#did we say I was a science and art blog I lied

[alithographica]

Tears of the Kingdom moodboard

how are we all feeling

#this game is going to be so wacky I'm thrilled #tears of the kingdom #breath of the wild #totk #botw #link #legend of Zelda #meme #shitpost #did we say I was a science and art blog I lied #somewhat totk spoilers #hella no context though #image description in alt text

[cbk1000]

Anyway, here is another preview of the infamous Train Fic. (There are three or so others I've posted previous to this; if you search the tag 'preview' on my blog, you can find all of them as well as some other bits and bobs.)

“So. Speaking of. Last night. And this morning. Are you--is this…some kind of experimentation? Because it’s fine. If it is,” Merlin said. “Obviously I wouldn’t say anything to anyone. If you just need to. I dunno. Burn off some frustrations.”

The shirt was open; and came down with Arthur's back still turned, with the voice coming to him from the room which simultaneously was too small and vast a thing between them. He imagined turning round, and saying openly into the open, that Merlin as usual was a gibbering cunt; was so obtuse, so worryingly, so curiously a devotee of that ancient art of mouth breathing that his brain, when last its feeble struggle was ended, ought to be given to science. It was not doing much good for him; but somewhere in a jar it might do good for human learning. But he would have to put himself, naked and trembling, into the world where Merlin would feel obligated to tenderness; and though he could have qualified the, ‘No, I love you’ with a blistering ‘you tit’ still he would have had to offer it hopelessly in the first place. And so he said, whilst he was folding up the shirt to go beside the tie and jacket, “Yeah, sure.”

“Yeah. Ok. That’s Fine.” There was a little rustling, and then: “I guess you’re not as much of a prude about your sexuality as I thought. I mean, I don’t know if you remember, it was like a decade ago, but you did snog me just to convince my ex we were together at that Halloween party. Remember, the one where you went as like a zombie footballer or something and I was a vampire and I had to take my teeth out?”

“Vaguely,” said Arthur, who would have gone home with him after those ten transcendent seconds of tongue, and given up heterosexuality and virginity at once. 

“Yeah, I was trying to make him jealous, remember, so you went as my fake boyfriend, and he was like, ‘That’s your hetero footie mate you hang out with all the time, you pathetic arsehole’ and you walked up and put your arm round my shoulders and tried to kiss me but the teeth were in the way so I took them out and we made out a bit and it was kind of awful but he was really pissed off, so I won.”

“It was kind of awful?” Arthur demanded, throwing the shirt down. “Nobody has ever complained before.”

“Yeah, look, it was pretty obvious you’d never kissed a guy before. Plus you drank that really manky thing Morgana made out of, what was it, red wine and Coke? Your mouth was the scene of a crime.”

“What crime, the drink, or my kissing?” Arthur snapped.

“Don’t get your knickers in a knot, you were a 20-year-old straight guy; none of those kiss very well. And if it makes you feel any better, it wasn’t the worst I ever had. Do you remember Anna? She was that girl I started dating shortly after we moved in together? The blonde? Doing Asian and Middle Eastern Studies?”

Arthur, who remembered everyone who had slept with Merlin, whilst he put a pillow over his ear, to crush out the sound of others’ enjoyment, said, “Sounds a bit familiar, I suppose.”

“Yeah, well she used to, I dunno, almost unhinge her jaw or something, every time we snogged I felt like she was going to swallow my whole head, and it was like, ok, the sex is actually pretty good, what the hell is going on with her kissing, it was so bad I had to start avoiding it, because I tried to, you know, direct her a bit, like, look, you don’t have to actually put your whole mouth over my whole mouth and shove your tongue down my throat as hard as you can, and she never seemed to get that, so good luck to whoever the next bloke was, I guess. Anyway, all you did was use a little too much tongue.”

He was running to babble the way he always did when he was nervous, or trying to sell one of those absurd lies which he always pulled out of orifices even more indiscriminate than his arse, which never would have told a copper he was in the library after hours because he had been chasing after a stray cat: undoubtedly the criminal who had not only smashed the window, but made off with the librarian’s Jaffa Cakes. He was still standing in the doorway to the bathroom with one shoulder casually leant on the frame, as if he did not see much excitement in this new line which they were about to cross in their friendship; but the mouth was going on, quite independent of his brain, which must have been observing the tragedy in defenceless horror. It had gone to Oxford; not only gone, but winnowed out one of those firsts which were achieved by so small a percentage of students. Somehow the brain had done that, and was also doing this.

“You know what the proper amount of tongue is, then,” Arthur said, to preclude hearing anything else which might turn his stomach, or penis; and turning now to raise an eyebrow at the figure in the doorway, which finally had done the nigh on miraculous, and shut up.

“You want me to demonstrate or something?” Merlin asked, and shifted in the doorway. One of his hands in his pockets noticeably flinched; and he crossed one foot over the other, then crossed the other foot over the one foot. He took out one of his hands, to itch under his chin and at the nape of his neck. 

#preview #fic #train fic #merthur

[rj-drive-in]

First Post!

Yes, pilgrim, you have stumbled upon the initial offering of RJ's Drive-In Theater, Radio Show, Library, Art Gallery, & Grill. Watch your step. Stumbling is dangerous. In this blog, updated every Sunday at 9am (EST), you will find something strange-- an audio drama, some prose literature, a poem, art, humor, or a recipe for Hackberry Wine unlike anything you've ever tasted. That last one is pretty unlikely, but it just goes to show you what the possibilities are. So get in on the ground floor, because the elevator only goes up from here and the metaphors never end. For this initial offering, we present four (count 'em, four) creations as a sampler for what lies ahead. Enjoy!

Also, please consider checking out our companion blog, the indefatigable and chronically amusing web comic, Trunkards.

And now, onward:

Old-Time Radio Department:

The Blue Cowl, Episode One, "The Adventure of the Nasty Soul"

© 2022 by Rick Hutchins

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when heroes filled the airwaves, and listen as the mysterious Blue Cowl and his trusty Femme Fatale assistant battle homegrown American Nazis.

____________________

Science-Fiction Department:

And here we have one of what I call my "Drunk Science" tales:

THE TABETHAN ANALYSIS © 2022 by Rick Hutchins

Rapping her knuckles lightly on the wooden apartment door, Geetika said, “Professor? Are you home?”

“Come right in, Miss Bakshi,” came the immediate reply.

She opened the door cautiously and peeked inside. The small apartment was dominated by a large dining room table, covered with stacks of books, a handful of mobile devices, a tangle of wires, and the professor’s widescreen laptop. There also appeared to be a six-pack of Sam Adams Boston Lager among the mess.

“Hello, sir.”

Professor McManus was sitting in an office chair at the near end of the table, hunched over the laptop. He swivelled toward Geetika and waved her inside. “Come on, come on,” he said. “No need to stand on ceremony.”

She came hesitantly inside and closed the door. Aside from the electronic devices, the only light came from an old-fashioned floor lamp in the corner and a table lamp next to the couch. In the dimness, the walls seemed to be lined with bookcases.

“Come along, don’t be shy, sit down,” he said, pointing at the couch. He handed her a bottle of beer from the six-pack. “I saved you a Sam Adams.”

She thanked him and sat down, noting that the remaining bottles were empty. “You’ve had the other five already?”

“Eleven,” he corrected. “But there’s more in the fridge when you need them.”

“Will I need them?”

He leaned back in the office chair and it squeaked. He regarded her with a steady gaze that gave little hint of inebriation. It was odd to see Thompson McManus outside of class, in jeans and an MIT school jersey-- which revealed that he was heavier around the middle than she had thought. He was still quite a handsome older man, despite that.

“More than likely,” he said at last.

“Is this about my grades?”

“What? No, no,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “Are you kidding? You’re my best student. That’s why you’re here. Hell, you could teach my classes.”

Inwardly, she breathed a sigh of relief. “I could?”

“And you probably should,” he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I should have retired ten years ago. Now I wish I had.” Maybe he was a little tipsy at that.

“Then why did you ask me to come over, sir?”

“Because,” he said, reaching into the mess on his desk and pulling out a thumb drive, “I need a little peer review done.” He tossed the drive and she caught it. “You’re aware that I’ve been working on an article for The Astrophysical Journal on KIC 8462852?”

“Oh, yes,” she nodded with a smile, almost giddy that she wasn’t in some kind of trouble. “Tabby’s famous star. ‘I’m not saying that it’s aliens– but it’s aliens!’”

Professor McManus smiled mildly and nodded his head.

“So... what did you find”

“It’s aliens.”

Geetika’s jaw dropped. “You... it’s... what?!”

The professor took a deep breath, and ran his hand through his shock of white hair. “In order to synthesize the most accurate and extant knowledge base for my study, I collected every known data point from every known source available. Kepler, the Planet Hunters Project, historical observations, Spitzer, AstroLAB, the GRB Mission, the VLA, Mauna Kea, you name it. I cross-referenced everything with Doctor Boyajian herself. It’s all on the stick.”

“And your conclusion?”

“It’s a megastructure. Of a sort.”

“But I was sure they had ruled out any kind of Dyson object.”

“They ruled out everything. Every theory was falsified. The only reasonable explanation was a giant dust cloud, or clouds, but nobody could account for the missing infrared radiation. I was finally able to account for the missing radiation.”

“In what way?”

“By demonstrating that the clouds are not made of dust. They’re made of trillions upon trillions of nanomachines.”

“Oh, my god. A Dyson swarm of nanomachines? Is that possible?”

“You’ll be the judge, Miss Bakshi,” he replied, indicating the memory stick. “It makes sense. A cloud that size would have enough memory and computing power to hold a nearly infinite virtual reality, and it would be much easier to build and maintain than gargantuan cities in flight. The Tabethans could have uploaded themselves to their version of Heaven and made themselves immortal. If that’s what really happened.”

“That’s remarkable. Amazing. Everything fits.” Then she saw the look on his face. “What do you mean, if that’s what really happened?”

The professor sighed. “That’s not all I found,” he said. “I was also able to confirm that the clouds orbit within the habitable zone.”

“Why is that a problem?”

“There’s no planet in the habitable zone.”

Geetika shrugged. “Wouldn’t the Tabethans have dismantled their planet to build the nanomolecular clouds?”

“Not necessary. If you’re constructing a Dyson Sphere or a Ringworld or anything similar, you’d need to clear the system for building materials and to remove dangerous debris and gravitational disturbances. A nanomolecular cloud can be built from the materials in asteroids and comets. It doesn’t even need to be in the habitable zone.”

“Then where did the planet... oh. Oh, my god.” She remembered her Sam Adams and took a long, long drink. “Oh, my god.”

Professor McManus nodded grimly. “Exactly. It may have been an industrial accident or maybe a doomsday weapon. Or just a prototype that got out of control.”

Geetika put her hand over her mouth and sat back on the couch. “Oh, no. Instead of uploading themselves to Heaven, the Tabethans may just have obliterated themselves.”

“Actually,” said the professor slowly, “it may be far worse than that.”

“What do you mean? What could be worse?”

“This is why I need you to peer review my results before I publish. The paper has to be perfect, given the implications. I was able to incorporate some new data sent to me by some colleagues at Cornell earlier this week, and that changed everything.”

“What is the new data?”

“Two things, both of which imply that the clouds are not native to Tabby’s Star. One is simply that the comparison of targeted spectral isotope analyses suggests that they were constructed around a K-Type main sequence star.”

“And the other?”

Professor McManus leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and paused for a long moment. “The gas clouds don’t just have a deficit of infrared radiation,” he said at last. “Some of them have a surplus of ultraviolet radiation.”

“Oh,” she gasped.

“Exactly.”

“They’re blue shifted.”

“Exactly.”

“They’re moving toward us.”

“At a large fraction of the speed of light,” the professor replied. “Leaving us scarcely centuries to prepare.”

____________________

Pulp Space Opera Department

Little Miss Muffet ain't got nothing on our girl Victoria here.

Victoria Peak Versus Victoriapeak. © 2022 by Rick Hutchins

____________________

Humor Department

"Always leave 'em laughing," say those who say sayings. So here's a little something for breakfast. Please join us again next Sunday at 9am for more somethings.

© 2022 by Rick Hutchins

#OTR #Blue Cowl #audio drama #adventure #Youtube #science fiction #humor #art #fantasy #Pulp Fiction #artistic nude #Tabby's Star

[hopusthebrainlessfloof]

Welcome to the blog!

Hi! I'm Hopus, the lovingly brainless floof!

Here's everything to know about a fluffy floof: Meee! Most important thing to know about me is my DNI & BYI information, sooooooo

Interaction information

DNI: Discourse, NSFW, anti endogenic, anti neo/xeno, anti informed self-diagnosis, TERFs, super straights, DD/LG, NSFW age regression, NSFW pet regression, racists, homo/bi/pan/trans/omniphobic (any LGBTQ+ phobic), extremely religious, trolls, younger than 15.

These aren't in any particular order, just as they pop up in my mind. Will update if the list extends.

BYI:

Diagnosed with MDD (Major Depressive Disorder) and GAD (General Anxiety Disorder)

Medically recognised for DID, ADHD, ASD, and PTSD. I will say I have them until my medical professionals change their mind. Don't like it? Too bad!

Plural traumagenic system with a headcount of 30 - 40. You're welcome to ask us about our experiences as a system. We will refuse to answer questions that make us uncomfortable.

Bodily 18. Minors DNI with NSFW content.

Taken and not looking for more. Need a break from polyamory.

Taking SFW commissions and requests ONLY.

Introduction

My name is Hopus, but I also go by Bee! I go by they/em/xe/bun! My favourite things ever are stuffies, blankets, markers, and warm beach water!

I'm a huge Nintendo geek, and will happily creep on other Nintendo art blogs. (/affectionate) I like art and have been doing it for fifteen years! I recently turned 18 (as of 31/05/23), so I'm not on the "professional" side of adulthood quite yet.

My best friends are @catfury360 and @littlekates. My wonderful partner is @thechickennuggiehaunter , and I love them with all of my heart. All of my mutuals and repeated askers are my adopted children and y'all don't have a say in it.

I love coffee, chicken nuggets, cheesecake, cupcakes, boston creme doughnuts, and apple desserts. In addition to drawing, I like to write, roleplay, cook, and play videogames!

Socials

I'm not into use of Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok. However, here are where you can find me! (Will update list as I'm on more platforms.)

Pronoun Page (EN) (And also ES for Spanish speakers ♥️)

Ko-Fi

Spotify Playlist

I'm most active on my Discord server, where there's funky roles and stuff related to the system. There's also roles for shared interests, roleplay chats, and private safe chats.

Discord server

The Blog

There are quite a few things to see on the blog, but here's what you can expect:

Text posts: This is mostly random stuff but can include Nintendo related things.

Ask the Koopalings(& Koopa Kids & Broodals): My ask box is open for questions to the Koopalings and co. This is currently my main content, and it gives me a lot of joy.

