Idiot jerkface: Have you gotten the surgery?

Me, a trans woman who has received a phalloplasty to gain a second fully functional penis and now refers to myself exclusively as Ms. Double-Barrelled Johnson: Yes

In the future, children will think our ways are strange. "Why do old people always grow so much milkweed in their gardens?" they'll say. "Why do old people always write down when the first bees and butterflies show up? Why do old people hate lawn grass so much? Why do old people like to sit outside and watch bees?"

We will try to explain to them that when we were young, most people's yards were almost entirely short grass with barely any flowers at all, and it was so commonplace to spray poisons to kill insects and weeds that it was feared monarch butterflies and American bumblebees would soon go extinct. We will show them pictures of sidewalks, shops, and houses surrounded by empty grass without any flowers or vegetables and they will stare at them like we stared at pictures of grimy children working in coal mines

We will be feeding our grandchildren strawberries and raspberries we grew in our gardens, dragging them along to the farmers' markets for tomatoes and eggs and goats milk and pickles and pecans and salsa and sunflower seed butter and jars of honey, as they complain and drag their feet because Gramma always stands around talking to people for like an HOUR

and we will say "When I was YOUR age, fruits and vegetables came from a supermarket and they were bred to get shipped 1000 miles in a truck and sit on shelves for weeks, and they tasted so sour and watery it was like eating paper compared to these ones. It wasn't even legal in some places to grow your own food"

and they will roll their eyes like yeah yeah just because everything was miserable in the 20s doesn't mean I have to have a smile on my face standing in the hot sun while you listen to that one guy talk about his bees FOREVER

But they will go, because there might be baby goats.

love a good quote from a book that sucks. like this was soo real . nobody read this tho

30 minute recipe? Psh. I can do it in an hour and a half

Day 175 of drawing Papyrus until he cameos in deltarune!! Its spring!!! Its spring time yippie!! Its getting warmer and there are flowers!! Yippie I love flowers!!

[id: a colored sketchy of Papyrus happily pulling a wagon with Frisk in it and lots of flowers. Frisk is carrying Flowey in a pot on top of their head. Frisk looks very happy and Flowey looks freaked out.]

you can kiss a girl’s soft skin anywhere you like!! try her tummy though!! you might be surprised by the heavenly nature of soft girltummy kissing

Loading screen tips

the evil clown is your sign to get off tumblr and do something else with your day

not me though i’m on mobile

if you keep liking my posts we’re gonna end up like this

[ID: a drawing of two stick figures with colorful bracelets on their wrists holding hands. An arrow with two ends points to the bracelets and is labeled "friendship bracelets" /end ID]

I love u narrative songs 💖💖💖

Too many generic love songs not enough songs about one specific ass situation

tag the first song you think of

“you support gay rights so you must be gay”

i support animal rights do i look like a fucking alpaca to you

turns out i am gay

holy shit how’d this alpaca learn how to type

Diversity win! The alpaca is gay!

[Image ID: Tumblr tag reading: #isn’t this the plot to the emperor’s new groove /End ID]

Micro comic Summer is back!

Here's my tiny tale from last year, of some kiddos finding a hurt baby dragon, and taking care of it until the dragons return next spring.

2023: missives from desktop tumblr suggest that per the latest update my mutuals are being hunted by some kind of grotesque clown. staff assure us this is driven by user feedback.

GAMING RULE 1: NEVER PREORDER

GAMING RULE 2:

[id: hands holding a photograph of Todd Howard that’s been labeled “don’t believe his lies”]

Who wants to be narrative foils together

With tongue

I have a folder called Time is a Flat Circle in which I collect evidence of humanity. Here is most of them.

Here's some more.

but for real, nothing can match the tenderness, the warmth, the private & public love & fondness of the couple portrayed in the Etruscan Sarcophagus of the Spouses…I mean. look at them:

the way they chose to be pictured in this loving moment, so they could remain together for eternity! she used to be holding what we assume was a tiny pomegranate (a symbol for eternity), and she was pouring perfume in his hand… i….the tenderness. but also the way their bodies connect, almost being inextricably tied to one another; the playfulness of their expressions, the intelligence of their eyes, the expressiveness of their gestures (italian legends lol), and the sweet domesticity of their position, which was typical for dinners with friends - husbands and wives remained under the same blanket and conversed w their guests over dinner…….. 

but most of all. how wordlessly beautiful it is to see their heads from behind, looking (with all the differences in costumes of their time) like a couple we could easily see sitting in front of us at a restaurant. they’re lost in a lively conversation with their friends. the man’s arm is around her shoulders, and she’s laughing, moving her hands animatedly while telling a story. they love each other. it’s a story that never ends. 

