Ben Power Alwin (he/him) is the founder and Executive Director of the Sexual Minorities Educational Foundation, Inc. For 40 years, Ben has been Curator of the Sexual Minorities Archives, a 45-year-old national collection of LGBTQ literature, history, and art. Ben also founded the East Coast FTM Group in 1992 — the first-ever support group for trans men in the New England region, which continues to meet at the Sexual Minorities Archives. Ben holds a Master of Arts degree in Sociocultural Processes from Governors State University/Illinois and a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Literature from the University of Illinois, Chicago Campus. He has lectured on transgender issues across many universities as well as presented talks on LGBTQ histories of the Pioneer Valley. He wrote for On Our Backs magazine in 1989 under the name Bet Power and published a trans autobiographical piece, “My Wonderful Askewness.” (source)
Do you know what the weathers called when it’s like winter, and the snow is kind of glowing and everything is just light out? But it’s cloudy and snowing???
I lent my mom a book before I read it and apparently right at the beginning they tell a true story about all our chestnut trees dying and it made my mother SO DEPRESSED that she couldn’t sleep and now she’s been researching chestnut trees for the past half hour looking sick
She’s right!!
Chestnut trees used to define forests in the South – some estimates say about ¼ trees was a chestnut tree. And they were huge! Growing more than 100 feet tall (with trunks more than 10 feet in diameter), they were called the “redwoods of the East.” They were a characteristic food source of the South, too. A mature chestnut tree can produce upwards of 50 lbs of nuts a year – many of these were gathered and eaten by poor families, or turned into chestnut flour and used to make “poor man’s bread.”
But, at the beginning of the 20th century, a fungus called the blight was brought over from Asia. Over the next 50 years, every single American Chestnut was infected and died. While some root systems are still alive, they’re considered functionally extinct.
People cut down huge areas of forest trying to prevent the spread of the blight and save the trees – but they failed. And now several generations have never even known the chestnut tree. We don’t even know enough to miss them.
But now, with advances in genetic technology, the chestnut trees may be coming back! Through a group scientific effort led by the American Chestnut Foundation, researchers have created a “transgenic American chestnut tree with enhanced blight tolerance” called Darling 58. Darling 58 is genetically modified to be able to coexist with the blight.
Darling 58 American chestnuts are currently being reviewed by the USDA-APHIS, EPA, and FDA. But researchers hope to be able to reintroduce them soon – one huge step towards restoring our forests.
You can follow the chestnut trees’ progress (and request a Darling 58 tree when they’re available) at https://acf.org/ .
Thank you I’m gonna share this chestnut revitalization news with her!
There are many American chestnut trees still living outside their original natural range. Michigan, for example, has a large number of chestnut farms and is the biggest grower of chestnuts in the US. The species is listed as endangered but is not extinct.
Where I grew up is considered oak/hickory forest now but was once oak/chestnut. Even the corpses of the chestnuts are gone now. It’s a wood that takes a long time to decay and there was at least one fallen trunk still somewhat recognizable when I was a kid, but it too is just a mossy spot now. We’re still seeing the impact of the loss on local wildlife.
If Darling 58 gets approved I’m going to have to see how many we can plant on the property.
*waves* I work at the university where Darling 58 was developed, and we’re all really excited about it!
The devastation of losing the American chestnut can’t be overstated. It was a keystone part of eastern North American forests, providing nuts for wildlife, leaves and wood for many specialized herbivorous insects, and was a vital source of pollen for bees, beetles, butterflies, and other pollinators during mid-summer - a time when there are few other flowering plants in forests. Not to mention many other aspects I myself don’t know much about, such as their mycorrhizal networks, which I’m sure were quite important.
I mention that last bit specifically because I study pollinators, and my latest research is surveying pollinators in American chestnut orchards to better understand the importance of this tree for insects. Because the loss of the tree happened so long ago (not in ecological terms but for peer-reviewed science) we don’t really have the ability to do before-after comparisons, just after. Chestnut orchards are really all we have to get a tiny glimpse into how these trees interacted with other species. There’s even a specialized chestnut bee, Andrena rehni, that only collects pollen from chestnuts and chinkapins, which was thought to have gone extinct for decades after the loss of chestnut. It was rediscovered only around a decade ago, and has since been found in a few chestnut orchards.
