Something I've noticed through the years, is that straight and queer people alike often have a tendency to forget about a specific queer identity: aromanticism.
Sometimes it's misunderstood, sometimes it's confused with asexuality, and sometimes it's ignored and/or erased.
This pride month, 23 authors have come together to gather their works and offer them at a discounted price to celebrate aromantic representation from all over the spectrum.
Whether it's to read them during pride month or the rest of the year, by buying this bundle you can get yourself tons of books while also supporting indie authors directly during a time when every little bit of support and community counts more than anything.
Get 23 books for $15, or get all 36 books for $20.
NOTE: this is a bundle that also incudes 18+ content intended for an adult audience.
If this is your first time hearing of the term aromanticism, or if you've heard about it before but are confused about what exactly it is and/or how it differs from asexuality, here's lots of cool resources (and also, my own beginner guide I made some time ago).
Peace be upon you. I'm Amer from the devastated Gaza Strip. We had a beautiful house, but it's now completely destroyed—a five-story building—because of the war. Our lives are difficult now. I live in a tent with my family. I have a brother named Mahmoud, whom I care for. He is sick and disabled and needs medication every week. I can't afford it now. Please help me so I can provide food for my children and medicine for my brother Mahmoud. I appeal to you, generous people, to stand with me and my brother Mahmoud. Donate through the donation link, and I will pray for you. Life in Gaza is extremely difficult, and there are no job opportunities. Life in Gaza is completely destroyed. Help Amer, 🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️ This is my verified campaign number: 710# on Gazavetters
Hello, my name is Amer Ahmed. I am 33 years old. My family and I live in Gaza. Our life was perfect before the war, but fate decreed that wa
I just saw a video complaining about Pixar’s “animation style” being bean-like and repetitive and uncreative compared to its old movies and honestly I don’t understand the hate.
First off, it’s not the animation style these people are taking issue with, it’s the art style. Animation style is how characters move, art style is how they’re designed. The issue that people have is with the stylization of the models to have more cartoony and exaggerated proportions and specifically “bean-shaped” mouths.
I don’t understand the hate.
Cartoonishly exaggerated models are nothing new for Pixar. It’s almost as if people are forgetting the whole “built like a Pixar mom” debacle??
And it’s not as if Pixar has stopped having model variation across their films. Luca’s models are much slimmer and longer in comparison to the rounder and softer models in Turning Red, and Elio is just straight up aliens.
Regardless, it’s not uncommon for a studio (or any artist in general) to want to have a consistent art style. You never see anyone getting on Ghibli or Laika for their consistency in style. Consistency allows art to be recognizable at a glance, that doesn’t mean an artist is getting lazy. I think people just saw Pixar switch up their style, found the increased stylization weird, and started to pick on the “bean mouths” because they had already been picking on the CalArts style in 2D TV shows like The Amazing World of Gumball and Star vs. the Forces of Evil. People don’t like change and they can really be heinous about it.
Personally, I get the criticism behind the pervasiveness of “CalArts style,” at least when it’s overdone/prevents variation of models. But that is simply not what is happening here. These are three movies done with quote unquote “bean mouth” out of six released in the past 5 years, and each movie is obviously visually - and more importantly narratively - unique.
What’s more, I really love this model stylization because it’s leading to an increase of stylization choices in computer animation. NOW we’re talking about animation style. In Turning Red specifically, I really loved how BIG they went with facial expressions in a way that previously was only seen in 2D pieces. And I LOVE how these techniques are popping up across studios. Sony of course has been putting out gold, especially with the Spiderverse movies and Kpop Demon Hunters.
Are we seeing this???? I love it SO much
There’s been a trend of breaking conventions of traditional computer models to bring big goofy stylized expressions to 3D animation and it’s so. Good. I hope this trend never goes away.
TLDR: I think the hate on Pixar’s art style is not coming from a want for variation or progress. It’s a resistance to change. People say they want progress, and get hypocritically butthurt when they get progress, just not in the way they’re comfortable with.
We haven’t had bread for days… The war on Gaza continues, the blockade is suffocating us, and bakeries have completely shut down. The situation is beyond tragic—children, families, everyone is starving. We need every voice, every bit of support, every share to make the world hear our cry. Please don’t ignore our suffering.
