im in so much physical pain i might died
disgusting evil bastard muscle
the stingray
she's sooo fucking mad that we stop her from running into the garage to huff sawdust and poisons
so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god
okay so i just got my dream job??? a week after applying to it?? and now i’m thinking….maybe this is the good luck post
thetatteredveil
…..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment
likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post
i need all the help i can get for finals
Hey so
the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like.
So you know.
This might be the real one, y’all.
My life is pretty good but definitely sharing this out for all my folks who might need it!
i believe in reblogging chain mail. always.
frankly I think a lot more people would be open to postmodern art if we all stopped pretending you had to be very smart to understand it and start acknowledging that the starting point for deriving meaning from it is frequently ‘this is stupid bullshit’
To clarify- it’s not just ‘this is stupid’ and then you’re done, finding the meaning in something that seems meaningless can usually be found by starting with that base feeling, ‘This sucks.’ Okay- why does it suck, specifically?
‘This is just a vaccuum cleaner, it doesn’t belong in a museum’. Okay, follow that thread- why is that weird? Is it the elevation of normal commercial products to be put on a pedestal? Does that sentiment remind you of anything? How does that make you feel?
“This is just splatters, anyone could do this.” Anyone could, couldn’t they? Anyone can create things, anyone can make these movements and gestures. Dancing does the same thing, doesn’t it? How do the splatters imply the artist’s movements? What does it say about them?
“This person made a mobile out of twine, flower pots, and pictures of cats. How is this art?” What mediums do you define as ‘art’? Paint? Marble sculpture? Photos? Why are you so sure that this is what art is? Doesn’t this remind you of the kind of crafts a child would make, or maybe a first-time DIYer? Is that intentional? Does the construction or material evoke any other emotions?
This isn’t an end-all be-all, of course- among many other things, there’s postmodern art that’s just for a show of mastery, there’s art that’s commenting on a very certain time in history or about something within the art community you may not be privy to, and there’s art that’s simply about creating and the creative process. It’s hard to approach a full narrative with just a single sentiment. This can’t cover every single topic, obviously.
That being said, it’s just as important to note that in many cases, there’s no wrong answers in art or interpretation. If your takeaway is completely different from the artist, as long as you don’t try to insist that the artist has no real say over their work’s meaning, that’s totally fine. A large part of non-representational art is reliant on emotions, and emotions are informed by your experience as a human being. Your interpretation is just as right as anyone else’s. And you don’t even have to LIKE everything- I hate Jeff Koons and his stupid balloon dogs! Cremaster makes me incredibly uncomfortable and even if that’s the point it’s still uncomfortable enough that it makes me not like it! You can just not like certain art, it’s not all-or-nothing it’s good or it’s not.
TL;DR- if you have a hard time ‘getting’ art, try listening to your base reaction to what you’re looking at, and then ask yourself why it makes you feel that way, and why it’s constructed the way it is.
so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god
okay so i just got my dream job??? a week after applying to it?? and now i’m thinking….maybe this is the good luck post
thetatteredveil
…..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment
likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post
i need all the help i can get for finals
Hey so
the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like.
So you know.
This might be the real one, y’all.
So my problem with most ‘get to know your character’ questioneers is that they’re full of questions that just aren’t that important (what color eyes do they have) too hard to answer right away (what is their greatest fear) or are just impossible to answer (what is their favorite movie.) Like no one has one single favorite movie. And even if they do the answer changes.
If I’m doing this exercise, I want 7-10 questions to get the character feeling real in my head. So I thought I’d share the ones that get me (and my students) good results:
- What is the character’s go-to drink order? (this one gets into how do they like to be publicly perceived, because there is always some level of theatricality to ordering drinks at a bar/resturant)
- What is their grooming routine? (how do they treat themselves in private)
- What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? (Gets you thinking about socio-economic class, values, and how they spend their leisure time)
- Do they have any scars or tattoos? (good way to get into literal backstory)
- What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? (Good way to get some *emotional* backstory in.)
- Are they an oldest, middle, youngest or only child? (This one might be a me thing, because I LOVE writing/reading about family dynamics, but knowing what kinds of things were ‘normal’ for them growing up is important.)
- Describe the shoes they’re wearing. (This is a big catch all, gets into money, taste, practicality, level of wear, level of repair, literally what kind of shoes they require to live their life.)
- Describe the place where they sleep. (ie what does their safe space look like. How much (or how little) care / decoration / personal touch goes into it.)
- What is their favorite holiday? (How do they relate to their culture/outside world. Also fun is least favorite holiday.)
- What objects do they always carry around with them? (What do they need for their normal, day-to-day routine? What does ‘normal’ even look like for them.)
i said i was going to arrange a list of my favorite articles/criticism about shakespeare, so here’s my first little roundup! obligatory disclaimer that i don’t necessarily agree with or endorse every single point of view in each word of these articles, but they scratch my brain. will add to this list as i continue reading, and feel free to add your own favorites in the reblogs! :]
essays
Is Shakespeare For Everyone? by Austin Tichenor (a basic examination of that question)
Interrogating the Shakespeare System by Madeline Sayet (counterpoint/parallel to the above; on Shakespeare’s place in, and status as, imperialism)
Shakespeare in the Bush by Laura Bohannan (also a good parallel to the above; on whether Shakespeare is really culturally “universal”)
The Unified Theory of Ophelia: On Women, Writing, and Mental Illness (“I was trying to make sense of the different ways men and women related to Ophelia. Women seemed to invoke her like a patron saint; men seemed mostly interested in fetishizing her flowery, waterlogged corpse.”)
Hamlet Is a Suicide Text—It’s Time to Teach It Like One (on teaching shakespeare plays about suicide to high schoolers)
Commuting With Shylock by Dara Horn (on listening to MoV with a ten-year-old son, as modern jewish people, to look at that eternal question of Is This Play Antisemitic?)
All That Glisters is Not Gold (NPR episode, on whether it’s possible to perform othello, taming of the shrew, & merchant to do good instead of harm)
academic articles
the Norton Shakespeare’s intro to the Merchant of Venice (apologies about the highlights here; they are not mine; i scanned this from my rented copy)
the Norton Shakespeare’s intro to Henry the Fourth part 1 (and apologies for the angled page scans on this one; see above)
Richard II: A Modern Perspective by Harry Berger Jr (this is the article that made me understand richard ii)
Hamlet’s Older Brother (“Hamlet and Prince Hal are in the same situation, the distinction resting roughly on the difference between the problem of killing a king and the problem of becoming one. … Hamlet is literature’s Mona Lisa, and Hal is the preliminary study for it.”)
Egyptian Queens and Male Reviewers: Sexist Attitudes in Antony & Cleopatra Criticism (about more than just reviewers; my favorite deconstruction of shakespeare’s cleopatra in general)
misc
Elegy of Fortinbras by Zbigniew Herbert (poem that makes me fucking insane)
Dirtbag Henry IV (what it sounds like.)
Not to get too intense about it, but I really do love a good retelling, but my criteria for good retellings are... not high, but perhaps more specific than they are for most people. If I had to make a list
- A good retelling must understand the original text and its context. If one is retelling a Greek myth, you must understand not only the plot of the myth, but the author should also at least understand the intent behind the myth, both in charitable and uncharitable interpretations.
- A good retelling must add something new by telling this story again. You can't just say that this is the same story... but in space! You have to know that the creation of a different context for a story fundamentally creates different themes and understandings, and take advantage of that. To go back to Greek myth, Hadestown is fundamentally a retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. However, instead of solely focusing on Hades as a figure representing Death, Hadestown focuses on Hades as a patron of the wealthy, the lord of all wealth hidden beneath the earth as much as the bones that also lay there. The story is then reframed as not just the story of Orpheus and Eurydice but also of the story of an early 1900s company town wherein Hades is the exploitative boss. Orpheus is voice of the downtrodden, traveling to this place of the downtrodden and trying, in his own way, to affect some tiny bit of change. In what I'd consider one of the seminal songs in the musical, "If It's True," where his simple action of singing this question about whether this is the only way things have to be awakes the deadened workers and their collective force makes Hades respond.
- A good retelling must stand on its own even if the audience is unfamiliar with other tellings. Knowing the original should enhance the experience, but it should not be necessary. Sorry to keep using musical examples, but The Tain by The Decemberists is still a great song with solid lyrics, even if they're abstracted from the original story of The Cattle Raid of Cooley. They change the lyrics to more modern ideas, with references to Charlemagne, cars, and so on, but the through-line of the story is very clearly there. The story even ends with a direct question to Medb - was all that really worth it?
I dunno where I was going with the rest of this, but those are my thoughts on the matter.
Nooo i just saw a TikTok of someone calling their mom a hoarder cause she has a CD collection and going "i can play these faster on an app" and telling her to throw them away BITE BITE BITE BITE KILL KILL KILL KILL if someone said that to me i would rip them apart with my teeth i would burn them alive the violence that would take place would be unimaginable i would be an unleashed demon hungry for blood and meat. unimaginable horrors. death and destruction. killing. maiming. no one could survive that. it would be a nuclear apocalypse. leave the fucking CDs alone
Okay but if you have an extensive CD collection you need to back it up into digital/new CDs!
And it's not about apps or digital being faster, I'm all up for physical media, but commercially produced CDs from the 90s and early 2000s are reaching the end of their functional lifespan*, and are starting to fail.
If you have a lot of CDs, it would be a good idea to rip them into high fidelity digital audio, to preserve them.
*CD/DVD lifespans are tricky. Some estimates in peak, perfect conditions and maintenance go for almost 200 years. Others calculate between 20 to 30 years in "normal" use, though no one can agree what normal is.
I recommend buying a cheap DVD reader/writer unit -I bought mine for less than 20 USD - and then batch ripping stuff. Surprisingly Windows Media Player works out of the box, just make sure to save things in the correct format (mp3 or MP4) so you're not limited in playback.
You can of course find more robust options online, including VLC, to rip your files. Ripping a CD will not damage it or prevent it from working, it'll just make sure you have the option to burn a new one if your original happens to fail. This is 100% legal and ethical (and would be ethical still even if illegal, because piracy is always ethical in late stage capitalism and corporations are not your friends.)
I recommend redundancy for your backups (remember that time Apple fucked up with people's files by replacing them with itunes shit? Yeah) and if you're really techy, set up a NAS by your router, with your backups.
If your rips are high quality you can feed it to your computer/tablet/phone/any device in your network and always have access to CD quality audio no matter where you are.
Sources!
ALOK VAID-MENON Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness 1x03 (2022)
Alok’s book report of The Biopolitics of Feeling: Race, Sex, and Science in the Nineteenth Century by Dr. Kyla Schuller
Kitten meows; meow!
- What mitten needs now?
- Bowl full whom mitten feeds
Now the bowl is far from whole
And mittens still wants some more
Kitten sighs; oh!
- What mitten sighs for?
- That's a lot of lore
Because mitten fell in love
With the river full of milk
He dreamt of playing with it's flow
And sipping milk smooth as silk.
Kitten wheezed; wheep...
- Sip, Mittens, sip!
Tail curled, eyes narrowed
He fell asleep, and in sleep
He sees his river full of milk
Attn: People With Cervixes!
When was your last Pap smear?
Because I am tired of seeing young people (think 40 year olds!) die horribly of an almost completely preventable disease, and I haven't seen the obligatory Tumblr PSA about it, so I'm making my own.
1. CERVICAL CANCER IS REALLY BAD
Cancers that have a good prognosis are usually cancers that can be caught early--like skin cancer, which is easily seen, and therefore usually treated very early. Cervical cancer does not give you symptoms until you have very advanced disease, which means unless someone is regularly testing your cervix, you will likely not be diagnosed early. More than half of people diagnosed with cervical cancer present with advanced disease. 75% of them will be dead within 5 years. For comparison, when caught in the earliest stage, there is a 90% 5 year survival rate. Treatment for those diagnosed is chemo and radiation, and believe me, those are not fun. If you do happen to be in the lucky 25% of survivors, if your cancer comes back, you have an 85% chance of dying within a year. Also! We think of cancer as something that happens to old people, but the average age of diagnosis for cervical cancer is 50.
2. WHO GETS CERVICAL CANCER?
Cervical cancer used to be the most common cause of cancer-related death in women in America, but at this point it's basically a disease of People Without Pap Smears--developing countries, immigrants, low socioeconomic status, BIPOC, rural communities, LGBTQ, etc.
3. HOW DO PAP SMEARS SAVE YOUR LIFE?
A Pap smear is a screening test for two things: HPV, and your cervical cells. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world. Literally half of the people in America have some strain of HPV on their body. Most HPV infections go away on their own (in people with healthy immune systems), but some strains are Very Bad, and some people are just Very Unlucky, and the HPV starts causing your cervical cells to turn cancerous. 91% of all cervical cancers are caused by HPV. So a Pap smear looks to see if your have HPV, and if so, is it one of the bad ones? And also, do you have any cancerous cells hanging about in your cervix? And! It takes 10-30 years for HPV to turn those cells into cancer, which means you have a really really long time to catch it before it becomes cancer and cut those pre-cancer cells out!
4. WHAT ABOUT THAT VACCINE?
The thing my dad said I shouldn't get because it might make me a slut. Yes! There is an HPV vaccine! You should get it! It protects you against the nine most common cancer-causing types of HPV. It's recommended starting at age 11, and you can get it up to age 45 now! (It used to be 26, but as of 2020, it's now extended.)You can get it from most primary care doctors, or from Planned Parenthood, CVS, Walgreens, etc. If you get the vaccine you still need Pap smears.
5. I HEARD YOU CAN ONLY GET THE VACCINE IF YOU'RE A VIRGIN
Fake news. While the vaccine does not treat old infections of HPV, it does prevent new ones, so while the benefits are theoretically decreased in those who have already been sexually active, it does not mean you will not benefit from having it!
6. WHO GETS PAP SMEARS?
Everyone with a cervix starting at age 21, until you lose your cervix or until you're 65. You should get them every 3-5 years (depending on your exact age and what test your doctor does).
7. BUT I GOT THE VACCINE
Nice! You still need Pap smears.
8. I HAD ONE AND IT WAS HORRIBLE/I'M SCARED OF THE EXAM
Talk to your doctor about this in advance! Good gynecologists (and other providers) will work with you to minimize discomfort as much as possible. They can use a small speculum and lots of gel, prescribe anti-anxiety medications to take in advance, and some people will even use numbing creams and/or laughing gas.
9. BUT I DON'T HAVE/CAN'T SEE A GYN
Most primary care physicians can do them! So do a lot of urgent care centers!
10. BUT I'M A LESBIAN
HPV can be transmitted through oral/genital contact, hand/genital, and even hand-to-hand-then-genital, so you still need Pap smears.
11. BUT I'M A VIRGIN/ASEXUAL
You still need Pap smears. HPV can be transmitted not just through penetrative sex, but also through oral/genital, hand/genital, and hand-to-hand-then-genital, and also 9% of cervical cancers are not caused by HPV.
12. BUT I'M A TRANSGENDER MAN
If your cervix was removed, then congrats! You do not need Pap smears. Otherwise, unfortunately, you are still at risk for cervical cancer and need to be screened.
13. BUT I'M A TRANSGENDER WOMAN
Neovaginas do not need Pap smears! Congrats! Consider getting the vaccine, though, to prevent spreading HPV to others.
14. BUT I'M A CIS-GENDERED MAN
Congrats! You do not need Pap smears! You should still consider the vaccine though, not only to prevent the spread of HPV to others, but also because HPV causes 50% of all penile cancers as well.
In summary: please please please go get your pap smear. Go get vaccinated. The spread of HPV can be prevented, and cervical cancer can be caught and treated before it even becomes cancer.
DON'T FEAR THE SMEAR
it's cervical cancer awareness month y'all
Also, pap smears need to start at age 21 OR when you start being sexually active, whichever comes first.
If you're like me and the pap smear causes you cramps and pain, take a back-related painkiller about 30 mins before your appointment! Methocarbamol, which is commercially available under names like Robax (or Robax-something) and marketed for back pain. It s available without a prescription - it's specifically targeted to help with muscle cramping and related pain. My doctor suggested I take one before every pap smear and they're significantly less unpleasant now! (also good if you're getting an IUD installed)
When straight society invented the sissy, the faggot, the equivalent in almost every language, to intimidate men and trans women into compliance, they unwittingly created a new gender. It's a lesser, or at least separate class of man, or in many cases not a man at all. Created as an nebulous threat, the possibilities of what it means to be one became endless. Either weak or brutishly strong to the point of unfair advantage, neutered or hypersexual, ignorant bimbo or cosmopolitan intellectual, starving underclass or ostentatious elite, victim or villain, powerless but powerful enough to be a threat to society just by existing. People who would never admit to seeing gender on nonbinary terms still intuitively recognize and treat this class as a distinct, socially recognized gender with its own signifiers. Despite the cruelty behind this category, its defiance of convention makes it alluring even to people who hate it. Those who embrace their faggotry are not putting themselves into a box but tapping into their limitless potential.
polaraaace
It is with great pleasure that I inform you there is now a polar exploration Discord server
Vynase not worth it. Stick to meth.
