Salmon

Ao3 & Digital Art

[mcromwell]

FINALLY got around to dumping Spotify after their CEO continued to prove he's a fresh turd. (As if being a billionaire, not paying musicians, shoving AI garbage at us, and having an atrocious carbon footprint wasn't bad enough, he's now the chair of a AI-based weapons manufacturing company.)

I used TuneMyMusic ($24 annual fee you can cancel immediately, effectively paying only once) to transfer almost every single song from our Spotify account to Tidal. Tidal already has much better sound quality and they pay their artists much better. It migrated over 99% of our music, too, so there wasn't a huge loss.

[chainslobber]

I did this over in November when they gave Trump $100,000.

Tidal is incredible. Not only is it MUCH cheaper than Spotify, but the audio quality is much better. Artists DO get paid more, and their algorithm is actually coded by humans (did you wonder why Spotify Wrapped has been sucking, it's the AI).

You can download your Spotify playlists as .CSV files and then use a program to 'covert' them to Tidal. I used Exportify. It cost me $2 to transfer over 35 playlists and a total of 4,300+ songs. Two dollars.

Tidal's UI is similar to Spotify so you can jump right in and do the same stuff you've always done. You can make playlists, edit playlist covers, you have a discover daily, the mixes make more sense and are based on YOUR tastes, and to top it all off, did I mention it's cheaper?

And for those who drive a lot, it takes a lot less room on your phone and barely any data. I HIGHLY recommend making the jump!

[stele3]

'Technofascist military fantasy': Spotify faces boycott calls over CEO’s investment in AI military startup

Daniel Ek invested over $700m in drone, aircraft and submarine producer Helsing

[bajoop-sheeb]

PLEASE for the love of the universe read anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy written from marginalized perspectives. Y’all (you know who you are) are killing me. To see people praise books about empire written exclusively by white women and then turn around and say you don’t know who Octavia Butler is or that you haven’t read any NK Jemisin or that Babel was too heavy-handed just kills me! I’m not saying you HAVE to enjoy specific books but there is such an obvious pattern here

Some of y’all love marginalized stories but you don’t give a fuck about marginalized creators and characters, and it shows. Like damn

[spid3rgrrrl]

If anyone has any recommendations give them to me please!

[bajoop-sheeb]

Gladly! The pieces on this list aren’t limited to specifically anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy, but they do center related and relevant topics, themes, etc.

Anything by NK Jemisin. She is the best speculative fiction writer of her generation and probably the best speculative fiction writer alive. She is easily one of the best writers working right now, across all genres. That’s not hyperbole. She deserves all the hype.

Anything by Octavia Butler. She needs no introduction. Her short fiction is incredible; “Bloodchild” is one of the pieces that inspired me to write.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. Excellent. Just read it.

The Radiant Emperor duology by Shelley P. Chan. It broke my heart and it'll break yours.

Babel by RF Kuang. You’ve probably already heard of this book because Harper Voyager marketed the shit out of it and was right to do so. It’s very, very good. Kuang writes a compulsively readable story, that’s for sure.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo.

So Long Been Dreaming: Post-Colonial Science Fiction and Fantasy (anthology) edited by Nalo Hopkinson.

Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (anthology) edited by Nalo Hopkinson.

Severely underhyped books of assorted speculative genres:

The Blood Trials by NE Davenport. Given the current chokehold romantasy has on the public it’s insane to me that this book hasn’t sold a billion copies.

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. It’ll change you.

The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera.

The Lesson by Caldwell Turnbull.

Read widely. Read diversely. People of the Caucasian persuasion need to stop getting pissy when the story doesn’t immediately center them and they don’t automatically relate to everything the character says and does and is. Just let yourself get swept in the story—even if it touches on (gasp!) racism—and maybe, just maybe, it’ll reveal something to you.

Or maybe not! Marginalized sff authors do not have to and should not have to educate their readers. But if I see one more white person complain about how Black characters are fundamentally annoying because they complain too much I’m going to fling myself into the sun

Thanks for coming to my ted talk I didn’t want to do it but here I am

[teeth-and-spackle]

Don't forget Aliette de Bodard! Especially her Xuya and Dominion of the Fallen series.

Zen Cho is my other favorite - Sorcerer to the Crown and The True Queen, and also Black Water Sister.

[minago]

Great list! I will also recommend anything by Samuel R. Delany.

[ariaste]

Also reccing P. Djèlí Clark's books, especially Ring Shout, which is like "what if Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a black woman and the KKK was still the KKK but now they're literal horrifying monsters as well as figuratively so". It's SO BADASS.

[shu-of-the-wind]

others to add!!

