sheepfilms
Keni
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🩵 avery cochrane 🩵
Fai_Ryy
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Misplaced Lens Cap
official daine visual archive
Origami Around
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
Show & Tell
PR's Tumblrdome
noise dept.
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Monterey Bay Aquarium
will byers stan first human second
Xuebing Du
art blog(derogatory)
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oozey mess
seen from Türkiye
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@swimmingblue
That cat is legitimately getting a state funeral, several statues, a weepy 10 thousand word obituary from The Guardian and an Elton John tribute song when he goes.
That cat deserves it all. He's given better service to the nation that most of the politicians, that's for damn sure.
So the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago just took a delivery of four beluga whales rescued from a shuttered zoo in Ontario. The trade in "show" marine mammals is pretty barbaric generally and hopefully is on the way out but in the meantime we have to look after the ones that are already here, and there are many charming aspects to this story. These include:
One: the four Belugas we just got were chosen to travel together because of their deep bond, like Hobbits in Lord of the Rings or something
Two: "I believe I Can Fly" playing gently in the background
oh my god this is how i'm finding out that Marineland is, thank god, gone, but you know i will never ever get the stupid fucking jingle out of my head.
which did in fact contain the line everyone loves the belugas! which did not rhyme or scan with anything else
it was the worst jingle
i'm glad the belugas are going somewhere safe
i haven't watched tv in like ten years so i haven't heard the jingle in that long at least but. oh it's in there. i'll never be free.
Honestly, Marineland had such a bad rep that I'm glad that they've shut down. Also that the belugas have gone somewhere good, and that they can be together.
reading a paper on quality of life among 45-to-70-year-olds with Down syndrome:
“Individuals expressed a desire to be allowed to go to bed when they wanted to.”
Imagine.
I lived in a room and board that failed the burrito test. (”If you’re not allowed to get up in the middle of the night to microwave a burrito, you live in an institution.”) No one stopped me from going to bed, but they did tell me I had to have my lights out by 10, and that I had to be out of the house by 10 the next morning. When I complained to my outpatient program that I needed more help than I was getting, they threatened me with board and care, where my cell phone would be taken away and I would lose contact with the outside world. My case manager sounded so damn smug, like he had caught me out, when he said, “if you’re really as helpless as you say, then you need to be in a board and care.” Like my only options were struggling to do things I couldn’t do, or surrendering my life to an institution.
When I tried to talk about these things with other people, they always rationalized it away. (I told my dad once that my caseworker was reading my e-mails as I wrote them, demonstrating extreme disrespect for my privacy, and he said, “Well, she’s probably making sure you don’t use the internet to goof off.” I was 22 years old.)
People tend to mock the idea that telling an adult when to go to bed, when to eat, etc., is a human rights violation, even though they would find it outrageous and absurd if anyone came into their lives to do the same thing to them.
And this is what people seem to think when they tell disabled activists we’re just not disabled enough to understand that some people really do need to be locked up and deprived of all autonomy.
Honest question: Why do pop culture references work and get a laugh in things like Shrek, but in others they just come across as just being lame and forced? What makes a pop culture reference work?
I think the thing with references in general is that they need to either a) work on their own even if someone DOESN’T understand the source material and/or (preferably and) b) are brief enough that someone who doesn’t understand them most likely won’t notice them, instead of stopping the story shut in its tracks for a minute so you can wink at the viewer and say “geddit? eh? eh?”… metaporically speaking.
Example: in Shrek 2, Shrek sees an old poster in Fiona’s old room in the castle.
When I was a kid, I genuinely didn’t recognize that this was supposed to be Justin Timberlake, because I wasn’t that up on celebrity stuff (and he already wore a full beard at this point). But I still smiled, because even if you DON’T recognize the celeb it still is a solid joke even without that, narrative is still easy to recongize that Fiona as a tween had a crush on some male celebrity, and it ties into character development of Shrek feeling insecure because he’s not human - so it fullfills point a).
And in addition to that: that shot? It lasts for THREE SECONDS. It’s a quiet scene (except for music), noone makes any mention of that poster, there’s no dialog or callback or anything. If you don’t get it, you miss absolutely nothing. So it fulfills point b) at the same time.
