#and "make a difference

[remindertoclick]

Hi everyone! Here's your Daily Reminder to Click for Palestine! 💚🩷

[tinyfantasminha]

I don't want to keep clogging my blog with vent posts but uh... I guess this is a more general concern/observation

But it's getting real hard to stay motivated in fandom spaces when there's little compensation, and annoying occurrences are more frequent than good ones.

Mainly there's been less engagement/people showing interest in creators and their art (such as sending asks, making comments and reblogging with tags) and MORE parasocial interactions. This goes for both artists and writers.

Over this year I've noticed a vast disinterest within my public in general. Asks about ocs, my art, or just nice simple comments of ''I love your art'' has been getting more and more scarce. My follower number is bigger than 2-3 years ago sure and I get more likes on my posts but they are feeling more like just numbers and statistics than actual people who supposedly like my stuff.

And while people being parasocial with creators has always been a thing, I feel like it's gotten way worse... in general? People sending personal pictures out of the blue in hopes of being validated, unwanted psychological advice or assumptions about the creator without any established connection first ( <- these happened to me in the same week.) ventdump, just insensitive/lacking of common sense comments in general, unreasonable demands (mostly with writers)... I wondered at first if it was just me, but a handful of mutuals/acquaintances who are artists and writers seems to be going through it as well.

It's annoying. It's tough. It's getting exhausting. Creators pour so much of themselves into their work—countless hours, effort, and passion, all to share something meaningful or entertaining with others (and for FREE) The LEAST anyone can do is show respect, even if opinions differ. When a writer posts a fanfic, don't just say ''omg post next chapter!'', when an artist posts a drawing of their favorite character, don't just say ''omg draw (character) next!'' as if they're faceless content machines that are expected to churn out more '''content''' for you without acknowledgment, encouragement, or appreciation.

''I want to support creators but I don't know what to say and I feel intimidated by their talent so I just lurk silently :((('' I swear to you, no creator (at least not the majority) is making up an intimidating persona to discourage you from interacting with them. They WANT your comments. A single ''I love your art/writing/videos'' or even something as silly as ''I want to eat your art'' is enough to keep a creator sighing dreamily for WEEKS. It doesn't have to be deep! It's heartfelt and that's what it matters!! (Just remember to keep it relevant and thoughtful... It takes just a bit of common sense NOT to comment things like ''this looks like (another character)'' or ''this but with (another unrelated ship/character/show)''. No one wants to hear comparisons or unrelated ideas when they’ve poured their soul into something.)

In fact, the ''I like your art but I think you're intimidating'' feels more hurtful than flattering. It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong, acting wrong. 💀

If you love that fanfic that changed your brain psyche forever and want to gush about it, go tell the writer. If you loved so much a piece of art that you saved it a million times in your phone and can't stop thinking about it, go tell the artist. Push away the ''they probably won't care about my comment/it won't make a difference'' thoughts. DO IT NOW. You won't know when they might go inactive forever or deactivate. You can't know if that is the last piece they will ever post. Make sure you show appreciation to creators NOW, while they are still here. While they're still not being replaced by AI.

[palatinewolfsblog]

"Some people are going to leave a mark on this world, while others leave a stain." Eleanor Roosevelt.

[starry-skies-writes]

Girl I’m sorry what did you expect

Moving on

“It’s so bright” I hope she means the future, specifically Callum’s future cause after Kosmo’s grim little warning we kinda need that.

[fuckyeahisawthat]

I was always meh on the fan theories that Crowley was some kind of high-ranking angel before the Fall, because there didn’t seem to be much evidence for it (in s1 he says “I helped build that one” about the nebula, not “I fucking hand-cranked the spacetime continuum into existence”) and because it seemed more thematically resonant for Crowley to have been Just Some Guy in the celestial hierarchy, rather than God’s Specialest Boy (gn).

But s2 does very much seem to be dropping hints that Crowley was an angel of some significant rank before the fall, possibly even a Supreme Archangel, and after the end of s2 that presents a new possibility I hadn’t thought of before.