Oaks, which are also keystone species, have largely replaced chestnuts in eastern forests, filling their empty niche, but they’re not the same. Undoubtedly the dynamics of forest ecosystems have been greatly impacted in ways that are hard to quantify. Yes, you can still find American chestnuts growing in the wild - the vast majority are not at mature age, as the blight kills them back, and they will continue to stump sprout over and over. I am from New Hampshire and our woods are full of little chestnuts that are maybe up to 3cm DBH and won’t ever produce nuts. Naturally blight resistant mature chestnuts are exceedingly rare and their locations are often hidden to protect them. The ones you see in orchards are usually Chinese chestnuts, or American x Chinese backcrossed hybrids, which was the previous method of breeding blight resistance.
We have a growing number of invasive pathogens threatening our native trees - hemlock woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer, Dutch elm disease, oak wilt, and more it seems every year. The entire dynamics of our eastern forests are at risk of fundamental change, as the composition and diversity of woodlands are impacted by these exotic diseases. There are countless researchers studying and trying to develop ways to fight them, but it’s happening far too fast to prevent some significant losses. Ecosystems that have been evolving together since the last Ice Age are unraveling in our lifetimes, and I can’t stress how important it is for you to remember.
Remember chestnuts. Remember ash forests. While we’re at it, remember wolves and mountain lions, remember ivory-billed woodpeckers and passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets and Atlantic cod. So many species that were fundamental parts of North America but have either gone extinct or become just about functionally extinct across most of their range.
Do not let shifting baselines make you think what you see now is normal.
We have to remember that things are deeply wrong. Most of the green you see on roadside and forest edges are invasive vines and shrubs. There aren’t supposed to be this many deer and deer ticks. Cowbirds once lived on the Great Plains, now they’re parasitizing birds across the US to the level of being a true threat to the survival of some endangered species. Atlantic cod was once so abundant they jumped into fishermen’s boats. And don’t even get me started on the decline in so many insect groups - the abundance of all kinds of insects used to be exponentially greater. We used to be surrounded by a wealth of biodiversity and life. Despair and grieve momentarily at how mutilated this land is, but then get your hands in the dirt and do something about it.
When Darling 58s become available for the public, plant one. In the meantime, plant other native trees, and native wildflowers, native shrubs, native ferns. Read some books on our native ecosystems - there’s thousands of them out there, whether you are interested in pollinators, raptors, salmon, squirrels, saltmarshes, you name it, ecologists have written books about them, or field guides, to try and get the public motivated to care and help restore them. Start noticing as many species as you can on your next walk, including the invasive ones. Learn to read the landscape, so instead of one big wall of green you see individual species, instead of a white noise of birdsong you pick out the conversations of orioles, vireos, sparrows, and warblers.
The most that ecologists can ask you to do is to care. If most people just cared, let alone took action or better yet became a conservation biologist, we’d be in a much different scenario. But the majority of people are indifferent, ignorant, or are in the case of corporations actively working to destroy. Anyone can restore habitat, if done thoughtfully and with the right native species. You can transform your backyard, or help redesign a town park, or work with your local garden club or conservation commission to get native plants installed in front of buildings instead of more hostas and daylilies. It’s not happening because no one’s demanding it, and few know enough to demand it. Destruction will keep happening until there’s pushback against it, ignorance will remain until eyes are opened to other ways of being.
We can bring chestnuts back. We can bring many things back from the brink, so in a few hundred years they will perform the ecological roles they once did. Nature is resilient. Your actions today determine the ecosystems of tomorrow, and all the things that ecosystems do for us, from mitigating hurricane damage to clean drinking water to carbon storage to food production.
Want some books to get started?
Read ’Bringing Nature Home’ by Doug Tallamy, or his latest book, ‘Nature’s Best Hope.’ Or, if you want to revel in the awesomeness of oak trees, his book 'The Nature of Oaks.’
Read anything by Bernd Heinrich or Thor Hansson, who will make you feel connected to this land like you never have before.
