Crafting stories

For things to really change, you will also have to start to let go of wanting their approval so badly. I know it can sound weird to think strategically like this with family, but if they can tell you’re really hungry for it, you give them a pretty easy in to control or manipulate you. Caring less about our parents approval is part of our development into adults, but that doesn’t mean it happens automatically or easily. This is just another one of these things, like setting boundaries, where you start working on it, and it will become easier over time. I’d also try and remember that approval and support aren’t the same thing. If all we’ve ever gotten is approval or disapproval, we may have approval confused with support (or go for approval because we feel that’s the only way we’ll get something resembling support), but I assure, you, they’re very different. Support feels better and is more substantial and meaningful than approval. Support also tends to come with far fewer conditions than approval. Often, when we want approval very badly, what we actually want is support, which can happen with or without approval, and is a lot more emotionally nourishing than approval can ever be. Odd as it may sound, when we let go of seeking approval with people, that’s usually how we find out who really is or isn’t going to give us support.

Heather, from Parental Controls

via http://imgur.com/gallery/x5mE5

Original: http://william-snekspeare.tumblr.com/

Never will these not be cute.

One of my all time favourite things I’ve seen tumblr

we shortly interrupt your regular shitposting program with these reptiles

@orochimartyr

Fortnight should be two nights. Fortweek should be two weeks. You agree.

Thus would allow us to disambiguate "bimonthly" into "twice monthly" and "fortmonthly".

Oh this is why every gardening person I know keeps trying to give me the food they grow

That, and we love you. Homegrown produce is a love language.

Unless it's zucchini. Then it's a cry for help.

Tomato (June) - I think highly of you; treasured friend

Tomato (September) - you are a warm body that is nearby

Fresh new asparagus - romantic love

Artichoke - fondness

New rhubarb with leaves removed - flirtatious potential

Rhubarb with leaves left on - the bloom is gone

Swiss chard - I have made mistakes

Perpetual spinach - declaration of animosity between our houses

White-fleshed potato - you are a neighbor

Blue or red fleshed potato - as above, but with overtones of camaraderie/affection

Kale - you are a person who was nearby when I had kale

Raspberries - you are a person I admire

Strawberries - you are a treasure

Onion - I am confused

Young French beans or young peas - I thought of you especially

Runner beans - mild criticism; familial ties; gift from parent to child

Pumpkins - overt romantic, sexual or childhood-bestie interest; highest declaration of loyalty

Prettily coloured popping corn, I.e. glass gem - let this seal the breach between our houses

Zucchini/courgette - cry for help, resignation

Novelty pumpkins - marriage proposal

(chortle)

oh…

If you run into a link which is behind a paywall, Archive will allow you to read it for free.

I just discovered this a few days ago and it has been wonderful! It’s free to use and doesn’t need account.

idk I just personally think that getting chills from music is the best part of being alive. like when a song is so good you can feel it in your whole body. that's why I'm here.

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

I’m gonna be extra pissed if literally anyone on this website gets this wrong because of the sheer amount of “if you engage with Harry Potter in any way you’re a horrible person” posts I’ve had to see with my own two eyeballs on this website. Please God, at least let every one of you all be able to identify Rowling as the second statement.

The amount of people I've seen condemn these protestors for using the wrong words:

would say otherwise.

If you use Zoom, be aware that they’ve decided they’re going to use your input (from both free and paid accounts) to train their new AI tools. And there’s apparently no way to opt out of this. :/

So here are some open source alternatives.

I feel like this would be a slippery slope towards making it illegal for people to choose to not vote.

that’s already how it is in australia

That’s just so fucked up. :( Do certain medical conditions exempt you?

?????? why is it be fucked up to have compulsory voting? that’s the way it is in most democratic countries? it’s a part of being a citizen, like paying taxes and obeying speed limits? the fine for not voting is only like $50 and because of the compulsory voting law, our country bends over backwards to make it accessible: it’s always on a weekend, lasts most of the day, and is set up at schools and community centers so there’s one within easy reach of almost everybody. you can also mail your ballot or vote early if you’ll be out of the country on the day. like, IT’S EASY TO VOTE, and the penalty isn’t even that ridiculous. i don’t understand why the usa doesn’t have this, except obviously it would make it harder to literally stop minorities from voting.

I think we Americans tend to forget that a lot of other countries don’t actively work to make it harder to vote.

Adding to this here, in Australia you don’t have to vote. Or, more precisely, there’s no way they can tell if you ruined your ballot. You have to turn up, get your name marked off, but you can put a line through the ballot if you don’t think any of the candidates are worth voting for. Or do this: 

Or this: 

Or this: 

You have get your name crossed off (if you don’t want to wear the fine), but you don’t have to make your vote counted if you’re opposed to it. 

And it is so, so easy to vote. Stuck at work or on holidays? That’s fine. Do a postal vote.  Stuck in hospital? That’s fine. They’ll go to you. Stuck in an old people’s home and can’t get around? Again, they’ll go to you. It’s amazing to me that it’s so hard for so many Americans to actually vote. If you make it compulsory, than at least the government is obligated to provide you with the means to vote. 

And look, I get it. Sometimes I don’t want to vote either. But I suck it up, I walk three minutes down the street, and I hope that this year they’re selling lamingtons again. Oh, and I buy a democracy sausage, which, even if all the candidates suck, makes the effort of turning up pretty worthwhile. 

ALSO, you can see even on the fucked up ballots that you NUMBER CANDIDATES IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE. There’s no need to calculate whether I would be throwing away my vote on the candidate that I most agree with if they’re not from a major party. I can say, I want that independent person to get in, but if not them, give me Big Party A, and if not them, that minor party person is still better that Big Party B, and I’m not giving any preference to the Lunatic Fringe Party.

Our system certainly has some issues still, but I can show up to somewhere nearby, line up for a few minutes (if at all), vote exactly in line with my values (on paper, leaving a paper trail that can be recounted), and then buy a sausage and some home made cupcakes on my way out.

A country’s voting system matters a hell of a lot and every citizen deserves one that makes it easy to vote and results in a government that is representational and accountable.

And by the way, one time I had a bad asthma flare-up on Election Day and didn’t make it to my polling station. I got my fine in the mail, I filled out the form explaining why I couldn’t vote, no more fine. I would rather have, you know, expressed my preference for who should run my country, but they were cool with the fact that I couldn’t do it that day.

“oh no, what if people actually have to participate in picking the government officials who will impact their lives” jesus christ

For the last time, for everyone who still doesn’t understand: not voting is not a tool of resistance, it’s a tool of surrender.

Another reason Americans flip out over the idea of it being illegal to not vote is basically every crime in the US results in jail sentences, and people who served time are second class citizens. Some states even have “three strikes” laws (unless they all got repealed) where doing three minor crimes would get you a life sentence.

Something being “illegal” meaning you get a small fine pretty much only happens to stuff involving cars or giant multinational corporations. When Americans hear that not voting is a crime they assume that means you go to jail and have your life completely ruined.

Then you have all the voter suppression in the US, including explicitly racist stuff like closing polling offices or limiting hours in majority Black districts. If it was illegal to not vote they wouldn’t reverse any of that, they would celebrate at a new excuse to toss nonviolent “criminals” into jail to use as slave labor.

I just don’t think people are aware enough of how completely fucked up the American legal system is and how justified it is for Americans to fear stuff being made illegal. Mandatory voting might work great in other places but there’s big problems America needs to deal with before it would work here.

BRO?

Reblog if you’re self indulgent and perverted lmao

fellas is it perverted to think happy thoughts

Anne Rice lives on in this anon

is anon catholic

Rb if you do things cuz it makes you feel good or you enjoy it

i mean this in the gentlest way possible: you need to eat vegetables. you need to become comfortable with doing so. i do not care if you are a picky eater because of autism (hi, i used to be this person!), you need to find at least some vegetables you can eat. find a different way to prepare them. chances are you would like a vegetable you hate if you prepared it in a stew or roasted it with seasoning or included it as an ingredient in a recipe. just. please start eating better. potatoes and corn are not sufficient vegetables for a healthy diet.

I honestly do not think “AI will never be as good as human creativity” is a good argument at this point. Like yes, it is true right now, but they’re just going to keep trying to prove it wrong. To me the line is, “Modern AI is built off of PLAGIARISM, UNPAID and UNDERPAID labor.” AI is a labor rights issue, not just for the people who’s labor it would replace, but for the people whose labor was STOLEN for the AI to “create” anything.

the table of helens and equivalents is my favourite poem actually

A Rivalry for the Ages: Talas vs Sixsmith (Tocktick, Bodhrán M.)

Talas tapped his fingers against the nearest glass canister, “Like this beauty.”

“Beauty?” The incredulity was obvious even to Emmett.

Talas’ eyes narrowed and he deliberately turned his head away. “She is a miracle of modern engineering. This beauty will get this hunk of wood flying again.”

The room temperature plummeted from merely ‘icy’ to ‘Arctic ocean floor’.

“Hunk of wood.”

“She’s running so smoothly now, Emmett, you should hear her, she’s as clean as a fucking whistle.”

“The Iris is not a hunk of wood.”

“I think you will see a fucking noticeable difference in how she runs,” Talas went on with what appeared to be suicidal cheeriness, “And the filter is distilling the excess steam down to practically nothing. We may need to fix up the vent outside though.”

“My ship is not a hunk of wood.”

Emmett grabbed Sixsmith’s sleeve and tugged him backwards. If these two were cats, their fur would have been on end.

Fuck this.

He caught Maia’s gaze and – beyond the spark of pain – saw her look heavenward and mutter something.

It looked like, ‘men!’.

“C’mon, Six, I’ll show you your workroom,” Emmett said loudly. He nodded at Maia, who shrugged helplessly, and then added, “If you don’t mind, Talas, we’ll join you for dinner in an hour or so.”

