still absolutely quaking from when one of my classmates revealed yesterday that he’d read over my shoulder when I was working on a whump fic on my google doc in class
It should really be November 14th, shouldn’t it? Am I forgetting something? All the news posts from back then say open beta launched on the 14th.
The site had already been open for reading for a year at that point, but that was when account creation opened up more generally.
AO3 must have launched before Nov. 14. I was waiting impatiently for the launch so I could sign up. According to my profile user #575 joined on Nov. 13. (It took me a couple of days to hear about it—mainly because I was only keeping track by word-of-mouth aka posts on flist.)
iirc there are no scientific studies that have shown a link between posture and back pain, and some evidence that what is usually considered “good posture” can cause it, esp. if it’s forced. “good posture” as a concept originates in weird victorian pseudoscience. unless you’re doing something that actually causes pain in the moment or have, like, an injury that shows up on X ray, you’re probably not giving yourself back problems.
Whoa! Important if true. Do you have any recommended reading on this? As someone with terrible posture, a bad ergonomic environment, and occasional back pain, this is Relevant To My Interests.
As someone in the same boat, nothing is more sure to give me back pain than trying to hold a specific posture for a long time, even if it’s a “good” posture. My anecdotal advice is “move around”. Not in the sense of getting up and walking around (though that’s good too), but just move around in your chair.
Regardless of if a posture is “good” or “bad”, don’t hold it for too long. If you’ve been hunched for while, by all means, sit up straight. But if you’ve been sitting straight for a while, try leaning back or sitting askew or, yes, even hunching over.
Written for the nonne prompt found on @doctorroseprompts - “Look at me - Just breathe, okay?”
Sorry about the angst. So sorry. I might just write another ficlet for this prompt because this is hard, even for me. Hehe.
His lungs were like balloons squeezed too hard, too fast, that burst to shreds to release the air the wouldn’t fit through the hole. He felt them. Full, swollen, compressed inside a ribcage that as nowhere big enough. His throat, narrow, dry, that could only gulp down small intakes of fresh air that only made his failing organs strain harder against his ribs, grow heavier, bigger, absorb his hearts into a viscous paste of flesh and hinder their wild beating. Soon, his lungs would explode. And his hearts would stop to beat.
His jaw hung low, his tongue darted out to moisturize cracked lip, his stomach heaved, a vain attempt to chase the surplus of air, his abdomen contracted, a futile exertion to force a breath out, but it was no use. Not with that kind of prison. A thick straitjacket, the straps pulled so tight he couldn’t feel his hands any longer, apart from the thousands and thousands of fire ants crawling up his fingers, up his arms, up his shoulders, up his head. A head swarming with a loud buzz, like angry bees droning through the tiniest blood vessel. It might have been the lack of blood circulation, or the lack of oxygen feeding his brain. Both, neither. It meant the same. The only words his last thought had hooked into. She’s gone. Those were the only words he could hold on to.
The pain started, soon. Not much, at first, just a tickle at the back of his neck. But it grew, fast, exponential. A headache that sprouted in the depths of his brain, a sickness that seized his stomach and made it push harder in violent retaliation against the lungs he knew were starting to crack under the pressure. She’s gone. Why were these the words he was thinking of when they only turned the pain to torture, he didn’t know. A thought of she, a fleeting image of blond hair and full smile, and a desperate moan echoed in his throat without getting out. A thought of gone, a tears fell from his eyes, depriving him of the few oxygen he had left in his dying body.
And then, he felt it. The cold hand on his cheek - maybe the hand was warm and his cheek burning. The sound of a murmur - maybe it was a scream and his ears were beating too loud with the blood rushing through his veins. A pressure between his hearts, between his lungs - maybe it was nothing, just the feel of his organs finally giving up.
“Look at me.”
His eyes shot open and were met with the blurry picture of she. Same blond hair, same smile. Deep brown irises that looked at him without the panic he was sure reflected in his, without the pain his cried profusely to wet his cheeks and his dry lips. Her hand, splayed over his chest, drawing circles like spells that stopped his ribcage from collapsing over itself.
“Look at me. Just breathe, okay?”
