Just as a general statement, I love it when people take a thought of mine and elaborate on it. Whether it's an observation, a theory, a head canon, a plot bunny, or even a short fic.
Because while anything tagged short ficlet may get expanded, or get a part two, it most likely won't. And even if it does the odds we'd take it the same direction are pretty slim.
I would ask that if you do it in a separate post, rather than reblogging with additions, you tag me or send me a link. Because I would be very curious to see what my weird little thoughts inspire.
Ya'll remember how online games made specifically for children were programmed in a way that made it practically impossible to share your personal info?
When age, gender, location was censured like profanity in the name of protecting kids?
But suddenly the Only Way to keep children safe online is to make sure that they have 0 privacy?
Maybe the league should have only added 2 teams this year. I’m having a hard time believing that the talent won’t be diluted. Looking at the fiasco happening right now, it’s clear we’re going to have 2 or 3 powerhouse teams while the others struggle.
no. the talent isn't going to be significantly diluted because there are so many new faces coming in the draft. did you see the post the league made about all the olympians who have declared for the draft?
what we don't want to happen is good players getting forced out of the league for the very talented incoming classes. the whole point of this league is so that players beyond just those on the national teams can have careers for which they are compensated playing the sport professionally.
yes, this expansion process is messy. and yes, it could have been done better. but I would much rather get it out of the way now than have to lose players like this every year.
also, leagues that have more than just national league talent are going to have some stratification. that's okay. it makes it easier for worse teams to rebuild and it means that certain matchups are more anticipated. and players will develop with more playing time.
once again, i will say: player talent isn't the issue. coaching talent is. and you can't improve the coaches without giving opportunities to do so. not to mention, when you add teams, you are not just adding head coaching jobs, you are also adding assistant coaching jobs, scouting jobs, video jobs, and more. it's expanding the infrastructure of the sport and you don't grow the game without it.
“A great poet! come, one may easily see, vicomte, that you are lately from the provinces and have never so much as seen him. A great poet! he is scarcely five feet high.”
Apparently I have the sense of humor of a twelve year old....
There were so many minor characters that I didn't look them all up, but Paul Scarron was a real person, and the story about him covering himself in honey and feathers is...well I can't say if it's true, but it is definitely a part of his lore.
Thank you for saying that about Wings (1927). I understand why people read it as gay and enjoy doing so, but I find it frustrating how people act like it was the first gay film (or had the first gay kiss) ever, meanwhile there are films from the 1910s that were in fact intended as queer in some way. Wings doesn't seem to have been, yet people make it seem like it is the only queer silent film ever made. (Maybe I'm also not over the way that film didn't give a fuck about Clara Bow's character, but that's a different story.) Children of Divorce (1927) is another Clara Bow film from 1927 in which a woman kisses another woman (one of whom is Bow) on the mouth and um hello???? Sorry, had to get this off my chest.
i love it when you chip in with the silent film history. i'm going to have to watch children of divorce now!!
And yeah. I fully love reading Wings as a gay movie, of taking my modern perspective and fully leaning into it and saying "well it reads as gay to me so this is a gay movie!", but there's a thing that sometimes happens where people say "this thing IS gay," without acknowledging that it's the modern perspective influencing that read, and that does bother me. it's a weird feeling: sort of a mix of annoyance that we're letting our own frameworks cloud historical or cultural truth—and kind of ignorantly tweaking things to fit our contemporary norms instead of embracing the sheer variety of human expression across history, some of which we could learn from—while also fully knowing I do it myself, on purpose, and have fun with it too.
I guess for me it's like yes! revel in that male actor wearing eyeliner or that kiss that reads as gay to us! absolutely commit to these characters being in love because that's the way it reads now and it's fun, and to rebel against the long history of queer stories not getting told at all. say "these characters are in love to me!" because that's how it feels. but also at the same time hold onto that this maybe wasn't how they were intended originally, and be open to that flexible understanding of relationships through different cultural and historical contexts instead of trying to silo old media into current understandings of sex and gender.
I've been meaning to make a post talking about my stroke because y'all got bits and pieces of the recovery but I never actually told the story of HOW it went down and the thing is the type of stroke I had is usually the type young people have and since having mine i've now heard multiple stories of people under 40 having very similar strokes and the scary thing is, is that they didn't get help right away. Because you're young and healthy and sure you feel weird but it'll pass right? but it doesn't, and it gets worse, and by the time you get to the hospital (some people literally take days to go) the deficits are worse and recovery is harder.
so here's a super long post about strokes in general, and mine in particular/what I went through.
So for strokes the signs are abbreviated BE FAST. Balance loss, Eyesight changes, Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty, -> Time to call 911.
Had I known those MAYBE I would have figured it out but my symptoms were a little mixed. I was reading (fanfic!) in bed because it was a sunday morning and i had nothing pressing to do and suddenly got dizzy. I put my laptop aside because my eyes were blurring (Eyesight changes - symptom #1), and laid down, thinking it would pass, it didn't, it's a little vague how it progressed because I'd been having headaches and neckpain for about 3 weeks leading up to it so I was like 'idk is this a migraine?' (headaches can be a stroke symptom so symptom #2) but i got nauseous and eventually got up and to my utmost surprise I immediately fell over as if I was the drunkest of frat bros. The room literally spun before my eyes as I fell to the floor (Balance loss - symptom #3). I have had some Nights and I had never been that unsteady before. I crawled my way to the bathroom, threw up (nausea - not a common stroke symptom) , took 800mg of ibuprofen, and crawled back to bed.
if you know anything about ibuprofen you might know it's a mild blood thinner and that's a high dose. I may have inadvertently helped myself with that one. I was just feeling like shit and thinking 'idk this might help'
At this point I still thought we were still in Normal Land. Sure, it was a weird morning, but Surely There Was A Reason. (Yes There Was) Anyway, as I'm lying there willing my body to stop suffering I realize my arm is going numb (stroke symptom #4) and I switch positions, because weird, but it doesn't go away, and I gave it a good little while. I'm on a medication that can make my limbs tingle but it usually just does it to my fingers and it dissipates quickly but this wasn't dissipating, and then I realized one of my legs was also going numb. Then one side of my face is going numb.
(at the time I did not look in the mirror but I had a drooping eyelid - symptom #5)
Those all seem bad. I grab my computer and google 'when to go to the hospital for dizzyness' as that felt like the worst of my problems. and indeed the list I found highlighted that if you are also experiencing loss of balance, blurred vision, nausea, and limb numbness, you should see a doctor. That seems like far too many symptoms to be having all to be listed. I grab my phone (thankfully plugged in and by my bed), and start layering on more clothing because it's about 10 degrees out and i'm in a pajama dress. The very nice man at 911 talks with me and sends an ambulance, I tell him I don't think I can get out the front door of my building on my own and he asks if I can get to MY apartment door to which I say yes and he assures me that's fine they will have keys to my building.
(I have been since informed they love to chop down doors but no, I could get that far)
I wait by my door laying down on the ground and they arrive pretty quickly. They see to me in the hallway, which is more of a lobby in my building and the only place with room for me to lie down (I cannot stand unassisted at this point) they ask me a bunch of questions, take vitals, and ask me where I would like to be taken. Me, having never had to go to the fucking hospital in an emergency before, simply go 'wherever is close' because I again, I am having a stroke and do not have the wherewithal to think through these things.
A big firefighter helps me down the stairs (it's only a half flight and I still almost did not make it) and we get underway.
At the hospital they wheel me into triage and I mostly lie there gratefully and answer some questions and respond to some tests (grip strength, following a pen with my eyes, that sort of thing) and then I hear what is great when you've been at urgent care for two hours but what is Very Bad when you just arrived in an ambulance and that's 'She's next'. I jumped the line for a CT scan and an MRI. I was there less than ten minutes before I was actively being scanned. honestly closer to five.
my active symptoms seem to have been worse than some of the stories I've heard, not being able to walk AT ALL in particular, although some other are pretty equal (Footless Jo on youtube had a stroke around the same time I did of the same type and has discussed hers, she delayed going in despite the severity for a variety of reasons and it sounds like her recovery has been difficult) My recovery was pretty easy because i was actively being cared for and on blood thinners right away. I was pretty out of it in the beginning, but I was only in the hospital for 6 days and then in a rehab for another 4 to relearn how to walk and balance, then i was released unto the world and just spent time going to physical therapy and recovering for awhile. I was out of work for about 8 weeks total. I basically had the best outcome for a stroke. I recovered almost fully back to 100% (I'm about 2% less sure footed than I used to be, but it's rarely noticeable), my face still feels a little weird but has markedly improved so I live in hope it will eventually get back to normal. It massively sucked. But strokes can fuck you up for life and I came out a weird medical story to tell and have to take some extra medication now/precautions to take (i cannot do certain types of yoga, no weightlifting, no push ups, no going on rollercoasters.... things that could strain my neck essentially) but overall I escaped very lucky.
Knew someone who had a stroke in her 30s and her experience was pretty similar to this minus the numbness. Just a note do NOT take blood thinners if you think it might be a stroke. If its a clot in an artery yes, they will help but in other cases the clot is a result of a tear in an artery that the body is trying to repair. You Do NOT want to take blood thinners while your body is trying to repair a tear in an artery and you will not be able to tell which type it is without hospital scans. The person I knew had a stroke of the second kind and blood thinners would have caused more problems than they solved.
Today's my birthday and I'd like to share a new comic with you, it's called Marginalia. It's a love letter to all the weirdness of medieval manuscripts, and you can read it by unfolding a single sheet of paper!
Risograph print editions are also available in my shop.
