one wild and precious life

the Traveler's return: squids, crochet, wellness, and media obsessions. she/her.

[kissed1996]

If you had to sing a child to sleep RIGHT NOW what would you sing and it CANT BE a lullaby it has to be a regular song

[calliopechild]

We all like to think we can handle change gracefully, and then someone rearranges our grocery store.

[leyezahmae]

It's a glorious moment when your new young priest pulls out "That's modalism, Patrick," accent and all.

Only made better when he swears that someday he's gonna start a homily with "So I saw a meme this week..."

[changes]

A heads-ups about ads on Tumblr blogs

Hey Tumblr, we’ve got a quick update. 

Soon, ads will start appearing on Tumblr blog sites (think: [yourblog].tumblr.com). Ads help support Tumblr and keep the platform running. We know your Tumblr blogs have been where you showcase your art, host your work, and gather your people. We want to be upfront about what’s changing and how you can manage the experience on your blog.

Here's what you need to know 👇

Who will see ads (and who won’t)

Premium users and blogs with custom domains: If you have a Premium subscription, or you’ve bought a custom domain for your blog, your blog site will stay ad-free for all visitors.

Premium users everywhere: If you have Premium, you won’t see ads on any Tumblr blog site. Even ones that aren’t Premium. You stay in your ad-free bubble, wherever you go.

Everyone else: Visitors may see ads when browsing your blog site.

How to remove ads from your blog site If you’d prefer not to have ads on your blog site, you have two options:

Upgrade to Tumblr Premium (and unlock extra perks like early access to new features, Blaze credits, and higher post limits)

Purchase a custom domain for your blog

With either option, your blog site will stay ad-free for everyone. This change won’t affect how you post, create, or connect, but it’s important you know exactly what’s happening and how to control the experience on your blog site.

💫 -The Tumblr team

[valoisfulcanellideux]

Heads-up, people.

Tumblr is about to start putting ads on your blog, unless you pay for a premium account or add a custom domain.

These ads won't just just be on your dashboard - as they already have been for ages - but on your blog, in between your own posts. As if you're the one promoting those products/services.

Even if you use an ad-blocker or any other means of not seeing ads on Tumblr yourself, anyone visiting your blog who does not use an ad-blocker will see those ads.

@staff, please ensure that these ads are VERY clearly and visibly marked as a Tumblr ad, and not made to look as though they're an ordinary post that we have reblogged in order to promote it because we support it and/or believe in it.

[heytherecentaurs]

Despite not being a standup Brennan is doing well. To be fair it isn’t markedly different than soliciting stories from audience members for Bigger. When it’s a show that’s a little different than what Dropout usually does like Crowd Control or Gastronauts, the producers seem to figure the surest way to help an audience buy into the show is to put Brennan in the premiere. And it’s a solid strategy. We get to see our familiar good boy in new environments and it eases us in like timid animals.

[sokkastyles]

Zuko's unkillability should be utilized more in post canon. Every fire lord Zuko headcanon is all "poor Zuko, having to deal with so many assassination attempts, this boy is hanging on by a thread." But listen, my guy has already survived being burned, blown up, electrocuted, fought three agni kais, faced the Avatar numerous times. It becomes something of a meme in the FN that no one can kill the firelord so you shouldn't even try, Zuko ends up surviving increasingly elaborate and unlikely assassination attempts. He develops an immunity to poison after having been poisoned so many times. He's just like "huh, you thought THAT would kill me?" at this point.

[sokkastyles]

#he IS holding by a thread. but it has more to do with the paperwork and tight schedule than the assassination attempts#they actually break the monotony a bit#atla

Firelord Zuko, after spending the entire day in diplomatic meetings with people he'd rather throw hands with and having to sign documents that make him want to punch something, upon being met with an assassin with a knife: FINALLY

[angelasscribbles]

[eos-sign-deactivated20250622]

Dust if you must, by Rose Milligan (September 1998)

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better

To paint a picture, or write a letter,

Bake a cake, or plant a seed;

Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there's not much time,

With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;

Music to hear, and books to read;

Friends to cherish, and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world's out there

With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;

A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,

This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,

Old age will come and it's not kind.

And when you go (and go you must)

You, yourself, will make more dust.

[meganwhalenturner]

I have mixed feelings about Milligan’s advice. Awhile back I posted a poem, I think by Kai Tempest, about the way boys push their friends to take greater and greater risks while girls shame their friends into conformity. Someone reposted with the observation that not all girls avoided BMX bikes ( I think the poster had a broken knee at the time?) and maybe the boys were not better off being goaded into more and more dangerous behavior.

