#about the project

[mappinglasirena]

In the spirit of not letting my perfectionism deter me from actually Doing and Posting things: I spent a few hours yesterday, designing a new header/banner image for mapping purposes!

I might eventually go back and tweak it a bit more, but I quite like the outcome (especially given that it's been some time since I did any major image editing).

I also created a new icon to match:

I like it quite a bit, but I'm not sure whether I'll use it on tumblr. I'm A Creature Of Habit, and I've gotten very used to the mapping blog having the simple silver Sirena logo on black 😅

For now, I think I'll stick with the logo I'm used to, but I still wanted to share this. And now back to the actual mapping post I was working on before I got distracted.

[perroulisses]

I'm thinking again about my ancient furry warriors 😔

[andrxasmarty]

The finished product has finally been unveiled. How does it feel? Any nerves about it?

There were so many nerves leading up to this moment. I was so afraid that it was either not going to get finished on time or that it wasn't going to honor my grandfather's legacy.

What was your thought process during the planning stages of this project?

My thought process was just to build something great to honor my grandfather's legacy. I poured a lot of my memories of him into the planning and then did my best to bring those memories to life in the halls. Honestly, it was a very cathartic project for me.

Having a grandfather so beloved in the community, did it ever feel daunting to take this on?

Oh, absolutely. A lot of my life is lived to make my grandfather proud and this was no different.

Any hard aspects of the job that made you feel like you wouldn't be able to get it done?

Just the final stages when it gets down to the nitty gritty of designing all of the spaces. But in a lot of the bigger projects those are the items that take more time because you have to be very detail oriented and pay attention to every little thing.

And lastly, would you say this is your proudest moment?

In my career, yes. There isn't much that compares to getting to create something to remind the community of my hero.

[apollos-boyfriend]

something they don’t tell you about being autistic is that every character you write WILL end up autistic/autistic-coded whether you like it or not

[kiryuing]

[ink-the-artist]

Love the contrast between the Americans’ “Apollo” and the Soviets’ “Sputnik.” You got the Americans naming their rocket after a Greek god trying to communicate the grandness and importance of this rocket. And you got the Soviets naming their rocket “fellow traveler.” Like a friend you go on an  adventure with together. This rocket is our little friend lol 

[goaheadandgetinthebog]

Several videos (independently) start circulating on the internet of the Waynes info dumping.

Bruce - the role of railways in westward expansion in the 1890s

Dick - clown eggs

Jason - tb and the New England vampires of the late 19th century, with reference to vampire literature

Cass - Paris sewer system

Tim - comparison of different camera lenses from different manufacturers, with model numbers

Duke - anti homeless architecture and how to remove it

Damian - cat declawing

After all this, a new meme forms.

'You must be this autistic to get adopted by Bruce Wayne.'

[loudlyunladylike]

The Dyke Project manifesto printed on the back of estradiol and testogel boxes

[anxiouslittlecarrot]

I want everybody who’s calling Ken a Trophy Husband to know that he’s actually a Trophy Boyfriend, because when Ruth Handler invented Ken in the 1960s, she was adamant that he would never marry her and instead be her “handsome steady”, so that Barbie remained a figure of independence for the little girls and was never put in the position of housewife.

Her house is hers. She bought it and furnished it with money she made in her own job. In STEM, in politics, in healthcare, in fashion, in academy, in customer service. Her credit card is in her name (women in the US couldn’t have their own regardless of marital status until 1974). And it’s all pink and fashionable because femininity and badassness aren’t mutually exclusive. No matter who you are, you can be anything.

That’s why Barbie’s slogan is “you can be anything”. Teaching these ideals to little girls is why Barbie was created. Empowering women and empowering femininity is the original meaning of the Barbie doll. It’s not that you have to be all this to be a woman, but if you are all or some of this, you too are awesome.

And somehow pop culture deliberately changed that narrative. Sexualised, bimbofied, and villainised her, when she actually isn’t responsible for the impossible beauty standards — people are, she’s just a stylised, not-to-scale toy like most others.

Men are frothing because he’s just Ken and I guess they were expecting her to be just Barbie, but that’s exactly what Ken is. Canonically. A badass woman’s himbo boyfriend.

This movie has the potential to radically change the way we collectively see Barbie into what Ruth Handler originally intended, I’m so very excited

[reasonsforhope]

If you're feeling anxious or depressed about the climate and want to do something to help right now, from your bed, for free...

Start helping with citizen science projects

What's a citizen science project? Basically, it's crowdsourced science. In this case, crowdsourced climate science, that you can help with!

You don't need qualifications or any training besides the slideshow at the start of a project. There are a lot of things that humans can do way better than machines can, even with only minimal training, that are vital to science - especially digitizing records and building searchable databases

Like labeling trees in aerial photos so that scientists have better datasets to use for restoration.

Or counting cells in fossilized plants to track the impacts of climate change.

Or digitizing old atmospheric data to help scientists track the warming effects of El Niño.

Or counting penguins to help scientists better protect them.

Those are all on one of the most prominent citizen science platforms, called Zooniverse, but there are a ton of others, too.

Oh, and btw, you don't have to worry about messing up, because several people see each image. Studies show that if you pool the opinions of however many regular people (different by field), it matches the accuracy rate of a trained scientist in the field.

--

I spent a lot of time doing this when I was really badly injured and housebound, and it was so good for me to be able to HELP and DO SOMETHING, even when I was in too much pain to leave my bed. So if you are chronically ill/disabled/for whatever reason can't participate or volunteer for things in person, I highly highly recommend.

Next time you wish you could do something - anything - to help

Remember that actually, you can. And help with some science.

[mappinglasirena]

I have an "archive" (i.e. a Google spreadsheet) of all of my past posts, including the date, content, tags, important additions in reblogs, etc. Because of course I do.

And as I am slooowly coming back into a brain space where I can more deeply engage with Trek things, I figured it was high time to update said archive, because I know I have fallen behind. But surely, it can't be that bad, right?

... Oh.

WELP, looks like I have my work cut out for me 🙈😅

(But I will try not to use this as an excuse to procrastinate on the steps-under-the-bridge post, which I am very excited about, actually!)

[khazure]

[3rdsday]

Tommy basically said "the DSMP was good because it was, and still is, loved" and that basically sums up my feelings on the matter too.

[diornies]

Suddenly, it's December by margaux paul

[feralforbeanix]

He loved her immediately I'm gonna cry

[teslacoils-and-hubris]

no one understands him like I do