synth-ab

Latest Posts by synth-ab

Why do they even make apps for ADHD. You want me to use my 24/7 handheld immediate distraction device? To manage my 'gets distracted too easily' disorder? Ooooh we developed the perfect tool for managing your anemia. Its hosted in Dracula's castle. 👍

Off The Leash 🐱🐶🎤

Finished reading Dracula ! Loved it

Idgaf if you don't want to write essays for school. I don't care if you don't want to write corporate emails yourself. I don't care if you can't draw well, I don't care if you can't write well, I don't care if you just really really want to talk to your favorite fictional character but don't want to RP with a real person because you have social anxiety or whatever

If you're still regularly using generative ai, chatgpt or midjourney or character.ai or literally whatever the fuck, im personally blaming you when my utility prices start going up.

They've been on my mind

So I've been playing this game

I know this is going to make me sound pretensions but I have to get it off my chest. I feel an unimaginable rage when someone posts a photo and is like "this picture looks like a renaissance painting lol" when the photo clearly has the lighting, colors and composition of a baroque or romantic painting. There are differences in these styles and those differences are important and labeling every "classical" looking painting as renaissance is annoying and upsetting to me. And anytime I come across one of those posts I have to put down my phone and go take a walk because they make me so mad

nothing funnier to me than when AI does math wrong. like I get why it happens, it's a language model that's treating the numbers you feed it as words rather than integers and then giving you an answer based on how those words typically appear in a block of text instead of actually performing a calculation. but the one thing computers are genuinely incredible at. you fucked up a perfectly good calculator is what you did, look at it it's got hallucinations

One of my favorite things about all the comic Lokis is that they're so individual and yet so deeply linked. Kid Loki likes bacon, Kid Loki is wiped from existence. His replacement not only keeps his love for bacon but actually nurtures that love for bacon until he's learning to cook full meals on his own and making dinner for his friend. Young Avengers Loki engineers the trademark Loki Magic Cell Reception spell. SKALD Loki, three comic runs and two ego-deaths later, gets pouty in Immortal Thor when his brother doesn't appreciate the magic cell reception they gave him as a present. Kid Loki wears a helmet with little wings on the side copying Thor's helmet. When AOA Loki is in the middle of his AXIS arc, meaning the bad in him has been turned good and he's acting as a hero, he gets a new crown WITH LITTLE WINGS ON THE SIDE REMINISCENT OF KID LOKI'S CROWN

all the times Loki quotes himself from another life, I won't even get started on that

GUYS. KID LOKI LIVED IN FRANCE. KID LOKI WAS FRENCH. HE PROBABLY HAD A FRENCH ACCENT. HIS NAME WAS SERRURE BEFORE IT WAS LOKI. FRNECH DO YOU HEAR ME AND THEN HE DIES AND THEN MOTHERDAMNING AGENT OF ASGARD LOKI HAS THE BALLS TO STAND ON A ROOFTOP LIPREADING FRENCH FOR HIS LITTLE AGENT OF ASGARD HEIST MISSION ALL LOKIS AFTER KID LOKI KNOW FRENCH BECAUSE KID LOKI KNEW FRENCH DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME

godofstories loki identifying as genderfluid until she's mashed up with grunge bastard peach fuzz boy KingOfJotunheim and the resulting concoction is whatever the loving hell SKALD is. neither of their gender identities won over the other, do you know what I mean one of them didn't cancel out SKALD is both and all of them very considerate of them

(yeah godofstories!Loki and SKALD Loki don't count as the same person in my mind because godofstories! had to physically and mentally merge with KingOfJotunheim Loki from That Other comic in order to create SKALD Loki, right)

there's something about how the moment after the merge takes place, SKALD Loki smiles and their teeth have the same gap tooth as godofstories! and they wear the glasses and silly Tshirts that KingOfJotunheim liked to wear there's something about that like

Loki is the culmination of all of their past lives and past identities and past experiences and even if they never ever stop changing and becoming they will always be close to who they used to be and I think that's worth slamming my head into a wall for

I love this show so much.

Hey so what if I cried. What if I made myself cry again

play this game or you will be hearing from my lawyer and I warn you she's killer :3

this post reminded me of this ~scenario~ that happens to me and other fat folks quite often! thin folks that are our friends, support fat folks, but haven’t quite had the time or chance or willingness to unlearn fatphobic ideas in relation to themselves. we know you still think of fatness as inherently unhealthy and unattractive, work on it ♥

Straight up conclaving

Somewhat on the vibe of "your glorious revolution doesn't exist," I want to talk to you all, especially the young folks, about effective anarchism.

Spoiler alert, it's not blowing stuff up or arson.

I am considered the most anarchical person of all among my friends. Granted, most of my experience has been wreaking anarchy against the systems present in my high school and college, but the principles are the same.

