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Nyx does her best impression of Solid Snake. #nyx #juno #cats #catsofinstagram #kittygram #kitty #catinabox #solidsnake #nerds #nerdygirl

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*immediately goes to look up Legacy Books*

I got real petty over on the Facebook page and IT WAS GLORIOUS.

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if you don’t acknowledge that platonic relationships might be the most important ones in somebody’s life, just remember that the trap that vader & palpatine tried to set for luke at cloud city pretty completely relied on that fact and sith lords are officially better at this than you are

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Just imagine what a dragon's top-shelf liquor must be like. 😁

an UNUSUAL HOARD commission for mrbiggsproductions of a real, a real big long guy who knows how to fuckin party

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Damn, I'd drink, too, if I had to write these kinds of notes.

Some highlights:

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Self-Care: Guttersnipe Edition

On a whim, I thought I’d Google suggestions on self-care.

These are all fine and dandy, but to me, they speak more to an overworked mom or a stressed-out career woman than someone who lives with mental illness and/or struggles with money. (I stress the feminine pronoun because I imagine such advice for men reads more like, “Suck it up, Tinkerbell--life isn’t fair.”) I don’t knock Cassie of Wholefully (the top result in my search)--she seems like a nice lady who has her shit together. But what about for those of us who don’t always feel like we’re worth the carbon we’re made of? Can a manicure really bring us back from that?

In my experience, not really. When you have a mental illness, you get to do your normal routine with a brain that might be trying to kill you if it’s feeling particularly morose one day. I’ve had to create my own self-care through trial and error, as I would caution anyone else to do. But this is what has worked for me:

1. Take your damn meds. It sounds like a no-brainer, but if you get into a funk, the last thing you want to think about is medicating yourself, because really, what’s the point? Why are you even here?  That’s bullshit, and on some level, you know it. You have to figure out a way to take them when you’re supposed to, no missing doses--and that might mean having to outsmart yourself a bit.

Start with getting a pill case you know you’ll love and use regularly. This one is mine:

To me, the ones I got from the drug store just looked so--well, clinical. They made me resent the need to take medication at all, like I was some kind of freak instead of someone living with a statistically average, manageable illness. This cute little box gave me agency over something I need to in order to be a functional human. I set an alarm on my phone to remind/annoy the ever-loving hell out of me whenever it’s time for my next dose. The first dose of the morning is usually the hardest, and you have to plan for that. Keep them by your bed with a glass of water so you can take them first thing. Do you have to take them with food? Keep a snack nearby: trail mix. Crackers. A banana. Anything, as long as it gets those meds in your body at the right time.

2. Move. Anything goes. It’s way too easy to fall into a vegetative state. After my friend committed suicide, it was all I could do to get out of bed in the morning. Count the steps between where you’re resting and the bathroom or the fridge, or wherever else you might go in your house. Try to make yourself move a little further each time. (A pedometer app is a good way to keep track and help nudge you forward.) Even if all you can manage is just using the bathroom and sitting back down again, or you can’t make it past your mailbox, you’re still moving.

On days when I feel particularly sedentary, I kept my mind out of the blackness with audiobooks (RBdigital is a great app), crocheting, and any strategic puzzle apps I could get my dirty little hands on. Little movements, little thoughts. As long as I could occupy myself and not just stare at the wall, I was still me.

3. Clean something. When you’re really in the dark, you almost become immune to the messiness of your space. You don’t even really notice that bad smell coming from somewhere in your kitchen. Your home is a reflection of your soul, but it doesn’t matter because your soul sucks anyway. Hey now, that’s no way to treat yourself. Hitler was one of the worst people in human history, so why should he have gotten a clean toilet and not you? 

