#I assumed publishers would have resources for this sort of thing

[rosesutherlandwrites]

Tumblr, I need your help! Specifically SCOTTISH tumblr...and I know I have a few friends here who fit that description. A Sweet Sting Of Salt is getting an audiobook, which is about to start recording, and it has a few words of Gaelic in it. Not many, maybe two—But I still want to be sure they'll be spoken accurately. Unfortunately, my family lost the language generations back after arriving in North America and my own Gaelic is limited to a few phrases associated with Nova Scotian pub culture and tourist advertising, and being able to translate the occasional street sign in Cape Breton—and that's only to read them, I would not trust my pronunciation not to offend my ancestors, if it were even understandable. Can anyone recommend a good resource for Scottish Gaelic pronunciation I can pass along to the people producing this recording? I'm leery of googling it and unknowingly ending up with misinformation that doesn't come from native speakers. Thank you so, so much for your help. ❤️

[goodluckclove]

Are You a Writer That Isn't Writing? Join Me Inside My Blanket Fort!

Hi! Welcome! It's so good to see you. i've just been hanging out here, kind of listening to my favorite podcast and drinking some green tea. I have another bottle here - do you want to try? It has lemon in it. It's sweet, but not too sweet. Just like I like it.

Yeah, so I might need to introduce myself. My name is Clover, but you can call me Clove. I've been a write for fifteen years and I've finished fourteen novels. I published one and I'm working on the sequel. I've written and produced plays, published short stories, and even worked as a copywriter and ghostwriter. That wasn't very fun. Actually, the writing was fun, but they brough in AI right at the end - it's a long story. Anyways, what I mean to say is that you could consider me a working writer. If you go through my blog I post a lot of snippets from what I'm working on. You can even Google my old pen name "Miranda Seaver" and find some columns and stories and I think a short play I had some strangers do over Facebook.

I'm not saying this to brag. I'm saying this because I've been doing this for a long time and I want you to have context to the work I've done as we keep talking to each other. If you read what I write and you don't like it, maybe you can decide that I have no idea what I'm talking about. That's fine. We can still be friends!

Okay, so you're probably here because you're having trouble writing. Either that or you just can't resist the allure of a blanket fort - that makes sense too. But assuming you're unable to write for some reason, I just wanted to speak to you in private. Because I know it's hard. I know it's disillusioning. And though there's this weird perception online that writers are supposed to hate writing, I personally believe the situation is a lot more nuanced than that.

Maybe you're scared. Or you're tired. Or the whole act of sitting down and writing feels so big and clumsy and unwieldy as it bounces around your head that you don't know what to do with it. The weight of it doesn't feel right. It happens - it happens to me too sometimes, and it never feels good. But it's a natural part of the creative process and it's more of a slight mishandling rather than massive sin or flaw of character.

It might not help that there's so much advice online, isn't there? It seems all these people have a set guide to how to do literally everything. There's some sort of odd binary to the creative process that some make it seem as if writers innately fall under. You're either a pantser that never outlines, or a plotter that only structures. Every draft has have a specific focus, and you must follow an arc to achieve any specific goal in your character or plot.

That's a lot! Isn't that a lot? I've been talking to a lot of new writers on here who find all of that information - especially the information that conflicts (A lot of them) to be deeply intimidating. If not intimidating, then just slightly...off. Potentially enough to make the act of opening a word processor and slamming out a few hundred words to not really seem like that much fun anymore.

See, there are useful writing resources on tumblr. People with unique experiences sharing their specific information in a public space where writers can benefit from it. How would a certain mobility aid impact a person's life? What are the physical ramifications of training on a sword? Look at this picture of some sickass gems of different colors! These are all super cool things that I find incredibly useful for both current and future reference.

On the other hand, the guides that speak structurally to writing? That try and tell you the exact steps to follow in order to achieve a certain result? A lot of them end their posts by plugging their ko-fi but don't actually show any of their own personal writing? They don't necessarily have the answers.

If you read some prompt list and it inspires you, that's cool and great! Our brains think of a lot of really innovative things based on the smallest spark of input and that's a truly incredible thing. But if you read someone who makes a list of ways to show a certain emotion and you're left confused and discouraged - consider that they're wrong. Or not wrong, not really. They just don't have the right story.

For other forms of writing advice, maybe they're right - only not in a genre you want to write in. That's the weird thing about all these writing blogs that don't actually say what they write or read. If I was looking for writing advice, I wouldn't go to someone who specializes in reading and writing political thrillers or mysteries. They're valid genres, just not what I specifically do.

You just can't make grand blanket statements about this kind of thing, and that's an unpleasant truth I think we all need to hear.

Every writing rule has been broken successfully. The Dharma Bums, and frankly anything else Jack Kerouac has ever written, has truly no plot. American Psycho chains you to a truly reprehensible protagonist. Naked Lunch was written in one long chunk that was then cut up and rearranged, and then that nonsense was published. If On a Winter's Night a Traveler takes YOU (literally you - half the narrative is written in second person) and sends you on a wild goose chase where every other chapter is a different book. Kurt Vonnegut has a literal self insert of himself that shows up as a side character in Breakfast of Champions and then takes role in the lead cast in Timequake. Read a Chuck Palahinuik book and he will lie to you three time at least. Read House of Leaves and you'll feel like you're wandering a contemporary art gallery. I can't fucking get past the first 60 pages of Ulysses but I've been TRYING for YEARS because the prose is BEAUTIFUL.

I'm rambling. What I mean to say is that - you know Monet? Manet? Degas and Renoir, and all the other painters of the Impressionist era? They make the kind of paintings you probably think of if I ask you to imagine a painting you'd find in an art museum. They're respected - idolized, even. People will dedicate their lives to painting in honor to the legacy of Impressionism.

This would be a great surprise to early Impressionists, who were mocked mercilessly for their work. The name itself - Impressionism - was a reclaimed dig at how their art style was an impression of actual art. The road for it to even be CONSIDERED art, much less respected AS art, was a long one.

I'm rambling again, aren't I? I had a lot of this green tea. I just hate to hear so many people refuse to develop the ideas in their heads for one reason or the other. Or, even worse, they circle the brainstorming stage over and over again, far past the point of usefulness. I agree that some people function better with some form of an outline. I outline in my own way, through short form bullet points or taking space to storyboard in my head to music. It can help! But even if you work better with structure, there's a good chance that you don't need that much structure.

You can't fail here. You truly can't, I promise you. If you finish listening to me and you crawl out of the blanket fort and write two paragraphs, nothing bad will happen. If it's not the strongest thing you've ever written, that's okay. We're writers, aren't we? If you write something that you don't like, you aren't a fraud. You aren't weak. You aren't a hack. You haven't failed. You don't lack creativity or imagination or motivation.

Here's the truth: If you write something you don't like, you're a writer who wrote something you don't like. It doesn't mean you're bad. It doesn't even mean the writing is objectively bad. That's it.

Writers tend to be dramatic. I know I am. I laid on the couch for an hour trying to wrestle with act three of my newest book, and as my wife tried to talk me through it I slowly sank off the couch and onto the floor. Much as a slug would. If you ever get into that mindset, that's just a thing that happens when you're an artist. I think in the Hemmingway days writers would drink or smoke until they had the strength to try again.

We've seen how that turns out though. So welcome to the new era of writers who - though occasionally neurotic - try again at some point. And everyone is welcome. As I said already, there are no real rules or guides to the structure of writing, only ideas. And if you don't like the idea, you can look or think of another one.

And you can think of another one. Assuming you don't just have a drastically unrealistic perception of how much societal clout you can achieve by saying you're a writer (Answer: nearly none), you clearly want to tell a story. I haven't met a single person with that dream that has it based on nothing. The situation is so much more vast and complicated than the internet will try to make it out to be. Did you see some variation of the Apple Test and decide that your Aphantasia means you can never be a writer? Consider reading up on the Aphantasia Network to get a better look at the condition and learn more about what it means for you. Imagination is nuanced and it is absolutely not limited to Overall Apple Clarity!

Okay, that's all I have to say. I just want to see more people here putting their ideas to paper because a lot of them are really good and interesting, and they deserve to be seen. The feeling of writing your story is so much more complex and rich than just thinking about it, I promise. I know you can do it.

Okay okay. I have to pee. This was a long talk! I'm going to scoot past you in the fort now, but I think before you go on with your day you should maybe check out a video I think you'd like.

Have a nice day, Friend!

oh and this too.

yeah nice

[kissporsche]

anon, I am so sorry, I tried to publish this but tumblr ate the post AND the ask 🙃 so I hope you see this!

okay okay so. I tried to answer this ask so many times but I kept getting stuck because my brain wouldn't work unless it was part of An AU. so obviously I drafted in @lu-sn to help, assume anything good or fun or clever in this response was her doing

Here's what we got: post-canon, the outbreak starts slow. Infections are just freak accidents at first, but eventually there's so many it starts to cause panic. The compound is well protected and well-stocked with both resources and weapons, so they hide out for as long as they can, essentially locking down the place, but not before consolidating their assets: Vegas, Pete and Macau are brought in for their own protection.

Eventually, it becomes clear that the situation is only getting worse, and the only viable option is to get out of Bangkok while they still can. Korn, the pragmatic forward thinker, already has an Escape The City plan in place, which he triggers just as zombies are breaching the walls. He calls helicopters in to get everyone to safety, and during the chaos of the evacuation ends up killed. If anyone saw Namphueng push him into the horde, they don't mention it.

They're deposited somewhere far from the city, presumably a safehouse with a lot of land around it, and have to try and figure out how to survive not only the zombies, but living with each other for the foreseeable future. The priorities are self-sufficiency and protection, and not killing each other before the zombies do.

Kinn and Vegas make a surprisingly good team on the logistics side of things, Kinn has the loyalty of his men and a good head for large scale organisation, whereas Vegas has much more experience working on the ground level of business, making sure everything is running smoothly and efficiently. There's definitely a learning curve, and a lot of this survivalist stuff is very much out of their sphere of knowledge, so-

Porsche and Pete are invaluable when it comes to the day-to-day. Coming from lower income backgrounds, they have so much more to offer in terms of practical knowledge, how to make food stretch longer, mend clothes, get enough nutrients from limited supplies etc. We saw in episode 6 that Porsche has some legitimate survival skills, so I think those are essential things he can bring to the table and teach to others.

Basically everyone is a good shot and can play their part in protecting their little commune, but it's frequently Porsche, Pete and Kim who leave in search of resources, information and survivors. There's much less hierarchy between family and guards now, there can't be when everyone needs to work together to have a hope of survival, but Kinn is still the de facto leader and Vegas is still recovering from his injuries, so these three end up as the primary scout team.

Kim needs to learn to rely on other people most of all. At the beginning he would disappear for days at a time, take too many risks, and although his kill count was ten times anyone else's he would come back to a hysterical Tankhun, disappointed Kinn and quiet, withdrawn Chay. After that he stopped going out alone.

Lu came up with the galaxy brain take that Tankhun might cope surprisingly well with the apocalypse, the violence of mindless creatures being much easier to conceive of than the deliberate, cruel violence of humans. It's freeing, in a way, to know there's no malice behind the ongoing threat. Despite being the least suited to this kind of life he takes Chay and Macau under his wing, and the levity he brings is as valuable as his perceptive wisdom.

Okay uh this got away from me a bit and has sort of become a fic premise/outline but I hope it still answered your question?!

[pebblysand]

2 and 30, please & thank you! 🤸🏼

aw, thank you!

