thelightofthingshopedfor

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So it turns out I had plugged the monitor into the wrong port 😖

Oh good my first welcome back after being gone is that my computer doesn’t want to turn on properly. For no reason. Like, it turns on, but the monitor is telling me it’s not receiving a signal, so I can’t do anything. As far as I can tell everything is plugged back in (I unplugged stuff when I left as part of Spurr precautions). I have shit to do and I really do not need this

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

Oh good my first welcome back after being gone is that my computer doesn’t want to turn on properly. For no reason. Like, it turns on, but the monitor is telling me it’s not receiving a signal, so I can’t do anything. As far as I can tell everything is plugged back in (I unplugged stuff when I left as part of Spurr precautions). I have shit to do and I really do not need this

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y’all I just met a celebrity

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Finding new things where I can stick portals. First acorn one, testing the waters and scale.

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I definitely have the usual neurodivergent problems with time perception, but I keep realizing that I seem to have a busted time sense on a really wide scale too, in that…I understand on an intellectual level that time only moves forward, everything changes, everyone dies, nothing lasts forever, etc., but it’s like—I’ve always had a hard time truly grasping or believing that. Partly it’s because I’ve managed to get pretty far in life without losing any close family members, so I’ve just been able to put off dealing with it as if nothing was really going to change, but now my grandparents have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia and it’s finally hitting me that the grandparents I knew and loved are already gone forever. And I’m 38! I could be dealing with this with my parents instead, which would be even worse, but my grandparents are still here and it feels childish to be so upset when a) this has to be harder on my dad and b) most people’s grandparents don’t live into their 90s in the first place. But I’ve always struggled with change, and a big part of me really believes that things aren’t *supposed* to change that much, that it’s unnatural, that eventually we’ll all be done screwing around and we can actually go back to some of these memories in the photo albums. And that’s not how it works, time is constantly slipping away from everyone, and it’s fucking me up.

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goddammit are we really doing this again

why doesn’t the internet get to have anything nice

(I have so many good meta posts I never got around to reposting on AO3!)

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

Have you ever looked closely at a car windshield?

The edge of the glass is painted where it is glued to the car but it has these small dots between the clear and painted glass.

These are there for a reason. When the sun hits the glass the painted areas and the clear areas will absorb heat at different rates. This causes the glass to expand and contract differently putting stress on the glass.

These dots help the glass to warm up more evenly over a larger area so the glass does not suffer stress that could cause it to spontaneously explode.

Fun fact: the Tesla cybertruck doesn’t have these.

Yes, the glass will spontaneously crack or explode in the sun.

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

"Captain, are you doomscrolling again?"

"Of course not. Everything is fine. Haha just kidding, April Fool's, everything is completely fubar."

"Yes, but doomscrolling won't fix it."

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“Wait, the last one is key lime, should we save it for Mobius?”

“...you can save your half for him. I’m not saving mine.”

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this is an incredible map

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my primary reaction to infinity war is like…. wow. under hypercapitalism we literally can’t imagine any other fables about resource scarcity, huh?

i’m not even talking about only thanos. every time thanos said his plan to kill half the galaxy (because it’s “finite,” lol ok one-semester-of-econ guy) the other characters were like “no!” or “you can’t!” or “that’s madness!” instead of… counter-arguing, or saying anything like “couldn’t you just… double the resources with a snap of your fingers?” obviously, nobody wants thanos to murder all those people, but it’s also as if everyone tacitly accepts his framing of the problem. “i want to kill half the universe because of resource scarcity,” he says, and everyone says “no, that’s too cruel!!” instead of “wait… wait just a fucking second there, paul ryan.” they don’t even have a line like that even when they’re talking amongst themselves, just musing at how twisted his worldview is, that he can only imagine infinite power as an infinite power to kill. no time is spent imagining an alternative.

and i can’t help but think about how we in the quote-unquote “first world” treat the resource consumption of the so-called “developing world.” we, who have enjoyed the pleasures and benefits of fridges and air conditioning and televisions and cars and convenience food and all that shit for generations: we look at the growing energy & plastics consumption of the developing world and go “uh oh, they’re really running the tab up over there, we can’t let this happen, think of the…. trees!!!” we have the audacity to act like people living in poverty in the tropics wanting window fans is selfish and short-sighted for the environment, and meanwhile we use and waste all the energy and resources we can get ahold of, like a continent full of montgomery burnses.

infinity war could have taken thanos’s approach to scarcity somewhere bigger: somewhere that was useful as a parable for our hypocrisy. the way that ragnarok was brave enough to make a parable of empire; the way that black panther could explore diaspora and identity; the way that the winter soldier actually had something to say about the surveillance-terror state. but for all the moving pieces of infinity war, i don’t think it knew where its central ethic rested. certainly, its characters showed the desire to preserve and protect life. but that’s true of any superhero film.

