The Art and Soul of It All

Queer autistic/adhd 50-something mama artist with a love of beauty and meaning. Fae/woodland/witchy sideblog: Faeraphanalia.tumblr.com

[eddy25960-deactivated20250412]

Justin Brown Artwork "Apres la fete"

[bogsleep]

Alfred's Heron by Carol Eckert cotton, linen, wire (14.5 x 19 x 2.5")

[theeverlastingmuse]

The Joan of Arc sweater is complete! Made entirely out of secondhand acrylic yarn. Started April 22nd, finished July 11th.

[samimarkart]

Blackwater Dive

2024, hand bleached and dyed denim, cotton batting and thread

inspired by blackwater photography of plankton! this was my first time layering bleach painting. All the silhouettes were painted with bleaching gel, loosely tie dyed, and then bleached again to make the highlights. I quilted the piece using my free motion foot to outline each individual animal and tacked down the rest of the quilt with small satin stitches that remind me of marine snow. I dyed bias tape to match. super happy with this one and excited to show it in a gallery setting soon!

[hattedhedgehog]

I've finally finished my Dread Wolf tarot embroidery from Dragon Age Inquisition! Clocking in at 64 hours of work, it measures 11.5 X 19.5 cm and I've been chipping away it during my downtime at work. My fellow community council members on Dragon Age: The Veilguard may have been biased while helping me choose which character's card to do, but I'm so grateful they did because it was so much fun to work on, and so different from the previous ones.

This is my fourth large Dragon Age character card project, and the first one I started since I uprooted everything to train as a costumer. Having a portable yet elaborate project was comforting while travelling for new experiences.

Now, who's excited for the new game later this year?!

[figtreeandvine]

I reblogged a comic the other day about a doctor watching House, MD and diagnosing toxoplasmosis, tagging it with "you're more likely to get toxoplasmosis from a salad than a cat". There's a story behind that.

I used to work in the kennel at a vet clinic. One day one of the vet techs came into the kennel in a tearing hurry, handed me two cat carriers, and said, "Find a cage for these two. Don't know how long, but you can put them together." And then she left.

This was not how that was supposed to happen. I had no cage cards--no names, no feeding instructions, no health information--they weren't on the schedule, and techs didn't usually intake boarders. Medical cases had a separate kennel, so a tech shouldn't be bringing me an animal in during office visit hours. But I had a cage in the cat room, so I tucked them in--two adult females, very friendly, apparently healthy.

Half an hour later the tech came back--with cage cards--and said, "It's okay, they're staying overnight and going home tomorrow." She slumped against the kennel wall and told the cats' story.

They had been brought to the clinic to be euthanized, to die.

These healthy, friendly, beloved cats had been brought in to be killed, because a woman's doctor, her obstetrician, had told her that they had killed her unborn baby. He told her if she ever wanted a child she had to get rid of the cats. He told her they should be euthanized before they killed any other woman's unborn child.

He said, with no evidence, that they had toxoplasmosis. He said that toxoplasmosis caused her miscarriage.

The woman was distraught. She had just lost her baby, she was dealing with the hormonal changes of the pregnancy loss, and now she had to euthanize her beloved cats. Fortunately no vet I've ever worked for will euthanize healthy animals brought in by a sobbing client without asking why!

The vet spent almost an hour talking to the woman, educating her on toxoplasmosis, telling her all the reasons her doctor was wrong.

Not all cats have toxoplasmosis, and even when they do they only shed the oocytes in their feces--they're only infectious--for the first few weeks. Most cats are infected as kittens and are no longer infectious as adults. According to Wikipedia, "Numerous studies have shown living in a household with a cat is not a significant risk factor for T. gondii infection,[61][63][64] though living with several kittens has some significance.[65]"

Most people get toxoplasmosis from raw vegetables, especially salad greens that grow close to the soil and are hard to clean. Raw or rare meat, raw seafood, and unpasteurized milk are also a risk.

Toxoplasmosis can be a soil-borne disease from feces in the soil. Gardening is a greater risk than cat cohabitation.

Toxoplasmosis infection is dangerous to the fetus in pregnancy, yes, causing birth defects and miscarriages. But only the first time the person is infected. If this this woman had lost her first pregnancy to toxoplasmosis--and the vet said it really didn't fit the symptoms--she would be at low risk in a subsequent pregnancy.

So basically the vet told the woman that 1) her miscarriage probably wasn't toxoplasmosis, 2) even if it was, she probably didn't get it from her cats, 3) even if her cats had given her toxoplasmosis, they weren't infectious anymore.

The woman kept her cats and got a new obstetrician.

Human doctors get a few lectures on zoonotic diseases--diseases transmitted from animals to humans or vice versa. Veterinarians get semesters. If a doctor ever tells you your animals have given you a disease, get a second opinion from your vet!

[worldtattoogallery]

Chest tattoo artwork by © BBrung, South Korea.

[hinotorihime]

hey let's start spreading the reminder now that you cannot safely self-manage an abortion with herbal medicine or essential oils. natural abortifacients function by poisoning you; you wait for your body to realize you're dying and reject the pregnancy in order to conserve resources, and hope that happens before the rest of your organs shut down.

i think there will be an upsurge soon of unscrupulous and/or malicious actors preying on desperate pregnant people; do not help them kill people. don't spread recipes for herbal medicines or ingestible essential oil mixtures that purport to cause a pregnancy termination.

