#flipside magazine | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mariacallous · 29 days ago

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According to the internet, I’m a “boy mum”. It’s not a term I’d heard until I gave birth to a baby boy. Suddenly, I was being bombarded with videos about the nightmare in store for me. This was footage showing the kind of destructive male-toddler behaviour that Jackass stars Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera would deem too risky. Meanwhile, their mothers were portrayed as longsuffering, harried, hard-as-nails veterans of the boy-toddler insane asylum.

My son is very physically active, but he’s also a gentle, cautious child, so this doesn’t resonate with me, or with several of the “boy mums” I know. (Meanwhile, some of the “girl mums” spend their days chasing their Tasmanian Devil-esque daughters like they’re in a Looney Tunes cartoon.) Yet it’s everywhere. Then, last week, I saw a report that found girls were playing outside less than boys, even at two years old – something that shocked the researchers, who hadn’t expected to see socialised gender roles emerging so early.

It didn’t shock me, sadly. Not when I’m regularly tearing my hair out in clothes shops trying to find something for my two-year-old son to wear that isn’t black or camouflage, like he’s a ninja, or a small soldier already primed for aggression.

“It’s not our fault, but we’ve all internalised that ‘boys-take-up-more-space’stereotype,” Kirstie Beaven, the founder of Sonshine magazine, a publication geared towards raising boys for a more equal world, tells me.

“Girls’ clothes are made for sitting still and looking pretty, while boys’ clothes are made for activity, even in the baby or toddler sections. Parents of babies tend to underestimate girls’ gross motor skills – expecting they will be less competent than boys at crawling or climbing – and we’re all more likely to encourage our sons to take physical risks, and expect our daughters to ‘be careful’.”

Beaven says that by the time our children are two years old, we probably don’t expect our daughters to need as much outside time. “Nor are they as comfy or confident when they are outside,” she says. “If your shoes are too flimsy to climb a tree or your T-shirt is cut uncomfortably short and tight, it’s not surprising you want to go home early.”

As a 90s tomboy kid raised in dungarees, this thought breaks my heart a little. A lack of outdoor physical activity will disadvantage girls from a young age, and these gendered expectations harm boys, too, as Ruth Whippman, author of the book BoyMum, tells me.

“The flipside of the ‘boys play outside more’ phenomenon is that parents as a whole give boys less of the kind of quiet indoor-type attention that they give to girls,” she says. “Wide-scale research across countries shows that from as early as nine months, parents spend more time with girls on activities such as learning letters and numbers, singing, drawing and telling stories. Girls now outperform boys at school and researchers believe these differences in parental time inputs account for a significant portion of the difference.”

What I loved about Whippman’s book was that it beautifully conveyed the internal battle many intelligent feminist mothers found themselves having when raising boys who may be conforming to certain stereotypes.

“When my three boys were small, people used to tell me all the time [that] ‘boys are like dogs – all they need is food and exercise, and just try to wear them out’,” Whippman says. “I used to absolutely hate it, as it seemed so dehumanising. But perhaps what I hated even more was the fact that in our case it was kind of true.”

Of course, like most mothers, she initially held herself responsible.

As with many of these questions, a complex interplay between nurture and nature is involved, and it’s stupid to deny biology any kind of role. Whippman highlights how male foetuses get a shot of testosterone in the womb that has been linked in other mammals to a tendency to play more roughly, while girls may be able to sit still and focus for longer at younger ages because the areas of the brain responsible for impulse control and emotional self-regulation generally develop earlier in girls.

The point is, though, that parents often increase this divide by failing to correct their own unconscious biases and help their kids work on the areas where they could improve their skills. As Whippman puts it: “When it comes to gender, as parents, we end up turning small differences into big differences.”

Seeing how much my little boy needs me, how much touch, affection and reassurance he craves, has been one of the most educative experiences I’ve had since I became his mum. I’ve known many men whose feelings as little boys were neglected, often in contrast to the comfort and time any sisters’ emotional needs were given.

“If we don’t let boys express all parts of their personalities and emotional lives because they are just ‘wild monsters’, we are not only doing them a huge disservice, we are storing up problems in how they interact with others in later life,” says Beaven, who also says that the “boy mum” stereotype boiled her blood.

If we are to tackle the crises in violence against women and in male mental health, we need to be open about how damaging these stereotypes are for boys as well as girls. That starts with being honest with ourselves about how much we, as parents, are encouraging them. That’s why you’ll never find me identifying as a “boy mum”, no matter how much the internet wants me to.

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heresmyfiddlestick · 10 months ago

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Tumblr Dr. Who Poll vs Doctor Who Magazine Poll

It's been just over a month since the end of @adventure-showdown 's monumental survey of how Tumblr feels about individual Doctor Who adventures. Across ten rounds, we sorted the wheat from the chaff, the Quarks from the Rills, and the Cousins from the Looms. I wanted to compare the results of that huge bracket with the results from last year's Doctor Who Magazine poll, which ranked each Doctor's stories individually.

The methodologies for these two were quite different (though adventure-showdown did seed the bracket with a pre-poll that used the same methodology as DWM, but I'm looking at the final poll results for my data here), so comparing them is really interesting! I'm not a statistician, I just like making spreadsheets for fun. I think what can be seen from the trends and data below is a really unique picture of two somewhat overlapping but seriously demographically distinct fragments of the fandom.

