Masked Karma

A fandom old, full of opinions on everything and with random affirmation posts thrown in because everyone deserves love. Mainly Star Wars with the odd DC Comics and video game posts thrown in.

[bluemaskedkarma]

My Stuff

Making a pinned post so people can find stuff and so I can too

AO3 Link

Tumblr Tags: (main ones; there's others floating out there)

Document with ALL THE TAGS

Just the direct Tumblr Tags: General Writing Tag Morning Coffee(s) Last Line Challenge(s) Six Sentence Sunday(s)

[ao3commentoftheday]

You’ve heard of lemons and the Citrus Scale? Well, what about KINKTOMATO?

KINKTOMATO is an important concept in fandom. It’s a humourous re-spelling of YKINMKATO - Your Kink Is Not My Kink (And That’s OK). This is the idea that if you don’t like a particular kink or ship etc, that’s fine but you don’t need to attack or shame the people who do. Just leave them alone to enjoy their fics and art in peace and ask that they do the same in return. 

KINKTOMATO is the “you do you” of fandom. It’s the “whatever floats your boat” of leaving other people alone. It’s an easy and judgement-free way of hoping that your fellow fans enjoy their content as much as you enjoy yours and understanding that different folks like different strokes. 

Having preferences is human. Having squicks is totally normal. Everyone has NOTPs or lines they don’t want to cross. But fandom is a large group of diverse people with varying tastes and interests and backgrounds. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Ship and let ship. Don’t like? Don’t read. Your kink is not my kink, and that’s okay. 

[jeanjauthor]

This, writers.

And yes, do bring back “squick” because if it makes you go “ew, ick” then that’s a squick, or a hard “uh no NOT for me” it’s a squick.  (Something that’s genuinely triggering will give you symptoms like hyperventillating, shaking hands, cold sweats, nausea, the feeling like you’re gonna faint, etc, but if it just makes you go “ew, ick” and scrunches your face in distaste, then that’s a squick, my friend.)

[westotanu-deactivated20200306]

just to add on - KINKTOMATO is not easy, which goes against the usual ‘it’s not hard to just hit the back button’ narrative but I’m gonna say it. most people think they can do this stuff just fine but usually what they’re considering as ‘things they don’t like’ are things they feel neutral about. ‘I’m not really fond of X but it doesn’t make me want to run for the hills if I see it in a fic’ is not ‘oh wow I really REALLY hate that’. it takes conscious effort to be fair about it. you have to resist the urge to be like ‘this is disgusting and I want to yell at someone for subjecting my poor eyeballs to this’. sometimes you gotta leave and do other things for a few days or even weeks just because you read the tags/summary on something and were like ‘oh god nope no ew ew ew’.

nobody really enjoys practicing this type of self-discipline. it is sincerely unpleasant to encounter kinks you are repulsed/squicked by. there have been times when i was lax in reading through the tags or when i assumed a tag represented one kind of take on a thing but no actually it was another, way less appealing one, and it’s not a fun time to get that particular cold glass of water thrown onto your soul.

be mature and fair about it anyway. resist the urge to be the fandom equivalent of those white suburban moms who yell at underpaid (or volunteer, in this case) cashiers and demand to speak to the manager. ignore the people who will try and appeal to you by telling you that your aversion is a result of some innate Goodness on your part and that people who make things you don’t like are Evil.

[holycafe]

And friendly reminder that both tumblr and AO3 have ways to filter out unwanted tags so that you can easily go about your day without seeing content for one of your squicks or notps. In fact, I find it good practice to do an AO3 search for all of my favourite ships, filtering out all tags and ships I don’t like, and then saving that page as a bookmark/favourite to make my future fic-browsing easier. That way, I never accidentally come across something that makes me squick. And whenever I come across another ship or tag that I hate, I add that into my ‘excluded tags’ list and resave it.

It’s really simple and saves me a lot of pain and effort!

