#and it's worth fighting for

[swaps55]

I had to get up off the mat and attend a conference today. I was dreading it. Woke up at 3:30 this morning with a knot in my stomach heavy enough to be a murder weapon, and now I had to talk to people who possibly voted against my existence and act like it was fine.

But a couple of things happened today.

I work in a fairly niche industry, and in the sessions I attended today, people were talking about solving problems.

In one session, the speaker talked about discovering an accessibility problem on their college campus. This university is in a remote area, and students without cars weren't enrolling because public transit to get there took four hours.

So a group of people sat down in a room to try and solve the problem, afraid they'd run into roadblocks with costs and infrastructure. To their delight, they realized that by moving a bus stop and adjusting bus schedules by 15 minutes, they could take that 4 hours down to 90 minutes.

This speaker was so excited about creating better access for students who needed it. They'd found a solution for people who wanted to learn but couldn't due to lack of transportation.

In another session, a panel of people talked about how they integrate art into public buildings, and how the public entity, building designer, builder, and artist worked together to create art that belonged to a community, and how all the challenges to making it happen were worth solving. The building they did their case study on was beautiful.

In a later session, a room full of higher education professionals who manage transportation on their campuses talked about the growing need for EV charging stations on campus. It's a surprising complex and complicated challenge in terms of energy supply, infrastructure, cost, planning, etc. There are no easy answers on how to do it.

A few made the observation that by providing chargers, they'd accidentally wound up in the energy business, where they didn't think universities should be.

"Yes we should," one of them said. He went on to remind us that yes, we could expect students and faculty could go home to charge their cars instead of doing it on campus. But those are also the worst time to plug into the grid. It's overloaded. Solar energy can't handle it, so it taps into fossil fuels. It's dirty energy. And he wasn't satisfied for making it someone else's problem. "We don't have to be in the energy business. But it's better for the environment if we are. It's better for the future. We should be in the energy business, because it's the right thing to do."

All day I was surrounded by people who put their professional energy into solving problems, not because it would make them rich, but because they were problems that needed to be solved, and they were the ones who took it upon themselves to solve them.

And...I felt better.

After the electric vehicle panel, I thanked the person who made a plea for the right thing to do, because I felt a little less despair after hearing it. He smiled at me and said, "Yesterday was rough. But 48 million people in this country stood up and did the right thing. That's a lot of people."

On a lot of days to come that might not feel like enough. But in your city, in your town, in your state, there are still people who are taking on challenges and standing up to do the right thing, for both the small things and the big things.

It's not going to be easy. But I'm going to be one of them.

[justcallmecappy]

So how do you envision Anders reacting to the news of the Circles being dissolved in a DivineLeliana world state?

Whenever I think about Anders reacting to the abolition of the Circles under Leliana as Divine Victoria, my mind always goes back to this fan comic by hanatsuki89. I picture Anders reading the missive with trembling hands and tears in his eyes, collapsing to his knees in palpable relief — finally, after fighting for so long, his people can live in safety and freedom.

From then on, I think Anders would be a bit dazed and unsure on what to do next. He had been running from, hiding from, and fighting the Chantry for so long — and even if he had been dreaming of the day he doesn't have to anymore — he realizes he doesn't know how to live any other way.

In all my world states, Anders is beloved by his friends from Kirkwall and in the Wardens, so he has no shortage of places to seek refuge after the destruction of the Kirkwall Chantry. When the news reaches him, I picture him among friends who would support him as he slowly rebuilds his life in a world without Templars. In a world state where he is in a relationship with Hawke, this also means rebuilding his shared life alongside Hawke, and being able to live openly with them without fearing for Hawke's safety. It's a slow process but eventually he gets to a place of where he feels safe and healed, one small step at a time (ex-Circle mages rebuilding their lives after the abolition of Circles makes me think about the lyrics of this song, 'One Foot In Front of the Other' by Emilie Autumn).

To be honest, I get a tad emotional when I think about Anders hearing about Divine Victoria's edict to abolish the Circles, because his "ten years, a hundred years from now" line when romanced carries so much more weight. His and Hawke's love literally changed the world for the better. I want Anders to live to see the sunrise he nearly burnt himself out to make because there's a satisfying conclusion and emotional payoff after going through so much struggle. Stories of hope winning over despair really resonate with me, and that's what I want Anders' story to be about: hope.

