#This is from a friend on Facebook so I don't know the source

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Hope Morphin Q&A

About a few months ago, I got a message from a surprising source: @hmrphin/Hope Morphin.

In case you don't know, Hope Morphin is a model and makeup artist who the character of Marc was based on. I also made a post about how their friendship with Astruc had ended thanks to the Rising Sun Flag controversy, which they had actually read one day. We talked a little, and they told me to message them on their Instagram to confirm that this is the real Hope.

They said they'd be down to answer some questions, I came up with a few, and I got their permission to post this on my account. So, without further ado, as Sid the Science Kid once said, let's go get some answers.

Question: When did you and Thomas first get to know each other, and how?

Answer: It was years ago, when the series premiered on TFOU. There were a lot of people complaining on twitter that the characters of the show were in 3D instead of in 2D, and I answered one of Thomas' tweets saying that characters' butts looked better in 3D rather than in 2D (yeah, I had a terrible sense of humor back then, glad I don't do that anymore) and he answered "yeah we could say that lol". Then, it became a running gag between us on the web, and we met for the first time at a french convention called Japan Tours, the 2015 one. So yeah, I think it was when I was... 20/21 years old, something like that.

Question: It's okay. We've all been cringe at some point in their lives. Did you two meet up again after the convention?

Answer: Yup. In fact, after the convention, he sent me a friend request on Facebook. Then, we chatted for a bit and he asked me if I wanted to be a model for him, and I met him for the second time during that model session.

Question: How did Thomas approach you about creating a character in his show based on you?

Answer: So, it was after I modeled for him. It happened after S1 has ended, so when we were chatting, he asked me which one was my favorite character. I answered Nathaniel, because at this time I felt quite close to this one (we love the angsty artist boy lmao). He told me that he didn't understand people liking Nath because he found it was a very empty character aha, but then he told me that they were searching for inspiration to create a boyfriend for him. He told me he wanted the persons to be happy that he got a boyfriend and that they would “stop bothering him with Nathaniel”, and as he wanted to take inspiration on someone looking androgynous he thought I was a good inspiration, so I accepted.

Question: Interesting story. Didn't know Nathaniel was so popular before Season 2. Did you have any input in the creation of Marc in terms of stuff like his design or personality?

Answer: Yeah he rather was, I remember a lot of people wanted to see more of him ehe. Not at all, I even though that he was joking on the moment, then one day he sent me Marc's characters sheet. I had the same haircut back in the day. Also, I was always wearing armor rings and I was wearing those kind of rings when I had this conversation with him, and he told me that Marc was going to have one of those as his miraculous. I was also still writing a lot back in the days, so I guess he still did took some stuff there and there in my personality to create him.

Question: You mean this design?

Answer: Yup! I was wearing only black sooo yeah the red and rainbow wasn't in my wardrobe aha.

Question: Do you know why they made the design rainbow themed?

Answer: Nah, he didn't told me :/ My guess is to make him more LGBT+ themed...

Question: Okay, sorry. Next question: What are your thoughts on Marc as a character? What do you think of his relationship with Nathaniel and his respective villain and hero forms, Reverser and Rooster Bold?

Answer: To be honest, when he first appeared, I really liked him. I thought he had a lot of potential as a character, his villain form was really cool and I really liked the ideas behind him, and I liked the relationship that he got with Nathaniel, from enemies to associates ehe. But after that... meh. There wasn't nothing much on the LGBT+ relationship with Nathaniel (we had to wait until the end of season 5 to see them hold hands... wow), and I didn't really find myself anymore in his character. I liked the design of his hero form and I liked the concept of his power, but like the other heroes that appeared during this episode, we didn't see Rooster Bold that much and I think that doesn't really make him feel appealing. I have the feeling that Marc and many other side characters could be way more develop in very cool subthemes but this is never really done in the series. Instead, now, they are just the characters getting out a whiteboard and giving terrible ideas to Marinette for her to date Adrien =="

Question: Just for fun, do you have any personal headcanons for Marc?

Answer: Well of course ehe, I have ton of those :D

Mmmh... For example, I think he is a dog person, that he's also fond of fashion such as Marinette but that he just don't have the patience to learn how to draw and how to design clothes... Also have the headcanon that him and Nath often meet at one of their places to do some little workshops together to work on their series and on tons of other projects :D

Got also tons of headcanon for future!Marc, such as him being a model for lgbt+ brands and Nath designing his clothes, I would love to see this shy patootie being at the front of the spotlight ehe, full of confidence and all :D There's tons of ideas to have with this character, I remember when I saw lots of artists drawing him with alternate clothes back in the day, such as shishitsunari or hazy (will try to find them back but it's been a while lol). I wish those clothing styles would be canon, with Marc rocking those kind of genderless clothes.

Links to fanart of Marc with different outfits: (https://www.deviantart.com/hazydayclouds/art/72918-756895643) and (https://ladyofacat.tumblr.com/post/176231424098/rises-from-the-underworld-marc-is-perfect-i-want)

Question: This one's a little tough, so if you don't want to answer, that's perfectly fine. What exactly went down before Thomas blocked you? Did you have any conversation online or in real life regarding the use of the Rising Sun Flag in "Ephemeral", or did Thomas just block you with no warning?

Answer: Honestly ? Blocked me without any warning. We were talking less and less, and, since I have affective dependancy, I had the feeling that I said / done something wrong. He was often answering only when I was defending him on social medias during these times. But we didn't have any harsh conversation from what I recall. So, I did the tweet about ephemeral, pointing out the use of the rising sun flag, and, well, maybe he had a plugin on twitter that blocked everyone using the term "flag", and maybe it blocked me automatically. The thing is : he has my number, he has my address (well, my old address now, lol). He had many ways to tell me this was a misunderstanding and that he didn't want to block me. He didn't call me, didn't send me any text after that to talk about it, so he clearly didn't want to make anything to sort out the problem. To this day, he still hasn't send me any message to talk about it. He commented on some of my facebook posts I did last year (I posted some makeups I did for my school) just saying it was cool, so... Yeah, not the type of friend I want to keep. I still have him as a friend on FB if I ever get the guts to try to send him a message to tell him everything that was wrong towards me and towards other people, but I clearly have other things to deal with lately.

Question: So he blocked you and didn't say anything else?

Answer: Yup, exactly, blocked me and didn't say anything else :/ After years of supporting him lmao.

Question: I'm really sorry to hear that. And you still haven't heard from him after all this time?

Answer: Well, apart from some comments he made on my facebook posts (I posted my makeup from my makeup school and he commented "very nice!") nothing at all. But honestly I'm not too bothered by that. I heard new stuff that he did prior and I really don't think it's a good idea that I interact with him again. I keep him in my facebook friends because maybe one day I'll send him a message to try to confront him, telling him that he had a very terrible behavior towards me and other people... But not today, I have other stuff to deal with.

Question: Despite everything that's happened between you and Thomas, do you still keep up with Miraculous Ladybug? If so, what do you think of it?

Answer:

Well, I've kept up with it because I still have lots of friends who are watching it (for example Octolady, Kogenta and Candy...), and they help me keep a little hype.

So I watched the episodes... There are some stuff that I like. There's good LGBT+ representation, and I like seeing an international known cartoon doing that (especially a french one since we have lots of far-right rising lately).

But honestly, I don't have the same hype as before. At the beginning, I was hyped because S1 looked awesome and had lots of cool fights, lots of wholesome characters and all, but the animation problems and differences are really making me bothered. Also, I have the feeling there's a lot of characters who could be more elaborated and who aren't, and... That's kinda sad, because there's a lot of topics that could be explored thanks to them and not just brushed off in one episode.

Plus, to be honest, I didn't really like the ending of S5. And I don't like the idea of it going on for seasons and seasons and seasons, milked until there's nothing more for it. The fewer the better in my mind...

I also seen the movie and didn't really liked it. Too much fanservice and didn't really made sense. The animation was nice, though.

Honestly, I love the writing team, they are wholesome people and they are doing their best for this show, but people like Thomas and Zag are the kind of people I don't want to support anymore. So yeah... To sum it up : still watching it from afar to see if nice stuff is happening, been pleased with some little stuff, displeased with a lot more, but I don't think I'll keep watching it both because I'm not that hyped up anymore and because I don't want to support anymore these 2 people. I supported Thomas too much before, was too attached to him and was a terrible person towards fans who didn't deserved it because I was too blind, so yeah, won't happen anymore.

Still, I'm glad there's still some people who are fans of Marc and who felt helped thanks to this character. I really hope he will have a better representation in the future (clear relationship with Nath, maybe even some trans / non-binary representation ?) in order to inspire young people.

----------------------------------------------------------

I'd like to personally thank Hope for being willing to answer my questions, and I highly reccommend giving their Instagram a follow.

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #thomas astruc #thomas astruc salt #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #marc anciel #rooster bold #reverser

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

03/01/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

OMG is is already march? Today's a long one yall.

= Cast & Crew Sightings =

= Samba Schutte =

More BTS! The particularly exciting part about this post was Samba's words:

"Last scene of the season, it was a heavy one which required extreme focus and emotion, and I decided to clown around☠️ What were they gonna do, fire me?👀 #readtheroom #ourflagmeansdeath #ofmd #ofmdseason2"

A lot of folks are feeling like there are two important points in this message:

"Last scene of the SEASON" (vs series)

"I decided to clown around"

=Vico Ortiz =

Needed more reasons to love Vico? They're a Good Omens fan as well!

== Don't Panic! ==

Many of you have probably heard about a lot of Our Flag Means Death Props being sold off at auction. Several crew-mates have made some excellent points as to why not to panic yet. I saw a tweet somewhere and now of COURSE I can't find it, but just a reminder, props are not the SET itself. The Set not being sold off is a huge plus, props come and go.

Thank you to @OFMDBingo42 and @cumulativehchaos for your thoughts and reassurances regarding this!

And a final note I whole-heartedly agree with from @chaotickraken91

== New Charity Fundraisers! ==

#WeeJohnWonday Fundraiser

A new fundraiser in aid of @KristianNairn's favorite charity, Team HAVEN Belfast will be going live on Monday, March 4th! If you'd like to see last years documentation/receipts please visit #HonoringKristianNairn Source: @ForceMonument's Twitter

== Smiles for Samba! ==

It's finally #SmilesForSamba day! Thank you to everyone who contributed to the scrapbook and fundraiser in honor of Samba!

== Watch Parties and Events ==

== Reminders! ==

Last chance for Season 2! Marathon tomorrow! Saturday 8am CST / 2pm GMT

= March 2 - Captain's Orders =

Tomorrow is #CaptainsOrders! Our Captain Rhys Darby has said more than once that getting out into nature is so incredibly important and healing. Weather permitting, try to get outside tomorrow even for a little bit and get some fresh air! Src: @rebels_rascal / Graphic by @SharpenYourSword on Twitter

== #WereWolvesWhen ==

With all the buzz going around regarding "We're Wolves" being scripted finally (from the Wellington Paranormal Podcast). Our Vianton Crew have asked fellow Rhys Darby fans to start spreading the word on "We're Wolves". Wanna help? You can hop onto your favorite social media and share your favorite parts of WWDITS or werewolves in general!

Please use the following hashtag #WereWolvesWhen!

== Save OFMD Crew Updates==

=Transparency Policy=

Clarification edits have been made to the Financial Transparency Policy. The next full review period will start on May 22nd Transparency Policy

= Immoderate Citrus! =

For National Sunkist Citrus Day, the SaveOFMDCrew wants you to send them all your citrus-related favorite! Reach out on any of their socials: Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Tumblr

= Billboard has been Scheduled! =

The #BeABillboard campaign to SaveOFMD will go live in London's Leicester Square on 11th, 12th, 18th, and 19th of March. Are you in London? Feel free to go check it out!

== Adopt Our Crew ==

Today @AdoptOurCrew hosted a These Thems watch party! There was a whole lot of engagement and they were kind enough to share some BTS bits that Vico shared with them! Check them out over on Instagram!

I've posted the images here as well for those of you who don't have access. All photos and posts regarding #TheseThems are courtesy of @adoptourcrew!

Didn't get to join the Watch Party? Check out These Thems On Youtube!

= More AOC Analytics! =

= #OurFlagTurns2 Bingo =

Did you know that our friends over at @adoptourcrew are running a Bingo game in celebration of OurFlagMeansDeath turning 2 on Sunday? Give it a whirl if you'd like! Feel free to hop on over to them on Twitter or Instagram and let them know how it's going!

Twitter / Instagram

== Fan Spotlight! ==

More cards from @melvisik! Thank you for letting us collect them all! Today is Con O'Neill!

== Dgdd Gwyl Dewi Hapus! (Happy St David's Day!) ==

Happy St David's Day all! Several fans are honoring our lovely David Jenkins on this Welsh holiday! Thank you @wastingyourgum for the dedication and the translation!

== Articles ==

TV Shows That Were Canceled In 2024

== Love Notes ==

Hey my darlings. As you can tell, today has been a very VERY long day. There is just SO MUCH going on. I don't know about you but it feels like something's building. Maybe it's just til OFMD's 2rd anniversary on Sunday the 3rd, idk, but i've got a good feeling.

Either way though, whatever that hype is, it's so nice to see everyone having fun and engaging so much. You are all so wonderful and deserve to smile and enjoy yourselves.

You are allowed to be loud and excited about things! In fact, please be! It makes us all excited too, and I love "seeing" you smile and in your element.

I'm off to bed, but I'll leave you with @thelatestkate's latest picture that's so very true. You deserve to be considered. You Count. Love you all.

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

I'm a bit lazy tonight so we're doing a combo, but to be fair it's one of my faves. Gif courtesy of @shegoesbyjoy

#daily ofmd recaps #daily ofmd recap #ofmd daily recap #ofmd daily recaps #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd bts #save our flag means death #adopt our crew #@adoptourcrew #@saveofmdcrewmates #save ofmd crew #samba schutte #vico ortiz #taika waititi #rhys darby #david jenkins #werewolveswhen

[luvtonique]

I realized something this morning.

This is probably gonna be a long post. (Edit, yep)

I'm a pretty fairly public figure on the internet, and I very regularly interact with a huge amount of people. From YouTube Comments to Discord to Tumblr Asks/Comments to Newgrounds Reviews to MMO Chat to Mic-Chat on Games to Twitch Chat to Stream Chat, blah blah blah.

I've, for years now, over a decade (hell over two decades) talked to probably thousands of people, and have been able to get a gauge on a pretty safe to say "average" of collective human intelligence on the internet.

I've come to realize that not everybody has that kind of experience talking to people online as I do. I've talked to literally thousands, probably near ten thousand, people online in my life.

This is a staggeringly high number and puts me in an outlier position among the rest of you, who likely have only interacted with a double digit number of people online in your life.

Now that you have that information in mind, here's what I realized this morning.

I realized that the reason I don't listen to people, ESPECIALLY when it comes to politics, is because I have learned through talking to all these people that fucking nobody knows what they're fucking goddamn talking about.

I study a lot of things in my spare time, and history is a huge one that I study. I very regularly read and listen to multiple sources talking about historic events, and I make sure to look at as many sources as possible, sometimes including reading encyclopedias in my own home that we've owned for like 40 years.

I cross-reference all of these things and paint a picture of the most likely truths through various means.

Why's that important? Because sometimes a 14 year old on Twitter, literally nearly less than a third my age, will occasionally come along telling me that I'm wrong. Not about history necessarily, but about some opinion that I have based on my own experience and my own knowledge that I've researched myself.

I usually ask them where they got their information, and I'm met with boldfaced idiocy. Completely braindead shit like "180,000 people said it on Twitter," or they link me a Tumblr post with 100k notes, or they say "It's common knowledge," (which is the biggest red flag of them all because not only does it prove they have no evidence to back up what they're saying, but as this post will go on to explain, "common knowledge" is quite literally the worst source of information on anything. People commonly think the earth is flat and that Scientology is real. People commonly think that walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror gives you bad luck. People commonly think that naturally blue food exists.)

In my life I have met thousands of people, and THOUSANDS of them are fucking idiots who very very smugly state completely incorrect knowledge. Earlier today someone tried to tell me that the creators of Beat Saber never sold the company to Facebook, and I showed them proof and they went silent for 3 hours and then went "Yeah so what, Facebook is still a good company" and I wanted to beat my head against the desk.

The internet is full of people who are fascinatingly ignorant. I'm not calling myself "better" or "smarter" than anyone here, I'm just saying that I have learned better than most people that people on the internet are not, and never fucking will be, a good source of information. I don't care if they're your best fucking friend, the coin-toss of them knowing what they're talking about or actually having the facts is so heavily weighted against them, it's seriously like a 98% chance they have no fucking clue what they're talking about.

I urge everyone to take a moment and realize that the internet is, in fact, a good place to find information and do research, but PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET, especially MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA, are NOT SMART PEOPLE AND ARE NOT GOOD SOURCES FOR YOUR INFORMATION.

These are angry, smug, annoying little idiots who are likely 14 years old with a 1st grade reading comprehension who aspires to be a TikTok content creator as a career, and under no fucking circumstance should you ever, ever, EVER listen to any social, financial, religious, gendered, medical or political advice they give.

The world has gotten vastly out of control with how much people think "A lot of people agree with me" is a good enough reason to solidify your opinions. "A lot of people agree" is the biggest red flag ever, because people on the fucking internet are complete fucking idiots, I'm sorry, but I'm someone with far more experience talking to people on the internet than literally any of you reading this. I talk to people on the internet as a career and have been doing this for longer than most of you reading this have been alive.

So what's the point of this? What's the take-away?

The take-away is that I'm saddened by how many people will attack each other vehemently, cut off friends and family members, label people as toxic or problematic, jump to conclusions, etc. based on complete and utter misinformation spouted to them by people who have never once in their entire life actually looked up what the fuck they're talking about. They treat random strangers on Twitter as "experts" because that person is well articulated or put together a YouTube video with really good editing that's softly spoken by a British accent guy and has scary music whenever some "evil" person is on the screen.

The take-away is that people, like yourself (don't you dare try to deny it) will just believe whatever they read on social media, or whatever their Discord friend-group is talking about, because they are living in a complete falsehood that people on the internet know better than they do.

You are not incapable of doing your own research. You are not incapable of finding the truth. You are not stupid. Just do your own research, look into things yourself, cross-reference, use the scientific method, go to a library, read books, for fuck sake please adopt the basic social skill of "If someone says it on the internet it is most likely not true and I should look into it myself."

Because the current state of people is monstrous.

Y'all get so fucking mad about things that are just plain not true, and you revolve your entire life around things you were told by complete idiots and/or children on Twitter and other social media websites.

Stop.

Look at yourself, look at how angry you get about things, and consider that there may be a possibility that anger stems from a complete lack of any foundation or truth in your own beliefs.

Consider the almost 100% guaranteed possibility that you have been blatantly lied to by people who have no fucking idea what they're talking about, and that you are violently upholding standards that are incorrect because you have placed trust in the word of untrustworthy people.

Look up confirmation bias, read about it.

Look up manipulation tactics, read about it.

Look up "Plato's Republic" and read about it.

Absolutely, under no circumstances, should you ever, EVER, form your social or religious or political or financial or gendered or sexual etc. opinions based on SHIT YOU READ ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

And while we're here, don't listen to the news either. They're just a bunch of parrots saying what needs to be said to get you all fighting with each other so that the government can fuck things up while you're distracted. Do your own research, check multiple sources, don't consider social media or regular media to be a 'source,' get every bit of information from every angle, and for fuck sake, stop attacking people for disagreeing with you when you, yourself, only believe what you believe because your friend group believes it and you know that if you disagree with your friend group they'll all attack you so you'd rather be on their side, which only further proves my point that y'all need to fucking chill.

"Democracy will never work. If 3 medical experts tell you that you must eat a ginger root to cure your ailments, but 100,000 idiots with no medical experience tell you otherwise, you're more likely to believe the 100,000 idiots. They are louder, there are more of them, and you will gamble on the hope that among those 100,000 idiots, there must be more than 3 medical experts. The voice of the ignorant will always drown out the voice of the educated."

-Plato's Republic, 375BCE (Paraphrased)

"I can't believe Jay just called us all idiots and expects us to listen to him"

-Someone in the comments of this (It's gonna happen)

PS: If you looked up "Naturally Blue Food," and found out it does in fact not exist, good for you for doing your own research!

[beespaceprogram]

Sticker Cutter Research

I was looking into getting a sticker cutting machine, and I decided to start by looking into cricut which is a well known brand. I had a look at what models they had than their feature etc, but what I was most concerned about was their software. Printer companies like to lock you into a defacto subscription to support hardware you don't really own, and as I was to discover, cricut are operating in a similar way.

The cricut software is online-only*. To cut your own designs you need to use their software to upload your art to their server. There's no way to cut a new design without a logged-in cricut account and an internet connection. At one point in 2021 they flirted with limiting free accounts to 20 uploads/month but backed down after huge community backlash, as far as I can tell.

The incident spawned several community efforts to write open-source firmware for cricut hardware. Some efforts were successful for specific models/serial numbers, but require cracking open the case and hooking in to the debug contacts to flash the chip; not exactly widely accessible. Another project sought to create a python cricut server you can run locally, and then divert the app's calls to the server to your local one.

I restarted my search, this time beginning with looking for extant open-source software for driving cutters, and found this project, which looks a little awkward to use, but functional. They list a bunch of cutter hardwares and whether they're compatible or not. Of those, I recognised the sihouette brand name from other artists talking about them.

I downloaded the silhouette software to try like I did w the cricut software, and immediately it was notable that it didn't try to connect to the internet at all. It's a bit clunky, in that way printer and scanner software tends to be, but I honestly greatly preferred using it to cricut's sluggish electron app⁺. Their software has a few paid tiers above the free one, adding stuff like sgv import/export/and reading cut settings from a barcode on the input material. They're one-off payments, and seem reasonable to me.

This is not so much a review, as sharing some of the research I've done. I haven't yet used either a cricut or a silhouette, and I haven't researched other brands either. But I wanted to talk about this research because to me, cricut's aggressively online nature is a red flag. Software that must connect to a server to run is software that runs only at the whim of the server owner (and only as long as it's profitable to keep the server up). And if that software is the only thing that will make your several hundred dollars worth of plastic and (cheap, according to a teardown I read) servos run, then you have no guarantee you'll be able to run it in the future.

Do you use a desktop cnc cutter? What has your experience been like with the hardware and software? Do you have any experience from home printers with good print quality and user-refillable ink cartridges?

* Cricut's app tried to connect to more than 14 different addresses, including facebook, youtube, google analytics, datadoghq.com, and launchdarkly.com. Launch Darkly are a service provider that help software companies do a whole bunch of things I'm coming to despise, for example, they offer infrastructure for serving different features to different demographics and comparing results to control groups. You know how at various times you've gotten wildly different numbers of ads than your friends on instagram? They were using techniques like this to work out how many ads they could show without affecting their pickup/engagement rates. Scummy stuff.

⁺ Electron apps are web-pages pretending to be applications. They use heaps of ram, tend to have very poor performance, and encourage frustrating UI design that doesn't follow OS conventions. Discord's app is a notable example of an Electron app

#bee talks #sticker cutting #cricut #silhouette #research #garbage software

[the-final-sif]

Honestly, I think this past week with Elon Musk just kinda goes to show how much better Tumblr's longer, slower game is.

Like, take revenue sources. Hosting is expensive and those bills do need to get paid to have a functional website. So how do you go about earning money as a website in an ethical manner without locking out users that can't pay?

It's true that tumblr struggles a lot with advertisers, it has for a long time. Ads are the number one way that most websites earn money from their users, so that's a big problem.

So what did tumblr do? Tumblr made a really smart pivot when it realized that it's userbase wasn't a good market for ads. It looked to establish a more direct payment model and look to it's users as consumers rather than products.

The ad-free for 5$ a month is honestly a sound model. Sure, you can always use ad-block, but you can also chose to offer payment to the site directly if you have the ability to do so. Allowing users to blaze posts is also a really good choice because it removes the part of advertisements that is the real problem (the ad targeting and privacy invasion). Allowing users to operate patron like blogs or tip bloggers is also a great secondary revenue source that works well for both the site and the bloggers.

Tumblr "gifts" are one of the best ideas they've had. 3$ to send your friend some crabs for 24 hours? Hell yeah. It's tiny little bonuses that you absolutely don't need, but you can use to provide a little bit of joy to someone else for a small price. By and large, these features are all reasonably priced, and allow tumblr to get revenue without locking their users out of important features or selling user data. This is honestly one of the ways that I can see the internet moving forward in a much healthier direction.

Compare the reaction to tumblr's "ad-free for 5$" model to the reaction to Elon Musk's "checkmark for 8$" model. While your mileage may vary, my experience with the ad-free offer was a generally positive reaction from the userbase. Some people were neutral or dismissive, but there certainly wasn't outrage.

Meanwhile, Elon's dumbass idea has drawn massive outrage, and had to be delayed because it was a legitimate threat to US elections. Because Elon isn't selling an ad free optional experience, he's selling the ability to participate on the platform, impersonate other people, and effectively cutting off a huge amount of the userbase. That's a big part of why there's been so much outrage and such a mass exodus.

Since Automattic took over, they've been slowly working to make genuinely good changes that both maintain what makes tumblr work, while improving existing issues with the site and opening up better options in the future. While I certainly have criticism of them, it's a hell of a better path to go down then whatever the hell's been going on at Twitter and Facebook's dumb choices.

We'll see how all of this plays out, but I've got a feeling that tumblr's dedication to maintaining functionality & working on repairing it's relationship to it's userbase will play out better in the long term. Who knows though.

#sif speaks #tumblr culture #twitter migration #long post #just thinking thoughts

[majaloveschris]

Maja, hear me out, Decent amount of whatever left of fandom already believe in wedding, very very few still hanging on thread of hope,Fandom people are also the one who knew about people surrounding his life and circle so they are the only one following their movements at all, GP already bought wedding so, why there are still heavy breadcrumbing? Who they are aiming for? Why is it serious need to prove connections? They can leave it as it is and live their life as they want, why they needed to forcefully push down through people's throt. And please respectfully I don't buy that they are just doing their own thing as normal folk do things at all.

Because they have a narrative to sell.

They are supposed to be a private couple with private weddings and parties, yet his side is posting breadcrumbs like they are getting paid to do so.

If they were so private, his friends would stay silent. There would be zero pictures from PT; Dennis wouldn't have posted about him and his wife dressed up fancy. There would be nothing out there about this wedding, yet there are sources; his friends are posting breadcrumbs.

How did people even find that post from 3 days ago on her husband's Facebook?

As you said, only we, the fans, know who these people are. But if a fan account on Twitter sees that somebody posted from his circles being PT (since there is supposedly a wedding in PT), they will make a post about it. If a gossip page on Tumblr, Instagram sees the same thing, they will also make a post. And these posts will reach more people, not just those who are part of the fandom.

I agree that they are trying too hard when just living their lives would be much more believable and natural.

If they were just living their lives, I don't think they would've posted at all. These weddings, parties were supposed to be secrets. Yes, they were, since you didn't hear them talking about the wedding, the date, or anything regarding it. They didn't even mention that they would get married or that they were engaged, so yes, it was supposed to be something private. And if it was, why did they post about being in PT, or why did Dennis post about being dressed up elegantly? It makes no sense to me.

#majaloveschris #chris and alba wedding #cevans-love

[intersectionalpraxis]

The idea behind a boycott truly seems lost on some. Percy Jackson and the Olympians was watched 13.3 million times since it's release, what, a couple days ago? It's on Disney+ aka the Pressure list on BDS, the author wrote a stupid blog post after 10/7 saying there are "two sides" to the issue, and many people who worked on the show are Zionists. What happened to the good ol' days of pirating? It's all Free Palestine until a show you want drops, huh? And from an author who has never written Arab/Muslim characters well.

I was reading a post on X recently about how someone had to tell her friends to boycott Starbucks because they didn't know it was one of the major companies that so many creators decided to start with because they were the most direct and influential (alongside McD's and Disney). Her friends were happy to do so, it's just they were 'unaware.'

This person also argued that unless you're "chronically online," you wouldn't know about what is happening, and depending on the media you are consuming (especially if it's mainstream western sources because we know they weave a VERY and vastly different story about what is happening in Palestine). I can understand a fraction of what she is saying, while at the same time I think this automatically reveals the willful ignorance that permeates our societies. How so many people can 'turn off,' and not engage or at least not know about what is going on across the globe based on many factors (which includes their governments and censorship -like in Canada it's hard to access videos on the ground in Palestine on Instagram unless you see it on X or Facebook or use a VPN, otherwise we/I can't access Eyes on Palestine on Instagram), is all very confounding to me. Because even without being 'online,' I do believe it's our responsibility to know, at bare minimum, what is happening.

I think at the crux of this (and these are just my opinions of course) is that many people in the global north, firstly, don't want to unpack their complicity in imperialistic and colonialist structures of violence in the global south because of their degree of consumerism (how the systems set up -and how so much of how we live depends on the mass hyper-exploitation of people 'elsewhere' where 'we don't have to see.'). So that in itself is something I think of when I see that there are people who either refuse to boycott big tech or industries that align or support genocidal regimes and powers, extensively so -because that would mean getting uncomfortable, being reflexive, demanding changes from these despicable companies (like refusing to buy from them until the are ethical and sustainable beyond paper), and overall changing your habits. And I don't mean shaming working class/poor people to stop shopping at major conglomerates to buy their groceries because that's not fair -not everyone can afford to buy local and go to farmer's markets. I'm talking about the excessive aspects of capitalism. Or watching/viewing content from places like Disney because they have the privilege to 'look away.'

We all know that if no one consumed a damn thing from these companies, that they'd change their tune very quickly, and it's just frustrating and beyond tragic to see Disney thrive despite how evil that corporation is, and only recently became 'inclusive,' but even so there's many stories and voices they leave out, or don't do justice. I hear you. I know what you mean, and seeing it is disappointing. Because even if you wanted to see those fucking films or series -yes there are OTHER means, but the fact that people will pay to see it and subscribe to it is just frustrating.

As always, boycott Disney.

#feminist #feminism #social justice #free palestine #freepalastine🇵🇸 #palestine #free gaza #boycotting #boycott disney #boycott mcdonalds #boycott israel #bds movement #boycott divest sanction #boycott starbucks #western imperialism #us imperialism

[artsie-rosie]

some kitchen & cooking tips that helped me a lot lately!

I've always had the hardest heckin time with cooking and kitchen management. From deciding what to have as a meal to grocery shopping to actually cooking, every step of it was a source of stress, guilt and many other bad feelings. I was confused and disheartened and I felt so alone because I seemed to have the hardest time with something other people did so easily and casually.

After I came to terms with my neurospicyness, my wife introduced me to a facebook group called Executive Dysfunction Meals and it quite literally changed my life. Learning that I was not alone in this very specific struggles was so darn validating, and from there on I started learning and coming up with strategies to make my life in the kitchen bearable, and even fun (shocking, I know!).

I'm very passionate about paying forward and spreading help and information, so I'm gonna start typing down the strategies and tips that have helped me the most so far. I hope it may be of help to someone out there!

(Please note I am not a professional and I'm not claiming to know the best way to do anything, these are all just my personal experience.~)

Optimize your space (specifically for you): You know how fridges usually have a big drawer type of space specially for veggies? I used to put my veggies and greens there, but then my brain would magically Out-Of-Sight-Out-Of-Mind them away. Countless times I'd open the drawer up, weeks later, just to find rotten veggies and liquified greens. Then punish myself with guilt and anger... Until at some point we decided that enough was enough, that simply wasn't working out to our advantage, and we changed things up entirely: We started putting things that don't go bad in the big drawer, such as beverage cans, unopened juice boxes, pickled greens etc, and the veggies now go on the area just above, out in the open, so I can see them everytime I open up the fridge. I also have a little magnet whiteboard on the fridge's door, and whenever we do groceries I make a list of the stuff we have to consume quickly before it goes bad - visual cues help me quite a bit. I'm happy to say it's been quite a while since we've let greens go to waste!!!

Optimize your space (specifically for you) II: In the same logic as the item above, you can (and should) adapt your space to you, and not the other way around. I have a little stepladder that I use as a stool whenever I'm cooking or washing dishes, because it's hard for me to stand up for too long. Whenever I start using a utensil more often and it was initially stored behind doors or someplace hard to reach, I change things up to bring it closer and have it easily accessible. If I don't use something for more than a year, I put it away a little further away to free up space for something I use often. I'm always optimizing my space and keeping the things I use the most very easily accessible; it's not an easy process to change things up like this, but I promise the positive effects of this strategy are long lasting in my daily routine!

Learn the best way to freeze and use leftovers, vegetables and fruit, and adapt them to your routine: I freeze chopped bananas and avocados that would go bad otherwise, because I like turning them into smoothies. Leftover rice is saved to make fried rice which we love! Learning the best way to freeze broccoli was a game changer and it gave me a week of really nice quick meals! Google is your friend and there's so much handy info out there, being curious and adventurous really pays back in the kitchen.

Batch make and freeze sandwiches for a quick snack: I picked this tip up from the Exec Dysfunction Meals group! I've been doing it for a few weeks and it really helps. Whenever I feel like I have the extra spell slots, I make a couple more sandwiches than I would normally, put them in little freezer baggies and freeze them. Whenever my wife and I want a quick bite and don't feel like making anything, grabbing a sammich and popping it on our sandwich toaster is so easy and it makes a warm and crunchy meal. I've done it with ham, cheese and oregano, I have friends who do this with plain toast too.

Batch make garlic paste and chopped onions to freeze, for quick cooking starters: Yes I'm aware a lot of people speak against this, but hear me out. As a brazilian, a lot of my cooking starts with crushed garlic and chopped onions. Whenever possible, I do prefer these ingredients to be prepared and used as fresh as I can, but whenever the executive dysfunction or the joint pains hit, having these starters ready to go help a lot. For the garlic, I either crush or process a head of garlic or a handful of cloves finely with salt, then use silicon ice trays to freeze it into little cubes. For the onions, I chop them finely on the food processor, get rid of the excess water, put them into a freezer bag and use the dull side of a knife - or a spoon - to shape them into flat little squares (the flatter it is, the easier it will be to defrost and sauteé them). When it comes the time to get some rice or some stir fry started, I grab one little cube of garlic and one little square of onion and sauteé them; it's quick, easy, and effortless.

Process anything you can: This one is kind of specific, but for some reason I was raised to think that everything is better if it has a lot of effort involved, specially in the kitchen. That's the reason why I've hesitated so much to really put our food processor to use, and kept insisting to do a lot of things the "traditional" way. In the last few years I finally stopped pushing myself and now I use it to grate, slice, chop and blend everything I can. Being adventurous and figuring out in which ways can I put the processor to use instead of doing things by hand is a fun puzzle, too. Besides, a masterfully crafted meal with things finely chopped by my own hands won't help me at all if it never becomes a reality due to how tired or sore I feel to cook.

[I might either come back and add more to this post in the future, or reblog it to add more tips!]

#spoonies #executive dysfunction #kitchen tips #meal prep #chronic pain #mental health #chronic fatigue #executive dysfunction meals

[bigmammallama5]

mammallama if you have energy how did you find your adhd dr? I know I could use one but I'm trying to fight the inertia of getting a dr because of all the experiences of previous medical professionals not listening to me. thank you for reading!

Hey, I've got a little energy! You get my one level seven spell slot for the day lol

I am very fortunate that I have a primary care doctor that takes my concerns seriously and pointed me in the direction of my current specialist. I also have two very wonderful best friends with ADHD who gently slid my wig back and told me "go get tested, you sound like me". I recognize not everyone is lucky to have doctors that listen to them so this answer will be based off of my limited experience and local healthcare in my state in America, so please keep these as general suggestions! And I know it's hard to advocate for your own health, trust me I get it lol, but please stick with it. It's worth it to get the answers at the very least so you can start adjusting.

So if you have a PCP try asking them for places that are in your insurance network that could help you get tested/write you a referral letter if needed. I would suggest first looking for a behavioral therapist that specializes in diagnosing ADHD (like mine does) and treatment. I can't get actual cognitive behavioral therapy from them but they help me keep track of my ADHD and navigate my medication stuff. The extra special thing about my doctor is she was also diagnosed as an adult, so she truly understands to a certain degree of what I'm dealing with. Looking at her during my first visit was like looking into the future of the person I can be with the right help. Having a doctor that has what you have is incredibly valuable.

If you can't find a specialist, I would suggest looking for a psychiatrist that specializes in diagnosing and treating ADHD. You can also get diagnosed by a psychologist but I don't think they can actually prescribe medications? But either of those professionals will be able to test and diagnose you!

If you have trouble networking, my therapist suggested looking on Facebook (I know I know) for local/state groups that can help you connect with doctors in your area. You'd be surprised at how ready people are to help others find the care providers they need! You may not even have to ask, there may be a list of medical professionals that you can look over.

I will warn you that depending on where you go it's going to probably cost a fair amount. Even with my therapist's office taking my insurance my testing was still over 400 bucks, but in the end it was worth it for me. I will also warn you that some testing can be quite lengthy from what I hear, taking multiple sessions depending on the professional you're seeing. My testing and diagnoses took a little less than three hours and that's why I'd suggest looking for an ADHD behavioral therapist first. They know exactly what they're looking for and know you're there specifically for that test.

Another tip I can give you is frame your reason for testing as simply needing answers to improve your quality of life. Have that in writing. Don't even mention medication other than "I would explore that if you deem it a viable option for treatment." Getting medication right now is difficult if not downright impossible for some of us, so I would frame your needs on getting yourself picked up and put together. That's really what you need first anyways. Answers.

Be warned ADHD may also come with a side of fries (other general disabilities like OCD/OCD tendencies, anxiety, depression, ect ect that are often the result of untreated ADHD).

ADHD is legally considered a developmental disability and protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Know your rights!

In the meantime I always suggest taking a look through https://www.additudemag.com/ for information about symptoms and research and all that stuff. This is a trusted source that my therapist's office shares with all of their patients! The articles are kept up to date as new research is made available and is laid out in such a way that it's easy for people with ADHD to read and navigate. It's also a great source for parents that have kiddos with ADHD, so pass that around if you know someone who's struggling!

I do hope that your past experiences with poor doctors won't keep you from seeking testing. I can promise you not all of them are like that, and I hope you can find someone who will listen to you and take your concerns seriously!

#ask me stuff! #adhd #long post #but yeah i promise not all drs are Like That #i have drs and surgeons in my family and while i am gonna have to kick the snot out of my younger brother for some shit im seeing budding #my older family members are very good and listen to their patients #theyre out there i promise #pointing out this is a US based perspective #so if you are not in the US i would go through the health care channels that are the equivalent of your care network!

