Ars Notoria

I saw Goody Osborne with the Devil!

[svndvn]

I cant' be painting leaves and sand forever...

[octoswan]

I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

(save the images to zoom in on the pics)

[firelightinferno]

Oh, that’s very helpful indeed!

[writing-prompt-s]

!!!

[skyfallscotland]

Writing Advice: tips, tricks & helpful links, from your friendly neighbourhood fanfic author ✨ (part two—the resources)

see part one—the advice here

verbiage: • show, don't tell—a guide by @lyralit • this crazy big list of dialogue tags from @slayingfiction

diversity & inclusive writing: • a collection of helpful posts about BIPOC, gender, and body neutral inclusion in writing collated by @lavenderursa • this post on writing disabled characters by @cripplecharacters if you're not writing from experience

adding depth to your characters: • exploring character backstory and good traits gone bad by @saraswritingtipps • dark past ideas from @sas-soulwriter • @lyralit's list of things to think about when crafting a character

story structure and depth: • plot structures and this story planning template from @wordsnstuff • this collection of links from @oflights including fantasy name generators, child development guides, and height comparison visuals • finally, @writingquestionsanswered full stop, they have some fantastic guides and advice on things like this post on how to deal with writer's block and this one on how to start a story.

smut (i'm not gonna lie, there's a lot of smut resources): • the classic—quinnanderson's 'ultimate guide to writing smut fic' on AO3 • smut synonyms from @plaidstiel-wormstache • @maybeeatspaghetti's smutty dictionary • another smut thesaurus from @prurientpuddlejumper • this list of praise kink dialogue, also a good site for sex positions • sex positions for deep penetration (with diagrams) • this guide by @void-my-warranty • and not quite smut, but this post on how to write a kiss scene from @youneedsomeprompts

writing software: • a collection of alternatives to google docs, by @the960writers • here is @yekokataa's AO3 template for scrivener

prompts, for when you want to write but need a nudge: • @creativepromptsforwriting • @deity-prompts (who also has an excellent masterlist of writer's advice)

I may update this list occasionally who knows, but for now I hope some of you find it helpful 💗

[windvexer]

Theme and Action: a tarot method for brainstorming plots, setting, and characters

I find a lot of story brainstorming spreads to be clunky and rigid, so I did a little experimenting and came up with a method I like a lot. I haven't done a ton of testing yet but I thought I'd share what I have.

Basically, it's a two card draw from a deck split into majors and minors. Each draw always has one major card (theme) and one minor card (action).

When you have a question, like:

What are some ideas for the next scene?

Why would that character behave that way?

What's the defining characteristic of this vampire clan?

What do the people in this society fear most?

Why is this scene dragging?

What does this character need to feel more real?

You would draw one major card and one minor card!

Themes and Action; what it's about vs how it manifests

We could call these cards a bunch of different things depending on exactly how the question is framed, but Themes and Action are good enough.

Basically, the major arcana card gives subtext or context, and the minor arcana card provides specific incidents. Like this!:

"In my vampire setting, what is the most important thing in vampire culture?"

Theme: Death

Action: 10/Pentacles

Interpretation: (Theme) The most important thing in vampire culture is the process of dying and the equalizer of death itself. (Action) This has resulted in cultural rituals where death is treated as a sacred adoption or initiation into a new family/estate.

(I really drew this test spread and it really was death lol)

We can swap out the Action card to see a different outcome:

Theme: Death

Action: 5/Swords

Interpretation: (Theme) the most important thing in vampire culture is the process of dying and the equalizer of death itself. (Action) the horror of death and loss has never been overcome in this society, and it must be dealt with as an individual - because vampires process the pain of their own deaths by taking it out on each other.

Here's a different example. In an urban fantasy book where a witch solves ghost mysteries, pacing is dragging and we need our next scene to be exciting. But despite a foot chase after a suspected ghost poacher, the scene doesn't feel fast paced or exciting. The question is, "how do we spice this up?"

Theme: Hermit

Action: King of Cups

Interpretation: (Theme) instead of a crowded street, the character will be isolated and without normal support. (Action) she'll be trapped in a closed space with the story's main villain, who most closely connects with the King of Cups

Another swap, this time switching out the theme card:

Theme: Empress

Action: King of Cups

Interpretation: (Theme) the scene feels boring because it's action without development. Show the main character's personal development and give her a 'level up' moment. (Action) have the ghost poacher lead her to a premature showdown with the main villain, whom she faces bravely for the first time.

