Sheepscot

this is a side blog, for all of my radom thoughts and enjoyments she/her, aro/ace

[voidandradiance]

the most disorienting thing thats ever happened to me was when a linguistics major stopped in the middle of our conversation, looked me in the eye, and said, "you have a very interesting vernacular. were you on tumblr in 2014?" and i had to just stand there and process that one for a good ten seconds

[booksandchainmail]

#i was in a car with a linguist i had never met before the car trip and like half an hour in he looked at me#after i finished describing a geology thing that was happening out the window and asked if i'd ever spent much time on tumblr#the fuckor of it all#and then we spent six more hours driving#it sure does leave linguistic markers! i'm not sure i'm good with it (tags via @thoughtsformtheuniverse)

[issela-santina]

it is one thing to be a linguist and another to be a linguist who knows enough of 2010s Tumblr to spot one of its enjoyers

[lierdumoa]

Oh! @meret118 see above comment! The use of the word "enjoyers" instead of "users" or "bloggers" -> You left a comment a while back asking, "Does this just mean vocabulary words? Other than blorbo and sweet cinnamon roll etc, I can't think of what a Tumblr accent would be." I almost never see anyone use the word "enjoyer" anywhere outside of tumblr, but I see it on tumblr fairly frequently.

Another one is the verb "perceive" i.e. "don't perceive me" "I am perceiving" "I am being percieved." That's something that feels very specific to tumblr parlance.

There's the thing where people on tumblr have an emotional reaction to something and instead of, or in addition to telling you how they feel about it using emotion words, they will narrate a fictional action in the present progressive tense. "I am gnawing at the bars of my enclosure "I am kissing you on the mouth" "you are going into the soup" "you are getting all of the awards"

I once saw someone use that response format in ... I think it was a restaurant review, or a doordash review, or something like that. It was very unexpected seeing it outside of a tumblr post.

There are a lot of other tumblr linguistic quirks I can't currently remember off the top of my head, but I'll instantly recognize them if I see/hear them outside of tumblr. It's always a bit startling to see them out of context.

[pacificnorthwhore]

[i-wear-the-cheese]

when I was in university one of my modules was about internet slang and for our grades project we had to compile and analyse a small database of 100 words used by a specific community of our choice. I chose tumblr and that's how I stumbled across Gretchen McCulloch's research and discovered that yes not only did tumblr have its own vernacular and syntax (as @lierdumoa demonstrates), it was at the time a crucible of slang and memes probably unrivalled by any other part of the internet. and it's stayed that way! even the very title is McCulloch's book because internet is an example of this specific phraseology.

sadly my project is lost due to the website being wiped from the university database after graduation and my then laptop having a major hardware failure. backup your backups people! but the crux of the entire module was that the internet is full of communities using language not only as jargon for specific purpose but also to signal membership in said community. I even wrote a bit about non capitalisation and punctuation useage as a visual cue on tumblr and how including information in the reblog body or the tags indicated different levels of importance or intimacy of thought

I am holding the side of your face and looking deep in your eyes and telling you that love is stored in the syntax, and that we are rotating words together all at once as we all nod at their new and baffling meanings. if the devils sacrament be tumblr then the devils gospel is our collective voice. thanks for coming to my tedtalk

[weirdchristmas]

I am being perceived.

[injuries-in-dust]

[anthropicscholar]

more evidence for the 'they didnt dissappear, they just married into our communities' theory

[nitpickspot]

Neaderthals were too thick and sexy to survive. Sad.

[maimonideznuts-temporary]

Denisovans too

[whitepeopletwitter]

[blanketfortarchitect]

[rebloggingistheenemy]

[inviernodel95]

Thank you. I hope everybody thinks this

[calllynx]

The shape of love

[calllynx]

This is on paper btw

[calllynx]

The shape of QUEER LOVE ! HAPPY PRIDE !

[queerpeers]

me: “yeah I dated a guy in high school who came out as gay. it was before i knew i was a boy so needless to say it didn’t work out”

coworker: “damn dude was preordering”

[queerpeers]

other things this coworker (who is a cis guy) has done/said:

—got confused about why I’d never been a boy scout because he forgot i was trans

—told me he was gonna get top surgery scar tattoos to match me after i get mine

—laughs at all my trans jokes, even if they’re supremely unfunny

—calls me big dog (and him little dog) even though he is about as tall as two of me

— “I can’t believe she would say that transphobic thing to you. In June? Pride month?”

[the-ladyguinevere]

Once I said "My gender is whatever's funniest at the time" and my coworker stops dead in his tracks, turns slowly and says "So are your pronouns honk/honk?" killing me instantly

[doggirlpaws]

I was talking to a friend I knew before I transitioned about my new relationship (my first one ever!) and I said "Yeah, I think I only indentified as aro/ace most of my life because I didn't have lesbian as an option" and he looked me dead in the eye and said "Oh? Why not? ...Ohhh"

Then he said "You know, I completely forgot you weren't always this way. Femininity really suits you" and let me tell you I started tearing up

Of course, not ten minutes later I mentioned that I had to relearn how to sing and he said "oh no, what happened?" so he might just be a little slow

[doggirlpaws]

Update on that friend: a bunch of people sent me "he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit" gifs in response to that story. I can tell you now with certainty that she definitely has the spirit, and she's not confused anymore

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

it's always so dicey trying to do any kind of critique of contemporary romance novels On Here because the denizens of tumblr, like many people, love to reduce any take the humble romance novel to confirmation that the entire genre is Bad, and I don't like to encourage that take because I like romance novels and I do think the casual disdain for the genre gets into really misogynistic territory real quick. and that makes it really annoying to voice informed opinions as someone who's been slamming a romance or two a month every months for several years.

all of which is preface to me being kind of a mean little hater and saying that some romance novels have this very distinctive style that I call Heckin Valid that's soooo annoying because you can Tell the authors are coming from a place of really well-meaning but pretty shallow 2010s internet-style #diversity rhetoric. some of the hallmarks of Heckin Valid style, to me, include:

main characters have Identities that they often feel the need to mention often and frequently Explain, even in their own internal narration.

there is often a Trans Friend. if the Trans Friend cannot be readily identified by using they/them pronouns, their trans status will either be dropped gracelessly in the narration OR the Trans Friend will verbally identify as such by saying something akin to "now, speaking as your Trans Friend..."

this may also be done with a Fat Friend. the Fat Friend is almost universally a woman, and it will always be emphasized that she is Very Beautiful because it is important to remember that fat women can be hot.

the narration is very invested in identifying the racial identity of every non-white character, regardless of how minor they are.

before engaging in sex the main couple will dutifully report to each other that they have both recently gotten tested for STIs and do not have any.

getting characters into therapy is an integral part of the Happily Ever After, if they were not in therapy to begin with.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

everyone is by unspoken agreement up to date on the Correct Terminology. this one is difficult to describe without an example so I will cite Alexis Daria's You Had Me At Hola, in which every character regardless of age, background, etc has received the memo to use the term "Latinx"

YHMAH is actually what got me thinking about this because it's an offender for basically every one of these, including this bone dry line about obligatory therapy from the epilogue

well thank god she's learning to cope with her need for external validation and her tendency to self-soothe with alcohol, something that I didn't even realize she was concerned about anywhere in the previous 360 pages leading up to this

[greenandhazy]

Throwback to that time I tried to read Kiss Her Once For Me, which had been recommended to me by multiple people irl, and nearly went into a tailspin over the main character’s conversation with her Black, trans, polyamorous friend in like the first chapter.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

STOPPPPPP I hated this book so much!!!!

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

#kiss her once for me was written by someone who ripped off my fanfic#her first book is my fanfic reskinned and with a shit ton of added twee#as always: fuck Alison Cochrun hope that bitch goes bankrupt#OP’s point is valid but yeah no Cochrun specifically can get fucked

hey. hi. can you say more about that?

[peterdyckmancampbell]

I’m not linking the fic here bc I like to keep my fanfic and tumblr separate-ish, but yeah uh I had a silly little Bachelorette AU, canon/oc for a megafandom, with lots of little inside jokes with a friend and uhhhhh yeah no she took some lines verbatim. She made it The Bachelor instead of the Bachelorette, the Jewish character Indian and the lesbian character asexual and did add some scenes bc the fic was 20k-ish but the scenes that I did have were ripped beat for beat.

the fic when the book was published had less than 700 hits. I found the novel by complete coincidence before it took off.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

okay me reading this

[starhairtie]

Amongst all of the tumblr sexybird debates, crow this, penguin that, there is one challenger that has remained... under the radar, so to speak.

I find this unacceptable, therefore I shall present my case to you today, fellow tumblr nerds.

I present the HOTTEST tumblr sexybird around:

. ..

....DRUMROLL PLEASE....

I know, it brings a tear to my eye just looking at this FINE chunk of meat :'D Now, onto the reasonings: 1. Just LOOK at this juicy, tender flesh.. who wouldn't want to take a bite?

2. A key part of Tumblr Sexyman culture is the breaking of barriers of what's allowed to be quote unquote "sexy", and look at this plump offering right up here on a rack, quite literally: nice thighs. tender flesh you can just rip into, the mass appeal it draws from the masses with the unassuming taste that got beloved by the Earth community. I fail to see what qualifications for Tumblr sexyman/bird this wouldn't pass. 3. Don't take it just from me folks, after interviewing others asking about the image, they were asked to provide any word that came to mind, responses include: "succulent", "mouth-filling", and "fatty and juicy". Such vivid, bold word choice chosen by these people, clearly laying down the foundation for people to one day unabashedly say, "DANG, that is one sexy bird!"

Now that I have informed you of this avian snack of the century, I bid you ado while also reminding you to vote this bird for tumblrsexyman/bird 2026!

Thank you and goodnight

[sexy-people-contests-2026]

Have been informed by op that this was made at 3am

[bramblepatch]

The thing is you can have a grassy lawn or even a golf course without it being an ecological disaster, you just have to a: be cool about having the occasional non-grass plant in the mix and b: be willing to live in a climate that supports grass without irrigation.

[bramblepatch]

Golf courses in California are an abomination which is why the sport was in fact invented in Scotland.

[abstrusetheorist]

I always thought that golf as a sport should be adapted to the local native landscape. I think this will encourage regional pride when local golfers completely trounce visitors at Swamp Golf, Desert Golf, Forest Golf, etc. Rich tourists will be pressured to travel extensively to experience all forms of golf, instead of staying in their backyard country club golf courses. Internet discourse will probably somehow get worse but I think this is a small price to pay.

[fullmetalfisting]

Tbh germ theory DOES sound crazy. Like if you told a regency-era nobleman that tiny creatures lived on the surface of everything and THAT’S what causes consumption, they’d be like “ah, I see you are a lunatic. Would you reside in my hermitage? Rantings and ravings do so amuse my guests”

[mysteryteacup]

But if you told a Medieval person this they would probably go "Ah, so when the miasma settles on surfaces it gains evil life. I understand."

[alarajrogers]

Yeah, actually, it would probably be pretty easy to explain germ theory to a Medieval person as tiny evil spirits that live on everything, but they can be purified by soap and water, or by alcohol, because that is why God has granted us those things. And because they can float in the air, if you cough or sneeze after they have infested you, that can cause them to infest others. And when you are sick, the angels God has deputized to defend the bodies of His beloved children are at war with the evil spirits, and, sadly, sometimes they lose, but the best way to help your angels win their battle is to rest, drink plenty (this would probably be small beer in this time period, not water, because the water was also infested), stay clean, and for the sake of God do not allow anyone to let your blood, for the angels need that blood in their war against the evil spirits. Bloodletting is good for some types of illnesses but not the kinds caused by the tiny evil spirits.

[chekhovs-raygun]

boiling as a sterilization measure is also easy to explain. water returns to the air when heated and it rises as steam back up to the floodgates of heaven; we know God created the world in seven days, He's not up there making more water every time it rains. it circulates. the returning of water to heaven also purifies the water of unclean and malign influences. you know wormy water from a muddy puddle will kill your kid. you know you wouldn't wade into a bog and have a slurp. water that remains in the low places of earth absorbs all that is unclean from our waste and it may also sponge up new diseases from hell, we're not totally sure about that one, but it seems likely. God set up the heavenly water cycle so that the earth's waters wouldn't totally fill up with gunk.

what does this have to do with boiling your surgical tools? well look, the boiling water releases bubbles of steam which carries the malign influences up to heaven. you boil a knife, you send all the miasmic particles off with the steam to heaven. if you rinse the knife off in a bucket the water isn't hot enough, the particles go into the water and then right back on to the knife. you gotta boil it to get the particles all the way away. how can a tool or rag or a bed have miasmic particles on it when you can't smell them? humans have a lousy sense of smell. look at your dog on the hunt. are there no rabbits in the woods just because you can't smell them? we know that miasma is carried on the air, and is what makes stench so dangerous, and we know that humans can't smell worth a damn compared to dogs cats horses etc. a dog can smell if a rat died in a corner of the room last week. you can't. do you think licking the spot where the rat died is going to go well for you? luckily, what humans lack in snout we make up for in brains. we have extra brains where our sniffers should have been. God set that up for a reason.

and why does a rinse with wine spirits work? man, look how fast alcohol evaporates. my guess is that because wine contains a lot more vice than water, it evaporates a whole lot faster, in sort of an equal and opposite way that a rock falls faster than a feather. if you want the miasmic particles to get off there FAST, you dunk it in something that's going back to heaven at a gallop.

what's up with honey? it just preserves things against corruption. doesn't clean them off. honey doesn't evaporate at all. probably because bees don't sin. it's not good for ridding a tool of particles-- it's sticky-- but fine for preserving anything you don't want to go to heaven OR hell. this is why you wash the wound with wine spirits or purified water FIRST, to sluice the miasma out, then slap the honey on AFTER. and boil the damn bandage, too. you wouldn't put a rotten door in a sound doorframe and expect it to keep out bandits, would you? cmon.

[ariaste]

Medieval people also already knew that putting things out in the sun helped to keep them clean (UV radiation killing bacteria). So everyone knows that after you use a butter churn, you rinse it out, give it a scrub, and set it out in the sun to dry, or else it will go sour and everything you make with it will go bad fast. Likewise with when you want to get sheets and clothes really clean and fresh, you boil them with lye soap and then lay them out in the sun to dry.

[cricketcat9]

Medieval paesant: yes, yes, makes total sense

JFK Jr: I take my grandkids to swim in a sewer and dig roadkill

[intimatevoid]

This kind of process is called "headology" in Discworld and is the foundation for an entire branch of witchcraft in the series.

[gayvampyr]

important things happening in r/cats

[parkchanwoohoo]

[vaspider]

Me having photo editing software on my phone is a blessing and a curse

[honeyxmonkey]

Avatar Aang, age 17, once got clocked in the face by Firelord Zuko, age 20, because he forgot Zuko is deaf in his left ear and has no peripheral vision on that side either. And made the mistake of not announcing he was right next to Zuko, resulting in jumpscaring the Firelord and being on the receiving end of Zuko's fight or flight response. Unfortunately for Aang, Zuko always chooses "fight".

[muffinlance]

Aang goes down and somewhere in Zuko's hindbrain, a millisecond before he properly processes the situation, his inner ponytail!prince starts shouting FINALLY FUCKING CAUGHT THE AVATAR

Fortunately what comes out is just fuck fuck fuck

[romanceyourdemons]

next time you’re at the thrift store and find a nice solid thick pile area rug for a shockingly good price and you’ve been looking for an area rug for the office forever and the color goes really nicely with the office color scheme and you think this is it, this is what i’ve been waiting for, stop, and ask yourself: did i take the bus here?

[romanceyourdemons]

next time you’re on the bus and see someone with an area rug and a look of deep disappointment in themself mind your own business

[lotusbread]

been rewatching the ATLA series and decided to draw this from the Avatar Day episode, but with adult Aang

"Gee, I'd love to help but I'm so supposed to be boiled in oil." 🤧🤣

I love my sassy pacifist aura farming air nomad avatar ✨️

Other drawings ✨️

[wizardarchetypes]

scariest thing is when you're a kid in a huge family run by women and then you go over to a house that's deeply patriarchal & misogynistic. i remember when i was 8 years old and i got invited over to my friend's house for a big birthday party with her entire extended family. after the enormous lunch that served over 30 people, i got called into the kitchen to do literally hundreds of dishes, alongside all the other little girls and women. not only were the boys our age all excused from the meal to go play, but all the grown men went to the living room to watch sports together and drink. i couldn't believe it. i asked why some of the grownups were watching TV but the girls had to clean up and all the women just laughed and laughed at me.

[wizardarchetypes]

as a teenager when i learned the word "sexist" and used it the older women balked at it and tried to convince me this arrangement was a good thing actually because women need space from men, and cleaning in the kitchen after parties is a sacred domain of safety. and i was like actually i think needing private safety from your own husbands, sons, and brothers sounds even worse. like do you understand you somehow made this even more troubling than it already was

[wizardarchetypes]

like i think it's fine if a bunch of sister-in-laws/wives want time together without their husbands & brothers to talk together in camaraderie. i'm not judging that. obviously. but dare i ask why the women's meetup could only take place while doing manual labor for a nearby room full of men

[wizardarchetypes]

it's also interesting how this ingrained rigid social structures in children bc i was mostly friends with boys at that age and in fact was at the birthday party of a friend who was a boy so i remember complaining to him at school that it was weird all the girls had to help clean up because i didn't know any of the other little girls so i felt really left out that i didn't get to hang out with my own friends for a chunk of the party and he and the other little boys were like "that's just the rules."

[wizardarchetypes]

yeah growing up in the Appalachian bible belt I absolutely often saw this re-enforced by women.

[catasters]

[monchursouls]

Smacka smacka smacka

[greatmountainfloofsquatch]

Enrichment!