to manage to get all of this together before I disappear off to a field for a week, but I'm optimistic about getting it done in time to e.g. actually fill the greenhouse with chillis for the summer (an irritating amount of said greenhouse is currently functioning as storage space and actually I'd prefer it to be growing space. Actually.) Even I have now read enough guides to putting sheds together that I'm at least half-convinced I can probably actually more-or-less work it out.
... I will report back either triumphantly or shamefacedly in a few weeks' time. Watch This Space, etc.
cosmolinguistI'm wondering where I can find the UK transmasc organizing. (It is probably happening on reddit or bluesky or something that I don't have an account on, I know, sigh.)
Trans mascs/men's specific oppression under the supreme court ruling should be highlighted for itself, not in relation to trans women/fems' oppression, like as an abstract "beards in ladies loos" threat/stunt. (I'm sympathetic to the desire to "gotcha" the incoherent bigotry, but there are transmascs (yes even ones growing facial hair) who are already using the ladies' room because that's the way their safety calculations end up. Also I don't love the idea that beards or any other symbol of masculinity is inherently antithetical to, or exclusive of, femininity.)
Not only do TERFs talk about their "sisters" and "daughters" being swayed into "mutilating their bodies by gender ideology," books discussing this have been international bestsellers. Transphobic writers like Jesse Singal have made a career from anti-transmasculinity as well as transmisogyny.
One of the ways the UKSC ruling seems incoherent (from what I understand, I haven't read it all) is that while it says trans women should be excluded from women's spaces, it also says trans men should be excluded from women's spaces because of the "masculinising" effects of the testosterone we are all presumed to take. (This isn't surprising at least -- the TERFery that informed the decision takes a zero tolerance approach to testosterone -- but it never gets less baffling.)
This leaves trans men/mascs in a very weird position.
For example, can transmascs be removed from women's refuges if they take testosterone because it might "trigger" "survivors" (a status that of course no transmasc person could have, in this worldview)...? And of course I agree that a women's refuge isn't a great place for a transmasc person! But neither can we be left to just fend for ourselves around domestic violence.
A friend joked that if we can't be held in either male or female prison populations does this mean we can't be jailed, but their partner pointed out that transmasc people would likely just be held in solitary confinement.
Anyway. It occurred to me that most of the trans community I have -- certainly the activisty part -- is transfem, so before and after yesterday's protest I made some efforts to find both more trans advocacy and more transmasc community.
I'm in more WhatsApp groups and Discord servers now (sigh...especially because discord has found a new way to be inaccessible for me today! I literally can't scroll downwards!q), but I have plans to join some in-person gatherings this week too.
wychwoodsidereasiderea[...]
A hurry of hoofs in a village-street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet:
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,
And felt the damp of the river-fog,
That rises when the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled,—
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard-wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
[...] A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
kaberettOkay. SO.
Via THE GATE APPRECIATION SOCIETY on Facebook, earlier today I became aware of the Ginkgo Gates at the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. I took one look at the short sections and went I WANT TO KNIT IT.
Ergo lireavue went and poked Ravelry with sticks, and... this shawl fell out.
There Was Shrieking.
And then the shrieking Intensified because all of a sudden the outline of a possible character for the game that Admin: the LRP supports Arrived All At Once. Namely, one of the nations of the Empire is Navarr (summary of influences: "wood elves"). From the look and feel page for Navarr:
The Navarr look draws heavily on the forests for its inspiration. The colours are primarily greens and browns with occasional splashes of dark autumnal red or yellow. Materials are practical, primarily those that come from hunting - leather and fur. [...] Rather than rich materials or unusual colours the Navarr personalise their appearance by adorning their costume with embroidery, beads, feathers, fetishes, and other accessories. It is also common to weave such items into the hair. [...] Layers of well-worn, practical wool and leather in natural shades often serve as the foundation of Navarr costume.
Also relevant context: the existence of magical items that grant you Additional Tricks. Like, for example, mage robes, where I am raising particular eyebrows at the part where the information for Volhov's Robe notes that even the Navarr "see great value in a skilled individual being able to help an established coven".
Additional and further relevant context: there are four events a year. In-game, these events take place during the Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Autumn Equinox.
It Is Also The Case That: a particularly distinctive piece of kit can get very strongly associated with The Specific Character Who Wears It in the general cultural wossname.
... I abruptly very badly want to make myself a set of three shawls identical except in colour: spring green, summer green, autumn blazing yellow. Obviously the conceit is that it is not three shawls, It Is One Single Magic Shawl. It Changes With The Seasons. Do I know anything about this potential character other than "Navarri, magician, magic shawl"? NOPE. Have I ever actually LRPed? NOPE. Am I nonetheless actually kind of tempted? ...
cosmolinguistD and I went to a trans demo in town and then stayed out drinking because it's our anniversary and we like to celebrate by re-creating how we got together: it took a pub crawl for us to fess up to our feelings for each other after a dozen years or so of being those good friends who everyone just thinks are a couple.