True, and even the longer references (like the scene in Shrek 2 where Fairy Godmother sings “I need a hero” and you get that whole Godzilla Cookie bit) don’t actually impede the story, because there’s still stuff going on. Most of the time, when a reference falls flat, it’s because the movie stops in its tracks or doesn’t advance the plot, which tends to get on the nerves of viewers :P
another example: in Meet The Robinson’s, when Wilbur says his dad looks like Tom Selleck and we’re given this picture for a fraction of a second among a bunch of pictures of goofy cartoon characters:
now as a kid this was hilarious bc come on, thats not a cartoon character, thats just a man!!! and it’s absurd and only there for a second. and then i learned later that his dad is actually voiced by Tom Selleck and GOD THATS HILARIOUS
pop culture references usually just fall somewhere on a spectrum from “funny” to “obnoxious,” with “boring” smack dab in the middle
Community
Straight and cisgender people being part of the broader queer community is good in a variety of ways, and the example from my own life is growing up queer in a small town with parents who were supportive before either they or I knew I was queer.
My mom and dad grew up in Berkeley CA and were involved through their youths in a variety of extremely nerdy things like the Society of Creative Anachronism, Dungeons & Dragons (and a Star Trek inspired sci-fi variation), theater, etc. Within those groups, and other parts of their lives, they had a lot of queer friends.
They moved around a lot as adults, and this was the pre-internet era so staying in touch was harder, and even when they stayed in touch they didn’t necessarily see people in person much. I wound up growing up in a small liberal town in western WA. Statistically, due to the small population, I just did not know any out queer adults in my hometown when I was growing up. There was no GSA at the school, either.
But for years I had stories of queer adults, long before I ever knew I needed them. I never once worried my parents wouldn’t accept my bisexuality, because I was so very used to my parents talking about queer friends of theirs who were giant nerds, with the exact same fondness and nostalgia as all their other friends. Stories of queer-specific shenanigans were told alongside all the other shenanigans.
We had semaphore flags in the costume playtime box because Dad’s a nautical history nerd, and we had big motorcycle goggles designed to fit over chunky glasses because Mom used to catch rides around the Bay Area with lesbian biker friends. That blend and casualness was just a normal part of my childhood.
~
I learned from stories of my parents’ friends that you could take stereotypes and turn them into in-jokes; gay friends playing backyard baseball or catch or other sports totally flubbing a throw, and heckling each other with “What’s the matter honey, your wrists too limp?”
~
I learned about the AIDS epidemic, of the loss, the grief, the stigma, and of the ways people fought back. Supported each other. I learned a lot more when I was older from queer adult survivors of the epidemic online, but I learned first from my parents, who were still grieving friends they lost.
This was not distant history, this was not something that happened to “other people” this was something that happened to their community.
~
My father’s mother’s brother is gay. My great uncle. He raises tropical birds. When he was a much younger man than he is now, the signaling style of wearing a diamond earring in one ear was starting. Now, at the time, most men to wear a diamond earring as a signal of their sexuality wore very small, discreet flecks. Just this little flash of light that might catch your eye, that might make you look again.
Great Uncle inherited his mother’s engagement ring, took that honking big “look at me and admire how I got engaged! Look at me, look at me!” diamond to the jeweler, and got that sucker turned into an earring. You could not fucking miss it.
And you know what? That’s how I learned about queer signaling as a thing people could do, it was presented as a fun family story, and I wouldn’t have heard it if not for my parents, because Great Uncle lives in a completely different part of the country from us and doesn’t travel much, so I’ve only met him twice, during which everyone was catching up on current life, not stories of his youth.
~
When my mom, dad, and their friends were all young adults who’d recently left home and were living in a different state from their families, one of their friends was a butch gay man who’d recently come out to his parents. And his mom wanted to be supportive, and she was a person who sewed clothes herself. So she made him shirts. She had his measurements, and she’d regularly mail him care packages with beautifully hand-made button up shirts in pink and purple fabrics. Because those were the gay colors at the time, and she wanted to make sure he knew she supported everything about him, that she would never want him to change himself to fit in society’s mold.
Now the thing was, pink and purple were not actually to his taste. They were not colors he’d normally pick out for himself. But he and his parents didn’t live in the same state anymore, this was pre-Internet, if you wanted to share photos you had to take them, develop the film, and mail them. So she wasn’t seeing his style regularly, she was seeing the style of the out gay men back in the Bay Area, and doing her best.
He wore the shirts. He was running around the Oregon countryside as a butch gay man in the early 1980’s in pink and purple button ups, because his mom made them for him with love, he loved her too.
