a-really-big-cat - Tumblr blog

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Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

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When I say “school should be disability accessible”, I don’t just mean we need handicap rails and EAs. Kids should be able to miss a day without failing out of school. You shouldn’t be dismissed from clubs because your attendance record is “spotty” (true story). I once missed an entire week of school because of a terrible, unending migraine. I was expected to keep up with my studies despite the blinding pain that came with working on my computer. When I heard my teachers say that you couldn’t miss exams, I asked what I would have to do to be excused from them. Their response? “Either get a doctor’s note an hour before the exam or death of an immediate family member.”

I cannot express how rigid this expectation was. First of all, with my condition, I wouldn’t have enough warning about my sickness to go to the doctor and request a note. For many people, this is exceptionally difficult, especially with the current shortage of medical professionals. Next, it ignores the fact that my schedule may not line with theirs because of my medical needs. Once, I had to visit a hospital a province away (which I was on the waiting list of for over a year) on the same day as an exam. I begged my mother not to take me because I was so nervous that I would be marked as an automatic fail. I was lucky enough to make it work, but that’s only because of my spectacular support system consisting of family members and wonderful doctors.

Disabilities aren’t always about needing a bus that can accommodate wheelchairs. It’s already difficult enough for many of us to maintain school attendance without the harsh punishments involved for skipping a day. We need to be able to miss school without being punished. Only than can you claim that the school is “accessible”

[a-really-big-cat]

My Biggest and Most Annoying Fictional Horse Pet Peeve

Big Horses are a Very New Thing and they Likely Didn’t Exist in your Historical and/or Fantasy Settings.

You’ve all seen it in every historical piece of media ever produced. Contrary to popular belief, a big black horse with long legs and long flowing mane is not a widespread or even a particularly old type of horse.

THIS IS NOT A MEDIEVAL THING. THIS IS NOT EVEN A BAROQUE THING. THIS IS A NINETEENTH CENTURY CITY CARRIAGE HORSE.

All the love to fancy Friesian horses, but your Roman general or Medieval country heroine just really couldn’t, wouldn’t, and for the sake of my mental health shouldn’t have ridden one either.

Big warmblood horses are a Western European and British invention that started popping up somewhere around 1700s when agriculture and warfare changed, and when rich folks wanted Bigger Faster Stronger Thinner race horses. The modern warmblood and the big continental draught both had their first real rise to fame in the 1800s when people started driving Fancy Carriages everywhere, and having the Fanciest Carriage started to mean having the Tallest and Thinnest Horses in the town.

Before mechanised weaponry and heavy artillery all horses used to be small and hardy easy-feeders. Kinda like a donkey but easier to steer and with a back that’s not as nasty and straight to sit on.

SOME REAL MEDIEVAL, ROMAN, OTTOMAN, MONGOL, VIKING, GREEK and WHATEVER HISTORICALLY PLAUSIBLE HORSES FOR YOU:

“Primitive”, native breeds all over the globe tend to be only roughly 120-140 cm (12.0 - 13.3 hh) tall at the withers. They all also look a little something like this:

Mongolian native horse (Around 120-130 at the withers, and decendants of the first ever domesticated horses from central Asia. Still virtually unchanged from Chinggis Khan’s cavalry, ancestor to many Chinese, Japanese and Indian horses, and bred for speed racing and surviving outdoors without the help of humans.)

Carpathian native horse / Romanian and Polish Hucul Pony (Around 120-150 at the withers, first mentioned in writing during the 400s as wild mountain ponies, depicted before that in Trajanian Roman sculptures, used by the Austro-Hungarian cavalry in the 19th century)

Middle-Eastern native horse / Caspian Pony (Around 100-130 at the withers, ancestor of the Iranian Asil horse and its decendants, including the famous Arabian and Barb horses, likely been around since Darius I the Great, 5th century BC, and old Persian kings are often depicted riding these midgets)

Baltic Sea native horse / Icelandic, Finnish, Estonian, Gotland and Nordland horses (Around 120-150 at the withers, descendant of Mongolian horses, used by viking traders in 700-900 AD and taken to Iceland. Later used by the Swedish cavalry in the 30 years war and by the Finnish army in the Second World War, nowadays harness racing and draught horses)

Siberian native horse / Yakutian pony (Around 120-140 at the withers, related to Baltic and Mongolian horses and at least as old, as well-adapted to Siberian climate as woolly mammoths once were, the hairiest horse there is, used in draught work and herding)

Mediterranean native horse / Skyros pony, Sardinian Giara, Monterufolino (Around 100-140 at the Withers, used and bred by ancient Greeks for cavalry use, influenced by African and Eastern breeds, further had its own influence on Celtic breeds via Roman Empire, still used by park ranger officers in Italy)

British Isles’ native horse / various “Mountain & Moorland” pony breeds (Around 100-150 at the withers, brought over and mixed by Celts, Romans and Vikings, base for almost every modern sport pony and the deserving main pony of all your British Medieval settings. Some populations still live as feral herds in the British countryside, used as war mounts, draught horses, mine pit ponies, hunting help and race horses)

So hey, now you know!

[a-really-big-cat]

This sarcastic post simplifies things too conveniently. The actual history between the Dunlendings and Rohirrim is far more complicated and grey.

Calenardhon properly speaking always belonged on paper to Gondor, not to the Dunlendings. The province had been greatly depopulated by the Great Plague, and Gondor had steadily moved its garrisons to the east to hold the Anduin. The resulting unguarded province became land which the Dunlendings interpreted as unclaimed and free for settlement.

Then Cirion, Steward of Gondor, in thanks to the Eotheod for their critical assistance in repelling the Balchoth invasion, gave the province to Eorl and his people, who moved in to settle it themselves. The Dunlendings were unhappy with this as they saw the Rohirrim as foreign competitors and usurpers, and there was enmity between the two ethnicities over the question of who had more right to the land. Gondor was continually occupied elsewhere and had little interest in attempting to mediate or fully commit to support one side or another, which worsened affairs. The ethnic strife reached the point that Kings Brego and Aldor of Rohan forcibly drove out (or attempted to drive out) all Dunlendings who remained east of the Isen. This was the event that incited the series of wars that kept the ethnic tensions hot up until the War of the Ring. All in all it's a very realistic description of the complexities of ethnic conflict; no side is wholly innocent of wrongdoing, and the question of who has the "right" is essentially impossible to answer satisfactorily.

Yeah, those silly folk of Dunland who haven’t forgotten how Gondor took their lands and gave them to Rohan a whole five hundred years ago, who eagerly joined forces with a guy promising to take down their colonizers. Their anger is SO blown out of proportion.

[a-really-big-cat]

whenever you see a post on this website don't forget to ask yourself: why is op the worst human being that has ever walked upon the earth, how does this post target me specifically, and what are the hateful implications hidden between the lines ???

[a-really-big-cat]

more men should get hugs i dont think we as a society hug men enough

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they have simply got to stop putting porn in books

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Elf with iris flowers, c.1886-1890, Alphonse Mucha  (1860–1939)

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Hacksaw+Ridge. (2016)

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So we all know that Tumblr is US-centric. But to what degree? (and can we skew the results of this poll by posting it at a time where they should be asleep?)

Reblog to increase sample size!

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Made a chart for sorting fantheories

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dracula is defeated by 1) autism, 2) true love, and 3) incredible violence, and the fact that this isn’t the mainstream understanding of dracula in pop culture is a fucking travesty

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I object to the fact that other animals are exoticized as "super niche"

raccoons are not niche smh

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what do we call this distinct genre of preschool media

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Hello, this is baby anon...

I wish I had good news and yesterday night, we had so much hope with better news, but this morning things took another turn for the worst and now we are told she is not expected to last the day....

The family is devastated and takes turns around her. If it is God's will to take her back, please pray that her passage be smooth, and especially pray for us all, her parents particularly, who will have to let her go.

💔

Oh no! Of course 💔 thank you for the update