@tinyviikinki - Tumblr Blog

you deserve a pictur3 of a tiny dog for dealing with that idiot. thank you so much <3

aww thanks <3 <3 i know it probably doesn't do anything but it pisses me off when shit takes like that go unchallenged... i hope at least someone gets something out of it lol

#ask

sometiktoksarevalid

ekjohnston

*weeps uncontrollably at 9 o'clock in the morning*

God, I love randos on the internet who just want to be kind.

magicratfingers

reneradbler

It's very interesting to listen to history lectures that first say that there was no slavery at a certain period of time, and then follow it up with something like: "women didn't have the right to marry at their free will, property was passed down from father to son..." and so on.

you are absolutely sure that there was no slavery, right?

maslows-pyramid-scheme

And then they'll insist that it wasn't slavery because 'slaves lacked legal personhood,' but talk about how women couldn't own property, join professional guilds, initiate litigation, vote, or maintain their citizenship upon marriage because 'their men did it on their behalf.'

#patriarchy #is slavery

sometiktoksarevalid

#video

feminist-space

I don't want to ask AI a question. I don't want AI to write my sentences for me, at all ever. I don't want AI search bars to be the default and I don't want them to be in such a way that I can't opt out. I don't want this kind of AI in my life and there is no such thing as AI art, there is only theft of art from human artists by AI scrappers. I don't want any of this, I hate it. Maybe in a world that isn't driven by tech bro capitalism we can see machines doing all the dangerous inane things so humans can be free to pursue life and creativity. But that's not what's happening right now and I hate it.

janatolqyn

Some of Bojan and Käärijä moments

wodneswynn-deactivated-deactiva

Archaeologists: “Uhhhh, there’s still a lot of debate about how effective leather armor really could have been on a battlefield. Alas, we shall never know.”

Punks: “Hey, fresh cut, the boneheads carry knives sometimes so make sure and lift a good leather jacket. It’ll save your life.”

equality-is-anarchy

Layers layers layers! Slashes won’t do shit even to most t shirts but a stab will ignore the shit outa your leathers. Layers will keep the blade from getting as deep as it otherwise would and gives more for it to snag on if it serrated.

Armour has always been about layers.

Example 1200s minor noble: linen shirt, gambeson (layered and quilted linen with wool insulation), chain mail, surcoat, arming cap, helmet, coif, bigger helmet.

Another example Alexander era Macedonian hoplite: linen tunic, greaves, 1" of tightly pressed and laminated linen, helmet (probably with some sort of arming cap/padding inside), big ass shield.

Layers save lives.

jackironsides

Yes! Cloth is hard work to cut with a knife. When they were trying to ban (sword) duelling in Europe, they banned people from carrying around shields/bucklers, so your defensive tool was a cloak wrapped around your non-sword fist, with plenty of loose fabric to catch your opponent’s blade. You might get your cloak torn, but you’re less likely to get your skin sliced up, and that’s the important thing.

jenniferrpovey

You know what is a surprisingly amazing material for armor?

Silk.

The Mongolians used silk vests because silk isn’t broken by an arrow, and you can use the silk to gently pull the arrow back out, even if it’s barbed. They also often used silk as the backing for leather armor.

The first bulletproof vests were made in Japan and Korea. Out of, yup, silk. Silk could stop black powder bullets, but was rendered obsolete by higher powered modern firearms. A combination of silk and metal was experimented with, but dropped because of the expense of silk.

Franz Ferdinand was wearing one such vest when he was assassinated, but it didn’t help because of where he was hit.

The US military is now looking into something called Dragon Silk, which is spider silk made by GMO silkworms, to make body armor that might be more comfortable than the current kevlar vests.

Silk, people.

deliriumcrow

You want proof about silk being able to stop an arrow? Try sewing it with the wrong machine needle in place. I have shattered – literally shattered – needles that were too thick. They just will not pass between the tightly woven fibers, even when in a machine that can go through your actual fingers. And that was just a lightweight taffeta, not something woven to be intentionally impenatrable.