Methodologies

Poll Methodologies

The DWM poll asked readers to rank as many televised Doctor Who stories as they liked from 1 to 10. The editors then took the resulting scores for each story and put them in a ranked list for each Doctor.

adventure-showdown began with a series of Google Forms with the same method as DWM, asking internet users to rank stories from 1 to 10. adventure-showdown lumped and split stories differently to DWM: The Key to Time was included as a distinct Four story to each of its individual parts, and each of the individual parts of Trial of a Time Lord and Flux were included alongside the overarching story. Utopia was also split from The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords.

adventure-showdown used the resulting rankings to create a series of Tumblr polls, moving from a group stage into a series of head-to-head matchups. They matched stories up roughly by obscurity (keeping advertisements and musical numbers separate from audio dramas and comics, which were separate from TV spin-offs, which were separate from the TV show itself), then Doctor or era. With each new round, the matchups were scrambled within melded groups, which ultimately led to a diverse distribution of all different eras and media under the umbrella of Doctor Who throughout the tournament.

My Methodology

In order to turn adventure-showdown's poll results into something that can be compared to DWM's, I created a spreadsheet tracking how each Doctor's stories were doing, separating them first into tiers according to which round they were eliminated in, then within those tiers by how many votes they had in the matchup where they were eliminated.

In the case of some particularly tough matchups, this means that the story that got the most points throughout the entire competition is not necessarily the highest-ranked story for that Doctor. For instance, The Happiness Patrol finished #3 of the Seventh Doctor's stories according to my reckoning of the Tumblr poll, being eliminated in the fifth round with 400 votes, less than the two stories above it (which were eliminated in rounds where they got 147 and 107 votes, respectively). The Happiness Patrol saw a vigorous campaign to increase its vote count, since it was up against Blink. The post for the matchup that eliminated it currently has 304 notes as of this writing. This is one of the fun quirks of this execrise.

General Trends

Where We Agree

The Ninth Doctor shows very stable story rankings between DWM and Tumblr.

On average, the difference in rankings for each episode of 9 is 5%, with only 2 out of 10 stories actually moving up or down the rankings at all. The Sixth Doctor is similar: only 3 of his 8 stories (included in the DWM poll, meaning not counting the individual parts of Trial) moved by more than 1 ranking. The Seventh Doctor only had 4 of his 12 stories move by more than 1 ranking.

On the flipside, Tumblr's opinions differ from DWM most regarding the First, Fifth, and Eleventh Doctors. The only stories that stayed relatively stable across both rankings for these Doctors are as follows.

For the First Doctor, only 4 out of 29 didn't shift by more than 1 ranking: #2 The Time Meddler, #5 The Tenth Planet (#6 in DWM), #18 The Keys of Marinus, and #20 The Reign of Terror (#19 in DWM) For the Fifth Doctor, we agreed only 5 times out of 20: #1 The Caves of Androzani, #2 The Five Doctors (#3 in DWM), #11 Frontios, #14 Black Orchid, and #17 Arc of Infinity (#16 in DWM) For Eleven, 5 of his 39 stories stayed relatively stable: #1 Vincent and the Doctor (#2 in DWM), #4 The Eleventh Hour (#3 in DWM), #9 Amy's Choice, #14 The Snowmen (#13 in DWM), and #39 The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe.

As you'll see further below, there is usually agreement between both polls about at least one episode that is in the top and bottom 3 or 4 for each Doctor, so these extremes represent the battle over ordering the ones generally ranked in the middle.

We Hate Daleks

As a general trend, Tumblr seems to think less of Dalek stories than the general DWM readership.

Out of 26 stories with Daleks as the primary antagonist, only 8 did not drop by more than 1 slot between the DWM poll and the Tumblr bracket (that is The Chase, Genesis of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks, Dalek, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar, and Eve of the Daleks). DIM/Evolution actually ranked 3 slots higher on Tumblr than the magazine, while TMA/TWF and Eve finished significantly higher on Tumblr than in the magazine, cracking into the top 5 for their respective Doctors.

We Love The Master

Meanwhile, out of 26 stories featuring the Master, either as the primary antagonist or as an important character, only two dropped by more than one place in the rankings (The End of Time and The Power of the Doctor), while the others either stayed put or increased their positions, some by quite a lot (e.g. The Time Monster (up 20 slots in the Third Doctor rankings), The Keeper of Traken (up 8 slots in the Fourth Doctor rankings), Planet of Fire (up 6 spots in the Fifth Doctor rankings), and The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar (up 9 spots in the Twelfth Doctor rankings)).

We Have No Easily Observable Feelings About the Cybermen

Out of 18 Cyberman stories, 9 fell in the rankings between DWM and Tumblr, while 5 stayed within 1 rank of the DWM poll, and 4 rose. If I had to venture a hypothesis based on my unscientific qualitative analysis, it looks like Tumblr marked down most of the Classic Who Cyberman stories (only The Tenth Planet, The Invasion, and Attack staying within 1 rank of the DWM poll), while the only ones that rose in the ranks were New Who stories (Rise/The Age of Steel, Closing Time, Nightmare in Silver, and Dark Water/Death in Heaven-- though of course this last one is also a Master story, which we know we love).