I’ve come to notice that (for me) Vyvanse is like an expensive red wine, where as adderall is more like four loco as far as mood/energy levels go, it is not what I expected but yeah completely different vibe. I am impossibly zen now though so there’s that. Anyway, adderall shortage is expected to continue for *at least* 5-6 more months (FDA/DEA is attacking accessible virtual healthcare and saying that they plan to disallow virtual visits to refill/prescribe controlled substances period instead of allowing production to be increased and letting people have medical/bodily autonomy), next to go is going to be Ritalin/Concerta. I’m expecting a large increase in US accidents and workplace injuries because taking adderall daily for years and then suddenly stopping is disorienting and just fucking terrible. So yeah, meth for a lot of people is going to be the answer and a more equivalent substitution. We are in a crisis and it is all war on drugs/private healthcares’ fault.
Under the proposed rule, Schedule II controlled substances such as Ritalin, Adderall and Vicodin and Schedule III-V narcotics other than buprenorphine may not be prescribed to patients without an in-person evaluation. Providers would be able to prescribe a 30-day supply for buprenorphine and non-narcotic Schedule III-V drugs such as Xanax and Ambien without an in-person visit if the telemedicine encounter is for a legitimate medical purpose. Anything beyond a 30-day supply will require an in-person visit.
If a patient had already been receiving prescriptions by telemedicine during the PHE, the DEA will defer the in-person exam requirement for an additional 180 days.
OH SHIT THERE’S A PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD LET’S GO
Things that are worth mentioning;
- this proposal is ableist, classist, and expects everyone to live in a city & have access to psychiatrists (ha)
- ADHD meds being “overprescribed” is not actually what is going on, in reality people had the time and money during COVID to actually get their needs met (ADHD in adults has always largely been ignored/under-diagnosed)
- Instead of putting a wrench into this obvious and generally positive movement towards psych med accessibility, maybe focus on the real problem (the production limit) since increased access is never a bad thing
- Education and community health programs are more effective to combat drug abuse than policing bodily/medical autonomy
- 10 people taking adhd meds who don’t need then will never be more important than 100 people who need them to function and don’t have access
- There is no reason adhd diagnostic testing cannot be done online over a secure connection, and if people are going to malinger they would do that anyway in person
- Fuck the DEA
Yeah, shouldn't reblog doomer awareness without something one can do about it. They're taking feedback until March 31st.
On the other side, this is a proposed rule that would allow for the expansion of circumstances practitioners can use telemedicine to prescribe schedule III–V narcotic drugs or for use in maintenance or withdrawal treatment/detox, including an audio-only teleppointments. It wouldn't apply to Adderall but it's still important, with substantially fewer comments.
Anonymous asked:
reading your posts about infantilisation, i couldn't help but wonder if you have read Joan Didion's essay on the women's movement and if so what you think about the piece?
This is really confounding and displays how limited her reading in fem lit was, to largely non academic publications and a handful of Marxfems. she keeps ironically contradicting herself by claiming the feminists make up a straw woman who's forced to suffer but her straw woman has a ridiculously simple and easy lifestyle of privilege, that she can't imagine someone being repeatedly raped because she never was. She claims women can just "turn off the screen" to opt out of the patriarchy, as if you can just try to avoid misogyny better.
The passage that you mean specifically cites a sapphic brand of tenderqueer political "lesbianism" as a way to deny reality, defer adulthood, and delay their entry into straight hard sex which I would call more astute today (I've seen millions of the 2015 ~asexual teen soft sapphics~ kiss and braid women's hair to end up exclusively fucking men as grown women), but it is hilariously stupid for it's time. In 70s SF, the radical dykes were QUEENS of having crazy sucking and fucking screaming feminist kink orgy parties at any street corner every weekend and she thought that they were a bunch of straight women KISSING?
Lol. Anyways, Didion doesn't sound misogynist, she sounds bitter and critical about the 1970s state of misogyny, but too far off base and not well read enough to criticize the patriarchy for it and loops back to blaming women as the cause of all our own sociological issues. And I don't blame her for lacking a feminist education, a lot of the greatest feminist theorists simply hadn't published yet 🙇🏾♀️
Did I daydream this, or was there a website for writers with like. A ridiculous quantity of descriptive aid. Like I remember clicking on " inside a cinema " or something like that. Then, BAM. Here's a list of smell and sounds. I can't remember it for the life of me, but if someone else can, help a bitch out <3
This is going to save me so much trouble in the future.