#the themes of this post are that our DM is incredible and that everyone else is also incredible | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

waitmyturtles · 2 years ago

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I’ve been on Tumblr for ONE YEAR!

Yes! I can’t believe it. Tumblr has become such an important part of my life, an essential process by which I watch and understand dramas -- that it’s insane to think that I’ve only been on the site for a year.

It was Old Fashion Cupcake that brought me here, off a recommendation from the incredible @isaksbestpillow, whose sideblog I followed for years at @kinounaniresource without my actually having created a Tumblr account. And then I watched OFC, and I was like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DID I JUST WATCH (in a great way), and I needed to PROCESS, and I just threw together my blog, and that was it, and I was like, god, I feel better!, and maybe I should do this for other shows I watch.

And now, besides ALL the reviews and meta I’ve written, I have the Old GMMTV Challenge, learning about shows from Thailand, which literally connect me to my SE Asian heritage, which I would have never, ever expected. Plus, so, so many other shows that I would have never found out about on my own had it not been for my joining Tumblr. And I’ve used Tumblr to write Big Meta on themes across these shows that take me out of the vacuum of series and into bigger, more macro expanses of media. And I’ve discovered artists like Aof Noppharnach, Jojo Tichakorn, and others, ASIAN artists who have literally contributed goodness to my life for what they’ve given to me as an Asian-American in regards to how I see and understand the cultures from which I hail.

And -- I’ve met so many INCREDIBLE MUTUALS FROM THIS SITE (including literally in-person!). People I can literally call MENTORS (@absolutebl, @respectthepetty, @bengiyo!!!), FRIENDS, a COMMUNITY. Everyone everyone who comments on my OGMMTVC posts. Whoa. (Thinking of my first and loveliest mutual @the-nihongo-adventure, who gave me a lot of early recommendations on dramas and shared happinesses over our love for Cherry Magic -- I hope you’re well, friend!)

Anyway -- I cannot believe it’s only been a year, and I’m psyched to continue plugging away at the OGMMTVC and discovering new dramas as well. Yay!

(To the clowns: @bengiyo, @shortpplfedup, @lurkingshan, @wen-kexing-apologist, @ginnymoonbeam, @liyazaki, @elnotwoods, @kyr-kun-chan, @so-much-yet-to-learn, @emotionallychargedtowel, I hope I’m not missing anyone -- and everyone else who comments on the OGMMTVC posts and who hits me up in my DMs. I. LOVE. Y’ALL. Y’all are the reason why I stay around here.)

#holy shit it's only been a year lol #i hope i have many more years to come on this site #i'm not so hardened as to call it a hellsite yet but #maybe those days are coming

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sterekcollabang · 1 year ago

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Permalink to our Rules page can be found [here].

All fics must be new, unfinished, and unpublished works.

Because this is a collaborative, team event, if your fic is already finished when you’re paired with an artist, this greatly limits your level of collaboration.

Because of the level of collaboration expected of this event, if you are very attached to one specific interpretation of your prompt, it may be better to set it aside for another time. We are encouraging artists and writers to work together to create their piece from the ground up.

Writers, this means you are sharing an idea that drives you with someone who will help you build it up into a story. Be open to feedback, and be prepared to offer it to your artist as well, even if you aren’t familiar with their medium. Be prepared to potentially suggest concepts for illustration, pronunciation, and/or share inspirational resources. Artists, this means you are available to offer feedback to your writer. Be prepared to offer suggestions for pacing, story beats, or maybe art, photos, or songs that inspire you.

This is a Sterek event, so Sterek MUST be the main focus.

Stiles and Derek DO NOT need to be in an established relationship for your fic to be considered appropriate for this event.

If Stiles and Derek spend the entire fic working their way up to getting together, that is OKAY. Everyone grows at different paces, and if your grand finale is their first kiss, their first hand-holding, or even just staring wistfully into the sunset thinking about how they can finally get together, that’s okay.

While Stiles and/or Derek need to be the integral characters to the story, it is okay to have outsider POV.

We would prefer the pairing to remain as Stiles and Derek only, but if your idea REALLY needs someone else to join them, that’s okay too. Just remember, this is a collaborative event, so you need to either be up front about that idea or discuss it with your artist when it comes up.

You must finish your work.

Maybe your story is incredibly inspiring to you and you wind up with far more story than you have the time to tell. Try splitting it into parts and finishing part one so that you can have an appropriate ending for publication time.

If you are close to finishing but won’t make the final check-in, please reach out to us either by email, tumblr DM, or discord message, and we’ll be happy to try and work out a time for you to post towards the end of the posting period. If that still doesn’t work, we don’t want to stop you from posting your work, but we will have to get together with you and your partner to figure out a different solution. It won’t be fair to others to honor a significant extension with the same “reward”. We will also discuss pinch hitting with you and your team.

No theft. This means:

No copying and reuploading other people’s fanfics.

No copying and reuploading other people’s fanarts.

No editing or otherwise visually manipulating anyone else’s fanart to use in your edit/video/etc. without explicit, verifiable permission from the original artist.

No ‘inspired by’ fic continuations or remixes without explicit, verifiable permission from the original author.

If they have a blanket permission statement, please include that in your summary proposal.

No AI anything. Current AI is entirely based on theft, and therefore it is not allowed.

Please avoid polarizing character bashing.

This is not a hard rule, but we are striving to hold an event that is positive and uplifting for all sides of fandom. As such, we ask that you please avoid writing something that actively perpetuates these divisive themes.

We are defining character bashing as “When a character acts in a way that is excessively inflating negative traits to be an unnecessary antagonist within the fic.”

You are welcome to make canon main characters into antagonists, but we would prefer them to have believable motivations and good reasons to think and act the way they do. They shouldn’t just be unhinged evil assholes so that the reader has someone to be angry with and/or hate.

FAQs | RULES | SCHEDULE | CRITERIA | MODS

#sterekcollabang2024 #sterek #sterek event #sterek is eternal #derek x stiles #rules

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thevalleyisjolly · 3 years ago

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19, 31, and 32 for the D&D ask meme?

Thanks anon!

19. How did you discover D&D?

As with so many things in my life, it’s all down to my fantastic nimble bird friend, who sent me a link to a clip of the love potion prank in Critical Role campaign 1. The rest, as they say, is history!

31. Tell me about your current party!

YES, ok, I’ve been waiting to gush for a while, let me tell you about EWF (names redacted/abbreviated for privacy reasons)

So our party currently has four active members - Vyce (my character, a tiefling rogue), “O” (tiefling monk), “D” (human cleric), and “N” (gnome wizard). We also have three past/infrequent members - “Z” (kyrid (home-brew lizard race) bard), “T” (dwarf barbarian), and “Ol” (half elf sorcerer).

“O” is played by my nimble bird friend, and she’s both a very competent fighter and also very young. Vyce, who has been a little brother his entire life, thinks of her like a little sister, albeit one whom he’s slightly in awe of. In Vyce’s opinion, she’s the beating heart of the party - she takes such joy in things (especially shiny things) and she doesn’t seem to be weighed down by the unfortunate things that have happened in her past. She’s not very smart (aka the best type of D&D character) and she’ll run where angels fear to tread, but it’s that kind of reckless bravery that’s saved the party’s bacon more times than we can count. I personally am of the opinion that "O" should be allowed to use a gun. Would this solve some of our problems? Maybe. Would this cause a lot more problems? Certainly. Should "O" even have a gun? Probably not, but the correct answer is yes. She's got the guns, now let her fire a gun!

We're just wrapping up a story arc dealing with “D’s” backstory, and it’s been so fun to see how his character has grown and changed over the course of the arc. He’s gone from a bit of a directionless adventurer, getting drunk and squabbling with “T” about who is in charge of the party skyship, to really coming into his own as a captain of the wind and waves. Like, it’s truly been so satisfying to watch him instigate revolutions, reach out to old friends and stand up to old enemies, lead fleets into naval battles, and step into the heart of the storm. I think for Vyce, “D” has really gone from someone that was a bit of a dark mirror in many ways, to someone that he respects and admires. Not that there isn't still a streak of recklessness in "D" but hey, that's part of what makes the game fun!