The Unbroken by CL Clark

ANYTHING by Nghi Vo, not just Empress of Salt and Fortune; When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain and the rest of the Singing Hills cycle, which EoSaF starts, are incredible as well as The Chosen and the Beautiful (an adaptation of the Great Gatsby).

Mexican Gothic and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, both by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Song of Silver, Flame like Night like Amelie Wen Zhao

Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

ANYTHING by Tasha Suri but especially The Jasmine Throne and its sequel The Oleander Sword

THE LIST KEEPS GOING YOU GUYS

[nando161mando]

▶️ Tens of thousands of Yemenis gathered in the capital Sanaa for the 40th consecutive Friday to express solidarity with the Palestinian people.

#WeAreAllGaza

[i-am-aprl]

[ID: A video clip showing a Black person in a green coat interviewing an elderly white person holding up a flag, with more protesters in the background displaying Palestinian flags.

The interviewer asks, "Why is it important for you to be here today?"

The protester responds, "Well, uh, I'm Jewish, I'm Israeli, my parents were the only survivors of their families from the Holocaust. They both survived Auschwitz. I'm not going to support genocide am I?

"I'm here with the Palestinians, and we are here with Palestine, because we don't believe that what the British government is doing is correct. The British government is supporting this genocide! It's arming Israel, it's financing Israel.

"BBC and the other media here is supporting genocide. This is illegal. This is immoral. We don't agree with it, we will never agree with it, and as Jews -- and myself as Israeli -- I am totally against it, and we will continue to be against it.

There are now more than 60 such events in the whole of Britain, uh, people don't want to support this. They are against this government on so many other issues, but especially on this one."

Another elderly white protester next to the first joins in, leaning forward to add:

"And, also, this didn't start on October the 7th. In 1948, Palestinian villages, hundreds of them --"

Another elderly protester interjects specifically, "500 of them".

The second protestor nods and continues, "were demolished, thousands of Palestinians, innocent men, women, and children were slaughtered, and seven-hundred and fifty thousand Palestinian refugees were created. That's when it started, and it hasn't stopped since!"

End ID.]

[damianbugs]

DEBUNKING SOME COMMON COMIC COMPLAINTS:

the funniest shit ever is when i say "oh hey friend you should give batman comics a try i think you'll like them!" and the response is "no thanks he's a bad dad in those i'll stick to fics." because like... i swear to you on my life Bruce Wayne Ao3 has done worse shit in fics than he ever has in canon.

"oh but you can just filter those tags/ignore those stories—" you can. do the same with comics... this man has been around for decades. do you think every story was exactly the same? not even the SAME writers write him the same way twice. (EXAMPLE: Frank Millers 'Batman Year One' has bruce jump off a bridge to save a baby. Frank Millers 'Batman and Robin All Stars' has bruce feed dick rats.)

"oh but fics are free—" so are comics 🏴‍☠️... unless ur a coward. whoever told you that you have to buy comics to read them or enjoy them is a liar and you should explode them. spending money and collecting is a completely personal (and life altering) decision.

"it's so hard to find specific comics/dynamics/tropes etc" the internet is truly a fantastic place. you can find a reading list or blog for the most niche of characters, so you will have absolutely no problem finding one for the bastard man who appears in every single comic ever published by dc. if not, ask your comic friends and not friends, comic blogs, tiktok comment sections etc. there will be one hyperfixated enthusiast eagerly awaiting the opportunity to give you their extensive guide.

"i just want to read/create my own story with them" you and me both buddy. reading comics doesn't mean you are not allowed to let yourself indulge in completely impossible fanon scenarios that heal or ruin your life. in fact, do you know the inexplicable euphoria that comes with stumbling upon a fic that rewrote a canon event? continued a badly finished comic story? it's life changing. fun to write too!

if you don't want to read comics for whatever reason, fine, literally whatever — but if you want to and certain things are holding you back from doing do, this is for you! who gaf about fandom discourse and "name me three batman comics"-ism, just don't hold yourself back from exploring this media even further! if anything, having a couple comics under your belt makes analysis and discussion far more genuine, and not like your chatting shit from out your ass.

[soon-palestine]

[tamarrud]

Genuinely cannot begin to fathom what postpartum is like in Gaza. I was beyond blessed to have doctors and nurses present and I still suffered so much not only during labour but afterwards, and for months and months after. I cannot imagine doing that while also trying to survive genocide. Literally cannot imagine going through postpartum in a tent. I cannot imagine having to heal after giving birth in the heat of the summer with no electricity or a sip of cold, clean water. The fact that most mothers are malnourished and maternity care is almost nonexistent because of Israel is devastating to just think about. And I'm sure most of the care items needed postpartum are unavailable due to the blockade and to Zionist lunatics preventing aid from getting in.

