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bladekindeyewear · 4 years

Text

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-08-06

♪ HS2 HS2 is baaaaack ♪

♪ HS2bloggin here we gooooo ♪

♪ Structural changes on their team but I don’t caaaaare ♪

♪ Already resooolved myself that its NOOOT gonna beee as good ♪ with inattentiveness to details characters like Terezi forgetting-what-they-used-to-know and an obsession with dwelling on traaageeeDEEE without relief-or-considering how weee’d feeeeeeel~ ♪♪♪ --so just gonna enjoy-what-i-caaaaaan about iiit~ ♪♪♪

Okay time for bankruptcy

> CHAPTER 11. History's Most Notorious Haters

Let’s see how effectively my perky new lowered-expectations attitude lets me enjoy this comic *click*

wut

Oh. so is this Dave drawing comics about current events or Regular Calliope doing so for our very first lanky look at her presumably-grown-up-more cherub form

> Knight: Keep it real.

HOLY SHIT IT’S DAVEBOT AND ARADIA

so we just get to SEE them?! just like that??? no buildup or anything? :D

Okay I’m marking out a little that’s a good sign. Also what a nerdy cop-out to turn the roboteyes into glasses that’s barely passable which is perfect, the rest of his outfit looks pretty cool tho

DAVEBOT: and thats reason four hundred nineteen why despite my mans many accomplishments i will never acknowledge big skateboardings contrived message that tony hawk is the quintessential skater of our generation ARADIA: o_o DAVEBOT: not in these trying times

Good to see Ultimate Dave is being true to form with regards to the core of his personality

DAVEBOT: beep boop ARADIA: i have told you several times that i was a robot before and i know for a fact you dont have to say beep boop DAVEBOT: hm that sounds fake does not compute ARADIA: david DAVEBOT: mom

I was with this conversation until the last two lines what the fuck

(I’m reading into it aren’t I, Aradia was trying to be atypically proper -- even though she wouldn’t have the frame of reference to know without being specifically told that “Dave” was considered nickname shorthand for the human name David, and thus if she DID know there’s no reason she’d use it except to troll him -- and Dave’s just mocking her response. Without any shame about his continued weirdness of calling people Mom, and by without any shame I mean he made the choice EXPLICITLY to intentionally evoke the awkwardness. Wow I got a lot out of two lines.)

(Oh, also alt!Callie’s true Jade-body incarnation here probably prompted her to start using “David” by example. There, various mysteries solved via a pile of assumptions probably to be disproven in the next couple lines I read.)

The Knight and the Maid stare at each other briefly, having exchanged enough meaningful glances over their time together to know when to drop it.

Would Time players have an easier time gelling this way, like this particular smoothness? Dropping it just before it gets weird or excessively irritating?

(Overclasspecting)

ARADIA: i think we have exchanged enough meaningful glances over our time together to know when to drop this DAVEBOT: what i enjoy about our conversations is that you just say things like that

OKAY I SNRK’D AT THAT. That was funny.

Initially. And now I’m concerned whether Aradia is being controlled by the narrative-speak, or whether they’re both just humorously referencing the meta-text they can both see, or--

ARADIA: oh is that what you enjoy ARADIA: well we are both an infinite number of years old living countless lifetimes at once but thats no reason to waste any of our...

WHAT??!? She’s an Ultimate Self too?!?

Um, okay! Yeah! So they’re BOTH just riffing on the narrative then. But... why would Dave need a robot body to accommodate his Ultimate Psyche without getting sick but Rose not need it? I can understand Dirk not needing it because the merging of the full breadth of his multiversal individuality gels well with him being a God of the aspect governing the power of his multiversal individuality, but Aradia?

Were the robot bodies not necessary after all, and the sickness Rose suffered and Obama thought Dave would have suffered some sort of ruse? Are there shenanigans afoot? (Or are we going with the “troll biology is better” cop-out?)

She knows how this will play out, having undoubtedly tried this joke on her friend in some timeline or another. Their rapport reflects a unique combination of their matching aspects but greatly differing classes. One a passive but powerful servant to time, the other wielding the aspect like a honed blade.

WHAT????

PASSIVE SERVANT OF THE ASPECT?!? WHAT THE FUCK

Okay if that means anything like it sounds like I guess my class chart is finally blown up, sure, they only waited (*checks last edit date*) SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS TO BLOW THAT GUESS UP, SURE

Wow. Okay, I feel some obligation to jump to conclusions and say the whole class chart is wrong, but let me stay strapped in to see if “passive” is as literal as one would expect alt!Callie to mean, or it just means “an active class passive compared to other classes”. And, serving the aspect? Oh dammit, now people are gonna come at me advocating a Maid / Page dichotomy about actively serving the aspect versus allowing the aspect to be served... or Page / Maid even, jesus

I wish I had enough energy to have those chats anymore. I’d rather hold on and see the whole ridiculous chart scheme they have in mind... which is definitely (and hopefully) the one Andrew really drew up at the time and not made up by the staff, even if it throws away plenty of my old work... I’ll just stop thinking about it and keep reading.

...

--no, I don’t think I can just stop thinking about it yet. Dammit, brain.

So um. Maids serving their aspect. There was a whole “Maids serve” thing going on throughout the whole plot of Homestuck, but despite how prevalent it was, I wrote it off as the story riffing on the classical definition of Maid when the actual stuff Maids accomplished was something different and more specific, just like Knights constantly got riffed on for chivalry and the like. Furthermore, service seemed like a really shitty class definition, when class definitions are the verbs one uses to interact with reality through Aspects to change the way reality unfolds, and “serving” isn’t really an action that results in change, implying a distinct deficit of agency that I wouldn’t have viewed as fair. (Especially since you originally think “meant to serve others” and not “meant to serve the aspect”, implying even LESS agency.) Furthermore, MOST passive classes from their descriptions seem to have a propensity to act “as if by the will of the aspect”, so even with the nuance of “serving the aspect”, devoting an entire class verb to service would just step on the territory of other active/passive class pairs’ passive sides, right?

But... IF we were to take this for granted as what it SEEMS... then concentrating on that angle of “serving the aspect” implies a whole lot more agency than a service class might sound on its surface. The definition fits with the story better once you contextualize all the Maid-y references to service around Jane, for instance, with the additional idea of “serving Life” by baking prolifically and creating more of its symbols in food and--

--fuck. “Serving”, like serving to others. Serving the aspect as its attendant AND serving it out to others that need it. Maybe this still IS part of the Additive class pair! Whoa. :O

Okay okay so, what I/we thought before was:

Create/Add - Maid / Sylph

Destroy/Reduce - Prince / Bard

But “additive” really isn’t an elegant verb compared to the “Destroyer” classes, so... could it be the “Servants” and the “Destroyers”? Like Maids cleaning up and healing the broken wreckage strewn through the halls by a bratty Prince’s tantrum???

It’d certainly be weird... and it’d CERTAINLY be a wild twist where I was partially wrong in some fascinating ways but not entirely off base?

One a passive but powerful servant to time, the other wielding the aspect like a honed blade.

And yet, I can’t bet on this being the situation yet; not at all. First, it relies on the idea that alt!Callie’s explicit narrative here is slightly misleading, which would be a pretty extreme thing to commit to, even for a technical truth like “she was saying it was passive relative to other classes even though it’s technically “active””. Second... it would mean that Muses are even more wildly defined than the previous insinuation of hers, that the Sylph -- what we thought was the passive additive class -- was not enough like a Muse compared to a Witch. Muses not being that Additive? I could grudgingly understand that, but Muses not being anything like passive Servants?! That would be EXTREMELY weird!

So... there’s not a whole lot of chance that I’m not dramatically wrong somewhere about these classes! In a way that throws the entire chart into disarray!

I’m... oddly excited? Huh.

That’s a pretty nice surprise that I actually feel that way.

(Don’t hit me up all at once to discuss this Classpect development over Discord, I’ll still need a few days without talking about Homestuck to recharge as usual. Like... maybe wait and come at me as a group chat? So I’m not talking about the latest developments separately with everyone? No that wouldn’t work, how about... guh I dunno, look my outlook’s a little more positive right now but dealing with Homestuck still takes emotional energy okay?)

Okay the rest of this page...

ARADIA: ... DAVEBOT: time then make a weird face ARADIA: ........ DAVEBOT: waste time DAVEBOT: time ARADIA:............. DAVEBOT: i experience all points of time simultaneously please just say time and make a weird face

This is true.

ARADIA: .................. DAVEBOT: cmon megido youre killing me clocks ticking ARADIA: ... ARADIA: time o_o

The Maid casts a furtive glance around the empty crew quarters, as though to search for someone more sympathetic to her bit.

ARADIA: tough crowd

Dorks.

> ==>

(Lazy fruit-throwing sword-training I won’t bother to screenshot but looks fun)

(I mean, really lazy looking, these people really don’t have Andrew’s knack for action composition that would make the same amount of gif-creation effort feel like a microcosm of the event they’re depicting, unfortunately. Again, I don’t blame them; Andrew was just too good at it.)

DAVEBOT: ok heres one DAVEBOT: how old do you think you are ARADIA: emotionally? ARADIA: that is a pretty heavy topic DAVEBOT: you know damn well thats not what i meant ARADIA: you know I have been through a lot dave DAVEBOT: ok ARADIA: its just so kind of someone DAVEBOT: ok i get it ARADIA: to finally ask how i feel ARADIA: i am beside myself with emotions ARADIA: i want to open up DAVEBOT: jesus christ ARADIA: shall i open up about my past traumas to you ARADIA: would you enjoy that ARADIA: to think even a frog like me can work through their pain with a dear friend ARADIA: you have truly blessed me on this day dave strider

Is Aradia JUST trolling here or is her Ultimate Self grappling with a ton of real unresolved trauma too that she’s bullshitting around Dave-style?

DAVEBOT: times fun when youre having flies

Okay that’s a damned good frog pun.

Alright now Davebot’s rapping

DAVEBOT: lacking tact i stay stacked while i breach contract DAVEBOT: sacred vows disavowed got divorce fever DAVEBOT: i leave her DAVEBOT: dont look back dont perceive her ARADIA: do you want to talk about it :( DAVEBOT: about what ARADIA: would you say you are hung up on leaving your wife and friends behind

Goddamnit is DAVE’S ton of real unresolved trauma leaking into his raps unintentionally Dave-style?? I knew we had to address it when we cut to Davebot but how about LESS TRAGEDY IN THIS COMIC MAYBE

DAVEBOT: arent you even a little guilty about ditching your boyfriend ARADIA: what ARADIA: oh fuck

But she knew what she was doing when she did it she explicitly did it didn’t she? Epilogues quote:

DAVEBOT: what about your boy DAVEBOT: eyepatches ARADIA: oh sollux is in one of his moods ARADIA: this was all getting to be a bit much for him ARADIA: if i go ill probably just cut him loose DAVEBOT: good move

And then they stepped through the sky hole more or less. Did like, distracted Ultimate Aradia not realize exactly how long she was leaving Sollux for, ie forever? Or did she “ascend” to Ultimate status later and hadn’t thought back to the full consequences of her actions within this timeline? Or both? From the looks of the link we’ll probably find out on the next pa--

--Wait. Something else I just thought of, unrelated.

If Aradia is an Ultimate Self, that’s another coincidentally Ultimate version of someone hanging around that happens to be on the prospective list of Soul-Powered Jujus that might have their creation loops closed in the coming story. Could those two things play into each other somehow? Like instead of their souls getting stuffed into the items, their “Ultimateness” is? Or as if that’s a necessary component, or... no, I’m probably overthinking things.

> (Months in the past, but not many...)

Uh huh. Is that flashing because he’s “watching” Aradia leave? But I thought Aradia SAID she was leaving--

> (==>)

--and that black hole portal doesn’t look as cool as it sounded in the Epilogues. But why was Aradia acting surprised, she said “I’ll probably just cut him loose” mere MOMENTS before entering the portal, did she mean “cut him loose” as in “I’m going to talk to him before leaving” and then just IMMEDIATELY forget that she didn’t say anything to him because she cared so little???

