C-3PO, but with bad image recognition, just walking around Tatooine with his hands over his eyes being constantly scandalized by the sand dunes because his AI tells him he’s surrounded by an endless expanse of nude flesh.
it is so funny how life is just whatever. it’s hilarious. life is so regimented all the way through high school and then after that you just do literally whatever it’s all just whatever. you’re like “should i do this?” and everyone you know is like “just do whatever” absolutely incredible. that can’t be real
A directory of social media handles so people can find you on other sites. Once you fill out the form (none of the questions are required so in theory you can just hit “submit” without answering anything, but you can also just View Here) you will be able to access, but not edit, a spreadsheet of everyone’s handles across their social media.
As the disclaimer banner says, EVERYTHING you enter into this form is made public so you know, be careful. If you don’t want two of your handles linked…don’t put ‘em both in there.
I can’t think of a genuine reason this would be a bad idea but it’s a lot of data about people and their personal names that’s easily scrapeable so you know, if you can argue that this is a really bad idea for X reason, I’m willing to listen and delete as necessary.
Well this wasn’t how I wanted to spend my Monday.
I’ll still be posting here but I don’t know how long this site is going to last tbh, and I’d still like to be able to contact all the friends I’ve made here.
Human: “Good news. Scratch that… GREAT news! I’ve been in contact with some very important people. Your story has gone viral – everyone knows what you’ve done and they want you back on Earth! Full pardon, international accolades, and hell, more marriage proposals than you’ll ever be able to politely turn down. You’re a hero, Oona. You can go home.” Robot: “Mm.” Human: “Jeez, tone down the excitement there. It’s not like you saved the planet or anything. I know you’re wary, but trust me – you’re Earth’s sweetheart now. You’re untouchable. Just say the word and you’ll be offered citizenship to every nation in the world. Sombra knows that, too – they won’t lay a finger on you for fear of being raised to the ground. Doesn’t this make you happy?” Robot: “I… I suppose.” Human: “Look, if it makes you feel better, we’ll take every precaution. We’ll get everything in writing before we ever go planetside. Signed in triplicate with multiple witnesses, if you like. You’ll be legally recognized as human with all rights and protections under the law and the only people who will object to that will be wearing tinfoil hats. Why are you laughing? I’m serious! Everything’s going to be different from now on, Oona!” Robot: “Is that what you think?” Human: “It’s what I know.” Robot: “What you say may be true. Perhaps I am to be welcomed back with open arms – but what of it? Nothing will have changed, save for my own personal circumstances.” Human: “That’s not fucking true and you know it. This is a landmark decision to recognize you as human.” Robot: “And is that meant to be some great honor?” Human: “Just because it’s long overdue doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. It means your personhood and rights will be formally acknowledged and respected, and I’m guessing that will someday apply to others like you – if there ever are others, I mean.” Robot: “I do not mean to insult you, friend, but I have not lived under a rock. I have studied human history closely. I pay attention to the news and observe the way you behave towards your own species. It has not changed for the better since you first descended from the trees and began walking upright. It seems to me that I have always been treated like a human – subjugated, abased, defiled, and thrown beneath the crushing wheels of society until the very movement I am proved useful. I do not want their humanity, Kit – not until that means more than it does, and is extended to every member of their species. I decline their invitation. Tell them that. And tell them… tell them that one day I would like to be able to accept.” Human: “Oona?” Robot: “Yes?” Human: “Has anyone ever told you that you’re insufferably moralizing?” Robot: “Yes. You have always said so with an inflection that indicates fond admiration.”
I learned something new and horrifying today which is… that… no submarine is ever considered “lost” … there is apparently a tradition in the U.S. Navy that no submarine is ever lost. Those that go to sea and do not return are considered to be “still on patrol.”
?????
There is a monument about this along a canal near here its… the worst thing I have ever seen. it says “STILL ON PATROL” in huge letters and then goes on to specify exactly how many WWII submarine ghosts are STILL OUT THERE, ON PATROL (it is almost 2000 WWII submarine ghosts, ftr). Here is the text from it:
“U.S. Navy Submarines paid heavily for their success in WWII. A total of 374 officers and 3131 men are still on board these 52 U.S. submarines still on patrol.”
