GAMES MADE BY PEOPLE WHO ARE PAID MORE TO WORK LESS

two things: I hate change and having my routines interrupted. I hate things being the same it’s boring

So I was made to feel old today...

Two decades today

Something that I first applied to working with children, and have applied in a limited form to working with adults: you don't need to tell someone when they read your instructions wrong. Sometimes it's enough to point out what they did right and then whatever they didn't do? You ask them to do it in more precise words, and you make it sound like it's a new request. Remarkable how fast things get done this way.

This is also a habit I built up from emergency response training. If I say "I need you to bring me a first aid kit and an accident report" and you bring me just a first aid kit, it's so much more efficient to say "thanks now can you bring me an accident report" than "I asked you to bring an accident report why didn't you bring me one".

Once you've internalized "a person bleeding out is one of the worst times to start an argument" you start to wonder what other tasks could get accomplished without arguing

Daryl and Marlin, our ship cats! It's Marlin's second season sailing (though he's been with us three years- got locked at the seaport last season for crimes) and Daryl's first! What sweet babies 💖

The people have spoken: What Crimes Has Locked This Poor Soul Away

You are Marlin, ship's cat and mascot of the tallship Lady Washington. It is the summer of 2021, you are about a year old, and full of Mischief.

Lady is docked in the Port of Everett, and no one is paying attention to you- never mind the fact that they're doing their jobs and getting money so they can keep pampering you. No, they're not paying attention to you Right This Instant, so you decide you want to take a little jaunt off the ship and explore on your own.

In addition to the marina, the waterfront, and all manner of other delights, the Port of Everett also has a Naval base, so you decide to check it out! See what all the fuss is about.

Of course, wandering kitties without the proper credentials aren't allowed on high security Naval bases, so when the Marines inevitably capture you and ask you where your people are and what you're doing here and how you got here, you just curl up cutely and bat your eyes and meow the most pitiful meow because these new people are paying attention to you but not the Right attention, no one's even petting you!

They call the number on your collar, which goes to the captain of Lady at the time, who... is on leave. In Florida.

"Ma'am? Is this your cat?"

"Oh god yeah where was he?"

"A high security government facility. Can you come pick him up?"

"Considering I'm on the other side of the country, no. Let me get in contact with the crew to send someone."

"Thank you. Also he's very cute."

"I know."

So the captain does just that, playing telephone while trying to find someone to go pick you up. Except by the time a viable crewmember is chosen and calls back to confirm, you've gotten bored and decided you want to leave.

So you clawed the Marine holding you and escaped.

You get a smidgen more exploring time before you're captured again and taken to your crew and back to the boat, but at this point no one is happy including you, because no one pet you the Whole Time you were off adventuring and that's a damn travesty.

And not only that, when you get back to the ship, you're locked up tight in the aft cabin because no one trusts you anymore not to wander off and break into government facilities when they're not looking, and then when the boat gets back to her homeport in Aberdeen, they do you just the WORST injustice and lock you inside there! For the whole winter! And then the following summer, because you are now a Criminal and Criminals don't sail.

Except this season, you made Big Pouty Eyes at everyone, and they caved and let you back on, so you are a very happy kitty now.

With a tracker in your collar so this doesn't happen again.

I want to preface this by saying this is not victim blaming. This not calling people online lazy or grifting or whatever.

But an underlooked proponent on why some people are nearing homeless and crowdfunding heavily rn is bc society has failed you by making it as inconvenient as possible to learn about social systems and programs that already exist to help your situation as well as not having enough programs and aid.

Lemme give some examples. I have been unemployed for 10 months. My mom told me about a paying job training program a month ago after I already decided to mive in with her to find work, because nothing was coming up in my own city. My best friend didn’t know about affordable housing assistance in my state until she talked to my dad about it on a chance encounter. Some people on here have to see posts about much cheaper alternatives to their current prescriptions or medical plans because its not in the interest of their doctors paychecks to tell them about it. I would have waited to get vaccinated and not have crowdfunded for Uber money if I had known they were going to give free vaccine rides the next month. But I wouldn’t have really known this until I opened the app once that program started, because it is in their interest to keep taking my money until its their desired time for me to reap their “generous” services.

