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cemetery flowers after the ice storm photography: Peter Fricke

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Knitting youtuber: I like to knit for 25 minute long blocks at most at a time with a 5 minute break within each so I do not get injuries.

Me who did a 14 hour marathon on the weekend with a team of 7 spinners and knitters to shear a sheep and knit a man's jumper in as short a possible time:

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"theres shipping on tumblr" fork in kitchen i just dont see how people are surprised with this like genuinely

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can't have shit in Baltimore

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and this is why baseball is the best sport (see also: these baseball sidequests)

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The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

James D. Nicoll

Pretty wild that the french language is a descendant of latin. Like not only is it a domesticated version of vulgar latin, but, like, the pug version of it. Specifically selectively bred for the purpose of being cute and useless. Arbitrary spelling and frilly pronunciation to the point where nobody notices if you only pronounce two thirds of the letters and not a single consonant. Language so imprecise that you have to be a native speaker or an university linguistic professor to have any confidence in your assumption that you know what the fuck someone is saying.

How the fuck is french like "oh no, I can only fit like 21 unique words into my cute little vocabulary, so all of them need to have like 35 separate meanings, and you have to listen to my distressed snortling really carefully to deduct from context whether the word 'bouton' in this sentence means a doorknob, flower bud, button, pimple, or a secret fifth thing that I just made up! ó^ò"

Meanwhile latin, long dead and still haunting us, pulls its bloody head out of a mammoth carcass mouth full of gore like "I have a specific verb for aggressively penetrating a man's left nostril."

[any-mouse]

... Warning, rant in coming. Sorry.

Hot take, the only morally gray character in mess, that fits the exact definition of it, is Nie Huaisang.

I've seen more and more people trying to tone down Jiang Cheng's terribleness by saying that he's morally gray. I'very also seen those same people say that Wei Wuxian is morally gray because he did terrible things for good (and, no, lmao, he didn't. Most of those come from people not understanding how his cultivation works.) and that that was why he is so interesting. (Again, lmao. Lol even. Just say you don't appreciate depths and confuse "kind" with "boring", so you gotta give every character that you don't find boring a label to justify why you like them.)

I think the term "morally gray" has become a buzz word thrown around for any kind of character that isn't one dimensionally good or evil.

Jiang Cheng isn't morally gray. He is a bad person. Again, a PERSON. Not a monster, not some sort of creatures that has no concept of humanity, just. A bad person.

Society's habit of separating people that do bad things from themselves, that "us vs them" mantality, that dehumanization of bad people, it just leave a bad taste in my mouth. Even fucking serial killers have qualities, can be smart or charismatic or empathetic. Even pedophiles have hobbies and people that love them. Even rapists have people that they love and respect.

Being a terrible person doesn't mean that they're not human. There is no one in the world that has absolutely no redeeming qualities to them. But because of that separation that so many people take for the truth, because of that "they did this because they're a monster, but I'm not so I would never do this", people just cannot accept when a bad person isn't bad all the time.

They'll look at Jiang Cheng that, ultimately, loves his family and is arguably hard working, and they'll think that that means he's "morally gray", because he possesses good qualities, completely ignoring the fact that he's just a trash human being in general.

Low key, it pisses me off. Especially the people that relate so hard to him, and ask me if I wouldn't do the same in his shoes. Because no. I fucking wouldn't cause genocide. I wouldn't torture and kill complete strangers because they dared to have a surname I don't like or because they make me think of someone I resent from my past.

Like, I took can see myself in him, totally. He IS well written, and between the cartoonishly bad Xue Yang and the paragons of moral virtue that is Wangxian, he's definitely the one that feels closest to an everyday man, in personality if you ignore all the murders. I am petty, I hold grudges, I can be entitled and selfish, I am overall a massive rude cunt, but I do not want to hurt people and everyday I strive to be better than the last, even in infinitesimal ways. As should anyone. But that is something that Jiang Cheng doesn't even acknowledge, stuck as he is in his victim mentality and inferiority complex.

But Jiang Cheng is morally bankrupt. He is not morally gray. Not even dark gray. As an adult, he is painstakingly human and in general, a bad person.

And that is OK.

To make him a better person, you don't have to change his entire character with half assed head canons, just make him acknowledge his flaws and let him (finally) grow as a person, past that stubborn mentality he has had for decades.

He IS a bad person, but even bad people have a capacity for growth and change, of the moment they allow themselves to. If he ever gets forgiven for his past actions, that's on the people he has hurt, not that it should even be considered in his journey towards growth.

