If I see any of you posting shit about not voting, in the year of Clarence Thomas saying we should revisit Marriage Equality and little girls being banned from school sports for having short hair, know that I WILL eat you first when we're in the Mad Max Fury Road level of planet fuckery.

Left out unconventional woman, total woman, brush woman, and woman of attrition.

I AM WOMAN OF ATTRITION

I have a folder called Time is a Flat Circle in which I collect evidence of humanity. Here is most of them.

Okayokayokayokaybut "My hand will wear out but the inscription will remain" is kind of a power line BEFORE you factor in that it is, in fact, over a thousand years old.

It’s always good to spend a few moments, on a quiet day, looking through the Family album.

Something else that makes me cringe? People who think they’re irregularly dark. You know the type.

“I’m not like normal girls lol I read the wikipedia page on Bundy! I’ve got such dark fascinations.” “I guess I’m such a twisted person, I watch horror movies for FUN!”. “Haha unlike other girls….I LIKE night time!” “I know who cthulu is so im basically satanic, I bet my mom would be so shocked!!!”. “I reblogged one picture of a skull, so yeah you could say I’m morbid >:3” “I’m insaaane!!! The dark depths of my soul would scare anyone”

Like come on am I the only one who gags at this stuff

tbh i really dont like it too a lot of the time but on another hand i feel like i often fall into the category lmfao

well if you think about it, it’s kind of fucked up that girls absorb this notion of what girls are supposed to be like that’s so sweet and so clean and so harmless and so pleasant, that young teens genuinely judge themselves to be crazy or freakish for their totally normal human interests in horror, crime, and monsters. it takes them until their late teens and twenties to have the maturity and self-confidence to realize that these are normal human interests that lots of other women share. 

Also fucked up that these norms are often aggressively reinforced by … other girls (and adult women).

Like yes: it is kind of annoying, in isolation, to then experience the results; but if you’re the same age, it’ll be way more fruitful to go “hey me too”, and if you’re older, have some fucking compassion for the kids and the past selves that lived thru the same thing.

And while you’re at it go “hey, me too, and don’t let me stop you from being a Dark Girlie but also, this isn’t that unusual, everyone else is just kinda lying about it a lot.”

sometimes you need to give up committing to the bit when someone genuinely can’t tell if it’s a bit or not and is getting distressed about it :/ sorry

sometimes all u need to do is take one second to say "(yeah this is a bit)" if someone is genuinely asking because they genuinely can't tell, and then you can continue with the bit. i just feel like refusing to acknowledge someone saying "i cant tell if youre joking or not" and you just continue, or even say, "im not joking" then you're not being very funny, you're just being kind of mean, i think.

obviously there is nuance to this and if you know someone really well sometimes going in harder on the bit will make them get that it's a bit and that's fine if you know them. but just be mindful, yknow? not everyone can pick up on stuff like that, and pushing harder on a bit by saying "im serious" when someone asks if you're joking or not can be harmful in some situations.

I drew a little something for the Hiveworks micro comic summer~

@kingkennedyrugs

Fascism sells a synthetic nostalgia.

at the end of the day I do think the fanartists who draw gross old man characters as ludicrously pretty sparkly bishonen are an essential part of the fandom ecosystem. I may not like them. but they are a keystone species and without them you get trophic cascade.

It’s actually insane that our 80 year old, lifelong Catholic, cis male president is more accepting and defensive of trans people than a huge chunk of this website.

I wouldn't argue that he's the most pro trans world leader. He is. He just is. There's no competition.

Also worth saying, Democrats are the most pro-trans (indeed pro-LGBT) major party in the world, there might be some minor parties here and there that are more aggressive but in terms of parties that govern whole nations? none are more united behind trans rights than the Democratic Party

You’re right that it’s dumb to say they’re the same, but I don’t even see him as dragging his feet to protect the lgbt community tbh, when he was the one to vocally support gay marriage a decade ago even before Obama did. His administration has taken numerous actions to support and defend lgbt rights in a time when not only are we seeing the biggest backlash to gay and trans rights and visibility in recent memory, but so-called progressive and left-leaning parties in other countries are throwing trans people to the wolves for political points; given his refusal to dip into what would be a really politically easy decision to start babbling bullshit about trans people in women’s sports or misinformation regarding minors transitioning, I think his administration is better than simply not being outwardly hostile like Republicans. Here are some White House fact sheets on what the administration has done thus far (I’m just putting these here for future reference for anyone curious): 1, 2, 3, 4

“it’s not canon” TO YOU. they’re fucking nasty in my google docs right now

I found this recently and realized I never posted it to tumblr. Promotional artwork I did for a webcomic I was coloring back in 2020.

Looking Glasses Development 3

<== Prev

Ralsei's room! When I knew that I was going to be setting a couple of scenes here, I knew I would need a 3D model to keep the backgrounds consistent. Here's what I ended up with (minus the lights, I added those to make it look nicer for this post)

More about this process under the cut

consider: teenagers aren’t apathetic about everything they’re just used to you shitting all over whatever they show excitement about

Teen: *gets a job*

“I GOT THE JOB!”

