#whenever I search for a show on tumblr or Twitter or Instagram. it just shows me what’s recent and trending

[mintcaboodle]

we need ao3 for fanart and I am so completely serious. A universal platform not driven by any kind of professionalism or end goal, just for creating. Most important of all it needs to share the incredibly helpful and complex filing system ao3 does. this would be beneficial I think. because I want it.

#No but seriously the way whole accounts full of art can go unseen #for years. and just get buried #because social media is different. social media is Make Make Make Post Post Post #social media is about Outreach. Followers. What Can You Gain #and of course creators should still have that and still have promo spsce #but also csnt we just have an impeccably organized archive? #whenever I search for a show on tumblr or Twitter or Instagram. it just shows me what’s recent and trending #what about thst awesome work from 3 years ago? or whatever #what if I want to filter for AU? #or etc etc. it agonizes me how much work gets lost to anything but aggressive digging

[lizzieonka]

An Honest Guide to Tumblr for Twitter Refugees (Part 1)

I know there are already tons of guides out there, but my WiFi was down the whole day and I got nothing else to do. Spent the entire morning making gifs, but still no WiFi, and I’m like, fck this let’s make a Tumblr guide.

Now, assuming you’ve already signed up and was able to snatch a fancy url*, here’s what you should do next: Log into Tumblr on desktop. You probably made your account through the app, and that’s cool and all, but for this guide, I’ll be showing some features that are currently only available on desktop Tumblr, so go ahead and get your laptop or PC out. Following this guide will also be easier on desktop.

*url = basically your username/handle on this site. We call them url’s because it what makes your domain name on your blog. More on this later.

Covered in Part 1:

Configuring your Tumblr Settings (filters, community labels, algorithms, etc.)

Customizing your Tumblr (how to avoid being mistaken as a bot**, enabling your Tumblr website, finding a Tumblr theme)

**this wasn’t included when I first made this post but decided to add it coz it’s really important.

Configuring your Tumblr Settings

Filters and Community Labels

Go to tumblr.com/settings/account. Here, you’ll find one of Tumblr’s most important features: filters and community labels. Filters are similar to Twitter’s “mute words” feature, and they come in two types: Tag and Content filters

Unlike Twitter, where tags are part of the post itself, Tumblr has a dedicated section at the bottom of the post to add tags.

Tag filters block out posts that are specifically tagged with #tag, while Content filters block posts containing a certain word within the body of the post itself. Once you have these set, you will never see such posts when using the search feature on Tumblr. It will still show up on your dashboard though, but it will look this and comes with the option to view the post for whenever you’re curious:

As for Community Labels, this should be self-explanatory. Mature content is now allowed on Tumblr, but if you don’t want to see such content, you can always opt-out.

Go wild in using these two features. Tumblr is the only major social media left that still allows you to liberally curate your feed. The peeps here on Tumblr mainly still abide by the “don’t like, don’t interact” rule from the old days. Calling out or cancelling a user for what they’re posting will get you nowhere. That’s just not how it works here. If you don’t like something, just block it.

Turning Off Algorithms

Contrary to popular narrative, Tumblr actually has algorithms. But unlike social media sites, they are contained in a tab of its own (i.e. the “For You” tab in Dashboard) and can be even turned off from showing up from within the feed you manually curated (the “Following” tab under Dashboard).

To turn off the algorithms, go to tumblr.com/settings/dashboard and scroll down to the Preferences section. And if you’re a privacy stickler like me, you can go further by going to tumblr.com/settings/privacy to turn off Improved Search.

Tumblr Labs

Tumblr Labs are experimental features. They’re not required, but if you want to make the most out of Tumblr, you might want to turn on some of them. I like to turn on the different Dashboard tabs so I can keep up with what’s going on in Tumblr.

Customizing your Tumblr

Now here comes the fun stuff and what really sets Tumblr apart from all other major social media sites: Personalization. In Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc, all user pages look the same. But in Tumblr, you can customize it as much as you want.

Before I start though, I’d like to throw in some stuff that you have to understand first:

Tumblr’s Two “Profile Pages”

Each Tumblr user technically has two “profile pages.” The first one is found at tumblr.com/username, and is basically not that much different from the profile pages of Twitter/Instagram/Facebook. You can customize its colors, icon, and header, but that’s pretty much it.

Edit: I forgot to include this very important bit when I first posted— How to avoid being mistaken as a bot Do not settle for Tumblr’s default icon and header. Tumblr has a long-standing bot problem. An uncustomized profile will make people think you’re a bot and will block you immediately. And when choosing an icon, you might have to think twice when using a selfie that does not include your face (i.e. an upper body picture starting from the neck/chest). Porn bots often use such pictures to make people think they’re real users. Numbers at the end of a url (like username123) are often indications of a bot account, so you might want to avoid that too.

Moving on… The second profile page is where the magic happens, and its found at username.tumblr.com. However, it’s not turned on by default.

Remember what I said earlier about Tumblr usernames being generally called as url’s? That’s because of our “second profile page” here (I hate calling it second though because it’s what came first, but since it’s not a default option now, “second” it is). Tumblr is a blogging platform. Like WordPress and Blogger, but a fun version of it. Your username.tumblr.com page is basically your own custom website.

Enabling your Tumblr Website

From hereon, I’m gonna refer to the “second profile page” as just site because, well, that’s what it really is.

To enable your custom site, go to tumblr.com/settings/blog/username. Toggle on the custom theme option. [If you’re a professional, you can even use a custom domain if you want your site url to look like your-site.com instead of your-site.tumblr.com.]

In the past, the step above would’ve been enough to enable your site, but since Tumblr started implementing changes that sites using the default theme would just redirect to the first profile page (tumblr.com/username), we now have to do some extra steps to make sure that folks visiting at your-site.tumblr.com will really see your website instead of Tumblr’s default profile.

For that, we need to edit our site’s theme.

What are Tumblr themes?

It's basically the design and layout of your site. It can be as crazy or as professional as you want. Here's Taylor Swift's Midnights theme, for example.

Where to Find a Tumblr Theme

Tumblr’s Official Theme Garden (free and paid)

Tumblr’s Official Theme Garden, but filtered to show only the free themes

@theme-hunter

@codingcabin

It’s so hard to filter for the right theme in the Theme Garden though, so I suggest looking for themes in theme-hunter instead.

Tip in Choosing a Theme: Find one that supports NPF (Neue Post Format). Although Tumblr is still advocating its different posts types (text, image, audio, video, etc.), they’ve actually been rolling out changes to their editor where only a single post type is used (text) and you just add media to it. This is what NPF is about. On desktop, you can turn off the beta editor and thereby turn off NPF. However, on mobile web and on the app, posts can only be made in NPF. So if you intend to post on mobile, you have to find a theme that supports it. Otherwise, your content may look weird on your site.

I absolutely recommend themes by @seyche and @fukuo. The one I’m currently using on my site is the Lilac theme by Seyche.

For a more comprehensive guide on customizing your Tumblr, check out Tumblr’s official guide for it.

And that ends part 1 of this Tumblr guide… Though I called this part 1, I actually don’t know if there’ll be a part 2 lol. I’m lazy, and writing this took some time. If my wifi continues to be down though and I still have some data left, I might just write a part 2, covering posting and tumblr culture.

Okay, I'm working on Part 2 now, and will soon edit this post to link to it. But for now, you might want to check out Part 0: What the heck is Tumblr and is it right for me?

Edit: Part 2 is done, and it covers stuff you need to know about posting! You can read it here.

Update: Part 3 (sort of) is up:

A Guide to Tagging on Tumblr: Types of Tags

#tumblr #tumblr guide #tumblr themes #blog themes #twitter #elon musk #miyamiwu.src #miyamiwu.tut

[worldheadcanons]

☆ miscellaneous stalker au canada headcanons!

starring. . . gender neutral reader and canada. warning for stalking (in general), general violence/murder mentioned, + nsfw in the last four headcanons.

author notes; live laugh love this little freak. he’s literally wild about reader and i ADORE that about him. he’s the type of guy to go “me and my partner don’t argue they bash my head in with a rock and i walk it off like a man.” he’s crazy.

matthew williams!

— matthew spends about an hour every day scrolling on his favorite shopping sites in search of things he thinks you’d like. he’s a smart shopper, if nothing else. he seems to know every secret coupon in the world. he really enjoys buying you cute clothing and trinkets he finds online. plushes, slippers, new satin pajama sets, sexy underwear, cat themed mugs, kitchen supplies to replace your old ones— god, not to mention the glorious food he delivers! it’s never more food than you need. it’s just enough so that you can eat your fill and still have a bit extra for later. it’s like having a sugar daddy, honestly. you occasionally feel bad for him and try to convince him to stop spending so much money on you, but williams manages to dismisse your concerns with ease. he lives and loves to serve you, he says. 

