Booksdragon

It reads "any attempted theft will be reported to the police" in the 15 most commonly spoken languages by immigrants here other than English or other western european languages (in descending order).

This sign was only half of the art piece, the other half was the most stereotypically Icelandic painting I could think of:

When the piece was shown the painting and the sign were hung on opposite sides of the room, making the sign more of an afterthought for those who don't speak any of the languages written on the sign. Standing out just enough for them to notice it and maybe wonder what it said, but ultimately not giving it a second thought for the most part.

I wanted to highlight one of the most common ways racism and xenophobia present themselves here as well as the comfort of ignorance. The sign doesn't cater to you, you ignore it it, and you don't care what it might say. You don't have to think about it because it doesn't affect you.

For those who can read the sign though, or bother to translate it, this is just yet another reminder of people's ignorance and double standards. My inspiration for this piece came from my old workplace, where they had this sign hanging on one of the doors:

The main things that stood out about this to me were that

It was the only sign on the premises written in anything other than Icelandic and/or English

All of the additional languages (Vietnamese, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian) specifically targeted minority groups that already face discrimination here

The location of the sign. We only had 1 of these, and they chose to put it up somewhere where only staff would see it rather than the customers. In fact, it was right next to the break room so you had to walk past it every time you went on break. And it was a sign reminding people not to steal. Big win for inclusivity here

People love saying that we're not racist/xenophobic here even though we very much are. The problem is just that so many people don't take the time to look when it doesn't directly affect them. I was very happy with my piece because people actually came up to me and asked what the sign said because they wanted to know, it started a conversation and made those previously unaware of this issue more aware. I wonder if these sorts of signs would be anywhere near as commonplace as they are if more people looked at them critically and asked "why is this the thing we bother translating?"

it's just an intensifier indicating that you'd better read the tags, because that's what you're getting in the fic. you could use it for anything, really- even fluff in a particularly dark fandom. I could have tagged my Crimson Peak Christmas fluff fic "dead dove; do not eat" if I'd felt like it

Details.

There is a kernel of truth in the heart of this sentiment--if you only chase stats, you are unlikely to find joy in your writing. At the same time, I think we've veered too far in the other direction.

It is only natural to want engagement and the write for yourself crowd often overlooks how communal an effort fic writing usually is. So many story ideas are born from casual discussions about h/c's and favourite scenes and what ifs and the comment box is a cornerstone of this process. Not only can the discussions in the comment box be a hub for idea generation on their own, but even when the said idea generation takes place in DMs or Discord chats, commenting is often the first/easiest way into befriending authors; it's where community building starts.

Further, the write for yourself crowd similarly overlooks that the things a writer can write for themselves are often vast and many at any given time, and relative engagement levels across fandoms/ships can play a large part in which of those ideas a writer chooses to pursue--or whether they choose to publish their finished work at all.

Which has lead to:

They even know what 'accident' and 'I'm sorry' means. Anyone who has ever accidentally stepped on their dog's tail or done something else that hurts or scares them, and laments how they can't tell their dogs they didn't mean it?

Fast fashion is a symptom of the same problem (the more often they can get you to update your wardrobe, the better), but the cause is very simple -- shitty fabric is cheaper. Thinner fabric is cheaper, fabric with shorter fibre lengths is cheaper, the more plastic you can get in the fabric the cheaper it is, and paying the workers less per garment or increasing their quotas (thus forcing them to rush, skip double stitching, and overlook small defects) is cheaper. Getting as many clothing pieces out of as little fabric as possible, even if it means the warp and weft are at a weird angle, is cheaper. Not putting linings in clothing or reinforcing stress points is cheaper, so nothing has a lining or is properly reinforced any more. The company must get more profitable every year, so the goods must either be cheaper to acquire or more expensive to sell every year. It's just shrinkflation.

To a free market proponent this shouldn't be a problem, because if the clothes are too shitty then the customers will just buy from somewhere with better clothing and the problem will self-correct, right? Except that doesn't work when everyone is doing it. When every affordable chain store is putting out shittier, flimsier clothing for the same price every year, and when the fabric stores are selling equally shitty fabric (and only a minority of the customers would have time to sew anyway), and the op shops are full of shitty clothes abandoned by frustrated customers from the affordable chain stores, who else can the customer buy from? If the good quality clothing even exists in their area any more, if they can even save up to buy it, how are they to know where to find it? Expensive stuff is very often made of shitty bullshit that falls apart in two years too now. Reliable brands are constantly changing hands and becoming unreliable, four fifths of artisans out there carefully making high quality clothes are just dropshippers selling you the stuff that even kmart wouldn't take. It's not technically a monopoly but it has the same effect as one -- if you take away the customer's other options, you can exploit them as much as you want.

