Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

reblog if you hate nazis and don’t think they should speak on college campuses

You have your right to disagree, but you can not take away someone’s 1st Amendment, if you don’t like that move to a country that censors speech.

Genocidal hate speech is not covered by your first amendment, learn some law you fucking idiot

Also the first amendment does not guarantee that a private organization will give you a platform to speak. All it says is that the government will let you speak--private people and groups don't have to listen, and they certainly don't have to give you a microphone or an audience or a speaking fee.

The House is voting on replacing Obamacare TOMORROW and they may have the votes.

Call your congressman to vote no, especially if they’re uncommitted Republicans!

This is IMPORTANT.

I know we’re all sick of this shit by now, and lord help us it has only been 100 some odd days… but if you live in the US, you need to call your representatives.

They are calling domestic violence, depression, acne, sexual assault, pregnancy, among other things PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS which can cause you the denial of healthcare options.

This is absolutely absurd.

I know I’m not normally political on here, but they are voting tomorrow and I didn’t hear anything about this until an hour ago. And if I hadn’t heard, maybe others haven’t heard.

The Republican whip just said they have just enough votes to pass. 3 or 4 votes can literally be the difference between life or death for thousands of people.

THIS IS TODAY!

If you live in an area with a Republican rep, take a few minutes and CALL – 5Calls has a handy script you can use (and will identify your rep for you by zip code, too.)

If you don’t think your rep will listen on moral grounds, try a financial angle – the new AHCA has not been evaluated by the CBO yet and we have no idea how much it would cost.

The first AHCA stalled because it wasn’t conservative enough, so the Tea Party caucus spiked it. The new one is even worse, so it gets the far right on board… but it may lose moderate votes off the other side. But only if  enough people flood them with protest.

Even if your rep is already voting against, signal boost for others who might be able to use some leverage here.

We have won victories like this so far this year. This is something we can do. But only if we CALL!

resistbot took SEVEN tries to get my fax through to my rep, so obviously we are typing up ALL the lines

good job, people, keep it up <3

Resistbot is great for people who aren’t good with phones!  It works through facebook messenger and faxes your message to your reps (I’m told faxes are pretty close to phone calls in terms of how much attention they get).  My anxiety makes phone calls really hard, so this is a much more likely-to-actually-happen way for me to get involved!

also that whole tale of aragorn and arwen thing where he saw her in the woods at twenty and fell instantly in love and it’s very beren and luthien? lies.

aragorn decided he was going to marry arwen when he was like, six.

and everyone thought it was just the cutest thing, baby estel with his little crush on the great immortal evenstar, and everyone would tease him about it relentlessly and he would get so mad, and pout, because how dare they doubt his word.

(arwen spent a lot of time biting back smiles and nodding very seriously when aragorn brings this up with her. no, estel, I do not know why they are laughing perhaps they have remembered a particularly funny joke.)

and then aragorn grows into this gangly teen and oh my god can you imagine being a pimply greasy teenager around fucking elves it’s a wonder he has any self-image left. His voice breaks every other word and the laundresses are beginning to wonder if something is wrong with the sheets because estel keeps washing them himself and aragorn wants to die, god, arwen is never going to marry him if he stays all elbows and skinny knees and he can’t even look her in the eye anymore without blushing, eye contact is probably something to look for in a husband–

(arwen, who never had to go through puberty because elves don’t do anything so undignified, tries to comfort him by saying she likes his blemishes. aragorn gives her a look of such utter, miserable despair that she starts laughing.)

(this is a mistake. he spends the next three weeks nursing his wounded ego and refusing to see her.)

estel is twenty when he asks for her hand. he is lean, slender and fair as a new tree, and so arwen does not feel guilt in kissing his cheek and gently refusing. he is still green, he will weather greater storms than this–and he takes it as he should, clasping her hand and swearing to ever be her loyal friend.

they write to each other–when she is in lorien, when he wanders with the rangers of the north, fights alongside gondor, travels to distant lands. it is an inconstant tie–he is rarely afforded time enough to put pen to paper; she is reserved so as not to encourage what may not be. (she signs her letters always, your friend. She likes him too well to be cruel in this.)

the years pass. his weariness and strife creeps onto the page, and she sends him tokens to fend off the darkness–leaves from lothlorien, the ribbon from her hair, snippets of poems. it is not enough it is never enough I am sorry, she writes.

his reply is gentle: you are enough. do not stop writing.

(she carries that letter tucked inside her sleeve for a long while, like a talisman–though against what evil, she does not know.)

she is in the house of her grandmother when a familiar voice calls out to her: my lady luthien!

this is when arwen looks up, sees aragorn–broad of chest and rugged, still wearing his battered mail, with one hand balanced lazily on the pommel of his sword. All the trees of caras galadhon are gold but he is shadow and silver, kingliness resting lightly on his shoulders–

and arwen thinks, oh fuck

How can something be this intensely perfect!!!

