-->With the selling day finally done, I had Smiler take a moment to tune up Marm (whose durability was slowly failing) while Victor and Alice cleaned up all the out-of-stock signs around the store, then sent everyone home at 9 PM. An exhausted Victor was promptly sent to bed, while Alice finished off the final bites of her spinach frittata from lunch before it went bad (as she could super-speed her way to it faster than it could spoil) before joining him. Smiler, feeling flirty thanks to the nearness of their partner, wandered into the living room to sculpt the bonsai there into a heart, while Marm cleaned up Alice’s plate for her, took a moment to pet Shock (making friends with the cat, aw), then flew outside to rake up all the leaves falling around the property, with a quick break to feed Toothy. *nods* Good robot. I thus sent Smiler to play chess once they were done with the bonsai (mostly because they’d swapped moods from Flirty to Focused, and they could use the Logic) and prepared to end the day –
-->And then I noticed that the ENTIRE FUCKING WIND FARM was broken again. *sigh* These turbines, I swear... Cue me waking Victor up to Repairio the lot of them, and Alice waking up in turn to react to his magic skills. Which would have annoyed me more if they weren’t already both at full energy thanks to their amazing bed. XD So instead of forcing them to go back to sleep, I sent Alice downstairs to read a werewolf book (she wanted to read a book as a want, and I figured I might as well try to unlock the werewolf power that lets her read secret werewolf writings), and set Victor on upgrading one of the upstairs bathroom sinks with an automatic soap dispenser. Meaning the session actually ended on Marm stopping his raking to get in some more recharge time in the backyard, and Victor completing the sink upgrade and getting maxed Handiness skill in the process! Yay! :D
And that is that! As you can see, Marm is still having a little trouble finding his place in this family. Partly because I'm still adjusting to having four Sims to take care of, not three, and partly because he spends a good portion of every day unconscious for one reason or another. *shakehead* But he is still part of this family, and we will make it work! Perhaps a family-focused holiday will help him fit in better? Join us next time to see how the gang handles Harvestfest!
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louise glück was a tremendous poet in her own life and also taught, advised, and nurtured uncountable other poets. her picking richard siken’s crush for the yale younger poets prize is a well known fact, but she selected a number of other poets for publication during her tenure as the contest judge that i think are worth knowing.
peter streckfus, cuckoo (2003)
richard siken, crush (2004)
jay hopler, green squall (2005)
jessica fisher, frail-craft (2006)
fady joudah, the earth in the attic (2007)
arda collins, it is daylight (2008)
ken chen, juvenilia (2009)
katherine larson, radial symmetry (2010)
poetry is a community! read her—and also read the poets she wanted to promote.
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it also caught me so off guard in episode 1 in particular that the crew clearly knew how much izzy was doing to protect them from ed?? no one's saying it out loud because it won't help but the hug, and the whole scene surrounding it, says they've all quietly been paying attention and worrying about him behind his back and it was a culmination of weeks and months of living like they were while knowing that izzy was bending over backwards to absorb as much of ed's rage and heartbreak and anger as possible in order to shield the rest of them??? help??
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I've been doing a lot of reflection as of late, especially after this past class.
This past class was about the Torah and Tanakh in general, and the way the rabbi talked about the commandments (specifically the ten commandments) has made me really reflect on how I interpret them, specifically the fifth commandment, or honoring your mother and father.
This is a commandment I have wrestled with for a long time - in fact, it brought me away from g-d at multiple times. I was severely abused when I was incredibly young by my mother, and I used to feel insulted at the implication that I were to honor her while she got to live a better life. It was hypocritical, in my eyes.
But this rabbi surmised that this particular commandment was because parenthood is an act of creation, something that is like the g-d from which we come from. My realization is this: I don't think we're necessarily meant to take even these commandments literally.
I this particular commandment is more of a call to honor creation - creation is a gift, and like any gift, many people simply will not like it and will discard it. The person who abused me created me, but she did not honor creation. She didn't honor me, but I can still honor it.
I have started to honor creation much more. I'm too young, too unstable, not mature enough to be a father (though I fantasize about it), but I create all the time. I create relationships, I create with my hands through crochet. I create memories, I create my world. And I can honor who I am and where I came from that made me who I am. I've been learning one of the mother tongues of my family (Italian, since part of my family originates there) and it was judaism that inspired me to do this.
I don't think g-d wants me to honor my abuser. I think He wants me to remember the Holy action of creation. When I am a father, that act of creation will be Holy, and indeed, I am already joyful about the thought.
I have seen many people struggle with this particular commandment, but I think this perspective helps me personally. I don't think I ever have to forgive my abusers (plural), and I don't think I am commanded to simply because they happened to be family. I am commanded to recognize the holy, to elevate the mundane. In doing so, I will remember g-d. Through creation, I honor g-d and everything he has done for us, for me, and for our collective people.
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No but like every time I think about Splinter and what he had to go through just to keep the boys alive, my heart hurts for him so badly. Is he perfect? No not at all, but none of them are and by god does he love his sons.
The fact that all of them are alive, and grew to thrive despite the circumstances surrounding them is a testament of how much Splinter loves his boys. He raised four babies following the most traumatic time of his life, all alone with nothing but the sewers to house them (to hide them.) I feel like he’s not given the credit he deserves for all he’s done.
And I get that it’s easy to hold up his flaws and faults when it comes to parenting, I myself like looking into them because flawed characters are super interesting and said flaws make them more realistic and engaging, but he tries, and again, so many others would have given up on the boys or failed along the way but Splinter didn’t.
He’s their father, for all his faults he did his damndest to make sure they survived.
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Who wins starstruck or a aroace guy
both of them, because she's also aroace just like me!
actually while i'm at it, here's the little animation i was working on for pride month but never got around to posting!
in my self indulgent aroace worldbuilding i like to imagine that labels for orientations and genders are just kind of... not that much of a thing on popstar, because it doesn't matter at all to anyone. nobody has ever cared about stuff like who or how you love, and 90% of them are picking their own pronouns anyway.
that said, it's still nice to have a little self representation here on our primitive earth internet, where this kind of thing very much does need to exist and we deserve to be proud of it!
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