Living in Present Tense

In which I go natural where I can, recover from burnout, build my life on my own terms, and discover how to live in the now.

[libraford]

It's very endearing to me how many people are willing to keep an eye on a video feed so they can push a button and let a fish in the Netherlands get to the other side of a dam.

[rahjin]

It is genuinely baffling to me, in a very kind and positive way, especially coupled with the local news continually going several shades of 'wtf, this thing is a roaring success again and we don't quite get why'. They've already quadrupled their capacity for simultaneous clicks and it's still nowhere near enough and there's just... Bewilderment.

[libraford]

I think people want to help the environment in small but tangible ways, which is hard right now because of.. well... because of The Horrors. And being able to say 'wow! I helped this creature cross a dam' makes you feel good.

I also think that most people can relate to a small, helpless creature trying to get from one place to another and there's a FUCKIN WALL in the way.

But to come back to point 1- Citizen Science fills a hole in the soul that wanted to go out on adventures and discover things when we were younger, but the study of it was hard or we didn't have the money or our schools were garbage. But you don't have to have a degree to do things like... press a button or download and use an app, or count or transcribe notes.

Anyways- here's some Citizen Science links if the Fish Doorbell makes you feel happy and you yearn for more ways to help scientists do stuff:

Foldit (folding proteins)

Fathomverse (sea animals)

Project Monarch (butterflies)

Bioblitz, an event where citizens identify as many species in an area within a period of time

Species Watch (animal species)

BOINC’s Compute for Science

Zooniverse is a website that hosts information on many citizen science projects

Label trees in aerial photos

Count cells in fossils and modern leaves

Digitize Atmospheric Data

Count penguins

US-based Citizen Science Database

eBird (bird identification)

Merlin (bird identification by sound)

iNaturalist (nature identification)

MapSwipe (collaboration between several Red Cross organizations and Doctors Without Borders, update vital geospatial data)

Smithsonian Archives Transcription Center

[fayriequeene]

[yellowlabyrinth]

[amelielb]

Ok, I've seen this sentiment before, but the amount of Kindle Unlimited ads I've been seeing is forcing me to repeat it-

Kindle Unlimited is offering two free months of unlimited ebooks. As a trial. Which will then become a paid subscription.

Your local library is offering unlimited ebooks all the time. Forever. No contracts, no predatory practices, no tracking of how long you spend on each particular page in the hopes that information about your habits can be sold for a profit.

Use your library. They want so badly to give you all of the things for free.

[bitchesgetriches]

The Library Is a Magical Place and You Should Fucking Go There

[the-haiku-bot]

The Library Is

a Magical Place and You

Should Fucking Go There

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[normalfixation]

“dont infight” the stronger most ruthless homosexual should kill the weaker most fragile one always

[life-in-present-tense]

This will happen until there is a single homosexual left, the strongest of them all. Whatever they decide to do, that is the Gay Agenda.

[normalfixation]

“dont infight” the stronger most ruthless homosexual should kill the weaker most fragile one always

[life-in-present-tense]

This will happen until there is a single homosexual left, the strongest of them all. Whatever they decide to do, that is the Gay Agenda.

[xxacidnekoxx]

with communication skills and stuff I really do try like I cannot pick up on certain social hints like if someone is like "this would be better if a video game was here" like I don't really know what to say I'm like okay that's a good situation idea that you thought of? And then nothing will happen unless it is revealed that you were asking to play a video game? Like I would have an easier time with "can we play a game together" direct kind of wording? But is there a rule where that direct is "rude" ? and I don't know I wish people were more direct even if it was rude I would prefer it over like...a new puzzle for my brain to solve .. like I kinda wish it was more normal for people to be like "hello can I have attention?" like just asking for attention like that but I see people say "asking for attention" in a derogatory way like it's a bad thing but I actually like it when people do it so directly... because it's like okay there is a question I can say yes or no that is way easier ... Don't even get me started on "flirting" when people flirt with me I really really will never pick up on it I I will never understand what flirting is or pick up on hints that people are into me and it makes me so confused I almost want to be asking "is this flirting?" To every single mundane interaction but that would be extremely weird ... Anyway yeah does anyone relate?

