leaves and feathers @charliestarling - Tumblr Blog

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evilkaito

i dont think whites understand how being white makes literally everything easier.

it effects everything.

being trans is easier when youre white.

being gay is easier when youre white.

being disabled is easier when youre white.

being a woman is easier when youre white.

being autistic is easier when youre white.

oppression is eased when you are white, as you get extra privileges, and your whiteness is seen as a positive characteristic that in some ways counter-balances your other forms of being a minority. whiteness controls everything.

you are automatically way more innocent in your own oppression as a gay, trans, disabled person because of your whiteness.

never forget this.

raccoon-piss

three things:

1. it’s true

2. white people get pissed when i bring this up/wear this shirt

3. the comments to this thread melted my fucking eyeballs seriously why the fuck are y’all like this

lady-hibiscus

white people you don’t need to say you’re white when you reblog this btw. you don’t even need to mention it btw

apologieslogan

I wish more people understood this. if you are white, you are white before anything else. before EVERYTHING else. they see your skin color, and decide how much respect, decency, agency, rights, you “deserve”. you disliking this fact doesn’t make it less true.

somewherethatskindagreen

STOP GIVING US MOVIE ADAPTATIONS OF MUSICALS JUST GIVE US PROSHOTS

florencemachines

Costume appreciation series: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) dir Brian Henson

Costume Design by Ann Hollowood and Polly Smith

thisishowyoumakemovies

Fashion historian Abby Cox did a delightful 30-minute breakdown of the costumes in The Muppet Christmas Carol:

And Nichole Rudolph recreated Gonzo as Charles Dickens’ outfit from the movie using historical research and techniques. Here’s a playlist of 9 videos documenting the process:

bliss-bliss-bliss-bliss

Every year it makes me so happy to see people discovering (or rediscovering) that the Muppets Christmas Carol is genuinely one of the best films ever made and I’m not kidding.

You could look at pretty much any aspect of filming - special effects! Music! Set design! - and literally every person on every team went absolute ham for this movie, because it was a labor of love. Brian Henson made the movie after the death of his father Jim Henson and co-father Richard Hunt. The whole team was devastated after losing the two men who had brought the heart and soul and creativity to The Muppets from the very beginning, and for a while there was debate over whether they should keep making movies at all.

(That scene where Kermit, voiced by Brian Henson, says the brief epitaph for Tiny Tim? The cracks and wavers in Brian’s voice are very real as he says “Life is full of meetings and partings children, that is the way of it. I’m sure we will never forget… this first… parting there was among us…” MY HEART.)

Eventually they decided that they would make this movie, and they would make it as a tribute to all the things Jim and Richard valued; kindness and empathy, in-jokes about life in showbiz, and an attention to detail that even the most autistic among us might not notice at first glance.

Please enjoy some screenshots of Abby Cox’s video, because she did her fucking homework hunting down the specific fashion plates Smith and Hollowood referenced:

(See they were printing plates with the latest fashions on them, that’s where the expression comes from!)

I do want to point out that the costume designers, Ann Hollowood and Polly Smith, were prepared to bring their absolute A game for this project even when it only had the budget of a made-for-tv Christmas special. But when the producers scored Michael Caine and locked in that good good Disney money, these two maniacs looked at each other and immediately said, probably in unison, “We are going to exhaustively research smocking techniques for men’s work shirts specifically from 1840 to 1842 - and keep in mind we’re doing this at a time before the internet is really a thing - then we are going to hand sew a tiny, perfectly accurate recreation, and then we are going to put it on a rat puppet for exactly one scene.”

And it shows. Every frame of this movie, literally every frame of this movie, contains costumes that are not only immaculately period accurate (bearing in mind that the story is not set in Generic Victorian Timey Times, it’s set in 1843 specifically, a time in European fashion that was completely fucking bonkers on several levels), but are also a pitch perfect insight to each individual character, with telling details that contribute to the vibe of each scene even if we don’t consciously pick up on them. We can tell that Miss Piggy is a fashionable lady who doesn’t have much money but is dressed up in her very best, even if we don’t actually know the elaborate tatting technique used to make that lace bonnet that was fashionable maybe 12 years before the events of the story, or that she clearly added a simpler tatted border to that older heirloom shawl to make it match the bonnet better.