Parents: Well, when I was your age, I already had 5 jobs and was supporting my family

Teen: *gets all A’s*

“I worked really hard!”

Parents: Well, of course you did, this is the expectation, not a celebration.

probably why so many teens take to social media where they can enthusiastically share their interests and achievements and get positive feedback that their parents never gave

A LITTLE LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

This hit hard

I remember once, when I was in my early 20s, I was an afternoon supervisor at my job, and I worked with mostly teenagers, and the one day this one kid, who was like 15, was bored so I suggested he could clean out the fridge. He did and when he was done I said he did a good job.

After that, this kid was cleaning out the fridge at least once a week, and I was like, “why are you always cleaning the fridge?” Like, I didn’t mind, but it seemed odd. And he said, “one time I cleaned the fridge and you said I did a good job. I wanted to make you proud of me again.”

Literally, I changed the entire way I interacted with teenagers after that. I actually got a package of glitter stars and I would stick them on their nametags when they did a good job, and they loved it.

My manager had commented on how hard these kids work and I said, “they’re starved for positive feedback. They go to school all day then come to work all evening and no one appreciates it because it’s expected of them, but they’re still kids. They need positive feedback from adults in their lives.”

Like, everyone likes feeling appreciated. Everyone likes being complimented and having their efforts be noticed. Another coworker (who was a mother of teenage children), hated that I did this, and said they were too old to be rewarded with stickers, but like… it wasn’t about the stickers. The stickers were just a symbol that their effort was noticed and appreciated. I was just lucky that I learned this at a time when I was still young enough to remember what it was like to be a teenager. I was only 2 years out of highschool at that point and highschool is fucking hard. People forget this as they get older, but ask anyone and almost no one would ever want to go back and do it again, but they expect kids to suck it up because they’re young so they should be able to do school full time, plus homework, and work, and maintain a healthy social life, and sleep, and spend time with family, and do chores and help out at home, and worry about college and relationships and everything else, and then just get shit on all the time and treated like they’re lazy and entitled. And then they wonder why teenagers are apathetic.

For a german exam I had to argue against an article that was essentially „kids these days, they don’t care about anything and are constantly on their phones“ and really it was the easiest essay I‘ve ever written.

Teens don’t talk to adults bc adults only ask „so, how‘s school“ to then interrupt them two sentences in. And because they can’t engage in a conversation about buying houses and working in a bank. I would’ve loved to talk about philosophy and politics and history with family the way I did with friends and in class but because I was young no one took what I had to say seriously.

And no, teens aren’t always on their phone. They’re on their phone when they’re bored. You think I‘m on social media when I‘m with my friends? When I‘m talking about something I‘m interested in?

Maybe the reason kids are so distant and always on their phone during family parties and the like is because you‘re failing to engage and include them.

Whoop there it is

When you respect kids, they really respond and learn from you. But if you treat kids like “theyre just a kid, what do they know??” then you’ll never find out.

As a Disneyland Cast Member, I’ll add my own experience onto this –

Very frequently, when I first speak to a child while I’m at work, they’ll kind of withdraw and act uncomfortable and shy. Their parents will then rather frequently tell them to not be shy and try to coax them to talk to me – whenever that happens, I always, without fail, politely dissuade the parents from pressuring them.

“I’m a stranger,” I’ll tell the kid’s parents. “I don’t blame them for not talking to me – if they were anywhere else, they’d have the right idea, to not immediately trust me.”

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen that same kid – simply after hearing their initial reaction being validated, instead of reproached – immediately open up to me after that. I also cannot tell you how many times that child and I would go on to start a friggin’ marathon conversation, and I got to hear all about how great their day was or what their favorite Disney movies were or what rides they liked and didn’t like or how much they like a certain Disney character or song…all from me validating that initial feeling and showing genuine interest in what they had to say.

This isn’t just young children, either. I will always remember being positioned outside the Animation Academy one day and starting up a conversation with a young lady, perhaps 12 or 13, who joined the line with her father a full 25 minutes before the class was supposed to start. Now keep in mind, we do a drawing class every 30 minutes: there was no one else in line at that point, and no one else joined the girl and her father in line for a full fifteen minutes. So I could tell pretty quickly that this girl was very emotionally invested in getting a good spot for the drawing class: a conclusion all the more bolstered by the fact that she had a notebook under her arm. I asked her if she was an artist – she said yes, but seemed uncomfortable at the question, so I skipped even asking her if I could see her work, instead admitting that I myself wasn’t very good at art, but that I’m trying to get better and that I love the history of Disney animation. On the screens around us was video footage of different Disney concept art and animation reels, so I pointed one of them out (for Snow White) and asked if she knew the story behind the making of the movie. Upon confirming that she didn’t, I proceeded to get down on the floor so I could sit next to her and her father and dramatically tell the whole story of how “Uncle Walt” created the first full-length animated motion picture, even though everyone and their mother thought he was an idiot for even trying, and how the film ended up becoming the first Hollywood blockbuster. After the story was over, the girl’s father said that his daughter really wanted to be an animator when she grew up, and she finally felt comfortable enough to open her notebook and show me some of her artwork. It was wonderful! Every sketch had such character and you could tell how much work she put into it! And I could tell how much telling her that – and sharing that moment with her, where we got to connect over something we both really enjoyed – had meant. And after the class was over, she sought me out to show me what she and her father had drawn – and sure enough, hers was great! (Her father’s was too, really. XD)

People, kids and teens included, love sharing what they love and how they feel with others. You just have to give them the chance to show it.

