“Years ago a friend of mine had a dream about a strange invention; a staircase you could descend deep underground, in which you heard recordings of all the things anyone had ever said about you, both good and bad. The catch was, you had to pass through all the worst things people had said before you could get to the highest compliments at the very bottom. There is no way I would ever make it more than two and a half steps down such a staircase, but I understand its terrible logic: if we want the rewards of being loved we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.”

— I Know What You Think of Me, Tim Kreider for the New York Times

after YEARS of seeing this quote online and finding it to be the most deeply and resoundingly profound writing i finally found the source article and absolutely nothing could prepare me for this opening paragraph

Okay but the whole article is really interesting and also contains this quote which I’ve never heard before but really like:

“Anyone worth knowing is inevitably also going to be exasperating”

Hey, if your meds say "take with food" PLEASE listen and do as they say. It's likely your meds are partially fat-soluble, meaning your body won't be able to absorb them properly without some fat in your digestive system. This especially goes out to those with an eating disorder. I know you're struggling, but please don't play around with your meds. Please just eat it with a slice of avocado or a spoon of peanut butter, at the very least.

For Wildlife Wednesday

legitimately worldview altering realisation and i'm not even employed right now

“it’s just not my thing” voted most useful phrase for conflict avoidance for the third year in a row. “sorry, i’m in a weird mood” a close runner up

i hate when a skippable ad starts with some shit like “you’re probably going to skip this ad 🙄” like. yeah! what are you hoping to achieve by starting it like that? thanks for at least being self aware i guess!

some things i hate:

let me breathe, you know?

this book is out now!!! it's a short read, less than 200 pages, and it's SO good. i literally had to pause halfway through just to send the author a message about how much i liked it. definitely leans more utopian than scientific, but that makes sense given the format, and i think it has a lot of good things to say.

once you really start thinking about how restrictive the world is for children and how many bullshit justifications we retroactively come up for it all the time, you can't stop seeing it everywhere. this book makes a good case for including children in our political efforts not as rhetorical devices but as an actual class of oppressed people.

If my mom sees a significant amount of blood she gets lightheaded, and has fainted on some occasions. Once it happened when we were kids, I wasn't there to witness it but I heard the story from my dad. Basically my brothers, around 7 or 8 at the time, were playing outside while my mom was making their lunch, and she accidentally cut her finger. It wasn't anything serious, but it drew a fair bit of blood and she passed out. My dad saw this and rushed over, but he didn't really know what to do so he just sort of started slapping her to wake her up (not recommended, but he had no idea and panicked)

At that exact moment my brothers both came in from playing, and all they saw was our mom unconscious on the floor and our dad slapping her. So, like, without even saying a word to each other they both just INSTANTLY start whaling on him, like, full blown attack mode to defend our mom. Which obviously didn't help the situation, but she did wake up and everything was fine.

Now our dad says that he's actually really glad they attacked him over what they thought was going on, because it means he raised good boys. And I still think that's true, they're very good boys.

Same guys btw. So they did turn out good yeah

I love how it doesn't matter what expedition it is.

They all turn into excited kids when they meet penguins.

The Penguin: GIANTS! no way! I’m gonna wave at them THEY WAVED BACK! Holy Shit they’re dancing with me! My Wife is never gonna believe this OMG I got to dance with a Giant today so cool.

The Humans: Penguin! No way! I’m gonna wave at it IT WAVED BACK! Holy Shit it’s flapping with me! I got to play with a Penguin today; so cool.

where's the joy and whimsy guy? Have they found this one yet?

@joy-and-whimsy-official

Joy and whimsy detected! This post is joyful and whimsical!

Who am I to deny a penguin some joy and whimsy 🐧

i've reblabbed this before, but i'll always reblab it again. joy and whimsy indeed.

i do love the idea of hamlet being set around Christmas. adds something for sure if he’s storming in for that first scene during some holiday celebration, banquet, etc and everything is all decorated and shining, everyone is telling him to stop ruining everything. and this celebration is just another insult to his father’s unhappiness, as if the uncle-mother wedding wasn’t enough, the calendar just keeps going and no one will remember him. something is stirring, though, the ghost is appearing, ‘ever gainst the season…. everything should be calm but something is rotten in the state of denmark

Ngl it's kinda jarring seeing everyone here on Tumblr rightfully disliking AI, but then the offline folks treat it like Google

this is killing me

who else has fantasized about the Nutrient Brick