oh i don't know what young adult needs to hear this but you should google what day your 10,000th day will be & set a reminder in your calendar. it happens somewhere in your 27th year. i was really bummed when i googled my own and found out i had missed it by like 2 months.
(if you missed yours too, no worries, we both get another chance to celebrate 15,000 at 41. Unfortunately you will be 54 years old before you are 20,000 days old, at which point we will have overthrown the concept of linear time anyway)
life is very cute, and you have struggled a very long time to be here, and i love you. sometimes i think we need to invent our reasons for celebration. maybe today you are 10,345 days old. or 12,345. or 8,435. maybe u should just celebrate because it is a weekday, and those are hard days. i love u , light a candle and blow it out. i'm proud of you for staying.
Yes yes yes do this! I had a celebration on my 10,000th day! It was in November lol. It’s worth celebrating. Not to be too serious on main but as someone who did not think I’d get to see half those days I can confirm life is still worth living. It’s not always easy but you never know what is just around the corner, and I find sticking around to find out is well worth it. Best wishes to everyone
Yesterday I started reading a new anthology - "Taaqtumi - An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories" and it is great so far. I recommend it if you enjoy horror and cold as we are going trough a heatwave.
Book comes as well with useful Inuktitut glossary at the end, so go and enrich your knowledge depository.
imo the way you feel about groups it's fully socially acceptable to hate (like children or polyamorous people, among others) is the canary in the coal mine for underlying bigoted beliefs. if you're only supportive of marginalized groups when it's cool to do so, probably you don't actually care about marginalized groups, you care about other people thinking you care
think the biggest sign of tumblrs aging population is how we went from posting about how unethical and ineffective assigning homework in schools is to deciding that humanity is fucked because kids these days aren't writing essays with is much enthusiasm as you have for your fanfic about two white guys from the Pitt
if you are currently in school and you somehow see this post, heed my warning. any adult on here telling you essays/homework/school is easy or something you must be grateful for is fucking compromised. they do not relate to you, care about you, or respect your autonomy.
do what you need to survive, it is an injustice that anything more is expected of you
As a teacher, I do not assign homework, but I do teach my students how to write essays. It's more important than ever for people to have critical thinking skills and the ability to discern reliable sources from unreliable sources. My colleagues and I deeply, deeply care about our students and their wellbeing. We are working overtime for low pay to educate young people. The fact so many people are lacking literacy and critical thinking skills is a major factor in the rise in fascism in this country.
Look, if you were right that education was some grand conspiracy to browbeat young people into submission, the right would be pouring money into schools. They'd be spinning their propaganda machines about how important schools and teachers are. Instead, they have done everything they can to knee cap public education and vilify teachers. They frame colleges as liberal brainwashing factories. They do not want you to be educated. They don't want people to think for themselves. There's a reason fascists kill intellectuals and burn books.
The students who need education the most are the most marginalized. The people who will struggle most to survive WITHOUT an education are the ones who come from oppressed backgrounds, who feel disempowered and already have odds stacked against them. A couple of centuries ago, slavers didn't want enslaved people to read. Right now, rich white oligarchs don't want young people of color to know how to read either.
Anti-intellectualism is a cornerstone of fascism. Leftists who adopt it are doing nothing to further the cause of ending oppression whatsoever.
criticizing the school system isn't inherently anti-intellectualism in the same way that critiquing the prison system doesn't mean that you're against the concept of there being consequences for crime.
it's great that you and your colleagues are dedicated teacher who care about your students' wellbeing. it's genuinely important work and i'm grateful to anyone who can manage to do it. there are also people in the same field who are not dedicated and caring. a good teacher can be lifechanging, and a bad teacher can be life ruining; you may not assign homework, plenty others do. which sort of teacher a child ends up with is completely outside of their control and they are completely at the mercy of that random chance. the fact that being a good teacher means working overtime for low pay pretty clearly illustrates that being a good teacher is structurally disincentivized in a lot of cases. that's a real problem.
there does not need to be a grand conspiracy in place to browbeat children into submission for that to be what ultimately ends up happening as a result of other factors compounding for the worse. the fact that the right has done such a good job at kneecapping public education is a big part of why school does end up browbeating children into submission. racism and ableism are structurally baked in to our school system from the ground up, and as such those marginalized students who are the most in need of a good education are also the most likely to be subject to unbelievable amounts of cruelty, bigotry, and setbacks during their attempts to get one. asking them to be grateful to be in those sorts of environments is not fair. would you ask an adult to give their best effort to a workplace that was openly hostile to them just because the work they were doing was important? probably not. i don't think children should be held to a higher standard.
