#psa guides

[darkandstormydolls]

PSA to all historical fiction/fantasy writers:

A SEAMSTRESS, in a historical sense, is someone whose job is sewing. Just sewing. The main skill involved here is going to be putting the needle into an out of the fabric. They’re usually considered unskilled workers, because everyone can sew, right? (Note: yes, just about everyone could sew historically. And I mean everyone.) They’re usually going to be making either clothes that aren’t fitted (like shirts or shifts or petticoats) or things more along the lines of linens (bedsheets, handkerchiefs, napkins, ect.). Now, a decent number of people would make these things at home, especially in more rural areas, since they don’t take a ton of practice, but they’re also often available ready-made so it’s not an uncommon job. Nowadays it just means someone whose job is to sew things in general, but this was not the case historically. Calling a dressmaker a seamstress would be like asking a portrait painter to paint your house

A DRESSMAKER (or mantua maker before the early 1800s) makes clothing though the skill of draping (which is when you don’t use as many patterns and more drape the fabric over the person’s body to fit it and pin from there (although they did start using more patterns in the early 19th century). They’re usually going to work exclusively for women, since menswear is rarely made through this method (could be different in a fantasy world though). Sometimes you also see them called “gown makers”, especially if they were men (like tailors advertising that that could do both. Mantua-maker was a very feminized term, like seamstress. You wouldn’t really call a man that historically). This is a pretty new trade; it only really sprung up in the later 1600s, when the mantua dress came into fashion (hence the name).

TAILORS make clothing by using the method of patterning: they take measurements and use those measurements to draw out a 2D pattern that is then sewed up into the 3D item of clothing (unlike the dressmakers, who drape the item as a 3D piece of clothing originally). They usually did menswear, but also plenty of pieces of womenswear, especially things made similarly to menswear: riding habits, overcoats, the like. Before the dressmaking trade split off (for very interesting reason I suggest looking into. Basically new fashion required new methods that tailors thought were beneath them), tailors made everyone’s clothes. And also it was not uncommon for them to alter clothes (dressmakers did this too). Staymakers are a sort of subsect of tailors that made corsets or stays (which are made with tailoring methods but most of the time in urban areas a staymaker could find enough work so just do stays, although most tailors could and would make them).

Tailors and dressmakers are both skilled workers. Those aren’t skills that most people could do at home. Fitted things like dresses and jackets and things would probably be made professionally and for the wearer even by the working class (with some exceptions of course). Making all clothes at home didn’t really become a thing until the mid Victorian era.

And then of course there are other trades that involve the skill of sewing, such as millinery (not just hats, historically they did all kinds of women’s accessories), trimming for hatmaking (putting on the hat and and binding and things), glovemaking (self explanatory) and such.

TLDR: seamstress, dressmaker, and tailor are three very different jobs with different skills and levels of prestige. Don’t use them interchangeably and for the love of all that is holy please don’t call someone a seamstress when they’re a dressmaker

[afterartist]

⚠️⚠️IMPORTANT!!⚠️⚠️

If you have an Apple product you need to hear this,

In the latest update Apple has added and insidious Ai to every single one of your apps

You will need to manually turn this off to stop Ai from using your apps as a learning base

First:

Head to settings and find the Apple Intelligence & Siri tab

Second:

if you scroll to the bottom of that tab you should find an option to see your apps and a separate option to see apps clips (these can be done in either order but I’ll explain clips first)

Third:

You should come to this screen with an option of “Learn from Apps Clips”, make sure to turn that off (if it’s green it’s still on)

Fourth:

Head back and click onto the apps section, this should bring you to a screen with all your apps

You’re going to have to click on every single one of your apps and turn it off manually (Apple has deliberately made it as tedious as possible in a way to discourage people doing this)

Fifth:

SHARE THIS INFORMATION!! either via my post or making your own,

Every uninformed person is another source of content for Ai to steal from, don’t let this undermine us

As far as I’m aware that’s everything, but there may be more

I will update this if more information comes out

[simblreenofficial]

FAQ

A pinned post for mobile users and newbies

WHAT IS SIMBLREEN?  

