Pondering Thet

I love comics, animation, anime, and geek stuff. I'm an adult.

[pastabot]

today is not my birthday

[pastabot]

reblog if your birthday is not today

[mariacallous]

Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French author of graphic novel 'Persepolis', dies aged 56 - https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/marjane-satrapi-iranian-french-author-graphic-novel-persepolis-dies-aged-56-2026-06-04/

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/marjane-satrapi-iranian-french-author-graphic-novel-persepolis-dies-aged-56-2026-06-04/

[dailymanners]

Do not ever be rude or condescending to someone who asks "obvious" questions, no matter how obvious or silly you think the question is.

For one, in some cultures asking an obvious question is just a polite way of acknowledging the situation. So for example, if you just put your jacket on and start clocking out, a co-worker asking "oh, you done for the day and heading out now?" doesn't deserve you sneering at them like an idiot, scoffing, and saying "uh duh, just like I do every day at this time" when it's likely they knew the answer, but were just asking as a polite way of acknowledging the situation.

But even if they were genuinely unsure that you're leaving even though it seems obvious to you from context clues, so what? What does being rude and condescending to them achieve? Maybe they couldn't sleep last night so they're really out of it today, maybe they're dissociating, maybe they're about to pass out from low blood sugar, maybe some other employees sometimes put on their jacket and only clock out briefly but come back.

There's all sorts of reasons they could be confused about whether or not you're leaving, but intentionally making them feel bad achieves nothing except, well, making them feel bad. Either way, they're not hurting you or anyone by asking a "stupid" question, so there's no point in being rude about it. If you still want to make them feel bad about themselves for looking "stupid" when they weren't hurting anyone, that is the mindset of bullies and abusers.

[dailymanners]

Thank you everyone who is pointing out in the notes that this is usually an attempt to connect with someone and/or strike up a conversation. Because honestly in my experience 9 times out of 10 when someone asks an "obvious" question that's what they're trying to do. If someone walks into the kitchen and asks "oh are you cooking?" while you're standing over the stove holding a spatula, they probably already know the answer, but they're just trying to start a conversation with you and connect to you.

All the more reason it's sad and hurtful when these attempts are met with sneering and being treated like an idiot.

[sarcasticmothwrites]

There are no stupid questions, only assholes providing snarky non-answers. Because aside from the bid for connection or genuine confusion, sometimes there are REASONS why you might get an obvious question.

“Oh, are you cooking?” asks person who thought you were going out tonight.

“Are you leaving?” asks time-blind person who’s surprised it’s 5:00.

“Are you going to lunch?” asks person who remembers there’s a meeting in 30 minutes.

This is where I make my occasional reminder that Emily Post said the reason for manners is to make others comfortable and foster kind, thoughtful human interactions.

[the-haiku-bot]

“Oh, are you cooking?”

asks person who thought you were

going out tonight.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[visit-ba-sing-se]

I am running a marathon with a twisted ankle and it hurts but some pain is normal, right? Everyone says it's supposed to be hard. It is a marathon after all. I am running a marathon with a twisted ankle but honestly it could be worse, right? I heard someone once finished with a broken leg. The ankle is nothing compared to that. I am running a marathon with a twisted ankle but you can get used to pain, right? The body can endure almost anything. The problem is always the mind. I am running a marathon with a twisted ankle but I made it this far, that means I can keep going, right? Everyone says it's supposed to be hard. It is a marathon after all.

[ospreyonthemoon]

And you don't know its a twisted ankle- you're not sure really, it feels like you twisted it, everyone else says "marathons are tough, its normal to struggle" so its probably nothing, right? Why is everyone else going faster than you? Looking it up you're meant to rest a twisted ankle, but it's a marathon, everyone is cheering, or maybe just yelling. You can't stop. If you stop you're just lazy, right? You should probably just keep running. Why are you getting slower? It's just a sore ankle. Everyone's ankles are sore. You know your parents used to run marathons and they never complained. You should be fine, right? You'll get over it when the marathon ends. You can't drop out now. Later. When it's done. You just need to place.

It is going to end, right?

[josephbrassey]

“Haha remember when murder-hornets were gonna be a thing? What a nothingburger.”

Yes, because the Washington state government activated like a sleeper-cell and ruthlessly, systematically hunted them down and annihilated them.

“Y2K came to nothing amirite?”

Yes because an army of software engineers working around the clock, losing sleep, and busting ass till the last minute prevented it from happening.

“Remember the hole in the ozone layer?”

You mean the one that was fixed through rigorous world wide government action?

One of the root problems of our society is a refusal or inability by media to articulate that all those “it’s gonna be an apocalypse” disasters were not disasters because we collectively did something about them.

