#priority = acquiring food

[kells-studies]

August 19th 2024, Monday .ᐟ .ᐟ

Accomplished:

• Took my pre-test and scored a 62.2% (56/90) !! That’s amazing for not having studied yet - it’s a good knowledge base and I’m looking forward to building on it. I’m gonna do a deep dive into what sections I got wrong, what sections I got right, solutions, formulas to start practicing, etc.

• Started the medications section intro and learning objectives - hoping to get a chunk of the actual section done Tuesday, 8/20 and before my next job training session (my next session is on medications and I want to already be super prepared)

• I also (SUPER BIG NEWS) completed my first day of training at my pharmacy today 🎉 !! It was a lot of background about the company and rules mostly, but I was still so happy to be there :D I’ll be getting my official training schedule soon and I’ll be able to better plan out everything from my study sessions to free time to meal planning

Still to do:

• get through a chunk of the medication section in my textbook

• finish 200 most common medication flashcards

• review pre-test and do thorough breakdown

• study the packet for my next training session

• OMG MEAL PLAN AND FOOD SHOPPING !!! gotta get this outta the way finally

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Expert agencies and elected legislatures

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/21/policy-based-evidence/#decisions-decisions

Since Trump hijacked the Supreme Court, his backers have achieved many of their policy priorities: legalizing bribery, formalizing forced birth, and – with the Loper Bright case, neutering the expert agencies that regulate business:

https://jacobin.com/2024/07/scotus-decisions-chevron-immunity-loper

What the Supreme Court began, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are now poised to finish, through the "Department of Government Efficiency," a fake agency whose acronym ("DOGE") continues Musk's long-running cryptocurrency memecoin pump-and-dump. The new department is absurd – imagine a department devoted to "efficiency" with two co-equal leaders who are both famously incapable of getting along with anyone – but that doesn't make it any less dangerous.

Expert agencies are often all that stands between us and extreme misadventure, even death. The modern world is full of modern questions, the kinds of questions that require a high degree of expert knowledge to answer, but also the kinds of questions whose answers you'd better get right.

You're not stupid, nor are you foolish. You could go and learn everything you need to know to evaluate the firmware on your antilock brakes and decide whether to trust them. You could figure out how to assess the Common Core curriculum for pedagogical soundness. You could learn the material science needed to evaluate the soundness of the joists that hold the roof up over your head. You could acquire the biology and chemistry chops to decide whether you want to trust produce that's been treated with Monsanto's Roundup pesticides. You could do the same for cell biology, virology, and epidemiology and decide whether to wear a mask and/or get an MRNA vaccine and/or buy a HEPA filter.

You could do any of these. You might even be able to do two or three of them. But you can't do all of them, and that list is just a small slice of all the highly technical questions that stand between you and misery or an early grave. Practically speaking, you aren't going to develop your own robust meatpacking hygiene standards, nor your own water treatment program, nor your own Boeing 737 MAX inspection protocol.

Markets don't solve this either. If they did, we wouldn't have to worry about chunks of Boeing jets falling on our heads. The reason we have agencies like the FDA (and enabling legislation like the Pure Food and Drug Act) is that markets failed to keep people from being murdered by profit-seeking snake-oil salesmen and radium suppository peddlers.

These vital questions need to be answered by experts, but that's easier said than done. After all, experts disagree about this stuff. Shortcuts for evaluating these disagreements ("distrust any expert whose employer has a stake in a technical question") are crude and often lead you astray. If you dismiss any expert employed by a firm that wants to bring a new product to market, you will lose out on the expertise of people who are so legitimately excited about the potential improvements of an idea that they quit their jobs and go to work for whomever has the best chance of realizing a product based on it. Sure, that doctor who works for a company with a new cancer cure might just be shilling for a big bonus – but maybe they joined the company because they have an informed, truthful belief that the new drug might really cure cancer.

What's more, the scientific method itself speaks against the idea of there being one, permanent answer to any big question. The method is designed as a process of continual refinement, where new evidence is continuously brought forward and evaluated, and where cherished ideas that are invalidated by new evidence are discarded and replaced with new ideas.

So how are we to survive and thrive in a world of questions we ourselves can't answer, that experts disagree about, and whose answers are only ever provisional?

The scientific method has an answer for this, too: refereed, adversarial peer review. The editors of major journals act as umpires in disputes among experts, exercising their editorial discernment to decide which questions are sufficiently in flux as to warrant taking up, then asking parties who disagree with a novel idea to do their damndest to punch holes in it. This process is by no means perfect, but, like democracy, it's the worst form of knowledge creation except for all others which have been tried.

Expert regulators bring this method to governance. They seek comment on technical matters of public concern, propose regulations based on them, invite all parties to comment on these regulations, weigh the evidence, and then pass a rule. This doesn't always get it right, but when it does work, your medicine doesn't poison you, the bridge doesn't collapse as you drive over it, and your airplane doesn't fall out of the sky.

Expert regulators work with legislators to provide an empirical basis for turning political choices into empirically grounded policies. Think of all the times you've heard about how the gerontocracy that dominates the House and the Senate is incapable of making good internet policy because "they're out of touch and don't understand technology." Even if this is true (and sometimes it is, as when Sen Ted Stevens ranted about the internet being "a series of tubes," not "a dump truck"), that doesn't mean that Congress can't make good internet policy.

After all, most Americans can safely drink their tap water, a novelty in human civilization, whose history amounts to short periods of thriving shattered at regular intervals by water-borne plagues. The fact that most of us can safely drink our water, but people who live in Flint (or remote indigenous reservations, or Louisiana's Cancer Alley) can't tells you that these neighbors of ours are being deliberately poisoned, as we know precisely how not to poison them.

How did we (most of us) get to the point where we can drink the water without shitting our guts out? It wasn't because we elected a bunch of water scientists! I don't know the precise number of microbiologists and water experts who've been elected to either house, but it's very small, and their contribution to good sanitation policy is negligible.

We got there by delegating these decisions to expert agencies. Congress formulates a political policy ("make the water safe") and the expert agency turns that policy into a technical program of regulation and enforcement, and your children live to drink another glass of water tomorrow.

Musk and Ramaswamy have set out to destroy this process. In their Wall Street Journal editorial, they explain that expert regulation is "undemocratic" because experts aren't elected:

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/musk-and-ramaswamy-the-doge-plan-to-reform-government-supreme-court-guidance-end-executive-power-grab-fa51c020

They've vowed to remove "thousands" of regulations, and to fire swathes of federal employees who are in charge of enforcing whatever remains:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/20/24301975/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-plan

And all this is meant to take place on an accelerated timeline, between now and July 4, 2026 – a timeline that precludes any meaningful assessment of the likely consequences of abolishing the regulations they'll get rid of.

"Chesterton's Fence" – a thought experiment from the novelist GK Chesterton – is instructive here:

There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.

A regulation that works might well produce no visible sign that it's working. If your water purification system works, everything is fine. It's only when you get rid of the sanitation system that you discover why it was there in the first place, a realization that might well arrive as you expire in a slick of watery stool with a rectum so prolapsed the survivors can use it as a handle when they drag your corpse to the mass burial pits.

When Musk and Ramaswamy decry the influence of "unelected bureaucrats" on your life as "undemocratic," they sound reasonable. If unelected bureaucrats were permitted to set policy without democratic instruction or oversight, that would be autocracy.

Indeed, it would resemble life on the Tesla factory floor: that most autocratic of institutions, where you are at the mercy of the unelected and unqualified CEO of Tesla, who holds the purely ceremonial title of "Chief Engineer" and who paid the company's true founders to falsely describe him as its founder.

But that's not how it works! At its best, expert regulations turns political choices in to policy that reflects the will of democratically accountable, elected representatives. Sometimes this fails, and when it does, the answer is to fix the system – not abolish it.

I have a favorite example of this politics/empiricism fusion. It comes from the UK, where, in 2008, the eminent psychopharmacologist David Nutt was appointed as the "drug czar" to the government. Parliament had determined to overhaul its system of drug classification, and they wanted expert advice:

https://locusmag.com/2021/05/cory-doctorow-qualia/

To provide this advice, Nutt convened a panel of drug experts from different disciplines and asked them to rate each drug in question on how dangerous it was for its user; for its user's family; and for broader society. These rankings were averaged, and then a statistical model was used to determine which drugs were always very dangerous, no matter which group's safety you prioritized, and which drugs were never very dangerous, no matter which group you prioritized.

Empirically, the "always dangerous" drugs should be in the most restricted category. The "never very dangerous" drugs should be at the other end of the scale. Parliament had asked how to rank drugs by their danger, and for these categories, there were clear, factual answers to Parliament's question.

