I have … a tip.

If you’re writing something that involves an aspect of life that you have not experienced, you obviously have to do research on it. You have to find other examples of it in order to accurately incorporate it into your story realistically.

But don’t just look at professional write ups. Don’t stop at wikepedia or webMD. Look up first person accounts.

I wrote a fic once where a character has frequent seizures. Naturally, I was all over the wikipedia page for seizures, the related pages, other medical websites, etc.

But I also looked at Yahoo asks where people where asking more obscure questions, sometimes asked by people who were experiencing seizures, sometimes answered by people who have had seizures.

I looked to YouTube. Found a few individual videos of people detailing how their seizures usually played out. So found a few channels that were mostly dedicated to displaying the daily habits of someone who was epileptic.

I looked at blogs and articles written by people who have had seizures regularly for as long as they can remember. But I also read the frantic posts from people who were newly diagnosed or had only had one and were worried about another.

When I wrote that fic, I got a comment from someone saying that I had touched upon aspects of movement disorders that they had never seen portrayed in media and that they had found representation in my art that they just never had before. And I think it’s because of the details. The little things.

The wiki page for seizures tells you the technicalities of it all, the terminology. It tells you what can cause them and what the symptoms are. It tells you how to deal with them, how to prevent them.

But it doesn’t tell you how some people with seizures are wary of holding sharp objects or hot liquids. It doesn’t tell you how epileptics feel when they’ve just found out that they’re prone to fits. It doesn’t tell you how their friends and family react to the news.

This applies to any and all writing. And any and all subjects. Disabilities. Sexualities. Ethnicities. Cultures. Professions. Hobbies. Traumas. If you haven’t experienced something first hand, talk to people that have. Listen to people that have. Don’t stop at the scholarly sources. They don’t always have all that you need.

I … LOVE reading the replies and tags for this post! I’m happy that, out of all my posts, this is the one that’s blown up so quickly. 

I love the people who are a part of a minority, that are gushing about their favorite fics or books that seem to have done this and offer proper representation. 

I love the people who are bringing up the toxic mindset that is very popular on tumblr, the “you can’t write about it if you haven’t lived it” ideology that makes writers feel guilty for providing representation.

I especially love the people who are mentioning how they should start doing this. I love the people who are probably young or inexperienced writers that are seeing this and thinking of doing this for the first time. I love that there are people who read this and then think to better their writing because of it.

i was writing an autistic character and tried looking into firsthand accounts of what a meltdown feels like so.

now i’m here to tell you that you also might learn something fun and interesting about yourself

I just had a truly horrible realization. I was talking about the worldbuilding in fma with someone the other day, and they mistakenly said it took place during the Victorian era, or Amestris’s equivilant to it.

I, being a lover of fashion history as well as an insufferable pedant, corrected them by saying that both the year(s) it takes place in as well as many of the technological and cultural influences seen in the world are actually more in line with the subsequent, much shorter era known as the…

the Edwardian era.

God fucking dammit.

my new thing whenever an embarrassing memory jumps up out of some backwater neuron to t-bone my present-day thought process is to declare a statute of limitations. like i can burn down an entire building in the state where i live and the law deems it both unfair and illegal to prosecute me after six years have passed, i think that thing i said in high school can be expunged from my record.

Okay, but this is actually kind of genius.

always interesting how the same people who when i was a girl insisted that shaving is a personal choice that no one should ever judge you for are now the very same people who, now that i’m not a girl, will fucking RANT about how i and other transmascs/men are gross and lazy for not shaving the neck beard

*sighs and tries to find where to turn off targeted marketing emails*

Transcript of the email I just got from Tumblr despite already having marketing emails turned off:

Did you find out where to turn those off? I just got a second one of these, nearly identical to the first, but with Artist swapped in for Writer.

Hey Tumblr, I promise I got the idea after the first one! I don't need one for each new badge type you introduce, please. You can keep the next three all to yourself.

Chosen Name Zine Submissions

The Chosen Name Zine (title subject to change) is meant to be a collection of short anecdotes from people who have, for whatever reason, changed their name from what they were given at birth to a name of their own choosing. It asks the question 'Why this name in particular, of any other name you could have chosen?'.

This zine welcomes submissions from anyone who has changed their name to a chosen name over the course of their life, regardless of personal identity or whether they changed their name legally as well as socially. 

---

Who's running this thing and do they know what they're doing?

My name is Elliot and I'm a 35 year old transmasc nonbinary person in the Chicagoland region. The wide and varied ways people pick out their chosen name fascinates me, and I wanted to collect and publish stories from the community about their process. I've been the head moderator on two zines prior to this, managing most of the curation, printing, and sales process for both. Any further questions or concerns about me or the zine can be sent to squidsonajet @gmail. com. 

Is there a timeline?

Currently the timeline is pretty flexible. Once submissions open, I'll keep accepting submissions until we hit a certain cap, and after that I will get to work curating and getting the zine published. If you want email updates, be sure to check 'yes' on the questions at the end!

What information will be published if I contribute?

No identifying information will be published in this zine besides your first name and any details you include in your story. I will try to keep your story exactly as you submit it, besides tiny tweaks made for spacing reasons. Your first name and email will be kept together in my own records to keep track of which story attaches to who, and to contact people with updates about the zine's progress.

What if I change my mind about my submission?

Reach out to me at squidsonajet @gmail. com anytime before the zine is formally published and I will be happy to remove your story for any reason. Once it's in print, I can't pull those copies but I will remove your story from any subsequent print runs.

How will zine finances be handled?

Zines will be sold at-cost to all contributors and slightly above cost to all others. Depending on interest, I am planning to do sales online and possibly limited on-commission sales at a Chicago-area bookstore or two. All profits beyond manufacturing and shipping will go towards Transformative Justice Law Project of IL, whose services include supporting trans and nonbinary individuals seeking to legally change their name in Illinois. No profits will go towards either the curator or contributors.

I want a copy but I don't want to submit an anecdote. What should I do?

No problem! Just put "N/A" for the required questions, and answer yes to the final question. I'll give you an email update once the zine is ready for sale.

Will any submissions be rejected?

The curator reserves the right to reject stories for any reason, but the likely reason would be that the story does not fit our zine's topic area. Stories will not be rejected for not being 'interesting enough' - I want to display the broad range of name change decisions that exist, and that includes just picking a name out of a baby name book, or picking the opposite-gendered version of your birth name.

This looks like it's going to be an awesome project, and I know Elliot in brickspace so can vouch for prior experience and dedication!

US people with disabilities in the supplemental security income (SSI) program can't have a penny over $2K in their bank account at any time in order to keep their benefits.

You know this economy. That amount is completely unlivable & makes it hard for people with disability to save for the future or have a safety net for emergencies.

A new bill would raise the max to $10K (or $20K for married couples). It would make a world of difference.

Show support, sign this petition.

The SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act is in the Senate RIGHT NOW. Contact your elected officials and tell them they must support it!

Is this a prank? What….

Edit: holy heck it’s real…

They might be able to help us…

The stage that they're at is animal testing but it sounds like it's been successful in mouse and primate models.

My understanding: The way autoimmune diseases usually seem to work* is the immune system is "flagging" the wrong thing as harmful/not needed and destroying it. The typical treatments for autoimmune diseases are just tamping the entire immune system down so it can't destroy anything, which leaves a person vulnerable to infection.

The newer method is basically "tricking" the body using a method that... the human body already came up with. Cells flagging the wrong thing apparently happens all the time, so there are multiple defenses against immune disease, and one of them is in the liver. So scientists figured out a way to tell the body "hey, you flagged this wrong" and sent it to the liver and the liver/body recognized this signal.

There is still a lot of work to be done and it sounds like this isn't foolproof (ie: what if the liver is whats broken? unsure, and what if the immune system flags things wrong again?) but this is literally so amazing. i was tearing up reading it, and i hope that everything goes well in clinical trials.

*theres like a lot medical science doesnt know about the immune system

Thank you for this explanation/synthesis of the article! It's important for us to understand that they're still in early development and testing of these methods, but also that they've seen it work in mice and primates (rather than just petri dishes of human cells). I hope this goes well.

Hi! I'm a microbiologist and I've done work in academia, pharma, and clinical trials.

So the most exciting thing about this article is the last paragraph tbh (working on getting the actual paper, it's not up on sci-hub yet).

The company mentioned, Anokion, has four registered clinical trials for both Celiac and MS patients. The trial for Celiac just submitted data from their phase 1 trial (meaning there's good data it is safe) and are recruiting for a Phase 1/2 trial (meaning they are now testing efficacy). After that, the big hurdle is phase 3, which looks at whether or not it is better than a current treatment. The projected completion date is spring 2025. They are also preparing for a Phase 2 trial but are not yet recruiting.

The phase 1 MS trial is currently active, estimated completion in summer 2024.

I checked the company website and it looks like they are in the process of submitting an investigational new drug (IND) application for Type 1 diabetes. This is the first step to starting clinical safety and efficacy trials.

Now clinical trials can get delayed for a variety of reasons, but this is a really good sign! It's way further along than I initially thought when seeing the news. If the treatment does well, we could see new drugs on the market for Celiacs as early at 2030ish and MS as early as 2035.

I literally just burst into tears and woke up my partners.

Holy shit. The idea of not having celiac disease anymore is so completely overwhelming.

Update: I have registered for the trial and if you also have celiac and want to register the link is here.

[Image one: Post by David Wallac… ( @/dwallacewe… ): "A new type of vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Chicago has shown in a lab setting that it can completely reverse autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes—all without shutting down the rest of the immune system." Attached is a copy of the above link, with a computer-drawn image of the inside of a blood vessel. Image two: Eric Andre pulling frantically at a set of iron gates, labeled, "Me outside the Phase 2 Trial of the Celiac-reversing vaccine". "Let me in!" he cries frantically. "Let me innnnnn!" End ID.]

FAQs & Newbie Orientation (Updated October 19!)

“What do you mean when you say ‘New Age’?” I am specifically referring to forms of spirituality that revolve around the idea that the Earth is about to enter an actual new age, commonly referred to as the Age of Aquarius, Fifth Density, or Fifth Round. If a belief system doesn’t include this, it ain’t New Age, even if it did emerge in the 20th century, even if Barnes & Noble puts books on it on the New Age shelf. (A Wiccan can be a New Ager, but the idea of a new age not a central part of Wiccan beliefs.)

“Why are you so critical of New Age and starseeds?” The short answer? It’s a white supremacist hate movement, and it always has been.

If you want longer answers, check these out: The Deal with New Age, in a nutshell New Age beliefs that derive from racist pseudoscience A quick intro to starseeds Various ways the New Age movement is shitty The New Age concept of ascension - what is it? Why New Age is thinly-veiled antisemitism/nazism Why David Icke’s reptilian aliens are sparkling antisemitism Starseeds: Nazis in Space? (Not my article) What is the New Age to Alt Right pipeline, and how do you stay out of it?

I also recommend checking out the #new age to alt right pipeline and #spiritual eugenics tags.

”What do you think of reincarnation, in general?” I think it’s fine to believe in reincarnation so long as you don’t act like it gives you special knowledge or wisdom, or entitles you to tell other people what to do, or entitles you to appropriate and misrepresent other people’s cultures and spiritual traditions, or tie it in with a conspiracist worldview. (Starseeds do all of these.)

“What if I’m alienkin, or I believe my soul comes from another planet?” Nothing inherently wrong with that! The problem with the starseed movement is its politics - it’s founded on a bunch of racist, ableist, colonialist garbage. (It’s no coincidence that a number of starseeds are outright Nazis.)

“What if I want to call myself a starseed, though?” That’s like wanting to call yourself a Nazi. There is something deeply wrong with you if you do. “Why are you so critical of ancient aliens?” See Spencer McDaniel’s excellent post.

“Do you think it’s wrong to believe in alien life?” No, I just think it’s important to be critical of what you believe about it, and why you believe it. If you believe in aliens, question your assumptions about them. What are you projecting onto them? Why are you projecting that? Is that projection a bit self-centered, whether positively or negatively?

“Why are you so critical of conspiracy theories?” Simply put, because conspiracy theories are tools of reactionary violence. Most conspiracy theories are derived from The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a known hoax created to demonize Jews and blame them for the world’s problems while justifying a return to monarchy; or early modern witch panic and blood libel. BTW, I recommend Justin Sledge’s video on the Satanic Panic. “But isn’t there a bunch of evidence?” ‘Fraid not. All of it’s either fabricated (EG, the aforementioned Protocols), taken out of context (EG, the Dendera “light”), extremely subjective (EG, someone’s mystical experience), based on absurd standards of what constitutes “evidence” (being a depressed teen who liked heavy metal and D&D was taken as a sure sign being involved in a satanic cult in the 80’s and 90’s), or produced through flawed methods (EG, so-called recovered memory therapy), or questioning vulnerable people until the interviewers or psychologists finally got what they wanted to hear. (If you want to get an idea of just how much of a mess this was, and just how unethical and irresponsible things could get, I recommend checking out the You’re Wrong About podcast’s episodes on Michelle Remembers.)

“Wait, do you have actual evidence that false memories exist?” Yep, you only have to peek in on the starseeds to see hundreds of ‘em. See my posts hypnosis is unreliable for memory recovery, and this is one way we know and false past life memories among the starseed movement. You might also take a look at Abducted by Susan A. Clancy. Also read my post here’s the trouble with hypnotic regression for an explanation of why it’s so easy to generate false memories.