It is impossible not to like “N.” “N” alone has shifted Vyce’s dislike of mages (although with our most recent session, there’s been some regression!) “N” is like that friend who is enthusiastically, 110% up for anything, you tell him the plan and he’ll commit to it so hard. You will never meet an Abjuration wizard, or flat out any wizard, who loves Fireball more. He’s also ended up in so many situations where he’s separated from the party and 1v1-ing a baddie all by himself and no one knows, and the thing is, he’s actually won most of the time? I mean, apart from the time he died, but he’s better now. You’ll also never meet a wizard who uses a dagger so successfully in combat. He’s literally killed at least two bad guys with his dagger, we’re all bewildered and both Vyce and I are delighted, you go you funky lil old gnome you. He’s currently got a running interest in trying to figure out what shape the world is, which is some of the funniest and best wizard RP ever. He’s also come out with some of the most devastatingly poignant lines in the campaign so far, his memorial speech for a beloved NPC friend still haunts me ahhhhhhh.

32. Most memorable NPC you've encountered in a game you played in.

Hmm, gotta be three-way tie between Lynley, Rutley, and Frode. Lynley was an old friend of “D” and was also a cleric (I think?) of the same god. He helped us start and lead the revolution against the pirate lord, and when the pirate lord sent a massive fleet, much larger than our remaining ships, to retake the port, he loaded a ship with gunpowder and sailed it into the middle of the attacking fleet.

(Does Vyce feel guilty because he suggested that as an idea, albeit with unmanned ships, when we first heard about the fleet? YUP.)

Anyways, the party wasn’t in the port at the time, we were trying to retake a temple partway down the coast, but we got to see his death scene in a scrying pool, and just, the way our DM narrated it and the music he put on, it was just this incredibly heart-wrenching and moving scene that will stay with me forever. Our DM is incredible, that’s all I can say.

Rutley is just a goblin with a gun. He is very good at shooting the gun. Naturally, I love him.

Frode is the worst person ever (in Vyce’s opinion). Vyce dislikes mages in general, he very definitely dislikes charmers, and he fears wit and wordplay because he’s not in the least good at it (-2 CHA baybeeeee). Of course, this means Vyce’s mortal enemies are bards (except for our party bard, who is just a lil lizard with a cello and not, say, an obnoxious know-it-all with higher Perception than Vyce’s Stealth). Frode is a mysterious bard we found wandering in the forest, who may or may not be our world’s equivalent of Jaskier. Vyce loathes him with a deep and unshakable hatred, and I the player loved every minute of that interaction.

#thanks anon!#the themes of this post are that our DM is incredible and that everyone else is also incredible #leviathan is sealed! now we gotta go deal with vyce's ex who's definitely involved in some kind of shady business?#d&d tag

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beachblanketblacksails · 3 years ago

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Welcome to the beach! 🌴

Beach Blanket Black Sails is an 18+ fandom event to appreciate and share our love for Black Sails, Starz’ historical fiction pirate adventure series.

If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s a prequel to Treasure Island (yes, the same Treasure Island you may have enjoyed as a kid, but don’t worry about it). Black Sails is mid-2010’s premiere television, which means many beautiful people do extraordinary and sometimes awful things in expensive ways. There are ships, and cannons, and Spanish gold, and a lot of sex and violence. It also (eventually, we promise) tells stories about greed and power, narrative and truth, freedom and resistance, and about queer love, rage, and grief (and love, again).

Black Sails ended in 2017 and has been an understated but real presence in fandom since it started in 2014. There are about 4,800 fics in the Black Sails tags on Ao3. Lately, Black Sails seems to be picking up speed again in certain fandom circles, and so now seems like a good time for us to start shouting our love for it, too.

Okay, but what IS this?

Beach Blanket Black Sails is made up of two parts, both optional.

The first part is a semi-scheduled rewatch starting this summer. We’ll post a link to our proposed schedule, but you’re welcome to watch whenever it works for you.

(We should also mention that we’ve been calling it a rewatch but first-time viewers are also so, so welcome.)

The second part is a fic (and art, if you like!) fest. This will run throughout the fall, with the window for prompts opening on August 22, 2021 and final fills posted by December 10.

All of this will be supported through a Discord server. There will be a link to our server posted on this blog in the next few days, as we get it set up. We want this to be a fun, relaxed atmosphere; if you have experience modding and are interested in volunteering, please send us a DM or an ask!

Who can participate?

Everyone who is over 18 or the legal age of majority in your country is welcome to participate. Black Sails is emphatically adult content and we can’t endorse or take responsibility for minors (or for anyone, really) for whom that content isn’t suitable.

What are the rules?

A FAQ for the fest can be found here but in general, writers (and artists, if you like!) will fill prompts submitted by anyone participating in either the rewatch or the fic fest. Fills will be posted to an Ao3 collection and revealed around mid-December 2021.

The rules for participating in the event more generally are as follows:

This event is an adults-only event.

Be kind and respectful; remember that every username is a human being.

We shouldn’t have to say this, but this includes not harassing people for their ships, their meta, or their content.

We REALLY shouldn’t have to say this, but this also means that racism, homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, ableism, fatphobia, ageism, sexism, and the like are not welcome in this event.

Finally, no complaining about pirate puns or silly server names. It gets us through the day!

Is there anything else I should know?

We’ve mentioned it already, but Black Sails is extremely adult content. The show contains graphic violence, torture, explicit sexual content, depictions of enslaved persons, sexual assualt, imperialism and colonialism, and extensive drug and alcohol use. It is also frequently funny, tender, heartbreaking, beautiful, and insightful. If this is your first time watching Black Sails, we ask that you enter into it prepared to encounter and engage with this content and these themes, or to back out or otherwise self-manage if you are not able to watch uninterrupted.

The deeply personal and variable nature of triggers means that we will not be providing content warnings or trigger warnings for each episode. You can find some detail on Does the Dog Die?; others may be found with a google search.

All of this said, we really do want this event to be fun. Black Sails is fascinating, but it’s also wildly entertaining and compelling TV! Please, put on your best pirate fits and grab a glass of your favourite (adult) beverage, and come shout with us about how incredible this absolutely wild piece of television is!

Follow this blog or check back soon for more info!

#beach blanket black sails #art and fic fest #black sails #know no shame #rewatch august babey

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mittensmorgul · 4 years ago

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Incoming sad rant about the spn ending. Don't read if you're not interested in reading something like that, but I literally don't know anyone in real life I can talk about this with, and I really need an outlet:

Sometimes I can put the way SPN ended out of my head and think "it's just a stupid show. I don't have to accept the finale, and the writers/network are wrong." But other times I just get gripped with really intense sadness at the disrespect that was done to my favorite characters. To the point where I'll sit still for hours a day, just wallowing in it. It ruins my whole day and mood. And then I think to myself "I'll just find some other stories that end better!" but then I get sad again, cuz I don't think I will ever love other characters as much as I love Dean and Cas, and then I spiral again thinking about all the potential this unique beautiful love story had, and how we're never going to get the closure we deserve.

I really hate that after all this time, I'm a grown ass adult getting sad over fictional characters. I know it's not that trivial, but I sometimes wish it was so I could get over it 😞

Hi hi, and first of all *socially distanced internet hugs* I’m sorry you don’t have an outlet, but you’re always welcome to chat with me (if you come off anon we can talk privately if you want. My DM’s are always open, even when it takes me a bit to reply. no one should have to feel alone in this.)

I’m actually gonna start at the bottom of your message and work my way up, because I also, as a grown-ass adult, get sad over fictional characters. And I need to emphasize that this is the *point* of fiction. A well-written and developed fictional character is *indistinguishable in our minds from an actual real human being.* The way we react to them *feels exactly the same to our brains and bodies* as how we react to real people, and that’s a testament to just how well developed Dean and Cas were in canon.

I am not a young person. I have engaged with a lot of media over my life, and have *never* felt this strongly about fictional characters before, so I understand what you mean when you struggle to think about finding another story that ended better, or struggle to think about finding other characters you might become this attached to or experience this sort of emotional investment in. And I think there is another factor you didn’t consider there: The vast majority of other media I have engaged with, I was able to relate to on a level of “oh that’s nice for them” or “wow that sucks for them.” I have never, and possibly never will again, feel so utterly invested in fictional characters, to the point where it affects my real life as much as Supernatural has. Period.

I will likely never experience *literal physical lovesickness* over two fictional characters ever again. I hadn’t ever experienced it *in my own real life* before, and yet 15.18 triggered all those symptoms in me. As an aromantic person, this was pretty shocking to me. It also says a lot about just how real these characters feel to us, and how important they have become to us. They make us feel this! This is not an accident. It’s *incredibly difficult* to create fictional characters with this range and depth of emotional connection, and yet here we are.

I think that’s the biggest evidence possibly to present in defense of the statement that THIS IS NOT JUST SOME STUPID SHOW.

Other evidence: this fandom, still going strong after 15 years. Look at every SPN convention for proof. Look at AO3, where there are more posted stories about Dean and Cas than literally any other pairing on the planet (by a not-small margin, too). If that isn’t enough evidence, we have fanart to look at as well. Look through @theroadsofararchive where at the time of this posting there are over 40,000 artworks catalogued, and more being added all the time. Same with @canonspngifs where you can search through through nearly 75,000 gifsets organized by an excellent tagging system and made by dedicated fans out of love for the thing. This is all proof that you are not alone, that so many of us care just as deeply about them as you do. Not even mentioning the people who have written hundreds of millions of words of meta, articles, and even masters theses and doctoral dissertations on Supernatural and the fandom. This is a unique thing, even within the larger fandom culture. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that your feelings for it are stupid or irrelevant or wrong.

But also don’t let anyone try to convince you that you must accept the finale as part of the story if you don’t want to. Don’t even let *yourself* believe that if you don’t want to. This show has done more to play with the themes of “what is reality” and “who gives a story meaning” and alternate universes and curses and djinn dreams to easily account for whatever the heck the finale was.

my current go-to theory: everything after Chuck’s defeat takes place in the Mockumentary Alternate Universe... it fits way too uncomfortably well... and then I just apply the fic I received in a cosmic transmission from the actual supernatural universe wrote detailing the events of what *I* hoped would transpire afterward. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for me, mostly because it *has* to. It means far too much to me not to.

You are not alone in having invested yourself into this story, and these characters. Your feelings about them are not wrong or stupid or frivolous. And the proof is everyone else who feels the same exact way, who connected to this story (and to each other through this story), and whose lives have been forever altered through this journey together. The fact that Dabb turned out to have been Chuck Junior and couldn’t see (or was prevented from showing us) what Team Free Will would’ve chosen to do with that after defeating their original creator just stands to prove to me that the finale can’t possibly be The Truth, you know?

I don’t know if any of this will help you, or provide you some small comfort right now, but maybe it will eventually. We’re all processing the loss of the show and the abject failure of story that was the finale in different ways, and I’m sure our emotional reactions will shift over time. It was just A Lot to process all in the span of a few incredibly emotional weeks-- not even mentioning how all of that emotional response was compounded by the american elections and surrounding nonsense, the general stress of enduring a global pandemic and all that entails, and *waves hands around broadly at everything else contributing to the trauma occurring in the collective of humankind right now.* We’ve all been emotionally compromised, so be kind to yourself in how you feel you’re coping with it all.

And know that no matter what, you are not alone in how you’re feeling. The grief is real, and our brains don’t care if it’s felt for fictional characters or real people. This was honestly a once in a lifetime experience for a lot of us, and not even the wtf of the finale can kill it for us if we don’t let it. I reject that particular piece of rusty rebar and choose to believe in a just and narratively coherent resolution. To do anything less feels like dishonoring the story and characters who have drawn me in and made me feel so much for them over the years. If the story itself couldn’t honor them properly, then I can choose to do so myself.

#spn 15.20 #finale what finale #seriously though none of us are alone in this #Anonymous

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liodendrama · 3 years ago

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Hi there, decided to hop on a VPN so I can access this blog for once. Happy New Years, firstly.

Long time no see, huh? Guess I’ll have to explain *my* side of the story, seeing Ruggie is leaving you all out of it. Originally I didn’t want to make a whole submission on just a silly 15 year old that is so incredibly drama-thirsty, but if Ruggie is going to use people the same way it used me, I’ll step in.

My pronouns are he/it, Ruggie’s are it/its. I’m not going to stoop down to Ruggie’s level and allow misgendering of anyone. TW/CW FOR suicide mentions, self harm, mentions of nsfw, and more. Sorry for the constant changes between background colour. My phone has the dark theme of discord while my laptop has the normal theme.

I’ll start off by saying I’m not going to deny those screenshots, although Ruggie hasn’t sent my entire message to everyone it shared it with. In the screenshots I’m showing, I’ll censor anybody’s name but mine and Ruggie’s. I’d rather not get anyone else roped into this.

This entire thing has been going on for a little while. Ruggie joined our server on 12/12/2021 - at least, that’s what the logs say.

Ruggie was a frequenter of the vent channel. Nothing wrong with that. However, Ruggie’s vents were mainly uncensored, while the channel description tells people to TW/CW OR censor graphic information. Ruggie grew to visit the vent channel more often after getting temporarily suspended for being underage. After this suspension took place, Ruggie grew paranoid of everyone it told its true age - which were quite a lot of people. I quickly dm’ed my modbox tickets to Ruggie, as it wanted to. Although, I really got the feeling that Ruggie was only ever nice to me in the first place out of fear I’d inform moderators. Since its behaviour somewhat switched after this suspension took place. Ruggie started insulting me “jokingly”, although I’ve informed people on my den page and in some of my carrds that I do not appreciate people being playfully mean to me. Where I’m from, such things are seen as insults, no matter whether it’s a “joke”. I’ve talked about cultural differences in our server quite often.

Ruggie has apologised for calling me a whore, although the message was not deleted as of right now. Mind you, THIS screenshot is NOT to be used as proof against Ruggie. The convo went down smoothly, despite the fact Ruggie didn’t delete one of two messages I was referring to. This is not Ruggie’s fault, everyone can be forgetful sometimes. I will leave the censored item for what it is; this is my own personal thing, and I am pretty sure it is easy to guess in the context, anyways.

https://i.gyazo.com/8171ec66dcadde3c15f94a4920965526.png

https://i.gyazo.com/b66f134e78eb1f9fa00c41d1cadaf2af.png

The other message I was referring to got deleted like asked, so it won’t be brought up.

On to the suibaiting.

Ruggie often dropped into the vent channel, telling us it was going to kill itself. Thank you anon for sharing the screenshot I sent to you, but I’ll put it here again, except with the full convo. I will ONLY post the messages from yesterday. All other messages that Ruggie made on this topic will not be shown, as those are irrelevant to this topic. Note that Ruggie has made a list of people who did not DM it first recently. People have a life too, you know? Later I got added to this list after not checking up.

Ruggie’s final three vents were sent after my friend and I moved on from the conversation after being snapped at. Ruggie added the death-date count to its status after this vent. Really triggering attempt to try to make us feel guilty over not being good enough with helping you first thing at 8AM in the morning.

https://i.imgur.com/rtXNFVf.jpg

https://i.gyazo.com/5fd41a82bee1909d92180aebc3dc203b.png

https://i.imgur.com/wmFBdPQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Iy0jxEc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/aW2sSQu.jpg

https://i.gyazo.com/d4566390c2326d2ca0eb9a9e5f8026b2.png

The relapsing and being in tears referred to this.

Here is a message that Ruggie sent to my friend.

https://i.imgur.com/241OSYP.png

Wanna know what really happened? Okay!

https://i.gyazo.com/e79ca002b897f8a7ab6aa74f34e7ac56.png

https://i.gyazo.com/3c0e1f903613bc9f19a210e4533b8c8c.png

https://i.gyazo.com/a3dace3aa57c9b90caf4339cbec732d1.png

https://i.gyazo.com/1a4fcf988de1ea948b754f06c2b29d75.png

See? Skippy never joined Skywatchers. Skippy said she was considering it, once she wasn't so busy. Thanks for trying to make me seem like an asshole here, Ruggie.

After this, Ruggie not only spent an entire day shittalking me to my friends, it also constantly vague’d me on its discord status, AND made subtweets about me on twitter, where I could see it, since we were mutuals at the time. I had reached out to Ruggie through twitter, by tagging it on the timeline and going “?”. This attempt was ignored despite Ruggie seeing it. Ruggie also told my friend it got a manic episode over the entire roleplay misunderstanding. Honest to god, Ruggie, if that makes you get a manic episode already, you really should just spend that time you’re suspended for being underage getting help. IRL. This isn’t healthy, and venting about your mother wanting to get you a therapist isn’t healthy either.

Bonuses!

