I've never read Homestuck but there's a type of media that I call "a Homestuck" and I think it's a useful categorization. The main criteria are:
long enough that the time investment is a serious barrier to entry
irrevocably changes your personality
brings something genuinely unique to the table. there is no real substitute for reading/playing/watching it in its entirety
Fate/Stay Night is a Homestuck. Worm is a Homestuck. When They Cry is a Homestuck.
Undertale has cultural impact similar to a Homestuck at first glance, but the fact that it's a pretty short and accessible game means that you don't get the particular mix of sunk cost fallacy and an intimate experience with a piece of media that results in you needing to connect with others who have already put in the time investment. You can buy your friends Undertale and expect them to play it if they're not too busy; telling a friend to read Homestuck is giving them a quest that, if accepted, will spark an odyssey. to read someone's Homestuck is an act of love without true equivalent.
Something I have been thinking about a fair bit recently is how important it is to know how to talk to people with dementia, and how so many people don't actually have any real awareness of how to do that, so, off the top of my head, here are a few things that might help:
the way you frame your conversations is important! People with dementia are often, particularly at the earlier stages, very much aware that their memory is getting worse. This can make them very anxious, which isn't fun for anyone, least of all them. One of the most common things that people say to people with dementia is "do you remember ___?" as a way to try and prompt their memory. This feels helpful, but it's not. Because hey, in all likelihood, that person does not remember ___, and being confronted with this fact is not going to make them feel great. Remember that they literally have a degenerative brain disease; they're not going to suddenly regain their memories because you tested them. Instead, try talking about your own memories. Tell them what you remember. Tell it like a story. If they remember, then they can join in. If not, then hey, it's a nice story.
don't correct them if they say something wrong. Their version of reality is not going to be the same as yours. That's just a given. My grandma is often convinced that she's just on a very long holiday in a nice hotel, and that her dad is waiting outside in the car. I'm not going to tell her "uh, actually, you're in a care home and your dad died 50 years ago," because who's that going to help? Quite literally no-one. It'll just confuse her more, and she's already confused enough. Even if the person is saying something that's making them anxious - a common one is believing that people are stealing from them, or that someone is being unkind to them - then it's easier to try and distract them by trying to talk about something that you know makes them happy, rather than to outright tell them that they're wrong. Being consistently told that they're wrong can make them react defensively; they're not children, and they (usually) know it. It's just easier not to get into a confrontation.
get used to repetition. Don't get frustrated when you have the same conversation 25 times in two minutes. It's going to happen. For them, it's the first time you've had that conversation; they won't understand why you're angry at them for asking a question. It's completely normal to feel frustrated, but the onus is on you not to make it their problem. My grandma's short term memory is, charitably, about 3 seconds long. A conversation with her at this point is like rehearsing for a play; I know her lines, and I know mine. That's just how it is. She gets just as much joy out of telling me that she likes my cardigan for the 86th time as she did the first time she said it. People with dementia are not able to retain the information or the memory of that previous conversation; reminding them that you've already answered their question is just going to confuse and upset them.
don't take things personally. They might say things that are unkind. They might say completely inappropriate things. Again: their brain is deteriorating. It is a medical condition. They're not becoming bad people, or showing their 'true selves' to be evil and rage-fuelled. It's a combination of the fact that they're living in a perpetual state of confusion, which can lead to frustration and anger, and the fact that their ability to process and respond to information is affected by the dementia itself. If they say something cruel to you, you just have to take it on the chin and recognise it as a symptom of a disease that they're not able to control. Step out of the room for a moment if it gets too much. I've been fortunate in that my grandma has never experienced this symptom, but it's very common, and it's no reflection of you, or them.
don't treat them like children. My grandmother is 92 years old and she will look at you like you're the bane of her life if you try and tell her what to do, or use baby talk. Keep your sentences short and clear to avoid confusion, but don't ask them if they need you to clean their wittle fingies.
