Scaly Tutus & Tentacled Teapots

the pancake tutu

as seen in sleeping beauty (pink) and swan lake (white)

also known as a platter tutu, the pancake is probably what you think of when you hear the word ”tutu”. it’s made of 8-16 tulle layers increasing in length from bottom to top, kept stiff with starch, stitching, and sometimes a thin wire hoop sewn in between the layers.

the romantic tutu

as seen in giselle (light blue) and chopiniana (white)

the romantic tutu is the oldest tutu style, worn as early as the late 1700s, and popularized by marie taglioni (1804-84) in 1829. it’s made of lighter tulle layers reaching to as high as just below the knee, and as low as to the ankle.

the bell tutu

as seen in the awakening of flora (four dancers) and paquita (blue)

the bell tutu is a less common variation of the pancake tutu. it uses dozens of layers of tulle without a hoop to get a fuller, lighter look when in movement. it’s more expensive and difficult to make, but completely worth the effort.

the powder-puff tutu

as seen in jewels (white), and stars and stripes (red)

the powder-puff tutu, also known as the american style tutu, was favored by american choreographer george balanchine (1904-83). it’s made of short layers of tulle that aren’t sewn together or hooped, to achieve a less structured look.

I’m going to university and can’t take him with me, and my dad travels and can’t afford to always put him in kennels for those periods. He’s my baby boy and I love him to the ends of the earth so ideally in my second year I’ll find student housing that will accept a cat and I can take him back. Until then I’m desperately in need to someone to love and look after him for a while

He’s ~16, super affectionate, non-destructive, ex-stray, would be good with kids, he’s never lived with a dog. He’s missing a paw and has a grain allergy, and also likes variety in his wet food. He likes going outside in the summer, treat sticks and cuddles

July 27, 2022 / Disabled, neurodivergent, interracial US family caught in expensive bureaucratic and medical nightmare overseas

Hey there friends, followers, mutuals, comrades, and well-wishers. Your donations and moral support have done so much for us over the past 9 months. Now we can just see the light at the end of the tunnel but it’s still a ways away.

For now we’re home in Baguio, waiting on the Bureau of Immigration to decide whether or not we can stay here together with our daughter Eleanor, or if we have to risk being separated. We’ve legally overstayed our visas and have asked for yet another extension to stay with her until we get her registration and American papers sorted out. Rob’s COVID related health conditions continue to change and become complicated, taking an additional financial toll on us.

For past updates, follow these links

here https://anexperimentallife.tumblr.com/post/673717992166670336/jan-18-2022-us-couple-in-danger-of-being-forced

and here https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/thesurestthing/688043919046524928?source=share.

For a current update keep reading below.

After we got Eleanor’s corrected birth certificate back at the beginning of June, I emailed the American embassy to double check that we would be able to get an appointment to register her as a citizen and apply for her passport. They emailed back and said yes, within 3 to 10 business days of them receiving our paperwork we would have an appointment slot. To ensure we’d be able to attend that hypothetical appointment, we booked a trip to Manila, which is about 5 hours travel one way, and a significant financial hit. We submitted our paperwork by courier a few days after getting to Manila, and waited a few days more for the email with our appointment time.

They scheduled us for the end of August 2022. That’s quite a bit more than 10 business days after they received our paperwork. So essentially our trip to Manila was a waste of time and money, except for a necessary surgery for Rob’s health that we were able to get taken care of.

Unfortunately, this means we have to wait until August to get Eleanor registered AND to apply for her passport. Which means we need to fork over the money AGAIN to get to Manila and stay there for the necessary amount of time AGAIN. And then we have to wait 8 weeks or more to receive her passport.

In the meantime we have to keep Rob pushing, getting caught up with his medical things and making sure we have things situated legally in case the worst happens.

Additionally, at the end of May we filed with Philippines Immigration to extend our visas again, which expire this month of July, and as of right now we have not heard back. If we are approved, we’ll have to pay another 1200USD or more to continue to stay legally, and if we are denied Rob and I will have to travel separately out of the country to reset our visas so one of us can stay with Eleanor, and hope against hope that travel restrictions don’t change while one of us is out of the country. That’s what is stopping us from resetting now, before Eleanor can travel with us. We won’t be parted, if we can help it.(Keep in mind that travel restrictions here have changed with literally zero notice before–which is why we’re being so cautious.)

It is extremely worrying and stressful to be in a position where our family unit may be endangered at a moment’s notice. Even after we secure Eleanor’s papers and can stay together, we still have all the debt resulting from all of this to handle.

What we’re looking at right now is this: until the appointment in August, we need 1200USD for immigration fees, 2000USD for the Manila trip, and more for Rob’s health fees. After the appointment, we may need more for immigration until we get Eleanor’s passport, and once we get the passport then we need to pay nearly two years of visa fees for Eleanor all at once, then travel out of the country to reset our visas, and make a decision about our immigration goals.

 After we travel to reset and decide on a long term goal, then we have to grapple with the resulting debt (which is already up to about 11K so far, and rising) , try to get Rob’s health in order, save for immigration, and hopefully by that time we’ll be in a position where I can attempt to work for an income. Right now I do plenty but unfortunately I don’t get paid for that, lol.

Our  preferred method of receiving donations is Rob’s paypal, so here’s the  link for that as well as alternate methods of donations we are capable  of receiving,

PayPal Donation Link (preferred bc lowest fees) – https://href.li/?https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=AAPN4HRA9YLA4

GoFundMe – https://href.li/?https://www.gofundme.com/f/family-riding-out-covid-overseas

Ko-Fi – https://href.li/?https://ko-fi.com/anexperimentallife

Secondary Paypal Link (bc some non-US folks had trouble with the preferred one–but this one takes full fees) – https://href.li/?https://ko-fi.com/anexperimentallife 

(And here’s the bait-and-switch from the embassy that led us to waste a trip to Manila. Grrr!)

I don’t understand what’s going on with AO3 and the election? I’ve been using it for about a year so this is all new to me! Is Tiffany getting elected actually bad?

I hate censorship, so seeing posts about them censoring stuff is concerning but idk how much truth to it there is 😳

I just want to be informed, and understand!

Hi! Welcome to AO3:)

since I'm not sure how much you know already, the background (background as interpreted by me: I am not speaking on behalf of the OTW) is: Ao3 is run by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), the nonprofit that also runs Fanlore and publishes Transformative Works & Cultures. Anyone who has donated $10 to the OTW in the last year, and chooses "yes I want to be a member" at checkout is an OTW member. (This is not the same as having an ao3 account.) Every year, there is an election to fill 3 seats on the Board of Directors. OTW Members (i.e. people who donated between 7/1/21 and 6/30/22, in this case) get to vote on this.

Most of the time, this election is only really followed by people on fail_fandomanon. Sometimes, it isn't.

Things the Board of Directors does: writes posts to send out to the general public when Things Are Happening (the recent csam attacks, the requests for more antiracism measures.) Writes posts to send to volunteers when Things Are Happening (see prev.) Keeps track of what all the committees are doing and how it ties in with whatever the strategic plan says they should be doing. Deals with the IRS/US laws. Approves large funding requests. Deals with emails that someone else has deemed outside their own wheelhouse. Herds cats. Proposes priorities. Points at something shiny, pats the org on the flank, and says "walk that way, walk that way!! Come on buddy, you can do it!!". etc etc etc.

Things the Board of Directors doesn't do: unilaterally determine ao3 content policy. Let us use the word "porn" on ao3 drive merch. Make decisions that are going greatly affect other volunteers' work without input and some level of agreement from said volunteers.

