@okamikodomo / okamikodomo.tumblr.com
I promise the mentally ill disabled drug addict screaming at nothing is having a worse day than you are. You are not a victim for simply witnessing them. Be kind
“but they’re scary”
you know what’s scary? being mentally ill and homeless
keep walking and leave them alone
Moira Squier did.
JK Rowling wrote about a short and swarthy ethnic minority legally denied the right to own certain kinds of property, excluded from most careers apart from finance, oppressed for hundreds of years but still ignored by equality activists, perceived as duplicitous and bloodthirsty, speaking a guttural language and having a culture considered inferior by mainstream society.
The film franchise gave them big hooked noses.
Moira Squier created a new character from this minority who was the victim of a brutal, life-threatening hate crime in his youth, which radicalised him against the society that oppressed his people. She wrote a narrative in which a marginalised person's resentment of their oppressors causes them to become morally corrupt, and the only "good" members of the marginalised group are the ones who can overcome that resentment. She created a story in which the protagonist must prevent a marginalised group from reclaiming their property, because doing so would make them too powerful, and that might threaten the status quo.
Troy Leavitt was the lead developer for the first several years of this game's creation. He runs an alt-right YouTube channel in which he defends cultural appropriation and sexual harassment apologism, among other things. He oversaw the design of a marginalised minority which bears an uncanny resemblance to Nazi propaganda:
JK Rowling is a bigot, but she's not the only one.
you know when you see those gross cooking videos where a lady is dumping baked beans onto a countertop and mixing in cheese with her bare hands or something, and it's obviously meant to spark engagement and outrage. and people will always say "don't interact with these video; this is just fetish content"
i think a good way to have piece of mind online is to apply that same mindset to more things.
you saw a really bad take online? that person just has a degradation kink and they're waiting for someone to call them out. if you don't want to participate in their kink, leave them alone.
some people can only get off by being wrong. it doesn't have to affect your day.
Been saying this for years. Anytime you see something begging you to respond to it, ask why.
Beyond the human reasons of someone wanting a fight or some other kind of emotional satisfaction, it's usually because the more interactions a piece of content has, the more advertising dollars it makes, or the more traffic is driven to that account's other posts.
"Bet you can't name an American state that has a Z in it!" -- everyone rushes to answer "Arizona" and suddenly a completely inane Facebook account has ten thousand comments (and the account holder can then sell this high-traffic page to someone else to be rebranded).
Any of those allegedly cute animal videos where it's clear someone has put an animal in a distressing situation just to show themselves helping it -- yeah, it's exploitative, and the way the exploitation happens is by enticing you to comment and denounce the content.
A video on TikTok with a caption like "you'll be amazed at what these zebras are eating" -- I was about to click and say "dude, those are hyenas, not zebras" and then realized that's exactly why they put that error there.
Especially with the outrage driven posts, it relies on your need to Not Walk On By when you see something wrong. Remember that if it's internet content you are literally doing no good by interacting with it and in many cases you are becoming the instrument of exploitation or harm.
Take the apps off your phone and touch some grass, and recalibrate your brain's idea of what is a normal amount of distress and pain and stupidity and grossness to be exposed to.
This falls under "don't feed the trolls."
Sometimes the trolls are not people declaring fandom hot takes and angry controversy. Sometimes they're just telling you how smooth the sharks are.
what is going ON today
OH MY GOD HELL NOTICED ME TOO WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING
I don't know, it's your poll!
Originally posted on my blog at https://rebeccalexa.com/feeding-wildlife-dangerous/
Winter is here in the Northern Hemisphere, which means that wild animals of all sorts are falling back on cold weather adaptations that have evolved over countless generations. Some, like reptiles and amphibians, go into brumation or other hibernation-like states. Others have warm feathers or fur to insulate them as they go about their lives in chilly conditions. They may migrate around their territory in search of various food sources. Not all will survive these harsh months, which makes feeding wildlife to help them through the hard times a tempting idea.
Unfortunately, while this is a kind-hearted act born of good intentions, the impact is all too often harmful. Here are a few of the damaging, even deadly, effects of feeding wildlife.
First, let’s be a little more nuanced about the definition of wildlife in this case. I support the feeding of birds, at least those that commonly visit bird feeders. These birds are of species that are used to their food sources–like seeds, berries, and insects–being temporary, and so they retain their ability to forage for food in various places. Also, because the birds are not being fed by hand, and tend to retain their natural fear of humans, they are not likely to become habituated to us. It should go without saying that trying to convince birds to eat from your hand, or otherwise stop being afraid of you, is a bad idea (more about that in a minute.) And, of course, you need to make sure to keep your feeders clean and watch your local birds very carefully for any signs of disease; here’s an article I wrote on feeding birds safely and ethically.
