the funniest and best thing i’ve learned while doing research for this shakespeare project is that in the late 19th century, there was this group called the american acclimatization society and their thing was bringing european plants and animals to the u.s. so one member was this guy named eugene schieffelin and he was like obsessed with shakespeare, so he went, “hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we tracked down EVERY SPECIES OF BIRD SHAKESPEARE EVER MENTIONED and brought them ALL to America” so he rounded up like a hundred European starlings and released them in central park, and now there are upwards of 200 million starlings in North America and they cause around $1 billion worth of damage to crops every year, all because shakespeare mentioned them exactly ONCE in Henry IV part 1
And then like twenty years later, because New Yorkers apparently HADN’T LEARNED ANYTHING FROM THIS MISTAKE…
Some people decided that Stanley Park in Vancouver just wasn’t a fun enough park without some cool squirrel like those grey squirrels hanging around in Central Park, and SHIPPED US A BUNCH OF SQUIRRELS AS A PRESENT.
Which the people of Vancouver responded with ‘wow, great idea, thanks!’ and then released the squirrels.
The Eastern Grey Squirrel is now one of the most pervasive invasive species in BC, and has totally decimated the population of native red squirrels, both by out-competing them for food resources and EATING THEIR BABIES.
I wear glasses. Can I manage without glasses? Well, yes, probably. I could squint a lot, constantly move up close to anything I want to see, take the bus or a taxi if I want to go anywhere. I could just accept that I’ll never be able to see eagles flying in the sky or whales jumping out of the ocean.
But why? Why try so hard to manage life when I could just put on a pair of glasses? No one would ever suggest a near-sighted person should just work harder. No one would say ‘Maybe that’s just your normal’ to someone that needs glasses. They would say ‘Let’s go to the eye doctor and get you a prescription so you’re able to see again.’
You shouldn’t have to try so hard.
”—
My doctor (paraphrased), when I expressed doubts about going back on an anti-depressant. (via
This is such a good analogy because nobody thinks about it like this. If you wear glasses, you literally need constant use of a medical aid to experience the world like most people do. If it were anything besides glasses, that would be considered a disability. But needing glasses is an extremely common, visible, and accepted form of disability to the point that we don’t even consider it one, we just accept that some people need glasses and that’s perfectly normal and there’s nothing wrong with needing to rely on them.
That is how all disabilities and illnesses should be seen, and how we should look at treatment for them. You have a problem, and you need help dealing with it, and there’s nothing wrong with either of those things. That’s perfectly normal and that’s okay.
if you give me a task with no deadline i will literally never do it but if you give me a deadline i will get it done exactly 1 hour before the deadline even if the deadline is in six years
Bernie Sanders is not out of the race. GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!
Just because the media only covers Hillary doesn’t not mean that Bernie is out.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT GIVE UP ON HIM.
He’s not pulling out of the race or giving up, so WE CANNOT GIVE UP ON HIM!!!
Actually, Bernie has more delegates and superdelegates (800) right now than Trump does (621). Cruz currently has 396, and the media still considers HIM to be a contender in HIS race.
Bernie is doing better than Obama was at this point in the race in 2008 :) Don’t let the corporate media make you give up! VOTE!
Does anyone else remember the time that Bryke was mad at the Avatar toyline? Because the company just kept demanding more and more ludicrous ideas for action figures? (But still refused to make female action figures.)
And one day, the company asked them to make a battle outfit for Aang.
And Bryke was just like, “…The airbenders were pacifists?”
And the toy company was like, “Just give us something!”
So Bryke literally told everyone in the studio to come up with all of these ridiculous ideas and they actually combined them all together and made this:
Needless to say the toy wasn’t passed.
I think about this a lot.
this is just the classiest and most hilarious “FUCK YOU” ever
the tidal wave of hate for halsey was one of the weirdest things i’ve ever witnessed on this site. during the time in between room 93′s release and badlands’s hype, she was admittedly less popular, but people were psyched. here was a black, bisexual, bipolar young girl who was incredibly open about her identity, who was advocating for herself and finding moderate success, and it was really cool to see.
and then people started disliking her really loudly and vehemently, and it became the Fun Cool Popular thing to do. it was so strange. when she released the wlw version of the “ghost” video there were SO many people accusing her of seeking attention, pandering for views, “acting” gay, etc. there’s been an incredible amount of racism. there have been an incredible amount of people Calling Her Out for writing about her experiences of not being neurotypical. it’s so fucking frustrating to watch and frankly she deserves better.
like, this happened less than a week ago: she admitted that she’d attempted suicide after her bipolar diagnosis, and 90% of the responses on twitter were “good,” “who stopped her,” etc. i’m so angry that this girl is only 21 and she’s being put through so much shit.
i find the idea of platonic soul mates so fucking amazing, like imagine finding someone who you feel complete with but you don’t have to worry about losing them to messy romance because they’ll be your best friend forever instead
Since I know there’s probably a fair amount of you out there who haven’t seen the first three Mad Max movies, I’m here to tell you a li’l secret about them:
All the people complaining about how Max “isn’t the main character” in Fury Road are big ol’ Fake Fanboys cause Max’s primary character trait in literally every movie is “I hate this, why is it happening, please leave me alone to brood in the desert in peace”.
