new pinned post alert!!! made this lil graphic a while ago for this blog but then kept procrastinating on posting it. thanks to @snailspng for most of the images!! Mary Oliver I <3 you forever and joy is certainly not made to be a crumb, but so is hope.
hi! I'm oliver! (he/him) 24 years young
just one more small queer & trans neurodivergent anarchist fellow in love with the dying, eternal world! always seeking to learn more about what constitutes liberation for all the people and the earth, and I have a lot to learn.
^^^ religious beliefs can best be described thusly ^^^
dnis and other links below the cut
this blog has become mostly a space for boosting mutual aid and Gaza relief posts, alongside shitposts both political and purely silly, + images that I think are cool. once, I used to tag things. once, I was organized. No Longer!
I don't fuck with fascists, racists, queer-phobes, TERFs, etc. Nor AI-generated 'art' of any kind.
I looooove stories and mythology and history but most of all stoooorriiieeeesss and missed my calling as an itinerant bard by approximately a thousand years. trying to become a DM for hire instead, next best thing.
@oliver-the-bard is my most active side-blog currently where I reblog things about my specialest interest of the moment, bg3! and also dnd/forgotten realms lore and world in general! Will be posting fic and potentially other stuff there at some point, so head over there if it pleases you.
less active on @olorinestel, my Tolkien legendarium side-blog, but still in love with and inspired by the Professor's work and the wonderfully talented artists and beautiful queer people who make up the fandom! so I do occasionally reblog stuff there as relevant stuff comes across my dash.
you can also find me on AO3, also as olorinestel. right now I've got Tolkien and star wars andor fics up on there, all of which I'm still quite proud of, and I may post more of my backlog from those fandoms as I feel like it. I plan to start posting bg3/dnd stuff there, too! if you know me irl/just in general be warned! ridiculous fetish content and smut be upon ye (not exclusively or even mostly but uhh there's definitely some)!!
you can also follow me on substack if you feel like it, where I restack articles I like and quotes from time to time, and who knows, maybe I'll eventually start writing stuff there.
not only are most people completely unaware of the devastation of indigenous languages in the americas, most people are completely unaware of the devastation of indigenous languages in europe. never mind occitan, they don't know about basque! it's wild! bleak! existentially horrifying!!!
the last few centuries of french history involved, amongst other things, a concerted effort to establish "french" as a legitimate country and cultural identity, and crucially as a language, which sounds like an absurd statement if you know nothing about the languages of france. french is a language, yes; it exists and existed in the late eighteenth century. but it was limited primarily to the north of france and was certainly not spoken or even understood across the country. other languages within france were banned and french was enforced following the french revolution and even to this day other languages indigenous to france have very little legal protection and are not recognised as official languages.
that's just one country in europe. one. and many people straight up have no idea about any of this!
did you know france has celtic languages? breton is the only celtic language spoken outside of the british isles. did you know france has germanic languages? alsatian, for example, is spoken in the east of france, unsurprisingly in alsace. it's not even the only french germanic language. did you know france has a number of languages and dialects known as langues d'oïl closely related to french? norman and picard, for example, are spoken in the north of france. did you know that france has gallo-romance languages? franco-provençal (which has a number of dialects) is spoken in the east of france, as well as parts of switzerland and italy. did you know that france has a language most closely related to catalan, the langues d'oc? occitan is spoken in the south of france and has a rich literary history. did you know france is home to basque, or rather euskara, a language isolate which predates indo-european languages? romani dialects! corsican! so much more than just french! there are even extinct jewish dialects of occitan! extinct langues d'oïl like angevin! so much linguistic diversity and all anyone talks about is french.
you are alive on a planet with insects and whales and diatoms and mycelium networks and puppies and your human friends. literally so awesome to be a living thing
please consider giving my friend Amal ( @moatasim-ashour )'s campaign a boost today. she has been hospitalized this week with kidney stones and is relying on these funds not only to get the treatment she needs, but to provide for her elderly and chronically ill parents and her baby and toddler. all told, this fundraiser supports 12+ people, over half of whom are children, as Amal's sister Reem's family ( @danashehab ) is also depending on these funds. the price of daily necessities is rising all the time, and they are in urgent need just to maintain the bare minimum of life, and of course to care for their children and the sick, injured, and elderly members of their family.
i could talk about what a kind and thoughtful person Amal is, or how much she loves her children, or her talent in languages, or just how much she and her family have endured over the past 2+ years of genocide. but the truth is that she and her loved ones should not have to justify themselves or put their lives on display to the multitude to merit solidarity and compassion. they deserve to live and thrive just like any other family in the world, and right now, they need our help to keep that hope alive. they have been immensely courageous in asking for support—now it's our turn to reciprocate it, especially at this time of year dedicated especially to charity and aid to those in need (which we can all stand to do more of whether or not we're observing Eid).
so if you have the means, please do what you can to help make the Ashour and Shehab families' holiday a little safer and more special, and to lift even a fraction of the stress from Amal's shoulders so she can rest and recover in as much peace as possible. truly no gesture, even just a share or a kind word, is too small to matter!
Hello friends, I'm Sahar! Lia & I are friends of the Ashours & Shehabs, and we'll be helping them run this campaign. Both families have had
Verification info: Amal's former fundraiser is #175 on @/nabulsi, @/MohAyesh, and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet and was shared by @/bilal-sala7 and @/90-ghost. The Shehab family's former fundraiser is #764 on butterfly effect project's spreadsheet, was additionally verified by @/el-shab-hussein, and shared by @/90-ghost. Their current joint campaign is #46 on @/bilal-sala7's spreadsheet.
Children’s novels, to me, spoke, and still speak, of hope. They say: look, this is what bravery looks like. This is what generosity looks like. They tell me, through the medium of wizards and lions and talking spiders, that this world we live in is a world of people who tell jokes and work and endure. Children’s books say: the world is huge. They say: hope counts for something. They say: bravery will matter, wit will matter, empathy will matter, love will matter.
Katherine Rundell, Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise
These were produced from around the time of the Roman annexation of Egypt in the late 1st century BC to around the Christianization of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century CE.
They were a continuation of the Egyptian tradition of funerary masks but rather than sculpting them and making them of precious metals, they began painting these lifelike portraits.
It’s hotly debated whether this is an example of Greco-Roman realist style imposed on their subjects, or a home grown Egyptian development of their own ancient tradition. Those who say it’s more Egyptian than Roman point out that there’s no surviving paintings in the rest of the Roman Empire that were this realistic. Those who say it’s more Roman than Egyptian point out the arid climate left these portraits intact, and beleive the others in the rest of the empire were lost.
Personally I think you can call them Egyptian because these people, whether of Roman or ancient Egyptian descent, are still the ancestors of the modern Egyptians today.
Despite the realism you can see a slight exaggeration of the eyes, smoothing of the skin and inclusion of certain important objects around the subject’s head. It’s a pattern that would get more and more pronounced until it became the style of Byzantine iconography in the Orthodox Christian Church
listen y'all i only need another $165 to get this wheelchair. pls help me, ive been in the hospital for nearly 3 months and am just hoping to have more independence once i am out
I'm in a little local cafe and the women behind the counter started griping to each other, "Oh Christ, Stephen's back again," "It's him, is it? I thought he'd stopped coming," "It's definitely him, look, it's bloody Stephen on a Thursday morning," "Do you want me to get rid of him or are you going to do it?" and so I was peering outside, trying to spot this nightmare customer, this pestilence of a person, this pox upon the cafe trade, and then one of the women from behind the counter ran outside, clapping two trays together loudly and yelling "GET OUT OF IT, STEPHEN!" and it turns out that Stephen is an absolutely gigantic fuck-off seagull who hangs around outside, menacing people for crumbs
If my father dies, please remember that I begged you for a small donation or to share my post. I will not forgive anyone who sees this post and doesn't support me with a single word or a small donation, and ignores me.
I write these words with tears in my eyes, overwhelmed with fear for my father. He has been suffering excruciating pain and repeated fainting spells for the past week due to his cancer, and he cannot afford all the medications he needs because of their high cost. All I wish is that nothing bad happens to my father again, so I implore you to support me and help me buy his medications, cover his hospital stay, and get him the necessary surgeries as soon as possible. Please, be our support.
Worse still, my father suffers from blocked arteries and heart attacks, and he urgently needs surgery to remove the cancer and have stents implanted in his coronary arteries. Throughout this time, my father has been in constant pain. His surgery is extremely expensive, and I don't have enough money for it. Now he can't sleep because of the excruciating pain, and we can't afford his medications and painkillers to alleviate his suffering because of their high prices. I don't know what to do!
6 years ago I lost my father prematurely. It's horrible.
Help Nader, please. He needs pain medication and surgery and to get those things he needs exorbitant amounts of cash. They don't have much in savings right now, last time Nader reported for living expenses such as rent/etc (extremely high and not fixed) is only a little over $10k, and this is dwindling because of gaps in donations.
That might sound like a lot, but it's absolutely not. If I had $10k, with the price of living so high I could survive about 6 months in my city before running out of money for rent and groceries, I didn't even factor my utilities.
Imagine a city that has been for the most part cut from the outside world. Resources are limited and the money is draining fast. If you're working class with a job, think about how hard it is for you to save money in an economy that may be suffering but isn't being strangled.
It's almost impossible to get ahead. And to get out is hundreds of thousands with his family members and father's medical expenses.
I can't fathom how hopeless he must feel.
Please donate if you can.
the road goes ever on @0liver-hope - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag