#happy things? happy things

[use-your-telescope]

Went to an awards event at work thinking I was just running the event and presenting an award, only for them to pull a fast one on me and present me with an award — one that *my students* nominated me for.

Not sharing specifics because I try to keep my hellsite presence separate from IRL, but with the state of education in the US right now (esp. post-secondary education, which is what I specialize in) it means the universe to know that what I do makes even a little bit of a difference in my students’ lives 🥹😭💕

[goldensunset]

if someone is talking about how much they love their parents do not jump in and start venting about your issues with your parents. if someone is venting about their issues with their parents do not jump in and start talking about how much you love your parents. peace and love amen swag city

[kedreeva]

I hope she gets this pack from every single person she knows that has seen her Dandelion crayon collection.

[source]

[Dandelion Crayon Video](which is a delight if you haven't seen it, pure joy encapsulated in wax)

[ivytea]

mansion of the apple moon 🍎🌙

[unikhroma]

how it feels to look at/listen to your own creations and enjoy them and appreciate how far you've come as an artist

[paintedcrows]

Whenever Bill sees KingOfNJ's fics through Stan's eyes he just thinks they have the same taste in fanfiction (disgusting. unthinkable) continued

[booasaur]

Lots of ominous news nowadays, but there are good things too! Thailand's Marriage Equality Law took effect today!

This tweet takes you to the top of a thread that lists all the changes, like replacing gendered terms like husband and wife with spouses, same-sex marriages have full legal status, same-sex couples can adopt and use IVF and create pre-nups, just a whole lot of steps to make them equal.

It's all just so amazing and joyous. They hosted a parade for the newlywed couples!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Knowledge Revenge.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

It's always so weird to come down from the biology heavens to see what the average person believes about animals, plants, ecosystems, just the world around them. I don't even mean things that one simply doesn't know because they've never been told or things that are confusing, I'm talking about people who genuinely do not see insects as animals. What are you saying. Every time I see a crawling or fluttering little guy I know that little guy has motivations and drive to fulfill those motivations. There are gears turning in their head! They are perceiving this world and they are drawing conclusions, they are conscious. And yet it's still a whole thing if various bugs of the world feel pain or if they are simply Instinct Machines that are Not Truly Aware of Anything At All????? Help!!!!!! How can you look at a little guy and think he is just the macroscopic animal version of a virus

[hinamie]

newest issue of first years fashion just dropped

[shorthistorian]

There are new retro-90s-style Beanie Babies and they're amazing???

[goomyloid]

The remorseful player

[johannesviii]

Repaired my fave jacket, got emotional, drew something about it

[aroaceleovaldez]

i had a thought of "do people not know what AUs are anymore?" and then i remembered nobody explains fandom stuff to new people anymore so it is entirely plausible people genuinely don't know what AUs are and nobody has explained it to them, so for today's lucky 10,000:

"AU" stands for "Alternate Universe" or "Alternative Universe" (same difference) and is basically any thought scenario for a fandom that isn't canon and can't fit within the canon universe. If it takes place in the canon universe but something is notably different, that is typically what's known as a "Canon divergent AU," because it diverges from canon.

an AU can be absolutely anything. There's a couple of widespread pan-fandom au scenarios that often get thrown around, like coffee shop aus, genderbend aus, hanahaki aus (hanahaki is a whole thing in itself i'd recommend researching on your own), etc. One you might hear sometimes is "crossover AU" which is when you have characters from one fandom interacting with characters from another.

You can have as many aus as you want. They can be whatever you want and you can do whatever you want in them. It's a sandbox for you to play around in and explore how things would be different or how the characters would act in those circumstances or environments. Maybe they have different relationships with each other. Maybe they behave slightly differently. Or you can just say "Okay, [x] is true. How did they get here? How would things have to be different for this to occur?" which can also be fun.

If you are ever confused about why people ship something that seems completely out of the blue or doesn't make sense to you in the canon setting, there's a good chance they like it in an AU setting! Not everything everybody is interacting with is necessarily the canon! Not everybody wants things to exist in canon and just want to explore playing dolls in a different sandbox and that's okay. And their sandbox might look a lot different than yours, and that's also okay. You have the freedom to make your sandbox whatever you please. Do whatever you want forever. Get funky with it. AUs are fun.

Okay that's my schpeal. everybody go have fun and play nice now.

[ionomycin]

my favorite pieces from 2024