#living my bestlife

[clavissionary-position]

gilbert, the first rule of war is

(nsfw)

to never risk your masturbating hand. i don't know what else to tell you. but i hear using your non-dominant hand comes with the added perk of feeling like a stranger is jerking you off, so

[stylists-supporting-stylists]

Oh, you know, just Medusa living her best festival life

Credit to @flouncyyy

I’ll probably be posting these forever because I can literally not decide which one is my favorite !! I using all @dangerjonescreative color of course and @farouksystems @chihaircare products oh and yes j made that headpiece

#djhalloween #medusa #medusacostume #snakeheadpiece #handmade #editorialhair #festivalhair #neonhair #crown #snakecrown #wigs #curlywigs #hairart #bestlife #stylistssupportingstylists

[valaratminaforaldrar]

ate two of the best sandwiches of my life in 4 days im living the bestlife

[joshuawithers]

In 2115 will we still commemorate Anzac Day like we do today?

Anzac Day 1916 was a very different ANZAC Day compared to that I experienced in Canberra this morning. Martin Crotty, a historian at the University of Queensland, said that Anzac Day commemorations have “suited political purposes right from 1916 when the first Anzac Day march was held in London and Australia, which were very much about trying to recruit more people to join the war during 1916-1918.”

As war efforts changed over the last 109 years, and eventually subsided, the Anzac Day commemorations have taken on a more solemn and meaningful practice. After attending the 2024 Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial this morning–my first in Canberra, and possibly my fifth as an adult–I have some thoughts.

I’m not going to discuss how I thought arriving half an hour early for a 5:30 am service would be “early enough” to secure a good viewpoint–it was not, and I’m pretty sure that most of the 30,000 attendees beat me to the Sculpture Garden this morning. Nor will I mention how the lacklustre audio and video production at the memorial left me feeling blind and deaf, yet my hearing was sharp enough at 5:30 am to hear someone vomiting behind me and a staff member using one of those hand-held clickers commonly used by bouncers, walking through the crowd in the dark, clicking away.

I won’t wax lyrical about how the male performers were named and the master of ceremonies asked the crowd to applaud them, yet the female performers were neither named nor acknowledged.

Where my mind is at, here in the Canberra Qantas Lounge at 4pm on the twenty-fifth of April, is the book I’m currently seven percent through on my Kobo e-reader, “Van Diemen’s Land” by James Boyce, and a PhD candidate from Turkey who was ahead of me in line for a bacon and egg roll after the service.

The PhD candidate studying tourism in Turkey has come to Australia for a few weeks to complete his study on why Australians aren’t visiting Gallipoli for Anzac Day anymore. Apparently, for the centenary in 2015, over 40,000 Australians and New Zealanders made the pilgrimage, but numbers have significantly dropped, to about 1,500 last year.

I can’t shake the feeling that Anzac Day needs to continue to evolve.

In 2115, are we expecting our great-grandchildren to be trekking to Gallipoli, or even to the Australian War Memorial, to remember the events of April 1915?

Or can the spirit of Anzac Day start to embody more of the Australian spirit, leading me to James Boyce’s “Van Diemen’s Land”?

The thorough rewriting and retelling of Tasmania’s history should be a must-read for all Australians–not for the interest in the Apple Isle–but for a thorough understanding of the relationship between the first Australians, the early whalers and sealers, the French, the Dutch, and the British.

I was sold a narrative as a child that there was nothing here on Terra Australis except for some savages until the Brits arrived, and then some things happened, then we got Channel V. My little brother was born in 1988, so he got a cool birth certificate because the country was 200 years old, and I got a trip to Expo ‘88. Simpler times.

Modern brave and valiant efforts to flesh out that story with truth, to include First Australians, their sovereignty, and their story, have undoubtedly helped me understand more about the brutality inflicted by the early settlers and the sudden change to the Aboriginal way of life– one day they’re living their hashtag bestlife, and the next, some guy is waving a metal rod of murder towards them, killing some of their friends and family.

