#but those are different and there’s different resources and subreddits for it

[evan-bo-bevin]

So I had to go to Greece last year because of a wedding, it was unexpected and I wasn’t sure about it at first, but I honestly fell in love? Not with the islands, they’re cool I get it, but it’s too… fancy. I loved Athens though, like the city proper. It reminded us of the cluttered towns you see in china, japan, SEA, the neighborhoods you see that have buildings a handful of stories tall, start white and beige, the electric wires crossing everywhere, but placed in a hilly region that reminded me a little of the Central Valley, in Phoenix? Kinda like taking a small piece of NYC, switching up the architecture style, and placing it in an arid scrubby region, I love it a lot. It was so much more arid than I knew!! So many desert plants, they have tortoises just roaming the city streets and I’m in love with every one of them.

ANYWAY, I picked up a little Greek while I was there and I decided to keep going with it, I didn’t expect to fall in love with the language. It sounds like a perfect combination of English and Spanish/Italian, which makes sense, it’s old as heck and so much was adopted from the ancient version that still persists today. And yet it sounds NOTHING like any language I’ve ever heard. Conjugation rules are similar to Spanish though, so there’s a lot of grammar tricks from there that I’ve been able to apply to learning Greek, I don’t want to say it’s easy exactly, but also… it is? In a way? They also use diminutives for EVERYTHING, it’s very cute.

If anyone ELSE is interested, r/Greek has fantastic resources. My method has been Duolingo for repetitive practice, but Language Transfer (link below) for actual grammar lessons. Duolingo doesn’t do shit for grammar, so PLEASE don’t rely on just that for ANY language. It’s so important that you supplement your learning with additional sources, so read children’s books when you can, especially if you know the story already in English. Disney recently added SO MANY dubbed languages to their movies — Sleeping Beauty & Hercules both have Greek, and it’s so much fun to hear the other actors!

[ask-the-prose]

Writing Mental Health With Compassion

I've gotten a few questions regarding depicting characters with mental health challenges and conditions and I wanted to expand a little more on how to depict these characters with compassion for the real communities represented by these characters.

A little about this guide: this is, as always, coming from a place of love and respect for the writing community and the groups affected by this topic at large. I'm also not coming at this from the outside, I have certain mental illnesses that affect my daily life. With that, I'll say that my perspective may be biased, and as with all writing advice, you should think critically about what is being told to you and how.

So let's get started!

Research

I'm sure we're all tired of hearing the phrase "do your research," but unfortunately it is incredibly important advice. I have a guide that touches on how to do research here, if you need a place to get started.

When researching a mental health condition that we do not experience, we need to do so critically, and most importantly, compassionately. While your characters are not people, they are assigned traits that real people do have, and so your depiction of these traits can have an impact on people who face these conditions themselves.

I've found that reddit is a decent resource for finding threads of people talking about their personal experiences with certain illnesses. For example, bipolar disorder has several subreddits that have very open and candid discussions about bipolar, how it impacts lives, and small things that people who don't have bipolar don't tend to think about.

It's important to note that these spaces are not for you. They are spaces for people to talk about their experiences in a place without judgment or fear or stigma. These are not places for people to give out writing advice. Do NOT flood subreddits for people seeking support with questions that may make others feel like an object to be studied. It's not cool or fair to them for writers to enter their space and start asking questions when they're focused on getting support. Be courteous of the people around you.

Diagnosis

I have the belief that for most stories, a diagnosis for your characters is unnecessary. I have a few reasons for thinking this way.

Firstly, mental health diagnoses are important for treatment, but they're also a giant sign written across your medical documents that says, “I'm crazy!” Doctors may try to remain unbiased when they see mental health diagnoses, but anybody with a diagnosis can say that doctors rarely succeed. This translates to a lot of people never getting diagnoses, never seeking treatment, or refusing to talk about their diagnosis if they do have one.

Secondly, I've seen posts discuss “therapy speak” in fiction, and this is one of those instances where a diagnosis and extensive research may make you vulnerable to it. People don't tend to discuss their diagnoses freely and they certainly don't tend to attribute their behaviors as symptoms.

Finally, this puts you, the writer, into a position where you treat your characters less like people and story devices and more like a list of symptoms and behavioral quirks. First and foremost, your characters serve your story. If they don't feel like people then your characters may fall flat. When it comes to mental illness in characters, the people aspect is the most important part. Mentally ill people are people, not symptoms.

Those are my top three reasons for believing that most characters will never need a specific diagnosis. You will likely never need to depict the difference between bipolar and borderline because the story itself does not need that distinction or to reveal a diagnosis at all. I feel that having a diagnosis in mind for a character has more pitfalls than advantages.

How does treatment work?

Treating mental health conditions may appear in your story. There are a number of ways treatments affect daily life and understanding the levels of care and what those levels treat will help you depict the appropriate settings for your characters.

The levels of care range from minimally restrictive and minimal care to intensive in-patient care in a secure hospital setting.

Regular or semi-regular therapy is considered outpatient care. This is generally the least restrictive. Your characters may or may not also take medications, in which case they may also see a psychiatrist to prescribe those medications. There is a difference between therapists, psychiatrists, and psychologists. Therapists do not prescribe medications, psychiatrists prescribe medications after an evaluation, and psychologists will (sometimes) do both. (I'm US, so this may work differently depending where you are. You should always research the specific setting of your story.) Generally, a person with a mental illness or mental health condition will see both an outpatient therapist and an outpatient psychiatrist for their general continuing care.

Therapists will see their patients anywhere from once in a while as-needed to twice weekly. Psychiatrists will see new patients every few weeks until they report stabilizing results, and then they will move to maintenance check-ins every 90-ish days.

If the patient reports severe symptoms, or worsening symptoms, they will be moved up to more intensive care, also known as IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program). This is usually a group-therapy setting for between 3-7 hours per day between 3-5 days a week. The group-therapy is led by a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) or Licensed Professional Social Worker (LPSW). Groups are structured sessions with multiple patients teaching coping mechanisms and focusing on treatment adjustment. IOP’s tend to expect patients to see their own outpatient psychiatrist, but I've encountered programs that have their own in-house psychiatrists.

If the patient still worsens, or is otherwise needing more intensive care, they'll move up to PHP (Partial Hospitalization Program). This can look different per facility, but I've seen them to be more intensive in hours and content than IOP. They also usually have in-house psychiatrists doing diagnostic psychological evaluations. It's very possible for characters with “mild” symptoms to go long periods of time, even most of their lives, without having had a diagnosis. PHP’s tend to need a diagnosis so that they can address specific concerns and help educate the patient on their condition and how it may manifest.

Next step up is residential care. Residential care is a boarding hospital setting. Patients live in the hospital and focus entirely on treatment. Individual programs may differ in what's allowed in, how much contact the patients are allowed to have, and what the treatment focus is. Residential programs are often utilized for addiction recovery. Good residential programs will care about the basis for the addiction, such as underlying mental health issues that the patient may be self-medicating for. Your character may come away with a diagnosis, or they may not. Residential programs aren't exclusively for addictions though, and can be useful for severe behavioral concerns in teenagers or any number of other concerns a patient may have that manifest chronically but do not require intensive inpatient restriction.

Inpatient hospital stays are the highest level of care, and this tends to be what people are talking about when they tell jokes about “grippy socks.” These programs are inside the hospital and patients are highly restricted on what they can and cannot have, they cannot leave unless approved by the hospital staff (the hospital's psychiatrist tends to have the final say), and contact with the outside world is highly regulated. During the days, there are group therapy sessions and activities structured very carefully to maintain routine. Staff will regulate patient hygiene, food and sleep routines, and alone time.

Inpatient hospital programs are controversial among people with mental illness and mental health concerns. I find that they have use, but they are also not an easy or first step to take when dealing with a mental health condition. Patients are not allowed sharp objects, metal objects, shoelaces, cutlery, and pens or pencils. Visitors are not allowed to bring these items in, staff are not allowed these items either. This is for the safety of the patients. Typically, if someone is involuntarily admitted into the inpatient hospital program, it is due to an authority (the hospital staff) deeming the patient as a danger to themselves or others. Whether they came in of their own will (voluntary) or not does not matter in how the program operates. Everyone is treated the same. If someone is an active danger to themselves, then they may be on 24-hour suicide watch. They are not allowed to have any time alone. No, not even for the bathroom, or while sleeping, or during group sessions.

Inpatient Hospital Programs

This is a place of high curiosity for those who have never been admitted into inpatient care, so I'd like to explain a little more in detail how these programs work, why they're controversial, but how they can be useful in certain situations. I do have personal experience in this area, but as always, your mileage may vary.

When admitting, hospital staff are the final say. Not the police. The police hold some sway, but most often, if someone is brought in by the police, they are likely to be admitted. They are only involuntarily admitted when the situation demands: the staff have determined the person to be an imminent danger to themselves or others. This is obviously subjective, and can easily be abused. A good program with decent staff will do everything they can to convince the patient to admit voluntarily if they feel it is necessary, but ultimately if the patient declines and the staff don't feel they can make the clinical argument that admittance is necessary, the patient is free to leave. It should be noted that doctors and clinicians have to worry about possibly losing their licenses to practice. They don't want to fuck around with involuntary admittance if they don't have to, and they don't want potentially dangerous people to walk away.

Once admitted, the patient will have to remove their clothing and put on a set of hospital scrubs. These are mostly made of paper, and most often do not have pockets, but I have seen sets that do have pockets (very handy, tbh). They are not allowed to take anything into the hospital wing except disability-required devices such as glasses, hearing aids, mobility aids, etc. Most programs will require removing piercings, but not all of them, in my experience.

The nurses will also do a physical examination, where they will make note of any open wounds, major scars, tattoos, and other skin abrasions that may be relevant.

The patient will then be led to their bed, where they will receive any approved clothing items from outside, a copy of their patient rights, and a copy of the floor code of conduct and rules, a schedule, and any other administrative information necessary for the program to run efficiently and legally.

Group sessions include group-therapy, activities, coping skills, anger management, anxiety management, and for some reason, karaoke. There is a lot of coloring involved, but only with crayons. A good program will focus heavily on skills and therapeutic activities. Bad programs will phone it in and focus on karaoke and activities. Most hospitals will have a chaplain, and some will include a religious group session. I've never attended these, so I can't speak for them.

Unspoken rules are the hidden pieces of the inpatient programs that patients tend to find out during their first visit. There is no leaving the program until the doctor agrees to it. The doctor will only agree to it if they deem you ready to leave, and you are only ready to leave if you have been compliant to treatment and have seen positive results in the most dangerous symptoms (homicidal or suicidal ideations). Noncompliance can look like: refusing your prescribed medications (which you have the right to do at any time for any reason. That does not mean that there won't be consequences. This is a particularly controversial point.), refusing to attend groups (chapel is not included in this point, but that doesn't mean it's actually discounted. Another controversial point.), violent or disruptive outbursts such as yelling or throwing things, and refusing to sleep or eat at the approved and appointed times. All of this may sound like the hospital is restricting your rights beyond reason, but I've seen the use, and I've seen the abuse. Medications are sometimes necessary, and often patients seriously prefer having medication. Groups are important to a person's treatment, and refusing to go can be a sign of noncompliance or worsening symptoms. If someone is too depressed or anxious to go to group, then they're probably not ready to leave the hospital where the structure is gone and they must self-regulate their treatment. Violent or disruptive outbursts tend to be a sign of worsening symptoms in general, but even the best of us lose our tempers from time to time when put into a highly stressful situation like an inpatient hospital stay. The hospital is supposed to be a place of healing, for many it is. But for many more, it is a place of systematic abuse and restriction.

Discharge processes can be long and arduous and INCREDIBLY stressful for the patient. Oftentimes, they won't know their discharge date until the day of, or perhaps the day before. Though the date can change at any time. The discharge process requires the supervising psychiatrist to meet with the treatment team and then the patient to determine if the patient had progressed enough to be safely discharged. Discharge also requires a set outpatient plan in place, such as a therapy appointment within a week, a psychiatrist visit, or admittance into a lower level of care. This is where social workers are involved. Patients are not allowed access to cell phones or the internet. They cannot make their own appointments with their outpatient care providers without a phone number and phone access. Some floors will have phone access for this reason, others will insist the social worker arrange appointments and discharge plans. Social workers are often incredibly overworked, with several patients on their caseload.

The patient cannot be discharged until the social worker has coordinated the discharge plan to the doctor's approval. Most often, unfortunately, the patient rarely receives regular communication regarding the progress of their discharge. I've been discharged with as much as a day's notice to two hours notice.

Part 2 Coming Soon

This guide got longer than expected! Out of respect for my followers dashboard, I will be cutting it here and adding a Part 2 later on.

If you find that there are more specific questions you'd like answered, or topics you'd like covered, send an ask or reply to this post with what you'd like to see in Part 2.

– Indy

[liesmyth]

do you have any tips/resources for a beginner who wants to get into weightlifting?

thank you for asking!! I love this question. I love lifting! It's Good For You (helps increase bone density & metabolic rate, and it's good for injury prevention and developing functional strength). It's also a really great confidence boost. 10/10 would rec lifting to every single person reading this — if it's an option for you, give it a try.

TLDR: familarise yourself with common exercises. pick a beginner program. follow it. profit!

A more involved answer, with resources and details, is under the cut

familiarise yourself with common exercises

There are hundreds of possible exercises out there to target each specific body part. However, most of those are what's called "accessory" movements, as opposed to "basic" exercises that will pop up over and over in most lifting routines. Ideally, you want to know how to perform these movements, using light weights or just your bodyweight until you feel comfortable with it.

CORE BRACING (ft deadbugs. genuinely lifechanging skill!)

Squats.

Hip hinge. This is useful for deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, kettlebell swings & similar movements

Push movements (for example: dumbell chest press, shoulder press etc)

Pull movements (dumbell rows & many others)

That said. Please don't stress too much over "good form". Each exercise has infinite variations and especially as a beginner, you won't be lifting heavy enough weights to make form optimisation a big concern. All bodies are different and our individual stances vary a lot depending on body proportions, flexibility levels etc. You just want to know HOW an exercise is supposed to be performed, in terms of: which muscles it activates? what am I supposed to get out of it? how to do it safely? Your bodyweight squat doesn't have to be flawless, it just has to be good enough.

BTW, you know when I said that there are hundreds of possible exercises out there? Here is a very detailed masterlist + exercise guide for exercises impacting each muscle group.

learn your way around a weight room, if you aren't familiar with it already.

Broadly speaking: the free weights (bar, dumbells, kettlebells) are good for compound exercises that involve multiple muscle groups. The various machines are ideal for "isolation" exercises that target fewer specific muscle groups.

If you already know what's what, then skip this bit! But I've talked to many people who feel a bit intimidated by the weight room because they feel out of place in it, and in my experience familiarising yourself with the general layout is a good way to take away that discomfort.

And, in case this is something you need to hear: you deserve to be there, you're not taking space, and most gymgoers just want to finish their workout and shower, and won't pay specific negative attention to you. Most gyms have a weight room manager or floor trainer, at least during some shifts, and they WILL be happy to help you. If you're someone who doesn't want to be bothered while exercising, just preventively introduce yourself, say you're new

pick a program

I highkey recommend following a pre-made program instead of just fucking about on your own. Here's why

programs are well-balanced in terms of volume and muscle groups, to ensure you don't overtrain one body part and leave other lagging

they have a built-in "progression scheme" that will allow you to move to a higher weight in an optimal way — basically, you'll see strength advantages sooner

they help navigate information overload. There is SO much information about fitness out there that acts as an entry barrier. Following a pre-made program really helps with that.

If you have a gym membership, you may have the option of one "free workout program" made by a trainer who works at the gym. If that's in the cards, I'd recommend going with that.

Otherwise, I strongly recommend the "programs rec guide" over at r/xxfitness, the female fitness subreddit (the name is 15 years old but it's a queer friendly, trans inclusive space). I haven't personally done any of those, but Meg Gallagher of Before the Barbell is very solid, and that's the one I'd suggest.

get ready for DOMS

Also known as delayed onset muscle soreness. It happens 1) when you go to the gym after a while or start exercising for the first time 2) when you train a different muscle group than usual 3) when you up the intensity of a workout.

Basically, you wake up in the morning and you go OUCH!! ACHEY. That's DOMS. It happens because your muscle fibres are suffering microtears and reknitting (stronker!!) and you will feel very stiff and possibly very swollen (muscles retain water).

It'll take a few days for it to go away. IT IS SAFE TO EXERCISE THROUGH DOMS; the only thing limiting you is if you're too achy to move effectively. I recommend eating something protein heavy (more on that below) and doing some gentle exercise to make it go away faster (walking, at home-stretches or yoga, swimming if it's an option, etc.)

You DON'T want to stay in bed the whole time, because that'll only make you more stiff and make it last longer. Note that "post exercise achiness" is something that WILL go away after the first couple of weeks or so, depending on your recovery (again, gentle exercise and/or going to the gym again when you're still a bit achey is actually preferred than being completely at rest until they're fully gone away). Long term, you're NOT supposed to feel high-level soreness after working out. "No pain no gain" is mostly bullshit.

evaluate your program!

I'm always saying this, but the best exercise is the one you actually stick with. If your exercise plan is dull or fills you with dread, it doesn't matter how good for you it supposedly is — ditch it. Give yourself a few weeks of whatever program you pick, then re-evaluate: what are your favourite exercises you've done so far? Which ones you don't like? What would you like to do? Programs can and should be modified according to your preferences, and it's a lot easier to customise something that works for YOU once you're a bit more familiar with everything. For example, maybe someone at your gym is doing kettlebell swings and you think it's cool and you'd rather do those instead of crunches for your abs. Why not. Just note down what's working and what isn't, and then re-evaluate (with gym trainers if that's an option, but also, I mean it, HMU whenever).

odds and ends!!

None of these things are a big deal, but they make your life easier:

Hydrate during a workout. If you're hydrated your body works better. You'll also probably sweat during your workout. Getting through 1L of water during a 1 hour / 1 hour and a half gym session is perfectly normal.

Warm up before lifting. Something like this for a general body warmup + lighter warm-up series before going up to the weight you actually want to lift. For example: if you're squatting the bar (20kg) I'd do one bodyweight squats series, and another series holding a 10kg kettlebell or dumbell. Cool down or stretch after!

Mobility work on a day off is a good idea, even if you're no longer suffering through soreness. This is my current go-to routine, I do it about 2x week.

If possible, eat protein the evening / day after a workout. Protein is great for building muscle, and you WILL see a noticeable difference in energy level and speed of recovery by upping your protein intake. Basically: if you usually eat lentils or fish twice a week, try to make one of those times your post-gym dinner.

(In general, as a beginner you WILL see results regardless, and you don't need to optimise nutrition or anything (not to mention, it can be overwhelming / complicated to deal with.) But if you're interested in the specifics of nutrition & exercise, HMU)

keep track of your workouts! I really recommend this; it can be very inspiring to have a backlog you can look at when you want to track your progress, and you want to establish a benchmark with yourself. It can be as simple as writing down gym days & numbers in your journal if you have one; personally I use the Strong app to save my routines, and every week when I log in new workouts I modify the values depending on what weight and # of reps I hit that week. For reference, this is what a week looks like on the Strong app for me

IF I'VE MISSED ANYTHING SHOOT ME AN ASK.

[intermittentstitcher]

List of Online Embroidery/ Sewing / Needlework Resources

Hello my name is Cleo and this is my masterpost full of resources and information that will help you in your stitching journey.

Taglist Form

Invite link to my community Fibre Artists on Tumblr

My Tags

Intermittent Stitcher Recommends

I don’t go here but I wanted to pass it on

Intermittent Stitcher Thoughts

Intermittent Stitcher Opinions

Intermittent Stitcher Poll

I love myself a beautiful gradient

Intermittent Stitcher PSA

Intermittent Stitcher FO’S

Intermittent Stitcher Tips

Cats of Craftblr

My Perchance Generators

Random Things to Stitch

Needle Type generator

Random Textile Craft and Technique generator

Random Thread Colour Generator - DMC .

Random Thread Colour Generator - DMC Colour Variations

Embroidery Website randomiser

Embroidery Hoop Size randomiser - in inches

Embroidery pattern Design Prompts

Random Embroidery stitch Generator

Aida Fabric Count generator

Embroidery Styles

Embroidery Project Generator

Other resources that I have made

My Goodreads book recs

Needle Organisation System

Embroidery Organisation Bingo Card

My Embroidery Pinterest board

Songs to Stitch To - my Spotify playlist for when I’m crafting

Orchestral Crafting Music - for when you really want to focus on your projects.

Crafting Acronyms - a list of acronyms used in the crafting community.

Videos to embroider to - videos that I like to put on in the background whilst I’m stitching.

Other Resources that I have found

Threadcolors.com - colour matching for DMC threads

Thread - Bare Stitching - tools and calculators

Flossmaxx - colour conversion for major floss brands

Needle N’ Thread - blog with useful tricks and tips.

Royal School of Needlework Stitchbank - has a wide variety of modern and historical stitches.

Sarah’s hand Embroidery Tutorials - a visual dictionary of embroidery stitches

StitchLifeStudio - an Etsy store that sells custom frames for embroidery hoops

Colour Scheme - good for helping you to select fabric/ thread colour palettes for your projects.

Color Designer - a website that has a wide variety of tools that can help you develop colour palettes for your projects.

List of colours ( alphabetical)

List of colours by shade

List of Crayola crayon colors

The symbolism of flowers

Sew What Podcast - A podcast where the host Isabella Rosner talks about historical embroidery and interviews a wide range of guests

Sarah Homfray Embroidery - YouTube channel

Antique Pattern Library

Bernadette Banner - Historical recreation YouTube channel

Sewstine - a historical recreation YouTuber that specialises in machine embroidery

Danielle Clough - A South African embroidery artist who produces beautiful pieces with bright colours. I have linked her Instagram.

Quilter’s Paradise - free online quilting calculators

ImageColorPicker - allows you to pick colours from photos

Loose Ends Project - This allows crafters to sign up to finish the craft projects of those who have passed away or have become disabled.

DMC - A well known embroidery supply brand. They produce high quality stranded cotton as well as a litany of kits and free patterns.

The DMC Youtube channel- has lots of tutorials and information. 

Sylko thread colour inventory list - for those who have inherited their grandmother’s thread stash

Omni calculator - allows you to convert various lengths

Thread colour palette generator - allows you to generate colour palettes to use in your projects

Stitchpoint - allows you to write phrases in 7 different cross stitch fonts

FlossCross - a free online cross stitch pattern maker

Hours Tracker - the app I use to keep track of the hours I spend stitching

r/Embroidery - the embroidery subreddit is a really good source of information, encouragement and inspiration

r/CrossStitch - the cross stitch subreddit is a really good source of information, encouragement and inspiration

Code Crafters Quilt Generator - allows you to generate a random quilt design

Freebloss - a Amazon store that produces kits for many crafts including embroidery and they are affordable and high quality

prettycolors - a Tumblr blog that posts random colours along with the hex code and this can be a helpful resource for fibrecrafters when they are trying to pick a colour for their project(s).

colour-palettes - a blog that posts user submitted colour palettes and I think that this blog can also be used as inspiration for fibrecrafters when selecting colours to use in their project(s).

Swatches - this app allows you to swatch colours from photos as well as being able to swatch colours in real time.

John James Needle Guide - a guide to different types of needle and their uses.

Cable Patterns - allows you to make your own cable patterns for knitting

RSN collection and archive- photographs of objects in the Royal School of needle work collection. The first 100 objects have just been digitised and put online.

Hand exercises for knitters- these can also be used by other crafters in general

Things that I suggest you buy

I have not received anything in exchange for recommending these products

A colour wheel - this will enable you to choose the best colours for your projects

Multicoloured cases - this box filled with multicoloured cases will help you to organise your threads ant to easily take them on the go.

Plastic embroidery hoops- I find that plastic hoops are able to maintain tension and keep your projects drum tight.

Embroidery Floss Organisers- these help you to keep all of the various colours that you are using in your projects in one convenient place.

Pellon Stick-N-Washaway Embroidery Stabilizer - allows you to trace or print out your design and stick it onto your fabric, stitch over it and then wash it off once you’re done.

[frownyalfred]

*busts down your doors* HEY! Long ask for ya

okay so I was rereading your fic where EMS showed up because Dick couldn’t flip on the trampoline (rip) and it got me thinking about routine trauma.

So here’s the thing: I am not EMS. I know three people who are EMS, but my extent of EMS experience comes from one (1) ride along and lurking on EMS subreddits. Those guys are a hoot. Great memes. Anyways.

A comment stuck out to me: “You haven’t truly lived the job until you’re eating a gas station burrito next to a dead body”. I’ve seen a bunch like that. Nonchalance and dark humor because well, that’s their job. Gore is the norm. Sure, depending on the area, your usual calls might just be lift assists, but other areas are neck deep in gang violence and violent crime.

A pretty common post on that subreddit is also, sadly, “I just got a call that’s never bothered me before but all of a sudden I’m broken” or “I’ve never had a problem running this type of call before but all of a sudden it just hit me.” Delayed trauma is a bitch. Someone pointed out that if a civilian saw a fatal car accident with multiple corpses, they’d be in therapy and given support and it’d be a huge deal. With EMS, they’re just expected to deal with it. (EMS mental health is getting better- there are helplines and resources and first responder focused therapies- but it’s still a developing field)

ANYWAYS, now that I’ve given you a crash course on the EMS mental health crisis (someone should really write a feature on EMS in Gotham those fuckers would be crazy and I love them already), my point is, how would this apply to the bats? Seeing bodies is treated as very much the norm to them, but do you think it ever just… catches up? The impact of seeing corpses day after day? Do you think they have to fake being fine and tough during those times because well, “everybody else in the family is fine with it, I’m not going to be a liability/burden/weak/etc”

Do you think Bruce, the goddamn batman, who shouldn’t be ruffled by anything, ever just feels something crack inside when he looks at a little boy who could have grown up healthy and strong like his Jason, had (Bruce) someone been there for him? and then he can’t work cases with kids for a week?

This is such an excellent ask, thank you so much for gracing my inbox with it!

It's a very good question. I'm also on a lot of those subreddits (needed to do some research for that fic) and the discussion in those forums and on TikTok is like you described, a kind of practiced desensitization to all gore and suffering in order to survive in their job.

What I've seen from those discussions (and my EMT friend) is an almost sub-conscious trend where they allow themselves the "thing" that breaks them, and they push a lot of that trauma and emotion onto that thing. Like an EMT saying they don't do kids, or they don't do gunshots to the eye, etc. And they'll sob like a baby on those calls, while remaining stone-faced and level-headed through the triple homicide.

I'm just theorizing here, but I imagine the Batfamily uses similar coping skills -- pushing all that trauma and suffering into a box which cracks only under limited, defined circumstances. And they break or snap only under those conditions, because, subconsciously, they allowed themselves to.

So yes, Bruce might be 99% fine with most of the bodies he sees, but there might be a little boy who has a detail (like Jason's dark hair) that just slams into him out of nowhere.

PTSD and trauma literally change the structure of the brain. Individuals react differently to trauma after that, but there does appear to be a "desensitizing" effect with repeated trauma, as the body tries to compensate.

I agree that the Gotham EMTs must be some crazy motherfuckers. They probably deal with 6x the normal shit EMTs deal with in other cities. They probably take on a lot more trauma and burn out quicker than other EMTs, too.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? I admit I don't cover PTSD explicitly in a lot of my fics.

[gacha-incels]

after reading that last ask that actually talked about the games' story, i just. asker is okay! it just made me realise that this situation lowkey feels similar to JKR and HP.

im transmasc and autistic, and had pm games as a special interest prior to kjh showing his true colours. so seeing others continue on with playing and willingly give money? its just. yeah.

jkr harming trans people, kjh harming women, people who refuse to put down their works despite seeing how they continue to harm people because "theres nothing they can do about it" at best? idk where i was going with this but just. theres something to be said about separating art from the artist, the misuse of that term, and then how that misuse continues to fuel the artist's actions.

(... on the autistic part, its mainly me jabbing at those who refuse to put the games down. dunno if that made sense or not.)

I do find it ironic that there’s an overlap of people who will be very vocal about JK Rowling and boycotting anything Harry Potter related but still play Limbus Company while knowing everything that’s going on. like as soon as it’s something you actually enjoy being criticized and boycotted, suddenly you don’t give a fuck? suddenly you have all these excuses about playing a game that’s being actively boycotted by the very people its actions have harmed? as I said in the ask that you’re referring to, there are a lot of people that see themselves as “progressive” who simply do not view misogyny as a real issue, let alone one that significantly, violently affects half the world’s population. It’s sad enough to have to compare HP & LC in order to get westerners to care about what’s happening in South Korea.

There’s another sinister aspect of obfuscation westerners engage in when they react to limbus company and the pervasive misogyny in South Korea. People will write shit like “oh I don’t think we can understand what’s going on there, the culture is just way too different,” or “I don’t know much about this but (completely wrong information),” or “both sides are extremists!” It’s seductive language because it lets you off the hook for grappling with the morality of playing these games and it stops you from thinking about reality for women that live there. To many, these things are difficult so they just won’t think about it. It’s easier to “shut off your brain” and play games (a sentiment I saw repeated frequently in the limbus company subreddit and twitter). There are plenty of resources written by Korean women in both English and Korean that explain what’s happening, from journalists writing in a newspaper to someone writing about their experiences on their personal twitter or blog. To view them as some exoticized “other” whose culture you cannot understand is dehumanizing. like you, I find it frustrating to see people still engaging with the game, giddy about new gacha banners, etc. female Korean fans of PM/LC razed entire twitter accounts full of fanart and actively protest misogynist games and companies. monggeu (Leviathan) bravely told her story to the news regarding the working conditions at project moon, and Mimi (Wonderlab) took her entire commissioned comic down from Project Moon’s site. Meanwhile, western players can know all of this yet still play the game because they like to and it’s easy to keep playing. At some point it’s just shameful.

[capriciouscaprine]

hey btw if you're a 'glow up'/'it girl' blog who doesn't want trans women interacting with you bc your blog is 'for women' and you don't think trans women count?

you're the biggest dummy on this site.

who tf do you think is putting in more work to glow up:

some cis girl who finally gets around to doing pilates once a week?

or a trans girl who's speed reading up on multiple different styles of clothes, ripping out hair from her toes to her nose, training her voice to be smooth and sweet to her own ears, and even getting monthly blood work done so she can get gel/pills/injections to completely reshape herself???

(obviously, you don't need to do all or even any of those things to be a woman, but these are glow up blogs we're talking about here; the whole point is pursuing a largely aspirational way of presenting yourself so as to gain specific social advantages... which sounds trans af to me, tbh)

no joke, the most comprehensive guide I've ever gotten on how to go from awkward schlub (regardless of gender) to gorgeous yet still warm and approachable high-value femme came from a subreddit dedicated to a genderfluid twitch streamer who STILL primarily uses he/him pronouns even while on feminizing hrt

heck, his trans girlfriend keeps getting invited to pre-launch events for luxury fashion brands in London, Paris, and Milan, and y'all are, what, tag spamming on pictures you're reposting from pinterest? and SHE'S the one who wouldn't 'fit in' the 'it girl'/'glow up' aesthetic???

be for real for serious, you're embarrassing yourself and the community AND completely ignoring a valuable resource on how to glow up from not even being a girl to be the it girl everyone follows

[translifetips]

Are you transgender and scared of the future of America? Here is how you can keep yourself safe.

The results of this election are not at all what we expected or wanted them to be. While this is incredibly unfair and there is a strong likely hood that Trump cheated, we must move on. The government, and our country has failed us. The next four years are looking to be very dark for people of color, women, immigrants, queer and transgender people. These times are very frightening, but we still have time before things change. Trump will not be in office until inauguration day, which is Monday, the 20th of January 2025. While we do not know exactly what will happen to transgender people after Trump is in office, project 2025 is stated to remove protections of LGBTQ+ individuals.

So, what can transgender people in America do to stay safe in Trump's America? First, know the safety of where you live. Many states, even states that were red in this election, have laws that protect transgender individuals in hate crime laws, and how they regulate gender. Lgbtmaps is a wonderful resource to figure out if your state is safe. If you live in a state that is generally not safe for transgender people and moving somewhere safer (such as states in New England, New York, California etc.) is an option, you should do so now. For those that live in unsafe areas and cannot leave, you still have options.

If you are on HRT, consider stockpiling your hormones. Testosterone and estrogen can be purchased online. This site can show you how to get hormones online. IF you purchase hormones online, be cautious and do your research on the website you are purchasing from. If you can, use a prepaid visa card instead of a credit or debit card. Producing your own hormones is an option, but this should be a LAST RESORT option. Passing, though unnecessary in trans places, will become extremely important as aggression against transgender people becomes more rampant under Trump's reign.

For transgender men, consider binding using trans-tape or KT tape (around $5 at Walmart for the generic brand) instead of using a binder. Using tape is generally safer, you can wear it 24/7 without having to take binding breaks. If you decide to wear tape instead of a binder, watch a tutorial before using. Packing may also be necessary, using something as simple as a folded pair of socks can give the illusion of being male. Do not fear using the men's bathroom, most cisgender men are stupid don't know transgender men exist, let alone use their bathrooms. Using a 'stand to pee' device may be helpful, but most men do not think anything of a man peeing sitting down (if you are questioned, you have diarrhea).

For transgender women, you can wear a face mask in public if you have traces of facial hair, this can also help to disguise your voice. Tucking generally will make or break your passing, but you can wear loose clothing such as skirts and dresses as an alternative. Since I am not a transgender woman, I don't have all of the tips and tricks that transgender women might have, if you have specific questions for passing in female spaces there are resources such as the mtf subreddit where you can get advice from people who are in the same place you are.

This is also the time to change your name, and if possible, your sex, on your id and birth certificate. Changing your name is a relatively easy process in most states, and most states do not require publication of name change statements. Your state's government website should have information about how you can change your name. In 2022 and living in Massachusetts, it took me just a few days for my name change to be finalized, though this will differ based on where you live.

If you live in one of the twenty-five states that allows it, you can even amend your birth certificate to show your preferred sex without even having sex reassignment surgery! This process, at least for me, was somewhat of a lengthy process but the result is your future employers never needing to know that you are transgender. Most cisgender people do not even know that this is an option. This will be easiest for people who have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a doctor, but if you are on HRT, you already have that. Specific states have different laws and processes, so be sure to check your state's government website for what you need and how to go about it. I underwent this process in Massachusetts, so if you have any questions about how this looks in Massachusetts, send me a message.

Most states allow gender markers on IDs to be changed, some even allow an 'X' to be marked instead of 'M' or 'F'.

Overall, be safe and careful. These are just tips on what you can do now while things are still safe. There is no telling what the future will hold, but we can control the present. To all of my trans siblings, we will get through this. The world is a better place with you in it. Do not let them take away your identity. Be there for your friends. If anyone needs help or just someone to talk to, my inbox is open.

If you are struggling crisis lines are available: Call 988- Suicide and crisis lifeline

Text 'TALK' to 741-741- Crisis text line

Call 1-866-488-7386- Trevor Project lifeline

Text START to 678-678- Trevor Project text line

Call 1-877-360-LGBT (5428)- LGBT crisis lifeline

Call 1-877-565-8860- Trans lifeline

[snapcracklepop-myjoints]

do u have a reccomendation for what form of shorthand to learn first. deeply interested-- i saw ur reply on that one post and then u seem cool so i just followed u and figured i would ask here

hello !!! thank you for asking !!!!!!!!!! and im so sorry this is so long lol

If you want my biased personal recommendation, I would suggest Pitman New Era. That's what I use, and I think its the best balance of efficiency vs difficulty to learn, and I like that the learning curve is such that, as you learn, you apply more rules that simplify the writing process more (meaning that earlier practice is still legible, if far less efficient). This compared to other forms (like Gregg) where, as you learn, youre just kind of generally suffering and trying to get your brain to memorise things and differentiate very similar looking strokes. I find Pitman also lends itself well to using in conjunction with other "standard" writing styles so you can take notes that are enough in "standard" writing to be skimmable while using enough shorthand to be much faster to write, basically maninmising writeing AND reading speed. [example below]

You can skip to the end for resources for Pitman and shorthand in general if this answer is sufficient :)

If you want a horrifically long, massively autistic answer that breaks down the three most popular/common styles, then thats what the rest of the post is !! It is so fucking long I am so sorry

Horrifically Long Answer:

I'm answering on the assumption that you would be learning for use with english. If you want to learn shorthand for another language there are a variety of options however I am less versed in them :( I'm also assuming you're asking out of personal interest rather than vocational, since certain jobs will recommend or require you learn certain styles of shorthand and it would be best to defer to that.

The most popular methods are Gregg, the various forms of Pitman (this is what I use), and Teeline. Gregg and Pitman are phonemic while Teeline is alphabetical. There are also a huge number of other, less popular forms of shorthand (as well as shorthand systems which are popular in/made for other languages). If you're interested in learning about these, check out the subreddit listed at the end of this post under "resources".

Teeline:

I know much less about Teeline, so I'll go into it less, but basically it is a "spelling-based" shorthand system -- that is, it is based off the standard spelling of words. It replaces latin letters which different forms that are faster to write and can be connected more efficiently, while removing extraneous letters from words. It is simpler to learn, in part because it is spelling-based, and also because it has fewer rules which further consolidate and shorten word forms. Due to this, it is ultimately much slower to write than the other two systems mentioned here (although you can still get up to good speeds !!). Like the other shorthand systems, you can learn to a more basic extent, or learn more advanced theory to maximise its capability and speed. Teeline is very standard for journalism and overall quite popular for professional use, however it is still in copyright and so there are far fewer resources available online. If you are interested in taking classes, however, I would assume those are available.

Teeline TL;DR: alphabetical, simplest to learn but less efficient, popular, still in copyright so fewer resources.

examples of Teeline:

[images sourced from wiki]

Pitman and Gregg: Phonemic Systems and Regional Accents:

As mentioned, Gregg and Pitman are phonemic. If you dont have any practice with phonemic writing systems, you might have luck starting out with shavian just to practice. also because shavian is fun :) (its one of the writing systems in my header !) Im saying this partly because I want more people to learn shavian and partly because I learned Shavian long before I learned Pitman and found that having that practice was helpful. In particular, if you have any accent other than RP, its helpful for figuring out either which vowel sounds and phonetic spellings are relevant to your accent and your pronunciation, or, should you choose to go a "standard" (RP) route, how certain words should be spelled despite how you may pronounce them. Using a "standard" RP approach can be helpful if you want people to more easily be able to read your writing or want to "match" the dictionary, but someone well versed in shorthand should be able to figure it out no matter what, and if its just for your personal use I'd suggest just going by your own regional pronunciations.

Pitman:

Pitman was an early shorthand system developed in the early to mid 1800s. It used to be the most popular shorthand system, however nowadays has been eclipsed in popularity by Teeline and/or Gregg, depending on the country and occupational context. However, it remains popular among enthusiasts and there are significant amount of resources available for learners and practitioners.

The main thing to know with Pitman is that words are built using different strokes for each consonant sound, and symbols attached to these consonants to mark vowels. These consonant sounds are differentiated by shape as well as line thickness. Voiced and unvoiced pairs of consonants (eg., T and D, C and G, S and Z, etc.) are designated using the same strokes, with the voiced consonant of the pair being thicker than the other. This line variation is something which is normally achieved with a pencil, though I mostly use fountain pens to write and so I use flex nibs to achieve the same effect.

Vowels are marked with certain dots or dashes placed along corresponding consonant markings, For increased writing speed, most vowel markings can also be left off in Pitman, and instead where on the line the first stroke begins serves to signal the first vowel.

Pitman uses short forms (also called "logograms" or "grammalogues," depending on the version and book you use) which are abbreviated forms of commonly used words (see picture below for a few examples). Different versions of Pitman have different numbers of grammalogues.

With Pitman, efficiency is increased through a combination of memorising various short forms and implementing rules which simplify strokes. (Examples of these can be seen in the picture below. probably need to click to be able to actually see anything rip) This allows you to have certain "levels" of complexity, where as you learn more complex rules you increase in efficiency, but you can also eschew some of those rules if they are too complex for you without sacrificing legibility to you or proficient practitioners. Probably someone somewhere on reddit has something to say about that but tbh who gives a fuck. You can do whatever you want forever. Its known to be very common for people to come up with their own personal shortcuts and variations in whatever shorthand system they use, and imo sometimes that just means looking at a rule and going "well thats stupid👍" and ignoring it. Pitman can seem really intimidating, however just remember that you can ignore rules for as long as you want until they are less intimidating to learn and apply.

There are 3 "main" versions of Pitman: the original system, Pitman New Era, and Pitman 2000. New Era has the most complex system of rules and abbreviations, while 2000 simplified many of these and got rid of most of the abbreviations. I personally use New Era, in part because I was able to access more resources for this, but largely because I found the increased number of rules and abbreviations to be better in the long run. If you are willing to invest more time and effort into learning a more complicated system, with the tradeoff that it will be faster and easier once you are proficient, you should learn New Era. The main benefit of 2000 is that the rules are simplified. I would say, however, that the downsizing of the list of abbreviations is not a benefit. While it in theory requires you to memorise more individual symbols, in practice these abbreviations are commonly used enough that they can become automatic with very little practice. If you decide to learn 2000, I would suggest taking he time to go through the list of abbreviations from New Era and, if not learning all of them, picking out the ones you think you are likely to use with semi-regularity. If you compile them into a cheat sheet and hand it next to your desk, they should be easy to practice using and become memorised really quickly. I myself dont have every abbreviation memorised, but instead focused on ones i use regularly, and often go through the list again to pick out new ones to learn and add to my lexicon as I think they may be used.

Pitman TL;DR: phonemic, differentiates strokes through line thickness, rules can be applied or discarded as best suits your practice without sacrificing readability. Increased speed and efficiency is achieved through extra short forms for commonly used words, and rules which simplify strokes.

examples of Pitman:

[first image mine, other two images sourced from Long Live Pitman's (website, linked below), and wiki]

Gregg:

Gregg is a very popular form of shorthand which utilises round, smooth strokes with the intent of increasing writing efficiency and legibility.

Where Pitman uses variation in line thickness to differentiate between strokes, Gregg uses line length. Both consonants and vowels are marked with designated strokes (compared to Teeline, which has vowel strokes but tends to omit them where possible, and Pitman, which adds vowel marking to consonant strokes or signals vowels through figure placement), and vowels are largely kept in-line. With Gregg, efficiency is achieved through the use of short forms, prefixes, and suffixes; "phrasing", (wherein certain phrases, such as "I may be," "one of the most," "by the," etc. are combined into a single stroke); as well as through the more efficient way in which strokes are joined together into words.

Left-handed people sometimes write Gregg from right to left.

Like Pitman, there are a number of different versions of Gregg, however Gregg seems to have significantly more versions and significantly less consensus around which version is best or why. I am not the best person to give advice on which one is best or information on the different types, so if you decide to go with Gregg I'd suggest checking out the subreddit or some of the other resources linked below for information on that.

examples of Gregg:

[Images sourced from wiki and gregg-shorthand.com]

Comparisons:

I would say that one of the main things to consider if choosing between Gregg and Pitman is which you think is more intuitive to read and write for you. Which sounds obvious lol but like. as an example. I struggle with spatial awareness and stuff like estimating lengths so for me Gregg is not a good option since it differentiates certain consonants through their length and I would have a hard time writing those consistently or easily reading them. Pitman is easier for me in that regard, as well as since it is more "choppy" (for lack of better word) which makes it much easier for me to recognise certain words without having to break them down, as well as making it easier for me to break them down to read them should I need to. On the other hand, some people find Gregg to be easier since its much "smoother" and flowier to write, which can be much faster and more intuitive for some.

Compared to Pitman, Gregg has significantly fewer rules to learn, making it in theory simpler, however, due to the way it is written, it requires significantly more practice to be able to consistently properly write and tell apart certain letters, words, and phrases. Once you are proficient in this, it is by far more efficient, however Gregg is very difficult to use while you are still figuring it out. Pitman, on the other hand, has significantly more rules, however you can continue to easily use it as you learn these rules and add them into your practice. The downside of this is that once you are fully proficient, it is less efficient than full proficiency Gregg. Essentially, the main difficulty with learning Gregg is telling apart different strokes and writing them so that they can be differentiated, while the main difficulty with Pitman is in learning the rules.

I havent talked much about Teeline because honestly I know far less about it, because it is so much harder to find resources on, and honestly because I'm a bit of an old man and personally prefer the older styles lol. Its popular for a reason, though !

I know it probably sounds like I'm shilling a lot for Pitman, however thats just because its what I use and know the most about, as well as because it is what works best for my unique considerations. Most people would probably be more likely to recommend Gregg (for a number of very good reasons !), however when I was first deciding which shorthand system to learn I saw very few people making the points that were most relevant to me (eg, that pitman can be used AS you learn, whereas Gregg is more of a "its useless until you actually have it down" situation, that Gregg is really difficult if you struggle with differentiating lengths, etc) so I feel the need to mention them

TL;DR: Everything:

Ultimately you should use whatever you think is best for you :) I'd say Teeline is your best bet if you are in journalism, or want something easier. Gregg is best if you want something popular, smoother to write, and extremely fast, and are willing and able to put in significant amounts of consistent work and practice to master it. Pitman is best if you want something you can use as you learn, and that's somewhere in between Teeline and Gregg in terms of difficulty and efficiency. If you wanted, you could probably learn Teeline as well as either Pitman or Gregg, but learning both Pitman and Gregg would be much more difficult.

Other:

I take all my notes by hand, generally using a mix of palmer method cursive and pitman shorthand to do so, however, I also have to write a lot of papers, and when I do, I get frustrated at having to type out whole words I normally write in shorthand. This is kind of the curse of shorthand, you get really annoyed having to type out "because". To deal with this, while typing in a word processor, I use an alphabetic shorthand I've come up with over time. I basically input a bunch of auto-replacements into my spellcheck, so that I can have shortcuts for commonly used words set up. so basically i can write: "here, . cnstrctn ` ntnl idntty served to lgtmse the ntn stte" and it will autocorrect to "here, the construction of national identity served to legitimise the nation state". Highly recommend this if you do a lot of writing, especially if a lot of the same topics and words come up a lot. Use whatever shortened versions feel intuitive for you, instead of something you've consciously + intentionally constructed, otherwise youre more likely to forget them or have them get mixed up.

Resources:

stenophile.com has a huge number of shorthand resources linked, particularly for Gregg and Pitman. If you end up choosing either of these I'd suggest starting here to find instruction books.

this website can transliterate into Pitman and Gregg, DEK and Stolze-Schrey (two German shorthand systems), and Sütterlinschrift (a historical German script)(also in my header !)

r/fastwriting is run by a very nice very dedicated man who posts a huge amount of content and resources on various shorthand methods, including lesser known ones. If you decide you want to learn/learn about a different shorthand system, he's the guy to talk to. This subreddit differs from r/shorthand or system-specific subreddits like r/greggshorthand, as those are more discussion-based for learners and practitioners, while r/fastwriting is better for research and being autistic. R/shorthand does have a number of resources listed for more popular shorthand systems, and is a good place to go for advice while learning.

Teeline:

blog with a few free resources

Pitman:

Pitman New Era Instructor and Dictionary. These are what I largely used to learn.

Long Live Pitman's: a website dedicated to Pitman, full of good information for beginning learners.

if you learn Pitman, as mentioned the line variation can be accomplished with a pencil, however if you want to get a bit fancy with it while staying on a budget, Fountain Pen Revolution carries a number of cheap yet reliable fountain pens with flex nibs, such as the FPR Indus or Himalaya. I'd suggest the steel flex rather than the ultra-flex for shorthand unless you have a lighter hand or have practiced with a flex pen before. I've also heard good things about the Noodler's Ahab pen but honestly find its very temperamental, needs tweaking (not ideal if youre a fp beginner) and just not as good. Both FPR and Noodler's pens are made of bioresin and must be kept away from solvents like isopropyl alcohol !!!

Gregg:

Gregg Phrasebook. Short guide to phraseology for Gregg

Gregg-shorthand.com: seems like a good place to start for learning Gregg. Answers some beginner's questions, and provides learning aids and reading material (transliterated into Gregg)

r/greggshorthand

greggshorthand.gibhub.io: a more in depth website with a number of book pdfs and lessons for various forms of Gregg.

[thescreamcorner]

Healthcare and Insurance Information For the United States

These are compiled by yours truly. I understand firsthand how difficult and stressful finding good healthcare can be, so I'm putting this post together with as much information as I can sift through about signing up for health insurance and finding good, affordable providers. I hope it can help at least one person find what they need, so PLEASE reblog this and spread it around. For this post only, even if you're on my DNI, you can share this.

If any adjustments to format need to be made for accessibility, PLEASE comment or DM me so I can update it as quickly as possible. Information under the cut.

-Select your state on the map to see enrollment information, or scroll down below to find contact/sign up information for your state. Note, at least a few states have enrollment for SNAP (foodstamps) on the same site.

-Select your state on the map on THIS page to find specific information about if you're eligible for medicaid within your state, as well as ratings on the quality of care across the state, and other program documents.

-this blogsite provides more in-depth information about how to find an affordable therapist, including for those without insurance and need a sliding-scale fee rate. While they are sponsored by BetterHelp, which you should NOT use, their resources for finding in-person therapists seem to be credible.

-here's another page from that blog, a guide to how and when to negotiate prices with a therapist if they don't advertise or provide a sliding-scale.

-While it speaks specifically about primary care doctors, this article is a good reference when looking for new care team members, to help you determine when it's time to look for a different provider. This still applies well to both psychiatry and therapy.

-This post is a good guideline for how to ask a primary care doctor for a referral for therapy or psychiatry. Like BetterHelp, Talkiatry does not have good reviews and you should not use their services, but this specific page is helpful regardless.

-If you're having a mental health crisis, this subreddit page has an easy to read list of hotlines and websites to call or text, including ones outside of the US. This subreddit aims to provide peer support for those who are suicidal, but be aware that especially because of trolls, there will be highly triggering content if you go beyond this link.

-If you have not found benefit from hotlines, this subreddit provides peer support for general mental health struggles. I would have linked their hotline resources instead, but some are inaccurate and the format of their page is much less accessible to those with vision or attention difficulties.

Addendum: Ever since COVID, a majority of providers have expanded their practice to allow online visits through telehealth. If you have any difficulties leaving your home, be sure to ask any new or existing providers if they have remote options for visits.

[caseyscraftycorner]

Knooking FAQ!

So as one of the very, very few people who knooks, I figured I should write a little post explaining what it is, how it's done, why I knook, and where you can learn more.

Disclaimer: I do not knit traditionally! my knowledge of traditional knitting styles is entirely from various failed attempts to learn and translating tutorials for knooking!

What is knooking?

Knooking is, basically, a different way to knit. Instead of using two needles, you use a modifed crochet hook. The hook has an eye at the butt end, which you thread a cord (or some scrap yarn) through. The cord is used like one needle, holding the live stitches, while the hook is used like the other needle, working the stitches. Once you're done working that row, you pull the cord out from the finished row, slide the live stitches onto the cord, turn, and then keep going! This also means that you don't need anything special to knook in the round -- while short rows can be difficult (more on that later), you just periodically pull the cord through the stitches that are already done, and keep going.

Are there different styles of knooking?

Oh boy are there! The knooking subreddit has a good breakdown Here. The two main styles are Japanese and Western, but some folks also use an Eastern Euopean style. I learned Eastern Euorpean first, which was easier to learn but not as versatile (you can't stack knits on knits or purls on purls) and then moved to Japanese style after I got a better feel for the motions. I tried knooking Western, but I just could never get it to work for me, for some reason. I kept getting my stitches twisted.

Why haven't I heard of this before?

Well, most people don't want or need a new way to knit, which already puts knooking on the backfoot. But also, knooking was invented in Japan in the early 1990s! That means that not only is it really new, it was also difficult to find resources for it that were in English for a long time. So, it remains uncommon.

So, is it like Tunisian crochet?

Not really! Tunisian crochet has a forward pass to make the stitches and a backward pass to close them. Knooking is, fundementally, just a different way to knit. The stitches are always live. Tunisian crochet, for that reason, needs special patterns, while you can translate regular knitting patterns to work for knooking.

Why would someone knook?

Well, lots of reasons. It's sometimes easier for folks whose first fibercraft was crochet to pick up knooking than it is to learn to knit traditionally. Some crocheters use it as a stepping stone towards learning a traditional way to knit, since it can imbed intuition of how stitches are formed, but with a more familiar tool. Others just find it easier, for any number of reasons. For me, personally, knitting is really hard on my hands due to my physical disability, and it's also really hard for me to conceptualize how it works. I tried knitting a lot of different ways, and the only one that made sense to me and didn't make my wrists and fingers hurt was knooking.

What are the pros of knooking? What about the cons?

The main pro is that it's just easier for some folks. If you already know how to knit, it's probably not worth it to learn knooking. It takes specialized tools that can be hard to find, and patterns require a little bit of translation sometimes. Some specific knitting motions, like many decreases, are actually usually easier on a knook than on needles, because you can easily pull one stitch through another using the hook.

There are also cons. As I said, you do need a specific type of hook for knooking, and while some corded tunisian hooks can work if the stopper at the end is removed, if you don't own one of those already then you're gonna need to buy a knook. Luckily, Hobbii sells them, but they don't sell cords as far as I know. Also, it can really, really suck to learn. You know how crocheting into the chain is awful when you're starting out? Yeah, learning how to purl was like that. There's also not a lot of resources, especially not in english, and many of them don't specify which style of knooking they're using. Since the three main styles are fundementally non-compatible -- you can't purl japanese style and knit western, you'll twist your stitches -- it can be hard to figure out exactly what you're doing wrong. Also, short rows can be difficult, since you can't just use multiple needles, so items like socks can be annoying to knook. Though, they are entirely possible! Just annoying.

Where can I learn more?

Reddit.com/r/knooking. Hands down the best pile of resources on the topic. Start with their Start Here Page and explore from there. The community is nice and helpful, there was a whole journey of helping one person knook some socks and it was really great and wholesome. I've posted a bunch of stuff there, too. It's a great community with great resources, and I've learned basically everything I know about knooking from their wiki.

[thessalian]

Thess vs NaNoWriMo

So that time of year is fast approaching, and I think a lot of people I associate with on this platform are going, "But Veilguard's coming out on HALLOWEEN!", which is entirely fine - NaNoWriMo is optional. And honestly, all things considered, I am probably never doing it as an organised situation again.

It took some digging to find the original text, and I'll probably post the screenshot I saw on Bluesky too, but summary: not only is NaNoWriMo pretty much supporting AI (they say "absolutely not condemning", but the rest of the text isn't nearly so mealy-mouthed about it) but also calling people who are against AI "ableist and classist".

No, seriously. I mean, seriously.

Look, how people get their ideas is probably up to them. And stolen valour aside, plugging an idea into ChatGPT and getting some word salad in return is ... I guess someone's prerogative. The same as someone just typing, like, "rutabaga" 50k times technically counts as writing 50k words. But ... first of all, NaNoWriMo was supposed to support people who write. Second of all, the idea that not having someone immediately at your side to serve as beta reader is "classist" is ... no. Like, if you're online enough to understand NaNoWriMo, you can find a damn beta reader. Third, "Some people's brains don't work well enough to see the problems in their writing--" SEE ABOVE RE PROOF-READING, FOR ONE THING, and for another, that's just shit like spelling and grammar check, which has been standard on word processing programmes basically ever since the concept existed! Fourth, I'm not sure how AI assists in shit like "Can't find a publisher because publishers are only really interested in what will sell ALL THE BOOKS", but that's one of their arguments too.

But the last thing - the worst thing - is what that means. NaNoWriMo is not cool with plagiarism as far as I know, but that's what trains AI. More to the point, you have to verify your word count with their website by actually copy-pasting everything you wrote into the site for it to show you as a winner. The fact that they support AI, and that one of their sponsors offers a whole bunch of AI features? I don't trust them not to be selling every single thing people submit for word count total to feed someone else's writer-bot.

I mean, the NaNoWriMo bods have made some spectacularly shitty decisions the last few years. There was that partnership with those scammers at Inkkit, which also revealed the whole thing where one of their moderators - who operated the youth programme, by the way - turned out to be a paedophile and groomer. But this one is just ... disrespectful of the very thing they were supposed to be supporting.

Please don't use the official NaNoWriMo resources. I am concerned for what it will do with not only what you submit for word count, but what you put in their forums too. If you want to do 50k words in 30 days, I am with you all the way, and others will be too. Find a support group that isn't these jackasses and do that.

Plus the "not using AI is ableist" thing is bullshit, by the way. I am not participating this year (I don't think, anyway; not unless I get a great idea) because I'm damn sure I don't have the spoons for that ... because disabled. Because fibromyalgia. The thing is, I don't want to just say "I produced 50k words and won NaNo", I want to write. I want to use my voice, not something cooked up by a machine learning algorithm based on a single sentence. I think way too many people have forgotten what "in your own voice" means to art.

Like, on the r/criticalrole subreddit, we were talking about how Lance Reddick actually did record all his lines as Thordak in TLOVM before he passed, and I mentioned how different that was going to hit, with the example of having heard Robin Sachs as Zaeed in the ME3 Citadel DLC after he passed. And someone went, "Oh, shit, I didn't know he passed! Hey, do you think they'll one day be able to use the voices of dead voice actors so we can keep hearing them? Because I know it's possible because Snoop Doggy Dogg is reading me my homework now and it's awesome!"

I ... may have kind of exploded. I may also have mentioned that some bunch of assholes tried to make a George Carlin special after Carlin's death and his daughter (understandably) hit the roof. It's bad enough to disrespect thousands of people by training an AI to spit out whatever of their works will fit a prompt sentence, but imagine hearing the voice of someone you love, mangled by AI's inability to get real emotional nuance, possibly saying shit they would never say? Using their voices doesn't change that the emotion and power behind those voices is gone forever; it just parades a decaying copy of them around like some vocal equivalent of Weekend at Bernie's.

[chrkrose]

Let’s talk about Racism and the House of The Dragon/Daemyra Fandom

So, a few days ago, while discussing a point concerning Daemon’s character in a Reddit thread, and bringing up Nettles because it was pertinent to the discussion in question, I was called a “desperate black woman with low self esteem”. I was also stalked through several threads in different subreddits related to House of The Dragon, and received DMs with Reddit Package Care (for those who don’t know, it’s very common on Reddit to send those to people you are harassing, since the Reddit Care Resources talks about suicide prevention and offers help to those who have Suicidal ideation or are self harming. Is a twisted way of at best tell someone to kill themselves or at worse, subtlety threaten them).

In another incident on the same day, on another thread about the Daemyra beach sex scene, the OP had brighten up said scene as we all know it was terribly shot in terms of lightening. A few people commented the actors lacked chemistry. I joked about this, commenting the same thing. Like stated, I wasn’t the only one to say so. I was then questioned by a few people on my comment, asking me why I was “obsessed” with the idea of Nettles and Daemon being a couple, since they had researched my profile, checking my posts and comments, and came to the conclusion that I talked too much about the two characters, and quote “have a penchant for calling people who dislike your ship insecure or racist”. When I explained my initial comment wasn’t to be taken so seriously, and that my support for the ship was loud because the racist against the character was loud, I was dismissed as “obsessed with the weird fantasy of those two as a couple. She posts about it all the time. It’s low key pathetic”.

I have some observations about these two unrelated but oh so correlated incidents. First, I have no problems shipping and being obsessed with a ship. I mean, I am obsessed with book!Jaime and book!Brienne to the point I’m hosting an exchange on them (btw, deadlines are approaching uhuu. Can’t wait). I was obsessed with Caryl for a loooong time. I shipped Stiles and Malia to the point of waking up in the early hours so I could watch a new episode drop. These are just a few of my long list of ships. Point is, if I was obsessed with Nettles and Daemon, oh everyone would know. I am not tho. Yet. Emphasis on that, because depending on how the show turns out, they might be a constant thing in my blog for years.

I am loud in my support of Nettles being adapted not only as one of the most motherfucker interesting female dragonriders to ever exist, but also as a romantic love interest that she might have been on the books though because, as a person of color myself, it’s exhausting to read over and over again horrible takes about a character who has always been sidelined and neglected and forgotten by the simple fact she’s not white, and disregarded as a possible contender for a romantic arc with fave ugly white boy of the month just because she’s possibly black. Because that’s the reason. I KNOW when the dislike for a character comes from their possible involvement in breaking your favorite ship vs when it comes from racism disguised as “I just don’t ship them”.

Nothing said about me when it comes to shipping gets on my nerves. I don’t give a fuck tbh. I love some good ship war. I love mess. I love engaging in discussions where both sides are screaming about how their ship is better than the other. Its fun. It’s interesting. Fandom experience for me wouldn’t be the same if those things didn’t exist. One of my best times on tumblr and Twitter was talking about pairings I rooted for, and ranting over it with friends on DMs. Some of the best people I’m friends with nowadays came from being petty together that our favorite couple was destroyed by showrunners in favor of another or gloating about having a ship going canon.

Now when it comes to racism… that’s where things take a turn. When it comes to racism disguised as shipping discourse, that’s where it stops being fun and becomes something of “if they think they are loud, oh I can be so much louder”.

I’m gonna finish this long ass post with a simple question tbh: HoTD fandom, or more specifically, Daemyra shippers, if to hear that your ship might be bland or that the actors have no chemistry makes you irrationally angry, if you guys throw meltdowns over jokes about a bad filmed scene or a well based opinions on why your ship isn’t the fairytale you think they are… how do you think y’all would react if these were aimed towards one of your favorite characters?

[synaptic-mirage]

Introduction post!

[plaintext: Introduction Post! /end PT.]

Hi there! We're Isle Unto Thyselves, a mediple, misaconscious, trauma-endo, system with partial dissociative identity disorder.

We are currently sitting at ~225 members and counting.

General Information [plaintext: General Information /end PT.]

— bodily 21 years old, Native American + white, anarcho-syndicalist, collectively agnostic syncretic Luciferian Hellenists

— physically disabled, anonbinary, queer, mentally ill, neurodivergent, radically inclusive

— genderpunk, pluralpunk, realmpunk, cripplepunk, voidpunk, rabiespunk, cringepunk

— delusional, psychotic, trans-species, alterhuman

— Tagging Information

System Information [plaintext: System Information /end PT.]

modifiers [plaintext: modifiers /end PT.]

— introtean, delusion-based, dreagenic, umbragenic

origins [plaintext: origins /end PT.]

— metagenic, possessgenic, chaogenic, pregenic, cosmagenic protogenic, diplotic, neurogenic, traumagenic

interests [plaintext: interests /end PT.]

(* means special interest)

— video games

— Minecraft YouTube

— the paranormal

— general horror media*

— The Chonny Jash Cinematic Universe™/Chonny’s Charming Chaos Compendium/HMS*

— alternate reality games*

— analog horror*

— Slenderverse (especially Marble Hornets and EverymanHYBRID)*

— Half-Life VR but the AI is Self Aware*

— queer theory*

— LGBTQIA2+ history*

frequent fronters [plaintext: Frequent Fronters /end PT.]

(these change depending on our current cyclical interest, working on a list of all of our member's tags)

— Jay Merrick | it/⦻/"he"/glitch/fear | Marble Hornets | Jay.txt ⥼ 📼 ⥽

— HABIT | no pronouns | EverymanHYBRID | HABIT.txt ⥼ 🐇 ⥽

do not interact

— basic DNI criteria (homophobes, transphobes, racists, etc)

— radqueers, TERFs, LGB alliance/#droptheT supporters, anti-xenogender/neopronouns

— if you demonize any mental illnesses (yes - this includes any personality disorders, if you believe in the concept of narcissistic abuse and similar rhetoric, unkindly fuck off)

— system exclusionists, trans exclusionists (yes - that includes people who are under the trans umbrella themselves), M-spec exclusionists, exclusionists of any kind

— pro contact pedophiles, MAPs, or supporters.

— alt-right, pro-corporation, pro-cop, anti-BLM, bootlickers.

— fakeclaimers, perform reality checks without express consent before the party entered a deluded state, aggressively pro-psych (neutrals are on thin ice).

— harass anyone over any purely FICTIONAL [plaintext: FICTIONAL /end PT.] content they consume and/or support,

— cringe/flop blogs, cringe culture supporters, posters to r/fakedisordercringe, r/systemscringe and similar websites (if you post us on those subreddits or websites, actually consider getting a goddamn hobby ♡)

(our DNI does not apply to any of the terms we coin or flags we make, since we believe it's impossible to stop someone from resonating with a term just because they disagree with you or have a different world view, and it's frankly a little ridiculous to try and gatekeep things like that. - That being said, while we have no restrictions on who can use our terms and/or resources, we'd prefer that those who break our DNI criteria don't reblog, like, comment or otherwise directly interact with our posts. - Thank you!)

[itskindofareallyniceday]

Trans Resources/Info Masterpost

I dedicate a lot of time to helping fellow trans men, answering their questions, etc. and I've noticed a few very common questions in every trans group I'm a member of. I want the information within these resources to become common knowledge in our community. This information has been extremely helpful to me, my friends, and/or other people in the community, and they're things that everyone should be aware of...

Changing your name and/or gender marker: -The National Center for Transgender Equality will tell you exactly how to change your name and/or gender marker in each state.

HRT: -This map shows organizations that offer HRT following the informed consent method. -Testosterone HRT changes and timelines: source 1, source 2 -Testosterone myths -Bottom growth info (CW: this resource contains illustrations of the anatomy that will grow, before and after growth)

Injections/Syringes: -Syringes and needles can be annoying to buy at the pharmacy. Before I started buying in bulk, I had to go from pharmacy to pharmacy searching for ones that were the right size (they always ran out or didn't buy enough or something). This is a problem that many people experience, so a lot of us buy our medical supplies in bulk online. It's cheaper, easier, and you never have to worry about the pharmacy running out of your syringes. Here are a few popular websites that people buy syringes from: allegromedical.com, westendmedicalsupplies.com, bulksyringes.com, healthykin.com, https://www.vitalitymedical.com, https://www.gpzmedlab.com, etc. -Trans Needle Exchange is currently on hiatus, but they provide needles/syringes to people who can't afford/access them for free. -Search relevant subreddits for more, if those websites don't meet your needs.

Surgery: -topsurgery.net has the answer to almost any top surgery question you might have (the process, finding a surgeon, insurance, before and after pictures, etc.) -There are top surgery grants that you might qualify for. -The GALAP (Gender Affirming Letter Access Project) is a group of independent medical professionals dedicated to providing free letters of support to people seeking gender affirming surgeries. Make sure these medical professionals meet the requirements of your insurance/surgeon though, since they all have different requirements. -Plume also provides letters of support for gender affirming surgeries. Letters are included for members, but they can also be provided to non-members for $150 and one appointment. (Note: they are provided by a medical professional, not a behavioral health or mental health professional. Each insurance has different requirements about who the letter needs to be written by) -The Gender Confirmation Center has a lot of information about gender affirming surgeries, how to take care of yourself before/during/after surgery, a huge gallery of before and after pictures for different incision types, etc. -T4T Caregiving is a group of "traveling trans caregivers for all of your post-op needs". I know how hard it is for some people to find someone who is willing to take care of them after surgery. The caregivers at T4T Caregiving will provide you with care 24/7, with prices on a sliding scale that ranges from $150-250 per day. -You can find information about different surgeons here (top surgery - search by location, whether they accept informed consent, insurance, etc.) and here (several different kinds of surgeries - search by procedure, location, insurance, etc.)

WPATH's Standards of Care: -It's also a good idea to be familiar with the WPATH's (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) Standards of Care! Here is the most recent version, SOC8

Other: -Refuge Restrooms is a database of gender neutral bathroom locations. You can search for, add, and rate different locations.

Unfortunately, a lot of this information is only applicable to trans men (or AFAB NB people wishing to transition) in the US. That's what I have the most experience with (and knowledge about), as I'm a trans man in the US. Feel free to add your own favorite resources (especially for trans women) if you want!

[spurgie-cousin]

I never thought I’d see the cult I grew up in on your page, but I’m so glad there are other people recognizing how awful the SDA (seventh day Adventist) church is. I was raised by a pastor and my whole family are still members. They refuse to believe that I no longer share their beliefs and constantly try to convince me to “give the church another chance.” they do not consider me a Christian because I’m no longer in their church. Growing up I didn’t know anyone who had ever managed to leave and to this day only one friend has left. There isn’t a strong ex-sda community that I know of and most resources are hard to find because they are buried by the church. The church as a whole is very doomsday esque and even as a kid growing up in the church I had so so much anxiety about it. There are a ton of rules which also contributes to the anxiety and the church culture is super judgmental and gossipy. I never understood why we had such different beliefs + practices from all the other churches and now I find it outrageous that I believed those things. I’m interested to see what else you come across and I am now going to see what ex-sda creators I can find (I don’t use TikTok) to relate to lol.

What's funny is I grew up in a town that had a ridiculous number of churches for its size, one of those being a fair-sized SDA church, but I don't remember ever meeting anyone from it. My church was the largest so it would organize multi-church events sometimes and there were only a few groups who never participated, SDA included (though to be fair I don't know if they just didn't want to, or if my church was discriminating lol).

So it feels crazy that I'm just now learning how cult-y they are. I think the church in my hometown was kind of an anomaly because their numbers are pretty small comparatively, something like 1.1 million in the US compared to ~90 million evangelicals, which is probably why they don't have a huge presence in the ex-Christian community.

The creator I posted is also the daughter of an Adventist pastor, it looks like she's only on tiktok right now (@songbirdsstory) but here are a few other places I've been reading ex-Adventist stories on platforms besides tiktok (also I will check out to Former Adventist podcast as well!):

Haystacks & Hell is a podcast and instagram account that collects ex-Adventist stories (that link takes you to their Instagram, their podcast info is in the link in their bio)

r/exAdventist which is a subreddit for ex-members of the church (if you're unfamiliar with reddit it's basically like a place for very specific online forums lol. people have conversations, tell stories, etc)

r/exChristian is another subreddit for ex-Christians as a while, but it has quite a few threads from ex-SDA that I've been reading. That link should take you to the list without having to search around.

and I do have a question but it's sensitive, so I understand if you're not comfortable answering: what was the generally accepted punishment for breaking the rules, like the health message etc? I know SongBirdSings from that video has said she suffered a lot of physical abuse, but she's also insinuated in other videos that that wasn't how it was for everyone. So I was just curious about what most people tolerated as acceptable reprimanding in the church.