something im noticing is the redditors are just commenting on everything via reblogs with reckless abandon. and its so funny bc thats how youre MEANT to use this fucking website but we've trained ourselves out of it somehow.
I feel like a fucking chimp raised in a lab let out into the wild and just doing shit without understanding wtf is going on because I was raised to click the button to get cookie
take my upvote. just take it.
Society heiress visits the women’s country club, but make it plus size and black. || IG
I always feel I couldn't pull off a look like this, but you do it so beautifully I'm inspired. I should just do what I feel like
HONESTLY also like. part of combatting misinformation is just accepting that you'll fall victim to it sometimes. no-one can be an expert on every imaginable subject and most people don't have the time to factcheck every single piece of information that comes their way. the key thing IMO is responding appropriately when someone points misinfo ie not doubling down and being like 'no there's no way I could be wrong about this'.
Tumblr makes sense to me bc if i see something i like i get excited and hit the button to show other people and theres no weird unspoken social conventions my autistic brain doesnt understand. I can literally sit here and reblog 150 niche shitposts about harvest mice in an hour just bc they make me happy and i dont have to explain myself to anyone and i'll actually *gain* followers instead of just being called weird and downvoted or whatever its so cool
my dad took some ancestry tests and eventually found out who his father was (and that he has 5+ siblings who are also finding all of this out) and honestly it's been pretty bizarre and emotional so far, naturally
but one of the biggest changes for me is no longer having to give the whole spiel of "oh i know i'm racially ambiguos but hey there's a whole story behind it because this that and here's my father's backstory"
like no i... i just have a grandpa from Nigeria now
...that's way less mysterious >:(
I wish Americans fucked with more foreign music. You don’t have to know the language to appreciate a good record. Folks in other countries listen to our music and don’t speak a lick of english. Music needs no translator
yall wont trick me into listening to kpop
you’ll get an endless streaming of songs (ad free!).
I personally found myself loving 1970s Ghana, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire! Also 1920s and 1970s Japan for sure! Cambodian music: spectacular. Love Armenia and Mali as well. I’ve been told 70s Germany is weird and 30s Algeria is cool but I haven’t gotten around to those yet. Italy’s 1960s is bomb ofc but I’m biased ;)
It's not that I think a person, entrusted with control over their own body, could never make the wrong decision, I just think that any entity entrusted with control over someone else's body is definitely going to make wronger decisions
We know you want to burn down capitalism.
But for today, just don’t answer your boss’s call off the clock.
We know you believe in ACAB and think they all should get the wall.
But for today, just don’t call 9-1-1 on the guy screaming outside of your apartment.
The memes are fun. The memes are aspirational and keep us reaching for the horizon.
But look down, too, at what actually is.
Endure pains now—suffer the inconveniences now—knowing that they likely involve unpleasantness.
The Revolution™ is fun to imagine and involves no pain. But the real world does involve pain, and it’s necessary to exercise the muscles needed for future work and opportunities.
Not to mention - The Revolution™ is something that, for a lot of disabled folks, is damn near impossible to imagine a scenario where we survive. I have relatives who rely on insulin to live, if the system goes down for more than 3 months without effective distribution lines being reactivated - they're dead. I have a physical disability that makes even walking even short distances impossible sometimes, if there is a major disruption of electricity, fuel, or food, I'm starving. Sure I have food storage, but that only lasts so long (not mentioning my partner who is also disabled and has severe dietary restrictions)
And this is why Community Support is so important. Instead of focusing all of our energy and time on the things and people we hate, it is important to put time into helping people around you survive. Direct Action isn't just protests and picket lines and riots, it's also soup kitchens, community gardens, food pantries, assistance for seniors and disabled folks - shit like this. Offer to help pick up someone's groceries, offer someone a ride to their doctor's appointment, offer to watch someone's kids for them, help where you are able to. Help people they way you advocate for them to be helped.
The Revolution is built on the backs of billions of small acts of support, love, and care. A revolution that ignores the downtrodden, the poor, the disenfranchised, the marginalized - leads to only more ignorance and cruelty. More pain and death and suffering.
Remember the people that our government forgets. Protect the people that our government attacks. That is Resistance. That is a Revolution.
You may or may not have already noticed that there are lots of queer characters in my books. I know, right? What could be better than rainbow hugs?
Below is an ongoing list of books, novellas, and short stories that I have written featuring queer* main characters. All of my books have queer rep, regardless of the central love story. (Although a few of my shorts don’t have anything sexually orientated in them at all.)
For the purposes of this list, I also included stories where sexual preference is a plot factor, even if it isn’t the main driver of the narrative (see: Curious Case).
These books are in world chronological order.
This is a short story featuring Alexia Tarabotti’s father meeting her mother for the first time. The fact that he is bi comes up as a very minor part of the plot. But it becomes very important later in the Parasol Protectorate series.
This novella features mathematically inclined Imogene who becomes a maid to a vampire hive partly because she is on a journey of self discovery. She meets Genevieve, a brilliant cross dressing inventor, who the vampires are keeping trapped in their potting shed.
This novella features Biffy & Lyall, an existing side character pairing from the Parasol Protectorate series. They had to separate for political reasons at the end of Timeless and I used this story to get them back together again and to learn to forgive and reconnect. There’s also possible child sacrifices and swaddled squash.
This is the third in my Custard Protocol series but the first to feature Primrose. Primrose is the BFF and a side characters in the first two books of this series who is constantly getting engaged and then breaking it off, because she’s gay. Tasherit, the ancient werelioness who has befriended them, has had her eye on Prim from the very beginning. In this book she is finally given an opening and begins a hot, and very catlike, courtship. Prim, however, is a very proper Victorian young lady who wants a family of her own and struggles to reconcile her sexual desires with society’s expectations and her own yearning to be a mother.
Being a collection of vampire advice columns, silly steampunk philosophical treatises, and deleted scenes from the Parasol Protectorate and more!
This is not a book. This is not a story. This is a compendium of extras and appendices for lovers of the Parasolverse. You see, upon occasion the vampire, Lord Akeldama, hijacks Miss Gail’s blog and turns it into an advice column to take reader’s questions.
Only available direct from Gail. $2 off if you get it via Gail’s newsletter the Chirrup.
I use the G. L. Carriger moniker specifically to indicate a higher heat level. Although some are more explicit than others.
This is a coming out story but more of Alec coming out as Alpha than as gay. Although his father is homophobic, Alec’s biggest struggle is that once he comes out and admits to being gay and an Alpha he will have to take responsibility of a pack, and he’s not sure he’s ready for that. Enter, Marvin, the hot merman who will convince him to do it all.
Max is a sumage (basically the clean up crew for real mages) who works a crappy government job and can’t hold down a relationship because he’s too snarky and prickly for his own good. Until he meets Bryan/Biff, Beta werewolf for a new pack in town who isn’t out, but Max might be a great reason.
Isaac is on the run and terrified of werewolves, even though most shifters find him utterly irresistible. He meets Tank, one of the biggest and meanest looking werewolves, only to discover that Tank is a big old softie super-sub, who will do anything Isaac asks of him, and willingly. But is that enough to stop Isaac from running again?
Judd has been lonely and looking for a pack and a mate for a long time. He finally found his pack, and along with it the perfect man. Unfortunately, Colin is very young, very shy, and very scared. So Judd is staying away and staying a gentleman. However, Colin is also very curious and a really good student. Judd suddenly finds himself giving Colin an education despite all his noble intentions.
Featuring Mana & Lovejoy.
This is a by-request interstitial short story featuring the fox-shifter Mana, who is an ancient supernatural trans woman and Lovejoy, her on-again off-again werewolf lover. It is told from Lovejoy’s perspective. Lovejoy adores Mana but is very careful to request little of her, because he thinks of her as something too magical to hold onto for long. You need to have read the other books in the series to understand this story. This story is only available to purchase to Chirrup members.
This novel is, in part, an exploration of gender and sexuality. Drey, the human in this pairing, identifies as gay. Tris, the alien character, comes from a race with 5 genders, and he is one of the 5th. In his culture, this means, in part, that he has unique sexual organs and societal obligations. He is in exile off-world because of something to do with those obligations. The story explores both the standards placed upon identity by society when those standards are sourced in biology, the language of non-binary sexual identity, plus the forms that resistance, understanding, and acceptance of such requirements can take. Also, it’s really sweet and sexy.
This series is about Phex, a human barista, who is recruited by aliens to become an entertainment god. He is… nonplused about the whole situation. One of his hurdles (shall we say) is that the greatest and most famous of all the gods, Missit, has decided that Phex is his favorite.
That’s all as of 2023, more to come!
* Quick note on terms: I like and embrace the word queer, partly because of its ambiguous nature, although I understand not everyone feels similarly. Also, I have a personal preference for the now rather old-fashioned term bisexual. But most of my bi characters would likely qualify as pansexual under modern parlance.