You can find books about the biggest trees in New England, birding guides for each state that tell you where the best places are and what to find there. You can find natural history encyclopedias for most states too - for example, 'The Nature of New Hampshire,’ 'Natural Landscapes of Maine’, 'Wetland, Woodland, Wildland’ (for VT), and I’m sure many others, all of which are detailed accounts of every type of natural community that occurs in each state.
Want to learn how to 'read the landscape’ like I mentioned? For the northeast, get 'Reading the Forested Landscape’ by Tom Wessels. It’s so good it was assigned as a textbook in my undergrad at UNH. I’m sure there are many similar books for the mid-Atlantic or southeast.
Seriously, just, go to the natural history section of your local bookstore or library. I could list a bajillion websites here with resources that are fantastic, but I argue it’s far more valuable to sit down with a book and get immersed in a narrative that will move you spiritually. There’s still so much information that’s only found in books, or is collected there in ways that you’d have to go searching all over the internet for, without the assurance it’s even accurate.
Change the way you see this land; notice the absences, the new arrivals, the things that are slowly blinking out and becoming a ghost of eons past, the things that are changing before our very eyes. Connect the dots through time, and see your place in it too.
The best time to plant a tree was yesterday; the next best time is when you can get your hands on a Darling 58.
Also, I want to add, if you’re interested in these sorts of projects, check with your state Department of Natural Resources (or Department of Conservation, even Game Commisions can have resources) - they may have all sorts of guides to native plants, or even programs to assist (and Certification programs if you want a cute sign).
I know specifically Maryland DNR has the Wild Acres program, but other states have their own programs as well.
informed consent for medication needs to include interactions with common recreational drugs, i think
most meds these days will only tell you ‘limit alcohol’ and wont even make a mention of weed (though if this is different in places that have legalised it i’d be interested to know). and they never tell you specifically why you should limit alcohol and thats something everyone should have the right to know
because i was terrified as a teen getting on the meds im on now, thinking i would never be able to drink and that i had to forgo taking my meds for the day if i did. then i learned that all my meds did was to increase the effects of alcohol and that the 'limit alcohol’ warning in that case was more just a 'you will get drunk faster than you are used to’
but in other cases, such as with some antibiotics, the 'limit alcohol’ means 'if you drink more than a little, this medication will stop working’
and some meds are actively dangerous when taken with alcohol/other drugs, putting you at risk of getting very sick or just dead
but every single time all you get is that little label saying 'limit alcohol’
anyway, i will once again shamelessly promote my favourite harm reduction website in the whole world, the drugs.com interactions checker. standard boilerplate applies that 'this isnt a substitute for medical advice from a professional’ but its sure as fuck better than nothing
So You Need To Buy A Computer But You Don’t Know What Specs Are Good These Days
Hi.
This is literally my job.
Lots of people are buying computers for school right now or are replacing computers as their five-year-old college laptop craps out so here’s the standard specs you should be looking for in a (windows) computer purchase in August 2023.
PROCESSOR
Intel i5 (no older than 10th Gen)
Ryzen 7
You can get away with a Ryzen 5 but an intel i3 should be an absolute last resort. You want at least an intel i5 or a Ryzen 7 processor. The current generation of intel processors is 13, but anything 10 or newer is perfectly fine. DO NOT get a higher performance line with an older generation; a 13th gen i5 is better than an 8th gen i7. (Unfortunately I don’t know enough about ryzens to tell you which generation is the earliest you should get, but staying within 3 generations is a good rule of thumb)
RAM
8GB absolute minimum
If you don’t have at least 8GB RAM on a modern computer it’s going to be very, very slow. Ideally you want a computer with at least 16GB, and it’s a good idea to get a computer that will let you add or swap RAM down the line (nearly all desktops will let you do this, for laptops you need to check the specs for Memory and see how many slots there are and how many slots are available; laptops with soldered RAM cannot have the memory upgraded - this is common in very slim laptops)
STORAGE
256GB SSD
Computers mostly come with SSDs these days; SSDs are faster than HDDs but typically have lower storage for the same price. That being said: SSDs are coming down in price and if you’re installing your own drive you can easily upgrade the size for a low cost. Unfortunately that doesn’t do anything for you for the initial purchase.
