Not A Med Student Anymore

Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker? Jewish, neurodivergent, asexual, almost a doctor, 20ish. 🖤🩶🤍💜/❤️🧡🤍💗🩷

[mexashepot]

ב-7 באוקטובר לא קרה לך כלום. לא מתת. כל קרובייך בחיים. ילדייך לא נחטפו. לא נלקחת בשבי. אף אחד בסביבתך הקרובה לא נעדר. המדינה הזאת כה זערו

ב-7 באוקטובר לא קרה לך כלום.

לא מתת. כל קרובייך בחיים. ילדייך לא נחטפו. לא נלקחת בשבי. אף אחד בסביבתך הקרובה לא נעדר.

המדינה הזאת כה זערורית, שכמו כולם את מכירה אנשים שחרב עליהם עולמם - במקרה שלך, היכרות רחוקה או מפעם. בארץ הזו מפרידות שלוש דרגות של היכרות בין אדם לאדם - בחייו. במותו מספיקות רק שתיים.

את יודעת שזה יכול היה לקרות גם לך. לילדים שלך. אין כאן אמא אחת שהרעיון המפלצתי הזה לא עובר לה בראש, מכווץ לב ורחם.

לא קרה לך כלום.

חושייך מתחדדים יתר על המידה. שאון אופנוע מאיץ הוא אזעקה. רשרוש שקית ברחוב היא חוליית מפלצות שמשחרת בסתר להרג. טריקת דלת אצל השכנים היא פריצה. כלב נובח הוא מחבל תוקפני.

את מתקשה לישון. נרדמת באמצע הלילה. מתעוררת לא הרבה אחרי. מדמייינת דברים שלא קרו לך. כאבי פאנטום של אבריי זרים מפלחים את גופך. את בוכה על אנשים שאת לא מכירה.

לא קרה לך כלום.

את מחפשת דרך להועיל במשהו עבור אלה שכן קרה להם. את מתנדבת עבור ארגון אחד ואז אחר. כולם אומרים שרוח הנתינה מפעימה, מחזקת. בראש את יודעת שזה נכון, אבל את לא מרגישה את זה בבטן. בכלל, מרוב שאת מרגישה את מה שלא קרה לך, את לא מרגישה את מה שכן קורה.

לא קרה לך כלום.

רק הנשמה שלך נחטפה והקשב שלך נעדר והנפש שלך בשבי. ואולי בכל זאת קצת מתת.

******

On October 7, nothing happened to you.

You didn’t die. All of your loved ones are alive. Your kids weren’t kidnapped. Nobody in your immediate circle is missing.

This country is so tiny, that like everyone else, you know people whose world has been shattered - in your case, people you know only distantly, or from long ago. Here only three degrees separate between one person and another - when they're living. If they’re dead, it’s just two.

You know this could have happened to you. To your children. There's not a single mother in this country this monstrous idea hasn't crossed her mind, tightening heart and womb.

Nothing happened to you.

Your senses are in hyper mode. A speeding motorbike is a siren. A crinkling plastic bag is a group of monsters in hiding, ready for ambush. A slamming door is a break-in. A barking dog is an attacking terrorist.

You have trouble sleeping. You fall asleep in the middle of the night, and wake up not much later. You imagine things that didn’t happen to you. Phantom pains of strangers’ limbs slice through your body. You cry for people you don’t know.

Nothing happened to you.

You look for ways to do something for those to whom things did happen. You volunteer for one initiative, and then another. Everyone says that the spirit of giving is astounding and empowering. In your mind you know this is true, but in your heart you feel nothing.

In general, you feel what didn't happen to you so much, that you don’t feel what does.

Nothing happened to you.

Only your soul is kidnapped, your attention is missing, and your heart has been taken hostage.

And maybe you did die a little.

[lakecountylibrary]

Any sci-fi book recommendations, other than Murderbot Diaries, that basically just follows a robot main character?

Sure thing! (All links go to our catalog.)

Sarah recommends:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer: Cyborg Cinderella. Book 1 of the Lunar Chronicles

Robin recommends:

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. This one is a novella about robots working in a 'ghost kitchen' who decide to turn it around and make it the best darn hand-pulled noodle joint in post-liberation California!

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. I cheated a little here; this one follows a human POV, but the other main character is a robot - the first robot to contact humanity since the days when robots gained sentience and disappeared into the wild.

Other people recommend:

That's a pretty short list, so I went ahead and grabbed some others that none of us have read, but that we've heard good things about. Your mileage may vary! (Summaries here are paraphrased from the publishers.)

Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden: An AI reporter comes online to find ze is missing zir memories of the past 10 days. Ze must retrace zir steps to figure out what story ze was chasing and how everything went so wrong.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky: A robot valet murders its owner and leaves its house for the first time - only to discover that the world has ended and it is now free to tour the post-apocalypse.

The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon: A robot vacuum, inspired by the books the human of her household reads aloud, sets out to save him from eviction.

The Obsoletes by Simeon Mills: Two brothers who are secretly robots navigate high school in a conservative town that would disassemble them if their secret got out.

The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag: An illustrated novella following a teen girl and her robot across an America littered with the trash and detritus of a high-tech consumerist society.

Hopefully you'll find something you like in there - and as always, everyone feel free to leave your own recs in the replies and reblogs!

[wolfnicholss]

the drive is complete

every wolfnichols scene, compiled per episode and in 1080p, for your viewing pleasure. feel free to download and do with it as you want.

[mslovelyrita-deactivated2026070]

Finding out that the author behind A Series of Unfortunate Events is a Jew makes the sheer absurdity of the incompetence of the adults in the Baudelaires’ lives make soooo much more sense when you start seeing Count Olaf as a metaphor for antisemitism. How they repeatedly tell whoever their current guardian is who and what is after them and they just patronizingly tell them that they don’t know what they’re talking about or choose not to see through the very obviously thin disguise (a metaphor for dog whistles). The gaslighting. The willful ignorance. It’s so painfully familiar.

[notaplaceofhonour]

The Netflix adaptation makes this even more painfully obvious too, with some new lines echoing specific ways Jews are marginalized, and details like one of the very few adults to take the Baudelaires seriously reading a book about the Weimar Republic, or the ever-so-subtle detail that the Village of Fowl Devotees flag is literally just the Nazi flag with a bird instead of a swastika.

[jewreallythinkthat]

Today I went to the Nova exhibition in London.

It was overwhelming. They said it would take 60-90 minutes to go around it. I was there for two and a half hours, and I didn't see everything.

The design of the exhibition invokes the carnage and chaos of the day - it's a masterclass in exhibition/museum design.

Some of the clips of footage shown in it I remember seeing, lying in bed, on the 7th October 2023 as I tried to work out what was happening in Israel where one of my best friends was currently visiting for a wedding.

I stood by the burnt out husks of cars wondering if this was where people had died, or had they managed to miraculously escape and get away without being mowed down by gunfire.

I started to read the Dinah Project report before realising I couldn't do that in a museum - I needed to be somewhere I felt safe if I wanted to expose myself to that level of horror.

It's been 14 years since I was last in Israel.

I'd never seen a roadside bomb shelter before today but they had either bought with or built one at the exhibition to talk about what Hamas did to those inside. They aren't big. I cannot imagine being trapped there, pinned behind 40 others as terrorists fire bullets and grenades inside. I spent most of the exhibition on the edge of tears, or actively crying.

That was just the first room.

The memorial wall for the hostages has a video of an interview with Rachel and Jon, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin. They're wearing masking tape with the number 165 written across it. Rachel speaks with such optimism about her son - they've already seen a hostage release so why would Hersh who was confirmed to be alive not be coming home. I watched that video knowing what those two incredible people would have to go through again just five months later.

The memorial room for the dead had images and words written for almost all those killed at Nova.

I read every name across the three walls.

The interviews with survivors tell of stories of luck. Luck, and deep unadulterated horror at the way so many survived while hearing their friends' final moments. The bar littered with the bodies of all those who tried to hide behind it; the portaloos riddled with bullet holes; the woman who hid in a skip under bags of garbage to survive while others died all around her.

The processing room where we learnt of the foundations set up to help provide heal included videos from the creators of the Nova festival on how they have danced again. I'm proud that Glastonbury in the UK (despite everything) had had memorials for Nova for the past two years and are planning this year's one at the moment.

I was privileged to be there when a Nova survivor was visiting and he shared his testimony. We must bear witness and refuse to let people rewrite the history of this slaughter, this massacre. We know in horrifying detail what inhumane actions were inflicted on innocents that day and this exhibition refuses to let them be forgotten.

To be remembered is to live forever and we will never forget what happened.

If you are UK based, I urge you to go. It's not easy, but it's important.

[only-cat-memes]

[leoreturns-deactivated20110811]

I have been waiting all year to post this.

[tumboner]

omg

[merspers]

This has been in my queue for months.

[mcgooglykins]

I missed it last year and I vowed that would NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.

[thatsoundsprettynice]

YES

[xbstnmnr-deactivated20241116]

omg i didnt reblog this last year!

[stormclouds-chainmail]

[Image description

Two stills from Miss Congeniality.

The host is asking Miss Rhode Island questions.

The host says, “Describe your perfect date.”

Miss Rhode Island responds with, “That’s a tough one. I’d have to say April 25th. Because it’s not too hot and not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.”

End description]

[warmhappycat]

Wait.

I have never seen this movie, but I have seen these screencaps on tumblr every April 25th for many years.

Are you telling me it’s not William Shatner speaking?!

[mostro-rotto]

[cryoverkiltmilk]

"This is my weird son. He can't climb for shit, but he is handsome and strong."

[cryoverkiltmilk]

#cats be like#is anybody adopt that#and don't wait for an answer

[stalker-among-the-stars]

Everything that isn't food is a cat from the perspective of a cat. Cats can look upon the true form of eldritch monstrosities and keep their sanity. They'd just see another cat. A fucking weird-looking cat, but a cat nonetheless.

[dduane]

An always-reblog. 😄

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

Each Benoit Blanc film takes place in a different season and classic murder mystery setting.

Knives Out: Autumn in a country house

Glass Onion: Summer on a private island

Wake up Dead Man: Spring in a small town

So the next film in the cycle needs to be set in winter on a mode of transportation.

[majingojira]

Benoi Blanc vs Murder on the Orient Express.

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

YASSSSSSS

[cryoverkiltmilk]

It turns out the Knives Out trilogy was a Snowpiercer prequel all along.

[only-cat-memes]

[dailycatsblog]

[only-cat-memes]

the cat be like

[rocketbirdie]

nobody:

absolutely no one:

tumblr staff: hey i got a great idea hows about we screw up everyone's decade of muscle memory by splitting the perfectly functioning reblog button into two separate things. and make every basic task take more clicks to perform than before. this is ideal. yup. yeah go ahead and push the update to all users and ignore all feedback. s'all good

[only-cat-memes]

[girlactionfigure]

mich3e_taketwo

Franz Kafka’s sister, Ottla Kafka, walked into the gas chambers at Auschwitz holding children’s hands—because she refused to let them die alone. In 1943, Ottla was caring for traumatized Jewish children in Theresienstadt—orphans who screamed at the sight of showers, already knowing what awaited them. When the Nazis announced the children would be deported to Auschwitz, Ottla volunteered to accompany them. She didn’t have to. She knew exactly what it meant. On October 7, 1943, Ottla boarded the transport with those children. Upon arrival, they were sent directly to the gas chambers. She was 51 years old. We don’t know the children’s names. We don’t know what she whispered as she held their hands. What we do know is this: she chose to be there. In a system built to erase humanity, Ottla Kafka insisted on love until the very end. That’s not just Holocaust history. That’s what courage looks like. That’s what love looks like—when there’s nothing left but love. 🕯️ 

[argaman01]

I did not know that Kafka's sister Ottla (1892-1943) died at the hands of the Nazis in Auschwitz. Kafka had three sisters - Ottilie (the youngest), Gabriele (1889-1942), and Valerie (1890-1942), and all were murdered by the Nazis (Gabriele and Valerie at Chelmno).

Franz Kafka died in 1924 from tuberculosis.

[officialunitedstates]

it’s quick, it’s easy and it’s free:  pouring river water in your socks

[evilscum-deactivated20160223]

why would i do that lmao

[officialunitedstates]

it’s quick, it’s easy and it’s free

[transarsonist]

happy 10 years of its quick, its easy, and its free

[katbelleinthedark]

12 years!

[moringmark]

[kyliaquilor-archive]

If your language lost, it should die with dignity, not be put on artificial life-support because ‘reasons’

[domhnall-na-feannaig]

#Sorry but I have no sympathy for that fight#let the dead languages be dead#grumping#controversial opinions#because people always get annoyed with me when I say this#but Gaelic (for example) shouldn’t still exist

———–

Gaelic hasnt been lost.  It’s never died or been brought back.  There’s an unbroken line of native speakers going back to the beginning of the language.  That doesn’t seem like a ‘lost’ language to me.  Furthermore I’m not sure what ‘artificial life-support’ means in this context.  Gaelic is given funding for schools because there’s still native speakers of the language.  It’s no more artificial than money being given to schools for English language lessons.

[domhnall-na-feannaig]

If anything is ‘artificial’ its the imposition of a foreign language (English) into a Gaelic majority zone and native speakers having to fight for decades to be able to be taught in their own language.  Native speakers being forced to learn English to exist within their own regions because a central government would not allow services to be given in a people’s own language.

But then the clock only goes back so far with people who wish that minority languages would just die.  There’s nothing artificial about shooting someone but suddenly it becomes an ‘artificial’ act to maybe phone an ambulance?

[calystarose]

“There’s nothing artificial about shooting someone but suddenly it becomes an ‘artificial’ act to maybe phone an ambulance?” — THIS RIGHT HERE

[fenrir-kin]

Also just gonna point out here:

In the UK, the languages Gaelige, Gaelic, Cymraeg and Kernewek (that’s Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Cornish respectively) didn’t just “die out.” There was a concerted effort by the English to kill them off. 

For example, in Wales, if a child was heard speaking Welsh in a classroom, they’d be given a “Welsh Not”, a wooden plaque engraved with “WN” to hang around their neck. They’d pass it onto the next child heard speaking Welsh, and whoever had the Welsh Not at the end of the day was punished - usually with a beating. 

Kernewek was revived after a long hard struggle by the Cornish folk, and is now being taught again, but a lot about it has been lost because everyone who grew up speaking it has died.

And languages are never revived “just because.” The language of a place can offer so much insight into its history, so if you’re content to let a language die then you’re content to let history die.

People talk about “dead” languages as if they dwindle away gradually, naturally coming to an end and evolving into something else, but that’s rarely the case. Languages like Cymraeg and Gaelige and especially Kernewek didn’t have the chance to die with dignity, they were literally beaten out of my parents and grandparents. 

Is it any wonder every other country hate the English? We invade their country, steal their history, claim pieces of their history as ours or flat out re-write it, and kill every part of their culture that we can. 

It’s a miracle that any of the Celtic languages survived, so even if you don’t see the point in keeping them alive, the actual natives of each country we’ve fucked over are clinging onto what heritage they have left through the only thing they can: their language.