kitsmits

[kitsmits]

Caption From @ essenceofblackculture on instagram:

Kristi Williams

@kristi_williams_black_history, a Black woman whose aunt survived the Tulsa Massacre, saw Oklahoma trying to silence Black history-and answered with action. She started "Black History Saturdays," free community classes to teach what the schools won't.

Now the room is full, the lessons are real, and the legacy lives on. end caption

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This is a heroic feat that shouldn’t be needed. But because it is, a hero emerged.

[kitsmits]

Soooo slight addendum to this post. When I was writing about the 2nd movement of the Eroica, I actually mixed it up in my head with the slow movement of the 7th symphony. The 7th is one of my favorites as a stand-alone; I’m actually not as familiar with the 3rd’s.

At least I got the whole “funeral march” thing right!

Having listened to it now…it IS sublime. Everything I said about it before (how Beethoven said it mourns the idea of the hero he was hoping for) is even more true than I could’ve thought. While the movement is in a minor key (the typical “sad” sounding scale), it has moments of sunshine and sweetness - perhaps the nostalgia of what could have been. It also has the bitter grounding of disappointment and the stoic acceptance of grief.

Also, if you listen closely, you’ll hear hints of a very famous rhythm that Beethoven later uses in his 5th Symphony - that iconic sound of fate knocking at the door.

People tend to focus on Beethoven's 5th and 9th Symphonies, and for good reason: The 5th for its iconic opening, the 9th for the Ode to Joy near the end of the final movement. But my favorite, both for its actual music and for the story behind it, is his 3rd: the "Eroica" Symphony.

Beethoven was a revolutionary both musically and politically for his time. Although he was financially supported by his Austrian aristocrat patrons, the man himself was super into the ideals of the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity (the latter referring to people actually helping and caring about each other, not just looking out for oneself). When a certain actually-average-height-for-the-time Corsican-French general started to gain fame and notoriety, Beethoven was a quite the fan. Yes, I'm referring to Napoleon MothingF*cking Bonaparte. Before Napoleon was a emperor/dictator/tyrant who tried to take over the world, he was seen by many as a champion of those revolutionary ideals. (In reality, he was probably just riding the revolutionary wave in order to gain power and influence for himself.)

Beethoven's 3rd symphony was originally nicknamed the "Bonaparte" Symphony by the composer himself (fun fact: a lot of Beethoven's named works, like the Emperor Concerto and the Moonlight Sonata, were NOT named by Beethoven himself, but by his editors/publishers to make his works more marketable!). Beethoven was even planning a concert tour of France at the time. So yeah. Big Napoleon fan there.

Then Napoleon crowned himself "emperor" of France. Beethoven. Was. PISSED.

Upon learning that his hero had become a tyrant, Beethoven tore up the title page of his new symphony and cancelled his French tour. He could not abide supporting someone "who will think himself superior to all men" (quoted from the composer himself in a letter). He renamed the symphony the "Eroica," or heroic, "composed to celebrate the memory of a great man" - perhaps the memory of what he'd hoped Napoleon could have been.

So that's the political backstory in a nutshell. The piece itself was also revolutionary for its time: At around a 45-minute playing time, it was longer than the typical symphony, and it pushed musical boundaries in a variety of ways that I won't get into here (partly because I haven't studied the piece enough from that angle to speak on it with authority). One way it challenged its listeners (aside from the sheer length) was that, at the time, audiences were used to symphonies and public music performances being light, trifling things. Nothing that challenged or hit too deep. Fluff.

But the Eroica Symphony is anything BUT fluff. It's dramatic, it's in-your-face, it plays to extremes of emotions from irreverent mockery to pride to triumph to deep, anguished longing. Heck, the slow 2nd movement is a funeral march - but don't let that dissuade you from listening to it. That movement is sublime, and one of my favorite pieces of all time on its own.

Audiences hated it, and I find that hilarious.

The Eroica Symphony marks Beethoven's shift from the Classical ideals of simplicity, clean forms, and fluff to the Romantic ones of pushing boundaries, hitting deep emotions, and prioritizing excellence in every single work. It encapsulates the hopes and disappointments of people in that time and continues to speak to us in the same way today. Like Beethoven did by bringing that symphony into existence (and largely ignoring the "haters" who derided it when it first premiered), I challenge you to listen to it in its entirety. Do eet. Experience the insanely wide range of emotions that a single piece of music can evoke. It's worth the time.

Maybe not on YouTube though, because f*cking ads. But here's a YouTube link anyway to get you started.