[depressedbagpipe]

Enchanted (Prince Caspian x you)

Part II

Words: 3681 Warnings: caffeine, me forgetting how to properly write, also me forgetting the source material, ALSO me trying to write cute descriptions but failing miserably. A/N: again, i don't live in nyc, nor am i an architect so yeah. also, I'm taking for inspiration neil gaiman's short story 'the problem of Susan' that i haven't read so, again, don't look too much into it. sorry for the absence, but mental health is a bit scarce lately. Taglist: @just-levyy, @sergeantbuckybarnes

Part I - Part III

“Alright, tell me how you got here again?”

You sat your mug down on the coffee table, leaning back on the comfortable armchair as you stared at Caspian. 

He sipped his mug, somewhat enjoying the bitter taste of the dark liquid his reticent host had served him.

“Well, I was enjoying my morning stroll around the Narnian woods, you know. Cair Paravel was a bit far but something in me made me continue walking. And then I found this… thing,” Caspian kept talking, yet the longer he went on, the more you frowned.

You tried to keep up with his retelling, only catching bits of information about lions and fauns, but everything that came out of his mouth became weirder by the second. Only after he finally closed his mouth you realized you still had no idea where this person had come from.

“Right… so, um, we’re talking about… some… extra-terrestrial experience? Paranormal, perhaps?” you tried again, but Caspian’s frown made you discard the idea rather quickly. “Alright, so Narnia. And who are these friends you’re looking for? The Pennies?”

“Pevensies,” he corrected you, but there was no malice in his deep voice. 

“Right, Pevensies.Who are they?”

That threw Caspian into another tangent, describing how these friends of his were centuries-old royals who ruled before he did, but somehow made their way back a few years ago to help him fight his uncle.

Your coffee had gone cold by the time he finished. “So, like, is this some sort of… Hamlet situation?” you offered, failing to find the right words.

“Who is that?” he asked again.

“Hamlet?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t know Shakespeare?”

“Shakespeare?”

“Forget it.”

“Alright.”

His accent was cute, at least, you thought. And what originally was fear of the strange man sleeping on your couch, now had been replaced by utter confusion.

“So, they’re British,” you spoke again.

“The Pevensies?” 

“Yeah. You said they’re from England, right?” you asked.

“Yes, Spare Oom.”

“I don’t think that’s a place,” you frowned, your mind swirling with possibilities.

“Have you ever been there?” Caspian asked you, with big dark innocent eyes.

You shrugged. “I’ve been to London once if that counts.”

“Do you think you could help me?” he spoke, and again, his eyes seemed to speak their own language.

There was naivité, and anxiety, and kindness. It was safe to say you had never seen eyes such as those.

You shrugged again, picking up your coffee, if only to give your hands something to work on, and an excuse to ignore his piercing stare. “I guess. Do they have Facebook or something?” You cut Caspian before he could talk again, noticing the way his nose scrunched in confusion. “Alright, is there any number, or address, that we can track?”

Caspian’s frown didn’t waver. 

“I… don’t think so,” he left his mug on the small table, bringing his hands together. He stared at them with a lost expression, and his shoulders seemed to get smaller with every breath he took.

It broke your heart to see him like this, even if you couldn’t even fathom where this strange man had come from. 

You had woken up that morning with a clear mission: getting him out of your apartment. You blamed your migraine and your smeared cupcake, as you opened your eyes and turned in bed a few times before checking the hour. For a second, you even thought that it could’ve been a dream. A weird, unfiltered, and totally bizarre dream. This was New York, after all. You had definitely seen weirder. But then you heard a muffled thump from the other room, and you somehow knew your guest had fallen flat on the carpet, probably tangled in the blanket you had gracelessly covered him with before locking yourself in your room, and it all came crashing down on you again. You had let a complete stranger crash on your apartment, and though it wouldn’t be the first time, it still felt wrong for some reason. He wasn’t a regular man, but you still didn’t know what his presence would turn your life into. 

You would have stayed in your bed forever, waiting for Caspian to get the memo and exit your life, but curiosity got the best of you, and slowly, you got up despite the slight chill that settled on your bones on the cold Monday morning, and you faced whatever fate had in store for you waiting on the other side of your door.

Making small talk had not been an option, either. As soon as Caspian saw you he stood up nervously, standing by your couch again with his hands behind his back and his hair ruffled. Again, you thought he looked cute. He had immediately tried to talk, but you had held a finger in the air.

“I need caffeine first,” you only responded.

You prepared two mugs, mentally facepalming yourself for not asking him whether he even wanted coffee, but you had never been a morning person and you had more important matters at hand.

And that’s how you had found yourself on the armchair, staring at Caspian with a small glare, only grasping bits of his story, but not enough to provide clarity about the hazy situation.

“Alright,” you said after taking a deep breath. “Well, Caspian…” you doubted. “Should I call you ‘your Majesty’ or something?” you asked him first.

He let a soft chuckle, and for a second, you believed that sound was the only existing key to happiness. “Just Caspian.”

“Well, just Caspian, let me be frank with you,” you prepared yourself, sitting straighter on your seat and looking at him with what you believed to be a ‘harsh’ expression. “I still have no idea who you are, where you come from, and where you’re going. I still can’t believe I let you stay the night here, and, if I’m being honest, I’m having a bit of a hard time believing everything you just said,” you noticed Caspian’s sullen look, but you kept going. “I don’t know if you hit your head too hard on the concrete or if someone’s larping sword caused you some internal bleeding, but you need to understand that what you’re saying sounds insane. But,” you took a gulp, looking down at the floor for a second before meeting his somewhat hopeful gaze. “If what you’re saying is true… I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I’ll help you.”

His entire face changed completely. A new spark illuminated his eyes, and it made you proud to be the cause of it. “Really?”

You found yourself nodding before you could answer. “Yeah. Though, it won’t probably be easy, Caspian. So, please, for your sake and mine, don’t put too much faith in this.”

He nodded, but his smile didn’t falter. And you wished it never would.

“Okay. I can promise that.”

“Good. Now, I guess we need to find out more about these friends of yours, right?”

He nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah. You would love Edmund.”

You nodded along, not even knowing who he was talking about. “Whatever you say, pretty boy.”

You said that as you got up, completely missing the faint blush on his cheeks.

***

Caspian looked ridiculous in your ex-boyfriend’s clothes. You had insisted he wore something different, take a shower, and have a proper meal, before even thinking about leaving your place that morning. Your ex had been a little shorter and lankier than him, so you couldn’t help to eye the way the shirt clung to his torso, making his arms look bigger. You even had to shake your head to physically remove your gaze from him, the casual attire feeling so domestic on him yet out of place. You didn’t fail to notice the many faint scars that littered his arms. For a second you wondered if he kept more of those hidden elsewhere, but you didn’t ask. It was small things like those that had you doubt your sanity. Every so often, you found yourself thinking that maybe he was being honest with you, but you didn’t give yourself time to think about what the repercussions would be if you were, indeed, hosting a fictional man on your couch from a different realm. A realm where animals talked and magic existed.

You had also profusely apologized for your cooking skills –several times. If he actually happened to be a king (which you doubted, but in the tiny odd chance that he was), you didn’t want to make a complete fool of yourself and throw him some burnt steak. You had felt this pressure before, especially with your parents, and even your ex, but with Caspian, it felt different. You had been looking carefully at him as he tasted his spaghetti, and the look of pure delight he sent you made you want to become a professional chef, even if the pasta was a bit undercooked and the sauce a bit too salty even for your taste. Anything to see his look again.

Caspian behaved like a newborn, and it didn’t help that he was a curious young man. You had noticed at first how he looked everywhere around your apartment, taking in every small detail, carefully touching and prodding whatever was in his sight. But now, two hours later, he had already made himself at home and clearly didn’t understand your annoyed faces and curt responses.

“So, you can communicate with other people through this?” he eyed your phone warily. 

“Yup.”

“And you command it to do your bidding?”

“Sure.”

“Are you a witch?”

“I wish,” you laughed at his horrified expression. “I could send you back with a flick.”

Caspian looked seriously at you. “In my land, witches aren’t all that welcome.”

You frowned. “Damn, don’t tell me you guys are afraid of powerful women too.”

He didn’t get the sarcasm in your voice. “The last witch that ruled in Narnia almost destroyed my kingdom. If it hadn’t been for Aslan and the Pevensies, not even I would be here today.”

You wanted to joke, you really did. But his voice was grave and deep with emotion. One look at him was all it took for a chill to cover your lungs. But then again, you weren’t one to back down from a fight.

“And what did she do that was so horrible? Did she accidentally unleash an eternal winter over your land?” you joked. Your eyes swiftly moved towards your DVD collection, falling onto Frozen’s case. 

“Yes.”

Thankfully, you weren’t drinking, otherwise, you would’ve choked to death.

He wasn’t looking at you anymore. His eyes were hard and set on the wall behind him. 

“It happened a long time ago, but Narnians still fear those dark times.”

“I’m… sorry,” you answered, but it felt empty even to you. 

He shook his head. “That’s why I need to go back. I don’t know what brought me here, but I cannot leave my kingdom unprotected. Only Aslan knows what sort of dangers they may be exposed to while I’m gone.”

This time, you properly looked at him. The creases in his forehead, and the worry evident in the bags under his eyes. He couldn’t be that much older than you, but for a second, his concerned words made it seem as if he held the weight of the world on his shoulders. And that was too much of a burden, even for him. 

He was standing rather rigidly in your living room, lost in his memories, despite never having seen such horrors. But the legends, the myths, the songs, and the tales, were abhorrent. A world without light, and happiness, only ice. A world where magic was divided by magic itself, and he knew that too well. And despite having always been kind and generous, some sick joke of fate had brought him here, to you, and he still didn’t know where that was. He thought about his people, his kingdom, constantly. But the cotton of his dark green shirt felt soft on his scarred skin. Whatever product you had forced him to use in his hair smelled of fruits he hadn’t eaten in months and that weird long yellow-ish food you had made him had tasted better than it looked. He was feeling oddly energized as well, and you obviously didn’t mention the coffee to him. Maybe he would think you were a witch, too.

