#as a specific subreddit seems to think anyways…

[fixyourwritinghabits]

The Quick Guide of Taking Care of Yourselves

RIGHT ANYWAY, semi-functioning again. Here's some generic tips for Americans (and beyond) in these trying times.

Limit Your Social Media News Consumption

Seriously, you need to set specific times to be aware of what's going on, and then you need to put down your phone. Many of the things that are happening are beyond your control. Doomscrolling is paralyzing. Do not fall into despair loops. This helps no one and it especially does not help you.

Make a channel in your Discord group for dumping things in and leave it to that. Find ways to plug into your local community - talk to your local library, check your local subreddit, pay attention to local events. But you also must give yourself a break from all of the above for your own mental health.

Pick a set time at night and put down your phone. Don't scroll through it before bed, don't start scrolling the second you get up. Form firm habits that allow you to rest and take care of yourself. It's important to be aware of what's happening, but it does not require your constant attention.

Do Things For Yourself

In addition to making art, it's important to find ways to keep yourself grounded. Take a class you're interested in. Go to that book club. See if there's a local group into that hobby you want to start. Need to brush up on your technical skills? See if there's some online classes that you can take (and get a certificate for!).

Don't over-commit (I say, having signed up for three different activities this year), but it is vital to take time to do things for yourself to stay grounded. Having other things to focus on is going to help. I'm taking a strength-building exercise class and German lessons, and having to focus on squats and gendered nouns for certain hours of the day has been so helpful in keeping me going. Give it a try.

(You don't have to try German, just to be clear. I just think it's a neat language.)

You Do Not Have to Constantly Rearrange Your Priorities

I donate monthly to my local animal shelter. That's still going to be an important thing to do. I reblog things I don't have the funds to contribute to myself. That's still useful to do. I'm still going to pay for my patreon subscriptions, because I am supporting people I like and want to succeed.

There are some things you can do. If you are in a position to cancel Amazon Prime, you should probably do that. But some people can't, because they don't have a more reliable way to get certain necessities, and that's fine. If you're in a position to close your Meta accounts, that seems like a good call. However, while I've currently got mine locked down, I need my Instagram for professional reasons, and it's my only point of contact for certain people. I hate it, but I've made the decision to keep using it. There's no morally perfect options out there.

Think Local and Connect with Community

You cannot do anything about most of the terrible things happening. You can, however, make connections to the people around you and find ways to support yourself and others. You can find places to volunteer. You can participate in your local political groups and keep up-to-date on protests and political action. You can keep pressure on your local politicians with phone-calling and letter campaigns. Making connections to others will help you find ways to feel useful and help, even if it doesn't feel like you can.

Most importantly, though, MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. If you're a vulnerable minority in a deep red state or desperately need to keep your head down at your job, you need to make decisions that are best for you. You cannot help others if you yourself are also drowning, and that is okay.

There are still some small things everyone can do. Boycotts of certain products and companies (shout-out to all of Canada, keep it up and I hope for nothing but the best for y'all) is something you can do that doesn't put you at risk. Stay connected to like-minded friends. Stock up on masks and get your vaccines. Have an emergency-prepared plan in cases of natural disasters (always a good plan).

Hang in there. Sometimes you'll spiral, everyone will. But keeping your head above water and building steps to pull yourself up from those holes will be essential.

[nothorses]

hi sorry to bother u about this, i searched around transmasc subreddits for an answer to this and while i saw a few people joking about getting dry cramps, nobody seems to know what this is. and i vaguely remember seeing a post by you mentioning "mystery cramps" in a post also about vaginal atrophy, but I didnt pay attention to the post much at the time bc at that point i wasnt experiencing atrophy or mystery cramps.

but now I'm a bit over a year on T, (my periods stopped only about 4 months ago though, because i was on a much lower dose than most for a lot longer time than most. that ~4 months ago time frame lines up with upping my dose from 0.2 to 0.3ml. i'm on 0.4ml tho now as of about 3 weeks ago) and suddenly i'm getting "mystery cramps" sometimes, it seems to happen especially the night before my T-shot day, (but i cant say that with certainty—i know i'm having them right now and my shot day is tomorrow morning, and i think thats been the case, but i dont know for sure) and they feel exactly like period cramps. to the point where i feel super paranoid that maybe i've been injecting improperly and the testosterone isnt absorbing right and my period is actually coming back. (something i often have nightmares about)

i searched your blog again for that post and did find it, (the one about estradiol cream treating it) but the wording of it is a little unclear and i wanted to just clarify that this is the same thing youre talking about? or if what im experiencing is different than the "mystery cramps" you meant and i should see a doctor

I am for sure not a doctor, and I think you should see one either way!

My personal understanding of the "mystery cramps" is that it's a part of "vaginal atrophy" that some, but not all trans folks who go on T experience, and it usually doesn't start until a couple of years on T ( which is also, to my knowledge, based on more standard doses as opposed to "low-dose" T).

Mine started about two years in, and was happening occasionally at first- always at night, and often the day before my T shot- then progressed to several nights a week over time. Nowadays I tend to experience cramping almost every time I so much as miss one dose of estradiol. Ibuprofen and Midol are the only OTC pain relievers that seem to do the trick, and the cramping will keep me up through the entire night untreated. It also tends to come in fairly predictable waves (spaced maybe 15-30 minutes apart) and right before I started estradiol, I remember getting some light spotting as well.

iirc, I talked to my PCP when it was just starting up, and their response was along the lines of "that's weird, let's keep an eye on it". I moved and didn't have a PCP for a while, so when the spotting started, I went to a walk-in urgent care clinic and talked to them. They gave me a referral for an ultrasound, and encouraged me to go to a "women's health" clinic that had long history of specializing in trans care as well. When I talked to the folks at that clinic, they encouraged me to go through with the ultrasound (I didn't), and prescribed estradiol cream because I asked them to and they didn't see a reason not to try it.

