#from what I can tell it’s mostly a usAmerican

[awakefor48hours]

Can’t stop thinking about that time someone got mad at me for calling Indians “Asians”

[waywardworldhopper]

I... don't know how I feel about this statement. I mean, the statement itself is well written, and I like how they gently go "hey if you want to do activism there are better options than harassing some internet comedians."

But just... validating the complaints with this kind of response seems dangerous, especially given Dropout clearly recognizes they're tenuous at best. Like, I'm all for them taking an explicit stance on Palestinian liberation and directing fans to charities, but it feels like giving these accusations the time of day is encouraging more harassment.

🍉🍉🍉

Additional resources to support the people of Palestine:

Demand a Ceasefire in Gaza

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund

UNRWA

UNICEF

Gaza eSims

[doberbutts]

Hello all, informative trans guy post here. IF you are taking testosterone as part of your HRT or transition process, you've probably heard several times that testosterone is a controlled substance, very difficult to source, and that you are limited on the amount of which you can have at one time. You may even be wondering the truth of these claims.

Well... the answer is... that it's mostly true. But I can tell you how to make things a bit easier on yourself, if you're having a hard time.

This "guide" is 100% USAmerican based. Sorry, but I live here, and don't know how this works outside of my own country.

1: Testosterone is a controlled substance.

Well... it is. Testosterone is a controlled substance in the United States, being a Schedule III drug along with drugs like ketamine. This means that in some states, it can be very difficult to source at all and even harder to source in significant or consistent quantities. This is largely due to people taking anabolic steroids, and very little of testosterone's controlled status historically had anything to do with transgender people using it as part of their medical transition, though that is beginning to change as trans men become more visible. There are now some laws restricting the usage of testosterone for the purpose of transitioning, especially in cases of minors and young adults transitioning through their teens.

This is a little different from estrogen, which is prescription-only in its injectable form but does not have controlled status on a federal level. Testosterone, by comparison, is controlled in all of its forms and possessing it without a prescription is very illegal. While it is possible to source and make testosterone without a prescription, much like estrogen, the legal consequences for doing so are much more severe. For this reason, this is not a guide to doing so without using a prescription.

2: Testosterone is difficult to source.

Provided you have a doctor willing to give you a prescription, and either insurance or financial means of covering the cost of said prescription, testosterone is only difficult to source if you are living in a state that heavily restricts the ability to source Schedule III drugs (or has introduced laws restricting the ability to dispense HRT to transgender patients) or if there is some sort of shortage happening.

Testosterone is available at every national pharmacy chain in various forms, and can also be ordered online by pharmacies that may legally serve your state provided they operate within the state's laws. Remember, cis men take testosterone in various forms for their own hormonal function at times, so this is far from a niche transgender-only drug.

Your state may have restrictions on exactly how much testosterone you may pick up from the pharmacy at any given time, how frequently you're allowed to get it, and occasionally how much you're allowed to have in general. This may also change depending if you are picking your testosterone up from a physical brick-and-mortar pharmacy, or if you are ordering online for home delivery.

Some pharmacies will try to tell you they legally can't dispense more- this may conflict with what your doctor tells you, so if your doctor is willing to give you the maximum your state allows you to have and your pharmacy says a different maximum, you need to get your doctor to advocate for you.

Certain forms of testosterone are more prone to shortages and backorders than others. Gel appears to be commonly backordered, and manufacturer shortages are not uncommon. For this reason, my doctor prescribes me a three month supply at a time. For a long time, CVS would argue with me that they legally could only fill one month at a time. I mentioned this to my doctor, because this inevitably means that with the pharmacists at CVS screwing around with my meds that I am not consistent on my dosing month-to-month because when a shortage happens I simply have to go without until they finally get another shipment in.

Now, thankfully, she wrote me a prescription to navigate around that with the three month supply, but she also had someone from her office call and give them a dressing down on why they needed to actually comply with her orders for her patient. I happen to live in a state that the maximum is truly a three month supply, so CVS should not be arbitrarily shortening a doctor's prescription just because they don't think they should be dispensing that many.

Similarly, testosterone is unfortunately not cheap. I happen to take the gel version, which retails at about $400 USD per bottle, and each bottle lasts one month, so that's about $1600 USD worth of medication sitting on my bathroom sink in that photo with four bottles. Now, thankfully, I have insurance, and the insurance I have allows me to pick up all of my medications for free provided the insurance is actually willing to cover it. This means that I spent a grand total of $0 USD on these bottles. Insurance costs vary greatly, so it's wise to see exactly how much a larger supply will cost you prior to actually committing. My current insurance does not allow me to order medications online, but my previous insurance that I did actually have to pay for medications was often cheaper to order online ($40 for a three month supply) than pick up at the CVS ($20 for a one month supply). This is something to consider depending on your individual coverage.

3: You can only have so much testosterone at once.

As for why I have four bottles- due to my job change, I had an insurance change as well as introduced my state's version of Medicaid as a secondary insurance. My initial insurance did not cover these bottles but did cover individual gel packets dispensed as a sealed box of 30. My current insurance does not cover the individual packets but does cover the bottles. The packets are a slightly different dosage than the pump on the bottle, and when making that switch my doctor accidentally under-dosed me, which then created a significant excess when I went to pick up the next month's bottle. As a result, that initial bottle lasted roughly two months before we caught the under-dosing via my bloodwork, which means I opened the second bottle right as I was getting ready to pick up the third (and fourth and fifth).

This is not an illegal situation as there is a clear paper trail within my medical record and prescription history detailing this situation playing out, but it can be dangerous in certain states to have this much over the amount you're supposed to have. It can be illegal to stockpile a Schedule III drug, so I do not recommend intentionally creating this sort of situation for yourself.

That being said, this sort of worked in my favor. Schedule III drugs often need a prior authorization from your insurance before they are willing to cover these medications. Drugs that are not necessarily expected within your demographic, such as being marked as female but taking testosterone, also often require a prior auth. A prior auth can take up to a month to go through insurance, though usually is less than a week. I just passed my testosterone anniversary in late September, which also means my prior auth expired, as they're only good for one year. Instead of, you know, telling me my prior auth expired, CVS just sent me a text stating they were having a problem with my order and that they were in contact with my doctor about it. A week went by with no change so I called my doctor, who reported they never received anything from CVS but would look into the issue and see what the problem was. They called me back the next day to tell me about my expired prior auth and that they fixed it. I then got the text from CVS saying my prescription was ready to pick up about 5 minutes later. That does mean that if I did not have this excess, I would have once again simply not had testosterone for about a week.

4: Public vs Private Insurance

Whether or not your state's insurance will cover testosterone depends entirely on your state. Obama, when creating the Affordable Care Act or now known as "Obamacare", did make it so that states are supposed to be required to cover HRT for transgender adults and even minors in certain situations. Trump did away with several of these protections, which then emboldened certain states to whittle away at what was left. Other states, like my own, strengthened their protections in response, making it easier to access HRT.