— if you identify with one of the binary genders then he’ll eventually start calling you a ‘good girl’ or ‘good boy’ over the phone. it’s not something he’s stubborn about, so if you ask him to stop he will. it’s nothing really sexual as he mostly uses the pet name to tease you, enjoying the way you roll your eyes or huff at his words. matthew never dishes out something he can’t take, so you deciding to mirror him isn’t an issue. in fact, he takes pleasure in it, grinning to himself in the bushes of your front yard. you’ll tell him to be a ‘good boy’ and turn himself in to the cops and he’ll simply laugh into the phone. “y/n,” he’d coo, “i can’t turn myself in. you know you’d miss your good boy too much if i went to jail.”

— he’ll occasionally show up at your place of work depending on whether or not your job deals with the public. if you’re something like a fast food worker or a cashier, then you’ll definitely be seeing him from time to time. he’s clever enough to not let you hear his voice off the phone. he’ll either avoid speaking entirely or put on a completely different voice to the best of his ability. williams likely won’t even do anything related to your work, mostly sitting or standing around and pretending to be busy on his phone or, if he’s in a store, pretending to browse for something. he watches you, occasionally taking pictures when he can. when he gets home, matthew prints them out, adding them to a physical scrapbook of semi-blurry photos taken of you. pictures from your front yard.. from your back door.. in the store.. in the parking lot.. in your own bedroom…

— one day he actually sends you a text. when you block the first number, williams texts you again through a different one. the text message comes after he sees you going out the house with another person. he takes offense to the mere sight of you with someone else and it’s here where he starts to show his more violent side. it's a jarring wake up call for you. you couldn’t help but begin to think of him as someone different.. someone romantic instead of creepy. someone almost cute instead of murderous. how silly of you. you slid your phone into your pocket but his message continued to echoe softly in the back of your mind. ‘have fun tonight. if i catch their hands anywhere near you, they'll end up in your mailbox by morning ❤️’

— he stalks you on any and every open social media account you have. instagram, twitter (you tweet the strangest things, matthew loves giggling at your musings), tiktok, tumblr, facebook— hell, he’d look through myspace if he had to. whenever he’s bored at work he starts browsing through everything he can. he just wants to feel connected to you. it’s not enough to have a small picture of you taped to the inside of his briefcase. besides, williams wants to stay updated on your life and scrolling through your social media definitely helps with that. 

— on the more sexual side of things, god does he love to masturbate. the mere sound of your voice is enough to make him hump into a pillow like a dog, whining and groaning softly to himself while still trying to seem present on the phone. not to mention the countless blurry pictures of you that are now covered in his cum. he doesn’t want to waste his clear shots of you, matthew would much rather keep those clean. he just wishes he could get his hands on you and show you how much of a degenerate you’ve made him into. it’s a real shame you don’t get to hear the way he groans your name as he cums all over the place. it’s always a messy finish with him, even though he finds the clean up process to be embarrassing. williams never learns his lesson.

— just let him into your house, just once, and he can make your dreams come true. he wouldn’t mind being dominant or submissive, most of the time he just wants to see you get off. he’s the type to kiss the ground you walk on and then fuck you like an animal all in the same night. matthew would be rough with you but still clearly worship you and your body. williams adores giving and receiving praise during sex. he dreams of the day you’ll tell him he’s doing a good job, really, it would mean everything to him to hear that he’s pleasing you. in return, he’d coo into your ear that you’re the only one in the world for him. the only one he’d ever want or need. every inch of your skin would be covered in gentle kisses after he fucks you. he’s a god at aftercare and would make sure you feel like royalty before even thinking of settling into bed beside you. 

— he really wants to see you covered in his cum one day soon. positioning doesn’t matter to him, he just wants to see you completely wrecked. williams wants to see your legs shake and your tight little hole quiver. he wants to see you beg for more even though you’re so fucked out already. god, the things you do to him. you’ve made him into such a sick man.

— matthew enjoys giving and receiving oral sex. he’s great at it and even if you’re not the best he would help you get better. he’d have you cum into his mouth over and over until you’re twitching with ecstasy and he’d never even lift a finger. all williams needs is his mouth. his eyes would look up at you with a mischievous glimmer, almost as if he was wordlessly teasing you for enjoying this so much.

#hetalia #hetalia x reader #hetalia x you #hetalia headcanons #canada x reader #matthew x reader #matthew williams #hws canada #stalker au #stalker au hetalia

[sciderman]

Idk if it's just me, for some reason the askspiderpool blog doesn't appear on homepage. I only knew there's an update if you reblogged it / I search it on my own (Even this blog doesn't show up as much and I don't follow many blogs). This been happening for weeks

I've heard this from a lot of people! There really isn't much I can do about it - All I can say is I also post to twitter and sometimes instagram. If you're in the ask-spiderpool discord server there's also a channel that's always updated whenever a new post goes up!

I don't know if tumblr's burying certain content - lgbt+ content very often gets hidden on various platforms, and I don't know if that's what's happening here, or it's some kind of misunderstanding, but... as usual, i'm kind of powerless.

#sci speaks

[jung-koook]

let me talk about something here please.

every time I open my inbox I saw hates messages. I prefer to block these messages, ignore them completely but this time I think I need to reply to these ones that left me extremely offended.

stealing from twitter??? what?? whenever I go on twitter and see a photo or video and post it here I always put the credits. I also check their twitter account to see if there are any messages from them asking us to not repost their videos and photos. and after so many controversies and fansites wrong behaviors, i also stopped supporting fansite fantakes. when I go on twitter to look for translations for my gifs I always put the credits in the description of them. when I post only the translation I take a screenshot of their account and post it showing their username. I also use twitter for news and I always post a screenshot showing where the new came from. and I use twitter to see other instagrams uploading members photos, but do i need to put credits where i got these photos? please, I didnt steal anything from anyone!

now this one.. gosh :/ being called a sasaeng is so offensive, I’m really shook right now :/ let me reply to this message :////

first of all, I am a 24 year old adult, thank you. “has major saesang behavior”??? what do you mean by that?? if you call me something like that you have to give me proof of what you're talking about! I never posted anything from their private events and schedules. nor pics of them just enjoying their lives. i document every moment of jeongguks life?? I cant understand what you're talking about because i dont to that. I never posted anything private about his life!

i already posted some pics of jeongguk that his brother posted on his instagram and his brother talking about gureum. his brother always interacted with army on instagram. he already posted some pics of jeongguk and some bangtan fanarts on his instagram. his brother never told armys not to interact with his account. but after some people asked me not to post these photos/pics here anymore, i deleted them.  (i dont see anything wrong with posting these since his brother doesnt see a problem with it. different from hobis sister who already said she doesnt like her instagram posts beind shared. )

when jeongguk was to film the ‘left and right’ mv. I saw a translation account translate to where he was going. I had read the kmedia news but I didnt realize that the two accounts were talking about different places. so I completely wrongly shared what the translation account translated but that account translated the place bighit was trying to keep private. a nice person here saw it and came to warn me about it and after that i deleted my post and apologize for sharing that here. I think unfortunately these are mistakes that anyone can make. but that doesnt make them saesang. please search on saesang term first.

if i cared about ony notes i wouldnt make gifs anymore. I make gifs because its a hobby that helps me to relax, to forget about the things that are bothering me in my personal life, to show a little bit of my love and admiration for bangtan by making my gifs. but notes are something important and caring about notes is nothing wrong! everyone wants to have their work recognized in some way right? and here its through the notes. so yes, I will self-reblog my posts whenever I want, thanks. :) 

I dont know why but there seem to be a lot of people who dont like that I've been here since 2013 lol and they think I dont deserve the support I got since the start of my blog. been here since the beginning helped me a lot and its something important for me. please dont try to take that out of my story. my blog is a beautiful part of my history as a bangtan fan. please dont try to hurt this part of my story. I went on hiatus for a while because I'm studying architecture and I had to focus only on my studies :)) when i came back tumblr was completely different. the people I knew from before werent here. even though i still had a lot of followers i felt like most werent here anymore either. so for me it was like starting my blog all over again. most of the people who support my blog here dont know it from the beginning, most are new people. so the reason I have support here is not because I've been here since 2013. the only ugliness I see here is you and your messages. you tried to ruin my day and you succeeded. :)

I'm tired of people trying to make things up about me! leave me alone! I'm not hurting anyone. I just post my gifs, support the work of other talented people here and scream for bangtan. stop trying to make up extremely dangerous lies about me! if you dont like me and my blog, stop being pathetic please do something for yourself. blocked my blog so you will never see me here again.

P.S. I’m sorry for my bad english but i needed to answer these messages. and I answered that way because I needed to block these people or the same person from my blog.

