jackleg-penwright

[jackleg-penwright]

Yes! As a sighted person, this is one more thing I didn't even think of.

Yes, yes, yes. Let's do this.

Everywhere.

(although I am curious, would it be effective across the board right away? I had a blind friend who took stage design, and she told me that being able to THINK in two-dimensional diagrams and maps took a really long time to wrap her mind around, because for someone blind the way she was, your thought and navigation tools are very linear, and so picturing spaces the way sighted people do doesn't really make sense)

[jackleg-penwright]

In an incredible reversal, Builder.AI just declared bankruptcy after admitting that they were faking their AI tool with 700 humans

[jackleg-penwright]

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND WATCH THIS NOW

source: https://twitter.com/tele5/status/990517262623870976?s=19

[description: a beautiful video of Alexander Siddig singing a song along with someone who is playing the ukulele, the words are 🎵"fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars, let me see what spring is like on jupiter and on mars. In other words, please be true, in other words i love you"🎵]

[jackleg-penwright]

I think, if we don't try REALLY HARD not to dehumanize people who stand for things we abhor, then we risk never even noticing if we do it too.

If only Bad People believe Bad Things, and we're not Bad People, then everything we believe MUST be Good - and then we end up just as harmful as JK or others who were only trying to fight for people they think are being unfairly marginalized.

I haven't followed too much of her recent garbage, but I did read her first layer of problematic stuff - and from her perspective, she was standing up for someone who was being vilified for something she didn't think was completely fair to vilify someone for. She didn't start out trying to hate trans people, she started out trying to stand up for someone she thought was being unfairly targeted for saying something that some people were interpreting as being anti-trans, but the reaction was, in her mind, disproportionate.

Now what she should have done when people started saying "you do realize that the language you are using is the exact same language that has been used to dehumanize us", she should have listened and recognized that whatever her intent, her words were causing harm and she should minimize it. Instead she chose to double down and probably listened to a bunch of propaganda praising her for being Right and Brave and Saying What Everyone Is Afraid To Say - but her wackadoodle side quest began with the intent of defending someone she felt was being unfairly targeted.

My reading of her original controversial statements is that she saw herself as a Good Person, standing up for a Vulnerable Person - and since only Bad People believe Bad Things, she was in the right and must defend herself from False Accusations from Bad People.

And the truth is, that's a very human instinct that we should think ourselves immune to at our own peril.

ok im going to #seriouspost for a second here. I don't think Harry Potter is a manifesto. I think it was a flawed passion project that millennials latched onto because of the fantasy of sticking it to their mean teachers and arbitrarily categorizing themselves (hogwarts houses; it's the thinking millennial's astrology). I think the fact that the series got popular when and how it did was very much a product of its time.

I don't think Harry Potter is the biggest symbol of JKR's bigotry. I think the most flagrant sign of that was how she responded to critics. I watched her become radicalized in real time. I watched how she doubled down on her racism when she was called out for the ways she promoted her tragically mid fantastic beasts movies. I watched her chase marginalized teenagers with a double digit follower count off of twitter for daring to criticize her thought process, and no one with any kind of power standing against her because she was the one who was paying them. This isn't to say Harry Potter is without flaws. This is to say she really didn't give a shit about that. Getting rich and powerful is a hell of a drug, and she had enough sycophants that she had no reason to care about what her critics were saying.

She was convinced that she was a martyr; a voice for the unheard; a leader for the ages, so of course her detractors were the bad guys. And I think we should take this to heart. We should see this as an example of how easy it is to get radicalized; if you think of yourself as a paragon of virtue, you are going to think that whatever you see as good and right is an objective fact. Most people don't know this, but the majority of terfs start out as trans allies. You are not immune to propaganda! You are not immune to falling into dangerous ideologies!!!

This is why the most important thing you can do as an activist is to listen. Do NOT think you're above being wrong; do NOT develop a god complex; do NOT form an identity out of being right all the time. Involve yourselves in the groups you claim to speak for. Listen to trans women; share resources that help trans women; familiarize yourself with the diversity of experiences that trans people have and the struggles they face.