If you think it's possible this is what's going on with you, I would really encourage you to talk to a doctor, specifically bring up research around this issue and estradiol cream as a treatment option, and ask them if there's a reason not to try it just to see if it does anything for you. If nothing else, estradiol cream also treats vaginal dryness, tightness, and inflammation (other symptoms of "vaginal atrophy"), so it might be worth a shot for those reasons anyway!

And don't do what I did; if they want you to do an ultrasound or whatever else, go with it, and rule out other possibilities. Listen to medical advice from medical professionals who know your medical history and who you trust are listening to you & know what they're talking about.

[ghouljams]

Somehow I'm afraid of coming off as too insane even though I don't think this is crazy nuts: when I started watching p*rn, I honestly was not looking for anything specific bc I was super new, and there were a lot of vids with fucking on the beach that were great but I just never thought were as hot as they actually were? Not even like nudes beaches, just like a chick giving a bl@wj@b (Idk if I'm censoring correctly) from a behind pov and that was great and it was on the beach and i fucking love the beach but it just didn't hit the mark for some reason

You seem really young (because of the censoring) so I did consider blocking you but just as a heads up you don't have to censor anything on tumblr.

Porn, blowjob, cock, cunt, death, murder, killing, sex, dick, uhhhh what else? rape, handjob, pussy, fuck, shit, damn, ass, anal, sex sex sex, big swinging dongs, idk man say the words it literally doesn't matter, the thought police aren't coming for you, don't self censor

Anyway, you are telling me that the porn you're watching isn't doing it for you? Watch different porn. Go on pornhub and just go through the front page for a while, check out xvideos if you don't have pornhub idk. Go on reddit and look at the fullporncomics subreddit if videos aren't your jam.

Blowjob videos are boring, watch eating out videos they're way better. Also stick to amateur porn, the chicks look less bored and the positions are actually look like they feel good. Idk why you're looking at beach videos, but your kink is your kink I guess. Probably some cunnilingus on the beach porn out there...

[transmutationisms]

have you heard about HOCD (homosexual obsessive disorder)? i discovered this recently (which is not in the DSM "yet" but many therapists will still "diagnose" it). i'm perplexed, it seems like a way to add "homosexuality" back into the DSM without officially doing so. i've been trying to read up on it and it feels like it might just be... repressed homosexuality? internalized homophobia? there's a whole subreddit for it that mostly consists of "i looked at a guy today, could i be gay?!" and the responses like "don't worry brother, you're straight, just believe in yourself." (also, the description of HOCD seems to erase a lot of sexualities between gay and straight? and also how people tend to think a lot about their sexuality anyway?) what do you think, is this fake, insidious, or what

yep some patients and practitioners do refer to 'subtypes' of ocd, where this (or the broader 'sexual orientation ocd') are one such label. i don't actually know of any sustained effort to add these sub-labels to the dsm and i wouldn't expect to see such a thing unless and until someone starts marketing specific drugs or therapeutic modalities matched to particular 'subtypes'---dsm labels being insurance company billing codes

anyway i agree this label is ripe for use by people who simply want to discourage gay people existing (there is a corresponding and equally insidious 'gender identification' subtype these days as well) but fundamentally i do think this comes back to the idea that sexuality is some kind of discoverable, essential quality buried deep inside each of us, rather than a particular social-scientific taxonomical scheme attempting to capture and classify some of our extremely complex and personal thoughts and behaviours. i don't think it's actually very helpful to tell anyone with any kind of 'sexual orientation ocd' that what they need is, like, a qualified professional who can examine them mentally and root out the traces of Unwanted Fake Sexuality Thoughts, whether this goes in the direction of fearing you're gay or fearing you're straight or anything else.

i've always said it's fine to use a sexuality label if it feels right for you, no scrupulosity test required; similarly, i just don't think it's feasible to sit there all day trying to sort out which desires are real or fake. you can just act on them, or not, and it doesn't actually mean your soul has moved into some alternate categorical state either way lol. like i really just don't find it useful or accurate in general, the idea that there's some deeper, pre-social level of ourselves that we can or should discover. it's all contextual, gay desires equally to straight ones. basically you can do what you want forever and you actually don't have to torment yourself over how it reflects onto any mythologised notion of a stable or unitary Self. i think this is a much more incisive way of stopping the obsessional cycle of any ocd presentation than getting strategies for how to verify to yourself that you 'really are' xyz forever and endlessly 👍

[truessences]

Was on Reddit in the Stranger Things subreddit and someone asked who the most intelligent member of the party is. Here was my answer.

I think Mike is the smartest of the kids, Dustin has an overall knowledge base of nerdy stuff but I feel like Mike, also has that but tends to think quick on his feet, is creative, brave, observant(sometimes) and strategic. A lot of big plans have happened because of him spearheading them.

S1- everything he did for El and being able to explain to everyone about the upside down after learning about parallel worlds from his teacher

S2- causing a diversion for El and Hopper to get in and close the gate. True sight and that Will was a spy.

S3- being the only one really who was trying to keep El from over doing it and also immediately coming to El’s aid in the sauna sequence. Plus that was also his plan.

S4- figuring out the pen and thinking to go see Suzie.

I also might be biased as he’s my fave and I think people are way too hard on him but I think my examples help lol.

I’ve always felt like they all had their specialties anyway or what I think they’d be good in and a lot of it overlaps obviously.

AND THEN, I talked about how he is also extremely self-sacrificing and some extra stuff because as always, I feel like people are way too hard on him.

Exactly! He’s also so self sacrificing! People say he hasn’t been the same since S1 and I agree in a sense but not about his character but that’s really on the writers.

S1- telling Brenner that he’d have to kill him (us) to get El. Willing to throw himself off the cliff for Dustin, trying to stand up to the bullies for Will.

S2- running to the soldiers to tell them it’s a trap when he could have easily died. The plan to go into the tunnels which led to him getting attacked lol.

S3- trying to fight Mind Flayed possessed Billy TWICE. Because Billy on his own is scary but a possessed one?? Come on now lol. People really say they hate S3 Mike and I will never understand why lol. My boy was so brave. The other stuff is because of Hopper and I’ll forever die on that hill.

S4- he didn’t get as much to do in terms of forward action but immediately running out to El in the desert when there’s no way he could have known that it was safe for him to do so.

He very much clearly is the leader and the heart of the group. I feel like people say otherwise just because they don’t like him and outside of “oh he’s just a boring character” I don’t personally think he’s done anything to be unlikable, I feel like there are reasons for a lot of his moody (outside of teenager) behavior. He doesn’t get any slack from the fandom and at times his own friends (Max and Will at times and even Lucas). He’s the only one who didn’t get the chance to really talk about his feelings UNTIL S4.

And then someone responded that he was being a jackass in S3, which is why a lot of fans seemed to dislike him and I'm like no, sorry that doesn't make sense to me. Hopper is literally an adult and threatened Mike at least 3 times in their conversation. Like you don't *have* to like anyone but I feel like the reasons that are given for Mike specifically don't make sense to me. As I said in the post, everyone has their moments of being assholes but Mike is the ONLY one who doesn't get a pass. I feel like Lucas was treated pretty badly in S1 but that's gone down thank goodness but Mike still gets shit and to me it's unfounded.

Like don't piss me off lol

[secretly-of-course]

https://www.reddit.com/r/theowlhouse/s/wfqfxkjxmm

Found this on Reddit today and thought you might’ve liked it.

hmmm the link seems to only be directing me to the owl house subreddit rather than a specific post, don’t know if it’s bc i don’t have an account. thank you for thinking of me anyway though it’s so nice to be perceived and thought of by my friends <3

[rigelmejo]

Has anyone studied a language with the method of automatic language growth (ALG)?

ComprehensibleThai on youtube appears to have some amazing lessons specifically for ALG study. I found them when looking for various comprehensible input youtube channels. I am still looking into what ALG is more, and the subreddit I found that defined it has quite specific guidelines you should follow when studying, and I'm very curious. I am still hunting down more information on ALG before I draw any big conclusions.

I'm seeing information like: the idea is to watch videos/teachers in lessons (and eventually real life situations if you're in a place it's spoken, or shows in the language with various situations) and focus on grasping what is going on. Not trying to translate in your head, not trying to make conclusions conciously of "they said dui and nodded so maybe it means yes" - but instead just trying to understand as if you were a toddler learning your first language: just recognizing "they communicated Agreement" or when people say words as objects increase maybe they're counting, or when people say words and point to themselves maybe it's about them. The idea is similar to studying Comprehensible Input (like TPRS or Francais par le Methode Nature etc) except that there are many Comprehensible Input studiers who simply watch what they can comprehend, even if comprehension is due to cognates and guessing based on what they already know about the language explicitly. For example: when I watch a spanish video, I can use spanish subtitles on and guess what some stuff means based on French that I know - I don't necessarily HAVE to rely on visually watching the situation going on and drawing conclusions for that situation/experiencing it. With ALG, it seems the idea is to primarily NOT analyze the unknown and guess, but instead to mainly focus on the VISUAL information to follow what's going on... with (from what I am getting the impression of) the assumption you will pick up the language over time from hearing it in situations you could understand from visuals/body language.

So with ALG, I also saw that you generally don't speak for around 1000 hours, basically until it feels natural like your native language to say a given phrase. If it feels natural to say a given phrase or word then say it, if it feels like you must think hard and figure out what to say then don't say it yet. So sort of how as babies, we made sounds and practiced, but perhaps only said mama when we wanted something for several months. Then eventually we said baba or bottle, then "want bottle."

Although... I'd say ALG sounds like it'd prefer you not to speak until the pronunciation feels natural... whereas with actual babies, they usually have bad pronunciation in their own native language until 2-4. They speak anyway, with the bad pronunciation, because kids have stuff they need to tell us lol! Like "hungry" "water" "tired" "play" "want that" "help." I couldn't say letters like L or T or S until I was like 4 in my native language, but I was saying full sentences of "I want X with Y" by age 2. Just with letters missing, as toddlers do, but understandable enough their parents know what they're talking about. I remember my nieces, as toddlers from 2-4, ranting for many minutes over what happened to them that day, just telling me, and I could understand them because I babysat them a lot but to a stranger a lot of my niece's words were hard to understand. Maybe ALG has you not speak full words until you feel they're easy to say, since you're an adult, so you can afford to postpone speaking in the language (and get help/your needs met in your native language or with gestures until then), and since as an adult you can potentially make a variety of sounds quicker than a baby? I'm not sure. That is an interesting thing to consider mm.

Anyway. I have seen in some of the ALG stuff I'm reading that suggests if you Deviate from the expected ALG study model, then you may develop some ingrained language usage mistakes. That may well be true, I don't know nearly enough about ALG or ingrained mistakes to draw any educated conclusion.

I personally don't care much if I do ingrain some usage mistakes, or accent mistakes though. So it's not a big worry for me. And it makes me curious: for people who have studied both using ALG methods and other methods, what was your experience? Did ALG work better in some areas of improvement, in all? Did ALG work worse for you in any areas?

