yet another way usamerican-centred social media has Harmed Me is that it had me absolutely terrified when i got a customer service job. i'd been reading posts upon posts about how customers were swearing and yelling and ripping cashiers' faces off at the drop of a hat and then i worked as a cashier for like six months and everyone was fine. i had like two people be rude to me and one was because he drove a white ford transit so i didn't expect much anyway and the other was because it was below zero outside and the water froze. which despite his frothing rage was so conceptually funny i couldn't really take it to heart.

oh wait there was one more incident. a man and a woman came in and they were so short and bitchy and i was still on edge re: the us fearmongering so i was like should i be a Bad Bitch like on all those legendary r/talesfromretail comeback stories that totally happened and then i was like no. i'm gonna stay in my lane. so anyway i did and they came up to pay for their snacks and after the transaction was complete the man said 'i am so sorry, we must appear so rude' and i said oh you know i've had worse haha (ford transit man) and he said 'i still want to apologise. it's just our father died and we're on our way to his funeral.' ok number one thank GOD i didn't try to be a Bad Bitch and number two they then showed me pictures of their dad on their phones and told some stories about him and it turned into a lovely interaction and i still think of them and their dad. so.

ok wait one more story. there was another man who came in and he didn't say a word to me. just came in, pointed at the petrol pump he wanted to pay for, put some stuff on the counter, and waited for me to ring him up. i asked him the usual questions and he'd just nod or shake his head. i was like ok... but this was after the funeral siblings so i was happy to be in my lane. no Bad Bitch urges this time. i ring him up and he pays and everything, then puts his stuff in his pockets. as soon as he has a hand free he reaches up and pulls down his collar to press his finger over a tracheostomy stoma and say thank you. my man literally cannot talk with his hands full and he made the specific effort to make sure he could thank me.

The internet is a weird place because I just stumbled across one of my own posts on Facebook, and a few people underneath were talking about how they follow me and love my “content” because I don’t let my multiple disabilities stop me, and I’d just like to say becauseI can’t say it on Facebook without giving away my govt name: what a crock of shit.

I post constantly about how my multiple disabilities hinder me and have actively prevented me from working consistently.

My disabilities prevent me from doing things constantly, because they are disabling. That’s the reality of being disabled.

I don’t do things to overcome my disabilities; I achieve things alongside my disabilities at a pace that does not harm me mentally or physically because I am done with pushing limits. I tried. It almost killed me. I will not do it again, so that temporarily abled people will think better of me for keeping pace with them, or can feel inspired, or whatever the fuck.

And maybe you didn't mean it to come across like that, but please don’t erase what I accomplish alongside my disabilities, not in spite them. And especially please, if you’re also disabled, chronically ill, or just plain old struggling because the world is a dumpsterfire, don’t use me to guilt yourself into doing more.

I would never tell you to push through pain or fatigue for the sake of wildly unsustainable productivity because that shit’ll kill you.

If you do not rest, your body will make you rest. Trust me. I get to live in the ruins of what's left of mine.

One more yamato before I go back to marvel yaoi lmao

I'm being completely serious when I say Granny Weatherwax's "What about the fire?" speech from Lords and Ladies has done more to help me recontextualize and manage my anxiety than like 5 years of therapy did

Pottery troubles

Ah, the feeling you get when you watch a blooper reel, and find yourself thinking "yeah, I could show this to someone who lived five thousand years ago, and they'd laugh, too".

Oh noooooooo

Yeah at least half of those could be solved with decent safety practices.

When operating a pottery wheel, or in fact anything that spins:

1. If you have long hair get it well out of the way. Bun, hat, scarf, shave it, I don't care, but get it the hell out of the way you are Working the Clay not flirting with it.

2. Wear clothes that you don't mind getting dirty and then make sure they are tight to your body. Tie a knot in the back of your shirt or use a hairtie for a shirt bun if that's what it takes. Don't have sleeves. Sleeves are for people not getting clay up to their elbows.

3. If you wear any manner of long necklaces or jewellery while you're working clay no you don't.

4. If the wheel is on your eyes are on the wheel. Would you look away from the road if you were driving? Don't answer that just know that if you look away that's when accidents happen.