James Boyce’s nuanced approach to the 18th and 19th-century tension has led me to a greater understanding of the times. An understanding that softens the often poisonous narrative about the early explorers and convicts, acknowledging that they were strangers in a new and foreign land, and also that the locals were being impacted by strangers in their homeland.

One simple story that greatly impacted me was about how back-burning was misunderstood. We now know that Australian Aborigines are experts in land and bushfire management, and we also have evidence that being caught in a bushfire isn’t exactly conducive to survival. In what would be one of the earliest misunderstandings between local Aboriginals and settlers, the Aboriginals were back-burning on their land, as was their right and responsibility, but the British were terrified and believed they were under attack from the Aboriginals.

There are countless other stories from that time of the early explorers, soldiers, and convicts having extremely positive relationships with the First Australians.

But the scarlet thread through it all are tensions between the nations and their people.

The path of reconciliation made its way into the twentieth century where the First Nations people of Australia fought alongside the first immigrants of Australia in World War I, albeit paid dismally and treated worse, and still today our people struggle with that tension between our peoples, working feverishly to close that gap and heal the wounds.

I was reminded of that as one of the speakers at the War Memorial dawn service this morning recounted the 1944 story of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, where HMAS Australia was attacked by the Japanese.

In 2024, Japan is the number one nation Australians are visiting–willingly, for leisure and fun–only 80 years after we lost thirty Australians to a Japanese kamikaze aircraft attack.

The story I see being told on Anzac Day 2115 is a story of principles being held and fought for, and tensions being identified and resolved, a story of reconciliation.

Perhaps today we can start sharing that beautiful, rich, and rare story of resolved tension, principles of treaty between the First Australian nations and those of us who come across the seas for the boundless plains to share. May we advance Australia fair.

[creatingtodayinvestinginme]

On the very last day of your life do you think it will matter what anyone else said or did?

Do you think the actions they took and the dreams they followed will matter to you? #🙅‍♀️

NOPE!

What’s going to matter to you is what #you did, what you said, who you were through your life, the lessons you learned and passed on, the dreams you turned into reality, the actions you took through every day you lived #💯

#YOUMATTER #💯💯💯 #Accept yourself for you just as you are knowing that you, just as you are, have the #ability, #potential, and #freedom to be, do, and have whatever it is YOU #CHOOSE

My best suggestion? Choose you. Choose #today Choose #now

#youareamazing and #youareworthit 10000%!!!

#believeit #beit #loveit and #loveyourself

We’ve got #onelife so us time to make it the #bestlife because it’s #worthit

#perspective #mindset #fearLESS #live and #be #free #boba #lifebydesign

[efino-media]

Transform your health and wellness with our expert tips and insights.

Discover the latest trends in nutrition, fitness, mental health, personal finance, entrepreneurship and learn how to make meaningful changes to live your best life.

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Link in bio 📌

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#efino #efinofitlife #latest #trends #nutrition #fitness #mental #health #personalfinance #entrepreneurship #meaningful #bestlife #sexual #wellness #motherhood #parenting #happylife #healthtips

[autisticmight]

trying to live my bestlife but currently my brain is demanding i do baking and i'm just??? with what???

[reggiefaer]

♥️ Two years ago today ♥️ I fall in love with #Sacramento more every day. . I've learned so much about myself in the past 3 years. Twice I have moved to brand new cities in California where I knew just one or even zero people. . In Palm Springs I met a forever friend and really got in touch with myself and experienced the desert where I was born in a solitary way that was lonely but perfect for finding myself. I created no art and only absorbed life and my reality - which was trying and painful, but rewarding. . In Sacramento, I experienced some of life's hardest tragedies including losing half my possessions in a robbery and other losses that could have broken me. All while working in vaccines and testing that people viewed as "political." My mental health was constantly tested. . The reason I know I belong here was because even thru all that- I never wanted to leave. Even when friends suggested I leave, I couldn't think of any place I'd rather go. I knew I couldn't stay in Palm Springs: job market, etc. I knew I had to leave LA and Rivco, but Sacramento? . Ugh, man I just love it here. I discover more beauty and fun places everyday. It's really nice to find a home. This is the longest I've lived somewhere since I left Philly in 2016. . So happy I made this jump and had Faith in myself. These journeys have been amazing. I'm so happy to be here, in every way. Def #goodenough 🎶 . #thankful #ilovesacramento #california #bestlife #luckyme (at Sacramento, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/Co5fIIWywq5/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[gwen-tolios]

Ace Book Review: Firebreak by Nicole Kroner-Stace

Summary: Two corporations have replaced the US, splitting the country between them: Stellaxis Innovations and Greenleaf. New Liberty City is the only amalgamated city split between the two and is in a perpetual state of war. Here, Mallory streams Stellaxis's wargame, SecOps, to eke out a hardscrabble living from tips. A chance encounter with one of the game's rare super-soldier NPCs leads to a side job for Mal--looking to link missing children to SecOps characters. Mal's sudden burst in online fame rivals her deepening fear of what she is uncovering about BestLife's developer and puts her in the kind of danger she's only experienced through her avatar.

Buy Link

Ace Rep: ⭐

I hate to give it one star, it is own voices ace rep, but the truth of the matter is the only reason my ace book club knew it was ace rep was that we were reading it for ace book club. The single line referencing it could mean anything, and I like my rep a little more obvious.

Ace Friendliness: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

While the rep was low, the ace themes of this were high. Mal and her streaming partner aren't quite at QPR levels, but it's obvious the relationship is important to both of them and it's extremely platonic. Mal also has a fandom friend crush, a type of relationship that most of us have experienced even if it is rarely seen in media, which made this book relatable in a unique way. We appreciated how deep, platonic relationships (and not family ones!) drove character growth and the plot. There's also not a single romance mentioned anywhere, even with side characters.

This was also super important for the author to portray, as she tells Culturess in this interview.

Reading Experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

As a bookclub member said, this book is grounded in reality. Sometimes that reality was a little too close and it made me uncomfortable - scenes of police brutality, laws that exist for the benefit of corporations, marketing as propaganda, the sense of wanting to do something but not sure what or how. The enemy in this story is Stellaxis, and the overreach of a company that controls your utilities, food, stores, rights, and medical care only for profit is not hard to imagine.

This is a fast, tight book that bounces between video game scenes, real-life battles, and domestic scenes that are all about the struggle for survival. Sometimes I wish I had longer transition scenes, but it's not hard at all to relate to Mal. How to protect yourself while helping others. What to do with information only you have. Striving for change, without knowing exactly what that change would be.

This is a solid book well worth the read.

[nycorix]

HAPPY 2/22/22 TO THE NKS-VERSE FANDOM LOL. I decided extremely last-minute (read: yesterday) to do a lil mini-project in honor of 22 and arospec week!! So here's a three part oneshot feat. 22/the ghost + platonic intimacy with 06 / Mal / Wasp in that order 🥲🥲🥲

[cauterizer]

dating a man with long hair and a cat where am i

[littlepeoplebigadventures]

Finally! We brought a classic bus to convert into our home!

She needs ALOT of love inside and out. We want to keep her looking like she did in her glory days on the outside and craft and glorious home for the family to live on!

Can not wait. What a wonderful, exciting challenge ahead!

[starfoxrry]

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[bernsay87]

Dreams aren’t perfect , they come true not free.

[baked96]

what if all I can do today is the absolute bare minimum. Washing a few dishes and tidying up the lounge. Bypassing my job app to open this, instead. Then deciding to order in curry and watch dexter new blood. It's Wednesday and it feels like Sunday. At least the breeze is kind.

[thedialup]

my best friend living his #bestlife!!!! and tommy's there too I guess.