The Amusements of an Unstable Mind

Geekery, pretty things, wishes, and observations from the dark side.

[sliceofmooncake]

Enough of Persephone the victim, Persephone the helpless, I want her ANGRY.

I want her chaining her husband-uncle to his throne and throwing open the gates of the underworld, calling forth the victims of the gods' anger, lust, and caprice. The murdered, the transformed, the maddened, the disenfranchised, she points them to Olympus and says 'There are your oppressors. Go.' And they go. They bring the twelve face to face with every injury, every injustice, howling in their ears and clawing at their faces with starfish hands. And then she sends snarling vines, flowers that fill the air with suffocating pollen, thorns, strangling kudzu, and fungi that digest its prey live.

When she finally mounts the steps of Olympus herself to the scene of her aunts and uncles besieged and half-mad from lack of sleep and fighting her vegetal army, it is to make clear that she is no ornament to be snatched up or token to be passed from hand to hand. Daughter of the Thunderer and daughter of All that Grows, and now Queen of the Dead by marriage, there is no place on earth she cannot reach if she chooses. She will go where she wills, when she wills, and they had best pray for her forbearance.

She is the goddess of All that Rise, and as she reminds them, 'Spring' is just another world for revolution.

[gdfalksen]

Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.

[bemusedlybespectacled]

Why can’t we have a movie about him?

[elasmata]

He was often called “Sempo”, an alternative reading of the characters of his first name, as that was easier for Westerners to pronounce.

His wife, Yukiko, was also a part of this; she is often credited with suggesting the plan. The Sugihara family was held in a Soviet POW camp for 18 months until the end of the war; within a year of returning home, Sugihara was asked to resign - officially due to downsizing, but most likely because the government disagreed with his actions.

He didn’t simply grant visas - he granted visas against direct orders, after attempting three times to receive permission from the Japanese Foreign Ministry and being turned down each time. He did not “misread” orders; he was in direct violation of them, with the encouragement and support of his wife.

He was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations in 1985, a year before he died in Kamakura; he and his descendants have also been granted permanent Israeli citizenship. He was also posthumously awarded the Life Saving Cross of Lithuania (1993); Commander’s Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1996); and the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2007). Though not canonized, some Eastern Orthodox Christians recognize him as a saint.

Sugihara was born in Gifu on the first day of 1900, January 1. He achieved top marks in his schooling; his father wanted him to become a physician, but Sugihara wished to pursue learning English. He deliberately failed the exam by writing only his name and then entered Waseda, where he majored in English. He joined the Foreign Ministry after graduation and worked in the Manchurian Foreign Office in Harbin (where he learned Russian and German; he also converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church during this time). He resigned his post in protest over how the Japanese government treated the local Chinese citizens. He eventually married Yukiko Kikuchi, who would suggest and encourage his acts in Lithuania; they had four sons together. Chiune Sugihara passed away July 31, 1986, at the age of 86. Until her own passing in 2008, Yukiko continued as an ambassador of his legacy.

It is estimated that the Sugiharas saved between 6,000-10,000 Lithuanian and Polish Jewish people.

[returnofthejudai]

It’s a tragedy that the Sugiharas aren’t household names. They are among the greatest heroes of WWII. Is it because they were from an Axis Power? Is it because they aren’t European? I don’t know. But I’ve decided to always reblog them when they come across my dash. If I had the money, I would finance a movie about them.

[westsemiteblues]

He told an interviewer:

You want to know about my motivation, don’t you? Well. It is the kind of sentiments anyone would have when he actually sees refugees face to face, begging with tears in their eyes. He just cannot help but sympathize with them. Among the refugees were the elderly and women. They were so desperate that they went so far as to kiss my shoes, Yes, I actually witnessed such scenes with my own eyes. Also, I felt at that time, that the Japanese government did not have any uniform opinion in Tokyo. Some Japanese military leaders were just scared because of the pressure from the Nazis; while other officials in the Home Ministry were simply ambivalent.

People in Tokyo were not united. I felt it silly to deal with them. So, I made up my mind not to wait for their reply. I knew that somebody would surely complain about me in the future. But, I myself thought this would be the right thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people’s lives….The spirit of humanity, philanthropy…neighborly friendship…with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation—and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage.

