Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

bookelfe:

really what I want out of the Star Wars franchise now is an ensemble sitcom set in the Resistance base in the style of Brooklyn 99, with General Leia in the role of Captain Holt.

password-simulator-2016:

earthboundricochet:

idosmellbooks:

You probably know that the current situation for same sex couples in this country isn’t the brightest. Pretty much no recognition. At all.
Now, the government is finally working on a law for registered partnerships that would guarantee some rights to couples and the so-called “stepchild adoption” – though this point, still different from a “full” adoption, is really controversial and could undergo changes.

Opposition came quickly and the most traditionalist side of the country (mainly catholics) organized a “Family Day” to protest against the law – which will be discussed on January 28.
But LGBT associations are going to respond. They are all joining forces. They organized manifestations on the exact same day chosen by the traditionalist protestants, January 23 (turning the Family Day into a Family Gay) in 72 different cities all over Italy. And still counting. IT’S GONNA BE HUGE.

So Italy is going to look like this:

We really want to make our voices heard. We are tired of being invisible.
This is still so far from marriage equality, so far from what many other European countries have achieved. We are stil very far behind, and it’s just not fair.
But all those red marks stand for squares that will be crammed with people. All on the same day. All asking for equality. All over the country.
And they won’t be able to ignore us anymore.

I wouldn’t usually ask this, but in this case I’d appreciate if people shared this to let everyone know what’s going on in this country.

Gay marriage might have been legalized in the US and in other European countries, but here it feels like we’ll never even have partnership rights :/ this isn’t even the first time it’s been attempted and it’s always been refused for ridiculous reasons.

As always, Italy stands out for lagging behind when it comes to LGBT rights…

---

PS: Here (in Italian) is a list of the places where it’s organized if anyone who is in the country wants to participate.

The only way to get shit done is to make your presence large and known.

It’s exactly what we had to do in the U.S. and other parts of the world are no different.

Be patient and keep at it, Italy. You got this.

bonehandledknife:

frenchieleigh:

annlarimer:

disparition:

where I grew up in California not only is “dude” generally non-gender-specific, half of the time it doesn’t even refer to a person at all.

I said it to a faucet today. 

I use it to curse the weather.

I pretty much have used it as every part of a sentence at some point today.

I use ‘dude’ indiscriminately for all genders, species, and inanimate appliances.

primarybufferpanel:

sacrificethemtothesquid:

winjennster:

lilyvonpseudonym:

keyofjetwolf:

docholligay:

Tumblr, I have an idea. You’re desperate to monetize this site. I get that. Running websites costs money, I know how the world works.

I am desperate for you to create a website I can use effectively.

I was on livejournal back in the day, and they had a thing called “paid accounts.” The free account was always free, but the paid accounts had special benefits.

If you offered paid accounts, I would buy one. I would give them away for giveaways. I would give them to my friends as gifts. I had a paid account back in my LJ days!

I think 25-30 dollars a year is fair for the amount of entertainment I get off this site, considering that tumblr, inc, does not make the content but serves as a vessel. That works out to 2.50 a month at the high end, which is more money than you are making off me currently because I use an ad blocker because we are at war. (Previous to you taking replies away, I actually didn’t! Because again, I understand how costs and money work) But also low enough that I think you’d be surprised how many takers you’d get.

Let’s stop fucking with each other and just turn this into a monetary exchange. I’m tired of the horseshit. You need money, I need a fucking useable fandom website. Leave free tumblr accounts as they are, I don’t care. But here’s what I want in a paid account.

NECESSARY:

• I want replies back. No ‘we’ll get around to it’ no ‘replies are coming.’ I want them back the day you run my Paypal. You have the code, don’t even tell me you can’t turn it on for a particular blog, because you did the exact thing with messaging. 
• I want to be able to upload videos direct to tumblr that are longer than 6 damn seconds. Give me some storage space. 
• Custom themes or some bullshit, I don’t actually care about this but other people might
• No ads for paid users
  

I would LIKE:

• To create a button where I can decide to make a post rebloggable or not when I create it.
• To have a quick dropdown when I ask a question so I can ask it from a sideblog.
• Fanmail back
  

Now, I am not a great fool, and realize there will be GREAT HUE AND CRY if you try to establish this. I don’t care. And you shouldn’t either. First of all, there’s great hue and cry every time you do literally anything. Secondly, the people who will complain the loudest are very likely already using an adblocker, because we are on the internet and savvy to it, and you are not making money on them anyhow.

And please don’t insult me, tumblr, by telling me it’s about ‘the love of the site’ or some crap. The changes you’ve implemented are designed to make this more of a look-reblog-move on site where things go viral and advertising can easily be slipped in, versus a conversational place. But I am telling you, ‘I will give you money to stop fucking with me’

Let me give you money. And stop fucking with me. 

@staff. Cash for services. We’ll both be happy.

In the optimistic event that someone actually takes a look, here’s my list.

As a paying user I would NEED:

• Replies back. Actual replies. At minimum, exactly like they were. I would happily accept them larger though, say the size of a question reply box or an Ask.
• A Tumblr-side blacklist tied to my account that filters on the server end so the content I don’t want to see never hits my dash. That blacklist filters on mobile as well.
• Better communication about things happening on the development side. By which I mean any communication at all.
• No ads for paid users.

