In the Cards is a fantastic episode just for the 1 - 2 combo of 1) Julian without hesitation declaring his childhood teddy bear would be the one thing that would make him happy right now and agreeing to get Jake and Nog what they want if they get him Kukalaka and 2) the reveal that Leeta fucking stole it and has been sleeping with it

Also love the implication that Julian is so conflict averse that he won’t just ask for it back.

Which is actually nuts because Bashir LOVES conflict with... some people. Just not with Leeta.

there’s conflict (flirty) and conflict (righteous), both disciplines in which Julian’s a black belt. but then there’s Conflict (vulnerable), and Julian dodges that one as often as possible.

How much Julian actually avoids discussing some sensitive subjects and feelings is one of the things about his character I especially enjoy in relation to Garak and the various conversations the two don't want to have with each other. Re: an ex having the teddy bear Julian wants back, I think the admitting of it/ego is also pretty involved as a subcategory of Conflict (vulnerable). Julian can be pretty open about expressing needs or vulnerabilities he might have in a lot of situations but there are definitely also certain areas where he seems to avoid that, like how (understandably in the context of his character) we don't see him tell people that remarks/jokes about his genetic enhancement bother him or ask them to stop.

The fact that he feels less vulnerable confiding in the teens that he would like his teddy bear back than he does at the idea of asking Leeta is something I've never considered before but now my brain is very much chewing on. Why is it easier to ask Jake and Nog than Leeta?

It reminds me of the ‘mum friend’ meme, where people get nervous and anxious standing up for themselves but instantly gain confidence and social skills when their friend is the one who needs something.

Julian fears no man, woman, or anyone in between when he’s standing up for someone else (Kai Winn when standing up for Bareil, the Jem’Hadar in camp 371 when everyone’s rations were cut, Odo and Tain during the events of The Wire, etc.) but asking Leeta for his teddy back means admitting he has to admit that when he gave it to her he almost certainly downplayed how much it mattered to him, and that he’s actually been stewing on this for a while, and that means he has to admit he’s more vulnerable than he projected.

In that way it’s easier to just get Jake and Nog to steal it back.

its so funny to me that people on twitter n tiktok are like "ok but porns still banned on tumblr so at least we're better then them" as if they dont have to typ3 w0rd$ I1k3 th!$ to get around their censors

y34h, 4t l34st on th1s s1t3 you c4n t3ll th4t th3 p3rson h4s 4 p4rt1cul4r, mor3 4nnoy1ng r34son to typ3 l1k3 th1s

i want to you to eat deodorant

[ID: The “Hey, Eric, look at me. Bitch.” meme. The first panel has the subtitles edited to have Hannibal saying “Hey, hey, twitter and tiktok, look at me.” The second panel has the words “hole,” “boob,” “gay,” “fuck,” “murder,” “penis,” lesbian,” “kill,” and “die” around Hannibal. The third panel has the subtitles the same as they are, with Hannibal saying “Bitch.” /End ID]

Image Description here

I have covid for the 4th time (I take care of people who are positive and don't understand they can't snap my mask off. It happens.) My coworkers were making fun of me because they don't know anyone who has had it as many times as me. So I'm wondering.

I have thoughts about the whole feminist anti-interrupting thing. Like I agree, men do talk over people and it is disrespectful, but I also think there are cultures, specifically Jews, where talking over each other is actually a sign of being engaged in the conversation. It’s something I really struggle with in the south, because up in New York, even non-Jews participated in this cooperative conversation style, but down here, whenever I do it by accident, the whole convo stops and it gets called out and it’s a whole thing. Idk idk I feel like there’s different types of interruptive like there’s constructive interrupting where you add on to whatever is being said - helpful interrupting, and then there’s like interrupting where you just start saying something unrelated because you were done listening. I have ADHD so I’ve def done the latter too by accident, but I’m talking about being more accepting of the former.

I think a lot of the social mores leftists enforce around communication tend to be very white. Like Jews are not the only group of people that have distinct communication styles. Like the enforcement of turn-based communication, not raising your voice (not just in anger but also in humor or excitement), etc. it’s always interesting that the most pushback I get about how I communicate come from white people (mostly women actually, white men just give me patronizing looks because they don’t feel like they can call me out in same way). Like I’ve been teaching these workshops, and a few of them have been primarily black people, and I’ve noticed black people will also engage in cooperative interrupting (and I love it!). This isn’t a developed thought and I welcome feedback. Idk I think there should be space in leftist organizing for more diverse communication styles.

