kaliawai512

Lauren. She/her. Writer of Undertale fics, original fiction author, artist, web developer, language-lover, and lifetime learner. And asexual, so you'll probably see plenty of posts about that, too. Nice to meet you! :) (Art in mobile blog by zarla-s.)

[kaliawai512]

Three Years Ago

I got a comment on Butterscotch and Bones on AO3.

Then I replied to that comment. And that stranger commented back. And back and forth, back and forth, until we had ten threads on AO3, four on FanFiction.Net, then another on Tumblr. Plus all the posts we kept tagging each other in. Threads of conversation started and ended just about every day.

Just over two years ago, I first spoke to that stranger face-to-face on Skype.

And over a year and a half ago now, I hopped on a plane to Canada (all by myself - my first time alone) and tackle-hugged that definitely-no-longer-a-stranger in a Toronto airport.

Well, @randomcat1832​, you know the rest of the story, and any of you who have followed this blog for a while know at least some of it. I know I just about never post here anymore, but I had to jump on here to celebrate three years of friendship with one of the very best friends I’ve ever had.

(This post would be a lot longer and a lot sappier, but there’s a letter currently on its way to Canada that contains the rest of the sappiness in spades. ;) )

It’s been a crazy ride together, with so much getting to know each other and so many “firsts.” It doesn’t feel like so long ago sometimes, but other times it feels like a lifetime. And there’s many, many more years to come.

Happy three-year friendversary, Cat. Love you so much <3 <3 <3

[veryfunnymemes]

[howaikr]

So only the rich can have kids? The is literally eugenicism but okay

[thejaystar13]

Everyone commenting on this says it’s Eugenics , but what the post said was financially prepared, not rich. As in if you’ve factored a child into your life and made the appropriate financial and life sacrifices it’s okay. Some poor people take better care of their children than wealthier people because they were willing and ready to put aside whatever it took to raise their child no matter what hardship they themselves will face, this actually incorporates both the mental and financial aspects of being ready to have a child. Whether you’re rich or poor, if you haven’t made a plan or set aside funds for your child it’s unfair to the child. Even if your preparation is making sure you’re on welfare, gathering food stamps and stocking up on free supplies, it’s enough to raise a child, just make sure you’ve prepared and are ready to do anything for that child.

[howaikr]

that’s a really good point, thank you for explaining!

[invincible-selfxmade-punk]

The dumbest thing I’ve ever been told when trying to explain why I didn’t want kids was this: “If you wait until you’re ready, you’ll never have them. Sometimes you just have to do it anyway.” No. Literally no I do not.

[kaliawai512]

YES THANK YOU.

I’ve seen parents of all different financial situations be completely unprepared for kids: kids that they planned to have. Yes, it’s obviously easier to be financially prepared if you have more money, but even many wealthier people are ... not good with money, and most people vastly underestimate the financial commitment a child requires. If you decide to have a kid and don’t make any attempt to prepare to financially support that child (be that bulking up a savings account or making sure you’re on welfare so they’re fed), then yeah, I think that’s abuse. Reproduction is a human right, but please consider that unlike many human rights, having children involves another human being, who will be completely dependent on you for survival.

But as said above, it isn’t just about finances. I’ve also seen many parents who have plenty of money for the kid, but didn’t seem to think they’d have to make sacrifices in their personal lives, or didn’t realize that hey, kids are inconvenient. They expect their kids to fit themselves around their lives, and get upset when they realize that kids are people with their own thoughts. If you choose to have a kid, you may sacrifice some or all of your alone time, social life, pastimes, travel, choosing the music on car rides, a full night’s sleep, privacy, silence, and so on.

If you are prepared to make these sacrifices and believe the joy of having a child will be worth it (and are willing to make these sacrifices even when parenthood causes you more stress than joy), then great!

But it’s fine if you don’t. Not everyone wants to or should have kids. If you aren’t prepared to sacrifice and provide for a child - financially, mentally, socially, etc. - then that is okay. Don’t have kids. Have a great life that doesn’t happen to involve a child of your own.

If you do want a child, though, remember that this is no longer just about you. This is no longer just about your desire to have kids. Your life won’t be slightly shifted: it will be turned on its head, and it will never be the same. You are creating new life. A new, full human being with thoughts, feelings, and wishes independent from your own. Your job will never be over, even once they turn eighteen. As said beautifully in Interstellar, “Once you’re a parent, you’re the ghost of your children’s future.”

