I'm not certain on how they developed, too, but there are a lot of similarities, yeah, especially in British derivatives. NZSL and ASL (as in Australian) are really similar, and British Sign Language is only another step away. American Sign Language is pretty different in that it uses primarily finger-signs, if I'm not mistaken - but I can still get the gist of what people are saying, which is pretty interesting. There are definitely "loud talkers" in sign languages, and often it's not just that their signs are larger and more expressive, but they'll make more noise as they do it.
Yeah, I'd be interested in learning about the development of the two. I've never come across anyone thinking of it as rude or inconvenient, it's just part of the culture, I guess?
Yeah, I was absolutely fascinated by the whole thing. Vultures are sort of one of those things I haven't thought about in years and years - they're not really prevalent at all (at least where I am). As soon as I opened up the article and saw the pictures I was struck by their odd beauty. It's sad that something so integral - and mostly not recognised for their importance - is dying out in such a way. As for the painkiller, it's interesting that it only affects vultures - everything else that feeds off those cattle is fine. Fascinating yet sad sort of coincidence that their main food source has been unintentionally poisoned with something that affects only them.
They had an exhibition a few years back on the Art of Video Games. Nothing new, I think. (I wrote a thing about it a while back)
I'm finding this conversation very interesting, particularly because my experiences have been pretty different to emisaurs. For me, and most other trans*folk I know, gender identity is a huge deal. I'm starting to identify myself as trans* a lot more because I see it less as a medical condition (though it is, for sure) and more a part of who I am. It's something that I'm - proud isn't the right word, but it's a similar sort of feeling - of. It shapes so many of my experiences, the good ones far outweighing the bad. I think the other huge impact on this for me is my gender identity itself and that I don't feel entirely female. I feel trans* and nonbinary is part of my gender identity and that most of the time I can't introduce myself as a woman (or a man, for that matter). I dunno. This was going somewhere when I started but I'm all over the place today. I think, speaking entirely personally here, trans* as an identity has formed a better community for me than trans* as a medical condition.
Ooh, this is cool! Is ghost hosting now? I might have to look into it (I'm hosted on RHCloud at the moment, which isn't costing anything, but I'm willing to bet Ghost's hosting service is pretty nice). Is this the default theme? I can't quite tell.
Ah, awesome! I think I might stick with OpenShift for now, seeing as I've got it all sorted and haven't had any problems yet. I'm not expecting huge amounts of traffic (well, not for a while, anyway) so it should do.
I'd love to join in.
Great read. I went looking on Academia.edu to see if anyone had written anything about Max Headroom. Nothing, but there's one independent researcher who goes by that name. They're German and have one paper on improvising jazz. Funny. There is some stuff on JSTOR, though.
I'm rather distressed at the White House's statement. Something that affects such a large and close-knit community, one that I've always found to be particularly patriotic (and from what I can tell, the NZ Deaf community is a fraction of those in SA) is a bit more than just a regrettable "distraction". These people are relying on this man, and as the article rightly pointed out, they have no real way to show dissatisfaction there in the moment. Calling it a "distraction" and putting it on the same level as Obama taking selfies is ridiculous and extremely marginalising.
What's most likely is that he knows some, enough to get by on a casual basis, and somehow someone along the line fucked up majorly and got him this gig. Incredibly distressing, as someone coming from a Deaf background.
If you haven't seen his commencement speech, you should watch that, too. Absolutely great.
Whoa, how did I not know that? Wow! Thanks! Incidentally, she does one of the best covers ever.
Ah, yes, another one I totally forgot. Cheers!
I had some of these, but more I totally missed! Didn't realise Baths was LGBTQ, that's awesome. And Frank Ocean was a huge oversight on my behalf. Cheers!
Ah, awesome, thanks! Just quickly checked out Against Me! and they're wonderful. Cheers! Edit: Spent the last half hour listening to and reading about Against Me! and Laura Jane. Thank you so much for this.
Oh, yeah, Elton John's definitely on the list already. Thanks, though!
I remember catching it on C4 late on night, with the video of her performing it (which I've never been able to find) and I've never been able to forget it. Must remember to pick her new album (of kid's songs, but still) sometime.
Damn, I didn't see those paintings. Those are really awesome, TNG! I do a similar thing to you, really. Used to be when I needed to deal with something I'd go write, usually a short story or some poetry or something. Recently it's been almost exclusively music, though - I'm finding bashing out some really angry piano stuff a la Amanda Palmer or The MurderChord really helps.
I dunno, I tend to help people whenever they ask, as long as I know them. And, to be fair, the people that do ask I've known for a while, and even though we may not have spoken for months I still feel close to them, so doing the thing or helping them just feels right. Plus, as someone who tends to often need help with stuff anyway, it's nice to return the favour (even in advance).
It's one of my favourite poems, I think. Simple. Beautiful. Ah, thank you! I love it so much, and whenever I move it's one of the last things I take down, because my room without it isn't my room.
An update of sorts for you, blackbootz and eightbitsamurai: I spent most of today getting Ghost hosted on a third-party site so I could get used to it (and brush up my skills, too). The install took a while, and the themes and features are still pretty lacking (though the next update, which is scheduled to be a couple of weeks away, is hopefully adding the ability to sort/categorise by tags, which is exactly what I want). But it looks nice and the posting system and markup is beautiful.
My desktop background is a rotating folder of many backgrounds. I have a wall. I love my wall. It's currently in a very different state, because this is an old photo and I am no longer in this room (this is like, three moves ago) but I don't have a camera decent enough to do it justice and some of the things are still there. The collection of poems on the bottom right are Chandler, given to me by a fantastic teacher who is now a friend. The photo in the middle was used on the cover of my book (and happens to be of my best friend's hand). The drawing in the top middle is a sketch done by Jeph Jacques, author of Questionable Content. The two tickets below it are to Big Day Out (the once-great music festival) and Paramore, I think (a concert I went to for a girl I had dated). The poem next to it is Koyczan's 6:59a: The wall has new additions now, and some things have been removed. I have posters from exhibitions I've worked. Some of my art's on the wall. All of it is relevant and important and personal, and the wall is what makes my room my home. More photos here
I love this one, and I did the same thing for ages - switched from a rotating desktop to this. Now I'm back to the rotating setup, because I don't see my desktop often enough and can't decide.
I was told to look up his solo work a while back, and this reminded me to do so. Thanks. I love Girls and can't help singing along whenever I hear Laura in particular. This is great, too.
Oh, yeah, once you start really digging in in terms of music discovery your tastes kind of explode and develop like mad. I'd recommend starting with a few bands you like and checking out related artists on last.fm or the like. Or go check out a sharethread or something, like the #weeklymusicthread or something. Lots of good obscure stuff out there.
Have you tried some neo-classical/post-classical? Basically modern composers doing some wonderful things, and I tend to find it personally much more compelling than classical itself. Check out Olafur Arnalds and Luke Howard and oh boy, Jherek Bischoff for something a bit different.