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June 7th, 1942: Edward Hopper completes his best known painting, the seminal Nighthawks. When asked by a Chicago Tribute reporter about the philosophical meaning behind the diner having no clearly visible exits Hopper responded, “Shit. Fuck. I did it again. Goddamnit. Fuck. Not again. I did it again. Shit.” and slammed his hat on his leg.

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Someone admires you for being who you are, for your qualities and strengths. They see how hard your are trying. Join them in this admiration and see how brave you have been all along. Try not to be your worst critic, support your efforts instead.

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Full link and info tomorrow:

& bonus fuckery:

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Hey did you know I keep a google drive folder with linguistics and language books  that I try to update regularly 

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every person can feel freddie’s presence in their souls when they sing MAMAAAAAA UUHHHH, I DONT WANNA DIE, I SOMETIMES I WISH I’VE NEVER BEEN BORN AT ALL with all the air in their lungs i’m not joking

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Realistic Gunfights - info for writing/drawing fallout fics / fanarts

(or any other fictions with real life physics and firepower)

Disclaimer: I am not encouraging anyone to hurt others. Just,. you know, to avoid misunderstandings.

Some things to consider if you want to write/draw realistic gunfights. Of course this is not a post to tell what to draw or put in your fic. There are many information about guns, pistols, gunfights in movies and video games. In most cases these representations are not realistic at all. I went to a shooting range today and I want to say a few things, that are WAY different from what I expected. I hope this post will help some writers and artists.

The Sound

Imagine the sound of a gunshot in a movie or a game. Now multiply it with 10. Even with a low caliber, standing next to a gunshot feels and sounds like a smaller firework.

Myth: A silencer makes the gun sound like just a click. Truth: A silencer does reduce the sound level of a gun, but it is still very loud. Not only the gunshot can be heard, but the reloading, cocking the gun, every mechanic.

Myth: A regular (automatic, semi-automatic) pistol will make a click sound when the magazine just run out. Truth: When the magazine is empty the upper half of the pistol will just move backwards, it doesn't click as all the ammo cases are out. -It only happens in revolvers (as far as I know) : The ammo cases stay in the barrel, and after 6 shots, the nail will hit an empty ammo case (aka the first one), and that makes that click.

Things to consider: Firing any gun in a closed room is VERY LOUD, and cane even cause a temporary hearing loss. Fired next to the ear? permanent hearing loss. So when writing scenes with

The Movement

-Recoil

Recoil. Can. Be. A. Bitch. Usually the higher the caliber the bigger the recoil, and these are compensated with bigger stocks, tripods etc.

The .44 Revolver felt like a big guy hit my hands with full force. It is even harder to fire with one hand ( I didn't try it.. no way). Conclusion: Revolvers require a really steady grip, and if the person doesn't have it, the gun slaps back sometimes even into the person's face.

The other weapons I tried were also hard to hold firmly, but those were "regular".

-Aiming

Aiming is not as easy as in movies or games. Really not. Firing randomly from a cover into the void: eh, that is highly unrealistic.

If your character has a scope on their rifle. Do not draw / write them as they put their face directly to the scope. That is a nono. The recoil is gonna make a black-eye.

The Visuals

There is a little flash everytime a gun is fired, I mean it was obvious. An explosion is taking place.

Every gun smokes (if the mechanism is based on explosion, in Fallout 4 laser rifles too though). Revolvers even more than others.

The Smell

Gunsmoke smells like a mix of burnt wood, metal and sulfur.

Things you didn't even think about

The hot ammo cases: Yes those bitches are everywhere after a gun fight, and they are really hot when they came out of the gun on the side. In many cases can get on your skin, especially on neck, hand, and arm.

Faulty Ammo: Rarely a faulty round can get into a magazine. It will explode but won't push out the ammo. The barrel can bloat or even explode.

Your character teaching another to shoot

Don't: "Aim at the target and when you are ready shoot." Instead do: "Aim at the target but don't think about the shot, just aim while you pull your finger towards yourself." "Let the shot surprise you."

Do: "Always keep your grip steady and firm." "Count your shots, to time your reloads well."

--Magazine capacities-- revolver: 6 Regular semi automatic pistol (like 10mm, 9 mm, glock etc): between 6-18 Carbines: usually 30

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it's hard to comfort a grieving client in a colourful shirt so casual friday was a short-lived affair...

the jaunty companion to this picture (x)

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remember that joke post i made the other day about nick wearing those super uptight 50s sweaters on his days off. well. your girl had to deliver

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Hi :)

First off: Really thanks for all the work you and @bannedtags do.

I see a lot of people screaming at staff, which I get, they made a lot of weird decisions but to some degree this website has always still been functional and we always found a way around stuff. I worked Customer Service myself, so here's what helps because people have to scream at Apple! And any other company who tries to sanitize the internet, otherwise I'll soon have to read fanfics on P*rnh*b.

1. Delete the app, leave it a really bad review, air your frustration and then change to Desktop. But especially mention APPLE in your reviews.

1.1. Leave a bad review on the Apple

2. Chat with Apple Customer Service and tell them!

2.1. Go here, click "Apps & Features" -> "Topic is not listed" -> Write App Update is a joke or something in the text field -> You should get the Chat option.

2.2. Tell them what happened (CS probably is NOT aware, no one tells them shit), and why it is ridiculous, if words like "antis*mit*sm" (<- ridiculous!) really should be b*nned and ask why this doesn't apply to Twitter, Reddit or Facebook apps.

2.3. If they tell you are at the wrong place with them, ask them where to go with this. Ask them for an email address. So you can send your complain there.

2.4. If they tell you, they can't give you an email address, be that person and ask for a manager (politely!!!!). Everyone that's behind an advisor, can do more shit and escalate it further until it reaches people who actually have to say something.

2.5. Be nice to the person you talk to, they're just trying to get around and any case DON'T leave THEM a bad review. However this survey is phrased EVERY answer reflects on the advisor, NOT on the company. People can loose their jobs over bad surveys, even if it's NOT against them. DON'T. DO. THIS. (If there's JUST a textbox for one question, like leave a comment, leave a comment there!)

3. Here's the thing, if enough people do this, Customer Service has to act. They can't be spammed with 500 chat requests over this ONE issue a day, keeping them from working on everything they should work on, like broken phones. If enough people do it, they have to escalate it further because they see it's indeed a problem for people and that it reflects bad on the company.

4. Just leave bad reviews for Apple everywhere and mention this is why. You can't review the Apple App Store, I believe. However there are multiple Apple Apps you can review. Also Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Just write it in the comments, tweet at them, whatever :)

5. Does it do something? Maybe, maybe not. Still better than just screaming at staff for this.

Here’s some things that might be helpful for everyone!

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alright let's talk about Apple and Tumblr's current predicament. If you don't know already, I used to work at Tumblr as an iOS engineer. Though I keep in touch with current staff at Tumblr (what little that are left that I know) I do not have picture of what's going on internally. The banned word list is absolutely perplexing and I can only theorize why tags like 'long post' are banned from appearing on iOS. What I can do is give you a peek into how the Apple App Store review process works, so you have an idea of the hell that Tumblr staff is dealing with right now.

Let me be clear about this from the get-go: I think Apple's censorship policies are wrong and they have no grounds to be policing adult content within apps on the app store. Apple's power to set content policy over apps is absolutely fueled first and foremost by internal policy that goes back to Steve Jobs. After that, they're beholden to payment processors wanting to distance themselves from porn. Finally, there's lawmakers and policy that influence them as well. I think these are the 3 things that shape their policy decisions, in order.

What happens when you submit an App to the App Store?