Check out our About page!

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE IN SIMBLREEN?

If you'd like to participate this year, please check out our Visual Guide here! After that, you can sign up via the link below.

➡️➡️➡️Sign up HERE

If you have any more questions after the guide, check the answered asks or just ask us

WHEN IS THE EVENT?

We post a Schedule every year around the first few weeks of September. You can find all the past schedules here.

2024 dates:

Weekend 1: October 18-20 Weekend 2: October 25-27

WHERE CAN I FIND A LIST OF THE PARTICIPANTS? HOW CAN I ANNOUNCE THAT I WILL PARTICIPATE?

Usually people will simply announce their participation directly on their blog, with the tags - #simblreen, #simblreen participant, or #simblreen2024. Tag us directly and we'll boost your post.

DO NOT USE THE SIMBLREEN HASHTAG IF YOU PLAN ON PAYWALLING YOUR "GIFT".

Official list of participants (2024!)

Frequently asked questions

[ao3-shenanigans]

How do I search on ao3? Ive just been putting in the fandom I want and hitting go but I have to scroll through like dozens of pages before I find something in the theme/ vibe (? Word idk? I hope you know what i mean) I want

Hi! Great question! This will be a longer answer, so I’ll include a cut:

Ao3 uses a Tag Filtering system, wherein authors include tags on their work and readers can use the website to sort and filter through them to show what they may or may not want to read.

These are tags on a work:

But how do we get there? If we start with just a generic fandom search, we’ll find a button at the top of the page labeled “Filter”. This guy will be our best friend, click it.

By clicking “Filter” a sidebar pops up titled “Search and Filter” it has two main sections to it with several subheadings. These two sections: Include and Exclude achieve similar results but function slightly different.

By clicking on the drop downs under each, a list of common tags will pop up and you are presented with the option of Including or Excluding them from your search.

Include:

- by selecting a tag under Include, you are telling ao3 that you only want to see fics with that tag on it, every fic shown for this search will have that tag

- this is good for narrowing down a lot of fics very quickly, especially if you have something specific in mind

Exclude:

- by checking a tag under Exclude, no fan works with that tag will be shown in your search results

- this is good if you want to browse a larger selection of fics but want to avoid something you’re not fond of 

Selected tags in the Warnings dropdown of the Exclude section look like this:

There is a third section of this sidebar called “More Options” which includes sidebars to set preferences for crossovers, fic completion status, word count, and date updated. It functions much the same as Include and Exclude.

Lastly, make sure to click the “Sort and Filter” button at the bottom of the sidebar so that your selections will be put into effect!

Additional note:

This “Sort and Filter” function can be used when looking at an overall fandom page, or a more specific page like one for a ship paring or an alternate universe!

Hoped this helped and happy fic hunting!

[rhyme-plus-zombie]

J-Fashion PSA (pt 1?)

[glitchinginthegarden]

HEY SO KINDLE USERS

If I'm understanding this article correctly: ya'll have until February 26th to download copies of your purchased books to a computer before big corpo yoinks that option from you.

PRESERVE THE MEDIA YOU OWN.

Disclaimer: I don't use Kindle but a friend brought this to my attention and it felt worth sharing. If any of this information is incorrect, let me know.

[ireadwithmyears]

Going up to a guide dog user and saying, to their dog, something along the lines of “your mommy doesn’t let me pet you. I know, it’s so unfair,” in a baby voice is first of all counterproductive, because that’s just as distracting for the dog as petting them would be, and second of all, is actually really casually guilt trippy and I don’t like it

[dragonnarrative-writes]

Kinktober Day 3 - Branding

PriceGhost

CW: Branding/burning, D/s dynamics, marking, discussion of wounds, wound care

The steel in Simon’s hand is the culmination of half a year of preparation. Two smithing classes, each interrupted numerous times by missions, an interesting sort of internship with a vet, and three quick and dirty lessons on burn treatment with a nurse on base have lead to this.

“Sure about this Skipper?”

