is that it can be really dangerous. The idea that only you know yourself and your symptoms best is shlock. You don’t. And you most definitely should be aware that your sense of self is even further compromised by illness.
I diagnosed myself with depression last year. I knew what it was, my sister had depression and she was getting better with medication. I had all the symptoms and I fit in with every checklist and I’d suffered depression off and on for years.
Desperate and armed with my internet searches I went to my doctor and demanded relief. I wanted drugs and help and NOW. My life was a wreck, I was a wreck and I couldn’t do it anymore. I wouldn’t take no for an answer. Unfortunately (as it would turn out) my doctor trusted me and gave me what I wanted, anti-depressants and a referral to speak to someone about my mental health.
I walked out prescription in hand, relieved for the first time in months that things were going to get better. And they did! But only briefly.
Because I got my diagnosis wrong.
Or I guess you could say 50% wrong. I had diagnosed myself with Major Depressive Disorder and yes, I was most definitely depressed BUT what I actually had was Bipolar Disorder. Type 2 specifically.
Now, what’s something that a person with bipolar disorder should never ever do without supervision and a mood stabilizer? Take antidepressants.
What followed was the mood rollercoaster from hell. I had moved to a new city and separated from my doctor continued my medication in the hopes enough of it would work. It put me into a mood episode called a mixed state. I constantly angry, agitated, crawling out of my skin. Things were so awful I began to question if the world was even real. How could a place this painful even exist?
I felt a constant, desperate, clawing need for…what? Something. I couldn’t identify it. A saviour maybe? And I did find one in the end. Death, I thought, would be my saviour.
If this is all sounding a bit dramatic it’s because I’m trying to illustrate a point. 2 months after misdiagnosing myself and starting anti-depressants I tried to commit suicide. Off we went to the hospital where an overworked but well-meaning emergency psych handed me another prescription for anti-depressants. I left the hospital, filled the prescription and was right back on the mood rollercoaster. 2 weeks later I tried to kill myself again. This time when I got to the hospital they told me I couldn’t leave.
Being locked up for a month wasn’t fun, but it was probably one of the better things that happened to me. It was the first time someone really asked me questions instead of taking me at my word. My diagnosis changed and I still need medication but now I have the right kind.
What annoys me most about this is that I LOOKED at Bipolar II as a diagnosis. I looked right at it and said nah. That’s not it. I wasn’t able to objectively evaluate my moods. I see the cycles of hypomania and depression now but at the time I just thought that was me. I’m creative! Of COURSE I work a ton sometimes and can’t bear living other times! Some of the blame here lies with my doctor and some with me. I should have said I have all these symptoms can we figure out what is going on?
Anyway, that was 8 months ago. Things didn’t get 100% better right away and they still aren’t 100% better now. I still question my diagnosis and I have once or twice ditched my meds only to be quickly reminded why I need them when my mood starts kicking my ass.
To be clear: self advocacy is FINE. That’s not the issue. Advocating for yourself is how you open a conversation. (And of course ditch your doc if they’re dismissive of opening a dialogue.)
The real issue is this idea that’s taking hold that doctors need to trust their patients because only their patients know themselves best. It’s dangerous when patients believe this and it’s especially dangerous when doctors believe it. Don’t diagnose yourself. Yeah, you might get it right, but if you don’t? It’s fucking russian roulette.
My doctor trusted me and I trusted me and it was almost fatal.
For all there is to hate about Trump, I’m much more scared of a President Cruz than a President Trump.
Why? Just curious.
Bottom line is that Trump wants attention. Cruz wants power. Trump is an entertainer. Cruz is a master politician who believes petulance is a political ideology. Of every Republican in the field, Cruz is most steadfast in his ultra-conservative beliefs and will never bend or meet for compromise.
Trump craves attention and will always put himself above policies. Cruz is incredibly methodical and is always playing the long game to accomplish his policy goals. Yes, Trump is far more likely to accidentally set off an international incident, but Cruz in power will strangle this country and bring it to its knees before he allows it to become something he doesn’t agree with.
I cannot stress how evangelical Ted Cruz is. If he wins this election, it will be on the backs of the religious right.
He wants constitutional amendment to make SCOTUS judges have retention elections so he can boot off justices like Kennedy who become more liberal over time.
He’s willing to shut down the federal government instead of allowing any funding of Planned Parenthood.
He wants to ban birth control including IUD and morning after pill
He did actually shutdown the federal government because he doesn’t like Obamacare.
