ramblings-from-an-audhder-author

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

Shout-out to the Smart Kids™️. We who so often stumped the grownups with our vocabularies. Whose teachers accused of cheating because we did it in our heads.

Take it from an elder-- The ego you get from that shit is no joke, and has a high potential to be toxic to all involved.

Unfortunately the decades since I embarrassed my mom at Scrabble haven't done much to convince me of humanity's rational prowess by and large. But my cortisol levels dropped to an historic low the day I stopped caring about convincing people of my side.

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

Not me, getting too excited about the sequel to what I'm writing to actually write

Not me, wondering if I've laid enough groundwork in to support these big plans

Nevermind that it's the rough draft and adding stuff for foreshadowing and continuity during editing is well within my wheelhouse

And even if it weren't my notes are painfully detailed-- I'd need to forget English to not understand them

Not me procrastinating by posting something I'm sure no one will see

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

Check out my room, isn't it chill?

How many senses can cheap decor fill?

Looking around here you'd think-- sure, that's a kid's bedroom.

Look at my bed,

Stacked with plushies,

Both to cuddle and so I don't freeze,

Here in my room I feel like I have everything!

I've got artwork and faelights a'plenty.

And my bedspread is like outer space!

You want crochet hooks? I've got twenty.

And it puts such a smile on my face!

Who wants to be, where the people are?

Who wants to hear, wants to hear them yelling?!

Walking around all up in my personal space?

Here in my room the world's pleasant and soft,

Not like the outside, so bright and loud--

Where no one ever says what they mean!

Out there they lie, out there I cry,

In here my senses aren't ever fried!

Inside is best. My senses can rest...

Here in my room!

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

Do you wanna go to Michael's?

We need more craft supplies!

I heard they have a sale--

So fill up a pail to make a big surprise!

It's so fun to craft new things,

The arts make me sing,

Let the ribbons and yarn fly!

Do you wanna go to Michael's?

It doesn't have to be to Michael's...

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

#is baby

The fossil of a 20cm baby crocodile from Germany.

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

So I know there are more kinds of mushroom than I could memorize in a lifetime, but today I learned that the common puffball is also sometimes called wolf farts, or the devil's snuff-box, and I feel like more people should be aware.

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

Choose one:

Sad whenever you're left alone

Or

Can never find a friend when you're happy

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

Gotta tell ya, fear of learning how to navigate a whole new platform was one of the things keeping this middle-aged autistic from even trying, but this is marvellously helpful! Also comforting, because so much of this just seems like the way social media *should* work.

Very Brief Guide to [tumblr], for Reddit refugees

Shit You Must Do Right Fucking Now:

Change your profile picture, blog header, and title to something other than the defaults. Do it right now. You will be mistaken for a bot otherwise, and blocked.

Go into Settings -> Dashboard, scroll down to Preferences, and turn off the options in the picture. This will get rid of most of the algorithmic stuff.

Turn off Tumblr Live. You have to snooze it once every 7 days for some stupid reason. It's hosted through another company and will steal your data if you use it.

Go to your blog settings (under the little person menu) and turn off these two settings:

Turn off infinite scroll (lags the site) and turn on timestamps on posts, in the same menu as Preferences.

Basic Features of the Site:

Reblogs drive the entire site. If you'd upvote something on Reddit, you'd reblog it on Tumblr. You can add text, images, or tags to a reblog, but you're not required to.

The dashboard is the equivalent to your Reddit feed, and contains the posts of all the people you follow, with the newest at the top

You can send an ask to someone, and it'll appear in their askbox for them to answer. You can receive them too, or turn off the settings if you don't want.

Tags aren't actually used for finding stuff (search function is dogshit), but are more for categorizing. People also talk in tags. Because Tumblr is weird, you can't use quotation marks (") or commas in them without fucking it up

You can filter both tags and phrases under Account Settings; doing this will put a filter over a post that contains them, which you'll have to click through to see the post itself. Useful for avoiding hate speech or blocking out annoying stuff

You can make polls in posts. Here's one now.

Likes are useless. They literally do fuck-all except send a notification to the OP.

Stuff Tumblr Does That Other Sites Don't:

Very old posts (I'm talking from like 2012) often circulate on this site. There's no such thing as a post being "too old" to reblog

Blocking is highly encouraged; you can block someone for any reason. Even for just being annoying.

If you and someone else are following each other, you are mutuals. Mutuals are fucking awesome and are treasured like friends. Mutuals are a thing on other sites but Tumblr treats em differently.

You can screenshot someone's tags if you like them and add them to a reblog. This is called "peer review"

Sometimes someone will find a blog and go through it and like/reblog a bunch of posts. This is totally fine and not "creepy" like it is seen as on other sites.

Tumblr jokes often rely on Continuing The Bit and a "yes, and?" attitude. Goncharov is probably the best example of this.

We are fucking infested with bots. They will either have totally blank profiles or be filled with porn. Block and report on sight.

Censorship is pretty lax here. I can say "I want to brutally stab Elon Musk to death and watch him bleed out in front of a crowd" and nobody gives a shit.

General Etiquette:

Don't try to do epic clapbacks here, you'll probably just get laughed at or blocked. If someone is bugging you or spouting bigoted bullshit, block them.

Reblog art!!! Artists often struggle to gain traction on here; reblogging will give them a boost.

Not every reblog needs a comment or tag in it

You can go all out with tagging your stuff to organize it, or you can just leave it all blank. Someone might ask "hey, can you tag these posts as [x]?" and you can decide if you want to do that or not. It's generally polite to oblige, but "no" is still reasonable.

Avoid discourse like the plague. Filter it, block people who start it, scroll past it when you see it. Just don't get involved in it. Ever.

Don't put fandom tags or jokes on someone's posts about serious matters or personal shit

You're responsible for curating your own dashboard; if you complain about constantly seeing stuff you don't like, that's probably on you. Don't be afraid to unfollow.

Follower count doesn't matter much here and you don't have to make yours known if you don't want to.

Reblog, don't repost. Reblogging keeps the credit and doesn't "steal" engagement like Twitter retweets.

If someone likes something a LOT, they might reblog it like 30 times in a row. This is normal

Having a post blow up is actually kinda a bad thing, since it floods your notifications. There's a sort of in-joke about how having a big post is awful and people jokingly try to stop their own posts from blowing up, often in vain.

Tips:

Get XKit Rewritten if you're on desktop, it's a really helpful extension

In the little drop-down menu next to the 'Post now' button you can either save a draft, schedule a post, or add it to your queue. The queue lets you post things in order at a certain interval, which you can change. It's good for spreading stuff out over time.

You can use Shift+R to quickly reblog stuff and Shift+Q to queue!

Filter your notifications under Activity - you can also see some neat graphs

Find each other! If you want your old Reddit communities to stick together, seek out other refugees and follow them.

Have fun on [tumblr], everyone!

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

Signs that I was born to be a writer:

Been making up stories forever.

Started calling out bad writing at age 5.

Books are my happy places.

An enormous vocabulary that abandons me the second I need to narrate a simple social interaction.

[ramblings-from-an-audhder-author]

I've made a new friend.

It's named Inspiration.

And at every day's end,

It leaves me in frustration.

Too few hours, too few hands,

Only one brain for plotting out plans.