Yep. If history gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling, you aren't learning history. You're being indoctrinated.
Learning history you be alternating between these emotions: disgust, rage, amusement(the kind you get from watching stupid shit happen), frustration, disappointment, and if you are a white person like me; shame
if you find that youre learning the same few topics in history over and over again thats not a good sign
Some of my most favorite completely pivotal, campaign-changing moments from Critical Role Campaign 2, in no particular order:
-mail fraud
-walking through a literal, not-space-related, massively long tunnel-like worm hole from one continent to another. with no DM prompting to do so. they chose this.
-blueberry cupcakes
-almost killing a weird purple dude with a weird geometric object, letting him go only for him to get killed by the government an instant later, and then being like “well I don’t want the GOVERNMENT to have whatever that is” and stealing it back on a whim. and then just. carrying around a powerful magical relic of unknown significance. for months. just jangling around in their bags and occasionally being whipped out for a once-a-day reroll. this thing started a WAR and then disappeared from under the noses of TWO NATIONS and these random adventuring chucklefucks had it the whole time
-appearing for an audience before a queen of a foreign land wearing BDSM gear and whipping out one of their lost religious relics
-The Wildmother loving her weird pink son enough to give him THREE successful divine interventions
-relentlessly attempting to become best friends with a war criminal even after learning that he started a war
-accidentally stealing a pirate ship. not ~accidentally stealing~, actually on accident stealing a pirate ship with no intentions to do so prior to stealing the pirate ship. and then going “I guess we’re pirates now.”
-Fjord flipping off a sea god and destroying his weird sea sword and then refusing or forgetting to get rid of the weird sea orb inside him and then going out to sea after he pissed off the sea god. multiple times.
-Yasha cannot make a wisdom saving throw to save her life her free will and it changed the course of the story. multiple times.
-negotiating peace between warring nations, and then dipping out to go organize and attend a cult convention
-going to their first ever big city and being like “what do we do now? crime? is crime what we do now? crime?” and committing treason and conspiring to murder a city official and joining a crime syndicate led by a wet dude who later turned out to be Jester’s dad
Okay, I know nothing about Hozier, so I’ve no idea if this is something he’d do, but that pair of lines:
“You treat your mouth as if it’s Heaven’s gate, the rest of you like you’re the TSA.”
Is that a direct reference to the Heaven’s Gate cult? The one that believed you had to give up all vestiges of human life, sex, food, etc, to live on pure sunlight, in order to elevate your consciousness to a new state of being and enable yourself to leave the planet? The one that committed mass suicide in 1997?
Because, um. That does change the tone a bit, yeah.
The TSA too. Because, yes, initially it scans just as gate guardians, a security organisation to protect the ‘gateway to heaven’ that is the partner’s mouth. Their body is a temple, and that temple is guarded to prevent the wrong things from getting in. But, well. The TSA was formed as a direct response to 9.11. So there’s definitely an implication of fanatical self-protection in there too, the aggressive refusal to admit dangerous elements, the fear of allowing attack.
Combined, if it is a direct reference to Heaven’s Gate, then the imagery here is very much of a very regimented individual who is pursuing an inhuman, self-destructive purity, at least partly out of fear of the world outside their boundaries. Not a pursuit of happiness, but an attempt to escape and stave off attack, to be good enough and pure enough to escape the world and be taken somewhere better.
“You keep telling me to live right, to go to bed before the daylight. But then you wake up for the sunrise, you know you don’t gotta pretend.”
“I aim low, I aim true, and the ground is where I go. I work late where I’m free from the phone, and the job gets done. But you worry some, I know, but who wants to live forever babe? You treat your mouth as if it’s heaven’s gate, the rest of you like you’re the TSA. I wish I could go along, babe don’t get me wrong. You know you’re bright as the morning, as soft as the rain, pretty as a vine, as sweet as a grape. If you can sit in a barrel, maybe I’ll wait.”
If it is a Heaven’s Gate reference, a suicide cult, then ‘I aim low, I aim true, and the ground is where I go’ is possibly a bit a refutation of the ‘heaven’ promised if they live right. The ground is good enough, and death is real, not just a step towards promised heaven. The ground is where we go. Who wants to live forever, babe? And “If you can sit in a barrel, maybe I’ll wait”, could just be, yeah, if you grow up a bit, maybe I’ll wait until then, but in this context, a suicide cult, it could also be: if you survive, maybe I’ll wait.
“You keep telling me to live right […] you know you don’t gotta pretend.” “I wish I could go along, babe, don’t get me wrong.”
There is some implication that the narrator thinks it’s a cult. He thinks they’re pretending to their purity out of fear, and he doesn’t want to be dragged in. Partly because he’s already embraced some of the ‘threats’ they see even in tiny things, like coffee and whiskey and bad sleep cycles, and it hasn’t had the consequences they seem to be afraid of.
“I work late where I’m free from the phone, and the job gets done. But you worry some”.
The job gets done. But they worry anyway.
Yeah. I think I would read this song, not necessarily as a straight exaltation of a bad lifestyle, whiskey and coffee and shitty sleep, but more as just a warning of going too far in the other direction, a life of purity based on fear and worry about other people’s rules. Rules that he thinks the partner does know are false. ‘You don’t gotta pretend’, vs ‘I aim low, I aim true’. Plus ‘you treat your mouth as if it’s heaven’s gate’. Heaven’s Gate was also built on a false prophecy, and their belief system had to change several times when elements of that prophecy were proven untrue. The rules change because the rules aren’t real. They’re externally imposed, and they build off your fear. So relax a little bit, embrace some of the small evils, live as a human some instead of attempting to be a higher life form, and see if it’s really everything you were afraid of.
I read those two lines differently, because the thing is... the TSA is infamously ineffective as security. It's theatre. It looks impressive, it really annoys everyone that has to use it, it takes a lot of resources to make sure only the right people get in... and it is, in fact, very very bad at actually screening out harm. And you went and built your whole life around it, as long as the things you're saying aren't sinful, and it looks like you're doing the right thing... does it matter the actual effect?
Teeth are bullshit. What do you mean you’re decaying. Get a fucking grip. You’re a bone now act like it. You don’t see my finger bones decaying from jerking it too much now do you
you should be able to say "line" if you don't know what to say in a social situation
Does anyone want to hear how I ended up using soap made of my betrothed's exes breast milk?
Like most stories it's actually less funny than the stinger makes it sound, but I did just remember it lately and think huh, that's strange, I guess?
So my betrothed's exes are now married to each other. This story is about North. She and her husband have a baby together. These people are family to us, so that little girl is our niece and we love the shit out of her. Her name is Zelda.
When she was born it turned out Zelda would not, under any circumstances, drink milk that had been pumped. It was really weird, she'd nurse just fine but when offered bottles she'd just cry and cry.
North pumped religiously trying to find some method of actually using this excess milk, but Zelda remained adamant. North researched the phenomena after months of trying, and pumping, and stockpiling, and freezing. Some breast milk apparently has enzymes that turn it sour on contact with air? Or some variety of: the second the milk hit the air it became disgusting.
So then North had a freezer full of breast milk the baby wouldn't drink. I think even after finding out that her milk couldn't be consumed she had to keep pumping cause a baby only drinks so much. She didn't want to waste all the milk, but the baby was no help at all. She did what any reasonable person would do, and googled ways to dispose of excess breast milk. There's co-ops for breast milk, but no baby was gonna want her milk, as Zelda had proved.
That's when things got. A little less mainstream. Some people suggested making cheese from it. That's a real thing. Breast milk cheese. But again, North was pretty sure her milk would not taste very good, so she dove deeper.
Her husband did regularly drink kefir, and he wasn’t afraid of stinky milk so he decided to try to make kefir out of it. But breast milk is a fucking beast, and it was so antimicrobial that it killed all his bacteria. He attempted to boil it and break down the proteins and not only did it smell rank but it still killed his kefir.
What she eventually found was soap. It turns out that breast milk makes amazing soap, it has tons of good skin properties and doesn't go bad. More importantly no one would have to consume it.
But North had. A lot of milk. When faced with the prospect of waste milk or make soap, North grabbed soap making by the throat and made it her bitch. She bought molds, stocked up her essential oils, and went to work.
She made piles and piles of soap, because again, there was so much milk. At a certain point she goes, "Hey, do you guys want soap? One thing though, it's made of my breast milk."
And we did have a moment of like. Hm. That's weird, but is it? It's soap, it'll smell nice, it'll be good for our skin. Sure.
So then, being a lovely thoughtful person, she customized soaps for us with scents we specifically favored. It arrived in a massive box, all wrapped up and pretty, and we had to store them in the freezer until we were ready to use them cause they were a little melty by nature but man it was good soap. It smelled lovely, she got great scents into them.
They lasted us about a year and I was pretty bummed when they ran out.
I GOT PICTURES!! Look how fucking beautiful this soap is!
She’d never done this before but she just made this gorgeous artisanal quality soap.
For scope, here’s a PILE of the soap she made and this wasn’t even all of it.
BUT THE BEST PART! Is that they still have a ton of it and she’s gonna share more and I’m ecstatic.
Happy Mother’s Day, here’s my friends breast milk soap.
I feel like a good shorthand for a lot of economics arguments is "if you want people to work minimum wage jobs in your city, you need to allow minimum wage apartments for them to live in."
"These jobs are just for teenagers on the weekends." Okay, so you'll use minimum wage services only on the weekends and after school. No McDonald's or Starbucks on your lunch break.
"They can get a roommate." For a one bedroom? A roommate for a one bedroom? Or a studio? Do you have a roommate to get a middle-wage apartment for your middle-wage job? No? Why should they?
"They can live farther from city center and just commute." Are there ways for them to commute that don't equate to that rent? Living in an outer borough might work in NYC, where public transport is a flat rate, but a city in Texas requires a car. Does the money saved in rent equal the money spent on the car loan, the insurance, the gas? Remember, if you want people to take the bus or a bike, the bus needs to be reliable and the bike lanes survivable.
If you want minimum wage workers to be around for you to rely on, then those minimum wage workers need a place to stay.
You either raise the minimum wage, or you drop the rent. There's only so long you can keep rents high and wages low before your workforce leaves for cheaper pastures.
"Nobody wants to work anymore" doesn't hold water if the reason nobody applies is because the commute is impossible at the wage you provide.
Throwback to when I took painkillers and woke up with Photoshop open on my computer to this image I had made
Hi this currently has 37 thousand notes and I just want to ask - why?
Big Things Are Coming
Wealth, weal, and plentiful spoons are coming to me 👏
I'm not like Mad at anyone who does this and I'm obviously not in charge of how anyone else tags shit on their own blogs, whatever, but it's always bummed me out when my sex Ed posts get reblogged and tagged with 18+, minors dni, etc. personally I actually very much want teenagers to learn about their bodies and safer sex but I guess I'm just the guy who wrote the thing.
by and large I am not an angry man but once I watched a fellow sex educator present to a room full of college students and, upon being gently challenged by one of the students who objected to them describing sex as something that happens between adults, said with very palpable disdain "I don't want to talk about kids fucking." and I was so angry about it that I made myself nauseous.
not just teens, either. every couple years I give up my Sundays for a few months to teach sex ed to 4th-6th graders, unpaid. and I don't do it because it's always fun or easy or great for my health, I do it because those are human people with changing bodies and feelings who deserve to have someone who gives a shit take the time to talk honestly with them so that they might make less painful mistakes later.
ah, this has gotten notes. now we begin a game of Is Someone Going To Call Me A Pedophile For This.
and the ironic thing is that teaching comprehensive sex ed as young as possible (to an age appropriate extent of course) is like literally the best way to keep kids safe bc it allows them to know if what’s happening to them is wrong. especially since the most likely abuser is a parent. who’s obviously not going to teach them that they deserve bodily autonomy. it sounds icky but teaching kids about sex is what lets them know if they’re being raped, and unfortunately a scarily high amount of kids are preyed upon.
Shout out to all the Black ppl that can no longer participate directly in the fandom they love because of the stresses of racism 👍🏾 you contain multitudes of value and I'm sorry that the color of your skin and the power of your voice makes people not want to acknowledge that.
Yes, nonblack people can reblog. I'd appreciate it, in fact, if y'all took the time to vocally support your Black friends/fans in fandom.
Many of you may be asking- what is rap? Well, to put it simply, rap is the part of the Gorillaz song that sounds- a little different.
I went digging to find the source for this precious animal, and tracked it down to tttttmaggie on little red book/xiaohongshu. What a cat of all time!
Israel doing well in Eurovision is a completely predictable result of the boycott. The people who are watching & voting in Eurovision are now at best willfully ignorant and apathetic and at worst actively pro-Israel, meaning there will be a disproportionate amount of people willing to vote for Israel and even people voting for them because of the boycott.
But saying that means that boycotting Eurovision was the wrong call completely misses the point of the boycott. The point is not "Israel should not win Eurovision", it is "Israel should not be allowed to compete in the first place". The point of the boycott is not to give the EBU views or money, so if you've been boycotting... don't give them money or legitimacy by voting for someone tomorrow to prevent Israel from winning. If Israel does win, that does not mean boycotting failed; it only further delegitimizes the competition and confirms we should burn the whole thing down.
If Israel ends up winning, that's the EBU's problem, not ours.
Don't watch, don't vote.
i love to learn about my cat i love to google “should you trim cat last claw? trim all cat claws? cat last claw called? cat fifth claw? cat claws labelled. trim cat dew claw?” and then say hi graham i learned something about you! your weird claw is called a dew claw and it will not be worn down by regular walking so it is extra important to be diligent about trimming to prevent it growing into your paw pad! and he bites me and bites me
i wish graham could google. maybe he’d google “human skin thickness? humans skin cut bite? humans red line arm leg? how hard bite humans? human pain tolerance? human vs kittens safe play” and then he would say mads im so sorry i didnt realize that humans are prone to injury from skin punctures. we should engage in remote play through means of toys as you were suggesting
art tips
Gonna add on to this, if that's ok, because I think a lot of people don't know how to categorize their work:
You don't have to be a professional (ie get paid) to be any of these things. You can claim the title without making any claims to the quality of your work. It's ok.
This is a great post, but I think it's important to highlight why it's a good idea to move away from "content creator" as a self-identifier. Be specific. Defining your niche and line of work not only helps you find resources and communities, it helps you find ways to further your career or studies if you need to figure out what you want to do.
This way people can see they’re not alone. I have them and this would help me see that.
eagle: so what do you think about stigmata
prometheus: you know we're in a pre-christian myth, right? like that word doesn't exist yet. your dumb joke is anachronistic.
eagle: stigma talons in your flesh
And yet he couldn't see the punchline coming.
Eagle: I can do jokes. it's all in the de-livery.
