#the more time i spend on here (not tumblr specifically but like youtube and other socials... and also here)

[thewanderingzeppelin]

I'm alive!!!!

[caffeinatedopossum]

I hate that I'm literally chronically online but I don't really have a choice. I'm chronically ill, disabled, have very severe anxiety and agoraphobia. I can't just go touch grass and fix everything. I'm just trying my best to stay sane because that's really all I can do

[writingquestionsanswered]

hiya! for writers who are complete beginners, kinda sorta maybe write at a high school level, can't describe to save their lives, have overall bad flow (as in they can't decide what little moments scenes to think up and even write, if they do, they're no good), have been told countless times to write daily and just read more but that doesn't cover the basics or foundations of creative writing, not like they can learn from a book bc they're a hands on learner anyway and p.s they're super broke so can't afford writing classes and no library near them offers free ones ---- aka me :( --- do you have any advice? lol i feel kinda doomed and that maybe writing isn't for me, but I don't wanna get my hopes down!! with the right tools, it's possible.

Free Resources for Learning How to Write

I want to start with addressing why you've been told so often "to write daily and read more" as a way to learn how to write. It's very difficult to learn and excel at a craft if you have no experience with said craft. You can read all the information in the world about how to forge a sword, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to pick up a hunk of metal and be able to forge a beautiful sword. You need to spend a lot of time watching other people forge swords, and spend a lot of time actually practicing each step yourself if you want to get good at it. Writing works the same way. Reading lets you experience what fiction should be, writing lets you practice each step for yourself.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to read fiction for free. You can borrow books from friends, family members, and members of your community. You can check out books and e-books from your local library if you have one. You can look for Little Free Libraries in your neighborhood. There's also a lot of legally free fiction available online. Project Gutenberg, Planet E-Book, Bartleby, Literature.org, Classic Literature, Classic Short Stories, Wattpad, Archive of Our Own, Library of Short Stories, Levar Burton Reads, and sites like Kobo, Amazon, and Audible often offer freebies of both e-books and audio books.

Other free ways to learn how to write:

1 - Follow bloggers and vloggers and authors on social media who talk about the craft of writing. Some of my favorites are: Joanna Penn/The Creative Penn, K.M. Weiland, Liselle Sambury, Abbie Emmons, Hannah Lee Kidder, Brittany Wang, Alyssa Matesic, Bethany Atazadah, Lindsay Puckett, Alexa Donne, Shaelin Writes, Ellen Brock, The Writing Gals, and Sincerely, Vee.

2 - Follow writing craft blogs here on tumblr: (some suggestions) @writingwithcolor, @howtofightwrite, @heywriters, @cripplecharacters, @lgbtqwriting, @fixyourwritinghabits, @wordsnstuff, @yourbookcouldbegayer, @lizard-is-writing

3 - Watch writing craft videos on YouTube: If there's something specific you want to learn about, say, "how to structure a scene," type it into YouTube and many different videos will pop up that walk you through how to structure a scene. Just look for one that strikes you as appealing!

4 - Look for free writing resources online: many authors (especially indie authors and writing gurus/coaches like Joanna Penn, K.M. Weiland, Bethany Atazadeh, Brittany Wang, and Abbie Emmons) offer free writing resources on their web sites or by signing up for their newsletters. Often you'll see writers participating in free online writing summits/workshops which you can sign up for and either watch the videos live or via video playback that is offered for a short period of time (like 24 hours.)

5 - Do a Google Search: believe it or not, there's not a single thing you could want to learn about writing that you can't find for free on Google. If you want to learn how to improve your grammar, go to Google, type in "tips for improving grammar" and you will get a million articles that will tell you how to do just that. Want to learn how to improve your story's flow? Google "how to improve story flow" and you'll have your answer. You can even search for free worksheets, guides, and workbooks on just about anything you want. "Free character development worksheet" brought back a ton of nice looking free worksheets. "Free worldbuilding workbook" brought up several free workbooks and worksheets to help you with worldbuilding. Everything you could want to know is out there.

And, bonus: you can always read through the posts in my WQA master list to get help with a wide variety of craft and writer-related issues.

Happy learning! ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[lurkingteapot]

Free Thai language learning resources

I’ve been learning Thai for the past 20 months. This list is by no means complete or comprehensive, what works for me doesn’t have to work for you, etc etc. That said: I’ve used most of these and found them useful, I thought you might, too. Have fun!

Youtube channels with free video lessons:

There are tons of wonderful teachers on youtube; this is by no means an exhaustive list. The three channels listed here are comprehensive, long-running, and updated regularly; if you have other favourites, please reblog and append!

Comprehensible Thai is a channel that teaches Thai in Thai, from zero, via the comprehensible input method. They have videos from total beginner through upper intermediate/lower advanced levels available.

Learn Thai with Mod – Mod runs a language school that offers good, structured group classes; she and her co-teachers often upload short videos about specific aspects of Thai. The channel has been around for a long time and they cover a lot of topics, including grammar points.

Thai Lessons by New (Learn Thai one Word one Sentence) – lots of good vocabulary and situational phrases

Other channels I like:

Advanced Thai with Kruu Momm -- one of my favourites, Momm’s a star. Not included in the upper list only because this is definitely more of an intermediate-advanced resource.

Thai with Grace -- I knew of Grace via her polyglot channel and travel vlogs before I realised she also teaches Thai. Fun stuff.

Kat talks Thai -- I believe Kat is more active on instagram (@kattalksthai), but these are still really neat.

Perth Nakhun’s Basic Thai playlist

Honourable mentions because they’re interesting and can be nice supplements (yes, the video titles on these channels tend to be clickbaity, the content is useful, though):

Stu Jay Raj: Stu is a polyglot based in Thailand. His channel is a bit of a mixed bag, but he has a very interesting approach to languages and sometimes does foreign accent reduction / accent analysis sessions on his channel (with consent and participation of those whose speech he dissects).

Thai Talk with Paddy: Paddy is an Australian who learned Thai when he was a volunteer in Thailand, he’s kept it up. Fun things about language learning and culture

Listening comprehension

I’m assuming many folks on here who are interested in Thai already watch some Thai shows (yes I’m stereotyping but also this is tumblr), which means you’re spending time listening to Thai.

If you’re not:

Netflix, Youtube, WeTV, and Viki all have several Thai shows with English subtitles available. The Youtube channel of Thai broadcasting giant GMMTV has English subtitles on nearly all of their uploaded series, some series are also subtitled in languages other than English. one31 is another huge channel; they have English subtitles on some series and some series also have subtitles in Thai. There’s tons more – find a rec list and a Thai show that sounds like you’d enjoy it, chances are you’ll be able to watch it for free, legally, on youtube. You can use the youtube controls (or the ones on netflix) to turn the speed down to 75% —this can make it a lot easier to catch what’s being said. 50% gets so draggy that I personally find it almost harder to understand, but ymmv—give it a shot!

https://lingopolo.org/thai/ has real-life recordings for listening practice; sign-up is required but it’s literally just an e-mail-address, user name and password. Using the site is free.

https://www.activethai.com/ has a section dedicated to learning the tones (under “Overview of Thai Tones”) including a self-test for listening that I found very useful.

Learning to read

I will always, always, ALWAYS recommend learning to read the Thai script. All available romanisations for Thai have drawbacks, and besides, you learned to read English with its “though through thorough tough thought”, you can damn well learn to read Thai. I promise it will help you improve your pronunciation (yes, really) and overall understanding of how the language works.

Learn-to-Read-Thai resources that seem comprehensive and like they should do everything in one:

Anki decks “Read Thai PHASE 1 - The Consonants“, “Read Thai PHASE 2 - Thai Vowels“, “Read Thai PHASE 3 - Consonant Classes” and “Read Thai PHASE 4 - Tone Rules” by Khruu Gaan (ครูกานต์). Anki is probably the most powerful spaced repetition software I have ever used. It’s free on all desktops and android. These decks have sound.

Memrise course “Read Thai: A Complete Guide to Reading Thai“

Other resources I used (In hindsight, I feel like I should’ve picked one resource to learn to read from and stuck with it; I think I was rushing and made things more complicated than need be for myself with my hodgepodge mix-and-match approach. But hey, I can read now.)

https://www.activethai.com/ – the site I started with. Teaches the consonants separated by class and with sound. The only reason this is no longer my top recommendation is that I ended up using this alongside a resource that helped me memorise what the words used to represent the letters actually mean because the site itself didn’t tell me, and I wanted that easy way to have 44 vocabulary words ready as soon as you’re done learning your consonants, and it gives you access to neat mnemonics such as ไก่จิกเด็กตาย(เฎ็กฏาย)บนปากโอ่ง.

The chart on Wikipedia’s English article on the Thai Script

the reference section of Thai-Language.com

In order to better learn to read Thai written in different fonts (modern and handwriting fonts can be tough at first), the Thai Script typographical styles overview on Thai-language.com was a huge help, as was throwing simple phrases things into gdocs and messing around to see how different fonts made them look. This chart from sanukmaak.com also helped.

Speaking and pronunciation

The hardest one for any new language for most folks. For me personally, finding someone who speaks the language and is willing to correct me was an absolute necessity, but I know that’s not always an option. If you’re going it on your own, make sure you check out the resources above for learning to hear the tones and those sounds and sound clusters not present in your own language correctly first.

Things to try on your own:

shadowing: Whenever someone on a show utters a sentence you think might be useful, or provide a useful pattern, or something just sounds cool, rewind and try to speak along as they say it, trying to make it sound as close to their pronunciation as you can.

try to record yourself and listen back -- yes, it’s cringe af but it will HELP.

memorising short sentences and phrases: tying back to the section above, there's a ton of youtube videos that is "phrases to use in [situation]" that are great for targeted learning if you're up for it

self talk (cautiously! don't want to cement bad pronunciation habits)

if you’re linguistically inclined: looking up descriptions on how to make a sound correctly sometimes helps, as does watching videos of folks who’ve successfully learned the language.

once you’ve learned to read: find sentences to read somewhere (twitter, a textbook, whatever) and read them into your phone’s dictation engine. See if the software understands you correctly. Adjust as needed until it does.

Websites and apps to find language partners or (paid) tutors

Like any other app where you ‘meet people’, please exercise caution on these.

italki (mainly for finding tutors and teachers, but you can find language partners on the forums)

Preply (web/app) (for finding tutors/teachers)

hellotalk (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners -- free to use basic features like messaging, voice rooms, etc; has annoying ads

tandem (app only, iOS/android) for finding language partners -- free to use basic features, has ads

any other app or website that’ll let you meet people, like local facebook groups (yes really), instagram, etc

(note: Neither hellotalk nor tandem allow users to sign up without selecting a binary gender. it sucks. I’ve seen people who managed to circumvent this on Hellotalk by signing up via apple ID (? I think), but it’s hearsay and I have not managed to do so myself.)

Books (a book) that are (is) worth spending money on imo

Higbie & Thinsan: Thai Reference Grammar. The Structure of Spoken Thai. Orchid Press: Bangkok, 2002. Yes, it’s ancient in textbook terms. It’s not perfect, but it’s still the best reference grammar for Thai I’ve come across so far, and I use it frequently.

Random bits and bobs

Stu Jay Raj has two videos in particular that I, as a phonetics-and-phonology-loving person, loved and found extremely useful and wished I’d watched before I started to try and learn the script: Thai Vowels for Dummies in 5 Min v2 - A System Impossible to Forget and Thai Bites Extended Edition - Transliterating Thai using IPA. I realise these may be overwhelming and less helpful for people with no prior phonetics or phonology training, but they helped me so much it’d feel amiss not to include them.

Resources I recommend AGAINST using when starting out

drops/hello words -- seems like their Thai courses have been created using machine translation that wasn’t sufficiently proofread. They will assign you nouns in places of the corresponding verb or false cognates, and that’s within the first 10 or so lessons. Might be useful once the level where a learner can tell “ah, yeah, that’s … not right” has been reached? idk.

transcription as generated by google translate: BURN IT WITH FIRE. it’s a transliteration, i.e. 1-to-1 representation of 1 Thai letter = 1 Latin letter (extended), it’s not phonemic, it’s not going to help ANYONE (and those who can make sense of it presumably already read Thai and would be better off with just Thai script). Just. Stop.

Google translate as a dictionary: still shitty but not AS bad as the transcription function. Still, for the love of all that you hold dear, please, save yourself the pain and confusion and just use thai2english or thai-language.com instead.

---

And that’s that from me, friends. Yeeting this into the void before I second-guess myself more. Please append additional resources!

Edited to fix a couple of typos and errors on 2023-06-15

[coqxettee]

- January 5th 2023-

(@coqxette) Kellen <3

- Aesthetic of the day -

How to master the Rosyblog 2013 Aesthetic

Last night I was lying in bed and scrolling through loads of old 2013, girly aesthetic pins and pictures on Pinterest. It really got me thinking about how much I love the loved the girly vibe and aesthetic back when I was just 9 😭. I didn’t have a phone but I had a tablet, and I remember seeing all of these photos on the internet and on Tumblr (that I really didn’t understand how to use at the time 🤣) I decided to spend my day like all of those IT girls did back in the day, full of girly things and doing fun, girly activities, and so I wanted to write a blog post on it 🛼🎀🧁💗☕️

Visuals in the aesthetic

(Key things that can be seen within this aesthetic)

Ariana Grande (Yours Truly era specifically)

Old school YouTubers (Think Gabi Demartino, Zoella etc…)

Victoria secret | PINK

Cath Kidston

Anything floral

Baby and soft pink tones

Aqua/Turquoise

Fairylights

Starbucks

EOS lip balm/lip smackers

Cute phone cases (That one Rillakuma one for bonus points)

Decorating your lock screen/Home Screen and organising phone to make it aesthetically pleasing

Donuts

Polaroid cameras & Polaroids

Essie nail polish

Yankee candles

The wardrobe:

The rosyblog wardrobe consisted of a traditional girly wardrobe but with certain elements that really let people identify it as “Rosy” ☕️🎀

Ariana Grande in 2013 is literally the main style inspo for ANY rosy blog outfits, her fits were always girly but comfy, and co-ordinated but casual.

Rosyblog wardrobe staples:

Floral tee’s tanks, cardigans, jackets, coats…

Burton up cardigans

Sweaters

Skater skirts

Shorts

Pea coats

Ballet flats

Bailey ugg’s (Bonus points if they are pink with the bows on the back! 😫🎀)

Skinny jeans

Tracksuit bottoms

Leggings

Tights

Cami tops

Peplum tops

Skater dresses

Strapless dresses

Headbands

Bows

Pearls

Knee high socks

🛼🎀🧁☕️💗🛼🎀🧁☕️💗🛼🎀🧁☕️💗🛼

Rosyblog Activities

A girly girl, needs girly things to do right? Here’s some things you can do to feel like your still living in 2013… because even though we’re not, it’s still the same old world ☺️🌸

Go shopping! (Go to the mall like all the IG YouTubers used to back in the day)

Wear an adorable girly outfit

Go to Victoria Secrets & Starbucks

Have a pamper day!

Paint your nails

Watch OG YouTube videos, Gabi’s room tours, old Zoella vlogs

Make a 2013 inspired Playlist. I have one on Spotify I made today, titled “Rosyblog” (My Spotify is @coqxette)

Listen to old songs from 2013 (Ariana’a Yours Truly album and Taylor Swift!)

