And I've got a big question for y'all. I'm told that, due to timezone differences, our friends in the Europe struggle with the usual 12:00 pm PST prompt drop.
In order to accommodate...
Should the prompt drop time change to 9:00 am PST?
Sure!
No, thank you - keep it 12:00 pm PST
Remaining time: 1 day 2 hours
The 24-hour time limit for prize eligibility would still apply. So, as an example, for PST folks, the 24-hour window would shift to 9:00 am 9/1 - 8:59 9/2 on prompt #1, and so on.
9:00 am PST is the only option on the table for a potential prompt drop time adjustment. Please understand that there is no prompt drop time of day that will work perfectly for everyone. Adjusting to a 9:00 am PST start would allow a fair range of writing times for a broader majority.
So, please vote! Share this post with your FFxivWrite participating friends so that they can vote as well.
In 1 week I'll check back on the poll, and I'll take the results into serious consideration as I prep for September 1st, 2026! The final prompt drop time will be announced in the official rules post that will go out roughly 2 weeks before the challenge begins.
Reading is in the trenches because why did my 9 yr old nephew look at the word "jealous" and said "jewish"? And when asked why he mistaken it as such he said they both started with a "J". It's like his brain is doing autofill. No matter how many time I try to tell him slow down and sound out the words he just won't.
--
TRAP CARD ACTIVATED
No, but seriously, anon, you need to look into what's going on in his classroom because he's probably being taught this trash method instead of phonics. He does not know how to slow down and sound things out because his school has never taught him that. When you tell him to do this, he has no context for what you're even talking about.
This has come up repeatedly here, and I don't have time to froth at the mouth today, but look up "whole language".
This podcast made waves a few years ago when all the lockdown parents discovered, to their horror, that their kiddos weren't being taught to read in the NORMAL FUCKING WAY WE'VE USED FOR LITERALLY CENTURIES and were instead being taught a fake-ass method backed by vibes and antivax-levels of pseudoscience.
Intervene now, anon, or he's never going to read well.
I remember one of my grade school teachers discussing with my mother the differences between me and my sister at learning to read, and he described me as a "sight reader from the start"... which is to say, an acknowledgement that most people do not do that and it's not reasonable to expect that of the majority of kids, who really do need the phonics and the "sound things out."
Generally speaking if a kid has arrived at school not knowing how to read already, they're not going to do well with sight reading and need phonics. The few kids who develop The Reading in the way the whole language people think they should do it before they hit school.
So true. I know a retired teacher who bawwws and tries to contradict me when I rant about whole language at our knitting meetup. She's all "different kids need different approaches!" and "I saw it work!"...
But of course it feels intuitively sensible to her. She taught herself to read at age 2. That's the exact kind of experience that does make this method sound reasonable. But like you say, if it's going to happen, it happens very early and without the school curriculum.
As for me, I've said it before, but I assume anon wasn't around: I could not learn to read.
I was in second grade. (First grade? I can't remember. Around then.) Most of my classmates were reading at least a little. Me: nothing. I could not learn.
It was even a god damn private school, but I had to have a fucking tutor. I got dragged over to that lady's office a few days a week for... two months? Four months? It really wasn't that long, as far as I know. I was more than ready to learn. I just needed an actual fucking method that wasn't lying trash. Almost at once I jumped from nothing to reading well above grade level. For the rest of my childhood, I continued to diverge from my classmates in how many words I knew, how well I could read, the works. Every year of grade school makes that gap widen. I was on the desirable side of that gap. I was lucky.
It's obvious how verbal I am from reading my tl;dr on this blog.
But I could not learn to read.
I was a couple years younger than this nephew, but not that much younger. It's not too late. Now is the perfect time for some tutoring. If you can afford it, get a pro. If you can't, do your best. But you've got to do something.
The four cueing systems if whole language reading education are a band-aid method used by severely dyslexic people. When people's dyslexia is so bad that they simply cannot learn to read effectively, tricks like cueing allow them to function well enough in society to get by. They do NOT teach proper literacy.
