whataliethatwas

[whataliethatwas]

[whataliethatwas]

I Am Learning to Abandon the World

by Linda Pastan

I am learning to abandon the world before it can abandon me. Already I have given up the moon and snow, closing my shades against the claims of white. And the world has taken my father, my friends. I have given up melodic lines of hills, moving to a flat, tuneless landscape. And every night I give my body up limb by limb, working upwards across bone, towards the heart. But morning comes with small reprieves of coffee and birdsong. A tree outside the window which was simply shadow moments ago takes back its branches twig by leafy twig. And as I take my body back the sun lays its warm muzzle on my lap as if to make amends.

[whataliethatwas]

[whataliethatwas]

has anyone noticed lately how black friday deals or any type of "sale" deals aren't actually deals. like i had something on my amazon wishlist that was $19.99 before, and now it's saying it WAS $49.99 but is on sale for $19.99 for a "black Friday deal." as if it wasn't just $19.99 two weeks ago at regular price. like these damn websites atp are straight up lying and trying to trick people into thinking something is on sale/is a good deal when it's not. and this isn't exclusive to that one item or even just amazon. i've been seeing it everywhere. the fuck

[whataliethatwas]

literally so embarrassing to have someone go "i don't go here" or "what's this from?" on my art and it's a rarepair/crackship that is in no way representative of the source material... and i have to be like. well you see, the rest of the restaurant's menu is not like this. i'm doing my own thing eating black olives right out of the can in the back-of-house. whether or not you want me to throw you a can, you have to understand that's not what they serve out front

[whataliethatwas]

Please Stop Using Inflation Calculators for Jane Austen’s Novels

Public Service Announcement: They just don’t work 200 years back.

This problem is explained very eloquently by the BBC radio show More or Less. But the basic problem is this, the economies of the early 1800s and the 20th-21st centuries are so different that conversion is not possible. This article also does a decent job of explaining.

Inflation is calculated by looking at a basket of goods that someone can buy and comparing the price over time. It breaks down if the economies are too different. How do you compare a shirt, which took your mother 17 hours to hand sew, to a shirt made in a factory in minutes? People did not yet purchase clothing, they purchased fabric. Many people grew their own food, only purchasing things they could not produce themselves. So basically, what they purchased just wasn’t comparable to today. The early 19th century economy relied on cheap labour and goods were often made by individuals not factories.

Here is Darcy’s income in the Bank of England inflation calculator:

Which is a lot, but it doesn’t actually capture how insanely wealthy he is! A master blacksmith in the early 1800s only made about £100 per year. Darcy is making 100x more than that. Which is why a GDP comparison has Darcy closer to £16 million per year. 

If you look as his income as a share of all money made in the UK economy at that time, it works out to £61 million PER YEAR! His assets by that calculation would be nearly £3 billion in today’s money.

The point is this: a modern Darcy would be a Fortune500 CEO or in possession of extraordinary generational wealth, as he is in Pride & Prejudice. He is making far more than say, decorated brain surgeon in the U.S. money (about $550,000 a year) or even most athletes. Bingley is also making huge money. Mr. Bennet is probably much closer to making an income that one could find from a high status job, but even he is making 20x more than a blacksmith. 40x more than a governess.

For context, the average income of a peer in this time period was £8000. Mr. Darcy is indeed, as good as a lord.

[whataliethatwas]

There’s this guy in town who owns this little house, and a while back he rescued a street dog that was going to get put down. Turned out she was pregnant.

Problem is, he has mental health & drug issues and couldn’t afford to get them all spayed & neutered, so now there are 6 grown bitches with 15 puppies total, and they’ve dug under his fence in multiple places but he can’t afford to fix it so they go roaming all around town. (When I say can’t afford it, I mean his house is currently running on a generator because he can’t afford his electric bill.) He’s also a day laborer so he cannot take multiple full days off work to take them to the vet an hour away. He’s in a really rough spot.

He’s not a bad person. He’s just overwhelmed.

And this little conservative town with 6 churches for 300 people, have they tried to help their neighbor? Have they adopted the puppies he’s been trying to give away? Have they offered resources?

NOPE! All they wanna do is talk shit about him and complain about the dogs but never lift a finger of their own. And they come to his house to yell at him and cuss him out about the dogs, which does not exactly engender in him a cooperative attitude, as you might imagine.

So after a while of this going on, my mom gets fed up with all the NIMBY bullshit and starts talking to the guy, because she’s done animal rescue for 20-odd years and has Connections. He’s resistant at first, but when he realizes she’s not being an asshole to him on account of his addiction or the dogs, he decides to let her help.

She gets to work organizing and networking. Finds a non-profit that will cover vaccinations, spay/neuter, and flea treatments for all the dogs. Talks the next-door neighbor into paying for materials to fix the fence, since this guy can do the work of it himself. Gets him in touch with another non-profit that will adopt out the adult dogs.

Less than 2 weeks after she decided to do something, all puppies have been to the vet, 10 puppies and 4 adult dogs have been adopted out, and the second non-profit is coming by next week to pick up the remaining 7 dogs to ship them out for adoption.

I’ve learned a lot of things from my mom—some good, some bad—but I think the most important positive message she lives as an example of is this: sometimes, when something needs done and no one else is willing, you gotta stand up and say “I’ll do it.”

[whataliethatwas]

FedEx: shits on my box, stomps on my box, kicks it, dumps gasoline on it, throws one of my chickens into the back of the van UPS: whispers at my front door “is anyone home” as quietly as possible before leaving a “we missed you!” note, tries to gaslight me into thinking my address doesn’t exist USPS: sets my package down gently where it’s not visible from the road, knocks on the door and kisses me directly on the mouth

[whataliethatwas]

[whataliethatwas]

1941, noisemakers for special effects....

[whataliethatwas]

Unethical polyamory not in the sense that the partners aren't consenting to multiple relationships but in the sense that they kill people as a group

[whataliethatwas]

[whataliethatwas]

the idea of a """live Action""" adaption of an animated movie that came out in the 2010s is rage inducing at first but the reality is more saddening, the fact that both original ideas and animation/art as a whole being heavily undermined and unappreciated is frustrating. it's really draining to see these corps keep churning out these slopfest without an ounce of sincerity in them. money is the only objective.

[whataliethatwas]

Zoozve, my beloved

[whataliethatwas]

colors

[whataliethatwas]