Type-help, maybe.

For writers with questions on animals, real and imagined.

[writing-prompt-s]

The key to unlimited cross-breeding is discovered. Nations begin a feverish, genetic arms race, using every species at their disposal - not for conquest, but simply to defend themselves from inevitable horrors that Australia is about to unleash.

[shelbys-advice-blog]

Calming masterpost:

crisis/urgent support lines and sites

hotlines/crisis lines for depression, domestic abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, teens, pregnancy, lgbt and more

mental support community - a forum where you can post that you are in a crisis right now and need peer support as soon as possible

imalive crisis chat - online one-on-one chat for if you’re in at risk of hurting yourself etc

self harm alternatives

si urges alternatives

relaxation/anxiety relief

do nothing for two minutes

interactive silk art

guided relaxation

watch a dream

100,000 stars

thisissand - create sandscapes on your screen with your mouse

calming gif

the quiet place project

the quiet place - find some quiet

the thoughts room - a super calm page to unburden yourself from bad thoughts

the comfort spot - a place for anonymous venting with out anybody judging you for who you are

the dawn room - my personal favourite, especially good for when you feel alone

know that it will be okay - when a moment is too hard for you - come here.

music and sounds

my anxiety relief playlist - on 8tracks

my positivity/recovery playlist - on 8tracks

‘stay strong’ playlists - on 8tracks

coffee shop sounds

rain sounds

calmsound - nature sounds

rainycafe

comfort food

one minute cookie in a mug

brownie in a mug

several cookie recipes

25 hot chocolate recipes

loads and loads of snacks - 533 quick and easy recipes for a range of snacks on studentrecipe

lots of different in-a-mug recipes

chocolate pudding in a mug - my personal fave (lil tip: add mini marshmallows for extra gooey yumminess)

advice and tips

how to be okay with yourself

25 resolutions

life hacks

more life hacks

a hella ton more life hacks - so many life hacks dude soon ur gonna never have a day-to-day stress again

school masterpost - school sucks so bad but hopefully this can help ease the stress

how to love yourself

how to bypass restricted wifi omg

alleviate menstrual cramps

boost your confidence

love yourself!

self help after anxiety

stop biting your nails

stop procrastinating

stop skipping breakfast

videos and movies

cure to sadness (video)

the movie blog - a blog dedicated to movie masterposts you will never be without a movie to watch again

cute roulette - THE BEST PLACE ON THE INTERNET ITS LITERALLY JUST A HUGE ROULETTE OF VIDEOS OF CUTE ANIMALS WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT FROM LIFE

random acts of kindness caught on film

disney movies

movies for angsty teens

distractions etc

rice questions - answer simple questions and donate free rice to people in poverty!!

click to give - just click a button to donate (it costs nothing) food to animals shelters, people in poverty and homeless veterans; mammograms to fight breast cancer; therapy for people on the autism spectrum; alzheimer’s and diabetes research; a book to a child; protect wildlife habitat

break something - good for anger

loads of cute games

how to make a blanket nest

learn something new - a masterpost of hobbies

exercise like a superhero

nice words

things to do when your sad

slap a bald guy with an eel - this is ridiculously entertaining

watch a dog lick your screen - it loops, so you could literally watch for hours if you want

calmingmanatee

daily puppy

how to make a comfort box

download free books

extras

emergency compliment!

lots of compliments - they even include ur name aw

huge list of bloggers who have put themselves forward as willing to listen/chat without judgement

getting anon hate?

