Que Ioputa

i literally don’t care if you have social anxiety you still need social skills

reblog if your name isn't Amanda.

2,121,566 people are not Amanda and counting!

We’ll find you Amanda.

In case anyone finds it helpful because mobility aids are horrifically expensive and inaccessible…

And for those people who have access to mobility devices but might benefit from a second chair they can abuse without risking expensive damage…

Erik Kondo has made a website, Open Source Innovations, that details plans for DIY wheelchairs. These wheelchairs can be made from common materials like wood, plastic, and pvc. They are lightweight and can be custom fit to the user allowing from the same degree of movement you would get from a custom chair. And they are durable and easily repairable. (he has been stress testing his latest design by dropping it down stairs, dropping it out of a car, launching it across a driveway, and throwing it off a deck). Its 12lbs and I think he said its was in the $200 ish range for parts.

He also is working on cheap, open source, accessible designs for beach chairs, off road chairs, motorized attachments (think smart drive), and so on. Plus he skateboards in his wheelchair. Cool dude, helpful info, pass it on.

Guys I know we all love AO3 for hosting our fanfiction, and the OTW for defending our right to create it. But please remember that they can only do so as long as the fanfiction is shared for free.

I know a lot of writers (and artists) will do fic commissions or submissions to fanzines (free and paid). But you cannot mention the fic was paid for on Ao3. This includes for charity drives where the writers don't keep anything! Ao3 staff has stated this explicitly in the past.

And please, please, do not run a charity drive or zine where the recipient of the proceeds is Ao3/OTW. You are publicly exposing them to legal attack for funding them by selling fanworks! You can't even mention that you do that on Ao3, do not then make a paper trail right to them!

And keep any mention of your paid work off your Ao3. No links to commissions or patreons or ko-fis or notes that the work was commissioned, or even links to author stores of unrelated books. All of these are prohibited by Ao3 itself in order to protect fan creators and their works.

Fanworks for profit is a sticky legal place, don't make the OTW's job of defending us harder or even impossible by paying them with fanwork proceeds.

me then (young, naive): i dont swear because there are better choices to make with my vocabulary

me now (older, wiser): I am master of all the words, and fuck is the best one

I think that one thing people fail to understand is that unsolicited literary criticism coming from an online stranger who is reading with no knowledge of what the authors intended goal is, is not going to be received the same as say: the authors beta reader or friends who know what the authors intended goal and has the sufficient knowledge and input to help the author reach that desired outcome.

"But I'm only trying to be helpful" How do I know you have the knowledge and literary skill for you to be able to actaully do that when we don't know each other and you are essentially a stranger to me? Are you applying this criticism based out of personal biased experience and desire to see the story or characterization be driven in another direction or tweaked, or do you know the author's intentions for the character? If the story is incomplete, are you basing your criticism of a character on the incomplete narration with only partial information available of them or are you building up a report until the story's completion? Did the author provide you with the information needed to make a fully informed criticism?

Have you discussed with the author what their plans are or are you assuming them based off the narration, especially if the narration is proven or implied to be unreliable or missing key points of the plot? Are you unbiased enough to help them reach their desired outcome for the characters and story regardless of your personal feelings towards the characters/antagonists and setting? Can you handle being told your specific input isn't wanted because you're a reader and/or have no written anything relating to their genre or topic? Do you understand and respect that the author's personal experiences might influence their writing and make it different than how you would have done it personally? Do you understand if an author only wants input from a specific demographic relating to their story?

If it's for fanfiction or other hobby media, are you holding a free hobby to a professional standard? Are you trying to give criticism because you feel like the author has produced 'subpar job performance' of their fic? Are you viewing their work as a personal intimate outlet or something that must conform with mass media? Are you applying rules and guidelines when the fic is shared for simple sharing sake? Is your criticism worded appropriately and focused on the parts where the author has requested input on rather than a general dismissal and or disapproval?

Have you put yourself in a place where you assumed you have the input needed for the story to evolve better, or have you asked what the author needs and what they're having trouble with? Can you handle having your criticism rejected if the author decides their story doesn't need the change and not take it as a personal offense against your character? Are you crossing that boundary because you think you are doing the author a favor? Are you trying to be helpful, or do you just want to be?

I think sometimes when people hear authors go 'please don't give me unsolicited writing advice or criticism' they automatically chalk it up to 'this author doesn't want ANY constructive feedback on their stuff at all' and not "i already have trusted individuals who will help me with my writing goals and- hey i don't know you like that, please stop acting so overly familiar with me'

my cat died from lilies years ago so I will always share this stuff

These mornings remind me of another story I remember reading somewhere.

This dude had escaped a bad situation with pretty much nothing but his life and his cat, and temporarily lived in a place that had no heating. He still had his job and was looking for a better place the whole time he lived there, but this was genuinely one of those "it's this or being homeless" situations.

But getting up and putting on cold clothes every single morning understandably sucked ass. The cat had thick enough fur to get by, but while both of them managed, they didn't exactly enjoy it. But the mornings and the cold clothes were the worst.

Then this guy figured out that the cat likes sleeping on plastic bags. So he started folding his next day's clothes into a plastic bag every evening, making a sort of a pad, and somehow managed to train the cat into sleeping on it. So every morning, crawling out of bed into the cold air, he would trade with the cat - the cat would crawl into his human-warmed bed, and he would put on the clothes that were warmed by the cat.

This routine went on for the winter months they lived in that apartment, until he finally found a new place they could get, that had proper heating and other common decencies of proper housing that felt like luxuries in contrast to what they had.

But the cat still insists that he folds his clothing into a plastic bag every evening so she can sleep on it. And she will not let him go to bed before he's made one for her.