#if you want me to expand on sth or give you examples of what I use then shoot

[littleskrib]

hello, i was wondering how did you go about learning art (for example did you start with anatomy then figure drawing and how did you study)? and where did you learn from art school or self taught (and if self taught what did you use for references?) I'm an intermediate artist just looking for tips and you're one of my favorites. >,<

hey there, Thank you so much for your kind words! It be a true handful to go through the entire process, but breaking it down real quick I can say by now that I've been drawing for over 15 years for myself, got an academic degree for the last six of those and are now freelancing on my own, so I have a bit of a history I can look back on at this point. It's really about keeping your interest fresh with whatever makes you motivated, so you can get that practice in. I basically started because I enjoyed stuff and wanted to expand on ideas and characters on my own terms, and it's mostly been like that ever since. I've never been one for sitting down and doing practice/learning for practice sake though, which is why I encourage people to value fun as your key motivator over how to do it right. In my experience it simply comes with the need to improve at some point, so you'll seek it out naturally. This way you'll get in the practice on the side as a freebee almost. It surely helps to try and break down the basics at some point, especially if you're not a beginner but intermediate already. depending on what interests you (as answered in an ask before this one) you can pick out specific aspects you'd like to improve on and search it up. There's so many helpful tips online from other artists or you can study other peoples work/process to get a better idea of potential workflows that could improve your own work, which is something that tends to help me the most. That means studying their pieces and looking for aspects I like about it. Either they already share how they achive a certain look or you can try and find similar methods to integrate into your own work. On the topic of art school: Really depending on the school of course, but studying arts was more about the discussion with peers and professional sources for feedback rather than learning the basics for me. I wouldn't say it was the driving factor in how my art developed and is certainly not the only way to improve, but it potentially gives you access to people in the field and their experiences. Also looking and discussing other peoples art can be a source of inspiration as well (though that's sth online spaces can provide as well, sometimes even better because of the sheer amound of it). Hope that helps!

[fismoll7secinv]

In the light of recent ray-ban hacks and suspicious messages flying around I decided to give yall some tips on security

Have I been pwned?

Check if your password or any other data leaked from any site you registered at - at this cool site (my old email from my years as a growing teenager who registered on suspicious sites had been in around 8 leaks and is continuously attacked lmao)

2-factor authentication

Really peeps it’s essential in the current world. It can be a code sent to your phone/email which you have to provide while logging, or clicking ‘confirm’ on a special app on your phone. It adds an additional layer of security, so for example even if someone did breach your password, they will run into this second wall. Imagine you’re sitting there and suddenly you get a notification to confirm your login when you did nothing - that’s an instant alert that something is wrong, plus the attacker won’t log in unless you confirm.

And if you think that it sounds cumbersome and annoying to have this additional step every time you want to log in - most sites or apps can remember your trusted devices, so you do it once and then don’t need to bother until you want to log in on a different device. So really you can even forget that you have this set, while the layer of security is silently backing you up right there.

Don’t reuse your passwords!! 

One leak from a weak site and someone can get access to all of your accounts, even those secure and important ones.

Use strong passwords 

By which I don’t mean Someword123! to have an upper letter, number, and a symbol xd There are literally lists of the most common passwords and when someone wants to iterate through accounts the easiest way is to just run a program which goes through these, and there is a high chance that it gets inside :) Check out rainbow tables if you’re curious. Tbh the best passwords don’t even need to have symbols, the most important thing is that they’re LONG (e.g. 16 characters) so the time it gets to brute-force it is too long.

Password managers

It’s hard to remember different passwords when you have many accounts - use passwords managers! They are secure apps or platforms in which you can save your passwords and other data. Here is a list of some examples to consider.

They’re really cool and convenient, for example when you have a LastPass plugin in your browser it detects the login and password boxes and can automatically fill them for you. But what I want to point out by this is not just that it’s convenient because you don’t need to fill them yourself - every password remembers the site it was saved for. 

