#because otherwise some of our profit would go to me

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

I just want to keep my job even though I don't know how to make memes. Buy our coffee. We've got holiday gifts for the coffee lover in your life.

Awesome Coffee is different because 1. we source our beans directly from small farmers collectives, 2. it's better and fresher than grocery store coffee, and 3. ALL of our profit goes to fight maternal and child mortality in impoverished communities, whereas almost all other coffee makes rich people richer, which is the dumbest thing that can be done with coffee (or other forms of wealth).

#coffee company #i am an unpaid intern #because otherwise some of our profit would go to me #and I don't need it and shouldn't have it #buy our coffee #so I don't get replaced by someone who knows memeology #god I wish I could make better memes #I see young people memes and I feel so envious #not of their youth which is overrated but of their memetic creativity

[thebibliosphere]

I both believe "poor people deserve art" and "artists deserve food", but it's hard to reconcile those beliefs. I blame capitalism. And I suppose it mostly matters who you're stealing from?

I don't mean to question you at all, I'm against people pirating your stories. I guess I was just wondering if you had more thoughts regarding the reconciliation the two beliefs I quoted above.

I think the reconciliation is working toward a future where things are better, and authors and artists don't have to beg people not to steal from them because they think every author is Stephen King, who wouldn't notice if you stole the pennies found under his couch when in reality most of us are hunting for spare change down the back of the couch because we are earning below minimum wage.

We need people to embrace the idea that art belongs to the working class, both in terms of consumption but also creation.

If you don't support the working-class creators, you'll only end up with rich fucks with no scope of the world beyond their own narrow view of privilege.

Indie creators are actually working very hard to change the way the industry works, and the publishing industry is shitting itself over it. They don't like the success some of us are having. It's why they keep upping prices while slashing corners on their own production (while never affecting the man at the top) to try and stay competitive within the rat race they've created.

They're not interested in the proliferation of art. They're not interested in making sure their authors can afford to live. They don't want more diversity. They don't want inclusion. They want profit at whatever the cost.

And while indie creators very much need to get paid because we live in a capitalistic society and everything is burning down around us, and a carton of eggs now costs more than what I earn per hour, our creativity is directly at odds with the type of profiteering big publishers want.

The money should go to the writers. Not the CEOs. The money should go to the workers in the print houses. Not the CEOs. No one needs the kind of wealth these people have. It's obscene. We need direct action against these conglomerates. We need unionization. We need a means to fight back so that we can make art and make it accessible.

So, how do we do that? I don't know. I'm just a very tired, disabled creator doing my best to keep my head above water. But I think getting people to realize that art and books are worth saving up for would be a good start.

That putting money in the pockets of creators is just as important as your own enjoyment of their art. Because if there aren't any artists, you've got nothing.

Getting them involved with their local libraries would also be a great start. Educating them on how the industry works is part of that. The number of people telling me they had no idea libraries paid authors is staggering. And that's intentional. It's a by-product of right-wing propaganda to make you think libraries are worthless and just sap taxpayers' money.

They're not.

If they were, the fash wouldn't be trying so hard to take them away.

Basically, we need working-class solidarity and for certain people on the left to rid themselves of the idea that just because something isn't borne of manual labor, it doesn't have worth. We need the artists and the dreamers as much as we need to bricklayers and the craftsmen. Otherwise, what's the fucking point of it all?

#sorry #this isn't an actionable answer to your question #I don't know what that answer is #I just need people to realize art is not the exclusive creation of the wealthy #and treating it as such is making everything worse

[kanmom51]

Missing Jikook today

Not that I don't miss them every single day, but just saying...

@wonsummernight Miss your edits!!!!!! I know there isn't any new Jikook content just yet, but if there was a time we were in dire need for some heart wrenching Jikook edits, this is it!!!

Basically, this is me telling you "PLEASE COME BACK". 💜💜

So, I came today to cry a little, you know commiserating together with others takes the edge off a bit (note to self: keep telling yourself that, and you might start believing it too...), but also to remind y'all that SM is crap, a viper pit, a cec pool, where all the miserably unhappy ignorant assholes tend to flock to (this is about the assholes that have turned sm into such a place), either to create drama that will get them some much needed attention they aren't getting elsewhere, or to create a parallel universe where their dreams and wants come true, even if they have zero standing in reality. Oh, and I forgot those that are there to make some hard cash, by all means.

And why am I mentioning all of this, you may ask?

Well, because for some reason my hopes and dreams for a fandom cleanse are being shattered as we speak.

As you may already know, I've taken a step back lately. mainly distancing myself from SM, as it's been going downhill for ages now, but has become an even uglier place to visit in the past few months, I'd say ever since it's been known that JK and JM are enlisting TOGETHER and will be serving TOGETHER, basically being in each other's close vicinity 24/7 for 18 months (even if not sharing exact same duties within the unit) and spending off time together . And to clarify once again: Same unit, same posting (base), different duties within the unit.

You'd think that 3 months in, and after the initial shock, reality and truth would set in (even with the most delusional) that these two young men CHOSE to enlist together (free choice and steps taken by both of them to achieve this). And once again me reminding they are the only ones in the group to decide they want to do this and the only idols to ever do so.

But no. Who am I kidding? Probably wishful thinking on my part. You know, that these people will either wake up, smell the roses and just cope with reality, or plain and simply piss off (that's probably me being delusional at this point).

Point being, it's gotten even worse. Like who would have believed that would happen? Yeah, probably should have seen it coming though. When you have cult behavior, when you have those that profit off it (monetarily or otherwise), I should have known it would go this way. The need to dive even deeper into the filth of this earth, to create even dumber narratives, to, of course, spew even more hate towards either of them (depending what delusional team you are on).

Should have seen it all coming.

Sadly, instead of just leaving, tail between their legs, they are doubling down on their utterly delusional beliefs regarding these young men. Not without pain, I may add. Pain, that a small part of me, someone that tries very hard to be nice and good and positive, is now relishing (I lie... not that mall of a part after all). Their twists and turns, their made up shit to compensate for whatever shit JK, JM or Tae are throwing their way... kind of priceless. I mean, if they aren't going anywhere, should we not at least enjoy their demise?

Does that make me a bad person?

Honestly, I don't think so.

And Jikook being away from most of this, lighting the fire and walking away leaving their haters behind to burn, was a nice touch.

Now we just sit here silently wait for our little travel show...

💜💜

#Jikook #Kookmin #Minkook #Jungkook #Jimin #JM #JK #Youtube

[anarchistfrogposting]

I don't consider myself an anarchist but i'm pretty sympathetic, there's just some stuff i'm not sure yet would work well under anarchism as i understood it after reading the bread book.

What would incentivize people to work, for example, at oil rigs away from their communities doing dangerous work?

Would it be that they'd have a smaller expectation for how long they're suposed to work? Like, instead of you working 9-5 for 8 months instead you work 9-5 for 4 months and then can just do things you like the rest of the year?

Yes hi hello! This post re-emerged from the depths of accidental deletion!! I’m getting the bus to go get a burrito so let me talk about this one!!

Kropotkin actually talked about dangerous work; after all, some work is just inherently and unavoidably a bit more dangerous than others: so what’s the point? Why bother?

To start, resource extraction is going to be inherent to any industrial economy, but it’s worth pointing out that when you eliminate a lot of overproduction, an inefficiency inherent to capitalist economy, the demand for extraction is going to shoot down in a big way. That’s a big reason why a lot of the more hardcore environmentalist movements have been radical leftist ones; it’s features inherent to capitalism which are bringing about the downfall of the environment which sustains us.

Another big consideration to make is that a lot of the danger of these fields arises solely because the demands of the profit motive incentivise management to overwork/underpay/cut back on or wholesale eliminate critical safety measures; there’s a reason why unions and collectives in those fields are such critical players in the constant battle to keep people safe.

There are quite a few fields in the domestic/public sector, as well (think electricians, certain waste management professions etc.) which are (and were more so in the past) fairly dangerous but are not generally regarded as such because they’re regulated well in the public domain/have very strong unions/have otherwise strong safety regulation.