But there were many drugs that didn't always belong in either category: drugs whose danger score changed dramatically based on whether you were more concerned about individual harms, familial harms, or societal harms. This prioritization has no empirical basis: it's a purely political question.

So Nutt and his panel said to Parliament, "Tell us which of these priorities matter the most to you, and we will tell you where these changeable drugs belong in your schedule of restricted substances." In other words, politicians make political determinations, and then experts turn those choices into empirically supported policies.

This is how policy by "unelected bureaucrats" can still be "democratic."

But the Nutt story doesn't end there. Nutt butted heads with politicians, who kept insisting that he retract factual, evidence-supported statements (like "alcohol is more harmful than cannabis"). Nutt refused to do so. It wasn't that he was telling politicians which decisions to make, but he took it as his duty to point out when those decisions did not reflect the policies they were said to be in support of. Eventually, Nutt was fired for his commitment to empirical truth. The UK press dubbed this "The Nutt Sack Affair" and you can read all about it in Nutt's superb book Drugs Without the Hot Air, an indispensable primer on the drug war and its many harms:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/drugs-without-the-hot-air-9780857844989/

Congress can't make these decisions. We don't elect enough water experts, virologists, geologists, oncology researchers, structural engineers, aerospace safety experts, pedagogists, gerontoloists, physicists and other experts for Congress to turn its political choices into policy. Mostly, we elect lawyers. Lawyers can do many things, but if you ask a lawyer to tell you how to make your drinking water safe, you will likely die a horrible death.

That's the point. The idea that we should just trust the market to figure this out, or that all regulation should be expressly written into law, is just a way of saying, "you will likely die a horrible death."

Trump – and his hatchet men Musk and Ramaswamy – are not setting out to create evidence-based policy. They are pursuing policy-based evidence, firing everyone capable of telling them how to turn the values espouse (prosperity and safety for all Americans) into policy.

They dress this up in the language of democracy, but the destruction of the expert agencies that turn the political will of our representatives into our daily lives is anything but democratic. It's a prelude to transforming the nation into a land of epistemological chaos, where you never know what's coming out of your faucet.

[zephyrspace]

even if you have a rosary, who will save you now?

gn!yuu, very short headcanons + scenarios

summary: yuu accepts that there is no way home and that the world will keep turning no matter what. with no worth to their name and no real purpose in this twisted wonderland, except for solving other people’ problems, they decide to stop caring.

cw: swearing, violence, blood. dm me if i’ve missed anything!

a/n: title is translated lyrics from the song US by ruby ibarra. imagine yuu as however and whoever you want!

“woe is me, prefect! i just have so much paperwork to do that i completely forgot about your weekly food allowance. however, to speed things up a bit, if you lend me a hand here, i could probably get the allowance before the end of next week!”

yuu slinks over to one of crowley’s stacks of paperwork and ruffles through it. not without noticing how some pages were completely blank, ‘probably to bulk up and exaggerate the stack,’ yuu thinks and their eye twitches.

crowley gulps at being caught. but neither of the two say anything about it.

“i’m sure at your grown age you’re supposed to be able to manage your time better than this, but of course i didn’t expect anything from you.” yuu throws the binded document carelessly over their shoulder and onto the floor.

“wha-”

“as a minor under your care, this kind of thing could be considered child labour and abuse. especially for not prioritising my allowance.”

“but, prefect-”

“in other words, this isn’t my problem, bird shit for brains. so, unless you want me to call whatever magical bullshit equivalent you have of child protective services you have in this world, go ahead, give me your work documents. i would be ever so happy to oblige.”

the prefect’s eyes were icy and the atmosphere in the office turned chilly. crowley attempts to smarten up and clears his throat.

“i will have the cheque ready before noon.”

looking down at crowley, yuu sends him a smile with no trace of warmth.

“that’s better.”

unhinged!yuu wouldn’t actively seek out to fight people unless students do it to them first, which is all the time. kind of like ‘i’m nice to you if you are to me. but the second i deem you an enemy, you’re done’ mindset.

those who knew and were ‘friends’ with yuu, didn’t believe in their newly acquired attitude at the beginning, but after a group decided it’d be funny to poke at yuu a bit during lunch, that’s when they realise that yuu was serious about not caring for anything at all.

“oi, magicless runt.”

taking a bite from their sandwich, yuu looks up at the senior holding a tray of food, “hm?”

“get up.” the senior’s friends behind him snicker.

“why?” they take another bite. ‘i wish adeuce and grim would hurry up with their food.’ yuu thinks.

“there’s no more seats.”

“mhm?”

“as your seniors, we get priority.” the senior’s smile widens.

“hm.” another bite. “ish that shou”

with crumbs and sauce at the corners of their lips, yuu wipes it off with their thumb and licks it. they gulp down the remainder of the sandwich.

“sorry, senior. but i don’t see that rule anywhere in the canteen.” they swipe off the leftover crumbs on their hands.

“i thought you’d might say that.”

the senior picks up a bowl from his tray and dumps soup onto yuu’s head.

it’s still boiling hot.

it hurts.

“scram, first year. before i do something worse-”

the senior is on the floor, on his knees and doesn’t realise blood is seeping from his nose until it drips onto the tile.

by now, the whole canteen is silent.

he doesn’t even get time to process what happened until he feels a shin connect with his side and launches him onto another nearby table, his legs dangling off the side, uniform ruined.

“why you-” one of his goonies attempt to throw a punch back at the prefect.

yuu grabs his wrist and used the momentum to throw the senior onto his back. he chokes on the impact.

the rest of the group stays at their spots. ‘smart choice,’ yuu scoffs.

the prefect walks over to the first senior lying against the now abandoned table and grabs whatever food was on the nearest plate and forcibly stuffs it into the senior’s mouth. a whole bread roll.

“oh, senior! i see you’ve found a table to sit at!” the senior had tears along his waterline from the gag reflex of having a whole roll of bread in his mouth.

yuu shoves the bread roll further down the seniors throat. twisting and turning it. the senior makes sounds of retching and pain. “although, preferably, it’d be better to sit on the seat rather than on the table, no?”

the senior could only nod at yuu’s words.

yuu pats his hair demeaningly.

“good boy.”

in essence, yuu becomes very assimilated to nrc. scarily so.

[theoptimisticdaydreamer]

Let me start off by saying I will always love Bake Off. It is the best baking show out there because of the cozy vibes and the way the bakers support one another. In Bake Off, competition itself isn’t the priority and the bakers restore a little of your faith in the goodness of humanity.

However, the start of this season signaled to me that it continues to move away from its bread and butter and is trying to mold itself into something it isn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, it has been on this track for a couple seasons now but I thought they would stop and readjust but they haven’t. This show was built on regular good hearted people. They didn’t have fancy jobs, they weren’t rolling in money, and they baked to feed the people around them and as a love language. What they baked during Bake Off was rough around the edges in presentation because that was the point. Nobody in their daily lives had the time to bother about the superficial appearance of their food as they juggled work and other responsibilities. As a bonus, there were baking history lessons to learn the ancient origins of modern everyday staples as it set itself further apart from hyper-competitive professional baking shows as a show for and about the regular working class person. Bake Off marketed itself as being down-to-earth and firmly rooted in community; celebrating people who went ignored by its competitors. And it found great success!

It doesn’t seem like Bake Off is for these salt of the earth bakers anymore. What is the value of hyper-realistic edible art for someone who grabs a few precious hours every week to bake in between working full time and trying to pay the bills?! What is the purpose of making an uncommon cake without a recipe?! What is the point of requiring equipment and techniques to succeed that cost a lot of money to acquire?! These challenges get more and more outlandish and the bakers are given less and less time AND FOR WHAT?! So that Paul and Prue can have the smuggest grins on their faces as they watch people struggle?!

People watch Bake Off because it isn’t Iron Chef or Sugar Rush. The appeal of this show is that they are not professional bakers so stop designing professional level challenges with professional level standards.

Stop consistently emphasizing finesse and appearance.

This show’s appeal was cemented years ago in the good old days and it remains because people are clinging to the few scraps of similarities left. This show is being destroyed while it acts as a vehicle for Paul and Prue’s ego trips.

Enough already. Stop before it’s too late and go back to your roots.

Please.

[skaldish]

...Can we talk more about how the US economy basically relies on the psychology of resource scarcity to function as an economic model?

"Resource scarcity" is a situation where we lack sufficient, reliable, and/or consistent access to one or multiple things critical for human development and livelihoods, whether it's food, housing, money, community love, sleep, comfort, bodily autonomy and freedom, the freedom of expression, the freedom to authentically engage with the world, or something else.

Chronic resource scarcity does something very fucky with our psychology. We stop operating from a place of curiosity and start operating from the desire to acquire, to pursue, and to win. Our focus narrows. We stop thinking of things in terms of interrelationships, and start thinking of things in terms of "how do I get from point A to point B?"

