Of the Stars

is it too much to ask for someone to kiss my little forehead and hold my hand... not enough cuddling in this economy. i want to be entangled with a good friend like two cats.

not to sound like a boomer, but I need some people to learn how to write emails in a semi-professional (at the very least) format so you're not cold emailing a business/potential employer/any other stranger about formal matters in the exact same way you'd DM a close friend on instagram

the formality/language can loosen up in the email chain once you've established a rapport and you match the other person if they're being less formal, but please don't have the very first email you send a stranger be written in all lowercase ultra-casual sms slang with no greeting or signature and a billion emojis

Can I just ask, why?

(adding your tags since I'm addressing them)

It’s polite, for one. Professional doesn’t need to mean elaborate—in fact, most professional emails are aiming to be as clear and concise as possible. (in english at least, I know some other languages have some very complicated and elaborate email etiquette)

Greetings and signatures also don’t need to be elaborate. I feel like lots of people overthink it and assume that professional emails need the whole “dear x, my name is x and I am writing this email to inform you about [topic], sincerely [my name and all my contact info]” shebang, when really it’s as simple as adding a quick greeting/signature and avoiding super informal slang.

Here’s an comparison using art commission inquiry as the topic, written with zero extra fluff:

If I want to add a little more fluff, maybe I write:

Those are very short while also being more polite than an email that just says:

with zero greeting/signature and very informal tone. 

There’s still a person on the other side reading that email, and just like how being polite with a customer service agent on the phone will get you better results than being rude with them, sending a clear and professional email will have you taken more seriously by whoever is reading it. All 3 emails get the same point across, but the last one leaves a much worse impression. You don’t speak to your close friends the same way you’d speak to strangers, and it’s the same in text form. I get so many emails that are just abrupt questions, with not even a quick "thank you" either in the initial email or as a follow-up after I respond, because they ghost me as if I'm just a chat bot answering questions.

I know complaining about email language sounds like a ~corporate america white-collar bullshit~ kinda thing, and there is indeed significantly more elaborate email etiquette that can vastly differ depending on your job/field that I’m not addressing at all, but just having the very basics goes a long way in how your emails are viewed by other people.

Adding on the even worse option that myself and many artists I know have gotten in DMs which is just

And we just???? You have given us zero information or expectations of what this conversation will be. You could be a scammer or trying to harass us/someone or a parasocial relationship or asking about our work/seeking a commission.

The artist here now needs to weigh the emotional risk of dealing with any number of wild, exhausting, upsetting conversations against the chance that Maybe this is a paying customer and How much do you need that money right now?

Even in DMs, at minimum, please just have a greeting (so we feel like a human being and not an art machine) and a statement of Why you are contacting us.

this burger i just cooked for dinner is the most burger looking burger ive ever made. this is the standard burger shape . this thing looks like a krabby patty

love the difference in responses between here and twitter. on twitter i am being insulted for enjoying tomato on my burger and not completely melting the cheese into dairy based lava, meanwhile here everyone is sharing the joy of the perfectly shaped burger. you all understand me

squirrel in my yard update absolutely nobody asked for

reminds me of when some old church in Sweden was cleaning out their storage and they forgot they had left like 80 medieval corpses in some ikea bags during renovations so somebody opened a closet door and it’s just

I do not have words for the utter misery seeing the second image brought me. Bad future shit holy fuck

Oh thank god 😮‍💨

Yeah no this is a whole trend on Christian Tiktok where people will show their (real/imagined) “glow-up” from an alt/emo/furry/trans to a “good Christian”

Fixed it

they need to invent a writing that is easy. and fast also

monkey paw finger curls and another AI generative text program is born

nooo my good intentions

Damn did you see that? That was fucked up, right? Anyway I'm Rod Serling.

i don't know who needs to hear this, but guilt, self-hatred and shame are not sustainable sources of growth and healing. you can't hate yourself into feeling better, or being better. you can't repeatedly punish yourself for your flawed humanity and expect wholesome results.

[ID: A screenshot of Brennan Lee Mulligan saying "You will not hate yourself into being industrious." /End ID]

my mom was trying to chew through some really tough steak and she turned to me and said “just call me The Gnawer.” she would do numbers here

she told me she doesn't remember saying this. quote, "must have been steak-induced hysteria"

via @p0tato-kn1shes

@bunjywunjy’s tags pass peer review too

People are like “it’s so beautiful no clouds at all” it could use a little clouds if I had to be honest.

it literally could use a little clouds if i had to be honest

Had the funniest experience earlier of my swiftie coworker putting the new white girl breakup songs™️ album on the speaker at work and the moment she left the room long enough for her phone to disconnect from Bluetooth our older coworker immediately put on 10 hours of relaxing tibetan flute music instead and we all collectively sighed in relief

warding spell against Taylor swift

Uh Oh, The One Other Guy Having The Same Problem As You Got Zero Replies To His Post On Reddit That He Made 5 Years Ago

The Woke Left wants an E.T. reboot and they want him to have a boyfriend

E.T. stands for Estrogen Testosterone

One of my previous bosses, the Archivist for the State of -redacted for privacy-, had one of these (or very very similar prototype format) that he kept in his briefcase.

Whenever someone in a meeting would say something along the lines of “we don’t need to worry about that/budget money for that/do that, everything is digital now!” He would pull this bad boy out of his briefcase and say “this has digital files on it, please access them. Oh, you can’t? Well what about this? or these?” And pull out a selection floppy discs and CD types.

And that is how he fought the good fight for a budget for the archives because digital preservation is expensive and difficult and there are a million different hardware and software types and technological obsolescence is a nightmare.

we have a new game where I blast Belphegor with a forcefield

You just don't get content like this anywhere else