This is already long so I'm not going to go on and on with examples but so far I've found this method to be pretty versatile.

Try interpreting Theme and Action as literally as you can within the context of the story!

If you're writing a story about a flower princess who sleeps on a dewdrop in the mystical Gnarlwood Forest, the Sun card will mean one thing.

If you're writing a story about vampires, the Sun card probably means something very different.

Major arcanas can be literary themes, like the moon representing deceit within society, but they can also be literal; in a werewolf story, the Moon card might represent the celestial body that controls the lives of certain people.

The most important thing for me is to avoid interpreting the cards in a general self-help sense.

The cheerful villagers of prosperous Splitsky Castle are waiting for you to invent a festival so a mysterious stranger can come to town and get the plot going.

The question is, "what kind of festival gives me the right setup to pull off the plot point I want?"

The theme card is the Magician, so ideas for the festival could be:

A festival honoring magic users (if they exist in your setting)

A festival honoring the resourcefulness of the villagers

A festival of stage magic and trickery

The action card is the 6/Cups.

Probably, the festival is not about healing your inner child with Jungian shadow work. More contextual ideas might include:

A festival where children are chosen to be trained in magic

A festival celebrating teaching the next generation important skills

A festival meant to delight and entertain children with stage magic

Developing related factions or foils

Draw a major arcana card to identify a certain Theme, maybe along the lines of:

What do they hold to be sacred?

What do they not care about, or hate?

What is their most cherished virtue?

What is the defining feature of leadership?

When they sing about home, what is in their songs?

This theme will be the same for both entities.

Draw different minor arcana cards to show how each entity expresses that theme.

Conversely, work in the opposite direction: keep the minor arcana card for both entities, and swap out the theme card.

Finding Action cards when you know the Theme

Holding the deck so that it's facing you, thumb through the cards until you find the major arcana card that describes your theme. The most recent minor arcana card that was on top of it, even if separated by other majors, is the action card.

Reversals

I tend to read both cards as upright and reversed, and just apply whatever meanings are most relevant. In my experiments using reversals ended up being too finicky and specific, and limited my creativity.

Complex Concepts and Plots

For a complex reading, like plotting an entire novel or building an entire character, I have found more utility in doing many pair readings rather than doing one large spread with many pairs.

My tests so far have suggested that the most creative freedom is found in asking specific questions, like "what is this character's driving motivation," and "what is her quirky hobby," and "what makes her put up with her annoying best friend," rather than trying to build a giant spread that includes all of these things at once.

As a caveat, in plot spreads, I will sometimes put pairs down without returning them to the deck, and then connect Theme/Action pairs with single action cards to suggest events that connect the dots.

[sayruq]

[literally21]

Harm Happening Around the World

Please note that there are actually more humanity crisis situations happening about the world.

[dresshistorynerd]

How did cotton win over linen anyway?

In short, colonialism, slavery and the industrial revolution. In length:

Cotton doesn't grow in Europe so before the Modern Era, cotton was rare and used in small quantities for specific purposes (lining doublets for example). The thing with cotton is, that's it can be printed with dye very easily. The colors are bright and they don't fade easily. With wool and silk fabrics, which were the more traditional fabrics for outer wear in Europe (silk for upper classes of course), patterns usually needed to be embroidered or woven to the cloth to last, which was very expensive. Wool is extremely hard to print to anything detailed that would stay even with modern technology. Silk can be printed easily today with screen printing, but before late 18th century the technique wasn't known in western world (it was invented in China a millenium ago) and the available methods didn't yeld good results.

So when in the late 17th century European trading companies were establishing trading posts in India, a huge producer of cotton fabrics, suddenly cotton was much more available in Europe. Indian calico cotton, which was sturdy and cheap and was painted or printed with colorful and intricate floral patters, chintz, especially caught on and became very fashionable. The popular Orientalism of the time also contributed to it becoming fasionable, chintz was seen as "exotic" and therefore appealing.

Here's a typical calico jacket from late 18th century. The ones in European markets often had white background, but red background was also fairly common.

The problem with this was that this was not great for the business of the European fabric producers, especially silk producers in France and wool producers in England, who before were dominating the European textile market and didn't like that they now had competition. So European countries imposed trade restrictions for Indian cotton, England banning cotton almost fully in 1721. Since the introduction of Indian cottons, there had been attempts to recreate it in Europe with little success. They didn't have nearly advanced enough fabric printing and cotton weaving techniques to match the level of Indian calico. Cotton trade with India didn't end though. The European trading companies would export Indian cottons to West African market to fund the trans-Atlantic slave trade that was growing quickly. European cottons were also imported to Africa. At first they didn't have great demand as they were so lacking compared to Indian cotton, but by the mid 1700s quality of English cotton had improved enough to be competitive.

Inventions in industrial textile machinery, specifically spinning jenny in 1780s and water frame in 1770s, would finally give England the advantages they needed to conquer the cotton market. These inventions allowed producing very cheap but good quality cotton and fabric printing, which would finally produce decent imitations of Indian calico in large quantities. Around the same time in mid 1700s, The East Indian Company had taken over Bengal and soon following most of the Indian sub-continent, effectively putting it under British colonial rule (but with a corporate rule dystopian twist). So when industrialized English cotton took over the market, The East India Company would suppress Indian textile industry to utilize Indian raw cotton production for English textile industry and then import cotton textiles back to India. In 1750s India's exports were mainly fine cotton and silk, but during the next century Indian export would become mostly raw materials. They effectively de-industrialized India to industrialize England further.

India, most notably Bengal area, had been an international textile hub for millennia, producing the finest cottons and silks with extremely advance techniques. Loosing cotton textile industry devastated Indian local economies and eradicated many traditional textile craft skills. Perhaps the most glaring example is that of Dhaka muslin. Named after the city in Bengal it was produced in, it was extremely fine and thin cotton requiring very complicated and time consuming spinning process, painstakingly meticulous hand-weaving process and a very specific breed of cotton. It was basically transparent as seen depicted in this Mughal painting from early 17th century.

It was used by e.g. the ancient Greeks, Mughal emperors and, while the methods and it's production was systematically being destroyed by the British to squash competition, it became super fashionable in Europe. It was extremely expensive, even more so than silk, which is probably why it became so popular among the rich. In 1780s Marie Antoinette famously and scandalously wore chemise a la reine made from multiple layers of Dhaka muslin. In 1790s, when the empire silhouette took over, it became even more popular, continuing to the very early 1800s, till Dhaka muslin production fully collapsed and the knowledge and skill to produce it were lost. But earlier this year, after years lasting research to revive the Dhaka muslin funded by Bangladeshi government, they actually recreated it after finding the right right cotton plant and gathering spinners and weavers skilled in traditional craft to train with it. (It's super cool and I'm making a whole post about it (it has been in the making for months now) so I won't extend this post more.)

Marie Antoinette in the famous painting with wearing Dhaka muslin in 1783, and empress Joséphine Bonaparte in 1801 also wearing Dhaka muslin.

While the trans-Atlantic slave trade was partly funded by the cotton trade and industrial English cotton, the slave trade would also be used to bolster the emerging English cotton industry by forcing African slaves to work in the cotton plantations of Southern US. This produced even more (and cheaper (again slave labor)) raw material, which allowed the quick upward scaling of the cotton factories in Britain. Cotton was what really kicked off the industrial revolution, and it started in England, because they colonized their biggest competitor India and therefore were able to take hold of the whole cotton market and fund rapid industrialization.

Eventually the availability of cotton, increase in ready-made clothing and the luxurious reputation of cotton lead to cotton underwear replacing linen underwear (and eventually sheets) (the far superior option for the reasons I talked about here) in early Victorian Era. Before Victorian era underwear was very practical, just simple rectangles and triangles sewn together. It was just meant to protect the outer clothing and the skin, and it wasn't seen anyway, so why put the relatively scarce resources into making it pretty? Well, by the mid 1800s England was basically fully industrialized and resource were not scarce anymore. Middle class was increasing during the Victorian Era and, after the hard won battles of the workers movement, the conditions of workers was improving a bit. That combined with decrease in prices of clothing, most people were able to partake in fashion. This of course led to the upper classes finding new ways to separate themselves from lower classes. One of these things was getting fancy underwear. Fine cotton kept the fancy reputation it had gained first as an exotic new commodity in late 17th century and then in Regency Era as the extremely expensive fabric of queens and empresses. Cotton also is softer than linen, and therefore was seen as more luxurious against skin. So cotton shifts became the fancier shifts. At the same time cotton drawers were becoming common additional underwear for women.