This means that while my own state allows me to get free testosterone through the state's insurance (which is income-based eligibility, and I'm making a significant amount over minimum wage but still considered below my state's poverty line) - a friend of mine in another state cannot access HRT using his state's Medicaid, and is required to use private insurance. Additionally, I have insurance through my job, but it does not cover a large enough percentage for it to be feasible. This means that legally, I have to pay for my workplace insurance (barf, that's $200 out of every paycheck) but on the flip side because of my income eligibility I also can still have the state insurance as my co-insurance and that will clean up whatever leftover costs my private insurance leaves me with.

It also means my top surgery will be free, provided I can get it approved through my private insurance. My public insurance will pay the remaining balance of whatever my private insurance is willing to cover, but will not pay for things my private insurance isn't willing to cover at all.

This also means I have to attend exclusively doctors that will take my public insurance if I want to do things this way- however that's a fairly robust list in my state compared to others, so I didn't have to change doctors at all.

This situation is not always the case for every state's Medicaid- but it is worth looking into if you need options and your current insurance sucks or if you're not insured at all.

[suratan-zir]

Hi. I wanted to ask how you have those among Ukrainians who believe in russian propaganda. I just met one refugee from Kharkov, and he told me that Putin is fighting for the Russian world, and it was the United States that started the war. He reasons that since he speaks Russian, he should support Russia's actions. And this despite the fact that his city was bombed, and he and his family were on the verge of life and death.

Hi. I can't really answer this. I mean, I can try, but I'm not good at answering vague questions. I'm not well-spoken enough.

How come so many USAmericans worship Trump and see him as a savior of the poor when he's the exact opposite? How come far-right parties all across Europe gain more and more popularity, with people believing that fascists in power will resolve all their problems? Hell, we can take it a step further and ask how come people become anti-vaxxers and flat Earth believers? The answer is only one - propaganda. People fall under the harmful influence.

Russian propaganda has been extremely active in the southeast of Ukraine basically since we gained independence. Russia has been spending millions upon millions on brainwashing Ukrainians. The propaganda became more and more aggressive since the Orange Revolution. It was everywhere in the Donbas, you couldn't even wear a piece of orange clothing without risking being beaten up.

I was only a middle-schooler, but I remember it in detail. Propaganda materials such as leaflets were distributed everywhere. I remember one with Viktor Yushchenko (pro-European presidential candidate) against the background of the US flag and Uncle Sam who's saying, "Yushchenko is our pResident." I remember asking my mother what it meant, and she said it means that Yushchenko is a very bad person. This stuff was wild. And it only got wilder.

Russian propaganda claims over the years varied from the statement that "Donbas feeds the entire Ukraine" to "pro-European politicians and the US will make concentration camps in the Donbas for the Russian-speakers and will populate the territory with people from the West instead." I don't know how, but people believed in this purely artificial conflict. Not only were there never any persecutions against the Russian-speakers, but you would actually feel more comfortable speaking Russian in Ukraine. In most regions, the Ukrainian language was considered a "redneck" language and would get you nowhere. Of course, the Ukrainian government is also to blame for letting Russia control the narrative. But for most of these independent years, Ukraine was basically externally managed by Russia. During Yanukovych's presidency, we were like Belarus is now - a false "president" taking instructions straight from the Kremlin. So the brainwashing was getting worse and worse.

I told this story several times, and I'll tell it again. Before the "referendum" in Donetsk, most people laughed at the idea of the "republic." It was supported by some local lunatics, but mostly the whole thing was done by russian mercenaries and russian military. During this time, my aunt told me that those who support this are crazy and they're calling war into our homes. She was a reasonable person. She had a job, a nice apartment of her own, a happy family, and a bright future ahead. In 2015 they fled from Donetsk to russia, along with my grandmother. Why to russia? Propaganda. Then they got russian citizenship and used it to vote for putin. I asked how they could vote for him after what he did to them, after they lost it all. "We're thankful he gave us a home, gave us citizenship," was the answer. At first, he took everything from you, ruined your life, then let you restore a tiny bit of it - and you're grateful. I don't know how this works. It's not like they were welcomed in russia, they faced a lot of prejudice and oppression for being from Donetsk. To the point that my cousin was bullied at school for being from the Donbas, not only by kids but by teachers, despite being an excellent student and graduating with honors. Russians are outraged that their state "rescues" and "helps" those Donbas khokhols instead of helping "true" russians.

In the second month of the full-scale invasion, my grandmother proposed that I move to them, to the moscow region of russia. "This is the country that is trying to kill us all, how can you ask me to move there?" "What difference does it make which country to live in? It's safe here." So along with pro-putin brainrot comes also apoliticalness, passivity.

I'm rambling at this point. I don't want to go on about this forever, like I know I can. Let's leave it at this.

[littlefankingdom]

As someone who is a leftist, who was raised by leftists, who calls themselves a "revolutionary", who is loud about when stuffs aren't fucking okay and people rights aren't respected, I cannot explain how much I dislike the panels of Oliver Queen calling his colleagues "nazis" or "fascists" when they don't agree on something. Like, it doesn't make me want to read his comics, because he sounds like a self-righteous whining bitch, not an actual activist that knows what he is talking about. Your colleague refusing to listen to you doesn't make him a fascist, rich white man. And I don't think anyone would want to have a discussion with someone who insults them of being Nazi when they aren't happy.

Nazi and fascist are important words with meanings, historical and scientific (history and sociology are sciences) meanings. The more you use them without respecting their meaning, the less they mean shit. And like, I have seen enough to realize USAmericans barely know the meaning of Nazi, which is not simply being a white-supremacist or a fascist. Nazism is the ideology that there's an aryan race, which fits mostly GERMAN traits, superior to everyone else, with a ton of eugenics. It isn't just antisemitism, it isn't just white-supremacy, the Nazis did not like most of white people, they destroyed historical and cultural objects from european cultures for not being "aryan". My grandparents' trauma from the occupation shows that quite well. So, Oliver Queen calling Flash "a nazi" because he disagree with how to handle a situation isn't funny or cool, it's tiring and wrong. No, your red-haired, probably doesn't know a word of german, colleague isn't a Nazi. And he isn't a neo-nazi ever, which are more open to white people without tie to German culture but still use the symbolism, because he is still not doing Nazi shit.

Again, these terms aren't insults, they have meanings. Marine Le Pen, a French politician, is a Nazi because her party was created by her father and his Nazi and SS friends, and she sees Hitler as family. I am not a Nazi for wearing all black (yes, this did happened), supporting Palestine (also happened), or telling people that not voting isn't helping at all (just last week).

I would have no issues with Oliver criticizing his colleagues being controlling and abusing their power or authority, I would love that, I'm big on criticizing abuse of power and authority, but he needs to be written doing that, not just calling them "nazi" and "fascist". That's not what they are doing. And also, if you think one of your colleagues is a fascist or a nazi and the JL is letting them in control, WTF ARE YOU STILL WORKING WITH THEM??? (That's my point that he's using these terms like insults)

I can hear y'all: "You're just mad he called Batman a fascist, because you love Batman!" And like, there's a lot to talk about on Bruce's and Batman’s morality, but at the end of the day, DC is an usamerican company. Of course fascist points are going to be encouraged, this is the USA we are talking about. They cannot write a story without it, it's taught to them since birth from the imperialism and nationalism combo. And also, a good written Batman isn't a fascist, he is literally against the death penalty or even letting criminals die, which is supported HEAVILY by fascism. Like, call him out for thinking he is always right, go for it, but that's not fascism.

[mosscreeper-ao3]

Hi Moss,

I've been following you for a short while, mostly for fandom stuff (Jaith, my beloved).

I can only say that I hope beyond hope that you're going to be ok. I know I'm scared out of my wits, and I'm in a safe state. I can't comprehend what it must be like for you.

I hate that there's little I can do to help anyone, so I'm offering what sympathy I can to as may people as I can reach. If nothing else, I find commiseration helpful. Maybe you do, too.

I hope you can find your way to a safe place.

- viv

I really appreciate this. Thankfully, I live in a VERY blue enclave in Ohio, so I don't feel the immediate need to move. That being said, I do have an exit plan both to a few safe states and Canada. I've also started local organizing efforts. Anyone who lives in Ohio can feel free to reach out via DMs or replies for a letter template encouraging Sherrod Brown to run for Vance's empty seat.

I do want to take this opportunity to encourage my fellow USAmericans to get a passport NOW if you are able. They not only provide you the ability to leave, but are some of the most rock-solid proofs you can have of US citizenship. This is advice straight from my Arab refugee father back in 2016.

Some vent stuff incoming in the next paragraph.

I'm genuinely terrified. I'm terrified for myself. I'm terrified for my family in Lebanon. I’m terrified for Palestine. The Biden-Harris admin sucked for Gaza, but the woman half-heartedly calling for a ceasefire is a damn sight better than the man actively telling them to "finish the job". I'm terrified for Ukrainians. Being queer and the absolute disaster this is for my fellow trans people is ass, but I am scared shitless for the imperialist implications of this. Trump has made it abundantly clear that he wants to take America back to an imperialist empire (imo it never really stopped being one but Trump wants to full send this shit) and help Israel and Russia expand their own colonial terrorist projects.

[cipheramnesia]

At least half the fun of a good monster movie is seeing what the visual effects team cooked up from latex and plastic and slime. It's a given, we're all there a little bit to see something cool, and hopefully the rest of the movie isn't terrible, but as long as it's tolerable then a well made monster effect can make or break a film. Part of what we lost in the grab for cheap and exploitative CGI is that goopy, gruesome, stretchy, squirmy latex look of a proper movie monster. A good computer graphic monster, in the context of a video game where it's all computer generated, is excellent. But in a movie with physical people it's a let down. It's got no chemistry with the bioactors, and it really tanked the monster movie genre. I mean if you love a sharktopus or three headed land shark that's fine, but you know you're there for the humor of it, not the quality.

Because it's so easy to score a good movie with an average plot and a sexy monster, there's a long standing tradition of swiping the plots of better movies in pursuit of that monster magic. And if someone wants to make "The Thing, but in the ocean," I will not protest. Leviathan did it, and that worked out alright. Average plot, great monster, what more do you need. That's about the same which can be said for Harbinger Down. Nearly shot for shot copying The Thing at times, I can't be mad. In a time when most would have done a full CGI monster they seem to have gone mostly practical with a really nice pay off. It's weird, it's gross, it's covered in slime and spikes and wrinkly rubber folds. It literally just looks like someone made an aquatic themed version of The Thing. And I am here for it. I won't die on a hill for it, but if you're casting about wanting a cool movie monster, you could do a lot worse. It's honestly a couple casting choices and probably one final screenplay edit from being average but fun to something really good and interesting, but it's yet one more movie where you can tell who the survivor is by looking for the person who is the most youthful, conventionally attractive, thin, USAmerican, and white. Coulda pulled a really interesting movie off with a tiny bit more care for interesting details over generic ones but what the hell. At least the black characters don't die first, and there's more than one of them.

Throw it on, pop some popcorn, watch with some friends for the chills and thrills but don't make it your big Halloween spooktackular. Love it, or don't, the monster is worth 90 minutes out of the day and isn't that what we all came to see anyway?

[grey-and-lavender]

Hi, I read your post about the us election where you said you won't discuss it further unless we have any specific questions.

I am Italian, I am trying a bit to get more involved in politics but it's hard, expecially for international politics.

I need to ask you, if you know the answer: what could the Trump election mean to Europe? How much should I be worried? I am very worried, mostly because since Roe V Wade was overturned the abortion laws have been discussed a lot more in Italy.

I'm also interested in knowing about how this was able to happen. I understand that can be draining for you to explain, but I am not worried about the explanation being too academic (actually that's what I'd like).

I also want to add that your blog is a very cool place for me since I'm studing sociology and it's hard to find people in social sciences in the tumblr study community.

Feel free to choose to not answer but if you do please tell me in private that's your choice so I know I can stop waiting.

Thank you ❤️

I've taken a stab at your questions, and going to chuck this under the cut for folks who don't want to see analysis. Again, I invite and encourage you to scroll on past if this isn't a conversation for you right now.

First, good on you for the interest! Getting involved in politics is tricky. There's so much out there that can and does make money off of getting you angry and engaged through that anger. Unfortunately, that's often not productive for you, or for getting any political outcomes you may be looking for. Asking questions is a great start, keeping vaguely up to date on your national and some international news when you have the time and space is another great way to do it. I'd also encourage you to take the time to vote in every election you're eligible for, and to really consider what you're voting for. Informed voting is a blunt weapon, but it's the most effective one you have.

I don't do international relations, and I'm not familiar with the politics in Italy, so I can't guess well at your first question. I do know a few things though. We know that Trump has said things about trying to end the war in Ukraine. We know that people are worried about how he'll do it, as the US is the single biggest donor of arms to Ukraine. From what I can see about Italian abortion law, it seems unlikely to me that there will be an outright ban on it (the past referendum didn't pass and I can't see public opinion shifting so much against it in the decades since, there is an option for individual medical practitioners to refuse, and the recent amendment aims to make it more difficult for folks to get one rather than being against the procedure itself).

You will know better than I do with how much US politics influences the politics of your country. Ours are often influenced, but anglophone Canada shares much of the same media ecosystem and culture with the US, so I imagine our spillover is greater. In terms of worry, I would be cautious, and keep tabs on it. But as an Italian there's little you can do about USAmerican politics, so outside of being well armed with information, worrying will do very little for you. If you're particularly concerned about abortion law specifically, and you have the time, I guarantee there are organizations who would love a volunteer who can spend an hour or two a week helping mail flyers.