No, none of you are as bad as JKR because you don't have her money or her power. You will likely never have the capacity for harm she does. But check yourselves. Do not affirm yourselves into thinking you always have the moral high ground. Watch yourselves; humble yourselves; check yourselves for signs of cult behavior and internalized prejudice. You are always learning. You will always be learning. Do not allow yourselves to get a power trip from brushing off marginalized voices.

[jackleg-penwright]

I was raised in a culture that deeply embodied the idea that if you approved of someone, you had to approve of EVERYTHING they ever thought or did or wanted. If even in passing, you discovered something they MIGHT have thought that your moral code couldn't reconcile, you had to reject EVERYTHING they supported because they were clearly A Bad Guy and very dangerous and might seduce you away from the One Right Way of thinking or being.

And the older I get, the more I realize it's kind of internalized everywhere, and people take ridiculous ideas like "Hitler was an environmentalist, liberals are environmentalist, therefore liberals are Hitler and we must be deeply skeptical of their agenda because they must also be secretly trying to groom us into accepting evil fascism" (which was an extremely common viewpoint among the conservatives I was raised among) completely seriously.

And I do wonder what our country, what our world would look like, if more people WERE able to recognize that everybody is "just some guy," with good ideas and dumb ideas, wisdom and idiocy, and nobody has the breadth of experience to "get it right" all the time, and no one's so evil that every idea they have is utterly reprehensible.

you guys are so annoying. why do i have to see discourse every year that's like "was tolkien really a woke king or was he your conservative uncle?" the guy was a devout catholic and a genteel misogynist who maintained lifelong friendships with queer people and women, and this isn't even paradoxical because that was part of the upper-class oxford culture he was immersed in. tolkien told the nazis to fuck off (and in doing so demonstrated a real understanding of what racism is and why it's harmful, beyond simply "these guys are bad news because they're who my country is at war with right now") but his inner life was marked by internalized racism that is deeply and inextricably woven into the art that he made. he foolishly described himself as an anarcho-monarchist, and it's kind of crazy to see people on this website passionately arguing that he likely never meaningfully engaged with anarchist theory, because...yeah, no shit, of course he didn't. tolkien didn't have to engage with most sociopolitical theory because as an upper-class englishman of his position, he was never affected by any of the issues that this theory is concerned with. what is plainly obvious from reading both his fiction and letters is that tolkien's ideal political system was that the divinely ordained god-king would rise up and rule in perfect justice and humility; he didn't want a government, he wanted a king arthur, even though (obviously) he was aware that outcome was impossible. why is it so hard for people to accept that he was just some guy! his letters aren't a code you have to crack. no amount of arguing or tumblr-level analysis is going to one day reveal a rhetorically airtight internally consistent worldview spanning jrrt's fiction, academic work, and personal writings, thereby "solving" the question of whether he was a woke king or your conservative uncle. his ideology was extremely inconsistent because, at the end of the day, he was just some guy.

[jackleg-penwright]

Peter Morwood

I am so sorry to have to tell you all about this. None of you, I suspect, will ever have any idea how sorry.

I am in utter shock and terrible pain to have to inform everyone that our friend, my dear husband and creative partner of nearly forty years, Peter Morwood, passed away suddenly early this morning after a brief illness that as late as yesterday (when his doctor saw him) had seemed to be on the mend.

I'm not in any position to say much more about this situation now, as you'll understand my current mental state is not up to the task. (I keep expecting to wake up from a bad dream, but it shows no sign of breaking.) I will let people know more about this in coming days.

There will be a postmortem shortly to determine the exact cause of his death. I'll share what details of this are appropriate as they become clear.

Meanwhile in the short term I'm very much going to need assistance with the expenses that in the days that follow will inevitably surround what's happened. For those people who want to assist, please feel free to use the Ko-Fi account here, and simply tag the associated messages, etc, "P expenses". ETA: Please choose the Stripe payment option at Ko-Fi rather than PayPal, as PP seems to be having some kind of obscure difficulties at the moment. I have disconnected PayPal until this is resolved.

