dykeravengard - Tumblr blog

[dykeravengard]

I used to do cross country in high school, and there was this guy on the team that was wonderful. Great guy. But his advice to everyone that asked how to get good was to run 20k a day.

If you don't run, I'll just tell you, most people's bodies cannot take that kind of abuse. No matter how much you train, you will not be able to run 20k a day. It's like how you can't train to make your cuts heal faster. You recover as fast as you recover. So while a big part of what made this guy so succesful was the dedication and mental toughness needed to actually run 20k a day, an equally big part was that he healed like fucking Wolverine. And that's fine, but it would've been nice if he knew that and stopped telling new guys to commit suicide by jogging.

Different guy on the team ran like, 5-6k a day, which actually isn't all that much. His problem when he gave advice was that he didn't really get that 5-6k a day doesn't generally produce elite results for most people. He was lucky in the sense that he didn't have to work all that hard to get great results, and unlucky in the sense that if he pushed himself much further than that, he fell apart.

I think about those two whenever I get advice from succesful people. The very things that make them outliers also make their advice useless to most people. Worse, they're often outliers on totally separate ends of the same spectrum, so their advice will be contradictory.

[dykeravengard]

[dykeravengard]

"aespa comeback soon" they're literally on tour rn they never went away girl they are being overworked

[dykeravengard]

the most disturbing trend in online leftism is outright hostility towards any kind of community building tools and forgiveness whatsoever.

[dykeravengard]

you ever have a nightmare about a hyperspecific situation that has already happened to you maybe a while ago and youre like damn i didnt even realize i was still anxious about that

[dykeravengard]

i think far too many people have only seen this video as that one sped up gif version of it and that is a crime that needs to be fixed because this video actually changed my life

[dykeravengard]

Sara Mrad 'Botanical Alchemy' Fall 2024 Haute Couture Collection

[dykeravengard]

nwayz!!!! goodnight

[dykeravengard]

so many tiktoks about people coming to italy and being disappointed nobody looks like an old money influencer and the food is sometimes mid

[dykeravengard]

they have invented a caricature of an italian who is either classy and well dressed or makes every dish from scratch perfectly and like you are going to be disappointed coming here because it's just a regular place with regular people. unless you're in milan city centre you're not seeing any louis vuitton bags anywhere

something ive been noticing is that usamericans especially talk about italian culture like we're some sort of otherworldly alien. do you know in italy they are always well dressed in high heels full face of make up gucci belt prada bag dolce&gabbana blazers etc. do you know that in italy they put olive oil in every dish they are obsessed with olive oil and drink it from the bottle. italians believe they invented tomatoes because tomatoes are so prevalent in italian cooking that it's only reasonable to think they would worship tomatoes and believe it is an italian invention when it is not. do you know italians sleep in the afternoon after lunch instead of going to work. like are you guys hearing yourself it's like we're some sort of folk creature. calm down & relax

[dykeravengard]

i remember one time seeing someone get genuinely pissed to find out that tomatoes are not native to italy because they had it in their head that italians do propaganda about having invented tomatoes when in reality they were imported from the americas. seared into my mind

[dykeravengard]

something ive been noticing is that usamericans especially talk about italian culture like we're some sort of otherworldly alien. do you know in italy they are always well dressed in high heels full face of make up gucci belt prada bag dolce&gabbana blazers etc. do you know that in italy they put olive oil in every dish they are obsessed with olive oil and drink it from the bottle. italians believe they invented tomatoes because tomatoes are so prevalent in italian cooking that it's only reasonable to think they would worship tomatoes and believe it is an italian invention when it is not. do you know italians sleep in the afternoon after lunch instead of going to work. like are you guys hearing yourself it's like we're some sort of folk creature. calm down & relax

[dykeravengard]

mostly worried he's feeling down since he's been having a rough week and i hope he's okay rn

critical situation boyfriend hasnt replied to messages in about 2.5 hours which is fine its FINE

[dykeravengard]

critical situation boyfriend hasnt replied to messages in about 2.5 hours which is fine its FINE

[dykeravengard]

feels weird that im supposed to go to class for my postgrad tomorrow but i havent even finished graduating lol

[dykeravengard]

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!