Pointless Words

I'm a 23 year old writer, with too many ideas. INFP. WIP: Resist WIP: The Doll Makers Apprentice WIP: Althea WIP: Skelomorphs

[secretunderwaterbunker]

[autisticadvocacy]

Hotel-based homeless shelters changed lives in pandemic. Some want them to be a model moving forward

Tracey Williams of Boston is one of many people experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts who saw their lives turn around after staying in a hotel-based shelter during the pandemic. Now some say this "non-congregate" form of shelter should become the standard, while others say the focus should be on creating permanent supportive housing.

“People experiencing homelessness who have physical disabilities or chronic health conditions also benefit greatly from non-congregate shelter settings…" 

[dogattheparty]

i want ppl to understand when you don’t have your own bathroom your entire day can be spent moving from place to place trying to use public restrooms and there aren’t many, if u don’t have AC your whole day is avoiding heat or cold, if u don’t have a locking door you cannot keep your belongings anywhere except on your body and even if you are living in a car, if you get arrested they tow it instantly. and if you do anything except move around a LOT, the cops will figure out real quick that you are living in your car because they’ll see you frequently, in atypical hours, and for longer periods than other people are parking. if you don’t have a fridge you can only keep the food that either doesn’t go bad (canned stuff, breads, powdered things), no plumbing so you can’t shower, no drain so you keep water in jugs, no electricity so how the hell do you could and where even would you keep a microwave or burner and WHERE DO U WASH YOUR DISHES!!! WHERE DO YOU LAY DOWN!!!

meanwhile we are currently in a motel that is exactly big enough for: two full beds. microwave. mini fridge. small tables. shower. toilet. sink. it has several outlets and a door with a deadbolt. this is all we need. we could live here. i feel so much calmer and more present in my own skull. even though it’s only two nights. i feel like i have extended my ability to endure more Life. but we do have to leave. so we have to go back to figuring out how to get into a place like this again instead of building a foundation to survive. even if we could stay here right now, the stuff we’ve gone through would make us just….. rest and do nothing for weeks, if we had the chance. some people would only ever be able to rest in housing they were given and never do much more “"for”“ other people. personally housing instability is a major reason i haven’t held any jobs longer than 2 yrs. i keep being unable to labor enough to stay where i am and also feed myself or have energy to move. if we could just. do what they talk about in this article. if everyone had at least a hotel room were they could keep food and themselves and pets or kids and sleep safely. so many health issues would be reduced. screams

[psychophagus]

wish I could pin multiple posts

[dingdongyouarewrong]

this post is making a very good and important point- that teenagers who are having bad experiences in high school are not crazy or overreacting or imagining it- and I’m not reblogging so as not to derail it. that said also think it’s worth mentioning, in case any of my younger followers see it and are freaked out by it, that entering high school is not a guarantee that you are about to be subject to years worth of constant psychological degradation. some people have very awful experiences and, as this post says, these people are completely in the right to recognize that horror- but a lot of people also just keep to themselves, have a couple friends, and have an OK time. i can personally say, as someone who was severely bullied in junior high, high school was 100 times better for me and I mostly just went to class and did theatre kid stuff. high school doesn’t automatically guarantee you will suffer horribly during it, if that’s something you’re scared of.

[goldie-claws]

comic sans rules, handwritten with no ID drools etc etc

[gayvampyr]

“i wouldn’t have an abortion” cool. stop making it everyone else’s problem

[liberalsarecool]

We knew this in 1973. That is why Roe v Wade passed 7-2. We know women will die after this latest abomination.

Not to mention the spike in misogyny and violence towards women from assholes of all ages.

[sreegs]

As the staff post about ad-free tumblr continues to get thousands of notes telling staff to fuck off in the tags, I wanna remind you that this website's days are numbered. Tumblr is still unprofitable and by some modern-day miracle none of its acquiring companies pulled the plug on this money pit. But it will happen if it continues its trajectory.

Whether you like it or not, Tumblr needs to make money off you somehow in order to stay up. It either serves ads or asks for money to use it. This has been a paradigm on the web longer than many of you have been alive. It's Tumblr's job to make money right now because it's well past its grace period of being a black hole for cash. This has actually always been Tumblr's job, since it is a corporation, but that's capitalism for ya.

If you want Tumblr to be here for free and you want to continue to use it, you do yourself a disservice by opposing any changes Tumblr makes in order to pay for its costs. When this site finally goes belly-up then you're gonna be Tumblr-less until whatever startup takes its place and the cycle repeats itself.

