#every so often I will see a post on my dash about how great they are and I'm like why???

[elisabeth-forbes]

’I did everything right I did what the book said’ - you put that line in your show and expect me to be like oh this is soooo romantic. Ah yes I followed the instruction manual and now I should be your boyfriend and I’m not even going to trust you when you say you don’t have feelings for someone else and I’m going to keep yelling at you because of reasons and somehow this makes you like me??? 

[stevetown]

A Tumblr Quick Start Guide

A year ago, I realized that every time I logged onto Twitter, I felt my blood pressure rise. It's a platform that runs on anger and outrage, and I wanted someplace better to spend my screen time. In my almost-year on Tumblr, I now realize I log on here and get one or two good laughs every time I check my dashboard.

Tumblr has given me a lot lately, but it is a bit different than other platforms. I'd like to give back a little and provide a quick-start guide on how being new to Tumblr worked for me.

Finding Things to Follow

The biggest thing I had to get used to was realizing that on Tumblr, you don't necessarily follow people or celebrities or politicians. You follow your interests. In fact, it's pretty common to follow only strangers that post things you like. That can make your empty dash daunting to fill! Let's fill it with things you love and make you happy.

Make a list, mental or otherwise, of things you're interested in. Be both broad and specific! Board Games. Magic The Gathering. Supernatural. Marvel. Video Games. 8-Bit. Urban planning. Any and all things that you like!

Pick one of your interests and search for that tag. Flip between "Latest" and "Top" and browse around to see what kind of content is in that tag. You'll notice images, art, gif sets, TikToks, videos, essays - all sorts of things!

If you see a lot of things you like, cool! Click the button to Follow that tag if you want to keep up to date on it and find things later (we'll come back to this).

If you see a post you love, check out who posted or reblogged it. Scroll around on their blog. Do they post similar stuff? Are there other things you like here? Are they posting often? If you like what they post, follow the blog! Congrats, you've followed your first blog!

Take some time and check out some other tags and follow the same process - follow tags you like and blogs you might be interested in. It's not possible to over-follow! You can always curate your list later. This isn't Twitter - no one cares if you unfollow someone. Find what makes you happy.

Go back to your main dashboard - how are things looking? Filled with things you're interested in? Excellent. If things don't work for you, don't be afraid to unfollow blogs.

Want to follow more blogs? New episode of Andor drop? Go to the "Your Tags" header and scroll around to find some more juicy content. Check out blogs you like, follow 'em if you like em, rinse and repeat! That's curating your dash!

Your Blog is Your House

Okay, so you have a dashboard of content that you like - but what do you do with it all? Someone once described a Tumblr blog to me like your little house that you can fill with all the things you like. There is no rhyme or reason, and you don't need an excuse to reblog something other than the fact that you liked it!

If you see something you like, reblog it! To me, I reblog things when I say "I like this and I want it to live in my house so other people can see it when they come visit"

Reblogging is like passing a message along to other people. You can just reblog it on its own to amplify it, or you can add your own tags, or if you have a funny reaction gif/thought/video/thousand-word-essay, add to it when you reblog!

Use tags. People actually find posts through tags here. Use them to help people discover that really cool reblog you found! You can also search for tags on specific blogs. This makes them great for categorizing posts on your own blog. For example, I use #2022 Game Journal when I blog about whatever game I'm playing so I can do a year-end review later and find all the posts later.

Like things too. Likes don't amplify posts, but they're nice to let a poster know you appreciated it! I also use likes a bookmark. Sometimes I don't have time to watch that TikTok, so I'll like it as a reminder to come back to it later.

Be Weird. You can have sideblogs to hold more specific content, but don't be afraid to just scoop up anything you like and put it in your house! Reblogging is how content gets passed around.

Random Blog Tips

Wow nice job, your blog's looking great! Before you know it, someone will find it, check out your posts, and maybe give you a follow if they like what you've made or what your reblog! The last thing I'll touch on here are some nitty-gritty tips that can help you think about all the meta stuff about Tumblr:

Tumblr is the most anonymous social media platform. No one has to know who you are. Take advantage of all the privacy options.

You can also hide likes and who you follow from public view - that's no one else's business! Turn off asks too if you want.

Play around with your settings in general - there are lots of customization options and other dash tabs that you can use to find new content. You can also turn on timestamps so you know if a post you see is a "heritage post," as they say. Content is evergreen here and I personally like to see that in action.

You can filter and hide tags that you don't want to see.

Just block people liberally, it's cool.

You can pay to remove ads (nice), but you can also leave the option to see Blazed posts on. Blazed posts are ones that people pay for impressions for - and any post can be Blazed. The kicker is, there's no ad targeting. It can be quite funny or quite annoying depending on what you want.

When viewing the notes on a post, you'll see comments, reblogs, and likes. For the reblogs section, I like to filter by "Comments only" to find what people have added to the post.

Like all social media sites, there are dark corners here. I think Tumblr more than most puts you in control to curate your Dashboard to only see what you want. Block a user, hide a post, and move on.

That should be quite enough to get started! Tumblr can take a little more time to "get" compared to other social media platforms (and get in on the long-running jokes!), but trust me, after a week, you'll notice the difference between checking your Tumblr dashboard and checking your Twitter timeline.

Your blood pressure will thank you.

[punkshort]

Will you eventually do a Swept Away, likes and dislikes post for Joel? The little taste of his character is just delicioussss, he’s so mysterious. I’m dyingggg to crawl inside your brain and see how his character is going to unfold 😍💋

I would love to! I love getting this ask because it always gives me good ideas for future chapters, so thank you!

Let's jump in:

Likes:

1. Sunsets: he loves the colors and how every day is different. He loves it because it's a work of art that everyone in the world can appreciate, no matter who you are.

2. Boxing: it's the only form of exercise he actually enjoys. He really likes taking his anger out on a punching bag, and he tends to hold in a lot of anger from his job.

3. Money: I mean, come on, that's not a big surprise. He likes to live comfortably and without having to worry about the cost of anything. And, sure, when he slaps his black card down and someone does a double take, he feels a rush of pride.

4. Cigars: he didn't used to like them but they have grown on him throughout the years. A colleague of his convinced him to join a cigar club and he found it was a great way to network and rub elbows with the elites.

5. Poetry: he will never admit it, though.

6. Filet Mignon: he loves a perfectly cooked medium rare steak. When he was choosing which restaurant to lease space to on the first floor of his hotel, he only looked at steakhouses because he liked the idea of having a good steak a mere elevator ride away.

7. The Natural Look: he prefers women who don't use too much makeup or plastic surgery/fillers. Almost all of the women he knows, whether through set ups or spouses of his colleagues, all look like they've gone to the same doctor and had the same procedures. He likes women who are comfortable in their skin and aren't fake.

8. McDonald's French fries: it's his Achilles heel. Every now and then after a long, boring art gallery opening or cocktail party, he will instruct his driver to go to McDonald's on the way back to his penthouse to get some fries.

