#my personal spin on a folk custom

[pagan-stitches]

Planting a Michaelmas corn dolly on Plough Monday.

I had to find a very wild patch of privet to shelter my lit candle on this very rainy, windy, and bitter cold dawn.

[laundrybiscuits]

(soulmates AU: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)

“You never told me your folks were soulmates," he says out of the blue. He'd meant to wait until it came up naturally or something, but they're just standing in awkward silence outside what the kids insist on calling the M&M house, waiting for the stupid dragon game to wrap up on the Munson side. He doesn't even know he's going to say it until it's already out there, sitting between them. 

Nancy says "Fuck," very quietly. Steve can't remember if she used to swear so much. He thinks not, but also, she was sixteen the last time he really felt like he knew her.

Steve’s tenth grade geometry teacher once told them: think about railroad tracks. That’s what parallel means, that there are two lines that never get closer together or farther away. No matter how long the railroad tracks get, there’s always exactly the same amount of space between them.

Now Steve thinks maybe that’s bullshit, that you can’t keep going separate from someone else and stay the same distance apart. If you’re not together, if you don’t cling as hard as you can, then the distance between you is going to grow faster and faster until you can’t even see the other person. 

He thinks maybe he doesn’t know Nancy at all anymore. 

Nancy smooths down her skirt in a nervous gesture he doesn’t recognize. “You’ve met my parents, Steve. Did you really think that’s what I want?”

It’s the kind of question where he knows the right answer from the way she’s saying it, but he doesn’t know why. Yeah, he’s met Ted and Karen. He always thought they seemed happy enough. They’ve got three kids, so they have to be happy, right? 

But he’s starting to think that Nancy—the new Nancy, how she is now—might not want to be happy. Or at least that it might not be the most important thing to her, compared to everything else she always talked about. Now that he’s thinking about it for real, he can’t really see her stepping into her mom’s shoes, never really doing anything but chasing after kids and power-walking around the mall. 

Shit, is he the Ted Wheeler in this scenario? Not that there’s anything wrong with Ted, but—wow, okay, he’s starting to understand Nancy’s reaction. 

He hasn’t said anything for a little while, and Nancy sighs. “Steve, I’m sorry, I can’t…”

“It’s fine, Nance,” he says. He even thinks he means it, this time. 

———

“Do you think she’s going to get a cover-up, like Eddie?”

Robin squints at him. “I think she’s the only one who can answer that.”

“Sure, okay, but I can’t ask her because I’ve decided I’m not gonna bring this shit up around her anymore. It’s called tact, Robin.”

“Fuck off, I’m a million times more tactful than you could ever be.” She chucks a roll of NEW RELEASE stickers at him, which he dodges with a little spin, just to show off.

“Are you kidding me? Who was it that got out of a parking ticket last week just by talking to the cop?”

“Uh, who was it that expertly finessed us both jobs at Family Video just by talking to Keith?”

“You gotta stop bringing that up,” Steve groans. “That was like a whole year ago. Get some new material, Buckley.”

“Get us a new job, Harrington! One that pays more than this shit!”

“Nah, I’m gonna be a trophy husband to some rich old lady. That’s my new plan, now that I’m totally unattached.” It comes out pretty steady, he thinks.

She sidles up to him, awkward in the way she gets sometimes, and bumps their shoulders together. “Hey, you know you could totally find someone else, right? It doesn’t have to be…” She trails off, gesturing helplessly.

He tips his head back and stares at the ceiling. The fluorescent lights leave blurry ghosts on his eyelids when he blinks. 

Robin Buckley is the best friend he’ll ever have and does sometimes actually know what tact is, so she just tips her head against his shoulder and stares at the ceiling with him in silence until the next customer comes in. 

———

“You can never, ever tell Steve this.” Nancy’s voice is just barely audible from the front step, and Steve freezes. He snatches his hand back from where he’d been reaching for the doorbell.

“Cross my heart, et cetera, Wheeler.” Eddie sounds lazy, like he doesn’t even care.

“It’s crazy, but I used to feel really—happy. About the soulmark. I mean, it’s every girl’s dream, right? The cutest guy in school with her name on his wrist.”

“Can’t say I relate.” 

Nancy lets out a strangled laugh and Steve silently shuffles as close as he dares, shutting his eyes like that’ll help him hear better or something.

“I know, Eddie, that’s why I’m…I don’t know what changed. I don’t know why that stopped being enough for me. I second-guess myself all the freaking time now, and I hate that! I remember the way it felt when it turned out Steve was actually really sweet, and sometimes I just want to—to crawl back inside that feeling, except it’s not real. I know it’s not real.”

“You sure about that? Doth the lady not protest too much?”

“I’m sure.”

She hadn’t even hesitated. Steve’s nails are cutting into his palms. He feels dizzy with how quick she’d answered; how calm she’d sounded. 

It hits him, then, that it’s actually over, like for real. Maybe he really is an idiot, because it’s been years, and he thought he’d already known that. Turns out there’d been a stupid little corner of hope in him after all.

He tunes back in to hear Eddie say, “Okay, okay, you don’t gotta convince me, Wheeler. If you end up deciding to, y’know, take the plunge…yeah, I can hook you up. But no rush, okay?”

Steve turns around and walks down the drive, all the way around the corner to where he’s parked. Dustin’s stretched all the way across the seats, head poking out of the driver’s side window, squinting in the afternoon sun.

“Is Eddie coming to the arcade with us?” Dustin yells.

“He’s busy, leave him alone,” says Steve.