Ruggie is bodily white. Another server member and I sometimes vent/rant about our experiences as people of colour. Ruggie starts venting in the vent channel as soon as it's excluded from a convo. The member and I were ranting about our experiences regarding racism + sinophobia, and Ruggie jumped in. Some stuff was said, but this is some things Ruggie said! Messages were NOT sent directly after one another, it is just a collection of three.

https://i.gyazo.com/f6b2cdd268b46dccab6620053aafaab1.png

Keep in mind that Ruggie is NEITHER POC NOR JEWISH, yet compared two horrible situations to each other without warning. It has no right to speak on antisemitism or racism.

Ruggie has a reason for this! Why? One of its’ alters is black in the headspace. Ruggie is bodily white. This gives you NO excuse to speak over people of colour, since you don’t experience the issues we were venting about.

https://i.gyazo.com/7f74730d044fb591d7cfcce448af2986.png

That’s all for the racism topic.

Now for the tweets Ruggie made about my friends and me!

These were made before my final interaction with it.

https://i.gyazo.com/72225d548fd94e2f88bc720249bedbe7.png

https://i.gyazo.com/f9b991570de6fa09cee9a27e360d015a.png

There was more, but those are now deleted.

Ruggie also made status messages about me BEFORE I sent my series of angry messages.

I only have screenshots of one. This status change was made after I did not reach out to Ruggie.

https://i.imgur.com/pnUkh1j.jpg

The one before said “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME” because I did not respond to its vent, and kept on chatting with my friend.

Next!

I mass commission artists a lot. I love supporting artists, and I love seeing different interpretations of my ocs! I don’t have a screenshot for this (I simply cannot find it in the server anymore), but Ruggie once got upset with me when I mentioned I mass commissioned artists. It said something along the lines of “but you didn’t commission me?”, before acting really upset.

Ruggie also often either used its DID, BPD, or the fact its friend is dead as an excuse to be upset with us. Here’s one example mentioning the dead friend.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/904445704095797258/926528106724995112/Screenshot_20211231-0207482.png

Oh, and btw. Turns out that friend wasn’t dead after all. What’ll be the next excuse to insult your friends? Idk because Ruggie is blocked forever by me.

There’s way more, but I’m not going to spend my entire day writing some stupid submission about a 15 year old that just cannot leave my ass alone for some reason.

To answer some of Liam’s points.

Liam, I have blocked you ages ago on lioden for calling me queer. That word has been used against me in a derogatory way. I’m not a Westerner, where I'm from, this word is usually the last thing you hear before getting beaten. Like anon said; Ruggie has shittalked literally all of its friends at this point, and you’re included in that.

For the spelling cop thing? Are you serious? English is my third-fourth language; I’m Chinese-Russian. I grew up in mainland Russia for most of my life, and the English education out there is downright horrible. My English is self–taught. Dunno why’d you feel it was necessary to comment on my English in your callout or whatever, but ig.

Why’d I use schizo? I’m schizophrenic. I can reclaim this word. It’s been brought up on this blog before that I have diagnosed schizophrenia along with other usually demonized disorders. I only bring up things that I can reclaim myself. I have DID and BPD myself, yet I don’t like to use my alters or anything else as an excuse for what I did. Yes, I do experience inappropriate anger. It’s a pain. Next to that I have the aforementioned schizophrenia, and more. Thanks!

I called Ruggie a pussy because it spent its ENTIRE day shittalking me to my friends, and twisting the situation in such a way it made Ruggie seem innocent, then it eventually begged my friend to make them ask ME to dm Ruggie. I received messages all day from my friends, because Ruggie claimed I did not care about it due to the lack of checking in.

“Whole ass adult” now listen to yourself. I turned eighteen in November. Nobody suddenly becomes an adult as soon as they turn 18, and I’m sure you’re aware of that yourself.

Liam, I am telling you; Ruggie is planning to use you in the exact same way it used me. Ruggie made ME dm people for it, told me to be angry at them, make sure they’d apologise and never do it again. Your dear minor friend used the fact I experience inappropriate anger as a weapon against me. Ruggie is a goddamn manipulator, and soon you’ll be the one in my position.

And to the other anon… The Bitter Bloodbank had NOTHING to do with any of this; leave pronoun out of your mouth. We’re mutuals on here, not competitors or anything?

This is what Ruggie left out of the messages I sent it.

https://i.gyazo.com/4eaddd703ee64f4bc9a92cfceaaa013d.png

I’m owning up to what I did, it would be time for Ruggie to do the same.

Block me if you want, my tag is #108477. I just want to decorate lions n commission art of my ocs, lol. I hope Ruggie will leave me alone as my friends have told it *multiple* times to leave me alone and that I am not interested in interacting with it ever again, and I don’t want to get used as someone’s guard dog either. I’m not a therapist, I have my own issues going on and I don’t need someone who only dms me to tell me it wants to kill itself as a friend. There is so much more shit that Ruggie has done to me and other people, including intruding on adult spaces and straight up acting NSFW, but if I were to list down everything Ruggie had done, I’d end up like that peculiar 30 year old who made a callout post on a 12 year old lmfao! I hope you’re happy in your plan succeeding, Ruggie. You’re right, nobody will forget you. No need to suibait or put your planned date in your status or bio for people to think about you. It won’t hurt to reach out to people first. By not reaching out to them either, you’re making them think the same thing you do.

#screenshots

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tk-duveraun · 6 years ago

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@soltheshiny I’ve got a lot to start with and it might be easier to save this way than in messages. 👌

If you’re on mobile, I heartily apologize, there’s a read more you won’t see and beneath it is some discussion of bodily functions.

1) Try not to dwell. I know, it sounds impossible. You can’t ignore the pain, let alone the other symptoms. However, our monkey brains are really dumb. The more you think about something, the more extreme your emotions surrounding it become. So if you feel 4/10 bad about something, but then think about it for ages, you’ll suddenly feel 6/10 bad.

Look at cute pictures

Color in a coloring book (also good for anxiety)

Play a video game

Read a book

Listen to a podcast

I know, it’s like “think of anything but a purple elephant” and it will still be there in your head, but when it’s not the focus, your brain doesn’t do the whole “MAKE IT WORSE” thing.

2) Say goodbye to bathroom shame. Also impossible, I know, but you’re going to have to ACT shameless and let your behavior train your stupid monkey brain.

“I need to sit by the door.” “Why?” “Because I will shit myself, Karen.”

People are TERRIFIED of poop and mentioning even the possibility of shit getting on something will make them much more accommodating of your condition.

3) Accidents will happen. Period.

Keep an extra set of clothes in your car with a plastic bag for soiled ones

Stock yourself with feminine hygiene pads for leaks

Stock yourself with bathroom wipes

Stock your chaffing treatment of choice

Stock yourself with water. It dehydrates the hell out of you.

Become the patron Saint of preparedness. Have snacks, pens, whatever.

Accidents attack your mental health and can ruin your day. You can mitigate this by having means to clean yourself up and get to a state where you can pretend it never happened.

The last item might seem a little strange, but consider this: a person gets their period early. Who’s their new hero? You. Your condition just saved someone else’s day. How amazing and nice is that? Having something good come from how ill you are is really a beacon of hope when things are at their worst.

4) Adjust your life to maximize your mental health. Autoimmune conditions are subject to massive fluctuations based on mood and other factors. Becoming the happiest bunny in the field won’t make flares go away by any means, but it will lessen them, make them less severe and leave you in a better place to deal with them.

5) Prepare for doctor and specialist visits.

Make a list of all medications, including over the counter and vitamins

Have your regular doctor’s details as well as your pharmacy’s on hand

Make a list of things you want to discuss

Have a record of symptoms and flares ups (more on this later)

Accept that the doctor not having answers right now is just the reality, not the doctor being terrible.

You will cry. Just accept it. It’s overwhelming and terrible and it feels like no one has any answers. You will get emotional. You will forget things. You’ll leave feeling like you wasted your time if you don’t have a list that you run through of everything you want to cover. I have been sick 14 years. I still cry when I see the doctor.

There are not a lot of answers for people with autoimmune conditions. There’s a lot of “We’ll try this and see how it works” there’s a lot of changing your diagnosis. This is normal. This does not mean your doctor is bad. If your doctor is compassionate and listens to you try to stick it out. No one has the answers. Human brains aren’t equipped to handle “We don’t know.” It will be incredibly difficult. Literally have a mantra in your head: “No one has any answers.”

They will change your medications and change your diagnosis and it’s frustrating as hell, but it’s so that you can get better treatment and so that the next person has to suffer less. So the next person CAN have answers. You are a critical data point in making treatment better for everyone. You are important and you are making a difference for others who are suffering. Let those thoughts bolster you through the hard times.

6) Keep a log of your symptoms, how you’re responding to medication and what you’re eating. Pick a time, set an alarm on your phone and then write notes about what you ate and how you felt in the last 24 hours. This is a common theme, but human brains are fucking stupid. If you are having a good day when you see your doctor, you will report that the medicine is more effective and you’ve been healthier and feeling better than you really have been. It’s critical that you have an accurate record of how things affect you.

The secondary benefit of this: every single medical professional suddenly takes you 100% more seriously. Doctors have to spend a lot of time and energy evaluating how accurate patient reporting is and translating that into usable information. If you just have piles of usable information, it’s like CHRISTMAS for them. I was in the emergency room recently and the staff’s eyes literally LIT UP when they saw that I had notes and information on my condition. I have a history of having my symptoms dismissed: not anymore.

I can literally just walk into my doctor’s office, look and sound completely fine and say, “Hey, this is happening, I think I need a run of [x] medication” and they will just prescribe it because they know that I know my body. (Obviously this doesn’t go for painkillers, but opiates are strictly inadvisable for most chronic conditions anyway)

And most importantly

7) Learn to forgive yourself. It’s impossible to do all of these things all of the time. Especially when you’re first diagnosed. You’ll get into slumps and dwell. You’ll forget your go-bag. You’ll be depressed and not take notes. You’ll have a cold and think it’s not worth it to record how you’re feeling because the cold is ruining it. It’s natural. It’s fine. We all do it.

These are all habits that you have to build and building habits is really difficult. What matters is that you’re trying. What matters is that you know what you have to do. What matters is that you continue to live your life. Your life can’t revolve around your condition or you’ll be miserable. Does your favorite food always cause a flare? It’s okay to say “Fuck it, I want to treat myself” and then suffer later. It’s okay. You’re not a failure. You’re not “making it worse.”

You’re not at fault for your condition. Nothing you did made it happen. You did nothing to deserve it. You shouldn’t have to do all of these things. Doing any of them, trying to do them, already sets you above the average person. You’re doing your best. You’re flourishing despite the hardships, even if you don’t feel like it now.

This list is actionable things. Things you can do to make your life better. The worst part is feeling helpless and you’re not helpless anymore. You can affect your treatment and your fate. You can put yourself back in control.

You can do this. You’re not alone.

You’re always welcome to message me directly about things. I will tell you upfront if I don’t have the spoons, so you never have to worry that you’re “bothering” me or “dragging me down” or “using up all of my energy.”

Additionally, my brother who has UC is available if you ever need to chat with him. He’s @shutupbeard here on tumblr, but we’re both more easily reached on discord - I’ll DM you our IDs.

Feel free to reblog this post, if you think someone needs to read it.

#cw: poop mention

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everydarkshroudhasasilverlining · 6 years ago

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I know not everyone is huge into rules, but they make things go more smoothly and help out to make things better for everyone. So here's a list of things to expect, not really rule, rules... But close enough.

I am an Indie RP blog, which means I don't belong to a specific group. I never have and I probably never will because that's just not my jive. I do RP with a specific person quite often but that doesn't mean I'm exclusive, I just happen to know this person personally and so I RP with them often.

If you ask me, I can tag things with a trigger warning. This doesn't bother me at all but I will not know to tag this unless you ask me to. I'm not going to go snooping for anything and I'm not a mind reader, so it's your responsibility to let me know to tag something. You're welcome to go through my tags list and block whatever may bother you. However, if something bothers you and it's not there, let me know so I can tag it in the future. If I forget to tag something (which I'll do my best not to, but it happens when you're human) then just remind me. I'll do my best to avoid this happening, however.

If you need to talk, go ahead and message me. I use combinations of my own experiences with scientific evidence and understanding to cater my responses to your situation. I will be honest, however. I don't want to lie to you, so I'm going to do my best to not do that. I try to provide a neutral voice, affirm what you're feeling, and give the most mature advice I can. I do not always have the answer but I'm excellent at listening, at least.

This is my only warning, my blog may have NSFW themes. Sex, cursing, death, and other dark themes. I tend to not shy away from the cruelties of reality, no matter how much I (or others) abhorr them. There is no way to stop the horrors of life... but we can take action and open up conversations and outlets of thinking so we can better understand and combat these terrible atrocities. I enjoy making myself think and question things and then going further and wondering WHY.

However, I am also mentally ill, live in the middle of nowhere, and have a life offline... so sometimes even the things I'm causing myself to question I have to take a step back from due to PTSD. I am still willing to discuss them, but I would need a small break so as to not cause myself mental and emotional pain. This is how I process and understand things. I will pick up the thread when I feel I am mentally able to and I will let you know that it's on pause because I do NOT just drop threads randomly. If you have this problem as well (or even if you want to actually drop the thread or just skip ahead) let me know and I will gladly do what I can. I'm not here to cause pain and distress. If the topic I'm RPing with you is pushing too far, let me know and we can stop that (and probably never do it again unless you request it).

Again, I will not randomly drop threads without discussing with you first. Not unless we personally come across an issue and you and I are no longer communicating. In which case, I will drop them in an effort to leave you be. I do not go out of my way to ask others why they dropped threads, either. I just ask that if you're going to drop it, let me know so I can remove it from my tracker. You don't have to give me a reason why, just let me know and I'll do it.

My replies MAY be incredibly slow. I live in the middle of nowhere so most of the time my internet doesn't work or only partially works. I'm mentally ill and have life outside of the internet. Sometimes I'm just slow to respond. I am not ignoring you, I promise. If I don't want to talk to you, I'll generally say I don't want to talk right now. Otherwise, assume something on my end is messing up so I cannot currently respond... or I'm sleeping or away from the computer.

I am not interested in anything more than platonic friendships with others. I am in a relationship and, honestly, am not really a people person... I'm a loner who lives on 12 acres and would rather go for a walk with my dogs or build toys for my rats than go to the mall. I'm not good with communication, though I try my best. I have no interest in flirting and it actually makes me incredibly uncomfortable, so I would prefer if you just didn't. I am friendly on a platonic level and nothing more. I may RP sexual themes, but other than my lover, I am not sexually interested in anyone. I'm very much grey-ace/demisexual... Meaning I have to build an attachment in the first place and, even then, I'm not generally interested in sex. I would appreciate if you respected that.

I do not generally have icons or gifs that are directly related to the character, but if I find one I may use it. Otherwise, I am an artist and so I may draw and/or doodle here and there. You are not required to do any of this, however. Please do not feel obligated to do anything for me. I owe you nothing and you owe me nothing. You are your own person, just as I am my own.

I am an AU/Crossover/OC friendly blog. For OCs or Crossovers into other fandoms I ask that you please toss me some information, however. There is the high chance that I will have no idea what you're talking about, even if I'm in the fandom, because my memory is not the best, I do not go snooping on other people's pages, and it's just nice to have something to work with. Plus, I may not even know the fandom. Regardless, I'll still work with you because I do enjoy challenges and learning.

If I reblog a meme or starter post, feel free to reblog and/or send me some. I don't mind either way, but I do enjoy getting inbox things so feel free to ask away, even if it doesn't have to do with a meme or starter post.

If you want to do a lot of threads with me? Same or different muses? Feel free! I'm really laid back and chill so it's no problem with me.

My muse is usually a top, though can switch depending. Preference for those who identify as male but swings any which way. He's generally Alpha in ABO universes. I will write sexual but if you don't want to then let me know and we can skip those scenes or even just do platonic RP. I am not picky and will not judge for this.

My Mike is usually the kind of guy with a big heart and a secret dark side that he's ashamed of and tries to hide. He wants to help everyone else be better than he thinks he is. He doesn't think highly of himself but works hard to do the right thing, despite being able to be swayed to do the wrong thing. I do this so I have a complicated character to work with who has realistic problems and not always the correct response. There are topics I can (probably even will) cover that I do NOT agree with or am even uncomfortable with myself because it helps me to process and understand things better when I can think of alternative trains of thought and get inside another's head.

I am mentally ill, sometimes I fall behind... Please be patient. I'm not going to bite and I do my best to talk professionally. If our RP touches on a topic that upsets either of us, it is your responsibility to let me know that you'd like to pause, skip, drop, or change the topic, and it is my responsibility to do the same for you. I will not judge you for this. I can only handle some topics at certain times too, so it's nothing personal. There are some topics that I can never handle when they hit a certain point, even (usually victim-blaming/gas-lighting children who are being abused, I cannot go in depth on this topic) because I suffer from PTSD from childhood trauma. There are topics that some people simply cannot do and that's okay. So if I'm RPing with you, and there's a topic you don't want, let me know so we can avoid it. I'm not here to cause undue distress. However, if I'm RPing a topic with someone else that makes you uncomfortable or you cannot do? Just let me know to tag it so you can block the tag. Nothing personal, no issues.

I generally do not move asks to a new thread because I am lazy and often forget how to do that. I write things down and use programs to help me keep track of things. However, if you want to move it, feel free. Just tag me so I can track it. If I don't see your tag, feel free to DM me to let me know to go look for it.

Personal blogs feel free to follow me but don't expect a follow back all of the time. Let me know the sid blogthat you RP with and I'll follow you there. This is NOT my main blog. My main blog is a Michael/Tall Goth RP blog that is much darker in topic, so do not feel like you have to follow that back.

If there is anything you have a problem with let me know. If you don't want to RP with me, that's okay! I'm not going to stalk you or demand an explanation. It's not my place and I don't have the time or energy to do that kind of thing. If you want to drop RPing with me completely, let me know and I'll remove the RPs from my tracker and leave you alone. You have every right to choose to not interact with me and that's okay. Even if you just want time, that's okay too. Unless we have a personal dispute, chances are that, even if you ask me to drop you, I won't block you so you're welcome to come back whenever you want to. No questions asked. You owe me NO explanation. Even if I ask you if it's okay if I ask why? Feel free to tell me no and that you don't want to explain, that's okay! You don't owe me anything and it's okay if you don't want to interact.

If you want to RP but something is bothering you? Whether it's a topic or a real life issue or my attitude... It's okay. Let me know. If you know we're just going to argue on a topic but you want to talk about other things, just ask me to never bring up that topic and I will do that for you. I can avoid topics to avoid disputes that way we can talk about other things. It doesn't bother me to do that. If you want me to tag that topic? I can do that too, so you don't have to see my talks about that with other people, either. I have no problem with that.

However, if you want to argue, are looking for an argument, or want to try to tell me how horrible I am because of xyz reason? I'm going to ignore you. I may even block you. It's nothing personal but I do not have the energy to do that. I am literally sick enough that if I get too stressed I pass out. I don't have the time or energy to waste on arguing that when I could go do something else. I do my best to study before I speak. I take facts and studies from trained professionals. I educate myself and separate reality from fiction. I have no interest in arguing over arbitrary things and I know who and what I am. I do no harm. I go out of my way to bend backwards to compromise. I will not stand there and be told I'm a horrible person with falsehoods because I know it's not true and I could spend that time going outside and working on the garden. So I won't. End of story.

In real life, I don't really do a lot. I live in the middle of nowhere with my partner and my animals. I spend my time taking care of my animals and making art because I'm not a people person. I have a lot of late-night deep debates with my partner that makes me really think and question things in order to challenge myself. I love science and studying. I don't generally interact with people in real life because I don't like people and it causes me stress. I'm not a super sexual person. I'm angry about the world's issues but not violent. I prefer to just chill and learn and ask questions. I want to challenge myself to think about things that make me assess situations from multiple sides and understand WHY someone does something. I want reality, no matter how cruel, so I can better learn how to help prevent that. It's just what I do.

I have no interest in arguing. Too much effort and no reward. If you want to hate me? Go ahead. I don't care the reason, just do it on your own time. Don't waste my time with it because I don't care. My caring goes as far as, this makes you uncomfortable? Okay, let me know and I'll tag it. Then you can block the tag and we can be done with it. It's your job to let me know. My job to make the tag. Your job to avoid the tag.

I'm not here to fight. I'm here o open up discussions within myself and challenge myself. My morals lay at how my rights end where yours begin and vice versa. I will not seek you out to cause harm. If you seek me out and cause yourself harm? That's on you. You did that to yourself. I am not forcing you to look up tags that upset you and read them. You did that to yourself. I put the tags there so you had the option to opt out.

Anyway, I feel like this is long enough. So there are my rules/explanation for my blog. If you need anything to talk abou, DM me and we'll figure out if I need to add anything. I'm nt actually an asshole, I just suck at communication and am not going to argue with every aggressive person online because I could use that time being productive.

#Rules and Regulations - Mike

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killthestairs · 7 years ago

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Dat 2018 Life Update

Dang, son. I’m reading some of my text posts (aka tumblr diary entries) from high school/ early college, and I’m honestly so pleased with how my life is right now. I’m so incredibly grateful for how everything is going for me, both academically and personally. And I’m gonna gush about it.

Man, I don’t know if it’s just me, but internships are hard to come by. Good thing I have this SUMMER RESEARCH PROGRAM IN SOUTH KOREA!! Wow, things couldn’t be better? I’m learning from some of the best minds in the country and I get to experience the culture. Wow wow wow. And the only thing I need to worry about is writing my reports and scheduling school orientation. Even though I’m traveling, I’m so at ease. All the travel and lodging costs are covered by the research program, and I have a stipend for food/personal items. It’s such a weight off my shoulders, having something so engaging and worry-free.

And we have so much free time? It’s honestly a bit ridiculous considering how much it takes to get us here. It’s currently a long weekend because the chemical research department is going on a beach retreat Monday and Tuesday. I can’t go due to my lack of traveler’s insurance, but we might go to Busan or Seoul (again). The other two girls in the group have relatives in either city, so we’re planning on visiting during one of those extra free days.

And South Korea is honestly such a good place for travelers? In Seoul, all of the street signs have a romanization and a super easy subway system. Maybe it’s because all I have are large east coast cities to compare, but Seoul is so clean? I can’t pinpoint any 1 thing that makes it cleaner, but it radiates that feeling? Or maybe it just feels more new? There’s a shopping mall in the subway system. There’s a ridged part of the sidewalk to help the blind and disabled get around the city easier. And the food is less expensive than back in the states. We were joking yesterday that $6 can only get a subway sandwich while it can get an entire meal here. We were joking, but it’s true. We go out to eat a lot (since we don’t have the means to cook), and a meal is max 15,000 won (~$14). And that’s a really nice meal. If we just want noodles/fried rice, it’s about 7,000 won ($6.50). And I really want to stress that these are well-portioned meals. Even the convenient stores are more convenient. They have fully prepped meals in there, with a wide variety of options. It reminds me of the prepared meal section of a nice grocery store, but actually affordable.

But enough about food. The research is amazing. We’ve moved from Seoul to Daejeon, where we’re staying at a National Research Laboratory, KRICT. We’ve only gone on two lab tours so far, but I’m so invested in everything here. Despite the language barrier, the researchers and students try their best to present their work and answer questions. None of this directly relates to our research back at RPI, but it’s so cool. And everyone’s so nice. Aahh!!

And back at RPI, everything is all set. I’m living in a super nice apartment with the most lovely of women. I love each and every one of them so so much. I’m so blessed that they are a part of my life, and I have such a great family to come back to every day. We’re currently working on getting a dinner schedule up and running; we just keep cooking things, but not taking anyone else’s food so it goes bad. Ridiculous. And we have a sublet currently. And he’s our baller DM. It can’t get better than that.

BUT IT DOES. I don’t know how or why, but I’ve received a scholarship for my senior year. It covers everything else that my family was paying for previously, and it allows me to lessen my student loans. So my parents only pay for my apartment, and I’ve got everything else covered. I’ve still got my federal work study and my pharmacy technician position. I’m finally feeling financially stable. And it’s such a wonderful feeling after the past couple of years. Because more than anything, I hated putting such a financial strain on my parents due to my own choices. But I feel redeemed and confirmed. I’m doing well in my classes, and I’m enjoying the subjects. I may not be the smartest kid on the block anymore, but I don’t think I ever was. But I am on of the smarter blocks in the city, if that makes any sense. I now have the mental/emotional energy to appreciate myself and the work I do. It may not be the best, but it’s the best I have. And it’s still pretty dang good.