Sanrio Art: My art has a significant amoubt of Sanrio related artwork. Hope you enjoy it! ♡

Fursona art: All the art of ze precious little floof, Marinid "Hopus" Broodal II!

Other fandom art: Surprisingly I'm not only in the Mario fandom! I'll also post art of other fandoms I'm part of. (Will get into that later.)

Reblogs (art): ARTISTS ON TUMBLR ARE SO FRICKEN TALENTED AAA So yeah, I reblog other works!

Reblogs (not art): I'm into other things like games and animals. (Cat photos are my weakness...) I may reblog things like that too!

Personal

First of all, no, this doesn't include my address and stuff. These are personal things that DO NOT INVOLVE INFO THAT CAN DOXX ME.

Our system has littles and age regressors! It's part of why we love stuffies and such.

My favourite school subjects are language, English, and science. I'm pretty decent at Spanish as a second language.

I used to be a band kid! My specialty was the glockenspiel and other mallet percussion. My favourite song I've ever done was Pilatus: The Mountain of Dragons and Prairie Dances.

Speaking of music, I'm a big fan of alt rock. My favourite artists are My Chemical Romance, Set It Off, and Bring Me to the Horizon. I can't choose a favourite song... But my main three are You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison, True Friends, Foundations of Decay, and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead.

My hyperfixations tend to jump between the same topics. My general fandoms of interest are (from most to least):

Mario (Kinda a no-brainer)

Sanrio

Kirby

Legend of Zelda

My favourite animals are rabbits, elephants, cats, and jerboas. I'm a huge sucker for smol rodents. I had a dwarf hamster as a kid. Dogs, I like in pictures. I don't dislike them, but I fear them.

Animal Crossing

Speaking of fears, I have arachnophobia (fear of arachnids), astraphobia (fear of thunder and lightning) and pyrophobia (fear of fire). I'm fine with photography of storms and fire, but do NOT send me ANYTHING with spiders. (Except for Taranza... He bebe)

Favourites

My favourite characters are (in no particular order):

Cinnamoroll (Sanrio)

Bandana Dee (Kirby)

Elfilin (Kirby)

U*SA*HA*NA (Sanrio)

Toadette (Mario)

Rauru (LoZ (TotK) )

Ludwig Von Koopa / Kooky Von Koopa (Mario)

Boo (Mario)

Kuromi (Sanrio)

Sailor Dee (Kirby)

Rango (Mario)

Link (LoZ)

Cream the Rabbit (Sonic)

Azurill (Pokémon)

Iggy Koopa (Mario)

Rabbit (Minecraft)

My Melody (Sanrio)

Meta Knight (Kirby)

Panda (Minecraft)

Roy Koopa / Bully Koopa (Mario)

Luma (Mario)

Yoshi (Mario)

Kirby (Kirby)

Sylveon (Pokémon)

The 3 Mario Princesses (Mario)

What I'm Up To

I'll be accepting asks for both myself and the characters! I love you guys (/platonic) and I'll keep you posted!

I played and 100% completed Super Mario Brothers 3 and Super Mario World, as Well as Super Mario Advance 2 & 4 respectively. My next goal is Super Mario Advance 3!

I'm jobhunting at the moment! I may have to start community service... but we'll see!

Chu chu~!!💖

#welcome to the blog #welcome to my blog #my blog #introducing myself #introductory post #artists of tumblr #my socials #my introduction #my interests #hopus the brainless floof #asks open #super mario #legend of zelda #sanrio #kirby #pokémon #text post

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Conspiracy fantasy

When we talk about conspiratorialism, we tend to focus (naturally) on the content of the conspiracy. Not only are those stories entertainingly outlandish — they’re also the point of contact between conspiracists and the world.

If your mom is shouting about “Hollywood pedos,” it’s natural that you’ll end up discussing the relationship of this belief to observable reality. But while the content of conspiratorial beliefs gets lots of attention, we tend to neglect the significance of those beliefs.

To the extent that we consider why the beliefs exist and proliferate, the discussion rarely gets further than “irrational people have irrational beliefs.” This is a mistake. The stories we tell one another are a kind of Ouija board, with all our fingertips on the planchette.

The messages it spells out don’t describe external reality but they do reveal our internal, unspoken anxieties and aspirations.This is why we should read science fiction: not because it predicts the future, but because it diagnoses the present.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/26/meaningful-zombies/#oracles

Sf is an ever-mutating ecosystem of fears and hopes, and readers apply selective pressure to those organisms, extinguishing the ones that don’t capture the zeitgeist and elevating the ones that do, a co-evolution of our fantasies and our narratives.

http://locusmag.com/Features/2007/07/cory-doctorow-progressive-apocalypse.html

This is why Alternate Reality Games are so central to their players’ lives. They’re a form of narrative co-creation, with the players throwing out theories and the game-masters actually changing the story to incorporate the best of them.

ARGs are an environment where your coolest and most deliciously scary ideas become reality. It’s a powerful way to galvanize collective action.

As anthropologist Biella Coleman writes in Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy, it’s the organizing principal behind Anonymous.

Anon Ops begin life as victory announcement videos. If the vision of success captures enough Anons, they execute the op.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-anonymous-ghost-in-the-machine

In other words, the degree to which a shared fantasy of victory compels its audience predicts whether the audience realizes its fantasy. Long before the alt-right, Anons were memeing ideas into existence (no coincidence, as both were incubated on 4chan).

On the Conspiracy Games and Counter-Games podcast, three left academics — Max Haiven, AT Kingsmith, Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou — analyze “conspiracy fantasies” (as opposed to conspiracies, e.g. the Big Lie behind the Iraq War) for what they reveal about late capitalism’s anxieties.

As leftists, they naturally focus on the relationship between material conditions and people’s behaviors and beliefs. This is an important part of the discourse on conspiratorialism that’s often missing from liberal and right-wing analysis.

Conspiracists aren’t just “irrational” nor are they just “racist.” They may be both of those things, but unless you look at material conditions, then the surges and retreats of conspiracism are mysterious phenomena, strange tides raised by unseen forces.

A decade ago, then-PM David Cameron — the architect of a brutal, authoritarian austerity — dismissed the Hackney Riots as “criminality pure and simple,” and demanded a ban on discussion of the relationship between austerity and unrest.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2011/aug/09/david-cameron-riots-criminality-video

But without that discussion, there’s no explanation. Even if you believe that “criminality” is a thing that is latent within some or all of us, what explains a rise or fall in that criminality? Is it like pollen that alights upon some of us, turning us bad? Or the full moon?

Likewise the “conspiracists are just racists” or “they’re just deranged.” Without looking at the material world, there’s no explanation for why that racism suddenly became more (or less) important to how conspiracists live their lives.

We can’t talk about conspiratorialism without talking about material considerations, and we have to talk about the form and substance of the conspiratorial belief. The ARG-like structure of Qanon is a hugely important part of its popularity:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/05/behavioral-v-contextual/#adrian-hon

Memeing things into existence in a game-like way is hugely compelling. You can tell when a D&D game is hopping when the players and the DM start co-creating the story, with the DM slyly altering the dungeon and the NPCs to match the players’ super-cool theories.

A recent episode of the CGACG podcast present a mind-blowing analysis of the interplay of the material conditions, mythology and structure of Qanon. It’s a two-part interview with Wu Ming 1:

https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/wuming-one-1?in=reimaginevalue/sets/unmanageablerisks

https://soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/wuming-one-2?in=reimaginevalue/sets/unmanageablerisks

Wu Ming 1 is part of Bologna’s Wu Ming Collective, the successor to the 1990s Luther Bissett net-art collective. Bissett did many wild, weird things,including publishing “Q,” an internationally bestselling conspiratorial novel in 1999 (!!)

https://www.wumingfoundation.com/giap/what-is-the-wu-ming-foundation/

The plot of “Q” involves a high-level government official, privy to top-secret info about a state conspiracy. It closely mirrors Qanon beliefs, right down to a call for a Jan 6 uprising (!!!!). The major difference is that “Q” is set during the Protestant Reformation.

In the interview, Wu Ming 1 talks about the proliferation of conspiratorial, ARG-like 4chan hoaxes that predated Qanon, and hypothesizes that the original Q posts were plagiarized from the novel.

The strange experience of seeing a novel turn into a cult prompted Ming 1 to write “La Q di Qomplotto” (“The Q in Qonspiracy”), a book that defines and analyzes “conspiracy fantasies.”

https://edizionialegre.it/product/la-q-di-qomplotto/

Ming 1’s interview digs into this in some depth, including setting out criterial for distinguishing conspiracies from fantasies (for example, a conspiracy doesn’t go on forever, while a fantasy can imagine the Knights Templar running the world for centuries).

I was taken by Ming 1’s discussion of the role that “enchantment” plays in conspiratorialism — the feeling of being in a magical and wondrous (if also anxious and terrible) place. He says this is why “debunkers” fail — they’re like people who spoil a magic trick.

Ming 1 and the hosts talk about replacing the enchantment of conspiratorialism with a counter-enchantment, grounded not in the conspiratorialist’s oversimplification and essentialism, but in the wonder of reality.

Ming 1 analogizes his “counter-enchantment” to the “double-wow” method of Penn and Teller: first they blow you away with a trick, and then they blow you away with the cleverness by which it was accomplished.

He describes how the Luther Bissett collective performed a double-wow during Italy’s Satanic Panic, creating a hoax satanic heavy metal cult and a counter-cult, promulgating stories of their pitched battles, then revealing how they’d faked the whole thing.

The action was taken in solidarity with actual Bolognese heavy metal fans who’d been framed for imaginary Satanic “crimes.” Luther Bissett wanted to demonstrate how a panic could be created from nothing, to reveal the method behind the real hoax with a fake hoax.

The double-wow method reminds me of Richard Dawkins’ manuever in “The Magic of Reality,” his excellent children’s book about the virtues of the scientific world, revealing how the numinous wonder of faith is nothing compared to the wonder of science.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_of_Reality

The idea that conspiratorialism is a leading indicator of capitalism’s anxieties is a powerful one, and it ties into other compelling accounts of conspiracy, like Anna Merlan’s REPUBLIC OF LIES, which discusses the importance of trauma to conspiratorial belief.

Like Ming 1, Merlan stresses the kernel of truth underpinning conspiracy fantasies — the real aerospace coverups that make UFO conspiracies plausible, the real pharmaceutical conspiracies to cover up harms from drugs that underpin anti-vax.

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/09/21/republic-of-lies-the-rise-of-conspiratorial-thinking-and-the-actual-conspiracies-that-fuel-it/

In the podcast, Ming 1 and the hosts stress the importance of identifying and addressing the kernel of truth and the trauma it produces in any counter-conspiratorial work — that is, a successful counter-enchantment must address the material conditions behind the fantasy.

I really like this approach because of its empathy — its attempt to connect with the conditions that produce behaviors and beliefs, not to be confused with sympathy, which might excuse their toxic and hateful nature.

It reminds me a lot of Oh No Ross and Carrie, whose hosts have spent years joining cults and religions and digging into fringe practices and beliefs in an effort to understand them; they laugh a lot, but never AT their subjects.

https://ohnopodcast.com/

But Ming 1 brings something new to this discussion: an analysis of the role that novels have played in conspiracy fantasy formation: not just the plagiarizing of “Q” to make Qanon, but things like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion plagiarizing Dumas.

The interview also brought to mind Edward Snowden’s recent inaugural blog-post, “Conspiracy: Theory and Practice,” which seeks to separate conspiracy practice (e.g. the NSA spying on everyone) from theories (what Ming 1 calls “fantasies”).

https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/conspiracy-pt1

Snowden connects the feeling of powerlessness to the urge to explain the world through conspiracies, relating this to his experience of revealing one of the world’s most far-reaching real conspiracies, and then becoming the subject of innumerable conspiracy fantasies.

Snowden’s perspective is one that has heretofore been missing from conspiracy discourse — the perspective of someone who has been part of a real conspiracy and then the central subject of a constellation of bizarre and widespread conspiratorial beliefs.

These different works, focusing as they do on the character of conspiratorial beliefs, the nature of conspiratorial practice, and material conditions of conspiracists, comprise a richer analysis of our screwed-up discourse than, say, theories about “online radicalization.”

As I wrote in my 2020 book “How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism,” the “online radicalization” narrative requires that you accept Big Tech’s unsupported marketing claims about its power to bypass our critical thoughts at face value.

https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

Claims to be able to control our minds — whether made by Rasputin, Mesmer, pick-up artists, MK-ULTRA or NLP enthusiasts — always turn out to be cons (though sometimes the con artists are also conning themselves).

But there’s a much more plausible, less controversial set of powers that Big Tech possesses. By spying on us all the time, it can help scammers target people who are ready to hear conspiratorial explanations.

By monopolizing our discourse, it allows SEO scammers to create default answers to our questions. By locking us in, it can keep us using a platform even if the discourse there makes us angry and anxious.

And by corrupting our political process, it creates “kernels of truth” for conspiratorial beliefs.

As with Scooby Doo, the monster turns out to be a familiar villain in a fright mask: a monopolist whose abuses and impunity create the anxiety that make conspiracy plausible.

#pluralistic

[secretgamergirl]

A Little Horrifying Primer on Transphobes

Some time ago, I put together a Little Fact Checking Primer on Trans People, as a basic resource for disabusing people of some of the many completely ridiculous yet absurdly widespread beliefs about trans people that simply have no basis whatsoever in reality. And wouldn’t you know it, every single lie exposed in that primer is not only still widely believed, but is presently being used as a basis to sign some absolutely horrific human rights abuses into law. So it’s high time I follow that up, in this case focused more on who keeps actively spreading these lies and why. I’m going to try and keep things as light as I can here, but we’re going to be looking at the most monstrous side of human nature, so apologies in advance if this is a dark read.

First, let me just note that there are two things I don’t plan to do in this piece. I’m not going to waste time debunking the arguments of the people I’m highlighting (much of this is already covered in my earlier primer, others have done the work in cases where I haven’t, and frankly these people’s claims should be self-evidently utter nonsense to begin with). I am also going to be very selective in what I link to, or even share related images of, as I would frankly not like to fill a post on a blog I generally try to keep safe for all audiences with media directly dealing with, for instance, child sexual assault, and much of the relevant information also involves stochastic terrorism against innocent people, and I would prefer not to throw more fuel onto such fires.

Transphobes lie constantly, about everything.

To some degree this is obvious. We’re talking about people who scaremonger about the possibilities of trans women dominating competitive sports and assaulting people in restrooms, despite the status quo already reflecting the conditions they insist would make these inevitibilities for decades and centuries respectively, and their grim visions never once having come to pass, and also constantly insisting that the woman in the photo below is actually a man, going further to say this is evident to anyone giving her the merest glance.