Here’s a source:

As a linguist: overlapping talk is not the same thing as an interruption!

An interruption is specifically intended to stop another person from speaking so you can take over. Other reasons that talk might overlap:

The norms around these kinds of overlaps vary -- by context (we all use more audible backchannel on the phone; an interview is not a sermon is not a casual chat), by culture, and yes, by gender, which is why it’s a feminist issue. But gender doesn’t exist in a vaccuum! Some reasons overlaps might be mis-interpreted as interruptions when they’re not intended to be:

Norms around conversation tend to be super white/Western/male/NT; even among linguists, the way we talk about analyzing talk usually presupposes discrete turns, with one person who “has the floor” and everyone else listening. It even gets coded into our technology -- I thing the account’s gone private, but someone recently tweeted, “For the sake of my wife’s family, Zoom needs to incorporate an ‘ashkenazi jewish’ checkbox” because the platform is programmed to try to identify a “main speaker” and auto-mute everyone else. Most of the progress on this front in linguistics has been pushed by Black women and Jewish women, or else we’d probably still be acting like Robert’s Rules represent the natural expression of human instincts.

And it’s very White Feminism to recognize how conversations styles have disparate impacts across gender lines without also recognizing other axes along which conversation styles vary, once that empower us as well as oppress us. Just because I feel interrupted doesn’t mean I am interrupted, and it definitely doesn’t mean I have the right to scream “EVERYBODY SHUT UP!!” until I’m the only one talking.

I don’t ... have a great way to end this? Just that it’s good to recognize competing needs in communication, and have some humility and intentionality about whose needs gets prioritized and how.

Another thing; as someone who expects overlap because of my cultural upbringing, when someone doesn't overlap me I just start looping and repeating myself because I'm waiting for them to interrupt and they're "politely" waiting for me to finish speaking.

Okay nobody ever put that into words but the looping is exactly what I do in therapy - I should tell my therapist about this so I don’t need to say the same thing over and over again lol

This is fascinating to me.  I love the recognition of competing needs in communication.  One of the layers that I have noticed is what I think of as conversational pacing.  Enthusiastic discuussion and cross-talking can absolutely work for everyone if the conversational pace allows for it.  This is often the difference between an interactive discussion and someone “sea lioning” relentlessly.  Another layer to this is reading body language;; tone of voice.  Having one or more people in the room (either via Zoom or in person), who feel comfortable saying things like, “Wait - I think Sarah had something to add there.” is much more productive than the “EVERYBODY SHUT UP” model.

I have the opposite problem where if I get interrupted I literally can't speak. I just give up and go silent. If there's no space in a conversation I say nothing

[Image description: Six gifs from Doctor Who. The ones on the left are from An Unearthly Child. The First Doctor walks through a junkyard. Then we see the name of the junkyard: I.M. Foreman. Finally, we see the Doctor and Susan in the TARDIS. The gifs on the right are from The Devil's Chord. The Fifteenth Doctor tells Ruby, "Shoreditch. I'm there right now. In the past, right now, I live in a place called Totter's Lane. 1963, I parked the TARDIS in a junkyard, and I live there with my granddaughter, Susan." End description.]

[Plain text: Classic Who // New Who Parallels. End plain text]

@dw-described

The 2024 Gender Census is now open!

[ Link to survey ]

The 11th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th June 2024.

It’s short and easy, about 5 minutes probably.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful - it’s what helped us get 40,000 responses last year.

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

For the curious, you can also spy on some graphs and demographic data for the incoming responses here.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

Image credit: Malachite and rhodochrosite.

[Image description taken from alt: Title: Gender Census 2024.

Text: If you can't easily put yourself into just one of these two boxes, you are invited to take part.

Two boxes, one green malachite with a Venus symbol on it, one pink rhodochrosite with a Mars symbol on it. End description.]

@a-captions-blog

more fucking petitions because this clown car country cannot stop with the bigotry for 30 seconds

uk people it takes 5 seconds and you checking your email to verify

everyone else: rebloge please

As of Sunday 12th May, this petition is at 1,897 signatures.

