Alison Stevens
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anstevens.bsky.social
Alison Stevens
@anstevens.bsky.social
not one thing, but a world of possibilities. she or they, check your assumptions at the door
www.alisonnicole.com
I have just generally been thinking a lot about the value of documenting all kinds of stuff. Things might be more easily forgotten than I hope, and/or more important than I expect!
November 18, 2025 at 8:38 PM
this makes me want to dig out the vegan grain-free muffin recipe(s) I used…13 years ago??? to see if it would fit. Also the oatmeal part is another reminder that I love a pear crisp, I should make one of those…
November 18, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Lois McMaster Bujold’s book MEMORY has a building with air circulation/ventilation that prevents people from giving their colleagues colds, we could have this future, it was known in the 90s!!!!!
November 18, 2025 at 4:17 AM
who could have guessed!!!
November 17, 2025 at 11:09 PM
I’m in the wrong part of the world for the signing but I just listened to THE WITCH ROADS and enjoyed it so much!!! I’ve gotten into history podcasts lately and was telling a friend I like learning about social structures & ways of handling conflict, and I like those things in fiction too!
November 17, 2025 at 7:07 PM
…though actually I would argue that telling someone or implying they’re wrong is NOT correctly identifying the topic! The topic is “Madeline’s story of [thing]”, not just [thing] itself and definitely not “how to deal with [thing]”!
November 17, 2025 at 5:19 PM
So often on here people seem to just identify a topic being talked about, and immediately say things about the topic without considering ANY other context. Gotta get the topic, yes, but also consider appropriate social role: am I audience, discussion participant, haver of knowledge *being sought*
November 17, 2025 at 5:19 PM
I think I did already know that there had been a change, but this was what led me to the details, including how long it took the UK to switch
November 16, 2025 at 9:34 PM
I learned about the calendar switch because of a high school history/english project that involved writing letters as if from historical people. I had a calculator program where I could input a date and get the day of the week, but I noticed it wasn’t matching up with actual sources!
November 16, 2025 at 9:34 PM
This is so well expressed, you are amazing at words lol
November 15, 2025 at 11:07 PM
I once saw someone explain that if you get scurvy, healed wounds will reopen, because it turns out healing isn’t a process that ends—our bodies are perpetually healing injuries. Now, what is the equivalent of vitamin C for emotional injuries, hmmm
November 15, 2025 at 7:48 PM
It’s really multi-faceted harm coming from an institution like this. I mean for a lot of people doing something you were excited about and also wanted to do, to all turn out not to be who you thought they were…so awful
November 15, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I agree with all the people saying the punctuation makes it look like actually you do give a fuck. I think the lack of question mark is particularly important because the point is this is not really a question!!
November 14, 2025 at 2:21 AM
this is an interesting distinction, I might even agree!
November 14, 2025 at 2:15 AM
I love those audiobooks!! I thought the clip would be better than me reading it, and it really is an excellent short description of ringing
November 14, 2025 at 2:13 AM
when I couldn’t present at a conference last year because of illness I put this up on youtube…I was hesitant to share it widely then but I just watched some and it’s good???
Meaning in Participatory Music: A Bellringing Protest
Presentation in connection with the Meaning of Music conference in Gdańsk, October 2024. https://meaningofmusic2024.pl For more about change ringing look at https://cccbr.org.uk/bellringing/what-is-bell-ringing/.
m.youtube.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:32 PM
I think I haven’t even attempted to explain here because I need probably at least 500 words so people will understand properly!

I have been told that in England handbells were invented so that tower ringers could practice without keeping folks awake, and only later the idea of ringing tunes arose
November 13, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Anyway the relationship of the border to the peal is the kind of thing I’m writing some about. Like, we want people to ring touches by knowing the method + the process of calls, and learning exact compositions is an optional bonus.
November 13, 2025 at 4:22 PM
I don’t know why I didn’t think of trying to put a portion of the peal composition as the border. Maybe because I originally expected to do a separate touch on each side? It was tricky to match up the dimensions with composition possibilities!
November 13, 2025 at 4:10 PM
A couple months before I started the PhD I learned that two American women did PhDs about ringing in the 90s, and they both married English bellringing men and moved to Scotland. So I’m following in their footsteps!
November 13, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Heh I am doing a PhD about bellringing and when some friends of friends asked if the border was what we rang I said yes!! wait…that’s a complicated question. The border is two different compositions of 322 Plain Bob Triples, so the method is the same but the compositions are not related.
November 13, 2025 at 3:29 PM