As a paying user I would LIKE:

• An increase in post limits.
• Post-level control over what is or isn’t rebloggable.
• Some quality of life improvements offered by Xkit (like say tag bundles), if only because there’s no reason they don’t already exist I mean come on.
• An easy way to export/back-up posts. JUST IN CASE SOMETHING MAY HAPPEN TO SOMEONE’S BLOG AT SOME POINT PERHAPS I DUNNO.
• A way to organize the Ask Box, my god, please.

I’m not hard to please, I’m really not. You want money, I want to stay here. I fail to believe there’s not some way to make both our dreams come true.

I agree with all of the above, and would gladly pay for a membership if these features were available to users. Please start just asking for our money instead of sabotaging the social media aspects of your social media network to try and sell my content to advertisers.

Agreed. I’d be one of the first to hand over my dough. HOWEVER - my paid site should work on my phone and tablet too. I shouldn’t have to pay more than once.

One of the first purchases I ever made with my shiny new debit card was to upgrade my LJ account. It was worth every penny. 

I am 100% in agreement on all of these points.  

@staff are you listening? Have credit card. Will pay for actual proper functionality.

twisted-pine:

They will grow up completely untrusting with a general sense of sadness and guilt.

Manipulation includes:

- “I just wish [something passive aggressive involving your child]”

- “You do whatever you want to do.” and then getting mad when they make the “wrong” choice

- Not believing them when they tell you something someone did or said to them, including their friends, your friends, family members, or even you

- Doing something shitty and then pretending you didn’t in hopes they’ll forget?

- Getting upset when they open up to you. About anything. Even if it’s something angering or disappointing. Don’t show them it’s dangerous or counterproductive to talk to you.

- Making them feel bad for the friends/significant others they choose, career path (or lack thereof), school choice (or lack thereof), gender/sexuality (or lack thereof) literally anything that either they didn’t choose or that they would be miserable without

- Do NOT EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES pressure them to talk to you about personal things.

- Kids do not owe their parents anything. They did not choose to be born. You chose to get pregnant/chose to carry to term/chose to raise a baby (even if you didn’t choose all of these things, you at least chose one) under the assumption that you would love this child no matter what.

scifigrl47:

keyofjetwolf:

seananmcguire:

I am currently in the process of porting a lot of my older fanfic onto AO3, because I want it all in one place/don’t want it to be lost/want to revise it to be a little more in-line with my current standards of both quality and language use.  It’s so quick and easy!  I can’t remember why I didn’t do this before!

…oh, right, she says, as the hit counter goes higher without the comments, or even the kudos, to match.  Because I feel like I’m screaming into the void.

I come from very comment-heavy fic environments, and like most fanfic authors I have known, I am a little twitchy about “what if this is awful what if I am awful what if nobody likes my shit at all.”  So when I have 50 hits and one kudo, I actually feel pretty rotten, which makes me less eager to do the job of cleaning and posting.

This is hence a plea on behalf of all fanfic authors: remember that the people who write the stories you enjoy are not getting paid for their time in anything other than “you did good, have a cookie” comments from people.  Please consider commenting if you liked a story.  Please consider leaving a kudo if you read all the way to the end.  There are stories that are qualitatively bad that I’ve left kudos on, because hey, I read them, they gave me an hour of enjoyment, they deserve a cookie.

We have infinite cookies to give.  We should share them freely, because wow, does it suck when fanfic makes fanfic writers sad.

That’s all.

This feels particularly relevant to a lot of chatter I’m seeing cross my dash.

Writing is hard. Writing is scary. Writing takes time and effort and care and love love love. Which is true of any fanwork of course, but fanfiction also requires a significant investment from its audience before it can even begin to be seen. With art or gifsets or any other visual medium, the work can be consumed, appreciated, and commented/reblogged/whatever within seconds. It takes longer than that just to read the description on a work of fanfiction.

But in the same vein, your fanfic writers give you hours of entertainment in return. Whether it’s a smile or a sob delivered in ten minute ficlets or 100k monsters you’re still reading at 3 am, fanfiction will give you a level of immersion unique to the fandom experience. With fanfiction, the characters live forever and the story never ends.

Still, that commitment from the audience means we’re already looking at a sliver of the same attention, without hope of the same scale of interaction and response. That makes what we DO get so very critical.

If you read something, take a moment to click those kudos or likes or whatever. If you liked it, leave a comment, If you loved it, love your fanfic author back and tell them. TELL THEM EVERYTHING I PROMISE YOU WE WANT TO HEAR

Remember that the only thing that nourishes fandom creators are your responses. Your fanfic writers are timid, starving creatures. Feed them. Love them. I said the characters live forever and the story never ends, but that’s only true if the storytellers keep telling stories. To do that, they need an audience. Make sure they know they have one.

Think of your fan creators as skittish, timid forest creatures.  If you speak in a kind voice and leave scraps of food around, chances are, they’ll keep visiting the yard of your fandom.  Yell at them, ignore them, or make your fandom yard an unpleasant place to be, and they disappear, leaving you wondering why your yard is so empty and boring.

gabbysilang:

zeegoesthere:

ok so like. obviously the whole scene with finn and poe on the tie fighter is one of the most important things of our time, but what I especially love about it is their mutual giddy enthusiasm? like, I guess just because finn had just finished being an evil storm trooper and poe had shown himself to be a smartass I was expecting some like, growly banter and gruff dislike-but-I’ll-work-with-you dynamic, but instead they’re both just sunshine and puppies right off the bat. poe gives finn his name and finn is like “I love it :DDDD” and poe is like “I love you :DDDD” and when finn makes the shot and flips out about it poe doesn’t mock him for being excited he’s just like “YEAH WHOO THAT WAS AWESOME!!” and then they tell each other they’re both awesome and laugh a lot and it’s all smiles and giddiness and a romcom escape from the First Order and I just. they’re both so happy to meet each other and IT KILLS ME.

i’m such a sucker for this thing where people meet and are immediately like oh, finally, thank god, it’s YOU. 

bystander3:

Can you imagine?

