i don't know what i'm doing

but at least i'm having fun

[thornescratch]

Belatedly, exchange reveals are out, so here's the fic I wrote! Written for Cam_elot in the 2025 @stardads Secret Santa Exchange, you can read it here. Unless AO3 is down. Or the internet is out. Or if you just don't want to. Follow your heart, man.

feel like I win when I lose on AO3, 25K. Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Paz Vizsla POV.

Rated: Mature

Summary: In another universe where Din Djarin (reluctantly) remains the Mand'alor and Paz Vizsla (enthusiastically, only somewhat maliciously) decides to support him, ancient Mandalorian wedding traditions return in full force when Din abruptly shows up with the Last Jedi as his new spouse.

Some notes:

Much thanks to various Great Conjunction members for spirited debate and contributions over what the GFFA version of Eurovision would be called and how it would work.

This was an interesting one, because it basically happened like building the castles in Monty Python: I wrote five thousand words for my first idea, tossed it aside; wrote another three thousand words for a different idea, then tossed that aside; went back and tacked another thousand words on a variation of the first idea, realized that just wasn't happening; outlined and wrote three thousand words for a third, different idea, realized aspects of it were veering too close to some of the DNWs in the assignment, and then looked at the juxtaposition of my work deadlines and the exchange deadlines, panicked, and wrote twenty five thousand words on an entirely new idea over ten days, and that was the one that didn't sink into the swamp, burn down, or fall over. Yet.

I'm genuinely kinda thrilled that my experience yakety-saxing around the Czech Republic, drinking becherovka and jumping off trains and taking part in wedding sidequests finally proved useful for something.

I did write some actual banging into it, and then cut it because it didn't really work with the POV; I'd like to rework it a bit and stick it on as a bonus chapter, but we'll see!

[h-l-w]

Words from Antigonick (Sophokles) translated by Anne Carson

[maikaartwork]

So... I got robbed.

Yesterday someone stole my tattooing equipment. My entire livelihood, my ability to earn money, thousands of euros gone in the span of a single night. Not having burglary insurance, I will not be getting any compensation and I am just. Desperate.

I HATE asking for help. But now I am at a point where I really have to beg.

If you want a commission, please, PLEASE give me a chance to earn money so I can buy new equipment. I'll even draw the things from my don't-s list.

Visit my Patreon or ko-fi.

Under the cut are some of the examples of my personal work and commissions I did.

[darkisrising]

A Beacon of Cope by DarkIsRising, ch 1

Oh, hello. I'ts been a while, huh? Well, I've started work on something that I have a pretty good feeling about. To keep me in check, my rule for this fic is I can only post chapters 10k or longer. There's a lot (a lot, a LOT) going on in rl on my end, most of it pretty terrible, so this is my attempt at escapism. So that should (hopefully) keep things moving along on my end. Set post Teen Wolf movie, but verrrrrry loose with the canon there. Biggest thing to know is it starts at Derek's memorial service. A Beacon of Cope - DarkIsRising - Teen Wolf (TV) [Archive of Our Own]

“I’m not agreeing to anything yet,” Stiles cautions. “But I guess I can hear you out. Listen to your terms. Since I’ve got nowhere I have to be and nothing better to do,” and maybe he’ll even let himself pretend to be Peter’s demanding, gold digger of a fiance while he’s at it.

Because that just sounds like good, old-fashioned tomfoolery and shenanigans; and he’s always down for some of that, even if it means a morning spent in the company of the worst werewolf known to man.

Or the one where Stiles and Peter enter into a marriage of convenience.

Read here.

[redgoldsparks]

BANNED TOGETHER: OUR FIGHT FOR READERS' RIGHTS edited by Ashley Hope Pérez is out now! And it feels even more timely than when we were putting together this collection… pick up this wonderful anthology of comics, stories, essays, memoir, poetry, and resources to combat book bans wherever books are sold except amaz*n :)

The comic I contributed was initially published by The Nib and you can read it online here. This version in the lovely soft purples was recolored by @ashleyrguillory <3

Other contributors to the anthology include: Elana K. Arnold, Nikki Grimes, Ellen Hopkins, Kelly Jensen, Brendan Kiely, Maia Kobabe, Bill Konigsberg, Kyle Lukoff, MariNaomi, Trung Lê Nguyễn, Ashley Hope Pérez, Isabel Quintero, Traci Sorell, Robin Stevenson, Padma Venkatraman and Ignatz-nominated artist Debbie Fong. Resources include tips from the Vandegrift Banned Book Club and other teen activists, as well as extensive recommended book lists, a How to Start Your Own Little Free Library flier, and more.

[longseasons]

[elljayvee]

when I was in college in the 1990s I took a document design course and we had to go talk to an archivist at the university library

the library had a single page from a gutenberg bible (the bible had been damaged by fire and the remaining undamaged pieces cut apart and sold) and a CD sitting next to each other

we looked at the bible page, marveling at this 500+ year old page with its neatly set type, carefully kept under a sheet of glass to protect it

and then she held up the CD and pointed out that in 500 years, if a CD could even last that long, it was unlikely we'd possess the technology to read it

and we all got very quiet and look at the book page for a long time

and is evidenced by the fact I'm telling you about this almost 30 years later, I have never forgotten that blank-looking shiny piece of plastic sitting next to a beautiful, ancient piece of paper that someone pressed words into with a machine and left for me to read, hundreds of years before I was born.

[maikaartwork]

I’ve been playing a lot of Stardew Valley again and drew my two favorite characters, Linus and a Junimo, chilling tohether because they deserve good things and I feel that they should be best buddies.

[subjectsix]

I don't know I'm not done talking about it. It's insane that I can't just uninstall Edge or Copilot. That websites require my phone number to sign up. That people share their contacts to find their friends on social media.

I wouldn't use an adblocker if ads were just banners on the side funding a website I enjoy using and want to support. Ads pop up invasively and fill my whole screen, I misclick and get warped away to another page just for trying to read an article or get a recipe.

Every app shouldn't be like every other app. Instagram didn't need reels and a shop. TikTok doesn't need a store. Instagram doesn't need to be connected to Facebook. I don't want my apps to do everything, I want a hub for a specific thing, and I'll go to that place accordingly.

I love discord, but so much information gets lost to it. I don't want to join to view things. I want to lurk on forums. I want to be a user who can log in and join a conversation by replying to a thread, even if that conversation was two days ago. I know discord has threads, it's not the same. I don't want to have to verify my account with a phone number. I understand safety and digital concerns, but I'm concerned about information like that with leaks everywhere, even with password managers.

I shouldn't have to pay subscriptions to use services and get locked out of old versions. My old disk copy of photoshop should work. I should want to upgrade eventually because I like photoshop and supporting the business. Adobe is a whole other can of worms here.

Streaming is so splintered across everything. Shows release so fast. Things don't get physical releases. I can't stream a movie I own digitally to friends because the share-screen blocks it, even though I own two digital copies, even though I own a physical copy.

I have an iPod, and I had to install a third party OS to easily put my music on it without having to tangle with iTunes. Spotify bricked hardware I purchased because they were unwillingly to upkeep it. They don't pay their artists. iTunes isn't even iTunes anymore and Apple struggles to upkeep it.

My TV shows me ads on the home screen. My dad lost access to eBook he purchased because they were digital and got revoked by the company distributing them. Hitman 1-3 only runs online most of the time. Flash died and is staying alive because people love it and made efforts to keep it up.

I have to click "not now" and can't click "no". I don't just get emails, they want to text me to purchase things online too. My windows start search bar searches online, not just my computer. Everything is blindly called an app now. Everything wants me to upload to the cloud. These are good tools! But why am I forced to use them! Why am I not allowed to own or control them?

No more!!!!! I love my iPod with so much storage and FLAC files. I love having all my fics on my harddrive. I love having USBs and backups. I love running scripts to gut suck stuff out of my Windows computer I don't want that spies on me. I love having forums. I love sending letters. I love neocities and webpages and webrings. I will not be scanning QR codes. Please hand me a physical menu. If I didn't need a smartphone for work I'd get a "dumb" phone so fast. I want things to have buttons. I want to use a mouse. I want replaceable batteries. I want the right to repair. I grew up online and I won't forget how it was!

[subjectsix]

glad this post is resonating with the local populace fr

[oneheadtoanother]

[visenyaism]

do you have any ideas about why so many students are struggling with literacy now? I know that illiteracy and reading comprehension have been issues for years and most americans read at like a 5th grade reading level but I’m curious why it seems to be worse now (pandemic? no child left behind?)

It is everything. There’s not one answer. I could talk about this forever so instead I set a five minute timer on my phone and wrote a list of as many of the many things that are causing this on a systemic level that I could think of:

It’s parents not reading with their kids (a privilege, but some parents have that privilege to be able to do this and don’t.)

It’s youtube from birth and never being bored.

It’s phasing out phonics for sight words (memorizing without understanding sounds or meaning) in elementary schools in the early aughts.

It’s defunding public libraries that do all the community and youth outreach.

It’s NCLB and mandating standardized tests which center reading short passages as opposed to longform texts so students don’t build up the endurance or comprehension skills.

It’s NCLB preventing schools from holding students back if they lack the literacy skills to move onto the next grade because they can’t be left behind so they’re passed on.

It’s the chronic underfunding of ESL and Special Ed programs for students who need extra literacy support.

It’s the cultural devaluing of the humanities in favor of stem and business because those make more money which leads to a lot of students to completely disregard reading and writing.

It’s the learning loss from covid.

It’s covid trauma manifesting in a lot of students as learned helplessness, or an inability to “figure things out” or push through adversity to complete challenging tasks independently, especially reading difficult texts.

It’s covid normalizing cheating and copying.

It’s increasing phone use.

It’s damage to attention span exacerbated by increased phone use that leaves you without an ability to sit and be bored ever without 2-3 forms of constant stimulation.

It’s shortform video becoming the predominant form of social media content as opposed to anything text-based.

It’s starting to also be generative AI.

It’s the book bans.

what did I miss.

[visenyaism]

Cannot believe I forgot to also blame charter schools, voucher programs, and the conservative push to lower the teenage working age and get poor kids tracked out of college prep and into vocational training for this. i have let everyone down

[spikyiwaizumi]

the issue with writing for yourself is that you will get sucked into rereading your own fic over and over and pretend it’s “editing,” but really you’re just reading because it’s exactly what you want to read. because you wrote it. for you.

[findingfeather]

and then you will be like why does this asshole never finish anything god

[domme-switch]

@emilyscartoons sums it up perfectly💔 I'm heartbroken for all the people in the us that will be affected by this election, keep standing up for your rights and what you believe in❤️

[mckitterick]

also, sorry to our international friends, allies, and everyone else in the world who'll get screwed by what's coming

[vioyume]

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Various audio snippets of my childhood that I've collected.

[vioyume]

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(1/3) Nostalgia Fan Service

I'm frankly really fond of the sounds and music used in older media and devices. Might as well put out more on here since this post blew up for some reason even though I did not grow with some. Does Disney still even make fast plays or is it boring now?

[vioyume]

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(2/3) Nostalgia Fan Service - Gamer Edition

I only have a few more stored up since Tumblr only lets your post a certain amount of audio per day. I was definitely a Nintendo kid when growing up, though only the wii and Ds era, got into gaming much later though.

Did you know the Ds and wii have backwards compatibility? I only learned that a few months ago. (Well certain versions of the wii)

[vioyume]

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(3/3) Nostalgia Fan Service

Frankly I don't have anything to say, I was too late for any of this besides the Disney Channel jingle. Have a nice day everyone!

[willowcrowned]

if you're feeling powerless right now—and god knows I am—here's a reminder you can donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds, the Trans Law Center, Gaza Soup Kitchen, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, and hundreds of other charities that will work to mitigate the damage that has been and will continue to be inflicted

life continues. we still have the capacity to do good, important work. that matters

[themightyhumanbroom]

My average writing experience:

"Alright I think I'm almost done actually-"

*Google doc grows second health bar and a choir starts singing in latin*

[moldavite]

hate coming to terms with things. i should be able to cast a fireball instead

[stumbleonhometomycats]

I don’t know how to explain this well…but I’m 30 years old and I feel like I’ve had to ‘sacrifice’ my entire adult life to unprecedented times, the pandemic and daily anxiety over hateful politicians and whatever rights they want to take away on any given day and I’m just so fucking tired