valyrian-queen - Tumblr blog

[valyrian-queen]

[valyrian-queen]

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned.

[valyrian-queen]

the fact that i'm no longer the same age as the protagonists of novels and films i once connected to is so heartbreaking. there was a time when I looked forward to turning their age. i did. and i also outgrew them. i continue to age, but they don't; never will. the immortality of fiction is beautiful, but cruel.

[valyrian-queen]

i deserve a fit body that moves me.

i deserve a life of leisure, free to pursue new hobbies that make me a more cultured woman

i deserve to be sun-kissed, on boats and enjoying a coastal life

[valyrian-queen]

I love Tumblr and Pinterest and YouTube but you seriously need to get off your phone as much as possible if you want to make actual changes. Stop the doom scrolling. Turn off notifications. Turn on DND. Log off. Delete apps. Delete accounts altogether. Unsubscribe from texts and emails. Put time limits on the apps on your phone. Unless social media is making you money, limit it as much as possible. Overloading yourself with information is just another form of procrastination. At some point you actually have to take action. Less consumption, more creation.

[valyrian-queen]

it girl youtube channels 🎀

becca watson - productive vlogs, tips

daiz - productive vlogs

dear peachie - makeup, beauty

feminine renaissance - femininity, tips

free지아 - beauty, motivation, vlogs

giorgina juanita - hauls, beauty, vlogs

isabella grace - beauty, vlogs, routines

jasmine le - beauty, tips, vlogs

lavendaire - tips, journaling, meditations

leeor alexandra - manifesting, tips, spirituality

lisa alexandra - manifesting, tips

malama life - minimalism, slow living

mikayla mags - productivity, vlogs

mira daisy - manifesting, productivity, vlogs

muchelleb - productivity, mindset, habits

nimeshaa - manifesting, productivity, self care

oanh - productivity, vlogs, health/wellness

rebecca jay - productivity vlogs, health/wellness

rowena tsai - self care, mindset, habits

sabrina lilliane - cutesy hauls, fashion, vlogs

sami clarke - lifestyle, health, vlogs, workouts

sandy diana bang - mindset, productivity, vlogs

saranghoe - productivity vlogs

simonesimmo/simonesquared/simonesquared 2.0 - mindset, manifesting, tips

tam kaur - mindset, glow up, lifestyle, habits

thewizardliz - mindset, glow up, lifestyle

[valyrian-queen]

This High Schooler Invented Color-Changing Sutures to Detect Infection

By Theresa Machemer

Dasia Taylor has juiced about three dozen beets in the last 18 months. The root vegetables, she’s found, provide the perfect dye for her invention: suture thread that changes color, from bright red to dark purple, when a surgical wound becomes infected.

The 17-year-old student at Iowa City West High School in Iowa City, Iowa, began working on the project in October 2019, after her chemistry teacher shared information about state-wide science fairs with the class. As she developed her sutures, she nabbed awards at several regional science fairs, before advancing to the national stage. This January, Taylor was named one of 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the country’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.

….

“I’ve done a lot of racial equity work in my community, I’ve been a guest speaker at several conferences,” says Taylor. “So when I was presented with this opportunity to do research, I couldn’t help but go at it with an equity lens.”

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Taylor spent most of her time after school in the Black History Game Show, a club she’s been a member of since eighth grade, and attending weekly school board and district meetings to advocate for an anti-racist curriculum. For the four months leading up to her first regional science fair in February 2020, Taylor committed Friday afternoons to research under the guidance of her chemistry teacher, Carolyn Walling.

Healthy human skin is naturally acidic, with a pH around five. But when a wound becomes infected, its pH goes up to about nine. Changes in pH can be detected without electronics; many fruits and vegetables are natural indicators that change color at different pH levels.

“I found that beets changed color at the perfect pH point,” says Taylor. Bright red beet juice turns dark purple at a pH of nine. “That’s perfect for an infected wound. And so, I was like, ‘Oh, okay. So beets is where it’s at.’”

