#you’re not learning skills

[pyr0cue]

Are we doomed to live in a world where self expression and creativity are only deemed as such if they look good? How does AI lower the “entrance barrier” of art when the entrance barrier is literally picking up a pencil and drawing something, anything. Maybe watching a youtube tutorial. If the entrance barrier is into the sale of art then,,,,what are you selling? Artists price their pieces off their labor, material costs, demand, and more. If you type a prompt into a computer then what are you selling?? How is this helping anyone?? All it does is hurt people by convincing them the only way they can express themselves is if it looks good, making them think they need AI to help. I actually feel like I’m going insane how did we let the stupid fucking elite class art industry convince people their art isn’t valid unless it’s good. I’m tired.

[lucythornwalter]

Actually, it’s not at all hard to recognize that a story or a series is doing some things you like and some things you hate and temper your engagement with it accordingly. You don’t have to be a fan of a thing that keeps fucking you over emotionally, or a thing that keeps making you mad. A completely valid response (and one that I think will be better for most people emotionally long term!) is walking away.

[i-really-like-phrogs]

When someone else’s art is so good you physically can’t look at it because of artistic jealousy

[heynhay]

How draw like you T^T

Do you have any advice for learning to draw better? Like, resources or practices or anything?

Time. and referencing. No way around it but to put in the hours.

[pollenallergie]

“do the hardest task first”

no. just… no.

hot take: this doesn’t work for people with adhd (in my experience/from what i’ve heard from other people with adhd in my life). i recommend doing the easy/moderately difficult stuff first, that way you can convince yourself that it’s all going to be this easy and undemanding. then hyper-focus will kick in because your brain is like, “yeah, we can do this, we’ve got this.” then, before you know it, you’ve completed both the easy tasks and the hard tasks while hyperfocusing.

like, on a serious note, it’s always been easier for me to convince myself to get the most difficult tasks done when i’m already working/in the working frame of mind, not when i’m laying in bed or sitting on the couch, mindlessly scrolling through stuff on my phone, and struggling to start at all.

if the choice comes down to you not starting at all or starting with the easiest task first (which, for me, it often does), always, always pick starting with the easiest task first. sometimes you need a small victory, a little bit of an accomplishment, to give you the courage to take on bigger challenges.

[catlliecal]

I think what’s interesting to me about Yor is that Yor Briar/Forger isn’t just a front to hide Thorn Princess, that Thorn Princess alone isn’t her “true self,” nor is Yor Briar/Forger alone her “true self.” They both make up her. She’s compassionate. She may be a bit aloof, but she’s also very intelligent and knows the best place to attack someone to kill them as quickly as possible. I think that makes her a very wonderful character.

[cruel-hiraeth]

you start learning french to flirt with neuvillette, but your pronunciation is so bad that each instance turns into an impromptu language lesson.

[ecileh]

WHY DO NONE OF THE ACOTAR FAE HAVE HOBBIES EXCEPT THE ARCHERON SISTERS WHO ARE 19-25 YEARS OLD??? What have they all been doing for the last 500 years?? None of them have any real skills besides creative murder even though they had 450 years of peace between the first War and Amarantha’s reign.

Why does it not bother them that their mates have experienced less than 5% of their lifetimes and why do they not want their mates to live a little before settling down?

Why do they learn nothing from history that they literally lived? Why do none of them have a lick of emotional maturity or have any thoughts about the meaning of their lives or MEANINGFULLY improving the lives of others? I’m not talking about “let’s pass a law and let Illyrians still clip female wings as long as they aren’t obvious about it” I’m talking about a cultural overhaul where females and wild fae are valued and given justice *before* your nineteen-year-old recently-human mate expresses distaste for the way they are treated.

WHAT WERE THEY DOING FOR 450 YEARS

At least Tamlin plays the fiddle and Lucien studied/traveled I guess

[muffinlance]

Fellow Prisoner Li, Part 6: Bloodbender (Positive)

Read from the beginning || Previous

“When the moon rises,” Hama spoke softly, as they guarded the door of the inn. 

Katara eyed the sky above the trees. Evening was coming, but the sun would still be up when Tui fully rose. But it wasn’t night that gave them power: it was the moon. The moon, which wasn’t quite full anymore. 

