After Two Long Nights, It’s Finally Finished

Wow, people really don’t reblog on here anymore. I mean, the ratio of likes to reblogs has really changed a lot compared to even a year ago. (This is even on relevant, popular blog posts)

It used to be more even, people would ‘like’ and reblog it right after or put it in a queue. It seems like less and less people are seeing artist’s work and I couldn’t figure out why until I noticed the ‘like’s going up and the reblogs going down. I see more people stealing art and reposting it on Instagram than reblogging these days, and it’s kind of really bad for artists.

This kind of thing is costing a lot of us our livelihoods. Myself, and a ton of other disabled artists rely on reblogs to get commissions, merchandise sales, and Patreons.

Tumblr is a community (sometimes it’s a pornbot community but I mean) and we rely on those in the community to boost our stuff out to those who maybe don’t follow us but would be interested, or those who are looking for an artist to commission and haven’t seen us in the fandom tag yet, or those looking for that exact gift for someone and, hey, I make that.

If this is simply just a matter of the site dying and folks moving to another site, maybe let us know? Because I know that I’m not the only one struggling with this right now, and none of us seem to know what to do about it except keep posting and hope that people deem our art important enough to share on their blogs like they used to.

(Which is getting harder and harder to do when we’re feeling discouraged by the seemingly lack of interest, and, you know, our own personal problems.)

So, if you don’t want your artist’s to disappear or, you know, uh, lose their entire income, please remember reblog.

People need to realize that there’s a difference between straight people and Straight People™

Ladies and Gentlemen, you might want to take off your trousers and slip into a bathrobe because things are about to get pretty steamy in here.

I’m beyond excited to officially unveil for you the beautiful cover of my upcoming book, “Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse!”

I’m sure many of you temporarily lost consciousness when your eyes fell upon the sheer sexiness of my girlfriend, Hannah, and I posing in such a sultry position, so I’ll give you a minute to regain your strength before I continue. I hope you’ll wipe up your drool and keep reading because I have a few very important things to say about this book.

My name is Shane Burcaw, and I was born with a lovely muscle-wasting disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. I’m working really hard to use my time on this earth to create a positive, lasting impact. Specifically, my goal is to change the way society looks at disability. This book is the next step in that journey.

One of the biggest stigmas about people with disabilities is that we are incapable and unworthy of romantic relationships. To give you an example, I run a YouTube channel with Hannah, and every time we post a new episode, people inevitably comment with theories as to why on earth we are dating. Here are just a few of my favorites:

“Don’t get me wrong - he seems like a good dude - but I ain’t buying it. She’s either his nurse or good friend and this is an act, or she’s got a couple screws loose.”

“Ask yourself, would you date him? NO, YOU WOULDN’T. What is the catch here?”

“This [relationship] is abnormal and frankly disgusting.”

Aren’t these fun? Jokes aside, this is but a small indication of the vast and innumerable ways that people with disabilities are discriminated against on a daily basis. I am determined to change that situation.

My strategy is humor. In “Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse” I use funny stories from my life to show readers that using a wheelchair is not some horrid, depressing existence. I’m a person, and my disability should not invoke pity or aversion, but rather, respect and love and kindness, just like we all deserve.

If you personally support that idea, please please please consider sharing this post. My ability to make a difference in this world is solely hinged upon spreading my story to as many people as possible, and YOU hold that power for me!

In celebration of my new book, and to raise funds for my nonprofit organization (which teaches children across the country about disability awareness and pride), I am hosting a HUGE online event scheduled for 8pm EST on November 27th. Entertainment will include a reading from “Strangers Assume”, an open Q&A where you can ask me anything you’d like, never-before-heard stories, and other special surprises! Your ticket purchase will help us provide adaptive technology to individuals living with muscular dystrophy in December 2018.

Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to share this exciting news. Below are all the important links you need regarding my new book and the live event on Nov 27th.

Pre-order “Strangers Assume” - https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Assume-My-Girlfriend-Nurse/dp/1626727708

Pre-order autographed copy of “Strangers Assume” - https://www.laughingatmynightmare.com/shop

Nov 27th Exclusive Event Tickets - https://www.laughingatmynightmare.com/events

Matt Carr (genius photographer who shot the cover) Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/themattcarr/?hl=en

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If you paladin rolls a natural one when smiting evil, instead of being smoten, evil is smitten. Now they wander around with a blushing demon bashfully writing poetry about them constantly

I dunno how to take gif but me and my throwing knives are ready

don't even know what we fighting but bloodshed's bloodshed I guESS

Silently you stared at your best friend, trying to absorb everything they had just told you.

“You’re……you’re certain?” You asked hesitantly.

Frantically your friend nodded, clutching tightly at their shirt as they fought back tears. The sight made your chest ache, though you couldn’t blame them for it. After all they had been through, and everything that was happening now, you were surprised they were holding up so well at all.

Letting out a shaky sigh, you rubbed your hand over your face, heart aching at the sight of their fear, their fear of you, of your reaction. Your heart only ached even more as you opened your arms to them, seeing their genuine shock at the display of acceptance. Bitterly you swallowed back your anger, wishing you could get revenge on every one who had betrayed them, but knowing that your friend needed you to be with them right now.

