Hello Everyone,

something something slam dunk something something grammys yay hamlet!

So the Smile released a new song yesterday…

Ghost Trick is like. What if the key to finding yourself lies in helping other people. What if while saving people’s lives you can also mend their broken hearts and souls. What if a dog loved his owners so so much. What if a giant statue of a roast chicken crushed a woman to death. What if a guy danced everywhere instead of walking. What if you can’t go back to fix all of your mistakes but can still stop yourself from doubling down on them. What if you didn’t remember someone you loved but everything you do is charting a course that can save him. What if you hit a guy with a hard hat at the speed of a bullet. What if you did that with a sweet potato instead. What if a power you’ve only used to try to ruin someone can save her. What if our fates change but we always find our way back to each other. What if a guy became immortal by being killed by a magical meteor. What if that happened to a cat instead.

one of the biggest things I can advocate for (in academia, but also just in life) is to build credibility with yourself. It’s easy to fall into the habit of thinking of yourself as someone who does things last minute or who struggles to start tasks. people will tell you that you just need to build different habits, but I know for me at least the idea of ‘habit’ is sort of abstract and dehumanizing. Credibility is more like ‘I’ve done this before, so I know I can do it, and more importantly I trust myself to do it’. you set an assignment goal for the day and you meet it, and then you feel stronger setting one the next day. You establish a relationship with yourself that’s built on confidence and trust. That in turn starts to erode the barrier of insecurity and perfectionism and makes it easier to start and finish tasks. reframing the narrative as a process of building credibility makes it easier to celebrate each step and recognize how strong your relationship with yourself can become

DEAR ARTISTS, PLEASE READ THIS POST I STUMBLED ACROSS

IF YOU ARE NOT DOING THIS ALREADY, YOU SHOULD TRY IT

I even tested it out myself, it works great

One thing I’ve realized during the pandemic is that NTs are actually pretty rigid. Despite the fact that a certain rigidity of thinking and need for routine are often mentioned as hallmarks of neurodivergence (most often for people on the spectrum, but it does come up occasionally for other things like ADHD, anxiety, etc), the antimask crowd is overwhelmingly NT.

Among ND people I know, the response to masks has varied. Some really like them, because they don’t need to spend a ton of energy thinking about their facial expressions. Some have basically gone “I don’t like them, but whatever. It is what it is.” And a small few have had sensory issues they can’t figure out a work around for, so they just do curbside pickup and avoid situations where a mask is needed as much as possible.

And when you think about it, it’s not very surprising. ND people, whatever our individual issues, are pretty used to having to move through a world not designed for us. Why would a pandemic be any different?

Meanwhile, we got to witness NTs having meltdowns because they couldn’t get a haircut. The pandemic had interrupted their routine, and they couldn’t handle it. For the first time, they were living in a world that wasn’t designed around their desires.

So apparently rigidity and a need for routine aren’t a ND thing, so much as what happens when human beings live in a society that isn’t designed around their preferences.

Some better pictures of the leafkerchief. It’s made of a plain green cotton, with facings in a much lighter weight cotton, and after I sewed and turned all the points right side out I topstitched as close to the edge as I could. The inner edge of the facing is hand sewn with a slipstitch, and the veins are painted on.

I got a lot of questions about this, so I will do a blog post about it, and will include a pattern diagram!