[life-in-present-tense]

I once realized four years later, while tying my shoes, that a guy asking me if I wanted to get a drink was asking me on a date, that "I've got a drink inside" was not the correct answer, and that repeating the question the same way until I ran out of ways to tell him I've got a drink already may be something that also keeps him up at night 15 years later.

[moveslikekeithrichards]

lately my kids have been playing Baby Knife, which consists of somebody acting as a baby with knife hands chasing people while going "baby knife baby knife" over and over. is this a thing or are they just insane

[moveslikekeithrichards]

we have a new teacher this year who has never had kindergarten before & she rounded em all up & told em No Baby Knife and No Zombies and idk how to tell her that 1. all kindergarten recess games boil down to Give Birth And Kill Each Other and 2. the absurd vaguely inappropriate games they make up are usually better than when they try to play an Actual game like soccer

[moveslikekeithrichards]

Baby Knife is straightforward. theres a baby knife. baby knife chases you. thats about it. when they try to play Real Sports every single child is playing by a different set of rules unbeknownst to the others and none of them are playing by the Actual rules. everybody is mad at everybody else and running up to tell on their colleagues for cheating every 3 minutes. this doesnt happen when they play Baby Knife

[rincewitch]

when i was in grade school we had a game called “killed in the war”, which consisted only of ragdolling limp onto the ground and saying, “argh! killed in the war!”

[conkreetmonkey]

We had a game called "roadkill" where we pretended the fake car on the playground was real and moving at high speeds, and like 10+ of us would cram on and try to wrestle, shove and pull each other onto the "road" without falling off ourselves. If you fell off, the person who bested you yelled "roadkill!" and you were dead. Of course, you could try to take someone down with you.

[life-in-present-tense]

In 4th grade we had "zombie tag," where if "It" went down the slide they became a zombie. It was a sort-of cross between tag and dodgeball Going down the slide multiple times saw them evolving into ever-increasingly complicated monsters from my dad's 2nd edition Monstrous Manual, who each got a different power. The final level was Zombie, where you could turn multiple people into "It." The level below that was acid-spitting Yuan-Ti. You threw pebbles and if you hit someone they had to go to jail until they were tagged out by someone.

[nudityandnerdery]

Thiiiiiis is what journalism is supposed to be. The media shrugs at GOP hypocrisy every fucking day, good for this reporter for calling it out instead.

[life-in-present-tense]

I want every single reporter to say things like this every single day. ESPECIALLY since Vance has basically said he's going to be treating reporters like this as hostile agents of the Democratic party.

Best case scenario, they are constantly calling out GOP and fascist bullshit. Worst case scenario: we have a visible and audible timeline of our loss of freedom of press as reporters like this one are banned from the press room or jailed one by one.

[novella-november]

Do you have the Libby library app?

Libby, the Library App - Apps on Google Play

Meet Libby. Discover and enjoy ebooks and audiobooks from your local library.

If not, download it to your phone, and under "Add library card" select the button to search for a library and start typing in "queer"...

Login — Queer Liberation Library

Sign up with an email, no actual address required, and you are good to go 🏳️‍🌈

[novella-november]

Self reblog, especially important for USA friends today !

[poikaboo]

{ID - screenshot of the Queer Liberation Library Libby main page, showing 6 titles (one of which is an audio book). The titles displayed are the Trans Teen Survival Guide; Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the next); We Will Be Shelter: Poems for Survival; Tomboy Survival Guide; A Burst of Light and Other Essays; and Saving Our Own Lives: A Liberatory Practice of Harm Reduction

END ID}

[glowstickhaloboy]

thinking of jesus at the gay bar again………

[heart-sprout]

Do tell

[glowstickhaloboy]

[screamingbingusthecromulentone]

[ID:

a poem by Jay Hulme, titled Jesus at the Gay Bar

He's here in the midst of it - right at the centre of the dance floor, robes hitched up to His knees to make it easy to spin.

