#same url just tiny

[batfall-a]

bye ♡ - cya guys on the new blog

[starsmuserainbow]

“aren’t you too old to be trick or treating?” for Pyrrah ♥

HALLOWEEN  SENTENCE  STARTERS. 

[[Thank you for sending! :D]]

Honestly, she had been sure about her plans until Weiss asked it. Trick-or-treating was a child's tradition, sure, but it was a nice way to both take a walk, enjoy the colder atmosphere of the festivity, watch the children enjoy the celebration and have a chance to wear the costume she had worked on for a while. "It does feel like it's more of a thing for children." Now that she thought about it, would going trick-or-treating mean that she would get candy (which, wasn't the point for her of doing this) that otherwise another kid would be getting?

"Oh... it might be better to not do it." Now looking back to Weiss, Pyrrha added: "Does no one of your team work on costumes for Halloween, though? The costumes have to be used for something, right?"

[chrissy-kaos]

If we're too masculine then we're disgusting freaks. They collect the most masculine of us - innocent women minding their own business trying to live a life that was denied to them - and mock us, openly discussing how nobody could ever love us, how nobody could be fooled that we're women.

If we're too feminine then we're stupid men. They find the most tone deaf quotes from trans girls, usually those who have been out for only months if they're out at all. They find these quotes of girls still learning how to be women, post them everywhere as proof that we are just pantomime caricatures of women.

If we are too strong then we are violent and dangerous. We are an unfair factor in sport, evil men just trying to steal victories from real women. We could lose our temper at any moment. We are a risk that cannot be tolerated. If we're too weak then we are to be mocked. They call us failed men who ran to womanhood because we couldn't take it. We're victims of our own masculinity. Poor feminine men to be saved... In the same way that Republicans want to save those 'poor unborn babies.'

If we lose our temper we're back to dangerous men. But if we cry, if our shoulders buckle under the weight of endless, endless, ENDLESS, ENDLESS, ABUSE. Then they mock us again. They share pictures of trans women crying and laugh over it. Of course they make sure to find the pictures where our stubble is showing, our makeup has already run. It's not the way that women are mocked for weakness; it's the way men are. They find videos where are lips are trembling. Where our voice has gone deep because we don't have the energy to keep it at its heightened octave.

If we find ourselves ugly they mock us. But if we're happy with ourselves then we're disgusting degenerates. "Autogynephilic." Medicalized. They find the tweets of newly out girls who said something improper in their tiny moment of not guarding themselves. An awkward, amateurish attempt at roleplay or dirty talk becomes a meme. A woman who likely spent years growing the courage to begin sexual exploration, probably for the first time in her life, sees herself come up every so often in their replies, their threads, their gifs. What happens to these people? Is it even possible for them to ever resume that exploration?

We're trying to trick everyone into dating us. We should be required to show visible identification on us at all times; to be trans without the people around you knowing is deceit. But also, nobody would ever date us, everyone can tell, immediately, always. Everyone knows, the terfs say GLEEFULLY. Reveling in the idea that our subconscious is constantly telling us this. Basking in the thought of our depression and anxiety eating our minds until there's nothing left.

Even the terfs never stay the same for long. One moment it's a wall of 'concerned mothers' with all the passive-aggressive venom of a white woman calling the police because she doesn't want to put a leash on her dog; make ABSOLUTELY NO MISTAKE that these are the same people. The next it's anime-avatar alt righters. The next it's puritanical Christians claiming we are the natural result of the "rainbow agenda." It's lesbians saying that we're destroying lesbianism, following right on the heels of a pastor saying that anything that isn't a man and a woman is unnatural.

Half the URLs are Mumsnet and half are Kiwifarms. How many are bots? Sock puppets? How many really are just transphobic housewives accessing Kiwifarms from their phones? How many took the full plunge? The answer to all of the above is, we don't know, but it's a whole lot more than zero.

Every time we go into a bathroom, there's a chance we'll be the next screen shot pasted over reddit. It doesn't matter whether it's the men's or women's. They are equally unsafe.

If we need a women's shelter, we flip a coin on whether the person running it has already decided she hates us, because of these people.

We cannot upload a picture to facebook without this risk.

We cannot post about our lives without this risk.

We cannot appear at our work without this risk.

We cannot exist without this risk.

Every possible action we could take will be judged. There is no outcome that isn't negative. There is nothing we can do that isn't negative. Masculinine, feminine, pretty, ugly, angry, sad, sexual, frigid, proud, ashamed, strong, weak. Pre-op, post-op, non-op. Vagina, ovaries, chromosomes, fertility: womanhood is defined as whatever we aren't in that particular context.

I don't want to think about how many people this has killed. To call it a moving goal-post is inept, it is a void, an endless mass of hatred that follows us no matter what we do. Nothing is good enough. Everything, every single thing, is just waiting to be weaponized against us.

It has killed so, so many.

It won't kill any more.

If you're trans and you're reading this you already know everything I said. We've lived through it. You already know that I've spent time as all of the above because you have too. That when I get SIX HUNDRED COMMENTS calling me a man I want to swing my fists and I want to cry and I want to curl into a ball and I want to scream and I want to end my own miserable existence. The ugly beautiful girl in the mirror is so angry and sad and prideful and ashamed and violent and passive and this constant stream of abuse has torn me apart and created so many ugly things in this mind but if there is ONE. FUCKING. THING. THAT. THEY. WILL. NOT. MAKE. ME.

It is dead.

I will live. I will survive. And I don't even care about justice anymore. These people will get away with all this. Somewhere in that mix of the trans population and the infamous 40% number is a figure of how many people they've killed, but they'd never care. I'll live because all of their jeering and mocking and gaslighting and those goddamn fucking insufferable legions of laugh reacts, they don't do a fucking thing.

That's all it comes down to in the end. It's hard and it's painful and it hurts, it just ENDLESSLY hurts to weather their blows. But my name is Alexia. I am a woman.

You can hurt me all you like, but that won't change, and you can die mad about it.

- Lindwyrm Weisseritter

[notfinancialadvice]

How I Built an Emergency Fund, inspiration I deeply hope is helpful

As the blog URL says, this is not financial advice. This is how I did this thing, and I am posting it here, publicly, in hopes that it helps you should you need this information.

In short: Remix this advice to what fits your life + do not sue me if this goes poorly for you. This is for Americans, if you do not live in America and/or your money is not in America, I hope this is a useful base.

None of these links are affiliate links.

I write these things as a mental shift. I like to ramble and I wish I had someone tell me this stuff 20+ years ago. I'm hoping this helps you.

This is an incredibly long post so I'm putting it under a KEEP READING.

