HEY TUMBLR if you want something concrete to do about yesterday’s Helsinki summit and today’s bullshit half-assed retraction/“clarification”, this is a great list of specific stuff you can politely demand from your legislators. Includes phone scripts, and yes, voicemails are good too; I just wait until after hours and leave a voicemail, although I…do tend to hit the time limit pretty often, whoops. But seriously, it’s easy. It only takes a couple minutes to leave a voicemail, it’s important, and you don’t even have to talk to a person.
I know I don’t have a very big audience here, so please reblog!
What we witnessed in Helsinki was a treasonous act.
The fact Trump stood next to a known adversary, and said he believes someone who:
Is a former KGB officer
Has had reporters killed
Has poisoned former intelligence officers
Annexed an entire region
Sanctions
Asking for the transcript from the translators in the room w/ Trump/Putin (since who knows what Trump promised?)
Making sure Mueller is protected
And doing everything in their power to condemn the POTUS, including considering a censure.
over the men and women of our intelligence agencies, is an absolute perversion of our democracy.
(And yes, I’m aware he retracted everything today, Tuesday July 17th. It still happened. Still an act of treason.)
I know I generally like to keep things firm but light, but Helsinki, combined with the show circus that was Strzok’s hearing, the indictments, the push to impeach Rosenstein and the fact DNI Coats made it very clear that the “red lights are blinking again”, is making me very concerned.
Add in the fact my ex-intelligence/current military officers classmates at JHU are also concerned — a professor agreed with Coats that this is another “pre-9/11 period”, it’s all pointing in one direction. We need to step up our vigilance.
1. Call your electeds and ask them to respond strongly to Trump’s actions.
There are a number of things to ask for.
Sanctions
Asking for the transcript from the translators in the room w/ Trump/Putin (since who knows what Trump promised?)
Making sure Mueller is protected
And doing everything in their power to condemn the POTUS, including considering a censure.
You: Hi, my name is [name]. I am calling from [address/zip code].
You: I’m calling to ask [elected] do everything in their power to condemn President Trump’s actions in Helsinki, including (but not limited to): further sanctions against Russia, and a resolution of censure. The President just endorsed an adversary who directly spearheaded influence operations against our 2016 elections — as proven by our intelligence communities.
You: Congress can’t stand by and do nothing, as Trump erodes and perverts our democratic principles and norms. I demand action, and it has to go beyond statements issued on social media.
You: I also want [elected] to ask for the translator’s notes from the private Trump/Putin meeting to be subpoenaed. We need to know what was said.
You: [Elected] needs to show their constituents that they will fight for our democracy, even if Trump won’t.
Ask your federal electeds to move more quickly on the various pieces of election protection legislation floating around. @wapo has a great, succinct write-up.
E.g. @amyklobuchar has co-sponsored two great pieces of legislation, including:
2b: Protest the nomination of Donald Palmer to the Election Assistance Commission He was nominated to the Election Assistance Commission last week, and has a history of purging voters in his home state of Virginia. To wit:
Here’s more on the Election Assistance Commission, and why it’s so critical in a year we’re worried about the integrity of our elections. Palmer’s nomination requires a full senate vote. So call, and get on the record.
You: Hi, my name is [name]. I am calling from [address/zip code].
You: I am calling to ask [Senator] support the bipartisan S. 2593: Secure Elections Act, and S. 3090: Save Voters Act. With the November midterms right around the corner, it’s important Congress ensure that our elections are protected and transparent.
You: I am also calling on [Senator] to vote NO to Donald L. Palmer’s nomination to the Election Assistance Commission. His past track record of purging voters and misinforming voters of their status. in Virginia proves he can’t effectively perform or support the mission of the Commission.
You: Finally, I want to remind [Senator], Friday’s indictments reinforces Russia is interfered in our elections, and by all accounts from our intelligence community, will continue to do so. I expect [Senator] to do everything in their power to protect our election integrity, regardless of what the White House might say.
Then, either email or call your Secretary of State to ask how they plan on protecting November elections, given the warnings from DNI Coats this week. At the local level, you can reach out to your county register and ask the same question. Understand their process.
3. Take some time to learn how impeachment works
I’m seeing a lot of calls for impeachment, which I completely understand. Unfortunately, we have to recognize:
1. we don’t have the numbers right now (meaning Dems who will vote in favor of impeachment in both the House or the Senate, since the GOP sure won’t), 2. Impeachment doesn’t necessarily mean POTUS leaves the WH. See: Johnson, Andrew.
