Writer's Block

Industrious Little Shit I should be doing something productive. Feel free to send me stuff - asks, requests, random facts, etc...

[rhubarbspring]

(source)

[dancing-crow]

thank you yes, I did need this today

[buried-in-stardust]

OP: Another year has passed, time to make another natural freezer

[eng by me]

[alexaloraetheris]

This is brilliant but the energy sticker at the end KILLED me.🤣

[strayknight]

my main issue with making aus is that i will also make sub aus. like the au but theres some different significant change or addition to it. and ill keep making these in my brain until theres like an entire ecosystem of them

[orcboxer]

I just think "data center water usage should be federally regulated," while less catchy and less emotionally charged, is a stronger political stance than "fuck AI." Targets the systemic flaw rather than a product, you know?

[aetherograph]

AGREE But let's take it farther:

Data centres shouldn't be allowed in areas that experience drought or are Koppen classification B category (arid and semi-arid).

They should have federally regulated water usage and be required to have heat and exhaust treatment ON SITE

They should have daily penalties for failing to meet zero emissions targets scaled to their profit margin (i.e. a percentage rather than a set amount) THAT ARE ACTUALLY ENFORCED.

NO DEFERRED PROSECUTION AGREEMENTS. EVER.

They must show provenance for EVERY piece of art and writing in their data sets, and show that they have made contracts to use EVERY SINGLE ONE before they are allowed to use them. Hold them to the same standards as every other form of media.

They must inform the end-user about data privacy and that chatbots are not a substitute for therapy, research, programming, work, school, and are not to be used for anything but novelty.

All of this would severely hobble them and expose how much of a turkey GenAI actually is. I doubt they can make money off it without theft and lies. It's a very expensive toy.

[ao3cassandraic]

I'm in favor of all of this. Let's make it happen.

[actual-changeling]

In the spirit of encouraging people to comment on fanfics while also making it easier to do so, I feel obliged to share a browser extension for ao3 that has quite literally revolutionized the comment game for me.

I present to you: the floating ao3 comment box!

From what I've seen, a big problem for many people is that once you reach the comments at the bottom of a fic, your memory of it miraculously disappears. Anything you wanted to say is stuck ten paragraphs ago, and you barely remember what you thought while reading. This fixes that!

I'll give a little explanation on the features and how it works, but if you want to skip all that, here's the link.

Edit: Yes, this also works on mobile!

The extension is visible as a small blue box in the upper left corner.

(Side note: The green colouring is not from the extension, that's me.)

If you click on it, you open a comment box window at the bottom of your screen but not at the bottom of the fic. I opened my own fic for demonstrative purposes.

The website also gives explanations on how exactly it functions, but I'll summarize regardless.

insert selection -> if you highlight a sentence in the fic it will be added in italics to the comment box

add to comment box -> once you're done writing your comment, you click this button and the entire thing will automatically copied to the ao3 comment box

delete -> self explanatory

on mulitchapter fics, you will be given the option to either add the comment to just the current chapter or the entire fic

The best part? You can simply close the window the same way you opened it and your progress will automatically be saved. So you can open it, comment on a paragraph, and then close it and keep reading without having the box in your face.

Comments are what keep writers going, and as both a writer and a reader, I think it's such an easy way of showing support and enthusiasm.

[lesbxdyke]

Chocolate guy... What the fuck!?

[technofeudalism]

i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

[technofeudalism]

since this post blew up, i've been wanting to do an addition with all of the recommendations from the comments and tags. but there's a lot of them. some people might be crazy enough to sit down and seriously put them all in one post with descriptions. those people are honestly sick in the head.

anyway, here's all of the recommendations from the reblogs. not all of them are text-based, but it's a great mixture of styles. also don't forget the links in the second paragraph of the OP which will take you to FMHY where there are a bunch more games listed.

Games

A Dark Room - text-based science fiction role-playing game.

corru.observer - science fiction adventure web game.

Improbable Island - old-school text adventure game.

Candy Box 2 - incremental clicker game that evolves into RPG.

Arcanum - open source wizard clicker game.

sandspiel, Powder Game, Powder Game 2, The Powder Toy - more sand physics games.

Orb.Farm - fishtank simulator.

Façade - experimental game with a real-time interactive narrative where you try to fix a failing marriage.

The Catacombs of Solaris - trippy art game.

Yume Nikki Online - online version of the surreal classic plus fangames.