[aro-culture-is]

Aro culture is being asked about your life goals on your job application and just wondering what you even put there because like, it wouldn't be relevant at all to the description and I don't want to just. Work at this place for the rest of my life. So like. What do I even put?

genuine answer:

look at it from the POV of the employer and not your actual life

for example, for someone working in customer service, they might be looking for personality traits and goals that involve you not leaving within the time period they consider their "investment" in training you to have not yet been fully paid off. Most "inexperienced" jobs are looking for a minimum of a month, but most likely they'd really prefer 3 months + a possibility you'll return if the job is seasonal (ie, a summer job to pay for college), or 6 months to a year in any other type of position. Add more time if you are part-time.

so, for example, say you're in schooling of some sort: you'll want to emphasize that you're looking to make money to help pay for schooling expenses while working towards getting a degree. If your degree is in anything but fine arts, you probably can list it; if it's in fine arts and not relevant to the job - rip my dude, lie and evade. you're still deciding, you're taking gen eds at the moment and like [these courses], anything. the idea is to show that you want a job and hours for a reason that shows you have drive/motivation. fine arts, despite being absolutely grueling degrees that absolutely fucking require more work imho as an engineering major than most majors, are just super devalued by a lot of folks.

if you're in a non-schooling period of life: try to lay out something that shows you're a motivated, practical, or in some way capitalistically "valuable" type of person. do not force yourself to be totally truthful. say whatever will get u the job that u can bullshit. "I'm looking to pay the bills" is probably not the best - spin it so that you show some sort of hobbies, volunteer work, community work, anything that teaches on personality. just do what u gotta to sound like you have something you do other than work and sleep, most of the time they just wanna get a read on you having passion and some sorta drive for something. probs don't mention caregiving for elderly or children though - some hiring managers are trained to look at that as a detriment, since it means you could more easily be called away for emergencies/urgent situations.

there's a lot of advice about like. using the direct words from the job description in these things, but imho i'd be careful. it can get u through automated computer checks, but a real person is probs gonna be like "cool but like. who tf are you." try to think about what/who will see it

some specific examples: "I plan to graduate with a degree in engineering and work in providing industrial solutions." / "I want to be able to spend time working with local gardening groups to make a community garden." / "I hope to further my skills in sewing so that I can make and mend my own clothing."

again: show passion, dedication, and knowledge/skills when possible. if you can find something relating to the position, that's usually best, but... sometimes you just gotta show that you're not reading off "10 best interview answers" and that you're a real person who cares about something. whatever it is, be prepared to get some basic questions/comments like, "Your application says you have an interest in gardening - can you tell me about that?" and respond with 2-3 sentences at a layman level. ie, "I've always enjoyed hands-on work, and it's always wonderful to see my plants thrive from seed to fruiting. I grow tomatoes, and my wife and I can our own tomato sauce each year. I'm hoping to grow peppers next year so we can make our own salsa." I've bolded things that would tell an employer things I think they'd like to hear - you like hands on work, you reliably do a fairly hands-on task without it being a requirement, and you have plans for improvement.

Genuine note though: I'm 23 and currently a barista at a local-ish coffee chain, due to dropping out of engineering as a result of developing a disabling chronic illness. Your mileage may vary; try to think "If someone had trained me to be the most discriminatory, law-avoiding asshole I could be while hiring someone, what is the best and worst I could read from this?". Don't disclose specifics on your personal life around children, elderly parents/grandparents that live with you, plans for future children, disabilities, anti-capitalist leanings, or any political opinions that don't specifically align with the company's expressed home-page level values. Like, if you had to click a button off of their front page on their website to find "we value diversity", try to not to say "I sell queer merchandise" as much as "I run a small online store in my spare time, with merchandise like pins and stickers."

[capacle]

How narrow is the Venn diagram of NFL fans and solo RPG players?

Well, I guess I'm about to find out!

For almost two years now, I’ve had this idea of making a football game. I had only the title in mind. I wanted to capture the thrill of the final moments of a football match. I put it aside because… honestly, didn’t know what to do with it.

But now, here it is!

Introducing Two-Minute Warning, my narrative card game about the thrilling final moments of a championship football match!

I spent months carving it into a sports magazine-like layout—on Canva, no less (I’ve even made some rules look like a nutrition supplement ad inside the magazine).

There are dozens of football games out there, but I wanted to give it my spin.

With a standard deck of cards, you can delve into the drama of these last two minutes, combining relevant tactical choices with storytelling elements.

I also made a custom deck of cards with narrative prompts included, if you prefer a more unique experience.

And I went ahead and crafted a custom VTT, so you can play online, solo or with your friends (yup, you can play it in coop or versus mode as well).

It's a huge departure from the games I normally make, but it's my hope it can resonate and reach some folks out there.

If you are intrigued by this premise, go give it a look. It would mean the world to me.

And it is on sale for two weeks!

If by any chance this game makes you think of a person that could possibly enjoy it, it would mean the world to me if you shared it around. I could use some new eyes on it, that’s for sure.

Find it here:

[gglitch1dd]

hey! so quick question about “Blood and Fire” as a person who has their own culture do you think Katsuki and Ejiro would like to learn and experience the reader’s culture too? just imagine reader making food from her culture and sharing it with katsuki and ejiro i think that it’s so cuteeee

I totally know what you are saying Anon!! I too have my own culture (part of two similar yet different ones if I am to be honest) and I totally think that Katsuki and Eijiro would definitely want to learn all about reader's culture and things that make them... well... them!! Also sorry for answering this so late, I'm sorta busy during the week.

Okay now... This is a bit away from the story line that I have planned for Blood and Fire but I still want to make headcannons for this. Of course set in the Fantasy AU for it. Note: Reader has a unspecified culture. Just Domestic Fluff.

So Katsuki and Eijiro are absolutely enamored by you, you are their soulmate, their other third and someone they feel so entuned with that it often makes their head spin and their hearts feel full. Although they kind of did abduct you and force you into their lives and cultures.

You of course, have grown to love their cultures and their families and everything about them. From the way they are so entuned with one another too. You loved the Matriarchy that was the barbarian culture. How gender didn't define strength. You loved how strong and fearless they all were but how devoted they were to playing a part in their community. How devoted they were to each other and especially their families. You also fell in love with the dragons, and their hundreds of stories of long before your time. You loved their dances and songs, the way they always cared for their young and yet gave them enough space to explore and build themselves their own space too.

You loved the barbarians and the dragons.

Yet Bakugou and Kirishima realized that they knew really little about your own culture. But nevertheless, they still wanted to learn anyways. So that's what they did. They asked you and my what they weren't expecting from that.

From cooking dishes for them, filled with flavour and love that the people of your home would do for you when you were younger, to the stories that were passed down from generation to generation too. It often left them feeling so special and happy to know that you were willing to share your culture, share your space and the things you grew up, with them.

They sort of feel as though they now know you a bit better than they thought they could. They slowly grew to understand why you did they things you did or stories behind your morals or thought processes. It was interesting.

Bakugou loved to cook with you. Sharing recipes and trying them out together, was a highlight of his days often than not. It was filled with spices, bubbling pots and criticizing each other on the other's dish.

"Katsuki, you can't cut the potatoes like that." You tell him, pointing out his cutting skills. "They have to be wider."

Bakugou's face scrunched up as he looked to you. "But with such a dish, they would cook faster if they were smaller." He pointed out.

"We don't want to cook faster! Everything has to boil and cook together for a few hours."

"HOURS!?"

Cooking together was fun but Kirishima loved it the most out of the three of you, since it meant he got to eat anything and everything the two of you conjured up. He was more than happy to be your taste tester and your customer. He would eat anything you gave him, which in hindsight wasn't the best choice of criticizer but he never once complained.

Bakugou saw this as a sign of his supreme cooking skills.

With you and Kiri, the two of you could spend hours telling stories together. Old tales from long ago, sometimes about legends, about folk stories, love tales, children's stories. Anything and everything over the sun, and he would listen with wide eyes and an open mind, every single time.

"And that's why we celebrate on that day." You would conclude.

Kirishima tilted his head as he thought to himself. "But if the event happened the previous day, why celebrate the day after?" His constant questions and comments would always ensure that you knew he was listening and you had all his attention.

Overall, they would love to know all about your culture and what makes you, you. They feel as though they get to know you deeper and its a side to you, you don't often show. They would love it so much!!

-Glitch1d

[nugsanart09-works]

SAGAU that is just that: Self-Aware AU

just what it says in the tin. no cults, no yandere, just plain old ddlc minus the damned romance aspect. (Monika, i love you but i have had enough of the romantic shit)

warning: i am basing this on my character roster and shenanigans. you can play around with the idea but yeah, my content is based on my account if anything. also, novaverse lore because screw it imma inject my own spin in this thing

there are hierarchies on this thing:

GALAXIES = other media

NEXUS = Genshin Impact/Hoyoverse

NEBULAE = leakers/content creators/playthrough folks

(SUPER)NOVA = the player (me and you); referencing the big bang even though it means that I fucked up the symbolism tier for this lol; can be the SI-OC/Reader/"Creator"

AURORAE = the Creator's mouthpiece/interactive HUD; kinda like Paimon in-game and not lorewise

SUNSHINE = the ones in the nova's character roster a.k.a. the ones that came home

EARTHSHINE = the characters who have the potential to "become aware" a.k.a. stubborn fucks who refuses to come home smh; if the sunshines try to tell the earthshines about the situation, the earthshines would not hear them or understand it one bit

*note that op is not the smartest when it comes to cosmology but pls ignore that for the sake of

✨ fancy titles ✨

the first ones to gain awareness are Traveler and Paimon.

they were the first ones you gain as playable characters so they deserve that much, esp if they have to deal with your shenanigans as their nova

the next one to realize smth is up would be Amber

the sagau that i know of tends to start off with Kaeya a lot but i fully believe my girl Amber should be the first teyvatan aware for the amount of times her baron bunny saved my ass

when you, her nova, gained control over her, she gained access to some perks such as:

conditional immortality — when left alone by the nova/not in the current party, she can now just. not die. permanently that is. unless the nexus decides that she will be out of the narrative, she just cannot die and will constantly respawn. if the nova is logged in and she didn’t heal herself, her hp will be in the red zone lmao

disabled friendly fire — a sunshine attacks another person whether they are a fellow sunshine or not, the attacks will just go through them without harm. enemy mobs, specific plant life and the likes are the only ones capable of getting damaged

access to the inventory – anything the nova has attained, they can take and use. good luck with your hoarding because your food are definitely gonna decrease by a LOT once you log back in

private chatroom — just so they don't go insane, sunshines can gossip and pass news to one another on how things are going on their end. they speak of how far the nova (not traveler) is with their journey, and maybe just be a support group since i subjected them through a lot of bs

time loop — ...yeah. so long as you (the player) haven't progress in the given storyline in-game, you essentially trap them in an localized time loop. characters will end up "blinking" back to where they are initially if [1] the nova logged in, or [2] traveler, piloted guided by the nova, is in the area and the playable character is included in the quest the nova stumbled upon

spectators to the music — whatever bgm you have whether you have the in-game music on or are using a custom playlist, the ones in your current party (along with the parties beside the current one if you're toggling and choosing between the groups) will hear it. jean and tighnari are definitely disappointed in me for playing unholy while yaoyao is in my active team that one time w h o o p s

gained written and verbal language — whatever language you have downloaded in the game is now something the sunshines are proficient with.

for example: i have both english and korean voice packs downloaded so therefore they can speak both now. i only have english for my text. if i end up doing the typical isekai bs in the sagau community with my kr voice pack activated, the only way i can communicate with them is through writing back and forth in english lmao. if they manage to communicate with me in the self-aware Monika way then once they start speaking i am screwed since i don't speak korean :') – i don't see them speaking in textbox since [1] my speed reading sucks ass and [2] do you want your screen to be filled with text? do you?

depending on who you obtain next, they're the ones next in line with the madness. good thing they have the sunshine trio to help them out with this now. hallelujah Amber 🙏

that's it for now since this is enough of an info dump alr + this is the basic stuff you need to know for now. the rest of these will be just me and the shenanigans i subjected my playable characters through. that or someone's requests idk. hope you enjoyed this thing

[ero-heart]

There is barely any fanfics about the bandits from project nexus, which is a shame because I adore them, so I made one myself!

Reminder that all of my stories’s readers are gender neutral unless specifically stated,, same goes to this one! Hope you like it!

Cw: Violence, food burn 😔

SHARING IS CARING!

(Bandit x Reader)

You tried your best to succeed in life, it was hard. Slaving away at your customer service job, fighting rowdy clients, long walks through the dark streets to your tiny run down apartment. Without counting the randos that try to take over your home, those you had to fight to the death for the right to it. It’s not like your landlord cared if someone killed you and took over your living space (if they payed rent), that was how you got your apartment in the first place and it will be yours until some bastard manages to get lucky. It was hard, but you were strong, you were still standing and you did not intend to get less tougher. You were still a softie tho, all tough guys have a soft side. And this soft side was what brought you to this situation.

He was looking up at you with bright eyes, you stood tall and imposing. You won another fight, you got him on his back. This bandit jumped on you on your way home, most likely due to the bag of mini hotdogs you got from your work on the convenience store. Looking down at him, his dazed expression send a pang to your heart. He was fighting for food just like you were. You knew bandits, it was not your first encounter with one of them, they were hungry folk like everyone else but it’s significantly harder of them being able to get a job to get money for food, their communication skills were not great (most being non verbal) and employers had preference towards stronger grunts, which they were not. That also made it harder for them to fight for food when they were alone. Life was entirely harder for these guys. You sighed and threw the bag of hotdogs towards them, you could go one day without dinner.

“Enjoy it, next time I wont be as merciful..”

You left, walking on the dark sidewalks. The man on the floor trembly got their hands on the bag, sitting up to look at the contents inside it, the smell of food hit him, actual food, he might as well cry. The bandit immediately dug into it, wolfing down the hotdogs like it would be his last meal. That person beat him up and still gave him the price, he was astonished. Sharing was rare for bandits, everyone only knew how to take care for themselves and never think of someone else. When a bandit SHARES with another one, it was a sign of great trust and affection towards them. No one ever shared with him, and he never shared with anyone. But now their head was spinning. A strong grunt just shared, GAVE him all of their food. The bandit was blushing thinking about it, this grunt really knew how to fight, it was so impressive, they looked so cool during battle. His heart was melting, he didn’t knew what was happening, he wanted that grunt close, he wanted to share with them.

About three days later, when your shift ended, you came across that same bandit. You immediately got defensive at the man, but he simply handed you a piece of candy wrapper. He looked at you expectantly, almost bashful, seeming more and more excited as your hand got closer to his. You didn’t know if it was a trap, but when you rapidly took the wrapper away from him, the bandit beamed and ran away with his hands covering his mask cheeks. You were definitely confused, was this a gift? You didn’t have the heart to throw it away, so you kept it on your bedroom’s shelf. The same happened on the day after, he gave you a tomato sauce can and ran away. You washed it before putting on the shelf. The next day he gave you a crumpled coffee stained document, again to the shelf. It kept going until it came down on you that he was sharing you his food. You face palmed so hard to not have come to the realization sooner, you couldn’t believe it. Looking at your ceiling, you took a deep breath as you held your teddy tighter, you could regret everything you are about to make, but hopefully it would be worth it.

On the next night, the bandit was about to hand you a glass shard before you spoke.

“Look don’t, I- look you don’t have to. Just.. follow me please.”

You made a motion for him to follow you as you start walking. He jogged right by your side, nervous and curious about what you would show him. Soon you arrived at your apartment complex, passing the sleeping concierge, you were now holding his hand as you two got up the flight of stairs, the bandit was completely overjoyed by the physical contact and just followed through to where you were guiding him. You were not aware of his blissfulness however, upon finally arriving on your floor, you take the keys off your pockets and unlock the door of your apartment. You immediately guide him to your kitchen table before going to close the door, then march right to the fridge. The bandit looks around this new place with big curiosity, was this were you lived? It was noticeably tidier than the place he took shelter in. Your place had a couch, did you sleep in there? Did you have an actual mattress? He had one, they were super proud of finding it, his sleep had never been better. The bandit immediately noticed the smell of cooking meat, quickly getting off the chair and following it to glue themselves behind you, he looks over your shoulder to see you frying two patties on a pan. You jumped upon contact, turning around to face them and gently pushing them away, since they were too close and could get burned by the sizzling grease.

“It’s not over yet wait a bit.”

This didn’t made him go away tho, hovering you hovering the stove through all of the cooking process. When it was done, you shook the burgers from the pan to a plate. The bandit wasted no time and quickly took and brought a burger to their mouth under the mask, which caused on a half eaten patty being dropped back on the plate and the bandit blowing his own mouth while they tried to chew the hot meat inside it. You freaked out, unsure what to do you held their cheeks and told them to spit it out, they refused and successfully gulped down the food as tears streamed down his cheeks to your hands. You decided to go grab some tab water to help with the bandit’s insides. Bringing the glass to his mouth, they take it and tilts to drink it, rapidly. Soon when the glass is empty,

“Hic!”

He got hiccups.

You stay quiet for a bit before bursting out laughing over the absurdity of the situation as your guest continued hiccuping. You brought a stranger home to eat only for a burn freak out and now hiccups. Through sorries you guide the boy again to sit on the table and place the burger plate in font of him, rubbing his back as you continue laughing. You soon take a sit across them, watching him now safely munch on the warm food. You knew he was your problem now. He came in every day for more food and to share his food with you. You had to work extra hours for the new mouth you had been feeding, you also had to eventually eat the trash he has been bringing you every day for his gifts to not go unappreciated, but everything was worth it, this dude had grown on you and you adored him, as much as he adored you.

And that’s it! I hope it wasn’t messy haha! This will definitely have a part two,, I am thinking on giving a name for our Bandit friend! Mosher maybe? I hope everyone here is having a good day, if not,, I hope this story could help! Stay safe everyone 💝

[kygerbearr]

I know americans are often very popular in some of the bigger cities, for whatever reason that might be, but I think I'm more worried about how they're treated in more rural areas. I have no doubt that I could remain respectful and adapt to customs in whatever region I visit, but the fact that they might be curious about my life may bring up some significant social hurdles.

I don't personally know what curious japanese people seek to inquire about but anything pertaining to my history or my identity is a sticky scenario. they ask about my family? I'm fucked. they ask about my romantic life or gender identity? also fucked. realistically I suppose I could try to explain the cultural differences between japanese and americans but I don't think there's a way to spin "my dad is dead and I do not respect him, and also my mom is alive and I do not respect her and do not speak with her. also I have zero peers, hate hierarchical systems, have no gender and no interest in sex" in a way that doesn't immediately break like 9 different social taboos. and lying is obviously always an option but for this hypothetical I'm pretending it isn't.

like. being a furry is probably way safer to talk about than anything, which is fucking crazy to think about.

ideally I would like to find a comfy middleground where I can accurately convey facts about myself carefully without having to come to any kind of compromise, because I feel that kind of defeats the purpose of cultural exchange.

it's going to be extra risky since the more rural areas have what I would call "rural-minded folk", and i would consider myself to be a pretty modern person. I have no intentions of going out of my way to contest their conservative values but I also have no intention of being anyone but myself (a much more formal and respectful form of myself, at least)

[willowscasual]

Its a shame that tumblr live was implimented the way it was, because i personally would have LOVED to have a locally-integrated lightweight* way to stream directly onto my art blog, and then have the option for the VOD to be automatically saved as a video post that can be reblogged as normal. Or like, if they wanted to go a bit experimental with it (and save on the inevitable ballooning of data space), have the option to clip gifs out of your stream to then make into a gifset. Aesthetic girlies and art folks alike could surely have a hayday with that, right??

(*lightweight as in, announcing you're streaming on twitch is a whole effort and you're expected to have a LOT of customization and interaction and a lot of fiddly bits in OBS or Streamlabs to run it, but a "drop and go" type of stream right on your blog feels less formal, to me)

I've never had tiktok and have no plans to change that, but i DO think there could be a niche for short/mid-length streaming that's getting overlooked in the rush to tokify every website. (like a 1hr cap, compared to twitch's "hang out with me for 3-8 hours every day" style.) Tumblr will never ever have the funds to compete with twitch or youtube on video hosting services, but i think there are options for putting a creative spin on the concept of a livestream that could have integrated a lot more smoothly into the culture here

[the-infamous-singing-pig-man]

A Great Miracle Happened There

This is a fic for @67-rats-in-a-trenchcoat for the @newsiesgiftexchange! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

It was very pretty, the candlelight. Regardless of the meaning being lost on him, Jack was honored to be a part of this tradition with the Jacobs family. He wanted to ask questions about their customs, but he didn’t want to spoil the pleasant time they were all having together.

He remembered asking David some questions about Hanukkah once they had gotten to know each other better and Jack felt comfortable asking. He was particularly intrigued by the idea of Hanukkah being a celebration triumph over oppression, though he didn’t understand how anyone could take issue with folks like the Jacobs’, who were lovely people in his book. He was just glad to be able to spend time with David and his family.

The gathering had quieted down and Esther was busy getting Les ready for bed, so Jack took this as a sign to get going, despite David always asking him to stay the night. David offered to walk him outside, and they made their way out to the freezing street.

David shivered as they stepped outside, noting that JAck didn’t seem to have any gloves to wear. “Jack, aren’t your hands freezing?”

Jack laughed. “Ah, don’t worry about me. Ain’t too far to my place from here, I’ll be fine.”

David gestured up towards his home. “I can get you a pair of gloves from upstairs, just

wait here.”

“Oh no, come on David–”

“I insist! Wait here, okay?”

Jack grinned and shook his head as David turned swiftly back in the building. Once the door closed, Jack let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. He reached into his pocket for the small gift he had spent weeks making for David and pulled it out to inspect it. 

Jack had painstakingly assembled a small wooden dreidel made of scrap wood, rusty nails, and old paint he had solicited from Kloppman. It was very crude, it likely wouldn’t spin, and the Hebrew letters were shakily painted on, but he was proud of his handiwork regardless. He just hoped David would like it, or at the very least pretend to.

David himself suddenly emerged from the building with a pair of wool gloves, and JAck hastily closed his hand around the dreidel. David gave him a quizzical look. “What do you have there?” he asked.

Jack faltered, thinking he might have to get him something else, something better. “Uh…here.” He shoved the gift into David's hands and took the mittens sheepishly.

David furrowed his brow, then looked down at the present. He slowly turned it over in his hands, examining its every detail to Jack’s chagrin. Did he hate it? Oh god, he hated it.

David suddenly looked up at Jack, emotion painting his face. “Oh Jack, it’s beautiful.”

Jack laughed nervously, surprised by David’s reaction. “Ah, it’s nothin’ really, I didn’t really know what I was doin’--”

“Did you make this?”

Jack blushed. “Yeah.”

David looked back down at the dreidel, then back up at Jack. “Jack, it’s perfect. Thank you so much.” In a moment of bravery, he took Jack’s hand and kissed it, making Jack blush harder. But Jack didn’t pull away, not for a second did he even consider it. It was just all so perfect. 

He squeezed David’s hand, and then a small movement caught his eye. They both looked around, realizing it had begun to snow.

David smiled. “Guess you’d better get going, you’ll catch your death out here.”

Jack inhaled, nodding, then leaned forward and gave David a quick peck on the cheek. He immediately turned and headed down the street before he could gauge a reaction from David, who let go of his hand reluctantly, but he understood. As much of a big personality Jack had, he was senseless around those he was sweet on. But it was alright–David was sweet on him too.

[smoothgeometry]

I wanted to christen this blog with a first post containing a screenshot of one of my old O/Os (ONs and OFFs) from one of the forums that I used to write on.

Sometimes this feels like a lost age of the internet, even though the site in question is still alive and well. Forums are generally seen by younger folk to be a completely different world. No instant messaging, you had to hardcode your own text to add personality, and the website were/are their own separate islands that have to be explored without algorithms to match you to them.

There are some days where I miss the attachment that formed just because of the effort, the blood, sweat and tears that a person had to put into interacting with others made it inevitable. The entire reason I know enough coding to stumble my way through customizing pages and adding my own spin to Tumblr themes is because of the effort I went through on these old school sites. Technology has definitely made things easier, and it's nice that since I'm an adult-adult things have been streamlined. However, it's still hard to shake wishing I had enough time to spend on and be into these sorts of things the way I used to.

[narastories]

FFWF: Favorite headcanon (for any character) you really like but haven't yet put in a fic?

I took my time with this one because I had a hard time coming up with an answer.

I think I've answered a similar question before with my idea for Deirdre/Nic that they like a bit of bloodplay, and that they have definitely made a poor follower faint or throw up with their weirdness. That hasn't made it to a fic yet, though I haven't given up on it yet.

But to give a new answer, yesterday the devious idea came to me, what if Nic had one of his secret evil hideouts in Eastern Europe. Travel is not an issue, language is not a barrier and he goes missing for years at a time so why not?

Now the rest of this might get a little personal but this is just something I've been thinking about. You may have seen those posts going around in fandom saying if you were not born in the US "don't be afraid" to set your fanfic AUs in the country you were born in (as opposed to butchering foreign US customs I suppose). And I know of people who joyously embraced this and good for them, honestly. I also think this advice is mostly coming from a good place when people say that.

But.

That always made me feel weird as someone who purposefully moved away and doesn't have a lot of charitable feelings toward my birth country. I think it's the assumption that I'm supposed to "entertain" my USAmerican friends with the "authentic exoticness" of my experience that always felt... icky, honestly. And I'm well aware that I have hang-ups here, I'm just saying this advice always felt very presumptuous.

The point I'm trying to make is that because of this I felt delighted when this idea came to me. Maybe I could also add some cultural spice to my fanfics on my own terms by putting a real nightmare into that setting, which would feel very satisfying on a personal level.

As you know I'm spinning the potential Big Bang ideas in my head and just the thought of little Denarian Harry bumbling around on the streets of an Eastern European city smelling of dogpiss and catshit and about to get mugged, except he's got a fallen angel in his head and people around him are going to have a bad day... it just tickles me.

I guess, when it comes down to it, the setting isn't that different from Chicago or the countryside from a middle-of-nowhere US place, but... idk. You guys are not going to get any cheerful folk-song-singing AUs from me anytime soon but this feels promising.

Sorry for the tangent lol It's not actually a big thing or a favorite, and I'm not even sure you could call this a headcanon? This is just the only thing that came to mind for this question ^^

Thank you for asking though xx

[nickgerlich]

Get Ready To Shop

It’s fun to think back to the 80s. While it seems like they weren’t that long ago, we must sober up and realize that was—um—40 years ago, depending on which year you’re recalling. Those were good years for me. I earned a BA, MBA, and PhD, and started my job at WT. Oh, and got married the first time. OK, four out of five ain’t bad.



It was the time of hair bands, women in colorful leotards and cozy leg warmers, and Ronald Reagan. Actually, if you could mash up all of them into one, it would be pretty funny. And it was also the decade that televised home shopping clubs took root, thanks to the prevalence of cable TV.