USAmerican culture tends to paint a "competitive nature" as a noble characteristic. But I'm starting to wonder if the kind of thrill-seeking behavior we see associated with competition is not just the behavior of a starving persistence hunter.

(Even the rich experience scarcity, in the form of the fact they constantly have to earn and maintain their worth in order to stay in their communities.)

When people have resource security, they are at ease. They are open, relaxed, inviting of silliness and playfulness, and their priorities turn to activities of personal development, innovation, and life-enrichment.

Operating from resource scarcity makes people less discerning, less considerate, more emotionally volatile, more one-track-minded, and far more spendthrifty. It's not a moral or intellectual failing on our part either. It's literally instincts kicking in because we're regularly lacking something we need to maintain our human condition.

I think the reason why many people defend keeping a competition-based society is because they want to secure their ability to gather resources, not realizing that social animals aren't interested in being competitive with members of their own species unless resource scarcity is involved.

I already figured "We can't afford to have universal basic income" didn't actually mean "Universal basic income costs too much."

But now I'm beginning to think it means "Universal basic income would change US consumer behavior patterns, which would change the mechanics we've developed around money-making, and this would render our current profit-making strategies obsolete."

And I think we should be talking about this psychological fuckery 24/7.

[ghostlyferrettarot]

🍜🍣The Houses in the Birth Chart🍣🍜

❗️All the observations in this post are based on personal experience and research, it's completely fine if it doesn't resonate with everyone❗️

✨️Paid Services ✨️ (Natal charts and tarot readings) Open!

🍜If you like my work you can support me through Ko-fi. Thank you!🍜

🍣Masterlist 🍣

🏵The houses represent the fields of experience where specific energies will be most easily expressed and most directly encountered. The positions of the houses show how the individual's personality manifests in the world. While in a birth chart the signs indicate internal and psychological characteristics, the houses usually indicate external factors as well as the way personality traits manifest in the world🏵

🍣First House:

The native's appearance, disposition and manner, outlook on life, behavior, capacity for personal development, vitality, health, inherent strength and physical condition, mental and emotional qualities.

🍜Second House:

Hereditary and social background, financial situation, money, possessions and personal property, earnings and losses, earning and spending capacity, personal debts, manner in which money is acquired and how obligations are met.

🍣Third House:

Power of the mind, skill, ability, education, short travel, close relatives, neighbors, writing, communications, recording, lecturing.

🍜Fourth House:

Home and domestic affairs, memories, residence, end of life, private affairs, old age, early home life, lands, houses, property, mines, stored things, the occult or unconscious, social concern and care, the sea.

🍣Fifth House:

Offspring, creative and procreative impulses, recreation, games, pleasures, artistic endeavors, romantic affairs, gambling, speculation, risks, acting, theater.

🍜Sixth House:

Food, clothing, pets, serviceability, employees, health, illness, employment, daily work, servants, diet, hygiene.

🍣Seventh House:

Partnership, cooperation, marriage, war, legal contracts, lawsuits, divorces, treaties, enemies.

🍜Eighth House:

Birth, death, regeneration, sexual instincts, occultism, legacies, other people's property, research, life after death.

🍣Ninth House:

Philosophy, religion, law, travel, exploration, research, foreign lands or people, higher education, publications.

🍜Tenth House:

Personal image, authority, honor, prestige, career, ambition, father, organizations, rulers, employers.

🍣Eleventh House:

Friends, contacts, clubs, social groups, humanitarian enterprises, altruism, hopes and desires.

🍜Twelfth House:

Sacrificial service, repressions, neuroses, hidden enemies, institutions, occultism, mysticism, secrets.

🏵Houses may be without planets, indicating less prominent or active areas in the individual's experience, or that related issues are not a top priority or require less attention. It could also mean that the area represented is not as influenced by specific planetary energies🏵

[totally-sick-blogger]

Sustainability is rarely accessible

This post is dedicated to Audrey, hi king!

Like many people, I think sustainability and taking care of the environment is really important; however, something that I feel isn't talked about enough when discussing ways to be more sustainable is how it's often inaccessible to disabled people and low-income people.

A lot of "alternative products" aren't viable options for disabled people because of factors such as cost, how easy they are to acquire, or physical accessibility issues.

some examples include:

paper straws and wooden cutlery - I know that for me both of these products give me major sensory issues and as for wooden cutlery I'd also like to note that they're much more difficult to eat with which could cause problems for someone with poor dexterity or fine motor skills.

pre-packaged foods - a lot of disabled people rely on pre-packaged meals and snacks for all kinds of reasons such as sensory issues, having specific safe foods, fatigue, and physically being unable to prepare foods. etc. One example I see often is being told off for buying precut produce because why not "just cut it up themselves" when in reality, some people physically cannot cut it up themselves or don't have enough spoons to make that a priority; not to mention that frozen and pre-cut produce is often cheaper than fresh produce.

medical supplies - A lot the medical supplies that disabled people rely on every day are made up of single use plastics and most of the items aren't meant to be used more than once (though some products can be used for multiple days if cared for properly) that being said, disabled people tend to produce more plastic waste but it's not our faults so we shouldn't be getting flack for it!

Another element of environmental advocacy that a lot of people talk about is veganism; which is of course great thing to practice if that's what works for you but a lot of people (disabled or not) cannot be vegan for dietary reasons. This could be because of allergies, intolerances, restrictions, location, finances, etc. For example, I've got a soy allergy and I've got a friend with a severe nut allergy. This means that neither of us could be fully vegan because the majority of vegan products are made with soy and nuts. I also rely partially on tube feeds for nutrition and as far as I know, there aren't any vegan, soy-free formulas yet (and if there are they're probably absurdly expensive)

This brings me to my final point about cost. A lot of alternative options for vegan and sustainable products are significantly more expensive; making it much harder for people who are already struggling financially to afford those products. Not to mention people who live in food deserts (areas of a city that don't contain grocery stores) or rural areas. There are very low chances that either of those places is going to have specialty food stores or even have alternative options in the few stores that they do have!

In conclusion: stop blaming poor and disabled people for the awful state of our environment and start blaming billionaires and massive corporations!

[emeraldspiral]

A venn diagram of the queer/neurodiverse content depicted in Invader Zim. I've already talked about the inherent queerness of Zim and mentioned a few times that there’s a big overlap with autism/neurodiversity but I thought this would make a handy reference. Note that “neurodiversity” isn’t just autism/ADD/ADHD but also includes mental illness, personality disorders, mood disorders, learning disabilities, and anything else that isn’t “neurotypical”.

On the queer side there is actual canon queer rep in the show and comics:

Irkens are canonically aroace and intersex.

Groyna from the comics was confirmed by Eric Trueheart to be a lesbian.

Commander Poki from the comics may be trans, as she has eyelashes normally only seen on female Irkens, but lacks the curled antenna every other female Irken is shown to possess.

Recap Kid's gender is deliberately ambiguous.

There are also many instances of queer-coding that can be seen throughout the show such as:

The homoerotic rivalry between Zim and Dib.

Red and Purple basically being Zim's two gay dads.

Zim and several other characters having campy and dramatic mannerisms.

Zim using Keef and Tak as beards.

Zim and GIR wearing make-up/cross-dressing and generally not concerning themselves with or even being aware of gender conformity.

That time Dib's personality was copied into the body of a female ship which became very distressed at being told it wasn't really a boy and changed its physical appearance to match its brain.

Other queer elements featured in the show include:

Female characters who aren't love interests/show no interest in romance.

Most characters showing a general lack of visible interest in the opposite sex or romance.

The Membranes being a non-traditional family (single dad with no mom, later acquiring two more dads in the form of Foodio and Clembrane). Irken society not being structured around family units at all.

Satirical depictions of nuclear family units (Zim’s roboparents).

Transhumanism.

Kink/Fetish content including tentacles, bondage, domination, tongues, sadism, mind-control, body morphing, gore, food/eating, bodily fluids/fluids in general, Giger-esque designs, etc…

On the Neurodiverse side we have:

Zim’s food sensitivity.

Zim’s germophobia.

Zim’s dislike of being touched or hugged.

Zim seeming to suffer from sensory issues in general.

Zim getting overstimulated on the bus in Walk of Doom.

Zim and Dib infodumping.

Zim’s idiosyncratic speech mannerisms.

Characters having high intellect paired with poor social skills/low emotional intelligence.

Hyperfixations and special interests.

Zim’s struggles with multi-tasking and keeping his priorities straight.

GIR being easily distracted and unable to focus on anything that doesn’t immediately interest him.

Characters having poor volume control.

Characters having mood swings or trouble regulating their emotions.

Zim’s issues with memory.

Dib hyperfocusing to the point of neglecting hygiene.

Zim’s “problem with listening”.

And in the middle where they overlap there’s:

Zim and Dib being outcasts, misunderstood by everyone around them, and only able to connect with other misfits like Gaz, GIR, Keef, each other, and random hobos.

Zim masking his otherness and putting on performative displays of “normalcy” and having a well-founded fear of the consequences of being discovered.

Dib being open about his otherness and looking for respect and acceptance in the face of overwhelming ridicule and contempt.

Dib being pressured by his father to conform in order to please him.

Dib finding that the social benefits of conformity aren’t enough to outweigh the pain of not being his authentic self in Mopiness of Doom.

Dib’s experiences and perspectives being trivialized, dismissed and medicalized as indicators of mental illness.

Dib actually being mentally ill, but only as a result of not being accepted or supported for being different.

The eugenicist dystopia of the Irken Empire, where Zim is labeled “defective” and sentenced to death rather than treated for the mental health issues caused by the society that created him.

Daddy issues/familial rejection/non-acceptance.

Zim and Dib’s struggles with depression.

Zim and Dib’s need to prove themselves to gain validation and acceptance.

Zim and Dib being victims of bullying and in turn bullying others to feel a sense of power.

Dib’s self-loathing.

Zim’s default state being paranoia and anxiety.

Zim and Dib’s self-image issues.

And of course the one thing that binds us all: alternative fashion.

[sea-you-in-paradise]

♡  a o t   l o v e   l a n g u a g e s  ♡

summary: attack on titan characters’ love languages  word count: 2.217 setting: any! (canonverse, modern au, etc) features: armin, connie, eren, hange, jean, levi, mikasa, reiner, & sasha genderneutral!reader warnings: none

a r m i n 

expresses his love through quality time. armin goes through life feeling like there are never enough hours in the day. he just has so much stuff to get done that tasks get pushed off because he overbooks himself. since his time is so valuable, blocking out time for you and planning how you should spend it is not something that he takes lightly. this doesn’t mean that every date is extravagant, he just wants to show you how important you are to him. he does his best to put effort into thinking of something you could enjoy together, even if it’s just reading in near silence. always shows up. you are a top priority.

armin needs words of affirmation to feel loved. he has a hard time believing that he is deserving of good things, armin really appreciates reassurance. hearing you, someone he has so much admiration and care for, insist that he matters reminds him that maybe, he is worthy afterall. tell him how lucky you are to have him in your life. armin is one of a kind and should be appreciated for it. “simple” affirmations are important too; “that sweater looks great on you,” “i missed you today,” etc. remind him that he is so, so loveable.

*bonus* - armin could tear up at an act of service from a friend. he is always willing to help with whatever you need, even if deep down, he doesn’t really feel like it. like i said, he always shows up. the moment you show up for him without him needing to ask is the moment he feels important. you could literally just pay attention to how much he is working/studying and making tea accordingly. he’ll never forget about it. 

c o n n i e

is all about gift giving. but not because he spends all his time/money on it. he just finds shit that he thinks you would like and gives it to you. expect to acquire a (genuinely interesting) rock collection. he would have specific reasoning as to why he picks each one, like if they’re shiny or heart-shaped. 100% picks wildflowers for you whenever he sees one. if he gets bored and there’s paper nearby, he’ll make “origami” (he can make the basic swan and then everything else is up to interpretation). also buys some smaller items when he’s just out and about, but he goes all out on important occasions. rarely gets you food despite buying it for sasha though. 

connie wants to hear words of affirmation. tell this man every single positive thought you’ve ever had about him. this might cause him to make some jokes at your expense, like teasing you for being “all obsessed” with him, but hearing such thoughtful things coming out of your mouth gives him the much needed reminder that people care about him. you care about him. there’s a reason he makes so many jokes, and it is not (just) because he is a funny guy.

*bonus* - connie likes having physical touch in his friendships. he just wants to platonically hold hands on walks with his friends (Jean has slapped his hand away more than once). he wants greeting and goodbye hugs whenever you have plans to hang out. expect him to give you hair ruffles/head pats and playful shoulder punches. he wants you to take turns giving each other hand massages. he’s also down if you ever need a piggyback ride, but keep in mind that he’s expecting one in return.

e r e n

is a quality time guy. eren is a fan of deep conversations. can these get depressing sometimes? yes. is that one of his favorite things about them? also yes. if you can handle that shit, then he knows you’re the one for him. he is a small talk hater, and if you’re taking the time to understand his deepest, darkest thoughts and let him in on yours without making light of it, he’ll feel very connected to you. of course, no one can keep that up all the time and while he isn’t a fan of small talk, he likes really bizarre hypotheticals, comfortable silence, and head scratches.

eren is so grateful when you lend him a hand. this man is by no means lazy, but he is 110% a procrastinator when it comes to any practical facet of his life. he’ll be so focused on doing his tasks for work that his home is just a total wreck and it never seems to get better on its own. to be frank, he would not notice if you helped him with a little bit of everything. but if you helped him with one specific task, like doing his dishes or making him a grocery list, he would be elated. of course, he would never use the word “elated” or allow his face to show that emotion, but it would relieve a lot of his stress when he gets home. please remind him that every task is an accomplishment, no matter how small. 

h a n g e

is dying to get their hands on you. take that any way you want. scientifically, romantically... very romantically. there’s lots to experiment with. all jokes aside, hange is a physically affectionate person with most people (probably more so if she wasn’t friends with levi and erwin, the least physically affectionate duo ;-;), but mostly in a proximity sense. like, they’re the kind of person who comes to sit beside you on the sofa and their thigh is basically on top of yours they’re so close. they also get closer when they talk to you, like if you back up, you will end up walking backwards to the other side of the room by the end of the convo. but in a relationship, hange is three times more intense. expect them to actually sit on you when you’re on the couch. hugs when they’re super excited, forehead kisses when they’re sleepy, shoulder rubs after long days. if you’re sitting in a chair, they’ll come up behind you and wrap their arms around you

hange loves that you spend time listening to them. to have a successful relationship with hange, the key is paying attention. they have a lot to talk about and they need someone who will not only listen, but expand upon what they’re saying. if you demonstrate even an ounce of critical thinking on one of the subjects of their interest, expect hange to be visibly excited. they will shake you by the shoulders with excitement before taking your face in their hands and calling you smart and looking in your eyes, and- well, the rest is up to you.

j e a n

jean wants to spoil you. he thinks you deserve nice things and he wants to be the one to provide them. as someone who has always yearned for a taste of luxury, he feels that the best way to show his love is sharing that taste. he wants to take you to fancy dinners, buy you flowers every time you’re feeling down, and take you shopping (he totally loves it when you try on outfits for him. he gets all blushy, but plays it “cool” ofc). and if he’s really in his feels, he might even draw a little something for you. pretty please put it in a special place in your home.

jean feels closest to you when you’re touching. he feels like there’s nothing quite as intimate as being physically close to someone (hence why he’s quick to slap connie for trying to initiate platonic hand holding). knowing that you want him close to you, so close that you have to touch him, makes jean feel important. he seeks comfort in your hugs and kisses, knowing they provide a level of safety and compassion he can only get from being near you. there’s something very exclusive about it for him.

l e v i

loves through acts of service. his acts are often masked by what some (levi included) might deem as “ulterior motives.” for example, washing/ironing your clothes because he didn’t feel like having dirty/wrinkled clothes around. mostly cleaning service tasks: something like brushing the dirt off the soles of your shoes or organizing your drawers (says he has a thing about privacy, until it comes to cleaning). he assumes that you’ve never had any organizational system in the first place. he will not explain the new system to you. he thinks it’s obvious. but sometimes, when you don’t wake up to him reordering your stuff, you wake up to a cup of tea or a plate of toast. be sure not to make a big deal out of it though or he’ll get embarrassed and "misplace” your birth certificate next time he’s cleaning.

levi secretly craves words of affirmation. frankly, “words of affirmation” might even be a stretch for what he desires most. he doesn’t need to be told how good he is at his job or how much others care about him. he wants you to pick up on little things about him that he hasn’t even realized. tell him if you like the way he pronounces a certain word or how lovely he looks while he’s focusing on the newspaper. he doesn’t let people get close to him easily, so by approaching your position as his partner with such attention to detail, you’re reminding him that he made the right decision letting you in. not even levi is immune to compliments.

*bonus* - levi’s friendship love language is quality time. let’s face it. the only way you’re getting close to levi is if you spend a lot of time together. the problem is actually getting that quality time with him. for levi, this would usually mean doing independent tasks like reading or doing paperwork together. also, doing group tasks (cleaning, cooking, etc) in comfortable silence. being friends with levi is the definition of being alone together. perhaps when you get really close you can have a little conversation with your tea. 

m i k a s a

will jump at the chance to perform an act of service. she loves to feel helpful, and since emotions aren’t something she is super comfortable expressing, she finds that assisting you with your day-to-day tasks is a good way to show she cares. she especially likes helping out with physical activities. after years of hanging around armin, she knows how vulnerable they can be, so it’s her own special cheat code. besides, she likes that her strength is useful for a variety of reasons.

mikasa feels seen when you gift her something. the fact that you saw something and thought of her makes her happy beyond comparison. mikasa’s typically focused mind will definitely wander to giddy little thoughts of you. how often do you think of her? what kinds of things would you like? what can she do to make you know that she cares? she’ll try to center herself, but part of her is glad to have something so wonderful to be distracted by. gifts are never wasted on her. she will treasure whatever you get her, even if it’s not something she would typically buy herself.

r e i n e r

loves spending quality time together. honestly, he just wants to talk. reiner wants to know your thoughts on everything. he wants you to play with his hair while he lays his head in your lap as you tell him about your day. he gives (somewhat) good advice and always remembers small details. he views the people you tell him about like characters and gets invested in your stories.

reiner is eternally grateful for the acts of service you perform. putting out his slippers in the morning, making him a plate for dinner, asking if he needs anything while you’re up/out. he also views the anticipation of his needs as a huge act of service. for example, if he tells you that he doesn’t need anything, but you come back with a blanket because he looked cold, reiner will never stop thinking about it... or you.

s a s h a

will hype you up with words of affirmation. it’s not even something she does super intentionally, and frankly, her encouragement is not something that she provides exclusively for her partner. however, every time sasha has something nice to say about you, she will say it. and since you two are together, she has a lot of really nice things to say. she has a feeling personality, so of course she’s going to gush over you! plus, she thinks that the way you react is really cute and she wants to keep seeing the look on your face as often as possible.

sasha feels appreciated when you perform acts of service. obviously this woman will go feral if you cook her food. that is no secret. but she will also be completely enamored with you if you help her out with other things as well. fold her laundry?? sasha is raving about it for a week. offer to brush her hair? she will give you little kisses all over your face. for sasha, devoting your time and effort is the kindest thing someone could do.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

okay "failure" is an exaggeration. but am I not wrong that your priorities are in feeling morally superior to vegans, just as those vegans priorities are (according to you) in moral purity? Why else would you hope for opposition to lab grown meat? idk seems hypocritical.

there are many countries where theocratic religious conservatives weaponise dietary prohibitions on (certain kinds of) meat against religious minorities that do not accept these prohibitions, for whom the social and political freedom to eat these corpses becomes bound up with the project of their social and political emancipation. i do not like when muslims in hindu-dominant countries, christians in muslim-dominant countries, etc are treated as morally backward and spiritually impure second class citizens (not least of all bc of my religious sympathies with abrahamic monotheists over brahminist hindus and with christianity over islam!), but i also dont care for them or anyone else eating corpses (of cattle, pigs, etc) obtained thru systematic mass slaughter. it would therefore be nice if food industry supply chains and the process of acquiring meat changed in such a way that these dietary prohibitions served even incidentally no purposes worth defending so they could be fought unqualifiedly on behalf of persecuted minorities violating them

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 21, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 22, 2024

During her confirmation hearings in 2021, Interior Department secretary Deb Haaland promised “to responsibly manage our natural resources to protect them for future generations—so that we can continue to work, live, hunt, fish, and pray among them.” Noting her Indigenous heritage, Haaland tweeted, “A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior…. I’ll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land.”

Her approach was a shift from the practice the Interior Department had established at the beginning of the twentieth century when it began to prioritize mineral, oil, and gas development, as well as livestock grazing, on U.S. public lands. But the devastating effects of climate change have brought those old priorities into question. 

Republicans, especially those from states like Wyoming, which collects more than a billion dollars a year in royalties and taxes from the oil, gas, and coal produced on federal lands in the state, opposed Haaland’s focus on responsible management of natural resources for the future  and warned that the Biden administration is “taking a sledgehammer to Western states’ economies.”

On Thursday, April 18, the Interior Department finalized a new rule for a balanced management of America’s public lands. Put together after a public hearing period that saw more than 200,000 comments from states, individuals, Tribal and local governments, industry groups, and advocacy organizations, the new rule prioritizes the health of the lands and waters the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management oversees. Those consist of about 245 million acres, primarily in 12 western states.

The new rule calls for protection of the land, restoration of the places that have been harmed in the past, and a promise to make informed decisions about future use based on “science, data, and Indigenous knowledge.” It “recognizes conservation as an essential component of public lands management, on equal footing with other multiple uses of these lands.” The Bureau of Land Management will now auction off leases not only for drilling, but also for conservation and restoration. 

Western state leaders oppose the Biden administration’s efforts to change the Interior Department’s past practices, calling them “colonial forces of national environmental groups who are pushing an agenda” onto states like Wyoming. 

The timing of the Interior Department’s new rule can’t help but call attention to Earth Day, celebrated tomorrow, on April 22. Earth Day is no novel proposition. Americans celebrated it for the first time in 1970. Nor was it a partisan idea in that year: Republican president Richard M. Nixon established it as Americans recognized a crisis that transcended partisanship and came together to fix it.

The spark for the first Earth Day was the 1962 publication of marine biologist Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which showed the devastating effects of people on nature by documenting the effect of modern pesticides on the natural world. Her exposé of how the popular pesticide DDT was poisoning the food chain in American waters illuminated the dangerous overuse of chemicals and their effect on living organisms, and it caught readers’ attention. Carson’s book sold more than half a million copies in 24 countries. 

Democratic president John F. Kennedy asked the President’s Science Advisory Committee to look into Carson’s argument, and the committee vindicated her. Before she died of breast cancer in 1964, Carson noted: "Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself? [We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves."  

As scientists organized the Environmental Defense Fund, Americans began to pay closer attention to human effects on the environment, especially after three crucial events. First, on December 24, 1968, astronaut William Anders took a color photograph of the Earth rising over the horizon of the moon from outer space during the Apollo 8 mission, powerfully illustrating the beauty and isolation of the globe on which we all live. 

Then, over 10 days in January and February 1969, a massive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, poured between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels of oil into the Pacific, fouling 35 miles of California beaches and killing seabirds, dolphins, sea lions, and elephant seals. Public outrage ran so high that President Nixon went to Santa Barbara in March to see the cleanup efforts, telling the American public that “the Santa Barbara incident has frankly touched the conscience of the American people.” 

And then, in June 1969, the chemical contaminants that had been dumped into Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire. A dumping ground for local heavy industry, the river had actually burned more than ten times in the previous century, but with increased focus on environmental damage, this time the burning river garnered national attention.

In February 1970, President Nixon sent to Congress a special message “on environmental quality.” “[W]e…have too casually and too long abused our natural environment,” he wrote. “The time has come when we can wait no longer to repair the damage already done, and to establish new criteria to guide us in the future.”

“The tasks that need doing require money, resolve and ingenuity,” Nixon said, “and they are too big to be done by government alone. They call for fundamentally new philosophies of land, air and water use, for stricter regulation, for expanded government action, for greater citizen involvement, and for new programs to ensure that government, industry and individuals all are called on to do their share of the job and to pay their share of the cost.”

Meanwhile, Gaylord Nelson, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, visited the Santa Barbara oil spill and hoped to turn the same sort of enthusiasm people were bringing to protests against the Vietnam War toward efforts to protect the environment. He announced a teach-in on college campuses, which soon grew into a wider movement across the country. Their “Earth Day,” held on April 22, 1970, brought more than 20 million Americans—10% of the total population of the country at the time—to call for the nation to address the damage caused by 150 years of unregulated industrial development. The movement included members of all political parties, rich Americans and their poorer neighbors, people who lived in the city and those in the country, labor leaders and their employers. It is still one of the largest protests in American history.

In July 1970, at the advice of a council convened to figure out how to consolidate government programs to combat pollution, Nixon proposed to Congress a new agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, which Congress created that December. 

In honor of Earth Day 2024, Democratic president Joe Biden has called for carrying on the legacy of our predecessors “by building a greener, more sustainable planet and, with it, a healthier, more prosperous nation.” 

In a statement, Biden noted that no one can any longer deny the impacts and staggering costs of climate change as the nation confronts historic floods, droughts, and hurricanes. 

“Deforestation, nature loss, toxic chemicals, and plastic pollution also continue to threaten our air, lands, and waters, endangering our health, other species, and ecosystems,” he said. He noted the administration’s efforts to build a clean energy economy, providing well-paid union jobs as workers install solar panels, service wind turbines, cap old oil wells, manufacture electric vehicles, and so on, while also curbing air pollution from power plants and lead poisoning from old pipes, the burden of which historically has fallen on marginalized communities.