He died in nearly complete obscurity in Japan. His neighbors were shocked when people from all over, including Israeli diplomatic personnel, showed up at quiet little Mr. Sugihara’s funeral.

[fahrlight]

I will forever reblog this, I wish more people would know about them!

[rhube]

I liked this before when it had way less information. Thank you, history-sharers.

[mousezilla]

Tucked away in a corner in L.A.’s Little Tokyo is a life-sized statue of Chiune, seated on a bench and smiling gently as he holds out a visa. 

The stone next to him bears a quote from the Talmud; “He who saves one life, saves the entire world.”  

I had no idea it existed until a few weeks ago, but it’s since become one of my favorite pieces of public art. 

[antifainternational]

Chiune Sugihara.  Original antifa.

[agirlinjapan]

PBS made a documentary about Chiune Sugihara in 2005. If you’re interested in him, it’s definitely worth checking out. (The PBS link above even has some interactive information to go along with the film.) Ask your local library if they have a copy/can order you one from another library. You won’t be disappointed!

[cincosechzehn-deactivated201901]

kate beaton wasn’t kidding when she said look him up

[dharmagun]

i am going to find this and take him a present

[jumpingjacktrash]

always reblog mr sugihara

[harryshouse]

so

we have this app called toogoodtogo where restaurants/cafes/bakeries/hotels and so on sell their leftovers for really cheap to reduce foodwaste

i got all of this for €4 from starbucks

bless

[frompawntoqueen]

The America version is called FoodForAll

[somecunttookmyurl]

I love TooGoodToGo all of this sushi cost me £3.50 (the chinese food cost me £3.59)

[korben600]

YOOOOOOO, they’re formalizing this?!?!

I used to do community service at a community breakfast, we’d go to the local Safeway and get all their stale bread, the local bakery for their stale baked goods and whatnot.

They throw away so much food it’s ridiculous, I’m glad someone finally created a program like this!

[askawelfarecaseworker]

The American app isn’t available everywhere but if you’re broke in NY or Boston, check it out!

[tundrakatiebean]

The US app logo currently looks like this and was last updated 3 weeks ago (as of January 25th 2020)

[sissikuk]

TooGoodToGo is available in many European countries, including the UK, much of Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy and the Iberian peninsula. 

[dappermouth]

Aries: The electric air of a far-off storm calls you to fields draped in dusk, and black clouds heaped tall on the horizon fill you with terrible longing for something you feel but cannot know—a fearful devotion to a place without shape, a love that burns with no name.

Taurus: Before sleep, strange memories bubble up–a buzzing cicada night where you pant and push onward, pacing low to the ground behind an empty schoolyard, air thick with the smell of snapped weeds and animal hair, the wail of a distant train. You aren’t sure what belongs to you there.

Gemini: Sleep doesn’t come like it used to, and the late air hangs heavy with the smell of wet leaves and slow decay. It presses on you, a blanket of forest that fills your lungs. Driving at night, you see deer in every shadow, bounding away into the trees, always away.

Cancer: Deep in the woods, a sheet hangs suspended above a dry riverbed–a cloth that moves like translucent flesh over the stones and bends the light away. A voice calls from the other side, and a dozen thin hands reach out for you behind the veil, to cradle you, to bring you home again.

Leo: When the day becomes unbearable, seek refuge in the absence of light. Your head comes alive in the dark, a menagerie of sound, filled with beating wings and unfurling green. Look into a mirror and see yourself, unfamiliar and intruded upon, a wild animal watching you through your own eyes.

Virgo: A heart shifts beneath your skin–a sleeping thing turning over, restless in its final dream. You’ll become something new on the night that it wakes, and when someone calls out your name through the woods, searching, the sound will be lost beneath the roar of the crickets, forgotten at last.

Libra: You’ll find it lying on warm pavement in the black of night, an inscrutable god whose head curls back as it returns to the ground. It will speak its final prayer to you through the sizzling static and swaying powerlines, warped and guttural with grief. Stay until the air goes quiet.

Scorpio: There is something you’ve forgotten, though it’s not entirely gone. Trying to remember it now brings a sad sort of pain, an aching in your eyes and arms. Let your hands guide you, and find something buried beneath the lake, near the shore–entombed in silt, bones that once were yours.

