Dear diarheaa..

Fandomtrees 2024

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 10:17:45 GMT

This is my longer exchange letter for Fandomtrees 2024 since I typed too much. Woops! Thanks for clicking through and reading all this. ( Read more... )

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maggie's fic o treat 2024

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 00:32:51 GMT

ficortreat

maggie's Door

DW username: tempural

Light is on for: ~~Anyone who sees this 🙈~~ Closed as of October 31st 12am! So I can work on you guys's stuff :)

What's in the Bowl?

A doodle of anything. Probably colored with crayons, will look like this drawing.
A song from my music library
An opinion. On a ship? A character? A movie? A dim sum dish? Whatever.

Let Me Know:

For doodles: I especially like drawing animals and creatures. Real or fake or extinct, you can req dogs, dinos, cryptids, myths, pokeymen, digimons, or whatever your heart desires. I can draw for fandoms in my likes pages. I can also draw Willem Dafoe and Skeletor. I can draw my ocs doing whatever if you wanna get freaky. I can draw stuff from fandoms I don't know, if you tell me what you like about them and link to a ref image 😎
For songs, you can let me know what genre, mood, and/or subject matter you'd like ("i would like an energetic 80's song about gay sex"). I am one of those doofuses who can listen to pretty much anything. My library is mostly boomer rock and boomer metal though.
For opinions, you can ask me about fandoms/subjects I know AND don't know! If I am unfamiliar with the subject, I'll give my impression of it. For stuff I know, let me know if you consent for me to go on a geriatric old man ramble of possibly high word count.

Other info:

You can ask for one of each thing! So you can get one doodle, one song, and one opinion 🎃 You can come back in another comment to ask for one of the other treats.
I will not draw tf2 unless it's scoutspy ^_^
If you accidentally (or on purpose) ask me to draw something I can't draw, or if it's too complex, I will simplify it into something I can draw.
If you ask for yaoi sexo it will probably be goofy.
I will do stuff leading up to Halloween 👍 If I don't get to your thing by October 31st, I will try my best to get it done by the first week of November. If I forgot to get to your treat (may happen, attention deficit), please feel free to poke and remind me!

Thank you for visiting, have a happy Hellaween 🎃 Here's a photo of my dogs.

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Snowflake Challenge #3

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 20:23:46 GMT

Snowflake Challenge #3 is: "Create a wish list of fandom things that you'd like to receive"

I always love seeing more STUFF of my ocs and faves sent to me. Especially Ollie n' Basile (ocs), ScoutSpy (tf2), TerryBruce (batman), and PeterNorman + HarryNorman (Spider-man) cuz that stuff is RARE and ancient!

So stuff I wish for:

Fic and art recs!
New fic and art?
Headcanons?

Mostly, I just like to receive asks, questions, and messages. Just nice messages is great for my brain in this trying time 😅

Tumblr askbox

Site Guestbook

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New year, same me.

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 02:08:41 GMT

As per the Snowflake Challenge, I've tweaked all my pinned posts and "about" sections on most sites that I'm on! Check it:

Dreamwidth
Tumblr
Twitter
Mastodon
Hell, I even updated my about page on my personal site.

Happy new yuri! All I want to do this year is survive and be able to afford groceries LOL. Hope you guys get the same :D

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2024 pinned

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 00:44:07 GMT

Hi. You can call me by whatever username you know me by: tempural, scumsuck, deda, etc.

🔞 I draw art and write incoherently. I like old man ukes so sickly, dying, and/or elderly it borders on necrophilia. My art is often inappropriate for children. Beware!

Contents of this journal include:

Random thoughts on stuff I've seen
Making art and zines and websites
Yaoi and yuri accessories
Diary entries about my poor health
Pondering internet culture, and navigating the web as an adult artist.

The most important thing you must know about me IRL: I have a bunch of weenie dogs and I deeply relate to their sausage shapes. 🌭🌭🌭🌭 I also have a bunch of cats and chickens. 🐱🐔 I have poor memory so I'll probably repeat the same shit over and over in different posts without knowing it.