Biden noted that he brought the U.S. back into the Paris Climate Accord Trump pulled out of, is on track to conserve more lands and waters than any president before him, and has worked with the international community to slash methane emissions and restore lost forests.

And yet there is much more to be done, he said. He encouraged “all Americans to reflect on the need to protect our precious planet; to heed the call to combat our climate and biodiversity crises while growing the economy; and to keep working for a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all.”

Happy Earth Day 2024.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[neuroprincess]

Yellowjackets - They cook for you (Preferences)

Classification: Fluff

Pairing: Lottie Matthews, Misty Quigley and Natalie Scatorccio

Warnings: None

Word count: +800

Lottie Matthews

Having been raised with treats and a maid to make anything she wanted to eat, learning to cook was never a priority while growing up. After the crash and time in Switzerland she acquired some autonomy, enough to learn the basics and not starve, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, if she risks pancakes with uneven edges. And when she's inspired often risks it, so begins a Saturday morning, the weather is mild, it's a rare quiet day in Camp Green Pine and you're sleeping over the clock, perfect moment to surprise with a breakfast in bed... and maybe almost set the stove on fire while trying to make pancakes.  

"Lottie!" you yell running to the windows, opening them all so the smoke clears as soon as possible while she coughs trying to put it out "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" 

In fifteen minutes everything stabilizes after the scare, she tries to explain and in the end you are both laughing about what happened, but the intention of the act warms your heart, Lottie is so attentive, kind and dedicated. She'll do anything for you, even if it means almost killing herself in the process.  

"How about a sandwich?" the brunette asks excitedly and gets up without even waiting for an answer "We have bread, cheese, ham? Do you want some? I can make sandwiches." 

Misty Quigley

This woman has a lot of talents and one of them is cooking, however it's not a big hobby that she dedicates herself to, in fact routine makes her more practical when it comes to food. She keeps tupperware everywhere for a reason. Was and is like that for a long time, at least until she meets you, not pretentious at all when she shows up with brownies on your doorstep and a spaghetti at lunchtime, but Misty goes crazy in euphoria when you say that you loved everything. It doesn't take long for her to show up with more and more recipes, somehow mysteriously she knows all your tastes, from what you love to the little things you don't like to eat, there's never anything in the dishes you're allergic to.  

"Dinner at your place tonight?" she asks taking a bite of her own lunch salad "You can see the chef working." and winks, a little smug, especially since you're still smiling, eating contentedly.  

"How about yours? I want to see the chef in her natural habitat." you propose genuinely "And I'd really like to meet Caligula."   

Hours later you're together in her small kitchen, not caring about the lack of space because this feels comfortable and nice, it's almost a slow dance, she asks you to get something for her, hips rubbing, fingers touching slightly, music playing in the background and lots of smiles exchanged. Caligula is at the table, wanting some of your attention too, he just adored you and that's a great sign for both of them. Misty leans over, spooning some of the sauce into the palm of her hand and stretches it out for you to taste, it's automatic, by the time she realizes it's too late and she's sure you'll, at the very least, think it's weird. But you just put your lips there, soft and tempting. She almost faints.  

"It's perfect." 

Natalie Scatorccio

She grew up before the time in some ways, with parents like hers Natalie had to learn many things for own survival, one of them was cooking, while her mother was too busy watching some show on TV and father drinking she managed in some way, that's how she started and after a few weeks found herself doing almost everything. She knows how to make the necessary things, but it doesn't guarantee that it's of the best quality or that she remembers the recipes no matter how simple they are. When she became an adult not much changed, except that she barely has a place to do it, patience, memory, most meals are made in cafeterias, junk food and, the most practical, snacks from the vending machine near the hotel room.  

"Will this work?" the brunette asks as she re-reads the website, a page of recipes on the screen "One egg still seems like a bit much."  

"But works, if they say it works, then it probably will. Who lies on a recipe website?"  

"People lie everywhere, Y/N." she defends her own point and rolls the eyes, picking up a fork to mix in the mug, still a little disbelieving. 

After a lot of mixing and one minute that feels like an eternity in the microwave, a nice and soft chocolate cake is done, it doesn't smell as good as she thought it would, but the taste seems to have won Nat over. She soon makes another, and another, and another, just in case you're not satisfied. There's also a small stock of instant noodles in the cupboard, snacks she bought earlier in the day. Popcorn is already popped, beers are on the table, if you prefer wine it will be there too.  

"I'm a master at the art of improvisation." Natalie says handing you the mug cake, a proud smile on the lips "Ready for movie night?" 

Join my taglist here ^^

[dangermousie]

My Country is steeped in class in the way very few sageuks do nowadays - to be fair most of them nowadays are fluffy ahistorical confections - but in a way few did in the old days of adult sageuks either.

The few other sageuks I can think of that took on class as head on were Slave Hunters, Hong Gil Dong, Rebel the Thief Who Stole the People, Return of Iljimae, Maids, The Nokdu Flower and, in a different more domestic way, Bossam. It is not a common topic.

But MCTNA takes it on and on and on. It never disappears. Hwi's priorities are those of a man who is one mishap away from death by starvation for himself and his sister. He can't climb up the Maslow hierarchy of needs because he hasn't gotten out of the bottom level of having enough to eat.

The way Hui Jae, who has clearly never had to skip a meal in her life, genuinely does not get it, is genuinely angry at his lack of revolutionary ardor - is so realistic. As the old saying goes, where you stand depends on where you sit. She is not evil or lacking in empathy - it's just everyone operates with in-built perspective from their position.

And Seon Ho, while he has no issue with Hwi being this way, also does not share Hwi's practicality - he has political ambition and desire to overthrow the regime that kept someone of his birth down (ironically, the Joseon dynasty that is about to be ushered is going to be stricter on those of his birth - but how realistic that you do not know if what replaces what you knock down will be more congenial to you, you cannot fully control it - look at all the revolutionaries who end up devoured by their own revolutions.) But that is because while Seon Ho's existence is its own kind of hell (his father is monstrous in a realistic, pervasive, unceasing way that would warp anyone), he like Hui Jae, never has to worry about having enough to eat.

Both SH and Hwi yearn to address the biggest problem of their life - only it's a different problem.

One of the biggest tragedies of MCTNA is that until the end, even as he goes through hell and becomes a leader of men and a trusted and loved follower of a dynastic founder, all Hwi wants in life is peace from the demons he's acquired and enough food to eat - and yet despite those modest wishes, that world will not let him have that. He is not allowed that. Seon Ho wanted too much when he should have wanted - not less - but different - not power per se but freedom from his monstrous father not by playing his power games and trying to acquire more power. He needs to step sideways out of the narrative, not forward into it. All he needed, as he realizes too late, was a peaceful life with Hwi and Yeon - a family to love and be loved by. (Hwi's country is having enough to eat for himself and his loved ones and Seon Ho's country is being with his loved ones.) But Hwi did not want too much - he barely wanted anything, he wanted the minimum necessary to keep alive. And the world is bleak enough, the narrative is bleak enough to look at that desire and go "you cannot have it. This is still too much for you."

[pearlprincess02]

selena gomez and justin's composite chart houses

1st house: the composite 1st house rules the relationship itself and your outward identity together. It shows how people view your relationship, and how you come across together.

libra 1st house : libra is the sign of relationships, so having the composite 1st house in libra is the most natural position for a relationship of any kind (even enemies!). you can come across really well together, and seem good together, whether personal or professional. you may seem like a charming couple, diplomatic and aware of your surroundings, and avoid fights as much as you can, preferring compromise. but this can lead to problems and resentment if you’re not being open with one another, and indecision can also be an issue.

1st house ruler in 8th house: usually, this person’s childhood is rocky and not the greatest.  the 8th house rules over occult things which might be considered taboo from general society (dark matters), so these people could have seen things that were inappropriate for their age very early in their childhood and secrets of their family that were generally hidden. because of the vulnerability that was created from their exposure to occult things so early on in their life, these people are reserved and often ‘hidden’ in a room full of people (whether intentionally or not). these people also try to avoid confrontations and prefer to deal with problems in a more sly or twisted manner to get what they want. 

jupiter in 1st: with composite jupiter in the 1st house, you can greatly enjoy this relationship/partnership, and you can feel good when you’re together. you may each have more opportunities together than apart, and you can work together to expand your lives in new ways and have new experiences. you can have a more optimistic outlook together, and you can open up doors together than may not open alone.

2nd house: the composite 2nd house can show what you value in the relationship, how you approach money together, and how secure you are in the relationship together.

scorpio 2nd house : with the composite 2nd house in scorpio, you may be able to acquire a lot of value and financially together, and this can be a good professional placement, but you do need to be mindful of not trying to control one another through your money and resources. one of you may be in control of the finances, or even dominate with your values, but this can lead to issues down the road. there may need to be a transformation of your values together.

2nd house ruler in 2nd house: this indicates a person who is financially complete in the sense that they have it all - a house, a car, a pool, a good stable job, etc. so, they could have a well-respected or top position in society, especially in the financial ladder. this also indicated a person who is a bit of a foodie because they enjoy good, luxurious food. they might also have a good face (and great eye sight usually) and voice which can be used to lure in large audiences (in public speaking) and even their family members, this could be why these people are likely to receive a lot of financial benefits from their family members. if ill-placed, this placement could mean the person will have challenges in gained wealth and might have medical concerns related to the eye and/or face. 

pluto in 2nd house: you both bring dramatic and profound transformation into each other’s lives when it comes to changing each other’s sense of values and priorities. this often manifests as bringing dramatic loss, change, and rebirth in your finances. you can help each other release insecurities related to lack of abundance and in doing so, you can inspire each other to bring out your power and confidence in manifesting abundance in new ways. this relationship can help you both draw wealth into your lives but also transform and redefine what wealth means to you both. you may also help each other transform your beliefs about power and authority and the priorities you give these concepts.

3rd house: the composite 3rd house can show how you are together in your immediate environment and what you focus on together day-to-day. this is a house of communication, so it can also reflect how you communicate in the relationship, and what you can think about together.

sagittarius 3rd house : with the composite 3rd house in sagittarius, you can be a pair that is quite optimistic, focused on the positives together. your view may be wider together than apart (depending on other placements), and you can expand your daily lives and immediate environment, and open your minds. you may find communications to be light and fun between you. you may focus together on the big picture.

3rd house ruler in the 1st house: this placement allows a person to gain in life through personal efforts. individuals are hard-working and try to become self-dependent from a young age. indicator of a personal establishment, such as a business. this placement is also considered good for their siblings. they could be famous and you could experience fortunes through your siblings. as the 3rd house also indicates short-distance travels, these individuals could often travel in close proximities to their home. gives a person bravery and courage, but if ill-placed, could indicate a revenge-seeking nature. if ill-placed, this placement could indicate health issueswhich start during a young age, but may improve over time. 

north node in 3rd house: you help each other advance and evolve by inspiring each other’s ideas. through your communication with each other you can both transform each other’s viewpoints. you may be in each other’s lives to help each other understand your purpose in a unique new way. through communicating your thoughts and beliefs you can inspire each other to take risks. you can find freedom and liberation to break free from insecurities and doubts. this relationship can help you both find the validation you always needed to work through your preconceived ideas. you can help each other embrace your true gifts and move toward pursuing your destiny together because of open, direct communication.

4th house: the composite 4th house can show how we connect emotionally, what we build together from the ground up, and what the base of our connection is (since this is the bottom of the chart).

capricorn 4th house : with the composite 4th house in capricorn, you may feel more emotionally responsible for one another in the relationship (even to a degree in a professional one). you can be more traditional, mature, and cautious together, and may have to work on forging a balance between internal and external focus. the base of your connection together may be to create a solid internal and external foundation.

4th house ruler in 5th house: the native may have been encouraged in their early life to express themselves freely and creatively. their mother may have been someone who used art a lot as a medium for self-expression and she may have influenced the native to do the same. they may find that they have a gift with children and that there tends to be a caring, symbiotic relationship between themselves and other children. towards the end of their life, it is important for them to connect with their inner child and have as much fun as they can. 

uranus in 4th house: you both fill each other’s homelife with excitement. this relationship is full of surprises, and you can bring eccentric and unusual changes to each other’s home and family. you may have an unconventional view of family and your family ties may seem shocking and unusual. through this connection you can help each other dramatically change your views of love, nurturing and home. this is an intense relationship, and you can have shocking and unconventional views about what home and family means. this relationship can also help you both break with tradition in some dramatic way. you can help each other break with social conventions related to security and stability at home.

neptune in 4th house: you are both likely to bring healing and mystical connection into each other’s lives when it comes to home and family. this relationship brings out your unconditional love for each other particularly when it comes to creating a shared sense of home. your mystical and spiritual connection influences your desires for security and stability. you may share an understanding that your family connections and relationships with mutual friends who are like family is rooted in a spiritual mission related to emotional healing. this relationship can help you both become more open to sharing your spiritual side when you are in the comfort of home. you find rejuvenation when you’re in the comfort and privacy of your own shared space and may find it easier to let your guard down and strengthen your emotional ties to each other. this connection can help you both express your unconditional love for each other, and you can encourage each other’s creative expression especially in the comforts of home.

pallas in 4th house: you both work together to easily solve problems related to home and family. you may share a passion for housing issues or stand out as advocates for women, children, and families. you can both find unique solutions to housing and family issues because you see patterns and connections that others miss. through this connection you are both able to help lead others who are working on setting a solid foundation. you may stand out as an advocate who helps others find security in the midst of family crises. you may help each other find unconventional solutions to problems related to home and family conflicts as well. this relationship can help you both become more confident in pursuing your ideals and mission related to home, stability and family connections.

5th house: the composite 5th house can show how we express affection, what we love and take pleasure in together. this house can bring creative energy into our relationships and allow us to express creatively together. the 5th house also rules children, so they can be impacted by the composite 5th house with someone you have children with.

aquarius 5th house : with the composite 5th house in aquarius, you can enjoy doing things that are unusual and outside of the box together, and can experiment. you can push each other outside of your comfort zones and try out what's new and different. you can express affection in unusual ways, and may not be too outwardly affectionate in personal relationships. if you have children together, you can encourage them to be independent individuals.

5th house ruler in 4th house: with this placement, the family tends to be very important for the native’s ability to express themselves. they may take part in hobbies or creative activities that allow other members of the family to join in or the native’s interests may be linked to their culture. the native’s children are a strong source of their emotional security as are their romantic partners. the native’s romantic partner may be someone who grew up in the same area as the native or the same country. 

saturn in 5th house: in your relationship maybe you can not show your love, your affect to yourselves as a couple. maybe you can have fertility problem as a couple (it is not certain but a possibility). also your love can hold on longer than you think because it’s rock solid.

6th house: in the composite chart, the 6th house can show how you approach daily life and the mundane together, how you work together (whether professionally or personally), and the general health of the relationship

pisces 6th house: with the composite 6th house in pisces, you can focus together on doing things in your daily lives that you feel have some meaning, or that you’re both emotionally connected to. If that is lacking, then you may struggle with connecting in your daily lives. sacrifice may be a part of your daily lives, and that may be your automatic reaction when issues arise in the relationship, but this may cause further issues and stress for both of you. boundaries may work better.​

6th house ruler in 4th house: routine is often centred around the natives family and home life, the importance of routine was likely to be taught in the home. routine may provide the native with a sense of emotional security and can prove to be important in the native’s retirement years. the native may be inclined to work from a home office or studio and may even specialise in work that is relating to the home such as renovation or interior design. the native’s work may be done with their family and can often be continued into retirement. when it comes to pets, it’s likely that the native’s pets will be considered one of the family and is often vital to the native’s sense of emotional security. their pets may bring out the native’s more nurturing side and can often be important to the native in the years before death. health and fitness may be very important to the native’s sense of emotional security and illness are likely to affect this. illness is likely to make the natives find it difficult to feel grounded. it’s likely that illness is experienced by the mother which may be passed on.

lilith in 6th house: you can help each other find your authentic routines and practices that help you express your creative inner power. through this relationship you empower each other to break with tradition. your work, routines and daily habits may be highly individualized. through this connection, you can inspire each other to share your rebellious and quirky nature in the ways you help others. your daily plans and regular routines and even your diet and lifestyle may embody autonomy and independence, you both refuse to conform to the status quo. you also resist being limited by highly rigid schedules or routines that require conformity.

ceres in 6th house: composite ceres in the composite 6th house can mean you show support for each other in small ways. you may need to nurture the relationship regularly or on a daily basis, and it doesn't have to be big. this can be especially helpful for a work relationship.

celeb's masterlist / moodboard / 7H - 12H

crd:

1h + 1h ruler + composite jupiter in houses

2h + 2h ruler + composite pluto in houses

3h + 3h ruler + composite north node in houses

4h + 4h ruler + composite uranus in houses + composite neptune in houses + composite pallas in houses

5h + 5h ruler + composite saturn in houses

6h + 6h ruler + composite lilith in houses + composite ceres in houses

[knickynoo]

heyyyy so. i love your blog. and i was wondering, what you think about the headcanon that marty could be diabetic? with what little evidence we have in the movies? ( for example, him turning away peanut brittle which is ALL SUGAR, always drinking sugar free pepsi, asking for something without sugar in 55 at the diner, shoving food in his mouth after the phone call with doc in the morning before he goes to the twin pines lot, etc) i have a headcanon that doc keeps a stash of candy or snacks for marty if his blood sugar crashes or goes low. ( and i know the sleepiness and implied laziness of marty was probably due to mjf being sleep deprived but i read that thats a side effect of low blood sugar?? ) and not to mention the layers he always wears, probably bc hes cold ??? idk , ive had that hc for a while and i just wanted to know your opinions and thoughts on it ??

Ahhh, the return of one of my favorite fringe BTTF headcanons. I saw this ask initially when it popped into my inbox a handful of days ago, but I wanted to have the time to sit and answer it in depth because it really is such an intriguing headcanon. I've only ever encountered it two or so times in the fandom (and one of those times was another ask I'd gotten last year), and I do enjoy exploring the less talked about theories.

I will put this under a read more, on account of I have lots of thoughts, as well as personal experience that allows me some particular insight into how this headcanon might play out for Marty. I'm not diabetic, but I do have a condition that causes a variety of fun issues, one being hypoglycemia. Basically, I have frequent episodes of low blood sugar and need to monitor my glucose level and keep it up by eating often. That being said! Some thoughts on the "Marty is diabetic" headcanon.

• My very first thought is: this kid better be prepared and have lots of supplies stuffed into the pockets of his many clothing layers because otherwise, he's in trouble. Honestly, this is the biggest barrier for me in terms of the headcanon. Marty is on a non-stop, adrenaline fueled ride for most of the trilogy. Between the constant running and chaos and sneaking around and life and death situations, he'd need to find the time during his day for finger pricks to check his blood sugar levels, staying on top of eating regularly, and injecting insulin. That means carrying a glucometer, a lancing device, lancets, alcohol wipes, test strips, syringes, and vials of insulin. He'd likely carry a bag or something that has all this in it.

• BUT! If he left his house that evening and ventured to the mall without any supplies (thinking it'd be a quick outing), one of his first priorities upon becoming stuck in 1955 would be acquiring whatever he needed. His first opportunity for that would be once he arrives at Doc's house and convinces him he's a time traveler. After getting Doc to believe him, Marty would have to be all, "Oh, and, uh, Doc? I really hope you have some medical doctor friends or something because we need to get our hands on some supplies. Like, now."

Then, on top of all the shock that came with being hurtled through time, Marty would have the additional challenge of adjusting to 1950s era diabetes management. No at home glucometer (those weren't available until 1981), and the syringes were large and made of metal. It'd be difficult, but not impossible, for Marty to manage the disease during his travels.

• For the purposes of this hc, let's assume he somehow brought along all his supplies stuffed into secret pockets in his puffy vest. Or, perhaps he uses a portable insulin pump, which became more widely available in the 1980s. It'd look something like this.

The end of the tube would have a needle that'd be inserted under the skin on his lower abdomen, and he'd be able to dose insulin that way. The device would have to be clipped to his pants somewhere. Not sure if Twin Pines McFlys would be able to access this new (and probably super expensive) device for their son. Maybe Doc makes one for him! I could totally see him doing that.

• Anyway, in terms of Marty turning down the peanut brittle, drinking sugar free Pepsi, and asking for something without sugar, it might or might not have anything to do with diabetes in this headcanon scenario. Contrary to what many think, diabetics (type 1 at least, which is what Marty would likely have) don't need to avoid sugar. They need to be mindful of sugar just as any other person should, but they generally don't have dietary restrictions. Sugar would for sure impact his glucose levels, and he'd have to be mindful of that, but as long as he balanced it with the appropriate amount of insulin, he'd be good to go.

It could be that Marty just wants to avoid having to account for extra insulin and avoid a potential spike, so he turns down some sugary foods every so often. Diabetics have to keep careful track of how many carbs they consume, as that determines how much insulin to inject, so if Marty already took his dose for dinner, for example, it'd make sense he'd say no to the peanut brittle even if he wanted it. Otherwise, he'd have to do another injection to cover the carbs from it, and who has the time for that when you're busy sulking over the wrecked car??

• Something Marty would really need to be careful about during all his adventures is making sure his blood sugar doesn't dip too low. High blood sugar isn't good, but low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) is actually more dangerous and considered an immediate emergency. Your blood sugar can be high and rise a good deal before you start to get negative health effects, but once your blood sugar dips below 70 mg/dL, you need to treat it right away. He'd need to be eating regularly, making sure his insulin is matching the amount he's eating, and ALSO factor in that physical activity makes blood sugar levels drop. And all that running he does? Yeah, he's gonna need snacks on hand.

You mentioned sleepiness being a symptom of low blood sugar, and you're right. But if Marty is at that point, it'd likely mean he'd be having a serious hypoglycemic episode. A "normal" blood sugar range is about 80-120, though meals will bring it higher for a bit before you level back out. Once you get below 70, your brain is literally being starved of glucose, which it needs to function. Very quickly, you get hit with a lot of symptoms. Blurry vision, trouble concentrating and speaking, tremors, profuse sweating, tiredness, rapid heart rate and breathing to name a few.

If you manage to catch it soon enough, you can treat the low on your own—by eating or drinking something high carb or taking some glucose tablets—but it's also very difficult to get a meal or some snacks when you're shaking like a leaf and can't even think straight. My blood sugar dipped to 49 the other week, and I went from feeling a little off to experiencing all those symptoms in a matter of a minute or two. For Marty to reach that level in the midst of trying to repair timelines would be difficult, to say the least. An untreated low will lead to unconsciousness, seizures, and even death.

Of course, if Marty is prepared, he'd know to snack during the day to keep himself stable. And I do imagine that '85 Doc's garage is stocked with snacks good for bringing up blood sugar (especially juice, which is one of the BEST ways to bring blood sugar up quickly. My fridge is filled with it.)

• I'm a little concerned about how Marty would fare in Part III, but I assume he'd be well prepared at that point. Let's assume that when Doc came to pick Marty up at the end of Part I, he already had a supply kit ready in the car (Doc absolutely would have a kit for "just in case" that he kept in his garage and brought along if they were going somewhere, and I think he'd have the foresight to bring it to the future). Marty could then have it still for his stay in 1955 while he and Doc prepared the DeLorean for the Old West, and he'd be able to have it for his time spent there in Part III. Very large kit, okay? Doc is super prepared. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, a kit like that would probably still be in the car when Doc gets zapped to the Old West, so....not sure about this one, friends. Let's hope Marty has some stuff in his pockets and that '55 Doc can then help him out in gathering more things together for his trek to 1885.

Well. I'd say I've gone on long enough. In conclusion: Diabetic Marty is a fascinating concept and, while it'd be difficult for him, he could conceivably manage it all during the trilogy if he's careful and has Doc looking out for him as well. There are lots of "missing scenes" and things we don't see in the movies, so Marty could be using that downtime for testing and injecting and guzzling down juice.

Thanks for the ask! This was a fun one.

[zellk]

🐾- Lana!!! (for the oc meme (๑✧◡✧๑))

HI GRACE UvU thank you for the ask ! (Also sliding in a thank you to anon that sent the same ask a bit earlier ! Hope you see this answer >:^) )

OC's Background Relationships Ask Game - Lana aaaand pets (🐾) ! -

Oh boy... please, for the sake of everyone involved please do NOT give this woman pets to take care of... She can barely be assed to take care of her flesh prison and so tends to be a husk of a human that only care about acquiring knowledge & doing mad scientist shit in her garage 40 (good days) to 85 (bad days) percent of her time... Honestly if Rena and her other friends weren't around I do not know how she'd not starve to death because she pushed eating down her priority list for 5 days in a row and now she doesn't have the energy to go get food or because her heart finally gave out after her 98th cup of coffee without anything else consumed in-between in the past 3 days.

For the sake of humoring more of the ask and theme though, if she does not have to care for it and only gets the upside of enjoying a little critter's company, I think Lana would be very partial to :

Snakes ! They don't move around a lot and feel nice so she'd love keeping them hanging around her while working / studying and they'd probably love being on her because she always runs hot. Also she'd love their little tongue poking out to sniff around, very cute... they honestly probably remind her of Rena too so that's even more added bonus.

Cats... AS LONG as they understand the very hard rule that the desk is off limits. There is too much either fragile, precarious or dangerous shit going on up there... But she would absolutely enjoy curling up on the couch with a cup of tea and a kitty on her lap to read.)

Aaaand not much more x,) Aesthetically she appreciates birds but they are far too stinky and dirty for her... and Rena would probably have a (well trained) dog so Lana appreciates it too but it's just not her thing... Still cute though.