So I heard this story growing up, and I learned from it. I learned parents could love and wholly support their queer children long before I ever heard about parents who rejected theirs. I learned love is in the actions we take. That it’s going to be imperfect, but what matters is we’re trying our best, and accepting that from each other.
~
I’m bisexual, and I’ve got some weird gender stuff going on. I did not know any out queer adults in my hometown growing up. I did not find any writings until the early 2000’s when the Internet became more accessible. My school did not have a GSA.
But I knew I wasn’t alone. I knew pieces of west coast queer culture and history. I knew queer people could be giant nerds, could be outdoorsy, could be silly and serious and fully rounded people with rich, wonderful lives. That their friends and family could accept them wholly without hesitation. Because what was there to hesitate over?
I’ve said before my hometown is liberal, and it is, but it still had enough prejudice to keep me semi-closeted as a teen. I had peers insist to me that “a child needs a mother and a father”, had adults insist civil unions were fine but marriage equality would violate religious freedoms, heard peers use “gay” as an insult from late elementary school onwards (and the teachers just ignoring it).
I needed all those stories from my childhood. I needed them. And I had them. Without ever having to ask.
And my brother had them too. He’s straight and cisgender, and he has never been anything but 100% supportive of me. He was arguing for equal rights and refusing to use the derogatory language peers were before I ever came out to him.
When I see people trying to gatekeep the queer community, this is what I think of. I think of being a kid in a small town, without knowing any local out queer adults, hearing people around me say bigoted things, but having all these stories burning in the hearth of my heart, and I think…
You want to douse that flame?
You want to reach back in time and wrench those stories from the child I was?
You’d rather I grow up isolated, confused, lonely, and scared, than have my straight, cisgender parents in the queer community? You want me to be isolated now, you want my brother to abandon me?
Really?
Identity and community are intertwined, but they are not rigid, nor should they be.
Community being broader is good.
#the nature of COMMUNITIES#(as opposed to demographics)#is that they are made up of the people who choose to be there and support each other#and this community has ALWAYS included people who were not themselves lgbtq+ but who chose to show the fuck up
my straight mom always went to the san diego pride parade when i was a teen.
one year she took her old college friend to it too, and at one point, she said, ‘oh, we must look like a couple!’ and then she and her friend held hands for awhile. and i was bi and freshly out and it meant a lot to me, that my mom didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. that she thought it was just fine to be mistaken for a lesbian, that her friendship with a woman she’d known longer than i was alive wasn’t something she was gonna set terms on. they weren’t appropriate queer culture, two straight women holding hands and laughing, they were participating. they were agreeing with the entire premise of pride: love is love, and love doesn’t need limits or apologies or explanations.
our queer community would be vastly, catastrophically poorer without all the people that love us queers.
Oh yeah.
My mom is very artsy, and very musical, and spent a lot of time with other artsy and musical people as a young person. Now, there's always been a ton of queer people in the artsy and musical scenes, so Mom (who's very cishet) was introduced to a lot of this stuff as a teen and young adult. And she made sure to always present it positively and normally to me when I was a kid.
So like, she'd talk about her singing teacher, who was a lesbian, and how when she was taking lessons her teacher broke up with her partner. And she talked about it in the same way as if her teacher was having a divorce with a husband (though this was before gay marriage was legal in Canada). Or how so-and-so was terrible in university for going through partners at a fast clip, he must have dated most of the queer men at [university name] before he graduated!
So it was always quite normalized for me, ages before I figured out that I was queer. And this is what I want all kids to have.
Neal Protectorofthesmall is great because it's like he accidentally wandered into Kel's Low Fantasy Tortall from the High Fantasy Tortall of the SotL & Immortals books. Nealan of Queenscove, eldest (remaining) son and heir of Duke Baird of Queenscove, a house which for generations has offered the crown more knights than almost any other. One of the oldest pages/squires/knights in Tortallan history because he was attending university before his two knighted elder brothers were both slain in the Immortals War, and now he's determined to carry on their memory and his family's legacy in their place. He has piercing green eyes, the same emerald color as his powerful magical healing Gift. He falls in love gets engaged to a close friend of the queen-to-be. He's literally Alanna's squire! How did he get here??
(A stubborn ten-year-old gave him the best lecture on chivalry he'd ever heard, so he decided to be her best friend/sarcasm translator/good right hand for the rest of their lives, that's how.)
and look, if POTS was the same sort of series as SOTL and the Immortals, Neal is exactly the sort of character who'd be the hero. But it's not the same sort of series, so Neal is just stuck as a background character.