I am not really involved in any fandom communities. I draw for myself, and draw whatever I like: OCs, fanart, cute stuff, shippy stuff, or gory freak shit. My interests constantly cycle in and out of my mind, my favorite characters are evergreen, and I'm slow to get into new things. I like participating in art trades and fandom exchanges. You can read more about my likes on my website.

I prefer not to be involved in fandom conflicts. I am of the opinion that you should be able to express yourself honestly via art. So just pretend that I approve of the characters/ships/genres you find unchaste.

( Links )

( Etiquette and transformative works policy )

( My Characters )

( Pairings )

( Master List )

WHEW! That's all for now! Thanks for reading, and feel free to ask any questions or comment on anything.

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Sticker Club thoughts

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 04:13:33 GMT

Conundrum: I want to make Sticker Club a send-every-two-months thing.

Pros:

I have more time to design, print, and cut stuff
It cuts packaging and stamp usage by half.
I use less money buying supplies, there's less packaging waste, and less energy consumption from transporting goods.
I save energy on packaging days, where I handwrite every address and thank you note.
It is less stressful overall

Cons:

I don't know how to word this change clearly. For both the general announcement, and for the ko-fi sub page that explains what each tier is.
What do I do about people who sub in the middle of the 2nd month? If I just send them the one sticker from that month, how do I keep track of that?
idk how many people actually read my ko-fi announcements LOL so if I change it, some people will be like "huh where's this months sticker"
It's an abnormal change, and I will lose support.
I am afraid of answering questions about changes now and after. It takes a lot of mental effort to engage with questions. And mental energy is what I am trying to maintain with this change.
It is stressful to change things.

Reasoning:

It is quite costly to ship stuff outside the USA. It cost $7 in stamps to ship each zine (that's like a whole sheet of stamps lol), there is no cheaper option, idk it used to be like $3, and the sub tier is $9. On regular sticker months, it's $1.50 in stamps to send stuff out. Being able to condense that $1.50 to the next month's shipping costs would save a lot of stamps.

I am also experiencing poor health, and do not feel able to fufill even just monthly expectations.

Shane has offered to fill in every other month as needed, but I do not feel like its fair to make him draw and cut the stickers. He already cuts everything for me. On top of him already taking care of my health and human needs. If we were to switch off, I would feel more comfortable if it was a once-every-two-months thing so that we could send our stickers out together.

I think a lot of this could be mitigated if Kofi had a "pay per finished thing" option like Patreon. So it would be a lot simpler to only take payments on months I actually do stuff. Idk but then I'd have to figure out how much someone pays per finished thing, and $12 every 2 months looks unappealing compared to $6 a month.

I am probably not going to use Patreon because they make it known that they monitor off-site art, and make moderation decisions on Patreon based on the art you make outside of their site. Ko-Fi probably also does this cuz they're Paypal powered, but I haven't heard as many artists getting banned from there as Patreon.

In any case, this is not in effect yet. But I only have a little time before January and I have to decide what I do.

Making decisions saps a lot of my energy. A lot of things regarding finances and art damages my mental health. And I am probably not in a great brain state to be making long-lasting decisions right now either. But I have to make a decision eventually.

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Things that worked for me yesterday a diary entry by maggie age 7

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 06:18:07 GMT

(Or the day before... since it's past midnight and I'm writing this at Shane's encouragement.)

( Read more... )

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2023 Art Summary

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 03:36:40 GMT

It's that time of the year again! My memory is poor so it's good for me to look back at what I did and be like "oh yeah I did that.". Especially to assuage that ever-present voice in your head that says "you didn't do SHIT". And especially for me cuz every piece I draw is like a lil save point. I can usually remember what was going on while I was drawing something. Let's see how I do!

Template is from ssmb_turb on twitter.

( reminiscing... )

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Meme: first and last lines

Sun, 19 Nov 2023 05:39:58 GMT

Borrowed from y'all.

Rules: go through your last 5 fics and share the first and last line. No context.

Luckily for everyone, I think I've only written/published 5 fics online ever! The rest is middle school English class history.

LET'S GO 5 TOTAL FICS!

Unconditional

First: Norman had Harry at 27, when he was still poor.

Last: That boy ain’t right.

Beneath the Waves

First: The metal door heaved and opened, letting a sliver of light cut into the dark room.

Last: Harry motioned to the driver to take him back to his wife and son, away from the old Osborn estate and the bones buried within.

Pity Party

First: They spent Ollie’s birthday together.

Last: Because he didn’t care, and he was tired of caring, and he didn’t want to have to care for anyone ever again.

Blister

First: "Scout. I need you."

Last: "Hmm. How unfortunate."

Separation Anxiety

First: Page after neon green page endlessly clacked and spat from the large office printer.

Last: The castle would be howlingly empty once he found someone to take Soldier away from him.

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tea sample day 5: breakfast tea caffeinated edition

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 18:11:31 GMT

A classic black tea says my tongue. Much more full tasting than the decaffeinated brother in this box. Again with the smokiness at the end, stronger this time. Maybe it's me letting the teabag soak for like 20 minutes while I do chores but LMAO. I like my dark tea. I will NEVER take the bag out after 4 minutes!!!! Would def choose this over all the others in this box as my daily tea. No wonder they call it Breakfast Tea!

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tea sample day 4: Lemon & Orange

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:41:41 GMT

...in black tea. I do not like this. It's everything I don't like about western-type tea. Too flowery, too scented, too sweet, too harsh! I really like bitter, dark teas. This is a tea for someone else.

It's finishable, but at what cost?! I'm guessing this would be better as an iced tea, with tons of sugar added to it LOL. Hm.... Might ask Shane to do that for me.

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tea sample day 3: breakfast tea

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:52:10 GMT

Whatever breakfast tea means... this one is decaffeinated. Very light and mild compared to the black tea that I typically enjoy. A hint of smokiness at the end. Would probably want to try this with caffeine for the true taste? Wouldn't mind this if it was stronger. Good for just sipping on unobtrusively.

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tea sample day 2: green tea with jasmine

Sun, 12 Nov 2023 19:21:24 GMT

Mild and lightly, flowery sweet. Something I would get at dimsum. Reminds me slightly of chrysthanemum tea because of the floral taste. Shane says this would be good for boba, I agree.

Added soy milk, didn't need sugar for satisfying milk tea.

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tea sample day 1: assam

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 16:34:55 GMT

I got a box of tea samplers. Cuz I can never decide what I want in the morning. Perhaps if I document the flavors I shall remember which ones I like.

## day 1: assam black tea.

Mild, slightly sweet. Not bitter at all. Very pleasant fragrance, not too flowery or sugary. Might prefer something bitter for general everyday drinking.

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know thyself better

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 02:26:55 GMT

Copied from a tumblr meme:

Three ships: Terry x Bruce (batman beyond), Scout x Spy (TF2 and my ocs :)), Esqueleto x Nacho (Nacho Libre)

First ship: Some Final Fantasy stuff.. like Rydia x Kain (FFIV) or somethin'. Or Yuffie x Vincent (FFVII).

Last song I listened to: "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal, because Shane asked to listen to "Kiss" by Prince and it autoplayed to another Kiss...

Last Movie: Nacho Libre (2006), which is a GREAT wrestling movie. I will defend it and Esqueleto's honor.

Last Series: Venture Bros! We played S1-4 while asleep, so now we shall rewatch them after rewatching the movie...

Currently Reading: How to fix floor boarding articles LMAO.

Last Consumed: Fried rice from leftovers, with some egg n' chili sauce.

Craving: Sleep... I would say yaoi but right now I'm too overstimulated with all my senses to sit down and read a dank fic.

Feel free to fill out this meme too if you want :)

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Chicken coop proposal

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 16:12:43 GMT

So we're at a crossroads with moving the chickens onto our property.. properly.

We need a coop for them to sleep in, and we need fencing to keep the chickens safe from wild animals at night. During day, we'll let them free roam around the fenced yard.

choice one: buy a coop

This is a pricey option.

A coop for 4-6 chickens is about ~$300 on Tractor Supply. You can also find local builders who will go to your property and make a custom one for ya for around $600-1000.

choice two: DIY a coop.

