kerfuffle-truffle

[kerfuffle-truffle]

The British sense of humour is seeing the state of the world right now and coping with it by calling our cat a fascist while she stares at us with blissful ignorance in her eyes and bites fingers

[kerfuffle-truffle]

I don't want to be rich or famous or massively successful or anything like that, I just want to live a kind of ok and stable life where me and my family can have nice things without having to worry

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[kerfuffle-truffle]

Fighting bigotry protects everyone- not just the marginalised.

I think it's incredibly important for people to remember this, bigotry comes from hatred and disgust, and at its worst can hurt so many whether they're the target of it or not.

This applies on so many different levels and has happened to extremes in the past and continues to happen now, but it's easy to distance yourself from atrocities when they're so far from your day to day life.

So, let's take it a little more local for the majority european-american demographic of Tumblr. Something that could happen to almost anyone, regardless of whether you're in a marginalised group or not.

(transphobia CW for under the cut)

Imagine your mother or your grandmother, is ill, too ill to take care of herself and is put into specialist care. She's extremely vulnerable, and needs to be protected from infections.

Behind the scenes, without you knowing, something has been happening.

The cleaner for your relative's room is a young trans man. He's great at his job, and takes the utmost care to ensure your relative is comfortable and safe.

His manager though, is transphobic, and doesn't want this cleaner in the workplace. She treats him badly, yes, but he sticks it out, and keeps working to keep your relative happy.

His manager takes it a step further.

His manager plants a bowl of moldy food in your relative's room, because he's meant to clean that room and he'd get in trouble for leaving that there. The mold could kill your relative just by being in the same room. His manager doesn't care, because his manager wants to make him lose his job.

His manager is caught, police are involved, he never receives any blame and helps the investigation.

Your relative, thankfully, survived. Her life was at risk though, directly because of the actions of a transphobe who didn't even think about the consequences, who didn't care if your relative died. It doesn't matter what you think of trans people, because this goes beyond just the trans cleaner. He wasn't directly hurt. It was your relative whose life was at risk.

His manager was investigated, and despite being proven to have done this, wasn't fired. His manager was given a warning, that if they did anything else, they would lose their job.

They tried to kill your relative, and were left only with a warning.

This sounds a little extreme, right? Who's plotting murder to get some random trans man out of a job?

Well, my partner's manager.

This all happened to him earlier this year.

A sick, elderly woman's life was endangered because my partner's manager was a transphobe.

Bigotry doesn't just hurt its targets. Anyone can be hurt by it.

We fight bigotry not just to protect ourselves, but to protect everyone we love.

[kerfuffle-truffle]

@pencaris

sorry i cant hang out i forgot how to mimic human like behaviour

[kerfuffle-truffle]

[kerfuffle-truffle]

Ok this is hilarious, but also! I have Things to Say on this from a media analysis point of view. Media analysis is my SHIT.

Why the fuck does Grandpa Joe suddenly get up like he's fine after years of laying in bed doing nothing and leaving his family to work for him? And why is everyone just ok with this?

Well! I think there's a perfectly reasonable explanation! (Note: my reference points are the original book and the 1971 movie, anything beyond that is a strange, strange mystery to me)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is, first and foremost, a child's fantasy. Think about our protagonist- Charlie Bucket is a young child living in poverty. His home is overcrowded, anyone who can work is also acting as carers for their disabled relatives, Charlie himself is already working as well and giving any earnings from that straight back to his family. His birthday present was a bar of chocolate. This is a child who has nothing but the roof over his head (which in itself is damaged heavily and lets the rain get in) and his family.

The golden ticket and everything thereafter is an escapist fantasy. It's Charlie's dream come to life. It's quite literally his ticket to everything he ever wanted. Why does Grandpa Joe get up when he gets the ticket? Because his Grandpa is his best friend in a world where he's otherwise very isolated, and in his dream come true that's the man who's there with him.

He's not thinking about what the implications of Joe suddenly being fine have financially or any of that shit, he's a kid, he's a thinking about how amazing it would be if his sick, disabled grandfather magically got better to go on an adventure with him. That's what it is- a fantastical adventure where his dreams finally come true.

It's a classic story that's been told time and time again, it's a story meant to give an escape to all the Charlies out there.

To give these kids hope that one day they'll find their golden ticket.

What's wrong with grandpa??

he lied in bed for thirty years or whatever the fuck. while his daughter struggled to put food on the table. but then!!!! ohhh then! charlie gets a golden ticket and all the sudden that jackalope is hopping around the shack like he’s fuckin simone biles. i hate him i hate that free loader i hope he busts a hip and falls into the chocolate river

[kerfuffle-truffle]

Interesting take, and I absolutely agree with the theory behind it, but also I think it's really interesting to see the different perceptions of what the word fairy means and invokes in different cultures.

Doesn't take away from the point OP was making as to what's going on, but coming from a perspective in a Celtic nation, raised on mixes of different European folklore and pagan spiritualism, whatever fairytale I'm in for a fairy to be at my doorstep is Not a welcome one. A fairy at your door is something deeply dangerous and to be treated with extreme caution.

Arguably so is a walrus of course, but the worst a walrus can do to me is main/kill me. A fairy can do so much worse.

Within many Celtic stories and beliefs on fairies, or Fae, they're tricksters that are uncaring at best, actively malicious at worst, they use wordplay and deception, your only defence is to know their tricks and how to avoid them- if you don't know what you're doing, you're as good as gone. Even if you do know what you're doing, the odds aren't great.

I wouldn't such say that I believe in the Fae, so much as the stories and beliefs have stuck with me over the years in some subconscious part of my mind. A walrus is bizarre, sure, but a fairy would be the far more unwelcome sight, and the one that based on local tradition, is something I should be far more cautious as a possibility.

Though saying that, I'm in a place where a lot of strange animals seem to just Show Up unannounced as well. So when it comes down to it, either would be a shock at first, but something that if I made it out the other side I'd look back on and go, well it was strange, but am I really surprised?

I'm aware that's going to be far from the standard way of thinking on this though. To all the people raised on Celtic and other European folklore on the Fae though, may your home be free from any future fairies.

Absolutely fascinated by the Fairy Walrus Discourse. Naturally, I have a take:

This actually is also a fantastic illustration of a truism about Telling Stories that we all implicitly know but rarely acknowledge aloud: the improbable is far less believable than the impossible.

When you invoke the impossible, you silence the critically thinking, reality checking, lie detecting circuitry. Simpler rules reign supreme.

The Walrus, however implausible, is a thing which is real, and so whatever narrative you imagine either precedes or follows the reveal will be constrained by the envelope of the possible.

This is a webbed site all about Narrative.

The person answering the door to a Fairy is in a fairy tale, and frankly most of us would be overjoyed to find ourselves in a fairy tale. Fairy tales have sensible rules, structures we understand, tropes we love and hate.

A Walrus on your doorstep is just one more giant reminder that the world is a maelstrom of chaos, incomprehensible in its complexity, full of moving parts which obey no narrative. It’s another dose of “what fresh hell is this?”

A Walrus on your doorstep is a burden. A Fairy on your doorstep is an escape.

[kerfuffle-truffle]

@mothmanskeleton get your ass over here and look at this

Some character designs with some…atypical color choices? I guess. I don’t know what’s going on in that area.

This is Nimona and her supervillain friend (He doesn’t have a name yet, I’m working on that). Nimona is his sidekick/squire, they’re like the Batman and Robin of slightly Medieval villains, but she’s actually way more evil than him. He does what he does to make a point, and he doesn’t really want anyone get hurt - Nimona just gets a kick out of destroying stuff.

I’m going to attempt to make a two page comic with them? We’ll see how this goes.

[kerfuffle-truffle]

Slight correction for the end there- That puppet in the video is CBBC's Hacker.

CBBC is another kids channel, but with an older target audience. It bridges between the preschool content of Cbeebies and more mature teen content (though I know many people watched it well into their teens, but that's besides the point).

CBBC has had a number of puppet presenters over the years, with Hacker being a mainstay since 2009. Dodge debuted a year later as Hacker's half brother.

Dodge began presenting for Cbeebies later down the line, eventually becoming a full time member of the Cbeebies crew, but he still has occasional appearances on CBBC.

(Left: Hacker, Right: Dodge)

Puppet fun facts with Kerf.

Obviously this is an adorable bit but I'm so struck by how different this is from so many little kid shows today like.......the muted colors. no background noise. no sound effects. you can literally hear Jim Henson breathing between his lines. Ernie is talking very slowly, meandering, letting the kids digest the info. it's a full minute before you get the payoff of it all. man

[kerfuffle-truffle]

YEEEAAAAHHHHHH YESSSSS WOOOOO YEAH BABY THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

[kerfuffle-truffle]

Yes, there are. Many of them.

This may seem silly, but are there any photos out there of frogs in costumes? Of times people have put real actual frogs into hats or capes or suchlike? My Google-fu is failing me and just giving me endless images of people in frog costumes interrupted occasionally by dogs, cats, parrots and babies in frog costumes.

[kerfuffle-truffle]

@mothmanskeleton

Kidding (2018)

This is called

Shaynas Sequence

[kerfuffle-truffle]

Shoutout to fat people who are told they need to eat less even though they already don't eat enough

Shoutout to thin people who are told they need to eat more even though they already eat too much

I see you guys and I love you <3

[kerfuffle-truffle]

Hello hi! I had top surgery as a uni student back in April, the recovery period was going to fall during the last semester so I had to communicate a lot with my lecturers. All of them were pre-warned and I had to file for extenuating circumstances- all of my deadlines before the summer were moved to late July- early August, so as well as having the full 6-8 weeks to recover, it gave me additional time to complete all of the work I'd missed. I can't speak for how it would work with exams as my course doesn't have any, but I imagine there would be the possibility of taking your exams during summer resits or something like that if absolutely needed.

Personally I recovered very smoothly, and by the 6 week point was able to continue as normal (if not sooner- I avoided over-exerting during the initial period but I felt completely fine by the 4-5 week mark. I do have chronic pain though, so my tolerance may be higher), but like op said it depends on the person.

If the university is flexible and willing to accommodate though- which it should be- even if you choose the shorter break and it isn't long enough you should be able to put things in place so you aren't put at a disadvantage. The most important thing though is to communicate with your lecturers. You don't need to disclose what it's for, just that you're going to have a surgery, when you're having it, and how it might affect your learning during recovery.

Hope this helps!

Hi, if all goes well, I will hopefully be getting a referral for top surgery around November time. I was wondering if anyone had experience of getting top surgery while in university? Specifically I was wondering whether I should plan it in for the summer break or if one of the shorter term breaks would be fine? If I get my firm choice on results day, then the university will have short 8 week terms and fairly long holidays between terms. Would that be enough time to recover before going back to uni? Though this is baring in mind that it could probably take place at Easter at the earliest and so I would be having to study for exams the next term. Sorry for the long ask but I am interested in anyone's experiences. Thank you!

Hi Anon,

Recovery time is a very individual thing. Your surgeon will likely suggest 6-8 weeks for recovery, if you are complication free. But you’ll know your own body and what you’ll feel capable of doing once you are at the recovery stage

My advice is plan for a time where you’ll have as much recovery time as possible. It’s better to have more recovery time that needed, than too little.

Can any of our followers offer their advise of having top surgery at uni?

[kerfuffle-truffle]

since the old version of this post was flagged for ‘adult content’…

reblog this post if your account is a trans safe space or owned by a trans person!

along with that, reblog if your account is a non-binary spectrum safe space or owned by someone on the enby spectrum!