Johnny's Letters

One Brony's personal outlet. Letters to Celestia, because I like the format and need to vent sometimes.

[indiestarlight-deactivated20250]

the thing about the "um excuse me if you're as poor as you say you are why don't you just sell all your most treasured possessions" thing that people love to trot out as some kind of "gotcha" is that they do not acknowledge how fucking soul-crushing it is to be in a situation that is already destroying your mental health and then be forced to sell one of the few things in your life that still bring you joy

[indiestarlight-deactivated20250]

and an additional layer of this that nobody ever likes to acknowledge is:

human beings genuinely need to have fun and enjoyable things in our lives so that we do not just fall so deep into depression we jump off the nearest bridge, but in the current world we live in, having fun costs money. every list i have seen of "fun things you can do for free!" still costs money, it just costs an amount of money that is inconsequentially small to the person writing the list but that could easily be what a poor person has to live on for an entire week

"sit in a coffeeshop and journal!" coffee, journals, and pens cost money

"go to events with your friends!" event tickets and bus fare/gas cost money

"cook a nice home-cooked meal!" ingredients cost money. if people could be doing this one they already would. do you think poor people eat ramen and peanut butter sandwiches every day for fun

"take up a hobby, like crochet or watercolor!" those supplies cost money. yes i know you can get a lot of craft supplies at the dollar tree. someone with thirty cents in their bank account cannot afford that

"go hiking!" gas money, hiking shoes, and clothes that won't be covered in holes by the time you get off the trail all cost money. if your closest hiking trails are national parks you've also gotta pay to go into those

everything costs fucking money. when you are poor, often the only way you can do fun things is 1) because someone you know with more money than you offers to pay for it for you, or 2) by utilizing things you already have at home, which you cannot fucking do if you sell everything you own

[indiestarlight-deactivated20250]

so yeah tl;dr when i see someone asking for money for groceries/rent/bills/etc and i also know that person has like a wacom tablet or a playstation or whatever i do not judge them, i simply think "i am glad this person is able to get some joy still" because i hold the extremely controversial opinion that not wanting to kill yourself shouldn't be a luxury that only rich people can afford

[ihni]

Is it just me, or are there less comments being written on fics nowadays? I get to a fic on AO3 that was posted weeks ago, and it has like 30 kudos but no comments yet. It happens more and more now. Why is that?

I don't like it.

[lumidaub]

I don't know how to comment without giving feedback and apparently loads of people don't want that. Yes, I know, I could just say sth like "loved it" (and I know first hand the warm and fuzzy feeling that gives the receiver). But that doesn't express what I'm thinking because what I'm thinking is "I thought this bit was very good because reason, I thought this other bit was maybe too long, this third bit confused me, and that twist was really well prepared". And it seems that many people don't want to hear that which is very VERY confusing to me. So the only thing to do is leave kudos.

i want all the feedback. give me it.

[ihni]

Actually I think that is a good place to start, when writing a comment, maybe just skip the not-so-positive stuff? So "this bit was good because reason" and "this twist was really well prepared" are good things to put in a comment. Just skip the things you DIDN'T like so much - keep them to yourself. And then you have a good comment.

When it comes to comments, always concentrate on the positive (unless someone has outright stated that they're looking for constructive feedback).

[feedthefandomfest]

Agreed. In my early fandom days people would outright state "concrit welcome," which I would say is the only time it's appropriate to offer criticism on the technical aspects of the story. Rarely do I see authors looking for that kind of thing currently.

Fandom is not a creative writing class. This is not a workshop. Fics can be posted in varying degrees of polished/finished draft, from "no beta we die like x" to fics that have been painstakingly edited before posting. Some fics are written to completion before posting, some are posted bit by bit as the author figures the story out.

The role of commenter is far more fan and cheerleader than critic. Positive comments on the technical aspects of a story are always welcome, obviously, but once a fic is posted, it's generally more discouraging and even hurtful to have someone point out what didn't work for them. If what doesn't work grated enough that you feel the urge to comment on it, better to just stop reading.

One exception I can think of is if there's an easily fixed factual error or glaring typo? And even then, I usually state clearly in the notes that I'm open to corrections on that kind of thing (ex: I got the name of the frontman wrong when writing about characters attending a concert, and I was SUPER grateful to have that pointed out).

In general, unless the author has made it clear that they want constructive criticism or corrections, stick to the positive. Asking about an author's thought process behind certain choices is fine, so long as it comes from a place of curiosity rather than complaint.

I'm sure there are authors out there who don't mind critical comments, but in my experience, they're in the minority. If you are one of those authors, make that clear in the notes or tags of your story. Otherwise, readers should assume the default preference is positive/encouraging comments.

