kristenoneal

[kristenoneal]

the best time to grieve is when it spites the people who tell you not to

[ID: a 4-panel comic in medieval manuscript style of a person in blue sitting on a basket. /In 1 a person off-panel says: "What are you doing over there?" /2: That person comes on panel wearing yellow and helps Blue hold down the basket. Blue: "Trying to push down my grief about my illness" Yellow: "Have you tried platitudes?" /3: Blue yells at the basket: "'It could be worse!'" /4: A dragon pushes up the lid of the basket to yell: "It could be better" /end ID]

#comics #yeah

[kristenoneal]

If you're going to catch up on any episode of TPR I'd make it this one!! I'm so insanely proud of mine and Kaitlin's work here.

stacked sound equipment and a radio with glowing green numbers. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads:

[026] THE SEEKER... A CALLER WAITS. THE SEEKER HEARS A VOICE ON THE RADIO

listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:

[static, radio tuning]

[traveling sales rep: don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right b-]

[a high-register voice, not the Host’s:]

Car radio, yet again. Fixed, for now. It’s from a 2005 Honda CR-V, which I know is old, but, as you know, it’s been acting up for months now, um, and it finally just gave out on me. I don’t even know what worked to resurrect it here, but, well. [tools moving] The mystery of life, I guess. I’m sure it’ll start jumping stations again any day now.

[beep]

I could use a distraction so we are back to the transmitter. I’m building it from scratch instead of from a kit, uh, which basically means I’m just buying the parts that would have been in the kit separately, so I don’t really know if I’m saving money here or losing it. [tools clink] It’s pretty much kid stuff, but hey. It’s nice to go back to the basics sometimes, I guess. I think just to make it interesting I might take one of the old desktops to see if I can link it to some visuals? With different colors representing, I dunno, different letters, maybe? Maybe… make it so the words will show up as you tap the code in? Or I could just leave it with the binary, do kind of a black and white thing. I don’t know. [sigh] I don’t know.

[beep]

[phone ringing] [voicemail]

Hey, it’s me, you know what to do!

[beep]

[phone ringing] [voicemail]

Hey, it’s me, you –

[beep]

No one knows where she is, why does nobody know where she is. I - I think there’s something wrong.

[beep]

[phone ringing]

We’re sorry. You have reached a number that has been disconnected, or is no longer in service. To -

[beep]

I didn’t quit my job today. This isn’t really a project log, but I almost quit my job today, and I didn’t, and I, I think that deserves to be noted down, somewhere. I love what I do. But - doing it doesn’t seem as important anymore when I could be looking for her. I know I haven’t found a single thing, but that’s no reason to stop. I - [sigh]

I don’t know why I’m talking around it like this. Someone that matters to me is gone, and no one knows what happened, or why, or if - 

I wish she was just ghosting me, specifically. Like, that’s not something I want, at all, but I would take it if it meant that she was safe, living her life somewhere else. [sigh]

I don’t. I don’t think she’s dead. I really hope she isn’t dead. Sometimes I’d be at work glancing at the chat and there would be no new messages. Or at home with my phone on the table building myself a new desktop, and there would be no new messages. But I could still feel her on the other side, connected to me with that, I don’t know, electronic tether. Even when she wasn’t there, it helped knowing that she was somewhere.

That’s how it feels, still. I think she’s somewhere. I just don’t know where.

[voicemail]

Hiiiii, iris! Hi-riss! That’s nothing, sorry.  I texted you but I guess you must’ve lost track of time? I’ll just scale the building here and crawl in the IT window - you guys have windows, right? I feel like I imagine you in like a scifi basement most of the time. Anyway. I’m here, I’ll see you soon. Get down here before I bribe the security guard to let me in. I... yeah. See ya. I’ll be here.

[beep]

[morse code beeping] 

T-E-S-T. S-O-S. [pause] Where… are… you? 

Stupid, Iris. Just, stupid.

[beep] [equipment rustling, clinking, scraping]

It was, um, same company, different cities. I called her on the phone before I ported in to fix her computer, and she was – warm? Tired. Not exactly funny, but trying to make me laugh. I didn’t, but I thought about it, just to see if she’d laugh back? She messaged me on the company chat after, to thank me, and sent me a link to an article we’d been talking about while I worked on her desktop. I don’t remember what it was about even though it feels like I should. There are a lot of things I’m already forgetting. But I messaged back, and then we didn’t stop messaging. Until eight months ago.

I always want to know more about everything. Too much, probably. I can never stop digging. But she was the only one who really wanted to know more about… me.