2. Anything that you'd like to write but feel like you're unable to?

it's funny, i was kind of hoping someone would ask me this question cause like, yes, of course, there's so many. i think, at this stage in my life, time is probably my main blocker - more than willingness or ability. time is unfortunately a finite resource and as i've said about a month ago, i've decided to sort of put all non-castles projects on hold this year, which means that there are a lot of fics i wish i could write, but can't at the moment.

i think most of them are ROAR projects: hermione (HP), the black sisters (HP), ada (PB), may (PB), will (TGW), maybe draco for HP as well. i would also still love to write the aoife post-TFIFM story that is in my head and Never Going Away. but yeah, most of these have been de-prioritised because i've been working on castles for there years now and like it's time to fucking finish it. i also think i will probably move on to original writing after castles is out and so keeping these fandom one-shots to write will be a good escape, by then, do dip back in whenever i want to.

30. Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't.

as i've said before, i don't think projects for me ever get truly abandoned, they get parked to the side until such time i can give them the attention they deserve. i mean, castles itself was the fic that almost happened but didn't for over a decade, until it finally did happen so, you never know.

i do think one thing that will cause me to abandon an idea is often the realisation that i have nothing to bring to it, or nothing new to truly say about it. so, like, one that is a little bit in a limbo at the moment is the ROAR hermione fic because i'm starting to realise that a lot of the post-war plot elements that i had in mind for it can already slot into castles, and i'm not quite sure what will be left. her childhood? possibly, but is that groundbreaking? her thoughts? there's a couple of elements and takes that would be new, but i'm not sure they would truly warrant a fic of their own. so, as much as i like the idea of the hermione fic, it might not happen.

and, don't get me wrong, i know some people out there will read this and be like: but we don't care if it's not brand new, we just want more content from you. like: doesn't matter if we read 50 iterations of the same thing, we love it. but, let me object to that: you think you do. when, the fact of the matter is: my fics are the way they are (and you like them the way they are - some people don't, of course, and that's okay, but assuming that if you're reading this, you do) because i'm very careful about choosing the topics i want to talk about, and because i know when to drop an idea when it's repetitive of previous work. it's like: do i have headcanons about bill and fleur after ce ne sont que des cailloux that could make a nice fic if i wanted to? of course. would those headcanons be demonstrating something dramatically new that wasn't in that fic to begin with? probably not. so i choose to leave them in my head.

and, i know this because i definitely used to write everything that popped into my head. i mean, look at my fics for TGW, it's like - some of them are good ideas, and the writing is fine, but they could have been condensed into one, maybe two big ideas, instead of being published as 20 iterations of the same concept, you know? and, while i think there is absolutely nothing wrong with writing everything that pops into your head (it's definitely fantastic for practice and engagement), that's not really the way i choose to write anymore. and, i think the characteristics of my writing, and the things that make people love my content, is that i make those choices. my fics wouldn't be my fics if i wrote them differently.

but again, we shall see.

[commiemartyrshighschool]

Two things have been on my mind lately.

It is not enough to be right, you also need to be persuasive.

Video essays are significantly more work than written essays.

That comes together, I think, in making video essays a preferred medium for ideas at the moment. They hold your attention and hit you with sound and visuals alongside words that invite concentration but not thought. They're performed in a way that tone of voice, facial expression, and visual display of information are at least as important as the text being delivered.

Being a good video essayist requires not just a way with words, but also editing skills and the ability to not only make a case but be an orator.

A slick, well produced video essay is a lot of work, and if you don't have all the resources necessary yourself to pull it together you need the resources necessary to pull together a team that can do it.

In essence it becomes much harder to "argue back" in a medium where you need to do a lot more than simply write a response.

Now, writing ability varies considerably among people, even before accounting for things like discussions with multilingual dimensions. But almost anybody on Earth who would care to respond to a written essay on the internet has access to a keyboard! Not everybody can become a novelist or essayist for the ages, but even minimal practice and reading can improve anybody's ability.

But video essays have essentially raised the barrier to entry in participating in many conversations. Only a handful are truly consequential, to be sure, but the comment section is almost always going to be relegated to a peanut gallery unless the channel runner takes the time to respond in a video format.

This, I believe, creates a sort of assumed parasociality to watching a video essayist. Because even if the ideas are on your level the presentation is more likely than not, well beyond you.

But a written essay? There might be apparent differences in writing ability, and being persuasive is distinct from being right as well, yet you won't be able to tell if the response was made on a new computer or an old one, who has the bigger stock asset library, the nicer set, the better camera, the quickest cuts. Things that absolutely do matter in a video essay, as does if the watcher finds the essayist attractive, or feel they look trustworthy.

I don't know if there's any way TO actually bring back a public appreciation for essays though. Less than 60 percent of millennials EVER read newspapers, and older generations don't lag far behind on that stat. The internet is ostensibly a great place to discover, read, and share essays but now that video essays can be delivered at watchable speeds even if they're in HD and four hours long they have almost no competitive advantage.

Text oriented platforms do exist, but they're skewed towards the pithy and combative, the hot takes of twitter, bluesky, threads, what have you. I'm not sure that traditional forums, even the few that exist, are free from that either.

I dunno, it's part of why when I published my magazine I really wanted that magazine format, that print-ability. Wish I had the time and energy to get past Issue Zero.

But it seems to me that might be where some of the hope is to be found, collections and curations with accessible submissions.

Anyways, another perk of the written essay is that you don't need to plot the whole thing out. You can just kinda jam and dash off thoughts without an ending sorted.

[brucewhite]

Backup Is On The Way | Bril

Date: January 10, 2024

Featuring: @agentgrumpy-gils

Warnings: Some mention of merm peril but nothing graphic

BRUCE

Normally, Bruce was very polite and patient when it came to his meetings with Gil. He recognized that the agents had a lot on their plates, more than Bruce even knew about. He didn’t assume his needs or his questions should take priority.

But this was different. Gabriella’s life was in danger now. And every second that passed could be a second too late.

So he showed up at Gil’s door a frantic mess, before the agent even got back from work. Right. It was the middle of the afternoon. Bruce never would have done this normally, but he pulled up Gil’s contact on his phone and pressed “call.” 

“Gil, I need you to leave work and meet me at your flat,” he breathed, heart racing. ”It’s an emergency.”

GIL:

Gil was entering data in a spreadsheet when he saw Bruce’s name flash on his phone. He paused, glanced around to see if anyone was watching him, then stood up and took his phone and laptop, ducking into one of the empty conference rooms.

Before he could even say hello, Bruce spoke.

Gil felt his blood chill. 

“I’ll be there in fifteen.”

He told his supervisor it was a family emergency, and because Gil was the sort of hard office worker who rarely took any time off, that request was granted without question.

He got to his flat and found Bruce waiting there. Quickly, he opened the door and ushered Bruce in.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, the moment the door shut. 

BRUCE

“It’s the inbox, Gil, the one I wanted to set up for the support group, it was a terrible idea, I should have known it all along…” Bruce grimaced, a fresh wave of guilt settling in his stomach. No time for that, he told himself. He had to get through the story. He had made a promise to Gabriella. 

He shook his head. “I got a message, and I stupidly messaged them back, and somehow they used it to find Whosits and Whatsits. Turns out it was reporters undercover all along, and they came into the shop and tried to interrogate us. They were convinced it was Gabriella, and she just… let them believe it. We tried to reason with them, but they just wouldn’t. And then they left. And they’re going to publish the story, any day now, and they’re going to name Gabriella, and I know I should have taken the fall, it was my fault to begin with, but I just… I don’t know, Gil, I don’t know what happened…” Bruce’s voice broke, and tears blurred at his vision. 

“We need to get Gabriella out of here and somewhere safe. Ideally, home. I don’t even know if that’s possible, but I don’t want her to be on her own out there, and I know you have people around the world, so please, if there’s any chance you could find them…” Bruce pleaded. “I’ll never ask another thing again, I promise.”

GIL:

Gil did not say anything. 

He felt something sink in the pit of his stomach, but he did not say anything. He listened. Because this was Bruce’s worst fear — not just Bruce’s, but Gil’s, especially when it came to the group of merfolk that they had promised would be okay. They weren’t okay. 

He’d failed them.

Bruce hadn’t failed them — Gil had. He should’ve known better. 

But he could make this right.

There was time. He had resources. Gabriella was not a ward of the RAS, but she was a Magick in need, and Gil could be proactive about who to extend such care to. 

“Can you get her to send me any and all personal information she has?” asked Gil. “Shiftwell would be able to do this faster, but I understand if Gabriella would rather keep it directly to me. We can start looking for her home, but if necessary we can always set her up in a different RAS hub and link her up with agents there.” 

BRUCE

Gil was good at his job, just as Bruce had assured Gabriella he would be. Bruce knew this because he didn’t panic when Bruce told him the story; he just jumped right into fixing things. And maybe part of Bruce had hoped that he would say something else— that he would be as angry or scared or sad as Bruce was, that he would question how Bruce could have been so gullible or assure him that it wasn’t his fault— but Bruce knew that wasn’t Gil’s job to do. And he was better at his job than that.

So Bruce tried to focus on fixing things too. “Yes, er— I think she’d be more comfortable corresponding with you. Given, er, the way things went with the reporters. Not that I don’t trust Agent Shiftwell, obviously, it’s just… you know,” Bruce explained awkwardly. “Do you… really think it will work? You’ll be able to find her family?”

GIL:

“I can’t make any promises,” said Gil, slowly. He wanted to find them, though. He didn't realize how much till he said that out loud, a standard line he used time and time again. The RAS couldn’t make promises. They could do their best, but sometimes their best wasn’t enough. 

Gil wanted it to be enough. He wanted it to be enough.

“If I can’t find her family, I can at least find somewhere where she’ll be safe,” said Gil. “We have a lot of contacts and we can easily place her somewhere far away. Give her a new identity. It’s not easy to start over, as I’m sure you know… but it’s a solid backup.”

How tragic was it, Gil thought, that this was one of the best case scenarios for people like them. Thrust into a world they did not belong, hoping that it was enough. 

BRUCE

Bruce did know. It was his own story, after all. A new name, a new identity, a team of agents looking out for you. Bruce was grateful for all of it, of course. But it wasn’t the same as being with your family. With your pod.

Not that Bruce wanted that, of course. He’d made his peace with losing them long ago, and he had to focus on his life on land now. Just because Gabriella belonged with her people didn’t necessarily mean the same for Bruce.

But when he pictured Gabriella leaving this place, no matter how good life could be with the RAS, he pictured her finding her way home. Because if he was being completely honest with himself, he found himself missing home too, lately, little things— making sushi with Cass, or trying to talk to the otters in the gym pool. Those moments reminded him that even if he didn’t fit in here, there was somewhere else he did fit in. And maybe, someday, he would find his way back there.

This wasn’t about him, obviously. It was just something he understood, as a merman. And something he believed Gil understood, too. And that was why Bruce trusted him.

“Okay,” Bruce said anxiously. “I- thank you, really, it means a lot. This is my fault, and I want to help fix it, but I knew you’d know what to do.”

GIL:

“Don’t agonize too much over it,” said Gil. It came out a little sharper than he intended, so he sucked in a breath and shook his head. “I mean… you wanted to help. It’s shitty that some assholes took advantage of that, but it’s not your fault. We’ll fix this, okay?”

He reached to clasp Bruce on the shoulder and looked him right in the eyes. 

It wasn’t Bruce’s fault that he believed in a kinder world. 

And Gil wanted to live up to those expectations. 

