#as a member of the commission (at the time)

[fading-event-608]

It’s thanksgiving in us and black Friday tomorrow. I do not participate in either, and I hope you do not too. But if you do, I want to remind you that there haven’t been a safe day in Gaza for over a year. For this thanksgiving many in Gaza would be lucky to be warm or sated, and I'm not even going to talk about safety. Falastin’s family (and many more) will be thankful to have ANYTHING on the table today, and with the current rates of donations they will, and I promise I’m not over exaggerating, freeze or starve to death.

Her family has endured more than 50 displacements now and has had many family members martyred since last October. They wanted to buy another tent and waterproof materials in September* but they didn’t get enough donations (they are forced to spend what they have on food) and now they are starving. 

Last time the campaign met the daily goal of 500 USD was 22 days ago - a goal that was meant to be a stepping stone. And this week they didn't even raise 400 USD so far. If you are not familiar with prices in Gaza or Falastin’s campaign you may think that it’s a lot, but it’s very far from the truth. Prices in Gaza are still rising, aid is getting sparser (just like the world's attention to Palestine) and they need all the help they can get to feed 26 people. Even 1 or 5 dollars can help since it will push the campaign up in the algorithm on gofundme.

Donate via Gofundme (in SEK! check rates below please): LINK

$5 CAD = kr39 SEK $5 USD = kr55 SEK €5 = kr57 SEK $10 CAD = kr78 SEK $10 USD = kr109 SEK €10 = kr115 SEK $25 CAD = kr195 SEK $25 USD = kr274 SEK €25 = kr289 SEK $50 CAD = kr390 SEK $50 USD = kr547 SEK €50 = kr577 SEK $100 CAD = kr780 SEK $100 USD = kr1,094 SEK €100 = kr1,155 SEK

Donate via PayPal (in USD): LINK

Incentives:

raffle for a hand-made Palestinian thob LINK (from 50 USD)

commissions from me (from 15 USD) - LINK for an example.

Please match/up my donation from 3 days ago if you can.

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Vetting info: #282 in El-Shab-Hussein and Nabulsi's spreadsheet [here], #957 in the Butterfly Project spreadsheet [here]

Falastin's account - please visit and reblog.

*the post says 24 family members but on oct 6th this year Falstin's cousin was martyred and his 2 orphaned children are now in their care.

[hikaruchen]

Reading this blog and procrastinating what I should’ve been doing at the moment, but it’s super helpful if you want to know more about the Anglo-Saxon and Viking material culture but don’t want to be bored to hell. All articles are done by an archaeologist specializing in mortuary archaeology, and he has already written several ones about burials and pagan practices during that time through the lens of The Last Kingdom. I’ve linked one of his posts before on ao3 when discussing about the historical accuracy of Alfred’s tomb effigy in the show under the pic Prayer from the Pagan, but didn’t really had the time to check others out. I just did it and find his other articles are actually super interesting to read as well.

For instance, back when I post this pic in January I said the colour palette was inspired by the Alfred jewel, but I completely forgot that it actually appeared in the show (2x04) where Alfred handed it to Æthelwold and said “Take this. It is a symbol of my kingship. Bear it with authority.”, which might be partially true but is hilarious if you give it another thought.

Because, why, in God’s name, would Alfred hand an ARTEFACT version of the piece he commissioned himself to his nephew? As Prof. Williams already stated (in this post), the Alfred jewel has long been assumed to be the handle part of a pointer stick for following words when reading a book, and if you look at the artefact itself it is quite clear that there’s a part that’s been missing as well. The reason why scholars think it has something to do with Alfred is because:

1) It’s written. The text on the frame literally says that “ÆLFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN”, which means “Alfred ordered me made”. The more detailed explanation below (with the help of beloved wikitionary since I don’t understand Old English at all)

ÆLFRED (subject) Alfred, obviously MEC (object) me; accusative of iċ (I), but in the West Saxon dialect it’s actually an uncommon version of iċ’s accusative and is more often seen in the Anglian dialect. The frequently-used version for West Saxons is mē HEHT (verb) ordered; third-singular past tense for hātan (to call; to order etc.), often followed with infinitive verbs, cognate with heißen in German GEWYRCAN (verb) to make; I honestly don’t know if “to make” and “to be made” is just the same word in OE help And since the word order in OE is random as hell thanks to the case system (much like German which I eventually gave up learning because I don’t have a brain big enough for that. IT MAKES NO SENSE TO A NATIVE MANDARIN SPEAKER THANK YOU), it is eventually translated into “Alfred ordered me to be made”.

2) It was discovered in Somerset and has been dated to the late 9th century, and we all know what Somerset meant to Alfred

3) Alfred did say he would send a copy of his translation of Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care to every episcopal see in his kingdom in the preface to it, with the book accompanied “an æstel of 50 mancuses”. Mancus was a term to denote a gold coin or a unit for coins worth about a month’s wage for a skilled worker, such as a craftsman or a soldier. Whatever that æstel is it must be worth hell LOTS of money

But honestly while I do think this interpretation sounds very much plausible I’m thinking about other possibilities as well - how many Alfreds exactly existed during his time? We know that Æthel in OE means noble, so people bearing this prefix in their names were usually royal members or at least aristocrats, but what about Alfred? Was Alfred a popular name? Or was it unique enough that he could just go by this name without mentioning his title at all? Imagine if it were an Æthelred who made this, who the hell would know which one of these it was referring to, Æthelred the King, Æthelred the Ealdorman, Æthelred Ealhswith’s father, or even Æthelred the fucking Archbishop??? And yeah, I know Alfred was the king ™ here and there isn’t really much space left on the frame after all, but surely it wouldn’t cost a bone to add a cyning behind his name, right?

Sadly, as it was in the pre-Domesday-Book era, I can’t find the statistics of Anglo-Saxon names at that time (but keep in mind that there were at least 19 Alfreds worthy enough to be mentioned in Domesday Book even after the conquest. I don’t know if this says anything at all but I do want to mention it) What I’m trying to say is while it is highly highly highly likely (and I do believe and want to believe in this theory!), we cannot be one hundred percent certain that this jewel was really from the Alfred we’re talking about. And even if it was, it apparently wouldn’t be carried around by Alfred like THAT. Because that would be like, “Bear this with authority! Even though the symbol of my kingship is broken!”, said Alfred to a king wannabe. Lol.

The other thing I want to mention is this post about the show’s use of Fuller brooch, the one Alfred wore in S2 when he was in his war gear.

First of all, it is indeed dated to late 9th century and is assumed by scholars to be made by metalworkers of Alfred’s court. Everything is fine except I don’t think you would want to wear jewelry that luxurious to war…but then there’s this thing:

MEET GIANT FULLERS!

Well, can’t blame them since I am basically doing the same thing with my drawings (i.e. using patterns on jewelry and illustrations from manuscripts for embroidery design). But it’s worth noting that designs that are suitable for one art form doesn’t mean they can be applied to another well, and that’s why I claim my art is inspired by Anglo-Saxon art but NOT historical accurate for the Anglo-Saxon period. The reason I still do this and think it is understandable for TLK crew to do so is because we simply don’t have that many resources to reference from when it comes to this time period, and fabrics and wooden buildings are just extremely hard to preserve by nature. Instead of screwing up the design on your own, it just has more fun to add real historical elements into your work. Look at those easter eggs!

Ok, that’s it. I hope you enjoy my long rant and have a good read from Prof. Williams’s works!

[myokk]

commission for @versailles-black ✨💘

THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH !!!!

[shannonsketches]

ngl gang I finished both my dissociation fixation games and got a rejection letter for a job I was a shoe-in for after a month-long, three-pronged review/interview process and I am not having a great time

[arcadewonder]

the tartosa garden society.

[passion8alot]

My queer disabled group I joined in order to try to reduce my isolation and increase my confidence has been shut down with a weeks notice.

They have communicated issues with funding for a while now but did not provide good level of heads up about severity or timelines and we have just been told today that we will only be allowed one more session before its ended forever.

