#hell yeah vacation

[lqvesoph]

man is ready for his vacation

[severedbananastranger]

Alan Wake is a game about a guy going to hell for screaming at his wife.

[undefeatablesin]

You know what? Fuck you. *Bloodbornes your Pinnochio again*

[moregraceful]

Not to keep banging on about impulse bb birds vacation but beryl pointed out today to me that QUITE LITERALLY someone is always home with me and I get absolutely no alone time ever on planet earth to just...exist....so it makes sense that a fourteen hour roundtrip road trip by myself is thrilling. It is not weird to be excited about having seven hours to myself. Everyone I tell is like, you are driving seven hours one way, alone?? Do you not fear being lost in your thoughts on i-5 for so many hours? What if the abyss stares back? And I am like, no. If the abyss screams at me, I will scream at the abyss. And I will be free.

[elmasinthetree]

failcringe ceo (affectionate)

[esteemed-excellency]

The Commodore: you're the hell guy, right? the roof is kinda like hell

Hiram: I appreciate the effort to make this offer more palatable but you guys have no idea what you're doing. again

[rollercoasterwords]

ok i'm back at a desk for 8 hours w nothing 2 do so here's the longer post re: nwlnw (nonwoman loving nonwoman) + nmlnm (nonman loving nonman). i think my issue with these terms as labels is that. i see their origin + use coming from this urge to draw really clear + distinct lines around labels in a way that ultimately reinforces gender essentialism. like here i'll trace it:

people use "gay" and "lesbian" as umbrella terms to broadly describe relationships involving two men or two women. so, in the context of fiction + fandom, people will talk about gay + lesbian fics/ships etc

some people decide that "gay" and "lesbian" aren't inclusive enough as labels, because what if one of the partners is bi/pan/identifies as something other than gay or lesbian??

ok, so we need a more inclusive term! let's use words like "sapphic" and "achillean," or "wlw" (woman loving woman) and "mlm" (men loving men)

wlw + mlm start to become more popular as umbrella terms

but wait!!!!! what about nonbinary people?!?!?!?!?!?!!??!

once again, people decide that mlm + wlw are not inclusive enough umbrella terms, because they do not encompass every possible label that someone might identify with

"nmlnm" and "nwlnw" are introduced as even more inclusive umbrella terms

so here are the issues i'm seeing in the evolution of these umbrella terms:

1. hyper-focusing on labels in this way is not productive

like. let's go back to "gay" and "lesbian." let's say, for example, that two women are in a relationship. even if both id as bi, there's nothing wrong with calling that a lesbian relationship, because functionally, that relationship is going to be treated as lesbian by society. like, if we are focusing on experiences and not labels, then gay + lesbian work perfectly fine as umbrella terms. their purpose is not to encompass every single possible configuration of identity that two people in a relationship might hold; their purpose is to communicate to people looking at the label that this relationship falls under a broad category of relationships that are received a certain way by the world at large. y'know?

no umbrella term is ever going to encompass every specific experience that falls beneath it, because that isn't the point of umbrella terms. umbrella terms are useful for grouping broad categories of people who share experiences, even if they don't necessarily share specific identities.

furthermore, both "lesbian" and "gay" are, in and of themselves, somewhat nebulous terms that not everybody is going to use in the same way, and they are also culturally + historically specific terms that have changed over time. if we start to try and draw really clear lines around them, or set firm rules around who does + doesn't get to identify a certain way, eventually you're going to encounter someone who doesn't fit the rules you've created, and that's how you get stupid fucking online debates about shit like whether or not trans men are "allowed" to identify as lesbian.

the utility in labels is in identifying shared experiences. ok? what matters isn't nitpicking each other's language, it's looking at the way we're treated by the world as queers and finding sites of solidarity. so somebody referring to categories of relationships as "lesbian" and "gay" isn't excluding anyone, unless you're hyper-focused on labels rather than experiences. it's like fucking.....vampire rules. like i'm throwing a party, and the door is wide open, and then u come up to the door and ur like "umm u need to invite me in." and i'm like ??? the door's wide open if u want to come in u should just come in....and ur like "no u don't understand i have to follow VAMPIRE RULES and that means u need to follow them too or ur excluding me!!!"

like. ur not a fucking vampire babe. just come inside.

