AlphaRaposa's scribblings

[prokopetz]

Trolling my biologist D&D player by sending the party on a quest to prevent the destruction of a mystical seal, and when they finally get there it quickly becomes clear that I'm actually describing a walrus.

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

(via op)

[dracofeb]

Calque & Loanword

Found this. Kind of want to share.

[screampotato]

Suddenly struck with a need to explain to you how boat pronouns work (I work in the marine industry).

When you're talking about the design of the boat, you say "it".

When the boat is still being built, your say "it".

When the boat is nearing completion, you can say "it" or "she".

When the boat is floating in the water you probably say "she", unless there is still a lot of work to be done (e.g. no engine yet) then you say "it".

When the boat is officially launched and operating, you say "she". If you continue to say "it" at this point you are not incorrect but suspiciously untraditional. You are not playing the game.

If you are referring to a boat you don't really know anything about you may say "it" ("there's a big boat, it's coming this way"). But if you know its name, it's probably "she" ("there's the Waverley, she's on her way to Greenock").

If you are talking about boats in general, you say "it" ("when a boat is hit by a wave it heels over")

If you speak about a boat in complimentary terms, it's "she" ("she's a grand boat"). If you are being disparaging it may be it, but not necessarily ("it's as ugly as sin", "she's a grotty old tub").

If she has a boy's name, she's still she. "Boy James", "King Edward", "Sir David Attenborough"? The pronoun is she.

If it's a dumb barge (no engine), you say it. But if it's a rowing boat (no engine), you say she.

I hope this has cleared things up so that you may not be in danger of misgendering floating objects.

[glitched-out-mess]

[theramblingvoid]

Hit "view post" and lost it

[doctors-star]

highly recommend keeping a small portrait of a historical figure who met a grisly end on your work desk. for perspective.

[doctors-star]

me: oh thomas cromwell, we're really in it now. every day i get emails.

the postcard of thomas cromwell i keep on my desk: i was on committees with the duke of norfolk. and they beheaded me.

me: yep. good point.

[doctors-star]

me: cromwell. cromwell this post has got too big and famous and people are starting to misunderstand me on it.

the postcard of thomas cromwell i keep on my desk: oh no! you achieved too much fame and status? and now people are misrepresenting you? should we strip your lands and title? have you been beheaded?

me: YES ALRIGHT FINE

[tolkien-feels]

Elrond: Let's maybe not swear a binding oath to keep jewelry away from an Ainu at all cost. Let's maybe. Let's maybe just like, pinky promise to do our best. Trust me on this, you don't want to swear any oaths

[warrioreowynofrohan]

I find this moment very interesting not just because of the Oath of Fëanor but because of what it says about oaths in general.

Because imagine that all of the Fellowship did swear to go with Frodo to Mount Doom. Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn would have felt obligated to abandon Merry and Pippin to the orcs to go with Frodo; who knows how the Ring could have used that guilt to twist them. Gollum would never have had the same dynamic with Frodo, because he hated Aragorn. Gollum wouldn’t have been at Mount Doom to destroy the Ring. Aragorn wouldn’t have been there to take the Paths of the Dead. Minas Tirith would have fallen. There would have been no march on the Black Gate that cleared a path to Mount Doom by distracting Sauron.

“No oaths,” means: the world is larger and more complex than you know. You don’t know that the thing you’re swearing to do will turn out to be the right thing, the best thing, in every possible circumstance. Have the humility to recognize that complexity.

[tathrin]

@thecryofthegulls you can't leave this in the tags.

#I love how so much of Tolkiens philosophy goes back to that point #the humility to recognize the complexity #or in other words that you might not hear or know the whole music

[currentlycryingaboutlancelot]

today I learned that in 2008, the city council of florence overturned dante’s sentence of execution if he returned from exile. yes, dante’s inferno dante, who died in 1321.

but the funniest part of this is not that they were debating the exile of a man who has been dead for over 500 years.

the funniest part is that the vote was 19-5. five people voted to uphold dante’s exile.

[stabethadeathwhisper]

The objectively funniest part of this is actually that the city that holds his remains, Ravenna, refused to give his remains back. This was a ploy from florence to have his remains moved back for the tourist money and its been ongoing for a long time. Florence had a fake tomb built in the city to trick people into visiting, and have tried to force the return of the remains.

His actual caretakers have been very steadfast in keeping them hidden, moved, or generally out of reach to respect his choice in life to never, ever, ever return to florence, even when he was first offered the chance to return. This is at this point an almost millenium long feud that florence is really, really mad about losing

[mysteryteacup]

so basically the five people who wanted to uphold his exile were in the right

[seccorottario-deactivated201609]

my fav Junji Ito story is the one with the /fit/ neighbor guy who lifts gravestones for the ulimate gainz+attention combo and who gets kicked out by everyone because he won’t fucking stop lifting their ancestors graves every goddamn night in his underwear

[seccorottario-deactivated201609]

[thathomestar]

do the ghosts admire his sick-ass muscles

[touga-party-deactivated20161223]

hell yea they do

[pulmonary-poultry]

Spoilers but yeah that’s literally the final twist. The night after the dude is kicked out and everyone’s like “Thank god that creep is gone,” all the ghosts come out and go “Where the fuck is our himbo?”

[darkenedyeastextract]

Junji Ito is the funniest motherfucker alive

[adz]

one time this nondescript guy came into my dunkin donuts and ordered a small black coffee with blueberry flavor shot, and for some reason that peculiar order stuck with me so much that when, seven months later, i saw him in the parking lot walking towards the door, i quickly made a small black coffee with blueberry flavor shot. he ordered it and i was already holding it. 

i would describe his demeanor that second time as “incredulous”

[honeylemony]

What the fuck who drinks that

[adz]

it’s such a perfectly bonkers order because like, most unusual orders are maximalist and sugary but this one just combines the most basic drink with the most incongruous little add-on. it’s the order of a simple, regular man who has something wrong with him

[phage-necro]

this post always makes me laugh. this guy has the weirdest drink order and he probably never goes to this dunkin’ if it took seven months for the barista to see him again. so think about a coffee shop you go to so little you’re not even sure if you’ve gone there before and you walk in and the barista hands you the drink you were about to order before you even ordered it. he will remember that for the rest of his life

[adulthoodisokay]

“it’s the order of a simple, regular man who has something wrong with him” gets me every time.

[worldheritagepostorganization]

World Heritage Post

[corneliaavenue-ao3]

Reblog to give prev the power to write their fanfiction

[gnar-slabdash]

Reblog to give prev the TIME to write their fanfiction

[cutebutalsostabby]

Reblog to give prev the hocus focus to write their fanfiction.

[septic-dr-schneep]

Reblog to give prev the energy to write their fanfiction

[imsopopfly]

Reblog to give prev the executive function to write their fanfiction

[thefringeperson]

Reblog to give prev the hyper-specific niche knowledge to write their fanfiction

[prokopetz]

Strictly speaking, "ultimate" means "last", not "best". It's often figuratively employed in the latter sense to suggest that the thing so described is the final word on the subject, after which nothing more need be said, but if we're being real technical, describing a game or movie that was so bad it killed its entire franchise as the "ultimate" is in fact correct.

[prokopetz]

@ffoxer replied:

Now I'm thinking about the prefix "pen," which as far as I can think I may have only ever seen in "penultimate"

It's Latin for "nearly" or "almost", and it does pop up in a few other English words. "Penultimate", "penumbra" and "peninsula" are the only ones I can think of that you'd even remotely expect to encounter in everyday speech, though; the rest are all medical or mathematical jargon.

[prokopetz]

#so peninsula means what? #almost island? #lmao (via @actualanxiousswampwitch)

That is the actual etymology of the word "peninsula", yes.

[burgerdotcom]

reblogs were off

[goblinchief]

Sent a 12 year old on a fake Hero’s Journey last week and holy shit he actually did it

[hippy-craic]

[eternalgirlscout]

you can't say "hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby" on a poll with a 60/40 split. that's hydrogen bomb vs regular bomb

[prokopetz]

Pipe bomb versus somewhat smaller pipe bomb.

[thecolorofthegame]

Hydrogen baby va coughing bomb

[rudywiser]

Two bombs, both alike in dignity, in fair tumblr, where we lay our scene

[prokopetz]

Last survivor of an extinct alien civilisation who regards this as a personal victory.

Last survivor of an extinct alien civilisation who's just as surprised as you are.

Last survivor of an extinct alien civilisation who's mad about being left out.

Last survivor of an extinct alien civilisation who tells a different story about how it happened each time they're asked.

Last survivor of an extinct alien civilisation who, in their unguarded moments, admits it's probably for the best.

Last survivor of an extinct alien civilisation who claims the others are "just resting".

Last survivor of an extinct alien civilisation who insists it's not their fault.

[aokozaki]

Doctor Who

[mikkeneko]

[memewhore]

[2urban2fantasy-deactivated20241]

Woman murders man in broad daylight

[theknightinslippers]

[halorvic]

[e-rated-beardo]

Always reblog this queen of burns the dude didn't even realise happened

[macabre-muses]

vader every time he came across 3po and r2 during the war probably

[prokopetz]

Well, you know those anachronistic lever-operated elevators in the hero's solarpunk treetop village? I'm the guy who runs on a giant wooden hamster wheel twelve hours a day to power them. Yeah, no, the embarkation platform has a fixed camera angle that puts me just out of frame; they said it would "ruin the ambience".