The good news is this is actually quite correctable. I maintain my firm belief that we as humans are capable of solving almost all of our problems, when we decide to do so.

And I still think that’s going to happen. I don’t know when or how, but I do know that abandoning hope won’t help bring it about.

And I refuse to let the cynics own a chunk of my heart.

[rederiswrites]

There really really ought to be a book about how the staple crops of different civilizations shape and influence those civilizations, and I really want to read it.

[alexseanchai]

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky and A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (three are alcohol, three have caffeine) are not quite that, but may still be of interest?

[rederiswrites]

I read Salt back in the day and it's so so good, second the rec. I have heard of 6 Glasses and not read it but I am sure I would probably love it. Gotta see if the library has it. Thank you!

[pandorasquillandquotes]

Gonna throw Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert in the ring here! You'll never see the modern world the same way again.

[vaspider]

A Short History Of The World According To Sheep by Sally Coulthard blew my mind. So many things are tied to wool and sheep and weaving and so many words and phrases are tied to wool, people have no idea.

Example words which come from textiles/weaving, if not specifically wool (go look them up!): subtle, shoddy, tabby, Brazil, rocket, twit, warped, going batty, on tenterhooks, text...

[foxofninetales]

I'll throw in a rec for Pickled, Potted, and Canned by Sue Shephard - a very interesting look at food preservation and how the availability of different types of food preservation shaped cultures and cuisines.

[electronsprotonscroutons]

Sweetness and Power is this but for the topic of sugar

[magneticdeclination]

The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past might also be up your alley. It's about "forgotten" foods and staples. They talk about different types of wheat, sauces, veggies, etc and a little about the cultures from whence they come

[doctornerdington]

Also: Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser. One of my favourite books.

[bitchwhoyoukiddin]

DO I HAVE A SERIES FOR YOU. University of California Press has a gift for you and it is a 80+ book series on food studies. There are even some that are open access (legally free), but the rest are in libraries.

I also highly recommend Frostbite by Nicola Twilley. It’s about the impact refrigeration has had/is having on food preservation and culture, globally. It was one of my favorite books of this last year.

[calystarose]

Also, The Rice Theory of Culture https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1172&context=orpc By Thomas Talhelm

[ariaste]

Can't believe no one's mentioned Consider the Fork yet, which is about how environment/resources shape our ways of eating, which shapes both our culture and our concepts of politeness. So interesting, really recommend!

[great-art-and-a-purple-tongue]

Seven Flowers and How They Shaped Our World by Jennifer Potter

It isn't so much about edible plants as it is about decorative ones, but I think it fits the theme of this growing list enough for me to add it.

[the-haiku-bot]

Seven Flowers and

How They Shaped Our World by

Jennifer Potter

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[aquilacalvitium]

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written

Write it badly or it'll never be written

[aquilacalvitium]

Please keep interacting with this post because when I come to tumblr to procrastinate, this shows up again in my notifications and guilts me into writing again

[pink-lemonade-rose]

Everything You Need to Build May Day Strong

FIVE DAYS UNTIL WE SHUT IT DOWN

"We’re trying to build off the work of No Kings and the successful Day of Truth and Freedom shutdown in Minnesota, moving from mass street protest to mass non-compliance. It’s a major step up in commitment, a foundation and capacity test for larger strikes in the future, and a reminder to the powers that be that we have power, too. This could be the beginning of something big."

[theprofessional-amateur]

Me when I contact IT and tell them yes I restarted and followed any instructions I could but computer still angry and IT says they are escalating this because it is an actual issue: I am getting a good grade in service desk ticket. Something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

Link to post

[indecisiveavocado]

taggs via @ruffboi-mags: #yeah like i'm... well there was a time when i was definitely one of the least computer literate people i knew#like this was back in the late 90s/early 00s mostly#but like i could do basic things but i was woefully lacking in most kinds of knowledge#buuuut i could FIND most of what I needed if I actually read things and searched for guides and what not so i did okay#fast forward to today and i swear even half the people i would've thought would have the same approximate level of skill i have#(ie were nerdy and online/using computers regularly back in the late 90s/early 00s)#seem to... not?#I don't know if they had it and forgot because they let apps and fancier windows and geek squad and shit take over#or if i just overestimated everyone#but it's wild to me that even folks my age who are nerdy and online and have been since their teens#are... often kind of lacking in the basic skills department#i contact IT going 'hey guys there's a lot of fancy visual stuff windows likes to run that i normally turn off on my personal computer#because it's a little unnecessarily CPU-heavy to have them all running#and my work laptop here is running real laggy and is using a lot of memory and processing on stuff#and while a lot of it is stuff like the VPN and firewall that I know need to be running for security#this stuff could be turned off and it might help a bit. but it's admin locked so *I* can't change the settings can you for me?'#and they're like 'oh probably that won't make a difference but sure' and remote log in and pull up the wrong settings#(you need to go into one of the more technical menus to get at the setttings I don't remember where specifically but i usually get there#by the run option rather than just opening it through menus)#and i'm like no no#let me have the cursor and i'll open the menu in question#and so i do and they just kind of sit there for a moment and are like '...so what settings did you want to change?'#and i said click that button enter your admin login to access the menu and then turn off every option except this one#and they do and immediately things are improving so i thank them and they seem absolutely baffled that i knew those settings existed#and that i knew turning them off may help with the lag#but like... i knew bc i googled how to improve my memory/cpu use so my computer would run a lil better and it seems like no one but tech pp#think to do that sort of thing anymore????#idk man it's just wild to me#all this rambling to say i really hate how much my OS tries to control FOR me and how difficult they make it to change settings#and i wish i could use linux better than i can and also that i could use it on my work computer specifically