#i hate posting negative things on my blog but this is something i need to post

[one-last-puku]

Quick guide:

☆ Why you should actually not use a space in tags you want people to search for☆

Know how whenever you do use a space, in the url, it'll show a number percentage that replaced the space, this is because use of space will interfere with programming languages, uri, etc.

So, if you want to make searching for your content cleaner, I suggest using other "unreserved" characters. Unreserved, in this case, means not a call word for uri.

Unreserved characters that are link safe:

A-Z a-z 0-9 - . _ ~ ( ) ' ! * : @ , ;

Unsafe characters:

<space> <control-characters> <extended-ascii> <unicode> % < > [ ] { } | \ ^

That being said, when you see people tagging their stuff using something other than <space>, that's probably why.

Also, if you use a space, it leaves room for tumblr to make it a search function for "key words" instead of solely looking for a specific phrase that only you really use.

Ex」 #sponge bob

May return many results with things tagged with "sponge" and/or "bob", so sure, you'll still get results for SpongeBob, but you'll also get a lot of regular sponges.

Also, I would not recommend using unicode glyphs because those also get converted to a percentage number code. So, it's still best to just use characters from the safe list to separate your terms. So that you'll always be sure to only get the string you set together.

Ex」 #Sponge_bob

Now, if only Fandoms could all collectively agree on the same tags. lol

Probably why it's always smushed together on sites like Instagram and Twitter.

#Tumblr tips #puku's random thoughts #uri tips #url

[warpedspacetime]

I don't like posting on Tumblr now because it feels like I'm talking to someone I don't respect (that whore A). It makes me hesitate to share things because I don't want her to think I'm addressing her.I don't like to share personal things with someone I don't even have 1% respect for.Like in 1st person.

I feel so degraded and literally cheap when a girl like her follows me.

Let me explain how she continues to track my Tumblr account even though she's not in my contacts. She doesn't have my WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook; I deleted those long ago. Let me show you how relentless she is in searching for me. This has been going on for 14 years.

Initially, I had a Facebook account. After that, I opened a Twitter account. Whenever I posted on Twitter, it would also appear on Facebook due to the embedded system at that time. She found out about me through this. She discovered my Twitter account like that. I deleted Facebook because it felt strange and uncomfortable. Twitter was more my thing; I used it a lot. I didn't realize she was watching me. She was there, but when I announced my Tumblr account on Twitter, she followed me there too. This was about 10 years ago when I first opened my Tumblr account named "warpedspacetime"

Even after I deleted Twitter, she continued to watch me on Tumblr. Imagine, from Facebook to Twitter to Tumblr, she has been following me everywhere for years. Literally moved out of the house after 12 ,went to a different city and met many people,never found anything concrete...and after all those years she keeps finding my profiles.

Eventually, I realized she was watching my Tumblr account. Frustrated and uninterested, I urged her to move on and leave me alone. I then deleted my Tumblr. After a while, I opened two new Tumblr accounts: "Profoundbitching " and another warpedspacetime .

Even after a few years, she had the audacity to find me again. Recently, when I deleted my "warpedspacetime"account, she found me once more.

Throughout these years, my respect for her has drastically declined. I express my strong dislike for her because my disdain for her has grown immensely, yet she remains oblivious. You may be surprised by my blunt words, but understand that I have no feelings for her beyond contempt. You are everything I detest and hate.

I also know you won't ever accept it. You will prostitute yourself, travel around the world, do anything just to feel 1% of happiness, just to feel like a part of me is watching you. Because that's how empty and miserable you are. You would do anything in this world, destroy yourself trying to feel okay.Very soon, you will be old, and it will hit you like a truck that despite all the trying and showboating, you have no one . The person you thought and hoped loved you truly (me) can speak with so much hate towards you.did you ever anticipate this behaviour? In your life nothing will be about love, it will all be about survival....and you will do anything to fill that void but you will realise that void can't be filled.

[pacifymebby]

But aye I think anything serious he'd do his best to keep private, as he gets more famous though he'll probably learn how hard that is and might even just eventually give up lol

Things is though, there’s people out there far more famous than Sam who can quite easily keep relationships under wraps. In Sam’s case it’s down to the girls, they are the ones (esp the main one he’s dabbling with now) that show people their together, she only really ever posts when she’s with him. It’s kinda telling? Idk but yeah i think he would care but then again he’s not that famous for his fan base to be so strong and the only way any of these girls or him would see what people say is if they come on tumblr or are sent it from some freaks on here lol x

Nah that is true as well and obviously this particular person definitely wants people to know whenever they're together haha. I've said what I think about that on here before though and every time I talk about this for too long I end up with proper cunty anons so I'm not gonna dwell on the lass or her Instagram stories haha.

Nah I think to an extent some of you are far too comfortable on here and like, don't realise how easy it actually is to stumble across stuff from Tumblr with a couple of name searches or something.

Stuff from here gets screenshot and put on twitter too, I've had my blog mentioned in twitter posts before that has then led people here. It could be really easy for a mate of hers to see stuff on twitter from here or for someone to have actually come on here. Idk how old you guys are but it wasn't that long ago that artists had their own Tumblr the same as they'd have an insta and twitter for interacting with fans.

I would say whether they found it from searching for it or not, that doesn't make it anymore their fault that people are bitching about them. Unless theyre interacting and adding fuel to the fire (I know some of you believe that, I do a little bit sometimes)

[gatekeeperwatchman]

Daily Devotional for January 9, 2023

Proverbs: God's Wisdom for Daily Living Devotional Scripture: Proverbs 2:1-5(KJV): 1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; 2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine, heart, to understanding; 3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; 4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

  Thought for the Day

Verses 1-3 - If we desire to understand the "fear of the Lord," and discover a little of what He knows, we must do certain things; the most important of which is to receive God's words and act on them, by making Bible study an important part of our lives. As we study His Word and ask Him for understanding, it will come alive to us. Often while I am reading Scripture, the words suddenly seem to leap off the page and into my heart. Other times, I read a portion repeatedly without understanding, and ask the Lord to show me what it means. In this way, I am "lifting my voice for understanding." Later, while reading that same passage, I suddenly understand it. Often the Holy Spirit brings to mind another verse that sheds light on it. Whenever God grants me understanding, I find that just knowing His Word is not enough; I must also obey it.

Verses 4-5 - If we seek knowledge from God as if searching for silver or hidden treasures, we will find it. Searching for treasure requires one to: -Inquire where the treasure might be found -Find a map to help in the search -Gather tools for digging -Find the right people to help in the search -Dig!

I think we can see the spiritual application. We must realize that the Bible cannot be read as a common novel. It is a holy book granted to mankind, inspired by the Holy Spirit. It cannot be read with simply our natural eyes, nor studied with intellect alone. We must bring our hearts to God and ask Him to enlighten us; to give us spiritual ears to hear what He is saying. If we earnestly seek the Book's treasures in this way, we shall indeed find truth and gems of knowledge, like un-mined gold within its pages. Prayer for the Day Dear Lord, I come to You in the name of Jesus and thank you for giving me the Bible, Your wonderful book, that is not only full of Your knowledge and wisdom but is Your love letter to mankind. All through this book is the plan of redemption. You show us how we, as mortals, can find a loving God who gave Jesus, His Son to die for us and redeem us from our sin and destruction. I am thankful that my name is written in the Book of Life. Lord, help me today to be a caring and loving person that reaches out to share the Bible's message with others. Give me understanding as I read the Bible, but most of all, give me the grace.

From: Steven P. Miller

Founder of Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups Jacksonville, Florida., Duval County, USA. Instagram: steven_parker_miller_1956, Twitter: @GatekeeperWatchman1, @ParkermillerQ, Parker Miller Stevens (Gatekeeper1) …@StevenPMiller6 Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/gatekeeperwatchman URL: linkedin.com/in/steven-miller-b1ab21259 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElderStevenMiller; #GWIG, #GWIN, #GWINGO, #Ephraim1, #IAM, #Sparkermiller, #Eldermiller1981

[palm-top-tiger-academics]

As a preteen, I could devor an entire novel in one night. Entering fictional worlds became a hobby of mine. I’d spend entire study hall periods browsing book after book, searching for the perfect world to get lost in. Eventually, when my small school library had little left to offer me, I turned to the internet for guidance. In 2013 the place to be for a young book lover was Tumblr. The blogging website any teen internet dweller could be found on. It was amazing. I was able to read people’s reviews, fanfictions, see their fanart and fancasts. People would curate playlists specifically for reading a certain book, timing each song to play at the perfect moment in the book. My timeline was a masterpiece of aesethically type-writer style quotes from John Green novels, images of books perfectly placed on a table with tea and toast. It was my favorite place to be, until Tumblr had given so much that the books became boring. I found more enjoyment in the aftermath, seeing what others did with some creativity and a shared admiration for a story and it’s characters. 