education is good, objectively, and a subpar education is better than none. i would love a world where every child was as educated as is humanly possible. but a prerequisite to being able to learn is having your basic needs met, and there are significant areas where the us school system as it currently exists means that children are prevented from maintaining the basic physiological and psychological security they need in order to receive a proper education. i believe the point this original post is trying to make is that we do not have the right to demand a bottom up approach where these children work themselves to the bone to compensate for the ways in which they are being systemically failed. they have enough on their plates just trying to get through it however they can, and it's up to adults to figure out how to actually turn the school system into something that protects and enriches children.
Posting your tags because you understand bigly. It really surprised me how the queer nerd crowd was so belittling and genuinely cruel about the "survive" part. I got accused of being anti-intellectualism (or conspiratorial and "acting nefariously" according to therougefeminist, what the fuck?) for prioritising mental health before education. Is that so controversial?
I'll reiterate that when I say do what you need to survive, I mean it with all seriousness. Sleep through class, cheat on the test, fucking get up and leave cos it's boring you for all I care.
I had a friend who never made it out of high school, I have ones who are riddled with anxiety and have panic attacks to this day because of what they had to go through. School is not as important as your health and literacy is not worth more than your life. Reading, studying, and learning are not restricted to high school. Your life is only just starting by the time you get out.
Normal groceries like milk or bread or whatever running out is whatever. Just anotha day. But when stuff like salt or cooking oil or rice runs out it feels like You’re supposed to be here for me and you’re leaving. You’re just like everyone else
Here's some of the notes, starting with the things multiple people brought up:
SHRIMP COCKTAIL:
banahbanah: #flashback to that one fic where Peter Parker frets about drinking shrimp cocktail because of the alcohol
generaldeliciousness: adding: what a prawn/shrimp cocktail is
#why is your character turning it down because they're under 21 #do you think prawn cocktail is a cocktail #this lives in my brain rent-free constantly #the rest of the fic was so normal #and good enough that i'll still re-read it #but bro
And then many, MANY, people wondering if this was actually authour mistake, since Peter really would do this!
POMEGRANATES:
zhajhassa: #haha where's that post that was like someone describing someone eating a pomegranate but they ate it like an apple
thornhands: #once someone wrote persephone biting into a whole Pomegranate #had to stop and stare at a wall for a minute
sungsingsanguine: I once saw someone very confidently write about a character eating slices of pomegranate.
FRUIT TREES:
zagreuses-toast: #given a very endearing glimpse into a writers blindspots by seeing them describe someone sitting under a ''pineapple tree''
salatrash: I remember something about picking watermelons... OF A FUCKING TREE
baander: #cranberry trees
DOUGH/BATTER:
maycelium: #I'm a chef so I'm really used to people not accurately describing how to cook food #But I was surprisingly flabbergasted when someone was writing making a cake and was kneading it. Which uh #Not necessary for cake. It was interesting for sure but just bizarre
livebloggingmydescentintomadness: #the one that drove me nuts was when a character set aside a batch of PASTA DOUGH 'to rise' #pasta doesn't have yeast!! #it does need to REST but it will never RISE #you do not want an airy crumb on your noodles
lovesodeepandwideandwell: #THE ONE WHERE THEY MADE COOKIES BY LADLING BATTER INTO A TRAY
Some other topics:
ANIMALS:
catenarwhal: #mandatory 'how cows produce milk' mention#i'll never recover from that one I fear
piromantic: #one time i saw someone fake their way through describing how spiders behave
pluto-lichen: horses
misskittypotter: #stardew valley faking its way through what fresh fish smell like
pa-pa-plasma: #saw someone faking their way through knowing what a seal is once #i still am fucked up over that one to this day. they just straight up did not know #& they were NOT good at guessing it either like it was clear they had never googled that animal ever #& was only just now realizing via answering questions from anons that seals are not!! what they assumed. initially
SEX:
dykevandyke: #what a prostate is #and where it is located #as in. external.
