Sweets, Tea, and Books @lilliannamei - Tumblr Blog

I took a lot of Shakespeare in school. I love Shakespeare. When someone knows how to perform it, and not just recite it, wow. It gets me in the guts.

Knowing that, my wife sent me this video, and holy hannah, did it hit hard. For those who don't know, this monologue was from a play called Sir Thomas More. The monologue itself is attributed to Shakespeare, the play though, had many authors due to repeated censorship, impracticality and revisions. This play was rarely performed because there's something like 50 speaking roles, and not a lot of them were easily recycled characters, so you couldn't just chuck on a different costume and be someone else. Just for reference, I think most Shakespeare plays capped out at around 20 max, with several of them able to be swapped actors.

But that is just context. What Ian McKellen performs in this scene is magic. Absolutely. I was in tears watching this. He knows and loves these words and is able to derive meaning and understanding.

And of course, it is incredibly timely.

The idea is that the "strangers" (or immigrants) are unwelcome in England, but Englishmen have the expectation that they should be welcomed elsewhere. Not only that, but the speech demands empathy for the immigrants and the rejection of the lawlessness of the civil unrest of a mob.

I have watched this clip probably ten times today.

I live in Canada. We like to think of ourselves as opposed to ideas like immigration intolerance and ultra-conservative beliefs. And compared to some, that may be true.

Truth is, we aren't immune. So many people out there are in that mob, shouting "the strangers should be removed," just as other nations in this world are doing.

And I'm sorry for it.

I just want people to open their hearts and hold people close. Nobody is a stranger. Everyone should be welcome.

lil-peebo

I used to see this image all the time in December but now literally nobody cares. We as a society have forgotten him. All he wanted was to offer us a nice treat and what did we do? We abandoned him. Hell has taken refuge in our hearts and its fires have burned to ash all warmth and love. We should be ashamed.

videogamesincolor

Three hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open in

Ten days ago, the social chat app Discord announced that it would launch “teen-by-default” settings for its global audience. As part of this update, all new and existing users worldwide will have a teen-appropriate experience, with updated communication settings, restricted access to age-gated spaces, and content filtering that preserves privacy and meaningful connections, the platform said. This, of course, means that to use Discord the way you are used to, you’ll have to let it scan your face, and the internet wasn’t happy. Many communities quickly announced their move to other platforms. Others, like the security researcher Celeste, who goes by the handle vmfunc, were convinced there would be a workaround. Together with two other researchers, they set out to look into Persona, the San Francisco-based startup that’s used by Discord for biometric identity verification – and found a Persona frontend exposed to the open internet on a US government authorized server.

storyweavingspider

“Beyond offering simple services to estimate your age, Persona’s exposed code compares your selfie to watchlist photos using facial recognition, screens you against 14 categories of adverse media from mentions of terrorism to espionage, and tags reports with codenames from active intelligence programs consisting of public-private partnerships to combat online child exploitative material, cannabis trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, romance fraud, money laundering, and illegal wildlife trade.”

Nightmare world

ladyaldhelm

HOW TO TURN OFF GOOGLE AI in GMAIL:

Open Gmail in your browser

Click on the Gear Icon ⚙️ in the upper right

In the General Tab, scroll down to "Smart Features" and UNCHECK THE BOX. It is about halfway down.

Then, right below that is Google Workspace smart features. Click on the "Manage Workspace Smart Features" and make sure both toggles are OFF

bumblebeebats

Drives me up the absolute wall when people have on their dating profiles just "I like food, communication, and going places... 🥰✨️" okay???? me, I HATE food. im looking for someone with whom I can starve to death in a hole. in silence. if everything you have told me about yourself could also be said of like, a migratory bird, then what are we doing. what are we doing

elodieunderglass

One of my most gorgeous and sexy and unaccountably single friends was over drinking coffee at mine and venting about this and I was like, trying to provide a sounding board - oh darling - but surely there are a FEW people on the internet you could condescend to hook up with? even if they’re boring? - and they picked up their dating app and started scrolling through it for me to see, like one of those videos where “in the hall of the mountain king” is playing over it.

for swipe after swipe, every single person had put down a variation of “I like roast dinners and walks on the beach.”