“At 10,000 signatures...

At 10,000 signatures, government will respond to this petition

At 100,000 signatures...

At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament”

please do not go so hard at "Elon is terrible and the Cybertruck is a dumpster fire" (which is true) that you somehow make your way to "electric cars are all ticking time bombs" (which is false, and mostly said by people who want to keep driving combustion engine cars perpetually because they think the climate crisis is made up)

to expand on this a little as an EV owner:

EVs are just straight better to drive than ICE cars. it's not just about the emissions. they're cheaper to run, they need a lot less maintenance because they're mechanically simpler and don't run on explosions, and they're more powerful with better acceleration.

yes, we have to get rid of car dependency, not only to make cities livable but to cut down on microplastics released by tire wear. we also have to live in the world that currently exists. I live in a small town, I have to commute a long distance, and I have a mobility impairment. relying on public transit is not an option for me or a lot of other people in similar situations.

yes, reliance on cobalt mined in countries with shitty labour practices (to put it mildly) is a problem. that's why every EV company out there is working on cobalt-free batteries. at least one (BYD) is already using them in production cars.

yes, lithium mining is also bad for the planet. that's why researchers and energy companies are working on next-generation technologies like sodium-ion batteries, which are already being installed in home and grid-scale applications. sodium is fucking everywhere.

Living in a sunny state, when my family had solar panels before moving we were able to drive the EV largely on solar power. It’s awesome and I wish getting solar and having an EV was a more affordable down payment and more widely distributed (can’t have panels now that we’re renting). Someday it hopefully will be.

Kind of hilarious to me how poorly the title "Mob Psycho 100" localized to English-speaking areas. To someone whose first language is English, it scans as:

But in Japanese it scans as:

"Psycho" to mean "someone with psychokinesis" has been an anime thing since the 70s so I knew that one but the meaning of "Mob" really never crossed my mind. I thought it was just his name for no reason at all.

Japanese read: ESP NPC

English read: MAXIMUM MURDER

okay but for real "hold those sticks or i'll lock you inside that bass drum" is a real threat i once heard my high school band director make to a percussionist. i did not expect it to also be a prediction of something that happens in a doctor who episode

Cannot emphasise how OBSESSED i am with the Doctor being able to hear the show's backing music. Does he have favourites? Does he ever miss the funky classic who tunes?

Its giving Day of the Doctor novelisation, where the Doctor's vision changed when the show's colour grading did.

I love whenever they make allusions to the 4th wall or skirt near it. 1st Doctor talking to the people at home. 4th Doctor's laugh at the camera. 12th Doctor's monologues and playing of the Theme tune. Its all so wonderful.

But to put it in the forefront. To literally have him say " I Thought that was non-diegetic " (music not actually present in the world and only for the audience) to have him WINK at us.

Obsessed is too weak a word for what I'm feeling right now. I love them

@whycellothurr STOP BEING SO RIGHT YOU'RE MAKING ME SOB

Not just this though. Imagine every moment.

Imagine 10 hearing Doomsday and knowing theres no going back. Later hearing Rose's theme just before he see's her in Stolen Earth. Hearing the music cut out.

The way they must accociate their companions with their themes as much as we do.

Amelia's theme playing as he leaves her in the Garden. Playing again as he gives her that apple. Hearing it again and again and again... Hearing it for a last time as he reads her note in Angel's Take Manhatten.

Speaking of Clara, you first hear her theme in Asylum of the Daleks. He hears that humanity as he leaves her to die. It must have been nagging at his mind in The Snowmen. Why is she so familiar? Not just her face. The theme starts up again as he gives her the key. He doesn't quite remember, not yet. (The music is quieter now, after she fell, she's fading.) But he remembers when he see's her names. (That sound, the souffles, how did he not see it sooner!) When he finds her again? He saves her and her music is so loud and vibrant.

Later, does Twelve learn to accociate Clara with her music if not her face? He surely has a great connection to music. Maybe its easier to tell apart friend and foe when faces don't come naturally. Even when she's gone he remembers that tune. Breaking my heart in two actually.

These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Thank you for putting this into my head. There are SO many moments that it makes even more devastating.

