Ellen Mellor 🏳️‍⚧️ Samarcand Books (she/her)

I finished watching Picard season 3 last night and I think the moral of the story is that the true assimilation is the friends you pick up on the journey.

I picked up Ghostkin. Looks really cool.

Read Indie authors.
Read new authors.

(Tip if you can.)

Oh good. So not only is my transness being attacked but so is my neurodiversity.
What's next? Doctor Who fans don't really like science fiction? People who read are really illiterate?

Thank you. I hope you enjoy it.

You're welcome. Although I do have to admit to a vested interest in the answer.

I try to use 'anti-trans bigot'. I feel it gets the point across.

This sounds like the sort of statement that a trans journalist should ask for. I would very interested in the reply. With the understanding that no response is actually an extremely profound and telling reply.

I emailed him my argument but he's dealing with other union issues (like mine isn't the most important thing!) today and tomorrow.

Just written out the arguments for the appeal against the dismissal.
I think I've got a pretty strong argument, but at the same time, I didn't think it would get to this point. So take my judgement as you will.

She's always got her nose in a book.

I've just get up a Mastodon account. Give me a follow if you're over there (Please).
wandering.shop/@samarcand

A black and white cat sitting on the top of a book case.

Book cat.

I like a girl with ambition!

The problem is that the trans community only has a single $ 10 that we pass around between us. So giving it to a cis guy is going to make things a bit awkward.

I wonder if he ever get his $10?

writer that to not have access to her work is totally adding insult to injury. 7/7

Reading this blog has opened me up to a lot of nuance in the series that I had missed and it makes me want to go back and re-read it from the beginning.
It also makes me really quite upset that I've had to cancel my subscription to Alyson's Patreon because she is such an amazing (and prolific) /6

how dumb he is, but this is often before he name checks and quotes Derrida or Hume or some sociopolitical theory to explain his thinking. This guy is smart.
The later parts of the blog discuss Trans/Rad/Fem by @taliabhatt.itch.io, which I haven't managed to get around to reading yet but I will! /5

something wrong. It's not a case of him demanding that trans women educate him, it's more looking to open up a conversation in a way that transphobes claim to want but never follow up on.
His writing style is casual and easy to follow and more than a little self-deprecating - he regularly says /4

which refers to a group of people of which he is aware but doesn't know a lot about, into an in-depth study of the differences between cis men and trans women. And he does it with care and generosity. He puts forward his views but explicitly asks for correction and explanation if he gets /3

treating it as such.
And it's fascinating. It's not often you get an open, honest examination of something that you know quite well but from a perspective that is pretty much completely unfamiliar. The writer (whose name I don't know) makes his exploration of a genre about which he knows nothing /2

#136 Welcome to Dudely House by @jcc333.bsky.social (@welcome-to-dudely.bsky.social)
This isn't a book, it's a blog of a cis guy reading the Dorley Hall books by @badambulist.bsky.social and discussing his reaction to them. However, I made a 530-odd ebook of the first 33 instalments so it's worth /1

That's gorgeous. I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

There's something deeply upsetting about this software being a simulacrum of a woman. It stinks of misogyny.
And, in a world where a living human with dreams and free will can say "I am a woman," and be hated for it, it becomes extra fucky that we so casually call this NES sprite "she."

Samarcand Books

With my sudden unemployment, please buy my books. (Too subtle?)
Samarcand.itch.io
ko-fi.com/samarcandbooks

Now that I'm not going to have to worry about work for a bit, I plan on getting back to writing and putting some stuff up on Scribblehub.

War-torn gang-ravaged Portland doing the cha cha slide outside of ICE’s concentration camp

That has given me the joy I need today. Thank you.

It’s your 75th anniversary, Charlie Brown! 💛⁠
⁠
🎉 Today marks the official 75th anniversary of Peanuts! On October 2, 1950, the first Peanuts comic strip, shown here, was published in seven newspapers nationwide. Charles M. Schulz was 27 years old.

Yes. I'll be speaking to my union rep in the morning.

I've just had the decision on my meeting from last week. I've been sacked.