excentricat1 - Tumblr blog

[excentricat1]

Apparently it is a beverage day

[excentricat1]

Not to be a killjoy (though it is what I do best) but the unsafe and rough handling of a baby Pygmy hippo in a pretty substandard Thai zoo being meme-ed into something funny and cute really shows just how much groupthink plays into public perception of animal welfare.

Moo Deng shows avoidance, threat displays and stress around her keepers that are constantly man-handling her, blasting her with a hose and harassing her. The enclosure is mostly concrete, which is horrible for her soft feet. There looks to be some substrate but there doesn’t seem to be any areas for wallowing or deep water wading.

There’s also very easy access of this hippo to the public with no places to hide. I’d love if someone could shed more light on the enclosures but from what I’ve seen it’s not great.

Also the free contact and forcing into tubs that the keepers do is only going to create an avoidant and potentially aggressive and dangerous Pygmy hippo.

But the public happily overlook that because she’s cute. It’s a similar attitude with seals too.

Stop rewarding bad husbandry with clout. Baby animals deserve agency and respect and to grow up without getting harassed and feeling the need to defend themselves constantly.

[excentricat1]

Me to my dog about her “emergency notification” of a cat across the street and 3 houses down.

“What if you just didn’t worry about it?”

*REASSURING MY CAT ABOUT THE LOUD OUTSIDE NOISE*

me: Yeah, it's a loud noise. It's the garbage truck.

me: We've been safe every time a garbage truck has happened.

[excentricat1]

It always strikes me how hard the choice must have been for her to open his diary. She writes that the time has come plainly enough, but I think she must have agonized over it beforehand. Her wedding gift was to not open it unless in dire need and now just a few weeks later she is ready to do it.

How many times did she talk herself into and back out of it before committing to it by writing that she would in her own diary? How many times did she worry that the need was not big enough? That it wouldn’t tell her anything? That it would prove greater madness than she has yet suspected?

No wonder she makes sure to do so where she won’t be interrupted. She wants to be able to put it aside again easily and re-seal it if the reading doesn’t help.

...and Jonathan with another attack that may harm him. Some day he may ask me about it. Down it all goes.

Jonathan starting his journal in May so that it can freshen his memory for when he will talk about his travels with Mina.

Mina re-starting her own journal in September to both practice her shorthand and to share with Jonathan any event he may ask about in the future when his memory eventually heals.

Both actions and journals done out of love, yet so different in their intentions.

It seems only yesterday that the last entry was made, and yet how much between then, in Whitby and all the world before me, Jonathan away and no news of him; and now, married to Jonathan, Jonathan a solicitor, a partner, rich, master of his business, Mr. Hawkins dead and buried, and Jonathan with another attack that may harm him.

Jonathan's journal was intended to be a source of enthusiasm for this young couple in love to remember his first job, and all of those charming little details that he found during the journey when he was not on the clock. The recipes, the descriptions of landscapes, the people, and all of the new things which were so amazingly curious... Only for it to end up as the only object directly tied to Jonathan's survival as those hellish days went by, the pages filling with each horrific action, and every sentence filled with grief. All forgotten, and sealed under a promise of solemn secrecy.

The time is come, I fear, when I must open that parcel, and know what is written.

Until today, not out of morbid questioning, but out worry for the young man who wrote it.

Mina's journal was intended to be a practical exercise for the future, a not so far away goal of work through paperwork, and a means to cultivate a special talent to use ahead. From the intimate conversations about the joys of marriage, to interviews of old folk by the sea, all of it... Took a second step to let the horrific unexplained events be recorded less the memory fails. Yet, she picks the pages again with a different purpose today.

In the doylist sense, both diaries serve as plot points that change the course of the narrative as long as they are used. Both Mina and Jonathan were "out" of the main plot after they reunited because there was no need for them to document anything while they were together once again. The inactivity of the journals stagnated the plot around them, and left then behind as the other characters dealt with the threat of the Count, but now that there is a meaningful reason to start out the process again, their participation is now clear once again.

The second Mina wrote the first sentence on her journal, both her and Jonathan are now upon the narrative again, whenever they want it or not.

[excentricat1]

Handful of Trail Mix is your one stop solution to not passing out at 4pm. surely you cannot go wrong with Handful of Trail Mix when cooking or even using the microwave is unthinkable. handful of trail mix contains protein, carbohydrates, salt, fiber, sugar, and fat for all possible situations and challenges. handful of trail mix always tastes "okay". you are hiking your own Appalachian trail every day forgetting stuff in the other room eighty times before you can switch tasks why not try Handful of Trail Mix today and avoid breaking down your own muscle tissue for energy for another few hours

[excentricat1]

I had a dream that I witnessed something so funny that I needed to draw a comic about it, but nobody in the dream wanted to have a look at the comic or read it. I don't remember anything else about the dream but I needed to draw the comic and show y'all what it was.

[excentricat1]

"She's so beautiful! I bet she goes to the library."

- my 7 year old daughter

[excentricat1]

The Shadow Of Mount Rainier Causing A Gap In The Sunset.

[excentricat1]

So, a comparatively high amount of states are voting on the fate of ranked choice voting this year. Missouri is voting on whether or not to kill it, Alaska is voting on whether or not to keep it, and most importantly, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho are voting on whether or not to adopt ranked choice voting, with maybe Colorado to follow.

And if you live in these states, even if you don't want to vote at the top of the ticket, I urge you to get out there and vote in favor of ranked choice voting on all of them.

Like, the two-party monopoly is a big part of the reason why politics in this country is so shit, and a big part of that is our "first past the post" system making it basically mathematically impossible for candidates outside of them to win anything beyond a local or state level.

So, if you want to try and break the cycle of voting for the lesser evil, of bipartisan cruelty towards the Global South and the country's own citizens alike, we need to change this and we need to vote on it where we can.

[excentricat1]

I slept terribly.

Unrelated, ever notice that the swallow reflex occurs specifically mid-exhale?

[excentricat1]

Please tag/comment where you're from! Submitted anonymously 🤫

[excentricat1]

I love hotel breakfasts. You have shambling zombies who've managed to scrape together half a braincell, the morning people who've already done their yoga, and the most elegantly put together women you've ever seen, all staring with the same vague confusion at the unholy selection of food on offer.

[excentricat1]

[excentricat1]

T_T

Ishmael survives because he was in Ahab’s boat by chance, and when Ahab was sucked under Ishmael was thrown clear. He’s sucked into the whirlpool of the Pequod going down, but he’s far enough back that just as he’s about to be pulled under the whirlpool collapses and out of the ocean pops the life-preserver, Queequeg’s coffin. The sharks following them don’t bite him, the sea birds (hat thieves) ignore him. He floats in the sea for a full day and night.

The Rachel! Searching for her children! Finds only Ishmael!

[excentricat1]

The world by the presence or absence of ants in the wild