This system was popularised by a guy who is obviously dyslexic, refuses to acknowledge that when asked, and essentially decided that everyone else must be like him and therefore the system that helped him get by was a substitute for real literacy since it was so much faster and more achievable for him to learn to "read" this way than phonically. It's kind of like if somebody without hands was learning to sew, found it incredibly frustrating to do without hands, so they started putting their creations together entirely with fabric glue which they found easier to apply... and told everyone how much easier it was so all the schools got rid of needles and thread and sewing machines and everyone was taught to "sew" using fabric glue only and then wondered why their clothing kept falling apart on their bodies.
Say you break your ankle. You could know everything there is to know intellectually about the injury. Even with this vast knowledge, you will still experience physical pain.
Now take this logic and apply it to things like ADHD, autism, clinical depression, and other less visible/divergent disabilities. You cannot think your way out of feeling.
That is to say: you are not a bad, lazy, or selfish person for struggling, even if you know why you are struggling.
"everyone is paying super close attention to everyone else all the time" actualy statistical error. hypervigilance georg, who enters fight or flight when someone starts breathing differently, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
#this one's for the people who hear 'people aren't paying that close attention to you! I mean do YOU pay that close of attention to them?'#and go: unfortunately yeah!!!!!!!#you are georg hope this helps. love u#hang in there one day u will be able to pay less attention all the time
For anyone confused about why this "sweet ad" is actually evil:
ring is passing the surveillance they collect to ice
ring is using these ID features to search for/identify people that ice wants to deport/kidnap/disappear, & using it to spy on Americans in general.
This ad is the company's gross & sneaky attempt to appeal to humans' kindness [ I'll be helping people find their pets!" ]
They are trying to trick more people into buying this tool that will be used as surveillance on people living in the USA
AND~!!!
also probably trying to trick people into turning on features/settings that will make it easier for them to pass information to ice and other hostile governmental authorities
I called this ad propaganda the second I saw it and my dad got annoyed with me. Excuse me for not wanting to live in a fucking surveillance state. It’s too late. My parents already have a camera. But at least the street isn’t visible because we have fence around the front yard. People walking by are safe. They would have to come all the way up the driveway to be seen. But still.
they put RFK jr in charge of the agency that most directly affects everything i've been doing in my real life career for a decade so if I start posting like i've clamped car batteries to my nipples it's because i have done exactly that
I knew eventually I'd have to make this post but the events of this week have pretty much been the last straw. The CDC is no longer publishing scientifically accurate information about vaccines.
Please do not get health information from the CDC for the foreseeable future. If you are an American, depending on your state, the state health department may have more accurate information. States in the Governor's Public Health Alliance are relatively trustworthy.
I've personally been using Dr. Kaetlyn Jetelina's newsletter as a less-grim way to keep up with US public health news. It's on substack unfortunately, but the information is solid.
Yale School of Public Health's POPHIVE is also a good way to track population health trends in the US.
I know this is not at the top of the administration's crimes. But it is one of them, and it is going to hurt a lot of people. Not much I can say but that I'm heartbroken.
Hi, in case you don't know me I'm CasualJacob, or Jacob if you prefer. I don't use Tumblr a lot (trying to change that), but this seemed the best way to explain everything to my Twitch viewers.
On August 30, 2025, my elderly cat Jack (16 years old) started having issues using his litter box. What we initially thought was a simple case of poop getting stuck in his fur turned out to be a rectal prolapse. I will spare you the gory details, but yes, it's as disturbing and uncomfortable as it sounds. It was Friday night on Labor Day weekend, so naturally our only option was an emergency vet.
Rather than write about my very long, sleepless night and the rough days that followed, I'll go ahead and tell you that Jack survived and has since made a full recovery. The staff at Carolina Animal Specialty & Emergency in Hickory, NC, were patient, empathetic, and caring. I have nothing but positive things to say about them. If you're in this part of Western NC and, gods forbid, need emergency vet care, I would highly recommend them.
At any rate, it's one cat butthole, how much could it cost? Well, we are in debt to the tune of about $1,800 for Jack. The good news is that if we can pay it off within six months, we won't have to pay any interest. Now, I'm realistic as I'm a very small streamer, so I don't expect to raise all the money, but any amount I raise will help regardless.
(I've redacted my personal information, which includes my legal/dead name, my address, and phone number.)
How can you help? Well, you can donate directly to my stream via this link, the same link available on my Twitch page under the About section. While it won't show up immediately on my donation goal, donating bits, subscribing to my stream, and/or gifting subs will generate some income for me that I'll apply to the total whenever I get a Twitch payout.
