Maybe I'll turn this into a real blog! Meanwhile I mostly reblog sciencey and arty things I think are neat or important, jokes that make me laugh, Faberry, Swan Queen, the odd Bones, X-Files, Harry Potter or other photo or gifset. I love fan art. And the WNBA team Seattle Storm.
Just caught up to reading In The Heat of The Moment by PumpkinsBelow. That fic's singlehandedly driven me into a wenclair rabbit hole. Felt like I NEEDED to see Wednesday with fangs. Here she is after the scuffle with Hugo.
Also, Enid ends up using her own blood to mark the Vengeance rune on Wednesday's face, but I couldn't find much on witch runes and vengeance, so this was how I improvised lol.
I always think of the description I saw years ago: Self-imposed deadlines don't help me, because I know the person who set them, and they're full of shit.
Give yourself the treat before you start. I'm serious. And ideally during the task and afterwards too.
Executive dysfunction comes from a lack of available dopamine. Common advice is wrong. You need to provide your own dopamine before you can start. Otherwise you're trying to run your car on empty.
"But what if I still don't do it" well you already weren't getting it done anyway. Now you have a little treat. Try again later.
You deserve kindness and care even when you aren't being productive.
(Also read How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis)
I give my students a LOT of techniques for starting writing when it feels overwhelming or daunting, but one of them is exactly this: dopamine load BEFOREHAND. It may sound weird to people on tumblr dot com, but a lot of people seriously struggle with executive dysfunction when it comes to writing literally anything, to the extent that it can cause such symptoms as panic, depression, and AI chatbot use.
I usually suggest this technique as a "Reverse Pomodoro." In the original Pomodoro, you work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes (the times vary, but that's the essential ratio). People with executive dysfunction often find this insurmountable, and they get even more frustrated, and then the task seems even more difficult. So instead, flip those times.
FIRST, spend 25 minutes doing something energizing and engaging that you like to do. Not scrolling social media passively, not watching tv, not napping. Try something like colouring, doing yoga, running/walking around the block, talking about your favourite tv show with someone in real time, playing with the dog or cat, making and eating a lovely sandwich, hula hooping, something active. Having a little treat absolutely falls in this category!
(on the subject of little treats: refusing yourself food until you do work is for fucking Puritans and you can be kinder to yourself)
Then, after 25 minutes (or however long it takes to eat the sandwich or finish the yoga routine, it doesn't have to be exact), spend 5 minutes writing (or doing whatever you're struggling to start). Most people can coax themselves into doing something they find difficult for five minutes, if they have already filled up the joy/energy/engagement bucket. You can put a timer on for the 5 minutes if you want, or if you find that annoying, just work for as long as you like.
The other key is: don't push yourself to keep going when you're frustrated or tired—that will just reinforce the negative belief that you already have, which tells you that this task is painful to do, and needs to be avoided. If you've commonly had to force yourself to do this kind of task, that's likely part of why you think of it as painful and have trouble starting it now. Also, you should just, at a basic level, try not to put yourself in pain for the sake of productivity. So just do it till the good feelings run out. Then start hula hooping or colouring again for another 25 minutes. When the tank's refilled, try another 5 minutes of work, if you can. Adjust times to taste.
Not every technique works for everyone, but I've seen this one work for many students who are genuinely and seriously disabled by executive dysfunction. And many people find themselves getting more and more excited and engaged in the "difficult" task—because the good feelings from the hula hooping carry over, and because they're suddenly able to do the task without feeling pain, and feel accomplishment without feeling pain.
the topic of wenclair's size difference drives me crazy because it's not a big difference at all!! it's like one inch at most and yet.....in these pics especially it feels like it's so much, I feel insane
washing dishes is evil because you go "oh fuck there's so many dishes this is gonna take foreverrr" and then you enter the dish abyss and emerge with your abdomen somehow covered in water and your hands all wrinky and then you look at the clock and what felt like half an hour was actually 10 minutes
Itching for WPBL to start. August 1st, 2026 seems far away, but some recap for the uninitiated:
The Women's Professional Baseball League is about to start in the US. It is hosted in Springfield, IL, USA as a neutral site for the current 4 teams:
Boston (merch-green) - roster
New York (merch-teal) - roster
San Francisco (merch-purple) - roster
Los Angeles (merch-blue) - roster
Some highlights of the teams:
Details from back at tryouts last year:
Hundreds of women will flock to Washington on Friday to take their first swings at turning pro baseball dreams into reality.
Kelsie Whitmore of Savannah Bananas fame (first woman to play) will be playing for San Francisco. She was the first round first pick in the 2025 draft.
Danae Benites of the Loco Beach Coconuts will be playing for New York
There are 15 players over 30
The draft pulled players from a variety of countries:
Outside the US we have Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France, Venezuela, UK, and while it is under US occupation I wanna highlight it on its own: Puerto Rico.
