almost always improvising

he/they, 30s / queerio, lads / canadian prairies

[victusinveritas]

Ken Unsworth

Suspended stone circle

1978-1981

[headspace-hotel]

fucks me up that by total coincidence the sun and moon's size difference is exactly matched to their difference in distance from us, thus making our beautiful total solar eclipses where you can see the silver threads of the sun's corona possible because the moon just covers the sun completely

The stars (literally) aligned just right for this experience to be possible. It's likely that aliens don't have this

[uncivilliberties]

The moon is also absolutely gargantuan by moon standards. It isn't the largest moon in the solar system, but it is BY FAR the largest in comparison with its planet. Ganymede is the largest satellite of Jupiter and the largest moon in the solar system. Its diameter is only about 3.8% of Jupiter's. Titan's radius is 4.4% of Saturn's. Callisto and Io are the next largest in the neighborhood, with 3.4% and 2.6% the diameter of Jupiter respectively.

Our moon is number 5. It is smaller in direct comparison to the above moons. The diameter of the moon is 3475 km. That is a full 27% of the diameter of the Earth. More than a quarter. That's ridiculous. It's unheard of. The universe is large enough that the word unique probably doesn't mean a lot, but this might be about as close as you get.

This has had a huge impact on our planet. Other things aliens might not have are significant tides. One of Mars's dumpy little potatoes wouldn't be able to move oceans the way our moon does.

Our moon has also stabilized our axis to a massive degree. Without her up there our axis would wobble all over the place and our climate would be far more chaotic. Aliens might not be quite so lucky.

I guess what I am really trying to say is that the moon is extremely cool. I like the moon.

[willowdove]

Just want to add that the reason we have such a large moon is because a whole planet crashed into proto-Earth. Theia (the planet) and Earth got so superheated by this collision that their component cores fused and the impact jettisoned a lot of material into space. That massive amount of jettisoned material became our moon. So Earth and the moon have very similar composition. This does not seem to be a common method of lunar formation.

[gandalfsbignaturals]

what if the answer to the fermi paradox is that life cant exist without a moon like luna

[habbadax]

I got a serious beef with the Fermi paradox. There is no Fermi paradox. There stopped being a Fermi paradox once the first radio telescopes went up, and we began to get a true sense of the sheer scale of the universe.

Space is big, empty, and loud. Sunspots can cause enough interference to affect global communications. We’re not even loud enough to talk over our own sun. On our own planet. We can barely communicate with Voyager, and we know exactly where it is and what its signal sounds like.

The Fermi paradox is like doubting the existence of Belfast, because you stood on a windy New York beach shouting towards it and didn’t get an answer.

[headspace-hotel]

[kactusnz]

i didn't realise we were drowned out by our own sun :(

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

She is screaming so loud

[parabiota]

STOP SCROLLING

Your life ends in the wasteland.

[professionalchaoticdumbass]

there’s a japanese radish just below this post but you can’t reach it

[gon-iii]

収穫祭

2015年、長屋門公園。

立派な大根がリアカーに積まれていた。ここで育てたものだろうか。

[degenezijde]

I'm doing a square metre of flax with help of a museum, and they send out instructions on what to do with it every so often. I'm almost at the harvesting point. One of the things I'll be doing after the retting (letting the bast break down) is rippling (removing the seeds by combing the stem).

In Dutch this step is called repelen. In Dutch, Rumpelstiltskin is called repelsteeltje (ripple stem). So now I'm wondering if the name of the central character in the flax centred story is related to flax production.

[rapidashrider]

Imagine like a magical fish-gutting guy being like muahahaha you'll never guess my name and he's just called Gutfish.

[tahthetrickster]

did a bit of driving through the state of georgia today and wound up driving through a small town that i later discovered was called newborn, which is an odd name but doesn’t technically have anything wrong with it, except for the fact that i nearly gave myself whiplash doing a double-take at a building sign advertising NEWBORN TAXIDERMY

[wickedsnack]

my family and i drove home from a family vacation this last weekend and wound up driving through a town called surprise, az, which is an odd name but doesn't technically have anything wrong with it, except that we all burst into wild laughter when we saw the building labeled SURPRISE MORTUARY SERVICES

[ineffablecalculus]

[bramblepatch]

Grace explaining sheepishly to Eridian linguists that the reason he uses different pronouns for Rocky than for the rest of the population is that he reflexively defaulted to assigning Rocky the same grammatical and social gender that he himself uses, in a way that has historical precedent but in modern English is considered somewhat chauvinistic and backward, and he's not proud of it but also the habit is pretty deeply ingrained now and unless Rocky objects it's probably easier to just keep on as he has been...

and immediately being informed lol. lmao. do not even worry about it. you have no idea what kind of buck wild grammatical constructs Rocky has invented for you. everyone else addresses you as foreigner/scholar. they're somehow managing to refer to you as their sibling, ward, and semidivine culture hero at the same time every time they talk about you.

[longearedhare]

the 3ish interactions that Tisarwat and Seivarden have are so fucking funny. suicidal teenager mad because Mom’s (Breq’s) situationship is being nice to her and doesn’t know that she was briefly a 3,000 year old tyrant. well-intentioned side piece (Seivarden) trying to be nice to the step-kid and mildly baffled as to why a 17-year old has access to top secret military gossip. there is absolutely no situation like it. thank you Ann Leckie.

[luumu]

[shittttyproblems]

not today...

[witnessings]

happy last day of pride to the gay snails who hug and kiss for hours without mating

[brick3621]

[spiralatria]

'minion' -too closely associated with those yellow things

'goon' -linguistic drift gave her a new meaning. i hope her new life is good for her. i miss her.

'henchman' -too gendered. can be shortened to 'hench' in a pinch, but lacks punch.

'servant' -too domestic to apply to all those who serve evil.

'underling, subordinate' -this one only works if they get off on being beneath you and/or you don't properly pay your workers.

'associate' -this one's good for grizzled mercenaries or lone agents but doesn't work good for broad swathes of an organization.

'slave' -same as underling but more intense. really fun for some of the group. unsavory for others in a way that limits the scope of the thing.

'thrall' -only really applies if you're brainwashing them and that's not something i've learned how to do en masse yet

'flunky, toady, stooge, lackey' -these are just insulting, and that isn't conducive to a healthy work environment. imagine going to work and your job title is 'stooge'.

'acolyte' -works for those that worship you, but again. lacks the scope.

'supporter, follower' -unspecific and vague

'assistant, helper, aide' -not sinister at all. just means you're doing things for me. swagless in this manner. could be good if used to describe someone who's so clearly more that as a way to emphasize their obedience via understatement, but that's only useful for a few members of the organization. and even then, 'associate' works better.

'cohort' -untested in the field. suggests an equal footing in the affair, ideal for post-structuralist evil organizations with a bottom-up power structure that's held in the hands of the evil workers themselves. perhaps we'll explore it together?

[seraphalpha]

may I suggest: 'grunt' – time-tested by crime bosses with a variety of goals and organizational mandates. implies a subservient position with none of the innate baggage of lackey et al.

[spiralatria]

GRUNT IS PRETTY GOOD

[penandinkprincess]

i do think that the funniest i've ever been was entirely on accident one christmas when i was little. i'm a lifelong animal lover and left out carrots and water for the reindeer each year because they were doing the real work, and my poor parents tried to make a magical memory for me and left one carrot on the plate with a bite out of it as if the reindeer had left it.

unfortunately little me had the reasoning skills of a little sherlock and surmised based on my experience with horses that the teeth marks were WAY too small to have been from a reindeer and HAD to have been from a human.

which led to baby pen being PISSED at santa's greedy ass for getting at the carrots that were NOT for him.

the entire christmas morning was derailed because of my fury at santa claus. we didn't even open presents immediately because i had to write a letter IMMEDIATELY to let him know those carrots were NOT for him and it was NOT NICE to not share with the reindeer especially when EVERYONE was leaving cookies for him and-

needless to say, my parents did not EVER try to manufacture christmas magic again for fear of setting off a tiny reindeer union leader.

[creatingblackcharacters]

‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ trust me, if white people know you aren't safe to be racist around, we'll notice! Your ACTIONS will speak for you!

[patrochillesvibes]

[dovesndecay]

we don't actually need gender markers on our licenses and whatnot. we could just. do away with those entirely. i do not believe this would lead disaster.

[abouquetofdaylillies-deactivate]

Pre-menstrual depression is always depicted as like "He He! I had a box of icecream bars and cried while watching the Titanic!" But in reality, it's more like, "I'm standing the edge of an abyss. There is nothing good inside of me, I'm filled with rage and desperation."

It's crazy that being told how to deal with that is never a part of anyone's menstrual sex education.

[headspace-hotel]

This has already been said in the notes, but if PMS causes extreme depression and even suicidal ideation, that is in fact something that most people do not experience and it can be treated

Like for the majority it really is "oh i'm hungrier and moodier than usual"

^this should be a part of sex education so the point still stands

[godesssiri]

I went to my doctor after I was walking to work one morning and saw a bus coming and actually took a step to throw myself in front of it before I pulled myself together. Later that day I started bleeding and was literally like someone flipped a switch and I didn't feel suicidal anymore. Which made me feel like I was loosing my mind because who goes from 'I want to throw myself in front of a bus' to 'I'm perfectly fine' just like that? I did some research, I went to the doctor and described my feelings, he looked me in the eye and gently asked what I thought it was, I said I'd read about PMDD and I thought it might be that, he said 'I think so too' and wrote a prescription.

If, before you get your period, you feel furiously angry, suicidal, irritated by every tiny thing to the point you want to murder someone, stuck in a black hole you'll never escape from. If you are experiencing extreme emotions for what seems like no good reason, especially if you get your period and those extreme emotions just go away. You're probably not just PMSing , you may have PMS's feral big sister PMDD and it's treatable.

Also this is something that can develop as you get older. So if you used to get normal PMS but what I wrote above sounds more like your norm now then don't just write it off as regular PMS.

[manourfi]

Being a crafty person and making a bunch of things often prompts people to ask "oh wow did you make that?" And like, the short answer is: yes I did, but the long answer is: well, no, the pattern isn't mine, but I did choose and buy the fabric/yarn and sewed it together/crocheted it/knitted it myself. I used a reference for that drawing/painting, I didn't come up with it myself. That ceramic piece was insired by a poem and a painting made by different people. What I'm trying to say is, everything I make requires other people to make their own thing first, and then I get inspired by them to do my own thing. So I can't really call anything truly mine, because really it's just a bunch of inspirations and experiences of others (and me) put together by my hands. Does that answer your question

[anarchistmemedistro]