sinensis26

[sinensis26]

I love all handmade stuff, but before I started knitting, I always wondered why folks poured so much time and energely into making stuff that looks exacly like what youd buy at a store.

It very quickly hit me: store- bought stuff SUCKS. Handmade stuff RULES.

The kinds of stitches used, the thickness/ quality of yarn, even the dimensions of the item itself are justy so shitty and cheap on mass- produced clothing. Once you know what youre looking at, you can see that its made to be worn and disposed of within a year. But that handmade brown sweater? That sucker weighs 3x what a store bought sweater weighs. Its softer, it has better stretch and even with messier seams, its STRONGER. It can survive a trathalon, a hop over a barbed- wire fence, and a minor nuclear explosion.

So hats off to all of the more stubtle fiberworks artists out there, your bulletproof crafts are magnificent.

[sinensis26]

If youve already graduated uni, go back and apply for your Alumni ID. Every university has different rules, but for most, alumni have the same access to resources that they had as students, including access to.academic databases and interlibrary loans. You can also audit classes and attwnd lectures for a very small fee or free.

actually i think graduates of a university should have access to the library databases forever and ever amen

[sinensis26]

One of the wildest things about being autistic is spending your life being reprimanded for being blunt, then watching other people get a pass (or praise) for outright callousness. Like, my good sir or madame. Thats not "just being honest", its unnecessary cruelty.

So heres a primer on honesty vs cruelty:

- Honesty is a (mostly) unbiased observation with an actionable point. "Your insect trap is going to fail because you are using the wrong bait. The correct bait is [XYZ]." Specific. Precise. Offers a direct solution to the problem at hand.

- Cruelty is "All people are terrible! The human race is a parasite and we should be wiped out!" So... what am I supposed to do with that? Your observation lacks SO MUCH nuance and observation, and your conclusion is simultaneously vague and nonfunctionally bombastic.

[sinensis26]

Best thing about learning new subjects or hobbies is that a whole world of intricate procedures, vocabulary, lore, controversy, niche pockets of interest, tricks, deepening personal experience of your own and others etc etc all opens up to you and you just get to walk around in there

[sinensis26]

So the thing about "morality" is... its made up. Its a human thing 100%: "We decided that this thing is good, and this thing is bad!"

The thing about karma is... its cause and effect. It doesnt care about what we think "good" and "bad" are. You plant a bunch of seeds and water them, karma is having some tomato plants in a few months.

Brian Thompson did stuff that made one guy go out of his way to shoot him, and millions of people celebrated it. We can play the "morality" game all day long, but the fact is that the man met the consequences of his actions, just like everyone else does.

[sinensis26]

BCBS: Yeah if your surgery takes longer than our admin staff with no medical training thinks it should, you have to pay out of pocket for the anesthesia.

UHC CEO: [assassinated in the street]

BCBS: ... You know we were just joking about that anesthesia thing ha ha we would never. We love keeping our brains inside customers happy.

[sinensis26]

Honestly, you don't need dating advice save for "just be yourself". If a guy isn't seduced by your extensive lecture about coealacanths, or a girl isn't impressed by you gaming the McDonald's systems to finesse yourself 30 free chicken nuggets, you're on a date with the wrong person. Not a bad person, but one that isn't the right match for you, and the way you want to live.

First dates are for showing someone "hey this is the kind of life I like to be living", them doing the same, until you find someone who clicks and you both think "fuck yeah I want to live like this." Whether that's sitting in a café judging joggers, or casually committing small crime for shits and giggles.

[sinensis26]

the three linguistics papers to read about singular they (morphosyntax)

Bjorkman, B. M. (2017). Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 2(1). Open access link

Konnelly, L., & Cowper, E. (2020). Gender diversity and morphosyntax: An account of singular they. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 5(1). open access link

Conrod, K. (2022). Abolishing gender on D. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, 67(3), 216-241. Open access link

in chronological order because these papers are all basically responding to each other; this papers focus on the (morpho)syntax and semantics of english singular 'they' referring to specific people (like they/them pronoun-users).

if you like posts like this, let me know! i'll give "three linguistics papers to read about (topic)" every once in a while based on interest

[sinensis26]

A new mode of production arises out of the newly networked masses.

[sinensis26]

octopath traveler (1/2)

[sinensis26]

You all need to hear this:

1. You probably dont suck at your craft as much as you think you do, I bet a lot of people are amazed at what you can make, and

2. If you actually are the Literal Worst In The Whole Wide World at your craft... who the fuck cares? What are they gonna do, call the police on you? Keep making your shitty little things, youre the boss of you, fuck the haters.

