I Love Them So Much I Think My Heart Is Gonna 💣

just want to take a moment to thank content creators for getting us through another extremely difficult year. during a time of so much uncertainty, anxiety, fatigue, and burnout in the world, content creators still dedicated much of their precious time and energy to making gifs/edits, writing amazing fic, and sharing their incredible art for the rest of us to enjoy. thank you for making us smile, for lifting our spirits, and for keeping the love/excitement alive for all the things we find enjoyable. this hellsite (affectionate) is nothing without you ❤️

Thanks peeps

Since joining Tumblr, I’ve met a lot of young queer people. Look, I’m a bisexual man in a gay relationship, and I’m approaching 30. I was still a kid when Matthew Shepard’s story was being covered on the news. I remember thinking, “I better keep my mouth shut about these feelings I’m having.”

And then I met Dominic when I was 12, and people could see how in love we were. And we got the shit beat out of us. The year I met him, some kids in the grade above me held me down against the bleachers in our gym and stomped on my hand until my fingers broke. Instead of sending me to the nurse, the teacher sent me to the assistant principal to explain the situation. She asked why the kids had beat me up. I said, “They were calling me gay.”

Her response was, “Well, are you?”

My, “I don’t know,” earned a call to my parents, and I was outed. Efforts were made to keep me from seeing Dom. Throughout high school, Dom’s stepmother intensified these efforts. He slept in the basement of the house. Although he was an incredibly talented student, he was prohibited from participating in any extracurriculars. He suffered a lot of physical abuse during those years.

The day he turned 18, he packed up everything he had and walked to my house, and we’ve lived together ever since. Things are better, but they’re not perfect. I’ve had trucks pull up next to me at stoplights and, seeing the pride sticker on my car, through old drinks and garbage into my window. I no longer speak to my dad’s side of the family. I haven’t been to see them for Christmas or Thanksgiving in years. One of my uncles had cornered me at Thanksgiving when I was 17 and said, “I’m not going to judge you, but I’d be happy to break your neck so God can do the judging a little sooner.”

I joined a support group for trans and intersex people. When I joined, 40 people attended regularly. Within the year, the group was half the size it had been. Some couldn’t make it anymore, because they were staying at the shelter, where their stay hinged on them agreeing to instead to attend homophobic sermons. Some were put in correctional therapy. Five of them died. Three of those, I didn’t know, but I knew Alex, the 19 year old who was fag-dragged in Kentucky and died a day later in the hospital, and I knew Stephanie, who went home to Alabama to care for her mom in hospice and was beaten to death with a baseball bat by her mom’s boyfriend.

Tumblr is not reality. The dynamic here does not reflect the dynamic out there. Here’s the part where I finally make a point, and it might be extremely unpopular - but guys, value your allies. Value each other. We are met with enough hate in our daily lives to enter an online safe-space and meet more hate from our own, over petty things. Don’t go after one another over every little thing you find problematic.

Learn to see nuance. Maybe the word “queer” bothers you, and you see a gay man using it as an umbrella term. Maybe someone called a trans man a trans woman because they’re confused about terminology, but the post where they did it was voicing support for the trans community. Maybe someone is just asking a question, wanting to learn more. Stop. Attacking. These. People.

Allies are being driven away. Members of our own community are being ostracized. Others are feeling nervous and estranged, and it’s largely because of places like Tumblr, where the social justice movement is quickly becoming violent and radical. I am begging you, stop nitpicking “problematic” things and start directing your efforts to create real change. When it comes to comes to your allies, forget the “social justice warrior” mentality and put down your torch. Educate calmly. Be respectful. Be understanding. Be forgiving. And I’m certainly not saying that your anger doesn’t have a good place - when you are met with bigots on the street, congress members who want to pass hateful laws, violent protesters, abusive parents, prejudiced teachers, that is when you need to be a warrior. That’s when it counts. In the real world. When you have the opportunity to protect people from real harm. Attacking your would-be allies via anonymous asks is just going to lose us ground in the long run. And we don’t have time for that, not when trans women of color are being murdered every day, not when states are still fighting against marriage equality, not when there are politicians in office who believe that trans people are possessed by demons, not when we’ve just lost 50 brothers and sisters to one gunman, not when the media won’t even admit that the attack was homophobic.