Practical anarchy is not the big, flashy, romanticizable thing people online make it out to be. It's more about the long haul - digging in your teeth and just being a menace that no one can really get rid of.

Everyone's "Why vote when you can firebomb a Walmart" posts (that they don't follow through on) are just not pratical because this is a surveillance society. With CCTV and DNA testing and cell phone cameras and GPS tracking, if you do something big like that, you are GOING to be caught; then that is the end of your anarchical career. And, keep in mind that you might get caught while you're setting up this big event - it's a crime to blow up a Walmart and also a crime to conspire to blow up a Walmart, so your career in anarchy might end before it begins, and then you are permanently out of the game. No matter what causes you were working for that inspired you to do something big and violent that you thought would get someone's attention, you now can't help at all ever again in your entire life. What you did will be a passing headline on the news, and then everything will go back to exactly what it was because big, acute actions can't compare in effectiveness to small, constant actions (just being a thorn in the side of the system, poking and poking, but unable to be dislodged).

This is just the practical side of it too: think about the risk of hurting innocents if you really advocate for doing things like that. You think blowing up a Walmart would really make a dent in that big of a corporation? But if you intentionally or unintentionally kill a bunch of Walmart shoppers, that's going to devastate families that had nothing to do with whatever your cause is.

So all that big talk about violence and destruction: not practical, not effective, not ethical.

The only way I've started to change oppressive systems around me is by justing chipping away from within the confines of the rules of these systems, and/or only stepping just outside them (never breaking rules in a big way that could have allowed said system to easily and "justifiably" get rid of me).

So if you're going to be an anarchist, you need to consider:

Having the longest career in anarchism possible (i.e. being careful enough and judicious with your actions so that you don't get expelled from the system you wish to fight).

And then for any given anarchical plan:

2. Potential consequences.

3. Insurance.

I'll give you an example. I had serious beef with the culture of my college's science department. Students were constantly overworked, and if they expressed their misery outloud or reached out to any of their professors about their struggles, they got apathetic responses if not direct insults to their abilities or dedication. I had too many similar disparaging interactions with professors in one week, and I realized a lot of the responses I was getting were just the result of professors not really knowing how they sounded when they said certain things to students (ex: If someone says they're struggling with a course, don't IMMEDIATELY respond with "change your major," - you can give that as an option, but if you make it your first suggestion, the implication to the student is that if they're having any trouble with the course, they're not good enough for the program).

So I wrote up a flier of examples of good and bad ways to respond to students having anxiety with explanations and distributed it to every professor in the department. Everyone who knew about this perceived it as a great personal risk - that I would get in some kind of unspecified trouble or piss off an important professor, so before embarking on this project, I considered...

Potential consequences: I couldn't really think of any specific college or department rules I could be violating. People postered and handed out fliers in the department all the time. What I was doing fell pretty clearly under freedom of speech. I just shoved the fliers under professors' doors, so I didn't trespass in anyone's office. Worst I could think is that individual professors would get mad at me and make my life difficult, or I'd simply be told to stop fliering in the department.

Insurance: Just in case there were any consequences that I didn't think of and to insure me against the ones I had thought of, I didn't put my name on the flier. It was typed in Word, something everyone had access to. I came in to do it after professors had all left for the day but before I needed to use my ID to get into the building (no electronic record of me being there). I took the elevator to the first floor offices because the stairs require ID swipe after 5pm, but the elevators do not. I found out the building had no cameras by asking about it on the grounds that something of mine had been stolen a few weeks prior. I shoved the flier under the doors of dark offices and left it outside offices with lights on (so that no one would come out and spot me). And here's one of the most important pieces of insurance: I put up a few of the fliers on public bulletin boards in the building. This was important so that if I slipped up and said something that conveyed that I had knowledge of the content of the flier, I would have an excuse for that, i.e., I read it on the bulletin board before class this morning.

And then I did the thing. And surprisingly, it was incredibly well-received by professors. A few who knew that the flier must have been mine (because of previous, similar anarchical actions rumored to be associated with me) told me that everyone was RELIEVED that they finally had an instruction manual from the student perspective on what the hell they're supposed to say when one of their students is panicking. It sparked a real change in the vibe of the department and student experience. Had it instead pissed people off, I would have simply said I could not claim authorship of the flier but had read it and thought it contained good ideas then gone on creating more anarchy while angry people grasped at the zero straws I had left them to pin the action on me.

That's an example of a single action I took that was part of a much longer (~3 years) campaign of mine to change the culture of my department. Everytime I did something in that campaign, I made that consequences vs. insurance calculation to make sure they couldn't expell me from the program, the department, or the school before I succeeded.

Hey look I finally drew something I'm proud of ~ did you know this was supposed to be an art account ??? Anyway

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

Hello! I'm trying to get into comics Loki more. I've only read Agent of Asgard though. I was just wondering in what order should I read the comics?

