Black Women Take Over

THE GLOVES 🙌 I made these back in spring this year for a friend and I think they're so gorgeous. It was my first ever full project on dpn and my 2nd stranded color work. They were such a joy to make

Pattern by EricaHeusserDesigns on Etsy!!

via Neil Slorance

I was on a retail website on my phone recently and I was trying to get to some information it did not seem to want to provide -- and just in case, out of desperation, I clicked on the little "universal sign for wheelchair user" logo in one corner.

It pulled up this menu, which was intriguing...

[ID: A website sidebar menu, headed "Accessibility features"; it offers the option of turning on a number of features including those for blindness and colorblindness, epilepsy, motor skills disorders, dyslexia, and crucially for me, ADHD.]

I'm not someone who uses digital accessibility tools much but still, I don't think I've ever seen such a visible accessibility function on a website before, and I've definitely never seen one that offered ADHD accessibility. What did that even do? So...I clicked it, and:

[ID: A screengrab of the website with the ADHD accessibility turned on; most of the site is greyed out, including a header listing my subscriptions and a subscription ID. A narrow bar of the site is illuminated in normal white, showing my next shipment is July 25th and offering me the option to view or skip it.]

The damn thing darkens the entire page except for a narrow "light" bar that highlights whatever your looking at, which you can drag up and down the site with your finger. Honestly it's super cool. It's not something I desperately need, but I may go looking to see if there's an app I could acquire that would do the same for me across browser and e-reader functions on my phone.

The Art and Making of Hannibal: The Television Series.

Watch: Bill Nye’s graduation speech was as fiery and inspiring as you’d expect 

I must explain to my American followers. Follow me on this thought experiment.

Read these questions. You do not need to answer, just read them.

Who is the current head of government of Ethiopia?

Are they a king, queen, president, prime minister, dictator, or tsar?

Are they generally liked or generally disliked by their people? Why?

Are they seen as conventionally attractive?

What was their most recent scandal?

What’s a weird outfit they’ve worn while in office?

What are their interior design preferences?

Has anyone tried to assassinate them? How many times?

What’s their favourite food?

Does Ethiopia have a national anthem?

What are the top 3 most iconic symbols of Ethiopia?

What’s the most prevalent religion in Ethiopia?

What are 5 Ethiopian TV series?

What languages are spoken in Ethiopia?

What are 5 Ethiopian celebrities?

Can you draw the Ethiopian flag?

What are 5 rights or privileges granted to citizens of Ethiopia?

What structure do Ethiopian school systems follow?

What are 5 Ethiopian foods?

What are 5 Ethiopian exports?

What countries are allied with Ethiopia?

What is one topic in Ethiopia that you are more educated on than in America?

What are 3 Ethiopian stereotypes?

Does Ethiopia have States, Provinces, or neither?

Where is Ethiopia’s government capital?

What currency is used in Ethiopia?

What animal is the Ethiopian symbol? Do they have one?

What is Ethiopia’s ethnic majority?

Who was their first government leader of Ethiopia? What is an interesting fact about them?

Who has Ethiopia gone to war against? Why?

Can you name 3 wars Ethiopia was involved in?

Can you name 3 Ethiopian women famous for their beauty?

What is the current Ethiopian political climate?

What areas of Ethiopia are considered rural or urban?

Can you name 3 major Ethiopian landmarks?

Can you name 3 Ethiopian amusement parks?

Can you name 3 Ethiopian national parks?

Can a civilian openly carry a gun in Ethiopia?

At what age can a person begin drinking Alcohol in Ethiopia?

What is the age of consent in Ethiopia?

Can you name 3 infamous Ethiopian criminals?

Can you name 3 Ethiopian comedians?

What was the most recent major natural disaster to hit Ethiopia?

Is Ethiopian culture as a whole generally considered more conservative or more progressive than your own?

Roughly how much money goes into the Ethiopian military budget? Millions or billions?

What are the staple crops in Ethiopia?

What is something that was invented in Ethiopia?

Who are 3 famous Ethiopian businessmen?

What are 5 wildly popular Ethiopian musicians?

What was one viral fashion trend among Ethiopian youth?

