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It’s funny how science fiction universes so often treat humans as a boring, default everyman species or even the weakest and dumbest.

I want to see a sci fi universe where we’re actually considered one of the more hideous and terrifying species.

How do we know our saliva and skin oils wouldn’t be ultra-corrosive to most other sapient races? What if we actually have the strongest vocal chords and can paralyze or kill the inhabitants of other worlds just by screaming at them? What if most sentient life in the universe turns out to be vegetable-like and lives in fear of us rare “animal” races who can move so quickly and chew shit up with our teeth?

Like that old story “they’re made of meat,” only we’re scarier.

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love

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Mental Crop Rotation

When farmers grow the same crop too many years in a row, it can leave their soil depleted of minerals and other nutrients that are vital to the health of their fields.

To avoid this, farmers will often alternate the crops that they grow because some plants will use up different minerals (such as nitrogen) while other plants replenish those minerals. This process is known as “crop rotation.”

So the next time you find that you need to step away from a project to work on something else for a while, don’t beat yourself up for “quitting” that project. Give yourself permission to practice “mental crop rotation” to maintain a healthy brain field.

Because I’ve found that when that unnecessary guilt and pressure are removed from the process, a good mental crop rotation can help you feel more energized and invigorated than ever once you’re ready to rotate back to that project.

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Virga, the phenomenon of rain not reaching the ground. Virga is produced when rain is falling from the base of the cloud but evaporates in dry air before reaching the ground surface.

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Affirmations for you all 🧿

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Explaining gender using colours as an analogy, a thought process I have been tracking since I was like 12

#interesting metaphor (?) to consider gender #i don't really know what sorta nonbinary I am

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I take it back, PGTTBM's drummer can play guitar and bass and the lead singer can play keyboard.

Tuesday, 04.10.22, 18:33

I just had a thought ahout the bands I've been listening to lately.

Peppertones is a 2-member band with a guitarist and bassist, while Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum is a 3-member band with a lead singer, a keyboardist and a drummer. They're kind of the inverse of each other in terms of the members and roles they have, but you can't make a full band by mushing them together, because they have different genres. Hmm...

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Tuesday, 04.10.22, 18:33

I just had a thought ahout the bands I've been listening to lately.

Peppertones is a 2-member band with a guitarist and bassist, while Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum is a 3-member band with a lead singer, a keyboardist and a drummer. They're kind of the inverse of each other in terms of the members and roles they have, but you can't make a full band by mushing them together, because they have different genres. Hmm...

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Friday, 30.09.22, 11:19

Every now and then my helix piercing flares up, and it’s annoying and painful enough that it makes me think I want to take it out after it heals, but every time after it heals I’m like, no it’s fine to stay. And this is at least the 2nd time it’s flared up this year ughhhh

It’s so weird as well because aren’t helix piercings supposed to be more common?? Some people have them done with a piercing gun even (which, no, no). And my conch and rook piercing are all fine and dandy (the rook’s been the BEST, never doing anything bad after it’s healed), but the helix is a pain. It hates studs, so I only wear rings in it, and then it gets angry and painful every now and then??? Why??

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been reading a lot of conversations about space since the james webb images were released particularly wrt to light speed and the fact that we are technically “looking into the past” because the light that actually reaches us is millions or billions of years old, and so we only see these places as they were when the light left, not as they are right now. cool & fine & very interesting

but i just saw someone (shoutout sylverthewordsmyth in the tiktok comment section) reframe this as “the future can see us” and despite this being a natural and logical extrapolation from us seeing the past, it has shaken me to my core. if there’s anybody to look at us from far away, millions and billions of years in the future, they would look at us and see… us. they would look and see the same planet we live on right now, with the same continents and oceans. and it will be already long gone but to them it will be as alive as it is to us right now, the same way we see still see stars that have already gone out. i have to lay down

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every tumblr user: despite the fact that no one views or cares about my blog, i will continue to spend the majority of my life updating it

#despite the fact that #? #did you mean: because #sometimes the fun in updating is that I know no one reads it

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Saturday, 18.06.22, 21:47

I went cycling with my sister today. Or more accurately, I cycled and she was on a kick scooter. Usually if we're both on bicycles, she's much faster than I am, and I feel like I have to push myself to be faster to keep up with her, even though she also cycles at a slower pace for me. But today, because she was on a (manual) kick scooter, me being on the bike was faster. Which meant that I could actually cycle at my comfortable pace, which is slower than her usual cycling pace, but a good enough pace for both of us to keep moving comfortably along the park connector while she's on the kick scooter.