If you want a child, please take this seriously and give that child the best chance at the greatest life they can have.

[roachpatrol]

one of the nice things about heterosexuals i never see talked about on here is that they haven’t already heard all your gay jokes yet. i just really appreciate having a new audience sometimes for my completely automatic responses to phrases like ‘i’ll be straight with you’. so, shoutout to all the innocent hets out there who have a genuine giggle over lame quips that a fellow queer would groan and hit me for. ilu guys. 

[andisupreme]

I recently no scoped my coworker when she asked me “What’s in the closet, anyway?” and I automatically said “me”. She lost her mind. Full cackling in the middle of the store. I never thought I’d see the day that joke would work but here I was, blessed with an unexperienced heterosexual. It was transcendent. 

[team-lionheart7]

I once had a girl working on a display where I work, and she commented, “I thought this would be straighter when I got done with it.” And I said, “my mother thought the same thing about me”, and everyone around us lost it. It was a blessed moment.

[puppybearuniverse]

I knew a kid who saw my “Let’s get something straight: I’m not” bracelet and ended up laughing about it all day and telling anyone who would listen

[pinktwink]

I told a coworker that changing the music I picked would be homophobic and she lost her shit like it was the funniest thing ever

[thelilnan]

i used to offhandedly say stuff to my customers on campus like “unfortunately i’m very gay” and it always took them by surprise. they loved it.

[bloodydelirium-deactivated20190]

I was visiting a (straight) friend recently and when he was making me breakfast he made me extra toast. I, of course, upon seeing this went ‘fuck yeah gay rights’ and he lost it. Should have seen his fave when I pulled the opposite joke, the ‘this is homophobia’ at any inconvenience. Was amazing.

[chloe-bourgeois-is-big-gay]

I was in class one time and we were talking about allergies and someone turned around to me and asked “how allergic are you to nuts?”

My friend says, “obviously not enough if she’s bi.” the class lost it.

[grifalinas]

Once I was tidying up the stockroom at work and my coworker was all “you straight back here?” My response of “not even a little, but the stockroom is clean” made her lose it

[iprayforangels-deactivated20220]

I complained to my mom that it sucks that the first gender is free but after that you have to pay for them and she lost her goddamn mind 

[randomcat1832]

On the other side of the spectrum you have me, an idiot, who has heard all these gay jokes before and still laughs for ten minutes straight anyway.

[kaliawai512]

And then you have me, an asexual who’s been out for 12 years, also an idiot, who lives in the South and has heard very few of these. And cracks up at every one. And also makes jokes like this in my head but knows only a handful of people who would get them. XD

[kaliawai512]

So I was playing Cards Against Humanity with my family yesterday and this happened (courtesy of my dad).

[kaliawai512]

Hello! I just wanted to ask, how did you change Sans and Papyrus’ fonts in your fics on AO3? Any help would be appreciated!

Sure thing! I’d be happy to give detailed instructions here (and I’ll include what I can), but unfortunately Tumblr is not great with code snippets, so it would probably be ... pretty messy to include everything. XD

But long story short, I use AO3′s work skins, which they go into detail about here. AO3 supports basic HTML - a way of “marking up” a bunch of text to label things as paragraphs, style specific sections, etc. - and CSS - a way of changing the style of text as a whole or creating “classes,” which define a specific set of styles (text color, font, size, etc.) and apply it whenever the HTML references that class.

Work skins are basically CSS, defining one or more classes that you want to use in your story (you can also change the style of all the text in your story, but I won’t go into that here). There are public Undertale work skins, but I use my own custom one (pictured above), which contains a “papyrus” class and a “comicsans” class, among others (classes always have a . before the class name). I attach the work skin to my story (there’s an option for this when creating/editing a work), and then go through my story in HTML format to add classes to specific dialogue (to mark it as either Comic Sans or Papyrus).

Note: if you want to add a type of style that AO3′s guide doesn’t mention, just search Google for the type of style and “CSS.” There are tons of online tutorials.

The link should give the exact syntax, but I basically surround all text I want to style with HTML <span></span> tags (with the text in between the > and <), and add the desired class to the span, like <span class=“comicsans”>hi</span>.

And that’s it! It’s a bit of a pain if you have a lot of dialogue, but it can also be fun. (For those curious, the #workskin before each class isn’t part of the class itself, but is what allows readers to choose to hide an author’s custom skin if they don’t like it - make sure to include that your own custom skins!).

If you have any questions about specifics, just let me know! It’s fun to look back on this, since it was actually the first bit of code I ever wrote back in January 2017, and I’ve now been a professional web developer for a year. How times do change! XD

[kaliawai512]

So I was going through my giant file of prompt tables and I accidentally ran into the prompt table I used for Butterscotch and Bones.

This bit of nostalgia feels way more intense than I would have expected. (I can’t believe I started writing it almost three years ago now. And that it was originally supposed to be a oneshot HA.)

Thanks again to everyone who’s made the fic my most successful ever. Seriously, you’re amazing. <3

EDIT: Here’s the link to the table. Credit to the creator of these tables - this fic probably would not have been written without these prompts!!

[75orchids]

The weirdest thing about the UK is that they don’t clap at the end of movie trailers. What the fuck.

[mycoins]

not to mention the fact that they don’t pour their pepsis into their buckets of popcorn and eat the resulting mush, known as “pissy shitties” here in the good ol US of A

[okay-chr1s]

What the fuck is “pissy shitties”?

[mycoins]

pissy shitties is when you mix pepsi and popcorn to create a rich and smooth treat, excellent for enjoying a movie with friends

[chaos-has-arrived-deactivated20]

Woah woah woah… slow down there. Canadian joining the party. American’s clap at the end of movie trailers? Like every trailer? Or do you mean just the movie? And is “pissy shitties” an actual thing? How does it not leak onto your pants? Oh and sorr-eh for interrupting!

[75orchids]

Here in the USA, most theaters sell buckets meant specifically for pissy shitties, called piss buckets, which are usually around like $30 - $40. Some Americans like the feeling of leaky buckets on their jeans and consider it a part of the theater experience like post-credit brawls and sticky floors. I agree with the latter tbh.

[randomcat1832]

@kaliawai512 excuse me what y’all are weird

[kaliawai512]

@randomcat1832

You see, I want to tell you that this is all a bunch of BS made to troll non-Americans, but 1) I don’t know all Americans, maybe this is common in some states, and 2) this made me laugh so hard and this post has so many notes that I don’t want the joke to end.

(Also, do other people clap at the end of movie trailers? I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed that. Maybe after a really, really anticipated movie trailer? But yeah, never done that. I think this is part of the joke but it kind of got lost in the, uh ... food-mixing joke. XD)

[migrana]

A brief summary of what’s happening in Chile

Last week, train fares in Santiago (Chile’s capital) were increased, even though it was already too expensive (taking into consideration the average minimum wage). Students and a few other citizens decided to use the Santiago train system without paying under the motto “evading, not paying, is another way of fighting”. The train fare raise is just the tip of the iceberg and people from all over of the country and of various parties finally got fed up (here, we’ve been using the phrase “Chile woke up”). Here are some of the issues we’ve been facing for almost 30 years:

- Inequality. The minimum wage is about 400 USD per month while some people (including politicians) earn ten times that (and some even more). On top of that, the rich pay the lowest amount of taxes. In fact, the president himself was revealed to have not paid home-related taxes for 30 years and he was recently allowed to pay the equivalent of only three years and move on with his life (seriously?).

- Pension system. When a member of the military/police retires, the state gives them over 2500 USD per month, while retired citizens are forced to live with around 137 USD per month. I don’t have the estimates for politicians and business people, but it’s in line with the ridiculous and excessive salary they earn.

- Public health. It’s been known for a while now that public hospitals do not have the infrastructure, capacity, staff, and resources to take care of the amount of patients that arrive daily. The usual waiting time to get attention varies from 2 to 12 hours. Many people have died waiting for emergency attention, exams, surgeries, and medicine (sadly, any form of private health care is stupidly expensive). What’s more, M.D students and the entire medical community have reported that many public hospitals don’t even have paper towels and gloves. In response to this, the Minister of Health has denied this over and over, even when there’s actual proof.

- Natural resources, like minerals (Chile is rich in copper and lithium), forests, and even WATER, are private. Some areas of the country are under a harsh drought, which has led to the inhabitants not being able to sustain themselves and their animals. However, business people (which in some cases are related to senators and deputies and other politicians) are using water in or near those same areas to sustain their agricultural exports (like avocados. Don’t buy Chilean avocados, please). What’s funny now, is that after the riots began, some rivers that were completely dry, MIRACULOUSLY began to flow again.

And there are so many other things.

Thousands (if not millions) of people have participated in protests that continue to this day, and these have mostly consisted of marches and cacerolazos (banging pans/pots to make some noise), but the government has not listened. Four days ago, the government announced State of Emergency and declared curfew in almost every region of the country (in mine, it starts at 18:00 and public transportation stops way earlier. It’s ridiculous). People are being hurt, tortured, kidnapped, and killed by the military (there are hundreds of videos and statements) and the government has not made an official statement that represents reality. They and the Chilean mainstream media have the NERVE to say that people have “passed away” in protests, lootings, and (possibly staged) fires.

ALL OF THIS IS HAPPENING IN A DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM. This government is acting with the same repression and violence as the dictatorship that took place during the 70s and 80s (our elders are suffering from PTSD) IN FUCKING 2019.

We are enraged and we want justice.

[kaliawai512]

PLEASE reblog to spread awareness!!

Fellow Americans, I know our country is crazy right now, but if there’s one thing the past few years really should have drilled into our heads, it’s that we need to recognize that we are not the only country in the world, and our problems do not matter more than everyone else’s.

[the-memeblades-chosen-one]

it really is ok to be Basic™, ya know?

scented candles are comforting and nice, sweet coffee drinks and black coffee drinks are both valid, romcoms are called “feel good” for a reason and you can watch them to feel happy it’s not a crime, decorate your room with fairy lights, drink hot cocoa with marshmallows, listen to that cd that everyone talks about and that you hear playing in the Starbucks all the time, popular things become popular because a lot of people like them and it’s ok to also like those popular things it doesn’t make you boring. I could go on but you know what I mean.

your interests and simple pleasures are meant to entertain you, not meant to make you look entertaining to others.

if you enjoy Basic™ things then embrace that enjoyment. that’s for you. enjoy it.

[randomcat1832]

PREACH.

and yes, fairy lights are honestly so cosy! i like to turn mine on basically every night and curling up under the covers to watch netflix or read fanfiction with a cup of tea and nothing but my christmas lights on feels nice and comforting. 

[kaliawai512]

^^ IMPORTANT ^^

It’s taken me a long, long time to not only be okay with the things I like that are unpopular, but also the things I like that are popular. I’m still working on it. It’s a long and difficult process, but it’s totally worth it.

Seriously, as long as you’re not hurting anyone, there is no reason for anyone to judge you for what you like or don’t like.

[kaliawai512]

It costs $0.00 to treat people who work in customer service (restaurant servers, baristas, custodians, cashiers, etc.) with basic dignity and respect.

Seriously. $0.00. Best deal you’ll find all week.

[g0dtier]

americans are wild.

theres a convo on reddit going on rn abt how europeans see americans working conditions and a bunch of americans are like "its really not bad unless you work an entry level job, i have a medium wage job i got with my degree and i get about 15 days of paid vacation a year and i even get some sick days and can accrue more, the people complaining are low wage workers who should get something better"

like. you realize that for a fulltime job 20 paid vacation days are mandatory here right? and that even entry level job offer more paid vacation days? and that any ot you work gets paid more AND counts as more vacation time right? like if your work week is 38 hours and you work 40 hours a week you get paid overtime AND an extra paid 12 vacation days a year right? and that sick days are mandatory to be paid by your employer right? that theres no limit on sick days, right?

you realize that what youre listing as good benefits is literally the bare minimum here right?

[kaliawai512]

American here! Currently in massive shock. Like ... wow.

How have I never heard of this.

I’m pretty happy at my current job. I work full-time as a web developer at a decently-established startup. I work 40 hours a week and get 15 PTO days a year (which includes sick days). This is apparently considered good.

I’m salaried and my hours aren’t really kept track of, though my boss obviously sees when I get to and leave the office (or when I sign on or off of Slack - I work from home two days a week) - I don’t work a lot of overtime, but I have jumped on some bugfixes on evenings and weekends, as have my coworkers. I was informed that this would be expected during the interview and I agreed to it.