My name is Ahmed, I’m 20 years old, and I’m from Gaza City. I used to dream of a peaceful life, completing my education, and getting a job, but the war has turned that dream into something impossible 💔😭. We lived through this massacre in every painful detail, and we are still in pain 😔. We were so happy when the ceasefire was announced, and we returned to our homes in the north of Gaza after being displaced for a year and a half in a tent in the south of the Strip. After we fixed a small room in our destroyed house to live in and start over, unfortunately, the war returned, stronger than before 💔. Now, we have no shelter and no source of income. We have exhausted all our savings during the war. I know that I started my campaign very late, but that’s because there is no other way to help my family 🙏. I am fully confident and hopeful that someone here will help us as much as they can and save my family in these difficult circumstances 😔.
I know that the feeling of starting from scratch is painful and frustrating, but I hope to receive any amount for my family 🥺🙏.
https://chuffed.org/project/helpahmedfamily
My Story: From the Hell of War to the Search for Safety My name is Ahmed, a 20-year-old young man from Gaza. Since the war began, my life ha
Even a small donation would have a great impact on us 🥺. May God bless you, my friend 🥰❤️.
Please, please, look at my donation campaign and help me. I have newborn children and my son Ahmed needs treatment. He is a heart patient and suffers from two holes in the heart. He needs help and treatment. We do not have money and we are stuck in Egypt because of the Gaza war. My wife and I lost my jobs and there is no source of income. I would like you to help. To care for my children and provide the necessary treatment for my child Ahmed, please donate even a little thing to save my child’s life
€1,071 / €50K raised. Due to the termination of Ahmed's (@90-ghost ) account by tumbr staff, the link in previous reblog no longer works. Below is a screenshot of the shared link. Please donate and share this post.
SUN SAYS MOON SAYS follows Sun and Moon, who were sent by the Great Gods to bring light to the world of humans. When their child wonders why they are hardly at home at the same time, they decide to share their story.
This comic is a retelling of the origin story of the day and night cycle, which takes its cues from the folktale The Sun and The Moon and is set in a world inspired by Philippine folktales and pre-colonial Philippines.
It was developed with the aid of the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Animation, Comics and Game Development Grants Program, and will be releasing at the Philippine International Comics Festival on July 5&6, 2025.
The big comic project I've been working on is done! 70 pages, black and white , in an art style that is a mix of everything cartoony that I enjoy.
Currently working on getting physical copies printed out. There's an interest form on my website for anyone wanting a copy.
From left to right: aromantic, aroallo, aro flux, demiromantic, grey romantic, cupioromantic, recipromantic, lithromantic, bellusromantic, frayromantic Miku Hatsune.
Manila’s pivot to Beijing during the previous administration yielded more than a dozen infrastructure deals, but most of them remain mired i
Located 62km north-east of the capital Manila, Daraitan village in Rizal province is home to about 5,700 residents, a majority of whom are members of the Dumagat-Remontado indigenous people who consider vast hectares of the mountain range as part of their ancestral domain.
But the village may soon disappear under the same waters that give it life, once the Philippine government finishes building the Kaliwa Dam – one of 16 flagship infrastructure projects of former president Rodrigo Duterte that is being funded by China.
The new dam is expected to provide Metro Manila with an additional 600 million litres of water daily once it is finished by end-2026. Officials said building the 60m-high reservoir is even more necessary now that the country is starting to feel the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon.
But it was only in 2021 under Mr Duterte that construction finally broke ground, three years after Manila and Beijing signed the 12 billion peso (S$288 million) loan agreement.
Of the 119 on the list [of flagship projects of the "Build, Build, Build” infrastructure programme], Mr Duterte turned to China to finance 16 big-ticket projects in a bid to cement his legacy by the time his presidency ended in 2022. He embraced Beijing during his term and even downplayed Manila’s claims in the disputed South China Sea in favour of securing loans and grants from China.
Analysts have criticised Mr Duterte’s infrastructure programme as ambitious. Perennial domestic issues like local politics, right-of-way acquisition problems, lack of technology and red tape in bureaucracy led to severe delays in the projects.
The same issues hound the China-funded projects – which come under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to build infrastructure in developing nations – with the problems made more severe by Beijing’s high interest rates in its loan agreements and local backlash due to displacement of residents or potential environmental damage.
Critics say the BRI has been detrimental in the long run to some recipient countries, especially those that have been unable to repay their loans, like Sri Lanka and Zambia.
The Duterte government’s failure to take advantage of its BRI loans was a “missed opportunity” for the Philippines, said infrastructure governance specialist Jerik Cruz, a graduate research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The four completed China-funded projects under Mr Duterte were controversial too. But they came to fruition because they had the support of local politicians allied with Mr Duterte and therefore increased his political capital, said Dr Camba.
Tribal leaders said they were not properly consulted regarding the project that threatens their traditional way of life. Environmentalists from the Stop Kaliwa Dam Network also say the project would destroy 126 species of flora and fauna in the Sierra Madre.
The Philippines’ Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act states that the government must first secure a tribe’s free, prior and informed consent before building on its ancestral lands.
But Ms Clara Dullas, one of the leaders of the Dumagat-Remontado in Rizal, alleged that the Duterte government had either misinformed or pressured other tribe members into giving their consent.
She could not bear to hold grudges, though, noting that the Dumagat-Remontado organisations that eventually agreed to the Kaliwa Dam were each given 80 million pesos, or $1.9 million, in “disturbance” fees.
“The Kaliwa Dam is the reason why our tribe is divided now. There is a crack in our relationships even if we all come from the same family,” said Ms Dullas. “I can’t blame the others because we lack money. I believe there was bribery involved.”
The government requires them to present identification documents, and only those given passes may enter. Mr Dizon said this is to ensure that no unidentified personnel enter the area [close to the construction zone].
“We feel like we are foreigners in our own home because the Chinese and the people in our own government are now preventing us from entering the lands where we grew up,” said tribe leader Renato Ibanez, 48.
Mr Ibanez also accuses the Philippine authorities of harassing tribe members who are vocal against Kaliwa Dam. Some of them have been accused of working with communist rebels, a charge the tribe vehemently denies.
Unlike his predecessor, Mr Marcos is more aggressive in defending Manila’s overlapping claims with Beijing in the South China Sea, but still fosters economic ties with it.
Geopolitical tensions between the two nations and Mr Marcos’ stance towards Beijing are going to dictate the fate of the pending China-funded projects the President inherited from Mr Duterte, said Mr Cruz.
Tribe members said they would be more amenable if Mr Marcos would revisit Japan’s proposed Kaliwa Intake Weir project that Mr Duterte had set aside.
“We like Japan’s proposal. It would not destroy our forests. It would not affect residents here. The Philippines would not be buried in debt,” said Ms Dullas.
This was among the alternatives the Dumagat-Remontados offered during their nine-day march in February 2023, when some 300 members walked 150km from Quezon and Rizal all the way to Manila to protest against the Kaliwa Dam.
But they failed to secure an audience with Mr Marcos. They remain wary of the President’s position on the Kaliwa Dam and other controversial China-funded deals.
“As much as we want to fully pin our hopes on him, we don’t. We’ve learnt from past efforts to trick us, make us believe a project is about to end, only for it to be resurrected again years later,” said Ms Dullas.
The Philippines' capital is running out of water. Is building a dam the solution?
DARAITAN, Philippines — Nestled in the Sierra Madre more than two hours outside Manila, this village is lush and green — brought to life by the Agos River, which cuts through the unforgiving terrain like a quiet, slow-moving highway.
Daraitan is a tourist village of about 5,000, where children play in the river while the adults cook fish and fix their broken karaoke machines under makeshift tents on the banks.
"The community is peaceful. We have everything we need here," Maria Clara Dullas, 43, tells NPR.
Dullas is a member of the Indigenous Dumagat people, who claim this area as their ancestral lands. Her family are farmers, like most in the area, and have lived off the land and the river for centuries.
But Daraitan is in danger of disappearing, under the waters that give it and its people life.
Some 40 miles downriver, the sprawling Metro Manila area and its more than 13 million people are facing a looming water shortage. It's the result of an exploding population, human-caused climate change and, some would argue, poor planning on the part of officials over the years. The Philippine government commissioned the building of the Kaliwa Dam on the Agos River decades ago as part of a larger plan to help get more water to Manila. But construction finally broke ground last year, as officials amped up claims that the dam would alleviate water shortages that could hit the capital as early as next year.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/1201087955
Officials say the Kaliwa Dam will help alleviate an impending water shortage in the capital that's being exacerbated by climate change. But