Wait. Waaaait wait wait. I think. I think maybe I missed some subtext. Lemme do some fuller quotes here:

ARADIA: oh sollux is in one of his moods ARADIA: this was all getting to be a bit much for him ARADIA: if i go ill probably just cut him loose DAVEBOT: good move

His gaze remains fixed on her. She blinks and looks away, unsure what to say next. He’s standing perfectly still, presumably waiting for her to say something. She met him... what was it? Once, twice before? She can’t remember. But she knows this is a very different Dave. Aside from the metal skin, he seems implacably confident. But then, people go through changes. She’s been through more than her share. She cocks an eyebrow, recalling her own stint with a metal body.

DAVEBOT: hey earth to whats your face ARADIA: oh ARADIA: its aradia

[...]

DAVEBOT: youre coming DAVEBOT: better decide quick i doubt that dank fuckin hell funnel is staying open for much longer ARADIA: yes i suppose so ARADIA: thats where all the action is right? DAVEBOT: all the action that matters yeah ARADIA: off we go then :) DAVEBOT: word

He holds out his hand. She looks around, and assumes he means for her to take it, so she does. She didn’t know someone could fly this fast. He nearly yanks her arm out of its socket. She considers reminding him that maybe this isn’t necessary, since she can fly too. But she doesn’t want to risk saying more embarrassing stuff around this outrageously cool dude. Besides, they’re through the wormhole before she can even finish the thought. It vanishes the moment they’ve crossed.

...this was a SHIPPING thing wasn’t it. She’s impressed as hell with Striderbot, she SAID she’d cut things off with Sollux, and then she was so busy being swooped off her feet and into the portal that she forgot to actually say anything to him. Is that what happened????

Ultimate Self Davebot x Ultimate Self Aradia. Huh. Didn’t see that coming. (Though, again... they could make it SLIGHTLY clearer that this wasn’t just a blatant continuity error.)

Anyway, a rare-don’t-get-used-to-it [S] page...

> [S] (Gaze.)

...Okay that was kinda funny.

> (==>)

SOLLUX: h0w the fuck am i g0ing t0 get d0wn fr0m here.

HAH! Okay, he’s taking it pretty well. :) --and THAT’s what she realized she forgot, giving him a flight down from the tower before leaving.

GOOD. KEEP THINGS HUMOROUS EVEN WHEN LITERAL ABANDONMENT IS HAPPENING. THAT’S the Homestuck I was missing. :) :) :)

> Back to reality.

(Since the black hole is outside “canon” reality.)

Those are some cool poses-AHAH JESUS CHRIST ALT!JADE YOU LOOK ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING XD

COULD YOU MAYBE HAVE CLEANED UP THE DRIED BLOOD AT SOME POINT OR IS SOME OF THAT FRESH FROM EATING MORE RAW MEAT

(Lord English’s blood leaving permanent timeless bloodstains would be a cool new thing to squeeze into canon i admit, i wouldn’t blame them for taking the excuse even if you could find small canon counterexamples I’m not sure of but dimly think might exist)

((ALSO SHE’S GONNA BE TINY NEXT TO THEM I DUNNO IF THAT MAKES IT MORE TERRIFYING OR LESS, PROBABLY MORE))

DAVEBOT: so youre telling me you dont even feel a little bad that you ditched him to be a weird death acolyte ARADIA: no i think he found my wiles both charming and irresistible DAVEBOT: not even an ounce of guilt or self doubt huh DAVEBOT: just like that DAVEBOT: no conversations about the greater good DAVEBOT: no revelations about your feelings

Is Aradia a jerk or weird? Can’t decide.

ARADIA: do you often find your faith in yourself shaken like this or is it a new experience now that your mortal coil has been left behind DAVEBOT: what ARADIA: do you think now that all that is left of you is a literal ghost inside of a machine you are more or less likely to embrace finality DAVEBOT: oh dope more cult of one shit DAVEBOT: immortality changed you ARADIA: could it be that you are projecting your feelings onto my situation DAVEBOT: does not compute rose jr ARADIA: ... ARADIA: we dont have to talk about it DAVEBOT: thanks

Wow, I actually can’t follow this conversation at all. Let me stare at it for a sec...

...okay, the first part she’s talking about DAVE’s faith in HIMself being shaken, not her own. She’s not asking if he relates to HER experience, she’s contrasting it.

Then, asking if he’d be more likely to embrace death, or... Time? Death. Whether his self-worth has changed because he might view himself as “less real”, something Aradia doubtless struggled with when she was a robot who already had so many excuses to devalue herself at the time? And then Dave talks about “cult of one” shit what does that even mean-...

OH. Like she’s a death cult. Gooot it. Because Aradia’s of the position that death and ending should be celebrated, and Davebot understandably isn’t entirely bought in. This is as hard to parse down as one would EXPECT conversations between two Ultimate Selves to be hard to parse down, unlike Rose and Dirk where their insane missions and glaring flaws shine bright enough through it all that you can follow their conversation flow easily.

JADE: They sit in each other's presence, the silence between them as meaningful as any words they could exchange. DAVEBOT: its always really cool to hear how meaningful my silences are DAVEBOT: especially while DAVEBOT: CALCULATING DAVEBOT: CALCULATING DAVEBOT: especially while i am attempting to experience them

Alt!Callie pulling a narrative-text AFTER a talk-identifier like “JADE:” is really hilarious in my opinion.

JADE: i do not need your approval. the story will continue how it must. DAVEBOT: beep boop hater detected ARADIA: wow is that true JADE: i am not a hater. DAVEBOT: classic hater line DAVEBOT: i know this because i am pouring through genuine actual quadrabytes of information on historys most notorious haters JADE: no, you aren’t.

Pffffff. This is pretty fun.

DAVEBOT: you are the exact opposite of a hater ARADIA: a liker DAVEBOT: ok DAVEBOT: perfect example your tolerance for whatever is going on with DAVEBOT: all this ARADIA: i think she looks quite lovely covered in the viscera of the all-powerful enemy she consumed ARADIA: floating lifelessly in our periphery ARADIA: observing our every action and noting its relevance :) DAVEBOT: uh huh thats what i mean

I was gonna note “liker” as additive for pointless classpect purposes, but really more quoting it just because I really enjoy this conversation. I’m starting to get sold on the chemistry of these two a lot faster than I expected.

JADE: even though I understand that it must happen, i am growing frustrated with the direction of this conversation. DAVEBOT: do you want to talk about something else stinky JADE: what would you suggest?

How long has that dried fucking blood been on her

DAVEBOT: ok hear me out DAVEBOT: kanaya DAVEBOT: but like DAVEBOT: wearing huge jorts

That explains Homestuck’s twitter earlier

> Weeks in the future, relative to the original point of interest...

Wait wait which point of interest? This time we were just viewing? *click*

I love what must be this shitty imagination-ship they’re using to cross the substrate of reality

> ==>

Whoaaaa. So they DIDN’T stay in those outfits for long? It showed them in a bunk bed earlier, it showed CallieJade still going around blood-covered afterward-- dammit, I’m having a hard time gauging exactly how much time is supposed to have passed between their entry into the black portal, their earlier conversation, and this moment. And as likely as some are to call this poor scene composition, I can’t think it’s anything but intentional, given we’re dealing with a couple of Ultimate Time players bullshitting with each other.

Moments like these are not rare, and serve a valuable function to the story. They are able to show a passage of time with the bulk of the emotional labor of a lengthy bonding process happening off screen. How did we get here? What have they been through? These questions are often better left open to individual interpretation and can give the one interpreting a sense of ownership of the story.

See? We’re being trolled is why. (Even if the authors are pulling the trick Alt!Callie describes maybe a little too damn often, because a cut like this where we’re supposed to fill in the emotional gaps and intervening events ourselves as readers depends on readers’ faith that sensible events and decisions for these characters would OCCUPY the gaps, as if readers don’t have faith that what intervenes WOULD make sense to their understanding of the characters the way the authors are writing them... it just seems like an excuse to do whatever you want without adequately explaining yourself, when in reality if you’d spelled out the events that led to it we’d all cry foul at the mischaracterization.)

...okay, maybe I’m a BIT bitter. Sorry. Where were we?

JADE: As a point of curiosity- ARADIA: oh shit!!!!

The dead Cherub possessing the body of an equally deceased Goddess of Space pauses at the interruption.

She doesn’t talk much, then? Too busy doing whatever talking you’d do as your other possessed Jade body? Just how temporally related is you controlling THIS Jade compared to when you were controlling the other? When that Jade pegged you as enjoying contact with friends, are these two just not enough for you, or did you “experience” the trips entirely separately? I don’t THINK the alt!Callie possessing either Jade is a separate entity from the other, but...

Were she to voice her opinion, it would be that --actually-- it is not unusual for those whose primary concern is The Grander Scheme to have a passing curiosity about the insignificant. So when one really thinks about it, any annoyance with the attendant’s small mindedness is both understandable and warranted.

She pissed

...also, “the attendant”. Even if “serve” is really the verb here, that phrasing really irks me as if she’s talking down to her. Which, I mean, makes sense for alt!Callie’s character, but doesn’t make me feel better about this new definition being foisted on us.

ARADIA: :( JADE: as a point of order, you never answered dave’s question. ARADIA: which one he is very chatty JADE: you experience time in a way that is woefully unfamiliar to me and it has... piqued my curiosity enough to learn more. ARADIA: ?_? DAVEBOT: shes asking how old you are

Wait a minute, is Alt!Callie asking a question about a dropped topic from WEEKS ago?! And is Davebot so in touch with Time and the meta ordering of topics that he actually CAUGHT ON that fast to what she was actually wondering about?????

This is getting more disorienting by the minute.

ARADIA: in this form our bodies stop aging once we reach maturity i think ARADIA: the god tier keeps our physical form locked in a state of undying ARADIA: even in death the bodies do not decay ARADIA: only lay dormant

THAT LAST PART IS FUCKING IMPORTANT. It’s being brought up intentionally to tell us that JOHN’S DEAD BODY can still be in the wallet Terezi’s carrying around RIGHT NOW without having decayed over the past years. I remember remarking in SOME previous HS^2 liveblog post of mine that I was alarmed by the decay that would have happened there (can’t find my remark on short notice and don’t really care to), so this explicitly dismisses it so we won’t be surprised by the fact that she could keep it in just-dead condition.

DAVEBOT: like how long have you been alive JADE: yes, that one.

[...]

ARADIA: oh maybe a few hundred years or so DAVEBOT: what JADE: what? ARADIA: well if i had known you were going to be so judgy about it DAVEBOT: when did this happen ARADIA: oh i spent some time in other doomed realities and timelines and came back before anybody could tell i was gone

Hm!

We knew she spent a LONG time in the dream bubbles, enough to talk to “pretty much all of the Nepetas”, but she was actually able to access a universe or universes and hop between them? That’s not something any time traveller we’ve seen has been explicitly able to do intentionally before, quite like she’s describing.

DAVEBOT: oh just out for a bit of fun then DAVEBOT: just hopped on over to a different reality DAVEBOT: real casual like DAVEBOT: oh hello dont mind me just popping in to see if it really is as doomed as they say it is DAVEBOT: did not disappoint ARADIA: yes almost exactly like that :) DAVEBOT: who did you hang out with are they cooler than me ARADIA: it is complicated to explain DAVEBOT: oh ok nevermind then DAVEBOT: all clear

Yep, he’s kinda bewildered. Is this Pesterquest stuff she’s referring to? Did she stop by Pesterquest?