I would expect ALG works a bit better for eventually having good OUTPUT skills, compared to Mass Immersion Approach/Comprehensible Input combined with anki study or purposeful vocabulary word-lookup study. Just based on my own experience, that method of "consume material you can follow the main idea of" and "look up key words you don't know so you understand more over time" is what I did A LOT of. And for me, it improved passive vocabulary amazingly well! I got good at reading FAST, which was my primary goal, so that was great. I got good at understanding the language in videos with visual clues fairly quick as well (a bit lagging behind reading skill), and listening to it (no visuals) also improved fairly good (at a noticeable lag behind reading skill). In terms of passive vocabulary, it eventually didn't make a difference if I learned a word through comprehensible input to me, or through looking up the word, because I'd run into words again and again in reading/shows that I'd eventually simply 'understand it immediately' just like my native language. There's a bit of a lag, where lets say if I know 5000 words and am studying 200 new words in a new book, I will recognize those 5000 words immediately whenever I encounter them... but the new 200 words I've only seen a little bit will still require time and effort for me to recall when I see them or hear them again. Then later, after enough exposure, those 200 new words will be easy to recall, and I'll be learning Newer words that are harder to recall. Overall, learning with the "look new words up, while consuming content in the language" works well for building a big passive vocabulary fast.

But active vocabulary remains very small, unless I use the language actively by speaking and writing - so if ALG suggests learning through experiences and situations, it also seems to me that ACTIVE vocabulary you can use without putting in a LOT of effort to recall also seems to develop faster the more it's in experiences you have. So ALG style lessons may help develop that active vocabulary better, because ALG lessons primarily SHOW you situations and SHOW you how people communicate in them. However, since I haven't studied ALG type lessons for 1000 hours... I am not sure if it runs into the same issues as MIA/comprehensible input With word-lookup, when it comes to active vocabulary. That issue with comprehensible input/word-lookup study is: after 1-2 years engaging in content (reading, listening), the learner still has not spoke or written yet, and finds it quite difficult to start and must look up Many things when starting to speak/write. That is the position I am in for the languages I study: I understand a lot, but cannot say much (grammatically incorrect or not). For ALG, perhaps their grammar will be better when they start speaking/writing as they internalized the language more naturally and unconsciously. But I am not sure if they'll actually have an easier time outputting the language, or like the other input heavy study methods, they'll struggle to build their active vocabulary. I'm curious about the ALG process for developing active vocabulary, and I'm going to look into more learner experiences where they shared that part of the process. I'm curious if that part of the process goes smoother for ALG learners.

Anyway... just a language learning method I am mulling over. If you're studying Thai in particular, ComprehensibleThai on youtube is an excellent resource to start studying using the ALG method. Dreaming Spanish, I think, was also designed to ideally be used like an ALG course so the creator does have some explanations of how to study it in an ALG way (rather than in the way where you look up key words along with watching comprehensible stuff - which is what I did, and a lot of 'comprehensible input' general studiers tend to do).

[neonclean]

FANGAN QUEER SHIP TOURNAMENT ROUND 2 MATCH 2

Tsurugi Kinjo x Teruya Otori (super Dr another 2) VS

Katsuhiko x Hideyoshi (dr (he)artless deceit)

PROPAGANDA FROM ROUND 1 BELOW THE CUT:(due to how I couldn't update the first after the longness I'll be updating propanga from reblongs anyway both ships have propanga here so pls read it it's really interesting!)

Propaganda for Teruya x Kinjo:

(ooc: this one is from the posted ask by t00silly)

They mirror each other, bro. (Or, well. Teruya mirrors Kinja. Emulates him...) Like, their sprites... Dude their fucking SPRITES

Teruya saw how deranged Kinjo was during the first kg and was like "damn that was so real actually. i should take notes" (I could go on a whole tangent about how Teruya felt lost after the 6th trial of the first game, and needed a source of stability to cling to. Like, the person he previously relied on, his dad, was gone. Despair pilled. He had no rock, and for someone so unused to being alone that was dangerous. So he saw Kinjo, confident and unwavering and always seeming to know what to do, and latched on. But if I said everything I wanted to on that topic then this ask would be like 20 million paragraphs)

===========================

This comment is from the reddit post on the dra subreddit it's not exactly propaganda but it does speak about them: (by pumpkinskiez)

so it's not exactly my ship, but teruya & tsurugi do share some scenes together

comment has dra1 spoilers for like, every chapter

>lin the prologue when the killing game is being announced- teruya specifically calls out for "the cops or whoever to save us"- teruya's already thinking of tsurugi- also they stand right next to each other- & teruya generally piggybacks off of what "the smart people have to say, which includes tsurugi- at the end of chapter 1, when tsurugi's explaining "an eye for an eye, 1 of the characters who doesn't say a word against it is teruya!<

>!when tsurugi starts his group in chapter 2, teruya stays in chapter 3 when "everyone" kicks tsurugi out of the group, 1 of the people who doesn't tell tsurugi to leave is teruya, teruya's a little confused at tsurugi wanting to direct everyone's last action but that's all!<

in chapter 3, guess who helps akane find tsurugi in the library & helps him- teruya, guess who has haruhiko & satsuki help to bandage tsurugi, yep that's teruya again. teruya didn't really investigate in favor of looking after tsurugi- In the ballroom, guess who tsurugi makes a point to lash out at first in the big lottery/name drawing scene- teruya. guess who stops getting hate launched at him in ways that no other "preliminary criminal" gets? teruya. it's teruya- guess who tsurugi's "all criminals must die" mentality seems to have an exception for? yeah, it's teruya!<

>lin chapter 5 why is teruya searching so much & trying so hard? arguably part of it is what happened to tsurugi-who is confirmed to have checked in on tsurugi? teruya (that means that both times tsurugi. was in the infirmary that teruya checked in on him)!

>!& at the end of chapter 6 when tsurugi asks rel & teruya to follow him & work with him? tsurugi does say "rei has smarts & teruya has money" but that's still something. tsurugi's putting his faith in other people- & the wild part is that teruya says yes, after the end of dral, after all of draf, how many other characters would look at tsurugi & go "sure i will give you all the money i have & also my time until the day i die" and mean it 100%? not many, i would say!<

& here's the thing about my explanation, it's leaving out that tsurugi & teruya are affected/influenced by everyone, not just each other, so much of what i've described happens because teruya & tsurugi do not directly interact all that much

a lot of their scenes "together" are written kind of strangely. it's like they're not really listening to each other until maybe chapter 5? maybe- teruya will often ask a general question in a group discussion that tsurugi will sort of answer & also use to talk about whatever it is tsurugi wants to talk about in sdra2 it's easy to argue that a lot of teruya's aloof behavior & even some of teruya's new sprite poses-are in part because of tsurugi's influence If nothing else, I believe it is possible to call tsurugi & teruya friends. & friendship is often decent grounds for shipping

====================

Katsuhiko x Hideyoshi propanganda:

Ok chat katsuhide literally were besties before the kg and katsuhiko basically helped hide get out of his delinquet era. Hide is the only person katsuhiko refers by nickname guys listen to me

KATSUHIDE NATION KEEP WINNING WE CAN DO THIS🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🐺👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

[sophieinwonderland]

hey i saw the shit going down and i wanted to tell you that it sucks. it really sucks. but dont be too hard on yourself. you obviously didnt do anything on purpose nor did you do it directly. instead maybe take this as a wake-up call to finally move past syscourse. youve been here for a while. youve learned a lot. now you move on.

i think it would benefit you much more if you just tried to bring positivity to systems. let someone else do the syscourse fighting. because there will always be syscourse fighting. atp i think you know better than anyone that some people just arent gonna change. so just help the people who have already changed. or people who are struggling like i was. theres a lot of people who could use your knowledge in places like r/osdd or r/did. or even here on tumblr!

This is from a couple weeks ago, but I just wanted to comment on a couple thing here.

"let someone else do the syscourse fighting."

Most of the rest of the syscoursers here are people who have been deeply traumatized before syscourse even came into their lives. It's why syscourse tends to be such a revolving door with so few mainstays. It's just not safe for vulnerable people in the long-run.

There aren't a lot of people willing to regularly stand up to and take on anti-endo misinformation. Most of those that do this often don't last long.

"theres a lot of people who could use your knowledge in places like r/osdd or r/did."

Last I checked, r/DID banned all mention of endogenic systems. And I have no interest in going into subreddits for a disorder I don't have anyway.

That might seem a bit ironic given how much I end up talking about DID and OSDD on here. It's kind of funny looking back, because this blog was always supposed to be more focused on tulpamancy. Like, other forms of plurality would be involved in this, sure. But they were originally a secondary concern of mine.

To this day, it's still surprising to me that this blog ended up resonating so well with systems of all different kinds.

It's still strange how many asks I've gotten from people with DID or OSDD asking for advice with living with a disorder that I do not have.

I don't think I realized before I got here how sysmeds had ostracized so many DID systems to the point where they felt their best option for seeking help was a tulpa who, at that time, wasn't even a year-old yet.

But despite being willing to research and try to educate myself on these disorders when I can, I have no interest into a DID or OSDD subreddit and joining communities specifically for disordered systems even if I could.

Since there are a lot of CDD systems who follow this blog, I hope they can learn from the research I've provided and linked to over the years and share it with those they know. But I'm not joining CDD communities myself.

Bottom line, I have no intention of stepping away from syscourse here.

[harmonyckrs]

Character Bingo; Meggy or Axol from "SMG4"?

Meggy - I know she's a semi-controversial character but I think she's alright. She was one of my least favorite characters at the time of the Anime Arc (I didn't hate her I just didn't care for her) so she did bog down the Anime Arc for me but I'm cool with her now. She's got good dynamics with the other characters (I liked the mentor/sibling relationship she had with Axol before he died) and drawing her brings me some comfort for some reason

I'm not caught up with SMG4 at all (stopped sometime after the Lawsuit Arc before I got preoccupied with things) but I did hear she ended up getting more arcs centering around her one of which involved her being psychologically tortured by her idol so I do feel bad for her.

Also maybe a bit of an unpopular opinion but I'm not a big fan of Leggy. The gimmick itself seems fine but everyone hyped it up way too much and now have the audacity to complain about her appearing too many times (this is most apparent in the subreddit). The creators noticed the popularity and decided to take advantage of it, what were you expecting

But anyway she's pretty cool, she's my third favorite female character after Saiko and Tari and I also liked watching Sunset Paradise <|:)

---

Axol - I wish there was a "they got done dirty by canon" box because I'd be coloring that box so red that it wouldn't be readable anymore. He was really good at his introduction and I liked his role in the Anime Arc as well as his interactions with other characters. Also to clarify I don't have a crush on him, it's more like he has the traits of people that I can see myself going for in a relationship

He started going downhill for me once Melony came in because at that point his entire character got reduced into being her love interest even though he was around for two years longer than she had and she had just spawned into existence about a month or two ago. Melony Felony was incredibly hard to sit through (Bob carried it so hard) and the ship ruined the Genesis Arc for me. Him dying was sad but at the very least I knew that I would never have to deal with Axolony (in canon) again. I'm aware this is an unpopular opinion so I'll try not to complain about it too much unless if someone prompts me again

The Ax0l forms were cool though a bit scary, specifically one of the early ones where his eye was fully exposed. Absolute nightmare fuel, I'm not sure who was responsible for the character design but they knocked it out of the park

[ashleygravesfeet]

rambling (not abt ashley)

I feel like the moment i started trying to venture the coffin fandom i felt that it isn’t really welcoming. ignoring the cringe culture obsessed subreddit and the third reich weirdos on twitter, on tumblr, it felt to me like everyone already knows and is familiar with eachother, what everyone likes and what they’re into i guess, and there being a common consensus and that being… well, you know, actually liking what the fucking game got popular for in the first place.

it felt weird when i got some attention, because it felt like i was intruding, and it still does, it always will. it doesn’t really help that my attempts at just sharing stupid thoughts outside of discord i have for no reason in specific weren’t met very positively? kinda weird.

anyways i’m kind of just typing what i’ve been thinking for a little while; ever since i made this blog and ever since i decided to start sharing art on twitter and tumblr, to be honest. i guess what’s worse is trying to find likeminded individuals and curate my echo chamber is impossible (well luckily for me oomf and i seem to be on a similar level of insane which is why i haven’t punched the shit out of myself) because i will inevitably be ostracised when they discover that i write and draw pretty fucked up shit and also that i’m not violently misogynistic to my mentally ill wife (still using that word for her and i wont stop) and that i don’t want her to die a horrible death.

not really looking to gain anything out of this vent just making it for the sake of it. anyways, im getting the ball rolling on my custom ashley daki so keep an eye on that *monkey with finger tapped against his head with lightbulb next to him emoji*

[66sharkteeth]

hi it seems like from some of your posts that City of Blank has been getting a lot of negativity/hate recently so as a semi-longtime reader (ok just since it debuted on originals but it FEELS like a long time) I wanted to drop in and say that CoB is probably like. one of my favorite fandoms ever of all time. As a person who gets really intense about their interests but in a way where I'm constantly bouncing from one thing to the next I have a lot of love for a lot of stuff but thinking about it I've probably generated the highest word count of talking about CoB online to my friends out of any fandom I've ever been in. because I physically cannot stop saying shit abt my favorite characters and the themes and literally everything (to this day. up to this moment. there's a specific like two scenes where if they cross my mind at all I can't stop thinking about them for at least like 20m. it's kind of a problem lol). I also have like rlly bad brainrot rn bc of tonight's update so my friend is probably going to get an earful...anyway this is not meant to sound deranged in your askbox but the point I'm trying to make is that there are DEFINITELY people out there who are still so excited about your comic bc it's incredible and all the haters are Wrong and Bad. so yeah

ahah thank you. though to be clear, i think i'm making things sound worse than they really are. nobody's out there like... slandering the comic and saying its the worst thing they've ever read, except for like...literally 1 or 2 people who have a hardon for letting everyone know how much they hate it haha (main reason i've stopped going to the Webtoon subreddit, which is a shame, because I really did enjoy some of my conversations there). there is more negative comments than there used to be i feel like, but it's just people critiquing it or saying they feel like it's gone down hill. Nobody's saying it's total horse shit or anything (give or take those couple of people who for some reason act like it killed their grandma).

my confidence and self-worth in the comic is just paper thin these days and i do find it confusing that back when it was...objectively worse IMO, it almost never got any criticism, but now that it's getting to things i'm really proud of, suddenly it's gone down hill to a lot of people. makes me question how much i really know about writing. but thank you. i do my best to remind myself there are a lot of people like you who enjoy it and think i'm doing a good job! i'm just trying to get back to a place where i believe in my abilities as much as the majority of my readers. i hope you continue to enjoy it ♥

[steviewashere]

One of my biggest (and admittedly nerdier) fascinations/special interests is lost media. Doesn't matter the type of media; it could be a TV show, animated children's movie, a commercial that premiered once and was subsequently vaulted, a religious show on a local public broadcasting channel, a misprint copy of a book, etc. etc.

I just love it all. Anyway. I want to share a lost media thing of my own that I remember interacting with at one point in my childhood, but has little to no attention on it. More on it below the cut, if you're interested.

If you were a kid (fuck it, any age) in the late '90s and into the 2000s/early 2010s specifically, you might've had one of these:

This is a Baby Bottle Pop. They are a sucker/sugar combo candy. Basically acting similar to FunDip; you suck on the lollipop top (the part that looks like the nipple for a baby bottle) and then dip it inside the bottle, where there's flavored sugar. Typically, the sugar is flavored something like strawberry or blue raspberry, something fruity. These are still produced; although, I haven't seen them on a grocery store shelf in years—seems like they're sold at special confectionary stores in malls now, like Lolli & Pops, but I haven't seen them next to Kit-Kats at the checkout stand since I was a kid.

Anyway.

Back in the early 2010s, Baby Bottle Pop had this promotional thing going on. Where, if you bought one of these candies, you'd be given an exclusive online code. (The cultural zeitgeist of late 2000s/early 2010s internet.) The online code gave you access to this MMO game, much like other exclusive online codes on products at the time—functionally similar to Webkinz, though you weren't redeeming a virtual pet to take care of.

You'd make an account via Baby Bottle Pop's website, babybottlepop.com, once you had access to the code. You needed a code from a purchased product in order to get in. (If the product wasn't purchased and you tried to use the code, it would be immediately invalidated as it hadn't been activated. Y'know, think of it as an inactive gift card). (Also, this is what really separated BBP's MMO from other advertised children's MMOs. Webkinz, you didn't have to purchase a pet in order to play, but it was cooler if you did. BBP required that you purchased a product or you couldn't play. Shitty, I know.)

Once in the game, you'd design an avatar that looked exactly like a baby, and then you'd have access to mini games, other player's avatars, and a point and click free roam world (highly similar to how Club Penguin functioned).

There is one commercial that I found from the Baby Bottle Pop campaign I'm thinking of. It's circa 2012, advertising the candy (of course) and then telling you that if you redeemed the code given to you, you could make what they called a "Crazy Baby."

That's it. It's a fifteen second commercial. The live action kids turn into Crazy Baby counterparts, the art style similar to that of the game. Featuring them complimenting each other on the way they eat their Baby Bottle Pops.

And, also, I don't even know if this commercial is advertising the MMO. It could just be advertising the exclusivity of making an online avatar. This commercial mentions nothing about roaming around a virtual world and making friends with other Crazy Baby players. But since it advertises something that could be similar or even exact to what I'm talking about, I'm bringing it up.

The only things I've found that mention or are on the same lines as this game/avatar creation are one article from 2008 (when the website first launched, I'm assuming?), this commercial, a post made on the r/LostMedia subreddit, and a singular twenty-five minute YouTube gameplay video.

Speaking of the gameplay video, it's from user, Crawler929. It's the only gameplay video I found. It's the only one other people have even mentioned. And while I'm a little skeptical of the commercial I linked, it's worth noting that this gameplay video and that commercial are from the same year, 2012. It's highly likely that those things are connected. Though, there was a promo campaign for another online game called Baby Bottle Pop Message in a Bottle from the late 2000s—probably 2009, as that is the posting year from the person who shared it. (And considering how the main child actress looks similar to Hannah Montana, the character from the show of the same name that was on air at the time, this year could be accurate).

Visiting the BBP website on the Internet Archive via the Wayback Machine is basically one huge error. You'll reach a turquoise and orange-accented screen with a load up bar with the word "Ruffle" on it, and then be met with a black screen. Scrolling up and down on the black screen leads you nowhere, it's basically just a void.

There's nothing else. No other part of this MMO shows up on the internet. The original site no longer exists, now replaced with something called Candy Mania. I'm assuming BBP is owned by the same company or is made by the same manufacturer as Push Pop, as Push Pop has a game on this site. BBP, though? There's barely anything, possibly nothing.

Honestly, I just wanted to share this because it's kinda crazy and kinda sad that stuff like this is just gone. But it's worth saying, too, that this game will most likely never exist again or be resurfaced. Games like this made for promotional events for products never last. They're around for like a year and then get shut down when the event is over. It's sad, but true.

These games also don't have the same sort of fanbases as other big MMOs for kids did at the time. They won't be remade like Club Penguin, ToonTown, or even The Pirates of The Caribbean Online were. Lost to time and also conglomerate company greed.

Anyway, this is just some nerd stuff that I'm into. And I have so many other lost media stories that I like talking about, but this is the only one that I actually have ever interacted with. A game I never thought I'd lose.

Protect all media types and archives, as you never know what could become lost media next.

[cathodic-clairvoyant]

You are actually the only person I have seen say anything that makes sense regarding HDWR recently, thank you for your good takes. I love this manga, but it really feels like I’m not reading the same story as most people sometimes

I for the record think that there is a lot (in fact i'd say majority) of interesting discussion about hdwr, even now, (just the other day in the main tag i saw a post that i liked talking about tamaki as a character & her and miwa's relationship and despite the subreddit having a lot of silly posts lately i think a couple months ago around ch. 113's release there were a lot of good comments about MiwaSae and both of their development throughout the story and I think even now there's good discussion about ch. 119 and miwa and tamaki burried in the silly stuff) and in some sense like i feel like the current wave with ch. 119 was always going to happen, it's a very emotionally charged topic that we're seeing how much it hurt a character people tend to like so like i understand being upset by it and having strong opinions about it.

That all being said, the kind of discussion that tends to surround the story of "sae was unfair/toxic to miwa" "tamaki has always been manipulative" "yuria is unfair to sae" are baffling to me because I feel like to get anything out of this story- to not instantly just be frustrated with it- you have to interact with it a little bit on its terms and I think part of that is acknowledging that these characters are more complex than the simple one word "abusive/toxic/manipulative/innocent" labelling and have complex emotions and imperfect reasoning that cause them to make mistakes, be cruel to each other, and do the wrong things. This doesn't excuse the characters' actions but that's not what the story is interested in doing anyway.

And like, I don't think the story is for everyone, I don't think everyone has to want to interact with the story on those terms; which is why while i personally don't agree with the kind of people who say "i had to stop reading when miwa and sae broke up bc it was too sad/too frustrating" and the like, I can at least understand it as just the story has goals that reader doesn't want to engage with, which is completely understandable. Where it confuses me is getting so far through the story and still not choosing to interact with the story on its terms. What are you getting out of this story then??? Does viewing sae as toxic enhance the story for you? Is it a useful way in looking at the narrative?

Especially since I feel like tamifull has attempted to make these characters realistic almost to invite us the reader to examine both ourselves and our relationships as we read. Is How Do We Relationship a useful tool to to analyze yourself or your own relationships with if you flatten the characters into good and bad? Is that a lens you'd want to view your own relationships with? I don't think so. I feel like the only things it could lead to is "i wouldn't make that mistake because I'm not toxic." "i wouldn't find myself in this situation because me and my partner aren't like them." So like. What benefit does viewing these characters in this way give you? You clearly seem to agree with/like the goals of the story if you're still here 100+ chapters later so like. What are you getting out of this?

I dunno. Like i said, I do think there's still a lot of good discussion about hdwr. That's why I still lurk the subreddit and read posts in the main tag. It's just this specific genre of discussion i can't understand especially when it happens with like more recent chapters

[ferncassette]

When does Deltarune takes place?

A rather simple question, that, from what I can tell, few people can answer. This makes sense, obviously, as the game never states the year, not even in subversive way, like in Undertale.

I checked Deltarune subreddit (sorry), a few YouTube videos with low views and Fandom (sorry), and the first two "sources" have no concrete answer, and Fandom wiki has no say at all (makes sense tbh).

So, a while ago I began thinking about this, and, I have some guesses.

Deltarune takes place in the fall of 2011 or 2012. Or just early 2010s if you feel like this is too specific.

