Let's Not and Say We Wanted To

Finally figured out this Tumblr thing. Book nerd. She/her. I used to be an extrovert.

[lizardlicks]

Hey, quick PSA for young or otherwise inexperienced fic writers:

"*****smut marked with asterisks so you can skip!*****""

Don't. Don't do this.

You let readers know what your fic contains through proper tagging and rating. Content warning notes at the top of the chatter are also great. You can even summarize key "this is the plot relevant stuff you missed of you're skipping this chapter" notes at the bottom too! This is a much smoother reading experience.

This is HELL on screen readers which is a disability access issue. Screen readers will read out every single asterisk you put, which I have seen done as entire page breaks. It's an awful reading experience. Please just don't.

Readers do not need their hands held through the reading experience. If they're enjoying the fic but don't care for smut, they can just skim until it gets interesting again. If they REALLY don't like smut, you warned them. There's a back button. You don't have to do a special song and dance isolating out the specific parts you think might be "icky". (If you think those bits are icky and don't like writing them, consider just don't! Fanfic is a hobby we do for fun and you don't have to write anything you don't find enjoyable. There's plenty of readers for gen fic and smut free ship fic).

If someone reads something they don't like then gets mad at you, block em. They need to be responsible for their own choices. It's not your job to please everyone. Your job as a fic writer of his to tell an entertaining and engaging story. (The reverse is true for a reader that demands smut or says it would "improve" the fic but that's not the story you're trying to tell. Block button is your friend!)

[muffinlance]

This is also super common in scene breaks.

Please, please don't try to span the entire page with whatever symbol you're using for your scene breaks. It takes an eternity for screen years to get through, and typically has me noping out of even the most interesting stores.

Instead, use just three (or fewer) make. Three is standard, and does the job without making your story unreadable.

In general: please, think of the screen readers.

[vivaciouscynner]

as a person whose only good trait is their eyes, this has eluded me until i was tasked to test websites with a screen reader.

It is hell

It is absolute hell

From navigation to listening to the voices

It's just awful

Since then I've tried to write with screen readers in mind because the number of websites that think about accessibility is SO SO SMALL

If you don't believe me, use NVDA which is a free accessibility tool. Otherwise you have to spend thousands of dollars for a slightly better one. Then try to navigate a website.

So yeah, listen to the above posts

[calvinandhobbes-rss]

[what-even-is-thiss]

I’m kinda surprised that nalbinding isn’t as popular as crochet and knitting tbh because it has an even lower barrier of entry tools wise and unlike crochet and knitting it makes fabric that you can cut.

I guess it’s because it’s slower or something.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Nalbinding aka needle binding is when you use yarn and a big sewing needle to make fabric btw

It also has a lot of different kinds of stitches you can do that make different densities of fabric.

Some people even make rugs.

[thewolfwaitsbelow]

I feel like part of it might be casual people are generally aware of the existence of crochet and knitting, even if they don’t know very much about either, but have never heard of nalbinding

[what-even-is-thiss]

Yeah I hadn’t heard of it until recently and I ordered a big bone needle for myself to try it out and that should be arriving soon.

I was surprised that I’d never heard of it though. It’s older than knitting and crocheting and even though it’s been done all over the world it’s super relevant to Nordic culture and my grandmother and I are both into keeping in touch with our roots a bit so I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it.

It seems like the sort of thing that would be popular even if not as popular as crocheting and knitting, considering the low barrier of entry.

[what-even-is-thiss]

You also don’t need a bunch of different sized needles for nalbinding or whatever. The size of the stitch is controlled either completely freehand or by pulling it against one of your fingers. Most people who have a lot of nalbinding needles seem to either have tried out wood, bone, and metal ones to see which kind they liked or they enjoy carving wood or bone and like making their own needles as an extra hobby.

It’s also a lot easier to freehand and adjust as you go than crochet or knitting and you mostly go by inches instead of rows and number of stitches so a large number of accessories like stitch markers or whatever isn’t really necessary.

Maybe the lack of accessories also makes it unpopular idk. People do like collecting things in their nests.