Price rolls his eyes and shucks off his jeans. “Can’t dish it out if I can’t take it.”

And there’s not much Simon can say to that, so he fires up the propane torch while Price wipes down the patch of his leg that he’s shaved with an alcohol wipe. He leans in to have Simon light his cigar, then leans back against his work bench.

For his part, Simon starts heating the the low carbon steel that he’d taken three months to shape and carve into the emblem of The 141. It was small, and full of fiddly details, certainly more difficult than just using the numbers as Price had suggested. But if Price was going to let him brand a mark into his skin, he’d wanted it to be worth the effort.

It’s only when the brand is purple all over, cooling down to the correct red-brown, that Simon feels a shiver bolt down his spine. Price was going to allow him to push hot steel into his flesh and give him a third degree burn. Price had attended every class, learned every skill with him. He’d bought the steel, helped him find a forge to rent, gotten fresh aloe and bandages and antibiotics. They were lined up on the bench next to the cling wrap, ready, waiting.

Price was going to let Simon brand him. All because Simon had asked to have Price’s mark on him, for real. Something permanent, a scar he’d chosen for himself.

The metal is a uniform red brown. Simon kneels at Price’s feet. “’S ready, sir. Solid?”

Price grins and removes his cigar from between his teeth. “Solid.”

He doesn’t hesitate, because he can’t. He lines up the metal and pushes. Price grunts, a solid hand coming down on top of Simon’s head, but he doesn’t pull. The two of them share breath for a beat, two, three. Simon realizes he’s half hard as he removes the metal, staring at the bright red and blistering skin of his captain’s thigh.

He gulps, holding the still hot part of the iron away. Jesus. He did that. “John?”

“None o’ that,” Price rumbles. This time, he does clench a fist in Simon’s hair, making him look up into hard, blue eyes. “Put that away, get the aloe, bandages, and cellophane.”

“Yessir.”

The brand hisses as it goes into the oil they have on hand, but doesn’t flash. The aloe vera is already cut and ready to be applied, so he slathers on a generous glob before applying a non-stick bandage. Price grunts a little, unable or unwilling to hide the pain. Because it hurts worse than anything they usually go through? Or because it’s them, together? Is he thinking of when he’ll do this to Simon?

Wrapping cellophane around his thigh feels impossibly intimate. Simon has to resist the urge to bury his face into Price’s leg, and makes due by tucking his face into his own shoulder and squeezing his eyes shut. Price lets him hide, for a minute, before coaxing his eyes up.

“Six months,” he rumbles down. “And then we start the process for you.”

[massivetittiesandwarcrimes]

With the holiday season approaching I thought I would put out this quick gifting PSA:

Do not, under ANY* circumstances, give any of the women, mothers, or wives in your family appliances, household goods, or things for the family/kids.

It is rude, dismissive, and sexist.

Gifts for birthdays and holidays are supposed to be about the person receiving them: giving a woman one of the above gifts sends the message, intentional or otherwise, that you do not view them as a person beyond whatever role they have in the family (homemaker/wife/mother).

Objectively, this also applies to any man, fathers, or husbands, but honestly I have never seen that happen to them.

I've seen plenty of wives and mothers be given new can openers or toys for their kids, but I've never seen a husband or dad be gifted a diaper bag or toaster.

Additionally, if you are going to buy makeup or beauty supplies of any kind for the women in your lives, for the Love of All that is Good and Holy (and to save you time, effort, and stress) bring the item with you**. The lipstick she likes? Bring the one she has with you. Her favorite shampoo? Take a picture or bring the empty bottle with you; don't worry about looking weird for carrying around trash or half open items from home, employees see it all the time. Trust me.

(*The only exception is if she looks you Directly in the eye and Explicitly says 'I would like [specific appliance/child care item] for the holiday i.e. playpen or new washer)

(**it's just like going to the hardware store: if you need a specific size screw, fixture, filter, or whatever, it is so SO much easier to bring the item you're replacing or need with you. It means you don't have to try to remember or describe to a helpful employee what you need.)