My love will wait for me, I know, however long it takes. He's never minded waiting. (the saddest smile) My job now is to make sure he's not forgotten while I go on.

Meanwhile, can I just say to all of of you: I thank you all ahead of time for all the support and fondness for Peter that I know so many of you will express. He'd blush over it, I know. (He always did.) Please forgive me for being unable to do much in the way of answering messages, just now, in the wake of having to get to grips with this sudden and awful change in my world.

But also let me say, so urgently: Hug your loved ones now, while you can. Eventually a day will come when, expected or not, your opportunities end.

Thanks, friends.

--DD

[jackleg-penwright]

Verily, we must perform this scene

Might any other actors here, perchance,

Have in their stores the cloth of Lincoln Green

Perhaps stretched tight and hung upon a lance

To share a single background, though apart

And bring together this great work of art?

which one of u was going to tell me that tea tastes different if u put it in hot water?

[jackleg-penwright]

What makes the random dead jellyfish worse is, this is one of the only stories Conan Doyle wrote from Holmes' perspective (bizarrely, his internal narrative sounded EXACTLY like Watson's - that particular story reminds me SO INTENSELY how much he by then hated the character and wanted nothing more than to throw the whole 'verse in a fire pit), and he goes on and on about the dangers of assumptions - because when he had seen the man's clothes folded up or something similarly mundane, he assumed he had not been in the water.

Ok, if you're listening to someone else's narrative and examining the scene afterwards I could MAYBE buy that. Not necessarily from Holmes, but maybe he was slipping, maybe he's had a shitty day, maybe he just missed Watson. But no. Holmes was the one who found him just before he died, the one who heard his cryptic last words.

HOW did the greatest observer of all time happen to fail to notice that THE GUY WAS SOAKING WET?

sherlock girl trying to hit on me: hey ;) i noticed the thin indentations calloused into your fingertips. you a bassist? me: that? oh thats from opening pistachios

[jackleg-penwright]

There was this park near where I grew up. I remember we’d just moved to the area so I was around six and we drove past and saw this waterfront area. My parents decided to check it out so we went for a walk. It was a lovely park, there’s a lazy slough, lots of trees, extremely picturesque. My parents ambled along the trail enjoying the nature while my siblings and I ranged around in their orbit like excitable moons.

Then I saw something odd. Something vibrantly alive down by the water that was entirely the wrong color. I called back my vital scouting info and my family gathered around me. We looked down the steep verge toward the slough, screened by underbrush. We couldn’t quite make out what it was. The only thing we could agree was that it certainly wasn’t a duck. However it was about duck sized and roughly duck shaped. It just wasn’t a duck.

This led to some heated debate amongst my siblings and I but we were forbidden to scramble down the muddy hill to harass the mystery animal. Reluctantly we continued down the trail, speculating wildly when a chicken popped out of a bush in front of us with a train of several chicks.

We froze. The chicken did not. She placidly herded her little puffs across the trail, pecking happily for seeds, unbothered by our proximity. My family had not yet delved into farming and this was the first time any of us kids had seen a chicken up close. It was like a fairytale thing, a creature we had seen over and over in books was suddenly here in the wilderness of the park. We all realized the mystery creature had likewise been a chicken.

Another couple came up the trail and saw us staring.

“Is this your first time at the park?” They asked?

We nodded.

They informed us that this park had become a dumping ground for unwanted chickens. Once the chickens were dumped they were park property and the locals didn’t mind the eccentric additions at all. No one looked after the chickens, but they got on surprisingly well.

As the years went by we visited the park regularly. Signs were added to warn people not to dump off chickens or they’d be fined. They were also excluded from snatching the existing chickens. The hope was that the chickens would eventually run their course and the park would go back to normal.

It did not.

Instead the menagerie grew. Peacocks cropped up occasionally, turkeys; and one visit we saw guinea fowl. But there were always chickens. Eventually feed dispenser were installed so park goers could pay a quarter to enjoy the motley flocks.

