#I WORKED ON A LOT OF THINGS

[clown-owo]

been replaying the Portal series I think this is where its heading

[unforth]

Gentle reminder that very little fandom labor is automated, because I think people forget that a lot.

That blog with a tagging system you love? A person curates those tags by hand.

That rec blog with a great organization scheme and pretty graphics? Someone designed and implemented that organization scheme and made those graphics.

That network that posts a cool variety of stuff? People track down all that variety and queue it by hand, and other people made all the individual pieces.

That post with umpteen links to helpful resources, and information about them? Someone gathered those links, researched the sources, wrote up the information about them.

That graphic about fandom statistics? Someone compiled those statistics, analyzed them, organized them, figured out a useful way to convey the information to others, and made the post.

That event that you think looks neat? Someone wrote the rules, created the blogs and Discords, designed the graphics, did their best to promo the event so it'd succeed.

None of this was done automatically. None of it just appears whole out of the internet ether.

I think everyone realizes that fic writing and fanart creation are work, and at least some folks have got it through their heads that gif creation and graphics and moodboards take effort, and meta is usually respected for the effort that goes into it, at least as far as I've seen, but I feel like a lot of people don't really get how much labor goes into curation, too.

If people are creating resources, curating content, organizing the creations of others, gathering information, and doing other fandom activities that aren't necessarily the direct action of creation, they're doing a lot of fandom labor, and it's often largely unrecognized.

Celebrate fan work!

To folks doing this kind of labor: I see you, and I thank you. You are the backbones of our fandoms and I love you.

[viky2318]

Shooting a mad gato filled with anger at full speed in your direction.

YOU CANNOT AVOID IT-

The cat furiously threw the keyboard on the ground and sat down, irked. She couldn’t teleport away, she couldn’t find a way to make that thing work and she couldn’t find a single soul in that damned place. She walked around for a while at first, but it was only an infinite dusty flower field. Yes, dusty. Monster dust, to be precise. What that place was wasn’t a thing Maddy cared for at the moment, though. She took a glance at the keyboard, laying next to her perfectly intact. She worked on that thing for hours, but to no avail. At the beginning she tried to use it, to see if something happened if she pressed this or that button, trying also different combinations. All she could do was stuff she already knew how to do, which was opening the universe and timeline description (which was censored and marked as “owner’s only data”) and reading the data of things in it (the flowers were perfectly normal golden flowers from that same timeline, and the dust was from “unidentified creatures”). She then tried to see if she could take it apart, but it seemed to be made of a single piece of… something. A material with a high magic concentration. Maybe it was pure magic. She tried to break it in half (it wasn’t too hard), but it melted and then took shape again, perfectly intact. Whoever made that thing must have been an expert magician… Maddy let herself fall down on the ground, huffing. She couldn’t stay there doing nothing. Her friends weren’t safe. She didn’t know why they were, but the simple fact that they weren’t on sight made her worry for them. Of course they weren’t in sight. She was trapped in a goddamn mass grave. Maybe all that dust was from other beings Sam trapped here. That human… She had to get away from there and kill them somehow. But what could she do? What didn’t she try? What was she missing? She looked again at the keyboard. That thing was useless in the end. Sam seemed to make clear that it just helped them but it wasn’t the source of their powers. She got up again, taking the keyboard in hand and giving it an irked stare. ”What a useless piece of trash”, she commented quietly.

“Oh c’mon now, don’t be so rude! I worked real hard on that artifact”. Maddy simply had to raise her gaze to see a tall smiling man looking at her with a brow raised, accompanied by a Flowey. The same Flowey that was with Muffet. The man looked familiar, yet she couldn’t quite figure out where she-… oh wait. The mission to Underswap. She saw him for a second back there, but she thought she imagined it. A lot of doubts and questions popped in her small mind, most of them openly declaring war to those two beings. The cat lowered her gaze to the flower, untrustful. “Where did you leave Muffet? She was with you last time I saw your ugly face”. The flower furrowed in annoyance, commenting: “moderate your terms, you stupid furry. We’re gonna get her too later”. Maddy was about to say something else, but the smiling man spoke first. “Please you two, don’t act childishly. We don’t have time for such silly discussions. Maddy, we would be glad if you followed us. We want to make sure you and your coworkers are out of risk, give you back your souls and bring you to a safe place”. Ok, that was definitely suspicious. Even Flowey raised a brow at the man as he spoke, probably finding his choice of words not the best one. “... Alright. So you pop out of nowhere right in the moment I need it without even telling me who the hell you are, propose an easy solution to one of my biggest problems and then tell me you’ll also “give me back” something I am supposed to have already. I think I need you to explain a few things to me because this smells like one of a big rip-off”. The man remained silent for a moment, probably because he was hoping it would have been easy to convince her, then sighed quietly. “Of course. My name is Seam (it’s pronounced Shawn). You can say I was Sam’s tutor. I tried to help Muffet and Grillby not do the wrong thing and take some distances from them, but sadly me and my softer counterpart weren’t able to completely avoid this moment. I’m sorry if I avoided contacting you until now, but Sam used to keep an eye open for you, seeing how potentially unstable you are. Most of the control the human has on you is because they have your soul, and now we want to take away some of their power on you and your coworkers. We’ll make sure you all are out of danger and we’ll make Sam harmless, either by taking away their powers or killing them”.

The cat thought about it for a moment, evaluating the options. “Yeah, sounds like a good explanation. Even too good. What’s the deal here? And still you didn’t explain to me how that idiot got my soul. If they really did it, I mean”. Flowey groaned, then exclaimed: “there, we’re losing time now! Can you stop doing the long and formal talk? Lemme handle this, ok?”. The flower raised a leaf towards Maddy, and checked her. Her stats came out visible, her clear annoyance, her LV… but no soul. This finally piqued the cat’s attention, making her frown a little. The flower nodded at her expression. “Exactly. Now that you have an actual proof, will you stop being an idiot and follow us? Our plan has little to no chances to fail, but they’ll surely get higher if we lose too much time. By now your lovely spider friend could be 6 feet under the ground keeping company to the fire guy”. Maddy’s eyes seemed to widen at his statement. It wasn’t the Muffet part. She knew already that Muffet was at risk. The “Fire guy” part concerned her. “... Waaaait. I think I heard wrong. You’re not telling me Grillby’s dead, right? He’s fine. He was perfectly fine last time I saw him. You can’t tell me I left him alone for a moment and he just died”. Her face had a smile that was slowly falling apart and an expression of almost irony, and there was a clear concerned tone in her voice, mixed together with a good dose of repressed anger and a little touch of fear. “Yeah, yeah, he’s dead. Very sad, tears and cries, etcetera etcetera. You can’t do anything about it, so let’s move on and be serious, alright?” Flowey stated. This time the tall man was the one to give a stare at the flower, clearly disappointed in his insensitivity. 

Nope. No. No no no. This was clearly fake. They were trying to get her to believe in them and make her do what they want. Those liars. Everyone was a liar in that hellhole of a multiverse. Always. They can’t tell her such a thing. That stupid flower. Never trust a flower. Not even Underswap ones. Grillby’s fine. He MUST be fine. That idiot can’t leave her alone like that. That depressed dumbass. He wouldn’t DARE die alone. He… 

Not a single tear. Not a cry, or a shout, or a desperate look. Just a silent stare in the nothing, with a deep frown and a quiet smile that made her seem about to start laughing. Of course. That dumb depressed idiot couldn’t live without someone to support him. She should have tried harder. And who was the murderer? … Was that even a question? Of course. There was no one else who would do something so irritating. “... I’ll come with you. But you won’t leave me anywhere. We’ll get Muffet, and then we’ll kill that human once and forever”, she stated, forcing her face to look calmer. The tall man nodded, a bit confused by how Flowey’s method seemingly was more effective than his. The flower seemed impressed by her sudden change of mind, and almost proud of his good job. “There! Way better. Maybe you’re not as stupid as I thought”, he commented. “Yeah sure, whatever. Dare calling me anything different than Maddy again and I'll rip your petals one by one, flower. Anyway, what do I do with this, man? You said you made it, so I guess you want it back”, Maddy commented, giving the keyboard to the smiling man. He looked at it for a moment, debating a few things, then took that and the cat’s right hands in his. The keyboard seemed to vibrate for a moment, then got all melty and quickly wrapped around her glove, leaving only a thin metal sheet with some really rough buttons. The keys disappeared, and her glove seemed to get almost absorbed by the magic material, fusing with it perfectly. “There. This should make your code-visualizing ability more simple and amplify your magic, other than partially isolating you from Sam’s code-editing. I want to make sure you can actually face them without falling directly in their hands”, the man explained. The cat wasn’t expecting such a thing, but didn’t mind. “Aaaalright. Cut the chat now, man. We should really get going, you know?” Flowey commented. The man nodded in response, then held the two other beings and teleported to a dark, infinite nothing.

START PREVIOUS NEXT

[inafallsaway]

Drawing time!