Sagittarius: Visions tear at the corners of your eyes, peeling back the edges. There’s something just beneath, another place turned back like a hazy reflection, at once familiar and strange. It comes and goes, hitches your breath, leaves you gazing toward a distant mountain that was never there.

Capricorn: In dreams, you hear a language without words, a deep humming from the ground and air around you. You wake to a bitter leaf curled beneath your tongue, and a circlet of grass about your neck. Outside, the world is murmuring, and each sound seems like a voice.

Aquarius: Pillars of white smoke float like phantoms between the trees at dawn, flameless and churning among the leaves. Count them before they fade in the light of day—they are meant as a message, and mark the days until they return for you. Be waiting outside when they arrive.

Pisces: To your eyes, the sky moves faster than it has before, sweeping clouds across the landscape like breakers on the sea. Your blood feels cold, rushed, and the stars streak across the black expanse, like tracers behind headlights, like the world is falling away.

[vardasvapors]

why isn’t there a short film based on the thing where diana wynne jones refused to drop out of tolkien’s college class even though he was intentionally making it as boring and dense and unintelligible as possible so that everyone would drop out and he could get out of teaching it and write lotr instead. just imagine the potential of a 1940s Female College Student sitting in an empty classroom with Secretly Furious professor resentfully lecturing a meandering incomprehensible stream-of-consciousness inner monologue about The Structure of Narrative to this kid determined to get her money’s worth out of this chump. and them both getting way more personal and intellectual development out of this song-and-dance than they thought they would. hey guys why isn’t there a

[neil-gaiman]

I love this idea. In our world Diana (1950s, Tolkien was working on The Return Of the King) went every week. In the end it was just her and one other man. Tolkien wanted them both to quit because if nobody turned up for one lecture he got the rest of the term off to write. So his lectures were not actually student friendly, delivered as they were inaudibly to the blackboard. (She said it wasn’t the denseness so much as the pipe in his teeth, that you couldn’t see his mouth or hear exactly what he was saying, and he seemed to be talking to himself. The bits she could make out were fascinating but they were few and far between.)

Meanwhile, Diana told me, CS Lewis was a rock star, delivering his lectures in the biggest hall at Oxford, with students hanging from the rafters.

In the story world, Diana would be the only student. And she’d do a deal with Tolkien, to learn Story Things out of class, in exchange for not coming any more.

Except... I like that Diana became the best writer of magic, possibly the best children’s author ever, all on her own. She didn’t need Tolkien magic or CS Lewis magic. She just needed to be irritated by the books she was reading her children, and determined to write better. And it took her a couple of books until she got there. But she did.

[candycourse-ofcourse]

the maps coined a new term to call themselves

P.E.A.R,aka  “pro-expression, anti-repression"  was a term coined by well known pedophile 4-lung stay safe y’all,and block these sick freaks

[ashlake]

theyve also been using the pear emoji along with the acronym to identify each other

[frottinq]

Because “MAP” was too blatant and lets you know what their real intentions are when you explain that acronym. This one, you have to actually delve into why they call it this. This is literally them trying to rebrand pedophilia a second time because the first time wasnt good enough.

[hellsite-yano]

[puttingherinhistory]

Women in the U.S. Can Now Get Safe Abortions by Mail

The founder of a global abortion-pill provider that has never shipped to the U.S. has quietly started a new service for Americans.

Please reblog this, it could be a very important resource that one of your followers needs right now.

Both Aid Access and Women on Web are international organizations that send safe and affordable abortion pills to women globally who don’t have access to a safe or affordable abortion. If you have questions or want to know if you qualify please check with Aid Access and Women on Web

[indigenousandangry]

Found this on Facebook! BOOST!

Tell Etsy that #ThisIsNotNative

[mahtheyzhawey]

This is why I stopped selling on Etsy. I got really sick and tired of all that nonsense.

[genderresister]

To purchase authentic native american artistry, heres a list of indigenous owned businesses you can support:

-http://shop.beyondbuckskin.com/

-https://www.manitobah.ca/

-https://eighthgeneration.com/collections/all

-http://oxdx.storenvy.com/

-https://www.jokuma.com/

-http://www.virgilortiz.com/

-https://dorothygrant.com/

-https://www.byellowtail.com/

-http://www.kristendorseydesigns.com/

-https://tammybeauvais.com/

-http://nsrgnts.com/

-https://www.salishstyle.com/

-https://www.thentvs.com/

-http://www.urbannativeera.com/

-http://www.nishology.com/

-https://www.neechiegear.com/collections/products

-https://www.tansiclothing.com/

-https://www.nativethreads.com/

-https://www.milocreations.net/

-http://www.gourdjewels.com/

-https://sabahut.com/

-http://peacelovetsoul.bigcartel.com/

-http://www.tsosie-gaussoin.com/

-http://www.qwalsius.com/

-http://www.moonstonecreation.ca/index.php/catalog/

-http://www.tashinaemery.com/

-https://trickstercompany.com/

-https://rezmade.com/

-http://www.tconnorandco.com/

-https://www.wearenate.com/

-https://www.aconav.com/

-https://www.shenative.com/

-http://www.handofsolomon.ca/

-https://www.tpmocs.com/

-https://www.nishiin.ca/

-http://tundraberry.com/

-http://michellebrownwear.com/

More at: http://www.beyondbuckskin.com/p/buy-native.html

[kwen-but-from-the-future]

Please support Native people!!!! In any way!!! Even if its spreading this good message around!!!!

[saqriphrx]

there’s also salwaycc.com!!!

[mamakay93-deactivated20190129]

Just an FYI for those in the US with insurance issues

[the-real-seebs]

this sounds oddly plausible

[jumpingjacktrash]

a good doctor will pester the insurance company on your behalf. a couple times in my Back Pain Odyssey my insurance noped out on a procedure, and my doctor called them up and was like “no, really” and they gave in.

so if your insurance is in the habit of going “you don’t actually need TWO months of physical therapy, just walk it off,” tell the doctor who ordered it, and they may very well volunteer to, or agree to, call up the insurance people and go “simon says pay for the fucking therapy.”

[breelandwalker]

For all my peeps out there fighting the good fight against Big Pharma Bureaucratic Bullshit.

[ninaclaire]

Theres a ‘gender medicine"(doctor specialist for trans people) clinic near where i live and they have several medical codes they will put your stuff under and they will call the insurancr and argue with them until its covered. They are A++.100/10 best doctors

[seananmcguire]

Dumb question but as a girl myself I don't like sports because of my chest getting in the way a lot but then I had a thought, spider Gwen needs to do a lot of moving and I have this headcanon now that she went out and just got a lot of sport bras but couldn't find the right one at first meanwhile her guardian is like "oh she's into a sport phase or something. Well it's healthy so it's not bad" (idk Gwen's full story but I thought it would be funny BC we can all relate to finding the perfect bra

Please don’t send me headcanons.

Please don’t send me headcanons.

Any chance I was ever going to do this has just gone right out the window.

Please don’t send me headcanons.

[greenekangaroo]

GUYS. LISTEN. 

If you send shit like this to authors/creators, they can’t use it. 

Because it’s NOT THEIR IDEA. 

It becomes a legal liability. Sure, you might go ‘oh but you can use it! I said so!’ but there’s no contract, no proof, and what if you change your mind? What if your silly headcanon post becomes a lynchpin of their story, something you feel you should be properly compensated for?

It’s not that creators don’t want to hear from us. It’s that if we cross streams, we move from the grey area of fandom content where no one wants to mess with the legalities straight into the dark depths of ‘welp this is a lawsuit waiting to happen’. 

DO NOT SEND HEADCANONS TO CREATORS. 

[penguinattie]

A counterpoint: Ideas are not copyrightable. It’s a fundamental tenet of copyright law. It might be a PR liability, but legally you’re on solid ground as long as you don’t copy someone’s actual words or do a sentence-by-sentence paraphrase.

I believe this goes back to sometime in the ‘80s, when Marion Zimmer Bradley took someone’s actual work (as in, took their manuscript and wanted to publish it under her name) and somehow convinced everyone that she just happened to read some fanfic, and “if you read fanfic you can never publish anything close” became… a law headcanon I guess? But in actuality MZB was just a piece of work and really good at gaslighting (see also the whole child abuse thing).

The entire problem comes from people believing this. I’m not trying to say that there is no problem here – there very much is a problem, because people will in fact try to sue you for ‘stealing their ideas’! and they will think badly of you if someone else accuses you of it! But the problem is that people think that ideas are something that you can own. You cannot. We don’t want them to be, because that would impoverish us creatively. Why would we only ever want one take on a story? The whole omegaverse lawsuit thing brought this up again recently. Do we really only want to allow one m/f omegaverse story, ever? (Okay, a lot of you will be yelling “YES” at this point, but you know what I mean.)

So please instead of just uncritically perpetuating this harmful meme, explain the nuances of why you personally do not want to read headcanons. Don’t act like this is just the natural state of things if you are a published author. It’s not. It’s an excess of caution in the face of a misconception. And maybe if people with big audiences explained this things would change.

[seananmcguire]

I have explained.

At length.

Repeatedly.

And I am exhausted.

I do not have the hours in the day to write books and comics and lengthy explanations, over and over and over again, for why people should please not do things I have asked them, told them, and begged them not to do.

I am tired and Google exists.  Please let me rest.

[magical-girl-hell]

A counter-counterpoint: regardless of the actual legality, just imagine something for a second. You are Writing A Thing, and a person on Tumblr sends you their “headcanon” and you’re like “that’s similar to something I’m actually writing already! neat!”

So then you publish a book with that in it and fans are discussing it, as fans do, and then you see it:

“Well actually, fun fact: she actually got that idea from someone’s headcanon on Tumblr!”

And you didn’t, and you explain that, but you see it crop up, again and again, and then comes the snowball:

“did u know: the author got that idea from a fan on social media”

“hey that author actually got that idea from a fan on Tumblr”

“say their name! it was Tumblr user XXX who gave her that idea!”

“Tumblr user XXX is the real originator of that idea! don’t erase them from discussions about it!”

“I can’t believe the author doesn’t give credit to XXX for using their idea.”

You see where this is going. Don’t tell me it’s not true.

“The author got that idea from a fan,” is a fun story because, as fans, we love the idea of our headcanon becoming actual canon. But it’s so easy, in this day and age on the internet, for it to evolve into something people can feel self-righteous over. And no creator needs that.

[seananmcguire]

No.

No we do not.

Thank you for stating this so clearly.

[dinogahyun]

okay so

a lot of people seem to be reporting tumblr deleting their blogs, and it’s because of the bots. however, it is NOT for posting nsfw content. 

it’s for having links in your blog description. 

remember a few days ago when people couldn’t search for posts with links in them? it’s most likely related to this. even non-nsfw blogs are being taken down in the purge. so to prevent your blog from being deleted, REMOVE LINKS FROM YOUR BLOG DESCRIPTION. 

Also, if your blog is deleted on accident, email tumblr staff about it, and they will restore your blog.

[dinogahyun]

also to add on to this from what im seeing this purge happened like days ago and today so if your blog hasn’t been deleted already it probably won’t be considering how much shit tumblr is getting for it

[partialbirthabortion]

We really have harmed a whole generation of trans and gnc children by failing to communicate how serious a decision binding actually is, how there’s no ACTUALLY safe way to bind, how it permeneantly damages the body, how it can make top surgery more difficult in the future. I don’t think we should be keeping trans kids from binding (we let kids do all sorts of things they’re really not old enough to understand the potential consequences of) but we owe them the ability to make informed decisions at LEAST

[arty-ari]

So this is definitely an important conversation to have, but can you point me at some reading about “permanent damage”? I might just be lucky, but I had zero lasting effects from binding. I’d like to at least read up on it so I can have this conversation and be more specific than “be careful.”

[partialbirthabortion]

Of course! I can’t easily source right now but I am more than happy to provide further info when I am not at work and on mobile. Unfortunately, like a lot of trans healthcare, a lot of what we know about binding is anecdotal and word of mouth. BUT permeneant damage can include:

-Musculoskeletal damage. Binders are indiscriminate compression tools; they can’t flatten the chest without applying pressure every other anatomical structure underneath including the spine, ribs, lungs and heart. Many people who bind experience chronic back pain, shoulder pain, sharp stabbing chest pains, permeneantly decreased lung capacity, literal spine deformation, etc etc.

-A continuation of the above but the ribs are actually jointed bones. Their ability to flex is absolutely vital to their ability to withstand trauma and protect your vital organs. Imagine the damage that would be done to your elbow if your bent your arm to full flexion and then tightly bound it closed like that, for six, eight, twelve hours per day, every day, for weeks or months or years. And you don’t NEED a functioning arm to live!

-Tissue atrophy. Forcing chest tissue to lay in an unnatural way can and will change the way that tissue looks, even to risk of atrophy. Some people who bind and only moderately dislike the way their chest looks find that they HATE the way it looks after binding for a period of time. Tissue atrophy can also make top surgery more difficult in the future, and increase the risk of complications like nerve damage.

-Worsened dysphoria. Once someone starts binding and becomes accustomed to seeing themselves with a flat chest, it can be much more difficult to see yourself without one, and dysphoria that much more intolerable. You can imagine the psychological feedback loop of binding more in response.

The typical safety measures passed around about binding are harm REDUCTION measures and should not be advertised as making binding “safe.” Binding is not safe. It is a very serious health decision with long term consequences and should be treated as such. That doesn’t mean it’s the wrong decision, but it should not be considered the DEFAULT decision for chest dysphoria which is frankly how it’s currently treated.

[mikstapes]

gonna drop some links to read more:

Health impact of chest binding among transgender adults: a community-engaged, cross-sectional study Inside the Landmark, Long Overdue Study on Chest Binding  

Binding FAQ

Health Consequences of Chest Binding

[fandompariah-deactivated2021120]

@pooflyperfectprincess

[clothing-references]

Holy shit

[wellgreathereiam]

I went to the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference and went to a workshop held by a chiropractor who works with trans men (as well as being a trans man himself), so I’m going to pass on his advice to people who bind:

Stretch your chest, shoulders, and back everyday (at least)

This is a passive stretch where you place a foam roller at the bottom of your spine (to support your hips and lower back), and lifts your shoulders off of the ground, with your arms on the ground to balance you.

This stretch is meant to be held for a few minutes, open up your chest, and aid your everyday posture.

You probably don’t own a foam roller, he advised to wrap a towel or blanket very tightly and tied as a substitute. I use a layer of bed foam rolled up with two belts to keep it rolled. Whatever you use, it ought to have a bit of give and it needs to lift your shoulders off the ground.

—————————————————————————

This is an active stretch. Stand in front of a doorway with your feet together (if the door way was not there, your toes would be touching the wall, not crossing through it). When you lift your arms up and put them against the wall, your feet, hips, and arms should all be in line with each other (your arms should not be behind you with your feet and hips in the doorway).

Make a “W” shape with your arms against the wall so that your elbows are the closest part of your arm to the ground, and take one small step forward.

You should feel a pull in your lower shoulders, but it should be comfortable to hold. Do not over stretch, you shouldn’t be leaning your weight into your arms to balance, your weight should be balanced by your legs. Do not judge yourself and think you are doing yourself a favor by thinking that you ought to have a bigger step. Sure, you could overstretch today, but you need to be able to do this tomorrow too! Hold this for 10-15 seconds. (Yet again. Do. Not. Overstretch.)

Bring your feet back together, and do it the other foot. There will probably be one foot that is easier than the other, stretch that step more often than the less difficult step.

Bring your feet together and bring your elbows up so that your upper arms are parallel to the ground and your elbow forms a 90° angle with your forearms. Take your small step forward and hold for 10-15 seconds and switch feet.

Now reach your arms up as high as you can. It doesn’t have to be much higher than the last stretch, if that is as high as you can go, then that’s it. If you can’t reach higher than the last stretch, put your arms down at your sides and then lift your arms up from your sides and put them against the wall (sorry he didn’t include a picture of this one in the slides, message me if this is unclear.)

Your goal is to be able to reach your arms up like in the picture so that you form a Y shape. Step forward and hold for 10-15 seconds, then switch feet.

His advice was to do this stretch as often as you use the bathroom at home (shoot for 3-5 times a day).

—————————————————————————

The next two stretchs don’t have pictures! If you can do these stretches with ease and want a more intense version, try using dumbbells and incorporating it into your workouts.

If you’ve ever done snow angels? Put your heels, butt, shoulders, and arms up against a wall (as much of your body as you possibly can should be touching the wall) and lift your arms up as high as you can go like you are making a snow angel.

Alternatively, lay down on the ground instead of up against a wall if you need to work your way up to lifting your arms above your head.

