#everything about this movie from the scientific theories

[theparadoxart]

Me watching Interstellar: 😮😮😕🥺😭😱🤯😶‍🌫️😭😭

[loveemagicpeace]

🩵Poetic Neptune🧜🏼‍♀️

🩵Neptune represents the waters that contain all of a person's hopes, dreams, emotions, ideas and potential. With Neptune's help, we break through the current dilemma and dare to dream of a better future. That's when photography was invented, and the first scammers were using it double exposures produced photographs of ghost-like figures that were rumored to be phantom creatures. The development of hypnotism and basic began psychological theories. Neptune idealizes, but they are in his case, ideals based on dreaming about someone or something that would save us from pain separations. Basically, it's a longing to escape from cold cruel reality of the world.

🏠This is shown when we return home after a long, tiring day, close the door to the outside world, and immerse ourselves in a good book, movie, or other activity that takes us away from of the daily grind and at least for us for something time to escape. But Neptune can get lost in this relaxation and returning to the real world or knowing when enough is enough doesn't always go well for him. Then it can happen that we drink more wine than we intended, or that we stay up too long and then don't hear the alarm clock in the morning. Neptune can cause confusion in any given life, opening the way to our dreams and closing the door to reality. Neptune is also associated with addiction.

🧜🏼‍♀️People with a strong Neptune can be very daydreaming and are naturally inclined towards spiritual practices and mystical experiences. Many times they experience the world differently than other people. The planet also represents the longing for a benevolent parent who would protect us from suffering and make everything go well. It is necessary to watch out for longing, because it can quickly make us victims of our own emotions. Neptune's domain also includes daydreaming and longing for a perfect love that will satisfy every need and finally made us happy and complete. People with a strong influence of Neptune do not constantly dream of love that will save them and show them the way.

🩵Neptune can also indicate the constant childlike energy that is with us. Returning to the past and the desire to stay young forever. We idealize our favorite actors and other celebrities because we believe they have the perfect one appearance, relationships and lifestyle. Many of us dream of being famous and also living the perfect life. The realization that ideals are unattainable can lead to intense disillusionment with the world, and Neptune is associated with mood swings and destructive behavior when the truth is not matches our expectations. Neptune is the classic embodiment of the artistic temperament. Neptune is associated with the mysterious realms life, and questions that have no scientific explanation. The planet represents the invisible the laws of matching that bind us together and the inexplicable coincidences that happen in our lives. Theories conspiracies originate from Neptune's murky world, where nothing is quite as it seems and the layers of possibility are many.

🧚🏼‍♀️Neptune in 1st house-The presence of Neptune brings an element of glamour to your outer persona. It gives you a sixth sense with which to navigate the world. your imagination is very big and you can quickly fall into your dream world wherever you are. You can draw a lot of energy from your surroundings. Many times you can create places in your own magical way. You can idealize people's personalities and looks without realizing it. Your personality is very interesting and many times people can't read you or tell exactly who you really are. You have a mysterious nature that quickly charms people. People can see in you someone who is mysterious, spiritual and out of this world. Your appearance is magical and you can look like a cartoon character. Sometimes you don't even seem real to people. You can charm people with your presence and appearance. You can be whoever you want to be and people will believe it and see you that way.

💰Neptune in 2nd house-you can daydream a lot about money, material things, food, enjoyment, music, movies. With Neptune here, you can have a very high confidence in the things you have. Your value can also be high (but that's because you're just delusional about it). You can literally manifest money. This placement can indicate dreams and illusions surrounding wealth and possessions. Individuals with this placement might have a tendency to idealize money or view it through a spiritual lens. You can watch a lot of movies and then have the feeling that this is real life. Life can be a movie. You can also have your own style of music that you listen to and it can quickly take you over.

😶‍🌫️Neptune in 3rd house-a lot of your imagination is in your head. You can imagine all kinds of things. Many times you delve into the thoughts of others. Neptune has no boundaries, and when it is placed in the third house, it can be hard for you to be assertive when dealing with others. Sometimes you find it very hard to talk to others or listen to them because you can draw a lot of energy from them. But you can be very good at telling a story or acting out a scene. Individuals with this placement may have a poetic way of speaking or writing, often conveying deep emotions and abstract concepts. Your way of speaking and thinking can be quite mystical, different and interesting to others.

🎑Neptune in 4th house - you can dream a lot about a perfect home and family. You can idealize your home and imagine exactly the kind of house you would like to have. Whenever you feel lonely, your escape is the place where you feel most comfortable and understood. You can spend a lot of time there. People with this position have a need to have a place in which they can hide from others and which is only theirs. Neptune here suggests a search for the perfect sanctuary, a place of soulful retreat. A spiritual principle can be your inner and outer foundation stone. You can have a very beautiful and spiritual home. Maybe you spend most of your time at home. I also think that many people, when they come to the home, feel like they are in a dream and very comfortable. But you can also feel lonely many times.

🎨Neptune in 5th house-eternal child. You want to live an easy, dreamy life. You can put a lot of your energy into creating, showing your thoughts, feelings and yourself. People with this position draw very well from an early age or have a special ability in things that others do not. Neptune here can also mean that you become recognizable at a young age without even realizing it. You can have several different hobbies, but many times they are related to water. In this position, people have to be careful not to get too carried away by gambling. Because they can become addicted to them or use them to escape. Your escape from the world can also be drawing in which you express your feelings, various hobbies or even romantic affairs (these people can sometimes meet people just to escape from problems). But you can also make people dreamy- with you, they can feel like they are in a movie.

🧁Neptune in 6th house- Individuals with this placement often find themselves drawn to careers that involve creativity, spirituality, or working with the less fortunate. They have a deep desire to offer their services to the world in a compassionate and empathetic manner. You can live in a messy space but you can feel your best in them. The 6th house represents perfection while Neptune represents confusion. Here you can be very delusional when it comes to health and your body, many times you are not even aware of the problems you have. You are self-sacrificing when it comes to work or problems. Many times, however, your escape is the opposite of that. These people usually cannot do work unless it involves art and at the same time they will work better on their own. These people should not take drugs or any substance because they can quickly become addicted and it can affect their health.

🥰Neptune in 7th house- a longing for a perfect union is suggested here and it might be hard for you to see people for who they really are, rather than as you would like them to be. You can dream a lot about the perfect partner/relationship you want to have. You can spend most of your time fantasizing about people you imagine yourself. Your escape can also be an imaginary parterre or a relationship that exists only in your head. Here you have to be careful not to get into a relationship too quickly, because people can turn out to be completely different than they were at the beginning. Neptune can give you the illusion of a relationship that isn't there at all. But u can also meet your soulmate and having the most dreamy relationship. The good thing in neptune is that everything is an illusion and you can get everything you want if you believe in it.

Part 2 is comming🎸🫧🎨

✨Ig- bekylibra

-Rebekah🩵🦋🌊

[aesethewitch]

Ghosts 101

Spirit work has always been the ultimate base of my spiritual and magical practices. Some of my earliest clear memories are of encounters with spirits, and I’ve always had a talent for sensing them. In a horror movie setting, I’d be that person who gets the weird feeling in the hallway right before all the doors slam shut at once, feeling the shift in the air before whatever ghoul’s around makes its mischief.

I mention this right out of the gate so that you, the reader, know that most of what I know about ghosts (and spirits in general) comes from personal experience. Not books, not videos, not other people’s work. There’s a lot of UPG in this little essay. Just keep that in mind as you read.

If there’s something you disagree with or have different experiences with, I’m not surprised! Everything in the realm of spirits, including ghosts, can really only be theorized about. Disagreeing opinions, experiences, and theories are very, very welcome. Drop ‘em in the replies, reblogs, or my inbox. Or, if you want, make a post of your own and tag me in it. I want to see them!

Anyways, with that lengthy UPG disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff.

What is a Ghost?

I think it’s important to note, though kind of obvious, that ghosts are a sub-category of spirit. All ghosts are spirits, but not all spirits are ghosts. But what is a ghost, exactly?

As with most things, theories differ. In general, ghosts are thought to be… well, dead people. Some folks think that ghosts are the soul, essence, or spirit of a person who has died. Others believe that ghosts are just a fragment of a person’s spirit. But I’ve also seen theories stating that ghosts aren’t really ghosts, they’re echoes or imprints of human energy that once existed in a place.

Then, there are folks who think ghosts don’t exist at all. I can’t really blame them; empirical, repeatable proof of ghosts is tough to get in order to be satisfying in a scientific way. The only reason I personally believe in ghosts is because I’ve had several encounters that can’t otherwise be explained. Plus, for me, it goes hand-in-hand with other types of spirit work. Ghosts being real just makes sense with the framework I use to engage with the world.

So, obviously, there isn’t one single, concrete answer as to what a ghost is. We can only theorize.

My Theories

My personal theory aligns more or less with one of the more common theories. I think that ghosts are the lingering spirits of living beings who have died. Note I say living beings — some people think that only humans can become ghosts, but I think that any living thing can become one. In the case of plants and trees, ghosts behave somewhat differently than animals; but that’s a whole other conversation to be had. For the sake of this post, I plan on focusing mainly on human ghosts.

The way I understand it, ghosts are the whole, complete essence of a person that lingers in the physical realm for a time after their physical body no longer functions. I believe there are also energetic imprints — energy left over from the living, often (but not always) caused and fueled by strong emotions and lingering ties of memory in a place. These imprints can seem like a haunting, but the key difference is that they aren’t sentient. They may echo when you call, but they won’t give answers that are intelligent or timely according to questions asked or stimulus provided by the living. Sort of like recording a ringing bell; playing the bell’s chime back doesn’t ring the bell again. It just plays the sound it knows.

Now, death does funny things to the mind. Depending on the circumstances of the death, a ghost might have full awareness that they were alive, have died, and are now a ghost. I find this is most common for people who died of old age and long-term diseases: people who knew they were nearing the end, for one reason or another.

Ghosts formed from more sudden deaths, on the other hand, are likelier to not know what happened. They may figure it out given time, or they may never learn the truth. As with most other things dealing with individuals, the exact circumstances vary. No two ghosts are exactly the same. Some people don’t become ghosts at all, I’ve found! They simply move on.

Another important aspect of my theories on ghosts is that I think they fade. Unless they’re continually tied to a space, fed a steady supply of energy, and purposely kept in the physical realm, I believe that they can’t sustain a form here. Without a physical body to keep the spirit, soul, consciousness, or whatever we are, a ghost is gradually pulled into the more ethereal side of things. The astral plane, the other side, the afterlife, et cetera; I’m not sure, personally, where they end up. Maybe it depends on what they were attached to in life, maybe it doesn’t. Who knows!

I think this is where I draw the distinction between ghosts and ancestor spirits. “Ancestor spirits,” in my practice, aren’t individual people from my past. Rather, they’re a sort of collective consciousness made up of all the people who came before me who are connected to me through familial, cultural, and blood ties. I like to believe that ghosts become part of that collective when they fade out of the physical world. All this is to say, ghosts are just people who are dead. They won’t be around forever unless they’re bound and kept “fed.”

On Hauntings

The first half of the things everyone wants to know is: How do we know when a ghost is actually present? It’s a good question, one that’s hotly debated in ghost hunting circles. For the sake of argument, I think we need to define the word haunting first.

To be clear, a haunting isn’t just when a ghost is present. A ghost just passing through or lingering for a little while doesn’t necessarily make a haunting. That would be better described as a presence. A haunting, in my opinion, is a long-term, sustained presence of a ghost or imprint.

And the first step to dealing with a haunting is to determine whether the place you’re in is actually haunted. You don’t have to have super sensitive psychic powers to detect the presence of ghosts. Some folks might have an easier time of it than others, but anyone can learn how to discern when a ghost is hanging around.

It’s important to note that commonly-reported signs of ghost presences and hauntings are also symptoms of other issues like mold, electrical issues, pressure changes, carbon monoxide, stress and anxiety, noisy neighbors, animals outside or in the walls (including bugs), sleep apnea or insomnia, and more. It’s important to consider mundane reasons before leaping to magical, spiritual, or ghostly ones.

With that in mind, let’s say that you’ve ruled out all the mundane possibilities, and you’re still left wondering whether that place is capital-H Haunted. How can you tell?

In my experience, there are a few signs that will stick out:

Disembodied sounds, such as voices, knocking, and walking

A pervasive chill or prickling feeling, particularly on parts of the body that are covered

A feeling of being touched, poked, or prodded

Visual disturbances like mist or shadows

Sudden smells that can’t be explained, such as perfume, tobacco, or food

Batteries in things like phones and cameras draining very quickly

Now, note that even with these signs, a lot of these things can happen with spirits that aren’t ghosts. The only way to know for absolutely sure that you’re dealing with a ghost and not a mischievous, physical-realm-poking non-human spirit is to make contact and ask.

My fellow sensitive individuals may experience other signs during a haunting. Depending on where your abilities lie, you might experience stronger sensations or detect signs of a haunting earlier than others who haven’t trained these senses.

What Causes a Haunting?

It’s hard to say. Some people (particularly ghost hunters with big TV shows who need to make those viewer numbers go up) say that ghosts stick around because they’re pissed off or had some tragedy befall them in life. Trauma ties them to their surroundings, trapping them between life and death as a specter, or something like that.

Honestly, all that tells me is that these guys are trying to sell you something (their show). I’ve met maybe two ghosts that were like that, and they had extremely good reasons for it. That’s not to say there aren’t traumatized ghosts out there; just that they aren’t nearly as common or the only explanation for a haunting.

I’m personally not sure what causes some ghosts to linger over others. I think it does partly have to do with emotion, but it may also have to do with the amount of energy the person had left when they died. For example, the ghost of my great-aunt faded within a couple weeks after she died, because she was old, tired, and ready. On the other hand, the ghost of a guy I went to school with who died in an accident a few years ago is still lingering on the train tracks where it happened. It’s an extremely individual thing.

Another part of lingering ghosts and hauntings, I think, is interaction with the living. Without a physical body, the ghost has no native source of energy. Part of working with ghosts, for me, has been learning how to share energy (mine or from other sources) with ghosts to help them communicate, interact, and continue existing. When the energy runs out, they fade. With a steady supply of energy sources, a ghost could theoretically haunt a place indefinitely.

So, what causes a haunting? I don’t really know for sure! What causes a haunting to linger? A steady source of energy, I think.

Making Contact

So, you want to talk to a ghost. Cool! You’ve got a ton of options at your disposal.

There are the witch-typical methods of spirit communication, most of which would work fairly well for talking to ghosts. I’ve talked a little bit about spirit communication methods before in a more general sense, but I find that ghosts don’t always respond well to divination.

In my experience, simpler tools are better. Unless I knew for a fact that a person understood tarot in life, I would be unlikely to use it to talk to their ghost. Tools you can easily explain that provide clear answers would likely serve you best for most ghosts. My biggest suggestions are pendulums, which are easy for ghosts to understand and manipulate, and ouija boards. Yes, yes, I can hear the gasping and booing already.

Listen. Ouija boards are not evil. Ouija is a game. But talking boards really are good tools for talking to ghosts. Again, they’re easy to understand and manipulate. Plus, you can get really clear answers from a talking board if your ghost is chatty.

There are other tools that have been popularized by ghost hunters that may come in handy, too. Personally, I’ve had success with voice recorders catching EVP (electronic voice phenomena) and, on one notable occasion, a ghost box.

Honestly, I’ve had little use for tools like these outside of ghost hunting scenarios where we’re trying to prove ghosts’ existence in a scientific sense. Voice recorders catching wisps of voice in the background are super cool, and I definitely would suggest having one on hand when doing a ghost adventure. But they’re not great for in the moment communication, since you have to stop a recording to listen back to it and then react who knows how long later.

Where ghost boxes are concerned, I’ve only had the one opportunity to try it out. We were in a location I knew to be haunted thanks to previous visits, and it did seem to work okay. I’d like to try it again sometime to see if it was just a fluke or if it’s an actual, viable thing to use. With any tool commonly used in ghost hunting TV shows (or that’s otherwise Popular By Spectacle), I always approach with serious skepticism. Those shows are all about creating a reaction that can be captured; and when they don’t receive a response, they’re liable to make shit up for the cameras. It’s annoying, especially when a tool might really be useful but it’s shrouded in the very necessary skepticism around these shows.

Now, my personal go-to method to connect to ghosts is to just… talk to them. I don’t usually need to use any tools for it. But I’ve spent many, many, many years honing the skills needed to do this. It’s worth learning how to do if you plan on working with spirits, but it does take effort to get good at, even if you have an innate talent for it. If you can, take some time to develop a sense for spirits. Learn what spiritual presences feel like for you. You may not get immediate results at first, but the skill of sensing energy can apply across the board. And even if you get no “real” response, you can still talk to the ghosts.

When you go to communicate with a ghost, just remember that they’re still a person. They’re not a spectacle, though they are fascinating. Not all ghosts are going to want to talk to you. Not all ghosts are going to like you. Be respectful. Treat that ghost like you’d treat any stranger out in the wild. Don’t be an asshole.

On Mediumship

This is mostly just a brief note, since it’s an adjacent topic that I’ve gotten questions about before.

Not everyone who talks to or works with ghosts is a medium. A medium is a particular career or path that describes someone who acts as a connector between the living and the dead. I tend to think of mediums as the telephone in a conversation — relaying messages back and forth. I used to do medium work all the time. It’s an exhausting path that requires a lot of self-discipline and solid boundaries dealing with both the living and the dead. I don’t do it anymore, though I do still communicate and work with ghosts regularly.

Just keep in mind that you don’t have to take on the title or mantle of “medium” in order to talk to, work with, or research ghosts.

Ghostly Q&A

I received a handful of questions about ghosts in the run up to posting this; thank you everyone who sent in a question! If you’ve got a question and want my perspective on it, feel free to drop it in my inbox or in the replies/reblogs of this post.

From @moonmargaritas: “How do you tell the difference between nervousness at discerning the presence of a ghost (new practitioner who still gets jitters 🤙) and sensing actual hostile intent?”

This is a really great question! This is something I had to work through myself when I got started. And honestly, I still get jitters sometimes many years later! It can be scary, even when you’re used to it.

The biggest piece of advice I have is to learn how your body experiences nervousness or anxiety. Where does that sit in your body? What kind of feelings to you experience?

For me, nervousness is a sort of itchy tingling around my shoulders and tightness around my ribs. It also manifests as the feeling of being watched or observed too closely. It’s easy to misattribute those feelings to a ghost’s presence — tingling and feeling like something’s watching? Those are classic ghost interactions! But I know that’s what anxiety feels like. That’s how I feel when the lights go out too fast or I hear a branch snap in the distance.

Once you know, you can work past those feelings and focus on what’s actually happening with the ghost (or spirit). I think of it like knowing when someone’s mad at me. Are they mad, or am I just anxious? It’s the same idea.

And, as a note, ghosts with hostile intent are few and far between. I personally don’t think that most ghosts, even the nastiest ghosts, can actually hurt you; they don’t have the energy resources for it. The ones that do are obvious, and you won't really have to question their intentions. However, you can always work with the communication methods mentioned above to determine the ghost’s feelings and intents. If you’re worried about negative interactions, a bit of salt and rosemary in a little pouch placed in your pocket goes a long way for protection.

From anonymous: “What’s an unusual way people could use to communicate with spirits? Like an expected divination tool or something we should pay more attention to.”

Hmmmm! Honestly, I think that classic, actual call and response is underrated specifically when it comes to ghosts. Yeah, we’ve all seen the Ghost TV Guys call out for a knock or a word or whatever, but when they get a response, they wig out and don’t do anything with it. It’s annoying!! Because genuinely, saying “tap once for yes, twice for no” and asking questions is a really, really solid way to communicate with a ghost when you have no other tools that will work on hand. I’ve had ghosts lead me to important places and objects within houses doing this. I think more people should give it a try without falling prey to the over-the-top reaction of “DID YOU HEAR THAT?!”

From anonymous: What advice would you give someone dealing with a haunting?

For a run-of-the-mill, regular old haunting? Let it run its course. Most hauntings, when left alone, will fade. However, if you’re inclined to talk to the ghost(s), get them to leave quicker, or get them to be less intrusive in your life, there are a few things you could do.

To talk to them, choose a method of communication and try to reach out like I described above. Get to know them if you can, and set some ground rules. If they won’t (or can’t) communicate with you, and you really want them gone, I would probably recommend a gentle banishing ritual. Something that doesn’t scream “get out” so much as kindly say, “It’s time to move on.”