(Frankly, I don't think he would be. I think he shouldn't be, but that's not for me to decide. However, I can definitely JC finally making some tiny progresses but for all the wrong reasons, and get insulted when, if he ever even get to that point, his apologies don't end up fixing everything. He is totally the kind of person that would see you being mad at them and feel like he's the one being victimized because you didn't accept his half assed apologies. The emotional maturity on this man is below -100.)

(Also, Wei Wuxian isn't morally gray in the total opposite, in that he is such a good person, be it morally or emotionally, just. God, I envy his mental fortitude and his capacity for forgiveness and love.)

Sorry again for the ask, just had to rant somewhere about this and I am kind of curious about how you consider the "morally gray" argument. I think it's total bullshit, if the entire post didn't tell you, but yeah, I'm curious.

I hope I was coherent enough, I did not plan this ask at all, it was all streams of consciousness.

So before I get to the actual material of your rant—of which I agree with—I want to go on a tangent. Bad people as a category are not “dehumanized.” Dehumanization is the act of stripping someone or a group of people of their humanity as a tool of oppression, and it must come with material consequences. Saying that a continent of people are only capable of non-human animal intelligence to justify centuries of enslavement is dehumanization. Saying that a country of people are born terrorists to justify flattening their homeland and claiming it by a different name is dehumanization. Claiming that the man who called you out on your desires to be the new oppressors is a literal demon wanting to destroy your heritage in order to justify leading an army to kill him and his charges while attempting to remove their ability to reincarnate is dehumanization. Calling a child abuser a monster is not dehumanization. It is just an insult.

In fact, the “human traits” of terrible human beings do not need to be defended, because more often than not the absolute worst human beings are materially protected from the consequences of their actions by people who want to defend their “humanity.” In mdzs, I don’t give two fucks about Jiang Cheng’s one “human” trait of loving his nephew, because his “inhumane” traits of abusing said nephew and everyone else in his life intentionally overshadow that by his own design. Jiang Yanli loved her son just as much and lost much more than Jiang Cheng ever did, but she didn’t become an unrepentant monster. Humans are not “monsters-in-waiting” whereby we must act as if every individual is always one step away from committing unspeakable acts of depravity. If that was the case, we would not have survived as a community-dependent social species. Therefore, I do not find Jiang Cheng as the most relatable character ever because I do not find the way that he gives into anti-human behaviors to be relatable to me on a personal level or to be representative of most people’s actions throughout the course of their lives. To feel pain is human, and to have outbursts about it is understandable. To abuse about it? To murder about it? To mass murder about it??? Absolutely anti-human, anti-community, and the type of behavior that can only survive and thrive in an environment that privileges people with those specific “inhumane” traits above everyone else. (One might even call it the environment of a corrupt hierarchy of power that mdzs critiques.) The exact opposite of dehumanization. So if I choose to call Jiang Cheng a monster, it is to intentionally point out the ways that his conscious actions as a character in this story are a negation of human life and community.

On that note, I’ve discussed how this fandom uses “morally gray” in this ask (excuse the fact that I switch between “grey” and “gray” lmao). To bring back a point from my rant from above, Jiang Cheng has his one (1) good trait leveraged by fandom to whitewash his crimes under the guise of “morally gray,” while Wei Wuxian is the one actually being dehumanized by that same label as people use it to justify his literal murder (and those of the Wen remnants) in the story, so that’s my feelings on that. Whether Jiang Cheng can be redeemed or not, I frankly do not care to speculate because the story concludes his character arc at him regressing back into Jiang “hunter of Wen” Cheng, still rich, still single, and still only loved by his nephew. At the end of the day, he is not a real person and I’m only here for wangxian.

[any-mouse]

Bunnies day 2; Grumpy Lan Bunny, sassy Wei bun

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CW: alcoholism

I think one of the darkest things about mdzs could be how Wei Wuxian's drinking is (for lack of better words) displayed as a girly pop quirk when in actuality, he could have a drinking problem.

Not that all heavy drinking is trauma induced ✋️ but this is a thought I've been rolling around in my head. I can't think of a single moment that his ability to absolutely demolish a jug or 5 isn't written as anything but humorous. And I think mxtx has done this intentionally because we are in Wei Wuxians head, and if he's using it as a coping mechanism, and he doesn't see it as a problem, then why would it be written any other way. That's simultaneously brilliant and dark.

Probably reading too deep into it but this is the website for reading too deep into things don't yell at me

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It’s time! For Dracula Daily!

