[vrabia]

today i learned that the finnish word for ‘hazardous waste’ is ongelmajäte, which can also translate as ‘problematic garbage’ and my roommate and i immediately agreed this is a word that belongs on tumblr.

[callmebliss]

Your fave is ongelmajäte

[you-had-me-at-e-flat-major]

in german it’s Sondermüll which means special trash and that too belongs on tumblr

[pyrebomb]

One man’s ongelmajäte is another man’s sondermüll.

[cryptic-symbols]

mountain goats litany for survival: I am gonna make it through this year it it kills me

mountain goats litany for divorce: hand in unlovable hand

mountain goats litany for justice: I’m gonna bribe the officials, I’m gonna kill all the judges

mountain goats litany for revenge: I am personally going to stab you in the eye with a foreign object

mountain goats litany for weird kid pride: wearing my lizard suit to the party

mountain goats litany for meeting word count: the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it’s you and you are standing in the doorway

mountain goats litany against nonsense and also handball: I did not come to play handball

mountain goats litany against anti-intellectualism: I use the term advisedly according to Webster's 9th New Collegiate, definition 4b

amen

[cryptic-symbols]

mountain goats litany for pretending everything is fine when it is, categorically, not fine in the slightest: hi diddle dee dee goddamn the pirate’s life for me!

mountain goats litany for self confidence: I can write C++ as good as anyone

mountain goats litany for sorely misplaced self confidence: the Chicago Cubs will beat every team in the league

mountain goats litany against your friends’ bullshit: where did the monkey come from?????

amen

[cryptic-symbols]

this post has broken containment so I feel obligated to inform you all that the mountain goats are a band and these are song lyrics

[kosmogrl]

[lunarriviera]

[transfemmbeatrice]

thought of this immediately and was delighted to discover it’s the same op

[bonesmarinated]

[fallout spice of life] NCR trooper having Christmas meal back home in New Cali. The tiny mess room was decorated in style. A green wreath hung at one end as a Christmas tree. The tables were loaded with food, they have fried chicken (poultry raised under NCR 'Food for Defense' program) hardtacks, pea soup, mash potatoes, cream chipped gecko on toast. The hardtack were soggy and moldy usually because of bad storage and ones infested with maggots, and weevils, but they didn’t mind that. That one night officers and troopers had their mess together. It was rather close quarters. They had a crew of four officers and thirty-two troopers, it was no dress affair. No beef and wine as you call them. In short, there were many drawbacks, but low morale were not one of them. In the tight, overcrowded little mess room they ate and talked. The meal was washed down with potato coffee mixed with rum, and they lost count of the number of toasts that were drunk.

[knittinghistory]

An c.1000-1200 CE example of Egyptian cotton knitted socks.

[yarns-nstuff]

I made a chart for it!

I realised while making it that the pattern on the sock isn't always symmetrical or identical, so I had to be a little creative. But I managed to get it pretty close, I think!

[upthewitchypunx]

Are blue bracelets the new wear a safety pin?

Ugh.

[lemonbalmgirl]

It seems so, according to social media. But I also saw posts calling them out as performative bullshit immediately. 🤷‍♀️

[upthewitchypunx]

Ya, I'll pass. It seems like another boring thing to make people feel better without having to actually do anything.

[technicolordreamgoat]

Someone on threads said something to the effect of "How do I know your blue bracelet isn't just a Thin Blue Line?" and I thought that was fairly appropriate.

[upthewitchypunx]

Oh shit! ya.

[mulchmouth]

Easy alternative to the meaningless blue bracelet: mask in public spaces. Comes with the added benefit of actually doing something to protect marginalized groups.

[roxxydoubleexes]

I fell in love with Smart Dolls in October of 2023.

I’d gone through the worst travel experience of my life in January; the uncertainty of delayed—and missed, and canceled—flights and constantly-shifting accommodations, combined with the emotional weight of my mother’s worsening cancer diagnosis, left me with severe travel trauma.

For nine months, I struggled to find some kind of remedy. I bought new bags with different pocket configurations and increasingly sturdy zippers. I downloaded podcasts and classes and audiobooks to distract myself. I carried off multiple crochet and knitting projects. It helped, somewhat, but the beginning of the trip was always the same: I could prepare as much as I wanted, but I never felt prepared—I didn’t feel safe. Nothing felt good enough to get me through, even if it was just a day trip into the city to visit the home office. I met every trip with the emotional gut punch energy of if the zipper on my bag breaks, my mom is going to die of cancer; it didn't matter that it didn't make logical sense, because trauma simply does not care about logic.

That August, my sibling and I had attended a weekend-long doll convention. That was where we’d first heard about Smart Dolls from the vendors, some selling the most adorable designs specifically for SmD. Piper later sent me a link to Danny Choo’s Instagram feed, where he was showing off designs for their new pear dolls, representing women of a softer figure. We both got excited about the announcement, and looked forward to possibly owning a doll that didn’t match the porcelain-white, doe-eyed, stoic waifs that we so frequently saw in the hands of other collectors.

