You can do all kinds of slightly-weird shit and explain it all away with: “I’m a writer.”

Run outside when it starts raining, because it’s the perfect chance to figure out how slippery the grass might be during the reunion kiss scene, and whether the characters really could just skid down a slight slope. 

“I’m a writer,” you can say, when your friend asks why you’re soaked to the bone.

Stop mid-stride and sniff the air, letting your nose lead you to that one flowerpot that smells just right for the arrangements in the background of Chapter 6, and go find out the plant’s name from the old man weeding the garden beds.

“I’m a writer,” you can say, when he asks why you’re so curious.

Stare at the sky until you know exactly which shade of blue best describes it, then scribble it on the back of your hand with a leaking pen.

“I’m a writer,” you can say, when your boss notices the fading stain the next day.

I bet they’ll all go, “Ah, that explains it.”

For the record: these are all pretty low-intensity “I’m a writer” things. I challenge anyone to write a character with a new disability and then spend the day trying to function with that disability. 

For the record: sippers and buttons are bullshit when you have only one hand/arm. Same with laces. Most clothing stuff is not happening, actually. Bra hooks can fuck themselves off of a cliff, too.

I am a writer.

@illthdar Did you try to live a day as Lerki after is accident?

An excellent question. Yes I did, though it would have been the second time I’ve actually spent a few hours with an arm tied behind my back in the name of character development - the first character I did this with was for an RP character of mine called Dede. It was instrumental to figuring out what kinds of clothing she wore and how.

With regards to Lerki, because he had [spoiler], which is also limiting his ability to move and do things. I had to take it a step further by tying up one arm and having the other forcefully stuck at different degree angles because he [spoiler].

When you pick up a sword for the first time you will be slow and awkward. This is frustrating, but refuse the temptation to try and become a “faster” fencer. Chasing after speed is like trying to catch smoke. If you try and pursue speed, all you will accomplish is haste. Haste is the enemy of 1st class fencing.

Speed is a lie the untrained mind tells itself when it sees an action it cannot follow. The truth is a combination of timing, control, and fluidity. Fluid motion, even done slowly, will always arrive before a hasty strike. Control will allow you to move without wasteful motion that will slow you down. Timing will eliminate the need to move fast almost entirely. There is no need to get somewhere fast so long as you get there at the right time.  

Tip for mymutuals who engage in bladed armed combat

signal boost

Right. I feel incredibly awkward doing this, but Tumblr - I need writing advice.

Basically, I’m writing a story, and one of my characters is blind in one eye. I recognise that life with partial blindness is different to fully sighted life. However, I’m fully sighted, and I don’t want to accidentally make mistakes or offend anybody. So… I have some questions. If anybody with knowledge about any of this can answer anything, or throw in extra info, that would be great!

First off, a little background about my character. He was born fully sighted, but got into a fight at 16, and got stabbed in his left eye. He survived the attack, but even with heavy surgery, he wound up blind in his left eye, whilst his right eye can see perfectly well. He’s now 19 years old, and has a job as a hacker/computer specialist/hacktivist. Now, for the questions!

1: Is there any way that being partially blind heavily affects day-to-day life? I know that depth perception would be heavily impaired or completely gone, because of biology, but I have a feeling that there’s more to it, and it’s different from full blindness/impaired eyesight in both eyes. So, I’m just checking on this.

2: Would any adjustments have to be made to living spaces to accommodate him? (He currently lives on the road/out of his car, if that affects anything. On the same note, could he actually drive? Because of the depth perception.)

3: Are there any other effects that partial blindness has on one’s life that I might be overlooking? Like, emotional effects, mental wellbeing, etc etc.

4: Would it be an effective idea for me to buy an eyepatch and cover my left eye with it for one or two weeks, or is that incredibly offensive and not a good idea? I might edit or follow up on this post with more questions in the future if more arise. Please tell me if I’ve been offensive here, or made mistakes with phrasing, tags, anything! I don’t want to accidentally be rude! Thanks in advance for any advice people might be able to give. :)

Some things to consider: is your character right or left handed? If he is left handed, there is a greater likelihood that he’s also left-eye dominant. 

I’ll assume that, as a teen, he wasn’t particularly skilled in fighting, but there are certain things that do need to be taken into account in terms of his ability to adapt. Namely: how easily can he switch tasks from left to right hand, or the other way around. A lot of lefties have a certain amount of ambidexterity due to necessity in life (door handles, scissors, can-openers - these things are often designed with right-handedness in mind)

Overtime, people lacking in one eye will adapt to the changes in their depth perception - rather, it isn’t actually the perception of depth that’s lost, it’s stereopsis. Most people who are suddenly faced with monocular life don’t receive or are referred for support and are able to adapt to their new way of living, anyway.

While the link I’ve provided below does include a list of common issues, one thing that it doesn’t fully state - though it is implied - is the larger blind spot on one side of the head, which is often compensated by more head turning. 

https://www.bcmj.org/worksafebc/adapting-loss-eye

srsly tho this is absolutely a thing that dudes do all the f***ing time

like where if he knows a girl doesn’t necessarily want to give him a hug, he will trap her in this position in front of witnesses where she has 2 options- both of which are undesirable for her, while simultaneously desirable for him

if she doesn’t want to hug him, whatever she does, it will suck for her.

she can 1. say nah and be the fucking asshole in front of other ppl or 2. forsake her corporeal boundaries and allow unwanted intimate contact

it’s a f***ing trap

F***ing hate dudes forreal.

too many f***ing times ugh

Story time. One day I was on the MAX (basically a giant street car that goes all over the metro area) on my way to meet up with a few friends. I didn’t look at anyone, I didn’t speak to anyone, I just stood to the side on my phone making sure I wasn’t going to be late to my meeting. Out of no where, this guy comes up to me and starts to chat me up. Me, being who I am, am absolutely terrified to tell this guy to f*** off. He was at least half a foot taller than me, and was way too bulky for me to fight back. So I suck it up at humor him, say hello. Before introducing himself or asking me for my name, he asks me out on a date. Not wanting to piss him off I try to make light of the situation and I laugh, telling him that my boyfriend wouldn’t like the idea, but thank you for the offer. He just shrugs and says, “He doesn’t need to know.” At this point I’m scared out of my mind. There’s this guy who, after seeing me run two blocks to catch the train, comes up to me and has made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t going to leave without getting something out of me. I deny him a second time, saying, “I don’t even know you’re name. We’re strangers, I don’t know you.” He finally introduces himself and asks me for my phone number. I tell him I don’t give my number out to people I’ve just met and he says, “Fine, but at least take mine so we can meet up later.” So he watches me plug his number into my phone (which I deleted as soon as I knew I was safe and away from him) as we’re pulling up to my stop. I tell him I need to leave and switch trains and he tells me, “Oh, I’ll wait with you. I don’t have any plans, so I’m in no rush.” It’s important to note what at this point he had previously told me that he was late to a job interview, but he has all the time in the world because he still hasn’t gotten what he wanted from me; a yes. I get off of the train and he follows me, and waits at the platform with me for over ten minutes until my train arrives, asking me all sorts of personal questions about where I live and where I was going that day. As soon as the train pulls up he grabs for me and says, “Do I at least get a hug before you go?” I was terrified. I was embarrassed. This dude, who before even asking me for my name asks me out on a date and then continues to harass me after I tell him I have a boyfriend, asks me for a hug only fifteen minutes after meeting. People around us were staring at me, as if I was being rude for denying him, and every inch of me was mortified. I wanted to run, but I felt like if I had done that he would have chased after me and things would have gotten worse. So I did, and he squeezed me so tight I felt like I was going to burst. It took me a good ten seconds to get him to let go and I ran to the train car just as the doors were closing. He was trying to get me to miss my train so I would have to wait with him even longer. I would have been stuck there for over a half an hour until the next train came by, and the platform (aside from the few buses coming by) was now COMPLETELY EMPTY. He knew EXACTLY what he was doing and he knew EXACTLY how to get me alone with him. People, if you are in a situation like this do not feel obligated to give in. If someone is making you uncomfortable and asks to touch you in any way, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SAY YES. Make excuses, be blunt, just straight up say ‘no’. If possible, go to someone else near by who you think can help you and ask them to help you. It’s important for guys to learn that they can’t get what they want just by asking over and over again. I got lucky. But not everyone does. Please, everyone, Be Safe.

SECOND STORY TIME

So I was on the transit bus alone one time. This was my first time riding, and so already I was PETRIFIED. I sit down, pull out my ipod, and begin to play some games. This guy sits down next to me, and begins trying to have a conversation. I don’t really respond, I don’t even look at him, just give half-hearted “mhm”s and “oh”s, as I don’t want to be rude if he was just striking up a friendly conversation. He then asks me on a date.

Now, as I stated before, I already was absolutely petrified. My heart stopped and I didn’t know how to answer. So I just didn’t. He didn’t let up and I could feel his eyes on me. I quietly stammer out a “no thanks” and my stop HAPPENS to be coming up, so I pull the string thing to let the driver know I want to stop there, and once we stop and the doors open I get up and he asks me, “Well, can I at least have a hug before you go if you won’t go on a date with me?” 

This makes me break. There are now people staring, as we are the only people standing up and not getting off… So I just start crying. Hell, I am bawling almost instantly. He looks so fucking freaked out and people are now getting up to come over and comfort me/question him. I don’t stop crying, and he keeps trying to comfort me by touching me, and people are yelling at him for that. 

AND THEN. AND. FUCKING. THEN. THE GOD DAMN BUS DRIVER. A VERY EASILY 6 FOOT BURLY MAN. COMES OVER TO US. PULLS THE GUY AWAY. AND KNEELS DOWN. HE THEN ASKS, IN THE MOST CALM VOICE, “Did you request the stop?” I very slowly and shakily nod, as I am still crying my eyes out. He then asks, “Do you want to get off?” I give a quiet “mhm” and nod once again, and he offers me his hand. I take it, he stands up, and he escorts me off the bus. He asks me questions such as where I was going next, if I was going to meet someone shortly, if I was going to transfer buses from there. He was very polite and waited for me to answer the entire time, and my friend (who I was going to be meeting there) showed up. He asked me if this was someone I knew, I said yes, and he said alright, have a good day. He then told me- and this is something stuck in my mind forever, so it is word for word-

“If some guy EVER starts harassing you like that again, do exactly what you did there. Cry. Cry and scream and have a temper tantrum. Not only will it throw him off, but it will get others to notice. They might not interfere, they might, but you will have gotten their attention and if you happen to go missing the next day the search for you will be a hell of a lot easier because everyone in that location will have seen you screaming and crying with a guy now very awkward with his actions. They will know. That is what my daughter did, and three days after she went missing she was back in my arms. I pray for you and every other person like you who has this done. You stay safe now, okay?” And after I began blubbering again, I nodded and he left.

So this is the second lesson for yall. If you can not have the courage to say no or make an excuse, cry. Let out those sobs and tears and cry your heart out. Because it is going to make people notice and make people aware.

Reblogging for that second story. This might save a life.

I just wanna note that bus drivers can be really amazing and good ones do look out for their riders.

Also, as an additional tip (in case you cannot cry on command or such), you can say, “No, because you’re creepy/creeping me out” and if he persists or tries to laugh it off, say “I do not want to be touched” and look at one of the strangers/persons that is watching.

It: 1. Gives them a sense of urgency in the situation, as the eye contact is a way to make them feel as though you are personally asking for their help and it is now their obligation to help. 2. Contains words so that if you’re in a public place but people aren’t necessarily watching, then they (as natural evesdroppers) can overhear the attention-grabbing words and then notice the situation. Note, this does NOT mean that they will come for help, but you might be able to look someone in the eye (as previously mentioned) or just get some people’s attention. 3. It shows that you have fight in you. As with rapists, those who are physically aggressive (ie. these huggers) choose women they see as an easy target. The moment you show them you are going/willing to fight them, they are less likely to continue. Sadly, this is not always the case, but every little bit helps.

Hopes this also helps, guys, and I’m so sad that this has to even be a post we need.

Dudes who follow me: 1) reblog this 2) don’t be the creepy guy who asks random women for hugs 3) be aware of your friends or random creepy dudes and call them out if they act gross towards girls/womem

Ok, I wasn’t going to comment about this, because there was no way of doing it without talking about a part of my life I really didn’t want to. But fuck that, there be young girls out there who need a hand.

So I used to be hot when I was young. I mean, model hot, because I actually used to model. Even now, I’ve let myself go on purpose because I was tired of the harassment. But I fit a UK size 6 with a pert ass from volleyball and a cup c breast. As you can imagine, I couldn’t wear anything or go ANYWHERE without being harassed. I sometimes even happened in church.

Anyway, I’m not a shrinking lily, and when I get angry enough I can do some crazy shit. So here are some of my coping mechanisms:

1) find a matronly looking lady, run up to her with ‘aunt may! I haven’t seen you in ages! ’ then whisper ‘please help he’s harassing me!’. 99.9 times out of 100, she will be scandalised and help you anyway even if she’s annoyed or in a hurry. If no older lady is available, find a younger one, or a nun, or a trans lady. We of the sisterhood know what it is to be harnessed, and I guarantee if you look frightened enough, they will help.

2) If you are out alone at night, and someone is following you, spot a house or apartment where the lights are on and knock, asking ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ or ‘john’ to let you in. Even if the people inside are annoyed, odds are they won’t turn you away, and you can phone someone to pick you up, or phone the police from a safe space

3) Make noise. Cry and scream loudly, call them out ‘i don’t know you and you are terrifying me! Please get away from me!’ if there are people around. Even if they don’t help directly for fear of their own safety, someone around you is calling security or 911.

4) speak a foreign language. If you know it, speak the language to them fast and incessantly, like you have just met someone you knew and you’re just giving the best performance rant of why your OTP is the best OTP. Make yourself ANNOYING. Think about what would be awkward and annoying to you and make it what you do to them. If you make them think YOU are something to get away from they will leave you in peace.