9. Private Jet: he loves being able to come and go whenever he pleases, anywhere he wants. And he especially loves not having to go through security and be surrounded by people squished into a tin can. He likes that he can stretch out and eat a good meal and even sleep in a real bed when he travels, which is often.

Dislikes:

1. Kale: it's a vile weed and he won't touch it.

2. Surprise parties: he absolutely loathes being surprised. Especially when it's been a long enough day and he thinks he's going home to relax and suddenly his penthouse is filled with fifty people drinking all his booze and making a mess of his home and he has to pretend to enjoy it.

3. Lifting weights: he thinks it's obnoxious and he doesn't care about glamour muscles but his trainer always makes him do one day a week where he lifts weights. He gets it over with as quickly as he can.

4. Satin sheets: too slippery and his pillow always ends up on the floor.

5. Campfires: he hates the smoke from campfires because it gets stuck in his clothes and he has to send everything he was wearing to the cleaners right away before it spreads to other fabrics.

6. Lillies: they remind him of funerals.

7. Tea: he could never find a tea he actually enjoyed. All tea tastes like hot water with a dash of some vague flavor and it's just never worth it. Unless he's sick with a sore throat. Then he might have some.

8. Boats: he tends to go out on yachts and sailboats quite a bit, but he doesn't like the open water. He gets seasick and he always has to take pills beforehand.

9. Golf: because all my Joels hate golf, for no particular reason.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

My memory is terrible so I wanted to do a breakdown of my stuff every once in a while. Might be monthly, might be whenever I feel like it.

QL - Currently Watching

🇯🇵25 Ji, Akasaka de [7/10] - I do love when Japan does a pov change and this was no exception. Hayama is so far gone. Like we already knew what, but he's been a goner ever since he read his name. He's being worshipped by all these people around him because apparently he's too good looking for anyone to be normal around him, and all he sees is Shirasaki. He said one sentence to him in school that he kept as a reminder. Man is obsessed. I'm so curious about next week. The lines are getting more and more blurred and eventually someone's gotta give. Also Hayama should give lessons on self-control. I have never seen anyone so completely out of his mind in love and jealous and at the same time, so put together. I'm in awe.

🇹🇭 Knock Knock, Boys! [2/12] - Strong start. It's fun, I really liked the flat sharing concept, it reminds me of my London days and kinda like Thanwa, being the mom of the house. I'm wondering if they will settle into their own in-house pairs soon or if there will be cross over, cause that would be fun. Give me mess.

🇹🇭 My Stand-In [1/12] - For a number of reasons I'm waiting to binge this one. I do love watching the gifs on my dash though, pretty is pretty.

🇹🇭 Only Boo! [8/12] - So we're done with highschool and that last episode felt a bit rushed trying to finish all those loose threads but I like that we're getting to a new chapter of their relationship. They continue to be too adorable for words. Side couple - dream kisses my beloathed. From the preview and also the number of thai bl's I've watched I'm thinking this will be a pretty straightforward 'it turns out you like him but now he moved on (not really) and you have to grovel'. I'd love to be surprised though.

🇹🇭 Wandee Goodday [4/12] - I am loving it. Pretty much everything about it. Before I say anything else. Thor is gorgeous and he should do all the shows. Forever. He and Cher are delightful and I love that they are an established couple that seem to have their own roles in the gym and their own relationship with Yak. I said this in tags before I think, but I'm finding it interesting how we collectively talk about this show ending, more often than not, with the caveat 'let's see if it holds up'. We have been burned before and not that long ago so we are all holding our breaths. Contrary to my usual state, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about this. I think the bones are there for a good show all the way to the end. No one is perfect - except Kao, he is perfection and the ace rep I only dreamed of - and that's great. They are both smitten and complete idiots. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the backstory, and in Yak's case how much of what drives him is a consequence of loss.

🇹🇭 We Are [9/16] - Still enjoying the friendships and still bummed we have no development with Chain/Pun. We had one second of development and it was a look. So much in that look. Not really but at least it seems that Pun is aware of his feelings, so that's something. The last episode kept reminding me of Love Sick because of all the camp stuff. It's an entertaining show but the Q/Toey plot is annoying me a bit now.

QL - Finished

🇹🇭 23.5 - This show lost me about halfway through and I never really connected after that. Even if it really wasn't for me, I'm happy it exists and I hope gmmtv invests in more gl's in the future. I wanted more of the teachers but I'm not greedy and was happy to see that they are together by the end.

🇰🇷Blossom Campus - What a mess. I still cannot believe this came out of Strongberry. I posted my reactions while watching. Final thoughts here.

🇰🇷Boys Be Brave - I really liked this one. Just to get it out of the way, the side couple felt a bit unfinished and could've had a bit more screen time. All the characters had their own stuff going on and 8 episodes just isn't enough to explore that depth in a satisfactory way. With that said. I adore the mains. JinWoo built a wall, put a list on it and we got to see Kiseob slowly tearing it down in its own unhinged unique way. I did a rewatch and something I didn't notice the first time is that when Kiseob is 'caught' with Inho and is explaining what happened while JinWoo hides under the bed, he enumerates what happened just like JinWoo always does. I thought it was so endearing. I found Kiseob's presence on screen always so bright and JinWoo's actor was really compelling to watch. Overall this was a really nice surprise.

🇯🇵 Living with him - Writing this when I literally finished and it's strange. Cause they are so cute by the end. That whole festival date was so adorable, and I think they played the awkwardness of the dynamic change really well. I do think the show dragged in parts and Natsukawa became a tiny bit annoying to me at a certain point. Because he found out so early that Kazuhito liked him that I thought the indecision was too much at times. I kept comparing it in my head to I Cannot Reach You, and the way both Kakeru and Natsukawa's lack of confidence plays a part in how they deal with the friend liking them, but I think in this case the back and forth in his head was irritating to me. It was always one step forward, two steps back. When he found the magazine in that last episode I wanted to punch a wall. Like, oh crap here he goes again. It's great that the friend was passing by so he could do all the work and get these two finally together. For the most part I really enjoyed it.

🇰🇷Love Is Like a Cat - That was a show that I watched. Final thoughts

Rose Watches OJBL

The Novelist (2018) - I put off this one for so long because of reasons and I was so wrong. It's not necessarily an easy watch but it's so good. It's beautifully shot and acted. I went through a whole journey with Kijima, from 'who is this guy?' to 'I fucking hate this guy' to ''I need him to be happy, please'. I will have to rewatch it after I watch all of them because the series is full of details and I'm sure I missed a bunch. Definitely happy I started this journey if for no other reason cause I finally managed to watch this.

Takumi-kun Series 2: Rainbow Colored Glass (2009) - The sad just came out of nowhere. It's got some of the same problems as the first one, choppy editing and even though the cast is new the acting is still not that good. I was less confused throughout which is good, Takumi annoyed me a lot though and the tragic plot was messy and rushed. I'm not sure if I'll watch all of these but probably at least one more and then decide.

Other - Watched

🇨🇳Running Like a Shooting Star (2024)🇯🇵Barakamon (2023)🇯🇵Ghost Yankee (2024) 🇰🇷Wonderful World (2024)

4 Thai BL's coming in June June 7 | My Love Mix-Up (so many mixed feelings) June 9 | Love Sea June 15 | Sunset x Vibes June 26 | The Rebound

As usual my ask box is open for questions or requests. Have a wonderful day/night💜

[cosmiclion]

Some ppl have shown interest in my lil self indulgent YOI AU (tl;dr if u haven't seen my previous posts: the only difference is that Viktor and Yurio are half siblings -on their mother's side, so that each keeps their respective last name- and the parents aren't around anymore by the time Yurio is 6 so he spends half his off time with Viktor and the other half with Nikolai), so I made more art of it bc it brings me joy 👉👈 And then I felt like writing a lil something to go with the piece bc why not, I very rarely write but when I do it's so much fun. Text under the cut.

-------------------------------------

“I did great, right, Vitya?” the little blonde boy asked excitedly as the silver haired teenager crouched down before him to pull up the zipper of his parka. A brown standard poodle pranced happily around them.

The older boy smiled fondly. “You were amazing, Yurochka.” He squeezed his cheeks and chuckled at the noise of indignation that came in response. “I’m sorry, mama and papa couldn’t come to see you skate today either. But grandpa took a lot of photos and videos to show them.” He adjusted the hat on the kid’s head before standing up. “Now come on, let’s not keep him waiting.”

Little Yuri’s eyes lit up at the sight of Nikolai near the exit and he dashed towards the man, Makkachin trotting after him and Viktor following close behind. The kid talked their ears off during the short walk to the car and during the whole ride, through mouthfuls of the pirozhki his grandfather had brought, proudly boasting about every new thing he could do on the ice now. Seated next to him on the backseat to keep an eye on his greedy dog, Viktor just listened and nodded along, trying and failing not to let his mind drift off.

At only 17, figure skating genius Viktor Nikiforov was under an enormous amount of pressure that had nothing to do with any competition. Even for someone who spent as much time away as he did, it was hard to miss that things had been going not so great at home. He had left in pursuit of his dreams long before Yuri was born, only to come back sporadically and spend short periods with his family before going away again, but he had to be blind not to notice just how starved for attention his younger brother was and just how absent his mother and her new husband were.

For a long time now, Nikolai had been putting in the work of being there emotionally for Yuri since his parents barely had time for him and his brother said hi to him only through video calls more often than not, so the least the latter could do to make up for it was to spend as much time with him as possible during the off season. At least Yuri didn’t seem to resent him, if anything he seemed to admire him more and more, and the teenager had gotten used to having the kid following him around like a duckling when they were together. At only 17, figure skating genius Viktor Nikiforov felt like a surrogate parent.

Suddenly, a finger poked the whorl on Viktor’s hair. “You’re distracted!” Yuri protested.

Viktor hadn’t even noticed that Yuri had taken his seatbelt off and stood up on the seat. “Sorry, sorry. Now please sit back down, that’s dangerous.”

Yuri obeyed but narrowed his eyes as Viktor re-adjusted the seatbelt. “You get distracted a lot. And you often forget things. Are you getting old?”

Viktor gave him a half offended, half amused look. Nikolai snorted a laugh from the driver’s seat. “If Viktor is old where does that leave me? Ha! But do listen to your brother, having to keep my eyes on the road is enough responsibility.”

“Sorry~!” Yuri sang almost innocently. He dug into the paper bag he was holding and took out another bun before resuming his incessant chatter. He talked so fast that Viktor wondered whether he actually needed to breathe. “If you’re getting old does that mean you’ll retire soon? Can you coach me? Will I be just as good as you? Will I be better than you? Will I win a gold medal? Don’t answer, I bet I’ll win a gold medal soon! Just wait and see, I’ll win my own gold medal one day!”

Yuri’s enthusiasm was almost contagious. Viktor ruffled his hair, earning himself another noise of indignation. “Of course you will.”

-------------------------------------

Some notes:

-I mentioned before that I couldn't find any official data on whether Nikolai is Yurio's maternal or paternal grandfather, but for this AU I'll assume the latter, so he and Viktor aren't related. -I almost deleted the whorl poking part, it's such a special thing between only Yuuri and Viktor that I felt like I was defiling something sacred lol. But then I thought that it'd be cute if Viktor's hair just had that effect on people. -At first I worried I had made Yurio too ooc but... he's 5 yrs old here, tbh most kids are the same at that age, just give him some time to develop his characteristic personality. Also I think it'd be both hilarious and tragic if he was a sweet adorable bby who loved his big bro before turning into an edgy teenager who hates everything ☠️

[yoruio]

Post!Hour of Joy Catnap x Reader HCs:

Genre: Fluff!!!!!!

AN: really short thingy I did, cant get the catnap brainrot outta my head, based him off a house cat a tad bit too much

☾ Catnap took some time to get used to you. And a lot of sweets— but in the end it all seemed to work out!

☾ The first few days, Catnap would stalk around the playroom to avoid the kids running about just so he could see what you were up to!

☾ Kickin and Hoppy would always spot him and pull him back into the play area every time he got caught.

☾ Catnap is not the one to give up easily and would sneak out during recess time and leave little trinkets on your desk

☾ Ever since you taught him how to be more social, he and the kids that would go to Playcare grew to become very close and would help him do tasks that require smaller hands, like folding paper or coloring with crayons.

☾ It's a miracle how he was able to find your quarters in this massive establishment.

☾ The first time it happened you saw a little purple paper cat with a tiny moon charm on it's chest. Hmm, you wonder who this came from.

☾ The next time you saw Catnap you didn't forget to give him a head scritch and a cheery "Thank you!"

☾ Catnap then on would find ways to sneak handcrafted toys into your office.

☾ Congrats, you're now his favorite person in the whole world!!! Till this day the little paper cat still stands on your desk.

☾ Catnap would always draw you every time there were arts and crafts activities in the playcare.

☾ Catnap doesn't know how Craftycorn works her magic with those hooves of hers, but the least he could do is draw a messy stickman of you. And what do you know, you adored his drawing! And now it's hung on a little frame in your room!

☾ Catnap, after you'd visit him around working hours his mood would noticeably get more lively... So lively in fact that he dashes all over the room like those house cats getting the zoomies. Dogday's in awe at how fast his sleepy buddy was. Hey, if the kids are having fun then he guesses it's fine!

☾ Despite Catnap's distorted voice box you never really minded how brief his answers were.

"You want to eat?" you chuckled. Lowering the box you were carrying to meet his gaze.

"No." he spoke, staring at you with his dotted white pupils.

"Uhm... Need something from me?" you asked curiously. You wondered what he wanted.

"...No..." He spoke again.

"You're just here to bug me, are you?" you huffed, a small smile etched on your face as you stared up the purple cat.

"..." His long tail twirled deviously.

You raise your brow at him with your arms crossed over your chest.

"Yes."

☾ The other smiling critters seem to like this side of the purple cat too! But what they don't enjoy is how loud his purring gets whenever he naps.

☾ Catnap likes to laze in your office at night. He often curls himself around your desk chair as you work. His soft purple fur a great insulator against the cold room.

☾ Catnap tends to be more active at night, hence the reason he's always scratching your bedpost. On some occasions, he'd even stretch like a cat.

☾ You made sure that after you'd finished all your paperwork you would snuggle up with him on the floor since he was a tad too big for the bed Play Co. provided for you.

☾ He hoped things would never change.

Ik ik its boring but I've been wanting a bit of sweet stuff yknow

This the thing Catnap made for u btw :>

Peper kat!!!!!!!

[peculiarbeauty]

not to be gay on main but i am going to be gay on main. it's positivity post time !!! i just wanted to shout out a couple amazing people who have become ultra close to me ( or were ultra close in the past and we reconnected hehe ) this is just a few names, i don't have time unfortunately to write a message for everyone on the dash but please please know that you are special to me if you are a follower. this is never in a particular order.

@seachant - NINI i love you. you are such a breath of fresh air. genuinely a twinkling star that just happened to fall in my vicinity. lucky me tbh. thank you for giving me the chance to be friends with you and write on multiple different blogs with you. writing with your ariel here was such a DREAM of mine. i remember seeing your blog around and just adoring it. we did write previously when i wrote in the fandom but we never became close pals like we are now. seeing your posts makes my day. i'm really happy we are friends.

@dragetunge - MY DEAREST KRIS. we've been through a couple rocky roads together now but we stick together. it's really nice to talk to you. you are the reason i got into httyd. so thank you for that. i wouldn't have took the time if it wasnt for you and I REALLY NEEDED TO. you are essentially the dragon enthusiast of tumblr. i mean that like. literally. when i think of dragon enthusiasts i think of you. fgckjkfg I LOVE YOU SO MUCH KRIS. i cant wait to actually show you my island on dreamlight when it is a fully decked out like yours.

@solehr - sef, i miss you. i cant wait for you to come back and see that i wrote this for you kffdjdf i cannot forget you on this list. you and nini were the first disney blogs to welcome me. thank you for being my friend and allowing me to send you that ghibli movie dkffdj it's been such a pleasure knowing you. i hope for many more memories together. :)

@swevene - DEAREST KELSEY .. my belovedddd. i love our convos even when we are busy for an extended period of time. you check on me every so often and its really an honor to consider you a friend. thank you for being there, i really appreciate it. i hope we have many more memories !!! your beast is so important to my belle, i have to tell you. <3

@oudachi - aka my favorite ark .. in all locations of your blogs .. i could tag literally all of them rn but im not going to dkfjdf we joke about how we always come back together over the years. it doesn't really ??? matter how long we don't talk bc fate brings us back. our first meeting was back in 2015 and i remember you were the realest person i had ever met on this site. that has not changed. i think that more folks should understand how brilliant you are .. not only as a writer , but as a friend. you never leave people out. i've been left out before and it's a very terrible feeling. thank you for allowing me into your circle again after a bit of time of not talking. we picked up like it was such a short time of us not chatting like we were bffs again. i can't begin to tell you how grateful i am. seeing you thrive as well OH MAN .. i love that.

@chainmemories - toma, at this point it has to be obvious but when i came back .. you were the first to show me great excitement. making a blog after an extended leave on the site is a scary thing. it is like walking into the lion's den tbh dkfjfk plus there were a ton of big changes to tumblr so i didn't know where to start. it was scary. you wrote cuphead at this time. i've grown to really love cuphead and many other things because of you. playing mario party at least weekly is such a GENUINE pleasure. you make me feel like i have a place in the community. i can't begin to tell you how grateful i am that you are here and backing me up. i also hope that you know you are this shining star of every community you go into. there is not a community you haven't touched that you haven't left your mark on. of course my precious toma is the sunshine protag lover .. but he is also the sunshine protag in my opinion. i don't take criticism. I LOVE YOU.

@ghostbustingreen - spooky, I LOVE YOU. being in the posse with toma and you has been so so wonderful. i am grateful i get to talk to you on the daily about our interests. seeing you write our fav green plumber is wonderful YES YES. every muse you capture is brilliant though. i love writing with you on multiple of your blogs. simbaaaaaaaa. P.S. i am sorry for our latest party shindig where i continued to take the star away from you. i hope you can forgive me. i really hope our group goes strong for a long time because you guys always make me feel so much better.

@dnangelic - HI FAVVVV. thanks for putting up with me changing blogs on you so many times and still deciding to follow me and look forward to my muses. we are SO BACK on haru tbh. i love writing with you. you have such a grasp on your muse and i don't even know him that well. i wish i knew MORE tbh. the things that we have written though are truly precious and i look forward to future threads. i look forward to your responses truly. thanks for being my friend and also always hyping me up.

@matryochka - i cannot forget my favorite hype queen. dottie, you and i met in dc. you decided to follow me on my other blogs and genuinely messaged me when i was inactive there saying pretty much where tf are u dfkdjkfd WHICH I LOVE THAT. i wish more people would show interest in mutuals they care about that way. im trying to recruit you into our disney princess line up . it'll happen i know it. please know i love you so much. our little conversations are everything to me.

@jokethur - jess .. my beloved. also a hype queen and someone i met in dc. i love you. we don't talk too much rn but you are forever important to me. our conversations got me through some really dark points in my life and i can't begin to say how grateful i am for that. i hope that we have many more memories of chatting. always know i am here and ready to chat. we could stop talking for months and pick up just like that. that's how strong our friendship is <333 i love you. AND GIVE DIX A KISS FOR ME.

@pearlcure - DIORRRR my beloved. being your friend is a true genuine pleasure. IT IS PREDESTINED WE MET. we write the best girls out there. good for us. i love our convos and i love how real you are about everything. your graphics, writing, everything ABOUT YOU is amazing. im grateful we are friends and i hope for many more years together !!

@story-magic - AKA ALL OF YOUR BLOGS HERE AS WELL .. but my darling sleepy. i call you sleepy. i know that you have a name but you will forever by my favorite sleepy sloth. you keep things fair for us in the game. if i ever get down on my luck in party, you try to even the odds for me. i am so so grateful to be your friend. i know i don't tell you enough over discord and the like and you leave me a bunch of cute messages to make my day, but BEING YOUR FRIEND IS A TRUE PLEASURE i've gotta tell ya. i'm really happy we are so close !!! <3 i hope for many more memories.