If there’s a bad smell in your house, just getting rid of the source can make a world of difference. Take out the trash (at least put it on the back steps if you can’t make it to the curb). Wash some dishes. For me, some of the ickiest, most menial tasks are more satisfying when I’m depressed--it’s almost cathartic when I sanitize the litter boxes or vacuum behind the dryer. (Seriously, take care of that. That shit is a fire hazard.) I got my best advice from Clean My Space--a show that teaches people who hate to clean how to clean beautifully.

4. If you can smell yourself, hit the showers (or at least fake it). Personal hygiene falls away when you’re at the bottom of a depression well. You repulse yourself, but you don’t care enough to get cleaned up, even if you have enough layers of dirt to carbon-dated. It’s okay to start small. Can’t manage brushing your teeth? A good mouthwash will take the worst of the fur out of your mouth. Too tired to wash your hair? There are plenty of dry shampoos on the market, though baby powder works in a pinch. No energy to shower? Go for baby wipes--they feel better warmed up in the microwave (just make sure there’s no metal in the packaging). Once you feel good enough to fully wash off the grime, soaps or body wash with citrus, mint or vetiver are a great pick-me-up. And of course, put on clean clothes (or at least the cleanest things you have until you can do laundry). I feel better after I shave, but if you’re au naturel or just can’t pick up a razor, a dab of hair conditioner can soften your floof AND your skin. Bonus!

5. Find a reason to live... It doesn’t have to be anything earth-shaking. Maybe you haven’t been to the Bahamas yet. Maybe you love your parents, or your cats, or your plants. Maybe you still haven’t tried every Ben and Jerry flavor. Maybe you’re waiting on the next season of Game of Thrones. Maybe you just want to say a quiet “fuck you” to the internet trolls who say the world would be better off without you in it. Whatever it is, find it and hang onto it. If it doesn’t work anymore, change it. The point is that it’s yours and it’s what you need to keep going.

6. ...but have a plan for when you don’t. This one is best addressed when you’re not in darkness, and it requires both trust and courage. We scare ourselves when we have thoughts of suicide, and I think we hesitate to tell people because we don’t want to scare or upset them. My system for self-preservation involves a few trusted individuals and code words. It’s best to have more than one person in your network, so if for whatever reason they can’t get to their phone, there’s always someone else you can talk to. The code allows you to reach out when you’re in distress without saying the words you dread using (at least not when initiating contact). Emojis you never use are also helpful here. As long as everyone in the know understands it, you’re golden. Just for example:

Turtle toes = I’m hanging onto my sanity by my fingernails and I’m really afraid I might hurt myself. Call me now! Daffodil = I have someone with me. I’m safe now. [Rice ball emoji] + [Address of current location] = I checked myself into the hospital. Can you please call my parents in case they take my phone?

Taking care of your mental health is a serious issue, and no one should have to dance around it to get the help they need. But until that day comes, you might as well make up your own steps.

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It’s kind of weird how mainstream fantasy and supernatural media has decided that the wendigo is the universal North American monster, when in fact only a few specific cultures have folklore involving wendigos. Imagine if every piece of fantasy and supernatural media set in Europe had leprechauns in it. Every single one.

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What’s up with dragons do they shed their skin? Do they feel all smooth and shiny and soft when they shed?

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I am filled with joy!

A commission for @lost-and-found-causes based on their long-time gamer tag. 

A bit unorthodox for my typical commissions, but it was a lot of fun! 

Thank you so much for commissioning me! 

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This resonates so hard.

From the Graphic Culture Department:

From graduation to garbage job (literally): One twentysomething’s struggle

Jackie Roche is a cartoonist, illustrator, and writer from New England, currently living in Minneapolis, MN. She specializes in nonfiction comics. For more of her work, visit jrocheworkshop.com or follow @jrocheworkshop on Twitter.

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Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.

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When you realize the dress you bought has pockets.

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Yaaaaaaas!

Okay, so a fic where Harry finds out that his animagus is a tiny little black kitten, and he’s all like, ‘shit son, this is my chance to stay out after curfew’ but then he’s out one night, and McGonagall finds him and immediately knows it’s him, and just picks him up by the scruff of his neck to deliver his naughty ass back to G Tower while Harry meows at her in indignation.