If you think it should just ask for donations Wikipedia-style, remember that if and when that happens, there will be users repeating the same tired bullshit about giving Tumblr any money.

[sreegs]

just a reminder in case you missed it directly from the current CEO of Tumblr:

[ifyouknowmeirlgoaway]

Also like. If you do not want to pay that is cool, but why are you getting in the way of people who do? You could literally just keep using Tumblr exactly how you are. My reaction to this was "Thank god" because I appreciate having one social media site where they aren't actively trying to dominate my entire life. If you do not, don't pay. It's very simple.

[prideknights]

Tumblr is a much, much better safe space for the LGBTQ+ community than Instagram and Twitter. I’m going ad-free so our community keeps a place where a vast majority of people are welcoming toward us.

[killy-deactivated20241228]

before yesterday i never saw anyone but terfs saying "no hope for women," and even aside from that, it's a juvenile, useless refrain. i get that these are dark times, but in a growing wave of antifeminist reaction, do you sit down and wail that there's no hope? or do you choose to BE the hope you aren't seeing? mariame kaba, an anti-carceral feminist organizer who works to decriminalize domestic abuse survivors' self-defense and dismantle the prison industrial complex, listed the following questions that she regularly asks when she's outraged about injustice:

1. What resources exist so I can better educate myself?

2. Who's already doing work around this injustice?

3. Do I have the capacity to offer concrete support & help to them?

4. How can I be constructive?

people are doing the work! you can join them! you can be constructive! "no hope for women" is not constructive

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Teach your children to respect animals and the world around them. Teach them that nature isn't their toy and that their actions have consequences. Teach them compassion for other beings and creatures.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

@lightpunster Bed bugs are valuable prey and food sources for spiders and other predatory insects, though not something you'd want in your house.

Fleas are also food sources for other animals, but their most vital role is spreading parasites and pathogens, acting as natural population control.

Cockroaches, again, act as food sources and are also decomposers that mainly break down debris on forest floors; they adapted to consume human waste and break it down too, doing their job in a changing environment.

Everything has a role and a purpose.

[agro-carnist]

Something does not have to have some sort of worth to humans to deserve being alive. Nature is more than just humans and the earth does not revolve around us. A species is not suddenly not worth existing because it has a negative impact on people. There is balance. You can kill the bed bugs and fleas that taking residence on you or in your home while still acknowledging they are useful members of the ecosystem. They are just doing what they evolved to do

[zooophagous]

You're an animal and part of the food chain. Part of being on the food chain means something is going to eat you. Humans get parasites for the same reason almost literally any other animal gets parasites. Something doesn't have to have an explicit obvious "reason" to exist, it just evolved to fill a niche. Humans don't have an explicit reason to exist either and that fact is why so many of us are steeped in existentialism. Its bad enough worrying about it for you, don't extend it to other animals.

[dailyhistorymemes]

The Choctaw-Irish Brotherhood(via)

[paula-of-christ]

[im-the-princess-now]

I love stuff like this. Didn’t a tribe in Africa send America some cows after 9/11? Like this is holy and the most valuable thing we have. We hear your suffering and want to do anything in our power to help

[dresshistorynerd]

It was not a potato famine. The famine didn’t happen because of the potato yeald failing. Ireland was actually producing more than enough food. However it was almost all land owned by Brittish landowners, who took all of the food out of the country to sell in UK. Potato was what the Irish farmers ate, because it was cheep and could be produced in worst parts of the land, where more profitable food couldn’t be grown. When there were no longer potatos, the decision for the farmers was to either starve and sent the food as rent to the landlords or loose their homes and then starve.

The Brittish goverment was unwilling to do anything for two reasons. First was the laissez-faire capitalistic ideology, that put the rights of property owners to make profits above human lives. Rent freeze was unthinkable and they even were unwilling to do proper relief efforts as free food would lower the cost of food. The second reason was distain for the Irish, and the thought that they were “breeding too much” and the famine was a natural way to trim down the population, aka genocidal reasoning.

This is why it’s important to stress it was not a potato famine. The potato blinght was all over Europe but only in Ireland there was a famine. The reasons behind it had nothing to do with potatos and everything to do with the Brittish.

Apparently what made Choctaw want to offer relief to Irish was the news about the Doolough Tragedy. Hundreds of starving people were gathered for inspection to verify they were entitled to recieve relief. The officials would for *some reason* not do that and instead left to a hunting lodge 19 kilometers away to spend the night and said to the starvqing people they would have to walk there by morning to be inspected. The weather conditions were terrible and many of them died completely needlessly during the walk thoroung day and night.