I love the idea that Mina is a foodie.

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Elizabeth Bennet: I went to Accomplished Woman Island and nobody there knew you. In fact it was uninhabited.

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Hm, I know I said at least in my first reading of mdzs that I felt like Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng were actually friends as kids, I would like to remind folks that the catastrophic breakdown of their friendship was not because of some misplaced care but because Jiang Cheng is a stagnant character whose whole role in the story is to be the one who never learns, changes, and grows past his insecurities and resentments. They were always going to fall out with each other, even if the Sunshot Campaign never happened, even if the Wen Clan didn’t exist as a subjugating force terrorizing the other clans, because no matter how much Jiang Cheng cares about anyone, he will always place his personal resentments first.

I’m so serious: reread the pre-fall of Lotus Pier parts of the novel (flashback extras included), and tell me how many times Jiang Cheng says something genuinely nice about or to the benefit of Wei Wuxian without prompting. Point to me places where Jiang Cheng puts himself on the line for Wei Wuxian that is not him distracting the Wen. Compare the number of unambiguously positive interactions they have to the number of interactions they have in total, and I bet you’ll see that the positives are laughingly scant. Most every interaction they have together, Jiang Cheng is being a negative nancy. He’s the type of friend who, if you said “Today is a good day!” would snidely respond back, “What’s so good about?” before loudly complaining about what a nuisance your happiness is. Jiang Cheng is the type of friend that tells you that everyone else hates you because you’re so annoying, and you need to do something about that because he also finds you annoying so you should be lucky he “puts up with” you. And all of this negativity can be directly traced back to the resentment Jiang Cheng feels caused by his own mother projecting her insecurities onto him. Jiang Cheng, who cannot grow, learn, or change, is unable to extract his own self from his mother’s insecurities, ending up inheriting them as his own, instead.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like teen!Jiang Cheng is some irredeemable monster (that is reserved for his adult self), but Wei Wuxian already shows signs of being tired of his attitude as kids. He snaps at Jiang Cheng rudeness in the lotus pod seeds extra. He constantly admonishes Jiang Cheng about his blatant disregard for the lives and safety of other people. Most of the time, Wei Wuxian won’t even engage in the petty little remarks that Jiang Cheng makes, just treating it like nobody had spoken at all. The only times Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian move as a unit is when they have a common enemy—like Jin Zixuan—but without that, they are only held together by the fact that…they’ve been friends for a long time.

And this kinda leads me back to the point about the yunmeng friendship not being able to withstand the test of time even without an outside conflict: I would place the point of no return for their relationship at Wei Wuxian killing the xuanwu of slaughter, not at the fall of Lotus Pier. Wei Wuxian is one of two individuals that killed a mythological bloodthirsty creature responsible for hundreds of deaths, spent a week in a coma from his injuries and lack of immediate care, and what does he get for it? Jiang Cheng shows up with soup gifted to Wei Wuxian by Jiang Yanli, except he’s eaten all the meat out of it. Jiang Fengmian gives the most lukewarm praise to Wei Wuxian for his achievements—which Wei Wuxian neither complained about nor called him out for—because they were both trying to be mindful of Jing Cheng’s insecurities, and Jiang Cheng still made it about himself. When Madam Yu storms in to yell about how Wei Wuxian is a “bastard child” and he’s just trying to show off, Jiang Cheng consciously and unambiguously sides with his mother. Wei Wuxian had to drag his feverish body out of bed—after just awakening from a week-long coma—to placate pity-party Jiang Cheng, and the only thing that makes him feel better is not promises of continued friendship but of servitude. Even if at this point Wei Wuxian was still viewing Jiang Cheng as a—admittedly caustic—friend, Jiang Cheng’s view had fully transitioned from “annoying friend my mother hates” to “the servant I need to keep in line lest he overshadows me.” If anything, the fall of Lotus Pier, the debt placed on Wei Wuxian by the Jiang leaders, and the subsequent war probably allowed their friendship to last longer than it naturally would have (remember, they are only united against outside forces).

All this to say that while Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian may have started out as genuine friends in their childhood, their transition to enemies has absolutely nothing to do with that care. Sometimes we fall out with people because we just do not like them as people. Jiang Cheng’s resentment prevented him from appreciating Wei Wuxian as a person, leading to the end of their friendship and their descent into eventual enemies. Not misplaced or warped care, just pure, undeniable resentment.

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Fandom misconception - "Wei Wuxian has an awful memory"

No. No, he doesn't. He has a selective memory that is impeccable when it is something that actually interests him. He only forgets things if they are unimportant to him - like who the hell Su She and Jin Zixun are lmao. But things he finds interesting? Like LWJ for instance...? He can remember every single instance they met some 18 years prior - having been dead for over 13 of those years, no less!

Yes, he (mostly) forgot where he heard what we know as Wangxian from, but he was feverish and slipping out of consciousness at the time. Yes, he forgot that LWJ saved him and protected him after Nightless City, but he was traumatised and physically drained.

WWX only forgets things during rather extenuating circumstances or due to trauma. Otherwise, his memory is actually impeccable. He remembers the melody he heard JGY play once (or twice?) during his forced empathy with NMJs decapitated head! Able to recall the song and play it note for note a few days later, after being out of it from being stabbed! He actually remembers the 'Hundred Holes' curse from glancing at it in a random book once in the Lan library some 5 years prior to seeing JZX2 riddled with holes.

He remembers every single exchange he had with LWJ during their teens. He remembers that LWJ paid for the food and A-Yuans toys during their impromptu Yiling date. He remembers the way the candlelight made LWJ's long lashes cast delicate shadows over his fair cheeks back when he was transcribing lines back at the Cloud Recesses!

WWX's memory is actually really, really impressive! He just doesn't hold onto useless facts, just as he doesn't hold onto resentment.

[any-mouse]

Dumb Post About Harris’s Hawks

Intelligent, deadly pack hunters: raptors. 

No, not those girls.

These girls.

Harris’s Hawk is the only raptor (i.e., bird of prey) that hunts together as a pack using teamwork to take down their prey. Most birds of prey are solo hunters, and if they’re social at all, it’s limited to mated pairs getting together to raise their young before going their separate ways.  Even Bald Eagles (the America Bird), who are monogamous and will raise children with the same mate year after year, are pretty much loners most of the time. They get together in the spring, have some chicks, and then fly away like “see you next year, honey.” So while it’s remarkable that they’re able to find their mate again every year and they’re great parents, they’re not really that social. 

(These lovebirds do win the prize for best at long-distance relationships)

Harris’s Hawks, on the other hand, are always together. Living and working together to survive. That’s pretty amazing. Not only are the coordinating hunting together, but they’re also coordinating their attacks from the air. 

(literal wingman) Harris’s Hawks live in South America, Central America, and the South Western US (Arizona and Texas). Since they aren’t that big, they eat a lot of little things, birds, lizards, small mammals, and giant insects. But because they have figured out how to hunt in groups, they can take down larger prey. In fact, in the Northern part of their range (Arizona and Texas), their favorite food is the desert cottontail, which weighs about 1.8 lbs. They’ve also been known to take down prey weighing over 2lbs like jackrabbits (which weigh from 3 to 6 lbs and can run up to 40 miles an hour).

( Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit)  Why is that so impressive? Well, the males only weigh about (1.204 to 1.874 lb), while the adult female average is (2.269 lb). 2lbs max is pretty small. That rabbit they’re chasing weighs about as much as they do or more and is hella fast. Imagine killing something that’s almost the same size as you are or bigger using only your feet. That’s hard. 

They have the tools to do it, bigger powerful beaks and large deadly claws:

(look at the size of its claws compared to the rest of its body)

(just like it’s distant dinosaur ancestors: murder feet) However, as with Jurassic Park’s fictional raptors, what makes these girls dangerous is the power of teamwork. The first Hawk flies right for the prey. It sees the danger, it runs, and that’s when the attack comes, not from the back but from the side and the other raptor it didn’t even know was there. (Wanna see?)

(clever girls) Often called the “Wolves of the Sky,” the Harris Hawk not only hunts in packs like wolves but lives in family groups. The “alpha” hawk as it were (alpha theory of dominance isn’t real) is the big female, or you know mom. 

(Mom raises her babies with the help of her family, in their Sonora-Arizona range they nest in cactus) The babies don’t “leave the nest” as soon as they outgrow their fluffy murder muppet stage. The young from previous years stick around and make up the pack. The hierarchy goes Mom, Dad ( other Dad if she has two male mates) older siblings, and younger siblings.

(They also like to stand on top of each other to form a hawk family tower) 

The pack size ranges from 2 - 7 birds, and this family not only hunts together but takes care of the nest as a team with siblings looking out for their new baby brothers and sisters. While the babies will be ready to fly in about 2 months, they will stay with their parents pack for up to three years before heading out to start families of their own.  Because these hawks are intelligent and social, they have become super popular among falconers. 

(see what I mean about them being small, if the Bald Eagle is the T-Rex of the skies, these really are the raptors) Also, the babies are adorable:

(well I think they’re cute anyway) These hawks are the closest you’ll get to Jurassic Park. Intelligent, pack-hunting raptors. If you’d like to see them in action, you can visit a pack at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, which has flying demonstrations daily in the winter (you know, when the pandemic is over *this post is from 2020*). Just remember: 

They Stack

They Attack 

And most importantly: They Hunt with the Pack

[any-mouse]

trust him, he's a professional

[any-mouse]

I can't believe I am about to say this, but ep 21 showed to me that FL completely picked right to hook up with head of secret police. This is a man with USEFUL skills and attitudes to have around in her life.

When her evil aunt hung herself in front of FL's house to create issues, ML was the first and only one to see (it was the middle of the night.) He had no particular reaction and just calmly, quickly, and efficiently moved the corpse and quietly hung it in front of aunt's equally evil husband's house so now evil husband is being investigated, that household is covered with scandal and our FL's family is oblivious since he didn't even bother mentioning it to anyone and just went to bed after this to sleep like a baby after moving and staging a middle-aged lady's corpse.

Later, when FL wonders if she's been too mean to cut off said evil aunt (still not knowing her boo just lugged around said aunt's corpse!) and is her family too much trouble in his eyes, he responds that hey, his grandpa killed a bunch of his own kids, his uncle killed a bunch of his brothers, and his father killed his mother, so nothing she does even registers for him and she could do way worse/have way more troublesome family and he wouldn't be bothered.

I kinda choked.

PS Girl, you are gonna have a hell of a dinner with the in-laws, someday.

[any-mouse]

wait can you please speak more on WWX qi deviating after the LP confrontation with JC? I've always wondered what that sudden sickness was.

Hi anon 👋🏻

Of course! I think this detail is often missed because of the rest of the drama and overall poignancy of the scene. It's also never outright stated as a "qi deviation", but MXTX expects us to use the information she gave us in prior chapters to arrive at such a conclusion ourselves - as she so often does.

Not long before the scene in question, WWX and LWJ were a major part of the driving force that saved everyone from an onslaught of fierce corpses intent on attacking them all at the burial mounds. He was exhausted from that and even though he claims to have been exaggerating to "trick" LWJ into looking after him while on the boat to LP, he was still feeling the effects of the past few days catching up with him. After all, he was stabbed a few days prior to them travelling to Yiling as well.

All of the above, alongside the heightened emotions of the past few days; realising his feelings for LWJ, how deeply he feels them, if LWJ feels the same way, coming back to LP after such a long and traumatic time, living through a second siege of the burial mounds and facing his trauma head on at the very place he died - all quite an emotional rollercoaster for our beloved WWX.

Then the altercation with JC, where he is being verbally abusive, just pushes all those overwhelming emotions over the edge and causes WWX to have a minor qi deviation. That being said, it could have been fatal, as qi deviations often can be. Which is why some fans find JCs unwillingness to stop attacking WX (both verbally and physically) and refusing to let them leave when WWX was showing signs of his health deteriorating, all rather underhand. It's also why LWJ lost his cool a little and WN served him a verbal bitch-slap to shut him up and finally make JC understand just how much WWX has done to pay back his "debt" to the Jiang sect.

WWX was under great emotional stress at the time, feeling attacked for not only being in love with LWJ, but being once again wrongfully blamed for everything that happened at LP - which even JC admits is simply not true.

Qi deviations can occur for many reasons. I won't go into it too much right now, but one such reason (in the MDZS universe) is being greatly affected by emotions or becoming emotionally unstable. WWX is so overcome with all those strong emotions he begins to bleed from "the seven apertures" and even starts to faint, finally losing consciousness - which are signs of a qi deviation. We see examples of this earlier on in the novel with LQR and the cultivator who escaped the Mingshi for help once they all began bleeding from the apertures and essentially qi deviating. And again when LQR wakes up to shout at WWX and qi deviates once more - which is hilarious 🤣Obviously NMJ, and his father before him, both suffered similar symptoms before qi deviating and eventually succumbing to gruesome deaths as a result as well.

So there you have it anon ☺️ that's my understanding of qi deviations (in the MDZS universe, as the term/cause/effect can differ from one fiction to another) and my reading of the novel. I hope it helps to answer your question to some extent!