who tf cares?

no, hear me out — i’m serious. who. tf. cares.

wear pastel pink with ur punk pins & goth boots. eat ice cream for all three meals. kiss girls & boys & anybody u want. fall in love too many times. eat that second bowl of mac & cheese. order a fruity little drink at a bar bc it tastes good. quit ur job. wear a bikini to the beach. get that tattoo. go back to school in ur 30’s. use sidewalk chalk outside ur shitty little apartment. grow basil in ur 3rd story studio window. color in a kid’s coloring book. be the main character.

the only valuable thing i’ve ever learned in life is who tf cares? the only answer is ME.

stop limiting yourself. do the thing. u’ve got this.

Are you ready to start the process of taking inventory of your life? I invite you to take the next three weeks to conduct a self-audit, be honest with yourself, and connect with your innermost desires. Each day, answer one of the following questions.

Step 1 - Self-Reflection

Who are you at your core?

How are you perceived by others?

How would you like to be perceived by others?

Step 2 - Understanding Your Personality Traits

Openness to Experience

How often do you feel creative?

Do you opt for new experiences or familiar concepts?

What types of challenges do you usually tackle?

Conscientiousness

When do you work better - on a planned schedule or more spontaneously and freely?

While working on a project, are you more detail-oriented or do you prefer working on big-picture tasks?

How much time do you spend preparing before a project?

Extraversion

Do you prefer a lot of stimulation or is a limited environment better for you?

Which scenario is more comfortable for you - conversing in a group of 5/6 people or in a one-on-one interaction?

Agreeableness

How often do you help others?

Is it easy for you to put yourself in someone's shoes?

Neuroticism

When you look at life, do you see opportunities or dangers?

What situations tend to make you feel anxious?

What helps you relax?

Step 3 - Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

In what ways are you kidnapping yourself from the life you actually want?

How are you giving away your power or succumbing to fear to meet your needs in the world?

What do you know that you wish you didn't know?

Don't wait for a magical day when everything falls into place. Work on yourself each day, and you'll be surprised by the happiness you've already attained.

must be nice

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Henry Thoreau, Walden

morning coffee in nature. a vibe ☕️🍃🌞

Can I Afford That?

Need to budget experiences? How do you afford to rebuild your life? Here is a nice monthly overview.

Daily writing promptWhat is your favorite restaurant?View all responses Has life gotten more expensive for anyone else lately? Have we had to take on more work just to have something outside of baseline survival? Or is it just me? Life has thrown a lot of changes my way lately, some good and some requiring more adjustment. So here I am, going back to basics.It’s not much, just a small…

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The Stoic Week Challenge: Saying 'No' to Excess.

Welcome to the Stoic Week Challenge: Embracing Simplicity in a World of Excess In a time when our lives seem to be dictated by the incessant demand for more—more gadgets, more engagements, more everything—it’s revolutionary, almost rebellious, to stop and ask ourselves, “Do we truly need all this?” Inspired by the Stoic philosophy, which advocates for wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance, we…

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Set your intent for creating joy, bliss, peace, love, then let your passion do the rest.

Allow it to rise whenever it does, and follow it.

Allow it to guide you into the next step. Think no further. One step at a time.

Every step, sooner or later reveals the next step.

If the step doesn't feel good then change direction. As many times as it takes to get back to a direction that feels good.

. Sejeluho

Uncover the philosophy that could change your life forever!"Uncover the philosophy that could change your life forever!" If you're looking for a way to live a more fulfilling, meaningful life, then you won't want to miss this incredible video. In it, we explore an ancient philosophy that has the power to transform your perspective on life and unlock the secrets to a happier, more purposeful existence. At its core, this philosophy is all about understanding your place in the world and finding meaning and purpose in your life. It teaches us that we are all connected to one another and to the universe as a whole, and that by embracing this interconnectedness, we can tap into a deep well of wisdom and insight that can help guide us towards a more fulfilling life. In this video, you'll discover how to apply these teachings to your everyday life, gaining insights and inspiration that will help you navigate life's challenges with greater ease and clarity. You'll learn how to cultivate a sense of inner peace and balance, even amidst the chaos and uncertainty of the world around you. One of the most powerful aspects of this philosophy is its emphasis on personal growth and self-discovery. By embracing the principles of this ancient wisdom, you'll gain a new understanding of yourself and your place in the world, and you'll be able to tap into your own inner wisdom and intuition with greater ease and clarity. Whether you're seeking spiritual fulfillment, personal growth, or simply a richer, more rewarding life experience, this philosophy has the potential to change your life forever. So why wait? Join us on a journey of discovery that will leave you feeling inspired, enlightened, and empowered. Share this video with your friends and loved ones, and start living a more fulfilling, purposeful life today. #philosophy #lifechanging #ancientwisdom

Fragility

Life’s fragility—much too fleeting or painstakingly stagnant, joyfully overflowing or devastatingly lonely—plays out in this space between human life and death. Sometimes, lines have been rehearsed for decades; often, we’re caught off guard, blindsided by the swiftness of change that was never expected or invited.   We can be like shooting stars—tiny specs of dust glowing as they pass briefly…

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MAKING YOUR PHONE TO BE INTENTIONAL

MAKE A VISION BOARD WALLPAPER. Create one that aligns with your goals and dream self, so that every time you pick your phone up, you’re reminded of your goals and future vision. Also, great for manifesting! 

KNOW YOUR APP’S PURPOSE. For me, tumblr is a way I share advice and learn, YouTube I also learn from others, pinterest I get inspired, netflix is a way for me to unwind etc. If for any app, you cannot name a proper purpose/intent to use it daily or to help with your goals, delete it. 

DECIDE WHICH TYPES OF APPS YOU WANT. If you have a new phone, or you want to completely reset your phone, write or type, the apps, that you want and those you don’t. 

E.g I want to learn a language, practice mindfulness on the go, get some mental gratification that isn’t addicting, organise my life better and have a way to track my progress. I don’t want apps that support doom-scrolling, make me compare myself and are addictive. 

BE MINDFUL OF WHAT YOU SIGN UP TO. Newsletters, social media, subscribing to YouTubers and so on, just think about your goals and vision and if they align with them, every time you think about signing up/subscribing. 

HAVE NO PHONE TIME/ZONES. For me, my phone is not allowed to be used in bed. If I must use my phone, I have to get out of bed first. My phone is also not allowed during study time, so I put it in a separate room which makes it inconvenient. 

REGULARLY DO A DIGITAL DECLUTTER. Delete any old contacts that you don’t talk to, unsubscribe from newsletters and YouTube channels, organise your socials etc. Removes space and helps us to see our phones with more clarity. 

SET PURPOSEFUL WIDGETS. These can be anything, motivational quotes, your daily to-do list, reminders of your habits and so on. However, make sure you’re looking at them and they're not just taking up space. 

Living intentionally

Living intentionally begins with understanding who we want to be in various aspects of our lives – within our family, circle of friends, our community. Our intent represents our deepest desires and the core values we wish to embody.

Rather than solely focusing on what you want to achieve, shift your perspective to how you want to feel in each moment.

Craft an ecosystem to support your intentions. Declutter your mind and eliminate unnecessary distractions that hinder your progress. Do that by writing out all the things you need to do, you should do and you want to do - then take a closer look at each action and ask yourself "Does it matter? Does it align with my highest self?". After you've chosen steps that you need to take in order to become the best version of yourself, divide it into small doable goals. Dedicate time to form these actionable habits - start with bite sized actions, build momentum, gain confidence.

Living an unintentional life often stems from the fear of change. Our brains find comfort in familiarity, even if it means settling for less than what we truly desire. Confront these fears and recognize that true growth and fulfillment lie beyond the safety of familiarity.

Seize the opportunity to live a purposeful life, one conscious decision at a time, and watch as your envisioned life unfolds before your eyes. You have the power to shape your destiny – it all begins with living intentionally.

Since I think about clones like I’m getting paid for it, I've been rotating those alternate universe "what if Bart and Thad were actually raised together" scenarios in my brain, with Thad either post-redemption-arc or pre-villainy. Because adjusting Thad's character to fit an ally role while still keeping true to his core motives and personality is so so fascinating to me.

Like I think there's an immediate first instinct to slot Thad into a "bad" twin category: ie rebellious and prickly, doesn't get along with people, mean lil shit. And obviously it's not wrong bc we're outside the realm of canon, but the reading still feels a little left of center.

Because Thad is mean and prickly in canon. In the Impulse comics he belittles Bart and Bart’s friends/family constantly in his appearances. He loves to goad, and monologue about his own superiority and intelligence. He’s very Not Nice, and he causes many problems, and he even does it on purpose.

But, I think it’s important to consider the context. From the jump Thad knows very little about anything except which team he’s on and who he’s playing for. He gets his orders from an unseen authority and he carries out his tasks because success means his team wins.

For all his self-aggrandizing talk, everything he does is in service of an end goal that doesn't actually center him. He's trying to get revenge for grievances he's never personally suffered, retribution for actions never committed against him. Everything he does is on someone else's behalf.

Thad sees in black and white, us or them. Up until the final few issues of Mercury Falling, Bart and co. are Thad's enemies, of course he's not going to be nice.

So Thad's motivation seems pretty simple: Thawne Supremacy™.

But it’s in Mercury Falling where this starts to fall apart, and the real core of his motivation gets revealed. Thad pretends to be Bart and suddenly Helen is nice to him. Bart’s friends think he’s funny. Bart’s teachers are impressed with his grades. Max ruffles his hair and gives him hugs and tells him he’s done a good job.

If he was actually an inherently mean and standoffish character, if Thad actually had significant personal stake in the Thawne VS Allen conflict, the weight of such tiny acts of kindness wouldn’t completely break him the way that it does in canon.

Thad thinks his goal is superiority and revenge and Thawne Supremacy™, but he's chasing validation. Thad doesn’t have a personal stake in the Thawne VS Allen conflict. He wouldn't get much satisfaction if he actually destroyed Bart and his family. Thad's personal victory would be the recognition after the fact: the praise and attention from the other Thawnes (a group of people he has literally never met) for his success.

He wants validation. That's basically it. And the fact that he gets it so easily from Bart's family and friends doesn't align with how he's told himself things are supposed to work.

Actually tangentially, Bart and Thad’s respective relationships to authority is so diametrically opposed and tbh kind of subversive in a superhero narrative. Where the hero is the one carving his own path without regard to social or societal rules, no fucks to give what anybody thinks of it. And the villain is a chronic people-pleaser.

Just based on Thad’s reaction to simple praise and affection from Max I really think Thad’s motivation has more to do with the response he gets than whatever the details are of any given task. He has no actual personal convictions beyond getting positive attention, and whatever he did have crumbled as soon as Bart’s friends laughed at his joke one time. Which of course leads into the core of his whole conflict at the end of Mercury Falling. He cares too much about Bart’s friends and family now, he doesn’t want to kill them, but worse than that, he’s faced with the sudden realization that he’s on the wrong side.

The Allens gave Thad everything he actually wanted and needed, but his conception of himself is inexorably tied to the Thawnes: who gave him jack shit. These two facts are in opposition to each other, and he can’t reconcile the reality of it.

Anyway all this to say, in an AU where Bart and Thad are raised together or Thad gets an actual redemption arc etc etc, I think my personal take on Thad’s personality whether it be pre-or-post-villainy would be one that is extremely socially conscious. He is much more of a people-person than Bart. Whether he's actually accurate in assessing people's feelings and how to respond to them can be hit or miss, but he wants to behave in a way that gets people to like him.

Pretending to be Bart isn’t remarked upon as, like, a difficult task for Thad. In his internal monologue he’s literally bragging to himself about how easy it is. But what’s especially notable to me is where his act differs from Bart's typical MO. Everyone notices, and lots of people comment, and presumably if Thad didn’t have the excuse of Max’s illness to “motivate” Bart to do better he would’ve been found out immediately. And those things are, specifically: paying attention in class, doing his chores, staying on task, and being helpful around the house. The one thing about Bart he chooses not to emulate is Bart’s rebelliousness.

Thad wants to prove himself, constantly, to whatever authority he respects (probably Max in this scenario) and will do whatever it takes to make that happen. In contrast to Bart, who only listens to authority when the shit they're saying actually makes sense to him. It’s excessively difficult to convince him to go against his own interests. (And I think a key part of that is Bart’s security in knowing that no matter how much he fucks up or doesn’t listen, the people he loves will always love him back.)

Thad’s got the people-pleaser in him that has to deserve whatever he’s given. It’s why he’s happiest when he’s given a clear goal or objective to complete, because it gives him an opening to prove himself.

All this to say that if we are quantifying Bart and Thad as a "good" or "bad" twin, in the eyes of every authority: Bart is the bad twin. Bart is the bad twin, Bart is the bad twin. Bart is the one who doesn’t care about school and whose grades vary wildly depending on his personal interest. He’s the one who goes off to do dangerous shit for fun and gets in trouble constantly and doesn’t do his chores and is thoroughly unconvinced by any authority figure trying to sell him bullshit. 

Thad is the one who needs to know all the rules just so he can experience the joy of following them. Relentlessly obedient. He'll put all his effort into doing all the right things that’ll endear him to whoever he wants to impress - meaning he’s the asshole who reminds the teacher about the assigned homework. Bart might be the most popular boy in school, but Thad is a pleasure to have in class.

