#i used to be a history major

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

putting my prediction on record now that the coming decade is going to see the rise of viral-marketed fancy at-home water filtration systems, driving and driven by a drastic reduction in the quality of U.S. tap water (given that we are in a 'replacement era' where our current infrastructure is reaching the end of its lifespan--but isn't being replaced). also guessing that by the 2030s access to drinkable tap water will be a mainstream class issue, with low-income & unstably housed people increasingly forced to rely on expensive bottled water when they can't afford the up-front cost of at-home filtration--and with this being portrayed in media as a "moral failing" and short-sighted "choice," rather than a basic failure of our political & economic systems. really hope i'm just being alarmist, but plenty of this already happens in other countries, and the U.S. is in a state of decline, so. here's praying this post ages into irrelevance. timestamped April 2023

#apollo don't fucking touch this one #serious post #not a shitpost #hope i forget about this post and have no reason to ever look back on it one day #fyi i'm aware that access to potable water is already a major issue in parts of the U.S. yes i know flint michigan exists #i'm saying that this issue is going to GROW unless local & federal governments work together to fix it. #so it's a matter of if we trust them to fix it. And well--do you? #what are the chances the government just denies there's a problem until the water actually turns brown #at which point it's already been common knowledge for years and people have just become resigned and that's our new normal #i'm mean come on. how many of us already believe that we're being exposed to dangerous pollutants we don't know about and can't avoid #like that's pretty much just part of being a modern consumer. accepting that companies will happily endanger your life for a few pennies #and the most you'll get is like a $50 gift card as part of a class action rebate 20 years down the line #probably the history books will look back on Flint as a warning and a harbinger that went ignored #luxury condos will advertise their built-in top-of-the-line filtration systems--live here and you can drink water straight from your tap! #watch the elite professional class putting $700 dyson water filtration systems on their wedding registry #while the rest of us figure out how to fit water delivery into our grocery budget while putting 90% of our paycheck towards rent #also eggs are $15

[ratective]

pearl with a pearl earring: a possibly grotesque adaptation

#rat noises #su pearl #pearl #steven universe #su #girl with a pearl earring #su fanart #digital painting #i started this a YEAR AGO contratulate me on beating the laziness right now😊😊 #historical gems #love this series. the history major in me is manifesting when i do this #time to add this to the folder of the 3 finished works i can use for my portfolio! cheers </3 #my paintings dont do well on here but god ive worked on this for so long it'd be nice to get possitive feedback jngdxjjf

[ndostairlyrium]

grey hair, fluff, and murrine 🔮

#dragon age #cullen rutherford #ndo sta l'art tag #in my head he's one that gets old like cheese for a couple of decades at least then he becomes the paper that holds the cheese #which is great honestly we stan #na sindone #=the holy shroud #(keeping the italian comment so to laugh with/at myself in the future) #u know those old guys that wake up at 5am walk 70 miles and then go back home for breakfast for then spending the majority of the morning- #-reading the newspaper and commenting it like a teapot in front of bread and a single glass of tepid water? #him. an old teapot that complains because 'back in his youth!!' #*blows on trumpet* useless history time! #la murrina is glass processed in small tiles to create a pattern #the technique is typical of venice (murano island specifically) but that kind of processing is 2000+ years old #the original recipe that the romans (very much stole *coughs*) utilised got lost in the middle ages #so in the xvi century artisans in murano made their own formula for processing glass in a similar way #the name comes from myrra (myrrh) because originally murrine were used for cosmetic holders #they're very tacky yes #but you know what else is tacky? #a man that dresses up as a lion unironically #(I love him)

[swifty-fox]

Sitting here, might fuck around and do Art History Major John "thats a penis metaphor" Egan and Data Engineer Gale "No I'm not on my eighth redbull at 11 am" Cleven

#as a game design major with an art history minor i knew both these people well #i singlehandedly got the word “phallic” banned in my art analysis 300 class cause I used it for every painting #swiftytalks #Gale begging his classmates to just use the trello board for the love of god #(this is a trello hate account) #buck x bucky

[clove-pinks]

I love the military art of the late Bryan Fosten, who passed away a few years ago at the age of 92. He worked extensively with Osprey Publishing, particularly with Napoleonic era uniforms.

This illustration is from The American War 1812–14, from left to right: Lieutenant, Baltimore United Volunteers, 1814; Private, Rifle Co., Michigan Legionary Corps, 1812; Major-General, US Army, 1813. Fosten painted a convincing tableau with these diverse soldiers, giving them unique appearances and facial expressions.

#war of 1812 #military history #bryan fosten #us army #militia #dressed to kill #1810s #uniforms #i love the major-general's expression #also fosten made the soldiers look handsome which (let's be honest) is crucial #napoleonic

[melonnade]

Had a really long talk with my roommate about this & we came to opposite conclusions. What do you guys think?

#polls #college au #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wwx #lwj #wangxian #this is for research purposes #normally I hate writing aus but the idea crept into my mind and would not leave me #I think wwx is an engineer. lwj screams humanities #dude would probably minor in philosophy and major in ancient history or comparative literature or linguistics #lwj is school of letters and sciences for sure #wwx compsci maybe? materials engineering? leaning more compsci but tbh I could see any engineering for him except for biomedical #I think wwx would live in the makerspace #she says wwx is pre-law polisci and lwj is compsci #she says lwj is the humanities kid —> stem major pipeline #like us lmao #probably did really well in English in hs but Asian parents/cultural influence promoted the stem degree #we agreed that Jiang Cheng is business econ though

[anotherpapercut]

the girlbossification of ruth bader ginsburg has to be one of the most just plain annoying aspects of white liberal feminism. like it's not as actively harmful as a lot of other shit obviously. but it is soooooo annoying. if I never see another notorious rbg tote bag as long as I live it will be too soon

#her opinions and amicus' in many cases were iconic! not denying that certainly. she is absolutely AMONG the better justices in us history #HOWEVER her record on policing/the carceral system is very bad! genuinely bad! #and she just would not hold the conservative justices accountable. her and kagan are way too placating #and then she refused to retire in 2009 when there was a sitting democratic president and a fucking DEMOCRATIC SUPER MAJORITY #saying basically that no one else could do the job as well as her which is insane because sotomayor and KBJ literally are better :/ #its also unbelievably conceited and just incredibly fucking selfish to knowingly doom the country because you think youre hot shit #started ranting abt this at work bc literally any talk even adjacent to the supreme court will set me off abt all of us court history #and my coworker was like 'well i dont think its very fair that she had to have that much riding on her decision to retire' #it literally is fair because that is the fucking job that she signed up for. this has literally always been how it fucking works #its a lifetime appointment. you either die unexpectedly or retire strategically #she accepted a position in which the entire country would depend on her but its not fair for the entire country to depend on her??? #bullshit #im not fucking buying it. she did this knowing roe would likely be struck down as a result #she should absolutely be held accountable for that lmfao. you can know that she had a hand in a lot of great decisions for this country #while also knowing that she did a fucked up and extremely selfish thing

[thou-babbling-brook]

assassin’s creed fans are wild because I just read a fic yesterday that had an accompanying BIBLIOGRAPHY in proper MLA format. nobody works harder than y’all fr fr.

#assassin’s creed #babblingbrook babbles #fanfiction #ac fanfic #it was ac valhalla based it was like Eivor x Basim #which is not usually my thing but I’ve been dying for Basim content #the fic is called ‘on the far side of our doom’ #it’s on ao3 #it fucks im not even gonna lie #the bibliography is a separate fic just look on the author’s account #I’m a psyc major so i use apa and i got my english and history double major friend to look at it #it is indeed in proper MLA format #bro Ubisoft needs to start hiring you guys as that shit is bonkers #imma start doing that (I am only half joking) #next time I write an ac3/turn crossover it’s over

[noodleblade]

Do you have any favorite headcanon about cybertronians culture or "biology" you like or would want to use in your writing?

HMMMMMMMMM Interesting questions. Sorry for the ramble, I hope it makes sense but it really got me thinking. This became less headcanons and more just a rant fdkjvbefjvskndjnfjfdknvkjasvfn

As far as culture, I like leaning into what's been established a little.

Example: I like the fraught nature of Velocitron prioritizing speed and creating a system that revolves around it. I'm pretty sure the extent of it discussed is political, but I think it would also stem culturally (and maybe it is in the comics but I haven't gotten there yet).

Music having faster rhythms and beats, childhood games centered around racing, courting rituals based on showing off your speed or racing together.

And on the flip side, Velocitron does devalue slower, bulkier bots which creates this caste-type system. I like the idea of those mechs having their own culture, which is stemmed from their physicality but also their political situation of being outcasted.

Like, since Velocitron is all about who is the fastest, I think an interesting cultural attitude is created where you are constantly trying to be better than others, but if you are already limited being able to go fast, proving you are better isn't as important when society tells you differently. It shifts the value of the Importance of Self to the Importance of Community. That in itself creates a shift in culture.

Not to mention the ADA Compliance angle of there are areas of Velocitron that just have structures that allow for bigger, slower bots. I think I wrote something along the lines of Breakdown complaining that going to a convention medic on Velocitron as a bigger bot often ends up with misdiagnosed problems because they are so focused on the idea that you must be fast and smaller that they offer reformatting without looking at what the root of the problem is. (I know many fat people have this issue of doctors suggesting "losing weight" when addressing medical concerns without digging in deeper which is bullshit but aside from the point).

A SIDE THOUGHT: I would love to read (or maybe write???) Cybertronian folk stories/myths. I think that would be a fun avenue of culture to explore. It would be a way to delve into multiple aspects of culture and each city and colony would naturally have different ones or even rival ones. For example, taking the Velocitron culture into consideration, there could be conflicting folk stories alla a tortoise and hare situation. Speedy, conventional mechs would have a story framed around the "hare" being the winner where a slowly, bulkier mechs would have it framed around the "tortoise" being the winner. Idk i think that is so cool and interesting and gahhh.

BIOLOGY THOUGH x---x science was my worst subject in school already and i struggle with anything related to it. Writing such topics is a fun challenge but very difficult for me to broach, especially when we add mechanical components into it. I am writing a fic with the basis of scavenging the parts of deceased/offlined mechs and using them to rebuild another.

#IDK IF THIS IS WHAT YOU HAD IN MIND BUT I SPEND LIKE AN HOUR ON HOLD SPINNING THIS AROUND IN MY BRAIN #anonymous #asks #transformers #cybertronian culture #id love to hear other people's thoughts and opinions because the possibilities are really endless #there are so many aspects of culture to go down #i could talk about this forever #can you tell i used to be a history/literature major?

[gingerswagfreckles]

the way everyone on this site just assumes all atheists r ex-christians is really fucking gross lol. and frankly just goes to show how christian-centric 99% of you still are.

#atheism #atheist #agnostic #agnostisizm #judaism #like 70% of jews r athiests u ignorant dicks lol. and like 80% of athiest philosophers r jewish #tho major atheist thinkers come from every culture and religion that exists. fucking obviously. u narrow minded idiots?? #atheists and agnostics and rational thinkers come from all kinds of religious backgrounds its literally the oldest worldview #a lot older than any religion lol #like why do u think everyone who doesnt think like u has to be a broken version of what u already are. shut up shut up shut UPPPP #none of u know 1 single thing about history or science or culture or anthropology and it fucking shoooows #~culturally christian~ for the love of fuck please stop using this term none of u know what it means #sorry i got hatemail #gingerswagfreckles #jewish history

[softle0]

I think it’s pretty obvious ea is going to announce a fairy’s pack soon… first of all, I HOPEE this is just a game pack like all the occults, cause doing a whole ep for that would be insane. Second of all. Honestly for me, I’m not excited at all about that, I never get to play with occults, is not my gameplay style so for me this is just meh… what I would prefer is worlds with new cultural representation… we’re lacking of worlds based on Latin America countries, European countries, more Asian countries, African countries, I know a lot of ppl will enjoy the fairy’s for sure, but I think I speak for the majority of us that we prefer better cultural appreciation for everyone…

#I’m so done with ppl saying selvadorada is a representation of Mexico because is not. it’s a very fairy representation of Latin America #and not at all #like I get it we have jungles and ofc ppl live in places like that BUT NOT THE MAJORITY OF US #Ik there’s a lot in other countries that have so much potential but im speaking for my country #and here in Mexico we have sooo much #the diversity is insane #we have jungles/desert/the most beautiful beaches #(even a pink one) #big cities / really beautiful towns with lots of history and culture #they can do an insane ep of this and ik ppl will enjoy it cause one thing Mexico have is that is very magical… #even if is not Mexico I would totally prefer another Asian/european and African inspired works #worlds** #and I would totally enjoy those more than some fairies tbh

[zahri-melitor]

Flipping through the Prez trade I'm reminded that it is truly one of the weirdest properties DC has, given how much is going on in so few issues.

It had a 4 issue run in 1973 before cancellation, and had already run out of ideas hard enough to randomly pop vampires into issue 4.

There's a single crossover to Supergirl.

The next Prez story ended up in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 1978, aka 'we are doing the absolute minimum possible to protect our IP and copyright, nobody will ever see this'. If you don't know the history of how Cancelled Comic Cavalcade happened, read up on it. It's wild and probably best described as a professional's zine (and despite redoing the colouring for the 1973 run, the trade doesn't even ATTEMPT to colour this)

Nobody touches the property again for 20 years, until Neil Gaiman resurrects it in the Sandman #54 to deconstruct the concept of a story of a teen president.

This goes over so well that Ed Brubaker picks up the concept and desconstructs it even further to interrogate the mythology of a forgotten and hidden man who was a teen president in Vertigo Visions: Prez #1 (and seriously for anyone who's read the Sandman issue and hasn't read Brubaker's story, track it down. It's absolutely worthy)

Frank Miller (yes really) then decides he can make the mythology even weirder in The Dark Knight Strikes Again and hypotheses an aged Prez Rickard who's actually a hologram who once again becomes president.

Grant Morrison has never heard of a terrible Silver Age concept that they didn't half recall and want to put into a title, so proceeds to declare Prez to belong to Earth-47 in the Multiverse. Nothing outside of a Christmas story in the 2021 anthology has ever come out of this.

Frantically trying to find more ideas to keep 52 different comics running during New 52, DC decides to reboot the Prez franchise in the lead up to the 2016 US Federal Election by inventing Beth Ross as a new generation's Teen President and hiring Mark Russell to write a maxi in full satire mode. It gets cancelled after 6 issues.

#I do love it #Prez is not a concept I would hand to a comics outsider #but to someone who appreciates the lore and history of comics #there's something incredibly DC about how this ridiculous concept keeps popping up in some big events #written by major names #and used to examine the concept of storytelling and mythology

[rotzaprachim]

*breathes in and out through mouth* everyone is scared and grieving and still waiting for news of their families everyone is scared and grieving everyone is scared and grieving*

#Jewish communal leader hurt me very and I mean VE TU deeply today #I mean very #I think in what was to her mind a not passive aggressive way she felt the need to explain the Israeli Side and Israeli history #But like the nail in the coffin was implying that I don’t feel as deeply for the people in Israel #I don’t understand the depth of suffering of the people in Israel #Because I was bothered on Saturday zoom Torah by how Netanyahu has used this for more war crimes #That the fact that I care about Gazans means I don’t feel enough grief or a normal Jewish grief as she sees it for Jews #To me this is jsut unconscionably cruel #Also that the majority of Jews don’t support a ceasefire or at least local Jews #Well if that’s true I want no part of it. Not now or ever again #I can’t believe she felt the need to like. Explain the news cycle to me #I didn’t get this off a tiktok ma’am #I read yo@v g@llant in fucking haaretz. I heard what he said #*no one in Israel is calling for mass death* clearly they are #Anyway she told it was whataboutism to care about the reprisals on a civillians population from what Hamas did #And to feel better being part of a community or doing soemthing active. Maybe read this book on feminism I’ve already read #I’m just so hurt by it all! #Telling another Jew they don’t feel or care enough for ‘am yisrael is the deepest cut there is

[frmulcahy]

Writing papers is so hard because you should form your own opinion but you also have to be Stiff and Proper and Academic about it you can’t just be like “and then Dickens was being a fucking shit head and published a 3 part long racist tantrum in Household Words-“

#also the struggle of trying not to use personal pronouns #it flows better!!!! other article authors do it!!!!! but I know it’s like Technically still quite frowned upon #academia #college #art history #art history major #research paper

[chamerionwrites]

Listen the Puritans sucked in plenty of ways but the weirdly common view expressed on this site that everything wrong with USAmerican culture can be traced back to puritans/“puritanism” (vaguely and often ahistorically defined) is, forgive me, infuriatingly fucking simplistic. Like frankly if anything you are buying into the USA’s own national mythologizing re: the Puritans WAY too hard

#you do realize that the majority of early colonizers were *not* puritans. right? #you do realize that large swathes of the country’s ruling class (ie the people shaping the laws and culture!) were…wealthy southerners…? #with like zero cultural or historical relationship to that particular religious tradition??? #OBVIOUSLY i am not saying there is nothing worthwhile to be said re religious fundamentalism shaping US culture #but jfc the amount of historical flattening you have to do to claim it’s all the puritans’ fault #idk man i think maybe we should look to all the colonialism and genocide and slavery and vicious proto capitalism #all of which were things that existed in history independent of religious nuts in new england and/or their cultural legacy!!!! #sorry i see so many people repeat this take they osmosed from tumblr posts and it makes me feel unhinged every time #rant over #my posts