DAVEBOT: a whole alternate universe ripe with the coolest motherfuckers imaginable ARADIA: you were there too i threw your air conditioner into the sun DAVEBOT: wow thats fucked up DAVEBOT: thats not where that goes at all JADE: these events are not-canonical. ARADIA: rude

Ah! Yeah, almost certainly Pesterquest. (Still haven’t played that and have little inclination to now that I’m more sure we aren’t being gaslit with intentional continuity errors, just disappointed by actual continuity errors.) Oh! And that makes a bit more sense because I imagine that’s Black Hole territory, and that territory outside of Canon seems pretty rich and easy for time-travellers to hop between stories and timelines willy-nilly. As they’re apt to in fanfics, which is the most appropriate way for things to be in that realm!

DAVEBOT: is that the trope of being hundreds of years old but looking young forever patently sucks ass DAVEBOT: a plot device an asshole would write ARADIA: :( JADE: that is not what i am trying to say at all. DAVEBOT: hmm wow yeah thatd really be a sort of pot/kettle situation i guess DAVEBOT: i cant believe im the only woke one here DAVEBOT: its hard being such a visionary AND such a fine metallic specimen DAVEBOT: but im an altruist first and fucking foremost ARADIA: so selfless JADE: yes, the greater narrative is truly blessed by your beneficent presence. DAVEBOT: oh so you got jokes now huh JADE: i have always had the ‘jokes’ of which you speak, but i have heretofore exercised restraint in laying you low. JADE: i possess knowledge of many of your iterations, as the scope of my powers allows me to exist in several narrative structures at once. DAVEBOT: but can she see why kids love the sweet cinnamon taste of cinnamon toast crunch JADE: i do not know, or care, what that means. ARADIA: neither do i :)

I’m actually really enjoying this conversation

JADE: its cultural significance to you as an earthling is wasted on the two of us entirely, as we have not conflated the misguided notion of clinging to nostalgic cereal advertisement trivia with socially relevant conversation.

Pff she literally checked her meta notes just now to learn what the cereal ads were after admitting she didn’t know what it meant and pretending not to care

> ==>

Oh, closer look at Davebot. Are those actual SHAPED shades over his robotic eye bulges? Weird, I thought it was just a lazy line drawn between them with red sharpie at first, Sans style. That would’ve been funny.

> ==>

Ohh, I get it. I was gonna say that was an unwarranted reaction... but he just realized that the Time-wait puns will be coming from BOTH his shipmates from now on. That’s gotta be a downer. :)

> ==>

HOLY

FUCKING

SHIT

IS ALT-CALLIE LAUGHING!??!?!?!??

That’s REALLY, REALLY GOOD!!! SHE’S ALREADY LAUGHING OCCASIONALLY THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY

“BEST NARRATOR” COFFEE CUP

SHE’S ADORABLE

> ==>

Ah, was that Jade kicking you out? Or just the multiverse punishing you for being briefly happy :(

--oh, end of the update. Guess that’s it for now!

...

Alright I know I’m A BIT BEHIND on covering the HS2 commentary,

But

I really would rather wait on that a bit longer if that’s alright. Real busy and stressful week or two. (Found out my hair is starting to thin noticeably at age 31! Quite suddenly, too. Blood test looks fine so it’s nothing serious... gonna see a doctor to check if anything can be safely done about that, it’s really hurting my self-esteem more than I thought it would. Didn’t think it would hit my emotions that hard when it eventually happened, knew it was likely but not so SOON... really messing with my anxiety every time I accidentally touch my hair, now. I’ll deal with it.)

If I sound really aimless in this post, I think it’s cause I am? My mental and emotional energy’s REALLY drained. I’m glad that June/July break in HS^2 happened when it did, and I’m definitely glad there’s apparently plenty in HS^2 I can really enjoy, if this update is anything to go by. Maybe this comic can help lift me up instead of knocking me down. :)

See y’all later! More Patreon commentary blogging catchup after some other upd8.

#Homestuck #hs2 #Homestuck Liveblog #upd8 #Homestuck^2 #Homestuck Theories #Homestuck Theory #spoiler #spoilers #Classes and Aspects #Space and Time #Aradia

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condemnthem · 4 years

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LUDO (MARS, PETER, ARNOLD, DAMIEN, WHATEVER ELSE ALT YOU’VE WHIPPED UP LATELY), THE OWNER OF ONE OF US:

it’s been a long time coming, and you know why it’s all come down to this. you’ve manipulated enough people during your time on roleplayer.me that i’m sure you thought you’d get away with it forever. well, it doesn’t work that way. you get what you give, and you’ve given enough grief to last a lifetime.

you’ve put people who once called you friend through hell, and now you get a taste of it. and i want to make this point very clear: i do not care about your sob story. i do not care about how much you’ve been hurt. i do not care about how you got to where you are today. none of what you can say excuses the absolute hell you’ve put others through. take accountability. apologize. do what you can to right your wrongs. the pain you’ve caused is YOUR responsibility. you can’t put this on anyone but yourself. you can’t expect to hurt so many people and not be held accountable for it.

this case was rather personal to me because ludo likes to use his personality disorder as a crutch and an excuse to get away with his nasty abuse. i have the same disorder. by using your personality disorder as an excuse, ludo, you are glorifying it because you are making it your escape route. this disorder is NOT to be used as a crutch. no disorder is. you use it as a crutch as if you aren’t in crutches because of this debilitating disorder. you’re the reason our disorder is looked upon with suspicion instead of understanding. you cannot use your disorder as any type of “please forgive me” card unless you are actively trying to get better. and you aren’t. because you think therapy is a farce.

before i go into the evidence i wanted to ask for testimonies from those who were hurt. i was given this:

“There are a few things that should be said before you take your time reading all this. This is a place of roleplay and to escape. Unfortunately, some people use the hobby incorrectly. You ruin and sabotage the experience for others. A good amount of the users on this site may have a lot going on away from the screen, some don’t. Those who struggle are the victims of these narcissistic tendencies. Their emotions get involved without their control. They try to be there for someone despite their own issues. Sometimes they even try to put that other person first, which causes them to break. Then, there are some of us that cannot be emotionally manipulated and that is when these mind games go wrong. That is when the manipulator becomes so little and they try to blame other issues in life for their shit behaviour.

This place does not, and I repeat - it does not give anyone the permission to attack and belittle others because you have difficulty having a voice in your real life. It does not give you the right to attack someone's real life, because you said it yourself that you feel like you have not done anything great in yours. Your real life problems, your conditions, there are no excuse for those who have been degraded by you. There are a lot of them, by the way. Those people you still accuse of having abandoned you despite you being convinced that you were good to them? None of these people have abandoned you. They cared. They had to leave because you tried to show some sort of superiority and belittled them as a person. You tried to control them in and out of roleplay. They got tired of your negativity and your toxic attitude towards life.

A penny for your thought - have a muse, be honest, but don’t ruin it for others. You cannot attack people and then expect them to be there for you. This place does not give you the right to manipulate others into a friendship that it is not wanted nor needed either. You cannot and should not hurt people's experiences by deceiving them. Something you still actively still do with the active alt in your own group who you introduced as your real life friend. Think about it - if you punch a stranger in the middle of the street would you expect them to reciprocate with an embrace or punch you right back?

You cannot excuse behaviour you have radiated off yourself for months, targeted people with disturbing words, with lies, deceived multiple people that would have stuck up for you, all because of what you may be going through in real life. All you did was show who you really are. There is roleplay, and there is real life. If that line between those two worlds are so thin and so blurry for you - then perhaps this is something for you to reconsider.”

now for the evidence.

i made an imgur album of all the evidence as well as my commentary, so if you want to read it on imgur, there it is. i’m going to post the evidence directly onto here as well, however, just in case.

to start out we have an e-mail sent to roleplayer.me admins (basic rundown of ludo's offenses:

(roleplayer.me admins have done nothing so if that doesn't tell you they don't give a single shit idk what would)

here is the member who was reportedly “kicked” from one of us peacefully pulling their role:

the other member reportedly “kicked” peacefully pulling their role:

and here is ludo manipulating the situation to make it sound non-peaceful:

and ludo lying in a bulletin saying said members were “kicked out”:

now we have ludo speaking about his alts. here he is admitting to having a freelance (non-affiliated account):

ludo admitting to being another “member” of one of us, mars:

ludo admitting to using mars just to lure another member into shipping with them:

one of ludo's alts:

ludo posting one of us promos on his alt:

proof of one of us promo:

another one of ludo’s alts:

now lets get into his harassment and toxic behavior. here we have him harassing another member (18 YEARS OLD) through instagram dms:

(his instagram is rather well known with many members and he likes to post his music to make his members listen to which is connected to his instagram)

this shows ludo mixing ooc with ic and straight up lying about another member:

here one of his targets of harassment expresses their fear of him possibly stalking them:

the group owner from another group ludo was in countering ludo’s claims to peacefully leaving said group (reminder, ludo is damien):

a conversation between the owner of said group above and ludo about his harassment and stalking, as well as him shittalking to manipulate other people into believing his narrative:

here ludo tries to act like the victim and gaslight the owner:

here is proof ludo makes his “enemies” into villains for one of us and portrays them in a negative light (the name he used is their real name, making this 10x worse):

explanation from an rp ex of ludo’s about the harassment they suffered:

the screenshot shown above:

ludo harassing an rp ex over instagram dms and displaying classic abusive behavior (reminder, he has his instagram rather public to his members):

"i can genuinely admit when i am wrong" implying their ex cannot. also gaslighting because he can't admit when he's wrong. this will be further highlighted through these instagram messages. "this does not mean that i take back anything i've said before, about how you've hurt me" contradicting himself when he said he can genuinely admit when he is wrong. "i thought our friendship was real... but evidently it wasn't the same for you" guilt trips. the rest i'm sure you can pick out on your own. it's all very obvious.

"we're no good for one another. you hurt me a lot and i hurt you a lot." not taking responsibility and instead pulling the "we are the same, you and i" trope to minimize his responsibility. also further guilting them by writing a song about how they "abused" them. description: "Emotional abuse is just as bad as physical. Ask for help." (fun fact, i discovered this song before my birthday and related to it so much. it brought me to tears. fucked up it was used against someone in a moment of manipulation to make his target feel bad. peep the suicidal ideations in the lyrics)

ludo using an incident in their life against them:

"i miss you. also not like that matters" passive aggression and guilt trips.

gaslighting about spies. guilt trips. also admitting to using exes' names in his storylines.

more guilt trips. more gaslighting. more excuses for exhausting his partner.

projection: "you just have this mentality where you constantly deny that you've hurt people so you can feel better about yourself." gaslighting by trying to make their ex's friend sound like they would "throw [them] under the bus in a heart beat")

here ludo is guilting their ex friend from above on line for not spending enough time with them:

self deprecation used to manipulate them.

here is a diagram shown to me by one of ludo’s ex friends:

they further detail their testimony in this google doc and the text messages (between ludo and one of the members who pulled their role peacefully while ludo tried to say they were kicked) below will show you exactly what they mean:

using other peoples’ feelings to manipulate them:

dismissing the stress they are under with real life, gaslighting by saying they haven't done the effort when they are clearly burnt out. aggression:

guilt trips:

pushing them away. guilt trips. using others feelings to manipulate them. gaslighting by asking a clearly passive aggressive question and saying it's "genuine":

"i'm just relaying my personal frustrations" when he already has time and time again. let it go, damn. give them a break. stop being overbearing.

passive aggression. implying he means less to them when they are saying their friend put it into words they could understand.

blaming them coping with his abuse on them. that's like telling someone shouldn't retaliate to abuse because their retaliation is "hurtful" YOU DON'T GET TO TELL THE PEOPLE YOU ABUSE TO NOT RETALIATE AGAINST YOUR ABUSE.

twisting words. not taking responsibility for his lack of understanding and instead saying "what you said came off the wrong way". not their fault that you didn't get it.

this. THIS is what sent me. how DARE you use your mutual disorder as a way to guilt and manipulate. i have the same exact disorder as well and guess what? all THREE of us are different people. and don't say "change who i am" as if it's a BAD THING. YOU are the reason everyone leaves you. YOU are the reason no one wants to be around you. YOU are the reason you can't keep stable friendships. YOU DON'T GET TO FUCKING PULL THAT BULLSHIT. if you care for someone you will work on your goddamn self. you expect everyone else to change for you, but you can't do the same goddamn thing? IF YOU GAVE A SHIT YOU'D STOP THE BEHAVIOR THAT IS HURTING THE PEOPLE YOU CLAIM TO CARE ABOUT. FULL. FUCKING. STOP.

guilt trips. pity.

condescension. lose lose situation.