Confidence is something I still need to work on, but I think I’m much better than a few years ago. And I’m gonna attribute a large part of that to being away from home. I went through my tags, all the way back, and a common theme from a few years ago is belittlement by family members. It’s still a problem (like every call home kinda problem) but having this distance and loving environment has allowed me to grow past it. So I can now stop and say that they’re wrong. They don’t get to treat me like that. And they’re starting to understand. And it’s nice.

Everything is really nice.

#yep it's me #Tiff's tiny tales #i also want to note that my boy is absolutely great #best boy of my heart and of all time #sweet supportive and considerate

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suzanneshannon · 6 years ago

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Who Are Design Systems For?

Specific design systems, I mean. Design systems, as a concept, are something just about any site can benefit from.

A lot of hype goes into design systems these days. Just the other day, an organization's published their design system publicly and I got a slew of DMs, emails, and Slack messages encouraging me to check it out. "Looks good to me," I said. But I'm merely knocking on the hood of a new car, so to speak. I haven't sat in it. I haven't driven it around the block, let alone driven it cross-country or tried to dig Cheerios out from between the seats. I'm sure I'd have more opinions after building a site or 10 with it (excuse the mixed metaphors).

So that leads me to a few questions. Can I build a site with this design system? Should I build a site with it? Is it for me? Or wait... who is this for?

They all have accordions.

Well not all of them, but bear with me, because there is a point to be made.

Bootstrap has an accordion too! Developers totally understand Bootstrap.

Whatever you think of it, I don't see much confusion around Bootstrap. You link up the CSS, you use the HTML they give you and — 💥 — you have components that are ready to rock.

It's possible that Bootstrap is a more of a "pattern library" than a "design system." I dunno. There is probably something to that distinction, but the naming semantics (if there are any) seem to be used interchangeably, so distinguishing Bootstrap as one or the other doesn't alleviate any confusion.

Developers reach for Bootstrap because...

It helps them build faster.

They get good quality "out of the box" if they aren't particularly great at HTML and CSS themselves.

They want to be accessible and Bootstrap has been through the accessibility ringer.

[Insert your reason.]

Appealing, yet these seem to be somewhat table stakes for any design system and not exclusive to Bootstrap alone.

Hmmmm... Maybe I'll have a gander around and choose a non-Bootstrap solution for my next project.

A lot of people are in this boat.

Maybe the next project is React so we want a design system that makes React a first-class citizen. Maybe we had trouble customizing Bootstrap to our liking. Maybe we just saw the default look of another design system and thought that would be a better fit. Maybe we are just bored of Bootstrap. Lots of reasons to look outside of Bootstrap, just as there are lots of reasons to look to it.

Since other design systems have accordions, too, can't I just... pick one?

Sorta?

One immediate consideration is the license. Salesforce's Lightning Design System is often pointed to as a leader in the world of design systems and has influenced a lot of the current thinking around them. Yet, it is not open source licensed. Actually, it is open source licensed. It uses BSD Clause-3 (MIT-like) for everything but the fonts and icons, which are Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0. I'm told: "anyone could reuse the code in their project that don’t have anything to do with Salesforce. They just can’t reuse it in a way that’s mimicking the system too closely."

That's not a problem — it's probably a good thing for Lightning. It's not a general purpose grab-it-and-go for all web developers on Earth as the target audience. It's for Salesforce and the slew of teams on different development stacks building things for Salesforce. If you're not building a Salesforce thing, it's not for you.

Then why is it public and not some internal document for the Salesforce team? I can't answer for them, but as I understand it, Salesforce is so enormous that they have both internal and external teams using it. So, perhaps making Lightning a public document is the most useful way to make it available to everyone who needs it.

This is something we’re actively discussing on the SLDS team. What exactly does “open source” mean to design systems when the usage is so specific? Is it more “source available?

— Alexis Córdova (@acordova) April 9, 2019

There's also the nice side effect that they get good press for it, and that can't hurt hiring efforts. I've also heard having a public design system can spark interesting and useful conversations.

Carbon Design System, on the other hand, is open source licensed. They also have an entire section explaining who should use the system:

Carbon is the official implementation of the IBM Design Language for product and web designers, and represents an ever-growing ecosystem of design assets and guidance. With a comprehensive set of human interface guidelines, design kits, and documentation, Carbon helps designers work faster and smarter.

That doesn't quite tell me what I want to know. It looks like IBM stuff out of the box, so it's definitely for IBM.

It's open source so I can use it if I want to. But is it really for me and my random projects? Do they want me to use it for that? Am I, random developer, who they are thinking about with this project? Or is it IBM-first, random developer second?

Company first, the world second.

If a design system is by a company, then it's for the company. It might also be open source, but any ol' random developer who wants to use it isn't the target audience.

It might not even technically be a company who makes it. It could be a government!

One really great design system is the U.S. Web Design System, which just went 2.0. It's gorgeous! It looks very complete and has some great features. It's got a classy custom font, it was designed with incremental adoption in mind, it has both useful components as well as utilities, and was built atomically from design tokens. Perhaps the best feature is that it's extremely accessible because it has to be by law.

The U.S. Web Design System is mostly public domain, so you totally can use it. But it's not designed with you in mind; it's designed to help people who make website for the government.

(By the way, The U.S. Web Design System is open to contribution, which is pretty cool because it's a way you could make a significant impact on websites that are very important to people's lives.)

My mindset is that open source design systems are not meant be reused and spin up for yourself, but to learn from and apply to your own

— Mike Dick (@miked1ck) April 9, 2019

Here's another kicker: There is a spectrum of customizability to design systems, on purpose.

Even if you technically can use a public design system you've found and like, you might consider the customizability angle. There is a whole spectrum to this, but let's consider the extreme edges and middle:

Zero Customizability: We built this to strongly enforce consistency for ourselves.

Pre-Selected Variations: We've got accordions in three different colors.

BYO Theme: We'll give you a skeleton that loosely achieves the pattern and you apply the styles to your liking.

There are design systems at all points on this spectrum. Bootstrap might be in between the last two, where you get a fully styled theme, but customizability largely comes via setting Sass variables and that creates infinite variations.

Polaris, Shopify's design system, is open source, but definitely for Shopify stuff. They are intentionally not trying to do what Bootstrap does (they tell me). It's far more about enforced consistency and adhering to a cohesive brand than it is slapping together and customizing a page.

Material Design is definitely Google's thing. The story of Material Design is that Google has an absolute crapload of products across all sorts of platforms. This could so easily become a mess of inconsistent design and branding. Instead, Google develops Material Design and successfully ships it across what seems like their entire empire. An incredible success story in design systems. So I don't think it's off base to say that Material Design is by-Google for-Google.

But these days, they definitely encourage other developers to use it too. By default, that makes your thing look like a Google thing.

But they are actively trying to make Material Design more customizable so you can bring your own brand. So far, it looks like there is a Sketch plugin that helps with that. For us coders, their Material Components repo looks like it is built with Sass and many things are set up with variables you can override. See this tutorial about customizing.

There are lots of success stories with customizing Material Design. Companies like Lyft, Zappos, and NPR, who all have strong brand identities of their own, all use customized Material Design.

That makes the messaging for Material Design all the more tricky and interesting. It's very definitely for Google, but clearly it's also very definitely intended for anyone else who wants to use it. That messaging just might work as Google has the resources and perception to pull that off in a way that I would think it's harder for other company-branded design systems to do.

In case this isn't obvious (and I very much fear that it isn't), design systems aren't a commodity. We don't get to simply pick the one that has the nicest accordion and use it on the next project. We might not even be allowed to use it. It might be intentionally branded for a specific company. There are all kinds of factors to consider here.

My parting advice is actually to the makers of public design systems: clearly identify who this design system is for and what they are able to do with it.

I'd also like to note that everyone who I've brought this up to in the last few weeks has had different opinions about all this target audience messaging stuff in design systems. Of course, I'd love to read your comments about how you feel about it.

The post Who Are Design Systems For? appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Who Are Design Systems For? published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

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413-request-entity-too-large · 6 years ago

Text

Who Are Design Systems For?

Specific design systems, I mean. Design systems, as a concept, are something just about any site can benefit from.

So that leads me to a few questions. Can I build a site with this design system? Should I build a site with it? Is it for me? Or wait... who is this for?

They all have accordions.

Well not all of them, but bear with me, because there is a point to be made.

Bootstrap has an accordion too! Developers totally understand Bootstrap.