It wouldn't stay as an upper class thing, because as said cotton was cheap and available. Ready-made clothing also helped spread the fancier cotton underwear, as then you could buy fairly cheaply pretty underwear and you didn't even have to put extra effort into it's decoration. At the same time cotton industry was massive and powerful and very much eager to promote cotton underwear as it would make a very steady and long lasting demand for cotton.

In conclusion, cotton has a dark and bloody history and it didn't become the standard underwear fabric for very good reasons.

Here's couple of excellent sources regarding the history of cotton industry:

The European Response to Indian Cottons, Prasannan Parthasarathi

INDIAN COTTON MILLS AND THE BRITISH ECONOMIC POLICY, 1854-1894, Rajib Lochan Sahoo

[petslifeworld]

Ferret shows the owner her babies.

[styleskiszka12-deactivated20211]

I’m straight up CRYING

[dragonsmirk]

The person who commented “sounds like a bunch of kazoos having a panic attack” made me laugh out loud :D

[forthegothicheroine]

I’m not a classicist, but I suspect one of the reasons so many of the Greek gods are portrayed so unflatteringly was less because they were seen as villains than because they represented their domains.  Of course Zeus sometimes misuses his power, that’s what a king does.  Of course Artemis’s wrath is wild and painful, that’s what nature can be.  Of course Hades snatched away a young girl from her mother’s arms, that’s what death does.  This is one of the reasons callout posts for some gods comparing them negatively to ‘nicer’ gods are kind of missing the point.

[selavy]

as someone who is partially a classicist, this is a better analysis of Greek mythology as a whole than 99.95% of the takes I’ve seen on here (and a substantial number of the takes I’ve seen in ~academia~)

[theoutcastrogue]

This is a terrible analysis, and it dismays me how popular it’s become. Greek gods are portrayed unflatteringly because that’s how polytheism works. If you’re looking for role models, you’re in the wrong genre. And if you’re looking for deities whose personality neatly corresponds with their portfolio, try D&D pantheons.

Why gods aren’t nice

In the real world, people didn’t care to imagine their gods as good or moral, they had absolutely no reason to do that. Instead, they needed to imagine them as

powerful

bribeable

fickle

On a fundamental level, that’s what a god is. You want them powerful so that they can give you what you ask (crops, rain, health, wealth, a successful birth, a victorious battle, whatever). You want them bribeable so that they’ll want to give you what you ask, in exchange for offerings, prayers, honours, sacrifices. And you want them fickle so that when you – inevitably – DON’T get what you ask, although you kept your part of the deal, you can attribute it to their fickleness, otherwise you’ll have to admit they don’t have the power to help you, and the entire edifice of your religion collapses.

(An alternative to fickle is “inscrutable”. Surely the deity has a perfectly good explanation why my demand wasn’t met, but I, a mere mortal, cannot fathom it.)

That said, the parallel Zeus / king does have merit. Of course people are gonna imagine their chief god somewhat like a mortal chief. If they didn’t have mortal chiefs, they wouldn’t have made up an immortal one!

Why gods don’t represent their domains

For starters, the gods’ “domains” weren’t defined that rigidly, neither were they universally agreed on. (Please don’t extrapolate from the classical period’s Aristotelian obsession with categories, and putting everything into little boxes. On the ground, things were fluid. There wasn’t even a consensus on which gods are The Twelve.) When we say stuff like “the cult of Hecate in Argos”, we mean a local worship with local characteristics, and ancient greek religion was simply a collection of cults. In Corinth Hecate was worshipped differently and perceived differently, and none of it was set in stone, things changed as centuries passed. So while today we can open a book or a wikipedia page and list all the “domains” of Hecate (goddess of witchcraft and crossroads and the moon and stuff!), these don’t cover everything, and they didn’t always apply. They are just a reduction. It ain’t D&D.

Second, for the purposes of worship, “domains” didn’t matter that much. The major religious festivals were organised by the city-states, and the decision “which god to honour” was based on custom and the city’s patron deity. Privately, people gave offerings primarily to THEIR gods – the deities of their city, their village, or their family – regardless of “domains”. (Remember, religion is bribery asking for favours, and what’s the most important thing in favours? It’s who you know.)

People also travelled to famous temples in other places, because they’d heard that if you leave an offering to THAT god in THAT temple, you’ll get what you asked for. (Religious tourism was part of the economy; cities and islands that were poor in resources might make up for it with a temple and a fake story.) And again, the gods’ portfolios were secondary: what mattered most was their perceived power, and willingness to grant wishes in this specific location.