Oh! And one final note before I leave you: if you have any artist or crafters or hobbyists in your life (knitting, crochet, embroidery, beadwork, painting, woodworking, etc) do not just buy them something related to their hobby. Unless it is someone very new to the hobby who is just learning the ropes, I guarantee they have specific brands or tools or such that they use or need or want. And because many arts, crafts, and hobby things can be a bit pricey, it is safer and more efficient all around to either ask them very specifically about anything they want or need, take them with you, or simply get them a gift card to the store they prefer.

[brought to you by someone who has both A) Bought my mother some very nice and interesting yarn which she has never used because I only got her one skain and B) been gifted art supplies that I do not know how to use (pastels), already have plenty of (beading thread), and are completely wrong/useless for my needs (random selection of embroidery floss that is very pretty, but nothing I need for the current projects I have). Yes it is very nice that you are trying to do something for the artistic person in your life, and they will appreciate it because it is a gift and thoughtful, but if you want them to actually get use out of their gift, you're going to have to be a bit more strategic.]

[lilliths-not-just-httyd-blog]

Fuck it. Earthquake Drill/PSA time.

If you see this post, AND:

A: You are in a setting in which it is socially acceptable for you to do so without reason, i.e. you are alone in private (pretty much the only acceptable setting actually XD)

B: You are capable of doing so without causing yourself pain, discomfort, ailment or inconvenience due to a disability, injury etc.

Drop, Cover and Hold

Move no more than a few steps - the fewer, the better. Move away from any tall objects like bookshelves or TVs which could hypothetically fall on you.

Immediately drop to the floor, onto your knees. This controlled fall will prevent you from being knocked to the ground by an actual earthquake and gives you more control over your movements as well as faster reaction time. You want to avoid being knocked down by an earthquake where at all possible.

If there is a sturdy desk near you, crawl and get under it. If not, stay where you are, so long as it is a safe place.

Cover the back of your head and neck with your hands and form the turtle position, like you'd do in a tornado or if a nuclear bomb went off.

If you are under a sturdy table, keep your neck covered with one hand and use the other to hold onto one of the legs of the table if you can. This is a critical in an actual earthquake, as in a strong earthquake the table will most likely move (esp if it has wheels on it). You have to be prepared to move with your table when it does so. If it is jolted to the left by shaking, you crawl to the left with it.

If you are NOT under a sturdy table, keep turtle-ing.

Stay in this position for 20-30 seconds if you are practicing, or until you are sure that the shaking has stopped in a real earthquake. Check that your surroundings are safe before standing up again and for the love of fuck be careful not to hit your head on the table on the way out.

If there's just been an actual earthquake, turn on the radio for further instruction. If you're just practicing, find out what station you should tune into in the event of an actual emergency. If your area doesn't utilise the radio as a means of post-disaster instruction, what the fuck??

Congrats! You just practiced what you should do in an earthquake. These steps should come to you automatically, you should know them by heart and be able to immediately leap into action when the ground starts to shake. If you don't, practice every now and then until you're do.

ALTERNATIVE STEPS:

If you have a disability, you should have your own set of personalised earthquake safety steps that you can take. These steps will be unique to you and your needs.

If you are driving, slow down, pull over and stop until the shaking stops. Stay in your car. After the shaking has stopped, you need to assess your own situation. How bad was that earthquake? Is it safe to continue driving? Are the roads damaged? Will emergency services need the roads to be clear? Before an earthquake hits, you should think about what you'd do in these types of situations.

If you're in bed, use your pillow as a shield for your head and your blankets to shield your body from flying glass, etc.

If you're on the beach, Drop, Cover and Hold until the shaking stops and then fucking run (DO NOT PANIC) as tsunami may be imminent. If the earthquake was light, you should be fine as the risk of tsunami is low, but get out of there anyway just in case. If the shaking made it hard to stand up or lasted longer than twenty seconds, get the fuck out of there as fast as you can because those are tsunami conditions, motherfucker. You need to reach high ground or be as far inland as possible. If you can reach high ground (at least 75-100 meters above sea level) within five minutes of running/walking, then go on foot. If there will be traffic congestion, go on foot. Only go in your car if it will get you to higher ground faster than running would AND if it will not cause congestion (e.g. your beach is in an area with a low population). Unsure? Go on foot. Do not enter alleyways or narrow streets unless it is absolutely critical to your survival and you can exit them again with haste. Best to stick to wide-open areas such as paddocks, fields and wide streets.

Your school, workplace and other facilities that you use will have their own specialised earthquake safety protocols. Follow the instructions of the authority figures in these settings. If you are in a supermarket or a similar retail setting, leave your trolley behind when you evacuate the building, I beg of you. You'd be surprised how many people (boomers) will throw hissy fits at having to leave their groceries behind in events such as fire drills and building evacuations. Please don't be one of these people.

Assess other setting you may be in and determine what you would do if an earthquake hits. As I live in earthquake-prone New Zealand, I've made it a habit of mine to assess the settings and locations that I frequent and determine the best course of action.

DO NOT:

Run outside. Running outside in an earthquake is your cheat code to immediate death. Falling signage, building facades, chimneys, scaffolding and other hazards could, and do kill people. Stay where you are. If you are walking outside a shop with a facade above the street and an earthquake hits, step away from the facade immediately.

Panic. Earthquakes are not the end of the world, they're just the ground having a bit of a rave. If you can react calmly and efficiently to take the appropriate steps, you'll be fine.

Seek shelter in your doorway UNLESS you are absolutely certain that it really is safer than the rest of the structure of your house. In all likelyhood, your doorway will be no safer than the rest of your house, and then there's the combined hazard of swinging doors to worry about as well. You'll probably be safer to just Drop, Cover and Hold. It really does depend on your house, and this is something that you will need to assess for yourself.

Go anywhere near fallen, exposed or otherwise sketchy powerlines, or just powerlines in general. Treat all wires as live at all times, even if there's a power outage.

Go near the beach shortly after an earthquake. Wait until you've received an all-clear from your local authorities before going near the beach.

Light candles. If your house uses gas for a stove, heating, etc, do not light candles, matches, lighters or anything which can produce a spark or open flame. Turn off the gas at the mains after any strong earthquake. You won't know if there's a gas leak in some instances. Best to get out of your house if a gas leak seems likely, or if you start to suffer the side effects of gas inhalation. And if you smell gas, turn it off at the mains if you can and/or get the fuck out. Only light candles when it's absolutely necessary (ALWAYS DEFAULT TO TORCHES/FLASHLIGHTS AND HEADLAMPS) AND only if you live in a house like mine where there is no gas usage, AND only if you are capable of extinguishing the candles at a moments notice. Best to only use tealights or candles with sturdy bases, and never leave a candle out of arms reach (never leave a candle unattended, earthquake or not). In general, avoid needing to use candles at all: have enough spare batteries for your torches to last until power can be turned on again (could be days or weeks).

Walk in floodwater, drink floodwater, drive in floodwater, etc. After an earthquake, you may experience flooding from ruptured water pipes, etc. I will be frank: This water may contain shit and piss in it. Also glass, metal, other harmful chemicals, a bunch of stuff. You can't see through floodwater due to its murky properties. There could be gators in there and you wouldn't know it. Don't touch it.

Open your fridge or freezer door. Food in there can keep for hours when the power goes out, so long as you keep the doors shut.

Go barefoot after a strong earthquake or if there's glass/debris etc. Find shoes, put the shoes on. Wear the shoes.

Also many other 'don't do's' but this post is getting too long so please go read up on these yourselves. What you should and shouldn't do depends on where you live. Go research it for yourself, it may save your life. Also put together both an emergency kit and an evacuation kit: you'll find plenty of guides online for how to construct these.

Earthquake safety is fucking important, and you should know how to react in an earthquake even if you are not living in an earthquake prone area - you never know when you're gonna be caught out, as fault lines can often remain completely unknown and invisible until they strike. I've met immigrants who have come to New Zealand from non-earthquakey countries and haven't known what to do (babe how do you come to the shaky isles and not know what to do if the ground starts to shake omg). Plate tectonics, volcanoes, explosions, meteor atmospheric entries (lol shockwaves), mine bumps, shitty ground infrastructure etc can all cause minor to severe earthquakes (or similar shaking effects). If nothing else, keep in mind Drop, Cover and Hold. That shit's lifesaving.

And yes I have a hyperfixation on these things, don't judge me. Kid-me grew up during/post Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, no wonder my ADHD ass started obsessing over these things.

[scoriarose]

Something some hognose keepers don't realize is they have little protective covers they can use to close their nose.

When they close it all the way you might second guess yourself if you imagined a nostril there- they don't just disappear! ...do they?

They do if you're a species of snake that burrows! Those flaps close when they dig underground to keep their noses clear of debris.

It's one of the really neat things about hognoses- and if you care for one you should become familiar with what your pet's nose normally looks like open or closed.

More than once I've seen a post from a frantic pet caretaker who isn't sure why their snake no longer has nose holes. Most of the time they shut them while digging, so people see the dirt on them and think their pet is suffocating with their nostrils filled with dirt. Unless your pet has a pre-existing medical issue, the nostril scale is just a little dirty. Others think it's stuck shed. In either case it would be bad for your pet if you tried to remove it!

Despite being the same species, just like humans hognoses have variations in their facial features and their looks vary from each other. Scoria has a larger triangular shaped nostril. Sakura's are more seed shaped. There are quite a few differences in their head shapes and scales, not just in color. If you have a snake, I'm sure there will be quite a few differences between them and my girls! So get familiar with what they and their nose looks like, open and shut, so you know if it's normal or not if you see it look different in the future. Then you'll know if it actually is stuck shed, or things are as they should be.

And be sure to let them know how talented they are, and how neat it is they can do that. My girls always get happy when I tell them how cool they are, so I imagine most other snakes do too.

[dextervexter]

old sinister piece i came to hate and never finished

[mcflymemes]

use ask meme replies as starters. if starter calls stress you out, encourage your followers to send memes instead! that way you can pick and choose which meme suits you best, searching for the little sentence prompt in your inbox that most inspires you in the moment. at the same time, not every ask meme reply needs to be continued. sometimes they make better one-shots and drabbles, and that's okay! as long as you and your writing partners are having fun creating and telling stories together, that's all that matters!

[megamindfandombookclub]

Megamind is currently trending on Netflix and we've reached 20k likes on Youtube! Let's see if we can get it to 40k!!

If you can't watch it in your area, good "Megamind Streaming" and you may be able to find it where you can.

Or? VPN if you can!

Try to watch it in a way that the creators get paid. Although the WGA Strike is over, many writers are trying to recover financially. The original writers for the movie have been writing for the series! Help them out! Every little bit counts!

Dreamworks monitors the number of times it's watched and if we continue to stream it as much as we can, there is a higher likelihood that they will continue to create more Megamind Content.

As much as we love Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, the Megamind Fandom has been without ANY new content for ALMOST 13 years! WE NEED THIS!!

[10-dutchies-12-bicycles]

squish fucked me up so bad im still thinking about him 6 years later 😩😩😩

[oneknightstand-if]

Public Service Announcement

I'm just REEing over here (no, it's not my computer catching fire this time) because both of the sites kerploded that I was using to easily fact check my Arthurian stuff.

Zen Donaldon is just gone and the Nightbringer.se "upgraded" to Wordpress and now it looks like this.

Yes, very helpful.

It took me over half an hour to find the Pesme Aventure entry since I couldn't remember the spelling and the search bar (currently hidden on certain pages only) now only brings up 6 huge placards at a time.

I do still have a physical (+ PDF copy) of Christopher Bruce's The Arthurian Name Dictionary which is where a majority of both sites' info originated from, but flipping through a book (used to) take so much longer than performing a site search.

The Internet Archive still has the old versions of both sites, but unfortunately the search function doesn't work for them. And I've got a whole bunch of links that are going to need to be updated in the game too.