try and avoid open-ended questions, especially ones that involve memory recall, like "what did you do on the weekend?". My grandma was an absolute queen at making shit up when people asked her that, because she couldn't remember a damn thing, and she never liked to admit that she couldn't remember, because it made her stressed and anxious. "I picked up leaves" was her personal favourite, for some reason. I used to just tell her about my weekend instead, and sometimes she would joyfully tell me (completely falsely) that she also went to the shops, and that was much less stressful for her; she wasn't actively trying to come up with an answer to cover for her own lack of memory, and instead felt like she was part of the conversation on her own, equal terms.
most importantly: don't try and pull them back to reality. The best way I've learnt to communicate with anyone with dementia is to enter theirs instead. Sometimes, this is referred to as 'validation therapy'. It's about acknowledging that the reality of someone with dementia is as real to them as your reality is to you, and you're not going to be able to 'reorient' them to your version of reality, because they don't have the short term memory or ability to retain information that would enable that. Put simply: if my grandma asks when my uncle is going to come home, I gain nothing from (correctly) informing her that he's dead. This just upsets her, because every time she hears it, she's receiving the news of his death for the first time. That sends her into a spiral of grief and anxiety that remains even after the memory of his death has vanished again. Instead, I just tell her that he'll be home after lunch. She nods, accepts it, and we're both happy. My uncle is still dead, but in her world, he's going to come home soon. It's a way of having empathy for the person with dementia, and acknowledging that your reality, or objective 'truth', is not more important than their wellbeing.
Godspeed, and best of luck to anyone who needs this advice, because I truly wish that no-one did.
I want to add an important addendum here, because people keep saying things in the tags / comments about people with psychosis, either saying 'this is all true for people with psychosis too!' or, conversely, 'this might not apply to people with psychosis', or even asking me if it does or doesn't, and I want to reiterate: this is solely about people with dementia.
I have no experience in dealing with people with psychosis. Please don't assume that this is blanket information that can be applied to anyone whose attachment to reality is affected or impaired. Brains are complicated, and it is actively harmful to make assumptions about how to help a person with one condition based on another.
I don't personally feel comfortable having this post make its way into that circle of discussion. It's not what it's intended for, and it may be actively harmful if people misapply it.
I would rather people didn't reblog this version of the post with further amendments about psychosis, because that's not what the post is about. I can't stop you, but please consider whether this is an appropriate place to do that.
idk if i told the full story on here but i signed up for a research study where they were testing a new opioid, and it was supposed to be up to 5 injections increasing the dose to see what people could tolerate
i got the first dose and almost immediately fainted. they had to call in a whole medical team and it was a huge fucking deal
i was kicked out of the study and got a phone call later where they were supposed to tell me what the drug was, so i could avoid it in the future. they told me it was saline water. a placebo. i fainted from the placebo effect.
anyway, it's been a few months and i just got an email from the same department asking me to be a research participant in a new study: testing the effects of open-label placebo.
open label placebo is when the subjects and the researchers all know it's a placebo. they're testing the power of my mind. my power to imagine anything.
i like to think that they chose me for this specifically based on their past experience with me. "get the guy who fainted like a little bitch boy from saline water." anyway i just submitted all my info and i'm looking forward to getting started.
it makes me sad beginner artists these days dont have a big art-focused site like deviantart to get started with anymore. you can imagine the edgy manga-inspired pencil on paper ocs i was drawing and posting on dA 15 years ago and i still got comments and encouragement and nice words from fellow artists and art enjoyers alike that i still think about sometimes. now its all corporate social media. now i can post to my 15k instagram account that i've been using for years and get zero comments. and what do the beginners get? stricter guidelines? intrusive numbers/impressions/insights? the only way to get eyes on your art is to post reels? or hop onto the latest fanart trend as fast as possible lest you be left behind? get real
to raise money, Wikipedia should do that thing CNN did where they sold shirts with headlines on them. I would kill for a shirt that had the article title and Wikipedia layout for Homosexuality in Medieval Europe
writing tip they don’t tell you is that in addition to reading good books you should occasionally read one really bad one so that it inspires you to write something better out of pure rage
worst part of using discord with a lot of fun custom emotes is that they become an instinctual part of your texting vernacular. what do you mean i can't just drop an :ashbaby: or :bergentruck: wherever i choose. these glyphs are central to my twisted version of the written english language; communicating without them is like casting a yet-fledged angel from the heavenly balusters and commanding it to soar
