Blog

  • thesylverlining:

    iamayoungfeminist:

    queerqueerspawn:

    highpriestesse:

    highpriestesse:

    horrifying fun fact of the day: so greenwich village, which is the neighborhood in nyc where the stonewall riots took place and which was a v important gay center from like the 50s-80s, is now super swanky and full of touristy boutiques and expensive apartments and stuff. st vincent’s, the local hospital which had the first aids ward on the east coast, closed a couple years ago and is being replaced with luxury condos. all of this is sad enough, BUT i just found out that one of the reasons it’s so gentrified now is that the aids crisis was really awesome for real estate. ppl were dying in thousands and leaving empty apartments behind, which their landlords would then rent at higher prices until only rich ppl could afford to live there :)

    elaphaia said: also during the aids crisis landlords would shut their heat off in the winter knowing it would kill ppl so they could then rent 4 higher :-)

    Reminder that the cishet dominated government didn’t just ignore the effects of HIV/AIDS because of how concentrated the deaths were in other communities because they hate us, but also because they materially benefited from it – because they owned most of the buildings, because our partners and other kin had no legal right to our possessions, and because they commodified and monopolized antiretrovirals to bilk us.

    Never forget ACT UP NYC that consisted of marginalized members of the LGBT community, many of whom were dying of AIDS. All of whom fought hard and valiantly against AIDS and HIV/AIDS discrimination. Never never forget about the brave men and women who smuggled drugs for AIDS patients into the US because the FDA was taking too long to approve drugs here and people were dying. 

    Never forget that people were often kicked out of their housing because they were unable to afford rent and treatment, because their partner died, or because of outright discrimination. 

    Enjoy your luxury apartments. I hope you remember the men and women who died so you could live there.  

    Just remembered Mimi’s line in RENT. “It’s nothing/they turned off my heat/and I’m a little weak on my feet.”

    Jesus. I know this was before a lot of tumblr’s time, but we can’t forget this shit.

  • Ignoring the urge

    At some moments I want to cut corners. I want to get the house finished and done and ready for the market and so we can actually just sit and enjoy it for 5 minutes before we go.

    But I’m not very good at that. It’s more that I opt not to do a job than I’m willing to do a job to a poor standard. Or at least, I still do things to a standard I’m willing to tolerate and that doesn’t wind me up too much rather than do a job too quickly.

    And so out came the fridge…

    IMG_20150706_104439

    Filled, caulked, prepped, masked, sanded and painted, despite the fact no-one will ever see it for more than a few minutes.

    IMG_20150709_170931

    It’s quietly pleasing to me to know that lurking behind our fridge (which we’re planning to include in the house sale) is a short stretch of skirting that’s neatly painted despite the fact that no one but me cares.

    Of course I managed to pull off a bit of the paint from the wall, which is less pleasing. But since I’ve got a whole bunch of areas to touch up – and that’s the next job after finishing the tiles in the laundry room and replacing the tiles in the hall, well… I’m less upset about that than I could be.

    It’s also in a not terribly visible place.

    In other news, prep for our Norway holiday continues – we’ve dug out the road map of Europe, we’ve dug out the tent and [other camping gear]… It’s starting to feel like an actual holiday approacheth.

  • superheroesincolor:

    Wendy Watson (Portrayed by Natalie Morales) //  The Middleman (2008) 

    A struggling female artist is recruited by a secret agency to fight against evil forces. The Middleman is a freelance fixer of “exotic problems”, which include mad scientists bent on taking over the world, hostile aliens and various supernatural threats. 

    Because of Wendy Watson’s coolness under pressure and photographic memory, Ida, a robot in the form of a grumpy schoolmarm, and the Middleman recruit her to become the next Middleman. (X)

    They entirely should not have cancelled this show. It was *awesome*.

  • A post about romantic relationships

    krisquesnel:

    helloelloh:

    so I’ve been in a relationship for 5 years now. And I see a lot of posts about how people think relationships mean having butterflies forever, your heart beating faster when they walk into a room, about cuddling together every night, legs intertwined, that you’d be so happy to live together you’d sleep on a double bed with each other every night.

    And its not really like that, at least not to me.

    You stop getting the butterflies when you live together. Your heart no longer speeds up when you see them, but instead, everything calms down. When youre in the room with them, you feel calm, and secure. When you cuddle them you feel your heart beat slow, and the sound of their breathing carry you towards comfort. It doesnt feel like a roller coaster anymore, it feels like home.

    You don’t sleep curled up with each other every night, legs twisted between theirs so tight its hard to tell where yours begin and theirs end.

    Instead, you sleep comfortably, side by side, sometimes facing different directions. But every night, you find yourself scooting backwards on the bed so you bump into them. You snuggle against their arm, or stroke their hair as they fall asleep. There are nights when my boyfriend, in his sleep, reaches around me and pulls me to him, like a child with his teddybear, like I am his comfort.

     In the wee hours of the morning before the dawn breaks, when the world is blue and you see through cracked eyes, you curl into their chest and inhale their scent before drifting back to sleep. 

    Kisses aren’t always romantic and firey anymore. But there are so much more of them now. There are cold kisses when you’re eating ice cream in the summer, and sticky kisses over breakfast pancakes. There’s “im leaving now” kisses, and “one more kiss before you go” kisses. There’s sleepy morning kisses before work, when you don’t remember the alarm going off but instead the press of their lips against yours is what brings you into the day.

    There’s kisses before sleep, and, you are so sweet with the things you do kisses. There’s kisses because you treat animals so tenderly, and I’m so glad i’m with you and not someone else kisses. There’s quick kisses in the aisles of the grocery store, when its loud and you gravitate together, when instead of having your own personal space and their own personal space, its both of yours together, and you step into their chest to take up less area together. 

