always imagining dragons

I’d never shown Rocky the cards and drawings that were sent with me before. “Eridian drawing?” I look at the symbol he’s pointing his texture gun at. “What do you mean?”

“Is simple way to draw Eridian. Like simple human next to it.” The simple human in question is a stick figure. And — rotationally symmetric, five equal limbs — yeah, I can see it. The Eridian stick figure equivalent. “Not possible for humans to know we meet,” Rocky says. 

rocky’s like, third engineer. he’s quick and creative but he’s also bossy, impatient, and blunt; not really leader material! he thinks of himself as a cog in the machine and appreciates the freedom it gives him. plus he’s a bit neurotic, and flinches at the thought of having authority because that means everyone else will answer for his fuckups. noooo thank you. he’s content to be in the background and good at his job.

We know that Grace is always going on about how talented and skilled Rocky is, but there's a line in the book I feel I should bring up.

"You have idea already. Not question. I know you. You have idea already. Tell idea."

-page 396

Rocky thinks exactly the same about Grace and his science skills. He has just as much unwavering trust in his capacity to think their way out of a problem as Grace has in Rocky's engineering skills.

At first the guards think they're faking it, maybe in hopes of luring a guard into their cell so they can overpower them. But days go by and the untouched meals begin to pile up. The previously silent or sassy prisoner is heard begging or pleading, talking to people who aren't there.

Maybe they're not the only prisoner in the cell, and their cell-mate begs the guards to bring a doctor. At first the guards ignore them, but eventually a guard goes in to check and realizes "Oh shit, they weren't kidding."

If they're alone, maybe eventually the guards are annoyed about the delirious cries and go in to knock some sense into them and find the prisoner semi-conscious at best, unable to be roused.

This prisoner wasn't meant to die, so the guards reluctantly drag them to the infirmary, or summon a doctor to the cell. If the character was in solitary confinement, the guards are lectured for letting such a valuable asset get to such a point.

Or maybe their time in the cell comes to an end (their bail is paid, or their sentence is up), and the guards open the door to let them out, but they don't move, prompting a guard to come in and drag them, only to be shocked at the heat rolling off the prisoner's skin.

The guards haul the prisoner out to their waiting friends, dumping their semi-conscious body into the team's waiting arms. Now instead of a celebration, it's a rush to find a doctor.

We have got to stop framing our oppression in ways that promote the idea that other people cannot relate to our struggles. Not only does it isolate comrades in the struggle, it actively diminishes recognition of other struggles--often including those even more horrific than what we are at risk of. And this happens especially between Gay and Black struggles.

"when have straight people ever had to check what states were safe for them?" Sundown towns are still a thing. Starlight tours. What states have abortion access? What states have open carry? What states have stand your ground? What states have 3-strike rules? Women, people of color, disabled people, immigrants, and more have had to be abundantly cautious where they travel to. Straight trans people have much more travel risk right now than gay cis people.

It's a new iteration of the same tired question: "imagine if straight people weren't allowed to marry" interracial marriage in the US is younger than my parents. We disgrace people of color by forgetting their history and contemporary struggles, and we abandon queer people of color, Black queer people, by segmenting their overlapping fights.

What i've been thinking about recently is the way Andy "Apolitical" Weir hardcore stereotypes each nationality he represents. the Chinese officials are spying on our scientists. the Russian officers are 80% vodka. this Dutch/German is stern. whatever the fuck was going on with that Canadian. like ok my man we GET it. even if we didn't know anything about Weir, we can clearly deduce this book was written by an American from its sheer lack of self-awareness, especially when it comes to stereotypes about Americans-- you ever talk to a non-american who witnessed american behavior in the wild?

Andy Weir (probably) pictures himself, and by extension Grace, as the Normal and Default, and so he doesn't portray any American quirks or stereotypical behavior (other than the "Thinking In Imperial", which doesn't really extend to outside of Grace's head) However, in doing so, Weir is actually inadvertently portraying an American who is totally oblivious to his own behavior and biases. Which is, I would say, the prototypical American behavior. Weir just didn't know he was writing a stereotypical American because he was just portraying himself a Regular Guy.

dubliners (1917) - james joyce

We were asked all these questions about how long the costumes took us, how we did it, etc. 

I paused the video right when we were asked how much money we spent on our cosplays and

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