We have a couple of old doghouses, cat carriers, and outdoor cat shelters for a temporary sleep setup for our 5 chickens.

The fencing situation will be a bit tougher. We do have some old wire fences around, and can move the current wire fences we have... we just need fences in the mean while to keep the chickens in while we move their old fences.

We also have 4 wooden pallets which would make for good temporary fences. And we can buy 50 feet of chicken wire for like $20-50. We just need the time for the labor.

The roofing could either be "real" asphalt roofing, or "temporary" tarp like we have right now. Tarp will def be cheaper, around $20.

edit: choice 3, copy this guy for $200

Here's a video of a guy who made a huge shed into a chicken coop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWbyeH5dNnU

Main points he made are: - get a free shed that someone's gotta be giving away locally, facebook, craigslist, nextdoor, etc. - use whatever you have for nesting box - build a run next to the door (this is the hardest part) - wrap the run in chicken wire - reuse an old chainlink door (we have one) - fill everything with straw (we have bunches!)

I would like to copy whichever parts of this are viable for us. We couldn't find any free sheds online just yet. Maybe soon?

cumclusion

We're much more likely to do option two cuz we are financially challenged. I may be forgetting some steps of the process. Shane, remind me if there's some holes I forgot to fill?

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Fall friending meme 🍁

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 22:07:44 GMT

From the friending_memes community! I'm choosing to post on my own journal for you, my captive audience 😊

Basics

Name: SCUMSUCK, tempural, deda, magdalene, etc.

Age: Old enough to watch Spider-Man 2002 in theaters and get goatse'd on AIM.

Pronouns: On the internet, I would prefer not to be talked about in 3rd person. In real life, any is fine especially if you switch it up :)

Region: USA 🦅

( Read more... )

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Yaoi vocabulary rambling (2148 words)

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 05:03:12 GMT

Originally, I wrote some musings on the usage of yaoi-adjacent words on Aethy. But I didn't really feel comfortable with the "reach" it was getting, because I am by absolutely NO MEANS an expert on vocabulary let alone Japanese. No one should ever take me as an expert on anything!

So I want to mirror and continue to think out loud about yaoi words here. ( Read more... )

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🍋 Citrus Con Post Mortem (1535 words, 4 images)

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 02:25:02 GMT

"Citrus Con is a virtual 18+ con for BL/queer media, shipping, and fanworks". I attended this weekend, from August 25th-27th, as a Artist Alley vendor and just hangin' out.

As a Artist Alley vendor:

This is my first time vending at an online convention. I applied for Citrus Con's Artist Alley sometime last year, because my pal spilly reminded us that it was happening. So we both applied, and we both got in!

The head of the Artist Alley was Ash, who was apparently a last minute replacement for the person before them, who apparently left a lot of things unfinished. The Artist Alley section felt a little hidden and bare (there were some attendees who apparently didn't even know it was a thing?!). But Ash was very courteous and kind the whole time before the event during my email questions, and during the event. That was very important to me, because I asked if I could invite my partner as an "artist role" to help me man my table. And my partner Shane was INVALUABLE cuz he handled questions directed at me while I was knocked out sleeping. So thank you very much to Ash for allowing that accommodation!

The process of "vending" was pretty smooth. A list of artists was visible in a discord channel, along with a visual map of the "tables". There was an additional channel for "deals" where artists could promote themselves every 6 hours. And there was an additional channel for general Artist Alley mingling, where customers could ask questions and people could just talk to each other about the art. Basically all I did was hang out at the con like normal, talk to people, and sometimes post in the deals channel to remind people that I existed LOL.

Pros:

I didn't have to do anything. Very hands-off.
I could enjoy chatting in discord channels without feeling like I had to baby an artist alley table.
Much less stressful than an IRL convention where you have to set up your table and talk to them constantly.
Free! The convention was free for everyone, and we didn't have to pay for a table.

