Who Deserves a Home?

Habitat for Humanity built my family a house, but many people think we weren’t worthy of one.

by Mazie Lovie

(Continue Reading)

@thenib

webcomics in a nutshell: el goonish shive AKA EGS

the epitome of both transgender and transformation webcomics. eight teens alternate between fighting magical threats, shapeshifting gratuitously, and acting adorkable. idealistic, deceptively innocent, and much, much more tasteful and restrained than it used to be. ongoing. by dan “the goon” shive. pictured: elliot demonstrates his main power for the new girl)

http://egscomics.com difficult to read from the beginning. instead, try “shadows after dark” > “sleepy time”, which begins at http://egscomics.com/comic/2004-08-02. skip the rough part at the cost of hitting the ground running.

*Wakes up at 3am*: Okay but Good Omens is literally all about transcending loyalties, tradition and expectations. It’s about good and bad, about friendship and love across enemies lines. Human, antichrist, angel or demon they’re all united in loving something or someone they shouldn’t ITS LITERALLY ALL ABOUT transcendental love and honestly how are people suprised the queers love it I mean Neil and Terry basically said love wins for 109,185 words

I read this and blinked. It hadn’t occurred to me that people might have read the book and not noticed this. But it’s reassuring to see it put so straightforwardly.

— (via yourplayersaidwhat)

“I’ll remember” is the ADHD demon talking. You won’t remember. Write it down.

bold of you to assume i’ll remember where i wrote it, or even that i wrote it

Visual exhaustion is another symptom of ADHD, which means that if we see something enough times (or we see enough instances of something), it fades into background noise and we fail to notice it. This is why a lot of ADHD people can stand living surrounded by mess/clutter, because it’s just visual background noise to us. We don’t even notice it anymore. So if we write something down and see the note stuck up somewhere a lot – or if we write a LOT of somethings down and have a lot of notes hanging around – then we’re even less likely to think of/remember the thing because it’s just part of the scenery now. ADHD is the Catch-22 of brains.

A very good thing to know about ADHD. Don’t fall into the trap.

A lot of folks in the comments are talking about writing on themselves or setting phone/calendar reminders. Your mileage may vary on those. You may also want to consider ways to set a habit of referring back to a planner or similar every day/hour.

To get those brain juices flowing, check out this Buzzfeed article on different ways folks with ADHD stay on top of things.

Readers, let us know if you have specific advice for this situation!

This is why sticky note reminders don’t work??

SKLJDGBKJEDSBBV

VISUAL BACKGROUND NOISE?!

THERE’S A WORD FOR IT?

Always reblog “THAT’S WHAT THAT IS???” posts. Chances are someone hasn’t seen it that needs to.

WHO is going to have a subtextually homoerotic swordfight with me that stems from our major unresolved sexual tension

The World Health Organization is going to do what?!

I’m glad I looked up the source (https://twitter.com/burgerdrome/status/1120470833762381827) because there’s this gem of a reply:

thanks to dr. chuck tingle a true hero and buckaroo

update

Chuck Tingle is a gift.

(Yes, the Ao3 Hugo nom is about the people doing the back-end infrastructure work, and by G-D they deserve that nomination, they deserve to WIN. But also, Chuck Tingle is a gift.)

WHY HAS NO ONE ADDED THE SUMMARY?

BECAUSE THIS IS AMAZING AND I AM LAUGHING SO HARD.

THERE ARE SOME PRETTY KINKY AND FLUFFY AND DARK SMUT ON AO3. CAN YOU IMAGINE BEDDING THE HUMAN MANIFESTATION OF SOME OF THE MOST ROMANTIC AND NASTY STORIES?

JUST.

IT’S AMAZING AND I AM LIVING.

We also needed the cover, okay

i am literally laughing so hard it’s hard to breathe this is perfect and I cannot think of a better tribute

Oh Lordy

YULETIDE FANDOM

When I was a kid, my mom was a judge and my dad was starting his solo practice, and they both worked full time. There were four of us kids between the ages of one and seven (the Just Us League) and no decent daycares nearby, so they hired a nanny.  She had three almost-adult children, and on days when she couldn’t work, one of her kids would substitute. The oldest kid was named Bob, age 18, and he had just finished army basic training when this all went down. Bob did not have the good sense god gave a rock. 

