#i want internet friends

[myangelhaven]

Idk how I managed to gain 20 new followers but welcome 🤭🤭 my list is not up to date cuz I spammed rb stories one day cuz I felt like it and got too lazy to add them on their designated lists 😭😭😭

So hold on guys I am getting there ☝🏼🤓 I've been busy working (aka wiping elderly bums) so I haven't had time and I'm like drained. One day when I get a burst of energy of wanting to do them, it will be done.

ANYWAYS MWAH I LOVE YOU ALL 🫶🏼

[inkskinned]

we were sitting on the floor and i was cutting out tiny pictures to make a collage for a friend's birthday. you were on your phone and you laughed about something, and i was still in love with you then, so i asked what had you giggling.

"sorry. i was just..." you took a moment and went back to texting. "i was telling someone about how you're afraid of the dark."

i'm afraid of the dark because something bad happened. "oh." i felt a little slinky of shame crawl down my throat.

you glanced up, and maybe it showed on my face, because you rolled your eyes and held the phone to the side casually so i could see the group chat. "what? was it a secret?"

i looked down to the scissors in my hand. "i just..." no, it's not a secret. it just felt like something private, something serious. saying why would you tell someone that just feels like an accusation. it's unfair. i honestly am not even ashamed of it, it's just a fact about my person that i don't usually share.

what a strange experience. is this a human thing or a generational thing? for our grandparents: did they need to worry about how quickly someone can just... share your personal information? again, i didn't even really have a true objection. what could i say? i want any person in my life to feel they can be honest with their friends. it's not like i said don't tell anyone this.

i cut out another letter to complete the rainbow happy birthday, started hunting for the exclamation mark. i heard you sigh dramatically.

"don't make a big deal about this," you said.

this entire conversation was a pattern for us, and this was when we got to my least favorite part of the pattern. i would get my feelings hurt in some oblique not-technically-terrible way, and then it would be making a big deal about something. you'd get frustrated for me for being soft, but i was born soft. you knew i was soft when you pierced me. it's one of the things that made controlling me so easy.

"i'm not," i felt my voice crack. the question came without my wanting. "why are you guys talking about me?" and why are you saying that thing? why not like - i'm telling them how you're generous and kind and pretty.

you let out this low, tragic groan. "oh my god." you tossed the phone away from your body. "there, see? i just won't talk to them if you don't like it."

the rest of the hour went the way it always went, between us: i said i don't actually mind if you talk to your friends but -, you found a way to call my minor expression of discomfort "being dramatic." you got upset that i had been offended. i ended up apologizing, even though i hadn't actually done anything.

afterwards, you picked up the phone again. after texting for a little bit, you snorted. "okay," you said, "but it is kind of funny you're afraid of the dark. i mean, when you think about it."

[psychicbby]

imagine being one of dan’s flatmates in his first yr of uni lmfaoo??? like ok here comes this guy and like the first day he shuts himself in his room to play video games. ok cool whatever maybe he’s nervous. most of the time you never see him bc apparently he has an older friend nearby that he’s always with. when he is in the hall he’s burning pasta bc he’s cooking inept and staring down the washer bc he doesn’t understand how to do his own laundry. oh and he makes videos for youtube where he talks to himself (again this is like 2010). so after barely seeing this man the entire term you find out he’s dropped out of uni. ok whatever you never really think about him again until you’re on youtube and you see his face on the homepage. his video has like millions of views and thousands of likes. oh, there’s the friend he was spending all that time with. somehow he’s become some sort of an internet celebrity??? lmfaooooo. what a serve on dan’s part.

[agentromanoffsir]

building community on the indie web - neocities guide part 2

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. neocities is part of the indie web, but certainly not all of it!