I was really glad to see the response, because advice is like a shoe. If it doesn't fit, don't wear it. When people ask me for writing advice, I usually start there— that only they can know what advice is good *for them.* For example, as someone committed to stopping to smell the flowers, and therefore constantly behind on everything, I should probably pay more attention to Brittany Spears.

But I find the anti-dusting advice to be insidious in a particular way. It implies that dusting isn't important and doesn't actually need to be done, and by extension, all that work, the laundry, the dishes, the vacuuming, that prevent women from writing, that work isn't worth doing either.

It puts the blame on women for wasting their time on dusting, when they could be doing something that was actually important. Like writing.

Stopping to smell the flowers is great, but you know what else is great? Having food on the table for your kids when it's dinner time. Do I think it's okay to skip meals when I'm writing? Sure, I often do. Did I do that when I had little kids? I did not.

Do I think "women's work" should consume a woman's life? I do not. Do I think that work is important? I do, I really do.

We say "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," but we don't tell Jack to just blow off his job. Instead we get the incessant worst case scenario: Starving Artist, Starving Artist, Starving Artist.

It's only women's work that is so trivial that you should just stop doing it and write instead and that, I think, is wrong.

[jellogram]

Okay so I found the most incredible horse statue while doing research for my job and guys. Are you ready for this. Are you sure you're fucking ready for this thing

[jellogram]

*sees 2 notes* FUCK yes let's fucking GOOOO

Behemoth

[bix46]

I saw the opposite of this horse

[shadowerrata]

HONSE & hrse

[ghosty-royalty]

@elodieunderglass

[elodieunderglass]

Every day all over the world we are categorising horses!

[chrisbrecheenwritingaboutwriting]

Bank of Sapphire Cold?

[tzikeh]

A Mammogram Lab of Emerald and Humidity.

IT’S NOT THE OBJECTIVELY WORST IDEA FOR A BOOK BUT IT’S GOTTA BE PRETTY HIGH UP ON THE LIST

[jmtorres]

nah you just gotta massage it like

A Laboratory of Emerald and Summer

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

A Dollar Store of Topaz and Partly-Cloudy/Partly-Sunny Heat With Possible Evening Thunderstorms …

Dang, I wish I’d gone to the dollar store first and the bookshop second instead of the other way around. I guess I could say I went to the shopping mall collectively?

“A Marketplace of Topaz and Ambiguities”

[leyezahmae]

A Sanctuary of Peridot and Sunshine. Yeah, not as bad as it could be.

[aworldofpattern]

Oscar de la Renta: 'Crafted like a mosaic, discover the making-of the #odlrfall2024 stained glass gown — ushering in a a new House-signature embroidery technique.'

Constructed from hundreds of polyamide panes, hand-sewn together in an Art Nouveau style reminiscent of Tiffany glass. Ready-to-wear: £36,546.

[leyezahmae]

I almost hate to add this gif, but that's the price of Tumblr, right?

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

each year congress people should be required to go on a field trip where they each get dumped in the middle of a random u.s. town & handed a phone with google maps & forced to find their way back to washington solely through the use of local public transportation systems.

to be clear i don't think this would improve our political reality in any way, but it would be fun to watch

[ladytemeraire]

Put that stuff on pay per view and we'd clear the national debt in under six months.

[leyezahmae]

CAN WE HAVE A CIVILIZATION?!?!?!

[intothelionsden]

this has been eviscerating me all day 😭

[recalcitrantlycaffeinated]

Theater Highlights 2025: local theater done by children ONLY

My kid is finally old enough to go to musicals with me (sort of, I may be pushing it) so we have gotten to go to several high school (or lower) productions this year. Here are my favorite choices that were made:

THE MUSIC MAN

This was a 1st-12th grade play put on by a very, very small school and anyone else they could scrounge up from the local/homeschool community

Harold Hill was being played by the headmaster's son, who strongly insinuated in his cast bio that he was being forced to do this

This kid literally said IN HIS BIO that he thanked his father for his stern discipline it has been months and I am still losing my mind about it, how did he have the guts to do this and why did nobody stop him??

Partway through "Trouble," said Harold Hill briefly flubbed his lines. Up until that moment, his portrayal had been very faithful to the movie, but in that second, a switch flipped. He shrugged and said super deadpan, "ya got trouble" and from that moment on, Harold Hill no longer schmoozed anybody. He was played as a character fully breaking the fourth wall, repeatedly gesturing while staring at the audience as if to say, "look at these idiots!! how can they believe this?" while saying every line about the band as though he was the worst liar in the world. I have never seen Harold Hill played like this and I don't think I ever will again

MARY POPPINS

This was also K-12th grade with a small cast.

There were several times when somebody couldn't find a prop and was delayed in going on stage. Every single time, this happened when Mr. Banks was on stage all by himself. At some point he decided he was just going to treat it like Groundhog Day and start re-saying all his lines from the first scene in which this happened

One of the servants was supposed to drop a prop cake at one point, and he full-on launched it into the sky and then fell onto the stage and lay there for the rest of the scene like he was dead

The main adult characters were played by high schoolers - the children and the characters with the most lines were played by middle schoolers. Except for the evil former nanny of Mr. Banks, who was played by a very small elementary schooler, who was convincingly terrifying and an absolute star

SEUSSICAL

The best piece of high school theater I have ever seen, nominated for so many of the local Tony Awards, and it DESERVED IT

The bird girls were played by a group of girls decked out in sequins and feathers, and the Wickersham brothers were played by...another group of girls. There was one boy, who was very good at dancing, but the rest of the troupe were all swaggering around imitating him and wearing fake facial hair and leather and vests and being ridiculous. It was masterful

The grinch was played by a kid who had clearly been obsessed with the grinch from his youth (there was picture evidence in the pre-overture slideshow) and was living his dream

General Genghis Khan Schmitz told Jojo's father and mother that Jojo had died in the butter war, and then...while dramatically sobbing...jumped into Jojo's fathers arms? This was clearly last-show-of-the-run bullshit because every single person on the stage broke. Then they came out for their bows wearing half of each other's costumes. I don't know if they are IRL dating or just wanted to imply that their characters were (which makes NO SENSE) but it was hilarious and again an interpretation I will NEVER see again

Featured dance solo by the black bottomed eagle, Vlad Vladikoff, in a tutu

JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT

Much like in Seussical, half of Joseph's brothers were played by women in beards. Unlike in Seussical, this was less of a directing choice played for humor and more of a we're-a-Catholic-school-and-we-don't-have-enough-boys situation. They didn't have the guts to also go for the clear "we are girls playing boys and mocking the boys" angle, so they made all of the girls use deep voices and sing bass...

...until One More Angel in Heaven. Traditionally, one of the brothers sings a solo, accompanied by his wife singing operatically. In this version, one of the brothers suddenly turned into a soprano with no explanation. It was a whole vibe

Reuben and Benjamin were played by an older brother and a younger brother

Those Canaan Days was sung differently than I have ever heard before. I don't know if it was fully in the chromatic scale or what, I just know it had way more intervals than I'm used to hearing and it was super cool

Potiphar's wife seduced Joseph via a nonconsensual tap dancing duet

[leyezahmae]

This makes me irrevocably miss that very specific part of the world.

[quixoticanarchy]

the hours between 8-11pm should be reusable. optional mini time loop you can rewind and start over if you had more tasks to do or another book to read or the first three hours hanging out w your friend weren’t enough

[yardsards]

i notice that i and many people in my area tend to omit the "to be" in phrases like "the cats need to be fed" and "your kid wants to be held" but i don't thiiink it's standard english and i'm curious if it is a regionalism or what

do you tend to omit the "to be" in those types of phrases

no, and i've never heard that done before

no, but i've heard others do it

yes, i do that on some occasions

yes, i do that by default

Voting ended onMay 25, 2025

bonus: say what you voted and add what general region you're from/what dialect of english you speak (if you feel comfortable doing so)

[yardsards]

some more specifics of how this works:

-i've heard it used most commonly after the verb "needs", but sometimes after "wants", and least commonly after "likes". if there's any other phrase this is used after i can't think of it.

-"to be" can only be omitted if the following word/phrase is a verb that would be performed upon the subject of the sentence. "she wants to be a doctor" or "to ride this, your kid needs to be taller" can't have that "to be" omitted.

-this is different from "the cat needs feeding". the verb has to end in -ed rather than -ing

-this is also a different phenomenon than people omitting "to go"

my observations from the tags thus far:

-multiple people mentioning pittsburgh/western PA by name. unsure if that prominence is related to me mentioning that region when i was rambling abt my own dialect in the tags or if it is just commonly associated with yinzer english. but either way, everyone from the pittsburgh area that responded said they do it or have heard people do it often

-seems pretty common in the midwest, most midwestern respondants say they do it or hear it.

-upper appalachia also seems to be in agreement that yes it is used

-it's actually a mixed bag among southerners, despite many taggers attributing it to be a southern thing. hard to tell for sure what exact regions of the southern us use it (esp bc many taggers don't go more specific than "the south") but it kiiinda sounds more common among the more appalachian subregions? not certain about that, though.

-does not generally seem to be a thing in most of new england (i generally count eastern PA as new england but western PA just as north appalachian) but is not totally unheard of

-generally not a thing in california

-surprisingly is a thing in the pacific northwest. idk why but i didn't expect that

-is a thing in scotland, ireland, and north england. generally not a thing in south england. (this could be related to its spread in the united states like iirc appalachia has heavy scots-irish influence)

-not really a thing in australia

-results inconclusive with canada. might depend on the region of canada but not enough responses

-most non-native english speakers say they do not do it, but some have heard it used online and whatnot. so it's not a thing that is standard enough english (or important enough) to ever be used in english lessons.

-one tag citing a similar but not identical phenomenon in aave, another attributing it to aave but they're not an aave speaker themselves

-in general many taggers attribute this to being a rural and informal way of speaking

AND FINALLY... yeah apparently this phenomenon had been studied i just wasn't looking up the right terms to find said studies lmao. fun to compare my findings here with what the actual researchers found, though!

[leyezahmae]

I would hear this all the time from my Appalachian relatives, but not from any others. Think Pennsyl-tucky, the land that time forgot.

As the daughter of an English teacher, it made me cringe. Still does tbh. But I'll slide into it when I can't words no more.

[vampirejuice-deactivated2019112]

If your apology involves degrading yourself, calling yourself shit or insulting yourself, its not an apology, try again.

[grookeyleaf]

Can someone translate this?

[vampirejuice-deactivated2019112]

Don’t try to guilt people by saying “I’m sorry I fucking suck.” “I’m sorry I’m just the worst and I should die” Because thats not an apology, thats trying to guilt the other person into dropping the subject.

[orangebitters]

Yup.  That’s called Weaponized Remorse.  Basically, you’re avoiding accountability by blowing up a big Feelings Bomb at the person you hurt and going “let’s not focus on what I did or what I should do to make amends, let’s focus on how awful I feel about it all, and how you should make me feel better.”

[oakandgumtrees]

It’s really easy to accidentally learn to apologize like this, especially when you have mental health issues that mean you genuinely feel that way about yourself. You aren’t a bad person if this has become a habit, but you can help other people AND yourself by apologizing differently!

Try to focus on your actions rather than your traits:

E.g. “I’m sorry I keep ghosting you, I’m shit at friendships” –> “I’m sorry I keep ghosting you, I’m really struggling to keep up with my friends right now”

Then, if you can, turn the conversation back to the other person - you’re apologising because their feelings matter to you, so show that.

E.g. “I don’t mean to - our friendship means a lit to me, and I know it must make it seem like I don’t care.”

This gives the other person an opportunity to express their own experience so you can talk it over more if they want to, without skipping ahead to reassuring you that the relationship isn’t broken.

If you read the descriptions above and started feeling guilty, it’s fixable! And if you want, you can even apply your new apology skills to apologising for an old apology style

[applefae]

This is something abusers can instill in their victims, also. Sometimes an abuser wont let up until they know you feel awful, shitty, stupid, worthless. and it becomes a habit to tell someone “im sorry im such a fucking loser i dont deserve etc, etc” so they know that you have paid the emotional toll for what you said or did.

Here’s the kicker, though- normal people dont want you to beat yourself up like that when you apologize. I know it feels like the line between “im sorry, I screwed up and I feel terrible about how I hurt you” and “i’m such a worthless piece of shit, you dont deserve to be around me” seems nearly invisible, but if someone requires you to verbally self-flagellate in order for a fight to be over, you really need to step back and take a look at the relationship between you two.

[handsaniti]

^^^^ great addition. Sometimes weaponized remorse is manipulative, sometimes it’s a survival strategy. Never good or healthy, but worth acknowledging.

[spektakelmagergade]

I made a frog purse

[leyezahmae]

The Want. The Need. The Desperate Realization that it will never come to pass.