In My Words

I'm Jeanne-Anne

[mapsontheweb]

US Elevation.

by @cstats1

[ginger-ale-official]

man the Appalachian mountains really aren’t shit huh

[archosaur-automaton]

The Rockies are new, young and virile and fresh from the Laramide orogeny, tall and lanky teenagers on the geological scale. the Appalachian mountains are old, formed hundreds of millions of years ago before dinosaurs walked the Earth. They are ancients, elders, witnesses to half a billion years of life coming and going. To be tall is not a virtue. To be small is not a sin. The Appalachians are eroding under the weight of time, slowly shrinking and returning to the Earth from which they sprang. Appreciate them while they are still here.

[beabaseball]

I do want to say real quick again about the age of the Appalachians…

They said “before dinosaurs,” but we have a cave here that began forming between 450 million to 550 million years ago.

There are no bones in that cave. No fossils. No nothing.

That’s because this cave began forming before bones existed on land, and had only just started to exist in the ocean. Shellfish hadn’t evolved yet. Limestone, which forms many caves, was just starting to become a more prevalent rock.

The mountains aren’t older than dinosaurs. They are older than bones.

[jumpingjacktrash]

see that little lump up at the top of minnesota? the sawtooth mountains? so small most places would just call them hills?

those are over a billion years old.

that’s why they’re so small. they’re the last ancient remnants of a lava flow 5 miles thick. the lava didn’t kill any dinosaurs. or any fish. or any animals at all. because there were no animals. you know what there was?

algae.

those mountains were 5 miles tall when the most advanced life on earth was algae.

so i’m just gonna go ahead and keep calling them mountains, even though all you need to climb them is hiking shoes and a nice afternoon. because a place where you can crouch down and touch basalt that was lava before leaves were invented deserves some respect.

[bumblebeerror]

The earth is unfathomably ancient, and you garner no love from her when you insult her eldest children.

[fiovske]

not only that, the Appalachians predate the Atlantic Ocean and were fragmented. they stretch across three continents, as Atlas in Africa and Caledonians in Europe as you can see here:

the Appalachians are way way old. the fossils that ARE found in these ranges are ancient marine beings, whose fossil remains predate the anatomical structures of beings migrating to land for the first time. THAT’S how old the Appalachians are.

show the elders some respect, they have witnessed eons and are returning to the land from which they grew, it’s the kind of the passage of time on a scale that our human lives could not even begin to comprehend.

[cheatc0des]

Give me ALL the geology discourse

[princessgemma12]

we respect Gaia and Her children on this blog, regardless of religious beliefs 👏👏👏

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

Love how this switches between science and poetry.

[vaspider]

so what you’re telling me is that life is old there?

older than the trees?

younger than the mountains, though.

is that what you’re telling me?

[beastimus]

Exactly, I love science songs.

[inbabylontheywept]

i did wrestling in middle school. on one hand, i was actually quite good at it, which was nice. being good at any sport was a new achievement for me. on the other hand, i was bi, and i was trying very hard not to notice that i was bi, and getting folded into knots by very kind, very muscular dorks made that task somewhat difficult.

adding fire to the problem was that my parents and my grandparents wanted to watch my matches, because they were very proud that their Gangly Nerd Son was actually Sporting, and they wanted to cheer me on. which would've been sweet and all, but if there are four people you do not want there during a key part of your Burgeoning Sexual Awakening, it is your mom and your dad and your grandma and your grandpa.

right? i mean, imagine some guy's got your head in his armpit, and you're going you know, old sweat smells bad, but fresh sweat has a sort of and then you make eye contact with your grandpa in the stands and you remember you're swearing spandex so if you pop a boner people aren't just going to be able to see the outline, they're going to be able to count the veins, and the only way you will be able to restore your family's honor after that would be by moving to siberia and renouncing joy, forever. that, or lift your entire body up by your kneck then twist 180 degrees without paralyzing yourself.

it’s a lot of pressure, is what i’m saying.

still it did motivate me to win my matches really fast. because i was so tall and skinny, i was stupidly good at the double leg takedown, and then once someone was knocked down, i'd just do the half nelson and kind of flip em over for the pin. then the ref would count to three and i’d win. EZPZ.

