have no fear, a helper is here!

Hello! I'm Kaysey Melissa, here to help you and resident Jew (or at least that's what it always feels like). Check out my rules & information page to find out what you need to know about this blog. My ask box is open, but please remember that I do not respond to hate. I'm here to help, and that's all I plan to do on this blog. I'll help however I can, and when I can't, I'll try to direct you to someone who can. Helping people since January 2013. Or trying to. Melissa is IN SCHOOL, so requests may be SLOWER THAN NORMAL. Everything I do is OPEN. To see what I do, click the link that says rules. To see what I am currently working on, click the link that says to do. To find my resources, click the link that says navi. For the masterlist of my recommendations, click the link that says recs. Avatar by tnticons.

[frankdelflno]

Surnames are just as important as given names. So, I compiled a list of the websites I use to find my surnames.

English Surnames

Dutch Surnames

Spanish Surnames

Scottish Surnames

German Surnames

Italian Surnames

Irish Surnames

French Surnames

Scandinavian Surnames

Welsh Surnames

Jewish Surnames

Surnames By Ethnicity

Most Common Surnames in the USA

Most Common Surnames in Great Britan

Most Common Surnames in Asia

[bee-earthly]

[old-manrupee]

For whoever needs these.

[dragons-arrow]

I NEED THE ITALIAN LAST NAMES SO BAD

[ebvoice-deactivated20150727]

We are like fireworks…: Surnames Master Post.

[chronophobica]

Chinese surnames

Indian surnames

Indonesian surnames

Pakistani surnames

Bengali surnames

Japanese surnames

Filipino surnames

Korean surnames

Syrian surnames

Mongolian naming and clan names

Thai surnames

Asia is not a single country.

[shiraglassman]

If you’re not in a group and you want to learn how to write characters in that group respectfully and realistically

1. Read media by people in the group. Fiction, nonfiction, blog posts – anything from “how my day went today” to 300-page epic adventure novels to history pamphlets. (By people in the group, not just about them. This is important.)

2. Google “How not to write a [the group] character” because the odds are that at least a few people in the group have written blog entries rattling off all their least favorite tropes representing their demographic. I’ve seen lesbians writing about how not to write lesbians, Asians talking about offensively-written Asians, etc. Refraining from writing the overused, negative, one-dimensional tropes listed in posts like this is probably a good start.

[nonbinaries-on-ice]

I want to emphasize this in relation to writing disabled characters. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read works - from fanfiction to famous literary works - where it is strikingly obvious that the author has never actually read about or talked to someone with this disability about their experience. And I understand. Before I became disabled, I too thought that all I needed to know in order to write a disabled character were the facts about the disability. The symptoms, the causes, the treatments, how it impacts the body, etc. I thought that all I needed to know was what doctors have written about it. But there’s so much more to being disabled than just your impairment. It impacts you socially, financially, emotionally… every single aspect of your life. So, if you want to write about a character with a disability, please please PLEASE read stuff people with that disability or at least a similar disability have written about it. And look into communities on tumblr. Most disabilities have at least a small tumblr community where people talk about their experiences. Also get involved in the ableism community, because unless you are disabled or are reading what disabled people are saying about it you aren’t noticing 90% of the ableism in your life that your character would likely notice.

[shiraglassman]

This is a good addition to my post. So many disabilities have clichéd narratives that fiction learns to repeat from other fiction, not from the experiences of people with that disability.

[skillwiththequill]

If you are writing for a fic or for fun this might not be for you, but if you are aiming to get published and are serious about writing diverse characters and want to ensure you don’t mishandle, there are additional resources!

sensitivity readers

Look into is getting a sensitivity reader, someone who has similar experiences/trial to those you are going into. From http://writeinthemargins.org/sensitivity-readers/ :

“Sensitivity readers can help you identify problematic language and internalized bias on the page when writing outside of your experiences.  This is not a guarantee that others will not have issues with your work.  But it is a way to attempt to catch and correct high level issues prior to submission or publication.”

At http://writeinthemargins.org they have a database of people who have different cultures/experiences/identities that you can pay to look at your manuscript. In this database, you can find people coming from all kinds of backgrounds. LGBTQ people of differing ethnicities, mixed race, hailing from different countries, physical and mental disabilities, and you can probably find a someone who represents any mixture of the above. They’ll read your stuff and tell you about any missteps they see. 

A note: don’t do this instead of using the above resources, this is the next step. If you have not put in any effort to write the character correctly, you need to be doing that first.

[greyliliy]

I have learned a thing concerning Tumblr’s search- if you put # in front of the search term  (ex. #search term instead of the search term by itself), then you only see posts that are tagged with that term, instead of seeing every post that even so much as mentions it in the text body.

My browsing experience is about to get better (because as it turns out, if you tag a post “anti pairing” then it shows up in the regular pairing search because it included the word - but using the # trick, it now it won’t do that).

[maarvel-deactivated20170827]

theme 1 - SKYLAR

Static Preview Code: pastebin

details. reblog + like buttons. 5 custom links. accent color. post types. 500px posts. scroll-to-top button. 

please reblog if you’re using or considering to ♥

[roleplaytipsandadvice]

Masterlist of: Lauren Cohan gifs

Below you will find them in certain categories such as downloads, gif icons, herself etc. Some gif hunts don’t specify how many there are as sometimes they just put all the gifs in one place. The further down you go, the older the gif hunts are except if there are gif hunts from the same blog or I went in different tags etc.

If any links are broken please let me know. Please like or reblog if this is useful to you.

Keep reading

[melissarph]

Hello! I'm so sorry to bother you but this has been on my mind for MONTHS now and I've never really done anything about it out of fear of potentially offending anyone? Anyway, I have a character who has one parent who is christian and the other jewish (bc at some point someone in their family converted) I would like to know your opinion. Do you think it's ok for me to use any fc for this character? Or if I should stick to someone who is jewish or half-jewish? Thank you in advance!

Personally, I always think it’s fine to use any FC for Jewish characters, because anyone can be Jewish.  If I understand you correctly, and the Jewish parent is the child or descendant of a convert, then it’s definitely okay to use any FC - the Jewish parent would not be considered ethnically Jewish.  And it’s also okay to use someone who is Jewish or half-Jewish.  And don’t be sorry to bother me, I’m here to help!  If you need any more help, my ask box is always open.

[roleplaytipsandadvice]

aliiciakeys:

!!!!!! PSA !!!!!!

Last night I went to post a gif pack and the moment I posted my account got automatically terminated. I immediately contacted tumblr support ( I thought it was because of how many saved URLs I have tbh ) but this morning I woke up to the email form them that they had restored it. The reason it got terminated was because I had posted an adf.ly link within the post and they told me to refrain from doing that or my account could be automatically terminated again. SO IF YOU USE ADF.LY please please please be careful with it. I nearly had a panic attack thinking I had lost everything on this account and I don’t want y’all to deal with the same thing. IF IT DOES HAPPEN TO YOU, simply message tumblr support with the email and the username and state that you did not deactivate your account. When you get an automatic reply back, reply to it with a thank you ( idk if that helped, but I did and they got back to me pretty fast-ish; granted I was asleep ) just be careful. I used adf.ly to make money because I’m broke af and I know other people do too, but in hindsight it’s not worth it !!

[stayingicons]

Hey, so I decided to make a masterpost with lots of useful stuff like psds makers, tutorials and other things. If this was helpful please like or reblog the post.

** - personal favorite

psds: pictures/gifs psds:

pastelps**, lovotopsds, rollpsds**, freshpsds, desirecolorings, artjunkpsds, gifcolor, vampirepsds, wolfcoloring, colorfulps, prettylittlecolorings**, rainbowcolorings**, completeresources, l-agallerrie, toxicpsds**, lightthefuze**, mafiapsds, darkcolorings, vainillaps, wasirauhlpsds, confusedandcoloring, coloringsouls, psdworld

tv shows/movies psds:

wolfpsds (teen wolf), sherlockhills-psds, timelordgifs (doctor who), natbepsds, psdteam**, unrbokencolorings**, psddreams, onlyforcolors**, yeahps, coloringbliss, ahsgifs (american horror story), glee-psd (glee), elenargentspsds, drunkandcoloring**, caps-color, psdlovin

graphic psds:

x, x, x, x, x, x

download links for photoshop:

x, x, x, x, x, x**

tutorials:

photoshop for beginners:

photoshop toolbox

introduction to photoshop

how to make hq gifs

how to load and use actions

how to make a png image

how to use a psd

how to put text on a gif

how to edit a photo

coloring tutorials:

gif colorings

gif coloring tutorial: x, x**, x, x, x**, x**, x**

colorporn gifs tutorial: x, x, x**, x, x

others: light/dark gifs, splash gifs, colorful glow gifs

screencaps/picspam colorings:

how to color animated screencaps

screencap coloring**

screencap coloring (#2)**

screencap coloring (#3)

pastel coloring

piscpam coloring tutorial

other tutorials: x**, x, x, x, x

tutoriales en español resources: actions: 

lovotopsds, colorizeps, rollpsds**, artjunkpsds, wasirauhlpsds, atnlovers

brushes:

at0mica, brushesdownload, brushlovers, psbrushes, free-brushes, ohkayla**, brusheezy

fonts:

outshiner, dafont**, abstractfonts, fontfabric, losttype**, urbanfonts, fontsource, texturous, 1001freefonts, fontfreak

everything about fonts

gradients:

dirrtylady, artjunkpsds**, rollpsds, kokorocolors, efervescentia, rossalinesenty

templates:

welovetemplates, sephxual

textures:

texturous**, textureporn, suitetextures, textureking, outshiner, accio-glow, dirrtylady, northerndawn**, yellowlemon**

themes:

theme makers:

regansthemes, winchestheart**, blomkvist**, icatchingfire, joshdevines, mcpoyles**, rosefeather**, rainingfires, hawtornes**, somer-halders, cleamour, armyofghosts, everlak, keciasthemes**, ynthemes**, llermans, cloudplays, msswans**

theme blogs:

theme-hunters**, themesrec, themelogy**

[roleplaytipsandadvice]

Masterlist of: Dove Cameron gifs

Below you will find them in certain categories such as downloads, gif icons, herself, Liv & Maddie etc. Some gif hunts don’t specify how many there are as sometimes they just put all the gifs in one place. The further down you go, the older the gif hunts are except if there are gif hunts from the same blog or I went in different tags etc.

If any links are broken please let me know. Please like or reblog if this is useful to you.

Keep reading

[stiles-and-the-sourwolf]

No need to panic

For those who saw that post urging people to run for the hills and cry a river over how Yahoo lost money on tumblr and will therefore suddenly shut it down, breathe.

Tumblr is amongst the Big Four with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with 300 million monthly users last month. 100 million people use IG every month, and IG is in no danger of “poofing” away. The Big Four have become iconic in recent years, talked about on talkshows, referenced in movies, and while scrolling down any article you will most likely see the “tumblr” “tweet” “share” and “email” buttons.

“But the number of users is declining!” You say. Angry Birds players have declined too over the years, but it’s still wildly popular and one of the top rated games on the App store. Less people are using Facebook now too, but it’s still here. I tried searching tumblr and google for any sort of other information about Yahoo chopping tumblr, but all I found was that one post. Preemptive widespread panic from some simple speculation.