[the-color-of-sound-is-space]

I've been wanting to do so, I cannot find anyone who can teach me, and any books I can find on it are Ass in the Visual Learning department. Otherwise I'd be making the hell outta some nalbinded fabric

[what-even-is-thiss]

I found this channel by a nice man who makes up close tutorials

Happy Needlebinding

I create videos on YouTube to learn people how to needlebind using two fingers and your thumb. Needlebinding helps people to relax, relieve

[what-even-is-thiss]

I thought this would be kind of a niche post to make but I was quickly reminded that I’m on tumblr, the website full of gay people with one billion hobbies.

[sdrhodes]

@sewickedthread

[avengerphobic]

When you throw something do you say you _____ it?

chuck

chunk

Remaining time: 6 days 25 minutes

If you could reblog and say where youre from as well that would be aces

[bluering8]

listen to me, this is so so important: you've gotta get used to really giving it your 60% as a default. like don't half-ass it necessarily but try not to go over 70% or so of an ass. you'll feel better and live a happier more fulfilled life, and on the rare occasions where you do need to lock the fuck in you'll be able to pull off bullshit that the sad miserable wretches giving it their 100% can never dream off, because they're busy draining themselves dry and you have energy reserves to spare.

[smokingchagga]

This is actually what I was adviced to do at the work rehabilitation program I went to. Hasn't left my mind since. 10/10 solid advice

[chirasul]

we got a full redbox and now we're playing go fish with the redbox movies

[chirasul]

I would never pay money for a redbox. if you ask politely and are very very persistent (i.e. annoying) they will let you take it away

here's my dad and i taking it away

a redbox makes a wonderful addition to your patio

[fishmech]

for those wondering why they're free to take now, it's because the company that made those "chicken soup for the soul" books bought them a few years ago and then completely collapsed so bad they couldn't afford to dispose of or even take the blu rays and dvds out of their kiosks all over.

so any of them is free game because they're all located on other business' property and they usually don't want to have to pay to get rid of them either. so asking the store manager usually gets you the ok to pull it out and keep it.

[chirasul]

there was a period of time right after their bankruptcy where you could put in any debit or credit card and it would spit out movies without charging you. you could even put in like an expired or deactivated card, or a visa gift card with a $0 balance, didnt matter, they'd just start spitting discs out. a lotta people raided redboxes for movies for a couple months, with some people doing what me and my brother and my dad did here, taking the whole box and signs and marquees as well. because managers sure as hell don't want a big abandoned piece of trash on their sidewalk disappointing customers. BUT they're also often too cheap to pay someone to remove it. so they just sit there.

luckily there are no shortage of freaks like us who will just take them away on our own volition. we did it all "by the book", too: we set up cones and caution tape, disconnected electricity properly, used an angle grinder to grind down the bolts in the concrete so nobody would trip on them, then cleaned everything up afterward and sealed off the electrical panel so the store would know everything is safe and tidy. though they were hesitant when we were first contacting them, they were honestly very relieved and grateful when we finally took it away, especially once they saw that we "knew what we were doing" (we don't) and look like we've "done this before" (we haven't).

the fun part: the reason why this redbox, in particular, was completely full and unraided is because the computer hardware inside had failed some months before the bankruptcy, and a failing company sure as hell wasn't gonna send a tech out to our podunk dipshit city to fix it, so it was impossible to rent movies or take any discs out. plus, for who knows how long, people were returning old redbox discs to this machine and not taking any out, leading to a much higher variety of movies than your average redbox.

there is a thriving community of redbox hackers and modders out there, as well, creating open-source software for repurposing the machines and not letting their very interesting and robust disc-management hardware go to waste. this one belongs to my brother (who was very annoying persistent and did all the legwork of contacting managers and securing permission) who is a programmer by trade and will be hacking it into a family-access movie library, with whatever discs we want. i mean the machine is completely weatherproof and has a built-in AC unit, it would be such a waste to not try to turn it into something cool.

if we get another one, i'm gonna try to mod it into some sort of art or zine vending machine. the disc boxes are just the right size for small print art or stickers. would make a great "little free library" too.

remember: the rules are made up. act like you belong there and you can get away with anything. this applies to your own life