As they practically folded themselves into your chest, body trembling, you rubbed your hands up and down their back, absently taking in the new chill of their body, the chill that would now forever be a part of them.

“We’ll figure it out together, alright? I’m not going anywhere…. We can get through this” You promised firmly.

You pretended not to hear the rough sobs and broken thank yous they let out, as they curled even tighter into you, afraid to wrap their arms around you, like you did them. Silently you wished for every single person who turned their back on them to face retribution three fold for all they had done, wishing that you had been there to shield them from the heartbreak. 

They never deserved this.

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Many of you may know that I keep youtube playlists of language samples, and I thought it was about time to compile them all into one post. They contain pretty much anything where you can hear the language clearly – music, dialogues, tutorials, movie trailers, readings, etc. I’ll probably add more in the future. Hope someone finds them useful!

afrikaans

ainu

akkadian

albanian

american sign language (ASL)

amharic

angolan portuguese

arabic

aramaic

aranese

armenian

aromanian

assamese

asturian

aymara

azerbaijani

bashkir

basque

bavarian

belarusian

belizean creole

bengali

berbice creole dutch

biblical (classical) hebrew

bosnian

brazilian portuguese

breton

british sign language

bulgarian

canadian french

cantonese

cape verdean creole

catalan

chechen

cherokee

chickasaw

coptic

cornish

corsican

cree

crimean tatar

croatian

crow

czech

danish

dogri

dutch

early modern english

egyptian

emilian-romagnol

esperanto

estonian

etruscan

faroese

fijian

finnish

flemish

french

french sign language (LSF)

frisian

fula (fulani, fulah, peul)

galician

gallo

garifuna

georgian

gottscheerish

greek

greenlandic

griko

gujarati

gullah

guyanese creole

haitian creole

hawaiian

hawaiian pidgin

hebrew

hiberno-english (irish english)

hindi

hindko

hittite

hungarian

icelandic

indonesian

irish

italian

jamaican patois

japanese

javanese

kannada

karelian

kashmiri

kazakh

khmer

kinyarwanda

konkani

korean

kristang

kurdish

kyrgyz

ladino

lakota

latin

latin american spanish

lebanese arabic

lemko

lithuanian

livonian

lombard

louisiana french

luganda

luo

luxembourgish

macedonian

malagasy

malay

malayalam

maltese

mandarin

maori

mariupol greek

martinique creole

mayan (general)

meitei (manipuri)

mirandese

mongolian

mossi

nahuatl

neapolitan

nheengatu (língua geral amazônica)

norwegian

nuosu (yi)

odia

ojibwe

okinawan

old english

old french

old norse

old welsh

pashto

pennsylvania german

persian

piedmontese

polari

polish

punjabi

rajasthani

rioplatense spanish

romani (general)

romanian

romansh

russian

ryukyuan

saint lucian creole

salish

sami (general)

samoan

santali

saraiki

scots

scottish gaelic

serbian

shanghainese (hu dialect, wu chinese)

shona

sicilian

silesian

sindhi

slovak

slovene

soga

somali

sumerian

swabian

swahili

swedish

swiss german

tagalog

tahitian

taíno

tajik

tamazight (general)

tamil

tatar

telugu

texas german

thai

tibetan

tlingit

tocharian

tokelauan

tongan

totonac

trinidadian french creole

tuareg

turkish

turkmen

ukrainian

urdu

uzbek

venetian

vietnamese

vurës

welsh

wolof

yiddish

zaza (zazaki)

zulu

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For any people who could become pregnant in Georgia, know that the awful six-week abortion ban is NOT in effect yet. A lot of news outlets are failing to report this so I thought I would help spread the word. Don’t panic if you’re pregnant or might be pregnant and want an abortion. The ban won’t go into effect until January 1, 2020. And that’s only if it survives legal challenges.

However, with the courts and SCOTUS as they are now, it actually might survive. Get an IUD when you can, if you can. For others, if you were wanting a vasectomy, get that done soon.

Mammals both produce milk and have hair. Ergo, a coconut is a mammal.

I feel like the best way to respond to someone you’re friends with making gross, racist, sexist etc. jokes isn’t to argue with them or call them out directly, but just to kind of wince at them like they just did something incredibly inappropriate and awkward and try to change the subject. Like, almost in an exaggerated way, like you’re just really disgusted and want to forget they said it. Arguing with them lets them 1) shoehorn you as a “SJW” and shut themselves off to you 2) defend their opinion or feel like they did and 3) lets you end up categorized as the person who did the inappropriate thing by making a “big deal” out of it. But acting like you would with any extremely gross and inappropriate thing makes it harder for them to mentally defend themselves and thus to avoid feeling weird and ashamed. It prevents them from getting in any way satisfied by your reaction or validated in their views. It makes them the person that broke a rule. And anyway, it is really gross and inappropriate to joke like that. It has to be a taboo, not just a viewpoint or a style of humor that some people don’t like. If you argue, it frames the issue as an opinion. If you just show disgust and displeasure and treat the offensive material like you would a pile of dog shit on a sidewalk you’re walking down, it’s not arguable. It’s an action, with nothing intellectual about it, and there’s nothing for them to defend against. 

Anyone have any thoughts? Has anybody tried this?