Dive into your creative stream
Misc. - Blog Posts
i think a lot of fic writers who are trying to stay in-character would benefit highly from figuring out some characters’ senses of humor and just… letting them be funny in different ways. ime i’m taken out of the story not during the serious and angsty moments, but most often when the writer inserts a line that they clearly think is funny but just reads so completely ooc for the specific character—polar opposite of the char’s usual word choice and humor, that it almost always immediately pings me as “something the author inserted because they personally think it’s funny.” more often than not i can probably tell when it’s actually the writer speaking, not the character, and it happens a looot with humor.
ok ummm sorry but why are people talking suddenly like irl domestic violence victims get any sort of widespread sympathy or support??? like, for one, let’s just establish that it’s silly to complain that real, living, breathing people are being treated with more sympathy than a fictional character. but even that alone would also be completely wrong, because… rl victims are not treated well at all??? did we just forget all the victim-blaming, the slander, the cross-examining, the doubt, and the legal institutions that are weaponized against rl victims all the time???
if you somehow see someone condemning rl abuse but dismissing fictional abuse, it’s because they only care about rl abuse in the broadest and most conceptual sense. rl abuse is hated as a contextless idea, or when it’s committed by someone the person doing the condemning doesn’t care about, like some dude they’ve never talked to or some celebrity they have no personal attachment towards. condemnation of, like, weinstein, who most people do not know anything about nor care about, is not the same as popular support for victims as a whole. compare the reactions to weinstein vs reactions to johnny depp or even (god) joe biden. the difference is entirely in how much attachment people have to these abusers.
a character like endeavor makes people trot out an entire circus’ worth of excuses not because these people actually care about irl abuse as opposed to fictional abuse, but because the narrative gives endeavor a way of playing on people’s heartstrings and allowing them to nurture an attachment to him, which they will then vigorously defend even at the expense of his victims. they do this as well with rl abusers who they particularly like or have some sort of connection to. it’s not that ppl’s condemnations of abuse are either existent or non-existent—it’s that they’re frequently circumstantial.
please, let’s be finished with the insinuations that rl victims receive care and support or even, like, lip service that isn’t getting extended to fictional characters.
i think if i were to make a small correction to that post, it’s that i would emphasize that pedophilia is already normalized and that’s why writing about it for titillation does not invent the issue of societal pedophilia, but rather is the manifestation of and contribution to it.
for example, it is also true that “bury your gays” is not the cause of cishet voyeurism towards lgbt suffering and death, but it’s one way for cishets to stoke their own desires for seeing it; and minimizing characters of color in a narrative doesn’t create the problem of poc being overlooked off-screen, but rather characters of color are overlooked on-screen because poc are overlooked irl.
so it’s correct that if we got rid of every piece of fanfic or fanart featuring underage sex, the problem of pedophilia would still persist because it is built into our system and society, in the form of widespread child abuse, victim-blaming, and lack of legal rights for minors. images that normalize pedophilia would still proliferate in the form of "art,” in the ways that underage celebrities are sexualized and adultified (as well as their less-known peers on insta or tiktok trying to look older and sexier), in modeling, in marketing, in off-handed comments about “jailbait.”
by and large, societal abhorrence toward pedophilia goes only as far as an abstract concept—like trying to dismantle the wayfair conspiracy—rather than taking actual substantive measures that would actually protect children. that would require we didn’t live in a society that largely condones child abuse and abuse in general.
the expansiveness of the issue, however, doesn’t mean anyone should brush off fictional pedophilia because it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. part of being against pedophilia means being vocal against its normalization in all respects, it means supporting systemic changes that give children power to leave dangerous situations, and it means watching out for the minors around you. it means you have to do all these things simultaneously, and not just shrug your shoulders under the illusion that you are somehow not part of any system because you fancy yourself that way.
Ppl: “Glaze and nightshade all your art!!”
Also ppl: * does not mention that you need to have a fucking NVIDIA GPU and running nightshade on one image takes at best 20 minutes*
Like the online version of glaze/nightshade requires an account. And last time i checked they arent accepting new accounts because of the high pressure.
Like i make my art on my ipad. My MacBook is from 2014. If i tried to download and run nightshade on my decade old macbook and go throufg 10+ years of artworks i might as well just set it on fire.
I know everyone’s been inundated with information this week, so I’ll try to make this short. Given the content of this blog it would be hypocritical to not say anything, so here are some points in absolute briefest terms:
If you can protest, protest. If you’re constrained to participating in non-risky peaceful protests that don’t violate curfew (because of your age, your ability, or other factors), then participate! But also be prepared for things to turn ugly. If you can’t protest:
Donate.