Whatever you think of it, I don't see much confusion around Bootstrap. You link up the CSS, you use the HTML they give you and — 💥 — you have components that are ready to rock.

Developers reach for Bootstrap because...

It helps them build faster.

They get good quality "out of the box" if they aren't particularly great at HTML and CSS themselves.

They want to be accessible and Bootstrap has been through the accessibility ringer.

[Insert your reason.]

Appealing, yet these seem to be somewhat table stakes for any design system and not exclusive to Bootstrap alone.

Hmmmm... Maybe I'll have a gander around and choose a non-Bootstrap solution for my next project.

A lot of people are in this boat.

Since other design systems have accordions, too, can't I just... pick one?

Sorta?

This is something we’re actively discussing on the SLDS team. What exactly does “open source” mean to design systems when the usage is so specific? Is it more “source available?

— Alexis Córdova (@acordova) April 9, 2019

There's also the nice side effect that they get good press for it, and that can't hurt hiring efforts. I've also heard having a public design system can spark interesting and useful conversations.

Carbon Design System, on the other hand, is open source licensed. They also have an entire section explaining who should use the system:

That doesn't quite tell me what I want to know. It looks like IBM stuff out of the box, so it's definitely for IBM.

Company first, the world second.

If a design system is by a company, then it's for the company. It might also be open source, but any ol' random developer who wants to use it isn't the target audience.

It might not even technically be a company who makes it. It could be a government!

The U.S. Web Design System is mostly public domain, so you totally can use it. But it's not designed with you in mind; it's designed to help people who make website for the government.

(By the way, The U.S. Web Design System is open to contribution, which is pretty cool because it's a way you could make a significant impact on websites that are very important to people's lives.)

My mindset is that open source design systems are not meant be reused and spin up for yourself, but to learn from and apply to your own

— Mike Dick (@miked1ck) April 9, 2019

Here's another kicker: There is a spectrum of customizability to design systems, on purpose.

Zero Customizability: We built this to strongly enforce consistency for ourselves.

Pre-Selected Variations: We've got accordions in three different colors.

BYO Theme: We'll give you a skeleton that loosely achieves the pattern and you apply the styles to your liking.

But these days, they definitely encourage other developers to use it too. By default, that makes your thing look like a Google thing.

There are lots of success stories with customizing Material Design. Companies like Lyft, Zappos, and NPR, who all have strong brand identities of their own, all use customized Material Design.

My parting advice is actually to the makers of public design systems: clearly identify who this design system is for and what they are able to do with it.

The post Who Are Design Systems For? appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

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shirlleycoyle · 4 years ago

Text

‘Wet Ass Postage:’ Sexualizing the Post Office to Save the USPS

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stops the mail, so the USPS slogan goes—but sometimes, a bored and horny housewife can, in porn tropes at least.

The United States Postal Service, long underfunded and under-appreciated, has accelerated its slide into a threat of collapse due to terrible decisions made by the new postmaster and the Trump administration. It's a mess, and in an election year when more people than ever are going to vote by mail-in ballot to avoid coming into contact with a deadly virus at the polls, it's terrifying.

In early August, Twitter user @BonniePuns put into words something we all felt deep down: only a mass effort of making the post office sexy could salvage it, now.

Writer Ira Madison III tweeted the incredible idea that the post office should start an OnlyFans—since everyone else is doing it, from Bella Thorne to Cardi B—which also went viral:

People in uniform—cops, firemen—are a common porn trope, so it's no surprise that mail carriers are hot again. I've probably seen more of William Harper Jackson's Good Place character Chidi in a tight little mailman uniform in the last month than any other image—and in the episode he wears it in, Kristin Bell's character admits a sex fantasy about fucking a mailman.

Now that it's in danger, everyone's got a boner for the post office, but the thing is, slipping packages on doorsteps and mail through slots has always been sexualized.

Like the stripper-cop trope, the mailman-meets-horny-resident has been around forever, too. The trope used to be the milkman stopping in every day to visit the bored housewife, but that shifted to the postal worker when milk delivery became obsolete. One of the most popular examples of this in pop culture is attributed to the show Kids Say the Darndest Things, where one of the kids says, "I don't look like my Mommy or my Daddy. I look like the mailman.

In a more modern example, Paige Steele plays a pissed-off customer who makes the mailman come inside and watch her test the dildo he just delivered.

Interestingly, there's a notable lack of women mail carriers in mail-porn, even though there are lots of them in real life—slightly less than half of carriers are women, and women have been letter carriers since at least 1845.

Even with years of porn and film and TV examples, horny mail goes back farther than that. Jean Shepard and Ferlin Husky's 1953 song "Dear John" was about sending a breakup letter to let a soldier know he'd been cucked back home by his own brother, and became shorthand for dumping someone via letter. Brian Hyland's 1962 "Sealed With A Kiss," the Marvelettes' 1965 "Mister Postman"—these songs all eroticized descriptions of the act of sending and receiving mail, in a time when getting a letter that smelled like your lover was probably the hottest thing imaginable.

Here in 2020, things are a little different. We slide into DMs, not mail slots, and our mailboxes are mostly virtual. And with precarious funding and incompetent leadership, the post office is in trouble.

Inspired by the "sexualizing the post office" tweet, TikTok user Siete White bought a mail bag from the USPS store and paired it with shiny black short shorts to twerk on a mailbox:

She told Buzzfeed News that the bag sold out after her post, which got more than 605,000 likes. "It’s empowering to know, wow, I made a 15-second-long video and people actually went and used their hard-earned coins to go and make their own individual difference," White said.

Others on TikTok and Twitter took a page out of K-pop stan fancam playbook and made video mashups of postal workers delivering mail and petting dogs to "WAP" and "In the Party" by Flo Milli:

Much like artists who coped with Covid-19 lockdown by sketching toilet paper and hand sanitizer Corona-chan waifus and sex workers who sold nudes to raise money for Australian wildfire relief efforts (2020 has been so weird), people are turning their concerns about the fate of the USPS into art.

Alexandra Kiselyov, a graduate student studying television writing and producing, is also selling art in exchange for proof of USPS support—but instead of nudes, she's taking illustration art commissions. While they aren’t necessarily sexualized, she was inspired by others doing similar fundraising campaigns. For every $10 or more spent on USPS stamps with proof of receipt, she'll illustrate whatever you want.

"I wanted to give people incentive to buy stamps for the USPS, primarily because I'm extremely concerned about mail-in voting and what the Trump administration has been doing in the background," she told me. She's concerned about the state of mail-in ballots for the election, but also since she runs a small business through eBay, she relies on the USPS to ship to customers.

"I'm eternally grateful to those that did purchase stamps, and I hope people will continue to support artists and the USPS in the future,” she said. “The most important part is that people are learning that the USPS is in dire straits, and that small businesses and rural communities are going to be affected by it."

Cosplayer Katie Simrell told me she decided to do a postal-themed look after being inspired by the @BonniePuns tweet. "Immediately I thought about how I could make a cosplay from this idea to raise money from the USPS," she said. "Making silly lewd/sexy costumes out of innocuous characters or inanimate objects or ideas or… govt agencies apparently (lol) isn't a new idea of course."

The USPS doesn't sell uniforms, so she found an old one on eBay, and like White, she bought the messenger bag from the USPS store. A matching blue and red microbikini and ingenious stamp pasties complete the look.

Like Alexandra's commissions, sending proof of purchase from the USPS store got you a lewd photo in her USPS-chan outfit, as does proof of texting "USPS" to 50409—which returns a Resistbot that automatically emails your local representatives to urge them to support the Delivering for America Act. Simrell said her DMs exploded with purchase receipts, she said, "which could either be a great sign of people really wanting to help the USPS and they love the idea, or equally, people just being horny."

The response has been mostly positive, which surprised her. "Usually I brace myself for a torrent of misogynistic or mean-spirited comments but there have only been a few small outliers," she said. "The most baffling response has been the handful of political retorts. Somebody tried to say 'the dems are offering nudes now to join their party,' I guess trying to demean me? Or as if the USPS is a service that only one political party can use."

Urging individuals to buy stamps and art commissions probably won't, in itself, save the post office. The job of funding one of the country's oldest and most important institutions is a lot bigger than OnlyFans can handle. But if the postal worker ever goes the way of the milkman, future generations could find themselves jerking off to a lot more UPS and FedEx porn fantasies.

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