Now beware, the following ones are the CRAZY ones and may not always work. But they are a valid last resort:

5) stare at them. Stare at them like you’re hungry and they are a hapless deer you’re going to tear to pieces. Like yours the girl from the ring emerging from the TV to kill them. Don’t smile, don’t change your expression. DON’T BLINK. Hold their state like you’re Wednesday Adams about to do unspeakable things to a spider, and they are the spider. Even the most courageous of stalkers balk at this, but if they don’t…

6) Use the Hannibal Lector. After staring at them for and extended period of time (imagine all the things that have made you scared, imagine you could get revenge on them for putting you here, that’s the thought you need to have), if they are getting closer to you, whisper something like ‘i would fry your liver in garlic’. Even the hardiest ones will be taken aback, but keep it up while making sure you don’t let the others hear you. Things like, occult star readings requiring blood, wondering whether he is the offering the spirits sent. If you’re on this site you’ve read some weird shit at least once. Tell him that. Tell him you would like him to meet your lord, Vlad the Impaler, who requires much blood to be appeased. Be a stereotypical ‘crazy bitch’ like they see in the movies. Believe it or not, this has worked for me twice.

Above all, banish the notion that you have to be polite.

They were impolite by approaching you. If you can, ignore them. If you are not alone, pointedly put headphones in your ear, and don’t make eye contact, wait for them to realise that ‘youre a bitch anyway’ and move away. If you are alone, evade and find places and ways to fix that as soon as POSSIBLE.

And if all else fails, summon Satan.

Something I have learned at work:

Never underestimate the power of a good “EXCUSE me????”

Legit. It makes people STOP IN THEIR TRACKS. This is the one I whip out when people start swearing at me over the headset and always, without fail, they stop what they’re saying, shocked.

Go for offended, and go for loud. Not yelling loud, but giving-your-best-presentation loud. “EXCUSE me??? You approached me two minutes ago, I don’t even know your name, and you want WHAT? Creep.”

For one, the presentation will shock them. For another, that indignant tone? EVERYONE AROUND YOU IS GOING TO WANT TO LISTEN TO THIS JUICY SHIT.

Now the second key here is, DON’T LET HIM JADE (justify, argue, defend, explain). He smiles and goes “I just wanted–” FUCKING INTERRUPT HIM. Firmly. Irritably. “I heard what you wanted, and I’ve already declined once. Maybe you should go back to kindergarten where they teach you no means no.” Run right over the fucker. He’s not respecting your words, you don’t need to respect his.

A further note: if you’re an iPhone user, you can use Siri to call 911. (I know Android has a similar function, but I don’t know what it is–play with your AI and find out.) If you’re in a secluded area, this works well; I used to walk home from work at 2am and had to do it twice. Make eye contact with your harasser, activate Siri, and loudly, firmly say “Siri, call 911.” Siri will immediately reply “calling emergency services.” (It actually takes five seconds to activate, but there’s a Call Now button if you need it.) Almost ALWAYS the person harassing you would rather take off than wait for you to get a dispatcher on the line.

As they say on the podcast, My Favorite Murder:

Fuck Politeness.

This is NOT the kind of thing I usually post on here, but this is something that every female [or, every person honestly, harrassment isnt a one way street]needs to see. This is a fairly active blog, so I hope to see numerous reblogs.

the sex ed guide your parents didn't give you

reblogging because sex ed is usually shit but it’s really really important

Y’all this is important!!!

More crystal information.

Stuff I Never Learned In Uni and Now I’m Gonna Sue:

[Source: various Greek authors, collected by J.C. McKeown in A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities. Also available: Ancient Medical Curiosties and Roman Curiosities.]

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

Medicine

Writing Specific Characters

Illegal Activity

Black Market Prices & Profits

Forensics

If you add two pounds of sugar to literally one ton of concrete it will ruin the concrete and make it unable to set properly which is good to know if you wanna resist something being built, French anarchists used this to resist prison construction in the 80s

I’m just gonna go ahead and reblog this for purely educational purposes.

added bonus is that concrete now taste good

Sugar does not really do that. What you need is citric acid (you get that to get the hard water residues out of your pots/water boiler/washing machine), looks like sugar granules. Or concentrated vinegar. Cement needs a high ph to bind properly. So if you add acid, it won’t properly set and/or needs 3-4 times longer.

Speaking as someone who works in the concrete forming industry: the easiest way to severely fuck up any large concrete pour is to delay it at the wrong moment.

