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Fictional Reality

@books-are-way-better-than-people

Honestly, this blog straight up turned into me shitposting. Enjoy the show because I sure as hell have no idea what's gonna end up on this blog.

I’ve been gone

It’s been over a year I think. Many things changed in my life. Still writing, still not finishing shit. Not living with my parents anymore but with my boyfriend of over one and a half year. In love with my two german gigant bunnies. Not at uni anymore. Trying to figure out how to get to September to start an apprenticeship. Luckily been able to avoid Covid up to this point. Battling depression more succesful than ever before.

I’m okay. Life is okay, as much as it’s a challenge. 

Thought: I do NOT think that 50% of the world’s billionaires should be women. I think there shouldn’t be any billionaires at all.

So you are saying 0% of the world should be billionaires?

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Why shouldn’t their be billionaires? That makes no sense.

Because the existence of billionaires is predicated on the exploitation of human labor and unsustainable environmental harm.  That level of wealth hoarding is harmful to economies, as it reduces the amount of money in circulation. No one person, no family, could ever conceivably even SPEND a billion dollars anyway, and  it is inherently immoral to accumulate wealth so narrowly while so much of the world lives in abject poverty.  

Better then to create a wealth ceiling, a point at which all wealth over a certain point  is taxed at or very near 100% to incentivize people to actually spend their money rather than hoard it, stimulating the economy and bettering the lives of far more people. Better even still to create and regulate economic systems that protect workers and the environment in a way that such extreme levels of wealth accumulation aren’t even feasible. 

The problem with this is that it reduces the incentive to actually do fiscally well. What’s the point of starting a business if you can’t become wealthy?

There is a very real difference between “reasonably wealthy” and A BILLIONAIRE

No one is saying you shouldn’t have a nice house, we are saying that having multiple really, really ridiculously nice houses while your employees are either homeless or at serious risk of becoming homeless is immoral.

I’ll never understand why this concept is hard for people. I think it’s because they can’t actually fathom how much $1 Billion is.

Seriously.

Let’s say you have a badass job. A great job. You make $100 AN HOUR. You work 10 hours a day ($1000 A DAY), 5 days a week ($5000 a week!!!), every week ($20,000 A MONTH), thats $240,000 Every Year.

It would take you 4,167 years to make a billion dollars.

Keep in mind then, that if you got paid $1000 an hour, 10 hours a day, five days a week, every week, all year, it would still take over 400 years to make a billion.

You want to make one billion in a human lifetime? If you made $10,000 an HOUR, 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, every week, all year, it would take you 41 years to hit a billion.

(And that’s not counting, ya know, money you spend to stay alive on food or rent or anything. )

Jeff Bezos currently has 140 billion dollars.

$10,000 an HOUR while most of us barely making $12. Can y’all conceptualize now?

Will always reblog

Because this is still a difficult set of numbers for some folks to comprehend (legitimately–our brains have a hard time conceptualizing big numbers) a really good example I like to use is the difference between a million and a billion in time.

1 million seconds is approximately 11 days. 

1 billion seconds is just shy of 32 years

frankly? ban all plastics. require all public buildings to be solar powered. public community gardens in every neighborhood. ban all pesticides. ban fossil fuels. put wind turbines on every sky scraper. gardens on every rooftop. tax cars and fund public transportation. build bike lanes across every city. train/railroad infrastructure across the country (tear down highways). every state mandated to have a certain percentage of land be a wildlife preserve. local/organic farms get huge tax breaks. raise the minimum wage. aquaponics farms in every city. every family has chickens in their backyard. community composting. jeff bezos’s body for fertilizer. i have a clear idea of what i want the world to look like and i want it now. hire me

Worldbuilding: The Government & Politics

Each land has somebody in charge. Be it Monarchy, Senate or theocracy. Let’s have a look at what you should consider when building your government.

Styles of Government

  • Absolute Monarchy: The state is run by one person and one person only.
  • Constitutional Monarchy: This style means that the monarch only has a figure-head position of the government while the government rules the kingdom.
  • Senate: Elected officials sit and debate over matters of state.
  • Theocracy: The Church rules the land

In Service to the People

All governments are there to provide the people with different services and are there to service their interests. At least they are supposed to do that.

Governments are meant to ensure that people are provided with leadership, healthcare, protection and trade. It is up to you to assign politicians to oversee each of these issues.

Taxation

All of these services had to be paid somehow. So taxes must be levied. If you have some issues in thinking of taxes, feel free to borrow from history and even now. Some governments will place taxes on merchants who import foreign goods. This is put in place to protect national trade. Some governments tax nobility in order to keep them from getting too powerful.

Positions in the Government

As I have outlined above, some parties and politicians are granted the right to rule over different services the government provides.

But how are these positions filled? Whenever election seasons comes along, we have officials hammering at our doors, holding up children and splashing their faces everywhere. A modern practice? Nope. Roman politicians used to hold games, feed the people and make rousing speeches in order to get elected. Remember one thing: the politicians may wield the power but the people have the real power.

This is only if the post is elective. Some governments are focused on hereditary or appointment. In mediaeval times, the government would be made up with the monarch and a council of lords. These lords were chosen for their nobility and power over their merits. In England during the Tudor era, Henry VIII made a ruckus by appointing two councils one who was son of a butcher and the other who was son of a blacksmith. The nobility hated them despite their success in administration.

For most nobles and wealthy, a place in office is seen as one way to power. In Ancient Rome and Greece, politics was one of two career choices for noble men. The other being war.

Might and Right

How powerful is your kingdom? Is it relatively powers or weak? You should always make a study of the hierarchy of power in your world from most powerful to least. In real world history, we always favour the larger and richer country as being the most power. Of course throw in the army and we got a superpower. Look at America for a second. Strip away the military, the corporations and trade, and what is it? It needs all of these to be powerful and without it, it is just a land where crazy shit occurs.

Monarchies

If you gave your land a monarchy, there are some things you must consider. Look at any of the monarchy posts I made here. You will need to look at succession laws, regencies, protecting your monarch, their reach of power.

Politics

Politics makes the world go around. Nah, it doesn’t but it’s supposed to at any rate. Politics is always one issue that is difficult to address in worldbuilding. It’s a great beast that none of us really understand or think is important. Unfortunately it is so let’s have a look at worldbuilding politics.

Major political factions

Turn on the news and find the politics tab. They will talk about different parties which all seem similar but are slightly different. Not all politics is like sheep in a pen. You’ll have groups who believe one thing that contrasts the other.

  • In Ireland, we have Sinn Fein, Fine Gael, Fine Fail, Labour, independents and some others my teachers failed to mention.
  • In America, you have a simpler version with your Democrats and Republicans.
  • In Ancient Rome, they had a Senate where two political parties who sit: the people and the nobility.
  • In Tudor England, we had am interesting one. Spain and France were allies waiting to be had so some nobles supported relations with one or the other, which led to nobles arguing over the best option while Henry VIII fucked everyone and ate himself from an Abercrombie model to a middling whale. Then you had the entire RELIGIOUS crisis shit but let’s not go there.

When making different factions, give them each a number of the same number of time thinking. Give them goals, notable members, reasons that they are there, followers and goodies and baddies. Note which factions get on with one another and which ones hate one another, this can be used for plot later on.

Money, Threats and Bribery

Let’s take another look at the real world. What other groups sometimes influence politics? These groups don’t necessarily have to be evil. Some of these groups might lobby politicians to change laws that effect them or to make laws to suit their needs.

  • In Italy, mostly in the period of before and during the Renaissance, the Pope had some pull in each city state and each ruler of the city states had pull with the Vatican. A Pope might be involved in a plot to take down a pair of powerful brothers (I cannot watch you die, not again Bradley James) and a family might take over the Vatican, like the Borgias and Medici.
  • During the Wars of the Roses, London merchants tipped the scales of power by disallowing the Queen of England to enter the city and claim residence meaning she had to go somewhere else. When the new claimant arrived, they crowned him king. Why did they do this? Margaret of Anjou had an army of Scottish and the ability to keep the war going. Edward of York could stop the war, letting the merchants get back to making money.
  • Of course, Ireland has Catholicism sitting on the shoulder of the government and influencing every major decision.

