kirby42280

[kirby42280]

Wow! This is amazing.

The King of the monsters

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This is adorable

Concept: A witch cat that’s too fat to fly

[kirby42280]

Superstorm Sandy...but a lot worse.

I grew up in a town five (+/-) miles south off “ground zero” from where SS Sandy hit. I had about 4 feet of water in my house that I grew up in that was built in the 1930s by my great-grandfather. Luckily the first floor was three feet off the ground, so not a lot of damage to the items in the house, but we did have to demolish and build new (would have cost just as much to raise the house more).

Never want to live through that again. 

So those in NC, please heed the warning. It will be bad.

!!!

[kirby42280]

I have not been online, but I cannot keep silent now.

I am not in Ukraine, I cannot speak on the behalf of the Ukranian people.

I live in Russia.

Today I woke up to find the news about the beginning of war: I was terrified, and then I read about what the citizens of Ukraine woke up to. Being in a region that does not border with Ukraine, I can only imagine the terror of those who are still there.

This is not a war of the countries, this is an invasion of a power-hungry government. The people of Russia don't want the war. I am ashamed to be living under a "leader" who allows his greed destroy lives, and I am terrified, both for the Ukranian people and for us.

Today, there have been anti-war protests in the Russian cities, more than 1700 people were arrested. The ordinary people do not want this war, we are angry and we are scared.

Please, listen to the voices of the Ukranian citizens, of the Russian citizens, approach the news you find online critically, double-check the facts and do not spread false information.

#нетвойне

[kirby42280]

Spread your cosmic wings 🦋

The Butterfly Nebula, created by a dying star, was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in this spectacular image. Observations were taken over a more complete spectrum of light, helping researchers better understand the “wings'' of gas bursting out from its center. The nebula’s dying central star has become exceptionally hot, shining ultraviolet light brightly over the butterfly’s wings and causing the gas to glow.

Learn more about Hubble’s celebration of nebula November and see new nebula images, here.

You can also keep up with Hubble on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Flickr!

Image credits: NASA, ESA, and J. Kastner (RIT)

[kirby42280]

This might be an odd or heavy question so I'm not exactly expecting a response, but what exactly is disability? I'm aware that typically people who need glasses aren't called disabled, that there are invisible and mental disabilities, that the legal definition is flawed, et cetera, but the exact definition still escapes me.

(the catalyst for me asking is my piling health problems; chronic bronchitis and several kinds of heart problems cause me to be unable to climb more than two flights of stairs without breathing like a fish and yet I still feel guilty for taking the elevator. I'm just trying to get a definite answer so my own mind would stop nagging me about it)

This is exactly my shit because disability activism was so important in shaping me into the person I am. I'm neurodivergent, but also physically disabled; I have congenital birth defects in my hands and feet that fuck me up more than you might expect, I'm mobility impaired, and now live with chronic pain. My life is way better when I don't have to take the stairs, I can only work about four hours a day, but I don't meet my government's definition of "disabled".

Disability has been an intense battleground. For centuries society has had a very narrowly defined view of disability, and treated disabled people in a very particular way. The Disability Rights Movement, meanwhile, has involved disabled people getting together and saying: The way we are viewed and treated sucks! We don't like it! Things need to change!

So one major key to things is the social vs medical model of disability. The medical model views disability as when someone has a serious impairment or illness that prevents them from being normal and healthy, and needs to be medically treated or cured. The social model views disability as the result of society failing to accommodate the full range of variation in human ability, which fails to allow the disabled person full inclusion.

Like, if someone cannot walk and uses a wheelchair, and therefore cannot get into a building, the medical model says we should focus on making them able to walk. The social model says that we should focus on making the building accessible for people with wheelchairs. A major issue here is universal design, the belief that our buildings (and by extension, our institutions and society) shouldn't just be set up for abled people. It should anticipate the presence of disabled people, and plan to include and accommodate us so that we can enjoy an equal level of autonomy and inclusion in society as everyone else.

Disability is really complicated partly because it's really diverse. There are so many different ways of being disabled. Neither of these models is 100% right or 100% wrong. Some people love what makes them different from the norm and don't believe it should ever be taken away or cured; others hate their disabilities and want them to go away yesterday. An operative issue to keep in mind is when the medical and social models are useful.

Under the social model of disability, people who wear eyeglasses are a perfect example of an impairment that's socially accommodated so that it isn't normally debilitating. Society doesn't have huge narratives about how it's tragic or pitiable when someone wears glasses; it's not generally seen as heartbreaking for parents to take their child to the optometrist. Glasses are generally affordable to the everyday person. It is, in fact, solid evidence that we can and do treat some kinds of physical differences as routine and unremarkable.

So at the base of it, here's the reality about the definition of disability:

Abled society has historically had a lot invested in keeping "disability" as a very narrowly defined category. Only the most truly deserving get the special resources that make up for the fact that they're excluded from employment and public life. There's only one elevator, so you'd better make sure that you really need it before you use up that scarce resource.

Disability activism, meanwhile, benefits from making the definition of disability as broad as possible, to argue that we aren't rare exceptions, we're 1/5 of the population and shouldn't be excluded to begin with. Literally anyone could be hit by a bus tomorrow and become disabled. Excluding us and denying us our civil rights isn't acceptable. If too many people are using the elevator, maybe the building shouldn't rely so much on taking the stairs.

This ties into what the disability community calls "the curb-cut effect". When a space is made more accessible for people in wheelchairs (by putting in curb cuts, for example), a whole lot of other people benefit: Parents with strollers, delivery people with hand trucks, travellers with luggage, and ordinary pedestrians who just found them easier to walk across. The design feature made life for everyone so much better that it became adopted everywhere, and demanded as a standard piece of urban architecture. Wheelchair users benefited because everybody wanted the kind of space they could travel in.

When you use a resource or accommodation intended for disabled people, you reinforce the idea that disabled people are common and should be routinely included. Although this sometimes puts stress on a system when multiple people are using the resource at once, the solution should be to increase that resource's availability, not to decide who needs it less and kick them out.

(This topic reminds me that hey, I'm disabled and don't make a lot of money because of it. This week I'm trying to find an apartment that doesn't require taking the stairs, but those are literally twice as expensive in my city. So if you want to support me for the work I do, here are my Patreon and Paypal!)

[kirby42280]

yall with your ugly celeb man crushes

[kirby42280]

If you have a Duolingo account, please consider upvoting this request to add Coptic to their language courses.

Coptic is the final stage of the Egyptian language. It is currently endangered, with less than 300 Egyptians speaking it as their native tongue.

It would mean a great deal to indigenous Egyptians in the Coptic community to have our language preserved, and this would be a huge step forward.

If you don’t have a Duolingo account, consider sharing this with those who might. Thank you! <3

[kirby42280]

50 tips for (fanfic) writing

have fun

write whatever is interesting to you, even if it won’t be interesting to anyone else

appreciate kudos when they come, but don’t expect them

appreciate comments when they come, but don’t expect them

if you wish you could just write that one scene you have in your head, do that. you don’t need to create a 30K backstory for it first.

embrace one shots

embrace drabbles

embrace writing your story out of order

rough drafts are meant to be rough. if you can’t think of a word, put in a placeholder for it and keep going. 

try not to get stuck on the little things

it’s okay if your readers can’t see the picture inside of your head

some people work well when they have a posting schedule. some people work well when they don’t. it’s okay if you don’t know which kind of person you are, and it’s okay if the type of person you are changes over time.

if a rule you created for yourself isn’t working for you, get rid of that rule.

make fandom friends. even if they don’t read your fic, they’ll cheer you on while you write it.

cheer on other writers you know. you’ll be cheering yourself at the same time.

no trope or genre is better or worse than another one. they all just appeal to different audiences.

