#but we are not alone on this earth

[dozyisdead]

I’ve never really thought about how lonely it must be to be a “First” until I got into F1. I’d like to explore that a little bit with you guys if you don’t mind.

1. Sir Lewis Hamilton

We all know what makes him a First, but there’s layers to it. Lewis is the First Black driver, First Black point scorer, First Black race winner, First Black championship winner. He is a lot of Firsts, and he’s set and broken so many records, he’s become so decorated. He’s a master of his craft, but that is where it gets lonely. I don’t know if many realize it, but racism is rampant in the world, despite how many will deny it, and it’s very rampant in Europe. Yes, I can’t speak much as an American, but at the same time we do not deny it and try to hide it so vehemently as some of Europe does. And in that world Lewis has talked about being called racial slurs from a young age, when he was still in karting. There’s a specific interview I keep thinking of, and it breaks my heart every time I think of it. Lewis has been set alone from the second he started, and he has never been to blame for it. But him being a First has become so Important, and I know he has people that make it known that he is not alone.

2. Zhou Guanyu

I don’t think people realize this, But Zhou is the first and only Chinese F1 driver to ever race. He has become a pillar of movement in that act, in a way like Lewis. I know there are obvious differences in their positions, but it’s still a monumental feat. We have know that F1 is dominated by Europeans, and yes there have been asian drivers before him, but to be the First for your country? It’s a position filled with pressure and can often be isolating, especially when you take language and culture into consideration. Not only is he one of two Asian drivers on the grid, he’s the only one who speaks his language. And I’m speaking from the perspective of someone who’s learning other languages when I say English is hell to learn. It’s my first language and I do not understand it at all, I can’t imagine how hard it is for someone who’s uses completely different characters like Yuki or Zhou. But Zhou, he is loved, and I wish people would acknowledge the steps he has made as a First, as someone who opened a door for others.

3. Logan Sargeant

The first American on the gird to score points in over 30 years. Yes, there had been other American drivers since Andretti’s 1993 season, Scott Speed and Alexander Rossi, but they did not score points. There’s actually something that I would like to point out regarding one of his predecessors, Mr. Speed, as they both completed a season and a half. But, that’s beside the point. Logan, be the first in a long time, in this century, is a lonely thing. There’s other drivers who I think can attest to that, but I feel like it’s a very unique thing, especially when you come from a place where something like F1 isn’t as big as say NASCAR, or even Indy. It’s a little film of separation that you can feel, no matter if it’s as thin as a spider web.

4. Ralf Schumacher

The First openly homosexual former driver who raced in F1, it’s a beautiful feeling to know he’s become comfortable enough to share it. I can imagine the hell it caused him mentally and emotionally to be in such a position that made it to where every moment could be taken out of context. And I would like to point out the impact he made, by not revealing it until later. The fact that we knew him first as a good driver and not as “the gay man in F1” is so important and people might not understand that. He is a First of ground-shaking proportions, and I sometimes wish we could have known sooner, but I also understand him so well. I’m the first openly queer person in my family, and as the first openly queer person in a partially south asian family, it’s terrifying. I can’t imagine how it would have been for him, in what we call the peak of motorsports, in a sport that has so much distaste for even women participating, if someone who was queer was to try. He has put himself on a pedestal that shows others that it’s okay to exist in that world, not just drive. You, Ralf Schumacher, have done so much more than you can think.

There are MANY more, I know, but those three have stood out to me recently. Everyone has their own little pedestal that they stand on, that shows how unique they are, but there is nothing quite like a First. I have so much love for all of these men, and so much joy and sorrow for them.

Being a First is lonely, I know it well and I have learned it well, but when you are in a sport that gives you no privacy like F1, it becomes even lonelier. They are human, and as other Firsts in our own lives and worlds, we must not forget that.

[pyrrhiccomedy]

I want ADHD people and autistic people to have some kind of mutual outreach program. like, so many of our problems are adjacent but not exactly the same, so we develop different strategies to cope with them, and I just feel like we could all collectively get our shit together a little bit better if we had, like, a twin cities arrangement.

like, I (a person with ADHD) will teach a seminar on how exactly you are expected to lie in job interviews, complete with flowcharts and dialogue trees and trigger points for when eye contact is or is not necessary, if you (a person with autism) will teach a seminar I can go to right afterwards to explain how to actually organize the relentless deluge of information we're taking in all the time and sort it into useful categories without my brain shutting down and needing to go play Stardew Valley for three hours

[moonlit-imagines]

Rio Vidal - Green Witch

[a-most-beloved-fool]

absolute travesty that there are NO royalty-au spirk fics centered around the overwhelming amounts of devotion and loyalty between the two. WHERE are my fics with Spock on his knees pledging fealty to King James Kirk????

they're all about princes falling in love and arraigned marriages and political intrigue and YES that's GREAT and i do love them, but what if i want kings???