You compile an app and submit it to the app store, and it proceeds through an automated and manual process to review your app to ensure it meets Apple's standards. Apple's standards are 1) non-malicious, functioning programs, and 2) programs that adhere to the App Store's review guidelines that cannot be asserted in the same way a program can. These guidelines are judged by a human being assigned to your app during the review process. The review process used to be long, sometimes it would take weeks, but in recent years they've got it down to about 24 hours.

Now, there's a laundry list of things in those guidelines, but we're going to focus on adult content because that's the most relevant. If a reviewer runs your app and finds porn, your app is rejected and you're told to correct the problem.

What's Tumblr dealing with now?

In the case of Tumblr, this would be a reviewer going to search, typing in something like 'tits' and finding porn. Sometimes they would search something more innocuous like 'socks' (yeah, i know) and find porn. Sometimes they would search something completely innocent and find porn anyways. Tumblr would get rejected.

This happened regularly. I'd say once every 5 updates (every time Tumblr updates the iOS app, they have to re-submit the app for review). A reviewer would find porn, and respond by sending us the steps they followed to find it and a screenshot of the content. Tumblr staff would remove the porn, resubmit, the reviewer would find nothing, then approve the app. Once in a while Tumblr would get a really persistent reviewer. It would take a handful of porn scrubs and re-submissions before they'd finally green-light an update.

Sometimes, however, Tumblr would get a reviewer who flags tumblr for porn, and when Tumblr opened the rejection notice, the screenshot would be something completely not porn. I'm talking stuff like a woman in a bikini. Not even posing in a porny way. Something you'd see in like, a laser hair removal ad. In these cases, Tumblr would appeal the rejection, saying the content doesn't violate our policies (and to the best of our knowledge, Apple's) so we won't remove it.

In this case, the appeal gets bumped up to a developer support contact that would manage the appeal. Usually when it got there, the contact would look at the report and say "oh, yeah, that's not porn" and tell us to re-submit the app again. It then would usually be approved.

This process, I believe, is where the problem lies. Of course, the bigger picture is Apple's adult content policies, but the relationship between reviewer, developer support, and policymakers is completely fucking discordant. Since the review process is human, some reviewers interpret the guidelines more strict that others. Since the review process chooses a random reviewer, the review experience is random every time.

The developer support contact is not in direct contact with the reviewer and does not communicate with them in any way, other than the report they receive from the review (that Tumblr has too). The dev support contact also cannot tell Tumblr whether they'll pass review if they were to propose hypothetical changes to Tumblr.

Here's the kicker: your developer support contact will also, like the reviewer, not be consistent from case to case. They stick with you until your appeal is complete, but when you have to open a new case for a subsequent rejection, it's someone new. And every one of them had different answers to the same questions about policies regarding adult content.

I really don't think the people enforcing Apple's app store guidelines have a clear answer on what's porn and what's not, and they're left to decide on a case-by case basis. Apple is fucking massive, and it's a waterfall organization where orders come from the top down. If Tumblr gets rejected because a reviewer decided a woman in a bikini is pornographic, no one in Apple gives a shit. I bet no more than a handful of people in Apple right now are even aware of the situation with Tumblr, and just one person (the dev support contact) is deciding what Tumblr must do to resolve it and stay on the App store.

The 2018 porn ban

I was present for the 2018 app store fiasco and boy, it was mind boggling. The removal was legit since Apple had received a user-submitted report of CSAM, and by policy they immediately yank an app that contains such content. That was 100% understandable, and if I were in Apple's shoes, I too would remove an app that has CSAM in it. But what followed was a gauntlet of rigorous reviews over adult content in general. The app was rejected repeatedly until the infamous adult content ban was fully enacted.

While Tumblr was actively working on the ban, they were asking Apple for any sort of guidance on what would meet approval, because as you know it's impossible to scrub a UGC site of adult content. The answers we got were either vague or unhelpful. Tumblr had to just keep re-submitting over and over with a half-baked porn finding algorithm until it finally looked clean enough for Apple.

During this time, we'd be searching Twitter, Instagram, etc, for the same search terms that we were being rejected for, and finding lots and lots of porn. When the rep was asked if other apps went through the same rigamarole that Tumblr was going through, and why they had porn on their apps, the answers we got were "we can't discuss other apps" (of course) and "that shouldn't happen".

Now, I do not want to get conspiratorial about this because I genuinely don't think Apple has it out for Tumblr. What I do think is it's a combination of the discordant enforcement of policy, caused by the complete separation of policymaker, support, and reviewer. It's also less of a problem for other apps like Twitter, Instagram, etc because they have many, many more staff to deal with the problem. They have more staff to build and maintain porn-removing algorithms, and more staff to put out fires caused by App Store rejections.

A little part of me also wants to be cynical and say that since Instagram and Twitter are so big, they can get away with more than Tumblr can. Combine that with Tumblr's history of blatantly allowing porn up until the end of 2018. I can't prove it, of course, but if Tumblr has a reputation at Apple, it can't be a good one.

Apple's reputation amongst developers

As I mentioned I'm an iOS engineer. I talk to other iOS engineers all the time, not only at my current job but also in other places like Slack instances for iOS development. The iOS engineers at Tumblr did not like Apple's bullshit one bit, which is unsurprising. However, my experience thus far is the vast, vast majority of iOS engineers at other places feel the same way. Apple's review process is seen as an asinine hurdle you must clear. Their policies are not viewed in good light amongst iOS devs, though you'll have a mixed bag of sympathy over being rejected for some of them like the adult content one. It really depends if you've worked on any UGC apps on the app store. If you have, you get it.

Outside of adult content, though, the two other big ones that rub iOS devs the wrong way are the 30% cut Apple gets when devs get paid, and the completely arbitrary policy that Apps submitted to the app store must have a "clear purpose". I haven't talked to a single iOS dev who's been on the side of Apple in the Epic v Apple case over the 30% cut, and most of them are hoping for Apple to loosen up their control over the App Store (either voluntarily or by court order). The "clear purpose" policy means that reviewers can reject the app if they think it's useless, which is incredibly discouraging for new developers who are just trying to get out there with something simple. It also squelches creativity and reduces the field for more single-purpose apps.

Aside from App Store review guidelines, iOS developers also have to deal with ever-shifting technical guidelines that can be unclear, with deadlines that change or are vague as well. A good example of this was a recent change that required all Apps that were available on iPad to support split-screen multitasking. Not only did I get conflicting answers on what that means from Apple themselves and devs who were in contact with other Apple reps. No one knew if their iPad app would be yanked from the store, or if there was a way to opt out. This requirement forced many companies to scramble to update their iPad experience to meet this deadline, only for the requirement to be relaxed, and the deadline to be pushed back. Fun times, great use of dev hours.

The Apple fanboy you can picture when I say "Apple fanboy" is very unlikely to be an iOS developer. They probably just love Apple products and think that the company can do no wrong. The more Apple does to piss off their developers, the worse it's going to get for anyone who just wants to use an iPhone.

Anywho, that's Apple for you. Why am I still an iOS developer? I dunno, I got bills to pay. I think I know what Tumblr is working on to appease them. Don't expect this banned word list to last too long. The timing is awful, of course, since everyone on Apple is on vacation, and Tumblr is too. Have fun with the chaos for now. As always, don't take it out on staff. They're doing what they can.

My asks are open if you have any questions. I'll try to answer them.

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Folks with this whole "you're old once you hit 25" mentality are just buying into a repackaged "you need to have your life figured out by 18 and if you're not successful by 22 you're a failure" load of shit. Like....bruh, life doesn't end at 25. Idk how to tell you that the time limit you're silently imposing on yourself and your peers is largely responsible for your dissatisfaction with your life. Stop living your life like happiness has an expiration date. It doesn't.

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truly the thing that has most improved my mental wellbeing since my slow motion mental breakdown sophomore year was not actually improving my time management skills and getting more organized or any of those things that ive been bad at my entire life but instead just not glowing with incandescent self loathing and inadequacy because of it. like i still do a ton of shit at the last minute and forget to open important emails and my bedroom is a mess but im sooo much happier because at least i am not constantly stewing in overwhelming guilt because of it.

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yall: i support people with ADHD!! yall when an ADHD character shows any symptoms beyond uwu hyperactive: lol this character is so annoying. they should die

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I figure out I had ADHD last year, but I didn’t seek an official diagnosis and medication until this year. I’m 30 years old, my school days are long behind me. I slipped through the cracks because I have predominately inattentive type and I was a quiet little girl. Having ADHD does not mean you have to be hyperactive and loud, it means you have a processing problem in your brain that doesn’t allow you to regulate your focus or emotions. 

Mental health even now is still taboo to talk about. People are more open now than ever about it however and that gives me hope. 

This is a profoundly personal comic and it only reflects my own experience with ADHD. It is on a spectrum with a wide range of personalities. But if my story connects with someone else and helps them, that would mean the world to me.

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Okay, I’m getting a lot of questions about stress losing its effectiveness as an ADHD coping skill and now how that can happen, so I’m going to paraphrase how my therapist explained it to me.

Stress as stimulus is a rubber band. 

It’s stretchy and can be expanded to hold multiple things together (deadlines, self-care, social obligations). But the thing about rubber bands is they only work for so long before they lose their elasticity, and suddenly you’re having to pull them tighter and tighter to get the same staying power.

Suddenly, a rubber band that had no issue holding a 12 pack of “pens” together for years will need to be double wrapped around itself to hold those same things in place. And sure, it still works. A couple of “pens” might fall out from time to time, but you can just put them back and wind things tighter, right?

Except you cannot use a rubber band indefinitely. 

No matter how tightly you wind it, the elastic will eventually be too stretched out to be useful and things will fall apart. It may even become brittle and snap, which is the worst-case scenario. Yet, many of us will still try to use the broken rubber band, all the while growing more and more frustrated that the thing that worked so well for so long is no longer serving its intended purpose. We might tie it together, creating functional knots in the elastic so that we can keep using it. But ultimately it’s a short-term fix and it will snap again soon. And it will keep snapping at more regular intervals until all you have left is broken pieces of elastic and what feels like your entire life scattered at your feet. 

Because a rubber band is not intended as a permanent solution to something. It is an effective yet temporary measure designed to hold things in place until something better comes along. 

And stress is the rubber band of the brain. 

It is an important survival tool that keeps us alive, aware of our surroundings and, in small, healthy doses, productive. Good stress exists. It releases important chemicals your brains need to function, like dopamine and adrenaline, which are things ADHD brains are extremely deficient in, and struggle to regulate in the same way neurotypical brains self-regulate. 

But where it becomes a problem is when you become reliant on it, and your brain and body stop having healthy stress responses. By utilizing stress constantly as a form of stimuli, you are effectively wearing out the rubber band that holds things together, and when it snaps, you’re left with a brain and body that’s been so fried by corsitol* you are left feeling burned out, tired, sickly and possibly even deeply depressed. And the more you do this, the harder it gets to bounce back from. 

Which can happen to neurotypical people too! Prolonged stress is not healthy for anyone! It just so happens that stress is an unfortunately useful form of stimuli, right up until it’s not. 

Using the rubber band of stress is easy. Learning not to use it is hard. But recovering from overusing it is even more so.

So what’s the solution? Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer. Therapy can help. Medication can help. Building better support structures and social groups can help. Changing your environment to be more accessible can help. Ultimately, you need to find things that work for you and do your best to make sure they are realistically attainable and also healthy. Which is no easy feat. It will be hard, but it is worth it. And I have to believe that because I’m a year into intensive therapy with what feels like minimal progress to show.

But as my therapist keeps reminding me. Progress is progress. Whether you move an inch or a mountain, you’re still moving, and that’s what counts.

Keep reading

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