micewithknives

[micewithknives]

I’ve watched this video so many times I swear I’ve memorized it.

“DON’T GET ME STARTED ON THE FUCKING NAVY-“

[micewithknives]

I do this! It works amazingly.

One of the versions I use frequently, often when dealing with people who are stressing is: "checking where our baseline is at, have you done ... xyz (drank water, had food, etc)". And it mitigates the "of COURSE I've done that do you think I'm stupid" in people in favour of "yay high baseline achieved, proceed to stage 7 level solutions" vibes.

this is gonna sound like a shitpost but the best advice i have if youre consistently coming off wrong is to start talking like an elcor

you will feel like a dumdum at first, but once you get used to it youll realize that telling people what kind of thing you're about to say ahead of time flattens their anxiety a huge amount

ive been starting every question with "question:" for awhile now and i almost never get people reading too much into what i mean anymore

it seems super dumb, but "what are your plans tomorrow?" gets people asking me what i have planned despite me obviously being in the process of figuring that out, whereas "question: what are your plans tomorrow?" gets me a quick rundown of their schedule, followed by "why?"

it also makes it really easy to work tone indicators into your verbal speech. if you're always saying "question: [your question here]?" then no one blinks when you say "genuine question: [question that could read as sarcastic]?"

it also gets you out of your own way for any types of things you struggle to say. "can you make sure to do the dishes before you go to bed?" feels like an argument waiting to happen, but "request: can you make sure to do the dishes before you go to bed?" gets the words flowing on a neutral word while making it clear that you're not looking for a fight

so yeah. suggestion: talk like an elcor

[micewithknives]

@acearchaeologist the most relatable description ever

Listening to an archaeology podcast episode about whether or not archaeologists should date each other … hosted by an archaeologist I used to date. 👀

[micewithknives]

Do you guys know about the Pormpuraaw ghost net sculptures?

"The Pormpuraaw artists showcased their ghost net creations, which not only shared their culture and creativity with WSFB visitors, but also reinforced the impact items like discarded fishing nets had on the environment.

Ghost nets are abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear in the marine environment, which drift in global currents and often finish their journey washed up as debris on beaches, and are recognised as a significant global environmental problem."

Read the rest here.

It also has been made into wearable fashion, showcased in the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair:

You can have a look at what is currently listed here.

[micewithknives]

I'm here with a vote of solidarity in the world of directness=bad tone. I seem to run headfirst into it left and right and am often so confused. I figured I'd let you know how much I love your blog and your tone. So many of your posts have delighted me with reminders that history is written by biased people with a bias and that Ancient Egypt was pretty darn cool all on its own, no need to invent other things. And I love your depth of knowledge!!

Know that there's at least one person who'll thoroughly enjoy reading whatever info you'd like to dump onto this space, no matter how related or not it is to Egypt.

Thank you! I try my best to mitigate it, but y'know sometimes I'm just going to fall into that trap without knowing it and I wish people would be a little more forgiving.

I want people to see Ancient Egypt as it is, a wonderful and complex but deeply flawed civilisation, rather than the sanitised 'they loved everything and worshipped animals and did all these weird things wow so kooky amirite?' version that's so often presented.

My main issue has always been getting past people's instinct to react to new information with curiosity rather than outright rejecting it. I'd really like to cure the kneejerk 'well I read this book' response to an Egyptologist saying 'yeah it doesn't work like that' because 99% of the time they last read that book when they were 7 years old and that book dressed up some weird hearsay as fact. And I get it. Ancient Egypt is the one everyone liked to read about as a kid, so they've got this idea stuck in their heads about it. You don't get that for other areas of history quite so much. But then it becomes a nightmare for Egyptologists to do scicomm because all those people immediately think they know better than you. It's like a weird switch gets thrown and you're contantly battling the urge to say 'no, honey, please. I'm literally very educated in this and I promise you, I know more about this than you do.' but you you don't because that's a dick move. I still think it every time though. I wish it happened less often because it wouldn't be quite so difficult if people could accept that perhaps what they thought they knew was actually wrong. I mean you'll accept it from some guy with a fast moving, wildly racist tiktok presentation, why not me?

[micewithknives]

its so funny the way my aunt talks about family to me sometimes, like "oh i was up at my brother's place in new hampshire last weekend, and i was talking to my sister-in-law amy"

like shes telling a friend or a colleague who is unfamiliar w these people

like yeah?? my parents' house? i know them, im quite familiar with your sister-in-law.

[micewithknives]

You've been cast into a fictional setting, and you don't get to pick your genre. This wheel picks it for you.

[micewithknives]

Fabio Viale, marble sculpture.

[micewithknives]

[micewithknives]

I need to know who names the pets at the Anne Arundel, Maryland Animal Control

I know you're on tumblr. Come out with your hands up. I just want to talk.

[micewithknives]

Off the coast of Australia Macroctopus caught the shark, wrapped all its tentacles around it and soon released it. Most likely, he scraped all the parasites off her.

[micewithknives]

Cant have fucking shit in Detroit

[micewithknives]

The decade you’re given is the decade to which you’re transported. Your geographic location doesn’t change; only the time period changes. “Equivalent QOL” means a qualify of life that approximates the life you have now and anticipate being able to have in the future.

[micewithknives]

Me: I don't really believe in gatekeeping a field where anyone can learn with enough work. The training we get in academia isn't impossible to self-teach.

Also me: The number of people calling themselves "historians" or pretending to educate about history on social media when they're just reading Wiki or telling you fun facts is way too high. The job title has meaning. You wouldn't call yourself a mathematician for knowing how to make your graphing calculator make graphs.

[micewithknives]

Thinking about how wild it is that enshittification starts as a way for the rich to squeeze the populace for more money but ends up infecting everything so even luxury products decline in quality. They’ve got more money than fucking God now and for what? Literally they can’t even buy fun nice stuff for themselves because they killed craft.

Anyway this post is about Dhaka muslin but it’s also about everything.

[micewithknives]

I never uploaded my safety wizard costume cause I didn't get good photos so here's some from the work day!

And a special low quality recording!

I got several questions about why I wore a beard.

Because wizards have beards! XD