For your second question, the answer is simple and also I mean it genuinely: most of the American people who voted for the president in this election viewed Trump as the better choice.

There could be several reasons for this. My suspicion is he was better at marketing himself to issues people cared about (cost of living specifically, which is less abstract than an issue of democratic integrity), has a better following, and has an incumbency advantage (generally, people who ran previously have more name recognition and can gain an electoral advantage through name recognition, though this can also backfire if people decide to punish the incumbent instead).

The other thing about the US two party system is that when you only have one other party, it's easy for partisanship to become an integral part of your identity, because you have a clear out-group. You study sociology so maybe you've come across Social Identity Theory (I've taken one (1) sociology course so I have no idea when this comes up in your studies). This is where political scientists base a lot of their current understanding of affective (or the emotive and identity based) partisanship. It's easy for democrats to hate republicans and vice versa. I think many republicans stuck with their vote because that's who they vote for. I know we joke online about the left eating itself, but I genuinely believe the left is not as fractured as the right, because on the right you have people who prefer cautious government spending policies on one end, and honest to god nazis on the other. Many of them are voting for the same person.

My final note is that most republicans are not voting for Trump because they hate Palestinians, Trans folks, women, or minorities. Some of them do, absolutely. But I think a lot of them find him more relatable, his policies speak to their concerns more, and they find him a more palatable option to Harris. Progress means change, and a lot of people are scared of change. If you want a better understanding of the logic, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Hochschild has a great explanation of what that perspective looks like.

I'm glad you like my blog! The tumblr study community has changed a lot in the decade (lol) since I joined it. It's very fun to think I fill in a niche.

[la-noche-cae]

I think it's Extremely Relevant right now to talk about Skylanders' military propaganda [Edit].

I will not be graphic. But your further research on this... most likely will be, at least in a descriptive way.

A. Skylanders was created by Activision, the same company that made Call of Duty. Call of Duty (among others) is a game used to reel in youth for army recruitment. Just to picture what's the typical order of business for leaders at the company.

B. The whole idea of the Academy, ranks, "Us vs Them" mentality. "Light and order" vs "Darkness and anarchy". Regardless of your opinions on Anarchy as a system, darkness often equaling Kaos' workers such as trolls (and even gyps*es), and for Skylanders meaning dark skinned creatures, is pretty clear sign of their idea of evil.

[Edit: Light=Good and Darkness=Evil is not a universal experience. Multiple cultures consider it just as sacred, an equal, instead of an opposite to Light. Symbolically and Philosophically, there's more to it, beyond the typical eurocentric imaginary.

Speaking of eurocentric imaginary: to an uncritical consumer, this could potentially reinforce their ideas of good and evil. There is little wiggle room for these ideals to be challenged. They are exceptions of Skylanders' norm.]

C. Just in Superchargers, there are references to a Border being kept between Skylands and Outlands, High Volt being this "elite guard" that protects the border. Notice he looks like a riot police, in colors and gear- one of which is a riot shield. Protesting is a right, and in these parts of the world, it is often met with unhinged police violence. Regardless of your opinions on borders, the way such a thing is enforced in the USA is extremely violent. Even here in Puerto Rico, we have border patrol and constant surveillance (mostly aimed at keeping out our Dominican neighbors).

Do not get me started on the long history of Puertorrican oppression inflicted by USA Imperialism. (Agent Orange, Forced Sterilization, Vieques Occupation).

[Edit: Just... Copaganda in My video game? No, thank you. For ME, If I portray High Volt, I'd redesign and reinterpret him. He's like, a lightbulb. Perhaps he is part of a watch tower, but for other purposes].

D. Sorry, Nightfall here goes another problematic thing about you: Nightfall is dressed like a type of Navy admiral: A long coat with yellow buttons and yellow cord epaulets. She also has a vehicle called the Sea Shadow, referencing a real-life military ship designed for surveillance.

[Edit: Not every country has a military. And those who do have the biggest budget for it are typically using it as an imperial, colonial force. This is important, more so because Skylanders' target audience is the young eurocentric USAmerican. The parent company is Activision Blizzard, stationed in USA. The way other Skylanders talk about the Superchargers is like the Air Force are talked about by others in the army- they are the more "prestigious" ones with shiny new vehicles lmao].

E. The idea is that one can be a hero through this hard, thankless fighting... in another's land, "Securing" that land from the "evil ones". Sounds like Occupation and / or a Coup to me. Goes hand in hand with the point about Borders and Light vs Darkness.

[Edit: People. I am talking about this above with Manifest Destiny in mind. I am not claiming all the Skylanders are colonizers, lol! I'm saying there's way too many references to USA military propaganda to ignore. I ask you to use your own discernment / research to make your conclusions. There are things I didn't pick up.

I simply did Not appreciate Buzz telling Stormblade to do Psychological Warfare, or calling Glumshanks an "apple-polishing troll" when the guy just wanted to help. To me, this is not funny haha. It's funny like weird!]

___

These are the things on top of my head I've wanted to talk about for a while, but now more than ever is pressing to bring it up and discuss with intent to move forward. Don't go "You're overreacting" Please don't tell me I don't know anything about something I experience every day. Also, don't put words in my mouth, thanks. You can visit this post if you have questions.

If you can help it, don't give Activision any more of your money, for example, buying their newer games. Buy second hand.

Avoid spending at companies like Airbnb (which not just supports settlers but directly worsens my country's housing crisis), Apple, Hp, Motorola, McDonald's, Starbucks, Coca Cola, Mars chocolate, Nestle are a few others that dont have a clean track record. Get familiar with modern-day imperialist interest around you on your own, or with friends.

👋[If your knee-jerk reaction to this is to hate me perhaps inspect why that is? I'm not a big influential blog. Why you threatened? I can't force you or bully you to do anything, I'm just making my opinions known].

[jasmancer]

diving back into reading comics so here are some tips from a former comic store employee:

There is so much more than superhero comics out there. Seriously. The comic book format has been host to groundbreaking autobiographies, subversive fantasy and sci fi, experimental horror, mysteries, romance, barbarian babe booby comics, you name it

If u do really want to get into Marvel or DC superhero comics I'd recommend that you pick a character with a smaller catalogue to get started, and/or find some writers you like and look through their catalogue. A lot of comic writers for the big 2 have great original stuff that gets overlooked. There's also a good chance an author you like has written a comic series!

If you want to read a certain character and don't know where to start just look up (character) reading guide !! a lot of comics Tumblr make them and you'd be surprised just how obscure our blorbos can get.

If you can think of a property, there's a 90% chance a comic of it exists. I have stocked Three Stooges comics before. The industry knows no bounds

If ur USAmerican your library probably has access to the service Hoopla which has tons of comics on it. Seriously you can read them for free in a legitimate way on your phone or computer and all you need is a library card. The app is even set up so you can read panel-by-panel instead of having to zoom way in on text boxes and speech bubbles

KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOURE READING. I seriously cannot tell you how many times I've started a comic and really enjoyed it only to leave it unfinished because I found another series and got so excited I forgot about the other one. I personally use a spreadsheet I found by looking up a book tracker on Google sheets and modifying it to suit comic books.

If you want to buy comics, I'd recommend you get them in TPB (Trade Paperback) volumes AKA ~Graphic Novels~ instead of individual issues. Typically these will collect a series and each book will be 5-6 issues of a comic apiece, and you can even find some that collect important appearances of certain characters or events that arent necessarily held together by one series. Saves money, time, and space

Good places to get secondhand comics in any format include thriftbooks(dot)com, secondhand book stores with comic bins and graphic novel sections like Half Price Books or Vintage Stock, and mycomicshop(dot)com. Looking through comic bins can be kinda daunting, especially if they're not well organized so I mostly recommend going to the graphic novel shelves instead. If you do want to go digging it's definitely fun though and I'd recommend bringing a buddy so you can show each other weird obscure comics you find and giggle

9/10 times comic books are NOT the investment you think they are. The industry takes advantage of this misconception a lot to try and boost sales that have been falling for decades at this point. I personally wouldn't recommend buying individual issues of series unless they're like a short miniseries or oneshots. I could get into what actually makes a comic book go up in value but this post is already long as hell so I'll just leave it here

Now go forth and read!!!

[overclockedopossum]

I'm just going to start unfollowing people who post dogwhistles for "you are morally obligated to vote for the genocide guy".

I'm sick of being told having zero standards for anyone as long as they're DNC-endorsed is "playing the long game"

I'm sick being told a group that is actively making things worse (re: genocide, pied piper strategy among others) is an "imperfect ally".

I'm sick of lib-left misinformation and conspiracy theories about trump (immediately deciding project 2025 is his manifesto just because a right-wing think tank published it, the idea that he's anti-vaccine, the idea that he'll somehow further intensify the genocide in gaza).

I'm sick of feeling like when I point out that almost everything said about Trump is a half-truth that might be taken as an endorsement of him when there are a lot of very strong valid criticisms mostly being left on the table.

I'm sick of watching Liberals making arguments that I know actual Trump voters will be able to easily dismiss without one iota of doubt.

I'm sick of people who went back to brunch in 2021 telling other, frequently less able people that they have an obligation to physically protest alongside voting against their conscience.

I'm sick of the idea that failing to vote for Biden betrays "privilege" when most of the recent anger at Biden comes from marginalised groups, particularly USAmerican Muslims despite Trump's active hostility towards them.

But most of all I'm sick of the fact that the main case being made is a negative one.

I'm sick of people talking about Biden as if he's universally bad and Trump is just worse. And ok, maybe it's because saying "I can excuse genocide as long as there's student loan forgiveness" is too obviously morally bankrupt. But the reason we have Trump, the reason we already had a term of him, arguably the reason the supreme court is skewed right-wing, is the DNC "pied piper" strategy. It's because as far as the DNC is concerned, it's more important for the republicans to be bad than for them to be good.

Every post that says "you are morally obligated to vote for biden because of how bad trump is" actively reinforces that pied piper strategy.

Whenever people say "look, the DNC candidate is terrible but the other guy is even worse" they're saying that as long as the DNC can keep promoting right-wing extremists with carefully-crafted "attack" ads, they'll keep voting blue no matter who.

And I'm sick of that.

Every post about something genuinely good that Biden has done - not just an empty gesture or fiddling around the edges - is a drop in the ocean of "things should actually be made better".

Every post about how much worse Trump is, every roundabout analogy, every trolley problem that neglects to mention you'd be voting for a group that helps tie people to the track, and frankly every denial of the efficacy of single-issue voting - they're all drops in the ocean of "please keep doing brinksmanship, when is it my turn on the track".

I'm not telling anyone how to vote here, but I'll say this. If you are in the USA and in all senses are able to do so, you should vote for someone you think would be an actively good president. You should vote for representatives you think would be actively good representatives. And you should vote on ballot measures as well according to appropriate research on those, because they can be hugely important but hell if I know what's going on with them. But what you should absolutely not do is keep the door closed on third parties by voting for someone you think wouldn't be a good president, just because there are worse options.

And when people care strongly about issues that they're right to care about maybe your ire should be directed at the politicians who have let them down, rather than them for daring to be let down.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

It is natural for humans to place importance on our ancestry and ethnic origins, its just human to want to be part of a bigger story. Last summer I visited my great-grandparents homeland and got to see the village they grew up in. Seeing family farm and talking to people who knew our family was incredibly touching and made me feel deeply connected to the country and to our history. I mean, my ancestors lived and toiled on that land for generations, long before the current borders existed. Our time in the US is recent and short in comparison. So I don´t think one can entirely dismiss the importance of heritage and ancestry to the individual.

That post didn't dismiss the importance of heritage at all. It just said that your blood alone won't make you less culture-shocked or better adapted than other people, when you have little to no contact with said culture. No one discouraged ancestors of immigrants against contacting the culture. I'm very happy about your good experience and I find it natural for locals to get excited and happy when finding out a person hails from their area.

There's a variety of reasons some nations care a lot about their grandparents' area/country and others do not. I've found that mostly people from the US feel strongly about the old place of their family. Perhaps it's the feeling people have in newer nations. I guess it was a very big thing "leaving for the US" instead of "leaving for Portugal", "leaving for Germany", "leaving for Egypt," and so USAmerican families hold the old land dearest in their hearts.

In fact, USAmericans seem to have their lineages recorded better than many other countries. (Exempt are the cultures that do ancestor worship or have similar practices) Someone does need to tell me if USAmericans think every person in the "old world" has a written lineage and we are all constantly proud of what our ancestors did, and have a deep connection to how awesome our 3rd great-aunt was.

The truth is, most of us don't give a fuck. And yes, I'm talking about 3rd-4th gen. immigrants (and sometimes those of refugees), too. People migrate through countries and areas all the time, and yet this feeling is not as strong. I will tell my experiences in a while.

But in general, I haven't seen the same strong feelings in European, Middle Eastern, and African friends. (there are always exceptions and this is my personal experience) For example, Greeks (who live in the freaking Balkans, where we know no one is a 100% anything) rarely talk about their ancestry and if they do they just say "hey my grandma was from X place" and the rest of us say "cool" and we continue with our lives.

A few might remember their family history because of a heroic ancestor or because their family had epic drama. Greek refugee families from Minor Asia tend to remember their "lost fatherlands" (dir.trans.) because the trauma of the 1920's is still palpable in the family. But this is a different flavour of longing than what I hear from USAmericans.

"It's just human to want to be part of a bigger story" you said, and I agree, but this idea doesn't seem to have the same impact on many nations.