Honestly, if I believed we could achieve impeachment in this climate, I would absolutely tell you to push for it. The national nightmare can be over, I can get more than four hours of a sleep, etc.
But as it is: it would be a misdirected call, which might send people exerting precious energy on the wrong thing. Make sense?
But on that note —
4. Let’s recommit to our mission to defend incumbent Senate seats + flip two.
You know the drill — I’ve spoken out about the need to defend the Senate, and often. Polls shift, but some of our incumbent Democrats are down. As a part of our vigilance, we need to be paying attention, and supporting them however we can — even if we may not like some of them.
After spending a week with the 6.25“x10” Monoprice, my Yiynova and Cintiq remain unplugged and I gave my Intuos away to a friend. The Monoprice tracks subtle pressure variances and small movements with less lag and more crisp fidelity than any of the others. It is, put crudely, fucking awesome, in both OSX Lion and Windows 7 x64.
I have one of these, 10×6.5 I bought about two months ago for 48 bucks. It’s a billion times better than my old Wacom Bamboo and works like a fuckin dream.
ATTENTION ALL PENNY-PINCHING ART FRIENDS!!!
ooo reblogging this for potential future purchase
oh
I’m definitely thinking of getting one of these, or asking for one for Christmas. ‘Cause as much as I appreciate Ian giving me his old tablet, I think the pen might be on it’s last legs. ;~;
Oh my god these start at $25 for a little one.
I would be so okay with a little one.
Reblogging this again because I fucking lost it and don’t want to forget it again.
Always do your research before you buy Wacom, the quality of their products has gone way down in the past few years, I haven’t had a single tablet from them that hasn’t broken down with normal use.
I’ve switched to xp-pen now and I love it, I’ll never go back to wacom
Leveraged an inventory of established fictional character and setting elements to generate a disruptive custom-curated narrative entertainment asset.
I worked in HR, handling applications and interviews, and if someone turned in that string of techno babble nonsense, I would have rejected them out of hand.
A resume doesn’t need to sound fancy or overly technical, it needs to tell us why we should hire you.
“Independent novelist/writer” is more than sufficient here. If you want to express the skills that fan fiction taught you, something like, “creative writing, editing, and publication,” will get you a lot further than… Whatever that just was.
A resume should be tailored to the position, if you can afford the time and energy for that. But if not, then just think about what writing got fandom taught you. How to respond to criticism, how to present a professional pubic face, how to correct punished mistakes, creative thinking, project planning, persuasion via emotional leverage, html formatting, office suite fluency.
There are a lot of actual, marketable skills that go into fan fiction.
How to put “I was in a zine” on your resume
Writer:
Published short fiction stories for anthology collection
Able to write short fiction within a designated word count for layout purposes (900-1500 words, 1500-2000, 3000-5000)
Wrote short articles for independent publication
Assisted with editing short stories for publication
Able to reduce or expand written content based on layout needs
Able to check for basic spelling, grammar and syntax
Familiar with Microsoft Office and Google docs
Artist:
Produced full-colour digital illustration for independent magazine
Able to produce digital illustrations optimized for both online and print display
Produced full-colour 2-page spread for art anthology
Published 4-page short comic in anthology collection for charity
Able to transfer traditional art to digital illustration
Illustrated the cover (always brag if you’re on the cover) of an independent art publication
Familiar with professional illustration tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Clip Studio Paint and stylus tablet
Merch artist / graphic designer:
Designed 2″ clear decorative double-sided keychain charm as bonus sale item
Designed 5″ x 6″ sheet of graphic stickers included in art anthology
Able to design bold graphics that are measured for laser cutting production
Designed layouts for 65-page art and writing magazine, focusing on (art placement, text layout, etc)
Able to keep layout design simple and in accordance with the project director’s chosen theme
Created promotional art, icons and banners tailored for social media sites like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, etc
Familiar with professional layout and design software such as Adobe Illustrator and InDesign
Running a zine
Produced an independent art and writing collection for sale / for charity
Managed (10, 20, 30) independent artists and writers out of over 500 applicants to create a short-run independent magazine
Worked in online sales and social media promotion selling an independent comics anthology
If it’s really spectacular you can brag about specific numbers
Our book raised over $4,000 for charity in under six months of production
We sold over 750 copies in two weeks of online sales
Produced a digital PDF and printed version of anthology, mailing to recipients all over the world
Communicated with printers and manufacturers of plastic accessories and paper goods, assembling professional packages of our merchandise for mailing.
