A Symphony of Harmony

Hi. I reblog, occasionally rant over personal things Nickname: Devin 24 y/o biromantic demisexual enby trying to survive their life. Dutch. Pisces/INFJ/Type9w1? Metalhead, gamer, collector of books, professional procrastinator, inventor of internalised emotions, "conceal, don't feel, don't let them know", always catching up to tv shows and movies months later. Diagnosed with BP2 and PDD-NOS.

[2endsofamagnet]

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[bitchybreadpainter-deactivated2]

The anonymous button is not for hate messages and death threats! It’s for confessing your love and asking stupid questions!

[whoneedsoptimism]

You know what really fucking bothers me about school in general?

It took away my passion.

Before high school I loved to read. I devoured books over and over, stayed up reading with a flashlight when I needed to know what happened next chapter, cherished every book and refused to crack their spines.

Now I can’t remember the last time I read a real book. In English class they would assign us Great Gatsby and Frankenstein and Heart of Darkness and Grapes of Wrath and I couldn’t bring myself to read a single one. Too many things to do, not enough time. Reading became a burden, not an escape.

So I just stopped. I stopped reading every second I had free time. I stopped picking up books in the bookstore. I gave away half my collection. I keep saying “I’ll get back into it soon” but it’s been years.

I stopped reading because I was being forced to read books I wasn’t interested in, and now I’m being forced to read 200 pages a week from textbooks to not fail my classes. I stopped reading because school killed that passion.

[phalloid-destroyer-deactivated2]

This is the exact same experience i had with reading.

[cheaphalloweencostume]

i love it when you accidentally meet eyes with a stranger in public and you flash a quick polite smile and they look at you like they wish you were dead in a ditch

[deadmomjokes]

I’ve seen this several times on my dash and always with southerners being confused in the tags why the rest of the US is like this, and as a southerner, I have to say, SAME. Like, there’s plenty to hate about the south, don’t get me wrong, but at least in general we have public courtesy down to a science. I ordered at a Sonic out West once and the guy specifically had someone take over his headset so he could come out and shake my hand because he was from Tennessee and it was the first time since he moved West that he heard anyone say “Yes sir.” And it’s just…. Automatic for me? And this polite smile thing, people will jump and glare and I’m just trying to be friendly not awkward? What else is a socially anxious southern child to do upon accidentally making eye contact? Look down and hurry away? Isn’t that rude??? Someone explain why is smiling met with such anger I am confused and afraid.

[sea-anon]

Exactly!! When I moved to Missouri I was baffled at how rude everyone is! Like I saw someone I knew at Walmart and stopped to chat and they didn’t even stop! They just went ‘hi’ and moved on. Like????

And when I moved here I made cookies for the neighborhood, cuz that’s what you do and the first place I went they said “we don’t eat things with sugar” and shut the door.

Like why do y’all hate everyone so much?

[krystal-prisms]

I’m Canadian and am also confused

[sea-anon]

Well yeah everyone knows Canadians are the friendliest people in the world

[deanismymom]

I’m from Indiana and I’m pretty sure if you don’t talk to someone you know In Wal-Mart for at least 5 minutes you go to jail

[sea-anon]

No but that would still be rude in kentucky

You are expected to talk for at least 15 minutes, say goodbye (like, a “take care y’all, tell me how that knee is doin”) and then you talk for another ten minutes, move a little further apart and say goodbye again (“well I better get going tell your nana I said hi”) and then you talk for a while and say goodbye one more time (“I’ll see y’all at church on Sunday/school/Jo-mart/Nana’s funeral”) and move on to the next person

And don’t even get me started on food etiquette

[weaselle]

