[corvidaedeer]

If you have no idea why I’m interacting with you it’s probably related to a side blog I have or a personal interest in something (it might not be but that’s my best guess). Early 20s, he/him.

-

Currently runs:

@hatm00n - reblogging art

[corvidaedeer]

“A man is talking on the telephone behind a glass partition; you cannot hear him but you see his incomprehensible dumb-show and you wonder why he is alive." (Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays)

"My favorite way of explaining the disconnect between others and us due to our ASPD comes from Albert Camus: watching a man use a payphone from the other side of the glass, and the disconnect and lack of knowing what it is really for as he gets animated in speaking. My partner put it best with the idea of feeling as if we are living on just another layer of reality that most don’t see or ever are aware of." (W/5+ Names, Personhood and Plurality)

[naumin]

How to format, print, and bind a zine

This is a consolidated version of previous posts on zine making, with more detail and screenshots. For a version of this post on gdocs, click here.

This is a step-by-step guide on how to use InDesign (or similar programs) to format and print a zine. This can be used for fanzines, sketchbooks, anything. It’s also only one way to do things - there are as many methods as there are zines under the sun. If you’re interested in other ways, searching for zinemaking on youtube would be a start.

If you are printing your zine, your total page count must be a multiple of 4.

Examples of multiples of 4 ✅

4, 16, 112

Not a multiple of 4 ❌

7, 99, 31

This is because our book will be made of folded A4 sheets (that’s regular printer paper). 1 folded A4 makes 2 A5 pages. Each A5 page has a front and back. Therefore each sheet of paper makes 4 pages.

How to format

Open InDesign. Go to Create New > Print. Choose A5 and tick Facing Pages. Enter your page number (this can be changed later). I’ve put 12. Hit Create.

Locate the Rectangle Frame Tool.

Draw a rectangle over your whole page, or just the part where you want your images to go.

Press Ctrl+D and insert the image you want on that page.

That’s it! Repeat on every page and you’ll have a book. Promise.

Further reading

I need a free alternative to InDesign.

InDesign is free for the savvy but I also recommend Scribus which is free and open source and very lightweight. The method is exactly the same but the Rectangle Frame Tool is called Image Frame and the Ctrl+D shortcut will now be Right click > Get Image instead.

I need help with designing my A5 pages.

For my first sketchbook zines, I arranged several images on an A5 canvas in a program like CSP or Procreate and exported them as a JPG into InDesign or Scribus. You can do this if your images aren’t already A5 size or you don’t want to waste time with InDesign’s formatting tools.

I need to get fancier with it, format text, or export my file as small as possible.

Here are the InDesign tutorials I used and liked:

How to Add Page Numbers

How to keep Page Numbers on Top

How to Create a Table of Contents

What is Overset Text and How to Fix It <- essential for formatting text onto multiple pages

How to Reduce InDesign File Sizes

Formatting best practices

Remember that in addition to your front and back cover you also have an inside front and inside back cover. You can leave these blank or create an endpaper with a pattern or include a short message or something. Look inside any books or zines on your shelf for inspiration. Or don’t listen to me and put your first drawing or poem there. Just be aware printer paper is thin so you might be able to see it through the cover.

Avoid putting anything important in the gutter (inside edge) or outside edges of the page. Also be careful of creating double page spreads that go across the centre of the book. Because of how we will print and fold the pages, each half of your spread might not meet up perfectly. 

How to print it out

Open your completed book’s PDF file in Acrobat Reader (free download: https://get.adobe.com/reader/)

Print with the following settings: Booklet, and Booklet subset: Both sides. 

We can see a preview of our print-out on the window on the right. The pages will look jumbled up, but form the book in order when folded.

Congratulations! Now you’ll have a stack of paper. Once it’s folded it should resemble your (unbound) final book. Use a bulldog clip or similar to keep your pages together neatly.

How to bind (2 methods)

If your book is less than 30 pages, I recommend using a long arm stapler, or a stapler that can open to lay flat. They are cheap.

There are also special book binding staplers or heavy duty staplers, if your book is thicker than 30 pages. Just position your book so the staples are in the middle of the spine (or as close as you can get) and send it. They will be a little wonky… that’s fine.

You can also separate your book into staple-able segments and then join them into 1 big book with tape or thread.

For my 112-page zine, I used thread to bind it.

These instructions are copied from the video ‘How to Print & Bind a Zine’ by LFONinja.

You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKYy6G7lIy8

You will need: Ruler, awl, thread, sewing needle

Make 5 holes in the crease of the pages like so. (½ page, then ½ of that, then ½ of that again)

If the paper is thick, be careful when making the holes. It helps to have a piece of blu tack, putty, or soft eraser underneath the spine of the book as you work for the point of the awl to push into.

I don’t recommend separating the papers into smaller stacks as your measurements will likely vary and the holes won’t align.

Use a needle and thread to go through the holes in the following pattern. At the end, tie a knot with the ends of the thread (1 and 9) in the centre of the book. You’re now done.

About page creep

Because we are using folded pages inserted into each other, they push each other out like so:

From: https://www.greenerprinter.com/ support/page-creep/

You can use a heavy duty or industrial paper cutter/trimmer to remove this edge. This is why we kept any important contents away from the edge of the page during formatting, because we don’t want this process to destroy our book’s contents.

About image edges

Because of how the printer works, the images in the book don’t extend all the way to the very edges of the paper and have a thin white border on all sides. It’s possible to crop these edges from your book with a heavy duty paper cutter. Be careful and start small (3mm or less). Depending on how much your pages move during the printing process, the size of the white edge can be different on different pages. Or you can just leave them in.

To read some of the zines featured in this post, check out naumin.itch.io.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Two articles by writer Ana Valens were removed at the demand of Vice owner Savage Ventures, the latest in multiple deletions at the site

Last week, Steam quietly announced a new rule banning “certain kinds of adult-only content” that “may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks.” Following this, reporter Ana Valens wrote a series of stories on Vice’s video games vertical Waypoint about an organization called Collective Shout that took credit for the changes on Steam as part of a campaign aimed at payment processors. Valens says Vice’s owner, Savage Ventures, demanded the removal of the articles; Valens and several other Waypoint writers quit in response. Two articles were removed from Waypoint Sunday morning: a July 18 article titled “This Group Takes Responsibility For Steam's Payment Processor Censorship Policies--They Just Implied 'Pervert Nerds' Cause Society's Problems and a July 19 article titled “Group Behind Steam Censorship Policies Have Powerful Allies–And Targeted Popular Games With Outlandish Claims.” Valens told Aftermath she was informed by Waypoint managing editor Dwayne Jenkins Sunday morning that leadership at Savage Ventures had ordered Jenkins to remove the articles; Valens informed Jenkins that she would quit her Waypoint contributing role if this happened and, once it did, announced her departure. Valens said that both articles had been edited and approved by Jenkins, though did not go through pre-publication legal review. Valens told Aftermath that, as far as she’s aware, there was no legal threat from Collective Shout or other entities over the contents of the articles, though tells Aftermath it’s “possible that [Savage Ventures] simply were afraid of one coming eventually.”   As PCGamer notes, “The two retracted articles from Waypoint appear to be the first among the games press to point out the connection between Collective Shout and the recent changes on Steam, a connection which is public knowledge⁠—by Collective Shout's own statements⁠—and not an allegation made by Waypoint against the group.”

20 July 2025

[transfemradical]

Collective Shout, Itch.io content bans, and radical feminism

Just in case anyone wants to argue that the recent wave of anti-nsfw (and specifically “anti-porn”) campaigning isn’t based in transphobia and specifically transmisogyny, here are some fun facts about Melinda Tankard Reist, the Director of Collective Shout (the organization behind most of these campaigns): 

She was also a founding director of Women’s Forum Australia, a conservative think tank that actively campaigned against abortion legislation, spread conspiracy theories about the health dangers of wi-fi, and succsefully got trans-positive sex ed books taken out of stores after abusing and harrassing employees. 

She worked as a political advisor to Brian Harradine, a far-right Australian Senator with ties to conservative Christian groups who opposed same-sex marriage, abortion, and pornography. 

She publishes her books through Spinifex press, a self-described “radical feminist” publishing house that has worked with other transphobic authors in the past. 

And some about Collective Shout’s Campaigns Manager, Caitlin Roper: 

Wrote Prositution Narratives, a collection of stories meant to act as evidence for the abolition of sex work (edited by none other than Melinda Tankard Reist, published by Spinifex Press). 

Compares queer theorists to “paedophile rights activists”.

Is a vocal advocate and supporter of FiLiA, a radical feminist conference that has repeatedly argued that “trans rights are inherently in conflict with sex based women’s rights”. 

And, just for fun, some things you might not have known about Collective Shout: 

Campaigned to have the visas of Tyler, the Creator and Snoop Dogg revoked on the basis of rap music “glorifying sexual violence against women”. 

Has partnerships with several transphobic “women’s rights” organizations such as Exodus Cry (whose founder compared abortion to the Holocaust) and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (which supported the EARN IT act and lobbied against the legalization of same-sex marriage)

[corvidaedeer]

Bopper: “You know this really does question my culpability in this.”

Vivian: “You trying to say we’re some kind of suicide note?”

Bopper: “Well from the beginning I predicted this, that this would be the outcome. And think about- I have to reflect back on what I predicted. And what I wanted. I wanted to be right. You know. In essence, what was I wanting? I was wanting self vindication over, not only someone’s death, but I wanted self vindication in seeing a second person die.

And so when we sit here and we make predictions - and I make predictions and I make guesses - in some way breaking down that barrier of separation between myself and the game I lose the metagaming and I become part of it. Like invested in the diegesis of it.

Maybe that’s what Monokuma wants. To become a monster, to make death a commodity for catharsis. To make it be something that you buy and spend and trade for ‘am I right? am I wrong?’ instead of reflecting on the situation itself. Perhaps the game itself is what pumped the poison into my veins and revealed the darker side that I didn’t want that.”

Vivian: “Maybe.”

Bopper: “You know in some ways this game is just like Spec Ops: the Line if it were more clever. Ultimately the frustration- I’ve gotten 50,000 views and dozens of frustrated comments on my Spec Ops video, and it’s a lot of people upset that there’s a game that forces them to confront that they want to see death and violence, and they want to see it as entertainment.

And I think Danganronpa- Spec Ops couches itself in a hyper realistic setting, it’s obviously extremely over the top in terms of the sheer scope and volume of it. It is video game coded with a realistic aesthetic, with a realistic coat of paint. This, by hyperstylising everything, I think plunges you into a different level of abstraction.

How much can you abstract violence, chaos, suffering, and pain, before you actively root for it and can completely dissociate yourself from it? I wonder.”

From a conversation between Professor Bopper and Vivian on ‘Real High School Teacher Plays Danganropa: Trigger Happy Havoc (I Know Nothing About It) Part 9’

[kinstincts]

Solo Journaling RPGs for Otherkin

Note: I have not played most games on this list, they were included based on premise. Some are cozy, some are horror-based--make sure to read descriptions, content warnings, and reviews before playing! They also have different price points. Some are free, name-your-own-price, or might have community copies available, but most are under $15.

This list is absolutely not exhaustive, there are HUNDREDS of games out there! If you have any suggestions, let me know and I can add them to the list!

Animals

Animalesis ["A solo journaling game playable in your web browser. Draw cards to generate prompts that will help you uncover your identity and also transform you into an animal-human hybrid."]