Chai tea bag + lil but of brown sugar + apple cider packet + 16 oz. mug of hot but not quite boiling water

it will not Fix You but like. maybe. maybe.

tags by @eridan-ampora

Update: this is the best post I've ever made because everyone is sharing their Warm Beverage recipes in the notes. Go check the notes for more Warm Beverages That Will Fix You.

MS4 law vs. law student sabo who’s drowning themself in the university fountain first

today I am making my great-grandmother’s oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. they’re my favorite cookies in the world, and as a kid they lead to me being immeasurably disappointed by every other oatmeal raisin cookie I ever had when I discovered that they weren’t the same. I was given this by my mom, who was given this by her mom, who was given this by her mom; the recipe calls for margarine, which means the current version passed down on recipe cards probably can’t go more than another generation back just because margarine changed recipes due to WWII rationing here—but it might.

I have another cookie recipe from my grandparents on my other side; my grammy’s “chewy ooie gooey” chocolate chip cookies. I don’t try to make these at home as often; they aren’t the same if they aren’t in the kitchen she always made them with us in, and she’s sold that house now. maybe I’ll try again sometime.

I wonder how far that recipe goes back; I wonder if it matters.

the other day I read about bread. there’s evidence that humans were making leavened bread, baking, long before we invented agriculture, or writing, or “society” as humanity understands it now. I wonder if their grandmothers and mothers and great-grandmothers taught them how to do that, too, generations on generations. I wonder if baking is one of the most fundamental ways humans express love we have, built into us the same way as all the others.

I wonder how many other families have cookie recipes that lead to the kids getting immeasurably disappointed when they realize it’s not quite the same when you get it anywhere else, and use margarine and a lot of brown sugar and the collective wisdom of at least three generations. and I wonder how many feel lost when a house is sold.

anyway I love baking,

you know what, just for you: the cookie recipe in question:

great gigi's oatmeal raisin cookies - makes around 5 dozen cookies

1 cup margarine (make sure it’s margarine, so 80% fat, and not butter or vegetable oil spread with a lower fat content!)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda (possibly more? they keep on turning out flat for me and this may be the culprit.)

3 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup crushed pecans

steps:

1. preheat the oven to 350.

2. mix margarine, sugars, egg, and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth.

3. add flour, salt, baking soda, oatmeal and pecans, mix.

4. stir in the raisins (you don't use the mixer for this, though you can)

5. drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets (a little smaller than a ping-pong ball)

6. bake for 9-10 minutes. do not cook until brown - the middle will look raw and that's correct. instead, cook until the edges are just barely pale tan. if you cook until the edges are brown you've overcooked them. this is the hard part of the recipe for people so i've bolded it.

7. cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, then, once they've firmed up a bit more, transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. they will finish cooking like this.

8. eat some cookies, then store the rest in ziplock bags and freeze them. these cookies are delicious frozen and last a good long while in the freezer so don't be afraid to freeze a lot of them!

above is a picture of what the finished cookies look like! they’re very delicious, and much more moist than a lot of oatmeal cookies.

you are a hero and these looks awesome. dreams restored.

Sandra Bullock on the Muppet Show

maomao is my favorite "not like other girls" style protagonist bc for one shes a girls girl through and through. to the bone. and two she's just a weird little freak. absolute lunatic. they have the whole "omg she's actually beautiful and everyone falls for her when she's all made up" trope but the punchline is that she does not fucking want to look like that. she actively puts dirt on her face every day bc she does not want to be perceived as attractive (mostly out of fear of being used for sex work though at the same time she has the utmost respect for women who do sex work like she grew up in a brothel those are her sisters). she's Sherlock level smart and solves every mystery so fast but goes "well thats none of my business. anyway back to testing poisons on myself" she has the 2nd most powerful guy in the nation head over heels in love with her and is like "man this guy is weird around me what's his deal. I guess he's fine though because he gives me rare medicines and has no dick" fucking ICON i love her. also she once slapped someone so hard they fell on the floor. 10/10

just overheard a mum in the museum ask her seven-year-old child ‘shall we say bye-bye to the skull?’