Take 2013 inspired photos, and filter them

🎀☕️

Done!

I hope you enjoyed my aesthetic guide and let me know what others you would like me to do in the future. I will probably add to these posts as I become more educated on the styles and aesthetics in the future. After all, that’s what I am passionate about.

Love you all, have a rosy day, Kellen 🎀🌸☕️

[queenofwhoredom]

Hi, love ur blog its very helpful in understanding my life 😊

Can I ask you what books or others resources do you recommend for learning about those beautiful and interesting topics?

Thank you 🙏🏻

Hi thank you so much. This blog initially started as a blog to share my reflections after a crazy depressive and stagnant phase lol but I am happy it is helpful though🥰.

I don’t know whether I can recommend a specific book/resource as I feel like the best way to develop a well rounded perspective in life is to get inspired by different ressources that may differ from your comfort zone. I guess remaining curious in life, and open to confront your ideas with new perspectives is pivotal to dissect different kind of belief systems. However, I have to say, no matter how many books and resources we have at our disposal, experience is and will always prevail. I think my most craziest reflections result from real life experiences, by remaining an active participant of my life instead of a consumer of people's reflections. It is cliché though but I think experience is crucial and unfortunately theory can only bring you so far. I have learnt more about life just by being deeply involved in my daily life activities : trying new hobbies, going for walks, meditating, observing nature, spending time with loved ones, installing apps that would give me the possibility to make international friends: like tandem,bumble bff, slowly, Facebook groups, or even here on Tumblr (just stay safe if you ever meet with strangers though lol but it goes without saying), trying new internships, travelling, making new friends, art expos etc etc..

But here are some my favorite resources at the moment:

I think art house movies are a good way to start, art house movies have this specific kind of energy that instantly bring people into a philosophical mode.

Authors: Clarice Lispector, Albert Camus, Clarissa Pinkola, Amélie Nothomb etc etc

Youtube Channels: Hitomi Mochizuki, Karissa Love, Karine Alourde, Claire Nakti. I also love the following channels called "Esoterica" and "Let's talk Religions". I believe learning more about different kind of mystical/philosophical branches will give you more sophisticated insight than any new age video you will ever find.

Books: All about love (Bell Books), the Road less Travelled (Scott Peck) etc..

[liskantope]

Back in late 2020 I made a post which mentioned as a side comment the impression I get from a lot of the more aggressive SJ people that writing/saying a lot (e.g. writing long, nuanced, qualifying, and/or perhaps defensive-sounding responses) is seen as evidence in and of itself of being wrong in the argument, specifically the type of wrong that comes from a position of privilege (I thought a little later I wrote a short post focusing only on this, but I can't seem to find it now). The example in the above-linked post is in the strangely-proportioned screenshot, where someone who is being attacked for not bowing down to the Correct political opinions keeps responding with lengthy, articulate, nuanced comments (which include some acknowledgment of her own weaknesses) and is met only more vehement attacks declaring checkmate explicitly on the grounds that her comments are long. The end of the exchange happens when she leaves a comment raising her eyebrows at being attacked for long-windedness, and the entirety of the response is "...you and your privilege". It's a finale that's stuck with me.

I was reminded of this today when an unexpected spurt of activity showed up on my Tumblr: an activist with whom I got into a contentious exchange well over two years ago for some reason chose now to abruptly reblog a several of my lengthy responses with pithy remarks (okay, plus one which includes a link to her own independent blog post about it which I don't think I'd seen before), and a minor flurry of likes and replies followed. I don't care to reblog any of this now, or even link to it, because my getting into that debate is something I'm really not proud of: the topic is not a hill I want to die on, and I dislike my awkward defensiveness and repeated apologies and semi-retractions. If I'm going to spend time and energy arguing something really controversial, I would rather it be a discussion where I can be really incisive and not catch myself arguing carelessly and sloppily and feel the repeated need to step back and clutter everything with caveats and apologies. But, if you are curious, I was defending a YouTuber I respect from being cancelled for being Problematic, and this exchange happened in spring of 2021.

The one new bit of substantive information for me coming from today's activity is the link to a separate blog post written at the time, which further confirms that there's no point in me continuing to defend that YouTuber to this activist: apparently among the list of things that makes this YouTuber's case worse and confirms their guilt are (1) publishing an earlier video which made all of the exact right points but which (surprise, surprise) got noticed by more people than a written article by a lower-profile person from the Relevant Marginalized Group making essentially the same points, (2) acknowledging that the Relevant Social Justice Cause is a good one and including a link to a fundraiser, and (3) momentarily sighing with a slight look of exasperation when first bringing up the accusation of being Problematic in a video. (Sorry I'm continuing to be vague here.)

Continuing to argue with this activist would be a waste of time, since our rhetorical values and norms are clearly too far apart for us ever to reach each other. Looking at it makes me grateful to have found a part of Tumblr that does share my basic notions of how discussions should work.

But what strikes me most of all is how my lengthiness itself is somehow treated as evidence of my guilt or wrongness or privilege or something. One of my lengthy reblogs got met today with a single sentence mocking it as a "dissertation" and managing to weirdly characterize my thesis without explanation, while another later one got met with "Have you considered just.... never talking again? Because you are not good at it." Again, these little zingers were fired off probably within a few minutes earlier today, in response to things I wrote back in spring of 2021.

That's the exact same kind of back-of-the-hand dismissal that I mentioned above having witnessed done to someone else (with the "...you and your privilege" comment). It reads like "This person talks too much, that's how you know they're in the wrong, so no need to address any of their points, if I smack them with a one-sentence response saying 'Haha that just further confirms you're wrong!' then I win."

And it's like, usually I consider my ability at cognitive empathy to be quite good, but it's hard for me to figure out what the other party is actually thinking in a situation like this: I can sort of get my head around not respecting nuance in certain selective situations and thinking the ability to feel nuance is a sign of privilege or something, but I can't quite figure out how they justify these one-sentence blanket dismissals on the grounds that the other person's comments are too long without imagining that they must be aware on some level that they're just being domineering-in-an-internet-way and deliberately going for a cheap and empty slam-dunk. This isn't very charitable, but honestly I have a hard time understanding such people's motives any other way.

[pathofreason]

huge slash random as hell to do esque list.

feel free to ignore or tell me how you keep yourself in check ex. diary, notion, etc. liking this so i can save it lol + i think i'll pin it too

make new emails ; come up with email handles. need emails for:

instagram, spotify, letterboxd, discord, pinterest, fragnatica, last.fm

tumblr

games (hsr, gi, etc)

college (will keep using the same one, listed for visualization) *

sort of professional ish sounding email *

? github , etc *

notion ??? i'm scared of having personal data stolen even tho i would assume it happens all the time but this is why i always have a handful of diff emails for diff things so mostly none are linked and i'm unsure if i should have the notion one separate from the rest etc.

* possibly the same one as the one for college? maybe make a new one? github should be same as the pro one but i have no github acc yet unfortch. etc. college one is mostly just getting emails forwarded there, etc

will think of more things for the email section later. if there even is more to think about

think of good usernames a la "pathofreason" that can stick for a while and aren't cringe/won't need to be changed after 3 months. same goes for the emails

make a FUCKING notion account dear god. i have obsidian but it does not feed my aesthetics hungry brain at all

not nearly as important as anything else in this post and almost done already but need to really stabilize it - - - lists of favourites: films / writers / directors / musicians / philosophers / fashion designers / songs / albums. will add more if i remember

MAKE LIST OF GROCERIES I WOULD BUY WEEKLY.

