Fanfiction is becoming people’s primary form of entertainment right now because most media right now is so cheap, bland, recycled, and sponsored by people who love money more than the source material. Fanfiction is written for free by people who genuinely love what they’re writing about. That’s why it’s better. That’s why it’s more satisfying. Fanfiction is a home-cooked meal made for yourself and for your friends. Media today is junky fast food spoiled by too much grease and the knowledge that the people producing it are being criminally mistreated and underpaid. 

FANFICTION IS A HOME-COOKED MEAL

WOW. BRO.THAT’S. 

Also, we don’t try to make everything in fanfiction canon. We can explore alternate universes to our hearts’ content, but we don’t try to insist, “That’s the way it is now, and if you disagree, you’re a terrible person.”

When I was a kid, I would only eat the yolk from an egg. Didn’t matter if it was boiled, fried, poached or deviled, the yolk was all I wanted.

My reason for this was “the white makes me feel sick”/“it hurts my tummy”. And everyone did what most folk do when kids say such things, they roll their eyes and call you a fussy eater and complain to anyone who will listen about how hard your child is to feed.

They won’t eat sandwich meat, they won’t eat minced beef, they won’t eat nuts, they won’t eat tomatoes, they won’t eat pasta, they won’t eat fish or spinach, they barely eat fruits and ugh you should see the tantrum they kick up when you try to give them yogurt for a healthy snack. And get this, they will only eat the yolk from eggs. What an annoying kid, right?

So, anyway, as it turns out egg whites are high in histamine while egg yolks are not. Everything I listed up there, is actually high in histamine or is histamine releasing and as someone who just found out after 20+ years of abject misery and several near misses with anaphylaxis that they have histamine intolerance disorder/possible MCAS, I feel really fucking validated about childhood me being a fussy eater.

So uh, pro tip to parents, while there is every chance your kid genuinely is a fussy eater, please also consider that there may also be something at play going on and they’re not just doing it to personally piss you off. Whether it’s a food allergy, intolerance, sensory/texture issues or an issue as insidious and hard to detect as mine, please don’t assume your child is just being difficult for funsies. And please don’t force them to eat something they say makes them feel sick. There’s probably a valid reason, and it warrants investigation rather just assuming your kid exists to tick you off.

there’s a couple of reasons why kids might not like foods.

Firstly, kids do actually have a slightly different sense of taste than adults. So something that might taste fine to an adult might sincerely taste bad or weird to a kid. They’re not shitting you, they’re tasting it differently because their mouth is wired differently.

And secondly, allergies and food sensitivities. Parents and guardians should keep an eye out for reactions to common allergens, and what different symptoms of allergies and anaphylaxis look like. And like … ask kid why they don’t like it. Even if it’s something like “I don’t like how this was cooked” means that they might like it if it’s prepared differently.

Listening to kids is really important. When I was three, I went from loving eggs to not eating them. My parents were very surprised (I had LOVED scrambled eggs before) and asked me why. I said that it made my mouth feel weird. Now, my mom is also allergic to eggs, though she tends to get hives. So she had a good idea what was going on, and my parents immediately stopped serving me eggs until they had a better idea what was going on. And I got tests done, and I have a mild egg allergy. Small amounts are ok, but if I had kept on eating larger quantities, I might have had a serious reaction and needed to be hospitalized. I avoided that because my parents listened to me and took me seriously.

When I talk about looking for unlikely ways to help bring your community together, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about:

I live in a "historically underprivileged" neighborhood. I'm a part of the neighborhood committee. I was talking to a man that's a member of a car club that's mostly young men with low riders. He was telling e how frustrated he was that people in the community didn't see the car club as an asset that helped keep them out of trouble.

I offered up the idea that they might want to do something to show good faith in the community. To engage with instead of just riding by. He was super receptive!

They're sponsoring an Easter egg hunt in our park with a few cars that the kids can get in and honk the horns of, some food and music, all free to our local neighborhood.

