(As of 2001, anyway…)

I feel like people miss the point of the "war is bad" message

What it's supposed to mean is that war is terrible, it's destructive, it ruins lives, it leaves scars, and you should only partake in it when there are no other options, because even if you win, even if you survive, you will not be the same, which is why the phrase used to be more commonly known as "war is hell"

But "war is bad" seems to have been construed by people in fandom into "any fighting is bad, if you fight you're morally terrible and impure, you should not fight at all, no matter what", this is annoying in fandom, as it often misses the point fiction is trying to make, but what's worrisome is when people apply this to real life, as I have seen people do regarding russia's invasion of Ukraine

And that's almost never the point of "War is Bad" works

Works like lotr, atla, transformers, the clone wars, etc all have themes on how horrible war is, but they categorically do not say it is wrong to fight, what they say is usually along the lines of "war is terrible, and what makes it so terrible is that we have no choice but to fight, it would be ideal if we didn't have to fight at all, but we must fight, because not fighting is not an option, because not fighting, not opposing tyranny, conquest, and evil only allows those things to exist unimpeded"

You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me

In light of recent posts, I find myself wondering - if wizards can boil water almost instantly for the expenditure of a little personal energy, have they figured out how to caramelize onions quickly? Nita briefly wonders about culinary wizardry (in Wizard’s Holiday, if I recall correctly) but I can only imagine the possibilities!

Probably there are methods that would work. But I'm finding it all too easy to hear what the onion would have to say about that... looking back at that discussion with the lettuce.

—I'm sorry, you want me to what?? Excuse me very much, but I am being transmuted, here! I am in the process of leaning a whole new style of existence! I who was only ever fierce and overwhelming am being made subtle and sweet! I am becoming something I thought was never even going to be possible for me! Here I am, in fact, relinquishing my old state of being for a new one—indeed, right in the middle of dying in slow nurturing fire and ascending into glory—and you want me to rush? Fine. Be that way. And when you're in your last moments of your old existence and relishing your last chance to say farewell to all you've been and once held dear, I hope some unsympathetic transdimensional being that forgot to pack enough fucking Planck time comes along and tells you to hurry up. But yeah, sure, go right ahead. Just try to push me. I am going to scorch so bad. Won't waste my time feeling guilty about it, either. ...Gonna give you heartburn, too. Just watch, smutbutt.

...In any case, on the whole, I suspect that wizards who routinely work in the culinary mode need to be either quite patient, or made of fairly stern stuff. :)

HTH.

i'm sorry but this is the only submission to this trend that i'll consider giving any thought to

As a wheelchair user I'm trying to reframe my language for "being in the way."

"I'm in the way," "I can't fit," and "I can't go there," is becoming "there's not enough space," "the walkway is too narrow," and "that place isn't accessible."

It's a small change, but to me it feels as if I'm redirecting blame from myself to the people that made these places inaccessible in the first place. I don't want people to just think that they're helping me, I want them to think that they're making up for someone else's wrongdoing. I want them to remember every time I've needed help as something someone else caused.

“Commander Vimes didn't like the phrase 'The innocent have nothing to fear', believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like 'The innocent have nothing to fear'.” -- Discworld (Snuff)

Internet Safety

Spanish Jackie for NYCC! First time I styled a wig I added wefts and shaped those curls there. Felt completely badass all I needed were about 20 husbands.

New discourse: it's actually predatory to date someone with a different star sign than you, because the differences in your personalities means you'll never be able to have exactly the same life experiences, thus leaving a knowledge and power gap between the two of you which will inevitably lead to an abusive relationship!

also if you're a Sag and you're dating a Taurus, that means you're secretly seeking a May-December relationship, which is age gap coded!

i learned about Tim Wong who successfully and singlehandedly repopulated the rare California Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly in San Francisco. In the past few years, he’s cultivated more than 200 pipevine plants (their only food source) and gives thousands of caterpillars to his local Botanical Garden (x)

I have just learned that Mountain Goats are NOT, in fact, actual Goats.

fandom tumblr was another casualty of streaming services. we used to be on here posting about the episodes that were coming out weekly and posting gifs and writing insane shit about the tv shows we liked. now a new season of a show will drop and we’ll talk about it for a week. two weeks tops. and then that show will leave collectively conscious for 1+ year till the next season drops. there’s a reason succession sundays was a blast on here

we used to have real television