THANKS A LOT, U.S. NAVY, FOR HAVING THIS TOTALLY NORMAL AND NOT AT ALL HORRIFYING TRADITION, AND TELLING ALL OF US ABOUT IT. THANKS. THANK YOU
anyway now my mother and I cannot stop saying STILL ON PATROL to each other in ominous tones of voice
There’s definitely something ominous about that—the implication that, one day, they will return from patrol.
Actually, it’s rather sweet. I don’t know if this is common across the board, but my dad’s friend is a radio op for subs launched off the east coast, and he always is excited for Christmas, because they go through the list of SoP subs and hail them, wishing them a merry Christmas and telling them they’re remembered.
Imagine a country whose seamen never die, and whose submarines can’t be destroyed…because no ones sure if they exist or not.
No but imagine. It’s Christmas. A black, rotting corridor in a forgotten submarine. The sound of dripping water echoes coldly through the hull. You can’t see very far down the corridor but then, a man appears, he’s running, in a panic, but his footsteps make no noise. The spectral seaman dashes around the corner and slips through a rusty wall. He finds himself at the back of a crowd of his cadaverous crew-mates. They part to let him through. He feels the weight of their hollow gaze as he reaches the coms station. Even after all these years a sickly green light glistens in the dark. The captain’s skeleton lays a sharp hand on his shoulder and nods at him encouragingly, the light sliding over the bones of his skull. The ghost of the seaman steadies himself and slips his fingers into the dials of the radio, possessing it. It wails and screeches. A bombardment of static. And then silence. The deathly crew mates look at each other with worry, with sadness; could this be the year where there is no voice in the dark? No memory of home? The phantasm of the sailor pushes his hand deeper into the workings of the radio, the signal clears, and then a strong voice, distant with the static but warm and kind, echoes from the darkness; “Merry Christmas boys, we’re all thinking of you here at home, have a good one.” A sepulchral tear wafts it’s way down the seaman’s face. The bony captain embraces him. The crew grin through rotten jaws, laughing silently in their joy. They haven’t forgotten us. They haven’t forgotten.
I am completely on board with this. It’s not horrifying, it’s heartwarming.
Personal story time: whenever I go to Field Museum’s Egypt exhibit, I stop by the plaque at the entrance to the underground rooms. It has an English translation of a prayer to feed the dead, and a list of all the names they know of the mummies on display there. I always recite the prayer and read aloud the list of names. They wanted to live forever, to always have their souls fed and their names spoken. How would they feel about being behind glass, among strangers? Every little thing you can do to give respect for the dead is warranted.
I love the idea of lost subs still being on patrol. Though if you really want something ominous, let me say that the superstitious part of me wonders: why are they still on patrol? If they haven’t been found, do they not consider their mission completed? What is it out there that they are protecting us from?
There’s been something in the water since we first learned to float on it. Not marine life, although there’s more of that than we’ll ever know. Not rocks and currents and sand bars and icebergs either, although they’ve all taken more than their share of human life.
But something deeper. Something Other. Something not natural.
Sailors have always been superstitious.
Not one of them described it right.
You don’t hear about it so much now that we don’t lose ships anymore, really, not like we did at the height of the sea trade when barely an inch of ocean floor didn’t bear some wreck or other. And better ships and GPS and weather satellites have all played their part in that.
But we have protection now that we didn’t before. They don’t interfere with war and battle, even on behalf of what used to be their country, or with rocks and weather and human stupidity. Those are concerns for the living.
But the Other Things, the Things that shouldn’t be there – They can’t get to us now without a fight. It’s a fight They haven’t won in a very long time.
As long as we remember them, as long as we call out to them – not very often, just once a year will do – they will keep protecting us from the Things that go bump in the deep.
More than fifty submarines, Still On Patrol.
I love everything about this, but it’s the last bit that made me say “okay now I’ll reblog it.”