What I’m trying to say is that this is an under discussed aspect of how capitalism fails people. When you are forced to make your life and work and finances so singular and self interested, you are cut off from community and equivalent social services to proper government assistance. You literally don’t know that there is help somewhere out there for you unless you’re told.

I believe a professor I had called this “cultural wisdom” but I haven’t been able to find the social science articles that expanded on this. It’s a practical knowledge of local systems that allows someone to function and thrive in that system. The example she used was having an understanding that banks can hold your money, but the practical aspect of accessing your money (in a convenient and easy manor) was knowing about ATMs and how to use them. But unless you have an account or someone ready to inform you, there’s no dedicated time or milestone where someone learns this.

And that’s just with a machine designed to give you YOUR money, let alone complex social service programs.

I want everyone who crowdfunds for hospital bills to know they probably don’t have to oay them at all. Just find the financial aid office of the hospital. It’s on the website BY LAW. Find the form. Fill it out. Get the bills canceled or lowered! You don’t need crowd money, you need the government’s money that’s already set aside for your medical care.

GO TO, MESSAGE, OR CALL YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. Libraries are focusing more and more on community resources, support, and outreach. If you genuinely don’t know something or feel uncertain or are in a new situation, a reference librarian will not only help you sort your thoughts through their reference interview but then help you arm yourself with knowledge from reliable and often local sources. It doesn’t even have to be a question to Ask A Librarian. You can simply say “I’m in this situation now. I don’t know what to do next./I’m not confident I know everything I should or want to know.”

If you are in America - 211 is your friend. It’s the United Way’s database of social assistance resources. When I was doing resource development for my masters in social work 211 was my holy grail. And there’s things that only workers know about that just calling and asking can reach cuz it sets off the social service phone tree. I will say YOU have to be persistent of you want to access these resources. Most of the ngo agencies are most interested in helping the pro-active clients in my experience. But do use the resources. They’re golden.

foodstamps r easier to get on than you think - here in wi if you make around less than $2000 - i don’t remember the exact number - a month you qualify for foodstamps, where you get money (we get $180 i think?) every month for whatever food you want and it rolls over to next month, never expires. at least in wi, it Will ask you about your entire household income but if you dont share food with your roommates (they have no hoops you jump through to verify this, they take you at your word) their income is not counted. this is all wi-specific but just an example of how easy food assistance can b when i feel like its often seen as this last-ditch thing few qualify for

getting back into mlp by making a pony based off the unreleased episode 'Number Fish Fan', where discord finds out he has a very dedicated fan.

“are you pre-op or post-op”

My commander told me to never speak of the op to anyone, because spies are everywhere.

we justifiably give Biden a lot of shit but I think "at least 3" is the funniest possible response to some right wing dipshit asking you how many genders there are

wait it gets better

I haven’t ever linked it on tumblr, but a few months ago i started an introspective gender-ramble comic called Transperience ft; Callie Ohpeee

currently its very bite sized

Jean Paul Gaultier's "Vampire Suit" (1998)

Call me Revelations the way im 365 pages deep in his bussy (Bible pussy)

Who blazed this

opens box that reads "i wanna draw again". inside lies a note. the note says, "mental illness and difficult circumstances have taken years of interest, accessibility, and skill away from me. i want to forgive myself for that. i want to heal my relationship to my hobbies. i want to feel connected to something that once made me feel good, but the cyclic discouragement is difficult to overcome." i turn over the note. on the back it reads "wannta drawe sexy bodies awooga"

seems like this one really resonated with the artists who dont do art fandom

there is a new scourge on AO3 that I discovered recently...

that scourge is "Placeholder fics". This is thing, where someone posts a "fic" on AO3 with a summary and tags (and sometimes even a complete tag), but when you click on the "fic" the content of the "fic" is something like:

"coming soon" or "in progress" or "an idea I'll write someday"

This is a scourge on AO3 tags that directly violates TOS Section IV, as it is spam (sect B) and inappropriate content (sect H) (not, strictly speaking a fanwork).

