a defiant potato

In deep red areas you're a republican who is thinking of voting for someone else if they don't vote what you want on this specific bill because it impacts your republican ideals so very much

In swing states you're an undecided voter who's gonna go blue if they don't vote how you like

"I'm a small business owner and [example: anti-drag bill] is making me lose money!" OR "[Anti-drag bill] is going to cost us millions in taxable sales" - If you talk about how it's making you personally lose money and absolutely need to bullshit, you run a bar or do freelance photography. The intern they have on the other line does not have the resources or the know-how to check that.

"I'm concerned that [anti abortion bill] is the government infringing on my personal rights." - Self explanatory.

"[Anti-gay bill] goes against family values in my church." - They aren't going to call your local Pentecostal chapter to fact check this. You don't even need to be Pentecost, you just need to assert that you're part of a community and a major voting bloc.

- [anti-trans bill] is an overreach of the government! The government doesn’t have the right to control the healthcare of the American people. I’m voting for a candidate who believes In less government oversight.

- [anti-gay bill] is too much state control. The government shouldn’t be allowed to restrict your relationships. If the government can control our sex lives whats stoping them from taking our guns next?

The best ones have advice on decor, how to select high-quality furniture, childrearing, fashion, etc--from a contemporary perspective, and the things the authors feel the need to clarify vs the wild shit that will just casually mention like it's something everyone knows and agrees on is REALLY revealing of the culture and how it's shifted.

And while a lot of the advice is WILDLY bigoted or just outright funny, you'd be surprised how much of it is...just genuinely timeless, and shockingly compassionate.

They ALSO, as a writer, have INVALUABLE resources--because, again, they're talking about things that are so MUNDANE that a lot of the time nobody really sat down to formally document what normal, everyday people thought or cared about--because that's boring! But a book written to provide advice and information to, say, a young woman who's never run her own home before? You can fully expect an entire chapter dedicated to The Types Of Oven, and which features are useful and worth spending money on, and which features are a huge hassle to clean and a waste of space, and what to spend that money on instead.

And like. As a writer who frequently works in the 1800s? Fuck inflation calculators, this is the kind of thing I need. This is absolutely priceless.

Now that being said.

My current favorite 'etiquette guide' in the world is actually like....70% purely practical advice, written by a gentleman the groupchat has affectionately dubbed History's Most Autistic Man In The World, and thank god they didn't have Aderall back then

Because the AuDHD is strong in this one and as a result, in addition to the deeply practical and useful everyday reference points, we also have:

so i have some thoughts about the ahsoka season 2 trailer

actions have consequences. things that your characters do inevitably can affect other people around them. what might they have done in the past that could come back and serve as an obstacle? or, maybe, what could they do now that could possibly raise the stakes just a little bit more?

subplots! be mindful of the subplots you’re adding - but sometimes it might be a good idea to include one if your plot is feeling a little bit empty. not only can it tie back into the overarching struggle, but it could also serve as a way to explore one of your characters or points further.

character exploration. get to know your characters a little bit better! let your readers find out something new. connecting and understanding the people within your story is important if you want your readers to grow attached to them.

world exploration. similar to the previous point, with the addition of creating a greater sense of familiarity of the circumstances that your story is taking place in. remember that nobody else knows the world of your wip as well as you do - illustrate it even further so everyone else can grasp it even better.

most dragon bjds are rare, limited, and by a few makers, especially if you want anything bigger than a pet doll that fits into your hand. but the biggest names you want to look out for are:

dream valley

dollzone

whale tower

cuartosdolls

dearmine

dream valley makes almost exclusively fantasy dolls. a couple years ago they made a 1/6 and 1/4 dragon named "griffin" (yes, they called a dragon griffin w/e). besides the sizes, the 1/4 version has jointed hands. they rarely rerelease dolls. you will probably have to find one secondhand, and he will probably cost you at least $800-1000. besides griffin, they also made flo who is a flower dragon. their other dragon dolls are mostly anthros or pets, you can view them on the rest of their side. pets include eve/bor, garey/carey, sirey/cory, rubin, umi/bora, xion/adela. their anthros include sylves, velarde, collier, silina, cayes, and grayson. they have humanoid bodies with dragon feet, tails, and wings. denverdoll has velarde and some of their pet dragons in stock. it looks like alice's collections (very old and reputable dealer) has a bor in stock.

dollzone makes a ton of dolls and often dips into fantasy, but they're not exclusively fantasy like dream valley is. (dream valley artists also branched off from dollzone.) sometimes they collaborate with other artists too; their biggest full on dragon shadow was one such collab. it's big and very spiky! they also cast dragon heads for another artist, mr. long and yunchi. these are heads designed to go on on 75cm bodies, but you can sometimes stick them on smaller bodies if you don't mind the gapping. i have yunchi on a 72 body and it looks ok but i don't mind the gapping. they're both retired so you'll have to find them secondhand. they've also made some anthros on dragon bodies like yin-long 1/4 and 1/3 and 1/6. their blind box sister company also made the penny's box dragontaurs which use the yin long design but small.

whale tower is an independent artist who spun off from dream valley and is most known for rafayeh. they also made a baby version of her called raffi, they've made some draconic snakes, and they're in the process of making a qilin. rafayeh has had a couple of releases and no clue if they plan on selling her again. she costs like $1000 too

cuartosdolls made a lot of dragons back in the day including a huge boy named antares but she seems to have retired from dollmaking. antares is basically impossible to get, but i know you can sometimes find legitimate darkhorns and rarely a nebo.

dearmine mostly makes pets and smaller anthros of various types, but i have a cloud. he's about 42cm tall. it looks like they've released his sculpt but not in that color and fullset too. they'll probably bring him back, but in different colors and looks. he has deer hooves and clawed hands. they also have a little dragon named chopin, who they rerelease often i think.

some one offs also include spirit imprint's she is a dragon, loongsoul's dragons white and black. fairyland has made some dragon legs and tails under their fairyline and fairyline60 lines. denverdoll has some fairyline60 dragons in stock. but full on dragons are rare. finding legitimate ones is harder, especially for older dolls like cuartos. :( don't trust ebay unless it comes with a legitimate certificate of authenticity...

hope i could help! if you like any of these dragons you can also try searching for box openings on youtube for an impression of how they look and move.

More preteen Asra and also some baby Muriel too! Puppy love is a strange and adorable thing sometimes. 

Click here to read more of these two. 

problem solving steps