I have an older brother, Jake, who was seven; then me, Hellen, age five, then Seth, age three, and my little sister Gin would have been one. It was late August, and we were at our nanny’s house, though she was gone for the day. Bob was in charge.

Bob should probably not have been in charge.

Bob tried keeping us entertained with board games and tag and movies. Gin took a nap. Eventually he decided to get creative, and sat us down in the living room with a game and vanished into the garage. There was a smashing sound. And then some saw noises. And then some hammering. And then we saw him going around the house to the back yard through the windows, though we were too short to see what he was doing. And finally, he yelled to us to come out into the driveway. 

Jake and Seth and I trooped out. Bob had both hands behind his back. He stepped up to Jake and revealed what he had in his right hand. 

It was a wooden sword. It was clearly made from what appeared to be parts of a chair’s legs, cut down and nailed together. He presented this, and announced, “You are Sir Jake, the strongest knight!” 

He stepped up to Seth and presented what was in his left hand. It was another wooden sword, smaller than the first, also crudely made out of chair legs. He announced, “You are Sir Seth, the bravest knight!”

At this point, I was practically vibrating in place, waiting eagerly for my sword so I could use it to whale on my brothers, as god intended me to do. I was therefore understandably disappointed to be presented with the business end of a garden hose and told, “You are Miss Hellen, the Water Fairy!”

“No,” I said. “I want a sword.”

Bob was confused. “But you get water magic! Magic’s great!”

“No.” I repeated, holding the hose. It had a spray nozzle set to jet. “I want a sword.”

“Magic’s great. Magic’s better than a sword.” Bob insisted. “You’ll see. Wait here a moment.”

And then Bob ran around the side of house and vanished. 

We stood in the driveway. Jake and Seth poked each other with their swords. I spritzed them idly with the hose, trying to decide which of them would be easier to steal a sword from. 

And then we heard a quiet wooshing noise, and smelled smoke. 

We turned. As we watched, a line of fire rushed around the corner of the house, consuming a path of gasoline poured into the dry August grass. 

We paused and considered this for a few moments. I raised the hose and sprayed a jet of water at the fire. It went out. We glanced at each other. Then we took off running, following the trail of fire, spraying as we went. 

The fire led in a path around the house to the back yard. As we turned the corner, we saw Bob, clad in a bathrobe and holding a curtain rod, standing in the center of a large ring of burning grass. He cackled manically. “I am the FIRE WIZARD! Your puny swords are useless! Nothing but water magic can defeat me!”

I promptly blasted him with the hose. He spluttered. The fire did not go out. 

I turned the hose on the fire itself, spraying a section close to us so that it would extinguish. As soon as there was enough room, Jake charged forward, brandishing his chair leg sword with a battle cry. Seth, always happy to be included, followed. They ran into the circle and began beating Bob around the kneecaps with their swords. I kept spraying. 

Eventually, Bob the Fire Wizard was brought down and all the fire was extinguished. Seth and Jake continued to work on bruising Bob’s shins, and I quickly discarded the hose to lend my fists and extremely pointy elbows to the cause. Bob lay in the smoldering grass, probably regretting using such sturdy chair legs. 

Once we’d all tired ourselves out and lay panting in a heap, Bob decided it was time for the moral of the story. “You see, a sword is nothing compared to the power of a little girl with **magic**.” 

We thought about this for a few moments. Bob nodded wisely. Jake and Seth nodded back. 

“I still want a sword.” I said. 

This was one of those childhood memories that I always sort of looked at sideways, like “this can’t be right, that didn’t happen.” until one day I brought it up at a family dinner and confirmed: this 100% actually occurred.

This is one of the best childcare adventure stories I have ever heard. I’ve been lighting fires with supervision since I was four, on my own since I was six, and at around 8 or 9 my dad taught us to sword fight with sticks and old yard tool handles. One year a parade’s end staging area was near our house, and me and my friends gathered up the signage stakes to use for swords, as they were, well, sword-shaped, complete with point. We had all sorts of fun with fire, fireworks, and sword-fighting growing up, but never came up with an idea as brilliant and full of hubris as this one. Well-done!