“One way or another, we’ll fix this, and Gabriella will be safe.” 

BRUCE

Bruce nodded, overwhelmed with emotion— gratitude toward Gil and the RAS, grief at what he was losing, anxiety about what Gabriella’s future may hold. But he knew one thing for certain: she wouldn’t be alone. And that was what mattered.

She was much braver than him, anyway. Bruce had learned that time and time again. She would be okay. 

“I trust you,” he said, tears welling up. He couldn’t help it— he wanted to be smart and stoic and rational like Gil, but he couldn’t. Another reason to be grateful for him. “There aren’t a lot of people I trust right now, but I’m going to trust you.” 

[chaoskirin]

Why AO3 Works and Why You Should Stay There

I’m assuming most of the people posting about what AO3 allows are children. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does explain why people don’t understand why people would defend AO3. 

It’s because any alternative site that relies on moderation of any kind for what’s allowed will become Livejournal. 

Everyone used LJ 20 years ago. Seriously, asking someone if they had a Livejournal was as common as asking someone if they had a Facebook. 

The site got huge. It was sold several times. And between owners, moderation tried to reign in what was and wasn’t allowed. 

Which was a huge undertaking. It was literally not possible for LJ to hire enough people to moderate, so they created bots which would do the work for them. “Top of the line” bots with a small margin of error. Bots that would delete the unwanted fic and allow other fics to remain. 

If you know how AI works, you know that even TODAY there is no way to program AI to do exactly what you want it to do. If you direct an AI to delete all offending fics, it will find the easiest path to success wherein it uses the least memory and resources to do so. And it WILL delete every offending fic.

It will also learn that all offending fics contain certain words. Maybe it’s the word ‘fic.’ Maybe it’s the word ‘sex.’ To make sorting the good from the bad easier, it will now discard anything that uses either of those two words. 

Now it’s got a bigger pool to learn from, the AI finds that fics that use the word ‘sex’ also sometimes use the word ‘gender.’ The AI decides that fics using the word ‘gender’ must also be deleted for being undesirable, and suddenly the AI is deleting fics about transgender characters. 

This is essentially what happened on Livejournal. You’ll sometimes still see people posting about “the great strikethrough” in which accounts that used certain words too much, even if they weren’t part of the intended purge, had their accounts suspended. Accounts that were havens for victims of abuse were deleted, for example, just because the AI found certain key words it had deemed inappropriate. 

And this happened so many times to so many people that it was impossible for the Livejournal staff to keep up with all the review requests. It would often take weeks for an account to be reinstated, and by that time, the author had moved on.

If AO3 decides to moderate more than they already do, they will never have enough volunteers to read every story that’s published. They will never be able to adequately sort through every request that comes in. Because perhaps YOU have good intentions. You will only report fics that violate the TOS. But someone else will report every fic of someone they don’t personally like, even though there’s no violation. 

This happens on Instagram. I recently helped a friend recover her account because an art thief reported the original artist for stealing art. There were not enough people to really look into whether or not the original artist was innocent, so they just suspended her account. It took WEEKS to get it back. 

This is what you’re asking for on Ao3. I know you don’t understand this, or your initial reaction is to say “that won’t happen,” but it WILL. Every time any site has gone to heavier moderation, non-offending accounts are lost in the shuffle. 

I can’t believe you didn’t learn from tumblr’s handling of banning certain images. It’s the same fucking thing. C’mon, guys. Use your heads here.

[myberkeleyadventure]

The Honest Guide on Preparing for College - COVID-19 Edition

I previously published a post entitled “The Honest Guide on Preparing for College” in June 2015. It’s since racked up over 7,000+ notes - which is crazy to me! 

But now with the pandemic happening, I think a “refresh” is warranted for the guide. So here it is: The Honest Guide on Preparing for College - COVID-19 Edition. This list assumes you are remote-learning and events are not in person. 15 tips!

Suffer from acne? Have a mental illness you’d like to get supported on? Visit a dermatologist. Visit a therapist. The reality is, the earlier you start, the earlier you can begin to see results. For me personally, it took a LOT of trial and error to get my skin clear - and what better time to do this than now? While in-person college would’ve had you going bare-faced often in the dorms, you still want to feel your best during these remote-learning sessions. Additionally, COVID-19 is wreaking HAVOC on everyone’s mental health so definitely feel encouraged to get that checked out!

Figure out a rough guideline of your morning/night routine. This still holds true for remote-learning. I would urge you to try to stick to some sort of routine even if you’re not physically going to classes. Maybe dressing up everyday is too much for you, but at least wash your face and brush your hair and look presentable. Don’t turn off your camera and don’t be a passive participant.

Understand that the way you organize high school classes is different from college classes. Typically, college classes are MWF, TTH, etc and don’t meet daily like in HS.

Invest in learning how techniques that make you feel good and look good. That might be learning some basic make-up skills, learning what clothes fits your body shape, learning workout techniques,  where to place your laptop for Zoom school, anything!

Make sure your Zoom background is appropriate and in a well-lit space. Make sure you wear appropriate clothes. This is basic but you’d be surprised at how many people I’ve seen in very dim spaces or untidy backgrounds. And I’ve realized sometimes I’m wearing a normal tank top but because of the camera position, it looks like I’m not wearing a shirt. Definitely wear something that looks good on camera, meaning doesn’t make you look topless!

Realize that the first month-ish of school is the prime time to make new friends. I still think this is true. Be friendly during Zoom calls, maybe ask for a classmate or two’s phone #s to be study buddies and bond that way, start up a study group immediately, etc. People are much less likely to have organic conversations now, so you definitely have to put some active effort to build relationships! 

Keep in touch with your old friends! I’d argue that they might be closer to you than your newly formed college friends because it’s going to be hard to make new college friends now.

Be very organized about your schedule. Put in midterms/finals as soon as you know them. Put in study sessions. Put in professors’ office hours. Anything! 

Don’t skip class... seriously. And try to participate if you can. Professors are trying here. College today is now very impersonal, so why skip out on it? What’s the alternative? Watching the recorded lecture by yourself at night? :/

Be proactive about your classes and class planning. Pick classes you’ll enjoy (or think you’ll enjoy). Be diligent about visiting your advisor from time to time (just to make sure you’re on track! you definitely don’t want any surprises down the road, right?) If you’re not a morning person, don’t enroll in that 8AM (seriously, 8AM in college is WAY different from 8AM high school) if you won’t be able to remember material (even if you can zoom from your bed!)

Understand your finances for college. Including scholarships, how much you’re paying out of pocket, if you’re working, etc. It is a confusing topic and can be scary but it’s important to be on top of all your money stuff! 

Be gentle with yourself and others. Recognize that everyone is going through this pandemic and for most, this college experience ISN’T what they expected (or paid for). Be gracious, don’t be petty. Switching to remote learning is a new thing for many of us. Give yourself (and others) a grace period to understand the new methods and how to access the programs, etc.

Learn how to socialize and do small talk. I know, I know. No one likes small talk but I think it’s a skill to be able to talk to everyone and have a pleasant conversation. (Who ever would’ve thought we would have to do recruiting at college fairs online?!) 

Be ambitious and take advantage of all the resources. Wait, what? Yeah, go to that webinar about carbon emissions! Go to the panel about alumni experiences. There have been SO MANY virtual webinars and meetings lately - soak up all that knowledge! It’s never been easier to jump from meeting to meeting! And if you’re doing well with Zoom learning, well, stack on the courses! Personally, I can juggle 20 units in Zoom School but in person, this would’ve been a HUGE no-no.

Realize how small the world is and how connected everything is. Don’t talk shit about people. Seriously. The person you’re complaining about may have a friend who is taking a class with the person you’re telling to. Or the person you’re telling it to may have a friend who has a friend who knows the person. If it’s one thing that keeps coming up in my time here, it’s that everyone seems to know everybody (or is a friend of a friend). So limit your shit-talking, secret-sharing, gossip talk to only your trusted confidants. Seriously, though. As you go through college, you’ll come to notice that many people will reappear in your classes because of being in the same major, and more. The world is small, y’all. Don’t be reckless.

[lorei-writes]

How To: Comments

A brief guide to commenting under the fics by Lorei.

As some of you may know, I am a court overthinker. I know that human interactions can be scary - and honestly, sometimes so is commenting. However... I wish that anxiety did not stand in way of interactions between readers and the author. So, to cut this introduction short: from me, an anxious writer-overthinker, to you, any person who may need it.

Contents:

Few general truths.

Do’s.

Don’ts. 

All things I will talk about stem from my personal experience and observations. It may vary to some extent between writers, although I did my best to stick to the general trends and to mark where something is more of my personal opinion.

EDIT: As per usual, this is just the general “this will be most likely okay”. If you are doing things differently and it works out for you - great! No need to change that. This was written with people who may be anxious and/or overthinking the matter in particular. I also tried to remove myself from this as much as possible.

Few general truths.

Does my comment even matter?

Yes, it does, especially for longer series. It may be one of the few things pulling the writer through a crisis. 

Your comment notifies the writer that they are indeed seen, that their words reached somebody. If the story resonated with you in any way, letting the writer know that it did may boost their self-confidence, and perhaps even motivate them to keep on writing. 

The writer didn’t reply to my comment. Did I do something wrong?

No! In plenty cases, the writer may not know how to reply, simply as that. They may not have enough time, they may be too tired - just the ordinary, mundane life stuff can cause such a thing too. 

An important thing to remember here is that they still appreciate it, even if they don’t have enough resources to reply to every single person - or even any of them.

How do I know the writer even welcomes comments?

Unless it is specified they do not want comments (or a certain type of comments), assume those are always welcome. 

Do’s

Good will and courage is one thing, but... What could a comment even include?What things are appropriate? Ahhh, no, this is too hard...!

*catches your hand and pulls you back* No, no, no, don’t run, I’ve got you covered! 

First, remember that it is way more likely that what you want to say is okay than for it to be inappropriate. Worst case scenario, the writer will tell you that well, you missed the mark - but! Then you will have the knowledge on what to avoid doing. Your potential to cause plenty good is still way greater than that to cause harm. Not only that! You can apologize! We are humans. We all make errors. Never doing a thing in fear of messing up never leads anywhere. 

So, what things are generally okay*?

If the story made you feel something, say so! For example:  “This made me feel happy!” “I smiled too much because of this story!” “I’m crying, nooo.” “This is so sad!” “My heart has melted.” “This made my day!” “I love it!”

If you can’t find words for your state, emojis work too!  For example:   😭 ❤️ ❤️ 😳 💖 🥺 🥺 🥺 😍 💯✨

Of course, mixing up emojis with text is a great idea! The only thing you may want to be mindful of is that screen-readers do interpret emojis too - so you perhaps want to avoid emoji-[word]-emoji combinations (which overall, applies to the internet in general, btw). 

The story made you think about something? Elaborate! The tricky part here is that yes, you are sharing your thoughts, but you should also tell the writer something nice about their work. The rule of thumb seems to be that it is the story that is in the spotlight, not your experience - or, in other words, you are speaking of the experience in relation to the work, not the work in relation to the experience. For example: “I love your OC, they are so relatable! I don’t think I have ever seen a character which spoke to me so much. I struggle with XYZ too, so I’m feeling for them, I know it’s hard :(” “AAAAAA. The theme of red string reminds me a little of a certain superstition. Some people here think red bows are a good-luck charms. This is wonderful, I love it. 😭💖”

Now, this may seem a little self-centered. Allow me to explain why I insist the story is kept in the spotlight.  Imagine that you’ve spent your time on writing a story, however much of it. Let’s assume it’s about missing a long-deceased pet. Then, you get this comment:

“Nooo, this is so sad, I used to have a dog like that too 😭 His name was Teddy and we were best friends. We’d oftentimes sit together and sometimes I’d throw him a stick. Whenever I would cry, he’d come snuggle up with me, and he wouldn’t leave me until HOURS after I’ve calmed down. I miss him so much, I wish dogs could live forever 😭 “

Now, this makes the situation uncomfortable. You must remember that well, sometimes you may still be almost complete strangers to one another, and this much information puts a great emotional load on the writer. Is it still the writer’s space after such comment, or...? Yeah. It is a bit of a lapse in regards to well, knowing a person.

