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Katy Swain

@katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

25 followers 9 following 1.1K posts

The enormous old #trans woman you often see around #Carlton, the CBD and all the quality #Melbourne inner suburbs. You can't miss me; I look like the love child of […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.social/@katyswain, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/10/2026

[Void screaming, mh~, technology] Things are incomparably better than they were a decade ago, but I don't think I'll ever be able to ask people for help when I need it, so this boom-bust cycle of self-confidence seems inescapable. I need to work with other people to keep motivated and on an […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/10/2026

The problem with self-esteem is that every time it rises, my expectation of what I'm capable of rises proportionally. So I continue to disappoint myself exactly as before.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

Unsolicited opinion on an unusually hot October day: Generally speaking, middle-aged men from Melbourne do not look at all comfortable in short-sleeved shirts and shorts.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

I needed time out for a bit this afternoon, so I went down the road to eke out a very slow pint at the Curtin. As I was ordering, a woman beside me at the bar heard my voice and exclaimed "Oh my God, it's Katy!" I expect to not remember names, but she looked and sounded so familiar that I'm […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

Simultaneously pleased that I feel like a grown-up and terrified that I only actually know how to _pretend_ to be a grown-up.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2026

It really does happen. I just tried to wipe an errant full stop off the screen.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Recently mentioned to my psychologist how many people over the course of my life (most recently @Dawn 💜) have disapproved of my tendency to go for self-deprecating humour, and how I recognise it may not be entirely healthy. He was adamant that no, it's actually a very engaging characteristic […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

[Transition progress report, personal] There's a personal context to this that I can't really talk about, but today has been one of those days where I really feel like me in a way that I haven't before. I like it. Bring it on.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Just had a young girl drag me into a boutique on Swanston St to sell me $200 worth of skin and nail care products. She's certainly an optimist. I left without making a purchase, of course, but in high spirits. It's nice to talk to someone, even if it's just to adamantly declare my modest fiscal […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Making Katy's Pasta Con Carne for dinner. For the next few days. Everything I know about cooking I learned from Keith Floyd. Start with a glass of wine. Keep the bottle close to hand.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Somebody explain to me why it takes #Audacity a minute and a half to paste a 20 second clip from one track to another in the same project file.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

@tregeagle The more managerially "efficient" a provider appears, the more likely this becomes, imo. For pretty obvious reasons.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

@tregeagle There's a phenomenon that's rife in public service outsourcing called "incomplete contracts". Necessarily, contracts can't specify every requirement of every job right down to the bleeding obvious. So if a provider lacks domain-specific expertise and/or vocational commitment, they […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

@tregeagle I know it's not in your nature, but give 'em hell!

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

I've been sniffly, scatterbrained, and headachy all day. Hope it's pollen plus a mild hangover; I don't have time to be ill.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

I am a day and a half behind on my scrolling, but have been catching up, so I have a big grin on my face, and a tear rolling down one cheek, just like the emoji. Don't ever change, my fedifriends. (Unless your want to, in which case, please do.)

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

[Swearing, ice cream] Fuck me; I walked right past a supermarket this afternoon and I didn't buy ice cream! Now I have no ice cream! As the meme says, we're all trying to find the person responsible for this.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

I had a great day today. I love being me. I woke up feeling awful and thinking I'd have a miserable slog, but it was leading up to doing a thing with people in the afternoon. And it turns out that people are lovely, and people are my new favourite thing, I feel so blessed. 🥲

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

I mean (not to harp on about it), if you had a costume like that, you would relax and phone it in and/or chew the scenery. He absolutely did not. He wrung every little bit of nuance out of it.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Michael Wisher is an unrecognised genius. I can't think of any dramatic performance that is quite so astonishingly inventive and perfectly calibrated. Also Davros was the first TESCREAL techbro Utopian.

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

The number of times in the last few years when I've thought "I've never worked so hard in my life. I'm so stressed out. And I've never been happier."…

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

Damn: I just realised I've been feeling good about ticking items off yesterday's todo list.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

Okay, that's near enough 7pm. Day done. Thanks for duping my circadian rhythm out of a couple of hours, AEDT.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

Transition is the universal rule. Gender transition is just a special instance. If you think you were done when you graduated, or got the right to vote, or a drivers license, or married, or children, or professional success, or retirement, or ticked all the boxes on whatever transition checklist […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

Given the people running those systems are eugenicists, we should stop saying "social media" and start saying "the normal distribution". And instead of "the algorithm", "the dumbbell curve". We can keep calling their target audience "the mean", and ourselves "the outliers".