If you're looking to get started with the nitty gritty of neocities, i recommend checking out my neocities guide part 1 :) part 2 is focused on forming a community & making connections.

why join neocities/the indie web?

by building your own site, you have the freedom to make whatever cool shit you want. no limits, no censors, no masters. just you and your website. connect with people or just tend to your own virtual garden, the choice is completely yours.

okay. you have a site. now what?

do you want to build & foster a free web community? here's some things you can do or add to your site to start making connections

create a button for your page

making a button for your site is a great way to connect with other indie web users! site buttons are usually 88x31 pixels and should be easily located on your site.

many users create collections of site buttons, or web neighborhoods. this is an easy way for you to remember & share your favorite sites! remember, we're not working with an algorithm here.

hekate button maker

sadgrl button maker

lynn button maker

join a web ring (or clique)!

web rings were created in the 90s, before google, as a way for websites to link to one and other. web rings are often themed so you can find like-minded people with ease, but they don't need to be!

once you join a web ring, you add a snippet of code to your site so when people "hop along" the web ring they'll discover your page.

brisray's webring list has an enormous list of mostly active web rings you can check out. here are some examples!

melonland surf club

hotline webring

wiiring

no ai webring

journalring

west of weird: gravity falls webring

ficring

join a pixel club!

starting in the 2000s, pixel clubs are a great way for people to create & share art with each other. pixel clubs tend to follow a theme & provide base art for each user to customize however they want. for example, in the afternoon tea pixel club each user creates a unique tea cup.

fizzy vendor

charm bracelets

teeny towers

sticker sheet club

kitty friends

lava lounge

participate in one of 32-bit cafe's web events!

32-bit cafe is a community of web-hobbyists enthusiast about making the web fun again. they periodic events challenging participants to create a site page following a certain a theme or guidelines, like their new years eve event or 2024 halloween.

more past events

create adoptables, pixels & a toy box

one popular thing that people will do is create adoptable pixel art that others can add to their page! people will often put all of the adoptables that they've collected into a "toy box."

(protip: etiquette requires you to hyperlink back to the original source site whenever you add new graphics to your toybox. it's just polite!)

hillhouse pixels

inkcaps toybox

appledust adoptables

blanket fort adoptables

whimsical graphics

create web graphics (and a "for you" graphics page)

when browsing personal sites, you'll often see "graphics for you" pages! these pages are full of graphics/fun stuff that you can add to your own site for free. yes, free baby! just link back to the og or give credit when requested.

making a page for graphics is cool! making graphics is cool!! indulge your creativity! share fun stuff! some things you can create:

make blinkies

dive into geocities and rescue old graphics

create stamps

make gifs

make pixel art

other interactive stuff

create a poll

create a chat box

create a guestbook

last thing to remember kids... always avoid hotlinking! (hotlinking is when you add images to your site using a link instead of downloading it and uploading to your own website)

as always, say hi to me on neocities!! :)

[francesderwent]

thinking about snarky cultural/theological commentary and. the thing about snark is this: it’s easy, and it’s instant gratification. it’s easy because you’re playing to a likeminded audience. you get the way they think, you know the sort of things they find ridiculous, and so you know what’s going to play well with them. it’s not that hard to come up with a zinger that’s going to earn you applause from your own side. it’s also pretty easy to make another human being who’s not on your side look stupid, because we’re stupid creatures and we all have plenty of exploitable weak spots. it’s preaching to the choir, and it’s preaching meanly to the choir. and then, your snark bears all its fruit right away. you get the glowing feeling of having scored points against the enemy while being patted on the back by your friends for being so brave. if you succeeded in being snarky, you get the rewards of snark that very instant.

on the other hand, seeking to share the truth you possess in a mode in which it could actually be received—that is, says St Thomas, according to the mode of the recipient—that’s hard, and it’s so far from being instantly gratifying that you may never see the fruits of it in this life. not only are you not thinking about your likeminded audience, you’re not even going to trot out the truth simply in the way you understand it and call it your best effort. rather, you have to try to get inside your interlocutor’s frame of mind and understand how the truth you know is going to fulfill their own priorities and longings. you have to understand them so well that you see the truth of their position, even if that truth is buried very very deep, and then see how that truth connects them to the truth you see. you have to be insightful, and compassionate, and so, so patient. you don’t get to score any points, with anybody. your interlocutor might still get annoyed with you and turn around and make you look stupid. but you can’t just say “I’m going to speak the truth and I don’t care who hears and how they take it”—you have to care how they take it, because the truth is relational, it’s given and received, not just spouted into a void. and frankly you have to care how they take it because you have to care about their salvation.

don’t get me wrong, there are times in every person’s life when they will be called to stand up and be counted, to put fumbling words to what they hold most dear even if they can’t make everyone understand. but I don’t know that it’s a virtue to be always focused on being seen saying the truth, with no consideration given to who hears you and what they’ll hear in it—and it’s certainly not a virtue to be always focused on being seen saying the truth in a mean and funny way. “instruct the ignorant” is a spiritual work of mercy. but instruct the ignorant does not mean “instruct the ignorant while making the knowledgeable laugh and/or high five.”

