#ecruvian

[markscherz]

Are there any really stupid science hills you'll die on for no reason? I do NOT mean "this is a serious and oft-misunderstood issue on which I disagree with my peers," I mean the "hotdogs are tacos" of your field.

So basically all of ‘higher taxonomy’ (every taxonomic rank above species) is just made up, wibbly wobbly, and incomparable. Arguments about what high ranks ‘should’ contain or mean are pointless, because the system is just deeply flawed.

But damn if I won’t write pages and pages of papers about how much it matters that higher taxonomic ranks are *useful*, and whinge loudly about the fact that many higher taxa are overly lumped to the point of insanity. See: genus Anolis == family Anoliidae. How can that possibly make sense? The people who argue in favour of this taxonomy seem to just be disinclined to learn which species belongs to which genus, and want to keep it simple by throwing them all in the same bin. To which I respond ‘okay, let’s just call every genus and family the same thing. Then you can’t possibly get it wrong. And also, thbbbbbt’.

[ckret2]

Cookie Clicker + Ford Pines: complete disinterest or bizarre obsession with optimization?

I think you could get him to play it for thirty minutes maximum until he fully registered that he's just clicking cookies to get better at clicking cookies to get better at clicking cookies and he'd be like, "what's the point?"

And then he'd ask if you can play Galaga on computers now.

[16tinyfrogs]

I would like to read one of your poems at a local poetry night. How should I attribute it if I do? "Tumblr user 16tinyfrogs" is fine, of course, but if there is a name you'd rather be attached to it that's always good!

oh, that's so much fun! i guess my username is fine, or just "a girl named ella" :) have a good time!

[krokonoko]

Your style is adorable.

thank you! 🥰

[centos-are-literature-fight-me]

Obviously they're not Pythagoreans.

I like to think I'm an excellent artist.

[transformativeworks]

Do you know of any resources - forums, ask blogs on tumblr, etc - where fic writers can ask questions about good representation in stories? Every time I write a character with a physical disability, or who is from a race or culture I'm not a member of, I find myself with really specific questions about how to do it well. The same goes when I am trying to make something screen-reader friendly and I don't know how some niche HTML tag works.

I save every page I find that might be useful in the future, but it's not like those lists of tips include every possible eventuality. I will sometimes tag specific questions - like, say, ask if there is a word for a particular queer identity, and tag it "lgbtq+" - but I assume it's rude to do that unless I already am a part of the community in question.

If you don't have a resource list to hand, can you publish this question and see if Tumblr does the rest?

Hey ecruvian -

I do not have a resource list so we are going to have to take it to crowdsourcing

Hey Tumblr - what sorts of spaces do you go to find resources, sensitivity readers, and maybe beta readers?

~ Mod Remi

[have-you-been-here]

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, USA

Submitted by @ecruvian and @writtenwolves

[ckret2]

Weirdest Goldilocks Bill Anatomy fact nobody has asked you about yet?

His eyeballs protrude—not *quite* enough to qualify as a medical condition, we're not talking Marty Feldman levels, but close—and when he swallows they retract a bit into his head. Like how an Adam's apple bobs a bit when you swallow. Except eyeball retraction.

He also can't keep his eyes open when he swallows, he reflexively blinks.

[ecruvian]

Here's my new story idea:

There's two characters who meet. Character 1 is super weird in how they interact with basically everything and everybody, causing destruction seemingly at random and picking up only the weirdest and most pointless objects - this is a person who has no credit card or driver's license, but does have a sack full of shaved-down pencils or something. Most people in society object to Character 1's existence, constantly yelling at them and protesting their behavior. This isn't without reason; they're usually harmless, but will just break a hole in the hallway wall of a hotel for no reason and then leave. Character 1 more or less ignores people.

Character 2 is just a normal, average joe who's fascinated by this behavior and starts hanging out with Character 1. Character 1's nature becomes more mysterious over time: they can't eat most food, they can't enter most elevators or use stairs that are the wrong size, they can only open certain doors, etc. Character 2 is definitely curious, but takes it all in stride. Character 2 is used to dealing with such odd behavior - maybe they're a disability rep at a school, or maybe they have a loved one with OCPD, but they adapt almost seamlessly to Character 1's "rules." Character 1 is ecstatic and they become the best of friends.

If you're getting video game vibes from this, you're correct! It turns out that, years ago, an indie game dev died and ascended to godhood, and with nothing better to do with these newfound powers, started to build a videogame framework on top of the real world in the form of hitboxes and assets. This young god is having a lovely time being a god. When Character 1 died in a freak accident, their soul was snatched from destruction by the video game dev god, who wanted to give them a second chance... but only had one way to do it.

Character 1 is living with some very severe limitations, but is definitely glad to be alive at all. However, since they are operating on an entirely different set of natural laws compared to the entire rest of society, they started to tune people out as a survival instinct: when people offer them food it's usually inedible, when people tell them to stay out of that "employees only" area they're limiting access to the only regen point in this part of the city, et cetera. Character 1 had to learn not to feel shame or awkwardness because they were going to have to walk in on a lecture happening at a random university if they wanted to get the random item drop that they need to proceed to the next quest location, and if they don't go to the next quest location, they'll be forced to wander into parts of the map that are incomplete. The dev god tries to incorporate feedback from Character 1 in the world's design, but first of all, dev god is a limited being who can only build so much at a time, and second of all, Character 1 knows that the amount and quality of resources will be much better if dev god is allowed to pursue dev god's own special interests and aesthetic preferences. So, Character 1 just abides.

Character 2 ends up having a great time following Character 1 on quests, and dev god, ecstatic to have an audience, starts to tailor make levels that are accessible to both characters - which has the side-effect of improving Character 1's lifestyle.

Anyway it's a heavy-handed metaphor but I think it's fun

[rathenarts]

Oooh. I have some vintage linen in my stash that I've been looking for a use for but I've never actually worked on linen before, so the suggestion about working it damp is a really helpful thing to know. Thank you Tumblr user ecruvian!

I have a length of white linen and nigh unto zero embroidery skills but fuck that I want handkerchiefs so I gotta cut up the cloth and figure out how to hem the edges and what kinda fun little shits to embroider in the corners

Yes this is indeed me asking for suggestions

[whumpacabra]

Heyo! I'm looking for a couple of people to ask questions about the dialogue between physical disability communities and the whump community. I'm actively seeking out blogs that are a) are familiar with both, b) respectful of both, c) seem to host well-thought-out opinions. Would you be open to chatting?

It specifically has to do with tagging discourse. I'm tempted to propose some alternative tags, but not until I've spoken to others.

Sure thing!

[ckret2]

I've chosen not to be a smartass and burn my own CDs. Figured this out by looking for which albums I had the most saved songs from in Spotify and then slapping my wrist whenever I tried to make it all 2000s alt-rock & nu-metal.

Meliora (deluxe edition) - Ghost

This Is All Yours - alt-J

Visual Audio Sensory Theater - Vast

10,000 Days - TOOL

The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

Born To Die - Lana Del Ray

What's Your Medium - The Medic Droid

(other contenders were the offspring's greatest hits, pink floyd's dark side of the moon, a perfect circle's 13th step, another ghost album, another mcr album, two muse albums, and two hybrid albums)

peer pressure GO @thedemonsurfer @errorcritical @marsupials-of-mars @astro-b-o-y-d @ecruvian

Thank you for the tag @pimento-playing-hopscotch

You just got an old car and it doesn't have Bluetooth. You can only buy 7 CDs and you can't repeat an artist. What are you getting?

Ok, let me see...

In no particular order:

American Idiot - Green Day

Estrella de Mar - Amaral

Wasteland, Baby! - Hozier

Viva la Vida - Coldplay

The Death of Peace of Mind - Bad Omens

Black Veil Brides - Black Veil Brides

Born this Way - Lady Gaga

No pressure tags: @letherwonder , @thatjeanguy @veephoenix @lifemod17 @blacknbluengray @missholloween @concreteangel92

[ckret2]

This chapter was AMAZING. Favorite so far. Give that boy some fucking electrolytes, Ford, you're an experienced outdoorsman for crying out loud and he's about to go into shock. I notice the ˜ on the 7 in 207̃05. What the heck is this a reference to?