[worflesbian]

there's a guy on farscape who was kidnapped into a fascist military as a child, rises through the ranks of that military and helps it create a living weapon, and when the living weapon is born he kidnaps him away from his mother. and then despite what every other character assumes he is a good parent to the living weapon and tries to raise him compassionately despite having very little idea how and basically every decision this guy makes from that point on is for the living weapon's wellbeing. after it becomes increasingly clear the living weapon never should have been created he still tries his best to help him and promises he wont let anything bad happen to him. and when they die heroically together the living weapon gets taken to his species' sacred burial grounds and has a funeral and no one even mentions the guy. which he would be at peace with. because the living weapon was all that really mattered to him.

and this is like. an overlooked plotline on farscape because there are more fucked up and emotionally harmful things going on at all times

[yesornopolls]

Off of yesterday's poll, have you gone through a firearm safety program?

Off of yesterday's poll, have you gone through a firearm safety program?

Yes

No

Remaining time: 5 days 1 hour

[sexhaver]

lmfao the Scots in town for the World Cup have made a pilgrimage to Boston's world-famous Cop Annihilating Slide

[nohoperadio]

Are you still bitter about it sometimes?

yes

no

Remaining time: 4 days 19 hours

[antique-symbolism]

tumblr users love to say "we don't censor things here like on Twitter" and then type things like "r3ylo" and "jk r*wling"

[lesbianralzarek]

if you say "and then this fucking r3ylo-" that implies that "reylo" was the bad word in that sentence

tiktokers do it because they have to, we do it because it's mean ☺️

[astraltrickster]

Okay I know this was mostly a joke but I just feel the need to point out - this didn't start out as being mean, it started - and largely continues - as the opposite.

For a long time, tumblr had tags and no other search function. You wanted to find a post that wasn't tagged, you had to go to Google and type in your query and add "site:tumblr.com" and hope for the best.

As it is now, that method is STILL better than our native search function most of the time, but the quality of tumblr's native search function isn't really what's important here, what's relevant is how they implemented it.

See, the search bar in the upper left corner of the site - you used to type in something there, and it would take you to posts tagged with whatever you searched. Then, one day, they quietly rolled out an update that instead brought you to a search page that pulled up nearly every post that even mentioned your search term.

This...did not mesh well with the site culture.

Because, see, we had an etiquette guideline - do not post your negativity in the public tags. Why? Because people go into the public tags to find content about things they LIKE. Posting hate in a public tag was basically seen as being a raging dramamongering pissbaby troll LOOKING to start a fight over petty nonsense.

So imagine, suddenly, you log in one day, and someone's sending you anons angry about you allegedly posting hate in the tags, when you have NEVER done so. You use what you THINK is the tag search function to prove it, and - what the hell? Your UNTAGGED post about how annoyed you are with your notp...is appearing there???

So people started censoring things like that. Usually not because we all think the thing we're complaining about is profane (though sometimes it does get a giggle to think of it as such), but to keep it from showing up when people are searching for what they love and to prevent pointless drama. To avoid looking like some asshole troll going onto a fan forum specifically for The Blorbo Show and making a thread entitled "THE BLORBO SHOW SUXXX AND YOU ALL SUCK FOR LIKING IT!!"

And now it's just part of our site culture, for both peacekeeping reasons and petty glee.

The more you know.

[cinqueform]

On tiktok, you censor for the algorithm. On Tumblr, you censor for the users.

[sunderwight]

Also, we specifically advise other users to never censor a word like "rape" because you want people who have that term blacklisted to catch your post in their filters and have it blocked. The goal is to facilitate other users finding what they're searching for and avoiding what they're averse to. So on tumblr we also don't censor for the users!

[gardenvarietyhuman]

💥🙌👏

[ineffablebookgirl]

Well shit, Henry Jenkins, out here in 1997 dropping truth bombs

[addressmysol]

Oh hey I need this for a research paper I'm writing, thank you!

[angstbotfic]

i mean he had been out here since 1988 dropping such bombs:

"'fandom' is a vehicle of marginalized subcultural groups (women, the young, gays, etc.) to pry open space for their cultural concerns within dominant representations; it is a way of appropriating media texts and rereading them in a way that serves different interests, a way of transforming mass culture into a popular culture"

Jenkins, Henry. “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 5, no. 2 (1988): 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038809366691.  

there are even some earlier works in fan studies but that’s what i have ready to hand. 