@poplitealqueen

@donnadellaforesta plz confirm?

Canonically, no, this isn’t possible. This is in one of the appendices in Return of the King (specifically, appendix A part v).  It’s pretty explicit on what the timeline is.  Aragorn grows up in Rivendell from age 2 on.  When he’s 20, he runs into Arwen in the woods and says, “...I marvel at Elrond and your brothers; for though I have dwelt in this house from childhood, I have heard no word of you.  How comes it that we have never met before? Surely your father has not kept you locked in his hoard?”  (Yes, this is a literal “where have you been all my life” line.  Aragorn is no more suave than your average 20 year old man, guys.)   So, it’s clear that they’d never met before that moment.  Personally I think this is for the best.  Aragorn was raised basically as a foster member of Elrond’s family; Elrond is his father figure, he rides out with Elrond’s sons as part of their group, etc.  If he’d also grown up with Elrond’s daughter functionally as his sister, this whole romance would take a rather different light.

Anyways, from there, the appendix explicitly states that they don’t meet for another 29 years.  I think they probably don’t communicate in that time.  Even if Arwen wanted to write to a man she’d only met once, Aragorn was constantly traveling and often under disguise or an assumed identity during those years.  I’d be shocked if he managed to exchange letters with his mom, much less an elven princess.

There are true parts of this, though.  The “oh fuck” moment, though--that’s real.  Aragorn shows up in Lothlorien when he’s 49, dressed up in elven finery, all grown up and kingly and wise.  Arwen happens to also be there, and “as he came walking towards her under the trees of Caras Galadhon laden with flowers of gold, her choice was made and her doom appointed.”  That’s it, one look and she’s ready to give up immortal life with her beloved family for him.  “Oh, fuck” indeed!

And this particular version, while somewhat AU, is super adorable and to be appreciated regardless of the deviations from canon.  :) 

shoutout to those random peacocks you find in places that are probably unsuitable for a peacock to inhabit in the first place

what the fuck kinds of lives are you guys leading. i’ve never seen a peacock in my life. where are u guys finding them.

Random neighborhoods in Florida

a gas station in morocco

middle of a busy road in england

middle of the woods in a rural town in Mississippi 

Irish farms??

Roof of a house in a tiny English village

Screaming their heads off in abandoned fuel stations in the back-blocks of the Rangitikei

with a group of pheasants in the woods in maryland

Strutting outside the window of an elementary school library in Texas.

Walking down the street of a California suburb on a hot summer afternoon like he owns the place

At a golf club in Long Island

At a strawberry festival in SoCal

Outside a café in Ayia Napa

Walking thru my neighborhood in nebraska

watching over fish near a pond in switzerland

Roaming free in the New Orleans zoo. Not part of an exhibit or anything. Just strutting around being peacocks.

Roaming around the side of the road in the rural part of indio

Side of a quiet road on the Central Coast, NSW, Australia

Chasing random cabbies on the road in Singapore

Chilling by a pond in Pennsylvania

Chilling by your hot tub in Northern Illinois

Displaying for my car as I learn to drive on the dirt roads in pennsylvania.

Bossing around the goats in a petting zoo in Victoria, B.C., Canada.

Random castles in Austria.

Flirting inappropriately with a chicken on the Isle of Wight

Freaking out suburban soccer moms in Oklahoma for over a month, also they appeared to be gay.

A backroad in rural Stewartstown, PA.

Wandering a corn field in Wisconsin

So we all know and agree that breaking up with someone is hard.

We all know and agree that doing so via text is pretty much the worst way to do so and is considered A Dick Move.

But what if that’s the only avenue they’ve left you because they’ve fucked ghosted for a month, only dropping in to give you a single wall of text about how life is just so hard and stressful and he doesnt have time to text you but once every couple of weeks…

…but he got time to take his primary girl out to dinner and to family stuff?

It’s usually a dick move because people use it to avoid having to deal with the consequences of hurting the person they’re breaking up with, not because texting is inherently an unacceptable form of communication.  When you're considering it because you don’t want to see them cry, that’s not kind.  When you’re considering it because you don’t have another way to contact them, that’s entirely reasonable (and kind of on them if they don’t like it).