You are simply thankful and don’t know what to say? Express gratitude!  For example: “Thanks for writing <3 “ “I really needed to read this story.” “Thank you!”

Other things which generally are okay to include:

key smashes (as part of the comment, so that the author knows what you mean) For example:  “I’m wheezing ghesgeskgess” “ghoeigjeshes THANK YOU”

quoting the part of the work you especially liked + adding emoji at the end/commenting something under it

listing the things you enjoyed about the work

Of course, you can do some of those, you can do all of those, you can do just one - whichever suits you!

Don’ts

Okay, we know what is going to be fine. Now, what things to avoid? 

Do not give critique unless the writer clearly asked for it.

Critique must be consensual. Unsolicited advice is not. Sure, your intention may be good, but it leads to backhanded compliments and nobody likes those.

Example of what not to do:

“I enjoyed it, tho it was rater boring at first and it took me several tries to even get to the half of it.  Like, some things were confusing? [Explanation].  Overall, yeah, hard to understand and boring at first, but I liked it.”

Now you may ask - is the writer exempt from feedback?! And the answer is... Yes, honestly, yes. Unless they ask for it, yes. As long as they don’t hurt anybody - yes. Although then I suggest blocking instead of going on a crusade. 

FanFiction isn’t the same as published books. We don’t get paid for it. It is simply an act of sharing what you enjoy with the world, like a sort of perpetuum-mobile. FanFiction propels the reader, the reader comments and thus puts the writer in motion.

Now, you can say that something made you sad. You can say that something made you angry, or that it wasn’t what you were expecting. BUT. Make sure you aren’t demanding the writer changes those things. 

This stretches also to typos, grammar errors, etc. - unless you are absolutely sure the writer asks for this sort of feedback, assume it is unwelcome.

Also, from my personal experience: it happened to me once. I did not know what to reply and went on with my standard apologetic... Ekhem. I regret it. The person who commented knew less about the issue than I did.

EDIT: There is also another reason for this - most often, if a person wants to get feedback, they look for a beta-reader. Beta-reader is a person who reads the work before it is posted. Generally, they point out errors and inaccuracies. However, for it to work well, you need a certain sort of fit, both in how the message is delivered (some people do well with harsher criticism, some need to be more gentle with them), in the writing style, and so on. Another thing when looking for a beta-reader is that, well, you generally look for a person that knows more than you do, or is at a similar level. This isn’t to say that we know more than every single person out there - only that it’s hard to ascertain it at first glance and it’s generally better to talk about it before any critique is delivered. Communication is the key.

Do not ask when the next part will be posted/when your request will be completed unless you are sure the writer is okay with such questions. 

When this happens, many writers feel as if they were being pressured into working harder.

Do not write fleshed out paragraphs of what you think should have happened.

If you have an idea for a story - write it. Again, we write in our free time and do it for fun. This feels like being pressured or told what to do.

What may be more grey in regards to whether it is okay or not is theorising about what happens next. To me, personally, that would be okay, but you may want to ask your writer whether they are okay with this sort of things - for example, by writing a comment with a short theory and then asking whether it’s okay to do so? However, be mindful not to tap into suggesting or putting too much pressure on what must happen.

Do not write “Imagine that... [fleshed out scenario]” type comments.

Those are basically requests hidden as comments.

Do not compare writers to other writers (You are so much better than XYZ/ You wrote trope X so much better than XYZ).

This is pretty self-explanatory. We want to lift each other up, not feel better about ourselves because of putting others down.

Another slippery situation here: some people may mind being compared to published authors. Some may not. It is hard to tell, there is no strict rule here.

Hmm... I think it’s about it? ^^” I hope it was helpful ^^” Overall, if you avoid those major Don’ts, you should be good ^^”

[bolanzivot]

Top Recommendations for a Young Inventor

If you are a birthed inventor-- if you feel it deep down within you-- you already recognize that inventing is very easy. But following through with the actions that are important to transform your invention into something that strangers will want, as well as pay money for, is not so simple.

If you don't intend to go on to the following steps or can not because you do not have the resources, that's unfortunate. If you decide to go ahead with any of your inventions-- might be applying for a patent, making a functioning model, and then getting in touch with the business that may be curious about buying or accrediting your license-- you'll require determination and resources. If you decide to create and also market your invention, chances are that you'll need a lot more cash than you would certainly if you were to certify. You can also check https://usa.inquirer.net/56347/everything-you-need-to-know-to-be-a-successful-inventor

So much for basic guidance. Now I'll give you some detailed policies to assist you to do well.

1. Maintain an inventor's notebook.

This serves whether you can immediately pay for towage your full invention plan or not. In your note pad, you can compose descriptions of your inventions as well as draw sketches of them. Someday, possibly after you graduate from college, you can reflect on the many access in your notebook and realize that your study work with very early inventions has enabled you to acquire understanding and practices that might quickly pay off.

Possibly you have seen pictures of Leonardo Da Vinci's note pads; he was the genius that developed the helicopter 450 years before the first effective helicopter flew. But the point is that severe inventors keep a document of what they have invented, even if they never deal with it additionally.

And also perhaps you'll fix the problem in a desire; it's not unusual for inventors to invent that means. In any situation, many inventors and also authors had fantastic concepts that they were certain they would not neglect, as well as think what?

An essential associated rule to your inventor's note pad is to always lug a pencil or pen and paper in your pocket, or some kind of digital form to tape notes. You don't have to resemble a nerd unless you like the image. You'll be surprised by just how commonly you'll wish to tape-record e-dresses as well as a telephone number in addition to notes about inventions, or issues that need inventions.

2. Read about famous inventors.

You might discover that you are a whole lot like Nikola Tesla. He has just recently become a lot more preferred because an automobile is called after him. When I was a child, a couple of individuals had ever before heard of him.

As a man, he was the major inventor of Air Conditioning (alternating existing), transformers that enable the transmission of electrical energy for hundreds of miles, and also the alternating existing motor that powers our factories and also our residence devices. Edison fixed the troubles that had protected against others from earning the title and became recognized as the primary inventor.

Among one of the most remarkable stories of the invention is that of the radio and trendsetters like Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi, Lee de Forest, Edwin Armstrong, and Reginald Fessenden. Never heard of Fessenden? If it weren't for this Canadian's invention of amplitude inflection (AM), early audiences would certainly have listened to only dots as well as dashboards instead of songs. These others produced a drama much better than Harry Potter, including feuds as well as even self-destruction. "Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio," by Tom Lewis is an outstanding publication that I very recommend. You can buy a made use of duplicate on Amazon.com for $1.99 plus shipping.

By reviewing exactly how important inventions were created, you will certainly be better able to overcome your frustrations and also really feel more certain about eventual success.

3. Maintain your inventions simple till you have the ways-- particularly the cash-- to work on complex inventions.

There is nothing as inhibiting as running out of cash after having worked extremely hard on a complicated invention.

Mark Twain dealt with an inventor of the automatic typesetting equipment. The maker was very made complex. It attempted to accomplish what human typesetters did by selecting the metal kind, letter by letter, from a shelf and assembling it into words and also paragraphs for publishing the papers and also books of the 1800s and in the past.

Ottmar Mergenthaler, the effective inventor of the Linotype maker, beat Twain's equipment to the market. The race was neck to neck, the machine that Twain was financing kept on requiring "simply one more renovation," and it would certainly function. Or so the inventor and Twain always assumed.

Chester Carlson, the inventor of the Xerox process that is the basis for our copiers as well as printer today, showed the Xerox procedure in 1938. But the first sensible completely dry photocopier, the Xerox maker, didn't make it to the market until 21 years later. The intricacy and secret of the process hampered economic investment, understanding, and also significant acceptance of his invention. Motto: Keep it straightforward. Find out more help https://azbigmedia.com/business/want-to-be-a-successful-inventor-use-these-ideas-to-help/

4. Research study the marketplace before spending emotional energy and also time on what you think is novel. It most likely isn't.

I do not imply to sound adverse or frustrating, yet almost all of what we (I include myself in the "we") invent is a variant of something that has currently been done. The truest novelty today comes from very modern explorations, such as the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) equipment, or TV, computer system, tablet screens, and so on

. I don't indicate to indicate that there are no possibilities left. Successful wonderful inventions disrupt the old way of doing things, as well as the disturbance, produces small, practical chances for inventors.

Kitchen area gadgets, tools, garden carries out, and also much more are areas that still use possibilities for inventions. Several inventors believe they have an original idea because they don't see their invention being sold in shops.

If you invent something that is a brand-new variation on an old-style and rush to a licensed lawyer, you'll pay a great deal of money for a patentability viewpoint that will encourage versus submitting a license application. It is unlikely that your version of the invention is unique.

Constantly, always, constantly, begin with a market search.

Remarkably, if there are no competitors whatsoever, this might be virtually as poor as severe competitors. If nobody has ever before thought of your sort of invention-- not always your specific attributes and layout-- chances are that there is no market or a really small one. If you proceed, you will have to invent the marketplace as well as your invention. As well as you will be scratching an area that does not itch.

5. Find out how to do your preliminary patent search.

Do not submit a patent application without a professional search, however. Searching is even more of an art than it may appear. I'll e-mail you a duplicate of my guidelines on how to look if you call me at Jack@Inventor-mentor.com. At the same time, have a look at google.com/patents.

6. Join an inventors club if you can find one near you, or begin one.

Your regional paper may run a free promotion article concerning your plan, as well as you'll be on your means. When in operation, ask a neighborhood license representative or patent lawyer to accompany you. You'll have sound expert guidance and a resource of even more members.

7. Nerve and also persistence are vital.

Many ideas do not pan out, so you need to keep browsing and examining. You need to kiss a lot of frogs before you discover your princess or royal prince.

Related Topic: https://theavtimes.com/2020/07/01/amazing-ways-inventhelp-can-assist-you-as-an-inventor/

[growup-gloup]

Quarantine Survival Guide

With more and more places shutting down work or school, and people going on self-imposed quarantines to be safe and keep those around them safe, it’s high time that we figure out a game plan about what to do about the virus. 

Disclaimer

I am not a doctor, nor am I pretending to be such. This is generalized information. Please do your own research, or contact your general physician if you have health related questions or concerns. 

What is Coronavirus?

COVID-19 is a strain of the coronavirus, which has been around for longer than you think, though we generally have antiviruses, cures, or immunities to the majority of the strains. It originates from animals and is now transferable from human to human. The reason why COVID-19 is different from any other virus is because it’s so new, there are no vaccines for it, and our bodies haven’t naturally developed antibodies for the virus either, which means that nearly everyone who comes into contact with it will get it, though the extent of symptoms and how much it affects you depends on factors such as your overall health and immune system.

The symptoms include a cough and struggling to breathe, along with a fever and related aches. If you are more prone to illnesses because of your age or immune system, then you can possibly get pneumonia or serious illnesses.

You’re at risk if you’re a child or senior, or if you have an autoimmune disorder of some sort. If you are already more susceptible to pneumonia, then this is a dangerous virus for you, but otherwise, all you will feel is a few days of flu-like symptoms before you’re better. Even if you show very few symptoms, the virus can stay in your system for over two weeks, which is why the quarantine is necessary, so that the virus has time to die off.

You can prevent catching it, or passing it onto those around you by frequently washing your hands, avoiding touching your face, and if you’re feeling under the weather, then keeping physical distance from those around you. 

You can find daily updates at WHO, and resources at Harvard Health Publishing. 

How do I work/study from home?

One thing that’s great about going to school or work away from home is that it encourages you to build a routine and discipline, which is something that falls apart if you spend too much time at home. You can replicate that by pretending that you are still going out by following these steps:

Follow the same time schedule. If you wake up at 7, keep waking up at 7. The time you would use for transportation, use it for some form of exercise. Get ready at the same time. Eat breakfast and lunch at the same time. If you normally have this particular class at this particular hour on this particular day, that is the subject you’ll continue to be working on during that time. 

Get ready for work. When people think of homeschooling or working from home, one of the ideas that seems appealing is not having to get dressed up. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do all our work in our pajamas? The problem with that is that it decreases your productivity, since your mind associates certain clothes and behaviors with shutting down for the day, like wearing pajamas or sitting on the couch. But if you get dressed as if you’re about to leave for school or work, then your mind is accepting that you are done resting for the day and it’s grind time. 

Have a space just for work. Adding to the previous point, if you have a specific space where you just do your school or office work while you’re at home, which shouldn’t be in your bedroom, then your mind will assume that place as your workplace. But if you work on the couch or bed, which are places you normally relax, then you’re more prone to getting tired or distracted. 

Minimize distractions. You’ve gotten ready for the day. You even got your work space ready and your cute highlighters ready to go. But now you’re hungry. Or thirsty. Or you need to check your phone. Bring some healthy snacks to the table, which should cause minimal mess or effort to eat. Pre-cut fruits with a fork is a great option. So are oven-baked tortilla chips with salsa dip, as long as you keep that a bit away from your work. You can also try apps like Forest, or Tide, to help you stay off your phone for a certain set of time. If you must listen to music, then stick to classical music. I’m partial to Chopin and Mozart, but it’s up to you, as long as it’s classical.

Try the Pomodoro technique. Working for hours at a time is very unproductive, contrary to what one might think, partially because your attention span lasts less than half an hour before you need a break. You can try to break your work into chunks by setting up a timer for 25 minutes, taking a break for 5 minutes, and then working for 25 minutes again. You can use the apps mentioned in the last point. Tide even has a chrome pomodoro extension with white noise that you could use.

Use online resources. Just because you can’t ask your teacher a question in person doesn’t mean you’re helpless. Tons of resources, such as Khan Academy, or Crash Course, can help you understand the concepts more. They may even help you get ahead in courses that you have a good understanding of already. 

What to do with all this extra time?

While imposing a quarantine slows the spread of the virus, we’re faced with an entirely different situation. We’re so used to rushing to work/school, then rushing back, and constantly busy and interacting, then when we don’t know what to do now that we are alone. When you’re not working or studying, you can do the following:

Catch up on chores and errands that have been piling up around the house. Do that thing you kept postponing because of your job or school.

Pick up a new skill. It can be anything you’ve wanted to be able to do, but didn’t get a chance, from sewing, or playing an instrument, to speaking a new language. You could even learn some basic plumbing and tools skills and install a bidet so you don’t have to deal with the toilet paper crisis again.

Read a new book. If you don’t have any books at home, you can check out options such as the Open Library, or even Wattpad.

Start a new show that has a lot of seasons, or long episodes, such as Supernatural, Gossip Girl, or even Critical Role.  

Practice your cooking skills with all the items you hoarded. 

Rearrange the furniture in your house/room to make it feel like a new space.

Keep moving. Find a workout routine that works from home, or do something like yoga or dancing. If you’re not going out, you’re not being as active, which is not good. 

Keep in touch with friends. Text and call them frequently. You could even have a remote Netflix session with your friends, or significant other, using the Netflix Party extension. 

Learn to play poker, unless you have an addictive personality. Then you can learn cool shuffling tricks to impress friends at all the parties you’ll go to once the quarantine lockdown is lifted. 

Draw and write. You don’t have to be an author or researcher or an artist. Just draw things you see around you. Write about how you’re feeling. It can help with the isolation.

What can I do as a parent of kids staying home from school?

If your job hasn’t imposed a quarantine yet, try to see if it is possible for you to work from home. 

If you can’t be home, see if you have one parent, if there’s more than one, or extended family or friends, who do not have babies or elderly, or members with compromised immune systems, and see if it’s possible to do a lockdown together if none of you have caught it yet. 

Devise a family plan so that everyone is on the same page. Use the above-mentioned tips and adapt them to fit your family’s needs. You can also find other things you can do that haven’t been mentioned here. 

If you are working at home, or are a stay-at-home parent, have designated work hours that reflect the schedule you regularly have. You can say that for these two hours, everyone does their work. The kids do their school work. The adults do their work. And then you can have a break to talk, play, or eat. 

You can look into homeschooling blogs and see how homeschooling parents set up their schedules, and if they have tips or online resources that may help. They have been doing this for longer and know ways to manage routines of multiple members of the family who stay at home, or even work while their children are homeschooled. 

💋

[cuttlefishkitch]

hello! i haven't talked to you before, but ron said that i could ask you for some advice on writing eds? (i'd like to know things to avoid/common things that could come up in everyday life that would be good to mention/the sort of aids and stuff they'd have maybe?/anything else you think is relevant)

Hi! Sorry this took so long, a combination of ADHD and chronic pain slowed me way the fuck down. Thank you for being patient! 

EDIT: WEIRD HEEL THINGS I FORGOT!!

So, before I get into this I should probably say I technically haven’t been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS for anyone reading) because it’s one of those syndromes that takes forever to get diagnosed with (it took a friend of mine’s mother over 30 years to get dxed). Many doctors, and everyone I know who does have EDS agree with me that it’s probably what causes my chronic joint pain and some of my other chronic issues. But just because three separate doctors have said “Yeah Probably” doesn’t mean I’m diagnosed!! Only a geneticist can do that!! And they had two-three year waitlists BEFORE the apocalypse happened.

I am diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Small Fiber Neuropathy, and potentially misdiagnosed with Fibromyalgia (once I get properly tested for EDS I might get undiagnosed with this because I don’t have most of the main symptoms of Fibro, but I got diagnosed with it anyway because it’s what doctors misDX you with when they don’t know what’s wrong with you and don’t want to do more tests).

All that said, I’ve done a lot of research about EDS (mainly because it’s the only thing that explains all my symptoms since doctors seem incapable of doing so), and know a few people who have either confirmed or suspected EDS, so I’ll link to some stuff, talk about the symptoms that often come with EDS, explain how the symptoms I have affect me, because just because someone’s not diagnosed doesn’t mean they aren’t having symptoms, and probs elaborate a bit about writing physical disabilities and chronic pain in general because it’s super important to me! 

So RESOURCES aka how to make sure your post never sees the light of day because you’re linking things and tumblr hates it when people give other people information!!

Youtubers! If you want to know about the day to day of living with EDS or any disability or chronic illness I super suggest finding a youtuber that makes videos about their life. My EDS favorites are

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard

Annie Elainey

Amy Lee Fisher

Websites! If you’re asking random folks on tumblr I’m assuming (and hoping) you’ve already done the basic WebMD google searches and looked over the seemingly ridiculous lists of symptoms and related conditions, so here are a few websites that are made more for people than for doctors.

The Ehlers Danlos Society

OhTWIST (That’s Why I’m So Tired)

ChronicPainPartners (the fact that they have an entire section of articles called “Dealing with Doctors” should really tell you something)

Books! If you feel like doing actual reading! I suggest reading books written by people with Ehlers Danlos, to get a feel for how they portray themselves. I’m not saying steal, but it’s probably a good point of comparison to see how your portrayal feels. (haven’t actually read these b/c my ADHD doesn’t let me read)

Ria Ruse by Morgan S. Ray (a superhero book with a disabled super MC!!)

Mysteries of Maybelle by Imani Benfell (Imani is still in high school and has already written and self-published a book cause she didn’t have enough representation for herself how cool is she!!)

Bodies in Motion by Liana Brooks (tw for pregnancy problems and miscarriages in the link, because it’s a blog post talking about integrating EDS symptoms into the story without explicitly naming them as such)

OKAY, now for some rambling about EDS SYMPTOMS!!!

Ehlers Danlos is one monster of a genetic condition in complexity and variety. There are THIRTEEN different identified types of EDS, it often comes with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and/or POTS, and can lead to various other conditions like gastroparesis, chiari malformation, craniocervical instability, and/or bad teeth. So if you’re going to be writing a character with EDS consider what other comorbid conditions they might also have. I’m mainly going to be talking about Hypermobile EDS (hEDS) because it’s what I probably have and what I’m most familiar with. That said there is a lot of overlap in symptoms with the other varieties.

I started typing this section and realized I was going to have to break it down even more so we’re going to talk about Chronic Pain, Unstable Joints (Dislocations and Subluxations), Skin Things, Mobility Issues, and Other Weird Shit and how those things get addressed separately.

Gonna get the Other Weird Shit out of the way first. Because EDS is a malfunction of connective tissue it can fuck up all sorts of random things. For instance, I and many other people w/ hEDS have trouble swallowing. Shit gets stuck in my throat, I sometimes choke on and have to cough up food, and pills can be hard to swallow, which sucks cause I take A Lot Of Pills. If it doesn’t cause full-on gastroparesis it can cause IBS or other digestive problems b/c the digestive tract is mostly made of connective tissue. It can potentially cause heart problems even if they aren’t as big of a risk as in some other forms of EDS. Premature osteoarthritis is common because what you need is more joint pain. And Fatigue OH BOY THE FATIGUE. And of course the headaches, can’t forget those pesky migraines can we!

AND piezogenic papules!! I completely forgot!! Piezogenic papules are little white bumps that appear when you put weight on your heel. In some people they hurt, but in others they don’t. They’re technically tiny little herniations of fat peaking through the fascia in the heel. They were added as part of the diagnostic criteria for hEDS in 2017!

Now for Skin Things cause it’s not as big a thing in hEDS as it is in other forms. Basically, in a lot of forms of EDS, the skin is extra stretchy and extra delicate. It bruises and tears easily, people with the extreme versions of this can accidentally scratch something into an open wound if they aren’t careful. My skin is pretty soft and sensitive, I def have the typical velvety skin, and as is pretty par for the course of someone with hEDS my skin is a little stretchy, and sorta delicate. I’m not as tissue-papery as some people get, but I almost always have at least one mystery bruise or scrape b/c existing is hazardous. Most of scars are also pretty normal, unlike the extremely papery and atrophic scars (though I have a few tiny acne scars that are atrophic) that are common with other kinds of hEDS. Something that I DO have is Lots of Stretch Marks, all over my thighs, and even down to my calves. Which wouldn’t be abnormal, except for the fact that I’ve never been over 145 lbs and I’ve never been pregnant. Having a lot of stretch marks or striations in the skin without due cause happens because the structure of the skin isn’t as strong as it is in people with a normal amount of connective tissue.

I don’t have to worry as much about my skin but people that do are usually very careful with adhesives because they can irritate or tear the skin, which sucks when you need a lot of bandaids cause your darn skin won’t do its job.