This fallout between the novels and I, set my preteen self on an expidition to find a new hobby. To better understand the pipeline I fall into, I should explain the inerworkings of subcultures on the internet in the 2010s. Everyone (at this time) has Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Kik, Ask.fm, and maybe Twitter. These are the apps/sites you use to interact with friends from school and family members. These are the “normie” sites. If you have any hobby or interest that deviates from what a typical middle schooler considers cool, you most definitely have a burner account on each app. Popular subcultures worth hiding from normies in 2013 were: Anime/Otaku, Staning/Fangirling, Furries, Bookworms and more. It was common to make an account dedicated to one of these subcultures, where you can remain anonymous by using a nickname and never showing your face. Instead of friending people you know in real life, you can accumulate mutuals by following anyone who shares your interests. This allows an individual the space to indulge in their favorite outcast activities without the scrutiny of their peers. Anyone who occupies space in one subculture tends to learn a bit about the others over time, whereas normies may go years without learning of some things. This makes it easy for one’s interests to shift. 

Thirteen year old me grew bored of hobbies rather quickly, and pretty soon novels and the bookworms of Tumblr no longer satiated my hunger for something immersive. Through my ventures on Tumblr, I was particularly intrigued by video games. Gottschall calls attention to this phenomenon I took part in: “video games–and other digital entertainments–are also on the rise, drawing audiences away from traditional story. The gaming industry is now much bigger than the book industry” (178). He’s called me out entirely, I am one of the children who abandoned her books for video games. I believe it is incredibly human to want to try out the new, exciting media that is just a few clicks or taps away. The mounds of books will remain in my bedroom, and I will return to them from time to time but for now I’ve accepted the fate of being a new media consumer. As eager as I was, my family’s income did not allow for a gaming console or proper gaming laptop unless I did some serious begging around Christmas time. But, as the internet always does, I was offered an alternative: otome mobile games.

These games felt close to how reading a novel feels. Most of the gameplay is spent reading, whether that be through speech bubbles or blurbs that describe action scenes. Throughout the story, I get to choose responses with the character I create. This encapsulates the main storymode. Outside of this part of the game there are usually mini-games, where you can interact with your favorite characters without interfearing with the main plot. I spent hours upon hours playing Mystic Messenger. Whenever I finished a play through, I could restart and choose different choices to discover a new ending. 

I realize these games are incredibly similar to the adventure boy-style book series. There is a reading portion inturrpited by moments in which the reader makes a choice in how the story will play out. However, the difference between otome games and adventure books isn’t just their opposing physical formats. In otome games, the player has the advantage of visuals. Where illustrations could be included in any book, these drawings move. The scenery, usually a blurred out realistic background sets a certain aesthetic charm that is characteristically otome. The animated characters are able to emote in response to your choices. The experience is far more immersive.

One game in particular that I became obsessed with is Mystic Messenger. The entire app was designed to make the lines between reality and fantasy blur. After an introduction scene, It mimics the looks of any other social media app. It deviates from the traditional otome style game of animated characters infront of a text box. Instead, your in a group chat with the characters. It mimics these parts of our daily lives to create a world that is new and exciting. 

Considering the state of gaming today in 2022, these otome games are part of a large aspect of new media: pushing the boundaries of how close we can be with fictional worlds. At thirteen I was chatting with programmed video game characters on my iPhone. Now, I can load into an Oculus VR and talk to Darth Vadar in Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge. Gotchall’s definition of Neverland reflects this aspect of new media: “Neverland is our evolutionary niche, our special habitat. We are attracted to Neverland because, on the whole it is good for us. It nourishes our imaginations; it reinforces moral behavior; it gives us safe worlds to practice inside” (177). The worlds we create and share with one another are part of what makes us human. I agree with Gotchall, indulging in some sort of fantasy world–book, movie, or video game–is good for the human soul. His description of this being a “safe” place to venture in emphasis the attractiveness in new media’s abilities to pull us closer to fiction. Our world is bustling and buzzing, it is important we find places we can retreat and allow our imaginations to be nourished. 

However, with the ability to enter fantasy worlds comes the weight of maintaining a healthy notion of being an informed consumer of this kind of media. Although it may be helpful in curing boredom, it is easy to turn to otome games when feelings of loneliness arise as well. I can’t ignore the fact that thirteen year old me may have also been searching for friendships in these fantasy worlds. It’s acceptable to find momentairy solace in these spaces, but it must only be in moments. Relying on these games for social fufillment is tempting but unhealthy. I appreciate and adore otome games for their ability to bring me into the fantasy world, but I always remember my home in reality. 

Which, is also were I was able to take on the role of becoming a new media producer. Being a creature of habit, my otome gaming hobby quickly became boring once I exhausted the free versions of these games. Seeking another free hobby, I discovered the app WEBTOON. An app that offers hundreds of free mangas designed for mobile reading. Each story has a unique way of using the top-to-bottom scrolling feature to enhance the excitement of reading the story. 

When I reflect on this time, I truly think the media I was consuming heavily influenced my creativity.

I watched a lot of shonen animes, which influenced me to allow stories to go beyond what is possible in my reality and think outside the box.

The characters in these shows, in otome games and webtoons were always either vibrantly 4 dimensional or given a unique and recognizable trait.

Being a consumer of these medias ignited my imagination.

Each time I open the WEBTOON app, I am greeted with the same banners calling for me to create my own story. 

WEBTOON offered to bring into the other side of the media I consumed. As difficult as it appeared, the steps to becoming just like the authors I adored suddenly were becoming easier to achieve. I acquired the devices needed to create the media, I watched tutorial after tutorial on how to develop my own personal style. I felt myself going through the motions of illustrating and storytelling like millions of people before me have done. Though I am putting an electric pen to an iPad and creating digital pictures, I am still connected to the etchings of images on cave walls that pre-date civilizations. I am connected to the authors who created the books I read as a child, then as a preteen. And I am connected to the people who design the characters for otome games and whatever is created in the future to replace them. 

[forbiddenship]

just a disclaimer to my fellow portwell shippers, this post has basically just turned into a rant about you know what. it’s just something i needed to get off my chest. not my usual content and a little heavy in negativity so please please please keep scrolling if you don’t want to see that. trust me, there are some days when reading a post like this is the last thing i need.

whew okay. i will say this once, and i’ll say it loud and clear. i don’t wanna hear any more r*nas complaining about what we discuss over here. first of all, the portwell fandom likes to use tumblr to communicate our thoughts and post our analyses because y’all have turned hsmtmts twitter into no man’s land. ever wonder why that app - particularly stan twitter - has such a reputation for being toxic? it’s because things like ship wars get out of control to the point where sometimes people stop wanting to even associate with the fandom. because, as unfortunate as it is, the rina fandom phenomenon isn’t one that occurs in isolation. many fandoms have that one subsection of the fandom that tries their damndest to make the experience unbearable for everyone else. portwell shippers have seen it, we’ve accepted it, and we honestly don’t give a fuck anymore. we just stay in our lanes - be that on instagram, tumblr, tiktok, wherever.

not to mention that portwell shippers are - generally speaking - very polite and respectful in the way that they address the other ship. and notice another thing: when we talk about our theories and give our takes on the storylines, we do just that. we stick to what’s happening on the show. we don’t make posts slandering the ship, and definitely not its shippers.

meanwhile, a quick glance through the ‘portwell’ search on twitter will tell you that rina shippers do not extend the same courtesy to us. not only do you “refuse to keep our names out of your mouths,” as you all love to put it, but you literally take content from another platform and transport it over to twitter so you can start discourse about it. because the portwell shippers aren’t willing to engage with you on twitter. and why is that, again? oh, right. because you shit on anyone who disagrees with the great rina dogma. because you say things like an 18 year old boy deserves to go to jail, or an actor deserves to lose his job for supporting a fictional ship. because you started acting like the moral police just because you couldn’t stand that your ship was losing traction - which is a very generous way to put it. you’re not the moral police, by the way. and even if you wanted to be, putting out statements like “everyone in xyz fandom is nasty and sick in the head” is not a good way to go about that. it says a lot more about you guys as people than it does about us or our ship.

as for the whole “portwells mention rina unprovoked” thing - talking shit about portwell is literally the only thing that has kept the rina fandom alive on twitter. i’m pretty active on twitter, and whenever i type ‘portwell’ or even ‘ej’ and ‘gina’ into the search bar, the same things come up every time. there is a small but very vocal part of the fandom over there that literally does nothing with their accounts but talk about a ship they don’t like. this is a just a tiny, tiny slice of representation of what goes down on twitter.

so don’t come at us for talking about rina within the context of the show’s storylines when you haven’t been able to shut up about portwell since june. god, the hypocrisy is insane.

#hsmtmts #portwell #anti-rina

[imanativeofswlondondahling]

Hiding in Plain Sight (1)- Tom Holland X Reader

Word Count-1792

A/N: This was inspired by this wonderful post by @starsholland. Without it this would not be happening. This will be a multi part fic, but I don’t know how many chapters or when it will be posted so if you’d like to be tagged let me know:)  Welcome to Tom being undercover on Tumblr. Quick notes- Y/T/B = Your Tumblr Blog, Y/A is your age :)

“You’re not going to make me go undercover on Tumblr are you?” Tom asks as they hook up the mike to his white t-shirt. “I’ve heard dangerous things about that site.”

“No, no. We’re sticking to Reddit, Twitter, Youtube. Maybe some Quora and IMDB.” The redheaded assistant sitting across from him states as she places the GQ laptop across from him. Tom sees Harrison’s shoulders silently moving up and down, laughing at the idea of him having to go undercover on the site that he had been telling horror stories of for weeks leading up to this interview. “If any of these don’t sound good to you, we can skip them.”

“No, those sound fine.” Tom says. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

“Camera A ready?” She asks the camera man sitting diagonally from where she is. In response she gets a nod. “Tom when you’re ready say something like I’m Tom Holland and I’m going undercover on the internet to answer your questions. It’s actually me. Something like that.”

From across the room Harrison watches as Tom flows through the questions easily, hoping from site to site with better technical luck than he normally has. He can guess that some of the answers will be giffed and blasted around social media within minutes of this interview going live. It would shock him if it didn’t.

“Check it out mate.” On his screen flashes Tom saying I drink tea darling over and over again. “Your fans love it. Which is good, seeing how upset a lot of them are over the Disney/Sony thing.”

“Where is this?”

“Your favorite site.”

“Instagram?”

“Tumblr.” Tom rolls his eyes and falls back into the couch.

“Why are you even on there?”

“Why aren’t you? So many fangirls, so little time.” Tom shoots a dirty look at Harrison. “But in all seriousness, there’s a lot of great reactions and gifs that you can only find on Tumblr. You should check it out.” Tom reaches for Harrison’s computer but he pulls away. “Make your own account. It costs nothing.”

“Ugh, fine.” Pulling his phone out of his pocket, downloads the app and creates an account. Expecting one of the fangirls to have already have taken his common username, he’s surprised to be able to fill out the form with tomholland2013 as his username. Will that seem too much like him? Who knows. It’s not like he’s planning to actually use this site. He just using it to see what Harrison wants him to see. “What do I look up?”

“Just search the hashtag Tom Holland and look under recent for the most recent stuff. Most of it is your undercover interview. Or you can look under the Tom Holland top posts and see what your fans are obsessed with.” Tom is on the main page and sees a suggestion of blogs. A lot of them have his name intertwined in them with his picture as the profile picture. Guess it wouldn’t hurt to follow some blogs while he’s on here? 

The first one he follows is @starsholland who seems to write fanfictions about him but also shares a lot of marvel pictures. By clicking follow it brings up a lot of suggested blogs to follow. He clicks on @tonguetiedholland and sees another fanfiction writer but also a lot of posts between them and other bloggers. “Is this site just fanfiction?”

“No, there’s pictures and edits and stuff too. Why? You only interested in the fanfiction?”

“I only seem to find fanfictions.” Tom replies as he clicks on a blog called @tomhollandsstan, finding a mix of fanfictions, pictures and conversations. However his eyes scroll through one of the fics and find something much more raunchy than he anticipated finding. “Holy hell. What are they writing all of this about?”

“Reading something steamy Tommy?” Harrison teases. Tom feels his face flush with the embarrassment of knowing that there are girls and guys out there picturing stuff like this with him as the main feature. 

“I’m getting off this site. It’s bloody porn.”

“No wait, you’ve just stumbled down the wrong path. Let me send you some blogs to look at.” Harrison pulls up some of the ones that are mostly pictures and reactions. “What’s your tumblr handle? I’ll send them to you?”

“Tomholland2013.”

“Really? It wasn’t taken?”

“Nope.”

“See how long it stays secretive.”

“I don’t plan on using it.” Tom says as he hits follow on some of the other blogs that Harrison sent him, including one that was @Y/T/B. He found himself scrolling through it a little more in depth than he had with any of the other pages he had been on. The posts and your reactions were more what he expected of tumblr. Glee filled, but not thirsty. Hitting follow was a no brainer.

Across the country, your phone lights up as you get a notification from Tumblr. You’re about to swipe it away, since your day is currently going down hill as the recipes you’re in the middle of trying out are turning into pinterest fails. Also you should have checked before you started baking a cake that you had powdered sugar to make frosting, so you’ll have to do another pinterest deep dive for a frosting recipe since you can’t use your tried and true recipe.

However, the name on the notification catches your eye- Tomholland2013 has followed you. Wow someone finally snatched the name. There had been jokes around the fandom for months that someone should snag the name so Tom could have it whenever or if-ever he decided to join tumblr. But it seems someone has decided to be Tom. Whoever it is though seems to enjoy your posts because they’re liking your posts in succession. While your stand mixer whirls, you open to their blog and see there’s nothing there. Not even a banner or an icon photo. They must be a super new blog. You back out of their blog and almost back out of the app when you see a message from this Tom Holland wanna be.

From: Tomholland2013

I really like all your edits of Tom. Can I use one as my profile pic? X

You pause for a second before replying. This person wasn’t the first to ask to use one of your edits as a profile picture. Why does this feel different though? It has to just be because of the name. You click to reply to the ask.

I’m so surprised someone finally took the name. Me and @imanativeofswlondondahling had a bet going on for how long it was going to stay open in case Tom wanted it. Anyway, feel free to use my edits, or if you have a favorite picture of Tom, send it my way and I’ll make an edit for you.

You hit send on the ask before you can change your mind and then you turn back to your cake- which has probably been overwhipped now.

“Do I have a favorite picture of Tom?” Tom mumbles to himself as he reads over your reply. He’d love to see something that was made for him, but that means finding a picture of himself that he wants edited. “Harrison, com’ere mate. Take a selfie with me.”

“What’s this for?” Harrison asks before posing. @Y/T/B wouldn’t know this was just a selfie. You’d probably think he just did a Google deep dive.

“Need a profile picture. For my blog.” Tom teases, before clicking back to his messages on tumblr. There has to be a way to send a direct message instead of an ask like he did before. He had been planning to use an edit you had done of him saying I drink tea darling, but he wasn’t going to toss up having a custom made icon. After fiddling around on the app for a few minutes Tom finally figures out how to send a message and sends the picture he had snapped with Harrison a few minutes earlier. He tacks on a quick message asking her to do whatever she wants with the picture and to take as long as she wants and or needs. After hitting send, he clicks back to your blog's main page, trying to learn more about you.

At the top of your page, simply stated, it reads Y/N, Y/A, Tom Holland Fan. Well that does tell him you’re around his age, so that makes him feel less like a creeper. He wants to know everything he can about you, but all he can find through scrolling is mainly, well him. He can’t explain why, but there’s a sort of pull towards you from what he can find in your messages to other people and responding to anon messages, you seem like someone he’d want to be friends with. You have a great sense of humor and make jokes as often as you can in your messages. 

“Haz, can I turn on notifications for, like a certain blog?” Tom calls across the living room.

“Thought you weren’t going to use it.”

“There’s a couple blogs I like.”

“Sure, let me show you.” Tom passes his phone over and watches as Harrison turns on notifications for your blog. “Oh she’s great. Her reactions when news is posted is great.” A notification pops up on your screen. “Apparently she just posted.”

A cake maker I am not destined to be. Gordon Ramsay will make an idiot sandwich out of me.

A picture of a very sad looking cake appears under her text. “Maybe she should stick to making edits.” Harrison jokes. 

“Mate, that’s rude.”

“But it’s not wrong. Plus it’s not like yours would look much better.”

“Mine would be worse.” Taking his phone back, he clicks on the comment bubble and types out: looks better than anything I would make X His inbox dings a couple moments later. 

How have I never seen this photo of Harrison and Tom? Did it get posted while I was attempting to bake?

I think it’s an old photo. Found it on my phone. X And technically that’s not a lie.

Well I’ll hop on that edit. Any colors you prefer?

Blue or Red would be good I guess. X

I’ll get right on that. What’s with all the x’s?

Oh it’s a European thing. It’s just how we sign off texts and messagesX

If it’s annoying I can try and not do it?X

It’s fine. Just didn’t know why it was there. 

Do you think Tom does it?

Oh most definitely. What kind of Brit would he be if he didn’t?X

Well I’ll go get on the edit, hopefully I’ll have it done in the next day or so

No hurryX

Thanks againX

#Tom holland #tom holland tumblr #tom holland undercover #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland imagine #harrison osterfield #imanativeofswlondondahling #starsholland #tonguetiedholland #tomhollandsstan

[linareads]

Almost everyone knows that line from that book,

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move

It has been mentioned in Tumblr posts, Instagram posts, twitter jokes, what most people might not know is that this line comes from the Douglas Adams book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the second book of the Hitchhiker’s Guide book series.

This series is composed of five books and a short story written by Douglas Adams, and another book written by Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer. The book I’ve read consists of the five mains books of the Hitchhiker’s series, plus a short story. In the end, the contents of this book are these:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read) Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe The moment before annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.

Life, the Universe and Everything The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky- so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription thrusts him back to reality. So to speak. Mostly Harmless Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself?

Includes the bonus story "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe"

Having read all of them I have my opinions.

SPOILER ALERT

The books are funny, just reading the first chapters can tell you that the books are very very funny. Some passages of it are enough to make you laugh out loud because they are that funny. It focuses on the story of Arthur Dent, his friends, and the shenanigans he ends up getting involved in. These friends include Ford Perfect, an alien who has lived on Earth for year and writes for said Guide, Zaphod Beeblebrox, an alien with two heads who is also the President of the Galaxy at the beginning of the book series. Tricia “Trillian” McMillian, a human astrophysicist, who meets Zaphod at a party and ends up traveling the universe with him, and Marvin, a depressed robot. These are the main characters of the series, alongside Arthur, who is the main character, and they show up on almost all the books. One of the most important things in the books is also the guide itself, that instead of a book is more of a portable computer with a Wikipedia that spans the knowledge of almost everything in the universe. Another important character is Fenchurch, but she will show up later.

The first two books are funny, lighthearted and make a good show of world building (or destroying). The story begins with the Earth being destroyed to build a special highway, and Ford Perfect escaping just before the Earth explodes with Arthur Dent. With them they take a towel, the most important item anyone can take with them when they travel the universe, and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, a guide, much like our earthly travel guides, that tells you the best activities and places to visit whenever your travelling, Ford happens to work for the Guide.

In the end they end up watching the end of the Universe, seeing the last message form God, discovering that the Earth was nothing but an experiment to find out the ultimate question to all things in the universe (experiment funded by rats, the smartest lifeform on earth) they also time travel, travel through different parallel universes et cetera et cetera.

In the end the books are a very fun read, with one exception, which is the chaos. The books are very chaotic, and while that is part of the attraction of the books, the chaos is funny, makes you confused, in a good way, and works to explain what is happening to the characters and how Arthur Dent feels most of the time- However, there comes a point where it’s too much, and what happens its that you end up so confused you’re not really sure what you’re reading. There is no character index, a small summary of each other books in the end, nothing of the sort. So, if you’re confused, you either google the events of the books, or you read back a few chapters to see if you can make sense of it. And sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t.

By the second to last book, it seems like the author is pulling at straws, Arthur is, for some reason stranded on prehistoric earth, travels to space again, and manages to time travel back to his own time, where the earth isn’t destroyed, sponsored by the dolphins (the second smartest species on Earth) who then vanished from Earth. Arthur meets a woman, Fenchurch who can float, falls in love, (they also have sex flying through the skies of London?) travel to visit a man who knows what happened to the Dolphins and then travel to see God’s last message to the Universe (Which funnily enough ends up being “We apologise for the inconvenience”). And then ends up travelling the universe with Fenchurch, although throughout his travels all he wanted was to go back to his own time on Earth.

And then, by the last book, Fenchurch is gone, the company that edits and publishes the Hitchhikers has been taken over, the universe is in shambles because of time-travel. Arthur and Trillian have a daughter, a new guide shows up that can turn into a bird and time/dimension travel, takes Arthur’s child into a version of Earth where Trillian never left, still goes by Tricia, and is a journalist, and then the Earth is destroyed again however this time, Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and the daughter all die. (However, Elvis is alive and either playing shows in diners throughout the universe or runs a diner somewhere in the Universe, I am not sure)

And if you were confused by that last chapter, you can see how I felt throughout the book, because it somehow manages to be more confusing than all the others combined. In a sense, the last book seemed, to me at least, to be a last-ditch effort to just finish the story and be done with it.

The ending came out of nowhere, Fenchurch came and disappeared out of nowhere, so did the daughter, no actual explanation is given to what happened to the Guide, and why is the Guide now a bird thing?

None of these questions are answered, however, this still doesn0t detract from the book, and even as confused as I felt, as well as the anger on how it ended, doesn’t detract, in my opinion, from its five-star rating, because it’s still an amazing book.

Its funny, engaging, entertaining, easy to read and worth to read. Even with all its faults this is a book I will recommend to everyone I can and will read again, even if it’s just to read the passages I found to the funniest once more.

I recommend this book, give it five stars, but I must warn that this book is very chaotic, and has little to no set structure, and if that isn’t for you, well, you have been warned.

#book review #book blog #booknerd #bookreview #hitchhiker's guide #linareviews #book reccomendation #literature #bookblr #book reading #bookworm

[shinahbee]

My Suha

Hello! Here is another manhwa feature that I wrote about in my December favorites but i put it under the section where I discussed certain scum antagonists that you will find while reading manhwa especially the ones with mature content. I really like the story overall even though it is for more mature audiences there are subject matters in there that can be relatable to young adults that have been through these situations and that's what I think a good story should include. This story does include sexual abuse and trauma so read it at your own risk , this is not something to glorify but to relay a message that stuff like this happens in reality. I've been reading a lot of darker stories and this is one of the first ones I've read that really left an impression on me. MANHWA SUMMARY: "A skillful secretary by day and choosy cruiser by night, Suha is a young professional who’s in search of some no-strings-attached action. He hasn’t had much luck lately, though, since a handsome face doesn’t always match what’s in a guy’s pants. This might be why he finds himself wondering about his dreamboat boss, Director Park Jiwoon. But there’s no way he can mix business with pleasure… That is, until Jiwoon and Suha run into each other in the gay bar bathroom."

this story mainly focuses on the relationship between jiwoon and Suha, and it is not abusive and very loving in fact,I'm glad that they show the contrast between how suha's previous relationships don't work out because of his trauma and how jiwoon despite being an unwanted heir in his grandmother's eyes was able to give love and protection to the person that matters to him the most. You can gradually see how suha will open up to jiwoon even if a little since he can't ever fully say that he can trust a person, he still wants to believe that he can trust jiwoon and one day give his heart to him fully. I have no doubts that he has feelings for jiwoon he is mainly just being cautious with the whole situation, and I agree with him on that point cause you’ll never know what happens if your relationship doesn’t work out and you don’t want to be too dependent on your partner that you have nothing left, so I understand his view point and why he is so cautious, but also understand that there is trauma involving his past relationships that lead him to a twisted perception of what love is...

So in my December favorites I've talked about some of the scum bags that you will come across while reading some of these manhwa some ranging form mild inconvenience to scum of the earth, there's this scum bag...I even forgot his name but the red haired dude in this story, who is the absolute worse and not only sexually abused Suha when they were younger and also emotionally scar both jiwoon and suha making them feel incapable of being loved. I didn’t get a good feeling form him when he was first introduced and I was right...lol.

I was like “ set that b*tch on fire!!” as soon as i found out what he potentially did.

 But at least the comments section was in agreement. You know that one meme in death note where L and light are in the car and L climbs into the front seat and just stares at him...that’s what I was doing whenever this scum shows up.lol.

But in honestly it’s more like this....

they just recently finished season two so it ended for now until the spring, after reading the last chapter i felt very bad for both parties, it was a flash back to when they were younger and focuses on how jiwoon being unable to do anything for suha back when he was still young and suha suffering emotionally from the abuse from the red haired scum i believe, it wasn't disclosed yet as to what actually happened but from the flash backs throughout the series, I can guess that it was predicated on sexual abuse, so before this last chapter jiwoon was drugged by the scum in order to trap suha into leaving him since he didnt want to get in trouble with the grandma who doesn’t like him already. so scum blackmails suha into leaving with him saying that if he does what he wants then jiwoon will be left unharmed...spoiler..didn’t happen, as we all can guess and he had hired people to go rape jiwoon while he was drugged, while he was going to sleep with suha, and of course suha was able to fight back and rushed back to the hotel room to stop those people from rapeing jiwoon, thank god...

so all this to say is that after this traumatic experience, they both had a lot to think about in order to protect the other person, suha was going to confront the scum and convince him to leave them alone, but this family odreal is alot bigger than suha can understand and jiwoon knows the grandma (president ) would not take his side so it would be meaningless to confront the scum cause that is her actual blood-related grandson...as you know blood is thicker than water and she would probably try to cover up his shit even if commits rape and assault...i know shitty humans exist..needless to say this whole thing made jiwoon realize that since suha walked off with the scum the first time after being black mailed it will most likely happen again, so he is essentially going to quarantine him by making him work from home and survalencing him in order to take care of matters on his own. In actuality if this was done to someone it would seem possessive/ obsessive but that’s how jiwoon is if he knows something will hurt suha. and that’s where we are left off. 

