Also, if allies do not understand the importance of advocating for healthcare, recognition, and safety for trans people, they do not fundamentally understand bodily or personal autonomy - and that is going to be a flaw in all organising.

Today I'm thankful for all the things that I am not which would cause unhappiness and make the world a worse place to be in.

Look, I think Australia should become a republic, but if we are going to be part of the commonwealth, then I think that should *mean* something for working and education rights in the UK At the very least, a level between ‘home’ and ‘international’ students

Really looking forward to getting these PhD apps all submitted to get my brain back and it not being at all times at least 80% focused on this.

That’s me! Ah!!!

Current count is 86 (Many of these are drafts that I make a new file for when I make edits, so I don’t lose previous words chunks if I decide I do need them. Maybe I’ll count final submitted words at the end)

One day, I will write palaeography correctly the first time I type it, and it will be a joyous day

Universities: - Stop offering workshops on how to use ChatGPT to write papers - stop using DeepL to translate your websites or make it sound useful for our research - stop pretending AI usage is inevitable. I don‘t want to work for institutions who can‘t employ critical thinking to new tech.

Writing great books is one of the coolest things a human being can possibly do, but it’s important to recognize that the vast majority of authors throughout history earned roughly the equivalent of Uber driver wages to create the works we study today.

Re: previous post - People who steal art of any kind are assholes, full stop. If *you* deserve to be paid for your labor, so do I - and so does everybody else; this means writers, visual artists, musicians, and every other category of People Who Make Things.

Please share widely! 📜 RBMS 2026 CFP (with some changes this year to session formats): web.cvent.com/event/0f0104... The planning spreadsheet is in the re-blogged post.

Thank god for past Lucy who did a conference in like May and purposefully wrote a new paper inline with her ANZAMEMs abstract, knowing that November/December Lucy would not have the time to write a paper while doing PhD apps.

I took a semester off uni halfway through my degree and did the classic young Australian backpacking around Europe. I spent the whole trip going ‘I love history!!!’ that I came home and immediately swapped my major to history (I had been minoring in it, so it was an easy enough swap)

I did a chainmail bracelet making workshop and I have found a new hobby 😍

Other google apps also have smart features (calendar, drive, etc.) Going into drive > settings > privacy > manage workspace smart feature settings let me turn it off (across all of my apps, I think. Whereas doing the below in gmail only turned it off for gmail).

Okay I paint-by-numbered the books, but I did the wood texture myself (and changed the light from black to brass) and I’m really pleased with how that turned out 🥺 #craftssky

On the mobile app it’s under ‘smart reply’ under the compose and reply section

So tired of this 🫩

Two weeks later and I’m finally testing negative for covid again

In one circle of hell, a demon gives you something you just wrote and tells you it needs to be a different word count, a different referencing system, and actually change the framing slightly to be about this. Once you complete that, you get a new list of requirements for it. Repeat ad infinitum.

None of your dnd party chose a magic-based character, leaving you unable to fight magic with magic? Problematic mage gap

Using a photo I took in an Oxford library as a sort of paint by numbers to draw these books. Highly enjoying getting into a new art media

I got covid from someone who was knowingly sick (but hadn't tested for covid) who got it from someone else that was knowingly sick (but hadn't tested). I've had a handful of people when I've expressed great frustration at this, justify that because 'they didn't know it wasn't just some bug'

Triangles, crusts on, either butter or margarine is fine I had fairy bread at my birthday dinner this year so I feel I am an expert with recent experience 😂

Remember: they used thousands of academic books too! If you’re a scholar, check for your books too. This isn’t just novelists and pop writers, it’s academic books too!

One of my students earlier this semester asked me to help them write an email to another tutor for a different class that they were having an issue with (other tutor was being unreasonable) More of that (asking people for help!), less of this (asking the environment destroying robot)

What she said!!!

The next issue of @parergon.bsky.social is on its way, guest-edited by me, @erinsebo.bsky.social and Cassandra Schilling. There's a great group of scholars here who collectively consider, from multiple perspectives, questions of how medieval England perceived its place in a wide and complex world.

Got so overwhelmed at all the moving parts of different PhD applications that I've written out to-do lists for each application with every specific thing that I need to do (this information is in my masterlist word doc, but now it is all in satisfying paper lists)

The first PhD proposal that I had due was the shortest (500 words!) and the next few are longer (all different, but at least several hundred words longer). It is an interesting process to now go from my condensed version and go 'okay what do I need to expand / bring back that I cut?'

My masters thesis: a summary

Still testing positive and I’m going to keep isolating until I stop (boo), but ran out of tests to asked someone to grab me some. Got some that test for both covid and two flu strains? Science is cool!

It’s my mum’s birthday and I’m still isolating, so I drew her a picture while the others were out for lunch

You’re all familiar with the key conundrum, ‘hayfever or covid?’ I bring you the hot new sequel ‘hayfever or covid but you’re recovering from covid so you can’t tell if this is lingering covid respiratory nonsense or it’s just hayfever’

I had my vpn set to the US to load a website that wasn’t loading with my Aus connection …I just got a YouTube ad about a portable gun safe, so you ‘don’t have your gun just sitting on the table when you have meeting with employees’ Hello wtf

Starting to hit the recovery point where I’m getting bored just chilling and watching things, but don’t quite have the energy to be doing things (and also am trying to /keep/ resting. Because I haven’t been so anxious about long-covid all this time to fail at the hurdle that is ‘rest’ when I can)

It's just been confirmed that Monash University is dropping Woodside as a partner because they don't align with their sustainable values. This is an incredible win for @stopwoodsidemonash.bsky.social who have run a dedicated grass roots campaign for years.

As far as covid infections go, this has seemed (relatively) Not The Worst - more cold than flu-y, and respiratory stuff seems improving, but I’m fucking exhausted I’ll tell you that

Do this! I just spent my morning filing away almost 300 pages of excellent materials on undergrad and postgrad teaching and skills, curriculum development & assessment design for reference... Horrifying to think all that expertise and effort will all just end up in a digital graveyard.

This bout of covid is the first time I’ve had a respiratory infection since 2021 - this sucks. 0/10. The benefit of masking meaning I also haven’t been catching colds every year has been great, actually

Okay how the fuck did I get Covid. I’m so fucking careful that I’m actually mad

Someone in the household bought macaroni - which I’m vaguely perplexed by because who reads ‘pasta’ on a shopping list and buys macaroni? But I think this means I’m going to try make Mac and cheese for dinner

Uninstall Grammarly NOW. They've partnered with an AI company and actively scrape your writing to train its models.

Hey, PDX/ southwestern WA folks— this will sound silly, but for the love of god if there is a tornado, do not stay and look at it. Most houses in the PNW don’t have basements. Go to somewhere interior, like a bathroom or closet, and shelter in place like it’s an earthquake.

How is putting together PhD applications going, you ask? My PhD folder now has *checks notes* 65 files in it

My #tinyjoy of today is watching rainbow lorikeets fly between bottlebrush trees 🥰

We still haven’t figured out climbing but we have figured out jumping (which also means she isn’t allowed out the front unsupervised, because she can jump high enough to get to the top of the fence…)

Can someone invent a weighted blanket that is like a wheat pack (and I guess a giant microwave?), because wrapping my whole upper body in a heat pack is what I need right now

Fancy spending the summer at the University of Oxford learning about the Stuarts? Look no further! My summer course is now open for applications ⬇️ The Stuarts: The Fall, Rise and Revolution of a Dynasty, 1603-1714 lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/the-...

If early modern disease is more your thing, I’m also running this course too. 'A plague o' both your houses': Life and Death in 17th-Century England Applications open lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/courses/a-pl...