I'd there anything that you'd like a prosthetic limb to be able to do? Like something that's not on the market but you could slip on to accomplish a task and then easily remove before it gets cumbersome?
I'm sorry i sat on this ask for so long, it's been very difficult to write an answer to this question that i feel is both honest and useful, but here's my best attempt at answering with what i consider to be an okayish amount of context...
I'm assuming you're asking because this post of mine blew up and got a lot of attention, and it looks like you're a maker that's keen on designing things to help disabled people and that's great! there are a lot of areas where products just don't exist but are of great help or need to people, and filling that gap is really really great! lots of people have lots of different needs, and many disabilities and situations can be helped with technological solutions, much of which need more development, both professionally and more grass roots.
but when it comes to my situation, ie upper limb amputee, i cannot stress enough: the problem is not prosthetic technology, the problem is other people, and ableism.
what i want people to focus on is that i can do almost everything i need to for myself without a prosthesis, using just my elbow, my nub (the soft squishy end of my residual limb), and a taking my time. a bit more awkward, a bit slower, more trips to the fridge and back, but i can do it. the things that i can't do myself, I'm lucky enough to have people to help me and happy to do so.
but what people actually focus on is prostheses, people love prostheses... so let's talk prostheses!
I have a myoelectric prosthetic "hand" - a big robot gripper that i can control with intentional nerve signals picked up via electrodes inside the socket that sits over my forearm; telling it to open and close on command, and controlling how fast it does so. the initial reason i wanted one was for soldering, because electronics is an on and off hobby i wanted to continue. I'm sure you know that through-hole soldering is at least a three handed job even for the regularly limbed, so i thought i needed it for that at least, and figured it would be handy (hah) to just wear all day for any task i might want two hands for.
well, in the four years of training and rehab and practice since... I'm fairly confident i don't actually need it for soldering, let alone anything else. my elbow grip and dexterity is good enough i can easily hold and aim a spool of solder without my prosthesis. i sometimes put it on to take out the trash, but that's just a time saver, it takes less trips and is faster than slinging bags over my nub arm. it has a little led flashlight in it that's useful at night outside sometimes? and as alluded to in the original post, it's got a small tip that can press little buttons that my nub can't, and that's the role i most often reach for it to fill.
but myo prostheses are a hassle to put on, often taking several attempts to get positioning right, it's hot and sweatty, there can be pressure sores, and it's real heavy in a way your shoulder never really gets used to. these are not really technological issues that need more research or smarts to solve, they're pretty fundamental limits of trying to attach any kind of medical devices to the human body. if i really had any big necessary use case for absolutely needing two hands, I'd go back to physical therapy and re-train to use a body powered prosthesis; the ones that secure with nice soft leather straps and use your opposing shoulder to control hook grip with tension wires. technology that hasn't changed in several centuries because we kinda already perfected it... it's low tech, reliable, has built in proportional control and feedback, and never features in science fiction because it's just not cool enough.
so why do i still bother? why keep my prosthesis, maintain it, have the socket padded so it keeps fitting, continue the slightly painful muscle control exercises instead of letting them atrophy and the damn robot hand sit on the shelf forever?
the problem is other people, and ableism.
when I leave the house in my natural body, nub on display for all to see (under an arm warmer because perpetually cold stump is a problem seemingly every amputee has to deal with)...
people stare. they notice me from a distance, no matter what i wear, how i carry my body. but it's not just staring. it's glaring, it's disgust, it's fear, it's dehumanisation. i have people recoil in horror, cross the street to avoid me, pull their children close to their bodies as if they might start dropping limbs if they get too close. people have stopped me in the street, from behind, demanding to know "what happened", I've had to get off trams at random stops to escape little old ladies insisting i disclose my highly traumatic medical history and that I'm being rude and uncooperative for not "educating" them on "such a fascinating curiosity"... or best yet, the one all my wheelchair using friends know inside out: forceful unwelcome "help" from strangers without even a hello, yet alone an ask. i once had a man leap to his feet and begin thrusting his hands towards my crotch because i wedged a water bottle between my thighs to unscrew the cap and he decided i was clearly incapable of doing it myself... and this isn't even getting into the ways that medical professionals treat me differently.
