Got something you need to do at a certain time every day (e.g., take meds)? Start giving your cat a treat right before you do it. You may have trouble remembering, but your cat absolutely will not.
This might be the most genius idea I’ve ever read.
Yeah, it works. I feed my cats canned cat food right before I take my meds, and they will be right up in my face when it’s time.
Remember kids, St. Valentine was also the patron saint of beekeepers and plagues. Like/reblog if you’re excited to celebrate the rich history of bees and plague doctors this February 14th.
I feel like with the new ~fandom drama~ or whatever going around, I should re-introduce my favorite theory of fandom, which I call the 1% Theory.
Basically, the 1% Theory dictates that in every fandom, on average, 1% of the fans will be a pure, unsalvageable tire fire. We’re talking the people who do physical harm over their fandom, who start riots, cannot be talked down. The sort of things public news stories are made of. We’re not talking necessarily bad fans here- we’re talking people who take this thing so seriously they are willing to start a goddamn fist fight over nothing. The worst of the worst.
The reason I bring this up is because the 1% Theory ties into an important visual of fandom knowledge- that bigger fandoms are always perceived as “worse”, and at a certain point, a fandom always gets big enough to “go bad”. Let me explain.
Say you have a small fandom, like 500 people- the 1% Theory says that out of those 500, only 5 of them will be absolute nutjobs. This is incredibly manageable- it’s five people. The fandom and world at large can easily shut them out, block them, ignore their ramblings. The fandom is a “nice place”.
Now say you have a medium sized fandom- say 100,000 people. Suddenly, the 1% Theory ups your level of calamity to a whopping 1000 people. That’s a lot. That’s a lot for anyone to manage. It is, by nature of fandom, impossible to “manage” because no one owns fan spaces. People start to get nervous. There’s still so much good, but oof, 1000 people.
Now say you have a truly massive fandom- I use Homestuck here because I know the figures. At it’s peak, Homestuck had approximately FIVE MILLION active fans around the globe.
By the 1% Theory, that’s 50,000 people. Fifty THOUSAND starting riots, blackmailing creators, contributing to the worst of the worst of things.
There’s a couple of important points to take away here, in my opinion.
1) The 1% will always be the loudest, because people are always looking for new drama to follow.
2) Ultimately, it is 1%. It is only 1%. I can’t promise the other 99% are perfect, loving angels, but the “terrible fandom” is still only 1% complete utter garbage.
3) No fandom should ever be judged by their 1%. Big fandoms always look worse, small fandoms always look better. It’s not a good metric.
So remember, if you’re ever feeling disheartened by your fandom’s activity- it’s just 1%, people. Do your part not to be a part of it.
this is great!
It also complies with the “killer theory”. I don’t remember exact names, but people in online games are generally divided into four groups:
– explorers research game opportunities, they don’t mind playing alone, usually don’t hurt others, but sometimes they can exploit game weaknesses
– achievers play to win, to gain points, popularity. They need both explorers who know all perks, and socializers – as their followers and support
– socializers – they play because their friends are all here, they like to be together, they are usually most of the players, they can be easily led astray
– killers – for some reasons they come to hurt others, be it hurtful remarks in the chats or disturbing behavior
A tiny amount of killers is manageable and even profitable. (All four types are important). Killers raise stakes for the achievers, give socializers something to talk about in their groups and give explorers incentives to invent something new.
Angered explorers are the top predators here – but they must be seriously offended, and since they play on the outskirts of the game, killers rarely fight them. Killers usually go for the weakest (socializers) or most noticeable (achievers).
But if the game, by its design, somehow attracts to much killers, who scare socializers, leave achievers without their rewards and – by choking the environment – make it boring for the explorers (what I gonna explore here? ten kinds of dick-related-nicknames? Pff!) – they effectively kill the game.
This is awesome. In fandom terms, I think whether a fandom tends to be, in general, a pretty decent place to be with a small tire fire here or there, or one big flaming dumpster fire, probably has a lot to do with who the 1% in that fandom are. If you’re unlucky enough to be in a fandom where a couple of the tire-fire people are the ones who run the exchanges, or the most influential shippers of your particular small pairing, or the big BNF, you are screwed. Even though the vast majority of the fandom undoubtedly still consists of sane and decent people, it’s going to be really hard to avoid the 1%, and they’ll actively drive people out.
On the other hand, some of my best times in fandom have been in calm, sane corners of fandoms that I knew had raging dumpster fires going elsewhere, but I never had to deal with them because my part of the fandom was quite nice.
Large fandoms are a mixed blessing that way … more and bigger tire fires (and more visible to outsiders), but also, with more people and more ships, it’s easier to find cozy little pockets of sanity in which to nest.
I assume you mean the Original Wee Doctor series. To be more honest than you probably want, I’ve been so overwhelmed with stress and anxiety that I haven’t been able to do a lot of the things I want to do. I’ve tried several things that rely on my talent and hard work to be successful and they’ve all sort of flopped. The things that I love have withered in obscurity and I’m afraid of failing with Wee Doctor too. It’s part of the creative process, failing and falling and trying to get back up. It’s just an incredibly painful part. So I’m trying, but I’ve had to just pull in creatively and emotionally to try and push through.
I have a rule, that I don’t ask questions I can’t take a no to, and I can’t take a no to Wee Doctor right now, so I’m waiting until I get a yes or I’m okay with it failing.
If you want to support something I’m working on now, I’m working on a family history podcast called Family Friends that really needs support of Kickstarter. Share the link and help me get this ship sailing: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/931938889/family-friends-podcast
Ambrose Bierce – A famous Civil War-era writer decides to leave his cushy life to go to Mexico, only to disappear forever.
Agent 335 – One of the first U.S. spies was a woman, but who?
Ancestral Puebloans – What happened to the ancient people in the Four Corners region (once called “Anasazi”)? And why is there evidence of cannibalism?
The Axeman of New Orleans – This guy won’t stop coming after people with an axe until everybody plays jazz music.
The Baychimo – When winter strikes, a ship sheds its crew–and then decides to take off without them.
The Dancing Plague – People are stricken with the need to dance, some to their deaths.
D. B. Cooper – An unknown man hijacked a plane, extorted hundreds of thousands, and then parachuted to freedom.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident (tw: photo of a dead body) – Several experienced mountain hikers go into a mountain range in Russia and die of unknown causes. [see also]
Elisa Lam– A woman, seemingly pursued by an unseen foe, disappears, only to be found inside her hotel’s water tower two weeks later.
Erdstall – There are thousands of still-standing, ancient tunnels beneath central Europe, but no one knows what they’re for. [see also]
Genghis Khan’s Tomb– One of the greatest and most successful rulers of all time, but no one can find his final resting place.
The Hinterkaifeck Murders – Unexplained noises, missing house keys, and an entire family found dead in rural Germany.
The Lost Dutchman Mine – In unforgiving territory lies a lost treasure just waiting to be found–if you don’t die first.
The Lost Nazi Plunder – The nazis stole hoards of important items, including art and cultural artifacts. Where are they now? [see also]
The Mary Celeste– A sailing ship in working order is found, still at sea, without a crew.
Monsieur Chouchani (NEW!) – Who was this mysterious Jewish teacher and mentor of Elie Weisel who dressed like a vagabond?
The Oakville Blobs – Gelatinous blobs of an unknown substance rain from the sky.
The Paris Catacombs – A seemingly infinite series of tunnels filled with bones, artwork, and missing explorers. [see also]
The Phaistos Disc – A mysterious disc, thousands of years old and covered in strange symbols, is found in Crete.
Rongorongo – An undecifered set of glyphs from Easter Island, possibly a completely independent language.
The Tamam Shud Case (tw: photo of a dead body) – A body shows up on a beach in Australia, and how it got there is wrapped in mystery and lies.
Tarrare – A man who couldn’t stop eating, anything and everything.
UVB-76 – A strange radio station in Russia broadcasts a constant buzz, broken only by strange readings of names and numbers.
The Voynich Manuscript – An unbreakable code in an ancient manuscript full of strange drawings–what’s not to like?
The Woman in the Tree (aka Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?) – A body turns up stuffed into a tree trunk, becomes a local rallying cry.
The Wow! Signal – A strong radio signal from space still has researchers stunned and baffled.
(These are the most reliable unsolved stories I could find. There are many others that require more sources to be believed or already have very plausible answers.)
Speak with Tenderness 