alefara - Tumblr blog

[alefara]

My first hater was a classmate in second grade who told me that my drawings were ugly because I refused to draw for him. Whoever you are I hope you're doing okay buddy

[alefara]

I drew a cat today

[alefara]

Another horse I guess

[alefara]

don’t worry everyone the doctor who wiki has everything under control

[alefara]

"craving a food means your body needs something that food can offer" now what the fuck does my body need with an ice cream

[alefara]

My personal theory about why queer people have a reputation for being weird and loud is that once you figure out that being yourself even in the most mundane and semi-normative way will piss people off you may as well throw off every trace of normative behavior and sensibility you don’t want because if you’re going to be hated anyways you might as well have fun with it

[alefara]

You know what I think is the most frustrating low level annoyance of being autistic?

You have to presume miscommunication.

If you make what you think is an obvious joke, people think you’re being an ass.

If you think someone’s being an ass, they tell you it’s Just A Joke.

If you’re asking for clarification, people get defensive. But you’re constantly on the defense from people being mean subtextually.

It’s so hard to relax into the friendly banter that so many people seem to take for granted. And which seems like the basis for so many friendly relationships.

I just wish I could talk to people without it feeling like AN EVENT. you know?

[alefara]

Just tried to draw a horse today. Like, a real horse. It didn't go well. The struggle of being in the MLP fandom for so long that you never bothered to draw a real horse before is real

[alefara]

Has anyone already created an au in which Zira takes Kiara's paw at the end of TLK2? An au in which Zira goes through a redemption arc sounds cool

[alefara]

Behold,, the Ghost Horses of Christmas Past and Christmas Present

Can you draw. A ghost horse

how about two ghost horses for the price of one?

[alefara]

at the club googling symptoms of organ failure

[alefara]

I can't stress enough how much I miss StumbleUpon

[alefara]

Please please please tell me there's a Skyrim mod that allows you to play as a housecat sized khajiit

looks stupit I want ten

[alefara]

hey psst, want a quick way to make your drawings look umcofortable? easy! just draw too many lines!

[alefara]

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won’t radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that’s generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these “self-sufficiency” skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the “good old days,” a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here’s a complete list of the safe resources I’ve found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it’s like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

“Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy” by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs – in this case, indigenous American beliefs – can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the “Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline”

Note: the “crunchy to alt-right pipeline” is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use “crunchy” spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

“The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline” by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it’s a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I’ve personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!

[alefara]

Bro

How the fuck they twinkfied a penguin???

This is not the same person

[alefara]

Autistic folk of tumblr, do you also experience cognitive rigidity while playing new games?

Let me explain my situation: i'm a very casual gamer. The type of game i play the most is one my friend defined as "casual and colorful". Think of games like Slime rancher, Stardew valley, Little kitty big city, Untitled goose game. So for some reason i decided to try Skyrim, and i'm really enjoying the game so far, but only when i manage to play the game.

The thing is, whenever i think about playing Skyrim i remember i will have to learn a lot of new mechanics and get paralyzed, and sometimes this even happen while i'm playing it because i'm actually learning the new mechanics and they all feel so different and scary. I can't play the game for long before feeling overwhelmed and having to close it

So if you experience this, how you deal with it?