Thoughts

I'm Ash, but you can call me Q. 37. AFAB but definitely not a girl (I prefer they/them/their or ey/em/eir pronouns, but anything is fine really). Always and forever a Brig appreciation blog, among other things. Writer: poetry, prose, creative nonfiction, you name it. And I love making people smile.

[literaryshoes]

Today I fulfilled a promise to myself. I said that if there was a production of Avenue Q in my area, I would make a point to see it, so I treated myself and my fiance to tickets. I was genuinely hoping that a musical with songs called “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist” and “Schadenfreude” would make a comment about Trump.

I was not disappointed. But they did it in the best possible way. They put it in “For Now,” replacing “George Bush” in the original lyrics with an angry “Trump! Is only for now!” (The actor playing Brian tossed in a couple of middle fingers for good measure.) The response was, naturally, enthusiastic applause and cheering on the part of most of the theater.

[literaryshoes]

I have since been in an actual play directed by the same person, and he is as aggressively progressive as one might hope from a theater person.

[everythingfox]

“My nephew had the best interruption while trying to do his homework“

(Source)

[ca-dmv-bot]

Customer: (not on record) DMV: CAN NOT TRANSLATE Verdict: ACCEPTED

[academicssay]

[everythingfox]

“After coming in from her first ever play outside!”

(via)

[johannesviii]

Incredible drip I saw at the gym, drawn from memory

[literaryshoes]

Life updates, for the curious.

I think the last time I was active on here was early 2021. So here are the things that have happened to me/I have done in the past two years:

The job I had in January 2021 no longer exists. The corporation I worked for (which I will not name but their spokesperson is called Jake) decided to completely eliminate their bank. This gave me six months to either successfully get an internal job at my current level OR take a demotion but a guaranteed job. The latter ended up happening.

I came out as non-binary in June of 2021! My family did not disown me! (My Very Cishet sister doesn't understand, but she does make an effort.)

I worked as a licensed insurance phone representative for the duration of 2021. Part of my training was with a group in Texas. Because some of the trainers were sick with coronavirus, we got barely any time to listen to active calls. We were kind of thrown into our new positions face first. It sucked.

As a result of all this upheaval and a lack of training, I did not do incredibly well with the new job. I experienced massive burnout and fatigue, and just hated life in general. I started actively seeking new employment.

One of the bright spots was watching all of Supernatural with my partner. (I feel the need to defend myself for enjoying it, but honestly, it was just about the only thing I could get excited about at the time.)

I began actively seeking new employment when Christmas Day fell on a Saturday. This may seem insignificant, but nearly all of my department had shifts on Saturdays, and no one was allowed to request time off on a Saturday EVER, AT ALL because it was our busiest day, nonstop calls from the beginning of the shift to the end. SO, Christmas Day was MANDATORY FOR ALL SATURDAY WORKERS and no one was allowed to request even a few hours off. I was also hosting my family that year, so I desperately needed that day off. I ended up making my last day Christmas Eve. FUCK that mess.

I spent New Year's at the home of a friend out of state, whom I met online. I know, alarm bells, but I'm very glad I did. I enjoyed every second of that vacation, and it felt like a break I had earned.

I found new employment in the form of an insurance agency. I already had a license for Illinois, so I could jump right into selling. However, I was much better at customer service than sales, which... was not what they were looking for. After a month and a half at the job, I was fired.

I was unemployed for just about five months. I had a few interviews, but few panned out. The job I ended up securing was a receptionist at a law firm. I enjoyed the work: answering phones in a system WAY simpler than what I had left, entering check stubs, filing. Much simpler and less stressful than constant demands on my time and attention. I stayed there a month, UNTIL...

I received a job offer I never expected. One of the jobs I interviewed for was with the local public transit organization. The job was a bit of a "shoot for the stars" for me, as I was definitely capable of the tasks but had never applied them in quite that way. This job would let me take time off, which the law firm would not have until the next calendar year began, AND offered 100% employer paid health insurance (!!!!!!). I jumped ship pretty much immediately.

And that's where I am now, way more content than I ever thought possible in a job.

However, on January 13 of this year, a car ran a red light and totaled my vehicle. I am currently out a car. So that's fun.

[sch-uwu-lchen]

reblog to give the person you reblogged this from a fucking break

[melancholia-ennui]

OGL Update

OK, now I think we can say "we've won" (this battle, if not the war): irrespective of any further WotC bullshittery, the CC-BY-4.0 license is irrevocable, so whatever happens now, at a bare minimum, the entire 5e SRD 5.1 is forever available to third party creators.

Beyond that... Well, it's good that WotC have said they will not deauthorize the OGL 1.0a for content produced in that framework, though it was always a kinda bad license and as far as I am aware such statements are in no way legally binding, so I would still recommend any third party creators to move to exclusively using the CC content where possible.

I hope Paizo continue with the development of the ORC license, as it would be good to have a proper system neutral alternative which was designed explicitly with the particular needs of the TTRPG hobby in mind. Once that license is released, it will at least provide developers with the option of whether they embrace standard CC licenses or follow the ORC if they want to give their content back to the community.

I also hope that people who were encouraged to try new games from this whole fiasco go ahead with that. The world of TTRPGs is rich and diverse, and while I think 5e does serve a particular niche exceptionally well (far better than some give it credit), there's a lot that can be gained by playing other games, both for the experience of the games themselves and as a learning point for how to improve your experience of your preferred system(s).

