— Johann Hari, from Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

— Ursula K. Le Guin, in an interview for Algol, conducted by Jonathan Ward

Reblog if you’re 30 or older

This is an experiment to see if there really are as few of us as people think.You can also use this to freak out your followers who think you’re 25 or something. Yay!

…Older. :)

60% older here.

Sending out a call for anyone in the central Maryland area who can foster a litter of six kittens and their very friendly mother. I'm in contact with the county cat coalition for TNR, but we need someplace to take the kittens.

[image description: Two adorable adult penguins lean together symmetrically, their large flippers sheltering an even more adorable stripey kitten as snow falls all about. We also see them reflected in the surface of the ice they stand on. Overall, they form the shape of a heart and a family. Text reads, “45, HOPE ~ small god of ADOPTION”]

They live in the heart of every child who lies awake at night, wondering if they’ll ever experience the loving family they’ve seen in movies and read about in stories.  They are perfect and pristine, untouchable, and they should be made less by reality.  Every manifestation should be a reduction, a comment of “I thought you’d be taller” or “Maddy’s new parents are rich.”

But love is not so easily diminished, and they are, at the end, gods of love.

Their plurality is their strength.  They come and go in legions, they manifest and they step forth, hand in hand, men with women, men with men, women with women, some partnered with others who are neither, but who are only themselves, and are only vessels for a great and glorious love that burns for the children who need them.  They are the children also, seeking parents, connection, family, a home to call their own, where the walls stand fast and love lights the halls.  They are in all the places they need to be, and they need only a hand to hold to know where they belong.

They do not manifest as often as they are needed.  They try, but they are a small god, a collective of small gods, and they sometimes miss the prayers from those who call for them, they sometimes overlook the signs.  Still, they do their best, and while they may not be forgiven by those they have failed, they will never be forgotten by those they have helped.

They hope, every day, that in the long balance of things, the scales will tip more in their favor.  They hope the love will have been enough.

It is the only thing they truly have.

Love, and a family large enough to encompass all the world.

____________________________________________________________

Artist Lee Moyer (Trident of Aurelia, 13th Age) and author Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children, October Daye & InCryptid series) sincerely thank to each and every one of you who adopts. <3

Did not expect to be crying over a small gods entry, but here we are…

anyone else who is in a happily committed relationship notice that people’s line for where the “honeymoon” phase ends just extends ever into the future like some ominous axe they keep insisting will fall? 

in the beginning it was “oh your relationship is just starting!! of course you feel like she’s special and amazing, just wait a few months until the pattern of the relationship settles in” 

then a few months later is “oh you haven’t even been together a full year yet, wait until you’ve been together that long” 

then after a year it’s “well wait until you live together, that’s when it really happens- you’ll get annoyed by her habits and start taking things for granted” 

then after living together for a year they’re like “well actually it happens after living together for five years” 

I can’t help picturing myself in my 60s telling someone how breathtaking and wonderful my partner is and someone’s like “it’s cute how you’re still in that honeymoon phase, but just wait until you’re in your 70s, that’s when you really settle into the relationship” 

made this post over 5 years ago so here’s the update: we’re married, we’ve been living together for over half a decade (through moving, multiple periods of unemployment for both of us, covid lockdowns, emergency room visits, surgery recovery, etc.), and I continue to be very much in love with her. she is so fucking smart and thoughtful and amazing, and she gets hotter and more stunning every single day. I still blush when she says sweet things to me.

why is “report hate speech” not one of the default options with “report spam” instead of “report sexually explicit material”. i’m not a cop so i don’t care if people post hole & pole but i would love if i didn’t have to explain every time why it’s bad when there are nazis

Found on twitter, going to adopt this now

Writer friends, tell me how many WIPs and how many UFOs you have. I have 2 WIPs and [redacted] UFOs (jk it’s around 16 across my three main fandoms)

going one step further... another yarn craft term that writers should put into use is frogging. If you don’t like the project, but the yarn is good, you can frog it (take it apart) and reuse it for another project.

I think a lot of writers don’t give themselves credit for how many of their ufos have actually been frogged, ie that particular project has been abandoned, but the concept, characters, or setting has been taken and reused on a new project.

Almost all of my abandoned fanfics have been frogged. You’ll find the pieces of them in my original work

my favourite thing about frogging and why it’s called that is because you… rip it rip it (ribbit ribbit)

But! yes! I wholeheartedly concur. I keep “line graveyards” for works that I keep frogging and they wind up being so useful later.

as someone who’s in the writing community AND crocheting/knitting community, i approve of this message

[image ID: Tweet from bylambd on 7/5/23 reading: in the knitting community there is a distinction between wips (something you're actively working on) and UFOs (unfinished objects, something is unfinished but in hibernation), and i think fic writers should adopt this distinction as well /End ID]

I’m going to Constantinople, that shit better not be Istanbul

Real shit

You know I know I reblogged this already with a joke but—

Re the tags “transphobic parents visiting their out adult children,” it’s even MORE appropriate because we do actually know why Istanbul is no longer Constantinople. It’s because the name came from Constantine, a Roman emperor who converted to Christianity in the third century and immediately decided it was the state religion for the entire Holy Roman Empire—hence the name of that.

Thing is, he was a complete warmonger and also Türkiye hasn’t had a Christian majority in over five hundred years. The predominant religion in Türkiye is Islam—90% of voting-age people in Türkiye are Sunni Muslim—and in the third century when Constantine pulled his shit, most of the people there were pagans. Instanbul was renamed to remove the name of a force that was oppressive and no longer appropriate.

[image: Tumblr tag: #transphobic parents visiting their out adult children]

This young man you thought was your daughter Has a new name (Sam; he’s named for your father) So before you say ‘now where is my daughter?’ He’s the kid you recall, barely changed at all.

Trust me ma’am, you won’t want to bother Saying ‘you’re no son,’ if so, you’re no mother He’s afraid today, cause you’re coming over, And he’s telling you what he’s done

Now, you wouldn’t call Aunt Peggy ‘Margeret’ We all know she hates that name. Promise you, Sammy feels the same

So run that back: you don’t have a daughter, Got a son named Sam, and you are his mother If you can’t take that, then don’t even bother

And I’m sorry to say it but it’s true, He’ll be who is without you.

And I’m sorry to

say it but it’s true, He’ll be

who is without you.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

Autistic people are like, “yeah I love following rules” and then proceed to rip apart the gender binary

I love following good rules. bad rules keep me from following better ones so I put them through a meat grinder and see what happens

The official rules suck, I have written my own.

the rules have to be consistent or they’re not the real rules

there are very few things less consistent than the gender binary

That’s not a contradiction at all. “I love following rules” means “I love having clear instructions instead of them being implied”. It doesn’t mean “I love obeying authority” or “I love conforming”.

People: gender is a RIDGED, SOLID THING and it only looks like THIS

Me: why

People: Because!

Me, arming my catapult: Hold on a sec i wanna test something

THIS.

Sensible rules make sense. Do This thing in This way or That will happen.

Easy.

“b/c that’s how we’ve always done it”?

yeah fuck that noise

Suddenly it makes sense why I’ve averaged more than a job a year for my entire adult life…

We need like “unclench your jaw” posts but for eye strain. Like

Go look at something 20ft away for 20 seconds.

take off your glasses if you wear them for 20 seconds

Recommended by my optometrist

Look at something 20 feet away, then 10, then 5, then one, then if you can your nose.

Repeat twice, then again without glasses.

Face forward look out of the corner of your eye. As far as you can look. Slowly move to the other corner. Repeat twice.

Look down as far as you can. Slowly look up. Repeat twice.

Roll eyes twice.

Close eyes for five minutes.

I do this every day usually at my halfway point. My migraines went away. My vision go better. Honestly stretching my eyes as she put it feels great too.

As someone who basically stares at screens all day for work and fun, I should remember this.

Sometimes my right eye starts watering for no adequately explored reason so I set the timer on my phone for five minutes and sit with my eyes shut

it's like. I used to think my autism didn't really include the need for routine but what I've found is that when it's a Planned divergence in routine that's fine (going on trips etc) and when I can Choose to divert my routine bc I know I can handle it that's also fine (like deciding to go out for drinks or deciding to go to a movie or deciding to change dinner plans). but when Other People or Circumstances change my routine without prior warning that's when my brain goes absolutely fucking insane.

and I feel like that's not talked about enough bc I've always seen "needs routine" represented as someone who is unwilling to divert from their routine when like. no it's absolutely fine just as long as I'm the one deciding when and how to divert it or I've been given plenty of advance warning that it'll be changing.

A cat may go in a box of its own accord but it does not want to be put in a box

I do love the phrase executive dysfunction bc the image it conjures is of a bunch of people wearing business suits around a long oval conference table  arguing with each other to the point where they’re getting into physical fights, but in the background there’s just a big empty whiteboard with a To Do list with one item on it and that item is “take shower”

two of them got into a heated argument about the order of shower and food and they’ve all left for an extended lunch break using the company card

We've temporarily disabled the ability to request a new account invitation as a preventative measure due to a spam attack. If you already have an invitation, you can still use it! However, anyone currently in the queue will not receive an invitation until we turn it back on.

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July 11, 2023 - 23:50 UTC

For the record, accidentally tapping on Tumblr live when it randomly appears every week does not count as using Tumblr live for the sake of this poll. This is only referring to purposeful use of the feature.

I'd appreciate it if people could share this for a larger sample size!

If you want to know what the SAG-AFTRA strike is about, watch this video.

(I'm a SAG-AFTRA member as well, having played me on television from time to time. So I'm doubly on strike.)

[Image ID: Tweet from L. Silvertongue Is Not Daredevil (@/ PinkRangerLB) on 20.12.21 reading: "You're so resilient!" Thanks! My options were that or dead /End ID]

okay this reminded me of the strongest human being (I use that label with some reservation) I have ever met and I still think about him like once a week because about 4 years ago on Thanksgiving night my sister, cousin, and I were going to pick up a friend about a 40 minute drive from home, and I got lost and tried to turn around on a little gravel pull-off on the side of the road, but my front tires got stuck in the snow.

we were in the middle of nowhere with no cell reception, and the only sign of life was a single, completely dark house across the road from us.

We all did our best to push the car out, and we’re strong people, but we couldn’t make it budge. Cold and stuck, we climbed back and wondered what to do. A car full of men pulled over beside us and asked if we needed help, but getting out of our locked car on a backroad at night with strange men felt like a bad idea, so we said a tow was coming and waved them along. We did that twice before finally deciding our only option was to accept the next offer for help and just risk it,

when a man came out of the house across the street.

He’d clearly been watching us and figured out why we’d been lying to people, which really surprised me & he said “it’s okay, you can stay in your car and keep the doors locked. Just start backing up when I say so.”

I had the window cracked and told him “it’s too stuck. There’s no way we’re getting out. Could you call a tow?”

And he said “just back up when I say so.”

So he walked around the front of the car, squatted, and said “okay back up,”

and I did, and

he lifted

the front of the car Into The Air. Off its front wheels, and we backed up while he essentially wheel-barrowed us back onto the road.

And we were honest to god yelling. We couldn’t help it. We just yelled until all four wheels were back on the ground and he was waving us off while we thanked him.

And then I looked at my sister and cousin & said “he REALLY told us we can KEEP our doors locked as if THAT WOULD’VE FUCKING STOPPED HIM!!!! As if he couldn’t have just RIPPED EM OFF THE HINGES.”

I later looked up the weight of my car, and it’s 3200 pounds without anything or anyone in it.

This haunts me.

the power of respecting women

this is the only valid response on this post