Welcome.

[c3po]

*doesnt even do the bare minimum* all in a day’s work

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

honestly even the highest concept sci-fi seems tame once you learn BioSteel™ Goats exist irl

[zenithreach]

What the fuck are you talking about

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

you know. the spider goats. the goats spliced with spider genes.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

they shoot bulletproof webbing out of their udders!

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

ok ok that last part’s not technically true, but the truth is still pretty nifty:

yes these goats really exist! in most ways they are normal goats, except for how they secrete spider silk in their milk

(or rather, they secrete a special protein in their milk, which is then extracted and woven into silk fibers)

their DNA contains transplanted genes taken from the Golden Orb Weaver Spider, whose silk is incredibly strong–but can’t be naturally produced in large quantities. because…spiders are tiny ya’ll.

these superpowered web-slinging spidergoats genetically modified but otherwise normal and healthy goats can produce much larger amounts of this material (marketed as BioSteel), which is stronger than steel and more bulletproof than kevlar. plus it’s lightweight, elastic, and bio-compatible (compatible with living tissue), meaning it has a ton of potential industrial and medical applications.

(imagine 40 years from now you need knee surgery, and your doctor sits you down and explains that your shiny new anterior cruciate ligament  was actually artificially woven out of SPIDER GOAT MILK SILK. also in this magical hypothetical future we have universal healthcare. and the wealth of all billionaires has been globally redistributed. this is my hypothetical scenario, i do what i want.)

like i said. pretty nifty!

and here is a photo of one such genetically modified BioSteel™  goat, her name is Freckles

ko-fi

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

Time! To bitch slap! Some inner demons!

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

I consider therapy a hands-on process

[nerdybitchywitchy]

I am always waiting at attention with a broom to beat my intrusive thoughts back into their corner hole

[a-rich-friendship]

Begone

THOUGHT!

[solarpunkwitchcraft]

The point of getting rid of the death penalty isn’t that there are some innocent people on it. The point of prison abolition isn’t that there are some innocent people in prison.

The point is that the state shouldn’t have the power to kill people. The point is that the prison system commits systemic abuses of human rights, doesn’t reduce crime, is deeply racist, and doesn’t take the desires of the victims into account. To argue about whether one individual on death row or with a life sentence is innocent or guilty is just a distraction from the central issues, which is that these institutions are unjust and should not exist

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]

Transgender Day of Visibility.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

Less focus on parents “monitoring” their children’s media/internet use, and more focus on discussing. ‘Parental supervision’ shouldn’t mean “controlling what children are allowed to see.” It should mean having thoughtful discussions with your kids so that they are informed about the common biases, harmful tropes, and adult themes they are likely to encounter in their media consumption. 

Less focus on controlling young people and more focus on communicating. Treat kids with respect & encourage them to think critically, and you won’t need to control their choices.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

wow ya’ll really liked the tags huh: #i mean yes you can and absolutely should have rules around like. pre-teens watching r-rated movies or accessing adult websites. i’m not saying an 8-year-old should be allowed to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But at the end of the day you cannot control all the choices your child makes. Parental controls & content blocking can limit what is easily available to your kid, but you can’t actually stop them from accessing age-inappropriate stuff if they are determined to. And invading your kid’s privacy is MUCH more likely to make them determined to go around those controls. 

#As kids get older parental controls/website blocking/usage monitoring becomes ineffective and outright harmful. So you need to have a gameplan to transition from “all adult content is blocked bc you’re literally 8 years old” to “you’re getting older and you have a right to privacy, so we’re moving on to a trust-based system. but there is a lot of bad stuff out there, so here are some things you need to know to keep yourself safe. and in return for trusting you i would like us to have some guidelines about what you are willing to share with me, and what questions i have a right to ask.”

#anyway if a kid is determined to access adult content they are going to access it. i’m not saying don’t take preventions. i’m saying assume that at some point preventative measures are going to fail, and that you should communicate with your child BEFORE that happens. if you let your kids ask questions about adult content and give them honest (age-appropriate) answers, they are much less likely to actually go out of their way to access that content. (Also, accidents happen, and they will eventually end up seeing things they don’t intend to. so give them the info they need to be prepared.)