This post goes over two stages: "short term + not life-or-death" and "long term + actual life or death"

Part 01: SHORT TERM + NOT LIFE-OR-DEATH FUND

You need to find a high yield savings account that is FDIC insured. Ally is a popular bank for this.

Functionally, the only difference between a "high yield savings account" and "savings account" from the giant conglomerate bank down the street is the interest rate.

I do not know why non-high-yield savings accounts exist. I'm guessing because legally they can, and I hate it.

Moving away from my personal socioeconomic views to return to advice.

"FDIC insured" is not something you pay for. It is nearly universal on savings accounts. If a savings account, or a checking account, does NOT have it, then you should not put your money there. Something is wrong with that bank.

FDIC means if your bank goes out of business, your account is insured up to $250,000, per account, by the government. So if your bank goes out of business, the government makes sure you still have your cash (up to $250k).

A high-yield savings account means your cash is available whenever you need it.

Other products, like CDs, exist, but this ramble is designed to be as simple and starter as possible. Begin with a high yield savings account, build up from there as you do your own research + compare this to your needs.

Do not accept an account that has minimum balances. Do not open an account with monthly fees.

Touch this account as little as possible.

For every $1 you put in, every month, a few pennies will materialize. It's not much, but the main point is at every level, your money works for you.

Rich people do this. You can too.

Touch this account as little as possible.

You can have multiple savings accounts.

I personally have a savings account in the above structure designed for "oh hell I am kinda screwed, but will be okay, just need a buffer."

"How much should I have in there?" you might ask. Common advice says "3-6 months expenses" which is a lot. I say "start with literally $1 and continue as you can until comfortable with what is possible, for you, at this time."

Will $1 make you rich? No.

Will it save your life in a bad situation? Probably not.

Does this $1 essentially become a tiny robot that is making you money for as long as it is docked into its cargo bay? ...weird metaphor but we'll go with it, sure.

Ultimately is it a start? Yes.

You can have multiple savings accounts. You can have a savings account "this is for short term emergencies" and "this is for... slightly less short term" etc.

It costs you nothing to have multiple. They all operate in the same way. It's handy to have them all at the same bank because it can make transferring cash easier.

Part 02: LONG TERM + ACTUAL LIFE-OR-DEATH FUND WITH RISK SO BE CAREFUL

Once you have your savings account set up, and it's being funded on a regular basis (every week, every paycheck, every month, every quarter -- whatever works for you), look into creating a second, bigger, more dangerous-term cash reserve.

I like my Roth IRA. This is a link to a proper finance blog that has a lot of details. I am trying to make this handy/simple to get started.

401ks and (non-Roth) IRAs are funded with pre-tax dollars, frequently in conjunction with your job.

Normally, cash goes from job -> government takes a slice -> you.

Pre-tax retirement accounts, cash goes from job -> retirement takes the percentage you decide -> government takes a slice of what is left -> you

Roth IRAs, job -> government takes a slice -> you -> Roth IRA

The benefit to pre-tax retirement accounts being, because the cash going in is pre-tax, there is more of it.

It can grow faster in the stock market or other places your particular fund allows you to put cash into.

The taxes come out when you withdraw -- usually retirement -- because if you withdraw before you retire, you are heavily penalized with extra fees.

That's why Part 02 is a ROTH IRA. Your money has already been taxed -- job -> government's slice -> you -> Roth IRA.

This means the money is yours, already taxed. If you withdraw the gains, those get taxed, but the base, that's yours.

If you invest $100 and it grows to $105, you can withdraw $100 without paying fees or taxes. If you withdraw that extra $5, that is when taxes start to come into play. If you withdraw $100, and leave the $5, the $5 continues to grow, and that extra growth is taxed if withdrawn. So try not to touch it (ideally you leave all of it until retirement).

This is why this is an emergency, life-or-death only, account. You tap it only when you need to when all other choices are wretched and ruinous.

There is an annual limit as to how much money you can put into a Roth IRA (several thousand bucks).

You can start them very small. Like $20 or maybe less.

Look for a bank or institution that does not charge fees to open and maintain one.

AT EVERY STEP YOU SHOULD BE AVOIDING FEES

Here are smart people talking about ideas on how to get started.

Okay, so, what do we do now with this fancy roth thing.

Here is where things get... uncomfortable.

A Roth IRA is an account type.

You need to do something with your money.

The reason you have this in addition to, and secondary to, your high-yield savings account is because this is an investment vehicle, the balance is going to go up and down, and may reach $0.00.

For my Roth IRA, I like "exchange traded funds" -- ETFs.

There are a lot of options -- you can invest in most anything

Because my Roth IRA is built for "help me I'm dying" emergencies, I invest in a mix of S&P 500 index funds and small-cap funds.

SO MANY WORDS.

Let's break this down what this means.

S&P 500 index funds: This is an index fund of giant, giant, giant companies.

An index fund is like a stock. But instead of a single company, it tracks (owns shares of) an index -- like the DOW or Nasdaq. Or countries. Or... the entire market for oil. Etc.

The metaphor isn't completely accurate, but I like to think of it as "an index fund is a company that owns tiny bits of other companies."

Like, okay, say you have SlimeIndexFund and a share price is $40.

In this example, SlimeIndexFund owns $10 worth of "BardCo" and $10 of "ThiefCo" and $10 of "MermaidCo" and $10 of "EvilCo".

Let's say EvilCo does a lot of evil and is now worth $15, and MermaidCo does a lot of mermaid stuff and is now worth $15, and BardCo sings out of tune so is now worth $5. ThiefCo is oddly at the same $10 but we're scared so we're leaving ThiefCo to stay at $10.

A share in SlimeIndexFund is now worth $45. ($5 BardCo + $10 ThiefCo + $15 EvilCo + $15 MermaidCo)

This is diversification

Because I bought an index fund, instead of just buying BardCo, my risk is less.

Had I bought all MermaidCo, my return would be higher -- but this is a much bigger risk.

The entire purpose of this set up of a Roth IRA is TO MINIMIZE RISK.

Your Roth IRA should allow you to buy "fractional shares" and if it doesn't fuck that bank, go somewhere that does.

In the above example, SlimeIndexFund is $40/share and at that price you are getting the full benefit of 1 share.

Let's say you have $10.

You buy a fractional share of SlimeIndexFund for $10, which is 25% of 1 share.

So when SlimeIndexFund shares raise from $40 -> $45, your fractional share goes from $10 -> $12.50.

Not all funds and stock shares (etc) have fractional shares, most do.

It's a great way to start and build.

Small-cap funds: These operate in literally the same way. The difference is the companies are (in comparison) much smaller. They tend to be more nimble.

So I am diversifying between "here is a fund, it has a lot of large companies" and "here is a fund, it has a lot of small companies."

Let's say Big Office Building real estate goes down, but the sale of Small Company Making waffles goes up. This mixes together and I'm less in danger of losing money, or losing much money.

You can pick individual stocks.

The reason it is not recommended, by nearly everyone, is because the market has incredible tools and power over individual stocks.

By using any kind of fund that bundles things together, you are thereby automatically using these tools by proxy

It is critical to understand this is the stock market. Your account will go up and down. It may go down A LOT, like 25%, and take years to recover. Maybe it goes down 100% to literally $0.00.

That's why this is the LAST RESORT EMERGENCY FUND.

So why are we doing this.

This feels... wrong?

The potential for growth is significantly higher than a savings account. Adjusted for inflation, somewhere in between 6-7%.

At this rate, if you can leave your initial deposit alone for somewhere between 10 - 13 years, it has doubled.

This equation recalculates every time you make a deposit. So if you can deposit $20 every pay check, it has the potential to grow very quickly.

As above, this is the stock market, so it can also get wiped out.

But given the stock market has historically always recovered, though it may take several years, the risk is worth it to me + a lot of other people.

The reason this is built as a last-resort cash bucket is because of this risk. Before moving into this arena, you should have other cash buckets as a buffer.

Your RISK is it goes down. Which it will frequently.

Your REWARD is if it goes up. Which historically it has far more than it went down.

The PURPOSE of using funds as described above is so you don't have try to guess who the next Amazon is and wind up picking the next Pets.com (which went out of business, like, a long... long time ago).

The people making the funds figure out who is Amazon and who is Pets.com and work, day and night, to make your money grow and/or protect it when outside influences are hurting the market.

They are incredibly equipped to do this and their literal livelihood is on the line when they do it poorly.

Which is a polite way of saying, they are continuously incentivized above all else to work for the fund you're investing in.

The reason you're doing this in a Roth IRA specifically is you're hoping to keep as much of it intact, as possible, until you retire, at which point -- if you've followed fairly simple rules -- you withdraw the base and gains tax-free.

Whereas money in a normal stock account? Those gains are taxable every year.

"I have literally $20 I can save per pay check! Can I put in $15 into a high-yield savings account and $5 into a Roth IRA to get started?!"

Yes!

Also, congrats! You're diversifying already!

Your Roth IRA broker should allow you to invest a minimum of $1 at a time, and buy fractional shares. If they don't, don't sign up with them!

Lean heavily into your high-yield savings account until that is very comfortable and thick, then push money into the Roth IRA.

Your goal is to build a system that works for you -- both literally (money working for you) and emotionally ("this is comfortable")

"Should I pay off debt before proceeding? A lot of people say to pay off excess debt first."

This is up to you.

Most financial blogs etc. do say "focus on paying off debt first" -- it's good advice, your returns are risk-free and permanent, since the lower your debt is, the less you have to pay over time.

Interest -- working for you or against you -- is continuous and eternal.

Personally, I like to diversify everything, so I not-financial-advice ramble "do all three -- pay down debt, throw a little cash into a high-yield savings, throw a little cash into a Roth IRA"

The problem with "pay off debt first" is that it misses out any occasional giant gains the stock market makes (Roth IRA) and introduces the risk of "I have paid this credit card on time for 5 years, I'm short on change for 3 months due to a situation that gets resolved quickly, and now I have a late payment fee, and a higher interest rate."

Look at your life, finances, and potential future and make decisions!

And also:

Always be on the look out for deals with banks. Sign up bonuses, referral links from friends, etc. Think of it as a money sale.

If you are not comfortable with the idea of a Roth IRA hitting $0.00 potentially, do not do step 02. These are ideas, not directives.

All financial tools can be used for different purposes. All of them. Thus -- these are ideas, not directives.

I am listing a few examples of banks, funds, etc. These are not recommendations nor are they affiliate links. They are listed because I want to maximize your start on this path, but caution, in strongest possible terms, you must do your own research and figure out what makes sense for you.

There are a lot of nuances I am paving over for the sake of simplicity, which is why I am continually saying...

...c'mon say it with me...

...you must do your own research before continuing

Smart, free sites that cover this + a lot of other stuff:

NerdWallet

Bank Rate

One final note about Roth IRAs:

Robinhood currently is offering a 1% match on an IRA. Considering the strict limits of how much an IRA can intake per year, it's not much, but it doesn't cost you anything. Money on sale!

As a final note -- always feel comfortable asking people handling your money for help. They are working for you. Your money works FOR YOU.

If you are uncomfortable, leave, immediately, without concern.

At the retail level, there are hundreds of banks and financial institutions clamoring for your business. If someone makes you uncomfortable for not knowing something, or getting a term wrong, or asking "too many" questions -- go somewhere else.

It doesn't matter if your account is literally worth $20.

They are working for you.

This is a business transaction, and if they make you feel like your time isn't worth their business, I promise you there is someone else who will gladly take care of you.

I end with -- whenever someone is giving you financial advice, always ask why. It helps ensure they aren't scamming you, it's just a good business practice.

I like to ramble, it helps me mentally

I like to be useful, I want the world to be significantly more balanced in terms of who is doing okay

I like to write, this is all good practice for me in doing Various Other Things I do

I fucking hate predatory financial practices. I was gatekept out of financial literacy for decades and so every time I help someone else figure out how to set up their own life and protect themselves it is a giant "fuck you" to the systems and directly to the people who stood in my way.

[softonshanks]

1. Your url is so good im jealous, 2. Me and my bother have had this inside joke for the longest that if the straw hats ever had a ships cat for rat catching knowing oda it would probably be ugly instead of cute and too lazy to catch rats so uh, if you have time, could you do some hcs about the straw hats having a terrible, incompetent cat?

Ciaooo and thank you so much <3 I'm glad you like my url. You've an amazing icon btw, long live Fitzgerald.

(ran into this post while writing it and this draw stuck with me lol)

Appearance: The cat is a black cat with a small patch of white fur on its chest, vaguely reminiscent of a Jolly Roger if you watch it from afar. His eyes are a striking gold, and he has a permanently disinterested expression on his face. He wears a tiny, straw hat on a string around his neck, a miniature version of Luffy's iconic hat, gifted by Usopp.

Personality: The cat is the epitome of laziness. He spends most of his time lounging in the sun on the Thousand Sunny, draped over Zoro's swords, curled up in Robin's lap while she reads, or nestled into Chopper’s fur. Despite his apparent lethargy, actually the cat is highly intelligent and observant, often seen watching the crew's antics with half-lidded eyes, as if silently judging them.

Interactions with the Crew:

Luffy: Luffy adores it, frequently trying to play with him. However, the cat often ignores Luffy’s attempts at play, which only makes Luffy more determined to win him over. Sometimes, the cat will humor Luffy by swatting at a string or lightly biting his fingers, but only if he's in the mood.

Zoro: the cat has an unspoken bond with Zoro. They both enjoy napping in the same sunny spots on the ship, and it is often found curled up on Zoro’s chest while he sleeps. The crew jokes that the cat is Zoro’s spirit animal because of their shared love of sleep and that if the cat could drink, he would do it, as it already gives annoyed glances at people passing by when it's not in the mood.

Nami: Nami has a soft spot for the cat, though she tries to pretend she doesn’t. She'll often sneak him little treats from the kitchen and make sure he has a warm blanket on colder nights. It repays her with the occasional nuzzle against her leg, but only when no one is looking.

Usopp: Usopp loves telling the cat exaggerated stories, acting out grand adventures for the cat's supposed amusement. It usually just stares at him with a blank and annoyed expression, but Usopp is convinced that the cat is secretly fascinated.

Sanji: Sanji is the only one who can consistently coax the cat into being active, usually by tempting him with gourmet fish dishes. It will actually get up and follow Sanji around the kitchen if he smells something delicious being prepared, occasionally “helping” by sitting in the middle of whatever Sanji is working on.

Chopper: It is surprisingly gentle with Chopper, often sitting quietly beside him when he’s working in the infirmary. Chopper is convinced that the cat has a calming effect on patients, so he always welcomes the cat's presence.

Robin: of course it spends the most time with Robin. He'll curl up on her lap while she reads, occasionally batting at the pages if he gets bored. Robin enjoys his quiet company and often gives him scratches behind the ears, which it secretly loves.

Franky: Franky tried to build the cat a super high-tech cat bed, but it ignored it in favor of sleeping on top of a random pile of junk. Franky was initially disappointed, but he respects its independence, often chatting with him while he works on the Sunny.

Brook: Brook enjoys playing music for the cat, who will sometimes tap his tail in time with the beat, but only if it's a particularly mellow tune. Brook would like to caress him with his fingertips, but he hasn't have any cause he's dead oh oh oh

Jinbe: Jinbe is indifferent to the cat's laziness but respects the cat's serenity. They share a mutual understanding, often sitting together in silence during quiet moments on the ship.

Bonus:

Despite his lazy nature, the cat has surprisingly sharp reflexes. He has been known to catch flies out of the air with lightning speed or avoid falling objects with grace. In battle, though he rarely participates, he’ll sometimes trip up enemies with a well-timed pounce or swipe, then immediately go back to lounging.

It has an uncanny ability to sense danger before it happens. If Maru suddenly gets up and leaves a spot he’s been lounging in, the crew knows something is up, whether it’s a storm on the horizon or an ambush waiting for them.

[kingofscoops]

right, i've been mulling over this for the past few days, and figured if i was ever gonna use this url it probably shoulda been back when i was first watching grease: rise of the pink ladies, BUT seeing as i'm going through a bit of a grease phase again and fargo s5 is finished i figured fuck it lets switch it up a bit now, plus it's nice to have an url of a characters proper name without any alterations, hurray for me and this tiny fandom 🥳✨ don't worry though it's still gonna be the same multifandom mess you know and loath, i'll go back to one of my stranger things or joe keery related url sooner or later 😘💜

tagging some much loved mutuals in no particular order under the cut so you know who the fuck this is (if i miss ya i'm sorry i just never know who to tag being a socially awkward idiot that i am and not wanting to bother people...😓)

@rose-nobles @tezzzzza @sherifftillman @sidekick-hero @iero @buckysbarnes @buckleydiaz @jonathanbiers @emblazons @userstonathan @thefreakandthehair @thyla @stevebabey @roguenancy @ezrabriidger @miwtual @alfryco @emziess @mcbride @padme-amidala @freckledjoes

[anghraine]

Dealing with images on Dreamwidth

Okay, one more Dreamwidth post!

DW is geared around text posts and currently handles images rather awkwardly. But it does actually have image hosting capabilities, though the space isn't unlimited (I've never come near to maxing it out). I was thinking about that and figured I could make a post over here about how I back up images to Dreamwidth, and then post them using the Rich Text Editor.

I tried to explain what I do as clearly as I could, but the detail might make it sound more complex and difficult than it really is. I'm sorry if so! But here goes:

Step 1: Go to the main page at www.dreamwidth.org. It should look something like this:

Step 2: Click the red button in the upper-right to log in. Once you do, the main page should look something like this:

Step 3: If you look below the Dreamwidth logo, you'll see five categories of things you can do. You want the first category, "Create." Click on it and select "Upload Images" from the drop-down list. I've put a blue circle around it in the picture below:

Step 4: Upload your picture!

The picture above is the standard "Upload Images" screen. From here, you can click the link to "View all your images" to see everything you've uploaded, and I think "manage your images" lets you adjust titles and descriptions of the images and such. But what you want is the "Browse" button. It'll take you to your computer files and you can upload the picture or pictures you want.

Let's suppose I want to upload two pictures from Baldur's Gate 3:

and

Okay. So after I click "Browse", find the right folder on my computer, and use CTRL+click to select both of these pictures (you can also upload pictures one-by-one if you wish), the space below the "Browse" button will show the pictures you've uploaded. It should look something like this:

There they are! You can give the pictures names in the "Title" boxes, but if you want the file names saved, make sure you click the "Save descriptions" button below the pictures (circled in blue below):

At this point (much faster than it sounds like), you've uploaded the pictures to your account where you can look at every picture or file you've ever uploaded to Dreamwidth. That's cool, but they're not actually in a post yet.

Step 5: Make a new post.

In a new tab, open Dreamwidth (www.dreamwidth.org) again. It's important that this is in a different tab and you don't navigate away from the one your pictures are showing on.

You should see the "Post" button in the upper right of the main page, below your username. I've circled it in blue here:

Click on "Post."

That'll take you to the Create Post page where you actually put things on your blog.

I'm currently trying out the beta version of this page that's going to get applied pretty soon, so the style looks a little different here than in standard Dreamwidth. I figured I'd use the beta version because a) it's what people will see in the future, and b) we're going to use the old Rich Text Editor that is the same in both styles.

The Rich Text Editor has a blue rectangle around it and a blue arrow pointing at it in the picture above.

Let's narrow in on the Rich Text Editor. Like in any post, you can just start typing into the Rich Text Editor, if you want words at all. So here I typed a little explanation for the BG3 pictures and put the cursor where I want the pictures to show up.

You can see that there's a bar of options above what I've typed, with buttons that let you bold, italicize, underline, etc. We want a button further on—the square button with a yellow background that looks like a tiny landscape of mountains and sunshine. I've put a blue circle around it on the screenshot below:

Step 6: Add your pictures!

Clicking on the little landscape button will open a box where you can paste the URL of any image you want to put in your Dreamwidth post. The image doesn't have to be hosted on Dreamwidth—you could paste a link to a picture on Tumblr or whatever—but it'll be more stable if it is, so that's what we're doing.

It looks like this:

Since we already uploaded our pictures to Dreamwidth in the earlier steps, we just need the URLs for the pictures. There's a pretty easy way to see what it is.

Step 7: Copy-paste the URL.

Click back to the tab with your newly uploaded pictures. There will be a code at the bottom of each one. In our case, it looks like this:

It might look a bit intimidating if you're not used to code, but you can ignore the most of it. You just want that little part that begins with https and ends with .jpg.

Copy the URL (I've put a blue box around it above) and click back to the Create Post tab. The "Image Properties" box from Step 6 should still be up.

Paste the URL into the top box that says "URL." I've surrounded the correct box with a red rectangle in this picture:

Hit the "OK" button at the bottom and:

You'll see tiny boxes around the frame. Those will go away if you click anywhere other than the picture; they're for adjusting the size.

Step 8: Adjust the picture if you want

You know how Tumblr automatically stretches/shrinks pictures to make them fit? Dreamwidth just leaves them the way they are, so if your original picture is very big, it will look very big, and if it's small, it will look small. But you can adjust the picture yourself.

Maybe my picture of Shadowheart seems really big compared to the text and I want it smaller. I'll click on the tiny box in the upper-left corner of the picture (that one simply because it's the most convenient) and drag it inwards until the picture is the size I want.

And there she is!

BTW: No matter what size you make a picture look in your post, once it is posted, you can always right-click with your mouse and say "open image in new tab" to see it in its real size.

Here's a real post I made with a picture of Shadowheart I'd slightly shrunk in the Dreamwidth editor:

But if I right-click on the image and tell it to open in another tab, you can see that the saved picture is actually full-size:

So feel free to adjust your picture in the post however you want; it won't change the version you originally uploaded to Dreamwidth.

I'm sure there are other ways to do this, but that's how I get images uploaded to Dreamwidth and then embedded in Dreamwidth posts!

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Please be careful sharing requests for money. I'm seeing more and more people falling victim to predatory asks.

Some things to consider:

Mistagging an ask for donations with fandom tags that have nothing to do with it goes against Tumblr ToS. Tags are filling up with tragic stories that are irrelevant to those tags. Whether they're real or fake, no one should be jumpscared by tragedy. Tag appropriately.

Sharing a con only emboldens more con artists to do the same thing. It also marks you as gullible, and your url could get picked up more bots trying to squeeze you for sympathy and cash.

Posting a request for donations without verifying and donating yourself is not activism. It's irresponsible to your followers/mutuals and only helps the scammers.

I've received at least twenty different requests in the past week alone. They come in batches, a few within minutes of each other, not organically like humans would send. Most of them are worded differently, but some have been worded identically, even though they come from separate named blogs. These are not real people.

If you see an adult ask a child they don't know for help, be suspicious. An adult should never need to ask a child to take on some sudden responsibility. They're after something else, and they're just trying to gain trust first. So I'm suspicious when I see a sudden influx of supposed asks for help and money coming to tiny little Tumblr blogs. This is Tumblr. No one here has money, or reach. We don't do that here.

These tragic asks in your inbox are a scam. Report it as spam - because it is spam - delete it, and move on with your day.

[squishious]

ok i'd apologize to you & everyone else for only blogging about myself and my friends tonight but actually that would be un-sincere because i love my friends so so so much and all of life is about love. anyway here's a long summary of css :

-1. the context: luna @hanjoonhwi got to know mika through me and @ramonapest and so she'd discover old stuff progressively and one day she found css and made it her whole personality (read: blog) because she did that often (for a while she was tomorrowlive because she loved live performances of tomorrow, etc etc etc) and so she saved the url cokestudiostardust or i did. and then we had the fantastic idea of both changing our urls to something super similar to each other for a little while just to confuse the 12 mika blogs here (a small group of which are commonly referred to as "the rodents" due to the existance of an almost-dead discord server that i would like to bring back alive and that you could probably be added to, where we discuss mika) ANYWAY sorry for the slight detour. so yes that was the plan. and then we were like wait we need to include rory (because we had a tiny groupchat called "mouaylor tshirts" <- more lore there but basically luna wanted a mika x taylor x louis collab and rory made a fake poster that i put on redbubble models and so we made a groupchat to discuss business and then ended up being besties). so yes back to the main story. we text rory and we're like hey do you wanna join us in this wild scheme? she was like what scheme? we said say yes or no because we cant tell you unless you're joining. she said yes and we told her everything and also she was moving that same weekend... so it was insane of her to contribute. but yes that's the end of this part

0. the prep: so we saved css url, and 2 typo css urls. picked an icon header and background colour for the blog (#facade pink) and then the point was to confuse people so we didn't want them to be able to scroll adn figure out easily which one is rory vs luna vs me. so what we did is we made rory (?) i think (?) post a link to the css yt video. then we each reblogged it privately to our blogs about 100 times in preparation and then didn't blog until the day of. the day of we unprivated all the posts, so basically if you wanted to see any posts before you'd need to scroll for so long. and we changed our urls (i dont remember who was which url) and icons and headers and colours and made our blogs only available on phone so you couldnt go to archive to figure out who was who. also we had the same blog titles (coke studio stardust) and bios.

1. phase 1: we basically went around blogging normally as if nothing happened, but also sending asks to common mutuals and each others mutuals (ex: "hiii squish!! how are you???") and all of us sending them, to create confusion. did that for about 24 hours. but the thing is we sent the exact same asks and reblogged all the same posts with the same tags. luna and i even managed to confuse rory's sibling and like long-time friend on here. a mika blog @grayskelly we didnt know at the time (but v knows) just joined us (same blog appearance etc) and became our immediate bestie, hence creating the famous and iconic @h-isforhome "big day in mika fandom" post (the first one in the image post you reblogged). also we followed any mutuals that we mutuals with 2 but not 3 of us (pretending we accidentally unfollowed) in prep for phase 2

2. phase 2: (my favourite phase) we "apologized" etc for our behaviour and said we are switching back. BUT we lied (celebrity apology video style), and what we did is switch to each other's!! blogs. so i was luna and luna was rory and rory was me. and it actually fooled people due to all the followings in phase 1 and it being practically impossible to go to posts pre may 15. this phase particularly drove people insane (luna and i were competing over who would lose the most followers, rory somehow was gaining followers). but yes basically we blogged exactly lik each other, tagging systems etc, spoke like each other (hashtag true bestiehood), and sent even more asks. the middle 2 pics are examples of such interactions after we finally switched back to the real us, making all the posts hilariously funny. one common mutual thought that was was going on was that we had logged into each other's accounts. another was like ahh i got you. x is pretending to be y and y is [etc etc], getting it all wrong and we were like ah yes! you got us! so true!. i think @thirteens-earring still hates us for may 16.... we were sending each other messages being like hi v this is rory! etc and v eventually figured out who was who but the whole time was sending us murderous threats + at one point luna was like hi rory this is v! to v, which was funny. anyway i think lizzie @dionysuswearsanorangetracksuit was the first one to catch on what was going on (like super early that day) and texted me and h about it but i made them promise they wouldn't explain to everyone what was going on.

everyone was like ah hahah ha hilarious right. you guys are done right. no really. you are done right. please please say you're done. and so, this is what we did after:

3. phase 3 prep: rory and luna collected the best posts through screenshots, i opened photoshop with a normal canvas size and started adding them and making the canvas bigger and bigger, ending up with a photoshop file of 16359x22200 pixels, it took me and rory 2 computers, 3 photoshop versions, and about 1 hour to export that as 4 pngs.

4. phase 3: on may 17 we changed all our blog titles to "phase 3", posted that image, and everyone was like hey guys. whats phase 3 whats going on pls explain. and to this day no one knows what phase 3 is <3 we will not say unless someone guesses

anyway if you've read all this thank you so much in indulging me and listening to me talk nonsense about friendship shenanigans (<- idk how to spell in english but i might have gotten it right). it was truly a wild time where rory was normal and luna and i were unhinged and drove rory into our unhingeness. i miss it incredibly and i wanna do more of that with you and them and all my little computer friends. or maybe we could jsut have a sleepover. idk but all i know is that if i knew you all in real life we would have the best laughs and the best times of our lifes and we'd just have so much fun. like if all of you bring this much joy in my life just by resharing the same posts as each other and replying to each other, imagine what it would feel like if we could all have a picnic or a roadtrip or just a day out at the mall even.... anyway this is getting sappy and i need to go to bed. ty for reading or sorry!!!!! now that we're friends i'll invite you next time we plan an international cyber-prank

HELLO OKAY !!!! apologies 2 my followers in advance but i need to immortalise this bc truly. this is the pinnacle of careful throughtful tomfoolery i'm very impressed

first off i'm all for the resuscitation of mika discord there really are sooo few of us on here !! mouaylor collab would be incredible and i need to see this shirts if they exist lmfao. also doing this while moving u are SO STRONG thats incredible !!!

anyways again the amount of thought that went into this.....the reblogged posts the turning off web view the following each others mutuals.....i would trust u to pull of a heist i think. sounds like a wild day and yesss would love to participate in international cyber pranks or sleepovers (or both simultaneously) w u all !!! truly i think that we'd have the most wonderful time if we knew each other irl the shenanigans and vibes would be unmatched <3 (i am living in constant fear of phase 3 now. its gonna haunt my every click on this site)

[simplepotatofarmer]

Hiii

Im a coward so anon ask and you dont even have to answer or anything

But i saw your post of taking a break and not to forget you and saw it as the perfect opportunity to show some love

You are such a backbone of this community, i think you were one of the first blogs i followed when i found dreblr back in the old days :))

And honestly i find tumblr really confusing with everyone changing their names and icons and everything (don't get me wrong i love it here, but its pretty hard for me to connect in this community as it is so ever changing. i have no idea who half of the people i follow are 'cause they looked different when i first followed them. And even if they are the same i just can't remember all those handles and the names people actually use and their pfps etc etc its. A lot.)

And you are like one of these constants in my tumblr experience, coming across a post or reblog of yours is like this breath of relief of seeing a familiar face in a crowd every time. Just like a little reminder that yes, im still in the right place ^^

So nahh no forgetting take as many breaks as you need and want, we'll be here when you get back ^^

this got buried and i'm sorry i only saw it now but thank you so much for this, anon <3 <3

and it's funny because i was just thinking how it's been three years and i'm still here, blogging about the same little guys with same url and the same profile pic (with one tiny addition). it makes me happy to know that people find comfort in that <3 <3

thank you and i'm glad you're still here!

[apparently-artless]

making edits for small fandoms is kinda my thing as of now. it feels like i belong in a small community with neighbors i never interact with but see all the time. the fandom is so small that just getting over a hundred interactions on the post is already a miracle in itself. like when i see their urls on my notifs and think to myself, oh, it's them again reblogging stuff for this precious tiny fandom. it makes me happy too when people would try watching the series because of my posts and reblogs for that particular fandom. and the greatest reward? i gain mutuals that share the same passion. so to all other users making edits/content for the small fandoms, thank you for all your hard work! and thank you for sharing your talents!

[theneighborhoodwatch]

So far all we've managed to find is:

"Write hello"-main page

"Reverse this image of sally"-sallys neighborhood page (we tried all sorts of things to her image but nothing worked)

"Turn the Playfellow Exhibition upside down"-Exhibition

"Write 'OK'"-stickers

"Move Barnaby"-transcripts

Someone also pointed out that the spiral behind home supposedly grew.

(context)

hm! okay, that's about everything i've found so far too, minus "reverse this image of sally." i tested a few things - typing either "ok" or "hello" as the password to the staff only page yields no results, and the "it's in here" on that page still leads to a 404, so that's probably a dead end for now. same goes for the guestbook, since it's still closed. it's possible that this update is still a work in progress? i've never seen one go up before it was ready, though.

i cheated a tiny bit and took a look at the sitemap, too, but no new pages seem to have been added. it is probably worth mentioning that the yxwvoe pages now redirect to the same urls but with the word "delete" attached (ex. "voywex" becomes "voywexdelete") i don't think this means those pages are scheduled to be deleted soon, but probably best to archive them and download any audio/video from them just in case.

"reverse this image of sally" .... y'know, i did have an anon try to tell me about a sally pic they found somewhere on the site, but i admit i never got back to them after the first ask because i suspected that they were pulling my leg (it's happened before.) i never did delete the ask though - i'll pull it up now in case it turns out to be relevant somehow.