Lastly, I hope that folks remember this episode - and treat WotC/Hasbro with the suspicion they deserve going forward. They may have realised that they overstepped with this particularly blatant attempted power-grab, but that realisation will not change their fundamental goals and objectives: namely, the monopolisation of the mainstream TTRPG hobby and the increasing monetisation of the D&D brand in particular. As such, the lesson the executives are likely to learn from all this is not that they shouldn't mess with the fans, but that if they do, they need to find subtler ways of doing it.

So stay sharp, remember to take your turn on watch, and above all, remember this: they need us more than we need them.

There will always be other TTRPGs to play.

[librarymage]

I am once again asking the autistic community stop punching down on autistic people they’ve been taught to view as “stereotypes.”

I’m talking about nonspeaking autistics.  About autistic people who need full-time support.  About asexual and aromantic autistics.  Autistics who don’t want a lot of friends.  Unemployed autistics.  Autistics who were/are in special ed.  Intellectually disabled autistics.  Autistic adults who live with other family members.  Autistics whose meltdowns aren’t “subtle.”  Autistics who injure themselves.  Multiply disabled autistics.  Autistic shut-ins and agoraphobes.

We are all just as deserving of respect and dignity as former gifted kid autistics who still do everything they can to distance themselves from us even as they preach acceptance.

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

Source

[lastoneout]

Stepping outside the bit for a moment, it does make me genuinely sad that so many people don’t know about Cecil or Welcome to Night Vale, and not in a like nostalgia way, in a “dear god all of these queer teens are missing out on a core part of our media history and that’s awful” kind of way.

Like I am not lying, Welcome to Night Vale really was fucking groundbreaking queer representation that was, and still is, widely loved FOR A REASON!! If you legit have never heard of it, please give it a listen!! It’s a stellar, diverse podcast full of heartfelt moments and fantastic humor and good ol’ horror that’s made me cry and laugh and helped me get to sleep when I’ve been having horrible anxiety more times than I can count, and on top of that I will never be able to describe how, in 2012 when all of the big mlm ships on tumblr were us cringey little queer teens desperately praying for something deep down we really thought we’d never get, breathtakingly refreshing it was to listen to the FIRST EPISODE and hear Cecil openly admit to being in love with another man like it was the most normal thing in the entire world. It was everything, it really was.

Yeah, Cecil got sexy-maned all to hell and we can look back on that fondly and critically, but Welcome to Night Vale was to podcasts what Korrasami and the Ruby/Sapphire wedding were to cartoons and the absolutely dismissive tone a lot of people are using when talking about it breaks my heart. This isn’t just about remembering our sexyman roots, it’s about remembering and loving a revolutionary piece of queer media that was REALLY POPULAR like it was on fucking NPR, sold out shows, best selling books, the works!! Welcome to Night Vale changed the landscape of queer media, proved in it’s own corner that stuff with queer people in it COULD sell and find wide audiences! Like this was coming out back when fucking Glee was the standard for gay rep, I’m not kidding, Night Vale was everything.

It was, and is, loved for a reason. Cecil is winning on tumblr FOR A REASON. You deserve to find out why.

(And also just like, most Reigen fans on this website HC Reigen as queer and ship him with Serizawa and so, y’all please, trust me, if you love serirei then boy do I have a fantastic queer couple for you. You want silly himbo paranormal husband shenanigans? I can give them to you. Pls come with me. You’ll like this, I promise.)

[staggbones]

GO FUNKY MAN GO !!

(If you dont know what this is, its for tumblr's sexiest man hosted by @sexymanotd)

[muddaisy]

got something to say about the polls? need to say it? unfulfilled? never made since of who you vote for? who you voted for? who you will vote for? unfulfilled? do you forget sometimes about your own roots? your own history? other people's history and roots? can you make more history? more roots? do you need more roots and/or history? unfulfilled? are you satisfied with it all? do you see it all? what side are you on? what side do you want to be on? how big is your side? unfulfilled? have you ever said a thing inside your brain and then sent it to your hand to touch a keyboard to write it into symbols onto a website, which used to be rocks, and then used your eyes to translate those symbols back into the thing you just said inches away in your brain and then re-said it with your mouth into an ear? who's ear was it? unfulfilled? ever read posts that make you think differently? heard posts? unfulfilled? feel things? felt things? we are you. Strexcorp.

[dnd-homebrew5e]

OGL 1.0a & Creative Commons

Over the past few weeks you, the community, have made your voices heard. And we’ve listened. OGL 1.0a will remain untouched AND the entire S

WE. FUCKING. WON.

They will not be moving forward with the new OGL. It will remain as is and will be irrevocable. Thank you to everyone that made their voices heard and made sure they understood we would not compromise. Victory is ours!

[dailyadventureprompts]

Keep on CONSTANT guard for them to pull some other shit but for now, crack open those casks and lets fucking PARTY friends, we’ve saved our game from the greedy clutches of a multinational corporation.

[bulkhummus]

do you understand how funny this is

[bulkhummus]

[couldbeglorious]

this is why cecil is winning

[heywriters]

[yespolkadotkitty]

LOUDER

[narcicious]

I think the mentality of "why bother doing something if you're not good at it?" feeds directly into "if you're good at it why aren't you monetizing it?". At its core I really think its about commodifying every last shred of labor and experience.

[teacuphuman09]

THIS

[kedreeva]

Adding that this is literally a huge reason we don’t leave unsolicited criticism on things like fanworks- fanfiction, fanart, fan crafts etc. Because there’s a LOT of people out there who are just doing this for the fun of it. They’re doing it for the same reason people go on walks- to feel good. And receiving crit they didn’t ask for doesn’t feel good.