Halle Berry As: Blanche, Leader Of Team Mystic

Years ago back when I worked in cubicle land, we were hiring junior software developers. They didn’t have to have a ton of experience, just a willingness to learn, and some demonstration of their software skills. Like: show me a program you wrote (any language) or a web site you designed. Anything.

And there was this one guy I talked with who seemed super sharp, but had virtually zero experience writing software. When it came time to do the show-n-tell part of the interview he whips out his laptop, brings up a website, and spins it around to show me what he made.

A website of tiny ceramic frogs.

Not for sale. Just… all these ceramic frogs, organized into categories. Frogs on bicycles, frogs with hats, frogs sitting on lily pads. It was a virtual museum of ceramic frogs in web form.

I scrolled through his online collection of frogs, slightly baffled.

“This is your website?” I asked finally.

“Yep!”

“You coded this yourself?” I popped into view-source mode and poked around some incredibly well-formatted, well-commented html. I nodded slowly. This guy was meticulous.

“Yep!”

“So… where’d all the frogs come from?”

“I made those too,” he says, beaming. 

And while I’m processing this he rummages in his bag and pulls out a little ceramic frog working at a computer terminal. He places it on the table before us, next to the laptop.

“And THIS one,” he says, “I made for you! As a thank you for the interview.”

It was adorable. I hired him on the spot. I mean, why not? Worst case he’d wash out in 90 days and we’d hire somebody else. He turned out to be one of the best developers on our team. 

And yes, his cubicle was loaded with ceramic frogs.

No one:

Me, in a weird point of deconversion/relearning stuff where I can’t do a lot of technical stuff I frequently did in fundamentalist environment I was raised in anymore, but I also don’t know how to do a lot of technical stuff I have to do in the secular environment I’m in now, that others grew up being taught how to do:

I finally moved out and told my parents I was leaving the cult. Moving was fine i suppose but the phone conversation explaining my stance was much more emotional than I expected.

My parents aren't the type to question their beliefs so I wasn't going to put effort into explaining myself, but they kept pushing. They had preconceived notions that I was just bitter or foolish and kept poking only to have me explain how their bigotry made my life hell. My dad tried to play off the slurs and awful things he said as jokes only to have to come to terms with the fact that I grew up feeling unlovable and disgusting because of him.

Now I'm waiting for them to decide if they ever want to talk to me again. They're crushed but still miss the point. Rather than realizing "homophobia bad" they took "we did homophobia wrong". While I can't say I wanted to spill so much to them, I'm happy that they have to live with what they've done.

I really do wish people would stop giving me things. It makes me feel very guilty, because I know I’m going to leave them and take some of those things with me. I feel like I’m using them even though I know they’re using me.

Emotions are fun.

Okay but shout out to religious trauma/cult survivors who don't have the most talked about no-nuanced "I'm an atheist now" response to everything. There's definitely a sense that if you go from one state of believing in a god/religion to another that you're somehow weaker than other survivors or that you're trapped in a cycle, and whilst it is good to look for patterns found in your original religion, I don't think this is the case at all.

Like, if you worship another god now, if you found some other spiritual practice that's soothing, or if you just don't know what is out there and just kind of vaguely pray to anyone who might be out there, you're not delusional* or dictated only by your trauma. You're allowed to believe again, if you want to, in whatever helps you.

(* being delusional isn't a bad thing to be btw)

Made this with a picrew that was cute and great for pride month! I like how customizable it is. Makes me wish I had a button maker tho.

Picrew

lgbt identity badge maker

hey here's a thing to make a pronoun/identity badge thing enjoy! here's a list of the flags and pronouns included: https://thenerdyfandomex

i really do wish there was more support in place for ex-muslim women, online or elsewhere. it feels like most of us hesitate to speak too publicly about this because we're scared it will just feed into the islamophobic and racist sentiments many people already have, i know i do.

but alot of the major ex-muslim orgs and spaces i've come across are full of men who might have left the religion but not the misogyny lmao. hell even on here most ex-muslims have just decided to trade one bigotry for another and go full blown t//rf. like there really isnt a space we can talk about and criticize our experiences without people using it as fuel for their own personal bigoted beliefs, whether its racism or misogyny or transphobia.

I'm into pokemon cards now. I drive around looking for places that have them, covet their beauty, and then use them to destroy my enemies in combat. Add in the gambler's high and you've got an amazing pastime.