i go outside in my natural body, and I'm treated as a freak.
you know what happens when i go out wearing my prosthesis? children smile, adults mind their own goddamned business, leave me alone, and at absolute worst I've had a total of two people in four years talk to me about it, politely introducing themselves before saying "that's neat, how does it work?"...
because fiction and futurism have given people so many deeply ingrained fundamental ideas about prostheses and amputation that I am treated more like a human being while wearing a bulky robot claw with electrodes pressed into my skin, than when i dare to exist as i now naturally am.
this is also borne out by the hundreds of notes on my original post declaring we need to invest more, research more, design more, so that prosthetic technology is better and "works" and is cooler... and literally nobody asking why a piece of technology was designed in such a way that i needed to use my nose, needed to hold two buttons down simultaneously half a meter apart that are barely fingertip sized, when either of them being a toggle would work - a firmware fix that would take 30 seconds to implement if anyone actually thought about the real technological needs of limb different people, instead of scifi fantasies about improving prosthetic technology until its "indistinguishable from the human body", as if that goal should be self evidently desirable.
the actual technological solution to this situation, by the way, is a bracelet with a chopstick glued to it.
so.
*deep breath*
I'm sorry this was long and angry, I hope you can sense that my anger isn't directed at you, the question asker, but broadly at everyone and the way society perceives amputees/limb different people... and I hope anyone who reblogged my original post also shares this, because damn did tumblr miss the point of it!
to finish off, I'll give you the snippy snarky bitch response i originally had in consideration, before I decided to spend several hours on paragraphs of furiously slow one-thumbed attempt at shifting my audience's perception of prostheses... because legit it's great that you want to know how things can be improved for disabled people through technology! it's just that in this one particular case...
if you want to design some technology that would be most helpful to me but is totally absent from the current market, I'd like a portable pocket sized device that projects a psionic field to make ableds mind their own fucking business and just treat me like a human being when i go outside :3
I love kids they’re all like.. “when i grow up i’m gonna be an astronaut and a chef and a doctor and an olympic swimmer” like that self confidence! That drive! That optimism! Where does it go
Edit: Some posts may be deleted
Character Arcs
Making Character Profiles
Character Development
Comic Relief Arc
Internal Conflict
Character Voices
Creating Distinct Characters
Creating Likeable Characters
Writing Strong Female Characters
Writing POC Characters
Building Tension
Writing Grumpy x Sunshine Tropes
Intrigue in Storytelling
Enemies to Lovers
Alternatives to Killing Characters
Worldbuilding
Misdirection
Consider Before Killing Characters
Foreshadowing
Emphasising the Stakes
Avoid Info-Dumping
Writing Without Dialogue
1st vs. 2nd vs. 3rd Perspective
Fight Scenes (+ More)
Transitions
Pacing
Writing Prologues
Dialogue Tips
Writing War
Writing Cheating
Worldbuilding: Questions to Consider
Creating Laws/Rules in Fantasy Worlds
Connected vs. Stand-Alone Series
A & B Stories
Writing YouTube Channels, Podcasts, & Blogs
Online Writing Resources
Outlining/Writing/Editing Software
Losing Passion/Burnout
Overcoming Writer's Block
How To Name Fantasy Races (Step-by-Step)
Naming Elemental Races
Naming Fire-Related Races
How To Name Fantasy Places
Character Ask Game #1
Character Ask Game #2
Character Ask Game #3
1000 Follower Post
2000 Follower Poll
Writing Fantasy
Urgent ‼️ essential 🙏‼️🇵🇸💔
It’s so important to take a look please 😔🙏🙏
Hello my friends I’m Huda from Gaza, a woman trying to save her first baby and trying to protect him by all means😔 I have made two previous campaigns and I have been facing so many problems in both of them so A friend of mind made me a new link to help me get needed help and donations 😔💔
I have been vetted previously by @dlxxv-vetted-donations in tumblr and @molly shah on blue sky and @barbara on X. Here are screenshots for the vetting and verification
I hope you could help me and vet my campaign again plz @dlxxv-vetted-donations @90-ghost @gazavetters 🙏😔🙏
Please share, and donate as much as possible my friends to save my baby from death and help me buy my baby basic needs please 💔😔🙏🇵🇸‼️
Here is the new link:
Saw a post and it really got me thinking.