Hi! I'm so sorry I completely missed this ask 🙈

My go to answer for when you want the most important modern Loki comics is this:

-Journey into mystery first (it helps to know what happened in Siege but you don't have to read it), this one will rip your heart out

-Young Avengers after that, which is more fun (but still, it's Loki, the angst is a given)

-Agent of Asgard goes here, including the Original Sin event, loml, reason I exist blah blah so a reread should always be on the table, Al Ewing and Lee Garbett the ultimate combo

After that there's more comic hopping and it can get confusing, but I read all of them so you're getting all of them

-Mighty Thor 2016, I liked Jane Foster as Thor but I have to admit that I mostly read all the non-Loki comics for Loki anyway and skip over parts where he's not involved sometimes 😂

-Infinity wars

-Thor 2018 (vol 5)

-Wolverine infinity watch 2019

-War of the realms 2019

-Loki the god who fell to earth 2019, this is a loki comic again, but it was cut short so we never got to see it's full potential, still fun

-Thor 2020, very healing for brodinsons fans, Al Ewing and Lee Garbett team up for the anniversary issue again

-Marvel defenders beyond 2022, loml goddess of stories loki mwah mwah, Al Ewing remains the best

-Loki 2023, more fem Loki mwah mwah

-Immortal Thor 2023 (still going), SKALD LOKI I REPEAT SKALD LOKI also still praising Al Ewing, and Lee Garbett worked on one of the upcoming issues as well

That's it for the most important parts of Loki's comic journey, yay!

Less plot, more Agent Loki:

-Miss Marvel issue 12

-Squirrel Girl comics, I adore her comics so this is a hint to just read all of those as well

-Doctor Strange issues 381-385 for sorcerer supreme Loki specifically, but he is also in Squirrel Girl

More kid Loki:

-Asgardians of the galaxy

Like feeling things?

-King Thor 2019

-Thor: what if

Want some fun good times?

-Alligator loki

-Thor and loki double trouble

-Marvel meow infinity comic

-House of harkness (still going I believe? But I need to catch up with this one)

Not sure what to say about these but hey:

-Marvel's voices infinity comics (from memory he's in America's, iceman's and Loki presents.. but you don't need these, I read them because Loki)

-Vote loki... if you want to torture yourself, read this, the art style is.. a choice

-Thor season one, this is a more classic comics one, I love Loki's outfit here, also he's a little shit in this, 10/10 recommend

-Mighty valkyries, I don't even remember what happened here, he was in it.. but that's all I know

-Axe judgement day Iron Fist, also not sure what the point of this comic was but it had Loki's aoa design and some flashbacks I think

There's still a lot left out, single issues, small crossover things, but I think you've got enough to read here 😂 (also I may have forgotten things because it's a LOT so if anyone wants to add, feel free)

Another one

transmeds never can understand the invisibility of black trans people. ever in their life.

writing advice for characters with a missing eye: dear God does losing an eyes function fuck up your neck. Ever since mine crapped out I've been slowly and unconsciously shifting towards holding my head at an angle to put the good eye closer to the center. and human necks. are not meant to accommodate that sorta thing.

I know I've said this a hundred times but if you're worried about palestinian fundraisers being scams at least consider donating to MSF. It's a highly reputable organization which has broken its long-standing neutrality to denounce Israel in front of the UN. Here's all the aid MSF is providing to Gazans (documentation available in multiple languages).

A Mini Guide to RSS Feeds

With all the talk about Twitter and social media going on, I felt really inspired to do a comic about RSS feeds. This is a really barebones guide but I hope it helps you stay updated with your favourite webcomics, artists and websites. The nice thing about RSS feeds is that almost any kind of site has one, so if you wanted you could add user feeds from tumblr, twitter, mastodon, etc. here’s some helpful guides on how to add those (1) (2) I hope you found this little guide helpful. I’m just a simple guy who’s passionate about RSS feeds, comics and staying updated using both. Go forth and make the feed of your dreams! Topaz Comics | Topaz Comics RSS | Art Blog | Art Blog RSS

Get meme'd

Anyway everyone PLEASE read Sacred Bodies by sticksandsharks it's actually taken over my brain and is making me so insane it's so good please

Just finished Sacred Bodies by @sticksandsharks . What a read. Ah what a read !!!

this messed up vintage cat sewing pattern has tormented me since i saw it & like some other folks have done in that post - i tried my hand at tweaking the pattern to resemble the illustration (and my personal tastes) a little more. i've ended up with this. i bestow it upon you nice folks now 👐

(update 2, added instructions & it's also on my Kofi!)

go forth and make weird little beanbag kittens! pls show me if you do!

new dnd chara <3 my bby boy starchild

(plz dont use him for ur campaigns or charas plz and ty)