Wild mammals, on the other hand, have a tendency to become dependent on human sources of food much more readily than birds. If you leave food scraps, pet food, or trash out where they can access it, they quickly figure out that this is an easy meal, and will hang around more than birds might.
Some birds will be more easily habituated than others; ducks and geese, for example, will lose their fear of humans as quickly as mammals do, especially when being fed regularly at ponds or lakes. So consider this article to primarily cover wild mammals, waterfowl, and any other animal that can be easily habituated through feeding.
A good example of what NOT to do.
Habituation is the biggest behavior change seen in fed wildlife. A habituated animal is simply one that no longer fears humans, and sees us as a source of food handouts. Unlike normal, healthy wildlife, these animals do not run away when a human approaches, even at a close distance. As mentioned above, this means they may even become aggressive in seeking food, and people have been bitten, scratched, gored, or otherwise injured by habituated animals. It may be easy to see why a habituated bear or moose is dangerous, but even smaller animals like squirrels or raccoons have a very nasty, painful bite or scratch. Some also carry zoonotic diseases that can be passed to humans; rabies is the most notorious, but even a bacterial infection caused by the bite or scratch can be an unpleasant experience.
But this lack of fear isn’t just a threat to us. It also puts the wildlife at risk. Wild mammals that wander through our neighborhoods in search of food are more likely to be hit by cars, attacked by outdoor dogs or cats, and injured or killed by cruel humans. If hunting is allowed in the area, the animal may walk right up to a hunter. Plus wild animals that become a nuisance or threat to people are sometimes euthanized, as relocated animals often end up finding their way back to their original territory, or go find a new group of humans to mooch off of.
Feeding wildlife can also cause them to cease natural foraging behaviors. Not only does this mean they may starve if the humans in the area stop feeding them, but they don’t teach their young proper foraging either, and so you may have animals several generations down the line that no longer know how to find natural food sources in the area.
Also, what we're feeding wildlife can kill them.
So here’s the thing: humans are omnivores. Actually, we’re sort of super omnivores; we have one of the most varied diets of any species, especially now that we’re able to grow all sorts of domesticated crops, including but not limited to two dozen cultivars of wild mustard (Brassica oleracea), various and sundry grains, legumes, tubers, etc. And because we’ve spread all throughout the planet, we’ve successfully sampled thousands upon thousands of edible animals, plants, and fungi. We’ve managed to evolve tolerances to substances some plants produce to keep from being eaten, like caffeine and capsaicin, and some of us go out of our way to seek them. We’ve also heavily altered some of our foods through cooking, to include some methods that render the food quite unhealthy even for us (not that that stops us from eating it anyway.)
All of this means that over 300,00 years of existence, Homo sapiens has evolved the ability to eat a truly mind-boggling array of foods. Unfortunately, even the other omnivores in our lives can’t necessarily tolerate the foods we eat. Domestic dogs evolved alongside us, eating first our refuse, and then sharing our meals, for thousands of years. Yet they still can’t safely eat chocolate, avocado, onions, or grapes, and some things we’ve created like the artificial sweetener xylitol can also be harmful–even deadly–to dogs.
So when you put out a plate of table scraps for your local squirrels, opossums, raccoons, or even bears, there’s a very good chance that something there is going to make them sick. You could even be sentencing one of your visitors to death! Even if they don’t immediately get sick, over time eating the wrong foods could seriously affect the health of wildlife, and may lead to sickness and an earlier, unpleasant death.
Sometimes, even something that seems like the “right” food can be deadly. Deer species in North America are adapted to eating lots of woody vegetation in winter; their gut microbiome is perfectly balanced to digest this tough food. However, some people like to feed them corn, either because they want to be nice, or because they want to hunt the deer. Unfortunately, the nutritional makeup of corn is very different from the deer’s winter fare. The carbohydrates in the corn can cause a condition called rumen acidosis. This overloading of carbs causes Streptococcus bacteria, which occur naturally in the deer’s chambered stomach, to overpopulate in a matter of hours. This raises the acidity of the stomach, and kills off many of the other microbes in the gut flora. This sudden imbalance essentially causes the stomach to stop digestion altogether. In a severe enough case, the deer dies a horribly painful death within twenty-four hours. Deer that survive often have permanently damaged stomachs, which can lead to worse health overall and a shortened lifespan.
