Aavikkorotta

[adoubtifitbeus]

I recently learned that the Star-Spangled Banner flag (as in, the flag flown over Fort McHenry that inspired the Francis Scott Key poem) has fifteen stripes instead of thirteen, because the tradition at the time was to increase the number of stripes along with the number of stars as more states joined the union.

I assume this tradition ended because of cowardice. I've prepared several options to revive the tradition:

The most direct approach. Looks vaguely pink from a distance.

I like how this one emphasizes how much more America there is now than there used to be.

I think plaid fits nicely, too. As a bonus, a lot of existing tablecloths could be converted to this design with just the addition of the canton.

Honestly, I just spent too much time making this one not to post it.

[aavikkorotta]

I support the plaid flag.

[saintkevorkian]

i would like someone who isn’t me to make a list of nouns describing various manifestations of idiocy. –these should be ordered according to domain (permanence) as well as comparative/superlative strength

for example: while dim light frequently reveals less visual information than half-light, thanks to a higher ‘contrast’ in the latter, a dimwit is paradoxically more intelligent than a halfwit. a halfwit, while rather dim, displays more circumspection than a clod, because the halfwit still shows a modicum of wit (more’s the pity, perhaps). however, even the clod is not as stupid as the blockhead, for where the clod’s brain was contrived of a lump of some inert matter, the blockhead is an impervious, uniform, and utterly witless example of brainlessness

[aavikkorotta]

Interesting.  Well, an idiot is of course the prime example of idiocy.  Yet a moron is more starkly incapable of reasonable thought, and an imbecile is so utterly devoid of intellect as to not be trusted with even simple tasks.  A dimwit, as you mentioned, though possessing slowed thought levels, is still not to idiot levels.  This brings us to the question of the fool.  In some senses, to be a fool is as bad as to be a moron (though perhaps not as bad as an imbecile), because even if one is capable of reasonable thought one determines not to make use of the ability.  On the other hand, a fool such as the courtly jester may be only implying true foolishness while masking a superb wit.

[aavikkorotta]

Visit Original Link

The party met a group of cultists who worship an unknown god.  They promise to take the party to meet their god.  But on the third day of travel, as the misty island grows near, the crew seeks to entrap the party.  A fight ensues, and a tentacled beast rises from the ocean, surrounding the ship.  Though the party manages to fight off the crew, the monster (which may be the crew’s god) is still present, and another ship is approaching, the crew of which have fish-like eyes as though they are something other than human.  The bard sings this song to inspire the party for the continuing fight.

[aavikkorotta]

The Kids of Narnia: Which Are You?

Warning: contains spoilers for the Chronicles of Narnia.

Peter is the one who didn't believe Lucy at first, then saw for himself and believed, and was made to be a great leader even though he didn't feel up to the task.

Susan is the one who went along with it all when she was young and never showed signs of resistance, but she often preferred the easy way rather than Aslan's way - she wasn't fully committed.  And once she was older, she abandoned what she had known.

Edmund is the one who was bitter about not being seen as special, met someone who treated him special, and was willing to betray the ones he was close to to get what he felt he deserved. Then he realized what a horrible person he was and would have been destroyed if not for Aslan.

Lucy is the one who believed readily and was excited to share with others.  They didn't believe her, but she was persistent in what she knew.

Eustace is the one who didn't get along with his peers and felt entitled. He refused to believe even when all the evidence was right in front of him. Until that evidence affected his life in a way he couldn't escape, and he could only be freed by Aslan.

Jill is the one whose worldly concerns and self-image keep her from admitting her faultiness and accepting what she doesn't understand. It takes her a long and difficult journey before she's able to open her heart and welcome Aslan.

Digory is the one who came upon it by accident and has no reason not to believe, but even when presented with wonder can’t help but think about how he could personally benefit from it.

Polly is the one who may have been pushed into it at first, but gladly accepted and believed once she understood. While Lucy insists on sharing with those who won’t believe, Polly just gets annoyed with them.

Caspian is raised to disbelieve but loves to hear the stories. Eventually, he learns that the stories are true and embraces their world, regardless of what his family wants.

Shasta isn’t even told the stories. His life has nothing to do with that world, until he’s told of it from an unlikely source. He wants to believe, but has to experience it for himself first. So he seeks it out. When he finally understands life in a new light, he recognizes himself as someone different than he was before.