"IT WAS A JOOOOOOOOOKE" excuse. "but whatever. i hope whatever has you in a bad mood gets better and you feel better" passive aggression. pretending to care. fake comradery.

"you gaslight me" is a form of gaslighting, especially when there IS NO GASLIGHTING. this is also an example of projection. making them walk on eggshells.

"i'm willing to sort it out of you stop being defensive" punishment and reward. "i'm sorry IF..." not taking responsibility. "this was my response" ie: this is your fault i'm acting this way, when he is the abusive one. "you constantly use my natural reaction as your excuse for not being around..." YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR REACTIONS WHEN YOU ARE THE ABUSER. STOP HAVING THIS "this is me take it or leave it" ATTITUDE AND THEN WONDER WHY EVERYONE FUCKING LEAVES YOU.

gaslighting. trying to say they were not coming around BEFORE he started calling them a shit friend.

"we both act some type of way when we're hurt and you know it" gaslighting, using their mutual disorder against them. AGAIN. YOU (ludo), ME AND THEM ARE THREE DIFFERENT PEOPLE WITH THE SAME DISORDER. stop acting like y'all the same goddamn PERSON. stop PROJECTING YOUR SHITTY ACTIONS ONTO OTHERS. "not even saying this to be a bitch" the "NO OFFENSE, BUUUUT" tactic to "lessen the blow" of the shitty thing he's about to say. USING OTHER PEOPLE AGAINST THEM, AGAIN.

"it's the only way i know how to be" THEN CHANGE IT. GET HELP. STOP USING YOUR DISORDER AS A WAY TO GET AWAY WITH SHIT. therapy isn't a con, you are.

and then, after he knows he has no control over people, he pesters.

an ex friend requested this be used at the end. i feel it sums up the feelings of everyone ludo has wronged quite well.

#roleplayer.me #rp.me #condemnthem

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sickwomantheory · 5 years

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Hedva’s Disability Access Rider

August 22, 2019

Over the last few years, I’ve received more and more invitations to speak and/or perform at arts and literary institutions (often internationally). In doing these events, I’ve learned a lot about my own capacity and how working with institutions tends to go. So that we can work together better, now, when I am invited somewhere, the first thing I do in response is send my Disability Access Rider.

Accessibility is just starting to take root in how institutions understand and work with disabled artists and communities. They’ve often never heard of “access intimacy” before, or if they have, they don’t know what it means in actual practice. I’ve found that my access rider is often the first of its kind that they've seen.

I decided to make my access rider public because many people have asked to see it, and I’ve heard from a range of folks—from other crip artists, to abled curators who want to work with us—that this document has been a useful model for them.

I welcome anyone who wants to use this as a template for your own rider, or to share with institutions who invite you to do stuff. And I invite anyone working within the institution to use it too. Please copy/paste and circulate!

—

Hedva’s Disability Access Rider

Thank you for inviting me to contribute to your event! I am disabled, so for me to be able to participate, I need support from my hosts. I also require the events I’m part of to be accessible to the disabled community.

This means that we’re going to have to embark on access intimacy together (if you don’t know what that is, please click here to read this article by Mia Mingus). Before I can commit to that process with you—and honey, it is a process!—please take a moment to read the below, and let me know how you can support each item. If you need more specifics about any component, ask me. I’m happy to clarify and assist where I can. If you can’t provide something on this list, let’s have a conversation about it. I am more interested in accessibility as something for which we work together, rather than a punitive standard I measure you against.

Below my requirements is a list of references that give more insight to where I’m coming from.

0. Money—

Access should not be funded solely by me, the disabled individual (e.g., taken out of my fee or production/materials/travel budget), but shared with the institution, and/or city, state, and/or federal funding. The fact that it is often funded by me, in more ways than just financial, signals how inaccessible the world is. Please join me in carrying this weight.

1. For scheduling—

I require all of the below to be confirmed and agreed upon by contract at least three weeks before the event takes place. Trust me, the more time there is to work out all the logistics, the better. Accessibility takes a really long time and it’s messy af!

(For the commission of new work, or an event that requires a more long-term relationship, we’ll need to have a conversation about time.)

I require at least 48 hours after arriving to acclimate before I can participate in any public events. I’ll need to fly home the day after the event.

2. For the entirety of the trip—

I require a care person to assist me. I cannot travel alone. I prefer to bring a care person with me, because we will already have a relationship and they will know what is needed. Their travel, lodging, food, and transportation must be paid for by the host, as mine are.

3. For air travel—

The flight cannot depart before 15:00. The airport cannot be more than one hour away from my house. Nonstop is preferred. If a layover must happen, it cannot be longer than two hours. I need to be picked up from, and taken to, the airport. I must have an aisle seat on the flight, because I use a cane. This has to be booked in advance. On transatlantic flights, I require an economy seat with extra leg room, premium economy, or business class. Depending on my health, sometimes I require wheelchair assistance at the airport. Please check with me about this before booking flights.

4. For lodging—

I require my own room, bed, and private bathroom in a non-smoking room that has a window. I prefer hotels to air bnbs. The lodging has to be a reasonable distance from where the event will take place. I require an elevator if there are more than two flights of stairs. I require meals to be paid for by my host. My food allergies/intolerances are: no nuts, seeds, shellfish, cephalopods.

5. For the event itself—

I cannot participate in anything before 16:00. I, and my audience, cannot sit for longer than 90 minutes without a 15-minute break. I require a dressing room/backstage area, and would not be bothered if fresh flowers appeared there. On the stage, I require a cushioned chair with a back for the entire event; I cannot stand.

6. For the accessibility of the event—

I require that the event take place in a wheelchair accessible space, no exceptions. I require every effort be made to provide both CART and sign language interpretation for the event; at least one of these has to happen. I require all-gender restrooms at the space. I require spaces to be as scent-free as possible (see reference below for more info). If someone makes an access request, I require that the hosts make every effort to provide it.

If you can’t provide what’s been requested, tell me with enough time before the event so that we can find a solution.

7. For the publicity of the event—

I require that the accessibility information of the event be posted with all materials that include my name. This includes information about parking, elevators, wheelchair and all-gender accessible restrooms, CART, and ASL interpretation during the event. Best practice is to be transparent and as detailed as possible about how the space is, and is not, accessible.

For example, if there is one step, anywhere in the space, say so and where it is, and if there are any additional routes. For example, if only CART is being provided and not ASL, say so. For example, if the parking is a five-minute walk, or a fifteen-minute walk, from the space, say so. For example, if the space must be kept at a noticeably cold temperature, as it is in most archives, say so (in this case, I’ve seen an institution provide blankets: a good idea!).

A contact email and/or phone number must be posted with all materials that include my name, in order for people to request specific access items.

8. For the documentation of the event—

I require open/closed captioning of all video documentation. I require textual image descriptions (alt text) for all photos posted online. I reserve the right to approve all final language published that includes my name. NOTE: I use they/them/their pronouns.

9. In case—

Because I have chronic illnesses, I may have to cancel the trip at the last moment if I have a flare. This doesn’t happen often, but it has happened. If there’s a way that I am able to participate remotely, I will.

10. For the future—

It would be so cool, and you’d make me and my friends and many others very happy, and you’d increase the attendance of your events by a lot, and you’d become a working part of building the kind of world that needs to be built, if you would follow this document not just for me, but for all your work in the future.

References—

Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice, by Carolyn Lazard

Access Intimacy, and Crip Solidarity, by Mia Mingus

Access Docs for Artists website, by Leah Clements, Alice Hattrick, and Lizzy Rose (the resources listed there are for the UK)

Fragrance Free Femme of Colour Genius, by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Thank you to Neve Mazique Bianco, Carolyn Lazard, Park McArthur, Constantina Zavitsanos, Amalle Dublon, and Jordan Lord for their support and feedback.

#johanna hedva #disability access

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seasonal-spuffy · 6 years

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LIVEJOURNAL FOR SCOOBIES #5: HOW TO POST AN ENTRY (TO SEASONAL_SPUFFY)

Join me on a new voyage of the mind as I make 2 mock posts for the LiveJournal community seasonal-spuffy, taking screenshots all the way.

This post might be of use to people who want to know how to make LiveJournal posts in general, but most of the specifics will be Seasonal Spuffy guidelines. If you’re only interested in Seasonal Spuffy guidelines, try the community profile.

Note: the LiveJournal version of this post might be easier to read. https://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/631381.html

STEP 0: Things to do before posting to Seasonal Spuffy

Create a LiveJournal account (sometimes, we’ve allowed participation elsewhere, but the Fall 2018 round only happens on LiveJournal);

join the community (currently optional, but makes posting easier);

(optional!) sign up for a posting day;

or wait for the free-for-all days: Nov. 22&25, Dec. 1&2 for Fall 2018;

create a new Spuffy work of almost any kind (detailed guidelines here).

STEP 1: Open the post editor

Click “Post to Community” or a pencil icon at the top of the recent entries page of the comm, or click “Post New Entry” in the top right corner of any LJ page.

There are currently 2 post editors.

The new post editor may look like home if you’re used to tumblr. It looks like in screenshots 27-28, and it produces posts that are formatted like this. If you start in the new post editor and change your mind, click "Switch to old version" at the bottom of the page. Your post-in-progress will open in the legacy editor. You cannot switch back with the same post.

The legacy editor has 2 modes - visual editor and HTML. You can switch between them freely, using tabs at the top of the area where you write your post. In the mobile version of the site, you only get the HTML editor. Compared to the new post editor, the legacy editor gives you much more control over formatting, and it lets you preview the entry before you post.

Most of the screenshots in this tutorial post are from the legacy editor.

STEP 2: Select the community

See screenshot 18. If the community isn’t set, click “To Community” above the subject line of your entry-in-progress and select seasonal_spuffy.

STEP 3: Write a title (”subject”)

Ideally, the title describes your entry. Here are three good examples:

Four Banners

Icons: Night & Day

Fic: Buffy and the Bloodmobile (2 of 4)

However, any entry title you like is fine as long as the entry has a header.

STEP 4: Fill in the header (the version for fic)

If you're posting fic, please fill out this header at the top of your post: Title: Author: Era/season/setting: Rating: See screenshot 20. For "title" and "author", please give us the info that you’d like us to use when we link to your entry.

You might need to add another header line for warnings:

if your entry includes Spike/Other or Buffy/Other pairings;

if your entry is explicit/ not safe for work.

You can continue the header if you want, e.g. add a line for "Author's Note".

STEP 4: Fill in the header (the version for art etc.)

If you’re posting art or other work, the basic header is only 2 lines: Title: Creator:

We will use this title and name when we link to your entry.

You might need to add another header line for warnings:

if your entry includes Spike/Other or Buffy/Other pairings;

if your post is explicit/ not safe for work.

You can continue the header with other info if you want.

STEP 5: Insert your work (the version for fic)

The visual editor preserves formatting if you paste text into it. Sometimes, it keeps too much, like the font or the background color. If you want to find out whether this happened, scroll to the bottom of the page and PREVIEW. If there’s too much formatting and you feel like cleaning the post up, you have 2 options:

paste text without formatting instead (paste in the HTML editor, or right-click in the visual editor and Paste as Plain Text, or copy from Notepad),

or, after pasting into the visual editor, switch to the HTML editor and remove the formatting tags that you don’t want.