EDIT: i should mention that i don't think the spiral's actually grown? it looks the same as it did in the july update. (side note, i'm thinking about this now, but the black underneath home - wouldn't it be more accurate to call it a growth, considering that it's more of a substance than anything else in other contexts, i.e. the question answerer's office? food for thought.)

[tangledbea]

Some time ago you mentioned you have a ton of Rapunzel art, and I remember seeing a New Dream wall painting too. Do you have some other New Dream or maybe Eugene art?? I need some inspiration XD

Also, thanks for the kind words about my URL on my last ask! <3

Oh man, I have So Much New Dream art (and a tiny bit of Eugene solo art). XD Some of it's official, some of it's fanart, a lot of it isn't even on my walls, because I don't have space, but I have every intention of putting it up someday. Prepare for a lot of art with brief explanations:

Bought at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA:

The top one was bought at Off the Page in California Adventure. It's actually got dimension, since Rapunzel and Eugene are cut out and raised on some thick foamboard. The bottom two were bought at Wonderground Gallery in Downtown Disney.

From Walt Disney World:

While I have not been to WDW since 1989, I have friends who go frequently, and over the years, they've picked me up stuff. Top left: a wet paint sign they used to use regularly (I'm sure they've change it by now). If the painters were working, and you asked nice, they'd often just give you one or more. I painted the frame, and my sister made the bead garland. Top right: A card handed out at a Valentine's Day event. The other side says "True Love". Bottom left: A parks map and guide. Bottom right: Tangled cards from the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom TCG that they no longer do.

Official art from various sources:

Top row: I don't remember the artist, I'm sorry. I've had it for years, though. 2nd row left: a lithograph print of the official art for the Disney Fairytale collection. 2nd row right: two (of five) lithographs that came with the pre-order of the blue-ray at the Disney Store. 3rd row left: a lithograph print of the official art for the Disney Fairytale Designer collection. 3rd row right: LE lithograph of concept art. I don't know what the lithograph was for, but I literally just bought it the other day off eBay. Bottom left (left): wedding silhouettes. Fanart, and unfortunately the artist closed their shop. Bottom left (right): The certificate of authenticity for the 17" Rapunzel wedding doll. Bottom right: two "wedding invitations" from the Disney Store from when Tangled Ever After was going to be released to video.

Briana Garcia:

Left: she used to sell it as a print. Right: A one-of-a-kind gift that a friend got me.

Misc fanart and gifts:

Top left: from that same out-of-business silhouettes artist (I glued them to the sparkly paper myself XD). Top right: a completely black-market print of the first Thomas Kinkade Tangled painting. Middle: This is actually highlighting the wanted poster, which I meticulously recreated. But hey! Life-size standee! Bottom left: a card from a friend. Bottom right: a sticker my boyfriend got me a few Christmases ago.

[lacefuneral]

hi!!! i love for custom blog theme,, do you have a link to the code or creator 0:?

ya!

so my theme is actually a heavily modified version of redux edit #1 by lopezhummel (current url: holyaura). i always remind users that most tumblr themes are old and that you'll need to replace all instances of "http://" in the code with "https://" so tumblr will save the theme. i had to do it with this one

these are the modifications i made to the theme. i edited this theme over the course of at least a year or so and don't quite recall how i did all of these things. but to the best of my ability:

i moved the "left side img" to the right side of the screen. i also made this element "responsive" so the image will never get cropped when you resize your screen. this was a bitch and a half to figure out and i truthfully do not remember how i did it

i deleted the text in the drop-down navigation so it appears as a little line that is otherwise not noticeable. this type of theme, the "redux edit," used to be very popular because having a drop-down menu let you cram a bunch of links that lead to sub-pages on your blog. i've done away with my sub-pages, but i still like the format of the "redux style" tumblr theme, for its minimal UI and for its customization options.

i separated my mobile description from my web description for formatting reasons. basically, most elements in tumblr themes are connected to specific text fields and toggles. i simply went to the section that was connected to my blog description and deleted it. the web description has to be manually typed inside of the CSS/HTML editor when i want to change it. whereas my mobile description is whatever i type in the "description" box of the normal tumblr theme editors.

i added code someone else made ("NoPo" by drannex42 on GitHub) which allows you to hide posts with certain tags on them. i did this to hide my pinned post, as it looks bad on desktop.

i replaced the tiny pagination arrows at the bottom with images that literally say "next" and "back" because the arrows were far too small/illegible. i know they aren't centered in the container i'm not sure how to fix that lol

i added a cursor

i installed a working music box ("music player #3" by glenthemes), and then added music by uploading MP3 files to discord and then using the links of those files as the audio sources. iirc i also had to make this element responsive and i aligned it so it would sit on the left side of my screen. i made the "album art" for each one the same strawberry pixel art

the moth is just a PNG i added and then moved around so it was behind my sidebar using the options that came pre-packaged with the theme

if you want something like the strawberry shortcake decoration at the top (called "banner" in the theme) your best bet is to google "pixel divider"

theme didn't support favicon so i added that in so i could have a little heart

ALSO:

this theme is. really weird about backgrounds. any background that i have ever set for it, i've had to do weird shit in photoshop. like making the background HUGE, mirroring it, etc. - because it would crop the image weird, or there would be a gap where there was no image. idk man, it's haunted. i'm sure there's a way to fix this but i am NOT tech savvy enough. anyway, patterns are probably your best friend. and if you DO want something that isn't a pattern, it's going to take a lot of trial and error. but i love this theme so i deal with it 😭

the sidebar image and the floating image do not scale. if your image is 1000 pixels, it will display at 1000 pixels. you'll either have to edit the code so that the theme scales the image for you, or resize any images before you add them

my white whale of theme editing (aside from the Weird Background thing) is that i cannot get infinite scrolling to work. i have tried every code out there. all of them break my theme. it makes me sad because like. i have music there for a reason. the idea is that people would listen to it while they scroll. unfortunately, the way it's set up now, the music will stop every time someone clicks "next" or "back" 💀

anyway sorry for rambling but i hope you enjoy the the theme and customizing it in the way that you want to!

[telumendils]

things that will always make me assume a blog is a bot/spam account and not a real person:

the url is a keysmash, a name + random numbers, or a series of random words that tumblr probably generated itself

there is no blog icon ↪ there is a blog icon, but it's of a random beautiful woman

there is no blog title ↪ there is a blog title, but it's the same name/words as the url

there is no blog header image

there is no blog description

there are few or no original posts ↪ there are few or no original posts, just a tiny handful of reblogs

(any combo of the above tbh)

if you don't want people to flag your blog as spam and block you, i recommend doing the following:

come up with a unique url that reflects a personal interest

give your blog an icon. it can be clipart. it can be a picture of a tree. it can be anything as long as it's not a random beautiful woman.

give your blog a header image w/ the same guidelines as the icon

give your blog a title that's not just repeating your url

put something in your blog description that sounds like a human wrote it and not a machine (even just saying "hi i'm here to lurk and that is all!" can be enough to let people know you're real)

make a few unique posts or reblog things regularly using tags so folks can tell there's a person behind the postings

i realize this is kind of annoying, but it is necessary tbh. at least for me, as i've been having to block/report 500+ spam accounts per day for like four whole days straight now and i'm losing my mind. if you don't make it clear you're a person and not a bot on tumblr you're gonna get flagged and/or blocked. it's kill or be killed out here and you will be just another casualty of war.

[visualtaehyun]

Of knights and sunflowers

This started as mostly translation detail bits from ep. 6 but turned into a whole meta along the way when I started seeing a theme so strap in!

Disclaimer: I'm still learning Thai so feel free to correct me 🙏

The subs in part 3/4 point out that Joke is using the polite male ending particle ครับ /krub/ with Zo but it's not the first time - ever since the first scene of this episode, he's been using it on and off, clearly in an effort to sound more sweet and polite, but still in combination with the rude informal pronouns กู (guu)/มึง (mueng) that they use with each other, which makes it sound a bit funny but cute.

Now, there's kind of an important through-line in this episode, related to this, that gets a bit muddled without knowing what the article Zo read on his laptop was talking about, so here's my attempt of a translation:

" You are currently reading: 'Friend Zone' You've done so much good/done so well, why can you only be a friend?

Sometimes we might have an equation (*an exact, algebraic match as in '=', equivalency) in some things concerning a relationship but when it comes to matters of the heart and feelings, equation (*) might be more complicated than that

In the world of 'friends secretly in love with friends' being a young man who's really good/nice, being someone who keeps being right beside (you)/close-by, keeps secretly and quietly smiling to himself when the other party is happy, keeps being someone who is ready to do anything for the other party to be happy - it seems to come naturally. No matter if it's someone secretly in love with a friend in POLYCAT style (a Thai band with several songs about being in love with a friend, site in Thai), as in being a friend who will gladly be 'secretly' in love forever, or if it's in the category of lamenting that 'I'm being everything for you' but why have you never been anything to/for me like Room 39 (another Thai band, the song referenced is เป็นทุกอย่าง (Everything For You)). Deep down then, the motivation that makes young men become such good 'friends' (hurts like hell, right?) probably lies with thoughts/ideas and plain equation (*) that [...] "

I'm not 100% on this article's tone/stance. But the songs referenced and some of the way the article is worded make it sound the same way Zo describes the meaning of sunflowers to Nita this episode:

ความมั่นคง /kwaam man khong/ = subbed as steadiness; also security, stability

เฝ้ารอ /fao raw/ = subbed as patience; เฝ้า means To watch over/guard/protect/keep vigil, it's actually the word Joke uses when Pat comes to stir the pot and Joke says he's not jealous, just keeping an eye on Zo! รอ means To wait, stay, remain

ภักดี /pak dee/ = subbed as loyalty; also allegiance, devotion

อยู่เคียงข้างกันแบบนี้ตลอดไป = subbed as commitment to always be there; "stay side by side/beside each other like this forever"

The words Zo uses here are all applicable to the teeny-tiny words in the URL of that article up there: a white knight. They're all related to being chivalrous!

Throughout this episode we see Joke taking care of Zo in various ways, being attentive, respectful, patient, loyal:

But Joke is also like a sunflower the way the page Zo searches up suggests: ความมีชีวิตชีวา = energy, vitality, vivacity, liveliness ความสิ้นหวัง = hopelessness, despair

He often only focuses on Zo, like a sunflower always facing the sun, he tends to pay no attention to people around him as well as himself.

Sidenote: The fight with Kot was a prime example of this tunnel vision but that scene struck me as super odd with how personally Kot took a harmless quarrel that Joke and Zo have had countless times over trying to get Zo to taste new foods. Not that Kot knows that but still - considering how ใจเย็น /jai yen/ (lit. cool mind/heart; Calm down, Take it easy; Compose yourself) is so ingrained in Thai culture, that was quite the outburst on Kot's part, and I'm not sure if there's actually more to it than we've seen so far. I mean, Pat too just suddenly showed up next to Joke all buddy-buddy and knew exactly which buttons to press. Keepin' my eyes on these two - and Jeng too, saying he's single and giving his IG to those freshmen!

It didn't surprise me one bit that he's the jealous type because it fits right in with that image of a steadfast loyal guard.

Joke said "I'm trying to be better, for myself and for you" and I can definitely see that in the way he flip-flops between respecting Zo's boundaries and giving him space vs. clearly wanting to push and prod those boundaries, a thing he's been doing ever since the first episode but has dialed back on now that he wants to make Zo see just how much he cares about him.

I think wanting to push is honestly just in his nature but what factors into this struggle is Zo's behavior, in my opinion. Joke is watching him closely and sometimes Zo doesn't verbalize what he wants but his body language makes it clear anyways so Joke naturally follows and pushes.

Just look at Zo wordlessly letting Joke into his dorm, all he says is Joke's name, then opens the door wider for him:

Zo sitting basically in the middle of the couch, legs crossed in Joke's direction, so Joke pushes his leg up against his:

Zo moving the pillow over closer after Joke pulled his away to give Zo more space:

Zo smiling and wordlessly turning around to be spooned which Joke assesses for a moment and then reacts to:

ไม่ตอบแบบเนี้ย แปลว่าโอเคใช่ป่ะ = (You) not replying like this means (it's/you're) okay, right?

He makes sure to check in verbally and yet! Zo doesn't reply to that in words either.

Joke often second-guesses himself now so we see a lot of Joke responding to what Zo is putting down and thus pushing -> Zo suddenly looking like a deer in the headlights, always accompanied by the heartbeat sound to remind us that he's out of his depth with how fluttery-nervous he gets -> Joke reacting yet again by pulling away and repeating ค่อยๆ คิด (= Take it slow, Consider it carefully, Think it through step by step) which-- at this point I'm not sure if he's saying it to Zo or himself lol

Next week's gonna be interesting, linguistically! From the preview I already heard some Chinese-Thai specific words and Teochew/แต้จิ๋ว (the largest group of Chinese-descendant Thais, and their dialect) when Joke is talking to his grandmother (อาม่า /aa maa/ = grandma in Teochew/แต้จิ๋ว). I'm out of my depth there but if there's anything I love it's finding out more about Thai language and culture~