Anyway. This year, one of the five candidates for the three open board seats is Tiffany G. (More information about all the candidates and their platforms is at https://elections.transformativeworks.org)

Tiffany is a tag wrangler from an unspecified country that is, from context, assumed to be China. The candidate Q&A can be read here. Her answers were a little bit confusing, but she said she wanted to update the ToS policies on 'pedophilic and illegal content' because, quote, "people think we host child porn content and such things... It might... be helpful to clarify that to the public." Further down she said:

a) I support 100% “maximum inclusiveness of content”, yet there is always a boundary to everything. Since OTW is already an influential org, we need to protect our image and hold a better image to the public. I want the public to think of us as an inclusive and socially responsible community. So in general, we have to do something to change. Things like making the rating system more specific and obvious to users will be what I want to do. b) Not really restricting the content being posted. I hope it is like more warnings and ratings for posting work so people know what to expect. And all of these are not surprising to people who do not wish to see this.

I took this to mean "she wants to clarify to outsiders that ao3 does not host csam, is not only for erotica, and update the ratings and warnings system." I don't think that those things are necessary or should be a focus of the org, which is part of why I didn't vote for her.

Other people took it to mean "Tiffany is against pornographic or underage works and wants them to be banned." Some people took this, combined with her nationality, to the conclusion of "Tiffany is a secret plant of the Chinese Communist Party who wants to join the board, get all the ao3 user data, and then have the users from mainland China arrested" (despite the fact that this is not information the board would have access to, if for no other reason than ao3 is blocked in China so anyone trying to view the site from mainland china has to use a VPN anyway.) Some people are upset that the OTW elections committee "allowed" her to run in the first place, because they think that not letting anyone with opinions the current board or elections committee didn't like is an absolutely great precedent to set.

There are a bunch of comments in comments on tw.org, and some in fail_fandomanon, that give more context to her comments in terms of Chinese fandom (though most posters still disagree with her position.)

This got... longer than planned. But to the question "Is tiffany getting elected actually bad" - If my interpretation of her statements are correct, I think it would be annoying, because she does not have the experience I think that being on the Board requires, and focuses on priorities I disagree with. Which isn't to say she'd never have a valuable perspective or ideas about something, but there are four other candidates that I think are much better suited to it at this point in time. If the people who think she is an antishipper bent on censorship are correct, she could probably make life very annoying for the rest of the board-- but considering the rest of them are not pro-censorship, I can't see how she'd have much influence in that direction in the org as a whole.

If the people who think she's doing espionage on behalf of the CCP are correct, then... look, I can't even finish that sentence because I find the idea of the CCP deciding that a) they need to get ao3 user data and b) the way to do that is to run a clearly unqualified candidate in a public board election absurd.

the tl;dr of this tl;dr is that there's a lot of fearmongering going around, and a lot of accusations and hate directed her way. I don't know her, so I don't know what her "real" opinions are, but regardless of who wins the board election, ao3 is not going to be censored any time soon.

if for no other reason than if the Abuse team was told on top of all their other work, they now had to assess and remove fics reported for being "problematic", they would say "we'd prefer not to" and then proceed to not do it.

The thing is there have been incredibly wanky and dramatic elections in the past and from what I can see, a good part of what they did was burn folk out even if they weren't up for election.

(And the stuff that did get done was done independent of the screaming, like the mandatory 1 year break in between eligibility for re-election - which I think is a good thing for sustainability in an organisation like OTW.)

I mean it, the discourse doesn't work for long term interest in voting or being a OTW member or actually getting stuff done. Having spoken to eligible candidates, it really doesn't encourage diversity even if it's full of people screaming about it. Even if you're a person who's considered "good" by the people who screaming - it stresses you and all of the other people involved and makes it harder for them to engage with their peers - making it more difficult than it needs to be to actually get work done.

And quite frankly some of the earlier election wanks I considered a factor into later election wanks as people were trying to take advantage of wank to try and undermine people (who had legit concerns!), and forced people on the board or joining the board, to consider other members of the board hostile and someone that needed to be worked around, not with. Which is not healthy! Not sustainable!

Like not every discussion of "should we add more warnings" is unreasonable - but being part of the group screaming the loudest at the time, doesn't mean that it's a sustainable or workable solution. (And warnings isn't really boards purview to enforce anyway.)

A lot the election wank I've seen over the years misunderstands the work that the board for OTW does. The OTW board is not that glamorous and it doesn't have the kind of power people are scaremongering over right now. It's unpaid labour that involves talking with a lot of different committees, and trying to help balance a plethora of needs.

Quite frankly not only do I think the outrage over this particular issue is misplaced, I think that it's damaging to the mental health and stability of a lot of volunteers. Yes, even the ones with the "right" opinion (for now).

Like there are certainly people who I would prefer not to see on the OTW board, and I definitely think the ability to coordinate with a lot of folk is a key skill for being on the board; so voting matters! Having multiple folk stand for board* matters! I voted today in fact!

*who are not straight up saying I'm here to make sure it's contested but please don't vote for me unless you see no other choice as I don't want the job and think I would be bad at it. Because that's where I fear this wank is taking us.

The following senators are reported to be undecided, if one of these senators is yours, CALL!!!

Richard Burr, North Carolina

Roy Blunt, Missouri

Mike Braun, Indiana

Joni Ernst, Iowa

Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming

Rand Paul, Kentucky

Mitch McConnell?, Kentucky (yeah, I’m shocked the evil undead gizzard demon is in the undecided category as well but…might as well pressure the fucker)

Mitt Romney, Utah 

Mike Rounds, South Dakota (specifically Mr. Rounds is quoted as acknowledging difference between a religious marriage and a legal one, go ahead and specify that you support granting couples the legal rights and protections that are given with a legal marriage)

Rick Scott, Florida 

Dan Sullivan, Alaska (notably, Mr. Sullivan is quoted to recognize and respect the existing Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage! Pressure this man!!)

John Thune, South Dakota

Patt Toomey, Pennsylvania

Tommy Tuberville, Alabama

Todd Young, Indiana

This information was gathered from CNN on 7/21/22.

For clarification: Same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states right now based on the 2015 Supreme Court ruling. But, with the court standing as it is and with Roe being taken down, codifying same-sex marriage in law would mean that the Supreme Court would have a much, MUCH harder time stripping away the right. This is important. Marriage as a legal binding is critical to allowing spouses to visit each other in the hospital, make medical decisions, share assets, adopt and form families, and more. We need TEN Republicans to support the bill, so far there are FIVE likely supporters - we need AT LEAST FIVE MORE.

Many of you may know how fucked up the PIP application process is. If you don't, I can firsthand attest to this. I know they didn't even read my evidence, as they told me in my refusal that I have "no problems" with walking, despite multiple pieces of evidence, including a letter from my GP, regarding my use of a wheelchair. They expect us to jump through impossible hoops to prove our disability. My grandma who has had polio since she was a child and cant leave the house on her own due to this had to apply SEVEN times. It's ridiculous and dehumanising.

If you are disabled or care about disabled people, I'm sure you agree with me that it needs to change. If you do, please have a look at this petition. It's a step in the right direction to at least get Parliament to talk about it and hold this review- but we need to get it off the ground. Share it with friends and family and anyone who will listen. Don't let noise around this die down. We need this!

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/620962

IF YOU'RE NOT A UK RESIDENT PLEASE DONT TRY AND SIGN THIS! Even one false signature, if proven, can void the whole thing.

if you commission an artist right now, you will likely be expected to pay upfront and the commission may take a little while longer. this isn't because you're being scammed, but because the artist has taken a bulk of commissions to try and secure their livelihood until they can figure out another payment processor or revenue stream that foreign clients can use

Gold alloy and shell ear plates (800–550 BC), Peru. 

https://youtu.be/iA8yVDohZ-4

The Victorians did not invent beetlewing art. This species of beetle is indigenous to South and South East Asia where beetle wing art actually originated. Thailand, India, Myanmar, China, and Japan all practiced beetlewing art before the Victorians. Most notably, they have been used for centuries in clothing and art in the Thai royal court. Queen Sirikit has promoted beetlewing art in an effort to revive Thailand’s art and cultural history. Queen Sirikit has also forbidden the harvesting of the wing casings prior to the beetle’s death to protect them.

Unfortunately, it is hard to find old Thai art online but here are a couple of examples.

(Date and artist unknown. Thailand.)