it's kinda comforting to me when my friends are a little annoying or longwinded or abrasive or tired and inarticulate, or they don't do the exact politest thing in every interaction, and stuff, because I know I'm sometimes annoying, or take up a more than my share of conversational space, or forget to ask them questions, etc etc, and... like, I'm always working to be nice to my friends and to get better and better at friend-ing, but it just makes me feel more human about it :}

anyway I love you friends plz know I'm not counting, in fact I feel great affection toward you even (especially) when conversations go less than Perfectly Ideal

I'm not proud to say it but this line from a 60 year old detective novel made me re-think some things about friendship

[ID: Text that reads, “You can be at ease only with those people to whom you can say any damn fool thing that comes into your head, knowing they will respond in kind, and knowing that any misunderstandings will be thrashed out right now, rather than buried deep and given a chance to fester.” End ID]

[ID: A post by user Idandersen that says: I was talking to one of my old co-workers who works in machine learning for a big tech company awhile back, and when the subject of "AGI" came up, he said something like (and I'm paraphrasing here): "These models require massive infrastructure, enormous amounts of power, and basically the entire Internet as training data. Meanwhile, the human brain learns from the world around it and runs on sandwiches." I think about that a lot. End ID]

Human brains run on sandwiches and edible non-sandwiches alike."

@mrlovenstein

Thoughts that are mutual between cats and their people:

There is no rule against doing hourly comics the day after hourly comic day 😎

Actually your society is the freaks for shooting everything that moves and burning half your "nature reserves" every year so that upperclass dandies can eat leaded pheasant. North Americans are the well adjusted ones here, your country has become a desolate suburban lawn in island form

my opinion as an american is that we spend way too much time trying to save african megafauna and nowhere near enough time making fun of the english for turning an entire island--which was once a hazelnut food forest--into a goddamn lawn.

bill bryson once actually wrote down in a whole book and got published that the english were superb gardeners and i about threw the book out the window i was that outraged. the english!!! the fucking ENGLISH. them? that's who you want to laud? the english

the

THERE ARE A GRAND FUCKING TOTAL OF ZERO STAPLE CROPS ORIGINALLY OR EVEN PRIMARILY CULTIVATED BY THE ENGLISH. NONE OF THEM. NOT POTATOES NOT WHEAT NOT TURNIPS NOT RYE. THEY GNAWED THEIR ISLAND DOWN TO A NUB FOR NOTHING. THE WOLVES AND BEARS ALL GONE FOR NOTHING. THE WILDCATS AND BIRDS AND MUSTELIDS AND INSECTS, GONE IN THEIR THOUSANDS, FOR NOTHING. FOR SOME SHEEP. FOR

THEIR MAIN AGRICULTURAL EXPORT IS FAMINE

anyway the english approach to agriculture, biodiversity, and environmentalism is roughly on par with a dog's approach to someone else's homework and everywhere in the world that has inherited their cack-fisted disdain for nature has suffered immensely. i can't overstate enough how bad things have been and still are.

please make fun of them. it's the least they fucking deserve.

Vaguely reminds me of how much Australia gets flack for its "cracked up"/dangerous wildlife. Or the emu war. Like at least they have biodiversity. People act like the world is solely OUR playground and the animals are an obstacle which couldn't be further from the truth.

"Their main agricultural export is famine" is easily the best sentence I've read in my entire god damn life.

No more brother wars

I think the reason why I love the concept of gallery walls so much is because it combines my appreciation of maximalism without giving me anxiety over clutter. The perfect way to have A Lot Going On, without having a lot of stuff. Even if there's a minimal amount of actual stuff in the house, either furniture, decor, or personal belongings, it creates a nice sense of character and home. You're far more likely to run out of stuff you can put on a gallery wall, than have too much and nowhere to put it. Observe:

Bland. Featureless. Sterile, not in the sense of cleanliness but in the sense of being neutered. It does not fuck. But what if we put all the things on the wall?

Holy shit cozy!! This is a home, full of your personal character. You can literally arrange a moodboard of all of your favourite things. Make it exclusively animal skulls and illuminated X-ray images, artistic pornography, shittily made drawings of the eiffel tower. Whatever makes you happy. You can't go wrong.

HEY!

Back up your computer!

Go get the external drive you bought specifically for this purpose and then left in a drawer somewhere and RUN A FULL BACKUP.

There are lots of posts that make the rounds reminding us to sit up straight, stretch, drink water, refocus our eyes, take our meds, etc. But while this may not be about your health, it's still super-important.

Back up your whole-ass computer. If you can afford a second backup drive, buy one so that you have one SSD and one HDD, and back up to both of them (you can back up just the current important stuff to the SSD and let the HDD do the heavy-duty lifting).

Do not rely on 'the cloud' or the internet to keep jack shit.

AND BACK UP YOUR GMAIL AS WELL HOLY SHIT. The last thing you want is a catastrophic issue where literally every single thing you have in gmail is gone. It's happened. It happened to a friend of mine and basically her entire life was in there and now it's all gone. 20 years of it.

Reblog to save a life.

I Have Found A Solution!

So, obviously classic wizard robes aren’t wheelchair friendly. (Alright, admittedly this isn’t common knowledge and also this definitely isn’t a problem for most but listen, this is a problem for me and I’m pleased to present a solution for it nonetheless.)

The issue is in the sleeves and the length of the robes. The traditional trumpet style allows them to get snagged, dirty, and caught in the wheels.

This is distinctly not an issue with other mobility aids such as canes and crutches, these wizards are fine to carry on with their trumpet sleeves simply rolled up if needed.

Now, one solution might simply to shorten the sleeves and hem to be out of the way, but that looks rather silly so I won’t do that. Instead I propose the more elegant design of a hanging sleeve to maintain that flowy magical feel while allowing for better range of motion.

Honestly I just love the look of hanging sleeves in general and think more people should appreciate them, wheelchair user or not.

In conclusion…

Book cover for the russian edition of «Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove» by Rati Mehrotra✨

A professor gave us an extra credit option: take a picture of yourself outside, doing something that you would not usually do. We were told not to take it too seriously. Here is my entry:

I maintain that sticking my head in the mailbox is not something I do on a regular basis.

Love that some of you are reblogging this. You looked at a picture of a guy with his head in a mailbox and went "yeah"

Can't wait to see if everyone did something like this or if they had a normal reaction. I will keep you posted.

[ID: a photo of a pale person wearing a black t-shirt and jeans with his head in a mailbox /END ID]

Hello to everyone asking for an update!

The professor has said that he will put all submitted pictures into a powerpoint to be shown in class tomorrow (Tuesday, March 9th). I am very much looking forward to seeing the reaction from him and from the rest of the class. I promise to keep you informed.

Update: the professor saved my picture for last. I was told that I had "truly embodied the spirit of the assignment" and that I had gone "above and beyond."

Also, to everyone who is worrying about whether or not I got my head out, I was gifted with a very small head, and while I got out just fine I would NOT recommend this if you have a large head or even a normal sized head.

Hey you guys should make this into a meme.

Hows this?

Perfect

2017-2018 Subaru Forester

I love it here.

Standing ovation.

realized that the "problem of susan" misinterpretation is going to explode when the new narnia reboot drops and started chomping at the bit

say it with me, kids: SUSAN WAS NOT KICKED OUT OF NARNIA FOR LIKING BOYS AND MAKEUP. SHE LIKED BOYS AND MAKEUP WHILE SHE WAS A BELOVED QUEEN OF NARNIA. SHE DIDN'T GO TO NARNIA BECAUSE SHE CHOSE TO PRETEND IT WASN'T REAL. SHE WAS REPRESENTATIVE OF CS LEWIS'S, FOR LACK OF A BETTER TERM, "ATHIEST PHASE" WHICH WAS A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF HIS LIFE AND HE ALWAYS INTENDED FOR HER TO EVENTUALLY COME HOME TO NARNIA THE WAY HE CONVERTED BACK. HE ENCOURAGED PEOPLE TO WRITE FANFIC ABOUT IT AND APPARENTLY HAD FINALLY BEGUN WORK ON A SUSAN BOOK RIGHT BEFORE HE DIED. LEWIS WAS NEVER SAYING HER FEMININITY DAMNED HER TO HELL. FOR FUCK'S SAKE

Honestly, ever since becoming a fanfic writer myself I’ve become like 500% more understanding and patient about other authors’ update schedules. An author takes 6+ months to post their next chapter? Yeah, totally get that real life can get in the way. An author abandons a fic? Disappointing, but it happens- sometimes inspiration for a story just dies. An author apologizes about taking so long to post a 10k word chapter? Dude, that’s like 18-20 pages on Word single-spaced. It takes me at least a week to write an essay for school a quarter the length of that, and that’s with a deadline. 

It’s probably the most important thing writing fanfic has taught me, tbh. How to fully appreciate the hard work someone else has put into their story. How important the role of the audience is to an author. And that no matter what, you are never entitled to demand more of a story that you are getting for free. 

If you're coming upon graduation, I have a major piece of advice to getting your foot in the door.

Apply to that job/program/position. Don't listen to the qualifications. They can't ruin your future. The worst they can say is no, you're not accepted. Some people do this as a form of rejection exposure therapy to get them more comfortable with rejection. And a lot of them are shocked at how it ended for them.

I have a job in my field before I even had a degree AND I make more than the AVERAGE salary in that field. I saw the posting on Indeed 3 years ago and applied, knowing there's no way I'd get the job. I got an interview and was so nervous and confused that I canceled the DAY OF saying I was sick and THEY RESCHEDULED the interview. I got hired on spot. I have never worked with reptiles, let alone alligators. I've never done major educational outreach stuff. And yet here I am 3 years later, making more than most aquarists and zookeepers while having a job that I love and wanted since I was a kid.

I have also applied for lab positions and didn't hear back for literal YEARS. It's always a hit or miss. But mass send those resumes and cover letters out. I don't have an impressive resume at all. I have 0 internships and have done very little field or lab work outside of classes because I just can't afford it. I'm not super bubbly and I don't have any major connections. If you get to the interview, it's all about how you sell yourself and the interviewers know when you're dressing yourself up. If you're straight up honest about most things while explaining how it can all tie in to the position and all that, you've got a great shot!

Tl;dr: apply to everything you want. They can just say no, but chances are that you will get further along than you think you will!