curiouslyodd

[curiouslyodd]

so the thing about english is that people think it's so divorced from other germanic languages based on like. words. I've even heard people try to insist that english is a romance language. because of that whole messy business in 1066 with out-of-wedlock willy and his band of naughty normans. and now a good chunk of the vocabulary is french or whatever and they're prestigious so not using them makes you sound like a rube and this and that and the other

and yes william the conqueror will never be safe from me. I will have my revenge on him. he fucked up a perfectly good germanic language is what he did. this will be me in hell

but the thing is that most words in, say, german do have a one to one english equivalent. not all hope is lost, for those who still dare to see it. it's just that you 1066pilled normancels aren't looking in the right place

dog (en) ≠ der Hund (de) but der Hund (de) -> hound (en)

look with your special eyes. that one was easier. not all of them are this intuitive because of semantic narrowing and broadening and waltzing and hokey-pokeying and whatever else. I'll give you a few more

animal (en) ≠ das Tier (de)

aha! you think. I've got him on the ropes now.

but then

das Tier (de) -> deer (en)

nooooo!! you whine and cry in gay baby jail. the consonants are different!!! listen to me. listen, I say, putting both my hands on your shoulder. /t/and /d/ are the same sound. you just put your voice behind one of them.

nooooooooo!! you wail. deer are animals but not all animals are deer!!! listen to me. LISTEN. they used to be. animals used to be deer. that's just what we called them. it was a long time ago. it was a weird time in all our lives. it's okay.

let's try for a verb this time

to die (en) ≠ sterben (de) but sterben (de) -> to starve

same principle with the consonants, we're just changing a stop (where we completely stop the airflow and then let it through) for a fricative (where we still let some air go through. idk where it's going. maybe to its job or something.)

to starve used to mean generally to die, not just to die of malnourishment. we do that a lot. we take one word for a lot of things and make it mean one thing. or take one word for one thing and make it mean a lot of things. this is common and normal.

"okay but roland," you say, suddenly coming up with an argument. "what about tree? trees are super common. I don't think we'd fuck around too much with that. the german word is baum! what about THAT?"

"when did you learn german?" I ask, but then decide it isn't relevant right at this very moment. but fine.

tree (en) ≠ der Baum (de) but der Baum (de) -> beam (en)

beam??? you ask incredulously. beam???? BEAM?????? you continue with the same tone and cadence of captain holt from brooklyn 99.

yes. beam. like the evil beams from my eye I'm going to hit you with if you don't stop shouting.

but the vowels!!! you howl.

listen. listen to me. the vowels mean nothing. absolutely nothing. they're fluid like water. it got raised in english.

"WHAT DOES RAISED MEAN"

it doesn't matter right now. they were raised better than you, at least. stop shouting. open your eyes and see what god has given you. they're the same word.

"they're NOT the same word. they mean different things!"

we've been over this. they didn't used to. a beam was (and is) a long solid piece of wood. much like the long solid piece of wood I showed your mother last night.

FAQ:

Q: could english be some kind of germanic-romance hybrid?

A: do you become a sexy thing from the black lagoon just because you dressed up as one for halloween? english may have gotten a lot of vocabulary from norman french, but its history and syntax are distinctly germanic. that's what we base these things on.

Q: okay but what does it matter? this doesn't actually affect my day to day life

A: you come into my house? you come into my house, the house of an autistic man living in vienna austria and studying english linguistics and you ask me what does it matter? sit back down. I was going to let you go but now I have powerpoints to show you

Q: you're stupid and wrong and gay and a bad person

A: I know it's you, Willy

[curiouslyodd]

knowing anything about history is great because it makes you seem mentally insane

[curiouslyodd]

in case you needed to hear it today:

it’s okay to use your turn signal when you’re changing lanes

it’s okay to use your turn signal when you’re taking an exit

it’s okay to use your turn signal when you plan on turning (can even be done sooner than 2 seconds before you’re about to turn)

you have a turn signal. in your vehicle. two of them in fact.

you are so brave and beautiful and smart and can do it. using your turn signal

[curiouslyodd]

Perthshire forest, Dunkeld, Scotland

daniel_casson

[curiouslyodd]

This distinctively warty lichen is Melanohalea exasperata (with several friends) on a lushly populated oak twig.

It can be tricky to find as it mostly grows high up in the tree canopy - so far I've only enountered it on branches that have recently fallen to the ground.

[curiouslyodd]

Riitu Uosukainen

1975

Tuohustaja, 2023

20,5 × 15,5 × 15 cm, ceramic

Finnish National Gallery

[curiouslyodd]

I honestly feel like the proliferation of LED headlights was the canary in the coalmine for the general attitude we see in the political climate these days and i'm not even remotely kidding

[curiouslyodd]

I genuinely think Mouthwashing fandom is a good example on how real life misogyny is very wired on people brains and influenced how they engage with fictional misogyny.

You have a story about a woman being assaulted and telling a man he trusted but being dismissed because he is friends with the attacker, and people fixate on shipping her with either of those men.

You have a story about how men that downplay their male friends violence, assume neutrality is the safer option, unintentionally help create an environment that's unsafe to vulnerable people, at a risk becoming a victim themselves. And people make it about toxic yaoi.

You have a character kill herself because she didn't want birth the child of her abuser. And people make AUs where she happily keep the baby.

Misogyny isn't just "I hate this women", it's also downplaying their trauma, defending those who caused it, and reducing them to mothers or wives against their wished under this idea of what womanhood is about.

I don't think we can separate fandom misogyny from it's real world influence, not yet.

[curiouslyodd]

my family is lucky enough to own a 26 acre mountain property, log cabin and all. Most people would go up there and think that it is fairly pristine nature. There’s the cabin, and a few dirt roads for 4-wheelers, but the surrounding woods look untouched.

But we actually carefully maintain that nature. We cut down the deadfall. We pull invasive plants. We trim the elderberry bushes. We get more animals than almost anywhere else on the mountain because we put up salt licks and water troughs.

some of these same things are true of national parks. A lot of places that you think of as “untouched wilderness” are influenced heavily by human care and maintenance. And this isn’t a bad thing. We are animals too. In many ways, our ecosystems depend on us to keep them healthy. Many “wild” plants that are useful for food or building materials are actually semi-domesticated because indigenous groups cared for them and encouraged their growth so they do better with human care.

we have a place in nature. We just need to be conscious of our actions.

[curiouslyodd]

New zine that's free for anyone to print and distribute! Read the whole thing at newlevant.com/COVIDzine or in the rest of this post.

UPDATE 4/11/2023:

I swapped out the colloidal silver nasal spray info for xylitol nasal spray info. I originally included colloidal silver spray because of the linked study and recommendation from RTHM, but I don't want to be pointing people toward something with notable health risks. Xylitol spray (Xlear) is also cheaper and more widely available!

[curiouslyodd]

This is just open contempt. They know exactly how much this looks like it's out of a bleak, unsubtle satire, and I have no doubt that they think it's hilarious. All while further kneecapping the poor by raising the bus fare cap for no good reason, and attacking people on disability benefits.

Genuinely: either this is sincerely meant to boost popular support (in which case it's ridiculously patronising and out-of-touch), or it's meant as an insult. Maybe it's both. Another soundbite for the media to bandy about for the people of this country who have been kept blinkered and ill-educated about the state of our politics, while thumbing their nose at the people who want legitimate change.

But I really don't think that the vast majority of UK citizens are thick enough to swallow this. I won't sing our praises too highly - god knows there are plenty of gullible, hate-driven people in this country - but this is taking it too far.

[curiouslyodd]

i hate you private jets i hate you bitcoin i hate you cars that go 200 mph i hate you golf parks i hate you yachts i hate you huge mansions with a pool i hate you luxery resorts i hate you exessive wealth causally killing the planet and using up ressources we all need

[curiouslyodd]

Something that's made the horror of the Gaza genocide even worse is how it's underlined a horrible truth about the state of modern politics.

It's there on our screens, livestreamed by the people who are experiencing it. But it's not even as if the state of Israel is even attempting to hide what they're doing. It's so blatant that it's taunting - 'yeah we're committing genocide, what are you gonna do about it?'. And the answer is... nothing?

If the scenes of abject cruelty and incomprehensible loss that we've been seeing haven't been enough to even get the people in charge to utter condemnations out of fear of losing their power and donations, what chance does anything else have? It's never been more clear that our politicians don't care about anything but their own gain, and they'll happily sacrifice countless lives if it means they get a fraction more. How can we trust anything they say, anything they do, when they're happy to see hospitals burned, children shot, millions starved and bombed?

[curiouslyodd]

I've got such a backlog on this site that I have a tab open with posts from June. I just don't have the time to browse Tumblr like I used to I guess!

[curiouslyodd]

Over three months into Starmer's tenure as PM, and...

Somehow Starmer's Labour is even worse than I expected. I was worried about them maintaining the dire status quo, but it's been a run of horrendously cruel policies ever since they got into power.

In the last two days alone they've announced that they'll effectively be using overweight unemployed people to test weight loss drugs (to see if that magically gets them jobs?!), and said that they'll be sending job coaches into mental hospitals. They've been attacking disabled people while at the same time rushing assisted-suicide legislation in a pretty blatant tilt at eugenics.

And they've had no qualms with continuing to support Israel even as their war crimes and genocidal intent become ever more obvious.

I genuinely do not know if the Tories would have been worse. I suspect that they may have been identical.

[curiouslyodd]

Mindless Doodle - A Toast.

[curiouslyodd]

Mindless Doodle - A Lamplighter.