Built a custom digital storefront and navigated professional market and payment systems including Paypal and Tictail / Bigcartel / Wix etc
Created promotional events to boost sales, including raffles and giveaways over social media
Organized participants through mass emails and use of social media posts on tumblr and twitter
Familiar with organizational software such as Microsoft Excel, Google spreadsheets and Trello
This week I’ve prepared some tips for everyone who is confused with arms. I know that pronation and supination is confusing and I recommend to learn in by heart ❤
I have also announcement!
The day is approaching when I will release ebook or Gumroad PDF with all my anatomy tips + additional lessons + commentary.
I still am thinking how I will publish this but it will be done. Anyone who’s interested finally will be able to get everything in one place and some more good content. I will post some dates soon so look for that in next few weeks !
If you know a bit about autism, or have been following this blog for some time, you must be aware that one of the autistic traits which has the most consequences on our daily lives is our sensory differences. They have an impact on all spheres of our lives: on what we can and cannot do, on where we can and cannot go, on what we can eat, wear, listen to, on our ways to feel good and on what makes us feel bad.
Such a wide subject definitely warrants a masterpost. So, here we go!
First, let’s take a look at the human sensory system, to understand the different areas in which there can be differences. It’s actually more complicated than the traditional five senses! Our sensory system is divided into three parts:
Exteroception : sensing what comes from the environment outside your body.
Interoception : sensing the internal physiological condition of your body
Proprioception : sensing the position your limbs and body are in
These three main areas encompass different senses (note that this is one model and others exist):
Exteroception: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, but also thermoception (sensation of heat/cold) and nociception (sensation of pain)
Interoception: nociception (internal pain), feelings of hunger, lack of oxygen, thirst, need to pee, as well as monitoring of the respiratory rate and heart rate.
Proprioception: the kinesthetic sense (knowledge of the movement and relative positions of your body parts) and the vestibular sense (knowledge of body movement, direction and acceleration)
For all of these senses, autistic people can have them work typically, be hyposensitive (less sensitive than most people), be hypersensitive (more sensitive than most people) or have sensory processing differences which do not fall under the hypo/hyper system.
The clinical term which encompasses these differences is “Sensory Processing Disorder”. One can have SPD without being autistic, but all or almost all autistic people have SPD.
It should be noted, however, that some autistic people don’t like to think of it as a disorder and prefer simply talking about sensory processing differences.
Something very important to understand is that hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity CAN coexist in any one person’s sensory system. For example, they might be hypersensitive to smell and hyposensitive to touch. They can also be hyper/hypo sensitive to only one aspect of one sense (for instance, pressure or texture or bright lights or sweet tastes). They can also be sometimes hyposensitive to something, and sometimes hypersensitive to it.
Being hypersensitive to a stimulus and being exposed to it can cause what is called “sensory overload”, which usually translates to pain, discomfort, and impaired cognitive functions (in other words, trouble thinking properly). If pushed further (very intense stimuli or very long exposition), it can lead to a shutdown or meltdown.
Being hyposensitive to something and lacking stimulation can translate to restlessness, discomfort, and even pain, as well as an intense craving for the stimuli.
Here are some examples of what hypersensitivity to different senses can translate to, on a behavioral and subjective level:
Sight: The person wears sunglasses, maybe even indoors. They avoid places with fluorescent lightning, blinking lightning or too bright lightning. They dislike looking at brightly colored surfaces. They may have trouble with visually cluttered spaces, such as crowds and supermarkets. They may find any kind of flickering or movement around them painful to see.
Hearing: They may hear sounds no one else can hear (and some have been tested to hear outside the normal human range). They may have to wear headphones/ear defenders in noisy places. They may avoid crowds and events with lots of people/loud music/shouting. They may have difficulty with the noise of the vacuum, of the construction work on the other side of the street, of the clock ticking in the next room. They may develop tinnitus eventually.
Smell: They’ll probably dislike places with strong smells such as perfume shops, farms, or crowded public transportation. They may need to wash themselves, their clothes and their sheet very often to keep body odors to a minimum. They may not tolerate scented soap, shampoo or deodorant (and it’s sometimes difficult to find an unscented one!). They may struggle with the smell of food in general, or with particular smells.
Taste: They may be very picky eaters, only tolerating a couple of very bland-tasting food such as mashed potatoes or pasta. They may have difficulty having diverse enough diets with all the nutrients they need. They may always eat the exact same thing.
