the-breath-in-air - Tumblr blog

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No one:

Tumblr when my WiFi is connected and working perfectly:

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Something odd about the Fallout world is how homogeneous the former-U.S. is even 200 years after the nukes dropped and in the century between each game/show.

It's odd how much the people living in all these different wastelands separated by hundreds of miles and nearly a hundred years, have adopted such similar aesthetics, naming conventions, architecture, and cultural conventions. Like, take using caps as currency, for example. It's not really consistent with how human cultures work that peoples who live in the Mojave have adopted the same currency and people living in the Commonwealth. And it's not consistent with how humanity works that that same currency goes unchanged for 100+ years.

Now, some of that can be explained via world-building in that the game shows that the pre-war U.S. just was pretty homogeneous. That's part of the whole 1950's Americana vibe. And I get the idea that the nuclear apocalypse has made it so folks are more likely to salvage old stuff rather than create new stuff.

And some of it can be explained because this is a video game series and so they'll want to reuse art from game to game. And certainly as a game, keeping a continuity with naming conventions for enemies and whatnot also makes sense. And then there's the way a consistent style aids in brand recognition.

But still, those caveats aside, there should still be more difference between different cultural groups throughout the wastelands. I think this is a big part of what makes Fallout 4 disappointing as opposed to Fallout: New Vegas, which feels more vibrant and specific in its aesthetics and culture.

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Yeah and then I went and became a teacher where I'm being perceived at all times. Wild career choice on my part.

thinking about how when you experience a lot of shame in your formative years (indirectly, directly, as abuse or just as an extant part of your environment) it becomes really difficult to be perceived by other people in general. the mere concept of someone watching me do anything, whether it's a totally normal activity or something unfamiliar of embarrassing, whether I'm working in an excel spreadsheet or being horny on main, it just makes my skin crawl and my brain turn to static because I cannot convince myself that it's okay to be seen and experienced. because to exist is to be ashamed and embarrassed of myself, whether I'm failing at something or not, because my instinctive reaction to anyone commenting on ANYTHING I'm doing is to crawl into a hole and die. it's such a bizarre and dehumanizing feeling to just not be able to exist without constantly thinking about how you are being Perceived. ceaseless watcher give me a god damn break.

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From the book Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD:

Putting a coat on the back of a chair by the door is fine, but if you prefer, use coat hooks and a large catch-all basket for dropping keys, hats, gloves.

Small bookcase end-table next to the couch to store craft projects, books, and other things being worked on for easy access.

Add a storage unit near the dining room table to transition between eating and working there.

Daily toiletry items should be stored in a basket that you can move easily

Extra toiletries and medicine cabinet items go in open shelf/basket storage so they can be seen and used easily. If items no longer fit, purge the excess. Don’t obscure the view!

If you disrobe in the bathroom, place a tall hamper in there.

Keep a set of cleaning supplies in each bathroom

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The thing that abled people who advocate for the disabled community don’t get is that there are times when disabilities/accommodations clash. Horribly.

Like I spent years having to come up with a solution to get therapy dogs into a series of residence halls. Why years? Because we had to decide who got to stay and who got to leave: the people who needed therapy dogs or the people with severe allergies to animals. Who got the alternative housing? 

Things like fidget toys might seem great for some disabled people but having them in the room could be distracting/overstimulating for others. The same goes with stimming. It can’t be helped but neither can the anxiety that another person in the room feels as they watch/hear it. Additionally, something like a weighted blanket might immediately calm one kid down and send the other one into a panic attack due to the claustrophobia it causes. (*Points to myself*)

Every Metro bus in New York City has a series of seats at the front that can be lifted up to accommodate people in wheelchairs but if I’m in one of those spots then someone with a cane/walker has to journey even further to sit down.

The flashing lights of a fire alarm are there to help deaf/hearing impaired but if they’re not properly timed, they can also cause a person to have a seizure.

The worst part about all of these is that there is rarely a concrete solution that makes everyone happy/safe. And I’m not here to offer any because I don’t know them. I’m just here to remind you all that as you’re taking your education/health classes, as you’re reading your textbooks, as you’re preparing to go be an advocate, just remember that there is rarely ever such a thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to advocacy and that something you do that can help one disabled person might actually hinder another.

Food for thought.

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I was honestly a little underwhelmed by the Fallout show all the way until episode 6, or especially episode 7. Like, episodes 1-5 are all a bit one-note. The wasteland is horrible and Lucy is naive and Maximum is naive in his own way and the Ghoul is jaded. And there's other interesting stuff mixed in there, for sure. And I enjoyed it while I watched (if I didn't, I'd have stopped). But as someone familiar with both this genre and with Fallout, specifically, it all felt a bit flat and predictable.

And then episode 6 it really starts to take off with more complications around the plot. And in episode 7, with the reveal around Vault 4, I was finally feeling like, 'okay this is really good.' Like, I wouldn't say I was surprised by the reveal...but the degree to which Vault 4 turned out to be, not just benign, but actually a bit of a force for good...well that was pleasantly unexpected.

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I could not not share this.

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Bad idea: Age gap discourse but in a fantasy land where there's multiple races who have vastly different lifespans and life styles.

Is it wrong for a 27 year old human to date a 140 year old stone elf, considering most stone elves don't get out of diapers till their 30s?

Is it wrong for a 80 year old dwarf to date a two year old fire wisp, when fire wisps only live up to 5 years (between the eruptions) and have memories of their past lives, so in a way they're "born" at age 400,000+? That octogenarian dwarf is way younger than the fire wisp that's only physically younger than some of the socks the dwarf has!

Is it wrong for a chronomancer who was never born to date, well, anyone? They are zero years old and infinity years old and negative one hundred and seventeen years old all at once. They look like an old human, sure, with the long white beard and the wrinkly skin, but as far as anyone can tell, they've always looked like that. We've seen the cave paintings.

Is it wrong for a 30 year old lizardman (that's old in lizardman years) to date a human who is 60 years old in biological years (because of aging spells), 26 years old in lived-experience years, but only 13 years old in calendar years? (ie, they were born 13 years ago, but spent some of that time in sideways timelines, so they've lived more years than have passed in their home timeline?)

Is it wrong for a 12,000 year old dragon date a pile of 400 kobolds when kobolds only live like 10 years on average, but reach full maturity in one year? And if you disagree, can you do anything about it? You do know what happened to the last policeman who tried to arrest a dragon, right? Their city is still smoldering, 50 years later.

Is it wrong for anyone to date the time worm? It's the same age, every year. So the age gap can only intensify. If you start dating the time worm when you're both the same age, when do you break it off because you've become too much older than them?

And most confusing of all... What about the fairies? They could be anything between a thousand and a day old, they would lie about their age either way, and they can look like whatever they want. There's fairies we know for a fact have been around since the founding of The City of Towers, who met the silent mother herself, and also look like they're at most ten years old. Is it wrong to date them, or just really uncomfortable for everyone who sees it? And on the other side there's fairies who are "born" (hatched? They come from plants, I'm not sure what the verb even would be. Seeded? Sprouted, maybe) this week who are already appearing like middle-aged men and dancing with widows in what looks like a scheme to run off with her fortune but they never take the money, because what would a fairy want with worthless metal discs? Maybe fairies have a hive mind or genetic memory or reincarnation with full memories, they'd never tell you or give you a straight (or consistent) answer anyway.

Stone golems are really the only inter-race dating situation anyone can agree on. They're unthinking & unmoving solid rock during the day, so those hours don't count. Thus their "real age" is a nice even half of their true age. So if you meet a stone golem who was dug out 30 years ago, watch out: that's a 15 year old, and if you're a 25 year human, that's too young for you, even though their dig-date is five years before your birth-date.

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genuinely one of the saddest parts of this new era of the internet is how hard it is to rick roll someone now. with people's attention spans shortening so much, they wouldn't even get through the first few bait seconds before clicking off the video. like i saw a comment that ended with "btw i made all of this up" and the replies kept treating it so seriously because none of them finished the entire 4 sentence comment. and We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I (do I) A full commitment's what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other guy I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down Never gonna run around and desert you Never gonna make you cry Never gonna say goodbye Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

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This NPR interview with with Angela Saini about how race science never really left the global scientific consciousness is super interesting! I’m gonna read her book!

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yknow i never noticed the sheer rareness of images having ids or alt text on this website until i started adding alt text to my art (and trying to remember to add it to any images i post in general, especially text screenshots) and that makes me kinda sad

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one of the most infuriating things about becoming an adult is when you realize that it actually is 10x easier to solve problems by making a phone call vs literally any other communication method

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So a random breath test would technically be a violation of the 4th amendment of the constitution. However, for a lot of white middle class folks in the US, random breath tests don't really pose a practical threat to our privacy and rights. It could pose an existential threat in that we've had a real accelerated erosion of civil rights in this country over the past few decades and random breath tests would add to it. But the actual act of a random breath test in itself isn't really a threat for most white middle class Americans. So most of those Facebook comments are probably a bit ridiculous.

THAT SAID, if the US had random breath tests....the result would be a whole bunch of people of color would be pulled over and "randomly" tested. And a significant number of cops would become suspicious that the person of color they are "randomly" testing is actually Dangerous(TM) for no reason...and then either harass, arrest or shoot that person.

And we know that's the case because anytime anywhere in the US implements anything approaching a random check (i.e. DUI checkpoints, NYC's 'stop and frisk,' the 100-mile border zone) it's always implemented in an extremely racist way. Always.

I had no idea there were so many Americans who are REALLY upset about Australian Random Breath Tests and something, something "freedom" until random Facebook suggestions.

There is just a video of a driver being pulled over for a breath test, having a quick interaction and then being on their way and holy fuck the comments were a clusterfuck. About it being invasive and etc blah blah.

I have never had to get out of my car to do a field sobriety test...putting my finger on my nose or counting or walking a line or anything. That personally seems more invasive to me and would likely result in my uncoordinated ass getting breath tested anyway.

I'm anxious enough counting into the machine thinking I might SECRETLY be drunk despite the fact I haven't personally had alcohol in years....the anxiety I would get if I had to do some kind of subjective test? No....no thanks. Just test my miasma and let me go.

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In my opinion as a teacher, it has long been past time to move on from the obsession with digital clocks...just like we had to move on past the obsession with cursive.

It is absolutely useful to still teach both how to read a digital clock and how to read/write cursive. They are skills that can come in handy if someone comes across these out in the world and they need to be able to figure out what they're seeing. Plus, it is neat to introduce options to kids that they might choose for the aesthetics.

But every classroom should have digital clocks alongside their analog clocks. Digital clocks have been popular for decades. We are at the point where damn near everyone has a digital clock in their pockets at all times. So there is no practical need for analog clocks to be given such priority in the classroom. The result is that a whole bunch of students end up feeling ashamed and end up being unable to access the time (without pulling out their phones, which we also tell students not to do).

So I have 2 digital clocks in my classroom (one at the front and one at the back) alongside an analog clock. The school day is locked into very fixed schedules and so kids should be able to keep track of time just like any adult.

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From Chen Chen's "Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency" (American Poets Continuum Series, 194)

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I seethe with rage every time I am forced to sit in a chair designed like this like who is this good for