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esmanning.bsky.social
ε manning (he/they)
@esmanning.bsky.social
410 followers 430 following 300 posts
Computational Linguist. Also a fan of cross-stitching, cats, purple things, public transit, and not getting covid.

aka Emma, Ember, Epsilon
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esmanning.bsky.social
discovered today that iOS emojis are so devoted to a Specific Hair Length as the signifier of gender neutrality that they use it for the gender neutral elf even though the man elf has long hair
iOS versions of the 'woman elf', 'elf', and 'man elf' emojis. The woman elf has long wavy hair, the man elf has long straight hair, and the ungendered elf has straight not-quite-chin-length hair.
April 28, 2025 at 11:53 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
hello internet please enjoy my new favorite petunia photo
A black and white cat, lying on a bed sorta curled up, with her belly showing, back legs bent forward, front paws curled at her chest. She's looking up at the camera and looking incredibly cute.
March 16, 2025 at 12:48 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
today's mood
Petunia, a black and white cat, lying on a bed with her arms crossed covering her face
February 2, 2025 at 6:52 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
Finished my second year of temperature cross-stitch!
Cross-stitch depicting 12 shelves, one for each month in 2024, with one potion bottle or other object for each day. They're color-coded by temperature, so the upper and lower shelves are more purple and blue, fading into green, yellow, orange, and a little red near the center. Two potion bottle cross stitch projects side by side. The one on the right is the one for the year 2024 described in the previous photo. The one on the left is the same concept but for 2023.
January 19, 2025 at 1:03 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
Elephant menorah, fully lit for night 8 this time using alternating red, yellow, and blue candles because that's what there was most left of in the box.
January 2, 2025 at 2:57 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
Elephant menorah with colorful candles in a rainbow, lit for night 7.
January 1, 2025 at 2:02 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
second time lighting at home because I am being very social this year and have spent 4 of the nights with people from shul!
a menorah consisting of a line of stone elephants, lit with a rainbow of candles for the sixth night of hanukkah
December 31, 2024 at 12:41 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
A menorah consisting of a line of stone elephants. It's lit for the second night of Hanukkah with a purple shamash and blue and green candles.
December 27, 2024 at 1:15 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
pink blob person saying 'oh no', from the comic Webcomic Name
November 8, 2024 at 3:21 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
Finished August! Not significantly behind for the first time since somewhere in May!
A cross stitch project with eight shelves of potion bottles and occasional other objects like potted plants. Each shelf is a month and there's a bottle or something for each day, color coded by temperature. The first couple months are mostly blue and purple, the shift into more greens and yellows. The last two months are yellow and orange with a few reds.
September 3, 2024 at 2:01 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
Nerds of bsky, can anyone figure out how they derived this number?
Poster in a froyo shop window saying: "20 flavors × 40 toppings = 2,794,563,003,870,330 combinations"
June 23, 2024 at 2:22 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
I don't think I've posted the 2024 edition of this yet, but it's a quarter done!
A cross stitch of three shelves of potion bottles on black fabric. Each shelf represents a month, with one bottle per day. The bottles are varying shapes and color-coded to match the temperature of the day. January is a mix of a little green, blue, indigo and violet, and one of the bottles is replaced by a small tree to represent Tu BiShvat. February is mostly blue with some green and indigo. March is a mix of green and blue with a few days of yellow, and includes a bottle shaped like a Hamantasch for Purim.
April 4, 2024 at 9:41 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
help I have just discovered that some of the original wug images looked like this

that mouth placement makes it a fundamentally different creature
A simple drawn creature with the text "This is a WUG." typed below. The creature looks similar to the wugs familiar to linguists: a simple, blue, vaguely bird-like squiggle shape with an eye and two legs. But this one has a mouth down where the belly would be if it were a bird, making it look more like the whole thing is a weirdly-shaped head with legs.
March 22, 2024 at 2:48 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
oh come on
Grammarly telling me it autocorrected "deprioritized" into "prioritized"
January 24, 2024 at 10:45 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
It's been 6 months since Petunia moved in! Please enjoy a few recentish photos that I don't think I've shared here yet
A black and white cat licking from a tube of Churu Same cat curled up on a bed, front paw adorably placed over her eyes Same cat sitting, staring at the camera looking a little shocked. This one shows that her pupils are asymmetrical, with one small and one half-dilated in a D shape Same cat curled up sleeping on the carpet
January 16, 2024 at 12:31 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
Aaaaand done! Ish! I ran out of dark brown thread and can't finish the last shelf til more arrives. 🧶
A large, colorful cross-stitch project on black fabric. It depicts 12 shelves of varyingly-shaped potion bottles and occasionally other objects, like potted plants. Near the top and bottom, most of the objects are purple, blue, and green; closer to the middle are more yellows and oranges.
January 2, 2024 at 4:26 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
Barb
LinkedIn screenshot of a WIRED post that says "WIRED REWIND // AI in 2023: Say hello to Barb, Google's answer to ChatGPT." It's linking to an article that has a similar headline but correctly spells the name as Bard.
December 25, 2023 at 1:58 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
A plate of potato latkes sitting on a table in front of a fully lit menorah
December 15, 2023 at 1:20 AM
esmanning.bsky.social
A menorah consisting of a line of little stone elephants!
December 7, 2023 at 11:35 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
This is after trying to appease her with churu AND ignoring her for a few minutes
Cat sits right next to my legs, staring up asking where tf her food is
December 1, 2023 at 4:46 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
ok but what if
Expanding brain meme. Small brain: Sam Altman and Sam Bankman-Fried are the same Bigger brain: Sam Altman and Sam Bankman-Fried are different Biggest brain: Sam Altman and Sam Bankman-Fried are the same
November 20, 2023 at 4:14 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
I didn't even know of this discourse! I just happened to be looking at this little bit of map
Google Maps zoomed in on the area where Broadway intersects 6th Ave, resulting in two little triangular parks named Herald Square and Greeley Square Park.
November 13, 2023 at 5:29 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
US voting-eligible friends, have you voted yet? If not, what's your plan to do it today?
Hand holding an "I voted" sticker in front of a brick wall
November 7, 2023 at 2:53 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
Finished October! 🧶 Excited to be moving back to more greens & blues because the shades are more distinct than the yellows. And also because I like the cooler weather!
The potion temperature cross-stitch project described in more detail in the quoted tweet. There's now a tenth shelf added, which features pumpkin, bat, and skull motifs to represent October spookiness. It's mostly yellow and green, but there's one orange bottle near the start of the month, and the very last day is blue.
November 5, 2023 at 3:05 PM
esmanning.bsky.social
Achievement unlocked: managed to clip three of Petunia's nails in one go! Usually I'm lucky if she lets me do one.
A black and white cat lying stretched out on a carpet.
October 23, 2023 at 8:26 PM