2. feels like....a weird conceptualization of "nonbinary." to me.

because "nmlnm" and "nwlnw" have basically just become interchangable with "wlw" and "mlm," it kinda just feels like....people grouping whatever they consider women and Women Lite, and then men and Men Lite. y'know? like babe i'm sorry but if u are actually trying to break down all gender binaries here to include every single possible nonbinary person...well where is a boydyke like me supposed to go between ur little labeled "nonman" and "nonwoman" boxes hmm?? sorry but ur gonna have 2 get rid of the "man" and "woman" from ur labels altogether i fear. which leads into...

3. saying "non-man" and "non-woman" still ultimately leads back to gender essentialism bc it requires u to define "man" and "woman"

like. either we accept that umbrella terms have leaky borders and will never fully encompass every possible identity, but that's okay because, again, the borders aren't these clearly drawn lines but rather porous and amorphous and shifting--or we insist that labels must exist within clearly delineated boxes so that we can Categorize Every Identity, in which case you end up with labels like "non-man" and "non-woman" which, though supposedly inclusive, require you to provide a set definition of both "woman" and "man" in order to explain what you are defining your category against. and once you start trying to find set definitions to categorize "men" and "women"....well guess what's gonna happen babes!!!!!! that's right!!! we're gonna stray back into the territory of gender essentialism.

like. at the end of the day i basically just see "nwlnw" and "nmlnm" labels as an extension of this exhausting tendency to try and draw really clear borders around every identity in the queer community, which is antithetical to what queerness even is and ultimately leads to a bunch of useless in-fighting. i'm sure the people using these terms are just trying to be inclusive, but the issue is that your "inclusivity" relies on exclusivity in the first place by treating labels as strict borders that are exclusive to anyone who doesn't fit the criteria you've decided they need to fit to claim them. y'know?

in conclusion: i will be sticking with lesbian + gay + dyke + fag for my umbrella terms thank u very much <3

[mx-giraffe]

I FOUND A MANGA/ANIME SHOP RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD FROM MY HOUSE AND THEY HAVE WORLD TRIGGER IM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW OH MY GOOOOOOSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH

[schoenht]

congrats on finishing finals, please enjoy these pictures of snow covered flowers, finals are hard and you made it through :)

I hope you know i gasped so loud bc i love snow sm AND THE FLOWERS ARE SO PRETTY TYSMMMMM

[wernerherzogs]

hi kasia! I know you’re very busy with the apartment remodeling (I hope that’s going well!! Or not awful at least) but I was wondering if you had any recommendations for places to visit in Poland? I’m visiting one of my friends in Krakow but I’ll have a few extra days to myself so I wanted to see if you had any recs :) thank you!

hi anon! i hope this isn't too late 🏃🏻‍♂️🙈 i apologise for not having had the time to respond earlier!!! unfortch i AM very busy these days ):

but ANYWAY. if it's just a few days, i'd recommend sticking to Kraków or taking a train ride to either the mountains (Zakopane, for example, which is super touristsy, but probably also the easiest to navigate as a foreigner) or Warsaw. keep in mind though (bc idk when you'll be here) that October 31 and November the 1st and then November the 11th are public holidays in Poland (the first two religious, and the latter is Independence Day, def avoid Warsaw around then) and the trains and roads will be super crowded.

i'm only going to stick to Kraków i apologise but i'm sure your friend is gonna help out a lot with recs as well! and Warsaw most certainly has a great web presence for touristsy spots, but if you need me to at list some bigger museums or etc. at least, let me know. LASTLY, i'm about to copy paste recs i gave to another mutual a few months back, so - Steph, if you're seeing this, i hope you don't mind! 🩷

first things first, jakdojade.pl (either the app version, or just www.jakdojade.pl opened via the browser app) is a super handy website that shows you how to get from point A to point B, which buses/tram lines to take, etc. there are some major road renovations taking place right now around the Most Dębnicki area (near the Wawel castle), so please keep that in mind! not sure about the tram lines around the Main Train Station as well. 🤔 i think there were plans to renovate the Lubicz line, but i don't remember when. :(

Kraków is great for sightseeing, because it's quite densely built, so you can see a lot of landmarks just by walking around on foot in the Old City area! the Old City is situated like 7 mins from the main train station. in the Main Square area, the Mariacki church with an altar of a famous polish artist Wit Stwosz is definitely worth seeing, as well as Sukiennice (the building right in the center of the Square) with its underground museum.

near the Main Square, there's a gallery of modern art called Bunkier Sztuki, address: Rynek Główny (Main Square) 20, 31-008 Kraków. i haven't been there in a few years so i'm actually not sure what the current exhibits in there are and if they're worth seeing, but hopefully they are!

there's Muzeum Książąt Czartoryskich on św. Jana street 19, 31-017 Kraków which used to host Da Vinci's The Lady with an Ermine, but i think it's currently on loan for some museum in Warsaw? it was actually transferred to the National Museum of/in Kraków earlier this year, but google is being confusing, so i'm not sure if it's currently there or in warsaw 🤔 the National Museum is another place you might potentially want to visit: Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, al. 3 Maja 1 street.

there's obviously the Wawel Castle, the historic residence of Polish kings, as Kraków used to be Poland's capital before Warsaw. i haven't been inside in years, but it's probably still worth it! and even if you don't wanna/decide to go inside, you might want to just stroll around the castle grounds. Wawel is right in the city centre as well, so it's another one of those Kraków's staples you can go to by foot!

around the Main Square, there are several "famous" streets with quirky cafes and shops you can visit. and even if you don't go inside, you can just stroll down those streets to get a feel of the city. for example the Floriańska street, Grodzka street, saint Jan or saint Tomasz streets, the Bracka street. no matter which one of these you decide to take from the Main Square, you'll be getting that Kraków experience :)

then there's the historic Jewish district of Kraków called Kazimierz. on one hand, packed with difficult history, on the other, it's become the most hip part of the city! again, loads of famous cafes, pubs, and shops are situated there, some festivals take place there, and so on. you can just stroll around the district, and then visit the Mocak gallery of contemporary art, for example! https://en.mocak.pl/ , address 4 Lipowa St 30-702 Kraków.

just like with Bunkier Sztuki, i haven't seen the current exhibits there, so idk if they're any good, but i personally like Mocak, and you might like it as well! it's at the edge of the Kazimierz district, and the Kazimierz district is right next to the Old City district. you can go from Old City to Kazimierz on foot or take a few quick tram stops.

https://duze-podroze.pl/krakow-kazimierz/

this site is in Polish, but you can take a look at the bolded names and pics - it's a handy guide re: what to look for when you're strolling around in Kazimierz. there are jewish cemeteries, synagogues, the Boże Ciało church, the Wolnica square with Muzeum Etnograficzne (etnographic museum) on it... (https://etnomuzeum.eu/ , the site has an english version that i can't link to directly for some reason). loads of places to see even if you want to just look at them from an outside, you know?

some other places potentially worth checking out: Jagiellonian University's botanical gardens, address Mikołaja Kopernika 27, 31-501 Kraków.

then there are three locations of the Museum of photography in Kraków BUT i'm gonna come clean and admit i still haven't visited any ajdjd 🏃🏻‍♂️ so idk if they're any good, and also they don't seem to have english versions of their websites? unless my phone is failing me. but street addresses are: Rakowicka 22A, Józefitów 16, Królowej Jadwigi 220.

tl;dr sticking to Kraków is a great idea for a short stay, because you can concentrate on only two districts (Old City/Main Square + Kazimierz), and there'll be PLENTY to see, and you can reach those places by foot or via short tram rides! if you're thinking about taking some trips in the Małopolskie voivodeship where Kraków is situated, there's the historic Wieliczka saltmine which is pretty famous: https://www.wieliczka-saltmine.com/ but you'd need winter clothes for that underground trip. you can reach Wieliczka by regular city buses, which is great.

then there's obviously Oświęcim known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, but that one would be heavy, and it'd take probably at least a half of your day: https://www.auschwitz.org/en/visiting/ as it's further from Kraków than Wieliczka.

please remember that the opening hours tend to be 9 am - 6 pm in most places, sometimes even shorter one day a week (sunday or monday or tuesday, typically), or some of them might be closed one day a week. so always remember to check them beforehand! it's also always worth checking if any place has any dedicated day where they offer a free pass or a discount too, you should find that info on their websites.

some places to eat in you might want to check out, although again, i'm sure your friend will be helping out with these as well: Zapiekanki in okrąglak (legendary, mandatory spot!), Nolio, Hamsa, Akita Ramen, Boccanera ristorante pizzeria, trattoria la campania, ima sushi, Sushi Royal, Viale Verde, Restaurant Martello, Sushi 77, Restauracja Bianka, Chinkalnia Restauracja Gruzinska, Hospudka u Nas

aaand that's all from me, sorry i didn't have the time for more! 🩷 HOPE U ENJOY YOUR STAY!!!!!!!!

[nero-neptune]

time-traveling preteen on cusp of having fun suddenly remembers every single one of his responsibilities

[euesworld]

"Happy Friday.. get the coffee going, cause it's going to be a long day until the weekend starts."

Friday is the longest day cause you are watching the weekend approach all day - eUë

[sharkneto]

man i knew it was going too smoothly

[stranger-rants]

Wish it snowed more in Indiana to justify an endless supply of snowed-in fics. Alas, it snows nearly 5x Indiana’s average amount where I live. Damn them and their moderate climate.

[minglana]

so crazy seeing my cousins post aesthetic pics of my village street. maam thats a rundown house with the roof caved in next to the ugliest house in the village

[morningmask27]

I do sometimes find it really annoying that most of the things I do right now are At Least tangentially related to a trauma I lived through.

I am living in a university dorm right now, it's a very typical thing to do, but most people return to their family home during the weekends and only really stay in the dorms because they have classes in the week and having to go from their home to the classes, especially the 9 am classes, can be heavy if they live somewhat further away. I stay in my dorm the entire week. For Reasons I don't want to go back to my old home for longer than half a day to drop my laundry and leave with clean clothes, some food and a chat with my mother. I wouldn't feel good doing so anymore, but mentioning that is weird because most people (except internationals because going to a full on other country just for the weekend, every weekend, would be a bit dumb) return to their home (My dorm feels more like home to me right now than my old house did btw).

When I say I stay in my dorm people are somewhat confused, as it on its own already implies that something must not be that good at the familial home for me to not go there for the weekends. By the simple fact I don't go back it's already implied there is something wrong, and it's true, there Is something wrong, but I can't just start explaining the whole thing, it's not really appropriate for most conversations, and I simply don't want to open up about this part of my traumas. So I just have to quickly and very blatantly brush off that fact and the unpleasant implications to continue the conversation without making it awkward and it's so annoying.

Most of my weird trauma responses at least have the added thing that if I don't verbalize them nobody will really notice. I am good at hiding them, I kinda had to, but this dorm situation is such a blatant sign of something Weird (and not the good kind) that I cannot hide since my actions on their own imply a situation already.

I am somewhat good at dealing with all of these issues, brushing off The Problems is a typical part of normal conversations, but it does get frustrating sometimes when I get severely affected by something traumatic, and it's The Only reason that my problem happened, but I cannot talk about it in casual conversations because of how heavy and intense it is. I have to vaguely mention The Horrors (They Are Complex) and move on before I make my conversation partner uncomfortable. It happened when I had to miss a class because of a severe relapse in my mental health, it happens every time I mention I stay in my dorm the weekends, it happens whenever I get too jittery and weird because of stress (I don't even always know Why I am stressed) and I just cannot explain anything about the cause because it's too heavy for most people to hear. (I do understand that fact, it makes sense you're not going to tell classmates casually about the horrific stuff you went through in your personal life, but it fucking gets annoying when it is fully related to a situation and I have to Shut The Fuck Up anyway.)

It's just frustrating to me that I have to deal with all these Weird Things because of trauma, and everyone sees them, but I cannot explain where they come from truthfully because of how much they are. It's in this weird middle state where people See I am weird hurt, but they don't Know why. I do things differently for reasons they can assume are unpleasant, but I cannot ever truly explain everything to them.