[Image description: Three images. 1: the Fifteenth Doctor says, "I thought that was non-diegetic". 2: The Doctor smiles at the viewer. 3: Tags reading: that means he literally heard claras theme when he was abt to mind wipe bill, dw spoilers". End description.]

@dw-described

Genuinely question! Does the Tumblr image ALT text feature not work well with screen readers? I had added it to the images themselves as I assumed it would read the text as the screen reader went over the images. Since that is how most websites do accessibility text. I know tumblr can be a shit show of a site though. So I will also add it seperately if that is not the case!

There wasn’t any alt text on the first two images - there’s normally an alt button that shows up in the corner of images with alt on Tumblr, but that didn’t turn up with those images. Also, even if the alt text does show up, it can be hard for people who don’t use screenreaders but do need image descriptions to read. The way I usually do things is a short description in the alt text and a longer one in the body of the post

Cannot emphasise how OBSESSED i am with the Doctor being able to hear the show's backing music. Does he have favourites? Does he ever miss the funky classic who tunes?

Its giving Day of the Doctor novelisation, where the Doctor's vision changed when the show's colour grading did.

I love whenever they make allusions to the 4th wall or skirt near it. 1st Doctor talking to the people at home. 4th Doctor's laugh at the camera. 12th Doctor's monologues and playing of the Theme tune. Its all so wonderful.

But to put it in the forefront. To literally have him say " I Thought that was non-diegetic " (music not actually present in the world and only for the audience) to have him WINK at us.

Obsessed is too weak a word for what I'm feeling right now. I love them

@whycellothurr STOP BEING SO RIGHT YOU'RE MAKING ME SOB

Not just this though. Imagine every moment.

Imagine 10 hearing Doomsday and knowing theres no going back. Later hearing Rose's theme just before he see's her in Stolen Earth. Hearing the music cut out.

The way they must accociate their companions with their themes as much as we do.

Amelia's theme playing as he leaves her in the Garden. Playing again as he gives her that apple. Hearing it again and again and again... Hearing it for a last time as he reads her note in Angel's Take Manhatten.

Speaking of Clara, you first hear her theme in Asylum of the Daleks. He hears that humanity as he leaves her to die. It must have been nagging at his mind in The Snowmen. Why is she so familiar? Not just her face. The theme starts up again as he gives her the key. He doesn't quite remember, not yet. (The music is quieter now, after she fell, she's fading.) But he remembers when he see's her names. (That sound, the souffles, how did he not see it sooner!) When he finds her again? He saves her and her music is so loud and vibrant.

Later, does Twelve learn to accociate Clara with her music if not her face? He surely has a great connection to music. Maybe its easier to tell apart friend and foe when faces don't come naturally. Even when she's gone he remembers that tune. Breaking my heart in two actually.

These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Thank you for putting this into my head. There are SO many moments that it makes even more devastating.

[Image description: Three images. 1: the Fifteenth Doctor says, "I thought that was non-diegetic". 2: The Doctor smiles at the viewer. 3: Tags reading: that means he literally heard claras theme when he was abt to mind wipe bill, dw spoilers". End description.]

@dw-described

so if we kind of do some creative extrapolation here (since obviously there are still a lot of episodes in this season of doctor who)-- the line of salt trick the 14th doctor did in wild blue yonder is pretty heavily stated to be the thing that let the toymaker back into the universe, and ever since then...things in the whoniverse have been very weird. narratively the whole universe seems self-aware now (particularly the doctor themselves) and lots of strange things seem to be happening. idk what the endgame is here but i do think it would be VERY FUNNY if the line of salt WAS the thing that opened the door to all this crazy stuff. like the universe got fucked up because the doctor was doing a bit and that is EXACTLY what doctor who is all about

OH FUCK. OH FUCK. IF THE DOCTOR CAN HEAR THE NON-DIEGETIC MUSIC. THAT MEANS 12 TALKING ABOUT BECOMING BEETHOVEN AND THE BOOTSTRAP PARADOX AND THEN IN-UNIVERSE HAVING WRITTEN CLARA'S THEME.........

[Plain text: Oh fuck. Oh fuck. If the Doctor can hear the non-diegetic music. That means 12 talking about becoming Beethoven and the bootstrap paradox and then in-universe having written Clara's theme……… End plain text.]

OK. Can we get all the lore on the Bishop yesterday. Pretty please. Cherry on top.