DAILY ROUTINE INCLUDING:

10k steps minimum

waking up between 5:30 and 9:00 + at most 10:00 on days off, 11:00 to 12:00 if feeling unwell or hungover

going to bed between 22:00 and 00:30

at least 70% healthy food. if unhealthy then eat insanely little and balance

water consistently no specific goal in ml

stretching for mobility

light workouts at least 30min while doing something else (watching youtube, cooking etc)

study minimum 1h

write in diary/journal when i do start - and i should start asap

hand cream at night

shower - no hair

TAKE GOD DAMN VITAMINS ETC

brush teeth morning and night

WEEKLY (ish) ROUTINE INCLUDING:

read book(s). no weekly page goal

watch one film per week

listen to the only two podcasts i enjoy will not list them here

wash hair twice a week (wednesday and weekend?)

exfoliate once a week or every second week if no energy

thursday casino after classes for free €10 "ladies night" on machines DO NOT STAY LATE

WHEN GOING OUT:

gloves

scarf

lipstick/gloss/eyeshadow

sunglasses

€100 MONTHLY BUDGET COVER:

extra for groceries if needed - estimate weekly €15 monthly €65

bus ticket if needed - €15

hygiene necessities - estimate monthly €20

if i don't use it up for these then i can spend it on whatever i want. most notable and common options coffee, makeup, clothes

ORGANISE:

spotify (playlists)

lists on letterboxd (decide favourite films finally)

closet - do i even have a style? get rid of cringe shit from years ago. get in touch with what i have and if i need more or replacements or declutter etc

book collection

phone. the entire thing

CLEAN AND ORGANISE MY ROOM AND APARTMENT

START REPLACING WHAT IS LEFT OF SHITTY FOOTWEAR AND COATS/JACKETS/ETC

NEED TO BUY:

socks that don't suck ass

small pouch for my makeup that isn't ugly looking

l'occitane hand cream

lip balm(s)

coffee capsules for machine

pajamas

WANT TO BUY:

mac lipstick in diva

dior single eyeshadow in beige mitzah

chanel eyeshadow quad - haven't decided which one

those perfect €165 red boots (thin heels unfortunately) i found but don't remember the brand

NEED TO FIND:

good coats in general

good snow boots

good sunscreen - it's almost winter rn so not necessity for rn but very important

WANT TO TRY:

"skincare" - idk if i'm being gaslit by social media tho i'm 20yo idk if this chemical shit even matters other than sunscreen ofc

WANT TO FIND:

real fur ushanka

(real duh) leather gloves

chanel lipstick i actually like

nail lacquer that isn't in an ugly looking bottle : clear, red, beige. etc

MIDTERMS START ON THE 19TH GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND FUCKING STUDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND ALSO WORKOUT TO GET FUCKING SKINNIER DAMN!!!!! AND GET ORGANISED!!!!

[softmick]

Super Special Thursday Tag Game

thanks for tagging me, Gigi!! @sgtmickeyslaughter <3

How did you get into the fandom?  I came to tumblr to find gifs and stumbled into fic and an active fandom.

How long have you been here? One year today!!! I made this thing on June 6th and posted two drabbles the first day. A @galladrabbles for "Still Into You" by Paramore and a drabble based on @darthvaders-wife art!!

What’s the first fandom channel you found? (Youtube, Reddit, Tumblr, Insta, Twitter, FB, other?) Tumblr! I'm not looking anywhere else.

what’s your favourite now?  Tumblr.

Which mutual have you known the longest in the fandom? I'm not sure? I think it took me a week to insert myself into Nosho and Cameron's trans Mickey thoughts. That's the first interaction I remember, anyway.

Which tumblerino’s did you have your first fandom crush(es) on and wanted to get to know? Let me be for real for a second. I have too many tumblr crushes to name! If I've ever tagged you or replied to your post or written elaborate embarrassing tags on your stuff, it's probably you! I spend 97% of my time feeling awkward and/or depressed but we're all friends in my head.

First Gallavich fan fic you read (or that blew you away that you remember) I accessed @thegallavault really early on and I think Cooperative Gameplay was the first long fic I read and I really enjoyed it.

First fan art that blew your mind?  I am very much not an artist so I kind of have my mind blown all the time and I could list so many but @harukanaaaa's baby Ian makes me feel INSANE. I found it kind of soon after becoming active and idk man, something about it just melts me inside.

Fanfic trope that you were sure wasn’t for you but now you low key (or high key) love? I was about to say ABO and realized that's a LIE. I still don't really like it. But there are specific fics in this fandom that I've enjoyed. And Sports AUs. Loving them a lot, surprisingly.

What surprised you most about this fandom? I felt super welcomed right from the beginning which I didn't expect at all. It's also more diverse in some ways than I've seen before.

Moment in the show (or YT vids if you’re one of those) that you fell in hyperfixation with Gallavich? The first was probably "take your hand off the glass" where I was like okay, yeah, these two. But the 5x11 fight is peak for me.

Ian or Mickey? Ooof. It's Mickey, but really this is just a rude question.

Which Gallagher or Milkovich are you? Oh man. I think the reason I love the show so much is that I can relate to parts of all of the Gallagher/Milkovich kids and there's no way I could pick one. In the past I've said Fiona, but it doesn't feel very accurate atm.

I just tried tagging two people and they didn't pop up as taggable so please please please if you want to do it I'm tagging you and you can tag me back!!!

[eossa]

How I'd Make Tumblr More Profitable

Yes, this is going to be controversial, since I know nothing about the behind-the-scenes spending, economics, and all that jazz. But I've been on Tumblr for long enough to have a rough idea of the userbase wants - which is what positions Tumblr in a niche other sites don't really utilize. Most of the points I list here are about improving the experience of existing users, as keeping users might be harder for tumblr than attracting new ones.

Please note that this posts reflects my personal opinions and some stuff I've seen people complain about it. Do not attack me over anything I've written here, it's not worth my time and I will resort to blocking if I'm being bothered. Constructive criticism is fine and encouraged!

[under the cut because this got quite long] [last updated 20th July 2023]

Features to Add

Block posts. Xkit has/had this feature, it was great. Sometimes I just don't want to see a specific post, and others probably agree with that.

Send asks and replies from sideblogs. Would literally make a lot of things easier and better.

Delete individual reblog additions from a post. Sometimes, you have a post where there is one"relevant" addition, multiple "irrelevant" additions ("yes!", "[repeated phrase in bold]", "this is a must reblog"), before there is a "relevant" addition again. But right now, you can only remove all reblog additions, not just individual ones. I feel like this would be a neat feature.

Direct blocking of anon hate which also tracks the IP and blocks the associated account(s). No rights for cowards, that's all I'll say.

Features to Bring Back

Reblog chains. Prev tags are the backbone of lots of interactions on here. If I click on someone's username in a reblog chain, I want to see that post on their blog, not their blog starting from the newest post. The loss of this feature is one of the things people constantly complain about in the replies of @changes.

Several text formatting options. As a theme maker, it would be nice to have proper preformatted text again - it makes code so much more legible. Other formatting options I miss are marked/highlighted text and text lines, which are really helpful to visually break apart passages of text.

Features to Ditch

Tumblr Live. There I've said it. If I want to see stuff like that, I have TikTok, IG Reels, Pinterest Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Twitter also has something like this. It's oversaturated, and aparently there are still enough cyber security concerns that it's not even accessible outside of the US and Canada.

Ads in lightboxes. Especially on mobile, there are already more than enough ads on the feed, no need to add more nested inside other elements.

Features that Make Money

Pay for NSFW. If this site allowed full nudity etc. again but hid it behind a paywall, we'd kill two birds with one stone: The site would probably still be allowed on the App Store, and the money influx would be huge. The userbase would also increase again.

