waiting for my spaceship to come back for me

nina, cis woman, she/her | you can often find me on my music sideblog or my avatar sideblog

[gaynehollander]

What Shane says: I think I’m gay

What he means: This is it for me. There is no way out and it’s not the same for you. You could find someone who the public would accept as your chosen partner; get married, have kids. You could move on from this but I never will. For you, this is fleeting. You will eventually get me out of your system and find a nice girl to settle down with but, for me, this is as good as it gets.

What Ilya hears: So after roughly seven years of dropping to my knees in front of you at the slightest provocation and taking your dick like I was born to do it I started thinking… I might like men.

[localpubliclibrary]

If I ask nicely will people reblog this and tell me what their most common breakfast is? Not your favorite necessarily, just what you have for breakfast most frequently? 🙏🏽

[fairycosmos]

the issue with growing up in the 2000s and 2010s was like there was this really big push toward "accepting your weirdness" overall but they meant like idk wearing mismatched socks or something not being tangibly beyond the norm in any way shape or form

[copperbadge]

You know, thinking about it, I imagine the Leverage crew are pretty philanthropic. Parker might have had to be introduced to the concept (”You just give them money and they go away with it? How does that work?”) but probably once she got her head around it she’d be into it. 

What gets me is how god damned frustrating it would be to work somewhere that one of the Leverage crew supports. Nate would be okay, he’d just make small monthly gifts to ten million different organizations so that nobody thinks he’s worth very much (he doesn’t own his home and he gives such small amounts monthly that Development writes him off as an earnest but low-capacity donor who should get a thank-you card around the holidays). It’s probably a bigger inconvenience to him because he’s on every nonprofit mailing list known to man. He has so many address labels, guys. (I don’t want to be Nate but I am Nate. I have so many address labels.)

Sophie I imagine has an extravagant alias for every charity she supports; she gives outrageous amounts and in return demands only attention and adulation, tickets to all the galas, and to be in at least one photo in every annual report. We have a donor like this – she’s genuinely invested in our work, gives generously of her time and money, is never rude or demanding, but if she’s in the room all eyes must be on her at all times. I actually really like her but constant exposure could get…tiring. 

Eliot just sends enormous, anonymous checks once a year through a shell company or DAF, which while not unusual would be irritating in that they can’t ever reach out to thank him and/or steward him into a larger gift appealing to his interests. They can’t even send him dumb swag! He deserves a charity-branded bottle opener and keychain flashlight! (He has stolen all of Nate’s, but they don’t know that.) Still, they’ve probably got a fun nickname for him; I have a few people in my research files who are simply named after characters from Greek mythology because that’s all the data I have or am allowed to store. 

For a long time Hardison just dumped money into the bank accounts of his charities of choice, seamlessly, invisibly – it just APPEARED in the account, and he was cool with that until he checked back after a few years and found none of his money was being used because they couldn’t figure out where it was coming from and were worried it was a clerical error despite the bank assuring them otherwise. Now he still dumps money into the accounts but he entertains himself building an elaborate digital paper trail so that the accounting all works. Have you ever watched a Gift Processing office try to balance a nonprofit’s books? Sometimes they cry! Don’t be mean to them, Hardison. 

Parker, bless her heart, just leaves bags of money on the doorsteps of random employees with notes directing how, in general terms, it should be spent. If she’s particularly pleased with the climbability of their home, she leaves a donut for them, too. Generally if she mentions she’s done this to the crew, Eliot calls up the charity to assure them that the large bag of cash was a legitimate donation and is not some kind of money-laundering scam. (That was ONE TIME Eliot, and the IRS didn’t even NOTICE.) This happened to me once. A tiny old lady in a Cubs jacket showed up to our office with a backpack full of money and it was a very intense morning. 

