AO3 & Other Things

give time figure out answer , in general .

do not get annoy if answer something late after topic change . 

if in group , please try not let people split and start different conversation . patience key to not make AAC user feel like burden for others .

understand if AAC say something in wrong way , AAC user do not have way to change this . not have tone of voice , can not control emphasis or speed , and pronunciation can be hard work with . if suddenly get frustrate , that might be why . some people can sign , draw , or gesture to clarify , but not all can , and this depend on situation . so please be nice and try ask questions that easy yes or no answer if sudden frustrate . do not look at screen unless have permission .

long messages can be very frustrate if need repeat . this maybe different in other AAC , but in proloquo2go can not go back and change message after type , and that also means can not cut out start just to say end again . with proloquo2go technically possible to copy message text , erase extra part , then speak that , but again : not always thing everyone can do , and maybe different in other AAC . 

please do not start talk as soon as hear pause . this frustrate so much because people hear pause for one second and start talk again , when gwydion not actually done yet , voice is just slow . then talk over AAC and whine that gwydion need say again , which , back to above . ( if even realise at all … )

For all the criticism that can be levied against Tolkien’s work and the LOTR movies based on it, there’s something that occurred to me just recently that I find strangely refreshing.

The hobbits eat. They are a culture that revolves to a large degree around food—bountiful food, frequent food. They are not, by and large, a skinny folk, but tend to carry weight with them. Hobbits are stout.

And the narrative does not say they’re bad for this.

They get hungry more often than humans, and eat many more meals in a day.

The narrative shows that this clashes with a questing life, but it does not say they’re bad for this. When Merry and Pippin moan about second breakfast, the joke isn’t “ha ha hobbits are gluttons” so much as it’s “ha ha culture shock/these yokels are out of their depth because they’ve lived a relatively very easy life, entirely unlike Strider”.

They eat large amounts at a time. Their larders are the size of living rooms and their everyday meals are feasts.

And the narrative does not say they’re bad for this.

So just this once, we have an entire culture of some-degree-of-fat people who eat big and eat often and have something of a fixation on food, and while the narrative does show that these ingrained habits are the result of a life of comfort and security that they must, with difficulty and understandable complaint, leave behind when they go on their journeys beyond their own borders for entirely practical reasons, it does not judge them as lazy, fat gluttons who were Wrong About It and must become human-grade health nuts in order to be worthy of heroism, or use them as a well of fat jokes.

Bilbo tricked a dragon while sporting a paunch.

Also, consider the pride a Hobbit would take in showing a visitor their garden. Not just the lawns, which will be practically sized and tended to within an inch of their lives, but the vegetable plots where their carrots and onions and taters grow and, if they have the resources, the cold frames and greenhouses and where they grow the fancier things to augment their meals, their own specialities.

This isn’t an indication that he’s evil, either; it’s a symptom of how badly he’s been damaged by the time he spent carrying the Ring. Both Frodo and Sam, each in his own way, express some hope that Gollum might someday get better – and that enjoying some good food might either help him, or be a sign that he’s improved.

A Dark Place by Irio

Well the time is drawing near! Our coloring book will be ready and delivered to those who have already ordered it!

The BEST part is that this book will be available for a donation to a charity on the FTH 2023 list until December 31, 2023. If you have trouble with any of these website, contact me directly if you have a charity that works for you and we can work that out.

Cost is $5 or more donation to any of the FTH organizations for 2023!  Please make sure that the donation amount is legible & that you redact your personal info. An email address is required so we can send you the link to the book! 

You can continue to send your donation receipts to this mail box or to [email protected] and the file will be sent to you!

So here's the cover! I had a lot of fun working on it. I'll have some sneak peeks coming to you of pages along with creator bios in the next few days.