Now on to the meatier stuff and since I’m mostly working backward let’s do Mobility Issues!! These can happen in loads of ways, but a lot of what causes these in people with EDS are the other two things I wanna talk about. Unstable joints lead to increased risk of injury when doing stuff people with fully functioning joints can do.

For context, I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user, meaning I can walk, but a lot of the time it’s better if use a chair. Mine is mostly for my POTS symptoms, but the fact that my legs aren’t also in absolute agony is a big plus. I use a custom manual wheelchair with a SmartDrive (b/c I’m very fucking fortunate and have good insurance) whenever I leave the house and have to be “walking” for more than a few minutes at a time. I can’t fully self-propel in a manual chair because it would be damaging to the joints in my arms and hands, but the smaller chair is easier to maneuver in less than accessible spaces (like almost everywhere). There was about a month-long span where I used a very cheap and very bulky electric chair while I was waiting on the ideal set up I have now. Before that, I also briefly used, and sometimes still use, an up-right posture cane.

People with EDS have widely varying mobility issues because of how uniquely it can manifest. My cane only gave me a little help with balance because if I used it in any prolonged capacity any pain it took away from my legs was relocated to my arms, and as an artist, my arms are more important to me!

If you’re going to write a character with EDS having mobility issues as a result of their EDS the best thing to do is to narrow down their specific needs. Are their knees complete and utter garbage but their shoulders and wrists strong? Maybe they can get away with using a cane. Can they not stand for longer than 5 minutes because of the vertigo from their POTS? Maybe they need a manual wheelchair. Would propelling themself damage their back and arm joints? An electric chair might be necessary! Plenty of people with EDS use all sorts of combinations of these aides to get around their life, consider how your character’s good and bad days would be. Do they have back up plans if they overestimate themselves? There can be a lot to manage, but don’t let it scare you off! Sometimes I try and make it into a resource management game (because I’m a game designer and that’s what I do), to make evaluating my energy and mobility needs more fun!

But now let's tackle some of the reasons those mobility aides might be needed. Unstable Joints.

Ever stepped wrong and rolled your ankle? It hurts for a few steps and then kinda fixes itself, or maybe it bothers you for the rest of the day and you put it up and ice it when you get home? When I was walking around outside my house that would happen AT LEAST once a month, usually more. Some times I’m sitting wrong and when I get up my knee isn’t a knee anymore and decides to just give out from under me. My knuckles are made of unruly popcorn and they Don’t Want To Stay Home!! Oh! And my shoulder is more often out a little out of its socket than it is fully in.

Unstable joints lead to Dislocations and Subluxations of varying intensity, and some people get them more frequently than others. Some can be severe enough to necessitate hospital visits and even surgery, some subluxations are so banal (like my fUCKING SHOULDER) that you just learn to live with the pain.

If a character is going to be in high action, combat-heavy scenarios, chances are they’re going to be popping out joints left and right. Hell, depending on the severity of their joint laxity they could be doing the same sitting at a desk. Again, it’s incredibly varied. I’d suggest setting some sort of baseline for yourself, of what a character’s joints can and can’t stand up to, and maybe do some research on which joints are most likely to pop out in general (hips and shoulders are big culprits being the wacky ball and socket motherfuckers they are). Then maybe have something pop out or hold up every so often when it shouldn’t cause hey! EDS is kinda just like that! Unpredictable!

Some ways people manage joint laxity is with braces, KT tape, and physical therapy. Braces come in many different forms, since I’m currently getting pretty much no treatment for my shitty joints I use mostly compression braces made for sporty people. It really is amazing how much a bit of tight fabric can do to keep my wrist in place.

More specialized braces often have solid parts to prevent the joints from hyper-extending (bending the wrong way) and causing further damage. If you ever see someone with what looks like diamond shaped rings around a bunch of their finger joints, chances are those are Ring Splints, and are there to keep the finger shaped like a finger. I want to get my hands on some and get some on my hands Very Badly, because my fingers hyper-extend SO MUCH when I type, and it makes my hand pain way way worse.

KT tape is another thing people often use. It’s stretchy tape you put on your skin and it basically functions kinda like a second ligament as well as reinforcing the joint and keeping the bones mostly where they’re supposed to be. The problem with this is a lot of people with EDS have very sensitive and fragile skin like I mentioned before, so KT tape can cause allergic reactions, chronic skin irritation, or just straight up take the skin with it when someone goes to remove it. Hence a lot of folks are really careful with it.

Physical Therapy is kinda the best (and only) treatment for joint laxity aside from Very Invasive and sometimes Highly Experimental surgery. It focuses on strengthening the muscles around the joints so they can do the work all those bone ropes made of body glue can’t. The problem is finding a physical therapist that 1) knows what EDS even is, 2) knows you have it, and 3) knows how to treat it without doing stuff that’ll Phucking Hurt You Worse!! Because exercising wrong with EDS can do Permanent Damage!!!

Again most folks use a combination of all of these things, or have next to no access to them b/c healthcare sucks.

Anyway, on to one of my favorite topics, Chronic Pain!! One of the reasons this post took me so long!!!

Chances are if your character has chronic pain as a result of their EDS there are gonna be some things they hate, including stairs, rain, thunderstorms, stairs, hills, uneven terrain, oh and did I mention stairs??? It’s going to vary person to person, but almost everyone I’ve met with pain from EDS has complained about their knees. For me the most debilitating pain is in my fingers and wrists. They’re by far my least stable joints but I use them constantly for stuff like drawing, typing, and sewing.

Because my joint pain is so wide spread, like most people’s with hEDS, it effects every single part of my day to day life. I can’t carry a heavy ceramic plate, open a bottle, or even use my computer without pain. It’s practically impossible for me to get comfortable in any position be it sitting or laying down, and as you can imagine that makes it hard to sleep a lot of the time. Moving too much hurts, but so does sitting still. I’m constantly taking braces on and off or cracking/stretching my joints so they pop back into place and hurt less.

Also being in pain makes everything else That Much Worse. I get tired way faster than I did before my pain was this bad (I had chronic pain for a while before actually realizing it wasn’t normal to not be able to walk down the block without feeling like your foot bones are trying to escape). My sensory issues and anxiety disorder are more easily aggravated because my base level of comfort is way worse. It fucks with my depression. And OH BOY does it make my ADHD worse because being in pain is fucking distracting as hell and makes it harder to make decisions and switch tasks. Also my ADHD often makes my other symptoms worse cause I forget to take my meds, don’t drink enough water, or can’t find my fucking braces because the item eating black-hole that comes with ADHD stole them. The intersection of mental and physical disabilities is probably a rant for another time though, so back to chronic pain.

Does it suck? Yes, undoubtedly. Is this incredibly debilitating? Of course it is, I spent the last several months unable to feed myself without assistance because there was a staircase between my room and the kitchen and I could only manage to climb it once a day. Is it overwhelming? Definitely, I’ve frequently broken down crying from a combination of pain and frustration because I’m having a bad day and there’s no relief to be found. Am I able to predict when it’s going to rain with uncanny accuracy because any change in barometric pressure makes me feel like every bone in my body is trying to kill it’s neighbors? You bet your fucking ass I am!! Does it sometimes make me irritable, angry, and occasionally dismissive of when abled people get cold or a temporary injury because the stuff they’re complaining about is my life every single day and all avenues of treatment and recovery I have could take years and still not entirely solve my issues? Yeah, and while I deserve a little extra patience I also have to be sure to check myself because I don’t want to turn into someone who’s nasty to be around. Do I sometimes need to sleep for 17 hours straight because it’s raining, I have migraine, and I’m in too much pain to be conscious? Yup, sometimes a few days in a row. Does living in constant pain mean I’m unable to do all the things I want to and does that sometimes make me wanna curl up in bed and never leave? Yeah, it happens.

But! And here’s the big important but, that’s not everything! I still write, draw, and talk to my friends!! It might take me a little longer but I get there. I’m still happy and excitable and make the time to write out five page long posts about EDS because it’s something I’m passionate about! My chronic pain doesn’t stop me. I refuse to let it. I never really wanted to go mountain climbing anyway, so I’m perfectly happy being able to make it up and down the six steps in my house, even if sometimes I have to sit and bump down them on my ass, or crawl up them like a cat. Chronic pain isn’t all I am. It isn’t a fate worse than death. It isn’t the only thing your character should talk about (though I do talk about my pain a lot cause I’m a complainer about almost everything). You can have your character be hindered by their pain, realistically they would be. You can have them seek comfort, support, and relief. Other characters can commiserate and be sympathetic, but it doesn’t mean their whole life is going to be one big pity party, that would be incredibly fucking boring. I know I’d be bored out of my mind.

All that said dealing with chronic pain, especially from EDS, is Complicated. Physical Therapy is the gold standard, but like I said before it can be a long and difficult process, and isn’t always accessible. Stabilization methods like I talked about before can help prevent pain, or reduce it by keeping bones mostly where they belong. Heat and cold help joints, relax muscles, and reduce inflammation but keeping them applied is rough and the relief doesn’t always last. Doctors prescribe anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, and sometimes even anti-epileptic medication to help manage pain, but everyone’s mileage with those varies. And I’m not at all qualified to talk in-depth about narcotics or other heavy duty pain-meds, but suffice to say the war on drugs fucked shit up for people that legit need that kind of help BIG TIME.

Now for my closer/bonus rant about EDS and Disability Writing in General!

Everyone always says write what you know, so if you really want to do disabled people justice, get to know disabled people! Make friends with disabled people, get involved with advocacy groups, consume content made by disabled creators both about disability and not! Disabilities are so fucking diverse, even EDS is such a complex disorder, and comes with so many potential co-morbidities, that practically everyone with it has a unique experience. There’s no way I can fully explain everything in a tumblr post. Hell, even if I could talk to you for hours probably couldn’t give you enough info to answer all your questions (especially since I’m still in diagnosis hell :,) ), so talk to a wide range of people with EDS and other disabilities!! I know it sounds like a lot of work but trust me, disabled people are some of the strongest, raddest, coolest, people you will ever meet that it won’t feel like it.

And don’t be afraid either, the fact that EDS and other disabilities are so wildly varied means that you have a little bit of wiggle room with your character’s experience. There’s so little disability rep out their I think people are WAY to scared to try their hand at writing it. So long as your character is a fully developed person in addition to being disabled, you give some logical thought as to how it would affect their life, and you don’t make their disability the butt of any joke it isn’t difficult to avoid ableist writing. PLEASE WRITE MORE DISABLED PEOPLE AND PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC PAIN/CHRONIC ILLNESS!!

Okay that’s it, again sorry it took so long for me to get back to you! My fingers were being little pests about it, and my ADHD (which is honestly more disabling than everything else a lot of the time lmao) was being an asshole! Hope this helps, and feel free to ask me more questions if you need clarification! It might take me a bit but I do love talking about this stuff.

[fan-of-fandoms-123]

You Would Think A Vampire Would Be A Better Flirt (Max Phillips/*Female*Reader)

A/N: Here it is. The first fanfiction I've ever published and/or posted to a platform. Enjoy!

