#everything is changing

[digitallovergirl]

if you see me putting my account through a whole revamp, don't say anything <33

[zingaplanet]

I've seen bits and pieces of Nadal's movistar interview and it's very fascinating. He's always more open and expressive in Spanish but there's just something that's different. I knew he was a realist and has a very grounded/realistic outlook on his life, I just can't help feeling a bit sad on this one. Though he's literally stating nothing but facts, it hits too close to resigned acceptance this time and feels a bit like a retirement interview.

I've always seen him as the accept-the-problem-let's-move-on kinda guy, you can see this a lot in his tactic discussion during laver cup matches and it's what makes him a great player I suppose. He's a problem solver, he doesn't really worry about things outside his control, "He's hitting a good serve, that's fine nothing you can do about it, you have to wait it out," "the wind is not perfect today but that's tennis, nothing you can do you have to adapt" etc etc. He was never really one to dwell on the past, always with the it happened let's move on kinda attitude, which I think is crucial for top level atheletes to not get bogged down by your wins or losses.

But it seems like he talks a lot about regret in this one. He said there are times he prioritised his competitive urges more than his health and life, like in Roland Garros this year where he shouldn't have stayed that long. He talks about pain, about the tiredness of living with chronic pain, about not being able to walk down the stairs, about making life choices of what really matters and what doesn't.

He's very honest and raw, he said he didn't congratulate Djokovic yet on his 24th slam because it honestly hasn't crossed his mind and because he might also had to adjust to someone new having the most GS.

What's perhaps more painful is what seems like this feeling of resigned acceptance that the sport is moving on without him. He's being very realistic, fair and honest about it. He said he's very proud of Alcaraz and congratulated him for his achievements but then admitted he's not that in the field anymore. Tennis will always be a part of him, but he doesn't really have friends left in the sport, except for Federer, who he calls from time to time. It's fascinating that he referred to tennis in general instead of just the current next generation ATP players who he never really competed against (and hence wouldn't have known anyway) as Federer is clearly also no longer in the sport.

I have no idea what his life is like these days but it gives the impression that he's seemingly trying to make peace with no longer having any relations with professional tennis (apart from his secluded academy of course) and Roger's the only one he still occassionaly keeps in touch with. He talks about the future a lot, about the many things he could decide to become tomorrow if he wants to, about being president of Real Madrid, about his academy that he cares deeply for, about maybe one day getting into coaching.

If I'm to make something at all out of this, Rafa seems.. ready. He says an illusion is for him to come back and win another Australian Open or Roland Garros (still with that little twinkle of hope in his eyes 🥺), but what's not an illusion is him trying his very best one last time to go back on court, to enjoy the ride, play the sport that defined his life, compete in the stadiums he loves the most, to properly say his goodbye.

[challengerschurroscene]

alex cut his hair............. dont touch me

[a-murmur-of-a-prayer]

Ramblings About Art

(And I do mean ramblings because it’s 1:30 am and I should go to bed and I should probably have waited to post this until I wake up but fuck it we ball) At the end of the day it’s just the fact that we would be nowhere without art. A few weeks ago my dog died -I am doing better than I was but I also haven’t yet been to my parents’ house since it happened. Then I got laid off. Then the entire 2024 election happened.

And somewhere, in the middle of all that, I read a fanfiction that changed my perspective on the way I was grieving. (It’s the masterful between the essence/and the descent fic on AO3.) I had been trying not to think about my dog; now, after reading this, it helped me to be more open about my grief, to remember my dog and think about her and talk about her, because as painful as it is, the ones we love will only live on in the remnants of our grief. It made me appreciate the people I have in my life a little bit more, and the time I have with them.

