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I'm serious. Okay, maybe it's not intentional, but it's absolutely the effect of it. The skills that are needed to run are both NOT related to actually serving (mostly) and are COMPLETELY antithetical to how ASD people function. Not particularly great for ADHD people either.

It's a months-long process of staged social interactions, interviews, speeches, thinking quickly on your feet, being able to deliver on-the-spot little 2 minute sound-bites that are perfectly formed in TOPIC-details-RESTATE-TOPIC packages, and dressing and acting just exactly how society says you should dress and act.

Stupid, I say. So so stupid.

Don't judge your candidates based on whether they can spew crap like a human version of ChatGPT for exactly 3 minutes! Elect the awkward person who can autistically deep dive on the topic you asked about for an hour without looking at their notes. THAT would actually get you some results!!

Our entire elections process is set up to weed out neurodivergent people

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Our entire elections process is set up to weed out neurodivergent people

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Sorry not sorry.

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I thought about this for a loooooong time. Getting a fandom tattoo is a dedication I didn't take lightly. But Discworld has such a special place in my heart and has been with me for way over 20 years, so here I am.

I knew what parts I wanted in it but I'm not an artist and had no idea how to bring them together. So imagine my delight when I saw @maikaartwork's call for clients and their awesome work (go check out their instagram).

I could not be happier with how it all turned out, from sketch to finished art under my skin. It hurt like a no tomorrow (it's needls after all) but Morgan was so mindful, kind, and patient, the whole process was honestly a delight 💕

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🚨 E-BOOK "AUTHOR" IS PLAGIARIZING PILGRIMAGE FICS 🚨

Buckle up, folks, this is gonna be a long one.

Our prolific author, @relicshamecircle (aka EnduringParadox on ao3) has been made aware of an e-book "author" named Layla Moran who has been blatantly plagiarizing her Diarmute fanfics and just changing the names and a few words around. This is absolutely unacceptable. I always like to think of this fandom as a safe haven and an accepting, kind community. But this is disgusting.

These are the three specific works listed on Layla's account that have been plagiarized from EnduringParadox:

This seems to be the work of someone within the fandom, because how else would she have found these fics and read them and decided to pass them as her own? So Layla Moran, if you follow me and you're reading this, you have made Pilgrimage fanfic authors, who are already so few and far between, feel unsafe to post without you getting your greedy hands on them and trying to take advantage of a small fandom for your own profit. Did you think you would never get caught? My advice to you would be to take down the works yourself before this has to get nasty.

To everyone else, I urge you to report and/or leave one-star reviews stating that they're plagiarized from fanfic. Links and proof below the cut:

The summary of The Beauty and His Beast:

Which is CLEARLY An Invitation to Happiness:

Ugh, Everild and Camdyn... what ugly names. But I digress. Here's the link to the GoodReads page if you feel so inclined to leave a one-star review and report.

An excerpt from An Invitation to Happiness, EnduringParadox:

"David hadn’t fought for glory or gold. At the time, he thought he’d stood for God—that the king’s cause, which he so readily made his own, was not only legitimate but justified both on earth and in the eyes of Heaven. More than five years later, carved into adulthood by the sword’s blade, his body a hardened knot of scarred skin, his throat ravaged by his own roars of rage and anguish, David knows better. That he had gone to war simply because he had been foolish. Because he’d been a young man but had still looked at war with a boy’s eyes—half a solemn duty, half a game. Something that would be done and done with satisfaction."

An excerpt from The Beauty and His Beast, Layla Moran:

"Everild Reed hadn't fought for glory or gold. At the time, he thought he'd stood for God--that the king's cause, which he eagerly made his own, was not only legitimate but justified both on earth and in the eyes of Heaven. More than five years later, carved into adulthood by the sword's blade and burdened with the weight of his choices, his body a hardened knot of muscle and scarred skin, Everild knows better now."

--

The summary of The Rancher's Mail-Order Husband:

Which, obviously, is Bluebells and Daylillies and Wild Roses Running Rampant:

Come ON, even naming Diarmuid's character "Ciarán"???? (And misspelling it Ciarian in the summary??) Here's a link to the GoodReads page. You know what to do.

