🕯🍁🌟🔮🌟🍁🕯

there's like a tiktok thing rn where parents show off the quirky fun ways they're "punishing" their children around christmas time as if it's a cute seasonal diy and it's all genuinely so sick and concerning. a woman smugly painting and wrapping a rock in gift wrap to pull some revenge stunt on her 3(!!) year old for misbehaving the day before, a man throwing a (fake) present into the oven in front of his kindergarten kids, referring to them as "little fuckers" and recommending other parents do the same to really get them good. ideally if they still believe in santa. ending with a close up on their heartbroken sobbing little faces, on a maybe 8 year old girl burying her red face in her hands and turning away from the camera because she's old enough to be embarrassed about being recorded for mommy's clicks while she's crying but unable to do anything about it, on a little boy in 101 dalmatians pajamas pulling his knees to his chest and crying in such a way you can tell he's even trying to do it quietly. i don't want to go into detail on what kind of ghouls even watch this content. and the way it's exacerbated by the social media spectacle too- literally egging each other on to pull off the most click-worthy and unique prank channel style punishments, exposing private and embarrassing situations to a platform used by millions, all to lap up the validation and praise of the completely random strangers that you publicly humiliate your child for. if this demented shit teaches them anything it'll be a deep and personal appreciation for this meme

Hi, if you care about us Autistic folks then please boost this

Hello! As someone that dumpster dives year-round and usually finds a SHIT TON of perfectly usable items thrown away after the holidays, please listen:

Christmas is over and now comes along the weeks of people returning and exchanging unwanted gifts at retailers. A lot of these stores cannot actaully put a lot of these items back out on the shelf, (especially seasonal items or holiday themed) for one reason or another. Returned brand new items end up in landfills.

This is not only horribly wasteful when good items could be used by people in need, but also insanely bad for the enviroment.

So please consider:

Did you get insane amounts of those fluffy socks because they're like a default gift option? Donate your excess to a homeless or domestic violence saftey shelter.

Did you recieve a gift that is pretty much a jab to your identity from that estranged family member of yours that still doesn't use the correct pronouns for you? Oh, and they wont give you or 'lost' the receipt? Donate it.

Recieved those oddly named holiday themed lotions, perfumes and candles and can't stand the smell of them? These items most usually will not be put back on the shelf if returned and thrown away. Donate them. (Some charities may not accept them, some will. Check beforehand.)

Did you get one of those holiday throw blankets that are marketed just for this time of the year even though you already have several? Donate it.

I find tons of holiday themed clothing thrown away this time of year. Including ugly sweaters, hats/beanies, gloves, onesies, shoes, socks, ect. Perfectly fine items that are returned because people don't keep holiday themed stuff outside of holiday season. Regardless, they could be used by people who need warm clothing.

Electronics are not safe either. Perfectly working Items I have found in dumpsters in the past range from: a $300 roomba with the ticket saying it was returned because the customer didn't know how to work it (needed an app to control), not one but TWO tablets (Samsung and Kindle Fire) a working bluetooth speaker, ect. (Items that can not be donated I gave away.)

If you are not going to regift unwanted gifts and you are certain you are not going to use it, please consider donating it (or make a post and just give it away or sell the thing yourself.) You can go get $15 worth of store credit if you return the thing, but it's usually going straight to the trash afterwards.

Unfortunatly, stores like to try and destroy items they throw away as well. On lucky days, I find items that are still in their original package. Other times I find perfectly usuable items destroyed by spray paint or box cutters.

(ALSO this is not a post shaming people who return gifts for money to pay bills/buy food/basically survive. That is a completely different situation.)

Please research the places you donate to before doing so. Do not donate to the Salvation Army (despite them trying to do reputation control, they're still blatantly anti-LGBTQ) If you are a dumpster diver, remember to sanitize the items you find and let the organizations know where you recieved the items.

That's it. Thanks for coming to my soapbox!

not a fan

Lots of thoughts recently. Everything feels plastic.

I could go on and on about why all that AI "art" is bad. I could mention theft, lack of creativity, it's impact on the work field and environment, but countless people have already said all that. I wanted to touch on something that to me is the most utterly wrong about all of it.

Art is more than just something pretty to look at or listen to. It's therapeutic. It's a form of communication. A tool for human connection. It's a pure, human need.

Support real artists ☀️

Made these to practice lighting. They're pretty messy, but you can only really tell in the red one. You can find them on my DeviantArt too: https://www.deviantart.com/sparklandbeanzzz

And... the link won't work so...here.

deviantart.com

SparklAndBeanzzz User Profile | DeviantArt

Check out SparklAndBeanzzz's art on DeviantArt. Browse the user profile and get inspired.

it’s actually really harmful and kinda fucked up to imply that aphobia is an “online-only” thing, as if aces don’t have a 42% rate of suicidal intent/ideation (one of the highest in the lgbtq community and even higher in trans aces), are more likely to experience sexual assault than heterosexuals, are more likely to experience corrective rape, have little to no legal protections against discrimination, aren’t considered an actual sexuality in many places, aren’t mentioned in sex ed or included in most conversations about sexuality, health and relationships, are classified as a mental illness in the DSM and are widely regarded as disordered in psychological and medical fields, are often prescribed medication that’s meant to “fix” them and make them allo, put in conversion therapies to make them “normal,” are often encouraged or forced into dangerous and even traumatizing situations meant to “correct” them (not unlike lesbians experiencing comphet), are considered a product of trauma or sexual abuse (especially in childhood) instead of a real, complete identity, are rarely discussed in queer conversations despite never being acknowledged or understood by cishets, never given any representation in media, and are widely regarded by the majority of the population as “unnatural,” “inhuman,” and “broken.” aphobia is not an “internet discourse topic” only. it’s a serious form of bigotry and pretending like it’s not a real issue in The Real World and only exists in small online circles only allows this bigotry to fester and go by unchecked. y’all need to start giving a shit about asexual and queer people like yesterday.

By all means let ur kids dress up however they want, fuck the homophobes who say that letting ur five year old son where a dress is the "gay agenda" or "degeneracy" or whatever, I think it's really healthy to let kids choose how they wanna express themselves

BUT HOLY FUCK! CAN YOU NOT FILM THEM AND PUT EM ONLINE???

It's not a fucking heartwarming moment omg its super voyeuristic to put your fucking five year old in the position of being exposed to homophobic judgements online it's fucking disgusting why am I seeing videos of someone filming their very young children experimenting with gender expression? Why are you people sharing that? It's using your kid for clout while also exposing them to extremely harsh criticism from bigots, it really is not charming at all.

Help i don't know how to pin a post

Nope nvm i got it

Hey y'all. I have a severe weather warning for my area rn, so I won't be available. Its going from 9pm to 9am CST (at least the high winds, which are supposed to be up to 60 mph i think?). There is also the chance of a tornado. Im pretty scared, but i think we'll be okay. My Mom's letting us sleep downstairs, so I won't be able to check my Tumblr or anything.

Update: It's currently 11:44 PM CST. My family and I are okay, and so is our house. We didn't get the worst of it. The severe thunderstorm warning expired, so now it's just a lot of wind. I hope everyone else is okay!