i had one match where that went great. won in the first ten seconds, sat back down, and prepared myself for a good hour or two of doing fuck all. didn't even feel bad the parents/grandparents were gonna be bored. the matches went up from me in 5 pound increments (i was in the 115 lbs division) and it was going great until we got to the 145 lbs division. the other school's wrestler stepped onto the mat, and she turned out to be a girl so our guy flipped, because for straight guys, wrestling a girl is not a pleasant experience.

i'm not entirely unsympathetic. my experience wrestling dudes was definitely a little traumatic. but also, i dealt. guy could've dealt too. instead, he refused to wrestle, and the coach went - fine. not even worth fighting over.

so he went to the 140 pounder, and that guy said, nosir, my mom said mormons can't wrestle girls. next guy down, 135 pounder, now he knew he could pull the same card and thus did. 130 pounder, 125, both tapped out. he got to the 120 guy, and that guy was catholic, but he said he was considering being mormon, and thus would have to pass. as a precaution.

coach blew up a little at that. he said "is there anyone - anyone - on this entire goddamn team that is willing to wrestle a girl?" and then he pointed at me and said "YOU. MAT. GO."

and i'll be real, if i'd been paying more attention, i'd have pulled the mormon card too, but i'd just been putting all that audio into a buffer file because i was reading, so i was halfway across the mat before i even processed what had been said and by then it was too late to turn back.

still i had a plan. and my plan - my beautiful, perfect plan - was to do what i'd always done. tackle, flip, pin, win. sit down. read. bore my family to death. move on.

i got the first part right. she was bigger than me, but she wasn't taller. just an incredibly stout woman. god built me like a snake with glasses, just as he built her like a combat cube. the problem was the half nelson. soon as she was down, i tried hooking my arm under hers from behind and for both genders, the defense for this move is just clamping your arms really fucking tight against your sides. if you're a guy, that's whatever, but if you're a girl - especially if you're god's chosen combat cube - that pins your opponents hand right against your boob.

so, i got the hook in, she clamped, my whole arm pressed against something soft, my coach was yelling THE HALF NELSON. BABYLON! JUST FINISH IT! FINISH THE HALF NELSON! and i was just trying to press hard enough to finish, when then my brain went

...oh.

and i flipped out. of course i flipped out. i like girls, and touching a boob is an elemental experience, and i was not ready. i was not prepared. i had not committed the sacred rites. i recoiled like i'd just brushed my arm against the surface of the sun, stood up, and backed away. nobody in the room knew why i'd given up. all they saw was me, right about to win, suddenly flailing around and scrambling. so everyone started screaming at me to just get the half nelson again, and i couldn't really yell back there's a fuckin' boob in the way and it was very distressing, and the only way i could think of to make them stop was just doing it over again the right way.

so i did.

i hunkered down and prepared myself for Wrasslin' Attempt #2: The Sequel.

i knocked her down again, EZPZ. i went for the half nelson again, but she knew what i was about to do so she super clamped, and i knew she was gonna super clamp, so i wound my arm back like a pop-eye cartoon punch before swinging my arm through the gap between her bicep and her side, but the amount of time i spent winding back super signalled what i was about to to do, which gave her time to clamp even harder, which somehow redirected the entire force of the popeye punch to the bottom of her bra.

it spat out a single boob the same way an action hero might spit out one single tooth after getting a solid crack across the jaw. as if to say:

*ptooie.* "that all you got?"

i did not actually see this. my experience was that first there was an arm, then there was a bit of boob, but i was braced, i was ready, forward at all costs, tatakae motherfuckers, and then the boob went away, and i didn't know where it went but my team, and the audience, and everyone who was in front of me, they all gasped like i just kicked them in the stomach. except for my coach. he was behind me, and thus one of the four people in the room who did not see the boob. now my mom, my dad, my grandma, and my grandpa, they all got flashed but nooooooo, coach thunderbutt was behind me, and he didn't see shit so he was still yelling NOOOOOO BABYLON WHAT ARE YOU DOING JUST FINISH THE NELSON! GO FOR THE KILL! BABYLON! BABYLON!

but i did not go for the kill. i stood up and she stuffed her boob back real fast, and we just kind of circled each other awkwardly until time ran out and i won on points. that's not technically allowed, but the ref had some mercy on me.

my coach did not.

i barely had time to sit down before he strode over to the bench to chew me out.