:) tag - all the posts that i’ve tagged for making me happy

7cupsoftea - free, anonymous, confidential talks with trained listeners

get a hug

Calming songs, playlists and instrumentals:

Sing Me to Sleep

The Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Boost your Mood (peppier and happy songs)

The Driving Mixtape

Study

Summer Nights

It’s Going to be Fine

Calm & Collected

Once Upon a December - Piano (song)

Clair de Lune (song)

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (song)

Calming/distracting Websites

The Quiet Place

Rainymood.com

Calm.com

Soundrown.com - calming sounds to mix and match

A website to distract yourself

A recovery masterpost

A post of interesting things

Ungruntle yourself

Press a magic button and fix everything

Play cute games

Almost every movie your little heart desires (i suggest you use with adblocker)

How to love yourself

A website that compliments you

Crafts and activities, easy and fun DYI projects

Glitter calm jars

A list of things to do to curb anxiety

Make a blanket nest

Silky summer legs

Lots of food recipes; mostly desserts  

For bad days masterpost

Make some microwave snacks

Five minute fudge

Make a phone case

A bunch of hobbies!

Self care list!

Pretty gold-dipped feathers (for decorating or anything)

What to do when:

You’ve been triggered

You’re having an anxiety attack

You’re having a panic attack

Your face is red and puffy after crying

You just had a fight

You hate yourself

You want to avoid being stressed

You want to get over your ex

Meditation and breathing

Guided Meditations

Do Nothing for 2 Minutes

Calm Down

Meditation Tips

90 second relaxation exercise

Simple things

Pretty Tree

When You Feel You Have Lost Everything

See Some BLOOD

Press a Button to Make Everything OK

Calming Manatee

Calming Gif

Make Something!

Jump into a Sofa Fort!

Make a Comfort Box

Glitter Jar Or This One

Other Nice Things

A Page To Help You Recover!!!

Coping Skills & Distractions

The Quiet Place. Shhhhh

For When You’re Upset

The Nicest Place on the Internet

Player 2

10 Most Relaxing Online Games

Talk To Someone That Will Listen

Not Having a Good Day?

How-to Love Yourself

Ground Yourself X X  X

Mood Chart

Do Nothing For Two Minutes

Rainymood

The Comfort Spot

Weave Silk

Seed Plant Breeder

This Is Sand

C.A.L.M

Calming/Relaxing Music:

Soft Piano: x, x, x, x, x

The Sound of Waves: x

The Sound of a Storm + Waves: x

[otherkin-therian-swag]

Self care is important

[b-tterment]

I’ve heard questionable things about imalive, so proceed with caution

[scriptcreature-blog]

So I'm writing a story with an island colony who mainly farm to support themselves. I'm trying to find an alternate to cows/bulls for what they do. Currently I'm using goats for milk, sheep for meat, and donkeys/miles for plowing fields. Is this good or should I consider something else. The island's climate ranges in the middle latitude Virginia area and this is a fantasy world so if there are maybe fantasy animals to consider that works too.

Oh, goodness, I love all these animals so answering this was real fun.

The animals you’ve chosen are all pretty good choices for that climate. Donkeys, mules, and goats are hardy animals (donkeys especially, since they can fluff up and flatten their fur to retain/dispel heat).

Mules/donkeys are less susceptible to disease than horses are (but it does still happen). They also have a strong sense of self-preservation, and tend to conserve their energy rather than overwork themselves. It’s why a lot of people think they’re stubborn - the animal doesn’t know how long they’re going to work, and if it gets tired, it stops. This is why, when mine animals were more of a thing, mules and donkeys were preferred to horses.

I’m just wondering how big your island(s) is (are). Is it enough to keep them all comfortable, and to grow the food they’ll be eating…maybe they’re going to trade for the food?

All of the animals you’ve chosen have smaller appetites than horses or cattle do, but each have different diets.

Ewes between 130 and 150 lbs (58.9 to 68 kg) need 3 to 3.5 lbs (1.4 to 1.6 kg) of alfalfa, clover, or mixed grass hay. They can also survive on pasture land, provided there’s enough. Your colony can practice flushing (giving the ewes more to eat before and during the breeding season) if they want - this is actually linked to an increase in the birth of twins. If they’re going to do this, then each ewe requires about 4.5 lbs (about 2 kg) of alfalfa/clover/mixed hay daily (or can be put to pasture). A nursing ewe (and, since I added flushing, she’s got twins) will need 4.5 to 5 lbs (2 to 2.25 kg) of alfalfa/clover hay, plus 2 lbs (a scant 1 kg) of coarse-cracked corn, or can be put to pasture.

Rams are alright with 5 to 6.5 lbs (2.25 to 3 kg) of hay or pasture all through the year. But around breeding, they may need more (0.5 lb or 0.25 kg of coarse-cracked corn, or 10% extra of their daily hay intake).

Compared to sheep, goats are (somewhat) easier to take care of. You can’t (or shouldn’t) feed them hay, because they have a harder time digesting tough fibers and cell walls, but trees and shrubs are fine (goats can detoxify the bitter tannins in bark, and don’t seem to mind the bitterness). You didn’t mention the colony raising goats specifically for meat, but I’m going to add that sometimes meat goats can eat as much as twice the amount of feed as cattle can. And for nursing/lactating does, protein is important! Alfalfa hay is pretty much the only hay with enough protein for them.

Donkeys and mules need a 4 to 1 ratio of hay to legumes. Alfalfa hay, and other rich feed, should not be fed to them. Friends of the family actually had a mule die because his feed was too rich…

It’s also important to know what size you want your animals to be. There are lots of different donkey breeds, for example, and a miniature is definitely different than a mammoth jack (whose average height is 13 to 15 hands high). Mules, too, depending on how big their parents were. And I bet you already know this, but mules are sterile (although there have been very rare accounts of a female mule birthing), and their average lifespan is around 20 years; if your characters are going to breed their own, then stud donkeys should be kept (the mammoth jack is good for this!).

Does the island have any predators? The donkey and mule are good guard animals, too…and they can be dangerous if they don’t know to be friendly around smaller animals. They’ll bite, chase, kick, step on, and even fling around intruder-animals (the mule I mentioned before loved to chase around his owner’s chickens, and pretty much hated the dog, but he didn’t ever get close enough to step on them).

If the number of animals you have are limited you can have multi-purpose animals. Donkeys can give milk (donkey milk cheese and soap are actually luxury products, although I’ve never tried them :P ), goats can be harnessed to carts (light work, though, no plowing), etc.

The ground might be a problem for animals, if it’s too muddy or swampy. I live in a part of the state where the ground can very quickly go from dry, grassy areas to swamp land (complete with l’eau de decay, how charming). The hooves of donkeys, horses, and mules are like suction-cups in the mud…

And fantasy animals are always good to solve problems. You could make up a breed of sheep/goat/donkey native to the area, or come up with a new species entirely!

I hope this helps. If you need more information, you can always email or message me. Good luck writing! (Whew, I feel long winded)

[scriptmedic]

Help Send Aunt Scripty to a Fellowship!!

Hey guys! I know you’ve heard a lot of begging, and there’s been a ton of drama on here in the last few days, but I wanted to reach out again and ask for your support.

Last week I was told that I’d been accepted into a fellowship–one that’s usually intended for doctors. I’m the very first paramedic to ever be offered it. It’s a step forward for me, for my profession, and for queer women in medicine. I also cannot afford it alone.

I’m asking you to donate a little something on Patreon. If you can afford $5 a month, that helps a lot. If you can afford a large one-time donation, that helps a lot too. I’m actually getting closer than I thought on the funding front, between some generous contributions from my family and a couple of other means. If I can raise about $400/month of ongoing support (the current number is inflated by what I assume is a one-time donation of $250 a month–THANK YOU SO MUCH WHOEVER DID THAT!!!), I can afford to say yes to the educational opportunity of a lifetime.

If you have the resources, and if this blog has helped you or you think it might, or you just want to be a big-hearted sweetiepants, please head on over to Patreon and drop a little something in the hat.

Thank you so so much.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

[scriptmedic]

For the first time EVER, I’ve let my queue run out. I’m scared. Hold me.

Hey humans! I’m writing this to give you a heads-up: you’re not gonna see any more posts from me today. I know you’ve been used to seeing 10+ posts/day from this blog in the last two months, so I want to preface this post with this: everything is okay. I’ll try and get back on track tomorrow; bare minimum, there’s a masterpost going up on Monday. I may slow the queue down for a while. I will still answer your asks. I may close the ask box tonight, because there are over 250 waiting for me.

The sun will rise. Answers will resume.

I’ve spent the last 3 days dealing with the influx of “scriptX” blogs, and it’s been EXHAUSTING.

In the last 3-4 days we had about 50 blogs crop up using the “scriptTHING” form of their handle. It’s something I’ve been torn up about inside, because I want to support everyone, but it’s also deeply, maddeningly personal on my end.

It took me ten years in my profession to get where I am, and to even begin answering questions like this. It has taken me almost a thousand posts (holy shit) to get so many of you to follow me, and trust me, and believe in me. There’s been hundreds of hours spent. Literal tears and sweat. And when someone starts a blog based on that foundation, that username, that identity, they’re not necessarily talking to me, or asking me. And a lot of people don’t realize that their quality affects the reputation of this blog.

It’s personal. It matters. And I’m asking you to stand by me during a time that’s scary, and challenging. It’s a situation I never anticipated walking in to this blog. It’s been overwhelming. I’ve felt elated, and terrified, and indignant, and betrayed, and proud, and sad, and overwhelmed, and really angry at various points in the last few days. And I know that everyone who started one had good intentions, but that’s how they made me feel. Whether those feelings were ‘right’, or ‘valid’, or ‘true’, they’re how I’ve felt, watching my name getting proliferated, oftentimes with nary even a polite wave or a “hey, I’m thinking about doing this, what do you think?” 

Fixing this–establishing the ScriptX family–has been really tiring. I’ll be honest, trying to come up with guidelines and standards that everyone can follow is really challenging. How do I decide who I lend my name to? Almost everyone’s been so great, and amazing, and wonderful, but these last few days have been really challenging in a way I never anticipated facing.

And it didn’t just rain, it flooded, and the waters just kept rising, and I’m left here just wondering how we got here.

All of this is on top of dealing with the fact that I got the fellowship of my dreams–the fellowship I didn’t even dare to dream about–but even with generous support from friends and family and so many of you, and my own contributions, I still very likely won’t make my financial goal. The people who can help are tapped, my contacts, and my contacts’ contacts’ contacts, have all been tapped. And I’m left halfway to a major victory for myself and LGBT women in medicine, and falling short because of fucking money. I resent it. I resent it so much.

I’m bitter and I’m scared and I’m tired and I’m really, massively upset.

I’m taking today as a mental health day.

I think that’s fair. I think I’ve earned it.

I love you all.

I’ll be back soon, that much I promise. If not tomorrow then the next day.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty 

[scriptmedic]

What The ScriptX Family Stands For // So You Want to Start A ScriptX Blog

With all the bloglets cropping up in the last 72 hours, we’ve been doing some soul-searching on what it means to be a part of the ScriptX family. I wanted to give a little guidance on what it means to be a ScriptX blog, and a flowchart for those considering starting one.

First, I wanted to say one thing: we cannot stop you from starting a blog, and if you don’t want to be a part of the ScriptX family, go forth and do what you want! Writing advice blogs can have any kind of name. We’re just picking this name.

We cannot stop you from making a scriptX-handled blog even if you don’t agree with us or follow our guidelines. But we really hope you will. We’d love to be able to call you family. And we want to clarify what that means.

What does it mean to be a part of the ScriptX blog family?

It means asking for permission. While we can’t stop everyone from gobbling up tumblr handles, recognize that the ScriptX family is ultimately built on one woman’s–my–user handle. You imply a connection when you launch a ScriptX named blog. Would you start a burger chain called McDonaldson’s?

It means being a content expert. The whole point of the ScriptMedic blog was to bring professional, expert advice to the writing community. The way we’ve decided to define expertise is, comfort with a topic to the level of being cross-examined in court. I have been cross-examined in court. It is not fun.