[desolationlesbian]

Applying for jobs is a hell designed specifically to torment autistic people. Here is a well-paying task which you know in your heart and soul if they just gave you a desk and left you alone and allowed you to do it you would sit there and be more focused and enthusiastic and excellent at it than anyone else in the building. However, before they allow you to perform the task, you must pass through 3-4 opaque social crucibles where you must wear uncomfortable clothes and make eye contact while everyone expects you to lie, but not too much (no one is ever clear exactly how much lying is expected, “over” honesty is however penalized). You are being judged almost entirely on how well you understand these very specific and unclear rules that no one has explained. None of this has anything to do with your ability to perform the desired task.

[softgaycontent]

It is hell! I want to acknowledge that the original point of the post is NOT fixed by my providing solutions (the way jobs are filled makes no sense), but also I want to leave some notes for folks struggling with these unspoken rules. 

Some brief notes on the correct kinds of “LYING”:

Always use “I” expressions, instead of “we”:

eg “I created a solution to a recurring problem by doing [x].”, even if it was really you and two others in a group

If you LED the group (or did project-management), you can say, “I led a team to create a solution to a recurring problem by doing [x].”

This is because employers like to know that YOU can do, and they also value team-leadership. If you say “we”, they may stop you and ask what You did specifically. You can avoid this by just saying “I”.

Someone asks if you have experience in a program (like excel):

If you feel confident using it:  “Yes, I am very proficient.”

If you have used it a few times, and could at least google what to do next: “Yes, I have good experience.”

If you don’t have any experience: “I have used it before. I generally pick up programs very fast, and I’m a quick learner.”

Mistakes (some interviewers may ask about a time you made a mistake, or a weakness of yours):

Good answers are those with solutions.

Bad answer examples:  “Sometimes I don’t catch mistakes before sending things.”  OR  “I don’t like working with other people”

Good answer examples:  “I had a problem catching typos, so I implemented steps that force me to check my work.”  OR  “I prefer to do things on my own so I know it’s done right, but I’m working on trusting my teammates to take on pieces as well.”

Someone asks if you’ve ever led a team / managed a project:

Try to say YES to this question (even if it is a lie)

If you have, say yes, and say how many people were on the team. 

If you haven’t, but you played a large role in a group of people, say yes, and talk about your primary role on the team. 

If you haven’t, but you worked solo on something that needed input from other people, say yes, and say what the project was about. 

Additional:

Misc Rules

You can ask people to repeat interview questions

You can write down interview questions while they’re asking (write the basics of the question down for yourself, like the top things you have to answer). People will wait for you to finish writing, you don’t have to answer Immediately.

Try to keep your answer to questions somewhere between 30 seconds to 1 minute and 30 seconds. You don’t have to time it, but if you find that your answers are taking 3 minutes, you might lose interest.

Have a list of projects / bragging points to talk about in advance

Try to make sure they at least answer the core question asked, don’t just bring up a completely unrelated topic

Example: if you are really excited to talk about a program you wrote, and someone asks about balancing projects, you can say you are good at AUTOMATION, and an example is this program you wrote

“Do you have any questions for us?” (A question asked at the end of most interviews.)

“What has been your favorite part of working at [company]?”

“What’s been your favorite project to work on?”

People like talking about themselves

Thank you emails

Some employers care if you send them a thank you “letter” (email). Sometime by the end of the day (you can do it right after the interview if you think you’ll forget), send a thank you email like this (you can look up other templates, or ask a friend for help):

Subject Line:  Thank You

“Hi [interviewer name], It was great speaking with you. Hearing more about the role, as well as what you said about [their answer to a question you asked them] has made me even more excited for this opportunity. Thank you for your time today, [Your Name]

Good luck!!

[halo-magicmoon]

Im gonna need this in 2 years!

[turbozarky]

Honestly the “applying and interviewing for a job” is harder and more stressful than actually doing the job 999% of the time for me. I hate it so much.

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Further tip: a place that asks trick questions or questions that feel like they have secret wrong answers? Maybe not a place you want to work for anyway! All the above tips are spot on, but sometimes the questions are just bad or unreasonable. Sometimes it’s not you, it’s the company.

(Source: my job is hiring to replace me atm and my boss insisted on including a bunch of nonsense questions with secret wrong answers. Surprise, my boss is a big reason why I’m leaving and why other colleagues are seriously starting to look at other jobs. Sometimes the game really is rigged and that should be a sign that you may not want to be there anyway.)

[boyhood]

Dario Robleto

The Common Denominator Of Existence Is Loss

2008

50,000-year-old extinct cave bear paws, human hand bones, stretched and pulled audiotape of the earliest audio recording of time (experimental clock, 1878), 19th-century mourning ribbon, bocote, shellac, glass

42¾" x 47 ½" x 47 ½"

[allsadnshit]

I will never get over how weird it feels to have tragic and emotional chapters of your life where you just also still go to work, and the grocery store, and see funny videos online all while feeling such paralyzing fear and heartache

life just goes on no matter what

[arrows-for-pens]

[noxshade]

[laurenillustrated]

Some more vintage girls with dinosaur friends!

[kateoplis]

turning of the leaves

[4x01]

“in order to create loving males we need to love males” means teach boys that they can be themselves without being less of a man. it means being encouraging and nurturing of their emotions so they don’t become cold and hateful. it means showing boys, early in their lives, that they have value outside of what our society deems proper masculinity. what it doesn’t mean is that it’s our job to handhold men who see women as walking sex toys through the concept of empathy, and maybe if we’re really really nice to them and don’t say things that hurt their feelings they’ll stop killing us for saying no

[cardassiangoodreads]

This is what that bell hooks essay actually says, btw.

[indigolunahealingart]

[indigolunahealingart]

Finished this forest witch hat recently. Hat pattern is “Whimsical Swirl Witch Hat”.

[indigolunahealingart]

I made a friend