Dipper's got a backpack, he's carrying his own electrolytes, he's fine! ... I mean he's not the worst member of the party!

It's canon! Blendin Blandin says he's from the year "twenty-snyeventy-twelve" (pronounced like that) and so associated written materials spell it that way. From Journal 3:

(Outside J3 the year is spelled 207̃012.

One of the time travel options in Time Pirates' Treasure does, indeed, go to 207̃05. With the ˜.

[ckret2]

Okay, so - Cowboy Tie-dye Goth Bill. Fancy-Ass cowboy gear, perfectly seasoned black hats and boots with gold studs stolen from name brand luxury leathercrafters. Battle jacket with triangles sewn in in fucking gold wire, tie-die silk patches on the vents and elbows. Shirt with colors not seen since the seventies that will make your eyes bleed to look at, eyes hand-painted on then bleech-and-dyed over so they're staring at you from beyond the veil. Paisley leggings. Am I envisioning this right?

(for the recent arrivals, this is referring to this post.)

i was picturing black suede/leather jackets/pants with fringe, over tie-dye t-shirts.

Like a leather goth has been slit open throat to groin and a bunch of rainbow guts spilled out. "Escaping explosion at a paint factory" look.

... but then throw in a bunch of ostentatious gold eye of providence jewelry, and rave-approproriate homemade jewelry.

So uhhh kind of like thisss.

So, cowboy tie-dye goth raver old man.

Black cowboy hat and boots completely optional, I think he'd go "haha this is cool" and pick up a cowboy hat for the novelty if one were in front of him but on a day-to-day basis 95% of the time he'd keep wearing his top hat and dress shoes. If anyone tries to tell him that the top hat makes his outfit completely absurd on top of what was already a pretty absurd outfit, he will tell them that they, personally, are why the world needs Weirdmageddon.

Fringe jacket conversion into a battle vest isn't out of the question—ask him "do you want pyramid studs" and he'll say "yes" before hearing the last word—but compared to the usual black white & red skulls-and-heavy-metal decorations, Bill's would be the Party Cannon of battle vests.

(And if you don't understand that reference, please, I beg you, google deathfest party cannon.)

Mabel starts stringing kandi beads onto the fringe and Bill considers it an improvement.

To be clear, this is like, final evolution Bill Embraces Human Fashion. You will probably never see him like this. He has to achieve ✨⚠️Peak Bill⚠️✨ Fashion and become comfortable with that before he can even THINK of beginning to embrace Not Bill Fashion.

[bluehairandpronouns42069]

Thanks for the tag @the-converse-high-top! Took me 3 tries but I like my final result :3

@acespirit come blorbify yourself

No pressure tags to @zorciarkrildrush @wacko-weirdo @ecruvian @youz-ink. Dunno if you all like picrew games so 100% no pressure.

picrew chain <3

tagging: everyone who sees this!

[ckret2]

So, I'm asking under the assumption that you a) have an answer and b) the answer isn't narratively important: what ARE the little axolotls to the bit AXOLOTL? Are they spawn/followers of some sort? An extension of its being? A byproduct of its existence, like shed skin cells are for us? Are they alive? Sapient? Individual?

A sample from the next chapter:

"... And the smaller axolotls, what are they—heralds, worshipers? Children?"

Bill scoffed in disgust, "I don't know, I've never asked him. I see them like the flies orbiting a cow's tail. They migrate with him, that's all I know."

I imagine them as 1/3 visual/physical echoes of the Axolotl's existence & presence, 1/3 dead skin cells, and 1/3 clones budding off from him. They're part of him/a projection from him and they're not independently alive, but they could flake off and become their own individual creatures. Ghosts of unborn axolotls future.

But more importantly than that: what they are is something really fucked up to see in the water when your triangle prisoner is saying ominous things about an eclipse.

Caveat to the above: I might change my answer if I think of something cool to do with them later that requires them to be something different.