It is horrible at stopping slashes, though. Whether by the blade of scissors, roller cutter, or well honed dagger or sword, it just falls to pieces like it never meant to be whole in the first place. This is, again, where your layers come in – a nice heavy leather for slash damage, a dense silk for piercing. You probably want to put something under it though, silk against sweaty skin is unpleasantly sticky. It *clings*. Eww.

drpathetique

Useful things elementary school neglected to teach me, exhibit #5839

petermorwood

This is, again, where your layers come in – a nice heavy leather for slash damage, a dense silk for piercing. You probably want to put something under it though, silk against sweaty skin is unpleasantly sticky. It *clings*. Eww.

This is where linen, hemp or even nettle (no, it doesn’t sting) comes as the next-to-skin layer; comfortable, hard-wearing, easily washed and not even unusual: “linens” was period-speak for “underclothes” for centuries.

All three are made the same way, more or less, involving a technical vocabulary of retting, beetling, scutching, hackling etc.; look it up.

*****

* The wooden scutching-knife may be and IMO almost certainly is an ancestor of the “Dussack”, a German / Central European training weapon (the real thing would have been a Messer, a large fighting knife). Compare this illustration from a fight manual ca.1570…

…to a couple of modern repro dussacks…

…and finally to a couple of painted antique scutching-knives from Sweden, one marked 1918, so the shape hadn’t changed much in 300 years….

*****

Any fabric where the washing instructions are “boil until clean” will be OK as bottom-layer armour. That’s how its laundry labels say to treat top-quality Irish damask linens inherited from my Mum, so fabrics like hemp or nettle certainly won’t come to harm.

Your characters may interpret it this way: those who boil their under-tunics the night before combat seem to drive off a lot of infection demons and make wizard healing a bit easier.

Finally, a memorable side-note that has literally nothing to do with fabric armour or indeed fabric of any kind: in 1806 (or ‘08) MP and ex-military surgeon Humphrey Howarth was challenged to a duel.

That morning he washed thoroughly all over, then proceeded to the duelling ground in his coach - stark naked, knowing from his experiences as a military surgeon that cloth fragments forced into a wound were the primary cause of fatal infection.

Whether from embarrassment or because it was now A Silly Thing, his opponent Lord Barrymore called the duel off…

roach-works

also to stick up for archaeologists: fabric and leather armor doesn’t keep well the same way metal and ceramic does! even metal flakes away. and until fairly recently, archaeologists didn’t have particularly sophisticated tools to check for traces of fibers. they basically had to just dig up an area and hope to guess what was there from the shape of the rust or the bones or the shards of ceramics. this was why finding tombs has always been so exciting: it’s a room full of stuff that hasn’t totally rotted away, ideally with paintings on it showing living people wearing perishable goods like fabric.

armorers and archaeologists and historians have been debating about leather armor not in terms of was it good at being armor– modern leather gloves, boots, and jackets do a great job!– but whether or not any given civilization would have found it cost effective to use leather for protective equipment. some civilizations don’t have very many cows to spare. some have plenty. some could never hope to afford enough silk to let mercenaries have it; some mercenaries made a point of wearing gaudy patchwork silks and fabrics as a point of pride, some have historically exported the massive amounts of silk they had.

leather rots, especially leather that is continuously exposed to rain and sun and blood and stabbing. it’s not so easy to patch. it needs to be tanned and cured and oiled and maintained carefully. does leather make good armor? sure! is it what any given fighter would have been equipped with as the most effective protective gear for the time, geographical and economic climate, and contemporary weapons technology?

archaelogists aren’t being overpaid dipshits when they tell you they can’t say for sure.

#history #interesting

projecttreehouse

how to write convincing dialogue

did you know that show, not tell applies to dialogue, too? while dialogue can be used to further your narrative, it can also be used to showcase your characters. here's how:

-what is your character hiding? most people don't say things at face value. they hide what they mean within their words and tone, but in writing, you can't verbally hear the character's tone. ways to convey non-verbal tone include: contradictions between words and actions, context behind the words (ie. the scenario, character's actions and feelings), syntax (ie. fragments, repetition, awkward phrasing). also consider who the character is hiding information from: is it the reader? the characters? both?

-favorite words or phrases. does your character use a certain phrase or word a lot? do they often put their prepositions at the beginning or the end of the sentence? these are questions to ask when you're arranging the syntax of the dialogue. everyone has a specific way of talking. make sure you give each character a distinguishable voice.

-personality. this is how you can create a distinguishable voice. is your character confident? are they shy or hesitant? do they repeat the phases of others because they have nothing to add to the conversation? are they confrontational or do they beat around the bush? ask questions like these. if your character is confident, they may make bold statements and appear sure of themselves unlike shy characters who use words such as "maybe" or "should" or "think." to boil it down, think active wordage versus passive.

-observe others. don't look solely at television or other books. sit at your local coffee shop and listen in on conversations, then try and break it down. are they hiding anything? do they frequently use any words or phrases? how would you describe their personality? the better you get at breaking down conversations, the better you can create convincing ones, whether shallow, deep, or as a narrative device, because even if you use your dialogue to move your narrative along, it should still be compulsively convincing.

one way to tell if you've ticked all these boxes is if you can tell who is speaking without any tags.

happy writing! if you have any questions about how to implement any of these tips, our ask box is always open.

I’m a knitter. I sometimes knit socks.

I have recently got back into doing some writing. This writing has been multi-chaptered.

So, here is a trick I am going to share that I learned from knitting socks. There is a thing called “second sock syndrome” which is when you finish one sock but can’t seem to get around to starting the second. So, when I finish a sock I IMMEDIATELY cast on the second sock and just knit a few rows.

So, when you finish that chapter, IMMEDIATELY just write one sentence of the next chapter. Trust me.

author-a-holmes

I have, and do, do this!

Not even, always, the end of a chapter. If I reach a place where there should be a scene break, I write the next few sentences so I have a launching off point the next time I sit down to write.

It helps me *so much!*

#writing

lyralit

show, don't tell:

anticipation - bouncing legs - darting eyes - breathing deeply - useless / mindless tasks - eyes on the clock - checking and re-checking

frustration - grumbling - heavy footsteps - hot flush - narrowed eyes - pointing fingers - pacing / stomping

sadness - eyes filling up with tears - blinking quickly - hiccuped breaths - face turned away - red / burning cheeks - short sentences with gulps

happiness - smiling / cheeks hurting - animated - chest hurts from laughing - rapid movements - eye contact - quick speaking

boredom - complaining - sighing - grumbling - pacing - leg bouncing - picking at nails

fear - quick heartbeat - shaking / clammy hands - pinching self - tuck away - closing eyes - clenched hands

disappointment - no eye contact - hard swallow - clenched hands - tears, occasionally - mhm-hmm

tiredness - spacing out - eyes closing - nodding head absently - long sighs - no eye contact - grim smile

confidence - prolonged eye contact - appreciates instead of apologizing - active listening - shoulders back - micro reactions

#writing

ode-on-a-grecian-butt

In summer, the Hitokotonushi Shrine in Ibaraki sets up on oasis for bees where they can safely collect water

original-honeychiles

This is everything I mean literally everything. They are doing God’s work together

saatanantonttu

Jos

title -> titteli

niin miksei

bible -> bibbeli?

saatanantonttu

kiitos. Ite keksin; säästin

alelaputettu

näkkileipä-kierre on se kun ei syö näkkileipää 4 kuukauteen, sit ottaa kaapista yhden ku ei oo muuta syötävää ja toteaa että se on lahja jumalilta ja paras asia joka on ikinä tapahtunut ja syö parissa päivässä sen koko paketin ja sit hakee kaupasta uuden paketin kunnes taas hylkää sen kaapin pohjalle moneks kuukaudeksi ja kierre jatkuu

#finnish

avi-why

every writing tip article and their mother: dont ever use adverbs ever!

me, shoveling more adverbs onto the page because i do what i want: just you fucking try and stop me

quarter0master

May I add something, because I will never shut up about this book (Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark):

jackironsides

Finally, some good fucking advice

x-write-z

THIS. CHANGES. EVERYTHING.

nanbookinsp

[ID: Text highlighted in yellow reading, “To understand the difference between a good adverb and a bad adverb, consider these two sentences: ‘She smiled happily’ and ‘She smiled sadly.’ Which one works best? The first seems weak because ‘smiled’ contains the meaning of ‘happily.’ On the other hand, ‘sadly’ changes the meaning.

Remember the song ‘Killing Me Softly’? Good adverb. How about ‘Killing Me Fiercely’? Bad adverb.

Look also for weak verb-adverb combinations that you can revise with stronger verbs: ‘She went quickly down the stairs’ can become ‘She dashed down the stairs.’ ‘He listened surreptitiously’ can become ‘He eavesdropped.’ Give yourself a choice.” /End ID]

#writing #useful