A few months ago I had to bring this beauty home from London:

This is Junie, a gilded horse skull on a 2m tall frame, with a rotting bridle and discordant rumbler bells plaited into her mane. When she moves, she makes a horrendous jangling and chattering noise, and when she's still the smell of decaying leather and river mud radiates off her.

I was sweaty, pissed off, I had been mudlarking so I stank as well, and I was generally not presenting a very warm or welcoming figure as we sat in the first-class lounge and I was acutely aware that the giant horse puppet wasn't the most sociable thing either. And then, a mother and daughter came in - The mother looked exhausted, but the daughter, maybe ten at the oldest, was properly on the verge of a meltdown... Until she saw Junie.

Immediately, she was calm. She came over, very quietly, and asked "Can I look after your horse?" - I looked at her Mam, and the Mam shrugged and nodded. I handed Junie's reins to the girl. What followed was about an hour of the girl in deep conversation with Junie, as if she was a real horse, bringing her cups of water, stroking her nose, checking that her bridle wasn't too tight, walking her around the lounge, and whispering in her empty ossicles. By time I went for my train, she was eating biscuits and happily waved Junie off with a "BYE HORSIE! GET HOME SAFELY!"

Kids LOVE skulls.

They do!

Hobbies others have that I never dreamed of that I want: horse skull travel companion.

Man's waistcoat and woman's dress from ca 1830-35, both made from the same fabric which is thought to be embroidered Chinese silk satin imported to Europe, embroidered with white flowers and multi coloured butterflies.

i’ve seen a lot of really messed up images in my time on the internet, weird fetish shit, even a few IRL gore images but nothing. NOTHING evokes such a deep seated, gut wrenching fear in me like this image of the fucking water slide from Action Park with the loop in it

hey what the fuck

Action Park baby.

It had teeth

It had teeth

9 Gs?? In a water slide????

Yikes this reminds me of the death zip line.

Heck if I can find the screen caps but does anyone else remember that one? Pretty sure it was on reddit and basically some guy was trying to crowdsource solutions to fix his zipline that was too fast. He had built the starting tower too tall.

The engineers were all screaming in the comments basically: your only option is to destroy the too tall tower and start again. Otherwise and I cannot state this any more clearly kids are gonna die at your scout camp.

This guy, engaging in sunk cost fallacy: but what if I-

The engineers: DO NOT.

I FOUND THE TUMBLR POST

new story concept: comedy about two werewolf packs, one which operates like in edgy “dominant alpha male kidnaps you into the mafia (and he’s a werewolf?!)” POV tiktoks, and one where the “alphas” are just the parents like with real wolves so they’re “what if the brady bunch was also the addams family”

their names are like. The Bloodhallow Pack and the Garcia-Smiths.

the bloodhallow sons keep trying to pick fights over “territory” but the garcia-smith boys keep bringing their oldest sister when they go on adventures and it’s really demoralizing to repeatedly lose fights to a 19 year old girl rubbing your nose in hot sauce without even shifting :/

pepper spray is illegal in their state but watered down tabasco sauce in a spray bottle teaches you not to bully her brothers just the same

In the bloodhallow mansion, someone has attempted to kill their father to take over the pack. In the Garcia-Smith house, someone accidentally put mom’s 25 year old tamagotchi in the wash so they’re hunting all over eBay for a replacement. these are treated as equally severe.

it’s werewolf specific eBay with like seven different “baying at the moon” puns in the layout.

Please feel free to play with me in this space, I welcome all goofy plot and character ideas lmao

Both families get invited to the Winter Occasion Lunar Fete alongside a bunch of other werewolf families and the Garcia-Smiths are Super hyped about their handicrafts stall that they've all been working on for months, while the Bloodhallows are gearing up for the Cage Matches.

There is stall drama because the Garcia-Smith's stall did not get their usual prime spot, it was taken by their long time rivals the Crispins.

(There are rumors that Mr Smith was once aggressively courted by the then Crispin heiress before Ms Garcia swept him off his feet, but the argument is ostensibly about whose secret recipe for jam is better. The latter argument is implied to be the source of a generational feud.)

The Crispins say that they'll give up their spot but only if the Garcia-Smiths put an entrant in the cage matches and beat their entrant.