Anyway, what I’m saying is that every year, across the span of roughly two weeks, Hardison’s Nana’s church gets their regular $25 check from that nice Mr. Ford, a visit from the very devout but slightly weird Madam Sofia who wants a private choir recital, an enormous check from a bank in the Bahamas with no name attached, a large direct deposit from a heretofore-undiscovered bond the church invested in a decade ago, and a large bag of cash with a dozen donuts on it and a note reading THANK YOU FOR THE NEW ROOF IT WAS VERY SLIPPERY AND FUN. PLEASE BUY STUFFED ANIMALS FOR CHILDREN WHO NEED STUFFED ANIMALS. 

[space-feminist]

one thing i love about helly in severance is that she really drives home how gender conformity is learned, not innate. like she's dressed as a professional woman, in heels and a skirt and makeup, but her voice and body language, all the little ways people perform gender, don't match it. she doesn't modulate her voice higher or modify her speech to be less blunt. she's got her shoulders up in a very tense, afraid posture (bc she IS tense and afraid) and she walks with a very purposeful stride. helly is helena without the years of training to be quiet and compliant, without years of being taught how to perform gender, so she just...speaks in her regular voice. has the posture of a scared little animal because that's what she is. it's gender non-conforming but it's not masculine or anything to do with her personal gender identity. she's just being a person, having realistic human reactions to the situation she's in. and so much of gender non-conformity for women is like this. you don't have to deliberately wear menswear to be seen as unfeminine. you can just not wear makeup or not shave your legs, just exist in your unmodified body and speak with your unmodified voice, and that's enough. i sometimes see art of helly in more masc clothing or trying on mark's suit and it's cute but i think reading her lack of "appropriate femininity" as a desire to present masculine kinda misses the key point that she is not acting like a man or a woman. she is simply existing as a human being

[mscaseys]

This research and Lachman’s innate sense of the character led to one of the “Chikhai Bardo” episode’s most heartbreaking moments, when Gemma apologizes to Mark after they arrive at the fertility clinic for the first time. The line was something Lachman improvised, when she realized Gemma would feel guilty that she couldn’t get pregnant even though, of course, she had no reason to. “It just sort of came out,” she says. “A lot of women, even though it is not our fault and we have no control over it when something like that happens, we feel this need to apologize. We tend to do that. Generally, we tend to be quite apologetic about things that we can’t control.” (x)

[eddysonline]

The original flag, by Gilbert Baker, June 25, 1978.

[dogpuppy]

[brehaaorgana]

Okay people are going to relentlessly argue about "Japanese FIFA tourists get excited by bottomless chips and salsa," and allow me to clarify some things for everyone!

If you saw THIS tweet/story:

By @japan_nobunaga, it's fake! It's made up! You're right besties, it's completely fictional! And the over the top writing is the "character" of the account which we can all rightfully criticize!

We know this is fake because the writer said so to the New York Times:

Nobunaga, the Japanese wanderer whose reverential written meditations on X about bottomless baskets of chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant in the United States, isn’t quite what some observers have taken him for, either. He is a pseudonymous character. He isn’t on his way to any World Cup games, either.

In response to a direct message, Nobunaga’s creator said the premise of the account is that an ancient samurai had traveled through time and space to land in the American heartland. When he wrote that “the trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it,” it was meant in a spirit somewhere between parody and cultural commentary.

Okay? Great. Fantastic. Treating this as real or legitimate is incorrect and also yes it's fair to criticize the characterization of Japanese people vis-a-vis an exoticizing ancient time traveling samurai. (I mean spoiler, samurai aren't an ancient thing to begin with.)

Now, SIMULTANEOUSLY, this tweet by @kamone_tv?

This is REAL and they were interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about it:

@kamome_tv has been at the games in Texas, posted loads of videos of fan/game content to their YouTube account, and has been regularly tweeting about it. They ALSO even posted some highlights/guide for folks based on their time in Texas!

We know they're a real person, it's not all made up BS, they're a huge Marinos fan, and CRUCIALLY the auto translation of the tweet shows me they referenced a SPECIFIC aspect of Japanese dining culture:

Tweet [image of chips and salsa]: I didn't order this, but it was here from the start

Is stuff like this paid?

Like the otoshi you get in Japan?

Key word here: Otoshi. Keep this in mind.

