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sometimes blooming

@sometimesrosy / sometimesrosy.tumblr.com

Rowena. Writer. Artist. Teacher. Mom. Intersectional feminist. Sff novelist. Romance ghostwriter. The point is to tell a good story. Now that The 100 is over, I'm focusing on writing and creativity. Developing an ecourse on Writer's Block.Still love Bellarke but not obsessing over shows/ships, even though I still watch. Reading escapist historical romance compulsively.  rosymamacita on AO3 and nanowrimo. rowenamurillo on instagram and pinterest. rosymamacita1 on twitter.
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txttletale

american gun culture literally has so many people convinced that the plot of Funny Games might happen to them at any time and the only way to prevent it is to vigorously defend their right to murder anybody who steps foot in their home

i keep posting "its bad to kill someone with a gun, even if they're stealing from you" and getting like a dozen responses of "yeah well what if someone broke into my house to Kill Me and they'd stop at nothing until i was dead would that be okay then?" and amiguitas i dont think thats very likely to happen to be honest

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max1461

This is what I keep talking about as "the logic of self defense". It's the same basic principle used to justify callout posts, "punching up" in a social justice context, a significant chunk of racism (in the US, mostly anti-black racism), hawkishness on the international stage, etc. etc.

"If (I judge that) there is any non-negligible probability that you will brutalize me, the right to self defense justifies me in using whatever means are available to brutalize you first, so that you don't do that."

Naturally, because it's fairly easy to construct a reason for yourself to believe that anyone you happen not to like has a non-negligible probability of brutalizing you, this line of reasoning will be widely utilized by people who just want to brutalize someone to begin with, for one reason or another. The idea that an arbitrarily harmful preemptive strike is justified by merely feeling under threat is widespread and, naturally, anathema to the goal of solidarity and friendship between all human kind.

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rosstmcd

Once upon a time I took a handgun course at a local gun shop, which was a bit of an odd experience since I was there because I like target shooting and everyone else was there for "self-defense."

But since that was what most people were there for, the instructor talked about defending your home. He said - and remember, this was a guy who worked at a gun store - that the current thinking among experts was that you should never go wandering around your house in the dark with a gun. Far too many bad things can happen.

What you do instead is that you designate a room in your house as a safe room. It might be your bedroom, or the bedroom of your youngest kid, or whatever. If that room doesn't have a lock on the door, install one. If you really want to go all-out, install a security door.

Then, if you wake up in the night and hear a suspicious noise, you quickly gather everyone into that room and lock the door. You can make this a family drill that you practice regularly, like you should be practicing evacuating in case of a fire and other emergencies.

Once you're in the room with the door locked, you can call 911 if it seems warranted. If you do have a gun, you can cover the door.

The advantages of this approach are:

If, as is most likely, the noise was your cat, or your teenager sneaking in after curfew, or your neighbor who came home drunk and mistook your house for his, then you will feel embarrassed instead of making a tragic mistake.

If it actually is someone breaking in, then it is very likely that they're just going to grab your TV or whatever and leave, in which case you and your family have stayed safe and you call your insurance agent in the morning.

In the extremely unlikely event that they are intruders who really do mean to harm you and start trying to break down the door, then you are in a much stronger tactical position then moving around your house in the dark. And your self-defense case, if it comes to that, will be on much stronger legal footing.

But really, the final scenario is so unlikely that the purpose of this procedure is 99% about keeping you from doing something you will deeply regret.

this line of reasoning will be widely utilized by people who just want to brutalize someone to begin with, for one reason or another.

Explains a large swath of Tumblr really.

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Nebraska state Senator John Fredrickson is the first out gay man elected to the state legislature. Now, he has another feather in his cap.
After an impassioned speech in opposition to a bill that targeted transgender youth, two of his colleagues changed their minds about the legislation that they had co-sponsored. The measure did not pass out of committee after they did.
The state’s legislature is nonpartisan but breaks into traditional Democrat and Republican divides. As in other states, bills attacking the transgender community have been championed by conservatives.
The bill would have banned transgender youth from locker rooms, sports teams and bathrooms that match their gender identity. It also effectively barred transgender boys from all sports competitions.
Fredrickson and his husband have a son – and as a gay parent, he spoke directly to the kids and families who were under the microscope.
The world can be tough and scary,” he said. “I personally know a thing or two about having a family that many people might say is not normal.”
I stand here today, confidently, to tell you if you love your kid unconditionally for who they are, and if they know they’re loved, you can weather a lot,” Fredrickson added.
Don’t spend a minute of your energy or time thinking about any of my colleagues in here who are too scared of difference to allow themselves to understand and celebrate the beauty and joy that you bring to our state.”
Instead, he said, parents should “love your babies and surround yourself with the people who love you.”
The bill was being filibustered. It needed 33 votes to pass out of the committee, but it garnered only 31. After Fredrickson gave his speech, when it came time to vote, two co-sponsors of the bill, state Sens. Tom Brandt and Merv Riepe, chose to abstain. Their move effectively stopped the bill.
Nebraska’s legislature will adjourn this week.
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Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.  Every year, researchers try to predict the four influenza strains that are most likely to be prevalent during the upcoming flu season. And every year, people line up to get their updated vaccine, hoping the researchers formulated the shot correctly. The same is true of COVID vaccines, which have been reformulated to target sub-variants of the most prevalent strains circulating in the U.S. This new strategy would eliminate the need to create all these different shots, because it targets a part of the viral genome that is common to all strains of a virus. The vaccine, how it works, and a demonstration of its efficacy in mice is described in a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  “What I want to emphasize about this vaccine strategy is that it is broad,” said UCR virologist and paper author Rong Hai. “It is broadly applicable to any number of viruses, broadly effective against any variant of a virus, and safe for a broad spectrum of people. This could be the universal vaccine that we have been looking for.”
Source: news.ucr.edu
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reblogged

Alternatives to google docs

For various reasons, this is now a hot topic. I'm putting my favorites here, please add more in your reblogs. I'm not pointing to Microsoft Word because I hate it.

Local on your computer:

1.

LibreOffice (https://www.libreoffice.org/), Win, Linux, Mac.

Looks like early 2000 Word, works great, imports all formats. Saves in OpenDocumentFormat. Combine with something like Dropbox for Cloud Backup.

2.

FocusWriter (https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/) Win, Linux.

Super customizable to make it look pretty, all toolbars hide to be as non-distracting as possible. Can make typewriter sounds as you type, and you can set daily wordcount goals. Saves in OpenDocumentFormat. Combine with something like Dropbox for Cloud Backup.

3.

The lovechild of so many writers. Too many things to fiddle with for me, but I'm sure someone else can sing its praises. You can put the database folder into a Dropbox folder for cloud saving (but make sure to always close the program before shutting down).

Web-based:

4.

Reedsy bookeditor (https://reedsy.com/write-a-book) Browser based, works on Firefox on Android. Be aware that they also have a TOS that forbids pornography on publicly shared documents.

My current writing program. Just enough features to be helpful, not so many that I start fiddling. Writing is chapter based, exports to docx, epub, pdf. You can share chapters (for beta reading) with other people registered at Reedsy.

5.

Novelpad (https://novelpad.co/) Browser based.

Looks very promising, there's a youtuber with really informative videos about it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHN8TnwjG1g). I wanted to love it, but the editor didn't work on Firefox on my phone. It might now, but I'm reluctant to switch again.

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So, this is my list. Please add more suggestions in reblogs.

Honestly, Apple’s Pages (Mac/iOS, and I think you can get it on Windows now?) constantly gets slept on. Every single thing I have ever written since 2011 has been done in Pages (we’re talking five years of college papers, countless articles, and at least 15 full novel drafts), and I have literally zero complaints. It’s simple, it’s intuitive, it doesn’t eat your words (looking at you, MS Word), but if you need special formatting or graphics, Pages also has you covered (I’ve used it to make event posters with little to no stress).

