#People being People

[mumblingsage]

#in seriousness: this is an important and meaningful act that serves your fellow human beings in so many ways#it's totally okay to be fucked up by it or to need help processing it because it is also a really fucked up and weird experience

So you found a dead body in the woods

The worst thing you've worried about, going on hikes, happens. This happens often, in the grand scheme of things. It's always joggers and dogwalkers and hikers. My unlucky day came on October 24, 2022.

So what do you do when you find a dead body?

Look in the other direction and take a breath. Panic wont help you or them.

If you are comfortable, approach them and try to help. If not, it's okay. I was unwilling to approach (they looked real dead) and my 911 operator was 100% totally supportive and okay with that.

Walk a little ways away. There is no reason why you need to keep staring at them. It's okay. Seeing a dead person is really wack!

When you've caught your breath, call 911. My first thought was "Oh god, I don't want to talk to cops." and, good news, it's not cops! 911 responders are different people. They are trained to talk to you, to reassure you, and to help you. They are there for you. They understand you are freaking out. They are kind and patient.

Your new buddy, the 911 person, will help you figure out where you are, exactly. They have access to your location via cell-tower and GPS, but if, like me, you were off-trail (oops), they might need your help navigating to you. I offered to also send a photo, and he provided an email, which he received immediately. I deleted the photo I took right away.

Hang out on the phone with your dispatch friend. They're going to want to keep in touch with you as the paramedics approach. Are you freaking out by chattering too much? Are you freaking out by being dead silent? Both are okay! Apparently, my panic response is to become Super Midwestern Chatty. I was able to make him laugh, which I count as a win.

Holler to the paramedics. My paramedics came deep into the ravine-filled woods, about six men, steering a rolling bed thing. We shouted at each other until they made it to the body. It would have been funny, watching them fumble along, if it wasn't so serious.

Get out of there! The paramedics don't need anything from you. They're busy doing their job. They shooed me back to the trail and to the parking lot. I didn't have to go anywhere near the body.

Meet cops in the parking lot. In my situation, the cops didn't want anything from me. They were just picking their noses in the parking lot while the paramedics did the real work. The cops said thanks for helping, while covering their bodycams, because they're pigs.

Go eat donuts. Christ, that was a lot. Let yourself comedown and get some sugar to kickstart your system.

Feel good that you gave a family closure. Yeah, that sucked. Yeah, your therapist is going to hear about this. Yeah, next time you come to this location, you're going to need a friend with you. But you did the right thing. You'll never know their family, but know that you gave them closure.

[useless-catalanfacts]

*Catalan not Spanish

I think this might be the most Catalan thing I've ever seen in my life.

Cheers to the Vallvidrera Curling Club!

Video source: pritheworld.

[sleepy-bebby]

[cyarsk52-20]

People who love and go out of their way for children and animals💖💖💖 may they see their blessings in tenfolds

God bless them brave heroes

[ramblingoftheday]

journals

i love how personal journals reflect how we think as individuals. Like the content yes but the format of said content tells so much about a person.Every journal gives you a peek into what goes on in its owner's mind. Are their thoughts organised? do they like visuals more than writing? do they prefer talking to the world or talking to them selves? are they more comfortable in expressing themselves through art and pictures or do they feel better understood through words? or is it a mix of both. Do they care if their art/writing has a solid structure (a begining and an end, title pages etc) or are they just someone who goes with the flow. Do they write to release or do they decorate it to be art. It's crazy how these subtle details act like "body language" of the mind.

[a-meh]

Whyyyyyyyyyyy?!?!?!

[handsoffmyskull]

Ignorance is for the rich and poor. Driven by privilege and lack of tool.

[mumblingsage]

Another book review/recap from my recently finished pile: Laurence Gonzales's Deep Survival was one of my periodic reads on disaster and crisis survival (I think every writer should read these to learn more about human psychology under stress, and every human should probably read them as just-in-case preparation). It's not my favorite on the topic--I think Amanda Ripley's The Unthinkable was more organized and gripping--but there were some fascinating insights. Gonzales draws on research, reports (including official incident reports, which he recommends everyone read for their chosen sport or hobby so we know the dangers) and his firsthand interviews to cover a range of survivors, including two different young women who walked out of the wilderness after surviving plane crashes in exceedingly inappropriate clothing: one young woman got out of the Amazon after a few weeks in her confirmation gown, another got down the Sierra Nevada mountains wearing a short skirt, high boots, and no underwear (Gonzales is not seedy about this fact, just uses it to illustrate the point that she did not have supplies). Granted, whatever you're wearing isn't going to be in its most useful condition after you fell out of the sky, regardless.

Anyway, in the last chapter Gonzales does summarize his key tips for either staying out of trouble, or getting out of it once you're in it. In my spirit of "everyone should know this stuff to understand human psychology better and maybe draw on it in a disaster - or more routine shit," here's my summary of his summary -- much of the wording is Gonzales's, but I've condensed parts and added some glosses [generally in brackets]. Bolding for emphasis is mine:

Look, see, believe. Even in the initial crisis, survivors' perceptions and cognitive functions keep working. They notice the details and may even find some humorous or beautiful. If there is any denial, it is counterbalanced by a solid belief in the clear evidence of their senses. They immediately begin to recognize, acknowledge, and even accept the reality of their situation. They may initially blame forces outside themselves, too; but very quickly they dismiss that tactic. They see opportunity, even good, in their situation. They move through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance very rapidly. [Sage's note: notice how finding things funny or beautiful in life-threatening crisis is not considered denial, but the opposite--a form of engagement in the situation. Leading to the next point:]

Use humor, fear to focus. Survivors make use of fear, not being ruled by it. Their fear often feels like and turns into anger, and that motivates them and makes them sharper. They keep their sense of humor and therefore keep calm.

Get organized; set up small, manageable tasks and routines. In successful group survival situations, a leader emerges, often from the least likely candidate. Alone or in a group, survivors push away thoughts that their situation is hopeless. A rational voice emerges and is often actually heard, which takes control of the situation. Survivors perceive that experience as being split into two people and they "obey" the rational one. [Sage's note: Some survivors experience the rational voice as a completely outside entity. I'd read John Geiger's The Third Man Factor a few years ago, and being aware of the phenomenon, spotted it a few times in Gonzales's survivor accounts. Fascinating stuff!] It begins with the paradox of seeing reality--how hopeless it would seem to an outside observer--but acting with the expectation of success.

Take correct, decisive action (be bold and cautious while carrying out tasks). Survivors are willing to take risks to save themselves and others. They set attainable goals and develop short-term plans to reach them. They are meticulous about doing those tasks well. Thy deal with what is within their power from moment to moment, hour to hour, day to day.

Celebrate your success and take joy in completing tasks. That is an ongoing step in creating an ongoing feeling of motivation and relief and preventing the descent into hopelessness.

Count your blessings (be grateful-you're alive). This is how survivors become rescuers instead of victims. There is always someone they are helping more than themselves, even if that someone is not present [aside from helping fellow survivors, Gonzales speaks of the effort to survive for the sake of a loved one waiting back home, and also a fascinating case of a Third Man phenomenon where a survivor hallucinated a travel companion to look after].

Play (sing, play mind games, recite poetry, count anything, do math problems in your head). The more you have learned and experienced of art, music, poetry, literature, philosophy, mathematics, and so on, the more resources you will have to fall back on. Just as survivors use patterns and rhythm to move forward, they use the deeper activities of the intellect to stimulate, calm, and entertain the mind. Movement becomes a dance. One survivor who had to walk a long way counted his steps, one hundred at a time, and dedicated each hundred to another person he cared about. ... Survivors search for meaning, and the more you know already, the deeper the meaning. They engage the crisis almost as a game. Playing also leads to invention, and invention may lead to a new technique, strategy, or piece of equipment that could save you.

See the beauty. This appreciation not only relieves stress and creates strong motivation, but it allows you to take in new information more effectively.

Develop a deep conviction that you'll live. All the practices just describe lead to this point: survivors consolidate their personalities and fix their determination.

Surrender (let go of your fear of dying; "put away the pain.") Lauren Elder, who walked out of the Sierra Nevada after surviving a plane crash, wrote that she "stored away the information: My arm is broken." That sort of thinking is what John Leach calls "resignation without giving up."

Do whatever is necessary (be determined; have the will and the skill). When Lauren Elder's plane crashed above 12,000 feet, it would have seemed impossible to get off alive. She did it anyway, including down-climbing rock faces with a broken arm. Survivors don't expect or even hope to be rescued. They are coldly rational about using the world, obtaining what they need, doing what they have to do.

Never give up (let nothing break your spirit). There is always one more thing that you can do. Survivors are not discouraged by setbacks. They accept that the environment is constantly changing [Sage's note: earlier in the book, Gonzales references military strategist Carl von Clausewitz's* theory of "friction" and adds that the "friction rule," his own second rule of life, runs "Everything takes eight times as long as it's supposed to." As someone gets very demoralized when encountering friction, I felt this one.] They pick themselves up and start the entire process over again, breaking it down into manageable bits. Survivors have a clear reason for going on. They keep their spirits up. They come to embrace the world in which they find themselves and see opportunity in adversity. In the aftermath, survivors learn from and are grateful for the experiences they've had.

[*Readers of Bret Deveraux's blog, in unison: "Clausewitz! Drink!"]

[27paperlilies]

Blood seeping into barren land, bodies litter sea and sand.

Some say this is high and grand.

Do the hopeful flowers that grow from the decaying flesh beneath their roots, justify the death that blossomed present fruits.

Why do we continue to fall victim to each other, when all we have is one another. We butcher and plunder, then pretend to learn from our past mistakes, yet humans repeat themselves and all for their own sake.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

what's your most oddly specific hot take

Hello maggot what a lovely question, here you go:

I believe that OFMD fandom's character Izzy, the subject of much controversy, actually doesn't exist, and so the discourse is unnecessary. He is simply a Freudian projection induced by hallucinogenic rum triggered by childhood boiling of a humanoid potato by Ed.

Shitposters in Ancient Greece and Rome would crush anyone on Tumblr. Has anyone on Tumblr ever run into the prestigious Academy of Plato with a plucked chicken screaming Behold a man? Spat in the face of a rich man in his own home because he told you not to sully the furniture with your spit? Left graffiti on the walls of Pompeii before 70 AD that said, "If you are bored, take a bag of rice, scatter it all over the road. Pick the grains up one by one. Now you have a task."

144 is the sluttiest number ever why does it have to be divisible by so many things? You could tell me 144 is divisible perfectly by 433339 to get a whole number, and I would believe. What a whore, 144.

Not a hot take, but Crowley's hot and I wanna take them on a date.

[europasage]

humans. humans and their feigned epiphanies at jokes they don't understand, their held-in breath when they look at the moon in any of its phases, the way they make little trinkets for each other's birthdays, or simply as a thank you for being alive. their wonder when they catch their first glimpse of the untouched snow in the early hours of the morning, or how they stop just to pet a cat when walking home. they paint and they cry and they dance. their poetry, their frustrated sighs, their laughter. all of it.

[esuemmanuel]

You stop believing in certain people when you see the discrepancy and inconsistency between what they say and what they do. Then, you decide not to give them any more importance, letting them pass unnoticed before your eyes and complying only with what they like to receive: nothing. Some human beings are simply afraid to be themselves, so they pretend not to feel what they feel or think what they think in order to focus only on doing what they think is the best or most convenient thing to do. However, there is no worse way to refuse to be oneself than pretending not to feel what is eating us up inside.

Se deja de creer en ciertas gentes cuando ves la incongruencia y la inconsistencia entre lo que dicen y hacen. Entonces, decides ya no darles importancia, dejándolos pasar desapercibidos ante tu mirada y cumpliendo solamente con lo que les gusta recibir: nada. Y es que algunos seres humanos, simplemente, temen a ser ellos mismos, por ende fingen no sentir lo que sienten ni pensar lo que piensan para enfocarse solamente en hacer lo que creen que es lo mejor o lo más conveniente. Sin embargo, no hay peor manera de negarse a ser uno mismo que fingiendo no sentir lo que nos está carcomiendo por dentro.

[ladytemeraire]

One of my older coworkers is basically the Weird But Cool Uncle of our department. He'll collect the entire group of co-ops/interns and take them down to the cafeteria for ice cream, he'll take you out and teach you how to shoot or change a tire or whatever you need and want to learn, he'll randomly show up whenever you need help (as long as you ask) with a trailer to help you move or power tools to fix whatever needs fixing, and all he asks in return is some gratitude and maybe that you buy him a pizza or donuts at some point. He helped me move from my apartment to my house two years ago. When my furnace went out after Thanksgiving last year, he showed up with a bunch of tools to see if he could quickly fix it before the repair company showed up and/or I needed it to be replaced.

Anyway, I mentioned to him today that I was considering a small sawzall and/or chainsaw to deal with saplings growing by my garage and back fence and the resultant lumber on my property (since I have a fire pit in the backyard, might as well make use of it) and he immediately messaged me with "cool, here's the brands you want to consider, let me know what size you get so I can make sure I have the same size chain/blade to match in case yours breaks so I can give you one of mine" and y'all, I damn near cried in the middle of the work day at such a casual expression of community and solidarity and connection. It's so rare that someone who isn't family (and even if they are family in some cases) will casually set you up for success like that and I am so, so grateful to have him in my life.

He also showed up after work today to help me deal with said saplings and helped me hack off a bunch of wild grapevine while we were at it, so I'm definitely gonna buy him lunch this week.