Miranda

she/her 29 Twitter refugee

[tackminyard]

affirmations for my printer:

you are not out of paper

you have so much paper

it’s okay to function as intended

you are not out of ink

i just refilled that cartridge last month

you can connect to that computer you’re supposed to connect to

you’re allowed to print things

[phoenixyfriend]

Game show called "What's Wrong With You" where a bunch of doctors compete to see who can diagnose a mystery illness (chronically ill patient whose lab results keep coming back normal despite obvious symptoms) first and most accurately. Pros:

Doctors paying off their medical loans with prize money

Chronically ill people getting free testing (MRIs, CAT scans, X-Rays, bloodwork, etc) and possibly a diagnosis

You can ding points for 'anxiety' and 'you just need to lose some weight'

Doctors are incentivized to find an answer, not just find something billable

Cons:

HIPAA

Wrong Diagnoses made because they were rushing

[the-haiku-bot]

You can ding points for

‘anxiety’ and 'you just

need to lose some weight’

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[kunaigirl]

just casually leaving this here for no particular reason

[kunaigirl]

You know what? Fuck it I'm adding more context. Sesame Street has talked about the topic of death more than once and it's done with such gentle carefulness without watering down or censoring the heaviness of the situations. It treats heavy subject matter with respect and dignity and has been for DECADES. From the early 1980s:

To 2025:

Hell, they even cover the devastating heaviness of MASS SHOOTINGS without censoring or watering anything down.

They've been doing this for YEARS, and it's ALWAYS handled with dignity, respect, seriousness, understanding, and love.

Whenever I see people censoring words because it "might offend" someone or the big ad companies that are currently trying to run everything? I just want to say to them: "What? Is Sesame Street too mature for you?" Because really...what the hell are we doing.

[kunaigirl]

I'm back with even more examples! Sesame Street once again to this day is out here handling extremely difficult subject matter with incredible care and respect. "We can't let kids learn about uncomfortable things!" Oh, really now? Even though they're things that happen in everyday life that they'll face one day at some point anyway? Interesting. Let's see what else this show has covered that people (for some reason) think should be avoided and hidden. Here's more on death of loved ones and greif:

Or how about when someone is put into the foster care system because their home isn't safe anymore and their needs aren't being met?

Maybe some discussions about group therapy/getting help and support?

Hey look! Here's a segment about gender expression vs taught expectation, including unlearning harmful biases and what to do when you hurt someone on accident because you didn't know it was wrong!

Look! The topic of race and diversity! The importance of unity and equity!

They even also have a more allegorical take on discrimination and being looked down on for who you are, featuring Big Bird. The conflict is about how he's not being let into a club because the one bird running the club personally decided he didn't want someone like Big Bird there.

Big Bird goes out of his way to keep changing parts of himself in order to "prove" he can fit into this club if he just changed enough. The truth comes out though, and there's nothing he can do to gain the approval of that bird. He will never be good enough in his eyes, and Big Bird starts to hate himself. His real friends see this finally put their feet down, emphasizing that you should never change yourself just to fit into one singular narrow idea someone else has.

There's A LOT of different situations this can be an allegory for. Racism, sexism, homophobia, basically ANY form of exclusion is put on full blast in this 15 minute clip. Sesame Street can be both blunt and allegorical when approaching difficult topics, and it NEVER misses or looses the point.

It does an exceptional job in both styles of representation WITHOUT watering anything down. The more sanitized everything gets, the more radical Sesame Street is suddenly considered, hence why so many "particular groups" want it gone. Hmmm! I can only imagine why that could be, in this current political climate! (I'm being sarcastic)

When Sesame Street is suddenly labeled as "questionable" or "politically/agenda motivated" content...it says A LOT about where we currently are and who gets to decide what's "best" for kids or not. Don't fall for the censorship and topic-dodging excuses that are covered by the "But think of the children!!!" movement. Never fall for it, because you know which side you're on if you do.

Sesame Street proves kids can be taught and trusted with learning about these topics when it's handled with the right amount of understanding and care. It shows what all this "controversy" is all really about. What it's always been about, actually.

Don't fall for it, always side with Sesame Street.

[overheard-in-the-dungeon]

My friend said this so credit to her but I think the most refreshing thing about Dungeon Crawler Carl is that it’s nice to read a book series about adults, for adults, where the adults act and communicate like adults, that is still humorous and fun to read.

