Tiddlywinks

My toxic trait is treating all my social media like Pinterest. And starting unfinishable projects. Evangeline_Douglas on AO3 and FFN.

[demaparbat-hp]

The Block

Read here!

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Aang didn't plan to hurt Katara—it just happened. She's already forgiven Zuko, she can forgive the Avatar too. Katara will protect Aang's innocence, even if she needs to hide her scars to do so.

Love is a battlefield, but that just means someone's bound to get hurt.

(It's alright, though—Zuko will help her heal.)

.

Or: Aang's fight with Katara results in an accident more brutal than anything they've faced before. Zuko's there to pick up the pieces.

[reticenceofladyeva]

As an enthusiastic writer and reader of fanfiction, this is a valuable video.

[pisceanpharies]

Prostitution is not a job and never will be. Here’s why. | Nordic Model Now!

By Dana Levy Can prostitution be a normal job? Sex trade apologists claim that ‘sex work is work.’ Some of them say: “We just need a prope

[wannabehistorianandauthor]

people will see this and assume it is coming from some sort of religious or moralistic viewpoint when in reality it comes from the viewpoint of "slavery is bad". Buying human beings, like what pimps and pornagraphers do, is bad actually. It's not empowering, it is dehumanizing to the women involved. The sex industry traffics in women and children. It's evil. Like the post said, everyone knows this on some level. Why do people still put up with it?

[demaparbat-hp]

Really, who's the prisoner here?

ZK Week Day 3: Rescue.

[autumn2may]

fruit-in-jars 101 by stacynguyen

"What is jam? What makes something authentically jam? Can bacon really be made into jam?

It was all very Existentialist.

The answer to those questions is a bit complicated and non-definitive. The U.S. FDA has defined jam and jelly in very specific and mathematical terms (such-and-such percentage of juice to fruit to water to sugar = jam/jelly); it also uses jam and preserve interchangeably, for the most part. While interesting, the FDA’s definitions did not matter much to me because the FDA wasn’t really using the terms in the way that we usually use the terms. Also, the FDA wasn’t comprehensive in its definitions. It didn’t tackle other fruit spreads like marmalades or curds, for instance.

The more I looked into, the more I thought, dude, this information would make a good infographic."

[spacedace]

Had to explain this to someone from England once. Can't remember how it came up but i remember her rolling her eyes and going "What is it with you Americans insisting on calling jam jelly?" In that usual "Americans are so stupid" way.

I'm still not sure if it was the fact that she was from England and it was a cultural difference in canning/how canned fruit is referred to over there or if she just didn't know and assumed Americans just insisted on using the "wrong" (in the sense of it being different from what she used) word but I was happy to ramble at her for way too long about the differences between types of preserved fruits.

[joaniejustwokeup]

There are some fruit butter recipes that use actual butter.

Do not can those.

You will get botulism.

[wileycap]

I think the most hilarious place to put Post-Canon Sokka would have been the university at Ba Sing Se. I think he would have made a great unhinged professor. Also, in true Sokka fashion, he should have completely dodged fame. Momo is more famous than he is.

He wants to demonstrate to the class how this thing called electricity works, so he's going to be bringing in a Firebender, so everybody be cool, we're all friends here... and in walks Princess Azula of the Fire Nation. One-time conqueror of the city. One of the students is currently writing an essay on how her brief rule of the city affected fruit trade. She says she considers the class to still be her subjects as she doesn't acknowledge any pretenders to any of her thrones, but for now you're exempted from bowing and "Your Highness" will do. It's a really interesting lecture.

"Okay, guys - hey, listen up, everyone - I won't be here next week, me and Aang are going to-" yeah right, sure, Professor Sokka knows the Avatar. Except, of course, the Avatar walks in sheepishly and says that Appa might have gotten into Sokka's hybrid crops, and then you all have to sit there and watch your professor chase the Avatar around with a sword.

One postgrad student is specializing in Water Tribe Cultures. She's currently studying the massive cultural shift that happened in the Northern Water Tribe at the end of the war - oh, and Professor, I absolutely know that you're from the Southern Water Tribe, but it's just that the shift started with Master Katara, and of course I don't think that every person from the South knows one another haha it's just that I need to ask her some questions and I thought maybe you could help me write a letter or write a letter of introduction or...

Sokka looks at her blankly and goes "yeah, she's my sister. KATARA!" which is followed by a faint answering "fuck you!" from Somewhere and to the horror/elation of our postgrad, Master Katara bursts in and is promptly beaned in the head with a rock by Professor Sokka. Her brother. her hero and her professor are siblings and currently brawling on the floor.

Sokka does not teach or study history, but he does sometimes sit in on lectures about recent history. Whenever he does, several doctoral students flock in to sit near him (even if it's an intro course) so that they can eavesdrop on his grumbling. (No matter how they try, an "overheard utterance" is not a valid source according to their professors. No, we have no sources on the Avatar's bison taking part in combat - sky bison are not war animals and...)

He gets regular deliveries with the Beifong family crest on them, and he goes "sweet, Toph must have found some new minerals" and at this point nobody needs to ask which Toph. He seems to have friends everywhere, literally everywhere. Wang was headed out to this massive swamp to study if it's one big organism, and Sokka told him to find some guy named Hue and "don't mind the loincloth." One time the university gets shut down because the Earth King wants to visit. Oh, visit the University? What an honor- Of fucking course not, he wants to visit Professor Sokka, who yells at him and his royal guards for interrupting his day. The Earth King and his many, many royal guards then sheepishly say sorry and file out.

The last straw is when - not a week after he yelled at the Earth King - the assistant head of the Political Science dept walks in to the faculty lounge to find Sokka having tea with a nice normal man dressed in Earth greens for once, and can't resist a little joke. "Let me guess, you're having tea with the Fire Lord." And then she can instantly tell that she fucked up, because both of them go stock still.

So when the two men awkwardly stand up and proceed to introduce the Fire Lord whose portrait she has in her office because she is the assistant head of Political Science as Li, a server at the Jasmine Dragon, she just says "hello Li" and leaves to find a bottle of something strong.

[demaparbat-hp]

Spitfire Chapter I: Sandalwood and Honey

Read here!

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And wasn't it sad? That the scent of burn medicine reminded him of Mother.

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“Is she alive?”

“I don't want to give you false hope—”

“Uncle!” Zuko's voice rose. He stood on trembling feet and towered over Iroh. “Is my mother alive?!”

Everything I've done, I've done to protect you.

Uncle nodded.

[miraculouspaon]

GBBO: “A s’more is basically just an Italian merengue sandwiched between two ganache-covered digestives”

Americans:

[flange5]

in case anyone in wondering, this is Paul Hollywood's idea of a s'more

[theequeerstrian]

You know what, their absolute inability to grasp Mexican foods makes more sense every day

[ennairea]

[starlightshadowsworld]

Nodding my head in support of the Americans despite having no clue what a s’more is.

[mankillercalledbunny]

Okay, American immigrant to the UK here to explain all the mistakes from Paul Hollywood happening here: there is one fundamentally American ingredient required to make a s'more correctly but which is basically not available anywhere at all in the UK, and that is graham crackers. A plain digestive biscuit close-ish, but still a very different beast.

From Wikipedia: A graham cracker is a sweet flavored cracker made with graham flour.

The next ingredient (which is also extremely traditionally American but slightly more variable) is typically Hershey's chocolate, but you could probably swap this out in the UK with any plain chocolate bar.

Last ingredient is big marshmallows, the kind you do the chubby bunny challenge with, like the size of your thumb and twice as thick.

A proper s'more, the most traditional possible variety, involves to graham cracker squares, two slab segments of Hershey's chocolate, and one to two marshmallows depending on your preference for filling and gooeyness. You put a slab of chocolate on one of the graham cracker squares. Your marshmallows should be toasted, usually over a campfire but if you're doing them at home over a gas stove burner is fine, but the fire part is critical. You can toast them to whatever degree you like, some people like them nice and golden brown but still kind of firm in the middle, me personally? I want that bitch to CATCH ON FIRE, I want it gooey and sticky as hell in the middle, crispy and burnt on the outside. Slap that motherfucker on your graham cracker and chocolate square, top with the other one so your marshmallow and chocolate are sandwiched together by graham cracker on the outside. You do this with your freshly toasted marshmallow because ideally it will be hot enough to start to melt the chocolate so it sticks to the marshmallow and the graham cracker and, combined with the gooey marshmallow, it keeps the whole thing together, and for that reason some people will let them sit for a hot second to let the melting process happen (especially if like me you have chocolate on BOTH graham cracker squares, not just one, because you're a sugar fiend), but if you are a young child you do not have that degree of patience and you eat that shit immediately, unmelted chocolate and all. Consume your summer camp delight like a tiny club sandwich, get gooey sticky marshmallow and chocolate all over your hands, and enjoy.