Secondary doesn’t mean completely insignificant, mind you. People did petition the gods for things that pertained to their “domains”. You’d invoke Hera when you were about to get married, and Poseidon when you were about to set sail. But there was also a lot of overlap. Like, whom did you invoke when you were about to give birth? Eileithyia, Artemis, Persephone, Hera? Yes. So does that mean that people felt compelled to imagine all these different deities with a personality that reflects the same domain, in this case “childbirth”? No. And they very obviously didn’t.

Finally, while the famous greek gods do have a personality, which we can derive from their stories and hymns and such (though they’re not set in stone by any means: it’s a millennia-spanning collaborative product of oral/written tradition, so there are wild discrepancies and conflicting characterisations and mutually exclusive variants all over the place), this is not a requirement in polytheism. The aforementioned Eileithyia arguably doesn’t HAVE a personality. And yet, as far as worship goes, she was the most important goddess of childbirth in the entire ancient greek world.

It’s not them, it’s us

Basically, we, today, care about the greek gods’ stories and personalities a lot more than the people who actually made them up and worshipped them. Like, orders of magnitude more. Consider: we know a lot about the period when tons of new god-stories were being created, in real time, and acted on stage. Plays were subject to a lot of criticism at the time (“your language sucks!”, “your plot is so contrived you could only resolve it with a deus ex machina!”, “your message is frivolous!”, “you’re boring!”), but no one ever accused them of mischaracterising the gods (or anyone else, for that matter). Like, nobody ever said “Apollo wouldn’t do that!”. And that’s because:

people really didn’t care; consistent characterisation? what’s that?

they’re gods, they do what they want, that’s their whole point!

So let’s not extrapolate from us to them. All they wanted to do was get shit done with a little divine help. But then they started giving money and honours to poets and playwrights, and it kinda got out of hand, and by a quirk of history these stories survived to this day, and now here we are.

[authorkims]

[illisidifan]

This is why she’s my favorite author.

[petermorwood]

Check out “Barry Lyndon”, a film whose period interiors were famously shot by period lamp-and-candle lighting (director Stanley Kubrick had to source special lenses with which to do it).

More recently, some scenes in “Wolf Hall” were also shot with period live-flame lighting and IIRC until they got used to it, actors had to be careful how they moved across the sets. However, it’s very atmospheric: there’s one scene where Cromwell is sitting by the fire, brooding about his association with Henry VIII while the candles in the room are put out around him. The effect is more than just visual.

As someone (I think it was Terry Pratchett) once said: “You always need enough light to see how dark it is.”

A demonstration of getting that out of balance happened in later seasons of “Game of Thrones”, most infamously in the complaint-heavy “Battle of Winterfell” episode, whose cinematographer claimed the poor visibility was because “a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly”.

So it was nothing to do with him at all, oh dear me no. Wottapillock. Needing to retune a TV to watch one programme but not others shows where the fault lies, and it’s not in the TV.

*****

We live in rural West Wicklow, Ireland, and it’s 80% certain that when we have a storm, a branch or even an entire tree will fall onto a power line and our lights will go out.

Usually the engineers have things fixed in an hour or two, but that can be a long dark time in the evenings or nights of October through February, so we always know where the candles and matches are and the oil lamp is always full.

We also know from experience how much reading can be done by candle-light, and it’s more than you’d think, once there’s a candle right behind you with its light falling on the pages.

You get more light than you’d expect from both candles and lamps, because for one thing, eyes adapt to dim light. @dduane​ says she can sometimes hear my irises dilating. Yeah, sure…

For another thing lamps can have accessories. Here’s an example: reflectors to direct light out from the wall into the room. I’ve tried this with a shiny foil pie-dish behind our own Very Modern Swedish Design oil lamp, and it works.

Smooth or parabolic reflectors concentrate their light (for a given value of concentrate, which is a pretty low value at that) while flatter fluted ones like these scatter the light over a wider area, though it’s less bright as a result:

This candle-holder has both a reflector and a magnifying lens, almost certainly to illuminate close or even medical work of some sort rather than light a room.

And then there’s this, which a lot of people saw and didn’t recognise, because it’s often described in tones of librarian horror as a beverage in the rare documents collection.