And always remember to EXPLAIN why the rules exist! Don’t just tell kids “you will be in trouble if you do this.” Explain “this is a problem that exists in the world, my goal is to keep you safe, my solution is this rule, but I will listen to your feedback and reevaluate as needed.” Ultimately you and your kids have many of the same goals, but you need to work together and communicate to reach them.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

neurotypicals talk a lot about how autistic people aren’t “empathetic” bc we express empathy differently but. but then they turn around and refuse to empathize with experiences they don’t relate to? i don’t get it? 

i get called unempathetic for missing out on social cues, by the same people whose default attitudes include: “the music is hurting your ears? but it’s not that loud?” “you’re having trouble sitting still? but have you considered that what you’re doing looks weird?” “this thing bothers you? have you tried not being bothered by it???”  

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

tags: like i’m autistic and i don’t relate to a lot of people’s experiences but…if they tell me “this thing bothers me” or “i am in pain bc of this” all i have to do is just… remember what it feels like to be in pain? and then it’s easy to respond with “I’m sorry you are in pain. that sucks. how can i help?”

i may have trouble recognizing what other people are feeling when they don’t tell me clearly. and i don’t always express my empathy in a way neurotypicals recognize. but that doesn’t erase the fact that I feel empathy and express it in a way that feels natural to me. 

and when i become aware that a person is Feeling a Thing i accept that Thing as valid, and i believe they have a right not to be unhappy. because they are a person and people deserve help and sympathy when they are distressed. “you’re bothered by this Thing that i’m not bothered by? that sucks and your feelings are valid.” that should be the default response, it’s not that difficult. 

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

parents, please be consistent and communicate clearly, in advance, when it comes to household chores. 

kids should be helping with chores in a shared household (and learning how to be self-sufficient in the future). but! kids also deserve to have their free time respected by not having chores sprung on them unexpectedly. and assigning them chores at random just encourages them to isolate themselves from the family. talk with them in advance about what’s expected–setting & respecting clear boundaries will make you both happier.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

also!

if your kid isn’t finishing their chores, talk w/ them and figure out what specific issue they’re having. it’s incredibly alienating to be called “lazy” or “irresponsible” when actually you are just overwhelmed and struggling.

if they find a particular chore difficult, walk them through it step-by-step and figure out what aspect makes it so hard. consider finding a different way to do it, or letting them trade for a different chore.

it’s easy for kids to get overwhelmed by responsibilities, especially if they’re struggling with school work. balancing school & household responsibilities is a learned skill, something that has to be taught.

work together to make a chore schedule and give consistent reminders without nagging. aim for accountability while allowing grace periods.

most of all: when chores pile up, sit down and talk about why that’s happening. don’t reprimand your kid without first checking in and getting their side of the story.

[peachesnplumsblog]

I always hated it when my mom would randomly tell me to do something, and then get mad if I asked for a minute to finish whatever I was doing. Or if I didn't jump up right then and do it, she'd start doing it herself and then complain that I was "making her do it". Because it needed to get done in that exact moment apparently 😒

[peachesnplumsblog]

Just saw this on Twitter and it brought back a memory I didn't want

[twigsinmyteeth]

hi psa: the second someone apologizes for being excited about something, that is the moment you start talking about it with 10x the enthusiasm because 100% guaranteed they have, at some point in their life, been shamed or told shut up or calm down about something that brought them joy and learned to apologize for taking up space and expressing themselves - learned to make themselves smaller- and that’s the absolute worst feeling in the whole world so please, the moment they apologize or say “I’ll shut up now”, you start talking about it for them, hype it up, encourage them to talk your ear off and participate in their excitement. We want their passion, we want their excitement, joy and love. We do not want to be stunted and bitter and angry like the ones who tried to stifle us, we want to foster and nurture the glow in their eyes and the sound of their voice speeding up with exhilaration

[dragimal]

[cumpriest]

BREAKING NEWS! BUGS BUNNY HAS INVENTED ROUND RODENT CHEEKS!

[dragimal]

perhaps my issue is less apparent from the front, this is what I mean

rabbit heads have a distinctive outward curve to the snout, lending to a sleek, round appearance. in furry media, it’s important to rly capture the overall shape of an animal’s head to quickly/efficiently communicate *what* that animal is. here, I’ve given an example of how I might “furry-fy” a rabbit head into a simple, easily-identifiable face, keeping that beautiful outward curve intact. while the face is certainly similar to a misc rodent w/o the ears there for the obvious tell, I think there are still notable differences. for example, mouse/rat faces are far more pointed, so the flatter end to this snout is a good tell that this is a rabbit, rather than a different species

now let’s look at the rabbit characters I used as examples here and see how they hold up

well. they certainly make shapes with those faces, huh?

while there are little differences b/t all these faces, they all share the basic shape of a large/rounded forehead, exaggerated cheeks, and a *supremely* tiny barely-there snout that either sticks straight out from the head or has an upward curve

