One Nice Bug Per Day
Andulka
styofa doing anything
if i look back, i am lost
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
NASA
@theartofmadeline
hello vonnie
I'd rather be in outer space đž
Kiana Khansmith
Xuebing Du
â
Kaledo Art
Discoholic đȘ©
h
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
dirt enthusiast
No title available
Origami Around
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
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@diannelamerc
In light of our new Status let's see how diverse our corner of tumblr is -
How do you identify?
Omega
Beta
Alpha
Nuance/explain in tags
<3 Mod Remi (Ω)
Great time to break out this quiz again:
Have you ever read an omegaverse fanfiction and thought, "Hey, what if that was real?" Well thank god it isn't, but we can give you a little
In light of our new Status let's see how diverse our corner of tumblr is -
How do you identify?
Omega
Beta
Alpha
Nuance/explain in tags
<3 Mod Remi (Ω)
Feels like a good time to bring these back around.
Dammit, bitch! Stop co-opting other people's religion to symbolize your hate!
[ETA for clarification: I did not create this. I don't know who did. @diannelamerc ]
Happy TACO Tuesday, everyone!
Yet another fun AI-ism (Door Dash is full of these đ):
Realized I'd never gotten rid of my Twitter account, just stopped posting to it years ago. So I just showed up long enough to delete the damned thing.
I deleted into from my profile, set the birthdate to 1999 because I couldn't delete it, hit the provided button to erase all my contacts--and was kicked out and the account locked because I was "under 13".
I can protest this only by giving my full name and contact information and uploading a copy of my Driver's License. Are you kidding me?
Either you've cut down your staff so far you're trying to use AI for this stuff (even though AI is still far from reliable enough for much of anything at this point)--see above 12yr math error, or yo've figured out I'm ditching you and want to keep me on paper at least.
Either way, you win. I'm not giving you anything more.
Living in Pasadena and sooo feeling this...
(We're o.k., thank the firefighters!)
just because elphaba is gay doesn't mean she's a friend of dorothy. in fact,
I love that--after all this time (20years?!)--one of my favorite fandoms has become a general thing. đ
This is what the fight is like
Sooo, apparently the extremely tenuous and recent nature of the LGBTQ+ community's legal right to exist was not actually super widely known to a lot of people on Tumblr?
Which clarifies some stuff in retrospect. I have so often wanted to grab people by their lapels and shout, "Stop picking on someone for not meeting your entry requirements! We need everyone we can get, you asshole! DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THEY HATE US OUT THERE?"
Aaaapparently... no, they did not know. Or they knew and were a conservative psyop preparing the ground for our loss of legal rights. Fun times!
So: Look, it is bad. Shit is scary. They really do hate us out there. You're not wrong.
But: This is what we've always fought. This boat we're in with its antique fittings and strange markings on the floor is a battleship. Work has always been going on in the basements, and when shit gets tough, we clear away clutter and roll out the cannons.
I found this chart a couple weeks ago and hung onto it because it felt like the map to my first 25 years on this earth:
[Image description: A graph titled "Same Sex Marriage: Public Polls since 1988." It is from FiveThirtyEight's NYT column. It records the percentage of US Americans polled who would say yes or no to legalizing same-sex marriage, from 1988 to 2011.
The two lines begin with roughly 10% saying yes in 1988, and 70% saying no; the two lines gradually draw closer over the years, until by 2011, the percent saying finally dips under 50%, and the group saying yes makes a tentative reach for the majority. End of image description.]
After some great social change has happened, when everyone has admitted that gay marriage is very cute and Pride is a colourful parade, hooray, people like to pretend that it was just natural and inevitable and happened on its own. People just became less prejudiced! Courts just decided on a case! Governments just passed a law!
In reality, it was a vicious fucking fight, every fucking time. Every fucking where. There are a lot of people who deeply, sincerely believe that a hundred years ago, society had good rules about sex and gender and intercourse and marriage, and that changing those rules has made the world worse. They don't always agree on the specifics, but they can work together far enough to fight anyone with new ideas.
This is why we are a community. Even when we don't have the same experiences of attraction or identity, even when we don't do the same things, even when we have wildly different ideas of a good time. Because when these groups take aim, we're all under fire, and none of us is responsible for why they hate us.