This apparently reminded the Choctaw of their own very recent (and much more explicit and bigger scale) experiences of ethnic clensing, where they were forcibly relocated. It was basically a death march and thousands of Choctaw died from the terrible conditions also completely needlessly.

In 2015 a memorial named Kindred Spirits was installed in Southern Ireland to commemorate the Chactow donation.

[trickstertime]

Then in 2020:

Irish people donate €2.5m to Native American tribe devastated by coronavirus

Navajo Nation say Irish generosity is the ‘good in all of the bad that is going on’

[teaweltzer]

Rolling in on the last day of Week 1 Spooky Funguary with Inky Cap

[brightwanderer]

I think a lot about how we as a culture have turned “forever” into the only acceptable definition of success.

Like… if you open a coffee shop and run it for a while and it makes you happy but then stuff gets too expensive and stressful and you want to do something else so you close it, it’s a “failed” business. If you write a book or two, then decide that you don’t actually want to keep doing that, you’re a “failed” writer. If you marry someone, and that marriage is good for a while, and then stops working and you get divorced, it’s a “failed” marriage.

The only acceptable “win condition” is “you keep doing that thing forever”. A friendship that lasts for a few years but then its time is done and you move on is considered less valuable or not a “real” friendship. A hobby that you do for a while and then are done with is a “phase” - or, alternatively, a “pity” that you don’t do that thing any more. A fandom is “dying” because people have had a lot of fun with it but are now moving on to other things.

I just think that something can be good, and also end, and that thing was still good. And it’s okay to be sad that it ended, too. But the idea that anything that ends is automatically less than this hypothetical eternal state of success… I don’t think that’s doing us any good at all.

[guerrillatech]

[programaticallydelicious]

Maybe he’s ordering a decaf because he has a heart condition, and you’re about to give him a heart attack and send him to the hospital.

Or maybe he’s just ordering a decaf.

Maybe she’s ordering sugar free because she’s diabetic, and you’re about to put her six feet under.

Or maybe she’s just ordering sugar free,

Maybe they’re ordering non-dairy because they’re intolerant, and you’re about to ruin their day. Maybe they’re allergic, and you’re about to sponsor an all black event in an open field.

Or maybe they’re just ordering non-dairy.

Maybe they ordered gluten free because they can’t process it, and you’re about to destroy their digestive tract.

Or maybe they’re just ordering gluten free.

Maybe they’re ordering this way just because they don’t want the food, for whatever reason.

But are you willing to bet their life on it?

[desolator-thedragon]

Also, please remember that some people with sensitivities may get sick hours to days later. Just because they don’t have an immediate reaction doesn’t mean they are “exaggerating” or “lying”.

Whether illness or personal preference— just make their dang food the way they ask!!!

[politicandhp]

Who is this post for? Are food/coffeeshop employees regularly sneaking sugar and caffinated coffee out to their customers? Os this a thing thats happening?

[fairytalepsuedonym-deactivated2]

A while back there was a post on an anaonymous cofessions about about a person who said whenever she sees a thin woman ordering a diet soda she just gives em a regular bc they dont “need to be dieting.”

[beaniebaneenie]

Every coffee shop I have EVER worked in had at least one barista who would regularly change orders without the customer’s knowledge or permission, for reasons like

she doesn’t need to be dieting

Ugh, non dairy milk is so hard to steam, and drinking soy is a fad anyway

Life is short, eat the damn cheese bitch, it won’t kill you

I’d have to go open another bag of the gluten-free, and I don’t wanna walk all the way to the back room to go get it

At least once, I caught it maybe 3 seconds from disaster- someone with a life-threatening dairy allergy had ordered a soy latte. She told me at the register that it was a deadly allergy. I even wrote on the cup “ALLERGY- NO DAIRY”.

I caught the barista in question rolling her eyes and saying under her breath, “skinny bitches and their fake allergies, trying to get shit for free” (this particular coffee shop had a policy where a dairy allergy meant you didn’t pay the extra fee for non-dairy milk).

I saw the barista rinsing the dairy pitcher, put 2+2 together, and yelled out to the customer to stop her. She hadn’t started drinking yet, but she did lick the drips on the lid- she still needed her Epi-Pen and to go to the hospital.

Suffice to say that barista was fired on the spot… but there are many more people like that. Far too many.

Make the food/drinks people order, the way they fucking order them.

Even if she had just been trying to save the 50 cents…. so what?

Don’t bet people’s lives on your decisions.

[jabberwockypie]

Respect people’s basic bodily autonomy to decide what food they do or do not consume.

[audre-w]

let me add the “I’ll make you eat vegan meat without your knowledge to show you it’s the same than meat” to the list. Personally, they are many vegetables used as meat replacement, that I can’t eat because of stomach issues. And I’m sure as heck I’m not the only one with that issue. So for the love of everything, do not trick people when it’s about food in general.

[destinyrush]

This is how you should ask trans and non-binary people about their identity 

[starlitvalkyrie]

YOURE DOING SO WELL SWEETIE IM SO PROUD OF YOU

[star-fall-system]

This is cute

[littlemisspipebomb]

[loveislattes]

Mad respect to people who are supportive and doing all they can to be informed! 

[herbirdglitter]

Nothing brings me more joy than people learning from history and then modernizing it up a bit.

Like you wanna grow your hair long? Stop washing it so often and brush it more to keep it clean. Your hair will be way healthier too. And stop cutting it (and use a boar bristle brush, it’ll work better)*for straight hair!!!! Does not work on curly hair!!!

You want to keep cool in the summer? Out with the polyester and in with the linen, cotton, and wool. Natural fibers are going to keep you cooler because they’re literally made to breathe

You want to preemptively stop the underwire in your bra from poking through? There’s a very simple embroidery stitch you can do that the Edwardians used to do to stop their corset boning from coming through.

We don’t have to just learn from our ancestors mistakes, we can learn from their stakes too

[luulapants]

Breaking down Tumblr’s latest Post+ Statement

In the wake of massive backlash against their new monitization/paywall program, Tumblr staff has given a statement in an attempt to combat one of the major arguments against it: that this would be a nightmare for fan writers and artists who are vulnerable to lawsuits for copyright infringement.

This post was meant to read as “haha, your friendly neighborhood Tumblr staff!” while actually being intentionally vague and misleading. I’ve seen people laughing it off as Tumblr having an idiot for a lawyer, but the post is actually written very cleverly. So let’s break it down:

First off, let’s make one thing clear: this information is coming to you from Tumblr’s lawyer, not yours. Tumblr’s lawyer’s job is to protect Tumblr from legal trouble and is under no obligation to give fair legal advice to Tumblr users or protect them in legal matters.

Notice that they are careful to say that they encourage sharing these works on “the platform” in general, not through the Post+ system. This gives them deniability - they never explicitly encouraged users to post this content on the monetized platform.

Yes, fanfiction and fanart are frequently considered fair use when they are not monetized. And notice in the second sentence, they switch to the much vaguer term “fan work” when claiming that something can be monetized and still fall under fair use. Fan work could refer to something as innocuous as beta reading and other fan work related services. This could also be referring to works in the public domain. Again, they have plausible deniability.

And make no mistake, there is a long, ugly history of fan writers and artists being sued for copyright infringement. It is absolutely not legal to sell, through any means, fanfiction or fan art of copyrighted content.

And here we get to the real heart of the matter. Their TOS has a clause which states that you may not infringe on another person’s copyright. They have now vaguely but deniably suggested that you can monetize your fanart and fanfiction, but whether or not you’re violating fair use “depends.” They won’t give you specifics. Because it does depend - on whether or not the work is copyrighted. But their statement implies that there are special circumstances where the nature of a fan work based on a copyrighted source makes it ‘fair use.’ This is not the case.

Most importantly, when the copyright holder comes to complain, Tumblr will not protect you. They will say that you have violated the TOS by infringing on intellectual property rights, and we never told you to. You’re on your own, kid. I wouldn’t be shocked if this is used as an excuse to withhold your Post+ revenue.

And the DMCA takedown process? That’s just the process for getting the content removed from Tumblr. It doesn’t mention that the copyright holder then has the right to go after you, personally, with a lawsuit to recoup any money you made off your Post+ subscriptions, plus damages to the brand. Tumblr, meanwhile, can keep its cut of your subscriptions because that money was paid to them for hosting the Post+ service, not for the works themselves. And, as an online platform, they are not responsible for the illegal actions of its users beyond complying with DMCA.

This post is malicious and intentionally misleading. They intend to scrape a profit off of fan writers and artists on their way to the courthouse.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Fan-fiction writers, be advised… when Post+ goes wide (if it goes wide) DO NOT, under any circumstances, put fan-fiction behind a paywall. You cannot legally profit from any fan-fiction you write.