Good news highlights of 2025.

Let's hope 2026 will continue to give us more good news.

Do not forget the other victims of ICE

as much as we must mourn and stand in solidarity with Renee Nicole Good, please do not forget the other victims of ice raids, who are not white. Silverio Villegas González, a cook from mexico who was dropping his son off at daycare and was murdered Jaime Alanis, a farmer from mexico who fell off a green house at the farm where he worked to send money to his wife and daughter Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, a father and grandfather from Guatemala who was hit by a car Josué Castro Rivera, a garden from Honduras who was struck by a car And so many others who were killed or are dying in detention centres, prisons ect racial bias is always something we must be aware of, Renee will be focused on because she was a white woman and a US citizen, but do not forget all the other victims of ICE, may they all rest in power

Serawit Gezahegn Dejene, from Ethiopia, who was kept in the Eloy concentration camp for 6 months despite being diagnosed with cancer

Marie Ange Blaise, from Haiti, who begged to see a doctor for her chest pains and was refused by ICE in Florida

Johnny Noviello, from Canada, Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas, from Mexico, and Jean Wilson Brutus, from Haiti, whose families still have no answers about how they died in ICE custody

Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani, from Pakistan, who they kept detained for 5 months at a Texas concentration camp despite a history of liver and kidney issues

Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, an imam from Eritrea, who was held in a concentration camp in Pennsylvania for a year and a half for the charge of applying incorrectly to a welfare program

24 other community members and loved ones died in ICE custody just in 2025

Costume appreciation series: Rebecca Welton’s outfits in Ted Lasso (2020-2023)   

Costume Design by Jacky Levy

Can we include darebee.com with ao3 and wikipedia on our list of really good nonprofits with excellent services that we stan?

It's a free, no sign-up, no ads fitness resource created by professionals who view this as activism (fitness should be accessible to everyone), and it's very thoughtful and thorough.

Features I really like:

- all instructions for workout routines are diagrammed on single pages with a clean, easy to read layout

- there's 30 or 60 day programs you can follow if you, like me, don't know what to do. they take you through a rotation of workouts so you're working different muscle groups on different day for a specific purpose

- there's so much variety and there's a filter so you can find the level and your goals and type of workout you wanna do

- you don't need any equipment

- some of the programs are RPGs or adventure stories! How's that for motivation. There's also badges and achievements or something but I haven't looked that closely at how that works yet

- they're nerds. they name workouts after D&D classes. There's a Lannistrr workout, a batcave workout, a witcher workout

- I've only scratched the surface

I'm doing this really easy one to start out

If you don't understand from the picture they have an Exercise Library playlist in YouTube so you can see what all the moves look like in motion!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQSMS0J6JbrKdSOSbyJXaQ_zN_HSSp7zZ

I've mentioned how important it is to be active. So here's a resource!

And remember to brush and floss!

They are in major need of funding so if you've got a few dollars and this has been useful, then go get the paid app or chip in a few dollars! The fit tap app looks like it's an easy way to keep active during the day.

Darebee is a great site that I have used myself and recommend to people often, but DON'T use any apps with their name. They have stated that they don't have the funding to maintain apps any more, so any apps you see are either defunct or third-party. Just use their website!

Francine Van Hove (1942-2025) — The Sphinxes and the Dictionary [oil on canvas, 1985]

huuuughhhhh yahoo selling scraped data from tumblr to AI sloo probably uughhhwaaauuwghhhhhh

bwwaaaughhhhhhgggh enshittification continues

this is what you're looking for to opt out!!!

I am only sharing this to let people for whom this info is new know that these options are only available using the mobile app version of Tumblr. It is not an option available on the browser version of Tumblr.

Which is different from a lot of opt-out things where you have to use a browser-based version of whatever it is to do the opting out.

Its on desktop! just hidden! It's a per blog setting so if you have multiple blogs under one acount you have to do this for each of them

go here first

then go here

Then go here

Winter Shenanigans

Wei Wuxian + 1x25

Someone in Glasgow please go see this for me pls. I will be there in spirit 🙏

Brief report from the flute accompaniment:

It went well! At least 100 people attended, families dogs a solid portion of Glasgow's trans community. There was a really lovely atmosphere, nice weather and a very cheerful celebratory vibe.

