Lots of Planets Have a Death Star

30 with a fondness for Netflix binging, theme park adventures, and side eye served with snark

[lotsofplanetshaveadeathstar]

Changes...

It's been a minute, and, in a bit of a plot twist, I'm not here bc it's been a Rough Day™ (I haven't had one of those in a bit, knocking on all the wood that I didn't just jinx that). Instead, I'm here to muse about *changes*, but not in the normal sense, I guess?

So I do A LOT of things by myself. Straight facts, no bias. There's really no other option when you're single and most of your friends are living elsewhere and/or in relationships and/or also do shift work that makes their schedules weird and somewhat unpredictable and may also be somewhat age incompatible for hanging out. That's not the issue here. I actually encourage everyone to do things on their own bc it's such a great way for you to learn about yourself and grow and be comfortable with yourself. I can remember the first time I went out to eat by myself (bc the place didn't have online ordering or to-go options), and it was weird for a little bit, but it went away pretty fast and I got real comfortable doing a lot more things on my own - movies, theme parks, etc. There are so many benefits to doing these things on your own, although you could argue that they could mostly be boiled down to various flavors of freedom, but still. I'm usually okay with this situation bc I enjoy the freedom to make whatever choices I want and do things exactly how I want to do them.

The other night, I was doing a solo night at HHN with the goal of hitting each house twice (I ALMOST made it too, but there were more people than normal bc of Hurricane Milton and I decided to eat at the Leaky Cauldron instead of from a food booth, so I missed it by one run, but it was Insidious, so I'm not that upset), a plan which really only works if you're by yourself bc that's a looooong night (I did over 10 miles) and a metric buttload of standing in lines (I got through so many episodes of my podcast, it was great), and I also don't really do things like bathroom breaks, so... All this to say that this particular event is something that works for how I usually do things by myself (when we go in a week with my sister for her one trip, this is absolutely not how I will be approaching the night, just for clarity), and I definitely got some sense of satisfaction for keeping going until the end of the night and basically hitting my goal (again, Insidious and I are not besties).

However...

I was in line for... I wanna say Triplets of Terror? I'd gotten my one allowed drink of the night (Soured Sunshine, an absolute gem of a bourbon drink that I wanna try making with orange liqueur instead of orange Fanta), which I usually try to get before getting in line for Insidious bc that house is so much more manageable with a slight buzz than straight sober, but I had deviated from my projected lineup earlier in the night when Insidious was posted lower than the three other houses I hadn't done yet and I knew I should jump on it then which left me literally no time to go all the way across the park to get my drink and come back.

So I'm standing in this line by myself, sipping my drink, and idk what it was exactly but the drink hit differently than the other times I've had it, and I started getting Emotional™.

I have friends who are coming down for a visit this weekend into early next week with their baby for their first trip down here since before the baby was born, and we're planning to meet up at some point during their stay. I really cherish these guys, and I'm genuinely excited to see them and meet their baby, like I want to try to get a haircut before they get here (I would've had one already if not for Milton messing everything up) and I want to make sure I'm dressed well bc of that one meme of the guy who dressed in a suit to meet his baby niece in the hospital bc "first impressions matter", and all of a sudden, I'm tearing up in line, and I'm thinking "if anybody notices me rn they're gonna think I'm scared of going in this house by myself", which is both untrue and also would never happen bc everyone around me was part of a group.

Immediately after this, I get hit with this massive wave of feelings that boil down to "I want to be with someone", in every way that statement can be interpreted.

All around me are groups of people playing the Official Pastime of HHN Lines, Heads Up, they're talking, laughing, standing around on their phones but still obviously in a group. This part doesn't needle me as much, as I've done HHN several times this year and in the past with other people, and it's got its ups and downs for sure. But the group in front of me was made up of three couples, and it was like a switch flipped between my brain and my heart and all of a sudden, I was filled with a deep well of longing for something I've yet to have - a person.

At that moment, all I wanted was someone to be there with me, to hold my hand, to lean on, to talk to about absolutely nothing, to kiss me.

I've had what could be termed as a long-ass dry spell, and I'll be very honest that it's 95% self-inflicted. I very rarely find myself wanting to kiss someone else, and if I do, it's more a passing thought that sort of wafts into my head and dissipates nearly as quickly. But then, in that line...