There IS a beverage, that’s in the beaker, but the spherical bottle is a light magnifier, and Gandalf would arrange a candle behind it for close study.

Here’s one being used - with a lightbulb - by a woodblock carver.

And here’s the effect it produces.

Here’s a four-sphere version used with a candle (all the fittings can be screwed up and down to get the candle and magnifiers properly lined up) and another one in use by a lacemaker.

Finally, here’s something I tried last night in our own kitchen, using a water-filled decanter. It’s not perfectly spherical so didn’t create the full effect, but it certainly impressed me, especially since I’d locked the camera so its automatic settings didn’t change to match light levels.

This is the effect with candles placed “normally”.

But when one candle is behind the sphere, this happens.

 It also threw a long teardrop of concentrated light across the worktop; the photos of the woodcarver show that much better.

Poor-people lighting involved things like rushlights or tallow dips. They were awkward things, because they didn’t last long, needed constant adjustment, didn’t give much light and were smelly. But they were cheap, and that’s what mattered most.

They’re often mentioned in historical and fantasy fiction but seldom explained: a rushlight is a length of spongy pith from inside a rush plant, dried then dipped in tallow (or lard, or mutton-fat), hence both its names.

Here’s Jason Kingsley making one.

[balaclava-trismegistus]

The shooting in Colorado will very obviously sanitized in order for America to ignore the terrifying problem it has with fascist terrorism. It was at a gay club, during a drag performance, during an event organized by a group presently being targeted by libsoftiktok for "grooming" teenagers by facilitating them exploring drag performance. After news broke of the shooting, libsoftiktok was still attacking the group on twitter. The perpetrator, of course, was a 22 year old man known to law enforcement, and was previously in deep shit for calling in bomb threats. The same story we always hear. Same one we've heard for years.

This is a part of a greater rising tide. Young men are being radicalized into acts of stochastic terror with increasing frequency. Not only does law enforcement have no interest in protecting our communities, they are often in the same circles as these terrorists, and agree with their actions. Other mass shootings have already demonstrated that police will not even protect their own communities. Public officials refuse this is a systemic issue being aggravated by sitting politicians who peddle conspiracy and hatred. Social media sites have zero concern for the charlatans creating the echo chambers and feedback loops which drive these alienated young men into the deranged mindset to inflict this kind of pain.

It isn't hopeless, of course. There are courses of action we can take, even if we can't directly change the system above us. Now is the time to discuss this trend as loudly and openly as we can in order to get to the core of the issue. Don't shut up about this kind of thing. We should probably be organizing large, visible actions. Act up, as it were. In the mean time, we also need to keep ourselves safe, as we find ourselves an outlaw class. Talk to one another. Protect eachother. Be sure to be active in your local communities, and establish ties between communities. We need to find those meaningful alliances again. Learn to defend yourself and others in any way you can, and encourage those around you to do the same. Yet, there is no need to panic. Only need to prepare and strengthen ourselves for what may possibly happen around us. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

[bisforbutch]

I want to preface this by saying this is not victim blaming. This not calling people online lazy or grifting or whatever.

But an underlooked proponent on why some people are nearing homeless and crowdfunding heavily rn is bc society has failed you by making it as inconvenient as possible to learn about social systems and programs that already exist to help your situation as well as not having enough programs and aid.

Lemme give some examples. I have been unemployed for 10 months. My mom told me about a paying job training program a month ago after I already decided to mive in with her to find work, because nothing was coming up in my own city. My best friend didn’t know about affordable housing assistance in my state until she talked to my dad about it on a chance encounter. Some people on here have to see posts about much cheaper alternatives to their current prescriptions or medical plans because its not in the interest of their doctors paychecks to tell them about it. I would have waited to get vaccinated and not have crowdfunded for Uber money if I had known they were going to give free vaccine rides the next month. But I wouldn’t have really known this until I opened the app once that program started, because it is in their interest to keep taking my money until its their desired time for me to reap their “generous” services.

What I’m trying to say is that this is an under discussed aspect of how capitalism fails people. When you are forced to make your life and work and finances so singular and self interested, you are cut off from community and equivalent social services to proper government assistance. You literally don’t know that there is help somewhere out there for you unless you’re told.