We were told back in january that there was funding issues, the group offered to email ministers and help with looking for grants or even organise fundraising ourselves, and many of the members are well known for being strong advocates in the community. We lost our facilitator who was such an awesome person, they did an awesome job at making sure everyones needs where met and everyones voices where heard, and had the hard job of navigating conflicting needs.

We put together an amazing art exibition where many exibitionists were able to sell their work! And there was a plan to do another expo next year! Just last week we were planning a end of year event!

And now next week will be our last week.

So now I guess I will go back to being isolated in my regional town where these services just don't exist. The program was run in the city. Over 2 hours away from me. And now its gonna be gone.

This sucks man.

sucks hard

[quarklynx]

Casually flirting with the idea of fucking around and getting a master's degree. The time will pass anyway, right?

[faerileee]

A wonderful tattoo commission from @iwannabeyourdog2 ! I had so much fun drawing and designing these tattoos for @iwannabeyourdog2 of his partner's CYBERPUNK RED OC! Her name is The Architect, she is the spiritual equivalent to an angry, poofy, kitten, and she is a tech in the TRRPG

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

Besides figuring out that I unintentionally made Wyn a wannabe TLT girlie, my Curse of Strahd game is slowly becoming the "clown on the wizard" show. He's got this INCREDIBLE tendency to act very kind and proper and respectable to strangers while being secretly a tiny bit morally bankrupt, and Wyn has clocked him for it multiple times, so she spends a lot of her "former mischievous little sister" energy on taking the piss out of him. So when an NPC quite innocently noted that he wasn't like a lot of the wizards in the books that she read - who were all wizened men of great power and even greater beards - she suggested that maybe when he becomes a powerful wizard, he'll be able to grow one.

Which is to say, I'm 100% going to have Wyn paint a portrait of our wizard with a long, magnificent beard to "show him what he'll look like when he's a real wizard one day."

[theartsyjuicebox]

A gift I made for my self-proclaimed “vigil-auntie” (the one who got me the introvert candle)

Yup, just Love bein anemic.. so fun

[ghostificati0n]

insane how u can be like a teenager who likes to draw shitty anime boys being edgey and ur family will go "will u draw me a photo realistic image of sam elliot" bitch do u think i wanna do that

[arolesbianism]

I've been digging up some one of my most neglected stories recently and I'm finally actually developing the rest of the cast after like what? 7 or 8 years or smth? I genuinely don't know when I first thought up Lace but she's been floating at the edge of my mind since then as my token true timeloop guy as opposed to Butters who doesn't rly count because the quote unquote timeloop was entirely within their control and only was a continuous loop because they kept consciously trying again and again. Lace on the other hand. Legitimately 100% powerless in her timeloop situation, as in there was quite literally Nothing she could do to end the loops herself. Some gods just threw her in a 50 year timeloop without even doing the bare minimum of telling her first and she just sorta had to live with that until it from her perspective abruptly stopped leaving her to deal with the fallout of everything she went through now that she's suddenly being forced to live a real life again. And as fun as all of that is it has been very stagnated for years because there is in fact a story and world that exists outside of and around this one plot that matter quite a bit and that I have been refusing to properly work on until now lol.

[bussinpoots]

Getting asked at the Gym by my trainer: "So what was your reason for deciding to work out like this?"

What I said: "Just want to finally get on top of my health." What I meant, "I feel dumb for this being my mini fitness dream, but I always wanted to be one day asked to in one of those mr beast hide and seek videos. i dont even want the money (i do need it but this is a silly dream im talking about) I just want to be the guy who is absolutely batshit insane but seemed normal when first on camera but is like. hiding gymnastic king god. My proudest accomplishment is that I've never been found in a hide and seek game. It's lame as hell. I want it so bad. Do I think this would ever happen? fuck no. But I pretend in my mind it will and it gets me up to work out bc what if mr beast turned up at my door like "Hi niche faceless guy who used to stream 10 years ago but didn't keep up with it. be in my video." then he flies me to America to be in a video.

My second dream for when the first one doesn't get me out of bed is "the circus will never hire you if you wont even get out of bed"

either way im still clown

[appsa]

URGENT: SLOWING FUNDRAISER!

Recently in an update, Siraj ( @siraj2024 ) has talked of the dearth of space in Gaza. He has described how the occupation has caged Gazans into a narrow strip of land; there is no humanitarian zone that has not been bombed or invaded. Deir al balah was considered one of the last safe zones in gaza- and now that illusion has been destroyed too.

Just a few days ago, Siraj had told us that the violence of the IOF had been only a street away from where he and his family were encamped, and that his extended family were displaced in the aftermath.

It is a claustrophobic, uncertain existence many of us will likely never have to experience.

I will try to keep this as brief as possible. Since Siraj's parents and siblings got displaced and have now become fully dependent on Siraj for funds, his family has been seeing some dire circumstances.

First of all, I need you to understand the kind of pressure Siraj is under right now:

His own family which consists of 5 members

His father’s family also of 5 members

His younger brother’s family of 3

His older sister’s family of 6- she is a doting mother to four children

His younger sister and her own family of 4.

I need you to understand that there are 23 people in total for whom Siraj is the sole provider for at the moment.

Currently all 23 members of Siraj's family forced to share two tents. While the funds did go into procuring a second tent, there is STILL not nearly enough space. The women are suffering from a lack of privacy, and it is dangerous for the children as epidemics are spreading in the camp- Amir, Siraj’s son is already suffering from a severe skin infection. Living in such close quarters with no option of quarantine only puts everyone else (including all Amir's cousins) at risk of infection, at a time where they quite literally cannot afford it with the way medical infrastructure in Gaza is in shambles atm.

With your help, Siraj has successfully raised 50K, but the fundraiser is slowing once again.

Currently Siraj is at 50.8k / 82k

To help his family, He needs to raise 55K by monday i.e the next 2 DAYS.

Vetted and appears #219 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's list of vetted fundraisers

If you need further incentive to donate:

Art raffle - 24th aug is the last day of the raffle so PLEASE participate!!!

Enamel pin raffle

People offering digital commissions here and here

In case you wish to donate to his gfm with paypal, or are having any trouble donating in general, PLEASE DM @malcriada who is a trusted friend of siraj and will make sure to donate to the fundraiser on your behalf and send you proof of donation.

Please share and donate anything you can spare!

Siraj has a heavy burden on his shoulders at the moment, the least we can do is try to ease it as much as we can.

[today-i-am-thinking-about]

feeling disconnected from your peers

[fading-event-608]

No news that you haven't seen already coming from the Gaza Strip. IOF committed another 6 massacres just today, prices are still going up, the aid is still (almost) not getting through the occupation blockage. The Zionist forces including US administration still continue to obscure the genocide with empty promises of peace at best and with promises of total annihilation of Gaza at worst.

Falastin's family were displaced more than 50 times just in the last year. They are still in Al-Mawasi for now, they still live in a tent that will not shelter them from winter cold, they still need funds to just survive. You can see what they are forced to live with in this post [here]. They survived previous winter, but since then they some possessions with each displacement and are now not sure if they can survive this one. Please prove them wrong; please help them to see the next spring.

Her 24 family members need money for:

food and water

medicine for infections and for Falastin's 73 y.o. mother

diapers and other baby products

tent materials and clothes for the winter

and of course for evacuation.

They do not ask for any luxury. They will not be able to afford anything else, but with the current rates of donations they are not sure if they can get even this. Again, please prove them wrong and boost this and donate if you can. There are both Gofundme and Paypal, additionally there is a raffle for hand-made Palestinian thobs [here] if you donate more than 50$ and I am drawing commissions for more than 10$ donated.

Gofundme is in SEK and the rates are:

10$ = 106 SEK

25$ = 264 SEK

50$ = 529 SEK

100$ = 1,058 SEK

PayPal is in USD:

Vetting info: #282 in El-Shab-Hussein and Nabulsi's spreadsheet [here], #957 in the Butterfly Project spreadsheet [here] Falastin's account: [link]