And those plates weren’t the only inspiration, I actually recognize a few famous historical pieces, like this 1840s day dress currently in storage at the Met:

Look at it. Look at that fucking feat of engineering. Look at the way the upper sleeves are cut on the bias and the lower sleeves are cut straight, look at the way the pleated collar is gathered at the drop shoulders, and look at how many different ways and in how many places the intricate plaid pattern matches up at the seams, carefully folded and pleated so that the blue underthread matches up in the front panels of the skirt.

This character is in the corner of the screen for less than a minute in total. Smith and Holloway did not have to do this.

Even at a glance you can tell that this plaid pattern was probably less expensive at the time, but it too was cut on the bias, and her bonnet also has very very teeny tiny tatting. This character is also on screen for less than one minute, and she’s also about 4 inches tall.

THEY DID NOT HAVE TO DO THIS.

There’s a reason that one of the most frequently done Muppet cosplays ever is Gonzo as Charles Dickens, because that fit still absolutely fucking slaughters to this day:

Just look at this motherfucker! Look at his fur top hat and matching foxtoe shoes! Look at his stockings! Those stockings look accurately hand-knit to me, and they were on screen for a matter of seconds.

Next, let’s all channel our inner Miss Piggy and stare at Kermit’s crotch!

I couldn’t get clear screenshots of it to save my life, so you’ll just have to trust me, but when these characters are moving, you can tell that Kermit’s pants have a fold front fly. Which was popular up until about the early 1830s - which indicates that his clothes are about 15 years old, presumably the last suit he could afford to buy before he started having a bunch of kids.

Nephew Fred, on the other hand, is wearing the newfangled hot look of the season, a button fly front:

Again, you’ll just have to trust me, but it’s there if you know what to look for. Also, a keen eye will notice that Fred’s coat doesn’t fit him quite perfectly, but he and Clara seem to be stable enough that he could afford to get it tailored - which indicates that either he hasn’t had time or hasn’t bothered, or maybe it’s a new coat that Clara has just given him or something.

Let’s look again at Fred’s daytime monstrosity, period accurate down to the embroidered floral waistcoat with the plaid pants, which at the time would have been the absolute height of fashion for any young man to irritate his penny-pinching uncle in:

These methods of making clothes aren’t just old skills that have no modern application anymore, they’re advanced old skills. This is like someone writing a poem in iambic pentameter in a dead language, and only on the sixth reread do you realize it’s also a palindrome. This is insane.

Y'all. It took me until my 937th viewing of this movie, but I took a closer look at Peter’s little jacket:

It’s also a little outdated, like Kermit’s - and this isn’t a great photo of it, but if you look really really really carefully, there’s a line of darker fabric along the shoulders. And only if you really know your shit about sewing, you can spot the clues that this garment has been let out at the seams. Given that he can’t quite close it and the arms are still a little too short, that indicates that the Cratchets bought him a fairly nice coat a couple years ago and have kept letting it out as he grew. And I can’t find any stills to prove it, but I’d be willing to bet there’s evidence that Tiny Tim’s clothes are hand-me-downs from Peter.

THEY DID 👏NOT👏 HAVE👏 TO👏 DO THIS!

And in any other movie I’d assume that they didn’t, that it must be a coincidence or something, but given the level of detail in this movie I absolutely believe that the costume designers took the time to add a tiny clue like this that maybe fifty people on the planet would notice at the time.

And finally, here are the two women responsible for this visual feast I enjoy every year, and every year as my sewing skill grows I can appreciate more and more of their virtuosity and dedication to their craft:

Ann Hollowood!

Polly Smith!

titleknown

Blogging this tweet because this explains SO MUCH about the mindset of pretty much all the folks I’ve known who’re against single-payer, it’s not even funny…

hopesterling

This….