Please step back. Look at the big picture. Look at where we are, globally. Don’t just log on to your safe space and attack your allies over small missteps. That’s like washing the dishes in a house that’s on fire, kids. Let’s fight on the battlefield, and when we come home to each other, let’s just focus on bandaging up our wounds so we can go out and win the war.

Signal boost to this unbelievably important message.

I’d reblog this a thousand times if I could.

Stop attacking allies. Educate. Not hate. 

This is incredibly important. Please read!

Educate calmly. Be respectful. Be understanding. Be forgiving.

Gonna Reblog this every time

This is like one of the most important posts on this fucking website

it’s MY emotional support show and I get to choose the parts that are canon

Your honor I love them.

SINGING. TOGETHER. AND SHE'S WEARING BLUE. AND HE'S GONNA SEE HER. AND HER HAIR IS JUST LIKE ON THAT FIRST THANKSGIVING. AND I AM GOING TO FUCKING DIE.

They can't show us Mon from the wedding bc we'll fucking lose it. But I guess there's more to the funeral than the simple montage I expected. Hmmm...

There clearly isn't a seat for Mon on Kelly's side of the aisle, which it must be since James is there, so he's obviously on the Danvers side with Kara and Eliza.

Also... Lena and James? Hmm?

I'm not holding my breath but if this is their last meaningful conversation and it's about how Kara deserves to go somewhere she can be truly happy with the man she clearly loves then WE WILL ALL LOSE OUR SHIT.

Also these three are just the cutest.

Guess the Daxamite's bartending skills were required...😁

I'M NOT FUCKING CRYING YOU ARE

And I guess we get a goodbye to the loft...

This is EVERYTHING 😍

Mon-El Appreciation Week Day 4: Favorite Trait

To quote Kara …. YOU ARE OPENING THE FLOODGATES, MY FRIEND!!!

I love the way he adapts to his circumstances, and never gives up, and works through whatever grief or angst he might be feeling.

When he first lands on Earth, having woken up from stasis to discover that literally his entire world was gone, he would have had every right to just curl up in the fetal position and try to process that for the entirety of the season.

But he doesn’t. He gets up off the mat and throws himself into learning about this new world he’s now in, and finding work that suits him, and eventually, even trying to better himself - asking these big questions about, why was he spared, and what is his purpose.

And I don’t think that he doesn’t mourn for Daxam - we see him having those moments of realization and struggle, even if he immediately shoves it down under humor as a defense mechanism. But I do think that he feels, and relishes, a lot of freedom in the situation, of being able, for the first time, to make his own choices that aren’t dictated by his birthright. For being such a ruthless pragmatist at times, he’s sure got the ability to be glass-half-full on occasion.

And likewise, when he lands in the 31st century, I think he would have had every right to just - completely lose it. And we know he mourns. But he chooses to soldier on to chase after this higher purpose, to honor the ideals of those he loved, to better the world he finds himself in. And he eventually finds a way to build a home there, and make a team there, and even open himself up to love again.

I think it’s brave and it’s beautiful and it’s inspiring.

I love the way he doesn’t act like anyone is beneath him.

This is someone who was raised as literal royalty, with a great deal of privilege. But he doesn’t sneer at the idea of going into a bar and getting his hands dirty and interacting with the regular, working-class customers, and even serving the people he’s trying to get on the level with.

He doesn’t sneer at the idea of interacting with assistants or interns at CatCo or taking an entry-level position there (he didn’t fit into that role, at all, and created many disasters, but it wasn’t because he thought it was beneath him). He knows various “underlings” at the DEO, who we basically know as part of the scenery, by name.

And look at the various alien races he interacts with at the bar, or at the DEO, and he treats them all the same. Like sure, he has a knee-jerk reaction with Kara (he fell asleep to his planet being bombarded by debris from Krypton, stole a Kryptonian ship, and then woke up to a stranger wearing a Kryptonian coat of arms leaning over him, the freak-out was kind of understandable). But Kara has the same reaction - and frankly, I’d argue that he puts aside his prejudice faster than she does. His attitude toward all these different races is really refreshing, considering the hella amount of xenophobia that flies around on this show and in various comics canons.

If things had gone differently and he’d needed to step up and be a leader of his people and set a better example for them, I think he would have been excellent.

The fact that in the 31st century he’s assembled this team of all these various alien races who work for a common purpose is proof of that.

A Daxamite, a Saturnian, and a Coluan walk into a bar …

I love that he values happiness in other people.