Superlatives

Here are the stories that showed the biggest positive and negative difference in their rankings between the DWM poll and the Tumblr bracket, for each Doctor:

First Doctor

Biggest jump: #10 The Sensorites (up from #27 in DWM) Biggest fall: #28 The Crusade (down from #13 in DWM)

Second Doctor

Biggest jump: #8 The Highlanders (up from #16 in DWM) Biggest fall: #14 The Evil of the Daleks (down from #14 in DWM)

Third Doctor

Biggest jump: #4 The Time Monster (up from #24 in DWM) Biggest fall: #21 Day of the Daleks (down from #11 in DWM)

Fourth Doctor

Biggest jump: #7 The Horns of Nimon (up from #40 in DWM) Biggest fall: #36 The Talons of Weng-Chiang (down from #5 in DWM)

Fifth Doctor

Biggest jump: #8 Planet of Fire (up from #14) Biggest fall: #15 Resurrection of the Daleks (down from #6)

Sixth Doctor

Biggest jump: #1 The Mark of the Rani (up from #5 in DWM) Biggest fall: #6 Revelation of the Daleks (down from #1 in DWM) [NB: not counting each part of Trial, since DWM didn't include them - though The Ultimate Foe ranked #10 on Tumblr while Trial itself ranked #4 in DWM, so that could be another option for this superlative]

Seventh Doctor

Biggest jump: #3 The Happiness Patrol (up from #7 in DWM) Biggest fall: #12 Silver Nemesis (down from #9 in DWM)

Ninth Doctor

Biggest jump: #5 The End of the World (up from #7 in DWM) Biggest fall: #7 Rose (down from #5 in DWM)

Tenth Doctor

Biggest jump: #17 42 (up from #31 in DWM) Biggest fall: #29 The Girl in the Fireplace (down from #7 in DWM) [NB: adventure-showdown split Utopia and The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords where DWM didn't, which both placed above these two stories.]

Eleventh Doctor

Biggest jump: #13 The Rings of Akhaten (up from #34 in DWM) Biggest fall: #36 The Crimson Horror (down from #18 in DWM)

Twelfth Doctor

Biggest jump: #20 The Eaters of Light (up from #30 in DWM) Biggest fall: #18 The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion (down from #7 in DWM)

Thirteenth Doctor

Biggest jump: TIE #1 Demons of the Punjab (up from #5), #2 Spyfall (up from #6), and #3 Eve of the Daleks (up from #7) Biggest fall: #15 Rosa (down from #4) [NB: not counting each part of Flux, since DWM didn't include them - though The Vanquishers ranked #29 on Tumblr while Flux itself ranked #12 in DWM, so that could be another option for this superlative]

Definitive Bests and Worsts

Here, then, are each Doctor's commonly agreed-upon best and worst stories: that is, those stories ranked in each Doctor's top/bottom 10% (minimum 3) in each poll, and where both polls overlap. Lists are alphabetical.

First Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The Time Meddler Tumblr: The Edge of Destruction, The Romans DWM: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Daleks' Master Plan Worst Tumblr: The Crusade, The Savages, The Smugglers DWM: The Sensorites, The Space Museum, The Web Planet

Second Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The War Games Tumblr: The Enemy of the World, The Mind Robber DWM: The Power of the Daleks, Tomb of the Cybermen Worst Both agree: The Dominators, The Space Pirates Tumblr: The Krotons DWM: The Underwater Menace

Third Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The Green Death Tumblr: The Dæmons, The Three Doctors DWM: Inferno, Spearhead from Space Worst Both agree: The Mutants Tumblr: Death to the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks DWM: The Monster of Peladon, The Time Monster

Fourth Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: City of Death, Genesis of the Daleks, Robots of Death Tumblr: The Horror of Fang Rock DWM: Pyramids of Mars Worst Both agree: The Power of Kroll, Underworld Tumblr: Nightmare of Eden, Revenge of the Cybermen DWM: The Horns of Nimon, Meglos

Fifth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The Caves of Androzani, The Five Doctors Tumblr: Enlightenment DWM: Earthshock Worst Both agree: Time-Flight Tumblr: The Awakening, Four to Doomsday DWM: The King's Demons, Warriors of the Deep

Sixth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: Vengeance on Varos Tumblr: The Mark of the Rani, Trial of a Time Lord (considered as a whole) Worst Both agree: Timelash, The Twin Dilemma Tumblr: The Ultimate Evil (specifically) DWM: Attack of the Cybermen

Seventh Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: Remembrance of the Daleks, Survival Tumblr: The Happiness Patrol DWM: The Curse of Fenric Worst Both agree: Delta and the Bannermen, Time and the Rani Tumblr: Silver Nemesis DWM: Paradise Towers

Ninth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways, Dalek, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances Worst Both agree: Aliens of London/World War Three, Boom Town, The Long Game