[kitsmits]

I’ve come to the devastating realization that I need to write my fic ideas instead of just talking about them in dms or daydreaming about them. I have to actually write them down. What do you mean I can’t beam my multichapter self-indulgent aus onto ao3? You mean I gotta physically write? I’m flipping my chair 🪑➰🪑

[kitsmits]

I feel like giving Yhwach or Aizen a copy of the Sims would just solve a lot of issues.

[kitsmits]

a writing competition i was going to participate in again this year has announced that they now allow AI generated content to be submitted

their reasoning being that "we couldn't ban it even if we wanted to, every writer already uses it anyway"

"Every writer"?

come on

[kitsmits]

“If I had time travel I’d kill Hitler” “If I had time travel I’d stop my favourite politician getting assassinated” you’re all thinking way too small. If I had time travel I’d stop Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from dying on the moon due to Soviet sabotage, kicking off the Great Nuclear War and devastating half of the planet.

[kitsmits]

I have had no less than 10 asks this WEEK from mostly anonymous sources asking for help (re: $). Several claim to be from Gaza, but some don’t specify their situation in any way. This is getting ridiculous. I’m quite certain that these are all wannabe scams - which sucks even more for the occasional REAL person asking for help (which are few and far between, and in my experience, rarely reach out directly beyond their mutuals, relying instead on people reblogging for more reach).

Not sure what Tumblr can do about catching, blocking, or filtering all these scam asks and posts. Just needed to vent for a sec, because I’m getting sick of seeing them come in almost every freakin’ day.

[kitsmits]

things that happened to me when i was a woman in STEM:

an advisor humiliated me in front of an entire lab group because of a call I made in his place when he wouldn't reply to my e-mails for months

he later delegated part of my master's thesis work to a 19-year old male undergrad without my approval

a male scientist at a NASA conference looked me up and down and asked when i was graduating and if i was open to a job at his company. right before inquiring what my ethnicity was because i "looked exotic"

a random male member of the public began talking over me and my female advisor, an oceanographer with a pHD and decades of experience, saying he knew more about oceanography than us

things that have happened to me since becoming a man in STEM:

being asked consistently for advice on projects despite being completely new to a position

male colleagues approaching me to drop candid information regarding our partners / higher ups that I was not privy to before

lenience toward my work in a way I haven't experienced before. incredible understanding when I need to take time off to care for my family.

conference rooms go silent when I start talking. no side chatter. I get a baseline level of attention and focus from people that's very unfamiliar and genuinely difficult for me to wrap my head around.

like. yes some PI's will still be assholes regardless of the gender of their subordinates but, I've lived this transition. misogyny in STEM is killing women's careers, and trans men can and do experience male privilege.

[kitsmits]

We all know what erectile dysfunction is but literally no one is ever taught what vaginismus is and it can cause people to feel extremely lost, broken, and cause people to take their own lives. Raise. Awareness.

[kitsmits]

If you're in the US military or National Guard, and are given an illegal or unconstitutional order, the GI Rights hotline (1-877-447-4487) is there to help give you the support you need to do the right thing by refusing it. It would be good to think about this now before it becomes a live issue for you and it would be smart of you to memorize that number.

[kitsmits]

[kitsmits]

Helpful things for action writers to remember

Sticking a landing will royally fuck up your joints and possibly shatter your ankles, depending on how high you’re jumping/falling from. There’s a very good reason free-runners dive and roll. 

Hand-to-hand fights usually only last a matter of seconds, sometimes a few minutes. It’s exhausting work and unless you have a lot of training and history with hand-to-hand combat, you’re going to tire out really fast. 

Arrows are very effective and you can’t just yank them out without doing a lot of damage. Most of the time the head of the arrow will break off inside the body if you try pulling it out, and arrows are built to pierce deep. An arrow wound demands medical attention. 

Throwing your opponent across the room is really not all that smart. You’re giving them the chance to get up and run away. Unless you’re trying to put distance between you so you can shoot them or something, don’t throw them. 

Everyone has something called a “flinch response” when they fight. This is pretty much the brain’s way of telling you “get the fuck out of here or we’re gonna die.” Experienced fighters have trained to suppress this. Think about how long your character has been fighting. A character in a fist fight for the first time is going to take a few hits before their survival instinct kicks in and they start hitting back. A character in a fist fight for the eighth time that week is going to respond a little differently. 

ADRENALINE WORKS AGAINST YOU WHEN YOU FIGHT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. A lot of times people think that adrenaline will kick in and give you some badass fighting skills, but it’s actually the opposite. Adrenaline is what tires you out in a battle and it also affects the fighter’s efficacy - meaning it makes them shaky and inaccurate, and overall they lose about 60% of their fighting skill because their brain is focusing on not dying. Adrenaline keeps you alive, it doesn’t give you the skill to pull off a perfect roundhouse kick to the opponent’s face. 

