No title available
Keni

Origami Around

Andulka
One Nice Bug Per Day

#extradirty
Peter Solarz
AnasAbdin
Sade Olutola

if i look back, i am lost
Cosimo Galluzzi
NASA
Today's Document
Monterey Bay Aquarium
almost home

⁂
Game of Thrones Daily
will byers stan first human second
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda

Kiana Khansmith
seen from South Korea
seen from Japan
seen from Philippines

seen from Italy

seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from France

seen from Russia
seen from Philippines
seen from Jordan
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Mexico
seen from France

seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
@svnshinewrites
-How sad that I’m not Pygmalion and you’re not Galatea, - said Frankenstein to his creature
Do non-americans realize that the United States is literally just a bunch of countries in a trench coat that agreed to be semi-nice to each other in order to sneak into the Big Boy Club? Because let’s be honest that’s just what the USA is
The rest of the world: So… you’re a big country?
The states, standing on each other’s shoulders: Y- yes,,,
I love how everyone who’s reblogged this hasn’t added anything on or tagged anything on it. They’re all just like “Yeah. That’s it. That’s the entire United States summed up in one post-”
amazing double dance by hao ruoqi ( in blue)and wang xuerou(in red)
OH MY GOD OH MY GOOOOD A FEW THINGS ABOUT THIS:
the facial expressions
the effortless sensuality
I AM SO GAY
the inexplicable moment in which the dynamic between the two shifted like they changed bodies
did china allow this to be shown? china?
DID I MENTION THE GAY
what is the lore of this? I figured that it was a malevolent spirit shifting from one body to another
the part with the leg. you know which one I mean
seriously are they actresses cause this level of portrayal is more astounding than any Hollywood actress has ever amounted to
the end with the smile and the head grab and the beating heart
O H M Y G O D
PS that excellent music is “Moment” (時候) by Sue Su (Su Yunying | 蘇運瑩)
Remember, you will always be growing as a writer. There is no peak, only improvement. It’s a continual learning curve and you can only go up from here. So keep writing lovelies.
A graphic guide to Cemetery Symbolism, created by Michelle Enemark, text by Allison C. Meier. Click on the above pictures to enlargen.
Hancock Park, Los Angeles, CA 2019.
Nikon 28ti | Kodak Gold 200
Wheat fields are more mystical than fields of other crops. You are 7,000 times more likely to meet an old god or see a portent of doom in a wheat field than in a field of like… soybeans.
For your consideration: cornfields
Cornfields are less mystical than wheat fields but more mystical than soybean fields. Two-bit monsters congregate in corn fields to eat people, but their power is nothing compared to the things that manifest in wheat fields.
Have been in both wheat and cornfields; can confirm. Cornfields host monsters who eat people. Wheat fields attract old gods.
I have a theory that this is because the notions most of us have of “old gods” are pretty intrinsically European, and wheat was (and is) the staple crop of European life. It is quite literally tied to the ancestral rituals and beliefs of most white people. Odin, the Morrigan, and even Zeus are actually linked to a set of peoples who cultivated wheat.
Meanwhile, corn (maize) is a crop native to the Americas. It features in the white cultural imagination in a very different way. Corn is a motif seen not in our ancestral myths, but in a much newer genre: the American Gothic. With its focus on the tensions between man and nature and—perhaps more importantly—the United States’s history of genocide against its indigenous population and trade in enslaved Africans, the American Gothic is VERY preoccupied with agriculture. Our monsters come out of corn fields because corn is a symbol for not only what we did to the Native Americans (who were the first to grow the crop), but of what we are doing to the very land itself. Corn is a monument to our cultural sins.
Meanwhile, I suspect that corn features very differently in the imaginations of people of color. If you asked a Native American person or a Latinx person what sort of mysticism they associate with corn fields, I imagine their answer would be very different than ours.
TLDR: White people associate wheat with our ancestors’ gods because our ancestors grew wheat. We associate corn with terrible monsters because it is a literal sign of our own monstrosity.
Native American here, can confirm that small plots of corn feel safe and homey; ideally they should be interplanted with other crops. You find turkeys and possums and raccoons in the corn. It might tell you important knowledge.
However.