Tenth Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: Blink, Midnight, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead Tumblr: The Fires of Pompeii DWM: Human Nature/The Family of Blood Worst Both agree: The Idiot's Lantern, The Lazarus Experiment Tumblr: The Next Doctor, The Shakespeare Code DWM: Fear Her, Love & Monsters

Eleventh Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: The Eleventh Hour, The Pandorica Opens, Vincent and the Doctor Tumblr: The Doctor's Wife DWM: Day of the Doctor Worst Both agree: The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe Tumblr: The Crimson Horror, Night Terrors, Victory of the Daleks DWM: The Curse of the Black Spot, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, Nightmare in Silver

Twelfth Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: Heaven Sent, Mummy on the Orient Express, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls Tumblr: The Husbands of River Song DWM: Flatline Worst Both agree: In the Forest of the Night, Kill the Moon, Sleep No More Tumblr: The Lie of the Land DWM: The Woman Who Lived

Thirteenth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

[Villa Diodati gif included because there is no overlap in the two polls' top 3 for Thirteen, however this episode ranked #4 on Tumblr and #2 in DWM, so it is the closest overlap at the top.]

Best Both agree: None! Tumblr: Eve of the Daleks, Demons of the Punjab, Spyfall DWM: Fugitive of the Judoon, The Haunting of Villa Diodati, The Power of the Doctor Worst Both agree: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, Orphan 55 Tumblr: The Vanquishers (on its own) DWM: Legend of the Sea Devils

...What about Eight?

Who said that? I thought you had all gone. You shouldn't scare me like that. Well, you see, the Eighth Doctor only has two televised appearances in which he features, and only one of those was included in the DWM poll. This post is about comparing the two polls. I can't really do anything...

Ah, alright.

Televised Appearances

We ranked The Night of the Doctor above the TV Movie. Night made it all the way to round 6, while the TV Movie was out in Round 2, losing with 266 votes to Jubilee, which then lost to Scherzo in the next round. Night lost to Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, which had 344 votes to Night's 204.

Audios

Scherzo made it to the quarter-finals of the Tumblr poll! It lost out to Midnight 435 to 581, the first TV episode it encountered in adventure-showdown's very intricate media-segregating bracket.

Caerdroia made it to round 7, losing to Scherzo after it had beaten out Father's Day in round 6 (299-280) and the much-loved SJA episode The Curse of Clyde Langer in round 5.

The Natural History of Fear made it to round 6, finally losing out to Blink (253-352), and making it the top-scoring Eight audio to go out in this round.

The Chimes of Midnight also got to round 6, finally just losing to Remembrance of the Daleks (163-166); in the same round, Zagreus lost to Scherzo (131-210) just after it had beaten Genesis of the Daleks (132-103) in round 5.

The next highest-ranked Eight* audio is Solitaire (a Companion Chronicle, hence the asterisk), which was eliminated in round 5, losing to Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (180-43).

It's worth noting here, that Doctor Who and the Pirates also made it to round 6, making it the highest-ranked non-Eighth Doctor audio. It lost to City of Death (170-78). The next-highest ranked audios are The Marian Conspiracy (lost in Round 5 to The Wedding of Sarah-Jane Smith), The Holy Terror (lost in Round 5 to The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances), and A Death in the Family (lost in Round 5 to The Natural History of Fear). Congratulations to Evelyn Smythe.

Novels

The EDA Alien Bodies managed to make it to round 6, finally being eliminated by Turn Left with 145 votes to 264. It had just beaten out Time Crash in the previous round. This makes it the highest-ranked Doctor Who novel overall, according to this Tumblr tournament.

The next-highest novel for the Eighth Doctor was Unnatural History, which was defeated in round 5 by The Chimes of Midnight.

Below that, there were five EDAs eliminated in round 4:

Interference (lost with 41 votes to Scherzo's 85)

Mad Dogs and Englishmen (lost with 38 votes to The Marian Conspiracy's 56)

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (lost with 28 votes to A Death in the Family's 54)

Camera Obscura (lost with 27 votes to Lungbarrow's 47)

The Scarlet Empress (lost with 22 votes to The Chimes of Midnight's 102)

Comics

I hadn't actually been tracking any of this Eight stuff, so I'm having to squint through the backlog and this is already much too long. So you're only getting two: The Land of Happy Endings is the Eighth Doctor comic that made it the farthest in the Tumblr competition, being eliminated in round 3 by An Adventure in Space and Time (46 votes to 95). The Flood also made it to round 3, where it was eliminated by the Thirteenth Doctor comic Old Friends, gaining 39 votes against Old Friends' 47.