"babylon," he said, in that very calm way people get when they're too pissed to yell. "why didn't you pin?"

and i didn't know how to say well coach, i tried, but there was a boob, and it kept getting in the way, and my mom was watching, and so was my dad, and so was his dad, and his mom, and god (like bible god) and that's a can of worms because i'm pretty sure he was already mad at me, and i'm wearing spandex, and i think i might have to move to siberia, so instead i said

"i uh. i forgot how to do the half nelson."

which is actually impossible. forgetting how to do the half nelson is like forgetting how to swallow your spit.

and he looked at me, like i was the dumbest person in the entire world, and i looked through him like i'd just survived my 250th day in a trench at verdun, and he said: fine.

fine.

but we're all going to practice it for an hour tomorrow because you forgot.

and then he left.

and my buddies had the gall to be salty about it. i got so many comments saying "dude, why didn't you just tell him the truth?" and i said "you can if you care so damn much. you could've wrestled the girl too. maybe someone else should do the hard thing today."

but they didn't. so the next day, we did an hour of half nelson drills, and i spent a decent amount of time getting thrown around the mat, and it was pleasant in exactly the way that i hated and the year after that, to the surprise of everyone but myself, i quit wrestling and joined the trivia team.

and if you want more reasons to love my mom, my grandpa joked after the match that i might have to talk to my bishop about it, and my mom told him he would be allowed to make jokes after he stood in front of a crowd of 110 people in spandex underpants while wrestling a woman that was not his wife.

he paused for almost five seconds after that. then he said: aw. hell. sorry babylon.

and i'd have preferred my apology from god, but getting it from him was pretty good too.

[what-even-is-thiss]

I really appreciate how the Harris campaign is reusing Republican buzzwords to talk about democratic talking points. Talking about how the government shouldn’t tell you what to do and whatnot when it comes to social issues. Associating unions and collective bargaining with freedom. This is the sort of thing I’ve felt we should do for years and now they’re finally doing it.

[penandinkprincess]

BUT I NEED GIRAFFES FOR THIS FIC, AUSTIN ZOO

YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND

[penandinkprincess]

see you say that but a commenter once felt the need to say that joel wouldn’t understand hipaa bc it wasn’t passed until 1996 with a compliance date in 2003 so their issue with my use in the fic is they didn’t think it made sense for joel to understand it well enough to reference it 

[bonefarm]

The Austin zoo may not have giraffes in real life but consider… Texas has very few exotics laws and huge big game/exotic ranches, and I guarantee you post-apocalypse there are giraffes roaming the Great state of Tekas.

[me-inmywords]

There’s a ranch 20 minutes from me (rural Texas) that has 4 giraffes. They also have horses and tortoises.....but the giraffes make the biggest impact. 

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

ngl I thought the puzzle piece as an autistic symbol meant like. I am a vital puzzle piece to your society. humans would never have invented half the things they did without us. you're telling me it means I'm missing something?? buddy. listen. listen to me reeeeaal closely. no human has all the pieces to humanity. no one. no one has all the features enables no one has all the strengths weaknesses or quirks. no one has a whole puzzle. we make the freaking complete picture together. that's the freaking point.

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

Neurotypicals are encouraged to reblog this btw but if you think I'm broken for being autistic I'll break your bones

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

Bringing this back celebrate autism and the vital diversity of humanity with me by burning Autism Speaks to the ground

[hyrude]

is the world really such a terrible place? yesterday i asked if oat milk was extra and the barista said yes so i said ok just regular milk then and when she gave me my chai latte she whispered “i used oat milk ;)” doesnt that make u want to live another day?

[hyrude]

here is my life philosophy: next week there might be someone ahead of you in line at the store who’s short a quarter and you have a quarter and you can give it to them. if you weren’t there, they’d have to put something back. the week after that you could be getting lunch and the waiter might ask if you want some pancakes someone else ordered and never picked up. you could find someone’s lost cat. you could watch someone’s bag while they go to the restroom. there are so many ways you are going to touch other people’s lives and they are going to touch yours and there’s no way to know when it’s going to happen. so you have to keep living!!! i wouldn’t want to die knowing that tomorrow the barista will give me free oat milk just to be nice. 