It means being ethical, above all else. When we don’t know, we don’t try to guess. Either we research to the point of comfort, or simply say “Sorry, I don’t know. Can someone else help?” Between the ScriptX blogs we’re already developing an internal Ethical Mandate that deals exactly with this question and these choices. We also have guidelines in place to help blogs that stray from the guidelines find their way back, and a process to move forward after that. We even have an idea for how to respond to mistakes–because they’re going to happen.They’ve already happened. And we’re working on both handling them well, and preventing them down the road. Every blog makes mistakes.

It means working with the other ScriptX blogs. There are a group of us now, and we’re constantly talking, interacting, and cross-referring to each other. Everyone needs a consult sometimes, and the ScriptX blogs are a family.

Not All Blogs Starting with Script… Are Part of the Family

There’s a whole separate post announcing this, but here’s the list of who’s an official member of the family, who’s a “script cousin”–blogs with the scriptX-style name but not actually affiliated–and who’s just a damn good blog to read.

flow chart graciously made by @script-a-world to whom I am incredibly grateful.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

[transcriptroopers]

Scriptfamily plug!

Hey scriptrecruits! I’m here to plug @script-editor and @scriptgambling for all of your editing and gambling needs! Please check their blogs out and if you like what you see, give ‘em a follow!

[scriptcreature-blog]

Hi there! So, I'm mulling over a postapocalyptic wasteland story. I think I want some lowkey superpowers. My main protag is travelling with a cat. I want the cat to be able to communicate better than real life cats, thanks to said superpower, maybe though only connected to special times, like, only during the full moon or at night. Anyway, I guess my question is, how much more intelligent would this cat have to be compared to other cats + would it have to be telepathic or are they vocal enough?

Hey, @beastcallisto!

Oh man, this sounds like a WorldBreaker question, I’m not sure how to go about it…

I mean, cats are all pretty smart to begin with - they’ve got about the same level of intelligence as dogs (both just work in different ways).

Their brain structure is very similar to that of ours, although though theirs is about 1% of their body mass (a human brain is about 2% of the body mass). They’ve got about 30 million neurons and have longer short-term memories than dogs. They can remember things from 16 hours before - and they learn more through observation than through, say, trial and error (take a look at Edward Thorndike’s Cause and Effect experiment!), although they remember better if they actually do the thing. They also have more difficulty when it comes to figuring things out - in an experiment that CanCog did involving dogs and cats with similar food-motivated attitudes, cats made more mistakes than dogs did.

Humans and cats who’ve been together for a long time have probably developed their own personal language, regardless of the animal’s intelligence (which, in this case, also involves how willing the animal is to do something the human wants it to. Certain cat breeds will appear more aloof or blase towards people; some are more affectionate than others, like the Burmese)… And they’ve got a broad range of vocalizations and body language! Meows, several types of purrs, hisses, yowls/howls, trilling, ear-language, tail-language, etc… There’s also a pretty interesting study done, Behavioural Processes by Kurt Kotrschal, Manuela Wedl, and, five others, the results of which show that female owners and their cats (especially young, active cats) greatly influence each other’s behavior.

I don’t think the intelligence of the cat is so important so much as how it communicates with your character… If you want intelligent cat species, there are plenty out there, like the Tonkinese, and aforementioned Burmese…although with every animal, some cats are just smarter than others.

Also!

You said your world was post-apocalyptic, right? I mean, this isn’t something I usually look at but scientists in your world might be tampering, or may have previously tampered, with animals. There have been experiments involving genetically engineered intelligence in animals (like MIT’s mice-with-human-Foxp2). I mean, the surface-folding of a cat brain is similar to ours, and they’ve already got impressive cognitive skills… And I bet the low-key superpower thing can go a long way…

I feel like I just spat information in your face and didn’t answer your question, and I’m really sorry about that… I bet one (or some) of the other Scripts can help you.. @script-a-world, @scriptecology, and/or @super–script, perhaps?

Thank you for asking, though, and I really hope I helped.

[scriptcreature-blog]

(Pawssible) answer delays

So I’m going down to TX to deal with a family accident. It’s about a 24 hour drive from Where I Am and, while I’m there, I’m not sure how much Internet-ing I’m going to do beyond trying to work out schedules with classes.

@scriptmedic already knows what’s up, but. Just wanted to let you all know :)

I’ll try to answer ASAP but I might be late (which sucks, too, because this is still a baby blog! Augh!)

[scriptcreature-blog]

Oo, fictional animals. I have a humanoid half dragon (magically halted vampiric reproduction) + many questions. I've been working on it being.. half cold blooded, but have no idea how that'd work. Are there.. levels of cold bloodedness, or something?

First of all, WOAH WOW AWESOME, that’s pretty cool!

Secondly, I believe you’re talking about mesotherms.

They’re animals that don’t really fit in with ectotherms/poikilotherms (most fish, reptiles, etc), because when they get cold, they shiver or burn brown fat (not white fat – when you use brown fat, you can produce heat and energy) to stay warm or increase their body temperature. Their metabolism also increases.

And they’re not endotherms/homeotherms because unlike them (us, too), as the temperature drops, they have a harder time maintaining their body temperature.

Examples of mesotherms: great white shark, leatherback sea turtle (this is partly why leatherbacks have a larger range than other sea turtles), tuna, and spiny anteaters.

You might wanna look into how they work, if you decide your humanoid is going to be one of these guys, because their body temperature normally rises with their size, and it’s easier for larger animals to stay warm. For example, leatherback sea turtles can rely on their size to keep most of their body heat in cold water. And if you’re really interested, you should look into heterothermy, homeothermy, and poikilothermy.

Also I’m just going to add this, because your humanoid is half-dragon and I’ve heard some ways of explaining dragons by having them evolve with/from dinosaurs: there’s a huge freaking debate on dinosaur metabolism that’s been going on forever, but lots of folk now believe they were mesotherms. 

https://sites.google.com/site/jgradym/home

^ This guy has done a lot on this topic. ^

I hope this helps! Also, thank you for asking!

If you need clarification or have another problem, you can ask again or email me!

Edit: I messed up. I fixed the link.

[scriptmedic]

PLEASE STOP MAKING SCRIPTx BLOGS (FOR AT LEAST 24HRS)

This is getting WAY OUT OF CONTROL. I love you guys, and I love how many people want to help other writers. But this is absolutely nuts.

I’m trying to establish some guidelines of what constitutes a ScriptX blog, but here’s the thrust of things:

Most of you aren’t even asking before setting up a tumblr based on my username, and that’s fucked up.

I’m happy you want to help. I’m happy you want to make writers more accurate. But you also need to think about the concept of a content expert.

We need to talk about what that means. Studying something does not make you an expert in it. And if one scriptx blog gives out inaccurate information, that hurts all of us, even your beloved Aunt Scripty.

Give me some time to set up some ethical guidelines and a “should you start a ScriptX Blog” post, and we’ll go from there, but for now, PLEASE don’t make any new blogs. We’re getting duplication, and frankly, we haven’t had time to screen anyone’s content for accuracy, which has already lead to problems.

Give us some time to sort this out.

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

[scriptmedic]

To My Fellow Script Bitches

If you have started, or are planning to start, a ScriptX writing advice blog, could you all please reach out and talk to me? I want to try to get us together to actually talk together as a family, and since a lot of you aren’t even sending me a message when you launch, I get way behind the 8-ball with knowing and promoing your launches and following your dreams.

THANK YOU!!! xoxo, Scripty

[scriptcreature-blog]

WOW, am I a mess.

I forgot to turn on the asks, I am so so so sorry. I’m a huge derp-noodle when it comes to new things. Ach. I fixed it.

[scriptcreature-blog]

Hey All!

New addition to the Script Fam, thanks to @scriptmedic and @scriptecology! I’m gonna try my damnedest to answer as accurately as possible, and provide links and other.

My range is pretty freaking close to what @scriptecology does, though, and they’re definitely way more experienced than I am.

I’ve been real interested in real/fictional animals since what seems like forever and two countries ago. Hopefully I’ll help some folk?

With that, welcome to @scriptcreature!