Volunteer – a lot of cities have clean-up crews and pop-up food pantries that could really use extra hands.
Help protestors by giving out supplies (bottled water, snacks, PPE), being someone’s point of contact, offering transportation, babysitting, etc. There are more ways to help with your time and energy than only protesting.
There’s a bunch of donation links going around as well, so I won’t list them, but if you have a hard time making a choice (like me), this page will split your donation between 70+ organizations at once. If you have only a small amount of money to give, consider donating to Jamee Johnson or Destiny Harrison, whose funds have not yet reached their goal (all links from the BLM carrd). You can also contribute to Chrystul Kizer’s (warning for non-graphic mentions of CSA in link) or Miss Major’s fund. If you like choices, the BLM carrd has an extensive donation list, in addition to other information and resources.
Lastly, a couple short readings:
POLICING SLAVES SINCE THE 1600’S: WHITE SUPREMACY, SLAVERY, AND MODERN US POLICE DEPARTMENTS
POLICE AND THE LIBERAL FANTASY
WHY VIOLENCE WORKS (I disagree with many assessments here, mainly about other countries, but it’s a relatively short and accessible read about how violence informs political life)
AGAINST INNOCENCE
If there’s anything else people would like help finding (specific information, local opportunities, etc.), let me know and I’ll do my best when I’m around.
You’re right. Horikoshi does a disservice by framing abuse through the abuser’s perspective. What’s even more irksome is that he glorifies Endeavor’s minimal efforts to atone while downplaying the victims’ own efforts to heal. I mean, no one in-universe is making a big deal out of Rei potentially getting better enough to be discharged after 10 years in the hospital?
he glorifies Endeavor’s minimal efforts to atone
yeh, this this thiiiis. the past chapter was all about how big of a realization it was for the dude to just. fucking leave his family alone. i know it probably is a huge realization for a self-centered ex-abuser, but so many readers have all been saying it was necessary as like a basic first step; so why make it a Big Deal by writing it from his perspective, rather than from the perspective of anyone else so they can have a “wow so it’s finally clicking for him, huh?? huh????” moment. that’s all it takes to flip the narrative from being about how Tragic the dude’s decision is, to making it about how he’s taking his first baby steps!! to being a decent person.
on ur point about the victims, that’s another big issue i have!!! like…where did all the trauma go sdfkljsfkljg. where are the lasting consequences of growing up with an abusive or neglectful parent? why is everyone just okay, and the biggest hurdle to overcome is their willingness or unwillingness to forgive? i hate that the story is going ‘well all he has to do is make up for things sufficiently and then they can maybe be a happy family!!’ like, where is the ptsd and the complexes you develop from being unloved by a parent?? why can’t we see the lasting effects that domestic violence had on rei, rather than just being told?? why not show us the work the victims put in to get to a mentally stable place?? i mean, the answer is obvious, but i hate it lmfao.
pssst. while forgiveness is an option that the survivor can make for their own sake, the way it’s written in bnha is not a good handling of a forgiveness narrative. this is because all of the arcs dealing with forgiveness have so far been narrated through an abuser’s thoughts, prioritizing his hopes and unfulfilled desires (desires that are unfulfilled because of his abuse), rather than the emotional journey of his victims. shouto started softening his stance not when the story explored shouto’s thoughts, but when the story began exploring the thoughts of his abuser. as a result, what happens on the page is the abuser stops abusing and starts to feel bad, and therefore shouto begins to have a more positive relationship with him. rather than forgiveness resulting from a survivor coming to terms with his abuse and making the decision to forgive for his own peace of mind, the forgiveness is primarily framed as the abuser doing and feeling things, and therefore forgiveness happens. shouto does not make a decision to start forgiving; his abuser makes a decision and gets forgiveness in return.
forgiveness can be an empowering decision when made by a survivor with their full agency. its portrayal in fiction is not always empowering, especially when the narrative focuses on the feelings and thoughts of the abuser over the survivor. that is propaganda, plain and simple, particularly when we as a society already vastly overestimate the importance of an abuser’s feelings both in general, and in relation to stopping their abuse. in a social climate that already promotes forgiveness—not for the sake of the survivor but for the abuser—it’s difficult to write about forgiveness in a way that won’t be taken as modeling the behavior of “good” victims. we cannot treat characters like independent human beings, who all make “valid” decisions in response to their abuse. how are their decisions framed? who are we being told to sympathize with? who is being prioritized narratively? we can’t engage in discussions about representations in fiction without considering these kinds of questions.