If someone is trying to build a huge fuckoff concrete thing - say, for instance, a giant wall - they’re going to need an obscene quantity of concrete, and that’s all going to have to be transported there from the nearest mixing plant. This means they’ll have multiple trucks coming by to decant concrete in consecutive pours while the workers place it and vibrate it to ensure it all intermixes and sets properly, forming a monolithic mass. If one pour is allowed to set before the next one is added, you get a big, ugly, possibly structurally unsound gap between the two called a “cold joint.” A bad enough cold joint can completely fuck your whole project because the next engineer or inspector who sets foot on that site is going to take one look at that motherfucker and immediately embark on a quest for blood vengeance. You will literally have to cut that whole section of wall out, slap some dowels in the nearest structurally sound bits, and re-form and pour the offending segment from scratch, which represents a fortune in cost overruns and will make everyone involved very upset. This is an especially bad problem in hot climates, because the concrete curing process is exothermic - that stuff sets much faster when it’s really hot out, and its 28-day compressive strength tends to be poorer as well.

So if, hypothetically speaking, you wanted to completely shit up a wannabe dictator’s enormous unfeasible poured concrete vanity project, you could literally just randomly hassle and delay every concrete truck on its way there. Dude’s gonna end up with a giant worthless pile of shitty crumbling concrete and exposed reinforcing steel, and an army of pissed-off contractors to boot.

reblogging for purely educational purposes nothing more

How to pronounce Celtic words and names

Step 1: Read the word. Step 2: Wrong.

A REAL LIST OF ACTUAL NAMES AND THEIR (approximate) PRONUNCIATIONS: Siobhan — “sheh-VAWN” Aoife – “EE-fa” Aislin – “ASH-linn” Bláithín - “BLAW-heen” Caoimhe - “KEE-va” Eoghan - Owen (sometimes with a slight “y” at the beginning) Gráinne - “GRAW-nya” Iarfhlaith - “EER-lah” Méabh - “MAYV” Naomh or Niamh - “NEEV” Oisín - OSH-een or USH-een Órfhlaith - OR-la Odhrán - O-rawn Sinéad - shi-NAYD Tadhg - TIEG (like you’re saying “tie” or “Thai” with a G and the end)

I work with an Aoife and I have been pronouncing it SO WRONG

As someone who is trying and failing to learn Gaelic, I feel like is an accurate portrayal of my pain.

This is the Anglicized spelling of a people who really fucking hate the English.

No, no, this is the orthographic equivalent of installing Windows on Mac.

The Latin alphabet was barely adequate for Latin by the time it got to the British Isles, but it’s what people were writing with, so somebody tried to hack it to make it work for Irish. Except, major problem: Irish has two sets of consonants, “broad” and “slender” (labialized and palatalized) and there’s a non-trivial difference between the two of them. But there weren’t enough letters in the Latin alphabet to assign separate characters to the broad and slender version of similar sounds.

Instead, someone though, let’s just use the surrounding vowels to disambiguate–but there weren’t enough vowel characters to indicate all the vowel sounds they needed to write, so that required some doubling up, and then adding in some silent vowels just to serve as markers of broad vs. slender made eveything worse. 

They also had to double up some consonants, because, for example, <v> wasn’t actually a letter at the time–just a variation on <u>–so for the /v/ sound they <bh>. AND THEN ALSO Irish has this weird-ass system where the initial consonant sound in a word changes as a grammatical marker, called “mutation,” so they had to account somehow for mutated sounds vs. non-mutated sounds, which sometimes meant leaving a lot of other silent letters in a word to remind you what word you were looking at.

And then a thousand years of sound change rubbed its dirty little hands all over a system that was kind of pasted together in the first place.

My point is, there is a METHOD to the orthography of Irish besides “fuck the English.” The “fuck the English” part is just a delightful side-effect.

I love it when snarky quips lead to real info.

And moreover, there are some really good linguistic reasons why the Irish monks picked these particular letter combinations to stand for these particular sounds (note that this is based on a Scottish Gaelic course I took many years ago so bear with me if I get a few details wrong).

Let’s start with <bh>. Now, the Latin alphabet at the time didn’t have a letter for the /v/ sound, but it did have an alternative way of writing the /f/ sound, which was spelled <ph> when it was borrowed from Greek (for other historical reasons). Well, /p/ is a sound that’s produced by letting a burst of air out from behind your lips while your vocal cords aren’t vibrating (it’s a voiceless bilabial stop), and /f/ is a sound that’s produced by letting a small amount of air out from behind your teeth on your lips while your vocal cords aren’t vibrating (it’s a voiceless labiodental fricative). So <ph> is kind of like a more breathy <p> (/h/ is a fricative like /f/). And /b/ is the same as /p/ except your vocal cords ARE vibrating, the exact same way that /v/ is like /f/. 