[elaninrecovery]

When I was 11 years old - we went to Sea World for my birthday. This was to avoid the realization I had no friends, and no one to come to a birthday party and probably because someone gave my mother free tickets at work. It was kinda a shitty day despite being at a theme park full of cute animals. There was a new roller coaster there that had just opened so we decided to go on. I was nervous. I’d never been on a roller coaster.

A group of 6 college kids were ahead of us in line and started chatting with me. Full on just having a fun conversation with someone literally going through the beginning of a very awkward middle school period. I was so shocked they wanted to talk to me. I think my mom mentioned it was my birthday. They were very nice about it. When we got on the ride they told us to go ahead of them so we could sit at the front of the car since it held 8 people.

Now the ride (called Journey to Atlantis - I believe it is sadly no longer there) started with a slow ride of beautiful visuals of dolphins and oceans and computerized images of this imaginary Atlantis before going up the hill to the beginning of the coaster, where it paused for about 30 seconds, and then the ride started. The college kids must have known there would be a pause. Maybe they’d ridden it before I’m not sure.

But as we sat there on that peak, 6 people I’ve never known, and will never know again, sang a very very lonely 11 year old happy birthday. Loudly. And with gusto. They were happy and laughing and joyful. And it made me feel less alone in the world.

I am 29 years old this year, and I still remember them. I still remember that kindness. It is so important. It doesn’t go into a vacuum. It exists beside me in my daily life. And I love the idea that I have been that person to someone else too.

It’s stunningly lovely to be human when we’re kind to each other.

[mcbride]

SHERYL LEE RALPH as BARBARA HOWARD ABBOTT ELEMENTARY 📚 2.19 Festival

[beeps-bravely-through-her-fear]

okay but can I tell you how this line read broke me open because I was thisclose to walking into the sea last semester and it took me a long time to accept “sometimes they’re just assholes” and i know Barbara Howard is not real but she is real to me

[neurospicy]

College is wild because it really isn’t about intelligence or the ability to understand the material at all. It’s literally just a test of executive function and abled-ness. I had good attendance. I participated in class discussions…possibly to an annoying extent, I got A’s on my tests. When we did group work in classes, it was usually me knowing the answers and everyone else just writing them down from my paper.

But I watched those same people who copied my in-class work and who barely passed tests and who only understood the material enough to regurgitate it, not to expand on it, graduate while I flunked out. Why? Because I didn’t have the executive function to do homework outside of class. That’s it.

[arborealgargoyle]

when I was a teen dealing with chronic illness, I was just abled enough to go to school and do the work in class. I got As on all my in-class work and tests. I understood the material. when I got home everyday, I was so exhausted I went straight to bed and didn’t get up until it was time to go to school the next morning. I stopped hanging out with friends or having any free time, and I dedicated every ounce of energy to school. but, on the basis of needing to pass out as soon as I got home everyday, I was unable to do homework (I also had missed more days that I was supposed to, but again, I passed every test and hadn’t fallen behind in the material). despite having As in everything except homework, I failed every class and had to drop out of high school.

our education system is structured less around an actually well-rounded education (which would look different for different people depending on their needs) and more around conformity to neuro-typical, abled standards that prepare you for being a worker under capitalism, which itself enforces these standards in the attempt to drain as much profit from the individual as possible. even people who are “lucky” enough to be NT and abled enough to survive in these environments deserve more than to be treated like a renewable resource.

[rose-in-a-fisted-glove]

Here's a secret that the school districts and universities don't want you to know. You could apply for an IEP or 504.

Chronic illnesses are covered under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)

For executive functioning issues, if you have a diagnosis, you're also covered under IDEA and section 504.

If you don't have a diagnosis, depending on the school district and their social worker, you may be able to take a battery of tests to show your disability.

And, even if you didn't have one in HS, you can still get an IEP/504 in college if you apply (and qualify)

Education is Not just for NT abled people. That's just what the school districts want you to think. Education is for all of us. The resources are there if we know how to fight for it.

And even if you failed out the first time, that doesn't mean you can't try again. If you work a few years in the middle, your grades from the first try tends to be easier to smooth over with talk of being "more mature and able to balance the stresses of life with schoolwork"

[me-inmywords]

It is also possible to get a 504 plan (which provides accommodations depending on your specific areas of struggle) without a diagnosis or testing.