Important note: this is a kids treat. It is a traditional summer camping trip dessert. It should be something any ten year old with adult supervision and access to the ingredients can make (and make a mess of). They're called s'mores because kids always "want s'more". If you are using a blowtorch, chocolate biscuits, and merengue, you are so far beyond the bounds of s'more-hood that you have thoroughly lost the plot. If you offered Paul Hollywood's concoction to an American child and called it a s'more, they'd tell you flat out that not only is it not a s'more, it looks dumb and you didn't do it right because it's not gooey.

[roach-works]

the point is the mess. the point is getting to make a food, at age seven, whose two basic food groups are 'sugar' and 'fire'. the other point is that this food item is so crumbly, chaotic, sticky, on fire, and prone to being dropped (outside, in the dark, while you are surrounded by other children who are also sticky and on fire) that your supervisors cannot accurately monitor how many smores you personally have consumed. the point is also that you may get away with a smore that is five blocks of chocolate and two marshmallows if you move fast and let nothing stop you.

if you haven't accidentally yet unrepentantly eaten a chunk of twigs or dirt or a bug that got enmeshed in the creative process around smore number 3st, you are too old to have any legitimate input into what makes a smore.

[redwooding]

Murrica.

[demaparbat-hp]

Love is brightest in the dark (and we shall guide you to the light)

[zarahartist]

Zuko from Avatar the last Airbender

[byeeeeeeeeeeeee-e-deactivated20]

I’m done writing meta on why I ship it, so please don’t add meta to my artwork. I figure all the work’s already been done, now all we need are some visuals. Untitled “This Is Why I Ship It” art, with artistic liberty. Click on the source to see the full thing on DeviantArt.

[inkskinned]

i have chronic pain. i am neurodivergent. i understand - deeply - the allure of a "quick fix" like AI. i also just grew up in a different time. we have been warned about this.

15 entire years ago i heard about this. in my forensics class in high school, we watched a documentary about how AI-based "crime solving" software was inevitably biased against people of color.

my teacher stressed that AI is like a book: when someone writes it, some part of the author will remain within the result. the internet existed but not as loudly at that point - we didn't know that AI would be able to teach itself off already-biased Reddit threads. i googled it: yes, this bias is still happening. yes, it's just as bad if not worse.

i can't actually stop you. if you wanna use ChatGPT to slide through your classes, that's on you. it's your money and it's your time. you will spend none of it thinking, you will learn nothing, and, in college, you will piss away hundreds of thousands of dollars. you will stand at the podium having done nothing, accomplished nothing. a cold and bitter pyrrhic victory.

i'm not even sure students actually read the essays or summaries or emails they have ChatGPT pump out. i think it just flows over them and they use the first answer they get. my brother teaches engineering - he recently got fifty-three copies of almost-the-exact-same lab reports. no one had even changed the wording.

and yes: AI itself (as a concept and practice) isn't always evil. there's AI that can help detect cancer, for example. and yet: when i ask my students if they'd be okay with a doctor that learned from AI, many of them balk. it is one thing if they don't read their engineering textbook or if they don't write the critical-thinking essay. it's another when it starts to affect them. they know it's wrong for AI to broad-spectrum deny insurance claims, but they swear their use of AI is different.

there's a strange desire to sort of divorce real-world AI malpractice over "personal use". for example, is it moral to use AI to write your cover letters? cover letters are essentially only templates and besides, AI is going to be reading your job app, so isn't it kind of fair?

i recently found out that people use AI as a romantic or sexual partner. it seems like teenagers particularly enjoy this connection, and this is one of those "sticky" moments as a teacher. honestly - you can roast me for this - but if it was an actually-safe AI, i think teenagers exploring their sexuality with a fake partner is amazing. it prevents them from making permanent mistakes, it can teach them about their bodies and their desires, and it can help their confidence. but the problem is that it's not safe. there isn't a well-educated, sensitive AI specifically to help teens explore their hormones. it's just internet-fed cycle. who knows what they're learning. who knows what misinformation they're getting.

the most common pushback i get involves therapy. none of us have access to the therapist of our dreams - it's expensive, elusive, and involves an annoying amount of insurance claims. someone once asked me: are you going to be mad when AI saves someone's life?

therapists are not just trained on the book, they're trained on patient management and helping you see things you don't see yourself. part of it will involve discomfort. i don't know that AI is ever going to be able to analyze the words you feed it and answer with a mind towards the "whole person" writing those words. but also - if it keeps/kept you alive, i'm not a purist. i've done terrible things to myself when i was at rock bottom. in an emergency, we kind of forgive the seatbelt for leaving bruises. it's just that chat shouldn't be your only form of self-care and recovery.

and i worry that the influence chat has is expanding. more and more i see people use chat for the smallest, most easily-navigated situations. and i can't like, make you worry about that in your own life. i often think about how easy it was for social media to take over all my time - how i can't have a tiktok because i spend hours on it. i don't want that to happen with chat. i want to enjoy thinking. i want to enjoy writing. i want to be here. i've already really been struggling to put the phone down. this feels like another way to get you to pick the phone up.

the other day, i was frustrated by a book i was reading. it's far in the series and is about a character i resent. i googled if i had to read it, or if it was one of those "in between" books that don't actually affect the plot (you know, one of those ".5" books). someone said something that really stuck with me - theoretically you're reading this series for enjoyment, so while you don't actually have to read it, one would assume you want to read it.

i am watching a generation of people learn they don't have to read the thing in their hand. and it is kind of a strange sort of doom that comes over me: i read because it's genuinely fun. i learn because even though it's hard, it feels good. i try because it makes me happy to try. and i'm watching a generation of people all lay down and say: but i don't want to try.

[reticenceofladyeva]

So I'm standing around canning jam and watching Zutara AMVs from a million years ago. As one does.

The last time I watched most of these, I was fifteen and watching them through embedded YouTube links on Facebook, so they wouldn't show up in my internet history. 2012 was a much simpler (but angstier) time.

I'm not going to call that time a golden age, because I'm not really certain that it was, but there was something magical about the period before we knew what LoK would be, when the comics were still finding their footing and were fairly ignorable. Stormbenders was still the greatest thing since sliced bread, no questions asked, and Dante Basco was regularly posting on Tumblr (even if it was mostly about Homestuck).

Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining about the way things are now. We have Once Around the Sun, and the art keeps getting better. All the same, I've been shipping these characters for 14 years (outing myself as a fandom old lady), and today I'm feeling some type of way.

So if you too find yourself canning jam, or some other activity that doesn't require a lot of abstract thought, I encourage you to hit the YouTubes. Track down El Tango de Katara and that one where someone tries really hard to make the trailer for Tristan and Isolde work. Relish the fact that you won't have to wait for the videos to buffer.

Maybe even read Stormbenders. Or Dynasty of Storms. Or Gods and Monsters. Or Tempest in a Teacup. Just because I haven't seen anyone recommend any of these in ages and I love all of them.

Or don't do either of those things. It might just be really late at night and I've inhaled too much stove exhaust and nostalgia. Who's to say?

[agathah]

Forgiveness

[phoebester]

❤️‍🩹

Healing…

[reticenceofladyeva]

hoax xviii (you knew it still hurts underneath my scars)

Her hair is short, cut off at her chin. Zuko looks up at her, prepared to drown and yet hoping she'll forgive him the worst sin he's committed, worst of his many sins. Frayed brown ends feather her face as the breeze blows in off the sea, nearly concealing the lines creasing her brow. Tears glitter in her eyes, and Zuko bows his head.

"Katara," he whispers, just loudly enough for her to hear. "I'm sorry. Please."

"Please what." She snaps, nearly as quiet. "Forgive you? How am I supposed to forgive you for this?"

"No," he says, even if he wants little more than to see her smile at him again. "Please let me see my son."

"No."

"Katara."

"You can't do this, Zuko. You can't walk in and out of his life when it's convenient for you!"

His head snaps up again. "Convenient?!" The startled jerks around them caution Zuko that he was far, far louder than he had meant to be. "You think I did any of this because it was convenient?!"

She backs up a half-step, eyes wide and owlish. They narrow again swiftly. "I don't know what to think."

"I love you," he says, voice hoarse. "I am so, so sorry, Katara."

"It doesn't matter," she snaps bitterly. "Kova needs you." Katara fingers the ends of her hair. "He's a firebender."

Zuko's head snaps up, eyes wide and searching. "How do you know?"

Her laugh is dry and sharp as she drops the water back into the sea. "He burned my hair, Zuko. He was playing with it and then--" She breaks off, turning away from him. "It'll grow back."

Pushing himself to his feet, Zuko brushes the sand from his knees. He nearly reaches for her hair; he wonders if it would feel the same way sliding through his fingers as it did before Azula, before he messed everything up. "I'll make it up to you," he promises.

