Whats an "Attention Span"?/j

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous, and tag as many people as you have WIPs. People send an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and find you post a snippet or tell them something about it!

Thank you @cloudyskies48 !

I feel like I don't do enough writing to play this game but here's a few I was able to find anyway! Most of this are wips and none of it has been posted (yet) aside from just one. I have more wips but I'm only including the ones I'm comfortable talking about, while still a little out of my comfort zone for some to not defeat the purpose of the game lol.

NEW(er)

-Three is a Crowd (LOZ)

-Hydrophobia (LOZ)

-Farore's Adoration (LOZ)

-Shanty mermaids (LOZ)

OLD

-mer gang (UTAU)

-Allergies (One Piece)

-Ghost Brothers (One Piece)

-Sabo's recorder (One Piece)

-Babysitter Sora (KH)

like

emoji access? supremely powerful 🙂💖

But

Kaomoji ?

Destroying Christmas Trees: Self defense, I mean the tree attacked them. 

Scratching their owner’s eyeball: Self defense. 

Scratching their sleeping owner’s face: Self defense. 

Jumping on their owner’s back and clawing into their spine: Self defense. 

Admittedly yeah 

A dog doesn’t do those things because a dog’s version of self defense is to be a good animal who loves you and doesn’t attack you unless you attack them first. 

Destroying Christmas Trees: Cats like to climb things. They’re not doing it to spite you.

Scratching their owner’s eyeball: Probably an accident, due to overstimulation when playing. It wasn’t trying to hurt you. Don’t anthropomorphize animals by attributing spite to them. Animals don’t do spite the way that humans do.

Scratching their sleeping owner’s face: Trying to rouse you with its paw, probably gently, because it loves you and wants to play with you.

Jumping on their owner’s back and clawing into their spine: Come on. If a cat is jumping on you, it loves you and wants to be close to you. Digging in with its claws is how it balances itself on an unstable surface and is purely a reflexive reaction. It isn’t intending to hurt you.

Cats don’t have the same facial muscles as dogs and humans do. Dogs facial structures are similar to humans which allows them to make expressions that humans have an easy time understanding. Cats don’t. If you want to understand your cats’ emotions, you have to understand their body language.

A purring cat isn’t necessarily a happy cat. Cats do usually purr when they’re happy, but they also purr when they are in pain or when they’re scared. Purring is a method of self-soothing for cats and a lot of people just don’t know that.

A cat not wanting to face you is a sign of trust. When a cat turns their back towards you, it means they trust you to watch their back and make sure they won’t be attacked from behind.

Okay

YES to everything that has been said about cat behavior but a few other things people don’t seem to understand that are important to understanding cat behavior: 

BELLY RUBS: A cat showing you its belly is NOT necessarily asking you to rub it, like a dog is. A cat showing you its belly (when in a calm, sleepy mood) is saying “I trust you so much that I’m going to reveal my MOST VULNERABLE side to you and I know you won’t touch it!” When you then move in and touch it, you’ve actually broken that trust, which is why cats go from “showing you their belly calmly” to “attack!!!” so quickly. It wasn’t a TRAP. You didn’t understand what they were saying and you responded incorrectly. The best reward for the belly display is a nice scritch under the chin/cheeks or a gentle rub on the head. 

(And before anyone says “well my cat loves having his belly rubbed!” –yes. There are exceptions to this general rule, because cats are HELLA unique creatures with distinct personalities. I have a cat who genuinely loves to have his side and belly played like bongo drums. Cats are weirdos. These are generalizations.) 

Now: if your cat shows you its belly when in a playful/feisty mood, that IS an invitation, but beware: it’s an invitation to get attacked. Cats playfight. That’s one of the ways they play. This is very common in predatory animals, who use play to hone important hunting skills. A well-socialized cat will know not to go too hard, but a kitten won’t, so if you’re playfighting with a kitten and it bites too hard, go “OW!” really loud and take your hand away to help teach them. But yeah, if a feisty cat opens its belly to you: be prepared for a playfight!

PETTING: Cats are sensitive. Physically. All that fur builds up a lot of static electricity and when people pet them they tend to do it along the cat’s spine, which means a lot of energy and static along the spine, which means OVERSTIMULATION. If you’ve ever been petting a cat and suddenly it whips its head around and closes its teeth on your hand, that means you’ve overstimulated it and it’s asking you to please stop. (Incidentally, the bite wasn’t ‘sudden,’ you just missed the earlier signs of ‘please stop you’re overstimulating me’ and the cat had to take extreme measures–more on that later). 

Petting a cat around their head/cheeks/chin will usually prevent that overstimulation (and once or twice down the back isn’t a bad thing, just be mindful of overstimulating!). And it’s also polite to ask permission first! Cats are TINY compared to us, and very independent creatures, so coming quickly at a cat with your big ol’ human hand can be alarming even if they know and trust you. Try this next time: How to ask a cat for permission to pet it.

OVERSTIMULATION: Cats can and DO get overstimulated! As I mentioned before, if you’re petting a cat and it suddenly bites (or gets up and leaves), it’s not saying “I don’t like you anymore,” it’s saying “please, stop.” 

Watch for the following body language cues: 

1) Ears: if the cat’s ears are starting to twitch back, it may be getting agitated. Try backing off and see what the cat does. If the ears twitch back forward and the cat seems to relax, then stopping was probably a good move. Try again in a few minutes and limit your petting to their head/ears/neck/cheeks. 

2) Eyes: If your cat went from closed-eyed bliss to eyes open and pupils dilating, circumstances have changed. Your cat is getting agitated. Continue petting at your own risk but don’t be surprised if they attack. 

3) Tail: This is a HUGE mistake I see people more familiar with dogs making. A cat’s tail wagging doesn’t mean “HAPPY!” like a dog’s does. A cat’s tail twitching or swishing means they are highly stimulated. Sometimes that means they’re having fun (check out this video to see a very enthusiastically stimulated cat having fun climbing a rock wall–and watch that tail! That’s an excited cat!). But often it means they’re agitated, not happy. If a cat’s tail starts swishing, that’s a good time to step back and let the cat find a way to calm itself down. 

4) Body tension: this is a fairly straightforward one but if your cat went from totally relaxed to tense and tight, it’s probably not enjoying itself as much as it was. Maybe it’s about to launch an assault on something it saw across the room (another cat or a toy, for instance). Just know you may not have a sleepy contented cat in your lap anymore. 

MIRRORING: One of the ways cats show affection is to “mirror” their companions: 

Domestic housecats are not naturally pack animals but they DO have the ability to come together and form strong social bonds. You, their owner, are a member of their social group, and they will often try to mirror you, too! Meaning if you spend most of your day sitting on your laptop, they want to do it as well: 

They’re not trying to be rude. They want to do what you’re doing! Because that’s how they show affection! 

(Now: is it occasionally annoying? ABSOLUTELY. I’ve had to shoo my cat Sam away from my laptop several times while attempting to type this post. But I still love him and I understand he’s just trying to be close to me. He’s not being malicious because malice is a human emotion and cannot be attributed to cats. So is spite, scorn, arrogance, and any number of emotions that get falsely attributed to cats by people who just don’t understand that CATS ARE NOT DOGS and therefore behave differently!!! Please do not anthropomorphize your cat!!!)

Now, most of the things the cat hater up there said have already been addressed, but I’d like to expand on the Christmas tree thing, and then the scratching thing, because it segues nicely into another issue: claws. 

The Christmas Tree: please picture this from the perspective of a cat. A cat has no religious affiliation. A cat doesn’t understand what significance this thing you brought into your home has. A cat just sees you have brought in A TREE, which especially if it is real will have VERY INTERESTING OUTSIDE SMELLS. It sees SHINY TWINKLY BAUBLES AND LIGHTS. It sees GARLANDS OF SHINY CRINKLY FUN THINGS. Sorry but you’ve basically just brought in the greatest jungle gym ever, full of interesting sights, sounds, smells, and textures, and told the animal that has NO CAPACITY to understand your words that ‘no you can’t play with that.’ Sorry but that’s just a little unrealistic. And to attribute malice to this behavior–to say the cat is attacking the tree with the intent of destroying it?–is to be so deliberately obtuse as to be almost malicious about it yourself. 