Relations Abroad

All politics are both prevalent at home and abroad. All kingdoms and countries have relationships with other lands. And always remember: knowledge is power so have your spies at the ready. Some relations are good and some are terrible. When choosing how your kingdom sees their neighbors, look at your map. Are there any borders that might be in dispute? Any resources like mines and rivers? Or is there any reason when they ought to be friends? A greater threat that threatens your nations?

  • Going back to Tudor times, Spain, France and England had a funny sort of relationship. They would all take turns being friends and then the vilest of enemies. France would make a friendship with Spain to take down England. Then Spain would be friends with England to ensure that they could take down France. Then France would ally with Spain to end England. This tomfoolery kept the balance of power in Europe for years.

To make or keep a good relationship or any relationship with another country you must communicate with them. Sending ambassadors of gold standing is seen as an excellent try for peace. If you send a shitty ambassador who is of bad standing, this may effect relations and could lead to bad blood between the nations. Most courts included permanent ambassadors who dwelt either in or near the palace who acted as a mouthpiece between rulers ad governments.

Treaties are also things you must think about. These are documents that bind nations in agreements. These can cover peace, war and trade. Some treaties can also cause trouble. The only reason why England and Russia got involved in WWI, was because Russia had a treaty with Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian empire invaded them putting Russia at war. When this happened, England got involved and declared war on the empire. Make sure to mention a few of them that are in place or in talks.

Always ensure that you make note of which countries have traditional rivalries or alliances. France and England were always at each other’s throats. Well, England was at everyone’s throat because they couldn’t stop invading other countries for five fucking minutes. (*clears throat*) So I suggest making lists of which countries have rivalries and which have always been friends and why. Of course speaking of alliances, which monarchs are related by blood or marriage? Think of Europe at any stage in time. All the monarchs were related to some degree, no more prevalent after Victoria pumped out all her kids and married them off. Look at how these relationships effect the running of the country.

Anonymous asked:

Fawkes the Phoenix was based on a harpy eagle, howmcute would a kestrel phoenix be with a peacock tail and train?

this is a Good Opportunity considering i was never a big fan of fawkes’ movie design how about

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 ok but what about

@elodieunderglass uhhhhhh… Birb?

I Suggest we Consider:

AQUATIC (penguin)

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  • No wait
  • this is terrible
  • put it back
  • the poor thing
  • why would anyone do this
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I dunno, I kinda love it… :D

It’s a fine line to tread when you’re breeding your phoenix. A swan is good:

  • Elegant
  • Classic
  • Like Cleopatra, he burns upon the water
  • Equal parts beauty and danger
  • Full of Secrets

But take it a few genes to the left and you’ve got a GOOSE

  • A raptor if raptors were total idiots
  • Neither beauty nor grace
  • Full of Hate
  • Has so much poop for you

(Make no mistake, a swan will mess you up just as hard as a goose. But it is the difference between being slain with a katana and getting whacked with a bag of old potatoes.)

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It got better

Oh my God someone actually drew a Good Version of my Dubious Penguin????? And THEN someone added a sweonix (swan phoenix)? Oh man, this is the stuff you miss when you’re in the middle of a reblog chain.

@english-history-trip that is some powerful art, and I respect the trip that it represents from the sublime to the absurd, for in this journey we find enlightenment.

@keire-ke your magnificent penguin art represents the other side of the journey, which takes us from the absurd to the powerful. In this journey we find truth.

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According to some sources, the legend of the phoenix might be derived from another bird noted for it’s striking appearance and who, indeed, are of the order Phoenicopterus

You know what birds those are?

FLAMINGOS!

Just saying…. if someone wanted to try ANOTHER take on Fawkes….

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This is terrible and I feel like I should apologise, but really, it’s @iconuk01‘s fault.

