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In 1982, quite by accident, a zookeeper at Izu Shaboten Zoo in Shizuoka Prefecture discovered that capybaras absolutely loved soaking in hot water, and the practice of providing them an onsen, or traditional Japanese hot spring, was born. Source Massimo; video @yu_haradakei.

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Sleeping Beauty and Fate or smth

Thinking about Sleeping Beauty (specifically the 1959 Disney version but frankly any version works just as well) and the whole thing with Aurora being destined to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and how that felt, like physically.

Just like, that was her curse. She was cursed to do this thing and "die" no matter what, even with the hiding her away and the burning the spindles and everything else. Classic fairy tale. But think about it: isn't that interesting?

Imagine a young woman, really anyone at all, and they are normal and good and perfectly fine. And with every year they age a very strange compulsion grows within them, a feeling that does not belong to them. Can you even a imagine a feeling that is literally not yours? Not suppressed, not brought on by trauma, not a secret urge, literally not yours, not hers. She doesn't want to prick her finger on a spinning wheel, she probably never thinks about spinning wheels-- why would she? And yet there is a feeling, a growing feeling within her that slowly pulls her towards a fate she doesn't understand and doesn't even have the words for. And then, suddenly, after all this adventure, there it is, a spinning wheel. It's wooden and boring and shabby and yet she is dead already, walking towards it, even willingly walking towards it. The Disney version draws her entranced, slowly, resolutely drifting closer, conscious but transfixed, arms akimbo, a strange sense of purposefulness attached to the action, as if, should we peer into her head, she knows she is walking but isn't sure why, but she doesn't care. I imagine there was very little in her head then, just the spinning wheel, or the spindle more like. I just can't stop thinking about it, how weird it must have been for her to just wander towards her missing piece, her destined end, the reason for her entire life in a very literal way, and it's just a spinning wheel. Because it is her missing piece! It's the unfilled spot in her she can't explain, but that spot is literally her own death. I can't stop thinking about that concept in general I guess, how it feels to be pulled by fate in real time, like how any mythic Greek or Roman story/character might literally feel about wandering into their fate, strangely drawn to that which will destroy them.

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Tailor Birds “Sewing” Nests

(via)

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favorite thing about Twilight is how the Cullen family feels like a bunch of strangers who got trapped together on long-ass road trip and bonded on the way but are still really unsure of how to match literally anyone else's vibe

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I like the idea of this really intense Twilight showdown, blue light filter on, Edward, Jacob, and Bella are there obviously, everyone's glaring and beautiful and tortured, and then Mike is in the back, rocking back and forth on his heels wondering if he has a shot asking Bella to go get Blizzards.

There's some plot-related evil vampire or whatever and while everyone else/everyone applicable is getting ready to fight with their awesome supernatural abilities, Mike has his old Little League baseball bat, a half-empty can of pepper spray, and the gumption to survive bc he doesn't understand a single thing going on.

twilight but bella does have feelings for mike, too, so eclipse is a love square. important detail: no one can tell mike about the supernatural shit so he's just confused 100% of the time

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Absolutely fantastic

I'm haunted by the beautiful potential in an Edwardian-era Persuasion.

A setting just after WWI, another time of major social upheaval--blurring class barriers, new ideas about gender roles, further crumbling of the aristocracy

Sir Walter blindly clings to the old order, barely thinking about the war except to lament the impossibility of getting good servants these days

Elizabeth Elliot styles herself as a bit of a women's rights activist, claiming this is the reason she remains unmarried

Anne would have served as a nurse if her father had allowed it, but of course he couldn't permit an Elliot of the Elliots to undertake such ugly work, so she stayed at home quietly undertaking the usual home-front charitable work

This war deepens the story's melancholy. There's not the same sense of the men returning home as conquering heroes. The world is changing, but is it worth what we've lost? Can we have hope for the future when all our optimistic dreams led to such slaughter?

The best way to retain some of Wentworth's glamour is to make him a flyboy. However, given their short life expectancies, I'm not sure how realistic it is to have him and several buddies survive the war.

A "band of brothers" in the trenches is also a decent analogue for their relationship

Harville's injury meant he was invalided home fairly early. Benwick's probably a wartime poet suffering from shell shock that only got worse after his fiance died in the influenza epidemic.

Louisa and Henrietta are of a slightly younger generation that hasn't been quite as scarred by the war. Their relative innocence makes them refreshing to a war-weary returning soldier

It's possible Wentworth is so shaken by Louisa's accident (and thus needs Anne to take charge) because it sparks some kind of PTSD flashback. (Though that may not be the best direction to take the character).

There's just so much potential to explore the layers--old wounds and new possibilities, finding ways to heal and grow and rebuild after pain and loss

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Blue Eye Samurai and my inability to comprehend not driving for 6 hours just to get out of Illinois

Was watching Blue Eye Samurai (it's amazing) and noticed that I kept thinking "oh, that's a little silly how do people keep running into each other while they're traveling? Lol, fictions gotta fiction I guess" and then I realized. I'm from the States. I am so used to countries being MASSIVE I kinda forgot that Japan is like 26 times smaller than my home country. Also it's the 16th century and people are either walking or riding horses so that limits the ability for people to spread apart and yeah.

Just, I always have to remind myself that unless I'm watching something set in China, Canada, Brazil, Australia, etc., it's a little bit easier to walk from one side of your country to the other lol.

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Jessica Stanley and Twilight

Recently made a post about lol what if Mike Newton and Bella randomly got together during Twilight wouldn't that be funny and now I can't stop thinking about the reverse.

Like, what if Edward for, seemingly no reason, fell in love with JESSICA. Right in the middle. I know he can't stand her, I haven't read Midnight Sun but from what I hear he's not terribly complimentary to her general vibe, and I know she's supposed to be a mean girl or something but idk I just think it's funny.

Picture it: the whole plot happens, Bella comes to school, Edward is shaking and spitting bc of how crazy it is that a teenager goes to high school, Bella even falls in love with him, but then Edward inexplicably falls for fucking Jessica. They've been bonding while he's been attempting to avoid Bella (and his family bc they're pissed he wants to turn her into a human piñata) and they just keep growing on each other? They keep running into each other during class and stuff. He can't stand her/her thoughts but they get to talking anyway bc circumstance. He mentions a book he likes and he's surprised to see she actually reads it. She calls him out on his weirdness with a boldly tactless quality Edward's charmed by. He calls her out on her meaner tendencies with a quiet weirdness she's receptive towards. She's arrogant enough to ask him out and he, for some reason, accepts? They go bowling or smth and Ed actually has a good time for some reason. Jessica benefits from being around someone so unlike her, Ed benefits from being around someone so unlike him, they get along bc they're both awful, dramatic weirdos, but it's still JESSICA.

the whole plot still happens but it's JESSICA in the spotlight instead of our favorite wet rag Bella. Edward is trying to tell Jessica he's a vamp and she's like "bullshit! ugh, no way." Finally figures it out and is like "no way, shut up!" She's still the valedictorian and shops and hangs out with her friends except now they have to accept that never-blinks Edward is There Too. Bella just wanders around Forks and hangs out with her dad. Edward's weird insistence on maybe killing the new girl is never brought up again. Everyone forgets. Evil tracker vampire gets pepper sprayed bc Jessica carries it in her purse. They're the most annoying couple you'll ever meet. They're constantly fighting probably. Alice is REELING.

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Mike Newton and Twilight

I'm not super into Twilight now and I didn't find it interesting as a kid but I watched the first one with my mom when I was like 11 and I remember inexplicably liking Mike Newton the best. This isn't important I just remembered being utterly Bored and Disgusted with stupid goth crybaby Ed and Mike was the only funny character so I thought Bella, who also uninterested me, should get with him.

That's just me being 11 but now I'm thinking how funny Twilight would be if all the normal stuff happened, Bella finding out Edward's a vampire and all that jazz, but then, right in the middle, she and Mike of all people get together.

They've been bonding in the background the whole time, Bella likes that he has a body temp above 28 degrees Fahrenheit, she goes to the arcade or something with him one time and actually enjoys herself and realizes hey! maybe staring wistfully into the middle distance isn't the best hobby, and then Edward is just kinda Stuck. Watching from a distance, waxing poetic as MIKE, who's is completely clueless, hangs out with Bella who never brings up the vampire thing. Just doesn't bring it up. The rest of the plot doesn't happen. Mike gets bitten and now its Twilight again except instead of Edward being the brooding pretty boy we know and tolerate its Mike. Just Mike. Hanging out.

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Tuco in "The Good the Bad and The Ugly" is honestly amazing

I've been watching TGTBTU (tuguttubutu) again recently and just thinking about how, unlike any other character in the movie, Tuco is the most human. I mean, Angel Eyes and Blondie are incredible, well-acted, compelling, aesthetically-grabbing, but you've got to admit they're rather alien, in a weird kind of way.