The cat is having fun. A new novel unique thing has just come into its environment and a lot of the things about it resemble the toys it already plays with (balls, strings, crinkly paper, etc.). It is going to play. If you don’t want that, then either find a way to stabilize the tree, keep it out of reach, or DON’T HAVE A CAT. 

Okay finally. The claws thing. Let’s talk about cat claws. 

Okay so yes, cats will sometimes try to wake you up by gently patting your face. If that results in you getting scratched, chances are, your cats claws are getting too long! 

Cats naturally sharpen their claws. They’re a good weapon, and the cat’s first line of defense and offense in a world where they are both predator and prey. They allow cats to climb out of danger or in pursuit of prey. They help cats catch things and hold onto them. They act as a deterrent if a bigger predator gets ahold of them. They help them stabilize themselves on the ground and in high places like trees. Claws are important.

That’s why cats scatch things (also to deposit scent markers from glands located in the pads of their paws but I digress): to keep their claws in good shape and sharpened, and to shed old claw sheaths (cat claws shed, did you know that? fun fact!). 

HOWEVER, if your cat is an indoor cat only (which it REALLY SHOULD BE but that’s a rant for another day), it may not have enough wearing down the claws in return, and you may have to help your cat maintain their claws! There are a couple ways to do this: 

1) Trimming the claw - gently depress the toe bean to extend the claw then use cat claw clippers to snip the sharpened tip. Watch out for the quick! You’ll be able to see it as the darker vein of blood in the cat’s claw. 

2) SoftPaws or any other brand of cat nail tips! These stylish little claw tippers can be safely applied, and each application lasts about a month. These tips protect your skin and your furniture and do not bother your cat in the slightest! Plus your cat will look fancy af: 

What you should NOT do, ever, please, ever, is declaw your cat. I know no one talked about this but, well, I pretty much jump on every chance I get to educate people about the inhumanity of this practice. If it changes one person’s mind about declawing their cat (or about getting one in the first place, if it’s genuinely just not a good fit) then good, I don’t mind cluttering up some dashes. 

People seem to think that declawing means ‘removing the claws only’ when in fact, it’s a partial toe amputation. Look at your own finger. See that last joint before the nail starts? Yeah, that’s what’s getting cut off of your cat’s toes. That whole last joint. 

I’m going to steal wholesale from an ask I answered on one of my other blogs to give you links to articles about the physical, psychological, and emotional damage declawing causes your cat: 

Here’s a great article about how the weight-bearing changes caused by declawing can lead to arthritis.

Here’s another one that discusses other behavioral issues as well.

Another article

And here’s a more detailed article with some anatomical information about what’s involved in the surgery

A quote from that last article:

“Some cats are so shocked by declawing that their personalities change. Cats who were lively and friendly have become withdrawn and introverted after being declawed. Others, deprived of their primary means of defense, become nervous, fearful, and/or aggressive, often resorting to their only remaining means of defense, their teeth. In some cases, when declawed cats use the litterbox after surgery, their feet are so tender they associate their new pain with the box…permanently, resulting in a life-long aversion to using the litter box. Other declawed cats that can no longer mark with their claws, they mark with urine instead resulting in inappropriate elimination problems, which in many cases, results in relinquishment of the cats to shelters and ultimately euthanasia. Many of the cats surrendered to shelters are surrendered because of behavioral problems which developed after the cats were declawed.

Many declawed cats become so traumatized by this painful mutilation that they end up spending their maladjusted lives perched on top of doors and refrigerators, out of reach of real and imaginary predators against whom they no longer have any adequate defense. A cat relies on its claws as its primary means of defense. Removing the claws makes a cat feel defenseless. The constant state of stress caused by a feeling of defenselessness may make some declawed cats more prone to disease. Stress leads to a myriad of physical and psychological disorders including supression of the immune system, cystitis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).”

