Remote

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤

@dys_morphia@sfba.social

mastodon 4.7.3

Busybody neighborhood ecologist, poet, philosopher & theurgist. Current top interests: technical writing, Python, sword & sorcery, pleinair watercolor, fiber arts.

481 Followers

402 Following

37 Posts

Joined December 21, 2022

Pronouns:

she/her or they/them

Location:

San Francisco, CA, USA

Blog:

https://www.rinsemiddlebliss.com

Books:

https://sfba.club/user/dys_morphia

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 2w ago

Replying to

@ifixcoinops@retro.social you know, like 14 years ago they added a quest in World of Warcraft where you had to run some dirty yaks through a Yak Wash like a car wash and they became clean and shiny. The quest was wildly popular and people demanded the ability to wash your yak mounts outside of the quest which was eventually added. What I’m saying is I think you’re right. Washing is an underserved game mechanic. (The WoW devs were surprised how much people loved the Yak Wash)

41

0

12

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

Shinjuku really likes sitting inside this oversized plastic bag on top of my suitcase. I put it away when I’m not nearby because it doesn’t seem safe unattended. I wonder what I could get for her that would be safe and she’d like as much. She has a soft cat house that she never uses. Something about the tight fit but maybe also the crinkle that she likes? #CatsOfMastodon #CatAdvice #cats

SFBA.social

9

0

1

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

I was thinking about Georgia O'Keeffe and her huge super closeups of flowers so decided to paint one of my tiny succulent about three times its size. #watercolor

8

1

2

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

I had a stressful week but this evening my cat let me pick her up peacefully for the first time. I’ve not tried in a year because she didn’t like it, but this time I needed to redirect her from an object on the desk, and I picked her up by the solid part of her chest and then tucked her against me like a little baby cradled on her back and she purred as I petted her little head. I gently let her back on the ground after a minute or less, and she calmly walked to one of her hangouts. I think it may be possible she doesn’t mind being picked up or held after all, just not from the ground. This is the nicest thing that’s happened all day. Besides the sun, of course.

7

1

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

A mistake people make, IMO, is thinking that because their language mastery is poor they shouldn’t try to communicate. Because it will be awkward. But communication is always awkward, full of ruptures and corrections. Even fluent speech is full of disfluencies.

4

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 21mo ago

Replying to

@digichelle@hachyderm.io excellent reminder—there are so many good reasons someone may decline and so many of them relate to deeply private matters

29

7

4

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

And it helps I have some modest initial talent so I immediately got some pleasing results. Watercoloring technique is kind of surprising, so even a few classes or other technique training result in fast and satisfying progress. So that makes it easy to keep going. I never despair that I couldn’t paint something. I just assume I’m missing a technique or need to develop deeper skill in a technique. It’s a fundamentally hopeful attitude which the reality of the craft of watercolor makes it easy to hold.

3

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

Shared language is no guarantee of communication, nor do language barriers preclude communication. Communication is an experience between living beings. Language, even a little shared language, is one bridge. Shared language opens a little trust so the rest of the contextual communication feels more possible.

3

2

1

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

One of these days I’m going to paint the croissant, too, I kept thinking. Today was that day. I deliberately went a bit loose and interpretive rather than trying to get the contours perfectly. Croissants are hard to paint but fun. Hard not to eat them before the painting is done. #watercolor

3

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

I have a lot of hobbies and I enjoy them all at different times. Watercoloring is fulfilling in a deeper way. It makes me feel human, connected, and coherent in anway that previously only writing poetry and creative nonfiction did. I didn’t expect that. When I bought my first paint set at Flax, I thought it would be a little craft supply retail therapy and hopefully another hobby to help me relax.

2

2

1

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

No matter how satisfactory the painting is as a depiction, it is always somewhat successful as an expression of the meaning I make of the world because by the process of painting I have made meaning.

2

2

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

None of this would be possible if I didn’t also enjoy the materiality of watercolor paints. I like all the materials: the beautiful pigments, the graceful brushes, the various textured papers, the metal and ceramic palettes, the brush soap, the water jugs, the tape, the swatches and catalogues, all of is pleasant to use.