Every ecosystem has adapted over thousands of years; in some cases, an ecosystem may be millions of years old (with some changes in species makeup, of course.) Over that time, species have evolved to keep each other’s numbers in check, whether through consuming each other, competing for resources, or spreading disease to other species as well as their own. One of the biggest limiting factors in a species’ habitat is the amount of food that’s available. You’ll generally have fewer large predators in a place than large herbivores, for example, because the land can support a lot more plants to feed herbivores than herbivores to feed carnivores.
So the ecosystem is able to keep its species in balance; any time a species begins to overpopulate, predation, starvation and disease tend to knock the numbers back. Some species even have “boom or bust” population cycles; lemmings, for example, are thought to have population fluctuations tied to the number of ermine preying on them in a given area.
But when we humans artificially change the availability of food in a given place, we can cause serious disruptions in these natural checks and balances. Put too much food in a place over time, and you end up with overpopulations of the animals that eat that food, with subsequent deaths from disease due to overcrowding, and starvation when the population inevitably outgrows even the artificially added food.
By John Davis, CCA-2.0
Speaking of disease, when feeding wildlife many people just dump the food in the same place every day or night, whether that’s pet bowls, a trash can, or a feeding site. This causes wildlife to congregate in unnaturally large numbers and on a regular basis, which again leads to increased disease transmission. Keep in mind that wildlife don’t have veterinarians they can just go to when sick, so you end up with wild animals dying some pretty slow, awful deaths due to these diseases. (And yes, this can happen with birds–again, why it is so incredibly important to properly clean your feeders regularly!)
I know it’s tempting to entice wildlife closer, and to want to help them through tough times. But it is incredibly important to keep a firm boundary between us and wild animals. We’ve already interfered in their lives and their behaviors enough. The more we meddle, the more harm we do to them, even if our intentions were good.
But wildlife are not pets. They are their own beings with their own lives and agendas, instincts and territories. They are, as Henry Beston wrote in The Outermost House, “not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.” And we respect them best when we give them their space and allow them to live as wild a life as possible in a world we have so dramatically changed.
If you want to create the best world for your local wildlife, create habitat and natural food sources for them. Remove invasive species, and plant more native plants, especially those that offer food and shelter to wildlife. (The native plant finder is a great starting point for those in the US.) Work to protect what wildlife habitat is left, especially habitats that are relatively undamaged like old-growth forests. This way you are helping to maintain space where these species can live the lives they have lived for many thousands of years without our interference.
What is it about fics then, where characters always, ALWAYS, have a spare toothbrush conveniently just hanging about in bathroom cupboards for that time someone is, usually unexpectedly, staying the night?
I have lived a few decades now, and I have never known anyone who keeps spare toothbrushes. Is it really common??
:timidly raises hand: I always keep several spares. And they're not even a kind I use (sensory issues mean I'm super picky about what toothbrush I use for myself). I actually thought this was normal?
oh my fucking god it doesn’t matter if there’s a trans character in the blood libel harry potter game because the profits from that game are going to be used to further the eradication of trans rights in the uk im literally begging people to use their brains for once
‘ohhh let people enjoy things’ look at me. look me in the eyes. the money you have spent is going to go to an influential transphobe. she is a major part of the anti-trans movement in the uk. by giving her money you are giving her more power and more influence that she will use to to further her transphobic agenda.
‘ohhh but i pirated it :)’ yeah i still don’t trust you. the game is antisemitic as hell and this has been public knowledge for months. i don’t much care for your support of trans people if you’re cool with antisemitism.
‘you’re blowing this way out of proportion’ nah i don’t think i am. i think you’ve made a choice and you’re not comfortable with the consequences of it. but unfortunately for you you can’t play Antisemitism: The Game made by the World’s Most Famous Transphobe and expect jewish people, trans people or their allies to like you.
[ID: a sculpture of a crab made of small mechanical parts, made to look as though the crab was an elaborate clockwork machine. The body of the crab is round, resembling a pocketwatch case with an elaborately carved lid. The crabs claws resemble small, sharp meral shears with intricate designs carved into the blades. End ID]
Time for MECHA CRAB
A new comic about how cute I am. 🤗
who is telling men that having gray in their hair is ugly. why are they fucking lying
who is telling women that having gray in their hair is ugly!!!!!!! why are they fucking lying!!!!!!!