One of the common attacks is forging an identical site and scraping the data you provide on it. It’s sometimes really hard to notice that the site you’re logging in or providing your card details is fake. One way to notice it is a slight change in url, e.g. the name should have 1 letter ‘i’ but you notice it has 2, or the domain is wrong, or the site doesn’t have a valid SSL certificate. Well, password managers can help in such cases. When you go to a site and your pass manager says that you don’t have any passwords saved for this site - get suspicious and maybe open the site through the link saved in the pass manager.

Other cool features are auto-generation of passwords (so you don’t need to come up with anything and get a secure generated password), or sharing passwords through this manager which is much more secure than e.g. sending it via email or some chat if you need to.

Some things to be wary of

don’t click on links you’re not certain about (you can download a virus)

don’t open attachments 

especially the ones that end up with .exe (it’s short for executable which means that it’s literally a program. Did you expect a pdf but notice it’s named something.pdf.exe? DON’T CLICK ON THAT)

but also files like ms word or zip (more on that). So don’t open attachments you didn’t expect, and especially don’t turn on macros in them (i.e. the editing mode)

look for forged sites - generally what I described in password managers

your bank never casually asks about your password or ID, so if you get a call/message/email like that, don’t just trust that

there are so many scams like furr durr I hacked your computer and recorded you on your camera but you’ll never find the virus because iT uSeS a DrIvEr give me bitcoins. Lol. Ignore that. Or emails from “widows” who just want to magnanimously offer you money, or amazing business partnership offers, or huge sums of money inherited from someone who died without relatives but has the same surname like you. Or ohno you paid a few cents too little for this package, click on this link and pay for it so we can deliver it. Seriously, it’s so stupid, and yet somehow people get ripped off from that

I know most of these are obvious to most people but somehow it still works, so don’t be one of the unlucky victims.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

So two of my beloved and respected mutuals asked/threatened me to expand upon these tags and because it was my birthday this week which means obviously I’m distraught and can’t stop crying I’m going to break my time honored tradition of lying alone in the dark never answering anybody’s messages. You all will now hear about a boy whether you want to or not. (jk I’m using readmore obvs and I am SO SO SORRY if ur on mobile or sth and it fails mea culpa that this is the longest post in the entire world :( )

Ok, now that we’re safely under the readmore hopefully, for the first time ever in front of a human being besides myself, let’s talk about Steve!!!! (”hey so uh, would this Steve happen to have anything to do with the, um, other Steve you can’t shut up about in your stupid paragraph long tags we have to scroll past every time you post, or--” Rest Assured This Post Does Not In Any Way Shape Or Form Concern Award Winning Hollywood Actor Steven Carell) (”ok but like you do recognize it’s a little weird, right, that you just, you know, decided to use that exact name--” It’s Not A Weird RPF Thing Ok We Are Moving On Now)  So Steve is my little baby I love him soooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!! And I can’t tell you anything about him because it’s all too complicated :( but let’s try anyways So you know AU fanfics? I love AU fanfics so much you guys. There are some fandoms I’m in where I never really liked the setting and/or plot of the canon story at all tbh but I loved the characters a lot so I just read All The AU Fic (not giving any examples bc that’d be rude I think but I feel like this is at least a slightly relatable experience for most fans of stuff?? maybe??? comment your fandom experiences down below if you’ve read this far into the post which NOBODY is going to do and that’s fair). So anyways one time starting about 10 years ago (yeah) I took some characters from a couple of very obscure fandoms and also from some pieces of media that are obscure enough not to have any fandom at all and I made a bunch of very elaborate AU fanfics for them and developed all my favorite obscure tertiary characters from these obscure stories and created a whole network of relationships and personalities and then at one point I had a breakdown about never being able to explain any of this stupid idiot strange convoluted fanfiction to anyone because oops! it’s the only thing that makes me happy anymore! but it’s the worst fanfic in the world. it’s not recognizable as anything anyone’s ever seen before. the characters are just things I made up all on my own at this point. it has nothing to do with any story ever written before by another human being. And then I ate some macaroni and was like wait let’s just have it....... not be fanfiction anymore. Was it ever actually fanfiction? Guess we’ll never know.  And now I have OCs!!!!!!!!! But the problem is they only exist in like 86 different alternate universes all of which have their own storylines or at least...... the intention for storylines....... And none of those worlds has any precedence over any of the others so I’ve accidentally created the world’s most unnecessary social experiment (fiction experiment?): What if you had characters with no canonical plot or setting? What would that even mean? If a character’s profession, abilities, location, backstory, age, species, etc. change over and over and over with no “real” default to fall back on then who even are they? Starky oh no what is you doin? :( The answer to all these questions is of course I dunno ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And we’re not getting into that stuff rn I’m just. trying my DAMNEDEST to explain why this is the first time in my entire existence on this planet that I’ve publicly posted anything about my stupid OCs. Because every character profile questionnaire and checklist out there is full of bits where I’d have to write in “it depends” and that’s boring. MUCH LIKE THIS POST!  For the record yes I know the solution is just pick a universe but I’ll be real with you chief, that’s a whole other post. But back to Steve. Now that you know what we can’t know about Steve, here are some things we can. Because Steve is in spite of all this a basically coherent character that you would be able to recognize, the way you’re able to recognize The Doctor in a new regeneration, or Castiel working in a coffee shop, or a piece of fanart of a podcast character. Here are some attributes Steve always has, whether he’s a baker or a robot or a dragon: --tragically, no, he’s not an actual catboy in most settings, but he always has some animal attribute, even if it’s only a kitty ear headband or facepaint whiskers or something --he likes cooking and dancing and rolling around in the dirt outside  --he is an Italian, and a deliberately stereotypical one, in every universe where Italy exists; in every universe where Italy does not exist he still talks with his hands and eats garlic and has an Italian accent but everyone is just like oh I guess that’s just how he is? --his facial features and such look as similar as possible throughout the AUs and you’ll see them below but I MUST also note that he is 1) a very pudgy boy, with fat reserves fit for the survival of much hardship, 2) strong enough to snap essentially any human person in half like a twig, no matter the universe, and the third thing is something I decided just now not to tell anyone because it’s sort of specific and bringing it up would probably make it seem like I have a weird fetish, which of course I don’t have! what part of this character so far could possibly be a weird fetish! certainly no more than 86% --his parents are abusive because I’d already given all the actually interesting and original backstories to other characters and that was the only one left for him, oops --he has dyslexia and forgets things a lot and often mixes up words and hyper-empathizes and has a disordered attachment style but out of all the wondrous weird and terrifying worlds he exists in, few of them have invented therapists, and even in the ones that have, they never really figure out what’s wrong with him; this is on purpose, because I, personally, wanted representation for people who have never even gotten the satisfaction of finding out exactly what’s wrong with us, because I’ve found there are a lot of us out there --he is a Pisces, an Enneagram type 2, and a bisexual; I’m only two out of those three things so no one’s allowed to yell at me about this --he has a special ability to be shipped with basically any other character possible, but most of the time he ends up with two people in the end: Angel, a beautiful boy without mercy, and Joanna, a stoned messiah And with that we’re stopping for now because I stayed up all night making this post and if I don’t post it immediately I’m going to read it over and rightly decide no one should ever see it and then go lie down and wish I were dead. Anyways I can’t draw but I can make horrible things using other ppl’s Picrews so here are some images of the boy to deal this post a killing blow:

(here are the picrew sources! I especially recommend this one (bottom left) because it has the largest array of different skintones which is a VERY important thing that we NEED to encourage picrew artists to provide more of!!!)  So that’s all. I wrote and deleted a paragraph of embarrassment below this but just know this is super lowkey and casually the most vulnerable thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. Thanks for letting me do it. If you have any thoughts about Steve, know that you’re officially the second person in existence ever to have thoughts about this idea. I hope that fact makes you feel super cool and special, because Steve and I think you are really super cool and special and awesome and kindhearted and beautiful. <3

