iamnotshazam

[iamnotshazam]

some of y'all got cloth mothers instead of wire mothers and it shows

[iamnotshazam]

I'm gonna be real with you, i don't think weirdo kinksters should be considered acceptable collateral damage when banks/credit card companies enforce adult content bans on sites like patreon and ko-fi

[iamnotshazam]

I've seen a lot of ff writers apologize for their fic being "self-indulgent" which baffles me cause like is that not the entire concept of fanfiction?????

SAY IT WITH ME FOLKS, "FANFICTION IS SUPPOSED TO BE SELF-INDULGENT"

[iamnotshazam]

Help Un-Trumpify American History!

Hey, who else is SUPER ANGRY about Trump removing/whitewashing any "negative" views of the past from historical signage on Federal property, including

any mention of slavery ever existing in the U.S.A.

any mention of the Trail of Tears (or any other mistreatment of Native Americans)

any mention of the Civil Rights movement

any mention of any oppression or maltreatment of other people perpetrated by Americans

anything Trump personally doesn't like

(...you get the picture)

Well, Save Our Signs is organizing an effort to preserve this signage while it lasts! Which won't be long, because the deadline for removing it is coming up on September 17, 2025.

What You Can Do:

Find a National Park Service site near you

Visit it and take photos of signage

Upload the images to saveoursigns.org

Full details are on the Save Our Signs page!

[iamnotshazam]

[iamnotshazam]

Since it's Gion Matsuri season Maiko Umemai is weating a special kanzashi for that occasion.

(SOURCE)

[iamnotshazam]

I just found someone sharing this on twitter, so sorry that I don’t have the link but omg

[iamnotshazam]

Tumblr is super big on the "I didn't say it was good, I said I liked it" but really need to discover the value in its opposite of "I didn't say it was bad, I said I hated it".

You can acknowledge that something is good, great, a masterpiece even, and just straight-up not enjoy it.

[iamnotshazam]

i want all my friends and followers and mutuals and acquaintances to know from the bottom of my heart: i don’t respond to your messages because i’m an insane person, i am insane medieval hermit software running inappropriately on modern queer hardware and social media scares me. it is not your fault

[iamnotshazam]

you can differentiate me from weevilwizard via subtle variations in our proboscis

[iamnotshazam]

I need y'all to watch this clip

[iamnotshazam]

Absolutely amazing how AO3 is a part of the internet that doesn't sneak in any ads and doesn't have an algorithm and doesn't watch you or record how much time you spend looking at each fic or whatever. It's just right there to use for free. Legend

[iamnotshazam]

I hope this vampire bat running on a treadmill will make your day better

[iamnotshazam]

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

[iamnotshazam]

101 Comment Starters

I began working on this last summer. Like many veteran fanfiction authors, I lament the decline in commenting that I’ve seen in my fandom, the Tolkien fandom. I’m also a humanities teacher, so I spend a good part of my day teaching young people how to write, and one lesson I’ve learned the hard way is that each type of writing involves unique skills that have to be learned. And commenting is a unique form of writing and one that comes with added stresses around social expectations and public performance. My research on the Tolkien fanfic community confirms this: Many people want to comment, but they simply don’t know what to say.

As a teacher of writing, I often use  sentence starters or mentor sentences. The writer uses these to jumpstart their thinking and writing, until they become comfortable enough to begin working independently. “101 Comment Starters” is built around this research-based strategy of teaching writing.

Some of the comment starters are simple enough that they can be merely copied and pasted. Others require filling in some blanks or providing some elaboration. In some cases, a because can be dropped if the reader isn’t comfortable providing that level of elaboration yet. In other cases, a more experienced commenter can add the because and elaborate more on their comment.

They also differ in their level of praise. They range from simple statements of how the author made the reader feel to compliments around an aspect of the author’s writing or their work in general. I’ve tried to limit words like really, very, and so as much as possible, except when it made the comment feel wooden. You’re welcome, of course, to add those words in if you feel they more accurately help capture how a story impacted you.

If you’re just starting to comment, please keep in mind that the vast majority of authors will love to hear from you! They don’t care how long or elaborate your comment is. They don’t care if your English is perfect or if you’re a little awkward. They just want to know that you’re reading and enjoying their work.

Finally, please feel free to reblog and share and add your own comment starters!

ETA: I’m officially declaring these in the public domain. If you want to use them in something, while I won’t turn down credit, don’t let the inability to give me credit for them to stand in your way. Share them, make stuff with them, whatever you want to get the comments flowing!

101 Comment Starters

Keep reading

[iamnotshazam]

So Tom Lehrer was Jewish, and you will see a lot of Jews, and people who know about Judaism saying, may his memory be a blessing, or z''l, which is short for the same phrase in Hebrew. and, in fact, I said may his memory be a blessing on another post. but there is another saying that is often said by Jews to mark a death, which I feel is much more appropriate. That phrase is Baruch dayan ha'emet, meaning "Blessed is the true judge." Baruch dayan ha'emet is often abbreviated as BDE.

I can't think of anyone who would more appreciate the double meaning in BDE than Tom Lehrer, or anyone who embodied the other meaning of BDE more.