The next president will probably nominate 4 justices to the Supreme Court. (1 Conservative, 2 Liberals, 1 Swing) Cruz will not consider any nominees who have a hint of moderate in them. This could easily lead to a 7-2 Supreme Court decision outlawing abortion, ending Obamacare, or abolishing affirmative action or civil rights protections.
The reason Trump will never scare me as much as Cruz is that Ted Cruz is brilliant, he is a true political organizer and mastermind. He’s skillfuly united faith circles all over the US and will ride a wave all the way into South Carolina.
And just to prove my point. Look at the Tea Party. It’s a tiny segment of American politics, but the power it carries is because of Ted Fucking Cruz. When met with something he didn’t like, he SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT as a freshman Senator! A FRESHMAN! Imagine him with real executive power.
no shade but what’s the point of spending thousands and thousands of dollars to go to college if you’re just gonna ditch every other class like just save your money and stay home my dude
This. Like I have a friend who’s financial aid covers her tuition, enough to the point where she actually gets a lot of money back, and it even covers her textbooks. And then she’s skipping every day and failing classes. I mean she is literally getting a free college education, at a state university, something many kids would kill for.
that literally made me cringe reading it i’m so upset
When you hear a new song on the radio and you’re desperately trying to pick a notable phrase so you can google it later
Gather round, kids. Let me tell you a story from ye olden days because I am tumblr elderly. I used to DJ for a radio station. I played records and CDs and we had station IDs from bands on 8 track cartes. People would call me asking what songs were–but they had to mumble, sing, or play the song on an instrument. I had someone call me to ask what Smells Like Teen Spirit was when it was a single. They played it on an accordion. I forgot about it until a moment ago when I saw this post.
You know what I want to see more of in sci fi? Aliens who deviate from their species’ “norm.”
Like, queer aliens, but queer in alien terms; like, aliens whose typical family unit is a trio comprised of three different gendersexes, but sometimes aliens will form trios that only have two different gendersexes, and they still produce viable offspring, but only of the two parent gendersexes, and that carries a social stigma because each gendersex is supposed to play a separate role in the family unit.
Aliens for whom it is the norm to change gendersex upon reaching a certain age, but sometimes (possibly due to a genetic anomaly) it doesn’t happen, so those aliens either a) continue to present as a juvenile gender despite being a stage 2 adult, b) present as a stage 2 adult despite their physical characteristics, or c) undergo medical procedures to change their body artificially, though the technology in that area is still imperfect.
Or disabled aliens who have prosthetic tails/fins/wings/tentacles/etc. Aquatic aliens who can’t hold their breath for an accepted amount of time and so have to carry around atmosphere tanks. Aliens with degenerative conditions that are slowly losing their infrared vision. Aliens who lack their species trademark color-changing camouflage skin. Aliens who are allergic to common foods on their own planets and are frustrated that interplanetary restaurants don’t take that into account when listing which menu items are “safe” for which species.
Neurodivergent aliens who are not connected to the hivemind, who do their best to blend in and guess what they are supposed to be doing, but who are cast out when they are discovered, only to have their numbers build up enough that they are able to build a society on their own using communication aids such as verbal or manual language.
Aliens who are just different in small ways, like generally all three eyes are different colors, except that rare genetic quirks sometimes cause two or even all three to be the same color. Aliens born with five fingers instead of four. Aliens who are more coordinated with their prehensile toes than with their hands, which is inconvenient when most products are designed to be used with hands, but they manage. Aliens born with vestigial wings instead of just residual bone nubs. Aliens born without horns or tusks or spines.
and okay, so I’m basically arguing for more diverse representation of aliens, but like, if our default mode of thinking is to assume that all members of a species are a certain way, then what does that say about how we view our own species? that only ones who follow certain norms qualify as “human”?
or whatever maybe i just think that thinking about this sort of stuff is cool.
i just want to say to fic readers that big long rambly comments on fics, where you say the things you loved about it and sometimes get capslocky and squeal and use exclamation points and quote parts and praise the smut or the characterizations or the world building or the chemistry or all of the above, comments like that are fucking incredible and every fic author loves you, thank you
PSA if you send me nice messages and i don’t respond
there is a 100% chance i saw it and it made me super duper uber happy but i have no idea how to respond and i will let it sit in my inbox for days or weeks and smile when i see it but still have no idea how to respond
there is a 0% chance that you annoyed me and i don’t like you.
the only way a han/leia Empire Strikes Back romance plot for finn/poe could work is if one of them is completely oblivious about whats going on (i’d like to think it’s poe) like “come on admit it. you want me to stay because you have feelings for me” “of COURSE i have feelings for you! you’re my best buddy in the whole galaxy” “THATS NOT WHAT I MEANT AND YOU KNOW IT” classic poe
Nah, I think Poe is fully aware of his feelings for Finn what with the whole jacket giving, lip biting thing.
