Flower girl Luna ✨🌼🌿 ~ runa05_20

Hi,

It’s your friendly neighbor fanfic author here. In the light of this apparent new trend of people feeding unfinished fics to AI to get an “ending,” and some people even talking about “blanket permissions,” let me just say this:

I EXPLICITLY FORBID ANYONE TO FEED MY FICS TO AI. DUDE, THAT IS ABOUT THE LEAST RESPECTFUL THING YOU CAN DO. IF YOU DO IT, SHALL YOU BE EXCOMMUNICATED FROM YOUR FANDOM AND WALK ON LEGOS BAREFOOT TILL THE END OF DAYS.

That is my anti-permission.

Thank you for your attention.

I also do not want my fics fed into AI. It doesn’t know my brain - hell, sometimes I don’t know my brain - so there is no way some AI is going to know where I’m going with a story. Human creativity and artistry can’t be replaced or duplicated. Imitation may be the greatest form of flattery, but it’s still an imitation.

The Least Intimidating bakery in the village has closed for good so now I’ve got to go to the Intimidating Bakery, it’s awful. If you don’t have a PhD in being French I don’t recommend going to that bakery, here’s the humiliating account of the 3 times I’ve visited it so far:

Can we all say thank you to Granada Holmes for showing Holmes and Watson reacting this way to a blackmailer bringing up how he destroyed a gay man’s life?

To offer some further context this episode came out in January 1992, just a couple of months after Freddie Mercury died of AIDS and barely four years after the Tory goverment with the witche Thatcher made Section 28, the banned local authorities, such as schools, from "promoting homosexuality and pretend relationships", essentially barring them from teaching about being gay in any way, shape or form. It was a time where the AIDS epidemic was still happening and where getting that disease was often seen as a righteous punishment for the crime of well, being gay or associating with gay people.

Yes this was happening in the UK/Europe too. The virulent and often violent homophobia of the time was not confined to the US.

And yet, the writers and director of this episode still chose to play it out this way. They could easily have gone for something more neutral if they didn't want to go for an outright condemnation of being gay, but they did this.

Oh and it should also be mentioned in this context that Brett was pretty openly bisexual.

Colonel Dorking's ruined marriage is canonical, but we are not given the reason (you're free to imagine he was e.g. caught with another woman). Granada said 'No, you know what? Full Milverton! Just why does Holmes hate blackmailers so much? Let's find out!'

Absolute adaptation of all time

Seriously… the fact that the adaptation that is so famous for being as faithful as possible to the source material intentionally chose to incorporate a queer storyline is just *chefs kiss*

And the cherry on top is that they made Milverton’s exploitation of a queer man the most clear reason for Holmes’ hatred for him, who he claims to detest more than anyone he’s ever gone up against. That’s including Moriarty! Holmes is obsessed with catching him to a degree that we haven’t seen before in this series, and that obsession is triggered immediately after he learns Dorking’s story.

It’s just so obvious that the story hits personally for Holmes (and it can also be argued, for Watson) and it’s honestly really amazing that they chose to tell this story in the time period they did. Holmes and Watson show nothing but sympathy and understanding for Dorking’s situation, and the fact that they go to such lengths to defend him speaks volumes.

Also, bonus points to Granada for being one of the only Holmes adaptations I’ve seen that very clearly makes it known that Holmes just isn’t into women. Perhaps they weren’t aiming to depict a gay Holmes — but they certainly were aware of the possible implications and they weren’t shying away from them

Grass Unicorn! 

It was a good little practice painting after so long! 

Couldn’t decide if I wanted a border of not, so here we go! I really like how it came out!!:D

[Image ID: Two versions of a painting of a white unicorn prancing in a dark, yellow and blue toned forest. It has wide gold eyes, a very long white tail, and a long greenish mane that trails from its head to its shoulders and flank. Small plants grow from the unicorns fur, and similar saplings grow in the grass around its hooves. Fairy-like white birds fly by it’s head on a silver line. The second version adds a pale green, lightly decorated border to the top and bottom of the painting. End ID.]

Art by Scott Gustafson (x)

seriously i wish people understood that queerbaiting has almost nothing to do with the actual content of a story. two men can gaze soulfully into each other’s eyes for 45 minutes straight and then at the end be like “oh yes my good pal friend no homo” and its still not anything more than homoerotic and kind of stupid writing.

queerbaiting is a marketing technique to get gay people to buy a ticket. it’s hemming and hawing whenever someone asks about subtext, giving long answers that don’t mean anything to sort of imply “maybe you just need to wait and find out. ;)” it’s interviews where the actors talk about how much they love that particular relationship, and they think they will ~surprise~ you with how it turns out. it’s every single trailer showing these two people almost kissing, even as the creators talk about how offended they are that anyone would think it’s gay.  it’s disney’s 65th First Gay Character that they sort of imply might actually be a main character this time but is yet another nameless asshole. it’s evil, because it’s completely deliberately misrepresenting the actual media just to make a buck.

One year ago today!

Happy two years

THREE YEARS BABY

Apparently (wikipedia) the statue has been retrieved and is in a museum with the graffiti and ropes left by protesters intact. So if it does get displayed, it will be with greater context. So whichever way you swing it, it’s become more significant through civil action of tearing it down. Notably most everyone on the wiki page seemed to agree the statue needed to come down, they were just reluctant as hell to do so officially. The cops say they allowed it to happen to prevent further outbreak of violence which is either a good show of restraint or just saving face for being cowardly. Either way!

