asinglewildflower

[asinglewildflower]

The problem with AO3 is that every online store's search function is bullshit by comparison

[asinglewildflower]

i think i was born to be a tour guide for a whale watching program for the explicit reason that i dont particularly give a shit about whales that much. like theyre neat and beautiful and great creatures but most of the time when you go whale watching youre never watching a whale. this is where i come in to infodump at you about various seagulls, petrels, perhaps even an albatross, or point out the various jellyfish floating just beneath the surface and pontificate about the wondrous nature of the life cycle of a cnidarian. i think every whale watching tour would be incredibly successful if they had someone on the crew who went to smoke a cigarette when a whale showed up and then when they werent showing up appeared to gush at you about pelagic loons.

[asinglewildflower]

Hey you all know about that fungus that possesses ants to make them climb on the tip of grass blades in hopes of getting eaten by a cow, so that the fungus can continue its life cycle in the cow's guts? Because I think that's the kind of thing that's wrong with cave divers.

We don't know what's down there. We don't know what's gotten into their heads that makes them so determined to physically, personally go down there to find out. But I wouldn't entirely dismiss the possibility that whatever has gotten into them is very invested in getting eaten by whatever is down there.

[asinglewildflower]

If we wanted to engage in nuance (lol, lmao) on the "are audiobooks reading" debate, we really do need to bring literacy, and especially blind literacy, into the conversation.

Because, yes, listening to a story and reading a story use mostly the same parts of the brain. Yes, listening to the audiobook counts as "having read" a book. Yes, oral storytelling has a long, glorious tradition and many cultures maintained their histories through oral history or oral + art history, having never developed a true written language, and their oral stories and histories are just as valid and rich as written literature.

We still can't call listening in the absence of reading "literacy."

The term literacy needs to stay restricted to the written word, to the ability to access and engage with written texts, because we need to be able to talk about illiteracy. We need to be able to identify when a society is failing to teach children to read, and if we start saying that listening to stories is literacy, we lose the ability to describe those systemic failures.

Blind folks have been knee-deep in this debate for a long time. Schools struggle to provide resources to teach students Braille and enforcing the teaching of Braille to low-vision and blind children is a constant uphill battle. A school tried to argue that one girl didn't need to learn Braille because she could read 96-point font. Go check what that is. The new prevalence of audiobooks and TTS is a huge threat to Braille literacy because it provides institutions with another excuse to not provide Braille education or Braille texts.

That matters. Braille-literate blind and low-vision people have a 90% employment rate. For those who don't know Braille, it's 30%. Braille literacy is linked to higher academic success in all fields.

Moving outside the world of Braille, literacy of any kind matters. Being able to read text has a massive impact on a person's ability to access information, education, and employment. Being able to talk about the inability to read text matters, because that's how we're able to hold systems accountable.

So, yes, audiobooks should count as reading. But, no, they should not count as literacy.

[asinglewildflower]

i love the term "joshing." it's slang, meaning to joke or tease playfully. "i'm just joshing you." who is this notorious josh. who joshed so much that the whole concept got named after him

[asinglewildflower]

[asinglewildflower]

The most "killer machine weak for one (wo)man" Liu Yuning character

Wanted to do this, since every drama I've seen him in seems to be cast on the principle of casting directors going "you know what's better than a man who's 6'2 and can do unhinged? A man who's 6'2, can do unhinged and is down on his knees for love." And they aren't wrong.

Anyway, here are our candidates.

The Long Ballad (2021) - we first meet Liu Yuning as he murders some begging man and his mission for most of the drama is to hunt down and murder our FL, his tiny princess love interest's favorite cousin. Yet he would make a carpet of himself for his tiny princess to walk on and almost gets himself murdered making sure she is not forced into an unwanted marriage.

Heroes (2022) - Liu Yuning starts out as a hero, is literally tortured into a psychotic breakdown, but no matter how many vile acts he commits, even madness cannot get rid of his softness and "brotherly" love for his "sheath" (no, really, they refer to him that way) Zeng Shunxi. If you are thinking there is nothing straight about that drama, you would be right.

The Legend of Anle (2023) - enter Liu Yuning as "minister of the ministry of punishments" who in addition to torture and murder yearns to artistically cough near our heroine.

A Journey to Love (2023) - Liu Yuning is the chief of the spy/assassin bureau, he murders a man with a hairpin shortly after we meet him, and his one goal for the future is to retire and move in the middle of nowhere and never speak to another human being. Well, until he meets lady assassin Ren Ruyi, and then said plans get modified to "being dressed up, hair-pinned, protected and eventually bred by my lady." (Side note - I've loved most LYN dramas but this is my n1, also my n1 battle couple of all time, cdramawise.)

About his bod...

Heroes (2024) - Liu Yuning is the best swordsman in the world (sadly less useful than it seems since it's the start of the 20th century), on a mission for treasure and with bodies piling up. He is also in love with his dead master's wife (to be fair, she was his girl first, until the old man went "I need a virgin to cure my illness" - yes that drama is dark) and will pause any murder and treasure hunt for his lady's period cramps.

The Story of Pearl Girl (2024) - a trader/pirate hybrid with sexy braids, at one point Liu Yuning keelhauls our heroine but by the end he's all "I am gonna crawl away and die somewhere by myself so as not to mildly inconvenience her having to move my corpsicle."

Eternal Brotherhood (2024, 2025) - Liu Yuning has killed more people than Genghis Khan and puts civilians to the sword as easily as he breathes but he will ditch all his power to take care of his wife after her miscarriage who he likes to proclaim "I am your slave" to.

The Prisoner of Beauty (2025) - introduced via bloody face and arson, orders a man dismembered and stuffed into a chest within five minutes of screen time, his meet cute with his future wife is trying to murder her with an arrow. By the end? The girl is on top in every conceivable way.

A Dream Within a Dream (2025?) - has not aired yet but we've all seen the trailers and he's (of course) a murder beast who's (of course) weak for one woman.

And now a poll...

[asinglewildflower]

A comic about a vampire and a friend

[asinglewildflower]

[asinglewildflower]

ID credit: 6890789737 on 小红书

(please like, reblog and give proper credit if you use any of my gifs!)

[asinglewildflower]

'Magnolias and Irises' (circa 1908) by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933).

Leaded Favrile glass.

Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Wikimedia. 

[asinglewildflower]

[asinglewildflower]

[gripping the sink] perfectionism does not help me avoid embarrassment or shame. perfectionism is in itself a form of shame. when i struggle with perfectionism i struggle with shame. when i struggle with perfectionism i struggle with shame. when i struggle with perfectionism i struggle with shame

[asinglewildflower]

“Yutaan,” you may say, “you’ve already made so much art of Jiang Cheng holding baby Jin Ling and crying on him. You do not need to make any more.” YES TRUE but CONSIDER! Is there ENOUGH art of Jiang Cheng holding baby Jin Ling and crying on him? No there is not!! I can do many variations on this most excellent theme.

Anyway happy birthday Jiang Cheng! Your present is cuddles with your baby nephew!

[asinglewildflower]

If I were president of Doctor Who, I'd make a Simpsons episode and I'm not joking

[asinglewildflower]

They should invent a method of asking for reassurance that nobody secretly hates you that doesn't make people secretly hate you.

[asinglewildflower]

yo…. when jet breaks in the tea shop and accuses zuko and iroh of beinh firebenders….

do you think any of the patrons looked at zukos scarred face - obviously done by a firebender - and immediately think jet was an asshole? like

jet: hes a firebender!!!!

patrons, thinking about the backstory they concocted for zuko and iroh where their home was invaded by firebenders and they barely survived with their lifes so they could come and have a peaceful life selling tea in a city the war doesnt touch: