Or say, “you’re [incorrect name], right?” If they correct you, they’re the real deal. If they say yes, then get out of there.

If your partner feels threatened when you want alone time: RUN.

welp

thats creepy

This applies to you boys too- if your girlfriend won’t let you hang out with your friends, RUN

No matter what gender you or your partner are, if they refuse to let you spend any time with your friends that’s a big sign of danger.

GUESS WHAT MY EX BELIEVED 🙃🙃🙃

Last time I reblogged this I lost ten followers, someone I liked blocked me, and I got hate mail in my inbox for several days.  Let’s see what happens this time.

Abuse begins with insecurity

My ex wouldn’t even accept a ride from my friend who offered to drive us home in the pouring Orlando rain and instead forced us to walk 12 minutes in the rain, soaking my only pair of work shoes and giving me a cold. FUCKING RED FLAGS

Let’s see how many followers I will lose over this! 🙃

This is a serious red flag for abuse. If any person you date, of whatever gender or no gender, tries to separate you from your friends and family, and deny you any life outside of them, run as fast as you can. There is no way to have a healthy relationship with those sorts of rules. Period.

And leave SOON. Before you start to get used to that kind of treatment and become trapped in an abuse cycle (abusive behavior-crappy apology w/promise to never do it again-abusive behavior again-etc)! JUST RUN. PERIOD.

Tip for all my student readers: if you’re too lazy to use a bibliography creator like NoodleBib or RefWorks, let Google generate your bibliography entries for you. All you have to do is google the article/book title in Google Scholar, click “cite” at the bottom of the search result, and copy either the MLA, APA, or Chicago cite into your word document. 

Signal boost because omg how did I not know this in college?

Since registration is starting soon I figure this is ample time to remind the six people who look at my Tumblr that citing your sources is really important in college and that this will be your best friend forever.

If you’re in high school and want to go to college? Learn to source! You’ll be way ahead of the curve and it’s 100% more important than knowing what the hell a predicate nominative is.

I use http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ to figure out how to cite for my papers, and it’s been quite useful for the three years I’ve been at this!

Artist Whose Painting Got Mistaken For A Van Gogh Creates Adorable “Starry Night” Dog Series

true talent

happy monday trans women are women and trans lesbian are lesbians

happy tuesday trans women are women and trans lesbians are lesbians

happy wednesday trans women are women and trans lesbians are lesbians

happy thursday trans women are women and trans lesbians are lesbians

happy friday trans women are women and trans lesbians are lesbians

happy saturday trans women are women and trans lesbians are lesbians

happy sunday trans women are women and trans lesbians are lesbians

you can only reblog this every time trans women are women and trans lesbians are lesbians

zendaya said fuck racist lives

zendaya is queen

According to the CDC, in 10 percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowning—Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene magazine, described the Instinctive Drowning Response like this:

This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble—they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the Instinctive Drowning Response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long—but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:

So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK—don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you all right?” If they can answer at all—they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents—children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.

Source/article: [x]

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts!

BOOST FOR THE SUMMER. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

Can I just say thank you to OP for putting such a detailed description on this?

I’ve been a lifeguard for 6 years now and of all the saves I’ve done, maybe two or three had people drowning in the stereotypical thrashing style. And even those, like the save I made last weekend, it was exactly like OP describes where the person’s head is going in and out of the water but it isn’t long enough to get any air. Mostly you recognize drowning by the look on someone’s face. If someone looks wide eyed and terrified or confused, chances are they’re drowning. That look of “oh shit” is pretty easily recognizable. And even if you can’t tell for sure: GO AFTER THEM ANYWAY. I’ve done “saves” where a kid was pretending to drown and I mistook it for real drowning, but that’s preferable to a kid ACTUALLY drowning.

Also please remember that even strong swimmers can drown if they have a medical emergency, get cramps, or get too tired. If your friend knows how to swim but they’re acting funny get them to land. And even if someone can respond when you ask them if they need help, if they say they do need help? GO HELP THEM.

However . If the victim is a stranger, I can’t recommend trying to get them. Lifeguards literally train to escape “attacks,” because people who are drowning can freak the fuck out and grab you and make YOU drown as well. If you do go in after someone, take hold of them from the back and talk to them the whole time. IF YOU ARE GRABBED: duck down into the water as low as you can get. The person is panicking and won’t want to go under water and should release you. Shove up at their hands and push them away from you as you duck under. Don’t die trying to save someone else.

Please guys, read and memorize this post. Not all places have lifeguards. Being able to recognize drowning is such an important skill to have and you can save someone’s life.

Just incase!

Nearly drowned as a kid. In that case everyone knew because I fell in a lake in front of everybody, but I remember not being able to grab anyone’s hand because I was too busy trying to keep my non swimming ass above water. Honestly I don’t even remember how I got out. I think someone may have grabbed me by my shirt? It gets fuzzy after I’m in the water

Avatar Aang, Feminist Icon?

“Who’s your favorite character?” I hear that question come up a lot over Avatar: The Last Airbender, a show particularly near and dear to me. Iroh and Toph get tossed around a lot. Zuko is very popular. Sokka has his fans. But something I’ve noticed? Aang very rarely gets the pick. When he comes up, it’s usually in that “Oh, and also…” kind of way. Which is strange, I think, considering he’s the main character, the titular airbender, of the entire show.

I never really thought much about it until a couple weeks ago when I finished my annual re-watch of the series and found myself, for the first time, specifically focused on Aang’s arc. Somehow, I never really paid that much attention to him before. I mean sure, he’s front and center in most episodes, fighting or practicing or learning big spiritual secrets, and yet, he always feels a little overshadowed. Katara takes care of the group. Sokka makes the plans. Zuko has the big, heroic Joseph Campbell journey. Aang…goofs around. He listens and follows and plays with Momo. And yes, at the end his story gets bigger and louder, but even then I feel like a lot of it dodges the spotlight. And here’s why:

Avatar casts the least traditionally-masculine hero you could possibly write as the star of a fantasy war story. Because of that, we don’t see Aang naturally for everything he is, so we look elsewhere.

To show what I mean, I want to talk about some of the show’s other characters, and I want to start with Zuko. Zuko is the hero we’re looking for. He’s tall and hot and complicated. He perseveres in the face of constant setbacks. He uses two swords and shoots fire out of his hands. He trains with a wise old man on ship decks and mountaintops. Occasionally he yells at the sky. He’s got the whole 180-degree moral turn beat for beat, right down to the scars and the sins-of-the-father confrontation scene. And if you were going into battle, some epic affair with battalions of armor-clad infantry, Zuko is the man you’d want leading the charge, Aragorn style. We love Zuko. Because Zuko does what he’s supposed to do.

Now let’s look at Katara. Katara doesn’t do what she’s supposed to do. She doesn’t care about your traditionally gender dynamics because she’s too busy fighting pirates and firebenders, planning military operations with the highest ranking generals in the Earth Kingdom, and dismantling the entire patriarchal structure of the Northern Water Tribe. Somewhere in her spare time she also manages to become one of the greatest waterbenders in the world, train the Avatar, defeat the princess of the Fire Nation in the middle of Sozin’s Comet and take care of the entire rest of the cast for an entire year living in tents and caves. Katara is a badass, and we love that.

So what about Aang? When we meet Aang, he is twelve years old. He is small and his voice hasn’t changed yet. His hobbies include dancing, baking and braiding necklaces with pink flowers. He loves animals. He doesn’t eat meat. He despises violence and spends nine tenths of every fight ducking and dodging. His only “weapon” is a blunt staff, used more for recreation than combat. Through the show, Aang receives most of his training from two young women – Katara and Toph – whom he gives absolute respect, even to the point of reverence. When he questions their instruction, it comes from a place of discomfort or anxiety, never superiority. He defers to women, young women, in matters of strategy and combat. Then he makes a joke at his own expense and goes off to feed his pet lemur.

Now there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this, and it’s the one that shielded Aang from the heroic limelight in my eyes for ten years. The reasoning goes like this: Aang is a child. He has no presumptuous authority complex, no masculinity anxiety, no self-consciousness about his preferred pastimes, because he’s twelve. He’s still the hero, but he’s the prepubescent hero, the hero who can’t lead the charge himself because he’s just not old enough. The problem is, that reasoning just doesn’t hold up when you look at him in the context of the rest of the show.

Let’s look at Azula. Aside from the Avatar himself, Zuko’s sister is arguably the strongest bender in the entire show. We could debate Toph and Ozai all day, but when you look at all Azula does, the evidence is pretty damning. Let’s make a list, shall we?