one of my issues with the MLA arc resolution is that it just feels like a very incomplete understanding of ideology and praxis. it reminds me of people trying to ‘debate away’ nazis or antivaxxers or terfs or whatnot, bcs there’s this idea that the ideology will just… go away if you “win” somehow?? which is a very liberal understanding of ideological conflict imo. there are a lot of ideologies that are illogical, and which rely on the denial of facts and the invention of conspiracy theories to sustain themselves, which is why it’s so impossible to “win” against those people. but even when you move away from those ideologies and get into ones that are more liberal or leftist, you still get ideological conflict, and you’re often met with clashes of fundamental values, and opinions about what is morally acceptable or necessary, and so forth. ideology is a whole system of ideas, built from the ground-up, and you often have to work long and hard to get to the foundation to significantly change it (eg: marxism isn’t just about being anti-capitalist, it comes with a whole set of ideas about human dignity, and human desires, and what constitutes human nature, and through what kind of means capitalism strips them away or modifies them, and why capitalism does this, etc. even before you get to anti-capitalism, a marxist and a neoliberal will probably already disagree about, like, human nature, and who deserves dignity and what dignity even means).
that’s why Redestro giving in so easily is so unsatisfying to me, because that’s rarely how it happens ime. given how many people complain about their jobs and their wages, but refuse to take the logical next step to complain about the economic system they live under, it makes no sense to me that this guy who benefits from hero society and that kind of societal order would want to expand his concept of “freedom” to include Shigaraki’s view. the change shouldn’t be as simple as Shigaraki showing off his quirk, i want to know: why does Redestro accept this as his new vision of freedom? where does he feel like the MLA’s own ideology fits in? if he discards the MLA’s ideology entirely, why does he think Shigaraki’s is better? where does he see himself fitting into Shigaraki’s final goal? there’s just so much that goes into the formation and adoption of an ideology that this abrupt about-face, without so much as touching upon those questions, makes it feel unrealistic, because it’s never just as easy as debunking one idea. it’s an entire system of beliefs, and if Shigaraki managed to change enough of it for Redestro to willingly and happily follow him, I need to know what changed, and why, and how it leads to this conclusion.
Fuck It, Internet Guide
Hey there! As social media becomes more and more inhospitible for the local user, I wanted to post some useful/fun links to just about anything I can think of! Enjoy! Also, if you'd like an invite to the P!rated Games discord, lmk! ^_^
I AM CURRENTLY STILL UPDATING THIS POST AND I WILL REBLOG IT WHEN I ADD TO IT! Feel free to comment things I've missed, I'm sure there's way more than this came from!
WEB CENTRIC
CURLIE: THE COLLECTOR OF URLs (Curlie strives to be the largest human-edited directory of the Web. You can save sites and create your own mini webring!)
Internet Archive (A collection of over 818 Billion websites, books, movies, music, and more. Hosts the Wayback Machine, which can be used to access a multitude of sites, given they were indexed in time.)
Wiby (Human submission search engine for older webrings, as well as a how-to guide on how to develop your own search engine)
Unicode Text Converter (Easy way to make your text illegible to Google but be warned, it will make screen readers malfuction)
Embed Responsively (Easily convert links and embeds to work responsively within your site - perfect for neocities!)
Generator Land (Generate a list or prompt for just about anything!)
GifCities (Part of the Internet Archive, a special project done as part of the 20th anniversary in an effort to save data from GeoCities. Find a gif for just about anything!)
Animated Images (Another gif repository, though this one is easier to search and includes small animations.)
Gifs-Paradise (Another gif repository. I swear I collect these. Searchable and categorized.)
ASCII Art Archive (Database of ASCII Art, also known as text art)
Christopher Johnson's ASCII Art Collection (Another, arguably larger, ASCII Art database)
MelonLand (A web project and online arts community that celebrates homepages, virtual worlds, the world-wide-web and the digital lives that all netizins share, here at the dawn of the digital age. See their thoughts and the WEB REVIVAL they're starting.)
Sadgrl Webrings (Webrings brought to us by Sadgrl.Online - 60+ different ones to be exact) and Sadgrl Links (70+ links just like the ones in this post)
Districts at Neocities (Remember neighborhoods on Geocities? Imagine that but for Neocities!)
Neocities Banners (Banners from all across neocities. Blinkies, banners and more leading all over the web. Mostly 88x31, though there are bigger ones too. Technically counts as a webring.)
Blinkies.cafe (Site for blinkies where you can even make your own! I get most of my blinkies here and off DeviantArt.)
88x31 Collection (Possibly the largest collection I've seen for 88x31 buttons)
90's Cursor Effects (Want a funky cursor for your blog or website? Wanna be able to realtime preview what cursors would look like? Come get some code!)