This never occurred to me. Not once. That Americans are against Health Care because they think it actually costs tens of thousands of dollars for a broken arm, hundreds of thousands for a complicated birth, millions for cancer treatment.

Because they’ve never known anything different. The idea that a broken arm is only a couple hundred bucks; a complicated birth a couple thousand; cancer treatment only tens of thousands; all easily covered by existing tax structures.

withasmoothroundstone

This explains a lot. And it’s a good example of what I was talking about in my post on scarcity being used to prop up ableism – always question the idea that a resource is genuinely scarce. Even if it seems obvious that it is, quite often that’s the result of careful manipulation and misconceptions that you’re not even aware of.

And never think you’re too smart to be fooled by that kind of thing, it doesn’t work like that. Similarly, don’t think people who are fooled by something are stupid. Nobody can have all the information about everything, and nobody has the time and energy to investigate and put together conscious conclusions about every piece of information they’re given. It doesn’t take being stupid, or even just gullible, to believe something like this.

lizardtitties

I currently live in a country without free medical care and still, it’s enormously cheap compared to the USA. An American expat wrote a piece for our English language paper about how she paid more for parking at the hospital than giving birth to her baby that’s pretty interesting:

https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2016/01/06/healthcare-in-iceland-vs-the-us-weve-got-it-so-good/

thebibliosphere

Yesterday I had to go to the hospital cause I injured my eye, I’m frankly dreading what the bill is going to be, but what made me balk was being told in the pharmacy that my insurance was denied for the antibiotic eye drops and it’d be over $100 out of pocket. So I didn’t get my eyedrops.

I’ve had these same drops before living in the UK. They cost me seven GBP.

It’s the exact same drug, same steroid, same strain of antibiotic. But somehow the US gets away with charging $100 for a generic non brand version of a drug which is easy to create and widely used. It’s downright robbery, but also a form of eugenics through poverty and class warfare. You keep the poor poor by making sure basic necessities remain unattainable and then you make it seem like the norm so no one fights it.

The rest of the world is not like this.

Eat the rich. Resist.

dyannehs

When I was travelling in Germany once, I seriously hurt my ankle. In a few hours, it had swollen to twice its size, and I went to a little ER in a tiny town. I spoke no German and only one nurse spoke English. They ran an X-ray and an MRI to determine what had happened (turned out I had bruised my peroneus brevis muscle and pulled the tendon), gave me a ton of very regulated meds for the pain and swelling, including some supports so I could walk…and my poor little 22-year-old ass was sat there, knowing all of this would cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, back in the US. I was shaking.

I’m in the exam room, post diagnosis and with pill bottles in hand, and in walks the one nurse I’ve been able to speak to the entire time. She pats my hand and tells me (and this is verbatim—I will never forget this conversation as long as I live), “I’m so sorry. We had to run those tests, and they are expensive. You don’t have insurance so you will have to cover the full cost.”

I start crying.

She continues, softly, as if telling me someone has died, “It’s going to be three hundred.”

I start sobbing, certain I’ve misheard, certain that I would be absolutely fucked, broke and going into debt in a foreign country. “Thousand?” I clarify.

Her entire demeanor changed, and she looked at me as if I had sprouted four extra heads. “No,” she says, “euros.”

That moment radicalised me.

queern-bn

My family got charged several thousand dollars for a late-night trip to the ER when I was a kid after an oops at home resulted in a large cut that needed almost 40 sutures. We lived in the US at the time.

Now we live in Canada. Last year my leg got rolled over by one of the front tires on a pickup truck. I spent 3 weeks in hospital, had 3 surgeries, one of which included skin grafting to cover the half of my leg that was degloved in my accident. I had IV antibiotics 4 times a day, I had physiotherapy daily, I was on a lot of meds for pain and having complex wound dressings changed every day. After all that, I had a home care nurse visit me every 1-2 days for 6 weeks to help with my wound care. The greatest expense to us as a family for the amazing care I received was my parents and husband using the parkade next to the hospital, which was like $13 a day. If we’d lived in the US, that injury absolutely could have bankrupted us.

cranquis

This information needs to be part of the US med school curriculum.

beaniebaneenie

I remember the moment that radicalized me.

