The Phrase "tolerant Left" Pisses Me Off Because Technically I'm Left But I'm NOT Tolerant. If You Say

Līču-Laņģu Cliffs, Latvia

places to go:

a fairylike garden, full of sunshine

a flower meadow where picnics occur

foggy forests, a neverending fairytale

hidden waterfalls in the mountains

tide pools by the sea 

1. Do not worry about gaining weight. Ever. But certainly not now just bc you’re in quarantine. 

2. You have permission not to be productive. We are living through a plague and a radical social upheaval. Who tf cares how much you ‘produced’ during this time? No one.

3. Give your day some structure that includes grounding and self care. Be as liberal with this as you can because these are very stressful times and not likely to go away soon.

4. Be kind. Be patient. Be loving. Breathe and give yourself space to feel.

5. Please stop comparing this to video games, zombie franchises or ‘the apocalypse’. First of all those thigns are not real and this is, this is real and happening to people. Second of all those things are made to pretend to be real. They refer to the real world, the real world does not refer to them. Thirdly the effects of this crisis are things that have happened and currently do happen to marginalized communities all over. The difference is now it’s happening to everyone. The ‘apocalypse’ has come to poor people, indigenous people, people in countries victim to imperialism- many times over.

6. Drink water. Sleep well.

A Reader’s Plea

It makes me sad to see authors stepping back from this community because of the unnecessary situations that keep popping up. There’s been a few over the last few weeks in the fandoms I enjoy. 

I’m a reader before I’m anything else. I’ve been here a long time under a reader account before I ever decided to write in this arena. I come here for the stories, wonderful free stories to escape into by wonderfully talented people. I share stories all the time that I read the night before. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day.

But the more authors disappear, the less stories and content we’re going to get. Period. And doesn’t that sound like the reverse of what we want considering we’ve got a global pandemic hanging over our heads? 

I don’t blame any of them for stepping back. I only hope it’s not permanent. And as an author, you can understand when one does it, others consider it. They’ll think maybe they’ve got a point. Maybe a break is a good idea.

Readers have been stepping back too.

So as a reader, I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone who reads this. Treat each other well. Treat each other with kindness. If you don’t like someone, you can still be respectful. I’ll be honest. Over the last 8 or 9 years I’ve been skulking around Tumblr reading fics, I found a lot of amazing authors and stories. I left comments. I shared. I knew how important that was. I didn’t always get my comments answered. I didn’t mind. It takes time to craft stories. Maybe the author doesn’t have that much time between writing, asks, DM’s, questions, and everything else in their lives.

I can also tell you that I ended up leaving a lot of blogs over the years because of controversies that dusted up. That’s in no way a criticism of anyone, any situation, or how they choose to handle it. Their blog, their business. Cool. But as readers, we get all that every day in real life and we’re here for the escape, the stories, the fantasy. The beautiful words from those authors we’re grateful for. I was grateful for the stories but when there was just as much controversy as story? It wasn’t even intentional sometimes. I just mostly lost interest.

Help me cheer on our content creators. Please? As a reader, I’m greedy and I don’t want anyone else taking off. Help me cheer on each other as readers. If enough of us make an effort to redirect the dialogue to being supportive of each other instead of instantly assuming and passing judgment, this would be an amazingly awesome place. We have a lot of good people. It wouldn’t be that hard to do.💕🙏💖

I’m off to look for those good stories for the night. I hope you find some too. Have a good night. Promise I’m off my soapbox for the next six months lol I don’t normally do this. But a couple of folks stepping back are people I love and it hit me hard tonight. That and I see a lot of writers asking for things. I figured the readers should be able to share some thoughts too.

Love you guys. 🙏

My FAVORITE THING is researchers who wholeheartedly embrace the Ms. Frizzle aesthetic and wear their field of study on their literal sleeve. Everyone in the invasive crayfish consortium has tiny lobster-print shorts or socks. All the middle-aged dad scientists here at the lab have shirts with fish and/or fishing tackle patterns on them. My moss specimen and ammonite earrings keep getting noticed by women who are wearing silver fishbone-shaped or native plant-themed earrings themselves. Every single person on the outreach team has at least one shirt with an anchor pattern on it from Old Navy, and almost all the younger researchers have tattoos featuring their research interests – one fisheries biologist has a half-sleeve of native species she literally uses as an outreach tool. We are self-aware and having a blast with it, honestly.

oh to be in a forest while it's raining <3 🌲🌿🌧🍄

Awww yes, it’s skijoring season in Colorado. I hope I get to go watch this year.

i read an amazing article by wannasworld and i decided to put together a small piece based on it. just a daily reminder to speak black women. 

[Image ID: A Facebook post. The original poster’s name and icon have been redacted. The post reads:

Some times I get tired of being the “nice disabled person”. ‘curb cutouts make things much easier for moms with strollers.’ I don’t care. Mobility impaired people literally can’t get off the sidewalk without them. ‘Captions are great for kids who are learning to read.’ Yeah, and they are also a necessity for deaf people. here’s my hot take. Disabled people should not have to frame accessibility in a way that helps abled people to get the accommodations they need to live a decent life. /end ID]