[caldraws]

hey bi people

[cleaverqueer]

petition to change LGBT to DFTQ (Dykes Faggots Trannies and Queers, naturally)

[cleaverqueer]

AMENDED

[cleaverqueer]

happy pride everyone

[bluemaskedkarma]

Health Update: June Edition (lol)

For those playing along at home - May/June was hell because so much was happening all at once:

we were moving apartments (May 24)

i was scheduled for major surgery (June 1)

my parents (yes, both of them) were arriving (May 30) to support me & then be with me thru recovery (SUCH expected to last until the June 17th atm)

with my surgery, i was going on short-term disability from work (May 27)

So! SO SO SO SO MUCH HAPPENING.

AHHHHH!!!!!!!

OMG

EVERYTHING'S ON FIRE!!!!!

and (spoiler) so far, everything has gone okay!

(annnd now we have a cut)

Actual moving was. ....not as bad as the last apartment move but still pretty bad. There were some casualties but otherwise, we escaped with (far) less damage to belongings this time around. It only took the poor moving crew of 3 men uhm. All Day. To move everything. Also, it came in like. An entire $1k higher than expected. Wouldn't have changed A THING. but holy shit.

Hilariously (not), there was a car accident (official) where the U-Haul Van met with the side of one of those metal parking lot barriers. It was not pretty. The van, I am sad to report, lost (to the tune of $250 we weren't expecting).

(one of these things, only not like properly capped like the highway pic)

The Van!! In all her dented glory.

So, suffice to say, moving has been stressful.

And I had friends come help pack and move and they're all amazing, wonderful, fantastic starbeams of humanity. We actually moved (almost) the last of everything the day BEFORE my parents arrived.

"Oh, it'll be fine. We'll just sleep on airbeds in the apartment!! What do you mean, there'll be no room? Nonsense!! It'll be fine, it'll all work out!"

...hah.

Fast forward to them arriving and being very ruffled feathers over there being minimal space for ONE air mattress, let alone TWO. (And they had wanted to send EVEN MORE STUFF my way for themselves pre-stay. OMG - BOOMERS. They drove me up the wall for the few days pre-surgery, treating this like it was a vacation (they still kind of are) but also like....not threatening but also kind of threatening to start unpacking me. 😬 Like, no. Get your mitts off my shit.

Except fast forward to post-op me and I'm reluctantly asking them to move this box and open that box and yeah. There might need to be some humble pie on my side for the unpacking thing. 😬 Joy. My favorite. (except mom may be covered in germs which, ew, no, get away from me.....)

Also, as context? I'd been menstruating through all of this. HEAVILY. Like, that scene in The Shining basically. All the time. Since May 16 (up until my surgery, in fact.)

anyway. surgery!!!

I completed my 3(.5) initial rounds of chemo at the end of April and the goal was to go in and de-tumorify me and also do a full hysterectomy since that is the source of my cancer. (It apparently WAS my ovaries that were just So Salty as to Wreck My Life this year and not the tubes - they hadn't known previously. I had a Feeling.) My appendix was also looking at them funny so they snatched that too. And they removed a funky little thing called the omentum. There was a lot of removing going on.

I was in surgery for apparently 10 hours!! 🫣

Recovery has been loooooooong and will continue to be long. I was admitted to the hospital and kept for about a week (M-Sat) and today (a week from surgery) is the first time i feel mentally WITH IT. pain is a bitch but meh. I'm used to dealing with pain at this point.

but yep, that's where i am right now.

and how have y'all been??

[groovyfran-png]

"Do you insert yourself as the top/bottom of your favorite ship?" No, I'm the cameraman

[bluemaskedkarma]

5 songs I've got on repeat

Tagged by @brokenphoenix99

I’ve been in the hospital and then just recently discharged so sorry this was a little late. (I’m fine, recovery is going well!) im also doing this on mobile at like 2am so this is chaos edition, if there were rules, I’ve ignored them

Madisyn Gifford - 32 Flavors

Victor Lungberg - Can’t Let Go

Noah Kahan - The Great Divide / Porchlight / Doors (the fics and the world I’m building, man…..)

Nothing But Thieves - Evolution

MUNA - Wannabeher

I’m a little bit all over the place right now but also, not upset. Good solid little list.

Taaaagging @merlyn-bane @anxiousotters @wrennette @cuzosu-blog @ferretrade

Tell me what 5 ear worms YOU have!! 🫵 👀❤️

My phone should be taken away from me past a certain time period istg, I’m going to go back to sleeps now

[bluemaskedkarma]

I forgot to mention that "Can't Let Go" has significant ~*fic*~ vibes but they're very nebulous. i am more awake now. i have had Caffeine. i am unstoppable.

[bluemaskedkarma]

*stealthily increases the queue drops*

[spockslash]

An open Tumblr letter to younger fans, from a 77-year-old TOS fangirl

* who has shipped Spirk since that night in 1967 that Amok Time first aired * and helped storm NBC to keep TOS on the air for a 3rd season * and wrote fanfic way back in the day * and was privileged to be around for the earliest days of fandom, when Leonard used to come to your house if that’s where the fan club was meeting and sit on the sofa with you in that Spock hair cut and eat cake

All of you who are writing TOS/AOS fan fiction and creating fan art now: remember, YOU are the ones shaping the traditions of fandom. You have inherited the kingdom. Bless you for keeping it vibrant, growing, alive. In fifty years, you will be the ones who are remembered for molding it and handing it down to the future. It probably doesn’t feel like now, but you are making history.

Your current addiction to TOS and the feels you get when you contemplate the love between Jim and Spock will be with you for life. It won’t always be in the forefront; you will sometimes go years, sometimes go a decade, without Star Trek being more than a passing thought. But then something will remind you and every consuming feeling you feel right now will come rushing back, every bit as powerful and deep and strong as it is today. All there, right where you left it.

The friendships you make in fandom will be with you for life. Like all friendships, they will wax and wane as the focus of your life shifts over time, but you will always be able to pick up the thread. You will — to give you a hypothetical example — be 77 years old and discover Tumblr and get a rush of Spirk feels after a decade of not giving TOS a thought, and contact your 83-year-old fangirl friend in the nursing home, to whom you haven’t spoken in several years. You will open the conversation with, “So, Jim and Spock love each other and that just makes me so happy.” And your friend in the nursing home will sigh and say, “Yes. They do love each other. It’s such a comfort.”

That look that Jim and Spock give each other, of absolute adoration and acceptance and love? That’s real. It’s rare, but it’s real. One of my greatest joys in life is to see my son and his husband give each other looks like that. Of course I don’t know you; I don’t know your strengths and struggles or your place on the spectrum of gender or anything about your sexuality or what you look like or what your life has taught you to believe about yourself, but I do know this: YOU DESERVE TO BE LOVED AND LOOKED AT THE WAY JIM AND SPOCK LOOK AT EACH OTHER. Please don’t accept less than that in your life.

The future of our planet does not seem very hopeful at the moment. But please remember that when Gene created Star Trek, the world was in turmoil and the future seemed very bleak. Star Trek is, was, always shall be about hope. Reach for it. When TOS first aired, we hoped to see some form of a Starfleet on the horizon in our lifetimes. That vision must be passed on to you. Do it. Make the world worthy of launching the human race out into space. CREATE STARFLEET.

You are all creative and funny and amazing. Far more amazing than you know. Be kind to yourselves. Live long and prosper, kids.

Tags are in reference to my first bullet point. Meant as a kudos to your work, but feel free to untag yourself if you don’t want to be linked to my ramblings; I won’t be offended! (Also, this extends to a thousand other artists and writers out there who deserve kudos. tag at will.)

[spockslash]

@spockslash​ will not be taken down until / unless tumblr takes it down.

Love from “Fandom Grandma” Dee’s children

[kozh-lucium]

Obi-wan “nobody is allowed to bully my Master except me” Kenobi

[bluemaskedkarma]

5 songs I've got on repeat

Tagged by @brokenphoenix99

I’ve been in the hospital and then just recently discharged so sorry this was a little late. (I’m fine, recovery is going well!) im also doing this on mobile at like 2am so this is chaos edition, if there were rules, I’ve ignored them

Madisyn Gifford - 32 Flavors

Victor Lungberg - Can’t Let Go

Noah Kahan - The Great Divide / Porchlight / Doors (the fics and the world I’m building, man…..)

Nothing But Thieves - Evolution

MUNA - Wannabeher

I’m a little bit all over the place right now but also, not upset. Good solid little list.

Taaaagging @merlyn-bane @anxiousotters @wrennette @cuzosu-blog @ferretrade

Tell me what 5 ear worms YOU have!! 🫵 👀❤️

My phone should be taken away from me past a certain time period istg, I’m going to go back to sleeps now

[ximenasbrokencd]

can't wait to say "during pride month?" at every minor inconvenience all of next month

[coffee-khaleesi-deactivated2020]

When I was training to be a battered women’s advocate, my supervisor said something that really blew my mind:

“You can always assume one thing about your clients; and that is that they are doing their best. Always assume everyone is doing their best. And if they’re having a day where their best just isn’t that great, or their best doesn’t look like your best, you have to be okay with that.”

Any now whenever anyone in my life, either a friend or a client, frustrates me, disappoints me, or pisses me off, I just tell myself They are doing their best. Their best isn’t that great today, but I have days where my best isn’t that great either. 

[bogfox]

Op I’d like to thank you for sharing this. Ever since the first time I’ve read it I’ve held it in my mind and it really has helped me to be kinder to others and to myself.

[shutyourmoustache]

“There’s simply no room for me to park my hellcat” wins best in show for me.

[bizarrelittlemew]

but above all, one must not concern oneself with the opinions of people who censor the word fuck

[femmepathy]

The mile-long rainbow flag being carried down First Avenue in New York City.

[arcaneasexual]

“For New York City Pride in 1994 (Stonewall 25), Baker created a mile-long rainbow flag that was carried down First Avenue in Manhattan. During the parade, Baker used scissors to cut segments from the flag to be rushed to Fifth Avenue for an impromptu protest march in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the headquarters of New York City’s anti-gay Catholic archdiocese.

^“At the bottom of the image is the segment of the flag cut for the St. Patrick’s Cathedral protest. Photograph by Mick Hicks”

“Gilbert Baker wearing a white sequined dress (right) and other protestors triumphantly march the cut pieces of the mile-long flag past St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Photograph by Charles Beal”

[socialmaya]

Occasionally forget people genuinely think capitalism is thousands of years old

[sylestial]

One time I was talking about Robin Hood with some coworkers and one guy was like “he was bad because the people he helped learned to expect handouts” and I wanted to be like… okay can you explain how that flawed capitalist propaganda applies to feudalism

[scallioncreamcheesebagel]

reminder that capitalism was literally invented in the 16th century

[tayefeth]

That’s an exaggeration. What was invented in the 16th century was mercantilism. Capitalism really dates for the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the rise of industry and cash crops over artisans and merchants. Vulture capitalism, with the notion that companies have no duties other than generating profit, is even younger.

[antique-scarecrow]

Capitalism is only 200 years old and I have to say, they have not been an impressive 200 years

[downtroddendeity]

I think a lot of this comes from the fact that most people don’t know the formal definition of capitalism. We all know the word, we’ve all seen the jokes, but very few people bother to actually define it unless they’re talking about political theory and philosophy, so it’s easy to end up with the impression that Capitalism = Money Can Be Exchanged For Goods And Services.

Capitalism is the economic system where most of the means of production (i.e. everything people need to have to make the stuff that everyone wants) are owned by private individuals or corporations, who then hire people to provide the labor necessary to produce things, with the intent of selling the output at a profit. It’s the difference between “you’re a carpenter and you make a chair and you sell it” and “you’re Richard Q. Richington who owns a chair factory, and you pay people to sell the chairs you paid other people to make and then all the excess money goes back to you.” There have been Richard Q. Richingtons on and off throughout history, but that being the norm for every single industry is a pretty recent development.

[antiterfbutch]

An alarming amount of people seem to think capitalism = all trade, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.