[charlesoberonn]

Avatar headcanon (or AU really since I'm pretty sure it contradicts the lore):

The Air Nomads used to be a lot more violent.

They ate meat too, raising sky bisons and other animals not just for transportation but for food as well. Basically they were more like real nomadic civilizations, except they could fly and (some but not all) were Airbenders.

They waged nomadic warfare as well, raiding settled communities and extorting tributes. And waging war against other tribes of Air Nomads for grazing and raiding territory as well as for revenge of apparent slights. They were extremely loyal to their tribe and kin, above all other loyalties.

Eventually a powerful Air Nomad leader managed to unite the different tribes into one Air nation and he waged a war of conquest across much of the world.

He ruled for many years but after his death his empire was splintered among his descendants and rival warlords. The Air Nomads began to wage war on one another, but this time with a lot more ferocity, with armored Air Bisons and ground armies made up of conquered peoples.

It's during this warring states period that the beginnings of what would become the Air Nomad way developed, as a solution to the never-ending cycle of violence.

The practitioners of the new way adopted pacifism and eventually also vegetarianism. They raised Sky Bison not as property or tools, but as partners and fellow living beings, a sentiment they later expanded to all animals.

The practitioners took in many war orphans as well as babies whose parents couldn't raise them. And when these orphans grew and had kids of their own they often gave them to the temples to be raised there as well. This reinvented the way Air Nomads raised their children, putting harmony and individual growth over ties of blood.

As more and more Air Nomads adopted the new way, eventually the warlords and self-style Air Kings did too. And in time they or their descendants gave up their titles and claims. The now centuries-old way became the way of all Air Nomads.

Though their numbers were smaller, due to their spiritual acuity and their system of mutual aid, the Air Nomad were all much healthier than the other nations and all of them were Airbenders.

[brucie-deactivated05092020-deac]

how i sleep knowing i will pirate every single thing released on disney plus

[bebe-benzenheimer]

how y’all gonna sleep after your computers are infected with a bazillion viruses and the feds gon’ bust your asses

[onemoretallymark]

how i sleep when I'm pirating disney with a vpn and anti-virus protection.

[ms-demeanor]

How I sleep after pirating everything from D+ while using an antivirus, VPN or proxy, and a cantenna to rip off the free wifi at Downtown Disney. If you can’t get wifi directly from the house of mouse McDonald’s will do.

[chocolatechipbutterflyprincess]

How I sleep knowing I’m pissing off all the Disney bootlickers by pirating:

[gothmisspyggie]

Oh no! What a terrible thing to do, this information should't be spread by reblogging it, that's for sure.

[bunsonbyrner]

how i sleep when i always pirate my content [i also have sleep anixety]

[arson-jellyfish]

I have been looking for this post for so fucking long

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

[depsidase]

[indelicateink]

painfully true

[fruityyamenrunner]

[anonymouscomrade]

Imagine saying "where sweets are baked, not bought" about the decade that invented blue raspberry

[lady-byleth]

people who didn't grow up in the 90s come in 2 flavors:

1. Think the 90s and the 19th century looked the same for some reason

2. Absolute "90s nostalgia that's actually just faux retro with neon lights" brain rot

[smoothestjazz]

it's the trad version of what people think the 80s were with leg warmers and all

[niggazinmoscow]

THIS RIGHT HERE

[afronerdism]

You guys are dangerously close to realizing specifically what kinds of people they keep from voting and why.

[molothoo]

I want to drill this into everybody’s head:

The United States of America has the highest prison population in the world

Black Americans and Latin people make up the majority of this population (many of whom are non-violent offenders)

Federal Prisons in America require that their state keeps their prisons at a maximum occupancy at all times.

The 13th amendment did not entirely abolish slavery…just one form of it. It remains legal through industrial prison system

[scretladyspider]

Oh and we have privatized prisons which allow companies to actually make money off of keeping people incarcerated 

[dantalaois]

[odinsblog]

Here’s what’s really perverse: prisoners, who cannot vote, still get counted in the U.S. Census. The more prisoners a county has, the more representation it gets, even though the prisoners cannot vote. See how that works? The more black and brown people they lock up, the more government resources and political representation they get. Even though those prisoners have no say and cannot vote.

If county-A has a population of 50 voters but no prisons, and county-B has a population of 50 voters and 50 prisoners, the county with the prisoners gets more government funding and more political represention. This is sometimes called “prison gerrymandering” and it is used in redistrictring.

Not so fun Fact: Southern states that reliably vote for Republicans also have the highest prison population in the United States. (source). So mass incarceration is a double whammy. It’s both a form of voter suppression and a tool to strengthen white people’s political power.

