I still wear a Pebble watch, which I bought from the Kickstarter in 2015. The watches were amazing, but the company died because it was bought by Fitbit, who didn’t have any interest in continuing the watches, or maintaining the software that they ran. (The watches were so popular with their users that the users continued the app and watchface store once Fitbit shut it down. And there was a community on Reddit who’d tell you how to do things like replace the battery when it died. We LOVED these watches.)
Today I found out that the original founder has started making Pebble watches again, and the first round of them have already started shipping. Apparently the new ones last a month between charges, instead of the week that the old watches did. (Mine, now ten years old, is down to about two days of battery. But you know, it’s ten years old. It’s doing pretty well.)
It feels like we’ve clawed back a small victory against the entropy of modern capitalism. idk. The OS that the new watches run is open source, too!
I’m gonna see if my family want to band together to get me one for Christmas, or maybe my birthday. And I might go back to trying to code a watchface for Pebble. I got so far as making some art a year or two ago. I just (“”“just”“”) have to learn C or JavaScript to get it to work.
Never had but always wanted the original. Preordered the new color one as soon as it was announced. Anxiously awaiting it
Have you seen the new movie? It’s on library. It’s literally on the library. It’s on library without ads. It’s literally on your local public library. You can probably ask for it on your library. Dude it’s on your library. It’s in the original case too. It’s on library. You can watch it at the library. You can go to your local library and watch it. Register onto your local library right now. Go to your library. Dive into your library. You can watch it. It’s on there. Your library has it for you. Your library has it for you.
Have you seen your post? You can see it at library. It’s at library. It’s on the library staff cabinet. It got printed out on paper and put up on Library.
this is from a book-length thesi written by a japanese lesbian researcher who dedicated it to her gf
It would be easy to make fun of this, but it’s actually a solid topic that I wish people would think about rather than post competitive discourse on.
The dissertation (which anyone can read for themselves through the above link) is really focused on Japan and Japanese culture, pointing out that the 1990s were the first time there was a publicly visible lesbian scene there. The writer connects her finding her own queer sexuality in the 1980s to the bishounen manga she read in the 1970s, the only place she found queer rep in fiction. She talks about yaoi being the first genre in Japanese fiction that really catered to women’s desires, and also about the financial support given by women to other women in purchasing their yaoi fiction/manga. There’s a lot about, as usual for academic explorations on this subject, women being able to “engage female sexuality and desire without being oppressed and censored”. Fascinatingly, she uses the concept of “virtual lesbians” to highlight the fact that female yaoi fans, by sharing and explicitly discussing porn with each other, are kind of sexually engaging with each other at a remove. It’s from 2008 and I think it’s a bit dated in its assumptions about the straightness of yaoi fans who don’t actively identify as lesbians (and there doesn’t appear to be any exploration of trans fans, either), but that’s what I’d expect for 2008.
This is very much about Japanese yaoi culture specifically, but it has a resonance for western slash fandom. My social networks centered on m/m are incredibly affirming on a personal level, with some of the best friends I’ve ever made online and socializing that goes well beyond obsessing over fictional couples. We care about each other and we care for each other.
And it’s like, I get how this could seem funny or contradictory, but ultimately it’s only funny or contradictory if you are in the trap of treating characters like people and people like characters. Women talking about male characters with other women, purchasing fiction written by other women, reading and commenting on things written by other women, and most importantly forming friendships with other women are supporting actual human women. They aren’t subject to some kind of RL Bechdel test. I don’t really give a fuck about whether or not someone is fixating on female characters. (Not that being an m/m fan even says anything at all about one’s stance toward female characters … other people are three-dimensional human beings, not caricatures.) You can have the most morally upright stance toward imperfect or complex female characters ever, but if you spend a significant amount of time expressing contempt for other women for their fictional tastes, you’re not being a “good feminist”, and certainly not being a “better feminist” than women who are actively supporting each other as people.
I don’t care about the stances on how feminist women are or aren’t for any of this tbh I don’t want to get involved in a debate about that, but I thought this would be a cool place to put this article I’ve been meaning to read about early BL shōjo manga, given that I became interested in this after hearing moto hagio initially wrote a version of what would later become the heart of thomas (famous early BL) with an all female cast set in an all-girls school. she decided she didn’t care for this version, the reasons why (lesbophobia? not thinking girls would be interested? finding the available archetypes for female characters at this time too restrictive? because scared of female same-sex desire?) remaining blurry. but certainly BL has even more overlaps with GL than even the vague idea that BL is a by women for women genre encapsulates.
Heart of Thomas was also adapted into a movie called Summer Vacation 1999 where the characters are still male but all are played by female actors https://archive.org/details/summervacation1999
Once upon a time I worked in this little burger/coffee/ice cream shop and a lady came in one winter and asked if we had a caramel apple drink and we were like ‘well we have cider’ and she was like ‘no I don’t remember what it’s called but this place made a drink that was chai tea, apple cider, and caramel’ and Breezy offered to try and make something for her but she changed her mind and left so Breezy and I were like ‘alright let’s try this’ because we had chai tea, instant cider mix, a shit ton of caramel, instant hot water from the espresso and too much free time.
