all offense intended but some of yalls ideas for making a “better” star wars film are hot garbage

49-minute yoda fuck scene

you are the exception

Moral of the story:

Don’t fuck with the scientists and park rangers.

They largely consider themselves above politics.

The Republicans have awakened a sleeping giant.

The ‘information is free, distrust authority, truth and justice at any cost, respect my identity and right to communicate’ attitude generally attributed to millennials? Has always been a strong part of scientific culture. Scientists find the truth and argue about it for a living. Scientists share their practices and out-truth each other for a living. Scientists market that truth to other people for a living.

The open source movement was built and pioneered by scientists. The concept of the internet as a freely available and accessible worldwide tool was an extension of scientific culture. Before that, other media and communication efforts went through the same process. There are so many cool underground stories of small groups of scientists using their limited power and a bit of secrecy to create open source cultures and free information under the noses of political and business interests trying to restrict such things for personal gain. 

Scientists consider themselves above everything – politicians, business, the law if the law restricts truth, other scientists. A nervous grad student who thinks they’ve found a flaw in the work of a Nobel laureate would be *expected* to challenge that work publically; respect for seniority is for business decisions, not for ideas. Scientists never grew out of their rebellious teenage phase after discovering that the world was unfair. Scientists are punks who channelled their energy into learning as much about the laws of the universe as they can. Scientists are basically the punk community if it were interested in information rather than music, and they do not ever grow out of it, and they do not ever stop. We had staff at our university who were frequently driven to tears because they couldn’t find ways to convince the senior scientists to take their vacation days for over a decade and it was causing serious administrative problems. They had to bribe the scientists to work from home for a month and pretend to be on holiday, and then everyone pretended not to notice when the scientists showed up to work to advise us poor grad students in person anyway. Scientists do what they want, and the first thing they are taught is how to see bullshit – the second thing they are taught is that it’s their fundamental duty to call out bullshit in anyone they see using it, no matter how prestigious or powerful. They do not rest, they do not stop, they fear no death or ridicule or government sanction.

It is right to fear them.

e me a mail

make the attachment a pic of a snail

When you read a book, you’re pretty much staring at a block of paper and vividly hallucinating.

how to waste 8 hours of your life

step 1: have to do something

step 2: dont

step 3: feel guilty you havent done it

step 4: conclude you are not allowed to do anything until you do the thing

step 5: dont

congratulations, youve wasted 8 hours of you life doing absolutely nothing

Stop telling yourself that the grass is greener on the other side, because it’s not. It is greener where you water it. So take control of your life and start watering your own pastures and grow your own greener grasses.

Stop both envying your neighbor’s green grass AND watering your own. We’re in a fucking drought. You can’t sustain that shit. Think beyond the lawn that society told you to want. Put in some native plants that will thrive and bloom with very little water. They might be a little more spiny than what you first planned, but there is great beauty and variety in these hardy survivors. Your yard will be way more interesting and friendly to wildlife than that of the people who took the easy route and poured on water at the expense of other people and organisms. (This has been a California-themed post hijacking.)

No but like along with being literal good advice (GRASS AND LAWNS ARE A TERRIBLE IDEA WE SHOULD REVERSE THIS CULTURAL EXPECTATION NOW) this is also metaphorically good advice (as I’m sure you knew when you posted it).

There are sometimes things that you take for granted that you are just Expected To Want or Do or Be that you don’t actually have to. You’re so used to it you don’t even think about it, but the moment you do a less resource-heavy alternative appears. 

On an environmentally friendly level this is a terrible example, but a couple years ago I was talking with my therapist about problems I was having being a functioning human being, and I went on a rant about the dishes and how they stress me out and I feel like I never get them done and then I hate myself and after listening to this whole rant I expected my therapist to give me the normal pep talks about being kind to yourself and taking it on a little bit at a time but instead he just had the most exasperated look on his face and he said, 

“Buy some paper plates.”

He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world and I was completely speechlessly thunderstruck.

He said, “As an environmentalist, I am giving you permission for your own health to buy some paper plates. Problem solved.”

I don’t always use paper plates now. My mental health does allow me to keep up with the dishes better than I was (though these days my physical health has started interfering). But when I feel that slipping? I skip the cultural expectation that I should just be doing the dishes all the time. I conserve my (metaphorical, the opposite of literal in this case, sadly) water, and I buy some paper plates. 

There a thing that’s ruining your mental health? Your life? It feels like a simple thing that other people can just DO, but you can’t? Often there’s a simpler solution. If you are tired of taking care of your hair, cut it into a pixie cut to save yourself the hassle. Hell, shave it off. You don’t need hair! Google hangout is a great alternative to going out when you want to talk to a friend but aren’t sure you can get yourself out of your house. If food stresses you out, buy shit you can just grab and eat without even having to microwave (I fucking love cottage cheese and vegetables for this exact reason). 

You do not have to cook. You don’t have to date or get married. You don’t have to be monogamous if you do want to date or get married. You don’t have to be straight. You don’t have to be a boy or a girl. You don’t have to look a certain way or talk a certain way or eat certain things. You don’t have to go to college. You don’t have to be in that major. You don’t have to own a house. You don’t have to want or have kids. You don’t have to wait for the perfect partner to have kids if you do want them. 

It’s such a normal thing to have a lawn that many people don’t even consider the time, money, and water it would save to just get rid of it and replace it with an alternative that takes into account the native environment of where it’s growing. How much easier their life would be without maintaining something that just went there because it was expected with no regard for whether it naturally fit, and instead put in plants that serve the same function but actually thrive and take root with no real effort. 

Instead of fighting to maintain expectations, throw away your lawn and plant natively instead. Both literally and metaphorically.

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

writing adult emails is awful

its like

hi [name of person], 

this formatting is making me uncomfortable but I have to tell you something / ask you something that is vital to my career as a student. 

I re-read and edited that sentence for an hour, but you’ll probably just glance over it for half a second.

thanks! 

- [name]

k

-professor

I have a stock format and structure I use.

Dear Person I am Writing To:

This is an optional sentence introducing who I am and work for, included if the addressee has never corresponded with me before. The second optional sentence reminds the person where we met, if relevant. This sentence states the purpose of the email.

This optional paragraph describes in more detail what’s needed. This sentence discusses relevant information like how soon an answer is needed, what kind of an answer is needed, and any information that the other person might find useful. If there’s a lot of information, it’s a good idea to separate this paragraph into two or three paragraphs to avoid having a Wall of Text.

If a description paragraph was used, close with a restatement of the initial request, in case the addressee ignored the opening paragraph.

This sentence is just a platitude (usually thanking them for their time) because people think I’m standoffish, unreasonably demanding, or cold if it’s not included.

Closing salutation,

Signature.

People always ask me how I can fire off work emails so quickly. Nobody has figured out yet that it’s the same email with the details changed as needed.

reblog to save a life holy shit

adhd Moods

feel free to add ur own

grocery shopping when ok: I have a list of some items I need and a general idea of what nutrients and food-categories would be useful and I will compare prices and fill up a basket judiciously.

Grocery shopping when depressed: this tea looks nice…I think I need an onion? The general concept of orange juice. I have been here an hour. Everyone thinks I’m stealing. I don’t deserve this tea. The size of the Pacific garbage patch. *leaves store w 3 boxes of mac n cheese, an orange, and some eyeliner* where am I?

thank god for the mythbusters though because it used to be that whenever i knew i had insomnia i’d just kind of accept it and stay up doing whatever until my morning classes and spend the day feeling like shit

but then they did an episode where they established that even just fucking laying there for a half hour, not even sleeping just laying there and not even for an hour, makes a significant difference and you’ll feel way better

it has made a huge difference in my life to know that it’s okay if i can’t fall asleep, it takes a lot of the pressure off and ironically helps me fall asleep better

…i did not know this, thank you

If anyone wants to look it up, the episode was specifically the Deadliest Catch crossover ep, and the myth was that it’s better/safer when working a 30 hour shift to take a 20 minute nap every six hours rather than try to power through. They did an obstacle course test, one without naps and one with, and even though they couldn’t even sleep half the time the naps resulted in their scores doubling.

So actually I undersold it, even if it’s 7:40 and your alarm goes off at 8 just lie down and shut your eyes and it will still be better than nothing

bless you i wish i had known this in college, but oh well

THIS NEEDS TO BE REBLOGGED ALWAYS

i’m not familiar with the episode, but once I realized this in my personal life sleeping/resting became a lot easier. i always tell people that laying down and napping are so important

My doctor (paraphrased), when I expressed doubts about going back on an anti-depressant.  (via

webreakthenwebuild

(via squidilydink)

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.

(via ninjarobotclone)

Reblogging myself bc ^^that^^ was such a beautiful addition.  ~JJ

(via teachthemhowtothink)

Yes. This.

(via livhathaway)

I love this so much. 

(via broken-from-memories)

Glasses are such a great example because even when you only need them part time no one questions if you really need them if you don’t always use them. 

Like if you wear a brace sometimes but not always then people get suspicious, if you use a wheelchair for long distances or for sitting for extended periods of time but can get up and grab something or walk around a little, people question whether you really need the wheelchair at all. But if you just use glasses for reading and then take them off later, or just for driving, or just at school/work if you need to see distances, no one questions whether you really need glasses since you don’t always seem to need glasses. 

(via chronicillnessproblems)

And I don’t recall anyone telling me to soldier through reading without my glasses because it would make me a stronger person and I wouldn’t want to give up and become dependent on needing something to help me see, either.  Somehow, wearing glasses is normal and a perfectly fine aid, but taking medication or using a mobility aid means you’ve given up.  It boils down to which aids make able-bodied people uncomfortable and which ones they see as minor and acceptable.

(via hobbitballerina)