Pedantic, disabled, poly-/philo-math

Just heard about the mess that YA author Maggie Tokuda-Hall has been dealing with. tl;dr, Her publisher offered her the chance to be part of an initiative that would’ve put her work in a lot more stores and libraries. It’s an initiative specifically aimed at amplifying Asian voices… but only if she removed the word “racism” from her author’s note. On a book about the Japanese internment.

I am very glad she rejected this offer, and I 100% agree with her that this is pure cowardice. I’m appalled at Scholastic – or any other publisher who’s doing this but whose authors can’t take the risk of speaking out. This is the kind of crap that marginalized writers have to deal with all the time – and it is also how fascism takes root:  “just business” decisions that perpetuate injustice, systematic erasure of targeted groups from their own damn stories, institutions choosing to do what’s easy over what’s right.

(I have been very fortunate to never have a publisher do this to me. Plenty of disrespectful bs from institutions and individuals within the industry, but never from the people who signed my checks. I’m also somewhat insulated from the book ban bullshit because my work is genre and isn’t aimed at kids – though that’s coming, of course. Fascists don’t stop until they are stopped.)

Being forgetful is not only normal, it makes you smarter.

The main function of memory is to improve decision making, and forgetting irrelevant details helps you to be more intelligent and make informed decisions. 

Just realised I never posted this short comic I made in 2019! Some of the art is a little wonky because I had to rush this out in a couple of weeks for a zine fair I was attending. I think my digital art skills have improved a bit since then.

I’m not the first person to suggest that cats are staring at something we can’t see when they stare into space but I thought it would make a fun comic idea. This was also inspired by a picture book I read a lot as a kid- Slobcat by Paul Geraghty, which had a similar narrative style though obviously without the horror elements.

when I was in high school I used them for binding and here are my tips if you absolutely *have* to use them:

- try to not bind straight across. your lungs and rib cage need to be able to stretch sideways. I’d recommend binding in something closer to an ‘x’ shape, over your shoulders and using the bandages to move the chest fat to the side and either up or down (up tends to look more like pecs, but not everyone feels comf with that either so down can be okay too). the ‘x’ would intersect beneath your collarbone most likely and the lower half would position your chest how you want it.

- if you slouch, try to avoid this as it further restricts your airway.

- or at least if you can, taking some time to stretch your shoulders back, take as deep breath as you can, coughing to break up lung buildup. (idk the reality of if coughing works that way, but it’s something I’ve heard as a rumour so if it does nothing well… it does nothing? but worth giving it a shot)

- if you go to take a bathroom break at some point while binding, try to unbind or loosen the binding at least a little bit and take a deep breath and stretch as best you can.

- listen to your body. adjust whatever you can as needed

- those little metal clasps may be enough for wrist sprains but it doesn’t work the same for your chest. I used masking tape in order to keep the strips of bandage in place. otherwise it’s most likely that during wear, some loops will loosen and others will tighten. this will cause pain with no visible benefit, so it’s worth it to keep tabs on slipping and sliding and excuse yourself from whatever you’re doing as needed.

- avoid those metal clasps and safety pins and anything sharp in general because sharp hurts. masking tape and even painters tape is far better. try not to use it against your skin because skin sweats and greases etc and it will lose effectiveness tho

- hydrate and do not exert yourself too much physically if at all possible.

- in the event that you end up passing out, it is better that you have a friend nearby who knows that you are binding who you would trust to help you get free if you were unconscious. (basically just tell people you trust and let them know how to help you.)

- have a backup plan. I would carry a sports bra in my backpack to change into in the event of an emergency.

- when adjusting tightness, take a deep breath at each level of tightness and pay attention to how deep a breath you can take, pressure against your ribs and spine, etc. most of the time you can only bind so tight where it’s actually binding your chest before it’s just binding your ribs.

- if possible, try and find some kind of fabric you can rip into strips and use similarly to bandages. these will be more effective in binding and not as destructive to your body. you could use an old curtain, bedsheet, pillowcase, whatever.

- look into alternatives as much as you can. if you need help fundraising or setting up a gofundme for a proper binder, need any recommendations (at least, I can inform re: small chest) etc let me know! I am happy to help as long as I have the spoons

- baggy sweaters are good

- layers are good

- undershirts are a sound investment (camisoles, whatever)

My work is never done. A fear submitted by Alyssa to Deep Dark Fears - thanks!

I know this clip from The Golden Girls gets shared a lot but I wish that I could confront all the doctors that have dismissed me in the past. My diagnosing neurologist agreed when I was diagnosed at age 30 with one of my chronic illnesses (multiple sclerosis) that my first symptoms were when I was nine or younger - my dizzy spell at age nine that caused me to fall is the earliest I can remember but it may go back further than that.

Had I been diagnosed earlier I might have been able to be medicated and not suffered such debilitating “relapses” for up to six months at a time roughly yearly - all misdiagnosed, of course.

Anyway, you tell’im Dorothy. I will have to content myself with daydreaming about telling all those doctors that dismissed me over and over for all of those years. Not that I can remember a lot of their names.

Why cats great till they gotta be great

Serving cat food on a melamine plate

Cats yelling cause they think the food is late

4am got me out of bed no debate

My cats:

"Bom bom be dom, be dom bom bay"

Things are scary.

Maybe you need a soft and gently purring Fancy making big big mashy paws in the air to help you out!