The Barncle Goose Experiment - combine element/alchemy game based on antique theories of abiogenesis.

Fallen London - free-to-play text-based open world RPG.

Nested - very unique text-based universe expanding game. described as possibly @orteil42's favorite thing he's ever made.

The Process of Elimination - interactive web novel (by @hypertextdog)

Discworld MUD - multiplayer, text-based, online game (a MUD, or text MMORPG) based on the Discworld books.

Horse Master - surreal text game about training a horse.

EYEZMAZE - flash (RIP) or HTML5-based puzzle games.

You Are Jeff Bezos - text game. spend Jeff Bezos' fortune.

The Password Game - challenging puzzle game where you have to meet password requirements (by neal)

Universal Paperclips - incremental paperclip making game.

Half-Earth - planetary disaster planning game where you try to save the world using socialism.

ChooseYourStory - community-driven website centered on CYOA style story games.

PhD Simulator - random event based text game. make your choice each month and see if you can graduate on time.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - open source roguelike.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - turn-based survival roguelike set in the modern day.

Nethack - open source roguelike originally released in 1987.

FarmRPG - simple, mobile-friendly, text-based farming RPG.

Kingdom of Loathing - browser-based community MMORPG.

PokeRogue - browser-based Pokemon roguelike

Tools

Text Game Builder - works in your browser, with just a little bit of Python (by @grumpygandalf)

Twine - great (free!) tool for making text-based games quickly.

Ink - scripting language for interactive fiction (also free)

Flashpoint Archive - a community effort to preserve games and animations from the web.

PICO-8 - fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs.

Non-Games

Library of Babel - interactive illustration which attempts to simulate what it might be like to browse The Library of Babel.

Superbad - technically not a game, sprawling website full of secrets.

17776 - serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative about football in the far-future. beautiful, creative, legendary. created by Jon Bois, a legend and one of my favorite writers of all time.

Choice of Games - text-based, choose-your-own-adventure games (interactive fiction). some free-to-play, others can be bought like an ebook.

The Deep Sea - scroll to the bottom of the ocean. encounter the humble squid and his friends (by neal)

Space Elevator - like The Deep Sea, but up instead of down. you can equip your avatar with a scarf (by neal)

Internet Artifacts - an interactive history of the early internet (by neal)

If The Moon Were Only One Pixel - scroll through an accurately scaled model of the universe.

r/incremental_games - reddit community for incremental games.

r/WebGames - reddit community for web games in general.

thank you to everyone who contributed and the creators. please be sure to show them some love where possible.

[monchursouls]

Reblogging the update too

[diversegaminglists]

Rebaggeld for fun.

[preserving-tiktok]

[aibidil]

[ispyspookymansion]

if you want me to consume a new media you MUST catch me at the exact moment when the stars are aligned and the air pressure is equal to the current degree of the sun’s peak against the horizon and all the cosmic energies are perfectly unified (aka my old interest is fading out) or i will nod and say “im adding that to my list!” Knowing theres no chance i will check it out

[ispyspookymansion]

“unless its a book!” “unless you tell me it has gay people in it!” “this but only for live action shows” “theres a good chance i’ll get to it eventually” no wrong this post is not for you this post is ONLY for bitches who could have a treasured friend recommend them something that sounds grown in a lab to be your personal catnip and, with no choice in the matter, immediately know it will never be the right time to watch/read/listen to it

[eggsaladstain]

anyways i just love the way kpop demon hunters stayed true to its roots in korean/asian culture, especially around the core theme of community vs individualism

the fact that it's not a single chosen one but a group of three

the fact that the honmoon is not powered by the hunters themselves but by the energy and love of the fans

the fact that gwi-ma turns people into demons by promising that he is the only one who can help them when he is in fact reliant on his army of demons to collect souls for him

the fact that "your idol" is about surrendering yourself to a single higher power while "golden" is about soaring to new heights together

the fact that gwi-ma preys on people's individual insecurities and shame to get inside their heads while rumi, mira, and zoey set them free in the end by encouraging them to embrace their differences and reminding them that they're not alone

the fact that you can see the audience cheering individually and even pushing into each other to get closer to the stage during "your idol"

while they're linking arms and cheering together and hugging during "what it feels like"

i have not seen the live action lilo and stitch but it feels like that movie sits on the opposite end of the spectrum from kpop demon hunters as a case study for how to tell a story in way that is culturally authentic and still resonates with a broader audience

and i think given that the core theme of the movie is all about community over individualism, the ending, particularly as it relates to rumi and jinu's budding romance, is really the perfect culmination of that broader theme

rumi and jinu's connection has all the hallmarks of that all-encompassing, all-consuming, borderline co-dependent first love where you keep your relationship a secret and sneak out of the house to meet up and feel like the other person is the ONLY person who really gets you

i'm the only one who can understand you, i'm the only one who will love you is the kind of thing that sounds romantic when you're 16 until you get older and realize how toxic it actually is and i love that the movie counters that in "what it sounds like" with rumi realizing that she had that love and support all along from her girls, and later, from the fans who continue to cheer them on through their comeback

it's about connection and sisterhood and love and sharing your fears and lifting each other up and becoming stronger and better together

and as compelling as i found rumi/jinu and as much as i would like to see their relationship explored more in a sequel/series, i just really love that this movie, which is clearly targeted at young women, ends on the message that romantic love is not the end all be all, that friendship is just as important if not more so than a romantic partner, that single women can lead successful, fulfilling lives, that true happiness and freedom start from within

it's crazy that this message still seems revolutionary in 2025 but given the current state of the world, it feels more necessary than ever

[thrythlind]

On top of this, it's not community by way of reducing people to the lowest common denominator. It's about a community of accepting each other as individuals with unique strengths and needs.

Even the background audience is a work of art with a wide-range of many different people and body shapes. There's even the occasional same-sex couples you can see scattered about in places.

Gwi-ma pushes toxic individuality but also draws people in with toxic community, that false sense of "belonging" and the line about "you'll all be free when you're all a part of me."

Gwi-ma is about toxicity, shame, and self-hatred as a whole both in terms of the individual and the group.

When we first watched my friend and I were concerned they were making a common mistake of using supernatural creatures as a metaphor for minority populations by not taking into account the fact that such creatures are, within their worldbuilding, inherently predatory towards humanity. So the metaphor of Jinu's shame for the sins he's committed bled into the metaphor of Rumi's shame for just being what she is without any truly damning sin being committed.

However, when it struck me that the bleed over of those two metaphors is part of the greater whole, it made sense. Because they both see each share the same symptom (shame and self-hate) and assume that it must have a very similar cause.

Reference how even after hearing Rumi talk about how she is a mistake that he still talks about how all "we" deserve is our misery and suffering. Part of him still believes that Rumi must have done something truly horrible to gain the marks.

Meanwhile, Rumi, even after overwhelming evidence and an outright confession is still hinging her chance for salvation on a concept that Jinu is like her and can be saved and if he has hope then so does she.

Rumi comes to the full comprehension of the differences before Jinu, after the confrontation with Celine, but Jinu hit partial comprehension of the differences well before her, hence why his planned manipulation worked so well.

[sandersstudies]

SOOOOO funny when you’re having a strong emotion and your logical brain KNOWS you’re overreacting but you literally can’t do anything about it.

[sandersstudies]

Emotional brain: fire and rage and biting and biting and biting

Logical brain: That was an innocent mistake, and not anyone’s fault.

Emotional brain: you’re right… fire and rage and biting biting biting for one thousand years tho

[dogposts]

photography by @runaround_hound!

[butchfagminotaur]

just overheard my wife spelling something on the phone and i shit you not saying the words “E as in Eeyore” i am on my hands and knees wailing screaming crying pleading and begging people to learn the NATO phonetic alphabet

[butchfagminotaur]

like the reason this exists is because none of the words sound like each other, which means that even with a terrible signal both parties should be able to clearly understand the words being spelled

i am dead serious that i believe this should be taught in school

[casa-anachar]

Color version of this which lives in my home office...

also https://www.tumblr.com/casa-anachar/767089057957298176/the-guy-on-the-other-end-of-my-phone-calls-is

[nothing-more-than-hot-leaf-juice]

Iroh: so Toph, what are your goals in life?

Toph: I’ve been banned from every major city’s transportation system except Omashu

Toph: I don’t know what their limit is but I will fucking find it 

[probsjosh]

King Boomie, having exactly zero limits:

[theotheristhedoctor]

Unstoppable object meets immovable force

[gaangarang]

[Toph eventually slips up and is captured by the city guard force. Instead of being imprisoned or exiled, Toph finds herself being given audience with the King of Omashu.]

Bumi: Well, well, well. It seems I have finally met the troublemaker who has been causing such chaos with my rail systems.

Toph:…

Bumi: I must say, I am thoroughly impressed with your earthbending abilities. You remind me of myself when I was a lad.

Toph: Get to the point.

Bumi: I see great potential in you, Toph Beifong. I want you inherit my title once I am no longer fit to rule.

Toph: Wait what the fuck

[out-there-on-the-maroon]

Why wasn’t this Toph’s future instead of becoming a freaking cop. This would have made so much more sense. 

[gallusrostromegalus]

My favorite part of this is “when I am no longer fit to rule” because

1. Implying Bumi was fit to rule at any point

1.1 except maybe in the sense that he was completely shredded

2. That he has no plans to die, (nor would death necessarily make him unfit to rule), but that he apparently intends to like. Tuck his arms and legs into himself and just roll off into the sunset.

3. Given that the Earth Kingdom has an actual ruling family that causes some drama in LoK, Toph continuing to cause monarchy confusion is both 100% in character and fucking hilarious.

[definitelynotaminion]

Toph takes over as King Bumi the second and everyone is like “no that’s not how inheriting works” and Bumi is like “No no she’s right, I did say “inherit my title!”

[aromantic-angel]

When toph is no longer fit to rule, she instills bumi (Aang’s son) as her heir and he is known as bumi 3.

[catflowerqueen]

Her first act as ruler is to ban herself from Omashu’s transportation system, thus fulfilling one of her life goals.

[carolofthebell]

But then she ignores her ban and continues to use the transport system forcing her guard to chase her and print wanted posters declaring her a fugitive.

Fortunately the clerks served under King Bumi the First and are well aquatinted with explaining chaos to the confused citizenry of Omashu. Without missing a beat they print the posters in 2 parts.

The first (read this aloud) part is a fairly standard Wanted poster explaining that King Bumi II Toph the Blind Melon Bandit Lord is Banned from the Omashu Transport system for crimes etc….

The second part (do not read this aloud) explains not to be concerned; if you see the King at one of the stations just shout “There she is!” The guards will chase her and you are free to go about your day. The King thanks you for participating in this guard training drill.

[theta-scenario]

People with low spoons, someone just recommended this cookbook to me, so I thought I’d pass it on.

I always look at cookbooks for people who have no energy/time to do elaborate meal preparations, and roll my eyes. Like, you want me to stay on my feet for long enough to prepare 15 different ingredients from scratch, and use 5 different pots and pans, when I have chronic fatigue and no dishwasher?

These people seem to get it, though. It’s very simple in places. It’s basically the cookbook for people who think, ‘I’m really bored of those same five low-spoons meals I eat, but I can’t think of anything else to cook that won’t exhaust me’. And it’s free!

The Sad Bastard Cookbook by tRaum Books

by Rachel A. Rosen and Zilla Novikov || Food you can make so you don't die.

[drovenna]

SPREAD THE WORD THIS IS FUCKING GOD TIER OH MY GOD, SOMETIMES I HAVE SPOONS SOMETIMES I DON’T BUT NO COOKBOOK OFFERS LEVELS IN THEIR RECIPES THIS ONE DOES!

[odakota-rose]

also found here:

The Sad Bastard Cookbook

Life is hard. Some days are at the absolute limit of what we can manage. Some days are worse than that. Eating—picking a meal, making it, pu

the ebook is FREE here also

[liberalsarecool]

Sharing space is nothing new. Sharing bathrooms is nothing new. The reactionary outrage is so manufactured.

[theconcealedweapon]

The parking lot? As in the gender neutral parking lot? As in a place where you have no privacy?

[greatmountainfloofsquatch]

These are the bathrooms at the airport in question:

As you can see, complete privacy for all waste-expulsion activities. You only encounter other people around the sink.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

This just proves a point that I’ve repeatedly noticed and it’s that every time a bathroom goes gender neutral it gets about a hundred percent safer.

I distinctly remember coming back from college to find that they’d converted the two of the bathrooms into all-gender restrooms. Among the changes were doors that went all the way up and down, a locking mechanism within the door, and actual door handles. Even the single-occupancy bathroom got a wall for extra privacy.

In contrast, I remember the women’s bathrooms in my old school. They were broken as shit. Some doors needed to be held by a friend, some doors you held with your foot from inside. The wheelchair-accessible bathroom straight up did not have a door at all. And yet we all pretended this was okay because hey, the womanly honor code. You think that shit would have flown if there were two gender-neutral restrooms?