You are moping on your island of self-imposed exile, and then this girl shows up.

• She’s flying your best friend’s ship. The ship that Han thought he lost for ever. The ship that was stolen and passed through so many hands that he was sure he’d never see it again. The same ship that took you away from home for the first time.
  
• She’s accompanied by your personal droid. The droid you left behind and abandoned. The droid that C-3PO was sure would never be the same again.
  
• She holds out her hand and she’s holding your father’s light saber. The sword you were sure was lost forever. The light saber that you dropped down a bottomless air shaft on a gas giant thirty years ago. The light saber you knew you would never see again.
  
• You look up and you see her eyes. Maz Kanata says that if you live long enough, you see the same eyes looking out of different faces. The girl’s face is different, but those eyes are the same. You know those eyes. They’re the eyes you thought you’d never see again.
  

And that’s when you know it.

You’re screwed.

They say sometimes the Force works in mysterious ways. Sometimes, the Force will send you little signs. Subtle clues.

Other times, the Force will just beat you repeatedly over the head with a gigantic neon sign that says: “You can’t run away from your past anymore, Luke. I won’t let you. Look, here is your past come back to haunt you. Now deal with it.”

dragonreine:

darthstitch:

notreadytosettle:

ozhawkauthor:

If you wish to take part in any fandom, you need to accept and respect these three laws.

If you aren’t able to do that, then you need to realise that your actions are making fandom unsafe for creators. That you are stifling creativity.

Like vaccination, fandom only works if everyone respects these rules. Creators need to be free to make their fanart, fanfics and all other content without fear of being harassed or concern-trolled for their creative choices, no matter whether you happen to like that content or not.

The First Law of Fandom

Don’t Like; Don’t Read (DL;DR)

It is up to you what you see online. It is not anyone else’s place to tell you what you should or should not consume in terms of content; it is not up to anyone else to police the internet so that you do not see things you do not like. At the same time, it is not up to YOU to police fandom to protect yourself or anyone else, real or hypothetical.

There are tools out there to help protect you if you have triggers or squicks. Learn to use them, and to take care of your own mental health. If you are consuming fan-made content and you find that you are disliking it - STOP.

The Second Law of Fandom

Your Kink Is Not My Kink (YKINMK)

Simply put, this means that everyone likes different things. It’s not up to you to determine what creators are allowed to create. It’s not up to you to police fandom. 

If you don’t like something, you can post meta about it or create contrarian content yourself, seek to convert other fans to your way of thinking.  

But you have no right to say to any creator “I do not like this, therefore you should not create it. Nobody should like this. It should not exist.”

It’s not up to you to decide what other people are allowed to like or not like, to create or not to create. That’s censorship. Don’t do it.

The Third Law of Fandom

Ship And Let Ship (SALS)

Much (though not all) fandom is about shipping. There are as many possible ships as there are fans, maybe more. You may have an OTP (One True Pairing), you may have a NOTP, that pairing that makes you want to barf at the very thought of its existence.

It’s not up to you to police ships or to determine what other people are allowed to ship. Just because you find that one particular ship problematic or disgusting, does not mean that other people are not allowed to explore its possibilities in their fanworks.

You are free to create contrarian content, to write meta about why a particular ship is repulsive, to discuss it endlessly on your private blog with like-minded persons.

It is not appropriate to harass creators about their ships, it is not appropriate to demand they do not create any more fanworks about those ships, or that they create fanwork only in a manner that you deem appropriate.

These three laws add up to the following:

You are not paying for fanworks content, and you have no rights to it other than to choose to consume it, or not consume it. If you do choose to consume it, do not then attack the creator if it wasn’t to your taste. That’s the height of bad manners.

Be courteous in fandom. It makes the whole experience better for all of us.

Yup.

Slaps onto blog.

I’m reblogging this everytime I see it, because holy hell, it seems that some people need to be reminded of this every now and then. And it always needs repeating with every new “generation” of fan, or when new fandoms appear.

lifeisajourney10:

gloriousbacchus:

religiousmom:

tumblr friendships are hard to maintain like im sorry i know i havent talked to you in 5 months but you’re still super rad and i still consider us friends im just dumb

#if you’re wondering if this is for you #it’s probably for you

If I have ever messaged you or messaged me and never heard from me again, I still consider us friends. I just suck

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

duhdean:

omg this dude is like yelling a phone conversation outside im pretty sure his gf is breaking up with him 

i have discovered her name is sarah and he “loves her so fucking much” and that “these words should not be leaving her mouth right now”

this has been going on for like an hour he just keeps going around in circles

i think its finally over because he just screamed and threw is phone

now hes cursing up at the gods and petting his own hair i feel like i should do something

hes like walking around screaming and sobbing and cursing idk what to do

i just yelled out the window “its okay dude dont worry you’ll find someone else” and he went totally silent i dont think he knows where my voice came from because he looks really freaked out now …what have i done 

HE JUST SCREAMED “HOW DO YOU KNOW?!” WHAT DO I DO I STILL DONT THINK HE KNOWS WHERE MY VOICE IS COMING FROM BC IM SCREAMING FROM MY UPSTAIRS BATHROOM

OH MY GOD I PANICKED AND REPLIED WITH “because you are a very good looking young man and any woman would be lucky to have you” I SOUND LIKE A FUCKING GRANDMA

he seems satisfied with this reply

i think i actually calmed him down he seems almost okay now

he just picked up his phone i think hes going home now. i hope his phone is okay

goodbye random heartbroken dude i wish you luck on your journey home.. wherever your home may be

bisexualdavidjacobs:

stephrc79:

eveanyn:

If you have never been in, or aren’t around people who’ve been in, I would dearly love to give you a few pointers.