@0brighta - big shoutout to you, ettie. <3 i know we arent super close but you putting me in your little shoutout post made me really feel so grateful. your blog is this shining, brilliant star. i mean that. like, DANG. shine bright like a diamond. i see that people love you and there is a reason for this believe me - you are so pure. so good natured. i wish more people were like you with their mutuals. letting people know that they matter is something a lot of people do not do tbh. you do that. thank you. <3

@naru-uzumaki - NOODLES .. we are back in action after such a long time of not talking. you and i were close back in 2016 i think?? somewhere close to there. when i saw your blog pop back up in my recommended, I LITERALLY RAN TO FOLLOW because i missed you so much. you are still this positive radiant little sun on the dash .. much like your muse. i am bias absolutely but. your writing and your heart for our favorite ramen lover is such a pleasure to witness. never ever change please. <3

[mecheye]

Wish there was a better way to view older posts from like a decade ago.

@homurasexual and @homuraholic are doing a fantastic job of digging up old pieces of long-lost PMMM art, but there is a lot more out great images out there that have just been completely buried in Tumblr's history.

Every so often I see a post from @forgottenflickr on my dash of someones cat from 2007, or even now as I populate my other blog with scenery/background art from the early days of Pixiv, I still see things with only tens of views and no likes. And there is nothing wrong with the art or photos either! Maybe it was mistagged or got stuck in uploading for long than it should have, or maybe it wasn't tagged at all with anything relevant other than "Background", and it makes me wonder how the artist or photographer felt about that.

Because every one of these illustrations were made by someone who took the time to draw it, maybe even color it, give it a title, and upload it. It was something they were all proud of and wanted to share with the world. For it to get lost to time without reaching anybody is, for me, so sad and disappointing.

There is so much beautiful art out there that should be seen and cherished, and Tumblr is doing all of it a disfavor by only showing us the most recent posts.

[swag-system]

I love reading your yap posts so much omg, they're just so great and it feels like a friend just pops over to come talk about their day whenever I see the posts in my dash

It IS a friend popping over to talk about my day... Every single mutual and follower is already my friend to me that's just how my brain works. I know my mutuals by username I see u in my notifs n I'm like YAAAY MOSSY LIKED MY POST YAAAYYY YIPEEEE YAAAYYY!! Bcs in my heart everyone here is my friend!!! :D

ANYWAYS TY FOR THE NICE ASK I AM SO HAPPY RN YAAYYYY!! I should yap on my Tumblr more often tbh I'm getting so much interaction from everyone rn I'm having so much fun I love everyone. Does anyone want some sweet tea I'll share with all of u :3

[beardedmrbean]

God the amount of people on here I’ve, not just lost respect for, but become completely repulsed by in the last few days. People I share fandoms with who every so often would reblog those stupid “goblins are Jews so anybody who puts them in stories is antisemetic and should be shunned!!!” Which I usually just rolled my eyes and moved on. Those same damn people are on here justifying Jewish people getting slaughtered and kidnapped. And even if in their minds it’s truly just about “Israel vs Palestine”, not a fucking peep has been heard from any of them about the attacks now occurring to Jews around the world. “Punch Nazis! Listen to Jewish Voices! Be aware of antisemitism!” All goes out the window now I guess?

Gonna be setting everything to do with this situation to 'mature' and tagging "middle east mess" from here on in, this situation is far too much for lots of you and I get that I'm trying to balance things out best I can.

Go into your settings to the "content" filtering as well as "tag" filtering and punch in any terms you can think of to get most of this all off your dash.

Schrödinger's POC.

One thing I've come to realize in my observations over the years is the majority of the different activists, really loud ones at least, don't actually care about the causes they claim to care about, they don't actually want things to improve for people. Having perpetual victims while they themselves are not victims seems to let them look like they're trying to help and stand up for injustice and victimized people while still covertly looking down their noses at them.

Israel is a great example of that since they do a pretty good job mostly on their own surrounded by enemies on all sides, gotten a little less dangerous over the decades but they're still in the danger zone and generally still thriving.

That and they very rarely get involved in a difficult fight, much easier to virtue signal over a video game than it is when there's some fairly complex geopolitical forces at play. And hating Israel is the easier of the two routes to go in this one, you'll also be seeing the folks that say it's not Jews it's "Zionists" even if the overwhelming majority of Jewish people are Zionists.

Which hey, you're all entitled to your opinion but before you go and start bashing Israel on a hourly basis go ahead and look at all the other countries out there and see how you feel about them and decide if you honestly think you're judging them all by the same standard or if you're judging Israel (or any others) more harshly and then ask yourself why that is.

Amnesty went in to Ukraine at one point after several schools had been targeted by russia, amnesty pointed out all of the obvious signs that the ukrainian military had been using those schools as weapons cache's or staging grounds or any of a number of other military purposes and they declared that to be a big no no and properly laid the blame on the ukranian military and government. You made it a military target by putting troops there.

Oddly even though it's widely known that hamass does the same thing, somehow amnesty still goes after Israel who will "knock on the door" of places they're about to level that are legitimate military targets, if they're also civilian buildings. hamass using the roof of a building as a place for a communications array/radio tower they'll get a dummy bomb dropped in their lap and civilians have their 30 min notice to evacuate because it's going down in 30 min one way or the other, but somehow that's not good enough.

and Oh lord I was in the notes of a couple different post and people talking about the Jewish citizens of Israel not actually being the same people that are the indigenous population to that area, which dna tests have proven that wrong, but hey they're out there repeating talking points made up by goebels so remember that next time these people call someone else a nazi, granted they're stupid enough to call actual Jewish people nazis to their faces showing that they've really just turned that word into something that's on par with butthead at this point.

Circling back round, like I said most of these activists they don't want conditions to actually improve for anyone, because they won't be special little guys helping out the poor oppressed people, they'll just be ordinary.

Cancer researchers would be very happy if they got put out of a job, professional activists not so much.

Article link

___________________

This is all beyond very tragic both for the people of Israel and the people of gaza who just want to live their lives free of fear and hate, it is interesting to see people doing 180's on their stances on things like rape and child murder/infanticide and such given who's doing it this time round, if I were Jewish I would be seriously reconsidering my position of I want everyone who wants to and can responsibly do so to own all the guns they like, but having one isn't for me.

I'd cut that last bit out, I'd be armed everywhere I go.

There's lots of issues on both sides of this conflict, but only one side went in to a music festival and murdered 260+ people and dragged off hostages to rape, torture, and maybe attempt to bargain with at some point if the mood strikes.

That's not something the good guys do.

Side note, I'm surprised I haven't seen a specific insult tossed out between members of the Jewish community who are on different sides of this issue, for the curious it's a german word and I'm not going to type it out.

Had someone throw that one at me once which confused me given my lack of being Jewish, loses all it's punch at that point.

[clairedaring]

tag game ✨

huge thank you to the lovely zey @thasorns for thinking of me. i love you too (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

1. why did you choose your url?

no one remembers her but claire dearing from jurassic world will always hold a special place in my heart.

2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them.

poomphuripan - the bl sideblog that i started just because my main got deactivated for a bit but i guess for now, it's mostly uppoom and msi-focused. in december, it'll probably be torjj and spare me your mercy-focused. i think i'll probably just be using these for the ql series i have a crazy hyperfixation about.

huiyanan - a pentagon yanan/hui focus sideblog

coryjeacoma - my musical theatre sideblog for random audio bootlegs and sometimes musical gifs

ryuvachirawich - my unused (mostly lakorn) gifs blog for extra gifs i make but that doesn't make it into any main or sideblogs. at first i was trying to keep this sideblog lowkey but then i needed to tag the gifs w my gif tag anyway so i could search for them so disclosing is fine 🤣

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

2014... what do you mean it's been a decade since i started using tumblr.... time isn't real

4. do you have a queue tag?

i tried but i've given up on queue-ing in general so i don't. my tumblr is constantly in two modes: super active or going months without a single post lmaoooo.

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

i wanted to be where all the gifmakers are but i have too much interests so this shall remains a multi-fandom blog or more like a "whatever media claire is consuming atm" blog 

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

dirk gently is the single most perfect holistic detective in existence. sometimes i'm too attached to my url and my icon, i don't think i can ever change them. headers i can but i haven't changed my url/icon for 3-4 years i think.

7. why did you choose your header?

i feel you linger in the air is THAT series for me. dethroned almost every other thai series on my all time fave list (i say almost because bad genius series is still holding its crown well)

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

i just checked and apparently it's my first and only merlin gifset 😅

9. how many mutuals do you have?

i have no idea but i love all my mutuals （づ￣3￣）づ╭❤️～

10. how many followers do you have?

i hit 1k recently. crazy to me because i've left this tumblr empty for months before starting being active again last october???

11. how many people do you follow?

4000+ but that's only because i'm too lazy to unfollow people. so yea i rarely see things on my dash. i just end up scrolling through my fave gifmakers tags to find things they make.

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

i don't think so????? i mean the closest is probably me saying super random things on this tag.

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

it used to be once a week... but these days it's really a daily routine lmao. although i'm pretty sure i'll leave my tumblr dusting once my stand-in ends... who knows... we'll see...

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

how can i? i'm so non-confrontational, i reblog things in private to argue with op 😭 lmao (arguments that op will never see lmao, i'm saving them and me both the trouble really). just enfp things.

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts

huh why do i never get them on my dash (⊙x⊙;)

16. do you like tag games?

sometimes i forget but i love being tagged in them because i get to know about all the great mutuals i have on here, especially music tags because i always get incredible new music recommendations

17. do you like ask games?

apparently i had my asks closed without knowing for quite some time so i haven't received asks for so long. maybe one day i'll do them but i have bad records of answering asks so ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

i'm not sure if being THE certified way apologist/way gifmaker qualifies her as tumblr famous but maybe sasa @zhouxiangs is the most famous mutual i have

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

let's call this mutuals whose editing skills i wanna steal (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

lana @sherrymagic whenever you see me reblogging lana's joe sets every week, you'll see me gushing about the consistency in her coloring and that's because that's something i'm obsessed with, especially considering my stand-in's grim/dark cinematographic coloring. also i don't know how lana chooses the perfect lines from each eps to do her recap sets because most of the times i can't even choose between which scenes to gif.

eva @alienwlw eva makes the most beautiful lyrics set and is willing to do my most niche requests and i'm always looking forward to seeing her gifs because it's always so warm and grainy and crisp and i'm just like wahhhh *heart eyes emoji* every time

20. tags?

no pressure tagging anyone today ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪

[sleepymccoy]

Here are my methods of enjoying Tumblr these days. I share these as a recommendation to all

Likes

Hide your likes from public view on your blog

Stop liking posts, either reblog them or don't interact. If you mean it as a recognition you've seen a mutuals personal post, send a heart emoji in replies

In your activity feed, make it custom and untick likes. Genuinely, this change makes tumblr feel like 2013 tumblr again for me

Ask games/post interaction

If you reblog an ask game or prompt list or whatever, send a couple in to the person you reblogged from

If anyone sends you a prompted ask off anon, quickly check their blog to see if they've reblogged the same ask game post or whatever and send them a few back (I often say I'm going to do this in the tags, so people know not to use anon)

Don't use the reply function to interact with posts that could be a reblog. If you're talking directly to prev, replies make sense. If you're just talking, reblog it. It's your blog, it's about you, don't just address one individual with that. Replying is more like sending a DM than anything imo

Similarly, if you vote in a poll and care enough to send a reply explaining yourself... Maybe you care enough to reblog it actually. Just reblog it

Everything on tumblr is public, you are not overstepping a boundary to screenshot and share tags, or reblog a personal post to chat. If they didn't want it online, they wouldn't've put it online. So just start talking, get interacting!

How to find people to follow (in steps)

Post something that you would like to see on tumblr. You will have to put a bit of effort in. I like seeing original art and fandom statistics, so I post those things occasionally and do this, it's great

Tag it well. Reblog it a few times

After a couple days or so, go into the notes and have a look at every blog that reblogged it. There's no point checking the blogs who only liked, they clearly won't be people who reblog the stuff you want to see (cos they only like). The people who reblogged your post are likely to reblog other similar posts too

Scroll each blog for a minute or so. If you see nothing you dislike, just follow them

Enjoy how much more of the stuff you like is on your dash! I see so much original art now

[scoobydoodean]

the reaction to that quiz was very funny. definitely a 'how fake dean!girls look when real dean!girls come at them' moment. never seen so many people start frothing at the mouth over a harmless joke

context

Tbh my perception of the uquiz was that it mainly upset deancrit casgirls, though the deangirls who follow them certainly weren't happy with me either. Granted, I didn't take very much care not to offend people when I posted the uquiz, because I didn't expect it to spread (I intended it for a handful of mutuals and followers). But literally the questions were like, True or False?

Dean is not largely responsible for Sam and Cas's emotional issues.

Dean desires to control everyone in his life. It's a defining facet of his character.

People should have laughed at Dean's jokes more.

Dean is the better brother.

The finale is bad.

And multiple replies in the notes were like, "I just love nuance!" Ah yes... the extreme "nuance" to Dean being largely responsible for two other adults problems and choices... his adult baby children who need to suckle at his nursing tits. <<<< This sort of "mean" language from me developed... almost immediately after the uquiz drama cooled off because I kept seeing even more condescension being hurled at Deangirls on their blogs and at that point had a lot more first-hand experience with the underlying arrogance and mean-spirited desperation for control behind it. I simply had enough.

Literally I had a meme blog at the time I posted that uquiz (well—still do but don't use it much) with about 40 times the followers I had on this account when I posted that quiz in April, and I used my meme account for years to make fun of Sam, Dean, Cas, and a variety of other characters, and my jokes weren't always super nice. People got mad at me sometimes, but never more than two or three at a time. Never once over years of using that blog to post memes every single day (while the show was airing too—so more traffic) did I get a reaction even remotely like the reaction that uquiz got and it is endlessly funny.

I returned here in early 2023 (after being mostly absent in 2022) seeing a lot of very odd things. For one, people were freely interacting with each other more, which I thought was great (I remembered an spnblr characterized by extremely insular attitudes). However, within the notes of some of the posts that I and others were writing, I noticed a thinly-veiled message from certain camps responding: "I don't like this post. I don't like what you said, and neither do my friends, and you should watch what you say."

It was honestly pretty transparent in a few different cases despite, often enough, a friendly mask. I was told very quickly, for example, that discussing Emma as if she was actually Dean's daughter (she quite literally was) is considered old and tired and no one wanted to hear it (this was on a post Emma's parentage had... almost nothing to do with btw, and that more largely, was about hypocrisy in deancrit circles over Dean committing acts of violence against children—and that post had done well, so clearly other people were actually fine with it). Tbh, it felt like, covered by a "friendly", "joking" exterior—someone was putting an arm around my shoulder as I entered a new environment and telling me "the way things are" and how I ought to assimilate.

I was told that making memes pointing out the gigantic blinders people spewing deancrit were wearing was in bad taste, because Dean is "popular", therefore it makes sense that he receives the most criticism (Thor voice: does it really?) and saw other posts stating the same. I saw multiple posts where people said they were "tired" of people talking about Dean... not a specific take on Dean—but Dean as a whole—when absolutely no one was preventing them from controlling what they saw on their own dash, unfollowing accounts that largely discussed characters they didn't want to talk about, or filtering whatever names they wanted—no—that wasn't good enough—they needed to control what other people were posting, and make them stop talking about Dean on their own blogs. They were literally trying to control how other people had fun in their own spaces.

At the same time, I was seeing someone I'd just begun following for a string of posts (and subsequent brigading that occurred over it) getting hounded for nothing more than posting a poll featuring events that canonically occur in Supernatural around the season 14 finale—facts that deancrits apparently found inconvenient enough to spew hate mail over for literal months. I saw multiple accounts I was newly following receive deeply condescending notes and mail from people who engaged with them in blatant bad faith and acted superior for it. I saw even completely harmless "fun" posts get notes from little groups of fans huddled together openly mocking the OP in tags for not sharing their clearly "superior" taste.

Meanwhile, deangirls, as far as I saw, were not engaging in this behavior back. They were endeavoring to be polite when people came onto their blogs to debate with them in condescending tones (and even make ridiculous claims about their personal morals). They weren't going on these people's blogs and talking down to them (as they shouldn't). They were having fun, engaging with people whose company they enjoyed, and deancrits apparently couldn't stand this. It suggested to me and reminded me... well—that deanfans have long been expected to be made of heel skin in fandom circles, to shoulder and accept absolutely any and all criticism of Dean, while samgirls and casgirls consistently tend to be made of tissue paper and can't handle the barest shred of criticism of their fave without having meltdowns (that can and do, in fact, sometimes include mass bullying and hate mail and suicide bait and death threats). The fact that my uquiz was somehow interpreted as "seething hatred" for Sam and Cas was fucking laughable.

I still won't go onto other people's pages or bring disk horse to them. In fact, I'm very protective of my personal dash and curate my experience as much as I can. But I did decide not to be made of heel skin anymore from my personal blog just so other people can be made of tissue paper. If that's received by some as me being mean, well—I'll take a page out of the deancrit playbook and say my feelings are largely their responsibility.

[nic-mharta]

Just a little more Potential for 2024

Every so often the latest version of this comes around on my dash, and gives me a great reminder to check in on myself and my habits. It started with @shrinkingblonde's “Full Potential Challenge”: a list of self-care checkpoints for every day, broken down by morning, afternoon and evening. Alas, working on that many habits at once woke my “Monster From The Id”’, who immediately panicked. The Monster thinks that, given that my current bad self-care habits correlate with being currently alive, the best chance of staying alive is to change nothing. The Monster isn’t very bright, but it’s powerful.

So I made a minimal list, and took as long as it took to change (three years!), and I made some nice new habits! A year later I rebooted with seven habits to maintain and three new habits to work on. It's now a year and a half after that. Things are changing: I've been diagnosed with ADHD and have medication for that. I've been laid off (again) and am about to start receiving Old Age Security so I guess that counts as "retired". The problematic pastor at our church has been resigned (no, not *that* type of "problematic", but still a problem) so there's more demands from that corner of life.

Changes mean some of the habits I've been working on aren't relevant any more.

EVERY MORNING

Stretch. First thing. Really give your body enough time to wake up. Touch your toes. Roll out your shoulders. Do not hit snooze! (Doing okay!)

Brush your teeth (Doing great!) and floss (well, better than not at all and my dental hygienist is happy)

Drink water. Drink water. Drink water. Drink water!!!!! (Doing better but still needs focus)

Cleanse and moisturize your skin and do at least minimal makeup (Doing great -- and I like the effect)

Minimal Morning Prayer: Urnuigh an Tighearna, Guidhe airson Sith, Guidhe airson Grais (I've struggled with my prayer life for decades. Still struggling. The minimal approach worked with skin care and makeup; maybe it will work here)

EVERY AFTERNOON

Drink water. Drink water. Drink water. Drink water!!!!! (Such a hard habit!)

At least once around the virtual track on the elliptical, one pushup, and 20 situps. (I will not apologize for how wimpy that is. Injuries, age, and undiagnosed but chronic post-exertion malaise mean one must be gentle with oneself. Maybe I can do 21 situps the next time this post comes around.)

EVERY EVENING

mentally review what needs to be done tomorrow, and identify (or find a way to insert) something fun. (doing okay-ish)

Brush, floss, cleanse, moisturize (doing good!)

Drink water. Drink water. Drink water. Drink water!!!!! (See above!)

Crawl into bed at least 7 hours before the alarm is set for.

Eat and drink lightly and stop well before bedtime (coming along).

WEEKENDS are just like weekdays, now that I'm retired.

"Be friendly to friends and strangers. A smile goes a long way" is off the list because it has truly become a habit: I don't even need to think about it. Yay!

Ninety days from today is nothing particularly special, but 89 days from today our local agricultural fair starts (which is a big deal around these parts) so that's the target date for this iteration.

[epitomereally]

You’re so talented. Every time your fan binding pictures cross my dash I stare at them for *hours*. The amount of care and detail you put into your books blows my mind. I know you talk about the process for each individual book on your fic binding posts but I wanted to ask: how do you plan your fic binds? Do you visualize what the fic would look like if it were a book while you read it? Do the colors and illustrations you choose come to you as you read the fic, or after? How does your approach to fic binding differ from your approach to writing? Etc. I’m curious about your creative process, though the technical part is also super interesting!

