the-mythology-of-me

[the-mythology-of-me]

One of the newer daycare teachers at my center was complaining about a specific child - who has a lot going on we’re still trying to map out, but definitely some type on developmentally divergent on top of attachment issues with their single mom.

Anyway, said kid, a little under 4 years old, was resisting doing art, which was really upsetting the one one teacher when the other (who’s worked with this kid for over 2 years) was basically like “Ok, not today, this isn’t a good day for you.”

One thing I do when I find kids at the center resisting my instructions is asking “Why” - on me.

Why am I asking this child to do something?

“What they are doing isn’t safe” and “What they are doing is harming another child” are obviously good reasons for me to pursue my point.

“Maintain structure” is, honestly, generally a good reason, where “structure” is the regular rules and expectations of the class and schedule.

Having a predictable structure helps most children feel safe, because they don’t have to be the adult and decide what is going to happen - their teachers are the ones that set boundaries for safety, have their physical needs met, and create expectations that allow them to develop patience and delayed gratification.

But forcing a child to participate in an activity? Not just “now it is art, because we do art every day” but “you must do art??”

Asking my “Why, what is the child getting out of this” devolves down after a few levels to:

The child has to learn to comply over their own mental health.

Even the more experienced teacher who let the one kid sit out and rest from art is irritated when children refuse to sit quietly during Circle Time, which pisses me off because all the trainings I’ve taken on Circle Time say “have a quiet activity optional for children who don’t want to sit and participate.”

Sadly, as I was discussing this with my other Autistic coworker at closing, we agreed that “Conformity despite mental health” is a primary rule in modern education, and both of us despite being aware of the obvious issues with this are powerless to even motivate major change within our own center without taking “Room Lead” roles.

Which we both agree would break either of us. 😓

[the-mythology-of-me]

[the-mythology-of-me]

I am yet another wayfaring tumblrina here from your post analyzing the two kinds of DND players, and I am here to ask: what are some of your favorite TTRPGs and their different features (both in terms of straight mechanics and the kinds of storytelling they tend to produce), and do you have any advice for branching out for people whose knowledge of TTRPGs is primarily limited to DND actual play shows and one ill-fated attempt to put together a DND party in high school?

@lifeandtimesoftrying Some games I like(this list is DEFINITELY colored by my particular tastes, but there's cool stuff out there for basically anyone. feel free to ask for more specific recs if there's something you have in mind.): tumblr seems to not like the formatting of this post so I will break it into a chain of several smaller ones.

[the-mythology-of-me]

Seeing @thydungeongal constantly wrestling with people interpreting her posts about D&D in ways that seem completely alien to me has convinced me that there are actually multiple completely distinct activities both being referred to as "playing D&D" Before we begin, I want to stress that I'm not saying one of these groups is Playing The Game Wrong or anything, but there seems to be a lot of confusion and conflict caused by people not being aware of the distinction. In fact, either one works just fine if everyone's on the same page. So far, I think I've identified at least two main groups. And nobody seems to realize the distinction between these groups even exists. The first group of people think of "Playing D&D" as, well, more or less like any other board game. Players read the whole rulebook all the way through, all the players follow the instructions, and the gameplay experience is determined by what the rules tell each player to do. This group thinks of the mechanics as, not exactly the *whole* game, but certainly the fundamental skeleton that everything else is built on top of. People in the second group think of "Playing D&D" as referring to, hanging out with their friends, collaboratively telling a story inspired by some of the elements in the rulebooks, maybe rolling some dice to see what happens when they can't decide. This group thinks of the mechanics of the game as, like... a spice to sprinkle on top of the story to mix things up. (if you belong to this second group, and think I'm explaining it poorly, please let me know, because I'm kind of piecing things together from other people saying things I don't understand and trying to reverse engineer how they seem to be approaching things.) I think this confusion is exacerbated by the fact that Wizards of the Coast markets D&D as if these are the same thing. They emphatically are not. the specific rules laid out of the D&D rulebooks actually direct players to tell a very specific kind of story. You can tell other stories if you ignore those rules (which still counts as "playing D&D" under the second definition, but doesn't under the first)And I think people in both groups are getting mad because they assume that everyone is also using their definition. For example, there's a common argument that I've seen play out many times that goes something like this:

A: "How do I mod D&D to do [insert theme here]?" B: "D&D is really not built for that, you should play [other TTRPG] that's designed for it instead" A: "But I don't want to learn a whole new game system!" B: "It will be easier to just learn a whole new system than mod D&D to do that." A: "whatever, I'll just mod D&D on my own" And I think where this argument comes from is the two groups described above completely talking past each other. No one understands what the other person is trying to say. From A's perspective, as a person in the second group, it sounds like A: "Anyone have some fun inspirations for telling stories about [insert theme here]?" B: "You can't sit around a table with your friends and tell a story about that theme! That's illegal." A: "But we want to tell a story about this theme!" B: "It's literally impossible to do that and you're a dumb idiot baby for even thinking about it." A: "whatever, jerk, I'll figure it out on my own."

--- Whereas, from B's perspective, the conversation sounds like A: "How do I change the rules of poker to be chess, and not be poker?" B: "uhhh, just play chess?" A: "But I already know how to player poker! I want to play poker, but also have it be chess!" B: "what the hell are you talking about? What does that even mean. They're completely different games." A: "I'm going to frankenstein these rules together into some kind of unplayably complex monster and you can't stop me!" ---

So both people end up coming away from the conversation thinking the other person is an idiot. And really, depending on how you concieve of what it means to "play D&D" what is being asked changes considerably. If you're only planning to look through the books for cool story inspiration, maybe borrow a cool little self contained sub-system here or there, then yeah, it's very possible to steal inspiration for your collaborative story from basically anywhere. Maybe some genres are kind of an awkward fit together, but you can make anything work with a little creativity.

If, however, you are thinking of the question in terms of frankensteining two entire board games together, then it becomes a massively difficult or even outright nonsensical idea. For example, for skill checks, the game Shadowrun has players roll a pool of several d6 at once, then count up how many rolled above a target value to see how well a character succeeded at a task. The whole game is full of specific rules about adding or removing dice from the pool, effects happening if you roll doubles, rerolling only some of the dice, and all sorts of other things that simply do not translate to rolling a single d20 for skill checks. On a basic level, the rules of the games work very differently. Trying to make them compatible would be much harder than just learning a new game from scratch. Now, neither of these approaches is exactly *wrong*, I guess, but personally, I find the rules of TTRPGs to be fascinating and worth taking the time to engage with all the weird little nuances and seeing what shakes out. Also, the first group, "TTRPG as fancy board game" is definitely the older and more widespread one. I kind of get the impression that the second group largely got into D&D through actual play podcasts, but I don't have any actual data to back that up. So, if you're in the second group, who thinks of D&D as basically a context for collaborative storytelling first and a game second, please let me know if I'm wildly misunderstanding how you approach D&D. Because I'm pretty sure it would save us a whole lot of stupid misunderstandings.

[the-mythology-of-me]

I finally made the meme I've had in my head for over a year

[the-mythology-of-me]

PRIDE MONTH IS UPON US... AND THE CATS MAKE THEIR RETURN FROM THE SHADOWS.

All designs are available as shirts, stickers, mugs, pins, blankets, tapestries, and more on my Redbubble and TeePublic shops. This year I've added the aromantic flag as well as two options for the aroace flag. Invite one of these snarling beasts into your home today, and let's go bite throats.

All purchases go to support a starving queer artist. Thanks! ---

WHERE TO FIND THE CATS Redbubble | TeePublic

[the-mythology-of-me]

[the-mythology-of-me]

[the-mythology-of-me]

I haven't been able to catch up with DW yet but I LOVE this art!

Hello, Starman ✨

Ko-Fi

Ramble below the cut :D

Well, Ncuti has my vote for best smile of all time. He's so pretty <3

It was so much fun to work on this. I had to frankenstein my own reference together, so the light is probably not very accurate. That's okay because I am now blind from staring at this for 40 hours it looks lovely :D Also, mid century modern is one hell of an aesthetic and I love it.

[the-mythology-of-me]

Minnesota’s Giant Rainbow and Leather Pride Flags

June 28, 1998. Both flags measured approximately 50 feet wide and 75 feet long.

[the-mythology-of-me]

Light-Up Lamp Earrings // Five Volt Logic

[the-mythology-of-me]

Moments in time, preserved through sentiments Twitter | Ko-Fi | Patreon

[the-mythology-of-me]

I am not autistic, but I do have ADHD and these same issues affect me a lot. My son is autistic and experiences similar problems.

Autistic Inertia is an autism experience that makes it hard to start, stop, and switch tasks.

It somehow doesn't get talked about enough - so I made this comic!

YouTube • Instagram • Twitter

Also, if you want to read the research study I based this comic on, it’s right here!

[the-mythology-of-me]

there's something so relatably tragic about kaiju. imagine you're big, so big that you become a danger to people just by existing. it's not your fault you're this big, and maybe even it's humans' fault you're this big. maybe you're even in pain.

you have special abilities that no one else has, but they only ever seem to destroy things and hurt people. and maybe you want to hurt people. maybe people hurt you, and you're lashing out against them. but then again, maybe you don't want to hurt them. maybe you just want to live. maybe you even want to be the hero. but even when you get your chance to be the hero, the people you save still try to hurt you.

no matter what you do, you're still big. too big for people. and you scare people. you scare people, so they hurt you. but it's not your fault you're so big. and you can't seem to escape them, the people. they're everywhere, and in more places every day. all the humans that are so very small but hurt you all the same. usually not enough to kill you or even seriously injure you, but enough that you feel it. and they won't stop at anything until you're dead.

and you're the only one quite like you. maybe the first of your kind, maybe the last. and it's amazing, but so very lonely. you might find others as big as you, but they never seem to be the same as you. and usually you just fight them, because you're both too big and this world is too small. you might make some friends, but even still, they'll never fully understand what it's like to be you. but then again, maybe it's enough that they understand what it's like to be too big.

[the-mythology-of-me]

[the-mythology-of-me]

Hi! I am Paisley, a disabled parent moving back home with my disabled, 7 year old, son and our new puppy. We are a queer, polyamorous, neurodiverse family. In the past week, my partner and I split up after 4 years and the decision was made for my son and I to move home to Arkansas from our current place in KCMO. This has happened very suddenly, and I was not prepared to finance a cross-state move.

Looking at the expenses (U-haul, gas, food, moving supplies, and a dumpster), it looks like we will be needing something in the ballpark of $1500. I am including my PayPal and Venmo info at the bottom of this post. Please share! We are looking at moving on Memorial Day weekend and we need funding as quickly as possible to secure the truck and dumpster. Any contribution, whether monetary or just sharing , is appreciated.

So far, we have reached $100/$1500 goal.

PayPal: @secretagentlovely

Venmo: @J_Paisley-Gray

Thank you!

#personal #donations #charity #fundraiser #fundraising #paisley gray #moving #moving fund

[the-mythology-of-me]

In the 1960′s Legally a woman couldn’t

Open a bank account or get a credit card without signed permission from her father or hr husband.

Serve on a jury - because it might inconvenience the family not to have the woman at home being her husband’s helpmate.

Obtain any form of birth control without her husband’s permission. You had to be married, and your hub and had to agree to postpone having children.

Get an Ivy League education. Ivy League schools were men’s colleges ntil the 70′s and 80′s. When they opened their doors to women it was agree that women went there for their MRS. Degee.

Experience equality in the workplace: Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women produced a report in 1963 that revealed, among other things, that women earned 59 cents for every dollar that men earned and were kept out of the more lucrative professional positions.

Keep her job if she was pregnant.Until the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978, women were regularly fired from their workplace for being pregnant.

Refuse to have sex with her husband.The mid 70s saw most states recognize marital rape and in 1993 it became criminalized in all 50 states. Nevertheless, marital rape is still often treated differently to other forms of rape in some states even today.

Get a divorce with some degree of ease.Before the No Fault Divorce law in 1969, spouses had to show the faults of the other party, such as adultery, and could easily be overturned by recrimination.

Have a legal abortion in most states.The Roe v. Wade case in 1973 protected a woman’s right to abortion until viability.

Take legal action against workplace sexual harassment. According to The Week, the first time a court recognized office sexual harassment as grounds for legal action was in 1977.

Play college sports Title IX of the  Education Amendments of protects people from discrimination  based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial  assistance It was nt until this statute that colleges had teams for women’s sports

Apply for men’s Jobs   The EEOC rules that sex-segregated help wanted ads in newspapers are illegal.  This ruling is upheld in 1973 by the Supreme Court, opening the way for women to apply for higher-paying jobs hitherto open only to men.

This is why we needed feminism - this is why we know that feminism works