[sinensis26]

The word garbage sounds like it should mean clothing

[sinensis26]

As a political activist with 18 years experience, I need everyone out there to understand something:

Effective activism is very, very unglamourous.

We all have the image of activism being loud and dramatic gestures- screaming protesters, passionate speeches in courthouses, young punks throwing molotov cocktails through windows.

What actually changes things is paperwork. Its about marking town hall meetings in your calendar, and scheduling a time to present your case there. Its writing professional appeals and budget proposals, editing and drafting over and over again. Its putting on a boring suit and tie and presenting your case unemotionally, because as soon as you do get emotional, youll never be taken seriously again.

Its actually taking the time to run for office.

Its driving people across borders for medical treatment, and spending half a day playing Angry Birds in a clinic parking lot.

Its going to read books to hyperactive toddlers after a full day of work.

You will never be thanked for how much of your life is spent grinding for change. The people you help will never know your name, and might even see you as part of a shitty system. No matter how much you do, you will fail more times than not.

But you WILL make a difference. You WILL change the world a little bit. Its worth it, I promise.

[sinensis26]

Goniurella tridens is a species of fruit flies that carries on each wing the perfect image of an ant

[sinensis26]

I take back what I said earlier: I would absolutely sell my craft creations, and by "sell" I mean "trade for something I equally value". Do you like my punk rock giraffe stuffie? You can have one for $81... or a bag full of coreopsis seeds. A knit fringe lumberjack hat? Thats $195... or a jar of local honey. Ill sew new clothes for all of your kid's dolls, usually $300+ in labor and material, but Id rather they draw me a really cool picture that I can hang on my fridge.

[sinensis26]

GO✊️DO✊️SOMETHING✊️! Literally anything! Its not "all or nothing", juar go plant some native flowers. If a local government building has a suggestion box, drop a request in for them to consider. Volunteer in a school varden or forest preserve work day. Just stop sitting on your couch whining about how defeated we all are- we ecolpgists need all the help we can get right now.

People being doomers and defeatist about climate change is really so interesting because you try to tell them they’re being unhelpful and they start tweaking out

[sinensis26]

Can you tell me about sustainable architecture based on indigenous knowledge. I am an anthropology major and this reminds me of decolonization and what it can do for everyone.

Hello! Heck yes! Theres a lot of Indigenous communities that did this, but an example that keeps coming up is what the Seminoles did in Florida. They built Chickees, which are smaller cabins on stilts driven very deeply into the mud and clay of wetlands. The logs they used were mostly cypress, whoch has antibacterial and waterproof properties.

One of the coolest aspect of chickees is that the Seminoles werent focused on just what was above the ground, but directly under the chickee. People tend to forget that most wetlands are actually really biodiverse in regards to botany, and grasses and sedges are both important for stability. So when the Seminoles were building, they were looking for wet areas that already had a lot of grasses growing in and around the water, and if they wanted the chickee to stand for longer (more than a few months), theyd strategically seed in grasses right under the chickee to reinforce the stilts over the course of the year.

So okay, now that brings us to today, and to modern building. We know that just throwing a slab of concrete down in the middle.of a wetland isnt gonna last, but we do it anyways and spend a LOT of time and resources repairing foundations, pumping out flooded basements, etc. But we do know how to build suspended floor buildings- exactly as it sounds, buildings on cement stilts driven deep into the ground. They look all slick and swoopy and futuristic, but its literally the same structure as chickees- foundation poles driven so deep that flowing water wont easily knock it over or rot it out.

And its not just that the building isnt impedeing the water flow- there needs to be botanic biodiversity as well. So yeah, we cant easily plant seeds under the suspended building, but we can heavily seed in those native grasses along the banks. Native plants are used to disturbances anyways and are evolved to not only roll with the punches, but also thrive on them. So now we get a building that people can use, not disturbing the water, and a bunch of native plants both supporting biodiversity and strengthening the waterway's shores.

TL/DR: When white folks came here from drier, flatter parts of the world, they ignored the basics that Indigenous people knew and did what worked back home. It created a hot mess, and instead of listening the experts, they wrote off massive building destruction as "normal".

A lot of this is coming from memory, as Im trying to quickly type it out on the train (so please also excuse the million typos that Im sure are in this). Gimme a day or two and Ill post a bunch of sources to go check out about Seminole communities, chickees and architecture.