Maybe I just have not been to enough restaurants in Japan but everyone insisting that Americans are being gullible idiots because there *are* free bottomless small appetizers in Japanese restaurants that are both abundant and common is...stating something I have never really seen in any restaurant in japan? I could be wrong! Maybe I just didn't go to the right places! I'm not an expert!

That being said, the things I HAVE seen and experienced in Japan:

My meal is a set and I didn't realize that set included this specific appetizer item (ex: got a small mug of French onion soup with my omurice set)

or you paid a flat dining fee for your time/experience of a number of courses. (Like a lot of meals are not necessarily a specific set meal price, you could instead be paying for a time slot or minimum amount of courses of something that may also go over that amount).

That free thing isn't free at all, it's otoshi (also known as tsukidashi) and it's being added to the bill whether I ordered it or not.

Yes, Japanese restaurants often provide small appetizer dishes you didn't order when you sit down. No, those aren't always free! You pay for otoshi, like @kamome_tv says.

Many a visitor to Japan has been bewildered when they go out for food and drinks and receive a dish that they didn’t order—and then are charged for it too. In Japan, this dish is called “otoshi”, also known as “tsukidashi” in the western Kansai region, and it’s a sort of indirect cover charge for bars and places that serve alcohol, similar to the “coperto” service fee charged in Italy.

Otoshi are a widely accepted practice in Japan and is even written into Japanese law.

Rakuten - Gurunavi: Otoshi

So yes, an actual Japanese person visiting Texas for FIFA games tweeted asking if chips and salsa were truly free, or if they were "like otoshi," which you get a small added charge for on the bill in Japan. It's usually a really negligible fee (and it feels kind of like giving a tip or seeing a small gratuity fee) so if you don't know Japanese or don't realize otoshi adds a charge, or if you didn't closely examine your receipts...you might totally go to Japan and assume the little bowl of edamame was completely free!

The first tweet got memed because it's over the top and written to be intentionally ridiculous as a mock-samurai and it's not real. That account is questionable and has some propaganda and hateful things on that account. People who read the story's voice as having an intentional affect to sound completely over the top in exoticizing the experience were correct.

The second tweet however IS a real Japanese fan remarking on an actual cultural norms difference between Japan and the US — where in Japan the small amount of food you get whether or not you ordered it *is* commonly charged on your bill (otoshi), and in the US the food you get when seated that you didn't order is typically completely free and not charged anywhere on the bill.

Not always! Not all the time! But like, typically, this is indeed a cultural difference! And Americans aren't stupid if they believed this was a cultural difference that is real, because it....is....

One example being fake garbage doesn't mean anyone talking about this is mindlessly consuming American propaganda.

Likewise, I saw a comedian make jokes about excitement over American free refills where he was being over the top about it on purpose. Him intentionally spoofing something by exaggerating it does not mean that there were not actual non-americans being pleased with getting a free drinks refill while being tourists.

Not everything is propaganda or made up or being infantilizing. Some things ARE made up, and some are totally made up and other things are only exaggerated for comedic effect, and some people are being infantilizing, and those things existing doesn't mean there weren't also true experiences being talked about.

hope that gives everyone a better picture ~

[11hearstrings]

posts like these make me feel like ilya rozanov is as fem as a gay guy can get before you all start getting scared

[11hearstrings]

which is to say . negligible amounts . “it’s so refreshing that shane is the manly man stinky loser jock bro-ey bro dude man and ilya is the cunty slay queen slut waist gagging for you faggot yaaaas diva” so it’s the binary but the other way around . very revolutionary and awesome

[gerardwayspostcocaineweightgain]

it’s actually wild how terrified of the general public most usamericans are. like you don’t realize it if you’re someone who mostly walks and takes transit and spends a lot of time in populous public spaces but then you talk to one of the thousands of people that seemingly never set foot in any public space besides a parking garage or a starbucks and you suddenly understand why it’s so easy for fascist rhetoric about the dangerous alien to take root. this country’s median voter pretty much never interacts with strangers who aren’t their coworkers or people they met on dating apps

[gerardwayspostcocaineweightgain]

saw a post on instagram that was literally someone citing statistics saying public transit is one of the safest travel options out there and the comments were literally just “ummmmm op this is so ableist and misogynistic of you :) don’t you know the average public transit user is a dangerous violent criminal who wants to set you on fire :)))”

[gerardwayspostcocaineweightgain]

it must be so terrifying and sad to go through life convinced if you set foot outside your car in public or interact with people outside your nuclear family you’ll instantly be raped and robbed by the Evil Poors no wonder so many of these people are reactionary tar pits

[gerardwayspostcocaineweightgain]

important points which I did not address but should be appended ☝️☝️☝️☝️

[mangonetics]

Dogs serve as a kind of virtue eater for Americans to pour all of their kindness into without the risk of improving society or being nice to someone with any agency

[redstonedust]

i think being proud of where you come from is one of those things that becomes fun the more specific you get. like "proud to be english" bad rancid vibes. makes you sound like the kind of person who rants about immigrants. "proud to be from yorkshire" better vibes. i cannot deny the yorkshire cultural heritage. "proud to be from pocklington" absolutely fucking hilarious please never let anybody kill your pocklington pride.

[redstonedust]

i love the USA: weird vibes. dont trust that.

i love muskegon michigan: you are experiencing a kind of personal joy that i can and will not take from you

[negativesanchez]

[space-feminist]

one thing that really makes the "europeans loving america" content feel like american propaganda is how many of the things they're excited about that are very much present in europe. like i've been to a chippy in ireland i know at least some of you have seen a generous portion of delicious fried food before

[what-even-is-thiss]

I love listening to really old music. Dude’s bragging about how long he can have sex with a full brass band behind him.

[what-even-is-thiss]

20s-60s pop music be like “I’m gonna cuck every man in town because I have a great tongue” *sick piano solo*

[sam-sometimes-wise]

People are like, "Pop culture was so innocent back then!"

meanwhile every time a refined old crooner mentions a woman's "charms" you can basically imagine that "sexyback" by Justin Timberlake just started playing in the background.

"someone to hold in my arms/and know the magic of her charms" yeah sure mister bobby darin that sounds like a wholesome retro activity

people have always been people. they've always been doing the same things.

[bettermetalgoat]

People pearl clutching over songs like WAP: ”Songs were so wholesome and clean back then. Not like NOW!”

Lucille Bogan in the 1920s about to drop the raunchiest song she can think of: “I got a song about fucking and it’s not going to beat around the bush about it. Gonna open with a line about my titties.”

[what-even-is-thiss]

You weren’t kidding

[exlibra]

ziyal survives the war -> is unofficially adopted by both garak and kira separately (Very Separately.) -> asks to spend time on cardassia during the reconstruction -> kira comes along because it’s a disaster out there and she’s not letting ziyal go by herself -> comedy of errors where kira keeps getting mistaken for garak’s quite young wife (but what a lovely daughter you have together! she looks so much like you! divorced, you say? what a shame…) -> kira’s head explodes. the end

[the-writing-goblin]

At some point, whether or not Garak and Bashir are actually together, Bashir gets called a home wrecker by an elderly Cardassian grandmother.

Kira and Garak both agree that Bashir’s ensuing outrage is hilarious, making this the first time they ever agree about anything besides Ziyal.

[katbelleinthedark]

This should be how they GET together. Julian gets accused of being a homewrecker despite the fact that he and Garak are only friends -> gets so upset in a crowded restaurant that he very loudly says that he's sorry he ruined Garak's fake marriage and that maybe he should leave and they shouldn't be together -> Garak (who finds it hilarious) fake-sniffs and says that Julian's words would be more effective if they ever were together to begin with -> Julian goes quiet and sits back down, "umm... would you... would you like us to be together?" -> Garak scores a boyfriend

[unamccormack]

Flawless romcom plotting, no notes, though I suspect Garak wouldn't be able to resist, "Well, I don't know, Doctor - Nerys and I have been talking about couple's counselling--"

[oldbutchdanielmolloy]