#doctor who #classic who #big finish #eighth doctor #jodie whittaker #thirteenth doctor #christopher eccleston #ninth doctor #many interesting things here #will reblog with analysis

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andtheyreonfire · 1 year ago

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thinking about giant/tiny modeling. tiny models advertising a product by sitting on/in it directly. nothing like seeing a billboard for a box of chocolates with an actual, tiny person curled up next to the sweets. tiny models that sit in teacups, on plates, next to a watch or a pencil or literally any common, household object. tiny models with a lavish dressing room they can't even get around in, because the vip room happens to be 20x their size.

tiny models that may only be the size of your finger, but still effortlessly command your attention when you see them across the room. with the way they act, not even squirming as a dozen agents and journalists loom over them, they're obviously used to the attention. you can't tell if they're only used to it because they expect it, at their size. they're such a cute, pretty little thing. how could you not adore them?

on the flipside, the way a giant model commands your attention is an absolutely breathtaking experience. every distant movement is like watching a living natural disaster. they're so gentle with the scenery around them, but you get the feeling they treat it more as beloved play set. giant models that lean next to buildings, blocking off multiple streets just for a single, quick shoot. giant models hunched a team of makeup artists readying them for the camera. leaning down for a dozen ladders, even holding a stylists in their hands. giant models that don't even fit in the frame. you'll see their lips, their eyes, the whorl of their fingertips in magazines, far sooner than you'll see their entire body.

giant models that make you freeze, instinctually, when they meet your gaze from across a warehouse. you can't help but cautiously wave to them. the slight chuckle from massive, painted lips rumbles through your chest, even across the distance between you. butterflies squirm in your stomach when they wink at you, a movement practically broadcast to the entire room. with the way they look like a fallen angel, and the fact that every second only reminds you how massive they are, you know you're faced with something far, far more dangerous than a simple hurricane.

#or something.#the makeup artist part is from my buddy plague everyone say thank you plague #also @plague i'm so sorry i have so much brainrot. i am pissing nyself. i just i i. i hope u have a nice night sorry i thought about them so #aggressively im dying #g/t #giant/tiny #g/t musings #i'm tired i forgot how tumblr tags worked ok good night #the beast speaks

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donnerpartyofone · 5 months ago

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One of the bummer things about my little horror job is that people think it's a real job. These kids will send us really earnest messages asking do we have job openings or internships or whatever, they see this as their dream job and I'm like...I wish this were real job too, it WOULD be a dream job! Instead of being this little thing I do even though it's often a hardship just because I love it and I think it should exist. On the flipside of this is the way the EOC of Fangoria gets harassed online relentlessly by cellar dwellers who think that the magazine owes them a job just because they're huge dorks, and they don't see their own lack of journalism or publishing or editorial skills (or social skills) as the barrier--they see the EOC as the barrier, as someone who is actively hogging all the *horror job*, and they feel free to just make his life intolerable over it. I'm jealous of that dude too but it's not his fault I don't have his job. I feel sorry for him!

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slutdge · 8 months ago

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whats your eyehategod collection like?

Idk if you mean merch or records or both but I'll use this ask as an excuse to infodump abt it all. As far as shirts go, I've got the Charles Manson slit wrist one, the old school Children of God shirt in green, and their TANFP 30th anniversary shirt I got when I saw them last year. I've also got the 2024 Southern Nihilism Front hoodie, and the NOLA Jesus shirt and The Power Of Dirt Weed mini patch which I sadly lost but at least I added it to Tshirtslayer before I lost it and I chatted w the dude that made the original run of those patches so that was cool and their 2024 patch pack that had the slit wrists, guns and giant logo patches. I've also got their NOLA snapback and 4 flyers I picked up from the show I went to. As far as physical media goes, I've got their first 3 albums on both cassette and vinyl, TANFP is a cool pukey pink/blue color mix, Dopesick is on white vinyl and ITNOS my fave EHG album is a dark green colored vinyl (my fave color) so thats neat, I've also got 10 Years and their self titled album on vinyl, their Sabbath split 7 inch, and the New Orleans is the New Vietnam 7 inch thats cool cause its got the phoenix engraved on the flipside and its orange and black, also a promo flexidisc I got in an issue of Decibel magazine for their song The Liar's Psalm. Also I've got a bunch of their side project shit, I have NOLA by Down on vinyl, I have NOLA on cassette too along w/ Over The Under. Mike's harsh noise tape thats covered in broken glass from Auris Apothecary, I adore them, they're the reason I got into harsh noise, and also Mike's spoken word 7 inch That's What The Obituary Said/Ten Suicides thats cool cause its black vinyl w/ streaks of green and yellow, I found it at a record store in Memphis when I was down there for my grandma's funeral. I've got Outlaw Orders' Legalize Crime 7 inch. I've got Last City Zero by Corrections House on vinyl, I've got a bunch of The Guilt Øf... on vinyl, their 10 inch split w IVs Primae Noctis, their self titled record, Arson Anthem's EP on super sexy red and black vinyl, En Minor's full length on vinyl, and to top it all off I've got Jimmy's guitar pedal he released recently with Does It Doom, and again, I was happy cause it was my favorite color. Oh and Mike's book! I think that's it. I should take a pic of it all together. Can they get me on the payroll for how much I promote their music or what??

#believe it or not i restrained myself when answering this #asks #🎧

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focsle · 1 year ago

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Recovering from complete burnout and slowly trying to open up to writing again, I've hit a bit of a snag and thought to ask. Any tips on how to write for a more historical setting? Any thoughts on how to constructs sentences or world building that doesn't make it feel too modern?

Best of luck to you in slowly emerging from the burnout. I hope your writing flows!

My biggest tip for both of your questions is research research research. Reading secondary sources about the time period you’re interested in is a good place to start to understand the historical context of the era. But after you get a grounding in all that, primary sources is where the world really shines. It depends on what time period you’re looking at, because some eras and places are absolutely more accessible than others in terms of surviving documents, but my primary source explorations is where I’ve really been able to get the most information to build out my world, make it feel lived in, and understand the cadence of people’s voices. You get to learn how they thought, what they sounded like, what they cared about. Little turns of phrase. Things like that.

Some places you can start to get a sense of language are books, magazines, and newspapers written from the time period. Transcripts of testimonies in court records. Letter writing and etiquette guides. Dictionaries contemporary to the time period you’re writing in, including slang dictionaries (like grose's dictionary of the vulgar tongue). But those aren’t entirely representative of how people talked, so if you can find diaries and letters those are the best. Of course, with all these things, what is available and what people sound like is also going to be bound up in things like class and access to education, but those are places to start.

It also depends on how intense you want to be, as far as not wanting it to be ‘too modern’. Some writers want to filter out most anachronistic words. Here’s a blog post of one writer who created a custom dictionary and used it to spell check her manuscript for words that didn’t exist yet. But on the flipside you also have comedies like Blackadder that has the most IMPECCABLE and beautiful costuming because viewers would write in being like ‘ummmm excuse me that 18th century button is wrong’, but absolutely bonkers historically inaccurate scriptwriting. And that intentional contrast is what makes it effective as a comedy. With me, I want people’s voices to sound of the era to some degree, but I always acknowledge that I’m ultimately writing FOR a modern audience. So I’m gonna make some of my dudes say ‘yeah’, you know?

When writing historical fiction, I think the most important thing to keep in mind still that you’re telling a story, not writing an encyclopedia. And one can take creative liberties to best tell that story. But at the same time, there is a WEALTH of amazing authenticating details that can be found in research that will enrich that narrative in ways that you can’t get from referencing other historical fiction or just using your imagination about what you THINK something might be like. History is weird! And people in the past are forever surprising! But also often quite like people today—they felt the exact same things that we feel now because people are people are people, which I also don’t think should be forgotten in writing a historical story. For me, I’m not writing a nonfiction—people aren’t going to learn the ins and outs of whaling from my comic in the same way they would reading an academic text about it. But I need that world to feel grounded, and I need to invite people into it fully, and I need to understand the sort of men who found themselves there. The research and authenticating details is how I try to do that. It also helps that it’s a topic I’m obsessed with; I read dead whalers’ journals over my morning coffee or at 2am just for fun so…the research isn’t a hardship for me at all. But either way, the two need to balance each other. And I think how much you lean in one direction or the other depends entirely on your narrative and what you’re hoping to do with it.

#asks #anonymous

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kiirastarr · 21 days ago

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MIKI AIUICHI ; THE KIIRASTARR YUUSONA

CONTENT LIST:

summary

appearance / inspiration

personality

lore

relationships

chibis / alternate outfits

drabbles / references

SUMMARY

Miki Aiuichi is the 18 year old "otherwordly girl" at Night Raven College, lacking magic due to not originating from Twisted Wonderland. Despite being the same age as the 3rd years, her lack of knowledge when it came to magic resulted in her placement as a 1st year.

APPEARANCE / INSPIRATION

Miki is 168 centimeters tall (5'6") and has a slim build due to her prior occupation as a model. Her hair is naturally blonde, along with her pink irises. She's also slightly tanned, and has tan lines on her chest and legs.

Miki is Asian! To be specific, shes 1/2 Filipino, 1/4 Japanese, and 1/4 Vietnamese. How she has blonde hair naturally with those genes? Who knows.

Miki is usually seen dressed in a cropped, fitted tank top in magenta with black lace, low rise short shorts with rhinestones on the back pockets, silver necklaces and rings layered on her neck and fingers respectively, black heels, silver piercings on her ears, face, and belly, and a whale tail.

She tends to style her hair in a high ponytail and side bangs, the ponytail held up by a hairtie with two glossy pink hearts.

Her makeup is kept simple; eyeliner, mascara, light pink eyeshadow, light foundation, light concealer, primer, and lipgloss.

In terms of fashion, Miki's style is very broad. However, most of her outfits are very reminiscent of the 2000s substyle, McBling, along with hints of Agejo Gyaru and Bubblegum Bitch. Some other outfits Miki is seen in are based on the following: Ane Gyaru, Coconut Girl, Nymphet, etc.

Other inspirations consist of the following: 2000s pop song lyrics, Britney Spears, Ayesha, Jecka from Class of 09 (not the flipside!!), etc.

PERSONALITY

At first meeting, Miki will be extremely brash. he may or may have not developed this more assertive personality due to being thrusted into the spotlight at such a young age...

However, if you get to know her, Miki slowly but surely gets nicer. No more weird glares, strange looks, or bland voice. She'll actually pay more attention to you and your words, along with caring more about your feelings. She's a good person, just a bit... rough around the edges. But she means good!

Due to her somewhat stereotypical "mean girl" appearance, some people distance themselves from her. Miki does know this, and feels a tad bit bad that she kind of emits that sort of aura...

LORE

Miki was raised poor. Her father died from overworking himself, and her mother was a housewife with little to no education. Due to the lack of income, Miki and her mother were slowly deteriorating.

