#cambodia too!!

[housecow]

Would you want to travel sometime in the future? Not just the US, but the world in general? Europe for instance.

yes!! i actually have a trip to italy set up for next year :)) idk about much more than that, grad school will be a massive time commitment but… i will get to do some traveling due to the nature of the program, sooo 🥳

i’d love to visit germany, too!! so many cool fossils, i very much want to see the solnhofen limestone and the associated museums—where the first beautifully preserved archaeopteryx was found!!!

also, as a personal goal. i wanna go to mongolia…… i am a huge fan of wide open space and i want to eat horse in their native habitat

[ladyimaginarium]

reminder that asia is. fucking massive. btw

[aloneandforsakenbyfateandbyman]

Ta Prohm (Ancestor Brahma) temple in Angkor Thom. It is best known to westerners for its appearance in the films the films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) & Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001).

It was built in the late 12th century by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and center of learning. Almost 80,000 people were required to live in or visit the temple, including over 2,700 officials and 615 dancers.

There is a mysterious unexplained image on an interior wall of a dinosaur which appears to be a stegosaurus. The temple’s main image represents the female deity Prajñāpāramitā Devi, and was modelled on the king's mother. Outside the temple, I saw stunningly dressed South Indian women posing with the goddess figure.

The temple has become overgrown with spung trees and foliage which add to the beauty and wonder of the surroundings, and turn it into an otherworldly scene of nature and ancient architecture mingled together.

[transfemgeorgecostanza]

☀️✨

[wingstobetorn]

I remember that I used to visit my grandmother and cousins In the province a lot when I was younger. I also remember being terrified one night because they told me the place was haunted hdgsj.

[el-smacko]

Like. Crazy how in the US military service is the only way to guarantee you get healthcare or education or employment services or political consideration, which are things a lot of industrialized nations have for all their citizens. A real fucking shame that we made Starship Troopers in the 90s but after the Iraq War we make shit like Rebel Moon and turned Star Wars into Marvel and and Star Trek into James Bond. Fascism really won the propaganda war. People really believe Iraq was some desert backwater full of illiterate fanatics because they’re too stupid to know it was a thriving urban center for thousands of years until the United States violently deindustrialized it in the Gulf War.

[wuxian-vs-wangji]

Dramas have helped me get better at GeoGuessr.

Before, when I realized it dropped me in Thailand, I just clicked a random spot within Thailand and took the points it gave me.

But THIS time, I recognized a word from the Bed Friend and knew which city to click randomly in!

[chaoswrites]

everyday in my programming class my teacher tells us another wild story about his life that continues to shock me

[bookwyrminspiration]

ah! i forget sometimes not everyone knows abt the khmer rouge haha--ofc i don't know it in great detail but again another way my parents were different, where most other people we know who went through the same thing are pretty closed off to their kids abt what happened they told us a lot of stories about what it was like living there both before and after the regime. so many crazy impossible stories of survival it's kind of hard to think anything else compares? it was basically just the cpk, communist regime/party, took over after winning the civil war, forced everyone into labor camps, and destroyed anything that came from other countries (especially america and other western countries) because the party i guess wanted to declare that cambodia was better and they could survive without outside help? so people who weren't fully cambodian, who spoke other languages, who were more educated etc were much more likely to be killed. and both my parents were chinese cambodian, but my dad was like. really little when it was all going down so he only knew mandarin until he was taught + he stayed a lot longer than my mother did. thing i think about a lot, unrelated to language but i just think you would find it interesting, is during that time money became nothing--because the regime was controlling everything anyway and all non-soldiers got equal amounts of very little--so in lieu of paper/metal currency people would trade in salt. in the 1970s. it's both like wow so interesting i could use this in my classed (and DID. so many times <3 it can't be said i don't use the inherited khmer trauma to my advantage) and also just, dude, that was the 70s. the rest of the world was kind of just like. chilling in their normal 1970s events. elvis was probably still alive.

Thank you very much for the impromptu history lesson, I know I could've looked it up myself (and I do intend to do more research on my own, don't worry, I don't intent to make you my sole source), but I figured you could better articulate which parts specifically related to what we were talking about. which you did with the mandarin comment

I have an ongoing list of things to research and look into in general, and I have now added the khmer rouge to said list. I'm not super rigorous with it, so I don't know when I'll get around to this topic, but I do intend to. It seems like an important event to be aware of on several levels--though that is, of course, an understatement. It's kinda hard to capture all the horrors and reactions to them in words. Like saying "my condolences to your parents for being under a life-threatening oppressive regime" doesn't feel like it covers everything, but how do I cover everything?

You are right though, that salt thing is very interesting. I'm very curious how that worked--was salt in short, demanded supply? How much was it worth that it could replace money? I suppose those are questions to be investigated with my research :)

Also! Looked it up, and Elvis would've still been alive. Died in 1977, so depending on when exactly in the 70s we're talking, you are entirely right he'd still be alive. Again, thank you very much for the overview, I don't know if I would've heard about it otherwise if you hadn't brought it up, so I appreciate it

[straightlightyagami]

just saw a galaxybrain (/s) take that was basically like "russia is not imperialist and the 'special operation' is to aid the national liberation of a people." I'm sorry but how fucking dense do you have to be to think that.

[ofgentleresolve]

mana prefers sweet things; unfortunately, her stomach can't handle foods with lots of sugar ( ie. baked goods, cakes, etc. ) or rich foods...which is why her go-to is jello, as it's sweet but also mostly fruit juice. her favorite flavor would be coconut...and she will take any coconut candies off ur hands too if you are offering :)

[hanniehaeism]

Me: likes kpop and anime and gets haircuts inspired from a kpop idol

My family: do you want to be Korean/Japanese ⁉️

[azumasoroshi]

how come for every 5 posts on pinterest about khmer/cambodian culture stuff there’s a post or a comment about how thai culture is the most beautiful and the OG culture and every khmer thing is ugly and copied like hello??? who hurt you??? neighboring countries have similar looking cultures surprise surprise. so sorry that the khmer empire was named after us like damn clearly we stole it from the thai

it drives me insane like can we not have one thing…stay in your fucking lane

[jacensolodjo]

I'm trying to work on my intro for one of the other wings in the museum so I qualify for more than one of them as a docent but my anger keeps getting the best of me lmaoooo

[bohemiandeer]

You know what hits me hard? When 5 to 6 year old children, all the way in Southeast Asia, knows about what's happening in Palestine right now. That children their age is getting bombed, that they're starving to death, that they're getting shot at, and sniped in the head. Because, just this past 2 or so months, I heard some of the little ones in the Kindergarten classes I'm TAing in as an Intern talk about it. Hell, one of the little boys downright said he didn't like Israel, because Israel is bad, because they do scary things. Another was questioning whether Palestine was bad too, because, "why else would they shooting at them?". A little girl in one of my classes doesn't want to finish her food at all, because she wants to save at least half her meat and rice for kids in Palestine, because she heard that, they don't have food. And that's just the ones I remember. Namely the inciting cases before their classmates slowly follow suit. The littles are fricking SCARED. We had to sit these kids down, and tell them that the topic is too mature for them at the moment, that they shouldn't even be concerned because they're KINDERGARTNERS, they're not even old enough to properly understand. The one teacher I was TAing for had to make a class announcement saying that. What gets me is, these are 5 to 6 year olds, the youngest I've worked with in this specific age group is 4. 5 years old on average, and they've already been exposed to the worst horrors genocide has to offer through the news and snippets of conversation among adults and hell, considering how many of them say they like to play games on Mama's phone, or their IPad, even from fricking social media. And the fact that, these literal babies, from all the way in Cambodia, has more empathy in their entire body and soul, than full grown fricking adults have in the nail of their pinky finger, gets me. FFS we as adults could LEARN from them I feel sometimes. I honestly don't know what to feel about it anymore. On the one hand, this is the next generation I'm working with. And if the next generation's default response to a tragedy such as Palestine, is what I've seen come up on occasion so far? Perhaps there's some bloody hope for this world after all. At least in this country. Especially since a majority of them already come from families who survived a genocide. These are the 3rd - 4th generation descendants of those who survived the Khmer Rouge. They've got grandparents at home, who no doubt are more than intimately familiar with what Palestine is going through right now. And it shows.

But on the other, it makes my heart sink because these are CHILDREN, these are LITTLE KIDS, they should be playing with their toys and watching cartoons and talking to their friends about everything from Spiderman to Speakerman to Kuromi and her friends, and be worried about whether or not they can go to playground that day, guranteed they're well behaved, or if Mama remembered to pack in their costume for swimming lessons that week. NOT JUST MY KIDS. But the little ones in Palestine too. They deserve better. They all deserve, so much better. Hell, it's come to the point that whenever I look at my kiddos right now, whether they'd be working in class, playing, doing something as mundane as eating lunch or getting ready for their nap. I think of the children their age in Palestine that didn't even get the chance to survive. I think of the ones whose memories from this age, is nothing but absolute horror and pain, rather than what has slowly become my normal, who never got to experience what my littles do on a daily basis right now.

Children shouldn't even be concerned about "War", about a Genocide. The last thing that should be on a 5 year old's mind, is pain, and suffering, and the worst horrors imaginable ever to be inflicted on a human being. ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S INFLICTED, ON OTHER CHILDREN THEIR AGE. And for that alone, the world has failed them. Especially the kids in Palestine who didn't ask for any of this. They just wanted to carry on with life as kids do, the same way as my littles do on a daily basis no doubt, learning, playing, chatting with friends over their favourite cartoons and characters, worrying about whether they'd get to go to the playground or not that day.

I apologize for talking about this on this blog. I know my blog tends to be lighter in feel, a lot more unhinged and light hearted typically. I mean, I'm just a fricking nerd who likes to draw and write, and lurk about her favourite fandoms to consume and support what is shared among other nerds who also like to draw and write. But I couldn't stop thinking about it. About contemplating it, especially since I'll be back on a roll tomorrow, working with my kiddos again after not seeing them for 5 days straight because of Holidays. And, I just had to talk about it. This is something I felt I couldn't keep to myself this time, I don't think my soul'd be able to carry it. I had to talk about it.

FREE PALESTINE. Our children deserve better.

[anonymousaccountuser]

Okay. I watched Lupin Zero a while back and I’m losing my goddamn MIND over the metaphor of Lupin, a thief, stealing Jigen’s heart. It has been MONTHS and it plagues my mind still. I’m practically tearing my hair out.

Like… Imagine you are a boy. A lonely boy, a boy who’s been hurt his entire life, a boy who was given a gun at the age of five and taught to kill mercilessly without hesitation. You’re constantly told you’re not good enough, that nobody will ever want you for you, that you’ll only ever be a weapon; you’re worth nothing more than that, nothing less. The more skill you have, the more value you hold; if you do a job well you’ll be worth something, if you fail you’ll probably get beat or tossed out, considered less than dirt by your own shitty father. You’re not a boy, not really. You’re a gun, and the minute you miss a shot you’re worthless. You learn that no, you can’t be a kid—being a kid is not for you. You don’t have time for stupid birthday parties or immature little kid games when you’re too busy fighting in war zones or getting shot at in Cambodia. You teach yourself not to feel; remorse and regret are pointless when you’re a hitman, and so is love—you never have childhood crushes or fancy any of the pretty girls at your school. You think it’s stupid. You’ve never been interested in girls anyway, and your father once threatened to shoot you if you ever tried the alternative, so you lock your heart away, stuff it into a box and cram it into a safe and set fifty different code-combination locks and wrap chains around it so that you can’t feel.

And then one day, some skinny rich kid with sticky fingers shows up, and just won’t leave you alone. Okay, you think to yourself. No biggie. He’s just some spoiled brat with too much time on his hands who doesn’t know what he’s getting into. But then this kid starts treating you like you’re worth something, like you’re some sort of treasure he values, something he wants to chase; and not for your quick draw, either. This monkey-faced little brat seems to only want to know more about you, and play stupid kid games with you. He’s annoying, but the trouble he gets into is fun enough, even if you always end up having to bail him out. You find out that this kid is a thrill-seeker, and much to your surprise, he considers you thrilling. You’ve never had friends before, but this feels like something else. The way he looks at you makes your stomach fuzzy with a feeling you’re not entirely sure what to think of, and no matter how many times you walk away you always find yourself drawn to him. You’re reminded of what your father threatened to do at that, so you tuck that feeling away with all the others.

But then, this bastard “friend” of yours does something you never expected; he chips away at the walls you’ve built, carefully picks the locks holding chains around your heart with nimble, practiced fingers. He pries at that safe of yours like it’s fun, like it’s some sort of challenge for him (he likes challenges, you’ve come to find) and finds out those combinations of yours with thieving expertise. And then, as if none of your past matters, as if all those thousands of walls of defence you built and security lasers you set and safety precautions you took are absolutely nothing to him, he reaches forward and places a skinny hand over your chest and takes what he wants, like he’s always done. He holds you in the palm of his hand like you’re something precious, a valued piece of artwork in a renowned museum that he’s taken the liberty of nabbing, and you let him. You let him steal you like some pretty piece of jewelry. You let him pull you from the shitty life you live with that shitty dad of yours and steal you away, even though you’re scared out of your mind of intimacy. You’re alone in the dark of that cramped little safe that you’ve locked yourself away in your entire life, and he picks the lock with a bobby pin and reaches for you and grabs your hand; and then suddenly, you’re not so alone anymore. Suddenly you’re more than a gun, you’re Jigen Daisuke, and Lupin the Third wants you like he would a priceless ruby on display in the hall of a rich man’s mansion.

DO YOU SEE MY VISION, PEOPLE??!? DO YOU SEE IT!!?!1!?