empty swimming pools

meanwhile i can just say like “ROAD work ahead?” and i would bet a good chunk of you have just read that in the guy’s voice. i still see people tag things like “i wish i was jared, 19″. one night at the bar where i work we started an impromptu dance party purely by saying “hi, i’m renata bliss, and i’ll be your freestyle dance teacher”

Problem: I can’t leave kudos again.

Beginner: This is a second/third/fourth Kudos

Advanced: This is my second/third/fortieth time reading this, I still love it so much. Here are a few new things I noticed. I like the way you personally do x, y, z compared to other authors I’ve read (in this ship/genre/fandom).

Problem: I don’t know what to say :(

Beginner: Just list what you did to read this fic. “I stayed up late reading this”, “I read this on a crowded train”, “this kept me company while sick”. 

Advanced: X,Y,Z parts made me get butterflies, and I had a physical reaction to this part of the story, I squealed outloud when characters did x,y,z. I blushed at this part. I laughed out loud here. Whatever. 

Problem: I’m embarrassed to leave a comment (what if I annoy the author?)

Beginner: Short answer: you won’t EVER annoy the author (unless you’re needlessly mean) But to start, be generic, you don’t have to spill your soul in the comments section. “I liked this” “I enjoyed reading this” “nice fic”.

Advanced: This really meant a lot to me that you wrote this. This is something I feel like I’ve always wanted to read. This fic hit me in all the right places. Etc. 

Problem: I don’t know how to express myself/my experience 

The movie is captivating, but the book is twenty kinds of terrifying, even now, ten years after I first read it. As disturbing as the movie may have been to some, the things Selick added really serve to cushion just how horrific the story really is.

First of all, the character of Wybie does not exist in the book. Coraline is facing all of this nearly alone, with her only help coming from the sly comments of the cat, a warning from the circus mice, and the stone given to her by her neighbor, presented with no comment but that it “makes the unseen seen.”

Second, the Other Parents are never quite as warm (and, dare I say, normal) as they are in the gifs above. They’re described as having paper-white skin and the Other Mother’s hair is said to move on its own, and her long, red, claw-like nails don’t ease any uncertainty that she is absolutely, positively up to no good. The first time Coraline meets them, they (and the rest of the Others) seem to be playing roles (for whatever reason, Coraline does not seem to pick up on this), like they all know what to say and what to do and are simply waiting for Coraline to make her move in their terrifying play world. This is shown to be partly true when the Other Parents tell her they know she’ll be back soon after she refuses the buttons - this time, to stay.

Third, the Other Mother commits atrocities that really should not have been in a book for anyone not fully grown up. She physically deforms the world around Coraline to slow her progress in their game beyond any mild traps the movie portrays, and, instead of turning the Other Father into the wandering pumpkin-thing seen in the film, she simply ceases to use him and throws his body away in the cellar, leaving him to rot with whatever bit of sentience he has left. She begins to lose her touch, as Coraline gains the upper hand. Her world doesn’t just become a nightmare - it falls apart completely. No creepy but oddly cool bug furniture here, just the house that now appears to be a child’s drawing. Whatever the Other Mother is (a beldame, but something tells me she’s much more ancient and powerful than that), she does not give half a hump about what she has to do to ensnare Coraline. Destroy the supporting characters of her twisted creation? Done. Allow herself to be dismembered to ruin Coraline’s life in the normal world? Not even gonna bat an eyelash.

On a final, personal note, imagine eight year-old me, ignored by my parents, absorbed in the story and identifying with Coraline from the start. Imagine me finishing this bloodcurdling book and immediately thinking of my basement, where there is still a locked door that my grandmother swears up and down is nothing more than a storage room, but has not once in my (or my mother’s) lifetime unlocked.

A decade later, at the Opening Night of the Coraline musical, I was sitting next to Morgan, Merilee’s youngest daughter, and told her how her not being scared had made the book happen. And she said “I was terrified. But I needed to find out what happened next. So nobody knew.”