2

2

1

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

Maybe (probably) it’s foolish to try to learn 2 languages at once. But it’s not like I’m trying to pass a class or get certified. I just like to talk to people.

2

2

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

In 4 minutes I’m going to have to disappoint the cat by getting up to join a meeting.

2

2

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@tarmot something else - fine work in textiles, could be for tablecloths, could be courtains or decorations. I distinguish hand and machine-made. I've made a little myself but don't think of lace as something I make now because it is so laborious. But, I know how it's made. I think it's actually a young person's game to make lace because it requires good closeup vision and pliant hands.

1

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

And I immediately expensed the ticket against the company learning and development budget.

1

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

I’m not entirely sure why watercoloring is so fulfilling, though I suspect it has to do with self-expression and mastery. Watercoloring, like poetry or creative nonfiction, lets me express my vision of the world. To paint I must notice beauty (or interestingness), observe the scene, analyze its form, and make sense of it. Then I must decide what parts of it to express in the simplified form of the painting. Finally I must apply the technique of painting to put down on paper what I have decided to paint. It’s possible to develop skill in all these phases and I’m ofc simplifying and also giving the false impression of it being purely sequential.

1

2

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Also it was much warmer and the sun was high so I could actually do layers of washes and have them dry. Patience is all well and good but working with nature—my own impatient nature and the bright sun—beats trying to change it. #watercolor #pleinair

1

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Anytime someone asks how to write faster I’m like I have no fucking clue. I am incredibly slow. I have never found a way to be faster. I have got better though. My first drafts are still generally bad, though I can imagine my bad draft could be another person’s good enough draft.

1

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

I also made some changes to my blog’s image serving infrastructure so that it now serves smaller sized images if you’re on a smaller screen, like mobile, and together with that gives rich previews on Mastodon when I post the link, so whatever I have as a post header shows up as the preview image. I got a lot of help from @paulmison@sfba.social building out both things.

1

2

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

rinsemiddlebliss.com

1

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

I looked around for something interesting to paint and found this overgrown garlic and complicated ginger and then I needed something to fill in found a shallot I forgot about. Turns out garlic is really hard to paint! Ginger is tricky, too. But that shallot I’m super happy with. Next time I might try just onions in a bowl. #watercolor

1

0

1

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 9mo ago

Replying to on gives.hugz.online

@MelissaBearTrix@gives.hugz.online I’m nonbinary but as a kid I used to consider myself a girl and felt strongly I was a girl. I used to get mistaken for my brother after my aunt cut my hair super short and I was so upset about it I started wearing little hair bows until it grew out. I was a tomboy but was also adamant I was a girl tomboy. Then I didn’t cut my hair for 20 years.

1

0

1

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

Also I think it’ll be a fun qualifying and GP. Everyone is figuring out their new cars. It’ll be unpredictable. The time difference is such that the races are in the evening of the day before for me, so I’ll be able to watch live, and that’s more fun.

0

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Things I’ve learned today: use nonstaining pigments for under-painting, wait until it’s totally dry before doing straight lines, swatch value not just color, and I gotta learn some technique to give the impression of buildings on hills. Thing I learned again that I keep learning: big fussy painting with tons of details that take a lot of time are rarely as good as quick, gestural painting executed spontaneously. BUT I have to do the fussy one first and then the breezy one second to somehow get the shapes out.

0

2

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

It’s paradoxical and someone looking at the paintings might thing the one done last was the initial sketch. Typing this, I realize this is an exact corollary to my writing process. Long, wordy, detailed first drafts with messy structure. Each draft simpler and more organized.

0

4

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

The next thing I want to build is a better way of displaying images overall. I initially built the blog to be optimized for text posts. However, since I’ve gotten into watercoloring, I want to share a lot more images, and I think it could be a lot better for that, both to display and to author.

0

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 7mo ago

BART is down due to a system issue. No trains. No ETA. Just got turned away from 24th and Mission at 8:35 am #sfba #sfbayarea #SanFrancisco #oakland

SFBA.social

0

0

0

0

Dysmorphia💛🤍💜🖤 @dys_morphia@sfba.social

· 21mo ago

Replying to

@sahqon@beige.party You're right. I didn't mean to imply that some reasons were worthy/good while others were not.

0

0

0

0