Is this CHANGING AMERICA? I guess not. But! It's giving people a chance to SEE each other. To talk!

would zuko give the blue spirit a full pardon after the war is over or do you think he would mess with everyone and raise the bounty even higher

That is an amusing fic! https://archiveofourown.org/works/24770626

hey it's probably a really good idea to download a copy of your Master Promissory Note since most of them stipulate that your loans are *specifically owed to the Department of Education* and if you intend to dispute the debt in the wake of the DoE dissolving that will be really good to have

log in and then go to My Documents and download a copy of it. i'm serious. if trump dissolves the DoE entirely it may make the debt uncollectable depending on exactly how they do it, and he's too stupid to listen to lawyers that tell him when he's breaking the law. worst case you have an extra PDF on your computer. best case your student loans go away because you signed a contract to pay DoE and no one else. go download a copy.

Love the spirit of this, but they will probably use a debt assignment to legally transfer the debt to a new entity.

Investopedia has an article about the practice here: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/debtassignment.asp

Always a good idea to have a copy of your note, though! And the proper transfer process is described in the FDCPA (an act of congress), so if the new debt owner fails to provide appropriate notice, you may have relief options there. (Potentially dependent on the CFPB continuing to function, which it….might not…)

~not legal advice, just work experience in finance~

I stated this elsewhere but the Higher Education Act has specific language about when debt is allowed to be sold - they can't just sell it at any time for any reason, and all the terms of the Act would still apply to the loan since in most cases the MPN stipulates as much (since the actual terms of a promissory note can't be altered without consent even if the payee changes). Specifically, they cannot sell the debt if it "result[s] in any cost to the Federal Government". Reassigning the loans to another agency would incur a massive cost since that agency would have to hire new personnel and build new infrastructure, eliminating the possibility of a sale within the government, and a sale to a private third party would made debt validation very tricky for that party since FERPA would prevent disclosure of a borrower's SSN, student ID number (ergo, the account number), and the itemization of the debt without written consent, meaning in that scenario the borrower could most likely* refuse this disclosure, dispute the debt, and win pretty easily.

*not a lawyer

the bottom line, if they attempt to reassign your loans anywhere... REQUEST DEBT VALIDATION BEFORE PAYING A CENT.

Back in the day, there was an impressive thread on Twitter by someone who sued to challenge the ownership of his student loans after they had been sold & consequently got the debt erased, as reported in the New York Post. Behold:

(sorry I couldn't figure out how to do alt text)

So if anyone is writing atla fanfiction set in the fire nation during or leading up to the war TikTok is full of dialogue samples for citizen discourse.

...Fuck

On one hand, I think that Kiyi is actually a wonderful idea for a character; you can get a lot of interesting stories out of inserting this innocent, guiless little girl into such a fraught & complex pre-existing family dynamic.

However, some mind-numbingly bad storytelling decisions surround Kiyi's existence in canon. Ursa's magical amnesia chief among them; it is so goddamm boring to take a character with as much baggage to chew on as Ursa has, only to make it so she has to grapple with literally none of it.

No Ursa looking at baby Kiyi & mourning for the two babies she was forced to leave behind, grieving children who are still alive. No Ursa looking at Kiyi grow up & seeing Zuko & Azula in her, equally as happy as she is afraid for her. No Ursa trying to give Kiyi as normal & happy a childhood as she can, while constantly looking over her own shoulder, praying that she won't be recognized. No Ursa hearing wild rumors about her older children's whereabouts & actions, not knowing what to believe.

No, instead of any of that, we just get Ursa becoming a blank slate who can now go off & live a blissfully ignorant happily ever after with her (equally blank) high school sweetheart, forgetting the very children whom she risked everything for in the first place. And that sucks.

Also, if I were writing Kiyi, I'd just say fuck it & make her Ozai's kid. That's a thousand times more interesting.

Okay, so this got me thinking. Let's imagine that Ozai knocked Ursa up before she makes her dramatic, middle-of-the-night exit. Maybe she's aware, but I think it's more likely with the stress of her whole family breaking down and being banished that she doesn't notice the lack of period or thinks her body is reacting to the grief and stress.

