drcalvin

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The Danish training ship "Georg Stage" dressed in Rainbow colours (these are not her sails, only fabric) 2021

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“Irritated fans produce fanfic like irritated oysters produce pearls.”

— Anne Jamison (via pen-in-hand)

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How do they rise up?

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Another suggestion – different areas of the home might not be the same shoe-zone. I know people who worked with animals who both had a dirt room (for the really dirty outerwear, which smelled strongly of stable).

But then the fancy room, the guest room and grandparent's room + that balcony was another level of "put on your indoor clothes". Two of them were to not bother future guests or an elderly person with very strict cleanliness rules.

Meanwhile the fancy room, which was technically the living room, but not where you sat to watch the telly, was a reception area. An entertaining space, for Sunday coffee, or holiday meals where a fancy dining table was put up.

It doesn't have to be the same, but considering the helmet-removla taboo among some groups, the way there seems to be larger coverts, and there's surely a need for space for young children, the infirm etc, there might be places where you don't wear shoes (except in case of unrest or uneasy allies visiting) as well as places where you never out on shoes + outsiders aren't allowed / only let in after receiving high levels of mutual trust

I am trying to sleep, but I can't because my mind is stuck on one question:

Are Mandalorians a shoes on or shoes off culture when they are at someone's/their home?

Let me elaborate. As you probably know, in some cultures, you take off your outdoor shoes once you enter a private living space (not a store, or public building, etc.). In others, you seem to commonly keep your shoes on. And in some, it seems to be more of a case-by-case thing.

But what do Mandalorians do?

Boots do belong to beskar'gam, and beskar'gam is very important, culturally. The mental image of people hanging out in full armour but in socks is a bit weird, too. And in case something happens, you want to be ready and not have an entire aliit hurry to put boots on, right?

But then again, that somehow does not feel right. I cannot put my finger on why, though. I guess it might be both my own background as a firm 'no shoes in homes' person, but also the fact that, doing what they do, their boots would probably be rather dirty. Like, imagine the dirt you'd bring back in with you. Just as if you went hiking and came in with your dirty shoes. So, from that angle, it might make sense for them to actually take off their shoes.

The worst thing is, it is not even relevant. I am not working on any fic, or picture, or whatever I would need that information for. It is just a random thing my brain decided to latch on. And since I can't decide on what makes more sense:

Which one do you think is it? What makes more sense considering Mandalorian culture? Are there maybe even snippets of text that I can't remember that support either one or the other? Any thoughts, anyone?

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Mother of Pearl: Skull Kendi

Filipino artist, Gregory Halili, carves intricate skulls into mother of pearl shells.

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Points of Sail

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describing time in English the way Whorf described Hopi: the language has no notion of 'the day after tomorrow', nor 'the day before yesterday', so time is perceived in amorphous chunks anywhere between a day and a week long... there is no inflectional future tense, and no concept of futurity, instead of which English speakers employ intentionality, describing future actions as the 'will' of the agent, e.g. The Sun 'will' rise the day after tomorrow... a type of irrealis... possibly stems from pantheistic beliefs...

[drcalvin]

Polynesians did also rely on a form of a physical map called a stick chart, illustrating the specific wave and swell patterns surrounding different island chains. These were particularly helpful during cloudy conditions when the sun and stars were less useful. To navigate the Marshall Islands, the Marshallese represented ocean swell patterns using parts of coconut fronds and shells as islands. Like a subway map, they don’t so much represent distances as they do relationships. The complex and decorative stick charts were often only understood by the person who made them. They were memorised before a voyage by the pilot who would lie on the floor of a canoe to get a sense of swell movement and often lead a squadron of 15 or more boats.

[drcalvin]

I should maybe make an effort post about it but I think Tumblr would be really amused to hear about the whole Sig P320 fiasco. Where the handgun that replaced the Beretta M9 in military service is just randomly going off for no reason, cops all over the country are banning it from duty, and the company that makes it posted a bizarre message about it on Twitter that desperately tries to hide behind the shield of vague online conservative culture. They ultimately changed the manual to say you shouldn't carry it loaded after getting involved in at least one wrongful death lawsuit over this issue. The other thing that's interesting is SIG only won the contract because they offered an insanely low per-unit cost, just around $200, so they skipped the actual trials that would compare its durability and performance to a competing Glock design, and would catch if it did something like going off completely randomly.

This is also the company that developed the XM7, which is a horrific clusterfuck of a rifle that itself is having bizarre issues. Initially the issue was that the barrels could be pushed around, causing the first shot in a string to be off-zero. Now the barrels are getting insane wear within a couple thousand rounds because the cartridge is so high-pressure and fucking stupid. And the whole idea about this cartridge was to be able to penetrate armor that no other nation in the world currently fields, by firing armor piercing bullets that cost $20 per round. For some reason the army thinks this should be the new service rifle. It is basically going back to an idea that led to the shortest-lived service rifle the US has ever used, because it was so heavy and had so much recoil and sucked so much. This is because the army is still trying to win their invasion of Afghanistan, as this kind of rifle would have been really handy there.

Everything is the F-35 program now. It's all corruption and bribery. SIG has won every contract they've entered over the last few years, even for shit they've never made and don't even produce themselves, like scopes. This is what the final stages of the American Imperial Military-Industrial Complex look like.

[drcalvin]

And sometimes, you have the entire thing written, but add a little side-story!

Commenting, asking questions, speculating; all of that can generate inspiration

And even if it didn't, it will ✨ spark joy ✨

do fic readers know that their comments actually influence the course of the story sometimes? i don't mean in a "you need to write it this way because i say so 😡" type of comment, i mean when people are asking questions or really engaging with the plot and the themes in the comments they sometimes bring up things that i didn't even think of, or dig into parts of the story that i've overlooked, or get really interested/fixated on something i was going to just kind of glance over--and it has me going 'oh wait that's actually really interesting, that's a good point' and fully adding or tweaking or changing things about the story going forward. i'm literally adding an entire additional chapter to something right now because someone's comment had me like "oh i didn't dig into that as much as i could have." you have impact!

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even though it didn't end up happening in the Kenobi show I fully subscribe to the idea that Cody at some point found Obi Wan on tattooine because in my mind the only way to get from sad Ewan McGregor to whimsical Alec Guinness is an off screen gay romance in the desert

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I genuinely believe that the new SW trilogy wouldn’t have flopped out into irrelevance like it did if they hadn’t dumped Finn on the side of the freeway like a new pet rabbit the week after easter

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can anyone find me that mesopotamian clay tablet telling you to marry a party girl because she'll bring you joy

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