[lovestillaround]

Thoughts about Phil’s last video (Draw My Life: Part 2)

So, it’s been two days and I still have trouble processing all the information from Phil’s newest video - that’s why I’m writing my thoughts down, hoping that it will give me more inner peace. Disclaimer: following text includes critique of the video, so if you’re sensitive to that kind of stuff/ not in the mood for hearing my negative opinions, please proceed with caution or stop reading. Love ya <3

So, Phil starts the video saying that he’s aware that we know what’s been mostly going on in his life during the last six years and that he’s gonna share with us all the behind the scenes facts. And that on itself is fine, but oh boy, nothing would prepare me for the amount of negativity that I was going to endure (and no, I’m not talking about the subjects of death and illness). I said it to my friend and I still stand by that opinion - the video was for me more like “20 minutes of complaining about/listing every bad thing that happened in my life” than actual “draw my life”. And well, obviously Phil has the right to reflect on his life in whatever way he wants, but as I was watching the video, I couldn’t help getting more and more frustrated with his lack of awareness, especially regarding the massive privilege that he has and has always had. (Also, I’m not trying to call him out for being rich and being able to afford things that I can’t afford - that’s not at all what this is about, it’s about the attitude and the way he chose to speak about those things).

While I do think that the video was full of lovely and cute moments, I’m going to focus mainly on what I found annoying or upsetting, just to keep it (relatively) short. So, I was talking about how in my opinion the video was filled with negativity. You might ask - where is it, Daria? Or more importantly - why is it bad? The response to the video is (at least from what I saw) overwhelmingly positive. Well, I’ll try to explain how I see it.

The video literally starts with Phil saying that London was (is?) 5x more expensive than Manchester, and that if their career in London didn’t work out, they would have had to move back to their parents. I have enough compassion to understand that it must have been hard for them to feel insecure about their finances (I know this feeling damn too well) - but I also think that people should, idk, be generally aware that their actions have consequences? They took a risk, and it was hard to live in uncertainty - I get that - but people having to live with their parents is a reality for so many people! So many young people don’t even get a chance to start an independent life, for various reasons. And I’m not saying that he doesn’t have the right to talk about his struggles - just for me, in the light of the rest of the video that is played on a similar note, it becomes clear that Phil isn’t aware of how much luck he’s had in life and how he has already started his life from a much better position than - can I say that? - probably the majority of people. So for me, what lacks in the video is, idk, maybe just one instance where he acknowledges his privilege? Or just generally him using a different language while talking about his experience, choosing his words more carefully, but I’ll get to that later.

The negativity continues when Phil talks about how he could not work out how to operate the radio control panel, how it was a bad decision to say yes to everything (although I admit, this one is just Phil acknowledging sth that he has learned over the years, which isn’t really negative but let’s still keep it on the list of bad things), anxiety, lack of sleep, stress, juggling responsibilities, people that they used to work with getting more from dnp than dnp did from them, dnp doing things out of obligation, not being able to fully create things how they wanted to, people being cynical about youtubers doing projects/not understanding youtube and media’s negative reactions, loads of office work, risking all their life savings to go on tour, heteronormativity of the interviewers, lots of work related to creating gaming channel videos, overworking themselves during gamingmas, frustration with people not realising how much work happens behind the scenes, people cancelling projects, losing money because of Manila. 

On the other hand, the positives that Phil talked about were getting job at the radio, getting 1 million subs, interviewing people being a cool thing, everything about his relationship with family was very positive, getting a new team of people to work with and dropping some responsibilities like the radio show, success of the books and tours and games they created, creative freedom, positive relationship with his audience, improvement of the press over the years and people in traditional businesses becoming aware of what youtube is, creating and expanding irl merch, having fun on tour. 

Then comes the moment when I got genuinely quite confused, aka the moment when Phil talks about not having a life. Like.... really? He has every right to feel what he feels but honestly, not that many people would count themselves lucky enough to be in a long term relationship, having a loving family, four friends that want to hang out with them, going out to dinner dates and cinemas on the regular, regularly going on vacations, being able to take private yoga or boxing lessons etc. 

When I heard him saying “and I didn’t do any normal stuff people do, like getting a house or a dog”, that’s the point when I’ve lost all my hope. Like, I’m sorry Phil, but are you really gonna complain about not having time to get a house because of the life choices that you’ve made? Just… think about it. I’m not an expert on the standard of life in the UK but I personally can think of exactly zero people that I know who bought a house in their 20s. And I have to say, it’s upsetting that he seems to be so detached from what is the reality for many many people. 

Sharing personal stuff on the internet requires courage and I don’t want to be the one who takes all this knowledge and uses it against him. But I’m genuinely upset with the way he handled things this time. As I was watching the video for the first time, at the end of it all I could think was - wow, you’re really that entitled, aren’t you?

And it makes me sad, because I see two possible reasons for him being like that:

a) He is not in the best place mentally, so that he can only really focus rn on the negative aspects of his life, regretting his past choices, being disappointed in how his personal life looks like. This could be supported the fact that for basically any major thing that happened in his life he decided to share with us and elaborate mostly the negative details attached to it, rarely the positive ones (see the list of positive and negative things that I included above). 

b) He is completely unaware of what’s the average threshold for a “good quality life”, and he’s not aware of his own privilege. 

To elaborate a bit more on the point b): one could see Phil’s video as maybe a reminder that everything comes with a prize and that even though a youtuber’s life might seem super easy, there’s still a lot of stress and work involved that we just don’t see. But… I’ve been aware of that. Nobody’s life is one-dimensional, and everyone has struggles. And of course they have to edit their videos and do the business stuff. But when Phil says how he sometimes wishes people were aware of his personal struggles, I can only think that this is the reality for many many people, not only celebrities on the internet. Idk, maybe I just wasn’t the target of this whole segment in the first place, but for me it sounds borderline patronising, and again, entitled, because as I mentioned, everyone has their own struggles.

But for me, Phil doesn’t seem to be aware that he was only able to make some of the life choices that he’s made because he already had a good start in life in the first place. He’s always had a safety net in form of his parents, so he could make a choice of risking everything and moving to London for example. And yes, coming back home and asking his parents for money could have been embarrassing for him and emotionally hard, but so many people could not take such risk, or any risk, in general! Because they have families that they need to take care of. Because they have not enough money to move to an expensive city, no matter the circumstances. Because they have no one left who would help them financially if something went wrong. And so many other reasons!

On one hand, I can empathise with his frustration. I know how it is to work my ass off just to be able to go to uni, while many people that I know get money from their parents, go to a couple of lectures and then party/do nothing really. And then having other people thinking that everything is easy for me because idk I’ve always had good grades so according to them I don’t need to work as hard. Is it frustrating? Yeah. It’s hard to be misunderstood, or having your work belittled. But I would never blame other people for not being aware of how much work comes with the lifestyle that I’ve chosen. And I’m aware that dnp were working their asses off to create good things for us, but also, obviously, they were hoping to make financial profit out of it. It might sound awful but they did not have to do most of those things. In many instances, they totally did not have to overwork themselves, because it was not like they were making money to survive, they were making money just to make more money, basically. Nothing evil in wanting to make money but honestly Phil, most people work super hard, and they don’t get millions for it. While I do acknowledge that they’ve been working hard, and that a part of their audience might have not been aware of that, I think that complaining about that seems quite… inconsiderate? Complaining about the lack of private life seems inconsiderate too, especially because most people aren’t privileged enough to just decide to put their work aside and focus on their private life whenever they want. Many people I know are overworking themselves too, simply because they don’t have another choice. 

So, I’m quite upset. I don’t know what my point is. It seems to me like in that video Phil comes from a place of deep frustration, and well, I’m frustrated too. Fair game, I guess?