He’s always trying to make people laugh, or to lighten the situation, or to support them - even if his joke is poorly-timed or his advice falls flat or this is not the right time to offer Winn a drink. I think maybe a lot of this comes from his culture, because Daxam values pleasure/happiness. There’s a tendency to interpret his culture as hedonistic and selfish, but I think sometimes, it’s a real strength - like when he just rolls with it when Alex introduces Maggie as her girlfriend, and acts like it’s silly that anyone would make an issue of it.

And, I love that he’s a bookworm.

I find it ridiculously attractive when someone is well-read. And I think it goes back to this thing where he throws himself into the culture and tries to absorb all this information. I love that we know he reads everything from Harry Potter to Aristotle to Shakespeare.

I get that the obvious thing you’re supposed to look at in this scene is his note about Kara in the margins, but look at his other notes on the opposite page and how he clearly didn’t know what something meant in the text, went and looked it up elsewhere, and then was hardcore pondering some of these big philosophical questions in the text.

Also, there’s a book on his side of the bed here. I’m dead. 

@monelnetwork

I’m still holding my breath on the Karamel of it all shut up, HIMYM gave me trust issues but regardless of ships, I am just so excited to see this guy back.

Scene from a fic I'll never write about a future Karamel wedding:

"Um...excuse me...sorry to bother you..." Kelly says as she approaches the woman in blue with a slightly sheepish look on her face. "You're, uh... you're one of the Legends, right?"

"Mmmpf!" Nora Darkh-Palmer turns around, slightly startled, trying to quickly swallow the chocolate fountain-dipped marshmallow she'd just shoved into her mouth a moment ago.

Seeing her mild distress, her husband intervenes. "Uh...former Legend, actually. We both retired when we got married. I'm Ray, Ray Palmer. Uh....the Atom. You're Kelly, right? The sister in law?" He extends his hand to shake hers, then casts his eyes down to the smaller person hiding behind her legs. "And who's this?"

Kelly smiles broadly, then sighs. "This is my daughter, Esme. Um, she just wanted to meet you, Nora, she saw your blue dress and she's insisting that you're, uh..."

"...She's my fairy godmother!" Esme blurts, then goes back to covering the bottom half of her face with the hem of her mother's bridesmaid ensemble.

Kelly lets out a slightly awkward laugh. "I'm sorry...I just thought maybe if she met you, she'd understand that fairy godmothers are just from stories."

Nora, having finally gotten her dessert down, clears her throat and looks at Ray, who joins her in a knowing chuckle. "It's okay, I get this a lot."

"You do?" Kelly wonders, quirking her head to one side.

"Mm-hmm." She nods and leans over to speak in gentle tones to the wide-eyed youngster. "Uh, Esme, you're right. I actually....am a fairy godmother."

Kelly looks at her, incredulous. "Wait....you are? Seriously?" She stares at Ray, who nods his acknowledgement.

"Yes, BUT..." she raises a finger, a sweet smile adorning her face. "I'm not everyone's fairy godmother. See, I have to be...sort of called to my charges. To kids who really, really need me. And I can already tell, Esme, that you have two moms that would do just about anything for you, to make all your wishes and dreams come true. So you don't really..."

"...PLEEEEEEEEEASE?!" the girl practically squeaks.

Suddenly, Nora's tasteful, light blue cocktail dress explodes in a cloud of sparkles, replaced by a poofy-skirted, sequined monstrosity topped off by a gaudy tiara.

"Oh my God!" Kelly exclaims, picking Esme up protectively. "Wow, you...you really weren't kidding, huh?"

"Nope!" Nora says with a beleaguered sigh. "Damn, really thought I was off-duty today." She rises to her feet, takes a deep breath, fluffs her many layers of crinoline and pulls her magic wand from her pocket. "Okay, Esme, congratulations. I'm officially your fairy godmother."

"REALLY?!" the girl cries, bouncing with glee in Kelly's arms.

"Yes, really. So, my dear....what is it you wish...?"

"...I want a cousin!" the child interrupts, with a cascade of giggles.

Nora freezes, eyes wide, and then looks at Kelly, who's equally floored by the declaration.

Kelly "Oh...honey, um... isn't there anything else you want? I mean...we can't really control whether and when your Aunt Kara and Uncle Mon have children...if they even do, I mean..."

"But it's my dream! I really really wish for a baby cousin!"

