Notices by lord goth of doom 🥀 (guerrillarain@eldritch.cafe)

i'm so tired of Europeans being smug and like, "why would anyone elect Trump," while their countries have their own off-brand Trumps running around, and their moderates are like, "I know he sounds like a Nazi, but I think we should hear him out."

such a superiority complex for bootlickers at best and accomplices at worst

oh yeah, in case you didn't know, i'm not a girl or a woman, i am stardust and ethereal moonlight occupying a confusing human body that i don't particularly agree with.

Hey fediverse, anybody work in web design/dev and want a new client? I'm an author looking for a full website redesign (preferably staying with a Wordpress CMS, 4 page templates, clean, accessible, maybe Gothic flair), and not sure where to get started.

The last agency recommended to me by an author left me with a site using 2MB images for thumbnails on every page, and even after I replaced them and a friend stepped in to optimize, it's still slow.

Portfolios, website links, etc. welcome. OK to share. #webdev #fedihire #webdesign

hello masto, please help! I'm a published fiction author looking for a subject matter expert to talk through the premise of my fourth book, a gothic romance set during a zombie pandemic.

if YOU specialize in immunology, microbiology, and/or public health, I would love to pay you for like an hour of your time!

Attention cat people! 🚨

Be careful with automatic litter robots! There's a model currently being sold by a bunch of different retailers (same device but storefronts can change the branding) on Amazon, Temu, AliExpress, etc. that is deadly.

Here's a review demonstrating on stuffed animals.

cw for discussing pet death https://youtu.be/xepC3-Ia9ho?feature=shared

Hey Masto, I have a banking/money question! I'm a US citizen who lives abroad, and I recently traveled to the US for a camp workshop job thing. The job paid me in the form of a check, but here's the thing: banks in Finland (where I live) do not accept checks. They will not let me cash or deposit this.

Also another fun thing, because I do not live in the US, I cannot typically open a bank account in the US and I actually closed my previous US bank accounts because they don't service customers who live abroad.

Any suggestions on what to do? lol

Hey cryptography enthusiasts, I'm looking for a (relatively easy) cipher to use in the (young adult/teen) book I'm working on. Essentially I'm trying to hide messages (or have hidden dialogue), but it cannot use an alternate font.

For the first draft, I just put everything in Wingdings, but Wingdings isn't compatible with epub (or perhaps, Kindle, idk which and it doesn't really matter). As a result, readers of the ebook wouldn't be able to parttake in the decoding mystery.

Which got me thinking about using a cipher instead, keeping the dialogue in the Latin alphabet. I'm, however, NOT a cryptography person, I don't know even know where to get started, and my book is due....... in a few weeks, so I don't have 6 months to learn. 😭

I hate to gatekeep my favorite awful literary character (Dorian Gray), but Netflix just announced they're making a "modern" adaptation where Basil and Dorian are,,,,,

SIBLINGS.

me: i'm working on a new book that's kinda like "Be My Druidess" by Type O Negative.

me: do any of my readers like Type O Negative? if i say that my book has that vibe, do you understand what i mean?

a bunch of readers: you mean ....like... the blood...?

me: :blob_melt_sob: well that's a no

why is Astarion's head so small compared to his shoulders? is it just me? why is everyone so invested in him, he looks ODD 😭

@tillshadeisgone I posted about this recently twitter and got spammed by his supporters again who then shrugged it off when I linked articles. They're ridiculous.

Biden also never atoned for how he treated Anita Hill, but that's somehow never important to them either.

Does anyone have any leads, either resources or theories, on western nations' vested interest in Israel? For example, Rishi Sunak and Joseph Biden especially are taking quite hard lined stances on "Israel has a right to defend itself."

Ignoring requests from their parties and even staff regarding calls for a ceasefire. Biden wants credit for air dropping supplies in Gaza but won't address the reason air drops are necessary. There is a vested interest in punishing students and educators, even celebrities, in the US and UK who criticize Israel, even mildly. Western media outlets, especially in the US, refuse to fact check or be critical of Israel in any meaningful way. And any Jewish protestors who speak up against Israel are maligned as antisemitic or "not really Jewish." Why?

