New Things To Be Grateful 4

23, finding happiness in the lil things, documenting a different thing to be grateful for each day

[newthings2b-grateful4]

Day 42: it’s my bachelorette weekend! My friends (esp my MoH) really put a lot of thought into this weekend!!!

[everythingfox]

Really enjoying the scritches

[icarus-suraki]

[newthings2b-grateful4]

Day 42 (continued): learning snare drum (first percussion instrument I’ve ever played). I feel…bodily awkward? Like, I’ll feel like I’ve got it down and then I’ll practice on a surface that is a different height than my usual table and totally fumble. Sometimes my arms aren’t in the right place, my grip is too strong or too soft. Nonetheless, I am enjoying being awkward at the drums, and I look forward to becoming more skilled.

[alivehouse]

what do you mean you havent used mindfulness techniques to accept the state of the torture labyrinth as is yet. its like youre not even trying

[newthings2b-grateful4]

Day 42: switching it up today, I’m grateful for cheese sticks

[lestatfag]

STAY SAFE!! [ID: the Gilbert Baker pride flag with the words “Happy pride to all those who are unable to celebrate openly and safely. You are loved and seen!” in all-caps black text over it. /end ID]

[newthings2b-grateful4]

Day 41: trying not to cry at the library while reading *The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen* by Yuta Takahashi. Truly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It is a beautiful book, and it makes me grateful for the temporary things in life.

[newthings2b-grateful4]

Day 40 (continued): I know I’ve said it before, but hummus cups are an accessible ambrosia for everyday life. My number one vice. 11/10. Can’t get enough.

[auxphono]

Needed a clean graphic for a project, and figured while I was vectoring I would put sex and magic back in.

Happy Pride Month

[auxphono]

Reblogging this yearly for anyone who needs a very clean version <3 Happy Pride.

[drosophilamania]

Reblog to put the sex and magic back into pride

[newthings2b-grateful4]

Day 40 (missed 39): grateful for bathroom rugs. A good bathroom rug makes or breaks the space, Y’know?

[my-dailydreams]

[pangur-and-grim]

length of a weasel…… face of a weasel…. heart? also of a weasel

[galactic-queen-of-bullshit]

Please please tell me this is a real cat and not an art doll

[pangur-and-grim]

I think it’s real, but I’m not really sure

[newthings2b-grateful4]

Grateful for this cat, fr fr

[newthings2b-grateful4]

Day 38: wearing pretty skirt today. Good stuff.

[rythms-of-synthax-deactivated20]

Quote of the day

[baffledtreesquid]

I’m seeing a lot of people saying this post changed their brain chemistry, and as a neuroscientist I wanted to say yes!!! Yes it does!

Wanting something requires dopamine signaling, but liking something doesn’t.

If you have a mental illness/disorder that affects dopamine, you might feel that you don’t want to do the things that you like. You do still like them. You will appreciate having done them.

Let your likes guide you.

(If you want to read more, here’s one experimental paper about it. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5171207/ This theory called the incentive-sensitization theory was originally created to explain behaviors in addiction but can be applied elsewhere as well)

Rewards are both ‘liked’ and ‘wanted’, and those two words seem almost interchangeable. However, the brain circuitry that mediates the psych

[kosmogrl]

[ursiday]

Earth

[ittybittymattycommittee]

#raise your shields #because you’re about to get wrecked

[jewishgarygreen]

#this is the star trek i wanna see#like when somebody asked gene roddenberry why piccard was bald#because wouldn’t they have found a cure for male pattern baldness by then?#and he was like ‘no by the 24th century no one will care’#i wanna see that attitude with disability and neurodiversity#it’s not that we’ll have a magic cure for everything#there’ll always be something new#but disabilities and neurodiversity will be celebrated and seen as part of the norm#it will be accomodated#so blind people can serve in star fleet#and so can people in wheelchairs and autistic people and people with prosthetics and people with chronic illnesses (via @hunterinabrowncoat)

[kiapet2]

This episode ends with Geordi saving the planet by using something derived from the technology found in his visor (an adaptive device that lets him sense things around him). So a disabled man literally saved the lives of an entire culture that wouldn’t have considered his life worth living, using technology they would have never deemed necessary without the presence of his unique needs.

[scholarlypidgeot]

I don’t watch Star Trek, but I can’t stress enough how important this message is

[fictionadventurer]

My favorite thing about this episode is that, while the rest of the characters are taking a more Star Trek philosophical approach to this situation, calmly debating the good and bad points of this colony built upon eugenics, Geordi is just seething. Troi is having a romance with their flippin’ president, but Geordi never hesitates on his morals. He’s always aware that this world’s supposed perfection is built upon the despicable philosophy of killing people like him. He barely even bothers to hide his anger as he has to work alongside their scientists. He’s snappish and short-tempered and bitter, clearly only working with these people because lives are at stake. When he discovers the solution is based on his VISOR, he is viciously triumphant, his joy at saving the people boosted by a bitter sense of righteousness that these people were only saved because someone like him was allowed to survive.

And even though this anger and bitterness are very un-Star-Trek-like approaches to diplomacy–it works. The scientist who works alongside him is the first person who decides to jump ship and leave the colony behind. She sees the stagnation of their bland “’‘‘‘‘utopia’‘‘‘‘‘ and realizes that diversity and adaptation create a much better society. And while the other Enterprise crew members have some wishy-washy lament over how this will destroy this planet’s ‘‘‘culture’‘‘, Geordi never waffles. He has far too personal a stake in this to lose sight of the fact that peoples’ lives are more important than any high-falutin’ philosophical justifications. The episode might waffle over the Prime Directive points of this society’s decline, but Geordi’s perspective is the one showing clearly why it needs to die.