Swords WILL bend or break if you hit something hard enough. They also dull easily and take a lot of maintenance. In reality, someone who fights with a sword would have to have to repair or replace it constantly.

Fights get messy. There’s blood and sweat everywhere, and that will make it hard to hold your weapon or get a good grip on someone. 

A serious battle also smells horrible. There’s lots of sweat, but also the smell of urine and feces. After someone dies, their bowels and bladder empty. There might also be some questionable things on the ground which can be very psychologically traumatizing. Remember to think about all of the character’s senses when they’re in a fight. Everything WILL affect them in some way. 

If your sword is sharpened down to a fine edge, the rest of the blade can’t go through the cut you make. You’ll just end up putting a tiny, shallow scratch in the surface of whatever you strike, and you could probably break your sword. 

ARCHERS ARE STRONG TOO. Have you ever drawn a bow? It takes a lot of strength, especially when you’re shooting a bow with a higher draw weight. Draw weight basically means “the amount of force you have to use to pull this sucker back enough to fire it.” To give you an idea of how that works, here’s a helpful link to tell you about finding bow sizes and draw weights for your characters.  (CLICK ME)

If an archer has to use a bow they’re not used to, it will probably throw them off a little until they’ve done a few practice shots with it and figured out its draw weight and stability. 

People bleed. If they get punched in the face, they’ll probably get a bloody nose. If they get stabbed or cut somehow, they’ll bleed accordingly. And if they’ve been fighting for a while, they’ve got a LOT of blood rushing around to provide them with oxygen. They’re going to bleed a lot. 

Here’s a link to a chart to show you how much blood a person can lose without dying. (CLICK ME) 

If you want a more in-depth medical chart, try this one. (CLICK ME)

Hopefully this helps someone out there. If you reblog, feel free to add more tips for writers or correct anything I’ve gotten wrong here. 

[kitsmits]

for no reason whatsoever here’s a reminder that if you consider yourself a leftist/punk/abolitionist/anarchist/radical in any sort of way and get called into jury duty, you are to become the most square person on earth during the jury questionnaire!!!

don’t be that guy who says fuck the police in the jury questionnaire! that just gets you sent home! if you want to generate change, interact with the case and use your jury vote for good! ESPECIALLY if it’s a high profile case!

[kitsmits]

In Prince's funky name, amen.

[kitsmits]

How to Bury a Gentile

I wrote a short vaguely historical vaguely spooky ghost story about Jews and burial rites and I have to justify it existing so here it is.

“Are you the leader of the Jews?”

There was no good that ever came from that question. Rabbi Jacob stood in the doorway, one hand on the knob and the other on the frame, ready to yank it closed at a moment’s notice.

“Well, not all of the Jews.”

The man at the door made a frustrated little grunt. He was clad almost completely in dark grey clothing that seemed to fade into the shadows of the darkened street behind him. The collar of his coat was pulled up so high that it was impossible to make out more than a pair of sharp grey eyes beneath the brim of his hat, and the cloak he wore over the top of it concealed most of his body. There could be any number of guns, knives, or angry mobs hidden under there.

“But the ones in this town, yes? You are their priest, you lead prayers and weddings and so on?” the man said impatiently.

“Rabbi. Yes. I’m the rabbi, that’s correct.” Jacob said, stiffening his posture and assuming the most neutral expression he could manage. Being completely ignorant didn’t exclude someone from being completely dangerous–if anything, that heightened the risk. “What can I do for you?”

“Rabbi,” the man repeated, as if to seal it into his memory properly. One gloved hand squeezed the pommel of his walking stick. “And you preside over the funerals of your people, and perform the rites to send them to the next world?”

“Yyyyyes?” Jacob shifted his weight to his back foot, poised to slam the door in his face. This sounded unpleasantly like an opening for a death threat.

“To any of them, regardless of the sins they carried in life?” An eagerness entered the man’s voice.

“Of course. Though sin as a Jewish concept differs from the Christian…mm. Yes, of course.” The scholars of old might have debated the nature of the evil in men’s souls until the crack of dawn but Jacob had no intention of doing so at half-past midnight with a complete stranger.

The shadowed man took a half step forward and Jacob leaned back to maintain the distance between him. “What about a gentile?” the man pressed. “Would you tend to his corpse too?”

“Huh?”

“There is a man needing to be buried tonight who requires absolution. He is not a Jew, but a Jew’s prayers may be close enough for what is needed.”