He’s much more the central focus of the plot in the first movie but in Road Warrior and Thunder Dome he basically just gets kidnapped or beat up by wankers in weird bondage outfits and spends the rest of the movie trying to leave as soon as possible while other people are like “please solve our absurd post-apocalyptic problems”. There is not one single point where Max actively seeks out being a hero until it is forced upon him. He ACTIVELY TELLS PEOPLE WHO ASK HIM FOR HELP to take a hike.
Mad Max himself would like nothing better than to never, ever, ever be the main character.
He would also like for people to stop stealing his fucking car.
Nobody wants to escape his own movies more than Max Rockatansky.
He understands better than his own fanboys that his life sucks and you don’t want to be like him, to be Max is humiliating and painful. Every time he gets dragged into a conflict, he ends up worse than he started. Max seems to realize no good can come of this, and is weirdly genre-savvy because he’s always trying to make a getaway at the first signs of encroaching Plot. I find this darkly comical and endearing – at no point does he snap off witty quips and save the day and get the girl. Ever. He’s perpetually a weird desert loser with terrible luck. It’s great.
What makes Max a badass is the ability to survive to the end of any movie he’s unfortunate enough to find himself in.
We still 28 states and territories to get through! And we have hardly covered the western states (only Nevada, which Hillary won by a hair) and the north, which tend to be more liberal!
Here’s the schedule for Democratic primaries and caucuses!
Saturday, March 26 Alaska (caucus)-20 delegates Hawaii (caucus)-34 delegates Washington (primary)-118 delegates
Tuesday, April 5 Wisconsin (primary)-96 delegates
Saturday, April 9 Wyoming (caucus)-18 delegates
Tuesday, April 19 New York (primary)-291 delegates
Tuesday, April 26 Connecticut (primary)-70 delegates Maryland (primary)-118 delegates Pennsylvania (primary)-210 delegates Rhode Island (primary)-33 delegates
Tuesday, May 3 Indiana (primary)-92 delegates
Saturday, May 7th Guam (primary)-12 delegates
Tuesday, May 10 West Virginia (primary)-34 delegates
Tuesday, May 17 Kentucky (caucus)-63 delegates Oregon (primary)-73 delegates
Saturday, June 4 Virgin Islands (caucus)-12 delegates
Sunday, June 5 Puerto Rico (caucus)-64 delegates
Tuesday, June 7 California (primary)-546 delegates Montana (primary)-27 delegates New Jersey (primary)-127 delegates New Mexico (primary)-47 delegates North Dakota (caucus)-23 delegates South Dakota (primary)-25 delegates District of Columbia-46 delegates
Casual reminder: Bernie has lost 16 states to Clinton. Obama lost 21 to Clinton including Florida and Ohio. Bernie is also projected to do pretty well in the next two primaries. Please keep the faith and please keep voting! We failed him today big time, but he still has a chance. Please get out there and vote, because if we give up on him now we will really be failing him. Be loud, be proud, and speak up!
WE CAN’T LOSE BERNIE PLEASE FOR ALL WE KNOW THIS IS HIS LAST CHANCE TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT AND HILLARY CLINTON IS NOTHING COMPARED TO HIM AND GOD BE FUCKING DAMNED IF I EVER VOTE FOR DRUMPF OR ANYONE ELSE
Just one second, buddy. *buries face in pillow and screams* SOMEONE DID THE THING NO ONE DOES THE THING. *emerges from pillow, straightens clothes* I’m good, I’m fine, let’s do this.
LES MIS (actually I have next to nothing on my Tumblr for this musical and I should have things because I have approximately all of the feelings)
lowkey otp I think Joly, Bousset, and Musichetta are pretty. Fucking. Cute. Okay? Okay. Also I kinda like Jean Valjean/Javert but…like…I have some concerns about those two. Valjean/Fantine is kinda cute, too.
highkey notp Okay, it’s not that I don’t love Marius in all his uselessness, but Eponine/Marius is a NO because my poor angry vicious street girl Deserves Better Than This Oblivious Fuck. (Also because I think he’s good for/with Cosette, but look, Eponine is my favorite hardcore-as-fuck character and I feel like she just…wanted so much for Marius to be the love of her life that she forgot to wonder if she actually wanted Marius and if she had considered that I think she would have come to a ‘no,’ yes? Also because she deserves someone whose response to their girlfriend going out to kick ass is “HEART EYES MOTHERFUCKER” and not slamming their head into a tree for two hours.)
[softly] don’t notp I just…any configuration of Combeferre/Enjolras or Courfeyrac/Enjolras or…ai, I think I found Combeferre/Grantaire once and I was just like. Listen honey. Look at your life. Also: do not ship Gavroche with people, he is a child, seek Jesus.
highkey otp but i’m scared of saying it because it’s not a very popular choice I am THE MOST boring. I mean…like…I found Valjean/Fantine that one time like I said and that has the potential to be super cute but I don’t know if it’s strictly speaking ‘unpopular,’ yanno? Otherwise I got nothing.
highkey otp and anyone on my tumblr knows it Okay, see previous re: not putting a lot of Les Mis on Ye Olde Blogge, but…ENJOLRAS/GRANTAIRE. THE IDEALIST REVOLUTIONARY GOD AND HIS CYNICAL DRUNKEN WORSHIPER. THAT’S MY DUMPSTER OF CHOICE AND I SHALL NOT BE MOVED. I just…let me put it this way, my roommate inflicted this movie on me and less than fifteen minutes after it was done I turned to her and went “Do you want to feel feelings?” She said no, obviously, and I ignored her, obviously, and I went “King and Lionheart, for Enjolras and Grantaire.” And there…there was some keening. And some violence. I am just a complete sucker for the ‘I would rather die at your side than live in a world without you’ dynamic, a COMPLETE sucker, like if you quiz me on ships, I will have a lot of those ships.
MCU (Marvel is never the bonus round, Marvel is the assumed-to-exist round)
lowkey otp Started out not a huge fan of Steve/Bucky, and I’ve kind of reconsidered, have now gotten to the point of ‘I’ll take literally any configuration of these two fucks.’ Darcy Lewis/Literally Almost Anyone, but especially Natasha Romanoff (it is my JAM and it is so RARE and it is FRUSTRATING). AND ALL OF THE CANON SHIPS. Like, okay, Tony/Pepper? CUTE. AS. SHIT. SIGN ME THE FUCK UP. Jane/Thor? LOOK AT THOSE FUCKING HEART-EYES. SHE’S SO TINY AND CUTE AND HE’S SO BIG AND ENRAPTURED. Sam Wilson/A Large Whiskey, because God know’s he’s earned it. Peggy/Steve (do not touch me I am not okay I will never be okay again) and also Peggy/Being Better Than Everyone. Matt Murdock/Making Better Choices (way to get a less flimsy suit, babe, proud of you). And (this isn’t a canon ship but it SHOULD BE) Bucky/Warm Blankets/Affection From Friends. I really want them to do Wanda/Vision. Bruce/Betty Ross (I would fight you for Betty Ross’ dignity and honor, but she would probably just hand me her lab coat and do it herself while I swooned, okay). OH BUT LEST I FORGET. I DO NOT SHIP ALL THE CANON SHIPS. WHICH LEADS US TO…
highkey notp BRUCE. AND. NATASHA. And like the thing is I can’t even sit here and be like “Oh, well, I ship this other thing and I just can’t give it up” because, while I DO ship another thing (Clintasha), I’ve been a-okay with ships being broken up from time to time. No no, all my problems are about execution and inherent issues with characters and the sudden disappearance of Betty Ross. I have a fucking THESIS, okay, and like ten single-spaced pages of it are “So you want to sell a relationship between a man who doesn’t trust professional liars and a woman who is a professional liar and furthermore who demonstrably struggled with the fact that she was actively afraid of the Hulk, and you’re not going to offer us ANY backstory, you’re just going to fucking drop this in our lap and expect us to take it and run with it.” Another, like, five pages are “HOW YOU DONE FUCKED UP WITH NATASHA CONSIDERING HERSELF A MONSTER” and there’s like THIRTY FIVE pages about “WHY is this ham-fisted relationship necessary for women to ‘connect with the movie’, and why did you have to structure it as Natasha existing solely to soothe all of Bruce’s issues and then there’s that scene at the end where she’s pining and that’s not at all consistent with her personality.” And there’s about ten more pages about how I feel like Bruce has had a disservice done to him (given that most of this is about how I feel like Nat had a disservice done to her) and an entire chapter titled “Why Did You Feel The Farm Thing Was Necessary If Clint Was Not Involved.” And the whole thing is titled “WHERE THE FUCK WAS BETTY ROSS” because if you’re so determined to put Bruce in a romantic relationship why not add another BAMF scientist to your crew. And honestly I’m not interested in getting anon hate for this, so if you ship it, hey, live your life, and please feel free to depart quietly, I’m not going to stop you or call you names, but I’d damn well appreciate the same courtesy.