This stuff gets safer and safer as we improve the automation of our economy, as well.

It’s worth remembering as well that those remote professions and operations are, in a way, their own communities, as well, and for some people travelling long distances away for more lonesome work is quite an attractive prospect; I once knew a geologist who said he found the relative isolation quite peaceful. My great grandad did some remote mining and he always talked quite positively about it when I knew him (although this is very anecdotal - if anybody in the field wants to weigh in I’d be more than happy to hear what you think).

About hours as well;

If there’s no profit motive, then industrial processes are going to be driven by how to do them as safely, efficiently, and easily (among other stuff). The demand for hours is going to be a lot less tough because you’re going to be able to have more workers and source better equipment without worrying about how it will cut into your bottom line; so yes, the hours will be shorter and the shifts less demanding, with a greater support network and safety network when shit hits the fan. All of this, of course, makes this kind of work a lot more attractive.

But what about dangerous work in general? Why would anyone put themselves in danger?

You just have to look at the tremendous danger that volunteers face to understand that humans don’t really need a profit motive to put their lives on the line to better their communities and the world, or to feel part of something greater than themselves. Not everyone is going to want to do that, and that’s ok, but some people really derive a lot of happiness and fulfilment from dangerous work.

Humanity is flexible and diverse; working together to champion that is our strength, and it always has been.

#anarchism #anarchist #anarchocommunism #praxis #communism #communist #revolution #leftism #leftist #danger #dangerous work #mining #resource extraction #q and a #qna

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

04/22/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Guz Khan; Samba Schutte; Nathan Foad; Rachel House; Happy Belated Non-Binary Parents Day!; Lesbian Visibility Week!; New Event's Calendar; Watch Parties; Fibre Arts Division; Uproar; Fan Spotlight: Cast Cards; Our Flag Means Slay; OFMD Colouring Pages; Our Flag Means Fanfiction Podcast; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika

== Cast & Crew Sightings ==

= Guz Khan =

Guz Khan's landed in L.A.! If you're in the Los Angelos Area, you can still get tickets to see him at The Regent for April 24!

= Samba Schutte =

Samba sending out some love for Earth Day!

= Nathan Foad =

More dashing photos of Nathan Foad in Love's Labours Lost

Img Src: @saritagabony's IG

= Rachel House =

More BTS Pics of Rachel and the kids from The Mountain! Can't wait to see this come to the US! @temaungafilm Instagram Page

== Non Binary Parents Day! ==

Happy belated Non-Binary Parents Day! Sorry luvs I missed this yesterday! You are wonderful, you are valid, you are such a beautiful part of this world. Thank you for all you do for all the kiddos out there, yours or otherwise. Whether you go by Zaza, Per, Muddy, Bibi, or any other of the number of non-binary parent names out there, we love you my dears. <3

Img SRC: Art by Veya

== Lesbian Visibility Week! ==

Today is the first day of Lesbian Visibility Week! We see you lovelies! Each and every one if you is valid, and are a shining star that fill up the skies. Where would we be without stars? We love you dearies!

Img Src: Trans World Of Queer Shitposting Facebook Page

== New Events Calendar ==

The Save OFMD Crew's Even Schedule is Up! Monday and Tuesday are focused on the Fiber Arts Brigade! They're looking for artists to join/donate and or share your work!

Check out Saveofmdcrewmates Tumblr Post for more deets!

== Watch Parties ==

Short Poppies is on the docket this week, and so are a few filler episodes of other smaller roles our favorite Captain has been in!

When: Tuesday April 23, 2024, at 3:30 pm PT / 6:30 pm ET / 10:30 pm GMT

What: We'll be watching A Series of Unfortunate Events Episode 7, and Short Poppies Episode 2!

Looking for where to watch?

Short Poppies - Amazon Prime

A Series of Unfortunate Events - Netflix

Don't have access? Hit me up here at @gentlebeardsbarngrill over dm, or @/AspirantAbby42 on twitter for more info.

= Palm Royal Season 1 =

Episodes 5 & 6 this Thursday April 25: 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET, 9 pm BST

via @lcwebsxoxo on Twitter!

#PalmRoyale

#OurFlagMeansDeath

#SaveOFMD

== Fibre Arts Brigade ==

On June 14th the Save OFMD Fibre Arts Brigade will be holding an online auction to benefit SAGE (an Advocacy & Services Non Profit for LGBTQ+ Seniors)! If you'd like to donate OFMD themed textiles to the auction, hop on over to their Donation Page Src: Saveofmdcrewmates Tumblr Post

== Uproar ==

Uproar is finally coming out on digital & on demand tomorrow 04/23/2024!

Img Src: @/blue_fox_entertainment's Instagram

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards =

Our fabulous crewmate @melvisik has done it again, one more addition to the cast cards! Brett O' Gorman plays the captain "to whom Stede gifted the red suit (which was definitely NOT cursed...)"!

= Our Flag Means Slay =

Only 5 days left to get tickets for the Our Drag Means Slay Livestream! All proceeds go to charity!

Get your tickets here!

== OFMD Colouring Pages ==

More fun colouring pages by @patchworkpiratebear! Thank you so much for designing all these lovely, I've printed several off and my son and I are working on them throughout the week!

== Our Flag Means Fanfiction Podcast ==

The Lore of the Ring Episode is finally here! Special context from Alex Sherman! You can listen on Spotify or Apple Music, link below!

Img Src: Our Flag Means Fanfiction's IG

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies. I hope your Monday wasn't too crazy! I'm gonna keep it short tonight because I am nodding off.

I know sometimes we do things when we're not feeling very well that we regret. I know sometimes we get so far progress wise, but then we revert a little bit because the day was just too much. Sometimes we even say or do things that hurt others, even if we don't mean to, but it happens.

Just remember lovelies that that doesn't make you a bad person.

We all make mistakes. We are all human, and none of us are infallible.

You are going through so much. You are dealing with the stressors of the day, of the week, of the year, of the country, of the global climate, hell you're dealing with the stressors of keeping you and your loved ones fed, and clothed and sheltered, or maybe you're dealing with a physical ailment.

Whatever it is, you're dealing with A LOT. We all have bad days.

Making mistakes is how we grow. Give yourself some grace lovelies, you deserve grace too.

Anyway, that's enough out of me, goodnight crew, I hope your dreams are sweet, and your rest is full.

Other People's Love Notes: @realyogibryan IG / @/michellcclark

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

Idk what tonight's theme is. We watched the Guy Mann episode of X-Files and I just really wanted to add him to tonight's recap. Gifs Courtesy of @fandomsmeantheworldtome and @romantoy

#daily ofmd recap #daily ofmd recaps #ofmd daily recap #ofmd daily recaps #ofmd our flag means #our flag means fanfiction #podcasts #watch parties #samba schutte #nathan foad #rachel house #adoptourcrew #adopt our crew #save ofmd #long live ofmd #ofmd colouring pages #our flag means slay #uproar #fiber arts brigade #Instagram #Spotify

[torturedpoetemotions]

I dunno man something about telling rapists and child molesters 'oh you poor angel, none of the crimes you did were in any way your fault and anyone trying to say otherwise is a poopy head that's literally worse than Hitler, have some tea and a hug!!!'1111 doesn't quite sit right with me. If anything, letting them off the hook like that seems likely to make them think they can get away with it so they'll do it more.

I can only assume this is because you recently ran across one of my posts about restorative justice, so I'm going to pretend for a minute this ask is in any way good faith and tell you: that's not what restorative justice is.

There are two equally necessary parts to moving away from a punitive justice system: prevention and restoration. Prevention is identifying the root causes of crime in society and addressing those to stop more crimes from ever happening, and restoration is addressing the crimes that do happen in a way that focuses primarily on helping the victim recover and secondarily on making sure the perpetrator doesn't re-offend.

And the thing is, we have copious evidence that punitive justice does not deter crime, help victims recover, or make criminals less likely to re-offend. Just look up any study whatsoever on the subject. If it did, the U.S. would have the lowest crime rate in the world, because we punish more of our citizens than basically any other country on earth.

But in fact, our crime rates are pretty bad. Our incarceration rate is ridiculously high. Our prisons are largely for-profit, which means they are actually incentivized to keep people longer and create conditions that guarantee that people re-offend. Which is what happens. People who've been to prison in the U.S., even for a non-violent crime, are far more likely to end up back there, and to become violent, because of the conditions they endure in prison.

Not only that, but the people actually in prison are not, by and large, murderers or rapists. Most of them are there for non-violent crimes such as drugs, or petty theft. Lots of them are there for "crimes" such as existing while black. Less than 2% of rapes are actually punished in the U.S. already. So we're already effectively telling rapists, with our current system, that they can get away with it. They are getting away with it.

And murderers? Look into the number of unsolved murders in the U.S. Or hell, read up on basically any American serial killer. You'll find that the reason they were able to kill so many people is not, as cop shows would have you believe, because they're evil geniuses who are hard to catch. It's because our current system didn't work to stop the crimes until they had piled up so high they couldn't be ignored any longer. Because our current system is not actually structured around preventing crime or protecting anyone except those in power.

And most victims are not restored by our criminal justice process. They are re-traumatized by it. Again, look at any study. Or, you know, talk to someone who's actually been through the legal process from that perspective.

And once you've done that, ask yourself: Are you really worried about restorative justice letting rapists and murderers get away with it? Or are you simply unable to imagine anything else, because punitive justice, while completely ineffective and in fact counterproductive, is all you've ever known?

#punitive justice #restorative justice #crime prevention #punitive justice is not justice it's revenge and control #ask box #anonymous

[the-eeveekins]

I'm seeing a lot of "This is normal for the industry, they don't do explicit queer characters like this, why are you angry/surprised." and to that I say...

Yes, we know it's normal. And?

If queer characters are forever subtext in mainstream media, especially anime in this case, things will never get better for representation. We need shows like this that push the envelope for better representation, even if it's just little by little, so erasing our identities and stories stops being normal. That's why we're angry, because the staff pushed the envelope, gave us a textual explicit sapphic relationship in a mainstream anime that's basically unheard of outside of niche yuri adaptations, and some execs are desperately trying to stuff them back into the old "subtext" box. And we're not going to stand for that.

No one is really that surprised that Bandai took this route. In fact, I think a lot of us expected it, especially those of us who have been around anime, Bandai, and other mainstream queer stories. But shitty corporations are just as allergic to losing money as they are to taking stances on controversial issues, and it is surprising Bandai went this route when it will definitely cost them short-term and long-term profits. That they tried to sweep this under the rug, and tried to have their cake and eat it too isn't surprising, but as fans we can't just let them get away with that. We can't say nothing when companies court queer people and their money with representation, and then turn around and try to deny or erase that representation to appease people who would deny our rights and existence.

So no, I'm not surprised. But I am angry, and myself and others have every right to be. Whether they meant to or not, Bandai's series pushed the envelope for textual and explicit queer stories and relationships in a mainstream anime, and we can't just stay quiet while Bandai tries to walk that back. Every inch of representation we earn is hard fought and we can't just give up that ground by letting things go back to "normal" without a fight.

Sorry for the long rant, it's just frustrating when I see otherwise well meaning people try to even slightly excuse homophobic behavior because it's "normal." Queer people don't need the prevalence of homophobia in the world explained to us. Trust me, we KNOW things are homophobic, we all fucking know.

#g witch #lgbtq #lgbtq representation #sapphic representation #representation matters #queer representation #sulemio

[privatejoker]

dear androgynous or gender non conforming trans people and actually everyone and also you specifically,

in good faith

if anyone is treating your presentation or desired presentation like it's a personal attack against them they are not to be listened to. if anyone is trying to coerce you into being someone who makes more sense to them they are not to be listened to.

for example (one from experience) the trans men who make fun of you for wanting to be androgynous or feminine, who are telling you that you will regret going on hrt or pursuing other forms of transition, who are telling you that by doing any of those things you will then find yourself ugly and that your wants for yourself are unreasonable and so you should never try are only projecting their own misery onto you, their own precarious sense of masculinity and belief in the validity in their personal gender.

the wonderful thing about being trans is that we find ourselves working within a framework that highlights mutability and choice, that not only accepts but welcomes change, that lets you actively create yourself as feels fulfilling and right to you. this goes for literally anyone ever. everyone has the capacity to live this way. some people will pretend otherwise but they are wrong. trans people prove this by just existing. everyone should have the right to choice and should have access to safety and support along with it.

we are all engendered by our choices. you have options. you can mix and match and wait and see how it feels, how others see you, balance what feels safe with what feels right, consider how different places and different people might affect that balance. you don't have to pass if it just feels conciliatory, like it is a hoop you have to jump through, a means of proving yourself before you can present how you want. i mean it. and i am not saying this out of naivety. it may be safer to pass or be stealth or closeted, and you are entitled to your sense of safety. trust your sense of risk assessment. you know best.

you can be "inconsistent" (or perhaps exploratory, fluid) in your presentation or sense of self, you can go on HRT and stop and this can be a step forward in your transition, not an end or a regression. you can simply change your mind. no explanation needed. you are entitled to your own understanding of yourself. you can stop doing anything that feels wrong or uncomfortable. you do not have to follow a script. you do not have to live with restriction.

let me stress this in particular because it seems to be contentious: if hair is an important aspect of your presentation there is no shame in trying to preserve it. you do not have to resign yourself, weather changes that cause you intense distress because it would be very macho of you to do so, or because you feel unable to reach an ideal in the first place. the ideals are not easily attainable on purpose, they are frequently fraught, often they are simply lies. insecurities can be profitable for certain others. there will be people in your life who love you wholly and unconditionally. yes, you, right now. even if it's never happened before for you.

try finasteride or topical minoxidil if you want to (though minoxidil is toxic to cats!) in any case there are wigs. there is hairline surgery. there are scarves. you can be bald, have a receding hairline, thin hair and be beautiful and worthy of love. you! right now! i really mean it. get a tattoo on your scalp of something that you think is beautiful. notably you may regrow some hair with transition or if you stop testosterone.

you can always try anything even if it doesn't work out in the end. there is always the chance that it might. you can mourn any and every loss. anyone who would belittle you by making your grief seem trivial or wrong is Not To Be Listened To.

you do not have to identify as or be trans to do any of this.

you never know but you can always try.

you never have to externalize, justify, explain your internal self to deserve being respected, accepted and loved.

ok bye

#sorry i have recently come into my status as trans gay uncle

[acti-veg]

So I'm trying to get a better understanding of what Veganism is all about, from an ethical standpoint. So, my Grandparents keep chickens pretty much as pets and will regularly give eggs away to family members because they have tons of them. And I'm just curious what the Vegan perspective on that situation is? Like is the main problem with the cruelty of industrial farming or is using animal products in general just blanketly considered bad?

Like I know Vegans do keep pets, so I just wonder what the perspective would be on using eggs or wool or milk or something from an animal that you care for as a pet? Like, if I decided to rescue a sheep an name them and give them a home with me as like another member of the family, would it be considered unethical to use their wool to make yarn for crochet or something like that? Is it different depending on the situation?

The core belief to keep in mind here is that we as vegans oppose the exploitation of animals for human benefit. For welfarists (who tend to be meat eaters or vegetarians) the main issue with animal products is the cruelty involved, whereas vegans tend to be abolitionists, who want to abolish animal agriculture rather than simply improve treatment.

This is relevant for discussing backyard eggs, because those eggs are the result of exploitation. The hens themselves have been exploited because they have been bred into bodies that vastly overproduce eggs to the extent that it comes with a myriad of health issues, they also usually come from hatcheries where male chicks are brutally slaughtered on mass. To then take what their bodies have spent resources to produce, and therefore profit from that situation, is further exploitation on top of that.

Vegans are generally okay with pets on the basis that they're adopted, and that we aren't exploiting them to serve our own interests. You can adopt hens, but the responsible thing to do is to prevent them laying using implants, except in the USA where this is not allowed. In that case, I personally would prefer chickens were allowed to benefit from their own production and those eggs are fed back to them, which restores some of the enormous amount of energy needed to create them. Excess eggs should then be donated to food banks, fed to other rescued animals or donated to vulnerable people rather than thrown away.

Milk is clearcut, since no animal produces milk without first being made pregnant. To keep a steady flow of milk you have to continuously impregnate them, and generally remove the calf so they aren't drinking it all. Dairy cows once again have been bred to overproduce so there may well be excess, but you really shouldn't be allowing pregnancy in the first place, so this is a moot point in terms of what to do with it.

With sheep it is a bit different, while sheep have been purposely bred to over-produce wool, wool is still an incidental part of keeping sheep, they need to be sheared and there is no real way for them to directly benefit from their own production. It is essentially a waste product at that point, like manure. Views differ on this, but I've no issue with a non-profit organisation selling wool on the basis that 100% of the funds generated go towards the care of the animals in question, which is practiced by many animal sanctuaries. Otherwise I think it is fine if someone donating the wool to an animal shelter for blankets, or turning it into warm clothing for the needy.

As a general rule, animals should be allowed to benefit from what they produce, rather than us. In cases where they can't directly benefit, we certainly shouldn't seek to profit from them. The power dynamic between humans and non-human animals, between pet and owner, will always be imbalanced and to materially benefit from that relationship is taking advantage of that power for personal gain. As soon as you're personally profiting from an animal's body, you also have a vested interest in continuing to make sure the animal continues to produce whatever you are profiting from, opening the door to further exploitation or even abuse.

Things like eggs from pet chickens or wool from a rescued sheep certainly aren't the biggest animal rights issues on our radar, but thinking about it in an ethically consistent fashion means that we apply the same values to these situations as we would any human use of non-human animals. Animals do not exist to serve our interests, and we should respect their bodily autonomy in every way that is possible and practicable. In short, we just shouldn't be looking for ways to benefit from our relationships with animals.

#ask #wool #backyard eggs #eggs #pets

[puppetrose]

❤️🏠 The reason why Wally can't see and how Playfellow is involved - WH THEORY 🏠💙

Didn't you find the Live Interview weird?

⛔Warning for spoilers below!⛔

Welcome Home was suppose to be a children's show, a fictional place with fictional made up characters.

However that interview seems to tell otherwise. They treated them like actual people and they responded as their own person.  EDIT: I think some misunderstood this line here. I was stating the obvious and I know interviews like this have happened before, where you interview a character and the character responds, well, as the character. But my point is that the audience believes this was exactly that. A skit. These were just characters puppeteer to speak and do the interview. BUT that we know otherwise. We know Wally and Barnaby aren't just regular puppets. They are sentient but their audience doesn't know this. They believes these characters aren't real and this was just a skit. But, this wasn't just a skit to Wally and Barnaby. We know they are real or sentient/alive so they took this interview as a real interview, not just a skit for the show, despite the audience believing so. END OF EDIT

This is obvious to all of us though, right? We know they aren't just regular puppets. But the public doesn't know. HOWEVER we know someone else who did know. Playfellow Workshop.

Some people believe that Wally just gained sentience, that he's the only one of the members to know they are part of a show. But the live interview states otherwise, Barnaby knew they were part of a show. A popular one at that.

And don't you find it interesting that all the tapes we found were taken from Wally's perspective? As if he had a camera on, or worse eve, inside him. Now why would that be? EDIT: Some believe that the bugs are actually cameras but one thing is for sure, Wally wasn't holding a camera with his hands as we can see in the image below. Both of his hands can be seen. END OF EDIT. Take in mind that all these videos were taken in real life. Not animations nor drawings. Before you freak out, I'm not saying this is all just a show, absolutely not. Where would the horror factor be in that? Let's keep proceeding so you can get a better or more like, worse picture.

When Barnaby walked in and they talked about how they felt with all this new fame. Doesn't it make it seem like they were hired? Like before all this they used to live normal lives?

Normal lives to that which we saw in the videos, daily lives that we found fun and entertaining, and perhaps another company thought the same thing but with the mentality of profit?

The place where the main cast lives, their neighborhood, it wasn't a set. It was real. Just like them. Our main cast, home, the neighborhood, they were not made by Playfellow.

Do you see where I'm going with all of this? Remember this? Keep it in mind.

Another interesting thing was the phone calls. Nobody answered but we believe nobody answered because nobody could answer, I believe nobody answered because playfellow workshop didn't want to answer. They didn't want to spoil the audios they were going to use for their new telephone toy merchandise.

Which is why they seemed so clueless. They didn't answer as if they were recording for a toy merchandise, they were answering like normal. "It's because it was a prank!" I hear you say, but then why did that 'prank' between 'you' and Wally end up in a toy? I'll talk about this in a bit but for now know that Playfellow:

Called them. Recorded it. Implemented it. Profitted.

Invasion of privacy, no? Kinda like those videos where we see their daily lives being recorded by Wally. Speaking of which how did Wally get a camera for this? Did Wally know about the recordings?

This line that he says in his phone call, struck me as weird. How could Wally know we had already called everyone else? I mean, we, the public, never knew it was a prank. We never orchestrated a prank. But Playfellow probably did. Playfellow probably told Wally that they should pull a small fun prank, call the neighbors and not answer.

So then, did Wally know about the Camera? I believe yes, and I believe this is why he is so silent. He knows that when it's recording, he stays silent to not spoil the audio. It is until they directly speak to him, causing him to HAVE to respond, that he stops recording. This is why the videos always and only end when Wally is directly mentioned/spoken to. Or perhaps, once the attention was on him, he stopped recording so the others wouldn't notice.

Fun fact, I made a small joke as I was searching the site saying "Wally's recording function probably makes him unable to speak while it's recording." However I don't think this is the case, I believe Wally stays silent on his own accord. However, I don't see it beyond Playfellow to actually have considered it or done it at a later point.

Playfellow got to Wally first and probably manipulated him and made him believe he had gain new friends, making him unknowingly and innocently gain them material/resources.

Or perhaps Wally did know, perhaps he knew the prank phone call would be recorded, put into a toy and sold. Perhaps this is why the recording seem secretive, as if Wally didn't want the others to realize he was recording. Perhaps he knew Playfellow's business and Playfellow told him it wouldn't be bad until it got bad.

Remember what I told you to remember? I hope you kept it in mind because I believe that Wally knew, either since the start or perhaps Playfellow decided to tell him after they gained his trust, that they were using them and their private lives as a source of inspiration for a children's show, to put it nicely and not disturbingly.

Thing is, at one point, he knew and most likely before any of the other neighbors. Which would explain Wally showing proudly his page in the book. Merchandise inspired by him, how could he not be proud?

There is an outdated drawing of Wally and Barnaby laying on the floor and Wally is reading a book which happens to be the exact same scenario that they were in. Many were confused by it but with my theory I think that illustration now makes more sense, no? At that point Barnaby and the others were probably already working under Playfellow.

I don't think there is a cult. I don't think Home nor Wally are bad guys but instead victims to Playfellow's actions in the name of profit and as the years went by it probably only got worse. Why can't Wally see that well anymore? Playfellow most likely did that, but why? I think I know.

Wally didn't just recently gain sentience, it's being taken away from him.

He's turning into an actual puppet, and actual puppets can't see.

I believe Playfellow Workshop found Wally and the rest, saw their lives and knew the public would love it. Knew if they got their hands on that, they would be successful.

They probably started out slow, recording them without their knowledge, to later on actually going up to them and offering these positions to work with them. I mean, Barnaby said he was made for the show-biz and Sally loves performing. They probably told the main cast that all they had to do was just go on their day like usual and follow a few orders from them.

