Writing, meta, and ramblings blog, because if I keep annoying my friends and family with my nonsense they might stop talking to me. Born 1999. AO3 & Dreamwidth
A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artif
An interesting game where you are presented with 10 artifacts from the MET. You have to place where the artifact is from and what time period it is from. Each artifact scores up to 10,000 points, and you lose points the further away your guess is and how far off in time you are. You can only play once a day. Thanks to @baebeylik for showing this to me.
Today I scored really well. Yesterday ... not so much.
Anthropeum.com · Jun 8 2026
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79,001 · top 3% of players today!
For context: this came out in 2011 in Australia. Same-sex marriage would not be legalized until December 2017.
It was only legalized in 8 US states (the 8th only a few months before), and wouldn’t be legalized nation-wide until 2015.
It was only legal in TEN COUNTRIES in 2011. We wouldn’t hit 20 countries until 2017. (Australia was 23rd)
As of today (April 14, 2026), I believe only 38 countries have fully legalized same-sex marriage. Out of somewhere around 200 countries in the world. That’s only ~19% of countries.
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.
She's my darling girl and I would die for her!! Honestly the best way to get me to talk about something for hours is to bring her up
Aredhel:
I don't know if I want to be her or if I want to kiss her. I've decided that after Luthien and Beren's death (and once she gets re-embodied of course) she gets custody of Huan cause they were always buddies
realized this morning that it is possible my love of time loop scenarios has to do with my love for characters who dig themselves into holes because of their own mistakes and then can't figure out how to get out of them and consequently just keep digging.
in a time loop you get to literalize that sense of running in circles repeating your mistakes but differently!! and not being able to escape from a hell that is, in some way, of your own making (because the best time loops, in my opinion, are about a character needing to correct some kind of mistake and struggling to figure out how).
like. there is a character where they think they've gone too far and can't go back so they just have to keep going. and then there is taking that character and making it so they can't keep going at all because they keep digging the same hole over and over.
not sure I'm expressing this adequately but. something about the "making not exactly the same but similar mistakes over and over and over again until you figure out, somehow, how to change" that fits very nicely with the kinds of characters I love most.
or maybe I just imprinted on heir apparent by vivian vande velde at a formative age. who can say.
(having a good week) that’s right. the goal is to increase my baseline. make the spirals shallower until they spin lazily on the surface of the water, lose their suction. im not trying to fix it all at once, im trying to incrementally improve my way into something tolerable. and once im there maybe i can shoot for good
(having a bad week) and in my terrible forge i will temper the flames of ruin
#he was SO lucky that almost everyone that loved elena was dead#<-flora what the hell this shit hurts#but it's so true#so much of this show is watching elena lose everyone who loves her just for her#(no ulterior motives no projection weirdness no trying to redeem themselves through her)#until she's left so vulnerable to being hurt and used#also something about how season 1 elena was depressed enough that she didn't mind being used like that#(a form of self-harm by proxy almost)#but by this point she's started (slowly very slowly) to want to live again#so this is a multi layered betrayal via @endless-natterings
It's a little extra messed up when you remember that not only did Elena know that the only reason she survived this bridge the first time was because Stefan saved her, she was also already aware that Stefan got her out of that car first because Grayson actively refused to leave her there. Must suck to realize that the man who could give you the gift of knowing that your father, in his final moments, loved you (that he loved you despite spending every moment since then feeling like you caused their deaths for crime of being a drunk teenager who fought with her boyfriend and called her mom to pick her up) would be so willing to render that sacrifice null and void. (Over a man who hurt you. Who killed Isobel and Jenna in front of you. Who killed you and when you woke up you found that the last adult who loved you was dead too, that John died so you could come back as a human. Stefan shoving that blood into your mouth would have made that sacrifice meaningless too.)
PSA to fan creators who don't have a lot of regular contact with children: They are almost always bigger than you think. A 1-year-old baby may already be walking. A toddler is likely already hip-high. A 10-year-old may already be taller than at least one of their parents. A 14/15 year old may already have reached their adult height.
