I rarely post work stuff here, but I did these for a special issue called "Poison Ivy: Uncovered" last year, and someone suggested I post them 😏

BRIE LARSON AS CAROL DANVERSThe Marvels (2023) dir. Nia DaCosta

julianradwildlife

not to be That Person but when people are like “why isn’t there a big fandom culture anymore?” umm…

maybe this is why???? That an author can spend hours (if not days or weeks or months) on something, have 1,800 people read it, and only have THREE people willing to take a few extra seconds out of their day to comment. Not even something as simple as “thanks for sharing” or “second kudos” or “❤️”

I’m not the internet police. You decide what you do with your time. Just don’t be surprised if the result is that creators leave your fandoms. I’m not writing to scream into the void. If that’s what I wanted, I wouldn’t bother posting. Fandom is a community. It’s an exchange of enthusiasm over this thing we all love. And who’s gonna keep showing up at your house with a goodie basket if all you do is take the basket, slam the door, and leave them outside to watch through the window while you eat?

There's an adhd hack which I wanna describe but it's going to sound sort of fake and sort of like I'm saying "just do the thing" which I'm not.

Basically it can be impossible to start doing the thing, but once you've started it, it's actually fine right? It's just FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE to start it, especially because you don't want to do it.

So I've got this way where I start it "without meaning to" a bit like if you were standing on the edge of the cliff and unable to make yourself jump off but... but you can jerk your body violently-- then you're falling and you don't really get a say in the matter any more.

A good example of this is not wanting to make a call. So you'd sit there and plan what you want to rehearse and hit the button when you're ready... or not, because actually you'd put the phone down and run off to do literally anything else.

So instead, I just hit call really fast, with no actual intention to make the call. Oh shit I really don't want to but now it's ringing and oh shit someone picked up and now we're already rolling and it'd be worse to hang up than to just talk--

I do the same thing with timers and work tasks where I've trained my brain to only be 'winning' the 'game' when the 15m timer is running so now if I hit the timer I'm like 'oh shit work started and I'm LOSING' and I'll jump up to do exactly 15 minutes of work... Only now I've already started and I might as well keep going, right?

Turning tasks into "reactions" not "actions"-- And reacting is way easier.

It's kind of setting the "poor impulse control" part of ADHD against the "Procrastination" part and making them fight.

I love this technique! I think part of what makes it effective is sort of 'isolating' the hard part of a task. With the phone call example, the hard part is Making The Call, aka pressing the button, but typing out the phone number? That's not making the call! That's easy! And now, by pure coincidence, the call button is right there under your finger. Why it would take but a single intrusive thought to- gasp! There it goes!

It could also be 'I'm not doing my homework, I'm just going to lay it out on my desk with my pencils and highlighters' or 'I'm not going for a walk, I'm just putting on my shoes'

The cliff analogy is an especially good one because the 'jerking your body' technique only works if you're already standing right on the very edge. You gotta get as close to the Task as possible without your brain realizing what you're doing so it doesn't have time to react when you SLAM the door shut like luring a cat into a carrier

It’s kind of setting the “poor impulse control” part of ADHD against the “Procrastination” part and making them fight

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Omg yes I call this the Netflix foot in the door. Like when Netflix plays the next episode on default you're like I GUESS we're gonna watch another episode, but for tasks that have to be done (comment courtesy of @outragedtortilla)

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Yeah I do the “I’ll just do one” trick. I’ll just put one thing in the dishwasher. Then I can quit. (But ya know… I might also get distracted and keep going until the kitchen is clean… by mistake.) But if the pain or fatigue hits I can quit, and because I did in fact do one, I still get to count it as winning! (comment courtesy of @tryan-a-bex)

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

me: how about you stop “scrolling” your “dash” and start dashing to deliver me scrolls

my useless apprentice: why do you pay the homunculus more than me

I don't know if this was obvious to everyone else, but I just realised that one of the reasons why the Hobbit is so effective as a children's book is that while Bilbo is an adult, the skills that make him a hero are all those of a child.

By human standards he's child-sized, which makes him unobtrusive and light on his feet. He can slip by unnoticed where bigger people can't.

He's good at playing games, and even cheats (successfully!) in a way that - let's face it - is not so different to how children try to cheat at games. He's polite in a way that's fully comprehensible to children (rather than, say, being able to perform courtly manners). He's quick-witted, but the trick of keeping the trolls talking is also one that would be achievable for a child.

He doesn't have magic powers, he's not a great fighter, and he's not some kind of Chosen One. There's not much that he does that couldn't be done by a ten-year-old, but the story shows just how valuable all those skills and traits are. It's very empowering.

@mori-no-majou why hide this in the tags?