STAY WOKE

Sting operation: the NRA explains to white nationalist Australian political party how to deflect gun control calls after a massacre

Australian Al Jazeera reporter Rodger Muller infiltrated a meeting between the US National Rifle Association and Australia’s far-right/white nationalist party One Nation, where the NRA gave party bosses advice on how to reverse Australia’s tough anti-automatic/semi-automatic gun laws (passed after a 1996 mass shooting that killed 35 people) and what to do to deflect public calls for gun control when the next mass shooting happens.

In the secret recording, two One Nation officials – Chief of Staff James Ashby and Queensland party boss Steve Dickson – seek up to $20 million from the NRA’s US supporters to fund their gun lobbying in Australia.

NRA PR team members Lars Dalseide and Catherine Mortensen gave the One Nation official extensive advice on managing crisis communications following mass shootings, advising them to “say nothing,” and to plant stories that smear gun-control advocates by “shaming” them with statements like “how dare you use their deaths to push that forward. How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forward your political agenda?”

The NRA flaks also described how they encourage friendly reporters to publish stories about violent crimes that suggest the victims would have been able to defend themselves if they had guns; they also described how the NRA ghost wrote op-eds in favor of looser gun laws that were published under local cops’ by-lines.

The NRA also boasted about the viral “self-defense” videos they posted to social media.

The real meat of the meeting started when One Nation’s Dickson asked for advice on spinning his belief that “African gangs” were “coming into the house with baseball bats to steal your car” and the NRA’s Dalseide replied that “Every time there’s a story there about the African gangs coming in with baseball bats, a little thing you can put out there, maybe at the top of a tweet or Facebook post or whatever, like with ‘not allowed to defend their home’, ‘not allowed to defend their home’. Boom.”

The story is fascinating as much as for what it reveals (that the NRA has no qualms about allying itself with explicitly racist overseas movements and using race-baiting to promote looser gun laws that would allow white nationalists like the man who murdered 50 people in New Zealand earlier this month to acquire arms); and for what it doesn’t (that there are no hidden depths to the NRA playbook, it’s literally just a bunch of obvious spin and garbage that anyone with half a brain can spot from orbit).

https://boingboing.net/2019/03/28/transparent-shaming.html

Fuck the NRA.

reblog if you are a trans cyborg, you support trans cyborgs, or you just really hate Laura Ingraham

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (2018)

ALL THE FUCKING DETAILS IN THIS SHOT.

Whrn the group moves to the left, Gwen is the one who takes her eyes off him to make sure the group roubds the corner. Miles turns his head both times, but not only is he the center of the group, but his leg is one of the few things keeping Peni suspended meaning he needs to pay the most attention to the wall.

Noir and Spidey both keep their eyes completely on chair-guy on the first pass. Noir only looking away when they go back for a split second to confirm where they are going, before snapping back to the “threat”. Spidey however, doesnt look away, which leads to his feet dangling in the air while they round the corner.

And of course Porker is a cartoon and bound to his own Roger Rabbit logic as he squeezes behind them without disturbing them.

It May seem silly to point this stuff out, but it informs so much about the individual characters, and really needs to be appreciated ot terms of great animation techniques.

This is also the best shot for showing off the different art designs ie. Noires filter over his image, the cartoon nature of Ham, and even small details in the difference between Gwen and the other two mainline spideys.

IT’S SO GOOD.

One detail I love is Peni.

Like, she’s up there too, and out of all of them she’s the one who technically doesn’t have any of the spider powers necessary to stick to the walls. So how is she staying up there?

Miles and Gwen.

Look at how they’re both positioned: Miles keeps his right leg angled so that Peni has a sort of perch to keep her legs against, even while they’re on the move, while her upper body is being held in place by Gwen’s left hand (Gwen’s entire left arm isn’t visible in the movements, compared to how we see everyone else’s arms).

Peni is being carefully held in place by Miles and Gwen, and I love that detail.

Peni also shifts her eyes to look the direction they’re moving the second time. Just for one second, then she focus on Ganke again. Even though she’s not doing any moving herself, she too pays attention to the wall.

Also the animators of this scene pointed out they specifically shoved them all together like this to make a shape that’s akin to a spider; they even tried to make out all the limbs of the spider during this animation!