[memesnotwelcome]

I believe a professor I had called this “cultural wisdom” but I haven’t been able to find the social science articles that expanded on this. It’s a practical knowledge of local systems that allows someone to function and thrive in that system. The example she used was having an understanding that banks can hold your money, but the practical aspect of accessing your money (in a convenient and easy manor) was knowing about ATMs and how to use them. But unless you have an account or someone ready to inform you, there’s no dedicated time or milestone where someone learns this.

And that’s just with a machine designed to give you YOUR money, let alone complex social service programs.

[addamatic]

I want everyone who crowdfunds for hospital bills to know they probably don’t have to oay them at all. Just find the financial aid office of the hospital. It’s on the website BY LAW. Find the form. Fill it out. Get the bills canceled or lowered! You don’t need crowd money, you need the government’s money that’s already set aside for your medical care.

[euphoniousraconteur]

GO TO, MESSAGE, OR CALL YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. Libraries are focusing more and more on community resources, support, and outreach. If you genuinely don’t know something or feel uncertain or are in a new situation, a reference librarian will not only help you sort your thoughts through their reference interview but then help you arm yourself with knowledge from reliable and often local sources. It doesn’t even have to be a question to Ask A Librarian. You can simply say “I’m in this situation now. I don’t know what to do next./I’m not confident I know everything I should or want to know.”

[dancinbutterfly]

If you are in America - 211 is your friend. It’s the United Way’s database of social assistance resources. When I was doing resource development for my masters in social work 211 was my holy grail. And there’s things that only workers know about that just calling and asking can reach cuz it sets off the social service phone tree. I will say YOU have to be persistent of you want to access these resources. Most of the ngo agencies are most interested in helping the pro-active clients in my experience. But do use the resources. They’re golden.

[violetsandshrikes]

A Matschies tree kangaroo called Puzzle for your viewing pleasure!

[violetsandshrikes]

[everythingfox]

Vibin

[lord-of-the-prompts]

DESCRIBING THE PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES OF CHARACTERS:

Body

descriptors; ample, athletic, barrel-chested, beefy, blocky, bony, brawny, buff, burly, chubby, chiseled, coltish, curvy, fat, fit, herculean, hulking, lanky, lean, long, long-legged, lush, medium build, muscular, narrow, overweight, plump, pot-bellied, pudgy, round, skeletal, skinny, slender, slim, stocky, strong, stout, strong, taut, toned, wide.

Eyebrows

descriptors; bushy, dark, faint, furry, long, plucked, raised, seductive, shaved, short, sleek, sparse, thin, unruly.

shape; arched, diagonal, peaked, round, s-shaped, straight.

Ears

shape; attached lobe, broad lobe, narrow, pointed, round, square, sticking-out.

Eyes

colour; albino, blue (azure, baby blue, caribbean blue, cobalt, ice blue, light blue, midnight, ocean blue, sky blue, steel blue, storm blue,) brown (amber, dark brown, chestnut, chocolate, ebony, gold, hazel, honey, light brown, mocha, pale gold, sable, sepia, teakwood, topaz, whiskey,) gray (concrete gray, marble, misty gray, raincloud, satin gray, smoky, sterling, sugar gray), green (aquamarine, emerald, evergreen, forest green, jade green, leaf green, olive, moss green, sea green, teal, vale).

descriptors; bedroom, bright, cat-like, dull, glittering, red-rimmed, sharp, small, squinty, sunken, sparkling, teary.

positioning/shape; almond, close-set, cross, deep-set, downturned, heavy-lidded, hooded, monolid, round, slanted, upturned, wide-set.

Face

descriptors; angular, cat-like, hallow, sculpted, sharp, wolfish.

shape; chubby, diamond, heart-shaped, long, narrow, oblong, oval, rectangle, round, square, thin, triangle.

Facial Hair

beard; chin curtain, classic, circle, ducktail, dutch, french fork, garibaldi, goatee, hipster, neckbeard, old dutch, spade, stubble, verdi, winter.

clean-shaven

moustache; anchor, brush, english, fu manchu, handlebar, hooked, horseshoe, imperial, lampshade, mistletoe, pencil, toothbrush, walrus.

sideburns; chin strap, mutton chops.