Now I shall explain my thought process. I have two categories of reasoning for this: out of universe and in universe.

Real life stuff

Out of universe stuff includes real life stuff, and, since I'm not Toby, I don't know if either of these are correct. Still, I feel like they're worth a mention.

We know Deltarune began development in 2012. It would make sense, that the game would continue to use that time period, that's because:

2. This game tackles nostalgia, and it would make sense to use a period that would be nostalgic to majority of Deltarune's intended audience.

These two are basically just guesses, but next category actually use in-game evidence.

The technology of Deltarune

The world of Deltarune is clearly supposed to mirror our own. Part of this is done by using 2010s tech.

The phones

Starting with Catti, in chapter 1 she has a smartphone:

That said, so far she's the only person to have a smartphone, which could indicate that they are still not a common item like they are now.

Meanwhile, Kris has a cellphone, something that would still be more common than smartphones before 2013 or so.

The only other visible phone in game is this corded phone in Kris's home:

This kind of corded phone was also kinda replaced by smartphones.

The computers

Computers are a bit more interesting in their visuals in the game. We have:

Kris's and Asriel's, as well as Alphys's computer monitors resemble the ones common in early 2010s.

Computer room in the Librarby has these older monitors, which makes sense, given that libraries tend to have outdated tech due to poor funding. At least someone (probably the mayor) was kind enough to give this high end laptop to the Librarby.

The TVs

Both of TVs we see in the game don't look new:

These look a bit old even for early 2010s, but it can be explained with context. Neither Toriel nor Kris really use their TV, so why would they need a newer one? Meanwhile Asgore probably got the cheapest shit he could get.

holidaygirl1225

In Spamton Sweepstakes there's a blog, that's run by Noelle. Her blog look like a typical GeoCities page. For the record, GeoCities went offline in 2009, and those pages are implied to have been written by younger Noelle.

Why some might think otherwise?

Deltarune has 2 mentions of a certain year:

Spamton and Virovirokun mention 1997 a LOT, which led some to think that the game takes place in early 2000s, or as early as 1998.

I don't think this is the case because 1997 is meant to represent that Spamton is long past his prime, and that Viro' is an outdated virus. Also, you can see technology that wouldn't make sense to be a thing that early.

Then, there's this:

This one led to an obvious conclusion that Deltarune takes place in "202x". So, mystery solved, right?

Na.

This is a cut content, and while this game has a more unique relation with cut content than your typical game, I believe this is one of the exceptions. The whole illustrated manual uses outdated info about mechanics of the game, and, was clearly unfinished. As such, while 2020s might at one point be the period when Deltarune takes place, this is not a proof of that. If it DOES take place in 2020s, we will learn this by some other means in future chapters.

Conclusion

So, does this matter that much anyway? Probably not tbh, given that it's not really said in the game. I do find it interesting that people seem to have such varied answer to a rather simple question. Anywhere between 1998 to 2020s, even though the game clearly depicts early 2010s.

I can't wait to turn out to be an absolute clown because everyone on Tumblr already believe this, which I couldn't find out due to this sites abysmal search functions.

[mugenmcfugen]

In other news, few days ago I had a streak of finding ''lost media'' I've tried finding before but to no avail. I think my biggest mistake at that point was trying to rely on Google for searching, but it seems Google is straight up shit at this point for doing simple search. And I understand for the most part the result doesn't have to be on a first page but not only there isn't 1st page anymore but endlessly expanding page, but also it was clogged with links that really have nothing to do with what I've searched in a first place. Place I've had to rely on was Reddit, and specifically subreddit r/tipofmytongue.

All it took for me to dig up those was using terms of what I've remembered and being tiny bit patient in sifting trough pages, and surely enough I've dug them up. Ridiculously enough, since reddit in all of its bullshit IS haven of information. However, even me typing ''(my term) reddit'' in Google didn't gave me the result, EVEN THOUGH I've found both of them ON REDDIT. Yeah Google, thanks a lot(not).

What was the media you wonder? It's just old cartoons I used to watch on TV when I was kid. Now, this is period right after war, and it's not any cartoon channel (Cartoon Network came way later to us). I'm also pretty sure one of these was sort of prerecorded on VHS, but it doesn't matter. All of them were dubbed to our language and were obviously all in different style.

This all started because I randomly found the first one I was looking for, and it had to do with VA actress Eiko Masuyama passing away. She was mostly known as Fujiko from Lupin III, but she also voiced fairy creature Candy from ''Anderson Monogatari''. It was specifically this episode of ''The Little Match Girl''

I remember mostly the last part when everybody is crying. Ahhh, fun times of ''child memory retention''.

Second one was one where I started actively digging for other two I've remembered. I also remembered last scene the most, something about it was eerie but impactful in my mind. It was ''Enchanted Boy'', old soviet animation from 1955, and it's adaptation of ''The Wonderful Adventures of Nils''

I had hunch it was something from USSR, probably because of text cards in there being in Cyrillic.

And last but not the least, was funnily enough a Christmas Cartoon. You'd think it would pop up somewhere while googling for it, but to no avail, and I wouldn't say it was that unknown, at least in Western interwebz, but I was wrong it seems. It was never mentioned in many Christmas cartoons articles that were all over the place. But this one, when I watched it again, I remembered the whole episode, and it's still charming today, even 30 years later. It was ''Santa's First Christmas'' , which had it's own spinoff in 1996 ''Romuald the Reindeer'' .

I first found the 1996, but noticed it look somehow way too new from what I remember, surely enough there was one more from 1992.

Anyways, this post turned out way bigger than I anticipated, but here they are. I hope I helped someone too trying to remember these. It also serves as a place where I know I have all these in one spot.

So yeah, have fun watching and remember, fuck Google for what it became. :))