Critical Role Fanart By @Mikandii

Puppy reacts to getting hicups!

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I apologize if this comes off as disrespectful to Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin. Or their families. Or YOU, the reader. I’m not about that. That’s not why I drew this.

I am just really freaked out that 40% of Americans (and 47% of White Americans) do not think that the killings and violence in Ferguson ‘raise any racial issues.’ Fellow White Persons, this is our chance to learn. This is our chance to change.

When Trayvon Martin was murdered because Full Grown Men in America are frightened to violence by the presence black children, the dialogue turned very quickly into a conversation about gun control.

And gun control is an issue that deserves our attention.

But it won’t change the massive poverty in Black America. The arrest rate. The education statistics. The institutional, systemic, casual, and passive racism that plagues our country.

And it wouldn’t have saved Michael Brown.

Anyway. I’m sorry if this comes off as disrespectful or insincere or preachy. I’m sorry if my execution (or personality) gets in the way of what I’m trying to say. I am an imperfect artist, an imperfect person, and I am, undoubtedly, blinded to a million things by my own glaring whiteness. So this might be… Lord, this might be awful. I’m so sorry if it’s awful. Really.

But. I just keep thinking… Look, my wife is pregnant with our first child. A boy. We’re nervous, we’re excited, we’re SO ANXIOUS because what the hell do you do with babies? WE don’t know. But if we were a black family… in this country… we would be so terrified. Because we live in a nation that murders the children of black parents, puts it on the news WITH RIOTS AND TEAR GAS as decoration, and still half of us don’t even see it as a problem. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine bringing a child into that reality, to face the odds we lay out for black kids?

That would break me. I’ve never known anything like that. No one should ever know anything like that.

So let’s talk to our friends about race. Lets talk to our families. And when actual victims of racism try to tell us what’s going on in, say, a peaceful community protest as they are being gassed and shot at by cops WE SHOULD LISTEN TO AND BELIEVE THEM. Let’s talk to each other about this until we are all on the same page.

And then let’s turn the damn page.

*frantically takes notes*

I always find it kind of weird that matriarchal cultures in fiction are always “women fight and hunt, men stay home and care for the babies” because world-building-wise, it makes no sense

think about it. like, assuming that gender even works the same in this fantasy culture as it does in ours, with gender conflated with sex (because let’s be real, all of these stories assume that), men wouldn’t be the ones to make the babies, so why would they be the ones to care for the babies? why is fighting and hunting necessary for leadership?

writing a matriarchy this way is just lazy, because you’re just taking the patriarchy and just swapping the people in it, rather than actually swapping the culture. especially when there are so many other cool things you could explore. like, what if it’s not a swap of roles but of what society deems important?

maybe a matriarchy would have hunting and fighting be part of the man’s job, but undervalued. like taking the trash out or cleaning toilets: necessary, but gross, and not noble or interesting. maybe farming is now the most important thing, and is given a lot of spiritual and cultural weight.

how would law work? what crimes would exist, and what things would be considered too trivial to make illegal? who gets what property? why?

how would religion work? how would you mark time or the passage into adulthood? what would marriage look like? if bloodlines are through the mother, bastardy wouldn’t even be a concept - how does that work?

what qualities would be most important in a person? how would you define strength or leadership? what knowledge would be the most coveted and protected? what acts or roles are considered useless or degrading?

like, you can’t just take our current society and say you’re turning it on its head when you’re just regurgitating it wholesale. you have to really think about why things are the way they are and change that. 

Retour en France, entre tristesse, soulagement et appréhension

Ça y est, alors que j’écris ces lignes, je vis mes dernières heures sur le sol anglais.

J’ai dit au revoir à mes amis, mes collègues (et non, pas mes amours), et j’emballe mes derniers effets, lentement, en savourant chaque secondes.

  J’ai appris à l’aimer ce pays. Oh, je ne suis pas un Globe-trotter, je n’ai même pas tant visité le pays, au final. Mais l’ambiance, les gens, les pubs, les rues, le brouhaha sonore (anglais), l’architecture, la nourriture (si, quelque part…), le thé, les paysages, la pluie, le brouillard, tout ça me manquera terriblement.

  Mais je pense à nouveau à la France. Enfin, je n’ai jamais vraiment cessé d’y penser. A travers le hublot Internet, je me suis tenu au courant de ce qu’il s’y passait. A travers les couloirs blanc immaculés de ses fibres optiques, j’ai reçu les échos scandaleux de slogans haineux et de harangues nationalistes, homophobes et rétrogrades.

  Néanmoins, je suis bien conscient que de par sa nature, on n’a qu’une vision très extrême de l’info à travers les réseaux sociaux. Colères, scandales, pétitions, articles fumeux, brulots mal écrits, juste indignation, etc… c’est cela que l’on retrouve en 140 caractères sur Twitter, ou en une poignée de lien sur Facebook.

  Je sais que j’ai une vision déformée. Et pourtant, je n’ai pas envie que cela cesse. J’ai peur, même, de voir disparaitre ces luttes et ces indignations se diluer dans la masse oppressante du quotidien. Mais si ma vision n’était pas si déformée ? Si Lundi j’assiste à un acte raciste ou sexiste, au travail ou dans la rue, oserai-je élever ma voix et m’interposer?

  C’est terrible, avoir des (semi-)opinions et n’en faire rien. Encore pire, avoir des opinions et ne faire qu’en parler.

happy pokemon day be safe ok enjoy this very old drawing of some primeapes

Warforged bard is named Gender

It’s a social construct

Cleric: Are you a vampire? Vampire: Well it’s raining so technically I’m a dampire.

3D-printed prosthetic costs way less than other alternatives

Video