Home Shopping Club (later Home Shopping Network, or HSN) was founded in 1982, and four years later, QVC (Quality Value Convenience) came along to compete. They’re both still in existence today, although the company that owns QVC now also owns HSN. It’s an alphabet soup, but the premise is the same: nonstop 24/7 live selling.



While these started out primarily as liquidators, they quickly grew into a variety of categories, especially clothing and accessories sought by women. Fashion designers jumped on board, drooling at the prospects of a sales platform that could stretch as long as the company wanted. Create excitement, show a quantity available countdown clock, and voilá! The phones were ringing off the hook as folks called in (remember, this was pre-internet!).

To be honest, I think those original stations preyed upon lonely old women. My mother was one of them. She bought a lot of worthless junk from them, but at the same time, they provided entertainment. For the life of me, I cannot understand how having someone sell to you nonstop is entertaining, but it was.

I never tuned in to those stations on my own, but would be subjected to them whenever we visited Florida. And now that both are gone, I haven’t even given a passing thought to them. Well, until right now, when I discovered that livestream shopping may be the new rage, and outlets like Amazon, TikTok, and YouTube are actually banking on them.

It’s a new spin on an old idea, and looks and feels a lot different from the 24/7 onslaught on cable. This time around the people doing the selling are influencers, and they call the shots for when they go live. And among the three platforms duking it out for prominence, only Amazon can actually stock the inventory and make for seamless transactions.

All of which means that, if you are a fan and potential customer of someone you follow, you better be ready to go shopping whenever they pull the trigger. In some regards, this now sounds like BeReal, in which users have no control over when they are called to action.

Perhaps the most ironic aspect of livestream shopping is that it became a “thing” in China a few years ago, especially during the pandemic. And while Amazon found it could not export its ways to China, the opposite may very well prove to be true here. Looks like another weather balloon to me.

Personally, I’m just not that much of a shopper. I tend to be very purposive, having done my homework for a long time on pricey objects, saving my money, and waiting out the periodic sales. I do not, however, respond well to someone barking out orders and telling me to get on this.

But then again, it may very well work stateside, where I suspect the demographics will trend sharply toward Gen-Z, and, depending on the product categories, probably more female than male. I cannot speak for all of the people of my gender, but I’ve got too many things going on during my waking hours to even consider being on-call for a sale. That’s me, though. YMMV. And to be fair, I can’t picture many women beyond their 20s—working, with children, bills to pay, spouses or partners—yeah, this may be a non-starter with them as well.



Thankfully, online shopping and app usage is lowest among seniors, so people like my mother are probably not in the new target market. Otherwise, we might see history repeating itself.

Just leave the bad clothing in your closet.

Dr “Hard Pass“ Gerlich

Audio Blog

[the-bjd-community-confess]

I think some people here have the wrong image of European behaviour when it comes to the "You only hate on Americans!!!" No, Europeans are very much often hostile towards each other. If you are in spaces where hobbyists are mainly Europeans, there will be ribbing, banting, or just straight up antagonising, just like is being done towards the US in some of these confessions. If you're in those spaces, and look for it, you'll see it. Though there are country specific spaces, where you can only join if you know the specific language as well. There's a lot of passive aggression with some. 

 But the difference? Most European, especially EU countries have more similarities, so when we rib on those, we all just agree on the same thing. The US is culturally much different. Another difference is also that many Europeans don't expect you to know their political climate, yeah we kinda know about each other, but it's not expected, especially in non-politics focused hobby spaces, aka the doll hobby.  Like, how often do you see European centric politics in the doll hobby, country or the entirety of Europe, unless it's a straight up war, versus how often do we get to hear about US topics anywhere? Even those topics that are just very petty. (Honestly, even when it comes to a straight up war, the amount of tone deaf US stuff I've seen about Ukraine vs Russia makes my head spin.) When it comes to rants about Americans, customs, taxes, and shipping. It's also a side effect of how much harder it is to be in the doll hobby as Europeans, and how shipping can be a massive pain in the ass. 

 Most Europeans kinda just deal with it when a sales page says "Only ships within the US" but we often deal with US folks not respecting the same thing. Or, as we saw mentioned when the US-tax thing happened, US people suddenly flock to demanding F&F, and even shitting on anyone who doesn't agree, not even considering the worries of the buyer. But before that, US people were just so enthusiastic making fun or mocking European hobbyists for having to pay high taxes, or asking for accommodated shipping, like the customs form. It's also often a nightmare to deal with certain customers from the US. Of course shipping something from Europe to the US will take longer than if you buy it from within your own country, even if it's a different state. Or for Europeans to ship to another European country. 

 I will place my head on the chopping block btw, and say that despite the large amount of confessions, and how some sound more aggressive. Most Europeans, and probably also many people from the rest of the world, don't actually hate or even dislike the US. I think it's just the frustration bubbling up for many, and just wanting to vent a bit about personal feelings about the topics, because you often can't do that in shared spaces, without people taking it too personally. You know like how you say shit when angry because you just want to let off steam, because certain thoughts have been festering for for a prolonged time.

~Anonymous

[tsuki-sennin]

Hey y'all, Tsuki here~! Boy, I can't wait to watch this week's episode of "Igarashi Family Bathhouse: Everyday Life!", my favorite happy and wholesome family sitcom with you all today! Boy, it sure was sad when Grandpa Giff bit the big one, but his memory lives on through us! Pretty raw deal, huh? But thanks to George, we have No Fear, No Pain any longer! What have you got for us today, Ikki-nii? Dai-chan? Sakura-san?

Okay, enough lyin', it's time for Spoilers, I guess...

