[links]

Tech-related stuff

• the issue with Tree Style Tabs that is currently making using the extension Very Irritating, but not as irritating as not having it would be
  
• What if everyone involved in the Adria Richards incident was in a union? A US-centric look, with topical focus, on the anatomy of a worker's union - and ways in which they are discredited Stateside.
  
• Donglegate: why the tech community hates feminists, which highlights the fact that Richards, as a woman of colour, received much viler treatment from the wider Internet community than e.g. the men she was calling out.
  
• Sexuality and sexism: on creating exclusive rather than inclusive space.
  
• skud's latest community-driven, open-source project is now in soft launch: GrowStuff, a social site for gardeners. Think Ravelry with more chlorophyll.
  
• any 750 words account created before the 1st of May will be free forever, where the site is generally moving to a subscription model.

Everything else I've been reading

• Inertia: from theory to praxis, written with an autistic audience in mind. Executive dysfunction - working out how to get from "sat in chair at computer to holding a glass of water", or "I know I want to get dressed, but I don't know where to start" - is something that gives me problems; I don't have written lists of How To Do A Day on my wardrobe doors, but it's something I've done in the past, and I have trained myself into having circumstance A automatically trigger action B.
  
• (content note: discussion of suicidality) Ashley Monroe, a US teenager, wrote out 1,986 iterations of "you're beautiful" on sticky notes, and put one on the door of the locker of every student at her school.
  
• Over at Genderfork, I got into a flamewar over the terminology "female-bodied". Whoops. But there is actually some interesting discussion there, and it's worth reading.
  
• On Taste: a not-that-quick primer to really, really, REALLY liking perfume. As someone taking my first tentative steps into perfume - I currently own a BPAL imp (Little Drummer Girl) and a huge bottle of Endymion (by Penhaligon's), I found this a very interesting read. (Next up: I need to work out how to be mindful of the fact that my own scentsitivities aren't other people's, and just because a scent doesn't provoke a reaction in me doesn't mean it's safe to wear in public.)
  
• A friend has started up a blog called Demystifying Music. Babelfish is someone I know via playing in very, very classical orchestras with them; they also spend a lot of time with the local rock & metal society, & hitch-hiking to festivals in Germany. With this blog, they're trying to, well, demystify classical music - to make it more accessible to audiences who haven't got training or experience in listening to the genre.
  
• Writer Beware is an information-dense blog I got recced recently; it contains detailed info on shady (self-)publishing outfits, deconstruction of contracts, and all sorts of other helpful bits and bobs.
  
• staranise does a fantastic job of reverse-engineering a panic response/mental block, and how to route around it. Seriously, if I ever manage to write that clearly about what's going on inside my head, I reckon I'll have won.
  
• My Sluthood, Myself: an old post on the Yes Means Yes blog about separating out sex from relationships, rather than falling into the model that shagging == true love, WE MUST MAKE IT WORK, etc. From the "things my younger self could have done with reading" files...
  
• And something cheerful to finish up with! Dear Evolution: letters of gripe and gratitude, in part from the folk who brought us WTF, Evolution? over at tumblr. :-)

more on perfume

(Bad days: I start out shaky from the pain and fatigue, go through being shaky from the opiates and fatigue, and by the time they've done their job I've forgotten what not being shaky is like - and I still don't particularly trust myself to move around the house - so it gets to 8pm before I put any sensible blood sugar in my mouth. At which point I go OH RIGHT IS THAT WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS.)

So I've mentioned that I'm starting to get into perfumery and the like.

This started out with being given an imp of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's A Wonderful Light: Three radiant ambers with honey, linden blossom, bourbon vanilla, and orange zest. The orange vanishes as soon as it's dried on my skin, and it ends up being a very rich vanilla-and-honey scent, with fleeting undertones from the amber developing with time.

And then Boything dragged me into a Penhaligon's, recently, and bought me Endymion:

Head Notes: Bergamot, Mandarin, Lavender and Sage

Heart Notes: Geranium and Coffee Absolute

Base Notes: Vetiver, Nutmeg, Black pepper, Cardamom, Musk, Leather, Sandalwood, Incense, Frankincense and Myrrh

I love Endymion. I love it to pieces. When it first goes on, it smells of apricots and vanilla on me, with something darker lurking underneath; after a few hours, it's mostly the leather, the pepper, the musk and the incense that come through, though the sage is still there if you're looking for it and there's a hint of nutmeg. If I'm struggling with insomnia, I'll put some on right before I go to bed, because it feels comforting and safe.

And... then I started thinking, and while fuzzy-headed today, I've spent a lot of time rummaging around BPAL's website, and various resale communities, and I've got a shortlist of things I'm trying to track down. I've focussed mostly on warm, dark scents, which is probably no surprise, but I've gone for a couple of brighter things too - and, of course, the set of Things That Smells Like The Celtic Fringes And Therefore Home. So now I'm going to make notes on the ones I'm after, and as and when I have bought them and they've arrived, I'll make notes about how they behave on me.

Part of why I'm suddenly so excited about this sort of thing is: I know dudes who use perfume. I know genderqueer people who use perfume. I've found a set of scents I really, really like on me, and I'm secure enough in my gender to have a play. The same's true of clothing - it's been a long, long process, but I'm finally getting to a place where I'm willing to experiment, and starting to realise that there's a way I want to dress for myself, not just to hide or to try to pass. And that's... very, very interesting to me; I'll try to make more sense out of it at some point when I'm less knackered. ;)

( The smells. )