Terry Pratchett started his career as a crypto-monarchist and ended up the most consistently humane writer of his generation.  He never entirely lost his affection for benevolent dictatorship, and made a few classic colonial missteps along the way, but in the end you’d be hard pressed to find a more staunchly feminist, anti-racist, anti-classist, unsentimental and clear-sighted writer of Old White British Fantasy.  

The thing I love about Terry’s writing is that he loved - loved - civil society.  He loved the correct functioning of the social contract.  He loved technology, loved innovation, but also loved nature and the ways of living that work with and through it.   He loved Britain, but hated empire (see “Jingo”) - he was a ruralist who hated provincialism, a capitalist who hated wealth, an urbanist who reveled in stories of pollution, crime and decay.  He was above all a man who loved systems, of nature, of thought, of tradition and of culture.  He believed in the best of humanity and knew that we could be even better if we just thought a little more.

As a writer: how skillful, how prolific, how consistent.  The yearly event of a new Discworld book has been a part of my life for more than two decades, and in that barrage of material there have been so few disappointments, so many surprises… to come out with a book as fresh and inspired as “Monstrous Regiment” as the 31st novel in your big fantasy series?  Ludicrous.  He was just full of treasure.  What a thing to have had, what a thing to have lost.

In the end, he set a higher standard, as a writer and as a person.  He got better as he learned, and he kept learning, and there was no “too late” or “too hard” or “I can’t be bothered to do the research.”  He just did the work.  I think in his memory the best thing we can do is to roll up our sleeves and do the same.

im laying in bed ill so let me write down something that has been swirling in my head lately:

i most likely have undiagnosed adhd and i grew up being scolded for leaving so many hobbies behind and being inconsistent, and of course i became ashamed or the fleeting nature of my interests.

but i am here to tell you, that even if you do something for a few months, it's still great. you most likely learned some skill or plain had fun and thats what matters.

i started with yoga 10 years ago, and its been an on and mostly off rship with it. but it helped me learn to be present in my body and really feel it, know where it is in the space around me, learn how to focus on certain areas.

in the meantime, i did tai chi for a total of three months probably. i was piss poor at it but it helped me learn how to do slow, controlled movements and shift my weight from foot to foot gracefully....

....which proved to be an amazing skill to have years later down the line when i did bouldering!! i dont have much upper body strength but quickly found my climbing style using mostly balancing and legwork.

going bouldering empowered me that yes, my body CAN do hard things. so i joined the gym!! me, id never thought in a million years id do that, but all those skills i built over ten years led me here. its so nice to be able to really focus on certain muscles and to know if an exercise is hitting right, because youre aware of your body. because you know you have hauled yourself up across a tall wall even when you didnt believe youd make it.

so, nothing is really "for nothing"

xoxo

april in northern california, 2024

The slow dance - 26x32” acrylic on canvas.

im noticing that for a lot of americans “free palestine” has been an ideological motto and symbol rather than them actually believing in their heart that freedom is attainable and necessary

At least 5 Palestinians, including a 16-year old child, were killed in an Israeli raid on the city of Tulkarem. This marks one of the most violent raids in the West Bank, spanning several days and still ongoing. Israeli settler violence is also seeing an all-time high, aided and abetted by IOF forces that have not only been shooting Palestinians and beating them to death, but also blocking ambulances attempting to rescue them.

poor memory is a huge deal and i wish people wouldn't diminish it by saying "oh yeah i can't remember what i had for breakfast lol."

i can't remember the first 10 years of my life. i can't remember entire days, weeks, months at a time. i can't remember entire people, i can't remember names or faces. i can't remember when things are scheduled for, my calendar app on my phone is booked to the max with reminders and task checklists. i can't remember when i moved into what home when, i can't remember important milestone dates like when i got or lost certain jobs, or when i started a new hobby.

that's what i mean when i say i have poor memory. poor memory is so scary for the person who has it. it's not a quirky thing, everyone forgets small details. memory problems are scary because you can go through entire events or days with no memory, or plan for things in the future that you can't recall ever even looking into or scheduling. it's not a funny haha kind of thing, it's serious, and it affects a lot of people in very unavoidable ways.

not being able to plan for appointments or work schedules, not being able to remember people's names or faces, not being able to recall whether or not you were present for something or whether or not you met someone, not being able to keep track of what's happening on what dates and losing track of items because you can't remember where you put them are all very real problems, and anyone dealing with them deserves to be taken seriously, and not diminished when they choose to speak up about it.

Don't let the media make what's happening with Israel, Iran and Jordan into some "middle-east problem" again. This was entirely orchestrated and encouraged by the US and the UK. Israel initiated every attack against Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Iran. Israel KILLED, targeted, the children and grandchildren of Palestinians political leaders. And the US could've stopped all of this by simply not giving Israel money and weapons bu they didn't.

The Western media has constructed this narrative that countries like Iraq and Iran are the problem and the western nations are the antidote keeping their 'terrorism' at bay. No, they have always and at all times started the conflicts, or worsened them.

Because they want the land, they want hegemony over the resources of that region and that is it. And they've demonstrated already by killing over 33,000 people that they'll do anything.

Stop joking about World War 3 and take the loss of lives and the horror of what is happening seriously. This cannot keep escalating

Incredibly alarming that talks of “peace” in Gaza seem to extend no further than a ceasefire. How do you think they’re gonna start off where they left off themselves? Their houses are destroyed, so many have lost mothers and fathers and brothers and children, they still have no clean water and no food. Any area Israel withdraws out of is an area it already knows has been rendered inhospitable. There was even a direct quote by some IOF soldier gleefully stating how he “wasn’t sure Palestinians could go back to their homes.” So what happens when the US “succeeds at negotiating a ceasefire”? Who will be responsible for helping the Palestinians rebuild all that they’ve lost?

the humble "like" is oft mocked despite what it does for us. "like, three people" is a vastly different statement from "three people". "and i was like 'what the fuck'" is vastly different from "and i said 'what the fuck'". i love you "like" and anyone who says you make people sound stupid will be killed on sight

Fun fact about the early Catholic church is that, despite spending generations being persecuted by the Roman empire, it took less than 15 years under Theodosius I to go from “the empire is Catholic now” to “and also every other religion is banned.” You can literally read St. Augustine move from “state religious persecution is unacceptable” to “state religious persecution is cool actually” over his lifetime as Catholicism came to power. I’m sure there’s no broader lessons to be learned there

the ghost of one specific homosexual cowboy regularly possesses Tumblr gays

God bilingual people are so cool. I'd love to be bilingual someday.

Not to be a hopeless romantic, but was anyone going to tell us that 2023 was the year scientists were able to visualize quantum-entangled particles for the first time and they literally look like yin and yang??

Full article published in Nature Photonics here, though I read a lay reader friendly explanation here!

Palestine will be free in our lifetime 🇵🇸🍉🕊️ Don't look away, and let's keep supporting Palestine in any way we can.

all sorts of echoes in these caverns