-The devil is dead.

-DUCK

-Gamer Vice Bath Water.

-Olteca's in jail, Kagerou's been pacified, Akaishi's dead, and Giff has been exorcised!

-Hooray, bath time!

-Oh yeah, we have this episode and uh...

-Uh oh, we still have Giff cells.

-GIffcels...

-Oh lord, the dominoes.

-...second time?

-I've seem some folks say that Ikki's not exactly the most interesting MC in the world, and while I can concede that's true to an extent (what with him being very reactionary and a huge majority of his faults having been done before, often better with various Riders that came before him), I personally still find him very compelling. He's this vessel through which we get to bond with the Igarashi family, see them as he sees them.

-I think it also helps that he reminds me a lot of a very good friend of mine, and it makes me happy to see him succeed too, so...

-Yeah, these scenes make me tear up.

-Hana-chan, hello! You were badass in Girls Remix yesterday!

-Oh... right, you're going to jail.

-Go visit your girlfriend in jail, Sakura!

-Karizaki ditched everything huh?

-Oh hey, Hiromicchi! And Hikaru-kun!

-Tamaki-kun too!

-Honestly, I'd pay good money to watch a Revice spin-off about all the Demons Driver users sharing an apartment together, arguing over Kamen Rider duty with Hiromi struggling to keep them in line.

-...and just to clarify, this is only a premise for a fanfiction I'm considering, not an actual request to Toei or Bandai, I swear.

-Oh ew, a shitstain.

-Oh right, Weekend's base was the Ushijima house. ...where the hell did it come from then, huh?

-Oooooh, all them Demons bitches are dead.

-Georgy's doing a murder.

-BON

-That's a throwback if I've ever seen one.

-Igarashi Ikki!

-Well, as long as you've learned your lesson, Masao-kun~!

-hjk;lhjlk; VICE GETS NO LOVE

-HANA-SAN

-"Where's the funny!"

-I love how they said that and it immediately hardcuts to Tamaki getting his cheeks clapped.

-Impulse Genome Edge...

-He is Devil Free!

-Juuga!

-It's a pun on Kuuga. With ten ("十" - Juu") animals, most of whom have fangs or tusks ("獣牙" - Juuga). Ten fangs, therefore, Juuga. (十牙)

-Man, Japanese seems like a paradise of puns.

-Karizaki has decided to trash all of his beloved Rider OC designs.

-Seems like a smart idea, yeah.

-He's really gone off the deep end, huh Hiromicchi?

-He looks amazing though.

-...pun partially intended.

-Thank you Lovekov.

-Oh.

-He's treating them as customers.

-Ohhh..

-That's depressing.

-Kentaro Maeda, how're you this good at selling these scenes?

-"I did this all for true peace."

-Guess all his random sinisterness in early episodes really never went away, even with all the insane rewrites and curveballs.

-God, these characters make me feel.

-Daijiiiii, nooooo, we're not playing the blame ourselves game!

-Oh hey, Kagerou.

-Yeah, definitely callous, but... well, he ain't entirely wrong.

-Ohhhhhh, everything's all dark.

-That was a cool shot though, won't lie.

-"Yeah, that science guy's like immortal now."

-Welp. Igarashi Rider fam no more. ...until the time of the movie, that is.

-Will giving up the Drivers even slow down Ikki's memory loss?

-Oooooh, he's really lost it.

-Oh epic, they're teaming up.

-A snake and a bird versus an entire zoo.

-Daaaaamn, his specials are strong.

-Ooooooooh, Amazing name drop.

-George Karizaki, the ten-fanged beast. As human as it gets, down his downright demonic actions.

-Goddamn.

-Hooray, Episode 48! Gonna be entirely honest, I'm just waiting for Revice to be over, I've been here for, like, ever. Not that I don't enjoy watching it with you, it's just that we've been here for so long, and...

-Well, there's this cool fox dude we're gonna meet in September, and um... I believe we have three more confirmed episodes left, soooooo...

[coltprison13]

Deafness And Listening To Loss

Ear and Hearing welcomes research article submissions on the theme of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility issues associated to listening to. This nerve sends sound information from the ear to the brain. Apart from any fair dealing for the aim of personal study or analysis, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes solely. Three small, fluid-filled loops, referred to as semicircular canals, sit just above the cochlea. The fact that they lack barbs means they don't interfer with sound getting into the bird’s ears. Hearing has advanced at least 20 occasions in bugs, leading to ears in an astonishing variety of completely different locations, as shown on this image of a generalized insect. I could earn a small part of the sale from hyperlinks to any services or products on this website. You do not pay something additional and your buy helps assist my work in bringing you more awesome gun and kit articles. Crazy to think 30 years ago individuals shot without protection. It's hard to beat customized ear plugs for the safety and skill to get a good cheek weld. When you spin really quick after which cease, the fluid in your ear remains to be spinning, however your eyes and body have stopped shifting. Your mind will get confused for a bit and you are feeling dizzy. We can hear sound inside a certain frequency range of round 20 Hz on the low end and 20,000 Hz on the high end. SharpEar , for example, can't hear sounds as little as we will, however can hear high sounds of over 100,000 Hz. Dogs and cats can hear much higher pitched sounds than we will. Treatment of people with most cancers of the center ear consists of surgery and radiation, which targets rays of vitality at small areas of cancer cells that may not have been removed throughout surgery. Treatment for folks with most cancers of the auditory cancel contains surgery to take away parts of the center ear. About 2 to three out of every 1,000 youngsters in the United States are born deaf or with hearing loss.