I just think people who clean public spaces should make no less than $100,000 a year

people say folks with adhd struggle with "delayed rewards" aka long term goals and as such we tend to focus more on short term rewards. what they don't talk about is that at when we Do accomplish long term goals we don't actually feel anything proportionate to the amount of work we did to achieve it. In my head I suffered for a while and then money spontaneously appeared in my bank account.

a lot of the coverage of the Palestinian genocide is focusing on the US student protests and the narrative is constantly in danger of shifting away from what the protests are actually about and a lot of the language is now speaking in terms of police brutality, silencing of free speech, etc. It's not a radical thing to say that this isn't exactly helpful to the Palestinian cause if the actual reasons for the protests aren't constantly front and center. A lot of people have already made this point. I do not think the genie can necessarily be put back in the bottle with how the protests and the police reaction to them are entering the public consciousness of the USian people. A lot of people are or will become aware of these protests through the lense of these simply being instances of police brutality, and police brutality is a critical issue that many USamericans are very passionate about thus making it difficult to reframe the context of these images of police slamming white professors into pavement towards awareness of Israels decades long illegal occupation and systematic and indiscriminate displacement and murder of Palestinians. What I feel needs to be done is try to reframe these images flooding the internet not *away* from issues of police brutality and homesoil fascism, but in the wider context of imperialist governments taking the lessons they learn oppressing "foreign peoples" and turning them inwards. That police brutality is not disconnected from imperialist mass murder. That the one thing connecting the assaulted USian protester and the trans israeli denied gender affirming care for refusing to serve in the fascist Israeli military and the Palestinian child buried alive for the crime of being Palestinian... the one thing connecting them is that, sooner or later, they are all victims of power. Our rights are granted to us inequitably, unevenly, and are just as quickly stripped away when we do not serve the interests of fascist power. We are either a tool of the state or an enemy of the state. The Palestinian, not the innocent or the guilty but the human being Palestinian, is murdered because she can not be useful to the state while she is still breathing. She can never have the "privilege" of being a tool. I'll say it again: We outside of Palestine who can go to protests, who have families, who are able bodied, who can work, who can keep their head down or speak without immediate retaliation have the "honor" of choosing to be a tool of the state or an enemy of the state. The Palestinian has no choice.

There will always be an armed cop ready to arrest you and kill your brother as long as there is a bomb ready to drop on the heads of Palestinian children. Fascism trickles up and inward.

UW-Milwaukee and UW-Madison have put up student encampments this morning (apr 29)

This is Maggie's worm collection

She loves her worms more than any other toy. She plays with them loads and carries them around the house

At night the worms have to go in a box so that she doesn't wake me up playing with them. So every evening before bed I gather up the worms, put them in their box and have Maggie say goodnight to them.

Night night worms!

big if true

do you want to see the best trail cam photo ever

the way the final i'm writing rn is going to cite milton and andrea long chu. academia is bad but i love that they'll let you say anything

I saw Les Mis live for the first time the other weekend, and the surprising standout performance for me was Kyle Adams as Grantaire. He is a performer who has obviously read the Brick, and uses all of his stagetime to convey as many aspects of Brick Grantaire as possible; he also reads Grantaire’s love for Enjolras as explicitly gay and romantic (there’s a moment I’ll talk about later where he blows him a kiss.) I was actually surprised by how much he managed to convey in so little time!

Some highlights:

When Enjolras is asking for a “report on the strength of the foe,” Grantaire enthusiastically raises his hand, posturing and gesturing wildly at himself to volunteer. Enjolras casts him a disdainful look like “anyone elSE?” And that’s when Javert jumps in with his “I can find out the truth.” It’s like a small silent version of the Barrier du Maine scene; Grantaire was really giving that “je suis farouche.”

In general, there was this repeated Thing where Grantaire obnoxiously acts out in order to get Enjolras’s attention, and then flails around uselessly whenever he actually has it. Very in character.

Grantaire often goes on uproariously and jokingly about love; then, whenever he’s approached by Enjolras, he doesn’t seem to understand what to do about it.

Whenever Enjolras is singing dramatically about revolution— during Red and Black, Do You Hear the People Sing, and One Day More— Grantaire gazes at up at him with a amazed, awed, and overwhelmed look on his face, sometimes with his hand on his heart.

During Red and Black, there’s a moment where Grantaire “jokingly” caresses Enjolras’s face. Then during Do You Hear the People Sing, Enjolras passes Grantaire by and casually caresses his face; Grantaire acts a bit stunned, as if surprised Enjolras would deign to touch him. Finally, there’s a dramatic “reassuring face-caress” during the gay verse of Drink with Me.

There’s a repeated thing where Grantaire keeps offering Enjolras a bottle of wine, half-jokingly, only for Enjolras to reject it. In the last verse of Drink with Me, after Grantaire finishes his verse and walks away, Enjolras finally accepts a bottle of wine (though another character gives it to him.)

Iirc Grantaire doesn’t join in the fighting initially; he just stares at Enjolras in awe, and then mainly stands by Javert to “guard” him. I mainly mention this because I think Javert and Grantaire are a very funny duo, just as a concept. I think “being forced to listen to Grantaire monologues” is an excellent punishment for Javert.

During Marius’s verse of Drink with Me, Enjolras climbs to the top of the barricade, standing in the light. Grantaire is at the bottom in the shadows, attempting to sleep. As Marius sings about his love for Cosette, Grantaire raises his bottle to Enjolras, and then blows him a kiss. It’s very “let me sleep here until I die here.”