If anyone is oblivious it’s Finn.
“Finn, I love you.”
“I love you too! I’ve never had a best friend before!”
*Rey facepalms in the background and Poe starts to cry because he doesn’t know how to make it any more obvious.*
so you know the rule in fairylands where you cant eat or drink anything or you’ll have to stay there forever? does like.. .eating out/sucking dick count
holy f uck jane
its a serious question
well like, the whole thing is that you cannot have consumed anything belonging to the fey realm. so, yes, probably, you would be stuck there. the same would apply if you just straight up ate a fairy.
new question: would deepthroating count in this case even w/o swallowing
no. temporary doesn’t count, otherwise fairies would all be running about sticking their hands in your mouth to get human servants.
you gotta digest it.
so like??? if you puke afterwards?? maybe it doesn’t count?
huh! i wonder how long is enough time for it to be legit. like whatever goes through your stomach immediately condemns you no matter if you throw it up later?
Well Persephone only ate 6 seeds so she only stayed 6 months, so maybe if you spat out most of it you’d just be condemned to the occasional day “BRB got go pay the two day toll for fellating a fairy.”
“you wanna come over for the weekend?”
“oh man im so sorry i sucked some fairy dick once and now i have to keep coming back to do it again– its a long story”
“you what now”
i can hardly believe this isn’t already the plot of an Oglaf comic
Dads who refuse to do anything that is traditionally considered “feminine” with their daughters are lame dads. I’ve been in the store and overheard a dad tell his little girl who might have been 12 to go by herself to go get pads after she asked him to go with her. “Go get them yourself.” and he looked mortified she even asked him to go. Like dude she clearly looks like she needs help. Take her to the god damn tampon/pad section and help her and if you don’t know what she needs go ask some one in their pharmacy to point out a good choice for you. Tampons and pads are part of pharmacy so chances are they will be able to help. Fuck all that. Help your daughters! They ask you to paint their nails, do it. It might turn out messy but so what? They ask you to have a tea party, do it. Sure the tea might be imaginary or just water and served out of tiny pink cups but get over it.
This. Also, don’t be afraid to teach your daughters “manly” things. You’re building something and she asks what you’re doing? Tell her. Teach her how to use that drill and do it right. Going hunting and she wants to come? Bring her along. She likes auto shop? Take her out to the garage. Even if she doesn’t, teach her how to do a basic oil change, how to change a tire. Teach her how to do things for herself and that she is fully capable of doing it. Don’t divide your kids into gender roles, see them as people.
“gentle reminder that cleopatra’s beauty is rumored to have started wars in ancient history” — a post going around Tumblr
Actually Cleopatra was said to have not actually been that beautiful — men said that until she opened her mouth, she was simply average. What made her beautiful according to Plutarch was her personality and intelligence. Her sparkling wit, charming personality, talent with over half a dozen languages, and in-depth knowledge of almost everything was just so impressive that she often became beautiful in their eyes.
So while that post is nice in that it’s trying to say that women are becoming more beautiful and that if you lived in 30 B.C., you could have started wars, I like this version much better.
You may not be traditionally beautiful, but goddamn neither was Cleopatra and she seduced two of the most powerful men in the world.
An open letter to executive producers, writers, and cast in the age of Twitter, tumblr, AO3, Instagram, Youtube, whatever social media platforms come next, and global audiences.
Congratulations! If you’re reading this its highly doubtful you’re in any way involved in mass media production but I’m fucking sick of shitty audience engagement by multi-billion dollar media companies and anyway this was better than working on my dissertation you’ve probably got a successful show!
That’s fantastic! Your work is being viewed by millions of people! Pat yourself on the back! But wait! Oh dear. There’s a hiccup. Suddenly you notice tweets and messages and questions at SDCC about your characters - your beloved, money-making, copyrighted intellectual property - being…gay??
You didn’t intend this, your protagonist and antagonist and supporting characters and background characters are 100% heterosexual!! What ever will you do?!