The Malware Museum (Interact with malware and viruses from the 80s and 90s through emulation! No nasty virus interactions needed :D )
KNOWLEDGE BASES
Library Genesis - LIBGEN (Scientific journals - dedicated to archiving every science journal and their articles in existence.)
Information Mesh (A web platform celebrating the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web that explores social, technical, cultural and legal facts throughout different interactive timelines.)
Web Design Museum (Over 2,000 sorted websites showing web design trends from '96 to '06.)
The History of the Web (A twice monthly newsletter about web history, and the incredible people that built it. Goes from 1989 to present.)
Field Guide to Web Accessibility (Principles and applications to every day web scenarios in order to make the web a more friendly place!)
CARI - Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute (an online community and collective association of researchers and designers dedicated to carrying on the important work of categorizing "consumer aesthetics" from the late midcentury, when work on the subject somewhat trailed off, through today.)
The Eye (Archive consisting of 140TB of books, websites, games, software, or anything else you can really think of.)
The Uncensored Library (A project from Reporters without Borders, where they use a loophole using Minecraft to distribute information.)
National Gallery of Art Public Domain (The National Gallery of Art has an open access policy for images of works of art in their permanent collection which the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. Images of these works are available for download free of charge for any use, whether commercial or non-commercial.)
Library of Congress Public Domain (Features items from the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The Library believes that this content is either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use.)
Public Domain Review (an online journal and not-for-profit project dedicated to the exploration of curious and compelling works from the history of art, literature, and ideas.)
New York Public Library Public Domain (Our digitized collections are available as machine-readable data: over one million records for you to search, crawl and compute.)
Official articles from NASA (PubSpace is NASA's designated public access repository. It is a collection of NASA-funded scholarly publications within the STI Repository, aiming to increase access to federally funded research in accordance with NASA Public Access Policy.)
Universal Hint System (Wanna get some vague help for an older video game without getting spoiled? Check out these awesome hints!)
Smithsonian Open Access (Download, share, and reuse millions of 2D and 3D digital items from their 21 museums, 9 research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.)
Instructables (Wanna know how to make just about anything? Check here!)
QZAP Zine Archive (Archive of LGBT+ Zines, began in 2003 with zines dating back all the way to the 1970s. NSFW AT TIMES, BROWSE AT YOUR OWN RISK.)
P!racy Masterpost (Tumblr-based masterpost of game piracy, last updated 2021. A bit old but some of the stuff there is still good. If this link breaks, please contact me.)
P!rated Games Megathread (masterpost created by r/P!ratedGames includes required components as well as anything else you need. NOTE: PLEASE HAVE SOME SORT OF PROTECTION WHEN NAVIGATING THIS SITE)
Geocities Gallery (A website hosting a working archive for many abandoned Geocities Sites.)
Snipplr (Code Snippet repository. Great for coding issues.)
GeoCities (Archived) (Great for searching ancient webrings for gifs and website ideas. Not so great for downloads.)
Freeware Guide (Archived) (The Freeware-Guide died sometime in 2021 [we think March] but it's still full of VERY valuable information. Links are broken pretty much all the way through, but the names of software as well as what they do can be useful in finding them elsewhere thru some google searching)
Peelopaalu (Where I got a good handful of these links - AND THERE'S MORE!!!)
The Simple Site (More links to so much more cool stuff!)
ART TOOLS
Untitled - Paint (An in-browser version of classic Microsoft Paint!)
KidPix (In-browser version of classic KidPix for the public domain!)
Pixel Logic - A Guide to Pixel Art (Comprehensive guide to making cool art for $10 USD, updated semi-frequently and you get all new versions for free)
SAI - Bootlegged (A version of SAI with a multitude of brushes and textures pre-installed. Quite literally the only thing I use to draw aside from Clip Studio Paint.)
Stripe Generator (Need some easy stripes for an art piece? Can't be bothered to try and space stripes evenly? This is for you!)
Photopea (Free online photo editor supporting files for Adobe Photoshop, XCF, Sketch App, Adobe XD, and CorelDRAW, as well as many more!)
blender (A FOREVER free and Open Source software for 3D Modeling, full of tutorials and assets. I feel like most people don't know it's completely free to play with)
Vertex Meadow (A web-browser tool that renders 2D images as explorable 3D terrain. With it you can create detailed and unusual 3D environments to explore using a 2D paint-program-like interface.)
OpenGameArt (Need art for your game but you're not an artist? Consider checking here first [or just hire a real artist looking for work on here!])