Enter: me. <3

I've never visited the places/countries my great-grandparents and grandparents came from, and where 3 of my grandparents grew up (when they died they hadn't been to these places for 50 years minimum each). I have a famous Greek uncle, the cousin of my grandpa, whom I never met. I always saw him on TV but our lives never intersected and... well my life went on.

I don't feel a tangible connection to these people and lands. I mean why would I? I'm a complete stranger to them. Part of my line couldn't been in Egypt for 14 generations and I will never know (well unless I take a DNA test) but even if I learn it won't impact my life whatsoever. What am I supposed to do? Go to Egypt and walk through Cairo shouting the surnames my dead family members had? My family could be only in Greece for 50 generations and I still wouldn't care. 😂

On the Greek and foreign places my great-grandparents (and even half my grandparents) are from: I definitely don't consider myself part of those specific cultures and subcultures. Once I had to Google what type of language one country spoke (I knew the language name cause..geography). I couldn't even imagine myself living there without serious social adjustments. It would be nice to visit and learn stuff about the local culture, for sure, but I would feel like a tourist still.

Two weeks ago I saw a woman from the village of my great grandma in the market. We exchanged a few "ah ok you're also from there, cool!" And that was the end of it. What else are we supposed to say? There was no ✨ deeper connection ✨ or something. Why would I care about their opinions on family members from 100 yrs ago - only in case they remembered them - whom I never met and I don't know if they'd like me?

(Funny story, a Greek friend of mine thought her grandma was from Austria and it turns out she was from... Thrace 😂 She just was in Austria for work for a couple of years. This didn't impact her interaction with her grandma at all 😂 I don't know how but it was a very short conversation because we just didn't care much)

Also last year I commissioned a traditional clothing piece in a village very close to my grandpa's village in Greece and not only I didn't know the terminologies for that village but also for my grandpa's village. The complete stranger on the phone had to tell me that stuff and explain to me the importance of each piece and how the villages separated themselves through clothing. (I also accidentally offended him with how I called a thing). Sure I can imagine my grandpa living there, but things have changed there since the 1930s. Houses, markets, roads, these are not the same things he saw when he was there.

My dad just shrugged when he saw how the village (in another country) my other grandpa is from today. I didn't feel a magic spark either tbh. I deeefinitely don't know shit about the place. We have more of a connection with the old refugee families in our area than people from that village.

Blood alone won't familiarise me with these cultures and subcultures. I have to go through the learning process like every other foreigner. A Chinese immigrant (to name a place from far away) living in these cultures for a decade now has a better understanding and connection to them than I do today. It would be nice if someone from these places remembered my family but I don't think they do. It comes off as desperate - in my case - to say "Remember this family who lived here a hundred years ago?" What is the average person supposed to know ��� I don't even know the old families in my own hometown. I know some surnames, alright, but people personally? naah..

Ofc sometimes people remember their diaspora relatives and they keep in touch, so when you go to that country you have still a "root" there to familiarize you with the current culture.

My family is not the golden standard but I gave examples to demonstrate how people can view ancestry.

I don't disregard the strong feelings about the place of origin. I don't think it's a negative thing to want to find out what happened in your family. But locals can get uneasy when someone from a family that hasn't stepped foot in this land for 3 generations comes around, and think they will fit right in. The locals can tell the cultural difference, even if they remain silent. One example for Greeks is... the Bachelor show - of all places - and for Italy one episode from the series White Lotus presented this situation accurately.

That doesn't mean locals don't feel happiness or affection for that person. I know I'd be happy if, after 3-4 generations I saw my diaspora cousins up close and we talked about Greek stuff. It would just be a cringe if they pretended we didn't have any cultural differences and that Greece is today exactly how their grandparents left it. I guess most people just ask for a reality check + empathy with the locals when someone comes from abroad.

Guys, if you are not from a recently-founded country what are your experiences with this?

[that-purple-creature]

Look I bet you have a lot of "kys" anons in your inbox right now, so just to start of this is not one of those messages. If you're feeling overwhelmed by those, I think the best think you can do is log off and go on a walk. Remember that these are people who don't know you, they just have an idea of you based off of one thing you've said.

I saw the post that someone reposted your tags on, and since you seem kinda young I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt and explain what people are so upset about.

The US has a long history of exploiting Latin America's resources and meddling in their politics. Look up "Operación Cóndor" and "Banana Wars" for some particularly egregious examples. The current reality of USAmerican food imports is that we get a lot of our food from large companies such as Chiquita Banana, Dole (both were participants in the Banana Wars), and Driscoll's. I'll be talking about Driscoll's mostly because that's the one I know the most about.

Driscoll's sell berries, but they don't actually own the farms they grow the berries on. They enter into a contract with farmers where Driscoll's provides the seedlings and the materials needed to produce berries to their exacting specifications. The issue with this contract is that farmers don't own the plants they grow. In fact, they're copyrighted by Driscoll's. What ends up happening is that Driscoll's gets the majority of the profits, and these farmers get pennies on the dollar. It's reminiscent of sharecropping in the US, where poor black families who just gained their freedom had no choice but to rent land from white plantation owners and give them the food they farmed to pay rent. A lot of Driscoll's farmers are located in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.

Driscoll's is only one example. The issue is that the tropical and out-of-season foods that we take for granted exist because of this system. Having access to bananas year-round is only possible because of worker exploitation. Saying you'd rather remain in ignorance of the issue than lose access to your safe foods is insensitive.

(Also, you may want to reconsider sharing your age online. You have no obligation to tell anyone anything about you.)

I actually have very few people telling me to stop existing, which I am thankful for. It's mostly just informational, though you're the only not-anon in my inbox.

Anyway; Thank you for the information, that was great /gen. I was surprised that we actually do have Driscoll's where I live, although I've literally never bought from them because I live near quite a few massive pick-your-own farms. I was aware of the US's weird nonsense in Latin America, though not to what extent, entirely.

I don't even live there, so the way your/their food is produced is not very relevant to me, especially since it seems most of the fruit we get from wherever during off-seasons are completely flavourless and nobody really buys them, so I was kind of sitting here in blissful ignorance with bananas from Queensland sitting on my kitchen bench and wondering if they're produced with slavery too, or if it's just the migrant workers Pauline Hanson complains about so often.

(It feels like they probably are so I'm glad I don't eat bananas.)

Apologies if this reply felt late, I just woke up and time zones are wierd things.

[cepheusgalaxy]

Hello! This is the one who asked for tips on 12yo Brazilian OC.

Thank you so much for all the tips, you give me so many I don't even think of. I will re-read them later.

May I ask something else please? You gave me the titles for dramas and it's so helpful! I actually need them so I can familiarise myself with the country. Thank you.

This time, I want suggestions for Brazilian novels, so I can read how Brazilian people write about themselves. Do you have any recs for me? Preferably those who have English translation because...of course.

Maybe those which have drama and slice of life as genres, but anything is okay.

Drama/telenovelas for teenagers/adults recommendations are welcome too, so I can have the more mature POV. Also, recommending Brazilian Lifestyle Youtubers is great too if you know some!

Hello anon! I'm glad my answer was useful to you :)

Now, first, of all, I thought a little about some books and shows and movies to recommend you, but I also wanted to disclaim a very relevant aspect of brazilian media that you may not know:

Most of the media we consume here is foreign.

For starters, let's say that finding a fan of "national literature" how we call it is kind of unusual. Most of the hits we have here (Percy Jackson, godforsaken Harry Potter, Pollyanna, Pride and Prejudice, The Matrix, Disney movies, I could go on) are all from the US or other Northern countries. Brazilian media is highly americanized. Take that plus manga and anime and also recently korean dorama, little of what we have comes from here.

If you asked, say, a random young adult in the street to tell you about a good Brazilian book, they'd probably just know the Old Classics like Machado de Assis or Jorge Amado, the kinds of books we have to read for school to answer a test. Those very old, very famous books that use of an arcaic Portuguese that is really hard to understand, especially if you're just doing it for a grade.

Most people's favorite shows, favorite book series, favorite movies... they're mostly all from the US.

This is pretty annoying, to be honest, to not find any "famous" or popular brazilian books. Shows and movies have more luck, but it's still tough out there. Finding media that's really from here sometimes it's not even compensating, so mostly we just stick with what comes from the outside. So, even if your character is brazilian, I think it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to just watch a lot of USamerican shows, like USamerican movies and read USamerican book series.

Now, since we've taken that out of the way, I have here some media sorted by medium and target audience for your purposes! There may be really frustrating to find actual brazilian stories out there, but that doesn't mean we don't have them!

Books:

Um Milhão de Finais Felizes - English title: "A Million Happy Endings". Genre: Queer romance. Story about young gay adult who wants to write a book but can't bring himself to. If I remember well it's a coming of age story. Rate: I'd say it's a teen to YA story.

Enquanto Eu Não Te Encontro - Couldn't find any records of an English version. Rough translation: "While I Can't Find You". Description: Queer romance about a guy who meets a dude in a bar and they fall in love. They lose contact and the protagonist tries to let it go untill they finally meet again. Rate: Teen to Young Adult.

Os Karas - English title: "Karas Chronicles". Description: A book series about a bunch of teenagers who solve misteries and defeat bad forces. Has about 5 volumes, I think, but I'm not sure. Maybe more. Rate: Tween to Teen.

A Hora da Estrela - English title: Hour of the Star. Description: I haven't really read it, but it's some romance and this is a really classic one. Rate: I have no idea but I know adults like it.

Nó na Garganta - Couldn't find any record of an English version (which SUCKS because this is a really interesting slice of life). Rough translation: Lump in the Throat. Description: Slice of life-ish. Story about a young black girl that moves with her family to the countryside, in a town full of whiter and richer kids than her. She tries hard to make friends, find a way to have fun and deal with expectations at home. Rate: Tween

Luna Clara & Apolo Onze - I'm not sure if there is an English version, but Onze means Eleven if you wanna try your luck looking for it. The rest of the title should be about the same. Info: About a girl in North Desatino who is waiting for her father to come back, and she watches every day for a sign of him, who is said to carry a cloud of rain on his head at all times; on the South, a boy has a forever lasting birthday party, when a stranger brings rain inside his house and he decided to help him. Has some romance and is a story with non-chronollogical chapters and is really funky. But it's pretty cool. Rate: I'd say is for tweens and teens.

Any book from Coleção Vaga-Lume - it's a collection with many many stories for children and teens and I haven't read a lot of them but it was more popular, I think, around three decades ago. I read a few as a child and they are really fun, some mistery here and there.

Movies:

O Auto Da Compadecida - English title: "A Dog's Will". Info: This is probably the most classic movie that is out there. It is adapted from a play with the same name (in Portuguese, "auto" means theathre play) and is a comedy movie about two really poor guys; one who is sweet-tongued and mischievous, and the other who is always telling way less-convincing and absurdist lies. The story follows them getting in trouble and making more trouble to escape the first one. "O Auto Da Compadecida" got translated as A Dog's Will, but a more accurate translation would be "Holy Mary's Play". It's a really fun movie. Rate: Family/All ages.

Minha Mãe É Uma Peça - English title: "My Mom is a Character". Info: Another classic and very loved comedy about a housewife who, tired from her family, leaves her children with their rich father and rich stepmother and goes to her aunt's house, to complain about her life. It's quite a masterpiece and I think it has two sequels, but I can't say how good they are cuz I haven't seen them. Rate: Family/All Ages.

Os Salafrários - English title: "Get the Grift". Another comedy movie about two siblings running from the law and their complicated relationship. Rate: Family/All ages.

Tô Ryca - English title: "I'm Rich". Info: Yet another comedy movie (sorry, that's all i watch lmao since i'm not a big movie watcher) about a working class woman who, one day, finds out to have a huge inheritance from a recently dead lady who is apparently her grandmother. However, to earn the money, she must pass one test: To spend 30mi reais (a brazilian real is about 1/5 usd) in thirty days. Rate: Family/All Ages.

Alice Jr - Info: Queer comedy/romance about a trans girl named Alice who temporarily moves to a small town in the countryside; for as long as her father has to stay there for finishing a job, Alice must survive her (temporary) new life with new people, new friends, new enemies, and a catholic school. Rate: I'm not completely sure but i'd also bet For All Ages or Teens.

Movies with Lázaro Ramos - I'm not a big fan like my mom for example, but he's a famous actor who apparently did a lot of great movies, so you could also check them out.

Shows:

De Volta Aos 15 - English title: Back to 15. Info: I'm not really the target audience so I haven't really touched it, but overall is a show about a woman who by some sort of magic becomes 15 years old again. I'm pretty sure it's a highschool drama. Rate: Children and Tweens, I suppose.

Turma da Mônica: Cine Gibi - I don't know if there is any English dub or subtitled version but I'm confident there is. I mentioned Turma da Mônica (Monica n' Friends, for you) in the other post, but I didn't really explained what it is. It's basically a big comic franchise that's really really popular and had one director for what, 60 years? Now it's his gay son directing the thing but back to the plot, it's about four children in a neighbourhood that live some funky adventures with caricaturesque characters, leaded by the protagonist, Mônica, who has herculeous force and is known as the boss of the street. The franchise got a few episode adaptations, but the one I'm talking about is a collection of about ten episodes of short stories that follow the premise that all the HQs get in an animation-ator made by one of the reocurring characters, who is an inventor, and they all get together in the theathre to see it. They also frequently break the fourth wall. Rate: Children and Tweens.

