No More Hiding

Happy Pride to everyone but especially to Arthur and Bert, my interspecies gay finches who are in love and are incubating... something?... in their nest??

When my zebra finch Arthur lost his elderly husband Bruce last December (at eleven years old, which is positively ancient for a zebra finch!), I was really worried that Arthur would have a hard time finding love again. Thankfully, my local bird shop guy had a gay male shaft-tailed finch he was having a hard time pairing AND who was from an aviary that co-housed zebra finches, so that worked out perfectly! After a brief introduction period these two started courting and they are now married and very, very happy together.

Do not stop your car on train tracks, ever.

Unless you have a 1000000% guarantee that the tracks are never used, do not walk on train tracks.

Many places in the US are repairing their unused tracks for additional passenger lines. Tracks that have been abandoned for years or even decades may now have trains on them.

Do not walk on railroad bridges.

Do not play chicken with trains. They will win.

Trains are faster than your car is. You cannot outdrive a train.

Trains are faster than you are. You cannot outrun a train.

Trains are, in general, much faster than you think they are and the train operator cannot stop in time even if they see you.

If you think that you'll just know a train is coming, that you'll hear or see it in time to move, then you are wrong.

If your car is stalled on tracks or otherwise stuck and you can't move it after several tries, get out instead of spending more time trying. If a train is actively coming towards you, just get out. Move at an angle towards the train and away from the tracks so that you aren't in the path of the car getting pushed or at immediate risk of being hit by debris.

Most railroads have signage with emergency numbers; call the number about any obstructions or damage to the tracks.

People die from train collisions all the time, both in and out of vehicles. In the US, train-car collisions and fatalities have stayed pretty much the same since 2009, averaging at ~250 fatalities every year. This does not include people just walking on tracks; my area has had multiple fatalities from pedestrians being hit by trains in the last few years.

THIS IS SAPPHIRE

THIS IS TEAL

THIS IS PERIWINKLE

THIS IS AZURE

 AND THIS IS TURQUOISE

WONDER WHY THOSE ALL DON’T LOOK LIKE THE SAME COLOR? BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT 

OTHER THAN BEING PART OF THE SAME FAMILY OF BLUES, THEY ARE NOT ALL THE SAME FUCKING COLOR! WHY WOULD THEY ALL BE THE SAME FUCKING COLOR! DO YOU THINK WE JUST NAME NEW COLORS FOR KICKS!?!?!?

I say this with so, so much care: Real queer shit written by real queers can and will sometimes make you uncomfortable. That's one of the defining features of weird, independent queer media. And weird independent media more broadly. Art that comes from true individual passion and authenticity has edges and bite to it that mass market corporate products intentionally do not. Has a rawness that can offend.