[aavikkorotta]

Visit Original Link

The kings are down, but underneath their queens look up in disbelief as he holds she who's froze them both now heed the signs, fulfill your boast

like a single-player MMO like a hopscotch game without a stone the game is one and the people too oh let me play some solitaire with you

our hands revealed, the red beneath as time will tell are what we need so count them out ten nine, eight six across the board there's one that's missed

like a single-player MMO like a hopscotch game without a stone the game is one and the people two so let me play some solitaire with you

sort out your mess into tidy stacks once they go up, they won't come back spider, scorpion, yukon, kings the cards will fly, but then who wins?

like a single-player MMO like a hopscotch game without a stone the game is won and the people two just let me play some solitaire with you

[barofile]

Told, the meteorite is the source of the light And the meteor’s just what we see And the meteoroid is a stone that’s devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee And the meteorite’s just what causes the light And the meteor’s how it’s perceived And the meteoroid’s a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee

Joanna Newsom (via enochoi)

[aavikkorotta]

Here are a couple family trees I made based off information from the book of Genesis and the Dead Sea Scrolls of Jubilees and the Genesis Apocryphon.

Not included: Noah’s sons married the daughters of Noah’s brother, and Noah’s daughters married the sons of Noah’s brother.

[aavikkorotta]

2020

Two thousand twenty was not a good year: businesses closing as fires appear; six feet apart and all traveling ceased; grumbles ensued and the lonely increased.

Faces were covered and warnings were read, trying to slow a new sickness's spread. Protests and riots, political strife - people say this is the new way of life.

When we feel crushed by this world and its cares, focus on Him who counts each of your hairs. Life is unstable, this world is a mess; thankfully, we are secure nonetheless.

Though we may lose what we love to enjoy, though situations don't cease to annoy, thanks be to Christ who we never can lose; th' gospel's more crucial than what's on the news.

God is still sovereign, His Kingdom is here. We are His Kingdom and have naught to fear. Mighty in grace is our Lord and our King. He will restore and renew everything.

[tzniut-tzofia-deactivated202101]

Rules that christians should follow

Hey guys, sorry for not posting for so long, I think we’re done with using the internet, it is a distraction from a holy life. Anyway here are some rules I think christians should follow. Goodbye.

No Drugs or alcohol

No TV, Movies, or Video games

No internet

No mixed gender swimming/ exercising 

Men must wear long sleeved collared shirts, pants, short hair and dress shoes

Women must wear long sleeves, floor length skirts, dress shoes and headcovering

No Makeup/ jewelry

No worldly activities- no dancing, amusements parks, card playing, bowling alleys, skating rinks, or anything like that

No cutting hair for women

Honor the sabbath

Pray and fast frequently

No profanity or being vulgar

Be obedient to authority, including your parents and your husband. 

Only listen to christian music

No Porn or masturbation

No premarital sex

No birth control/abortion

[aavikkorotta]

This is an example of Greek thinking.  The Greeks saw the physical as discordant with the spiritual, as per Platonic thought.  Thus to attain better spirituality one had to reject the physical, including good food/drink and non-procreating marital sex.  This view mixed in with Catholicism as Christianity spread among the Greek-thinking Gentiles.  But the Hebraic view (of the Bible) sees the spiritual and the physical as united.  Tearing one down does not build the other up.  To refuse to enjoy the physical is to refuse the gifts of God.  In the Hebrew view, to enjoy God’s gifts is a form of worship. “Unlike the ancient Greek, the Hebrew viewed the world as good.  Though fallen and unredeemed, it was created by a God who designed it with humanity’s best interests at heart.” “Westerners often define spirituality as denying oneself, being detached from earthly concerns, and being intent on otherworldly values.  By contrast, the Hebrews experienced the world of the spirit as robust, life-affirming, and this-worldly in character.  ...There was no division between the sacred and the secular areas of life.  It was all God’s world, and it was to be enjoyed without a sense of shame or guilt.  In Paul’s words, ‘to the pure, all things are pure’ (Tit. 1:15).” -Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith by Marvin R. Wilson, chapter 10 This Greek way of thinking is the source of monasticism: avoiding the physical to benefit the spiritual.  It is also the root of certain Catholic teachings about Mary.  If the flesh is evil and sex is a sin, Mary would not have taken part in that and must have remained a virgin until her death.  Except, death itself is a form of the sinful corruption of the flesh, so she must have ascended without doing that either.  They try to make Mary more spiritual by taking away the physical. One of the early Christian heresies, Docetism, tried this with Jesus, saying He had no physical body, because of the Greek view that the physical is evil and if Jesus was perfect He couldn’t have been physical.  I would cut this list down to “avoid sexual immorality” (Acts 15:29) and recommend to the original poster another aspect of Hebraic thought: Religious faith is chiefly relational. Rather than perform long prayers, Hebrews normally had short one-sentence prayers scattered throughout the day.  As Paul said, “pray without ceasing” (1 Thes. 5:17), and may you learn to love and honor God in the freedom of His blessings.

[listing-to-port]

Eight uses for leftover pumpkin flesh

1. Fashion leftover pumpkin into a nest shape on a lofty, flat surface to attract the orange vegetable hawk, a fierce hunter who lines its nests with the remains of its victims. You can entice the hawk to stay by scattering a few helpless carrots around the local area. Note that your area may not actually want its own orange vegetable hawk; they need constant prey or they will start going for chips and putting up negative reviews of the neighbourhood on the avian web.

2. Lightly dessicate and put on the end of a sharp stick for an unique room decoration which also contains a sharp stick. Every room should have one

3. Add a little salt and puree to a smooth paste. Travel back in time to Dallas on the morning of the 22nd of November, 1963. Lightly coat the stairs in the local book depository building with the mixture, causing Lee Harvey Oswald to slip and fall, thus missing the window of opportunity to carry out the assassination. 

4. Donate it to a living pumpkin which desparately needs a transplant. For example, one of those pumpkins which is being used as an adorable mouse house in a children’s book.

5. Compress into a cuboid block and freeze. Store until you next have some leftover pumpkin flesh. Compress that into a block and freeze as well. Repeat as necessary. Pass these instructions on to your offspring. In five thousand years’ time, when eternal Winter unexpectedly sweeps down from the North, this is how your distant descendents will build the orange tower famed in song and story, and they will honour your name with gin.

6. Drop it behind you as you navigate the maze. If you become lost, you can use it to follow your trail back to the start; or, alternatively, you may have attracted one or more large herbivores to your trail. In this case you may not have a path back, but you will have a new-found furry friend who will love you for life and eat the pumpkins you grow in the cottage in the maze.

7. Scatter it with contaminated pumpkin juice thieved from a high-security lab fridge at midnight, raising it from the dead as a rindless abomination to shamble around your vegetable patch evermore. If you are done with growing vegetables but finding this decision hard to reconcile with healthy eating advice, having zombie pumpkins can be a great excuse. It is definitely healthy to not go near them. They may even help you establish a running routine.

8. Find a portal to an alternate reality. Tip the pumpkin flesh through. If enough people do this often enough, eventually the alternate reality will be overgrown with pumpkin plants. I find pumpkin plants aesthetically pleasing and plan to retire there. Thanks.

[contagiousgrace]

Sexualizing same-sex friendships is just one more way to trick people into thinking that intimate relationships only exist in a romantic/sexual context. And that is a recipe for isolation and hurt and confusion if I’ve ever heard one.

[mornington-the-crescent]

[goat-yells-at-everything]

You HAVE to read the whole quote by Lewis. This does sum it up fairly well but he goes on further and its just…gawd its good.

“Those who cannot conceive Friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a Friend. The rest of us know that though we can have erotic love and friendship for the same person yet in some ways nothing is less like a Friendship than a love-affair. Lovers are always talking to one another about their love; Friends hardly ever about their Friendship. Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest. Above all, Eros (while it lasts) is necessarily between two only. But two, far from being the necessary number for Friendship, is not even the best. And the reason for this is important. … In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets… Hence true Friendship is the least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth, if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend. They can then say, as the blessed souls say in Dante, ‘Here comes one who will augment our loves.’ For in this love ‘to divide is not to take away.”

[aavikkorotta]

It Hasn’t Rained Since April

It hasn't rained since April, but that is quite the norm. With warm days here, the drought is near, and later comes a storm.

It hasn't rained since April, and that's a little odd. No August pour, as came before, to wet the dusty sod.

It hasn't rained since April: the longest drought I've seen. Through wind and cold, the clouds still hold. Now Happy Halloween.

[aavikkorotta]

LOT

Abraham's nephew, the land that he's got. Fate was against him, that's saying a lot.

[gondw4na]

my dad lived in honduras for about a decade (literally the only reason i’m fluent in spanish although my fluency is deteriorating for lack of practice) – anyway he told me recently that he rented a mud/plaster hut for a while and whenever he swept the dirt floor he would get really confused like ‘does this go out or stay in’ lol

[upkayac]

[vinegarjoe]

While that is an excellent technique, it is unique to these species. Most trees in the US are encouraged to grow straight through dense stands that promote competition for sunlight (so they grow tall and straight) and in turn they sort of self prune as the lower branches (not getting sunlight) die before creating big enough knots in the wood to create defects that will lower lumber grade.

This though, requires constant thinning, doesnt promote biodiversity of species, and makes them more vulnerable to killer diseases and pests. Not too important in the world of small acreage clear cuts though

[aavikkorotta]

“Europeans did the same thing for hundreds of years. Particularly the English grew yew trees this way to supply lumber for bows spears and building. In Europe it’s called coppicing. “ - georgiancraftsman

[aavikkorotta]

I remember when the sky was blue.

I remember when the sky was blue, that glorious hue, and came the dew. Now the sky is filled with greys, that smouldering blaze. The sun sets behind the haze.

[birdandmoon]

How to tell a raven from a crow. Made with corvid researcher Dr. Kaeli Swift for her blog post on the subject!