At some point in the evening a boy will touch the hem of His robe and beg to be healed, beg to be anything other than this;

and He will reach His arms out, sweat-damp, and weary from dance. He'll cup this boy's face in His hand and say,

my beautiful child there is nothing in this heart of yours that ever needs to be healed.

/end ID]

[glowstickhaloboy]

thinking of jesus at the gay bar again………

[heart-sprout]

Do tell

[glowstickhaloboy]

[screamingbingusthecromulentone]

[ID:

a poem by Jay Hulme, titled Jesus at the Gay Bar

He's here in the midst of it - right at the centre of the dance floor, robes hitched up to His knees to make it easy to spin.

At some point in the evening a boy will touch the hem of His robe and beg to be healed, beg to be anything other than this;

and He will reach His arms out, sweat-damp, and weary from dance. He'll cup this boy's face in His hand and say,

my beautiful child there is nothing in this heart of yours that ever needs to be healed.

/end ID]

[caringcoffeechats]

controversial opinion but unfortunately you are your actions and what you say. if you are mean to people, it doesn’t matter if you sometimes have secret kind thoughts. fortunately you are your actions and what you say. if you are kind in your actions and your words, it doesn’t matter if you sometimes have mean thoughts. the power is in working against inner negative thoughts and being a better person despite it. you have the ability to cultivate the person you want to be.

[life-in-present-tense]

Legitimately this explained it so much better to me than "you are not your thoughts." This is the first time it's really hit enough for me to not automatically push back with "but your thoughts define you."

[liberalsarecool]

Bright orange line.

[blackheartbiohazards]

"I don't want to read this" is totally valid.

"This is disgusting to me" is totally valid.

"I don't want to read this because it is disgusting to me" is totally valid.

"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.

[blackheartbiohazards]

"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.

[spellscarred]

Bro, blocking someone and then using their tag like this is, all offence, weak as fuck. Like all you had to say was, na bro I don't promote pedo protags on this here blog, because I wholly agree with the premise of your argument given contexts (i.e., writing abusive relationships to show the evils, great; writing abusive relationships to show the romance, yikes).

This response is so, so comically shitty within the context of that tag, oh my god.

[blackheartbiohazards]

"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.

[blackheartbiohazards]

"I don't think anyone should be allowed to read or write this because it is disgusting to me" is authoritarian.

[blackheartbiohazards]

"Censorship of some topics in fiction and art is good and I would be happy if it were to be enacted in a way I approved of"

and

"some things should be banned from ever being written or read about in fiction"

are both authoritarian viewpoints to hold and express, even if you don't have the power to enact them.

If you hold these viewpoints you are holding authoritarian viewpoints.

[averageidiotenby]

DUDE IT’S PEDO FICS EVERYBODY THINKS THEY’RE NASTY

[blackheartbiohazards]

Let me explain this to you in simple terms.

Something being nasty is not a good reason to ban fiction about it.

If we accept that "something being nasty is a good reason to bad fiction about it" then we give a foot in the door for all the people who truly, genuinely believe that queer people are nasty to ban all queer literature.

This is not about defending bad people this is about defending the freedom of good people from tyranny, you moron.

[kawaii-pigeon]

I think if you take it to its logical extreme. Say, banning people from writing stories of sexual abuse. That could then be said "well ANY talk about sexual abuse is bad."

And from that, you could ban books that talk about it irl. Or books like how to recover after being abuse. If its not something to be discussed AT ALL.

[plague-of-insomnia]

The fact that I’ve seen this post in some form on my dash like 100x and each time there’s new idiots who do not get that you can’t have *some* censorship.

Either you’re for it or you aren’t.

The moment you agree that something should never, ever exist in fiction is the moment that anything can be banned.

Remember a while back how Tumblr banned a bunch of tags, including many popular innocuous ones that even people who are for censorship used and were upset about?

When censorship happens, stuff YOU like can and will be banned. That’s how it works.

Remember how a bunch of people had their accounts terminated here only last year for writing about their own sexual abuse?

When you ban “pedo” topics, say, any talk of child sexual abuse in any form, that means people can no longer write about their own experiences. It means people cannot educate others so they can learn how to protect themselves or get help from these situations.

Censorship is authoritarian. Full stop.

Even if “everyone” agrees something is “gross” and “shouldn’t exist,” that does not fucking matter.

Do you know who generally believes queer people are gross and shouldn’t exist??

The same people who are banning books left and right solely because they have queer characters or relationships.

The same people who attack and kill queer folk for simply exisiting.

This is not just some fandom matter or a case of being chronically online.

Protecting freedom of expression is essential, and if you do not get that, I don’t know what to say to you.

[scientia-rex]

And the people who keep bringing up child sex abuse as a reason for censorship are doing it very specifically because everyone feels like then they HAVE to agree with the person in favor of censorship.

It’s not that there isn’t widespread societal agreement on this. It’s that they want you backed into a rhetorical corner where you feel compelled to agree with them.

[ruffboi-mags]

Also, like, we KNOW how this shit shakes out in fandom because it's happened before.

In 2007, Livejournal capitulated to the "pedophilia and sex crimes!" cries of (hate group) Warriors 4 Innocence, and you know what communities got shut down? Slashfic communities. Sexual assault survivor support communities. Authors who'd written non-smut m/m fic even got caught up in it. It was DEVASTATING to fandom spaces. I think pretty much everyone knew at least one person whose account was literally DELETED, or were a member of a community that was wiped off the map because they were considerate enough to include topics like "sexual assault" or "BDSM" in the profiles under the badly-named category of "interests" to indicate that posts on said blogs or communities may include discussion of things like that. Even if it was for a SUPPORT group. And it was because a group of religious bigots came to LJ and said essentially "EVERYONE thinks it's gross and that it's promoting CSA, we should ban it."

Like, strikethrough and boldthrough were a large part of what propelled AO3 out of a more unfocused conversation on one person's blog about hosting a site INTENDED for fandom content, into being an actual archive and nonprofit. And it's a large part of why you won't find AO3 banning topics that you find "gross".

Censorship is authoritarian and it will ALWAYS have more collateral damage than you can imagine.

[life-in-present-tense]

Sorry, do y'all think that pedophilia is the only thing everyone agrees is gross? Oscar Wilde did not do jail time for you to wind up agreeing with the prosecutor.

Here's a list of every book banned, by state. Here's the Wikipedia article on most commonly challenged books in the US. Every. Single. Book. on both lists are there because "well it's [x], EVERYBODY thinks it's disgusting!" Or "it's [y] it's corrupting the youth and leading them to believe [abc] is okay!" Which are arguments I've seen made on this typically pretty leftist website. As previously mentioned, once you decide that it's okay to ban one thing, because it's disgusting, you shut down conversations about it at all and suddenly you find yourself making the same arguments as the people who want to ban And Tango Makes Three, or to date myself a little the people who burned Harry Potter books (before the TERFism).

We ALL get to write about what we want, or NONE OF US do. That's how censorship works.

[cryptotheism]

hi yes hello what the fuck is metrosexual lmfao

It's hard to explain to zoomers just how insanely homophobic the early 2000s were. If you were male, and like, washed your hair regularly, people would call you a faggot.

So, dudes who washed their hair and wore button ups developed the term "metrosexual" which meant "I care about my appearance but I am attracted to women and don't have sex with men."

[cryptotheism]

And not just "oh people called you gay to be mean" like they literally thought you were homosexual and hiding it. Women would literally be like "damn, I was super attracted to him, but I heard he wore shorts more than twice in a week, so I guess he must like men."

[cottoncandylesbo]

you couldn't even wear a scarf. the scarf made you gay.

[hazeldomain]

Can’t drink from a straw, it’s effeminate.

[trisscar368]

Messenger bags made you gay.

[life-in-present-tense]

Hair product? Aftershave that wasn't Axe or Old Spice, depending on age? Nah you gay

[captain-habit]

My suggestions are like

*hands you a fungus *hands you a fungus *hands you a-

[life-in-present-tense]

Reblog to be handed a fungus