#and that's excellent

[bartletslesbians]

I need need need need need to talk about the way that Press Secretary!CJ Cregg would get into so many shouting matches with Chief of Staff!CJ Cregg if they had to work together because I love that about her character so much. It's... she's so idealistic when she's Press Secretary. She can't fathom a father being ashamed of his son for being gay even after the son is dead, even though she damn well knows how realistic that is. She yells at Leo and at Toby and then at Nancy until she's crying in Women of Qumar. She removes half the seats in the press room to make a damn point when the media companies don't do what she'd like them to and Leo just has to deal with that.

As Chief of Staff, she and Leo share that quality of being able to put what the job is an needs of them above what their own agendas and moral compasses might tell them. Press Secretary!CJ would've run into very similar problems dealing with CJ as Chief of Staff that she did with Leo as Chief of Staff. Press Secretary!CJ would not have argued so strongly in favor of "the President should just sign the ban on gay marriage to pass the budget, we're running a White House here" and, while Chief of Staff!CJ would never have done so, Press Secretary!CJ would've come dangerously close to leaking the shuttle story before Toby got a chance to, she might've done it even. She certainly would've raised hell at Chief of Staff!CJ for refusing to do anything about it herself.

And I just love how that's possible within the same character. Cause she doesn't really change. Her ideals and her opinions don't change. She vehemently states that she thinks Bartlet is in the wrong when it comes to the shuttle thing, for example. But she's in a different position! She has a different job, and it's no longer to advice the Chief of Staff and champion her own causes to a degree of possibility, it's no longer being just one part of the bigger administration. Her job has become running the entire West Wing, in the midst of half her senior staff leaving and her President needing to be put to bed on time. Her job has become preserving the President's legacy and running his White House, and making sure that works out even when that includes doing things she personally would not agree with. And I absolutely love how both that idealism and that intense sense of duty and do what you have to do can be so important to the character.

[gorjee-art]

a raven father (i call him "pants") I've been feeding sometimes likes to sit outside my window and either wait for more food or just listen to the stuff I'm watching while I draw. Today's a colder day so he likes to fluff up a bit, and I kid you not :

this is an accurate representation of my view

[ckerouac]

So, I really love the selection of Tim Walz for VP and it’s taken me a moment to articulate why. I mean, obviously, Dem bonafides, he’s sharp, he’s funny, etc etc. But everyone in the Veepstakes fits that bill, Harris was spoiled for good choices.

But Walz offers something that the other men in contention don’t that I think will be incredibly useful in combating Trumpism.

He offers an example and an off ramp to the section of men who felt like they were Republicans by default, and so support Trump by default. There are a lot of Trump voters who are full on obsessive, but that’s not who we’re talking to. We’re talking to folks who grew up in Republican areas, or felt their hobbies didn’t line up with who a Democrat was, or didn’t feel represented by their image of a Democrat. You want to see it so you can be it, you know? Which is why Harris is so inspirational to a lot of segments of folks, but Walz is too.

He served in the military. He went to a state college. He’s your favorite teacher from your public high school. He’s your football coach who actually cared if you were passing your math class. He’s the guy you looked up to at school when your family sucked but this guy cared, and he helped you get out and make something of yourself.

He’s the neighbor who helps you jump your car. He’s your uncle who takes you hunting. He’s your Dad who loves teasing you at the Stare Fair. He’s you when he makes a mistake like his DUI and takes responsibility for it, and when he has the chance makes sure other can come back from similar mistakes. He’s you when you and your wife want so badly to be parents and IVF gives you the family you wanted. He’s you when he says ‘it had to be me’ and used his standing and power to protect vulnerable kids sponsoring the GSA at his school.

He gives the real life example to these men that they can be that football, fishing, hunting family man who wants to provide for his family, be that powerful, respected member of the community and use that power to feed kids in school. That it’s normal to enthusiastically work for a boss like Harris. That yeah those other guys are fucking weirdos, and you’re not a weirdo, are you?

That there’s a place in the Democratic Party for them. That they don’t have to default to being fucking weird.

I hope those guys see this example of masculinity and go… yeah, that’s me. That’s who I’m gonna be.

[a3poify]

Easter egg for office workers: if you go onto Excel and press ctrl+right, then ctrl+down, you will reach cell XFD1048576. If you put a dot in there, then ctrl+A and fill every cell in black, you can then print 34 million black pages from your office printer and get fired

[oncillabrigade]

Finally read Robins!

I have a lot of thoughts, but I just want to say this panel is the funniest thing I've ever seen:

[platoapproved]

louis + cruelty

[gongyussy]

rattling the bars of my cage screaming for bread

[toboldlymuppet]

come out swinging

[littlemizzlinguistics]

Studying linguistics is actually so wonderful because when you explain youth slang to older professors, instead of complaining about how "your generation can't speak right/ you're butchering the language" they light up and go “really? That’s so wonderful! What an innovative construction! Isn't language wonderful?"

[humming-fly]

was anyone gonna tell me shadow saved rouge's life in sa2 or was I just supposed to find that out playing the game myself

(this worked out as a rather fitting closer for the Final Day in Year of Shadow haha, hope ya'll have a fun new year! 🎉🎉🎉)

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

[rainbow-taishi]

HSR Jiaoqiu made in Microsoft Excel

+ snippet on how I made it

[quixoticanarchy]

once again thinking about this guy at the pigeon museum who was giving a little presentation about pigeon mating habits or something, and takes one look at me and my partner and immediately goes "oh and pigeons can be GAY, too!!!"

[smatterbrained]

Optimus should just bite Megatron really really hard that would fix a lot of things 

No.. I fear that would create a whole new problem

[chestnutroan]

Does anybody get attached to their paint blotting tissue?