What do you get out of this? Mostly the warm fuzzy feeling that you're helping an old cat stay pampered as money that's not going towards his medical debt can be used for treats and other cat luxuries, but I'm going to be putting up incentives on my stream as well. For example, in Overwatch if you've ever wanted to see me, a gold support main, play tank, now's going to be your chance. I'm also floating the idea of playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on stream for the first time, likely a 12-hour stream once I reach a certain goal, or trying to solo content in FFXIV. Things like that.
I want to emphasize how much I appreciate any and all help people offer, even if it's just reblogging this post or sharing my going live posts on Bluesky. I know everyone is going through it, especially here in America.
Regardless of the outcome, I do not regret our decision to get him treated. I adopted Jack in January of 2010, a couple of months before his first birthday and he has been my companion these last 15 years. He sits in my lap for every video appointment I have with my therapist (she's diagnosed him as "needy"), and he has his own spot on the bed right next to my chest so I can fall asleep with him every night. He's my constant shadow whenever I'm doing stuff around the house, and he makes sure I never have to be alone in the bathroom (no matter how much I insist I don't need supervision). People who watch my streams get to hear me fuss when he climbs on my desk and stands in front of my monitor or sits on my mouse while I'm playing games.
I know at his age my time with him is limited, but I am so grateful that time isn't up yet. He is absolutely priceless to me and I wish I could keep him with me forever.
Anyway, if you made it this far, here's a couple of pictures of him, one taken just before his emergency and the other was taken the day he got to finally take off his cone (his face is still a bit dirty there).
TL;DR: My cat shit too hard and it cost us nearly $2,000 to fix his butt.
As a reminder: Since FFXIV Write is on hiatus this year I put all the previous years' prompts into a picker wheel that I'm spinning each day as a personal challenge. :)
Prompt: self-control
Word Count: 522
Warnings: None
Summary: Alphinaud wonders how it is Pasha can remain so calm in a fight.
"How do you manage to stay so calm?" Alphinaud gave Pasha a sidelong glance, his voice barely rising above a whisper.
"I don't," she replied while keeping her eyes on a small wyvern several yalms ahead of them. It hobbled over the snow favoring its right leg. She contemplated pursuing it, but as it appeared to have learned not to tangle with her lance she decided to let it go.
"My hands are trembling and I can scarce catch my breath." He curled his fingers into tight fists. "You appear as though you're on a leisurely stroll.
As the wyvern disappeared behind a boulder, she at last looked at the young elezen. "Practice," she answered before placing a gauntlet covered hand atop his head. "You did well."
Alphinaud's already pink cheeks took on a deeper hue of red. He ducked his head and reached up to tidy his hair with his fingers. "Yes, well, I was the youngest student to ever graduate the Studium," he said with a sniff.
Realizing she'd offended him, Pasha stood up and gestured in the direction of Steel Vigil. "There's one other spot I'd like to scout." She started to walk away only for him to call out.
"You didn't answer my question."
Confused, she tilted her head toward him. "What question?"
He brushed snow from his knee. "How do you stay so calm when fighting?"
"I told you. I don't." She turned away and heard his footsteps quicken as he jogged to catch up to her. "The entire time my heart is pounding in my chest and I can hardly hear over the blood rushing through my ears. The first time I faced a fiend, my knees gave out after it was over."
"But you have such self-control."
"Like I said: Practice." She offered him a smile. "A few more fights and you'll barely break a sweat under pressure."
Alphinaud frowned, his brow furrowing as though he was giving considerable thought to her words. "I shall keep that in mind, though perhaps showing a little emotion wouldn't hurt you."
Pasha arched an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"You're so quiet and I can never tell if you're angry, happy, or if you're too simple minded to understand what's going on." He came to an abrupt stop, his ears turning the same color as his cheeks. "Not that I think you're simple! What I mean is that you don't seem to think much."
She folded her arms. "Is that so?"
"No, not like that." He rubbed a hand over his face. "Gods, I'm making a fine mess."
"Youngest to graduate the Studium, hm?" She shook her head and let out an exaggerated sigh. "Sharlayan standards must be lower than I thought."
"Hey!" Alphinaud opened his mouth to say more, but was cut off by Pasha's laughter. He pulled at his sleeves and sniffed to show he wasn't going to rise to her bait. "We should finish scouting and report back to Cid."
While it was fun to finally get under the young diplomat's skin, Pasha let it go. "Aye. Let's see if we can get you a little more practice…"
So since FFXIV write is on hiatus this year, I made a picker wheel with all the previous years' prompts and am using that to do my own personal challenge.
I'm late for the first day, but in my defense my elderly cat had a medical emergency over the weekend and gave us another scare tonight when I was in the middle of writing. (He's stable now and doing all right for the moment and all his blood work and vitals looked good.) Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and post what little I wrote and just call it a terrible drabble.
Prompt: Bond
Word Count: 207 words
Warnings: Strangulation
Summary: Just a brief Zenos/WoL thing.
"What is this bond between us?"
Zenos's fingers wrapped around Pasha's throat slowly tightening until she struggled to drawn in air. She tried to move only to find herself pinned to a wall by the hand on her neck. The textured stone scraped her shoulders through her thin tunic as she struggled to free herself. He leaned forward until their faces were less than an ilm apart, his breath washing over her mouth.
"You fascinate and vex me," he growled. "I should have killed you the moment we met. Even now, it would be such an easy thing to snap your neck." His thumb pressed into the soft spot beneath her jaw.
I wish you had. As Pasha's eyes started to roll back in her head his grip loosened just enough to allow her to take a small breath. Rather than speak, she locked her eyes on his in a fierce glare.
The corners of his mouth curved into something resembling a smile. "Ah, there's the fire. All that anger and hatred you keep under such tight control. And yet you refuse to kill me, too." He tilted his head to one side as he brought his lips to hers. "What is it that stays our hand?"
For the first time in 9 years, I’m putting the writing challenge on hold, returning next year on September 1st, 2026.
Life is extraordinarily busy: I had a baby toward the end of July (yay!) and am in the thick of sleep deprived, early postpartum. Between new baby, family adjustment time, work, and my hubby in school, running the challenge this year would just be too much, even with my awesome team of friends to help out.
Putting the challenge on hold was an agonizing decision that was not made lightly, but at the end of the day self care and real life must come first.
In the meantime, if you're looking to scratch the FFxivWrite itch you could use this time to go back to previous years that you may have missed and write to those prompts (no forms, no prizes). Or, consider organizing your own challenges amongst your friends, discord groups, FCs, etc. I bet if you keep an eye peeled you'll spot other FFXIV writing challenges as well. Links for all prompts can be found on the FFxivWrite Carrd website.
Should you choose to run your own challenges this year, I ask that you please refrain from reaching out to me to ask for help or advice. I really needs this time to focus on family and big life transition. 💚
Over on Bluesky, Evacybele was kind enough to link a google spreadsheet that compiled all the previous years' prompts. I'm thinking of putting them in a randomizer thing and using that each day for a prompt.
I made a little something for xivwrite: a spreadsheet of the previous year's prompts, for all those who might want to revisit the past for t
For the first time in 9 years, I’m putting the writing challenge on hold, returning next year on September 1st, 2026.
Life is extraordinarily busy: I had a baby toward the end of July (yay!) and am in the thick of sleep deprived, early postpartum. Between new baby, family adjustment time, work, and my hubby in school, running the challenge this year would just be too much, even with my awesome team of friends to help out.
Putting the challenge on hold was an agonizing decision that was not made lightly, but at the end of the day self care and real life must come first.
In the meantime, if you're looking to scratch the FFxivWrite itch you could use this time to go back to previous years that you may have missed and write to those prompts (no forms, no prizes). Or, consider organizing your own challenges amongst your friends, discord groups, FCs, etc. I bet if you keep an eye peeled you'll spot other FFXIV writing challenges as well. Links for all prompts can be found on the FFxivWrite Carrd website.
Should you choose to run your own challenges this year, I ask that you please refrain from reaching out to me to ask for help or advice. I really needs this time to focus on family and big life transition. 💚
According to Know Your Meme, on August 18th, 2005, Erwin Beekveld brought forth this work into the world. HAPPY TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY, THEY’RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD.
every august 18th my notifications break and i go, fuck, tumblr has failed me once again, but it hasn’t. it hasn’t failed me. it’s just the taking the hobbits to isengard-iversary. happy 12 years