Azula completely mastered lightning, the highest level firebending technique, in her spare time on a boat, under the instruction of two old women who can’t even bend.

Azula led the drill assault on Ba Sing Sae, one of the most important Fire Nation operations of the entire war, and almost succeeded in conquering the whole Earth Kingdom.

Azula then bested the Kyoshi Warriors, one of the strongest non-bender fighting groups in the entire world, successfully infiltrated the Earth Kingdom in disguise, befriended its monarch, learned of the enemy’s most secret operation, emotionally manipulated her older brother, overthrew the captain of the secret police and did conquer the Earth Kingdom, something three Fire Lords, numerous technological monstrosities, and countless generals, including her uncle, failed to do in a century.

And she did this all when she was fourteen.

That last part is easy to forget. Azula seems so much her brother’s peer, we forget she’s the same age as Katara. And that means that when we first meet Azula, she’s only a year older than Aang is at the end of the series. So to dismiss Aang’s autonomy, maturity or capability because of his age is ridiculous, understanding that he and Azula could have been in the same preschool class.

We must then accept Aang for what he truly is: the hero of the story, the leader of the charge, who repeatedly displays restraint and meekness, not because of his age, not because of his upbringing, not because of some character flaw, but because he chooses too. We clamor for strong female characters, and for excellent reason. But nobody every calls for more weak male characters. Not weak in a negative sense, but weak in a sense that he listens when heroes talk. He negotiates when heroes fight. And when heroes are sharpening their blades, planning their strategies and stringing along their hetero love interests, Aang is making jewelry, feeding Appa, and wearing that flower crown he got from a travelling band of hippies. If all Aang’s hobbies and habits were transposed onto Toph or Katara, we’d see it as a weakening of their characters. But with Aang it’s cute, because he’s a child. Only it isn’t, because he’s not.

Even in his relationship with Katara, a landmark piece of any traditional protagonist’s identity, Aang defies expectations. From the moment he wakes up in episode one, he is infatuated with the young woman who would become his oldest teacher and closest friend. Throughout season one we see many examples of his puppy love expressing itself, usually to no avail. But there’s one episode in particular that I always thought a little odd, and that’s Jet.

In Jet, Katara has an infatuation of her own. The titular vigilante outlaw sweeps her off her feet, literally, with his stunning hair, his masterful swordsmanship and his apparent selflessness. You’d think this would elicit some kind of jealousy from Aang. There’s no way he’s ignorant of what’s happening, as Sokka sarcastically refers to Jet as Katara’s boyfriend directly in Aang’s presence, and she doesn’t even dispute it. But even then, we never see any kind of rivalry manifest in Aang. Rather, he seems in full support of it. He repeatedly praises Jet, impressed by his leadership and carefree attitude. Despite his overwhelming affection for Katara, he evaluates both her and Jet on their own merits as people. There is no sense of ownership or macho competition.

Contrast this with Zuko’s reaction to a similar scenario in season three’s The Beach. Zuko goes to a party with his girlfriend, and at that party he sees her talking to another guy. His reaction? Throwing the challenger into the wall, shattering a vase, yelling at Mai, and storming out. This may seem a little extreme, but it’s also what we’d expect to an extent. Zuko is being challenged. He feels threatened in his station as a man, and he responds physically, asserting his strength and dominance as best he can.

I could go on and on. I could talk about how the first time Aang trains with a dedicated waterbending master, he tries to quit because of sexist double standards, only changing his mind after Katara’s urging. I could talk about how Aang is cast as a woman in the Fire Nation’s propaganda theatre piece bashing him and his friends. Because in a patriarchal society, the worst thing a man can be is feminine. I could talk about the only times Aang causes any kind of real destruction in the Avatar state, it’s not even him, since he doesn’t gain control of the skill until the show’s closing moments. Every time he is powerless in his own power and guilt-ridden right after, until the very end when he finally gains control, and what does he do with all that potential? He raises the rivers, and puts the fires out.

Aang isn’t what he’s supposed to be. He rejects every masculine expectation placed on his role, and in doing so he dodges center stage of his own show. It’s shocking to think about how many times I just forgot about Aang. Even at the end, when his voice has dropped and his abs have filled in, we miss it. Zuko’s coronation comes and we cheer with the crowd, psyched to see our hero crowned. Then the Fire Lord shakes his head, gestures behind him and declares “the real hero is the Avatar.” It’s like he’s talking to us. “Don’t you get it?” he asks. “Did you miss it? This is his story. But you forgot that. Because he was small. And silly. And he hated fighting. And he loved to dance. Look at him,” Zuko seems to say. “He’s your hero. Avatar Aang, defier of gender norms, champion of self-identity, feminist icon.”