Also I am not a certified Birb artist.

Never

Apologize

For

Shaming

Herodotus

it got better!

can someone please draw this with fawkes as an owl?

Women should NOT be forced to feed their babies in a bathroom, all because we live in a misogynistic, porn-warped society that’s been brainwashed to believe that female breasts used for anything other than male pleasure is “indecent”. Support public breast feeding and end the porn culture.

Forever reblog

No. I’m eating. I don’t wanna see you hang out your goddamn tits while I have food. My kids don’t wanna see it. It’s not some misogynistic ideal, it’s fucking public indecency. Can I take my cock out under the table and feed my wife/girlfriend? No? Fuck you

i genuinely cannot believe that you just compared a blowjob to breastfeeding oh my fucking god 

getting a blowjob is a sexual thing and it also does not ‘feed’ anyone whereas breastfeeding is literally not even a sexual thing a baby is having food that they need to live like it’s nowhere near on the same level as getting a blowjob omg

if you are uncomfortable seeing a woman breastfeeding then that is your problem because you have oversexualised breasts so much that you can’t even stand seeing them being used for their actual purpose and also you’re an idiot

go eat your dinner in a public bathroom, you trash bag

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End skeevy dudes who compare whipping out their dick in public to breast feeding 2k15

DO YOU FEED YOUR CHILDREN SEMEN? SHOVE A TRASH CAN UP YOUR ASS

Pediatric anthropology student, here.

1.) Breasts as sexual fetishes is a (largely Western) cultural construction. Yes, it’s a fetish – anything you are sexually attracted to that is not the genitals of an adult is a fetish, or paraphilia. My professors have met non-Westerners who think our men are “like babies” because they are attracted to breasts.

Breasts ≠ genitals. Scientifically, they are considered secondary sexual characteristics – same category as facial hair. They can be sexual in a sexual context, just as necks and feet can be. But their primary purpose is reproductive.

2.) Breastmilk is not a “bodily fluid.” It is FOOD.

It is not categorized by the CDC as a biohazard, and so no you don’t need to freak out if your coworker wants to store her milk right next to your Lunchables.

MOREOVER,

Breastmilk is not just protein and vitamins. It is a living, dynamic substance that BUILDS HUMANS.

It has hundreds of ingredients (<— actually that list needs to be updated because they’ve discovered more already). There is a lab at the University of Washington St. Louis, where they have written all of the ingredients of human milk on the wall – They have run out of room on that wall. Among those ingredients:

  • The exact ratio of protein-sugars-fats that human infants need (cow’s milk doesn’t even come close)
  • Antibodies to pathogens in the baby’s environment (synthesized by the mother within hours of coming into contact with a given pathogen) and other immune factors
  • Stem cells. FUCKING STEM CELLS. (They used glow-in-the-dark mice to find out what they do!)
  • Hormones (support growth and regulate behavior)
  • peptides
  • Self-digesting fats (what the whaaat)
  • Growth factors
  • water, vitamins, minerals, carbs, etc.
  • prolly other awesome shit we don’t even know about yet because we’ve barely scratched the surface of this research!