Novellas (mostly for teens, children and young teens/tweens):

Chiquititas

Carrossel

As Aventuras de Pollyanna

Carinha de Anjo

and many many many many more. My classmates usually watch novellas for older people as well, like the 6PM one or the 8PM one which i have no idea which are, but if you want to look for them i have the impression that it won't be really hard. Although, be warned, their episodes are usually 1h long and the shows last like forever. Like One Piece or smth, idk.

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

2 + 3 + 12 + 33!!!!

had to fish around to find that ask game again!!!!! also hiiiii better late than never :))) :}}}}} <3 i need to tell u smth abt kleo i have Thoughts (not big thoughts this sounds as if its big it isnt i just reconsidered my initial statement that u might not like iiiiit)

2. anything that you'd like to write but feel that youre unable to??

oh yes!!! so much!!!!! even the things im writing bring me constantly into a situation of hair-tearing-out crying-clawing-screaming hitting-head-against-the-wall. i flip-flop between thinking i cant even write what im writing and thinking that im kinda decent. hhhhh. anyway!!!!!

i want to write a solid longfic with extensive worldbuilding. it doesnt matter the genre, just solid and rich worldbuilding where the writing stays consistent and steady until the end is already good. but if i could specifiy, i yearn for it to be a canon compliant/canon divergence/canon era fic with a unique take on canon. i want to write canon era fics in general, but im always hesitant to. i know what happens when i fall into a research hole, it fires up my anxiety. and i want to write scifi or a cool space opera. and i want to be able to write novel fic (of tyk) and not want to die during the process. all these things feel impossible to me :]]]]]]]]

3. how would u describe ur writing style?

i had to think about this for a bit!!!! because my writing style is unfortunately directly connected to my mental stability which is not always. stable. huehe. hmmmm i think my style (given that im doing good!) leans very hard into economical but evocative storytelling; like, i mean the rhythm of oral storytelling. stream of consciousness. prose poetry. poetry slam. i want the words to explode in your mouth and i want it to paint a very clear image in your head. i want people to hear me telling the story! even if the reader (or listener!) cant be there to experience it for themselves, at least i can tell them about it! thats probably because my first experience with story as a concept comes from audio dramas and generally someone reading something to me. thats honestly still the medium i prefer, tbh.

12. if you write in more than one language, whats the difference?

TvvvvvvT

currently i dont write in more than one language, if u dont count non-fictional handwriting bc i write all my notes in my native language. but i still remember how it used to be to write creatively in german. like im always whining about how difficult it is to cast the same image in english as in german; i just dont have that fine motor control over english as i have over german. i can easily switch between gears in german but english still ,, befuddles me pfft. its most noticable when im mucking around drafting and spend more time thinking about fun stuff like correct grammar and correct sentence structure and which word means what in english, than about the story and the characters. it takes so much energy and effort to think about and of all of this, there is barely any space left for the story that im trying to tell. which is def a major drawback for me and one of the reasons that ive been considering to start writing in german again. even though i have uh some baggage there that i dont really want to face. language is so connected to identity and culture. and thats another reason why english is difficult; i know english, aside from school, mostly from usamerican books or from online interactions with usamericans or people talking usamerican. so that has ofc heavily influenced my own english. like, i set all my stories in germany for reasons, but its stupidly hard to draw up the cultural markers because the language itself that im using is already coming with cultural influences from another country. its really strange and confusing, and i would find it fascinating and interesting if it wasnt so frustrating. sometimes it feels like there is a veil between me and what im trying to say, and also as if my thought patterns dont work as they would because the language that should just be a tool to tell a story is already so dominant. thats def smth i hope to change in the future

33. give your writing a compliment!

hmmm. its very earnest. reading my own stuff, even old stuff, i can tell what sort of struggles made it hard to get smth specific onto the page. and sometimes what ends up on the page is not what was supposed to be there in the first place. but its earnest and i can see that. its always the best i can do in that moment, and its always a piece of me because i give so much of myself during the process. thats not always a good thing but its how i am. im glad the earnestness, the sincerity, the love, the faith, the hope, is so visible to the bare eye.

yet another writing ask

[thefringespod]

Okay I know I already reblogged @the-sassy-composer 's post about story inspiration but I would like to expand upon things because I went back to some of my earlier notes and I left off a major player in the original inspiration of this show

Starting with the more average inspirations, we've got The Adventure Zone and Dimension 20. I'm looping them together because a lot of my inspirations for this show are d&d based and my love of d&d comes from these shows. This show was originally set in a planar system like in d&d (specifically the one that features heavily in TAZ Balance). It also was originally going to have ttrpg elements to the creation and execution of the show (side note: if you wanna see a show that's actually *doing* that, check out @souloperatorpod) There's something about the way that TAZ and D20 weave magic and sci-fi (see TAZ: Balance and D20: A Starstruck Odyssey for the best examples, though most of my D20 inspo was actually The Unsleeping City) that has always really spoken to me and greatly influenced the magic systems I used on the Fringes

Like every depressed 15 year old on Tumblr, I watched a LOT of Doctor Who. It's a huge part of my sci-fi-ish inspirations (the multiple realities and ways to travel between them mostly. Yes in DW they travel through time but the feeling I'm trying to evoke is similar). Sci-fi that deals with traveling between worlds or time or realities has always been something I've loved and a lot of that fascination stems back to Doctor Who (and also Marvel comics but they're less of an actual inspiration and more of a fix for my multiverse needs)

And then there's Between the Lions

If you were not a USAmerican child watching PBS between 2000-2010, Between the Lions was a children's educational puppet show (more like Muppets than hand puppets but not official Muppets) that followed a family of lions who worked/lived in a library. It was like an anthology series for kids, each episode featuring a different children's story being read

The original drafts of the Fringes very heavily followed the idea "what if Between the Lions had a psychological horror element"

Before it was on the Fringes, this story took place in the Library. The Library (she/her) was a sentient and infinite library where our Storyteller (any) lived. The Storyteller would read stories from the lives of those living in the realities outside of the Library to the Wanderer. If you've listened to the Fringes, you can probably see that the Library became Minerva, the Storyteller became the Keeper, and the Wanderer has always been wandering. And if you've listened to the Fringes you can probably figure out what the Library had done in my original drafts. In addition to kidnapping, however, the Library also fully consumed anyone who came into the library by absorbing all of their stories and leaving them nothing but bones. Between the Lions! With kidnapping and horror implications!

I left the Library because I kept getting stuck there, eventually finding the room to breathe and create on the Fringes. That said, my first introduction to anthology was Between the Lions and it did still influence a lot my creative process and what ended up becoming the Fringes

I'm going to close this out by returning to The Adventure Zone and one of my favorite quotes of all time "See, there’s magic in a bard’s song. They call it inspiration, and it tells the listener what they need to hear right when they need to hear it. And right now, you hear it too." Inspiration is a form of magic. In d&d it helps you add to your roll. In real life, it helps you create things that you never thought possible until it *happened*. Seeing a bunch of other creators talking about their inspirations for their shows has been so much fun, especially when you know the stuff well enough to see it reflected in their work