We'll see when summer comes

Christian; lover of literature; especially fond of Shakespeare, Taylor Swift, and Dorothy Sayers; big believer that time will tell--call me Peace.

[cipheramnesia]

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[exitwound]

this is making me hyperventilate

[somethingunlikeanythingelse]

I have no sense of sense is too funny not to highlight

[cages-boxes-hunters-foxes]

"And so we have brought the folklore cabin to Cardiff! So, folklore, folklore is an album that I’m always going to be so proud of, because I started writing—I started out writing—you guys are so sweet about folklore right now. This is so nice! So, I started writing this album about two days into the pandemic, so it really was more than an album for me. It was an entire like, escape mechanism, and you know, because when I would go into this world where I was writing this album, I would just pretend my life was totally different than it was. I think a lot of us do this when we escape into reading a good book or watching a great movie, like we just pretend that we have a different life. And that’s when I did whenever I would write for folklore. You know, I would pretend that I was like, this, I don’t know, this very poetic woman wandering through nature, wearing like, a lacy Victorian nightgown, holding a candle. Do you see the vision? You know, somewhere in the Welsh countryside? And I just kind of, and I pictured, in my fantasy, I lived here, in this cabin. Yup, not great in the winter, not good insulation, but aesthetically pleasing. And when I would be writing this album, I just decided I was going to do it differently. I thought, ‘You know what, I’m going to create characters this time, and these characters are going to feel feelings, and fall in love, and break up, and betray each other.’ And so that’s what I did, and I really loved it, and then I’ve just been toying with doing that ever since, but folklore was really the first time I committed to that idea, of just being the narrator instead of being the character. And as the narrator, I wrote a story about a girl named Betty!"

— Taylor before playing betty in Cardiff, Wales, UK on June 18th

[bedr-focus]

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

Wait everyone shut up I'm viewing the Holdovers from a perspective previously unprecedented in my mind though perhaps obvious to others. The school was part of keeping Paul trapped in his own self-constructed shell, he never left, he didn't write his monograph. He needed to break free from it in order to pursue pretty much anything but the only way to break free was through courage, the courage which he showed in sacrificing himself for Angus. It's sad that they're being separated at the end of course but it is also the triumph of a man finally living enough of a life to break out into it.

[stephenroot]

I hate cigarettes so much I hate that smoking is becoming cool again I hate that we're becoming contrarian hipsters about this disgusting habit that has literally killed so many people and destroyed so many lives I'm so serious we need to become absolute killjoys about this again it's time to go 90s scolds on cigarettes until the scourge is wiped out entirely.

[incomingalbatross]

Enjoying thoughts of the brainstorming process for Cars.

"Okay, so this is a movie about a talking racecar. All the characters will be talking cars." "Great! We've got the small boy demographic locked down already! ...But what will the plot be?" "Hallmark movie." "What." "Hallmark movie. Hero gets stuck in a dying small town just when he's about to make the biggest win of his career, and learns to slow down and care about the little things. And finds true love, obviously. Hey, his small-town girlfriend can also have had a Hallmark movie arc before the story starts!" "...So you're really confident we've locked down the small boy demographic."

[stuckinapril]

I think part of getting better is complete ego death. Like you’re not above setting a timer for 5 minutes and focusing on a task. You’re not above doing a very simple 3 minute workout to start. You’re not above reading for 10 minutes a day when you first get out of your reading slump, even if you used to read for hours. You’re not above starting slow and then building up to where you want to be/where you once were. What you are above is total inertia. Doing something really is better than doing nothing. Radically accept where you are, radically accept your limits, and go from there. Don’t let your ego get in the way.

[storm-of-feathers]

tumblr is great bc its like a diary where I can take other peoples diary entries and glue them into my own diary

[byjove]

Someone mentioned how they were having a hard time creating a world for their fantasy fiction geographically because they kept reinventing the island of Britain, which also happened to my good close enemy George R. R. Martin. I would like to suggest North Carolina. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous but North Carolina has an awesome geographic setup for a fantasy kingdom, I think. Inhospitable barrier islands, constantly shifting shoals in the sound, swamps with alligators, venomous snakes and carnivorous plants, lots of very flat and somewhat sparsely populated farmland, foothills, mines, mountains full of mysterious phenomenon that were originally very difficult to navigate and people still get lost in today. It kind of rocks.

[the-ice-queen-623]

AND VENUS FLYTRAPS ARE NATIVE TO THE CAROLINAS!

[byjove]

There are actually 36 carnivorous plant species native to North Carolina, roughly half of all carnivorous plant species in the United States are found in North Carolina! I added the carnivorous plant detail because that’s something I love about the state. We have so many fucking bugs that the plants keep evolving to eat them.