I should add that the last time I had these kinds of urges, it was after several tequila lemons at my friends' wedding (I'm not to be trusted in New York with substances of any kind around guys who show the slightest interest in me...). So maybe it was connected to the fact that I'd been texting with my friend before all this went down. But still, I was standing in line and thinking that if a guy, for whatever insane reason, decided to talk to me and made any kind of hint, that I'd be echoing Chappell Roan (in a PG-13 max kind of way).

Obviously, and probably thankfully, this did not happen. A man did talk to me in a line later, but it was several hours after these feelings had left and he felt a little too old for anything but a short chat on if I had done Major Sweets before (yes), if it was scary (no), and what the best houses were (I panicked and said either Major Sweets or Slaughter Sinema 2, but for me it's honestly anything that's not Insidious, AQP, or Monsters (sry bby, you're just not that great this year)).

I've had times before where I want to be with someone, but they're usually fairly short-lived. I'm not in a place where I feel like I can start any kind of meaningful romantic relationship, and I'll admit that most of the reasons are me-problems - I'm not where I thought I'd be, I still work an hourly job at a theme park, I'm an older second-degree seeking student, I live at home still (mostly no ragrets on that one though, no rent is so sweet). But having entered a new decade of age this year, I think my usual attitude and thought processes are entering a new era of their own. I know that I'm not old, but I'm not super young anymore either. Time is moving forward, and things won't stay put just because I may not feel or think I'm ready for them yet.

While under that tipsy feeling, I decided to text my friend and tell her basically exactly what was happening (the bare bones of it, that I was so excited to see them and meet the baby that it was making me almost cry, not the other stuff), and I don't regret that for a second, because her response was heartwarming and it's giving me a lot to look forward to later this week.

I'm hoping that sometime soon I'll be standing in a line for a house with someone who wants to be there with me as much as I want to be there with them, and that maybe they'll hold my hand (if it's not too hot and humid) in line and walk behind me through the house and maybe hold my shoulders until we're out the other side and talk and laugh and whatever else may happen. It's very much not likely to happen, but the power of dreams isn't just that they give you something to hope for, it's that they have the staying power to keep you hoping, and hopefully moving, to make them real.

And if it takes more than a couple years for this to happen, that's okay. If it doesn't happen, for any and whatever reason, that's okay too. Even if it's hard to understand emotionally sometimes, I really do know that we're all on our own paths and mine is taking me where I need to go. It's just taking the scenic, very curvy and non-direct way possible, but that just gives me more time to enjoy the view.

[themaybeman]

[lotsofplanetshaveadeathstar]

lmao this just reminds me of the time that my sister and I were at practice and she came over to tell me something about our mom, either she needed me for something or my sister was delivering a message from her, and another girl who had been on the team with us for years at this point just whirled around and, with the most shocked face of any human ever, went " YOU'RE SISTERS???!??" and I'm pretty sure my sister and I made faces just like this as we said "... yeah" (we don't look alike, so if you didn't already know we're related, it's not something you would come up with on your own)

[gt-zel]

I would give anything to not give a sh*t about you

[emmaestrella]

i need to dance like jack ajr just go batshit crazy and have fun he looks like hes having the time of his life in EVERY FUCKING VIDEO ive seen of him dancing and i need that in my life

[lotsofplanetshaveadeathstar]

I truly think EVERYONE needs to take this lesson from Jack and apply it to their own lives

Life is too short not to dance with the joy that he does

[themaybeman]

god. just… the change in 2085’s lyrics from “you’ve gotta get better, you’re all that i’ve got” to “i’ve gotta get better, i’m all that i’ve got”

[starry-lemonaid]

“don’t take forever you don’t have that long you gotta get better you’re all that i’ve got” AND WHAT IF I CRY???? HUH????? WHAT ABOUT IT?????? “you can be you and i’ll be the rest” SHUT???? THE???? FUCK???? UP?????

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

[qqueenofhades]

I understand how important it is to be able to criticize the President, and am not at all of the belief he should be beyond critique, but the critiquing of Biden makes me so nervous. (That's not to say I agree with every decision he's made - I absolutely do not). But I feel like people see things he's done wrong and decide they won't vote for him because of it. I'm not sure if enough people have the ability to see that he's done things wrong but also is our only hope of staving off literal fascism.

So many people talk about how sick they are of it constantly being a lesser of two evils situation, constantly having to vote for a candidate they hate because the other side is worse (I heard it in 2020, 2022, etc), and I guess I just- I don't really get it? We're here because they didn't do that in 2016. All of this could've been avoided had the result been different then. I just feel like people don't comprehend how different of a place we'd be in if Hillary won and engage in all this cognitive dissonance to make themselves feel better about being part of the reason she didn't.

Like.... this has been a long-running topic of discussion on my blog, not least because it is so inexplicable and maddening. It also shows how terribly shallow most people's understanding of the American political process is, and how toxic the "I can only vote for a candidate if every single personal belief/position of theirs matches mine" belief is, as well as how much damage it has done to American democracy even (and indeed, especially) by people who technically don't identify as right-wing. Yell at Republicans all you like (God knows I do, because they're the worst people on earth) but they vote. Every time. Every election. Every candidate. Whereas the Democratic electorate still holds out for Mister Perfect, and it very definitely is Mister Perfect. The amount of "evil HRC!!!" Republican-poisoned Kool-Aid that so-called progressives drank in 2016, and then afterward when they insisted they could have voted for someone like Elizabeth Warren and then didn't do that in 2020, is... baffing.

Frankly, I don't care if Hillary Clinton's personal positions on XYZ issue were the most Neoliberal Corporate Centrist Shill to Ever Shill (and Online Leftists' intellectual skills being what they are, I seriously doubt that they were using any of those words correctly and/or accurately). American policy is not made by "personal dictate of the ruler," or at least it shouldn't be, because we are not an absolute monarchy. We rely on the operation of a system with input from many people. As such, if Hillary had been elected, we would have 2-3 new liberal justices on SCOTUS and have secured civil and environmental rights for the next generation. Roe would be intact, and all the other terrible rulings that SCOTUS has recently handed down wouldn't have happened. We wouldn't have had January 6th, the attempt to stage a coup, all the tawdry scandals, our national security being at risk because of Trump stealing classified documents and probably selling them to Russia and/or Saudi Arabia, etc etc. If you think that's in any way an equivalent amount of evil to what would have happened if Hillary was elected, or if she was "still evil!!!," then I honestly don't know what to tell you. She could fucking murder puppies in her spare time if she had preserved SCOTUS for us, WHICH SHE WOULD HAVE, BECAUSE SHE WARNED US EXACTLY WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN.

(Hoo. Sorry. Still steamed. 2016 war flashbacks, again.)

In short, Hillary would have been a solid continuity Democrat and she would have signed whatever legislation a Democratic House and Senate passed, not to mention been hugely inspiring as the first female president. But because it's so important to the Online Leftists' moral sense of themselves that BOTH PARTIES ARE THE SAME!!!, they can't possibly acknowledge that ever being a factor, and/or admit that they have any culpability in not voting for her in 2016. It's like when you read the British press about any of the UK's equally numerous problems, and they BEND OVER BACKWARD to avoid mentioning that Brexit might be a factor. They just can't mention it, because then that means they might have made the wrong choice in pulling for it as hard as they did, and blah blah Sovereignty.

Basically, if HRC had been elected president, everything would be so much less terrible and terrifying all the time, we would be talking about her successor in 2024 as someone else who could be the "first," we could explore handing the reins over to Kamala as a Black/Asian woman, we could promote Buttigieg as the first gay president, etc etc. But because 2016 was so catastrophically fucked up, we are in damage control mode for the immediate future and every election is just as pivotal. And yet, because people think that the only thing that matters is a presidential candidate's personal views, we're stuck having the same old arguments and desperately begging people over and over to please vote against fascism, since that somehow isn't self-evident enough on its own. Yikes on Bikes.

[saltedweather]

I’d like to add something.

But I feel like people see things he's done wrong and decide they won't vote for him because of it. 

This is half of it, sure. The other half is that people don’t see things he’s done right.

When the DEA lifted restrictions on telehealth prescriptions, it was reported as if they were arbitrarily putting restrictions into place. The fact that they were clearly trying to be as lenient as possible without breaking the law (passed with bipartisan Congressional support in, IIRC, 2016), just straight-up was not part of the narrative. (When I had my own telehealth appointment last month, I specifically asked my doctor about this. That DEA policy was a best-case scenario for telehealth.)

When he put into place a huge funding package to help unhoused people get access to mental and physical healthcare, short-term and long-term housing, and other needs - crucially, as identified by the local community in conversation with them - it just. was not. around the social media web. Except from Fox, where it was reported as “Biden gives millions of dollars to drug addicts, transgender teens” (since access to hormones and therapy is a major need of many homeless teenagers, and since safe injection sites and needle exchanges are a major need of many unhoused populations).

