get a feeling so complicated...

cw: abuse (financial, domestic, sexual, racial)

i am sharing this on behalf of my friend sol, who has suffered extensive abuse and is currently in very dire circumstances. 

sol has suffered injuries to her body, her mind, her career, her finances—every area of her life has been deeply affected by the prolonged mistreatment she endured. she was forced into intimate contact with white supremacists, and her queer identity was used to sexually manipulate her. though she is no longer in this abusive relationship, the impact of that abuse persists. 

her ability to heal from her abuse has been hindered greatly by her lack of financial resources. after causing her to undergo frequent hospitalization, her abuser took control of her accounts and drained her finances, leaving her with a mountain of debt from his fraud and the medical expenses. on top of that, she is the sole financial provider for her family and was recently laid off. 

financial support is critical to the survival, safety, and recovery of those who have experienced abuse. as the youcaring link states, just one sexual assault can cost upwards of $122,461 per victim. this is an unimaginable cost for most individuals to shoulder alone, and it only deepens as the abuse increases in type and duration. 

i am asking you to PLEASE help sol survive in any way you can, even if your contribution is small. little donations can go a long way when added up, and every reblog spreads this link to a new person and increases the amount of visibility for our cause. sol deserves to reclaim everything that was taken from her, and your support will help her on that path. 

I know a lot of people in the US are super excited for the eclipse on August 21st. I’m in that group. But if you’re going to look at the eclipse, you need solar eclipse glasses. No sunglasses. And don’t even think about going with no eye protection at all.  You can go blind if you look at the eclipse. Going without solar eclipse glasses is NOT optional.

That said, there are people cashing in on the solar eclipse craze. They’re making fake eclipse glasses. The Seattle Times reported on the fakes on August 8th and spoke with a spokesperson for the American Astronomical Society (AAS) about it. Even if the fake glasses seem safe, they’re not. Richard Tresch Fienbern from the AAS explained:

“The problem with fakes is that you can’t know if they’re letting unsafe levels of solar ultraviolet and/or infrared radiation into your eyes. You’d never know until it’s too late because our retinas don’t have pain receptors.”

The AAS has a page devoted entirely to what real ISO-compliant solar eclipse glasses look like.

This includes showing the correct text on the inside of the glasses. Click on this link to see the text.

According to the USA Today, there are only five companies that make eclipse glasses that are certified by the AAS and NASA: American Paper Optics, Baader Planetarium, Rainbow Symphony, Thousand Oaks Optical, and TSE 17. If you’re going to buy eclipse glasses used on eBay or another website, make sure that they come from one of these five manufacturers or have the correct text written inside.

Fake eclipse glasses can look incredibly convincing. Here is a pair that my mom purchased on eBay.

If you have some solar eclipse glasses already, look for this code:

ISO 12312-2

If that code is not on your solar eclipse glasses do not wear them. Even if they are safe, it is not worth the risk. You can do irreversible damage to your eyes if you look at an eclipse without the right eye wear. This includes blindness. Again, you can go blind if you look at an eclipse with improper eye wear.

Be safe. Get the real deal. The links have been provided to you above.

Please spread this post so more people can see it.

if you call trans men ‘soft boys’ ‘sweet babies’ or anything in the: ‘uwu my little boys’ ‘sweeties’ ‘kids’ ‘boys’ category then you really need to re-evaluate how you see transgender people. we aren’t all children and young teens. transgender adults exist, transgender elders exist, and besides that, don’t you think teens and kids deserve a little more respect?

trans men are a diverse group of people who dont have to conform to your weirdly specific idea of what a trans man is.

we aren’t all thin, prepubescent, white people with cutesy tumblr aesthetics.

Preorders are now open!

www.BOTWzine.com

Over 130 pages of amazing art all themed around the most recent entry in the Legend of Zelda franchise, Breath of the Wild!

Not only can you get the zine in a digital format and physical perfect bound book, there’s also the exclusive Hyrule Bundle which not only includes a digital and physical copy of the zine, but also 2 vinyl sticker sheets and 2 acrylic charms!

* ALL PROFITS RAISED ARE BEING DONATED TO CHILD’S PLAY *

‘sup guys!! it’s me, okuyasu! I thought it might be fun to start up a blog, so here I am!

I’m gonna try an’ post somethin’ every day if I can…although if there’s like, a stand attack or my kitchen exploded or it’s josuke’s birthday or somethin’ like that, I probably shouldn’t spend too much time postin’ stuff to my blog…unless people wanna watch my kitchen explode, but I hope ya don’t, ‘cause that’d be kinda fucked up, man…

 Yesterday, we revealed some pages for our graphic novel adaptation of the first Adventure Zone arc, and received some criticism of the direction we went with for Taako’s coloring. This artwork reveal came some months after the first reveal of some of our characters, for which we also received criticism of our three leads, all of whom were white in these initial designs. Us and the graphic novel team realized that, yes, that is extremely bad, went back to the drawing board, and had several long discussions about how to best rectify this situation, resulting in the artwork revealed yesterday.

More or less all of the criticism we’ve received centers on Taako, whose skin is a pale blue color in these designs. What we’ve heard most is disappointment that Taako is not realized in these pages as a person of color — or, to be more specific, a Latinx or explicitly Mexican character. There was concern we had failed to follow through on an opportunity to get better representation for Latinx listeners, instead opting to take a safe route, and make Taako a fantasy color without any kind of real-world connection. Much of the criticism also focuses on how that color (or, to be more specific, green skin) has anti-semitic connotations.

This conversation was happening in certain corners of our fandom long before the graphic novel art reveal took place yesterday. We’ve heard criticism from some folks over our policy of not having canonical visual representations of any of our characters — a policy that has resulted in a genuinely humbling ocean of fan art, but also some instances of in-fighting between members of the community who take umbrage with one another’s disparate interpretations of these characters. Another criticism of that policy is that it inherently does not foster good representation, and in fact represents a noncommittal way of handling racial representation on this show.

Here’s the truth of the matter: I think all of this comes from this underlying friction between where The Adventure Zone and us, its creators, were when we started doing the podcast, and where we, the show, and you, the community, are at now. 

COSPLAY 101: Craft Foam Props - Bendable Backing!

This is an easy way to permanently bend and reinforce small or medium props like I show you in this video. Designs with straight angles work best, but you can also use this method for curved surfaces such as tiaras, bracelets, etc!

“The UK now ranks among the bottom 10 global performers in the arena of improving rights of the child, after it achieved the lowest-possible score across all six available indicators in the domain of Child Rights Environment (CRE), according to the KidsRights Index 2017.”

Inktober #12