So <p> is to <ph> as <b> is to <bh>. 

Adding <h> to a consonant to indicate a sound somewhat similar to the base letter was very common in post-Latin Europe: English, Irish, French, German, and many other European languages ended up with <ch>, <sh>, <th>, <gh>, <wh>, and so on. It just happens that some h versions are found in some languages and not others, and pretty much every language uses the h variations to stand for different sounds. (Especially “ch”). 

Now let’s get to vowels. There are two groups of them: /i/ and /e/ are one group, while /u/, /o/ and /a/ are another. The traditional Gaelic (Scottish and Irish) terms for these groups are that /i, e/ are slender and /u, o, a/ are broad, but linguists also split them up, as front and back vowels. 

Front vowels /i/ and /e/ tend to pull consonants along with them, in very many languages, especially /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/. It’s a process called palatalization and there’s a whole Wikipedia article about it. So the <si> in words like “Sinead” is palatalized just like the <si> in Latin-derived words like “precision” (not to mention all the words in “-tion” and rapid speech pronunciations like “didja” and “gotcha”). Palatalization also explains why English has “hard” (=broad=non-palatalized) and “soft” (=slender=palatalized) pronunciations of <c> and <g>, which are split by the same set of vowels – compare “cat” “cot” “cut” with “ceiling” or “cite”. (The pronunciation of <g> is more complicated which is why no one can agree about “gif”.)

And English spelling also retains or adds a silent letter where it would cause palatalization confusion. Think about words like “peaceable”, “placeable”, “changeable”, “salvageable” – normally a silent “e” is dropped before -able (bribable, adorable), but it’s kept here. Or the “k” added in “mimicking”, “frolicking”, “picnicking” despite “mimic, frolic, picnic”.  

Mutation (changing the initial sound of a word for grammatical effect) does seem to be particular to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family tree, although various kinds of mutations are found in other languages. 

Irish spelling looks weird if you take English as a starting point, but if you take Latin as a starting point (which it was), both Irish and English do different (but sometimes related) weird things.

And let’s not forget that much of this grief arose from trying to represent vowel sounds in an alphabet (Latin) that was borrowed from another alphabet (Greek/Etruscan) that was adapted from another alphabet (Phoenician) that was pretty just like “in the beginning, fuck vowels.”

Body size, scaling body size, and how shape changes.

Helps in a forensic context for the biological profile. 

Population, and environmental stressors like mobility, and disease affect body size/shape. Can also be used to understand the sexual dimorphism of extinct hominins. Ecogeographical rules related to thermoregulation: Bergmann’s Rule (1847) If you have a species that is variable, and spread out over a geographical area you will see a larger variance of those species. Relating to body mass; bigger in colder climates, smaller in warmer climates. Allen’s Rule (1877) concerned with appendage’s. Shorter in colder climates, and longer in warmer climates. Together they are Bergmann’s and Allen’s rules.

Inuit, Shorter limbs, and rounder stocky body:

Image Source: Ansgar Walk. Traditional clothing; left: seal, right: caribou (Iglulik). Wikimedia Commons. 

Maasai, Longer limbs, slender taller body:

Image Source: Brutere. Maasai men performing traditional jumping dance (Adumu). Wikimedia Commons. 

This is showing basic phenotypical adaptations to different climates, and how the environment can biologically change populations. 

Note: Diet, nutrition, humidity, and variation (and many other variables) play a role in phenotype.

SO YOU’RE WRITING in a Gaelic setting, or your wip has Gaelic influences and elements throughout the world and story.  Amidst all the research on culture, location, geography, food, music and history, you’ve no doubt stumbled across kilts.  And this post is all about them.  From the history to their varied appearances and the differences/similarities between Irish and Scottish kilts, this post aims to be your number one source for kilt writing advice. 

Because this is so long, it’s being put under a read more.  Therefore under the cut is the following table of contents:

Please note that I am not a history professor, this is all based off of my own research as a person with Scottish blood living in America and wanting to connect with ancestral history.  It’s also from my fascination for historical fashion.  All links found beneath the cut are sources I’ve used for writing this.  And if any person, Scottish, Irish or otherwise with their own opinions would like to give thoughts I absolutely welcome it!

Keep reading

How to escape after being buried alive in a coffin.

It could happen to anyone. People bury a person alive to scare them or to get rid of them. In this situation, rely only on yourself.

this is one of my biggest fears so this is helpful

Okay, but real talk: by the time people are buried these days, they are embalmed first - I promise no one is alive after that. Furthermore, these days those coffins can stacked in plots, sometimes three coffins deep - no amount of anything above will save you from that. My father, who is also afraid of being buried alive, suggests cremation as an alternative.