Thank you for the ask, anon! 🥰 This is a really great question. 💖

[peppermint-rat]

I feel like I pushed through some barrier at some point because last year I wanted to die because of overwhelming empathy for the world's suffering and it does not hurt less now, in fact I let it hurt more, but it does not make me wanna die, it makes me feel alive

[queer-boo-radley]

Lord of the rings two towers sam's speech

[hathorik]

"I can’t do this, Sam." "I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something." "What are we holding on to, Sam?" "That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for."

— Frodo and Sam, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, movie version.

some days you really do have to just find and wrench one tiny thing from the world w the determination of a hog digging out truffles and make it your anchor. raindrops on a window. smell of the bakery in the supermarket. single defiant tuft of grass between the cracks on the pavement. etc. hold it all w equally grubby and defiant hands.

[illusionremember]

[waywardstoryenthusiast]

[the-prophesied-disco-gay]

CW: suicidal ideation in relation to chronic pain and disability

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Some days I don't want to be alive. That is not something I am ashamed of. I'm in pain all the time. Every minute, of every day. When I'm smiling, when I'm working, when I'm happy, I'm still in pain. It is completely reasonable, when it's so bad I can't move or hold a conversation, to not want that anymore. I used to beat myself up for that, but I don't anymore. Not for a long time.

However, I also don't talk about it. And I've come to feel that is a mistake. I see others going through it too and feeling alone. You're not alone. We're not alone. It is okay to feel this way. It's okay to want it to stop, to want out.

There are times I feel it wouldn't matter if I died, because in a way I already have. I was a young adult who played sports, who did martial arts, who studied the sword, who went hiking and swimming, who could play wrestle with friends and hold my own in a fight any day. That person is dead. That person is gone. And what is left...sometimes leaves me feeling empty and helpless and lost. It is common, when mourning the person lost, to feel there is little point in continuing as a shell, as a burden, as an inconvenience. There are endless posts and articles and friends and family who tell me that is not what I am. As though perhaps telling a fish it is a bird long enough will allow it to fly. It is okay to be angry about that. I love the people who offer me comfort and validation. It is okay to love them and be grateful, and also be angry that their comfort doesn't find purchase in my heart. That's okay.

I know that part of my hopelessness is the result of the society I live in. I live in a world where doctors do not take me seriously because to them I am a woman. I live in a world where my worth is counted by my productivity. We are taught if we do not contribute we are a burden. "Hand-out" is a dirty term. "Charity" is an act of benevolent shame bestowed on the less worthy. I live in a world where disabily is invalid no matter what your condition. If you are happy you are faking. If you are depressed or angry you are ungrateful. I live in a world where the bare minimum is seen as too much if it isn't "earned."

I'm allowed to be angry and disappointed and sad about that. I'm allowed to hate it. So are you. I'm allowed despair. I'm allowed to fear the system won't change before it kills me. To want to escape it.

I am frequently what is know as passively suicidal. If you're not familiar with that term, it basically means I am not actively making or planning any attempt on my own life, but if a truck was bearing down on me I'm not sure I'd move out of the way.

I have my own ways of coping. As evidenced by the fact that I'm not dead. They may not work for everyone, but they work for me.

When I am in so much pain I don't want to live anymore, don't want to go through it anymore, I spend some time talking to myself about the better moments. The person I was is dead, yes. But it wasn't a trade, it was a metamorphosis. My intelligence survived, my sense of humor, my love of reading and nature, everything that makes me the person I am survived. The ability to act on a lot of it is no longer there. But I can still make my partners laugh. I can still write. I can still make my children light up with wonder when I teach them about the ocean and the stars and the miracles only seen through a microscope. I still have that. I have the person I have built, not the one who was born. I have the moments I have made and those given. Giggles and sunsets. And that keeps me going. That keeps me alive.

I bear the pain, because I choose to live for giggles and sunsets. And I will never judge those who choose not to continue. But I truly hope you do. I hope you find your own moments, and hold them close so they bear you through. When things are darkest, I hope there is some person, or hobby, or passion, or pet, or dream that is enough to be your light.