All I’m saying is that if I were fleeing a predator or wanted to be absolutely sure I was private, which one would be the better option? The one that assumes that a “no penises allowed” sign will be enough? Or the one that actually, physically protects me?

[aurpiment]

Also, nongender restrooms are better for parents. My brother and I grew up raised by my mom. While nothing ever happened to him going into the bathroom alone, not even like a poop accident that he would have needed help cleaning up with, my mom certainly got anxious sending a seven-year-old into the men’s room unaccompanied. A nongender restroom means that parents of small children can worry less about their kids.

[roseintherainforest]

Gender neutral bathrooms are The Shit. I love the privacy. Like as someone who gets menstruation related intestinal issues, the ability to just have an actual fucking door, and some goddam privacy is awesome. Gender neutral bathrooms benefit everyone. And back to the parents/caretakers of children thing, imagine if you’re a dude who’s out with a fairly young daughter or niece, what the hell do you do if there’s no family or gender neutral washroom? Use the womens’ and deal with the weird looks and/or comments, or chance it with the guys bathroom? Gender neutral bathrooms solve dozens of problems at once, including partially eliminating a need for family washrooms, as a gender neutral bathroom with change tables would take care of all that.

[elodieunderglass]

I’ve been saying for years that TERFs are showing their utter lack of parenting with the bathrooms thing. (Nothing wrong with not having parenting experience. But I don’t care to take advice on “protecting children” from people who don’t actually manage any risks on children’s behalf.) each time they bang on about public bathrooms, it’s like: ah. You have genuinely never cared for children or thought about children’s needs in any way.

Public bathroom design, in the gender segregated sense, is actively hostile to children.

Quite apart from gender considerations, parents are often forced to use unisex wheelchair accessible stalls, which is fine, but makes them less accessible for wheelchair users, and contributes to the demand for unisex stalls. Why? Because children are small people who are usually accompanied by carers, often with a mobility aid, often needing assistance or wearing a nappy, and often have a sibling. Below the age of 3-ish, children are often in pushchairs/strollers. You cannot remove a baby from a pushchair and place it loosely on the floor of a public toilet while you are assisting your toddler. Instead, you and the pushchair/baby and the toddler are all accommodated in the wheelchair stall. That’s also where the changing table usually is.

In bathrooms where the changing table is thoughtlessly gender-locked to the womens’ room only, fuck yes you are going to see daddies changing nappies in the women’s room, and if that bothers anyone reading this, then shame on you. and to redeem yourself I hope that you write a stern letter to the mall, saying that you demand a changing table in all the bathrooms.

(The most obvious way in which public bathrooms are hostile to children are the electric hand dryers, which blast painful and distressing noise directly into the eardrums of short people whose hearing range is more sensitive than adults. But, you know, why design public spaces to protect children, or make them actually safe or comfortable…)

[lastoneout]

Gender neutral bathrooms also fix the issue where sometimes the family restroom is the only one that is usable for disabled people, and if it's not being taken up by families then disabled people can spend less time waiting to go to the bathroom, especially because for a lot of us unfettered and instant access to a bathroom when needed is a major accessibility issue. I've had to wait 15 minutes for the only disabled bathroom because it's also a family restroom and a mom and her five kids are all in there, and I sympathize, I'm the eldest child of 5, I get it, but this wouldn't be a problem if parents didn't have to worry about their children who need supervision not being allowed in the same bathroom as them on the basis of gender/sex.

And like sometimes the family restroom is the only usable one for a disabled person because I cannot even begin to tell you how many restrooms I've encountered in the six months I've had my chair that are either missing a lock, clogged, broken in some other way, or in the case of my local Albertsons built wrong so you literally cannot get your chair into them at all. Like I legit had to stand up and fold up my chair to get in and out, when it was sitting in it it was IMPOSSIBLE to close or open the door, and this was not an outlier situation, this is painfully common. So sometimes we don't have a choice and tbh making us wait for families kinda sucks. If the bathroom was single gender I wouldn't have to wait to go because this is the only bathroom my wheelchair can fit in and it's currently taken up by an entire able bodied family. Disabled people could have the disabled stalls and parents could keep an eye on their kids. A less gendered world is a better one for everyone.

[electric-blue24]

gay month approaches so I’m going to do some more pride flag dragons so comment or tag some suggestions for me