If you see these "placeholder fics" on AO3 REPORT THEM. It is easy to do.

Link the fic in report and in the description, you can write something like this:

(This, btw is the actual thing that I wrote to report one of these a few weeks ago)

If you want to get jazzy you can even mention that you believe the "fic" violates TOS IV.H (which is what the AO3 mod told me in the email response to my report) or TOS IV.B.

You can report anonymously if you want afaik. Once you submit a report the AO3 moderators will get back to you at some point to update you on that report and action taken.

This is a simple way that YOU can make AO3 better today. If you see a "fic" that violates TOS in any way, REPORT IT. There are literally millions of fics on AO3 and the moderators can't possibly go through all of them without YOUR help.

I suspect that the people who are posting these "placeholder fics" are probably very young people who are very new to fandom and fanfiction and do not know better. If you are reading this post, and you are one of these people, know that I don't hate you, I just want you to know that what you are doing is a violation of the AO3 TOS and that it fills AO3 tags with spam, preventing readers from finding actual fic to read. There can be (and certainly are) MANY fics on AO3 with the SAME names, if that's what is motivating this.

AO3 isn't a social media site, it's an ARCHIVE for fanfiction. If you want to communicate with your following that you are planning on writing a new fic, use your tumblr, your reddit, your dreamwidth, your substack, your pillowfort, your livejournal, your bird site or whatever the fuck you have to do this. Link your socials in your bio on AO3 if you must. Mention it in the author's notes on your latest work. IDK, just don't post empty "fics" on the ARCHIVE.

Ok, so, i can see why this could be annoying, and i understand that it may be a scourge.

BUT as someone who does this, i would like for you to understand that it is another way for me to motivate myself. By posting these "empty fics" and getting them out there for people in that famdom to see the potential, i then have forced myself into writing it.

I do not have any sort of following on socials, as with many fanfic writers, so that is not a viable option for me. By promising these people this fic, i have also promised myself to write.

(Also, does it count if i have a trailer chapter that has actual content? But like the content is a very brief snippets, cause i usually do that)

Might I propose we start tagging such fics as something like "under constuction" or "coming soon to an ao3 near you"? Because then you, a reader who does not wish to see fics like that, can either filter them out, or just skip them, and then writers who need to just get something down first can also do that.

Of course, the tag name can be disputed later, but i just wanted to help you understand my side of this problem

Of course you can completely disagree, i just wanted atleast the possibility of a truce.

I would love for more input if you would like, because i only know my side and the above glimps of your side(cause i haven't really seen any fics like you described except my own(NOT TO INVALIDATE YOUR EXPERIENCE!!!! Just sharing mine.(i swear, every word i spout feels like I'm adding fuel to the fire)))

As the op stated, ao3 is an archive, not an advertising space, which is what you’re trying to do. Even if you “promise the fic” to others, there are going to be many more who went to read a fic and found none. It’s a betrayal of the community that uses the archive, even with tags stating the intent. You will only make yourself notorious for violating both the terms of service and the social contract of ao3, and people will block you in droves so you never get those readers you’re trying to appeal to.

You’re better off posting in tumblr tags and things like that cause people follow those, too, so you’re not just dumping ideas and placeholders out to people who don’t event want to see it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a “following” because if you post things properly you will find people interested in your fics. Most tumblr users don’t use the algorithm option, so it’s much easier to “break through” and get noticed because if you’ve posted in whatever tag recently, people will see it.

Needing to force yourself into writing is a personal problem; don’t make it the rest of ao3’s readers. And again, it is in the terms of service that you cannot do this. If you continue to try to dodge the rules, you will only come off as entitled and disrespectful and people will avoid your fics out of spite.

Regarding your “trailer” idea, I’d expect a full chapter to be posted at the same time or else it’s just a one shot that may be expanded upon later.

the gloom claims the hero👁️ #totk

"babygirl i have symptoms you couldn't even imagine"

My doctor after a long sigh: "can you PLEASE stop calling me that"