iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Nat Guest @unfortunatalie.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Some thoughts, in here, on existing in a heatwave with a neurodivergent and dysautonomic body that struggles to thermoregulate itself - and trying to undo the false binary of body/brain. Bit of a niche one but hopefully it finds its little audience! nothingbutawordbag.substack.com/p/weathering...

nothingbutawordbag.substack.com

Weathering the interior

Sitting with dysautonomia and neurodivergence in a heatwave

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Alice Wong @sfdirewolf.bsky.social · 06/06/2024

2 years ago on this day I had a series of medical crises that changed my life forever. It costs $840/day for additional care I need. It is unsustainable. This is structural ableism. I am crowdfunding again so I can live in the community. disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2024/06/06/h...

Digital portrait by Jen White-Johnson featuring a photo of Asian American woman with honey blonde hair. She is in a wheelchair and there is a tracheostomy at her neck connected to a ventilator. She is wearing a silky multicolored shirt and a bold red lip color. She is looking intently at the camera with the heat of a thousand suns. Behind her are red and purple flowers with a red circle in the background framing her face like a warm sun. The background of the portrait is purple.

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 06/06/2024

Does anyone else feel strange and suspicious when seeing a television commercial for a book? Like, a work of fiction? It always feels to me like a dimensional glitch

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 02/06/2024

Mind blown.

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 02/06/2024

Pride Announcement: The Fall on Amazon Prime features an incredible scene for queer girls everywhere between Archie Punjabi and Gillian Anderson. You're welcome.

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 23/05/2024

LADY WHISTLEDOWN RETURNS, queer gemini chaos monkey kin, whip out your Kerry Washington red wines and silk pajamas, let's fucking gooooooo

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 26/04/2024

Wrote about American education fully, grotesquely losing the thread: painbaby.substack.com/p/american-e...

painbaby.substack.com

American Education is a Sinking Ship

On our shameful failure to honor education as freedom

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 26/04/2024

All the Columbia University President had to do was ignore a hundred leftist students in tents for, like, three more weeks. And ignoring leftist students is something that University Presidents are collectively *great* at.

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Kip Manley @kiplet.myatproto.social · 26/04/2024

It doesn't matter that you're tenured faculty with decades of experience on campus or a student who's paid a small fortune to attend those hallowed groves: the minute you stand up and say stop, you become an outside agitator.

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 20/03/2024

Wrote about the cocktail of feelings these times bring from a disability perspective: painbaby.substack.com/p/rage-failu...

painbaby.substack.com

Rage, Failure, Refusal

Litany and Commiseration in the Face of Flagging Hope

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social · 24/02/2024

1994: internet is ephemeral 2004: internet is forever 2014: only internet is forever. Print pubs and owning physical media are for idiots 2024: your favorite shows have been removed for tax breaks and private equity firms bought up the websites you worked for and deleted your entire life's work

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

kristin @klooky.bsky.social · 22/12/2023

looking at birds saves lives. new poem in wildness, holy shit

screenshot of a poem called dendrochronolgy of a murder by kristin lueke. it reads:

three crows come to my door every day. i give them peanuts.
they give me everything else—company, questions, conversation,
though it tends to stay one way. i play them buena vista social club,
they play with fire, taunting the towhees behind the rose bush,
stealing sunlight on their backs. the young one is a universe
about to be born, so black i see everything in it, even myself.
perhaps why he’s so easy to talk to. the other two give midnight,
oil slick on asphalt, shimmering blue and iridescent like the darkest
blue thing, a crow, at the beginning of breeding season, at the height
of her body’s wisdom, which knows: approach dancing. bow, spread
your feathers wide, sing. even hideously. let them know, if you are,
you are willing. be a moonless night on a light-scattered planet.
the deeper the blue, the more hasn’t killed you.

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 23/12/2023

Wrote about the outcomes of having a Substack for a year, reading for Palestine on 12/30 and at the Poetry Project's New Year's Day Marathon, @miroweart.bsky.social 's wild Jingle Bells video, and my dear friend's new skincare line: open.substack.com/pub/painbaby...

open.substack.com

One Year With Substack

Subscription Drive, Upcoming Readings, Creepy Xmas Fun, and Winter Skincare

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 18/12/2023

Laura Jedeed shines a necessary light on the status of free speech and the absurd languages around it in the U.S.: laurajedeed.substack.com?utm_source=n...

laurajedeed.substack.com

Laura Jedeed | Substack

What are the conservatives up to today? Click to read Laura Jedeed, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

Watching protesters in support of Palestine erupt joyfully at the news of Henry Kissinger's demise, just, *chef's kiss*

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

March 10, 1975: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger quips to Turkey’s foreign minister in Ankara, “Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings, ‘The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.’ But since the [FOIA], I’m afraid to say things like that.”

