Independent

and yep, you guessed it: a dark wind blows

whatever needs to be said was said in iris by the goo goo dolls

i think there's something to be said about the decrease in comments being left on fics in tandem with the "contentization". i remember when fics used to be seen as something you wrote and posted because you wanted to explore the characters/world/universe, and wanted to share it with others who might find it as interesting as you do. posting fics meant comments, which meant connection with your audience, with the people in the community. yes, even back then, you'd get the "more pls" comments, but that was still a sign of community, even if it did feel demand-y. "i like what you wrote so much that i'd like more, i want more of you in my community" is, essentially, how that felt. hate comments hurt because not only did someone hate something you wrote, but it also felt like "you do not belong in my community, i dont want you here." comments allowed conversation, connection, to others within a fandom/community, and they still do, but they have been left less and less over the years, because it's slowly become something you consume, not something you interact with. i used one the analogy that people are now treating ao3 and fics like goodreads--read it, bookmarked it, liked it, moved on. looking at the stats for my fics, occasionally, makes me mournful. a fic will have 100 bookmarks, most private, and have maybe... 10 comments. and then you're just left wondering: did they like the fic? did they think it was okay? is this something they really enjoyed, or did they find it mediocre? do they reread this, or was this a fun one and done? and you'll never know, because to them, its just like another book on the shelf at the bookstore. there's no engagement with the creator, no thanks for taking the time to write something at all (for free!) because its expected at this point. you will write and you will post and you will get kudos and private bookmarks and you will like it.

What would you do if you were scrolling through recommended tumblr posts and one was from someone you don't know and it was just a picture of your dad captioned "fucking hate this guy" and it had hundreds of notes

reblog it

a small thing i learned from my sister dying is that i really would rather the people i love be a burden than be whatever the hell else they'd be if they weren't. yes even if it's messy and not always fair and hard completely inconvenient for everyone involved. even if it's weird. even if i'm rolling my eyes a bit inside sometimes. i just want you to bother me. please always bother me

like "it's rotten work" "not to me not if it's you" actually sometimes it's still rotten work. even if it's you. and i'd still do it a million times over

“i also choose this guy’s dead wife” was easily the #1 funniest thing to ever be written on the internet.

i do also feel the need to add that phil8248 really liked the joke. he said his wife had always had a dark sense of humour, even about her illness and death, and seeing the joke made him feel like he was laughing with her one last time.

but ykw at least i'm not on mount everest. at least i'm not paying tens of thousands of dollars to slowly suffocate in a 300-person line at the gates of hell. never in my life will i have to be steered in a hypoxic stupor through the maze of poop and corpses atop mount everest. on this earth a lot of horrible things can happen to you without your permission but there are a few that you have to opt into. you can just say no thanks! and be guaranteed never to have to be on mount everest. much to be grateful for actually

still not on mount everest this morning 😌 alhamdulillah