Me (rewatching the same show for the fifteenth time): I feel like this is finally the time when beloved dead character finally outsmarts behated character murderer and survives :)
Klaus (less than an hour after sending Tyler to kill Caroline on her birthday): you really think I would kill you?? on your birthday??? me (the guy who was going to use you as one of my sacrifices in my famous plot to murder your childhood friend six months ago)???? maybe you should call your boyfriend (who I remade in my image so I would never be lonely or have to face my father without someone willing to die for me at my side ever again) and ask him what the fuck his problem is (I am quite literally your boyfriend's entire fucking problem btw)
#he's so messyyyyy#he didn't give a fuck#and he looked so offended!!#like “how could you think I'd do that exactly what I would definitely do!?” 🥺 via @whoreallyevenknowsanyway
Klaus (seconds after doing the exact thing she fears and expects him to do): how dare you fear and expect that of me??? the best predictor of future behavior is NOTHING because I cannot be presumed at nor can I be predicted!! I know I indiscriminately murdered Elena's friends and family a little while ago, but how could you assume that's my baseline????? I could change (I'm not going to but I could) here have a soulful sketch I made of you with a horse you have no emotional connection to as proof. could I interest you in a prom dress that you can wear to my family's fancy black tie ball? also I'm going to ruin your boyfriend's life for this
Jeremy (They may not be friends but they were certainly Something)
Bonnie (Let him and the pretty witch fight AND learn together!!)
Elena (Following his siblings into doppelganger interest)
Caroline (Stealing Klaus's crushes should be a family bonding activity)
Damon (New Orleans, 1914, what a night!)
Stefan (Let them play ripper together!)
Carol (I mean, let him close on the flirting from the ball and freak out Tyler)
Silas (I just think there'd be a level of bitterness and interest on both sides)
Amara (He's her light <3 He's not used to someone being soft with him)
Qetsiyah (honestly, Kols magic obsession and her?* hot)
Katherine (Fighter x fighter? they'd collide in an interesting way tbh)
Kai (Probably good to add second murder-y boi here huh?)
Voting ended onJun 9
*The creator of the immortality spell? and the other side? Just let him go full 👀🥺simp and beg her to teach him more about it all and give her a dedicated vampire.
Forcing me to sit through 97 chapters of heteroslop only to reveal, in the final few chapters, that all of this (all the tragedies, the horror, the pain) happened because there was one of the most moving instances of doomed yuri I've read in years at the rotten little heart of this story the whole time is SICK
For the record, I clocked almost immediately that the story would be much better if there was yuri between these two characters, but I still stayed locked in for some unknowable reason—even after, like, thirty chapters, when it started to hit the level of cliche genre nonsense that would usually make me drop other stories. Only for the author to decide to gut punch me on my way out of the party. God. My gaydar is transcendent. I’m a bloodhound for fictional women who want to drown in another woman’s cunt. Elect me to gay congress. Happy fucking Pride. I want to kill everyone
What if the world you lived in was a story someone created for the sole purpose of making you happy? What if you met a girl and the story said: she is to die for your happiness. And the story said: this is a good thing. And the story said: the cost of happiness is bodies, step over them and reach the end of your long journey. Aren't you tired of waiting to get there? It is a small cost, this girl. Don't think about her more than you have to. But what if you could not stop thinking about her? What if you loved her? What if you wanted to save her? What if you wanted that more than anything? What if she died and you wanted to save her so badly you ripped the world apart at the seams? What if you rewrote reality? What if you sacrificed innocent girls to the story’s meatgrinder over and over again, trying to save one girl who hated you? But you loved her and you wanted her to survive? What if no one ever loved her before? What if no one had ever touched her for a purpose separate from hurting her? What if there was a time in your life when that was also your truth? What if she was your foil, your mirror, your wound walking around outside your body? What if you had wanted to save her since you were both beaten little girls? What if there was no happy ending waiting for you without her? What if she was the only thing you ever freely chose? What if she wished you would die instead of her, and you loved her anyway? What if you said: let’s do this over and over again until I find a version of our story where she lives. I’ll face down God to save you. Watch me crawl my way back to you, even if I have to betray everything to get there. Ask me at the end and I’ll tell you to put me back in it. Something something this is rotten work. Something something not to me, not if it's you.
I'm going to runaway to the coast side to find gainful employment in a lighthouse before throwing myself into the vat of liquid mercury they use to maneuver the supersized lens. I feel that I have no other recourse after this experience. This was chapter 100 btw. The main story only has 100 chapters. Legitimately the final reveal of the entire series is that there actually was one person in the entire world who loved Edith and it wasn't her husband, it was her husband's sister.
