The Rubberbands are Heading in the Right Direction
@sidneystrange
S.N Thompson AKA Sidney Strange, Sid, Sidney, hey you, whatever. (Formerly Korde)
Est. 1983
Freak
Loner
Artist
Feminist
Genderfluid
Asexual
Pan-romantic
I don't really post much. Mostly I reblog the things I have an interest in/find funny. When I do post my own stuff it usually involves my animals or my roommates (my mother and my best friend).
I'm putting it under a read more because there are mentions of SA, but I'm not going into detail.
So my teenage niece (not actually blood related, but I've known her mom longer than she's been alive... I clarify because I have a brother, but he doesn't have children) is being basically emergency-moved to live with her mother because her Aunt on her dad's side walked in on her brother (neice's father) doing things a man should never do to ANY teenager, let alone his own daughter.
Niece went to live with her father when she was 10 because her mother wasn't in any position to take care of her due to health problems. That, and she'd moved to another state about a year before, and Neice was just not doing well in the new school/state, which is because all the schools in the entire state suck. It's in the bottom 10 states in education.
She (my friend OR the aunt) never suspected anything. Niece's grades improved. She's got a lot of friends. Like, there were literally no warning signs. She wasn't acting out in the ways kids usually act out when they're being SA'd. Even still, she's ambivalent about it because she's definitely been groomed to think it's normal. No telling exactly how long this has been going on.
But now I'm trying to help my friend as much as I can to get her daughter situated, get her new clothes and toiletries because she's leaving basically everything behind, we're getting her a new phone/phone number... and a bunch of stuff on top of the therapy she definitely needs.
I'm seriously considering crowdfunding at least a few hundred dollars to help with the financial strain of all of this.
I really hope her piece of shit sperm donor goes away for a LONG time. Apparently, they collected a LOT of evidence.
None of Niece's family in that state is willing to take her in because they've got their own shit going on, which I get, but it's kind of shitty of them. Niece's mom is disabled. She can barely take care of herself, but at the same time, she's got me to help where I can, but I can only do so much.
Fuck everything. I hope his fellow prisoners find out he's a chomo. The only reason I'm not naming him is to protect my minor niece's privacy.
One of my best friends has a 10 month old Chinese Crested, hairy-hairless variety (seems like a misnomer, but he's more hairless than the fully furred Powder Puffs and has more hair than the actually Hairless ones). His name is Miso.
Things I have actually called this dog other than his name:
Wierd Little Kreechur
Chupacabra
Muppet and/or Something out of Jim Henson's Scrap Bin
Rejected concept of a dog by Dr Seuss
Scrat (Ice Age)
Early 2000's Sparkle Dog (she dyes him)
Low-Budget Sci-Fi Alien Pet
I am entirely certain I will come up with more nicknames for this weird little creature.
I was once talking to my 75 year old Chinese dad in passing about a trans friend of mine not getting along with her family and he asked why and I said err, because she's trans, dad.
He asked: "Oh, was she the only son or something before *waves hand*?" and I was like, warily, no she has two brothers. And he responded with a great deal of confusion: "Then what's their problem?!?!"
Later on: "Anyway, even if she WAS the only son, that's not her problem, that's THEIR problem. They should have had more sons if they were going to be bothered about it."
Knowing what I know about chinese culture there’s something so beautifully simple about his logic of “no son to carry on family name/look after them in old age/all the other stuff? Skill issue! Should’ve had more sons! Should’ve kept the family unit strong yourself! Blaming your daughter for your own failure of family planning is W E A K!” and then he learns there are more sons and it completely breaks his train of logic because if yes to more sons then why issue?? You have two others and you’re mad you don’t have three?? Whack. Greedy.
I can already envision him as an ancient lord of a powerful house looking down his nose at the latest messenger bringing gossip from the house of his offspring’s friend and going “now they have a daughter to marry into another family for powerful alliances and two sons to take over her former duties and somehow they’re still complaining about their good fortune? They shall not survive the winter.” and then sipping his tea with all the grim satisfaction of someone about to watch an unnecessary soap opera of drama unfold from a safe distance or something
I JUST reblogged a huge post about Universal Basic Income
but I didn't want to hijack it... so my two cents are here.
I can tell you right now that if there were a universal basic income, and it were enough every month, so that I wouldn't need a job to guarantee that I had a roof over my head and food in my pantry?
I would quit my job and not work.
For like... six months, maybe a year at most.
Because I'm TIRED. I'm burnt out. I've been working almost non-stop since I was 17 with nothing to show for it. I barely have anything in my 401K because most jobs don't offer it, and all the jobs I had before the one I have now didn't pay me enough to add to it on my own.
I'm nearly 43, and I'll be lucky to retire by the time I'm 80.
I'm too tired to properly clean my house, and I can't afford to pay someone to do it. I'm too tired to go out and do fun things. I mean, I can't afford them anyway, but even if I could, I have to save my energy for my work week. The vacations I've taken have been spent at home trying to recover from working. And the few vacations where I traveled anywhere, I went HOME to visit my family. I didn't go to Mexico, or Hawaii, or England, or wherever I might want to travel. I didn't really do anything fun or touristy. I went to Dallas and slept on my brother's couch, and went out to eat a few times. Because all I could afford was the plane ride.
I was recently off work for 3 months after a work-related injury, and I miss it.
How messed up is that?
I miss being in constant pain and unable to lift more than 10lbs.
Because I got to rest. REALLY REST.
So yeah, I'd take six months to a year off, then go back to work. Maybe something part-time so I'm not spending the rest of my life couch-rotting while still having time and energy to do the things I want to do, but I WOULD work.
Humans, as a whole, want to be productive. We just don't want to sacrifice ourselves in the process. But we are. Every single one of us.
I can't even imagine what it's like for those of us with kids. I know I didn't have any of my own in part because I have always barely been able to take care of myself, let alone anyone else.
My least favorite things about anti- UBI discourse is always the techbros whining that "nobody is going to work anymore! People will just watch Netflix all day!" and I have 2 responses:
1) Who the fuck cares. Who the fuck cares what people do with their time! That's kind of the fucking point!
2) People aren't going to stop laboring. Housework (look, it's right there in the word!) will still need to be done. So will maintenance on our homes and personal spaces. Children will still need carers, as will the elderly and disabled. There are millions of examples of ~work~ that we do all the time, uncompensated, that won't suddenly stop because we aren't forced to sell our labor to provide corporation's profits.
I'm not surprised that what is traditionally women's work is invisible to these dipshits, but it never fails to anger me.
Field studies have been conducted in several countries now, and the result is always the same - people will just flop about for a couple of months to recover from the burnout most people who have a job live with, and then they look for something to do. Some get a job with reduced hours, and some start doing charitable stuff like volunteering in soup kitchens and teaching others to do whatever their particular skill is. They socialize more, they are happier, and on average, people will work more, not less.
But the thing is, employers suddenly have to think about how to make their jobs appealing enough for someone to come and do them! It's hard to find someone to work for you for long hours under horrible conditions, if they can just choose not to; which shows you how voluntary our current system actually is.
I love going viral on tumblr.com. It’s like if you stood in a field and said some of the stupidest shit a human being is capable of and then like fifty thousand crows attacked you
Because I'm not one of those people who go "IMPOSSIBLE NO NEVEEEER" if you bring me a weird or unconventional concept. I say, "I dunno if that is possible, let me do some research and see what rules I can stretch/if I can think of a reason this would work".
Long-winded examples below:
One example? I'm allowing my players to multiclass "for free". Every couple of levels, I give them two levels. Meaning one for their main class and a "free ghost level" that is either used for multiclassing or it's lost. So everyone is at least the base level of everyone else when it comes to their main class. Right now, everyone is 3 in their main class and 1 in their secondary "ghost" class because they all took the ghost level. Which is almost more for flavor, though it does beef them up a tiny bit. But also because I'm one of those DMs who make every encounter hard to deadly. I'm not trying to kill my players with EVERY fight, but I am trying to make it so they aren't just mowing down everything they encounter in seconds. That is satisfying to absolutely no one (I've had DMs whose every encounter went so fast that if you rolled low on the initiative, you might not even get a chance to hit anything). So I make MOST encounters hard to deadly, but for their main class level only. Otherwise, I might accidentally kill them. Though, once we hit a minor boss level fight, I'll be taking ALL their levels into account. Which will be soon.
On to the ACTUAL example, though... One of my characters made a Cleric and asked if their "ghost class" could be Warlock. Apparently, most DMs wouldn't allow this? I did, but for one reason alone. The character is a tiefling.
Her bloodline is Asmodeus, and he basically said, "I like this one, she's getting power whether she likes it or not," and all but forced being a warlock ON her and tricked her into agreeing by calling her "granddaughter" and convincing her it was a right of hers to have the power because of their close blood ties and that her goddess, Hestia, wouldn't mind because she's all about hearth and home and family and he's her family. (They are not closely related in the least, but he has her convinced he Zeus'd her grandmother on her mother's side and impregnated her grandmother in the guise of her grandfather.)
Her being a tiefling actually came from a deal one of her great grand-cestors made with Asmodeus, which "cursed" her mom's bloodline to eventually produce a Teifling. Her parents are 100% human.
Another player wanted to bring in a second character (it's a small group as far as the number of people playing so I said people could make second characters if they want to to beef up the party a bit) and said, "What if he's a child?" and I said, "eeeeeh, I dunno, give me a minute because of the whole... leveling thing. A child can't exactly be a high-level anything, even when you take being a prodigy into account."
Did some research and decided she could play a child if she made his main class a caster, but only if he wasn't REALLY a child. Because I found Hexblood, which gave me an idea. A hag was pissed at his parents for not giving him up as per their deal. She gave them what they wanted, and she asked for their firstborn child in return. They wouldn't give him up, so instead of removing the gifts she gave them or trying to out-and-out steal the child, she cursed the child... so he'll never grow up as part of the curse. He aged until the apparent age of 11-12 (as far as how he'd be perceived if he were human... I know not all races mature the same) and hasn't gained a year physically since, though he's actually in his 20s. This does nothing to extend his lifespan. He'll just never grow up/have a relationship/kids/he'll always be treated like a child by strangers unless we kill the hag or get her to break the curse.
What I did as far as making the character was I had her roll his stats, remove 2 from every number, and then add the +2 and +1 to the stats required by the race, which is Satyr. We will be introducing him next session. There was a little finagling with things like base speed, too. He's technically considered small because he doesn't meet the height requirement of a medium creature (he's only around 4ft 5), but his race is considered a medium creature AND satyrs have a higher base movement than some of the other medium creatures. Either way, I made it work because I am a kind and benevolent DM.
His name is Tika, and he's a Shadow Magic Sorcerer with one level in Rogue because he looks like a kid, so he's had to do a lot of pickpocketing to survive. He's also got Magic Initiate because she wanted him to have the Find Familiar spell. His familiar is named Dip and usually is in the form of a Least Weasel in their winter colors. The name Dip is derived from the fact that a Least Weasel is white in winter except for the tip of its tail, which is black. So he looks like he dipped his little tail in ink.
Okay, so I just listened to the audiobook for Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers while I was at work (which is mainly how I 'read' these days). And the book is truly an amazing romp from start to finish, but my main takeaway from the novel is this:
Sir Cameron is the phrase "Don't bully me, I'll cum" given human form.
It's 2 in the morning, which for me is more akin to two in the afternoon. (Graveyard shift, and I keep the same sleep schedule on my weekends)
Suddenly, I hear a sound not unlike a demon revving the engine of a toddler-sized Harley motorcycle just before the oriental longhair cat comes tear-assing around the corner at Mach Jesus.
Jareth has the zoomies. Or as we like to say, "the demons have Jareth again".
So, of course, I turn to look where the demons have directed him, only to see him nose-to-nose with one of the ferrets through the bars in their cage (I couldn't tell which, Kodo and Podo are nearly identical). They have a short conference, and Jareth goes trotting off like a cat on a mission.
My bestie/roommate is the owner of the cat, so of course, I message her to tell her what happened, stating most of the above.
Which I then follow up with the phrase:
I think he's a sleeper agent.
...for the Ferret Nation.
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