#sorry about my ranty soapbox

[caffeinelemur]

ur tag about being picky ruining vacations rings so true. i remember going on a trip with my best friend and he took me to an italian restaurant (pasta is my safe food) and because i couldnt make it myself i had to sit there with his whole family eating and me with nothing and they all questioned it so fucking awkward 😭

Yeah my stepdad has this crusade against my “eating habits” that’s grown in intensity and stupidity since I was like eight. At first it was something between eating with the family/making me eat healthy/vegetables? (Was forced to eat food I didn’t like for several years + has a strong gag reflex + literally cannot eat things I don’t like, why would you do that) Or something, but then it also became fights during trips bc I just wanted my safety/favorite and he wanted to eat at some random fucking place in a different state that doesn’t serve food I eat anyway, and then I got Diagnoses™️ and he decided I made all of them up and lied to my doctor to get idk what attention and meds? and when we told him my doctor diagnosed most of that without me prompting it he was like it’s bc nutrition like bitch I don’t think my samefood gave me bipolar.

Anyway, we barely go anywhere and whenever we do I can’t even get excited bc I’m just like. We’re gonna fight about food the entire time and eventually I’ll just tell them to go do whatever they want and I’ll not eat anything for lunch and stay in the car bc I’m tired and overwhelmed and take a car nap with my noise cancelling headphones on loud music playing all I wanted was to spend like seven to eleven dollars to eat a decent amount of food and get a big ass drink but no now we’re doing this. You can still go you your fucking choice I’m not making you eat my food leave me in the car with a ridiculous fast food order a huge soda and music and fuck off to your own food adventure I’ll be dandy, but no. (My spectrum in a different flavor mother tries her best to get me fed somehow and is probably the only one between the three of us keeping me alive, and all she gets is anxiety. Sorry mom.)

Also somewhere right before high school I gained a fun new eating disorder and between that and my always reliable forgetting-to-eat I kept dipping below into underweight, so my doctor told me not to worry about healthy vs junk or anything right then just try to focus on eating something even if it’s chips or whatever. I had a timer on my phone to remind me it was like 11 or 2 or smth maybe try a snack?? I brought a snack size bag of chips for lunch every day it’s all I could figure out. And mom heard this and was like ok, nightly McDonald’s runs aren’t a battle anymore bc she knew my cardinal rule of food is no matter what I can and will eat McDonald’s. Like even at my most ill can’t look at a cracker I can and will eat that hamburger and be fine. I got back up to barely technically but still healthy weight for a little while bc of it. Eat your samefood your doctor says it’s fine if anyone says otherwise throw a nearby object at them and run this is the moral of the story I think

In college I survived off fast food someone helped me get and vending machine payday bars. Like I can’t drive and I lost half my silverware in that move when I was seven so now I’m running on like three spoons max. I’m like a scrungly raccoon with opinions. Little garbage rat only takes pizza from that one place’s trash. Alley cat that is too tired to try anymore and keeps coming to your porch bc you gave me something out of pity once.

My things with my foods is I will have I Can Have This Specific Thing From This Specific Place, or I Like This Sort Of Food Generally But I Have Extreme Opinions About It. Sometimes they overlap. Examples: I mention McDonald’s. I only ever order the same thing. Very specific. It’s a Hamburger (I won’t go into detail). I can eat other hamburgers but Generally I don’t want to and have opinions about them. If you do it Correctly at home it’s fine. Other places I don’t really like. On the other hand, I Have Extreme Pizza Opinions but I have several places I’ll eat at that qualify. It’s one of the easiest of my samefoods probably to find in a pinch, we just do research and try. I really love pizza so maybe I’m more open to figuring it out than I am w hamburgers bc I’m not like I love hamburgers it’s I love specifically McDonald’s lol. I also have a samedrink and it’s Dr. Pepper, which sadly is bad for my long term health and I’ve had fights and lectures about this for eons as well, but it’s far too late now and I don’t give a shit.

[kim-ruzek]

The thing with having the 200th focus on Kim is exactly what you said and what ppl are missing the point about. So much of Kim's storylines are tied to the other characters of the show. Beginning with her partnership with Kevin, her back and forth with Platt, her relationship with Adam, trying to prove herself to Voight. They have clearly tried to show her interacting with Hailey more and well Torres like you said is still very new so that will build. A "Kim episode" will have everyone in it!

I looked through my asks after getting my most recent one and I saw this and was like oh! I had completely forgotten all about this one, I was really meant to answer it and I'm sorry it's taken me this long!

My original draft had me go on a bit because I drafted it when I felt a bit ranty but this will be shorter because I'm not so ranty rn (more excited and just giddy that idc about Those People).

I'm glad you agreed with how I see it. It's something that's still irking me, that people keep missing the point on why this is a fantastic idea to celebrate 200. It's not about it being character centric, it's about it being Kim-- that's why it wouldn't be hypocritical if it was another character because it's all about context. (And I'm not even going to get into the hypocrisy that before announcements happened last year what I saw a load of people wanting the 200th to be about only to turn around and complain now.)

I do want to touch upon something else! It even makes more sense now we know more about the episode. It may be still character centric but it's definitely not the average run of the mill episode and I think that needs to be appreciated. Because there's a lot that goes into making an episode special for a milestone.

Anyway that's me getting off my soapbox before this does descend into me being ranty. Thank you for sending me this, it's always nice to see when people see things the same way I do! 💕

[iero]

3 yrs ago my sister got the flu shot and I didn’t. She was sick for a week. I was sick for a whole month, double ear infection (NEVER had an ear infection b4) felt the worse!! I remember it so clearly bcuz I woke up January 1st puking my guts out (sorry tmi) and couldn’t keep anything down. Had headaches & fever & chills & felt so weak!! After that I always got my shot, every year. The vaccine is introducing the dead virus to your immune system so that if you catch the real virus it’ll kno what to do. I’m getting my 2nd dose of the Pfizer on Monday & I couldn’t b happier although I’m sure I’ll get symptoms. I’d rather b sick for a few days then get COVID and die or live with a deteriorated quality of life. Young heathy ppl with no previous health issues have had to have lung transplants! Their hearts are messed up! No thanks dude. Health is something so important. Sorry if I got ranty, I’ll get off my soapbox, feel better!

Oh yeah, I always get the flu shot every year because I cannot afford to get the flu. I know people who have gotten the flu and they were bedridden for at least a week, some up to a month themselves. Very sorry you got super sick like that Karen, but at least you know now to get the shot every year instead of having to go through being sick like that again.

Good luck and congratulations on your 2nd dose of the vaccine on Monday! I got the Moderna, but I've been told the list of potential side effects for Pfizer are just about the same. Make sure you have some water, have at least some food in your system and get plenty of rest if you do start to fall ill from your second shot. Right! I've been told that younger folks are more prone to side effects then older people, but I don't know if this is fact or not. I know I did get ill for a good almost 2 days, but I am feeling much better and I'd do again if it means being protected from this. It's okay! You're allowed to rant. Thank you so much and good luck/congrats again!

[saltminerising]

(prev anon) also man. sorry to soapbox in a drama blog inbox at 3:18am but. the wildclaw crow subspecies allegedly* being based on clearly East Asian aesthetics/ culture and having them being (knowing) disease carriers/spreaders? Big Yikes.

Ik that the creator had literally no way of knowing that the pandemic would happen but it really sucks to be reminded that some people really think that “my type of people” caused the pandemic. in a fun dragon pet game.

even without that it’s still just fuckin weird ngl. the creator allegedly not being asian would be uncomfortable, if it’s true. but even if they are the fact that any old white person can participate is still not great.

I can’t help but feel weird whenever I see them/ the creator. which sucks because the subspecies is very popular and the creator is also a talented and popular skincent artist. I feel conflicted about potentially buying skincents from them, because I’m worried I’m overreacting? or that if I voice this off anon I’ll just be seen as a stick in the mud clutching pearls at nothing.

idk if this is too long/ranty so feel free to not publish it if it is. I just wanted to type out those feelings lol

[imtherealsebastiansatan]

"This obsession for "unproblematic cinamon rolls to protect at all cost" is for millenial teenager girls who know nothing about real life outside what they read on tumblr. " THIS. It's completely annoying when they apply it to every man they see doing something cute or sweet. It's finally died out a little but it still pops up a lot and just annoys the crap out of me. That & anyone that uses "prolly" instead of probably or "cray cray". Wow, that got a little ranty. Sorry. Off my soapbox now.

[christinaroseandrews]

Part 4

This is the last ranty Part, I swear!

You can read Part One here! Part Two is Here! Part Three is Here!

When we’d left off, the heroes -- and I use that term lightly -- had separated to pursue their own leads.

Mary joins forces with Minnie to go check out the lead that she got from a witness who used a tanning bed and that’s where he was robbed by the Assassin. The author goes into loving detail of each business in the strip mall which might as well be flashing a big giant sign of “THIS IS IMPORTANT PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!!!”

And if you’ve watched The Accountant you know why... A car wash, a tanning bed business, and a strip club are all cash heavy businesses. And this is where the connection to that movie becomes even more pronounced... do I think it’s deliberate, no. But I’m pretty sure that the author was influenced.

Anyway this scene was filled with more of our favorite thing ever... body shaming!

And remember, it’s not just one character who does it it’s all of them!!! Let’s count how many in this one scene alone...

Mary and the dead assassin.

Minnie!

Random car wash cashier.

Yep so much body shaming.

So while the body shame train is going on, Crash has managed to track down the guy they refer to as Mr. Turtleneck.

While he studies the family (and fat shames a little girl.) He waxes poetic about his life...

Badly. So.. I want to know where the streetlights are out in the desert and on boats. I mean there are some right around the exits/towns/harbors which you can see from miles away. But most of the time there isn’t much out there.

He beats up Mr. Turtleneck in front of his daughter and dislocates his arm... because that’s what good guys do.

Or they do if they’re named Jack Bauer.

Pretty much.

But thanks to it, we get some info.