I do not have a problem with the cheeks, it makes sense that they’re exaggerated in rabbit characters. I do have a problem with how the shape of the snout is not true to anything even close to rabbits. if not for the obvious rabbit ears and how we’ve been trained by old cartoons like Bugs to associate this face shape w/ rabbits, I’m dubious that they’d even be recognizable as rabbits? like, even the most HORRIFICALLY brachycephalic of real-life rabbits don’t look like this

now the funny thing abt Haru, since u defend her specifically in ur tags, is that her head leans far more into humanoid design elements than Bugs/Judy. her tall cranium (esp in conjunction w/ the small eyes) + pointed chin are both human design elements. while I admit I absolutely hate uncanny-valley half-human furry heads like hers, I’d be willing to excuse it as the show’s style– she does admittedly retain the rabbit snout a *little* bit better than Bugs/Judy, even though it’s plastered onto a human skull

however, that isn’t Beastars’ style. beyond the sometimes-sclera and the emphasis on brow/forehead bumps, I genuinely can’t think of a single other goddamn species in that show that goes uncanny-human with their heads (maybe the bird characters, but their heads aren’t so much human as just. bad). but Beastars’ style itself is completely inconsistent, so maybe the uncanny-valley rabbits DO fit the style, if we look at it from a “let’s confuse the audience” perspective. who knows

but anyways, this is why I focused specifically on rabbits– it’s not just a Beastars problem! I see it all the goddamn time in furry media! sure, some stories will do that annoying thing where they make the main characters more humanoid to appeal to the audience/gender standards, or there’s something fucky w/ the style in general. but even when rabbits AREN’T the mains, this seems to be the default head shape for them?

and yeah other species can get real ugly head shapes too, but that depends more on the style of the specific story or character. other species get all kinds of wonderful AND ugly head rep across the board. but rabbits? we got the aesthetic ambrosia that was Watership Down (tho xenofiction in general is better at that kinda thing), then it all went downhill from there. I don’t think any other species has gotten so painfully pigeonholed into one inaccurate head shape like this. I blamed Bugs as a joke, but genuinely where did this trend come from, it makes no sense??

[peachesnplumsblog]

I was curious about this so I looked up rabbit photos and found some with different types of noses?

Like the one on the left has the nose and face shape you're talking about, but the one on the right actually kinda resembles the anthro rabbit face shapes with the nose that sticks out a bit. Right?

[snoopysfriendwoodstock]

it’s honestly crazy how many ppl u meet in your early twenties who have never been in love or been in a relationship or had sex and then you’re like oh it’s actually normal and social milestones actually mean nothing bc everyone is different and has different experiences. cool!

[warm-tea-and-apple-pie]

The whole concept of "late-bloomers" is just another semingly cute name for the the belief that people have expiring dates and only youth is worth it and I wholeheartedly abhorre it

[peachesnplumsblog]

As a 20 year old who's a "late bloomer", I really love seeing posts like these. I always feel weird and bad for not yet being in a serious relationship and having those milestones, especially when everyone else I know has. But these kinds of posts remind me that I'm not the only one, and help normalize it a little bit more. So thank you ❤

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

trickle-down, no i want to see trickle-up economics. billionaires don’t make a single new penny until the rest of us are housed and fed and have decent healthcare

[thechekhov]

Why Google Translate should make you crave a grain of that mineral (salt)

Okay, kids, today we’re going to be talking about a really funny phenomenon that is present in MANY languages that cannot be solved by machine translation - and how it will make your L2 dinner conversations 100% funnier. 

You see this translation up here? This is Google Translate’s attempt to translate the word ‘spicy’ - a very solid attempt, a good effort. 

It is both correct but also kind of hilariously wrong at the same time.

The kanji translation above is correct - spicy is indeed written as 辛い.

But the pronunciation guide is wrong. It should be pronounced ‘karai’.

But the kanji 辛い has… another meaning. And another reading. 

It can also be read as ‘tsurai’ is means… painful. Difficult. 

And let’s check back which ‘pronunciation’ Google decided to give us……

…uh-oh.

So I’m fully ready to imagine this wonderful scenario between a well-meaning Japanese beginner and some poor grandma:

[averagefairy]

old people really need to learn how to text accurately to the mood they’re trying to represent like my boss texted me wondering when my semester is over so she can start scheduling me more hours and i was like my finals are done the 15th! And she texts back “Yay for you….” how the fuck am i supposed to interpret that besides passive aggressive

[runawaymarbles]

Someone needs to do a linguistic study on people over 50 and how they use the ellipsis. It’s FASCINATING. I never know the mood they’re trying to convey.

[feynites]

I actually thought for a long time that texting just made my mother cranky. But then I watched my sister send her a funny text, and my mother was laughing her ass off. But her actual texted response?

“Ha… right.”

Like, she had actual goddamn tears in her eyes, and that was what she considered an appropriate reply to the joke.I just marvelled for a minute like ‘what the actual hell?’ and eventually asked my mom a few questions. I didn’t want to make her feel defensive or self-conscious or anything, it just kind of blew my mind, and I wanted to know what she was thinking.

Turns out that she’s using the ellipsis the same way I would use a dash, and also to create ‘more space between words’ because it ‘just looks better to her’. Also, that I tend to perceive an ellipsis as an innate ‘downswing’, sort of like the opposite of the upswing you get when you ask a question, but she doesn’t. And that she never uses exclamation marks, because all her teachers basically drilled it into her that exclamation marks were horrible things that made you sound stupid and/or aggressive.

So whereas I might sent a response that looked something like:

“Yay! That sounds great - where are we meeting?”

My mother, whilst meaning the exact same thing, would go:

‘Yay. That sounds great… where are we meeting?”

And when I look at both of those texts, mine reads like ‘happy/approval’ to my eye, whereas my mother’s looks flat. Positive phrasing delivered in a completely flat tone of voice is almost always sarcastic when spoken aloud, so written down, it looks sarcastic or passive-aggressive.

On the reverse, my mother thinks my texts look, in her words, ‘ditzy’ and ‘loud’. She actually expressed confusion, because she knows I write and she thinks that I write well when I’m constructing prose, and she, apparently, could never understand why I ‘wrote like an airhead who never learned proper English’ in all my texts. It led to an interesting discussion on conversational text. Texting and text-based chatting are, relatively, still pretty new, and my mother’s generation by and large didn’t grow up writing things down in real-time conversations. The closest equivalent would be passing notes in class, and that almost never went on for as long as a text conversation might. But letters had been largely supplanted by telephones at that point, so ‘conversational writing’ was not a thing she had to master. 

So whereas people around my age or younger tend to text like we’re scripting our own dialogue and need to convey the right intonations, my mom writes her texts like she’s expecting her Eighth grade English teacher to come and mark them in red pen. She has learned that proper punctuation and mistakes are more acceptable, but when she considers putting effort into how she’s writing, it’s always the lines of making it more formal or technically correct, and not along the lines of ‘how would this sound if you said it out loud?’

[adora-korra]

the linguistics of written languages in quick conversational format will never not be interesting to me like it’s fascinating how we’ve all just silently learned what an ellipsis or exclamation mark implies and it’s totally different in different communities or generations or whatever

[francis-forever]

I'm grateful to have gone to a college that requires honorifics in class bc otherwise I'd probably assume like most that "Mx. [surname]" is the only nonbinary option. I personally hate the tendency to put x in every gendered term and call it nonbinary so here are some other honorifics (but certainly not the only ones) I've seen nonbinary people use. For the sake of simplicity let's say the surname is Jackson.

Ind. Jackson- honestly this one kind of fucks. Ind stands for individual, and it gets bonus points for being the nearest equivalent to literally just referring to yourself as comrade.

Misc. Jackson- this one is ok, runs the risk of being pronounced like Miss. Honestly a little too on the nose for my taste. Also not really sure what it's saying? Miscellaneous? It seems odd with my name so I personally stay away but go for it if it sounds neat.

M. Jackson- *chef's kiss* mwa. This is the one I use. It's classy, it's elegant, and I personally like how you have to form your mouth in an entirely different way than Ms. or Mr. It forces people to make more of an effort to learn it, in my experience. They can't really play it off easily when they misgender you. However M. is also used shorthand in some languages for gendered honorifics (ie. Monsieur is M. in French) so if you're not comfy with that association this might not be your best choice

Anyways! tldr: honorifics are important for nonbinary people to have for formal environments, but Mx. isn't your only option. If anyone has more they use hmu in the notes bc I'm really curious what yall use.

[sixmapleleafs]

I found this on tiktok and I laughed so hard so I thought I’d share on here

It’s so chaotic I love it

[the-privateer]

just so you guys are all aware, the only reason gritty exists is allegedly because the NHL made a rule that every team HAD to have a mascot and were apparently assholes about it. so the fliers made him as a chaotic fuck you. hell the first tweet made on his official account was a “sleep with one eye open” threat towards another mascot for making fun of his design

[sergle]

Also, he collects crystals