jimhines

[jimhines]

Two of my favorite shots from yesterday's eclipse. Taken in Bowling Green, Ohio.

ETA: More pics at https://www.jimchines.com/2024/04/april-8-solar-eclipse/

#eclipse

[jimhines]

If a clock is broken and stops moving, it’s still right twice a day.

If a clock is broken and keeps going, despite having the wrong time, it’ll always be wrong.

[jimhines]

"Biden is funding a literal genocide!"

Yeah - and so will Trump. Like, if you don't vote for Biden, Trump will win, and he will continue to send aid to Israel - in fact, he will likely send MORE aid to Israel. That's the reality of the world we live in.

And, to be honest, any US president will support Israel. Because the USA is Israel's ally. That's how foreign policy works.

So who do you prefer?

Biden, who has helped lgbtq rights, reproductive rights, infrastructure, the environment, lowered medication costs, supported unions, and done MANY good, progressive things,

Or Trump, who we already know is awful. Who we already know will destroy any human rights Biden managed to gain. Who will not help the environment. Who will not help trans people, or immigrants, or women.

Because those are your two choices. And if you think they're the same, you are dangerous to all marginalized people.

[jimhines]

Texts From Superheroes

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I’m adding “task failed successfully” to my vocabulary. And to my To Do List.

[jimhines]

Daily Snow Leopard - Day 18 - 21.02.23

[jimhines]

[jimhines]

honestly so much of the way we conceptualize autistic special interests is predicated on there not being anyone who shares them with us? and like. have you met humans. have you talked to any autistics. because lots of them are pretty interesting actually! and autistic people are often pretty good at infecting you with their interests so that you share them too even if you're not as motivated to fixate happily on them for their own sakes!

huge whorls of autistic-generated human communities exist, and people who aren't used to autistic people never seem to realize that Yes Those Are Also Autistics, often because people are used to autistic special interests occupying some very limited contexts like Computers because Computers were a big new societal innovation and community spinning up right when people also started thinking about autism as a Distinction Among Humans. Also Pokemon. And the Internet. Nineties kids know what I mean, eh?

anyway here are some heavily autistic communities that allistic people never seem to realize tend to concentrate autistics and be driven by them:

every non-commercial domestic animal fancy ever, including dog, cat, pigeon, chicken, and horse people; also includes a fair chunk of the commercial kinds but there are slightly less of these

fandom of any kind (for some reason--it's misogyny--no one seems to realize that this also applies to female-slanted forms of fandom focused on storytelling and modification as well as male-slanted ones that involve information curation)

religion. especially any kind that involves any kind of organization--less the charismatic ones that involve manipulating other people, more the kind that draw people interested in the way that religion works. less/more is not all/none.

kink and sexuality generally and also gender. we think a lot. it's a problem. and we get snagged on stuff. plus sensory shit ties into everything. just saying. e v e r y t h i n g.

academia. look we get. we get interested in things. if you get interested enough in things people call you an expert and sometimes they give you money. money is nice. it lets you buy more objects of special interest.

acting. we wear masks all the fucking time and we get caught up in it. which makes you think about structure, eh?

comedy. ditto.

building shit. admittedly the allistics have largely noticed that engineers concentrate us by now but it has taken a surprisingly long time to realize that this also applies to other, older crafts.

fibercrafts and textiles. what about "we like textures and also figuring out how things work" is a surprise to you. also math. again the answer to how the allistics keep failing to notice this one is "there's lots of ladies in there."

I bet I'm missing plenty that I'm just not thinking of but my god, man, look at how many of these things touch us! look at how they shape our understanding of one another and ourselves! how cool is that

[jimhines]

Popping in for a quick bit of self promo.

TERMINAL ALLIANCE is a $1.99 ebook deal, at least here in the U.S. No idea how long this one will last. Space Janitors and military SF shenanigans. Tell your friends!

[jimhines]

You have probably read the tweet from a pet owner saying her vet told her that “… 90% of owners don’t actually want to be in the room when he injects them so the animal’s last moments are usually them frantically looking around for their owners &tbh that broke me” or another post allegedly written by a vet stating if you leave your pet during euthanasia you are a “coward”.

First of all, I cannot imagine any veterinarian saying any of those things. It is my belief that a lay person wrote those things and simply claimed the vet said them, but I could be wrong. Regardless, those posts are absolutely incorrect and those people should be ashamed of themselves. I also think that number is hugely exaggerated. Maybe 10% of owners don’t want to be present, and you know what, that is ok.

Euthanasia is a very personal thing and people have all kinds of reasons for not wanting to be present. Simply making the decision to have your pet put to sleep shows that you are compassionate and unselfish. Euthanasia is the ultimate act of love for your pet because it is completely about them- the owners get nothing out of it. The owners love their pet so much that they would rather be without them than keep them and have them suffer.

Your pet is not going to look around desperately for you or feel abandoned. Shame on those “vets” for putting out that misinformation and shame on them if they had a scared pet and they did nothing. Your vet can give your pet sedatives and other medications so they are relaxed and comfortable, I have NEVER allowed a pet to be scared or anxious before a euthanasia and the vast majority of vets will not either.

Please do not feel ashamed or upset if you choose not to be with your pet for euthanasia. I promise that the veterinarian and staff will comfort her just like she was their own and make sure she is relaxed and at peace throughout.

[jimhines]

Some poor suffering gobs!!

[jimhines]

2023 Writing Income

Somehow, January returned...

With the new year comes another annual writing income post. I've been doing these since 2007, with the goal of giving some actual numbers about how much a working writer makes in a year. (Short version: most of us are not millionaires.) It's also turned into a nice longer-term look at the ups and downs of one author's career.

Continued at https://www.patreon.com/posts/95675219

#writing finances

[jimhines]

A universe in motion seen from the International Space Station during a night pass over Earth.

(@ wonderofscience on Twitter)

Timelapse created from images courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center(ISS061-E-110520-111341 eol.jsc.nasa.gov).

[jimhines]

"I used to know your grandad, Wilf. I loved that man."

[jimhines]

Texts From Superheroes

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After years of unsuccessfully trying to decode the message from the stars, another one was detected, almost identical. The scientists still made no progress until someone applied methods that hadn't solved the first message on the second.

"It worked?"

"The first had a typo."

[jimhines]

Hey, lovely people. Have you read the Newsflesh trilogy? This zombie apocalypse political dystopia was my first finished series, and one that I'm very proud of to this day.

Now, if you've read them, you may remember a delightful mad scientist named Dr. Shannon Abbey, who had good reason to be deeply pissed off. Dr. Abbey did everything in her power to save the world, or at least the protagonists, from nasty zombie death.

Dr. Abbey was based on a real person, and the real person she was based on is a disabled trans man living in British Columbia and now crowd-funding for a wheelchair, because his migraines have become too severe to allow him to live a normal life without one.

The GoFundMe is here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/buy-a-wheelchair-for-brookes-terrible-brain?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet-first-launch&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

Please take a look. I can absolutely attest to the legitimate need in this situation, and to what a life-changing piece of equipment this would be.

Please do not taunt the octopus, but please help Dr. Abbey's real-world cognate get his life back.

Thank you.