The post was talking about why don’t lower support needs, higher masking individuals even believe that higher support needs, low masking, “severely autistic” people, exist. And that got me really thinking. Because, I do think they know we exist. I just don’t think they want too.
I don’t think they want to know we exist. They know we exist, but keep us on the back burner. They live in ignorance bliss of us. I have what some people would think of as severe autism. Im nonverbal (although nonverbal later in life. But outside people don’t care about that. They see nonverbal as nonverbal), I’m intellectually disabled, need help in everyday life, etc. but I’m in the middle. I’m moderate support needs. To me, I’m not severely autistic. But to society, I am considered and seen as severely autistic because society doesn’t have the understanding of moderate autism yet. They don’t understand it. And I’ve seen more times than I can count that severe autism doesn’t exist. Not because they don’t believe in severe autism the label itself because it’s “harmful” but because they don’t believe that it’s just caused by autism. They often believe that’s it’s caused by comorbidities. Like ID, or cerebral palsy, or apraxia/dyspraxia, or mobility issues, or genetic conditions, and so on. Although none of this is bad.
They believe that autism itself can’t create severe autism. Which…isn’t true. Before, it was believed that severe autism was the only type of autism. That it was the only type that existed and if you weren’t severely autistic then you weren’t autistic. Then more research happened, then social media happened, and now..white, lower support needs, high masking, late diagnosed individuals are the majority of what’s being centered. And, that isn’t bad. We need awareness of all autism. But when one type of autism gets centered, it becomes a problem. It becomes the new norm. It becomes what everyone expects out of autism now. Which, isn’t true. Autism all of all types and traits exists. Autism of all support needs exists.
When people say severe autism doesn’t exist, they’re ignoring and saying that a BIG percentage of autistic people don’t exist. They’re saying that we aren’t real. That we aren’t on the internet, or in the communities they live in, or in their schools, or whatever. We’re everywhere. Severe autism is still a thing. It isn’t a misdiagnosis. It isn’t from comorbities, although if someone’s autism is more severe from comorbidities then that isn’t bad.
I think a lot of people need to be more aware of severe autism. And not just severe autism like me or my mutuals, or the people you see here on tumblr. But the ones with even MORE severe autism. The ones who live in group homes, residentials, institutions, and so on. The ones who aren’t on the internet. The ones who aren’t here blogging about their lives. We need to be aware of them too. We need to believe they exist, and believe that their autism is real.
Don’t erase severe or profound autism.
There needs to be a real discussion about how y'all cannot help but dequeer intersex people. It's not intersex kids being forced into/pressured into SRS, its lucky cis kids. it's not a trans woman, its someone who's birth sex is "too close" to being female so they are "basically cis". Some of you queers are allergic to acknowledging intersex people are their own group, with their own diverse experiences, and their own struggles that deserve conversations that do not centre you.