He blinked, hard, and forced his chest to follow the up and down of her hand. He latched onto her words, those words he desperately needed to replace the truth hammering against his skull. She’s gone. Breathe. She’s gone. Look at me. She’s… Breathe. Just breathe.
The pain faded, little by little, just as his lungs deflated, little by little. A seething breath, scorching, that had boiled for far too long in the confines of his ribs, but that was slowly expelled through his constricted throat. He was able to take in some fresh air, a small shot of oxygen that was just enough to keep certain death away. Just enough to reignite the system that must have shut down in his sleep again. The more he breathed, like she had told him to, the less he saw her face, the less he heard her words, the less he felt her hand.
Soon, he was breathing again. He hurried to untangled his limbs from the sticky web of sheets and covers glued to his body, covered in sweat and tears and drool, kicking them away his his feet in a fit of anger, with a fit of coughs, letting the cold air roll on his skin.
A nightmare, again. Or so the lingering taste of horror on the tip of his tongue and the images flashing before his eyes, the excruciating love soaring between his hearts and the sorrow imbibed in his stomach proved. But just a nightmare.
She’s gone.
No.
Breathe.
He rolled to the side and buried his nose in the pillow next to his. Breathe. He did. He breathed, and breathed, let the sweet smell fill his nose and soothe his aching lungs.
I have nothing at all against responsible and ethical breeders of animals, but experimental cat breeds are just a monument to the human potential for evil.
I don’t think curly or wiry coats have anything wrong with them that affects the cat’s health, so that’s probably fine. but shit like this?
Brachycephalic (smashed-in-face) cats are bad enough because their skulls are deformed and they can’t breathe properly. Scottish folds have folded ears because of a cartilage mutation that affects the animal’s whole body.
If it is causing the animal to suffer you shouldn’t intentionally breed more cats like that but this is an entire new level
So many new “cat breeds” are just combinations of multiple mutations that each affect the cat’s quality of life negatively
I don’t know if there are serious problems with hairlessness, but munchkin cats shouldn’t be a thing. A disabled cat is one thing, but there are ethical problems with making more disabled cats on purpose
It is a naturally occurring mutation that was made into a breed. All munchkin cats are descended in some way from a single cat with this mutation (though that’s not the only time it’s known to have happened). So it is the product of selective breeding in that if people didn’t breed them on purpose, there would be only a small handful of them if any
this is in no way directed at nogoodnikolai (I never want to discourage questions or curiosity), but the phrase ‘naturally occurring mutation’ is a pet peeve of mine.
there’s a natural occurring mutation in goats that causes them to be born inside out. ‘natural’ does not equal ethical or healthy, it just means that it happens outside of human interference. besides which, a mutation stops being naturally occuring the moment humans decide to selectively propagate it, which is the case for the munchkin gene.
also just a note about the Scottish Fold, and many apologies to headspace-hotel if this is a misreading on my part*, but their face shape is actually alright! it’s definitely Brachycephalic, meaning shorter than average, but not extreme enough to cause any harm at this point. I only say this because Scottish Straights, with the same face shape, are a breed I want to encourage as a healthy alternative to the Scottish Fold. Maru the box cat is a famous example of this breed!
*EDIT: I was mistaken, that’s a photo of a Foldex and not a Scottish Fold! Foldex do have extreme brachycephaly, sorry for the confusion
it’s the Persian/Exotic/Himalayan family of cats that has an extreme enough Brachycephaly to cause damage to the brain, eyes, teeth, and respiration. seriously, this is like body horror to me.
there was a clinical study that compared normal cats, brachycephalic cats (specifically doll-faced Persians, which are at a similar brachycephaly to Scottish Folds), and extremely flat-faced Persians. the normal cats and doll-faced Persians were clinically sound, but the extreme Persians….. I don’t know how anyone can read those results and not want legal consequences to fall on the folk who continue breeding them. I’ll put it under a readmore, because it’s a bit disturbing.
This…is beyond horrific. What the fuck I didn’t know it had reached this point
Basically, the flat-faced Persian cats not only can’t breathe properly, they have extreme, horrific deformities to their entire skulls, contorting their brains to the point where they have severe neurological impairments and struggle to walk properly or respond to stimuli
…
The cerebellum is the thing that lets you control your limbs. This means it was being squished into the space where the spinal cord is supposed to be.