In school, Miki was bullied. She was usually harrassed over her tattered clothes, messy hair, lack of hygiene, and among other teases when it came to her being ugly. The jests made by her classmates made her more timid, and drilled in the idea that getting money fast was the clear solution to all her problems, thus leading to Miki's love towards riches. Getting a job at 11, Miki would save half her pay to get things like higher quality hygiene products, makeup, things like that.

At 13, Miki applied to become a model for a magazine directed to young girls. She was accepted. When her paycheck was placed into her hands, she couldn't stop staring at it. The huge pay got her hooked. She kept applying and applying... getting into photoshoot after photoshoot, which helped grow her popularity.

By the time highschool started, Miki was no longer the "poor, timid girl" she used to be. No longer was she trapped in poverty, sad and miserable due to seeing her mother cry every night out of guilt. She was now pretty, confident, and wealthy, all while balancing school.

Once she was brought to Twisted Wonderland, she was scared. What would happen to her beloved mother, her brand deals, the career she had spent years building? Oh, how it stressed her out! No worry, though! She just had to upkeep her appearance and everything would be fine!

Yeah, no.

Each overblot left Miki scarred and uglier than before.

The first overblot, Riddle Rosehearts. The thorns of the rose bushes had torn the skin from her neck to her chest, leaving a hideous scar. Part of the scar is also from the collar Riddle had summoned onto her.

The second overblot, Leona Kingscholar. He had touched Miki's hair, thus leading to her roughly hacking off her beloved locks with a knife.

The third overblot, Azul Ashengrotto. Attempting to steal her "magic", he had left a huge scar on the left side of her abdomen.

The fourth overblot, Jamil Viper. After being flung to the edge of Scarabia, nearby rocks had deeply cut her left arm, specifically the area near the elbow.

The fifth overblot, Vil Schoenheit. The poison and debris in the coliseum resulted in scarring on her right shoulder and hip, along with permanent damage to her lungs.

The sixth overblot, Idia Shroud. Between the phantoms, strain from Tartarus, and almost falling into the underworld, Miki had sustained heavy cuts in both her legs. This resulted in difficulty walking during the fight against Idia.

The seventh overblot, Malleus Draconia. Being put to sleep, the briars roughly dug into Miki's skin, leaving her left eye permanently scarred and blind.

By the end of it all, Miki had become her worst nightmare. Her old self, except older... and more hideous than before. She doesn't harbor resentment, but because of this, Miki isolates herself, afraid that once she returns back to Shibuya, she'll be shunned as an ugly freak of nature.

RELATIONSHIPS

If you couldn't tell I'm projecting my bias towards Azul here LOLLL

If you want to know more about the relationships in-depth, go ahead and ask! I don't mind answering any questions!

CHIBIS / OUTFIT GALLERY

read alt text for individual descriptions for each outfit ^_^

DRABBLES / REFERENCES

In the 1st image in this post, the quote is a reference to a lyric in the song DONTTRUSTME by Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte, better known as 3OH!3.

Miki was originally going to be a Gyaru, specifically Rokku, before I settled on the more Y2K McBling aesthetic.

Miki was originally going to be a HOE! Like, full on.

For her Ane Gyaru-esque outfit, the four necklaces on Miki's neck are actually necklaces I own in-person.

I know this is projecting BUTTT Miki LOVES Chiikawa. Her favorite is Hachiware because I said so.

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plaindangan · 3 months ago

Note

Halara recently started a harem of sorts, it seemed as if everyone was obsessed with their giant wobbly cheeks! However Enye decided to break into Tetra’s (The newest lady to be obsessed with and dating her booty) and try to rob her! Thankfully Halara is here to “stop” the theif and maybe get yet another new member to worship them with Tetra too~!

Disclaimer: R18 material! If not to your liking then please do not view!

If Halara knew gaining fame and profit was this easy, they would have busted into Kanai Ward a long time ago.

Everywhere the detective went, people of these city just couldn't keep their eyes and, occasionally, hands off their big, phat, juicy, ass~ It's almost as if something would flip inside their heads to make them act more like ravenous zombies or something with the way citizens kept hounding them. Hey, on the flipside, they were able to start a racket with people getting to grope their buns for a steep price - so it all works out.

Hell, it really worked out as it allowed Halara to find more...carnal pleasures in Kanai Ward. For instance, Tetra was their newest lover in the city, someone who was very grateful for Halara for solving a request of her's a while back...

And what better way then to spend the night than by thanking her hero the best way how? Yep, for a good chunk of the night, Halara spent it, laying in bed, reading a good magazine, and moaning in heaven from Tetra's tongue and soft lips worshipping and devouring their plush ass~

All was good....

(Up until both heard a strange noise from downstairs. Then it became business time)

Enyne, the infamous thief of Kanai Ward had snuck in - hoping to pilfer away with as much loot this rich girl had. What she wasn't aware was that, in spite of carrying a massive dumptruck everywhere, Halara was very much a quiet sort. Someone who could easily sneak up on even the most careful of thieves - and nab them!!