A Penguin's Tale ["You'll embody a penguin, navigating through the unforgiving Antarctic environment, weathering perilous storms, and confronting an array of predators and other obstacles in your path."]

Apawthecaria ["It's your job to travel the post-human landscape of the Bristley Woods, visiting ailing beasts and foraging for the reagents needed to cure them, all while working towards the end of a grand Seasonal Journey."]

As The Crow Flies ["put yourself into the feathers of a young crow leaving the nest for the first time. Befriend other animals, search for food, find interesting trinkets, and eventually settle down to create a nest of your own."]

Cats Know Things About Everyone ["You are a very special feline who, through some magic you cannot explain, can communicate with your human, an individual who wishes to make their mark in society by any means necessary. The two of you decide to start a society page, (a very fancy type of tabloid newspaper dedicated to a particular location) revealing the glitz, glamour, and inner turmoil of the town’s most notable individuals."]

I'm a Bee! ["You’re a bee looking for flowers."]

Sweaters by Hedgehog ["You’re just a little hedgehog person trying to sell your little sweaters in your little village shop. This game is about recording a log of your most interesting customers."]

Untitled Moth Game ["It is a lovely evening in the village, and you are a beautiful moth."]

A Wolf's Tale ["Embark on an exciting adventure in "A Wolf's Tale", a solo or cooperative narrative-based game where you become a brave wolf exploring the wilderness."]

Wonderfall ["Your people was separated, but playing as a WANDERER (a cute anthropomorphic adventurer!), you'll recover and preserve lost knowledge and culture, help your community heal, and help the world rebuild!"]

Dragons

Dragon Dowser ["You play a mysterious character known as a 'Dowser'. Your aim is to locate abandoned dragon eggs and return them to your Sanctuary."]

Global Dragon Egg Conservation ["Welcome to GDEC! Thank you for your interest in our company. We're incredibly excited to welcome you to the ranks of the Global Dragon Egg Conservation!"]

Fae

A Faerie Court Visitation ["In exchange for a magical gift from an unknown faerie, a human ancestor of yours once offered one of their descendants as a marriage candidate for a future faerie royal."]

House Spirit ["You are the tiny god which inhabits a home; a brownie, a domovoy, a kobold, the ghost of an ancestor, perhaps you have no name at all. Roll a d6 to determine how well the family who lives in your home has appeased you, how they have shown respect to your home, and then give them the proper rewards or punishments."]

Stoneburner ["players take on the role of a group of dwarves who must assume control of a demon haunted mine, along with its accompanying settlement."]

Strange Changeling Child ["Over play, you'll narrate the story of a changeling who hasn't yet told any of their loved ones that they're secretly a fairy, but as play continues, those loved ones will find out, for better or for worse."]

Yourself ["is a solo tabletop role playing game about Introspection, Identity, and Heritage. You play as a character who has discovered they are a Changeling, a fae amongst humans, and through the game you will explore  changes, challenges, joy, and most importantly what it means to be Yourself."]

Outer Space/Alien

A Labyrinth of Stars ["You play an amensiac space nomad, hopping from world to world, discovering the wonders of an alien universe as you go."]

Alone Among the Stars ["A tabletop roleplaying game about exploring space and experiencing wondrous sights."]

Alone on a Galactic Map ["You are a famous space cartographer that has been tasked with creating a comprehensive map of your section of the galaxy."]

An Exchange of Gifts ["You are a traveler: your small ship carries you from planet to planet, where you encounter cultures and civilizations different from your own."]

Bucket of Bolts ["you'll be telling the story of a single spaceship. You’ll create a brand new freighter, fresh off the manufacturing line, and explore its history through each of the people who captain it. Your ship will change as the decades pass - new names, new parts, fresh paint, fresh starts - until your story draws to a close."]

Into the Starlit Sky ["Into The Starlit Sky is a journaling game inspired by episodic science-fiction and rogue-like video games. Put together a crew of specialists for your starship, then set out on a mission of exploration and discovery across the universe."]

Let's Jam! ["Life in space is harsh, flying a ship is expensive, and people are difficult to trust. You’ve made it this far by hunting dangerous criminals for the Intergalactic Police Department (IPD) in exchange for just enough credits to  pay for gas and putting some food on your table. You don’t know if your next bounty is going to be the end, but what other choices have you got anyway? You just gotta keep flying."]

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the Universe ["On the very edge of the universe, a small rock floats on the edge of the void. Upon this rock, a small, ordinary lighthouse sits. It had, some have speculated, been standing since the universe and time began. Maintained by a solitary keeper, the lighthouse has been keeping travellers and spaceships from falling off the edge. Its steady beam can be seen galaxies away and is used as a guiding star for navigators."]

To Be an Earthling ["You play as a visitor sent to live among and evaluate humanity. Each year you will report to your superiors what it means to be human. After four years, a fleet of ships will arrive from your homeworld and you will be asked to decide the fate of the Earthlings."]

Vampires

A Day in the Death ["you document the nuance of navigating everyday life as a recently-turned vampire in your private diary."]

Blood ["you play an ambulance driving emergency medical technician (EMT) infected with vampirism. Each day, you must navigate The City with your paramedic partner, facing the mundane trials of your job and personal life while trying to keep your affliction a secret."]

Bloodless ["Play as a struggling vampire who’s trying to make it to their haven before the sun rises."]

Dead Letters Society ["Live your best unlife as the newest member of the Dead Letter Society, an exclusive communication network for vampires."]

Furyya ["In these filthy streets, teeming with flesh-and-bone bodies, as well as metal and hybrids, you are part of The Calamity—an ancient clan of powerful vampires—and must survive challenges such as war, assassination contracts, theft, hunters, corporations, religious zealots, domineering gangs and other clans."]

Thousand Year Old Vampire ["you chronicle the many centuries of a vampire’s existence, beginning with the loss of mortality and ending with inevitable destruction."]

Other

Alone In Between ["You play as a ghost trapped in your former home struggling to convey a final message to the living left behind."]

Alone With the Shipwrecks ["You are an underwater explorer, diving deep to investigate what remains of the shipwrecks in the area."]

A Wolf in Man's Clothing ["You have been flung into a new, terrifying world and an unfamiliar body. Hungry, cold, and alone, you must try to find your way back to the time, place, and self you once knew. "]

Bloom ["BLOOM is a solo gmless journaling game in which you play a teenage girl trapped in quarantine at a boarding school on an island infected by the Tox, a plague that makes the trees and animals grow huge and hungry, and mutates your body in strange and horrific ways."]

Cordelia Needs a Kingdom ["You're a child playing in a forest, exploring and building your own kingdom. This game keeps the spirit of fairy tales and fantasy novels alive, through the art and the epic themes of the adventures you'll have."]

The Creature ["you explore the vicissitudes of a life that you can't understand, of being a creation of some sort that was abandoned. It's your job to learn about yourself and the world that surrounds you, as well as discover who your creator was and why you were discarded."]

Creation Myths ["It is designed to help you dive deeper into character creation through the development of a backstory adventure via dice and prompts, and to provide you with new things to think about. It can also work as a way to redevelop existing characters and generate fresh ideas."]

Eldritch Pets ["You find a creature of nightmares that you can’t seem to destroy. You have heard stories about otherworldly beings who care not for the ways of mortals, but they weren’t supposed to be so cute!"]

Exquisite Biome ["is a game about the symbiosis of the natural world. Create an ecosystem, populate it with strange and wondrous animals, and see how they interact with one another."]

FREAK in High School ["FREAK in High School is a prompt based solo journalling tabletop role playing game about being a visibly inhuman child of a visibly inhuman superhero or villain."]

Gadgets and Gizmos Aplenty ["You are an inhabitant of the Depths who undertakes a coming-of-age ritual journey in the Surface, the world of humans. Thing is, all humans are gone and their civilizations are all but deserted. Gather keepsakes and assign lessons to them as you grow and make observations on the hubris of the people who occupied these ruins."]

Galatea ["You were made to be perfect. Your creator is a brilliant artist - celebrated, lonely, tormented - who has never been satisfied with his own creations. Until now. His magnum opus, his crowning masterpiece, the pinnacle of his art - is you. And yesterday you came to life. You must remain perfect for him - or else."]

Ghost + Heist = Geist ["You're in line at the Ghost Processing Bureau, waiting to be sent to your eternal reward. It seems to move at about 2 ghosts per month. As one of the masters of heisting of your time, you've got different plans. It's time for you to lie, cheat, and steal your way back to life."]

Identity ["You only learned you were a clone 1 month ago. Now, alongside your siblings, you are being hunted by the corporation that created you."]

it ends with YOU ["you are a monster. some say you are destined to end this world- but you love it enough to save it."]

Life as a Monster Teen ["Loosely based on Monster High, Life of a Monster Teen aims to tell a story about mythological teenagers in a mystical academy of monsters like them. Solve a mystery, perhaps write a young romantic, all through a journal, cards, and some dice."]

OkCryptid ["You’ll never forget that night. You had heard the legends before, of course, everyone had.  Now that you know the creature is real, one thought keeps playing through your mind: Their eyes were… beautiful. You want to see them again."]

One Day at a Thyme/One Night at a Thyme ["a cozy, whimsical solo journaling game in which you play the inhabitant of a cottage in a magical world." / "Spooky Season is inspired by the lore and celebration of Hallowe'en and Samhain, though the name of this high holy season may change depending on the world in which you set it."]

Scopicity ["Will you nurture a utopian society of enlightened microbes? Or challenge your Scopicitiae to survive and evolve in a savage microbial land? The choice is yours in this deeply customizable sci-fi/fantasy storytelling experience."]

Tending ["is a mixed media journalling game where you take the role of a devotee at a holy site. Over a span of seasons you'll carry out sacred work, seek the divine, and change everything in the process."

The Afternoon Train Home ["You are a spiritweaver, a being who walks in between worlds. Your purpose is to spool up memory thread from those who have died to be reused for the living."]

The Skeleton Diary ["In this game, you take on the role of a skeleton giving an account of your past embodied life."]

The Dreamland Expedition ["You are a stuffed animal, and in ordinary times you and your equally fuzzy friends are happy to devote your time and energy to bringing joy and comfort to the young human child that was placed in your care. But these are no longer ordinary times."]

This is Not a 7-11 ["is a backrooms inspired solo rpg about traversing liminal spaces and meeting entities not of your world. Build a map of nonsensical geometries, and keep track of the people and things you meet along the way that have the potential to help and do harm."]

To Reign in Hell ["You play the last warden of Hell, and you are utterly alone."]

Vrakroth's Guide to Creature Cataloguing ["Vrakroth's Guide to Creature Cataloguing is a one-page diceless journaling game penned by the dragon, Vrakroth. With it, you and up to two more friends can use the prompts to create your own creatures by writing down various traits. Once you do so, you use what you wrote to catalogue the creature and write a short myth about it. The only limits for the amount of creatures you can make is your imagination!"]

What They Once Feared ["What They Once Feared is a solo ttrpg where you take the role of a monster born for folklore that has awoken into a new world. One where stories aren't used as often and the monsters have become more real. You have a choice, become something new that preys on these new monsters, or become something worse than them and continue your usual hunt. What will you decide?"]

Whom Mortals Seldom See ["you are one of the mysterious, magical, elemental beings of the world, leaving behind everything you know for a chance at something only mortals can understand."]

Wither & Grow ["You are a plant creature that has just gained sentience for reasons unknown."]