No source, but with your help, we can make this true.
i was reading several articles written by random upper-middle-class people about how Kids These Days are too anxious because their parents don't teach them to "deal with discomfort" and coddle them too much, and This Generation uses "trauma" to refer to any mild discomfort and have broadened the words "abuse" and "bullying" too much et cetera
There is a very abundant supply of such articles and a recent one especially annoyed the hell out of me because it (without actually mentioning the idea of disability) repeatedly alluded to accommodating a kid's sensory issues as example of parents being too permissive or failing to teach kids to tolerate discomfort.
That's bullshit because being in tune with your own needs and discomforts sensory wise is so fucking important for being able to adapt and function in the world.
Like, just an example, I got rid of almost every piece of clothing I own that was polyester or a polyester blend and just doing that dramatically improved my life and gave me more ability to cope with stressors, because I figured out that a lot of my sensory issues with clothes came from bad temperature regulation and the scratchy pills that polyester blends make.
"Discomfort tolerance" has never been super helpful as a concept for me. I have no problem tolerating discomfort in the sense of like, not doing anything about the thing that's hurting me. It's just that if I do it for too long, I can't think straight and process what's happening around me and I eventually become so fatigued it feels like I've got a fever, or else become uncontrollably angry.
I think "discomfort curiosity" is way better concept. You feel uncomfortable. What is the feeling like? Where in your body do you feel it? What does your body urge you to do about it? When does it start? What is it responding to? What about that thing makes you feel that way? Feel it...Experiment with it...Dabble in it...Play with it. I say curiosity because curiosity is so closely related to fear and to some extent, disgust. Curiosity is a frontier zone between repulsion and fascination.
Curiosity is an instinct that encourages us toward unfamiliar things, not away from them. It is part of a large landscape of feelings where away-instincts and toward-instincts are blended together.
I think of the difference between curiosity and fear to be like the difference between solitude and loneliness, or like excitement and apprehension. Or, think of exploring an eerie abandoned place, one of the "liminal spaces" the internet speaks of. The place is "eerie" which is closely related to fear, but the "eerieness" shades into becoming a positive stimulus that our instincts are drawn toward. Liminal spaces, for those of us that enjoy them, are "creepy," but they are also "nice" at the same time. And the "creepiness" is part of the "niceness."
And curiosity is sensitivity. It allows for openness and playfulness toward the unknown.
Many humans' relationships with their own urges and instincts are based on domination and punishment. Tyranny over the body by the mind. The goal is to absorb without shock and endure without indulging the urge to seek relief, to reduce your attunement to your body.
But the ability to be "less controlled by" your body's urges is not positive, because your body is providing information about what your needs are. I find that the ability to make reasoned decisions about how and when and why to persist through something painful requires a deeper attunement to the body's instincts, not a greater ability to ignore them.
Stop treating your bodies like they're animals in a cruel experiment to be shocked with electricity until they lay on the floor whimpering in helplessness. It doesn't help.
Also, any article that suggests people are taking bullying too seriously should be launched into the sun because we don't take it nearly seriously enough i think.
And like .... sure, there's some stuff we have to deal with even though it's uncomfortable. But there's a big difference between that and stuff that we can avoid with a little effort.
Biggest fuck-up ever is that people have to pay to become doctors
Like unironically we should be subsidising at least 50% of their educations. What do you mean we have a shortage of doctors we should have surplus. What do you mean they’re being overworked they should be treated like royalty, they can fix human bodies
I don’t care if some of them are only doing it for the money. I don’t care if all of them are only doing it for the money. Intentions don’t matter to the stitches in my nana’s leg or the ten billion other lifesaving treatments we all get at a detriment to their finances and mental wellbeing. Entire cities are kept alive by just a couple thousand of them what are we DOINGGGGG
If we had more, maybe it would be easier to get the shitty ones fucking replaced. The board isn't going to do much to the only endocrinologist in the state who takes Medicaid, you know? But if there were more than, idk, maybe 5? Maybe then?
More importantly if you needed less money and less physical stamina to become a doctor, people with less money and less physical stamina could become doctors, which would increase diversity and improve patient care.
Medical professionals of all stripes are providing key services for people. It shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to get certified.
I can understand why a lot of programs take a long time .... there's a lot to learn, and you want your professionals to be qualified. But that doesn't mean that you need to be wealthy to become a doctor.
Been thinking about the war kids again. More fanfics should consider the frankly hilarious concept that Toph has no clue where Aang is 60% of the time. Her sense stops when he leaves the earth so she's relying entirely on things like his chatterbox personality and the whooshing of wind to guestimate. Aang is like the only person in Toph's entire life who has a good chance of jumpscaring her without meaning to.
Aang is also the only person who wields sight sense too- he has the means and the inside knowledge to successfully jumpscare Toph BeiFong.
This is obviously not a good idea but this is Aang, lover of silly pranks, he would absolutely do it once just to prove it was possible. I also imagine that instead of earthbending immediately Toph's gut reaction to someone that close without warning is to sock them in the jaw with her actual fist.
.
Katara, chilling some water for cold compresses: so what'd we learn today?
Aang, missing two teeth: to duck
Toph, zero injuries other than her pride: that the Avatar needs to die
Yeah, Aang might well try this ..... but he's only do it once.
based on a reddit thread: did the high school you attended have its own pool? and are you US American?
yes, american
no, american
I'm not sure, american
yes, non american
no, non american
I'm not sure, non American
too young and/or did not attend high school
It's almost like something happened in 2020-now that is causing these problems.
ignoring everything the pandemic response specialists were saying was good for the economy tho. State governors and federal agencies with no medical experience and no economics education told us so
"no reliable data" What A Curious Coincidence. I Wonder What Might Have Been Happening In That Period To Cause Such a Thing
Inspired by your tipping article, but can you provide some insight into tipping culture for things outside of traditional sit-down restaurants? Bc I always feel lost on if I should be tipping or not! My sister is a barista and makes actual money per an hour; my boyfriend is an exterminator and makes more than I do via a full time and part time corporate jobs. Both of their positions also include the option to tip, and I've seen it quite literally everywhere! When should you tip someone (in a non-sit down restaurant setting, although I've also seen the tipping option at fast food which baffles me)
This is a very amorphous area. And I'm willing to learn myself, so chime in, people!
The hard and fast rule is that anyone working in the service industry for minimum wage or less should be tipped. Otherwise it can be up to your own judgment.
Sit-down restaurant servers are the gold standard here. But the same goes for delivery drivers, rideshare drivers, bartenders, housekeeping staff, aestheticians, etc.
Personally, I also tip manual laborers like landscapers, the folks who delivered my washer and dryer from Costco, etc. Even if a restaurant tells you they rolled the tip into a standard 20% "service charge" on their receipt (WHICH I LOVE BECAUSE YAY NO MATH), I sometimes tip a few dollars extra. And I do mean dollars, as a server can collect that cash without declaring it on their taxes (not that we would ever recommend something so illegal).
What do you guys think? What are some other examples of stuff you should be tipping on? Stuff we shouldn't tip for?
If You Can’t Afford to Tip 20%, You Can’t Afford To Dine Out
Season 4, Episode 11: “My Boss Kept My Tips. Is That Legal—or Did She Steal From Me?”
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I generally tend to tip well on stuff where a personal touch makes a difference. Like, a haircut, or a delivery guy, or whatever.
I cant believe this tweet is how I find out
now all the things you guys have told me about american high schools are starting to make sense
holy shit.
You're not really supposed to say it this way, because its considered crass, but here in the US children are culturally and legally considered essentially the property of their parents.
Note that its considered more crass to point this out than it is to treat children as property in the first place.
Oh yeah, the Convention on the Rights of the Child says some stuff that's flat-out inflammatory for some Americans.
Like, kids have the right to freedom of expression! Kids have the right to freedom of religion! Children are entitled to access to media! Children are entitled to health care! Children are entitled to education!
“You think every citizen should have access to free and accessible healthcare?”
Wrong!!!
I think that Asylum seekers and Migrant workers and The Undocumented and Everyone Else should get free healthcare too
I love immigration
This one made the fascists and the racists really really mad. I get hate mail daily for this post
Imagine getting mad because someone else’s child’s chemotherapy doesn’t cost them 100,000$ .
and this is absolutely something to do. Especially as you get older.
I am deeply offended by this! I was reading thoughts on what D&D classes the characters of The Mummy (1999) would be, and there was a comment that Jonathan was obviously a rogue, but either a badly built one or one with shit dice rolls. And! Excuse you? Jonathan is a perfectly acceptable rogue! He rolls fine when he’s actually attempting to do something!