[amerlcanapparel-deactivated2020]

when she says she doesn’t send nudes

[straighthater]

when guys objectify women and expect them to send nudes

[timelordpillbug]

when someone asks you about your nuclear plans for russia

[hikingnerd]

When Russia sends you nudes

[dr-thackery]

[dismantlerepaired]

[ilovepretzelrods]

[thegingerbalrog]

[onwardwall]

[miss-jaxon-flaxon-waxon]

#what the fuck happened here

[her-eyes-dared-me-with-danger]

This is my favorite post in all of tumblr

[kyloschuyler]

reminder that this post is now illegal in Russia

[tree-of-blue-squirrel]

reblog it, because Russia can´t

[maradaisykat]

Thanks Obama 

[my-sisters-eyeball]

Wtf

[roomba-with-knives-taped-to-it]

When Russia makes this post illegal

[earthnicity]

I HAVE ONLY SEEN THIS IN SCREENSHOTS

[alliepretends]

I'm almost inevitably going to fumble trying to articulate this, and I've tried to talk about it a little in tags with mixed success, but the play and Vokjan's awe at his people dressed in nice clothes with flowers all around has really made me want to come back to it.

Hal's choice not to fight in the Falconer's Rebellion was a personal choice about prioritizing his own family (and whether he could even leave his two older children with Elodie to go off and fight is not totally certain). But it was, of course, not a choice made in isolation. He argues that even their father decided to hang up his blade at some point, but our understanding of the lot of orcs before the Shaper's War is that that wasn't a choice their father could have made 60 years prior. That under Azgra, Hal would almost certainly have been forced to march to war, never mind his three young children at home. There were clearly orcs who weren't on the front lines, orcs who built the cities and smithed the weapons and provided whatever food the community had, but by and large orcs were made as weapons and used as such. Thjazi's letter referenced turning swords into plowshares. In some ways, Hal's whole life between the War of Axe and Vine and now has been a version of that. The Falconer's Rebellion was a just cause, and it's probable that if more people had been willing to join it, Araman wouldn't be in the mess it's currently in. But Hal's choice to abstain is a very different choice from Aranessa's choice to abstain. The politics of an orc saying "I will not fight" even when the cause is just are far more nuanced. Because isn't this part of the freedom Vokjan Murzat fought and died for? Orcs in nice clothes, with flowers all around, and time to go see beautiful art made by their own people? Orcs who raise children and start businesses and hang up their swords? A life free from war? Finally. We don't know whether Hal was thinking about those politics when he made his choice. I suspect he was "I choose the Rungjani" indicates that to me, but you can easily read the scene another way. Whatever your take on his thought process, the politics of the choice are undeniable. A healthy orc in his early 30s refusing a call to arms barely 50 years after Azgra's death means something for the Rungjani.

I like this aspect of Hal's background because I think it's fascinating and one of the many ways in which his character feels deeply nuanced. But also, I think Hal feeling like he has no choice but to step into the fray and take up his sword once again throws into sharp relief that one of the violences of injustice is that it requires action. In real life, even the most non-violent methods and most incremental approaches to upending oppressive systems require deep sacrifices of time and emotional well-being. The fight is relentless and draining. To have to fight injustice is in itself unjust, in large part because of the necessity of the work. Someone has to step up and make the sacrifices, often those already suffering under the weight of what needs to be fought off. And for Hal to be called to take up his sword again does contain a sort of innate hopelessness. In his words to Vokjan, Hal has made some version of peace with this. "[Freedom] is never a given. But now, we always have a chance." But also, his son is off fighting some unknown battle, unreachable to his parents, his older daughter is on stage risking the wrath of one of the most powerful people in the world, and his younger daughter took notes for a secret meeting planning treason. Things are better. They are all adults, not actual children being sent onto the battlefield. But still, the lament that started the Shaper's War, "why can't I keep my family safe?," has only gone half-answered despite the apparent completeness of the orcs' victory. And all those orcs in nice clothes, with flowers all around, and the free time to come see a show celebrating their history, will only remain free if Hal allows himself to once again be a weapon

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

There are over 64,000 people watching the Live Stream of Trump's name being removed from The Kennedy Center! Court order says it must be removed by midnight (currently 11:04 pm in DC). They've just been building the scaffolding so far. First letter should come down soon!!!

