madthematician

[madthematician]

me listening to foreign music and not understanding a single word of it

[madthematician]

Rosewater (2014) / directed by Jon Stewart.

[madthematician]

Am I attracted to him or just anxious around him?

Other studies have similarly shown that women who become anxious are more likely to find particular men to be attractive. Something about the state of fear or anxiety, in other words, appears to make many of us more likely to experience feelings of sexual attraction towards other people. – One of the most prominent evolutionary mismatch effects is that our brains can readily be tricked into thinking that our survival is at risk when we are, in reality, quite safe. This particular mismatch effect seems to be the key to destructive romantic relationships. – One common feature of survival-mode emotional states like fear or anxiety is that they activate a stress response that will release stress hormones into the brain. As Todd Ritchey and I have suggested, a great deal of evidence indicates that stress hormones – which include endorphin, the brain’s primary ‘pleasure’ chemical – can provide unconscious biochemical rewards in the brain. Thus the great majority of people in modern life, we have proposed, develop literal biochemical addictions to various negative, or survival-mode, emotional states and to the stress hormones that these emotional states are known to release. – Since all survival-mode states appear to release stress hormones in the brain, any such state can therefore potentially become confused with sexual desire, or can heighten any authentic sexual attraction or desire that may already exist. – It’s true that our hearts can race when we’re joyfully excited, or when we’re truly in love. But our hearts can also race when we’re afraid, when we’re angry, or when we feel insulted or diminished. – In this way, many of us – particularly those of us who grew up amid dysfunction that we haven’t yet fully processed or become fully aware of – can enter into relationships with people who repeatedly trigger negative emotions in us that are associated with our old traumas.” (source)

  Misattribution of arousal is a term in psychology which describes the process whereby people make a mistake in assuming what is causing them to feel aroused. For example, when actually experiencing physiological responses related to fear, people mislabel those responses as romantic arousal. (wikipedia)

Who among us hasn’t, at one time or another, mistaken our own anxiety about a relationship for passionate chemistry?  We tell ourselves where there’s smoke there’s fire. But in reality, it’s just smoke, with no sustainable flame. (5 Signs You’re Confusing Anxiety with Chemistry)

If you have any personal input or links please add!

[madthematician]

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

[madthematician]

[madthematician]

why do you and others like vaccines so much?

not dying of preventable diseases is actually one of my favorite hobbies

[madthematician]

The experience with university so far is okay, I did my best not to expect anything and I believe that has helped immensely. Some of the things we're discussing I already know quite well, other things I knew less of. I'm curious to see how the rest of the weeks will go, as I don't find it a particularly special or different experience yet either. Then again, I still haven't got properly lost so we'll see.

[madthematician]

sandra cisneros, the house on mango street / tatyana nilovna yablonskaya - morning, 1954 / anatoly levitin- warm day, 1957 / harry sutton palmer - a cottage garden, 20th c. / phoebe bridgers, i know the end / sarah abraham - one fine morning, 2013 / theo gosselin - denver morning 5, 2015 / gaston bachelard, the poetics of space / federico zandomeneghi - in bed, 1878 / laura ingalls wilder /colley wisson- morning light kyneton australia, 21st c. / @gabi_wahl on instagram / lauren jolly roberts - cecile’s garden, 2006 / maya angelou, all god’s children need traveling shoes

[madthematician]

current obsession is eugene janssons blue period

[madthematician]

relationships with ur parents are so weird, arent they? like... i hate you for what you did, i love you because you bring me soup when im sick. i want to get away from you. i feel safe with you. i want to run away from you. i want your hugs. i wish you understood me. i wish i understood you.

[madthematician]

I think part of why there’s suddenly so much “confusion” about what a woman is, is that it’s much harder to argue philosophy than policy. Because, you know, whether the people saying ‘female’ is such a nebulous concept really believe it or are just being disingenuous, they can certainly derail any conversation they’d like.

You can spend years in a philosophy class debating about the metaphysics of a chair, but if your boss tells you to purchase 100 chairs and you purchase 100 couches, you’ll both know you’ve done something wrong. 

But how do you argue something as basic as a definition with someone determined to ignore reality? If you hold up a pear and insist it’s an apple, insist the dictionary definition of ‘apple’ is incorrect, how do we advance in our discussion? If I relent and agree to pretend a pear is an apple, how do we discuss the differences between the two? If I hold fast, then you’ve stymied the discussion; we cannot make decisions or share opinions if we each believe the same word has two different meanings. You’ve created a language barrier within a single language! Defeated words’ very purpose! Blocked communication before it began!

Just think: every word in this post has a precise definition. If it didn’t, this post would have no meaning. And if this post made you angry, then know you already understand its basis. Just think: with no method of communication you could neither agree nor disagree with the ideas set forth, so, otherwise why would you be angry? 

[madthematician]

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.”

— C.S. Lewis

[madthematician]

passing by.

[madthematician]

Okay guys but do you ever yearn for this study buddy with whom you can study day and night, research together, they write notes for you, you read for them, amidst piles of paper scattered all over the floor and everything seems so easy. So easy.

[madthematician]

Men aren’t advantaged because they’re masculine, masculinity IS the advantage. Males are advantaged because they are the sex which is allowed to be masculine.

Similarly, women aren’t punished for being feminine, femininity IS the punishment for being female. Women are disadvantaged because we are pressured to be feminine and punished if we deviate. We’re only praised for ~embracing femininity~ because it means we’re willingly accepting our chains. Convincing women that femininity is innate and inevitable rather than taught is just a way to keep us from opening our eyes or our mouths, or imagining a scenario in which things are different.

Women are oppressed for being female, and when you slap some makeup and a push-up bra on that oppression it’s called femininity.

[madthematician]

Etymology of the Months of the Year

January - from the Latin Janus mensis (month of Janus), Janus being the Roman god of doors, gates and transitions.

February - from the Latin februarius, from februa, a religious purification festival celebrated during that month.

March - from the Latin martius, from the Roman god of war, Mars. March was originally the 1st month of the Roman calendar year, with January and February being added later.

April - from the Latin aprilis, which either was a Latin word for second, as it was the 2nd month in the year, or it came from the verb aperire, meaning to open, as is was the beginning of spring.

May - from the Latin maius, which came from the goddess Maia, who was the goddess of the growth of plants.

June - from the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter. 

July - from the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, who renamed this month after himself. It was originally called quintilis, as it was the 5th month of the Roman year.

August - from the Roman emperor Augustus, who renamed this month after himself too. It was originally called sextillia, as it was the 6th month.

September - from the Latin septem-, meaning seven as it was the 7th month in the year.

October - from the Latin octo-, meaning eight, as it was the 8th month in the year.

November - from the Latin novem-, meaning nine, as its was the 9th month in the year.

December - from the Latin decem-, meaning ten, as it was the 10th month in the year.

[madthematician]

actually, growing up is feeling like i turned sixteen two days ago. i’ve been eighteen for years. fifteen year olds seem so young. wasn’t i fifteen just a few weeks ago? all my friends and i are still twelve. i’m closer to thirty than to being a baby. i never got to be a kid. i never grew past eight. i can’t talk to my mom. i want to sit in her lap forever. i want to decide everything for myself. i need someone to tell me exactly what to do. the week is going by so slow. an entire year has passed.