Not that Jaded

I’m not saying it was a deliberate act of racism, but that’s why it’s so insidious, because it happens without conscious thought; this is a pretty good example of how racism slips into literally every aspect of daily life without people even noticing. If you need more Vitamin D, supplements are good enough. They work for people who live in countries that already don’t get much sunlight. If you are dark skinned, do NOT spend an hour in the Sun unprotected, use sunscreen and stay in the shade.

Here’s an article on the signs of skin cancer in people with all skin types, and why it’s a complete misunderstanding that people with more melanin don’t need as much sun protection.

I grew up in the South and my whole family has a history of skin cancer, for reasons that will be immediately apparent when you see my pasty ass face. At the age of 36 I finally booked a visit to a derm because 1) I needed to and 2) I had a lil tiny persistent red spot on my face. Thanks to a random post on the skincare subreddit years ago, I knew that redness and flaking around the edges was potentially cancerous, so ya boy saw the derm. (Putting read more here for pics)

Yeah so I had one of those for over a year and I, like a fool, kept picking at it. It was on my scalp on the side of my head under my hair and it got to the point that I had to be veeery careful brushing my hair because even a little too much of a scratch from the hairbrush would have it bleeding. Like. A lot.

So you know. I knew there was something Problematic. But I kept hoping it would magically go away. (I would like to point I am an adult and I should know better)

But eventually I was at a regular doctor routine checkup and I was like, "oh yeah also there's this weird thing on my scalp that won't go away..." and he took one look at it gave me the frowny face of Disappointment and immediately gave me a referral to the dermatologist.

Dermatologist got me in real fast, took one look at it, was like, "oh yeah this doesn't look great, I'mma slice off a bit and we'll see what it really is." Do you know they just use a burny thing to cauterize the wound that leaves behind and if they miss a bit your scalp will start bleeding profusely thirty minutes later right as you're about to get out of your car and go back in to work? Yeah, that happened and I had to go back and get more cauterization yay!

Anyway, like the above dude, it was basal cell carcinoma that stumped everybody because, like...it's under my hair. I have thick hair. It's an unlikely place to find such a thing compared to like EVERY OTHER SQUARE INCH OF STUPID PALE SKIN ON MY BODY. But anyway.

Even though I let it go so long, they were able to get all of the cancer out with just one swipe of the MOHS knife (that makes it sound simpler than what happened) and I've got a very long scar on the side of my head (covered by my hair I was so glad they didn't have to shave much of it off) and a little spot that is forever bald where they cut the cancer out.

but it's an entirely new level of tragic when somebody you've actually spoken to gets turned into a bot account. it's like peeking at a zombie apocalypse through the window and realizing one of the shambling corpses was your friend.

and then the zombie catches sight of you, lurches up to your window, and shouts through the glass that they accidentally reported your account to tumblr and you'll be deactivated unless you click this link.

if you get something like this ↑ they're gonna follow up by instructing you to contact tumblr support on discord and give you contact info; or they're gonna link a website that looks sort of like tumblr support and say you have to email them; or any variety of "you must now contact tumblr, here is how you contact tumblr."

whatever they send you, it Does Not lead to tumblr. it leads to the master zombie that bit them and inducted them into the ranks of the undead, and will bite you the second they have your email and password. i might be confusing zombies and vampires. anyway,

it's easier to fall for these messages because the blog doesn't LOOK like a bot blog, because it ISN'T a bot blog. it's a normal person's blog that got accessed by a bot, meaning the blog's content CLEARLY looks like a real active user when you click on it. and yes—it might even be a blog you already know. sometimes bots like this go down a blog's DMs or reblogs and message people they've previously interacted with.

A brand new Fluffy spinoff…?

my birthday fic is the best around <3 please read what inspired this drawing!

We're getting there little by little, sure. But it's a road.

And what this means is I can now play music with an interface made up of pixel art old enough to rent a car

Though I think I ended up with a purple skin eventually, I forget where I got it.