—————————————————————————

Again, with your body up against the wall, but this time with your arms in front of you, bring your arms up like Frankenstein’s monster, so that they are as high as your shoulders. Hold this for a few seconds.

—————————————————————————

After trying these stretchs, it’ll probably be clear where your range of motion is most limited. For me, the most useful stretches are the W and 90° angle doorway stretch and foam roller stretch, bc I have the most trouble with my lower shoulders and chest. Try to maintain your range of motion where you have it, and use these stretches to improve your range of motion where you are limited.

[cerulean-beekeeper-deactivated2]

For all my binding buddies.

[little-jar-of-dragons]

But what if your childhood was shitty and traumatizing and you were meek and quiet as a kid so get a sweet little kitten and eventually as you grow and realize your worth and become more confident that kitten slowly grows into a lion.

[feynites]

Usually, when I bring kids their Companions, it’s a happy day.

Most parents like to throw parties for their children. Make it a big ‘lifetime milestone’ type deal. Sometimes, if there are a lot of birthdays on the same day, they do events at the local schools. I never really have to call ahead - people know I’m coming. The roster at the head offices keeps a running record, and Deliverers like me pack up the Untouched Eggs (wearing gloves, of course), and set out to cover their area for the day. I work six days a week, and sometimes I take emergency runs if I’m nearby and another district is overwhelmed. Overtime is common, but so are short days, when only a small number of kids are hitting ten.

It’s a job that has me travelling a lot. i go wherever there’s the most need for Deliverers. We don’t like to be late; tenth birthdays are an important matter. But I like being on the road. It lets me see a lot of the country.

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[isfree2fly]

Muslim brothers and sisters

So I found this app called Scan Halal where you scan the bar code of your food and it tells you if its halal or not. It’s a free app too. Pass this on so others can see and worry a little less about their food/snack choices

[thislittlething]

Yessss, it is very handy especially in non-muslim countries

[hisnamewasbeanni]

If you reblog this for no other reason, do it because it’ll piss off Pauline Hanson. And pissing off Pauline Hanson is reason enough to do anything.

[totalsillyfilly]

Pissing off Pauline Hanson is my favourite pass time

[sockknitterporg]

If you reblog this for no other reason, reblog it to make a Muslim feel safer, more accepted, and/or more informed about food.

Other people and their needs are not your game pieces to use to offend others or make yourself feel better.

[inkyshark]

This is actually a cool app! I had a customer come into my candy store and we discovered that certain flavors of the same brand of candy sticks were okay to eat! It was really handy for them to be able to scan it rather than rely on the ingredient list, which could be flawed sometimes! 

[thebibliosphere]

I took my meds too close to bedtime again and I need you all to know the dream I had last night involved Robin Williams becoming the new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Not, a character portrayed by Robin Williams, just Robin Williams as himself running around Hogwarts doing wandless magic and being as loud and big as possible because and I quote before I forget:

“Listen, children, I’m not saying all this bad shit that is happening isn’t scary and you shouldn’t be concerned–because you should!–but I’m telling you this now for free. Life is a boggart, it’s the biggest boggart of them all. You never know what it’s going to look like one moment to the next. And sometimes you just gotta laugh. It’s okay to laugh. It’s part of the grieving process. You need to grieve before you can heal. But it’s okay to laugh while you’re doing it.”

I didn’t wake up right after that, some more stuff happened in a hazy sort of way as the dream began to dissolve into conciousness, but I remember him yelling Expecto Patronum as he punched a Death Eater in the face. Because sometimes, evidently, you have to make your own happy memories.

[abandonedandurbex]

Abandoned intersection near Ottawa. [720 × 404].

[sliceofmooncake]

You know the city planners built that intersection to contain some hideous demon or city-spawned monster.

[astrolocherry]

aries: i know that you are special because you have been saved, protected, or made to move in the final fatal second, something benevolent and protective is watching over you, you’ve had too many close calls to write yourself off as lucky or indestructible. a child born with a war inside would also be supplied with an extra set of eyes in heaven and protection from combat. it doesn’t matter how old an aries grows, you can always see that mischievous child looking back at you, and that kind of youthful energy is what allows angelic and spiritual forces to be. you are the person that everyone is secretly cheering for, revelling in your infectious triumphs 

taurus: i know that you are special because i know that you were the empress of inheritance, and that the gods and goddesses left the natural kingdom all to you. i know you are special because i have watched flowers bloom just for you as you walk on past, nature bows to you as if it prepares for your arrival and hears the unique sound of your footprints in the ground, the flowers, the sea, the stars, and creatures of the world see you and recognise their mother - mother earth. you are the value in which we measure the value of every gold, silver, and crystal 

gemini: i know you are special because i have literally seen you ask a question out of thin air and receive an answer shortly after. i’ve watched you change the most stubborn and convicted mind clever charisma and loquacious flirtation. i know you are special because i have seen teachers watching you from the corner of their eyes, hoping that you take advantage of your brilliant mind. seeing the light in you, because learning is your ceremonial prayer. i’ve seen the gods whisper words into your mind to help you finish sentences and find the right term, i’ve seen you bring down your enemy with nothing more than a flick of the tongue 

cancer: i know that you are special because i have seen you face the moon and her face change as she looks back at you with eyes of love. i know you are special because i have watched you soothe a screaming baby with a mild touch and stop someone’s tears with the softness in your voice. i’ve seen animals respond to you as if they were your own. i know you are special because i have felt old houses welcome you inside like you have always belonged there. you fill the room with your energy, and when you leaves part of you remains like a sweet and mysterious haunting 

leo: i know that you are special because i have seen black auras dissolve before your light, crushed by the blessing that is the beat of your heart. i have seen you walk outside in a mood of joy and delight and raise the sun on a rainy day. i know you are special because when you are happy the whole world is cheerful too, and when you are sad the whole world is miserable too. i have known many who believe in you and support you and would go to the end of the earth to help you shine like the sun they know you are 

virgo: i know you are special because god has trusted your mind and your hands with so much cosmic weight, and you could so easily fracture everything but you can see crystals and cracks that nobody else can. your hands were crafted with divine oversight, gold was poured in slain perfection and heavenly mineral i know you are special because you signed such a heavy contract and donated many of your blessings as a pre-act of service, you were focused so intently toward doing good 

libra: i know you are special because your earthly vessel was designed with curves and angles that allow every spec of light in the cosmos to shine right through it. i know you are special because colours were created just because they looked good on you, and you seemed so gifted at bringing these together and painting people’s souls in this rainbow. you have a way of making people feel loved and important without trying, your spirit plays a melody tuned into a hidden vibration and it blows the tune of beauty and harmony 

scorpio: i know you are special because the divine had no other way of trying to describe you but to create heaven, hell, magic, astral travel, and orgasm. i have seen the way every force good and evil in the universe bows to your presence, like they see and revel an ancient master who has been crossing the borderlands for centuries. i know you are special because you know how to crack the physical shell of skin and thinking, immerse your whole spirit so it flows the veins of your lover like ink that leaves a sacred stain for eternity 

sagittarius: i know you are special because you are the pot of gold that every rainbow pours into and the gods love to make bets on how much you will see and do. i know you are special because they don’t honour your memory by a eulogy, they wrote your whole existence into the ancient books of mythology, theology, and fairytales. you have a lamp inside from where the giant jupiter genie resides. the wheel of cosmic fortune is spun directly in your favour, and the cosmic jackpot is always blowing up

capricorn: i know you are special because i watch the whole world celebrate your birth every year. i’ve watched your spirit be held up as the example, at the height of each divine archetype, as the model of natal chart designs. i know you are special because you seem like you completed this all before and you are just perfecting what you have already done. your heart ticks like the cosmic clock that orbits every planet and in between responsibilities here you seem to maintain the whole universe 

aquarius: i know you are special because you are not of this earth and you find comfort in a place that is above and beyond here. i have seen the whole universe and every colour come alive in the crystal of your eyes, solar glitter and glassy ocean sparkling beneath golden light. i know you are special because the whole celestial space pours into your mind, your thoughts are electricity that illuminate the night 

pisces: i know you are special because you carried the breadth of spiritual substance that contained every divine archetypal design in this lifetime. you surrendered your body and mind as an instrument for the heavens, and the gods and goddesses play their holiest and most exquisite tunes straight through you. i know you are special because your essence and energy is the ultimate muse that inspires every painter, musician, writer, and artist 

-C.