[stabbydragon]

"Love/sex is what makes us human" Wrong. It's the obsession with rectangles. look around you and count the number of rectangles you see.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#looked up and thought ‘that can’t be hard’#and then my eyes widened with horror as I realized the sheer number of rectangles everywhere#I’m . I’m horrified

It's a good shape!

[chemicalcanoe]

Have we considered luring all the billionaires to one place with like a fancy convention or whatever and then burning it down like that scene in game of thrones? Is like a religious cult like a prerequisite for that and that's why it hasn't been done yet? I thought all the billionaires were into that shit. Would probably solve a lot of problems. Just saying

[lupusbaby]

Say it with me! Wheelchairs aren’t sad! Mobility aids aren’t sad! Mobility aids are instruments of freedom!

[goth-princess-gwennie]

Forgive me if this is inappropriate but

So are

colostomy bags

Diapers

insulin pumps

Oxygen systems

Braces

[cuntpunkop-ed]

catheters

rollators

hearing aids

compression garments

prosthetics

FREEDOM AIDS

[seraph1c-mo0n]

- canes

- service animals

- noise cancelling headphones/ear defenders

- wheelchair attachments

- fidgets

IT’S DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH YALL

BE UNAPOLOGETICALLY DISABLED AND TAKE UP ALL THE SPACE AND TIME YOU NEED!!!!!

[nat-20s]

extremely funny to me that Kermit the Frog is the only main overlap character between Sesame Street and The Muppets. imagine your day job is hanging out in a community of lovely people that genuinely just want to help kids learn and care about everyone so so much and then your night job is the reason that you have to stay up to date on your rabies AND tetanus vaccine

[nat-20s]

at noon the giant you're hanging out with is Big Bird! a wonderful fellow who likes reading stories and singing and telling fun facts! at midnight there's a giant named Sweetums who makes you feel like you're being hunted for sport

[nat-20s]

Ernie, trying to maybe come out to Kermit: well you know Kermit, me and Bert-

Bert: Bert and I

Ernie: Bert and I, we've been best friends forever, but we're also something else too!

Kermit, who every goddamn night has to tell Beaker and Bunsen to keep it professional, deal with Statler and Waldorf's bullshit, AND update his organizational chart on Dr. Teeth and the Electric Polycule: that's really great to hear fellas, happy for you two! :)

[stellacartography]

Grover, alarmed at having spilled some finger paint on Kermit's flipper: I am so sorry, Kermit. Please forgive me.

Kermit, who deals with a multitude of bodily fluids on his person and all over the theatre every evening, who is unintentionally trampled by large monsters as they exit the stage, and quite intentionally has his little froggy bones launched into a wall most nights by Miss Piggy: It's ok, Grover. I'm a frog. I love baths.

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

On Sesame Street: Oh, no, Telly is watching too much television!

The Muppet Show Theater, that night: Gonzo attempts to explain his latest fetish at length.

[chemicalcanoe]

I fully believe Carl from Dungeon Crawler Carl, is super hot. because there is no way he has amassed the amount of fans and status he has in the dungeon while doing all that batshit crazy stuff without being hot. Dude has got to be stunner. Also Bea comes across as really vain and I just think there's no way she would have stayed with him if he wasnt at least some kind of handsome

[vehder]

i miss u so much (pre ai internet)

[samwisethewitch]

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!

[speranza-manor]

Gonna chime in as the resident Vintage Kitchen Witch:

Go look up vintage kitchen planning and home economics resources. Subscribe to GRIT magazine. These are the Old Ways and the thing about the design principles and the canning tips is that they are not subject to needing much in the way of "updating". We still use our kitchen much the same way we did in the 1950s, we just have bigger fridges, bigger freezers, and more bulk purchasing we have to factor into our planning. But the calculations offered in this Westinghouse Kitchen Planning Manual are still a great jump-off point for planning your own kitchen, for example. Here's a planning manual from the U of Minnesota's Agricultural Extension Service.

Did you know that for many years, the US government had a home economics department, and that the research they did there was toward making housework easier by design? The design principles their test kitchens and researchers found out influence kitchen design to this day.