I want them to have a good life. I want them to do whatever the hell they need to do in order to be happy, I want them to get a goddamn dog and a house. But I also hope they’ll continue to grow, and that maybe next time Phil will be more considerate, and more careful with words.

[keshetchai]

Hi @princessnijireiki THESE WERE MY THOUGHTS IN RESPONSE TO UR AMAZING THOUGHTS

  And I just sort of thought, if God is traditionally in all things, including us in terms of souls, etc., God cannot be separated from pain; God IS us & God IS healing & God is also suffering in and of itself… not that pain is divine or being in pain is a path TO God & understanding (though that is some OLD SCHOOL Christian meditative practices), but that God hurts, too.

 BUT that also reminds me of the explanation of Martin Buber's I-Thou philosophy. i’m putting this under a cut because it’s SUPER LONG but yeah. good stuff to think on imo.

Granted, I haven't read the book, I've only read summaries of his ideas, so I'll just briefly summarize what I understand. Buber proposes there are two types of 'relationships' the "I-It" and the "I-Thou." In the I-It relationship, it's sort of...between the self and another objective entity (so like self-object/objectified entity relationship). Like othering someone, or having an Other is an I-It relationship. But the I-Thou is a different kind of relationship: "By contrast, the word pair I-Thou describes the world of relations. This is the "I" that does not objectify any "It" but rather acknowledges a living relationship. I-Thou relationships are sustained in the spirit and mind of an "I" for however long the feeling or idea of relationship is the dominant mode of perception." So I-Thou is a relationship where a person relates to another entity as whole and complete (subject to subject relating as opposed to subject-object). 

Another website summarized: "In contrast to this the “I-It” relation is driven by categories of “same” and “different” and focuses on universal definition. An “I-It” relation experiences a detached thing, fixed in space and time, while an “I-Thou” relation participates in the dynamic, living process of an “other." Buber calls God the Eternal Thou - an I-Thou relationship being without barriers and in all people and all things. Or basically: "One who truly meets the world goes out also to God." 

 So yeah! It can be a suuuuuuuper Jewish idea to say that God IS us, in ALL things, without being divided or divisible, God just is in everything. God is the Eternal Thou. Buber (from what I understand) believes all I-Thou interactions ultimately brings us into the ultimate I-Thou relationship with God.

 > If we are to accept at face value that we are made in the image of God and act as stewards in a world which we not only interact with, but are not above— we’re still a PART of the world, ecosystem, etc.— God as sort of Itself AND this legion mass of the UNIVERSES, in each individual part & in whole, including us, then God is complicated & probably not always okay. 

 THERE'S ALSO LIKE the idea that not ONLY do we exist in God's image, and therefore we can "see" the image of God in all people - compelling us to (hopefully) treat other people with respect/dignity/compassion/etc -- but ALSO that we were given God's breath/spark/light to carry within us. There's like midrashic stories about God bringing light into each individual (since God is one and in everything), but also the fact that God "-formed man of dust from the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, and man became a living soul." So God's breath is given to the first human - the existence of God is also many, many things at once. Allll the time. 

 Plus like we (as humans) often try to ascribe morality to things that aren't necessarily going to have human morals anyways. Does the tsunami that murders millions of innocents really operate on a level of being good or evil? It's a force of nature. It doesn't respond in Good or Evil terms, it exists as a natural part of the universe. A volcano isn't good or evil, it just is, and it exists, and it has its own internal code of existence and purpose. God then, presents an interesting issue like -- God (at least in the Torah) outlines a code of ethics for humans and humanity. 

And it's when God proposes A.) going against God's own previous promise after the Flood and B.) suggests something against the principle of the Ethics God has been slowly giving to humanity -- THAT IS WHEN Abraham tells God something is wrong "Far be it from you!" Does God exist beyond human ethics UNTIL God created human ethics, which humans then expected God to also adhere to? (Hypothetically, If you assume God exists exactly as they appear in the Torah) Or did human ethics define the parameters of God's Ethics/Morality? Or is God just a force of nature which exists beyond our limits of morality -- but whose purpose is the creation of the world, the continued existence of the universe, and the formation of humanity and human ethics -- in the same way a volcano exists and is able to erupt or go dormant, but can also create magma and lava, can enrich soil, expand land masses, super heat the local land and make things like obsidian, etc. 

A LOT of the WHOLE IDEA of a covenant with God implies that with God's giving us commandments and moral laws....God must also uphold themselves/their end of the bargain which is....fascinating. IDK IDK God vs. Ethics vs. Humanity is FASCINATING and how it can even be approached is so wildly different for everyone's understanding of God and how God should or shouldn't "act."

 > And between that and then also different ideas on like— if that DOES matter, and why (in terms of a “design” or “fate” to everything, or bad things happening MUST serve a greater purpose, or even just “this will be tallied up to determine my afterlife” vs. the idea of divine judgement as sth possibly more complex or less “just” than that, or the afterlife as it’s commonly thought of as nonexistent), it indicates more of that same hierarchical view of theology & faith that non-Christian & non-diasporan/non-syncretic religions handle very differently? 

 YUP. It's like....well no, we don't NEED to suffer to achieve something better after death or to become "better" people. But in reverse we can become better people if we better the world, and the world is bettered when there is less suffering. (Aka Fuck off Mother Theresa).

Or like the idea that God or gods are static, vs. a force that evolves even with atrocities & pain… like there are New World exclusive orixas & loa in contrast with Yoruban sourceland practices, specifically created & responded to as a force in reaction to both fusion with/forced containment masquerading as Catholicism, and to the Middle Passage itself… or on a lighter note, how Hopi Sacred Clowns literally change to reflect the times, not in “spirit,” but in execution & appearance, in the same way as those comparison photos of people reading newspapers on a train and people on their smartphones. Which are admittedly examples from faith practices where “God” or a Godhead or spiritual holy entities are not necessarily or inherently all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing by design; nor is that demonized. But New World vodou & santerx practices ARE often specifically linked with Catholicism, even when they seem at odds with each other. 

 BUT THAT ALSO HAPPENS IN TORAH!!!! Someone a little bit back made a post about decolonizing our Judaism and our relationships to Judaism and it's like....well, shit, yeah. Colonialism and Christianity go hand in hand in the modern world, and Judaism is often obscured by Colonialism's misuse and abuse of the "Old Testament." 

 ....But well, it's an indigenous religion of a tribal people who've always lived in/related to a specific land, used a specific language, and shared a base culture/customs with regional variations. (I love visiting the Ancient Israel/Canaan wing of the museum I work in for this reason it's so....awesome to see the objects that came out of this time period TBH). So you've got this religion which frankly really truly reflects the needs of its people and the existence of its people. It's why so much of Torah seems weird or outdated or what have you to people today! Like of COURSE we may not relate to the lives of a bunch of people living in Israel 3,000 years ago as a nomadic people. Of COURSE some of the laws seem bizarre - the first five books talk about the lives of people living outside of the very first cities, practicing a type of religion (monotheism) which really, didn't exist elsewhere.

 Judaism gave Israelites an ancestral God, but one that was shared amongst ALL the tribes. It was a God that existed before the nation (so not a national pantheon) and yet the tribes became the nation-kingdom of Ancient Israel, so the religion preceded the state. AND yet, ancient Jews could (and did) live in other states and maintained their ancestral religion. And despite the fact that so many of the holidays are tied to life in Eretz Yisrael, they were maintained in diaspora!!! (RELATED: It's Tu B'shevat next week i think, so happy Birthday to the Trees. It will be a time to plant trees in Israel. Or like, anywhere, you want, I guess.) Like we still celebrate the harvest season in Israel across the world - so parts of the religion are so directly tied to life in Israel, especially an agricultural life which has been on-going forEVER, and yet is has evolved so so so much to grow and expand and exist beyond that. 