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Rainesford Stauffer @rainesford.bsky.social · 13/10/2023

Do you know a high school or college journalist interested in pitching an 800 word reported piece on an issue that impacted students in 2023? (For ex., attacks on LGBTQ+ students' rights, climate crisis, etc.) For StudentNation, fee is $300. Happy to help brainstorm! rainesford.alexandra@gmail.com

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 09/10/2023

fan-girled all over Megan Fernandes and Patrick Rosal in a dual review of diasporic hard-faced sweet beans:

painbaby.substack.com

Soft Diasporic Hearts and Hard City Exteriors

In Review: Megan Fernandes and Patrick Rosal

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 06/10/2023

Just wrote my first poetry review and now I don't know if I want to do anything else ever again

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Godspeed You! Woke Moralists @dashwallkick.bsky.social · 05/10/2023

If you're wondering why I'm so fascinated by radfems, "Radfem Hitler" (yes, that is indeed her name) is a great primer. Boiling contempt for men, in a public performance, that is clearly just open misogyny that would make a blackpill incel hoot, bounced off a bioessentialist mirror

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 03/10/2023

My sweet precious angel Kubo Avatar reporting for snuggle duty

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 01/10/2023

I think the best response I've seen to AI anything has been, "Why should I bother reading something that nobody could be bothered to write"

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

I wrote about the impact that Hasan Minhaj's choices have on South Asian American mainstream representation and the pitfalls of model minority success-hoarding on those who rely on algorithms to measure success.

open.substack.com

We Need To Talk About Hasan Minhaj

A Tragic Fall For Exponential Likes

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

Wrote about writing about stuff on Substack this week: painbaby.substack.com/p/enter-spoo...

painbaby.substack.com

Enter Spooky Season!

Old projects, new projects, and all-new Pain Baby

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 24/09/2023

For clarity, I'm here getting upset about The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina's tarot episode, which creates absurdly dark and specific future predictions, which is *not* what we do, y'all. You know your fans know how that shit works, don't play, just get one of us in the room we'd be delighted

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 24/09/2023

How do so many horror narratives get tarot so wrong knowing full well that a large percentage of their viewership is deeply steeped in astrology/ tarot/ the occult etc. because we're all autumn queers yelling at the television and cheering on the goblins?

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 24/09/2023

I know he doesn't care and can't read but I wanted to take the time to express my deep, devoted appreciation for how much my cat Kubo does for my mental health and that of my roommates. He is a true MVP I love him more than any other living creature I have ever encountered Amen

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Rachel Lichtman @rachellichtman.bsky.social · 24/09/2023

I had no idea that this meme dated back to 1976

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 24/09/2023

Any diehard Chilling Adventures of Sabrina fans on here able to tell me whether the Yule demon is an explicit metaphor for abusive Catholic priests, or am I over-reading?

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 07/09/2023

The trouble with so few people and so little engagement is that I'm tempted to throw just about anything on here for the heck of it and now I see how the other place got how it got

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 07/09/2023

Does anyone else feel a little attacked by the "still watching?" message on streaming services? Yes, I am, this is how I'm getting by, fuck off

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 07/09/2023

I really want a news story or a support group or even a fictional story about teachers who were disabled out of their ability to teach and still yearn for it all the time because they were fucking dedicated and good at their jobs

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Frances Hamm @franceshamm.bsky.social · 03/09/2023

I dropped the ball on the deal with gojo, I was kicked out of my dad's dojo. And now you're telling me I lost my mojo?!

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 31/08/2023

Teaching a poetry workshop, “Writing the Self” at Aangan Literary Festival on Sept 23! Check it check it

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 30/08/2023

Dreaming up essays about the impact of COVID and long-COVID to add to the re-issue of my poetic memoir about the same from 2020, The Relativity of Living Well. What conversations do you wish we were having? What are we not talking about that we really should?

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Reposted by Dr. Ashna Ali

Jamie McKelvie @mckelvie.bsky.social · 30/08/2023

Happy birthday Mary Shelley! Fondly remembering when @zdarsky.bsky.social uncovered the first edition of Frankenstein.

The final page of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The text reads:

"He sprang from the cabin window as he said this, upon the ice raft which lay close to the vessel. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance."

Underneath, handwritten in pen by good ol' Chip, the following has been added:

"As he drifted away I could just make out his final words.

"It's okay if you just call me 'Frankenstein' instead of Frankenstein's Monster.

I really don't mind."

The end"

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 30/08/2023

Considering how well-developed Grammarly is, you'd think it would know that a name in an email signature isn't a spelling mistake by now... When are we going to expand what these programs can recognize as names beyond whiteness?

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 29/08/2023

In less than 24 hours, I have 21 desi femme volunteers interested in sharing their story about intergenerational trauma and food. Clearly this is as urgent a conversation for many others as it is for me!

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Dr. Ashna Ali @doctordushtu.bsky.social · 28/08/2023

Writing an essay about South Asian diasporic femmes and their relationship with food and eating in the context of intergenerational trauma. Please reach out if this is you and you're willing to answer some confidential questions anonymously (or not!).

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