In some ways I think it's a miracle that there seems to be a generation that did not grow up, as I grew up, constantly glued to news reports about What Percentage of Society Hates Us this month. I can't imagine who I'd be if my brain and heart and soul hadn't been tied up, that whole time, in the political question of whether I'd get to dream of a decent future.
I think that it will give us strength to have people who can imagine a world where no one hates us. Who believe in it so strongly they can taste it. That's my prediction: If you didn't know this was coming, you'll be a boon to us, because we have always needed joy so fiercely, in this fight, to keep us going on. We have needed drag queens and punk bands and "her wife" and safe space stickers. Parade floats and wedding days and little dogs with rainbow collars, badges and banners and meetups, because more than anything else we need to fight our own despair, and our fear that the world will never get any better than this.
It will. We know it will. We can taste it.
Look up to the history, organizations, and people who've got us this far for information on what forms of activism will actually advance our political goals. Look to the side to make sure the comrades within reach are keeping their heads above water, and that you're keeping enough joy going to stay alive. Look back to see who's more vulnerable than you are that you might have forgotten or been tempted to leave behind. Look after each other. Look after yourself.
We can do this.
To your battle stations.
If you are only-just-barely old enough to be on this website, if you JUST turned 13âŠ.you still predate, by a few months, the day I got spit on by a member of the Westboro Baptist Church for being in an equality march. Hereâs the event. I was 21.
My role in the spitting was standing by a barricade. I wasnât engaging at all, because weâd already been warned several of the counter-protestors had been attempting to incite riots, so we werenât even LOOKING at the WBC. And apparently I just happened to be close enough to spit on.
And as a protestor whose future depended on not being arrested several hundred miles from home, I had only one choice. Youâd probably like to hear that I beat the shit out of Shirley Phelps-Roper, and trust me, I wish I could tell you the Hollywood version of this story where I did that and everyone went âwow! This person was just standing there and got spit on! Clearly this is a sign bigotry is the wrong choice and we should grant full queer rights RIGHT NOW!â But that would be a lie. So instead Iâll tell you what really happened: with the words âtrying to incite a riotâ clanging in my head and the specter of jail time as a visibly queer person dancing in my mind, I smiled at her, and said âJesus loves you, maâamâ and did not wipe her spit away until she was out of sight. I walked about a quarter of a mile with her spit drying on my cheek, to protect the thousands of people around me and the millions for whom we marched.
Less than thirteen years ago. If youâre just old enough to vote, you were probably literally in your kindergarten class when this happened. If youâre just old enough to drink, you were in third grade. A teacher might even have flipped on the TV to let you watch A Historic March, if you happened to be in a place like LA or Maryland (as we used to put on our signs in those days, Maryland, the Marry-Land, because it was the first state where same-sex marriage was legal). Most places certainly not, but perhaps in a few.
The battle never ended. But I want to leave you on a note of hope, not despair. And I want to underline what OP said about needing every person we can get.
I did not cry when Shirley Phelps-Roper spit on me. I didnât cry when we started reciting the Constitutional right to assembly off the side of a building. I didnât cry standing outside the White House, wondering if Malia and Sasha were seeing what was happening outside and if so, what their dad would tell them about it, or listening to any of the speeches. But I did cry that day, and thinking about what made me cry is bringing tears to my eyes again now.
It was a straight couple along the side of the protest route. Probably in their 40s or 50s. Black man, white woman, holding a sign theyâd made out of a bedsheet.
It said âSTAY STRONG 40 YEARS AGO OUR MARRIAGE WAS ILLEGAL TOO WE STAND WITH YOU.â
Weâd been instructed under no circumstances whatsoever to leave our groups, because of the whole they-might-incite-a-riot thing and also because it simply wasnât safe to be alone and confused and visibly queer in a city that wasnât your own, surrounded by people who said you didnât have the right to exist. So I couldnât hug those people. But I waved at them, along with a whole bunch of other protestors, and they waved back at us.
It was a pair of allies whoâd faced similar discrimination and hardship whoâd made me feel hope. The other queer people around me were amazing, but that couple is the one that stayed in my mind. They represented a world where we could win, because they had won. And I promise you, not a single person around me was suggesting they didnât belong there. I think we all fell a little in love with them, actually, for accepting the risk and putting themselves out there and finding a way into DC (which is no small feat even when thereâs no protest on, DC transportation is horrible) to hold up their bedsheet and tell us they loved us.
If someone says âyou have my gun and sword, let me help,â you donât stop to ask what army theyâre from or tell them theyâre in the wrong uniform. You shove over a little and you let them get in line, and you ask how many bullets they have.
Iâm tired. I donât have all that much ammunition left. But youâve got me as long as I can keep shooting.
Letâs go.
You have my spear, my little revolver, my husband's handguns, my axe, my sword, and my Maryland pride.
Living this close to DC for my whole adult life has been... interesting.
That graph is from 2011, and shows a very slight majority of the population approving of same-sex marriage.
For some perspective, hereâs the current graph:
Yes, thatâs right, 67% or over 2/3 of the population are on our side now. 25 years ago it was the opposite.
Another interesting tidbit, just for fun:
âPeople often say that same-sex marriage now is like interracial marriage in the 60s. But in terms of public opinion, same-sex marriage now is like interracial marriage in the 90s, when it had already been legal nationwide for 30 years.â --Randall Munroe, XKCD
And before anyone points out that marriage is just a reiteration of heteronormativity, my answer is: yes, and? If this many people object to us doing something that boring, how do you think they feel about us the rest of the time?
We need to hang together.
Nobody is free until everyone is free.
If you think that, then youâre probably quite young, and need to learn a little more about the AIDS pandemic and why we picked marriage as the nail to hang our hat on.
For a more immediate view, Iâm going to ask my elder queers to provide some information on trying to see your hospitalized partner or correctly execute their estate. Iâm just a little too young for the first-hand view of that.
But I will share this shocking fact I learned during my marching days, and it should explain a lot:
In the United States of America, OVER A THOUSAND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES are granted to married couples, but not to unmarried couples or domestic partnerships.
These range from hospital visitation to paying inheritance tax to how you do your income taxes.
We didnât pick it to be boring. There are many huge reasons we picked it, and tbh calling it âboringâ is a huge disservice to those who died on the steps of the CDC to bring you that right.
I've been an adult longer than gay sex has been legal in the U.S. (2003)
I've been an adult longer than same-sex marriage has been recognized everywhere in the U.S. (2015)
I've been an adult longer than same-sex couples have been able to adopt children in the U.S. (2017)
I didn't fight in WWII or some shit, I went to HS in the late 90s. The rights LGBTQ people have in the U.S. haven't even existed 25 years.
@prismatic-bell - I was in that march too! I remember that couple! I'm...actually pretty sure I saw you get spit on - or else they spit on someone else who wasn't far from me, which is entirely possible. I was in college. I actually got stranded in DC because a homophobic cab driver made me late for my flight on purpose, driving me around the block, forcing me to listen to the Fox News radio broadcast about how we were degenerate trash. I missed several exams and had to tell my professors why I missed them in order to get a makeup exam. (Fortunately I went to a very liberal college, for all that it was in South Carolina, and my professors were basically like marching for civil rights? hell yeah. [I was also minoring in Civil Rights Movements, so...].)
I was barely out of the closet when the Columbia, South Carolina Pride March I was in almost got overrun by protestors. An older gay couple actually bodily blocked a Nazi swinging his fists from getting to me. This was during Obama's presidency too. That wasn't that long ago.
This wasn't that long ago.
And fortunately for us, the president currently in the White House supported us during that time, as Vice President, even when Obama didn't. Obama was still spouting "separate but equal," which I thought was a fucking irony, when Biden just straight out said, "Nah, they should have full equal rights. Come at me."
But we are fighting for a narrow fucking majority, you guys. We are not safe. It is not over. All the babies on here like to talk about how the first Pride was a riot -- they all are. And that is why we don't turn away kinksters, who have been with us (and who are us) from day one. This is why we don't turn away people who ally with us. Not only because there is plenty of room under this umbrella, but because we need every single person we can get.
Happy Pride, y'all.
@thats-what-sidhe-said
ARCHIVE YOUR FIC ON AO3 FOR ETERNAL GLORY
It physically pains me to see people post awesome fanfiction to tumblr and nowhere else. Tumblr moves so fast! By tomorrow people who didnât look in a tag at the right moment wonât know it existed. By next week even people who did read it wonât be able to find it back to reread. Finding anything on tumblr via search function is practically a fluke. For all intents and purposes, your hard work has a halflife of about a week at most.