Finally, Grantaire has his "book death." After he spends the entire musical on the fringes being skeptical, he joins Enjolras in the final battle. He climbs up the barricade and says (I was close enough to hear) "Long live the Republic! I am one of them."

I'm genuinely impressed by how much of the Brick characterization he managed to convey with so little time-- some ad-libbing and lots of silent acting moments! It really gave me a greater appreciation of what a strong performer in a musical can do, and how they infuse even 'smaller' parts with lots of nuance and personality.

Ok but the funny thing about Javert’s involvement in the Champmathieu trial is how the prosecuter praises Javert for giving them such good evidence when like…………they ignored the evidence Javert actually gave?

The prosecutor gives a speech about how “we should always listen to Inspector Javert” right after they ignored everything Javert said and told him he was crazy.

Javert didn’t come to them insisting Champmathieu was Valjean, he came to them insisting Madeleine was Valjean. Their only response to his evidence against Madeleine was to accuse him of having “gone mad” and shoot down his (actually correct!!!) theory without looking into it. Then they gave him their (much worse and incorrect) evidence and ordered him to believe it. So Javert believed it. If an Authority orders him to believe something is true, then it’s true, because an Authority has said it, regardless of the evidence he collected himself.

Javert: Hello I have done a bunch of research and gathered evidence that proves Madeleine is Valjean.

Javert’s superiors: None of your evidence is real! Madeleine isn’t Valjean, this random guy we found is Valjean!

Javert: (sincerely) Oh no, you’re right. My eyes must be seeing things wrong, my entire perception of reality must be wrong. I am a petty vindictive monster who tried to destroy Madeleine’s life out of jealousy and I need to be fired from my job. The person you’re saying is Valjean, is Valjean. And he’s Valjean because you say that he is, and I have no right to disagree with you. I will alter my perception of reality so that it agrees with what you are saying.

Javert’s superiors during the trial: Javert is so honest! He said the guy we already decided was Valjean, was Valjean! :D We should always trust Inspector Javert’s judgement and listen to his evidence! :DDDDDDDD

Here’s what the prosecutor says when he’s paraphrasing Javert:

Javert is an estimable man, who does honor by his rigorous and strict probity to inferior but important functions. These are the terms of his deposition: ‘I do not even stand in need of circumstantial proofs and moral presumptions to give the lie to the prisoner’s denial. I recognize him perfectly……”

“I don’t even stand in need of circumstantial proofs and moral presumptions…” Javert’s basically saying he doesn’t need facts and evidence….? The kind of facts and evidence he actually DID have for accusing Madeleine?

Javert recognizes Champmathieu perfectly because he’s been ordered to recognize Champmathieu perfectly. If an authority has told him to believe something, he believes it. The prosecutors are praising Javert for believing something without evidence (evidence that he actually hAD for Valjean.)

It reminds me of what happens later with Sister Simplice.

Javert walks into Valjean’s old house, certain Valjean has come there because it’s the most logical place for him to go (and he’s right.) He notices the lit candle in the window of a room, and deduces that Valjean is in that room (and he’s right.)

 Then Sister Simplice lies to him that Valjean is not there. It is a total baldfaced lie that would not stand up to ANY scrutiny.

But because Sister Simplice is an Authority™ Javert’s sincerely just like  “Oh okay I was wrong! All the objective evidence was wrong! The things I saw with my own eyes must not have actually been there! 2+2=5! An authority says Valjean is not here, so Valjean is not here! :)”

It will be remembered that the fundamental point in Javert, his element, the very air he breathed, was veneration for all authority. This was impregnable, and admitted of neither objection nor restriction. In his eyes, of course, the ecclesiastical authority was the chief of all; he was religious, superficial and correct on this point as on all others. In his eyes, a priest was a mind, who never makes a mistake; a nun was a creature who never sins; they were souls walled in from this world, with a single door which never opened except to allow the truth to pass through.

(………)

The sister’s affirmation was for Javert so decisive a thing that he did not even observe the singularity of that candle which had but just been extinguished, and which was still smoking on the table.

Anyway I’ve talked about this before in another overlong Javert post– Javert is only respected as long as he’s obedient. The moment he disagrees with his superiors, he becomes a crazy person. He’s Crazy™ when he accuses Madeleine, and he’s Crazy™ when he writes a suicide note criticizing the police. He’s only a good officer when he’s mindlessly deferring and regurgitating exactly what his superiors want him to believe (even when that means ignoring Objective Reality and the things he witnesses with his own eyes.)

Anyway yeah Javert is an awful authoritarian who needs to quit his job, because being a cop is both awful for the poor people he victimizes (like Champmathieu/Valjean/Fantine) and also not very good for him either (unlike every other police officer he actually holds himself to his own horrible high standards, he genuinely tries to believe everything he’s ordered to believe even when it contradicts the reality in front of his face, and that ultimately breaks his mind apart and turns him suicidal.)

But anyway it’s funny how it’s just like

Javert: here’s what I believe

His superiors: Stop believing that! Here’s what you should believe instead! (*shoves their words down his throat*)

Javert: (sincerely) Ok. Here is what I believe now. It’s exactly what you believe, parroted back at you.

His superiors: wow Javert you have such great judgement! :D  

has anybody seen my pet piece of paper. his name is walter he is very fragile but very adventurous. i should never have left the window open in my tenth story apartment