A lot of cheaper laptops will have a 128GB SSD and, because a lot of stuff is stored in the cloud these days, that can be functional. I still recommend getting a bit more storage than that because it’s nice if you can store your music and documents and photos on your device instead of on the cloud. You want to be able to access your files even if you don’t have internet access.
But don’t get a computer with a big HDD instead of getting a computer with a small SSD. The difference in speed is noticeable.
SCREEN (laptop specific)
Personally I find that touchscreens have a negative impact on battery life and are easier to fuck up than standard screens. They are also harder to replace if they get broken. I do not recommend getting a touch screen unless you absolutely have to.
A lot of college students especially tend to look for the biggest laptop screen possible; don’t do that. It’s a pain in the ass to carry a 17" laptop around campus and with the way that everything is so thin these days it’s easier to damage a 17" screen than a 14" screen.
On the other end of that: laptops with 13" screens tend to be very slim devices that are glued shut and impossible to work on or upgrade.
Your best bet (for both functionality and price) is either a 14" or a 15.6" screen. If you absolutely positively need to have a 10-key keyboard on your laptop, get the 15.6". If you need something portable more than you need 10-key, get a 14"
FORM FACTOR (desktop specific)
If you purchase an all-in-one desktop computer I will begin manifesting in your house physically. All-in-ones take away every advantage desktops have in terms of upgradeability and maintenance; they are expensive and difficult to repair and usually not worth the cost of disassembling to upgrade.
There are about four standard sizes of desktop PC: All-in-One (the size of a monitor with no other footprint), Tower (Big! probably at least two feet long in two directions), Small Form Factor Tower (Very moderate - about the size of a large shoebox), and Mini/Micro/Tiny (Small! about the size of a small hardcover book).
If you are concerned about space you are much better off getting a MicroPC and a bracket to put it on your monitor than you are getting an all-in-one. This will be about a million percent easier to work on than an all-in-one and this way if your monitor dies your computer is still functional.
Small form factor towers and towers are the easiest to work on and upgrade; if you need a burly graphics card you need to get a full size tower, but for everything else a small form factor tower will be fine. Most of our business sales are SFF towers and MicroPCs, the only time we get something larger is if we have to put a $700 graphics card in it. SFF towers will accept small graphics cards and can handle upgrades to the power supply; MicroPCs can only have the RAM and SSD upgraded and don’t have room for any other components or their own internal power supply.
WARRANTY
Most desktops come with either a 1 or 3 year warranty; either of these is fine and if you want to upgrade a 1 year to a 3 year that is also fine. I’ve generally found that if something is going to do a warranty failure on desktop it’s going to do it the first year, so you don’t get a hell of a lot of added mileage out of an extended warranty but it doesn’t hurt and sometimes pays off to do a 3-year.
Laptops are a different story. Laptops mostly come with a 1-year warranty and what I recommend everyone does for every laptop that will allow it is to upgrade that to the longest warranty you can get with added drop/damage protection. The most common question our customers have about laptops is if we can replace a screen and the answer is usually “yes, but it’s going to be expensive.” If you’re purchasing a low-end laptop, the parts and labor for replacing a screen can easily cost more than half the price of a new laptop. HOWEVER, the way that most screens get broken is by getting dropped. So if you have a warranty with drop protection, you just send that sucker back to the factory and they fix it for you.
So, if it is at all possible, check if the manufacturer of a laptop you’re looking at has a warranty option with drop protection. Then, within 30 days (though ideally on the first day you get it) of owning your laptop, go to the manufacturer site, register your serial number, and upgrade the warranty. If you can’t afford a 3-year upgrade at once set a reminder for yourself to annually renew. But get that drop protection, especially if you are a college student or if you’ve got kids.
And never, ever put pens or pencils on your laptop keyboard. I’ve seen people ruin thousand dollar, brand-new laptops that they can’t afford to fix because they closed the screen on a ten cent pencil. Keep liquids away from them too.