 i'll have to wait and see what the creator has in store for us. I'm not looking forward to it but it really needs to be told in order for me to piece together the entire story line, with that being said I drew this fan art inspired by art that the creator posted on their twitter. I whole heartedly hope that jiwoon and suha will be this happy one day, i decided to just do simple background with roses since the theme that I tried to draw was " first date" hope you get what I'm trying to portray. lol.

i'll link the creators twitter here

twitter.com/chahyun__

please check out her twitter for her exclusive art and updates on the manhwa, and support her by reading it on Lezhin Comics!

if you like this and want to see more manhwa features please give this a like and  comment down below if you have read it and what you think! please follow me on my social media below for future updates!

sheena

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SOCIAL MEDIA:

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Instagram: shinb_art

Deviantart: she-be.deviantart.com

Tumblr : shinahbee

#my suha #shounen ai #korean manhwa #yaoi #yaoi couple #manhwa couple #manhwa fanart #boys love #bl fanart #manhwa review #digital painting #digital art #anime and manga #manga review #manga fanart #manga illustration

[jetru]

Why would they discuss nsfw in the atla fandom if its for children? Didnt even tag a warning now children can stumble across it. They should report and move on or make a private blog instead of talking about nsfw and pedophilia where minors can see.

so, uh, we already do this to the best of our extent? tumblr blogs can't really be privated, not like instagram or twitter. the point of tumblr is that everything is accessible.

and that's why tumblr has such a great tagging system. a couple of years ago, tumblr actually did something right and introduced a filtering system. now, you can go in there, and choose to filter tags, such as 18+, nsfw, adult post, minors dni, etc. personally, i have a bunch of tags and accounts blocked, because i just don't want to see specific content, and don't want to kick up a stink about it. it's so much more worth my time to just block an account that reblogs r*ylo and filter the tag than yell at the creator for reblogging r*ylo because "i'm?? on this internet too?? and i Hate r*ylo and it makes me sick and i don't want anyone to reblog r*ylo content!!!" like. it's just not worth my time.

is tagging reliant on the person running the account to do the tagging? yeah, 100%. so, you're gonna run into some posts that you don't want to see because some people don't tag. and i'm really sorry about that! but also, it shows that fandom is an unpredictable place. if you're an adult and want to see all sorts of content, then it's right there, filtering optional. if you're a minor, then people are good enough at tagging that you can block nsfw tags and be pretty good most of the time. if it's tagging that you have an issue with, then you can go to that blog if you really like their content and don't want to unfollow/block and ask them to tag their nsfw content. the adults in the atla fandom are generally nice enough that they'll start tagging nsfw content if they don't already.

here's how you filter tags on tumblr:

and done! you can put in tags to avoid. easy.

tumblr has some issues with tagging sometimes. i have az*laang blocked because i'm not interested in seeing that content, but sometimes someone i follow might reblog it and have it tagged, and i still get shown it anyway. and that's unfortunate, and then i might think, "actually, this person reblogs az*laang alot. i really don't want to see that." so i unfollow them. tumblr has had an issue lately where it doesn't actually unfollow people, so i've been blocking when i unfollow for good measure.

there's been a great trend lately where we have put "minors dni" in our bios and abouts. listen to this. if we don't want minors in our blog, you shouldn't be there.

let's talk about ao3 now. ao3 is even better about tagging than tumblr, because you don't just see fanfictions hanging around in real time. you have to actually click on the fanfiction to be able to read it. if you're under 18 and haven't lied about your age and try to click on an explicit work then you will get a little prompt asking if it's really ok to view this content. if you're a minor, and you say you were exposed to an e-rated fanfiction, then if that fanfiction was tagged appropriately, and you still clicked on it, going past the prompt, that's on you. if you are a minor and you say you were exposed to an e-rated fanfiction that wasn't tagged as such, but you didn't read the tags or the warnings or the summary and it all looks nsfw and you still clicked on it, that's on you.

this is what a properly rated fanfiction looks like. the e means it is explicit, and the green tick means there are no archive warnings that apply.

if you want to exclude explicit content, you can do this:

you can see that i've chosen to exclude not-rated fics and all archive warnings as well.

personally, i do a lot of excluding. whenever i'm freely searching for fics to read, i like to exclude certain pairings, graphic violence, character death, and a whole bunch of smaller tags. maybe i don't want to see modern aus, or whump fics where zuko still lives with ozai, etc etc. ao3 is super curatable to the point where if you click on a fanfiction that you then complain about seeing, it's your own fault.

in the end, i think it's not up to minors to tell adults what to do with fandom spaces. we're making content for us, and if you don't want to see it then please, unfollow, block, exclude tags. go for it, we're not gonna be upset that a 16-year-old blocked us when we're making nsfw content. and don't forget, we were kids once too! we know what it's like to be a minor. it's scary, and you see content you don't like, and it's up to you to curate your experience. tumblr wasn't made for kids, even with the nsfw ban. it is still an adult space, so be careful, and curate your experience. you don't need to see everything this fandom has to offer, because sometimes we don't want you to see it.

#this ended up being a lot longer than i planned oops #long post #jetru answers #the discourse

[for-your-therapeutic-smile]

They Never Teach You How to Stop

Rarely do I lack the words to express myself. Perhaps this reflects my failure to maintain my journal consistently throughout 2020. Here goes an honest attempt to capture and document my mental state and the fatigue of Covid, the inertia of this shelter-in-place, the anxiety of this political crisis we face as a nation, the pressure of being a 1L in law school against the backdrop of civil unrest and Justice Ginsburg’s death, coming out - my dad told me he was disappointed -, the possible erosion of my relationship with someone I love, and this feeling of absolute dread and resentment for a system that continuously fails my and future generations (robbing us of a social contract that promised life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), among many other things I’m too tired to consider. When did we accept a $0 baseline as the American Dream? Oh, to be debt free - free from this punishment for having pursued an education. Stifling the educated to prevent them (myself included) from organizing and mobilizing the masses so we can supplant this system with a better one is the overall objective of the oppressive class (read: Pedagogy of the Oppressed); it’s the conflict between the bourgeois and the proletariat. The proletariat has swallowed the middle class, leaving only the ruling class. I am essentially on autopilot, forcing myself to go through the motions so I can survive another day. I know others join me in this mental gymnastics of unparalleled proportions, one social scientists and medical researchers will soon study and subsequently publish their findings in an attempt to explain the unexplainable. Despite a lack of air circulation, we are breathing history; the constitution, like our societal norms, must adapt accordingly. Judge Barrett: there is no place for originalism. While I seldom admit weakness or an inability to manage life’s curveballs, this series of unfortunate events seems almost too much to bear. 

And yet somehow I continue to find the energy to submit assignments due at 11:59 p.m., write this post at 1:38 a.m., “sleep”, wake at 7 a.m. so I can read and prepare (last minute!) the assigned material leading into my torts or contracts class. I find the energy to text my boyfriend (or ex-boyfriend) so I can attempt to salvage the real and genuine connection we have, cook elaborate meals to find some solace, wrestle with whether or not to hit my yoga mat (I don’t), apply to a fellowship for the school year and summer internships, prepare my dual citizenship paperwork, manage a campaign for two progressive politicians, and listen to music in an attempt to stay sane . . . ~*Queues John Mayer’s “War of My Life” and “Stop This Train”*~ . . . I realize I have to be kinder to myself, give credit where credit is due. I hate feeling self-congratulatory though.

Mostly, I am too afraid of the repercussions if I stop moving at a mile/minute, that I can just work away the pain and be the superhuman who numbs himself from the low-grade depression and nervous breakdown. My body tells me to slow down, as evidenced by the grinding of my teeth, but I take on more responsibility because people rely on me. I must show up. I am a masochist in that way. This is what I signed up for and I’ll be damned if I don’t carry through on my promise to do the work. Pieces of my soul scattered about like Horcruxes, though they’re pure, not evil, so I hope nobody resolves to destroy them. 

My mind rarely rests. It’s 3:08 a.m., one of the lonelier hours where night meets morning; it’s the hour for and of intense introspection. It makes you consider pulling an all-nighter, one you reserve for an “important” school or work deadline. We always put our personal lives on the back-burner. 3 a.m. sets the tone for a potentially awful day. But that doesn’t matter right now. I’m letting some of my favorite albums play in the background: Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Mac Miller’s Circles, Rhye’s Blood, Alicia Keys’ ALICIA, Coldplay’s Ghost Stories, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Miley Cyrus’ Dead Petz in addition to other playlists, Tiny Desk performances, and tracks (I unearthed last week, like When It’s Over by Sugar Ray). I need to feel something. I need to feel anything. I need to feel everything. We experience such a broad spectrum of emotions throughout the day that we lose track of if we don’t pause to absorb them. Music reinforces empathy; it releases dopamine.

I spent the past two hours reading through old journals and posts, as scattered as they were, on a wide range of topics: poems I had written about falling in and out love, anecdotes about my world travels, and entries on personal, political, and professional epiphanies. The other night I found one of my favorites, a previous post from my time living in Indonesia, centering on the dualities of technology. It resonated with me more than the others. To summarize, I wrote about my tendency to equate the Internet with a sense of interconnectedness (shoutout to Tumblr for being my digital journal; to Twitter for being a place of comedy and revolution; to Instagram for curating my *aesthetic*; to Facebook where I track my family’s accomplishments and connect with travel buddies displaced around the globe all searching for a home). And yet I feel incredibly lonely and disconnected whenever I spend too much time using technology, so much so that I set screen time limitations on my phone recently to curtail this obsession with constant communication and information gathering. Trump and Biden admitted that it’s unlikely we’ll know the results of the election on November 3rd during their first presidential debate. Push notifications don’t allow us to learn of trauma within the comforts of our own homes. I’m already fearing where I will be when that news breaks. 

This global pandemic and indefinite shutdown of the world (economy) undeniably exacerbates these feelings. This is some personal and collective turmoil. But I was complicit in the endless scrolling and swiping of faces and places long before Covid-19. Instead of choosing to interact with my direct environment (today’s research links this behavior to the same levels of depression one feels when they play slot machines), I am still an active on all these platforms, participating the least in the most tangible one: my physical life. I am tired of pretending. I am tired of being tired. I am tired of embodying fake energy to exist in systems that fail me. I am tired of the quagmire. Like Anaïs Nin, I must be a mermaid [because] I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living. This particular excerpt from that 2016 entry was difficult for me to read: “The fantasy of what could have been if a certain plan had unfolded will haunt you forever if you do not come to peace with the reality of the situation. I hope you come to terms with reality.” I am not at peace with my current reality. But is anyone?

It’s a bit surreal for my peers to have suddenly started caring about international relations theory. It’s transported me back to my 2012 IR lecture at Northeastern: are you a constructivist or a feminist? Realist or liberalist? Neo? Marxist? The one no one wants you to talk about. Absent upward mobility, this is class warfare. But I cannot be “a singular expression of myself . . . there are too many parts, too many spaces, too many manifestations, too many lines, too many curves, too many troubles, too many journeys, too many mountains, too many rivers” . . . It feels like America’s wake-up call. But I know people will retreat into the comforts of capitalism if Biden wins and, well, we all enter uncharted waters together if the Electoral College re-elects #45. For those who weren’t paying attention: the world is multipolar and we are not the hegemon. Norms matter. People tend to be self-interested and shortsighted. Look to the past in order to understand the future. History, as the old adage goes, repeats itself. Once a cheater, always a cheater. Taxation without representation. Indoctrination. Welcome to the language of political discourse. Students of IR and polisci have long awaited your participation. Too little too late? Plot twist: it’s a lifelong commitment. You must continue to engage irrespective of the election outcome or else we will regress just as quickly as we progress. Now dive into international human rights treaties (International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights; International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights), political refugees, FGM. No one said it wasn’t dismal. But it’s important. We need buy-in.  

While I am grateful for the continuation of my education, for this extended time with family, for this opportunity to be a campaign manager for two local progressive candidates (driving to Boston to pick up revised yard signs as proof that the work never stops), it would be remiss of me, however, not to admit that I am lonely: I am buried in my books, in the depressing news both nationally and globally, and in precedent-setting Supreme Court cases (sometimes for the worst, e.g. against the preservation of our environment). In my nonexistent free time I work on political asylum cases, essentially creating an enforceability framework of international law, for people fleeing country conditions so unthinkable (the irony of that work when my country falls greater into authoritarianism and oligarchy is not lost on me). I am fulfilling my dream of becoming a human rights lawyer which stems back to middle school. I saw Things I Imagined (thank you Solange). I have held an original copy of the Declaration of Independence that we sent to the House of Lords in 1778 and the Human Rights Act of 1998 while visiting the U.K. Parliamentary Archives as an intern for a Member of Parliament. This success terrifies and exhausts me; it also oxygenizes and saves me. Every decision, every sacrifice, has led me to this point. 

“It’s the choosing that’s important, isn’t it?,” Lois Lowry of The Giver rhetorically asks. This post is not intended to be woe is me! I am fortunate to be in this position, to have this vantage point at such an early age, and I understand the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. My life has purpose. I am committed to the work that transcends boundaries; it is larger than life itself. It provides a unique perspective. But it makes it difficult to coexist with people so preoccupied in the drama they create in their lives and the general shallowness of the world we live. It feels like there is no option to pump the brakes on any of this work, especially in light of our current climate, and that pressure oftentimes feels insurmountable. Time is of the essence. It feels, whether true or not, that hardly anyone relates to my experience, so if I don’t carve out this time to write about it, then I am neither recording nor processing it. 

Tonight, in between preparing tomorrow’s coursework, I realize that I have an unprecedented number of questions about life, which startles me because typically I have the answers or at least have a goal in mind that launches me into the next phase of life or contextualizes the current one. These goals, often rooted in this capitalistic framework, in this falsity of “needing” to advance my career as a means of helping people, distract me from asking myself the existential questions, the reasons for why we live and what we fundamentally want our systems to look like; they have distracted me from real grassroots community organizing until now. They distract me from the fact that, like John Mayer, I don’t know which walls to smash; similarly, I don’t know which train to board. Right now feels like we are living through impossible and hopeless times and I don’t want to placate myself into thinking otherwise despite my relatively optimistic outlook on life. As we face catastrophic circumstances – the consequences of this election and climate change (famine, refugees, lack of resources) – I do not want to live in perpetual sadness. I am searching for clarity and direction so I can step into a better, fuller version of myself. 

It’s now 3:33 a.m. Here is the list of questions that I have often asked myself in different stages of life, but recently, until now, I have not been willing to confront for fear that I might not be able to answers them. But I owe it to myself to pose them here so I can have the overdue conversation, the one I know leads me to better understanding myself:

Are you happy? Why or why not?

What do you want the future to hold? What groundwork are you going to do to ensure it happens?

What does your ideal day/week/month/year/decade look like? Why?

With whom do you want to spend your days? Why?

Who do you love and care about? Have you told people you care about that you love them? Does love and vulnerability scare you?

What do you expect of people – of yourself, of your partner, of your family, and of your friends? Should you have those expectations? Why or why not?

What do you feel and why?

What relaxes you? What scares you? What brings you joy?

What do you want to improve? Why?

What do you want to forgive yourself for and why?

Does the desire to reinvent yourself diminish your ability to be present?

Do you have a greater fear of failure or success? Why?

How do you escape the confines of this broken system? How do you break from the guilt of participation in it and having benefited from it?

How do we reconcile our daily lives with the fact that we’re living through an extinction event? This one comes from my friend (hi Jeanne) and a podcast she listened to recently.

How do you help people? How do you help yourself? Are you pouring from an empty cup?

How will you find joy in your everyday responsibilities, in the mission you have chosen for yourself? What, if any, will be the warning signs to walk away from this work, in part or in its entirety? Without being a martyr, do you believe in dying for the cause?

So here are some of the lessons I have learned during this quarantine/past year:

“I’ve Got Dreams to Remember,” so do not take your eyes off them. Chasing paper does not bring you happiness.

Be autonomous, particularly in your professional life.

Focus on values instead of accolades.

Do everything with intention and honest energy.

Listen to Tracy Chapman’s “Crossroads” & Talkin’ Bout a Revolution for an energy boost and reminder that other revolutionaries have shared and continue to share your fervent passion . . . “I’m trying to protect what I keep inside, all the reasons why I live my life” . . . When self-doubt nearly cripples you and you yearn a few minutes to run away when in reality you can’t escape your responsibilities, go for a drive and queue up “Fast Car” . . . “I got no plans, I ain’t going nowhere, so take your fast car and keep on driving.”

With that said, take every opportunity to travel (you can take the work with you if absolutely necessary). Go to Italy. Buy the concert ticket and lose yourself in the moment. Remember that solo excursions are equally as important as collective ones. But, from personal experience, you prefer the company. Find the balance.

Detach from the numbers people keep trying to assign to measure your personhood.

Closely examine the people in your inner circle and ask them for help when you need it.

“And life is just too short to keep playing the game . . . because if you really want somebody [or something], you’ll figure it out later, or else you will just spend the rest of the night with a BlackBerry on your chest hoping it goes *vibration, vibration*” (John Mayer’s Edge of Desire) . . . so love fiercely and unapologetically.

Be specific.

Go to therapy even when life is good.

#reflection #covid #quarantine #late nights #music #revolution #diary #politics #john mayer #alicia keys #tracy chapman #love #dear diary #travel #writing #personal #mental health