#i rambled a lot

[windvexer]

Hey, Chicken! Hope you don't mind this ask, as I'm not sure if you know much about this topic (I don't remember seeing you mention it before), but I was just wondering if you have any advice on using a pendulum for divination? I've been told something about "micro movements" affecting the accuracy of readings, but I'm unsure if this is an actual thing that happens or not, and it makes me nervous that my readings are super inaccurate (I don't have a pendulum stand, unfortunately). If you don't have any advice or opinions or whatnot, no worries! Thank you for taking the time to read through my ask regardless. Take care! 🐔

Hi!

I'm not the biggest pendulum reader. For years I couldn't get any level of accuracy out of them. However, in recent years, I've made decent progress.

Idk about the micromovements thing. I don't worry about them. I'm assuming a micromovement is like... tiny little jiggles?

IME, pendulum readings shouldn't be tiny little jiggles. They should be big, active movements.

When it comes to accuracy, we have some problems and some solutions.

Not all divinatory tools can measure the same things, first of all.

If I asked you, right now, to use tarot to determine the charge level and activity status of an enchanted spell vessel, could you do it?

Perhaps! I have no reason to doubt you.

But, like me, perhaps you would need to create a custom oracle system within tarot before you could do such a thing. Because tarot, in and of itself, is not an excellent system for determining the power levels within magical objects.

Now, if I asked you to do the same thing with a pendulum, could you?

Of course you could. That's, like, pendulum 101. That's what a pendulum does, baby!

You just hover that bad boy over an enchanted spell vessel and if it makes a biggo circle, the thing is charged up; but if it makes a small circle, or only does these micromovements you speak of, it's not charged at all.

Using a pendulum, you can obtain in seconds what you'd have to spend hours doing with a tarot deck.

And vice-versa!

Try using a pendulum to obtain a guidance message from a spirit. So tedious.

What this demonstrates (I hope) is that if you apply a pendulum to the incorrect ends, it will be very difficult to wrangle answers from. You can use a power drill to saw through a board, certainly; but the results will be tedious to obtain and awful to behold.

The benefits I've found is that the pendulum makes absolute ease of certain magical needs, but you've got to know what it can do and what it can't do; and if you need it to do something it can't do, you need to be prepared to develop your own custom systems of divination to attach to the pendulum, much like one downloads workshop mods to modify a computer game.

Yes, do confirm with the pendulum what direction is "yes" or "no," either through asking or telling.

Confirm whether or not your readings are accurate by reading on verifiable things. If you would like a test, make a pendulum board like this one (same link as before), and have friends send you photos of objects enchanted with the same categories of energy as your board contains. Use your pendulum to determine the types of enchantment contained therein.

If you are anything like me, you'll find that pendulums are excellent at detecting energies, but quite poor at producing sentences and paragraphs like tarot can.

I think of the pendulum as more of a gauge, or meter. It can be activated on a scale of "barely" to "very," and move in either the direction of "this" or "that."

I have never bothered with using a pendulum over a spirit board to slowly spell out answers, when you can draw two tarot cards and get a few sentences at once.

Likewise, why bother with tarot, or casting lots, or energy readings, when you can hold up a pendulum and get a quick, accurate reading of the properties of some object or person, or whatever?

So I'm definitely rambling, but my biggest tip to you, is:

Figure out for yourself what domains are easily read when you and pendulum work together, and strive to discover, modify, or create systems of meaning which make sense for the both of you, and allow the both of you to work as a team to discover certain answers.

Do not see the pendulum as interchangeable with any other system of divination. See it as a skill, in and of itself.

You may find much greater success reading on things which you can interact with, such as objects and photos, as opposed to hypotheticals, such as predicted futures.

[fallsekings]

A Meta About William's Fantasy world

It's been a while since I've talked about this guy, but I feel the need to do so because I had this huge disconnect with the direction that they were taking William in \W/estworld S3. I didn't understand it, what happened, why the huge change in character and his shift in personality towards the Hosts... etc. etc. But I am going to put my thoughts about that now, that I have had some distance, beneath a cut because this can potentially have a lot of triggering topics for some folks.

I would say that I am not going to go into a lot of depth about this but it might get pretty lengthy. I have a lot of thoughts about this now and some personal first hand experience that I've gone through recently, and something I am trying to work on... However, it's been a few years since I've watched \W/estworld at this point (shame on me), so I probably won't be pulling out many quotes, if any... but here we go.

So, as I've begun to examine my own life and what I am currently dealing with to fix my own mental health, is that I began to disappear into my own little fantasy world. This game is called State of Survival, it's a zombie mmo mobile game, where you join an alliance, make friends and fight other alliances. There are different ranks in each alliance, R1-R5. R5 being the leader. I'm an R4, so I'm basically an "official helper" of the alliance of about 100 people. What this means is that I am responsible in organizing events, helping with conflicts between alliances, being a mediator between players... and well you get the picture.

As I've said a few times before... I haven't had a good past couple of years and my coping mechanism has been this game. I disappeared into a different reality where I felt "more important", like I was capable of helping people, and it started feeling like State of Survival was a real world and like the problems in it were real, too, the makers of this game has made it that way on purpose, to get you addicted to it.

So what happens when you're depressed about the real world and you find a world more meaningful than the real world? You want to disappear into it. But that is unhealthy, because the fantasy world can start becoming better for you than the real world and why would you want to deal with your problems in the real world when you can sit it on the back burner and just disappear into a more idealized world?

I hope you all can see where I'm going with this? William was the same way from the moment he stepped foot into the park. He resisted it at first but the more he became immersed in the game... the more the real world seemed fake, because it was horrible. He was a book nerd (which he disappeared into those stories too), who got into fights, was probably bullied, his father was a drunk, who blamed him for all of his problems... and this was all before Incite came along and started deciding people's lives for them.

Here in the game William could become a more idealized version of himself. A version of himself that was confident, strong and someone who was not a doormat. He clung to this version of himself that he created because it was easier for him to accept this, what he perceived to be, stronger more confident version of himself that was capable of getting what he wanted... that he couldn't have before this new found confidence. His anger at how his life had turned out was freely released in the park... especially after Juliet died. It was a wakeup call for him that something was wrong but he didn't know exactly what... so he had to go searching for it... for some meaning behind everything...

In this sense, his life, as Emily had put it, he himself was a lie. Because he was good at pretending to be someone he wasn't. In multiple aspects of his life. He became fractured into multiple versions of himself (which we see in season 3), because he lived many lies. Some better and some worse than others. Young William was the best part of himself... but also a lie... and so that's why he sort of flipped out and killed all of the past versions of himself in that scene... I think we know which one I'm talking about.

But the problem with the park is there were no consequences for actions taken within the park. Which made this fantasy world fall flat for William. In real life, there's consequences for your actions... not so much in the park. Right? And so he spends all of this time in the park following the maze, the game, and getting lost in trying to find some deeper meaning.

And sometimes when you get so lost in a game, you forget that it's not the real world... and this leads to escapism, deepening depression, derealization, depersonalization, and just in general... you forget how to deal with real people.

For those who doesn't know what derealization and depersonalization is, because I didn't until yesterday, I'll post the definitions below:

Derealization is a mental state where you feel detached from your surroundings. People and objects around you may seem unreal. Even so, you're aware that this altered state isn't normal. More than half of all people may have this disconnection from reality once in their lifetime. Depersonalization-derealization disorder occurs when you always or often feel that you're seeing yourself from outside your body or you sense that things around you are not real — or both. Feelings of depersonalization and derealization can be very disturbing. You may feel like you're living in a dream.

And this began to happen to William. Everything was a part of a game, nothing was real, people were out to get him (which Ford knew about and played around with and messed with William even more). And this... is where what happens to Emily comes in.

William shot her because he thought she was part of the game. That she wasn't real. That she was a host. He lost sight of reality... and shooting her was like his wake up call... How could it not be?

You see my disconnect with William between S2 and how he changed in season 3... is that I didn't quite understand how he could go from seemingly wanting to help the Hosts and wanting to "set them free", to someone who hates Hosts and wants to destroy them all and wipe them off the planet. I had people telling me that it was a pretty big and understandable shock. He killed his daughter. And I get that...

But I didn't fundamentally understand that shift until recently. He was deep in the game and he didn't realize it. So deep he didn't even realize his real daughter was really standing right there in front of him. And so this shift in William comes from... William having this wakeup call that the park wasn't real. It was a game that Ford created and messed with him in. The game had caused his daughter to die. The Hosts were a part of this game. A game. Not real. And so his mentality had to shift to... what is real and what isn't? If he had killed a Host? So what? A Host could be brought back... but this was real life... reality wasn't so fixable. There was no bringing Emily back the way Hosts could be brought back... and there was a certain anger there... much like Hank from D:BH, when he lost his son on the operating table to an Android. Hank absolutely detested Androids... because when he lost his son... a human doctor might have lost sleep, cried a little, felt like a failure to save a child... an android didn't feel anything. They could die over and over again and be brought back. The android would lose no sleep over his son dying...

But getting off track a little here. William's wake up call meant that he had to put a hardline between himself and the game. The Hosts. Everything that he got wrapped up in that led up to the moment where he killed his daughter. That meant that William went from seeing Hosts as potential to be real, alive and free... to something that wasn't real and never could be.

And I know it seems weird to go from one extreme to another and that's where I got caught off guard with his character too... but William got a wakeup call from hell... and every bit of it was his responsibility. He was the one who got lost in the fantasy world when he was younger, that led to him buying the park, that led up to him getting so lost in his delusions that he became a fractured lie, he could no longer tell fiction from reality... and he woke up. As if he woke up from a dream. A really bad one... and he had to accept the reality outside of the park as being the only one that really existed after this wakeup call.

Anyways... in conclusion. My boy is a mess, but I think that I understand him a little better as I start to realize that State of Survival, like the park, is not the real world and I have been trying to sit the game down more often and deal with the real world more often. A fantasy world can warp your sense of reality and it's something we don't think about as we get to know the Hosts and their perspective of things. We even start feeling bad for them. I love the Hosts myself, don't get me wrong... but when you start seeing a game effecting your reality... It's a sign that something unhealthy is going on and you may need to back away from that for a bit.

[midgardian-witch]

Hi. Are you still taking Marvel asks? If so, can I request 6 and 13? Thanks!

I definitely am! Thank you for sending in an ask (and for making that ask list to begin with!) 💙

MARVEL ASKS

6. 🦸‍♂️What is your most rewatchable Marvel movie?

Oh dear, that's a difficult question. The thing is I don't rewatch Marvel movies a lot currently? I used to a lot more when I was younger. I used to watch more movies then in general so that might be it. Hmmm, let's go for Eternals. I really enjoyed the movie when it came out because of the stunning visuals, amazing cast and storyline about a group inside the Marvel Universe I did not know anything about. (The only thing I remember really hating when I watched it in cinemas for the first time was that some of the costuming looked weirdly cheap to me)

13. 🤩Are you optimistic about the future of the MCU?

Yes and no. I am so grateful for movies like The Marvels, Eternals and Black Panther and shows like Moon Knight, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Wandavision and so many more for showing that being a hero doesn't mean you have to be a neurotypical straight white cis man. That there is a future not just in Marvel but in the media landscape in general for poc, queer, neurodivergent, disabled and non-men and it gives me hope. But we also have just absolute disasters like the queer rep in Loki which turned me off ever finishing/watching that show (besides the implied selfcest which I simply don't vibe with) or the white-washing of characters (like Wanda for example) or the effort of trying to make fascism look cool to sell toys or the absolute shredding of characters, character arcs and plot points that made an effort to be more than just 'hero kill bad people' just because some script writer or director couldn't be arsed to look at the existing content or even have someone coordinate that in a way that makes even a lick of sense. But i digress. I have mixed feelings. It always ends up being a question of who makes the content we consume. In the end it's Disney and we all know what Bob Iger cares about, especially after the strikes this year.

[heartsoji]

Ohaiyo! Ur writing is so so good!! You've inspired me to try my hand at writing hehe~

ANYWAYS FOR THE ASK GAME: 💄 Do you wear makeup?

Your blog just gives very girly vibes if u know what I mean?? So I was just curious :>

hi! ty that's so sweet 💗

YES. i believe that i've mentioned on my abt me that im a makeup addict. for a quick daily school routine, i do:

skincare (which i might get into some other time) DONT FORGET SUNSCREEN.

glossier boy brow

dr. jart green cream followed by milk makeup future fluid concealer and laura mercier translucent powder to cover any acne or blemishes i may have that day!

what blush i use depends on the day! sometimes i'll use patrick ta, saie, rare beauty, or milk makeup. it really just depends

glossier futuredew or said glowy gel for that glow glow glow

curl lashes with shiseido lash curler (make sure you curl bottom lashes too!)

mascara! i always start with the isehan make long and curl one, but then i vary what i layer with. if i want non-waterproof, milk makeup rise mascara. if im ok with doing waterproof that day, (i make up some b.s. justification) waterproof sky high. waterproof sky high OR sky high primer on bottom lashes! (gentle on the bottom lashes! dont make them too thick)

for lips, it varies. i like the dior glow balm, clinique black honey, charlotte tilbury lip balm, or makeup by mario lip serum typically. if i go more glam, i change it up!

charlotte tilbury setting spray.

im in high school for anyone wondering!

[zooone]

ZONE MY BELOVED WHAT DO I DO IF I HAVE A CRUSH ON MY NOY BEST FRIEND??

CRACKS KNUCKLELS IVE GOT THIS

OKAY so,. i was in the same boat as you, my friebd. and now ive a girlfriend and so i hope this helps u lol (@l34f-0 i hope you dont mind me revealing our origin story lol)

but, basically, im the type to flirt with anyone im cloee to. i dunno, its really how i show affection and its always platonic and i dont mean a single thing of it whenever i do. i dont even need to feel romantic feelings to flirt with someone, if i consider thema friend then i will just unleash it with a huge /j.

although, when id "jokingly" flirt with leaf in the past i found myself never, i guess, feeling like it was platonic. if im gonna be honest i had a crush on her the moment i met her and whenever she'd "jokingly" flirt back id just go blue screen.,

however, we were close enough that we were both comfortable with the idea of mutual flirting, and so like it was very easy for us to click i guess?? im rambling again but,. from what i can remember it was always sort of an inside joke that we would kiss but it would "all be /j!!!! all be /p!!!!!! not romantic at all!!!! ^_^" type beat.,,

eventually i had stoppped because the more i flirted the more she wouldnt respond, and i thought i was making her uncomfy (i think it was onyl cause she was too flustered to talk LMAO) and i went out to like other people blah blah blah,,., though i remember i got a text from her saying somethint along the lines of like "hey i know you like another person but ive liked you for a while now and i guess i just wanted to tell you before something happens," stuff like that

i was happy that my feelings were mutual but at the time my.mental health was like lol no and i thought i couldnt withstand it

but! when i was ready and i told her, she was more than welcoming and here we are!!

so basically, i guess this is just a long winded way of saying as long as you two are close and feel a nice connection, what worked for me was just simply easing into it. dont force anything if you feel like its too much, and definitely dont rush things!! stuff like this takes time, and the more patienve the better outcome! of course, if he doesnt feel the same it shouldnt affect shit at all! if you two are really good friends, then it would just be a simple interaction, so dont stress out on that kinda stuff.!! yayay

[cadaverkeys]

You guys rlly don't realise how much knowledge is still not committed to the internet. I find books all the time with stuff that is impossible to find through a search engine- most people do not put their magnum opus research online for free and the more niche a skill is the less likely you are to have people who will leak those books online. (Nevermind all the books written prior to the internet that have knowledge that is not considered "relevant" enough to digitise).

Whenever people say that we r growing up with all the world's knowledge at our fingertips...it's not necessarily true. Is the amount of knowledge online potentially infinite? Yes. Is it all knowledge? No. You will be surprised at the niche things you can discover at a local archive or library.

[exoflash]

a concerning amount of witchblr will be like "um actually new years was stolen by europeans from the ancient god scroobus mcdoobus" and then you actually try to research scroobus mcdoobus and it turns out he was invented in the 1940s by a conspiracy theorist who powdered every meal with ketamine and thinks that queer people are reincarnated fish

[violet-amet]

Some thoughts.

It's hard to live with the mental and physical scars of cancer, and going through a difficult point in my life, when I struggle with my living situation. But despite it, I want to be happy and to embrace the things I love, and be free.

But also just as important, it's that others can be happy, live comfortably, and just live all in all. It's hard, especially when it comes to this point where it feels like things just keep getting worse, and the anger, frustration, and grief is valid, and perfectly fine to feel. But I do hope that we can give some room to make ourselves happy too.

It's not easy to fight when it takes a toll on us. We need breaks and to pace ourselves before we keep going. Hell, my heart breaks all the time when I see the news. But I want to have hope that things will eventually get better.

It hurts to see how the homeless are struggling these days, in a system that feels unfair and difficult to keep track of. One slip up and you lose it all. It's exhausting, and it hurts that some people just can't do anything at all about their health and themselves. I can only wish and hope that people who are able to get the proper help they need, but it's not fair that some who are physically unable to get anywhere, cannot get what they need, because the system is negligent.