MUSIC TOOLS AND DISCOVERY
BandLab (Social music platform that enables creators to make music and share their creative process with musicians and fans. Completely free with an option to set up stripe where you get 100% OF PROFITS. Available for apple/android/desktop)
JummBox (Free online beat-maker with a very simple interface that runs on your browser)
Mydora (Mydora is a continuous streaming player that gives you a deep dive into the lost archives of Myspace Music, based on some recovered data called the Dragon Hoard, with some additional metadata (most notably the locations and genres) from a different scan of Myspace conducted back in 2009. Contains 490,000+ songs, only a fraction of what was wiped out.)
Radiooooo (A place where people are able to play hit songs from the decade of their choosing from whatever country they wish.)
WFMU (Independent freeform radio broadcasting. Currently ongoing.)
Gnoosic (A sort-of music search engine that finds you songs/bands based off of your music taste.)
Khinsider (3.1 TB worth of video game soundtracks)
Radio.garden (Listen to thousands of radio stations all around the world.)
FUN STUFF
FrogLand (The purpose of Frogland is to show that the Internet can indeed provide a wealth of useful information and still be fun. Mainly, this site is dedicated to the many teachers out there who are finding new uses for the Internet as a tool for educating youngsters. Hopefully, it will inspire some young minds to find new interest in herpetology, biology, and environmental issues...not to mention providing some inspiration for young future computer "wizzes"! No longer active but still useful.)
Windows 98 icon Viewer (Want clear jpgs of all the Windows 98 symbols and icons? They're all here!)
GifyPet (Create your own embeded pet that people can play with and feed when they visit your page! See my version HERE [only works on desktop tho])
Ultimate Mushroom (Like the idea of picking mushrooms in your area but no idea what to look for? Check out this info hub!)
Gif Gallery (Another gif repositiory, only sorted by being numbered 1-100,000. Fun and silly, not so much useful unless you're looking for random gifs. Part of the MelonLand Webring)
Interesting DOS Programs (A host of DOS programming, guides and links.)
Internet Archive: MS-DOS Games (8,000 games right in your web browser! Your browser can play DOOM!)
Tiled Backgrounds (Need some small jpegs for easy website bg tiling? Browse this collection sorted by color.)
cOOl & EMO tEXt cOnVERTer xXX (Flashing warning. Wanna type like you're in the 2000s? Need a funny Green Day lyric as a caption? This is probably the best place for you.)
0x40 (Flashing Warning. Anime images synced with music. Fun for parties, lol)
WebGL Fluid Simulation (In browser fluid simulator, great for art backgrounds and desktop wallpapers.)
Flashpoint (The biggest collection of preserved Flash Games and Animations)
NCase (Free games and open source projects from Nicky [THESE ARE REALLY COOL AND FUN, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND])
Your World of Text (A huge interactive text doc that anyone can add to anonymously.)
Text To Speech (TTS in more than 30 languages and over 180 voices.)
ASCII Art Generator (Make ASCII Art from any image.)
Petit Tube (Random Youtube videos with less than 10 views)
Noclip Website (Noclip around various video game maps in your browser!)
Monster Mash (Create and animate some monsters in browser! You can also download their files.)
My deepest darkest fantasy is that I collapse on the street and I am rushed to the hospital. They perform a bunch of tests and find out I am severely deficient in some kind of vitamin. Then I start taking the vitamin and I become the happiest cleverest person alive because all my problems were caused by this one deficiency
Reading articles about MrBeast's dominance of YouTube is fucking bizarre because, from my perspective, the dude isn't even on YouTube. I've never watched one of his videos. YouTube has, to the best of my knowledge, never recommended one of his videos to me. Every thumbnail screenshot of his looks like something you could tell me was a photoshopped parody of YouTube culture, and I'd believe you. No one I follow on YouTube ever mentions him, even negatively or in passing. The first time I ever heard his name was in regards to the quality of his ghost kitchens. The only way I know he isn't a mass, shared hallucination is that I've witnessed the thoroughly mid-looking chocolate bars he sells at Walmart for some reason
cannot stress enough how bad y’all need $3 yellow dish gloves. if ur avoidant about dishes bc you don’t wanna touch wet food or get ur hands wet or dry them out with cleaner like. these will solve all ur problems. only downside is if you have long acrylic nails you’ll need a stronger pair for like $15 so your nails don’t tear em but the function remains the same. u don’t HAVE to touch the old wet food in the drain. we have technology
Office Building of Centraal Beheer (1970-72) in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, by Herman Hertzberger. Photo by Klaus Kinold.
Urban Canopy ~ Hong Kong by Christophe Caudroy ⌘ Elevated highways float above surviving woodland