Prior to that, they would have bells on strings that ran all the way into the coffin - you just needed to find it and shake it and the gravekeeper would come get you.

Prior to THAT idea, when it was harder to tell if someone was in a coma or not, the wakes would last three days. The smelly flowers were meant to hide the decay.

yeah but what if someone buries you alive on purpose

out of spiteful murderous tendencies

that’s what will happen to my characters

Spiteful might escape, they are doing it for the trauma. On a certain level, spiteful wants protagonist to escape.

Murder is less likely, given there are so many ways to keep them inside. Murder wants them dead and how disturbed they are will decide on how many pieces protagonist is in by the time they finish. Burying alive alone is pretty low key on the list of messed up ways to kill a person, in fairness. Murder isn't trying very hard.

That said, an old car hood over the casket before the dirt would do any normal person in.

A Herbalist's Glossary: Herb Actions

This is a list of terms used when describing the way a particular herb affects the body. Herbals can be confusing to read sometimes so I’ve put everything in one place here 🌿

Abortifacient: induces abortion

Adaptogen: helps the body processes return to normal when stressed

Adjuvant: modifies the effect of another substance

Adrenergic: acts like adrenaline or describes how adrenalin affects the body

Alterative: restores the body’s functions to normal

Analgesic/Anodyne: a pain killer

Anthelmintic/Antihelmintic: destroys/repels/expels intestinal worms

Antibacterial: inhibits bacterial growth

Antibilious: helps the body to remove excess bile

Anticatarrhal: helps the body reduce excess mucous and phlegm

Anticholinergic: a cholinergic blocking agent

Anticoagulant: slows or prevents clotting of blood

Antidote: counteracts or neutralizes a poison

Antiemetic: reduces the feeling of nausea, can help to prevent vomiting

Anti-inflammatory: helps reduce inflammation

Antilithic: prevents formation and aids removal of stones in the urinary system

Antimicrobial: helps the body destroy or resist pathogenic micro-organisms

Antimitotic: prevents division of cells

Antineoplastic: inhibits or destroys tumours

Antioxidant: eliminates hydroxyl free radicals

Antipyretic: prevents or reduces fever

Antirheumatic: relieves or protects against rheumatism

Antiscorbutic: prevents or cures scurvy

Antisudorific: stops or reduces perspiration

Antiseptic: prevents growth of microorganisms

Antispasmodic: prevents/eases spasms or convulsions

Antitussive: reduces or relieves coughing

Aperiant: laxative

Aphrodisiac: stimulates the sex drive and sometimes sexual ability

Aromatic: an organic compound containing benzene, or, of herbs, having a fragrant/spicy smell

Astringent: contracts tissue and reduces the function of said tissue, affecting haemorrhages, secretions, diarrhoea, bleeding etc.

Bitter: herbs that promote the appetite

Cardioactive: affects the heart

Cardiotonic: increases function of heart muscle

Carminative: relieves flatulence and colic

Cathartic: purges the bowels

Cholagogue: stimulates the release of bile from the gall bladder, sometimes acts as a laxative

Choleretic: stimulates the production of bile in the liver

Counter-irritant: causes inflammation of the skin, used for temporary relief from deep irritations

Demulcent: soothes/protects inflamed or painful surfaces

Depurative: removes impurities from the blood

Diaphoretic: increases perspiration to aid the body in removing toxins

Diuretic: increases the flow of urine, aids in removing toxins via the urinary tract

Emetic: induces vomiting

Emmenagogue: stimulates and normalizes the menstrual flow

Emollient: used internally to ease inflammation or externally to soften skin

Escharotic: a substance that sloughs off dead skin, corrosive

Expectorant: helps the body to expel mucous

Febrifuge: prevents/reduces fevers

Galactogogue: increases or induces lactation

Hallucinogen: affects the senses, produces a wide range of reactions often including hallucinations

Hepatic: strengthens and tones the liver as well as stimulating the flow of bile

Hypnotic: induce sleeps

Hypotensive: lowers blood pressure

Laxative: promotes evacuation of the bowels

Lymphagogue: promotes/increases lymph flow

Miotic: contracts the pupils

Mydriatic: dilates the pupils

Narcotic: in small doses promotes sleep and reduces pain, but can cause poisoning with comas or convulsions