“You’re stronger than I ever was,” her waterbending master said, squeezing her wrist. “And we have to try.”

Fire Nation imprisonment was what they were bound for, if they didn’t try now. Katara had already stared into that fate, and broken its last survivors free.

She stretched out her fingers, slowly. Watched the Fire Nation princess, impatiently pacing across the clearing.

She’d do more than try.

* * *

“A spirit,” the princess repeated, pinching the bridge of her nose. “That kidnaps people. Every full moon.”

“Yes, princess,” one of the guards said. They’d just come from the town.

“Then find me his bones, if you must, but find him,” the princess snapped. She had no patience for this.

Katara would have as much patience as she needed. Just like Hama, in that prison.

Just like the moon, as it sang to her blood. Soon.

* * *

Soon.

* * *

“Princess, we found—”

“There was a cave, we’ve got more people seeing to the rest—”

“Bring him here,” the princess said, belying her own demand by stalking closer to the soldier who was carrying a limp form. Azula’s back was to the inn. The attention of the other soldiers was on the newcomers, and what they carried. 

Now. 

Azula stopped mid-stride. Jerked, like someone had pulled her strings taut. It took a moment for the soldiers to notice that something was wrong. Took them longer, to identify the source.

Katara didn’t need to stand to do this. She sat on the steps of the inn, and crooked her fingers, and made the princess spin towards her in a pirouette human muscles were not made for.

“Good,” Hama whispered, into her ear. 

“You’re going to order them to let us go,” Katara said. “Or this will be the last thing you feel.”

It… looked horrible. Worse than when Hama had her practice, during the full moon, on the chicken-pig that was to be their dinner. They’d butchered it afterwards, and the master had shown her the way the blood vessels had burst and muscles torn where the soft flesh had twisted too hard against bone. Slow movements, Hama had said. Smooth. Like hanging a rag to drip, not like wringing it out. 

Unless you want them down, she’d added, and turned her knife away from anatomy and towards making them a stew. Then as fast as you can. 

The princess jerked in her hold, as much as she was able. Her torso was free, the soft organs and lungs and heart left alone. Her head, as well. Katara held her by arms and legs, as she’d been taught.

Don’t try for the head unless you want them dead. The brain has a lot of water. 

“You dare,” the princess spat.

Katara looked at her. For the first time, she was not at all afraid of the Fire Nation. 

“Order them,” she repeated.

“Princess—” said a solider. One of many who were uneasily shifting into stances ready for attack. 

“Stand down,” the princess barked. “Let them leave. Kill them if they kill me.”

Katara stayed sitting on the steps, her fingers cramping, meeting the princess’ gaze with her own as Sokka worked to free Appa from the net. As Hama helped the elders into the saddle, one by one. As Sokka politely—Excuse me, I’ll just be taking that, thanks for the find—reclaimed Li.

She couldn’t see their firebender breathing, from here. But she could feel the blood in his veins. She could feel it all around, in every enemy and every friend, pounding against her head. Her fingers twitched involuntarily. The princess grit her teeth against a gasp. 

“I’ll just be taking this, too,” Sokka said, scooping the princess up in the same bridal carry he’d just used for Li. “You can tell your Fire Lord to expect our ransom letter.”

“Sokka,” Katara said, between teeth clenched with strain. She couldn’t tell him I can’t do this much longer, because she didn’t know what would happen if the soldiers or princess heard. But she couldn’t, it was… it was too much, and everywhere, and she wasn’t sure for how much longer it would just be the princess. 

Pulling water from plants had been easier. She hadn’t cared which ones had wilted. 

“Katara,” Sokka said. “It’s free royal hostage.”

The princess went in the saddle. Hama helped Katara up, too. And then they were in the air, and—and she could let go. Relax. Let the only pulse she felt be her own.

She’d done it. 

She was crying, and Hama was hugging her, and another elder on her other side was too, and the moon was high above them white and brilliant and she’d done it.

“You’re so strong,” Hama said, holding her tight. “Such a master you’ll make. You’ll never have anything to fear, my child. It’s the world that will fear you. Our beautiful, brave southern bloodbender.”

The princess sat in the back of the cramped saddle, rubbing slowly at her arms. She was watching Katara. Katara couldn’t read her expression, through the tears. And to be honest? She didn’t really care.

She’d done it, she’d done it, and she could have done so much worse. 

If the princess didn’t recognize mercy when she saw it, it was only because she was still alive to disagree.

[coldbrewnette]

I think we as a society need to start shaming chronically late people

[nicollekidman]

i think eventually we’re going to have to find a way to appropriately and realistically engage with young people who are publicly learning new information, because everyone is on board with the concept of “after a certain point you can’t blame ignorance on education you have to take responsibility and seek information out” but then when kids lack the foundation or framework to then analyze and synthesize that information it’s too easy to sit back and say stupid gen z the youth are doomed!!!!!!! especially when those same kids are - for better or for worse - working through their ignorance in a public forum.

like we either have to swallow our knee-jerk reaction to their lack of understanding and offer guidance when we’re able, or we have to have a bigger conversation about what it means to become radicalized or introduced to leftist spaces when you don’t have a strong background in how to interact with new information/facts and when information is spread through Trends like a new pair of shoes. i know that wailing about how we think the youth are wandering into bigotry traps or don’t know how to verify information or whatever is like. standard but. i do remember what it felt like when every new thing i learned required that i readjust my entire worldview and how i accepted things and thought critically about things, and there is a way to extend that grace to people who have the unfortunate impulse to document their journey out of stupidity online without catastrophizing.

and again i guess the context changes for each person as everyone is being fed different videos/articles about The Youth(tm) and their habits but personally i have been so uplifted by the massive amount of young people who are trying to learn (and unlearn) an enormous amount of information in a very small amount of time, especially considering that many of these people (again, that i have personally seen) are doing so without the support of the adults in their lives or often their peers. and trying to do that within a hive mind echochamber in public is HARD and i guess i just think there are more beneficial ways to react to sensationalized accounts of what they’re doing and how they’re reacting than just like. assuming worst case scenarios for entire generations of people…. especially when we know the people who are used as examples in articles etc are always going to be the dumbest and most controversial

[meandmypagancrew]

Me, before reading the 13th volume: I guess I’m neutral on Near? Like, I understand his narrative purpose but he’s always just… not L.

The 13th volume:

Me now: you leave me and my tiny son alone. He’s just a little guy. Don’t even fucking look at him. He’s just the tiniest little guy there ever was and you could probably crush him like a tin can if you wanted but you’re gonna have to go through me first.

[the--last-great-american-dynasty]

this is your quick reminder that learning how to cook, clean, do laundry, budget money, wake up to alarms, plan for meals, and personal hygiene are all necessary skills for basically everyone and that you will need to learn how to do all of them to be a functioning adult

[r0semultiverse]

A message to the recent & future transgender pick-mes.

If you’re a trans pick-me (no matter where you align with gender) there’s a special place in Hell just for you & I don’t even believe in Hell. Having trauma isn’t excusing your actions of going out of your way to hurt other people actively. It explains that it comes from a place of hurt potentially or you’re just turning into a rage-bait influencer because it makes you money. Either way you come after trans people who don’t do being trans exactly like you so they “aren’t really trans.” You get a taste of the right-wing rage-bait money pot & you wanna keep going because money & maybe some weird part of you thinks this will save you from transphobic attacks? Honey, we’re all just fags to them no matter how we look or act. Even if you’re a cis person not following the norm or unaware of the politics of it all, you’re still just a faggot to them who they will eventually want to snuff out. I’m saying this as a tranny fag just to be clear! You can’t be playing these exclusion games & thinking it’s going to make you powerful! Even Milo Yionnapolis or whatever that fucker’s name was got dropped by the Trump Administration! They do not like us & they never will like us! Democrat, republican, whatever it is; if it’s capitalist, it doesn’t like us! No matter how much you lick those boots, it’ll do you no good. You’re a faggot/tranny just like me & the rest of us, that’s how these suits see it & always will see it no matter how much you try to prove “I’m one of the good ones.” They aren’t going to save you, we’re all on the chopping block to them no matter what our politics are. These government folks don’t see any of us as “one of the good ones.” Get over yourself, grow the fuck up, and stand side-by-side with your transsexual siblings! All we have is each other, these cis people aren’t shit! 💜 Down with cis! 💜

[rustchild]

.

[cream-and-tea]

grrrr mandatory word counts i hate you i hate you