You Are a Muffin ["Unlike most games where you are playing the role of another person, in You are a Muffin you are a pastry in a cozy café or coffee shop."]

You, Beyond the Pale ["You don't belong in the mortal world. You live alone, and you have always lived alone. You have yourself, and you have your own territory. The mortals have their own realms, and the mortals have each other. So what happens when the mortal world starts coming to you?"]

[corvidaedeer]

Comment from BryanLu0 on ‘Some Personal Thoughts on “A Refutation of “A Refutation of Joseph Anderson’s “The Witness - A Great Game You Shouldn’t Play”””’ that’s from Jatsko:

“Video games are not made for critique, but neither are books, or movies, or any art. It just happens to be a helpful tool for creators to “improve” their art by understanding what the audience likes and dislikes about it, and also for the audience to understand if the art is for them. But you should still try to draw your own conclusions about anything, and not blindly accept other people’s opinions.”

[thetransintransgenic]

Oh yeah while I'm here you all should read What Happens Next.

Like, ...

...

... you all should ABSOLUTELY read What Happens Next.

what happens next

dog names 0

[ Patreon | artist's Twitter | retrospring ]

“i think i would rather get stabbed again than have tiktok users descend like vultures on my social media, zooming in on pictures of my messy bedroom to analyze the tedious minutia of my deeply average life.” - emma berquist, true crime is rotting our brains “your fingers up inside of me/feel like fingers down my throat/everything is fine in heaven/but i’ll never get to know.” - nicole dollanganger, “angels of porn ii”

[sophieinwonderland]

The lack of ancient time travel stories is existentially terrifying

Through all the ancient myths and legend that exist, it's horrifying to think that none involved traveling to the past. There were some with sped up time or people sleeping a long time. But travel to the past just wasn't a thing that existed as a concept.

Today, it's everywhere. There's not a single person who hasn't heard of time travel. But in ancient stories, even the gods themselves are subject to the whims of time.

It seems like such an obvious thing to tell stories about too. Who hasn't made a mistake and wished they could go back and do it over again? It's so basic.

Yet it's like through all of human history, nobody even considered it until the couple hundred years. It's as if the idea was so incomprehensible that we couldn't think of it.

Until, that is, after we did.

That makes you wonder though, what possibilities are out there that might still be so obvious be we haven't thought of yet? And why couldn't we think of time travel before then?

We all think of imagination as unlimited, and yet something as simple as getting a do-over on a past mistake is unheard of over thousands of years of fictional stories we've recorded.

[corvidaedeer]

Time travel in stories isn’t just a new concept I think, just it wasn’t the ‘modern’ sort of time travel (where machinery is used). Like the concept of ‘sleeping for (x) years and waking up in a different time,’ or ‘travelling to a different time through dreams.’ Some of this isn’t exactly modern time travel in the sense it isn’t strictly ‘going to the past’ or ‘going to the future’ but I think it plays around with the idea of time.

To give some examples of what I mean from a basic web search.

According to Wikipedia:

“Some ancient myths depict a character skipping forward in time. In Hindu mythology, the Vishnu Purana mentions the story of King Raivata Kakudmi, who travels to heaven to meet the creator Brahma and is surprised to learn when he returns to Earth that many ages have passed.[1][2] The Buddhist Pāli Canon mentions the relativity of time. The Payasi Sutta tells of one of the Buddha's chief disciples, Kumara Kassapa, who explains to the skeptic Payasi that time in the Heavens passes differently than on Earth.[3] The Japanese tale of "Urashima Tarō", [4] first described in the Manyoshu tells of a young fisherman named Urashima-no-ko (浦嶋子) who visits an undersea palace. After three days, he returns home to his village and finds himself 300 years in the future, where he has been forgotten, his house is in ruins, and his family has died.[5] In Jewish tradition, the 1st-century BC scholar Honi ha-M'agel is said to have fallen asleep and slept for seventy years. When waking up he returned home but found none of the people he knew, and no one believed his claims of who he was.[6]”

Sources (for that quote):

1. Dowson, John (1879), "Revati", A classical dictionary of Hindu mythology and religion, geography, history, and literature, Routledge, archived from the original on September 7, 2017, retrieved August 20, 2009

2. The Vishnu Purana: Book IV: Chapter I, archived from the original on May 27, 2022, retrieved January 8, 2022

3. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (1964), Indian Philosophy (7 ed.), People's Publishing House, New Delhi

4. Yorke, Christopher (February 2006). "Malchronia: Cryonics and Bionics as Primitive Weapons in the War on Time". Journal of Evolution and Technology. 15 (1): 73–85. Archived from the original on May 16, 2006. Retrieved August 29, 2009.

5. Rosenberg, Donna (1997). Folklore, myths, and legends: a world perspective. McGraw-Hill. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-8442-5780-8.

6. ‎"בבלי - מסכת תענית פרק ג". mechon-mamre.org. Archived from the original on December 29, 2022. Retrieved December 29, 2022.

Additionally

I don’t know how accurate that all is, but I think it’s a decent starting point to figuring out if stories like the one you mentioned existed. A lot of stories historically and in general exist on oral history and unfortunately a lot of languages have died out and/or forcefully erased over time, so there sometimes are gaps in what people have access to/know of - but not all of them are gone.

[gwendeeagain]

how old are we talking?

Ramcharitmanas, an epic poem from the 16th century by Indian bhakti poet Tulsidas, depicts a character Kakabhushundi going back in time to witness the childhood of Rama before returning to his time.

西遊補 xiyoubu, a satirical addendum to Journey to the West written by 董说 dongyue in 1640, depicts Sun Wukong travelling back and forth in several points in time via a hallway of mirrors.

The idea of time being linear (and thereby something you can choose to go "back" and "forth" in) is from Abrahamic religions, I believe. There are other religions that consider time cyclical, so time travel can look more like altering the speed of time, etc.