Katara smooths her hair with one hand, and she doesn't look at him as she walks away. Just the same, she doesn't take Kova with her, either.

[reticenceofladyeva]

CRUD guys I made a plot oopsie. Please accept this revision with a happier ending. I actually think the original is a bit more realistic, but I didn't want to mess with Aang's POV in XVI. HOAX XVIII REVISED ENDING:

"It doesn't matter," she snaps bitterly. "Kova needs you." Katara fingers the ends of her hair. "He's a firebender."

Zuko's head snaps up, eyes wide and searching. "How do you know?"

Her laugh is dry and sharp as she drops the water back into the sea. "He burned my hair, Zuko. He was playing with it and then--" She breaks off, blinking hard. "It'll grow back."

"It looks nice," he offers. "Not that it didn't look nice before. I mean, it always looks nice." Zuko sighs. "Look, Katara, I'm not leaving you again. I won't leave Kova again. I made a mistake, and I promise I'll do whatever I have to do to make it up to you."

A small sob escapes her lips as she falls to her knees in front of him. Water crashes behind them as she releases it and surges toward him, and Zuko stretches out his arms to catch her. He pulls her tightly to his chest and they cling together like wrecked sailors to driftwood.

And then Kova toddles out of the tent, Uncle chuckling behind him, and Zuko smiles through the tendrils of Katara's hair.

[demaparbat-hp]

"And then I found it, and everything was right." That's just not how it ends.

It's not about knowing where you're going—it's about knowing you're no longer where you shouldn't have been.

—Tyler Joseph

[complainblogforthevoid]

I've finally figured out an argument that convinces coding tech-bros that AI art is bad.

Got into a discussion today (actually a discussion, we were both very reasonable and calm even through I felt like committing violence) with a tech-bro-coded lady who claimed that people use AI in coding all the time so she didn't see why it mattered if people used AI in art.

Obviously I repressed the surge of violence because that would accomplish nothing. Plus, this lady is very articulate, the type who makes claims and you sit there thinking no that's wrong it must be but she said it so well you're kind of just waffling going but, no, wait-- so I knew I had to get this right if I was gonna come out of this unscathed.

The usual arguments about it being about the soul of it and creation fell flat, in fact she was adamant that anyone who believed that was in fact looking down at coding as an art form as she insisted it is. Which, sure, you can totally express yourself through coding. There's a lot more nuance as to the differences but clearly I was not going to win this one.

The other people I was with (literally 8 people anti-ai against her, but you can't change the mind of someone who doesn't want to listen and she just kept accusing us of devaluing coding as an art) took over for I kid you not 15 minutes while I tried desperately to come up with a clear and articulate way to explain the difference to her. They tried so many reasonable arguments, coding being for a function ("what, art doesn't serve a function?") coding being many discrete building blocks that you put together differently, and the AI simply provides the blocks and you put it together yourself ("isn't that what prompt building is") that it's bad for the environment ("but not if it's used for capitalism, hm?" "Yeah literally that's how capitalism works it doesn't care about the environment" she didn't like that response)

But I finally got it.

And the answer is: It's not about what you do, it's about what you claim to be.

Imagine that someone asks an AI to write a code and, by some miracle, it works perfectly without them having to tweak it---which is great because they couldn't tell you what a single solitary thing in that code means.

Now imagine this person, with their code that they don't know how it works, goes and applies to be a coder somewhere, presenting this AI code as proof that they're qualified.

Should they be hired?

She was horrified, of course. Of course they shouldn't be. They're not qualified. They can't actually code, and even if by some miracle they did have an AI successfully write a flawless code for every issue they came across that wouldn't be their code, you could hire any shmuck on the street to do that, no reason to pay someone like they're creating something.

When actual engineers use AI what they do is get some kind of base, which they then go though and check for problems and then if they find any they fix them, and add on to the base code with their own knowledge instead of just trying different prompt after prompt until they randomly come across one that works.

People who generate code like this don't usually call themselves engineers. They're people who needed a bit of code and didn't have the knowledge to generate it, and so used a resource.

And there you go. There are people who have none of the skills of artists, they don't practice, they don't create for themselves. When they feed the prompt to the AI they then don't just use the resulting image as a reference point for their own personal masterpiece, and if they don't like it they don't have the skills to change it---they simply try another prompt, and do that until they get something they like.

These people are calling themselves artists.

Not only that, these people are bringing the AI generated thing to interviews, and they are getting hired, leaving people who slave over their craft out of the job.

And that is the difference, for the tech bros who think AI art isn't a big deal.