(If Tumblr Live is kept.) Pay to snooze Tumblr Live permanently. It's the most complained about thing in changes' replies, so I feel like people would pay on a subscription base just to not see TL anymore.

Pay to increase limits. 250 posts per day is the maximum that can be posted - and there are people hitting those limits. If there was an option to buy a higher limit (500p/d, 750p/d, etc.), people might generally use it. Like those add-on charges for mobile data. Same goes for posts in the queue, posts in drafts, images in a photoset and so on.

Pay to pin posts at the top of a tag or search result. Ebay Kleinanzeigen has this neat feature where you can push your small ads to the top of a search query so that more people can see it. This could be a cool feature to try, as it would work in a more content-aware way than Blaze does.

Pay to buy inactive URLs. There are some really cool usernames on here that are taken by blogs that haven't updated for 5+ years and only have one post (or none at all), and I feel like it would be neat to be able to buy one of these cool usernames attached to an empty account. To make sure that usernames attached to redirect or something else don't get bought, tumblr should send an e-mail to the username owner - if the user doesn't react to that for 3 months, the usernames changed owners. [added 13th July 2023]

Existing Features to Improve

NPF posts. I feel like a combination of legacy and NPF would be neat. Think selecting a main element like in the legacy editor (e.g. video, image, audio) and then adding a caption that can add different content types like NPF does. Or at least create a better overview over NPF variables and release the full base code with documentation to make things easier for the web designers on here. There are more issues with the NPF format but I won't list everything people dislike about it here.

Block people. The block feature should make sure that the person being blocked doesn't see any posts made by the person they were blocked by, even if those posts were reblogged by another user. Also, like IG does, there should be an option to block either just a specific blog or the IP address attached to block side-blogs and other accounts of that user.

Color palettes. The color palette options for the dashboard are generally a nice idea but I think it would be better if there was a dropdown menu to choose a palette from rather than having to click through all the different options. For example, if I want to go from Cement (light mode) to Dark mode, I have to click through 10 options until I reach Dark again. There has to be an easier way. [added 20th July 2023]

Other Improvements Needed

Nuke spam bots. Users are reporting all the spam bots, yet, it doesn't seem like they are dwindling in numbers. Also - at least this is how it's being perceived by the userbase - tumblr isn't doing enough on their end to reduce spam bots. This is definitely something that needs to be fixed.

End hateful and criminal activities. It's the year 2023, yet there are still outright N*zis, violent tr*nsphobes, literal p*dophiles, and other people committing to the daily bit of hate speech and other illegal activities (fraud too considering all those fake GoFundMe sites) on this website. I'm not saying free speech should be banned but there is a bright red line between what is free spech and what is hate speech (or should get you jailed considering fraud and p*dophilia).

A through-out, perhaps even interactive, beginner tutorial. "The site is too complicated to use for new users!" – then explain how it works in easy terms, with examples, images, and videos. Every other application or web app has walk-throughs, just do the same here.

Improved ad relevancy. The ads I see on tumblr are usually so out-of touch with the userbase, and many of them feel like the sort of stuff you see on a spam-ridden torrenting site. I feel like increasing the relevancy of ads to what the users usually blog about would cause a higher click-rate and turn-over-rate than the current ads do.

Summary

There is probably more I could add, but that's it for now. Should I make any later additions directly to this post, I will mention it to prevent misunderstandings. If you have any ideas or constructive criticism, let me hear about it in the replies or reblogs of this post.

[vacantgodling]

Writeblr Interview

On the Tumblr Writing Community

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr?

been on tumblr in some way since like 2013. been on writeblr specifically since like 2020-2021... ish?

What led you to create it?

ended up leaving twitter (back when it was still twitter) around the time the pandemic happened. i wanted to get back into tumblr because i'd been focusing mostly on twitter for awhile and the yeehan community/my old friends kinda weren't doing shit for me so i wanted to focus more on my original stuff. so i ended up making a writeblr when i heard that was a thing.

What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community?

how we really do just be on here talking about our blorbos and having a good time. its nice to have a place to escape with people who also get the importance of not being connected to reality at all times.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

i feel like ask games have kind of died down compared to how they were a few years ago so it'd be nice to make a resurgance of that.

What tips/advice do you have for someone who made a Writeblr today?

honestly just post what makes you happy and actually interact with other people. just trying to promote your own stuff doesn't really work (unless you're an artist tbh) but interacting with other people and making posts talking about what you're making with enthusiasm instead of the "woe is me idk how to talk about my wips but i hope someone will talk with me... :((" like bro idk just talk about it. have a good time. you don't have to follow for follow or follow someone just bc they're a writeblr either i kinda hate that shit. like only follow me if you're actually interested in my shit and vice versa. but that's just a pet peeve. tumblr isn't twitter we are about having a good time here not about promo.

WIP it Good

Which Works-in-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

that's a funny way to put this. rn its mostly been tcol just because i've been on a worldbuilding history kick because i've been cramming my brain full of a fucking alternate history youtube channel that my brain is mildly hyperfixated on. but my brain kinda flip flops around to any of my main wips when its convenient.

How long have you been working on them?

tcol's a wip i've had since i was 12 so like. pff 14 years at this point? jesus it sounds so old when i put it like that. paramour just had its 3 year anniversary on 6/19. vdtrt i've also had since 12. btaf is a couple of months old. like. maybe 2 months old lmao.

Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?

tcol -> the video game etrian odyssey, lotr, history (in general) paramour -> there's so many influences frfr. but the original start was crimson peak and wanting to make something like that but also beauty and the beast and goth lit or whatever vdtrt -> percy jackson btaf -> twilight, but specifically the bella pregnancy arc

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

literally all day every day in some capacity

When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?

"fantasy" i don't really talk to people about my writing at all in general irl anymore tho. just sets up for annoyance and disappointment.

What do you want to say (if it’s different from what you do say)?

"fantasy" like. i really don't like people knowing about my wips esp if i don't think they have the bandwidth to appreciate them. not to sound uppity but like ik the people who i'm around and the shit that intrigues them is just worlds away from what i'm writing whether it be because its fantasy, because it's horror, or because it's queer.

Let’s Rotate Blorbos

Name any characters you created.

so as of counting (and not counting the plethora of flesh blood recently added to tcol) i've got 419 characters and counting. this also doesn't include any of the ocs i have with my partner which is a decent amount. i'll just stick with the mcs of the main wips. so those would be:

hyacinthus, amon, darren, sjaak, biscella, azelie, piper, forte, deux, san, clear

Who’s the most unhinged?

least to most hinged of this list:

SJAAK -> amon -> san -> piper -> hya -> clear -> deux -> biscella -> azelie -> darren -> forte

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

hya and amon are the easiest to write because i've written them the most. darren is a close second but not first because his whole thing about not using adverbs really trips me up.

Do you ever cringe at them?

nah. i don't cringe at them. i disdain at them. but not really cringe. i get really bad secondhand embarrassment so i don't tend to make characters that make me have that actually cringe reaction.

How much control do you feel you have over your characters?

kinda a weird question for me but tbh i feel like its sort of a 50-50 situation. i tend to make characters firstly out of some utility (aka i need a character to fulfill this role in the plot) and then as i develop them its like the two of us become collaborators on writing the story together. sometimes characters can be a bit stubborn about what they do or don't tell me about their backstories (hya is notorious for this) but for the most part they can't really "hide" things from me or wholly not do what i want them to do. a lot of times i'm going to put them in a situation anyway, they just need to tell me how they'll react to it. if any of that makes sense.

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters?

of course :) i sound kind of dead in this questionaire because i'm at work ready to kms. but, sending me asks or talking to me on discord/tumblr messages about any of my idiots is always loved

On Writeblr Engagement

What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account?

i look at the vibes of the account, who they are, if they have an intro and what kind of wips they're writing. i mostly only follow people if i see that their wips interest me. some exceptions can be made, ie: if they interact with a lot of my stuff first and we become friendly and i'm not following them i'll follow after the fact and then get invested in whatever they're doing. but on initial contact i like to see who you are and if your wips are interesting to me.

What makes you decide against following?

wips don't interest me or have things in their wips/in their sphere of focus that i just don't care about or aren't really my cup of tea. like let's say someone puts in their wip/personal intro that they hate fantasy. i write fantasy all the time. so like. probably not gonna follow you. that kind of thing.

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

not often? i wouldn't mind it bc i actually don't follow that many people (always under 100) but this is bc i can't keep up with people that much and i want to make sure i properly give attention to others if i'm going to be invested in them. but like. i enjoy talking to people about my shit so like. /shrug. i have way more followers than i follow which is why i mentioned i hate when people follow me just bc i'm another writeblr lol. i'd much rather you follow me because you have interest in Me but like, i can't control people frfr.

Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?

yeah! that's why i try to keep who i follow kind of in lower ranges. i have bad memory and it takes me awhile to warm up to people, but when i follow someone its because i want to be friendly and get invested in what they do. so like, i try to do that. i'm not the best but i do try.

[aesethewitch]

#OcculTea - Conclusions

What are some topics of conversation I’d like to see more of in our community?

I do think that there’s a lack of intermediate to advanced content in the public eye. And I understand why, of course. Beginners find posts they don’t understand and ask a million basic questions: “How do I raise energy?” “Should I cast a circle first?” “If I don’t have this ingredient, what can I substitute? But I don’t have that either, what about this?”

And if they don’t get answers, or if the wrong person finds a post that speaks just a little too authoritatively, they get pissed. Tumblr’s hatemail game is, indeed, unreal. It’s hard sometimes to want to publish something personal or talk about something that the General Audience might disagree with or that’s more advanced than what can usually be found out there.

It would require beginners to recognize when something isn’t really for them (yet). It would also require people to give the benefit of the doubt and actually read a whole post before jumping to the replies or into the poster’s ask box to complain about their wording or tone or “how could you leave out such and such specific detail” or other annoying, disrespectful nonsense like that. Alas, this is the piss on the poor website.

What are my community needs?

My top priorities in a community are somewhere to ask questions, somewhere to have casual, low-stakes conversations, and somewhere to share and vet resources (books, PDFs, shops, materials, websites, blogs, etc.). I sometimes fall off the face of the earth and go hermit-mode for mental health reasons, so communities that require constant participation and look down on declining invitations are no-gos for me.

For the most part, I do think my community needs are being met! I wish I had an in-person place to go, hang out, buy or make things, and just exist as a witch without worrying about conforming to love-and-light ideals and/or cultural appropriation. I’ve been thinking about starting meet-ups at our local library, but the idea of no one showing is… well, it sucks and is scary. So. We’ll see how that goes.

Where would I like to be held and supported?

It really depends.

In this space (Tumblr), the greatest supports are reblogs. Liking a post does little for me in terms of exposure and connection. A reblog spreads my work to new eyes while also showing me that yes, the thing I’ve written is useful in some way. Replies are also good, but reblogs are really where it’s at.

Direct interaction with my work encourages me to write and publish more. I stopped putting up my research into digital divination (which has continued, by the way) because it wasn’t getting any notes. To me, that says that no one’s reading it. If no one’s reading it, I shouldn’t spend so much time cleaning up my notes for presentation, because that’s time I could use better elsewhere on work that will get attention and perhaps pay the bills.

Which kinda sucks! Research into theory and the history of these niche topics are very much passion projects of mine. I’ve got all sorts of notes dissecting Pick-A-Card tarot culture and clickbait tarot YouTube/TikTok videos that may never see the light of day, because it just… doesn’t get noticed. No one cares. I care, obviously, and that’s why I’m still doing it for myself. I’d love to share it, but… again, who cares, aside from me?

Basically, just… interact with stuff, lmao. Tip if you can, still interact if you can't. If you enjoy someone’s work, reblog it. Likes do nothing for creators on this platform. And as someone who relies on this platform to spread my business, reblogs really do make all the difference. (PS: Everyone who has ever recommended my services to someone else, either here or elsewhere, is literally an angel. Word of mouth does more for small businesses than any amount of advertising I could possibly do. You’ve got no idea. Ily.)

Where do I feel like I’m not truly being seen by my community?

I get a lot of attention for my free tarot stuff that I do every Friday. And that’s fair. People love a freebie. There’s a whole subculture of tarot readers here on Tumblr who just do different kinds of free readings for people, often for fun.

But again, the stuff I’m actually proud of tends to get less notes than the throwaway shitposts. It’s rough. I have a feeling that all the hours I’m sinking into writing out these questions and editing the posts will go to waste.

How can we help each other in removing the external peer pressure and grow in community?

Be the change you want to see. Here on Tumblr, there’s a sort of fear surrounding judgment. In the interest of never being judged, receiving hate, or otherwise being “called out,” we avoid publishing work that’s anything close to controversial. Even if it isn’t controversy, if something isn’t being talked about, it’s scary to be the first one to break into the topic. Because what if it’s terrible to talk about?

When you see something you don’t understand or disagree with, don’t instantly jump into OP’s replies or ask box with vitriol or basic questions. Try to find resources first. Check their tags; maybe they’ve talked about that topic before and have a more basic or detailed explanation on the topic somewhere.

Unless it’s actively harmful (bigotry, appropriation, etc.), if you can’t respectfully interact with someone’s post, leave it alone. The important thing to remember is that we don’t need to (and perhaps shouldn’t) form opinions on absolutely everything we see. Some things aren’t for us, and that’s okay. I see things I disagree with and dislike all the time as I peruse the witchcraft tags. Just scroll.

The other part of this is acknowledging that some people just aren’t going to learn how to act right. They just aren’t. We, as a community, need to learn how to ignore those people. There’s an age-old adage that I think we need to bring back into the public eye: Don’t feed the trolls.

How can we, as a community, come together more with constructive criticism without it seeming shady/passive aggressive?

The absolute first step is to learn the difference between hatemail, constructive criticism, and being fucking rude. Tone can be hard for some folks, especially when written out, but it’s critical that you either learn how to decipher it or find people who can help you do so if you’re not able to do it yourself before making assumptions about someone’s meaning.

Hatemail is direct nastiness written and designed to make someone feel bad about themselves, their work, their circle, their practice, or something else. The idea is to make the receiver uncomfortable. This would include attacks on someone’s character. This category includes sending people slurs, telling people they’re stupid for believing something, demanding that someone prove their worth, and unsolicited and harsh criticisms of the work being put out.

Constructive criticism is intended to improve the content you’re seeing. That’s what makes it constructive. It’s respectful to ask the OP if they’re open to receiving constructive criticism before sending it. This category includes helpful notes on content, correcting misinformation, pointing out problems in the language used, and structure of the post in question. For example, I’ve received constructive criticism that my posts tend to be very long-winded. And, I mean, yeah — that’s a fair criticism. But I like writing long posts, so that’s unlikely to change. However, I can include shorter posts in the mix to diversify and appeal to different audiences.

The prime example of someone being plain fucking rude is adding inane, off-topic, judgy comments in a reblog of an innocuous post or send unsolicited, long-winded trauma dumps to someone’s inbox. This could also apply to giving unsolicited advice or speaking in a condescending manner. For example, assuming someone knows less than you and handing out “advice” as though it’s gospel without checking to see whether they would or wouldn’t know that information/practice differently than you. This category refers to the people who aren’t (purposely) sending hate, but their words absolutely come off that way. I find rudeness comes from a lack of self-awareness and consideration for other people. These are the folks that when you tell them to fuck off, they get very offended and don’t understand why you’re reacting badly.