** Before you ask, yes it is canon in my universe that all preternaturals are bisexual. Most kitsune are pansexual and poly, and everyone is a little bit kinky. It’s my universe, I can do whatever I want with it. So there.
Yours (destined to be killed by a tumbling TBR pile),
Miss Gail
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Here’s a printable Downloadable Checklist of ALL my books!
Some Granny Weatherwax propaganda:
- Literally lives in the village of Bad Ass.
- Was bitten by some vampires once; they all started craving tea and cookies.
- Intimidated Death into losing a card game against her.
- Had a staring match against the sun, for multiple hours; only stopped because she heard a child crying.
- Always knows who and where she is.
- Grabbed a sword by the blade and 'didn't have time to get cut by it'
- Set a voodoo doll of herself on fire by sticking her hand into a torch.
- Did not run with the bulls; forced them to run away instead.
Bonus Nanny Ogg Propaganda:
- Rules the Ogg clan with an iron fist
- Brews her own alcohol strong enough to dissolve metal
- Can crack coconuts with her thighs
- Rumored to be even smarter than Granny Weatherwax
- Had a farmhouse land on her head ala The Wizard of Oz, and was fine
- Owns Greebo, a four legged demon in the shape of a cat.
Bonus Bonus Greebo Propaganda:
- Has killed at least two vampires.
- Said to be the single male ancestor of every cat in a wide radius
- Can turn into a human; he still has his claws in this shape
They sound so iconic honestly
Bonus bonus bonus Greebo propaganda (this is very relevant timing): When he was turned human, his human form had such strong sexual energy that he was described as being capable of commiting sexual harassment by sitting quietly in the next room. But Granny and Nanny are not taken in by him because as far as Nanny is concerned he is a little kitty cat and Granny just thinks he sucks
By their own admission;
Nanny took up witchcraft to get boys
Granny took up witchcraft to get even
If you have seen Ted Lasso you may have noticed these unusual microphones used by the football commentators.
Despite being a microphone nerd, I had never seen anything like them before. So I decided to go into research mode and discovered these microphones are quite fascinating.
They are called "Lip-Ribbon" or "Commentator's" microphones.
They were specially designed by the BBC in the 1950s for extremely noisy environments. Soccer Football stadiums have peaked at 130 decibels so they needed something that would not get overwhelmed in that circumstance.
They use several very clever techniques to make sure only the voice is picked up and everything else is rejected.
First, they use a bidirectional polar pattern.
That means it will accept sound from two directions, but reject any sound coming in from the sides. And since the diaphragm is only exposed on one side, that helps reject sound coming from the other direction.
Next, the microphone is not very sensitive so you literally have to hold it up to your lips (hence "lip-ribbon") in order for your voice to have enough sound energy to vibrate the diaphragm.
That top part rests directly on your lip and there is a little pop filter to keep your plosives in check.
There is a built-in high pass filter so it rejects any sound below the frequencies typically used by the human voice.
But my favorite trick... a labyrinthian internal baffle system.
(I found a diagram of this when researching but then I lost the tab and I cannot find it again. So you'll just have to accept this crude photoshop I did in 30 seconds to help you understand.)
Sound is energy. And that energy is diminished the farther it travels. The inverse square law for sound states that the intensity of sound decreases by approximately 6 dB for each doubling of distance from the sound source. Sound also diminishes when it reflects off a surface.
That is a very sciency way of saying... make sounds go through a tiny maze and only sounds with the most energy will prevail.
So if you have your lip pressed up against the front of the mic, your voice's energy will make it through the labyrinth of baffles without issue. But every other sound in the stadium will have a much harder time getting through.
These mics may even be vuvuzela-proof.
And even more amazing... this microphone was designed in the 1950s and they have yet to create anything better for incredibly noisy environments.
Isn't that neat?
I think it is neat.
Oh, and there is a "nostril grille" on top so you can exhale through your nose!
SO NEAT.
if shes your girl then why have i slowly been replacing her parts until there’s nothing left of her original body? is she then still your girl?
They ship of theseus’d my girl
Can’t have shit in Detroit
this actually perfectly demonstrates the transitive property of memes: you can replace a meme piece by piece until it only structurally resembles the original, and it is, in fact, the same meme.
call that the meme of theseus thesis
tumblrites can have a little intertextuality as a treat
my naym is ship and when i’m broke the broken part from me they toke
replace the part had been the plan but in the morn hand door car man
*me shoving transitive properties into my purse* sorry, I have to go
We owe the reddit refugees an apology for making them see posts like this
no we don’t this shit is enrichment in their new enclosure