Or, if you don’t want the ghost gone, just a little quieter at night or out of your bedroom, you could set up wards or activity-dampeners around specific spaces. Choose ingredients and spells that protect against unwanted spirits or just unwanted activity. Keep it activated all day long or just at night while you’re trying to sleep.

Thanks for Reading!

Posts like this are usually put on my Ko-Fi as exclusives first, but since the questions in this one came from Tumblr, I decided to post it in both places at once! (:

With that said, if you did enjoy this post, consider throwing a couple dollars at my tip jar. Tips, commissions, and shop purchases get you 30 days of access to my entire backlog of exclusive posts and upcoming ones. Monthly members get continuous access plus extra benefits! All support helps me keep the lights on, so it's very much appreciated.

If you've got Ghost Questions, shoot 'em my way! My inbox is open.

[regulusrules]

Yo, I saw your post about orientalism in relation to the "hollywood middle-east" tiktok!

How can a rando and university dropout get into and learn more about? Any literature or other content to recommend?

Hi!! Wow, you have no idea how you just pressed a button. I'll unleash 5+ years on you. And I'll even add for you open-sourced works that you can access as much as I can!

1. Videos

I often find this is the best medium nowadays to learn anything! I'll share with you some of the best that deal with the topic in different frames

• This is a video of Edward Said talking about his book, Orientalism. Said is the Palestinian- American critic who first introduced the term Orientalism, and is the father of postcolonial studies as a critical literary theory. In this book, you’ll find an in-depth analysis of the concept and a deconstruction of western stereotypes. It’s very simple and he explains everything in a very easy manner.

• How Islam Saved Western Civilization. A more than brilliant lecture by Professor Roy Casagranda. This, in my opinion, is one of the best lectures that gives credit to this great civilization, and takes you on a journey to understand where did it all start from.

• What’s better than a well-researched, general overview Crash Course about Islam by John Green? This is not necessarily on orientalism but for people to know more about the fundamental basis of Islam and its pillars. I love the whole playlist that they have done about the religion, so definitely refer to it if you're looking to understand more about the historical background! Also, I can’t possibly mention this Crash Course series without mentioning ... ↓

• The Medieval Islamicate World. Arguably my favourite CC video of all times. Hank Green gives you a great thorough depiction of the Islamic civilization when it rose. He also discusses the scientific and literary advancements that happened in that age, which most people have no clue about! And honestly, just his excitement while explaining the astrolabe. These two truly enlightened so many people with the videos they've made. Thanks, @sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog

2. Documentaries

• This is an AMAZING documentary called Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Villifies A People by the genius American media critic Jack Shaheen. He literally analysed more than 1000 movies and handpicked some to showcase the terribly false stereotypes in western depiction of Arab/Muslim cultures. It's the best way to go into the subject, because you'll find him analysing works you're familiar with like Aladdin and all sorts.

• Spain’s Islamic Legacy. I cannot let this opportunity go to waste since one of my main scopes is studying feminist Andalusian history. There are literal gems to be known about this period of time, when religious coexistence is documented to have actually existed. This documentary offers a needed break from eurocentric perspectives, a great bird-view of the Islamic civilization in Europe and its remaining legacy (that western history tries so hard to erase).

• When the Moors Ruled in Europe. This is one of the richest documentaries that covers most of the veiled history of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). Bettany Hughes discusses some of the prominent rulers, the brilliance of architecture in the Arab Muslim world, their originality and contributions to poetry and music, their innovative inventions and scientific development, and lastly, La Reconquista; the eventual fall and erasure of this grand civilization by western rulers.

3. Books

• Rethinking Orientalism by Reina Lewis. Lewis brilliantly breaks the prevailing stereotype of the “Harem”, yk, this stupid thought westerns projected about arab women being shut inside one room, not allowed to go anywhere from it, enslaved and without liberty, just left there for the sexual desires of the male figures, subjugated and silenced. It's a great read because it also takes the account of five different women living in the middle east.

• Nocturnal Poetics by Ferial Ghazoul. A great comparative text to understand the influence and outreach of The Thousand and One Nights. She applies a modern critical methodology to explore this classic literary masterpiece.

• The Question of Palestine by Edward Said. Since it's absolutely relevant, this is a great book if you're looking to understand more about the Palestinian situation and a great way to actually see the perspective of Palestinians themselves, not what we think they think.

• Arab-American Women's Writing and Performance by S.S. Sabry. One of my favourite feminist dealings with the idea of the orient and how western depictions demeaned arab women by objectifying them and degrading them to objects of sexual desire, like Scheherazade's characterization: how she was made into a sensual seducer, but not the literate, brilliantly smart woman of wisdom she was in the eastern retellings. The book also discusses the idea of identity and people who live on the hyphen (between two cultures), which is a very crucial aspect to understand arabs who are born/living in western countries.

• The Story of the Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole. This is a great book if you're trying to understand the influence of Islamic culture on Europe. It debunks this idea that Muslims are senseless, barbaric people who needed "civilizing" and instead showcases their brilliant civilization that was much advanced than any of Europe in the time Europe was labelled by the Dark Ages. (btw, did you know that arabic was the language of knowledge at that time? Because anyone who was looking to study advanced sciences, maths, philosophy, astronomy etc, had to know arabic because arabic-speaking countries were the center of knowledge and scientific advancements. Insane, right!)

• Convivencia and Medieval Spain. This is a collection of essays that delve further into the idea of “Convivencia”, which is what we call for religious coexistence. There's one essay in particular that's great called Were Women Part of Convivencia? which debunks all false western stereotypical images of women being less in Islamic belief. It also highlights how arab women have always been extremely cultured and literate. (They practiced medicine, studied their desired subjects, were writers of poetry and prose when women in Europe couldn't even keep their surnames when they married.)

4. Novels / Epistolaries

• Granada by Radwa Ashour. This is one of my favourite novels of all time, because Ashour brilliantly showcases Andalusian history and documents the injustices and massacres that happened to Muslims then. It covers the cultural erasure of Granada, and is also a story of human connection and beautiful family dynamics that utterly touches your soul.

• Dreams of Trespass by Fatema Mernissi. This is wonderful short read written in autobiographical form. It deconstructs the idea of the Harem in a postcolonial feminist lens of the French colonization of Morocco.

• Scheherazade Goes West by Mernissi. Mernissi brilliantly showcases the sexualisation of female figures by western depictions. It's very telling, really, and a very important reference to understand how the west often depicts middle-eastern women by boxing them into either the erotic, sensual beings or the oppressed, black-veiled beings. It helps you understand the actual real image of arab women out there (who are not just muslims btw; christian, jew, atheist, etc women do exist, and they do count).

• Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. This is a feminist travel epistolary of a British woman which covers the misconceptions that western people, (specifically male travelers) had recorded and transmitted about the religion, traditions and treatment of women in Constantinople, Turkey. It is also a very insightful sapphic text that explores her own engagement with women there, which debunks the idea that there are no queer people in the middle east.

---------------------

With all of these, you'll get an insight about the real arab / islamic world. Not the one of fanaticism and barbarity that is often mediated, but the actual one that is based on the fundamental essences of peace, love, and acceptance.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

NERD!MIGUEL IS SO REAL I LUV HIM <3333

NERD!MIGUEL IS THERE I KNOW IT

Like...You saw what he said to Gwen when she called it a watch (which IT IS).

[omg she's so tiny small next to him]

He's a NERD. He thinks this stuff is COOL. He's WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO ASK.

Like I imagine he's used to it by now - people's eyes glazing over when he begins to explain something technical or program-y, like Lyla's algorithms or the Multiverse Anti-Glitch feature of the watches.

He's put SO much work into all of this, the whole facility and the tech.

He made Lyla himself, but he knows that most people aren't really interested in that. So he's learned to simplify things.

If you ask a question, like how he made Lyla - he'll answer it basic and to the point.

_-_ 'She's an AI. She's my assistant and the notification system within your watch.'

He probably won't even look up from his work, thinking it's just the routine questions everyone asks before moving on to the next thing.

BUT IF YOU ASK FURTHER - Miguel's like

Because it's not often someone actually like...does that.

It's probably very rare that someone shows interest in his technological, engineering, or physics studies - all of which he's INCREDIBLY talented at and actively working on

You ask him how long it took him to make her, he says a year or two.

You tell him how impressive that is and BOOM NERD!Miguel.

He's telling you how her voice detection took the longest, and how her multiverse-monitoring probability algorithm was something he had to tweak twenty thousand times.

You compliment him about the design of the watch, he's like

_-_ 'I still have the protypes.' And he's ready to show you different ones, different shapes and materials he considered using, but eventually ruled out through experiments and tests

AND DON'T GET HIM STARTED ON THEORIES OH GODDDD

You mention the words 'String Theory' or 'Time Dilation' around him and you will NEVER hear the end of it.

He has so many opinions on it he's never had the chance to share.

Ideas and theories about things like fourth dimensions, worm holes, black holes, and dozens of other theoretical scientific concepts.

I mean, he MADE time travel. He is an EXPERT in that stuff.

I would KILL to have a Time Travel Movie Marathon with Miguel.

Sitting on the couch and watching things like Back to the Future, and he describes what they got right, what would be impossible, how it could work in theory.

He probably talks through the whole movie, and picks each one apart. You watch Doctor Who and he WILL NOT SHUT UP.

He's probably AMAZIINNGG at math.

Like math IS science. It's the answer for science. So he's probably a natural master.

You can be like 'Miguel, What's 34% of 12,967?' - Without blinking he'd be like

_-_'...I'm guessing 4408, or something? I don't know, am I right? Ask Lyla, don't ask me.'

But you don't need to ask Lyla cause HE'S RIGHT

HISTORY TOO!

I mean... the man time-travels. I think he'd have at least a good grasp on history, and time periods. Thinks like ancient roman historians and how their thoughts effect modern science, and how certain events effected the flow of time throughout history.

I imagine he finds it so fascinating, seeing the vast differences that can span in universes, just from one small change. Maybe he even finds comfort in it, seeing how histories and stories have a natural flow in a way fiction can only hope to imitate.

I love me some Nerd!Miguel.

I wanna get in bed with Miguel and by that I mean I want to sit next to him as he sits in bed reading a book on the Theory of Relativity with reading spectacles and a mug of sleepytime tea okay

A Miguel who runs up to his partner like 'Read this,' and he's all proud as he hands you a notepad full of numbers. But to him it's a formula he's been working WEEKS on, one that'll make Lyla run smoother, and everything much easier and he wants you to think he's cool for it

A Miguel who spends date nights watching NatGeo documentaries for fun

NERDY NERD MIGUEL DORKY MILD NERDY MIGUEL

[brightgoat]

My thoughts on JJBA OVER HEAVEN

So first of all -

it seems my JJBA binge is not over yet, I am still on the desert island and instead of their being water sources large enough to get waterboarded in like last time, I am instead finding small refreshing puddles.

This is copy pasted from my twitter so pardon if its formatted weirdly

I read the novel and- (spoilers under cut)

although it might be dubiously canon, I like it a lot that I think it should be considered so, and in my mind overrides any inconsistencies that the anime/manga may bring up. The timeline seems fucked either way you look at it, fittingly for this story I guess

I liked how it showed the evolution of his idea of ‘heaven’ and how it slowly became what Pucci defined it as. I like how it gives depth without straying from Dio’s insane villainy. and the mommy issues were certainly something as well It actually made me appreciate part 1

I have realised this while I was still watching the anime, but the novel confirms it; all the villains either represent a part of Dio, the big bad

Kars - Dio’s desire to constantly transcend his current state, humanity and whatnot, keep moving up the power scale

Kira - Dio’s idea that all humans live for ‘peace of mind’, as he puts it for himself- ‘preparedness’, knowing that the future will be fine

Diavolo - Dio’s resolve to move only forward, only towards the future

I do love how for the two Stand users, their Stands complement their motives, Kira creating time loops to ensure nothing bad happens to him, and Diavolo ‘skipping time’ to move into and foresee the future. Kira is more ‘stuck in the past’ and Diavolo is heading for the future

Dio is in the present, he merely stops time for a few seconds. It sets up the time manipulation premise in the simplest way and also gives him the further mindfuckery he needs to arrive at his conclusion

And then Pucci, the final villain, is Dio’s resolve to get to ‘heaven’, the culmination of the mindfuckery- their conclusion of it being that the definition of ‘heaven’ is obtaining peace by knowing all of the future and all of fate, and living it out in preparedness.

Their Stands are also opposite of one another, Dio stops time for a brief moment and Pucci accelerates it for all of eternity. Pucci is the kind of fucking guy to spoil the entire movie before watching it

I do love how they define fate as ‘gravity between people', and connect that to the theory of relativity (i’m always a sucker for this kind of shit) combining scientific theory with ideas of fate through a religious character is also just a cherry on top, I love it

THAT and how his Stand Whitesnake, whose powers are to extract ‘souls’ (or so to speak), is covered in the abbreviation of DNA compounds. Also fun fact whitesnake’s voice is based off of patrick star from spongebob

Overall, it was interesting to read how Dio became obsessed with the concept of fate, Ironically, were JJBA to be written with more foresight (preparedness even), then maybe Dio’s thoughts could’ve been more implemented into the story. Don’t get me wrong, he should still be his insane-cartoonishly-evil self at the same time, I love him for that. However, this novel was not written by the OG author, so who knows how canon it even is.

Another thing of note: Dio and Pucci seem to arrive at their idea of ‘heaven’ independently (you could argue Dio kind of began it by suggesting the idea of ‘gravity’ to him), but it was Pucci’s circumstances that ultimately led to it. Dio, at least for a few pages, believes that what one is born into decides everything. And they were born into vastly different situations. Dio talks a lot about his hate of nobles and ‘inheritors’ and hated both his biological and adoptive family.

Pucci is from an influential wealthy family and loved them so. Dio’s sibling was a miscarriage and Pucci’s presumed-dead-twin was actually alive. But both lived circumstances that arrived to a shared idea of ‘heaven’. Dio knows at least the deaths in Pucci’s life, I wonder if he knows his background and if knowing it would challenge or confirm his idea of fate.

I can’t help but wonder how Pucci felt reading the diary through Jotaro’s memories. Also wonder if Pucci saw how Dio died through none other than Jotaro’s memories as well.

Also i don’t know why, this is probably not what is implied cuz it wouldn’t fit characterwise(unless?) but……… did Pucci take Dio’s memory of showing him The World????? Why is it written this way and if so then adhsagdah??

Anyways if you ask me if i’m team ‘ora-ora’ or team ‘muda-muda’ its the latter for me baby

[maisiesbike]

Ok so now that we officially know that a new Jw movie is in the works id like to share my wish list with you guys.

1. Give maisie personality and throw her in as the main character.

It may not be hard to realise that she’s my fav, and honestly I can’t explain why. What I know is that she had way more personality in the books, a personality we saw nothing from in Dominion expect the little drawings in her room.

2. Don’t make everything new. Use some familiar characters that didn’t got their chance yet.

I’m talking about Kelly, Zach and gray, hell even Fallon if they even know she exists. Those characters are already there, waiting for their story to be told. Why get a whole new cast of characters if you got so many you never explored? I’m not saying there can’t be new characters just…finally use the Potential you got

3. Return of the Nublar Six.

Made this list before Chaos theory got announced and now we have to see what’s happening there. But come on, with a great casting choice those characters could become internet favourites

4. More scientific accurate dinosaurs.

Just imagine how cool it would be to just see a little archaeopteryx in the background. Or to get a little clip of them being animals, not killer machines. Maybe get some of the prehistoric planet cgi artists and scientists and get yourself some wholesome, beautiful scenes.

5. Other prehistoric animals

I know, we already had smilodon in camp Cretaceous. But imagine what you could do with a titanoboa, a mammoth or Megaloceros

6. Stay with the prehistoric animals, don’t go too far.

Don’t clone anymore people, don’t make super soldier clones, don’t make super soldier dinosaur hybrids, don’t clone cavemen. Don’t clone a virus and make the last of us part 3. Just don’t.

7. Explore Maisie and Charlotte.

As the first human clone this girl gotta have some health problems. That’s it. It’s just not logical for her to be the first human clone and being perfectly pain free and healthy. Also make her gay cuz there is no way this girl is straight.

8. Team up

Maisie and Nublar Six team up? Team up guys??? Please??? For me?

[cleolinda]

Weekend links

My posts

1) From earlier this week: “My ~longform posts are going somewhere else. Dreamwidth? Definitely previewed on Patreon and backed up there. Here’s an unlocked post about it. tl;dr: I know tech bros already scraped everything, but if you tell me you’re going to do it, I’m not gonna hand it to you. Maybe it’s a token effort, but there it is.” Of course I’ll still post links to new writing here. 

2) Some people have March Madness. I now have the Hot & Vintage Movie Women tournament. 

One of the best parts of the tournament (you may remember that Toshiro Mifune won the male matchup) is people reblogging and submitting pictures, further bio information, and personal anecdotes--that sense of the Tumblr collective scrapping for the pure love of their blorbos. I love Edwige Fenech’s eyes and her iconic eyeliner, and I had to step in when she went up against powerhouse Julie Andrews with only one small picture. No, I’m not letting Edwige go out like that. She won’t win, but the people must make their choice knowingly. 

I also posted some pictures for Lady Tsen Mei, because I’d actually never heard of her and was curious. Also, because she’s going up against Musidora and that’s not an easy row to hoe, either. If you see matchups like that, where hotvintagepoll didn’t receive much to post about an actress--appealing to the people with a good picspam in the reblogs is where the fun comes in. 

Bear in mind that running the tournament is an INCREDIBLE amount of work; this was Friday alone. Like, I don’t know the person who’s running this, but it couldn’t be me. They’re working with what they were sent, and here’s how we can be the propaganda we want to see in the world. I will jump in as necessary when Ava Gardner, Gene Tierney, Norma Shearer, Paulette Goddard, and (on my mom’s behalf) Julie Christie show up. But there’s 512 contenders, and it’s going to be a hard fight. 

(I am now reblogging the polls at only one an hour, and when I fall behind, that just means that people who missed them can catch up. Each poll lasts a week, after all.)

Reblogs of interest

You are invited to the assassination of Julius Caesar! If you joined Tumblr during the various internet shakeups last year, you may not be aware that the Ides of March is a major Tumblr holiday. You need to be. 

People have always been people: an immensely long collection that may make you cry. 

Respect for the Welsh language

The “Fool in a Field” theory of life in the universe

A helpful guide to some common birds here in the western US

The Forbidden Colors

“You get to drive away”: A Tale

I was not ready for this development in the Fairy vs Walrus debate

(Did William Butler Yeats believe in fairies? An anecdote from my grad school days)

(”While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a slapping”)

Video

“Recently I’ve been interested in what I’d like to call the historical lesbian wardrobe”

“This is the snake I’ve been looking for my entire life”

Angry kitten scolds water, slaps it for good measure

Cat plays theremin

A speedy boi who doesn’t need a bike to jump

The most relaxed tiger

The sacred texts

Yes, THAT Stinky Bastard Man

Personal tags of the week

I want to be clear that AI has incredible scientific uses and could be used voluntarily by writers and artists for their own experimental projects. That is... not what this AI tag is about. 

Speaking of AI: truly, the Willy Wonka Experience debacle has been a DashCon for the 2020s. 

[littleliongirl16]

Tagging YouTube channels I like (or in some cases liked) as TMA fears because I have so very many hyperfixations and have no choice but to combine them...

disclaimer: I don't know anything about most of these people outside of their youtube channels, it's really the channel and how they are on the channel specifically that I'm tagging as a fear

Overly Sarcastic Productions: End & Eye

This one was a bit hard to tag because they make so many different things, but I think the Mischellaneous Myths videos that really stick in my brain are the ones where Red is trying to puzzle out information about a god or story and how it developed and the information is just gone. I think there's also some of that in History Summarized on Blue's end. I think OSP as an embodiment of fears of knowledge being lost, that tries to prevent knowledge from being lost, but also feeds on the horror of everything that's already gone because it's End aligned would be very cool.

Kennie JD's Bad Movies And A Beat: Stranger

This is specifically bad movies and a beat because I don't watch most of her other stuff and can't speak on it. A lot of Bad Movies And A Beat involves movies that are badly written and acted in a way that you could easily push towards human imitators and the uncanny valley and "why does this writer write like he's never met a human being? Because he hasnt". Also like! She doesn't always do her makeup but I feel like the fact that Kennie is changing her appearance with makeup, especially since her look is heavy foundation, very extreme, very far from how she looks without it, really does add to the stranger energy.

Film Theory (and that whole quartet of channels): Spiral/Eye

Matpat is elbow-deep in red string and thumbtacks, he is claiming that the Cars in Cars are actually insects, he is giving in to the madness. I think there's something inherently very spiral about trying to find patterns in details that in many cases probably just weren't well thought out by the original creators of the media. (like the scratches on Rubble's helmet in paw patrol when it should be new). At the same time, fiction is maleable, and sometimes he's trying to create a story that arguably makes more sense than the original using thoughtless details thrown in by the creators. There's another Spiral component of there being no "real answer" in fiction and it not mattering what the author originally intended if Matpat can use clues they accidentally left to create a different story. And then there's also an Eye component in that sometimes he is looking at details the author intentionally left and piecing together a story they intended to be found! And an Eye component in that some of the other channels, like Food Theory, do have more objective answers, like yes, the best thing to eat with spicy food to make it less spicy is something that can be scientifically found.

iilluminaughtii: Stranger... because everything was plagarized...

Kurzgesagt In A Nutshell: Extinction if it's real! Probably Desolation if it's not but Kurzgesagt has elements of almost every fear when I think about it.

I cannot think of anything more Extinction-coded than Kurzgesagt. I don't even like the Extinction that much but I want it to be real just so Kurzgesagt can belong to it. This channel has a video called "How To Kill The Universe". It's almost a running joke that 70% of their episodes are about an apocalyptic scenario, from the heat death of the universe to "what if we set off all the nukes. what if we turned all the uranium into nukes and then set off all those nukes" to horrifying antibiotic resistant pandemics to "what if we turned the earth into gold" to climate change bad scenarios. Kurzgesagt wants to end the world so bad. From impossible hypotheticals for funsies to things that could happen to things that will happen.

If I'm not allowed to say Extinction I guess the raw destruction for the sake of it of Desolation maps to that the channel the best? The more heat-death type scenarios read as End. They do a lot of astronomy content and also have some scale of the universe episodes and episodes on how the size of an organism affects its biology dramatically, which all feel Vast to me. They explain how a lot of pathogens and notorious diseases work, which is obviously corruption. Then there are a lot of more human psychology videos that dip into Stranger and Lonely. This channel has bits of all of the fears but I'll reluctantly go with Desolation.

[gojitheorist]

Godzilla minus one is my new favorite goji movie. Holy fucking shit that was amazing. Spoilers under the cut so be warned

Shikishima is the most sopping wet little meow meow I have ever fucking seen and I love him so fucking much.

I loved how they set up the boat stuff, I loved how menacing Godzilla was the entire movie, and honestly I loved the human characters.

Shikishima was so pathetic the entire time. Mother fucker tries to die like 4 times and just can’t catch a break. Noriko just sees this sopping wet man and immediately claims him as her own. Akiko looks so confused the entire time they’re on screen like they are just absolutely disassociated from the first scene they’re in to the end of the movie and it’s so fucking funny.

The plan to kill Godzilla is honestly pretty sound in theory. Completely doomed in practice but scientifically viable otherwise. I’m no scientist and I’m pretty fuckin’ dumb but the plan seemed pretty reasonable to me.

I loved everything about it. It had tons of nostalgia value in Godzilla’s design and the plan’s similarity to the oxygen destroyer while being rooted in real world science as close as you can get in a Kaiju movie. 10/10 movie.

Also damn goji was fucking thicccque my gods. Dude so cheeked up he got orbits around his thighs.

[rancidpancakebatter]

Drop In-Chapter 3 [P.P.]

Pairings: Peter Parker x AFAB Reader

Summary: You like Peter, and Peter likes you. This should be simple, so why isn’t it? Well, maybe it’s because you were already friends? Maybe it’s the stress of senior year? Maybe it’s because someone had to get bit by a spider? Who’s to say?

Word Count: 4.3k words

Content: MINORS DNI: 18+ Swearing, Marijana Use, Underage Drinking, Bullying,

( Previous | Chapter List | Next )

Chapter Summary: It’s Peter’s BIRTHDAY!!!! Coney Island is fun and all but you have a few plans in store for him.

A/n: I missed domestic Peter

Your dad drove you and Peter back to the Parkers. Your car was still there and Peter needed to get stuff to spend the weekend. When Peter got back he was very bouncy. It wasn’t something you saw often, only when you would let him rant about a new camera technology or scientific theory he heard about. You liked seeing it. 

Peter ran up to his room and emptied his backpack on his bed, the textbooks and loose papers sprawling mess across his sheets. You had told him many times how reckless it was to let homework assignments and worksheets roam wildly in his backpack but he didn’t care. 

He quickly began shoving jeans and underwear into his bag, running from dresser drawers to the bathroom as he collected hygienics and anything he could think of as he thought of it. You watched as he eyed the shoebox at the top of his closet before deciding against it. 

Once he had everything he needed he turned to you, standing in his doorway. You said your goodbyes once again to Aunt May and Uncle Ben, who looked very tired and dressed for bed. You promised to drive safe and then piled in your car. 

By the time you got home, it was late. Your father had once again converted the living room into a sleeping pad for the both of you. While Peter changed you went to say goodnight. You put on some sleep shorts and a baggy tee before going back downstairs. You didn’t see Peter so you went to start making popcorn, expecting to watch some movies until you passed out. 

You scrolled mindlessly on your phone while listening to the microwave whirl. The popcorn had just started popping when you heard a loud thud followed by a string of curses. You rush into the living room to see Peter sprawled on the floor, holding his top half up by a chair and a blanket wrapped around his ankle. You took a moment to take in the rest of the living room. He had created a little tent, the couch was now completely covered in blankets and draped into the floor. 

He let out a groan and you rushed to him, “Peter, are you alright?”

He chuckled a little, the low timber of his voice was something you had to push to the back of your mind. “Yeah, I’m alright.” 

You laughed as you helped pull him up. You then helped him set up the rest of the tent before rushing back to the kitchen. You pulled out the popcorn and grabbed a couple of sandwich clips that you thought might help secure the sheets. 

You dropped them off outside the tent before running to your room, grabbing blankets and then to the garage. Peter watched as you raced around the house like a madman. Running in one direction just to drop stuff at his feet before running off again. 

You felt like a dragon with your horde of goodies: blankets, pillows, Christmas lights, scarves, and a bowl of popcorn. You pushed Peter out of the cave as you decorated, giving him the task to pick some movies. Once it was done you beamed, taking a few pictures before you ushered him in. 

When you woke up that morning you felt a little sore. You went to stretch but felt someone behind you. You then took notice of the arm thrown around your waist, the gentle breath you felt on your neck. You mildly panicked before you remembered that you were in a pillow fort with Peter Parker. 

You didn’t remember falling asleep, you had gone through at least three movies though. You remembered Peter jumping and spilling some of the popcorn. You remembered tossing kernels back and forth, trying to catch them in your mouth. You remembered Peter asking to hold you because “I’m not scared but I noticed you look a little scared and I don’t want you to be so scared and so far away.”  

You snuggled closer, scooting your ass closer to him, and your heart soared when his grip around you tightened. You let yourself fantasise about waking up like this every morning, about all your early mornings starting and late nights ending with Peter Parker. That was until you heard noises in the kitchen. You pulled Peter’s hand from your shirt and made your way out of the fort, popcorn bowl in hand. 

Your father greeted you and you smiled back, washing the bowl in the sink. He pushed your preferred caffeine intake towards you and you took it graciously. You sat at the counter while your dad continued getting ready for his day. You sent him off with a kiss to the cheek, locking the door after him. You looked at the clock and decided you would get a little done before going back to sleep. 

When Peter woke up his back felt a little stiff, he went to stretch but stopped when he felt you shift. Peter looked around confused before he remembered last night. He remembered pulling a stack of movies into the pillow fort. He remembered playing rock, paper, scissors to pick which ones to watch. He remembered thinking you were psychotic for falling asleep during Children of the Corn. He remembers holding you close while horrors were played out on the screen before him. He remembers putting on Ferris Bueller's Day Off to fight off the nightmares. 

He pulled you closer and was delighted when you snuggled into him. You were so pretty like this. He couldn’t see your face so well, as it was against his chest but he knew you were. His nerves were alight everywhere your skin met his. His fingers traced shapes on your back, silently marking you. You were so gentle and kind and he relished in moments like this. When he was brave enough to be with you like this. But then you stirred and Peter shut his eyes pretending to be asleep. 

“Peter…” Your voice was calling out like a siren’s song and he knew it wouldn’t be long until he was crashing into the shore. 

“Peter…we have to get up now.” You weren’t pulling away so Peter took the opportunity to roll over. You sputtered as his entire weight was put onto you.

“Peter!” He just buried his head into the nook of your shoulder groaning. 

“Peter! I know you’re awake. Come on we have to get up!” He shook his head.

“I’m not awake. I’m asleep and you should be asleep too.” His breath tickled your neck and you squirmed. 

“Pete, it’s almost noon. We should start our day.” Peter let out a dramatic sigh before pushing himself up, now hovering over you. 

He was right, you were beautiful like this. He took in the delicate brushstrokes that made up your face, memorising every freckle, blemish, and curve. You were mesmerizing. He could do it, lean forward, kiss the lips he had missed for months. Maybe you would kiss him back, and maybe he would confess his love. Maybe you would say it back. Maybe you could be happy together. But he knew he didn’t deserve it, you deserved more. 

You watched as he leaned back sitting on his haunches, still between your legs. He extended a hand to you and you took it. You left the fort first, practically vibrating with excitement. Peter looked at you confused before he finally saw it. 

“When did you have time to do this?” You smiled running behind the kitchen island.

“Suprise!” Peter looked in awe at all the green and blue triangle banners with white letters spelling out ‘Happy Birthday. The chairs were decorated with matching green and blue balloons and you had even managed to secure some to the counters. 

“I hope it’s not too much, I just got excited.” He looked down to see you wringing your hands together, looking at the ground. 

Peter rushed around the counter to give you a hug. “I love it, thanks.”

You made quick work of making crepes refusing to let him help. You served them with sliced strawberries, blueberries, and Nutella. After breakfast, you told him you needed to shower and get ready for the day. You both made your way upstairs and he got dressed as you stepped into your bathroom. 

You brushed through your hair and did your makeup before stepping outside. It occurred to you that you were wearing only a towel when Peter’s jaw seemed attached to the floor. You blushed furiously and if you were in a headspace to observe the boy laying back on your bed you would see that he was in a similar state. 

“Sorry, I usually get changed out here and I just didn’t…I didn’t think to bring clothes in with me.” As if the sound of your voice shot Peter’s back into his body, Peter jumped to cover his eyes. 

“No, no, you’re fine. I’ll just-” He pointed to the door and you watched as he stumbled across your floor, still refusing to open his eyes. His hand was aimlessly smacking the door so you opened it for him. 

“Thanks.” He shut the door firmly behind him. You got ready trying to push the embarrassment aside, knowing this would just be another moment you would both choose to ignore. 

By noon you were in the car and ready to go. Peter had asked you multiple times where you were going but you told him it was a surprise. You made your way to a Rink O’ Roll. The whole place was one giant safety hazard. The carpets were stained by years of use and neglect. The neon ribbons and white dots woven in were worn by time and dried soda. The place looked more than dingy. It was perfect. 

Rink O’ Roll was dark but the black light throughout the whole building provided a tacky but fun 90’s aesthetic. It had two levels. The first one held the roller rink and arcade and upstairs was the laser tag and minigolf course. You ran up the stairs and Peter chased after you, grinning wildly as he took the steps two at a time. 

You did it all, starting with laser tag. You hid with your back against the wall, peering over corners trying to find that flash of red you knew was close by. You moved expertly through the obstacles you had memorized by now. You watched through a hole in the ‘temple wall’ as Peter slunk by you. You turned the corner and blasted him. He whipped around as he heard his suit power down, finally finding you laughing behind the wall. 

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up.” And that you did. His face of confusion was so funny. He thought he was so slick. You were laughing so hard you didn’t hear his suit power back up, you did, however, hear your suit power down. 

You gawked at him and he just smirked. “Doesn’t feel so good does it?” 

You continued to chase him around the dark room and he chased you. After a few rounds, you had had your fill. You decided to play minigolf, thinking it would be less competitive. You were wrong. 

“How? How the hell did you do that?” Peter had managed his third hole-in-one. 

“I don’t know, it’s just math.” You glared at him before stepping onto the green. 

“Bullshit. You’re cheating.” He leaned back laughing. 

“Maybe I’m just better at minigolf than you.” You blocked him out focusing on your shot. 

“Impossible.” He laughed more as you huffed, you had missed the trick shot and added a cool three strokes to your run on this hole. 

After fifteen holes and losing by thirteen points you made your way back downstairs. You went to the token machine and got ten dollars worth of tokens. You split it with Peter on one condition: “I want to go home with a big prize, so win me some tickets, Petey.” 

You stuck to what you were good at, The Big Wheel, Deal or No Deal, and Galaga. You spent half of your tokens and went to find Peter. He was destroying Pac-Man. You looked to the bottom of the screen to see that he was on level 56. 

“Holy crap, how long have been playing.” Peter was hunched over the buttons, not unlike a goblin. He didn’t answer so you tried calling out to him again, but he cut you off. 

“Shhhhhhh…(Y/n), I am trying to focus. Gotta get you the big prize.” You felt guilty. You wanted him to have fun, not slave away for tickets. 

“Peter, it’s okay I don’t need a prize.” Peter straightened up just a bit, risking a quick glance at you. 

“I’m going to get you the biggest prize they have to offer.” You tried to give him a smile but it was weak at best. He didn’t notice so absorbed in the game. Ten minutes later he died, his palms slammed against the old plastic and it startled you. You watched as he ran his hands through his hair before turning to you with a smile. He extended his hand to you and you tentatively took it. He stood you right beside him and you watched as he used the joystick to select his initials to cement his place on the scoreboard. 

“Hey, those aren’t your initials.” He smiled. 

“Your coin and my skills, this was both of our work.” There, in fourth place, was a ‘P’, an ‘L’, and your first initial. 

“What’s the ‘L’ for?” Peter’s smile was now directed at you. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He then tugged on your hand and brought you to the skee ball machines. 

You put in some tokens and cheered when the balls were spit out at you. You played for what felt like forever. At some point Peter and you had started playing ‘Horse’, making up trick shots and trying to mimic the other. By the end, you had spent all your tokens and had a pile of tickets to show for it. You proudly marched up to the ticket counter, Peter in tow. 

You felt mildly bad for the poor teenager behind the counter as they fed each of the strips into the ‘ticket monster’. You had a total of 410,137 tickets. Peter handed you a ten and told you to get some skates while he picked the prizes. When you came back with the skates you almost didn’t see Peter. He was sitting at a table piled with stuffed animals. 

You chuckled as you sat across from him. “I decided to get a bunch of smaller prizes because it looks more impressive.”

“So, what’s the haul?” Peter beamed as he showed off each animal. 

“Well this is a cute little tiger, I think I’ll name him Stripes. Then there’s this purple octopus guy, his name is Pickle. The monkey’s name is George, obviously. Monty is the little squid. Then we got this big guy,” He pulled a giant teddy bear from behind him, “he seems super macho, very tough, his name is Peter.”

You laughed so hard a snort came out and you covered your mouth, unable to stop chortling. 

“What’s so funny about that, huh?” You waved a hand in front of you while the other held your stomach. 

Peter offered to put them in the car and you waited for him to return before lacing up your skates. You stepped out onto the rink pushing off the side. You looked back to see Peter clinging to the carpeted wall. You circled back around slowing down to talk to him. 

“What are you doing?” Peter looked embarrassed as he continued his awkward wall crawl.

“I’ve never roller skated before, I thought it was like ice skating but it’s not.” You laughed and he frowned. 

“What happened to Mr Super-Tough-Macho-Man?” He let out a sarcastic laugh as you swung your leg around and stopped just in front of him, holding out your hands. 

He took them and you slowly started working back and forth, pulling him along. He stumbled and you laughed at his panicked expression when his legs started pulling apart. You continued to coach him, teaching him how to move his feet. Soon he was a less-than-graceful skater and you let go. He was shaky but able to stay upright. You applauded him and continued to skate beside him. 

You glided on the polished hardwood and Peter was amazed by your ability to ‘dance’ to the music playing. Peter grew more confident in his ability and then you were both goofing off and having fun. The disco ball in the middle painted the room in fun, colourful dots. 

After an hour you had decided that was enough. Peter panicked saying he didn’t know how to stop. You sped up getting out of the rink and planting your feet before holding your hand out. Peter grasped it tightly and you pulled. 

You may have miscalculated somewhere along the way because Peter was barrelling toward you with no way to stop. You hit the carpet hard and Peter knocked the wind out of you for the second time that day. A few people stopped to check on you guys. You assured them you were fine while Peter continuously apologised. 

“These are for you! You keep them!” You huffed at him.

“No! I can’t keep all of them!” Your pleas were barely heard under the mountain of plushies you were buried under. 

“I got them for you! Just keep them!” You were finally able to break free and when you snapped back up you were very much in Peter’s face. 

“No, it’s your birthday.” This was a challenge. You had been pretty competitive all day and this was no different. If you moved away then it would be an admission that this proximity was ‘awkward’ and you refused to be the one to declare it so. Peter seemed to think the same thing. 

“Yeah, but you bought the tokens, so you bought them. Keep them.” He leaned in closer. 

“Yeah, but you won the tickets, so you keep them.” You leaned closer. 

“Okay, they’re my tickets. My tickets, my choice. You keep them.” He shoved Stripes toward you. You couldn’t fight that logic. 

“Fine,” You huffed. “We can share them. I take some, you take some.” Peter leaned back, bringing his finger to his chin, scratching at an invisible beard. 

“I can do that,” He extended his hand to you and you shook it. 

You set everyone back on the couch and Peter insisted that you pick first. You took Pickles and Stripes which seemed to placate Peter. He took the other two and pushed the big bear to the side of the couch you were using to hold your stuffies on. 

“I can’t take Peter! Then it’s unbalanced.” Peter quirked a brow at you

‘Well, it was imbalanced either way. Besides, I can’t bring home a giant teddy bear named ‘Peter’. It’s weird.” You put your hand on your hips, looking for a way to argue against stealing presents from the birthday boy. 

“Here,” You turned to see Peter facing you with a hand extended. In his palm rested a cheap, pink, plastic ring with a spider sitting on top. You took it from his hands turning it over. 

“And I’ll keep these.” You looked back and you saw that he had a matching lime green one and a popper in his hand. “And then it’s even.” 

He helped you carry your new trinkets to your room before you sat him down on the bed. 

“Okay, I know you said no more presents but I just stole presents from you so I have to give you these. Also, I got them before you said that so technically it’s not more.” Peter looked at you in disbelief as you dived under the bed to bring out the other things you had gotten him. 

“There’s no way there’s more!” You shoved them in front of his feet, not wanting to lift everything up. 

“I promise this is everything. I just didn’t want to give them to you in front of the parentals.” This seemed to pique Peter’s interest. He picked up a weirdly bulbous gift and opened it. 

“Is this a pipe…meant to look like a rubber duckie?” You nodded proudly and he chuckled. 

“That’s awesome, thank you.” He reached for the next present, holding up two Voss waters and looking to you for an explanation. 

“It’s vodka. Tito’s specifically. I have more if you need a re-up.” Peter nodded his head with a small smile on his face. He reached for the next one and opened it. 

“Aw (Y/n), you shouldn’t have!” He held in his hands an eight-ounce mason jar, filled with nuggets of weed. 

“Well, I figured it was my turn to supply. I’ve been smoking your shit for months now and that seems a little unfair.” Peter gathered his contraband in his arms, giving them a tight hug and that made you laugh. 

“Well, I appreciate it a lot. Thank you.” You waved him off saying it was nothing. 

“What time does your dad come home?” You pulled out your phone checking the time.

“He gets off at five, home by like…5:30ish. So, like an hour and a half.” Peter’s smile turned playful as he looked between you and his arms. 

“Would we be pushing our luck if we tested out the rubber ducky before then?” 

Thirty minutes later you and Peter were decently baked. 

“I wanna snack,” Peter said as he lay in the grass of your backyard. 

“Oh shit! Your cake!” You sat up quickly and Peter watched you in panic as you started dusting yourself off. 

“I meant to make it earlier but I got distracted. I’m so sorry you almost had a birthday without a cake!” Peter started rolling around and laughing. Any scolding or teasing fell from your mind as the sound carried through the early August air. 

“It’s fine I don’t need a cake.” You rolled your eyes at him, hands on your hips.

“Are you insane? Of course, you need a cake. That’s like…one of the best parts of birthdays.” With great effort, Peter got up and followed you inside. 

