Lord Dorkly

Officials in Denmark have announced that the nation will no longer classify being transgender as a mental illness, the first country in the world to do so.

Trans issues are more visible than ever before, and yet the World Health Organization still classifies being trans as a disorder (though the WHO is reportedly working to revise that definition). Denmark, on the other hand, will formally separate itself from that classification, effective January 1, 2017. 

“At the moment, transgender is listed as a mental illness or behavioural problem,” Social Democrat health spokesman Flemming Moller Mortensen told Danish news agency Ritzau. “That is incredibly stigmatising and in no way reflects how we see transgender people in Denmark. It should be a neutral diagnosis.”

He added: “The WHO is currently working on a new system for registering diagnoses. It has been working on it for a very, very long time. Now we’ve run out of patience, and want to send out a signal saying that if the system is not changed by October, then we in Denmark will go it alone.”

That cat became an icon THIS MONTH AND IS STILL ONE.

that’s Jo-Pawveski, a stray who wandered onto the ice and past the nashville predators bench during round 2 of playoffs. They eventually picked her up and sent her to the humane society.

Here she is.

The SAN JOSE SHARKS won that game and attributed it to her, naming her after the Sharks captain: Joe Pavelski. When they found out she was a girl, they changed her name to Jo instead of Joe.

She became an instant good luck charm after that as the Sharks won every game at home that series and moved onto round three.

Since then, every game, they stack pucks and stick a idol to Jo for luck.

This little cat has had merchendise made out of her. She’s literally almost replaced SJ sharkie as maschot of the team.

I mean. I’m not making this up. I HAVE A RALLY TOWEL OF HER THEY GAVE OUT FOR GAME 1 OF THE 3RD ROUND. I OWN THIS FUCKING THING:

FURRIES HAVE BEEN SHOWING UP DRESS AS HER. 

She had her own livestream to check in on her.

SHE’S IN THE PREGAME OPENING ANIMATION

And so I know what you’re gonna say here.

Well… what happened to Jo, though.

Good news, This week, as Sharks made their first Stanley Cup, Jo and another Kitty were adopted. 

And that kids, is the story of JO PAWVELSKI.

The stray black cat of the San Jose Sharks. 

“Getting out of an abusive relationship isn’t easy—but actually packing up and moving out is even more daunting.

These owners of a California moving company have volunteered to complete the move for them, free of charge.

When they first started their business, Meathead Movers in 1997, the high school athletes were simply looking for a way to earn some extra cash.  

As their business grew, the Steeds started getting occasional, frantic phone calls from women with little or no money who wanted to quickly move out before their abusers returned home.

The sympathetic movers always declined any compensation and rushed to the address to load their belongings.

One day, in 2000, a situation turned volatile when the abuser came home in the middle of the move. It was then that the company decided it had to ensure that the women and the moving crew were both safe, so they partnered with a local women’s shelter.

“What was good about that is, they could be vetting the requests for help, supporting the women with counseling, and making sure when we went in, the proper restraining orders were in place, or police were on hand if necessary,” Meathead’s CEO Aaron Steed told Good News Network.

Since those days in 2000, the company has expanded into Santa Barabara, Ventura, Orange, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties. Whenever they open a new office, within the first week, they head to a local women’s shelter and knock on their doors.

“It’s the special service we like to offer,” Aaron said on a phone call. “These moves became very personal to us, made all the employees so proud, and became part of our mission statement.” He also said the same services are offered to any victim of domestic violence–male or female.

Yesterday, the company launched a new campaign that asks other businesses to “get creative” and help victims of domestic violence. Called #MoveToEndDV, the Meathead Movers hope to inspire others to rethink how they can work with shelters, or help women as they try to rebuild their lives and move into their first home or apartment.

“Some of our ideas are for businesses to offer free security systems, a dog kennel service, or for an auto-mechanic to provide oil changes,” Aaron said. “All those little things would help defer costs of starting over.”

“We’re so excited about it,” said Aaron. “It brings so much more purpose and passion to our lives and if we can be an example for others, that is so much better.”

Read the full piece here and California folks please share, this is an amazing resource!

Character Ideas:

Character creation masterpost

Character Alignment Chart

More character alignment descriptions

Muslim Character questions

Characters with magical powers

Building a new character advice

How to create a character for an online or tabletop RPG (also a good guide on creating characters in general)

Royalty/nobility TV Tropes page

Basic character profile

OC masterpost

Random character generators - (1), (2), (3), (4)

D&D Character Building Tool

Character Design Ideas:

How clothing affects a character’s personality

Character Design Inspiration blog

Concept art, fan art, cool art to be inspired by

Character design references and inspiration

Sources for POC character design ideas and models

Create your own character model using HeroForge

For horned characters

Body and hair types guide

Random outfit generator

Naming Help:

Amazing site with an endless amount of naming resources

General advice on avoiding naming appropriation

Hispanic Surnames

Gothic Victorian names

Huge master list for character things in general

Masterlist of names of all types - including but not limited to ancient/old world names, Celtic, African, Northern European, Southern and Central American Native names, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Polynesian, and more

Another name masterlist

How to pick a character name guide

Yet another names masterlist

Creating Background/backstory:

Character Sheet/Development Sheet

Another character development list

In-depth character personality, motivations and traits sheet

320 talents and passions for characters

On writing likes and dislikes that aren’t frivolous

Why you should write non-human characters non-conforming to the gender binary

Stereotypes, tropes, and archetypes

Random backstory generator

Assassin and thief character tropes to avoid

Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:

Comparing character height/height references

Characters who are scientists and writing about them doing science

Describing what different voices sound like

Describing skin tones

Writing friendship interactions that are platonic

Why having one character knock their friend unconscious to prevent them from doing something is a bad idea

Advice on shipping OCs with canon characters and what to avoid doing

Sweet Polly Oliver and Sweet on Polly Oliver situations (think of Disney’s Mulan for an example)

How to write multiple viewpoints/juggling a main cast of more than 4 to 6 characters

How to make readers care about your morally gray hero/anti-hero

On platonic OC and canon character relationships

How to avoid Godmodding in RPs

When it’s cheap to kill off a character

Writing dialogue

Things you shouldn’t do to canon characters

Avoiding purple prose in writing and RPs

Slang resources

Dialogue tips

Websites to chart your story/plot/character relationships