Cons:

The deals channel felt like we were constantly bumping each other off and vying for attention. Very busy.
The directory of artists felt a bit barebones. It was text-only, in an alphabetical list, so it was very easy to completely scroll past artist listings and not even notice. Perhaps I would like a site version that would allow for visual banners to show off our art styles?
The "visual map" was very slow to use, if it loaded at all (the con admitted it didn't work on Android phones and worked best on a desktop. I think most people use a phone to browse now..).
Artist names were cut off on the visual map to fit into a tiny circle. For example, my artist name looked like (SCU). We need shapes that fit our names! And ways to distinguish ourselves since all our circles are the same shape and size...

Conclusion:

I made sales to 10 people in 2 days, for a total of $106.53 after shipping fees are taken out, and not counting friends I already know buying stuff from me. That's about $50 a day. I know for many people who do conventions IRL, they consider that chump change. But for me, considering there were no fees, and all the stuff I sold was stickers/prints that I can make at home with materials I already have, it's free promotion! Basically a lil' vacation where I get to make a lil' money while talking about dank yaoi with pals.

I got like 5-10 new followers on twitter/instagram/tumblr LMAO. Which I don't really care about cuz I was only promo-ing my Aethy account in the soc-med share channel. Cuz I ain't socializing on twitter no more. If that sort of number matters to you, well, there ya go. It doesn't matter much to me. I'd much rather find more people who are into things I'm into than have numbers go up rn. So the real number is getting 2 more applicants to FujoFans! Which is a lil' smaller than I would have thought for a 900-attendee con, but 2 more pals is very cool! And I already recognized some people at the con from my directory 👀

The new art I made for Citrus Con was Spongebob yaoi and citrus scale stickers. I'm very happy with the designs I made this month! They're things I am proud to have on my store and continue to sell. And I'm using the citrus scale designs for my current store organization of SFW/suggestive/NSFW/guro. I fiddled with my store design and flow overall before Citrus Con, and I'm happy keeping this design for this year (until I mess with it again for Halloween >:))

The most popular item was the Citrus Scale Sticker Set. We sold 4 sets of those. Which is super cool, cuz that's not related to a specific fandom or character. It counts as "original art", and corporations can't take that away from you. It's proof that you don't absolutely need to lean on specific fannish interests and ships even for a "fannish" convention. Sometimes there's something universal that we all love.. whether it's original characters or silly memes.
The 2nd most popular item was the Seme X Uke Spongebob x Squidward sticker sets! We sold 3 of those. Which is cool cuz it's a set of 2 stickers, and it's a very... oddly specific thing that I'm happy that 3 whole people were interested in! The homies who want Squidward in a latex fetish suit are real ones.
I promo'd my commissions in the deals channel but got no bites. Understandable, because my commissions start at medium-high rates for fandom, and since Citrus Con was a free convention people probably wouldn't have money for a $300 daki :P

I'm guessing Ash did the best they could considering they were working last-minute on setting the AA up when it was passed to them a week before the event. And they admitted that they could do more for promotion for next year after some other artists expressed their feelings about not being seen, so... it's hard for a lot of fan events to admit that there are holes they could patch over, and it makes me feel confident that our feedback could be heard and worked on.

I would absolutely do Citrus Con again as an artist. They're prepping for Citrus Con 2024 already so... yeah! I can't wait to be prepped more too now that I have this experience of vending online!

As an attendee:

As I wrote in my Aethy post, now with additions and edits for DW:

CitrusCon was cool! I missed out on a lot of panels cuz sleep, or discord not having captions (spoken words go in my ear and out the other), so I mostly hung out in the meetup chats for Baki and Old Man Uke 😏 It was good to see people I knew, but didn't know were coming!

The main panel I went to was the "accessibility in fandom" panel by Kai, where it became very obvious that.. well, Discord (the main hub for all the activities) lacked a big accessibility option of automatic captions on videos. So I hope in the future, pre-recorded panels will have captions baked in :D The panel itself was very nice to see point out that we use "accessibility" features every day, across multiple disabilities, and the options can help people even if they don't have a specific disability! The host described images on their power point verbally, which was very helpful to understand how alt-text works (not just to know what the image is, but how it relates to the context! Or who the characters are, or what series it is!).

Also interesting: to see how yaoi and BL has become a relatively large niches! There's a lot of titles and publishers (some of them even sponsors...). I think the 2007 sorta scene I'm used to is making the same jokes about Loveless and Gravitation, and most yaoi is art and writing that we had to make ourself :p I'm still that way, I prefer making my own meals for my own tastes, or sampling homecooked meals from other indie artists... But very cool that publishers give proper BL fans a lot of choices!

(Also hilarious to see how dominant omegaverse has become in the last decade... Yall remember when it was just supernatural fics?)

I'm 100% gonna ask for more accessibility options in the exit survey, to improve next year! I asked before the event if there were accommodations for deafness (as well as for us with audio processing issues), and the hosts all provided very thorough answers that admitted that they were lacking in captions for discord, but zoom and twitch both have auto-captioning options. Their answers made me feel like they would listen and change for next year.

I think this year was a very cool first year for a convention, and I'm happy to see more inclusive events that allow people from all over the globe to hang out and talk about anime dudes buttfuckin', with no judgement.

Oh! And I really liked the templates they provided to gush about your blorbos! Here's some of mine :D I have baki brain worms right now so...Please look at my buff baby-faced meat mountains.

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Color theme switchers on sites

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 05:52:28 GMT

Making color themes for your site is FUN and GOOD for accessibility! Not only does it scratch my brain to be able to make new themes when I get sick of my old one inevitably, but there are days I have where it's easier to read dark text on light, or vice versa, or have a monotype font vs a sans-serif! Some people find it easier to read certain colors and fonts, and you may want to have a default styling for your site that's intentionally hard to read and full of 6px font and flashing bright colors. Giving your reader the option to change the styling to something else on the fly is very helpful.

Theme switchers requires HTML, CSS, and a bit of javascript. I can't read javascript yet, but it was easy enough to copy/paste the parts needed to get it to work.

Here's 3 different methods that I found online for building a color switcher:

( Read more... )

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post-Etsy post-mortem

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 03:42:15 GMT

I spent the entire night packing orders. I def wouldn't be able to keep up with my personal site AND Etsy orders in my current debuffed state. Especially if Etsy tended to be 3x as many orders as my personal site per week. ( 639 words rambling about being an artist under capitalism )

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List of links to webrings, web listings, and online communities.

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 18:30:02 GMT

After doing a small dive for webcomics-related webrings for a pal on the elephant site, I was inspired to update my personal site's links page with the other sites I found! Maybe y'all on the dreamwidth will find these links useful. With all the implosion of mass social media, it's nice to find the many scattered websites on which we can talk about anime tiddies.

I also did a small list of Mastodon/Federation related sites, inspired by this person's post about talking about specific instances rather than the confusing mess of Mastodon as a whole. It certainly is interesting to think about the different site cultures for each instance, since they're all usually just run by One Guy.

Feel free to drop any other communities you may know of in the comments! The ones I were looking at were focused on art, fandom, and having moderators take action to ward off racist/transphobic/etc users. I found quite a few LGBTQ focused webrings, but not a lot for race/ethnicity/country. Maybe that ol' "70% of tumblr is white" adage still rings true outside of tumblr...

( Read more... )

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Folgers Flash Exchange 2023!

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 01:29:22 GMT

This is my first time doing an AO3-hosted exchange... fun! Learned a lot! I like these really quick events where there's less pressure to make something huge, and allows for VERY rare pairs.

Like the pairing I drew for the Folgers Exchange! Alan and Ann, aka Ail and An in the original Japanese version of Sailor Moon.

Art under the cut. Beware of weird alien incest where they're born from the same tree, but are canonically in love? ( Read more... )

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Get to know your new friends on Masto!

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 17:58:22 GMT

Answering a fandom meme questionnaire. Mastodon flavored! 🐘

Warning for NSFW discussion under the cut, and one piece of suggestively cropped noncon art.
( Read more... )

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My no good, very bad, terrible sleep schedule and health!

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 12:39:13 GMT

I have a graveyard sleep schedule now for various reasons. I wake up at 10pm in the dark night, and work until the morning. I go to sleep at 2pm in the afternoon. My body doesn't feel particularly GOOD about it, but for the moment I've stabilized my mood a bit. I feel like I've lost 2 weeks worth of time and work.
( Read more... )

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