Father uses sons’ drawings as inspiration for anime transformations

By: Thomas Romain (twitter | instagram | youtube | patreon)

Wholesome and badass

The father’s artistic talent is clearly on display here, but I’m actually really impressed with this kid’s wild imagination. Many of his drawings are both conceptually unique and coherent.

Should be called dad keeps showing up sons drawings to get better spot on he refrigerator

REBLOG IF NAZIS OFFEND YOU MORE THAN NIPPLES.

im these gays who showed up specifically to see velma

trans girls this is for you

💕💗💝💘💞💗💓💕💘💝💓💞💗💖💕💘💖💞💝💓💗💖💕💝💓💞💖💘💗💕💘💝💖💞💓💗💕💝💗💞💓💖💘💝💞💕💘💖💓💞💗💝💕💘💗💗💞💝💓💗💖💘💕💞💝💓💖💘💕💗💞💞💝💗💖💘💕💘💗💞💝💖💗💓💘💕💖💝💖💞💓💖💕💘💝💞💗💖💓💞💖💖💕💝💞

How to casually out yourself

Note: This advice is not meant for outing to close friends and family. They will most likely need some time to process the information. Let them ask you stuff and start an open conversation.

Look, you can bitch about Straight People ™ but the truth is most of them will never know how to react when you out yourself. You’re the one who has to SET THE TONE of the conversation!

When an SP assumes you’re one of them, which happens all the time, don’t panic! Correct them and move on by casually shifting to another topic (best to ask them something about them).

Are you’re worried the SP who was hitting on you might be offended or take it as a rejection (and this is actually very common)? Don’t be. They will survive. You don’t owe them an explanation.

Based on my experience as a gay girl, I learned to use the term “gay” instead of “lesbian” while talking to straight men. Most of them still connect the L word with porn. That’s a rabbit hole you don’t… you know.

They don’t have to ask you. Just say something like “I’m spending the weekend with my girlfriend/boyfriend,” and then change the subject to distract them from the inevitable thought that you must be the “boy” in the relationship.

Don’t pause before saying it.

Don’t let your voice break.

Don’t look away or if you were doing something else (tattooing in my case), don’t stop to check their reaction.

Don’t do an apologetic shrug afterwards.

Practice.

Why is this important?

Because SPs assume you’re one of them. It’s logical. They are the norm in their circles. And it’s nice to come clean right away.

I did it every time when I started a new school, class, job… Imagine working with the same people for a month and trying to casually out yourself when they already told you all about their SP partners. Not that easy.

I’m not pushing anyone to out themselves if they are not ready! You know your community best!

Be brave and stay safe.

P.

Do y'all remember being a kid and trying to read in the car while it was dark outside and your parents wouldn’t let you turn on the light so you would try to grab snatches of sentences when you passed by street lights

ALERT TO ALL ANTHRO ARTISTS

the tag “fur-ry” (minus the dash) is among those in the site-side blacklist, and is why so much artwork and so many blogs are suddenly invisible from the search.

provided this isn’t a temporary measure, i strongly advise to remove the “fur-ry” tag and use stand-in tags such as “anthro” and “kemono”, since neither are affected. 

the New Xkit extension “Tag Replacer” is an easy way to swap your tags over, and you can change it back if this issue gets resolved!

for any artists who may be wondering:

blacklisted furry furries cleanfur cleanfurs female furry femfurry furry male furry female

unaffected anthro anthro art anthropomorphic avian clean furry cleanfurry cute furry femalefurry furry art furryart furry oc furry sfw furry fandom furryfandom fursona fursona art kemono male furry scalie sfw furry sfwfurry safe fur work

there’s a good chance i’ve missed a few, but hopefully, this can make things a bit easier to manage

Reblogging this because a lot of blogs are affected. If people can’t search for your work this is why. Going to have to spend some time this weekend to fix the tags on my posts too.

How the hell can zenyatta ever get a cinematic when two of his main abilities don’t even fucking exist

zenyatta canonically just shit talks you to death

This should be the new M&M commercial!