Saw this on facebook and am keeping the momentum going. I've copied all the fundraiser links below, and here's the link to the original post in case you'd prefer to look at the list that way.

Help me get home, please! $1,105/10,000

Gender Fluid Human In Need Of Help $1,610/3,500

Adopted Trans Woman seeking safety & medical help $16,626/29,000

Shane's Top Surgery $934/6,180 《《 this one has been up for over a year and he's still waiting

Help J Remove Themselves from Toxic Household $330/2,500 《《 needs more contributions

Grace Mwangi's Gender Confirmation Surgery $2,966/38,000

Nyne's top surgery $2,893/8,000

Help Grayson start transition $1,101/2,000

Skyler's Transition Fund €380/3,000 《《 needs more contributions

Londynn's New Life $8,793/15,000

NYIEMÄ'S GENDER CONFIRMATION FUND $8,195/37,000

Zoeys transition fund £3,959/10,000

Supporting Black Trans Elders cashapp $fakerapper $15,805/100,000

Top Surgery For Yadriel Acazio $1,762/11,000

Coco's Medical Transition Fund. $3,395/15,000

Maya's Transition & Recovery Fund $1,922/35,744

Help Create Corbyn $1,748/4,000

Flora's Transition Fund $360/5,000 《《 needs more contributions

Amina Transition And Rent Fund €3,206/5,000

Help Guilly Get Top Surgery!! $3,050/7,500

Atticus' homeless fund $5,578/10,000

HOUSING FOR TRANS WOMEN OF COLOR $7,368/60,000

Ahren's Top Surgery $3,961/7,500

Malakai's Top Surgery $754/10,000 《《 needs more contributions

Top Surgery $7,195/8,000 《《 up since last year; he's so close!

Phoenix gotta move! $572/45,000 《《 needs more contributions

Kiana's Gender Transition $2,140/35,000

Jacobs top surgery $6,855/8,000

Skye's Top Surgery $2,027/8,500

Hunter's Top Surgery $4,610/12,000

Alexandria's Transition fund $3,562/40,000

Myles's Tracheal Shave Procedure $2,825/8,450

Zeke's Top Surgery Fund $4,469/9,000

help mika start a new life $499/25,000 《《 needs more contributions

Landon's Top Surgery! $795/2,000

Donate to Myla's Breast Augmentation $1,957/6,000

Vanessa L. Naisha needs support to seek justice! $14,373/15,000 《《 so close!

Travis' Transition Fund $14,063/30,000

Disabled Enby Needing Help For Top Surgery! $2,025/8,500

Tyler's Transition Fund $13,725/30,000

Clarabelle's Gender Affirmation Surgery $10,300/20,000

help deluca get top surgery ! $4,842/7,000

Help Black Trans Woman Transition $17,523/20,700

Wriply's surgery/ continued living fund $8,597/26,520

Help a black trans woman w/ advanced cancer in ATL $21,656/25,000

Help Harmony, a Black Trans Woman Survive $7,676/20,000

Help a black trans-man get FTM top surgery! $6,018/15,000

Malikais Top Surgery $4,077/7,500

Finn's Therapy & Wellness Fund $2,920/7,000

Kyo's (aka Key) Transition Fund $13,509/25,000

Transition Funds for Dallas $6,790/15,000

Help a Black Trans Woman from homelessness $5,901/8,000

Bottom Surgery and Electrolysis $6,329/40,000

Noelle's Breast Augmentation $11,135/13,000

Aeri's Moving Out & Transition Fund $14,809/20,000

SAVE A TEENAGE TRANSMAN'S LIFE $4,245/25,000

I will periodically update the progress amounts. As the goals are met, I'll mark them as funded and change the colors from green to pink to make it clear. I'm also tagging the ones that could use more attention with red.

but lets not forget sergei prokudin-gorskiy, who developed a similar process in 1902, published in 1903 and then toured russia to take hundreds of color photographs: