#metric is the best

[pyrolitheus]

Dear friend (idk what your pronouns are so I'm going with this), we americans already know our measuring system is bullshit. A good portion of us who know how it compares to yours already understand how bullshit it is and want different.

The population of the us in its entirety is ridiculously huge and takes up a shit ton of space.

What I'm saying is:

You don't have to insult us in every other sentence in your post abt density and pricing. It was a really cool thing to learn abt, but being insulted in every other sentence is really enraging! I get it! It's stupid! But jfc don't be an ass!

This is long, please bear with me. For anyone who gets impaled through the skull on sight when seeing a wall of text, Microsoft Edge has a built in immersive reader that is compatible with Tumblr posts and will read them aloud to you.

Dear Anon, I am writing this half to you, and half as a sort of open letter. There are things in here that you probably already know, they're just here because this blog has an international audience and that means I've got readers who don't know what it's like to grow up here and I've filled in some blanks for them even though my response is addressed to you. I'm putting that up front because I don't want to make you feel condescended to.

I think perhaps the part of that post that you missed is the part where I am an American. The fact that I am one makes that post a pretty good example of the point you make in the above ask about how a lot of us actually do know metric, and how a lot of us believe the non-metric units we use here in the USA are bullshit and want something better. Now that you know I am an American, you and I are probably in perfect agreement about everything in this situation with the possible exception of whether or not my post was insulting.

I never expressed consternation with people, only with units. To me, that distinction means that I never insulted anyone. Punctuating my post with rage against the units was something I thought people might find funny, American or otherwise, and perhaps relatable for many Americans, especially American scientists like me.

For me, growing up in America meant being taught by school, by my community, by media, and by my extended family to be prideful about our nation to a fault, prideful of myself by extension, and to take offense to any possible slight made against America, or myself, accordingly. And not just take offense, but to get Very Angry but call the source of that anger "insulting" or "offensive," and then defend accordingly. Growing up in America meant being taught to be Very Angry in a lot of ways about a lot of things, actually, now that I think about it.

Being an adult in America has (for me) involved a long (and still ongoing) process of unlearning all of that for the sake of finding peace, because it is really just no fun to live in a near-constant state of anger and there are more-pleasant options. Besides, I generally prefer to treat people with respect (I am sure you do too, after all, even your anonymous offended ask was far more polite than a lot of people are on the internet, especially when anonymous). Treating people with respect is difficult for me to do when I'm lashing out at people out of anger all the time (which was how I dutifully was as a child and teen), especially when I'm feeling righteously justified in lashing out. I am pleased to say that all that American cultural brainwashing is much easier to unlearn now that I have found a bunch of American friends who value kindness and accountability and give second chances and so on while we all unlearn this mess together.

The more I learn how to engage with the world without letting anger take the wheel, the more I feel like a real adult, and the less likely I am to mistake someone's words as personally insulting when they aren't and the more likely I - and the people around me - are to have a good time.

I obviously don't know you, so I have no way to know if you're going through something similar, but it never surprises me to find out that an angry anon - especially one who took something impersonal personally - is a fellow American, because many (most?) of us Americans have to actively work to undo deeply ingrained things we've been taught our whole lives if we want to figure out how to engage with the world without letting anger dictate our words and actions, and without letting anger become this weird source of justification that it is often viewed/used as in this country. Anyway, that sort of major shift can take years or decades or more depending on the person, but gosh, it is so worth it! If weirdly pervasive anger/offense/whatever is something you're dealing with, and you choose to DM me, I will help you find resources. If it's not something you're dealing with, I am so glad you were raised or are being raised better than I was!

Anger/offense clouds our perceptions, as you've probably noticed before. If you go back and reread that post, I think you'll be able to tell it was written by an American. It has indicators such as using American currency and giving American average 2022 middle class household income to provide context for readers outside the USA who have no idea what $10k USD really means. It even explicitly says at one point, "For my fellow Americans suffering through living with an archaic measurement system..." which, in addition to making it clear that I am an American, directly supports the point you made in your ask above about how many of us really wish we had metric here as standard practice. And if you weren't upset by earlier parts of the post, I am certain you would have read the indicators clearly. This clouding of perception is just one more reason I dislike the anger-loving side of our culture here in America. It makes it real hard for us to communicate with each other effectively because it prevents us from understanding each other even when we communicate clearly.

I value being called out very deeply because that is what has allowed me to pursue the growth described above. Sometimes I really do say or post insulting things without realizing it, and most of the call-outs I get are in those situations. Call-outs like yours allow me to apologize and make amends and any necessary edits. So, even though I disagree with the idea that this particular post of mine was insulting, I am still deeply grateful to you for reaching out to me. Your ask is a gift, and I thank you for it.

Anyway I am glad you enjoyed learning from my addition to that post and I hope this response helps you feel a little better about it.

And, thank you for giving me a notification that wasn't a follow bot!!!

[kvothbloodless]

Yknow its Extremely sad that the objectively best redemption arc and enemies to lovers arc ever written will always be obscure because it takes place over a 3.5 million word web serial.

[stxrdust-widow]

If all we knew came crashing down tonight, I'd be with you, and there's no one I would rather be dying beside

[fala-alfredo-pasta]

I’m the anon who send you the height fact and laughed my ass off when you went to into a rant. I don’t blame you. I always found the height system confusing too. At least we got a good laugh on the insanity. Though in all seriousness, RIP Makoto.

Universal Short King Makoto is so real 😩👌

[rosencrantzsguildenstern]

Best Shakespeare Adaptation

since the 1600s, people have been rewriting shakespeare and writing spinoffs in good, bad, and frankly just kind of insane ways. today, they will compete until only one is left standing!

during the poll craze i ran a lot of brackets and had fun, but ended up with a couple spare blogs i ended up having to delete, so i'm running this one off my main.

q. is this a tournament for productions or adaptations?

a. adaptations! stuff that changes dialogue or medium (beyond play -> movie) or takes a really new spin on it! west side story counts, romeo and juliet (1996) doesn't.

q. will there be a limit on contestants?

i'll cut it at 64 or 32 depending on how many submissions we get! if we get a lot of adaptations of a few plays and less of others, i won't cut any of them out, but i'll make some of them face off in round one

q. are you biased?

yes. fortinbras sweep. i've been reading 'these violent delights' too and it's pretty good. oh and can't forget haider, and requiem of the rose king is an all timer... basically, yes i really like rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead, but i have much room in my heart

q. is it most best portrayal/analysis, or best on its own merits?

a. a little of both, but mostly the latter

q. does [x thing] (that's pretty different than the original inspiration) count?

a. if it is common knowledge that it's shakespeare inspired

q. does the lion king count?

a. yea

signal boosting! if yall great bracket blogs will help out @gayest-classiclit @byronicherobracket (this one's still in qualifiers, it seems cool!) @straightplayshowdown (this one's getting going again!) @bestadaptationtournament @gayestshakespearecouples

[chemicalarospec]

you've heard of: aroacespec "is this person flirting with me" confusion, now get ready for: Does this person think I'm flirting with them (and also are they flirting "back" with me) because I accidentally bumped into them a lot?

[im-okay-unless-im-not]

Ya know, as a neurodivergent European I gotta admit the Americans have it right with the weird comparisons. Like if you tell me how big something is in like meters or kilograms my mind will just try to picture a really big ruler or scale with that number on it but i will still have no reference as to how big the thing actually is.

But if you tell me in comparison to something else (like ten schoolbuses long or five giraffes tall) i can picture that. Oh boy oh boy can i picture that! I'll just stack those ten buses in my mind like Legos and I know how big a bus is compared to me and like compared to a house or something.

The problem is when I don't know how big a reference item is like the american football field but that's just cause they play the wrong football send post

[chronic-art]

full moon absolutely destroyed me, have a doodle

[not-poignant]

For t/f: I assume you’re a huge advocate for physical books over ebooks??

False!

~

Ebooks are hugely accessible, and as someone with massive RSI issues in my wrists (partly from writing), holding heavy books and the repetition of turning pages can be literally agonising, and can even lead to me needing surgery one day for tendon release.

I do love physical books, and I have a large collection that I'm very proud of, and weed on a yearly basis. But I absolutely am not an advocate for them over ebooks, let alone a huge one. Ebooks have been such a game-changer for anyone with accessibility issues.

Readers no longer have to rely on publishers being grudgingly generous enough to offer books in large fonts if they have visual processing issues. They can change the font (most of the time) on an e-reader. Readers no longer have to lug around extremely heavy nonfiction books, and can save their backs and wrists. Readers who live in very small or cramped spaces because of poverty or other reasons no longer have to deal with 'where do I keep all these books' because some of them (or all of them) can be ebooks. Also, almost always - with mostly the exception of some university texts - they're cheaper. What a win!

On an accessibility level, ebooks win every time, especially now that we have so many lighting options so that people don't have to put up with backlight etc. anymore. They highlight just how previously ableist the publishing industry has been around visual accessibility and joint strain accessibility.

So I'm mostly a hardcore advocate of people reading how they want to read. A hybrid mix. Only audio. Only ebook. Only paperbacks. Only hardbacks. Some combination of the four.

I love the smell of books, but I don't love the dust. I love having them organised in my library, but I don't love the eternal problem of never really having enough room. I love my ebook collection, but I sometimes forget to check into it. I love that I can get very large nonfiction tomes in ebook form, but sometimes I find them harder to highlight etc. because there's something visceral to me about dragging a highlighter or pencil across a page. Everything has its pros and cons.

But ebooks beat out literally everything else except audio for accessibility (though I can't do audio ironically because of accessibility, lmao, my auditory processing for language isn't great).

[widevibratobitch]

can i be mean. just for a second. can i just say something.

[sergeifyodorov]

honestly i am so blissfully oblivious to a lot of stuff there couldve been a hockeyblr civil war and i wouldve been diddling about saying stuff like "sarah nurse has an offensive disappear-and-shoot-from-nowhere ability comparable to auston matthews according to my eye test but because she is a winger she's generally more comparable to a pastrnak type equivalent. furthermore pastrnak combines matthews' shot versatility with ovechkin's shootiness although he's not nearly as good as either of them" and getting a solid 23 notes (21 likes and 2 reblogs) on it. ive never even gotten anon hate

[miametropolis]

finally started watching star trek and I can now confirm that data was born to be a quirky dyke’s best friend. also. fag!

[woman-respecter]

i am going to have a BURRITO today :)

[minervamagicka]

woe, bridles be upon ye

[transrevolutions]

as much as I can appreciate the interpretation of enjolras as being a naturally kinda quiet and calm guy, I tend to prefer the idea that he had to teach himself to be charming. he isn't necessarily cruel by nature, but he's intense. the force of his passion can scare even his closest allies as well as his enemies so he learns to file the edge of his knife sharper and smaller and sharper and smaller until he can hide it in a bouquet of flowers.

[phanchester]

seeing people wear dan and phil merch in public is kind of crazy like what do you mean you know these niche underground british youtubers who are you