So basically I know I’ve interrupted this post with a PSA but PLEASE. Please do not declaw your cat. Either find another solution, resign yourself to scratched up furniture, or DO NOT GET A CAT. 

In conclusion: 

...and do more than reblog this post about it.

Chronic migraines. Dyslexia. ADHD. Autism. Vision impairment. Visual sensory processing disorder. Colorblind. & Neurotypical. Abled.

These are aspects of people that are affected by Discord’s new update to its color scheme and font, and there very well could be more I didn’t mention. Yes, you read it right, abled people and neurotypical people too. You are not immune to eyestrain.

What are the issues?

A font which is both overly uniform and overly squished, with many letters that have essentially the same silhouette as others and could easily be flipped and look the same as another. ▻ This is dyslexic-unfriendly, as well as generally harder to read and an issue for people with visual impairments who may find that letters bleed together or that their eyes ‘skip’ over letters or words at times.

A color scheme that is so highly saturated that it both immediately draws your attention and also makes you want to immediately look away. ▻ This is generally unfriendly, affecting people with sensory issues the most (ADHD/Autism, migraines, processing disorders), but it’s also colorblind-unfriendly. Due to the differences between the colors being exclusively the part that changes the named color (hue; “green” vs “blue”) instead of both that and the colors being different intensities (saturation; “neon green” vs “leaf green”), they look practically identical.

Aren’t there more? No. This is pretty much all that was changed.

Discord changed TWO THINGS and pretty much managed to land every single person possible to genuinely hurt with a visual design change that doesn’t add or remove any elements. Including abled and neurotypical people!!!

Discord is currently a good number of people’s lifeline and way to connect with others. And with this change, they just made using their app hurt. They know that we can’t leave their app without leaving our friends and communities behind. They know that if they can just sweep this under the rug, they won’t have to do a thing.

...So we can’t let them.

Why would Discord do this?

It’s actually fairly simple. Discord was hemorrhaging money from its very conception. Discord only exists because investors think it’ll make money in the future. If Discord doesn’t do as well, investors will push to make it “better” or they’ll drop their funding. Discord was probably forced into this situation, they probably knew exactly what would happen.

We have to show their investors that Discord was right.

What can we do to fix this?

DON’T:

Reply to Discord’s tweet about the design change. ▻ It gives Discord more attention, and if any complaints are acknowledged they are directed to Discord’s accessibility forums.

ONLY post on Discord’s accessibility forums. ▻ It gives Discord stats to work with, but it also means the outcry isn’t public. We need everyone to see this, not just Discord.

DO:

Reblog this post. ▻ Spreads the awareness, and all.

Retweet, reply to, and/or like this tweet: https://twitter.com/KarklesMarx/status/1393223369571586053 ▻ This tweet is part of our and our friends’ initiative to get this big and get this public.

Make your own posts about it on different social medias. ▻ Tumblr, Twitter, Discord servers, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, whatever ground you have, use it. You can help make this change too.

Find other people doing the same thing. ▻ One initiative is never enough. Look for other people making posts like these and boost their posts too.

IF YOU KNOW ANOTHER LANGUAGE, MAKE POSTS OF YOUR OWN BOOSTING IT IN OTHER LANGUAGES. ▻ Please. There are probably a lot of people we haven’t reached because this is an all-English post.

Wait, don’t you have pictures of what’s going on?

We do. They’re under the cut, to prevent causing issues for people reading the post.

But I always think of growth like plants.

Aspens grow tall to reach the sun, for sure. But dandelions grow deep, understanding themselves fully so that if some misguided fool tries to uproot them they'd have to try damn hard. And then there's thyme and other creeping plants, which spread themselves out so much that if you chop a part of it off it roots wherever it can find dirt to root in.

