seriously have been thinking about this all night long. call me autistic but the fact that 90% of workplaces the point is not to get your work done and then be done doing it but to instead perform an elaborate social dance in which you find something to do even when you're done doing everything you need to do in order to show your fellow workers that you, too, are Working . because you are at Work . disgusting why cant we all agree that if there is no work immediately to be done. we just dont do anything

“When I first heard it, from a dog trainer who knew her behavioral science, it was a stunning moment. I remember where I was standing, what block of Brooklyn’s streets. It was like holding a piece of polished obsidian in the hand, feeling its weight and irreducibility. And its fathomless blackness. Punishment is reinforcing to the punisher. Of course. It fit the science, and it also fit the hidden memories stored in a deeply buried, rusty lockbox inside me. The people who walked down the street arbitrarily compressing their dogs’ tracheas, to which the poor beasts could only submit in uncomprehending misery; the parents who slapped their crying toddlers for the crime of being tired or hungry: These were not aberrantly malevolent villains. They were not doing what they did because they thought it was right, or even because it worked very well. They were simply caught in the same feedback loop in which all behavior is made. Their spasms of delivering small torments relieved their frustration and gave the impression of momentum toward a solution. Most potently, it immediately stopped the behavior. No matter that the effect probably won’t last: the reinforcer—the silence or the cessation of the annoyance—was exquisitely timed. Now. Boy does that feel good.”

— Melissa Holbrook Pierson, The Secret History of Kindness (2015)

I hate anti aging propaganda. it is a blessing to live long enough to see your hair become silver and your face wrinkle with time.

wallace was right when he took himself and his gay little dog to the moon on account of maybe cheese was there

Prompt 271

“Grandmother is visiting,” Damian suddenly said with no warning and with his usual not-quite demanding tone. 

“Who?” Tim wasn’t the only one to startle, seeing as Bruce had practically froze, a downturn to his lips in a silent show of confusion. 

Damian scowled. “Are you deaf Drake? Grandmother is coming to Gotham to, quote, make sure I am being properly cared for.” None of them had known that Ras was with anyone actually. At least Tim was pretty sure that would have been in the files. 

“Oh?” Dick didn’t quite crouch to Damian’s height but it was a near thing. “She-” “He,” Damian corrected, interrupting him. They all exchanged a glance before Dick continued. 

“Is he coming to the Manor or…” 

Damian scoffed again, a tiny bit of a flush against his face. “No, Grandmother will most likely be staying with Akhi-”

Now wait one moment-

“YOU HAVE ANOTHER BROTHER?!” 

too many books written by people who don't read books and only read fanfic. to counteract this there should be more fanfic made by people who don't read fanfic and only read books

we already have people bitching about how “i can’t stand Chani, she’s so annoying 🙄” and “Paul chose Chani to be the mother of his children, Irulan is just at the sidelines eating dust as she should”, like brothers we cannot do this again. We can’t Chani v Irulan our way out of this one because the problem is Paul and the Empire. Gosh, we truly are never getting out of the patriarchy.

I don’t believe it happens in the books but Percy telling Sally that “he doesn’t get to ignore you” while he’s fine with his dad ignoring Percy himself is extreme book Percy energy

墨香铜臭, Heaven Official's Blessing // Tina Tran, "Until I started choking on our memories" // Rykarda Parasol // Richard Siken, "Saying Your Names" // Bluepoch Games, Reverse 1999 // Trebbe Johnson, Fierce Consciousness: Surviving the Sorrows of Earth and Self // Marina Tsvetaeva, "Poem of the End" (trans. Elaine Feinstein) // Boyish—Japanese Breakfast // @catradoraism // Richard Siken, "Planet of Love"

[Requested by @wispy-wallfish]

putting my prediction on record now that the coming decade is going to see the rise of viral-marketed fancy at-home water filtration systems, driving and driven by a drastic reduction in the quality of U.S. tap water (given that we are in a 'replacement era' where our current infrastructure is reaching the end of its lifespan--but isn't being replaced). also guessing that by the 2030s access to drinkable tap water will be a mainstream class issue, with low-income & unstably housed people increasingly forced to rely on expensive bottled water when they can't afford the up-front cost of at-home filtration--and with this being portrayed in media as a "moral failing" and short-sighted "choice," rather than a basic failure of our political & economic systems. really hope i'm just being alarmist, but plenty of this already happens in other countries, and the U.S. is in a state of decline, so. here's praying this post ages into irrelevance. timestamped April 2023

i think finnstr is delightful to me because in a lot of ways he is single handedly reintroducing everybody to being a transvestite as like, a thing. to cross-dressing as a lifestyle. nobody could look at this guy and tell me he's not a little bit queer -- he's definitely not standard model -- but our modern taxonomy doesnt have a spot for him: he isn't trans (in its current definition), but he also isn't really cis.

it's interesting because it was only relatively recently that transvestitism got shoved out of the official rainbow flag. our modern definition of trans as just "transgender" is a reduced capacity of what it was just ten years ago, when "trans*" was often used to mean "transgender, transsexual, transvestite, genderqueer, nonbinary, etc".

i think the main "party line" of the marriage equality movement being "we should be allowed to be weird because we were born this way, we don't have a choice" did some major damage but one of the most significant was definitely the removal of people who do "have a choice" from the "community" entirely. transvestites got kind of entirely booted, and people fight about whether bisexuals or asexuals should be allowed because they "have a choice to blend in". finnstr does have a choice, but he keeps making it. why should that preclude him from being queer?

a remake of "you've got mail" called "you've got kudos" about two fic writers who make flirty comments on each other's fics, only to realize that they already know each other because they used to be on opposite sides of a fandom war when they were teenagers under different usernames

“It [The Lord of the Rings] is finished, if still partly unrevised, and is, I suppose, in a condition which a reader could read, if he did not wilt at the sight of it…now I look at it, the magnitude of the disaster is apparent to me. My work has escaped from my control, and I have produced a monster: an immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and very terrifying romance, quite unfit for children (if fit for anybody); and it is not really a sequel to The Hobbit, but to The Silmarillion.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien to Sir Stanley Unwin, 24 February 1950

thinking about how Humans Are Space Orcs stories always talk about how indestructible humans are, our endurance, our ability to withstand common poisons, etc. and thats all well and good, its really fun to read, but it gets repetitive after a while because we aren't all like that.

And that got me thinking about why this trope is so common in the first place, and the conclusion I came to is actually kind of obvious if you think about it. Not everyone is allowed to go into space. This is true now, with the number of physical restrictions placed on astronauts (including height limits), but I imagine it's just as strict in some imaginary future where humans are first coming into contact with alien species. Because in that case there will definitely be military personnel alongside any possible diplomatic parties.

And I imagine that all interactions aliens have ever had up until this point have been with trained personnel. Even basic military troops conform to this standard, to some degree. So aliens meet us and they're shocked and horrified to discover that we have no obvious weaknesses, we're all either crazy smart or crazy strong (still always a little crazy, academia and war will do that to you), and not only that but we like, literally all the same height so there's no way to tell any of us apart.

And Humans Are Death Worlders stories spread throughout the galaxy. Years or decades or centuries of interspecies suspicion and hostilities preventing any alien from setting foot/claw/limb/appendage/etc. on Earth until slowly more beings are allowed to come through. And not just diplomats who keep to government buildings, but tourists. Exchange students. Temporary visitors granted permission to go wherever they please, so they go out in search of 'real terran culture' and what do they find?

Humans with innate heart defects that prevent them from drinking caffeine. Humans with chronic pain and chronic fatigue who lack the boundless endurance humans are supposedly famous for. Humans too tall or too short or too fat to be allowed into space. Humans who are so scared of the world they need to take pills just to function. Humans with IBS who can't stand spicy foods, capsaicin really is poison to them. Lactose intolerance and celiac disease, my god all the autoimmune disorders out there, humans who struggle to function because their own bodies fight them. Humans who bruise easily and take too long to heal. Humans who sustained one too many concussions and now struggle to talk and read and write. Humans who've had strokes. Humans who were born unable to talk or hear or speak, and humans who through some accident lost that ability later.

Aliens visit Earth, and do you know what they find? Humanity, in all its wholeness.

polymer broadcast signal hijack

Of the TWST cards you own, which is your favorite (or favorites of you can't decide)?

(not that I'm still salty over that, nope, no way)

seriously though, this turned out to be harder to answer than I thought! I did actually manage to pull Stitch Lilia (THANK YOU TWSTFEST for the free bonus keys!) and he's absolutely adorable, I've literally been doing random battles just to watch him surf around and high-five Stitch. a fine addition to the Lilia collection!

in terms of proudest/most unbelievable achievement, that is 100% when I somehow managed to pull every single Scary Monsters card except one (only missing Rook!). I think I used up all my luck on that one, but at least it was for the Halloween cards! (after Scary Monsters and Glorious Masquerade, I'm so afraid of what this year's Halloween event is going to be, what if they look amazing how am I supposed to save my keys nooooo)

if I REALLY have to pick one, though...there is actually one card that I think I would call my favorite! he just makes me happy every time I look at him. :>