I’m glad I got to meet her, but - I was supposed to keep meeting her - I - 

[beep]

[morse code beeping]

Don’t… be… dead.

[beep] [equipment moving aggressively]

Rob told me today that if I’m not going to go out for drinks with them after work anymore my only hobby can’t be looking for someone who’s been missing for a year. Really kind of insensitive, honestly. [huff] But I have been reading too many police reports, so today I will be starting a new project altogether.

[beep]

It’s the car radio, again, always the car radio. I should just buy a new one at this point, but then I’d never find out what was wrong with this one. Alright, okay, we’re trying scanning again, here we go.

[channels scan] [we hear the Sales Rep, and then the Host, cutting in and out:]

- Thank you for - feel - on - as always, our number is 71–

[Iris scrambles to stop the station but misses it. She tries tuning it back.]

Wait, wait wait wait wait. W-wait wait wait. 102 point 1. Oh my god. Oh my God. Wait. Hold on. 102 point - Wait, come back. Come back. 

I don’t – I don’t understand – [the road prov-] that’s Ha -

[beep] [keyboard clacking] 

I’m not the only person who’s heard her. There are people on subreddits talking about catching a radio call-in show on one frequency, exactly when they needed to hear it, but then not finding it again when they look for it, but just - How do I not need to hear it?

Here’s what I know about “the Host,” from what they know about the Host. Um, she’s always moving somewhere. She cares about her listeners. She’s experiencing impossible things, and so are the people calling in. And there’s a number.

Here’s what I know about my friend. She listened. She hated her job and always wanted a longer break. She loves pigeons and thinks that if aliens exist they’re single celled and acidophilic. She misses her mom. She was always reaching out for something. She was my friend.

[frantic music begins]

I know her voice, even if I haven’t heard it again. I know it was her, and I know I’m going to hear it again. I’m going to find the station. I’m going to find her.

[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]

Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. 

The voice of Iris is Kaitlin Bruder. 

The voice of H[static] is Kristen O’Neal. 

Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music track you heard in tonight’s episode is: Junoon by RANA. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at ‪[phone]. The lines are always open.

[Junoon plays]

#thin places radio #i mean don't make this the first episode you listen to #it won't make sense then #but if you know the premise

[kristenoneal]

now she’s all ready for spooky season—are you? 🌕🐺

#:3 #art

[kristenoneal]

got to talk with allison arth on the little oracles podcast all about why i love horror so much!! you can listen here ^^^

#little oracles #allison arth #horror #podcast #<3 <3 <3 #Spotify

[kristenoneal]

new period poll but i remembered to change the duration this time

once again, don’t want any terfs touching this. also: doing this a second time bc a lot of people found the old one after it was done (i forgot to change the duration from day to week. this new one will last a week)

#:)) #lycanthropy #laoci

[kristenoneal]

Fellow epileptics, I have some fantastic news for you. There’s an add-on that makes the internet safer for us. It’s called Epilepsy Blocker. The creator had me test it out, give feedback, he made adjustments, and it works great. It may even help those with migraine disorders that are triggered by the same thing that messes with those of use with photosensitive epilepsy (mine is a case of being absurdly sensitive).

This is the only add-on I’ve encountered made specifically for those of us with epilepsy. It’s not a well known add-on, but I hope to see that change.

#resource #epilepsy #photosensitivity #!

[kristenoneal]

[a distorted cyan-yellow-magenta image of THIN PLACES RADIO flyers. text reads: COMING TO YOU LIVE FROM [REDACTED] - 10.13.2023]

TPR season two coming friday the 13th. tune your radios

#oh yeah! <3

[kristenoneal]

H O L O F A N G S

(Buy it on t-shirts, bedspreads, notebooks and more here!)

#:')

[kristenoneal]

I'm trying to write a post about tick safety and avoiding tick bites, but a lot of the info on websites is like "Avoid going in the woods, in plants, and where there are wild animals" and "Activities like hiking and gardening can put you at risk" and I'm like thanks! This is worthless!

As ticks and tick borne illnesses are expanding their range, I think it's important for people to be educated about these things, and I think it's especially important to give people actual advice on how to protect themselves instead of telling them to just...avoid the natural world

Rough draft version of Tick Advice:

Ticks don't jump down on you from trees, they get on you when you brush against grass, brush, bushes etc.

Ticks get brought to an area when they get done feeding from an animal and fall off them. In the USA, the main tick-bringing animal is deer, but I've seen plenty ticks on feral cats and songbirds.

Ticks get killed when they dry out so drier areas with more sunlight are less favorable to ticks.

The above is useful for figuring out whether an area is likely to have lots of ticks, and how vigilant you have to be in that area.

Wear light-colored, long pants outside. Tuck your pants into your socks, and tuck your shirt into the waist of your pants. Invest in light, breathable fabrics idc

IMMEDIATELY change out of your outside clothes when you come back from a tick-prone area, wash them, and dry them on high heat to kill any ticks that might be stuck on.

Shower and check yourself for ticks after coming inside. Hair, armpits, and nether regions in particular. You can use a handheld mirror or rely on touch; an attached tick will feel like a bump kinda like a scab

While you're outside, you can just periodically check for ticks by running your hands down your legs and checking visually to see if anything is crawling on your clothes. Light colors make them easy to spot, and they don't move fast.

Combing through each others' hair to check for creepy crawly critters is a time-honored primate ritual and is not weird. When hiking, bring a friend who will have your back when you feel something on your neck and need to know if it's sweat or a tick

If you're careful, you can usually catch ticks before they bite you, but if one does bite you, it's not the end of the world. Since tickborne diseases are different regionally i suspect this advice will differ based on where you are, but the important thing is remove the tick with tweezers (DON'T use butter, a lit match, or anything that kills the tick while it's still attached, please) and contact a doctor to see what to watch for. Most illnesses you can catch from ticks are easily treatable if you recognize them when symptoms first appear

#reference!

[kristenoneal]

happy tdov friends! trans people have always been here and will always be here 🏳️‍⚧️💗 learn how to help locally by finding your state's organization here and following them:

#i follow equality texas and have been dropping cards at the capitol to register against bad bills #if you follow any of these orgs they will tell you how to help - and donating does too!

[kristenoneal]

so what is thin places radio?

#tpr #vip (very important poll) #thin places radio

[kristenoneal]

a highway at night, road starkly illuminated by headlights. outside it, trees and a sign, in the purple-black. above it, the moon, bright white. the image is distorted by VCR static. text reads:

[013] THE HOST. A CALLER HEARS A VOICE ON THE RADIO. THE HOST BRAKES.

listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:

Keep reading

#tpr eps are kind of designed so you don't have to catch every single episode to know what's going on. this ep is one of the exceptions #TPR

[kristenoneal]

happy new year, id in alt text

#hoping for some new & better burdens this year #less burdened by health more burdened by belonging to other people #a happier burden

[kristenoneal]

you made it through the year!! you fuckin did it!! you might be a few things lighter and a few other things heavier. but that's okay. it doesn't matter how fast you finish the race, because it isn't a race. it just matters that you made it over the line. proud of you, kids.

#i am three organs lighter and a few traumas heavier #but we are all crossing into 2023 together

[kristenoneal]

I luckily haven't had to deal with much chronic pain or hand pain yet, especially with regards to baking (crochet is another story). That said, these look like some pretty solid tips! There's also some in the comments section.

#chronic pain #this is so helpful 😭 for me right now but also hopefully for all of you! #<3

[kristenoneal]

So what is Thin Places Radio? A radio call in show for the strange and the unexplained - with an actual number you can call into.

But like. What is it. Thin Places Radio is a podcast you can listen to anywhere you listen to podcasts. The episodes are all under 10 minutes each. There’s a new one every Friday, at 4am.

Where can I call in? 717-382-8093. That’s 717-382-8093. Or outside the U.S., here.

What are the calls about? Anything and everything from cursed gas station snacks to ghost dogs to dreaming a new door into your house to seeing God in the parking lot behind the CVS. Y’know. Everyday life stuff. If it’s supernatural or sentimental or just a little weird, we’re here for it.

What’s going on with the host? Why is she philosophizing from a different place every episode? Why is it always the middle of the night? Is she good? [redacted static noises]

#thin places radio

[kristenoneal]

[ID: a screenshot of LYCANTHROPY AND OTHER CHRONIC ILLNESSES: A NOVEL, BY KRISTEN O'NEAL. the cover is lime green with blue text and white teeth. below it says: Buy the eBook: 80% Off. Was $9.99 USD. Now $1.99 USD. Add to cart. end ID]

DECEMBER EBOOK SALE!! all month long you can get the book for ONE DOLLAR AND NINETY NINE CENTS wherever you buy your ebooks!! 💚💙👁

#sale #hi sorry i haven't been around in a while i have been. shocker. chronically ill #i will answer some asks soon! ish! #ebook #muah