ᴋᴀᴡᴀʜ ɪᴊᴇɴ (ʙʟᴜᴇ ᴠᴏʟᴄᴀɴᴏ) ɪɴᴅᴏɴᴇsɪᴀ

ᴛᴜʀǫᴜᴏɪsᴇ ɪᴄᴇ: ʟᴀᴋᴇ ʙᴀɪᴋᴀʟ-ʀᴜssɪᴀ

sᴜᴘᴇʀᴄᴇʟʟ sᴛᴏʀᴍ

ɢʀᴇᴇɴ ғʟᴀsʜ sᴜɴsᴇᴛ

sɴᴏᴡ ᴄʜɪᴍɴᴇʏ: ᴍᴏᴜɴᴛ ᴇʀʙᴜs-ᴀɴᴛᴀʀᴛɪᴄᴀ

sᴋʏ ᴘᴜɴᴄʜ

sᴛʀɪᴘᴇᴅ ɪᴄᴇʙᴇʀɢs:ᴀɴᴛᴀʀᴛɪᴄᴀ

ʟɪɢʜᴛ ᴘɪʟʟᴀʀs

sᴀʟᴀʀ ᴅᴇ ᴜʏᴜɴɪ (ʀᴇғʟᴇᴄᴛɪɴɢ ᴅᴇsᴇʀᴛ) ʙᴏʟɪᴠɪᴀ

ᴍᴀᴇʟsᴛʀᴏᴍ

ᴇʏᴇ ᴏғ sᴀʜᴀʀᴀ:ᴍᴀᴜʀɪᴛᴀɴɪᴀ

ғɪʀᴇ ʀᴀɪɴʙᴏᴡ

ᴘᴏʀᴏʀᴏᴄᴀ (ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ᴡᴀᴠᴇ) ᴀᴍᴀᴢᴏɴ ʀɪᴠᴇʀ-ʙʀᴀᴢɪʟ

ᴀᴜʀᴏʀᴀ ʙᴏʀᴇᴀʟɪs

ɢʀᴇᴀᴛ ʙʟᴜᴇ ʜᴏʟᴇ:ʙᴇʟɪᴢᴇ

ʀᴀɪɴʙᴏᴡ ᴇᴜᴄᴀʟʏᴘᴛᴜs ᴛʀᴇᴇs

sᴛᴏɴᴇ ғᴏʀᴇsᴛ:ᴍᴀᴅᴀɢᴀsᴄᴀʀ

ᴄᴀᴛᴀᴛᴜᴍʙᴏ ʟɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ (ɴᴇᴠᴇʀᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ sᴛᴏʀᴍ) ᴠᴇɴᴇᴢᴜᴇʟᴀ

ᴍᴀᴍᴍᴀᴛᴜs ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅs

ᴡʜɪᴛᴇ ʀᴀɪɴʙᴏᴡ

ᴜɴᴅᴇʀᴡᴀᴛᴇʀ ᴄʀᴏᴘ ᴄɪʀᴄʟᴇs

ʙɪᴏʟᴜᴍɪɴᴇsᴄᴇɴᴛ ᴡᴀᴠᴇs

ᴍᴏʀɴɪɴɢ ɢʟᴏʀʏ ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅs

ᴠᴏʟᴄᴀɴɪᴄ ʟɪɢʜᴛɪɴɢ

ɴᴀᴄʀᴇᴏᴜs ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅs

ʀᴀɪɴʙᴏᴡ ᴍᴏᴜɴᴛᴀɪɴs:ᴄʜɪɴᴀ

ʟᴇɴᴛɪᴄᴜʟᴀʀ ᴄʟᴏᴜᴅ

plus six or seven people who just….can’t figure out what a frog paper could possibly be. (guys it’s…a scientific paper. about frogs.)

and this one

which made me laugh despairingly because i mean

“Underwent unplanned rapid disassembly” – it exploded, and it wasn’t an explosion we wanted to happen

“Lithobraking maneuver” – it stopped because it hit the goddamned ground.

“Engine-rich exhaust” – the engine bell melted or evaporated, or the engine ejected itself out the back of the rocket without having a very good reason to do so.

“Fishing orbit” – the craft is in the ocean instead of space and we didn’t mean to put it there

“Thrust was observed along an undesired vector” – the engine leaked and the rocket spun off into oblivion.

“Wearing his manager hat” – a moron who shouldn’t be an engineer (a reference to the infamous quote “take off your engineer hat and put on your manager hat” in the meeting in which the Challenger was cleared for launch)