The key is reading comprehension, critical thinking, and compassion. Before you send an ask, reply/reblog, or DM them, try to see where the OP is coming from. What’s their culture, what’s their background, how new are they to their path, why are they posting about the thing they’re posting, etc.? Have you read their post correctly? Are you projecting any kind of expectations or assumptions onto the OP or their post that aren’t actually being stated there?

Will what you say hurt their feelings? Has the OP stated that they’re open to feedback? If not, should you ask them first? Will the OP suffer in some way or cause harm if you don’t reach out to them about the thing you want to tell them? Are you reaching out simply to have something to say, or are you actually adding to the conversation?

If more folks come into conversations with kindness and genuine curiosity, leaving their egos, assumptions, and impulses to be “on the same level” or “better than” other practitioners aside, better interactions happen. Just… don’t be an asshole. Think before you speak. Consider the consequences of what you say before hitting send. So on and so forth.

Consider a class or guide on providing constructive criticism. Creative writing or other literary courses and guides go over this kind of thing extensively.

How can we, as a community, do better when we do receive criticism/feedback?

Remember that, in general, even unsolicited criticism is rarely about you as a person. It is sometimes, but even that can be useful. The only times I would say you ought to throw out criticism entirely is when it veers into hatemail territory. You don’t owe hateful bitches anything, least of all your time.

But in the case of actual feedback, even if it’s not worded the best or if it arrives out of the blue, it’s important to at least read it and take it into consideration.

Take a step back. Take a breath. The knee-jerk reaction to defend yourself is a powerful one. Let the sting of criticism sink in, and do whatever you need to do to soothe it.

Then, read it again. Parse what the person is actually saying. No matter how they’re saying it, what is their actual problem? Is it something you can change? Is it something you’re willing to change? Even if not, is it something you can take into account for the future?

Constructive criticism, when given and received in a positive way, can create some really beautiful moments of understanding and growth. Consider, again, a class or guide on constructive criticism. When they talk about giving it, they also talk about receiving and using it. It really is a life-changing sort of lesson.

As for dealing with hatemail, fuck ‘em. Delete that shit, block the asshole, and don’t look back.

Who are some community members I look up to that are reliable resources and aspirations?

Ohohohohoho, spotlight time!

It isn’t something I can really direct people toward, since it’s a private Discord server, but I’m part of a group of practitioners who are constantly supporting each other. We ask questions, give advice, chat about projects, and just generally lift each other up all the time. That server is, by far, the greatest resource I’ve got right now. It’s a very small community of friends whose passions are diverse and incredibly interesting. The amount of learning and collaboration that goes on… man. I really do love it. (If you’re in that server, and you read this: Hi, I appreciate you! (: )

Now, let’s tag some people (going down my following list):

@elminx — Minx is amazing. The recipe experiments, the astrology insights, the clever techniques… She’s got something for everybody.

@fernthewhimsical — Two words: rainbowmancy and hopepunk. Seriously, go to Fern’s blog and go through the witchcraft tag. So much good stuff.

@jasper-pagan-witch — Our very own TBR and Blogs Georg. I very much recommend checking out their sideblog @jasper-book-stash for brief book reviews.

@coinandcandle — Click through Coin’s pinned post for all sorts of goodies, including deep dives on deities.

@breelandwalker — Tumblr’s resident witchstorian! Check out her podcast, Hex Positive, for beginner-friendly, funny, informative content that ranges from spell techniques to the history of witchcraft.

@windvexer — Chicken answers questions of all sorts! We share the gift (curse?) of verbosity. Their answers are detailed and informative, and I aspire to that level of coherency in my rambling.

@stagkingswife — Silly! Hat! Theory! Stag’s views on spirit work literally changed my whole mind about godspousing and what makes a deity a deity. Legitimately.

@asksecularwitch — Spells Georg. THE secular witch. An icon whose gumption I respect above all others.

And… I’m so sure there are others I’m forgetting about. [gestures] All of my mutuals are lovely, follow them and throw money at their respective Ko-Fi and Patreon pages. (:

Off of Tumblr, I tend toward YouTube’s witch ecosystem. A few people I follow there are The Green Witch, the Witch of Wonderlust, Mint Faery, and Hearth Witch. Again, there are more, but these are the channels I follow most closely for their content!

Final thoughts?

This was fun to put together! I won’t directly tag anyone to respond with their own answers, because… well, this has been a beast of a project that’s taken several days to type out and more to edit. But if you’re a witchy content creator here on Tumblr, please feel free to check out the list of questions and post your own answers!

Replies, reblogs, and asks on any or all of the topics covered in this post series are very much welcome.

This is the final part of a series! Click here to view the masterpost to see all #OcculTea posts in this series. Replies, reblogs, and asks on any or all of the topics covered in this post series are very much welcome.

[discotreque]

Personal log, Stardate fuck this shit

So I’ve had this little Tumblr since November 2017. It’s my “processing feelings about Star Trek” blog, obvs. I did not expect nearly a thousand people—okay, dozens of people and hundreds of bots, lbr—would end up reading my feelings about Star Trek.

Well, here we are. And the thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever had this many feelings about Star Trek. I don’t mean since Nov. ’17. I mean since 1991.

You’ve been warned.

Last week—and I mean the one we literally just had—was the worst week of my entire life. Instant winner! That’s right: worse than the week I got divorced, worse than Christmas-to-New Year’s 2002, worse than the third week of high school. I’m not going to process those feelings in public—it’s not 2002 anymore—but, unfortunately, that’s important context for the rest of this.

More important context: TNG specifically was my comfort blanket throughout a “let’s call it difficult” childhood. I’ve loved that starship and that crew for over 30 years. When I’ve been at rock bottom, not totally sure I’m going to survive whatever bullshit is in front of me, I put on an episode, or an interview with the cast on YouTube or something, and things feel infinitesimally more okay.

At this point in my life, they’re the best and only family I’ve got. The bridge of that fictional starship feels more like home to me than anywhere I’ve ever lived. I don’t consider myself superior to, or even separate from, any brand-new fan who discovered Trek yesterday—honestly, I prefer their energy—it just hits differently for me, you know? I can’t be rational about it.

Anyhow. This season of Picard. What a ride, right? A stupidly plotted, stupidly slow ride to a disappointingly obvious conclusion, if I’m going to be harsh about it. But I don’t actually care if it sucks. I’m 90% here for space-family feels and 10% here for Seven of Nine: Leather Jacket MILF Edition, and that’s about it.

And… like… fuck. Fucking shit, y’all. My heart and soul have been pulverized to powder for non-Star Trek reasons since last Sunday. I’ve been feeling like I just got kicked in the stomach for about 170 hours straight. I have never had a stable life; I have never felt so destabilized. Basically everything sucks 47 different kinds of ass, and it’s not going to stop sucking those asses for a long, long time.

So it fucking goes. None of that other shit killed me. I’m not going down now.

But. Or maybe and? In the middle of this waking nightmare, I got to come home. The LCARS. The aggressively flat lighting. The carpet. My family.

I used to sit so close to the TV when Next Gen was on. When I was like 8 or 9 years old. I wanted to be there, so badly. To be completely honest with you, I still do.

And I get to spend one more hour there. I get to watch my space family be together again, be awesome again, watch them save the day from the beautiful beige bridge of the USS Enterprise-D one last time.

Now. This week. When I need it more than ever. A glass of ice water in hell.

What a gift.

[theonevoice]

Hey! I saw your reblog of the tumblr ask culture so here I am :) your art is amazing. I love it. I particularly appreciate the fastidious (in the good sense of the word) way you research tiny details to add to your good omens fanart (like the clock from the Mir space station you put in that fanart of Crowley with the Hozier song). Since you do a lot of digital art and you mentioned you're an "amateur" fanartist: which is more comfortable for you, screenless drawing tablets or the ones with screens? And which one would you recommend as a "starter kit"? I'm trying to get more consistent with my drawing and I sketch a lot on paper, but find that having the color palette that a digital tool offers would probably motivate me slightly more, still I can't decide which would be best, at a beginner's level.

Hey!!! Yes, hello!

Thank you so much, I love reaserching those details, they are one of my favourite parts of the process: it makes me feel for a brief moment like I'm part of the amazing GO set/costume designers crew, sorting through all possible inspirations until I find the perfect one!

As for drawing tablets: I tried both, I had a screenless Wacom Bamboo (it was a million years ago, they don't even sell it anymore), then for almost ten years I didn't draw at all, and now I am using a Huion Kamvas 13, and I guess it's a different experience for every artist, but as far as I can tell, they are two totally different things. It's not like you start with a screenless tablet as a beginner and then "upgrade" to one with a screen as you get better: it's more a matter of what kind of art you are trying to do, and how your eye-brain-hand connection is wired. I struggled so much with the Bamboo that I ended up not using it, so even if it was cheaper (probably like 90 euros in 2005 or 2006), I wasted money on it. While the Kamvas was more expensive but it was such a gamechanger that the amount I paid (I think around 300 euros in 2018) almost feels like a steal now, compared to the enjoyment of using it and the improvement that is allowing me to make.

For me, personally, the possibility to sketch directly in colors was *the* big turning point: I struggle with lineart, my brain doesn't "see" an image until it has values and colors, so that changed everything for me.

(Fun/weird fact: when I got the Kamvas I didn't think I would ever use it for drawing, I bought it because at the time I was doing a lot of editorial proofreading and where I live proofreading is done with a very specific set of symbols and signs that you cannot "type", so you either print everything and do the thing by hand or you get a tablet of some sort that allows you to draw them directly on the pdf - and the rest is history)

I may be biased, but I think one of the Huion Kamvas series (there are several sizes) could be a great tool: they cost a fraction of what Wacom equivalents would cost you, they work great, and they also give you a lot of stuff (mine came with its own stand, a stand for the stylus with a dozen extra tips, and a glove - all things that other brands would sell you separately).

But regardless of the brand, the best advice I can give you is this: don't look for a "starter" tool, look for the tool that makes you want to use it. If you enjoy using it, you will spend more time drawing, and that inevitably will make you improve. Go to a store that allows you to test them, if you have the opportunity, or look for comparative reviews on YouTube (that's whay I did): it will help you find the thing that makes you think "oh, that one looks like a lot of fun". If you buy a tool that "sounds" entry-level just because you feel like you should get an entry-level tool you may end up with a thing that is frustrating and annoying to use, and that won't help you at all.

How on earth did I write so much?!? I hope there is something useful in there! Bye!!

[thefloatingstone]

Any advice on beginning to learn how to draw?

Learn how to do gestures and structure if you want to draw in a more controlled way (which is what most people do). Look up on youtube or pinterest how to get started doing gesture work and spend 5 minutes a day or half an hour a week just doing rough gesture work and DO NOT clean them up or start making them "nice". I recommend doing it on large paper with pencil. We always used newsprint paper because it's super cheap and gives you a lot of space to loosen up.

Apart from gestures, look at construction so you can stop approaching drawing the mindset of immediately going to "drawing the outline" as the first step (which is what I always did before college). Don't start with learning how to draw specifics like "how to draw different body shapes" or "how to draw hair." because then you're gonna start trying to learn details without learning the basics first. Always work from general to specific, both in learning and in drawing itself. Start big and go small.

Follow @etheringtonbrothers

The Line of action is your friend. Learn it.

If you want to go more abstract, focus on colour and composition. Learn which colours oppose each other and which colours compliment each other, as well as what makes for interesting compositions. But going abstract is easy if you're the kind of person who doesn't stress about "getting things right" and just want to play with your medium. Because with abstracts there are no rules, which is intimidating for someone like me who loves having blueprints to follow but for some people is freeing and who love having no expectations. So it just depends on what kind of person you are.

The most important skill of all is to learn how to see things.

The human mind is such that it operates on recognising symbols, because it takes less time to think and is vital to surviving in the wild. To know at a glance if something is dangerous or if something is edible. However this means you have to basically re-learn how to look at things and see what they actually LOOK like. There's a great tumblr post here somewhere about drawing shrimps. If someone can post the link that'd be great.

But yeah. Learn how to look at things and actually see what they REALLY look like. Not even while you're busy drawing. Just practice this in general as you're living your life.

[communistkenobi]

Hey I have a question - you seem to know your stuff when it comes to politics and theory, and I love your analyses of media. I was watching Andor and though I could pick up on its core message, I was disappointed in myself because I couldn't recognize the smaller details of why and how they showed it. Like all these posts on Tumblr analyzing why they took the characters in the directions they chose, what they showed verbally and what was left unspoken for the audience, how it actually depicts rebellion accurately compared to other shows - I would've never recognized all that myself. Do you know how I can start learning more about this and being able to think critically about stuff through a social/political/economic lens? Are there any prominent books/how can I start learning from things that have happened already in history? Thank you so much!

Thank you! There are a couple answers to this. One is that if you specifically want to “practice” looking at media more critically (not negatively, just in the sense of like, what is this “doing” with its story/characters/set/etc?), I would recommend consuming movie and game and show reviews. I watch a lot of them on youtube and listen to podcasts that frequently talk about media, and I less frequently will read more formal reviews on news outlets. And also if i watch a movie and don’t understand the ending or something I’ll google the movie title + reddit and read what people are saying. Mostly I’ll disagree with them but that itself helps inform my own opinion better and narrow down my feelings. If you want to watch video reviews, Dan Olson (FoldingIdeas) and Jacob Geller on youtube are probably my favourites for those, the former for movies and the latter for games. These aren’t review channels per se, they moreso do the kind of media analysis you were talking about. I think they provide a good blend of political discussion as well as discussion of the component parts of a film or game (like editing, or play mechanics). I feel like I learn a lot just by watching the way other people construct their own opinions and connect them together.

Another fairly easy thing to do is to watch more movies and shows. Like I’m embarrassed by how little movies I’ve seen in my life, and I feel like the more I watch the more I feel confident in talking about why I thought a movie did or didnt work. I also think that, if you’re able to, having a friend or a group of people to discuss movies/shows/etc with helps a lot. Like the act of verbalising your own opinions for other people to understand is also a skill that you can develop, and often figuring out how to present your opinion to someone else will help you figure out what those opinions are in the first place.

I’m not sure if I’m a good person for specific recommendations on reading history/politics/theory. I frequently will pursue topics that interest me when I hear other people talk about them. I think what you first want to narrow down is what topics interest you the most - time periods, places, specific ideas or concepts, etc - and then go from there. don’t think you need to learn about all Politics and History. I really like that one post on here about how it’s really easy to become above average at something simply by spending a little bit of time on it. for example I know more about cartography than most human beings on earth right now, not because I know a shitload but because most people don’t know a lot about the topic at all. And I’m just saying this bc like I remember feeling very intimidated when approaching serious historical and political texts because they all sounded similarly authoritative and knowledgeable about everything, even though in actuality their field of expertise is pretty tightly specialised.

Anyway idk if any of that is helpful at all lol. In the same way you will hear people saying you need to practice to get better at drawing or knitting or whatever, I think viewing this as a skill you want to develop in yourself simply by watching other people and trying to summarise your own thoughts helps a lot, which sounds corny and no-duh maybe, but it’s the most reliable way I’ve been able to get better at expressing myself.