A LITTLE LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!

-~-

I feel like I am obliged to add one more thing: don’t ever think that the kids won’t feel your unspoken judgements cause they do!

I felt always like a ‘problem’ in my family, until I was about sixteen, I got this teacher who was litterally the first to tell I was worthy. He changed my life up till this day.

Also how do grown ups imagine how ‘we’ will ever learn to engage in conversations with adults properly if you don’t teach us?

This post is

Everything

I told one of my new coworkers (who is 26) that he was doing really well and that I was proud of him and his progress. I thought he was going to start crying for how quietly he said “really?”. 

Positive feedback makes the biggest difference to everything.

I used to have a coworker who only spoke Burmese. She knew a few words in English, but literally it was like “hey Susu, can you clean the cooler for me?” “Yes yes, I clean, I clean.” She’d moved to the US in her late 30s and never really got the hang of English. (I don’t say this to make fun of her. She was a refugee fleeing a brutal and bloody war in Myanmar and her broken English was a sign of deep determination and tragedy. I say it because the language barrier, and the extent of it, is important to what happened next.)

She was shy, and kind of withdrawn, and extremely slow—it took this woman an hour to do a sink of dishes that took me 30 minutes and I was considered not particularly fast—but she was absolutely dogged. She would do her job and get it done.

So this one day I realized we had all kinds of “hey, great job!” cards on our little recognition board thing for almost the whole crew, but none for Susu, because “she won’t understand anyway.” So I threw a couple of simple sentences into a translation app and spent like half an hour very painstakingly drawing these sentences in Burmese characters (and drawing is really what it was—I felt like I was four years old and holding a pencil for the first time again) and gave her the card. She kind of glanced and it and went “oh thank you” and then did this massive double-take and raised it in front of her face and read it, and read it again, and then just about hollered “OH THANK YOU THANK YOU” and I showed her where she could pin it on the recognition board if she wanted. She chose to take it home instead, which, totally fair.

All it said was “thank you for your hard work, you’re very reliable.”

Everything changed after that. She started using her limited English more, picking up new words here and there (rather amusingly, ours was a multilingual kitchen but she didn’t know which words belonged to which language, and you really haven’t lived until you’ve seen a tiny Burmese woman slap a fryer and say “Oy vay this thing, yeah! Pendejo!” I mean yes, completely valid emotion about that fucking fryer, but when this is how you’re discovering she’s picked up both Spanish and Yiddish and thinks both of them are English, lemme tell you, that sure is an Emotion), enthusiastically participating in things.

She was in her forties.

Nobody but her children had spoken a word to her in Burmese since she left home.

People just want to be known. Sometimes that’s all it takes.

ok!!! :]

This is one of my favourite posts. I use these strategies a lot with my students, and by the second week, I can usually get half the class to engage in the discussion, even online.

The most important part is that just saying that you appreciate them Diane work for all kids and teenagers. Sometimes you have to be willing to actually show that.

EDAs liveblogs: Update

Ok so I don't know what's going on considering Tumblr Support isn't answering me, but Tumblr won't let me post my (admittedly very long) Eighth Doctor Adventures liveblogs anymore.

So I did what any sane person would do and I-

-created an entirely new blog on Blogger just to re-upload every single liveblog I ever made over there because of course I did

So far it's a work in progress so there isn't a lot of them on it. In practice this changes next to nothing for you if you're following me on tumblr, because I'll post links to the liveblogs here on tumblr instead of liveblogging directly on tumblr.

Got it? Let's go

UPDATE²: Every liveblog has now been reposted (there's literally thousands of images to reupload, though, so for now, most of the liveblogs have Tumblr image links. I'll change them later if the links die, or just when I have the time to do so)!

Here's the updated list.

So yeah, I can finally try to finish these damn books again. Not sure when the next liveblog will be uploaded, but still!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now with every single piece of EDA fanart I made in the past ten years, organised by books!

when jesse hears walt snap at and dismiss Skyler’s questions and then jesse and skyler stare at each other in that dark space both visibly wondering about and realizing they are the same? Constantly this show makes me want to claw my own skin off

breaking bad is the funniest show ever

real scenes in breaking bad:

a few i forgot about

good xkcd today

Randall Munroe Discovers Commodity Fetishism and Alienation from Labor

Tumblr User Criticises Webcomic For Not Using Enough Karl Marx Words