I need a fic about the bond between a king and his loyal advisor-slash-nobleman which has been slowly developing for DECADES before anyone involved gets their shit together, or a fic where Spock has practically taken on the role of King Consort before either of them notice simply because Kirk trusts him so much, or a fic where it slowly becomes apparent that King Kirk's loyalty is first to his kingdom, yes, but second to Spock alone, and he will go to war for him.

I need crazy stupid devotion, that's what I need!!!!

[justaz]

need post magic reveal/ban repeal where magic is free and everyone grows in their knowledge of just what magic is and how it works etc, etc. merlin (isn't one for bragging about his powers) doesn't really mention much about his magic so people just assume he has enough to get by with like chores but not enough to catch the ire of uther EXCEPT for gauis, lancelot, and arthur bc gaius and lancelot have known about him for years and know what he's capable of and arthur sat merlin down and demanded all the stories so arthur knows he'd be a formidable opponent but he doesn't really get it yk? so he's like "yeah merlin has magic and he's capable of defending himself and camelot so he's probably on the more powerful end of the spectrum like every other sorcerer who is powerful"

and then i need merlin to be Different. like noticeably different. like idk a sorcerer is like trying out to be court sorcerer (bc merlin doesn't want another job dammit arthur give it morgana or someone-) and they perform this elaborate spell that captivates merlin and he starts asking all these questions and the sorcerer is like "yeah it's super difficult, it took me months to get it right and it takes years for some others-" and they cut themselves off bc merlin was just like "i wanna try" and does it perfectly first try. the sorcerer is seething.

camelot is hit with a heatwave and everyone is suffering and arthur is just like "morgana can you make it rain or something? it's too hot to breathe." and morgana is just like "no you idiot i can't just bend nature to my will. it doesn't like that." and merlin finally arrives with waterskins full of nice, cold, refreshing drink that the knights are frothing at the mouth to get. arthur complains again and morgana huffs and merlin is like "has he been like that this whole time?" and morgana nods with a groan and merlin laughs before going "i can try something" and leaves before anyone can say anything and arthur looks at morgana and is like "i thought you said nature doesn't like to be controlled?" and she's like "it doesn't" and then they all chase after merlin but he's chilling in the courtyard with his eyes closed, not even chanting, and then the sky starts to darken as black clouds roll in, the temperature plummets and then...snow begins to fall. in july. they all end up having a snowball fight.

a power hungry sorcerer comes along and is like "emrys....he's perfect....just what i need...teehee" and casts some spell over merlin and begins to siphon his magic and his power and merlin feels waves of his magic flood through the connection and into the sorcerer and like he's a mix of panic and concern bc yeah this mf is taking his magic but they're taking his magic. merlin tries to bargain or talk them down while the knights and arthur try to attack but the sorcerer keeps pushing them back and ignores merlin and is like "i want power, i want your power" blah blah blah monologue time and they swing another wave of magic out at the knights and knock many out while killing some and merlin is just like "ok no that's all folks thanks" and starts to push his own magic through the connection. the sorcerer has this wild gleam in their eyes and they feel more and more power fill them and it's like a high until it gets too much and they frantically try to sever the connection and their telling merlin to stop but merlin is just like "i thought you wanted my power? i'm giving it to you" and continues to flood the sorcerer with his magic until gold begins to trace their skin and they idk explode or smth and then all the magic flies back into merlin and he flexes his hands. unnamed knights 3, 6, 22, 53, and 55 still died so it's a tragedy.

a bunch of sorcerers are entertaining at a feast (kind of like the trickler) and they cast illusions all around the room that look real enough (unless you look too closely or touch it bc they are somewhat see through and your hand would pass right through them) and it's a fun and joyous night. later that week, the knights bring it up during their break while training and merlin is like "sure, what illusion should i cast?" and after some back and forth, he settles on the illusion of a dragon. it's around the size and age of aithusa bc that's all he has to go off of and it's gold since he took inspiration from the pendragon crest all around the area. it jumps around and flaps it's wings to get some air and it's all fine and dandy until elyan goes to poke his hand through it's ribs but meets physical scales and he jumps up into percival's arms. merlin looks closer and is like "oh. its real. whoops." and leon is like "whoops?? you make a real life dragon and all you have to say is whoops?" and merlin shrugs and is like "it was an accident" and leon about keels over from a heart attack "an accident? how do you accidentally-" the dragon is considered a gift from magic to camelot and helps further heal the wounds of uther's purge.

idk just like merlin being casually the most powerful sorcerer to walk the earth and unnerving people just by how little he seems to care about his shows of power but they're all like "well he's just doing all these small things that don't harm anyone and he doesn't even seem to realize just how powerful he is so what can ya do?" and they leave it be and make peace with merlin being Like That. and then camelot/arthur is attacked or smth idk and then everyone gets to see exactly how powerful and dangerous merlin is

[kooki914]

What are asgore and spades favorite colors

[chicago-geniza]

Okay identified and isolated the nagging feeling, same one I had in college.

The post-film Q&A was a disappointingly shallow round of what my friend called "lesbian gender metaphysics"; the film was interpreted in a mostly superficial way, and even when people made rhetorical gestures at a more thoughtful analysis, they were just that--gestures. For example someone quoted Marx re: bourgeois wives as prostitutes held in common without once mentioning how money haunts the narrative, the implications of Violet's sex work, or how the ties of capital both "bind" and liberate the characters. That's like 101 shit. I guess--hm. It's stupid but I experience it as a betrayal when I feel alienated from a subculture that I approach as an affinity group, if that makes sense? Like we are marginalized weirdos together but then we don't have much in common either besides baseline political solidarity. And it makes me feel even more alone. Which is a silly thing to feel just because some gay people were being kind of dumb at a Leather Museum film Q&A but emotions are irrational lol. At least my friend and I got to be bitchy about it together afterward!!! Friendship is magic and there are kindred spirits everywhere even if I don't really believe there is a coherent/cohesive "community" out there for me--there are still PEOPLE!!!

[fidgetspringer]

Our 2024 Summary of Summits!

14. May - 667m. Our regular starting summit every year.

8. June - 978m. Dogless, but still worth it for one of my favourite summits.

19. July - 947m. Came back home after 5 hours without service to find the world in chaos (Crowdstrike incident)

27. December - 667m. The latest in the year we've ever done this summit.

And an honorable mention to the two summits I DNF'd this year. Both on my to-do list, and both the only summits I attempted this year that would have been new to me.

3. August - 1318m. And 14. September - 1326m. One DNF due to weather. the other because I got sick and had to turn back two hours in. Massive bummer but we'll try again next summer.

[edge-oftheworld]

do you ever just stop and think about how each band member is so incredibly talented in their own way and we get to watch not only that but the magic that happens when they work together?

[raayllum]

2x06 / 5x02

[qprpbj]

anyone wanna hear me yap about ponyboy going to college and getting put on academic suspension after his first year bc he’s so depressed he’s failing school. 🙂‍↕️

[agentark]

my personal headcanon is that Mrs. Flood is just an old woman who has lived in England her whole life and has simply been Paying Attention

[uncanny-tranny]

I was told by someone that I couldn’t call myself a transsexual because I had to go off T for health reasons and I haven’t had any gender affirming surgeries yet since I’m poor and disabled. Is this true? What are like, the requirements to be a transsexual? /gen

The requirements to be transsexual: to identify as transsexual

This might seem too... straightforward, but genuinely, medical transition is so complex and individual that it's worthless to make it so ridged. There are so many reasons you have to stop some aspect(s) of transition, even if you didn't want to! That doesn't mean you never transitioned or that it's "lesser" now that you stopped.

Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, I, for one, couldn't care less if you call yourself a transsexual. To my mind, it is as political as it is an identity. Being a transsexual isn't just about your identity but also your place in this world. "Transsexual menace" isn't just a cutesy little slogan but a political battle cry. It can be an attitude about changing sex, about the lucid and plastic nature of people, and so much more.

The word transsexual was made and popularized, honestly, with the idea that we are separate from others. I think we can take this back and make it ours. We can start by actually making it our own, not the cis world's own.

[starlos-soulmate]

I wish people gave Axis more attention. That poor guy is TRAUMATIZED

[allmightydepression]

Nobara nation remains undefeated noone indulged in more amount of copium than us

5 years we waited for five fucknig years to witness this I was her age when I saw her die in this essay i will

[princelycosmos]

“your highness” ✨