[vampire-core]

[id: the first image is a tweet by Ryan Grim / @.ryangrim that reads: Ya know, if a country has so many people in prison that allowing them to vote could swing an election, maybe there are too many people in prison.

the second image is a tweet by Anthony Oliveira / @.meakoopa that reads: hi everyone - a government that denies its prisoners the right to vote is a government that now has an extremely vested interest in jailing its political opposition

thank you to coming to this, the literal first class of Civics 101 /end]

[paxamericana]

https://www.actionnews5.com/2019/11/28/woman-shared-facebook-warnings-about-white-vans-before-deadly-shooting/

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Social media rumors may have fueled a deadly shooting outside a Memphis shopping center.

Nazario Garcia was gunned down Sunday in his white work van.

That’s the same type of vehicle at the center of viral Facebook posts – claiming men are using the vans for sex trafficking.

“I heard pow, some shooting, pow pow. I didn’t know what was going on. I just layed down in my car,” said Jerry Coleman, witness.

Jerry Coleman was in the parking lot of a Raleigh shopping center, outside the Goodwill store, when the shooting happened Sunday morning.

According to a police affidavit, 60-year-old Nazario Garcia was parked in the lot when Favian and Miguel Effinger showed up. The report says they confronted Garcia “without provocation” and opened fire on Garcia.

He tried to get away but lost control of his white van and crashed into a shopping cart, ending up on the curb.

Before the shooting, police say the brothers’ mother, Gjuandell Effinger, sent a video on social media – claiming the occupant of a white van with the same tag number as Garcia had tried to abduct her from the parking lot of a nearby Walmart.

Investigators say there’s “no evidence to support an attempted abduction.”

Gjuandell Effinger’s Facebook page shows post after post she shared from other users warning about white vans being used for sex trafficking – warning not to even go to your car if you see a van like that.

There are also several shares about abducted children and women. She also shared a warning about white vans that Facebook flagged as false.

The white van warning has been shared all across the country.

In Detroit, a handyman was harassed by people because he drove a white van.

He said it started with this video of a woman who claimed she saw a young girl being forced into the back of a van. It also went viral on Facebook.

The Effinger trio appeared in court Wednesday. Miguel and Favian are charged with first degree murder. Their mother is charged with solicitation first degree murder.

Nazario Garcia died at the Regional Medical Center.

The trio is expected back in court on Tuesday.

[zoobus]

When people say “you’re going to get someone killed” wrt spreading conspiracies and online mobs, this is what they mean

[e-the-village-cryptid]

my first reading in my African history class this year is about why using “tribe” to refer to ethnic groups stems from a racist desire to make African conflicts sound primitive or stemming from a desire to pretend that these are just ancient conflicts that have always existed. great article and I also feel like I’m vicariously experiencing the bullshittery that this author has been subjected to from people they’ve tried to talk to about this. like the article remains extremely professional but you can just hear in the tone that they’re talking through gritted teeth, you can practically see the customer service smile

[ID: a screenshot from a section of the article titled “But why not use ‘tribe’? Answers to common arguments.” Under the bullet point for the argument “Africans talk about themselves in terms of tribes” is written, “Commonly when Africans learn English they are taught that tribe is the term that English-speakers will recognize. But what underlying meaning in their own languages are Africans translating when they say tribe? Take the word isizwe in Zulu. In English, writers often refer to the Zulu tribe, whereas in Zulu the word for the Zulu as a group would be isizwe. Often Zulu-speakers will use the English word tribe because that’s what they think English speakers expect, or what they were taught in school. Yet Zulu linguists say that a better translation of isizwe is nation or people.” /end ID] 

translation: “ ‘Oh ho ho but some Africans themselves say tribe!’ You dipshit. You fucking donkey. When someone has a word that means “nation” or “people” in their own language but then when they learn English YOU TELL THEM IT TRANSLATES TO “TRIBE” then THAT WILL BE THE WORD THEY USE. Maybe if you LISTENED TO THE LINGUISTS OF THAT GROUP you’d have more accurate information. Asshole.”

each point is repeated over and over with like five different examples because you just know there are dipshits out there who will keep arguing.

to the anonymous author of this article for the Africa Policy Information Center I hope you have a good day every day and experience fewer people being assholes about this, your patience is actually legendary

[e-the-village-cryptid]

[ID: The author’s response to the argument “Avoiding the term tribe is just political correctness.” It reads “No, it isn’t. Avoiding the term tribe is saying that ideas matter. If the term tribe accurately conveyed and clarified truths better than other words, even if they were hard and unpleasant truths, we should use it. But the term tribe is vague, contradictory and confusing, not clarifying. For the most part it does not convey truths but myths, stereotypes and prejudices. When it does express truths, there are other words which express the same truths more clearly, without the additional distortions. Given a choice between words that express truths clearly and precisely, and words which convey partial truths murkily and distortedly, we should choose the former over the latter. That means choosing nation, people, community, chiefdom, kingroup, village or another appropriate word over tribe, when writing or talking about Africa. The question is not political correctness but empirical accuracy and intellectual honesty.” /end ID]