A few that turned a bit too much. Playfellow, along with Marlo and who knows which other greedy companies, got too carried away, tried to take their sentience, make them more profitable, made Wally's and the rest's lives look amazing on camera but horrifying behind the scenes.

Note how the introductions of everyone else's except for Wally's is in the past tense. Many theorize that this is because they are dead. However I see their death's a different way, I believe Playfellow managed to take away their sentience, turn them into complete puppets to the core. And I don't believe this was a pretty process.

Wally and Home aren't antagonists. They are victims pleading and seeking for help.

There is no cult, just morbid companies filled with greed that would do anything to gain more, even if it meant doing atrocious vile things.

But we can all see the consequences of that with their mysterious downfall and now with the Welcome Home Restoration Project.

And that's my theory.

I know this theory probably has some holes here and there but I hope you guys at least get the gist of what I believe is sorta going on.

EDIT: I got another theory related to this one? Perhaps Playfellow did create these puppets, decided to give them sentience to make things more interesting and innovating or something but then things got too far and the characters started to want their own things, make their own script, which Playfellow didn't like so just like they gave them life, they decided to take it away. The thing both theories share is that they had sentience and was taken away or is being taken away and I bet it was/is an ugly process.

#welcome home #welcome home theory #welcome home wally #wally darling

[dissociacrip]

this turned into a long adhd rant whoopsie

it really does suck how people seem to downplay autism and adhd now lol. autism has been reduced to people who can mask and have low support needs and adhd hasn't really changed from its status as a joke.

i don't talk about adhd much but it probably gets in the way of me being able to function just as much, if not more than autism does (in my personal situation) when it comes to mental disability. not showering enough. not cooking. not cleaning my living space properly. forgetting to brush my teeth. dishes sitting in the sink for so long they start getting moldy. only being able to maybe do 1-3 tasks a day maximum because my brain can't organize itself enough to do more than that. difficulty committing to things and being consistent in overarching ways. being late to things a lot. highly impaired verbal recall so i forget things people say to me, forget verbal instructions, etc. on top of the other acutely stressful situations that come with memory and regulating my attention span (e.g. locking my keys in my car or locking myself out of my house when i have a very limited support network to remediate those situations.)

my meds barely touch this stuff for me and i'm not especially inclined to increase the dosage after bordering on psychosis when i was taking 40mg of vyvanse. i've just become so accustomed to living the way that i do (because my case is pretty bad afaik) so i can't just will myself to be another way. any efforts i make to change or be more organized and routine and consistent end up getting dashed away because i just cannot do it lol. my shit just doesn't work. adhd is a massive barrier between me and being a functioning person or being able to take care of myself. i'm pretty sure would still be a "gross" and unpalatable disabled person even if my muscles worked and i didn't have POTS/etc. that also get in the way of my hygiene and the cleanliness of my living space.

that doesn't even go into how other people react to it. a good chunk of physical and verbal abuse i faced from my family as a child was related to my adhd symptoms. i was diagnosed at a young age but my parents "forgot" it happened and it was never addressed otherwise. i got constantly called disgusting for my hygiene problems and was threatened with violence over it (on top of the times where i was actually getting assaulted.) people take my impaired verbal recall and lack of impulse control irt accidentally cutting people off or interrupting them personally, accusing me of not caring enough when it's something that is extremely difficult to be aware of or manage when adhd is a condition that distinctly involves impaired awareness of your own behavior.

so when i see shit like "just set alarms" or anything else that amounts to "you're not trying hard enough" or adhd not very much being a disability, especially when it's coming from other people w/ adhd, it kinda makes me wanna stab things with knives.

sure, it's not the worst condition ever, but just like most other disabilities, the way it affects everyone who is it is different and some are gonna be able to manage it better than others. sure, there a lot of really fucking annoying people (usually able-bodied) w/ adhd on social media that have large platforms and who very often profit from or encourage liberal pop psych bullshit when it comes to adhd, but it's still very much a disability. it can affect hygiene. it can affect employment or otherwise means of earning an income. it can affect our social lives and whether we have a support system. it can affect whether someone can keep their house from getting infested with bugs or mold. it is very much something that causes dysfunction in ways that aren't nearly as cutesy as the little comics you might see on instagram are drawn.

just remember that.

#actuallyadhd #adhd problems #adhd brain #adult adhd #ableism #j #brain log

[copperbadge]

Hi, I have started a new office job! It's good, I like the people I work with and the work itself but it's sooo different from what I'm used to? I don't always feel I have enough to do, which is partly b/c of the time of year and cause I'm still new, only 30 days, but is this normal-ish? I am trying to be self directed and going thru my responsibilities but somedays, there's just not a lot? Have you ever found that in any of your jobs?

Yeah, a lot of office jobs are like this -- mine have almost all had a great deal of empty space in them. It's not universal for sure, but it's not at all unusual. The only time I've had an office job where I really didn't have any time free during the average week was right at the end of my last job when we were heavily downstaffed and I was doing about three peoples' worth of jobs. Even then, my schedule had some flex to it.

Especially as a newbie you're going to have a lot of downtime because people are giving you time to settle in, or they're trying to work out what they can assign to you, or they're waiting until you're fully trained to start assigning you more responsibility. And you may have less work at this time of year because a lot of people are out of office or for other reasons (this is actually a busy time for me and my crew, because we get a lot of end-of-year donations, but a ton of nonprofit work is backwards to the rhythms of normal for-profit office work).

I recommend never, ever telling anyone at work that you are not busy, however. For one, most people in any given office know that we aren't working at 100% for 100% of the time, because if we were we'd all be exhausted. Two, it means you'll be given more work. :D Which, okay, some of that is "Why work when you don't have to" but some of it is also that it is GOOD to have slack built into your schedule. It means you can ramp up when needed, and also that you get periods of brain rest, and also that you have time to work on independent projects should you wish, whether those are for work or, say, fanfic. I actually at this point tend to lower expectations by waiting to submit work -- I'll finish a project a day early and submit it the day it's due regardless.

In one job, I had to process documents being converted from PDF to Word, then pass them on to our proofer; he could only proof about four documents a day, but I could process about 20. So on Monday I'd process all 20 documents, and send him four of them -- and the rest of the week I'd send him four a day, and write fanfic for hours on end. Occasionally they gave me other jobs to do, but at that job I was essentially paid full time to work one day a week and show up to do nothing the other four.

The average office worker only works four hours a day. In some jobs I've literally booked out those four hours and fucked around the rest of the time. When I needed to, I'd break into Fuck Around Time in order to do more work, but otherwise -- they're paying me for results, not for sweat. As a front-desk receptionist it was baked in, actually; they said to me "There's going to be long periods of time where you are doing nothing. Your job at those times is to entertain yourself in ways that don't make it look like you're goofing off if someone important walks in." I wrote a lot of fanfic and novels, read a lot of books, did a shitload of origami. I loved that job; if it paid better I probably never would have left it.

Eventually, too, you will learn the rhythms of your job and workplace, and figure out when you're most likely to have empty time, so that you can build around it. For instance, on Fridays I get a data document that I have to evaluate and present to my colleagues the following Wednesday. Friday and Monday are therefore my busy days; Tuesday and Wednesday are for work I might have put off during the busy days. Thursday is generally just an open day; I can do long-term work projects, or I can spend the whole day dicking around. If a rush job comes in, I can push work into Thursday to get the rush job done, regardless of when it arrives.

In any case, you have a couple of options for continuing to look busy even when you aren't. If you can read on a computer screen, queue up some books or fanfic (be careful what you access on company internet, of course; I have more free range than most and am not monitored because my job is researched-based and I have to go to some weird shit places). Read newspapers you might have access to, or work on your own writing/creative endeavors on cloud-based apps. A couple of times a year I'd dedicate the empty space in a week to going through old files and organizing them, or cleaning out my email inboxes.