It’s not a south v. west thing, it’s a city thing. That’s why New Yorkers are the purest version of this. And it’s why I get both sides. I grew up in a small town in Northern California, and it was proud of all the small town things – “you can leave your door unlocked” and all that. I got a job for a while as a bank teller, and this coworker of mine had moved there from New York. I liked him (I tend to get along with folks) but a lot of people thought he was rude. “short” “impatient” even “brusk” were some descriptions of him, not just from our coworkers, but from the bank customers too. They complained because he always rushed them, never wanted to make small talk, etc. One day I was working next to him, and I heard him verbally pushing yet another customer along, just racing him through the transaction against his will, and I thought, I’m gonna say something to him about it. As soon as the customer left though, before I could say anything, my coworker goes “damn I hate people like that, get to  the front of the line and want to tell me their whole life story. So RUDE!” So I say something like, how is he the one that was rude to you? And goes, like he can’t believe how stupid I’m being, “ not to me, to all those people in line behind him that want to finish up here and get on with the rest of their day! You’re at the bank, you know why you’re here, you step up, you do a polite greeting and get the fuck down to business. Everybody has shit to do, and they can’t do it until you shut up about your life story that zero people drove down here to listen to. It’s so selfish! I can’t stand people like that”   Since then, I’ve lived in San Francisco, and L.A., and Montgomery Alabama, and Germany and Portland and Oakland and a bunch of little ass towns like Suisun Ca, and Kenwood and all kinds of places, Santa Cruz and Rohnert Park. And I’ve thought about the thing that guy started me noticing. It’s true. The closer in to a city (and the larger the city) the more the concept of polite changes from “how you are effecting the person you are communicating with” to “how you are effecting the people packed in around you” In Oakland there are like, zero grocery stores (Oakland is literally documented as a “food desert”) and so the best grocery store in Berkeley is also a favorite grocery store of Oakland residents and it is… full. You’ll spend a full 30 minutes in the snake of cars circling around in the parking lot waiting for somebody to finish shopping and leave so a parking spot opens up. Once inside, it’s more of the same. Shopping carts are cart-front to ass cheek. You literally can’t reach onto a shelf for a box of cereal without waiting for somebody to give you a break in traffic. Sometimes you get stuck standing in a single spot for several minutes, boxed in on all sides.  I’ve only been twice, and I swear to all holy gods that if I saw two people trying to catch up on chit chat while we all tried to maneuver around them, I would been reaching for my murdering stick. It’s called skype motherfuckers, go the fuck home and talk to each other, jfc, the rest of us are trying to make a deadline for some other shit we gotta get done today. Now, going back home, to small town Nor Cal, yeah, I don’t want to be rude, I’m gonna stop and say hi, I’m gonna ask about your family, I’m gonna rack my brain and remember that you had a sick cat or a trip you were trying to take or an interest in boats, and I’m gonna ask about that shit, fuck yeah tell me about how the tomatoes are coming in this year, I hear the birds are worse than ever. Anyway, city folk ain’t rude, they just polite different; suitable for city life.

[juniperpomegranate]

This is such a great explanation, and really important.

[fuckyeahcomicsbaby]

You don’t have to love your body

[naamahdarling]

I really needed to read this today. Thank you.

[obfuscobble]

Potato girl has her life goals in order.

[finninsanelycoolish-deactivated]

This is a game changer. 

[bengurli]

u know what my goal is to eat pastries in different countries

[homosexyality]

do you ever scroll past a novel-length post and think Um Absolutely Not

[mugen-nimbus-deactivated2019022]

speak for your fucking self

[veeranger]

Millennials Are Killing The Titty Industry

[carnival-phantasm]

Millennials support smaller industries like the Thigh Industry and Ass Industry

[xtelos]

The armpit industry

[carnival-phantasm]

We are not discussing illegal businesses here pal

[tsunglasses]

The nape of the neck industry.

[toast-potent]

You All Are Sleeping On The Knee Pit Industry

[hotvampireadjacent]

i miss her beautiful feet

[veeranger]

this is the worst version of this post

[jerryterry]

😏

[whitmanic]

My mom kept all our baby teeth but she didn’t separate them so there’s just a box she had with like. Three sets of random teeth mixed around

[whitmanic]

Okay I’m so sorry this isn’t actually funny but it’s like. Really funny. I’m so sorry

[bigasspants]

wtf dogs lose their teeth. also who the fuck keeps baby teeth that’s horrific

[pottamux]

My mom kept my baby teeth. And then my second set fell out so I kept those in a little bag and now we both have a set of my baby teeth.

[chambylin]

wait what. how many teeth do you have im so confused.

[pottamux]

I had 3 sets of teeth. So did my older brother. It was weird cause I’d had them for a few years and then they all started coming out all at once. Had a full new set in like 2 weeks. My dentist said it was fine since nothing grew out of place so idk.

[whitmanic]

I’m sorry what you grew teeth like a shark? What?

[shadovvlurking]

When i was younger I watched my babysitter take a plastic bag containing all her baby teeth and crushed them all into powder under the leg of a chair bc she was bored

[whitmanic]

Excuse me?

[kallypsowrites]

This post is like getting punched repeatidly, but from a different angle each time

[castle-engineer-deactivated2019]

Everyone talks about how Jesus drove the money changers and merchants out of the temple, but everyone glosses over the fact that he took the time to braid a whip. That would have taken a couple hours. I have braided leather before, and it takes a lot of time and effort. It may have even taken more than one day, all scripture says is, “And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple-“ there isn’t a time period given. But I would still say it was at least a few hours. he had to braid multiple cords, bind them together, make a handle, and fix the cords to the handle.

The point of this is that what he did was NOT impulsive. It was cold and calculated. Premeditated even.

[hilarioushumorfromouterspace]

[showerthoughts-lol]

Parents who say, "If you're feeling well enough to play video games, you're feeling well enough to go to school!" don't seem to realize they are equating an extremely low impact leisure activity with a high stress and difficult involuntary obligation.

Source: reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts

[teaboot]

Plus, you know. You can’t really give Luigi strep throat

[aphony-cree]

Studies have shown that active distractions like video games can lower pain and discomfort better than passive distractions like watching tv

If you’re feeling well enough to play video games then you can use it as a symptom reducer just like we use cold medicine to make us feel better so we can relax

[captainlordauditor]

You can’t really give Luigi strep throat

[supersciencegeek]

My child is autistic. He doesn’t do well with change. Even little things that would be meaningless to most people.

For example, his hairbrush was getting old and worn. He had chewed the end of it. The cats had chewed some bristles. It was dirty and dusty. But I didn’t say anything. Because it’s his hairbrush.

Finally, he said he thinks it’s time for a new brush. Ok, I say, we’ll put it on the shopping list, and get one next time we’re in town.

So we go to town and we go to the store. There are many hairbrushes to choose from. He picks one and they even have it in his favorite color. We buy it, take it home, and remove the packaging.

I go to put it on the shelf where the old hairbrush is. Can we throw out the old one, I ask.

That’s when he stops. That’s when he freezes and gets a momentary look of panic on his face. Throw out the old one? That hadn’t occurred to him.

Because here’s the thing. Hair brushing is a part of his morning routine. And not just hair brushing, but hair brushing with that particular brush. To most people, the act of hair brushing is the routine, but not the brush itself. The objects are interchangeable. But not to my child. Not to someone with autism. The brush itself is just as important as the act of brushing.

So I take a breath. I put the old brush down. Think about it, I say. Let me know tomorrow what you want to do with this brush.

He decides. He realizes keeping an old hairbrush is not necessary. But it’s still important to him. So he asks if I can cut off one bristle. To keep. As a memory of the old hairbrush.

I don’t laugh. I don’t tell him it’s silly. I respect his need. I cut off the bristle. He puts it in his treasure box, along side some smooth rocks, beads, sparkly decals, a Santa Claus charm from a classmate, a few other things meaningful to him.

He throws the old hairbrush away himself. He is able to move on, and accept the change.

[roseyturtles]

THIS IS HOW YOU RAISE AUTISTIC CHILDREN.

[kalachelone]

As an Autistic person, can I add that we often hold onto things that work. Our sensory issues mean that we can tell minute differences between things like bristle spacing, hardness, even the specific sounds different brushes make against our skulls. Two brushes that seem identical to NTs can produce extremely different sensory experiences to us. The wrong hair brush - do I even have to get into the sensory nightmare that hair care can be? - can literally push us toward meltdowns. So yeah, if we find that perfect brush that does the job without any sensory problems, we are going to want to hold onto that brush FOREVER. I have a wide toothed comb I have used for 15 years because it works and I know how it’ll feel. If I ever have to give that comb up, I’m going to be stressed until I am sure the replacement works just as well.

[funnypicsdept]

[idontwantsurgery-deactivated201]

[letstakeittothegrave]

rosa diaz am i right ladies?? 

{drawn in painttool sai}

[rednines]

If you add two pounds of sugar to literally one ton of concrete it will ruin the concrete and make it unable to set properly which is good to know if you wanna resist something being built, French anarchists used this to resist prison construction in the 80s

[catgirlcaliphate]

I’m just gonna go ahead and reblog this for purely educational purposes.

[eggcup-deactivated20180129]

added bonus is that concrete now taste good

[protect-lgbtqia-kids]

Sugar does not really do that. What you need is citric acid (you get that to get the hard water residues out of your pots/water boiler/washing machine), looks like sugar granules. Or concentrated vinegar. Cement needs a high ph to bind properly. So if you add acid, it won’t properly set and/or needs 3-4 times longer.

[femonologue]

Speaking as someone who works in the concrete forming industry: the easiest way to severely fuck up any large concrete pour is to delay it at the wrong moment.

If someone is trying to build a huge fuckoff concrete thing - say, for instance, a giant wall - they’re going to need an obscene quantity of concrete, and that’s all going to have to be transported there from the nearest mixing plant. This means they’ll have multiple trucks coming by to decant concrete in consecutive pours while the workers place it and vibrate it to ensure it all intermixes and sets properly, forming a monolithic mass. If one pour is allowed to set before the next one is added, you get a big, ugly, possibly structurally unsound gap between the two called a “cold joint.” A bad enough cold joint can completely fuck your whole project because the next engineer or inspector who sets foot on that site is going to take one look at that motherfucker and immediately embark on a quest for blood vengeance. You will literally have to cut that whole section of wall out, slap some dowels in the nearest structurally sound bits, and re-form and pour the offending segment from scratch, which represents a fortune in cost overruns and will make everyone involved very upset. This is an especially bad problem in hot climates, because the concrete curing process is exothermic - that stuff sets much faster when it’s really hot out, and its 28-day compressive strength tends to be poorer as well.

So if, hypothetically speaking, you wanted to completely shit up a wannabe dictator’s enormous unfeasible poured concrete vanity project, you could literally just randomly hassle and delay every concrete truck on its way there. Dude’s gonna end up with a giant worthless pile of shitty crumbling concrete and exposed reinforcing steel, and an army of pissed-off contractors to boot.

[lynati]

What an interesting history lesson!