I love that giant man eating Venus flytraps are worldbuilding staples in untamed tropical fantasy settings but they’re actually native to a small region in the Carolinas.

[byjove]

And I agree with the notes, the Chesapeake Bay + Great Dismal Swamp (partially in NC anyway) and the South Carolina Lowcountry would be good geographic additions to this.

[zazzedcoffee]

Poll BLAST!

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Remaining time: 17015 days 3 hours

[misanthropysolivagant]

Holy shit

[targetedknowledge]

[auldcine]

You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. JAMES STEWART in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)

[palusu]

So I watched Shawn Takes A Shot In The Dark again for the upteenth time, and I just need to write down my thoughts. Get them out of my head, they're driving me insane.

UGH I am such a sucker for whump of my favorite characters, this episode was basically crack for me. LOVED it, call me messed up, I don't care, Saw is one of my favorite movies for a reason.Anyway, onto my thoughts.

-Gus being the one to figure out Shawn is in trouble and was shot is perfect. Lassiter assumed Shawn was leading them on a wild goose chase like always and was ready to go home, Jules was concerned but was ultimately leaning towards siding with Lassiter, but Gus knew he was in trouble and managed to figure it out. We know for sure that going on investigations with Shawn had made Gus more observant (it's implied in a later episode that Gus sees a lot of the same clues Shawn does, he's just not nearly as obvious about it) and he knows Shawn well enough to know that this isn't like him, and he was able to decipher the first jumbled up cryptic text. True platonic soulmate shit right there

-Later, when Shawn is in the trunk of the car, he knows exactly what to do, but he kind of hates that he does because it's justifying Henry's insane parenting. If Shawn were anybody else, raised by anybody else, he wouldn't be in this situation and he also wouldn't know how to get out of it. Just another point on the "Shawn and Henry's fascinating relationship" board.

-The fact that Shawn knows exactly how many times he needs to scroll in his contacts to get to Gus's contact is so good. No notes. Even if he hit the wrong one, he was still close! And actively bleeding while on a bumpy car ride in a trunk, I don't blame him for missing.

-The way Henry locked in as SOON as he heard that Shawn might be in trouble is everything. He got out of bed in the middle of the night, drove all the way to the scene, and was instantly in cop mode. And that was BEFORE he knew that Shawn was shot and kidnapped. Then, he was able to decipher the rest of Shawn's texts, follow his vague trail of the road into the woods, and then he and Lassiter were SO CLOSE to Shawn. He was right there, there was just a wall between them, Shawn could see them!

-And speaking of that moment. UGH. Shawn had just ran through the woods all night, was locked in a trunk, shot in the shoulder, whacked over the head and knocked out, tied to a chair, and being choked so he would stay quiet. In that moment, when Henry and Lassiter were right there in front of him, who did he try to call out to? Lassiter. He tried to say Lassiter's name, despite his own father being right there. That says SO MUCH about how he sees both of them. Oh my God, the implications. And he tries to say Lassiter's first name too! This show is trying to kill me I swear.

-The Shawn/Abigail/Juliet love triangle pissed me off and it's kind of the only thing that brings this episode (and the second Yin/Yang episode) down, just a little bit. That and the Gina running joke. But I guess the episode needed SOME levity, the show's still a comedy after all.

-And then later, when Shawn has jumped on Lassiter's car and asks Henry to give him the gun, Henry doesn't even hesitate. He knows how good of aim Shawn has, even while laying on the windshield of a speeding car with a bullet in his shoulder, and while shooting with his non-dominant hand.

-And then after the car chase, Lassiter accidentally calls Shawn detective. Awww. I think it goes to show that to some extent, Lassiter knows Shawn is just genuinely a really good detective, he just normally can't admit that he's better than him. They make me SICK. KILLING them with my BARE hands. Lovingly.

[theonion]

[mademoiseli]

🇺🇸🦅Happy 250th Birthday to the United States of America!🦅🇺🇸

[the-most-sublime-fool]

i've realised i'm the opposite of a tech early adopter. i'm an early abandoner. i always seem to be the first person in my circle to jump ship when a tech product/service overenshittifies. and good fucking riddance. i'll write letters to my friends and read paper books and find out about upcoming events by reading the posters on lampposts and billboards and i'll plan my transit using the public transport company's website and i'll go watch movies at the cinema and whatever fucking else you thought i was too lazy to do. i don't give a fuck man. you think your shithouse product is too essential and people are too addicted to stop using it? WRONG i will drop it like a hot potato. eat shit.

[the-most-sublime-fool]

hey so i thought i'd add to this post with some info about what kind of switches i've made or intend to make to stop using tech that overenshittified, became evil, etc. 

(idk if anyone will see this addition so i'll probably make this its own post later)

Replace: Netflix etc.

kanopy - available through public libraries and universities. check if yours has it. if not, ask them what they do have for streaming, and/or ask if they can look into joining kanopy!

beamafilm

internet archive - have a look around. there are tonnes of good classic film options! i have some good stuff bookmarked, hmu if you want links

also yeah, do go to your local cinema! 📽️🍿

Replace: Audible/Amazon eBooks

available through public libraries:

libby

borrowbox

cloudlibrary

freely available to anyone:

project gutenberg - the GOAT!!! (plus its aussie sister site gutenberg.net.au, which has books that are still under copyright in the u.s., as well as a wealth of australiana, australian history, and australian records)

faded page - same idea as PG. this one is canadian so this is where you can source public domain canadiana and canadian history.

librivox - the audiobook version of PG (free public domain audiobooks read by volunteers). it's a great concept, but be forewarned that the app's interface is really, truly awful.

Replace: Google search

there are a lot of lists out there, like this post i recently reblogged, so the good news is you have lots of options! remember that google still makes most of its $ from its search function, so making the switch is absolutely worth it even if you still use their other services.

anyway, the post i linked goes way more in-depth, but here are a few i've tried and liked:

qwant - my current go-to

4get - i intended to try this one but forgot, adding it because i think it'll be good

mojeek - it's like using google from 2005 (/pos)

marginalia search - find older, text-heavy websites, with commercial content filtered out.

Replace: Chrome

i think we all know this one but just in case...

firefox, with ublock origin installed

Replace: Google Suite (Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, etc.)

proton - it has mail, docs, sheets, storage, etc. see if you can share a plan with someone or join with your family because there are two-person and family plans that are more affordable.

otherwise, you can split it up and use multiple services, e.g. tuta for email, sync for storage, ellipsus for docs, etc. 

Replace: Google Maps

organic maps

your public transport org's website/app

Replace: Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, etc.

tumblr, lol. 

"but how will i stay in touch with my friends?"

talk to your friends. message them and say, "here's my email address, here's my phone number, here's my mailing address, what's yours? i'm leaving the app and i'd like to stay in touch." then, do that. make sure to reach out to them and invite them to hang out or just start a conversation using one of the above methods.

"how will i find out about what's going on near me?"

genuinely, read posters on lampposts and community billboards. 

see if your city/area has a website that shows upcoming events and keep an eye on it. 

find orgs/venues/galleries/theatres near you that do cool stuff and sign up for their mailing lists. 

ask people for recommendations.

go for a walk through an interesting neighbourhood. have a look around.

"but i need more human connection! i like feeling connected to people i don't know, too, and hearing all kinds of different perspectives."

postcrossing!!! i love it so much! send and receive postcards to and from different people around the world 💌

get a penpal! there are different penpal finding websites and subreddits out there.

tandem for language exchange

"what about facebook groups?"

i get it, if you're already in a group you want to participate in it's a bit tough because you don't want to ask the group to relocate just for you. but fwiw, meetup and butter provide similar functions. 

"what about facebook marketplace?"

yard sales

charity sales

op shops

whatever website equivalent exists in your area (kijiji, gumtree, etc.)

Replace: Spotify

this is a switch i haven't made yet. but from what i've heard, qobuz or deezer are good streaming alternatives.

support artists by purchasing music through bandcamp

also support artists by buying merch from their websites.

Replace: Goodreads

storygraph - i think it's pretty well-known, but just in case!

Replace: What's App

signal - even if you can only convince a couple people to move over and you still talk to other people on what's app, that's still a couple more conversations zuckerberg doesn't have his grubby little hands on. also, the more people make the switch, the more people will follow.

Replace: YouTube

i wish!

i don't know of any good substitutes. please share if you do!! my best solution atm is turn on ad blocker and use it as little as possible.

Replace: General mindless scrolling

ok, here's what i do.

download one of the aforementioned ebook apps (libby, borrowbox, cloudlibrary, or else open up project gutenberg if you can't get those) and take out an ebook.

when you find yourself scrolling endlessly on some social media app and you realise you want to stop but you just can't seem to get off your phone, switch over to your ebook app and read instead. (this will work best if you choose light but interesting ebooks that won't feel like a massive cerebral leap from passive media consumption).

even if it's just a couple of pages, it'll feel more productive and break the cycle of endless scrolling.

Parting words

it's a marathon, not a sprint. don't try to switch a bunch of stuff at once or you're setting yourself up to fail. take it one small step at a time. build new habits. figure out what works for you. i'm currently about two months into transitioning off of gmail/google suite and i've still got a while to go. i have over a decade's worth of files and photos to transfer over, and god knows how many accounts and contacts linked to my gmail. that switch doesn't happen overnight. you just gotta start and it takes as long as it takes. but the payoff is regaining control over your data, mental health, and spare time✌️