I don't know which of you needs to hear this but "narc" is not short for "narcissist" when someone calls you a "narc" for snitching they are calling you a "narcotics officer"

My honest advice if you are reading something (especially something academic or non-fiction) that you don't understand is to read it again. And again, if you need to. And again.

I read the same three or four pages of the new network analysis paper probably six times yesterday, and at some point I had the math notation page on Wikipedia open for reference, and I don't have a subject matter expert's understanding but I do get more of it than I did when I started. And the next time I read it I'll understand it more.

Literally work it out sentence by sentence if you have to. You can learn how to understand things, even if it takes a lot of iterations.

I’ve gotta be honest I hesitate to give writing advice anymore because whenever someone tells me your story needs to do xyz I immediately need to write a story breaking all of those rules they just spelled out because I’m just Like That and who am I to further enable other people who are also Like That

this website lets you listen to the sounds of all different forests around the world 

Commission scammer spotting guide

Tumblr has been plagued by art thief acccounts pretending to be artists and trying to scam you to commission them. Here's a list of things to watch out when a suspicious account is claiming to be a commission artist. Not to say that every "red flag" is an indication of fake artist, but if you see too many red flags at once, it's safe to assume the "artist" might be a scammer.

• No digital footprint - Despite the quality of presented art and the supposed number of commissions they're getting, the account is fairly new and unknown, there is no trace of them ever existing before on tumblr or any other sites.
• Varying styles and quality - Sometimes it's a full painted pieces, sometimes it's a sketchy drawing and sometimes it's a simple cellshaded chibi. There are artists who work in different styles but the things like quality of lines and consistency of shading don't usualy change overnight.
• Bad quality uploads - Small and pixelated quality of uploaded artwork probably means they stole it from somewhere.
• Eveything is a commission - Most artwork they upload is described as "commission from a client" to legitimize their commission scam. Also note the consistency of them calling their commissioners "clients" everytime. "Thanks for trusting me" is also a common phrase used by scammers.
• No fandom tags - Even if the artwok is clearly a fanart, they never label the media or character, often claiming it's an oc.
• Nameless OCs - When they claim the artwork depicts their own characters, you never learn their names or what they are from except "a story i'm writing" or sometihng like that.
• Vague artistic descriptions - The scammers commonly use short artistic descriptions like "She represents balance warmth and cold, chaos and grace held together in one moment." instead of regular artist's comment about the art or character on it.
• They are most likely to message you randomly whenever you post anything about wanting to commission an artist.
• Of course things like AI claimed to be their own art or leftover signatures from original artists are a clear indication of art theft. If you are unsure you can always chek their images on google lens to see if there are any suspicious matches.

I uderstand this is not an exhausive guide and that yes, real artists are sometimes guilty of some of these too, we're just people. Just because an artist didn't tag their fanart or put a weird description doesn't automaticaly mean they are fake and trying to scam you. It's just general list of common red flags shared between confirmed scam accounts and might be useful when you're looking for commissions and want to verify if the artist is legit or a thief/scammer.

If you are interested to see what those scam accounts look like and how they are exposed, go give @ai-art-thieves a look.

immortality as theft (you have to steal life from something else) immortality as parasitism (there is something else inside You that is keeping you alive and you become less of yourself more and more the longer it stays in you) immortality as violence (everything is trying to kill you because everything is supposed to die and the universe will always try to find a way to right the wrong that is You) you understand

You should be starting a recipe book. I don't give a shit if you're only 20-years-old. The modern web is rotting away bit by bit before our very eyes. You have no idea when that indie mom blog is going down or when Pinterest will remove that recipe. Copy it down in a notebook, physically or digitally. Save it somewhere only you can remove it. Trust me, looking for a recipe only to find out it's been wiped off the internet is so fucking sad. I've learned my lesson one too many times.

if you are a parent, or may become one, or you are otherwise likely to arrive in the situation of caring for a child while they eat, promise me this: if a child doesn't like a certain food or food group, you will ask them WHY. and specifically, you will pay attention to either confirming or ruling out "it makes my mouth itch" or "it makes my stomach hurt," both of which are medically important info that children may not provide unprompted. which i know because this PSA has been brought to you by "i spent my entire childhood and much of my early teens eating peas and lentils while wondering why everyone else liked the Violently Itchy Mouth Sensation so much, like were they a bunch of legume masochists or something, before i finally realized that Violently Itchy Mouth Sensation was in fact a sinister demon appearing only to me, and her true demonic name was: Legume Allergy"