alice-makes-things

[alice-makes-things]

Shout out to the dad in the baby bounce and rhyme time I ran this morning who chose “Bees” as his baby’s Old MacDonald animal choice

Que chaos from all the toddlers who are afraid of bees 😅

#library toddlers #library #bees

[alice-makes-things]

In the colossal, cathedral sized water tank beneath the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, several heads of Medusa have been used as pillar bases for the past 1.500 years. It is not entirely known where the heads came from, but they were believed to be taken from some other Roman ruin. The heads are upside down or sideways to inhibit the power of the Gorgon Medusa's gaze.

The water tank's existence was forgotten for hundreds of years, despite being beneath the Hagia Sophia. When it was rediscovered, explorers found fish inside of it.

[alice-makes-things]

doomscrolling is not activism

doomscrolling is not activism

doomscrolling is not activism

"don't look away" is a meaningless phrase. who are you benefiting by inundating yourself with misery porn?

DO something about things you care about. Go to a protest for something you believe in, if you can. Donate money to a cause if you have it to spare. Volunteer your time to help people if you have the energy. Write a letter to your political representatives if that's something you can do. These are meaningful ways to try to make change in the world.

And then? don't feel bad about insulating yourself from horrible news. Don't make yourself look at images that make you feel sick. Don't read endless things that depress you. Because frankly it gets harder to actually do the more you doomscroll. Reading constantly about things you can't change because they're happening at a systemic level or on the other side of the world is paralyzing. It makes you less able to help where you can.

I'm not saying be willfully ignorant. I'm not saying pretend horrible things aren't happening. I'm saying don't destroy your mental health going in-depth and cycling through horror after horror on your phone. I'm saying there is no virtue in making yourself experience other people's traumas because mere awareness is not activism. you inflicting suffering on yourself is not activism.

doomscrolling is literally sapping your energy and focus away from doing anything useful to help other people. you can burn yourself out without ever lifting a finger by exposing yourself to all the bad news in the world and who does that help? no one.

[alice-makes-things]

So today a library kid asked me if I had a different job every day and I’ve made a realisation about my life

#genuinely I might have achieved my childhood dream #I am bert #seriously whether I’m in the library or doing one of my freelance gigs #I have a different job every day #step in time #mary poppins #I probably need a jolly holiday though

[alice-makes-things]

Neurodivergent burnout moments: London elections edition

Nearly accidentally committing election fraud by mistakenly giving out your childhood address rather than your current one

#the particularly stupid thing about this is #my polling station is ON THE STREET WHERE I CURRENTLY LIVE #like how I got this so wrong lmao

[alice-makes-things]

Neurodivergent burnout moments: London elections edition

Nearly accidentally committing election fraud by mistakenly giving out your childhood address rather than your current one

#everyone had a right laugh #once I remembered I no longer live with my parents #I have now voted and all is well #if you are in London go and vote bc most of the candidates look and feel like batman villains and we can’t have that tbh

[alice-makes-things]

Yeah, I’d watch Muppets Lord of the Rings

[alice-makes-things]

[alice-makes-things]

I am once again thinking about digging holes

It's so fucked up that digging a bunch of holes works so well at reversing desertification

I hate that so much discourse into fighting climate change is talking about bioenginerring a special kind of seaweed that removes microplastics or whatever other venture-capital-viable startup idea when we have known for forever about shit like digging crescent shaped holes to catch rainwater and turning barren land hospitable

#diggy diggy hole

[alice-makes-things]

My managers: hey so you have burnout, maybe try and slow down a little, maybe take some annual leave, also maybe don’t do something in your 3-day working week that someone else would do in a month?

Me: okay

Also me whenever anything happens or calls for my attention in any way:

#burnout #neurodivegent

[alice-makes-things]

Things I have cried about over the last few days:

- when my therapist told me I no longer have an emotionally or physically sustainable life (currently killing it at work but also experiencing some fairly extreme burnout to the detriment of my own wellbeing)

- the military horses that got spooked, threw their riders, and galloped around traffic-riddled London, crashing into vehicles, becoming more spooked, and galloping faster, bleeding profusely (seriously horses are not meant to be in a city doing silly things for silly royals and / or the police, put them in a field for a big relax and give them a nice treat)

- listening to 00s pop-punk bangers and wishing I was a drunk 17-year-old at a house party having fun (before the 2008 recession hit, the first of the four “once-in-a-lifetime” financial crises I’ve experienced in my adult life, instead of being a 33-year-old with responsibilities and clinical depression)

I need a holiday

#we were hoping for some romance all we found was more despair #yes this is an extremely millennial post why do you ask

[alice-makes-things]

"oh, but you said you had a crush on someone-" no. that was me gaslighting myself into thinking i had a crush on someone because of how sexually centered society is.

#to this day I have never had a crush #I have two stages: we are best friends #and oh no I’m in love #there is no in between

[alice-makes-things]

#i shouldn’t be allowed to run a library

[alice-makes-things]

It was nice outside so I went to the park. There were no children in the play area. So I went on the swings. It was the highlight of my week. I am 33.

#park #going outside #springtime #swingset #seriously though adults should have playgrounds too #we’re the only species of mammal where the adults don’t engage in play for the sake of play #yes we have ‘play’ but it’s like video games and team sports and stuff #let’s just get on a climbing frame and go down slides and the like

[alice-makes-things]

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

🎬 Peter Jackson

+ IMDb trivia

[alice-makes-things]

Molotov Moomin sticker spotted in Portland, Oregon

[alice-makes-things]

Molotov Moomin sticker spotted in Portland, Oregon

#i like this