I can call spirits from the vasty deep

One Medieval Studies PhD student who's a major nerd for afternoon sunlight, pine-covered islands, the serial comma, Middle English, Medieval Wales, language, whimsy, and puns. Current fandoms include (but aren’t limited to): Good Omens, Dropout and Dimension 20, The Untamed and TGCF, MCU Captain America, Yuri!!! On Ice, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the McElroy family of products.

[blysse-and-blunder]

welcum iwys!

welcome to my personal blog, where it’s just always gawain and the green knight hours and we reblog aesthetic, fandom, and memelord shit on main like it’s still 2012.

stuff about grad school, life as a phd student, what i’m reading, etc. is part of the fabric of what we do here, and will be tagged #academia! (used to tag things either genuinely about life as an academic, and/or some degree of satirical/frustrated/amused about life as an academic) and #the grad tag (things to do specifically with my life as a grad student), but this isn’t meant to be a studyblr.

okay, it’s... not not a studyblr.

mostly, it’s a miscellany (hah) of things that have made me laugh, or think, not necessarily at the same time. reblogs are not necessarily endorsements, though, if i’ve seen a post several times, i’ll try to pass on the version whose comments i vibe with most.

blog url explanation here! weekly round-up posts now happening on weekends! and will be tagged ‘#in lieu of a commonplace book’; other tags to know here and include:

#medieval thangs: runs the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous, but if it feels related to the Middle Ages, chances are I’ll use this.

#postry: started as a typo, but I embraced it. posts about poetry.

#amateur ling nerd alert: my interest in language and linguistics is sincere and largely untutored

#language: when something is relevant to the study or concept of language but not dorky enough to fall into the above tag

i reblog or queue posts on mobile a lot, which often translates to them not being tagged immediately-- i go back and add tags to keep things organized for myself, mostly; though if you need something in particular tagged so you can block it, i’m happy to oblige!

[little-grey-dowitcher]

So many people never learned to live with harmless discomfort at any point in their lives and holy fuck does it show

[little-grey-dowitcher]

“But I wanna know!” You’re gonna have to learn to be ok with not knowing some things, especially when those things involve personal details about strangers that they’re not comfortable sharing.

“But it’s confusing!” If you take the time to educate yourself it’ll no longer be confusing. Otherwise you’re just gonna have to learn to be ok with being confused.

“But it’s weird!” You probably do weird things all the time. Everyone does weird things sometimes. Life goes on.

“But it scares me!” Is it hurting you? No? You’ll be fine. Being scared and being harmed are not always the same thing. Learn to tell the difference and then act accordingly.

“But I want it!” And I want a million dollars. You can’t always get what you want.

[breelandwalker]

Addendum:

"But it makes me uncomfortable!" The world is an uncomfortable place and complete strangers are not required to fix that for you. Learning to endure harmless discomfort is a life skill for existing in public.

"But I don't like it!" There's plenty of things in the world and not all of them are fun or enjoyable or For You. This applies to everyone and we all have to deal with that in a mature fashion.

"But I want to do the thing!" You can't always do what you want. Most people learn this in preschool. Wanting something does not entitle you to be inconsiderate to the people around you.

[renthony]

It's wild to watch the phrase "tumblr sexyman" morph into "man that tumblr thinks is sexy," because when I first saw the phrase come into use, I always saw it used in reference to the phenomenon of "when presented with a wide array of fictional characters, tumblr will always pick the skinny white man to obsess over, and if the fan-favorite character has no canonical human appearance, the fandom will inevitably create a popular fanon of the character as as a skinny white man."

When I hear "tumblr sexyman," I think of Cecil Night Vale being constantly depicted as a skinny white man instead of literally anything else. I think of the background character white men who get elevated over protagonists that are women, people of color, or otherwise not the white man power fantasy.

"Tumblr sexyman" is, like. An insult. I DON'T want any of my blorbos to win a "tumblr sexyman" poll. "Tumblr sexyman" is the exact opposite of what I want my own OCs to be. If any of my characters ever get called "tumblr sexyman," I will have to immediately re-evaluate myself and the art I'm making.

[beggars-opera]

Witch 1: When shall we three meet again?

Witch 2: When the hurdy-gurdy's done

Witch 3: *absolutely shredding*

[wordfather]

just found out that accidentally in love by counting crows was literally made for shrek. they didnt just choose it. it didnt exist before. they asked counting crows to make a song for shrek 2 and thats how we got one of the best songs ever made. insane.

[wordfather]

counting crows knew shrek 2 would become one of the best movies ever made and had to act accordingly

[sinmonger]

Hollanov + tweets

[kaity--did]

Tonight on My Husband Doesn’t Know How to Baby Talk

“Ma’am, are you aware that these, right here are your hands? They belong to you. And you get to decide what happens with them. So when you use these hands to pull your binky out of your mouth that is not necessarily a dad problem. I’ll fix it obviously i just want you to acknowledge it’s not my fault”

[kaity--did]

Husband: ma’am it has been reported lately that you do in fact have tiny little toes and a little button nose, do you care to comment?

Penny Rose: Babbles in Baby

Husband: RIVETING!

[kaity--did]

Penny Rose: Does that High Pitched Baby Yell ™️

Husband: Let it out friend! Feel your feelings!

[kaity--did]

Me: Hehehe silly husband doesn’t know how to do baby talk

All of tumblr collectively at my husband:

[kaity--did]

Penny Rose: does a sad baby scream

Husband: you don’t even have to understand taxes yet! I can explain them but you’ve got several years before that’s relevant!

Penny Rose: wide eyes, staring at her father, almost intrigued

Husband: I lied to you Penny your mother does our taxes. Do you want to know about arbitration? I know all about arbitration.

[kaity--did]

THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND

yes he just walks around the house and talks to her like this

[kaity--did]

Penny Rose: Cooing as twinkle twinkle little star plays

Husband: Now Penny there is a lot of misinformation out there in the world and I hate to tell you this but the moon is in fact not made of cheese. That is a conspiracy theory pushed by Big Dairy.

????

[kaity--did]

Husband: Holds Penny Rose up to her reflection in the microwave

Husband: you see Penny Rose! This was the M. Night Shyamalan twist! You were mirror baby all along!

[kaity--did]

FYI this is how you get a Deals Warlock if you were wondering

[justplainsalty]

I have follow up questions:

1) Did you participate in baby talk to make up for your husband's deficit, or did you also opt to speak to the Deals Warlock like a very tiny adult from babyhood?

1a) If you participated in baby talk with Penny, did she ever do any code switching with you while she was learning to talk (I mean, babyish talk back to you but fully formed adult like you share with us to Lawyer Dad)?

[kaity--did]

I didn't baby talk with her very much either! I think I squealed at her more than my husband did.

Something funny that has happened is that while she formally calls me Mama when she's answering me in passing she does call me "My Darling Love" and I don't know for sure but I think it's because I call her and her father "my loves" and her father calls me and her "darlings" and she's created a mash up 😂

So I'll say "okay penny it's time for bed" and I'll just hear "okay my darling love!" 😂

[kaity--did]

Everyone is always so so kind on this post but I do want to warn you all that this did in fact lead to an insanely verbal child, and if you choose that life you have to commit to that life.

Penny Rose is now 5 years old and she

1. Starts talking the moment she opens her eyes to the moment she passes out at night

2. Asks, and I am not exaggerating I counted, an average of 892 questions a day

3. Does not accept "I don't know" as an answer to said questions, will usually have a follow up question as to why you don't know OR a suggestion on how we can find out together

I pay for limitless data and have 709 Google tabs open on my phone at all times

[amthsts-remade-deactivated20191]

follow me for more great posts other people made

[brightlotusmoon]

[nemfrog]

"Venus appears largest when in the crescent phase." Natural History. December 1949.

Internet Archive

[bellabs-dream-lab]

Just remembered I had this screenshot on my phone somewhere and had to post it here because it really speaks to me

[achillesinhighheels]

"When Harlem Was" by Eric Bowman.

[leafxvii]

Red line guardian based off of a water stain I saw at Porter

[massachusetts-official]

Official Post of Massachusetts

[8nin]

"There's millions of Tumblr users" to you. To me There's only about 12 and we all reblog the same five posts from each other

[loontattoo]

being vulnerable and admitting I don't understand a reference

[mewvore]

"we detected a mature post" yeah I'm in my 30s

[skinks]

I love that thing when people get a little bit tongue-tied and garble what they’re trying to say so they make a little “blegh” 👅 noise and start over. verbal reset button. hitting the top of the tv to unscramble the signal

[rifa]

Hate how much A Little Treat has infested me. Any small discomfort and I'm immediately like oooo maybe exchanging money for goods and services will fix this situation.