You can also, if you desire, work on independent projects for your actual employer. In my spare time I've built several tools to make my life easier, some of which I've shown to my bosses to impress them. Some just make my work go faster and my bosses don't know that, and don't have to. Again: they are paying for results, not for me to sit there like a booby doing work I don't have to do. If there are ways to streamline processes, you can use the time to think about implementing them (although ask other people they may impact, first). The other day I was giving a mailing list one last scroll-through before sending it to my boss, and idly realized there was a fantastic opportunity to do a little data visualization, so I whipped that up and added it to the email I was sending, like "Hey I also noticed this, see what you think."

For a while, in my last job, I had enough lee time in my schedule that most days I could work my second job as a transcriptionist while at my primary job. That can get perilous and I don't recommend it, but it can be done...

Anyway, be at ease, this is supposed to be the case and it's a great bonus when it actually does happen :D Do your work competently and efficiently and don't worry too much about the empty spots, just take breaks and keep yourself entertained.

#sam works #office work

[aicosu]

Ooh if you’re still taking numbers for the prompt thingie, 14! I adore your writing so much!

"Talk to me, prithy, I know you hath something stuck in that throat, and it's not ocean."

She stares through his soul before ducking her head into the wafts of her hair, scooting backward in aqua and shadow.

No avail.

"Well, fuck." Eddy sighs, sitting down in front of the glass coffin, boots spread.

Don't open the crate. They had decreed. An extra sixty pence for him to turn his eyes away and whistle over his morals. 

He'd taken the gold and opened the crate anyway, as soon as he was out of the city walls.

And it was a fucking mermaid they had him smuggling. A siren of the sea. A Poseidon witch. A femme enchantress who robbed men of mind and blood before drowning them at the bottom of the darkest trenches. 

She looks terrified. 

But isn't that part of the play? She's the most ethereal beauty he'd ever seen in his life, just likes myths said they would be. Then her glowing blue eyes and milk skin framed by golden floss hair was all just the meat under a propped up box with a stick. She'd use them to lure him to a watery death and lay eggs in his chest… or something. 

He doubts she could drown him in less than a trough of water, though. It barely reaches past her shoulders. And she had no space to turn or fold, let alone swim or kill. 

She's stationary and shivering. Stolen and smuggled. 

And Eddy doesn't smuggle people. And… Mermaids were… people shaped enough to fall under that honor code. Exotic birds of fire, beatles made of gold, and dogs that could bark open portals—sure. If the buyer liked animals and not just greed.

His normal fare is usually just illegal spices for the recreational minded. Liquors that controlled dreams for something to relieve a wounded day. Rare books with incantations for better genes and the like. Maybe some rare weapons and metals when he was in a legitimate mood. 

Buying and selling people was sadly common and sadly profitable but not so sadly in his repertoire. 

Til' now.

Accidental, promise. And the bad taste he'd had since stepping foot in the Duke Brenner's caste of forbiddens was a pretty big foreshadow, but one he could feel a rebellious itch against. Something that told him to take the job and ruin it. 

So here he was, in the back of his caravan with an open crate to a mermaid case outside the forgettable village of Pitty Glen, ruining it. 

Pitty Glen, because it is the complete opposite direction of the High Lord Creel's manor he's been directed to take her to, and it's also where his pseudo boy lives. Boy as in knave. Though smugglers didn't technically have knaves, they had accomplices. 

And Dustyn Son of Hender was a good one of those, with his endless tomes and scrolls of legend and mysticism.

"Verily, let's… see what we have here." He waves the Books of Seas at her. 

She bobs ominously in response, siren eyes illuminated like foggy moons. Her eyelashes clump, wet and golden, and the effect is such a detail of humanity. Eddy finds himself staring at the contrast of her very real details to her very unreal ones. The pearlescent skin pressed gently with patterns of scales that come and go with the refracting light. The golden thick of her tail, adorned in flimsy paper wet fins, pink and waving like a lady's chiffon wrapped around her. And the sparkling stones man made and otherwise crowned over her hair. Brooches and coral and pearls and possibly the broken chains of a man's pocket watch—like she had maybe slaughtered some humans and created jewelry from their leftovers as souvenirs.

"Apologies, good fuck, let's just—" Eddy pulls his eyes away because it's rude to gawk at a woman even if she probably eats people. "...see if anything in this blasted thing helps our dialogue."

Turns out the trinkets aren't souvenirs but status. 

Mermaids are actually pretty courtly, even despite the book's pages being littered with illustrations of naked beautiful women with large gnashing teeth and bloody claws—Eddy doesn't appreciate the over exaggeration of their gruesomeness, and flicking his gaze up to the even flow of her sineous scales, hair, and tail: the under exaggeration of her countenance.

They apparently make trade and fashion with each other by gifting all things… sparkling. Shiny was the only name on their currency. And the more one had, the more high up the court they were. 

"So, you're a mermaid lady-in-waiting? Or maybe a duchess of some reef?" he asks, flipping the book to spread its pages against the glass to show her the drawings of different mermaid treasure jewelry. 

She shrinks at first, the underwater jerk fluffing her chest, curls, and gems. But then she's bending close, touching her own little tiara of compasses and rubies.

Eddy stands, looking about the crates and baskets of his caravan, past the other cargo he'd taken on of opiates and weapons, shuffling through his own cot bedding and trunk to find something suitable. Something sparkling.

"I suppose maidens' love for bobbles is true on dry or wet land, ha!" Eddy barks, watching the aquarium case rock with her obvious excitement. She tries to follow the book when he takes it back. "Greetings, condolences, compromises, forgiveness, so forth, so forth—are begun with such gifts. Greedy! But understandable. I too, start all my friendships only if they pay tribute. Granted, I don't have friends, I have customers but…" 

A metal brooch clatters to the floor, stopping beneath the wedge of his boot.

The Templars sword and sheild.

He picks up the richly engraved cape closure and frowns.

"Well, it's not like I fucking need it anymore," he tells it and himself.

When he comes back to the coffin, the siren’s webbed fingers splay on the glass. Long sharp knives’ end nails tapping lightly as she peers close to see what he’s doing.

“Whoa, terrifying. Verily, the book is… not wrong then.” His eyes dart to the codex again and the drawings of bloody, horrible ends to the men who trifle with these creatures. 

But she looks curious. Innocent. Absolutely entrancing.

Gold all over and blue where it counted, she’s the sea itself in the space of refracted light. Even the junk in her hair she’s collected does it’s job, shining and glittering to match the deepness of her eyes and the wetness of her lips. Wetness of her lips—she’s in water, you absolute buffoon. Still. Entrancing,

That’s the point, that’s the point, that’s the point…

He shakes himself. Murderous mythical creature or not, he’s not selling her to some high bidder who will display her in a dining hall for lords and ladies to gawk at for the rest of her life before someone decides they haven’t tasted mermaid morsel or some lord deems her fit for a deadly romp.

And he can’t help her return to… wherever she hails from if he can’t commune with her. 

So this.

Flashing the brooch at her proves worth it. The water inside splashes with her excitement, her eyes on the shine with rapt attention so much so she doesn’t notice the case above her pry open. Eddy drops the metal inside and yelps back when she twists and jumps upon it.

“F-for you! Dear… lady. Y-ye! You fancy that? It's a gift! Want to keep it?”

Curled in her palms, she grins.

Oh.

“Ohhhhhhhh….” he wobbles, staring at her teeth. The incisors are familiar. Flat like his. her canines and the rest however… Sharp and long. A beautiful skin she has, wrapped tight around a body made for destruction. Like engraved plating on a blunderbuss. Gem-encrusted sheaths on blades. Many, many, many blades. “You... you must need those… for something, then.” Egads.

She ignores him though, too busy closing her eyes to focus on attaching his old Templar’s medal to the collection in the crown of her head.

Eddy picks up the book again quickly, reading fast down the passage of gifts. “...once received, placement of parcel upon each siren is denotation of class… huh, hmmm… wrists, no, necklace, no…. hair! AH–”

Royalty.

“Oh, oh no. Oh… god.”

Royalty. Only those of high lineage within the matriarch may crown themselves.

Mermaid… princess.

“Y-you don’t think that would look nicer on, perchance, a lapel or, or, or an earring or—”

She blinks at his rambling, smiling with such grace and poise he’s only getting more and more upset.

Then she opens her mouth again.

But this time he’s not distracted by the fangs as much as he is the note. The singular, sweet, unearthly, and altogether unworldly note of music. Of voice—nothing of any sheet he’d ever known, and he’d known them all. A high-pitched, low-pitched, tuning fork flicked against the chords of time and space and heavens.

Around them, the caravan wobbles in color and picture, and Eddy falls back on the slats, dizzy as the world around him tilts, reverberates, and her face illuminates with a literal sun behind it—Golden and perfect. Oh, mighty sun, sweet maiden, to go to her and let her have him—! To allow him to sink into that noise. He would be so happy, so content—

Whoa—what?

“S-STOP! Stop, stop, stop!”

Her shoulders jerk, teeth snapping shut.

“N-no singing! Uh—”

Singing. Siren. Mermaid. Ships crashing into rock and men getting their face pried off for egg nesting. Bad.

“—I, I’m not, I don’t really enjoy music and, you're not really in pitch for that… diddy. Sorry. I’m pretty particular about… I have a sensitive… bard’s ear…”

She stares back at him, hands wringing through her hair fast and uneven, looking very much like a girl he’s yelled at and now was insulting and not a vile witch who’d just tried to enthrall him into a cannibalistic ritual.

“S-Sorry. Let’s. how about we just… we’ll wait to sing until you know. Never, maybe.”

At least not until he put her back in water and sailed weeks away from her. 

He puts his hand on the glass for recompense, eyes still dizzy with her beauty and whatever that had been.

And… incredibly, without prompt or circumstance, she does too.

Calm and graceful, and smiling full of needles and joy, she matches his rounded, thick fingers with her delicate points and laughs.

And it sounds… Boy, does it sound.

Eddy cries to it. Quite literally the sound of it yanks something up his throat and past his nose until he’s spilling tears. He feels magic in his veins. And not in a dreamy pathetic poet way—no, magic, scroll-full magic with history and weight in it that he knows for sure she is doing it.

“M-maybe no laughing either princess,” Eddy says, scrubbing his tears away with his hair. “That mayhaps be best!”

She laughs again and he curses as he puts his head in his knees and sobs past his own barks of mirth at the ridiculous situation. 

He cries and laughs and stares at the wood of the caravan floor and her again, shining and sweet—and h-how?

How in the realm did he get himself into such a mess? Such a divine mess?

Or is that the Siren’s song talking?

#hellcheer #eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #fanfic #eddissy

[olderthannetfic]

Wait I’m genuinely curious about the mechanisms of this - so I know about ao3 and copyright law, but what about zines? I think the earliest are from the 1970s but how have they, as a media form, survived for so long if they’re also technically breaking the law by profiting off an IP? I get a lot are for charity and companies would be reluctant to sue projects for charity but I’ve seen some being sold that aren’t?

And also what about authors who post early updates on patreon or have patreon exclusive fics? That surely has to break copyright law?

Possibly answering my own question but maybe it’s because companies don’t care about this but I also did live through Nintendo viciously taking down let’s plays because they thought it breached their copyright by disincentivising people from playing the games?

Companies can be really strict about their IPs, so I’m really curious as to how this is happening and how people are protecting their works.

--

Getting away with shit and shit being legal are two very different things. ;)

And, to be fair, shit being illegal and companies threatening you with legal action are also very different things.

The oldschool ones were not for charity. You could make a fair use argument, but most zines survive simply because rights holders don't bother to go after them. Small print runs of physical objects are often not seen as significant enough to bother with. Zine makers often argue that they're only charging because they need to cover the printer's bill. Some prices on old zines bear this out; others don't.

Plenty of zines did get shut down by rights holders, however, from big-for-sff-publishing names like Chelsea Quinn Yarbro to Hollywood types like George Lucas. The reasons ranged from "My historical figure vampire is super original and your random-ass zine is endangering my copyright" (Fuck you, CQY. I'm never reading a page of your crap!) to "I just don't like Luke/Leia for some reason but won't tell you why" (LOL). I hear Lucas went after horny zines in general too. I wasn't around for any of this, obviously, but there are writeups online, including on Fanlore.

I presume modern zines benefit from the greater awareness around fair use and around bad press from suppressing fanworks, but they could still be in danger from big rights holders. Being legal or illegal is less important than who has the money for lawyers. Sometimes, a fan can get a big corp to back off by brazening it out, but you have to tell them your legal name and go "Come at me, bro!" Who wants to do that?

Fic Patreons are not only on shaky legal ground, but Patreon does not allow that use of the site. It's a private company, not a public service, and it can pretty much do as it pleases. Here are the guidelines in part:

Restrictions We don’t allow creations and benefits that violate our terms or policies. You can learn more by visiting our Community Guidelines and Benefit Guidelines. A high level summary of those rules is that we don’t allow:

illegal creations or benefits;

creations or benefits that are abusive towards other people;

creations or benefits that use others’ intellectual property, unless you have written permission to use it, or your use is protected as fair use;

or creations or benefits with real people engaging in sexual acts.

If your fans include people under the age of 18, then please remind them that they need their parent’s or legal guardian’s permission to purchase an offering or membership subscription on Patreon, and that those under the age of 13 cannot use Patreon. We are not required to allow any particular person or group of persons to be a patron or otherwise access Patreon services.

Now, yes, they do make an exception for fair use, but I doubt they'll side with the majority of fanworks creators on their particular Patreon works counting as fair use. (Actually, they might be more lenient on RPF. That "real people" rule is about porn starring live actors, not about RPF.) They might rule in favor of the person selling their fic on there, but they very well might not, and even if you were willing to fight it out in court, you probably couldn't since Patreon would be denying you service on their site, not suing you. They can deny service to whomever they want any time they want.

I don't advocate tattling to Patreon simply because I don't think there's any social contract around respecting Patreon's wishes, nor are Patreons I don't back super visible and in my face. Patreon is built by people who get paid to do that; the extra ethical issues present on AO3 are not present here. I don't really approve, but I'm also not going to go out of my way to rat on people. However, I'm sure that fandom enemies of BNFs with Patreons do tattle. I'd advise anyone monetizing this way to have other contact info for their patrons in case they suddenly get kicked off.

--

Basically, people are flying under the radar, and then periodically, there's a big drama where a rights holder or hosting site destroys everything.

[msexcelfractal]

Some people still think voting will be our salvation. And we say, no, voting isn't going to save you! So they say, "you're supporting trump right now." They think, that we think, that biden specifically is a bad guy!

So they terminate thought and goto their extensive list of reasons why Trump is worse. and the list is real, folks. But the man is not the point! The function of a President of the United States is to stand at the helm of an enormous machine built to purpose: international intrigue, value extraction and labor exploitation. The machine is more powerful than any president - The president steers where the machine wants to go. One cannot be president and do otherwise.

Yesterday, do you think old joe decided personally to send those jets and bombs to israel? Why would he do that, if his job is to deliver you from republican evil? Bernie would have let it happen too. Whoever you elect president is going to do what Presidents do: stand at the helm and keep the global balance of power profitable for American industrialists. Every four years you vote for who will take the job. But the job description never changes!

Americans call this in Greek "rule by the people". Just know that you are not fulfilling your obligation to the people of the world. You have given away your responsibility. You pay taxes to the most destructive crime organization in written history, you vote for one of their two men, you watch them use your money to spread misery across the globe. And you keep going to work! So don't tell me I'm not doing enough because I won't endorse joseph fucking biden!

#us politics #democracy #voting #trump #biden #israel #socialism #this is the last post i'm going to make about electoralism

[lostinfantasyworlds]

Life Update

Heyyyy it’s been a while! I never really expect anyone to notice when I fuck off for long periods of time, but in case you did and happened to be wondering why I was mostly MIA for most of 2023, here's what I've been up to.

The short version: My husband and I sold our first house over the summer and bought our “forever” home! It worked out so much better than I could have hoped, but it turns out that prepping a house to sell and moving = lots of stress and chaos...which caused me to tumble off the deep end mentally for a while afterwards and I’m only just starting to recover.

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Before I elaborate, I feel like I have to give a disclaimer because the last thing I want is to come across like I'm complaining or ungrateful. I'm very aware of how lucky and privileged I am to be a homeowner, so I am by no means asking for sympathy or trying to act like "buying/selling a house is so stressful, woe is me!" I understand that homeownership is a pipe dream for a lot of people, especially in the current economy, and I don't take that for granted. I'm genuinely grateful that I even have the opportunity to be stressed about something like this, but I can't deny that it was stressful.

If anyone is wondering how I managed to buy a house at all, I'm happy to answer that in a separate post. The abridged version is extremely lucky timing plus countless hours of hard work put into fixing up our first house that we bought for cheap back when the market was way more balanced (2016).

When I talk about the stress of last year, it's almost entirely in regards to my own mental health which is something I've always struggled with. I get overwhelmed VERY easily by regular life, let alone when I go through a major change (no matter how positive it is). Every big transition period in my life has triggered intense anxiety disorders and/or depression for me, so that's the main reason why things felt so difficult.

If you happen to be thinking something along the lines of "shut the fuck up, no one cares you were stressed, you're so privileged to even be able to own a house," ...believe me, I've already said to myself a million times. That is part of why I end up so depressed in the first place, because I feel like I “don’t have the right” when my life is so wonderful. But thanks to therapy I understand more about my mental illnesses and I'm trying to be less hard on myself now.

Still, I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea 😅.

---

Anyways! If you want to know more about our house/see some pics, the long version with all of my rambling is below the cut!

The long version:

My husband and I bought our first house in 2016, right after getting married. It was conveniently located right across the street from where we had been living with 4 of our friends (which is how we were able to save enough money to buy a house), but it was in such bad condition that it didn't even meet the FHA minimum property standards so we had to use a special type of mortgage to purchase it. We always meant for it to a long-term flip, planning to live there while renovating it so that we could sell it after a few years and use the profit to buy a house that would be more permanent.

We put so much literal blood sweat and tears into that house. In the beginning we spent every single hour of our spare time fixing up the house. We do all renovation work ourselves because my dad and husband have experience with demolition, electrical, and plumbing. And anything we don't know how to do we just figure out as we go along. The only time we hired a contractor was to replace the roof that had extensive water damage.

(This is the water damage discovered down the whole back of the house a few weeks after we bought it 🙃)

(One before-and-after out of many to avoid making this post absurdly long. The contractors finished the ceiling when they did the roof but otherwise we did all the work on that bathroom ourselves, including moving the shower wall back 6 inches so that the shower door wasn't mounted to the window trim 🤦🏻‍♀️)

Over a few years we worked on remodeling each room until we eventually we got super burnt out, and then the pandemic happened and we both fell into a deep depression. Finally, in 2022 I got myself a therapist and started clawing myself out of the dark place I was in, and at the start of April 2023 we started prepping the house to sell. I had been watching the market steadily increase to absolutely insane levels and knew it was kind of a “now or never” situation, even though I still felt very fragile mentally so I was worried how I would handle such a large undertaking.

I never could have imagined just how amazing it would turn out. We truly couldn't be happier with our new home, it’s pretty much everything we were hoping for and I still can’t believe how lucky we are to have gotten it. I was prepared to have a hard time finding an affordable house. I had heard of all kinds of horror stories and the crazy competition going on in the market was intimidating. I thought we were gearing up for the long haul, and prepared myself for a lot of disappointment. Our house was the first house we put an offer on (the third one we looked at in person) and we somehow got it! It’s insane, I'm so fucking grateful.

The only catch is that it's a lot more of a fixer upper than we had originally planned on buying. I didn’t think that we would ever buy another house that required as much renovation as our first one did, because that shit was intense and we are now in our 30s and very tired 😂. But our new house has so many features that were on our “would-love-to-have-but-probably-won't-find-in-this-economy” list like laundry upstairs and an attached garage (also a pond??!?! We have a fucking pond and I love it so so much🥹). So we knew we could turn it into a home we’d love spending our lives in if we put in the work. Plus it was actually well below our budget (probably because of the condition it was in).

We decided to offer what we were willing to pay, which was well above asking but we still didn't think we'd have a chance because the market is so competitive. I don’t know if our real estate agent just worked some magic (she was amazing), but we were genuinely stunned when she told us we got the house.

(Our beautiful pond🥹 🥰)

After that, things moved SO fast. The timing made it overlap with the prepping/listing of our first home, which was really stressful to juggle all at once on top of our full time jobs. I thought selling was going to be the easy part since the market is so skewed towards sellers right now. And it did go amazingly well once we listed (64 showings and 12 offers in one weekend, fucking nuts?!?!!), but the months leading up to listing the house were CRAZY. I knew it would be a lot of work to prep the house since we had a bunch of unfinished projects, 4 open permits with the town that we needed to get closed, and had accumulated so much shit over the years, but I definitely underestimated how intense it would be, especially with the overlap of buying our new house. I had used up all of my PTO for the year by June in order to deal with house things and felt like I was constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown. I pushed myself way past my limits and knew I would pay for it eventually.

But we made it through the chaos and officially moved in July. Let me just say that I hope I never have to move again😵‍💫. It was 90+ degrees (F), 95% + humidity that weekend, and then POURING rain on the day of the move🙃. But other than that, everything went pretty smoothly! After a couple weeks of getting settled and sleeping in the living room, we started on the renovations in early August.

(Before and after of our living room that we are using as a hobby room for D&D, music, art, etc I love it so much!)

(Before and after of the downstairs bedroom which we use as our office)

We remodeled two whole rooms in about 6 weeks, which was wayy too much. We had been going nonstop since April and by the time we got to October, I hit a wall. Because my mental health was incredibly fragile to begin with, surprise surprise I ended up stuck in another bout of horrific burnout-fueled depression for a solid 2+ months after we finally paused to take a break. I've struggled with my mental health since I was a teenager, having periods of depression, panic disorder, and GAD on and off. Also over the past year, I’ve started to suspect that I may have undiagnosed ADHD so there's a lot going on with my brain. I've always been a very sensitive person, and my mental health is the first thing to suffer if I don't take care of myself.

I started feeling a bit better in December, but then things got crazy again with work and the holidays, so I ended up back in burnout land yet again. Now I think I'm finally starting to truly recover as I enter the slow season at work. We are easing back into renovations but I've been trying to take it as easy on myself as possible to avoid falling back into that dark place, which is why you haven't seen much of me on tumblr. It bums me out, and I often feel frustrated with my own limitations when I see everyone posting and chatting and creating and I want so badly to join in, but I sadly just haven't had it in me for a long time. But I'm still lurking and forever obsessed with InuKag and hope to be recovered enough to participate in fandom stuff more soon!

I've still been writing and drawing here and there whenever I get a bit of inspiration. I actually just finished an Inuyasha redraw that I'll be posting soon! I've also been writing a lot more recently, or at least thinking a lot about my WIPs😂. The main one I've been working on is If It Kills Me, which I am dying to share with you all. But it's a mystery/thriller/actiony type of story with plot points that still need to be figured out, so once those pieces fall into place I will hopefully be able to wrap it up. I'm going to be working on it a lot in February, so we'll see what happens.

I would love to share my other main WIP The First and Last this summer (since it's a summer-based story), but we'll see how things go. The next major renovation project is the kitchen 😵‍💫, so fandom things might have to sadly take a backseat again during that. But I'll still be lurking here and missing you all! ❤️

#personal #home renovation #update #I don't expect anyone to read this whole thing but thank you for listening to me ramble if you do xD #I'm an overexplainer sorry can't help it #anyways I missed being involved in the fandom last year so much #happy to finally feel regulated again #it was a busy year and my brain sucks but it was amazing