[monstermonger]

I recently bought an art book on Caspar David Friedrich, whose emotional work stuck with me since I first saw it in a museum years ago. Over the course of a few weeks, I read about his life and at the same time did studies/interpretations of many pieces. It was a really enjoyable and fulfilling project; here's a good lot of them together :)

I was happy to see many people enjoyed Friedrich's work+my interpretations while posting them individually. It took way too long, but I FINALLY set up a print shop for some of these + some other pieces for those who expressed interest. Thank you so much!

[cryptocism]

sometimes the joke going over your head can really work out

[kindnessoverperfection]

Please, if you can, take a moment to read and share this because I feel like I'm screaming underwater.

NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) stigma is rampant right now, and seems to be getting progressively worse. Everyone is using it as a buzzword in the worst ways possible, spreading misinformation and hatred against a real disorder.

I could go on a long time about how this happened, why it's factually incorrect (and what the disorder actually IS), why it's harmful, and the changes I'd like to see. But to keep this concise, I'll simply link to a few posts under the cut for further reading.

The point of this post is a plea. Please help stop the spread of stigma. Even in mental health communities, even around others with personality disorders, in neurodivergent "safe" spaces, other communities I thought people would be supportive in (e.g. trans support groups, progressive spaces in general), it keeps coming up. So I'm willing to bet that a lot of people on this site need to see this.

Because it's so hard to exist in this world.

My disorder already makes me feel as if I'm worthless and unlovable, like there's something inherently wrong and damaged about me. And it's so much harder to fight that and heal when my daily life consists of:

Laughing and spending time with my friends, doing my utmost best to connect and stay present and focused on them, trying to let my guards down and be real and believe I'm lovable- when suddenly they throw out the word "narcissist" to describe horrible people or someone they hate, or the conversation turns to how evil "people with narcissistic personality disorder" are. (Seriously, you don't know which of your friends might have NPD and feels like shit when you say those things & now knows that you'd hate them if you knew.)

Trying to look up "mental health positivity for people with npd", "mental health positivity cluster bs", only to find a) none of that, and b) more of the same old vile shit that makes me feel terrible about myself.

Having a hard time (which is constant at this point) and trying to look up resources for myself, only to again, find the same stigma. And no resources.

Not having any clue how to help myself, because even the mental health field is spitting so much vitriol at people with DISORDERS (who they're supposed to be helping!) that there's no solid research or therapy programs for people like me.

Losing close friends when they find out, despite us having had a good relationship before, and them KNOWING me and knowing that I'm not like the trending image of pwNPD. Because now they only see me through the lens of stigma and misinformation.

Hearing the same stigma come up literally wherever I go. Clubs. Meetings. Any online space. At the bus stop. At the mall. At a restaurant. At work. Buzzword of the year that everyone loooves loudly throwing around with their friends or over the phone. Feels awesome for me, makes my day so much better/s

I could go on for a long time, but I'm scared no one will read/rb this if it gets too much longer.

So please. Stop using the word "narcissist" as a synonym for "abusive".

Stop bringing up people you hate who you believe to have NPD because of a stigmatizing article full of misinformation whenever someone with actual NPD opens their mouth. (Imagine if people did that with any other disorder! "Hey, I'm autistic." "Oh... my old roommate screamed at me whenever I made noise around him, and didn't understand my needs, which seems like sensory overload and difficulty with social cues. He was definitely autistic. But as long as you're self-aware and always restraining your innate desire to be an abusive asshole, you're okay I guess, maybe." ...See how offensive and ignorant that is?)

Stop preventing healthcare for people with a disorder just because it's trendy to use us as a scapegoat.

If you got this far, thank you for reading, and please share this if you can. Further reading is under the cut.

NPD Criteria, re-written by someone who actually has NPD

Stigma in the DSM

Common perception of the DSM criteria vs how someone may actually experience them (Keep in mind that this is the way I personally experience these symptoms, and that presentation can vary a lot between individuals)

"Idk, the stigma is right though, because I've known a lot of people with NPD who are jerks, so I'm going to continue to support the blockage of treatment for this condition."

(All of these were written by me, because I didn't want to link to other folks' posts without permission, but if you want to add your own links in reblogs or replies please feel free <3)

[lazylittledragon]

i refuse to believe that boycotting is hard. my favourite thing in the world is ordering maccies after a late night at work/a concert/getting drunk. yes i do miss it sometimes. but the other night i ordered from a small place near my house instead and it was the most orgasmic burger i've ever had in my life. i very rarely say this but fucking suck it up people are DEAD

[gotchibam]

Shiny Mew & Giratina (Origin Form) ko-fi doodle for Quickpaint!

[polarisbear]

lil creatures <3 (and some i don’t know… hermits?) (Really detailed image description below)

a drawing of geminitay, pearlescentmoon, zombiecleo, stressmonster101, and false symmetry posing in a line. they’re in their season 10 outfits or slightly altered versions of their normal skins.

gem is posing with a diamond sword across her shoulders and wormy snail, and the orange and yellow lighthouse goldfish hanging out behind her. she’s in her pirate skin with magic hair ending in water, with shark teeth, slitted eyes and claws. she has a very toothy grin and desaturated palette.

pearl is flicking up the brim of her hat while holding onto the strap of her messenger bag. pogt is peeking out behind pearl, with a messenger pigeon on her hat. she’s in her postmaster skin with an undershirt on, a jacket tied around her waist, and hiking boots. the bag has more celestial details. she has a relaxed smirk and a very warm palette.

cleo carrying atlas, an orange cat, and a tray holding enchanted books and a tall, teal glass. she has on flowers in her hair, a sleeveless button up, a torn off-the-shoulder shirt, a high-waisted pencil skirt, and dress shoes. she looks exasperated and she has a cool palette.

stress is proudly holding up a pile of mud with roots and bricks sticking out of it with madame meepless, a gray british shorthair, looking up at stress. she’s wearing a pink-purple-teal flower crown, a white shirt, overalls with patches and one leg short and the other leg tucked in her black rain boots, and a bright pink tracksuit jacket on top. she’s covered in mud and has a very vibrant color palette.

false is holding a briefcase and a diamond shovel casually, with the shovel on the ground. she has on the minister hat with red and white goggles acting as the ribbon, a red, poorly tied tie, an untucked red-and-white striped shirt, a dark green blazer with gold buttons, fancy shorts with a white 2nd shorts underneath, and brown boots with socks. she’s looking confidently off to the side and has a warm, but muted, palette.

[mienar]

from us it begins

instagram | shop | commission info

[xx-sketchy-xx]

Poor poppy, a three tiered cake is simply not big enough!

[puppyeared]

littlest furth shop

@laikascomet

[kagoutiss]

pelican town, ‘72

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Do you have a snoot noodle or other variation of sighthound? If yes, there’s new heart health research for the breed happening!

A researcher at Texas A&M whose work I’m familiar with is starting a new study looking at genetic factors contributing to heart disease in Borzoi and related breeds. They just put out a call for dog owners who are willing to submit saliva samples & (noodle) medical records. Studies like this need a big sample size! They’re accepting new sign-ups starting now until March 1, 2025, for dogs both in the US and internationally.

Let’s help make some science!

From the study page:

“Background and purpose

Recent research in Borzoi dogs has revealed that dogs of this breed experience sudden, unexplained death. About 85% of sudden, unexplained deaths in humans are linked to an underlying heart disease. Our existing research in Borzoi dogs has shown that they are predisposed to developing arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) and dilated cardiomyopathy (a heart muscle disease causing dilated heart chambers and weak pumping function).

Due to our documentation of the frequency of these conditions in Borzoi dogs, we seek to identify responsible genetic variations similar to what is seen in humans with electrical cardiac diseases that trigger arrhythmias and dilated cardiomyopathy.

The objective of our study is to identify genetic mutations associated with heart disease in Borzoi dogs and document their existence in other sighthound breeds.

What happens in this study

We are collecting saliva samples from both healthy Borzoi and Borzoi dogs affected with arrhythmias and/or dilated cardiomyopathy. We will also collect saliva samples from any other sighthound breeds.

We will extract DNA from these samples and perform genomic sequencing on a select number while retaining the remainder for further screening.By analyzing the sequencing data, we can compare the genes of healthy and affected Borzoi dogs and identify variants linked to their heart conditions. We will also compare the findings in Borzoi dogs to results from other sighthound breeds.

Pet owner responsibilities

A swab kit will be sent to you for at home use along with a link to an instructional video on how to properly obtain a swab of the mouth. The kit will contain equipment to collect the saliva swab, a history form for your pet, a client consent form and a shipping label to return samples to us.

Participation requirements

To participate, you must have a Borzoi dog or a sighthound breed that is either healthy or affected by arrhythmias and/or dilated cardiomyopathy. Pets may be any age or sex. Electronic or paper veterinary medical records will need to be provided.

Benefits and risks of participating

There is little to no risk for taking a brief swab of the mouth for saliva collection if procedures outlined in the video are followed. No individual genetic test results will be provided to study participants.

Compensation

There is no cost to the owner for participating in this study. No compensation will be provided.”

[bumbleboa]

small collection of recent sketches from my files, Law and Zoro edition