[wishchip106]

when you need social interaction so you make cherik textposts instead 😻🫶

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

[sp0o0kylights]

You know what I want to see, I want to see more of Steve, Eddie, and Robin being 1980s small town kids from Indiana, by which I mean;

Robin is The Source of Gay Knowledge purely because her parents host Hippie Christmas and she managed to sneak away to find a neat bookstore in Indiana once. 

Her knowledge is not in depth. It's patchy, woven together through rumors, stories she heard or things she picked up from her parents' old pictures. She's got a handful of zines, one book, and some movies she managed to order for Family Video behind Keith's back.

She acts like she's Queen of the Queers because in Hawkins she pretty much is.

(Max and El ask her what a lavender marriage is once, something they overheard snooping around. 

Robin confidentially answers that it's code for when one woman dresses up as a man, fooling officials into wedding two woman.

She does not live this down two years later when they find out what it actually means.) 

Eddie doesn't spend every weekend in Indianapolis. 

Gas is expensive, his busiest days of his "job" is Friday and Saturday, and he has no fucking clue what the hanky code is. 

He's wearing that bandana because Metallica front singer James Hetfield has one on all their tour posters. 

Eddie does make it down to a gay bar though, by accident. Rick needed some back up for a shady deal. Promised Eddie a boatload of free drugs to sell if he agreed to just stand there and look mean. 

He was warned the bar they were meeting in was 'weird' and to not 'freak out' --which Eddie thought was hilarious given his nickname and general appearance, but whatever.

He doesn't understand when they get there, because it's just a bunch of hot men with hanky's in their back pockets everywhere.

Then he sees two women kissing and it clicks. 

He can't out himself in front of Rick, but one of the bartenders playfully dresses him down for his own hanky, letting him know all about the code and teasing him through his embarrassment. 

He's got an offer to come back and learn what color and which pocket his hanky should actually be in, a prospect Eddie was salivating at until Chrissy Cunningham up and died on his ceiling.

(He still wore the hanky, because the feeling of that bartender tugging it out and stuffing it back in might be the closest thing he's ever had to sex and he absolutely wants a repeat. 

He's young and horny, sue him.) 

Steve Harrington may not be academically smart but he's not dumb. 

He figured out a while back that the basketball team as a unit probably crossed the queer line more than once--or at least it did before Hargrove came in. 

( Brad Handly for example, went around slamming kids into lockers and screaming slurs like a fucking movie villain one Monday because the varsity team got dead drunk at Laura's party on Sunday and hey, look, there weren't that many girls there, okay?

They all had fucking hands and mouths. Everybody but Tommy was single and hot to trot. Nothing gay about it.

Its not even like they were kissing or treating each other like chicks. It was just Brad's first time and they got to tease him later for overthinking it. 

Dude graduated soon enough after and given Steve was on the team as a sophomore, he hadn't thought about the guy and why he might be freaking out so bad in years.) 

Robin's entire panic attack at Starcourt, and a few more after had Steve replaying that whole incident. Reframed it a bit, and, yeah.

In retrospect that had been extremely gay, actually. 

It sat with him a lot easier than he'd thought it would. Partially because of Robin, but mostly because that's just who he was.

Stranger things had happened to Steve and this one didn't want to kill, maim or otherwise eat him, so it got filed under 'interesting facts he should never tell his parents if he wanted to keep his trust fund' and then he went about his day. 

(Or he tried too, anyways.

It caught up to him when Eddie and Robin somehow figured out the other was queer and dragged him along to some bar Eddie had a standing invitation at, with demands for Steve to do what he did best.

Babysit.

Their magical trip was utterly destroyed when Brad Handly happened to be the very same bartender who had given Eddie the invite.