But why roast dinners particularly? I desperately wanted to know.

Dunno. They all started doing it at the same time. You see the problem, don’t you -

I do, I said, one person might be a bit uncreative, and forgivable, but this is like a contagious virus.

Puts me off, said my friend, one would be fine, but if they’re all doing it, you don’t even want to pick one up for a fuck, because you might catch it too.

Perhaps we should just be glad that they are having so much fun with their roast dinners and long walks, I suggested.

My friend said bitterly: And their total absence of brain activity?

I said, And that. They must be very successful at finding each other.

And that was the consolation to be salvaged. That at least the people seem to be pairing off.

darlingofdots

Oooh in that context, roast dinners are almost definitely code for "traditional family life where my wife cooks an elaborate meal for me." If they just liked food, they'd say that. If they liked cooking, they'd say that. "Roast dinners" is very specific. Ew.

elodieunderglass

Yes!!! I have evolved a few half-baked theories:

It’s a known code for people to find each other. specifically, as you say, people looking for very trad relationships. If you don’t use the code yourself, you will simply be puzzled or irritated

More hilariously, it describes a type of sexual proclivity or activity that lots of us aren’t involved in, but IYKYK

The algorithm that pushes matches to my friend was mistrained, poisoned or glitchy in some way and was piling identical profiles together

Alternatively, my friend’s preferences might somehow be unintentionally incentivising those profiles

My friend accidentally left the “roast dinner” setting ticked when they applied for the app

They’re bots of some kind, possibly even provided by the dating app to make it seem like there are SWARMS of people wanting to meet you.

They’ve all caught a sort of parasite that makes them want to select a compatible partner in conditions that the parasite loves. Perhaps it likes getting a large meal and a walk by the beach because it returns to the sea to breed.

They’re scammers and have determined that this string of words is really convincing to gullible vulnerable people whose bank accounts need draining.

They’re using generative AI to come up with neutral and approachable profiles

They seriously like roast dinners THAT MUCH

It’s an unexpectedly successful gambit describing a type of person considered very sexually desirable, and for every gorgeous person who turns their nose up, 5 people are JUMPING at the chance to snatch up a dinner-eating walker

They are letting their dogs write the profiles

They are actually, as OP hinted but did not state, migratory birds for whom something has gone very wrong

going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi

I work with kids and I've had two occasions where a little boy straight up won't listen to anything I say because I'm a woman. and like yeah he's gonna continue to be raised by terrible role models and probably grow up to be a sexist douchebag but I have three hours a week to get through to him and so far I'm crushing it. I got six year old boys who previously didn't listen to a word I said telling their shitty dads to not speak to me like that. yeah that's right I'm the teacher making your kid woke. go fuck yourself about it.

going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi

you left your kid with me and I taught him that women are people. and also to question authority. and also how to kick someone in the nuts. have fun with that.

rainbow-demoness

Do you have advice for people wishing to also learn the skill of getting through to little boys who've been taught not to listen to women?

going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi

honestly there's nothing that's going to work for every kid but I've found just turning kid behavior back on them usually works pretty well. like if they say something about "girls are like this and boys are like that" be like why. why. why. why. exactly the way little kids do. they'll try to come up with an answer but usually after like five rounds of me asking why they'll eventually be like huh. idk.

in my case it definitely helps that I teach kids martial arts classes at a boxing gym with a lot of women. so little boys just factually cannot tell me that girls can't fight or aren't strong or something, because they're constantly surrounded by proof that isn't true. also rules are very different in a boxing gym so if a kid is being a little shit I'm allowed to pick them up and put them in upside down air jail. you probably can't do this in most contexts.

I think the biggest thing is that they need to see men and other boys listening to women. they're following the example that's been set for that. at home maybe their dad never listens to their mom, but when they show up at my class all the other boys are following my instructions. peer pressure is real and you can use it to your advantage. I make a point to tell the biggest buffest manliest dudes what to do in front of the little boys. now this works because those dudes already listen to me, but getting any dudes to follow your instructions could probably work.

the best punishment is the natural consequences of your behavior. if a kid isn't going to listen to me, he doesn't get to do class. this works because class is fun and he wants to kick stuff and hit people with noodles. kids want to have fun more than they want to misbehave. as long as listening to me is more fun than misbehaving, they'll listen.

because these boys are learning this behavior from their dads, the dads also tend to be the kind of tough strict emotionally distant parents that would yell at "girly" behavior or crying. even when I'm strict with the kids, I never yell, I obviously never hurt them, and I always listen. they want to yap at me about pokemon or youtubers. it can be tough when they're really sexist at the beginning but eventually they will show you something that their dad wouldn't approve of, whether they want a pink noodle or quietly mention they like a girly show. this is the part where you simultaneously act like it's no big deal while encouraging it. you need show it's completely normal for a boy to want or like that. if you can, bring up another boy or man they know who likes the same thing. I always show off my nails to the kids and bring over the guy who also paints his nails. you'll probably get "boys can do that?" comments and I usually just go "well he's a boy and he did it, so unless his hand falls off right now I think it's okay"

for me, it's always eventually gotten to a point where the boys realize that everyone else thinks it's normal to listen to women, and that if they want to have fun they need to listen too. they also realize that these people and these women are nicer and listen to them more than their dad does. they notice how all these nice people that make them happy talk to women very differently than their dad does. when those boys yelled at their dads for being rude to me, I made a point to thank them and say that they were right and their dads were rude.

encouraging the behavior you want to see is even more important than punishing the behavior you don't want to see. you can't tell kids what not to do without giving them something to replace the behavior with.

thoodleoo

the joy of working with middle school aged children is that, regardless of how long you've been doing it, they will always find novel ways to annoy and confuse you, which is okay because that's the natural state of the middle school aged child. anyway suffice it to say that for the past three weeks of school my 6th grade class has been greeting me at my door by lining up outside of it, playing the national anthem, and saluting me as i walk in.

jouster-ari

What they're doing to you:

prokopetz

Remember: toe beans are the sign of a killer.

prokopetz

Funnily enough, I’m not 100% joking. While many animals have paw pads, the particular kind of soft, squishy beans found on housecats are an adaptation for stealth. Squishy beans mean you’re looking at an ambush predator.

slippyflippers

These are the beans of a killer, Bella.

livingdeadpoetssociety

Casual reminder that the Palestine Children's Relief Fund has a 97% on Charity Navigator and you should donate to it if u can. Despite the limited external aid that's been allowed into Gaza, they've been able to distribute a lot of aid internally. And they are providing needed aid to Lebanon.

The Palestine Children's Relief Fund was established in 1992 by concerned humanitarians in the USA to bring injured and sick children for fr

silvermoon424

Nazis crashing the fuck out at Elmo for no reason is one of my new favorite genres. Literally this pic:

jeopardy-official

What is projection?

mortimermcmirestinks

tpwrtrmnky

Oh no, a plan I had today was cancelled, now I have to allocate that block of time to something else but it has Plan Residue all over it, fuck,

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

Fun fact! Saint Valentine was beheaded, and here is a photo of his supposed skull! (which is kept in a reliquary in rome because catholics are freaky that way)

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

I can never ever leave this website actually

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

Mr. Valentine wishing you a very happy valentines day from beyond the grave publicly displayed golden reliquary

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

in the tags i asked for skull-themed valentines cards and BOY HOWDY DID YA’LL DELIVER

from @hazel2468:

from @unrulygoose:

from @i-drew-a-ferret:

from @gaymedievaldruid, @amberstarthecat

and multiple skeletal puns from @deepdownimbologna

fantastic job on the lovely art and atrocious puns, everybody!

funeralcity

they are not “gay little fingerless gloves”. they sre my normal sized fingerless gloves of undisclosed sexuality.

teaboot

great-and-small

Hands down my fave thing about hurricane season is when zoos put their birds in the bathroom to protect them from the wind and we get images like this