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
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[image descriptions: a series of posts/images about being scared.
1. a tumblr post reading:
charlottan: looks around
zkzm500lar: gets scared
2. a youtube comment from jigs villaranda reading "...........gets more scared"
3. a tweet reply from liam gallagher reading "im scared"
4. a tweet reply from angie @insertalterego1 reading: "did you watch sir macca at glasto last night?"
liam gallagher responds: "i didn't too scared"
5. tumblr post from charlottan: "i'm so scared of everything all the time forever"
6. tweet from liam gallagher: "no i'm scared for my life"
7. tumblr post from peternureyev reading: [guy who forgot to take his scared-prevention pills] why am i so scared right now
8. a screenshot of a youtube video from platinum drone productions entitled "how to wash a kitten without making it to scared". the thumbnail is of a hand reaching out to a small ginger kitty.
9. tweet from liam gallagher: "still too or to or 2 or two scared"
10. an excerpt from a book reading "scared of neil young 306"
/end descriptions.]
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sorry to all of you white middle aged man lovers out there but shane madej subtly shifting the blame with the whole 'steven, talk about money' feels like a pathetic way to salvage the hip leftist uncle persona he's got going on and you all are waiting for him to return to your embrace like some prodigal son who was forced and didn't go on his own accord
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What was the point of Scrooge's trip with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come? On a structural level, it makes sense--three is the fairy tale number, and you can't visit the past and present without also including the future--but on a character level, it doesn't quite seem necessary. Showing a man that he'll die alone, unloved, and unmourned seems like the strategy you take as the last-ditch effort to convince a guy that he needs to change his ways. But that situation doesn't apply to Scrooge. He started softening immediately after he first arrived in his past. By the time he finished with the Ghost of Christmas Present, he was fully onboard with the need to reform, so the Ghost's vision of his future seems like unnecessary cruelty. Why show him all this when he was already planning to change his ways?
A few things come to mind. One is that this vision of the future wouldn't have affected Scrooge unless he had already changed his ways. A cold, hard businessman could have seen his lonely death as just the way of the world, might have viewed the people who stole the clothes from his corpse as just people doing what's practical in this world. He needed to relearn the value of the intangibles--human connection, respect for others--to see the true horror of the lonely death and the vultures who defiled the dead man.
But why the horror? Can't he reform without being threatened with doom? It's possible--but it's also possible such a reform would be temporary. After all, Scrooge started as a friendly, loving young man, but retreated into himself and his business out of fear of poverty and fear of the way the world looks down upon poor people. Even if a reformed Scrooge started on a course of Christmas charity, there was always a chance that the enthusiasm would fade, and the worldly fears would start creeping back in. The only way to beat those fears is to give him something to fear that's even worse than poverty. He needs to see the horrible end that his selfish ways would lead to, so he won't be tempted to slide back into them.
There's also the fact that seeing his death makes him ecstatically happy to find that he's alive after the Ghost is gone. Had Scrooge been spared the vision of his future, he might have been happy to find himself on Christmas Day, but his joy would have been nowhere near the manic glee he experiences after coming back from the future. Now, he doesn't just get a new start--he gets a second chance. Coming back from his own grave makes him mindful of his death, but it also makes him hyperaware of the fact that he's still alive. He isn't in the ground yet. He still has time to do good and make connections with others so he doesn't die alone.
Seeing the past reminded him of the innocence he'd lost. Seeing the present reminded him of the people whose lives he was missing out on. Seeing the future reminded him that death is waiting, so it's important to live virtuously while we can. All three are important because all three brought him outside of himself and taught him to value the wider world, just in time to live through another Christmas Day.
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wei wuxian scolding jiang cheng in the burial mounds about not remembering what the wen siblings did for them vs jiang cheng earlier on standing up for him in front of all the sect leaders saying "you all might not know this but the person wei wuxian saved and his sister helped us a lot during the war" and getting promptly shut down by nie mingjue (the wen clan that massacred lotus pier? is literally what he says, out loud, to everyone)
edit: now with visual aids !!!!
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genuinely CANNOT get over how you draw your boys comfy in bed. holy shit. how do you do that. the vibes...... immaculate........... so floppy and poofy and snuggly..................... teach me, sensei 😔😔😔 cloth is a nightmare lmao
yeah but no keep up the good work!!!!!
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Hiii, i love your stuff and kinda from a distance really look up at you for, in my perception, being able to express yourself without giving a fuck. Thats sick dude, Im so so afraid, of absolutely everything, its nice to think like i might grow into someone less apologetic of my existence. Nice to see people just being yknow
hey, thank you, this is really really nice. the secret that is probably not a secret is that i am also deeply afraid a lot of the time lmao -- but less than i used to be, and in ways that feel less stifling and self-suffocating, if that makes sense.
like, it used to be "i'm scared that if i express myself the way i want to, everyone will find me obnoxious, so let's just sand those edges down to be safe" -- now my fears are more like "now that i'm expressing myself in a way that feels natural and real, i'm afraid that it's all stupid/vapid/not worthwhile or meaningful" (<- specifically abt my art) or "i'm happy that i talk and act the way i want to now, but what if it makes me impossible to befriend," etc etc etc. which still feels bad and puts me in a funk a lot of the time but at least it's a fear that comes After/in reaction to doing stuff, rather than a fear that STOPS me from doing stuff, you know? like, it's evolved into a kind of fear that's less in my way.
anyway. i believe you'll experience something like this, because wanting to grow is the first step of growing. the fact that u hope or wish for something different means you're already on your way. to fewer fucks!! or at least distributing the fucks u give in a way that serves u better
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