what it comes down to for me, is that it’s not enough for this movie’s theme to be “let’s protect people, because killing people is bad!” or even, sorry steve, “we don’t trade lives.” it’s not enough. thanos basically says, “there’s one bowl of soup and one spoon and two hungry people, so one of them has to die.” so what i needed was someone to openly reject that whole proposition. not just “no, you shouldn’t kill trillions,” but “no, that is fucking ludicrous, i reject that worldview. i reject human life as a brutal competition. group survival, even in the face of scarcity or hardship, is exactly what the fuck we developed culture for.” like, we could use that message. that message, delivered palatably in a blockbuster action movie, could do some good.

but it wasn’t really in there. maybe in little bits, in pieces. maybe. so i’m sure we’re going to have to endure a bunch of “welllll, thanos was a bad guy, but he did have a point about scarcity” metas. because we’re still failing to see how asking other people to die so that the rest can enjoy plenty is itself exactly the fucking problem on this bitch of an earth

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just meant to rewatch a few minutes of Infinity War for fic-research purposes and accidentally ended up rewatching almost the whole thing, and ugh, I'm again bitterly reminded that it would be an almost perfect Marvel movie IF NOT FOR THE PART WHERE LOKI DIED IN THE FIRST FIVE FUCKING MINUTES

I mean, I also extremely hate that this version of Gamora died and the way she died, and the way nobody had a chance to give a meaningful rebuttal to Thanos's genocidal bullshit, but Loki was personal. he didn't even get to do any fun crossover stuff first!! at least Gamora got to do a little of that with Thor!

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

Never let anyone take you to a second location

—excellent advice both for stranger danger and for keeping theoretically short fics from spiraling out of control

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

dog goes gorp

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Belatedly realized today that this got zero interest and zero donations, which is maybe more crushing than it should be but like, I always do okay in Marvel Trumps Hate, I was hoping I could actually raise more here due to the format, I put a not-insignificant amount of time and effort just into this post, and nope nothing

Fan Crafts Bazaar stall

Welcome to my Fan Crafts Bazaar stall for @fandomtrumpshate! I've done Marvel Trumps Hate before but I've never done this, so if I leave out something really obvious or I say something confusing, please ask questions. Tumblr DMs or are generally a good way to contact me initially. Premade items go to the first person to show me proof of donation with their claim.

Basically, everything on my Etsy shop is available, except that a) to participate in the Fan Crafts Bazaar, you'll donate the listed price to one of the organizations and show me proof of donation to get the item you want, and b) some items that look limited in my shop can be repeatedly custom-made, as long as you're willing to wait a little while to get them.

I will pay $5 shipping for each package, so if you're outside the US (or for some reason your domestic shipping cost goes above $5), I'll ask you to send me the shipping overage through PayPal.

I am linking to Etsy for most of these items, but again, that's just to show photos and variations. If you buy directly from my Etsy, you're buying from me! Don't do that if you want to participate in the charity bazaar!

I either have or can make multiples of these items:

Loki Pride emoji pin ($13; a few are premade and can be shipped immediately, and I can re-do any flag I've already done; I can also easily do any other 3-stripe or 5-stripe flag, but I'm not sure about others)

Frost Giant Loki emoji pin ($14, the one with yellow horns; nothing premade)

Pride Cap pin ($15; a few varieties are premade and can ship immediately; I can re-do any flag I've already done or any flag mentioned in the listing, and I can probably figure out a way to do other flags)

Loki Pride keychains ($16; only one premade, but these can be custom-made for any 3-stripe or 5-stripe flag)

tux Loki pin ($14, professionally made hard enamel, 10 available, ungraded)

Loki/Sylvie theme park pin ($16, printed metal pins, 6 available)

Wonder Woman Pride necklace ($14; best with 3-stripe flags)

mini magnets, non-fandom: lollipop, fox mask, clock, mushroom ($4 each; I have a few other random things too, I just haven't posted pictures yet)

mini magnets, fandom: logos for the Avengers, Thor, Black Widow, Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Man (two different arc reactors), and Spider-Man, plus a Pokéball; fewer of a Loki symbol and some DC characters ($4 each)

One or very limited stock (again, limited items go to the first person to show me proof of donation with their claim):

bi Wonder Woman earrings ($13)

pansexual Loki earrings ($10)

nonbinary Hufflepuff pin ($13, scroll down to the bottom; please donate to an explicitly trans-supporting charity for this one; could potentially do something similar with a Gryffindor pin from the same series)

Pride Cap figure ($14.50)

Pride Cap necklaces/keychains ($15 each; premade nonbinary, genderfluid, and genderqueer only, because they're a little more annoying to make than pins, although I could probably be convinced to make more if somebody's really into them)

Funko Pop head ornaments: Marvel, gaming, Power Rangers (only have the specific ones listed)

mini magnets, fandom: specifically the four detailed designs in the second photo of Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Vision; not shown, one each of the Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel logos ($4 each)

I'm waiting to receive a couple other professionally made items that I'll probably add if they get here in time.