Nervine: strengthens the nervous system, eases anxiety and stress

Oxytocic: stimulates uterine contractions

Parasiticide: kills and removes parasites

Pectoral: used to treat respiratory complaints

Placebo: an inactive substance that is believed by the patient to be a cure

Prophylatic: prevents disease

Psychotropic: affects the mind

Purgative: produces very strong laxative effects and watery evacuations

Reagent: involved in a chemical reaction

Retardant: delays or slows down a chemical reactant

Rubefacient: stimulates circulation locally when applied to the skin

Sedative: calms the nervous system

Sialagogue: stimulates the secretion of saliva

Spasmolytic: relieves spasmodic pains

Sternutatory: causes sneezing

Stimulant: enlivens the physiological functions of the body

Stomachic: promotes digestion and strengthens the stomach

Styptic: stops bleeding by contracting the tissue

Sudorific: induces sweating

Tonic: strengthens and tones either specific organs or the whole body through nutritional stimulation

Vasoconstrictor: constricts blood vessels

Vasodilator: dilates blood vessels

Vermifuge: expels or destroys intestinal worms

@bookenders

h e r b    s c i e n c e

HERB SCIENCE

Have I told you how much I love and appreciate you recently?

Because I love and appreciate you. 

So much.

look. look at this beautiful sword meme. i’m going to cry

@petermorwood

I saw and reblogged this one a while back, but it’s always worth repeating, and this time I’m adding a bit of background info comparing common fantasy sword features to the Real Thing (with pictures, of course.)

Leaf-bladed swords are a very popular fantasy style and were real, though unlike modern hand-and-a-half longsword versions, the real things were mostly if not always shortswords.

Here are Celtic bronze swords…

…Ancient Greek Xiphoi…

… and a Roman “Mainz-pattern” gladius…

Saw or downright jagged edges, either full-length or as small sections (often where they serve no discernible purpose) are a frequent part of fantasy blades, especially at the more, er, imaginatively unrestrained end of the market.

Real swords also had saw edges, such as these two 19th century shortswords, but not to make them cool or interesting. They’re weapons if necessary…

…but since they were carried by Pioneer Corps who needed them for cutting branches and other construction-type tasks, their principal use was as brush cutters and saws.

This dussack (cutlass) in the Wallace Collection is also a fighting weapon, like the one beside it…

…but may also have had the secondary function of being a saw.

A couple of internet captions say it’s for “cutting ropes” which makes sense - heavy ropes and hawsers on board a ship were so soaked with tar that they were often more like lengths of wood, and a Hollywood-style slice from the Hero’s rapier (!!) wouldn’t be anything like enough to sever them. However swords like this are extremely rare, which suggests they didn’t work as well as intended for any purpose.

I photographed these in Basel, Switzerland, about 20 years ago. Look at the one on the bottom (I prefer the basket-hilt schiavona in the middle).

A lot of “flamberge” (wavy-edge) swords actually started out with conventional blades which then had the edges ground to shape - the dussack, that Basel broadsword and this Zweihander were all made that way.

The giveaway is the centreline: if it’s straight, the entire blade probably started out straight.

Increased use of water power for bellows, hammers and of course grinders made shaping blades easier than when it had to be done by hand. This flamberge Zweihander, however, was forged that way.

Again, the clue is the centre-line.

Incidentally those Parierhaken (parrying hooks - a secondary crossguard) are among the only real-life examples of another common fantasy feature - hooks and spikes sticking out from the blade.

Here are some rapiers and a couple of daggers showing the same difference between forged to shape and ground to shape. The top and bottom rapiers in the first picture started as straights, and only the middle rapier came from the forge with a flamberge blade.

There’s no doubt about this one either.

The reason - though that was a part of it - wasn’t just to look cool and show off what the owner could afford (any and all extra or unusual work added to the price) but may actually have had a function: a parry would have been juddery and unsettling for someone not used to it, and any advantage is worth having.

However, like the saw-edged dussack, flamberge blades are unusual - which suggests the advantage wasn’t that much of an advantage after all.

Here’s a Circassian kindjal, forged wiggly…

…and an Italian parrying dagger forged straight then ground wiggly…

There were also parrying daggers with another fantasy-blade feature, deep notches and serrations which in fantasy versions often resemble fangs or thorns.

These more practical historical versions are usually called “sword-breakers” but I prefer “sword-catcher”, since a steel blade isn’t that easy to break. Taking the opponent’s blade out of play for just long enough to nail him works fine.

NB - the curvature on the top one in this next image is AFAIK because of the book-page it was copied from, not the blade itself.

The missing tooth on that second dagger, and the crack halfway down this next one’s blade, shows what happens when design features cause weak spots.

So there you go: a quick overview of fantasy sword features in real life.

Here’s a real-life weapon that looks like it belongs in a fantasy story or film - and this doesn’t even have an odd-shaped blade…

Just a very flexible one…

If you want more odd blades, Moghul India is a good place to start…

i could not ask for a better addition to my meme post than blade education thank you so much

The Primordial Greek Deities

This is in no way an in depth list, obviously. It’s just a list. These deities are personifications/beings of their respective subject (ex: Chaos is the personification of Lower Air).