After short speeches from the ballhaver and the large dyke (my wife), the ballhaver was given a chupa chup and blindfolded (execution style). The balls were then duly kicked; it made a surprisingly loud dull thumping sound. She fell to the ground to loud cheers and there was a moment of silence while Taps played on the flute. The large dyke wore solovair urban hikers.

was about to come over here and post 'what do lawyers need those three extra inches for' then realized that i probably needed to make it clear that im talking about US standard paper sizes

to compete with the hung jury

GBBO: “A s’more is basically just an Italian merengue sandwiched between two ganache-covered digestives”

Americans:

in case anyone in wondering, this is Paul Hollywood's idea of a s'more

You know what, their absolute inability to grasp Mexican foods makes more sense every day

Nodding my head in support of the Americans despite having no clue what a s’more is.

Okay, American immigrant to the UK here to explain all the mistakes from Paul Hollywood happening here: there is one fundamentally American ingredient required to make a s'more correctly but which is basically not available anywhere at all in the UK, and that is graham crackers. A plain digestive biscuit close-ish, but still a very different beast.

From Wikipedia: A graham cracker is a sweet flavored cracker made with graham flour.

The next ingredient (which is also extremely traditionally American but slightly more variable) is typically Hershey's chocolate, but you could probably swap this out in the UK with any plain chocolate bar.

Last ingredient is big marshmallows, the kind you do the chubby bunny challenge with, like the size of your thumb and twice as thick.

A proper s'more, the most traditional possible variety, involves to graham cracker squares, two slab segments of Hershey's chocolate, and one to two marshmallows depending on your preference for filling and gooeyness. You put a slab of chocolate on one of the graham cracker squares. Your marshmallows should be toasted, usually over a campfire but if you're doing them at home over a gas stove burner is fine, but the fire part is critical. You can toast them to whatever degree you like, some people like them nice and golden brown but still kind of firm in the middle, me personally? I want that bitch to CATCH ON FIRE, I want it gooey and sticky as hell in the middle, crispy and burnt on the outside. Slap that motherfucker on your graham cracker and chocolate square, top with the other one so your marshmallow and chocolate are sandwiched together by graham cracker on the outside. You do this with your freshly toasted marshmallow because ideally it will be hot enough to start to melt the chocolate so it sticks to the marshmallow and the graham cracker and, combined with the gooey marshmallow, it keeps the whole thing together, and for that reason some people will let them sit for a hot second to let the melting process happen (especially if like me you have chocolate on BOTH graham cracker squares, not just one, because you're a sugar fiend), but if you are a young child you do not have that degree of patience and you eat that shit immediately, unmelted chocolate and all. Consume your summer camp delight like a tiny club sandwich, get gooey sticky marshmallow and chocolate all over your hands, and enjoy.

Important note: this is a kids treat. It is a traditional summer camping trip dessert. It should be something any ten year old with adult supervision and access to the ingredients can make (and make a mess of). They're called s'mores because kids always "want s'more". If you are using a blowtorch, chocolate biscuits, and merengue, you are so far beyond the bounds of s'more-hood that you have thoroughly lost the plot. If you offered Paul Hollywood's concoction to an American child and called it a s'more, they'd tell you flat out that not only is it not a s'more, it looks dumb and you didn't do it right because it's not gooey.

the point is the mess. the point is getting to make a food, at age seven, whose two basic food groups are 'sugar' and 'fire'. the other point is that this food item is so crumbly, chaotic, sticky, on fire, and prone to being dropped (outside, in the dark, while you are surrounded by other children who are also sticky and on fire) that your supervisors cannot accurately monitor how many smores you personally have consumed. the point is also that you may get away with a smore that is five blocks of chocolate and two marshmallows if you move fast and let nothing stop you.

if you haven't accidentally yet unrepentantly eaten a chunk of twigs or dirt or a bug that got enmeshed in the creative process around smore number 3st, you are too old to have any legitimate input into what makes a smore.

There's 2 other points that I think are important.

The first is that you don't pull the marshmallow off the roasting stick and somehow put it on the chocolate. Your staging area will look something like this, with the graham crackers and chocolate already set out (though not usually on the fire like this, for us it was always someone's lap or a picnic table or something)

And when your marshmallow has reached appropriate roasting perfection, you use the graham crackers to slide it off the stick.

and ideally, as a CHILD you are using a literal stick. Like you walked around and spent time looking for The Perfect Stick off the ground while the adults set up the fire. It has to be thin enough the marshmallow will fit, sturdy enough that it won't bow, long enough that you won't burn yourself roasting your marshmallow. And preferably doesn't have a lot of bark that's sloughing off, OR so much bar sloughing off you can peel it all back and get to the clean stick under it. If you're smart, you might stick the tip into the fire first to "wash" it/burn off anything that was still lingering, but. well, most kids don't.

When you bite in, the marshmallow and chocolate SHOULD ooze out all over you. If you don't kinda look like this eating it, you've probably done it wrong:

The description of the marshmallows as being either brown on the outside but still firm on the inside or fully melted but burned on the outside is missing the true art: fully molten in the middle, without the black burns. Not to say OP is wrong for preferring the burn! But there is a technique for perfection and it goes like this:

You find a spot, not above all the logs where everyone sticks their marshmallows by default, but at the heart of the fire. Ideally between a couple logs already glowing gold. Something like here:

Below the leaping flame. Near the logs. There's probably only one or two spots good enough for this on any given fire, but that's okay because everyone else is up above. They will get their marshmallows faster. They will be either firm or burned or both. That's not your goal.

Rotate the marshmallow slowly. Ideally come in at an angle so the part closest to the flame is the side, not the tip. The spot closest to the fire is the spot that turns a crispy golden brown, and you want that everywhere, on the tip and around the circle.

You keep going, slowly turning, for several minutes. Several people will rotate in and out of the higher sections, getting their fast delight. Eventually, your marshmallow will start sagging badly, risking falling. Maybe it does fall and got start over. But eventually it will be golden brown all over, and so liquid it no longer clings to the stick. It is ready, finally.

You say "who hasn't gotten one yet?" And deposit it onto their waiting graham crackers and chocolate. You've made an excellent marshmallow. It isn't for you. Get another while you're over by the bags and go back to the heart of the fire.

That's your evening. One, slow, perfect marshmallow at a time, given to whomever still wants s'more. You're making art for children to stuff into their mouths cheerfully. You're watching the movement of the fire and the heat of the logs, like you would if you were maintaining it — maybe you would be, maybe you were the one who built it — but right now that's not the goal. Let someone else put more logs on, while you take only the one stick and find the best spot for it to live.

You will, eventually, finish a marshmallow and find that nobody moves to accept it. Maybe they're all eating right now, or maybe they've gone through so many they're hesitating. Eat your masterpiece then. Enjoy it, the hardest and most perfect result from a fun and beautiful moment. Go back in for another, until you've run out of marshmallows and the fire is too low or until even you are done with s'mores, until you have made enough.

"We don't want a gooey mess" pfft even the artistry studied at the feet of my father is inherently a gooey mess. That's the whole point!

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014) — dir. Joe & Anthony Russo

I've always loved this scene. She sees the Winter Soldier's gun, realizes they all have to immediately be someplace else, and makes that happen. They don't have to move a lot, but they can't be where he's about to put that bullet, and she just instantly makes it happen - moves herself and shoves both Steve and Sam out of the way in the same motion. I don't think her character gets nearly enough praise or credit for her quick thinking, her combat sense, or her protectiveness. Hell, she would have given her own life for the scientist she was smuggling out when the Winner Soldier gave her that scar, and that's just a throw-away line, it's never even remarked upon. Yeah, it was her job, but for all the red in her ledger, she's already wiped a lot of it out by the time we meet her.

reblog to give prev a fUCKING BREAK in 2026

Driving this point home because I think anti immigrant folk do not get how serious deportation is:

despite a progressing asylum case, the United States and ICE are preparing to deport Heng Guan to Uganda, where he will almost certainly then be sent back to China. And should that happen, to quote Guan’s own mother: “If he gets deported, he’s really dead.”

Anyway another thing to call senators and congressfolk over. I left messages for my three. I don’t know if pestering them helps for big things but it does for helping individual people

A life is on the line. Call. Do your part.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-drops-uganda-deportation-order-against-chinese-dissident-lawyer-says-2025-12-19/

I'm happily able to say, this effort to deport has been dropped!

Fanart for The Goblin Emperor.

I really liked this book. Such a good read.