Next, Taylor had to find a suture thread that would hold onto the dye. She tested ten different materials, including standard suture thread, for how well they picked up and held the dye, whether the dye changed color when its pH changed, and how their thickness compared to standard suture thread. After her school transitioned to remote learning, she could spend four or five hours in the lab on an asynchronous lesson day, running experiments.

A cotton-polyester blend checked all the boxes. After five minutes under an infection-like pH, the cotton-polyester thread changes from bright red to dark purple. After three days, the purple fades to light gray.

Working with an eye on equity in global health, she hopes that the color-changing sutures will someday help patients detect surgical site infections as early as possible so that they can seek medical care when it has the most impact. Taylor plans to patent her invention. In the meantime, she’s waiting for her final college admissions results.

[valyrian-queen]

The Big Bang theory is one of the most stupidest thing I’ve ever heard

[valyrian-queen]

Grief

Is such an odd thing, not very sure how to express it. It’s like everyone’s watching you, expecting you to grieve the way they think it should be done. And you feel guilty for not conforming to their rules.

But there’s no set way to grieve, I realise that. You imagine it to be something but once you’re put in that scenario and it becomes a reality, it’s something else. It’s crying yourself to sleep some nights, but staring at the ceiling unmoved and confused most nights. It can be smiling with your friends and walking through the park, while you push the thoughts to the back of your mind. It can be watching a show and sleeping in, watching your life pile up in your room and you don’t move to touch it. Because your scared of change, you want to leave everything as it is, because you don’t have the energy to move, because you fear to much has already changed and you want to regain control… by laying still. Your scared just breathing the wrong way can initiate a snow ball effect and something else will go wrong.

The thing we grieve over comes to our mind through little triggers. Through the views we once saw, the parks we walked through, the thing we laughed over and the things we fought over. But the greatest trigger is the things we never did. Because you can never enjoy it, and we hurt ourselves imagining how they’d love it. Feeling guilt for doing it without them and knowing they never got to feel this new found beauty and wonder, feeling angry at the world for continuing to be so beautiful and bright… when the one person who had lit up yours is gone.

[valyrian-queen]

no YOU live in a society i live in this frame of pride and prejudice

[valyrian-queen]

Need to engrave this into my brain

“Never give up on something you really want. It may be difficult to wait, but it is worse to live with regret.”

— Unknown

[valyrian-queen]

— Matt Haig, How to Stop Time

[valyrian-queen]

Yeah I felt this one

— Kahlil Gibran

[valyrian-queen]

Hector > Achilles

[valyrian-queen]

Fun straight things to do (a list by TOTALLY HETEROSEXUAL BESTIES Achilleus and Patroclus)

run away together

be raised on a mountain by a centaur, just the two of you (#bestievibes)

hide from your sea goddess mother who doesn’t approve of your friendship

follow your l̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ bestie through half the world to find him

dress in drag so you don’t have to face your fate and go to war

go to war with your l̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ best bro

put on your best friend’s armour in order to protect him from his own fate, then die

go absolutely fucking insane over your bestie’s death and slaughter an entire army of trojans

fight a river god, fueled by rage for your lost bro

drag the lifeless body of your friend’s murderer around, tied after your chairot, for 3 days STRAIGHT (!not gay!)

be buried together #bestiesinlifeanddeath

[valyrian-queen]

Nothing is better than a silent library

A truly silent library

[valyrian-queen]

Aphrodite is the unrestrained. There is not a single god or mortal she has not shaken the will of. Even Athena, who bares her Aegis and lifts her spear to battle, crumbled in despair for her love for Pallas, the daughter of Triton. Even Artemis, who shunned the realm of men and civilization and walked hand in hand with the wilderness, was overcome by rage for the death of someone she loved, Hippolytus. Hestia too, who holds a dear love for humanity. It is foolish to think Aphrodite has not moved them, for all gods love, and all mortals love. We remove Aphrodite's supreme power and influence by assuming she only reigns over the love shared between lover and lover and not those of parent and child, sibling and sibling, friend and friend and god and devotee. For far too long has Aphrodite been reduced to Paris, boxes of chocolates, Valentine's Day, the colour pink and sex. She is far more than that. Much more than that.