Watch out for this stuff.

...And have nothing to do with it. If you were trying to build a scam that would both harm the people it was supposed to be helping, and also leave you in possession of personal data on them that could be sold to other bad actors even after you'd been caught and shut down... this would just perfectly fit the bill.

Don't get caught by this. Spread the word: either physically or in other real life consequences, this scam could be deadly.

Just read a perfectly fine fanfiction that took place in Germany but something that stood out to me was a chapter where the characters walk across a field and is approached by the farmer yelling at them to get off his land.

I’ve come across this plot point a few times and I feel like it’s worth telling writers that most of Europe has some version of Right To Roam. The laws aren’t the same in every country but generally you’re allowed to walk and rest on private property like fields and forests so long as you don’t destroy anything or leave trash, but not gardens or fenced in areas. The owner of the land might put up a sign asking you to follow certain guidelines like no horses or keeping your dog on a leash but but there’s no real repercussions to not following the rules besides the owner eventually fencing the area off so people can’t enjoy it anymore.

I’ve personally walked around on a field while the farmer was harvesting potatoes with his big ass machine and collected the leftovers while my dog was trotting calmly besides me and he looked straight at me and didn’t care one bit because Denmark also has an old tradition of letting people collect what’s left as a form of charity (for my fellow Danes, that’s what “rev vi marken let, det er gammel ret, fuglen og den fattige skal også være mæt” means in the song Marken Er Mejet) This is just a tradition and not a law however so it depends on the farmer.

The very north of Europe like Norway and Sweden even give people the right to put up tents and camp on other people’s private land (except gardens and such). Again, the laws vary from country to country but as a rule of thumb you have more right to roam the further north you go and less the further south but if you want to write in a specific country look up the laws there.

Wow. Yall are really just allowed to exist in public huh?

viz magazine lied to me

for the love of everything that is good and nice DON'T DO THIS

Please do not do this! I'm happy to talk about 'what ifs' or 'what happens next' even if I can't write a whole fic but PLEASE don't put any fics into AI!

#i'm so exhausted#fic being scraped off ao3 by bots is bad enough#readers actually FEEDING fic into AI is breaking my actual heart#DO NOT EVER FEED FIC INTO AI WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S PERMISSION#99.999% of authors are THRILLED to discuss AUs for their fics#the 'what ifs'#the 'missing scenes'#the possible alternate outcomes#JUST ASK THE AUTHOR TO CHAT WITH YOU ABOUT THIS#most of us would cry with joy if you gave us the chance to ramble about our fics!#DO NOT FEED MY FICS TO AI PLEASE I BEG YOU -@cicerfics

our discord unanimously agreed that ratatouille is a mecha and I cried laughing after making this joke

HAVE THE BEST PRIDE MONTH!

Happy Pride to the Aces!

★ Emmm | FMA Major Arcana collection ☆ ⊳ available for purchase >> preorder ✔ republished w/permission

Thank you for sharing this! This is another one of those situations where we are just now seeing the noticeable, dramatic payoff of years and years of quiet, unnoticed environmental work.

“Experts say years of conservation efforts have resulted in some of the healthiest waters in generations, with booming fish populations, clearer ocean waves and more chances to interact with our urban aquarium.”

This quote also really got me:

“‘It never gets old, it’s always thrilling,’ said Celia Ackerman, a naturalist with American Princess Cruises who captured the images. As a child growing up in Brooklyn, Ackerman couldn’t wait to move out of the city so she could study marine animals. 'I would have never imagined I could enjoy them here right in my backyard.’”

Not only that, but they’ve recently introduced millions of baby oysters into the waters to continue the clean up process! 

It’s fantastic news for the health of the Hudson River as well as the harbor.

I would die for Big

I was in… I think 6th grade when we went on a school field trip on the Hudson. Part of the trip involved briefly dredging the river and ‘helping’ the naturalists leading the trip identify the different species.

I will never forget how excited they got when they identified the small (1-2ft) sturgeon. We nad no clue what the big deal was with a big (to us) greyish fish.

It was the first time they had seen a sturgeon that far down the Hudson.

That was nearly 30 years ago.

About 15 years ago, a friend who lived near the Hudson told me they they didn’t see a point in trying to ‘save the world’ because everything was screwed already and it was only a matter of how long until the end.

Which is to say that the Hudson and nearby ocean have been healing a bit at a time for decades and often the healing is invisible to everyone but the experts.

That working to fix things matters, even when you can’t see the progress.

That this absolutely amazing milestone is the result of thousands, perhaps millions, of people working in science, in industry, in education, in civil engineering, to make hundreds or thousands of seemingly ‘little’ changes.

Our actions matter. Work for structural change. Believe in the change you can’t yet see.

I was part of the team that discovered the first evidence of blue whales returning to New York Harbor. Blue whales. The biggest animals ever to grace the planet, right there next to the city. Know what hearing those calls for the first time sounded like? It sounded like hope.

We have amazing power to shape things for the better, to fix what we've done and more.

i would kill for the confidence of novelists who write genius-poet characters and then actually write samples of the “genius” poetry in the book. if i were a novelist writing a genius-poet i’d just be like “trust me, the poetry’s real good.”

A recent commission I finished and I’m very happy with!

Inktober Day 24: Take This

The wardens have a funny way of recruiting 😅