 Considering Brad's immediate bark of laughter followed by a hug and introducing himself as "Steve's gay awakening", Steve ended up having to speedrun through Eddie and Robin both having a crisis for him.

It didn't help that Steve had politely, and laughingly, corrected Brad with a casual; 

"Pretty sure that was Tommy man, but if it helps I think that tongue of yours gave Matt Burdon a crisis."

--which ended up with him answering a lot more gay sex questions with Brad than he cared too. 

At least he, through Brad, was able to help Robin connect to some local lesbians and--after a second crisis from Eddie regarding how Steve managed to have more sex than "the resident town freak and guy who actually knew he was gay, Steve!"-- even helped Eddie out by catching the metalheads tongue with his mouth later that evening.

The last one landed him a boyfriend, trust fund be damned.) 

[sexygaywizard]

How has my brother had a twitter account for a decade and a half and he still gets 0 interactions on anything he posts. No likes no comments. Like how are you this alone

[wedriftlikelonelyplanets]

so i can make you feel like new again

ship: lando norris/max fewtrell rating: idk teen? there's not really any smut it's just longing tags: referenced disordered eating patterns, referenced mental breakdown, putting that guy in a situation only the person in the situation is Lando Norris, and Max Fewtrell is the F1 driver.

OKAY felt like doing a little flip flop and needed to write something no pressure, so here's a THING, written directly into this fucking posting box. This is IDK roughly 2021 when covid was big and Max was living in Monaco with Lando (but now Lando's living in Monaco with Max)

Title from "Dizzy on the Comedown" by Turnover

Sometimes, Max wishes it was Lando, and not him. Sometimes it's sharp beneath his skin like the edge of a knife to know that Lando's waiting at home for him, watching his races while he's playing games on stream. Sometimes, Max wishes it had been easier for both of them. But there were right places, and right times, and right teams, and Lando got none of them, and Max got all of them.

He'd spiralled, and Max had watched, couldn't do much more than hold out a hand and try to save him while he was drowning. Couldn't do much more than be there for him, and it was the scariest thing he thinks he's ever done.

It's better now, mostly.

He went on to Formula 1, and Lando found a therapist, and somehow, *somehow* they find a way to make it work.

But Max can't shake the guilt when he's gone for triple-headers, and Lando's stuck in his flat.

Knows it had been worse, before everything, before Lando had lived with him. At least now, he knows that Lando's got a fully stocked fridge, a place to sleep, somewhere to call home. Like Max doesn't know that Lando thinks that he's home. Like Max hasn't already thought of Lando as home for years.

Even now, he misses the pitch of Lando's voice, the volume of his laugh, loud and bright. Even now, when he's staring up at the hotel ceiling in the dark, when he knows he's supposed to be sleeping, he can't stop himself. Tosses and turns, before he reaches over for his phone where it's charging on the nightstand.

It's an easy next step to ignore the messages on his phone, and swipe over to twitch, just to check if Lando's still live. He doesn't have the energy to do the time conversion, but if the dark circles under Lando's eyes are anything to go by, he hasn't slept well.

Max feels the guilt of it curdling in his guts. Knows Lando always sleeps better when he's there, when Lando can crawl into bed with him, press his cheek against Max's chest and fall asleep to the sound of his heartbeat.

If you'd asked him even 5 years ago, he wouldn't have said they were codependent. But 5 years ago, he also wouldn't have been able to admit they'd been in love with each other the whole time. Hadn't been able to admit it until Lando had agreed to move in with him.

Until he'd known it wasn't all going to slip through his fingers because he signed to an F1 team, and all Lando had gotten was publicised mental breakdown.

Max still wishes it had gone differently, if he's being honest.

But now they're here, and he feels like he's a million miles away from the only place he wants to be.

The warmth of Lando's voice is enough to make him smile though, and he gets comfortable before he types in chat.

maxfewtrell: did you have dinner?

The message is met with a tiny, unintelligible noise from Lando's end, before Lando makes eye contact with the camera, narrows his eyes, and holds up the plate sitting beside him on the desk. It's empty, and it could've been from another day, knowing how much of a disaster Lando tends to be, but Max wants to think the best. "'Course I did, mate. Chat can verify, yeah?" and the messages come in full of support.