I don't have the power to do so, but I still wish to live and do something if I can. Right now that may not be possible because I'm struggling as well in my own way, but I have some support at least. Others don't have that.

That said, please don't be afraid to still find your happiness if you can. Sometimes it can give you the strength to keep going, even if a little bit. And don't be afraid to just embrace the things that you like and may be embarrassed about. If it doesn't harm anyone else, or yourself, and you are respectful about it, cherish it.

It's hard these days to see that sometimes, there are some good things in life. We just need to keep going. But it's also fine to be upset and angry too, even sad. We are human after all.

I just don't want to lose hope at this point, and I wish the world was a better place for a lot of people.

[punkymonkeehat]

2, 8, 24 for nosy asks. 😊

It took me a week, but here ya go! :D

2: So I have obsessions in a few categories: Right now, media wise, I'm obsessed with Hazbin Hotel (I have a lot of critiques, but I really do enjoy the music a LOT), any Jack Lemmon film, and Evil Dead. General Interest: I've been having a severe hyper-fixation of the history of TV and am just obsessed with figuring out how it all works! I teach a music appreciation class, and we talk about TV a lot for our 1950s segment, and I go into little worm holes about it lol it's just seriously so interesting! Music wise, I've been getting back to listening to traditional ska music and surf rock (for some reason). Every day for the past month, dude. Help.

8. I usually dont like to binge, but my favorite shows to binge are The Monkees (or course) and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel!! They're both just so entertaining, I can consume so many episodes in one sitting without even noticing!

24. If I could travel anywhere, I would go to Scotland and Brazil. Scotland because who wouldn't? It's beautiful! Brazil because my dad lived there for a couple years and I've always wanted to go to São Paulo :)

[humming-fly]

Every now and then I'm reminded Real People with Actual Jobs use tumblr and I've always been legitimately curious what all you weird adults are up to when you're not on this site and with tumblr's New Poll Feature I can finally get an answer! (or the closest approximation of an answer possible with only 10 available options h a)

[bloggingboutburgers]

Quick reminder since apparently it bears reminding in both directions: if bigoted people, closed-minded people overall, or your own internalized insecurities misinterpret a queer person’s message in a way that hurts/endangers you, yeah, it sucks, but it’s not the fault of the queer person in question, nor should it be a reason for them to silence themselves. They’re probably as hurt/pissed as you are that someone misinterpreted and misused their message to do harm.

Of course sadly there’ll still be queer people that actually DO mean harm and dismissal to other queer people – I ain’t speaking for those and it’s not the best way to ensure their and others’ wellbeing imo. I’m just saying – not all people will be like that. That’s what I want to believe. So hopefully let’s not put everyone in the same bag, keep supporting each other, WHILE allowing each other to advocate for our own visibility, without having to self-erase or self-censor to accomodate to what haters might say.

It’ll be tougher this way, maybe, because humans seem to like to draw extreme conclusions very quick, but I don’t believe there’s any better way for us all to be alright and stay alright on the long run.

[unforth]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celebrate fan work!

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

[halemerry]

Hey everyone what's your favorite mug look like?

[oobbbear]

Please understand that when I say I grab you, I don’t mean grabbing your face or arm thats rude and creepy please don’t do that to anyone

When I say I grab you I’m saying it like I’m grabbing you like a potato. It’s my way of saying hey I appreciate and respect you let’s be friends

[fox-guardian]

I've seen a few "Tim and Alice would be besties" posts and I love it so much cuz like. Tim's sense of humor canonically is mostly pop culture references to movies and stuff, there's no real indication that he's particularly online. Meanwhile Alice speaks like she's been Very active on tumblr for longer than she's been at OIAR CONSTANTLY, she just says the strangest shit all the time. So I just keep imagining a conversation between Tim and Alice constantly having to stop because Tim keeps cracking up unable to breathe over the Shit Alice Keeps Saying and he's never heard any of that kind of shit before, especially not with such a casual, nonchalant delivery. And Alice is laughing because its hilarious how offline Tim is. Hearing the phrase "none pizza with left beef" would incapacitate him.

[the-phantom-peach]

skyward sword… yeah <3

Crimson Loftwing

↻ ◁ || ▷ ↺