Do not come to me about cabals or some other antisemitic conspiracy theory. Do not use this as a justification for antisemitism. I do not believe Rishi Sunak or Joseph Biden or the government of Germany genuinely cares about either Jewish safety or the rapture.

I'm convinced there's a personal interest, something they get out of it personally. Joseph Biden is quite literally alienating a sizeable portion of his voter base and party ahead of an election that he barely won last time— why? What does he get out of it? What does the United States get out of allocating billions of dollars annually to Israel for military aid? Why is Israel the closest ally, so much that the US would rather weaken its reputation and be maligned by other Western nations, than pose one single limitation?

Why would the US be so unwilling to use any leverage at all?

Is it that the Israeli government has such a tight hold on US politics (this, I doubt), or is Israel needed for something? What is so important?

assuming a black person can't also be autistic, assuming we don't have ADHD, we're not mentally ill, we don't also struggle with addiction—

is part of the racism. it's part of the medical racism that keeps us underdiagnosed and it's part of the racist ableism that denies us resources and accomodations you are more likely to get. if you spent less time viewing us as the enemy, we could work together to dismantle systems and norms that negatively impact us all.

if white people cared a little more about community as an action, the world wouldn't be in such a shitty state.

Goths!!!! Where do you get your clothes? Like nice quality clothes that won't fall apart in 15 minutes.

Like, I got a new knit sweater from Disturbia because winter's coming and the stitching came undone after one (1) wear. I also have a dress from Disturbia where the fabric wore away and now has a hole, also after one (1) wear. Everything from Killstar is cheap with frayed stitching. I literally just want black clothing in black that fits, is warm, and doesn't disintegrate when you look at it.

"From the river to the sea" does not mean killing all the Jewish people in the region. It is not a call for genocide. Palestinians have repeatedly asked people to stop saying that and stop perpetrating antisemitic violence under the guise of solidarity.

https://jewishcurrents.org/what-does-from-the-river-to-the-sea-really-mean

Conflating that saying with a call for genocide, either intentionally or otherwise, misconstrues the movement and what Palestinian liberation looks like in the eyes of Palestinians. It also stirs the pot of islamophobia and orientalism by painting the brown Muslims as violent and genocidal by default, and it fuels Christian Zionists who really just wanna warmonger Israel into the rapture... which is actually antisemitic and genocidal.

Is it worth pointing out that there are a lot trans-run instances on the list because a great many instances in the fediverse ARE trans-run? Is it worth pointing out that there are a lot of white goy-run instances on the list because a great many instances are also white goy-run?

and that white goy people have a track record of protecting their friends who are bad actors, even if those people are trans. that white goy people, including queer and trans people, give shelter and community to people who do violent and abusive things that are racist or antisemitic in nature.

how many times are we gonna watch white goy admins refuse to suspend a user because "they won't have any community left" while that user manipulates, stalks, and harasses others? while that user engages in racial abuse? how are we supposed to trust your moderation at large?

AND!!!!! how many of the trans-run instances listed on TheBadPlace are BIPOC friendly? How many care about Black trans people? How many are run by Black trans people? How many have Black trans users? Because you see trans and immediately think transphobia and forget that Black trans people aren't fucking with you either, which says a lot about who you think qualifies as "trans" to begin with.

my book is out today, I am officially a published author yay.

if i describe a person's complexion as "crispy orange," you know what i mean, right? like? you can picture them?

happy international women's day to women living in poverty, to disabled women, to mentally ill and neurodivergent women, to trans women, to women in sex work, to black and indigenous women, to women from the global south who are constantly being erased from discussions of womanhood. ✨

anytime i don't look at my cat for all of two minutes, she starts rolling on the floor with her belly exposed and her eyes all wide like "hi, you see this fluffy belly? i'm so soft you should pet me ??"