Pinned
February is right around the corner, which means it’s soon time for Funguary 2025! The drawing event where we draw a bunch of mushroom based characters during the month of February.
Rules are super simple, just draw art related to mushrooms! No need to complete all the prompts, just pick and choose from the ones you feel inspired by🍄
Just in time for Valentine’s Day... 💔
Ready to break up with Google?
So are we!
We’ve rounded up a bunch of privacy-centric alternatives for everything Google.
Check out the full list over on the blog!
- The Ellipsus Team xo
Fun fact, on top of being staunchly against genAI, ellipsus literally has an Export To AO3 button. I do the majority of my writing in LibreOffice, but I've been moving all my GDocs over to ellipsus for a bit and I really love the interface. If you're looking for an alternative to GDocs, this is The One.
i've started to use ellipsus for editing my novel! having a really good outline menu on one side and tabs of related documents in the other feels a lot better and more organized than gdocs.
Bulk posting my ace memes for International Asexual Day!
This meme was made to spread awareness for r/orientedaroace. Oriented aroace is an aspec identity where an aroace person feels that another label such as gay, lesbian, or bi is a significant enough part of their identity to have a place beside their aroace label, usually because they experience some kind of tertiary attraction. If this intriuges you, check out the pinned post on the subreddit for more information.
[ID: Transguy Drake meme format second panel where the boy gives a finger gun of approval is shown twice. Top text says “Friend: You’d make such a good boyfriend! How are you single?” Over the first panel, there is text that says “Me:” and the boy has an aroace flag over his shirt. In the second panel, the image is captioned “Also Me:” and a tear can be seen coming down from behind the boy’s sunglasses. The aroace flag is replaced by the oriented aroace flag and queerplatonic flags. End ID]
Honestly, I am pretty frustrated by the "haha why would anyone hate ace people" responses to Rowling's tweet.
Don't get me wrong, the support is nice. But if you want to be an ally, you have to do so on our terms, not yours. And that means actually engaging with the aspec community, not just posting positivity every now and again. And what those responses highlight to me is what I've known for a while; you guys only support aspec people when it's easy and convenient.
It's easy to support aspec people when it's J.K. Rowling being awful again. It's easy to support us when it's just reblogging an "aspec people are queer" post.
But what about when we are talking about amatonormativity and the relationship hierarchy? When we are discussing the enforcement of compulsory sexuality? When we are pushing for greater awareness and support for aspec identities that are not asexuality or aromanticism? When we are criticizing terminology that you use but harms us? Because I can tell you right now, I rarely see allo people engage with those posts.
Why do people hate asexuality (or any other aspec identity)? Because it challenges the societal norms that benefit them. And that is uncomfortable and scary. So they turn to hate and oppression in order to assure that the changes we push by just openly existing never happen.
That means that to be a good aspec ally, you can't just make a positivity post every now and again, and you can't just laugh about how stupid aphobes are. You have to openly challenge the societal norms that harm us, even if they benefit you. Including but not limited to:
Other aspec people please feel free to add on/challenge any of this. Allo (not aspec) people please feel free to ask questions.
I've placed some resources for learning more about these topics under the cut.
When you walk into a tattoo/piercing shop and this man welcomes you, what you do? 🐻
This is a redactedoc I don’t really give much love to, but he’s a funny lil bear shifter who is- totally fully here every time you see him
I also got procreate and trying a new shading style, idk if I really like it but it’s something…
I want to lie down in the grass metaphorically too. That’s modern life. You don’t get to lie down in the fields or frolick about plucking flowers whilst you contemplate your life’s most significant decisions. You must still keep living under it. It’s been forever, living with this half chewed spit laden feeling of looking for something. Just one last thing to get me turned up to 10, one more song to shake me up, one more guilty bite of a useless boring snack.
Coming out and living out has become a child’s play now. I care very less for reactions these days. Anything is fine. The confidence perhaps comes from the fact that I’ve never had bad experiences. Forever, I’ve lived the timeline of a teenager wrong. Experiencing phases earlier than my peers, hence left all alone by myself in their face. Each one was very short lived too. The 8th grade mania, the youtube fanfiction thing, the erratic rebellion, the troubled contemplation. Everything swept by me earlier than those my age. Never was I synced up.
Living among admittedly kind and nurturing girls, I’ve learnt how to get by in straight groups too. The looking, admiring, lusting(?) from different worlds mingle, as they pour their hearts out about movie stars, characters, random people, and I sit listening locked in on the movement of their features, eyes, nose, lips. I look at people. And I swear to god (/figurative, not a believer), as much as I love to be playful with my motivations, it’s never beyond purely aesthetic rapture. (I can’t guarantee it’s all innocent, but it is all just a game. Always.) Girls are the only people I can comfortably look at, and I most definitely seized the opportunity living in such close proximity to so many wonderful ones. I try to bring in awareness whenever I can. I’m learning little by little how that works. Microdosing radical outlooks, existences, expressions, regarding gender and sexuality. These are people I’ll never meet again. Probably the most consistent and fantastic aro fantasy of mine~ spending quality time with people who you know with a 100% certainty you’ll never meet again. The knowledge empowers me to spill, no filters, no risks of anyone dragging anything out, no commitments. A little sample for me to try and live as the person I’m internally hyping myself to be. Imagining myself as, in the future. A little test run, that’s completely safe, in a racetrack with clear demarcations. Maybe it’s the truest form of life. Without the internet. Forced to rely on each other for solace and sanity, organic entertainment. I know exactly what it means to say humans are social creatures now. I’m still the same. Except in all the ways i’ve changed. I’m still aromantic, aplatonic, loveless and extremely exhausted in a world that will never be on my wavelength. But because I don’t care for any other world except mine, I get on just fine. Minor scratches aside.
Reminder to self:
What do you mean?? I took one whole day off! Why am I not immediately recovered from years of barely scraping by at subsistence level???
If we want a different world, we MUST have a cultural shift in which we agree to a new social contract.
We must agree that:
1.) The truth *matters*.
Peer-reviewed, rigorous scientific endeavor is valuable.
Evidence-based study is valuable.
Both must be wielded with compassion, and with the input of all being affected.
We cannot make decisions rooted in greed, insecurities, and harmful ignorance any longer.
2.) Earth is an interconnected system of living things which existed long before us.
Therefore, the Earth deserves to be stewarded in such a way that sustainability is a high priority.
The Earth is owed the courtesy of a well-managed waste system, reciprocating where appropriate in order to keep its systems going.
Earth must be protected as much as possible from overextraction, overpaving, and pollution.
We should engage in the five freedoms, when we interact with Earth's animal populations.
And the Earth and its resources cannot be hoarded, but must be shared in common as much as possible: as any loving parent would wish their children to do amongst themselves, when it comes to a precious and freely given gift.
3.) Human beings have worth, REGARDLESS OF WHAT VALUE OF PRODUCTIVITY OR WEALTH THEY PROVIDE.
That is to say, the value of human beings is that they exist.
We must STOP seeing the sick, the old, and the disabled as 'burdens'.
We already have the ability, and enough resources, to comfortably care for every man, woman, nonman, and child on the face of this Earth.
For all our sakes, we should agree that, no matter what one brings to the table, things such as good food, clean water, clothing, shelter, health care, education, reasonable accomodations for disabilities, and the most basic comforts, are NOT to be seen as privileges that have to be earned.
They are necessities which should be guaranteed to every living person.
4.) The universal granting of bodily autonomy to every human being is the ONLY way the people of Earth can be truly free.
It is the only way to ensure that all persons can build and maintain a wide array of healthy and mutually-consensual interpersonal relationships; that are as free from domination, coercion, abuse, and harm as possible.
A person's consent must be respected. A person's boundaries must be respected.
When we do this, the ways in which we connect to people become so much easier and much less dangerous.
5.) We must all agree that, in the event that disasters, abuses, and violations DO happen, caring for and restoring the victims of said problems must be centered: taking extreme precedent over any thirst for punishment to be inflicted upon the abuser.
This will protect victims from trauma and loss after their ordeal.
As it is, only some victims get to see their abusers jailed, but then fall into financial or mental or physical devastation stemming directly from the offense.
Many victims just never recover. Yet the goal of a justice system should be to restore victims of oppression and abuse.
Additionally, abusers and violators must be treated rationally, even when jailed.
Physical, emotional, verbal, and mental abuse; bad and disgusting food, horrific living conditions, and all kinds of humiliations, are frequently heaped upon prisoners.
The studies show that these things help neither rehabilitation, nor improvement of behaviors. Instead, these things WORSEN them.
If we really care about a healthy society, we need to understand that, psychologically, few earthly creatures enjoy captivity.
Being caged is often punishment enough for humans, and what follows from there -- if carceral means are pursued at all -- should be true guidance and correction of harmful behaviors and mental health in a clean and helpful environment. Not torture, harassment, bullying, rape; complete lack of privacy, physical health, hygiene and safety; and needless misery.
my forever advice about seeing people be loudly and unapologetically aphobic is just. don’t engage. don’t try to argue. they are Determined to misunderstand you and it will only ever be frustrating and upsetting. block them and spend your time on something that’ll make you happier
just block them and take the time to make a paper crane. put your little paper crane on the bookshelf. think about how that little paper crane was just a piece of paper and now it’s a little decoration for you to admire, and you did that, you made that.
