As a Taiwanese American living in Taiwan, I’ve been eyeing the TikTok ban and the (unexpected, to me) surge of interest in XiaoHongShu aka RedNote with varying degrees of anxious eye-twitching.A friend’s husband’s friend said that his XHS developer friend is working overtime to figure out a way to segregate the Americans from the Chinese… Continue reading
I do not own my home; I have a mortgage – Ana Mardoll
Sorry, but that quote has been on my mind a lot lately. You see, I’ve been approved for a mortgage for a ridiculous amount of money and technically I now own a flat. I can’t move in yet, because the bathroom in the primary bathroom is a concrete box with exposed pipes, and there is… Continue reading
Patreon account reinstated
(includes some cross-posting from Patreon) Good news! They reinstated my Patreon account. I am grateful to note that “deactivation” apparently doesn’t mean “all data is lost”, so that’s fantastic. But after this rather intense scare, I have been thinking about where to go next. It’s complicated by having to hash out how I want to… Continue reading
Patreon account suspended
Account suspended. Not just the campaign, which is as implied on their help pages, the usual, but the entire account. So I haven’t been able to log in to let my patrons know what’s going on, to offer alternative options for how to get last week’s chapter and the upcoming chapter for this week. I… Continue reading
I think of war
I think about war.Today, yesterday, tomorrow.Every day until I am finally murdered by a government somewhere, most likely my own.Unwillingly, I dwell upon it.Of how my disability and frailties are framed as a conflict between myself and my body.When I am being killed slowly, every single day, and the only thing my body does, is… Continue reading
First off, abolish the military and the police.
I’m sat in my room, in Taiwan, in what should be one of the coldest months of the year, wearing nothing more than a thin long-sleeve tee and a maxi dress. Granted, Taiwan is classed as a sub-tropical island, but generally speaking, it still got cold in winter. According to a government website, summer has… Continue reading
Word of the year for 2024: Joy
Word of the year: joy It feels audacious to say it aloud.I’ve chosen “joy” for 2024.Audacious and more than a bit of “have you just woken? Have you not been reading the room?”.But that’s precisely it, isn’t it?Twitter. Palestine. Ukraine. The CCP. Climate change. Famine. Extreme weather.I could’ve chosen “ease” or “release” or “forgiveness (for… Continue reading
Sentinel Academy
Sentinel Academy is officially finished today, 11-22-2023, at 28818 words.I like the numbers, so I’m noting them. It might be about all I enjoy about this story for quite a while, so I might as well luxuriate in what I can. Elyuana’s story is, was, will be difficult. But it’s fine. They say every ten… Continue reading
To name a star
Best beloved pointed out the question about whether AGAB language is useful or not and I had to stop and really think about it.Some might notice I’ve changed phrasing elsewhere, in addition to the correction, to the clunkier “as a person seen and considered to be a little girl”.Clunky, and some might think, unnecessary.After all,… Continue reading
Compromise, sacrifice, and where is the line?
When my relationship of near eleven years fragmented (ostensibly) because I was chronically ill, rapidly moving on disabled, I was incredibly angry. So incredibly angry. Incandescent, really. But I didn’t know it at the time. I didn’t realize it until fairly recently, until all that suppressed rage came spilling forth from somewhere I never knew… Continue reading