The thing about knitting is it’s much harder to fear the existential futility of all your actions while you’re doing it.
Like ok, sure, sometimes it’s hard to believe you’ve made any positive impact on the world. But it’s pretty easy to believe you’ve made a sock. Look at it. There it is. Put it on, now your foot’s warm.
Trump, as I know you know, is trying his damnedest to take away a lot of people’s civil and human rights. His supporters necessarily support this -either because they actively hate us, or because whatever “non hateful” reason they have to support Trump is more important to them than the fact he is, as I said, trying to take away a lot of people’s rights.
So, when we see that we’ve been sharing the work of a Trump supporter, we want to know about it so we can stop. We don’t want to contribute to Trump supporters getting attention or getting paid for their art, no matter what the art consists of, because the person who made it either wants us dead/deported/fired or kicked out of our house for being trans/etc, or doesn’t care that they’re helping that shit happen. (And the distinction between those two things matters a lot less than you likely think.)
I just messaged the artist on his Instagram. This is NOT him.
Please spread this version. If he had a Twitter he would cross promo his Instagram. At least for the exposure.
imagine talking about alexander the great and not mentioning that he died of grief only 8 months after hephaestion died, that he petitioned the oracle to give hephaestion literal divine status so that people could worship him as a god, that he threw himself on hephaestion’s dead body and refused to leave for two days, that he put together the biggest funeral procession known to the world at the time, that he gave hephaestion a lock of his own hair at the funeral in blatant reference to achilles doing the same with patroclus….like heteronormativity is so wild that he could come back from the dead and come out to every historian personally and it still wouldn’t be enough to render him anything but straight
so there’s this terrible spotify ad (i don’t have premium because unemployed. boo) from biore, about their ridiculous nose strips, and i want to throw something across the room every damn time i hear it. FIRST OFF, those “blackheads” on your nose usually aren’t even blackheads, they’re sebaceous filaments. if your skin is properly washed and exfoliated, then they’re not dirt, they’re supposed to be there. they’re just going to come back and biore KNOWS THAT, so they have that awful ad telling you that they look “dirty” and disgusting (their words!!! idk about the word disgusting but i know they used dirty and the entire ad is very very self esteem-killing) so you’ll keep on buying the damn nose strips for a fake condition that isn’t going to go away. you can diminish their appearance using AHA exfoliants, but they will be back within 24-48 hours if you try to remove them.
in other words: fuck you and your predatory scam, biore. throw out ur biore strips guys.
I NEVER KNEW THIS IF ONLY SOMEONE TOLD ME WHEN I WAS 12 I MAY NOT HAVE DEVELOPED DERMATILLOMANIA.
FOR FUCKING REAL
From the Wiki article on sebaceous filaments: “Unlike blackheads, however, they cannot be removed and are a permanent part of the human skin.”
This has honest to god changed my life okay thank you OP thank you so much
I wish I knew this because I’ve spent so much time in the bathroom trying to pick them, which only resulted in bloodying my nose up. My mom told me they were black heads and that I wasn’t washing properly which upset my greatly. But thanks to this, I now know that I can stop picking at it and stop feeling terrible about having them. Thank you.
Reblog to save a nose
See, I actually DO get blackheads in and around my nose. But I’d rather back the natural oil and filaments drawing the oil out of my skin, than clogging up my open pores with primer or whatever.
It CAN be helpful for makeup, to get a really even surface to work with… but you’ll pay for it in breakouts and angry skin if you’re using cheap foundation. Often even if you’re using GOOD foundation.
Please love your skin. Invest in proper skin care and moisturizer, clean your face appropriately to your skin type, and love yourself. They’re doing their best to keep you healthy, it’s not disgusting. You’ll get infections and breakouts if you try to remove them too hard or too often.
I wish i could find this one article written in I believe the 90’s that went under the radar on abortion. The author said that the “life” arguments are basically useless on either side and what actually matters is that humans shouldn’t have a right to use other human bodies as a resource without consent no matter how alive or sentient they are, even if they’re on the brink of death you have the right to deny them access to you. It probably was too radical for pro-choice activists back in those days but like…that’s the most robust arguement lol so we need 2 being that back and dead the pontifications and splitting hairs about “life” in my honest onion
I found it. Actually, it was written in the 70’s. She was way ahead of the curve.
The article is ‘A Defense of Abortion’ by Judith Jarvis Thomson. Essential reading!
For the needs of Rising Queens, I had to create an army. Since I’m an accountant and have never served in the military nor lived sometime between 1650 and 1820… I knew nothing about how to do that, so I researched, not a lot, but enough I think to give some tips and directions to anyone planning to do the same crazy thing.
Let’s get started. Please note this is for fantasy writers, a number of elements do not apply to modern or futuristic armies. (words with a * are translated in French at the end, because I’m a little chauvinist)
1. How big is your army ?
So, if your army is a professional army, in clear if soldiers are soldiers all year long and paid for it, the size of your army is limited. Mostly because resources are not infinite, and your army depends on the rest of the population to be fed. This rule would also apply for mercenaries, as your nation must still be able to pay them.
In consequence, its size should not be more than 1% of the population. This number was true in the past, and is still true today. And 1% is the upper limit, it assumes your nation is able to collect taxes efficiently!! If it’s not, your army must be smaller, or your nation will go bankrupt.