She meets Ikem/Noren and has the whole Mother of Faces arc. She specifically agrees not to remember anything from her past life but Noren. They get married really quickly and consummate that marriage. ...She doesn't remember having sex with anyone else. Of course she thinks it's Noren's child, when she notices she's pregnant. Noren has never been married before and is a man. If Kiyi comes a little early, who is he to say that it isn't normal? It's probably like the 1800s here where women went around saying, "First babies can come at any time, but the rest all take nine months." (Because there were plenty of "oops, I got you pregnant" weddings, and they weren't dishonoring folks for that when they didn't have to. But I digress.)

So pretty easily, Kiyi is Ozai's kid and nobody knows it. The interesting moment is after Ursa regains her memories. Does she ever think about the timeline of the birth? Kiyi was early, but she was the same size as a full-term Azula. They got pregnant her first cycle married. That sort of thing. Does Ursa ever question whether Kiyi could be Ozai's child? If she does, does she ever discuss with Ikem/Noren? Does she ever breathe a word of it to anyone? How do these thoughts affect her relationship with Kiyi, or for that matter, her own mental health?

Someone do a fic on this; it'll be great. 😁

Alternative fic idea: Kiyi becomes awesome in some way Ozai would be horrified by, and Ursa tells him about it and her parentage. Ah yes, the great Fire Lord Ozai, siring all these notable radicals.

U.S. elections to be aware of, if you live in the respective states/cities:

(mostly taken from this AP list, with some extra elections and details added by me)

On Tuesday, April 1st, a.k.a. tomorrow at time of posting:

Wisconsin State Supreme Court. This is the one that Elon has been bribing people to vote in. If you live in WI and want to be able to obtain a legal abortion, vote in fair elections in the future, or just want to see Elon's face after wasting something like $30 million dollars, you should vote for Susan Crawford.

Control of the state's highest court is on the line. National Republicans are arguably itching to flip this seat because a conservative court will let them get away with more gerrymandering, other voter suppression, etc.

Florida's 1st and 6th U.S. House Districts. These are special elections to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz of all people, lmao. The districts are red-leaning, but Democrats usually overperform in low-turnout elections under unpopular Republican presidents, and the GOP is reportedly nervous about the 6th in particular.

If Democrats win either seat, it'll make the Republican majority in the House even narrower, and therefore less usable for at least some of their assorted evils.

May 20th:

Miscellaneous Pennsylvania primaries: Superior Court, Pittsburgh’s mayor, and municipal contests in Philadelphia.

June 10th:

Miscellaneous New Jersey primaries: Governor and state legislature.

Florida State Legislature Special Elections. Senate District 19, House District 3, and House District 32 were all vacated by Republicans running for other office.

June 17th:

Miscellaneous Virginia primaries: Governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and House of Delegates.

June 24th:

NYC Mayor Primary. This is a ranked-choice ballot, with five slots for candidates. You rank your first choice first, your second choice second, et cetera. Progressives are already mobilizing to remind you of the following: for the best odds of stopping scumbags like Eric Adams or (the larger threat) Andrew Cuomo from winning, you'll want to fill all five of your spots with (non-joke) candidates, who are not Adams/Cuomo.

When Adams won in 2021, it took eight full rounds of elimination and tallying second-choices before he won — so you don't want to throw away your second, third, fourth, or fifth opportunities to propel a better candidate to victory!

November 4th (General Election):

Pennsylvania: Many judicial elections, municipal elections, and most broad-ranging, the State Supreme Court. Three incumbent Democratic justices are up for retention votes, and Republicans are attempting to take back control of the court by unseating two or more of them. This is a big deal for fair elections in the state in 2026 and 2028.

New Jersey: Governor, State House; many school boards and other municipal elections.

Virginia: Governor, Attorney General, State House; many municipal elections.

Lastly, municipal elections and local ballot measures in other states! Genuinely, most states have at least some communities that vote on something in odd-numbered years. Don't let them slip past you! Most progress is local — whether through elections, direct action, or most realistically, some combination of the above.