LIFESPAN
There’s a reasonable chance that any computer you buy today will still be able to turn on and run a program or two in ten years. That does not mean that it is “functional.”
At my office we estimate that the functional lifespan of desktops is 5-7 years and the functional lifespan of laptops is 3-5 years. Laptops get more wear and tear than desktops and desktops are easier to upgrade to keep them running. At 5 years for desktops and 3 years for laptops you should look at upgrading the RAM in the device and possibly consider replacing the SSD with a new (possibly larger) model, because SSDs and HDDs don’t last forever.
COST
This means that you should think of your computers as an annual investment rather than as a one-time purchase. It is more worthwhile to pay $700 for a laptop that will work well for five years than it is to pay $300 for a laptop that will be outdated and slow in one year (which is what will happen if you get an 8th gen i3 with 8GB RAM). If you are going to get a $300 laptop try to get specs as close as possible to the minimums I’ve laid out here.
If you have to compromise on these specs, the one that is least fixable is the processor. If you get a laptop with an i3 processor you aren’t going to be able to upgrade it even if you can add more RAM or a bigger SSD. If you have to get lower specs in order to afford the device put your money into the processor and make sure that the computer has available slots for upgrade and that neither the RAM nor the SSD is soldered to the motherboard. (one easy way to check this is to search “[computer model] RAM upgrade” on youtube and see if anyone has made a video showing what the inside of the laptop looks like and how much effort it takes to replace parts)
Computers are expensive right now. This is frustrating, because historically consumer computer prices have been on a downward trend but since 2020 that trend has been all over the place. Desktop computers are quite expensive at the moment (August 2023) and decent laptops are extremely variably priced.
If you are looking for a decent, upgradeable laptop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:
If you are looking for a decent, affordable desktop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:
“Hi y'all, it’s Chronomaster42, the only Youtuber with the ability to travel through, and control, time and space, here with another taste test. I’m here in 1976, and I’m gonna get some fries from Mickey D’s before they changed the recipe, and then I’m gonna take ‘em back to 2022, and get fries from the same McDonald’s, so I can compare. Now, I’ve got my Nixon, uh, Ford? Carter? Era fries right here, so now I’m gonna”
*everything appears stretched and distant, and then the camera flies through space, through the sun, over millions of different Earths, past the faces of individual people in a thousand different timelines, splintered day by day, the long-dead alive once more, their varied futures lying before them. They appear to be screaming*
“annnnnd here we are, gettin’ the new fries, today. I have to say, I like the old fries a bit better, bit more crisp, but Mickey D’s fries are still Mickey D’s fries, y'know? Anyway, I know some of you guys were freaked out at all the screaming time faces last video, but like, I’m used to 'em, and they aren’t even audible to me? But y'know what is audible? That’s right - Audible, use code -”
“Hi y'all, it’s Chronomaster42, the only Youtuber with the ability to travel through, and control, time and space, here to respond to some allegations.”
“Lots of you are saying, Chronomaster42, why don’t you stop World War II? And I keep saying that I can’t change history. History’s got, like, antibodies, and these haters eject me back to my time if I do anything that’ll change anything. Like the space time con…tainium doesn’t want me traveling around time.”
“And before you start bringing up that guy who erased…France? The fuck is France? From ever existing, that wasn’t me, you guys. Get your facts straight. That was @true_chronomaster, the only TikToker with the ability to travel through, and control, time and space. i have nothing to do with the Evil Leaper Challenge. I don’t have a shadow self. But y'know what I do have? Some words from our sponsor, Raid: Shadow Legends -”
“Hi y'all, it’s Chronomaster42, the only Youtuber with the ability to travel through, and control, time and space, and today I’m gonna be doing the challenge Gamer_Springtrap2011 gave me, where I’m travelin’ back in time to finally figure out which religion is true, and then I’m gonna make a tier list so we can put all this drama about which religion’s the right one behind us and just settle on one of 'em that’s the best. Like, finally, you know?”
“But before we go back in time to see if Adam and Eve was real, we’ve gotta check in with our sponsor, Adam and Eve, discreet packaging and shipping -”
“Hi y'all, it’s Chronomaster42, the only Youtuber with the ability to travel through, and control, time and space, still sorry to every world religion, though like, you should really be mad at Gamer_Springtrap2011 for trolling me so hard. I got trolled guys. I’m sorry for my video 'CHALLENGE: I get this guy sitting under a tree in India to break his concentration’. I’m sorry for my video 'WHOA: I told a Roman cop where a guy was and got THIRTY SILVER COINS?!?!?’ and shout out to Judas for catching my strays. Like, guys, I’m sorry. You should be mad at Gamer_Springtrap2011 though.”
“Anyways, I’ve got this cool new money-making opportunity in the past. So like, what if we take things from the past, and sell them now? I found this guy with all this metal in his house, and it turns out nowadays they’ll pay a lot for it 'cause normally you can only get copper from people stealing wire to pay for meth, but this is really good, honest copper. But like, I’ve gotta preserve history and shit, so I’ve been taking his copper and replacin’ it with painted rocks. I think people are realizing 'cause every time I go to his house the copper guy’s real mad and carrying stone tablets, it’s funny. That Earnie Sir guy may be selling bad metal, but if you want real metal to hang on your walls, check out our sponsor Displate -”
“Hi y'all, it’s TimeController73, the one EbaumsTuber with the ability to travel through, and control, time and space, and I uh, think I might have messed up the continuum a bit. I’m gonna take some time to fix it, but you know who will have the movie you want to stream right now? Today’s sponsor, Blockbuster+…”
“Hello y'all, it’s ChronoMaster42, the only Youtuber with the ability to travel through, and control, time and space, and we’ve gotta talk about something important. Earlier this month I asked to ride that submersible down to the Titanic. They said no 'cause I didn’t have enough money. So, like, I thought, man, you can control time and space! Go back to the real thing.”
“But thing is, I got back there, right, and I was hopin’ I could push Leo back on that raft 'cause the two of them could totally fit, CinemaSins had the real shit on that, but get this: he wasn’t even there? Like, the two of them aren’t even real? I looked all over the Titanic for 'em and I ended up falling from the ship when it broke in half so I made a portal under me, and it’s kind of scary that I could have died on the Titanic and not been able to make content anymore. If I died in 1912 and didn’t have new videos the algorithm would deprioritize me, y'know? It’s so scary to think about. And like, I know I said the screaming faces of everyone’s potential futures didn’t get to me but man, they kinda get to you when there’s also a lot of people screaming in the water.”
“When I got back to 2023 I had two boxes on my doorstep. One was unmarked and just had a note in it saying 'THEY ARE COMING. THE RECKONING IS NEAR. YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE, AND THE ANTIBODIES GROW. YES, THEY DO GROW, AND THEY HUNGER.’ And I’m kinda hungry too, 'cause I didn’t eat on the Titanic, so it’s good that the other was my first meal kit from today’s sponsor, Hello Fresh…”
“Hi, y’all, it’s ChronoMaster42, the only Youtuber with the ability to travel through, and control, time and space, and I’ve got some exciting news. I’m gonna be collabing with Mr. Beast on a new challenge video where we, like, go back in time and try to survive for seven days. It’s gonna be cool as hell. We wanted to go back to Imperial China, but Mr. Beast said he was afraid we might not be respectful enough to the Emperor and thus would commit 大不敬, one of the Ten Abominations, and due to our non-noble status, we wouldn’t be able to rely on the “八議” or ‘Eight Deliberations’. Which, like, fair ‘nough. So we settled on our backup plan, which is a lot safer: France in 1916! Man, I can’t wait to see the Eiffel Tower before it got all old stuff and like, we’re gonna see it! Stay tuned, guys!”
ALT
ALT
*deep breath*
“Hello, you all. It’s ChronoMaster42, and normally I’m the only Youtuber with the ability to travel through, and control, time and space. But today…I’m the only Youtuber who’s sorry they got Mr. Beast exploded.”
“I am. I know everyone’s canceling me, they’re canceling everyone just cause – it was his idea to go back to the Western Front anyway, and…”
*sigh*
“I’m sorry. I understand how upset you all are at the exploding of Mr. Beast. I want to apologize to the internet and to the whole Chrono crew, ‘cause I know I, uh, *stares into the camera* have changed a lot as a human being, and I’m disappointed in myself more than I’m disappointed in…myself, for going too far? Man, I don’t know what I can do to make it right.”
“I’ve been reflecting. I mean. Reflecting and I’m sorry and like, I understand. I’ll never explode Mr. Beast again. Though…he’s kinda already exploded…and I…don’t think I can re-explode him…”
“*deep breath*”
“I’m sorry for my actions, and I want to move on from this and make videos in the future, with my sponsor…with my sponsor…with my…*furious clicking*…I…don’t have a sponsor. I’ve…I’ve been demonetized! No! No, no, no…let me appeal. Let me appeal…”
“*click*”
A cloud appears behind ChronoMaster42, a swirling vortex through which one can see flashes of times from across all of history, across many timelines; it advances on him.
“What – uh, antibodies, you’re not, like, supposed to be in the present! ‘cause it’s not fixed and shit, and -!”
The cloud envelops ChronoMaster42, who screams, a trail of faces screaming into infinity within the cloud as he, and the antibody, vanish. Stream runs for over four hours with a shot of his empty room, until it’s turned off by a sudden power failure.
[image description: two screenshots from collage-style zine pages.
the first page has a box of text next to a labeled diagram of a cross-section of a penis and scrotum. text reads as follows:
#3: Penises are soft. I can’t say this enough because it is such an important and frequently ignored fact: most of the time a biological penis is neither rock-hard nor an inflexible rod. They’re not supposed to be. The natural, resting state of the penis is soft. Unsolicited erections happen relatively infrequently after the teen years and voluntary boners appear in the dictionary under the entry “diminishing returns.” most penises could never compete with a good dildo on hardness. And those that go the distance are putting themselves at long-term risk: erections that last longer than an hour or so without interruption can cause permanent damage to the vascular system of the penis. We know both statistically and anecdotally that penises are far from permanently-engorged crotch-rocks, and yet almost all sexual discourse on penises is on erect penises, hard penises, penetrating penises.
the second page is all text. the text reads as follows:
Why is this significant? Because the operating assumption in our culture is that only hard penises can have sex, that soft penises can’t have sex and aren’t sexy. This is deeply, deeply incorrect.
The major difference between a soft penis and a hard penis isn’t whether it can have sex, not whether it can give and receive pleasure, only whether it is hard and can penetrate. That’s it. That’s the difference. Hardness. And yet there is almost no writing about sex and soft penises except about how to “fix” them by making them hard. It’s hard, so to speak, for us to seriously consider the concept of sex with a soft penis because we’ve been indoctrinated to laugh at the idea. Penises are supposed to be hard, penetrating organs, and definitely not sexy when soft. It’s not very fashionable to talk about phallocentrism these days, but I can’t think of a better word for the assumption that someone’s private parts are useless because they’re not hard and, well, phallic.
To put it simply, this is stupid. It’s stupid to keep acting like penises are worthless when they are soft, whether that softness lasts a day or six years. We are smarter than that, and it is time to start acting like it. We owe it to the penises in our communities to start playing with them and pleasuring them when they’re soft. I think it’s a particularly good idea to do this because soft penises are a lot of fun that we’re not having, for no good reason.
Contrary to popular belief, a soft penis is not a “Do Not Disturb” sign. Neither is it an accurate indicator of someone’s interest, mood, energy level, or libido. Boners are fickle. Sometimes it’s not in the cards. Then again, sometimes a boner just happens and the only thing on your mind is how much you don’t feel like having one. Your lover-with-a-penis could be counting the seconds until they can get you alone and do filthy, unspeakable things to you and their penis might not so much as twitch. If your lover is a trans woman, there’s a rock-solid chance that this happens all the time. There’s an equally good chance that it never happens at all. For some of us on testosterone blockers no force in the world could summon an erection. For others there’s an impact, and for some there’s almost no change whatsoever.
Regardless of how often you have one on your hands, a soft penis doesn’t need to be anything other than an opportunity to find out what else it can do besides fill up with blood and poke things.
ALT
ALT