[e-the-village-cryptid]

quick note my bad the authors are not actually anonymous they were just listed in the fine print at the end of the article rather than under the title: “The main text of this paper was drafted by Chris Lowe (Boston University). The final version also reflects contributions from Tunde Brimah (University of Denver), Pearl Alice Marsh (APIC), William Minter (APIC), and Monde Muyangwa (National Summit on Africa).”

[adhd-vibes]

Hey just a reminder that thought crime doesn’t exist and pretending to have empathy is just as good as having it! You can be the world’s biggest dickhead in the privacy of your own mind and as long as you’re outwardly kind it literally Does Not Matter

i actually really needed to hear this. love this outlook, thank you.

[personalstrugglesletters]

Sadness. (Host)

Sometimes I have to deal with my shit all alone. Sometimes even Kate doesn't come out to protect me from my feelings.

I am down. Once again I am captured in this endless spiral of emotions and thoughts. Suffocating from all my tears.

I am constantly asking myself where I went wrong. Sometimes people just suddenly treat me different without any reasons.

This time, it's my boyfriend. We were talking on Teamspeak and everything was going good until I said goodnight and left. I didn't say I love you or anything because there was still someone else. I mean that dude knows it like everyone on that teamspeak, but I was tired. So I decided to make a voice message. I said I love you and did some kisses. He saw it. He listened to it. But he didn't answer and went offline again. So I had sent a heart. Again. Left on read. I tried one last time with again saying good night, a heart and a sad smiley. Left on read.

My heart hurts like thousands little needles went right through it. What have I done wrong ? Was it something I said ? I don't know... And it's killing me from the inside.

There is nothing worse for me, than him being mad at me. It's the worst. So if he is, I just want to know why.

Idk. I am lost.

-Host

[personalstrugglesletters]

Emptiness (Sey)

Empty with a heavy chest.

That's how I feel. While the others feel different or all emotions, I can't.

My world is dark. Black and White. Why you might ask yourself ? Well it's simple. That's my job. I erase every bad feeling. Every bad thought. But while doing that, I block the good feelings too. Until we are nothing more then an empty and thoughtless version of ourself.

Why would I block the good feelings ? I learned that the higher we fly the further we fall. That means, when I stop doing my job, she falls. I can't let that happen.

That's me. Sey. My job: Keep her from feeling if needed.

But I ain't only that. I also write poems from time to time. I draw and listen to music.

One day I won't need to feel nothing anymore, I will wait for it and maybe one day I also can enjoy my existence.

-Sey

[spinningrims]

i’m seeing a lot of people reblogging suicide hotlines and this is just a reminder that this is a suicide help line that works like a text-based instant messenger for people who may need to talk to someone but have trouble/are uncomfortable making phone calls

[groovian-whovian]

Never don’t reblog this. There are so many people who have such bad anxiety about phone calls. This can save so many lives

[beamingsuggestion]

and here you are, continuing on, despite how hard it’s been

[byebyethinspo]

Do not “wait to get worse”.

I don’t care if you’ve “been worse”

Your body is tired of this.

You deserve help in this moment.

[panic-potato-blog]

I needed this today, thanks.

[baggijaggi-deactivated20221118]

Additionally: It doesn’t matter if other people “have it worse”.

You deserve help.

[darkbookworm13-deactivated20240]

Needed this, it’s so hard to remember.

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

Depression Checklist

1. Shower, brush your teeth and put on clean clothes

2. Eat regularly; include some fruit and veg in your diet

3. Get out of the house at some point in the day

4. Get at least 20 minutes of exercise

5. Listen to some comforting or meaningful music

6. Talk to at least one other person

7. Think about 3 things that could make life worth living

8. Write down 3 things you are grateful for.

[personalstrugglesletters]

Insomnia

One problem I am dealing with since probably forever, is insomnia. It started of with that I just didn't want to sleep. Later it evolved into a almost obsessive compulsive fear of missing something and not being able to live my life to the fullest. Also since I had a lot of nightmares and still have, I also never really wanted to sleep. This had a bad impact on my mental health and still does. I remember times where I'd sleep an hour a day and it showed. I've been going insane, stopped eating, etc. . Once I started sleeping again, I automatically felt better. Even tho it got better ... Kind of ... I still have a hard time falling asleep before 3 am. I just want to sleep like I am supposed to do. But it just ain't working.