These ingredients change hour-to-hour according to the baby’s needs. It will even add more water on hot/dry days. Fuck, breastmilk kills cancer in a petri dish. Breastmilk. is. not. a. bodily. fluid. It. is. liquid. gold. 3.) When you tell a woman to go to the bathroom to breastfeed, you are perpetuating the notion that it is dirty and shameful and needs to be hidden away. This idea is the biggest barrier to achieving breastfeeding goals in the United States. Because women feel ashamed, they often stay isolated at home when they should be spending time out and about with friends and family and having, like, a life. This isolation can contribute to postpartum depression. From the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding: Women may find themselves excluded from social interactions when they are breastfeeding because others are reluctant to be in the same room while they breastfeed. For many women, the feeling of embarrassment restricts their activities and is cited as a reason for choosing to feed supplementary formula or to give up breastfeeding altogether. And since we have this culture of shame and privacy surrounding breastfeeding, young girls and women don’t see it enough to learn what is normal/not and how to do it, so they often give up when they run into problems because they don’t realize there’s an easy fix. Moreover, an infant needs to be integrated into society in order to develop properly. He/she needs to see faces and hear voices. Isolating them – or throwing a blanket over their head – takes this important component of their development away. It also often annoys them because they are understimulated. 4.) YOU NEED TO SEE IT. That’s right, YOU. Even if you are a dude. Maybe you aren’t a parent, but you probably have loved ones who are. Or you might become one yourself someday. And if you are American chances are you have no idea how breastfeeding actually works, because you never fucking see it. It’s messy and complicated, and hard. It used to be a part of everyday life, because there weren’t any alternatives – So we learned how to do it by being around it all the time, NBD. The whole sexualization/modesty thing surrounding breasts wasn’t a thing until like the mid-20th century. Check out this 1871 drawing of a woman breastfeeding IN FUCKING CHURCH:

She’s covered head to toe, in accordance with modesty standards of the time – except for her breast, about which the people around her give zero fucks. More from the Surgeon General: In American culture, breasts have often been regarded primarily as sexual objects, while their nurturing function has been downplayed. Although focusing on the sexuality of female breasts is common in the mass media, visual images of breastfeeding are rare, and a mother may never have seen a woman breastfeeding. Mothers need to see it. Future mothers need to see it. Future fathers need to see it. Family members need to see it. Everybody needs to see it. SO THEY FUCKING GET USED TO IT. So, no, I’m not gonna go to the bathroom to feed my kid. If you don’t want to see it, then DON’T. FUCKING. LOOK.

signal boost this. a LOT.

I’m gonna reblog this again bc fuck you tumblr

Lol look it’s the post that almost got me deleted from tumblr. Rebloging agian bc of that lol. Also it’s important

breast feeding shouldn’t be classified as obscene 

Breasts. Are. Not. Necessarily. Sexual.

Source: behance.net

last time i did this my wish really came true. so im going to wish again

nothing to lose. :))

Let’s hope

Why not? :)

*crossing fingers*

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pretty much^^^^

i got nothing to lose. (:

Last time i did this my wish came true.

Jesus Christ if my wish comes true I will piss

im fucking crying of joy at the /thought/ of my wish coming true…

it came true last time…so why not

<3

hoping and praying…

Why not.

lets see.

my wish came true……………..this is creepy

Why not lol

Let’s see if it works 🥀➰

I doubt it will work but anyhow

I will always reblog this as long as I have hope

📚 🍵

Here’s hoping…

🐽

Praying for this to work💫

I’m hoping!

Hope that this works bc i need it so bad.

Wished Tumblr wouldn’t have to delete everyone on the 17th

Let's see if this works. If it does I'll inform y'all

About an hour ago, I was in Walmart looking for my conditioner because today is wash day for my hair. As I’m looking for my product, this older white lady approaches me and she says, “Excuse me, miss. Please don’t be offended by this.” And usually when white people tell me not to be offended, 9 times out of 10, whatever they are about to say is going to be offensive af.

Anyway, she follows it up with, “My husband and I just recently won our custody battle with our foster daughter and she means the world to us. She’s a beautiful African American girl and her hair looks a lot like yours. But I’m afraid because I don’t know what to do with her hair. It’s a lot different from mines and our other children and we are at a total loss. I’ve tried looking up the YouTube videos and my husband went to the braiding shops so they can teach him how to properly braid her hair, but he’s still pretty new and it will be a while before he gets used to it. Do you have any tips you can give me? If you don’t have the time, it’s okay, really! I just needed a little advice because I want her to look beautiful.”

Y’all. swear I almost started crying on aisle 6. So for the last 30 minutes, I spent my time talking to her and what products to use and how to properly detangle and comb her hair with the proper tools and what not to do with natural hair. And I showed her a bunch of easier to follow natural hair tutorials on YouTube and saved them for her. (I also had to create a YouTube account for her so she could save it for later.) but omfg, she was so sweet, and I could tell that she listened to every single thing I had to say and she took little notes on her little notepad.