Yes, Yahoo may have suddenly shut down a couple fandom-oriented sites a few years back, blah blah. But tumblr is more than just a (giant) site for posting fandom content; to erase tumblr would be to erase millions of pieces of art, poetry, writing, company platforms, film campaigns, photography, podcasts, celebrity users, social communities, and business resources. Highly successful people and popular bloggers that are known elsewhere, made famous by tumblr. Yahoo will not want to piss off 300 million people and be known as the company who killed all that. Especially without heavy warning.

Save your posts if you want to (I always just email myself the text or put files on a flash drive), but I’ll eat my shoe if one day we open the login page and find a “sorry, this site was taken down!” message. It’s regular and expected business for profit to dip down before it dips up again. If Yahoo really is losing that much money (assuming the cited article is true) some other company will buy tumblr, as tumblr has been around since 2007.

[melissarph]

Will you please make me a couple Gabriel Macht and Sophia Bush pictures and a couple of them where Sophia is pregnant with Gabriel Macht in the pictures with her if you can do that for me I would really appreciate it, thank you.

I’m really sorry, but that’s not the kind of help I do.  I don’t have the graphics skills or programs for that.  :/  But, if my fellow RPHs could maybe like this post if they could help you out, that’d be lovely!  I hope you get what you’re looking for, anon.

[nphofrph]

Could be related:

Jesse Williams (born 1981; Irish, Seminole Native American, and Black)

Don Benjamin (born 1987; Swedish, Native American, and Black)

[melissarph]

Hey there! We're a brand new town roleplay with dramatic subplots Players get to create their own character with a specific subplot and muse in mind. We accept all faceclaims! Could we have a shoutout please?

Since you asked so nicely, you absolutely may.

Check them out, lovelies!

[melissarph]

Hi! We are a new, original supernatural/sci fi rp, opening soon with over 30 characters to choose from. We give the supernatural a little (but deadly) twist, and are looking forward to opening. We would love to have your help in finding a graphic design admin to help us put the finishing touches on our rp. Thank you :D

Sorry, Tumblr didn’t tell me I had this!  You can definitely have a shoutout, lovely, though I don’t know if you still need it.

[eomer-eadig]

Do you ever make a graphic and you get at the point where you have to choose a font and think “if only there were some way to get an overview of all the fonts I have already installed”? Well you can. At wordmark.it you just type in any word you want, it then shows that word in every font you have installed on your computer.

[melissarph]

I'm wanting to write a character that converts to Judaism for her husband, do you have any tips or know of any guides that could help? (She genuinely wants to convert, it's not just for him. It's kind of a bonding thing, if that makes sense?) I'm not Jewish, so I'd like to avoid being terribly wrong and inaccurate, or even potentially harmful by spreading bad information, y'know? But I've started doing research for writing his side, I just don't know where to start for her. Thanks for your help!

Because I am born Jewish myself, I don’t totally know how conversion works for a woman, and it does depend on the denomination of the husband - reform ritual is going to be different that conservative, etc.  However, using one of the Judaism resources I love (jewfaq.org), I have found this website: http://www.convert.org/ which looks promising.  I hope that helps, and if you have any specific questions along the way, feel free to pop in again!

- Melissa

[roleplaytipsandadvice]

Do you happen to have links to some really good guides or places for portraying a character with BPD?

I’m not sure if you mean Bi Polar Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder, so i’m going to do both.

Bi Polar Disorder

Bi Polar guide

How to play someone with Bi Polar

Guide to writing Bi Polar Disorder

Managing Bi Polar disorder in a D/S relationship

Playing a Bi Polar character

Bi Polar Disorder resources

Borderline Personality Disorder

A guide on Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder checklist

Portraying a character with Borderline Personality Disorder.

What people with Borderline Personality Disorder do

Guide to helping people with the disorder

What is Borderline Personality Disorder

What’s it like to live with Borderline Personality Disorder

This blog is very helpful - shitborderlinesdo. I suggest you read through it for research purposes. It is run by people who have the disorder.