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This is the best D&D

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Steps 3-7 are considered attempted murder.

#relationshipgoals #relationshipmilestones #relationshipadvice #takingovertheworld

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I used to play in a home-brew D & D group that was a major part of my life. We were a handful of middle-class white college students killing monsters and getting fat loot-- having little insight in the complexities of the POC experience, it wasn't hard for us to paint this made-up universe with a Eurocentric brush. The POC of the universe were there, but how they looked or what they wore was often kept vague--unless a player or NPC happened to be a samurai or a ninja, of course. (*cringe*)

I could not get enough of this made-up world, but the first real record-screech-everything-goes-dead-silent moment was when the DM told me that were no black people in his world.

He'd said it in the same tone other DM's might say that bronze dragons breathe lightning. Naturally, I wanted to know why. His reasoning wasn't racist, he insisted, and while I don't remember exactly what he said, the gist of it was something like this: the world's continents broke apart and shifted like Pangaea. While there were places that one could naturally develop a higher melanin content, no major land masses developed in a part of the world where jungles could naturally evolve.

This was a time in my life when I was more REM sleep than woke, but I knew enough to know that this was deeply fucked up. The best I could do was say, "You know not all black people come from the jungle, right?" "I know, but--" I don't even remember and it doesn't matter.

If I'd had my wits about me (and a spine), I could have said, "Really, dude? There couldn't possibly be black people on these tropical islands here? What about on this area that's mostly desert? How about this outback continent? None at all? Because not only does that sound impossible, it sounds like a bunch of bullshit." I wish I could say that was what made me quit the group, but that's not true. At the time I was so painfully shy, it would have felt easier to operate a hadron collider than find new friends.

Nobody else said anything, either. Maybe they thought that none of us were POC and thus had no cause to be offended. The group eventually broke apart, and hopefully I'm not the only one who learned something from this.

You don't have to have a personal stake in the fight against racism in geekdom to participate in the fight. There's no shortage of dickheads out there who will use their own prejudices and convoluted logic to justify excluding people from a space that by its very nature is for ALL OF US. By tolerating their intolerance, we only give them more room to stretch out and do damage.

POC bring their own perspectives and experiences to the sci-fi/fantasy genre. If allowed to fully thrive, more of them could create whole universes the likes of which the world has never really experienced. I don't presume to speak for them, but it's really unfair to let them fight the bigots alone. We have to be willing to say to the bigots "shut the fuck up, grow some empathy and try listening to someone else for a change, you fucking reprobate." Let POC geek out in peace and not spend every waking moment facilitating some white person's valuable life lesson. We can accept worlds with dragons and demons and magic rings and people rising from the dead--people of color being part of those worlds shouldn't be a bridge too far.

Fantasy’s Othering Fetish (2016)

“Fantasy and science fiction allow for limitless creation, innovation, and exploration. Yet what we actually get are Eurocentric worlds that demonize or erase people of colour. Why do authors and readers accept this? Where did it start? And going forward, how do we resist?

SFF author and critic Phenderson Djeli Clark takes a look at these issues in Fantasy’s Othering Fetish, the latest ebook from Media Diversified. Featuring a foreword by novelist Daniel José Older, this book discusses everything from medieval Arthurian romance to Tolkien and Game of Thrones, and provides a overview of contemporary work by global SFF authors of colour. With its sharp, insightful critique and Clark’s deep knowledge of and passion for the genre, Fantasy’s Othering Fetish is a much-needed antidote to the whitewashed worlds of mainstream SFF.”

Edited by Phenderson Djeli Clark, Foreword Daniel José Older  

Get it here

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If only it was that easy.

You turn on your PC to keep working on your novel, but to your surprise, when you open the file, it is writing itself. You read some of what has already been written and it seems your characters have created free will, and the plot is progressing without you.