#where i was

[cruxymox]

a few more photos

[ghost-2501]

I'll never forget:

Was working as a surveyor at the time. My crew chief and I were headed to a job site right across the Hudson, in eyesight of the WTC.

En route to the site, we were listening to the radio in the truck when reports came through of the first tower being hit. Someone from inside the first tower managed to call the radio station:

"It's really smoky, and hard to breathe (a cacophony of noises of people in the background of the call could be heard), but we're doing okay, otherwise."

Little did they know.

My crew chief, an otherwise mean, racist piece of shit, showed a moment of softness. Tears flowed from his eyes, with a look of complete confusion and bewilderment on his face.

"I don't understand. There must be some sort of mistake or something..", he said.

I only responded with a side eye to his comment, thinking to myself, "I know better, there's something more to this."

My suspicion was confirmed once the second tower got hit.

We were a tunnel away from our job site, a tunnel that was blocked by a police cruiser, the cop doing his best to redirect traffic. Seemed like every surrounding public service was running thin.

My crew chief asked the cop, "Can we get through? Our job site is on the other side of this tunnel."

"No one's getting through but EMS, Fire, police and FBI.", the cop responded.

We were stuck, traffic was bumper to bumper, and there was no way to communicate to HQ that we were ok.

I noticed that the cops' flares were about to die out, so I told my crew chief that if we're going to be stuck here, might as well help the cop with traffic. So we pulled our truck out of traffic on to a median, and pulled our cones out to put them in place of the flares the cop put out, and helped him redirect traffic as best as we could.

A woman drove up to me with a look of fear and worry on her face.

She asked me, "Is there another way to get into the city? My husband works in the tower, and I need to make sure he's ok."

"I'm sorry, the only ways to get in from here are the Lincoln tunnel, and the GW bridge, and both of the are closed. I'm sorry.", I responded.

We were there for 3-4 hours before traffic started to lighten up (overstatement), we packed up our cones and drove back to HQ. Both towers were gone by then.

When we got back, the rest of the employees at the surveying firm were relieved to see that we were safe. When I got home, I cleaned up, then rode my bike to a friend's house, to find that my other friends were already gathered, rolling up trees.

We all looked at each other, silent, then suddenly said, almost in unison, "State of emergency."

I smoked so much that day. For weeks, I could see the smoke coming from ground zero from my bedroom window.

Once my crew chief and I were cleared to go back to our job site...the taste/smell of blood and metal in the air was unshakable. Similar to the taste of putting a 9V battery on your tongue.

I'll never forget.

[yeepof]

I understand that tall men are our POV characters, but surely being like a foot taller than everyone around them would have some occasional consequences

[eruditetyro]

good morning let’s hear it for Mildly Cool Outside a round of applause for Mildly Cool Outside

[roboticnebula]

Pros of re-reading your own fic

a good time;

Has exactly the tropes you like and the characterization you want to read;

Gratification: yes you did finish a thing and yes you did do good;

just a very fun time all around.

Cons of re-reading your own fic:

Is that another TYpO

[riacte]

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

[44boora]

why the long face Sixer? 🏹

[skipppppy]

Highkey one of the funniest parts of Gravity Falls is how obnoxiously close they come to revealing Ford’s existence in the early seasons but never do out of just. Cosmic levels of dumb luck

Episode 1 Stan nearly catches Dipper with the journal and it’s passed off as a gag about Gold Chains for Old Men magazine. In Time Travellers Pig they go back to the Shack 30 years in the past and miss Ford opening the door on them by literal seconds. In bottomless pit Mabel gives him a set of truth teeth that make him incapable of lying and he tells the twins TO THEIR FACES that he regularly commits massive tax fraud and if they had asked him to elaborate he would’ve told them who he was impersonating. In one of the shorts Dipper and Soos find a sentient omniscient mailbox that will answer any question in the universe, and right before they can ask it who wrote the journals Mabel shows it a video of herself snorting gummy worms and it kills itself out of disgust. The entirety of Dreamscaperers is them delving into the depths of Stan’s psyche, going through his memories, all while fighting his brother’s ex-boyfriend and it somehow just. Doesn’t come up. Bill never mentions him. Their grandpa Shermie never said anything. Their parents never said anything. Either the universe was conspiring to cover it up or they are genuinely all that oblivious

[wankadoodles]

Métis Miku (Creeku)

[mias-back-from-the-dead]

tbh i think the funniest phenomena that's been happening in the last couple years is "youtuber, having gone too deep into the research hole, has been made an investigative journalist against their will"

[cruxymox]

[raychleadele]

“Why did you follow this person ? uwu”

I’ve been here for fourteen years, do you think I remember? I don’t know who any of these people are anymore. I don’t know why they’re on my dash. I allow them to stay because they haven’t pissed me off enough to unfollow them yet. “Why did you follow this person?” I’m not sure I ever did. They’re just part of my ecosystem now.

[weltenwellen]

ugh why must I be always so repulsed by my own vulnerability but I find it very moving and impressive if other people are vulnerable with me????

[hamsternamedmarinette]

Italian microaggressions

[charbroiledchicken]

"you're the writer, you control how the story goes" no not really. i wrote the first sentence and then my characters said "WE WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE" and promptly swerved into an electrical fence.