dreamyeyedrose: #I remember back in the ff.net days reading an Ichigo/Renji fic where the writer assumed the penises go inside each other #and I was like “I mean I don't know how it works for sure I don't have one but idk if that's how it works”
SOME OTHER FOOD STUFF:
thetrekkiehasthephonebox: #add another one to the list bloggers#this character is cooking a salad
shosta: #still baffled about the published work that didn't know food could freeze
sun-dari: #once i read a fic where the author didn't understand cinnamon
alto-tenure: #read something recently where the author was just. blatantly wrong about spices
dramatic-dolphin: #i saw someone try to fake their way through what ramen is once. like 14 years ago.#but i remember.#i was very confused about ramen for a few months. they were writing it so authoritatively.
the-celery-stalks-at-midnight: #i will never ever forget someone putting leftover fries in the microwave to reheat them and setting the timer for five minutes
typeghost: #this sparked a memory of a hannibal fic where the author had to fake their way through writing about gravy
draculin: #the one fanfic where the author knows about coffee only as a concept wrote a character as a coffee drinker#was very interesting#I don't remember the fandom or the plot but I was mesmerized by the coffee actions and choices
11235811235811: #there's a lot of faking their way thru congee in the svsss fandom i'll also note
fishali3n: #read one where the person clearly didnt know what tofu is
emmy-everafter: #in the aftermath of shadow and bone s2 i saw a lot of people pretending to know what stroopwafels are #babes they are more like cookies than breakfast waffles #like yes there is a waffle pattern but you're not gonna cut into a stack of them with syrup and sugar#🤣🤣🤣
NON-FOOD STUFF:
red-umbrella-811: Shoutout to Dame Agatha Christie for faking her way through what a wrench is in a very popular published work.
bluebeetle: #once saw someone have a character put an entire phone book in their pocket
nonametis: #- sex talk in languages other than english #<- or just the petnames in a different language other than English
sadisticpony: #the fanfiction i saw this week where op DIDNT KNOW HOW AUTOMATIC DOORS WORKED #and that they arent in peoples homes!!! of course. also opening the automatic door for someone is unironically very funny but its not #its not like. grabbing the door handle to let someone in. helpppp
danmeichael: #reminds me of the fic with the figure drawing class where the character started with the feet. #i love you feet first figure drawing author
meowmix1100blr: #me watching this one fic absolutely obliterate what the board of directors does
vexedhexes: #one time i read an architect character making a doorway bigger by building a bigger door #what a beautiful world. #OH. also gravity falls fic where they go 'oh piedmont is in california so its warm all year round'
leveragehunters: #characters going to a beer garden #And it's literally a garden outside the pub#It was a very cute mistake
fitofpique: #yes! #grown men do not get blind drunk off two beers #but i am possibly guilty of the hypothermia one #assuming it does not make you very horny?
dadvans-likes: #always thinking abt the soup kitchen fic #the entire setting of the fic was 'soup kitchen' #and i very quickly realized #the author did not know what a soup kitchen was #and they thought that soup kitchens only served soup #fic
msmargaretmurry: #i love fanfiction #once read a fic where the characters played 20 questions #but the author seemed to not know how to play 20 questions and was just kind of winging it........ #immaculate
shakespeareaddict: #Look I know not all of us are hockey experts #But it takes about ten seconds of research or any attention paid to the show to realize #That the Stanley cup playoffs are not in fucking September
baejax-the-great: #the funniest one i saw #was someone faking what church is like #like 1. they really didn't have to write an entire church experience for their fic #and 2. they had clearly never even watched a show where people went to church #it was bonkers weird
twosunson: #things ive seen authors faking #knowing how to unclog a drain #knowing. literally any history #knowing what ketamine looks like (apparently- oregano) #(you know who you are)
waterhorseyblues-ao3: #beltane being celebrated in winter #wales being portrayed as a completely separated land from england (i wish) #characters getting up after weeks of bedrest like that dosnt completely fuck you up
violetfairydust: #i once read a fic where the flight time from london to seattle was 3 hours
purekesseltrash: One time, in a fic set specifically in Des Moines, IA, two of the characters casually drove 20 minutes to the ocean. The memory continues to delight me. I want to know where that author thought that Iowa was.
i don't read a lot of fic anymore but i'm forever thinking about stephen king's 'it' where the characters went into a chinese restaurant and were greeted by a waitress wearing a kimono
If your lover lives in Hong Kong and cannot get to Chicago, it will be necessary for you to go to Hong Kong. Perhaps you will spend your life there, and never see Chicago again. And you will, I assure you, as long as space and time divide you from anyone you love, discover a great deal about shipping routes, airlines, earthquake, famine, disease, and war. And you will always know what time it is in Hong Kong, for you love someone who lives there. And love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time and, furthermore, to win.
