#those are things that have been observed

[non-binharry]

That choking anon can go cry somewhere else but I wanted to ask what you were meaning when you said the song has a change in perspective? I love that song but never really sat with it

so basically the song shifts between thoughts/reflections/observations/etc and dialogue

the two lovers are the i (narrator/harry) and the you (the partner) but because the song is basically a recollection of moments, you also have a her who is spoken about in literal passing. and there's no knowing whether the her is also the i, the you, or someone else entirely. we actually don't know whose moments those are, what pov they're from, and that seems to be the point because it's a frenzied jumbled mix up of events that happen in the duration of a relationship that they are continuously struggling to maintain

[daily-odile]

Odile patting Molly Epithet Erased on the head, you know why

have two bc i care them

[shepherdenjoyer]

crufts 2024 best of breed belgian shepherds. groenendael, laekenois, malinois and tervuren.

[sandinmybed]

can i be fr for a minute?? sending abuse to people online for holding different views than you is not activism and in fact actively hurts your cause. most people are not extreme in their viewpoints, you can give them a new perspective if you're willing to spend some time explaining shit. if someone is saying something you disagree with and you rush in there to condescend to them and call them disgusting and subhuman and dont even TRY to explain calmly why their views are harmful, they're going to shut you out instantly and double down on their views.

most people are simply genuinely ignorant to the issues they're talking about - they just pick their views up from the news and the world around them and express opinions because that's what every person does. if you run in there and tell them they're scum for it, what then? if someone does that to you, are you going to think "maybe i should do some research" or are you going to think "this person is an asshole, im blocking them." a lot of you think you're activists and then refuse to do any kind of actual WORK to support your cause.

[cerastes]

The thing with a friend group being a kind of community and a community not necessarily being a friend group is that a friend group is together because the people in it gel together and are there to hang and fuck around and do shit together because they like each other, the onus being that there is no one specific topic, people are there for the people.

A community exists around a certain something, so while a friend group could be a community, a community is not necessarily a friend group, and the onus of the community usually is a topic, a show, a game, something that you have congregated to celebrate and enjoy regardless of who you find in there, because you’re not there for the people per se, you’re there for people in general, and some of them you’ll like, and some of them you will not have a single droplet of chemistry with.

Friend groups also exist because interactions are made in good faith: It is normal to assume that whatever encounter of interests or opinions is ultimately not personal, and you just move on, because you like each other or at the very very least you don’t want to shit it up for everyone else and you’ll be good with whoever you have a disagreement in like 2 hours from now, anyway.

Communities are not necessarily based on good faith. In fact, it is a very common story that like cliques within communities try to undermine others in a vie for “influence” or “power” within that niche microweb context. You are united by an interest, one of the weakest bonds possible, so it’s not at all surprising to see person A misrepresenting person B, engaging them in bad faith, or taking them out of context for the express purpose of stirring the pot. The members of a community are also not necessarily your friends, and the context isn’t necessarily one of friendship, so you have a lot of, pardon the bluntness, socially maladjusted jerks that would just get the boot in any other context hanging out and shitting things up with toxicity.

What I’m trying to say with this is that you should not consider a community a friend group, and likewise, your friend group is invaluable and is a community, but it’s also home.

[snackugaki]

lololol, aside from not drawing bayverse or next mutation turtles in forever my ass also hasn’t drawn my au turtles in a hot-ass minute either

like, since returning with Rise after my last memories were with Next Mutation one of the things I noticed is the teenage part seems roughly... the same? I can’t really speak on it since I’m barely scratching 03′s surface and I haven’t even gone near 12. But aside from contemporary fixtures like their cellphones, and maybe Rise!Leo dabbing.

like just very vague, almost non-descript “(american) teen culture” markers. but like. these are new york kids. 

and in my time they were new york kids from the 90s????? And they had them referencing Moonlighting???????? like Raph wouldn’t have been hard into Biggie, or Mikey wouldn’t be out on the cardboard mats with the bboys. c’man. At the very least Next Mutation had them throw a Save the Animals Rave, and honestly that’s the most 90s fucking thing they’ve done that I remember ‘til that point.

anyway, my AU is less an AU and more a “sure bad shit happened to them but they’re all alive and together, splinter’s here and so is venus, and they still play ninja pogs” retconning fluff

and they would’ve been fans of Boyz II Men (and Blackstreet and a ton of other groups from my childhood) and not a one of you can fight me about it uwu <3

_____

my tmnt au (where everyone made it past their 20s, splinter’s alive just old, venus is here, and they deserve some goddamn respite and shenanigans)

tmnt au part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4

tmnt au omake 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

lny visit 1 | 2

[einsteinbrosofficial]

What kind of accident happened that ended with a TNR and a rabies hold? Like I need to know about all of this

@sleepywinchesters Disclaimer do as I say not as I do. This is a story of hubris.

Cat professionals don’t judge me I know where I went wrong I just thought I was built different

Our TNR program only has one dropoff day a week & you have to make your appointment with # of cats ahead of time.

I have two traps so I’m aiming for 2, I’ve trapped for this colony before and it usually took multiple tries to get the right cats! Like I’d have to free at least 2 fixed cats for every unfixed one I caught.

I tell you this so my decision making doesn’t sound as stupid lol.

I was prepared to stake out these cats for hours at a time every night until my drop off appointment. So I start trapping like. 5 days early.

I also set up a big dog cage with some essentials in case I got any of them TOO early, which other cat people will see as red flag # 1 but I SWEAR makes sense with how much work I put into socializing these cats and I would not have pulled that move if I hadn’t been working with this cat colony since 2018.

Ok my dumb decisions have been detailed.

So anyway I literally set myself up with stakeout snacks and everything and I catch two cats within 10 minutes of trapping.

One of the cats I trapped is Charlie Chaplin. I’ve been feeding him about 4 years and he has a mustache and like a week before this he let me get within two feet of him without running.

I go to transfer Charlie to the dog crate (at my home where he’ll be chilling on the patio) and when I go to close the gate door behind him it got STUCK.

Charlie is terrified and he BOLTS and does an actually very beautiful leap DIRECTLY INTO THE POOL.

As I have since found out he’s largely blind in one eye! Which explains a lot of this! So he is now experiencing a pool for the first time in his life completely by accident.

I panic and start throwing all of my electronics off my person so I can jump in. He figures out swimming, escapes the pool, and then scales 10 feet of patio screen and starts trying to spider-man upside down across the roof.

Charlie then jumps down and proceeds to jump directly into the pool AGAIN! I jump after him because his head kept dipping underwater the first time (bc he has presumably never swam in his life before this) and I’m worried. I did not put on my wildlife handling gloves before this, which is another goof. I scoop under his tummy and I’m trying to carry him to the edge of the pool while keeping his head above water.

Anyway to Charlie this is actually even worse because he doesn’t know I’m trying to remove him from the pool, he bites the absolute SHIT out of my arm (valid), I get him to the edge of the pool and let go bc fucking ow, he JUMPS BACK IN THE POOL.

At this point my bonus sister tosses me a towel to grab him with and I manage to catch him safely and deposit him in the crate. Then I had a half hour long panic attack abt whether I had to euth him over me being stupid but I didn’t lol

If you’re unfamiliar with the protocol for potential rabies exposure, the literal only way to test for rabies is to euthanize the animal and biopsy their brains. There’s no way to test an animal while keeping it alive. A lot of the time if you’re able to you need to try and capture the animal that bit you and hand it over to whatever doctor you go to so they can send it for testing. Like. Secured though. Or already dead. Don’t give your doctor a loose potentially rabid animal.

HOWEVER, if the animal is a cat or dog specifically and is not otherwise showing obvious symptoms you have the option to isolate and observe them for 10 days. There’s research showing that dogs & cats who are far enough into the disease to transmit it (apparently they can’t transmit it during the incubation period, yay) will either show symptoms or die within 10 days. ONLY applicable to dogs and cats. If they show symptoms (or die) you send them to be tested, according to the county rabies coordinator I called about this.

I did not in fact have to get a rabies shot because we have already gotten past day 10 of his observation period and he’s chillin.

Also the other cat I caught early did fine, already got spayed and vaxxed and released. I just saw her earlier today when I went to check on the colony and she ran away as soon as she saw me lmao.

[surreal-duck]

sorry for only ever drawing 2 things. it will happen again

extra thing under the cut because it’d give me secondhand embarrassment to put it w the others

so like. that aizou solo right

[freebooter4ever]

i send my friend suggestions of tourist places to see in his new country (his contract was extended, lucky him!) or messages about friend of friends i have living there that he could maybe meet for fellow americans to talk to, and his response is always that he doesnt have time. and not in that exaggerated way that people do to seem busy. but in that bone tired way i recognize from him here in LA, that i recognize in myself.

[hella1975]

im genuinely the dumbest person alive

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Ya know, current setups are real fun, but I've been playing horse games again lately and I've noticed some things...

If Roxy were to find the horses in storage and decide to keep them as her own, her only knowledge of horses up to that point would be horse games. I'm trying to think about the other ones I've played because I can't say I ever really looked for accuracy before, but depending on the games, Roxy would have a surprisingly hard time with this.

To my memory, none of them have the saddle positioned correctly. I don't remember any that used martingales or chest plates which some of the Plex horsies have. Horse games are designed in such a way that you can visibly see where the budget and time was put in, meaning you have some games that tell you a little about what you're doing, and some that are very detailed about certain aspects of horse care, but completely fuck up the rest of it. It's fascinating to me.

If Roxy played Bella Sara for example, she would know you can't ride until you've cared for your horse, but she wouldn't know about any sports outside of show jumping. If she played Pony Friends, she would know about trail riding, that racing is a thing and that horses get sick if not cared for properly, but may not understand that you can't ride a sick horse. Sick horses aren't really relevant here, but you see my point.

Like the standard sports tend to be show jumping, cross country and the chronically under-explained dressage games. They also all have a mechanic for brushing the horse and cleaning the hooves out, with most of them having you clean out the stable too. BUT none of them are consistent outside of that. So even if she played a bunch of them, she's not going to know what she's doing at all

Brushing and combing is straight forward enough. There's a method to doing hooves and stuff she'd not know but if she can figure out how to lift their foot up, she'll be fine. She may also know about leg wraps from some games and would find it pretty easy to do simple hairstyles with them, though the tail would be a bit harder.

But that saddle is not staying on that horse. She may get a basic bridle right but probably doesn't know what the bit is. The horses are literally built to help in teaching this stuff and they're struggling trying to find ways to help her but they're fucking horses man. What are they gonna do? All they can do is kinda give her a nudge, make loud noises, move out the way, steal shit and bite her. The Minis are trying to help but they also don't know what they're doing at all so that's not working either

The absolute relief when Roxy finds Foxy's bird and reactivates her. They've never been so excited to see a duck before. Things get easier at least, but lack of information is only part of the issue for Roxy so uhh... Yeah it's not the biggest improvement ever, but hey! At least the saddle's staying on this time!