Overemphasizing someone as cis (even if they tell you otherwise) as a way to undermine their voice as an intersex person is erasure. Barring us from queerness is erasure of our struggles. How can you call yourself someone who is a supoorter of the LGBT when you only care about yourself? Your voice matters as much as that of a white feminist's.
academy
adventurer's guild
alchemist
apiary
apothecary
aquarium
armory
art gallery
bakery
bank
barber
barracks
bathhouse
blacksmith
boathouse
book store
bookbinder
botanical garden
brothel
butcher
carpenter
cartographer
casino
castle
cobbler
coffee shop
council chamber
court house
crypt for the noble family
dentist
distillery
docks
dovecot
dyer
embassy
farmer's market
fighting pit
fishmonger
fortune teller
gallows
gatehouse
general store
graveyard
greenhouses
guard post
guildhall
gymnasium
haberdashery
haunted house
hedge maze
herbalist
hospice
hospital
house for sale
inn
jail
jeweller
kindergarten
leatherworker
library
locksmith
mail courier
manor house
market
mayor's house
monastery
morgue
museum
music shop
observatory
orchard
orphanage
outhouse
paper maker
pawnshop
pet shop
potion shop
potter
printmaker
quest board
residence
restricted zone
sawmill
school
scribe
sewer entrance
sheriff's office
shrine
silversmith
spa
speakeasy
spice merchant
sports stadium
stables
street market
tailor
tannery
tavern
tax collector
tea house
temple
textile shop
theatre
thieves guild
thrift store
tinker's workshop
town crier post
town square
townhall
toy store
trinket shop
warehouse
watchtower
water mill
weaver
well
windmill
wishing well
wizard tower
• Children all have access to magic, but as they get older, their powers fade away.
• Mastering even the most basic spell takes years of training.
• “We killed the gods. Turns out that doing that destroyed magic.”
• The amount and strength of magic is inversely proportional to the level of industrialization.
• Characters don’t know what kind of magic they have and must embark on a long and arduous journey in order to find out what they can do.
• “We can use magic, but only on the microscopic scale.”
• The reason why magic doesn’t work is that no one believes in it anymore.
• To cast a spell, one must play the correct tune on a specific instrument.
• Only maker of staffs, rods, and wands has a 10,000 year long waiting list.
• Magic comes from the stars…and it can go no faster than the speed of light.
• The power of magic waxes and wanes. Right now is the part of the cycle where magic is at its weakest.
• People once had a symbiotic relationship with organisms that gave them the power of magic. The organism has been extinct for centuries.
• As the use of magic has a destabilizing effect on the universe, a secret society exists with the sole purpose of killing all magic users before they destroy the universe (some of whom have deliberately attempted to cause an apocalypse).
• “You must sacrifice a part of you in order to use magic. It could be a part of your body, it could also be your identity, or even your very soul.”
for everyone who needs a little reassurance and hope.
Remember, everyone, we still have a system in place and the Constitution still exists. We are not in a full dictatorship, yet. We can not give in to despair at every single thing this new administration does, because those checks still exist.
And until they don't - and that's a big if - we must keep our heads about us. Do not panic. Do not fall into apathy. Do not do anything irreversible.
The system will not save us, but it can protect us from the worst possible outcome for now.
And we will continue to fight even once it can't or won't.
Since Kaveh is the one taking the picture... does that mean that Alhaitham deliberately left some space empty next to him so Kaveh would sit there??
The most logical, and fastest, solution would be to have Kaveh sit at the end of the row, but he isn't. (Also we are absolutely going to think about how he is leaning into Alhaitham)
Awesome! Thank you so much. I will definitely link it to you once I've edited, recorded and uploaded it all.
Hi, I'm a big fan of your fanfic entirely out of spite and I also dabble in voice acting a little. I was wondering if I could make an audio reading of your fic to sort of accompany reading it and upload it to youtube (links to fic included ofc).
It likely wouldn't be like professional quality or anything. But I wanted to ask permission before I considered uploading something like that anywhere, seeing as its your work.
Hope you have a great day and honestly your writing is incredible.
Hey there! Thank you for your interest in Entirely Out of Spite! Yes! Please go ahead and make an audio reading of the story! Once you upload it, I’d love to have the link as well.
Also, in case you need to reference my author name (and because I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me to ask), here’s how you pronounce bgtea: bee-gee-tee.