Because we’d moved into a house with land my mom started up a chicken coop and we got our very own chickens at the feed store like proper folks. The first rooster we had was a gentleman, politely clucking at us when came into the coop, but the second proved troublesome a year later. He either adored or hated me. Every time I entered the coop he’d dance and flounce and brandish his spurs.

My mom didn’t want to off him frankly she didn’t know how at that point but his fascination ended with him flying at me and the rooster was sentenced to banishment.

We drove to the park.

We saw him there for years afterward, clucking dutifully around a small flock of hens. He did pretty well in exile.

Anyone who’s kept chickens knows that eventually there’s always a tragedy. Ours happened when a neighbors dog broke into our coop and slaughtered the flock. I was absolutely distraught, my lovingly hand reared chicks all decimated in a flurry of senseless bloodlust. I have not loved a chicken since. They are too fragile to bear it.

After a few days of mourning my mom offered that she knew where to find some more chickens. To make up for the massacre she planned a night raid with us. We stayed up past our bedtime and drove to the park with tarp covered kennels in the back of the truck.

We crept down along the gravel parking lot, looking up into the trees, spotting the telltale lumps of shadows that meant chickens. We quickly developed a strategy. We picked a chicken branch, creeping close underneath. Then we reached the end of the branch and gave it a good shake until the roosting chicken glided down to the ground in confusion. It was easy to scoop them up and we went home the proud new owner of a handsome flock of chickens.

The Take a Chicken Leave a Chicken park is still a beloved feature of its neighborhood to this day.

[jackleg-penwright]

Have you heard of the Ship of Theseus?

no. was it problematic or something?

[jackleg-penwright]

I would get so distracted admiring the fat babies that I'd forget about the door and the money....

people who are afraid of snakes are fuckin’ WILD, like dude, just carefully step over these fat babies’ sausage bodies and gently move the burmese python chillin’ against the door, then you become unfathomably rich. i would do this for $10. i would do this for FREE. 

[jackleg-penwright]

On the street? I live on a mountain (USA, Appalachia), way back in the country - if I'm on the street, I'm in a car. The speed limit is 55 mph, the shoulder is four inches wide and next to a ditch at least as deep as a person is tall. Any pedestrians (and I wish there were none, but there are some occasionally) are too much of a hazard for me to want to be distracted at the wheel by acknowledging them. I can't ignore them though, any more than I can ignore a cluster of deer trying to decide if they're going to bolt across the road in front of my car.

As for other drivers - if the light is right to see through the windshield, or I recognize the car, I'd better wave or they'll grumble at me the next time they see me. But mostly, I focus on the road. Accidents are not something I want to risk by letting myself get distracted.

Imagine that you are about to pass a stranger on the street. Assume that the stranger is not threatening to you in any way, and they are also not particularly strange or interesting. They're just a completely average person.

If you believe the answer depends, pick what you generally do most often and/or explain why in the tags :]

[jackleg-penwright]

Reblog if you have made a friend online that you would love to hang with, but they live far away.

[jackleg-penwright]

You're assuming that doctors never have anxiety, thousands of abandoned hobbies and never spiral into self-hate on making basic mistakes?

Have you met Julian Bashir?

[jackleg-penwright]

My dad is a pretty strong libertarian who wants the government to stay out of people's business as much as possible. But he's also an electrician and you will pry the NEC codebook from his cold dead fingers before he ignores a single regulation.

I truly, TRULY do not know how to say this, because the fact that I have to say it makes me feel like I am losing my grip on reality. But no, in the post-capitalistic anarchist utopia, I will not be relying on “autistic minecraft girlies” to be building inspectors because - and this may shock you - one of those occupations takes years of education in how to read and interpret hundreds of thousands of lines of regulations based on complicated math and physics that were the result of decades of tragedy and death, and the other one involves playing a children’s video game.

[jackleg-penwright]

Neither do I, but my cat grooms me...

I never expected Grim to be so motherly

[jackleg-penwright]

@ fic authors what do you personally consider a successful fic? What’s the bar?