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

I've not been able to be useful all day, but even on my best days I probably only really do a few hours work. I've never understood work, and now that nobody wants to pay me for it I suppose it's academic. but as somebody who wants to do something useful with the last couple of decades of her […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Today went really well. I did a lot of work leading up to it, but there have been other days that I put much more preparation into that were disastrous. So the way I feel now is not so much a result of work as luck. So a big hooray for today, and a little hooray for me. But if I'm going to take […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Honestly, my dear friend Merilyn asked me a question, and I had to respond "Would you like to get up here? Because I wasn't going to get to that till week five!"

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

I already knew this, but I've just confirmed it: standing in front of a roomful of intelligent people talking about something I know way too much about is my happy place.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

[mh~] How do you tell whether you're flourishing or just barely hanging on? Asking for a friend.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

Damn it. They should lable those little jars of garlic and ginger with completely different colours. I just made myself some ginger butter.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

WTF? It's just fixed itself. In the middle of a GNOME session; didn't even log out and back in again. It had persisted since yesterday morning through several reboots. Computers are just messing with me. See if I put up with this sort of treatment much longer…

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

I just upgraded #Debian, which appears to have broken alt-tabbing to #Firefox (153.4.0esr). I've #GNOME configured to only alt-tab within the current workspace, but when I alt-tab to Firefox, instead of the last Firefox window on the current workspace that had focus, it now sends me to an […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

The more wealthy and influential an anglo American man is, the sillier his name is likely to be. eg. Marriner Stoddard Eccles, Beardsley Ruml, Grover Norquist, Newt Gingritch…

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

For #TransVoiceFriday on a Saturday this week, yet more Hitchhikers, and that grinding, croaking sound my voice does whenever I'm self-conscious about it.

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

If I survive October with my sanity intact, I am going to need to reward myself. Anybody know a nice place in inner #Melbourne where one could get a pair of old, over-large, and ringing-with-Sony-Walkman-tinnitus ears pierced? Preferably not the sort of place where they might try to upsell me a […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

It is cold and wet, and I am not leaving the flat today. Further updates as events warrant.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Well, that was a catastrophe. Another RadioMMT interview fell to bits this morning due to connectivity issues on my end. Well, it was salvageable, in that my colleague can just edit out the couple of sentences I was able to contribute, and we just pretend I wasn't there. Only ever happens to me […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

Just had a social Zoom meeting with people from my masters degree. I was talking about the U3A course I'm running starting next Tuesday, and one of my former tutors (a pretty major figure in the MMT community, and just the loveliest guy), assured me that I'd do splendidly because — he said — I'm […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

Aunty Katy had too many instant noodles and vegetables and dumplings for dinner. Aunty Katy feels fat. Those are the most pressing problems in my life right now. I suppose I should be grateful.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

Well that's a pisser. Today's electrolysis appointment just cancelled, and they have a permanent two-month waiting list, so I just miss out till November, and then of course December is out because of the religious festival of buying kids plastic rubbish. Just spent the last three days […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

So I'm off straight to the MMT pub night at the Union Club Hotel in Collingwood. We'll be the table of middle aged nerds. What am I saying? It's Collingwood. That's every table at every pub.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

For the first time in two months, I don't have to do a #RadioMMT because I already did it. The chat Anne & I had about supermarkets ages ago is finally going to air in a few minutes. The podcast version should be up very soon, as Anne's had it ready for ages. She even did a little promo […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

I went to a meeting this morning. I met the meeting, and the meeting met me, and we parted on good terms. Then I spent a good few hours at the library being quite productive. I actually got a good slice of the legendary ADHD hyperfocus. When I pulled myself out of it, I had that […]

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Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

One lasting legacy of the identica/Laconica/StatusNet years is that I'm still absolutely mad about REM.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

Philanthropy (n): Tax-deductible activity by wealthy elites to distort or eliminate some element of public policy.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

Going to a U3A tutor induction session this morning. At the first mention of "AI", I think I may have to throw a tanty and storm out.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

The weather is getting warmer and the cockroaches are coming out of hibernation in the wall cavities. Here begins six months of starting every day in a cloud of insecticide, coughing. #renting

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

The days when you have Elton John songs running through your head over and over are not the best days.

Katy Swain @katyswain.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Tried doing something with a computer. I'm now hoarse from shouting, shaking with rage, and can't think straight.