#mind stuff

[hexagr]

The nice thing about small talk and seemingly boring thoughts is that they help break up narratives on the way to more interesting thoughts.

[conscious-pisces]

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”

—Seneca

[mindmusingss]

Lately, I've realized that life feels a lot easier when you stop taking certain things so seriously.

It's amazing how much lighter things can feel when you let go of the need to stress over every little detail. I've begun focusing on what really matters, and let me tell you, it's been an immersive change.

Giving yourself permission to relax and not worry about trivial matters makes life a lot easier.

- Bhavika

[just-french-me-up]

'ao3 needs a like and dislike button'

what you need, my algorithm-rotten minded friend, is a grip

[vivitalks]

found an old reddit AMA with brennan and discovered this gem

[eldritch-human]

Today on how a 3d man-faced fish supports my view on the (in)existence of game/literature characters

Very resumed, Seaman is a 1999/2000 dreamcast game you groom a fish pet till he's ready for the world. The time runs the same as IRL, he talks to you and remembers what you said before and the 4th wall is just a glass.

Somewhere during the game he has an existential crisis, it goes like this:

— Some people say that, like most videogame characters, I'm not real and that I don't exist. Can you believe this? It's a bit of a shock, to say the least. I mean, if I don't exist, then what am I? Am I just some... Imaginary creature? I mean, do you think I exist?

— Well, at least you believe in me. Which is good, because I believe in you too. You probably can't imagine the feeling. The shock of being told you don't exist. It destroys everything you hold dear. Your reality becomes shattered. Why don't I exist? I'm living, I'm breathing and I'm thinking with my heart and soul. I tell you, I exist just as much as you do.

Then he gets a little depressed and don't talk to you for hours. He returns later:

— Ok, how about the Beatles then? Do you think they existed?

— Alright, you see? You've probably never meet these people but you know they existed because they're on television and in magazines. Well, the same goes for me. I too am on TV and in magazines and here you are even talking to me and thinking about me. So from that point of view, I exist.

— People, places and things exist only because you perceive them. When you see me and listen to me, I exist as a part of your consciousness. I become real! And because I can see you and hear you and smell you, you exist as part of my consciousness. And as I have a very limited attention span, once I forget about you, you will no longer exist.

I'm 14 and that's deepppp

Jokes aside, these lines never fail to move me. I can't help but think about how we are just brains riding a skeleton in a flesh suit. We can never know what things "really" are, the only way we get to experience the world is through our senses that are completely biased: Like how some people can't stand spicy food while others don't even feel it.

Is your teacher real? Is your mom real? How do you know that? There's no way to be sure. The only thing you can know for certain is that you exist. Everything else exists in your head, from your toes being chilly to your favorite Love and Deepspace LI. If you can control it or not, it's a discussion for another day.

The brain is a funny thing, it gives power to whatever it feels like.

Also, I constantly mind rp about how the characters (canon story version) would react finding out they're inside a Matrix – Warlic probably already knows and is not impressed.

[richmadeart]

[trekkerac]

Winning is just doing better than your competition

[eriochromatic]

AU where Vi gets raised by Silco after s1e3 loosely based on the initial drafts..

always wished they got to interact normally in canon (where they weren't at each other's throats lol)

[ikachap]

Personal Elytra headcanon :]

[inkskinned]

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

[conscious-pisces]

“Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”

—Epictetus

[chloesimaginationthings]

RIP Michael Afton.. you would of loved FLAF

[hejee]

sunday mass with the boyfriend aka the son of sparda

[bloominglegumes]

i.i i ouhghfhh