"I should be the one asking you what you're still doing awake. Drivers need their beauty rest," the grin that spreads across Lando's features is obviously teasing, but Max can feel the flush, hot in his cheeks.

maxfewtrell: can't sleep maxfewtrell: had to find something to do

Lando pulls a face that no one else in the chat probably recognizes, but Max does. It's a strange combination between guilt and pity, the face he makes before he's about to do something that's either devastatingly stupid, or stupidly endearing.

"Hey chat, I'll be back in a little bit, yeah?" and he's muting himself before Max has a second to type in the chat. Knows that even if he could, the message would get lost in a flood of comments. Doesn't have time to protest before his phone is ringing, and he has to swipe up to close the Twitch window, before he answers.

"Bob, go back to stream, I'm fine," he can't stop himself, the kneejerk response, the thought that he doesn't need to be taken care of, despite the fact that he's always looking after Lando.

"Y'sound absolutely wrecked, mate," and despite the fact that Lando looked exhausted on stream, his voice is surprisingly bright. Max is usually good at parsing through the tones of Lando's voice, and he can't pick out anything genuinely miserable. "Didn't realize you missed me that much,"

Max just sighs, shifts in bed so he's lying on his back, wishes for a moment that they were facetiming, but he knows they can't, really. Lando might be muted, but his stream's still live, and he doesn't know how many people he wants knowing that he and Lando facetime late into the night. Doesn't really know how many people he wants to have knowing how gone he is for Lando. "Just been a horrendous day, car looked like shit during free practise," and it's just easy for him to unload, just a little bit. The more stress he unloads, the better he feels, and Lando interjects with little observations.

He's exhausted, by the time he's done talking, yawns so wide that his jaw cracks, and Lando giggles on the other end, the sound bright. "Think you can sleep now?" and Max just snorts.

"Rather stay with you, I think," he says, filter gone, because he's exhausted, feels it in his bones. "Miss you a lot, Bob," knows it's sappy and they don't really do sappy. "Fly you out to the next one,"

Lando makes a small sound in the back of his throat, and Max is struck by how much Lando reminds him of a cat sometimes. Makes little sounds to voice his pleasure, his happiness at being thought of. "Think I'd like that, Maxy," Lando's voice is a small, pleased thing, and Max allows his eyes to flutter shut.

"Stay on with me?"

When his alarm goes off in the morning, the call's still live, his phone scorching hot, and he can hear the soft, snuffling sound of Lando's breathing before he hangs up, keys in a quick text so that Lando doesn't get cross with him.

Miss you, text me when you're up.

[karineverse]

Some art I always wanted to make

[bee-cringe]

I constantly miss my dsmp hyperfixation but it's kinda hard to get back into with no new content and a pretty dead fandom,if you like dsmp please talk to me please be my friend I promise I'm totally normal let's talk about the minecraft server

[spock-smokes-weed]

now that my ocd has calmed down, I think that no matter the problems with xiaohongshu or chinese cencorship, I still think it's monumental that americans (and to some extent) the rest of the world are able to make communication with a group of people who have been otherwise isolated bc of the chinese fire wall.

it's been emotional seeing chinese people get emotional that for the first time the rest of the world has come to them, and are having this moment where people are able to break down cultural resentment.

[buttercupshands]

rewatched Kurogiri's holiday story from ultra impact (not related to sketch at all)

(but it did inspire me)

on another note

finally!!

[bitchfitch]

I had a shrink appointment today and while I could not see it I knew my doc was going through the five stages of grief while I explained my fool proof strategy for doing my t shots despite a crippling fear of needles: By abusing my vastly more crippling fear of being an inconvenience.

My mother and I play phasmophobia together every week. she usually has a pretty limited time to do this bc she's like. a doctor and a college professor whos always busy. So I asked her to just. hold me to doing them. We don't start playing until the shot is done. so my needle fear doesn't matter because now it's Wasting™ her time and I have to do it quick. Using one neurosis to defeat another.

It's a horrible coping mechanism because it's feeding the inconvenience fear, but it is definitionally a coping mechanism.

[swagmaxxer]

tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy tommy

[accihoe]

Oh to have a friendship relationship like this