I also think there's a misconception that subbing requires handing over 100% of yourself into someone else's hands. It can be done that way, but it absolutely doesn't have to be! Especially in a more casual play scenario, it's totally normal to not want to hand over every vulnerability. That's part of what limits are for. Most people involved in this stuff are decent at recognizing their hard limits--things they never want to do or that might be seriously dangerous for them, no matter what, no matter who they're with. But soft limits are important too. It's absolutely normal to have things you might theoretically want to try with the right person but aren't interested in doing here and now. "No, not tonight" is just as legitimate an answer as "No, never", and anyone worth playing with will respect it just as thoroughly.

orders of impeachment are the only valentine I want tbh

This was definitely my experience, discovering an interest in BDSM earlier than more general sexual desire.  (Though, I’m still more interested in BDSM-y things than sex, so, like, potentially not a ‘normal’ experience?)

I’m going to bet that in any given place, there is probably more of a community than you would think.  How organized, open to new people, and easy-to-find they might be varies widely, but we exist almost everywhere. Maybe instead of looking for meetups, kink parties, munches, etc., you could try looking for kinky individuals who happen to live in your area?  Introduce yourself and see if they have any advice on the local community to share.  Maybe they’ll have a bunch of stuff that either you weren’t aware of, or isn’t posted online for people to find.  Or maybe they’ll tell you, “There’s no really organized community but a handful of us get together to go over to ____ for their stuff once in a while, want to come next time?”  Or maybe there truly is nothing local but they know about events in the nearest city that you could look into.  It’s worth a shot anyways.

u can’t stop me

@donnadellaforesta @jacesmindsculpture

Is it bad that I don't know which one you're accusing me of being XD

And with the sweet comes the sour

My coworker is talking about leaving the company

Which… since there’s only two people working in my office… leaves me totally alone again.

Which means… back to the twelve and fourteen hour days.

…excuse me I kinda want to go die now.

Is she definitely leaving (like, ‘gave notice already’ type definitely)?  If not, there’s a reasonable chance she’s just complaining and won’t do anything about it anytime soon.  People talk like that all the time; don’t stress over it until she actually takes action. 

If she has: First talk with your boss and ask what his plan is for covering her hours.  It may be that he has a plan other than ‘Sher will just do it all until we hire someone else (which may take months if past experience holds true)’!  Or that he’s entirely willing to come up with one once he realizes you don’t actually want to do that!  It never hurts to ask, at least.

If his plan is indeed ‘Sher will do it all’, and he is unwilling to come up with an alternate plan: It sucks that your job is putting you in a bind like this.  You have a couple options to consider.

Help! I am running out of stores to find dress pants for a larger, curvy figure with a booty. I know I need high rise, non-pull on, not denim pants in a straight or wide leg. Every pair I’ve found is either ridiculous or awesome until I turn and I see the 3-6" gaping waist at the mid back.

Ladies with a booty, suggestions??

Honestly I handle this by getting pants that have the gaping waist and adding some darts in the back.  I have a really hard time finding pants that fit even without worrying about the gaping waist thing (I’m tall enough that regular stores don’t carry my inseam, and plus size enough that tall stores don’t carry my size), so that’s become the path of least resistance.  It only takes a couple minutes if you have a sewing machine!

This is the American Gothic. If you’ve never been to the USA, this image sums it up pretty well.

Where are all the cafes and historically significant buildings and like, bridges and shit? Like in movies?

Lol, we don’t have any of that shit, it’s literally this.

Literally the vast majority of america looks like this lmao

I feel like this is either Pennsylvania or Ohio, I’ve definitely been here before

Literally the only reason I can tell this isn’t Wisconsin is the Sunoco sign.  I don’t think we have them here.

Anon, here are lots of ways to handle talking about kink, and most of them are not wrong in any way.  Some people, like your friends, are happy to get it out there.  That can make some things easier in some ways (lots of people knowing what you like means they can tell you things like “Hey, X also likes that, want me to introduce you?”, for example).  Other people prefer to keep things very general with most people, and only talk about specific kinks or interests with the specific individuals they actually want to do those things with.  Which is also fine--your preferences can be a very private thing for you, that’s legit, you don’t have to tell all your friends and fellow kinksters every little thing you’re into unless you want to do so.  

When you actually want to play with someone, though, you do eventually have to have the ‘what are you looking to do here’ conversation.  It's understandable to be bashful or on edge about this, especially at first--many of us have been taught that talking about this stuff is either kind of dirty and weird, or pretty intimate and private, so opening up to a new person can be hard. 

I’ve found it can help to give yourself a bit of a script.  For example, maybe you heard Person A is really good at this thing you like.  You could script out asking them: “Hey A, I heard you’re really good at X.  I’m interested in experiencing/learning more about that, would you be up for playing with me sometime?”  Giving yourself a starting line is often enough to kick a conversation off.  (And most people, in A’s shoes, are pretty happy to either say yes or point you in the direction of someone else who might!)