He went to put his stuff in his backpack and when he returned to the kitchen you were digging through the fridge. The Island was lined with various backing goods, and to his delight, a bag of Chex Mix sat across from his seat. He thanked you as he dug into the bag. He watched in awe as you threw ingredients into bowls, whisking away furiously. 

“Are you using a recipe?” He asked, pausing in his chewing. 

“Nah, I make this with my dad a lot.” He raised from his seat, dusting the crumby fingers on his jeans. 

“Let me help.” He moved to the pantry to grab an apron. 

“No, this is for you. You don’t bake your own birthday cake.” Peter only shook his head as he slipped the fabric over his head. 

“(Y/n), you have done so much for me today. This is the best birthday I’ve ever had. Please, let me help.” You looked at him sceptically and he brought his hands up to his lips, holding them together as if in prayer. 

“You can’t say no to the birthday boy.” His eyes were rounded, a look of false innocence. You sighed knowing he was right. You could never tell him no. 

“I need two and a half cups of flour in that bowl.” Peter clapped his hands, rubbing them together as he approached the bowl.

“You got it, boss.” As you worked together you had to admit, baked baking was rather fun. You found it amusing as Peter put all of his focus into measuring things out. He had a bit of flour on his cheekbone from where he wiped his face. Your phone pulled you away before you could stare at him much longer. 

You talked to your dad for a bit, telling him how your day was going and how much fun was being had. He told you that there was something going on at the hospital and that he would need to stay late. You told him you understood and promised to be on your best behaviour. 

Soon the cake was in the oven and Peter helped you with the frosting. He was sad to put down the spatula he had been eating batter off of but elated once again when you told him he could eat the frosting off the spoon. 

The cake was done and you shoed Peter away so you could decorate it, arguing that some of it had to be a surprise. You handed him your phone and your dad’s card information and instructed him to order a pizza telling him to “go crazy.” 

It wasn’t anything impressive, some tufts of white lined the rim of the cake to up the presentation. You grabbed the red food dye and mixed it into the leftover frosting, trying your best to write out a message. You grimaced at the shaky pink letters but moved on placing the candles and lighting them. Peter came back from the living room and you made him close his eyes as you turned out all the lights and set the cake in front of him. He only pulled his hands away when you started singing. 

Peter looked ethereal in the candlelight. Shadows flickered and danced across his face in the warm glow of the flames. He wasn’t looking at you, eyes fixated on the cake in front of him. The slight rose dusting his cheeks was absolutely adorable. When you finished singing he looked into your eyes and there was an expression on his face you hadn’t seen for a while. 

You never learned what it meant but it made you feel so vulnerable. The amber pools of his eyes seemed limitless, a small sparkle there you couldn’t name. He used to look at you like this after a kiss, or sometimes when you would hug him unprompted. But not anymore. You felt your heart stutter as he looked away blowing out the candles. 

“Happy Birthday, Peter.”

Tag List: @andrews-lovr @brinaslittlefreak @cherriescherriesred25 @defrosting-strawberries @djdre92 @drunkangels @heejinw0rld @ilovemoonknight @negasonic-teenage-asshole @preciousbabypeter @princesskittycatofmeowland @rudy-the-winged-wolf @wannapizzamymindposts @whoreforklitz

If your name is stricken through I couldn't find your tag

[itsadragonaesthetic]

Ok I would like to informally rant about my Opinions of the Jurassic Park novel.

Surface level stuff: Jurassic Park is not about "resurrecting dinos bad" and I'm tired of pretending it is. The entire park was automated. From the electric motor vehicles, the "tour guides", the entertainment, the care for the animals, even the genetic sequencing had little to no human supervision. I fucking HATE that scene in the movie where everyone is like "dinosaurs were CHOSEN for extinction and you're challenging god himself and you will now receive punishment! This is going to fuck up because resurrecting dinos bad!" that scene just wormed its way into the fucking public psyche and I refuse to contract your brain worms. The park was shit because there was no human workforce and they didn't have any specialists for literally anything. They never planned safety precautions or even asked if any of the plants are poisonous. If a normal ass zoo did what Jurassic Park did, it would probably fail just as gloriously. Not to mention Jurassic Park wasn't just a zoo! It was a fully integrated nature reserve with its own artificial ecosystem, a theme park, AND a resort! Ian Malcom thoroughly explains in the book what he ACTUALLY means by "chaos theory". It's not some weird magical math that makes dinosaurs eat people. It's an observation of the inherent unpredictability of the universe. You can do everything in your power to prevent a tiger from escaping its enclosure, but you should still plan for it to do so. Because anything can and does happen. Ian knew Jurassic Park would fail because the whole thing was a shitshow with WAY to many elements working together with literally no supervision or safety precaution.

Am I done there? Have I proven my point? Maybe, but I wanna go higher. I think the author's own vision for his themes are fucking stupid and isn't even the point of the book.

Because you see, Crichton's basic message for the audience was "genetic power bad" and he is WRONG. Let me explain.

First of all, the reason I know this was the original point of the book is because it's a horror book written in a time when people were beginning to become skeptical and maybe understandably afraid of the speed of scientific innovation. It opens with scary ideas that in the next decade, it will become normal for people to get genetic implants to smell like their favorite perfume and other such things. It then gives imaginary but frighteningly possible examples of what could be done with genetic power. Genetically engineered pets and air-borne rabies to name a few. The dinosaurs are scary of course, but the real horror comes from that gross feeling of a loss of identity and faith when you are presented with the idea of your traits and personality being edited like code in a computer.

However! This is not how I see it. I think Jurassic Park's ultimate downfall is capitalism. Every single thing that happens is because Hammond is trying to make a quick buck, and he is willing to completely disregard the chaotic nature of uh... nature, to achieve immeasurable wealth.

I love this book but in a selfish way that disregards the intentions of the author. Fuck capitalism and give me my fucking pet dinosaur (bird) and my gene-editing virus to get rid of my lactose intolerance.

[black-diamond1329]

⭐ Name: Sandra, but you can tell me Sandy 😉.

⭐Age: I feel like I'm 15 years old, I stopped counting at 19 and my friends say that I act like I'm 5 years old XD hahaha ... Nah! I just turned 23 years old this August n_n.

💔 Occupation: Being a universitary girl XD ... Yes! It's so fun! (sarcasm).

🩷 Some things that I love it: Read (I read all kinds of books and about my favorite ships on Ao3! 🤭), cook desserts, listen to music while I do other activities like my homework or when I read, Greek mythology (The love between us will never die! 💗).

⭐Saint Seiya (or Knights of the Zodiac). I found this beautiful serie when I was 7 years old. My favorite is the original serie, although I also like the Lost Canvas a lot and Episode G (because Aioria is the protagonist). Soul of Gold gives me mixed feelings. From Omega and Next Dimension, better don't ask me; my mind lives in denial. My favorite characters are the Golden Saints, especially Aioros and Aioria, being Aioria my super favorite.

Thanks to Saint Seiya I developed a great love for the stars 💫 and I have many scientific books on the subject, as well as books of myths and legends about the constellations ✨.

💥 I'm a Marvel Girl. I love those tormented superheroes and antiheroes. I basically grew up watching Marvel since Iron Man came out in 2008 and I immersed myself fully in the world of the comics, I have a lot of comics and books on my bookshelf 🤭. My favorites are: Iron Man ♥️, Captain America, Spider-Man, Loki, the X-Men, Black Widow and Scarlet Witch, in all their presentations and with all their charms and defects!.

🍿Series: Friends, Full House, The big bang theory, How I met your mother and How I met your father, Modern Family, Mom, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel... I love it K-Dramas like Goblin: The lonely and great God, Crash landing on you, Tale of the Nine Tailed 😋, I have also watched many animes like Sailor Moon, Ouran High School Host Club, Toradora, Code Geass, Inuyasha, Kaleido Star, Shaman King, Attack on Titan... it's a long list and I don't remember everything at this moment 🤔. Miraculous Ladybug (I know it's for kids, but ... there is Chat Noir 🖤).

🐉In my House of the Dragon era 🖤: Like many people, I was also terribly disappointed with the horrible ending of Game of Thrones, but I really loved Fire and Blood when I read it in 2020... so I decided to give the serie a chance when I saw the first trailer... and I don't regret it! 🥳. I liked Daemon and Rhaenyra so much in the book and absolutely loved them in the TV Show! (Matt and Emma are incredible! ❣️). Another character that I loved in the book and the one I always wanted to know more about was Jacaerys Velaryon and I must say that I am very pleased with the choice of Harry Collett 😍 (oh yeah baby! 🔥).

I really hope that the directors and writers do justice to this wonderful crown prince! 🥰, because for me he is already one of my favorite characters of all time! ❣️.

🎥 Favorite Movies: Troy 2004 (did I mention I'm a Greek mythology lover?), the Star Wars saga 💫 (1-6 only), The Great Gatsby, A Walk to Remember, Harry Potter 🪄 (books and movies), The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy, The Hunger Games saga ❣️(books and movies), The Twilight saga 😊 (books and movies).

I love Studio Ghibli movies with all my heart 💗 since my dad bought me the movie of Kiki Delivery Service when I was a 6-year-old little girl.

I love everything Disney and Pixar does 💗😘. (think of the happiest things, It's the same as having wings! 🎶)

🎧 Music: I have a very varied taste in music, some would say strange 😅, but if I like the rhythm and lyrics of the song I will surely add it to my playlist (mainly I like rock), AC / DC, Queen, Guns N' Roses, Bon Jovi, Linkin Park, Evanescence, Within Temptation, Imagine Dragons, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Lana del Rey, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. I enjoy classical music too 🩷.

⭐ Something more about me: I am an inveterate dreamer and extremely perfectionist. I express myself better by writing than talking 😚.

I haven't drawn anything in almost 5 years and when I did I used to draw with traditional media (watercolor, charcoal, colored pencils, gouche and acrylic paints 🖌️).

But since October (from last year), when I saw Harry Collett as Prince Jacaerys, I felt a desire to draw that I hadn't felt in a long time ❣️.

This is my first time trying to draw in digital media, I hope you like what you see! 😘 (YouTube tutorials don't fail me now! 😭). I spent the whole summer practicing🥺.

P.S: Sorry if exist some error, the english is not my firts lenguage.

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

Is Authoritarianism Justified?

(Don’t let religion or conservatism raise your kids)

Stephen Jay Morris

6/8/2024

©Scientific morality.

            For decades; no, make that centuries, all sorts of belief systems and religious dogma monopolized the parenting of children. “Spare the rod, spoil the child,” was the doctrine. Did it work? Hell to the no, it didn’t! Not only did beating your children not work, but it also turned them into future abusive parents.

            When the famous pediatrician, Doctor Spock, came on the scene in 1946, the political right felt threatened, as did the Evangelical Christians. When the good doctor published his book that year, “Baby and Childcare,” you’d have thought it was the communist manifesto; that this book was out to destroy Western Civilization. It wasn’t. It used the methodology of pediatrician psychology.  According to the right-wing freaks, changing your baby’s diapers promptly would inspire them to grow up and become lazy communists. This was the beginning of anti-science and anti-intellectual conservativism. The mothers of baby boomers didn’t know what to do when their babies wouldn’t stop crying. Their pastors would tell them to pray to Jesus to make Satan stop hurting their children. But Dr. Spock told the new moms to pick up their babies and cuddle them until they stopped crying. Simple. Many mothers followed that advice successfully. What did the religious nuts think of this advice? They hated it, of course. They wanted to condition white males to be heartless stoics. “If the baby cries, let him! The child will eventually stop.” In actuality, when parents did do that, their child grew up, repressing his emotions and developing bleeding ulcers. And when their ulcer did bleed, such males would pretend that nothing was wrong.

            You take a child that suffers from A.D.H.D., or other disorders like autism, dyslexia, and anxiety, and beat his ass until it’s bleeding, he won’t reform or behave. Violence never solves anything.

            Everything about child rearing that was considered left wing was blamed on the tutelage of Dr. Spock. We soon heard the phrases, “permissive parents” and “lenient teachers,” and others that were tossed around. Then came “helicopter parent” and “coddling court judges.” All who fell under those labels were blamed for the “fall of America!” So-called “liberal Hollywood” made movies like “Dirty Harry,” which was about a cop who stalked criminals released from jail because of lenient judges. He would kill them, and the audience would cheer. Easy for simpletons like Chuds.

            Now, we have the stereotype of “woke” males. This stereotype is not even funny anymore. If you really analyze it, the matter comes down to biochemistry. Female compassion versus male aggression. When you, as a male, are susceptible to the male hormone testosterone, you become a dupe of your right brain’s primal urges. Instead of using logic from your brain’s left side, you rely on your balls to act. You want to embrace stoicism? Try having sex first. It becomes like filling out your tax forms. How about using your stoicism to solve a mathematical problem? No, you just want to be a Sigmund Freud cliché. You hated your mom, so you resent femininity.

            Religion views itself as a tool of civilization. However, it’s real purpose is to bring out mankind’s animalism. All this lackluster satire of masculine women and sensitive males is proving to be a failure in theory. Leftist do not let their kids do what they want. Ask a kid that question. No one on the left advocates feelings over reason. When Russian communists shot Nazis during WWII, the red army didn’t shed a tear. When retailers cater to LGBTQ people, it’s not because they want to corrupt Judeo-Christian society. It is because they want to make money from that demographic. How many power tools they can sell to white Christian males anyway?

            I find it amusing how Christians are opposed to Stalinist communism because of its lack of freedom. But, according to Christian theocracy’s precepts and fundamentalist rules, it is very crypto fascist. The only reason they hate communists is because communists are atheists. That’s it!  However, what Christians do admire about Stalin’s communism is authoritarianism; controlling people over how they think and act. Take a walk at midnight on the streets of Communist China and nothing will happen. In authoritarian societies, the crime rate is low. So, you can sacrifice freedom for the sake of safety. Man is an animal and must be tamed by the authority of the police state!

            And that is the crux of authoritarianism. Safety! That is why Trump is so popular. Under his authority, for anyone who breaks the rules, the cops will shoot first and ask questions later. Is that the type of society you want? Then move to Iran or North Korea.

            The American political right, which embraces rugged individualism, would never survive in an Anarchist society. First of all, one must have a high I.Q. Second, they must have physical prowess. Third, they must embrace a cooperative attitude and solidarity with their fellow human beings. Living in a society where you must protect your parcel of land with a hunting rifle would stress the fuck out of you! Only the strong are anti-authoritarian leftists.

Christianity teaches that only the authority of God should rule your life. This is what we, in the anarchist movement, call “authority dependent.”  So, when they talk about freedom, it’s not free will, it is submission to God. Come to think of it, if God is perfect, why does he need people to worship him?

Many, many questions to ask. Many that will be ignored. The Anti-Authoritarian left is not the problem, the right is.

[mortallyclearwonderland]

''I'm a star'' - Wish

This is a part to my previous post. You don't have to watch the previous and the upcoming post to understand this one. I'm making a post about each song from the movie Wish and going into detail as to why I think they're ''not good'' to say the least. I'm not saying that singer or the music is terrible. I'm focusing on everything wrong with the lyrics. If you're able to enjoy a song because it sounds nice that's fine. But because Wish is a musical the purpose of a song is to help tell the story. Of the lyrics are confusing and contradicting the plot will suffer.

1. Valentino is contradicting himself. One moment he sings that he knew the entire time and joins in explaining that we're all stars but there are moments when he's as confused as Asha.

2. A butt joke + Lion King reference.

3. Those are North American/USA native animals and with how small the island is I'm not sure it would be able to house so many animals. It's a callback to how in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs animators used animals they knew, like racoons. Even tho they shouldn't be in Europe, especially when Americas haven't been discovered yet.

4. They want to superficially be ''like the movies from the past'' but it actually shows how out of touch those filmmakers are that they don't know what made those classic movies special. Animals who fallowed Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora were their friends because they were so kind. Are those animals Asha's friends or just random animals that decided to sing exposition at her?

5. I also hate ''Get that through your system!'' ''Solar!''. It doesn't work! It's a ''solar system'' not ''system solar''! He should have interrupted earlier. Yet again, modern talk and trying to sound cool. How do those animals know so much about space and have modern scientific lingo for it?

6. ''And If you just see the mushrooms than you'll understand'' What does that mean? That we need to look to nature for answers? Is Asha high? Those mushrooms are creepy!

7. ''We eat the leaves and they eat the Sun'' (While showing the Moon because the song is at night. I guess the Moon is reflecting Sun's light but it's still contrived.) It's too confusing for small children and too simplistic for adults (or rather anyone who is knowledgeable about space and biology). Mice aren't little pure vegetarians. ''They eat the Sun'' because photosynthesis. I get what the song is trying to say but it's so clunky.

8. Just awkward things that are supposed to be funny. A bear with a gay lisp going ''YeaS''. That one stupid/high dear the goes ''You're a star.'' I understand using different voices for differentiate characters to show their characters and emotions but it doesn't work because it's the first time we see those characters, so it comes out of nowhere. Compare it to how different soldiers sang in ''I'll make a man out of you''.

9. ''If I'm explaining it poorly, I'll let Star do it for me'' again it's like ''It's unlikely that you'll be unhappy''. What's with the lack of confidence in their writing!?! It's as if the writers know this song doesn't explain anything.

10. Also, in a good song ''I'll let Star do it for me'' would be a transition into the Star singing but because Star is mute and can only use sound effects she doesn't sing. What's the point? Star doesn't explain anything!

I have a theory. A FILM THEORY!

For those who don't know, in an early concept art, Star was supposed to be a boy. But not any average boy able to talk. He was supposed to be shapeshifting spirit and a young version of Ash's grandfather. They supposedly changed him from a boy into a star from Mario because he resembled genie too much.

That explains the weirdness of the song. It was probably supposed to be him shapeshifting, making voices and that's why the animals know so much about space. It was supposed to be him singing. And after ''Let the Star do it for me'' he would star singing.

But I think that change goes deeper than that. He so clearly was changed from a human to a literal star so it can be another cute marketable thing besides Valentino. They can't say it outright so they make excuses. They could've made him mute, use sound effects and body language.

I think they also changed star from a boy into a cute sidekick, so people wouldn't think it's a romance movie because . . . sexism. I understand not all stories need a romance plot or subplot but it has been over 10 years since the last romance in Frozen and even longer since a good romance in Tangled.

One other reason I think they changed star from Asha's grandpa spirit into a cute sidekick because it was supposed to be a twist. And Disney learning the wrong lesson decided that ''twists are bad''. Completely omitting that the bad writing is the problem.

Also, we know internet. If the trailer dropped showing some cute and emotional moments between Asha and Star (her young grandfather) without reviling they're actually related because that would spoil the twist, people would start shipping them. And then the twist would come out. That would be awkward to say the least.

Special thanks to toaverse for discussing Wish with me.

[circus-clown-calvary]

Like just imagine:

Danny and Robin talking about their mutual love for their goth GF’s (I’m a RobRae Stan till I die SF dosent need a boyfriend she needs a math tutor) (or if we’re going animated movie route she has nightwing and I get to keep my birds and everything works out :D)

Danny and Raven would go Gaga with each other about space time and ghosts and magic! They bounce off theories and ideas and omg imagine the possibilities for both of them them! She Reminds Danny of Sam with all her kindness and hope shrouded in a gothic darkness/pos

Danny and Beast Boy absolutely going At It playing video games until the sun rises- “just one more round”

“You boys haven’t slept in like 14 hours”

“One more round”

Starfire and Danny as Green Energy Buddies!!!! They talk and Gossip an are the teenagers they never got to be with each other! SF reminds him of Jazz with how she holds her love. How openly kind she is with her need to help her need to understand! Danny love her! She’s and Dani would get along great.

Danny and Cyborg creating new tech, improving on his parent work. The amount of scientific advancements they could make together- think of all the possibilities. Pair them with Robins investigative skills and Ravens deep understanding of the occult then boy oh boy there is so many possibilities to further advance Danny’s power set, his understanding of ghosts and help his chances at gaining peace between the realms

I also think Tucker and Sam would get along with the team really well! Sf and Raven would adore Sam- she’s like the perfect in between of them and I think she’d bring a really nice balance to them the isn’t necessarily needed but definitely appreciated!

And Tucker! Omg is Danny and Raven were going Gaga of their shared interest then Tucker, Cyborg, and Beast Boy would go ape shit wild cookoo bonkers together! Their advancements to the videogame systems in The Tower would skyrocket no one would get any sleep and god help you if you think your computer is safe from their meddling

Anyways the Phantom Trio and the Titans <3