Now that I said that
Okay so we know how absolutely wild high luxe brands are. I'm not talking about Jacquemus or Telfar or even Coach (which looks cheap in comparison to some other brands). They have their own time. I mean the brands that got shit going on for nothing. Van Cleef & Arpels, the highest ends of the LVMH conglomerate, Hérmes. I mean Richard fuckin Mille watches. The high luxe that are meant to show and tell, because you damn near can't use it.
G Wagons really look like shinier jeeps unless you get them customized (which a lot of the ones seen by rich ppl are). The car already costs a small house bare boned. Then you're spending extra time and money and having no car just to add more features to it?? Richard Mille might as well be Richard Millions cuz those multi-thousand dollar watches can easily hit a million by themselves. Forget it if you want custom. Cartier has le panthère rings and bracelets that look so heavy and gaudy with the number of diamonds and jewels on it that they seem to be better to leave in a glass box—cuz let your hand accidentally swipe against your desk wearing one of these. "You can get them repaired" aight so what's the cost? "You get all these services" most under memberships—which you pay for—and even if not they're still not just free. Living somewhere where every year there's an increase in Lamborghinis around certain times of year sets as normal until you find out that a lot of ppl rent them for short term and that's it (also costs thousands a day) since the price tag is just too much.
Like there are handbags that cost the same as houses in Miami Beach and have wait-lists that go months to years. For what? VC&A has earrings that would pay my tuition every semester. Can you even be comfortable wearing such things anywhere but somewhere expensive and fancy?? Anything less than a high profile socialite event?? Because are you really gonna be comfortable putting on a $2.3m to walk up and down a new hotel? Or is my tax bracket showing?
Where's the fun in the overly expensive? Some items are so creative and artistic and truly pretty, yet are bogged down by a background of shredded ethics, greed, and arrogance. Others just don't make sense: what's the point of a highly expensive watch that can really only tell you the time and maybe the date? Some would be nice to have—and there's nothing inherently wrong with wanting some fancy/luxury stuff. But every now and then I gotta think about it. At the core, what's their point? It's not worth what they want you to sacrifice. It's not worth what they're sacrificing to create the highly exclusively cradle.
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Please, please constantly challenge and reject the narrative that any region is naturally more prone to war than any other, like that's a characteristic inherent to its make-up, like that's geographically assigned risk the same way an area can be earthquake-prone or hurricane-prone.
There has never been a utopia on Earth and nowhere is entirely free of conflict, but this disastrous scale of violence inflicted upon the SWANA region is a deliberate and calculated effort of destabilization by Western powers who want to bleed the region dry. It's not an immutable part of the contour of the land that its people must adapt to and live with. It can be stopped and should be stopped. These people were once free and can be freed again.
Every time you see someone hand-waving a crisis at this scale as "conflict in the Middle East" it is an abominable tool to dehumanize Arabs to the point where nobody bats an eye at the death of their children.
Examine what that phrase means. What is a "conflict in the Middle East"? What happens in Yemen isn't what happens in Morocco isn't what happens in Palestine isn't what happens in Iraq, but this catch-all term is meant to translate in your mind into "problems are happening where problems are always happening", because of course they are! Conflict in the Middle East? What else is new, clouds in the sky? Fish in the sea? It lulls you into apathy; Arabs are dying - but that's what they do, don't they?
And so three goals of the perpetrators of this violence are achieved. First, they wash their hands from it; they didn't set the place on fire, it was already like this when they got there! Second, does it even matter whose fault it is? Who cares about a dead brown child anyway? Who's counting the death toll? Third, since this is an unchangeable quality of their region, and has nothing to do with the West, why protest it? Why fight for them? Why demand anything out of Western leaders?
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Good news! I managed to find the last dandelions of the season :) I really thought I'd missed the window to harvest them this year; it's usually a late-April activity for me but it rained so much in the past couple of months, it just ruined my flower-harvest schedule.
The only dandelions left where I live are all in their wish-granting puffball phase, but I thought I'd try my luck at higher elevations—yesterday I called a neighbour who lives 150 metres higher, it went something like "Hello I would like to inquire about your dandelions and what stage of their life cycle they have reached." Neighbour told me if I hadn't introduced myself first she would have assumed I was a salesperson cold-calling to pitch a product ("You sounded so professional.") But she confirmed that she saw a few still-yellow dandelions during her last walk! Pandolf and I were immediately on our way.
Neighbour also told me that the cows were out in one of the pastures I was about to cross, but I didn't tell Pan, it was a surprise. He was so happy! Look at him bouncing his way towards them:
I was ready to call him back if the cows looked nervous, but instead more cows arrived to meet this visitor, to Pandolf's extreme delight (I had to call him twice before he deigned to stop greeting cows and join me on my dandelion search.)
Usually I just sit in a pasture covered with thousands of dandelions and I barely have to move to fill my basket, but in late May the harvestable dandelions are few and far between, so I had to walk long distances to find a couple here, a couple there—and I had to really inspect the tall grass, where they are much better-hidden than in April grass.
And guess what else I found in the tall grass?
A lion!
Worse! it's Texas :) I guess he is officially a recurring character. (Here's Texas' memorable introduction, for those who missed it.)
He makes Pandolf look small and scrawny!
I went to say hello to his owner but she wasn't home, so we returned to our dandelion field, followed closely by a suspicious Texas.
Sure, I'd scritched his ears and it was nice, but he's a diligent guard dog and unlike Pandolf he doesn't think friendly ear-scratching and malicious intent are two circles that can't overlap. But once I showed him my harvest he lost interest in us. Catching dandelion thieves is not in his job description.
Another animal I had to negotiate with were pollinators, who were clinging to the last few dandelions even though there were other wildflowers for them to feed from. They probably thought I was being similarly unreasonable with my single-minded focus.
I also found an adorable tiny spider in my harvest—she was dandelion-yellow and perfectly camouflaged to hunt insects in there! Here she is giving me a tiny spider high-five (or maybe angrily shaking her fist at me as I deprived her of this ideal hunting ground)
I let the llamas out to eat the weeds in my (still not planted) vegetable garden, like last week, as I started the long and meticulous process of destemming 400 dandelion flowers one by one. It started raining at some point but I had to stay outside to keep an eye on Pampe—it wasn't cold at all, and after the initial "oh no! rain" reaction, it started feeling pretty nice and meditative, sitting outside in the soft spring rain with the animals while preparing flowers.
I proudly told my mother that despite being one month late I managed to make 5 jars of dandelion honey just like last year, and she complained about shrinkflation seeing as I used significantly smaller jars than last year. I'm sorry but that's just called making clever use of packaging to meet unreasonable customer expectations in difficult times. Plus, I used 1 more lemon than usual in my recipe, so what this product lost in quantity it gained in quality. ("That's what they all say," she tutted)
(If my hen looks grumpy it's because she was sheltering from the rain under the table and I unceremoniously caught her and dropped her on top of it to enliven my photo. Not only did she get wet but she felt used, like a mere prop. She's back in her sheltered spot and it's been over 10min but you can still hear muffled resentful clucks when you walk past the table.)
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..the batfam siblings are randomnly getting teleported through time to the original days of batman and robin, but somehow Bruce is nowhere to be seen. This leads to so many more questions, and each of them has begged the villains to just put them out of their misery at some point.
Exhibit 1
Jason *teleports into Wayne Manor*
Jason: what the actual fuck is happening?
Eight year old Dick:
Jason:
Jason: Ah sh- shoot.. Hey there..
Eight year old Dick *lip trembles*
Jason *panicking* : uhhhh hey kid please don’t cry-
*WHAM*
Jason’s knees explode in pain as he doubled over and then there’s a continuous tornado of blows coming before he’s down for the count
Eight year old Dick: IM GONNA ROCK YOUR SHIT FUCKER *about to smash a granite statue on Jason’s head if Alfred hadn’t walked in at that moment*
Jason *tasting blood and wheezing* : I- I think my ribs are broken.. also why does this fucking feel like déjà vu?
Exhibit 2
Tim:
Robin!Dick:
Tim: uh- hey Dick?
*villain appears*
Tim *running in front* : Don’t worry I’ll protect yo-
Robin!Dick running out from behind him wielding an electric blowtorch he stole from Tim: MEET YOUR END TODAY!
Tim *panicking* : ROBIN NO
Dick *cackling* : ROBIN YES
Exhibit 3
Damian:
Dick:
Damian: Richard.. you’re- not what I expected.
Dick *scaling the side of the skyscraper to help a cat stuck there*
Damian: .. Compassion is a quality you always-
Damian:
Damian: .. Richard.. where is the rest of your gear?
Robin!Dick *with cats in hand running off the ledge*
Damian: RICHARD WHERE IS YOUR GRAPPLING HOOK?!
Dick ended up doing several gymnastic moves, giving a perfect landing with the cat in tow and not a single scratch on him. Damian has stopped functioning.
Bonus
Cass *smiling warmly*
Dick *smiling and waving* : HI NICE LADY!! Do you want a cookie? Alfred made them!!
Cass *taking the packet Dick is trying to hold upright*
Dick: That ones for you! And this *takes out a small box with a skull drawn on it with crayons* is for your family! I know you don’t like talking about them.. and I think they’re the ones who hurt you. Just give them one cookie and they’ll never bother you again!
Cass: :) . Thanks.. but cookie not solve everything..
Dick: Aww..
Dick:
Dick: If I burn their house down will that work?
Cass: •_•
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