that’s the shit

“D’ya deserve it?”

Strong bond

SCAM ALERT!! Told Magazine Inc / New Media International are scams targeting vulnerable creatives. 

They lure you in with a very professionally worded email promising an interview with their magazine, saying you were nominated for it by one of your followers. Their website is also very professional on the surface, but if you look closely you’ll notice weird things about it. Lots of photoshopped stock photos of models wearing their logo, no real content or articles, blurry images of text where articles might be.

If you say yes, they send you a link to a questionnaire where they get your personal information, along with some questions about your art peppered in. Then they’ll ask you for money so they can mail you a copy of the magazine with your interview when it’s out, and that’s where the biggest part of the scam is. Once you send them money, they disappear.

I made it to the interview phase before going NAH, (I asked them a ton of questions about where the heck their articles were and why their magazine didn’t appear in any Google searches - they ignored me and just sent their next copy/paste email in the scam - a real editor would’ve addressed my questions). Then I found more artists talking about this scam on Twitter, but I haven’t seen anything about it on Tumblr. So, here you go.

There’s a lot of scams aimed at creatives right now because many us are more vulnerable than ever. Of course I’d love a sweet interview to boost my online shop sales while my entire convention schedule is canceled. But we can outsmart them by doing research, asking questions, and warning others.

I’m not sure how seriously I should take it, since it’s a bunch of very harsh emotional threats and doesn’t come off as very… professional? On one hand, I’m still 100% convinced Told Magazine Inc is a scam organization, (as of today, googling them still doesn’t bring up anything unless you do so in quotes, their website doesn’t even load, and the third hit is my tumblr so lol). On the other hand, if they’re horrible enough to try to scam small artists out of some money, then they’re horrible enough to try to sue a small artist for exposing them as a scam. I won’t be removing this post as of yet, and will be reaching out to several local lawyers for consultations on the matter.

EDIT: At the suggestion of another tumblr user, I’ve reported Told Magazine Inc to the US Federal Trade Commission for attempting to scam small indie artists. I don’t think anything will come of it, but I’m glad something is officially in their records now! Since I’m not confrontational, I’m just going to ignore TMI’s fake C&D and collect any other emails they send in the future as potential evidence against them.

EDIT 2: Well… it’s been 24 hours. :)

Apparently they used to be High Alliance Magazine. After some digging, I can tell most of the images up on their website, (now changed to toldmagazine.com and working again) come from renamed covers and “articles” from High Alliance Magazine, another scam doing the exact same thing Told Magazine Inc is doing. The “top stories” page on their website is a parade of Instagram models they successfully scammed when they were High Alliance. Also this 5 star review for High Alliance on Scam Alert looks oddly familiar…

I bet they would also hate it if you reported High Alliance’s Instagram page for being a scam under ‘…’ > report user > it’s inappropriate > report account > posting content that shouldn’t be on instagram > scam or fraud. https://www.instagram.com/highalliancemagazine/?hl=en

Sexual jealousy

Constant aggression

Rigid hierarchy

Must win sports

Homophobia And Sexism Is Normal™

Eat people

Cool new werewolf instincts:

There is no five second rule

Corvids are friends

Hang out as a pack

Karaoke

Separation anxiety

Unconditional love and loyalty

Being able to sleep in almost any situation or position

Irresistible urge to chase squirrels and rabbits

Hating the vacuum cleaner

Wanting to do everything with friends

Loudly and repeatedly announcing to housemates that someone is at the door

Long, shouted conversations to other werewolves across the neighborhood (bonus points at 2am)

Taking advantage of any and all free food

Werewolf-vampire solidarity

Fighting any animal that trespasses into the backyard

Boundless energy

Too much energy

Eating out of the trash if it smells tasty

Being bad at sports because you don’t want to let anyone else take the ball from you. Then destroying the ball in front of everyone because you want to make a point

Trying to fight things 10x your size like a fucking idiot

Being unable to hold a grudge for more than a few hours

Trying to make people feel bad for you over mundane things that aren’t actually that bad. And somehow succeeding.

Snoring

Needing to try a bit of your friends’ food, even if you’ve tried it 5645674 times before and have never once liked it

Getting way too friendly with random strangers

Being in a love-hate relationship with water

Digging. For no reason.

Thinking you’re a badass despite being a hyperactive ball of emotions and hedonism

Multigenerational households!

Kids get really excited when someone comes home with groceries

“I can HELP put away the food!” “Oh, and have you whisk away the ice cream like last week? I’m fine, dear.”

Love to travel and follow food trends

Mostly very social and must have roommates/family/significant other/kids/friends around

However, not uncommon to travel alone for periods of time, especially after leaving home

Big friendly communal meals with lots of ritual around who gets served in what order

“Let grandma take her pick of the turkey first. It’s respectful, and she won’t take kindly to you cutting the line.”

Full pantries, stocking up on basics, the kind of people who always have extra oatmeal, or batteries, or a jump cable

Can hold conversations using body language and eye contact without saying a word

Cuddlers, especially with the social group

Yelling to get everyone to gather, and phone chains for anyone who lives further away

Lots of singing, the pack has a bunch of favorite songs that everyone knows by heart, and some may be song writers

“Can you smell this? Does this smell weird? Does this smell good?”

Lots of candles and incense with unusual scents

Passing houses and farms and land down through generations

Love home renovation

Communal child care and sometimes communal nursing

Kids are all really into wrestling and being outside

When someone is ready to leave the household, the younger they leave the further they tend to travel. Someone who leaves at 18 might go to another country, but someone who leaves at 26 might just move a town away.

Whether someone moves far or close to home, it’s not unusual to move back in at home a few times before settling down

“You know the futon is always open for you. Your cousins are in your old bedroom, but you’re always welcome!”

Kinda grumpy about neighbors pushing property boundaries

“Why do they have to let the damn mulberry tree hang over OUR driveway?”

Good endurance runners

Late walks at night, naps in the middle of the day

Really playful, especially with kids

Do you like visiting libraries or bookstores when you travel?

Joker never loved me, he only loves Batman.

After:

And when you cut it open:

make a couple responsibility lists, one for school, one for work, one for day to day and any other such commitments you might have

Then mark each responsibility on a scale from one to three on importance/priority

So the next time you feel you have so much to do, you’re getting overwhelmed, look back at this list and start working on the number 3s in priority then complete the number 2s and then number 1s

their pain sensitivity being turned down for battle and turned up for punishment,

needing both sleep and charging, malfunctioning if either is missing

the struggle of being perceived as less than human

the struggle of feeling less than human

fear of imperfection - if they’re enhanced and still not perfect, then there must be something wrong with them

their enhanced parts hurting like lost limbs

all systems must be powered off for an upgrade, which means that they can’t turn their pain sensitivity down for it

electrocution is horrible on a human body, imagine what it does to someone who relies on their electrical parts to fully function

fear of water = fear of shorted circuits in non waterproof parts

what isn’t waterproof is also not bloodproof