Fandom: Bloodsucking Bastards (2015)

Ship: Max Phillips/*Female*Reader

Warnings: Fluff, smut, fluff and smut, friends to idiots to lovers, Max and Pedro are their own warnings

"So... what is it that I'm looking at exactly?", asked Amanda as she sat idly at her desk, the young woman surrounded by the four walls of her small, cozy office that acted as a sort of border between Human Resources and the rest of the floor that was dedicated to Sales. The room was bland at a first glance, a very typical space really, the kind of one someone would be able to find anywhere in the corporate world without evening having to look at all, it would just be there: walls painted a neutral shade of beige with a tad bit of simple white molding, four fluorescent lights mounted into the ceiling to provide proper, optimal lighting, no windows (as to eliminate visual distractions and maintain climate control according to the office security guard, Frank), a plain yet sturdy desk and chair somewhere between being in the center and off to the side of the space, one slightly used, slightly outdated computer, and a few framed photographs of Amanda's friends and family scattered around the space on those otherwise naked walls and atop her rather bare desk by her desktop. Oh, and right in front of her door stood a large chalkboard she recognized as the one from the main conference room, covered in scribbles and lists and what appeared to be charts and graphs she could barely decipher. That wasn't exactly normal to put it simply, not even usual considering the new normal of the office since the shift in management, and neither was the fact that her two coworkers, her fiance Evan and his best friend Tim, stood on either side of the offsetting chalkboard, both men yammering on almost nonsensically about what she could only assume was a subject that was in some way related to their boss. The "Head Vampire" as Tim called him, Max. 

"Amanda, I love you, and you got to listen to us! Max was telling us earlier in the break room about other supernatural creatures out there... and I think my dad might be a werewolf! I mean, what if that means I'm a werewolf, or my mom, and what if werewolves try and-", Evan went on rambling before the woman he loved stopped him, holding out a hand for him to halt his words as she pinched the bridge of her nose and simply gave Tim a look that said "Don't start either.", in which he promptly shut his mouth before sound ever escaped past his lips. "Babe... Evan, before we consider the possibility that maybe, maybe your father, a man I've met and spent holidays with several times along with your mom is by any stretch of the word a werewolf, maybe we can consider the option that Max is just saying all of that to fuck with you? I mean yeah, we all know your dad is pretty hairy, and you have a photo on your desk of the three of you in front of their house so... he could have noticed it and just wanted to mess with you knowing how you and Tim have become Ghostbusters lately.", Amanda deadpanned rather nonchalantly as she leaned back into her seat and let her words hopefully sink in for the two. After a few moments it seemed as if they did, thankfully, and Evan's expression was just about turning into one of both realization and anger at his former college rival when, because of course he did, Max passed by the trio and the conspiracy board and did an immediate double take at the sight. 

"Um... what's- Hehe, what's happening in here? Hangman... pictionary maybe, because I don't remember it being any special day to slack off, especially for you three.", the sales manager chuckled, his tone the epitome of false amusement that was common of men and women in his seat of power, and even a tiny hint of resentment, but that wasn't necessarily unfounded. Granted, Max had just about every reason to hate Evan, Amanda, Tim, Frank, and just about all of the humans left that worked for him for what had transpired the day the three men had figured out that the new sales manager was, as Tim put it from that day onward, the "Head Vampire" among the coup of undead bloodsuckers that had once been their annoying coworkers. Let's just say that they lost a lot of staff that afternoon, and the cleaning staff worked overtime. "Ah... nothing, Max. Evan and Tim were just about to scrub that board off from the last Phallicite meeting, weren't they?", Amanda quickly answered before either one of her lovable idiots could say something to piss off their employer, and she was beyond relieved to see the lie work as Max relaxed with a shrug of his shoulders and turned to leave back to his office.

You know... for a vampire, Amanda would have guessed Max could sense when there was something approaching or in his way, but it looked as though she was wrong. 

"Fu- shit, Y/N, I am so sorry! Fuck, do- do you need any help with that?", Max sputtered out quickly, dare Amanda even say nervously as she observed her boss kneel down to help one of the new hires, Y/N, pick up and hopefully reorganize the stack of papers and files regarding the company accounts that had just recently been landed. "Don't worry, Max, it was an honest mistake.", she smiled, kneeling down with him and giving his shoulder a squeeze of reassurance, and Amanda was once again perplexed when Max froze up. She never thought she'd see the day that Max Phillips was a shy, lost for words pile of goo, but it was happening right inside her office, and it was honestly entertaining. 

"Max... you have like a thing for Y/N or something?" Tim asked quizzically of the vampire, only to recieve a cold look from their boss as he realized his own show of weakness after the woman in question had left to her cubicle. "I could still turn you. Or eat you.", was his only response before leaving for his office, but yes. He certainly did. 

A/N: Well, I hope you liked this, that's all i can really think of to say!

Tagged: @spacegayofficial

Part 1 of the "Max Phillips: The Average Flirt" Series

[painted-crow]

Secondary Toast Revolving Door, Part 2

On what it’s like when I burn Bird secondary

Usually, when I burn either Bird secondary or Badger secondary model, they’re down for weeks or months at a time. I know they’ll come back, which isn’t always true of burned Houses in general but that’s just how mine work. Right now Bird is having a minor upset and it’s been out for a few weeks; it was about to come back when life stress happened and smacked it down again. This time I can predict that it’ll be back in maybe two weeks when everything’s settled down, but usually it’s not that tidy—I don’t always know why it’s having problems or what to do to get it to recover. Usually I just wait it out.

The burned state looks different for Bird vs Badger, of course. I’m probably going to struggle with writing the Badger side, either because I’ve forgotten the details of what it looks/feels like or because it’s actually simpler. I lean towards the “I’ve forgotten” angle. My memory is very bad during depressive periods. (You’d think this would leave my brain goblins fewer cringey memories with which to taunt me at 4am, but no.)

But that doesn’t matter right now because today we’re talking about Bird.

Tipoffs I’ve burned Bird

Sometimes it’s hard to tell when you’ve burned one of your Houses. It doesn’t always have a clear start or end, and you might not notice the gradual slipping into exhaustion and lack of confidence in your House. Here are some things I catch myself doing or thinking when my Bird peaces out on me.

I start thinking I’m not good at things I’ve spent years studying.

I get a panicky feeling of resistance when I think about working on projects that wouldn’t normally give me problems.

I struggle with self-doubt about my ability to learn new skills.

This one’s complicated: the society I live in holds Bird up as the way it thinks intelligence should look. So, in burned-Bird!Paint’s mind, that makes it arrogant to assume that you're better at using Bird than others, because it suggests you think you're smarter (and thus better, because society says that too) than them. Therefore, if I’ve learned how to do something, my impulse is to assume that anyone could. Anything I’ve already learned is obviously easy, because I learned it, and so it isn’t rare or valuable.

Weird analysis paralysis cocktail: I feel perpetually unprepared to do stuff and too afraid to move forward, but I’ve also internalized the “you’re never going to feel ready so just start now” advice—which is supposed to spur you into action and probably works if you’re a Lion, but it just gives me something else to beat myself up about.

Sometimes Bird secondary starts feeling more like a toy than a tool that can actually be effective. If that's happening, using it feels kind of self-indulgent and not terribly useful--it seems good for entertainment, but not for anything else.

That last one is really fricking weird and it took me months to figure out what it was and put it into words. It’s obviously flawed—it’s circular logic sitting on top of societal prejudice—but when you’re depressed, the kind of clarity you need to verbalize and pick apart something that complicated is often nowhere to be found, especially when your perception in general is skewed due self-hatred.

I can’t do that “just start now” thing Lions do—it terrifies me. But that’s fine. Other people don’t casually pick up new skills or binge-read nonfiction or hoard resources like I do—maybe that’s intimidating to them—and that’s fine. Both approaches are useful and powerful, objectively, and philosophically I “should” be okay with owning my abilities. That’s harder than it looks on paper, though.

There’s one more.

The value of skills is subjective, circumstantial, and easy to underestimate.

I’m a jack-of-all-trades style Bird. Lots of things interest me. But every time you decide to invest in a new skill rather than continuing with an old one, you sort of start over. Not completely; some skills transfer and there’s a lot of value in having a range of knowledge, especially in terms of creativity.

Still, though: you enter each new field as a total noob, you stay long enough to become a kinda competent noob, and then when you’ve learned what you want and maybe built the thing you wanted to build, you leave. Rinse and repeat. Usually you don’t stay long enough to become super-skilled, and people in your community don’t specifically ask you for help.

…Until they need something other than the thing they specialize in, and you happen to know it. Suddenly you’re the expert in the room. You know how to get the project started. You know where to research, who to ask about advanced topics, what all the search keywords are, and where to find the supplies. Suddenly you're valuable, and maybe you're not used to feeling valuable. It can be kind of a jarring experience.

It's especially jarring when someone you know needs something and you're like, "oh I can take care of that, I spent six months studying how to do it and I have the resources already" and the other person gives you a look of deep skepticism and you try to convince them that no, really, it's not a big deal, you can have that done in a weekend or two if they give you the right information and... they don't believe you can do it, you guess. It's easy to misinterpret a "this sounds too good to be true" reaction for "I don't believe YOU can do it.”

My old draft had a note about how I should build myself a portfolio site to demonstrate stuff like this (except that my tastes develop faster than my actual skills in most fields, so I tend to dislike my own work and don't want to display it). But actually I’m wondering now if Badger secondary isn’t part of the problem. Sometimes I just volunteer to do stuff for people I only kinda know, without naming a motive or a price tag, and seen through that lens it’s hard to blame them for feeling awkward or skeptical about accepting. It’s not a big deal to you, but it is to them—too big to be just a favor. And then the people who do accept freely given help tend to take advantage of you… I guess I need to cultivate more Courtier Badger if I want to give my Bookkeeper Badger model stuff to do.

(Bonus bullet point: “I don’t know if I can really say my House is burned... it’s just not totally there right now? The stuff I’m dealing with isn’t THAT bad” is another tell that you’re burned. I’ve had to stop myself from writing that sort of thing several times over the course of this post. I’ll let myself bring it up for the opposite reason, though: if you’re thinking this, you may be underestimating the damage because you’ve forgotten what you’re like healthy. This goes for mental illness in general too. Don’t undermine your own experience.)

What I do instead

I’ve learned to be flexible and work around times when my Bird isn’t at 100%.

For example, this is why I have three novel projects running at once, with varying levels of complexity. The least complex of the three is new—I started it back in February, and working on that one instead of the others has let me stay productive and continue using Bird without pushing it past its limits. Plus it lets me keep making art, which as I’ve mentioned, is important to my general wellbeing.

If I’m able to section off my work like this and focus on the things I can do, and selectively procrastinate the ones I can’t (that aren’t super urgent), I’m usually fine—as long as I stay on top of my mental health enough for things to swing back around so I can catch up. It’s very, very difficult to recover if your needs aren’t being met.

I can be kind of a productive powerhouse when I can get my brain to actually process dopamine correctly (thanks, medication!) so if I can manage to work on something useful, I don’t always have to be too picky about what it is. That also means that if I can’t work on the things I’d normally use Bird to do (whether it’s burned or I’m just worn out), it’s a good excuse to catch up on more menial things like paperwork and laundry and whatnot. If I’ve let those pile up, dealing with them will improve my environment and my mental health and get Bird to recover faster.

What I shouldn’t do is continue to press on with my normal work, if I can avoid it. There have been times when people needed me to deliver the creative or technological thing I was using Bird to work on before it burned, and I had to push through and get it to them anyway, and it’s not a good situation for me.

*cue flashbacks to the three or four times that’s happened for months on end, dissociates for 10 minutes*

ugh okay brain can you not do that right now? trying to write a post here

Where was I? Oh, right. I was making a point.

Take the pressure off your burned House if you can.