Giant monocultures of corn, where the corn grows unbroken for miles and miles, not near human habitation, devoid of local wildlife, just corn on corn in the soft wind? Corn mega monocultures? Those sound like screaming.
We're losing the fight
People please please please spread this. Hong Kong is under attack. We used to be an amazing city, we still are. We served as the link between East and West, and had a relatively good relationship with Mainland China. We were technically a part of them, but we kept our own laws and government under the Basic Law (HK law agreed on by both China and England). We had freedom; freedom of speech, religion, protest, all that. We stood up for what's right.
Throughout Hong Kong's history, we've always had a great relationship with the police force. Just look at the Umbrella Revolution of 2014, it was pretty dang peaceful considering the number of people out on the streets. Sure there were isolated incidents, but overall? There was a mural agreement between protestor and police. We do what we have to do, we fight for what we believe is right, we try to minimalize casualties. That's not the case anymore
The city has turned into a battlefield. The police have become demons. They're ruthlessly beating innocent civilians and passerbys. They sprayed pepper spray into a crowded train compartment. They pepper sprayed a pregnant woman directly in the face several times before proceeding to pull her to the ground and beat her. They shot people in the chest, leg, and eye point black. A lot of us don't even think they are the police of Hong Kong anymore. We believe they are soldiers from the Mainland. They are tearing the city apart
I also feel the need to clear up some things. We are NOT fighting for independence. This started out as a protest against the extradition treaty that would strip Hong Kong of our right to free speech. It has evolved into a protest against police brutality and government negligence, and those two things have only gotten worse and worse. Again, this is not a fight for independence. We just want our city back, we just want One Country Two Systems (the agreement made between China and England. Hong Kong will be a part of China, but have a separate government and a separate justice and social system) back
PLEASE BOOST THIS. Not enough people know about the violence against the citizens. Outside media has painted the protesters as the villains when that is not the case. I'll come back to add photos and videos to this post, but as for right now, please just BOOST THE HECK OUT OF THIS
thanksgiving is a holiday based on a falsified narrative full of white guilt and the erasure of history so what are some good native organizations to donate to this coming thursday
organizations recommended by @loneghostkid
native american rights fund
heyday berkely roundhouse
news from native california magazine
national indian child welfare association
california indian legal services
the national indigenous women’s resource center
please also consider looking into funding native/tribal food sovereignty projects if you have food to donate or money to spare. friends, please add more if you know of them and have links to provide:
native american food sovereignty alliance
meskwaki food sovereignty initiative
friends of pine ridge reservation
first nations development institute
you can also buy food/gifts from indigenous sellers or donate to gofundme fundraisers made by indigenous people who need help getting groceries, paying medical bills, or paying rent. do something to help us and our communities.
try water projects too, like the navajo water project: https://www.navajowaterproject.org/
Help DigDeep bring clean, running water to hundreds of American families. Nearly 40% of Navajo don't have a tap or toilet at home. We can fi
a lot of reservations are fucked over on water by illegal oil drilling, pipelines, or other breaches, like in the navajo rez’s case: contaminated by illegal uranium mining.
“Writers end up writing about their obsessions. Things that haunt them; things they can’t forget; stories they carry in their bodies waiting to be released”
— Natalie Goldberg (via blua)
worldbuilding: problems
there’s no place where everything runs smoothly. every country has it’s problems. that might be poverty, weak government, fake news, gun violence, or abuse of magical abilities. it could really be anything. so what’s wrong with your world?
what could go wrong:
poverty
corrupt government (a few infiltrations? biased officials? a dictator?)
discrimination/persecution of any kind (sexism, racism, religion, anything that makes someone unique)
violence (gangs, guns, magic, sexual assault)
failing economy
counterfeits (money, expensive products, anything)
drugs (fake drugs, very real and dangerous drugs)
weak government (ie. the government isn’t necessarily corrupt, but no one listens to them and they have no real power at all so everyone just runs amok)
environmental crisis
relations with other countries/regions
war
fake news (can be something smaller like what goes around on the internet today, or something as horrible as the propaganda the axis powers fed their people about the allied powers)
scarcity
terrorist groups
stereotypes (remember, even seemingly positive stereotypes can be damaging)
manipulation/using people
there’s a whole lot more, get creative! as saddening as this will be, scrolling through news articles will give you some good inspiration because our world is pretty messed up
how to choose which problems to include
what is your world like? as obvious as this probably sounds, your world’s problems are directly related to the things in your world. choose pretty much any element of your world, however small it may seem, and there can be made a problem out of it.
in a world of magic:
magic can be abused
magic can be faked (ie. in harry potter, around exam season, students sell items that “enhance your brain” or whatever when it’s really pixie poop, i’m not even kidding)
discrimination between magical and non magical people (muggleborns vs. purebloods)
people rely too much on magic and become weak (a great example of this is the Renegades series, where the non prodigies depend on the prodigies way too much)
non magic people using magical people (or magical people using other magicals, ex. grindelwald/percival graves using creedence to find the obscurial)
really, the problems for a magical world are endless - you can use regular real-life problems with a twist. the magical government lies to the public, buying out the main news source? people of pure magical lineage are somehow better than those related to non magical people? harry potter is a fantastic example of magical worldbuilding, steal stuff from jkr (but don’t make gay characters who are never actually gay)
in a world of science:
i’m a big fantasy nerd, much less sci-fi, so i don’t really have any good examples from books/movies, but here are some ideas anyway
the people who live on a different planet are starting to run out of resources and take over the earth (literally the plot of the Lunar Chronicles series)
the government is testing out new sciencey techy stuff and they accidentally make superhuman demon things (Incredibles, but they’re nice guys, not demon things, except maybe jack jack but he’s a cutie don’t hurt him)
terrorist groups steal a smart guy to make weapons for them (Iron Man)
the world is dying
two + planets are fighting over something
technology/inventions/whatever can be abused
wow these are terrible i’m sorry i need to read more sci-fi
again, you can take regular real world problems and put a sciencey twist on them; a gang that kills people with laserbeam contact lenses, a new invention that uses a very rare element that’s important to the ecosystem and is starting to destroy the planet, the little robots we send to mars become self aware and build a colony of robots. go off sis
the uncanny valley between “this academic article doesn’t make sense because i’m an idiot” and “this academic article doesn’t make sense because the author is an idiot”
rawest fucking hozier lyrics in no particular order:
i’d suffer hell if you’d tell me what you’d do to me tonight
heat of her breath in my mouth; im alive
i’d be the choiceless hope in grief that drove him underground
idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on his sword
and when the earth is trembling on some new beginning with the same sweet shock of when adam first came
every version of me dead and buried in the yard outside
the stench of the sea and the absence of green are the death of all things that are seen and unseen
if I was born as a blackthorn tree i’d wanna be felled by you, held by you, fuel the pyre of your enemies
some like to imagine the dark caress of someone else, I guess any thrill will do
before the wave hits, marveling at god; before he feels alone one final time and marries the sea
betray the moon as acolyte on first and fierce affirming sight
i have never known peace like the damp grass that yields to me, I have never known hunger like these insects that feast on me
screaming the name of a foreigner’s god; the purest expression of grief
sweet and right and merciful, i’m all but washed in the tide of her breathing
but you don’t know the hell you put me through; to have someone kiss the skin that crawls from you
so i try to talk refined for fear that you find out how i’m imagining you
my head was war, my skin was soaked, I called your name ‘til the fever broke
be still, my indelible friend, you are unbreaking
remember me, love, when i’m reborn as a shrike to your sharp and glorious thorn
kozandrevna