I’m not complaining. Seriously, I’m not. Compared to many of my coworkers, who work in sales and are paid by the hour, I’ve got it good. They also work 40 hours a week and get 15 PTO days a year. They also only get a 30min lunch and two 15min breaks (except on Mondays, when they have to skip their morning break to make time for the weekly staff meeting, and therefore have to make cold calls nonstop for 3.5hrs.) They have to request any days off two weeks in advance and have to provide doctor’s notes to confirm sick days.

And my company keeps going on about how great our benefits are.

Again, not complaining (for myself). My last job was hourly, and I had no PTO days. None. I wasn’t even paid for my lunch break. My boss would give me any time off I asked for, granted, but none of it was paid. I also had no health benefits. Now, my company pays 100% of the premiums for my health and dental insurance and offers a 401(k) with matching. For me, things are good, and I know how lucky I am compared to many, many Americans.

But ... yeah. This really puts things in perspective.

Americans, reblogging to give all of us a better world perspective, and to remind us all what to fight for in the future.

Thank you, OP.

[inkskinned]

uhhhhhhhhh i just figured out that “ofc” is “of fucking course” but this whole time i’ve been reading it “ofcourse” ………… anyway if u need a dumbass just hmu

[randomcat1832]

wait what

[kaliawai512]

WHAT??

[catchymemes]

[anachronic-cobra]

This was so ridiculously drawn out and the conclusion was so obvious yet still I couldn’t tell where this was going

[kaliawai512]

@randomcat1832 I know this is random as all get-out but I feel that as often-frustrated English majors and writers you and I can both understand this. ;)

[kaliawai512]

I’m officially naming 2019 The Year I Learned How to Adult (all at once).

... I just bought a car. With my own money. O.O

tfw someone calls you their friend for the first time

[littleprxgrammer-blog]

tfw someone calls you their friend for the 323,729,425th time

[thetrashthatsmilesback]

Friend

[thesealfriend]

tfw you see someone’s face light up because you called them a friend:

[abyssal-glory]

i love my friends……………..

[steph-plez]

FRIENDS

[randomcat1832]

@kaliawai512

[kaliawai512]

@randomcat1832 HI FRIEND

EDIT: Okay, now I want to know when was the first time we called each other “friend.” I know our AO3 comment threads and FF.net chats and Tumblr chats are probably ... impossible to navigate at this point, but I REALLY WANT TO KNOW.

ANOTHER EDIT: It’s the chick spirit from Spirited Away!! :D

[whitepeopletwitter]

[randomcat1832]

reuse your plastic bags as garbage bags omg

[kaliawai512]

A drawer? Under the sink? My parents saved enough plastic bags to nearly cover the floor of our WALK-IN PANTRY.

(Seriously, though, PLEASE reuse your plastic bags. My parents reused ours as cat-litter trash bags since all their trash cans were too big for the bags - and frankly still had way too many left over. Now that our last cat has passed away, I have ... no idea what they’re going to do with them. I take some when I visit to use as garbage bags in my apartment, since I bring reusable bags to the store, but I know it’s not nearly enough. Oh god are my parents going to drown in plastic bags now?? MOM DAD PLEASE REUSE THESE THINGS OR START USING THE REUSABLE BAGS I LEFT FOR YOU.)

[millennial-review-deactivated20]

[dukeofbookingham-deactivated202]

Oh hey I haven’t yelled about voting in a while

[dancinbutterfly]

Reposting this because some of y’all need a reminding.

[prismatic-bell]

Another reminder:

VOTE YOUR WHOLE BALLOT.

A Democratic President does nothing if Congress is controlled by Republicans. Your local elections are important, too. (It took us 20 years, but you notice we don’t have issues with our sheriff out here in Phoenix now we’ve voted out Joe Arpaio.)

Don’t skip any. Look up names on your phone while you’re in the ballot booth if you have to. VOTE YOUR WHOLE BALLOT.

[randomcat1832]

This is really really important for US voters, who I do think compose most of my followers, but I just want to remind my fellow Canadians that the same thing is true with our upcoming federal election in October. We cannot afford to have another conservative bigot in a position of power in the world. Here in Ontario we’ve been so thoroughly screwed over by the Ford administration and things are pretty bad in some other provinces too. I repeat, we cannot allow this same shit to happen at the federal level. 

(please consider reblogging this version too)

[kaliawai512]

Reblogging for my American AND Canadian followers because IMPORTANT.