hi this is dia and welcome to jackass @cherryflavoredtea - Tumblr Blog

omg you people can do anything

Shared here today by Matthew Boroson on Facebook. (ETA: Gaining inspiration from other authors is great. Lifting passages and avoiding giving credit isn’t.)

Tanith Lee was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for best novel, for the second book of the Flat Earth series. She died in 2015. You can buy Tales From the Flat Earth here and here .

booksbrackenbooze

You can also borrow some of Tanith Lee’s books from the Internet Archive if you are unable to buy them.

Here’s a link to Night’s Master, the first book in the Flat Earth series.

I cannot recommend Lee’s work enough. And it pains me that I’d never even heard of her until last year.

librarychair

As much as I want to support ethical farming practices I will be buying the cheapest bag of frozen chicken thighs as much as the next frugal/poor person which is why animal welfare needs to be legislated, not left up to the invisible hand of the free market or some bullshit. Invisible hand of the free market finds itself around a lot of throats.

niamhermind

"Invisible hand of the free market finds itself around a lot of throats."

That is such a line.

toskarin

I think it's cool that people still pass around that post I wrote about how paid streaming services don't actually directly pay musicians all that much compared to the cut they take, but I kind of hate that people interpreted that stance as "you're robbing from artists if you don't cough up directly"

like the actual point there was more that, if you're paying for streaming services because you assume they're inherently the moral high road over piracy (because you're spending money and the pirates aren't), you're paying for a good feeling and not much else

piracy is morally neutral, there is no moral weight to not spending money, spotify spent its majority cut of your subscription money on the development of military drones to terrorise people just like you in cities you'll never hear the names of, so on so forth

toskarin

in general, a healthy relationship with art (and the artists who produce it) inherently requires an understanding that people are not obligated to pay for something that already exists if it is an infinite good

that's not to deny that financial support is dearly appreciated, but a scrupulosity-oriented approach to things will inevitably result in people seeking out the least impactful way to feel better for the guilt they carry, and in that space, streaming services provide the most affordable way to morally (borrowing an assumption) enjoy the things they would seek out anyway

and you know, that's the bleak thing, right. any way you cut that pill, it doesn't get any easier to swallow, because the price of straightforward absolution here was paying money hand over fist directly into the mouth of some of the greatest evils that exist in the world today

if we accept a framework by which paying an artist is the only meaningful vector of support, then the primary benefactor here was cruelty, mundane and spectacular all at once, and death's the only victor

vonkarmic

i think taylor swift wishes she was bisexual because she knows it would make her slightly more money. whereas sabrina carpenter wishes she was bisexual so she could have sex with someone who looks exactly like herself. and ariana grande wishes she was bisexual because she did too many designer drugs on the set of wicked and now she has kin memories of being glinda for real

sailor-crusader-deactivated2025

The US is weird because it has a particularly regressive culture, yet living there has significant privileges even for the racialized people who live there. As a Latina, I am not quite safe with ICE running around... at the same time, my conditions are grossly privileged as a result of being a citizen of the imperial core. Both are fully true and I think many struggle with this.

sailor-crusader-deactivated2025

Verdad 🚬

some-pers0n

How it feels being a little hater with your friends in private spaces and never actually going out of your way to harass or bully anyone

libraford

I heard on the radio that sugars and carbs work better when they bond to fiber and protein, so I thought id make more conscious decisions around that when I choose my lunch options. Its early yet, but I do feel like I don't get the afternoon crash that I used to.

So like... yes its okay for me to have the coke with lunch, but not the coke by itself. I should also be having meat or a grain or both. Yes, the candy bar is okay, but one with nuts in it is more likely to be what I need for the day.

Like... yes, balanced meals. But sometimes convenient is what you got, so learning how foods bond together made that work better.