Then I watched We Live In Time, which hammered in the same point but in a way that made me appreciate my OWN life, that made me want to live for the first time in a while because this is the only time we get, and we have to make use of it. We just have to; we can’t be afraid of making the wrong decision or doing something we think we’re not supposed to. We have to live, we can’t be afraid of what will happen, because at the end of the day our life is filled with moments - some of those moments will be devastating, but some of them have the chance to be really, really beautiful, and it’s up to you how much happiness and how much beauty you put into your life. The night I got laid off, I watched The Good Place, season 3 episode 12 Pandemonium to be precise. An episode, as tragic as it is, that reminds you that bad things do happen, tragedies occur, but they do not erase the love or relationships that were made - that in the tragedy of life, there is still beauty. Sometimes, good things come to an end, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t worth it - it just makes them all the more special.

The point of all these ramblings (I should really go to bed) is really…where the fuck would we be without art? What would I have done, if I wasn’t able to turn to any of this? I don’t know, but I’d certainly be way worse off than I am. I’m tempted to think that there’s something wrong with me for how I’ve lived my life, that I should be growing out of this, that I should be thinking about adult things - but all the adult things are depressing, and they make me cynical and believe there is no point to life. And sure, maybe there isn’t. But art at least gives me the illusion of joy - it gives me something to hope for. A lot of these stories I’ve consumed are sad. But there’s a kind of hope amidst the sadness - and they’re all working toward the same point, that the purpose of life is love. The people that we love, the relationships that we form…it’s better to have formed them at all, and to experience the pain of loss, than to never live without them. And at the end of the day, as awful as I feel after this past week, there are two things I’m looking forward to: the job interview I have tomorrow, and all the fanfiction plans I’ll turn to afterwards.

The interview might go really well - it might also go badly. But regardless of what happens, my writing will still be there; and so will everyone else’s. There is something special about the way we turn to art when we seem to have no hope left in life - and this is why I went to film school, this is why I obsess over media, and why I hope I never stop. And in this time, I’d advise all of you to turn to art, too, whether you’re creating or consuming it, or both. That’s something that no president or world leader or political disaster will ever take away from you. For my part, I’m personally going to take this time to create as much art as I fucking can - in the hopes that it will affect someone and change one person’s life in the way that I’ve been changed by everything I just referenced.

[nicistrying]

I welcome change. This is going to be the making of me ☀️

I tell myself through gritted teeth on my walk this morning as my little world of routine falls apart around me 😖

[imaggots]

i understand the want to sleep naked in silk sheets in the cold. i wosh to be a cold piece of meat in a freezer thats not freezing

[heavennexttoyou]

it scares me, how fast time passes

[sleepy-lilac]

hi it’s been a min 👀

[flufftopiamailpidgeons]

I'm drinking strawberry soda for the first time since I was six.

I don't know if that's really the last time I had it, but I'm sure that's the age where the last drips of nostalgia were still wet on my tongue.

I wonder if anyone else remembers their childhood like strawberry soda.

If they remember the games they use to play as a child in the same way I remember naming myself after a very temperamental cat and making potions out of spoiled milk and olive oil and way too many drops of food coloring.

I wonder if childhood comes back to us all in that way, as remembering that my father used to sneak me cherry coke to help me sleep, never knowing or truly caring if the stories are true.

Of fondly recalling things in shaky detail, only to be corrected and have the tale be even more whimsical than you had predicted.

I wonder if childhood is giving into the urge to have just one more cookie, maybe finish a whole thing of ice cream in one night and think about the consequences later.

I wonder if I ever was a child.

I wonder if I ever left childhood.

We all wonder, but at the end of the day...

It's about breathing it all out.

Isn't it?

[asgardian--angels]

Planet's Fucked: What Can You Do To Help? (Long Post)

Since nobody is talking about the existential threat to the climate and the environment a second Trump term/Republican government control will cause, which to me supersedes literally every other issue, I wanted to just say my two cents, and some things you can do to help. I am a conservation biologist, whose field was hit substantially by the first Trump presidency. I study wild bees, birds, and plants.