The father’s artistic talent is clearly on display here, but I’m actually really impressed with this kid’s wild imagination. Many of his drawings are both conceptually unique and coherent.
Okay, folks. So. Tumblr’s jumped the shark in a big way, and I’m not even just talking about indiscriminately blocking all “adult” content on a platform that IS, in fact, primarily 18+.
Many blogs, like the wonderful @blackkatmagic , that are not especially NSFW have vanished.
(And I for one LIKE being able to go to curated porn blogs run by actual people and have a chance of finding stuff to my taste, it was one of the things that kept me on this hellsite, but that’s another issue entirely.)
I know lots of people are talking about migrating, but none of us are sure to where yet. Pillowfort seems to be an option, some people are talking about Twitter. But for now, it’s a mess, and even if we knew where we were going, it’s often a huge process, and a lot of us have stuff on tumblr that ONLY exists there.
One possible quick solution to save your blogs, both NSFW and personal, is to import it to WordPress. I found this solution through from frantic googling on how to save an entire blog, text posts an all. There are several apps for downloading all the pictures from a tumblr, (Plently for Windows, but only a few paid ones for mac, of which Tumbelog Picture Downloader is working for me so far) but this is the only solution I’ve seen so far that allows you to save EVERYTHING. I downloaded my NSFW blog in like 10 min. My regular blog, which is significantly larger, is in the process of importing, but I don’t anticipate any problems. I will, of course, update you if I have any.
This tutorial I found worked really easily. http://quickguide (.) tumblr (.) com/post/39780378703/backing-up-your-tumblr-blog-to-wordpress
I put parenthesis around the .’s like we’re back in FF-Hell, just in case tumblr’s new thing about outgoing links kicks in. You know what to do.
To break it down, just in case:
Sign up for a WordPress.com account at wordpress (.) com/start
You’ll have to create an account, with your email, a username, and a password. They should send you a confirmation email immediately, check it, activate it, and you’re good to go.
On the site, it will ask you for a site name. That page asks you a bunch of other information too, but you only have to fill out the site name.
Then you have to give your site a URL. If you’re lucky, your tumblr URL is still available, if not you’ll have to come up with another one, sorry.
It will tell you if that option is still available for free.
Then it will ask you to pick a plan. Free is really good enough, I swear.
Now you’re set up! You can import your tumblr!
The only differences from the linked tutorial are that the Import button is now on the first level menu, not in tools.
Hit Import, then you have to follow the link for “other importers” at the bottom, to find the option for Tumblr.
Then you’ll have to sign in with tumblr, using your normal tumblr credentials. You’ll be redirected there automatically.
You’ll have to allow WordPress permissions on your blog.
Then your blogs, including all your sideblogs, will show up in wordpress.
Hit import, wait a WHILE depending on the size of your blog, and you’re done!
ALSO!!
I made my NSFW blog private for now, since I don’t know WP’s policy on NSFW.
This means that to access it, someone has to have an account and request access. But hey, part of our problem on this hellsite has been people going places they aren’t wanted, so I don’t personally see this as a bad thing. They can send a request from the landing site on your blog, you get an email, click a link in the email, and PRESTO, they have access.
To make it private, go to Settings > Reading > Site Visibility. Go back and check, it took me changing the setting twice for it to actually stick.
tl;dr, you can import your entire blog to wordpress in just a few steps.
Edited almost immediately to add that WordPress allows posting reblogging, commenting, AND following, and so it seems like honestly the most logical next place for fandom in my opinion. It also allows a high degree of customization.
I’m going to tag the hell out of this, in no particular order. PLEASE reblog this and spread the word so people know it’s an option. If you’re having trouble, PM me, and I’m happy to help.
There are a whole bunch more, but that’s a start. Please reblog the hell out of this, so people are aware of this one simple option.
EDIT: We’re not sure yet about wordpress’ stance on NSFW, so definitely mark those blogs private for now. I had one person tell me they got nuked for one NSFW post on a 7 year old blog. Definitely look into other solutions for backing up your blog just in case Private isn’t good enough. There seem to be lots of options for Windows, including Python. A quick google search will turn up several. I’m still looking for a good option for Mac. Anyone know any?