I'm in a couple more WhatsApp/Discord groups now for trans stuff, there's plans for wider organizing around the shittiness lately, and I'm as in love with D as ever. It's been a good day, making and reinforcing connections
rmc28Yesterday’s four games were all worth watching but it was a long day and I was exhausted by the end. I got back to the hostel and pretty much fell into bed and today has been pretty lazy. I’ve read books and napped a fair bit and got some laundry done. We had fancy burgers for brunch and I found the tiny Czech women’s hockey exhibit in the local museum. I booked some tourist stuff in Frankfurt and Paris to do on our way home. Turns out the Eiffel Tower is already booked out online for going to the top on the one day we are in Paris, I guess I should have booked as soon as we knew that was on the wish list. (We have tickets to the second floor anyway - by the stairs! I may regret this but I’d regret more not making the attempt.)
Tomorrow is a three-game day again, the slightly pointless 5/6 place game (now that the tournament format is changing to snake format rather than pool A/B) between Switzerland and Sweden, and then the two semifinals. Sunday is the bronze and gold medal games, and I plan to be packed Sunday before setting off for the arena, so I just need to fall into bed after getting back from the gold medal game, and fall out of bed Monday morning to start the journey home.
ludy
cosmolinguistSomething about this description of the upcoming weekend just made me laugh:
This weekend already has a fair amount going on, Nazis will be celebrating Hitler's birthday, stoners will be smoking weed, Christians will be at church and also the trains through Stockport are all down.
The train thing is as relevant to organizing a protest as all the others (I wouldn't want to omit that a Jewish holiday is going on too!), but it's just such a wild combination of things.
kaberett
From Sunday: I did not quite believe what I was seeing initially? Or perhaps better I did not quite understand what I was seeing. Brain was entirely made of "daffodil??? backwards?????"
As a consequence of attempting to hunt down the variety (which I had failed to make a note of while actually in its presence) I realised I could ask the RHS to show me a list of all the daffodil cultivars they know about. Apparently this is actually a subgenre with several members! But the thing that has thus far made me squawk WHAT most loudly is, without contest, Narcissus viridiflorus.
rmc28We went to Český Krumlov today, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We got an English-language tour of the old town and another of the castle, and we climbed the tower, and somewhere in all the touristing we also had some delicious food on a terasa looking over the river, and generally had glorious weather for it all. (I think we were the only English-as-a-first-language people on either tour.)
Yesterday I managed to meet up with a local from the Lady Astronaut discord for coffee, and we took her recommendation to go to Český Krumlov by bus rather than train, as the bus stops a lot closer to the old town.
Tomorrow is quarter-finals day, four games more or less back to back from 10:00 to 23:00, getting kicked out between each game for cleaning, and probably living on rink hot dogs. Thankfully Friday is another rest day because we will need it. Although I also want to go to the local museum of South Bohemia, and look at its temporary exhibition on Czech women's ice hockey. Unclear how much of the exhibition, or indeed the wider museum, will have an English-language guide but I may as well try.
brainwanesidereaEY: And third, this –
slide goes up: "HOW THE PANDEMIC DEFEATED AMERICA"
EY: –is not actually the talk you're going to get. This is the talk I've often given before about what we have learned from the hellscape of the last few years. But Andy suggested that this audience would like instead to hear something more personal. So, this is...
slide animates, black bars fade in, leaving: "HOW THE PANDEMIC DEFEATED ◾️ME◾️◾️◾️◾️"
kaberettAllotment: railway sleepers now ALL AT THE PLOT. Shed bits: not. Questionable contemplations include "dolly?" and "... Tramper?"
Partway through this particular Adventure, there was Rain. Accompanied by Thunder. I am very amused by how muddy the front of my clothes wound up compared with the basically pristine back.
EYB: decided I was going to start adding personal recipes and did that, along with sending in several Messages about Errors and/or Links. In the process of failing to find Waitrose Food Magazine recipes online in any useful format, tripped and fell into Highgate Hill Kitchen, and promptly indexed... most of the cakes? and. some of the salads.
The discover/rerealisation that I can in fact do a combo of indexing misc recipes from The Internet and Actually Making The Personal Recipes Go as a way to scratch the Indexing itch while waiting for things to be Approved is both welcome and Potentially Dangerous.
dancefloorlandmine - (no subject)lnr - Letter to my MPcosmolinguist - Dictionary wordswychwood - well may the world go when i'm far awaynanila - The Friday Five on a Bank Holiday Mondaysiderea - Reflections on a Revolution [Ω, hist, pols, curr ev, MA]kaberett - vital functionssiderea - Civics education? [gov, civics]kaberett - this evening I have been having a migraine and also reading about shedscosmolinguist - Getting mad AND organizingwychwood - Easter againsiderea - Concord Hymn [em, hist, US]siderea - Livestream: Battles of Lexington and Concord Re-enactment [hist, US]siderea - The Eighteenth of April [hist, US, poetry]kaberett - oh NOcosmolinguist - Trans rights and trans joyrmc28 - A needed rest dayskibbley - Cambridgeludy - RCS, SMS, colours and inaccessible design choicescosmolinguist - Lot going onkaberett - deeply disconcerting daffodilsrmc28 - Playing touristbrainwane - Discussing the upcoming Murderbot TV showsiderea - What Being Ed Yong Was Like During the Last Five Years [Covid, journalism]kaberett - so so so so SO many things, though I will only pass comment on two