He saw Maia turn a steely gaze on Talas as he hustled Sixsmith out of the room and down into below decks proper.

He didn’t let go until the doors were safely closed behind them.

——————————-/

“It is so smooth,” Talas said in wonderment, “We were just cutting through the sky.”

“Yep, the wind goblins really blessed us,” Sixsmith replied gleefully.

Talas’ face twisted and he snapped, “No, it is because Maia and I worked for a week straight to make this hunk of wood sky worthy.”

“Blessed wind goblins,” Sixsmith repeated with infuriating cheeriness.

“Wind goblins are not real!”

Sixsmith grinned at him and dropped his voice to a whisper, “How do you know?”

“Because there are no pieces of folklore, no scientific studies, no proof that they are!”

“Maybe…” Sixsmith adopted an innocent expression which Emmett remembered with remarkable clarity, “… they’re just hidin' from you. 'cause you dun’t believe in the wind-goblins.”

“You mention wind-goblins one more time and I do not care that you are old, I will punch you in the face.” Talas was practically vibrating with fury.

Sighing, Sixsmith turned to lean on the railing. “You’ve got no romance in your soul, Tally.”

“Do not call me Tally! And there is no such thing as wind goblins!”

“Suit yourself.”

Face reddening, Talas grunted in frustration and stormed down the steps to the engine room. Sixsmith smirked.

Waiting until Talas was clearly out of earshot and the rest of the crew moved back to their tasks, Emmett sidled up to Sixsmith. Trying to keep his face neutral, he murmured, “You know wind goblins aren’t real, right?”

Sixsmith stared at him wide-eyed, all bewildered innocence.

Then he cackled.

“’Course,” he replied, “I’m just fuckin’ with him.”

———————-/

whenever im sad i just think about how the welsh word for microwave is popty ping

OH FOR SHITTING GOD’S SAKE

JUST WHEN I THINK I’VE EDUCATED THE WORLD ABOUT THE WELSH WORD FOR MICROWAVE THIS PIECE OF SHIT POST MAKES AN APPEARANCE IN MY LIFE SO LISTEN UP YOU GULLIBLE PLANKS AND GET YOUR SCHOOL BAGS READY BECAUSE I’M ABOUT TO EDUCATE THE ABSOLUTE ILL-INFORMED SHIT OUT OF YOU

THE WELSH WORD FOR MICROWAVE IS MEICRODON WHICH IS A LITERAL FUCKING TRANSLATION OF MICROWAVE WHEREAS POPTY PING MEANS ‘PINGING OVEN’ AND LET ME TELL YOU NOW THAT NO ONE FUCKING SAYS POPTY PING IN WALES AND IF YOU HONESTLY THINK WE EVER USE POPTY PING AS A TERM I WILL PERSONALLY DELIVER MYSELF TO YOUR FRONT DOOR AND SHOUT AT YOU FOR TEN DAYS STRAIGHT

ummm this is obviously a passionate subject and im sorry i was just wondering if anyone knows how this got started? was it a knowing prank, or like someone’s aunt in wales who didn’t really speak welsh panicked when asked “what’s microwave” and said “popty ping” and the lie escaped

Oh damn, this post is old now!

It’s a children’s word. It’s exactly the same as how children in English call a train a ‘choo choo’. And then English people thought it sounded a combination of cute and stupid, which tied in with the whole 'Welsh isn’t a real/valid language’ thing, and from there it continued because no one listens to Welsh people (I’ve literally had more than one conversation where I’ve explained all this and an English person has looked me in the eye and said “Well I prefer it so I’m going to keep saying it’s popty ping, tee hee”. I also vividly remember an English person on Tumblr - who is otherwise lovely - responding to me on this topic to explain to me that if people start using a word then it becomes a valid word, so actually popty ping now IS the Welsh word for microwave, and I had to explain back that no one is using it outside of nurseries and English people, now please will you actually believe us.)

Basically… imagine if the internet decided that “the English word for a set of carriages pulled on rails by an engine is a Choo Choo” and then either patronisingly simpered about it or sneered about how your language should therefore be wiped out about it and you have the issue

And as a final note, the whole thing is extra ridiculous because Welsh has three different terms for 'jellyfish’ and every one of them is way more charming and batshit than popty ping on its best day AND are the actual genuine terms, so it’s a missed trick

I love you blocking I love you content filtering I love you blacklisting I love you “not interested” button I love you scrolling past a bad post I love you not looking at the comments I love you exiting a bad page I love you curating my online experience I love

saw this post the other day that talked about how so many of us are soooo scared of appearing even momentarily human towards each other these days. like you can't see me sweat or cry or without makeup or with food stuck in my teeth or laugh loud and ugly. everything must be composed and sanitised and photo ready at all times. it's like corporate office culture seeping out into our homes and our lives and for what. it's not cringe to be a real person around other real people