The USDA's guide to Step-Saving Kitchens (archive) is still relevant today. Here's a video version that shows how they researched and designed the modern kitchen we all have a better or worse version of today no matter where we live, unless we're in some kind of very old museum-kept Victorian or Colonial house:

US National Archives - A Step Saving Kitchen, 1949 (YouTube) : US National Archives : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archiv

Downloaded from US National Archives Youtube channel on 2025-02-06 04:55:59 https://youtube.com/watch?v=2N9RCQjPqh4 -------- Creator(s): Dep

Many universities particularly in agriculture centres put out "extensions" that were little guides on kitchen planning in the 30s, 40s, and into the postwar period. You can find many of these on archive.org, or check out your local agricultural school's archives!

Understand, also, that every appliance used to clean or make food is a labour-saving device that was either designed by a woman or to help homemakers and housewives do less backbreaking labour. Machines like dishwashers and washing machines are much more water-efficient than doing the same tasks by hand.

Solarpunk should not mean you picture everything being done by hand again, and that appliances should no longer exist. Do not assume that appliances are wasteful luxuries when they represent generations of women and those who cared about women trying to make the work assigned to them less arduous. Just because we consider (if we are feminist anyway, and I hope you reading this are) this work to be something all genders share in does not mean it should go back to being harder. Labour-saving devices are also something that makes disabled people's lives better by giving us the ability to do our own housework more easily.

Many older appliances waste energy, but many more actually use a lot less of it than modern versions--fridges in particular, as well as "smart" appliances, will sometimes waste a LOT of energy in comparison to that old tank of a fridge your mom's had since the sixties or seventies. Older fridges also sometimes have incredible features like swivelling pull-out shelves. Older ovens have built in stock pots, roasters, and guides to safe cooking temperatures or cooktimes for baked goods. While old fridges and dishwashers can be hard to find, old ranges/stoves are not--in fact, there's a guy in New Jersey who restores not just old ranges but a specific make of them, because he loves them so much. You can find vintage appliances by scavenging your local ebay and craigslist and sometimes there's junkyards that specialise in them. And this is recycling btw! Remember, it isn't just "recycle" it's also "reduce" and "re-use". If you can restore or buy a restored old appliance, you've saved a crapton of energy and materials that would have been used to make a new one. And the old one will last longer, because it was made to.

Your solarpunk kitchen shouldn't look very different than the most efficient kitchen designs from 1949. That's how GOOD those designs were. Don't believe me? Watch that video and pay attention to it. It's INCREDIBLE.

And while I have your attention--please think about disabled people when you're thinking about solarpunk. Keep 40" continuous pathways with texture blocks on sidewalks. Keep 40" doorways for all your fun bus stop/library/house/street designs, and make sure all your buildings have ramps or level entry from the street. Keep your bathrooms able to fit a wheelchair. Remember that plastics are extremely necessary for medical equipment and many medicines have to be derived from petrochemicals. Remember that many people living in any given community are under four feet tall, many people are bigger than 150lbs, many are taller than 5'5", many are blind, many are deaf, many are colourblind, many are sensitive to sounds you can't hear or flickering you can't see, many cannot eat foods you can eat, many need to walk slowly, many need others to mask all the time. Remember you will become disabled at some point. We all become disabled sooner or later. So imagine a world where being disabled is the default. Where accessibility is not an afterthought but integrated into design from the beginning.

Remember there is NO acceptable number of avoidable injuries or lost lives.

[peterfromtexas-deactivated20250]

Reenactor throws a spear at a drone

[supapoopa]

What a time to be alive.

[tenthcorner]

“The medieval warrior, realizing the consequences of his impulsive act, immediately approached the owner of the drone and offered to pay for the damage.

The owner of the drone was so impressed by the brilliant attack that he suggested organizing a competition for bringing down “dragons” with short spears next year.

Drone owners have another year to develop a unique “dragon-like” design for their flying machines.” (x)

[kineticpenguin]

I am 100% cooler with this knowing that the spear-thrower realized “oops maybe I shouldn’t have done that” and tried to make it right, and that the guy who the drone belonged to was cool with it

[brunhiddensmusings]

just so everyone knows, this has already been memorialized in a runestone

[stephendann]

Everything about this post blesses those involved with a +4 on their next Today is Good Day roll

[fromaliminalspace]

a rough translation of the inscription on the runestone:

On the seventh day of May in the year of 2016 on hither spot the mighty warrior Ulf hath slain a dragon with his spear.

so yeah, happy birthday to this dragon-slaying event and to it only

[worldheritagepostorganization]

​World Heritage Post

[anremithrl]

Reblog to give prev a notification.

[sunderwight]

The thing about the destiel news meme is that I actually think it's great.

It does let you know that something has gone on in the world. But it's such a short format that it could never even pretend to give you all the relevant information about that thing. It usually provides less detail than the average headline, so it's not actually reporting, it's more like shouting a head's up across a crowded room. Still lets you know that something has happened though.

The very fact that it's a goofy and irreverent fandom meme also serves as a perpetual reminder that using social media to get news is a bad idea. Now that you know something has occurred, go read an actual article from a real source to verify it and get the details. It's an alert system with a format that never lets you forget that alerts are not articles, and that this website is not beholden to any kind of journalistic integrity.

I love it, the comments on destiel news memes are almost always full of people saying that they saw it and then rushed off to go verify the news with a reputable source. Do you know how often more "serious" format news stuff on this site just leaves people complacently certain that they've been given accurate info? Way too often. I wish half as many of those news updates had people commenting that they left tumblr to go double check it.

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

A frustrating part of the mainstream vegan “love all animals and protect the environment” mindset is the fact that things need to die in real-life ecology all the time but deer hunting season makes icky feelings and carp culls aren’t cottagecore

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

The vegan “any animal death ever is morally wrong” mindset doesn’t hold up when:

We don’t have any of the large predators we used to (black bears, mountain lions, or gray wolves) but still retain large deer populations. If nothing is removing animals, they’ll quickly overload the carrying capacity of the environment and have massive losses to starvation and disease that can also pass on to livestock. Human hunters replace the large predators that our landscape can no longer support.

It’s kinder to euthanize an un-releasable hawk rather than try to find it a permanent home with humans. Wildlife rehabs have extremely limited space and resources and are usually run entirely on donated money and volunteer time. Only a few are large and stable enough to care for permanent residents long-term, and those spots are few and far between.

An invasive species poses a danger to threatened native wildlife. I will admit- Australian possums are adorable. But not in New Zealand, where they’re an invasive species that eats the eggs of ground-dwelling birds that previously had no such predators. The landowners I worked with replanting native bush, all native Maori, had no qualms about setting the dogs on them.

I don’t know how to end this except. Sometimes things just gotta die and acting otherwise just isn’t a realistic expectation.

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

Highlights from the notes over the past 6 months include a lot of angry vegans saying “you’re blowing things out of proportion, no vegans actually think like this!” and a lot of people who work in conservation and education saying “Every day. I have to fight people who think like this.”

As a bonus this post was originally inspired by the vegan who called me racist for saying we should kill invasive species

[the-prairies-calling-out]

"Why do you buy books when the library is right there?"

Because publishing houses will not continue printing paper books if libraries are their only customers.

Also, I like being able to read at my leisure and generally have books at hand.

[its-the-blob]

#public libraries are good because they let people access books they might never otherwise read#private book ownership is good because it's Yours#physical books are good because they last a long time and again it's Yours#ebooks are good because you can fit a whole library into the physical space of a single book and they're cheaper to produce#audiobooks are good because they're accessible to people with eyesight or visual reading issues and leave your hands free#in conclusion: all books are good and people should enjoy them however and whenever they can#(lest it be misunderstood I agree with you completely OP I just also really like books in general and it got away from me)

YES. all books. every kind

[random-jot]

The introduction of axehounds in Way Of Kings is such whiplash, like a few chapters prior to meeting one Kaladin has a thought that mentions them and you’re like ‘okay, some kind of Fantasy Dog™️ that exists in this world, cool’

Then we meet Shallan’s brother who actually has one and interacts with it, and you’re like, oh hell yeah, let’s meet this dog, but you start getting dripfed little descriptors one at a time like immediately you’re like wait, it has antennae?

And you’re like shit, I guess it’s a dog with antennae then, then Nan Balat mentions it’s carapace, something between shell and skin

And then you get the fact it has SIX LEGS

Then he describes it tearing something with his mandibles. MANDIBLES!!!!

And I cannot stress enough, we do not get a bulk description of what this thing is when we meet it, all these individual aspects are drip-fed over the course of a few paragraphs, causing you to constantly reassess what your idea of this thing is every time you learn a new thing about it, it’s insanity.

From the initial idea of it being some kind of Different Dog, like a fantasy Great Dane or some shit, to what it actually is, which is fucking, THIS:

What I expected: | What I got: