Find Your Own Valley

So, I'm Matt, I'm based out of the Hudson Valley in NY, and I live an insane, crazy, and beautiful life. 

[fiti-vation]

[femmewitch-deactivated20190613]

[the-illusion-of-pants]

Wait do other people crave egg salad when they’re getting their periods too??

[abigalihobbs]

[kaisermakes]

Dicking Around

Storytime! Halloween a few years back my mates and I were dressed up for Halloween and my cat furry roommate (good guy, furries are entertaining folks) was wearing his partial suit out with us. We were in Boston proper and all of us were on a budget at the time, so the only option for a late night drink and dinner open to us was a place called Dick’s Last Resort.  If you’ve never been, the big draw at Dick’s is that they’re dicks to you.  The staff are sarcastic, they throw your menus and straws and shit at you, and they make you hats that say mean stuff. 

I don’t get it either. So anyways, we’ve got - I’ll call him Frank - the cat with us, and Frank’s 100% ready to go fuck with Dicks, so we head on in. The waitress starts doing her bit, but the cat in the room has thrown off her game and she doesn’t really know how to handle Frank in Full Cat mode. 

He points out the drink he wants without speaking, with a paw, on the menu and she asks for an ID and starts saying ‘I swear to god your ID better have a big fuckkin’ cat on it or-“

She threw his licence back at us and walked away speechless. Didn’t talk to us the rest of the evening. Anyways, I dug up this old photo today and thought it deserved to be preserved for posterity.  So here you go, the day Frank broke Dicks.

[dinkywinks]

god, it’s so crazy we all have bones… like, just these big hard rods holding our meat up. that’s so fucking wild, i can’t believe it

[rolodextra]

one of the main reasons i don’t want to get pregnant is i can’t handle the idea of growing bones and not keeping them

[dinkywinks]

this is a very reasonable concern. you go to all that trouble growing new bones and then some shitlord infant steals them out from under you. disgraceful

[mapsontheweb]

A map of about every primary passenger railway in the USA for 2016, commuter rail included.

[eddus]

Surely there are more trains lines about than this ?!

[lostinmiami]

Nope. We’re animals. I’ve only trailed by train twice in the U.S., and it was the same line, once DC to Philadelphia, and once DC to NYC for work once I discovered the train was two hours faster than flying and cabbing back into NYC.

[eddus]

I do forget though that you guys fly everywhere and trains might not be practical. I live on an island the size of one of your states !

[merseytart]

Fun fact: the busiest railway station in America (Penn Station in New York City) gets fewer passengers than Liverpool Central.

[sebpatrick]

I knew the US had a much less extensive rail infrastructure than us, but bloody hell, the fact that there are ENTIRE STATES that literally don’t have passenger rail is madness.

I’d still love to travel on it some time, mind.

[iandsharman]

Just imagine the jobs you could create by building a decent railway system!

[dorksidefiker]

Behold, the end result of graft and political corruption.

[fandork]

I had no idea most of the US had no regional lines? Like, I live in tiny little MA with one of those clusters of red. Does everybody else have to DRIVE???

[burritosong]

yes. we drive. and it’s terrible.

[fandork]

D: This is actually distressing.

[burritosong]

to be fair some cities do have good bus systems

but….yeah.

[ahiddenkitty]

what the shuddering fuck?  That’s IT?!  

[kaza999]

actually we used to have a lot more, but as far as i’m aware i’m pretty sure the car companies bought a lot of railways and then destroyed them to force people to buy cars

[anarchapella]

Also some of those states that don’t have rails also have more cows than people.

Also our trains are slow and it’s usually much faster to drive than to take a train. We don’t have those speed rail things.

[darthflake]

WAIT WHAT? THAT IS ALL?

[buchergenuss32]

There used to be more (map of train tracks 1870 & 1890), but, as @kaza999 pointed out, alot of it was destroyed on purpose by General Motors in the firsty half of the 1900s to, ahem, pave the way for the primacy of the car.  And, since then, any investment in rail infrastructure (or any infrastructure at all, for that matter) has been opposed on ideological grounds by the conservative wing.

[official-german-translationen]

When you suddenly understand Sheldon’s train enthusiasm

[allthingsgerman]

And then there’s Europe:

And because that looks a tiny bit cluttered (and because we’re a German blog), here’s a railway map of Germany:

In red are the high speed InterCityExpress lines, blue are the InterCity lines and the grey ones are smaller regional lines.

And for Americans who don’t know how large Germany is: It is half the size of Texas.

[official-german-translationen]

Consider that this map does not show local lines, for example: This is Hamburg

This is Berlin

This is Cologne

And this is Munich

(Aesthetic.)

[etothevictory]

Munich’s network deadass has more lines than the entire state of MA

[marrella-splendens]

this makes me so fucking upset, I fucking hate what car companies have done to our train network

there used to be a train station right in my town, that’s a short walk from here, that would have allowed me to go to boston with minimal fuss, but nooo, it has to be torn up and made into some sort of trail thing that I don’t think anybody even uses, like, I just wanna scream

[hook-line-and-anarchy]

Kill The Automobile Industrial Complex

[pro-survivors]

The line up through Vermont no longer goes to Montreal, either. 

[misanthropymademe]

Good public transport is vital in reducing drunk driving, getting crunked is no prob when you can take a train home. 

[materassassino]

violent capitalism destroys any decent public venture

[nudne]

SHE CHEATED. she cheated? MAUREEN CHEATED! FUCKING CHEATED. I’M DEFEATED I SHOULD GIVE UP, RIGHT NOOOOW. gotta LOOK on the BRIGHT side with ALL of youR MIGHT- I’D FALL FOR HER STILL ANYHOOOOW. when you’re DANcing her DANCE you don’t.. STAND a CHANCE. HER GRIP ON RO-MANCE MAKES YOU FAAAAALL. so you think “might as well!” “-dance a Tango to Hell-” AT LEAST I’LL HAVE TANGOED AT ALL…. ………………. 👀☕

[sabrinacaps]

[deerinspotlight]

I feel like the reason certain dog-lovers insist cats are evil is because they read their body language as if they were dogs. So here’s a very basic guide to common “mean” things cats do that actually aren’t mean at all if you know what they’re thinking.

Rolling and exposing belly- attacks you when touched Does not mean: Give belly rubs! - haha I tricked you!  Actually means: I’m playful! If you reach for my belly I’ll grab your arm and bite it because I think we’re playfighting! 

Lazily exposing belly - still attacks when touched Does not mean: tricked you again! Actually means: I’m showing you my belly because I trust you. Please don’t break that trust by invading my personal space. I might accept a belly rub if I’m not ticklish and I know you well. Snapping at you while being pet Does not mean: I suddenly decided I dislike you! Actually means: You’re petting me in a way that gives me too much restless energy. Please focus on petting my head and shoulders instead of stroking the full length of my back next time.

Is in the same room but makes no attempt to interact Does not mean:  I’m ignoring you Actually means: We’re hanging out! I’m being respectful by giving you space while still enjoying your company. Slapping/scratching your hand when you try to pet them Does not mean: I hate you! Actually means: You’ve failed to establish that we’re not playing, or the way you’re approaching me scares me. Be calmer, speak more gently, make eye-contact and blink slowly at me before you try again.

[squeakykins]

I love this post omg, thank you so much. As a lifelong cat person, dogs perplex me because they’re so completely different behaviourally.

[blome3kissesbitch]

I love dogs too but, I’ve been trying to tell people, you canNOT treat cats like you treat dogs. They arent the same animals and have very different personalities

[blome3kissesbitch]

P.s.: people often pet cats way too hard. Dogs like a firm pet or a pat on the belly, cats dont have the same bone structure and are more flexible than dogs so what you’re doing probably hurts them

[hella-free-space]

I’m extra extra glad I read this before I had a cat, after I had just gotten a cat, and after having a cat for a good 6 months – because this is so true! And it’s helped me be much more respectful of my cat and her space and I think it’s allowed us to have a closer relationship :D because I respect her boundaries and listen to her, instead of trying to make her do what I want (like making her let me pet her or hold her, etc.) she now trusts me and comes up to me every once in a while and let’s me know when she DOES want to be pet or played with and it’s awesome! :D she’s even sat/layed with me on an few occasions ^-^

[catsuggest]

my cat slips on the floor a lot. is okay to trim toe furs to help cat?

consider replace entire floor with cat-friendly surface like corrogoted cardboard or woodland leaf pile instead

[jim-kirk]

31 Days of Halloween — The Cabin in the Woods (2011) dir. Drew Goddard

[leeleeleelee]

[fervorou-s]

in the mood to fall asleep with someone

[bystander3]

How much must Luke Skywalker be freaking out right now?

Can you imagine?

You are moping on your island of self-imposed exile, and then this girl shows up.

She’s flying your best friend’s ship. The ship that Han thought he lost for ever. The ship that was stolen and passed through so many hands that he was sure he’d never see it again. The same ship that took you away from home for the first time.

She’s accompanied by your personal droid. The droid you left behind and abandoned. The droid that C-3PO was sure would never be the same again.

She holds out her hand and she’s holding your father’s light saber. The sword you were sure was lost forever. The light saber that you dropped down a bottomless air shaft on a gas giant thirty years ago. The light saber you knew you would never see again.

You look up and you see her eyes. Maz Kanata says that if you live long enough, you see the same eyes looking out of different faces. The girl’s face is different, but those eyes are the same. You know those eyes. They’re the eyes you thought you’d never see again.

And that’s when you know it.

You’re screwed.

They say sometimes the Force works in mysterious ways. Sometimes, the Force will send you little signs. Subtle clues.

Other times, the Force will just beat you repeatedly over the head with a gigantic neon sign that says: “You can’t run away from your past anymore, Luke. I won’t let you. Look, here is your past come back to haunt you. Now deal with it.”

[captnsolo]

You have no idea how much I adore this post with my whole being

[priscellie]

I like the idea of the Force sending Luke little signs over the years that it’s time to return to his loved ones, gently increasing in intensity as he ignores them, until it finally gets fed up and shoves the events of Episode 7 into motion, finishing with a flourish of HERE’S YOUR NEW APPRENTICE, SPACE HOBO.

[gingersnapwolves]

space hobo

[redditfront]

[terpsikeraunos]

Former President George W. Bush said Thursday that “bigotry seems emboldened” in the United States, warning that Americans need to reject “white supremacy.” [x]

[islandboy1977]

It was an elegant weapon from a more civilized time.

[shingojira]