Anyways, thanks NPR, for telling me some food science that wasn't body shame-y!

thenarator

as someone with a bachelor’s degree in english, i am inexpressibly tired of people telling me to get highly specific jobs that often require highly specific degrees. “just go write for a magazine!” you need a journalism degree for that. “just teach!” you need a teaching certificate, and also fuck you. “just go work at a tutoring place!” tutoring children with learning disabilities, which make up the majority of the clientele at those places, requires not only a teaching certificate but a specialized master’s degree. “just go work at a library!” you need a master’s degree in library science to be a librarian. it is actually a highly skilled and extremely competitive field. you don’t just “go work at a library,” you train for years in the vain hope that you will get one of handful of available jobs. “just go work at a library.” the nerve. the unmitigated gall. “just go work at a library.” ugh.

frottinq

Do you ever interact with someone and you realize “this person has never had to consider or think about what their place in the world is, and why they believe certain things or act certain ways, this person has never considered society at length” and it’s just terrifying

freakoutgirl

Me when I catch myself thinking "I wonder what it's like to be chosen by somebody" but then I remember my best friend chooses to be my best friend and my mutuals choose to follow me and the minimum wage employee chooses to give me sincere kindness that I remember years later because I was going through a hard time and it meant a lot

beemovieerotica

people are clowning on this guy on reddit but uhhh let's pause for a minute and ask...so what happens if someone has a skin condition? what if part of their face has been burned? what if they're missing their eyes? and so what if they just have a fuckton of tattoos? recognition algorithms are aligned with the most ""average"" / ""normal"" features which means any deviation gets denied access to shit we didnt need age verification for 1 year ago. i dont care if it's a choice versus not, dont care if it's accessing porn or wikipedia, this needs to stop

bravehyde

You need to move off of Google Docs!

I know some people have seen the news recently and may be doubtful of it. To the uninformed, Google Docs has started using AI to find "inappropriate" and "problematic" content, scraping your documents and deleting it. I know some people are unsure if this is real or think this is not going to affect them.

I regret to inform you that this is real.

As I was on a call with some writers and we were moving our documents as a precautionary measure, one person discovered entire pages missing that they did not delete themselves. This is happening to us, it's not a hoax or a rumor, it's happening right now. You need to move everything if you want to preserve it.

If you're a writer with writer mutuals, please reblog this so they know. I rarely write on Google Docs anymore, but I started my fanfics on there, and I would be devastated if I lost works more than ten years old because people decided marketing appeal is more important than creative freedom.

EDIT READ THIS: https://www.tumblr.com/bravehyde/790422701153157120/hi-can-we-have-any-sort-of-source-about-the

💬 0 🔁 0 ❤️ 0 · What Happens When a Romance Writer Gets Locked Out of Google Docs · hi !! can we have any sort of source about the google d

gamerphobe

hey. this is not happening.

this excerpt is from the single article op uses as a source - a story about k. renee, an "open door" romance writer who had her documents restricted. "open door romance" refers to books where sex and intimate scenes take place on screen and in explicit detail; k. renee writes full on erotica. her works were restricted, with a warning message, not deleted out of no where. it is from over a year ago (may 2024, the incident took place in march 2024). the sentence is in front of you - adult content wasnt why the doc was restricted. google docs cannot and is not randomly deleting peoples works for having sex in it. and the article most certainly does not say that google is "using ai to find inappropriate content". the article mentions ai once, to say that k. renee had ai functions turned off and did not think that was the problem.

there is not a single other credible article about this happening to people and people in the notes havent given much testimony either. i, personally, have dozens of explicit works in my folders that ive shared with people and they havent been touched at all.

op has claimed they are looking for sources, but has also admitted they dont have them. like, guys. seriously. lets think rationally for a moment. do you think if google was mass deleting peoples works it would be this hard to find news stories about it? there are millions of erotica writers who use gdocs. its not just small fanfic writers, its published authors with companies and lawyers behind them. if google was deleting works abruptly there would be outrage. not to mention the amount of trouble they would get in with academics and scientists who use their platform - can you imagine years of someones research being completely deleted without any sort of warning by an incorrect ai flag? people would sue them. there would not be one tumblr post.

i dont know what happened to op's friend who was missing pages, and you absolutely should back up your docs / transition them to another server anyway. but this is, like, textbook fearmongering. there is absolutely no reason to believe this is happening, let alone anywhere near the scale op's dramatizing will have you believe.

ubercharge

look. look at this beautiful sword meme. i’m going to cry

literallybyronic

@petermorwood

petermorwood

I saw and reblogged this one a while back, but it’s always worth repeating, and this time I’m adding a bit of background info comparing common fantasy sword features to the Real Thing (with pictures, of course.)

Leaf-bladed swords are a very popular fantasy style and were real, though unlike modern hand-and-a-half longsword versions, the real things were mostly if not always shortswords.

Here are Celtic bronze swords…

…Ancient Greek Xiphoi…

… and a Roman “Mainz-pattern” gladius…

Saw or downright jagged edges, either full-length or as small sections (often where they serve no discernible purpose) are a frequent part of fantasy blades, especially at the more, er, imaginatively unrestrained end of the market.

Real swords also had saw edges, such as these two 19th century shortswords, but not to make them cool or interesting. They’re weapons if necessary…

…but since they were carried by Pioneer Corps who needed them for cutting branches and other construction-type tasks, their principal use was as brush cutters and saws.

This dussack (cutlass) in the Wallace Collection is also a fighting weapon, like the one beside it…

…but may also have had the secondary function of being a saw.

A couple of internet captions say it’s for “cutting ropes” which makes sense - heavy ropes and hawsers on board a ship were so soaked with tar that they were often more like lengths of wood, and a Hollywood-style slice from the Hero’s rapier (!!) wouldn’t be anything like enough to sever them. However swords like this are extremely rare, which suggests they didn’t work as well as intended for any purpose.

I photographed these in Basel, Switzerland, about 20 years ago. Look at the one on the bottom (I prefer the basket-hilt schiavona in the middle).

A lot of “flamberge” (wavy-edge) swords actually started out with conventional blades which then had the edges ground to shape - the dussack, that Basel broadsword and this Zweihander were all made that way.

The giveaway is the centreline: if it’s straight, the entire blade probably started out straight.

Increased use of water power for bellows, hammers and of course grinders made shaping blades easier than when it had to be done by hand. This flamberge Zweihander, however, was forged that way.

Again, the clue is the centre-line.

Incidentally those Parierhaken (parrying hooks - a secondary crossguard) are among the only real-life examples of another common fantasy feature - hooks and spikes sticking out from the blade.

Here are some rapiers and a couple of daggers showing the same difference between forged to shape and ground to shape. The top and bottom rapiers in the first picture started as straights, and only the middle rapier came from the forge with a flamberge blade.

There’s no doubt about this one either.

The reason - though that was a part of it - wasn’t just to look cool and show off what the owner could afford (any and all extra or unusual work added to the price) but may actually have had a function: a parry would have been juddery and unsettling for someone not used to it, and any advantage is worth having.

However, like the saw-edged dussack, flamberge blades are unusual - which suggests the advantage wasn’t that much of an advantage after all.

Here’s a Circassian kindjal, forged wiggly…

…and an Italian parrying dagger forged straight then ground wiggly…

There were also parrying daggers with another fantasy-blade feature, deep notches and serrations which in fantasy versions often resemble fangs or thorns.

These more practical historical versions are usually called “sword-breakers” but I prefer “sword-catcher”, since a steel blade isn’t that easy to break. Taking the opponent’s blade out of play for just long enough to nail him works fine.

NB - the curvature on the top one in this next image is AFAIK because of the book-page it was copied from, not the blade itself.

The missing tooth on that second dagger, and the crack halfway down this next one’s blade, shows what happens when design features cause weak spots.

So there you go: a quick overview of fantasy sword features in real life.

Here’s a real-life weapon that looks like it belongs in a fantasy story or film - and this doesn’t even have an odd-shaped blade…

Just a very flexible one…

If you want more odd blades, Moghul India is a good place to start…

ubercharge

i could not ask for a better addition to my meme post than blade education thank you so much

wyrmicelli

whats everybody bringing to the tumblr potluck?!?

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🥕

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🧃

🍰

🍻

🍽️

🎉

Voting ended onJul 9, 2025

wyrmicelli

great work everyone!!!!

wisteria-lodge

So my problem with most ‘get to know your character’ questioneers is that they’re full of questions that just aren’t that important (what color eyes do they have) too hard to answer right away (what is their greatest fear) or are just impossible to answer (what is their favorite movie.) Like no one has one single favorite movie. And even if they do the answer changes.