“But aren’t starseeds part of ancient traditional beliefs?” Literally no one has been able to produce a single scrap of evidence that anything like the New Age concept of starseeds existed before the Victorian period. However, New Agers are well-known for bullshitting about the age and origins of their beliefs. If you’re going to assert that starseeds are genuinely part of some ancient tradition, you need to provide some real evidence.

“What’s your problem with the Law of Assumption?” See this post and this post. See also: The prosperity gospel, explained: Why Joel Osteen believes that prayer can make you rich. (The Law of Assumption is closely related to prosperity gospel.) Why you should know about the New Thought movement (another closely related movement)

“Why haven’t you posted anything about X? Probably for one of the following reasons:

Please understand that researching conspiracy theories takes a lot of time and can be pretty draining. There’s an immense amount of media to go through, and that media is often some of the most hateful shit you’ll ever find. Sometimes I need days to decompress from it.

“Do you recommend any resources?” Yup, over here!

There's two wolves inside you

One of them wants to see as much fanart where Aziraphale is round and big and chubby and soft

The other one doesn't know what to make of it, since Michael is objectively not even that big, but people view his chub and exaggerate it as bigger than it actually is and it makes you feel bad for actually fat individuals and how they are perceived by society

And it's a constant struggle

Eh, I'm going out on a cautious limb here and adding some thoughts as a Real Life Fat Person™. Obvious disclaimers are obvious: thoughts are my own, I can't speak for an entire community, I respect other people with different takes on this, and if there's something else that equates to basic decency that I have missed out, please either assume that it's implied or ask me to clarify, I'll be happy to.

Content notice: internalised fatphobia, negative self image, general societal fatphobia

This. Read this.

So apparently there’s some new drama going around that involves people messaging people who follow or have reblogged from me, telling them I’m a horrible person because I’m *checks notes from two different people* anti-censorship.

I want you to know that if you have enough time in your day to do this and choose to make this your hobby, instead of literally anything else,

1) I assume you’re a Republican and

2) you’re fucking pathetic. Get a life.

You know, at this point, these people's methodology is such that I'm genuinely wondering if this new wave of purity is a coordinated psyop to shift the Overton Window.

I wouldn’t be surprised.

> a wild therapist has entered the chat.

It's not coordinated.

It's just a result of living in a panopticon. This happens in authoritan states, generally. We have evidence of it from Soviet Russia and Maoist China and during McCarthyism. Makes sense it's happening again now in the age of social media.

If you are constantly policed? You police yourself in the hopes that people will not come and police you. It doesn't work but it is a VERY normal response to the abuse of constant surveillance.

Well, that’s depressing.

Might actually cry a little bit (in a good way) - the new bill that just passed here in Minnesota granting paid medical leave to people caring for sick family members has such an intentionally expansive definition of "family" that biological and/or legal ties are not actually a prerequisite to qualify for the program. In fact, there's a portion of the bill that specifies anyone designated as family by the incapacitated party can receive the benefits.

Apparently this was done in part to make the policy as inclusive as possible of queer family structures and I am absolutely floored; as someone with a seriously chronically ill queerplatonic partner I worry a lot about my options as a primary caretaker, seeing as the fact that we are not legal partners bars us from so many other benefits, but the fact that this particular one would be inclusive of us (and poly partners, and single queer people with no ties to their biological family but close friends willing to help them out, etc) has given me more hope that may change someday than I think anything ever has.

This is how you do policy that benefits the entire queer community, including poly, ace, and aro folks for whom same-sex marriage has never offered the same legal rights (and plenty of other folks besides, like disabled people or people with terrible biological families -- you don't have to be LGBTQA+ for it to be a seriously important option). This is genuinely incredible. I was excited to see this pass even without knowing it would potentially apply to me, too, but now I'm a total grateful, emotional mess.

some days you really do have to just find and wrench one tiny thing from the world w the determination of a hog digging out truffles and make it your anchor. raindrops on a window. smell of the bakery in the supermarket. single defiant tuft of grass between the cracks on the pavement. etc. hold it all w equally grubby and defiant hands.

if alphas in the omegaverse knew that we referred to it as the "omegaverse" and not the "alphaverse," they'd throw a fit

We probably call it that because omegas are usually the POV/primary main characters. Which, come to think of it, the alphas would probably also be pretty miffed over.

...Anyone want to join me in the "little shit" corner and piss everyone off by starting to call it "betaverse" instead?

Hey so @queerliblib added a whole bunch of new queer books to their library catalog, including the Hunger Pangs short, Crewel Intentions, so y’know, go read some bi triad smut for free or something, idk.

(contains spoilers for book 2)

Also check out all their other books.

I haven’t read this many queer books in a row, fact or fiction, in my entire life, and it’s genuinely so fucking healing to search for a book, and it’s already in the system. It's the library teenage me would have loved to have had growing up.

God damn, this post had so many typos when I posted it. I'm tired, please reblog this one 😂

It’s that time of year to say no to the Salvation Army.

Never forget they let a Trans woman die instead of helping her.

Never forget they have tossed entire families on the street for having an LGBT child.

Never forget they tell non Christian families that unless they convert they will not help them.

Never forget that the Salvation Army is bigoted and hateful, many of the bell ringers routinely heckle and harass LGBT couples.

Annual reblog.

It’s time for my annual My Mom story.

My mom and grandma used to volunteer a lot for the local Salvation Army, mostly helping with their fabric sale. Mom mostly did it for something to do with grandma.

I held my tongue for awhile, but finally I said “Mom, the SA has some really problematic policies. I’m not telling you what to do, but you might want to look into it.”

She did.

Keep in mind my mom is a boomer white lady living in a modest Midwestern city.

She didn’t like the things she found out. She went directly to the leaders of their chapter and asked, “If a gay or trans person came to you for help, what would you do?”

They said: “We’d direct them to someone who could help them.”

Her: “But that’s supposed to be YOU.”

Them: “We’re not equipped to help them” (or some other vagueing bullshit)

My mom (aka not stupid): Fuck this shit, I’m out.

She resigned from the SA. A lot of her friends asked why. She told them why.

Over the next year, over sixty people left the local SA, citing their views on lgbtq people as the reason.

Fantastic origami art piece depicting a Blakiston’s fish owl (found in Hokkaidô), folded by Cordialess following a model created by origami artist Katsuta Kyohei:

@copperbadge

It's so lovely and also terrifying!

[ID: Several images of a complex-looking owl folded from paper, with spread wings and a fanned out tail; below the images of the owl is a square image covered in geometric lines, some diagonal but most vertical or horizontal, symmetrical on one axis but not on another.]

This is an example of "pleat" folding, which is an advanced origami technique that allows for much greater versatility in what you can accomplish. When you see those super-complex models of Yoda or a seahorse or a unicorn, those are done with pleat-folds, not with traditional origami folds like you'd see in a beginner's book. They often also, because the technique is highly mathematical, don't have instruction sheets; what's offered instead is what you see here, the square with all the lines, and as far as I understand it you're meant to work out how it was folded from that sheet. I would imagine if you're familiar with pleat folding it's a lot easier.

This is actually the wall I ran up against when I was folding regularly -- there are ways I could have branched out laterally, but I reached a point where if I wanted to increase the complexity of my models I would have to learn how to read these sheets. But it's also essentially a totally different form of sculpture and kind of the province of people with better spatial skills than I will ever have -- the diagrams I was seeing were created by engineers or MIT students or mathematicians, and I knew it would be an exercise in frustration, so I gently let that one go.

...holy shit, I think this is why my high school biology teacher had such trouble with the origami DNA thing.

Hang on, I may have to find (or make) a picture.

Edit: This thing! Right here! He gave us printouts of basically exactly that, but not in color and with no letters. I rather suspect it counts as pleats, but can't say for sure without doing a bit more research.

Anyway, if it does count as pleats, I'd say it's a fairly easy way to dip one's toes into the concept.

Sometimes, I feel like I've exaggerated my mental illness and that I really don't need the amount of therapy I'm doing, and then I'll get a message telling me to kill myself, and a not-insignificant part of my brain goes "shit, you're right."

So then I just have to sit and breathe until my heartbeat climbs down out of my throat and the impulse passes. Because here's the thing.

There's genuinely a part of me that doesn't want to be here anymore.

I've struggled with suicidal ideation for decades. And I won't lie, it's tiring to keep fighting it. And someone telling me to do it feels like permission, and well, they wouldn't be saying that without good reason, right? They wouldn't say that if I didn't deserve it...

I mean, who would do that. What kind of evil person would tell someone to do that if they didn't -- except oh. No one deserves that, do they?

Anyway. Be careful what you say to people online. Some of us might just listen to you.

Just like someone's yuck is someone else's yum, someone's trigger is someone else's comfort.

And if your instinct is to latch onto the worst possible interpretation of something, try imagining the best possible interpretation of it. The truth is probably somewhere inbetween those.