There are a number of out queer players
If you liked 'A League Of Their Own,' you're gonna love the Women's Professional Baseball League. We've got everything you need to know abou
Boston (5)
Paloma Benach (LHP - DC, USA)
Nadia Diaz (3B - NY, USA)
Stephanie Everett (LF - MD, USA)
Zoe Hicks (3B - CA)
Raine Padgham (RHP - BC, CA)
New York (4)
Denae Benites (Catcher - NV, USA)
Elodie Ciamarro (Catcher - Quebec, CA)
Beth Greenwood (Catcher - USA)
London Studer (1B - OH, USA)
San Francisco (6)
Kelsie Whitmore (RHP - CA, USA)
Jordan Eyester (CF - MI, USA)
Amanda Gianelloni (2B - LA, USA)
Liz Gilder (LHP - BC, CA)
Arwen McCullough (RHP - CA, USA)
Micaela Minner (1B - OH, USA, she's 40 btw! 😍)
Los Angeles (3)
Ashton Lansdell (3B - GA, USA)
Jamie Mackay (Catcher - CA, USA)
Luisa Hernandez (3B - Jalisco, MX)
From Commissioner Justine Siegal PhD:
"Across the USA and around the world, women have always played baseball. From backyard games with older siblings, to rec leagues across the country, women have found ways to play the sport they love. Baseball is America’s pastime, but the professional game hasn’t evolved to reflect the diversity of those who play, watch and love this sport. That’s about to change.
A long time dream is coming into focus: a professional women’s baseball league for a new generation. The Women’s Pro Baseball League is here.
We’re creating a stage where elite women’s baseball players have a place to shine, and establishing a pipeline for every girl who dreams of competing at the highest level one day. A league of their own, for the first time since the AAGPBL of the 1940s. This league is just one part of a larger cultural shift. Women in sports are finally getting the recognition they deserve. We’re at the beginning of a new chapter and it’s time for our athletes to write their story.
What started as an idea is now a reality. We’re less than five months away from the WPBL’s opening day on August 1st, 2026 and already so much has happened. The world has taken notice of what we’re doing, and hundreds of thousands of people have tuned in to follow along. People just like you. Thank you for supporting this league. For supporting women in baseball. You’re a part of this. A part of history.
The next chapter begins this August.
We hope you’ll join us in making history."
Games will be aired on various streaming platforms and most importantly, the league's youtube channel.
"making them afraid will make them more racist" that's wild to me, because we live in a whole culture of social consequences for antiracism anyway. It is literally safer to be a racist than it is to speak up against it, socially.
Idk about you, but "I'm afraid no one will want to be my friend if I'm a white supremacist" seems like a pretty logical thought process to have, and I wish THAT were the normal and not "I'm afraid my friends will hate me if I tell them they made racist jokes".
i just heard the phrase “if you wouldn’t trust their advice, don’t trust their criticism” for the first time and i don’t think i’ve ever needed to hear anything more
Prompt: They meet when Jess has to turn in hers and Lena’s NDA forms because of course there is paperwork for when they find out that you know Kara Danvers is Supergirl.
Pam looks up from the seventh “Alex Danvers terrifies me” form of the day. There’s a woman standing in front of her desk with an L Corp id badge clipped to her skirt. “Excuse me?”
“I know that they put a black bag over my head for the drive over, but your windows are three stories high and I can definitely tell we’re on 14th Street and Lex.”
“Please don’t say that word.”
“What?”
“Please don’t say ‘Lex’, we try to say the full ‘Lexington’ or sometimes Superman bursts through our roof and honestly our budget cannot handle that this quarter.”
“Right, sorry.” The woman with the L Corp badge extends a hand, the one not balancing a stack of papers. “I’m Jessica, Lena Luthor’s assistant.”
Pam shakes her hand, narrowing her eyes at the top visible piece of paper. “Don’t tell me, Kara told someone else?”
With a sigh, Jessica drops the papers onto Pam’s desk. It rattles and a DEO branded pen rolls off and onto the floor. “Not in so many words, but she implied seven times she can fly and five times that she’s from another planet, once didn’t do up the top buttons on her shirt and her suit was visible, twice used her heat vision on Lena’s cooling tea, and once lifted two filing cabinets so I could grab the pencil that rolled underneath.”
Pam pinches the bridge of her nose. Someone needs to teach that girl how to lie properly. “Where did you even get the DEO NDA’s? I never recieved a request for two copies.”
Jessica shrugs, “They were just on my desk when I came into work this morning.”
“Winn Schott,” Pam mutters balefully.
“Bless you.”
“What?”
“Do you prefer ‘gesundheit’?”
“…”
“Anyways, I filled them out for both of us, had Lena sign them, walked out of the building, got abducted by commandos wearing black, was dropped of in the underground garage, took the elevator to HR, and now I’m here.” Her voice is completely calm, like this is just something that happens every day.
Then again, Pam thinks, she does work for a Luthor. Who knows what happens in those offices. (Winn Schott, obviously).
“Thank you, Jessica, I’ll get those processed by the end of the week. You may or may not also get a visit from Agent Danvers brandishing a gun and threats of violence. Please ignore those, she has been reprimanded already this week for improper use of finger threats.”