koenigsideblog

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Okay so because of reasons, mostly involving my dash being a hot mess and wanting to strip it back to just following blogs relevant to my main @koenigseggseggsegg, I'm hereby retiring this blog. If you're following me here and would like to keep up with the new and probably not remotely improved version, please go follow me @navigatorsghost instead. Thanks to everyone who has followed, interacted and generally poked me here! <3

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Nokhur Cemetery

Located in the village of Nokhur (Turkmenistan), this graveyard has gravestones that are fitted with the horns of mountain goats. It is believed that they ward off evil spirits and guide the soul of the deceased into heaven.

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Every time I see a post about updog I’m torn between not wanting to fall for it and wanting to help the poster complete their joke.

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Man, the last eighteen months have done some shit to us all. I was just in the corner shop and the middle-aged woman ahead of me was talking cheerily to the cashier about her health issues and how her husband had covered for her while she was in hospital so the local seniors she ran errands for wouldn't know she was sick and be worried, etc, and I was just there minding my business but unable to help overhearing and thinking "damn some people's resilience really impresses me"...

And then she dropped a pound coin and it rolled away behind her. I picked it up, as you would, and stepped forward at a socially-distanced full arm's reach to offer it back to her - me of course dressed all in metalhead black as usual, with my best socially-appeasing smile invisible behind my mask. I figured she'd just hold out her hand at an equal arm's length for me to drop the coin into.

Instead she folded her fingers around mine and practically petted my paw while taking it back and thanking me.

Her hand was warmer than mine, her skin like soft, crumpled vellum. And eighteen months ago, I would've jumped like I stood on a hot nail and probably been actively angry if a stranger had touched me that intimately. But today I was just like "...actually you know what, that's 100% valid right now."

I just felt so much compassion and empathy in that moment and honestly my usually touch-averse self is still a bit shook. Bless you lady, I hope you stay healthy from now on and get your hand held all you want in the After Times whenever we get there.

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That last post reminds me of a family legend that happened many years ago and was only told to me once I was old enough to get it. It went something like: "There was only one bed, and that bed was near the window in the women's dormitory. And the women's dormitory was on the first floor (ie, US second floor). And that night there was a surprise inspection.

"And to cut a long story short that's how your distant cousin left the RAF with a dishonourable discharge and two broken ankles."

Writer: There Was Only One Bed…

Smut fans: *gasp!!!!!*

Writer: So They Spooned All Night And The Brooding One Allowed Themselves To Feel Vulnerable For The First Time In Years And The Chirpy One Got Some Quality Snuggles

Fluff fans: *GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

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“At night there’s another life…we don’t talk about it but we notice…Time is much kinder at night, there’s nothing to wait for, nothing is out of date…”

— John Berger, From A to X: A Story in Letters (via soracities)

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There once was a singer of old, Who then broke away from the fold, He won’t give you up, He won’t let you down, In a word you have been limerick-rolled.

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A nordic fairytale, Eikisdalsvatnet / Norway

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Sighisoara, Romania (by KlepToGraphy)

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© Sunday’s Featured Photographer, Ole Henrik Skjelstad

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Oh my gods there's a word for it?! Thank you so much @French (and @hedgehog-moss for the explanation). This is a concept I love, in fiction and in real life - the winning of something or someone's trust on their terms, by showing respect and doing the work of being trustworthy, rather than assuming you have the right or authority to demand their compliance. And there definitely isn't a good word for it in English that I can think of. (I just tried searching "tame" on thesaurus.org to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything obvious, and I think the results definitely confirm OP's point...)

I really need an English word for this now. Corrupting the French directly to English in traditional post-Norman-Conquest fashion, you might get something like "appriving", which sounds a bit like "approving", which kind of matches nicely because that's what you're trying to get the thing-being-apprived to feel about you. ^_^ Anyone got any better ideas?

Isn't "apprivoiser" "to tame" in English?

They are often translated as if they were equivalent (and yet every French commentary of the Taming of the Shrew starts with sighing over our title “La mégère apprivoisée” and saying that’s a very approximate translation, and it’s not just the gerund...) but I think they’re different concepts, that imply different levels of agency for the thing being tamed / apprivoisée. Taming feels like an action that you carry out on your own schedule upon some animal / person without giving them much of a choice, vs. apprivoiser suggests sitting back and waiting for them to decide that you’re unthreatening and they can come to you.

The difference in terms of coercion is more obvious in the negative—the idea of an animal or person that “can’t be tamed” suggests they’re so willful they’ll reject any yoke, whereas an animal or person that won’t let themselves be apprivoisé only suggests shyness or wariness—impetuousness or strength of will doesn’t really factor in because they aren’t being forced. The word apprivoiser implies patience and building trust and letting the other set the pace—I suppose a better equivalent would be ‘to befriend’ but that makes it lose its “trying to approach a skittish animal” connotation... You tame something or someone by making them act less independent, but you apprivoise them by giving them time to feel less fearful.

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Hey who found Tumblr HQ?

Vintage Evil

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I mean tbh it would still look like this on a modern camera in some weathers.

‘Whitby Abbey in Mist’ ( late 19th to early 20th century ).

Gelatin silver print from the original glass negative by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, (British, 1853 - 1941). Printed by Bill Eglon Shaw.

Image and text courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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^^^ and also I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the new revolution in gaming where you don't need to be online to play! Imagine a game that you just pay for once and it's yours forever, all content unlocked with a single purchase! All trophies and achievements accessible without multiplayer! 100% completion in the privacy of your own home and console/computer, absolutely no social skills required!

...isn't it gonna be amazing?

you’re hearing it more and more

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Viking’s Home (Geiranger, Norway) by StarCitizen

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This is a really beautiful sentiment and it should be shared further.

Just a little thought about creativity.