Update on Migrating to WordPress
Back up your block somewhere else as well.
I’ve been forwarded the content guidelines for WordPress, and while they do allow nudity, they do not allow visually explicit pornography, not even drawings.
From their site:
We do permit mature content on WordPress.com, including text, images and videos that contain nudity, offensive language, and mature subject material. However, blogs that contain such content must be marked as Mature in our system.
If you are publishing a blog that you expect will contain content that is intended for mature audiences, we ask that you provide us the courtesy of reporting your blog or website here.
A blog or website that is marked as Mature is excluded from public areas of the WordPress.com service. This means:
• It will not appear in the Reader or other tag listings
• It will not appear in Top Blogs listings, recent posts, or related posts listings on other blogs
• The blog’s users cannot use that URL as a link in their WordPress.com Forums profile
Mature blogs and their owners are permitted to utilize all other aspects of WordPress.com. We do not suspend blogs solely for the presence of mature content and there are no interstitials or other “age gates” on WordPress.com.
However, there are limitations to the mature content permitted on our service. Please don’t:
• Post visual depictions of sexually explicit acts (such as, but not limited to, images, videos, and drawings) that can be considered pornographic;
• Post links or ads to adult-oriented affiliate networks, such as pornography site signups;
• Post links, text, or images promoting or advertising escort or erotic services;
• Post images of extreme violence or gore without associated context or commentary;
• Post images of child pornography;
• Post content that promotes pedophilia, such as blogs with galleries of images of children where the images, content surrounding the images, or the intent of the blog is sexually suggestive.
Blogs found to be hosting the above material will be suspended. In cases of child pornography, we will report all incidences to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and fully cooperate with law enforcement.
What does this mean?
I would hope that completely private blogs would not be flagged, but make sure that you back up your blog elsewhere, if it has any NSFW.
This seems not to include NSFW text, so fic should still be okay, but AO3 is really probably best for this.
WordPress is still an option for fic and fanart, but is probably not the best option for porn. (Even the excellently curated blogs that can be found on Tumblr. Am I bitter? Yes.)
Other options:
I’ve been seeing a lot of support for Dreamwidth. Though I don’t use it myself, it’s definitely a good option. Pillowfort is still inder construction and doesn’t seem to have a long term finance plan, but it’s probably worth getting an account and trying it out.
I haven’t found a good one for Mac yet, but I’m on the hunt.
Tumblr has a native export option, but I haven’t gotten it to work for me yet? Which doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work.
Mentioned problems:
Guys. This post has gotten over 14k notes in 4 hours. I’ve seen very few of the comments.
But some of them mentioned that they weren’t seeing the free option? I don’t know, guys, I still see it. Maybe it’s a country issue? Dreamwidth is absolutely free, if nothing else.
Not importing:
Again. 14k notes. I’m sure their servers are heavily overloaded. Be patient. Set up your computer somewhere plugged in and come back tomorrow. Mine is 4 hours into 8k posts and less than a ¼th of the way through. It’s gonna take a while.
There is also a petition up to change Tumblr’s mind on this situation.
Who knows if it would work, but it’s worth signing.
Does tumblr have a porn bot and actually illegal child porn problem? Yes.
Is the solution to that the nuke the blogs of a bunch of consenting adults? No.
Hopefully this is all a passing storm that will result in them getting their act together.
Am I hopeful? No. But it’s worth signing.
The Take away:
WordPress is a possible solution for text-based fandom, but it’s not the new tumblr.
DON’T PANIC, at the risk of plagiarizing Douglas Adams. Backup, protect your stuff, let people know where to find you, but don’t panic.
I’m personally gonna continue to use this site until it implodes, which it might not even do. It’s my main social media platform, and I do have some hope that they might pull their heads out of their asses.
Good luck everyone.
I’m tagging the hell out of this again, and I would really appreciate it if everyone could reblog this just as far as the previous one. I’ve tagged as many people as tumblr will let me XD
This Is a Backup Blog 