And THIS ONE she's making money off of. You can buy it for $2.99 on Amazon.

Here's a link to the Amazon page, please report.

An excerpt from Bluebells and Daylillies and Wild Roses Running Rampant, EnduringParadox:

"David had almost joined their company. He’d gone nearly the entire war without being shot and damned if near the end of it all someone hadn’t gotten him right in the leg. The surgeon had told him they needed to take the entire limb. David had grabbed his collar, pulled him close until they were nose-to-nose, and gritted out that he’d break every one of his fingers if he tried it. He kept the leg, earned a limp, and found later, when he was beset by memories and the scent of blood and gunpowder, dizzy, pulse racing, that he’d gotten what they called the soldier’s heart, too."

An excerpt from The Rancher's Mail-Order Husband, Layla Moran:

"Graham had come close to joining the dead himself, narrowing surviving a gunshot wound to the leg near the warn's end. The surgeon wanted to amputate, and Graham, fueled by desperation, had snarled at him through gritted teeth, threatening to break his fingers if he so much as tried. He kept the leg but earn a limp that followed him everywhere, along with something the doctors called 'soldier's heart'--a condition that left him shaking, sleepless, and burdened with memories of blood and gunpowder."

--

And, finally, a summary of The Warrior and The Monk:

Which is just Temu how rich the earth, how bright the stars:

Here's a link to the GoodReads. Rate, report.

An excerpt from how rich the earth, how bright the stars, EnduringParadox:

"One morning, strangers in longships stepped onto the shore. Their arrival was no surprise. Along the sea's coast they drifted, slow, languid, in their monstrously large and narrow vessels with their monstrously large, woven sails dyed in bright, garish colors, a beacon to all that saw them, telling them—as their longships loomed like a pack of wolves stalking their prey—that they were coming."

An excerpt from The Warrior and The Monk, Layla Moran:

"One early morning, strangers in longships silently stepped onto the shore, their presence casting a heavy weight upon the land. Their arrival had been anticipated for days, maybe longer, and was no surprise to those who dwelled in the monastery overlooking the coast. The ships had been visible for miles as they drifted slowly, languidly, along the sea's edge, cutting through the waves like beasts with a purpose. They moved in their long, narrow vessels, which seemed both too large and too lean, with sails woven from thick cloth and dyed in bright, garish colors that stood out against the pale sea and sky. The sails themselves were like beacons, drawing attention,"

--

This is all so blatant and egregious. Shame on Layla. EnduringParadox is a kind and dedicated person writing all of these wonderful stories for our small fandom for FREE and Layla has taken advantage of that. We are small but we are mighty and protective of our own. Let's make Layla regret fucking with Pilgrimage.

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it's gonna be MAI (2023)

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This is the best one

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change does not come from a place of comfort

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agreeing with this description of the very rich and want to add, and there is something pervasively entitled and cultural with the American upper-middle class (of COURSE I should be able to lease a new car every three years and go on an international vacation every two months and be in the middle of a $50k kitchen remodel and eat out constantly and send my kids to private school that costs $20k-$40k each, but OH MY GOD don't you dare tax me so maybe I have to skip one of those vacations just so "those people" one town over who are poorer and don't live like me can have healthcare and education and enough money to not lose their job if their 12-year-old car breaks) and it makes me want to strangle something

and so many people who aren't upper-middle class seem to think these things are the Goal and bring happiness and unless you too can do them, you cannot be happy

basically everyone wants to pretend like they are also extremely wealthy, and what does that say about our society, when so many people want to chase this unhealthy goal of acting "rich" instead of just living in a way that's fulfilling (live so peacefully, mind my own business, wear my little outfits, just feed birds) and also paying taxes so your neighbor can also live in way that's fulfilling

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the Dweezil & Ahmet Zappa cover of "Baby One More Time"

What’s a cover song that you think is better than the original?

I’ll start with my controversial take that the Chris Stapleton cover of Nothing Else Matters is better than the Metallica one

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What’s a cover song that you think is better than the original?

I’ll start with my controversial take that the Chris Stapleton cover of Nothing Else Matters is better than the Metallica one

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sorry i never replied. everyday is blending together and im losing sense of time

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People will tell you the opposite of this, but fuck keeping your characters at an emotional distance so you won't hesitate to do brutal things to them. Whether or not the book itself is good or bad as a whole, you've got to love your characters, and I'll always rather read a bad book from a writer who clearly loves the characters they write about, than a fine book by an author who's smug about being indifferent to them. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be putting your characters in situations and through horrible torments. It should be more of a "my son loved your drawing so much that he ate it" sort of thing.

You should love your characters the way a bored labrador loves their favourite human's shoes. Nothing is more fun to chew to pieces.

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Look man, I don't know. There are a lot of fascist fuckwits trying their best to ruin everything for everyone right now. There have often been a lot of fascist fuckwits trying to ruin everything for everyone. Not to downplay the pain and trauma we're all feeling at having to struggle through this particular go-round when the future looks especially dark, but it's not exactly a new thing in human history. Alas.

There are still many, many people telling the fascist fuckwits to eat shit. There are still long green spring evenings and slow golden summer afternoons and winter nights and autumn leaves. There are still coffee shops and weird little bookstores and small businesses on sidewalks lined with flowered trees. There are still sunrises and sunsets and blue skies and ocean shores and mountains. Oh yes, there are still mountains, which I have an especial fondness for. High up there in thin air, you can see forever.

There are still Gay People In Your Phone and texts and in-jokes. There are your blorbos. There is still fic and fanart. There are still books and music and games and art. There is a lot of art. Even with the AI beast trying to gobble and commercialize everything, there's still art! There are still people who think using your own brain to do things is important! There are still universities and publishing houses and other places where it's our job to think about things that matter!

There is still work that feels fulfilling to do. There are still constant little moments of quiet and beauty and rest. There are still jaw-dropping pictures of nebulae and galaxies and the great immensity of space, as we continue to learn things we never knew before. And amid all those stars, there is still a tiny, beautiful, and vulnerable blue planet which we only get to live on for a very short time, and there are still kids who are counting on us to make sure they get to inherit it in some kind of recognizable form. There is still the weird fact that when you give someone a hug and sit with them for a while and tell them over and over that it will be okay, it actually feels like it might be okay. I think that all means something.

Doomerism is really easy right now. I get it. I honestly 100% do. But I also don't see any point whatsoever in throwing up our hands and letting said fascist fuckwits gleefully terrify us into submission and make us live in fear and act like they're the Actual Meaning of the World (they are not). They suck so incredibly hard, but they're also so small and so stupid and so ultimately insignificant. They will not define this particular moment if we don't let them, and if we stick around to make sure they don't. Fuck 'em. I believe in you.

Courage, etc.

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Rating the various fits of Nathan Charles Summers, aka the man called Cable

“How do you do, fellow kids.” 3/10, mainly for the crop top

It’s the Y2K wraparound shades for me. I’m convinced this man has a closet just for sunglasses and I need to see what he’s got in there. 7/10

The vest is criminal but somehow I can’t be mad 6/10

I can’t pinpoint why this one is so funny to me. Maybe it’s the hair. 5/10 he looks like the director of the most pretentious film you’ve ever seen

This one is crazy. The blue fedora/bucket hat to the v neck to the gloves to the white checked jacket with the popped collar and the weird pockets?? It’s so bad it somehow wraps around to being iconic. 10/10

9/10 for Nathan Summers, esq. and I KNOW he dressed Sam too. Sam’s gets a 4/10 for the tie and the color choices

This is during the point in the continuity where he’s starting to lose the faith of the New Mutants, so I can only see this as an attempt by him to look more “professorial.” It’s either that or he put these clothes on specifically to go into the library and contemplate a book. I wouldn’t put either past him. 11/10 and love that he gets called out for this one

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Comics Victor has precisely two braincells, and they are Vicious and Horny, and Logan triggers both of them at the same time

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I have heard at least one astronaut say that seeing Earth below you in space changes you. You realize just how small humanity is and just how precious Earth is.

Feels like ever piece of this art is reflecting that.