It should also be stated that this piece was meant to hold the ashes.  This was someone’s burial piece, and it was the most important thing to them that they and their spouse be depicted together and very visibly in love, and participating in a banquet as was the norm in Etruscan culture.

Etruscan art, especially funerary art, is made of couples.  The Boston Museum of Fine Art holds the burial tomb of the Tetnies families, and both the husband and wife and then their son and his wife?  The tenderness on both pieces is absolutely remarkable.

But nothing, and I truly mean nothing, prepares one for seeing il Sarcofago degli Sposi in person.  You can see them down the corridor in Villa Gulia, and the closer to get, the more inviting they are.  Warmth radiates off of them, off of every angle of this piece, and there is a fluidity and life present that the photographs capture, but seeing them in person only amplifies.

Etruscan art has such liveliness and joy in it, and nothing captures it better than these two.

If you are ever, ever in Rome, go visit them.   It is worth every moment.

Oh, wow. I’d never seen the Tetnies sarcophagi before, and they’re wonderful. Incredibly intimate:

And that sent me down an Etruscan sarcophagus rabbit hole — this was my other favorite couple. I love that they’re sculpted as they must have been in life, with their age showing clearly in their faces, and the pose is wonderful too:

The solo sarcophagi are also great! Love that they were probably all painted, and some of them still have a lot of their paint left:

anyway, a+ genre of ancient funerary art that I knew almost nothing about

oh if I can add a more recent example!! This is “Memorial to a Marriage” by Patricia Cronin.

From her site: “Cronin created a three-ton Carrara marble, mortuary sculpture of herself and (now) wife, artist Deborah Kass, recumbent in an entwined embrace on a bed, when same sex marriage was illegal in the United States…Employing the American Neo- classical sculptural form to address a federal failure of prohibiting same sex couples to legally wed, she purchased their burial plot in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY a National Historic Landmark, and permanently installed the statue on their future final resting place.”

remember in School of Rock where the black girl was afraid to say she wanted to be a singer because she was fat and didn’t want to get laughed at but Dewey was all “who gives a shit, I’m fat too and so is aretha franklin but we’re still valuable and we rock” and then the girl felt better without having to be told that beauty comes in all sizes or some other bullshit. thats the kind of body positivity I’m looking for. tell these babies that they’re worth a damn without tying it to any other arbitrary ideals

Also like. when she asks him why he isn’t on a diet. and you just know she has heard this dumb “tip” a million times before (“just go on a diet!” “if you really apply yourself you can easily use x amount of weight!” “you just don’t want it enough!”)

& Dewey just

there’s nothing wrong! with liking food! and being hungry! you don’t need to starve yourself to fit into some bs aesthetic! eat food!

Also that he cited a fat black woman singer specifically as it was the black girl who asked. gave her a direct representation of someone just like herself instead of citing anyone else

this whole movie is full of moments like this and i love it, they’re handled with such casual care, they’re not generic lines to some motivational music, they’re a dude supporting overworked kids finding themselves and overcoming society’s shit expectations.

The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI

American friends! The US Copyright Office (which we know exerts huuuge influence in how these things are treated elsewhere) wants to hear opinions on copyright and AI.

"The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI and copyright issues beginning August 30th as the agency figures out how to approach the subject."

We can assume that the opposing side will definitely be using all of their lobbying power towards widespread AI use, so this is a very good chance to let them know your thoughts on AI and how art and creative content of all kinds should be protected.

One of the things they’re asking for comment on is the use of copyrighted works to train AI.  The Copyright Office really will read what you write.  If lots of people write in that they oppose allowing generative AI to train on copyrighted works, that could encourage the Copyright Office to also find that using copyrighted works to train AI engines should not be allowed.  Courts routinely look at Copyright Office publications while interpreting the Copyright Act, so this is an opportunity to actually have a say in the issue. 

You might be wondering how you should express that letting AI train on people’s copyrighted works is bad in a way that the Copyright Office will take seriously.  The simple answer is: Be polite and be honest.  If you’ve been a victim, you can share how you felt when you discovered your work had been used to train AI without your permission.  If you think authors and artists deserve not to have their work used without their permission, you can say that.  Be truthful.  Don’t present something as a fact if it is not.  Avoid hyperbole, inflammatory accusations, and foul language.  It is okay to say you are upset, concerned, and/or hurt, but do it without calling someone else a “fucker.” 

If you have no idea what to say, but want to comment, I've got some suggestions on how to write a comment under the cut.

Link to comment here (x)

Reminder!!!

[image description: a meme "you can always pirate something it's morally correct" except it says "You can now pirate Disco Elysium. The original creators no longer get money from it, any funding the game will get will go to the corporation that owns the IP"]