Touch: They may have trouble finding clothing with a texture that they can tolerate. They may need to cut all the tags off their clothing. They may absolutely hate anyone touching them. They may be ok with firm touch, but find light brushy touches painful. They may have trouble wearing specific items of clothing, such as socks/shoes, headphones or hats. They may hate people touching their hair, or find brushing their hair very difficult. They may find brushing their teeth nearly impossible because of the scratching sensation. They may have trouble with the texture of many foods, and be a picky eater because of that.
Thermoception: They may be very sensitive to cold, and always wearing loads of clothing and turning the heating up even when other people don’t think it’s that cold. They may be very sensitive to heat, finding summer very hard to cope with, especially if they don’t have access to AC. They may be hyper-aware of tiny changes in temperature, feeling cold when it is dropping and hot when it is rising regardless of the actual temperature.
Nociception: They may be more sensitive to pain than most people, and find very painful what most people would shrug off. (They’re not being a drama queen! They really do feel more pain!)
Vestibular sense: They may get motion sickness very easily.
And here are some examples for hyposensitivity:
Sight: The person may have trouble finding things in visually crowded environments. They may enjoy looking at bright colored lights or at objects in motion (spinning top/twirling fingers…)
Hearing: They may not notice being called or being talked to, especially when focused. They may enjoy listening to very loud music, singing, or making lots of noises.
Smell: They may not notice smells which other people do. They may enjoy strong smells such as perfume, essential oils or body odor. They may enjoy sniffing a favorite blanket, a significant other, a pet, or anything they like.
Taste: They may be able to ingest an impressive amount of spicy food, and may crave strong tasting food (pepper, lemon, salt, sugar…).
Touch: They may love rubbing/touching favorite textures, rubbing their hands together… They may love and crave deep pressure, such as having heavy weights on top of them.
Thermoception: They may be outside in winter with just a T-shirt, or not be bothered by the heat in summer and even wear a sweater. They may enjoy touching very hot things such as radiators or very hot water, or very cold things like ice cubes or snow.
Nociception: They may be less sensitive to pain than most people and not notice it when they’ve been hurt.
Vestibular sense: They may love roller coasters, boat rides when there’s a lot of waves… They may never get motion sickness of any sort. They may spend time rocking or like to chill upside down.
Kinesthetic sense: They may be very clumsy since they have a poor sense of the position of their body in space. They may stumble a lot and be generally bad at sports. They may have trouble with fine motor skills such as handwriting or sewing. They may enjoy doing repetitive motions such as hand flapping.
Interoception: They may have trouble noticing when they are hungry, thirsty, tired, or when they need to go to the bathroom. They may need to set alarms or to have self-care at set times as part of their routine.
These are of course only examples and hyper or hyposensitivity can express themselves in as many ways are there are people who experience them.
Here are some examples of other sensory differences autistic people can experience:
Synesthesia seems more frequent among autistic people than in the general population. It is defined as a transfer from one sensory modality to another: for example, seeing sounds or hearing tastes. It can also mean associating colors or personalities to numbers/letters. In autistic people specifically, it can be a very positive thing (you can now stim with two senses at the same time!) or something painful (these bright lights are awful, well now they’re harsh noises too).
We often struggle with processing sensory information, especially speech, which can mean we can have a lot of trouble understanding what people say, might take a lot of time to process speech (which results in conversations such as” “Hey, will you get me this thing please?” “What?” “I said, will-” “Oh yeah, sure”), and might need subtitles to be able to understand movies. Processing information from two different senses at a time can also be difficult, which often translates as “I can either look at the images or understand what’s being said”. This is one of the causes of our struggle with eye contact.
That’s all for today. We hope this helped. We are currently preparing a masterpost on stimming which will be quite related to this one. Happy writing!
*smooths tablecloth* So. I’ve gotten some questions. I’m just gonna go ahead and be exhaustive here for maximum [hopeful] usefulness. Will probably update over time, so additions are welcome.
Chillypig Creations is an excellent acrylic and wood charm printer. I actually recently ordered from them and I was super happy with their customer service, quick turnaround, and beautiful printing.
And make a note about one that’s on there:
Acorn Press was good. I ordered from them and I was very happy with the charms I got despite a somewhat long turnaround time, but they apparently kinda… disappeared? Not sure what’s up with them. To be clear, they did fulfill my order, which was made right before they disappeared, but they’ve been AWOL ever since (as of this posting, Feb. 1, 2018).
Great summary list/overview of a variety of suppliers. For our Canadian audience, note that many of these are based in other countries (US etc.). Some may have Canadian websites/branches.
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