And what really filled my heart was the fact that her husband actually taking classes from African braiding shops. And she showed me a picture of him wearing a little sweater vest and loafers in a little shop surrounded by beautiful black women showing him how to braid black hair and even the lady he’s braiding on is guiding his hands. And omfg. Bless these old white people and their black daughter who I know have new loving parents because they are willing to step out of their comfort zone just to make her feel and look beautiful.

I really hope our paths cross again one day, Mrs Cicilia. 💖💕

This is important

Steve Axford Captures Strange And Undocumented Australian Fungi 

Steve Axford is a photographer on a mission to discover a thread of alien fungi, which has never been captured before. Axford lives in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales and has ample opportunity to explore the undisturbed habitat and wildlife located in that region. Armed with his lens, Axford travels in the latter territory to photograph species of mushroom and fungi that science has no name for yet. He snaps images of fungi. lichen, moulds - each distinct in color, shape and texture. 

Sprouting from the damp soil like exotic corals and psychedelic umbrellas, their shape conflicts with the native fauna and flora, which gives us a small sense of the overwhelming way in which nature operates right under our noses. 

Axford aims to exhibit the aesthetic beauty of nature that is often sadly eclipsed by science. He takes his fascination for exposing obscure ecosystems, which have lived in isolation. He eliminates the objective aspect of nature by highlights its physical beauty through photography. 

I didn’t expect mushrooms being that satisfying to look at??

I know this isn’t related to my blog at all, but if you saw my latest post, I just got let go from my job, the only source of income to pay my bills, including food and medicine for my kitten. I wasn’t given any notice, so as of right now, and for the time being, I will be job-less and therefore do not know how to pay my bills. being a full-time college student on financial aid, it’s difficult for me to get a job and this one job, the one I was let go from, I relied on to pay bills. it was my only source of income and until I find another, I have nothing.

feel free to ignore this, but if you can in any way help, my paypal email is oliviaelmo97@gmail.com. I hate asking for help but I currently don’t have enough money to pay my bills and I’m scrambling to find a job, but the process can unfortunately take much longer than I have the time for. if you can’t help, then reblogging this post to spread the word would be helpful as well. thank you so much to anyone who has sent me kind words.

Today’s problem

what do chairs for dragons look like.

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big comfy piles of pillows

Well, that don’t work in the scene I’m doing it’s too cute not to draw.

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DAWWW SO CUTE :>

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they use human chairs but really badly

Wait elongated chairs y’all. Eight chair legs instead of one, they can lie down majestically and put their chins on the table like they were always meant to.

I’m not sure if this is silly or a good idea lol

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it’s not polite!

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you’re a dragon manners mean jackshit nothing

excuse you dragons are pillars of nobility and composure

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you’re a dragon. who’s gonna stop you? hmm? the dragon politeness upkeep taskforce?

I mean other dragons are really the only thing a dragon fears

Date a dragon who uses big comfy piles of pillows as chairs 

Date a dragon who tries to use chairs for humans but has trouble 

Date a dragon who uses elongated chairs made just for dragons 

Date a dragon who is a pillar of nobility and composure 

Date a dragon who rests their chin on the table 

I love this post way too much not to reblog it.

AaaaAAAAAAAAAA

The cutest damn things Ive ever seen

@basiliskfree @noivern a solution: giant beanbag chairs

Draw that in a separate post also these

I just lay on the floor. Maybe with something soft under me.

Just… Idk Try

If I don’t reblog the dragon chair post, assume I’m dead.

Tag yourself I'm the one with the chin on the table

happy tuesday im so happy it’s tuesday if it were any other day id be so very sad

Oh boy should we tel them?

tell me whab? (:

THAT TUESDAYS ARE GREAT HAHAHAHAHHHHHH………

i know!!!!! they make me so happy! :D

anyway it’s time for bed so goodnight! see yall tomorrow!

good morning!! happy tuesday!

do you think we should tell him..?