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“We chose the term “asexual” to describe ourselves because both “celibate” and “anti-sexual” have connotations we wished to avoid: the first implies that one has sacrificed sexuality for some higher good, the second that sexuality is degrading or somehow inherently bad. “Asexual”, as we use it, does not mean “without sex” but “relating sexually to no one”. This does not, of course, exclude masturbation but implies that if one has sexual feelings they do not require another person for their expression. Asexuality is, simply, self-contained sexuality.”

— The Asexual Manifesto, Lisa Orlando and Barbara Getz, 1972

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Sometimes the technology conspires against me to make me sound crazy in my text messages.

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shoutout to everyone

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holographic charm concepts ✨ buy a wallpaper or leave a tip / twitter / instagram / shop 

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It’s supposed to remove paywalls from websites

It doesn’t always work though

Douglas Murray: From college campuses to Afghanistan, we let Islamic terrorism rise again

Source: New York Post

Douglas Murray: From college campuses to Afghanistan, we let Islamic terrorism rise again

Source: New York Post

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i hauve a cold

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Try 12ft.io ?

Douglas Murray: From college campuses to Afghanistan, we let Islamic terrorism rise again

Source: New York Post

Douglas Murray: From college campuses to Afghanistan, we let Islamic terrorism rise again

Source: New York Post

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I loved when AI art could never be anything but AI art. the dreams of a computer. now it's all boobs and photorealistic women doing bad kink. but I remember you. I miss you. I love you, Secret Horses.

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most recent fursona lore thats been in my mind ofr a few weeks now but only just recently came up in conversation so i drewd it. ignore my typos in the pic i cant care enough to fix them

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Reading sports headlines while pretending sports doesn't exist suggests a fascinating world of magic and whimsy.

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your bed is probably as happy to see you as you are to see it. ‘here comes the warmth slab’ it thinks

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These posts are cousins to me.

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New Year, New Branding 🌿

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It might not surprise you to know that I've made mustard before. It's one of the easiest things to make, because it's just crushed up mustard seeds and some kind of liquid, then salt and vinegar for taste and preservation. This is difficult to get right though, for reasons of chemistry.

Like a lot of delicious things, what gives the mustard its pungency is a defense mechanism. The chemical is allyl isothiocyanate, but this is harmful to the plant, so it's stored in the precursor allyl glucosinolate and activated by the enzyme myrosinase. So the theory goes that an herbivore comes along, starts munching, releases the harmless glucosinolate and the enzyme, and together they make an explosion of searing pain to the sinuses.

So if you're making mustard at home, you're controlling this reaction. You grind up the mustard seeds, then add in some kind of liquid, and the nature of the liquid you add is going to determine how much of the glucosinolate gets converted to isothiocyanate. In other words, add cold water for spicy mustard, add hot water for mild mustard.

This is some alchemy shit right here. Mustard is one of the oldest condiments, and I have to imagine some mustard-maker explaining to her apprentice "alright, cold water for spicy, hot water for mild, you would think that it depends on the mustard crop and not the temperature of the water, and you would think hot for spicy and cold for mild, but nope, that's just how it is".

And then there's more alchemy, because the mustard compounds you get are volatile and fade away, except you can add in vinegar to keep it strong, but if you add the vinegar right away, shortly after crushing, it'll slow the reaction, making it less spicy.

So our hypothetical mustard-maker has to explain "vinegar makes it not spicy, but also keeps it spicy, so for the spiciest mustard you need to use the cold water, then wait for it to get spicy, then add in the vinegar only when it's as spicy as you want it to be, after which it'll stay that spicy".

I'm not sure how much evidence there is for them actually knowing all this, but I have to imagine that even thousands of years before the scientific method they would realize that the results were sometimes different, especially if an apprentice wasn't told a step that turned out to be crucial.

Anyway, this is all a long way of saying that my favorite mustard tastes different now, and I'm upset about it, so might have to go back to the incredibly varied world of home mustard making.

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You know something I’ve figured out in the past few months as someone who 1. Doesn’t have a lot of friends and 2. Actually finds it very hard to make friends is that the fastest quickest route to befriending people is to engage with them like they’re already your friends

What do I mean by that? I mean, show up places and do things and talk to people. I joined the amateur theatre group in my city and a creative collective and I forced myself to go to meetups when I was tired and nervous about it but even moreso— I met a couple very cool people while working on a theatre project and I forced myself to ask for their numbers

And then I forced myself to text them! It felt so cringy and lame but that was just a fucking lie in my brain! I invited them to see movies and I sent them book & video game & movie recommendations and you know what? They appreciated that! They texted me back! I sent messages like “hey! How’s school?” Or “do you have any advice on grant applications?” And “you wanna get a beer sometime this week?” And every single time it felt like I was flinging myself off a big dark precipice into nothing and every single time I got a friendly response back

So like, the cringe is fucking fake, if you want people want to be your friend sometimes you literally just have to decide that they’re your friends and talk to them as such