whump is such a strange thing for me. ‘oh im having trouble shouldering the burdens of daily life, let me play scenes in my head of someone getting the shit kicked out of them (fictionally), that’ll make me feel better’ and it DOES

[starts typing up a reply to a popular tumblr user who said trans men have male privilege because theyre men]

[stops because I realize im just opening myself up to unnecessary stress and anxiety]

the topic itself wouldn't be so upsetting to me if people didn't love to talk it about it much, much more than they do the, yknow, dis-privilege of being trans men. Like yes yes yes we can talk about the way misogyny permeates even the queer community and the way masculinity is still viewed as a default, and sometimes that does end up favoring trans men. Are you prepared to talk about that misogyny when its targets are transmasc? If the only concept of mens place in society you have is that of cis men, and you want to slap that onto trans men, I do have a problem with what you are saying even if we could come to some agreement in the middle.

Dungeon meshi is about taking care of yourself physically so you can be fucking insane at full capacity

The Public Comment Process (+ how to write effective public comments)

The US federal rule-making process is founded around the right to comment: the public's opportunity to publicly address the agency responsible for a decision. This right is enshrined by the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) of 1946 and reinforced by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, which both require that citizens be able to take part in pre-decision communication with a federal agency.

Public comments are important for a number of reasons:

Submitting a public comment on proposed federal rules and regulations is not like commenting on social media, though. Substantive comments that require agency response are those that contain information pertinent to the actions proposed in the regulation, such as community impacts, scientific evidence, or other data. Non-substantive comments ("I don't like this!") don't require any response beyond maybe a "Comment noted."

Here's a brief set of tips from the Public Comment Project:

“The most valuable public comments are unique, fact-based, and succinct. The agency will have to sort through many identical form letters and expressions of personal opinion.  

You can also find templates here: https://publiccommentproject.org/comment-templates

Sources:

Procrastinating on my mountain of grading by setting up a side blog to collect and share resources + opportunities for public comment against the onslaught of attacks against the environment from the Trump admin

I am 40% of the way through Gideon the Ninth. There are no plot spoilers below.

What is refreshing about Gideon as a protagonist and POV character is that she is a jock. She fundamentally does not care about all this nerd shit going on, i.e. the entire setting and plot. She misses exposition, background, and other explanations because, as one person who starts explaining how magic works observes, "right, you're not even pretending to pay attention."

Most writers are writers, so this is not a common perspective for a book to hold. Plot-relevant details can be sprinkled freely because Gideon's narrative will see them and not even shrug before moving on.

GIdeon lacks the emotional and mental maturity to be a good person. She is not evil as such, just apparently unaware of the existence of moral implications. When we meet her, her motivation is to get out of this hick town and join the military, because fighting is glorious and cool and this hick town sucks. She likes weapons and fighting and working out and hot chicks. She fantasizes about leading military charges that bring death to new worlds and fuel necromantic rituals because that would mean hot goth babes would see how cool she is and be grateful. She does not dwell on the thought of worlds that apparently have never known death and her plan to look cool leading imperial invasions and killing enough people to fuel necromantic rituals. She does dwell on the thought of that prissy bitch from her high school having to see how cool and hot she is now that she's a war hero who gets medals and hot babes.

You as the reader can be carried along very quickly by this incurious perspective that does not think twice about things. You as the reader may want Gideon to backtrack and dwell on something or explore it further. The weirdness of the setting is more or less swept under the rug by Gideon's not noticing it. 98.5% of the children on a planet gone (died?), but Gideon doesn't devote a second sentence to boring backstory like that. What was that about galactic conquest, in a setting where the main weapons are swords and necromantic magic? How little advancement has there been in technology or magic in 10,000 years, despite a possibly continuous civilization that whole time? Or some references to what sound like dark ages? Damned if Gideon cares or even notices.

The necromancers are dying to talk shop about their powers. Gideon rolls her eyes and wants to talk to that woman about the cool flip she did, because Gideon wants to look cool doing flips during fights and have girls notice how cool she looks. Also her biceps. Gideon cannot pay attention for a full sentence on necromantic magic, but she does have a half-page to dwell on girls noticing how big her biceps are.

(marty mcfly is 5’4)

a kind of poem (?) about the cosmic microwave background

Lil creek

Quick! The first OC you think of is dropped in the world of the last movie/show you watched. How are they faring?

The Europan Ice War posting over on Twitter is just further proof the people yearn for filk music.

This is a chorus shy of a futuristic Eric Bogle song.

Displayed on the Old North Church in Boston, MA on April 18, 2025, the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride.

Photo source: silencedogoodboston, the group behind this idea

I absolutely adore Ortus Ninegad.

I love that a one-note joke character who dies off screen in the first act is brought back and given a crucial role in the sequel, and then granted depth, dignity and complex characterisation.

I love that Ortus’s arc plays on the trope where the seemingly useless character suddenly finds their power, but unlike most examples of this trope, this isn’t some vindication power fantasy where Ortus transforms into a Gary Stu and everyone falls at his feet apologising for ever doubting him. I love that Ortus saves the day, but even in his heroic moments, he remains the same wet blanket of a person he’s always been. I love that Ortus’s much-mocked obsession with his own epic poetry is what ends up saving the day and ultimately, saving Harrow’s soul, but the poetry itself is still silly, because things can be silly and transcendent at the same time. (I love Ortus as an embodiment of fannishness, of the creative and protective power of loving a story that much.)

I love that Ortus of all people could give Harrow what God couldn’t. He gave her an honest apology for failing her, not cosmically, but in the mundane ways that adults fail children. And he gave her a hug that she was willing to accept.

I think if you want to write time travel but you're overwhelmed by all the potential complications, a decent approach is to pick one ironclad rule for How Time Travel Works Here and stick to it.

Gargoyles said "you absolutely CANNOT change the past, full stop, even if you think you did," which would be too limiting for a lot of universes but was a perfect choice here because there's already so much going on. Back to the Future said (at least implicitly) "there are NO bootstrap paradoxes, even when it looks like there are," and embraced the confusing consequences of that. I think, even at its most complicated, it helps to have ONE constant for How This Works that you can refer back to when things get messy.

(Or else you can take the Doctor Who route of "which rules we're using depends on which story this is and at this point we've made up entirely NEW sets of rules to explain why we don't have rules." That requires a different kind of commitment.)

Bonus: (Shoutout to @knickynoo's post for reminding me of this one!)