    You don’t always text each other with confessions of love and care like you used to, because that’s a given now, and you’ve moved on to quirky inside jokes about the life youve built together. You share looks of exasperation and amusement in public, your own little world against the outside one. 

    Relationships aren’t always a fairy tale. They’re not always fireworks and sparks, at least, after the start.

    But they are a quiet rhythm and hum of love and care. It’s not a fire in your soul, but one in your hearth, keeping you warm and comfortable, comforting you as you drowsily drift into sleep.

    And I love that.

    this

  • siren-babe:

    If you are a feminist that is also supportive of sex workers (strippers, cam girls/boys, porn stars, ETC) please reblog this. I am trying to prove a point to someone.

  • smdxn:

    There’s a giant victim culture temper tantrum coming from the Christian right

    Opponents of marriage equality are raising all kinds of dire scenarios about how marriage equality will usher in an era of vicious discrimination against Christians, who will face all sorts of outrageous punishments for merely upholding their religious beliefs. But when they say discrimination and punishment, they’re really talking about basic consequences, which many on the right feel they should be exempt from…

    You’re a religious association that doesn’t want to rent to an LGBT wedding? You don’t have to, but you might have to give up renting to the public. You’re a faith-based social service agency? Maybe your internal policies will be incompatible with government grants. The thing is, this isn’t a disproportionate penalty. It’s a basic consequence…

    Bob Jones University lost its tax exemption because it prohibited interracial dating. Its tax exemption. As in, it had to pay taxes. That’s the punishment. Not exactly persecution at the level of the Spanish Inquisition.

    This is how deep the right’s culture of victimhood and entitlement goes. They believe they’re automatically entitled to tax exemptions and government grants without having to follow the government’s rules to get those benefits. They think if they’re not allowed to discriminate and still get every possible government benefit, they’re victims. And they’re gearing up for a decades-long battle to demand that the government see things their way.

  • Voyager is so happy, because it’s the bravest satellite of all. It has gone the furthest. And it’s not lonely, because it’s talking to us. It phones home. And it tells us all about the wonderful things that it’s seeing. …There’s a whole universe to explore, and it’s just leaving our Solar System right now. It’s very brave and very lucky to be doing what it’s doing, so it’s not going to get lost. It’s traveled further than anything we’ve ever built has traveled before. It’s actually showing us the way. …

    It might have been safer for it to just stay home, and stay inside a building, but then it would have been sad forever, because it never would have done its purpose. It never would have discovered things. It’s all a wonderful story of great discovery and success, and it couldn’t have happened if Voyager hadn’t been brave…

    It’s not really the fact that everything always has a start and an end, it’s what happens in the middle that counts. What do you while you’re alive? What do you do while you’re laughing? And I think we’re doing exactly what makes Voyager joyful and as happy as it could be.

    Think about the fact that you’re a little bit like Voyager. In that you’re going to go see the world, and you’re going to call your mom on the phone and tell her about the wonderful things that you see. … You wouldn’t want to spend your whole life hiding under your bed and never seeing anything in your whole life, you want to be able to do what makes you happy and joyful and learn about things to discover. You might be the person that discovers something really important for everybody else on the world, but you can never discover that if you just hide and only do things that are safe. So think about yourself a little bit like Voyager. What makes you laugh? It’s not just staying, hiding underneath your bed safely at home.

    Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, reassuring a five-year-old who was worried about the Voyager satellite (source)

    (via reconditarmonia)

  • scienceyoucanlove:

    ENIAC PROGRAMMERS PROJECT

    The ENIAC Programmers Project records the stories of the six original ENIAC programmers, seeks recognition for their accomplishments and has produced The Computersdocumentary in conjunction with Google founders and leaders to tell their dramatic story.

    Discovered by Kathy Kleiman, a young programmer in the mid-1980s, “the ENIAC programmers inspired me to stay in computing at a time when there were few women in my programming classes and every signal was telling me that computing was not a field for women,” she remembers.

    The ENIAC programmers’ story was fascinating, but lost for more than 50 years. Kathy devoted years to ground-breaking research in the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Library of Congress, and recorded extensive broadcast-quality oral histories with four of the original six ENIAC programmers in the late 1990s with senior PBS Producer David Roland. Kathy applied for awards on the behalf of the ENIAC Programmers and joined them at the Computer History Museum, IEEE Computer Society, Women in Technology International and Women in Computing to celebrate their long-delayed recognition!

    In 2013, Kathy teamed up with award-winning documentary producers Jon Palfreman and Kate McMahon of the Palfreman Film Group to tell this incredible story in the stunning documentary short, The Computers. “The Computers documentary is designed to fit into every classroom and every computing club. ENIAC Programming Pioneers Betty Snyder Holberton, Jean Jennings Bartik, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli and Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer tell their story—of how they programmed the first all-electronic, programmable computer, ENIAC, without any programming languages, tools or manuals!  They were amazing, brilliant, insightful, funny and riveting, and absolutely committed to making programming easier for the rest of us. They are Programming Pioneers to celebrate!” shares Kathy.

    “Not only did they program the ENIAC, the first all-electronic, digital computer during WWII without manuals or programming languages, but they dedicated years after the war to making programming easier and more accessible for all of us who followed”, she adds.

    The ENIAC Programmers story changes forever how we look at technology and computer history. It inspires young women, and young men, to believe that computing careers lie within their reach.

    source 

    documentary info here 

  • curleefrojo:

    hellabunchesofoates:

    autistickanaya:

    The stonewall riots were started by trans women of colour and nobody is allowed to forget that

    Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera didn’t march so that you could be transmisogynt and cissexist.

    image

    WITHOUT TRANS WOMEN OF COLOR THERE WOULD BE NO GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT OR PRIDE !!!!