If you could correctly answer around 40 of these, then congratulations! That is what every other English speaker feels like living in proximity to America

That is the extent to which American media leeches into everything

Yes, it is weird

Life tip for the 18-26 crowd: if you’re considering a career in a field where the big selling point is that soon all the [Generational Cohort] will retire and all the jobs will open up, don’t do it. And don’t get a Masters degree in it.

Moreover, unless you have family or spousal money to fall back on, stay away from fields where management weaponizes employees’ “passion” against their need for a wage commensurate with COL in their area.

Get an MBA, get project management experience, learn about organizational psychology, and start getting those experiences as soon as you can.

I don’t regret my choices; they’ve led me to the very exciting place I am now with a book coming out, and some amazing interviews lined up. But if I knew 12 years ago what I know now, I would have made some alterations.

the big three questions of media analysis: what the author wanted to say, what they actually said, and what they didn’t know they were saying

I feel like we need a refresher on Watsonian vs Doylist perspectives in media analysis. When you have a question about a piece of media - about a potential plot hole or error, about a dubious costuming decision, about a character suddenly acting out of character -

A Watsonian answer is one that positions itself within the fictional world.

A Doylist answer is one that positions itself within the real world.

Meaning: if Watson says something that isn't true, one explanation is that Watson made a mistake. Another explanation is that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made a mistake.

Watsonian explanations are implicitly charitable. You are implicitly buying into the notion that there is a good in-world reason for what you're seeing on screen or on the page. ("The bunny girls in Final Fantasy wear lingerie all the time because they're from a desert culture!")

Doylist explanations are pragmatic. You are acknowledging that the fiction is shaped by real-world forces, like the creators' personal taste, their biases, the pressures they might be under from managers or editors, or the limits of their expertise. ("The bunny girls in Final Fantasy wear lingerie because somebody thought they'd sell more units that way.")

Watsonian explanations tend to be imaginative but naive. Seeking a Watsonian explanation for a problem within a narrative is inherently pleasure-seeking: you don't want your suspension of disbelief to be broken, and you're willing to put in the leg work to prevent it. Looking for a Watsonian answer can make for a fun game! But it can quickly stray into making excuses for lazy or biased storytelling, or cynical and greedy executives.

Doylist explanations are very often accurate, but they're not much fun. They should supersede efforts to provide a Watsonian explanation where actual harm is being done: "This character is being depicted in a racist way because the creators have a racist bias.'" Or: "The lore changed because management fired all of the writers from last season because they didn't want to pay then residuals."

Doylism also runs the risk of becoming trite, when applied to lower stakes discrepancies. Yes, it's possible that this character acted strangely in this episode because this episode had a different writer, but that isn't interesting, and it terminates conversation.

I think a lot of conversations about media would go a lot more smoothly, and everyone would have a lot more fun, if people were just clearer about whether they are looking to engage in Watsonian or Doylist analysis. How many arguments could be prevented by just saying, "No, Doylist you're probably right, but it's more fun to imagine there's a Watsonian reason for this, so that's what I'm doing." Or, "From a Watsonian POV that explanation makes sense, but I'm going with the Doylist view here because the creator's intentions leave a bad taste in my mouth that I can't ignore."

Idk, just keep those terms in your pocket? And if you start to get mad at somebody for their analysis, take a second to see if what they're saying makes more sense from the other side of the Watsonian/Doylist divide.

I’m high functioning! Just ask all of my neurotypical friends! I’m high functioning… until I misplace something. Or I hear a loud noise. Or I reach an unknown area of the social script. Or I can’t stop feeling an unpleasant tactile sensation. Or someone treats me badly. Or my electronics won’t work. Or I’m hungry. Or I’m tired. Or I don’t have a solution for someone else’s pain. Or I have to engage with a task without being given time to analyze it. Or I’m not permitted to use a familiar system to handle a situation. Or things just don’t make sense. Or I’ve just been through too much in the past five minutes. Hour. Day. Week. I’m not high functioning. That’s just a term neurotypical folk use to not acknowledge or straight up minimalize my issues on the occasions that I manage to avoid all of the above.

Audrey Sterling, about autism (via somatizadxs)