Angel Eyes is obviously evil to a classic standard, wanting nothing but to cause mayhem for extremely vague reasons related to general self-preservation and/or greed, and his reasons are much less important to the narrative as opposed to the threat he represents. Sure, he's got a bit of a past, but we never even learn his real name. He's an excellent villain, a perfect character in one of my favorite movies ever, but like Maleficent or Ursula or Scar, he's just that. A villain, and I love it, but it's definitely not "human", at least in an emotional sense.

And Blondie? Sure, its different obviously but his whole schtick is that he literally never tells us anything about him. We don't know his name, his heritage, his backstory, hardly anything. Anything we do know is just sorta vaguely picked up or known in a more personality way, like seeing how he responds to situations with complexity while never actually divulging anything more tangible.

But Tuco? Tuco? He's a creepy little criminal with a brother in the priesthood and two dead parents he hasn't seen for nine years. He used to have a wife somewhere, his eyes filled with tears upon hearing of his parents death. He's got more names than Blondie or Angel Eyes could ever hope to carry: Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez. He carries his name and his hastily-drawn sign of the cross everywhere he goes, gleefully cheats and steals and is genuinely a piece of sh/t, but also brags about how his brother is the "leader of the whole abbey!" after being thrown out by said brother who is also hurting. He's greedy and strange and a fantastic with a gun (prefers pistols to revolvers) and will sell anybody out for a nickel, and he's just so human.

Angel Eyes and Blondie don't try to not tell you anything about themselves. They're not interested in talking, albeit for different reasons, and would probably take it in stride if you did find anything out, but Tuco? Tuco is the only person who actually doesn't want you to know anything while simultaneously never being able to shut up. It's important to not use your own name in the brutal world they live in, a statement said by Tuco himself, and yet he's constantly speaking in a pseudo third-person, naming himself in a way that reveals how much he misses the life he left behind and even regrets the life he currently leads while also, and this is very important, totally vibing with his current life of debauchery and violence.

He's us. He's me. I think when watching movies, projecting onto characters is expected and even encouraged, but it's easy/enjoyable to see ourselves in those that are untouchable. Strange. Interesting. Vague enough to be Romantically projected upon I guess. But Tuco? He's got so much stuff to him it's spilling off the sides. He's pathetic, annoying, somehow worse than Angel Eyes, and that's how I am. That's how most people are. Sure, I've got a conscience, and I can say pretty proudly I'm leading a better life than Tuco over here, but like. Hurting, a little stupid, wanting to seem like Blondie or Angel Eyes (enigmatic, stoic), but coming off as overwhelmingly talkative and annoying instead, lashing out when accidentally becoming vulnerable, a walking contradiction, feeling my faults but never actually fixing them because, on some level, I haven't taken responsibility for my own actions? Tuco. We're Tuco.

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繕い　　(；ﾟДﾟ) ﾅﾝﾄｫ Mending a sweater

（Reddit:r/oddlysatisfying u/thegupeeman）

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Grace Chastity's inner turmoil

Grace Chastity: Lust? More like bloodlust.

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Grace's WWJD bracelet

Watching Nerdy Prudes Must Die again and thinking about how when Grace loses her WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelet, she literally loses it when they're burying Jagerman. C'mon Grace. She loses the thing that's supposed to remind her to live righteously while ACTIVELY reveling in the death of a classmate. Like. Grace if you believe in signs from God THAT much I would probably take the hint that Jesus probably wouldn't suggest dismembering and gleefully hiding a teenage boy's body just because you were horny. Pluck out thine eye and whatnot.

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I guess it's pretty average when written out, but it's still pretty cool

Has anyone been watching an old movie or something and you're pretty well used to kinda unintentionally placing the actors in a place in your brain that says "sure, these are people obviously, they've got eyes and noses and stuff, but they seem exceptionably fictional because not only is this a movie, it's also so old that they don't really dress or talk or act the way I do, and I can't really see them as people because of that separation", and then suddenly, one of them does something innocuous and you realize they are in fact an actual person, who is now dead, and probably thought all the same things you do but in a different order?

I don't know, I was watching the 1931 Dracula and all of a sudden, the guy playing Renfield (in the very beginning) just looked like a guy! Like I guy I could have gone to college with! I don't know, he was just standing there then the actor took off his hat (1930s fedora) and he just sort of looked like any guy who works in a bank or something, and I realized he was a guy who was in a movie, and is now dead. I'm not upset or melancholic anything by the way, just thoughtful.