Like Thad can (and should) still be high-strung and short-tempered and sarcastic and edgy and mean, because he is. But he can’t be doing all that without rhyme or reason. Colouring every interaction has to be that one-zero binary of ally or enemy. He needs to have somebody he’s proving himself to: a team he’s on and a team he’s against. He’s not an inherently rebellious character. He can go up against The Enemy, whoever he deems as such, but it has to be in service of a hypothetical future in which somebody eventually tells him he did a great job.

And in the interest of continuing to beat a dead horse, it connects to their respective upbringings. Thad and Bart were both raised in VR, but Bart’s experience had the side effect of basically hard-wiring him against insecurity. His world was a playground tailor-made for him, and he was never made to feel bad or insufficient about any aspect of himself. His first interaction with a real human person was Iris moving heaven and earth to save him, without him knowing her, without her knowing him, with no reasoning for the act needed beyond Being Her Grandson. Which is probably a significant factor in why Bart moves through the world with frankly atomic levels of autistic swag.

Thad’s VR upbringing installed self-consciousness in his psyche before any other personality trait. As in: he is immediately made conscious of himself and his relationship with everyone he will ever encounter. He’s told two things: he’s a clone of someone else (inherently derivative, lesser) and that he was made to be superior (a status to achieve). Which is such an instant clarifier for Thad’s everything. Where superiority is a condition that everyone either has, or does not. It’s the one-zero binary again: are they better than me or am I better than them. Being above others is mandatory, and if his superiority is ever challenged by hard evidence or god forbid nuance Thad’s brain physically cannot take it. He needs to be better, to be worse is unthinkable, and there is no other way to be.

And this status of better or worse is, crucially, not up to Thad to decide. He needs The Authority to validate him. Bart never tries to prove himself because he has nothing to prove. Thad’s entire identity hinges on the self-worth he gets from doing a Good Job.

It is such an inherent part of his motives in the Impulse comics canon, which is why it always feels a little off when he’s interpreted as a jackass indiscriminately.

Like I don't think he needs everyone to like him. But I do think he has either one person or a set of very particular people that he needs to like him. Everyone else is either in that circle or outside of it.

(Which is why Bart is such a great foil for Thad tbh. There is no set of words or behaviors that’ll change Bart’s opinion of Thad, because Bart is unaffected by obedience or charm. So ironically Bart is probably one of few people that Thad doesn’t bother to put on even a little bit of an act for.)

While Bart goes with his instincts, his personal beliefs and convictions at all times, Thad is hyper-conscious of big-picture goals. They balance each other out that way. Thad's keeping track of whatever expectations he has placed on him, and how his actions reflect on him and the team beyond short-sighted solutions. He's a team player. AND he's an asshole.

There's something about like. A certain genre of posts / Online Opinions about insecurity/depression/misery/complaints that are so unhelpful that they wrap right around to being straight up hilarious. and it's the ones that are more or less written to the tone of "Feeling bad? That's gross!" Like, just so you know, don't voice your insecurities/ have low self esteem, because that's offputting! You're gross and weird. Don't be insecure about that, though. That would be stupid if you felt insecure about people disliking you for being insecure. Not attractive. You should be thinking about being as attractive as possible. You shouldn't make comments about suicide, even if you're suicidal! Keep those thoughts entirely to yourself. Make sure nobody around you knows you're thinking about this. It would Make Them Uncomfortable. It's better to keep these thoughts in your head where they can fester. Don't post OR talk to friends with complaints about you feeling miserable or depressed. Tbh people who are sad/upset a lot? Kinda a red flag! You are probably miserable because you're a bad person and you've brought this on yourself. If you don't have friends, it's because you're awful to be around. Easy! Solved the problem for you. And no, there is no nuance to this, got it? So, make sure to feel bad about feeling bad, but don't feel bad about it, because, well, that's just gross. And annoying! You might've wanted your brain rotted thoughts to be Peer Reviewed, you might have just needed to vent- you might've been hoping for some comfort, to get things off your chest. Well, don't! Don't talk about thoughts or feelings that are negative with your friends, you'd be burdening them and that's only meant for THERAPY. #SponsoredbyBetterHelp #MentalHealth like, DAMN. that's so helpful. you're so good at helping. I um really liked the part where these are all hard and fast rules that encourage keeping feelings bottled up and keeping your friends at arm's length. That's really funny of you.

Doing One Thing for Free Forever

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