So the administration is saying that they can ship whoever they want off and then shrug when they get called on breaking the law. The rulings of the court don't protect people from the overreach of the regime, and the rulings of the court can't make the regime return anyone once deported.

Keep an eye on your neighbors. Remember community is the most important thing we have.

Hey, do you live in Wisconsin, USA?

~GO VOTE TOMORROW!~

I suspect if you follow me you're the kind of person who already knows about this, but in case you're a Cheesehead who's just here for the memes:

BRAD SCHIMEL IS AN ELON MUSK PLANT.

ELON IS SPENDING GAJILLIONS OF DOLLARS TRYING TO GET HIM ELECTED.

TELL ELON MUSK TO GO FUCK HIMSELF IN A TANGIBLE, EFFECTIVE, EASY WAY.

Find your polling place (https://myvote.wi.gov will get you there) and go cast a vote for Susan Crawford!

Not registered to vote? No problem, WI has same-day voter registration right at your polling place. Drop by and make your voice heard.

A VOTE FOR CRAWFORD IS A VOTE FOR ELON MUSK TO GO FUCK HIMSELF.

(Also: vote No on the Voter ID ballot initiative, it's a voter suppression law intended to make it harder for people to speak up.)

This has been a PSA.

"We don’t want your Nazi cars / take a one-way trip to Mars" is a pretty good chant

NJ Democrat senator Cory Booker takes the floor in protest of Trump/Musk, "saying that he will keep going “'as long as I am physically able'.”

“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able,” Booker said at the outset of his remarks. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis.”

“In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety; financial stability; the core foundations of our democracy. “These are not normal times in America. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.” -source

I am posting this at 2:30am EST. He has been speaking since 7PM EST. This link (at this moment) is to a live stream.

FUCK YEAH, JERSEY!

So very proud of my state at the moment.

He's still going, 17 hours later!

I'm hoping he can beat the Senate speech record (24 hours and 18 minutes) held by famous segregationist racist Strom Thurmond as he filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Tesla and SpaceX subsidies are the waste and fraud.

Elon's immigration and citizenship are fraud, too.

the atla remakes are always like "we're going to be more mature than the original show! we'll add blood! here look at katara having ptsd flashbacks! sokka can say ass now! we're going to be more serious than funny! this person's gonna get killed on screen! we're going to have adult discussions in it! we're going to be much more gritty and realistic than the original don't you worry!" and then zuko looks like this

This was literally my first response to the press shots announcing the show: WTF did you do to the massive gnarly scar that is pretty damned central to Zuko's story? No one is more important to the plot of the show, except maybe Aang as protagonist, and no one has a more compelling story. Zuko's redemption arc is the one most memorable & outstanding thing about ATLA. Cheaping out on the trauma he faced doesn't make the story better; it makes it worse.

(I'm not gonna address the rest of the changes in the live action because I noped out of watching the show when I saw the clip of Zuko fighting Ozai in the Agni Kai. Nah, fam. I can find better fan fiction to spend my time on.)

adulthood is just a constant struggle of, “man, i want cookies for breakfast, but I also recognize this is a bad nutritional decision.  On the other hand, the only one who can stop me is me.  i know that fucker’s weaknesses.  i could totally take me in a fight.”

frog and toad are my two remaining brain cells struggling to keep my horrible body alive

just found out I’m an American horse pirate

I'm just waiting for some remake of, I guess it would be "save a horse, ride a pirate" ... maybe as a Wellerman kind of sea shanty? (Or is there something else that screams "American horse pirate"?)

Can anybody give these old-ass Democrats protest lessons? They're acting like they're still living in pre-2015 politics when the GOP gave a shit and wasn't deranged.

How hard is this? There's probably better suggestions than mine if they actually hired seasoned protestors or behaviorists/psychologists or even the biggest teenage troll they can find on a messageboard.

The Emperor Has No Clothes. So fucking act like it.

DO SOMETHING!