I work in pet insurance. I’m in sales, I speak to people with puppies and kittens, and all I hear are the horror stories of people’s previous pets.
This? This whole thing? Is a FRACTION of the reality of MOST pet owners. These conditions, these breed specific hereditary issues, crop up so much that most pet insurances just straight up exclude all hereditary conditions.
If you’ve never had a dog, like me, you don’t realise just how much people are dropping on pets on the regular. You have a (any big breed)? Look out, known for bad hips and cruciate issues. Oh, one cruciate ligament gone? $8,000. And you know what they say - one cruciate goes, the other’s not far off. And remember, that’s hereditary, so unless you knew to look for that cover 3 years ago your expensive insurance won’t cover dick!
I constantly hear about dogs with lifelong skin infections (any squash face dog), dogs with chronic illnesses with medications costing $600/month, and almost every single big dog is going to have hip problems, that’s non negotiable.
We have bred these issues in, and most people don’t realise because if it happens after the dog is, say.. six? Most people just put them down. So sad, unavoidable, everyone feels bad for the poor owner :( oh well time to save up for a new member of the faaaamily… I saw the cutest pug x frenchie puppies on Ebay the other day!
That’s…bad.
Is this really typical!? My dog Cassie is an awkward looking large-ish (50lbs) mutt too well blended to distinguish what she might be made of, but she’s 7 years old and the only health problems of any kind she’s had so far were the mites and kennel cough she caught at the shelter we adopted her from. There’s been little change in her activity levels or anything as she’s moved toward middle age.
Why would you breed animals whose bodies fall apart like that? I don’t think that’s inevitable at all.
I think a lot of breed specific health issues come from really long ago, before we knew how to test for genetics or anything and generally you just kind of bred for what looked good. Like, in the 1880′s, when Doberman pinschers were made, it’s not really like you can test for heart disease, and it’s not like people back then were always worried about it if a dog died at age 7, so naturally you just might accidentally inbreed in baked in defects to the whole breed, like 60% of them having dilated cardiomyopathy. I’d imagine most invisible dog breed problems relate back to that we’ve been dog breeding for centuries and only fairly recently did we actually know how to test for it, so naturally breeds are going to carry the history of that.
can y'all recommend me some low fantasy books? like it’s fantasy but takes place in our world and isn’t too complicated. but not pjo or hp, i already know about those.
I’d actually recommend the Hollows series by Kim Harrison, also called the Rachel Morgan series. Slightly alternative history in which a terrible pandemic in the 60s made it really obvious that not everyone was actually human. Witches (species), vampires, pixies, weres etc. revealed themselves to the world, a vampire was president and everyone learnt to live in something adjacent to harmony. Main character is a witch and Certified Disaster who works as something like a private detective/bounty hunter in Cincinnati. She’s a badass but also a fucking idiot and just an extremely fun character to read.
The world building and deep lore is actually fascinating, if a little iffy on the biology at times. There’s like 14 books and one tasteful sex scene per book because the author was a romance writer first, and you can tell, but it works. It’s not paranormal romance, it’s just urban fantasy, but Rachel sure enjoys eye banging attractive men. There’s like 14 books at this point not including the short stories.
Highly recommend. They’re trashy in just the right way and I found them by picking up a random book in an English language book shop in Quito, third in the series I think. Pure chance in 2008 but I just read the most recent book last week, I’m still enjoying them.
currently in my Gerry cosplay makeup, with a Gerry centric fanfic open on my phone, 111 open but paused on spotify on my laptop as I look through #gerard keay here on, ealier tonight I made him and mary in the sims 4. I’m so obsessed rn it’s ridiculous, I’m not even joking. I left the Martin thing that’s been going on for at least a solid like 7 months straight into All I Can Think About Is This Stupid Goth like, two Mondays ago
![[M/S] I don’t mind having an audience though, and as long as it makes him happy I’m fine](https://64.media.tumblr.com/60bd70a21836b08460e1a4f88ad792f5/tumblr_p947ynlkzq1wul0kco1_1280.jpg "[M/S] I don’t mind having an audience though, and as long as it makes him happy I’m fine")