And let me tell you it was delightful. It tastes like watching the leaves changing color and dancing in the wind. It tastes like picking out pumpkins and gourds and fresh apples at the farm up north. It tastes like witches and freedom.
I make it every year now and this year I walked in the house on the morning of October first with all the ingredients and shouted ‘FALL DRINK’ and my roommates were like ‘????’ so I made them Fall Drink and now every time they get home from work they’re like ‘Fall Drink pls?????’
Anyway I remember literally nothing else about that woman but I’m very grateful to her.
for anyone wondering about proportions/etc here’s op’s answer from the repiles:
@gaslightgallows I feel this would be relevant to your interests.
I don’t like caramel but I can vouch for hot chaider being amazing.
Deareat @simonalkenmayer I feel like this is relevant to your interests.
Also, I do something like this in the crock pot with the overly sweet Growers Pumpkin Apple Cider, chai spices, cloves, a bit of orange juice, and some super dry Pinot Grigio.
Mix, heat, and serve on a nippy night best spent cuddled under blankets with a book.
My friend, you have essentially backward engineered a wonderful winter drink from the Stuart period.
White sack wine, cider, spices (clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, ginger) tea, sugar, and if you want it authentic, a bit of cream or whipped egg. All this is brought together in a low temperature and then stewed for a time. It can also be “pulled”, a process in which one “stirs” the concoction by using a ladle and pouring it repeatedly from high in the air. Makes it foamy and frothy.
Serve warm.
On a cold night, this is a delightful thing. Believe it or not, we also used to make it with a stout beer instead of wine. For a darker richer flavor.
One Black Tea Bag, One Cup Apple Juice, 2tsp butter, 2tsp brown sugar, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to taste will also accomplish something similar (just melt the butter and brown sugar together and whisk them around a pan a bit - don’t bother making proper caramel) Make your faux-caramel then you add the apple juice and then the rest; heat it up to a boil then turn off the heat, drop the tea bag in and let it steep for 3 minutes, serve with gingersnaps.
Nothing better than tumblr recipe posts
Saving this for later when it’s colder
It’s freezing today. This is relevant to my interests
It’s been quite a while since I’ve checked in so here’s an update on my activities. But first, let me thank all of you for your continued support. I couldn’t have made it this far without your contributions to this campaign.
Now, I have a special request - I’m trying to finish the recording I began back in 2022. All was going well for a fall release then COVID struck. The American economy came to a grinding halt. Concert venues and night clubs shut down and I was moved into a senior care facility due to my complicated mix of health issues. The remaining funds for my recording were used to cover the cost of care and insurance copays. So now I want to finish that recording and need to raise $7000 to complete the project. *This includes additional studio time, mixing, mastering and distribution. It can be done and I’m asking you to help me complete what will be my first solo recording since “Secrets” in 1985. This CD, “Alabama Shoes” would also be an additional source of income. Give what you can.
Here’s What Else I’ve Been Up To
Last year at my 75th Birthday concert I was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse of Berkeley, CA and this past March I was honored by SF Jazz as part of their month long tribute to local women artists in Jazz and Beyond. It was a spectacular evening as 20 of my musician colleagues were on hand to throw down some scintillating soul music. The Cultural Heritage Choir was also on the bill and in great form. (See new photos) Another bright moment was Olivia Travel’s 50th Anniversary was celebrated on two back to back cruises. The joy of being amongst Women’s Music’s brightest stars was off the charts. Upon returning home, I tested positive for COVID, took Plaxovid and recovered fairly quickly.
On the health front: In July of last year I underwent a successful aortic valve replacement surgery. In March of this year I had a toe amputated and am due this fall to have a second valve replacement surgery (tricuspid valve) which will be followed by cataract surgery on both eyes. Hopefully that will be the last surgery for quite some time.”
All the best - Linda Tillery
Linda Tillery is important to the women’s music and women’s festival community. Please donate if you can and if not at least check out some of her music.
If you want learn more about Women’s Music and Women’s Festivals check out Radical Harmonies
To the lesbian struggling with internalized homophobia: You’re not a creep. You are human, and you have desires, and they’re perfectly natural. You think this way because society’s conditioned us to believe that our love for women is evil. You know there’s nothing evil about how we love, groove, relate, woman to woman. Actually it’s good, natural, beautiful.
Lee. Dyke. 36. (Yes, that's me in the icon, many years ago.)
Horrid correspondent.
Probably wrong about your favorite videogames. Fujoshi.
Apparently having found medical transition to be ineffective medicine makes me ontologically disturbing to many.
