Happy Friday, have a kitten

This piece was greenlit and then killed by a British newspaper, so I’ve decided to publish myself instead. Trans People Deserve Better. "Gender critical" feminism doesn't help women but it does help the far right open.substack.com/pub/wellread...

Victorian medicine chest, which contains medications for pain relief, such as opium. It also includes a set of scales, weights, a pill tile, and a spatula. It was probably used in the home or by an apothecary. Photo: Wellcome Collection, London

Editing* is going great why do you ask *Integrating all my line edits that I marked up earlier. Admittedly I marked up five(?) chapters tonight before integrating them all into the draft. Don't worry about it.

Medieval tiles from Bordesley Abbey in the vestry at St Stephen's Redditch. #tilesontuesday

It's always good fun to think about what you're going to do if the state of trans rights gets any worse in the UK, only to realise that realistically you have very few options available

Just got followed by an account proudly advertising their AI prompting packs so that people could 'make images like [they] do!' so this is your unfriendly reminder that if you use AI you can fuck right off. Do not interact with me, do not follow me, I will block you.

Keeping up with Drawtober, my latest #art was for the prompt ‘mushroom fairy’, and tbh I’m pretty proud of this one! It’s my first time drawing mushrooms and fungi, and it took absolutely forever…

A Mari watching the autumn leaves fly past while sitting on an arch.

No exceptions. If you use Gen A I in any capacity whatsoever, you suck. Yes, the way you're using it too. You're not special. "She probably doesn't mean me" I do.

"Move fast and break things" and "better to ask forgiveness than permission" get us a whole suite of "AI" literally built out of consent violation and coerced control, where human consent is not meaningful a possibility, and uses that suit to try to coerce or replace anyone who might tell them "no."

The moment you concede some lives are acceptable losses--I'm speaking specifically about trans people rn--you're adding a gray area to who deserves bodily autonomy and safety in a society. Once you concede some people are acceptable losses, you've established other lives are ALSO negotiable.

When I started medically transitioning back in 2019, I was **lucky** that I only had to wait 1 year for my first appointment in Glasgow. Things were going downhill even then, but this is absurd.

The Starmer government is REALLY running scared of this petition, now at 2.75 million, to the extent that it has responded 3 months early, in a transparent attempt to spike it. So please, under no circumstances should you sign it and share it widely. Starmer & his boss McSweeney would not like it.

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

Oilspill Prints in bio

Happy Tuesday, have a kitten

Trans people have been around your whole life. You’ve been sharing bathrooms with them your whole life. They’ve been in your communities your whole life. They’ve even been playing sport your whole life. And you didn’t care *at all* till a few years ago when every right wing org decided you should

This glass bottle dates from the 1870s. The label on it reads "Glass vessel for holding carbolic acid solution 1 in 20 of a Lister's antiseptic spray."

Why is querying agents so incredibly scary? I feel like I'm being hunted for sport

This medicine chest dates from the 18th century. The chest includes 2 pewter containers & 10 glass bottles, 9 of which have pewter tops and one that has a glass top. The design of this bottle is slightly different and may be a replacement, it would have contained peppermint oil.

AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.

Happy Tuesday, have a kitten

@bechillcomedian.bsky.social Hello! I'm the fella with the mesiodens. Just finished listening to the latest episode, love the podcast, blah blah blah, just wanted to let you know I'll be seeing your show this Saturday and will be bringing the tooth with me 🦷

Friendly reminder that AI data centers are working overtime to help cook the planet. If the fires are scaring you— start using ‘-AI’ at the end of all Google searches to cut out any AI response to your query. Refusal is possible & responsible. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Happy monday, have a kitten (with bonus Julie)

Anyone else ever disgust themselves with how stunningly corporate their work emails are?

More custom endpapers for more wonderful books! This time, The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li! I was so happy when I dug into my paper stash (okay, collection of wrapping papers) and found I already had the perfect one!

Happy Werewolf Wednesday, heathens.

Happy 15th anniversary of the peak achievement of literary criticism, to all who celebrate

A friend recently told me that they couldn't believe I have a computer science degree because I have so much 'theatre kid energy' and let just say: yeah no they've got a point

GPs and midwives in the 20th century commonly carried a medical bag such as this. From 1833, all medical graduates were required to study midwifery. This was vital as prior to 1915, 95% of births still took place in the home. Therefore, travelling obstetric kits were essential.

I took 2 weeks off my normal broadsword class and came back today to the silliest, most utterly delightful nautical cutless mini-course. We played tug-of-war in our warmup. In one exercise two people were 'the tide' pulling the fencers around to simulate ship movement. Silly swordy wonderful fun! ⚔️🌊

Draft one of my kelpie story is finally complete! Now to take a break, go back to my previous project, give it another round of polishing, then return to querying agents, take ANOTHER break, and THEN it'll be time to reread kelpie draft one and make notes for draft two!

Being gender non-conforming in public means that sometimes people shout slurs at you, but also sometimes a visibly queer person makes eye contact with you and smiles, and you know that all the shouts and jeers are worth it

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers. The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

Growing up, no one warns you what an absolute bloody nightmare curtain shopping is. Why are they all hideous?!?!?!

'researchers...say that Annie Walker – a Victorian woman who began working at the observatory in 1879, when she was only 15 – ...observed thousands of stars herself....Walker was the first British professional female astronomer...paid a living wage by an observatory in the UK to chart the stars.'

The fun thing about dressing like an eccentric is that your pride look can be the same as your corporate tech office job look from last Thursday

"I asked ChatGPT" "I asked Grok" ok well I asked Gandalf and he said he has not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm

Happy Tuesday. Have a kitten (hardback book for scale)

Currently sitting forlornly at my corporate office job wishing more than anything that I could go home and WRITE

Today's writing research tabs: - Headcollar make-along part 1 - 3.5mm to inches - Inch to fraction converter - Leather thickness and weight chart - Leather thickness for different projects This is for two sentences

The awful thing about writing what you want to read is that at some point you'll be overwhelmed with a burning desire to read it, only to realise that, unfortunately, you still need to write it first

The two hardest things in writing are starting and finishing. So many people want to, but so few start. Then of all the people who start, so few finish. Start the thing, then finish the thing. Everything else comes after. Finished can be made good, but it must be finished first.

Not as strong a showing as last month, but any words are better than no words!

I recently took myself to London on a sister visit/research trip/birthday treat to myself! I was only there briefly but I had a blast and learned some useful things for my current project. I also got very excited at @oldoptheatre.bsky.social and saw some lovey tack at the housebold cavalry museum.

absolutely this.