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Review: Will & Harper
TL;DR: Absolutely fascinating. Joy & pain. Humour & reflection. I found this moving, joyful, and very uncomfortable in places. Much the same range of feelings that I frequently experience in girl-mode, especially when venturing outside of places that I know for sure will be welcoming. Will Ferrell takes a road trip with an old friend…
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60 Sec Read: Washing My Hair
Sometimes it might be an excuse. But, you know, sometimes she really is washing her hair – and it might take a lot longer than you expect, because there might be more of it by far than you expect. Remember, it’s not only tgirls; there are some undergoing chemotherapy, some with alopecia, and others with…
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Backlash
How we respond to intimidation and adversity is important. Sometimes it is instinctive. My good friend Claire was attacked on 2024-02-11. She was attacked purely because of the way she was dressed, by a group of 7 physically adult men, less than a mile from the site of the muder of Brianna Ghey, and took…
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Unfeminine Things
In the early hours of a recent Sunday morning, I was unlucky enough to suffer a catastrophic tyre failure on a motorway on my way home from a night out. Thus I unexpectedly embarked upon a series of unplanned activities for my girl-mode self. It was interesting being propelled suddenly into places where I would…
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The Office
The handbags and the gladrags The first time I went for a proper night out in girl-mode was New Year’s Eve, 2019-12-31, accompanied and supported by a close friend without whom I’d never have managed it. I’m going to share a photograph of that night out further down in this article, because it shows such…
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Luscious Lashes
If the eyes are the windows to the soul, the eyelashes are the… err… curtains? Hmm… Hand me a new analogy, this one seem to be broken. Since friends, family and colleagues are mostly read-in to Project Sophie/Girl-Mode, and I wear nice nails pretty much all the time now, I decided to try out some professionally…
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Standard European English
The “taking back control” aspect of Brexit is, and always was, a load of codswallop. However, I’d be churlish to deny that it does indeed open up new opportunities…. for the EU, that is. English has an unusual position as languages go. And, despite the UK’s departure from the EU, it remains an official EU…
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Nailing Technology
Exciting and new (to me, and looking relatively new for everyone – but I don’t actually know how long these have been around) nail adhesive technology. There are a few things about nail glue that I have found rather frustrating. Firstly, it is fundamentally superglue – it’s the same chemical cocktail. But whereas superglue comes…
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Latent Creativity
Saturday 2023-05-13 brings…. The Eurovision Final! Having singularly failed to obtain tickets for the event itself in Liverpool, I am instead travelling with some friends to the great City of Manchester to watch on a big screen in the VIP Lounge of a bar in the city centre. Manchester, especially the city centre, is extremely…
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Why are some people so scared? ❄️❄️❄️
Warning: narrow minded individuals will be grossly offended, so stop reading here eh? So often it seems like prejudice against people being who they want to be is driven by fear and insecurity. Fear amongst those who feel threatened by difference. Insecurity amongst those who are scared that they might actually be different themselves and…
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Identity, & Face Matching
Google photos is pretty good at picking out faces which turn up in multiple photos. I’ve been impressed at times when it has correctly picked up a face in the background which I hadn’t noticed. You can remove an erroneously identified face from a grouping, and merge groups where the same person has been identified…
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Colour Matching
There is some truth to the idea that many men only recognise a handful of colours. If we ignore colourblindness[2], then it’s mostly down to psychology[1]. However, it’s not necessarily as subtle as that academic article: in general, men simply don’t care that much. Even if we appreciate the beautiful colour co-ordination that ladies exhibit,…
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Stranger In A Strange Land
Circumstances find me alone in an Eastern European capital for several days with very limited grasp of the language and even that only really extending to the written form. Not a specifically LGBTQ+ friendly country, although not a specifically LGBTQ+ unfriendly one either, at least in the capital – the provinces are likely to be…
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Accidental Shoes™
I seem to have ordered 9 pairs of shoes yesterday. Oops. What can I say. There was a sudden online Sale. It’s an interesting concept, the Sale. In Boy-mode it’s generally something to be avoided in actual shops. And in Girl-mode too! Not through fear of funny looks or ridicule, but mortal fear of being…
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̶B̶l̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶H̶o̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶ Xmas Parties and Revelations
An Xmas meet-up of around 10-15 former colleagues presents both opportunities and worries. All the ladies in the group except two already know about Sophie. Only one of the men though – and that was accidental (see this article) although he was on the list I was planning to tell. That left a substantial number…
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Sizes. The Bane Of My (Girl-Mode) Life
Sizes drive me round the bend. You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult, right? But it really, really, is. Shoe Sizes Are UK Men’s shoe sizes the same as UK Women’s shoe sizes? Opinions seem to differ. Whilst the length might be the same (but isn’t), the width, or more accurately the width profile…
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Pride. And Prejudice.
Pride All the Pride Events which I have attended have been welcoming, friendly and diverse. Of course, they take place in real world cities & towns where not everyone is as welcoming or friendly. But it’s still much better overall here in the UK than in many parts of the world, even with the attempts…
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A Few Days Away…
….in girl-mode. Taking the opportunity to visit a Pride Event in another country felt a little daring but… well, if you’re not living life on the edge, you’re taking up too much space, right? Liquids and gels With the best will in the world, I cannot contemplate trying to take make-up through in hand-luggage. Which…
Cybersecurity, assurance, technology, identity, and life.
“I dare do all that may become a woman. Who dares do more is none.”
New Series: Sophie Baskerville’s History of Cybersecurity
sophie @ baskerville.net ©️1977-2026 Sophie Baskerville
Sophie Baskerville
Quick Links
- Sophie’s History of Cybersecurity in 27 Artefacts
- Work in progress, 16 octets of 8 artefacts each – in progress
- Unlike any other history you’ve read
- Sophie’s Cabinet of Computing Curiosities
- An accidentally created collection of field guides to the technologies, standards, forgotten contraptions and occasionally magnificent mistakes hiding beneath modern computing. They form a logical group; so voilà!
