anyway since the shitcourse has started earlier than ever this year I just want to say that my stance on kink @ pride is firmly that I'd rather see one hundred leather pups than a single cop at pride, and it is in fact the half-naked kinksters some of y'all are so afraid of who have, in my experience, been the safest people to be around when cops inevitably revert to their default state and start menacing any queers they don't like.

also for all the "think of the children"s out there, I wanna let you in on a little something:

I've taught a human development class to kids ages 10-12 for the last four years. our curriculum covers a lot of topics, among them sexual intimacy. one of our lessons involves looking at non-sexual nude illustrations of people with visible genitalia, as part of a discussion about all the different ways that bodies can look. we don't conceal anything - a child once asked me why someone might want to put a penis in their mouth, and we had a great conversation about how different people like different kinds of intimacy.

some of the kids are curious and have a lot of questions. those kids' parents should be prepared to answer any questions they might have in a thoughtful and age appropriate way, the same way they would if their kid had questions about, idk, a victoria's secret ad or a suggestive music video or a comedian telling a joke a bit above their maturity level.

some kids prefer not to talk about it; I've definitely had kiddos too embarrassed to even look at my very cartoony and poorly-drawn genitalia diagrams. those kids' parents should be aware of that and check in with their kiddos, the same way parents should when they take their children to any large event that could be overwhelming.

and a lot of kids just don't give a shit. especially for the ones younger than I teach, sexuality is barely a blip on the radar and public semi-nudity is something silly at worst - although it's much more likely that they'll be seeing less skin than they would have at a beach or public pool. seeing a harness or a puppy mask or a dildo isn't likely to raise any serious alarm or any questions they can't be answered with "that's something some people like to wear to special events to express themselves" or "that's a toy for grown ups."

what I'm getting at here is that a.) being in the vicinity of a person who's partially dressed or holding a flogger is not in any way innately harmful to children and b.) the comfort and safety of children in public spaces and the ways in which they process anything potentially confusing they may see in those places is always the responsibility of the caregivers who presumably brought them into that space to begin with.

obviously there is a level of individual responsibility to not be a freak to children, and if someone is, like, urinating on kids or purposefully exposing their genitalia specifically to children that's Fucking Bad. but baselessly assuming that this is an endemic problem that must be policed and that queer spaces are somehow particularly hostile to children is uuuh homophobic, and if you think so little of your own so-called community maybe you're the one who shouldn't be attending pride.

tumblr is the only social media site that doesn't crack down on threats of violence because its denizens only do it in very drawn out and lamely prosaic ways that if read aloud during litigation couldn't reasonably be ruled out as just being an insufferable homosexual's creative writing exercise

"I'm going to drive nails into your skull you little freak" <- bad! boring! a terribly actionable threat!

"op i will gnaw through the load-bearing walls of your house while you sleep" <- great! unhinged! contains implications of beaverhood!

when u exit hyperfocus mode and ur immediately hit with every status effect ever

Oh fuck I gotta pee. Wait wait, I can’t stand up I’m gonna fall over. Shit I haven’t eaten in like 23 hours. Damn I’m thirsty, maybe I should— fuck why am I nauseous? Oh, I didn’t eat, right. It’s WHAT time? 3AM? Do I even have time to eat? Shit, I forgot to take my meds earlier. Or did I? Damnit. Why is my head pounding, oh, right, haven’t eaten and I’m dehydrated… fuck I still gotta pee

ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ🎹!!!  

Refers to my mom as “my mother” to show that theres something wrong with me

but i genuninly dont know how to get some of you people to get this but your opinion of what being trans is or what being a lesbian is or what being bisexual is or whatever does not and will not ever effect whether someone is that or not

theres people who identify as trans and will never socially or medically transition. there are people who identify as lesbians who’s partners later turn out to be men. theres trans women who identify as gay men. theres always going to be people who you dont like who identify as the same as you. but you dont get to decide theyre not this or that. because you’re not them.

every day i look at the sink and i’m like seriously? honest to god i have used dishes once again?

this post is not for people frustrated by ppl putting dishes in their communal sink bc “oh i would NEVER leave a dish in the sink.” fuck off you already have your life together you don’t need this post. this is for the slimes and losers whose sinks are filled with the dishes of their own creation. this is for the lazy women, the useless men, the pathetic enbies. get out of here you sparkling clean dished heathens

These other assholes: Oh I hate leaving a mess. Cleaning up actually helps me unwind!

My ADHD executive-dysfunctional fuckin goblin self: I have to perform a TASK? But I just performed a task YESTERDAY!

Some people simply do not understand the profoundly Sisyphean torment that is cleaning things.

Dishes.

Clothes. 

House.

Self.

IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW OFTEN YOU DO IT, YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN. DOPAMINE PAYOFF IS ZERO, THE TASK IS NEVER COMPLETED AND YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO STOP DOING IT EVER IN YOUR WHOLE LIFE.

sick of environmental and climate-friendly movements/fads throwing disabled and chronically ill people under the bus and even outright blaming us for the state of our world. “using albuterol inhalants is poisoning the atmosphere” “people who use non-reusable dishes and plasticware are responsible for landfills” “don’t use plastic straws or straws in general” “walk places or ride a bike or use the bus instead of driving everywhere” “don’t use same-day delivery from amazon” how about “don’t dump tons of oil in the ocean or burn a hole in the ozone or pollute the air with fossil fuels to make a quick buck”? how about “celebrities stop using private jets to fly to your vacation home every weekend so you don’t have to see the poors in commercial”?

like yeah, okay if you can walk or ride a bike or elect to not use straws, by all means, do that. but stop acting like people who DO need to use straws, or drive everywhere, or use inhalers, or eat with disposable dishes etc are the leading cause of global warming because we’re not. corporations and people with way too much money are. stop judging us for existing our disabled, ill lives because we don’t have the same options you do. it’s exhausting.

the linguistic shift from "avatar" or "icon" to "pfp" is bad actually. bring back the implications of ritual significance. cowards.

Making your angst hurt: the power of lighthearted scenes. 

I’m incredibly disappointed with the trend in stories (especially ‘edgy’ YA novels) to bombard the reader with traumatic situations, angry characters, and relationship drama without ever first giving them a reason to root for a better future. As a reader…

Writers seem to forget that their reader’s eyes adjust to the dark. If you want to give your reader a truly bleak situation in a continually dim setting, you have to put them in pitch blackness. But if you just shine a light first, the sudden change makes the contrast appear substantial.

Show your readers what light means to your character before taking it away. Let the reader bond with the characters in their happy moments before (and in between) tearing them apart. Give readers a future to root for by putting sparks of that future into the past and the present. Make your character’s tears and anger mean something.

Not only will this give your dark and emotional scenes more impact, but it says something that we as humans desperately, desperately need to hear. 

Books with light amidst the darkness tell us that while things are hard and hurt, that we’re still allowed to breathe and hope and live and even laugh within the darkness.

We as humans need to hear this more often, because acting it out is the only way we stop from suffocating long enough to make a difference.

So write angst, and darkness, and gritty, painful stories, full of treacherous morally grey characters if you want to. But don’t forget to turn the light on occasionally.

Support Bryn’s ability to provide writing advice by reading their debut novel, an upbeat fantasy about a bloodthirsty siren fighting to return home while avoiding the lure of a suspiciously friendly and eccentric pirate captain!

“Writers seem to forget that their reader’s eyes adjust to the dark.”

That’s very true.

No lie, one of the best pieces of writing advice I ever read was a one-page article in some writer magazine that I read as a teenager, in the magazine aisle of Borders (back when there was a Borders!), while I was waiting for my mom to finish in the checkout line. I didn’t even buy the magazine. But it hit me so hard that I’ve never forgotten it, and it was this:

Tragedy and comedy both hit much harder if you alternate them rather than having either one alone.

I think this is narratively true of almost any opposite pair: sad-happy, warm-cold, lonely-supported, divided-united. (And it’s what makes me, personally, love that emotional pivot from enmity to alliance, or isolation to bonding.) You can absolutely write something that’s all fluff all the time - I do! - or all tragic all the time. But the contrast really draws the emotional punches.

Anatolian shepherd dog puppy in training

they live with the herd and the herd accepts them as part of the herd, just, “that’s our Dave, he’s a bit strange but we love him, knew him when he was just a lamb you know” and the dog just lives among them as one of them but then if a wolf or somethin comes along the herd is like “O Reely? Have you met our Dave” and the wolf gets to make the acquaintance of Dave, 200 lbs of teeth and muscle who believes the wolf is there to kill his actual family and is pretty upset about it. 

that is the difference between a shepherd guarding dog and a shepherd herding dog. Herding dogs are NOT part of the herd, they use modified hunting techniques to bully the herd into moving where they are meant to go. They are built for speed and agility, often as small as 35 to 45 lbs, and are absolutely no match for a wolf. Plus, the herd doesn’t trust them, is suspicious of them, which is how the herding works

Me, feeling lethargic and drowsy all day: why is this happening I got so much sleep last night Me later that evening eating my first proper meal of the day: 

women in STEM (supervillainy, treachery, evilness, malevolence)