quality and popularity are not the same thing, although they do sometimes overlap

numbers and statistics will never tell you whether or not you’re a good writer. they will never tell you how valuable you are as a person. 

you belong in fandom if you want to be there

you’re a writer as soon as you start writing things

writing and posting are two different things. your story is still worth writing, even if you never plan to share it

you don’t need to apologize for what you write or what you post. 

don’t worry about taking up too much space. the internet doesn’t have a maximum size. 

keep your readers in mind when you’re tagging your content. how could they search for your fic? if you use a tag, will be a reader who loves that tag be satisfied with how much it appears in your story?

if you have a relationship in your fic that plays a minor role, tag it in the Additional Tags section instead of the Relationship section so that people who love that ship don’t get their hopes up

be cautious when looking at bookmarks on your fic. they aren’t “extra comments.” that’s a space where readers make notes for themselves and each other, not for authors. 

you don’t need to know everything about canon before you start writing fic

you don’t need to read fic in the same fandoms you write for

you don’t need to read fic at all in order to write it

love your work because sometimes you’re the only one who will - and that’s okay

if your hobby starts feeling like a job, you might need to take a break before you get burnt out

if you get stuck on a story, you can always start a new one

if you fall out of love with a story, you can always stop writing it. if you’re worried about your readers, you can always give them a bullet point summary of where you were planning to go with thing. for a lot of people, that’s satisfying and provides closure

if you get hate, report it

use the tools at your disposal to block hate before it can come in (limiting or turning off comments, limiting or turning off asks, blocking users, etc)

try replying to comments sometimes. it can be a lovely way to make fandom friends

don’t be afraid to reblog your own writing posts.

if you get stuck on your summary, just write 1) who the story is about 2) what they are doing and 3) what problem gets in their way

notice when your writing makes you smile. that moment is a gift. enjoy it.

notice when your writing makes you cry. that moment is a gift, too.

even if you’re disappointed in how your story turned out, there’s something in there that’s fantastic. find that thing and focus on it and feel proud.

some ideas are ones you want to write. some are ones you want to read. if you ever have too many ideas to deal with at once, give some of the latter ones away to someone else. 

sometimes the things you write will be really personal. be careful about putting them where other people can comment. they won’t know how personal it is for you, and you need to remember that comments aren’t about you, they’re about the story.

remember that you can write series as well as stories. if the story is done but you still have passion or ideas, start a new one in the same universe.

enjoy the satisfaction of finishing a story. savour it. bask in it a little while.

don’t feel guilty about abandoning a story. not every story gets finished, and that’s okay

you can have separate accounts for different fandoms. you can have one account with a million fandoms in it. do whatever works for you.

sometimes writing is more important than sleep - but only sometimes

it doesn’t matter if that story has been written before by someone else. it doesn’t matter if it was written by you. write it again.

only follow the advice that makes sense to you. the rest isn’t important.

[kirby42280]

For someone who hasn’t posted a chapter to any fanfic in quite some time, especially on fanfiction.net, I was pleasantly surprised to see I had a follow and favorite for myself, and from the same person, for Fata Donum...so thank you.

[kirby42280]

Reblogging because I hate Autism Speaks.

Nothing about us without us.  Image description: [pale purple and yellow background with dark text] This April, don’t support an organization that harms autistic people. [crossed out logo for Autism Speaks] Support one built by autistic people, for autistic people. [logos for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and the Autism Women’s Network]

[kirby42280]

How to always get the best deals on everything.

[kirby42280]

[kirby42280]

Waiting literally a year for your epic revenge is the most teenage girl move ever.

[kirby42280]

I had a penpal from Australia send me one of these as a joke years ago, but I loved it. 

As did my cat, Mittens. Anytime I was at work or class, she would manage to find it in my room, bring it out through another room, down a flight and half of stairs (loft area/weird floor plan courtesy of my great-grandfather), and leave it by the top of the four remaining steps by the foyer (again, weird floor plan) for when I got home.

She loved the ears mainly. I wish I kept the can, but in my stupor I threw it out with the recycling. I still have the koala though somewhere.

[kirby42280]

i can’t talk shit about the pirates of the caribbean films as if elizabeth swann becoming pirate king didn’t hand my entire ass to me and make me the gay i am today

[kirby42280]

Amazing Nature Phenomenons

ᴋᴀᴡᴀʜ ɪᴊᴇɴ (ʙʟᴜᴇ ᴠᴏʟᴄᴀɴᴏ) ɪɴᴅᴏɴᴇsɪᴀ

ᴛᴜʀǫᴜᴏɪsᴇ ɪᴄᴇ: ʟᴀᴋᴇ ʙᴀɪᴋᴀʟ-ʀᴜssɪᴀ

sᴜᴘᴇʀᴄᴇʟʟ sᴛᴏʀᴍ

ɢʀᴇᴇɴ ғʟᴀsʜ sᴜɴsᴇᴛ

sɴᴏᴡ ᴄʜɪᴍɴᴇʏ: ᴍᴏᴜɴᴛ ᴇʀʙᴜs-ᴀɴᴛᴀʀᴛɪᴄᴀ

sᴋʏ ᴘᴜɴᴄʜ

sᴛʀɪᴘᴇᴅ ɪᴄᴇʙᴇʀɢs:ᴀɴᴛᴀʀᴛɪᴄᴀ

ʟɪɢʜᴛ ᴘɪʟʟᴀʀs

sᴀʟᴀʀ ᴅᴇ ᴜʏᴜɴɪ (ʀᴇғʟᴇᴄᴛɪɴɢ ᴅᴇsᴇʀᴛ) ʙᴏʟɪᴠɪᴀ

ᴍᴀᴇʟsᴛʀᴏᴍ

ᴇʏᴇ ᴏғ sᴀʜᴀʀᴀ:ᴍᴀᴜʀɪᴛᴀɴɪᴀ

ғɪʀᴇ ʀᴀɪɴʙᴏᴡ

ᴘᴏʀᴏʀᴏᴄᴀ (ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ᴡᴀᴠᴇ) ᴀᴍᴀᴢᴏɴ ʀɪᴠᴇʀ-ʙʀᴀᴢɪʟ

ᴀᴜʀᴏʀᴀ ʙᴏʀᴇᴀʟɪs

ɢʀᴇᴀᴛ ʙʟᴜᴇ ʜᴏʟᴇ:ʙᴇʟɪᴢᴇ

ʀᴀɪɴʙᴏᴡ ᴇᴜᴄᴀʟʏᴘᴛᴜs ᴛʀᴇᴇs

sᴛᴏɴᴇ ғᴏʀᴇsᴛ:ᴍᴀᴅᴀɢᴀsᴄᴀʀ

ᴄᴀᴛᴀᴛᴜᴍʙᴏ ʟɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ (ɴᴇᴠᴇʀᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ sᴛᴏʀᴍ) ᴠᴇɴᴇᴢᴜᴇʟᴀ

ᴍᴀᴍᴍᴀᴛᴜs ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅs

ᴡʜɪᴛᴇ ʀᴀɪɴʙᴏᴡ

ᴜɴᴅᴇʀᴡᴀᴛᴇʀ ᴄʀᴏᴘ ᴄɪʀᴄʟᴇs

ʙɪᴏʟᴜᴍɪɴᴇsᴄᴇɴᴛ ᴡᴀᴠᴇs

ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ ɢʟᴏʀʏ ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅs

ᴠᴏʟᴄᴀɴɪᴄ ʟɪɢʜᴛɪɴɢ

ɴᴀᴄʀᴇᴏᴜs ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅs

ʀᴀɪɴʙᴏᴡ ᴍᴏᴜɴᴛᴀɪɴs:ᴄʜɪɴᴀ

ʟᴇɴᴛɪᴄᴜʟᴀʀ ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