“Um. It’s not usually a request I get.” Jacob tried to keep his voice calm and soothing. There was some kind of entrapment lingering in the conversation, he just knew it. That or a giant box of crazy that had managed to dress itself stylishly. Gentiles asking Jews intrusive but urgent questions never turned out well for their target–a day-long case of irritation was the best outcome the target could hope for.

The man’s hands pressed together as he completed the full step forward, making Jacob back up into the doorframe. Desperation was in his tone and Jacob was forced back over the threshold just to stay out of his grip “All I need is someone to accompany me to the cemetery to consecrate the body and pray for its soul. Barely an hour of your time. I cannot pay you with anything but my gratitude, but you will have it eternally.”

“And you came to me?”

The man sighed. Even the top hat seemed to slouch slightly as his body slumped. “I have asked every holy man in the city, Catholic and Protestant alike, and they have refused to come to the cemetery,“ he bemoaned. "The last one told me to visit you. Likely a ploy to make me leave faster, but you are all I have left.”

“What did this man do, that so many people refused him? Who was he?”

The man at the door hesitated. The sharp eyes vanished as his eyelids slid down, and then appeared a few moments later.

“Must you ask?” he said quietly. “Is it not enough that it is a corpse which can do no man harm any longer, and you will lose nothing but a half-night of sleep?”

The inside of Jacob’s head was ringing with warning bells like the frantic clanging of gongs announcing a fire. He swallowed and tried to ignore them.

“You say he wasn’t Jewish?”

“He was not…much of anything. He felt God had no interest in him, and returned a lack of interest in kind. Perhaps if he had been more attentive he wouldn’t lie in a pauper’s grave…or perhaps he would have not changed a whit.” The man’s voice was bitter and the sharp eyes briefly looked away from Jacob, to Jacob’s deep relief.

“Who was this man, to you?” he asked.

“Close. I would prefer to say no more. Please, rabbi. It must be done, and it must be tonight.”

Seminary did not prepare me for this, Jacob thought, and then thought again. There is absolutely something in the Talmud about this and I’ve just forgotten it, because I’m an idiot and I’m half asleep and there is a goy on my doorstep asking me to go out to the cemetery with him at midnight to bury a man whose name he won’t tell me.

“Look, I’ll need someone to help dig the grave.”

“Of course.”

“And a coffin. A plain pine box. And I’ll need to get my supplies from the–”

“But you’ll do it?” said the man excitedly, standing up even taller. “And do it tonight, before the cock crows?”

Jacob held up his hands to keep the man from getting even further into his personal space. “Fine. Yes. Give me half an hour and a lazy rooster.”

The cloak almost seem to inflate as the man gasped for joy. He grabbed Jacob’s hands and shook both with enthusiasm, sending Jacob stumbling. “Thank God for you, my good rabbit! Whatever God there is, thank God for you!”

The man ran off into the shadowed streets and was out of sight almost immediately.

Jacob’s hands slowly fell back to his side as he mumbled, “Rabbi,” to the darkness.

My wife is going to kill me if whatever’s at the cemetery doesn’t.

Keep reading

[kitsmits]

hey if you're the type of writer that's like me where you tend to write specific scenes first that vaguely weave together into a plot, you might like using obsidian as a writing app.

my frustration with other writing applications is that i will write my scenes out of order and it's hard to move things around and rearrange them on a regular document.

but with obsidian there's this canvas feature where you can just write all your scenes and plot moments on these little cards that you can freely rearrange. you can color code them and connect them too.

here's the canvas i've created for my current multi-chapter fic: (if you zoom in you can see all the text in each card this what it looks like zoomed out)

as you can see, i color code them based off chapters and will group them next to a document card with the working title of the chapter. anything not color-coded are scenes that don't have a proper place quite yet or it's just world building references. this app can also be good for note-taking and collecting research!

best of all, it's FREE!!! the only downside is that if you want your stuff to sync across devices, you do have to pay for that. i constantly hop between my laptop and desktop so i pay for the syncing. but if you write on only one device it's completely free! EDIT: some reblogs have mentioned that you can apparently link your own personal cloud storage (dropbox, gdrive, icloud, etc.) to obsidian for free! that way you can access your obsidian vaults across multiple devices without the extra fee. i don't mind supporting the devs but just something to look into if costs is a concern.

i typically use it for organizing my thoughts for a first draft. once i get all the scenes arranged and mostly written out, i will copy and paste them into ellipsus (also free & highly recommended as a google doc alternative) so that they're all in one document that i can edit.

[kitsmits]

worlds slowest fanfic author tries really really hard