The concepts of God grew and changed with Israel (both the people "Israel" and the land by the same name) just as much as religion itself did. And that's even seen in the growth/change/manifestations of God in the Torah - like God starts out in the garden and makes Adam and Chava (Eve) clothing before they leave the garden. God/Angels later visit Abraham as travelers to be met outside his tent. God wrestles Isaac. But then God shows up as a burning bush. God shows up as a voice. God becomes a pillar of WHIRLING FLAMES. God is a guiding pillar of light and then a huge cloud of shade for the wandering Israelites in the desert - which is very different from the God that, in Eden, made Adam and Chava clothing to wear. God evolves not only for the situation and context, but for human needs (light, shade, water, protection, as a friendly stranger, etc.) God was never static even in Torah, even in the Tanakh as a whole. I mean God literally for a long time becomes an entity which "rests" in the Ark amongst a nomadic people. It's a God box that goes with them in a literal, physical way. But then the Temple is built, and God's throne is there - but also God remains with the people still, simultaneously. 

It again, feels like God exists everywhere, but appears/materializes in ways that humans want and feel comfortable with and/or however they most need. Adam and Chava needed the God who would make them clothes before sending them out of Eden. When God needs to be a supernatural force of miracles and wonder - then God is a bush on fire speaking to Moses - THAT is a God that is not being anthropomorphic but instead otherworldly - a God that can and will bring about a massive change in the social order and make possible the "impossible" - liberation from slavery. Then again, the Israelites need something that will lead them through the desert - a pillar of light, a cloud for shade and resting that quite literally leads the way - a God that guides them but also is portable and goes with them places -- until they settle into a kingdom, where God can also "settle" on the Temple Mount. 

 But anyways yeah it's....definitely a God which can relate to humanity in many different contextual ways and isn't some huge authoritarian UNCHANGING being. God, for better or worse, also seems to be learning how to be God to humans (Justice requiring mercy, requiring empathy, and understanding, learning....patience, lmao...) as much as humans are defining what they need from God. And like, that, I feel is part of the issue of "well Jewish God is an indigenous concept/God figure to Israel (the people/land)" versus "Christian God, which layers on the lens of the 'Old Testament' vs 'New Testament' is a God that is explicitly, and (I would argue foundationally) a part of Western Colonialism." Christian God was utilized as an authoritarian figure in colonialism to create it, to perpetuate/sustain it, and to legitimize it. 

The Colonial Christian God exists with all these problems that really can't (in my mind) ever be fully or completely solved with a definitive answer. On the other hand, post-colonial, syncretic, and indigenous religions either create answers or ways to "mend" over them, or don't see it as a binary either/or issue. In Judaism, the way to "solve' the problem of All-perfect/all-good/all-knowing is usually "Let's keep asking these questions. It's okay to ask them, and we may have many possible answers. If God is not these things, then what do we demand of or expect from God?" BUT a religion which is being appropriated for Colonialism cannot really allow so much questioning to be asked or consideration of alternative routes or answers because then the Colonial power [here, the Church] loses its authority and control over the people it is subjugating.

 Like you said, "that structure is the “universal” norm which has survived & outlasted other “versions” of Christianity because those other interpretations were discouraged, removed from holy texts (the history of the Christian Bible & its translations through history is WILD), or persecuted (sometimes violently), on purpose." It NEEDED to remain as a structure in Christianity. Where Christianity survived and spread through this framework of a particular version of God, particular morals, "saving" or "damnation," etc -- Judaism survived (in many ways) on the exact opposite - to maintain itself it simultaneously became regimented/structured, and "set" in very specific rules, but ALSO it was fluid, adaptable, and changing. The legalistic mindset of Jewish law means that what is said to be "clear cut" in one place is actually debated over millennia, with rulings that can affect local communities differently, or with authorities being decentralized, and that questioning, debate, argument, AND tradition go hand in hand in a way that keeps it sustainable.