Actress, Miriam Margolyes: When you know your worth, you know your worth.
She is beautiful and I love her.
She also recently said that JKR’s TERF remarks are fascist. So please, continue to stan a hero.
And she’s a signatory of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, was one of the first people to say ‘fuck’ on British TV, proudly called herself a dyke during a televised Australian citizenship ceremony with their PM, and has been with her partner since 1968.
Mother sloth reunites with her baby
For an animal with an average land speed of four inches a minute that only comes down the tree every couple weeks to shit, it’s kinda sweet to see mama haul ass at the heart-stopping rate of “fatigued elderly woman forgot her receipt”
Artists are coming back to tumblr. Nature is healing.
You can do your part and plant trees (reblog art) to help nature heal.
i love that I was immediately given an opportunity
Tip: You can keep just about any guy in a little bottle on your bookshelf
NOT dudes though, dudes are semi-aquatic and need active tides for surfing or they turn into incels
If you have a proper little gentleman he can be free range indoors unless you have a teacup dragon (they are natural competitors for an ecological niche and don’t get along)
It’s illegal to keep A Man in your house (that’s kidnapping)
Hey what about a strange little fellow?
A strange little fellow belongs on the moors, howling with the winds and roaming about (free-range), but in a pinch, they can BRIEFLY occupy an attic or laboratory
This is the rule making and information rich content that I come on this site for
IT’S NOT ‘PEEKED’ MY INTEREST
OR ‘PEAKED’
BUT PIQUED
‘PIQUED MY INTEREST’
THIS HAS BEEN A CAPSLOCK PSA
THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY USEFUL THANK YOU
ADDITIONALLY:
YOU ARE NOT ‘PHASED’. YOU ARE ‘FAZED.’
IF IT HAS BEEN A VERY LONG DAY, YOU ARE ‘WEARY’. IF SOMEONE IS ACTING IN A WAY THAT MAKES YOU SUSPICIOUS, YOU ARE ‘WARY’.
ALL IN ‘DUE’ TIME, NOT ‘DO’ TIME
‘PER SE’ NOT ‘PER SAY’
THANK YOU
BREATHE - THE VERB FORM IN PRESENT TENSE
BREATH - THE NOUN FORM
THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE
WANDER - TO WALK ABOUT AIMLESSLY
WONDER - TO THINK OF IN A DREAMLIKE AND/OR WISTFUL MANNER
THEY ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE (but one’s mind can wander)
DEFIANT - RESISTANT DEFINITE - CERTAIN
WANTON - DELIBERATE AND UNPROVOKED ACTION (ALSO AN ARCHAIC TERM FOR A PROMISCUOUS WOMAN)
WONTON - IT’S A DUMPLING THAT’S ALL IT IS IT’S A FUCKING DUMPLING
BAWL- TO SOB/CRY
BALL- A FUCKING BALL
YOU CANNOT “BALL” YOUR EYES OUT
AND FOR FUCK’S SAKE, IT’S NOT “SIKE”; IT’S “PSYCH”. AS IN “I PSYCHED YOU OUT”; BECAUSE YOU MOMENTARILY MADE SOMEONE BELIEVE SOMETHING THAT WASN’T TRUE.
THANK YOU.
*slams reblog*
IT’S ‘MIGHT AS WELL’. ‘MIND AS WELL’ DOES NOT MAKE GRAMMATICAL SENSE.
SLEIGHT - DEXTERITY, ARTIFICE, CRAFT (FROM ‘SLY’) SLIGHT - VERY LITTLE, FRAIL, DELICATE
IT’S ‘SLEIGHT OF HAND’.
DISCRETE - SEPARATE, DISTINCT, PARTED
DISCREET - SUBTLE, STEALTHY, DIPLOMATIC
BORN= existing as a result of birth
BORNE= carried or transported by
LIGHTENING = to make something less dark in color or to lessen its weight
LIGHTNING = bright flash of light during electrical storms
{This is quite helpful. Thank you Rebloggers.}
((adm: I just want to add-
Loose- untight
Lose- opposite of winning))
((ALSO: A fun trick - Affect = Action Effect = End Result ))
There = In that place
Their = belonging to them
can’t = a contraction for cannot
cant = a tilt or lean at an angle, usually to accommodate accessibility
Me thinking that this is child’s play and that I know it all already:
Me realising there are some things I didn’t already know:
TO- GOING ONE PLACE TOWARDS ANOTHER
TWO- 2, A NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 3
TOO- A DESCRIPTIVE WORD, THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD, THE SHIRT IS TOO LOOSE.