His attempt at student debt relief was blocked by Republican judges, many of whom were appointed by Trump, since Mitch McConnell et al blocked Obama from appointing tons of positions in his last few years in office. I specifically remember begging people to consider the Supreme Court - one vacancy already, Ruth Bader Ginsburg old and not likely to make it another four years - during the 2016 election, and people said it didn’t matter.

When his administration allotted funding to fix the most severely-damaged and frequently-traveled bridges on the highway system, I saw it going around tumblr as “lol, they’re only fixing nine of them” instead of the first fucking time in ages there’s even been an attempt at infrastructure repair.

He’s currently trying to expand Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), or Dreamer, access to healthcare - i.e., allowing undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children to obtain insurance under the Affordable Care Act. I have not seen a single tumblr post about this.

He has vetoed two Republican-led bills, both of which were written specifically to overturn policies they didn’t like because they were potentially good for the environment, or just acknowledged the existence of the environment.

Biden’s first veto was of a law Republicans were trying to pass that would make it illegal for investment fund managers, at least those whose funds include retirement savings, to consider potential risks from climate change. The Dept. of Labor had said it was legal, not even required but allowed, for the manager of an investment fund who has a bunch of retirement savings accounts he’s supposed to oversee to basically decide not to invest in something that’s going to be riskier than the numbers say because of climate change, like beachfront property somewhere the waterline’s been rising by 18″ per year. So, by vetoing that bill, he allows investment fund managers to safeguard retirement savings funds in their care.

His second veto was another Republican-led bill trying to overturn a rule the EPA had put into place. They were restricting agricultural run-off into waterways. It’s been hard to find details on this, because even CNN, the allegedly left-wing source, spends more time explaining why Republicans say it’s overreach than, like, telling you what it actually does. It’s either the EPA rule limiting PFAS, chemicals that cause severe health problems and don’t degrade, in waterways, or it’s the “rule” that was just them repealing the Trump changes that basically just said they didn’t have any real power to regulate waterways.

Part of why people don’t like Biden is, yes, because they disagree with some of what he has done (or, frankly, they disagree with what they’ve been told he has done, which often has only a passing resemblance to his actual actions), but a larger part, IMO, is that - as I keep hearing - he isn’t doing anything, isn’t doing enough, etc. But... he’s doing a LOT.

It’s just very, very difficult to figure that out from social media, because “president issues an executive order to entire administration to expand affordable childcare, specific details include expansions of grants and application processes, expanding and shifting budget for family needs...” etc... does not get the kinds of interactions that make social media algorithms happy, and/because they don’t fit the narratives of “both sides are the same” OR “Biden is useless and old.” An article that says “Biden  breaks railroad strike” is going to get a LOT of comments, hiiiiilarious replies dunking on Biden without having read the article, jokes, incredibly angry replies, some of which have merit and others less so, and a bunch of defensive Democrat-or-bust folks, some of whom ALSO didn’t read the article, fighting all of the above.

So on algorithm-driven social media likes, the negative article, true or not, fair or not, is going to be seen by a lot more people, because those angry comment fights and rage-faces keep eyeballs on screens and those eyeballs churn out ad dollars like a perpetual motion machine. But the boring-but-true, good-news-but-complicated, government-functioning-as-best-intentions-hope article above? That’s not gonna get LOL dunks or laugh-cry reacts or angry Republicans or leftists who can score a couple points on The Neoliberal Liberal Shill Dems. Most people won’t read the whole thing. They’ll scroll past it. So not many ad dollars, so the algorithm doesn’t boost it, and even if rad-left tumblr bloggers and influencers and podcasters SEE it, they’re not going to talk about it for the same reason - it doesn’t fit their narrative.

[jhscdood]

Anyone who tries to convince you that voting is pointless because "both parties are the same" is trying to suppress your vote.

[beemovieerotica]

pirates of the caribbean really introduced an eldritch octopus man who kills indiscriminately and torments the dead as their poster villain and then you watch the movies and it's like, "oh no, actually the worst villain in this series is a small white british man who functions as the herald of capitalism" and that was very very brave of them

[theunvanquishedzims]

#here is a man so heartless he has literally cut his own heart out of his chest #but he's still not as evil as the fucking east india trading company

[lotsofplanetshaveadeathstar]

Random snippet that's been floating around my head that needs to get out

Some backstory: I do a Goodreads challenge every year and it's always for 100 books. This year, however, I did not read a book basically from mid-September until sometime in November bc I truly did not have time between school, work, and HHN. However, I have a massive curated TBR that I use to request books from the local library/request that the local library buy specific books and deliver them to my house, which I sometimes do weeks/months in advance of those books being released, which is a long-winded way of saying that I still had books being delivered to my house on a weekly (at minimum) basis. So it got to be the second week of December and I needed to read something like 15 books to hit my goal (which I did, and I even got in an extra for 101 total for the year), so I'm speeding through these books as fast as I can, which is fairly easy due to the type of book I usually read (YA romance or thriller with the occasional adult fiction or nonfiction thrown in the mix). However, there was one YA historical fiction that was so well written, especially with how the author handled the romance plot, that it had me *feeling* things (nothing dirty, you pervs). The longing, the denial, the little touches, it all came together to produce a wonderfully bittersweet story that touched my heart and my brain and my soul in such a way that had me longing for a situation of my own (or at least, what I imagine that would look like since I've never had a situation of my own). As a result, there's been a snippet of a story rattling around in my brain, which is something that actually happens somewhat frequently and I always mean to write those snippets down but I never do, so this time, I'm actually going to do it. So without further ado, here's a tiny snippet of a love story, as told from the point of the guy when he realizes he loves the girl next to him:

"Someday, when I'm 85 and can't remember what I had for breakfast or what shirt I wore the day before, I'll still be able to recall the first time I was struck by lightning.

I was sitting on the couch in my apartment watching a movie, something I did fairly frequently. Only this time was different. This time, she was sitting next to me.

The night hadn't started out as anything special. The movie was one we had both seen before, and it was mainly serving as background noise while we scrolled on our phones, alternating showing each other something funny we came across and talking about random nothings. Slowly, our exchanges began to taper off as exhaustion from the long, busy day began to set in. With every blink, my eyes stayed closed longer and longer and eventually stayed closed, until I felt my phone fall out of my hand and land on my knee before sliding to the floor. I began to reach for it when I realized there was something warm on my shoulder. It was heavy too, but in a good way, a solid, comforting warmth. She had fallen asleep and her head was on my shoulder.

For a moment, I just sat there, stunned. No one had ever fallen asleep on me before, although if that were by choice or not, I had no idea. I looked down at her as she slept, her face peaceful and free of stress and just... beautiful. The word appeared in my head as simple as if it had always been there, waiting for me to realize what I'd always known. It felt like the most ordinary revelation, something so profound but also completely normal and accepted.

Without another thought, I lowered my head and gently kissed her forehead just below her soft brown hair. At my touch, she stirred, her features momentarily scrunching and then smoothing again as she lifted her head from my shoulder and blinked, taking in her surroundings and turning her face towards mine. She gave me a tiny smile that seemed to fill her entire face before closing her eyes again and laying her head back on my shoulder, her body snuggling closer now.

That's when I knew - I was in love with her. And the bolt of that realization felt powerful enough to sustain me for the rest of my life, as long as the rest of my life was spent by her side."

Welp, there it is. I have no idea if it's good (I feel like I'm very good at formal writing and stream-of-consciousness word vomit, and less so with construction of narratives and making things sound human) or if anybody will even like it if they ever read it, but it's out there and yeah. Here's hoping that one day, something like this will happen to me (and to you, reader, if you so desire (see, good at the formal)).

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[pedrropascal]

THEY’RE A FAMILY

[skopostheorie]

This meme is inescapable on French insta so I'm posting it here for all to enjoy

[lotsofplanetshaveadeathstar]

"Can it." 🤣🤣🤣

[djo]

Let it be written in Song that Din Djarin is accepting this foundling as his own. You are now Din Grogu, Mandalorian apprentice.

THE MANDALORIAN Season 1 | Season 3

[kosmogrl]

[lotsofplanetshaveadeathstar]

yes please, I just want the attention tbh

[lotsofplanetshaveadeathstar]

This has been the epitome of a Rough Week™ and I just want it to be over. This is shaping up to just not be my year as a whole and I don't know how I'm going to get through it if it is.

(I'm not in danger or thinking of doing something bad, so if anybody actually reads my posts, there is no cause for panic. I'm just having a bad time and I need to get it out somewhere where it won't be seen by people who actually know me or show up on my Timehop in the future to torture me with memories of this time.)