Eldest Sister Garcia-Smith is Ready to Rumble.

The Bloodhallows spot her in the line up and promptly go place/change their bets with their bookie. She's still wearing a frilly apron and gingham but she's got her Down to Fight braids in and they might be the only ones to have a clue about how this is about to go.

The Bloodhallows do pretty alright for themselves in their brackets, and Eldest Sister Garcia-Smith chats to them on the bench. "Why are you even here?" Eldest Brother Bloodhallow asks.

"For honour and vengeance," Eldest Sister Garcia-Smith says, cracking her knuckles, "those Crispins don't know who they're messing with."

"Crispins? Why would oooooh shit okay cool cool cool good luck wipe the floor with him."

"Thanks, will do. Make sure you drop by our stall later," and she steps up for her bout.

"What was that all about?" Recently kidnapped/forcibly adopted half-feral former street kid New Baby Sister Bloodhallow wants to know.

"Jam wars. Never, ever fuck with the Jam wars, it's basically a blood feud only with more public humiliation than blood."

"But these are the cage matches?"

"Don't let the frills fool you kiddo, we win our friendlies 50/50 and that's when she's not resorting to dirty tricks like Tabasco. And the jam wars?" Eldest Brother Bloodhallow shudders. "The jam wars are Not friendly."

Eldest Sister Garcia-Smith ends up taking the title for her division, the Bloodhallows help the Garcia-Smiths move their stall back to their prime position and are paid in jam, baked goods and crocheted beanies.

The Crispins are flummoxed, embarrassed, and the Crispin defeated by Eldest-Sister Garcia-Smith has a concussion.

Alpha Bloodhallow thinks this is the funniest shit she's seen in ages, and made a massive profit gambling.

POV you made a popular post about insects

@core-vortex

This isn't true and is one of the misconceptions this post is about. Please think, for five entire seconds, about how absolutely batshit insane the claim "3,500 species of fly and 850 species of arachnid have no impact on the food web whatsoever" is. Nature doesn't evolve life for shits and giggles. Mosquitos are vital pollinators. Ticks, like many parasites, balance resources throughout the ecosystem.

Spreading this kind of misinformation uncritically is how you end up with corporations spraying pesticides like its going out of style and causing mass biodiversity death.

Basically every time humans have decided to play god, it leads to a bunch of academic papers in the next decade title "Why Did Anyone Think Playing God Was A Good Idea: The Horrific Impacts"

Is a healthy ecosystem one that is rich in parasites?

From prey to pollinator: Unmasking the diverse ecological roles of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae)

Parasites boosts biodiversity and changes animal community structure by trait-mediated indirect effects

Parasites, disease and the structure of ecological communities

When parasites become prey: ecological and epidemiological significance of eating parasites

A world without mosquitoes? It's not as great an idea as it may seem

What Purpose do Mosquitoes Serve?

What Purpose Do Ticks Serve in the Ecosystem?

From bug to drug—tick saliva could be key to treating heart disease

The ecological significance of manipulative parasites.

Mosquitoes are pollinators!?!! I didn’t know that- it’s good to know tho, thanks for informing me! (I was previously under the impression that they only spread diseases) mosquitoes and there impact on humanity is pretty interest tho, I read a book about it, so I’m gonna add to this post with it

If you wanna learn more interview things about the mosquito, please read this!! It’s super fascinating!

The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator by Timothy C. Winegard

I maintain - given how many diseases we have the ability to cure, mitigate, or prevent - that blaming blood drinking animals for the outcome of those deaths is at least in some significant capacity a means by which corporations are able to deflect the horrific consequences of their greed, and that the reclamation of the resources those corporations withhold into programs for health and wellness would render the disease vector element of mosquito-hate largely immaterial.

closest thing to a lawlu you'll ever get from me

i've been on tumblr a loooong time but i didn't ever have a fandom phase so idk what half of u are talking about sometimes

(squinting at DNI) i don't... i don't think i'm a proshipper... how do u tell?

wait you've been pointing guns at each other for ten years over which dolls you're allowed to make kiss?

there's a certain degree of discourse emerging in the notes here so i want to make it absolutely explicitly clear that i'm in my 30s and i don't care