If your army is not professional, then the problem is a little different: your soldiers are no longer working all year long. The question is how big can your army be during x time? The longer the war/conflict lasts, the smaller your army will be, as your resources are limited and you need people to tend to the land. Or you can have a big starving army, your choice (or a starving population… or both…). After some research, it happens that number is 7% of the population for a period of 90 days (which was the length of a campaign season).
2. Support
So, yes, your soldiers are soldiering, or at least a part of them is… the rest is working as support, they are the spine of your army, without them everything could crumble. Without them you don’t have supplies, or meals, or doctors, or clothes, or payslips or…
Among the various support departments in military, we will first start with one that probably was the biggest: Supplies (aka Furir*). They originally were in charge of housing and food for men and animals, but over time they came to be in charge of all supplies, including their logistics. In the French Navy, they once were in charge of payslips. Without them, you don’t have food, but you also don’t have uniforms, weapons, or munitions…
While we are here, let’s note that most armies, while away from home, survived through plunder of the land around them. Which is great if you’re not staying in the same place too long, and if your enemy does not decide to burn everything left behind. Mercenaries, who were not paid by their employer, also plundered the land of their employer as a form of revenge.
The Postal Service* is like a web, they have a presence everywhere in the military organisation (including schools, jails, navy…). Not only do they make sure the letters are sent to the right person, but they also take care of censoring the letters of the soldiers. This is a job that require discretion as you might end up in the confidence of secrets that do not concern you nor the public.
The War Commissaries* are in charge of the administration of the army, which includes: finances, human resources, audit and control, law assistance, accounting. In some cases, Furir and Postal Services are also incorporated under their supervision.
One of the support functions we probably don’t think much about are the surgeons. Doctors, especially, surgeons were a priority on a battlefield. Mostly they acted after the battle, but they also took care of the soldiers all year long in a professional army. Military hospitals were created, some of them were used as medical schools too, and not all of them were situated in a military base. I haven’t been able to find if any ancient military hospital was opened to the public, but I personally don’t see why not. Generally each company (about 100 men) had one surgeon.
I will not discuss soldier being soldier, if you want more information on this, I will leave some links at the end of this article, please refer to it.
3. Army or Not ?
Some people, depending of your organisation, of your country, may be considered part of your army, even though their role is unrelated to the protection of the country against foreign forces, such as: police, spies, customs…
It really depends on how you see your organisation as a whole, and also who pay who, or what Minister these people depend from. For example, the police might be paid directly by the city thanks to local taxes, while customs are under the supervision of the Finance Minister, and spies answer directly to the Crown. Or you can incorporate them in your army.
4. Equipment
The main question in regards to equipment is who provides what. There have been times, when each soldier was expected to procure themselves their own equipment: armor and weapons, horse, sometimes even food. You could tell a soldier’s social background with just a look.
In some cases, the obligation to procure one’s own equipment was attached to citizenship. Only citizens were required by law to serve in the army, and to be citizen you were required to have a given level of revenues.
At all times, heavier weapons (for siege, and later canons) were provided by the State or the lords.
5. Hierarchy
There are two main type of hierarchies: hierarchical (or traditional) and flat. My partner could tell you all about the advantages and disadvantages of both in details (and how mixed/new models exist), but for our purposes let’s keep it simple.
Here is a drawing of both systems:
The bigger your army is, the less likely your hierarchy will be flat, for the very simple reason that your general in chief (or king, or whatever their actual title is) cannot be everywhere at once and has to delegate their power to keep the whole system working. In fact, at some point, the higher men in the hierarchy become strategists and/or administrators. Furthermore, if the official leader of your army is indeed the king, they might still need to delegate as 1) they are running a kingdom, and might need the time for something else, 2) they are very bad at leading an army (not everybody can be Frederic II or Napoleon…).
Next thing to determine is the numbers of levels in your hierarchy. I would advise to keep it as simple as possible. As an example, in Rising Queens, my army has 7 levels of hierarchy (including the soldiers without rank). Each rank correspond to an unity (i.e. company, regiment…). I merely added some nuances to distinguish some Navy ranks: a General and an Admiral have the same rank, but the later serves in the Navy.
If you want to get an idea of what ranking system you can implement, I would suggest you hit Wikipedia, as they have the organisations of a few armies listed. Just never forget reality is always more complex than fiction.
6. Magic
If you have magic in your universe, consider how it changes war strategy and organisation.
And since someone wrote extensively on the subject, allow me to redirect you to @warsofasoiaf post, right here.
Don’t hesitate to drop me a message for questions, clarifications or comments 🙂
if you need binders/breast forms/makeup/etc but don’t want your parents to know, now is the best time to get it.
you can order whatever it is online and when the package comes in if the ask what it is you can say something like “it’s a secret!” or even just sssh them. they’ll assume it’s a present for whatever holiday you celebrate and probably won’t press the issue.
oh my god this is amazing
I normally don’t reblog stuff like this but this is a very important life hack!
make sure you actually buy a present though or else this is all going to fall apart. it doesn’t have to be expensive, e.g. a “best dad” mug, socks, a bath bomb, multi-tool variations of everyday objects, soap, tea, a candle, et cetera.
House Of Crows 