when my younger brother had been learning how to code for a fairly long time, I showed him how to copy and paste.

he was astonished.

[ruffboi-mags]

...I gotta lay face down on the floor for a while to process this shit.

have you taught him how to cut and paste yet?

[the-haiku-bot]

…I gotta lay face

down on the floor for a while

to process this shit.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[silvercatmon]

I worked for years in tech support. Thankfully I got away from the customer facing job and into research and typing reports. Research that involves using an important program that no one could use. I'm on a call with a lead about other stuff and we are chatting about the program failing.

Me: In my years of tech support I learned over 98% of tech support is turning things off and on again in various ways.

Lead: Well this is different, the update is corrupted so they have to roll the program back.

Me: Which is turning the program off and turning it back on again with the previous version.

Lead: ... *Strange tone* Yes, I guess they are doing that.

[pink-lemonade-rose]

No Kings

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once ag

One week away!

[aunti-christ-ine]

It's not paying taxes that bugs me the most -- it's HOW the taxes are USED!

And, of course, the wealthy not being taxed at their appropriate percentages.

[mydearestdarlingdead]

For all your "_ is a jerk!" Needs in the future

[osvaldoeaf]

[sitronsangbody]

Half the backlash to fat lib content essentially boils down to "I can't believe you're FORCING me to not be mean to you"

[sitronsangbody]

Thin people are absolutely relentless with this. "But I have to TELL them!" "I can't just not SAY something!" "We can't just PRETEND it's fine to be fat!"

They really seem to think the main reason people are fat is because we're simply drowning in approval and no one has been brave enough to inform us that it's better to not be fat, actually

[specialagentartemis]

I genuinely think it's related to what I observe about singleness, virginity, and ace/aro topics: people's entire worldviews are threatened by fat liberation. And having your worldview challenged is scary... especially because so many people have put so, so much personal effort into Not Being Fat, so much self-hate into gaining weight, so much self-denial of food they like and forcing themselves into activities they hate, to avoid being fat.

And fat liberation says "It's okay to be fat!" and fat people say "I'm happy being fat and I don't try to become skinny!"

And it scares people that that is an option. It scares people to think that they have sunk so much time, so much effort, so much misery into avoiding being fat. And this person in front of them is just... not even trying. Rejecting the game. Saying You Don't Have To Do That.

If they accept that they didn't have to do that... then they made themselves so unhappy, for so long, for no reason.

They want their effort, their unhappiness, to have been worth it. To have meant something.

So they have to believe that being fat is wrong, bad, gross, a moral failing, and the only reason anyone would be happy that way is if they just don't know better. Because the other option is to realize and admit that they suffered unnecessarily for years and it meant nothing at all.

[naamahdarling]

This is also why people violently resist the reality that weight loss dieting does not result in sustainable significant weight loss for the vast majority of people who attempt it.

[not100bees]

Katy Perry is tanking so obviously the price will go down.

[the-haiku-bot]

Katy Perry is

tanking so obviously

the price will go down.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[genderoutlaws]

alright great the next thing seems to be fearmongering about trans people "no longer having SSNs". if you see some post saying you should enter your social security number into a random ass website to "check if its still there" for the love of Gd do not do that, its a scam / way to steal your identity. check your ssa.gov account or create one if you want to check in on like your benefits or anything, go to associated gov websites, but this seems to be another attempt to stoke hysteria among scared trans people with no evidence so far, as far as i've seen,,

[labelleizzy]

Never act in a panic from something you read on the Internet

Take five minutes to calm down and pester a friend about it, have them look the thing up for you if you're freaking out/panicking

[the-haiku-bot]

Never act in a

panic from something you read

on the Internet

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[comvi]