[oatmealaddiction]

Okay but the weirdest thing about the whole "Brotherhood is better you should skip 03" discourse that's become commonplace now, it sort of forgets the world Brotherhood came out in and why you should watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist. When Brotherhood came out, the original Fullmetal Alchemist was one of the most beloved and most watched animes of all time. Brotherhood assumes you the audience have already seen it because of course you have, everyone has seen it, so it skips important information and speeds the story up because it doesn't want to bore you with things you already know. Have you ever wondered "hey why does the first episode of Brotherhood kind of suck, and why am I being introduced to like 50 new characters, and why are they acting like I know what the hell an alchemist is?" It's because Brotherhood thinks you've seen 03.

The first 7 or so episodes of Brotherhood constitute dozens of chapters in the manga, and the first 25 or so episodes of the original Fullmetal Alchemist. The Nina Tucker episode in Brotherhood, in FMA 03 takes up nearly three episodes. Yoki gets a backstory in 03 and it's genuinely one of the best episodes and taken directly from the manga and Brotherhood glosses over it because: duh, you've already seen it. And so if you skip the original you miss out on dozens of really great character building episodes like Ed and Al meeting Hughes for the first time and getting to spend a whole episode helping him free a train from terrorists, or Ed and Roy having a duel that expands on the relationship they have, or episodes where the brothers just help out random people in towns before the major story gets going.

The original also paces itself quite a bit better than Brotherhood and is more in line with the mangas storytelling. In the manga we don't find out about The Gate until nearly two dozen chapters in, and the same goes for the original anime. Like, that's a twist reveal in those stories, and it's weird that the most watched series is the one where they tell you all about The Gate in the first two episodes because they assume you've already seen the original show.

What's more, people don't know that Hiromu Arakawa helped write for the anime while she was still in the middle of writing the manga, and as a result was inspired to write scenes in Brotherhood that the anime did first. That scene of Edward getting impaled by a falling beam? Directly inspired by a similar scene in the original anime. There's a lot of little instances of that and they're great when you can recognize parallels and things in Brotherhood that are direct references to the original anime, but people don't notice any of that anymore. Because the original anime is just an automatic skip these days, and it's a bummer because people don't realize what a giant it was back before Brotherhood was released. They treat it as *bad,* not realizing it was one of the most beloved anime of its time and the problems people take issue with have a lot more to do with personal taste than any kind of actual flaw in the writing. Brotherhood was never meant to dethrone it, and the original anime was always supposed to be part of the viewing experience which is why those first few episodes of Brotherhood are so fast paced. So like, please stop telling people Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 is a skip, or it's bad, or you don't need it because Brotherhood is better. Regardless if you think Brotherhood is better or not, the original wrote Brotherhood's check. It was huge, it was beloved, and Brotherhood is *banking* on the knowledge you've seen all of it and loved it. And trust me when I say there is so much to love about the original series. It's still my favorite branch of the FMA franchise, and it's worth your time, I promise you.

[pitbullterrier12]

This quote is so damn important to me!

- J.R.R. Tolkien (died: 2 September 1973)

[esinahkabanjo]

Today at the thrift shop i found the best painting ever and i immediatly knew that she is coming home with me

[picturejasper20]

I think something worth of pointing out about Danny is how often he uses the words ¨I don't want to fight you¨ or ¨I don't want to hurt you¨ to some of his enemies, specially to Valerie Gray.

Danny usually fights his enemies but if he sees that the situation can be solved without resorting to violence, such as being a misunderstanding or his enemies being manipulated, he would chose to see if he can talk them down. This is because Danny is a very empathetic person and is able to understand when someone isn't evil or they don't have bad intentions. He has gained more than one ally this way, like Wolf and Dani.

To be honest, i'm not sure if Danny even enjoys fighting. It feels like it is something he does to defend his town and family or friends more than anything else.

[mossy-paws]

these fuckass robots that I hate /aff (Ultrakill x PHIGHTING!)

the girls are PHIGHTING! again

[mipmoth]

Submas VIOLENCE

[illusionremember]

We are not done yet. Don't let the news scare you. A lot of the news channels are not reporting actual counted wins - they are literally *guestimating* when they haven't even counted the votes yet. They are going to be counting for days. They will do recounts. They need to sort out this signature mess in Nevada.

WE. ARE. NOT. DONE. YET.