Well...nab was a strong word here. More so crush. With their wobblebuns, Halara was currently facesitting Enyne, forcing them to be get a face full of soft justice!!...And considering how much Halara could feel Enyne's lips and tongue moving underneath themselves, it seems as if maybe Enyne would be quite willing to hash out a deal that would 'satisfy' both parties~

#MDARCnightmare-R18 #MDARCenyne-R18 #MDARCtera-R18

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denjis-chainsaws · 2 years ago

Text

°•●~| Chainsaw Man |~●•°

Character(s): Denji, mentions of Power and Aki Hayakawa

Genre: Headcanons, relationship, fluff

Reader: Male Reader (masc. pronouns and nouns, trans-inclusive), second person (you, your, yours), maybe a little dense pre-relationship?

Extra Notes: As per usual in every fandom I have seen very little male reader content, especially for Denji. If no one else will give him a boyfriend, then I'll write it myself. Also, no real idea for a time frame, this just generally takes place during Part 1, though certain bits can be applied to Part 2.

《 || - - - - - - - - || 》

Denji isn't a stranger to having feelings for someone, that boy falls for anyone who shows him a crumb of kindness. But he isn't used to falling for another boy. He's not opposed to it, it's just very new to him like most other relationship-type things.

So then in comes you to sweep him off his feet. Metaphorically or literally! Either way he is absolutely enamored with you. From your looks to how you carry yourself to the way you speak, everything about you renders him speechless.

At first he panics. He was raised by himself out in a cabin in the wilderness for most of his life, he doesn't have the foggiest clue about social norms and the like. By the time he's brought to Tokyo and is able to read manga and magazines, the only thing he's seen are relationships between men and women. The only time he's ever felt attraction up to that point was towards women. He didn't know if feeling this way about another boy was normal.

It causes him such distress and inner turmoil that it affects his patrols with Power and Aki. Power isn't much help since she has as similar a grasp of social norms as Denji. Aki, on the other hand, tells him quite bluntly that it's fine and shouldn't be causing him this much strife. After that his feelings towards you just kinda click, "Oh... Cool."

Once it sinks in, he's very obvious about his feelings. Everyone can read him like a book, it's embarrassing. Yet somehow it seems all of that has gone over your head, leaving you oblivious to his pining. It takes him asking you out directly to realize his feelings may extend past friendship.

Denji is a simple man that enjoys simple things, so simple dates are up his alley. Walking around the streets in the evening, going to a theater to watch a movie, or grabbing some good grub from a nearby food cart or truck. It would be his treat like a real gentleman, if he had any money to speak of. Though he promises to pay you back! Someday!

You teach him the intricacies of relationships. Largely of how they're take AND give. Many of the women Denji has chased after in the past were always taking and taking, and rarely ever giving if at all. Maybe he isn't feeling that way because he's dating a boy... Are men really that different from women in relationships? Denji doesn't know, and ultimately he doesn't care. He's happy to have a significant other who loves and cares for him as a real person.

Denji has no sense of personal space and is always clinging to you. He loves PDA and is incredibly shameless to boot. If you're walking around somewhere, he's holding your hand. Sitting somewhere to wait for a bus or just to relax, he's squeezed up tight against you and wrapping an arm around you no matter if you're smaller or bigger than him. Hell, at one point he begs you to try that cliche trope of using two straws to drink from the same shake or smoothie together. He saw it in a manga and thought it was pretty cute, so it had to be just as cute to try it in real life, no?

If you're not comfortable with the amount of physical affection Denji provides, you don't have to be afraid to speak up about it. Denji is crass and uncultured, but he's not that uncivilized. He is still getting used to everything, but above all else he wants to make sure his boyfriend is happy and comfortable, so he'll learn to tone down the clinginess if that's what makes you feel better.

You, on the flipside, learn more of his quirks. He loves praise and reassurance. All of this new stuff he's learning can be very intimidating, and as much as Denji can put on a face and handle it, he does doubt himself a lot. A simple pat on the back and words of "Good job!" can go a long way for him.

If you like to cook, Denji devours anything you make for him. Doesn't matter if you're a beginner or a five-star chef, he loves everything you make. His only request is to avoid any kind of coffee or tea, he's not too fond of the "mud" and "leaf" water.

At the end of the day, whether you're staying at Aki's his place or yours, his favorite thing to do with you is unwind in bed together. You could read him a book, he loves your voice and all the fancy words you read aloud. Maybe you have a TV in your room, you could watch one of those late night auction programs and laugh at the people who waste such exorbante amounts of money on mundane things with pretty names attached. Or if you still have the energy to spare, maybe you could let Denji rest his head on your lap and run your fingers through his hair. He loves it when you do that. He loves it whenever he can be close to you and will snuggle up to you at the earliest opportunity. He's so used to holding Pochita in his sleep, and has been using an extra pillow as a subpar replacement ever since Pochita gave him his heart. Now he doesn't need the pillow so long as he has you.

#Chainsaw Man #CSM #Denji #Denji Chainsaw Man #Denji CSM #denji x reader #denji hayakawa #denji x you #chainsaw man headcanons #csm headcanons #denji headcanons #csm x reader #written and edited on mobile #denjis-chainsaws || mod jay #first actual post on the writing blog and i am terrified lmao

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