[queers4years]

Indigenous Hawaiians really had a good system going: wake up reaaally early and do most of the days work while it's cool and by the time the sun was up and it got hot the work was done and you're free to surf and socialize. I wish the white people realized they themselves could work smarter and not harder and get time to relax. Instead of calling Hawaiians lazy (and being genocidal about it)

[dovalore]

simple diagram of my wol and his carbuncle

also some updated info on him since a lot has changed since the last time i talked about his lore

he's at least half viera and has like, 8 other siblings who are also at least half viera

the scar going across the bridge of his nose was from a wound he sustained during That One Fight in stormblood

not pictured are his little fangs he likes to bite specific people with

dovae's tail is so long and fluffy he curls it into a swirl behind him when he's not active. it uncurls when he's in battle or otherwise particularly active

he's incredibly meticulous when it comes to his physical appearance, he prides himself on being well-groomed. especially his tail, he enchanted a brush specifically to help him keep it free of matting

brick is still brick, absolutely nothing has changed about him except his power level, which has only increased

[slimynematode]

im really glad to know people really enjoyed the chapter of phantom organ so far it took me a while to make, all the ideas for the next chapter are in my head but im just super inundated with school work/uni appliactions/trying to find a job or make money, but that isnt to say that its not on my mind all the time! the next chapter will include a foil for genesis itself, a titan like robot thats similar in stature and functions with cultivated organs for maximum self sustainability traversing the cosmos to put off the great threat to earth that looms in the not so far distance - created by two punk scientists working together that impliment parts of themselves within this sizeable mechanical homunculus. maybe even genesis will meet this foe..... and who knows what will proliferate.....

[whentherewerebicycles]

doing all this reading on cross-cultural parenting styles is so so fascinating. the practical differences are super interesting (ie learning about different cultural approaches to food, sleep, toilet training, safety, respect for others, etc). but i think the most thought-provoking part is just like... thinking about what each culture’s dominant parenting approach reveals about the traits that culture values & the way people in that culture perceive the world and their interpersonal relationships with others. like here are some of the themes that are emerging about american parenting:

americans are obsessed with individual success and individual excellence. much of american parenting focuses on discovering and actively cultivating each individual child’s “gifts,” which are assumed to be unique to that child, relatively fixed, and innate. we also seem to have this idea that if a child demonstrates interest in something or an early knack for something, we have a responsibility to accommodate that interest and make investments (of time, energy, money) to ensure that this gift is being cultivated appropriately, with an eye towards producing a child who excels in that particular field.

a major tradeoff is: that focus on individual achievement often crowds out a focus on interpersonal connection & on helping kids feel meaningfully enmeshed in and connected to a community that cares for them & that they in turn have obligations to.

americans are incredibly focused on and concerned with meeting developmental milestones (and with pathologizing children as deficient or “slow” or medically abnormal if they don’t meet those milestones). conversely, we see it as highly desirable for kids to hit developmental milestones early, so we invest a ton of time and resources into trying to hurry our kids along. we want our kids to walk, talk, read, sleep through the night, play instruments, speak multiple languages, excel at sports, etc etc etc as early as possible and feel very proud when our kids are labeled “more advanced” than other kids their age.

americans talk to their kids constantly, from infancy to young adulthood, and most of this talk stems from a belief that more talk = more learning. we learn that “good” parenting is hyper-involved, hyper-attuned parenting where the parent is always asking the child questions about the world around them, introducing new information, explicitly teaching or instructing, narrating our own actions so that the kid will learn from what we’re modeling, etc etc. we seem to do this because we feel that pressure for the child to be learning faster, learning more, learning all the time, so that they can grow up faster, reach milestones sooner, and demonstrate a capacity for excellence in their chosen field earlier.

american parents worry a lot more about their kids (we are preoccupied with safety and risk in ways that seem one million times more stressful than many other approaches to parenting... though this is partly because we live in such child-unfriendly environments that weren’t designed with children’s needs in mind). but we also worry a lot about (and spend lots of time focusing on) making our kids “independent” of us. we simultaneously try to protect our kids from any kind of risk or setback that could discourage them or delay their growth, but we also try to push kids away from us faster, wanting them to achieve an independent, self-reliant, self-regulating maturity as quickly as possible.

americans are obsessed with “self-esteem” and often try to boost self-esteem by praising children for anything and everything (even if the praise is superficial or not really deserved). we are often afraid to give honest or hard feedback out of fear that it will damage the child’s self-image or make them feel negative feelings about themselves. the result, though, is that we seem to end up producing generations of kids who are much less resilient, prone to melting down over negative feedback or obstacles, self-absorbed/self-focused, and preoccupied with the idea that they have a sort of innate “right” to feel good all the time. this one is SUPER interesting to me because it feels connected to some thoughts i’ve been working through lately about the therapy-industrial complex and our culture’s obsession with mental health, which idk... my feelings here are complicated and require more unpacking than i want to do in this post lol. but i think a lot about how hollow praise can feel and how intensely addictive it can become, and just like... how truly enduring forms of self-worth seem to come from going through painful phases of life and grappling with difficult personal or interpersonal problems and emerging from those periods with a stronger, clearer understanding of yourself and your values. idk much to unpack here... much to think about...

idk there is probably more stuff i’m forgetting... i’m not really going anywhere with this post lol i just want to start synthesizing some of the things i’m reading. they’re like, simmering on low on the back burner of my brain right now... will be interesting to see if/how they end up getting internalized.

[tittyblade]

Oh ya I’ve heard Türkiye is having some elections today, how’s that going? :D

it’s on sunday!!! ive spent the entirety of this morning crying over election coverage LOL. this is the single most important event of my life. yk how every politician says the next election is the most important one so everyone should go out n vote? thats the situation here but quite literally.

on one hand you have islamic extremists (erdoğan. one of the “parties” that support him is literally formed from an extremist cult. the only reason they haven’t all been put on trial is bc erdoğan supports them and he’s only got the extremists’ support left. and also bc years back he declared a nationwide state of emergency and quickly passed multiple laws in succession where. he’s no longer the prime minister but “the sole leader” of turkey. yeah)

and on the opposition there’s a coalition of 6 parties, literally all the major left parties with some nationalists, with their joint candidate kılıçdaroğlu. CHP (the main opposition party) has been center left lately, but its the actual fuckin party that first turned turkey into a republic from a sultanate. its huge. compared to US politics the average left wing party is actually pretty fuckin left here LOL. and they havent won the govt since 1950s (last peaceful n prospering decades of turkey) AND. THEY ACTUALLY STAND A CHANCE. all the polls point towards kılıçdaroğlu winning the elections

and you have no idea how bad it’s been here for the last few years. god. there’s so many shit thats wrong in the country because of the current government. civillians getting arrested for tweets criticizing erdogan, not being able to afford anything, being unable to pay your rent, erdogan (WITH HIS SINGULAR DECISION) withdrawing from the istanbul convention, the femicides being the highest it has ever been since the entire history of the turkey, murdered religious minorities and murdered journalists, tens of thousands of people left alone to die after the earthquakes back in february. its pretty fucking scary living here unless you’re a cishet sunni muslim man.

everyone i know that can afford it has been fleeing the country. sometimes it feels like thats the only option you have unless you want to get killed as a 20 something year old trying to make ends meet. i’m only 20 yo myself and the past 8 years has brought me and everyone under 30 to such a place where the only thing we feel about the future is hopelessness. i feel like ive aged 10 years in the last year alone and i bet anyone thats lived under a similar govt can relate. my countrys politics alone has been robbing me of my youth and my will to live.

AND. DESPITE ALL OF THAT. i have hope for the very first time. i have hope for a better future now bc of the opposition candidate and i have faith in him to deliver his promises. everything thats happened since january he’s been dealing with with grace, and him + mayors from his party actually do shit.

so yeah. the entire course of turkey is gonna change this sunday. if we were to lose this would be the last democratic elections held (the last elections held, period) before erdoğan fully converted the country into an autocracy, and when kılıçdaroğlu wins its gonna become a socialist state, as socialist as it’s ever been since the 1950s. pretty fuckin big stakes