patafysics | Reading

Finally got a new job!!! YAYYYY!!!! And it only took me... Like two months, rip.

It's with another window & door company local to us, doing what we did before; farther away than my last one, but the pay and environment is better. Everyone here is so sweet! I hope I can stay here a while, but I'm keeping on my toes because recessions historically aren't nice to the construction industry.

We spent more time volunteering last week, but caught something from someone and are now running a fever and sore throat. Shitty timing since we've been at this job for all of two days and family feasting is right around the corner, but we're masking up and have hand sanitizer a-plenty. Just bunkering down at our work desk and getting through it.

Other than that, got a haircut (nice) but broke our glasses' frames and had to pay like, $300 for a new prescription + new lenses + new frames + temp frames for the current lenses just to get them through my Monday shift. I can't see super well through the temp frame because it changes what part of the lenses I'm looking through, and it gives me headaches, but eh. I can see okay enough to read. It's a bit of a coke bottle effect.

Whatever else happens, I'm just glad to have a job again!

lb_lee posting in

pluralstories

"As she walked through the door, twin reflections of the firmset of her back moved closer together in the corner of the restaurant window. The images converged in the mirrored panes of glass and vanished inside each other like chips of colored crystal in a kaleidoscope."

Blurb: In a near-future where same-sex relationships are legally sanctioned but surveillance culture is on full-blast, a woman uses intense full-body tattooing to merge with her lover, so as to escape and overcome together.

Why is it worth your time?: This is a very nontraditional fusion story between two singlets who embrace each other and are strong at each other's weaknesses, choosing to become one being. Gomez is a good writer and worth checking out, though mostly well-known in the lesbian and black presses!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned (though high focus is the inevitable grinding effects of surviving in their society), cofronting, fusion/integration, identityblending, memory work, romantic relationships, setting-specific

Content Warnings: dealing with a surveillance society that accepts queerness... well, some of it... and foster care referenced in the past. This is DEFINITELY a story about your job grinding you down slowly to pieces over time, though!

Accessibility Notes: Available in Gomez's collection Don't Explain and MIT Press's re:Skin anthology. Much to my annoyance (and somewhat to my incredulity), both works are out of print (and the decade-older Don't Explain seems cheaper and easier to get!) and neither were officially digitized. If you want a screen-readable copy, you have to go to Anna's Archive.

Misc. Notes: Jewelle Gomez has some neat things to say about this work, but it contains SPOILERS so will be in the comments below!

lb_lee posting in

pluralstories

"You, too, are tainted with the Vampire strain
The same blood surges through us both, like wine.
No wonder that our thoughts and moods combine
And merge beyond the common, earthly plane."

Blurb: One vampire joins with another to walk together through ebon nights.

Why is it worth your time?: It's an old vampire poem from a prominent lesbian about embracing difference together. It's short and free; give it a shot! The lesbianism is all subtextual, due to the time period, but if you're looking for it, it's there!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, identityblending, nonhumans (vampires), intimate relationships

Content Warnings: None.

Accessibility Notes: Unless you can track down an old copy of Acolyte #10, the only place to get this poem in print is in the anthology Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction, edited by Yaszek and Sharp and published by Wesleyan University Press. Some kindly soul has digitized it on archive.org, but the OCR is so poor that I'm just posting the poem in its entirety in the comments for accessibility's sake.

Misc. Notes (if any): Tigrina was one of the pseudonyms of prominent lesbian Edythe Eyde, AKA Lisa Ben, who created Vice Versa, the first queer magazine (that we know of) in the USA in the '40s. If you want the outright lesbian stuff (though nothing relevant for this catalog), check Vice Versa out here!

who_is_page

Holding true to Noel's previous post and frustrations from a few days ago, we're Touching GrassTM and volunteering more in our local community partially because, to roughly translate Noel to English, "If I'm inherently evil and I can still get off my tail to go help real people, what's it say about the people who claim that they're innately better than me and won't go help?" Which, hey, I get the logic. We were already involved in our local community's stuff a little bit, but nothing pisses her off more than pre-determination spiels, so now we're doing it a lot more. And I AM SO EXCITED!!!

I am SO thrilled to get out there and meet new people and actually be doing stuff more regularly. Volunteering is fun! I like helping people! Our job in construction was deeply satisfying because I got to help local folks tackle problems that were outside their knowledge or expertise, and while I know the work we're doing won't capture that exact specialty vibe, it'll still be close. So far our work in the community had been kind of a crapshoot of whenever, but now we're looking at formal weekly schedules, and that'll be really nice. I do have to be careful if Noel goes to the anti-ICE meet-ups, just because a lot of people shouting angrily in a very small space triggered my PTSD pretty badly last time, but as long as I'm not near front I think it would go okay.

We just got done with the info session for a local all-genders queer roller derby league I've been trying to join for a month or so, and we start skating practice tomorrow. Orion came along, and now they'll be joining us for practice as well! My system thinks we might try to join the finance committee for our volunteer work, because it would put our data analytics degree to good use. While I would LOVE to be the hot chunky butch skater in bouts, our arthritis probably won't allow us to full-send into a contact sport. But we can still re-learn to skate (to maybe do some reffing??? 👀) and help out more generally. We've also got some plans to do stuff with Food Not Bombs this week, and some other things besides.

Yay for a slight internet detox through new or extra real life experiences!

who_is_page

The alterhuman community has been harping on individuals with police dog theriotypes for months now. Almost all of it has been "if you are a police dog therian, you're despicable and you need to stop!" and of similar nature, predictably, because historically therians love to swing at other therians at any given opportunity they can justify to themselves.

Someone finally had a good take on the subject and re-centered the topic on the ways in which police dogs and military animals are used to harm marginalized communities and individuals, and how people need to be considerate of not glorifying that even if that is their kintype. All-in-all, a good take that centered real-world actions and the ways they can affect others; not nebulous, internal emotions or identity. Which, unfortunately, many people took as the batsignal to unleash the flood of (paraphrased) 'if you have this kintype, you are automatically an evil, evil person!', completely circumventing the post's discussion points and circling right back to where all of the police dog discourse seemingly started.

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Eli Nimda

Reading

New Job!!!! 👀

Lynx and Strand, by Jewelle Gomez (sci-fi novella, 1998)

Affinity, by Tigrina (vampire poetry, 1945)

Touchin' Grass

You Can't Use Being An Asshole Online As A Replacement For Activism

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November 2025

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