Fic authors deserve more credit.
Story time: I started a book about 23 hours ago and just finished it. Also in that time I slept for 10 hours, spent time with family, was at work, etc. Anyway, I enjoyed the book (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda). But it felt like it flew by, so after I finished I looked up the word count because what are pages? Pages are meaningless. I only function in word counts anymore.
The estimate I found was 58,580. My immediate reaction was “oh, that’s why. That’s nothing!” But what a shitty response. Because no. That’s not nothing. That’s a whole. Damn. Book. An entire novel! And Fic authors regularly bust out 30k, 50k, 100k, 150k words. AND THEY DO IT FOR FREE. WHILE WORKING AND LIVING THEIR LIVES.
So anyway, thank your favorite fic author today because they deserve it. Because they’re amazing. They’re the MVPs.
Tag: important
Learn to defend against a bigot grabbing your hijab from behind!
In this post-election hate-crime spike, self defense is more important than ever. Practice this move until it becomes muscle memory and teach your body to react before thinking.
(via Zee Abdulla)
Signal boost. Anyone know if this would work equally as well if he grabbed with his other hand? I feel it wouldn’t, but it’s still better than nothing.
If the attacker used the other hand, then the woman wearing the hijab could use the opposite arm than is shown. SO PRACTICE BOTH SIDES.
Also please note the position of her arm on his. It’s not on the elbow but just above it. That is will be important for the submission. The grip on her hand is important as well. It looks like she is using a monkey grip where the thumb stays with the fingers of the hand instead of wrapping around. It protects your thumb from being broken and can be a stronger grip in general.
But yes, practice practice practice practice
Btw, if you click on her name, Zee Abdulla, in the post it takes you to her Facebook where she has another video for a defense for a front hijab grab.
5 Things People Don’t Get About Borderline Personalities
The whole article seems a bit all-over-the-place to me, BUT it had one of those sentences in it where as soon as your eyes hit it the penny drops and your heart skips:
“Harvard professor Judith Herman even believes that BPD may not exist at all, suggesting that it’s actually a form of PTSD that has turned into a label to be slapped on troubled women because it fits so neatly into our ideas about them, conveniently allowing them to dismiss us as “born bad.” Add the fact that most people diagnosed with BPD have experienced severe trauma to the list of things that are probably not coincidences.”
So I’m on chapter 8 of Into the Drowning Deep, and I have a question: did you mean to code Olivia as autistic? I’m autistic and I see so many of my own little ticks and quirks in her it’s astounding.
I didn’t mean to code Olivia as autistic, no: Olivia is autistic, full stop. She says as much a little later in the book, when she’s talking about her relationship with her parents (mostly her father) and some assumptions they made about her future before she was old enough to shut that shit down.
This was so important to me reading this book. As someone with Asperger’s, it happens so often that a character is speculated within a book/show/movie to be on the spectrum but the character denies it/other characters deny it/or later the writers/actors deny it. And it hurts. Like when people speculated Cumberbatch’s Sherlock was on the spectrum and Benedict said no, because he’s met people with autism and they can’t hope to be that advanced. Or how Will Graham literally says on the NBC show Hannibal that he is on the spectrum but actors/writers later say he isn’t and other characters say he isn’t because he has empathy, playing into the myth that people on the spectrum lack empathy. It hurts to think you have representation and then have that jerked violently out of your hands with the erroneous claim ‘people on the spectrum can’t do this/be like this.’
having a character explicitly and uncontestedly being on the spectrum was so important to me.
That is honestly why I try not to code people unless they’re at a place where diagnosis is not available to them, and then to be upfront about their neurological state when asked. (Example: Jack Wolcott, from the Wayward Children series, has the same kind of OCD I do. But she’s never been diagnosed. She was too young when she left for the Moors, and when she got back, she had better things to worry about. So she’s technically coded OCD rather than explicitly OCD, but I talk a lot about translating my own experiences onto her.)
Olivia is autistic. Everything about her was written with that in mind, including the fact that she’s a very successful media personality who dresses as Emma Frost for conventions, and these are absolutely 100% things that autistic people can do, because I have met real, live, non-fictional autistic people who do them.
why does it matter so much that Clint wasn’t deaf in the MCU??? Like it’s not super important to his character? I don’t know why you’re all worked up about this because it literally doesn’t even really matter??? if the first anon was annoyed by your always writing sign language into your fics they have a right to be??? the things you write aren’t just yours you have to respe ct your audience
*sighs heavily* So okay here’s the thing. It actually does matter that Clint wasn’t deaf. It really really really really matters. And you know why it really matters? Because for YEARS I have been super self-conscious about being Hard of Hearing, to the point that I didn’t tell people. I’d just pretend to know what people were saying even if I didn’t (believe me, I didn’t). If I had, at an earlier age, seen a deaf superhero asking his colleagues to speak up, to face him so he could read their lips, wearing hearing aids– god I would’ve been so much less embarrassed about doing those things too.
I think about the kids I see at my work in the grocery store and at Lush, kids with hearing aids, whose hands fumble over signs, and I feel this pang in my chest for them. Not because they’re “pitiful”, but because there are people who don’t realize what kind of community they’re going to grow up in. People who don’t care about the way the world works for them, for us. They don’t know they could be superheroes. Because people like Joss Whedon take that away from them without blinking.
Representation really matters. Especially when it comes to some sort of disability or shift in the perspective of what is “normal”. The same way you wouldn’t write a fic in which Matt Murdock wasn’t blind, you shouldn’t film a movie in which Clint Barton isn’t deaf. Because that is part of who he is.
And by writing a script in which his deafness isn’t recognized sends a very clear message to the deaf/hoh community, which is: “people like you could never be superheroes” and even worse, “representing your community is not worth the effort”.Secondly, I need you to read this very clearly: I will never ever write a fic in which Clint Barton is hearing, or a fic in which he does not utilize ASL. If that “bothers” my audience, or they feel disrespected by this fact, they are very kindly directed to this website and may follow the directions as follows.
It’s been a while since I’ve made a post, and I figured that these tips might be extra helpful with exam season approaching. As someone who struggles a lot with procrastination, I do everything I can to fight the urge to put assignments off until the last minute (even though I’m not always successful).
As always, good luck! (ᵔᴥᵔ)
Reblogging this for the neurodiverse people on my flist, some things here that are useful for peeps who struggle with executive function and planning.
Once the children were asleep, Sajjad headed out on an urgent shopping mission. “We are Muslims and we’d never had a Christmas tree in our home. But these children were Christian and we wanted them to feel connected to their culture.”
The couple worked until the early hours putting the tree up and wrapping presents. The first thing the children saw the next morning was the tree.
“I had never seen that kind of extra happiness and excitement on a child’s face.“ The children were meant to stay for two weeks – seven years later two of the three siblings are still living with them.
this is a beautiful article and i just want to include a few other highlights from the above family as well as another profiled:
…she focuses on the positives – in particular how fostering has given her and Sajjad an insight into a world that had been so unfamiliar. “We have learned so much about English culture and religion,” Sajjad says. Riffat would read Bible stories to the children at night and took the girls to church on Sundays. “When I read about Christianity, I don’t think there is much difference,” she says. “It all comes from God.”
The girls, 15 and 12, have also introduced Riffat and Sajjad to the world of after-school ballet, theatre classes and going to pop concerts. “I wouldn’t see many Asian parents at those places,” she says. “But I now tell my extended family you should involve your children in these activities because it is good for their confidence.” Having the girls in her life has also made Riffat reflect on her own childhood. “I had never spent even an hour outside my home without my siblings or parents until my wedding day,” she says.
Just as Riffat and Sajjad have learned about Christianity, the girls have come to look forward to Eid and the traditions of henna. “I’ve taught them how to make potato curry, pakoras and samosas,” Riffat says. “But their spice levels are not quite the same as ours yet.” The girls can also sing Bollywood songs and speak Urdu.
“I now look forward to going home. I have two girls and my wife waiting,” says Sajjad. “It’s been such a blessing for me,” adds Riffat. “It fulfilled the maternal gap.”
[…]
Shareen’s longest foster placement arrived three years ago: a boy from Syria. “He was 14 and had hidden inside a lorry all the way from Syria,” she says. The boy was deeply traumatised. They had to communicate via Google Translate; Shareen later learned Arabic and he picked up English within six months. She read up on Syria and the political situation there to get an insight into the conditions he had left.
“It took ages to gain his trust,” she says. “I got a picture dictionary that showed English and Arabic words and I remember one time when I pronounced an Arabic word wrong and he burst out laughing and told me I was saying it wrong – that was the breakthrough.”