Hair

colour; blonde (ash blonde, golden blonde, beige, honey, platinum blonde, reddish blonde, strawberry-blonde, sunflower blonde,) brown (amber, butterscotch, caramel, champagne, cool brown, golden brown, chocolate, cinnamon, mahogany,) red (apricot, auburn, copper, ginger, titain-haired,), black (expresso, inky-black, jet black, raven, soft black) grey (charcoal gray, salt-and-pepper, silver, steel gray,), white (bleached, snow-white).

descriptors; bedhead, dull, dry, fine, full, layered, limp, messy, neat, oily, shaggy, shinny, slick, smooth, spiky, tangled, thick, thin, thinning, tousled, wispy, wild, windblown.

length; ankle length, bald, buzzed, collar length, ear length, floor length, hip length, mid-back length, neck length, shaved, shoulder length, waist length.

type; beach waves, bushy, curly, frizzy, natural, permed, puffy, ringlets, spiral, straight, thick, thin, wavy.

Hands; calloused, clammy, delicate, elegant, large, plump, rough, small, smooth, square, sturdy, strong.

Fingernails; acrylic, bitten, chipped, curved, claw-like, dirty, fake, grimy, long, manicured, painted, peeling, pointed, ragged, short, uneven.

Fingers; arthritic, cold, elegant, fat, greasy, knobby, slender, stubby.

Lips/Mouth

colour (lipstick); brown (caramel, coffee, nude, nutmeg,) pink (deep rose, fuchsia, magenta, pale peach, raspberry, rose, ) purple (black cherry, plum, violet, wine,) red (deep red, ruby.)

descriptors; chapped, cracked, dry, full, glossy, lush, narrow, pierced, scabby, small, soft, split, swollen, thin, uneven, wide, wrinkled.

shape; bottom-heavy, bow-turned, cupid’s bow, downturned, oval, pouty, rosebud, sharp, top-heavy.

Nose

descriptors; broad, broken, crooked, dainty, droopy, hooked, long, narrow, pointed, raised, round, short, strong, stubby, thin, turned-up, wide.

shape; button, flared, grecian, hawk, roman.

Skin

descriptors; blemished, bruised, chalky, clear, dewy, dimpled, dirty, dry, flaky, flawless, freckled, glowing, hairy, itchy, lined, oily, pimply, rashy, rough, sagging, satiny, scarred, scratched, smooth, splotchy, spotted, tattooed, uneven, wrinkly.

complexion; black, bronzed, brown, dark, fair, ivory, light, medium, olive, pale, peach, porcelain, rosy, tan, white.

[lyralit]

100 fantasy jobs

Academic/professor (history, science, economics)

Fisherman

Prostitute

Fletcher

Ropemaker

Saddler

Adventurer/explorer

Florist

Sailor

Adviser (e.g. royal, military)

Footman

Sculptor

Animal trainer (e.g. dogs, falcons, horses

Gardener

Servant (e.g. laundry, kitchen, cleaner)

Gladiator/arena fighter

Archer

Glazier (makes glass)

Shipwright (builds ships)

Armourer

Hatter

Shoemaker

Assassin

Healer

Shopowner

Baker

Inventor (e.g. spells, potions, weapons, science)

Silversmith

Barber

Goldsmith

Bard

Minstrel

Jester

Smuggler

Barkeeper

Jeweller

Soldier

Blacksmith

Lady's maid

Spy

Locksmith

Stable hand

Bladesmith

Logger (cuts trees)

Stonemason

Bodyguard

Mapmaker

Surgeon

Bookbinder

Master of ceremonies

Sweet maker

Bounty hunter

Merchant (e.g. cloth, jewels, food, materials)

Tailor

Brewer

Tanner (makes leather)

Butcher

Taxman

Carpenter

Midwife

Thatcher (makes thatched roofs)

Carriage driver

Miner

Chariot racer

Musician

Thief (e.g. pickpocket, mugger)

City guard

Necromancer

Toymaker

Cook

Nun/priest/chaplain

Trapper (traps animals)

Cooper (makes barrels, buckets etc.)

Nurse

Tutor

Nursemaid/wet nurse

Undertaker

Dentist

Painter

Weapons instructor

Detective

Papermaker

Weaver (e.g. fabric, rugs, baskets)

Diplomat

Pirate

Dressmaker

Potioneer

Wheelwright

Farrier (makes horse

Prisoner (hard labour)

Witch/Wizard hoes)

Prophet

Wisewoman

Knight

Majordomo

Papermaker

Typesetter

Archivist

Hermit

Doctor

(via; via)

[isitandwonder]

More women killed by the Iranian government during the latest protests:

Ghazale Chelavi, shot in Amol

Hananeh Kia, killed in Nowshar

Killed while demanding a better life and basic freedom!