I think when you burn one of your Houses, it's injured and you're actually worse at using it than people who just don't have it as one of their Houses. Say you're a bowling champion but your dominant wrist is broken. You can choose not to play at all until you recover, or you can try to play with your other hand but you're probably going to be worse at it than a lot of casual players, and that feels really bad because being good at this matters to you.

^ copied from the old draft of this post. I was going to write a smooth transition into that point, but it didn’t work and I’m not going to try to rewrite it and get “ERROR 500 INTERNAL SERVER ERROR” from my brain again.

In any case, this post has been sitting around for a week already and I should probably just publish it now. ^^;

[kny111]

Apocalyptic novelist Max Brooks is something of an expert on planning for pandemics and other disasters. The author, whose books include World War Z, Germ Warfare and the forthcoming Devolution, has toured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has reviewed government response plans related to various emergency situations — all in the course of research.

"We have a network in place that we as taxpayers have been funding to get us ready for something just like this," Brooks says of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, he adds, "we have been disastrously slow and disorganized from Day 1."

Brooks says the notion that the U.S. government was blindsided by the pandemic is "an onion of layered lies."

"What could have happened when this virus exploded — even when Wuhan was locked down — is we could have put the word out," he says. "The government could have put the word out to ramp up emergency supplies to get them ready and then have an information strategy in place."

Instead, Brooks says, President Trump was slow to acknowledge the virus as a real threat. And thus far, the president has resisted using the Defense Production Act to force private companies to manufacture masks, gloves and other essential supplies in the fight against the coronavirus. Many government task forces that plan for disasters have yet to be activated in this crisis.

White House Not Using Defense Powers To Boost Medical Supplies

"One of the biggest problems we're facing now is panic. You see it in the stock market. You see it in panic buying," he says. "All of this panic could have been prevented. ... If the president had been working since January to get the organs of government ready for this, we as citizens could have been calmed down knowing that the people that we trust to protect us are doing that."

Interview highlights

On the task forces that plan for situations like this

Max Brooks has researched disaster preparedness for his novels and has lectured on the subject at the U.S. Naval War College. He has also been a nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His new book, Devolution, will be published May 2020. Michelle Kholos/Penguin Random House

I can tell you that the federal government has multiple layers of disaster preparedness who are always training, always planning, always preparing, regardless of how much their budget gets cut. I have toured the CDC, and I've seen all their plans. I have witnessed what was called a "vibrant response." This is the homeland nuclear attack scenario, which was a coordination of FEMA, the Army, the National Guard, state and local officials, all working together in a massive war game to prepare us for a nuke. I have also witnessed what was called a "hurricane rehearsal of concept drill," where not only did the same players come in, but also bringing in our allies from Canada and Mexico. So I have seen that we have countless dedicated professionals who think about this constantly and they're ready to go. And they have not been activated.

On why these task forces haven't been activated yet

There is no excuse not to mobilize the full forces of the federal government right now and to centralize the response.

This all has to come from the federal government. This is why we have big government. Politically, you can argue about the role of big government in everyday society, but this is not every day. This is an emergency. The entire reason that we have these networks is when the bells start ringing — and they have not been activated. I don't know. I'm not sitting in the White House. I don't know whether the president is being lied to, whether he is holding onto a political ideology. I honestly don't know. But there is no excuse not to mobilize the full forces of the federal government right now and to centralize the response.

On how the Defense Production Act works when mobilized properly

What is supposed to happen is the federal government has to activate the Defense Production Act immediately. Now, what Defense Production Act does is it allows the federal government to step in and aggressively force the private sector to produce what we need. And what is so critical in this is timing. Because you can't simply build factories from scratch; what you can do is identify a supply chain in order to make it work.

Novelist Max Brooks On Doomsday, Dyslexia And Growing Up With Hollywood Parents

For example, if New York needs rubber gloves, New York cannot simply build rubber glove factories overnight. However, there might be a rubber glove factory in Ohio that could produce it, but they might not have the latex. So therefore, the Defense Production Act allows the federal government to go to the condom factory in Missouri and say, "Listen, you have barrels of latex we need. We are requisitioning those. We are giving them to the rubber glove factory in Ohio. And then we are transporting the finished rubber gloves to New York." That's how it is supposed to work.

On how Trump warns about nationalizing private industry — but that's not how it works

President Trump is spinning some sort of tale about, I don't know, the federal government — black helicopters coming in and taking over factories. That's not how it works at all. What happens is the federal government has the network to identify where the production chain is and how to help the private sector work through this, because the private sector doesn't know.

And as an example, I have a World War II rifle made by the Smith Corona typewriter company. Smith Corona worked with the federal government to then partner up with the Winchester company, to then share resources and to share tools and talent to then produce the rifles that we needed. That's how it works. It's not some sort of KGB coming in and taking over everything. It is guidance and streamlining. And only the federal government has the experience to know how to do that.

On what the U.S. military would do in a pandemic

I can tell you that the military has a vast transportation network here in the United States that is ready to go. We don't have to put truck drivers or private individuals at risk, because the military is already trained to do this. And I've watched them do this. The military spent years working out the legal framework of how to transport goods from one place to another around this country, because it's not like Afghanistan, where the army builds a road and then they own the road. The army has had to go through a tremendous amount of training and adaptation to work within state and local governments to make sure everything is done legally and safe without infringing on our rights. And they have done this. The Army's logistics corps can deliver anything that we need anywhere in this country within a matter of hours or days.

When it comes to sheer massive might, getting stuff done, getting stuff produced and getting stuff moved from Point A to Point B, there is no greater organ in the world than the United States military. We did it in World War II. We've done it all over the world. We can do this now. This is the thing the military is good at, and we need to let them do that.

On how the pandemic is revealing flaws in our social structure

I think there are massive gaps in our systems that are being exposed right now, which, by the way, this is not news to the experts. Anybody who works in these fields could have told you years ago that we were vulnerable to this. It's going to rip through our prisons. It's going to rip through our homeless population. God willing, it doesn't rip through our nursing homes. But what no one is talking about, what terrifies me, what keeps me up at night are the secondary casualties that will occur because of hospital overflow. What I mean is we're only talking about now how many people are going to die if the coronavirus really rips through our country. What is not being talked about enough or what needs to be talked about are the people who are still going to die of cancer, of accidents, of other diseases, because they simply can't get into the hospitals because the hospitals are choked with coronavirus patients.

On how we share some of the blame for this mismanagement as voters in a democracy

In China, every single death will be laid directly at the feet of the Chinese Communist Party. They have all the power; therefore, they take all the responsibility. When we look back at this, we — all of us individual citizens — are going to have to take a measure of personal responsibility, because we are the government. If we don't like our leaders, we shouldn't have put them there. And as much as we would love to blame this historically incompetent captain of our ship of state, we have allowed the ship to rust underneath us. It's not just President Trump's fault that institutions like the CDC have been defunded for years. It's not just President Trump's fault that we have allowed anti-vaxxers to spread misinformation throughout this country. It's not just President Trump's fault that we are continuing to build a society in support of a tech world that is based on comfort and not on resilience. We as voters and we as taxpayers must accept our share of the blame.

There is a massive amount of blame that will be laid at the feet of Donald Trump and his enablers. And when this is all over, when the dead are buried and the sick are healed, there will be a reckoning. But there were systemic issues way before Donald Trump. When Donald Trump was a carnival barker on a reality show, we as a people, as a nation, were dismantling the systems that were put in place to keep us safe. And we need to look at that damage, because the one thing we don't want to do is assume that when Donald Trump goes away, that the problems will go with him.

On the difference between panic and preparation

Panic never helps. Panic implies that you lose your mind, and that in a war — even a war against a microscopic enemy — gives aid and comfort to the enemy. When you panic, you don't think rationally, and in times of crisis, rational thought is the greatest weapon you could possibly have. So preparing, No. 1, means clearing your mind and thinking about what you have to do. It means making a list of what you need to buy, prioritizing what needs to come first, thinking about how you're going to take care of the people around you. That is preparing. Panicking is freaking out and getting in a fistfight in the grocery store over bottled water when you don't even need the water, when the tap is already running. That's panic.

I think right now we have to be so careful about who we listen to, because panic can spread much faster than a virus. And I think in addition to social distancing, we have to practice good fact hygiene. What I mean is we have to be careful what we listen to, what we take in — just as if it were a virus. And we have to be careful also what we put back out, as if we were spreading the virus. So we cannot pass along rumors. We cannot pass along misinformation. We must be critically careful not to scare people into doing irrational and dangerous things. So we need to listen to experts, the CDC, Dr. Fauci [director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases], the World Health Organization, our local public health officials. These are the front-line soldiers that are doing everything to keep us safe and are literally putting their lives on the line. These are the people we need to listen to. What we cannot listen to is random facts on the Internet supposedly, things that people are passing along to us, conspiracy theories. And I'm very sorry to say this, but I think that everything our president says at this point must be fact-checked.

[chintzmann]

Hi,

One of your pattern pieces came across my dash, and I think they're really really cool! It said that you were putting together a pattern portfolio; as someone just breaking into illustration, and interested in patterns, I was wondering what you do with a pattern portfolio, or what kinda of places you send it to? I assume it would be some kind of licensing, but all the books and things I've read mostly talk about children's books and editorial art for the most part, and barely touch on licensing at all. I would super appreciate any resources or insight on the subject you can share!

thanks so much!!

Hi there, thank you for your kind words! And sorry I took some time to reply. The problem is, there is no easy answer to your question. I haven’t been able to market any of my patterns as of yet (haven’t invested enough time and having had only a few talks with gift paper producers wasn’t enough so far :P). Still, here are a few fings you might want to consider if you are interested in creating patterns professionally: Visit trade fairs for a go-see and present your work to potential costumers. Send out portfolios to potential costumers, saying that you’d be interested in a collaboration. Present your work online on platforms like Behance, Instagram, Dribbble etc., where they might catch the interest of people from the industry. Regarding your question about licensing: I am guessing you are from the United States (based solely on the mean distribution of tumblr users). As far as I am aware of, the United States have a different system in place for licensing than European countries do. And since I am from Germany I’m not sure that what I can tell you about our system is gonna help you. However, the gist of it is that the ownership of your creative work always remains with you, the artist / creator. So, if other people would like to use your work commercially or even non-commercially, they pay you a sum of money dependent on several aspects: 1) whether or not they want to be the only ones ever to use your work or only want to purchase a single-time use 2) how long they intend to use it 3) what exactly they intend to do with it (print it, use it on the internet, make products out of your work etc.) 4) how ubiquitously they want to use it and 5) where their market is (local, regional, national = one country, in several countries or possibly even worldwide). This system doesn’t apply to all markets, as you correctly said: In the children’s books industry and in editorial illustration publishing houses will usually commision your for x-amount of money but will for example only print one edition with your work – here the licensing is sort of standardized, assuming that the creation of value through using artistic work will generally amount to the same. When it comes to advertising however a more individualized licensing approach is the usual (see above), since using creative work will lead to very different outcomes depending on the set-up of a marketing campaign. If you want know more about this issue I recommend contacting illustrators from the country you are from to ask whether they have any reading advise for you. One book that is well known amongst my colleagues is this one: https://www.amazon.de/Ways-Draw-Bird-Live-Illustration/dp/8417656189, though I’m not sure how well it applies internationally. Also, there are some useful groups on Facebook where illustrators mingle and exchange expertise. But, again, not sure whether that’s the same for the English speaking community or whether Facebook is already too out-of-date. Nevertheless, I hope I was able to help you at least a tiny bit :). Best wishes Charlotte