The boy would run home from school and whenever they went shopping in town, he kept asking Shareen when they were going back home. She found out why: “He told me that one day he left his house in Syria and when he had come back, there was no house.” Now he’s 18, speaks English fluently and is applying for apprenticeships. He could move out of Shareen’s home, but has decided to stay. “He is a very different person to the boy who first came here,” she says, “and my relationship with him is that of a mother to her son.”
Charities/organisations to avoid:
PETA: They’d rather spend their money on publicity campaigns than on the animals in their care. PETA killed 73.8% of the animals in their care in 2015 (x)
FCKH8: Is a for-profit company that exploits oppressed groups for money. They’re also wildly uninformed, and spread misogyny, cissexism and bi/panphobia, as well as stealing their posts/designs (x)
Autism Speaks: They spend most of their money on researching a way to eliminate autism, heighten the stigma against autism and don’t have a single autistic person on their board (x)
Please support other, better charities, and feel free to add any others you can think of to this.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure: CEO makes insane amounts of money, they deny a lot of requests for wigs/help with treatment/etc., and have attempted to sue other charities that use the color pink as part of their anti-breast cancer campaign. ( x x x )
The Salvation Army: They promote the hatred of LGBT+ people, work with fundamentalist Christian groups to support conservative politics and rip off and exploit workers. ( x x x )
Wounded Warrior: They take money that should be spent on veterans and blow it on huge opulent parties for the company bigwigs. 26 million in 2014 alone wasted! ( x x x )
^ Important reminder to NOT waste any money donating to these groups
Reblogging because of the added info about Wounded Warrior.
A good way to know if a nonprofit you’re donating to is allocating their money in the right way is to check out their Charity Navigator rating: http://www.charitynavigator.org
dear critical role fandom
I noticed recently that I’ve passed what is, to me, a ridiculous number of followers, approximately ¾ of which have come since I got into Critical Role. I’m overwhelmed, and I love you all. Which is one of the reasons why I’m going to signal boost this.
I’ve recently heard that a fan who goes by the name Andy Thanfiction has gotten into CR fandom. If this is someone you’ve seen on Tumblr or Twitter, and his name is not familiar to you, I very, very, very highly encourage you to read at least one of the links below.
5 Incredible Sagas of Fandom Scams & Deceptions
Fandom History, Epic Wankers Edition: Victoria Bitter/Jordan Wood/Andy Blake
I’ve been in online fandom for more than 20 years, and while I was never in contact with Andy, I watched both the LOTR and HP messes go down in real time. I’m a person who generally doesn’t do public callouts for fannish reasons – I can count the number of people I’d make a post like this about on one hand, and still have fingers left over. But we have a lot of younger fans in CR fandom, both in actual age and in terms of people who weren’t around for Andy’s greatest hits. So if you don’t already know him, please read about him, and be careful.
I do, in fact, know this man. I have for several years now. I have not deleted the information above, because everybody does have a right to be cautious. I can’t try and make your perception of a person for you.
But it is very upsetting to watch a fandom that has been so active and uplifting about battling mental illness hop right on the same train as the other communities who i have watched shut him out.
Andy has admitted everything he’s done. He has apologized. Not the bullshit kind of apology where he blames it on things being his control, or even his severe mental illness, but the kind where he accepts that he hurt people, is genuinely sorry, then as he changes his behavior away from what he did he /steps back from those people/ he hurt, because he knows they have a right to be hurt, and even as they continue lashing out he accepts it, doesn’t argue it anymore, because he honestly just wants to move on.
And I have watched him try to move on. I have watched him /continuously/ try to do better, and every time his past Big Fuckup is brought back up, it blows way the fuck up, and instead of railing against it he grits his teeth and steps willfully back from the something new that he had hoped he might be able to find a place in now that he’s got the mental stability to enjoy it as just a regular fan.
I have no right to speak for him, nor does anyone have the right to know how particular medical and psychological treatment program, nor which medications he’s talking Why would you ask that of /anyone,/ demand that they prove exactly how they’re “fit” to be part of society, ask them to reveal information that by all right should be kept between them and their doctor?
But I can say that he’s doing /everything/ we ask people who have hurt others in their mental illness to do. I can say that I have seen progress even just from where he was when we met four years to the man I know today. I can say that I am steadily watching him grow and learn and change and become a person who is learning that it’s /okay/ to proud himself and his admittedly incredible talent in spite of how badly his psychosis fucked both himself and many others over before.
I am by no means trying to invalidate the pain of the people who got hurt. They have every right to be upset, I understand that the impression he left them with is going to be with them forever. When I was younger and foolish I would argue with them about that, but I know better now.
I’m only saying that I hope at it’s core, this fandom doesn’t prove to have a double-standard in the way it treats mental illness. That it doesn’t prove to be one of those groups that talks a big game about providing support to overcome and change and battle mental illness, until said mental illness is too scary or presents in a way that you don’t like.
It’s hard. I know. There are some scary afflictions out there that make it difficult to grasp or understand people. But when we say that people are not defined by their mental illness, when we encourage people to fight it and change and get /better,/ we CAN NOT just apply that to the “easy ones.”
So in the end, all I’m asking is that you treat my friend – who had struggled and overcome and is /still/ fighting an uphill battle – with the same level of respect and trust you would address any stranger you’ve met so far who likes the same show you do. He’s excitable, he’s fascinated, and he wants to enjoy this Cool New Thing My Friend showed me.
I’m tired of watching him get shunted out of places where he belongs. I understand the fear though. Mental illness, especially those that affect others /is/ frightening. I had just hoped that if there was any group that could accept his changing, break the stigma fan communities have held over severe mental illness, and honestly just /enjoy/ the amazing creative content this boy churns out like butter at a state fair, it would’ve be Critical Role.
Oh my god, shut the fuck up. He’s not amazing and I don’t care what “amends” he’s trying to make. How DARE you try to guilt trip people into accepting a dangerous predator into fandom by pulling the mental illness card?
You want to talk respect? How about respect for his victims? No creative output can ever be so amazing that people should willingly accept someone like him in fandom. And nobody is entitled to be accepted in fandom. Not him. Not you. Not me. Not anyone. If he really wanted to make amends, he would stay AWAY from fandom, not keep participating in it.
You should be ashamed of yourself for writing this ridiculous bullshit defense.
He is my friend. He does cool stuff I can’t, which I just think it’s pretty amazing. We each have to decide whether we believe someone has suffered mental illness, or whether they are willfully malicious and masquerading as such. The behavior I’ve seen and the boy I know now leads me to believe what I believe. I can’t fault anyone else for believing otherwise, I only ask that each person listen to all of the information and make their own decision.
I can’t speak to the before, but in the for years I’ve know him he /has/ stopped engaging in every fandom that’s asked him to. I’m just asking that people in this one give some thought to it before they ask him.
No, we don’t have to decide anything. We don’t have to listen to his side of the story. We’ve done that quite enough already, and not enough listening to the people he’s hurt.
We have 20 years of history, delineating all the ways in which this man has psychologically and sexually abused countless people and preyed on the vulnerable. All the mealy-mouthed “but I’ve changed, you guys!” deflecting in the world does not change that, especially because he hasn’t changed. He hasn’t made actual amends to the people he hurt aside from blanket apologies and vague promises of recompense. He continues to join fandoms and latch onto the characters that young women and girls care about the most, so that he can get close to them and suck them into his cult of personality.
You think he should get accolades because he leaves fandom when he’s asked to? Really? It hasn’t occurred to you that he should stay the fuck out of fandom in the first place?
He is not a boy. He is over 30 years old. He is an adult.
How can you sleep at night, knowing you’re close friends with a sexual predator and serial abuser? You’re almost as much of a disgusting piece of shit as he is.
Former HP person here – this is nothing about ‘second chances’ or mental illness, this is about a legitimate threat. This person is a predator. He draws susceptible and vulnerable people in, convinces them that he is misunderstood, and starts the cycle of cultish recruitment all over again. He has not changed, he will not change, and he has a long track record of destroying those he dislikes or no longer has any use for. He is a con artist who scams people for money. He is a scorpion in a human skin suit who is only ever out for himself. Stay the fuck away.
Park Chan-wook interviewed by Mouloud Achour for Le Gros Journal:
– “Many compared you to Quentin Tarantino because of the violence in your movies, but I prefer comparing you to Stanley Kubrick, because you always tackle issues of modernity, present and future times, and you explore the themes of domination by the rich and violence of the poor.
– Your remark is very interesting. On the set of Stoker in the United States, Nicole Kidman made a similar comment. She said that I was often compared to Hitchcock, but that she would see more resemblance between me and Stanley Kubrick.”
knitting in the dark 