You broke the silence, unknowingly saving Caspian from himself. “You said Aslan’s good, right?”

He blinked. “Yes.”

“Then, maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but hear me out. If you’re this… all-generous king or whatever, and this… evil witch is long gone, who’s to say it wasn’t Aslan himself who brought you here?”

You surprised yourself with that question. Certainly, you did pay attention, after all.

Caspian looked at you, carefully considering your words. “It might be a possibility, yes.”

Nodding, you continued. “And your friends? They left because, and I quote, ‘learned everything Narnia had to teach them,’ right?”

He nodded, suddenly feeling desperate. “That’s right. Aslan himself told them.”

“Then who’s to say Aslan didn’t send you here because there’s something for you to learn as well?”

You were crazy. You sounded crazy. You couldn’t believe that you were playing into whatever Caspian’s game was, but it seemed pretty evident to you. If the king was right, it seemed the only possible explanation. And somehow you knew, the man before you wouldn’t hurt a butterfly, despite the faint scars in his bare arms telling you otherwise, as well as the sword propped against the entrance’s wall.

Caspian remained silent, but his eyes widened. He too knew you were right. Aslan wouldn’t do something as grand without a reason.

“Perhaps… finding my way back is part of the challenge,” he spoke slowly, setting his eyes on you. 

You could only shrug. It felt like he was having this big spiritual moment, and you, ever so skeptical, didn’t know what else to offer him. 

“Perhaps,” you repeated. “You know what they say. ‘Maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way,’” you joked.

Caspian didn’t seem to get that. “That certainly sounds wise, my lady.”

You nodded with a pout, looking anywhere but at him. “Alright. Let’s look for the Pennies.”

“Pevensies.”

“That’s what I said.”

***

“Hey, Anne,” you greeted the nice lady at the front desk of your favorite local library.

“Oh, hello, dear! Long time no see! How was your Thanksgiving? You spent it with your parents, did you not?” she greeted you back, throwing a thousand questions in your direction as she usually did. 

Caspian noticed the way your shoulders tensed at the mention of your parents, and though he didn’t want to pry, he knew he would be soon asking you about that.

“Yeah, um, it was good. Listen, my friend and I are in a bit of a rush here,” you motioned to Caspian quickly. “Do you have any… information, on English families? Like their lineage? Possibly in the past century?”

Anne eyed you questioningly. “I think we do have some records around here, but it may take me a while to reach them,” she explained. “Why the sudden interest? Is this for your work?”

You nodded slowly, knowing there was no way you could explain your situation to anyone without them thinking you had suddenly gone mad. You still think you kind of were, but the man trailing after you like a lost puppy was a good indicator of the contrary. 

“Indeed.”

Anne clapped delighted. “Well, in that case, I shall fetch those documents for you!” she quickly got up and disappeared through a narrow door, no doubt leaving for the archive behind her.

You sighed as you leaned on the desk, staring at the library where rows of books lined up the walls. Caspian copied your movement and he too stared at the nearly empty space before him.

“So, your work, huh?” he asked in a soft whisper. 

Even though you were the only ones standing there, it felt wrong to speak any louder.

You nodded. “Yeah. It wouldn’t be the first time I had asked her for the weirdest things.”

“What do you do?”

You paused. “Spiritually, I’m an architect. In reality, I work at an office.”

“A what?”

You sighed again. “It’s this place, where you… work, pretty much every day. And you just… do stuff.”

Caspian looked at you, knowing there was more to it. But he also noticed the way you seemed to sigh more than necessary, and struggled to find the right words. It all kept adding to the mysterious puzzle you were, but Caspian wasn’t ready to ask yet.

He nodded in fake understanding, despite still having no idea what an office was. “Right. Sorry for asking.”

You shook your head. “It’s alright, really. I just… don’t really like my work that much.”

Caspian widened his eyes. “What do you ever mean? Architects in my country are treated as royalty. Creating any building is pretty much considered magic.”

You snorted. “Right. Well, I should’ve thought about that before moving to New York. There really isn’t that much space here to build anything anymore.” 

“Then why do you keep living here, if you hate it so much? Aren’t you free to roam around your kingdom?”

You paused. You knew that, deep down, he was right. There really was nothing tying you to the city. Your family lived elsewhere, and you knew the scarce friends you had here wouldn’t miss you that much if you left. You liked your apartment, and the views, and the nightlife, but you knew other places in the world could offer you as much and more. You even thought about Caspian’s life in Narnia, and you wondered what your life would be like there. 

Just his audacity made you angry. “It’s not that simple, Caspian.”

Thankfully you didn’t have to say anything else, because Anne was soon by your side once again, with several folders in her frail arms. Caspian quickly took the papers from her, and you raised your eyebrows when you noticed the way his arms flexed under the weight.

“Oh, thank you, dear. Okay, so I believe this is all we have. Be careful, some of them are really old and could easily fall out of their bindings,” she warned you, before sitting back down on her chair. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

“Thank you,” you said under your breath, your heart picking up for some reason. 

You led Caspian towards the desk at the back, away from prying eyes and ears, and forced him to sit down next to you. It was your favorite spot, the quaint corner at the far end of the library, surrounded by literary classics that no one ever seemed to look for. A big window decorated one of the walls, giving you as much light as needed as you promptly opened all the folders and carefully placed them all over the table, fast eyes scanning the words.

“Alright, we already tried tracing your friends on the Internet and that didn’t work, so this is the best we got,” you said with a whisper, knowing Anne would not hesitate to throw you out if you made noise.

“Books are the pathway to knowledge,” Caspian said as he crossed his arms. Again, you couldn’t ignore the bulges that formed on his biceps. 

You shook your head, registering his words. “Right.”

And that is how you spent the rest of the afternoon, reading about old English family lines, World War II’s mass mobilizations, and railway accidents that shook entire nations. 

Your eyes were almost red by the time the sun finally set, and you couldn’t hide your yawns any longer. Caspian was in no better shape himself. At some point, he had dropped his head on the table and his eyes were almost closed. A few stray hairs were framing his face, even after you had put his hair in a small bun earlier. You totally didn’t enjoy the way its softness felt between your fingers, and Caspian totally didn’t close his eyes in enjoyment when he felt your hands tread through his wild mane.

And only after you yawned for what it felt like the hundredth time, you found something. Literature Professor Hastings, on childhood, fantasy lands, and grief. The article was one of the first things you quickly discarded, but as you looked around the papers, a sentence stuck out to you from one of the sprawled loose papers. “A family of four suddenly became a family of one.” You reached for it with a frown, and you would’ve read it entirely if it hadn’t been for the faint bell announcing the library’s closing time. 

You shook Caspian awake, and though he pretended to not have been almost asleep, he got up anyway and helped you gather all the documents. 

“Will you be keeping that?” he asked when he noticed the article in your hands.

With a bite of your lip, you nodded.  “I don’t know why, but… I have a feeling.”

Caspian looked serious. “Then, by all means, keep it. Intuition is only a powerful ally in my world.”

You stared at him as you both walked back to the front desk, quickly giving everything back to Anne and checking the article out. 

Stepping out of the library, you took a deep breath, turning to Caspian. You took a few seconds to admire the city lights reflected in his eyes, but you composed yourself. Not even twenty-four hours ago you were still on a train coming back to the city from a dreadful weekend, and now you were helping a random man go back to the kingdom of Narnia (which, according to Google, didn’t exist).

“Hey, remember what I said this morning? About not getting your hopes up?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good. We’re still at it.”

“Got it.”

“Dinner?”

Caspian smiled. You noticed the wrinkles in his eyes when he did so, and you thought you wouldn’t mind seeing those again. 

“Sure.”

Part III

General Taglist: @angiewhoohooo, @azaleaniath, @mishaandthebrits, @celestialcharles

#prince caspian x reader #prince caspian x you #prince caspian fanfiction #the chronicles of narnia #enchanted #prince caspian au #bagpipe writes #the chronicles of narnia au #alternative universe

[cosmica-galaxy]

Hello, I'm from Gaza City because of the war,my house was destroyed. We lost everything,my family and I did not have anything left. We left our homes in search of a safe place and we were displaced three  times to different places to survive, but unfortunately there's no safe place in Gaza. My mother is very sick and she's a kidney failure patient in need of treatment outside. She suffers from LS. Help me and my family to survive. Please, your small donation can make a huge difference. A friend outside Gaza has come in to help me run the donation program so that my mother can be evacuated

Alright. THIS is where I draw the line with scammers like you people. Are you fucking serious? You are trying to use a FUCKING GENOCIDE to SCAM PEOPLE? Whoever is in charge of this account should be FUCKING ASHAMED. How dare you come into MY inbox with your filthy money hungry scheming hands, using the Palestine people's REAL suffering to make a quick buck! How absolutely DISGUSTING are you?! I am all for a free Palestine and I hope that my activism and support get ACTUAL real families out of Gaza and to safety where they can get help and survive this atrocity they are being FORCED to endure.

YOU, however, are NOT a Palestine refugee. You are a fucking soulless a scammer/bot that should be so fucking ashamed!

How do I know? Your account was made a FUCKING DAY AGO. Also, your con-artist link to fucking Paypal says "Fred Odhiambo", I looked up "Fred Odhimabo Palestine" on ANY social media and got NOTHING.

If you were real or genuine, you would have a post on insta, facebook, or even Twitter...but no. You are only on tumblr with a stupid fake sob story about people's GENUINE suffering in another country trying to beg people for money. You are a fucking disgrace to whomever you represent. Selling crack would be a more honorable way to make a living, you absolute slimeball.

Get the fuck out of my goddam face and crawl back to the heartless monster that gave rise to such a pathetic entity such as yourself.

Human or bot, you are filth and you are NOT welcome on my blog. Get reported and go the fuck away. Absolute disgusting behavior. -- PLEASE PEOPLE! BE WARY OF THESE INBOX DONATION SEEKERS. THEY ARE SHAMELESS, JUST LIKE THIS ONE. To support ACTUAL Palestinians, seek out sources on Arab.org, The UWRA, or registered Palestine Funds! DON'T FALL FOR THESE SCAMMERS.

THEY SHOULD BE FUCKING ASHAMED FOR EVEN STOOPING THIS LOW. DISGUSTING!

#haxorus imp #hax speaks #cosmica galaxy #cosmica-galaxy #free palestine #scam alert #BLOCK AND REPORT THIS SCUMBAG #ACTUAL FILTH

[shadowfoxsilver]

Pet donation scam explaination

Hi! I have many posts on my other blog that explain what a pet donation scam is but I'll go ahead and write another one over here that also explains it in case anyone wants a reminder about what it is and how it works. I'd suggest sharing this with your friends/followers even if they already know it so they can share it with their friends/followers and so on. I'll put it under a readmore.

tl;dr: A pet donation scam is when someone steals content off another site and spams asks to share their pinned pet post even though their account is only a few days old and has only a few posts. The blog usually disappears within a week but then you have another blog sending asks that has the same exact post but then has different images but their name is the same.

A pet donation scam is a scam that involves someone taking images/stories off a private vet bill aid group and then reposting it to tumblr as their own pet. The account does not explain that the images shown are not theirs; They will pass them off as their own and act as if the pet shown is one that's under their care. However, these accounts do not own anything their posting. Because they have stolen their content off another site.

Pet donation scammers like to reblog a few posts to look legit. Generally, as of recently, they'll share 100+ posts and use the Top Posts badge to look like an active user. However, a quick scroll through all those posts will usually show none of them are tagged and they all came from a trending tag or are trending posts. These accounts also are now sharing posts from accounts they follow in order to look more legitimate but don't let that deceive you. This is just another attempt to appear like their just your average tumblr blogger.

These scammers also will sent out asks that request private answers because they don't want anyone to see they sent the asks out to multiple other accounts. They'll tell you they don't want to be mistook as a bot/spammer even though they just spammed the askbox of people who share mutual aid posts and mutual aid links. If you search their ask in tumblr search, you'd likely see how many got the same thing. This tactic is why it's suggested not to send multiple asks to users to share your own aid post. Because sadly scammers have ruined it for others.

Another thing to keep in mind is that reverse image searching doesn't always work for trying to check the sources of a posts images for these scams. Since these images are stolen off a private facebook group, they won't show up in the public besides reblogs from users who mistook the scammer as a real account. This often may deceive others into assuming the scam account is legit if the images don't come up as being from somewhere else. They don't show up because their stolen off a private group so they are not easily accessible outside of it when searched.

Pet donation scammers also will lie to you to get your money. They will claim they'll pay you back yet if you find out their a scammer and ask for your money back the account will simply block you and move on to someone else. These scammers will never pay you back and they have no intentions of ever returning their money to anyone they stole from. You'll see it's a common phrase in their posts that they'll send you money back for helping them but that day never comes when they remake their blog and once more start their scam back up.

In closing, pet donation scams are unfortunately a common scam on tumblr and it's necessary to try and look up information if you got an ask that seems suspicious and is coming from a blog that's only a few days old and somehow found you if you are not a blog that a brand new account would find unless they saw you in a trending post notes or from a popular fandom tag.

#mod talks #pet donation scam #scam #how to spot a scam blog #longpost #long post #long post is long

[calendae-creations]

Hello. Do you have any tips on getting started selling your handmade goods? I am disabled too and sometimes the only thing keeping my sane is knitting. Right now I'm knitting things for myself and friends. I think I may get to a point where I want to sell things I have knit instead of just gifting them and I was curious how you go about doing it and if you have any tips for getting started.

I'm not like, wildly successful at this by any means, so if anyone else has any tips, omfg please share your wisdom.

That said, first of all fuuuuuuuuck etsy. Not only do they have shitty policies in a number of ways (you can google it if you want; i don't feel like getting into that series of rants), I never really made many sales there in the decade or so I tried. And tbh most of the knitted things up for sale there are so disgustingly underpriced, it might be hard to get enough money from a sale to even cover the materials cost, let alone labor time.

Once I had given up on etsy, I was selling on twitter for a while? But we all know how twitter's going, so I don't even remember my login info to delete the account, lol. I did make way better money than I ever did on etsy tho! Like, twice the sales in one year than I got on etsy in ~10. Not even exaggerating. I made decent sales on facebook from a page for my business, but stopped trying after the third time they changed the interface in less than 6 months. If you can figure out how it works though, go for it!

I'm trying to build a proper website of my own for Calendae Creations, but html is hard and so is the rest of my life, so that's on the back burner for now. I'm really not sure how successful it'll be if I ever get it up and running.

Currently this is my only sales presence online, and I haven't tabled at an in-person event since 2018. I've been pleasantly surprised at being able to generate any income at all on the website famous for not making money, lol. I do really want to get into more in-person sales, but I really can't speak much to how well knitting sells at different kinds of events, because when I used to do ren faires and flea markets I was mostly selling pottery, jewelry, and live plants. I'm pretty hopeful about trying to get a table at Staunton Pride next fall though?

Tbh, as much as I love my job, I really would not recommend this as a full time primary source of income to anyone who has literally any other options. I'm just too disabled to do anything else anymore.

Related, does anyone know how to file USA income tax for this kind of thing??? I am so lost trying to figure it out.

#ask #knitting

[switchcase]

hey there, i have a question as a pwDID who hasnt experienced RAMCOA and i figured you were a fairly reliable source. i've come across quite a few people talking about programmed alters, omega programming, etc and im wondering how much credence there is to those claims? almost every source i can find on its relation to RAMCOA and DID seems to be exclusively antisemetic conspiracy theorists that thinks the government is run by lizards, so i want to know if theres a kernel of truth in there or not. id obviously never fakeclaim people, thats just not my thing, im only curious about the true facts about RAMCOA bc there doesnt seem to be a lot that isnt laden with conspiracy theory.

I have a RAMCOA tag that might answer some of this for you. Entirety of this post and 3rd paragraph of this post.

Unfortunately at this time RAMCOA has become an online trend. I would say the vast majority of people talking about it are mistaken on the definitions (for example there have been multiple people claiming parental abuse is OA, or that the abuse type can be done with a singular abuser), being manipulated into thinking they are by their online social circles, or misunderstanding manipulation, conditioning, gaslighting, coercion, or indoctrination as programming.

As a general rule, I take Everything people say about this subject with a grain of salt. People telling the truth are not necessarily being accurate, given the nature of the abuse type. I also do not believe in the motivations of people who seem to be focused on acquiring some sort of social capital from it. This stuff is additionally not very easy to uncover in yourself. Honestly, it's easy to tell when someone is incorrect about this abuse type, it's much harder to tell whether they're simply mistaken or intentionally lying, to the point that I personally don't try to figure it out and just avoid them. An example would be dissociadid who was caught stealing other survivors' stories from a Facebook group to weave into her own story vs an individual who was actively told that they must have RA history by their online friends and accepted this. In short I would give very little value or thought to most of the people you're probably running into.

#ask #anonymous

[tallymali]

Don’t know if anon or messages is the better place to ask this. I have friend that’s had uti for 2 months and you came to mind. Would you mind telling your Dr/clinic and the new and previous meds you’re taking? Did both meds work & the new is just cheaper or does new work better also? Thank You Tally!

Oh my god, I'm so glad you've sent me this because I wish more than anything that I'd known about this illness so early on in experiencing it. I have soooo much to say about this so you're absolutely welcome to DM me and relay any questions your friend has.

Okay first off I definitely recommend your friend joins the facebook support group: www.facebook.com/groups/ChronicUTISupportGroup/

Even if they dont use facebook, they should totally just make an account to join. I didn't use it either so I just made a blank profile with a fake name. As long as you answer the questions they send, the mods should let you in with no problem. I said something like "apologies for the blank account, I don't use social media but I was told this is the best place for support" and I was accepted super fast.

So, the clinic I go to is the Harley Street chronic UTI clinic. They don't have their own website but all their info is here: www.chronicutiinfo.com/treatment/conventional-medicine/uk-treatment/prof-malone-lee/

(That website is also an incredible source of info on chronic UTIs)

You have to go there in person for the initial appointment, which costs £250. First thing they do is take your pee and analyse it under a microscope to get a count for white blood cells and epithelial cells. Then you go to the doctor's office (there's a team of doctors that all follow the same protocol) and they discuss your symptoms, any previous medications you've tried, and any other health issues you have. They will almost always prescribe Hiprex and a long term high dose antibiotic. Hiprex is a urinary antiseptic, and it essentially reacts with the acid in your urine to create formaldehyde. Most of us take high dose vitamin C pills with the Hiprex to keep our urine as acidic as possible (high bacteria in the bladder can raise urine pH so we often need help in that department).

At this point they will give you the prescriptions and say you can take them to your NHS GP and see if they're willing to fill them on the NHS. My GP didn't want to get involved with prescribing long term antibiotics, but was happy to fill the Hiprex prescription. I now get my antibiotics from Pharmacierge. Their prices are cheaper than regular pharmacies and they work closely with the Harley Street team. My doctor now just sends my prescriptions straight over to them which cuts out a little admin for me.

After that initial appointment you have to have a follow up appointment every 3 months, which can be done in person or over teams. Either way, they cost £200. If you go in person they will do the pee analysis again, but it's not super necessary to do that to monitor your progress. Patient symptoms are the number one thing they use to decide your treatment. Basically as long as you're in pain, they will keep treating you (the NHS would NEVER). Not a huge amount happens at these check ups, but being on long term antibiotics is risky so they will ask you a million questions about any possible side effects, and switch your meds immediately if you're not tolerating them well. They also ask that you contact your GP and request a blood test 3 times a year to monitor your kidney and liver function. They might also ask for other tests depending on your symptoms and the specific antibiotics you're prescribed.

So yeah, the treatment kind of just boils down to: find the right meds. Take them until you feel completely normal again.

As for the specific meds, here's a list of their most prescribed antibiotics:

Cefalexin

Amoxicillin

Co-amoxiclav

Nitrofurantoin

Trimethoprim

Doxycycline

Oxytetracycline

Azithromycin

Clarithromycin

Pivmecillinam

Lymecycline

For me, before starting treatment under Harley Street, I'd been treated by the Urology Partnership. They prescribed me 3 months of full dose Nitrofurantoin (brand name Macrobid, super common UTI treatment) and I was almost symptomless during that 3 months, but when I finished the course the symptoms returned instantly at full throttle. From that point they would only prescribe me the half dose of Nitrofurantoin which was NOT cutting it. That was when I decided to move to Harley Street. Definitely would not recommend Urology Partnership to people dealing with a chronic UTI.

SO. I emailed the Harley Street clinic with an appointment request and they booked me in for the next week. At my appointment the doctor prescibed Trimethoprim, which is usually the first one they try with new patients. I took it for a little while, (around 2 weeks to a month, I don't remember exactly) but I was still getting symptoms that weren't letting up, so I emailed their clinical enquiries address to let them know. I'd mentioned at my inital appointment that Nitrofurantoin had worked in the past, so they took me off the Trimethoprim and prescribed the Nitro instead, with the note that I'd have to discuss it at my next appointment.

Basically, Nitro is a really good antibiotic but has some of the nastiest side effects and is also the most expensive. So at my follow up appointment my doctor said he was happy for me to stay on it to get my symptoms back under control but he'd like to switch to a less risky antibiotic in time.

So a few months later (June this year) I was switched to Cefalexin, which has some of the least side effects and is one of the cheapest. I've been doing really well on it and I'm really feeling optimistic.

This is all to say that treatment is easy in theory but requires a little trial and error to find the right meds, and then takes a metric fucktonne of patience. There's no set length of time for the treatment, but in general, the longer you've had the cUTI the longer it takes to cure. So if your friend does have cUTI and can get treatment quickly, it shouldn't take too long to cure.

I had mine for two years before starting with Harley Street, which is actually much shorter than the average patient. They frequently treat older patients who have been suffering for over 20 years. I've read a depressing number of posts in the facebook group from people in their 50s+ who have been able to live normally for the first time in their adult life thanks to this treatment.

Knowledge of this condition with the general public AND with doctors (even urologists?????) is basically nonexistent. The NHS and most healthcare systems will slap you with a wastebasket diagnosis (PBS/BPS/IC) and tell you to piss off and live in pain forever. I genuinely don't think I will ever be able to trust a doctor right off the bat to actually prioritise my health ever again in my life. The NHS is full of people who really do care and really do everything they can for their patients but as an institution it does not give one iota of a fuck about the wellbeing of the people it's supposed to care about. It's a big complicated systemic issue but there will never be a good excuse for turning away patients who need medical care to live normally.

If your friend or literally anyone reading this is interested in the more academic/scientific side of this whole thing, I'd definitely read Cystitis Unmasked by Professor Malone Lee. It's written for doctors so it's not an easy read for a layperson but GOD it's so eye opening and infuriating. Professor Malone Lee is the guy who created the Harley Street UTI clinic and I think he spent his entire life raging at all the pillars of incompetance that modern UTI testing and treatment is built upon.

#sorry for rambling #i am on a one woman rampage to spread awareness about this bastard condition and the incompetence of the healthcare system #if anything i say could even possibly save another person from years of this hell and all the medical gaslighting #then i will talk until i DIE #asky ask

[im2tired4usernames]

@oceanlaceagate

Well ok you asked for explaining so I'm so sorry about the rant that's bound to happen I have beef with this woman like many many MANY homeschool co-op mothers I would like to meet her IN THE PIT

uh I guess trigger warning possibly would be like food diets and possibly eating disorders I'm not sure but I would rather be safe then accidentally harm you friend?

my mother was a crunchy homeschool nutter and her entire social group was crazy homeschool mom cultists.They were all obsessed with clean godly eating and losing weight they constantly kept repeating that they needed to treat their bodies like temples and it really wasn't healthy or good for so many reasons.

well one of the women in that group for as long as i can remember (I've know this lady since I was a lil kid) she believes it's impossible for European women to get fat because of *spins the wheel*

She just has some fucked up made up facts about Europe in general like WARNING SHE'S ACTUALLY ON PURPOSE STUPID

like she has for as long as I can remember believed with E V E R Y FIBER in her body (i have argued so much with her she will not budge in her world this is fact) no one once they hit preteens in france eats bread.

France home of the croissant, baguette and many other carbs bready bakery wonders...

Yeah no one there eats bread that is why French women are so thin and healthy they don't eat bread or any kind of sweets! (She and my mom then tried to make me do that for a bit they were always "suggesting" diets on me it sucked in expecting the thm diet and the melted butter+coffee+ apple cider vinegar diet to have fucked up my body somehow)

Apartly in her world no one in Ireland uses any kind of fat when I asked her to explain wtf that meant she said no one in Ireland uses oil or butter which like..

No that makes no sense where did she even come up with that?!I

Once I took a picture of like some fancy imported butter from Ireland at the store to show her and she and the other moms all straight up walked away and would not look at it. They would not talk to me kept actually doin the "talk to the hand" thing and covering their ears and telling me I'm wrong and stupid and to shut up they will not look at the evidence.

This woman is in her late forties to early fifties she has convinced half the homeschool mother cult that no one in France eats bread with no evidence other then she said so!!!!!

They honest to God believe it also!!!!

Recently she was trying to tell me that no one in the UK eats chicken that it's "looked down on as a disgusting poor man's food" she just went on n on on this long crazy rant that made no sense at all but she acted like she was very intelligent and cultured for knowing this.

My best friend and wife is from the UK and frankly i quickly asked them and they were able to point out this lady is just batshit insane.

Like my wife mentioned there's Nandos everywhere in the UK and that serves chicken mainly I have no clue where she's getting her info or ideas.

She got super angry amd defensive and has gone off saying she has two sources "two very reliable very real and very British people who totally aren't made up there her real Facebook friends that told her yup no one in the uk eats chicken only the USA makes fried chicken poor England is missing out on chicken because they're a bunch of snobs who think it's poor people food" so that's what she believes despite a lot of common sense and evidence to prove otherwise but "how dare I question an elder?!'

I really can't explain it like there's no logic or facts in it I myself don't understand it? I have gotten into many fights with this women.

So many fight

so so so many fights

Stupid amounts of fights

not just over this but like over everything under the sun I swear this woman is living a different reality then everyone else.

she just makes stuff up on a fly and then somehow convinces herself and like a dozen other women in they're 40s-50s that everyone in Europe is significantly skinner because they just happen to not eat the food that one lady dislikes...

like I can't really explain more then that this woman has no evidence, refuses to listen to evidence and has the firmest faith in stupidity I've ever seen it's truly kinda terrifying i wish i had her self confidence but also just wow....

I don't think that she's normal I think a lot of American children do actually learn about other countries? I learned about other countries when I was really young my mom would focus on one a month and then I'd have to do a lil presentation at the end of the month in front of my grandad and we'd cook a meal with some traditional foods from there if possible I had a lot of fun learning recipes from all over the world and we'd get a monthly cd with music from all over the world it was so cool! one of my favorite games when I was little with my grandad was he'd spin the globe point at random n then i had to say thw county, the capital, a famous food item from there and one history fact is famous person if I knew one and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!

maybe it's a new homeschool thing or a church thing or maybe this lady is just straight up purposely stupid I'm not sure? I have no fuckin clue this woman is insane I avoid her every chance I can.

#rants #ignore me I'm stupid #just yeah #she was one of my mom's bffs and lord she made life hell #Narnia a book written by a Catholic man with DJ much religious imagery and symbolism in every single book in the book series #and progressively gets more n more christan the further into the series you get #was evil and satanic #she yelled at me for liking old yeller #she was CRAZY #but the scary thing is she got a lot of women believing her every word especially European diet shit it was CRAZY #only Americans have addresses no one else dose i guess according to her she got my grandma to believe that for a bit until i pointed out #THE MILLIONS OF BOOKS WRITTEN BY A BILLION AUTHORS ALL OVER THE WORLD THAT MENTION ATREET NAMES AND ADDRESSES #LIKE EXAMPLES PRIDE N PREJUDICE AND SHERLOCK HOLMES HABE ADDRESSES MENTIONED #JUST TWO BOOKS NOT WRITTEN BY AMERICAN OR RECENT WITH ADDRESSES #that got my gran to think a bit but that lady thinks they must have been influenced by Americans aomehow shes SO STUPID IT FILLS ME W RAGE #her daughter told me jesus didn't eat seafood and seafood was unbibical #i.... I do not understand #like do you know where jesus lived do you know what some of his friend's jobs was or like the sermon on the Mount #dis you not read the Bible? why you mad ay me for eating all the time #now that i think of it a lot of times her crazy food things tend to be things i was currently eating kr talking about that i enjoyed eating #huh #weirdo lady #she yelled at me for eating two Oreos once #like yeah i wasn't being greedy but yeah she really got mad over that #now that my mom's passed she texts me randomly because she misses my mom n i think she wants me to fill the void i feel kinda bad for her #but i can't #i can't be her friend not after the shit she influenced my mom too be so cruel to me in the name of God growing up #i will not be her friend #that and she's stupid ofcorse people eat chicken bread and butter that's kinda the most basic human foods i feel like #EVERYBODY HAS BREAD EVERYWHERE BREAD IS THE MOST HUMAN THING