#read dammit

yo so some may notice i closwed asks again be it the reason is i have old asks i still  havent answered and i feel if i leave asks open i’ll get distracted and feel more inclined to answer newer asks over older ones. so i want to work my way through the old asks that have been sitting for a little bit. another reason is some asks im still figuring out what to do with a debating on if i should answer them.

though the main reason is that some of the asks in my box right now will give more information on charcoal along with his father so lore??? which i feel might give people ideas on good asks they could give.

though i will give a run down on things i plan to post:

-i have roughly about 13+ posts worth of content based on the asks in my box

-i plan to introduce 2 new characters to the blog however i need to work more on them first so posts may take a hot minute to do because of that

-i plan to try do stand alone art pieces unrelated to asks maybe christmas themed since christmas is coming up

-i also plan to do mistletoe pieces for people to respond to

i have decided however for my benefit that it would be best that i don’t force myself to try answer all asks before i do stand alone pieces so there wont be a chronological order to how i do things it will just be when i feel like it. because theres none mlp stuff i want to draw as well that won’t get posted here but also im looking for a job irl. so i ask that please don’t unfollow if im not active every week. but also if you have a super intresting ask that you want to ask write it down somewhere and keep it in mind for when i open asks again do not dm me letting me know my asks are closed i know their closed.

Time for some book recommendations. Namely “The Craft Sequence” by Max Gladstone.

Backstory first. A friend who’d only read the third book suggested I read them because he liked the magic system and thought I would too. So I picked up the first book and promptly forgot about it for a few months. 

Bad idea.

These books are some of the most interesting, witty, inclusive, and just enjoyable books I’ve ever read.

I’m not good with putting words together to explain my points, hence why I just read books and not write them, so I’m just going to list a few reasons you should read these books.

 Complex mix of main characters (men, women, POC, pretty much all of the LGBT acronym).

A really cool magic system based on souls as currency and law.

Interesting takes on various real world cultures from Catholicism to Pacific Islands by way of the Aztecs.

Having to pay back student loans safe in the knowledge if you don’t do it before dying then you’ll come back until it is payed back.

A really well thought out world in which it all takes place.

Mid-level employees in a water utility company (just trust me on this one).

The list could go on and on, but I can summarise it quite simply and shortly.

read the instructions on the back of the bottle, odds are you’re using it wrong

scan the instructions in the manual whenever you get a new thing, because then when you actually need to look up something specific you’ll know where to look for it in general

look it up in wikipedia, that’s why they invented smart phones.  what is “it?”  ANYTHING.

recipe books are manuals, read them.  watch food network.  we too can cook if we just let ourselves treat it like any other kind of obsession

Knee replacement! *waves xrays*

“Have you thought of Zumba?”

A coworker enters a room with three adults and 12 small children and announces that because a woman that had an STD kissed her baby, it died.

My other coworkers furrowed their brows in concern.  I asked, “What?”

“She had an STD and it killed her baby. It’s belly was all open and wounded.”

“What STD?”

“You know. An STD.”

“Which?”

“It was. Uh.”

“It caused the baby’s stomach to rupture?”

“Well, I saw the picture.”

She shows me the picture.  She’s misinterpreted.  There’s two pictures, layered over each other. One of a happy baby, the other, lips covered in lip gloss and crusty green.

“Herpes? Herpes killed that baby?”

“She kissed it, and it died.”

Now. HSV1, HSV2, HIV, GHSV1, GHSV2, all of them, along with chicken pox and shingles, are extremely dangerous to new borns. They get into the spine, can cause system failures.  It’s scary.  It’s killed four kids in the UK in the last ten years.

But.  It’s not simple.  There’s contraction rates, the primary infection date...  Not anybody with HSV-whatever is going to kill their baby by kissing it.  

This woman contracted HSV, had her first flare, less than a month before the baby was born... The baby was 11 days old.  

A lot was against these two.

And I cannot imagine what that woman is going through.

I chewed her out.  Well, chewed out like my mother would, which is asking a lot of questions with obvious answers in an even tone until you can’t help but feel foolish.

I tell her that if having herpes killed babies, I couldn’t work at this center, my coworker currently dealing with a cold sore, certainly couldn’t.

My other coworkers quietly chime in- I haven’t gotten loud or anything, but my mother’s tone has come out, and it makes everyone around talk softer- making affirmative statements of common sense.  They talk about the dangers of clickbait facebook articles.  She leaves the room feeling foolish.

My greatest regret is that.

A ‘lost moment’ as Writer would have put it.

I shamed her out of the room.  A woman I usually enjoy working with, who is honest and earnest with the kids- we stick our tongues out at each other as we pass in the hallway- has tucked tail and slunk away. Shit.

I will apologize tomorrow.  After my boss talks informally with her about sensitivity... oy.

My second regret.  Someone asked, “You have it?” and I didn’t just stare them in the face and say, “Yes.” Without explanation or apology. Like it should be.  

Yes. I have it. What.

Even now, I want to explain all the things. My mom has it, I’ve never expressed it....blahblahblah. Fuck that.