I wanted to write this down because it feels like there's an important lesson here. It's not a given that things always have to feel hard or that I have to constantly feel like I have to push myself to move ahead or keep pace with others. If I can find the right vehicle, one that matches me at my own speed, in a lane that allows me to go at my own speed, I can still move forward comfortably with the people by my side.

It sounded more succinct in my head. Also the metaphor doesn't fully hold since it's my sis here who changed vehicle and not me but hey. It's a metaphor and I would like to find my metaphorical bicycle for life now, please.

[Edit on the next day:

Pretty sure I overlooked the fact that the experience was for more than just me. Changing to a kick scooter meant my sis could have fun going fast without worrying about me keeping up, and I can go slowly without worrying that I'm lagging behind. So maybe the metaphor shouldn't be for just me finding my metaphorical bicycle but for me and people around me to find our metaphorical bicycle and kick scooter combination that work for us.]

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“And every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling, “This is important! And this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!” And each day, it’s up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart and say, “No. This is what’s important.”

— Iain S. Thomas, I Wrote This for You

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Thursday, 14.10.21, 18:33

It's been a while since national day but I've been listening to this year's ndp song more frequently lately. Last week while listening I found myself crying. It was a much needed cry when I've not been able to just let the tears out. I'm not completely sure why this song in particular triggered the tears (in a good way), but it still gives me tingles in the back of my head now as I listen to it even though (thankfully) I don't have bottled up feelings reaching for a way out of my tear ducts.

I think there's something really deeply touching about this song. A song acknowledging struggle of the common everyday person during covid and trying times. And also simultaneously a song about hope. The part I always feel choked up is when she sings "for our home, our land, our family". I find the song really beautiful maybe because it connects to a part of me that's still hopeful and still wants to help and change the world (for good, in a very broad sense). And that contrasted with my current state of mind of - maybe it's too early to talk about changing the world when I don't know what's good for me to begin with - maybe I should start with working on myself first. And the idealism contrasted with my current cynicism (practicalism?) also makes me grieve for the young me.

The song reminded me that the arts is really important in that it can move me, it can make me feel and experience things so profoundly and makes me feel connected and just. Wow. That's amazing. That awe-some (like full of awe, not just the commonday casual use of the word awesome).

Also while writing this I realise how much I miss writing here. I've been journalling on paper but it's not quite the same. I have a very different voice here than I do in my journal and I've missed it. Hello me.

#Youtube

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Love how all the ideas and themes (identity, being the majority vs experiencing life as a minority) are interwoven into this coming out video. I'm not eloquent enough to say something succinct so just. Watch it.

Also Audre Lord's text is one of the primary text the book "Pleasure Activism" is built on, so that extra bit of background in this video now that I'm halfway through Pleasure Activism definitely adds to my understanding of the book.

#Youtube

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Friday, 25.06.21, 08:27

I just got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and I'm sitting around for the observation period while reading the newest book from the Anita Blake series.

Honestly this series has been with me since I was 15 and I feel like I've grown up as a person with Anita over the series. Not in the same ways, but it's nice to see some parallels sometimes. This book in particular started off with Anita in the gym doing weight training and I felt some inexplicable joy at the fact that a few years ago, I would not be able to understand or relate to what she's doing because before 2018 I've never set foot in a gym ever. I haven't gone to the gym since covid happened but it's nice to read about it still (or see Wonho gym haha).

Weight training and yoga. Those are the exercises I enjoy.

Cardio is bleh but tolerable when I do it with someone else (mostly my sis). Lol.