#contributor to society

[applespider]

Strong independent woman? More like pathetic dependent woman who’s flaws counter out any good qualities she has twice over. I’m still talking about Aqua. I love her so much. That’s something I really like about the Konosuba cast in general. Found family without the wholesome. They never leave the first town, they’re constantly in debt, everyone knows them as those weirdos who cause problems, but they kind of love each other anyway. They’re found family because they all suck so much they can’t survive without each other. They aren’tin a position to reject each other because of their weird or unlikeable qualities. They’re the same. You just kind of accept it. And isn’t that what family is?

I’m not wording this right, but they’re just such normal people. They like cool stuff even if it’s seen as cringe, they can’t help but blow their earnings on nice alcohol, they work a regular job because adventuring doesn’t really pay. They adjust to each other. Kazuma taking Megumin out to do her explosions, Aqua and Kazuma being the same fucking person, both irritating each other and understanding each other because of it. Kazuma not wanting to fight the demon king because it sounds like a lot of work. They accept each others weirdness out of necessity. That’smy type of found family.

[bixels]

Now that Ghibli's new movie is coming out soon, I've been thinking about anime films and wanna talk about my favorite animated movie ever, Tokyo Godfathers.

TG is a 2003 tragicomedy by Satoshi Kon, following three unhoused people––an alcoholic, a runaway girl, an a trans woman––who find a baby in a dumpster and set off across Tokyo to reunite her with her parents.

If you like the sound of that, go watch it because the rest of this post is spoilers and I have FEELINGS about this movie.

URGHH, the fact that only two moments of true kindness, generosity, and care given to the three protagonists without any expectation of reciprocity are given by a Latin-American immigrant couple and a drag show club full of trans women. The fact that, despite her loud and dramatic personality, Hana is the glue that holds the team together and the heart of the whole movie. The fact that this movie pulls no punches at showing the violence and inhumanity committed by "civilized Japanese society" against the unhoused. The fact that Miyuki craves to be loved by her parents and ends up seeing Hana as her true mother. The fact that Miyuki starts off accidentally using transphobic language against Hana, but slowly begins calling her "Miss Hana" out of respect. The fact that, according to Kon, Hana's role in the story is as a mythological trickster god and "disturb the morality and order of society, but also play a role in revitalizing culture." The fact that Hana so desperately wants to be part of a true family, yet is willing to sacrifice her found family so they can be with their own, and is rewarded for her good deeds in the end by becoming a godmother. The fact that, throughout the movie, wind and light have been used to signify the presence of god's hand/influence (this movie's about nondenominational faith––faith in yourself, faith in others, faith in a higher power. Lots of religious are referenced, such as Buddhism/Hinduism, Christianity, and Shintoism), and in the climax of the film, as Hana jumps off a building to save a baby that isn't hers, a gust of wind and a shower of light save her from death. The fact that god saves a trans woman's life because she proved herself a mother, and that shit makes me CRY.

[justicesocietyzine]

So excited to announce the After Dark team!

Artists: @nopes-and-dreams , @wellofhavoc , @orphanimgod

Writers: @bi4bihankking , and our lovely mod @zaritarazi

[nando161mando]

You know we’re in a healthy, functioning society when people have to use a burger app to see if they have electricity because the local infrastructure doesn’t exist

[thespiderversezine]

🕸️CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT🕸️

Welcome fellow Spider Society member: Julio!

You can find them and their works here on Tumblr: @ghostedrider as well as Instagram and Twitter 🕷️

[coockie8]

I truly loathe when the response to why we can't do a specific thing to combat climate change, or do literally anything to make life on this planet just a tiny bit easier, is "because it would be too expensive" because basically what you're saying there is "we can't do this one thing that would make the lives of billions of people better because Jeff Bezos wants to be able to have a full fleet of yachts big enough to carry other yachts".

It's not a real reason. Give me a reason that doesn't boil down to "but then 4 people in the world wouldn't be as rich as they were before 🥺🥺"

[lennonhead]

what psychologists need to answer is why I have such bad taste in cartoon men

[jayspilledink]

i am

a normal contributor to society i am a normal contributor to society

thats what i am i am

a normal contributor to society

[whatithinkaboutdarkshadows]

Episode 245: Microscopic views of hideous malignancies

Two of the best blogs about Dark Shadows share the same web address. One is Dark Shadows Every Day, a series of more than a thousand well-crafted, insightful, often hilarious essays by Danny Horn about episodes #210 through #1245 and related topics. The other is the group blog that Danny’s readers maintain in the comment threads under each of his posts. The commenters outdid themselves in their…

[canichangemyblogname]

What the fuck even is gender?

[luthsthings]

RIP, CmarNYC

I’m very sad to report that Sims 3 and 4 creator CmarNYC passed away in October 2023. For 15 years, Simmers benefited from Cmar’s long-honed computing skills as she created much-loved modders’ and players’ tools, including the Sims 3 and 4 MorphMakers and Skininators, the TS4 SimRipper, the Sims 3 XCAS core mod, and many CAS sliders. She was also a contributor to S4PE, which likely was used by creators you rely on. Without Cmar’s work, the Sims franchise would have had a much less rich array of mods and custom content. She will be greatly missed.

As well as Sims, Cmar loved cats, and donations are suggested to the ASPCA, the TinyKittens Society, or an animal-related charity near you.

[justicesocietyzine]

@tiffycat is an artist on the Current section of the Zine!

[daflowerzine]

✨ PRE-ORDERS ARE OPEN ✨

ARDENT BLOSSOM: A BOTANICAL COMPENDIUM is now available for preorders from September 21 to October 21! 

This book features 30 illustrations and 18 original codex entries exploring the language of flowers, in the format of a traditional floriography book. Each illustration is paired with notes written by our writers, intrepid members of the Botanical Society of Thedas!

ARDENT BLOSSOM is available in the following bundles:

Elfroot Bundle: High-quality PDF of the zine

Embrium Bundle: Physical copy of the zine

Black Lotus Bundle: Zine & all DAO-themed merch

Blood Lotus Bundle: Zine & all DA2-themed merch

Dawn Lotus Bundle: Zine & all DAI-themed merch

Crystal Grace Bundle: Zine & all merch from all 3 games!

Dragonthorn Bundle: Merch-only bundle

Prophet's Laurel add-on: Make your zine hardcover!

We are also announcing six stretch goals!

All stretch goals are automatically added to all merch bundles. The travel postcards will have 1 postcard added to their respective game bundles, and all 3 added to full bundles!

50 orders: Travel Postcards

100 orders: Veilguard Sticker Sheet

150 orders: Gold Foil Cover

200 orders: Enamel Pin

250 orders: Tote Bag

300 orders: Pocket Field Journal

Reblog this post for the chance to win a free full bundle or a refund on the bundle you purchased!

Store ✨ Info ✨ Twitter ✨ Contributors

Artists

Abby (tumblr / bsky) | Alice (linktree) | Annalise (insta / twitter) | Annie (website / twitter) | Asphodel (twitter / insta) | Bloo (twitter / insta) | Chloe (tumblr) | CR Scannell (tumblr / insta) | Elliot (insta / tumblr) | Erika Hollice (twitter / website) | Eunha (twitter / tumblr) | Ev Cole (website / tumblr) | Fervanis (tumblr / insta) | Frei (carrd) | Hanna Schroy (website / linktree) | Harley (twitter / insta) | Jee (tumblr / twitter) | Jura (tumblr / insta) | Kali Samutratakul (twitter / tumblr) | Kiera (insta / tumblr) | Lily (twitter) | Liv (twitter / insta) | Luposlipaphobya (insta / tumblr) | Mer (twitter) | Noah (website / tumblr) | Punto (twitter / insta) | Tarte (twitter / tumblr) | Tifany (linktree) | Zaz (tumblr)

Writers

AKnightOfAGoodKing (twitter / tumblr) | Arcadia (twitter / ao3) | Ardie (tumblr) | Casey (tumblr) | Casper (twitter / tumblr) | Chissprincess (ao3 / tumblr) | Collette (twitter) | ContreParry (tumblr) | Harding (tumblr) | Katie (ao3 / twitter) | lysmune (twitter / ao3) | Owlpockets (tumblr) | Polymerre (twitter / ao3) | Sandal (tumblr / ao3) | Tas (tumblr / ao3)

Mods

Lucy (ao3 / tumblr) | Jenny (twitter / tumblr)

[thespiderversezine]

🚨🕷️ ATTN SPIDER SOCIETY:

We are well into our Creation Period and excited to announce our AMAZING contributors!

Each day we’ll be highlighting them all and start off: Meet Vanth! @manofbeskar

[alphynix]

First discovered in the 1850s, Compsognathus longipes was the first theropod dinosaur known from a fairly complete skeleton, and also the smallest known non-avian dinosaur for over 130 years.

(A second specimen was also, briefly, the "first" aquatic non-avian dinosaur, but that's another story.)

Living in what is now Europe during the late Jurassic, about 150 million years ago, it was a lightly built animal with long legs and a long tail, growing to around 1.2m long (~4'). Its hands seem to have had only two functional fingers, with the third being vestigial and possibly not even having a claw.

Skin impressions from about a third of the way along its tail show small bumpy scales – but since other compsognathids like Sinosauropteryx are known to have been covered in fur-like feathers, this likely means that just that particular region of Compsognathus' body wasn't fluffy.

Some of Compsognathus' diet is known for certain, since preserved gut contents show it fed on smaller vertebrates like lizards and rhynchocephalians. The remains of a lizard in the stomach of one specimen were even identified as belonging to a previously-unknown species, Schoenesmahl dyspepsia, with the dismembered nature of the skeleton suggesting Compsognathus tore its prey into bite-sized chunks in a similar manner to modern predatory birds.

———

NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

References:

Conrad, Jack L. "A new lizard (Squamata) was the last meal of Compsognathus (Theropoda: Dinosauria) and is a holotype in a holotype." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 183.3 (2018): 584-634. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx055

Gishlick, Alan D., and Jacques A. Gauthier. "On the manual morphology of Compsognathus longipes and its bearing on the diagnosis of Compsognathidae." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149.4 (2007): 569-581. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00269.x

Peyer, Karin. "A reconsideration of Compsognathus from the Upper Tithonian of Canjuers, southeastern France." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 26.4 (2006): 879-896. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4524640

Wikipedia contributors. “Compsognathus.” Wikipedia, 17 Jun. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compsognathus

[photomatt]

My Beliefs and Principles

A number of people are trying to brand me as transphobic, so I thought I would list out a number of my personal beliefs so folks coming across this in the future can judge for themselves.

I believe love is love, and consenting adults should be able to have whatever form of relationship they want or don't want. I believe governments should recognize all these unions with the same rights.

I believe people should be able to change their name, gender identity, and preferred pronouns whenever they want and however many times they want. I personally endeavor to follow all these preferences that are known to me.

I support adults making any modifications to their body they like.

I support people choosing to share or keep private the above.

This is not meant to be comprehensive, and in researching this post to make sure I was using the right language to express my beliefs I read through the Yogyakarta Principles and agree with everything in that document, which is much more comprehensive.

A few other points I'll include for context and history:

Both Automattic and WordPress.org, founded or co-founded by me in 2005 and 2003 respectively, have consistently supported LGBT+ organizations, contributors, and employees.

Automattic's open time off benefit includes full pay for medical time off has supported a number of people transitioning. We've invested considerable development time in updating or working around legacy HR systems to recognize the principles above, and will continue to as best practices evolve or we find mistakes.

When we remodeled Automattic's NYC office before moving in we made the bathrooms gender neutral. Same for a commercial warehouse I've recently remodeled.

I've personally donated to LGBT+ organizations as far back as 2016, and more recently have donated mid five figures to Human Rights organizations.

I have dedicated my life since the age of 19 to open source software, which I believe to be radically inclusive, and democratizing publishing, commerce, and messaging. My hope is this work contributes, even if in a small domain-specific way, to a more fair and just society.