Shouting Into the Void

My comic from @very-sincerely-yours-zine !

This was a lovely little thing to hop into after finishing last Summer after The Beekeeper's Picnic.

Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.-> Abigail & Magnus (died after their anniversary dinner)

Nine little soldier boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.-> Jeannemary (killed in her sleep)

Eight little soldier boys travelling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.-> Dulcinea & Protesilaus (never left Rhodes)

Seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.-> Isaac (chopped by the construct)

Six little soldier boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.-> Marta (messed with the Teacher - a literal hive filled with souls)

Five little soldier boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four.-> Silas (accused Ianthe of treason, said that he sentences her to death)

Four little soldier boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.-> Naberius (ate by Ianthe)

Three little soldier boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.-> Colum (posessed by a devil)

Two little soldier boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.-> Palamedes (burned alive)

-> Phonics For Adults <-

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Excuse me, did I just see diaries dismissed as too up-to-date and modern for the atmosphere of "Dracula"?

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) kept a famous diary from 1660-69 and would like to have a word with someone about that.

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"Dracula" was first published in 1897, and Bram Stoker had been researching it since about 1890 (he had Other Things To Do) so for my own amusement I went looking for the sort of Excessive Modern Technology that "The Spectator" criticised.

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Mina Harker (née Murray) can write in shorthand, which at that time was usually done in pencil. Stenography fountain pens were also popular (Jonathan Harker uses one) but faded away, while steno pencils are still sold to this day.

I have been working very hard lately, because I want to keep up with Jonathan’s studies, and I have been practising shorthand very assiduously. When we are married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan, and if I can stenograph well enough I can take down what he wants to say in this way and write it out for him on the typewriter, at which also I am practising very hard. He and I sometimes write letters in shorthand, and he is keeping a stenographic journal of his travels abroad.

She uses two typewriters in the course of the book. The one in England mentioned above and in subsequent chapters is probably a desktop model, perhaps an Underwood or Remington suitable for a solicitor's office...

However, as played by Winona Ryder in the film "Bram Stoker's Dracula", she uses a smaller Oliver...

...whose design, deliberately or by accident, seems to echo Gary Oldman's Dracula hair.

Mina specifically describes the other machine like this:

"I feel so grateful to the man who invented the “Traveller’s” typewriter, and to Mr. Morris for getting this one for me."

This suggests it's a much smaller and lighter portable, probably with a carrying-case; maybe a Blickensderfer like one of these...

...whose ads emphasised its travel utility.

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Jonathan Harker keeps his journal in shorthand, and says so:

"Here I am, sitting at a little oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much thought and many blushes, her ill-spelt love-letter, and writing in my diary in shorthand all that has happened since I closed it last."

And he's using a pen not a pencil, because he also says so:

"When I had written in my diary and had fortunately replaced the book and pen in my pocket I felt sleepy."

He can't have done that with a regular dip pen and inkwell, so he's carrying something with an internal ink supply and a cap against leaks - in other words, a fountain pen, only finalised in its modern form in 1884.

Whether Harker's had a proper steno nib for shorthand (or whether such nibs had even been invented yet) I don't know, but the pen itself would have been something like this Swan by Mabie Todd, which he'd have filled from a bottle using an eyedropper (modern Opus 88 pens use this filling system even now):

...or maybe a Wirt fountain pen (filled the same way) as praised by Mark Twain:

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Finally, Dr Seward's phonograph recorder was probably an Edison like this one...

...powered by a large lead-acid battery of the kind now found in cars. The one pictured has a small close-to-the-mouth "confidential" speaking horn and pneumatic (air-transmission) earphones, appropriate to a doctor using it for confidential patient information.

It made recordings on wax-covered cylinders which could be erased for re-use by shaving off the engraved wax.

"He (Dr Seward) stood up and opened a large drawer, in which were arranged in order a number of hollow cylinders of metal covered with dark wax... I (Mina) took the cover off my typewriter, and said to Dr. Seward: “Let me write this all out now...” He accordingly set the phonograph at a slow pace, and I began to typewrite from the beginning of the seventh cylinder..."

So "Dracula" is a novel whose plot development depends in several places on state-of-the-art contemporary tech.

Here's my full piece for @novaandmali and @dames-zine's My Liege: queer knights in love art book! There's only about 30 hours left on the crowdfunder so now's your last chance to back this project!

Les Mis x Tcomc edition.

...And then I got to thinking about their mutual Moral Journey language (throwing money at people they think deserve it) . So , consider: Dantes sees Valjean, who famously dresses as a pauper when he's giving money, being a swell guy and raising his daughter alone in that isolated house on the Rue Plumet. He goes into his Justice: Reward mode and starts trying to give Valjean money. Valjean, of course, does not need or want more surprise money, he's still in moral debt from the first windfall. The more he humbly refuses, the more determined Dantes becomes to make him a Very Rich Man (not knowing he is already Pretty Dang Rich) . At last, all his other schemes being thwarted , Dantes breaks into Valjean's house to leave money. Valjean catches Dantes mid-break-in and assumes he's come to rob the place. This unleashes Valjean's unskippable trauma cutscene and he lectures Dantes on the dangers and horrors of prison before giving him a big chunk of money and warning him to choose a better life. Dantes realizes Valjean is also a former convict-- and yet still such a kind man! Now Valjean has fallen afoul of his obsession with Correcting the Scales of Justice by giving good things to good people! He can't just give this guy some money, he's got to hook him up with a better life! a business! public office! social acclaim! ...Which Valjean is desperate to avoid.

Hijinks Ensue with Dantes trying to reward Valjean, Valjean trying to avoid being Rewarded AND trying to convince Dantes to reform , both mens' efforts escalating to truly absurd levels.

It was flagged as "Eksplicit", shadowbanned, and every reblog turned invisible. The flagging is also unappealable (unless that is an error, thanks tumblr)

Happy Trans Day of Invisibility from your tumblr mods!

Only found out because I tried to reblog with an update from your local trans unicorn siblings!

I cannot even LINK to my old comic without every new post getting deleted.

The original post was pardoned, but the shadowban still persisted and every reblog was hidden from the dash and flagged explicit. I'm not sure if it recovered by now, or if it's always going to be at risk of banning.

So whatever staff reviewed my complaint agreed that it wasn't explicit. So thank you for that, moderator. This highlights that the problem starts with bad actors reporting anything they don't like, and that it's a tossup if your appeal is seen by a bot, a normal human, or a bigot.

I'm grateful I can still touch people and spread positivity. Many of my queer siblings, brothers, and sisters - especially trans sisters - can't say the same.

But no matter what happens, we will always have each other. Every letter in our alphabet is a pillar holding up a beautiful world that only stands if we're all in it together. The rest of society may call you a monster, but it calls me one too. Maybe you won't hear it from the rest of them, but listen and you will hear it from me.

I love you.

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

It's Spiders Georg! I've translated it into Angkorian Khmer, the language of Cambodia from 802-1351 AD. Because I like doing stuff like that ;)

You read the black consonants first, then the blue consonants, than the purple vowels. If there's no written vowel, use an 'a'. Magenta is punctuation - a dingbat marking the start, periods, and then a stronger period that tells you the paragraph/section is finished.

Here's what it says!

The original:

reallyreallytrying Jan 8, 2013 “average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

Transliterated into Latin characters:

1935¹ śaka, ekādaśi roc mārggaśira, 'aṅgāravāra, nu rilirilitroyiṅ kathā: Neḥh ’ālakṣaṇa kathā: ’nak cya pīṅ pi pratisaṃvatsara, toy vyat vakra saṃkhyā. ’Nak cya pīṅ śūnya pratisaṃvatsara. Nau ru Jaṃrau Pīṅ, ’nau guhā cya daśasahasra pratidina, ga te krau daṃnuk ta caṅvāt ti mān ban dāṃ ta kāñ.

More detail under the cut!

Thank you!

I'm interested in cultural history and I love the First Millenium AD/Early Medieval period. I got really into Heian Japanese fashion, and then was looking at other cultures that existed around the world during the same period. Sometimes it was the fashion that grabbed me. Sometimes the architecture. And sometimes it was the script or language. Angkor has all three!

I find the script (characters used to write) to be gorgeous, and the grammar is similar enough to English that I can wrap my head around it. (Very little inflection!) I am endlessly fascinated by how people take scripts that do NOT work for their language, and smash them with hammers until they do - the way the Irish use Latin to communicate consonantal sounds, how English uses it to communicate vowel sounds, how Angkorian Khmer uses Braḥmi to communicate consonant clusters, etc.

There's a large enough surviving corpus (enough things with writing on them), and enough of it's online (even if the scan quality can be unbelievably bad) that I can really sink my teeth into it. There are enough grammars from India during the same period that we've got a good understanding of how Sanskrit/Pali works, and studying the differences between Indian and Khmer Sanskrit/Pali is really, really neat! Plus, Angkorian Khmer works COMPLETELY differently, so seeing how they incorporated all the Sanskrit loanwords into non-Sanskrit texts is even MORE interesting!

But mostly, I love the curves. I love how the characters stack. I love how the 'e' diacritic comes before the main letter and I always forget to leave space for it and then want to have a tantrum. I love that the last black character on that text I wrote becomes a spiral later on in history. Becomes half as wide, loses all those weird bits that look like diacritics but aren't, and just becomes a spiral.