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A relevant preview of From Time’s Ashes

Rebellion was the war, the new series is the resurrection and the restoration. At the end of Foundation (Rebellion VI), about a third of Cimenarum had burned, Rien had been crowned Razia, she was pregnant, and the government was starting to come back. But Rien could never be the new boss, same as the old one. This scene happens a few tendays after the Coronation, in the transition. The scene is…

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I want to sew. Where do I start?

So you want to learn to sew? Well, do you have a machine? If you have a machine, great! If you don’t, go to my select a machine post and figure out what works best for you. If that’s not enough, ping me and we’ll set something up. First things first, oil your machine if your machine needs to be oiled — it’ll tell you that in the manual, but if it’s a pre-1963 machine, yes it will need oil; if…

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The Delphi case, part 1

Let’s catch up. On February 13, 2017, a Monday and the last day of a 3 day weekend, 13 year old Abigail Williams and 14 year old Liberty German were best friends, and being young teenagers, they wanted to try to fulfill their local rite of passage — walking across a disused, very tall railroad bridge. Continue reading The Delphi case, part 1

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Milk Soups

Having mastered basic soup, the next step is milk soup. Cream soups divide into a couple of varieties. There are milk soups which share some lineage with chowders, and there are cream soups, which are smooth, processed soups made mostly of vegetables. We’ll start with the most basic milk soup. Milk soups are the poverty soup of most of the pastoral planet. If your ancestors gave you the gene…

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All the other sewing stuff

The machine and cabinet are only about half of sewing. It really is fabric origami with occasional thread staples. Continue reading All the other sewing stuff

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Basic Soup

Let’s make soup. These are the Euro-western water-based soups, not cream soups and not blended vegetable soups. Bean soups, several Asian type soups, and fish/shellfish chowders are their own categories. Continue reading Basic Soup

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Horrific utilitarian logic

This started as a thread in response to something at Bluesky (which I usually like, but which is, like the entire internet in 2024, frequently poisoned with too much binary thinking) and I decided I wanted it here. Comments are off. Continue reading Horrific utilitarian logic

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The shorter Batman thread

Originally a Twitter thread from 2020. We do not live in Gotham.Nor do we live in Metropolis.Those are fictional.So is Batman.And Batman is not a hero. Batman is a monster created to excuse white people’s maladaptive coping. Don’t be like Batman. Continue reading The shorter Batman thread

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9/11 and Batman

Originally a Twitter thread from 2018. With edits and updates. Batman, Wanda & Pietro Maximoff, 9/11 and mass casualty events, or how we and our government participate in mutual gaslighting, and some thoughts on breaking the cycle for the benefit of our politics. Continue reading 9/11 and Batman

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Selecting a sewing machine

I’ve been asked at least a good dozen times either how to select a sewing machine, or what machine I’d recommend, and it’s not as simple as “buy the Sewmatic 7000 with the extra coffee unit” (though if any machine EVER has a coffee unit, consider it!). Continue reading Selecting a sewing machine

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The state of the sewing (and capitalism)

That mid-mod cabinet that I got a couple months ago is now retiring to a life as a desk or entry table for a Mid-Mod enthusiast. Singer switched to using some particle board in the late 50s/early 60s, with both veneer & Formica (easier care) on the table tops.  The mid-mod Singer Cosmopolitan cabinet in light walnut, in my sewing room, with the lid closed as it will probably always be…

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for the love of god, do not use chores to punish your kids!!!! it's just going to make them struggle deeply to keep their houses tidy as adults since you made them associate necessary chores with punishment and suffering, and it's going to take years of therapy to undo. don't use chores as punishments!!!

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Some very eloquent notes on violence as a necessity for resistance.

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Instead of doing the work that I was supposed to do today, I decided to illustrate one of my biggest pet peeves.

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Colorado was so red when I moved here they’d voted for one of the most draconian homophobic laws ever on the books. (Amendment 2. It was vile.) Even SCOTUS thought it was so bad it couldn’t go into effect.

But 2004 was a close year, and by 2008, we flipped this place blue. We now have universal vote by mail, voting centers in jail (where people do have a right to vote), legal recreational weed (first in the nation), full day kindergarten, universal Pre-K, universal free school breakfast and lunch, full abortion rights with protection from protestors, ran a long-term contraceptive program that almost eliminated teen pregnancy, and we re-elected our gay married Jewish governor.

ANYWHERE CAN CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.

"I live in a red state my vote doesn't ma-"

If your vote didn't matter they wouldn't try so hard to make it harder to vote in red states. Voting in red states can turn them into swing states like Georgia, Ohio, and Arizona. And voting in blue states can keep them from becoming swing states.

California used to be Red. Texas was Blue long ago. Florida was once a swing state. Obama took Indiana but it's gone redder since. Ten years ago Arizona and Georgia going blue was unthinkable.

Things change and we can make them change.

And that's before getting into more local elections. Turning cities blue, the state legislature.

Red states have flipped blue in recent years at those levels too.

Because people vote, and if we vote in high enough numbers we can turn a tight election into a walk in the park. If we vote in high enough numbers, we can turn a loss into a win. So many good things have happened in states where someone won by like 100 votes. (arizona is one)

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