[sophieinwonderland]

The lack of ancient time travel stories is existentially terrifying

Through all the ancient myths and legend that exist, it's horrifying to think that none involved traveling to the past. There were some with sped up time or people sleeping a long time. But travel to the past just wasn't a thing that existed as a concept.

Today, it's everywhere. There's not a single person who hasn't heard of time travel. But in ancient stories, even the gods themselves are subject to the whims of time.

It seems like such an obvious thing to tell stories about too. Who hasn't made a mistake and wished they could go back and do it over again? It's so basic.

Yet it's like through all of human history, nobody even considered it until the couple hundred years. It's as if the idea was so incomprehensible that we couldn't think of it.

Until, that is, after we did.

That makes you wonder though, what possibilities are out there that might still be so obvious be we haven't thought of yet? And why couldn't we think of time travel before then?

We all think of imagination as unlimited, and yet something as simple as getting a do-over on a past mistake is unheard of over thousands of years of fictional stories we've recorded.

[corvidaedeer]

Time travel in stories isn’t just a new concept I think, just it wasn’t the ‘modern’ sort of time travel (where machinery is used). Like the concept of ‘sleeping for (x) years and waking up in a different time,’ or ‘travelling to a different time through dreams.’ Some of this isn’t exactly modern time travel in the sense it isn’t strictly ‘going to the past’ or ‘going to the future’ but I think it plays around with the idea of time.

To give some examples of what I mean from a basic web search.

According to Wikipedia:

“Some ancient myths depict a character skipping forward in time. In Hindu mythology, the Vishnu Purana mentions the story of King Raivata Kakudmi, who travels to heaven to meet the creator Brahma and is surprised to learn when he returns to Earth that many ages have passed.[1][2] The Buddhist Pāli Canon mentions the relativity of time. The Payasi Sutta tells of one of the Buddha's chief disciples, Kumara Kassapa, who explains to the skeptic Payasi that time in the Heavens passes differently than on Earth.[3] The Japanese tale of "Urashima Tarō", [4] first described in the Manyoshu tells of a young fisherman named Urashima-no-ko (浦嶋子) who visits an undersea palace. After three days, he returns home to his village and finds himself 300 years in the future, where he has been forgotten, his house is in ruins, and his family has died.[5] In Jewish tradition, the 1st-century BC scholar Honi ha-M'agel is said to have fallen asleep and slept for seventy years. When waking up he returned home but found none of the people he knew, and no one believed his claims of who he was.[6]”

Sources (for that quote):

1. Dowson, John (1879), "Revati", A classical dictionary of Hindu mythology and religion, geography, history, and literature, Routledge, archived from the original on September 7, 2017, retrieved August 20, 2009

2. The Vishnu Purana: Book IV: Chapter I, archived from the original on May 27, 2022, retrieved January 8, 2022

3. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (1964), Indian Philosophy (7 ed.), People's Publishing House, New Delhi

4. Yorke, Christopher (February 2006). "Malchronia: Cryonics and Bionics as Primitive Weapons in the War on Time". Journal of Evolution and Technology. 15 (1): 73–85. Archived from the original on May 16, 2006. Retrieved August 29, 2009.

5. Rosenberg, Donna (1997). Folklore, myths, and legends: a world perspective. McGraw-Hill. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-8442-5780-8.

6. ‎"בבלי - מסכת תענית פרק ג". mechon-mamre.org. Archived from the original on December 29, 2022. Retrieved December 29, 2022.

Additionally

I don’t know how accurate that all is, but I think it’s a decent starting point to figuring out if stories like the one you mentioned existed. A lot of stories historically and in general exist on oral history and unfortunately a lot of languages have died out and/or forcefully erased over time, so there sometimes are gaps in what people have access to/know of - but not all of them are gone.

[corvidaedeer]

From a YouTube Comment made 5 days ago (as of Sep 10, 2023) on a video titled ‘Heartstopper vs. Only Friends (the politics of visibility)’.

“I think one of the main issues for me, as a queer Asian person, is just this inherent comparison between Western versus Eastern queer representation. The immediate supposition of “BL is fetishistic and problematic” is a gross overstatement of the genre, and the things that Oseman said a few years back refusing to associate Heartstopper with “nasty” Japanese BL manga has stayed with me since I saw it. It establishes this inherent superiority complex in, from what I’ve seen, a lot of fans of Western queer media who ignore the complexities and history of the genre as well as the fans of Eastern queer media who often don’t have the same privileges of safe spaces, especially when they then also turn a blind eye to issues that exist in their supposedly morally superior Western media and fandoms. The “discourse” I see that platforms Western queer media while bringing down Eastern queer media (such as the tweet that resurfaced about Heartstopper versus Danmei a month ago) is covertly racist and extremely reductive, lacking the nuance to examine what’s actually “fetishistic” nor the complex dynamics that surround marginalities. It’s so frustrating to see so many talking down from their falsely established moral high ground without actually engaging with constructive discourse on what is “good” representation.

No queer person, no queer media, no queer community is a monolith; the complete absence of media literacy in online spaces these past few years has been extremely damaging to internalized attitudes about queerness.”

[faelapis]

hey so does anyone remember what this style of image is called. where you put several images in little boxes and then also put some kind of quotes in. it was popular on tumblr a few years ago. i know it has a name.... it looks kinda like this:

[faelapis]

found out its a format created by the blog "a softer world" and the style itself is also called "a softer world!!"

thank you @garnetrena, @quadrilioquy and @paragonrobits for pointing this out!! <3

[corvidaedeer]

From this post.

“Moving on to why Rose follows through despite disagreeing with that plan... I think she doesn't, necessarily, disagree on the plan of Killing Pink Diamond. I think that's a possibility although we cannot know for sure. What she's definitely against is the weapon. She doesn't think it's right. And I think it makes perfect sense when you think about her background and her feelings on the matter of destruction: she has the core belief that her nature is inherently destructive and she's deeply ashamed of it, she wishes to make it disappear, to not reproduce that destructive nature ever again.

There is some complex trauma around it that gets triggered when Bismuth shows her the breaking point. She had swore to never hurt anyone ever again but here it is the most Crystal Gem of all telling her that she created a weapon of (at the time) irreversible destruction... As irreversible as Volley's scar. How is she not going to feel responsible for this, after all she created the Crystal Gems, and how is she not going to feel contempt at someone who wants and seeks to do something like this to someone else?

Who says they wouldn't use this weapon against any other gems too? I don't know, I think Rose simply didn't want to get more gems hurt so horribly. Which is not incompatible with killing "herself" (Pink Diamond).

One thing is that Rose is not aware of the impact this action will have when she decides to go through with it. She's under the impression that she's utterly irrelevant and that no one on Homeworld will miss her if she were to be gone (and I don't think she can truly believe it even after that, since she does it a second time).

I think that the major catalyst to this decision for sure was what Blue told her in Can't Go Back. Immediately, she believes the words, fixates on them. Earth will be a colony for as long as she's there to rule. And materializes the idea in her mind. For as long as she's there. If she's not Pink Diamond anymore, if she gives up her status and kills this part of herself, Earth will be free and the war will end. And everyone will be free. She will be free.”

—

From various sources:

“The reason many people, myself included, got so frustrated at the show is because they clearly set up major stories then didn't actually want to do any of them. It was only after years of fans criticizing them that they actually made a half baked attempt to even try to go into the big stuff. But with how poorly that went it's clear they had no plans to actually deal with it. The Diamonds being redeemed out of nowhere reeks of "We really don't want to actually deal with the tyrannical genocidal dictators we set up" so they gave a rushed conclusion that was easier for them to write.”

The show was ultimately rushed at the end (season 3/4/5)because executives pushed back on Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship. Censors internationally tried to change Ruby into a male love interest & I remember Rebecca’s response was to put Ruby in a dress for their wedding.

“I don't hate SU crits because I stan the show, in fact, I used to be a fan. I hate SU crits because I realized there are better ways to go about criticizing a cartoon than loose evidence Rebecca and Ian "sexualize" their own characters, hating on OK K.O. and saying it deserved cancellation or saying antisemitic shit about Rebecca Sugar. And I've watched HezuNeutral/hezuart's video regarding her critiques of the show about 2 days ago, saying "they barely did anything with some of these characters, the execution with the diamonds' redemption were wonky, and the finale of SU Future did not feel impactful, so here's how I'd rewrite things". Like, actual criticism I enjoy.”

“The series constantly shoves it into the viewer's face how the Crystal Gems were a way for Gems to rebel against the Diamond Authority's tyranny, how joining the rebellion was a way of casting aside the love they are programmed to have towards their Diamonds. This message is the clearest in Pearl's character, who was Rose's first freedom fighter compatriot. "Who do you belong to?" Pearl's friends would jokingly ask her. "No one," Pearl would respond, full of confidence.

Except it was a lie. Pearl belonged to Pink Diamond the moment she was made, and she belonged to her still years after she was dead for good. Pearl never broke free from the Diamond Authority, but the viewers were led to believe that she did, and the show never acknowledges that Pearl was still a slave after Earth was "freed" from the Diamonds, all the way up until 'Mr. Greg'. To make matters worse, 'Mr. Greg' was framed as a sweet, romantic episode about letting go of lost love. It was only that for Steven and Greg. For Pearl, it was finally letting go of the shackle that her slaver kept her in. Pearl was never freed by the Crystal Gems, she was freed by their leader dying and her son helping her find true freedom and even then she never truly understood what Pink Diamond put her through because she was in love with the person enslaving her.”

“Furthermore, Pearl saying that the abused Pink Pearl "still has it bad" for Pink Diamond is not Pearl reconsidering her relationship to Rose, it’s just more idealization of Pink Diamond's relationship with her literal brainwashed slaves. "Have it bad" is what you say about someone who's in love, not someone who's been brainwashed to worship someone else. Also, the episode ends with the Pearls "understanding"/forgiving Pink, so the writers actually made it even worse instead of fixing it. They had a chance to make Pearl see that Rose was her slave owner, but instead the message of the episode was: "Rose was better with our Pearl because at least she didn't physically abuse her and that means she changed for the better and she's totally redeemed."

Rose Quartz should have been a separate character from Pink Diamond who committed regicide if she was meant to be a morally gray character instead of a full-blown villain. There's no way to view someone who kept a slave while pretending to be trying to liberate slaves as anything other than black morality. The "rebellion" was staged to preserve Earth, not free the Gem species. Even in the show, the Crystal Gems are all: "we have to protect Earth because that's what Rose Quartz wanted!", while Bismuth is the only one who wanted to free gemkind from the Diamonds' tyranny. Despite this, no one points out how the Crystal Gems rebellion was never a rebellion, it was a scam pulled by Pink Diamond, who had saving a strange planet as her primary concern, while not caring about saving her own people at all.

This is especially grating because the potential to tackle it is there. The Crystal Gems built monuments to honor the great Rose Quartz, much like how the Homeworld Gems built monuments to the Diamond Authority. Rose Quartz was treated like a Diamond without the people who did the worshipping knowing she was a Diamond. And yet, once the truth comes out, no one questions whether or not their feelings for her were a part of the "worship your Diamond" programming all Gems come with, especially Pearl, who knew Rose was her Diamond. No, instead we get: "[Pink Pearl] still has it bad", like the conditioning to worship a Diamond is just a cute sapphic "lady and her handmaiden" romance. And that happens after the movie, meaning Pearl actually learned nothing from that experience.”

https://oliviafsgtitus.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-wasted-universe-failed-storytelling.html

“Most fervent discourse around SU seems to boil down to:

Critic: This show sends a bad message about fighting fascism.

SU: This show is about dealing with authoritarian style dysfunction in families; it is not a story about fighting fascism.

Critic: Well, it should be.

At the heart of it, most of the discourse around SU is centered in a philosophy that believes that there is only one correct kind of story to tell (the story of fighting evil) and only one correct way to tell it (evil should be killed).”

[aforlorngazeintoyesterday-deact]

anyways reminder that scars of any kind are morally neutral and not bad or harmful to show. if that shit is healed and not a literal open wound it is not fucking bad. it is not okay to shame or trigger warning a normal fucking part of someone’s body, including and especially when it’s a sign of physical or mental illness.

[aforlorngazeintoyesterday-deact]

look every single time I make posts like this someone comes on my post like “not self harm scars though! those are triggering!” and fucking. think about what you’re implying for just one second here. you’re saying that if anyone has ever even once hit a mental point where they harmed themself in a way that left a lasting mark they can never show their body uncensored again. this is okay to you? you think this is fucking okay?

[narrator-navigator-storyteller]

also, to expand on this: do not assume you know what are and aren't self harm scars. i have 'traditional self harm scar' looking scars that are not self harm, just that i have a cat and scar easily. i have scars that do not look like self harm scars that very much are. you do not have the right to go up to someone and ask "hey, what are you scars from so i can decide if i can censor your body?", nor the right to assume the origin of someone's scars in order to censor their body. In general, no one's scars or any other part of their body is your business

[aforlorngazeintoyesterday-deact]

HEY THIS IS A BANGER FUCKING LINE.

[corvidaedeer]

[screenshot of tags that read, “the human condition can not be censored. And the human condition is fucking scarred.”]

[agentromanoffsir]

neocities guide - why you should build your own html website

do you miss the charm of the 90s/00s web where sites had actual personality instead of the same minimalistic theme? are you feeling drained by social media and the constant corporate monopoly of your data and time? do you want to be excited about the internet again? try neocities!!

what is neocities?

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. in their own words: "we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."

why should I make my own website?

web3 has been overtaken by capitalism & conformity. websites that once were meant to be fun online social spaces now exist solely to steal your data and sell you things. it sucks!! building a personal site is a great way to express yourself and take control of your online experience.

what would I even put on a website?

the best part about making your own site is that you can do literally whatever the hell you want! focus on a specific subject or make it a wild collection of all your interests. share your art! make a shrine for one of your interests! post a picture of every bird you see when you step outside! make a collection of your favorite blinkies! the world is your oyster !! here are some cool example sites to inspire you: recently updated neocities sites | it can be fun to just look through these and browse people's content! space bar | local interstellar dive bar creature feature | halloween & monsters big gulp supreme peanutbuttaz | personal site dragodiluna linwood | personal site patho grove | personal site

getting started: neocities/html guide

sound interesting? here are some guides to help you get started, especially if you aren't familiar with html/css sadgrl.online webmastery | a fantastic resource for getting started with html & web revival. also has a layout builder that you can use to start with in case starting from scratch is too intimidating web design in 4 minutes | good for learning coding basics w3schools | html tutorials templaterr | demo & html for basic web elements eggramen test pages | css page templates to get started with sadgrl background tiles | bg tiles rivendell background tiles | more free bg tiles

fun stuff to add to your site

want your site to be cool? here's some fun stuff that i've found blinkies-cafe | fantastic blinkie maker! (run by @transbro & @graphics-cafe) gificities | internet archive of 90s/00s web gifs internet bumper stickers | web bumper stickers momg | gif gallery 99 gif shop | 3d gifs 123 guestbook | add a guestbook for people to leave messages cbox | add a live chat box moon phases | track the phases of the moon gifypet | a little clickable page pet adopt a shroom | mushroom page pet tamaNOTchi | virtual pet crossword puzzle | daily crossword imood | track your mood neko | cute cat that chases your mouse pollcode | custom poll maker website hit counter | track how many visitors you have

web revival manifestos & communities

also, there's actually a pretty cool community of people out there who want to bring joy back to the web! melonland project | web project/community celebrating individual & joyful online experiences. Also has an online forum melonland intro to web revival | what is web revival? melonking manifesto | status cafe | share your current status nightfall city | online community onio.cafe | leave a message and enjoy the ambiance sadgrl internet manifesto | yesterweb internet manifesto | sadly defunct, still a great resource reclaiming online social spaces | great manifesto on cultivating your online experience

in conclusion

i want everyone to make a neocities site because it's fun af and i love seeing everyone's weird personal sites that they made outside of the control of capitalism :) say hi to me on neocities

[bioluminator]

Hi there! My name is Hayden Stern and I'm a multidisciplinary artist working on an installation project about institutionalization, "therapy group" within the institution, and the inner worlds we create to survive loss of autonomy. I am looking for survivors of institutionalization and presently institutionalized people (preferably long term institutionalization/residential care, but if you've been a frequent psych ward visitor feel free to fill out this form as well) to respond to a specific prompt either via voice recording or in writing. This form is a way for me to collect contact info of interested participants so that I can 1) gauge interest in project participation and 2) reach out with next steps if you are a good fit for this project.

You will not be asked to share traumatic memories of your experiences - as a survivor of institutionalization myself, I am sensitive to how painful it can be to dwell on these memories.  However, you will be asked to answer a question you were likely asked while in an institution of some kind, specifically around visualizing a safe space/inner world.

Please share if you're up for it - I'd love to find a wide range of people to participate in this project.

[bioluminator]

Art Installation Participant Form

Hi there! My name is Hayden Stern and I'm a multidisciplinary artist working on an installation project about institutionalization, "therap