In case anyone forgot what he did last time, he gagged scientists' ability to talk about climate change, he tried zeroing budgets for agencies like the NOAA, he attempted to gut protections in the Endangered Species Act (mainly by redefining 'take' in a way that would allow corporations to destroy habitat of imperiled species with no ramifications), he tried to do the same for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (the law that offers official protection for native non-game birds), he sought to expand oil and coal extraction from federal protected lands, he shrunk the size of multiple national preserves, HE PULLED US OUT OF THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT, and more.

We are at a crucial tipping point in being able to slow the pace of climate change, where we decide what emissions scenario we will operate at, with existential consequences for both the environment and people. We are also in the middle of the Sixth Mass Extinction, with the rate of species extinctions far surpassing background rates due completely to human actions. What we do now will determine the fate of the environment for hundreds or thousands of years - from our ability to grow key food crops (goodbye corn belt! I hated you anyway but), to the pressure on coastal communities that will face the brunt of sea level rise and intensifying extreme weather events, to desertification, ocean acidification, wildfires, melting permafrost (yay, outbreaks of deadly frozen viruses!), and a breaking down of ecosystems and ecosystem services due to continued habitat loss and species declines, especially insect declines. The fact that the environment is clearly a low priority issue despite the very real existential threat to so many people, is beyond my ability to understand. I do partly blame the public education system for offering no mandatory environmental science curriculum or any at all in most places. What it means is that it will take the support of everyone who does care to make any amount of difference in this steeply uphill battle.

There are not enough environmental scientists to solve these issues, not if public support is not on our side and the majority of the general public is either uninformed or actively hostile towards climate science (or any conservation science).

So what can you, my fellow Americans, do to help mitigate and minimize the inevitable damage that lay ahead?

I'm not going to tell you to recycle more or take shorter showers. I'll be honest, that stuff is a drop in the bucket. What does matter on the individual level is restoring and protecting habitat, reducing threats to at-risk species, reducing pesticide use, improving agricultural practices, and pushing for policy changes. Restoring CONNECTIVITY to our landscape - corridors of contiguous habitat - will make all the difference for wildlife to be able to survive a changing climate and continued human population expansion.

**Caveat that I work in the northeast with pollinators and birds so I cannot provide specific organizations for some topics, including climate change focused NGOs. Scientists on tumblr who specialize in other fields, please add your own recommended resources. **

We need two things: FUNDING and MANPOWER.

You may surprised to find that an insane amount of conservation work is carried out by volunteers. We don't ever have the funds to pay most of the people who want to help. If you really really care, consider going into a conservation-related field as a career. It's rewarding, passionate work.

At the national level, please support:

The Nature Conservancy

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Cornell Lab of Ornithology (including eBird)

National Audubon Society

Federal Duck Stamps (you don't need to be a hunter to buy one!)

These first four work to acquire and restore critical habitat, change environmental policy, and educate the public. There is almost certainly a Nature Conservancy-owned property within driving distance of you. Xerces plays a very large role in pollinator conservation, including sustainable agriculture, native bee monitoring programs, and the Bee City/Bee Campus USA programs. The Lab of O is one of the world's leaders in bird research and conservation. Audubon focuses on bird conservation. You can get annual memberships to these organizations and receive cool swag and/or a subscription to their publications which are well worth it. You can also volunteer your time; we need thousands of volunteers to do everything from conducting wildlife surveys, invasive species removal, providing outreach programming, managing habitat/clearing trails, planting trees, you name it. Federal Duck Stamps are the major revenue for wetland conservation; hunters need to buy them to hunt waterfowl but anyone can get them to collect!

THERE ARE DEFINITELY MORE, but these are a start.

Additionally, any federal or local organizations that seek to provide support and relief to those affected by hurricanes, sea level rise, any form of coastal climate change...

At the regional level:

These are a list of topics that affect major regions of the United States. Since I do not work in most of these areas I don't feel confident recommending specific organizations, but please seek resources relating to these as they are likely major conservation issues near you.

PRAIRIE CONSERVATION & PRAIRIE POTHOLE WETLANDS

DRYING OF THE COLORADO RIVER (good overview video linked)

PROTECTION OF ESTUARIES AND SALTMARSH, ESPECIALLY IN THE DELAWARE BAY AND LONG ISLAND (and mangroves further south, everglades etc; this includes restoring LIVING SHORELINES instead of concrete storm walls; also check out the likely-soon extinction of saltmarsh sparrows)

UNDAMMING MAJOR RIVERS (not just the Colorado; restoring salmon runs, restoring historic floodplains)

NATIVE POLLINATOR DECLINES (NOT honeybees. for fuck's sake. honeybees are non-native domesticated animals. don't you DARE get honeybee hives to 'save the bees')

WILDLIFE ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER (support the Mission Butterfly Center!)

INVASIVE PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES (this is everywhere but the specifics will differ regionally, dear lord please help Hawaii)

LOSS OF WETLANDS NATIONWIDE (some states have lost over 90% of their wetlands, I'm looking at you California, Ohio, Illinois)

INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE, esp in the CORN BELT and CALIFORNIA - this is an issue much bigger than each of us, but we can work incrementally to promote sustainable practices and create habitat in farmland-dominated areas. Support small, local farms, especially those that use soil regenerative practices, no-till agriculture, no pesticides/Integrated Pest Management/no neonicotinoids/at least non-persistent pesticides. We need more farmers enrolling in NRCS programs to put farmland in temporary or permanent wetland easements, or to rent the land for a 30-year solar farm cycle. We've lost over 99% of our prairies to corn and soybeans. Let's not make it 100%.

INDIGENOUS LAND-BACK EFFORTS/INDIGENOUS LAND MANAGEMENT/TEK (adding this because there have been increasing efforts not just for reparations but to also allow indigenous communities to steward and manage lands either fully independently or alongside western science, and it would have great benefits for both people and the land; I know others on here could speak much more on this. Please platform indigenous voices)

HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS (get your neighbors to stop dumping fertilizers on their lawn next to lakes, reduce agricultural runoff)

OCEAN PLASTIC (it's not straws, it's mostly commercial fishing line/trawling equipment and microplastics)

A lot of these are interconnected. And of course not a complete list.

At the state and local level:

You probably have the most power to make change at the local level!

Support or volunteer at your local nature centers, local/state land conservancy non-profits (find out who owns&manages the preserves you like to hike at!), state fish & game dept/non-game program, local Audubon chapters (they do a LOT). Participate in a Christmas Bird Count!

Join local garden clubs, which install and maintain town plantings - encourage them to use NATIVE plants. Join a community garden!

Get your college campus or city/town certified in the Bee Campus USA/Bee City USA programs from the Xerces Society

Check out your state's official plant nursery, forest society, natural heritage program, anything that you could become a member of, get plants from, or volunteer at.

Volunteer to be part of your town's conservation commission, which makes decisions about land management and funding

Attend classes or volunteer with your land grant university's cooperative extension (including master gardener programs)

Literally any volunteer effort aimed at improving the local environment, whether that's picking up litter, pulling invasive plants, installing a local garden, planting trees in a city park, ANYTHING. make a positive change in your own sphere. learn the local issues affecting your nearby ecosystems. I guarantee some lake or river nearby is polluted

MAKE HABITAT IN YOUR COMMUNITY. Biggest thing you can do. Use plants native to your area in your yard or garden. Ditch your lawn. Don't use pesticides (including mosquito spraying, tick spraying, Roundup, etc). Don't use fertilizers that will run off into drinking water. Leave the leaves in your yard. Get your school/college to plant native gardens. Plant native trees (most trees planted in yards are not native). Remove invasive plants in your yard.

On this last point, HERE ARE EASY ONLINE RESOURCES TO FIND NATIVE PLANTS and LEARN ABOUT NATIVE GARDENING:

Xerces Society Pollinator Conservation Resource Center

Pollinator Pathway

Audubon Native Plant Finder

Homegrown National Park (and Doug Tallamy's other books)

National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder (clunky but somewhat helpful)

Heather Holm (for prairie/midwest/northeast)

MonarchGard w/ Benjamin Vogt (for prairie/midwest)

Native Plant Trust (northeast & mid-atlantic)

Grow Native Massachusetts (northeast)

Habitat Gardening in Central New York (northeast)

There are many more - I'm not familiar with resources for western states. Print books are your biggest friend. Happy to provide a list of those.

Lastly, you can help scientists monitor species using citizen science. Contribute to iNaturalist, eBird, Bumblebee Watch, or any number of more geographically or taxonomically targeted programs (for instance, our state has a butterfly census carried out by citizen volunteers).

In short? Get curious, get educated, get involved. Notice your local nature, find out how it's threatened, and find out who's working to protect it that you can help with. The health of the planet, including our resilience to climate change, is determined by small local efforts to maintain and restore habitat. That is how we survive this. When government funding won't come, when we're beat back at every turn trying to get policy changed, it comes down to each individual person creating a safe refuge for nature.

Thanks for reading this far. Please feel free to add your own credible resources and organizations.

[gibbearish]

love when ppl defend the aggressive monetization of the internet with "what, do you just expect it to be free and them not make a profit???" like. yeah that would be really nice actually i would love that:)! thanks for asking

[melonsharks]

au where everything is the same except mabel and dipper have been going to gravity falls every year before the show takes place since like kindergarten.

its a pretty simple premise that derives mostly from my desire to explore interpersonal relationships and the ways a place and people can change from a young child’s point of view. it doesn’t change canon that much either, admittedly, i just wanted to draw childhood friends stuff LOL. ill call it uhhhhhhhh every summer au.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Everyone loves FNAF music man.. even Michael

[theglamorousscarecrow]

why is being 21 so hard?

[seniorlifepage]

number 8

College things and graduation are starting to feel so real. While walking through Target you see all the cards for graduates and the flowers and gift bags and it is really starting to sink in that highschool is going to be something of the past in less than a month. I cannot imagine life without waking up every weekday, going to school and seeing the same familiar faces in the halls everyday. Instead it is going to be having different classes at random times and seeing new faces everyday around campus. Also... not being at home! I think that is what I am dreading most because my room is my safe place. I have made it so comforting and welcoming and I am not prepared to say goodbye to it and in return say hello to a twin xl and barely any room and lets not forget the shared bathroom with your floor. It is all really sinking in and I do not deal with change well so this will be an interesting next few months.

[anxiouslittlecarrot]

I want everybody who’s calling Ken a Trophy Husband to know that he’s actually a Trophy Boyfriend, because when Ruth Handler invented Ken in the 1960s, she was adamant that he would never marry her and instead be her “handsome steady”, so that Barbie remained a figure of independence for the little girls and was never put in the position of housewife.

Her house is hers. She bought it and furnished it with money she made in her own job. In STEM, in politics, in healthcare, in fashion, in academy, in customer service. Her credit card is in her name (women in the US couldn’t have their own regardless of marital status until 1974). And it’s all pink and fashionable because femininity and badassness aren’t mutually exclusive. No matter who you are, you can be anything.

That’s why Barbie’s slogan is “you can be anything”. Teaching these ideals to little girls is why Barbie was created. Empowering women and empowering femininity is the original meaning of the Barbie doll. It’s not that you have to be all this to be a woman, but if you are all or some of this, you too are awesome.

And somehow pop culture deliberately changed that narrative. Sexualised, bimbofied, and villainised her, when she actually isn’t responsible for the impossible beauty standards — people are, she’s just a stylised, not-to-scale toy like most others.

Men are frothing because he’s just Ken and I guess they were expecting her to be just Barbie, but that’s exactly what Ken is. Canonically. A badass woman’s himbo boyfriend.

This movie has the potential to radically change the way we collectively see Barbie into what Ruth Handler originally intended, I’m so very excited