If I’m doing this exercise, I want 7-10 questions to get the character feeling real in my head. So I thought I’d share the ones that get me (and my students) good results:

What is the character’s go-to drink order? (this one gets into how do they like to be publicly perceived, because there is always some level of theatricality to ordering drinks at a bar/resturant)

What is their grooming routine? (how do they treat themselves in private)

What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? (Gets you thinking about socio-economic class, values, and how they spend their leisure time)

Do they have any scars or tattoos? (good way to get into literal backstory)

What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? (Good way to get some *emotional* backstory in.)

Are they an oldest, middle, youngest or only child? (This one might be a me thing, because I LOVE writing/reading about family dynamics, but knowing what kinds of things were ‘normal’ for them growing up is important.)

Describe the shoes they’re wearing. (This is a big catch all, gets into money, taste, practicality, level of wear, level of repair, literally what kind of shoes they require to live their life.)

Describe the place where they sleep. (ie what does their safe space look like. How much (or how little) care / decoration / personal touch goes into it.)

What is their favorite holiday? (How do they relate to their culture/outside world. Also fun is least favorite holiday.)

What objects do they always carry around with them? (What do they need for their normal, day-to-day routine? What does ‘normal’ even look like for them.)

silicon-based-life

okay i’m doing this for magnar:

1. Well he is a priest so he doesn’t drink alcohol, but he has developed a taste for black tea, specifically an orange spice blend from Meravía with a touch of sugar.

2. Hmm…Magnar shaves his face every morning and he does have some kind of medieval hair product to keep his hair shiny. He used to pluck out all his gray hairs, but now I think he likes the little streaks he has since it makes him look older/more mature.

3. Well again, priest, so he doesn’t really *have* disposable income, though I guess the last thing he requested for himself was like, a commissioned art piece or something for the papel chapel.

4. No. The second Magnar was capable of healing magic, he magicked away all his scars. Not that he would’ve had that many, but there were small ones from childhood scrapes. The image of purity is veryyyy important to him.

5. God. Um. Okay I think Magnar cried a lot after coming to the mainland as a child, mostly because of culture shock. That is something that was probably trained out him by the abbots and by himself. I think that he allowed himself to cry exactly once after becoming the Meian archbishop and losing Dimitriy, but that’s it.

6. Well, technically he’s an only child, as he’s the only biological kid of his parents. However, he was raised in an orphanage, which is a much different environment and understanding of yourself and the children you were raised with. Not quite siblings, but hard to use any other term.

7. Simple leather shoes with thick soles. it’s the medieval times, babey

8. A small, narrow bed with a straw mattress and several layers of quilts. I think Magnar gets really cold at night.

9. He’s a big fan of the Day of Ascension I think, simply because the churches are always decorated and full of fresh cut spring flowers. It’s also the time of year with his favorite hymns. Least favorite holiday: Koliada. As a kid this was probably his favorite because they’d always get more food than usual, but as an adult he finds it much too pagan.

10. Magnar never goes anywhere without his rosary. It’s very plain, with wooden beads and a simple string that’s been replaced a few times. It’s by far the most important object he owns, and it was originally a gift from the priest he’d met as a child on Lejren.

anglaised

like i cannot stress enough if ur white u have been raised and taught to view urself as the center of the world, almost all media caters to you, ur cultures viewpoints dictate the world, ur ancestors are the “victors” of colonialism and shaped the planet to fit white supremacy, that little voice in ur head that tells you to comment on every post about racism u see with stuff like “LISTEN to this white people” “im white, but this is important” “im as white as snow but i also agree with this” is not the compassionate gesture u think it is

that little voice is ur taught racist desire to center urself and ur opinion as more important and factual, something to be listened to above all else, because you were raised to believe you and everyone like you has the final say, you get uncomfortable when brown people voice frustrations because you don’t like reckoning with how the entire world is shaped in your image, you need to ignore that little voice that tells you your input is needed, because that little voice means absolutely nothing to the lived experiences of people of color, we donot need your approval or for you to agree for the racist history that has oppressed all of us to be true, we donot need YOU to tell us we are right when it has already been proven through history, through statistics, on the millions of lives lost to genocide and war in the name of white supremacy, you are not the center of the world, you are just taught that you are

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hi this is dia and welcome to jackass