In the first movie alone, some of his greatest hits:
Successfully pickpocketed Rick on their first meeting, without Rick so much as joining the dots until later.
Survives a pitched battle on a burning ship without a scratch, and somehow gets the key from a burning hook-handed enemy mook in the process. (“And did I panic? I think not!”)
Survives a pitched battle in the Hamunaptra ruins while drunk, through liberal use of cover and picking off targets at range.
Rolls a Nat 20 on his deception check to avoid being massacred by a large group of hynotised enemies in the museum.
Survives the final pitched battle with the undead (again, through liberal use of cover, hiding and running).
Successfully makes his intelligence roll to translate the Book of Amun Ra (with the Help action from Evie).
Successfully uses the resulting control over the undead mooks to even out the battlefield, including the genius brain move of sending them after Ankh-Su-Namun to both save Evie and distract Imhotep.
Successfully pickpockets a lich while being strangled by him to regain the key and enable Evie to use the book to banish Imhotep altogether.
Yes, he’s fairly flimsy in direct battle, and if at all possible refuses to get to melee range with anybody. So he’s a ranged rogue, and has a tendency to use the environment to his advantage. But he’s clearly designed around Sleight of Hand, Charisma, and a decent sprinkling of Intelligence, and prefers to use object interactions and battlefield control to even out his odds. For all that, though, he fully will stay in melee range if he has no other choice, and take the opportunity to pickpocket the BBEG while he’s at it.
He's a perfectly serviceable rogue, he’s just not optimised for straight combat. And even there, as the second movie shows, he’s excellent at ranged combat. He just doesn’t like getting up close and personal.
Actually, going back and rewatching that final battle again ... I don't think that Jonathan stayed in range of Imhotep because he had no choice. He stayed in range specifically to pickpocket him.
I didn't realise before, but this whole battle starts with Evie telling Jonathan that the only way to kill Imhotep is to open the book and read the spell to banish him. Jonathan says it's locked, they need the key, and Evie then tells him it's in Imhotep's robes.
When Jonathan sends the priest mummies after Ankh-Su-Namun with the spell on the cover (saving both Rick and Evie in the process), Imhotep is coming right for him. However, Imhotep is then briefly disabled by watching the brutal murder of his lover all over again, and Jonathan ... could have run. There's a beat there where Imhotep is completely focused on something else, and Jonathan absolutely has the presence of mind to use that, but he doesn't. Imhotep, now incensed that Jonathan has murdered his lover, promptly spins back around and goes to murder him back, and is only stopped because Rick returns the favour from earlier and saves him.
At which point a lightly-strangled Jonathan stands back up and tells Evie he got the key.
He fucking stayed put on purpose because he knew they needed the key, that Imhotep had the key, and that he was the only person who could fucking pickpocket the BBEG mid-strangulation and get away with it, so long as someone could swoop in before the undead wizard actually killed him. Imhotep is immortal and immune to damage if they don't do something about that. This is a fight of attrition they cannot win. And his sister told him what they needed to stop it, so Jonathan went and got it.
He cheerfully calls himself a coward, and then he goes and fatally pisses off a lich as a distraction, and then stands still to be murdered for it in order to get close enough to pickpocket the immortal pissed off undead. It wasn't that he took the opportunity while being strangled, he set up being strangled in order to have the opportunity.
Say whatever the hell you like about that man, but he has never once failed to do something his family actually needed him to do.
Given the movie's release date, it's not that he's a 5e rogue but not one optimized for melee combat, he's a 2nd-edition thief.
See also, the original Mummy film takes place in 1926.
John Hannah, Jonathan's actor, was 36 when the Mummy was filmed. Assuming Jonathan is about the same age, he's have been 24 when World War One broke out. Which means that practically by default, he'd have been involved in the war in some capacity - quite possibly in a similar style to Lawrence of Arabia, given the rogue/thief vibes. I'd absolutely believe that Jonathan was seriously traumatized by the war (see the drinking), and also came out of it with a similar mentality to Phryne Fisher from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, who hasn't taken anything seriously since 1918.
Actually, that would make an interesting crossover. A lot of the earlier Miss Fisher stories take place in 1928, so if we put some (or all) of the Mummy gang on a trip to Australia after the events of the first film .... it'd be fun. For the audience.