October came around, and while thinking up gift ideas for myself and Piper, I found myself on the Smart Doll website. I scrolled through the company philosophy, and learned how the dolls were made by hand by a team of fewer than 20 people. I looked through the shop pages showing dolls of different natural skin tones, all with different complexions and conditions, with optional parts for medical aids and bodily representation. I read about how the dolls are designed not to just sit on display at home on a shelf, but how they can and should be taken outside, how they’re built to travel…

“Maybe if I had a travel buddy,” I thought, “I wouldn’t get so upset.” It seemed like one of those stupid brain hacks that shouldn’t work, but it somehow does. I imagined my plane being delayed, and me saying to myself, “There’s no reason to panic; my doll isn’t panicking, so I’m not going to panic either. We’re just going to wait this out.”

I was ready to try anything, and Smart Doll had already won me over with their business practices and consideration for their employee’s well-being.

I looked through the dolls again, quietly asking myself if any of them spoke to me—if they wanted to be my friend. I found Courage among the semi-real dolls, and I immediately loved her so much my heart hurt. I waited a few days to see if the feeling would pass; instead of dissipating, it changed into me already missing her company.

I ordered her for myself as an early birthday gift.

Immediately after, ordered some sneakers and started searching for sewing patterns. I found some basics—socks, a v-neck tee shirt and boot cut jeans, an oversized hoodie, and a pajama set—and got to work on a welcome set. I hadn’t sewn clothing for a while, and wasn’t ready to jump in immediately with something as complex as a pair of jeans, so I began with the pajama set.

There was an unexpected benefit to living on the west coast: Courage arrived four days later. Nothing had prepared me for the unboxing of my new doll. Even though I had read the measurements and worked with the sewing patterns, she was still somehow larger than I had anticipated. She wasn’t just sturdier than my BJDs—resin or vinyl—with their elastic joints, but she felt sturdier. At the same time, she weighed less than my largest resin doll who was only half her height.

I replaced her right arm, got her wig situated, and sat back to take a good look at her. I had expected to be so overwhelmed I’d cry, but instead I felt reassured and comforted by the slight, benign expression of adventurous optimism on Courage’s face. She seemed to say, I made it here; where do we go next?

I looked up tutorials on how to sew the freebie Smart Doll patterns. I cut up outworn clothing that I’d been saving just in case I ever needed a bit of tee shirt cotton or stretch denim for a future project. I said goodbye to my Welcome To Night Vale hoodie, worn thin through the years, and gave it new life. I knitted her a hat from some sock yarn during a business meeting.

Over the course of a week, I sewed up her first outdoor outfit, piece by piece. I was scheduled to go into the office again, and I didn’t feel anxious or uneasy about the trip; instead, I was excited that I got to bring my new friend with me, and get some photographs of her around Seattle. My only concern was that I hadn’t yet decided on a name for her. In the few days I’d had her, I’d tried a few before dismissing them. The night before we were set to depart, my husband asked if I’d settled on one yet. I told him no, and he admitted he had thought of one as soon as he’d seen her, but didn’t want to influence my decision by telling me. I asked him what name had come to mind.

"Elaine."

Now, a little over a year later, Elaine has gone with me to Seattle on multiple trips. She’s gone to the pumpkin patch, on Target shopping trips, and on family vacations. She flew with me to Australia earlier this year, and later—after my mom passed away—down to Taos, New Mexico while I handled the paperwork for the estate. I’ve made clothes and bags for her, sewn her a tiny 1/3 scale quilt, crocheted her a hammock, and even repurposed a doll closet to hold her belongings.

I don’t know how I would have gotten through this year as well as I have without Elaine’s help. In a way, my need for her paralleled the beginning of my grieving process. Even though my mother was still alive when I found myself scrolling through the Smart Doll site, her recovery was hard on her, and she was struggling with regaining the strength that chemotherapy and surgery had taken from her. According to some studies and support groups, it’s common for family members of a cancer patient to begin the grieving process while the person is still alive. Elaine helped me tame some of those feelings, and allowed me to corral them into the appropriate place where they could be managed, instead of letting them infect other facets of my life.

For that, I’ll be forever grateful for Elaine’s presence; for the secret name of Courage that she still bears; for the name my husband offered for her; for Danny Choo and his amazing team in Smart Doll Land.

Since then, I’ve brought three more Smart Dolls into my home: Freya (cocoa Legion), Elaine’s girlfriend, because Elaine deserves to be loved; Morri (cinnamon Transcendence), my long-awaited pear doll, and a gift from my mother; and Haruka (cinnamon Pride Prowess), another belated birthday gift for myself. I’ve gifted two Smart Dolls to my sibling, and sewn a full clothing collection for a friend’s young cousin who recently received a Smart Doll as a gift.

Even as I look forward to the eventual release of Cortex 2 next year—I’ve been looking for an excuse to learn how to play with electronics—Elaine, my Courage, will always be my most special girl.

[roxxydoubleexes]

Sorry fam, this might become a doll blog soon. 🤣

I regret nothing. 🖕🖕

[glowcowboy]

i want to be a sweet and friendly girl but there’s all this anxiety. and the horrors

[iremluna]

and rage

[glowcowboy]

yeah and also the rage

[beemovieerotica]

when doctors ask if i have any history of cancer in my family and i have to say that yes my grandmother had 2 types of gastrointestinal cancer and they're like oh wow okay so we'll keep an eye out for that but i'm like no it was probably just all the nuclear radiation and they're like ok hm ok what the fuck do you mean and it's very weird seeing the look on american doctors' faces when you have to explain to them that believe it or not atomic bombs were dropped on this earth 2 generations ago and it did have consequences

[depsidase]

[thepariahcontinuum]

Yeah I'm just not doing that. I don't need the job that much.

[beemovieerotica]

comments by @autumntides :

It is illegal in the United States (violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (Title I and V)) to require a photograph or other image in a job application outside of direct unavoidable relevance (modeling and acting work).

"In the instance an employer makes an illegal request for a photograph as part of a job application, you may submit a complaint to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission."

Successful violation fee collections are paid partially to the one who suffered the violation, which in many cases exceeds a year of work at these shit jobs. There's only two weak points to a corporation, and those are in the budget and in the supply chain. Hit them where it hurts.

[musdomus]

Damn. I had to do a three question video interview for a customer service PHONE job. Like, WUHHHH?

[memeuplift]

[merdet]

In 2020, I contributed this 9 pg short for an anthology called Girl’s Who Love Monsters and it’s basically my OC’s meetcute. I inked these on paper and then colored them digitally.

[shinjaninja]

I don't know what defines me better than "I just finished making my skeleton blanket, time to watch a webinar about Disney Land w my mom"

Also here's my blanket, pattern here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1044853433/all-skulls-mosaic-crochet-blanket?ref=share_v4_lx

[eternalwormdevouringconneticut]

in the tags say a song that encapsulates your gender but you arent allowed to say an mcr or mother mother song

[nasa-cryptid]

wow! congrats, yall!

[alurdunfinn]

I, for one, welcome our new trans gods

[cockyroaches]

I love the implication that the Singular Christian God has been replaced by. Every trans person. We are now a unity

[hampop]

Whats a mob to a king? What’s a king to a God? What’s a God to my Trans friend Hailey who works at Kroger’s?

[lemonsharks]

My ancestors, watching me dump an entire stick of cinnamon, two cloves, an allspice berry, and a generous grating of nutmeg into my tea, sweetened with white sugar and loaded with cream, while I sit in my clean warm house surrounded by books, 25+ outfits for different occasions, and 6 pairs of shoes, in a building heated so well I have the windows open in mid-autumn:

Our daughter prospers. We are proud of her. She has never labored in a field but knows riches we could not have imagined.

[sighinastorm]

I like this so much better than the idea that our ancestors would be embarrassed or ashamed of us for being “soft” or some crap like that.

[therinde-dreams]

My ancestors, watching me stuff my face with fried chicken while studying: She eats like an imperial concubine and can afford to study like am imperial scholar. WE MADE IT

[idhren]

She eats like an imperial concubine and can afford to study like am imperial scholar

[villainous-queer-deactivated202]

My ancestors watching me use my stand mixer while living in a small apartment and attending university: Thou hast kneadeth bread in FOUR hail marys??? FOUR??? And thou ist poor as a churchmouse, yet liveth in a fine cottage with four pounds butter and fresh berries in thy larder!! And two featherbeds! And thou attendeth the King’s college, as a lord!!

[lagt-duck]

My ancestors being like:

Look at this fine young lady! She can paint she can sew and embrody, she sings and read

And without a wealthy father to pay for that, plus she is florid in the body! She doesn’t know hunger!

We did it!

[ruffboi-mags]

Me: /wearily studying/

My Ancestors: TRULY SH— what? They? A little unorthodox, but reasonable I suppose. TRULY THEY PROSPER, FOR THEY LIVE IN A DWELLING WITH MANY ROOMS AND ONLY THEIR SPOUSE TO SHARE IT WITH! THEY HAVE DOGS WHO DO NOT PERFORM A FUNCTION! THEY HAVE MANY BOOKS AND DO NOT HAVE TO SPIN THEIR OWN YARN! THEY BATHE AT A WHIM WITH GENTLE SOAP FREE OF LYE! OUR DESCENDANT BRINGS HONOR AND PRIDE TO OUR LINEAGE!

Me: /yawns and sips my coffee/

My Ancestors: /cheer wildly/