[softly] don’t notp Steve/Tony…I just can’t. Like. Live your lives guys. I’m not gonna stop you. But I just can’t. Also Tony/Bruce. Same thing. Also Loki/Tony or Loki/Natasha (noooooooope). Wanda/Pietro. Peggy Carter/Jack Thompson.
highkey otp but i’m scared of saying it because it’s not a very popular choice Is it redundant at this point to say Bruce/Betty? But in addition to that, I quite like Bruce/Darcy. Pepper/Tony seems weirdly unpopular for being so adorable. I mean…I’m pretty open about my ships.
highkey otp and anyone on my tumblr knows it Clint and Natasha. Because their backstory is so interesting and they’re so in sync and they’re so desperate to save each other at the cost of all else. I tend to think that when she’s talking to Loki and he says “Your world hangs in the balance and you bargain for one man” there’s a part of her that’s like “…yeah, you’re damn right I do, what do I need to do to get him back” and she only backs down when she knows that Clint is coming to HER and she can get him back by force. Honestly fuck ‘enemies to lovers,’ give me ‘I literally almost killed you once to I’d literally burn the world to the ground for you.’ I also really like the dynamic of “Person A can play 12 different instruments, got into Harvard, and is organized, and Person B once ate 15 cold hot pockets at once, trips over the laces of their shoes, and claims they can fight 2000 bees” and I hardcore feel that for Clint/Nat. I have a gifset to that exact effect on the blog somewhere.
Consider this: Gwendoline Christie playing the romantic lead in a Jane Austen adaptation, or indeed any period piece. Nothing else changes. Nobody draws attention to the fact she’s a woman. It’s just two solid hours of Gwendoline Christie on a horse and wearing a suit and sweeping maidens off their feet
Back during a time when my mental illness was at its worst, I was extremely emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive to my now husband, then boyfriend. Behaviors I would exhibit (and am not proud of):
Slapping him
Name calling
Throwing furniture
Guilt tripping him
Shaming him
Becoming extremely possessive over him, checking his messages, emails, and becoming irrationally upset when he would communicate with any female
Become extremely resentful when he would spend more time with his family than me
Text or call him at inappropriate times and would become suspicious angry when he wouldn’t respond ASAP
Blame him for all of my shortcomings (if he wasn’t so _____, I wouldn’t behave this way!)
That’s just a SHORT list of the things I put him through, not even taking into consideration the eating disorder part of my mental health.
And to make it perfectly clear, there was nothing my husband ever did to warrant or justify any of my behavior. That man has never hit me, yelled at me, manipulated me, shamed me, called me names, become jealous, kept me from spending time with other people, etc. He’s treated me like a queen for the last 11 years, and it wasn’t until I did some deep recovery work that I realized 100% of my behaviors had all to do with me and nothing to do with him. I’m surprised he stuck with me, and although I am eternally grateful that he did, it took a long time for me to not only make amends to him, but to change my behaviors in order to finally come to a place of sanity within my relationship.
Here’s the thing:
Even though a large part of my behavior had to do with mental illness, my husband deserved 0% of it. Regardless if you are sick or not, your behaviors affect other people. If your illness “makes” you abusive, you are still abusive. If my husband decided to press charges for me slapping him in the face, telling authorities, “BUT I HAVE A MENTAL ILLNESS!” would not absolve me of the fact that I physically assaulted another human being.
People are hurt all the time due to the shitty things people do because of their illnesses, and they can’t just tell themselves, “Well, they are sick, so I have to deal with it.” or “I can’t let it affect me because I have to understand they are sick.” Like, no. People do not have to do that. They are not obligated to support and/or stay with you if they cannot deal or cope with how you act within your illness.
People are not obligated to be punching bags just because you are sick, especially if you do nothing to change or manage your behaviors.
I don’t think people realize how much strength it takes to pull your own self out of an anxiety attack or a panic attack. So if you’ve done that today or any day, I’m proud of you.
Fun fact: According to Greek legend there was a famous prostitute who managed to avoid a death sentence by showing the judges her boobs and arguing that it would be a crime against the Gods to destroy something so beautiful.
Before you ask, yes there are paintings of this. And yes, they’re amazing.
No, but this is one of my absolute favorite bits of history!
The courtesan named was named Phryne and she was indeed a renowned beauty, and was indeed was put on trial for a capital crime. And yes, the sum of her defense consisted of her stripping in court (helped by her lover/defendant) and asking the jury (all males) if they were prepared to destroy this.
But this is actually a very interesting case of Values Dissonance - the capital crime she was accused of was blasphemy. In Ancient Greek society, exceptional beauty was a sign of favor from the gods, and they took the idea that beauty indicated goodness with great seriousness. They even called their nobles Kaloi k'Agathoi, “the Beautiful and the Good.”
So by showing off her great physical beauty, Phryne was being very clever indeed, her argument essentially being “How could I possibly commit blasphemy if the gods have given me this body?“