Fear not, my hypothetical content creator! I’m about to break down some key do’s and don’ts for when you find yourself suddenly in possession of a queer fandom. I will categorize my advice in three simple levels to help you best choose which type of engagement with your fandom is right for you, your show, and your network: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Please note: this is not an exhaustive post. I can’t literally write the book for you on how media producers can engage their diverse, 21st century audiences (well, lol I could but you’re not paying me so suck it) and fandoms - like any subculture - vary greatly in demographics, linguistic quirks, norms, and culture. That means there is no ‘one size fits all’ strategy for dealing with your most passionate fans. Theoretically, you have marketing people who earn a paycheck. Make them work for it by doing some actual research instead of just changing the fonts on the SDCC posters.
Ready? No? Well too fucking bad because here we go.
Actually, no, I’m sorry, hold up. We need to lay some groundwork first. Let’s call these our a priori assumptions about fandom in general but queer fandom in particular.
Assumption 1: Your queer fandom is not going anywhere. You’re fucking stuck with us. You will not get rid of us. Better bigger assholes than you show runners, executive producers, marketing teams, writers’ rooms, and casts have tried. We’re still here. We still show up at all the conventions. We still produce fanfiction, art, videos, meta. We still spend ungodly amounts of money, time, and energy engaging with the media you have created. Even sometimes especially when we are angry at it. We are here to stay.
people talk a lot about how public schooling in america is a really fucked up system but i think we should also maybe talk about universities too. like why is being stressed out to a breaking point part of the college experience? why is it accepted and expected that college students will often go without sleep in order to get their work done? i don’t understand why we embrace the idea that college students should be stressed. i think the amount of homework assigned is absurd and unnecessary. it does nothing productive for learning. it just burns students out and makes us lose our drive. and on top of that, we have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for this torment lmao it’s so ridiculous and honestly kind of sickens me
THIS. I took this weekend mostly off from homework because I analytically know that I don’t have too much and it’s making me absolutely sick with anxiety, even though I really needed the break.
Frollo and Mother Gothel convince Quasimodo and Rapunzel that their lives are dependent on them. The two villains claim the outside world is a terrible place even though they know this is not true. They also constantly emotionally abuse their victims by implying their worthlessness and destroying their self-esteems. Quasimodo and Rapunzel sympathize with their captors and even believe their captors are protecting them and treating them with kindness. However, both captors are merely using and manipulating their victims for their own selfish purposes.
Belle does not sympathize with the Beast when she is treated poorly. She becomes angry and leaves the castle, only returning by her own wish so that the Beast (who saves her) does not freeze to death. She does not respond nicely towards the Beast until he treats her with respect. In this situation, Belle has control and is not manipulated into feeling for the Beast, nor does the Beast treat her disrespectfully after the first night. While the Beast does have an underlying motive as to keeping Belle in his castle, he abandons this idea and sets her free to make her happy. If anything, this story is a case of Lima Syndrome where the captor starts to sympathize with the victim.
Check out this post which refocuses the purpose of Beauty and the Beast from merely (and wrongly) being about Stockholm Syndrome to it’s original purpose.
FUCKING FINALLY
I don’t usually reblog stuff like this, but Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie and I’d like to have this on my page!
this is actually a very good analysis. I take back all the times I’ve called Beauty and the Beast a ‘stockholm syndrome’ romance.
WHAT IS THE TRADITIONAL DANCE OF THE VUVALINI AND THE ANSWER CANNOT BE THE ELECTRIC SLIDE.
WE NEED HELP OKAY
I’m sorry, I know you need a real answer, but I’m just stuck on the fact that apparently y’all thought that the obvious answer was the Electric Slide and I just. I just cannot. Because. I have this beautiful mental image of Keeper (who in this nice happy mental image is motherfuckin’ alive) teaching a bunch of Wretched plus the Sisters, Max, and Furiosa (who already knows the traditional dance but it’s been a long time, a lot of height, and a prosthetic arm since then, so she’s refining her technique) the ELECTRIC SLIDE.
What do I do with that mental image.
What.
Edit: FURIOSA TEACHING SOME EX-WARBOYS THE DANCE AFTER THE MOVIE? AND IT BECOMES LIKE THIS THING? YOU WIN A BATTLE AND BUST OUT THE FUCKIN’ ELECTRIC SLIDE I JUST.
no offense but the whole kissin kate barlow and “i can fix that” sam storyline from holes is quite frankly one of the most gripping and tragic in the history of cinema and i’m still not recovered from it
Today I skipped class instead of arriving two minutes late because my school’s tardy policy is harsher than its absence policy and that’s all you need to know about the American education system.
So today as a prank I made a sheet music print out of Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball but replaced the name with “Christmas Time Meditation” and deleted the words and I’m going to put it in the with church music and see if the pianist notices.
He noticed and I can now add “Yelled at by two priests at once” to my list of accomplishments
Stormi is a 9-year-old Girl Scout from Illinois. She’s also a trans girl who was placed with her family through foster care, so this year, she decided she wanted to donate Girl Scout Cookies to other kids in foster care.
When she went out to sell cookies with her mom, she knocked on the door of a man who told her that “nobody wants to buy cookies from a boy in a dress.”
She and her family were rightfully devastated by the man’s transphobic comments. But Stormi decided she would have the last word – so she shared her story with trans groups, started selling cookies online, and immediately started raking in sales in the thousands.
By Thursday, Stormi had sold over 3,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. She received cookie sales from places as far as Canada and Australia, said Kim [Stormi’s mom].
“It’s just been amazing,” said Kim. “I have not seen Stormi like this in a really long time. It makes me cry because this is something she’ll never forget.”
Stormi now plans to donate cookies to foster kids every year.
“I want kids like me to know they are perfect just the way they are,” said Stormi. “There are people all over the world that love you. Never give up because it does get better.”
do other countries have a groundhog day? do you all gather on February second and watch with bated breathe as a groundhog emerges from its hole? do you forecast the next six weeks of weather based on if the groundhog is frightened by its own shadow and returns to the hole?
is this some kind of thing American tumblr made up to prank us??
groundhog day is real the entire country watches a groundhog predict the weather
People with good parents get so offended when abused children speak negatively of their parents. Like…REALLY offended lol.
They say things like “Your mom would do anything for you” and “Your parents sacrificed a lot for you!” and “I don’t respect anyone who talks down on their parents.”
But just because YOUR parents would do anything for you and sacrificed a lot for you doesn’t mean it applies to all parents. We don’t have the same experience boo. You can’t tell me shit about what my mama would do for me. All moms and dads are not created equal.
REALLY THIS. And I’ve discovered that…like, it extends past parents. Like, don’t get me wrong, my parents are absolutely as good as it gets, they’re great people and they would support me if I said I wanted to make seashell necklaces for the rest of my life (actually no, I’ve always been ridiculously Type A so they would take me to a hospital if I said that, but the point stands). My extended family? Genuine, bona-fide, abusive train wreck. They spectacularly fucked up my parents, who I can never thank enough for the trouble they’ve taken to protect me as best they can. It’s just…a fact of life in my experience that my grandparents treat me like I’m either worthless because I’m terrible at everything or worthless because I’m a girl. My aunts and uncles and cousins (with VERY few exceptions) have taken the party line my entire life. And that’s behavior that I generally consider benign from them. I get panic attacks when they contact me, and the few people who really push the point about “Oh, but they’re your family, you must love them!” and “But they’re your family, of course they love you” piss me the fuck off. Because it doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes something breaks along the line.
I don’t usually say this, but: you don’t know my life. Similarly, I don’t know yours. You tell me you have issues with your parents? Shit, you tell me that you’re waiting on someone to die so that you can get the fuck out? Cool, bro. I’m still here for you, whatever you need. Treat me well and I’ll back you in anything, because fuck, you know what? I’m waiting on my grandmother to die so that I don’t have to fucking watch my mother worry anymore. I’m waiting on her to die so that I can cry and scream for the kid I should have been. I’m waiting for her to die so that I can go to a funeral in a red dress she would have hated, over combat boots that would have made her furious, wearing red lipstick that would have made me call her a whore. Yeah. Sometimes family is shitty. It doesn’t always pan out nicely and you never get to tell someone what they’re allowed to feel about it.
Details of the campaign (as the formal proposal submitted to Salisbury City Council) are here. The suggested sculptor is (as you might have guessed) Paul Kidby. His notes, as part of the proposal, are worth reading.
There is the possibility to add some Nac Mac Feegles(Scottish-style pixies from Pratchett’s writing)to the sculpture which would add an element of humour and surprise to the piece. I think these Feegles would be best placed behind Terry’s feet so they only visible when walking to the back of the sculpture. I think they should be doing something mischievous such as prising the letters off the base and carrying them off – or similar. These small characters would bring an aspect of his Discworld creation directly into the overall piece.
All in all I would hope the sculpture would be unsentimental and a happy depiction of the author that celebrates his achievements and brings pride to the people of Salisbury.
This would be fabulous: I hope Salisbury City Council agrees.
ETA: It also occurs to me that they’d better cast plenty extra of the Nac Mac Feegles, as people will be constantly stealing them the way they keep stealing the Ugly Duckling off the Hans Christian Andersen statue in Central Park.