LIVE: See Donald Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center as it happens

President Donald Trump's name must be removed from the Kennedy Center by midnight after a court order. Trump's handpicked Kennedy Center boa

ETA: 73K watching at 11:08 pm.

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

Well, it's 12:26 am, and they're still building the scaffold. At this rate, I think it'll be another hour at least. Almost 90K watching.

[taavicleric]

Oh, have fun. I've got YouTube too locked down and it's not working properly, at the moment. But ENJOY that.

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

I forgot that the time on the stream isn't the time here and was annoyed because I have to get up early-ish tomorrow, but it's actually not quite midnight here yet. LOL

I put oatmeal in the crockpot on a timer, so I don't have to make breakfast tomorrow, but at this rate, I'm still going to have to turn off the TV and watch on my phone while getting ready for bed. It does look like the scaffold is almost complete (finally).

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

Well, it's 1:35 am, and the reason for the extra scaffolding was so they can drape tarps to keep people from watching the actual removal. I have to be out the door in 7 hours, so I guess that's it for me. At this rate, it'll be after 3 am before they get all 10 (my estimate) tarps draped. Hell, maybe they'll still be "working" when I get up.

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

It was more than 10 tarps, but my 3 am prediction was correct. @musicologyduck.bsky.social got video through a gap in the tarps when they finally started on the letters at 4 am. You have to be logged in to see it. Here's one of their photos of the whole idiotic project.

This also explains why they didn't just use a "cherry picker". Your tax dollars at work.

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

There are over 64,000 people watching the Live Stream of Trump's name being removed from The Kennedy Center! Court order says it must be removed by midnight (currently 11:04 pm in DC). They've just been building the scaffolding so far. First letter should come down soon!!!

LIVE: See Donald Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center as it happens

President Donald Trump's name must be removed from the Kennedy Center by midnight after a court order. Trump's handpicked Kennedy Center boa

ETA: 73K watching at 11:08 pm.

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

Well, it's 12:26 am, and they're still building the scaffold. At this rate, I think it'll be another hour at least. Almost 90K watching.

[taavicleric]

Oh, have fun. I've got YouTube too locked down and it's not working properly, at the moment. But ENJOY that.

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

I forgot that the time on the stream isn't the time here and was annoyed because I have to get up early-ish tomorrow, but it's actually not quite midnight here yet. LOL

I put oatmeal in the crockpot on a timer, so I don't have to make breakfast tomorrow, but at this rate, I'm still going to have to turn off the TV and watch on my phone while getting ready for bed. It does look like the scaffold is almost complete (finally).

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

Well, it's 1:35 am, and the reason for the extra scaffolding was so they can drape tarps to keep people from watching the actual removal. I have to be out the door in 7 hours, so I guess that's it for me. At this rate, it'll be after 3 am before they get all 10 (my estimate) tarps draped. Hell, maybe they'll still be "working" when I get up.

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

There are over 64,000 people watching the Live Stream of Trump's name being removed from The Kennedy Center! Court order says it must be removed by midnight (currently 11:04 pm in DC). They've just been building the scaffolding so far. First letter should come down soon!!!

LIVE: See Donald Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center as it happens

President Donald Trump's name must be removed from the Kennedy Center by midnight after a court order. Trump's handpicked Kennedy Center boa

ETA: 73K watching at 11:08 pm.

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

Well, it's 12:26 am, and they're still building the scaffold. At this rate, I think it'll be another hour at least. Almost 90K watching.

[taavicleric]

Oh, have fun. I've got YouTube too locked down and it's not working properly, at the moment. But ENJOY that.

[letsnotandsaywewantedto]

I forgot that the time on the stream isn't the time here and was annoyed because I have to get up early-ish tomorrow, but it's actually not quite midnight here yet. LOL

I put oatmeal in the crockpot on a timer, so I don't have to make breakfast tomorrow, but at this rate, I'm still going to have to turn off the TV and watch on my phone while getting ready for bed. It does look like the scaffold is almost complete (finally).