PUT YOUR WORK ON AO3 WHERE IT CAN LIVE ETERNALLY, I BEG YOU
People who come into that fandom in a month, a year, even a decade will be able to find your work!
People can bookmark it!
People can rec it to others!
People can reread it into infinity! (and people like me can do that and comment every time!)
You can get comments & kudos until the endtimes because people will keep finding your work! (seriously I still sometimes get new people finding and loving my work from ~2013)
And best of all, people can SUBSCRIBE to your work so they will get email about new chapters and stories! (Iâm seeing people do manual âTag you in the next chapterâ lists and seriously, physical pain, this wheel has already been invented and it is rolling beautifully)
PLEASE LET ME BOOKMARK YOUR FIC I BEG YOU
âBut I need an invite for AO3!â
Yes, and the waiting list is currently 2-3 days. Thatâs hardly worth not doing this for, right?
âBut I only read fic, I donât post itâ
here is a post on why having an account just to read fic is also very worth it!
Lately Iâve been the tumblr person who jumps onto people who post cool fic to tumblr and going HEY HAVE YOU POSTED THIS TO AO3, YOU REALLY SHOULD, HIT ME UP FOR AN INVITE CODE and I hereby invite all you fellow fic readers and posters to join me into spreading the good word.
Please reblog this and tag your favourite fandoms and pairings! Spread this post to the people who need to see it! Save great fic from the tumblr void!
I feel like thereâs this ongoing trend in design at large of hyper focusing on slickness, aesthetics, or ideals rather than like holistic practicality. Whether itâs thinking of âguest experienceâ in terms of making a better app, rather than eliminating the need for an app, striving for wireless charging in devices - even though itâs more inefficient and you canât use a handheld device if it needs to be attached to a pad, the trend to make everything a touchscreen - even though in places like a car it makes a lot more sense to have buttons you can feel without looking - just everywhere you look thereâs designers trying to âsolveâ problems and make things âbetterâ by making them worse.
Is it really a better user experience when some piece of software you use for work gets completely reworked every three years and you have to learn to use it again? Even if some of the features are quicker to use?
Is it really a better user experience with better materials if the thing has to be replaced every year or two?
Is it really a better experience if you have to wait in line for half a day, or make reservations for every thing months in advance?Â
The ideology behind solving problems in design - and Iâm not sure if this is strictly of the designers at large, or the executives in charge, or both - often focuses so narrowly on solving the immediate problem that the cause of the problem is overlooked, or just new problems are created.
Wireless charging is a great idea in THEORY. Yeah youâre right no one really likes wires, managing cables, the cable not being long enough, having the wrong adapter, or whatever. But if your wireless charging pad still requires a wire, and requires the phone to be physically on the pad so that if you want to use it while charging you have to hold the entire thing in your handâŠlike if an alien from space came down to look at the two solutions, theyâd obviously pick the damn plug.
We do this over and over. I remember reading a great piece of satire that talked about a ânewâ way to read ebooks. Permanent ownership, infinite battery life, no internet connection required, easily annotate and remember pages, beautiful art, ergonomic shapeâŠtheyâre called printed books.Â
Like I hope Iâm not the old grandma shaking her fist at the cloud because change keeps happeningâŠI think modern technologies are amazing, and we should fully be taking advantage of them. But idk can we like be thoughtful about it so we make the experience as a whole actually better? Rather than just better on paper? Sometimes its a better idea to refine existing ideas than just completely go for something new because itâs slick or ideologically pure. The problem with car dashboards wasnât that they had buttons, it was that they were laid out in dumb, cluttered, un-useful ways. But it makes infinitely more sense to just have a little mechanical knob to point the vent in your direction then it does to have it on a screen, buried in menus, that you canât access safely while driving, controlled by who knows how many servos and other additional needless gizmos.
Think about the BIG experience.
It's late '80s school yearbook picture time!
(Saw this poster of "Ba-By Yod-A" being sold on Amazon by someone whom I'm certain must be an authorized copyright holder blessed by the Disney corporation, and not at all some random person trying to hide their illegal listing from copyright bots...)