Ps: I love all the fics you chose to bind but I was so excited when you picked GallaPlacidia’s Ship of Theseus - probably my favorite of theirs. You have great taste 😁💚

Eek Elise THANK YOU! I’m so flattered & honored. Also always happy to talk fanbinding, especially binding design (my one true love)!

I would say planning takes the vast majority of my binding time—it’s something I love and I agonize over and I struggle with—while the actual binding often goes quite quickly! I often start with one element that I’m excited about & feel fits the the specific fic: a color or spine stitching pattern or a chapter title concept or title page (like the hand-dyed cover + birds for You Open Always or the blooming morning glories for Meet Me at Midnight) and then, because I have no chill or a single subtle bone in my body, I just roll with that element through the whole book until it’s totally exhausted (wish I could spoil some of my upcoming binds here, but you will SEE VERY SHORTLY what I mean). Every single time I make a book, around the time where I’m printing out the typeset, I feel that I’ve made a grievous error in including one more item than I should have, like it’s way too much. An example is the blackletter ornate font I ended up using for the title of You Open Always—you can see in my draft Illustrator document where I was trying out tons of concepts using stock images that most of my title page concepts were with a much simpler, more modern font that I used for the chapter numbers. However, in the end, I’ve always been happy that I’ve gone completely 100% on my vision, even if it’s a lot. In that way, I feel like it’s like writing—I may be incorporating all the elements I want to see imperfectly and have doubts about them, but I’m still putting everything I want in there & I’m proud and happy for that, even if I still have more things to learn.

One last design element I want to highlight: BODY FONT! This is something I am still learning so much about and the Renegade Discord has been incredibly helpful (a recent message I sent: what font would you find in a pulpy 60s mystery paperback?). A gorgeous title page or chapter header or cover is great for setting the mood when you open a book, but the body font is 90%+ of what you see when reading, so I spend a TON of time trying different fonts to fit the vibe of the fic. I have no thoughts or advice or guidelines though—it’s like porn & you just know it when you see it.

I also get a ton of inspiration from fellow fanbinders, both on the Renegade Discord server & here on tumblr. A lot of time, I see a technique or cover or typeset and think that that would look incredible for XYZ fic. An extremely abbreviated list of people who inspire me daily: @a-gay-old-time (Emma, you're a BLESSING), @queercore-curriculum, @bindsbymunchkin, @pleasantboatpress (one of the most welcoming members of the Renegade server, in addition to being an incredibly inspiring binder), @chubsonthemoon, @no-name-publishing, @zhalfirin-binds, @dontcallmebree, @amywaterwings & @runawaymarbles. Sorry for all the tags, but want this as a resource for others! I would absolutely love to know how all of you come up with your artistic vision for the binds that you do (and please tag me if you post!). 

P.s. Ship of Theseus was a request from QC but I am SO HAPPY they requested it, because it’s one of my favorites too :)

[joemerl]

Okay! So, a few days ago, a pro-Palestinian picture came on my dash with the "river to the sea" slogan. This naturally led to me debating a lot of people in the comments, one of whom, @hvly asked me to back up my assertions with sources. I decided to do this in a separate post because a.) makes it easier to post a bunch of links, b.) the original artist took down the picture, and c.) I recently read how many on the pro-Palestinian side lack a lot of context on the conflict, so I figured this could serve as a general resource.

(Not linking to the original artist, but if he sees this, I do apologize if it seemed like I was attacking you, or if all the arguing just stressed you out. It was a cute picture and I trust that you didn't mean anything by it, but my point here is that a lot of well-intentioned people don't get the nuances of this issue.)

I'm not sure which of my arguments Hvly wanted evidence for, so I'll just try to be thorough.

Why is the "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" slogan anti-Semitic?

Because it is a call for the elimination of Israel. A two-state solution would involve Palestine and Israel in the space between the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea. If Palestine takes up that whole area, what happened to Israel and its 10 million inhabitants, 7 million of whom are Jewish? I don't think Palestine is gonna give them citizenship, in case the October 7th massacre didn't make that clear.

It's also worth noting that "will be free" is not the only variation on this chant. Especially early on, it was often "Palestine is Arab" or "is Islamic." Can't really deny that those are about excluding Jews (and/or Arab Christians, Druze, etc.)

Put another way: imagine if in the United States, we popularized the phrase "from the Canadian border to South America, the U.S. will be free!" Sounds great, right? Nothing wrong with freedom! But, wait...how do Mexico and Central America fit into this geography? And oh, yeah, the people promoting this slogan are the KKK, and the first draft was that the U.S. would be "white." Would you pooh-pooh a Hispanic person who found this kinda racist? Then why are Jews different?

I appreciate that many Westerners want this phrase to be about freeing Palestinians from Israel's supposed occupation (we'll get to that in a minute). But it's not. It's about killing Jews.

Are you sure? Has Hamas ever SAID they want to kill all Jews/Israelis?

Yes. Right here. Right after they killed, raped and terrorized them on a Jewish holiday.

It's also in their official charter. Contrast the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which calls for peace between it and its neighbors. (They declared war the day after it was signed.)

But isn't Israel trying to genocide the Palestinians too?

"Genocide" means that you're trying to kill every member of a race within a certain area. So if Israel wants to "genocide" the Palestinians, dropping pamphlets warning them to seek shelter seems like a poor strategy.

Israel is not trying to kill civilians. They're trying to kill Hamas—which, as established, does want to commit genocide. Unfortunately, this is urban warfare, and Hamas' strategy is to use Palestinian civilians as human shields. So yes, a lot of Palestinian civilians are dying. That doesn't make Israel the bad guy. At least 1.5 million German civilians died in World War II, but that doesn't mean the Allies were wrong to overthrow the Nazis, let alone that they were trying to "genocide" them.

But isn't Hamas only trying to throw off Israel's occupation?

Gaza hasn't been occupied since 2005. That was 18 years ago. A child born the day of the disengagement would now be in college, listening to people protest the non-existent occupation.

Israel didn't even withdraw due to a peace treaty; they had no promise that this would stop Palestinian terrorism. They withdrew in the desperate hope that it would bring peace. Instead, the Palestinians elected Hamas, which, as we've ascertained, wants to genocide all Jews.

What would a ceasefire mean?

In the short term, Israel would stop bombing Gaza. Good for the Palestinians, in theory. But Hamas would remain in power, and immediately start gathering strength again. Which means that within a few years, they'd attack Israel again, and there'll be another war, killing people on both sides.

Also, the 100+ Israeli hostages—including women and children—will remain in Gaza. After all, if Israel gives Hamas what they want for nothing, why should they send them back?

Anyway, that's all I have time for. If anyone still wants to argue, I'll be incommunicado until at least tomorrow night. Have a peaceful Saturday.