"Oh, boy..." Nora exhales. "See, sweetie...that's not the kind of thing I normally...uh...whoa..." she gazes down at her dress, which has magically morphed back into her former getup, tiara and wand whooshing away.

"Oh my God..." Kelly starts. "Did you....did you just grant her wish?"

"No!" Nora defends. "I didn't...but I'm not her fairy godmother any more, which means..."

"What?" Ray wonders.

"...It means...the wish has already been granted."

"Wait..." Kelly raises an eyebrow. "But that would mean..." she looks across the room at Kara, who's about to take a sip of what might be champagne from the alien bar...

"KARA!" she yells, unceremoniously passing Esme off to Ray. "Wait! Don't drink that! Spit it out!"

Ray blinks, then turns to his new, tiny acquaintance. "Well...double congratulations to the bride and groom, I guess. Hey, kiddo, what do you say I embiggen your dollhouse over there into...."

"Ray!" Nora chastises. "It's a wedding!"

"Right, right, sorry...scratch that. Uh...what are your feelings on gigantified ice sculptures?"

His wife's protests go unheeded as he walks away, drowned out by the continued sound of giggling.

This just made me so happy. Thank you for writing and sharing <3

THIS!

Sometimes it's hard to see past the feeling guilty.. but Kelly is sooooo right (of course) - Guilt is not an active emotion. Let this be your reminder to keep digging. Keep finding new ways to be an ally.

My new tin foil theory: maybe the "she'd be with me in my dreams" line will play out as dreamer somehow using her power (and the necklace?) to help them connect and see each other in the dream realm, just like Kara used to see her mom and him, but real.

I would also like to throw my 2 cents in here if that’s okay.

Recently we saw Alex and Kelly killing it at game night which has previously has been a Danvers sisters place to “dominate”.

We often see them talk about how much Kara relies on Alex (“it’s my job to protect you” etc.) when we know Alex needs Kara almost more. So I think that might be a little nod that Alex doesn’t need Kara as much as she used to. (Also how great were Dansen in that scene)

I really hope we get a conversation like that between Alex and Kara and not just in the LAST episode but I might be getting my hopes up there a bit.

I agree though, it would be really nice for them to still use dream energy to connect.

I’M SORRY I’M JUST SWEATING FROM MY EYES

So I’ve been having a really crap, really hard week… I needed this. And yeah - We are doing awesome. 💙

I needed this reminder this morning.

Thanks @chriswoodnetwork ❤️💙

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

This heatwave is starting to get terrifying:

Tagging: @politicsofcanada​

For all Americans keeping track 50c is around 123f i think. It’s what the summer temps in Arizona and New Mexico are like usually.

And for anyone who would like to say “lol that’s just summer here, nbd,” these are places where homes and most businesses do not generally have air conditioning. It doesn’t get hot enough during the summer to have a/c. Care homes might not have a/c in individual rooms. People are going to die from this. Forests are going to burn because of this.

Texan here.

Put foil on your windows and block with heavy blankets or curtains to keep sunlight out, that’s where the majority of your cool air leaves.

If you can’t get a hold of fans buy ice packs and stuff the freezer with em, you can place wrap them in towels and place them on pulse points on your body to keep you cool and avoid heat stroke.

If you do have a fan place a bowl of ice behind it to spread that cold air around the room

Wear your lightest clothing both in fabric and color WEAR LONG SLEEVES IN A LOOSE LIGHTWEIGHT FABRIC IT TRAPS SWEAT AND IT KEEPS YOU COOL, heat is attracted to dark colors.

Drink water no matter how thirsty you are, mix in gatorade to keep electrolytes up. Try to avoid ice cold though because it causes your body to heat up even more.

I hope this helps any of my Canadian followers. Some of us Texans still suffer so help these tips we use down here help ya’ll up there.

So it IS true that “this is just summer” where I am, but that means I know survival things you don’t and y’all were very kind to Texans during the polar vortex so from an Arizonan to all my overheating Canadians:

1) strip down to nothing. Pick out a light shirt and pants. (I like pajama pants for this.) Put them on. NO UNDERWEAR, it’ll make the next step suck. Now go get in a cool shower. Yes, with your clothes on. You can sit on a towel when you get out if you have cloth furniture. If you have long hair, use this opportunity to braid and bun it. It’ll stay wet longer, and keep you cooler.

2) stay indoors as much as possible.

3) If you have box fans, put a tub of ice water behind each one and aim it toward the ceiling on a 45-degree angle. Cool air sinks, so this will help circulation in your space and keep it cooler.

4) try to sleep during the day, if you can—body temperature automatically lowers during sleep. Dampen your top sheet and sleep under only that, in the nude if your living situation allows.

5) NO SODA. NO COFFEE. NO TEA. If you must drink these things, keep it to a minimum. In extremely hot weather, they can dehydrate you (especially soda).

6) find a friend or family member you can check in with at least once a day. Extreme heat can make you sluggish and disoriented even if you’re not in danger of overheating. Having someone to touch base with can help keep you engaged.

7) plan cold meals and do any necessary cooking at night. If you can stay awake this long, 2-3am will be the coolest part of the night and the most ideal for cooking. You’ll want lots of things like sandwiches, cut fruit, meat and veg that you like when they’re cold. Cooking during the day will heat up the house and you won’t want what you’ve made because it’s warm.

8) in the same vein, plan on 5-6 small meals rather than three moderate-to-large ones. You’ll find that you’re not actually all that hungry, and it’ll be easier to have a sandwich now and another in two hours than to eat a soup and sandwich and fruit right now. If you have an eating disorder and eating this way concerns you for your recovery, find a buddy to check in with, and remember: THIS IS HEALING. This is allowing your body to digest small amounts at a time so it’s not overwhelmed by unusual heat. You are eating the same amount overall, just in smaller bits.

9) buckle your seatbelts when you get out of the car, and if you have to park outside, leave your windows open by a couple of centimeters. This will prevent heat buildup (the hottest I’ve ever registered the inside of my car was 142 degrees—about 61C). If you have access to a piece of cardboard, put it inside your windshield to block out the sun. It really does help.

Stay safe, friends. Take care.

Agreed. Sending compassion and empathy from an Australian whose great grandmother died of heat stroke at home in the bush because she didn’t have access to air con so we take it pretty seriously.

TIPS

- On top of cold shower/ sit damp - if you can sit or lay down on some tiles/wooden floors rather than furniture that stays cool longer. STAY LOW. HEAT RISES.

- if you can have a fan on too -while you’re damp- bonus cooling

- don’t move more than is absolutely necessary that includes fanning yourself with your hand/magazine. I know they do it in movies but it doesn’t do anything but exhaust you.

IMPORTANT ADVICE FROM AN AUSSIE

Also know that the landscape around you will be really dry so beware of spot fires, clean leaf debris out of your gutters and water down your houses - bushfires/forrest fires are legit and make it hard to breathe. - if that happens put a cold cloth over your nose and mouth like a face mask.

Also people will tell you to put water out for wildlife. If you see a struggling animal don’t pour water into their little mouths, put it in a bowl because their systems aren’t set up to drink from running water that and they’ll end up with pneumonia. Lots of kind people tried to help koalas and kangaroos over black summer 2019-2020 but ended up causing other health complications.

Good luck North America.

We’re with you. 🇨🇦🇦🇺

I saw something that was like “we put our lives on pause, but getting vaccinated can help us be able to hit play again” and it just bothered me because I’m not just starting again where I left off. I graduated from college in spring of 2020. I’m never going back to living there and regularly seeing my college friends. I’m never getting my graduation ceremony. I’m not getting my last months of college back. They’re gone!

So anyway this post is dedicated to anybody who went through any transitional period during the pandemic. Whether you graduated, lost somebody, moved, or anything else where you will never truly be able to get the last months/year of [whatever] back. It’s so easy to feel like you should be over it by now and just be grateful whenever you can eat in a restaurant and go into stores again but you lost more than that.

I’m just tired of seeing so many things about “going back to normal” when a lot of us don’t have the same “normal” to go back to.

This wasn’t supposed to make me cry but it did. ..

Thanks for choosing me to be your mom.

WANDAVISION (2021)

I just thought this set of tweets was really important.

first screentest / final table read

AND I'M A MESS AGAIN

So when I was watching it (the first time) I knew that 136 was important but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. I just figured it out and it broke me. I’m a teary, blubbering mess.

I’ve got a lot going on at the moment. I have to say good bye to the Simmons to my Daisy in less than a week so this all hits that bit harder. I am so happy with this one hundredth and thirty sixth ending. It’s perfect.

Thank you to Agents of Shield. Who’s like us.

- Damn few. 🍋