I went to the UK for graduate school, and being there for that long meant I had to buy insurance for the duration. 18 months was something like £800 (this was in the early 2010’s). I, being American, figured “oh ok, that’s the premium and if I need serious medical care, I’ll get charged deductibles and all other kinds of fees at the time of care), because that’s how it works here.

Some time in the early part of that winter, I got incredibly sick. I’m immunocompromised, so sometimes that happens. But being a broke ass grad student in a foreign country, and dealing with unrelated financial abuse from family members, I figured I couldn’t afford going to the hospital. I figured I’d go to their version of Walgreen’s (Superdrug, and yes that is really that store’s name, load up on cough drops, some OTC meds, and try to ride it out as best I could.

One of my friends in my program came over to check on me and offer help. When she got to my room and saw how sick I was, she asked why I hadn’t gone to hospital. I was near tears and said I couldn’t afford it.

This is when I suspect my friend knew she was dealing with an American who was ignorant of how socialized healthcare actually worked, and realized that I couldn’t really be reasoned with. So she said, “I’ll pay for it- let’s go.”

Off we went to hospital, my friend did the talking bc my voice was so shot. The receptionist said, “as you don’t have an appointment, you may need to wait quite a bit.” I heard that and figured 5+ hours was at least what I was in for.

23 minutes later, my name was called.

My friend went back with me, bc I was pretty out of it. The nurse leading us back apologized for the “huge wait” because having a sick patient wait “nearly half an hour just for medical care” was unacceptable. I was stunned.

The nurse and doc asked some questions, looked at the medical records I had on my phone (bc I was a foreigner with very little medical history in the country), did a few rapid tests. The whole time, I’m seeing an old-timey calculator ringing up charges and freaking out… even though my friend said she’d pay, I was so conditioned to believe this would cost a fortune.

About 30 mins later, the rapid tests confirm I have both bronchitis and pneumonia. Doc writes me a prescription for some serious heavy-duty meds. My American ass is thinking, “ok, so now I go home, wait for 4 days for the pharmacy to fill it, then go get it.” The doc tells me that there’s a pharmacy counter on the way out, and I can stop there to collect the meds before heading home.

I’m skeptical but thank him. My friend gets me to the pharmacy counter. I give my name and hand over the paper, fully expecting to be told that it’ll take days to fill. The pharmacist turns around, pulls a bag off the shelf, hands it to me. Because my meds were already filled and waiting.

Me: you had them already?

Pharmacist: of course- there’d be no point in sending you home without medication, that’s why you came here. To get medical help.

Me: that’s so fast? (I am very confused)

Pharmacist: well, we expect people to have these illnesses at a higher rate this time of year, so we do our best to stock up on our end.

Me: that’s so nice? Also, what do I owe you?

Pharm: sorry, love?

Me: what do I owe you? For the medication? And the visit. All of it, how much do I need to pay?

Chat, her whole fact changed. She realized I didn’t just sound funny because I was in respiratory distress. I had an American accent. She reached over and patted my hand.

“Love, that’s what the health insurance is meant to be for. You’ve already paid for this. We’re not taking extra money off you, we don’t do that here.”

The entire visit was less than 2 hours, absolutely free, and everyone worked to be as efficient as possible in the goal of providing comprehensive healthcare for me, the patient.

Once I got home with the meds, I did actually recover pretty well (and relatively quickly, as far as I’m concerned). I talked to the friend after, and she admitted that she knew it was going to be free, but that I wouldn’t or couldn’t understand that in the brain fog of serious illness, so she said what she had to in order to get my stubborn (and terrified of bankruptcy) ass to the doctor.

That’s what healthcare should be. A goal of providing comprehensive and compassionate care to your patients, being well-staffed enough that no one waits for hours, anticipating medication needs, ensuring that patients leave with the medical care they sought- and that they’re not afraid to seek it, because they know medical care won’t make them homeless.

tincanaudio

The new Audible Harry Potter series is bad in uncomplicated, straightforward ways.

It is bad because it supports a woman who is actively funding groups that are seeking to deprive trans people of their rights in the UK and especially Scotland, where I live, where people inside the government are quietly remarking that they are struggling to fight against the groups she funds, as she has more money than God. Any money made from this new audio adaptation goes directly to funding these groups and these cases.

It is also bad because commissioning such an expansive series with such a well-known cast (Riz Ahmed?! Come on man) has eaten up the majority of Audible's commissioning budget. In the UK, the only people commissioning audio drama are the BBC (separate conversation) and Audible, and this new Harry Potter series has hoovered up resources that could have otherwise gone to new stories, new voices and money to creators that aren't actively trying to erase trans people.

I am angry at anyone who signed up to star in this, I am angry at the production companies that took on this commission, I am angry that this series continues to have a stranglehold on the UK media landscape despite all that its creator has done.

It is bad for trans people, it is bad for audio drama, it is bad for anyone working in media in the UK right now.

Do not listen to it

segamascott

no-where-new-hero

obsessed by the existence/function of the Bronze. here we have a place that’s just basically a club, but frequented almost exclusively by the high-school, underaged population of sunnydale, so presumably none of those colorful drinks are alcoholic, but it’s not a kid’s space so angel and giles can just come and go and party along without anyone snarking about it, and there are just endless basements for people to get eaten by vampires in, but no one is apparently doing drugs in them.

when people say (queer) teens need more third spaces they mean the Bronze

ruffboi-mags

I mean legitimately teen nightclubs used to be a thing! I mean I guess theoretically they still could be but they were way more common/popular in the 80s and 90s. There was even one in Disneyland called Videopolis.

Odder to not have it be teen-only but I guess Sunnydale isn't THAT big, they probably had to make it teen-friendly to justify having a dance club at all XD

wynnyfryd

20-somethings on this website doing none of the things we’re evolved to do for our health and then wondering why they’re so depressed. (smacking you through the screen) GO EAT A LEAF!!!!!!!! GO CRACK A NUT OPEN WITH A ROCK YOU SAD TORMENTED LITTLE APE

wynnyfryd

i know this is easier said than done and i do not mean this judgementally but you have to start treating yourself like the animal you are in any small consistent way you can. like imagine you went to a zoo and you saw a gorilla sitting in front of blue screens for hours with no natural light no physical activity no interaction with peers no nutritious whole foods no fresh air no water and a pack of cigarettes. you would run screaming to the local news about the blatant animal abuse. you would be demanding boycotts you’d be sledgehammering locks off cages. do you get what i am saying please go squish your toes in mud

wynnyfryd

sashaforthewin

This this this! You're your own zookeeper so stop violating ethics boards

wynnyfryd

really hope this is my tumblr legacy #MyLegacy

jayalaw

Softening Oscar the Grouch

Since I never do numbers on Tumblr, feeling like this one seems safe to send into the yonder.

In my family's cassette recordings of Sesame Street from the 80s, Oscar is just... not nice. Yeah, he's a Grouch. Grouches are not supposed to be nice. But he also steals winter wear from Bob just because he wants to in one episode while in the special Elmo Saves Christmas, he protests Elmo undoing the Christmas Every Day wish because it's making people feel terrible. Oscar wastes Gabi's time in an episode where he has to declutter by selling a few trinkets but can't part with any of his trash.

After Elmo Saves Christmas, however, Oscar seemed softer. He worries over his worm Slimey going into space, fussing over Slimey during the initial WASA training. In an episode where Baby Bear comes to play when he's supposed to be hibernating, Oscar tries to help by having Fluffy the elephant spray him with water. (He does laugh when the water hits Alan the store owner instead.) Oscar also draws the line at gentrification.

It's not just on Sesame Street; Oscar has done PSAs on wearing masks, criticized people for lacking boundaries on social media when they turn his trash can into an art exhibit, and sang with Stephen Colbert about how Twitter is an example of humanity having no hope.

I wonder what softened Oscar. Was it because Slimey brought out the fuzzy heart inside that grouchy exterior? That Oscar, for all his grumps, has some limits to rude behavior?

Or was it because we had more reasons to get angry? Since shortly afterward, 9/11 happened with the War on Terror, the Tea Party, Mitt Romney wanting to eliminate Sesame Street (lord that was 2012), Trump got elected TWICE, and COVID happened. Ergo, it was a case where it was okay to be grouchy once in a while as long as you still cared about people and worked to solve problems. Oscar cares, though he claims not to do so.

People overall showed their worst side. So Oscar showed his better side.

poetryforall

seananmcguire

I will grieve you until I, myself, am gone, and it's killing me, and I wouldn't trade this pain for anything but having you back again.

digitalcarcrash

rocky horror was ahead of its time Not because of the blatant queerness but because frank n furter's castle was wheelchair accessible

dragon-in-a-fez

said this as part of a larger point in a reblog but I'm gonna make it its own post:

humans have the right to do things that are mildly bad for us sometimes.

dragon-in-a-fez

you have the right to eat way too many pierogi and make yourself a little sick. you have the right to go skydiving. you have the right to pull an all-nighter building the Imperial City of Tamriel in Minecraft. you have the right to get drunk in your living room watching football.

life is not about making the safest most logically correct choice at all times. you're a blob of salty meat piloting a flesh mech and you get to act like it.

problemnyatic

This is called dignity of risk and it's a big topic in disability rights spaces. id elaborate but im fuckin wiped

fedorahead

it's always funny how people will advocate for bodily autonomy when it comes to certain things but then shy away from anything they personally wouldn't do to their own body. like yeah, that's why it's your body buddy. i can do what i want with mine.

importantcatpics

badwolfkaily

This.

strongwomenunited

I don’t know about others but the only reason I put both is so that whichever someone clicks on, they will find my fic. So if there is supposed to be rules, I guarantee you that no writer knows these ones. We can barely get people to comment, you think we’re going to specifically choose & or / ? Hell no.

beatrice-otter

I’ve been in fandom for twenty years, and “/” means romance and “&” means no romance was literally one of the first things I learned. It dates back to Star Trek fanfiction of the 70s. I’m boggled by the fact that anyone who’s been reading fic on AO3 for more than like five minutes wouldn’t know that, and I’m curious as to what fanfic community you come out of.

I don’t think that tagging with both is actually going to get your fic in front of more readers. People looking for romance often exclude the “&” tag if there are too many gen fics tagged with both. People looking for gen often exclude the “/” tag if there are too many fics with both. So rather than putting your fic in front of twice the people, you are in fact more likely to get your target audience ignoring your fic because it has a tag they don’t want.

Also, by overtagging you are more likely to annoy potential readers away from your fic than entice them. A fic tagged both & and / better have both romance and a ton of platonic interaction between the two characters, like a slow burn romance friends-to-lovers arc. If it isn’t, I’m going to be very unhappy because the author lied to me with the tags to try and trick me into reading a fic with deceptive advertising.

When I’m in a fandom and see tagging where some of the tags don’t really apply and are just there to get it in front of more eyes, I’m going to assume one of two things. Either the author is a newb who doesn’t know anything, or the author is purposefully spamming the tags because they don’t care about lying to their potential audience and think that “spray and pray” is an effective tactic. In the first case, their writing probably will not be very good, so why bother reading their fic. In the second case, the fact that I can’t trust the tags to be accurate means I’m not going to read it to see if it’s interesting even if it has a tag I like. Chances are, that tag isn’t actually in the fic anyway, and even if it is, by spam-tagging the author is making the archive harder to use for everybody. Why would I reward bad behavior with attention? No. Far better to mute the author and move on.

mylordshesacactus

More to the point--and no, I will never stop harping on this, because we have GOT to stop leaving our strongest points in the drawer--it doesn't matter if you heard of this convention before joining AO3 or not, because it's in AO3's tagging FAQ.

[id: the "How do I tag a romantic or platonic relationship?" section of the tagging FAQ here.]

"But Jo," you may argue, because you're wrong. "There's no way to find that without digging through site FAQ menus, and that's really inaccessible!"

sure

except

that when you go to post a new fic, and you go to put in those relationship tags, you see this

[id: the Relationships field]

and that tooltip, the one THERE TO EXPLAIN HOW THE FIELD WORKS, links to the Relationships segment of the tag FAQ, which explicitly lays this shit out.

I don't care if you don't know fandom history. I don't care if you've never heard a goddamn word about the spirk shippers. I don't care if you've never been exposed to fandom culture in your life. It is, frankly, not fair to expect those things of everyone.

What is entirely fair to expect is that you will READ THE INSTRUCTIONS PRINTED NEXT TO THE FUCKING BOX, actually. Forget fandom conventions. It genuinely doesn't matter whether you agree with or respect fandom conventions. This is a site policy. This is explicitly how tagging on AO3, specifically, works.

breelandwalker

Witch Tip For The Day - Small Magics

Once you advance beyond the basics (pretty much when you start moving from What and When to How and Why and feel a decreased need for peer review alongside a greater trust in your own judgment), a goodly part of your witchcraft will be made up of things that you will never be able to explain to other people. Little personal rituals, intuitive understandings, flashes of insight, spur-of-the-moment spells, the use of unorthodox items and components that suit your needs and purposes.

You will find ways of working and feeling and connecting and casting that will be unique to you and your life experience. And you may not feel much like sharing the finer details. If you had to write it all out, it probably either wouldn't make much sense to anyone but you or it would be difficult to put into words. Many things will boil down to, "I just do the thing because of reasons."

You'll also find that a great deal of your craft will be made up of small magics that you do reflexively or out of habit or when the opportunity arises, as opposed to large-scale highly intricate castings which require lots of planning and preparation. And in a broader sense, without getting into the whether-to's and the why-for's of various traditions, that is how it should be.

Everyday personal magic is just as important to know and understand and practice as any full moon ritual or choreographed group casting. Because those small magics will be the heart of what makes your craft yours.

It does not particularly matter if your spells are powerful. What matters is that they are EFFECTIVE.

Happy Witching!

writterings

it's really funny teaching rhetoric to college freshmen because i explained ad hominem to them via example by arguing with a student over something silly (i kept insisting 25 minutes was a quarter of an hour, not 15) and then "insulted" her instead of addressing her argument (i said she doesn't have a college degree whereas i have two, so of course she'd be wrong - which the whole point is that it's a stupid insult but not something that's actually mean) but she got soooooo mad so even when i stopped the exercise and explained that she was indeed correct (15 minutes is a quarter of an hour). like she was still fuming. so i validated her feelings on that, complimented her, and even reminded the class that a college degree doesn't mean that a person is smart/right. and then i went on to explain that, yeah, dirty arguing techniques like that are meant to make you so unreasonably angry that you can't respond or that you lose your cool, so your opponent looks like they win by default. the student i was arguing with then just said that it seemed like professional ragebaiting and i was like. well yeah that's correct.

and then this kid, this one kid who is always very eager to answer questions and is always kind to his classmates, raised his hand looking a little bothered. now for context, i emphasize thinking for yourself in my classroom, even if that means disagreeing with something i say and he has echoed some stuff that his parents clearly have told him before. he's not a bad kid or an asshole, he's just an 18 year old with conservative parents who otherwise knows nothing about politics. but he just looks so bothered after i explain this about dirty arguing techniques. big frown on his face. looking unsure. when i nod at him to speak, he says, in a very quiet voice, "didn't -- didn't charlie kirk used to do that?"

and i was like. well yes. yes he was famous for stuff like this.

and then the kid looked down and was just like, "oh. i thought he was just really good at debating. i never watched his videos though, only clips. why would he do that?"

and that coincidentally lined up perfectly with the rest of the lesson, which was on propaganda