Let me preface this: I love it when people write military fics (be they AU or canon-fic). I love the characterizations, the story arcs you create, and the love with which you create the stories.

But I’d like to help you make the actions of military personnel as accurate as possible, so someone who’s actually in doesn’t start to read your fic and roll their eyes at some of the things you unknowingly write.

-First off, you do not salute in civilian clothes. It’s actually unauthorized. There are only two exceptions to this rule: the President is allowed to salute in civvies, and if the national anthem is playing outdoors, combat veterans are now allowed to salute. (That came about in 2010, for accurate reference.)

-Do not salute indoors, unless during a formation (but I doubt people who don’t have intimate knowledge of drill and ceremony would bother writing about a formation, so that point is mostly just thrown in for shits and giggles). 

-The army and air force do not say, “sir, yes sir”. That’s a marine thing (I’m not sure about the navy, since I’m not in the navy, but I’m sure someone else could help out if there’s a question about it).

-Saying “black ops” isn’t really something we do. For the army, you’ve got SF (which is how we refer to special forces–the guys you’re probably thinking about (”green beret” is an old term for them that’s not really used anymore)) and Rangers for the two big special operations forces. SEALS are the navy force, and I apologize, but I don’t know the other branches’ special forces. Again, ask someone who’s served in that branch.

-People don’t usually refer to themselves (or others) by their ranks. Exceptions are usually made if hanging out with people from your unit speaking about a superior, such as “Yeah, LT and I were talking the other day and …”. 

-Sergeants are not referred to as “sarge”. You have no idea how many people got the shit smoked out of them in basic for that error.

-Army goes through Basic Training (or Basic Combat Training now; BCT for short), and marines go through Boot Camp. Yes, there is definitely a difference in terms. Army people tend to refer to their initial training as simply “basic”. I don’t know about marines or other branches.

-Calling someone “Soldier” is really something only done on TV/film. It’s usually mocked by people who are in.

-In the army, it is against regulation to just stick your hands in your pockets. We mockingly call them “Air Force gloves”, though I don’t know if they typically put their hands in their pockets. There is also a big stigma against wearing “snivel gear”: the poly pro cold-weather protection gear worn underneath your uniform.

-The everyday Army uniforms are called ACUs (Army Combat Uniform). They are never called anything else, but especially not fatigues. If you’re going back to 2003 or earlier, the uniform was BDUs, or the Battle Dress Uniform. The tan uniforms worn during the Gulf War and first few years of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF; Afghanistan) were called first chocolate chips (gulf war-era) and then DCUs (Desert Combat Uniform). 

-The dress uniform is called something different depending on what time period you’re going for. Saying “dress uniform” is usually a good bet, because you’ve also got Class A’s, Class B’s, ASUs, Dress Blues, Khakis, etc. 

-Typically when meeting someone else who’s in, the first things you ask are, “What’s your MOS (military occupational specialty–your job)? Where were you stationed?” Giving out rank and deployment backgrounds out of the blue don’t usually happen. 

-Time spent in the military is usually referred to as simply being “in”. “How long were you in for?” is heard way more often than “how long did you serve for?” That question is usually asked by civilians. 

-There are enlisted, and there are officers. Enlisted are those who start out as privates, work their way up through the NCO, or non-commissioned officer ranks: sergeant (called “buck sergeant” in a derogatory term for someone who has been freshly promoted), staff sergeant, sergeant first class, and eventually get to first sergeants and sergeants major after fifteen to thirty years in. Officers also usually start out as privates and specialists, then graduate from college and commission as second lieutenants (the derogatory term is “butter bar” and is usually used in reference to said officer’s lack of experience and knowledge) before working up to first lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel (”light colonel”), and colonel (”full bird”). The general timeline is making captain (”getting your railroad tracks”) after about 5-8 years for competent officers, and spending 5-10 years as a captain. 

-We do not stand at parade rest unless forced. Ever.

-Or at attention.

-When talking to an NCO, a lower enlisted will stand at parade rest. When talking to an officer, an enlisted will stand at attention.

-The highest ranking NCO is lower ranking than the lowest ranking officer. 

-If you want to throw in some humor, if there is a lower enlisted (E-4 (specialist) or below) joking with an NCO, and the lower enlisted says something, the NCO can snark back with, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you because you weren’t standing at the position of parade rest.” It’s a dick move usually to call people out for that, but it happens often enough that if you put that in a fic, someone who’s in will likely laugh at that for a few minutes.

-There is a term for a slacker in the army called POG (pronounced “pohg” with a long o). It stands for Personnel Other than Grunt, meaning everyone who’s not infantry. The term has transformed to mean anyone who shirks their duty or is kind of a shitbag and should be kicked out. 

 -There’s also a bit of a stereotype that infantry are made up of dumb guys, because you don’t need a high GT score to get that MOS. Their nomenclature for their MOS is 11B (eleven bravo), which is often referred to as an “eleven bang-bang” when trying to insult them. 

-If someone is making someone else do push-ups, they do not say “drop and give me x number”. They’ll tell them either to push, or tell them to get in the front-leaning rest. The front-leaning rest position is the starting position for the push-up. 

-Usually referring to basic training and AIT (advanced individual training, where you learn your military occupational specialty), you get “smoked” on a regular basis. This refers to PT (physical training), usually in the form of push-ups, flutter kicks, and sprints. It’s not fun. One of the least favorite phrases to hear in basic is, “Platoon, attention! Half-left face! Front leaning rest position, move. In cadence! Exercise!” Because that is the full command for getting people to do push-ups. There is literally no other reason for the half-left face movement. It honestly exists only for push-ups.

-It is awkward as fuck to be told “thank you for your service”. It’s wonderful that people want to show their support, but it is very difficult to respond to that without sounding like a douche.

I know I said a lot about basic training in there, but that’s because I tend to read a lot of fics that are either about basic or about deployments. I can give some pretty firm answers on basic, but everyone’s deployment is different, and I also could be violating a shit-ton of OPSEC (operation security) by telling you guys specific details about deployments. Everything I’ve told you is information you can look up on your own on the internet, but this is a bit more insider’s culture for you to help make your stuff more accurate.

And if you ever find yourself writing a military fic and have questions, by all means, inbox me. I’ve been in for almost nine years and I do have one deployment under my belt, so I can give you accurate army info. I’ve never served in any other branch, though, but I can probably give you a little bit more accurate info than what the movies do if you’ve got general questions.

Also, if you’ve got questions about PTSD, I can help with that. It’s not the cake walk that a good deal of fics portray it as, and it doesn’t always involve nightmares and aversion to touch. It can present as depression, intense anger issues, pulling away from loved ones, driving in the middle of the road, freaking out over pops, bangs, crashes and other unexpected noises, being easily startled by things other than noises, hypervigilance, the inability to sit with one’s back to the room, sudden bouts of anger, depression, tears, silence, or mood swings, among many others.

-Also, please, please, if you’re going to write about someone with a disability, or something that gave them a medical discharge, talk to me about the VA first, unless you’ve got a lot of knowledge about them. Not only am I in, but I’ve also worked professionally for the VA, some of that time in enrollment and eligibility, so I know a lot about disability pensions, who would qualify, what type of benefits they would qualify for, etc. I also know the ways that people can accidentally get screwed over from the VA. (It’s actually one of my long-term professional goals to change some of those things, so I am very passionate and very knowledgeable about it.)

TL;DR: I know shit about the military and the VA. Ask me if you have accuracy questions.

This is AMAZING. Thank you,. OP!

Thank you for offering up this info! It’s honestly where I end up hitting a wall a lot of the time.

genuinewarmdecentfeeling:

Consider this: Finn stealing a fry off of Rey’s plate because he heard that’s a cute thing couples do and he wants to balance out their “I’LL SAVE YOU!” emotional intensity with some cute things, only Rey freezes and Finn’s like, shit, I just stole food from someone who grew up without it, what Attack Mode did I just activate. But then she just fucking dumps all of her food on his plate all “I’LL FEED YOU, YOU’LL NEVER GO HUNGRY WITH ME” and they’re right back in the emotional intensity, and Finn doesn’t even like fries that much.

flawlessastrology:

cubanflagemoji:

hey if any if you want to donate cases of bottled water to residents in flint, send them to:

Triumph Church
1657 Broadway Blvd.
Flint, MI 48506

omg please do, they can’t even bathe without getting rashes, let alone drink water. this hits too close to home

nocturnalvisionary:

This is REALLY important. This is for any doctor appointment. Whether it be cuz you are sick, or disabled, or ANYTHING. Unless it’s a MRI, Xray, Catscan, etc where NO ONE can be in the room with you (cuz of machines and radiation etc), you do not have to listen when someone says you can’t bring someone back with you.

You are the patient. This is YOUR body. Don’t let them tell you it’s ‘a small room’ don’t let them tell you that it’s not common. This is YOUR body. If you are more comfortable with someone in that room with you- INSIST. Insist multiple times if you have to, be REALLY upset, show that you are upset.

As someone who has been in PLENTY of different doctors offices and procedure rooms, the only real reason to not allow someone else in that room is if it’s because of sanitation/safety reasons (ie - surgeries, MRIs, X-rays, Catscans). Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

^^  Very much this.  I usually take a great deal of pride in being able to deal with anything alone, and I’m old enough now that it’s strange for me to bring people back with me.  BUT I was severely traumatized during a dentist appointment when I was seven and I still REALLY NEED to have someone with me who knows me well enough to tell a dentist (or literally anyone who puts me in a chair and comes at my face, really) to back the fuck off in the event that I start to panic harder than usual.  So hell fucking yeah, you better believe I tell them my mother’s damn well coming back with me, and when they give me shit I trust her to press the point.  If you’re too anxious or unwell to argue with a medical professional (the stress of visiting a medical professional makes me lapse into old behavior patterns in which I view any authority as a direct threat, which is AWESOME and super helpful), discuss it ahead of time with the person you want to bring with you.  It’s so much easier to defend someone else rather than yourself, and a good friend or a trusted family member can make the whole experience less painful.  

wildehack:

Ben Organa, not Ben Solo. Because Leia’s the last Organa, you see, and Han’s got something like twenty first cousins alone, and she and Luke are more or less quietly agreed that he should be the last Skywalker. (It’s “Ben” because it’s the only serious suggestion Luke made during the infamous What To Name The Baby argument that took place the week after Ben was born, and Luke’s opinion was the only compromise Han and Leia could make between “Jacen” and “Val”, and Luke was mostly incredulous that they were just calling him “baby” for so long.) 