See screenshot 20 and 21 for an example.

STEP 5: Insert your work (the version for artwork)

See screenshot 22. After clicking the image icon in the toolbar, I dragged and dropped the image from my computer, set image size to 600 pixels, and put a checkmark in “Add a link to fullsize picture” so that people can click my image to view it in full size. I left the other settings as they are. Then, I clicked “Insert Pictures”.

The visual editor now shows an image in the entry, while the HTML editor shows some link code where I can insert descriptive alt text and hover text for the image if I like.

As an alternative to uploading, you can insert an image from various hosting sites by selecting “Paste URL” or one of the other options.

STEP 6 (optional): Add some end notes

If you like, you can add some notes below your work, like credit for images used. Screenshot 23 shows how to add a link.

STEP 7: Add a cut

Cuts are “read more” links that will hide parts of the entry when people see the entry in a feed. Cuts are a big deal on LiveJournal, and you should use them.

For Seasonal Spuffy, cuts are required for all stories, large graphics, and NSFW content. You can’t go wrong if you just “cut” everything except the header.

Unlike tumblr, where a “read more” link hides everything from that point onwards, LiveJournal cuts have both a beginning and an end.

To add a cut in the visual editor:

Highlight the part you want to hide.

Click the scissors icon "Insert Cut" in the toolbar (screenshot 24).

Change the "Read more" text if you like or just click Insert.

See if there are cut lines now: dotted lines with little scissor images (screenshot 25).

To add a cut in the HTML editor:

Add before the part you need to cut and after it,

OR highlight text and click the Insert Cut icon. This will add the cut code.

To add a cut in the new post editor:

Go to an empty new line at the start of the section you want to hide.

A toolbar should open (see screenshot 27). Click the scissors icon to add the start of the cut.

Then go to an empty line where the cut should end.

In the toolbar, click the scissors icon again to add the end of the cut.

STEP 8: Add tags

Please add these kinds of tags to your Seasonal Spuffy entry:

creator (creator: yourusername with your username)

form (form: banner/wallpaper/manip, form: fanmix, form: fic, form: icons, form: meta/recs, form: other art, form: poetry, form: vid)

era (era: ats s5, era: btvs s1,..., era: btvs s7, era: comics canon, era: indeterminate, era: post-series, era: pre-series)

rating (rating: nc-17, rating: other)

(optional) genre - for fic if applicable (genre: alternate reality, genre: amnesia, genre: baby/kid/parent fic, genre: crossover, genre: holiday, genre: post-apocalyptic, genre: shanshu!Spike, genre: time travel, genre: vamped character, genre: wishverse)

You don’t have to memorize these tags. If you type the first part of the tag, like “era”, the available options will show in a dropdown. See screenshot 25. You can also click “select” and see all the available tags for the community.

If you're posting for the first time, your creator tag might not be available yet. That's okay - we will add it later.

If tags bewilder you, it's okay to skip this step or skip some kinds of tags. The mods can clean the tags up for you. If there’s enough time, it’s also okay to ask for help. :) You can contact one of the mods, like thenewbuzwuzz or Rebcake, or email [email protected], send us an ask here, etcetera.

STEP 9 (optional): Preview

Once you're done, it's a good idea to click the white button "Preview Entry" at the bottom of the post editor (see screenshot 26). This option is only available in the legacy editor. The preview will open in a new window, and you'll have to close it and return to the editor to finish posting your entry.

You can't see cuts when you preview a post, because they won’t be visible when your post is open. This is normal.

If you have time and you want to make absolutely sure everything is fine before making the real post, you could make a private test post on your journal. The option to make the entry private is under Security near the bottom of the window, and you’d have to edit the “Post” settings at the top to post to your journal. After that, if you see everything *is* fine, you can open that post for editing, go into the HTML editor, and copy everything for posting to the community.

STEP 10: Post

Double-check the text on the blue “post” button right before you post. The button caption should say “POST TO SEASONAL_SPUFFY”.

For Seasonal Spuffy entries, we don’t require you to do anything with the various settings that are available directly before posting. See screenshot 26 for an explanation of what some of them would do if you did use them.

If your entry is finished but it’s not yet your posting day/ not a free-for-all day, you can schedule the entry to be posted on the right day.

To schedule, use the setting "Date" at the top of the post editor.

Right after you schedule, LiveJournal will offer to view the post, and it will kind of look like it's already posted. If you go to the main page of the community, you should be able to see it's not there yet.

If we're between rounds and we've turned entry moderation on, you won't be able to schedule an entry. You can contact us (message a mod, e.g. thenewbuzwuzz, email [email protected], or get in touch with us elsewhere), and we can change the setting. Currently, in November 2018, you can schedule.

STEP 11 (optional): Check and fix as needed

It’s a good idea to look at your entry in the recent entries page of the community, so that you can see if the cut worked.

To edit your entry if necessary, hover over its title in the recent entries page and select the pencil icon on the right, or click the title to open the entry, then select the pencil icon in the row of icons above the title. After editing, click the blue button "Save Entry" at the bottom of the page.

In case of urgent problems posting, message one of the mods, for example, thenewbuzwuzz or teragramm; or email [email protected], or comment on one of the latest mod posts on LiveJournal.

If you have time and you prefer to figure things out on your own, try the LiveJournal FAQ.

See the community profile for more information on how the community works.

If you have other questions about the event or posting, please feel free to ask!

#sorry about that optimistic promise on Sunday. ''a day or two''#long post #seasonal spuffy #mod post #livejournal #tutorials #btvs

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choclette8 · 4 years

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Individual cakes are always popular. Something to do with their cuteness and that the cake is just for you. There’s no need to share. They’re a good introduction to baking for kids and great for bake sales too.

#CookBlogShare

#CookBlogShare is a weekly linky party where the food love is liberally shared. We have a look, possibly a taster and comment on each other’s posts. If you have a recipe to share, this is the place to do it.

Yes, it’s me doing a round-up once again. I still miss those #WeShouldCocoa days. Thanks to everyone who shared recipes in last week’s linky. There’s plenty there to get my teeth into. But this week I’m highlighting individual cakes.

Recently on Tin and Thyme

With so many of us at home now, baking has never been so popular. I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it really hard to get hold of flour, yeast and eggs. With this in mind I recently posted thirty egg-free cake recipes that you might find useful.

There are other ingredients that are hard to get hold of at the moment too and lots of us are relying on store cupboard staples. My easy one pot ramen is not only tasty, but it’s really quick to make. Fifteen minutes from start to finish is pretty impressive for a delicious and nutritious home cooked meal.

Spring is a wonderful time. Thank goodness for the lovey sunshine we’ve been experiencing over these past few weeks. It does make staying at home a lot easier. As dandelions carpet the grass and fields, my recipe for dandelion honey has become very popular. It tastes just like honey, only it’s much cheaper. It’s a useful alternative for vegans too.

Finally, this time of year can’t go without a mention of one of my favourite spring crops, rhubarb. We recently harvested the first sticks from our new allotment. And really, there was only one thing to make with them – rhubarb crumble.

Easy To Make Individual Cakes

I’ve highlighted four individual cakes here which are perfect for all of the reasons mentioned at the top. All of them are super easy to make and ideal for both young and old.

Orange & Raspberry Friands

So lets start off with some fancy friands from Gluten Free Alchemist. These orange & raspberry friands may seem a bit posh, but they’re incredibly easy to make and taste delicious. They’re also great for using up any leftover egg whites.

Kate says they may “look like posh cupcakes cupcakes. Indeed, I have seen them described as such on other websites… But trust me. These are not cupcakes. Their texture and flavour is altogether different“. As they’re mostly made with ground almonds, it’s easy to make them gluten-free.

Small Batch Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes are a classic and every baker will have their favourite recipe. As Cat from Curly’s Kitchen says though, you don’t always want as many as twelve. “For those times when you don’t want to bake a full batch of twelve cupcakes, these small batch vanilla cupcakes are perfect”.

Isn’t the swirly buttercream icing lovely?

Vanilla Butterfly Fairy Cakes

I said vanilla cakes were popular and here, just to prove the point, are some vanilla butterfly fairy cakes from Feast Glorious Feast. Chloe said butterfly cakes were the bake she most liked to make when she was a kid. “There was always something special about getting to cut the tops off little buns, add buttercream then create and stick the wings back on“.

Fairy cakes always make me feel nostalgic for days long gone. Days when the sun was always shining or there was enough snow around to make a proper snowman.

White Chocolate & Strawberry Flapjacks

OK, strictly speaking a flapjack isn’t a cake. But these white chocolate & strawberry flapjacks fit the bill in all other respects. They even have icing. As Kat from The Baking Explorer says, “the great things about flapjacks is that you don’t need flour or eggs to make them“. Now what was I just saying about hard to buy ingredients?

The flapjacks are made with dried strawberries and topped with a layer of white chocolate. That’s fancy enough for anyone I reckon.

Bread and Soup

If after all this sweet stuff, you’re craving something savoury. How about homemade bread and soup for lunch? I’m massively tempted by the two recipes from Jo’s Kitchen Larder this week. Wild garlic soup and easy wholemeal bread. Both are vegan and the bread is a no knead one.

Easy To Make Individual Cakes

I hope you enjoy this week’s #CookBlogShare and that you feel inspired by one of these recipes for individual cakes. They’ve certainly made me want to head to the kitchen and indulge in some baking.

For more delicious and nutritious recipes, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.

Four Individual Cakes. PIN IT.

#CookBlogShare 2020 Week 16

How to join in

You can link up any foodie posts you have. Both old and new posts are welcome as long as they have not been linked to #CookBlogShare before.

Link up a recipe or foodie post by clicking the blue ‘add your link’ button below and following the instructions. You can link up to 4 posts, either old or new.

Add a link from your post back to this post. This helps everyone else find it and link up too.

Add the #CookBlogShare badge to your post (code below – for WordPress copy and paste the code below into the text view of your post).

Comment on some of the other recipes linked up here (at least 2 for each link you add but the more you can the better) and generally share the love with a bit of social media action.

Comment on either this post or one of the posts labelled HOST in the linky.

Have fun and get ready to Cook Blog Share.

What you can expect

I will endeavour to visit every post that’s linked up this week and pin the recipes to the Pinterest #CookBlogshare board. I’ll try to comment on all of them too. You might even get some yums, flips or mixes.

If you tag me on Twitter at @choclette8 using the #CookBlogShare hashtag I’ll do my best to retweet.

I’m really looking forward to seeing all the recipes you share this week. Have fun and thank you for joining in with #CookBlogShare.

Share the love

By joining in you are giving the #CookBlogShare hosts permission to use your pictures in a round up and on social media, if your recipe is selected to be featured.

Please use #cookblogshare when sharing your recipes on Instagram. We could all do with some help there. Once you’ve posted, quickly hop over to the #CookBlogShare feed. Like as many as you can and comment on any that particularly catch your eye.

Do post your recipes on the Cook Blog Share Facebook Page if you’d like to.

Your host next week will be Jacqui at Recipes Made Easy.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Individual Cakes + #CookBlogShare 2020 Week 16 Individual cakes are always popular. Something to do with their cuteness and that the cake is just for you.

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wakraya · 7 years

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Hiveswap Review & Thoughts

I am going to try to keep this as Spoiler-Free as possible, but you can’t quite write a review without saying a few things, can you? Make sure you’ve finished Hiveswap if you do not want to get lightly spoilered!

1- Game Length: It took me 4 hours to finish, and even then I was kind of rushing the ending because I had to go to sleep soon and didn’t want to wait until the next day to actually finish the game! I also finished reading up to the end of Act 6 Act 3 in Homestuck in a week, so I’m a fairly speedy reader. I would say someone struggling a bit more with the Puzzles and taking their time to explore more of the world as they go, and specially someone talking while livestreaming this and such would spend a fair bit more going around. It was short-ish, but it was the first Act of 3 more to come, and served as more of an introduction. It’s good when a game leaves you wanting for more, it means it’s done its job and you feel it’s good. No complaints here, just as advertised, and, I am definitely going to go through it more times to catch little things I didn’t get and get alt-dialog.

2- Gameplay: Simple Point-And-Click, but with a few interesting things and a few wonky things. I may talk like Hiveswap is flawless, but while I loved it, there’s some things that could be improved upon. One of these is the scrolling, if you’re at the edge of the screen you’ll have to kind of click a few times to get the screen to move, since Joey will chase the edge and not let the camera properly settle. Still, it’s nothing major., but just a nitpick. Trying to interact with everything is fun and also functional! Sometimes a wrong solution to a puzzle will give you a hint to what you ACTUALLY need to be doing, which means trying everything with everything can be actually beneficial if you’re stuck! The Combat is simple but I like it, you and the monsters take turns to fight each other, doing actions that make it more akin to a puzzle of ‘how to get through here’ than a combat system. I didn’t die at any point, but judging by the previews, it’d seem choosing the wrong moves too many times will result in Joey getting defeated, which is nice to know it’s not all just rigged to let you win. On that vein, though, some of the Puzzles were quite simple, but I’ll let it slide because it’s just the beginning, and there were some more difficult headscratchers. Also, you can hoard quite a few things in the game, I wonder how will items you pick up earlier on come into play in other Acts?

3- Writing: Spot on, very Homestuck-y. The humor is great and there was a bunch of dialog and description text that made me laugh out loud or left me feeling very, very sorry for some character in particular. Lore-wise, we got a little bit of exposition on Troll Culture that I found quite fascinating, as well as some lore from Earth. But most importantly, it made me care about Joey, Jude and Xefros, and it definitely made me want more of the game, so that’s good! For newcomers to Homestuck itself, there’s a lot of references that may go over their head, but they would not be any more confused about it than Homestuck readers getting to Act 5 and being introduced to all that Troll Exposition. Talking about Moirailship, and the weird words Trolls use for some things might take a bit to get used to, but if you like intricate words for stupid things, it’s very much enjoyable.

4- Graphics: The style is absolutely gorgeous, the game’s movement and Joey’s animations are lovely and expressive, the cutscenes made out of stills are lovely as well, and the ones that are actually animated are badass and I love them all. It’s as Cohen said. “We didn’t think the 3D felt like Homestuck. The Concept Art, the Sketches. Those felt like Homestuck.” And so they did. They took the concept art and refined it into beautiful backgrounds to go with the characters. Everything looked great, and every animation was great. The least animated thing I feel was Xefros’ Lusus- Which, given it’s a Sloth and suuuuuper slow? Made me actually crack up. Like. “Oh my god, it’s so slow even his animation has less frames.”

5- Music: Gorgeous, it was very ambiental and set the mood, whether it was exploring a house, whimsical Troll Weirdness, accompanying a Cutscene or a more tense moment, it fit the game. Leimotifs are already strong in this one and I even heard a few references to Homestuck music! So I am very happy with the work James and Toby put on this, and I’m gonna listen the SHIT out of the Soundtrack.

6- Bugs: Here’s where it gets a little bit complicated. The first bug I had was at the Intro Screen, when I realised the resolution was fucked. There was some issue with clicking and getting dialog again instead of the dialog option shutting entirely- But this problem was fixed entirely by reinstalling. I don’t know if it was an issue of the game or the download, but reinstalling fixed that and didn’t bother me at all for the rest of the game. Other than that? The very first transition from one side to the other of Joey’s room freezes the game momentarily for some reason, and takes a little bit longer to load the background when you look outside of Joey’s window. It obviously has to do something with fetching the resources in time, but I have no idea why it’d happen. Other than that, I went through the game with absolutely no issues, until a minor cutscene didn’t want to play. Thankfully it wasn’t anything important, but it still bummed me out a little bit. This, however, seems to be extremely subjective to your PC and Operative System! A friend played through without a single hiccup. Another said their copy was a bit of a mess, and I recommended they uninstall it. A discussion on the page said some got a little white screen on the basement, where I had no issues, others said the intro cutscene froze much like the one that didn’t play for me. Given the disparity, I feel it has something to do with PC specs or something weird with the download, but still I am hoping they will address these very soon when they have enough information about what causes the errors. Ah, the first few days after a release before they patch things up. :^)

Overall, my experience was very positive! I like Hussies’ writing, and Cohen definitely captured his brand of humor. There was sad exposition, there was fun exposition, there was a little bit of character development as well and it’s only Act 1! Also Cohen mentioned he wanted to do a lot of character interactions in Act 2- And given they said your choices affect the game, I am expecting it to be significantly bigger than Act 1, merely based on the fact you’ll spend a loooot of time chatting with other Trolls! If Hiveswap goes the Homestuck route, maybe each Act gets exponentially larger. Wouldn’t that be a thing?

If you’re having biiiig issues with the game, please try re-installing the game! And if that isn’t working, either hope they patch things up quickly, or if you’re able to, try installing it on a different computer with a different OS!

I personally think the 5-year wait was worth it. There were some little misshaps here and there, but it was well polished, looked gorgeous, and was fun to play. At no point did I feel it dragged on, and it left me wanting more out of the game without feeling short or rushed. For people picking it up not knowing about Homestuck or the 5-year wait, they can experience something great without having any expectations, and if they really like the writing, Homestuck is out there to read in its entirety, so I feel it’s a very good entry-level thing for the Fandom as a whole!

Overall, I would give it a 8.5 out of 10. I would’ve given it a 9 if there hadn’t been a few bugs that bothered some of my friends, but everything else was solid, well put together and a lot of fun. I have a lot more thoughts and theories I’ll share on a different post, and I’m not even close to done with this thing, I’ve gotta replay it a few more times and there’s 3 entire Acts AND a sibling game coming at one point so.

Who knows, maybe that 8.5 can get even higher by the time everything is released.

Also I’m putting my money on Act 2 being released somewhere in January, to perpetuate the ‘Hiveswap January’ meme.

#Hiveswap #Hiveswap Spoilers #HS Spoilers #Spoilers #Review #Hiveswap Review #Wakraya

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stimtoybox · 7 years

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Image Descriptions

I’ve got two asks by anons on the same theme, so I’ll combine them into one post to save a few spoons:

Hi! I was wondering if you had a guide for writing image descriptions? Something outlining how much detailed is needed and what should and should no be included, any tips really. Thanks!

hi! i had a couple of questions about image descriptions; do you have/have a link to a guide on how to write them properly (eg. amount of detail, how to write multiple image descriptions on one post and still be clear etc)? and if we dont have the spoons for a full description, would a simple/basic desc (eg: "a jar of blue orbeez on a wooden desk" w/ no more detail) help by giving the mods a starting point to edit from rather than writing from scratch or would it be a hindrance?

This is actually a hard question for me to answer, because it asks me to do something I do without thinking - convert non-word information into words. In all honesty, my first response was well, just describe it which is so not helpful to anyone. For me, this is like asking someone to explain how they fall asleep - it’s an automatic process that doesn’t involve a lot of conscious decision-making.

So I let both asks lie fallow for a few days until I got past the not helpful first response and figured out what it is I actually do when I describe.

I’ll also observe that while I do need image descriptions myself (for GIFs and videos) I am not the primary target for them, so there might be needs I have forgotten or overlooked. I’m in the position of needing descriptions but still having full access to reading the text, so there’s probably a lot of issues folks who use screen readers face that I haven’t included. Please correct me if so.

First: any description is better than no description.

If you only have spoons for one line, do it and call it done, seriously. Yes, a more detailed description is preferable, but when you look at the vast amount of undescribed posts on Tumblr alone, if even a brief descriptive line makes those posts more accessible, we’re better off. We need to make Tumblr a more accessible place for everyone, so every little bit makes a difference.

(Speaking for my needs here at @stimtoybox, I can always add a description line if there’s something I think needed that the OP has left out, and I have done this in the past. That’s still less work than my having to do it myself, and I’m pretty sure the other mods will agree. Anything that means less work for us means more posts for everyone else. Right now, I have the posts to go up to posting five or six times a day easily, but we can’t format them fast enough to do so.)

I’ve tucked everything else behind a read-more cut. This is a long post and is probably best read when one has time and spoons on hand:

Second: you do not and should not describe every tiny detail in an image.

Look at an image long enough and you’ll see a chapter’s worth of detail you can describe, but nobody wants to read through or listen to a whole chapter just to know what’s in the image. To be blunt, nobody cares about the fine grain detail of the table on which your stress ball is sitting. They’re more interested in the pattern on the stress ball.

We need to describe in more detail the relevant information and in less detail the incidental information. This is all the more important for describers with limited spoons, like most of us, but it’s also important for folks who need the descriptions but don’t have the spoons to read a paragraph for one relevant sentence.

To figure out what’s description-worthy, as in what the majority of your description should focus on, you might want to ask yourself these questions:

- Who is the image for?

- What is the image about?

Take any photo on this blog as an example: this photo is for stimmers, about a given stim toy, and its purpose is to show people what this toy looks like and, often, how it might be used. That tells you immediately what your focus is. Often, it’s the central object in the image, as we have a long history of indicating importance by putting something in the centre of a composition. However, it could also be several stim toys or people; chances are high that any single image is actually about a few different things at once.

Next, we move on to details we think people are going to want to know:

- What do the subjects of the image look like?

This can be broken down into a few different categories:

- Colour: what colour or colours is the subject?

- Shape: is it rounded? Angular? Cube, rectangular, circular? How many different shapes comprise it?

- Texture: is it soft? Hard? Fuzzy? Prickling? Protruding?

- Size: how much bigger, longer or wider is the subject compared to any other items in the photograph?

(Stim toy review shots often have the toy beside a coin or credit-card-sized card for scale, so describe the difference between that item and the toy.)

- Text: is there any text in the image, particularly on labels, signs or packaging? Include this, especially if it conveys meaningful information!

- Material: plastic? Wool? Wood? Metal? How many different materials comprise it? How is it put together?

- Expression: does it look happy? Sad? Indifferent?

Less relevant for stim toys, more relevant for animals/people. I don’t just mean facial expression here, but body language as well. The difference between a dog growling and a dog lying on its side sunbaking is something people will want to know.

Next,

- Is there anything in the background that impacts the subject?

For stim toys, this often isn’t the case. You can write a short line referencing the background or, if you need to save spoons, exclude it. This is where you don’t need to go full-on detail, because it isn’t necessary to the information the image is trying to impart. A reference is good, as it goes some way to giving the reader the whole visual experience, but this shouldn’t be the focus of your description if it has nothing or little to do with the subject. Contrarily, for a landscape shot of mountains, the background is as much the subject if not the subject, so it should be described with more detail.

- Is there anything in your description irrelevant to the subject?

For example, glare, flash, an out-of-focus shot, two sentences describing the wood grain of the table on which the Tangle is sitting. If your description is already tending to the long (more than a paragraph), these are the sorts of things that are first to be cut because they don’t aid in conveying meaning. If you do include these things in your description, keep them to brief mentions: they should not be the focus.

- Is my description too long to be readable?

The general rule is this: the longer the description, the more incidental/extraneous detail you need to cut (and the more formatting it will need, see below). The more photos in one post, like a long photoset, the more you need to cut detail that isn’t absolutely relevant, since nobody is going to read or listen to ten paragraphs of description about said photoset.

This is why I dislike information posts here on Tumblr that contain upwards of say ten images: they’re difficult to describe properly without creating an essay-length description that even folks who need that description won’t bother accessing. Conversely, the amount of information needed to be cut to make the description readable means the folks who need those descriptions just aren’t getting enough information. The very format of these posts makes them impossible to make fully accessible.

(It’s different on other websites, especially for things like tutorials and essays, where you can put the description as alt text and it’s broken up by the body text itself. When you’re forced to put image descriptions as one separate section of text, as here on Tumblr, it is a problem.)

