ratcharlie

[ratcharlie]

[ratcharlie]

top 10 normal behaviors to perform while feeling regular 

[ratcharlie]

[ratcharlie]

You used to be able to exchange money for goods and services. Now you can’t do that. Because of broke.

[ratcharlie]

so judging by how astonished people are by it every time we explain it to anybody, it seems like my wife and I might really be onto something here

during the pandemic, we invented something we call "astronaut time."

when it's astronaut time, it's like we are two astronauts wearing the big helmets, moving around the station on totally separate tasks. one of us is outside the space station and one of us is inside the space station. our radios do not work and we have no way of communicating with each other. we might see each other through the lil porthole windows, but we ignore each other because we both have different things to do.

"astronaut time" is how we get total privacy when we live in the same apartment. I will pretend you don't exist. You will pretend I don't exist. we have a nonverbal, zero-contact signal for when astronaut time is over (usually "I'll draw a smiley-face on the whiteboard in the kitchen when I'm done"). No talking, stay out of each other's line of sight, we are actively avoiding each other, unless you are currently experiencing a medical emergency goodbye.

it has been. a godsend. imagine living with your partner and being able to close every single tab in your brain related to social interaction. no fear of being interrupted by a "hey, quick question--" or "sorry to bother you, but do you know where the scissors are?" or "did you want something to eat, too?" Once or twice a month, we look at each other lovingly, hold hands, and say "baby I think I need some astronaut time tonight," and the other person goes "okay cool. bye! have a nice night!" and nobody's feelings are hurt and we both go and have a lovely evening completely by ourselves.

like idk it's a small thing but it's made our lives so much nicer, so if you and your partner/roommate are both people who sometimes need total privacy in order to recharge, maybe try it

[ratcharlie]

[ratcharlie]

Thrilled to announce nothing

[ratcharlie]

i would like more friends to accompany me to wine bars pls. hey siri how do i make friends with wine drinkers

[ratcharlie]

[ratcharlie]

do u remember them? theyre still in love

[ratcharlie]

anyways it’s a great day to donate to abortion funds! :)

[ratcharlie]

i raise OP this:

OP is a genius.

[ratcharlie]

The first edition copy of Frankenstein given to Lord Byron by Mary Shelley (handled here by Adam Douglas, the Senior Rare Book Specialist at Peter Harrington's antiquarian book shop).

Mary personally inscribed the novel to Byron without her name because the novel was published anonymously. Percy Shelley writes of the copy in an 1818 letter to Byron: "You will receive your packets of books. Hunt sends you one he has lately published; and I am commissioned by an old friend of yours to convey 'Frankenstein' to you, and to request that if you conjecture the name of the author, that you will regard it as a secret. In fact, it is Mrs. S.'s. It has met with considerable success in England; but she bids me say, 'That she would regard your approbation as a more flattering testimony of its merit.'"

Byron brought this copy with him when he moved to Greece years later. It was found among his things when he died.

[ratcharlie]

ohhh to be a 19th century writer in a group with friends and alongside your lover, where you’re all writers.. and you all have a little competition to see who can write the best spooky story…. ~sigh~

[ratcharlie]

percy shelley was such an odd little creecher i’m so glad i’m not the only one with nothing but fascination for him

[ratcharlie]

back to my roots (journaling in a sketchbook)

[ratcharlie]

Hey, also, all the anarchist shit aside, tomorrow I want you to make something.

I forced myself to draw something after the 2016 election. I forced myself to draw something when my mother died in 2018. I forced myself to draw something when my spouse was hospitalized for multiple organ failure in 2021.

When you are miserable, make something. Add a row to your project, bake a box cake, draw on a sheet of lined paper, write a poem on a napkin, fold an origami shirt out of a dollar bill, make your favorite recipe for dinner, but make something with your hands, something that you can hold and look at engage your senses in.

It won't fix the world, but it will change the world. You will have made something that didn't exist before. You will have impacted your reality, even in a very small way. And it is going to be something you made *after.* Something bad happened, something shook you, and you made something after, in spite of it.