✨Ben Hamill✨ @benhamill@witches.town

I'm moving my account over to @benhamill. I don't wanna get into the details, but if you're really interested, I guess DM me over there. I'll import my follows momentarily. A bit sad to go because I love a lot of people on this instance.

#introductions

Uh. I like to kindpost, I guess. It's a new skill I'm learning, anyway. Also real bad joaks.

I try to learn about intersectional social justice and am trying to develop the habit of taking concrete, real world action about it more often.

I've got a linguistics degree that I don't use professionally (I'm in software), but I love to talk about words and things.

I think play and playfulness are super important. I enjoy roleplaying, board and video games.

I'm a mod on #WitchesTown. Ask me if you have questions (though I only speak English, do I'm not much help to our large population of French speakers).

My family afforded me a brief nap today. I dreamed I was playing a game a bit like Journey, but there was voice chat and more people playing together than 2. I fell in with a gang of unbearably cool French anarchist kids who all mostly knew each other IRL. We got to a part where you skate/boarded downhill in twilight and they were doing all sorts of awesome tricks while making up raps about the black block and shit in a mix of English and French. I was amazed they tolerated my presence, but they were so nice.

I'm pretty sure this was a dream about #WitchesTown.

Mornin', witches and wicks.

The "great" examples are what made me write this, actually. Because you see a post like "kissing ladies. boost if you agree" and I always think, "Is this 'kissing ladies is great' or 'kissing ladies are great'?"

The silver lining is that it doesn't matter because both are great! So, uh... the end. 🎉

The second way is to understand "kissing" as a gerund, which is where you make a verb into a noun. E.g. "Stacy likes kissing ladies" where the phrase is the object of a larger verb phrase with "likes" or "Kissing ladies is great" where the phrase is the subject of the sentence.

The THIRD way is to understand "kissing" as an adjective. I don't remember the technical term for this. But in this "ladies" is the core of the phrase and "kissing" describes them. E.g. "Stacy saw some kissing ladies" or "Kissing ladies are great."

(cont.)

The -ing suffix is wildly overloaded in English. It can lead to some confusion and is a real challenge to people new to the language, but it can also be really fun.

For example, let's look at "kissing ladies" (ahem). There are three ways to understand this phrase.

The most elementary way is to understand "kissing" as a present tense verb and "ladies" as the object of the verb phrase. E.g. "Stacy is kissing ladies." I think most speakers would kind of short circuit this since if Stacy is any kinda mammal I know of, she just has the one mouth. But it is grammatical.

(cont.)

Let's talk about how delightful linguistic ambiguity is in English.

Hold up. I'mma get on a real keyboard for this.

I have begun to dislike the phrases "nuclear family" and "immediate family". They're too ambiguous. I have my immediate family that is me, my brother, my mom and my dad. And I have my immediate family that is me, my wife, the 6yo and the 3yo. Especially when I'm talking in the context of wider family, these phrases don't help specify.

I just realized that the drawing meme with, like, "their hair is the color of the shirt you're wearing" etc. has bling listed for Europe, the Americas (together for some reason), Asia and Australia. This leaves out some pretty big swaths of the world, notably Africa. Uhm. Oops?

It's windy as shit outside my house rn, y'all.

Bonus: It lets them know who you see them as at their best.

Obviously, this doesn't work for acquaintances or whatever. I mean—it still kinda can, but it's less deep. "Hi, everyone. This is Ben and I'm on the line in Austin with Jamie. She was instrumental in that really inspiring ad spot last year that won all the awards." 🤷🏻‍♂️ Context changes things. Shocking, I know.

I don't remember where I read this first, but it's something I've been trying to do over the last few years, and maybe you will like it, too: When you introduce two friends who you want to become friends (or introduce a new friend to a friend group) don't just say, "This is Beth. She and I went to school together," or whatever.

Instead, explain what it is about them that is unique and special; what it is that makes you spend the time and effort to maintain your relationship with them. Use it as an opportunity to embarrass and compliment the shit out of them by telling these new people why you think they're so awesome.

Both (currently existent) Life is Strange games are on sale on Steam right now: http://store.steampowered.com/sale/life-is-strange/

Hi, Mastonauts. Some time this morning I was well enough that I took a shower and put on new clothes. Pants, even! I took out the recycling. I did some laundry. I also laid around and watched a bunch of TV. This evening, I went to dinner with my family. Yay for feeling better. I'm still a high capacity mucous factory, but no fever or aches any more. 🎉

Welp. I am definitely quite sick. But I woke up at midnight, here, and can't go back to sleep. Damnit, body, this is not how you recover from an illness.

Started feeling bad on the way home. Feel worse now. Sleep very soon. Hopefully better in the morning. No fever, but not super optimistic.

Further: If you disagree with the idea I am 100% cool. There are ways to discuss it that are respectful and polite and generally don't involve, well, rolling into someone's mentions. The thing about selfies is that they're more personal, but that also doesn't mean that text-only posts ALSO require you (I am looking at you, other straight white dudes) to levy an opinion on it. It is entirely possible to read a post you disagree with and just post to your followers about it without roping in the original poster.

If we're mutuals, I might even see your different take and want to have a discussion with you about it. *gasp*

Yeah, OK. If you want to assert that if someone posts a selfie where you can see it that that means they've given random people permission to roll into their mentions and that if they don't want that they should post it with some other privacy setting you are wrong and I don't really want to explain it again. There are valid reasons to want something to be public, but not a topic of commentary from strangers. The default is, "Look with your eyes, not with your hands (which are used for typing)".

I don't block people much at all, but I'm getting there with that take.