If you want your post to convey information and be accessible to the majority of people, consider the amount of images in your post. This post is an example of why a large amount of images render the post, when described, absolutely inaccessible. You’re better off to make a few smaller posts, that can be described with readable/listenable descriptions, than one massive post, even if you tuck the descriptions under a read more.

Lastly,

- What is the image trying to convey to its audience?

This is less relevant for stim toys, more relevant for photos of animals/people, comics, anything where the image is doing more than conveying factual information. When an image is telling a story, check if the factual descriptions do communicate that story. Your description should be doing, as much as possible, the job of the image, which means conveying information or telling a story.

When describing, keep asking yourself: if I couldn’t see this image, what would I want to know? A description that answers that question without becoming an essay is a good description.

Third: formatting is important.

Paragraphing: in most cases, anything more than ten lines a paragraph will result in nobody reading it. Humans have short attention spans, even more so for non-fiction/non-creative/informative writing, like web writing. Not to mention that many disabilities make processing slabs of text difficult if not impossible. If your description runs longer than ten lines, break it up somewhere. Also, if you need to break up your paragraph, that’s a good sign that your description might be long enough to go under a read more cut.

Make sure you’ve got a line space between each paragraph. Anyone who reads your description (me, for example, if you’ve described a GIF) is used to the standard online formatting of a line space between paragraphs, and just starting a new line throws off the brain’s ability to realise you’ve paragraphed. It will still look like an unreadable block of text, and I can promise you that I won’t read it (can’t read it, in fact). Which is a waste of your time, sadly, since you mean the best, but that’s how much formatting does matter.

(Tumblr mostly adds line spaces between paragraphs automatically for you if you’re typing in rich text mode; you’ll need to add the HTML for paragraphs if you’re in HTML mode. Just add <p> to the start and </p> to the end of each paragraph.)

Indicating: use some indication (usually the words “image description” and brackets) that the description is not the body text, as that signals to sighted readers that they can skip past it. I use squared brackets [] because they’re not in common use in prose/non-mathematical text. I dislike the use of rounded brackets () because they’re in common use, so my brain thinks the description is body text. I realise it a few seconds later, but if we can tell the brain immediately that the text is optional, it’s easier on the reader, especially if they have limited spoons for text processing.

This one is subtle editing; I know most people don’t think about how much text formatting guides and alerts the reader, but there’s a reason we stick to some norms in English. The brain gets very used to certain styles and punctuation conveying meaning, and folks with developmental disorders in particular might find it hard to understand meaning without these cues or have to work harder to get that meaning. Speaking from personal experience!

Numbering: in most cases for multi-image posts, you’ll need to mentally assign a number to the post (left to right, top to bottom) and describe those pictures in order. This is for folks who can see images but need the text to help with processing; if they’re not in order, it’s ridiculously confusing. Start each description with the number of that photo and break each description up into a new paragraph. Here’s an example on my sensory room post.

The exception for this is when there’s only a few images or those images aren’t very different from each other. Then, to save spoons (as I have few myself) I’ll describe the subject of the image and then how it differs in each photo, often in a single paragraph. Here’s an example on a slime post. I admit that this is a less-clear way of describing, but it saves a few spoons!

I’m sure there’s something I’ve forgotten, anons, but this has taken me quite a few spoons. If there’s something confusing or there’s a question I haven’t properly answered, ask and I’ll do my best to answer/answer properly.

Likewise, if folks who use screen readers want to add corrections or changes, please do so!

- Mod K.A.

#ask #text #not a toy #off topic #discussion post #accessibility discussion #long post #very long post #mod K.A.

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wherewillyoubeinayear · 5 years

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Madainn mhath! (Welcome)

I am sure many of you here have gathered that I am in love with Scotland. Not to say there are not many other beautiful and incredible countries, which I know there are, but Scotland holds my heart. With that said, let’s get into the tip and hints for traveling in Scotland (and a bit of England).

Being alone teaches you how to take the best selfies!!

Back to being alone. It is not a BAD thing! Yes, it is so nice for someone else to see what you see but the feeling of freedom to go and do as you please when you please is amazing. If you stay a bit longer in one place vs. another, it is only you that you answer too. Ok, that is out of the way…. onward.

1. As mentioned before plan ahead, this includes planning during the trip. Things happen, changes occur. Be flexible and understand that weather, timing, closures, or too many people can affect your destination. Take it in stride, so with planning, have a backup plan or plan B and or plan C. It helps to know where these alternatives places are with all the pertinent information needed.

2. Be prepared for a change in weather. I live in Southern California, where rain is not a common thing, but in Scotland rain just turns on and off light a faucet and with rain comes mud so be prepared. It is a normal way of life for the good people of Scotland, but we SoCal peeps, well, it is fascinating. It’s also a bit colder here…

Chilly!

Bring an umbrella, travel size is fine. They sell them at their local stores.

Bring an raincoat if you can. Lightweight. I found a great one online at QVC that I could roll up and tuck in my backpack, the only place if could not protect me 100% was on Iona, but hey it did it’s best. That rain was NO JOKE!!! This is me filming with my GoPro on the enchanting Isle of Iona… I took a bus to a ferry and let me tell you, this rain was intense.. so be prepared! http://www.welcometoiona.com/. I hope to go back!

3. You will be asked where you are from everywhere, just as we do to people we meet with different accents. If you are from America, many will tell you that they love it especially Las Vegas!. Some don’t care for America with big roads, big cars and lots of food and rude people. Depends are where you go, but there are good and bad everywhere. Mostly though, people were interested that I was a single female traveler from California and lived close to Disneyland, but asked how close was Las Vegas? Vegas has the appeal. Just and FYI, I sounded like a Canadian apparently, from British Columbia, so it must be the West Coast of North America that sounds similar.

4. The food is the same yet different. They did not have Tapatio or salsa. 🙂 I mentioned the lack of non dairy creamer for your coffee. They serve food in a different manner there. Fast food is not on every corner. I was glad for that. The larger cities had McDonalds and KFC and most towns had a subway, but the grocery store held many many choices of prepackaged foods. Here is a picture of my lovely lunch on the Isle of Iona.. delicious..

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Delicious chicken with salad greens

Must have some beer!!!

Dinner for sure in most places you need a “booking”, we call reservation. I must have looked pathetic because I managed to find a table when I would find out that I needed this. There is also eating right in the pub. Don’t forget the pint!!! Edinburgh caters to many people so there are so many food places to choose from, but the smaller towns, I am telling you go shopping, make a booking because there is no late night Taco Bell there!

5. If you love soda you have to try their local brew. Irn Bru!

Irn Bru!!!

It is not Fanta!.. definitely an acquired taste I must admit.

One of the best things I loved was the candy. I don’t know is sugar is better there or what, but YUMMY!! Cadbury all day and all night.

Cadbury!

I loved all the candy and the mints.. a necessary candy for all my train and bus rides. The mints helped with the nausea. So if you tend to get nauseated on cars, trains or buses, get some imperial mints..

6. Relish in the history. If you are a history buff then this is the country for you! Read all about the amazing castles, palaces, places of worship, battle and magic.

Linlithgow Palace

Scotland truly is magical. I felt so welcomed there, big cities are big cities. Yes, I got lost and found my way in more ways than one. Breathe in the air, admire the forestry. The sea, the ocean, rivers, lochs and streams. Always be prepared for weather! I can’t emphasize that enough.

7. Walking. This country is made for walking. Be prepared to walk. In Edinburgh alone I climbed more just walking from close to close. A close by the way is an alley. I was amazed at the local girls walking in 3 inch heels up and down these winding streets. Wear good shoes and or boots. I only used my tennis shoes twice the whole time I was there. I had my backpack and ass kicking boots as I referred to them. BREAK in your boots before you get there. I wore my boots to work about 6 months to have them perfect for my feet and wear good socks with the boots.

8. Showers. I have to mention this.

They are small. Most of the showers that I encountered where not our big giant showers with room for 10 bottles of shampoo and conditioner, even the bathtubs are smaller.

They have towel warmers and they are lovely. I never saw one in the hostels however!

The showers at hostels have timers. One minute to five it depends. Make these showers quick and make them count.

The sinks are not large and can’t hold all of your junk, so remember you don’t need as much as you think!

*** The heaters at least in B&B’s are on timers!!!!! so they shut off automatically during the night unless you let your host know that your freezing your buns off!!! Duvets are awesome at keeping you warm ***

9. While in Scotland….(or anywhere for that matter)

Be respectful!!

Clean up after yourself!

They say HIYA and Lovely a lot, you will pick on this in no time.

Follow the rules, that means if is says no pictures its means no. Lots of these old artifacts at castles get damaged from the flash photography.

Don’t touch if it says don’t touch. You dirty hands could damage a 500 year old relic.

Enjoy the atmosphere 🙂

Be careful watch out for the cars on the LEFT hand side!

Did I mention to be respectful?

Take as many pictures as you can where you can the country is gorgeous.

Have fun!!! try the Haggis.. you might like it!

Don’t forget your converter for electricity.

That deal you see in the window for just £5 it is really like $6.50 give or take the exchange rate.

Watch your words and gestures. The peace sign backwards has a whole new meaning and the word bonnie is not just someones name.. it’s actually a nice compliment.

Thank you for reading. If you have an questions about things I did not cover or would like more in depth answers, please send me your comments or suggestions and don’t forget to subscribe to get this site to hear about more interesting adventures!!

See you soon!

Beannachd leibh!

Sheri

#ilovescotland #scotland #tipsandhintsinscotlandpart2 #wherewillyoubeinayear #singlefemaletraveler Madainn mhath! (Welcome) I am sure many of you here have gathered that I am in love with…

#Adventurer #Dinner #Edinburgh #Food #Haggis #Linlithgow Palace #Rain #Scotland #Single Female Traveler #Travel #Traveling alone #Traveling Internationally

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welldresseddadblog · 5 years

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Please note: This is a review where I’m not going to test the Hövding airbag for cyclists in full. Don’t feel a surge of disappointment, the reason why will become apparent.

A few years ago I was dead set on finding a cycle helmet that didn’t make me look like a dork. I did find one, the Dashel, that I have happily used since, yet only in the warmer part of the year. Reason being that almost any form of helmet is very cold when the weather turns cold. And once you’re down to even single digit negative Celcius, you want something windproof and warm on your head. Which means that around here at least, keeping my head warm takes priority over protection large parts of the year. Hence why I was delighted and intrigued to discover the Hövding solution.

The Hövding airbag is a very clever and innovative alternative to helmets for cyclists, claiming to offer multiple times better safety than conventional helmets. If you’ve not seen it before, you’ll be wondering now how on earth this is meant to work, and it is quite surprising. You wear it as a quite thick collar, zipped up in front. And that’s it, apart from charging the internal battery after every 9 hours or so of use. Inside the collar, there are sensors that monitor your progress and if a dangerous situation occurs, an inflatable helmet enshrouds your head within 0.1 seconds. So between the time your bike crashes into something and your head hits the pavement, it’s totally protected. And it’s large enough to cover both your head and a reasonable sized warm hat. Score!

If you’re wondering why the device is called the “Hövding” I can only imagine it’s due to meaning “Chief” in Sweden, where the device originates from, in the manner of native Americans, and that when inflated it looks a little like the feathered headgear such a chief would wear.

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Overview of the Hövding airbag for cyclists.

The Hövding is activated by putting the zip snap button into the receptacle. At which point it beeps to let you know it’s on.

Recharging about every 9 hours by plugging in the micro-USB at the rear.

I’ve only used it a few times so far, but it feels fairly unobtrusive, insofar as a device weighing 0.65 kilos (roughly the same weight as a full pint glass of beer) and the shape and diameter of a slender underarm lying around your neck would be unobtrusive. Seriously though, once on you don’t think about it, as it lays well in place around your neck, with the main mechanism at the back. Putting it on requires no more effort than putting it in place and zipping up the front zip. To activate it you just put the zip pull into its popper and it gives a few beeps to let you know you’re protected. It also lets you know when it’s time to charge the batteries, via the built-in micro-USB port.

The Hövding airbag seen from the front, activated and ready.

Pros:

It is claimed to be multiple times safer in an accident than a conventional helmet.

It lets you cycle with more freedom to wear something other than a helmet on your head, which is a good point when it’s cold outside.

It deploys rapidly and covers the entire head.

The cover can be removed to clean it, or replaced with various other covers available from the maker (nothing in tweed though!)

Cons:

Unlike the Dashel, it’s hard to argue that the Hövding airbag actually adds style.

You can’t bring it along on aircraft, at all.

You can’t really leave it with your bike like you might do with a cheap helmet.

It does need charging up every 9 hours or so.

Only recommended down to -20C.

Hövding has only certified it up to a 59cm head circumference, which at the moment means that they don’t recommend it used for a larger (i.e. heavier head), though you can use it with a turban.

The Hovding airbag seen from the rear, showing the podlike part where the active bits lay. You can make out the charging port under the cover.

The big question is whether I’ll actually use it much. In all honesty, if I’m nipping out on the bike alone, I’ll most often go without a helmet. If I’m cycling with others, be they kids that need to be shown a good example or adults that will subject me to helmet shaming, I’ll wear a helmet. The Hövding does look notably unusual when you’re not wearing more than a t-shirt, but when more as a replacement for a scarf it will blend in better. Maybe it needs a more woollen cover to really make it attractive for Winter use?

Now, I started out by saying I’d not be doing a full test of the Hövding, and you probably see why now. I’ve managed to spend a decent few years on Earth without falling off my bike, so I’d prefer not to have to bang into something to prove the point. So I’ll leave you with one of a huge number of videos on Youtube that show the Hövding in action. Plus, costing around 250 pounds and non-reusable after deployment, it would be an expensive experiment, ok?

The Hövding appears widely available in bike shops, or direct from Hövding.

youtube

The Hövding airbag for cyclists, a totally different bike helmet solution #review #hovding #cycling #cycle #airbag #helmet #velo #cyclehelmet https://wp.me/p7WtT3-3jp Please note: This is a review where I'm not going to test the Hövding airbag for cyclists in full.

#airbag #cycle helmet #cycling #Hövding #safety

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succeedly · 6 years

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Infographics in Education with Eileen Lennon

Eileen Lennon on episode 291 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Infographics are powerful communication tools. Today, infographic pro, Eileen Lennon, shares how she uses infographics, creates them, and why they’re such a powerful tool.

On April 26, celebrate PowerofEcon on Twitter with Discovery Education, CME Group, and their Econ Essentials Program. We’ll have free resources available for downloading. To join the celebration, tune into the Twitter chat with me, fellow teachers, and the CME Group’s chief economist on April 26th at noon Eastern Time, using #PowerofEcon.

Visit www.coolcatteacher.com/econ for more information and remember to tweet out your pics about how you teach your students using #PowerofEcon.

Listen Now

Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

***

Enhanced Transcript

Infographics in Education with Eileen Lennon

Link to show: https://ift.tt/2FZyP2b Date: April 19, 2018

Vicki: So I was talking to my friend, Lisa Nielsen, about her blog, and she has this amazing woman, Eileen Lennon who creates these infographics that get shared like crazy!

So Eileen is on the show with us today, to talk about these powerful infographics and how she uses them to communicate.

So Eileen, how did you get started using infographics to communicate?

How did you get started with infographics?

Eileen: Actually, it was Lisa. She had spoken to a bunch of the students in the city system and asked what would speak to them, what they would want as material to learn about digital citizenship. And they said actually, infographics was what they respond to the best. They don’t want to read books or brochures. They wanted to look at things.

So she started with infographics, and she asked me to help her. So I started with her, creating the social media guidelines for the New York City Department of Education.

Vicki: OK. So, how do you create these infographics?

How do you create your infographics?

Eileen: The website I use is Piktochart. They have a lot of templates, lots and lots of templates, and I get an inspiration from one of them, and I go from there.

In my head, I have an idea that I want this to look like something, and then I just find a template that is close enough to that, and I go from there.

So they give you a starting point — someplace to start from.

Vicki: Now you’ve got to have great content, though, right?

I mean, doesn’t it take a lot of time to research to get the good content for these infographics?

Where do you get your content?

Eileen: That’s where Lisa comes in. She writes incredible articles and blog posts, and then she sends me the blog post. Then I cut as I need to out of it so that it makes an interesting infographic.

Vicki: How do the students respond to these infographics?

Eileen: They love looking around in a classroom at something that’s relevant and visually appealing.

It’s not the teacher’s handwriting plastered all over the walls. It’s something aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and if you’re sitting there staring at a wall for 45 minutes, it’s kind of nice to be staring at something a little more prettier than that.

Vicki: You’ve also gotten an incredible response from educators, because didn’t you make a graphic for some things that George Couros has done? It’s gotten an incredible response. Tell us about that one.

#InnovatorsMindset was such a good book, I had to make an infographic about it. Thanks @gcouros! pic.twitter.com/yLIfzLWrFW

— Eileen Lennon (@eileen_lennon) February 6, 2018

Tell us about your most popular infographic to date

Eileen: (laughs)

Yes. I read his book, as most people have. I was very impressed. It was a profound change in how I was thinking about things. So I realized that if I was going to keep that in front of me, I needed to have it in front of me as an infographic.

I created the infographic really for myself, but I did want to put it on my blog and things like that. I reached out to George and said, “Is it OK if I do this?”

And he said, “Oh, absolutely! I’m going to use it now, too!”

So he pushed it out even more than I did, and now I’m getting people all over the country “liking” that infographic since then.

It’s even gone past that, that he wrote a blog post about how I did ask permission, and I didn’t steal his material, because that had happened to him very often.

Read “From ‘Stealing’ to ‘Remixing with Credit’” by George Couros

So that I asked permission, I cite my source, and took it and recycled it to something that I could use on my wall. So now I come into my room every day and I see almost a little book report I did for that book, reminding me what I need to do in my classroom every day.

Vicki: You know, Eileen, you remind me of what Sylvia Duckworth has done.

Listen to 6 Most Motivating Sketchnotes in Education Today with Sylvia Duckworth

Eileen: Yes!

Vicki: I kind of feel like you are to infographics what Sylvia is to Sketchnotes. What do you think about that comparison?

Eileen: Absolutely. I don’t want to step on her toes. She does amazing stuff.

I’m trying to stay in my lane.

Vicki: (laughs)… which is infographics.

But here’s the thing. We all have ways to share visually, don’t we?

Eileen: Yes. Yes, we do.

And I just found that… I have an art background, so this was helping me “scratch that itch” too.

I was able to be a designer and spread my thoughts about teaching a little further.

Vicki: If a teacher wants to start using infographics, either themself or with their students, how do they start?

Where might a teacher start with designing infographics?

Eileen: I would think that even just going into Google Slides or PowerPoint and just facing a small slide first would be easiest and the least intimidating way to go. Take a quote, take an image, and put it all together on a page so that it looks good.

When you start feeling comfortable about the type being this size, and relating it to the picture, then you’re starting to get a sense of design.

So that’s one piece. Then you add another slide to that, and keep working toward a bigger and bigger piece.

Then you can move over to the infographic courses that are online. Piktochart is one of them. Easely is another one, and also Canva. You can choose any of those, and then they have templates so that you wouldn’t feel so intimidated to use from that point on.

But I would say, start with just a slideshow kind of almost index card image to play with, and then grow from there.

Vicki: It’s really easy to end up with a tacky infographic.

Eileen: (laughs)

What pitfalls would you avoid?

Vicki: Do you have any design tips, since you have a design background?

Eileen: (laughs) Yes.

I call it the Ransom Note School of Design.

Vicki: (laughs)

Eileen: Keep your typefaces to about three. You have your heading typeface, an accent or like a caption, and your body text. You don’t need any more than that.

And also colors. It’s not a coloring book. You’re trying to send a message out, and it’s not supposed to hurt the eyes. So keep it to a uniform color so people can recognize the blue is always the headline, or the green is always the captions. You want to give them some visual clues about the information you’re giving to them.

And, don’t cram it all into a menu design. Give the eye a little space to move around. Have one basic focal point as your “catch” and then let the eye drift around the page to find the other information in order of importance.

Vicki: Now just because you use pictures and have text on there doesn’t mean it’s an infographic.

Eileen: (laughs)

Vicki: What’s the purpose of an infographic? (laughs)

Pictures and text alone do not make an infographic. What does?

Eileen: An infographic is to convey a message. Either doing that with actual graphics or with type depends on what you’re trying to say.

But a graphic is always really important on an infographic. It lends some professionalism to it, and you can cram a lot of information into a little graph. So it always helps to have an actual graph on your infographic.

Vicki: You have been doing this for a while. What are some of the top mistakes that you think that educators or or their students make when creating infographics?

What are the top mistakes that new designers make with infographics?

Eileen: They try to cover too much. They put a lot of type on a page.

It’s supposed to be a piece of art, a design. Don’t put paragraphs. Bullet points are really the only way you should go.

And trying to get everything to scream at the same volume is also a big one. Let one thing be what catches your eye, and then as your eye wanders, let each thing be a little bit less important, so that the eye almost knows goes where to go next.

Vicki: Obviously, you’re proud of the infographic that you did for George’s book, Innovator’s Mindset.

Do you have another infographic that you think, “OK, I’m really proud of this…” ?

Do you have another infographic that you are really proud of?

Eileen: Lisa’s blog post recently about school safety. She had gone into a church and reflected on all the things the church was doing to make people feel welcome, and wanted to take some of those ideas and concepts and make schools do the same thing.

So I was thinking of an infographic I could make with a church theme to it. I was thinking of stained glass, and one of the templates on Piktochart had a stained glass feel to it.

That one spoke to me immediately, and it has a peaceful… It got the mood that I was looking for, and not just the information I wanted out. I really like that one.

Vicki: As we finish up, are there any resources that you go to for ideas for your infographics?

What resources would you share for new designers to get inspiration?

Eileen: Like I said, the templates in all three of those websites are really where you can begin and end with inspiration. They have templates for every — education, business, Sweet 16s. They have different categories that you can scour, but they really do provide quite a bit of resources on the sites themselves.

Vicki: Eileen Lennon is an expert on infographics. We are going to be linking to a lot of her resources. Of course Lisa Nielsen does share a lot of these on her blog as well, and we’ll link to that as well.

But I think it’s and important message for us to remember that — people like to say a picture’s worth a thousand words — and you know, an infographic may be worth even more, because it has so much content.

But we are more likely to read things that are more graphically appealing, in today’s modern era.

So if we want to get our message out there, we need to be able to create infographics or Sketchnotes, as we’ve had Sylvia on the show before.

We need to make it appealing and get that message out there. So check out these infographics, and I hope you’ll try it out in your classroom.

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford [email protected]

Bio as submitted

Eileen Lennon is part of the team that developed the social media guidelines and resources for the NYC Board of Education. She is Microsoft, Google, and CommonSense certified and moderates the monthly #NYCSchoolsTechChat. Eileen has also guest moderated national Twitter chats such as #EdTechChat, #growthmindset, and #connectedTL. She has presented at various technology conferences, including the NYCDOE Tech Summit, EduCon, and the Tech & Learning Summit. Ms. Lennon was awarded the NYCDOE Excellence in School Technology Award at the annual NYCDOE Tech Summit in July 2016 and the Most Innovative Use of Social Media Awarded at NYC Technology Forum in November 2017. She teaches technology at the Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School 74 in Bayside, Queens.

Blog: http://mslennonblog.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @eileen_lennon

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post Infographics in Education with Eileen Lennon appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

Infographics in Education with Eileen Lennon published first on https://getnewcourse.tumblr.com/

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strivesy · 6 years