I shared these campaigns earlier and I couldn't stop thinking about them since, please share/donate to expecting families and to families with newborns and DM me any campaigns that you come across of expecting families please.

[seven-eyes]

Did this fanart due to the pro-palestine play, 'My name is Rachel Corrie', that Alan Rickman, Snape's actor, directed

for any donation above 25$ I'll draw your favorite character like in the fanart above (holding the Palestine flag too if you want) 💕

read more about Rachel and Rickman's play | donate to families in gaza

[pinkish-orange]

I'm so tired of seeing people defending celebrities. I'm tired of seeing people even being their fans.

People saying that it's not their fault there's a genocide going on, that attending the Met Gala or not won't change what's happening. BUT IT DOES, THEY COULD CHANGE WHAT'S HAPPENING.

Each met gala ticket costs 75k. To cross the Egypt border it costs 5k per person. Each ticket could have saved at least 15 people, multiple families. There's countless GoFundMe families far away from their goal. This money could have literally saved lives.

And this isn't just about Palestine. There's people dying from starvation and poverty every second, every year, and you don't even have to look at other countries. There shouldn't be this kind of celebrations (oscars, met gala, superbowl) happening while there's so much people dying and suffering from things that could be easily changed if the rich simply cared.

Like a girl said over tiktok, no, they don't have to help anyone, but why don't they want to?

Every celebrity who attended the met gala is a horrible person. And I don't care if people disagree with me on this right now but I hope that, with time, people will stop treating them like they are people just like us. They're not like us, they live in a different reality. And if they don't care about us, we shouldn't care about them. I hope people stop giving them attention. I don't care who the fuck wore the best dress, just today I saw a baby from Gaza with half of her body smashed.

I don't care about the celebrities that portraied my favorite characters, I don't care about any famous singer, people like Lana Del Rey (a zionist) or most of MCU actors. Fuck them.

Free Palestine. Eat the rich.

[pinkish-orange]

A few hours after I posted this I saw that people over tiktok are blocking celebrities. the timing lmao

✨ refreshing ✨

[pinkish-orange]

I'm so tired of seeing people defending celebrities. I'm tired of seeing people even being their fans.

People saying that it's not their fault there's a genocide going on, that attending the Met Gala or not won't change what's happening. BUT IT DOES, THEY COULD CHANGE WHAT'S HAPPENING.

Each met gala ticket costs 75k. To cross the Egypt border it costs 5k per person. Each ticket could have saved at least 15 people, multiple families. There's countless GoFundMe families far away from their goal. This money could have literally saved lives.

And this isn't just about Palestine. There's people dying from starvation and poverty every second, every year, and you don't even have to look at other countries. There shouldn't be this kind of celebrations (oscars, met gala, superbowl) happening while there's so much people dying and suffering from things that could be easily changed if the rich simply cared.

Like a girl said over tiktok, no, they don't have to help anyone, but why don't they want to?

Every celebrity who attended the met gala is a horrible person. And I don't care if people disagree with me on this right now but I hope that, with time, people will stop treating them like they are people just like us. They're not like us, they live in a different reality. And if they don't care about us, we shouldn't care about them. I hope people stop giving them attention. I don't care who the fuck wore the best dress, just today I saw a baby from Gaza with half of her body smashed.

I don't care about the celebrities that portraied my favorite characters, I don't care about any famous singer, people like Lana Del Rey (a zionist) or most of MCU actors. Fuck them.

Free Palestine. Eat the rich.

[thottacelli]

Another aspect of the Gaza Genocide that I want to talk about is the complicity of Internet banking and crowdfunding websites like GoFundMe.

I have seen multiple Gazans raise enough money to leave for Egypt, but the banks and the crowdfunding websites freeze their money or cancel their funds for "suspicious activity" or whatever. Every day that passes in Gaza supplies get more scarce, conditions get more deadly, and the price to cross into Egypt gets more expensive. I've seen people, like ghost-90 here on Tumblr, raise the full amount to get their entire family out of Gaza, but their money gets frozen for so long that the original goal is only a fraction of the price now needed to cross the boarder.

These financial institutions should not be allowed to get away with contributing to the death toll in Gaza. They are intentionally keeping people trapped in a kill zone by withholding money that is rightfully theirs.

I'm so pissed and angry that every avenue for relief for Palestinians is being cut of left and right. It is vile that Gazans are being extorted for 10s of thousands of dollars by the Egyptian gov just to save their family's lives, but even when they play by this corrupt game, the world still finds a way to make them suffer.

My heart is with every Palestinian for the rest of time, from river to sea you will all be free. 🇵🇸❤️

[thottacelli]

Some more information from killy, the organizer of ghost-90's crowdfund, about how fucked the process is for Gazans to actually get paid out by GoFundMe.

And this is just one story from one person who had a little visibility at the time. How many funds have been frozen that no one knows about cuz they don't have any visibility? How many do we not know about cuz the recipient died while waiting for their funds to be released?

These financial institutions have blood on their hands just as much as the bastards dropping the bombs.

And for the people in the notes saying that the banks are just fallowing the law, laws that allow free transfer of money to Western countries but heavily criticizes and restricts money sent to the Middle East (or really any country that isnt part of the West) is racist and imperialist. Fallowing racist laws is still racist. But I think y'all might be understating how much power the banks have in this situation, they are choosing to fallow these "laws" of their own volition.

Don't try to cover for multi-billion dollar organizations that are directly profiting off genocide and people's desire to save their families from brutal death.

[90-ghost]

I'm glad for your help and thanks to anyone still helping 🙏❤️

[eliziarts]

Harvey skyrocketing in popularity among stardew fans solely because of that Hozier song is so funny to me because it makes me feel like we are playing 2 VERY different games. Harvey is not "I'd rather take my whiskey neat my coffee black and my bed at three" he's a walking ball of anxiety dork of a man who probably goes to bed at 10 pm every night. If anything, the roles should be reversed cuz I KNOW the farmer is a freak.

[ellipsus-writes]

Collaborative writing is a labor of love. What if it could be easier? 

Think connected drafts, not disconnected files. 

Think effortless version history and control. 

Think in-document chat. 

Far away from the prying eyes of AI and LLMs.

Ellipsus is a new writing tool for people who write together!

Two new features have arrived this week: Comments and Dark Mode! :D

We’re looking for feedback from folks who care a lot about writing.

Check us out, and join the Ellipsus beta.

[midwinterhunt]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

[narrettwist]

Homie gonna share this

[yagamimi-aka-mimi-deactivated20]

tweet

Something like this would be so colossally helpful. I'm sick and tired of trying to research specific clothing from any given culture and being met with either racist stereotypical costumes worn by yt people or ai generated garbage nonsense, and trying to be hyper specific with searches yields fuck all. Like I generally just cannot trust the legitimacy of most search results at this point. It's extremely frustrating. If there are good resources for this then they're buried deep under all the other bullshit, and idk where to start looking.

[ama-kitkat123]

>:)c

May I present to you, nationalclothing.org?

It doesn't have everything, but it's still my first source when researching traditional clothing from other cultures.

[penanatomy-studies]

There's also this resource on historical fashion: Claire’s Historical Fashion Reference & Resources

[zheida]

another addition as far as physical media goes there is the encyclopedia of national dress (that i still need to buy myself bc this kind of thing is super important to my sort of fantasy designing) but yes i do agree i wish there was EVEN MORE documentation on this

[waheedarehman]

here are some resources for Indian clothing archives:

The Sari Series: a digital anthology documenting India's regional saree drapes though short films

Purushu Arie's blog; started when he was studying at NIFT, the blogger has gone on to become a leader in the neo-traditional fashion scene in India.

if anyone knows more please add links !

[fairuzfan]

UPDATE: PROOF OF PURCHASE!

Hussam spent the last few days sourcing food for everyone in the camp, and this is what he managed to find! All that’s left for him is to find cheese to add to the food packages, and after that he will be sending them out to everyone.

For those of you who have been following this, my tumblr 'helpgazachildren' was deleted for unknown reasons. In the meantime, I put together this notion site to help document all the receipts and videos of updates for people who want a backlog of information. I will be continuously updating this site.

Please consider donating today. Your donations go directly to people in need with NO middle man in between. No donation amount is too little, or if you're unable to donate please spread the link today!!!

For those who cannot donate through paypal, here is Hussam's gofundme! Please note that Paypal is still the preferred way to donate!

Donate now to save children's lives on GAZA STRIP

Help SKYVOIP reach their goal by donating or sharing with your friends.

ID: panning video of materials purchased, such as oil, rice, and canned goods. First and second picture are various angles of an array of plastic bags filled with the material in the video. Third and fourth images are of the canned goods and other material.

[i-am-aprl]

"People were hanged in front of patients."

Bisan Owda (@wizard_bisan1) spoke to Palestinians in December who survived Israel's dayslong siege of the Indonesian Hospital, one of northern Gaza's largest health care facilities. Eyewitnesses say Israeli forces tortured and killed wounded people. A nurse told AJ+ that people inside the hospital were forced to sleep in the same rooms as corpses.