TOO- A DESCRIPTIVE
WORD, THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD,
THE SHIRT IS TOO LOOSE.
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
I’m gonna add
ROGUE: CRIMINAL/REBEL/VAGRANT/ETC
ROUGE: RED MAKEUP
it’s rogues gallery, guys. Not rouge gallery. You’re making me think batman has an extensive lipstick collection.
If you’re talking about a weapons CACHE, it’s pronounced cash.
If you say cashay, that’s how CACHET is pronounced which means prestige and does not mean a collection of items stored together in a hidden/inaccessible place.
NO ONE IS ‘PREJUDICE"
PEOPLE ARE “PREJUDICED”
If he’s not moving, he’s STATIONARY.
If he’s a fucking space pencil, then carry on with STATIONERY.
If it’s wet precipitation falling out of the sky, it’s RAIN
If it’s someone ruling over people, it’s REIGN
If it’s holding back someone from (or getting someone to stop doing) something, that’s to REIN [them] IN (…as if you were using REINS on a horse)
(and oh yeah)
If you’re telling someone they’re going to have to reconsider an opinion or course of action, then they have ANOTHER THINK COMING
(because “another thing coming” makes no damn sense whatsoever unless they’re in some kind of monster movie, ffs)
Just adding:
HOARD - (n.) a collection of stuff, (vb) to collect a collection of stuff.
HORDE - (n.) a collection, group, mob or host of people, often unruly or barbaric.
PEEL - (n.) the outside skin of fruit, also (archaic n.) a tower house, sometimes spelled PELE; (vb) to remove the outside skin of fruit; by extension, usually as PEEL OFF, to remove clothing, but also (aviation) to break away, one aircraft at a time, from a larger formation.
PEAL - (n.) the sound of several church bells ringing together or in sequence; (vb.) to ring bells in this manner.
BREACH - (n.) a break or opening, usually in a wall; (vb) to make such an opening, also a whale rising clear of the surface of the sea. (The words BREACH and BREAK are distant relatives.)
BREECH - (n.) the bottom end of a gun-barrel, where it’s loaded; also (BREECH PRESENTATION) a baby being born bottom-foremost; also (n. pl.) BREECHES, a historical style of trousers ending just below the knee and (archaic vb) to BREECH, to dress a boy in breeches (adult clothing) for the first time.
English is… Complicated.
And my favourite recent one,
It is “TO ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES” and not “TO ALL INTENSIVE PURPOSES”.
Foe tthe love of all that is unholy, it’s “ I couldn’t care less”, when you say “I could care less”, you’re saying that you DO care.
Also, FFS IT IS "VOILA!" NOT "WALLA"
IT'S. FRENCH. FUCKING. FRENCH. "WALLA" ISN'T EVEN A DAMN WORD [in English].
AND.
"CUSTOMER" NOT "COSTUMER"
a short comic about witches and wishes and wanting things.
I always loved this story
Sometimes I feel like Tumblr is it's own tribe. There are things here that exist in collective memory, shared over and over, passed down to the newcomers that join us, in the hopes it will be kept alive.
Seven years after, I see you again 😚
Guys this completely changed my writing, heed it. I often do an entire draft just looking at sentence variation and oftentimes the results are absolutely transformative in the difference.
This is very very good advice, and absolutely worth following. Read this. Read it again. Follow it. Your writing will get much, much better.
whenever i see this post i am like goddamn this is so true
I love building stories like this 😭 I could rant for an hour about the power of a series of a compact sentences during the onset of a panic sequence which then suddenly gives way into a spiraling sentence of anxiety and fear. Then you cut it off—
Into a more sedately paced paragraph of comfort or realization.
I go so insane for works that vary the length of their sentences to show emotion or character or atmosphere (usually all three)! The horror genre is impeccable with this. The build up of fear as the protagonist notices an open door that was not open before, they’re sure, they remember closing it and feeling the tough wood grain on their fingers. They force themselves a trembling step forward, reaching for the doorknob to—what? To push it further open? To listen to the crawling dread they can barely keep locked behind their teeth and close the door without checking?
They haven’t decided on the best course of action when the wind shudders through the house again, wailing down the chimney and through the fireplace at their back. The icy air slams into them a beat before their outstretched fingers touch the doorknob.
The wind pushes the door open further.
There’s a monster.