“Multiple teachers recognize that I am struggling in some way” can be used as a basis for getting a 504 plan. It is more difficult and you have to either fight for yourself or have a school counselor who knows this fact, but it is possible. 

Source: I’m an American public high school teacher and have worked with counselors to get 504 plans in place for students who do not have diagnoses disabilities or illnesses. 

[strangelittlestories]

After shoving Hansel in the oven, the witch turns to Gretel - who is currently fending the witch off with a gingerbread chair - and says:

“I can’t believe you thought a trail of breadcrumbs would save you. I mean, honestly, this is a forest! It’s full of animals. Honestly, the very idea that a dumb shit like you thought you could get the better of me is absurd.”

Gretel hits her in the face with said chair. To be fair to the witch, she takes the chairshot like a champ.

“Ow!”

“Did you know,” says Gretel, “that crows are capable of facial recognition?”

“Eh?” Says the witch, clambering to her feet and pulling a candy cane sledgehammer off the wall. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Not only that,” Gretel continues, “but they can remember both friends and enemies. And they’ll often follow people they remember as friends.”

The two fence with their sugared weapons for a moment, before the witch knocks the chair out of Gretel’s hands.

“Enough with the bird facts! Honestly, this whole attempted escape has been utter clownshoes. Get in the fucking oven!”

She seizes Gretel by the collar. Gretel immediately sandbags, letting her whole body go limp. This eminently practical defense forces the witch to try and deadlift her. Which is hard, as the witch often skips leg day.

“For example,” Gretel says, as the witch struggles and grunts, “if you feed crows a lot of breadcrumbs, they’ll probably start to see you as a friend and follow you in the hope of more food.”

The witch stops. Outside, she hears the thunder of wings.

“They’ll even bring you shiny things they find as presents!” Says Gretel, as a corner of the gingerbread ceiling is suddenly cut away by a large crow with a knife in its mouth.

“Oh shitballs.” Says the witch, as the crows descend. “I hope you know this is a great unkindness.”

“Technically,” Says Gretel, “It’s a murder.”

[jobethdalloway]

like EXCUSE ME 

[saywhat-politics]

[city-of-rockford]

#ALOTO + ao3 tags : Queer Show of the Decade Edition

[spaceyam]

this is so compelling and heartbreaking and important and i wanted to share it. this is the reality of getting an abortion even with roe v wade in place and it's about to get worse.

[vintage-espionage]

These baseball lesbians have me in an absolute chokehold at this point and I’m not mad about it

[5bi5]

Kelly McCormack as Jess McCready in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (2022)

[catball]

eating him

[hedgehog-moss]

Cows are starting to be let out of their winter lodgings and we’ve been hearing cow bells in the distance for a couple of weeks now, it’s such a pleasant and summery sound. The pasture next to mine was still empty, but the owner came to check the fence and the water trough a few days ago, so I was expecting new neighbours imminently.

This morning I went on a walk with Pandolf and when we came home we could hear cow bells, but a lot more distinctly than before. I immediately went to check our neighbouring pasture, and

!!!!!

People who were around last year will probably remember how Pandolf feels about cows. They are his love and light. Cows give meaning to his life. 

He was vibrating with excitement but he still very obediently went around the pasture with me (so as not to startle the cows from behind) and waited until I said “vas-y !” to walk up to them.

The cow leader came to meet him halfway. It was all very civil and the rest of the herd looked completely chill so I let Pandolf run free, and

—he ran 3 enthusiastic circles around them to let them know he is a herding dog and he loves them and will protect them with his life, then started running full-speed all over the pasture in all directions just to exteriorise his IMMENSE DELIGHT. I was ready to call him if he freaked the cows out, but instead they looked at him curiously, then one cow started chasing him with equal zest and the entire herd followed.

This is the best day of Pandolf’s life.

The baby llamas on the other side of the fence looked cautiously intrigued, having never met a cow before. (You can maybe glimpse the cows in the middle-right of the below pic if you follow the babies’ eye line—they just kept staring and staring)

Pampelune: “Don’t spy on the neighbours, children, it’s rude.”

(She has to teach both kids manners because Pampe does not care to do that at all.)

I called Pandolf back so the neighbours could go back to ruminating in peace, and I was like “How do we feel about cows” and he looked at me like this