The issue is, I’m a sewist. And I have no idea how fabric is actually made, beyond a vague sense that it’s perhaps done on a loom.

1. Most of the time it's painfully obvious when you're using AI because it spits out the most generic takes possible, and it often attributes statements to people who did not make those statements.

2. An AI paper fills me with a vitriolic rage the likes of no other. It makes me viscerally angry that you're wasting my time and yours this way. School is expensive. There are so many people who would love to be here, who would love to actually be learning but they cant afford to. Have some respect and actually use the education you're privileged enough to be able to pay for.

3. An AI paper will get you reported to the academic integrity office, because it's plagiarism. This is not an opinion of mine its a school policy. An academic integrity violation will follow you for the rest of your academic career (if you're even able to get anyone to give you a second chance) and beyond. Its not worth it.

4. A half assed, insane, incoherent paper that I know you wrote the night before? Relatable. Endearing. Ive been there, I can see you trying. You'll get the best mark I can reasonably give you- it might not be a great mark but it won't be as low as a chatgpt mark. You won't get an academic integrity violation on your record and you might actually learn something.

As a TA im always willing to help people if they ask for help. If you're confused or behind in a class I'm paid to help you keep up. Most schools also have writing centers, where you can access free tutors who will help you with outlines and editing your work.

There is no shame using those resources. The students that do use them reliably end up with better grades at the end of term, and they also save time because its a lot harder to spot your own mistakes than it is to have someone else point them out to you.

I’ve had people (non-pornbots) try to strike conversation out of nowhere in my DMs recently, and now I’m wondering if they were doing that because they wanted to follow me and thought they needed to interact first. I feel compelled to say, just in case, that it’s totally okay to follow this blog (or my side blog, for that matter) even if we’ve never talked before.

Welcome to White Boy of the Year - THE FINAL ROUND!!!! We are so thankful to all of you who have been active participants up until this point, but now, it is time for the final round to crown THE white boy of the year for 2024. The winner will join David Tennant (WBOTY 2023 winner) in the White Boy Hall of Fame, so CHOOSE WISELY and may the best white boy win!

Voting will last for one week, and as always, we will take propaganda submissions in our inbox or if you tag us in your posts/reblogs! Thank you so much for participating, and may the best white boy win!

according to my great grandma it was cast on her grandma by a neighbor with the evil eye - "your daughters will marry their fathers and your sons will become them"

which is really just a fancy way of describing the cycle of abuse and therefore worked very well, generally going into effect before the kid in question turned 21

so my matrilineal family tree winds up a fractured, miserable mess, lots of young marriages and parents falling apart generation after generation, serial toxic marriages with generations of kids scattered across the whole state in foster homes - very nasty stuff

until it gets to me (firstborn in my generation of cousins) and by the time im twenty one i am 1. both daughter and son and neither 2. extremely aspec and queer

The curse had been going on so long that we'd pretty solidly determined it went into effect before a certain age (21)

I came out as nonbinary and ace at 18 and a couple of my cousins made a joke that i was now immune and we all had a good laugh and forgot about it. its hard to explain the kind of like.... hopeless-but-amused misery that comes with having a curse this bad in the family for so long. everyone tries to beat it, and everyone knows its not going to work. even the people who dont believe theres a curse (or indeed magic at all) as kids have generally conceded by like 24

like, there was the typical 'you'll find someone someday' that you get as an ace, but it wasnt (completely) an assumption based in aphobia. no one believed it was even possible for me to not be married and a mom and miserable by 21. it would have been like arguing the sky was green.

but i got to 20 and wasn't even dating anyone and started getting side eye, and when i finally got to 21 everyone was so happy for me, it was crazy. my grandma cried.

but everyone assumed i'd just broken it for me (and honestly, it went a long way in unraveling a lot of transphobia in my maternal family - if my gender was enough to break the curse, it must at the minimum be real, right?), and then the next oldest cousin (my sister) almost got got, got all the way to living with and being engaged to a dude who was a fucking nightmare, and then just. woke up one day packed her stuff and walked out. no one could believe it, they thought she go back any day, but she never did.

next was the oldest male cousin, D, and as he approached 21 that was where (i, at least) start to suspect the curse was gone. we were really poor and so our families shared a house for most of my childhood, he's like my brother. I knew him well, and I was certain there was no way he was going to become an abusive husband or father.

and then he didnt! he did get a wife and kid before he turned 21 but he's a huge simp and so so good with his daughter, even with her being autistic which so many parents might have taken as a flaw.

at that point me and all the cousins were chatting about it one day and D pointed out that the only thing that changed between the previous person to get got (my uncle /neg) and everyone who didnt was me. We had something of a back and forth where we tried to figure out if my sister's ex-fiance counted, but we eventually came to the consensus it was curse death throes lmao. and no ones got got since.