#sevenraptors

[eeee-lye]

sevenraptors replied to your post:

Me: I’ve got these pads I’ve had for like five...

I’ve been thinking about possibly getting some of the period underwear that many people can wear without leakage for a full day (and then just wash in washing machine). For people with very heavy flows definitely does not work.

I’ve seen so many mixed reviews on those (for a while I was watching a few YouTubers review different US-based products) to really not know for sure how they’ll work for me, but they are starting to sell a brand of them in Woolworths, now. I think it’s one of those things where a lot of personal experimentation is necessary.

Since I went on my iron tablets because pernicious anemia, I went from moderate reasonably stretched out over five days to same amount over three with one shall we say enthusiastic middle day. It’s not unreasonably heavy all up compared to many other people, but the uneven distribution is not kind! I can’t imagine using the washable underwear on that middle day. Well, no, I can, and nobody wants that.

(I actually have a hoard of products because I’d grab them whenever they were on sale on account of the expense when they’re not. Probably about six months’ worth. So I’m waiting for underwear sales of sufficient cheapness. And I should move the Satan Pads to the medicine box for dressings. Did I ever tell everyone that a sanitary pad, cut up and the back stuck to a bandanna, works really well for a non-sealed dressing that doesn’t slip for a head wound? After my cyst removal, I used those for dressings. The nurse said I could use a pad instead of buying dressings from the chemist, and I came back and raved to her two weeks later, because they work so much better than the professional dressing she first gave me. Raved. Always have a bandanna and a sanitary pad on you in case of zombie apocalypse or cyst removal.)

I prefer Libra. Well, not prefer. Best tolerate? They have the “Girl” (sigh) branded pads which are slightly narrower than the normal ones, and I’ve found that the longer “Girl” pads are easier because they buckle and poke less; the length holds them a bit better in place. But the Girl pads are branded as fitting for smaller bodies when they’re really not that much narrower, just thinner.

(It’s kind of funny in a I give up at this cissexist world way. Libra aren’t too bad on the whole aggressively-gendering approach: the packages are blue, there’s no floral prints and you get the interesting random facts on the wrappers. So, of course, my non-binary arse uses the products literally and obviously branded “Girl”, where their other products are labelled by size and thickness. I laugh. I absolutely have to laugh. But yeah, Libra, maybe don’t explicitly state that only people of a certain age and gender use your smaller-sized products? And more width diversity?)

I wonder if we pay GST on the period underwear...?

[stimtoybox]

I wish you had a patreon account so that I could add you on to my list of awesome creators and activists that I subscribe to (support?) . Because this such an amazing resource and you( you meaning the founder of the blog but also the other mods) definitely deserve compensation.

This is one of those “I’ve been staring at the computer screen for half an hour trying to figure out how to word” asks.

I think the best way to summarise my emotions is this: the best thing a creative or a communicator can ever hear, in a world where creativity and communication have become something that we do for the joy, is someone telling you they would compensate you for your work. That someone is willing to go against the social norm of free content, that you have made impact enough for someone to do this - wow. That ... that absolutely takes my breath away, it truly does.

Thank you. Just ... thank you.

This is a pet feeling of mine as a writer, so I’ll try and explain what I mean (hopefully) in less than a thousand words! Tumblr (and other blogging/social media sites) at its core is based around the idea that we create content for others and we experience their content in return. (And Tumblr somehow makes money from that, or tries to, but that’s another conversation altogether.) I expect free content on my dashboard, an amalgamation of others’ work, and I provide free content that goes to others’ dashboards, also an amalgamation. In addition, we collate and share others’ work, too, so we all rely on each other! In many ways, it’s a fabulous system. It allows for communities like this one and many others to live and grow. It allows for all sorts of conversations and connections that wouldn’t get to happen in a world where meaningful communication lies behind a paywall. It allows people to find people like themselves or see themselves represented in other peoples’ creations, and I think making sure people can freely access and exchange representation, support, community and information is the most important thing.

The downside is that this model makes it hard for folks who’d like to make content creation their job when the expectation is that content is freely available - but by not allowing people to make this their job, folks have less time to devote to the development of those four things we all need.

So, with this context in place, people offering to compensate content creators, even though they don’t have to, is to me the most incredibly beautiful thing. It’s people, those who are in a position to support others this way, doing what they can to make sure people can still create and, by that creation, help so many communities of people grow and develop and exist. Including those people who aren’t in a position to compensate content creators but need (and deserve) access to that content.

I don’t, can’t, take that for granted. It’s amazing.

@sevenraptors, thank you.

I’ve been meaning to put together a patreon, but I’ve been struggling with time and pain these last few weeks (made more difficult by various personal/family things going on) so it’s still on the list of Things To Do. It will happen at some point, because I would dearly love to see if I could be one of those rare people who get to just create content, especially when this blog is one of the most meaningful things I’ve ever done. A thousand times more meaningful than any job I’ve ever had, including the good ones!

(If Rainbow and CD have patreons, they need to provide me the links, please, because I would gladly promote them. They absolutely more than deserve that for the work they do here.)

But thank you. Truly, thank you. As me, on behalf of Rainbow and CD, and on behalf of stimtoybox as a blog and, I hope, a community.

- Mod K.A.

[eeee-lye]

sevenraptors replied to your post: You can’t delete a comment on a post without...

I don’t know, but you are welcome to block / unblock me to test (either here or I can make a boring but not problematic comment on the stim toy blog

I want to say something along the lines of “real friends let you test block them for experimental purposes” because this is like the Tumblr version of offering to help you move house or dig a grave in the brush. And I was afraid to block and unblock a stranger in case something weird happened to their notes/interactions, so I really didn’t want to do it to a friend!

@transcoranic: your second reply/comment, the one that says “if you’re the OP you can delete the comment on PC or hide it via mobile” isn’t showing up for me on desktop, so I can’t reply to it, but I did get the alert for it via mobile. (I’m not sure if you deleted this yourself as part of Tumblr scientific research or if Tumblr is being wonky. Hard to know with Tumblr.) But thank you! I’ll send the person a polite message and see if they can’t delete it themselves, but I am so glad to know this is in fact a thing!

[eeee-lye]

sevenraptors replied to your post: Also tonight, I learnt why pre-grated cheese...

Sounds like something I would do - pre-sliced cheese for the win, I guess? As in, I have definitely had grated cheese fall literally everywhere before.

I want to know how people don’t get grated cheese everywhere. Seriously, how? If I have cheese on my sandwich or crackers--and cheese is a staple samefood for me, in that I eat it every day--I’m finding bits of grated cheese under my desk for the next week. That’s with a plate and a tray! I’m honestly surprised a rat hasn’t taken up residence there: all it’d need to do is dart out from under my PC tower stand, grab the cheese bit and dart back into hiding again.

LOL, but the reason I didn’t go with pre-sliced cheese was because the only sliced cheese in the house was full-fat Coon. I don’t like full-fat cheese when cooked because it gets greasy: I can’t handle the grease for various taste/sensory reasons. (I can eat it just fine unmelted/uncooked, but when it’s heated or melty it’s Not Good.) So I went for the low-fat grated cheese in the fridge, thinking that it wouldn’t be a problem...

But yes, pre-sliced cheese is good. All the pre-cut and pre-packaged foods that are easy to open and prepare are good, and I am grateful for them, because often my hands are not up for food preparation (today’s spoons went on laundry and washing four days’ worth of dishes).

The toasted sandwiches weren’t too bad, though. A bit dry because so much cheese fell out, but not too bad. And now I’m going to have some frozen custard, because I discovered that this week and it is so nice. Way too expensive to buy when not on special, and expensive even then, but nice. I’ve got to see if I can freeze regular custard and have it be the same...

[eeee-lye]

sevenraptors replied to your photo: I made myself an aro pride roller bead fidget...

I always love seeing your creations, they make me so happy.

Aw! *happy flaps hard enough to generate a cyclone*

I got a bunch of the pendants to make Easter gifts for family members--Mum wants to put one in Easter gift baskets for various folks. If I’ve got pieces left over, though, I’ll start making them for non-related people of awesome.

(It’s kind of funny, given that Mum reacted with such horror at the idea of giving the dementia patients she worked with silicone chewables to keep them from chewing books, and now she’s got something designed and marketed as a chewable hanging from her bag and plans on giving a few away. I’m just over here quietly grinning...)

[eeee-lye]

[image description: a navy blue roller trolley bag sitting on my bed. The bed is covered with a blue, white and black night-sky pattern with black tree-branch silhouettes, a round red-and-green watermelon slice pillow, the green legs of a frog plush and the face of a grey, white and yellow penguin-face pillow-plush. The trolley is covered with prints of various cartoon-style owls employing decorations of multiple variations of dots and stripes in multiple bold colours--red, orange, yellow, dark and light green, brown, blue.]

@sevenraptors: this is the trolley I’ll be using on Saturday. You may not be able to recognise me any more than I will you, but I hope my Trolley Of Owls will help mitigate the hell of visual processing somewhat by going for maximum standing-out-ness.

(Note to self: you’re writing a story with an autistic prince who is actually going to need to hold court and deal with a great many people, so make sure to write the scene of The Horror Of Recognising Faces And Matching Them Up With People.)

For everyone else: I have a Trolley Of Owls. I have no particular affection for owls, but why wouldn’t I own it?

[eeee-lye]

sevenraptors replied to your post: Four things I have learnt today: 1: No healthcare...

Re: plastic bags: I have some reusable bags that fold up small that I just always have in my bag. A lot of the time I don’t even fold them, I just squish them into whatever slot I want them in. Is that something that would be useful for you? (I think you generally always have a bag on you?) And yeah, I guess it might make the reusable bag greasy, but I don’t think that should be a big issue? Not sure though

I do often have a foldable bag inside my backpack, but it’s a nice one I don’t want to get greasy and I didn’t have it today to limit backpack weight.

(I need the lightest possible fabric bag to limit weight on my shoulders and this is the lightest one I’ve found, so I don’t think I can replace it if it gets gross. Which defeats the purpose of having it...)

The problem is that for a day like today (with folders and a notebook and my iPad in addition to all my usual stuff) even if I had the bag, there’s so much in my backpack that I struggle to pull things out of it, so having a bag inside my backpack isn’t always as useful to me as it sounds. (Often just getting my wallet out is difficult for me, honestly. There’s usually coins and notes stuffed in my pockets, or loose money in my backpack, because I can’t cope with finding the wallet to put these back in.) And I could put a bag in my jeans pocket where it’s easier to access, but that means remembering to do that and if I leave the house with tissues, keys, Myki and phone in my pockets, I’m doing well. Or I could put a bag in one of my shoes, but the reality of my remembering to replace the bag every time I take my shoes off is so close to zero it isn’t funny...

(Jeans with pockets large enough to hold a wallet would help so much, but I only fit into jeans sized for cis women/girls and they never have useful pockets. Especially not when I’m buying whatever fits me from Savers, which isn’t a lot, but that’s another story.)

It’s more that the combination of pain and executive functioning makes it so much harder to both remember the bag and easily pull the bag out, and I’m really struggling with the lack of a provided bag in the many complications of buying things. For me, at least, it’s not as simple as just remembering a bag. If writing things down on a list to check before I left the house actually worked, I’d do that, but it since it doesn’t...

(If I lived in my own house, I’d stick a bag of plastic bags on the front door handle. I’d still walk past it often enough, same as the lists, but it might help a little more.)

It’s one of those things where it isn’t going to be a real problem for many other people, but my hands and my brain have come together on this to make me realise how much I do rely on stores offering bags to simplify the shopping experience of grabbing things, holding things and carrying things. And next year is going to be difficult while I try to figure it out, but I suspect all of the above will work sometimes but not consistently--unlike the provision of bags from the stores, which always worked.