I even bought Scrivener probably around 2012 because I thought it would help me organize my writing but I found it WAY too complicated and stressful. I switched back to Pages within a month and haven’t looked back. I’m now on my second round of edits on my 85k novel and Pages has never failed me.

Pages is also free now, I believe (used to be $20). It’s SO uncluttered and beautiful and easy to use. I would 110% recommend Pages to literally anybody.

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hildabun

Despite the lack of open-source being a sticking point for me, I remain a huge fan of Obsidian. It's extremely minimalist, while also having an extremely robust set of extensions to turn that minimalism into whatever you want.

It integrates readily into git, so you can back up and create complete histories of your documents, and has wiki-like hyperlinks built in. It also supports markdown natively in an excellent "live preview" which is literally the selling point for me / why I don't use open source alternatives (I have seen nothing else which comes close to this view of markdown)

Personally, I also like the extensions which allow for scripting, which lets me do things like automatically create listings of what pages a character is mentioned in, etc.

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thoughts on "tradwives" as a 19th-century social historian

It's great until it's not.

It's great until he develops an addiction and starts spending all the money on it.

It's great until you realize he's abusive and hid it long enough to get you totally in his power (happened to my great-great-aunt Irene).

It's great until he gets injured and can't work anymore.

It's great until he dies and your options are "learn a marketable skill fast" or "marry the first eligible man you can find."

It's great until he wants child #7 and your body just can't take another pregnancy, but you can't leave or risk desertion because he's your meal ticket.

It's great until he tries to make you run a brothel as a get-rich-quick scheme and deserts you when you refuse, leaving your sisters to desperately fundraise so your house doesn't get foreclosed on (happened to my great-great-aunt Mamie).

It's great until you want to leave but you can't. It's great until you want to do something else with your life but you can't. It's great. Until. It's. Not.

I won't lie to you and say nobody was ever happy that way. Plenty of women have been, and part of feminism is acknowledging that women have the right to choose that sort of life if they want to.

But flinging yourself into it wholeheartedly with no sort of safety net whatsoever, especially in a period where it's EXTREMELY easy for him to leave you- as it should be; no-fault divorce saves lives -is naive at best and dangerous at worst.

Have your own means of support. Keep your own bank account; we fought hard enough to be allowed them. Gods willing, you never need that safety net, but too many women have suffered because they needed it and it wasn't there.

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pendragaryen
Somewhere there’s a river looking for a stream Somewhere there’s a dreamer looking for a dream Somewhere there’s a drifter trying to find his way Somewhere someone’s waiting to hear somebody say
I believe in you I can’t even count the ways that I believe in you And all I want to do is help you to Believe in you
I will hold you up I will help you stand I will comfort you when you need a friend I will be the voice that’s calling out:
I believe in you And there are just so many ways that I believe in you Baby, what else can I do but believe in you All I want to know is you believe, Believe in you
Believe in you - A. Marshall (x)

“But I’m telling you, it’s real! And I am asking you to believe in me!

              And if no-one else on earth does - I do. Always.

                                               “Bellamy was right”…

Bellamy Blake Appreciation Week 2021 👑❤- Day 4: Song/Lyrics that best describe him

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bitegore

i made a character sheet. free to use as you wish, feel free to change whatever you want XD open source ass thing. spent all of ~maybe an hour on it.

Credit: the text in the insert-image box comes from this video, and the text for the top three lines (intense, complex, fruity) comes from this post. The actual image was made with the free NBOS character sheet creator, which is a sort of dated but free and solid text-layout sheet maker intended for ttrpg style character sheet creation.

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mirrorbird

this is GENUINELY one of the best character development sheets I've ever seen. Cuts right to the core of what you and your readers will glom onto, doesn't waste time on details that don't directly affect the narrative. Stupendous. Effervescent. Finally, some good fucking food

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