What if Crowley knows Heaven can’t be reformed because he already tried it? What if cooptation was their strategy for Crowley, after he started asking questions but before the Fall?

It’s a classic move to neutralize challenges to a power structure. Take the people who are speaking out and say, hey, you make some good points. We hear you. In fact we’d like you to sit on this committee. Come change things from the inside, where you’ll have the power to get things done.

And lots of people in lots of real-world systems try this, genuinely believing they can make a difference and not realizing that there is no way to bend the system into what they want it to be, because the system wasn’t broken or badly led back when they first started complaining about it; it was working exactly as intended.

And these people either end up sucked into the system they were trying to change until it changes them instead. Or they end up bitter and checked out and cynical. Or, they refuse to yield in their calls for change and eventually get marginalized and pushed out of the system. Sound like someone we know?

From the beginning of s1, Crowley was adamant that Aziraphale’s attempts to find someone in Heaven who will listen to him and want to stop Armageddon are fruitless. There are no right people. I think he, like me, kind of assumed Aziraphale had figured that out by the end of the events of s1, which is part of why he’s so shocked that Aziraphale would even consider the Metatron’s offer. But Aziraphale hadn’t gotten there yet, and now Crowley is watching Aziraphale repeat the same mistakes he made, and he can’t convince him to stop.

[roennq]

NELSON AND MURDOCK -> NELSON, MURDOCK & PAGE "We are small but awesome. And we're gonna make a difference."

[thepersonalwords]

Dreams, unlike eggs, don’t hatch from sitting on them.

Frank Sonnenberg, Follow Your Conscience: Make a Difference in Your Life & in the Lives of Others

[meangan-thee-lesbian]

Gonna start my reintroduction to tumblr politics real softly with this gold star lesbian discourse: WHY IS IT ONLY EVER GOLD STAR LESBOPHOBES WHO BRING UP VIRGINITY IRT GOLD STAR LESBIANS? YOU NEVER SEE GOLD STAR LESBIANS REFERRING TO THEMSELVES AS VIRGINS, IT'S ONLY EVER THESE INSANE ANTI-GOLD STAR FREAKS WHO THINK "VIRGINITY' AND "PURITY CULTURE" IS RELEVANT TO GOLD STAR LESBIANS, BECAUSE THEY APPARENTLY HAVE THIS IDEA RUSTED INTO THEIR HEAD THAT LESBIAN SEX ISN'T REAL SEX, SO GOLD STAR LESBIANS ARE PURE VIRGINS OR WHATEVER TF IN THEIR EYES. ANYWAY I ALWAYS FOUND THAT HELLA FUNNY BECAUSE MY THREE FIGURE LESBIAN BODY COUNT IS DEFINITELY HIGHER THAN ANY OF THESE ACTUAL IRL VIRGINS MAKING POSTS ABOUT GOLD STAR LESBIANS FROM THEIR MUM'S BASEMENT. LIKE HOW MUCH LESBIAN SEX DO I GOTTA HAVE TO GET THE WORD "VIRGIN" OUT THESE LESBOPHOBES MOUTHS IRT TO MY GOLD STAR LESBIAN ASS? BECAUSE IM PREPARED TO HAVE A LOT MORE LESBIAN SEX IF IT'LL MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THE CAUSE.

[reasonsforhope]

"FYI to the non-parents out there, it takes at least 15 pairs of shoes for a child to grow from a toddler to a teenager—that’s a lot of trips to the Footlocker.

Fortunately, an Indian entrepreneur from Pune has designed a line of shoes that slowly uncurl as the child ages, intuitively solving the problem and reducing unnecessary manufacturing waste.

Called Aretto, the shoes were designed by Satyajit Mittal and his childhood friend Krutika Lal. Their innovative knitted uppers are designed with all the qualities a parent would want their kids’ shoes to have—durability, flexibility, and washability.

“Children do not wear the right shoes for the first ten years of their lives,” Mittal, who designed the Aretto shoes with consultations with concerned childhood podiatrists, told The Better India.

“Between zero and three years of age, children’s feet size changes every three months, and you need roughly 15 sizes between zero and nine, before attaining final foot size at 13 years. We figured out the problem that while feet grow, their shoes do not.”

What the podiatrists explained to him was that children have a broader footprint than adults, due to their not having worn shoes for most of their lives like adults. Tens of thousands of nerve endings provide the feedback needed for children to understand how to use the miraculous musculature in their feet to walk and run.

Most infantile and childhood shoes don’t consider this, and based on the frequency at which parents need to buy new shoe sizes, proper foot function is probably never even taken into account, and the occasional stuffing of toddler feet into shoes too small or too large, can disrupt this critical muscle development.

“We wanted to give children the right fit for all cycles. We chose one shoe to cover three sizes that allow 18 mm growth. We took inspiration from how a flower blooms from the bud stage to the fully-flowered stage. The transition happens organically every day. We applied this concept to the shoe,” said Mittal.

“We started working on a shoe that flexes as per the feet. Simply put, as and when the feet grow either from the front or back or sideways, and when a child wears this shoe, it expands accordingly and takes the shape and contour of their feet. That’s why children feel comfortable wearing such shoes,” he adds.

The shoes are priced between Rs 1,800 and Rs 2,600, ($22 – $31) and are available internationally as well, provided that international buyers have either an Indian bank, or Google Pay, Amazon Pay, or WhatsApp Pay.

The shoes are fairly new on the marketplace but have already generated 21 lakh, or Rs 2.1 million ($25,000) in revenue."

-via Good News Network, 4/10/23

Note: This is very mundane in some ways, but it's also something that's going to legit make a difference for some kids/families. One annoyingly regular problem/cost off the backs to parents.

Also, can say from painful experience that wearing shoes that don't fit or aren't supportive can Fuck You Up longterm--some people just get the pain from it sooner than others. So this design sounds fantastic

[weirdchristmas]

Don't let them get you down. I hate AI "art" with a passion, but yours was just a way to make a bland post more colorful. Like a sticker on a note. You didn't try to "trick" anyone and please never stop doing what you love. Please continue your great blog, i love it so much. Try not to let them get to you.

You are kind. You also must suspect that I love it when people complain. Tumblr is awesome for manufactured drama like that. And it's always fun to poke the new Puritans. ;)

And, yeah, AI is already, and is only going to be a bigger, scourge on artists and writers. But box-checking outrage in safe and consequence-less ways does precisely nothing. If you're really against AI, cancel Netflix (I have), cancel Spotify (I have), cancel your subscriptions to any apps you use for content that push AI tools (Adobe, Blender, etc.) or steal/use pirated versions if you must, donate to the Authors Guild (https://authorsguild.org/) or, more usefully, EU activists like these folk because the EU is much more likely to ever pass legislation that will have an effect (the US is pretty much a lost cause).

[The EU's online privacy laws are more powerful than US ones and currently have de facto international binding status because companies want to do business in the EU -- so when it comes to copyright protections or AI prevention, the best approach is probably modeled on that. The most likely way we'll get any kind of actual copyright protection is through the EU's laws like the GDPR that in effect governs US companies' behavior. But I digress...]

Social media is meaningless when it comes to anything long term. Use your money to "vote" because it's the only way to really change anything. (Will it work? Probably not. But at least you're not playing morality police to make yourself feel self-righteous and thinking practically about how you can make a difference.)

[spiritualseeker777]

[remindertoclick]

Hiya! Here's your Daily Reminder to Click for Palestine!

Click for the other causes as well if you can!

[i-know-the-endss]

book-henry being a part of helping out queer youth from the beginning and his ending in the book being that he becomes the “father” of the homeless shelters for lgbtq+ kids. movie-henry allowing himself to finally step out into the world as alex does and see that there is something he can change; that he can also be an inspiration and body of hope for people through their support of him when he comes out and the eventual realization that this is how he can make a difference.

they’re different arcs, but they’re both beautiful and both so henry.

[palatinewolfsblog]

“Keep me away from the wisdom

which does not cry,

the philosophy

which does not laugh

and the greatness

which does not bow before children. ”

Khalil Gibran.

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

You make a difference :)

The Autistic Teacher