It goes beyond that though. There’s at least a little plausible deniablity in claims like this, or that “science is on their side” if they were simply uninformed about the world they live in, never actually looking into what laws exist, what science actually says, and never actually meeting a trans person or even seeing a picture of one of us. I’m talking really bold lies here. Like wholecloth fabricating a story that a convicted murder was trans, including anecdotes about wigs dresses and a planned name change, in a major newspaper. Or to cite an old favorite of mine, the time a pack of bigots walked up to a crowd of people peacefully picketing a transphobic legal proposal, started roughing them up and taking closeup photos of members of the crowd to stalk online when they got home, got sufficiently riled up for one to straight up assault an innocent person half her size, filmed the whole thing, uploaded it to youtube, and used stills of that assault as acomanying photos when they went home to write articles about the assailant being a “grandmother” attacked by rowdy trans women. And yes, they did monkey’s paw my wish to see that specific image on newspapers. Interesting side note, when it came to real public light that J.K. Rowling endorsed this sort of hatred, it was because she accidentally pasted some profanity laden rambling about how the imagined moral character of the other party in that incident, years after the fact, into a post praising a child’s fan art of her work.

To be a little less niche, transphobes can’t get enough of spreading the lie that the young fellow in this photo is a girl. Specifically a trans girl, providing proof that all their scaremongering about the dastardly threat of trans girls in competitive sports has finally come to pass.

To be fully clear, that’s a man (or a boy if you want to split hairs about him being 17 in that photo). Mack Beggs. A rather insidious choice for this sort of story, considering the actual context for that photo. See, Beggs attended high school in Texas, during a (still ongoing as I write this) period wherein that particular state had caved to this exact sort of propaganda, and in order to head off a wholly imagined wave of trans girls competing on girls’ sports teams, and enacted a law mandating that in all such competitions must compete under whatever gender is stated on their birth certificates. And as it happens, the first, and to my knowledge ONLY time this has come up was with Beggs here, who again, is a man, as no one with a grip on reality could argue against, has “female” on his birth certificate. Which is another way of saying he is a trans man. The guys in the same boat as trans women who we talk about a whole hell of a lot less because their existence is extremely inconvenient to the majority of transphobic propaganda. Case in point. And this is all information it is really impossible to come across if you’re coming across this photo in any sort of respectable source. Take this story, which is as unambiguous about this as you can get. And yet, in the very comments section of that story, there they are. Carrying on like this story about a trans guy, forced by a transphobic law to compete as a girl, which he absolutely did not want, and received horrific threats over, using phrases like “female to male” and bringing up that he was assigned female at birth and is on testosterone-based HRT, is about a trans woman cheating the system. Or to quote word for word, “Now also transgender female want to be male also compete in female sport. biological born“ That’s not “being confused,” that’s standing next to you in a white desert and complaining about being adrift in a black ocean, bald-faced, not even trying to be convincing just make a power play, lying through one’s teeth.

I could spend this whole article on just this point. Lying about who they are, various people’s falsified credentials, whole websites full of “anonymous parents of children who think they’re trans” turning out to be one single woman documenting the abuse of her very much trans son, or of course the people behind the whole “bathroom bill” panic candidly admitting it was all based on utter fiction. I do have other points to cover though.

Transphobes are firmly entrenched in the media.

It is extremely difficult to find oneself in a position of having to explain to people that a particular group of people is effectively in control of press outlets, as that is rather classically a claim conspiracy theorists absolutely love to toss around at various marginalized groups (including trans people hilariously enough, but of course the most common and lingering version of this is the antisemitic variant). I really can’t get around it here though. Specifically in the U.K., you honestly can say that transphobes control the media. I already touched on this with the assault case I mentioned above and the fabricated story about the murderer, but this is a pretty well-documented situation. I mean, even The Guardian calls out The Guardian on this, and that’s the outlet that gets the most attention because it’s the one with the most otherwise respected name, but every paper in the country has been running transphobic propaganda pieces on a weekly if not daily basis for years now, and while they do get reprimanded by watchdog groups and have mass walk-outs over the worst of it, it’s not like there’s some governing body with the authority to step in about it. Meanwhile the BBC is constantly inviting diehard zealots like Graham Linehan to news programs where he compares being trans to being a nazi, and hosting debates where someone just sits down and repeatedly chants the word “penis” at a trans woman.

Things are better in the rest of the world, but we still have right-wing creeps like Jesse Singal both writing horrific propaganda pieces (we’ll get back to that one) and blackballing trans writers out of covering trans issues ourselves (and personally stalking the hell out of those of us who try). We’ve got our Joe Rogans and Tucker Carlsons out there (no way in hell I’m linking videos here, have a real information link and a still).

The line between diehard transphobes and straight-up nazis basically does not exist.

What even is there to say here? You can easily poke around havens for nazi activity for yourself and compare the particular unique vocabulary used there to the primary bastion of anti-trans hate speech on the internet (the “feminism” section of what was originally a site for parenting tips before violent fascists took the forums over) or just peruse the follows of the thousands of people I’ve blocked on social media and see if you can sort out a clear division in the networks of channers with frog avatars and the accounts with names like GoodieXXrealwoman, or you can read up on Gab and Spinster, the two twitter alternatives that are just different portals to the same server, set up by the same guy. Maybe do some research into “the LGB Alliance,” or WoLF but any way you slice it the only real difference to be found is the general purpose nazis take a little time off now and then to watch borderline pedophilic anime and the really dedicated transphobes think to use language that sounds vaguely well-educated and left-leaning. I mean, this came from the “feminist” side of the fence:

And not to belabor the point here, but the ones claiming to be a bunch of “feminist mums” sure do let the mask slip any time they’re confronted with the fact that “women” includes black women, and oh just have a whole thread about all the weird conspiratory theories these people have about how trans people’s whole existence is some sort of Jewish plot for world domination. I swear a few months ago they were all passing around a story about some bank having an above average number of trans employees and they were all just “and we all know who controls the banks, right?” about it.

Transphobes endorse an awful lot of people who are openly pro-pedophila.

This is the part where I am really loath to link the many many specific examples I have on hand. Or to talk about this at all for reasons of good taste. Or, for that matter, to talk about this in a tumblr post when there’s an ongoing problem of people with backgrounds strongly tied to this site making baseless accusations of pedophilia against every queer person they can find, so let me be very clear just what I’m talking about while avoiding anything too graphic.

That’s James Cantor. Transphobes love him for being one of the closest things they have to a scientist on their side. And I am featuring him in a screenshot here showing that he is followed by current queen of the transphobes J.K. Rowling, while speaking to both another big name in transphobic circles, Debra Soh, and based on their names, what I’m guessing is at least one straight-up nazi. And in case you think “the P” he’s talking about adding to LGBT (or “GLBT” as weird anti-queer bigots who also have issues with women often write it) might stand for “poly” or “pan” he’s all too happy to clarify that.

This is the entire thrust of Cantor’s work and life. He is the world’s biggest pedophile rights advocate. He wants it declassified as a mental disorder, all stigma on it removed, and tirelessly pushes forward the idea that the majority of.. people who feel compelled to sexually assault children are good people who present no potential harm to anyone and should in fact be lauded.

I am not generally one to claim that someone with a PhD is spewing out questionable garbage with regard to their field, but the reason I am aware of Cantor at all is that other transphobes keep trying to hold up a particular post on his blog as "a study” (which it is not) that offers “proof” (in the form of a blurry jpeg of basically some random numbers) of some ridiculous quackery about how trans kids will “grow out of it” if exposed to conversion therapy (another way of saying torture), which Cantor himself seems to be pushing, so I am somewhat skeptical of his academic chops. And I am, of course, REALLY suspicious that all these other bigots gravitate to him purely because they’re that desperate to find anyone with a PhD in anything that backs them up against literally every scientist in a relative field, to the point that they merely forgive his particular advocacy they are plainly all aware of, particularly when such a common fig leaf used by transphobes is “keeping children safe from sexual deviants.”

And of course, Cantor is most often invoked when coming to the defense of Kenneth Zucker. This Kenneth Zucker.

Those are separate papers. Zucker isn’t controversial though for organizing panels to discuss how attractive people agree small children are (at least not exclusively). Mostly, he’s known for running a conversion therapy center which subjected gay and trans children to various sorts of torture in an effort to “fix” them, which at least for those trans "patients” I have spoken with involved a fair amount of having them strip completely naked and talking a lot about their genitals.

Zucker is something of a controversial figure with the transphobic scene, as they are extremely on board with his sexual torture of queer children, but he does actual work (for some value of the term) involving trans people and thus is not able to commit as fully as they would prefer to making life horrible for trans people, due to a professional obligation to acknowledge reality now and then. As an aside, the similarly positioned Ray Blanchard, while not to my knowledge particularly interested in the attractiveness of children, lives in a similar purgatory of trying to reconcile his career, bigotry, and sexual hangups, yielding compromises like this:

Of course, that’s just looking at the straws transphobes grasp at when looking for scientific credibility. Real leaders of the movement include Germaine Greer, author of The Beautiful Boy, which is about what you are afraid it might be, and features a very young child in a cover feature he did not consent to posing for. Or Julie Bindel, who among other things is rather infamous for writing whole articles on subjects like whether a teenage girl she came across maybe has a huge penis you can totally see if you really squint at her skirt. Again, I will not share a link to go along with that one.

Transphobes terrorize and attempt to defund charities and other unambiguously good organizations.

Graham Linehan, previously best known for cowriting some sitcoms and possibly spending a year angling to get into my pants so awkwardly I didn’t pick up on it is now best known for trying to pull the plug on a children’s charity, in a story that somehow also involves Donkey Kong. Well, and the interview about nazis. And possibly the other interview about “defending me from nazis” until it got into his head that I might not be as young and hot as he imagined. Rather not link to a far right extremist youtube channel though.

There’s also a current effort to replace Stonewall (an organization named after the location where a pair of trans women kicked off a riot which is generally agreed to be the start of the LGBT+ rights movement) as the UK’s primary LGBT+ rights organization with the “LGB Alliance.” The hate group mentioned above, with the skull face and the rifle. Closest I can find to an article on that effort on short notice that isn’t propaganda.

Transphobes paper areas in truly disgusting propaganda.

I don’t want to directly link to grown adults skulking around children’s playgrounds and bathrooms plastering surfaces with mass printed stickers of crudely drawn penises, but would encourage you to read this very long post, being sure to load all the images, to really understand how deeply strange this behavior gets.

Finally, I cannot stress this enough, this really extreme behavior I’m citing, and the specific people involved in the examples I’m giving, these aren’t random cranks on the fringe of things. The people going on televised panel discussions, writing up news stories, and testifying before lawmakers in efforts to pass horrifically discriminatory if not literally life-endangering laws (there is a major ongoing effort to legally end all medical care for trans people, and I don’t just mean care directly relating to being trans) are literally the same people involved in the sexualization of children, nazi collaborations, and roving gangs assaulting people in the street. At a bare minimum I urge people, when booking guests and handing out writing contracts, to do background checks and see if they’re platforming actual terrorists. If we could actually bring legal consequences to bear against the worst of this, that would be great too. As things stand though, the whole world is just consistently citing a bunch of racist, woman-hating, serial liars with no real credentials, and questionable attitudes towards the sexual abuse of children, as “trusted experts” and refusing to seat actual trans people or people who have legitimately committed lifetimes to academic and practical work with trans people any seats at the table.

#trans #transphobia #educational resources

[drsteggy]

Hey Stegg! I’m going around to some of my writer mutuals/favorite fic writers and asking about their favorite works! Just to spread a little fic writer hype :) Tell us about the best fic you’ve written and why it’s kickass! This could include anything, from developmental fun facts, to character stuff, to your writing process, to thematic-weaving coolness. Have at it! :D

I still think of myself as fairly new in this space, and while I try to write and post regularly, I definitely don’t have a big body of work just yet. I also don’t know if I’m a good judge of my own work. I did have a crappy relationship with my stats last summer, but I’ve mostly gotten over it and I really do try to write things that I want to write, so most of my stuff is pretty self indulgent.

Like. I did creative writing in high school, and undergrad, but it got set aside hard for a long time as I turned skills I had to written debates on blog posts and forums. I came to fic writing without much clue what to do-my studies were sciences and a lot of them, and whatever English classes I took were pretty much minimal. I did love to read, and I read a lot, but if you asked me how stories worked I really could not tell you very well. I still can’t. I recognize that I probably soaked up how I liked story arcs to go, and I knew when I felt cheated or baited and switched (looking at you, LOST and Game of Thrones) but I definitely feel like the dumb kid when I’m somewhere watching people talk about the nuts and bolts of things. So we are gonna go on about my favorite thing I’ve written, because it’s also almost all I’ve written.

So my favorite thing I’ve written is still Uneasy Lies the Chosen of Farore. When I started to really fixate on the Legend of Zelda, I first sought out fan art, and there’s so much gorgeous art. Art led to fic. I hadn’t read fanfic since the 90s when I was obsessing over The X Files.

I particularly liked how flexible canon seemed to be in the fandom. The story goes that the hero and the incarnation of Hylia reincarnate repeatedly, and not all of them got to be a game, right? That idea was so exciting. Surely, at some point, they were adults, maybe older adults, maybe characters I could relate to a bit better than teenagers. So I looked, and the best I could do was finding them in their early, maybe mid 20s. This was frustrating to me and I spent a lot of time wondering if I would be worthy, should I stumble upon a sword with a blue hilt and a strangely flipped cross guard and I decided that I was a lot more worthy than I would have been at sixteen or twenty-five and from there it was a pretty short journey to imagining what it would be like to take that hilt, and that’s pretty much the first chapter.

I’ve written about how the rest of the story came to be before, so I’ll try to not retread that ground. At the time this was going on, I was still sorting out a pretty turbulent and awful period of my own life, and while I was mostly on the other side, I was also still trying to fit it into the rest of my life and I dealt with a lot of it through that story. I half joke sometimes that this version of Link is very much a self insert. I feel like a lot of readers pick up on the parent stuff. But there’s other stuff too, because when I decided to turn my thousand word scene into an 88k fic, I decided to use the overall arc of the previous four or five years as a scaffold to hang stuff on.

I’m not gonna delve into personal stuff for me other than broad strokes. I think I generally made better choices in my life, for example, than Link does, but it did take a therapist to help me see why I made some choices the way I did. The Great Deku Tree and Impa both say things to Link that were said to me. Zelda does as well at some point. Each time that happens he does take a minute to think on it and changes a little bit, so that by the time he is at the end of the story, the guy he was at the beginning might not recognize him.

People often comment that they find this Link and Zelda very relatable and I’m glad they do. In the games, Link is supposed to be the slate your write your experience on as you go. He is supposed to just be an extension of the player, maybe more so in Breath of the Wild which was my intro to the franchise. I really love the journey he goes on from realizing he is a pretty hot mess, and how much his shit is not as together as he assumed, though he needed a big event to change things out of his control to see it, to where is much more emotionally grown up and has found a soft place to land with people he loves who love him back on equal footing.

I recognize my little AU seems a little weird at first, but I’ve enjoyed playing in it enough that I also ended up writing a series of side fics for it, and I still think about what might have happened before and after the sword, that I suspect there will probably be more. It’s definitely a work I’m really proud of, and it also helped bring me into a community of people I really like, too.

The art I commissioned for this fic is making rounds on Tumblr again today, for some reason. Someone reblogged it and a bunch of other people saw it for the first time. I like to think when someone reblog sit out of the blue it means than maybe they went and had a read, and I like having that thought. I’m glad I brought this thing into the world. 2020 sucked pretty hard but this fic probably would not exist if it hadn’t.

Thank you, @kittmoon for the ask. I really do like to talk about that fic.

#writer asks #fanficton #meta #fanfiction writing #writing tag #kittmoon

[luxe-pauvre]

What did you learn about people? How might a person who is not studying develop their bullshit-ometer?

“What did you learn about people” is much too broad to answer given how much is covered in a three year bachelors degree. Everything from theories of the self, errors biases and heuristics, attitudes and emotions, theories behind behaviours, social influence, group affiliation, psychological development from childhood to adulthood and its effect, models of personality and individual differences, memory, how we learn, the psychology of choice and decisions, and the genetic/biological/social/environmental factors of all of the above and what happens when it goes wrong and becomes pathology.

In terms of developing a bullshit-ometer, or improving your judgement and understanding of evidence, the key is practice. For a module in my first year we were given a paper every week and a prompt sheet to fill in that effectively helped you tear the paper apart. Prompts included everything from the method and sample size, to the statistical tests used, whether they were used appropriately, and whether all of the assumptions of each test were met, etc. It would take me upwards of two hours to get through a ten page paper, and even then I’d miss things. Three years on, I can skim a paper or article or hear a person’s argument, spot any major red flags, and tear it apart under exam conditions in thirty minutes. It takes a lot of time and work to be able to do it quickly. Having it embedded as a philosophy into everything you’re learning helps as you start doing it unconsciously eventually.

Resources:

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. To me, an absolutely essential read.

The Art of Statistics by David Spiegelhalter. Spiegelhalter is a statistical genius, and he’s now spending his time trying to change the way statistics is taught, moving it away from learning loads of formulas and then trying to figure out how they relate to evidence, towards the PPDAC (problem, plan, data, analysis, conclusion) model. To understand evidence and pick up the misuse of statistics (aka bullshit) you need at least a basic understand of stats. This book does it perfectly, in plain English, with interesting examples. I wish it had been published when I first started my degree.

I Think You’ll Find It’s A Bit More Complicated Than That by Ben Goldacre. This is a collection of most of Ben Goldacre’s columns which used to appear in The Guardian, in which he takes a claim in the media or a new study and tears it apart. It’s an interesting read, might change your perception on a few things, and is him tackling bullshit in practice.

Reckoning With Risk by Gerd Gigerenzer. There are lots of complex statistics in this (which he signposts and you can just pass over), but understanding how statistics of risk work, and what they mean, will completely change how you read and assess a lot of claims made in the news.

The Students 4 Best Evidence blog. It mainly covers evidence based medicine, but the key concepts transfer to all research and claims outside of medicine. Anything under the bias, critical thinking, intro to evidence-based practice, and statistics topics is relevant. Particularly anything tagged ‘tutorials and fundamentals’. Their Key Concepts Archive is a good place to start.

The Testing Treatments website. Again, covers medicine, but most of the points generalise out. Under each concept, say ‘association is not causation’, there is a ‘find learning resources’ link that will find papers, online courses/modules, and books about that concept.

Cochrane Training. Cochrane are the gods of the systematic review. All their online learning modules surrounding assessing evidence are here.

Think Again: How to Reason and Argue, either the book, or the online course. The perfect crash course in reasoning, arguing, avoiding fallacies, picking apart other people’s arguments, and finding bullshit.

The Clearer Thinking website has a range of tools/mini modules. Relevant ones here:

How well can you tell reality from B.S.?

Interpreting evidence

Belief challenger, making your views more accurate

Guess which experiments replicate

More books.

A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics: A Neuroscientist on How to Make Sense of a Complex World by Daniel Levitin

How To Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff

#The Clearer Thinking mini modules are probably the best place to start. They're easy to follow and are free online.

[kaffeinic]

60 Question Tag Challenge!

I was challenged by @woo-for-woojin to answer all of these. To be fair, I challenged her first, but let’s not get into the details. Original post of questions by @roseyygf.

1: Selfie.

GAAAAAAAH I HATE THIS ALREADY SMH IM SO UGLY.

Lmao look at my fingers. What the hell is going on there?

2: What would you name your future kids?

I feel like that’s a joint decision, so I can’t say. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll want to have my own kids through childbirth. My family has a genetic disposition to difficulties during pregnancy. I might adopt.

3: Do you miss anyone?

A few people. Some of them I haven’t even met in person. I miss my BFF from school. I miss a few people online that I’ve fallen out of touch with. I’m always missing people. 😂

4: What are you looking forward to?

College, and moving out of my house. I’ve been itching to do both of these for years now.

5: Is there anyone who can always make you smile?

@hoshithehamster, @woo-for-woojin, @a-toxic-galaxy, my BFF from school, and my older sister. Also, I swear, @hoshithehamster and I are literally are always TALKING IN CAPS LOCK BECAUSE WE ARE IDIOTS AND WE HAVE THE WEIRDEST, MOST FUN CONVERSATIONS EVER.

6: Is it hard for you to get over someone?

Once I’ve gone all-in, yeah. When it’s a crush, not usually. I’m really slow to develop a crush on someone. Painfully slow lol. I’m cautious because I’ve been hurt by people in that regard a few times. One incident had me suicidal for a long time.

7: What was your life like last year?

Kind of the same? I didn’t have this blog open. If you had asked this regarding two years ago, I would have said that I wasn’t homeschooling, didn’t know how to play piano much, didn’t have this blog, and was very depressed because of my old schoolmates.

8: Have you ever cried because you were so annoyed?

YES! Whenever I feel stuck and know I have no control of a situation, I get frustrated and find a quiet place to cry.

9: Who did you last see in person?

I’m assuming this means out of my own household. The last person I saw was my older sister and her roommates, who I am really good friends with. One of them loves coffee as much as me and it’s great! I spent the night. That was over a month and a half ago lmao. Before that, I had gone on a date at a coffee shop.

10: Are you good at hiding your feelings?

Yeah. My family gets angry at me if I’m sad or angry about anything, so I hold it all in. It definitely has made life a bit harder. I make people angry when I won’t disclose my feelings to them. I just find it to be better to hold it. I have to be really comfortable with you and really love you if I’ll tell you that I’m sad/angry and why.

11: Are you listening to music right now?

Yeah. It’s Le Pire by Maître Gims. He’s a really great French singer.

12: What is something you want right now?

If this is concerning food, I’m in the mood for chicken right now lol. I need some protein. Aside from food, I’m wanting to get a pedal for my electric piano. I have no sustain and it ruins a lot of songs. 😂 It’s why I have my ko-fi open.

13: How do you feel right now?

Meh. I’m not feeling great. I have some issues with fainting. My blood pressure drops like a rock at times and I feel it coming on, if you know what I’m saying. It’s this kind of lethargic, sick feeling. I’m trying to drink a lot of water, just in case it’s about dehydration.

14: When was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you?

When I last visited my favourite coffee shop. For those of you who read Caffeinic, Chan’s character design is a mix of his true personality and a barista at my café of choice. He always gives me a hug when I see him, and when I say good bye. 😊

15: Personality description?

For a quick description, I’d say that INFJ, which is my MBTI type, is really accurate for me. I’ll let one of my friends try to describe me. I’m bad at describing myself lol.

Okay, but my heart is combusting. This amazing hooman, I lob her so much!!!! One of my best friends for sure.

16: Have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn’t?

All the time. I’m sure you all have heard Fight Song by Rachel Platten, but that line where she says, “And all those things I didn't say // Wrecking balls inside my brain // I will scream them loud tonight // Can you hear my voice this time?” really resonates with me. It was that lyric that hooked me on this song.

17: Opinion on insecurities?

I think 90% of us have them. They are humbling, which can be good, but I urge you to know your worth. I’m such a hypocrite.

18: Do you miss how things were a year ago?

Not really. Not much has changed.

19: Have you ever been to New York?

No, but I’d love to visit! I’m from the west coast lol.

20: What is your favourite song at the moment?

Ramai by Delia & The Motans. I listen to a lot of different languages in music lol. I have no idea what any of it means, so if it’s inappropriate, I apologize.

21: Age and birthday.

Internationally, 18. May 3, 2001.

22: Description of crush.

I don’t think I have a crush???? Haha. There’s this really kind, pretty hot barista at the café who seems to like me but I’m avoiding relationships, so idk. He has green eyes and black, curly hair. He’s maybe 170-180cm, but I’m not entirely sure. He looks damn good in a button up, I... wow. 🥵

23: Fear(s)?

So many lmao. I’m afraid of some trivial things, like bugs and rollercoasters, but I’m also afraid of some different items, like never having a family of my own, or of not being able to achieve my dreams.

24: Height?

154(?)cm. About 5’1.”

25: Role model?

I don’t think I have one lmao. I just try to be the best person I can be. It’s a goal in life for me to be a truly good person.

26: Idol(s).

Aren’t Idols and Role Models pretty much the same thing..? 😂 To be general, I look up to those who have studied in medical school because I know it’s a rollercoaster of difficulties and debt. I applaud them.

27: Things I hate:

This could be a very long list. Let’s go:

Unnecessary rudeness/bullying

Being forced into things I don’t like and/or am afraid of doing

Being lied to

Being stolen from

Being thrown in awkward situations

Being denied my alone time

When people make a mess that I have to clean

When I cook for people and they don’t thank me. My face just scrunched in anger while I typed this one lmao.

Arrogant/egotistic people

So many more, but I’ll cut it off there. 😊

28: “I’ll love you if...”

OOF. There’s no specific thing someone could do. If you love me, I’ll love you. I don’t mean the “awe ily” kind of love. I mean the “I will keep you out of trouble and protect you and be around you only to enjoy your company because I love you” kind of love. True love. Not that artificial crap.

29: Favourite film(s)?

Room 1408 is really good haha. I also really liked A Simple Favour. I like a lot of movies lmao. Superhero movies are always good.

30: Favourite tv show(s)?

I watched a lot of Black Mirror before we got rid of Netflix. I watch Superstore and Brooklyn 99 like they’re the gospel. I’m always down for Gilmore Girls because it’s a classic. I often watch my old childhood shows like Danny Phantom.

31: 3 random facts.

I’m assuming you mean, “3 random facts about me” lol.

I play piano.

I read “too much.” Let’s be honest, is it even possible to read too much?

I write my own stories and songs all of the time.

32: Are your friends mainly girls or guys?

Oof. My absolute closest friends are girls, but the majority of people I would consider my friends are male.

33: Something you want to learn.

Everything I can about medicine. I’m so interested in it, and I love the idea of fixing someone’s body. I’m fascinated by the weird and/or nasty things about our bodies. I hope that doesn’t sound too weird. I also wanna learn how to use a French press lmao.

34: Most embarrassing moment?

I had been selected to perform in a talent show a few years back for my old school and I got up there, face planting on the floor. Halfway through the song, I froze up and forgot the lyrics. I have never forgotten that.

35: Favourite subject?

Any form of science or Language Arts.

36: 3 dreams you want to fulfill?

Become a doctor.

Write a song that someone can perform onstage.

Clock in my 10,000 hours in piano.

Extra: I want to learn violin so badly!

37: Favourite actor/actress?

Jennifer Aniston or Nicolas Cage probably. I don’t pay much attention to actors. I also love Jeremy Renner’s work!

38: Favourite comedian(s)?

Oh lord, this question was made for me. Randy Feltface, Samuel J. Conroe, TwoSet, Ross Lynch, and many, many more!

39: Favourite sport(s)?

Volleyball, baseball, and badminton. Low/no-contact sports lol.

40: Favourite memory?

I can’t think of a specific one, but my best memories are always those random, funny moments I have with friends. I don’t think I’m ever gonna forget when my friend and I named one of her plants for the first time. I made a plant family tree. Dear lord save my soul.

41: Relationship status?

Single~

42: Favourite book(s)?

THAT IS THE HARDEST QUESTION EVER! How can I be expected to answer this???? 😂 I don’t have a favourite.

43: Favourite song ever?

Is this q&a list crafted specifically for me to not be able to answer any of the questions? 😂 I don’t have one. It changes with time.

44: Age you get mistaken for?

People always think I’m younger than I am, but if they don’t, then they over shoot it. Most people think I’m 16, or as old as 20-22. It’s crazy lol.

45: How you found out about your idol.

I’m going to interpret this as how I found out about my ult bias, who is Chan from Stray Kids. I was surfing SoundCloud and found the 3racha page. There wasn’t much there, but I liked what they had recorded. From then, I saw some of their survival show and may have kind of fallen for Channie and his personality lmao. Whoops.

46: What my last text message says.

This is the one I got while I was answering this specific question. 😊

“I feel that. I do hate unrealistic stories or stories that go on to fast like. I want to read stories where I feel like the reader could be me and not some sort of perfect girl getting the attention of all the people and fell in love withing 3 seconds and marry. I know that there must be some drama and special things to keep the story going and that's OK but I really appreciate stories who are still based more on a normal life. And you really do a good job in writing normal life stories // And tbh no story made me as happy as your barista!Chan story. It really is something different and I love it.”

Idk if the sender would be okay with me sharing that it was them, so I just copied it lol. I truly do love the feedback I get from you guys! Thank you all so much~~!

47: Turn-ons?

I’m assuming - again - that you mean romantically? I’ve always liked someone who has a decent sense of humour. Whenever I see someone working hard at their job/studies, part of me finds it... sexy? Idk. I’m weird. Save me. 😂

48: Turn-offs?

Overconfidence is a big no-no. It’s annoying as well. I can’t stand someone who truly is an idiot. Nothing turns me off more than getting a text that’s barely legible with a million abbreviations. Speak to me like someone with a brain, please. Another big turn-off is someone who is just automatically very sexual. I’m not a super sexual person, and I don’t want to hang out with someone who has a one-track mind in that sense.

49: Where I want to be right now.

The café.

50: Favourite picture of your idol?

But... he’s so pretty? How??

Sorry. I do not own these gifs/photos of Chan~

51: Star sign?

Taurus..? Idk if that’s for horoscopes lol.

52: Something I’m talented at.

Mmmmmm idk. I’m pretty mundane. I read a lot. I really would love to say I’m talented at piano, but I just don’t think I’m there yet.

53: 5 things that make me happy.

“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...” Sorry.

Classical music

The smell of an old book

Petrichor and/or rainstorms

Playing piano

The smell of coffee

54: Something that’s worrying me at the moment.

Everything?? 😂 I’m worried about affording college tuition at the moment. I’m a senior and it’s steadily approaching.

55: Tumblr friends?

I almost yeeted my phone across the room. This is my question. 😂

@hoshithehamster, my fellow plant mother. I think we are each other’s spirit animal lol. I love you more than you know~! As a side note: She’s model material, I swear! Soooooo pretty, inside and out!

@woo-for-woojin, the most adorable and thoughtful person ever?? Always a pleasure to speak to. She gives the coolest and cutest requests ever, I’m-

@a-toxic-galaxy, one of the first people who supported this blog. I love you so much! We both have gotten a little busy lately, but I hope we never fall out of touch.

@doubleknot42, I guess more of an acquaintance? I still really want to get to know her more. The content on her blog is amazing, I highly recommend.

@ethereal-chanracha, someone who I’ve just recently started talking to. We’ve learned so much about each other in such a short time and I already think she’s so awesome! If you’re down for a good conversation, hit her up.

@palemoonpersephone, a friend I made after writing a post about my experiences at school. She is one of the sweetest, most thoughtful and hardworking people I’ve ever met. She offered to be my friend if ever I need one, and I don’t regret it. 💕

56: Favourite food(s).

Homemade granola (I make it a lot.)

Salad (Don’t @ me. I really do enjoy salad. I’m much more of an herbivore. 😂)

Most types of Chinese chicken

This spicy noodle thing I think I invented?

Italian sandwiches

Any type of spicy chip (Takis, Hot Cheetos, etc...)

Plain white rice

Gochu jang flavoured chicken

Despite this list, know that I’m a very picky eater lol

57: Favourite animal(s).

Foxes

Doggos

CATS

White tigers

HEDGEHOGS OML

58: Description of my best friend.

Y’all probably know who this is, but...

Kind

Attentive

Smart

Pretty

Passionate

gOOFY (like me)

The best plant mother in existence??? Fight me.

Patient

Empathetic

And SO much more~~!

59: Why I joined tumblr?

Initially, just to find cool posts and like/reblog whatever I enjoyed. My main blog, @assainfj, is the same blog I started with lol. It’s now become a place for me to share my thoughts and my writing and to meet amazing hoomans.

60: Ask me anything you want.

YASSSSS PLEASE I love answering your questions~~~~~! Send in as many as you’d like!

~

I tag: @hoshithehamster • @a-toxic-galaxy • @palemoonpersephone • @doubleknot42 • @ethereal-chanracha & anyone else who wants to do this!

#kpop #fanfictions #headcannons #reactions #ships #imagines #asks #tag #challenge #q&a #questions #answers #stray kids #bang chan #skz #chan

[wildstrandsblog]

Inherit the Earth

3.4.20

In a mythological time told to be the Golden Age, there was a critical point in every person’s life when an inner voice would come calling to them, to be heard or even seen. This calling from within guided a human being toward their individual purpose, how that purpose was to be enacted, and how it would support the whole of the Earth. Tens of thousands of years later, most had grown deaf to that inner call but there were still some during the Age of Heroes who were courageous enough to feel the strong desire to connect back to a lost purpose. These stories of heroic men tell of how they left their homes and families in search of it. Unknowingly, in search of the pain it took to journey into the spiritual life. These men headed into the wilderness, some of them to the forests said to hold the mysteries of the Universe. In some of the ancient stories, these places of numinous resurrection were given a name, the Forests of Confusion.

In the Forests of Confusion, men began to feel the force of their own feelings, sometimes for the first time, observing and collecting the data their body gave them through sensations. They mapped out and got to know these sensations, first wrestling with them but ultimately coming to understand they were a part of them. From there, they began to revere these feelings as untapped intelligences in parts of themselves they could not see or touch but were consciously aware existed. Lastly, these men enacted the ultimate lesson learned in the process of becoming one with the Universe again; letting go of all emotion to feel the truth found in the nothingness that followed. They sent their emotions back into the forest so others could find them in a future time while retaining more understanding about themselves.

These men were the first yogis, shamans, spiritual leaders, Empaths, and more. They learned how to accept every aspect of their feelings, embracing the dark side of its force as well as the light. They learned how the natural world was there to support this process as they trusted the ancient dance of emotion that tied them to the world outside. The thin barrier that separated their logical, individual nature from the larger, illogical Nature outside was bridged to become partners in a spiritually, engrained cosmic dance.

Last year this time completing the first chapter of my life’s story, I found myself immersed in this drawing (showcased here) to capture the vision of my feelings. Saving some of the details for the memoir, I relayed a strong feeling I had the first time traveling solo outside of the country, caught in a spiraling fear of death. At the age of twenty-seven, I thought for sure my plane was going to plunge itself into the Atlantic Ocean and I needed to get my final thoughts out—the love I had for family. At that moment, I stopped everything to call my partner then, anxious and fearful my world was ending and inadvertently missing my flight. Pleading with the gate attendant to turn the plane around, I was gutted and internally ridiculed that an adventure I was just beginning had already ended without even stepping foot into the beyond. Little did I know that was the intended mistake my life was needing to turn my whole world around.

From that moment, I made a promise to myself I’d no longer be stopped by fear, despite the odds. Sitting in the airport watching my plane fly away to Argentina, I made the conscious decision to catch the next flight out and permanently ink my body with a symbol of an idea which had been growing inside me for years—the fleur-de-lis. I write that on my last day in Argentina after getting tattooed, I could feel how this new tattoo was going to grow on me. The fleur-de-lis was the start of a symbol that would become the seed to the Tree of Life I now have covering half of my back and torso. Where did all of this knowledge come from? How did I know the exact thing that would bring balance to an intense fear of death in a split second never having been formally taught? Prior to that, I had never wanted to get anything tattooed. I didn’t want anything permanent on my body and in my family tattoos were taboo.

As an elementary student sitting under a large tree on one of the last days of school called Field Day, sweltering and fun-filled, I found myself thinking bigger than any lesson taught to me in school. My entire class had just left the shade of the tree except for me, refreshed from Coolies and orange slices. I was caught in a daze picking up moss rooted in the damp ground. With chunks of dark earth lodged beneath my fingernails, I revealed a colony of ants just below the surface breaking down the traces left from the class picnic. I silently observed this lively moving and intricate system that had a different way of life from the one known to me, synchronized with purpose for one final outcome—life. For the first time, I was personally getting to know a system I wasn’t learning from a textbook. I lived it, breathed it, touched it and immediately knew there was something out there far bigger than me although in size I appeared larger than it, and that was exciting.

Why hadn’t I been given a lesson to observe the natural world in this way before, quietly and instinctively, living in the school’s backyard? Why wasn’t I taught about what my connection was to the world outside of the classroom? Imbued with “good” habits to study hard, get good grades, play sports, graduate, go to college, be successful and more, when did the question stop being asked why these were the only habits worth value? Where did the love of learning about a life within reach of our fingertips go rather than reading it out of books and in classrooms?

Age, children, an evolving culture, and the creation of my own space has given me the opportunity to question the methodology behind the modern classroom compared to human intuition. Going back to a time with no written history, my imagination has had to make leaps to make meaning on what caused the shift in thinking, supported by my own experience, education, and intuition. In my mind, it’s as if somewhere in time the ancient, young, evolving human consciously chose to cut itself free from a great love ending the Golden Age of humans. This disconnect, told to me by my own experience, probably came from some great, unexpressed pain experienced by the mother, child, or even both becoming an archetypal wound or pain passed down. That pain would have been explained away as something bad, even sinful, no longer valued or unpacked as a force that could give each of them meaning.

The young, adolescent mind grew up disconnected and partially orphaned. It was no longer supported or protected by that great love that had the capacity to hold pain—a love that first comes from the nature of a Great Mother. Human nature, problem-solving, developed a system of logic that comforted them and left the story of pain to the imagination. Culture evolved to protect us from that evil entity called pain. It gave us rules on how to domesticate ourselves, how to sanitize our environment, and valued the achievement we made to eradicate pain. We no longer defined the individual’s boundaries or the force it took each of the individuals to get there.

Times have changed since the first men who felt cut off from their spiritually inherited purpose. It’s women, now, too. Similarly and, yet, different to men, I have been a female traveling in a motherless world without a central figure in life or mythology to guide me as a role model. I have had to travel back to the mythological Forests of Confusion alone, connecting myself back with the Universe to find my Great Mother and how she can be retrieved to live here. I have evolved enough as a human not to leave my children behind in the process, the only hope I have of becoming the figure I wish to see in the world. I travel in time by way of creating my own space to write my story down as a legacy for my children and my children’s children. Through my writing, I walk up to and through memories of significant and multiple traumas, releasing them back into the masculine-driven world that has held a lot of confusion for me. I organize and reorganize my personal story through the science and art of storytelling using the Hero’s Journey as a cipher to understand its patterns.

I journal, blog, and interpret my dreams as a way to collect the data from my journey. I create art like cave paintings at the end of each quest to express my feelings. I meditate and pray, finding balance, while practicing my own personal integration of yoga and Pilates. I contemplate my own beliefs and values while incorporating wisdom that comes from old books, new books, art, music, friends, family, and podcasts. I have consciously walked away from cultural expectations of a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and traveler to create my own defining features. I have integrated a more personal, differentiated joy and happiness which naturally desires to serve my family. I have found myself becoming a Jedi in a world that unknowingly grapples with the loss of love from their Great Mother, too. And I raise future Jedis with a consciousness of love and hope to bring a greater balance back to the world that honors the Great Father and the Great Mother as partners.

All of this to say, what I have found in these moments where I have inherited back the intelligences coming from the Earth is my place and the many roles I have been made to play. Humans are the Earth’s storytellers as I observe myself and my connection to the outside world. My purpose, aside from wife, mother, daughter, sister, and traveler, is to share my story and to offer time and space for others to share theirs—to savor the healing that comes from us sharing our stories together and to feel our own individual pain collectively. Life becomes simpler, quieter, more enjoyable, and greater than any way I was taught in school as a girl. The harder work is rewiring the habits of naivete taught to work harder and faster all by myself. The simpler work is to get down in the dirt and play around for a little while, hopefully with others, and to decide for myself the meaning it holds. I never know what I might find on any given day but it has become an endlessly mysterious place to find the next thing I’m here to do.

______________________

A big thank you to my husband who has been listening to me share my big brained ideas with him for years. At times I have felt like one of the Alaskan salmon swimming against the flow of water, beating my bloodied body against the rocks, all because of an instinct and the season of time I was feeling. I haven’t always been able to get my husband to swim upstream with me. It’s hard to make sense of the illogical when Logic says, “Why am I going to beat and torture myself again? Because I’m supposed to? Because Nature is telling me to do that? Something is seriously sadistic with Nature.” But when Logic finally says, “Okay, Illogical, you’ve been telling me this for years. I’ll try it your way…once,” Illogical gets a silly grin on her face and says, “Okay. Buckle up, buddy.” And once Illogical and Logic set out to get to the top of the stream, bloodied and near death, to experience the mythological Shangri-La waiting for them, it’s soon realized this place, flowing with magic, healing waters, was the only place where the illogical could be experienced as making sense. And instantly you know how it was all worth it. All of it was so worth it. Thank you, my dear husband, for swimming upstream with me...finally. It is worth the wait. You are worth it. All of you, my dear family, are so worth it.

#goldenage #confusion #universe #forestofconfusion #force #cosmicdance #feelings #lettinggo #fear #death #mythology #psychology #herosjourney #tattoo #fleurdelis #treeoflife #values #bigideas #human #evolution #culture #pain #mother #father #inherittheearth #storytelling #healing #writing #memoir #wildstrands

[readingismyname]

Saying No to Cancel Culture

Joan Rivers once said, “Life goes by fast.  Enjoy it.  Calm down.  It’s all funny.  Next.  Everyone gets upset about the wrong things.”  

Well, Ms. Rivers was right, but in 2019 everything seems to be at a fever pitch.  Wildfires are raging in California again, Trump impeachment proceedings are underway, there is a “manufactured crisis” at the southern border, and both parties remain fractured among varying factions with separate political interests.  Despite efforts to improve race relations in the U.S., tensions still exist-not to mention the trade war with China, increased threats of nuclear war with Iran, the opioid epidemic, and the continued rise of ISIS.  In the midst of this the political climate in the United States has become increasingly polarized.  

Enter “cancel culture.”  (“Cancelling” is a form of cultural boycotting of celebrities that are deemed too problematic or controversial.)  Though proponents of it say that it is an effective way for marginalized communities like African Americans and LGBTQ individuals to find their voice, it is problematic for several reasons: often times people are destroyed and/or have their careers ended simply for speaking their mind.  Furthermore, cancel culture cherry picks past comments or behaviors that were deemed homophobic or otherwise insensitive and uses those things to bully people into silence.  Cancel culture is happening all over-from the destruction of the careers of celebrities like Roseanne Barr, Kevin Spacey, and Louis C.K., to the takedown of confederate monuments across the southeastern United States.  It is happening, and it is a major problem.  

Now, I do want to raise one question: do we really want to erase history?  No person or nation is perfect.  If we completely delete any evidence of our sins, we are doing ourselves and our posterity a disservice.  Rather than forgetting the past, we should learn from it.  We cannot become a better nation...we cannot become better people...if we do not know where we came from and how we arrived at this moment in history.  There is the saying, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.”  So let’s not repeat it.

At the individual level, if we punish people for their perceived past wrongs, what are we really accomplishing?  Is destroying their voice really the best way to claim our own?  

Well, I don’t practice cancel culture.  I don’t believe in it.  I believe there are other more productive ways to give everyone an equal voice that do not involve the silencing of other voices.  I believe that, in order to have a truly democratic society-a society where every person has a say-it is necessary to champion freedom of speech.  Social coercion as expressed through cancel culture has no place in a society that values freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom to protest the government.  

Moreover, there is a tendency toward the Orwellian philosophies of groupthink and thoughtcrime.  What is leading the charge toward groupthink?  I believe the answer lies in who we surround ourselves with and where we look for news.  I believe that identity politics also has something to do with it.  I believe that too often we surround ourselves with people who think like us and who confirm our own biases, and in doing so we become suspicious of people of other perspectives.  In other words, we think other people are wrong for their beliefs if they do not fit ours.  However, this is what leads to an ever more fractured society.  Is this the kind of world we want?

I certainly do not want to live in a world where freedom of speech is limited.  

This is one of the reasons why I chose to write this blog: because I believe it is important to listen to other perspectives and to share my own perspective.  My own voice needs to be heard, and I want to give others a platform to share their voice in a civil, nonthreatening forum.  So, therefore I want this blog to be a community.  I want to offer readers a refreshing space where they can speak freely and not be attacked.  

For clarification, this blog will be focused on current events and foreign policy.  I will post at least once a week with a clear topic.  Given that I am an independent thinker and do not subscribe to one party over the other, I will generally take a position that is fairly neutral.  (If you are looking for a biased blog, this is not the one for you.)

Before I conclude this introduction, I would like to thank those who have chosen to embark on this journey with me-because, yes, it is a journey!  I would also like to share with you some of my story and why I have chosen to write this blog.  First, I am a 32-year-old woman with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.  I have served as an intern for former North Carolina congressman Robert Pittenger in both his district office and on his congressional campaign.  I know a lot about different issue areas, having worked in politics and studied global and domestic politics in college, but foreign policy (specifically Middle Eastern politics and counterterrorism efforts) has always been of greatest interest to me; I was 14 years old when the attacks of September 11th, 2001, happened, and I watched thousands of people die.  I grew up in the post-9/11 world not knowing where the next threat would come from, and after realizing my passion for politics and learning about what led to 9/11, I wanted to do something to ensure the safety of all Americans and to prevent another 9/11.  So I hatched an idea a couple of years ago to start a blog, though my thoughts about the focus and content of it did not crystallize until now.  I searched my mind and the internet for ideas, but nothing seemed right.  But recently it all just...clicked.  

So here we go...

#government #us politics #foreign policy

[polyamorouspixie]

The term “poly” is bad why not just use polyam

Funny, I was just going to make a blog post about this actually! I literally came to sit down and write it and found this message.

Now, I do think it’s very important to be aware of the way you use language and the impact it has. For example, I try to make my blog trans friendly, including non-binary (and if I do mess up because I’ve had three decades in this binary-obsessed culture and sometimes I don’t notice, feel free to pull me up on it), not equating gender with genitals, and not referring to two genders, opposite gender,or anything along those lines, because it’s important. I’ve made an effort to use the word “bananas” more in place of ableist words because actually it’s kind of gross to be ableist, you know?

And sometimes you find out a thing is racist and even though you thought it was harmless, you should stop saying it. 

But it isn’t good to just accept everything you’re told without investigation. For example, there have been cases where well meaning non-Muslims have said things like “please can you not put a dog in that advert, dogs are offensive to Muslims”, and then a whole load of Muslims have been put in a position of having to say that they’re not offended by the existence of dogs, they just may not want to touch them, and could people stop making out that Muslims are super sensitive and need to be specially catered to all the time, because the racists love that and it isn’t true, and then there’s a load of newspaper articles about how Muslims are stopping white people doing ANYTHING now and it just increases racism and it’s all lies.

I did a little investigation and I think that a similar thing may be happening here with well-meaning white people. I assume, and correct me if I’m wrong, anon, but the issue is that poly can also be used as shorthand for Polynesian, and that by using it as short for polyamorous then you are somehow preventing Polynesian people from... this is where I’m unsure and please, again, do give me more information on this, am I stopping Polynesian people from celebrating their culture online? And connecting with other Polynesians? (I once was told by another Tumblr user I was preventing Polynesians from having a safe space, so I’m going to work from that)

Working off this assumption I did a Google search using only the term “poly”. Google offers as additional questions that people have asked when just searching “poly” has failed them, and some of those relate to “poly relationships” (and others maths), but for the actual results: the first result is a basic description; it’s Greek for “many”. The second result references Polynesians. Then, we have polymers, poly- as a prefix again, polygon, polytechnic, an app for making 3D models, a Chinese business group, a pretend currency called Polymath, a Cornish arts charity, a site that sells prom dresses; some of these things multiple times. Finally on page 5 is a single reference to polyamory. 

My point being that certainly polyamorous people do not have a monopoly (ha!) on the prefix poly. It has a great number of meanings, most of which pre-date polyamory, and are far more widely used. And yet I’ve still managed to connect with other polyamorous people online, by using the full term “polyamorous”. I rarely find myself talking to someone about my relationship and find that whoops! They’re talking about plastics!

If you Google “Polynesian”, you get roughly 201,000,000 results. The first few pages are definitely about Polynesian people, places, and culture. I can only assume the rest is too. Polyamory doesn’t seem to be mentioned.

An additional factor is that Polynesians, although I’m sure many speak English (for example in Hawaii English and Pidgin are very common), many speak as first languages Samoan, or Maori, or about thirty more different languages. Samoan is one of the most common ones, and their word for Polynesian is “Polenisia”. Searching for this word brings up many pages that are about Polynesia in some way, though I don’t read Samoan so I could not tell you exactly what. The Rock doesn’t refer to his heritage as Polynesian, he refers to it as Samoan; I can only assume that is common, and there lies many more words which Polynesian people can use to find safe spaces online, not to mention a lack of specialness for the word poly.

Although Samoan uses the clearly influenced word Polenisia, the Maori people of New Zealand (who are also Polynesian) use the word Kiwa. It seems to me that as many of the search results for Polynesian are travel agents, that both Polenisia and Kiwa would be more useful terms; not to mention the many other native languages. 

The English word for Polynesia was first coined in 1756. The prefix poly- I can’t find such a precise date for, but one assumes dates back to before 500 BC when the ancient Greeks developed their language, and has been used since then in medicine, science, and any time someone wants to feel important by referencing Ancient Greece--such as in Polynesia itself which means ”many islands”. Poly as shorthand for many (ha!) other words pre-dates the word Polynesian by thousands of years. It’s a common useful word, it was long used by a tremendous number of people before it was ever applied to a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Trying to bring its usage to only one of those uses seems like an unwinnable task. 

I know that some people reading this aren’t going to be fully convinced; they think it should belong to Polynesian people. Here’s the thing: I’m not taking the word Polynesian from anyone. Certainly I wouldn’t want to re-use Polynesian to mean anything else. If it became known that the word Polynesian was problematic; I would, on the rare occasion I used it, use the preferred word as chosen by Pacific Islanders. I do sometimes wonder if, because it is a colonial word, if they would prefer something else, but it’s not for me to tell those people that their own description of themselves is problematic! The word “poly” isn’t sacred or special to Polynesian people, though it is less syllables (hence why it gets used as shorthand for so many things). It isn’t an offensive term--for example if people started using “eskimo” to mean something else, I’d be quite cross, as many of the people it’s used to refer to find it an offensive term. You start using slurs, you start throwing about sacred or important terms from other cultures--I’m going to tell you to stop it. Those are oppressive things to do.  Neither Poly nor Polynesian fall under these categories. Using colonial terms can be considered oppression, too, but it’s up to the group themselves to decide how they feel about that, and though I have looked I’ve yet to find any issue with Polynesians being referred to as such. 

I’m sure I’ll get some backlash from this, but I hope most people reading it have learned a little about Polynesian culture! M’s brother lives in New Zealand and has a lot of experience with Maori culture (did you know Maoris want everyone, Maori or not, to learn Maori in New Zealand schools? Did you know white politicians commonly use Maori words in speeches?), which I’ve found very interesting to hear about, and V lived in Hawaii as a child, and A studied there as an adult, and I’ve learned a little from them too (did you know Hawaiians LOVE Lilo and Stitch because it’s set there? They also taught me a little Pidgin which sadly I’ve mostly forgotten). Moari and Hawaiian are VERY different cultures, but both worth learning about. If anyone has any resources for learning about Polynesian cultures, please let me know, and I will happily share them on my blog!

If you want to send me any articles about how using the word “poly” is in fact oppression, that’s absolutely fine, all I ask is that the article is written by or at the bare minimum quotes at least one Polynesian. 

If you’re going to send me asks asking why can’t I use polyam or polya just in case 1) let’s go back to the “please stop encouraging racists to write articles about how non-whites are So Sensitive and we can’t do anything at all without offending them” particularly when those people of colour have not asked you to do anything of the sort 2) poly is established within the polyamorous community as a shorthand 3) polyam and polya are a horrible mouthful and awkward to type and 4) I don’t want to get into a “who is the most progressive” pissing contest that doesn’t benefit oppressed people in the slightest, and I don’t want to be mean, but some of you are doing that and going around being rude to people for no reason as well.

And because this is quite long let’s have a TLDR: 

“Poly” is neither offensive nor sacred or special to the people of Polynesia and that means it is not oppression to use it for other contexts. The word Polynesian remains exclusive to those people, as do the words such as Maori, Hawaiian, Samoan and Tahitan which refer to the cultures within the umbrella term Polynesian.

[surveysonfleek]

1306.

Personality

I’m loud

I’m obnoxious

I’m sarcastic

I’m cocky

I cry easily

I have a bad temper

For the most part, I don’t like people

I’m easy to get along with

I like to fight

I have more enemies than friends

I’ve smoked

I’ve smoked weed

I drink coffee

I clean my room daily

I cannot open up to others

I wish I can tell those close what is wrong with me but I can’t

I am extroverted

I am introverted

I don’t care most of the time

I am lazy

I am cynical

I am idealistic

I am realistic

I am a dreamer

About You

I am straight

I am bisexual

I am pansexual

I am demisexual

I am asexual

I am another sexuality that isn’t listed

I rather not reveal my sexuality on tumblr

I am cis

I am a transgender

I am non-binary

I am in the closet

I think I might be gay/lesbian

I like what I like

I love myself

I hate myself

My Appearance

I’m shorter than 5’5

I am taller than 5'10

I wear makeup

I wear little to no makeup

I wear a piece of jewelry at all times

I wear contacts

I wear glasses

I’ve had braces

I have braces

I change my hair color often

I straighten my hair often

My ears are pierced

I have small feet

I have a shoe size larger than eight

I have freckles

My teeth are straight

My teeth are crooked

I have scar(s)

Relationships

I’m in a relationship now

I’m in an open relationship

I’m single

I’m single but want to date

I’m crushin’

I’m in friends with benefits

I’ve missed an ex before

I’ve stalked an ex before over social media

An ex has stalked me

I’m always scared of being hurt

An ex has physically abused me at least once

I’ve been cheated on

I cheated on someone

I’ve been in a long-distance relationship before/are

A boyfriend/girlfriend made a promise to me that they didn’t keep

I’ve told someone I loved them when I didn’t

I’ve told someone I didn’t love them when I did

I told someone I love them

I haven’t told someone I love them but want to

It’s hard for me to say I love you in a relationship

I’m afraid to say I love you because I know they will leave eventually

I’m afraid to say I love you because I’ve been hurt badly before

I hate the words I love you so I say other things to demonstrate my love

I’ve been in love more than two times

I’ve been in love more than once but won’t admit it

I believe in love at first sight

I believe in soul mates

I believe in an instant click

I believe lust is more important than love

My boyfriend/girlfriend is protective of me

My boyfriend/girlfriend is weird but I like that

My boyfriend/girlfriend may get on my nerves sometimes but I can never truly stay mad at them

Friendships

I have no friends

I have a best friend

I’ve lost a best friend

I have at least ten friends

My best friends live miles away from me

I’ve gotten a phone call in the last 48 hours from a friend

I prefer skyping with my friends

I prefer calling my friends

I prefer texting my friends

I’ve beaten up a friend

A friend has physically abused me

A friend has mentally abused me

I’ve been in a toxic friendship before

I’ve been in a serious fight with a friend

I can trust at least five people with my life

My friends are crazy but I love them

I am protective of my friends

I’ve had friends leave me when they had boyfriends

I’m always the butt of my friends jokes

I feel like my friends only hang out with me because they feel sorry for me

My friends are under 18

My friends are over 18

Experiences

I’ve left the state/province

Someone close to me has died

I’ve taken a taxi

I’ve taken a city bus

I’ve been in a subway

I’ve been on a train

I’ve been on a plane

I’ve ridden in a carriage

I’ve taken a school service (like school bus)

I’ve gone bungee jumping

I’ve had a road trip with friends

I’ve made a speech

I’ve been in some sort of club

I’ve won an award

I’ve spent 24 hours on the computer straight

I’ve been in a physical fight

I’ve stolen something

I’ve snuck out before

I saw a shooting star

I wished on a shooting star

Music

I listen to country

I listen to pop

I listen to edm

I listen to rock

I listen to indie

I listen to instrumental

I listen to movie scores

I listen to rap/hip hop

I listen to k-pop

I listen to oldies

I’m one of those people who play songs repeatedly until I hate it

I hate the radio

I download music

I buy CD’s

Television

I spend at least six hours a day watching television

I watch soap operas daily

I’m in love with Days Of Our Lives

I’ve seen and like The OC

I’ve seen and like One Tree Hill

I’ve seen and like America’s Next Top Model

I’ve seen and like Popular

I’ve seen and like House

I’ve seen and like 24

I’ve seen and like CSI

I’ve seen and like Everwood

I’ve seen and like Doctor Who

I’ve seen and like The Vampire Diaries

I’ve seen and like Teen Wolf

I’ve seen and like Family Guy

I’ve seen and like Gilmore Girls

I’ve seen and like Big Brother

I’ve seen and like MTV Reality Shows

I’ve seen and like Pretty Little Liars

I’ve seen and like Sherlock

I’ve seen and like Supernatural

I’ve seen and like How I Met Your Mother

I’ve seen and like Sailor Moon

I’ve seen and like Grey’s Anatomy

I’ve seen and like something that everyone would hate

I’ve seen and dislike something that everyone would love

Family Life

I get along with both of my parents

My biological parents are still together

My mother abandoned me

My father abandoned me

I can’t help but be sad that one of my parents left me

I have at least one brother

I have at least one sister

I have at least one step brother/sister

I have at least one half brother/sister

I have pets

I’ve been kicked out of the house

I’ve been grounded before

I’ve been scolded before

My parents have been verbally abusive

I’ve ran away from my home

I’ve sworn at my parents

I’ve made my parents cry

My parents are very chill

My parents are strict

My parents are disappointed in me

My parents want what is best for me

I feel like I am disappointing my parents

I am hiding something from my parents

I am close with my mom

I am close with my dad

I am close with a step-parent

I’ve lied to my parents

I’ve lied to my parents about where I am

I’ve lied to my parents about what I’m doing

I’ve lied to my parents so I’d be allowed out

I’ve lied to my parents about being single

I’ve lied to my parents about my sexuality

I’ve lied to my parents about school

I normally ask the other parent if one tells me no

I’ve walked out when I’ve been grounded

I’ve walked out in the middle of an argument

Hair

I’ve cut my hair in the past year

I’ve dyed my hair in the past year

I’ve been blonde

I’ve had black

I’ve been red

I’ve been light brown

I’ve been medium brown

I’ve been brown

I’ve had streaks

I’ve had purple/pink

I’ve been blue/green

I’ve gotten my hair thinned

I use conditioner

I’ve used silk therapy

I’ve used hot oil treatments

I’ve curled my hair

I’ve straightened my hair

I’ve braided my hair

I’ve had\want dreadlocks

Currently

I am currently content

I am happy

I am currently sad

I am currently irritated

I am currently numb

I am angry

I am feeling suicidal

I think I’ve made someone angry

I think I’ve made someone upset

Someone is ignoring me

Someone is angry at me

I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life

I feel like I’m going to be losing someone in the next two months

I want to drink

I want to smoke

I want to drive

I want to cry

School

I’ve thrown something at a teacher

I’ve yelled at a teacher

I’ve been suspended

I’ve had an in-school suspension

I’ve been sent to the principal’s office

I should of had truancy

I should have been expelled

I should have been suspended

I’ve walked out of class

I’ve skipped an entire day of school

I’ve skipped a whole month of one certain class

I’ve failed a test

I’ve cheated on a test

I’ve helped someone else cheat on a test

I’ve failed Art

I’ve failed P.E

I’ve failed Math

I’ve failed Science

I’ve failed another class

A teacher has called my parents

A teacher has called my parents for a parent-teacher conference

I’ve been caught skipping

I’ve been on the honor roll

I’ve been on effort honor roll

Random

I think nerds are cute

A stranger has complimented me before

I always hold the door open if somebody behind me is going through the same door

The last shoes I wore were black

I own a pair of white flip flops

I have a personal xanga

I have a roleplay blog

I doodle on my notes during class sometimes

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday

Halloween is my favorite holiday

Christmas is my favorite holiday

I actually study for tests

I actually do big papers before the night it’s due

I cannot do a cartwheel

I can do a handstand underwater

I’m physically affectionate toward certain friends

I have not tried tomato soup with grilled cheese

I use AIM

I use Skype

I use Oovoo

I have the old version of AIM because I like it better than the new one

I’ve never had the chicken pox

I hate leaving voicemails

I like stuffed crust pizza

I have a scanner

I was named after somebody or something

I have a unique name

I hate my name

I do not have a tattoo

There’s a piece of jewelry that I wear daily

I shower at night

I shower during the day

I shower early morning

I prefer the sunrise over the sunset

The walls in my room are a color other than white

I have a picture of myself kissing somebody

My friends like to carry me around

I’m constantly misplacing my chapstick

I wear gray eyeliner

I’m not afraid of snakes

I’m not afraid of spiders

I’m not afraid of insects

I don’t get sick easily

I get sick easily

I like green tea ice cream

My nails are naturally healthy and strong

I have a job

I hate my job

I am looking for a second job

I have my own car

I still live with my parents

When I was little, I loved string cheese

I have to pee right now

When I’m trying not to cuss, I yell out gibberish

I want a pet chinchilla

I love it when my car has a full tank of gas

We don’t have a desktop computer at my house

I don’t own a laptop

I want a laptop

My parents are from a country that isn’t the one we currently reside in

I dislike the wind

I dislike rain

I dislike snow

I’ve had 5+ piercings throughout my life

I’m the shortest adult in my family

I am the tallest adult in my family

I am the heaviest in my family

I am the thinnest in my family

I know someone is ignoring me

I almost always do my homework

My name ends in a vowel

I sing and dance obnoxiously when I’m home alone

I am obsessed with musicals

I am obsessed with horror

I am obsessed with action/drama

I am obsessed with romance

I like the way mango smells

I prefer silver over gold

I prefer white gold over silver

I already have plans for my future wedding

I fear I’ll end up being alone

My bathing suit is a two piece

I’ve taught somebody how to swim before

I cannot swim

The last highlighter I used was yellow

I know the first three ballet positions

I am a Taurus

I am a Cancer

I am a Libra

I am a Sagittarius

I find astrology interesting

I have masturbated before

I have wanted to push someone down the stairs

#survey #surveys #quiz #bored #questions

[nostalgiaispeace]

885.

Bold Survey,

Personality

I’m loud

I’m obnoxious

I’m sarcastic

I’m cocky

I cry easily

I have a bad temper

For the most part, I don’t like people

I’m easy to get along with

I like to fight

I have more enemies than friends

I’ve smoked

I’ve smoked weed

I drink coffee

I clean my room daily

I cannot open up to others

I wish I can tell those close what is wrong with me but I can’t

I am extroverted

I am introverted

I don’t care most of the time

I am lazy

I am cynical

I am idealistic

I am realistic

I am a dreamer

About You

I am straight

I am bisexual

I am pansexual

I am demisexual

I am asexual

I am another sexuality that isn’t listed

I rather not reveal my sexuality on tumblr

I am cis

I am a transgender

I am non-binary

I am in the closet

I think I might be gay/lesbian

I like what I like

I love myself

I hate myself

My Appearance

I’m shorter than 5’5

I am taller than 5'10

I wear makeup

I wear little to no makeup

I wear a piece of jewelry at all times

I wear contacts

I wear glasses

I’ve had braces

I have braces

I change my hair color often

I straighten my hair often

My ears are pierced

I have small feet

I have a shoe size larger than eight

I have freckles

My teeth are straight

My teeth are crooked

I have scar(s)

Relationships

I’m in a relationship now

I’m in an open relationship

I’m single

I’m single but want to date

I’m crushin’

I’m in friends with benefits

I’ve missed an ex before

I’ve stalked an ex before over social media

An ex has stalked me

I’m always scared of being hurt

An ex has physically abused me at least once

I’ve been cheated on

I cheated on someone

I’ve been in a long-distance relationship before/are

A boyfriend/girlfriend made a promise to me that they didn’t keep

I’ve told someone I loved them when I didn’t

I’ve told someone I didn’t love them when I did

I told someone I love them

I haven’t told someone I love them but want to

It’s hard for me to say I love you in a relationship

I’m afraid to say I love you because I know they will leave eventually

I’m afraid to say I love you because I’ve been hurt badly before

I hate the words I love you so I say other things to demonstrate my love

I’ve been in love more than two times

I’ve been in love more than once but won’t admit it

I believe in love at first sight

I believe in soul mates

I believe in an instant click

I believe lust is more important than love

My boyfriend/girlfriend is protective of me

My boyfriend/girlfriend is weird but I like that

My boyfriend/girlfriend may get on my nerves sometimes but I can never truly stay mad at them

Friendships

I have no friends

I have a best friend

I’ve lost a best friend

I have at least ten friends

My best friends live miles away from me

I’ve gotten a phone call in the last 48 hours from a friend

I prefer skyping with my friends

I prefer calling my friends

I prefer texting my friends

I’ve beaten up a friend

A friend has physically abused me

A friend has mentally abused me

I’ve been in a toxic friendship before

I’ve been in a serious fight with a friend

I can trust at least five people with my life

My friends are crazy but I love them

I am protective of my friends

I’ve had friends leave me when they had boyfriends

I’m always the butt of my friends jokes

I feel like my friends only hang out with me because they feel sorry for me

My friends are under 18

My friends are over 18

Experiences

I’ve left the state/province

Someone close to me has died

I’ve taken a taxi

I’ve taken a city bus

I’ve been in a subway

I’ve been on a train

I’ve been on a plane

I’ve ridden in a carriage

I’ve taken a school service (like school bus)

I’ve gone bungee jumping

I’ve had a road trip with friends

I’ve made a speech

I’ve been in some sort of club

I’ve won an award

I’ve spent 24 hours on the computer straight

I’ve been in a physical fight

I’ve stolen something

I’ve snuck out before

I saw a shooting star

I wished on a shooting star

Music

I listen to country

I listen to pop

I listen to edm

I listen to rock

I listen to indie

I listen to instrumental

I listen to movie scores

I listen to rap/hip hop

I listen to k-pop

I listen to oldies

I’m one of those people who play songs repeatedly until I hate it

I hate the radio

I download music

I buy CD’s

Television

I spend at least six hours a day watching television

I watch soap operas daily

I’m in love with Days Of Our Lives

I’ve seen and like The OC

I’ve seen and like One Tree Hill

I’ve seen and like America’s Next Top Model

I’ve seen and like Popular

I’ve seen and like House

I’ve seen and like 24

I’ve seen and like CSI

I’ve seen and like Everwood

I’ve seen and like Doctor Who

I’ve seen and like The Vampire Diaries

I’ve seen and like Teen Wolf

I’ve seen and like Family Guy

I’ve seen and like Gilmore Girls

I’ve seen and like Big Brother

I’ve seen and like MTV Reality Shows

I’ve seen and like Pretty Little Liars

I’ve seen and like Sherlock

I’ve seen and like Supernatural

I’ve seen and like How I Met Your Mother

I’ve seen and like Sailor Moon

I’ve seen and like Grey’s Anatomy

I’ve seen and like something that everyone would hate

I’ve seen and dislike something that everyone would love

Family Life

I get along with both of my parents

My biological parents are still together

My mother abandoned me

My father abandoned me

I can’t help but be sad that one of my parents left me

I have at least one brother

I have at least one sister

I have at least one step brother/sister

I have at least one half brother/sister

I have pets

I’ve been kicked out of the house

I’ve been grounded before

I’ve been scolded before

My parents have been verbally abusive

I’ve ran away from my home

I’ve sworn at my parents

I’ve made my parents cry

My parents are very chill

My parents are strict

My parents are disappointed in me

My parents want what is best for me

I feel like I am disappointing my parents

I am hiding something from my parents

I am close with my mom

I am close with my dad

I am close with a step-parent

I’ve lied to my parents

I’ve lied to my parents about where I am

I’ve lied to my parents about what I’m doing

I’ve lied to my parents so I’d be allowed out

I’ve lied to my parents about being single

I’ve lied to my parents about my sexuality

I’ve lied to my parents about school

I normally ask the other parent if one tells me no

I’ve walked out when I’ve been grounded

I’ve walked out in the middle of an argument

Hair

I’ve cut my hair in the past year

I’ve dyed my hair in the past year

I’ve been blonde

I’ve had black

I’ve been red

I’ve been light brown

I’ve been medium brown

I’ve been brown

I’ve had streaks

I’ve had purple/pink

I’ve been blue/green

I’ve gotten my hair thinned

I use conditioner

I’ve used silk therapy

I’ve used hot oil treatments

I’ve curled my hair

I’ve straightened my hair

I’ve braided my hair

I’ve had\want dreadlocks

Currently

I am currently content

I am happy

I am currently sad

I am currently irritated

I am currently numb

I am angry

I am feeling suicidal

I think I’ve made someone angry

I think I’ve made someone upset

Someone is ignoring me

Someone is angry at me

I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life

I feel like I’m going to be losing someone in the next two months

I want to drink

I want to smoke

I want to drive

I want to cry

School

I’ve thrown something at a teacher

I’ve yelled at a teacher

I’ve been suspended

I’ve had an in-school suspension

I’ve been sent to the principal’s office

I should of had truancy

I should have been expelled

I should have been suspended

I’ve walked out of class

I’ve skipped an entire day of school

I’ve skipped a whole month of one certain class

I’ve failed a test

I’ve cheated on a test

I’ve helped someone else cheat on a test

I’ve failed Art

I’ve failed P.E

I’ve failed Math

I’ve failed Science

I’ve failed another class

A teacher has called my parents

A teacher has called my parents for a parent-teacher conference

I’ve been caught skipping

I’ve been on the honor roll

I’ve been on effort honor roll

Random

I think nerds are cute

A stranger has complimented me before

I always hold the door open if somebody behind me is going through the same door

The last shoes I wore were black

I own a pair of white flip flops

I have a personal xanga

I have a roleplay blog

I doodle on my notes during class sometimes

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday

Halloween is my favorite holiday

Christmas is my favorite holiday

I actually study for tests

I actually do big papers before the night it’s due

I cannot do a cartwheel

I can do a handstand underwater

I’m physically affectionate toward certain friends

I have not tried tomato soup with grilled cheese

I use AIM

I use Skype

I use Oovoo

I have the old version of AIM because I like it better than the new one

I’ve never had the chicken pox

I hate leaving voicemails

I like stuffed crust pizza

I have a scanner

I was named after somebody or something

I have a unique name

I hate my name

I do not have a tattoo

There’s a piece of jewelry that I wear daily

I shower at night

I shower during the day

I shower early morning

I prefer the sunrise over the sunset

The walls in my room are a color other than white

I have a picture of myself kissing somebody

My friends like to carry me around

I’m constantly misplacing my chapstick

I wear gray eyeliner

I’m not afraid of snakes

I’m not afraid of spiders

I’m not afraid of insects

I don’t get sick easily

I get sick easily

I like green tea ice cream

My nails are naturally healthy and strong

I have a job

I hate my job

I am looking for a second job

I have my own car

I still live with my parents

When I was little, I loved string cheese

I have to pee right now

When I’m trying not to cuss, I yell out gibberish

I want a pet chinchilla

I love it when my car has a full tank of gas

We don’t have a desktop computer at my house

I don’t own a laptop

I want a laptop

My parents are from a country that isn’t the one we currently reside in

I dislike the wind

I dislike rain

I dislike snow

I’ve had 5+ piercings throughout my life

I’m the shortest adult in my family

I am the tallest adult in my family

I am the heaviest in my family

I am the thinnest in my family

I know someone is ignoring me

I almost always do my homework

My name ends in a vowel

I sing and dance obnoxiously when I’m home alone

I am obsessed with musicals

I am obsessed with horror

I am obsessed with action/drama

I am obsessed with romance

I like the way mango smells

I prefer silver over gold

I prefer white gold over silver

I already have plans for my future wedding

I fear I’ll end up being alone

My bathing suit is a two piece

I’ve taught somebody how to swim before

I cannot swim

The last highlighter I used was yellow

I know the first three ballet positions

I am a Taurus

I am a Cancer

I am a Libra

I am a Sagittarius

I find astrology interesting

I have masturbated before

I have wanted to push someone down the stairs

#me #survey

[justsomeantifas]

Leftist Zines: The PDF Masterlist

Here’s a list of all the leftist zines I could find online that have free PDFs available. With these you can read them for yourself or you can print and share as many as you want. Hand them out at your school or put them in your local coffee shops. You can even host a table at zine events and give them out (maybe ask for donations for your printing and binding efforts). Maybe these will even give you some ideas on how to start your own political zine. 

As far as the PDFs, there’s going to be a few options for some of them but they’re mostly just different layouts options or one’s in black and white and the other is full color. We also have this listed on our blog. Alright here we go:

To Change Everything: An Anarchist Appeal is one of the most popular free zines that introduces people to anarchism. It's available in dozens of languages and you can get this particular zine in bulk (under 300 copies is free) or print it yourself from a PDF. Click here if you’d like to see the language options available and click here for your PDF/bulk buying options. 

“And What About Tomorrow?” Anarchist Resistance and the “Blockbusterization” of Reality—A Response to the “Battle in Seattle” Movie Adaptation of the 1999 WTO Protests (PDF)

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Anti-Mass: Methods of Organization for Collectives (PDF)

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Copwatch 101 (PDF1) (PDF2)

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Revolutionary Solidarity: A Critical Reader for Accomplices (PDF1) (PDF2)

Security Culture: A Handbook for Activists (PDF)

Self as Other: Reflections on Self-Care (PDF1) (PDF2)

Short Circuit (PDF1) (PDF2)

Slave Patrols and Civil Servants: A History of Policing in Two Modes (PDF)

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Supporting A Survivor Of Sexual Assault (PDF)

Syrian Underground Railroad: Open Border Activism in the Modern Landscape (PDF)

Taking the First Step: Suggestions to People Called Out for Abusive Behavior (PDF)

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#long post #zines #politics #antifa #resources #Mod H

[daily-dose-of-imagines]

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Matchup ♥

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Hi!~ you can just call me Alex, please!~ I would like to be anon if that is ok lol the fandoms I want are A3!, Haikyuu!!, and Naruto! 🥰 SFW and NSFW is alright with me! 😉 whatever is comfortable lol

Alright so, intro info! I’m a Capricorn sun, Sagittarius moon and Virgo Ascendant. My modality is Cardinal 53%, Fixed 37%, Mutable 11%. My elements are Earth 51%, Water 36%, Fire 10% and Air 3%. My MBTI is INFJ. I’m also a HuffleClaw with a bit of Slytherin. I have was born with Turner Syndrome. I have ADHD, Autism, Anxiety and Depression. I am agender and I use they/them pronouns though she/her are alright since I’m used to those pronouns lol I am still exploring my sexuality, I am very open dating anyone of any gender so I would say I’m bi/panromantic, however I do strongly connect with the asexual spectrum since trust is a big deal for me lol

I had a coarctation or narrowing of the arota at 6 days old and was pronounced dead on the way to Children’s Hospital. I had open heart surgery soon afterwards. My grandmother was told that with all the mental health issues I could have due to TS, I could be super smart or I wouldn’t even be able to remember my own name. The doctor’s said I would be bad at math. My parents divorced when I was 10 and my little brother was 6. Both of them remarried, my dad once and our mol several times. Though, I won’t go more into that lol just to save you the details, our grandparents raised us and life was -is- really messy ahah

I’m currently going to college. I was supposed to graduate last semester, but I changed my major several times in the last 2 years lol 😂😂 I was a biology major and wanted to work in marine bio/ wildlife conservation and start my own rehab places for marine/terrestrial mammals. I am now a Middle School Education major with areas of concentration in science and language arts with a minor in TESL ( Teaching English as a Second Language). I want to teach English in Japan! 😊 As far as grade school, I always made As/Bs witout even trying and I loved to read, so much so that I got an award for it in 5th grade! I was quiet yet loud and super awkward as a kid 🤣🤣 I actually loved science a lot and even took AP courses until highschool because the teacher I would have taken in highschool was a really bad teacher who if he had family members and didn’t like them, he wouldn’t like you. He taught my father and his sister and didn’t like them, so least to say young and impressionable me noped out of that fast 😂😂

For a while, I wanted to be a Forensic Antropologist like Temeperance from Bones! 😊 however, we didn’t have a anthro major at my college, only chem lol so, when I started taking upper level courses, I quickly found I much prefer bio to chem 🤣🤣 I still dislike math as I have my whole life, but since I got to college, I’ve only made below a B in one math related course! 🥰

Ok sorry for a lot of random info 🤣🤣 onto other things! So, I’m very shy and quiet at first, but when I get comfortable around someone, that’s when the wierd comes out 🤣 I’m very passionate about education and science! I am a Christian and am very passionate about equality. I also firmly believe in redistributing millionare/billionares’ wealth.

I grew up watching anime and still love it to this day. I have strong connection with Japanese culture because anime was the gateway into learning about it and anime will always have a special place in my heart because of it! Japanese culture and really most if not all Asian cultures resonate with me because of the morals anime had taught me. I firmly believe in balance and hamrony with nature! I was introduced to kpop in middle school and have been a fan ever since lol 🤣 I also like pop/alternative music lol I like P!NK, Linkin Park, Adele and a few others lol

As I mention with wanting to be a marine biologist, I really love animals!~ 💕💜 my favs are otters, foxes, cats of all kinds, dogs, wolves, dolphins, and honey badgers! I currently have a Korat named Lila (li-lah like lilac) she is a very unique cat 🤣 she’s super curious and sorta a crackhead lol I did have a yorkie terrier named Sarah and a miniature schnauzer named Star, but since last June, we had to put both of them down 🥺 Sarah got cancer suddenly late last year and a few months ago Star had congestive heart failure. They were 13 and 14 respectively. They were amazing dogs! Sarah loved to swim and hunt little creatures and was the energetic one while Star was the grouchy old lady 🤣🤣

I also love anything fantasy/superhero! I love HP, LOTR, and Marvel! My fav genre of anime is shounen obvi lol 🤣Lol I also love learning other languages! I took French in highschool and two semester of Mandarin in college lol ( I need to brush up on both 🤣🤣) I am currently trying to learn Japanese! I wanna also learn Korean, Welsh, and Irish! I hope to go teach English in Japan via the JET program at my college! 🥰 I will more than likely stay in Japan after I stay the 5 max years through the JET program!

I also really love video games! I wanna play Persona 5 soo bad 🤣🤣 Horzon: Zero Dawn, the Legend of Zelda series, the Pokemon series and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are some of my favorites lol

Hmmm… what else to say? 🤣 I am typically the mom friend of the group ahaha oh! I am 4’9” and weigh 140 so I’m kinda chubby 😅 I am very self concious about my body. I have green eyes and I wear small, black rectangular glasses. I have moles and freckles all over my body. I have a dyed blonde bob with a brunnette undercut. I don’t have any piercings yet but I do have one tattoo on my inner left ankle!

I am stubborn, passionate, caring, empathetic, understanding, loving, loud, quiet, awkward, hyper, enthusiastic, curious, and I can procrastinate at times due to my ADHD lol I also love to have plans lol I like things to be organized and clean, but I don’t mind ‘organized chaos’ sometimes lol I am also very loyal to my friends. I prefer having a few super close friends than having tons of aquaintances.

Ok so dating lol um I’ve never actually dates anyone before 🙈 I’m also a virgin lol trust is a big issue for me, like aforementioned my parents divorce affected me a lot and I have a strained relationship with each of them due to the divorce and the events over the years afterwards. Plus, as a Capricorn, school/career is my main focus. I’m so busy with college and trying to figure myself out, I haven’t got time for dating ahaha so my irl soulmate will need to be a hell of a person and have the patience of a saint to deal with me 🤣

Even though I have never been in a relationship, out of curiousity and wanting to be knowledgeable, I have researched BDSM lol 😂 I am definitely not into slave/master, whipping, or anything super hardcore at all lol though, mild stuff like toys, handcuffs, spanking, biting, dirty talk, brat/tamer or daddy (mommy)/ little girl and blindfolds would be stuff I’m willing to try out lol basically, some light pain, toys and anything where I can be submissive and cast my cares away while still being able to be sassy/defiant suits me 🤣

Oh! For the purposes of this matchup, just male characters is fine lol like I said, I’m still trying to figure myself out so, for simplicities sake, assuming heteronorms is alright lol

Hmm as far as a type of guy I like, I can give you some anime examples 😂 Portgas D. Ace from One Piece, Itachi/Kakashi/Shikamaru from Naruto, Roy Mustang (also shoutout to Solf J. Kimblee as a guilty mention 🤣) from FMA!B, Kisuke Urahara from Bleach, Zuko/Sokka fron ATLA, Gintoki/Kamui/Takasugi/Shinpachi/Hijikata/Katsura from Gintama, Daisuke Kanbe from The Millionare Detective- Balance:Unlimited, Shinso Hitoshi/Shindo Yo from BNHA/MHA, Levi/Beel from Obey Me!, Itaru/Omi/Sakyo/Misuki/Tsuzuru/Kazunari/Banri from A3! And many more 🤣🤣 sorry for the long list lol basically to sum it up my type is kinda laid back, a lil perverted, confident, dominant, funny, teasing/flirty, caring, intellgent, mysterious, passionate and stubborn lol

Well, I hope that was enough info to get a good in depth matchup 🤣🤣 I feel like I gave too much but I wanna try to make it as detailed for y’all as possible so you can have an easier time with the matchup ahah thanks a lot, I love your blog and keep doing the good work you are doing! 🥰❤️💜💕 be sure to take care of yourselves and I hope y’all have a great weekend!! 🥰

( I apologize for sending it a second time, but there was some stuff I wanted to add that I forgot to mention until I after I sent in the first one 😭 again, I sincerely apologize!)

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Hello Alex and thank you for submitting with us! And thank you for supporting us! I hope you enjoy the boys I paired you with!

>Admin 𝕋

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𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽...

I choose Kiba to be your Naruto boyfriend! when he first sees you, and how quiet and shy you are, Kiba will definitely want to bring your inner playfulness out! And when he sees that you do have some playfulness in you, he will see that you became comfortable enough around him that your inner weird came out! And that would really pull at Kiba’s heartstrings! Kiba will also find it fascinating that you like different types of culture, and how the world works via science and education! He isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he will definitely appreciate how you think, since he wants harmony in the world too! He will love the fact that you love animals and he will love the fact that you want to be a marine biologist! Being an animal lover himself, he will marry you right on the spot, just for that!

Since you are the mom friend of the group, you can totally take care of Kiba! It might not be the best, but Kiba would really love and appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do stuff for him, even if he didn’t ask for it! He will love your buddy, it being curvy and easy to hold onto, if you know what I mean wink wink. He will find your little beauty marks to be charming and I see him poking your moles and freckles every so often when he is bored! And when you tell him that you want to get tattoos, hell yeah! He will want to be there for when you get your first one!

Kiba will love the fact that you are passionate about your studies, and you main focus is school and your career! He will love the fact that you are don’t want anyone to mess up your future, and where you want to go in life! He may be a bit on the impatient side, but when he is with you, he will understand the need for patience and why it is important! He will also love the fact that you are so loyal to your friends! He doesn’t want to date anybody who isn’t loyal or isn’t compassionate to the people around them, so that will definitely be a plus in your book!

For the spicy stuff, Kiba at first would not know what he is doing but once he figures it out, ho boy, you are in a for a treat! Biting, lots of biting, and him being just very dominant, wanting to please you and make you feel like you are on cloud nine! He will let you do what you want, if it means that you are going to like what you guys do in the bedroom! From the biting to the dirty talk, he is up for anything!

I choose Sakyo to be your A3! boyfriend! Sakyo will see your shy and quiet persona and think nothing much of it, but once you get comfortable around him, enough so that your inner weirdness comes out to play, he will be surprised that you were hiding such a fun and cheerful person away from him! He will also like the fact that you are passionate about science and education, since Sakyo himself is definitely one to go to science for something that can’t be explained, and he is one to like education too, since it gives you wisdom on subjects you didn’t know about before! He will love the fact that you love his culture so much, from the anime to the actual history of Japan. He will feel that you super educated on the subject, and will be appreciative of how much you love where he is from! 

Sakyo will find it adorable that you love animals, and he find it admirable that you want to become a marine biologist! It is a hard job, learning about all kinds of animals, and then discovering new ones! Yeah he will find it very impressive! And if you were to ever tell him that you want a dog or some kind of really cute animal, he will never able to say no to you! So you should use that to your advantage! As for video games, he isn’t one for the, but if you ever try to get him to play with you, he will have a hard time saying no! It will frustrate him though, that you’d keep beating him at all of them!

As for appearances, I feel Sakyo wouldn’t care about what you like, it’’s all about what is on the inside, and when he sees that you are a passionate, loving, caring, a mother figure to your friends, loyal to them, and empathetic to the people around you, he will just know that you are the person for him! Seriously, yeah he might like your curvy body, but what will really give make him like you is the fact that you are just a really nice person for people to be around! He will definitely understand the sentiment of having just a few close friends, than having like twenty acquaintances.

Sakyo will love the fact that you’d rather focus on your studies than have a boyfriend that could distract you from your future career! He would be glad to wait for you to accept him, until you are stable in your career and would be able to start dating you like he wants! And for a little spicy time, he would be a dominant as all hell. Like he would be so into dirty talk and taking you to heaven with his mouth. You might tell him you want to some like spanking and biting, and he might be into the biting, but the spanking makes him feel a little weird, so he might do it as often. But! If you ask, him he will have no reason to say no! So you better have fun with him!

I choose Iwaizumi as your Haikyuu boyfriend! Much like Sakyo, Iwaizumi will see you shy and timid demeanor and think nothing of it, and if anything, he will think it is kind of cute, but would have an inkling that you are more than you put out. And once Iwaizumi sees that, yes, you are more than shy, that you have your weird quirks and can be quite loud, he will find you even more cute, what with the way you act around him and not the others! He will find it so cute that you only act like that with him and nobody else! And much like Sakyo, he will find it awesome that you like his culture so much! From the anime to the language, and everything else! He would even offer to help you learn the language and such, to help you better understand his culture! Iwaizumi love the fact that you like superheroes and practically anything fantasy! I suspect that Iwaizumi also love Marvel and such! I also feel like Iwaizumi is extremely good at video games, so when he plays with you, make sure you try your best to win against him!

Iwaizumi will feel a bond with you being like the mom friend, since he has to constantly watch over Oikawa like he is his child! And for appearances, much like Kiba, I feel as though Iwaizumi will see your blemishes and your curvy body and think it is just uniquely you! Something that he associates with you alone! And the uniqueness will definitely get him to really like you! But I feel like he will really like girls in glasses so that is a definite plus for you!

Iwaizumi will love the fact, like the others, that you are a loving and caring person. Someone that is passionate and driven! And the fact that you have all your plans thought out and organized in your own way? Oh yeah, he would definitely like that! And the fact that you are so passionate about your future that you’d much rather focus on that instead of being in a relationship! He’d understand, would he hate that fact that he has to wait for you to be stable in your career? Yes, he wouldn’t like it one bit, but he wouldn’t leave you because of it! Will he wait for you? Most definitely!

For the spicy stuff, ahahahaha Iwaizumi. He is like. A dominant bottom, he’s okay with essentially whatever you want to do, as long you both are having a good time, and you guys are feeling good! As for the biting and the spanking and all the kinky things you want to try out, he’d be into it, he’d just wouldn’t know how to go about it, so it would be a learning experience for the both of you! In the end, Iwaizumi would be into a lot of things you guys tried! So beware what he has in store for you in the future!

#submission #submissions #matchup #anime matchups #haikyuu matchup #naruto matchup #A3! matchup #A3! x you #A3! #haikyuu!! #Haikyuu!! x you #naruto #naruto x you