Now while the detail is good, it highlights another quibble, “white” shouldn’t be capitalized when referring to Caucasians. There is no universal White life experience. No shared background. Whereas Black has a distinctive culture, shared experiences, and challenges. Most white people if you ask them “Where do you come from? Or where did your family traditions come from?” will answer with a European country. They identify with the country of origin. Most Black people can’t do that because of Slavery. So their shared experience comes out of Slavery, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and Black Lives Matter.  This article explains it better than I can.

And I’ll get off of this soapbox now. And it’s a quibble. The style guides and dictionaries are on the fence about this. But here’s another good reason not to... White Supremacist  websites capitalize White. So it depends on if you want to be counted among racists or not.

So while I ranted but ultimately gave the author a pass for racist language/connotations for the “White” thing. I can’t for this.

Yep... the G-word strikes again.

Please. Please. Romancelandia... stop using the G*psy to describe your characters or style of dress. The Roma community have asked people to stop. I’ve ranted about this before. This is a harmful stereotype and it is not okay to use anywhere.

But this is just the beginning...

Brace yourselves. This is going to get bad. Like Really Bad.

They go back to the strip club.So of course, there’s more body shaming...

It’s almost expected at this point.

Then we get this description for a Black man.

Which is so problematic I can’t even...

They find the first hijack victim and beat him up... again. Because they haven’t done that enough. And because they think he’s the boss.

Spoiler Alert... he isn’t.

Mary has a flash of insight and realizes what’s been staring them in the face the whole time.

Yep...

Oh but it gets worse...

So we have four super problematic tropes in play right now and I kind of feel I need to break down why they are so bad.

1. The Good Guys are white. The Bad Guys aren’t.

Even though the ultimate big bad is white. Every other evil or bad character in this story has been a Person of Color. This feeds into a racist narrative that the only good people are white people. This is how a Black man got killed when trying to stop a white shooter.

2. Homosexuals are Evil and Depraved.

By making both the Assassin and the Big Bad gay. It’s feeding into the narrative that gays are bad. That homosexual people don’t have morals. That they don’t have a conscience. That they are wrong. This leads to so many hate crimes, but it also leads to suicide by gay people who feel that by being their true self is shameful and wrong.

3. Bury your Gays.

Aka the only good gay person is a dead gay person. Every single homosexual person is murdered. It doesn’t matter that they’re the villain. They’re killed. And the supposed Hero gets away with it.

4. Fridging.

Fridging is when a love interest is killed to cause a man pain. That’s what happened with Conte (the Assassin) the only reason he existed was to die to cause the Big Bad pain and make him want to take revenge on Crash and Mary. In most cases, it’s a woman. But it can happen other places. It turned Conte into an object. And objectifying is bad. It is always bad.

So yeah.

I bet you want to know who the big bad is now...

Remember the super neat Lawyer from before? The one who had a Pergola and Mary wanted to father her children? Yep... him.. (Hi all Lawyers are Evil trope)

Mary and Crash rush to confront the big bad and then we get this lovely bit...

Mary has the worst case of Plot Convenient Clumsiness I have ever seen... and I’m including Bella Swan in this.

Her bout of clumsiness means that the Villain can capture her and threaten her. It also means that the hero is given permission to kill him “because he didn’t have another choice...” yeah.

But no hospital. No cops. And no consequences.

There’s a half-hearted attempt to reform Crash. And it is magical. As in it takes place entirely off the page.

The story ends as it began... with more fat shaming.

So good to see that Mary hasn’t changed any. Even though her character was set up from the beginning to have a redemption arc. She never does.

And now that I’m done with this book. I just need to write the actual review review.  And then I will be able to purge this book from my life.

Feeling sorry for us?  Consider buying us a coffee!

[sleepy-herbal-prince]

WOW, ARDEE SOAPBOX TIME

This is from a conversation through several posts with @witchlockmonsterfox (and you can chime in any time you want, as I said, to let me know if anything I’m saying is out of line as someone who doesn’t have firsthand experience with this, since you know it and I can only work based on what I’ve been told by you and others who DO have that firsthand experience) but I was honestly getting SO DAMN RANTY that I felt like I should move it to my own blog. >> Sorry...

But yes.

The whole point of having things like the DSM in the first place was to figure out the general range of symptoms and then allow for diagnoses that were streamlined, regardless of bias, so??? why can’t they just do that??? I mean, it’s literally down to social constructs now, it isn’t even about the actual safety of people with ASPD or the safety of others around them. It’s about how people are afraid that they might have something in common with the way that someone with ASPD thinks and god forbid they don’t shut that down and dehumanize it right away, lest they be wrong.

The whole thing just pisses me way off. If I wanted to , I could pursue a career in psychology, but I honestly don’t even know if they’d let me stay if I was in it for more than year because I LITERALLY CANNOT IMAGINE how I would keep my hatred for other people in the field under control. I could help a lot of people, but not if I’m in jail, you know? Which is why I went for tutoring, especially people who have physical/mental disabilities, because those people are shut down by everyone from family to medical professionals and I will take up arms against people who hurt my students any day.

I’m sick of this planet.