Finn Dameron, as the entire rest of tumblr has produced some very compelling arguments in favor of. 

Rey goes through a cycle of surnames, but the one she settles on is Kenobi. Because once she finds out who her parents were, she wants desperately to take their name–to feel a connection to her past, even though every trace of it is gone. (At first she accepted Finn’s invitation to join her as an unofficial Dameron, and later she called herself Rey Skywalker just as an easy shorthand, since nobody knew what “Padawan” meant anyway, and Chewie told her very somberly that she had a right to “Rey Solo” if she wanted it, as well as Chewie’s own last name, which she couldn’t actually pronounce. Life debt stuff.  But she keeps Kenobi.) 




 

zetsubonna:

Okay, but the first HP book came out in 1997. That was almost twenty years ago. No, JKR was not fully aware of her white/straight/cis privilege at that time. She has had 20 years to get better. She also wrote the first draft on table napkins while working as a single mother of multiple children and receiving public support.

We are allowed to retrospectively critique her lack of inclusivity. We are also allowed to think that perhaps her awareness of the lack of said inclusivity has improved.

Just as a goddamn FOR EXAMPLE, in 1997, if Rowling had tried to pitch Dumbledore, a school headmaster, as openly homosexual, her book would never have been published. Want some evidence? I can do that.

Regulations were introduced for discrimination protections on sexual orientation in employment on 1 December 2003, following the adoption of an EC Directive in 2000, providing for the prohibition of discrimination in employment on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Right, so he (Dumbledore) could have been fired for being gay at any point prior to 2000, even assuming Wizarding law was keeping up with Muggle law, which is a goddamn stretch considering how shoddy trials and evidence are maintained throughout Auror procedurals.

And, regarding “she could have made more students of color in the first place,” um:

The Race Relations Act 1965 outlawed public discrimination, and established the Race Relations Board. Further Acts in 1968 and 1976 outlawed discrimination in employment, housing and social services, and replaced the Race Relations Board with Commission for Racial Equality^[3] that merged into the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2004. The Human Rights Act 1998 made organisations in Britain, including public authorities, subject to theEuropean Convention on Human Rights.^[4] The Race Relations Act 2000 extends existing legislation for the public sector to the police force, and requires public authorities to promote equality.

After 2000, some argued that racism remains common, and some politicians and public figures have been accused of promoting racist attitudes in the media, particularly with regard to immigration, however race and immigration although related are not the same concepts.^[5] There have been growing concerns in recent years about institutional racism in public and private bodies. Although various anti-discrimination laws do exist, according to some sources, most employers in the UK remain institutionally racist including public bodies such as the police^[6] and the legal professions.^[7][8]

I’m not saying “JKR has always been conscious of her White Privilege.” I’m not saying “she intended this from the start.” I’m saying, she started this fucking series when she was 25, she got it published when she was 32, and she is now fifty and has millions of dollars, resources, and feedback.

Hey, check it out: she’s had twenty-five years to learn.

Jo Rowling is a white British woman with a Bachelor of Arts in  French and Classics from the University of Exeter. It may very well have taken her this much time and this much exposure to the greater, wider world- outside her very white, very British influences in Tolkien and Dickens- to realize, “Oh, shit, I could/should have made my books more diverse, that’s such a lovely idea, my fans are so wonderful, I love their headcanons, they have taught me so much, I’m really lucky to have learned all of this.”

We want people to grow, don’t we? We want them to expand their minds and change. So can we please stop hating on people who weren’t born into the movement for finding it later?

Thanks.

iheartvmt:

cranquis:

willowenna:

microbewrangler:

quasi-normalcy:

knightfrog1248:

black–lamb:

I know it’s illegal but whenever I get antibiotics from the doctor I save a few and give them to friends or coworkers who don’t have insurance so that when cold season comes they might be able to shorten their illness

That is not good- that’s not quite how antibiotics work.

Antibiotics kill some bacteria, but don’t manage to kill other bacteria. Just like when you get a particular sickness (or a vaccination), your body can protect you from future infections, any bacteria that came into contact with the antibiotic is protected from future doses of that antibiotic. Bacteria are very virulent breeders, so they spawn more resistant bacteria.

If you take the full dose of antibiotics, your natural antibodies can deal with the cells that are resistant while the medicine kills off the bacteria that isn’t resistant. If you don’t take the full course of antibiotics, then your body has to deal with both the resistant and the non-resistant strains of bacteria, and it can become overwhelming. Also, most bacteria are able to pass on genes between still-living cells, so that previously non-resistant strains become resistant, and you have inadvertently cultivated a stronger strain of bacteria.

Furthermore, colds and the flu are viral infections, so antibiotics don’t work against them anyway. The best protection against viral infections are vaccinations, as there are not many viruses that we have developed anti-viral medication against, once you already have the disease. If there are anti-viral medications, it is even more important that you take the full dose of the medication, because anti-viral medication is even harsher against the body than antibacterial medication is.

How antibiotics work

How antiviral medication works

Spread this around; antibiotics are not candy

Yeah, not how it works at all. I get your intent there with health care access, but that’s literally worse than not taking any antibiotics for your friends, on pretty much every level.

Sharing is not caring when it comes to medication
It is risking the health of everyone involved

This. Because we have clients who save their animals’ antibiotics and give them to their other pets when they get sick or injured to save money.

meso-mijali:

rosalui:

once you are complicit in the senseless murder of billions i no longer give a shit about your tragic backstory

“Cool motive- still murder.”

Yes thanks, very concise, need this to be an accepted thing now.

swimthroughthefires:

swimthroughthefires:

genuinewarmdecentfeeling:

Consider this: Finn stealing a fry off of Rey’s plate because he heard that’s a cute thing couples do and he wants to balance out their “I’LL SAVE YOU!” emotional intensity with some cute things, only Rey freezes and Finn’s like, shit, I just stole food from someone who grew up without it, what Attack Mode did I just activate. But then she just fucking dumps all of her food on his plate all “I’LL FEED YOU, YOU’LL NEVER GO HUNGRY WITH ME” and they’re right back in the emotional intensity, and Finn doesn’t even like fries that much.

#omg if they ever go on holiday rey would 100% aggressively catch wildlife for them to eat and he’s like#can we get takeout#im pretty sure this planet has takeout rey#star wars#the force awakens#rey x finn

#star wars#tfa#I AM NOW EXTREMELY INVESTED IN REY THE AGGRESSIVE HUNTER-GATHERER-PROVIDER#whether it’s a ship or just friends because REY AGGRESSIVELY BRINGING HOME THE BACON#rey eyeballing poe and finn’s plates and telling them to finish their veggies#rey getting nervous about accepting food from poe and finn because that’s THEIR FOOD and they should eat it#rey and poe and fin camping out waiting for exfil on a forest planet and a herd of cute animals storms by#finn and poe are admiring them until rey comes back with one slung over her shoulder#and she butchers it right there in front of them and then cooks it lovingly#and offers them the best pieces with this PROUD LOOK ON HER FACE#because offering your friend food is one of the greatest gestures you could make on jakku#also i am 1000000000% here for rey and finn being ridiculously overprotective with poe#as i have tagged many times before takiki16

astromancer:

honestlyvan:

nomanitah:

maa-iingan:

strawberreli:

glompkitty:

selchieproductions:

• Daemon - The only one you’re appropriating is Pullman and by appropriating Pullman you’re upsetting no-one, save possibly the Pope.

• Patronus - Wizards everywhere are more than willing to lend you this term and the geekiness is an added bonus. I just read that geeks are sexy, or so the Metro, so, there you go, a patronus is clearly your next ascribed accessory. 

I will reblog this over and over till everyone on my dash switches to one of these.

yupp. I use patronus.

If you are non-NDN, you shouldn’t be using the term “spirit animal.”

Stop fucking saying “spirit animal” 2k16

also stop saying you’re ‘’two spirit’’ if you’re not native

Another version of this post had patron saint as another alternative.

i’ve used the term “soul twin” to refer to people like characters and celebrities as well, so that’s another option

elizabethlikes:

do you know what i want?

i want an lgbt+ tv show/movie that’s not a drama

i want a how i met your mother to be about a pansexual ted mosby and the running joke is that barney’s offended ted doesn’t find him attractive

i want a legally blonde to be about a lipstick lesbian who goes to law school to get her girlfriend back

i want a that ‘70s show where jackie is bisexual and between dating kelso and hyde she brings her ugly ass girlfriends with her to hang out with the gang (because there’s no way she can have a woman in her life prettier than herself)

i want a 13 going on 30 where jenna rink wakes up to be 30 years old and his name is michael rink and he still falls in love with matty from the house next door

i want a parks & recreation where ann perkins is asexual but still becomes pregnant via artificial insemination because ann is perfect and would be the best mother in the history of ever

being lgbt+ doesn’t have to be the focal point of a movie or show

like i understand it’s still a pretty bold move in media but like i’m just getting sick of all of the representation being the ultra dramatic main premise of it all

there are so many lgbt+ dramas. just give me my sitcom.

100% this, someone with screenwriting abilities and money get on it.

tentaclabia:

okay, time to get real here. i know a lot of people have been on an archive of our own before, i know a lot of people write and post to an archive of our own, so i know it’s not a matter of nobody knowing what i’m talking about. i’m going to introduce to you a novel concept tho

ship tag etiquette: 

1. don’t tag in your secondary and minor ships. if your main ship in the fic is loki x hawkeye, awesome; tag that, and anyone looking for loki x hawkeye will basically know your fic is the place to go. if your main ship in the fic is loki x hawkeye, but you also tag the 4 other ships you mention in like one sentence out of the 50k fic you just wrote, then there are going to be a lot of people out there coming to your fic thinking oh hey, at last a thor x sif fanfic sign me up only to find out fast they’re wrong.

2. don’t tag in your secondary and minor ships. it doesn’t matter if you dedicate those motherfucking sideships one paragraph out of 53, that’s like promising starving fic readers a treat and giving them a fucking pea. one pea. just one. maybe they are looking for fics with the actual ship whose tag they’re searching in, rather than: 

• fics where their ship is used as a stepping stone to get to the main one
  
• fics where their ship is tagged in because the writer thinks one mention makes it a ‘minor ship’ (IT DOESN’T, it’s just A MENTION OF IT)
  
• fics where their ship is only tacked on to keep those characters busy and the main character of your fic only thinks about that ship in passing twice
  
• fics where their ship is brought apart, by death or break up or infidelity, in any part of the fic just for the sake of the main ship to happen.
  

3. don’t tag in your secondary and minor ships. it’s just fucking rude. if i wanna get my rocks off reading superhot natasha romanoff x lady sif porn, do you know what i can find by going to their ship tag? DISAPPOINTMENT. because rather than learning that there are three/four fics focusing on their spacewives sex life, i have to sift through the mILLIONTY ONE HUNDRED fics already there, who center around loki. if i wanted to read about loki I’D JUST OPEN THE GODDAMN MCU TAG, IT’S ALL PEOPLE EVER WRITE ABOUT ANYWAY. 

4. don’t tag in your secondary and minor ships. i don’t care if you’ve done it once or twice, i don’t care if you think it’s necessary. it’s not. if you think it’s necessary, you know what you could do? add a note at the beginning. a OH BY THE WAY GUYS THISFIC WILL ALSO INCLUDE SOME SIDE SHIPS SUCH AS […] or you can let the readers figure it out. 

5. don’t tag in your secondary and minor ships. because those of us who go into those tags looking for fics about them where they’re appreciated and portrayed well and are the main focus will be left facing the origin of our supervillain story. every. single. day. 

6. if you’ve tagged in secondary and your minor ships: do us all and yourself a favour and go delete them. do it now. edit them now. you’ll be thanked, and most importantly, you’ll be appreciated twice: once by you readers, once by the people who don’t have to get annoyed anymore at seeing fics promising them an apple and giving them a fucking pea. 

tentaclabia:

give me a fandom and i’ll reply to you with my:

• lowkey otp
  
• highkey notp
  
• [softly] don’t notp
  
• highkey otp but i’m scared of saying it because it’s not a very popular choice
  
• highkey otp and anyone on my tumblr knows it
  

oodlenoodleroodle:

skeletree:

hungrylikethewolfie:

inkdot:

This weekend I was told a story which, although I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, because holy shit is it ever obvious, is kind of blowing my mind.

A friend of a friend won a free consultation with Clinton Kelly of What Not To Wear, and she was very excited, because she has a plus-size body, and wanted some tips on how to make the most of her wardrobe in a fashion culture which deliberately puts her body at a disadvantage.

Her first question for him was this: how do celebrities make a plain white t-shirt and a pair of weekend jeans look chic?  She always assumed it was because so many celebrities have, by nature or by design, very slender frames, and because they can afford very expensive clothing.  But when she watched What Not To Wear, she noticed that women of all sizes ended up in cute clothes that really fit their bodies and looked great.  She had tried to apply some guidelines from the show into her own wardrobe, but with only mixed success.  So - what gives?

His answer was that everything you will ever see on a celebrity’s body, including their outfits when they’re out and about and they just get caught by a paparazzo, has been tailored, and the same goes for everything on What Not To Wear.  Jeans, blazers, dresses - everything right down to plain t-shirts and camisoles.  He pointed out that historically, up until the last few generations, the vast majority of people either made their own clothing or had their clothing made by tailors and seamstresses.  You had your clothing made to accommodate the measurements of your individual body, and then you moved the fuck on.  Nothing on the show or in People magazine is off the rack and unaltered.  He said that what they do is ignore the actual size numbers on the tags, find something that fits an individual’s widest place, and then have it completely altered to fit.  That’s how celebrities have jeans that magically fit them all over, and the rest of us chumps can’t ever find a pair that doesn’t gape here or ride up or slouch down or have about four yards of extra fabric here and there.

I knew that having dresses and blazers altered was probably something they were doing, but to me, having alterations done generally means having my jeans hemmed and then simply living with the fact that I will always be adjusting my clothing while I’m wearing it because I have curves from here to ya-ya, some things don’t fit right, and the world is just unfair that way.  I didn’t think that having everything tailored was something that people did. 

It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t know this.  But no one ever told me.  I was told about bikini season and dieting and targeting your “problem areas” and avoiding horizontal stripes.  No one told me that Jennifer Aniston is out there wearing a bigger size of Ralph Lauren t-shirt and having it altered to fit her.

I sat there after I was told this story, and I really thought about how hard I have worked not to care about the number or the letter on the tag of my clothes, how hard I have tried to just love my body the way it is, and where I’ve succeeded and failed.  I thought about all the times I’ve stood in a fitting room and stared up at the lights and bit my lip so hard it bled, just to keep myself from crying about how nothing fits the way it’s supposed to.  No one told me that it wasn’t supposed to.  I guess I just didn’t know.  I was too busy thinking that I was the one that didn’t fit.

I thought about that, and about all the other girls and women out there whose proportions are “wrong,” who can’t find a good pair of work trousers, who can’t fill a sweater, who feel excluded and freakish and sad and frustrated because they have to go up a size, when really the size doesn’t mean anything and it never, ever did, and this is just another bullshit thing thrown in your path to make you feel shitty about yourself.

I thought about all of that, and then I thought that in elementary school, there should be a class for girls where they sit you down and tell you this stuff before you waste years of your life feeling like someone put you together wrong.

So, I have to take that and sit with it for a while.  But in the meantime, I thought perhaps I should post this, because maybe my friend, her friend, and I are the only clueless people who did not realise this, but maybe we’re not.  Maybe some of you have tried to embrace the arbitrary size you are, but still couldn’t find a cute pair of jeans, and didn’t know why.

This post is one of those things that I will reblog every time it appears on my dash.  This is so important, and no one ever tells you about it.

I almost didn’t read this but then I did and I’m really glad that I did.

And like, I had fiber craft lessons all through my mandatory schooling (sewing, knitting, crochet etc). “Learn to modify a store-bought item to match your body” would fit in those classes just fine. 

lazy-queer:

Nate: i have made Leverage

Hardison: you fucked up perfectly good criminals is what you did. look at them. they’ve got morals.