Via @Cyn_McNally at Twitter.
This image is going to appear here a lot in the runup to the midterms.
Are you of voting age? Go get registered. Are you registered already? CHECK it online – because states with Republican majorities have being seeing a big upsurge in other-party-registered voters being quietly deregistered so that they’re voiceless when they turn up at the polls. And keep checking. The people doing this crap are sneaky.
This is not a year for taking anything for granted: not a year for believing the polls: not a year for letting other people worry about it: not a year for allowing the seemingly unending flow of crap to wear you down. This year we all get to suit up and stop being what Tom Paine called “summer soldiers”, “sunshine patriots”, the ones who exercise the franchise when it’s easy, when nothing vital is on the line. Time to stand up and exercise the local mall-scale form of heroism, capes or not (I’m a no-cape type myself: E has a point).
Get registered and avoid the October rush. Help friends get registered too. It’s too easy to think “One more vote won’t make a difference”. And it’s not true.
Get it sorted now. Don’t wait. Please.
In the US, the gold standard for info about registering, checking your registration, and finding your polling place is the NASS’s Can I Vote website, formerly canivote.org (which still redirects, FWIW); or vote.gov. In both cases, you will select your state, and then be linked to you to your state’s Secretary of State, which is the statewide office that manages voter registrations. This happens because how voter registrations are managed varies from state to state, not because the internet wants to make your life hard.
Are there alternatives to the NASS? Sure, but I’m suspicious of third-party voter registration websites, and I think you should be, too—especially if the website doesn’t say who funds and runs the website right there on the front page. How do you actually know that your registration is actually being submitted, and submitted correctly? You don’t. You especially don’t if you go through a third-party website that has a vested interest that they’re not being upfront about—do you think that a secretly Republican SuperPAC-funded website is going to submit your Democratic Party-aligned registration correctly? Because I bet it won’t. My recommendation is that you just go through official government channels; and also that after you register, you save or print whatever online confirmation you get, and keep it until you get your voter registration card in the mail.
In the three states I’ve lived in, you can also register in person at the DMV, at the local public library, at your local town or city hall, or at other local and state government offices, though under some circumstances, you can only register in person in the county in which you live. This time of year, there are also often voter registration drives in malls, at community centers, and at schools. Public colleges and universities often will have voter registration information readily available. You can try to search on Google for “where to register to vote in person near me”, which may be helpful, in this instance, or you can just call ringing up your local library (they’re more likely to pick up the phone than the DMV).
In most states, you must be registered 2-4 weeks before the election, which means we are getting very, very close to most states’ deadlines. Please register, and please check your registration! If you’ve already done it, do it again!
(via pancake-angst)
Describe me using only TV Tropes tropes.
oh my god best tumblr meme ever sign me up plz
Stumbled across this. Thought it could make for a jolly good time. Fire away, anyone who cares!
this should be interesting
(Source: queerhalfhobbit, via meefling)
Open Letter to People Who Do Things
If you do things that others know about, you will attract a lot of criticism.
People will think you’re wrong a lot. Sometimes you will actually be wrong; sometimes you won’t be.
Sometimes people will be vicious. Sometimes people will try to hurt you as badly as they possibly can.
No matter how well you do things, there will be people who are disgusted by what you do and think you’re a terrible person.
No matter how politically neutral the thing you do is, people will attack it for political reasons. (Either a specific reason, or they’ll say it’s frivolous and that you should be fighting global warming or poverty or something instead.)
If you charge money for what you do, people will be outraged (including people who would never work for free.)
No matter how much you charge, people will angrily tell you that it’s too much.
Even if you work for free, people will be angry with you for addressing some things but not others. Or for not giving them what they want fast enough.
No matter how well you consider other sides, someone will angrily accuse you of censorship or refusing to listen.
And so on and so on. No matter what you do, there are people who will be angry and disgusted by it. There will be people who will hate you. There will be people who try to hurt you to make you stop. This happens to absolutely everyone who does things that a lot of other people know about. It is possible to live with that.
(Part of the way to live with that is by learning to keep perspective in the face of other people’s anger.)
A note about criticism - it’s important to be open to criticism, because sometimes you will be wrong. In order to be truly open to criticism, you have to get past the desire to appease everyone who is mad at you. If you try to please everyone, what ends up happening is that you end up deferring to whoever is the loudest and meanest. Listening to criticism in a good way means you have to be selective — and it also usually means disengaging from jerks.
You don’t have to be perfect to do things that matter. If only perfect people could do things, nothing would ever get done. Everyone who has every done anything has also been flawed in a serious way. Because that’s how people are.
It’s also important to remember that you don’t owe the world a heckler’s veto. There will always be people who don’t like you or your work. That doesn’t mean you have to stop. It doesn’t mean you have to engage with them. It just means that you’re being noticed, and that some people don’t like what they’re seeing.
tl;dr If you do things that people notice, some people who notice will be mean to you and try to convince you that you are terrible. That happens to everyone who does things. It doesn’t mean you’re terrible. It means you’re visible. Being open to criticism doesn’t mean giving the world a heckler’s veto. It’s ok to do things even if you’re imperfect and sometimes people are angry at you.
*paints several lines of this in gold on own body*
(via sarahreesbrennan)
I write stories for you!
All 290 of my followers know that I deliver fresh stories on a daily basis, all based on prompts that come to me via my website.
The people who aren’t porn blogs must be enjoying them, because -hey- I have 290 followers. And loads of y’all are really, really quiet. [I stop complaining now]
What I need to deliver fresh half-baked stories to you every morning is PROMPTS. Anything you want to see done. Anything you think might be amusing. Hell, I’ll take word salad and attempt to make a story out of it.
You don’t have to become a member of my site to give me prompts. I welcome Anon Guests to drop by any time they like with the plotbunnies of their choice. If I’ve heard of a thing, I’ll have a go at writing the story there. If I haven’t, I will make something up.
Your prompt might just alter the fabric of my pet universe. Others have done so.
And now that I’m down to less than fifteen prompts, I need you! Challenge me. Throw me a curve. Double-dog dare me to write a thing. Stretch my limits.
You might not get the story you want, but you will get a story out of it. I have yet to have a prompt stump me. You’re welcome to try.
I was tagged by @demonicae [IDEK why this won’t link to you. Soz]
Relationship Status: Deeply harmonious with my Best Beloved
Favourite Colours: Greens/blues/aquas
Pets: One elderly cat and a remarkably tough fish
Wake-up Time: Allegedly 5:30 AM. I’m often awake and active some hours before that because sleep issues are a bitch.
Cats or Dogs: I’m exactly the wrong person for a dog. Though I love them all [and most small creatures, for that matter] I’m the wrong sort of person to keep dogs. Cats are my best companions.
Coke or Pepsi: Neither, thank you. I much prefer beverages that _don’t_ make my teeth feel like chalk. If I can get my hands on a brewed Sarsaparilla, I am very happy, indeed. That said, I will happily ingest anything fizzy that has enough sugar to kill a horse.
Text or Call: I really like to fill in online forms, but only if I’m certain about it. Texting is definitely casual. I’m one of those socially awkward dweebs who has to write out a script before they make an important phone call.
Last Song Listened to: _Prepare for Adventure (Reprise)_ by The Cog is Dead. I firkin LOVE their stinger songs.
Tagging anyone following me who wants to do this, I guess.
you know what would be cool? a show about, like, vigilante Victorian prostitutes hunting down Jack the Ripper.
They never did figure out why he stopped killing. And most serial killers don’t stop unless they are stopped. I’m just saying.
HOLY CATS I WANT TO WRITE AND DRAW THIS AS A GRAPHIC NOVEL
OMG THE RESEARCH ALONE WOULD BE AWESOME
THIS IS BRILLIANT.
::starts chant:: Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!
(Source: jeaniefranklins, via pancake-angst)