derpalicious

i have an art blog now! mayhemchicken-artblog.tumblr.com

[mayhemchicken-artblog]

he is small. but he knows much.

[mayhemchicken]

what’s up everyone, i made an artblog (finally). check it out and maybe follow it? reblog some posts maybe? that would be swell of you

[creekfiend]

a funny thing about having conversations with people within institutions (academic in this case but also others) about gatekeeping, is that you end up having a conversation over and over in which you're like, "hey this alligator spike pit moat you have erected around your institution is keeping a lot of people out," and they're like, "well *I* navigated the alligator spike pit moat just fine," and you're like, "right. by dint of us having this conversation, you within the institution and me without, it is understood that you navigated the alligator spike pit moat. due to that being an inherent requirement of entering the institution," and they're like, "I don't think you understand the prestigious history of our alligator spike pit moat," and you're like, "is there a reason why there needs to be an alligator spike pit moat encircling the concept of higher education?" and they're like, "look, the alligator spike pit moat isn't for everyone. some people just aren't cut out for the alligator spike pit moat :)" and you're like, "right, yeah, like disabled people and people coming from poverty or unstable home environments or underserved communities or people dealing with difficult to navigate life events like pregnancy or abuse or prison or addiction or the death of a loved one, for example" and they're like, "how dare you imply that we are keeping those people out on purpose. it's their own problem if they can't wrestle the alligators and avoid the spikes while also disabled and/or poor and/or pregnant etc" and you're like, "well that seems evil," and they're like, "it sounds like maybe you're just bitter about the alligator spike pit moat because of your totally random individual experience with ONE bad alligator spike pit moat. have you considered therapy?" and you're like, "did you know that there's some patterns here in terms of how y'all are handling this stuff?" and they're like, "actually yes. we even have a department of alligator spike pit studies :)" and you're like, "that's great, how do I get access to and participate in those conversations?" and they're like, "well firstly you must cross the alligator spike pit moat"

[creekfiend]

if you can document that you have a medical condition that might make it challenging for you to navigate the alligator spike pit moat, they'll give you an extra 20 minutes to complete your navigation of the alligator spike pit moat

[creekfiend]

IMPORTANT: any injuries incurred as a result of navigating the alligator spike pit moat will be the sole responsibility of the injured parties. once you leave, the people who made you navigate the alligator spike pit moat and the institution that installed the alligator spike pit moat will never contact you again. except sometimes to ask you for more money.

[creekfiend]

iiiiii love this framing, you're so right

[ismisesionnachan]

Some thoughts I had in response to this post:

A great many people who crossed the same alligator spike pit moats as me told me it's wasn't that bad, and then casually revealed they were gifted grandpa's spike-proof suit and had alligator-charming lessons starting in toddlerhood, and mom's map of the spike layout to study. They thought this was normal, and genuinely believed they had navigated the alligator spike pit moat without an unusual amount of assistance.

As a corollary, the alligator spike pit moat does not, in fact, weed out unserious and/or terminally mediocre individuals, because many of those people have been gifted alligator-grappling tools and spike-resistant boots. Alligators and spikes deter a great many enthusiastic, hardworking, and talented people who don't have a bunch of fancy protective gear and extensive training in alligator spike pit navigation.

As a second corollary, I am very grateful for the unusual amount of assistance I received in crossing the alligator spike pit moat.

A disturbing number of people did, in fact, acknowledge that the alligator spike pit moat was intended to keep people like me away from people like them and loudly expressed their displeasure that I was not eaten by alligators. One of them used the word 'besmirch'.

An equally disturbing number of people have attempted to use my successful navigation of the alligator spike pit moat as proof that my kind are not being kept out on purpose-- if I navigated it, everyone else is clearly just being lazy. Many of these people seemed to hope that my adventure in the alligator spike pit moat would make me see their point of view re: the alligator spike pit moat being necessary to ensure meritocracy bootstraps were happening in a meritorious and bootstrappy manner. It did the opposite.

TLdr: I have two STEM degrees from institutions known for the viciousness of the alligators and sharpness of the spikes in their alligator spike pit moats. This is not sour grapes. Fuck the alligator spike pit moat.

[chic-a-gigot]

L'Art et la mode, no. 29, vol. 17, 18 juillet 1896, Paris. Initial letter, with friend. Bibliothèque nationale de France

[tattahitotsunosaetayarikata-dea]

my upward spiral

[a-book-of-creatures]

tornado 🌪

[theundergroundwoman]

one thing about me is I love brutalism. I love concrete. I love not living in a house with cardboard walls and I love looking at a building and thinking this imposing boy would survive a nuclear war

[theundergroundwoman]

I’m sorry for thinking that grim brutalist design and the vibrant resilience of nature go hand in hand. I’m sorry for seeing how striking, atmospheric and refreshing that looks. I’m right though

[theundergroundwoman]

society if we started making places look like this again just with more plants

[theundergroundwoman]

@c--vsm you literally get it bestie

[vigilskept]

society if people stopped backing established directors to make dogshit adaptations of classics and handed a big fuck off hollywood budget to a female tunisian director to make a film about dido

[digitaldiscipline]

This is the 85 year old creator of Roger Rabbit:

[clickbeetle]

i love seeing cardinals and bluejays together i’m always like “hehe.. evil siblings”

[clickbeetle]

this is what i’m all about babyyyyy

[brydeswhale]

They’re not even related. Jays are a type of corvid, like crows and magpies, and Cardinals are a grosbeak.

[watcherscrown]

well you see, they are both birds and they both have fun hats. hope this helps

[memewhore]

[dark-magician-girl-meets-world]

A lot of people think it's a funny joke to tell their hydra friend, "Two heads are better than one!" Some of them even think they're being supportive. But just think about what you're actually saying. Would you tell any of your other friends that you think it would be better if they died? Because that's exactly what you're saying. Two heads grow back, but neither of them are the first head. That head dies, and that's the head you're talking to. And that's not the worst part either; the worst part is that your hydra friends will have heard this so many times, they might just agree. Every hydra head has to live with the fact that if they got chopped off, the hydra they live on would become stronger and more dangerous. They have to make the choice every day to keep living even though it makes their body weaker, and they're right to do it! That is sacred, and we should celebrate it. Support them! Tell them not to do anything they can't take back. Tell them to quit while they're a head.

[toskarin]

[surrounded exclusively by the highly cultivated circle of people I don't find it difficult to be around] it's crazy how every media property I dislike is widely panned yet still succeeds

[pmamtraveller]

"Break Free," created by artist Disha Dua.

[bigbigbigtruck]

i’ll be real, kitten, daddy needs multiple wealthy and powerful folks to die in a painful, drawn-out, and generationally humiliating manner

[kurzler]

a quick psa to anyone recently getting into greek mythology and is a victim of tumblr and/or tiktok misconceptions:

-there is no shame in being introduced to mytholgy from something like percy jackson, epic the musical or anything like that, but keep in mind that actual myths are going to be VERY different from modern retellings

-the myth of medusa you probably know (her being a victim of poseidon and being cursed by athena) isn't 100% accurate to GREEK mythology (look up ovid)

-there is no version of persephone's abduction in which persephone willingly stays with hades, that's a tumblr invention (look up homeric hymn to demeter)

-as much as i would like it, no, cerberus' name does not mean "spot" (probably a misunderstanding from this wikipedia article)

-zeus isn't the only god who does terrible things to women, your fav male god probably has done the same

-on that note, your fav greek hero has probably done some heinous shit as well

-gods are more complicated than simply being "god of [insert thing]", many titles overlap between gods and some may even change depending on where they were worshipped

-also, apollo and artemis being the gods of the sun and the moon isn't 100% accurate, their main aspects as deities originally were music and the hunt

-titans and gods aren't two wholly different concepts, titan is just the word used to decribe the generation of gods before the olympians

-hector isn't the villain some people make him out to be

-hephaestus WAS married to aphrodite. they divorced. yes, divorce was a thing in ancient greece. hephaestus' wife is aglaia

-ancient greek society didn't have the same concepts of sexuality that we have now, it's incorrect to describe virgin goddesses like artemis and athena as lesbians, BUT it's also not wholly accurate to describe them as aromantic/asexual, it's more complex than that

-you can never fully understand certain myths if you don't understand the societal context in which they were told

-myths have lots and lots of retellings, there isn't one singular "canon", but we can try to distinguish between older and newer versions and bewteen greek and roman versions

-most of what you know about sparta is probably incorrect

-reading/waching retellings is not a substitute to reading the original myths, read the iliad! read the odyssey! i know they may seem intimidating, but they're much more entertaining than you may think

greek mythology is so complex and interesting, don't go into it with preconcieved notions! try to be open to learn!

[burntblueberrywaffles]

[sygol]

Hi I'm 1 years old and learning to read through your posts. Cigarette.

very good job using your words! will someone get this toddling bitch a smoke

[starlightomatic]

i’ve invented a new microwave its called microwave 2. it randomly makes your food colder 9% of the time. don’t worry i’ve already entered your home and replaced your old microwave with it. im very good at technology

[starlightomatic]

this is about google’s ai overview

[finnglas]

gonna be real i thought this was just about normal microwaves