Do not throw away your shot: Be willing to take risks, you’ll never know if you don’t try.
You are the one thing in life you can control: Times might be tough, but you can’t control other people. All you can do is move forward towards greater things.
Just stay alive, that would be enough: Nobody is perfect, and “the best I can do” is enough.
It must be nice to have [somebody] on your side: Everybody needs a hand once in a while. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
You want a revelation, so listen to your declaration: If you feel the need to say something, say it. Nothing gets resolved if you keep to yourself.
Meet the latest graduate of King’s college, you prob’ly shouldn’t brag but dag you amaze and astonish: Being proud of yourself isn’t a crime. Live in your moment while it lasts.
The world is wide enough. Some people will be hateful. Others confused. Give them some grace. We’ve all been in the wrong once in our lives.
This is a positive post! Don’t be hateful in the notes, please!
Life hack for buying high quality leather goods when you know nothing about leather:
Ask the vendor (online or in person) questions about the leather they use:
How was it tanned? (Chrome, Vegetable, Combination- tanning transforms raw flesh into durable leather)
How many oz is it? (leather thickness is typically measured in oz)
What can you tell me about the grain and finish on the leather? (the grain is determined by what layers of the skin make up the leather, poor quality cuts are often disguised with heavy acrylic finishes)
If their leather is shitty, they'll feed you some fluff about it being "high quality italian made" leather.
If they are selling quality goods, they'll be thrilled to answer your questions precisely and probably with more detail than you asked for in the first place.
You'll be surprised at how affordable some high quality goods can be on Etsy. Some people just really love quality leather goods and want their products to be accessible to as many people as possible.
As assignments go out and everyone starts getting wrapped up in the absolute joy of gift exchange, we want to put out one last reminder!
Please don't forget to double check that you are sending your asks on anon! In fact, a fun trick is to take a screen shot of your ask before you send it so you don't panic for days about whether or not you hit that little anon button.
In 4 minutes, Kurt Vonnegut explained stories better than anyone I’ve ever heard. “The shape of the curve is what matters. Not their origins.”
He plots stories on 2 axes: X: Time, Y: Good fortune / ill fortune. He goes on to say, “Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it.”
Point 1: Stories have defined patterns.
In Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces, he makes the case for the Hero’s Journey. Since then, it’s become the most famous storytelling structure in the world. Vonnegut argued stories could be divided into 8 shapes.
Each story, he said, fit one of the 8.
Point 2: Vonnegut says, “Be a sadist.”
No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — “so the reader may see what they're made of.” To see who your characters really are, you have to make them suffer. Only then does your audience have someone worth cheering for.
Point 3: End on a high note.
Vonnegut says, “It’s not accidental that the line ends up higher than where it began. This is encouraging to readers.” The way a story makes people feel when they finish is how they remember it. It’s called recency bias. Lift people up and they will love you.
“There are people. There are stories. The people think they shape the stories, but the reverse is often closer to the truth.” —Kurt Vonnegut
Are you stubborn and neurospicy and don't want to do the thing but it would be great to do, especially great to have as a habit?
Pro tip: do an absolutely miniscule fraction of the thing for only 7 days.
Need to exercise? Start by walking outside of your dwelling until you can close the door behind you, then immediately give up and go back in (unless you want to stay outside...you can do that...if you want...I mean you're out here already... But you don't have to, you can give up Right Now).
Need to eat more vegetables? Start by getting a gummy multivitamin and eat the dosage every day for 7 days. If you want to pick up a bag of carrots or hell, even veggie chips, sure! Or not!
The point is to do SOMETHING. I am cheering you on. That SOMETHING is better than NOTHING, and it's as hard for you as running 3 miles is for someone else, so you're doing great.
Black and white thinking is common with the neurospiciness, so you'll be tempted to give up in disgust, but why give up when it's the tiniest most miniscule thing? Just spite the haters (usually your own mind) this one time for 7 days. Flip the bird at the thoughts. Prove you can do SOMETHING.
Ok, here's a secret add-on. Don't do this. Don't commit to this. You're only doing one small thing for 7 days. Don't even think about this.
But.
If you feel like it.
If you really really want to.
Again, if you don't want to, that's ok.
But if you really really want to and you can.
Do the thing, plus a tiny bit more, just for 7 days.
Exercise: go outside, walk to the nearest bush/tree/post/obstacle/whatever, touch it, then give up.
Vegetables: eat your gummies AND touch a vegetable. Just touch. You don't have to eat it. But you can if you want. Hell, you could even just eat your gummies and while you're chewing, look up ways to trick yourself into eating more veggies.
Note about food and textures: it helps to play with your food. Touch it, squish it, handle it, chop it, roll it around, go slow, so your body learns the sensation with your hands before you have to put it in your mouth.
This post brought to you by ✨ experience ✨. For example, the only reason I have several 70k+ fics is because of making myself open a doc every day, then writing 3 sentences every day, then...
Calling my representatives in Congress also started with doing the smallest thing of saving a video that told me how to do it. Then, when I worked up the executive function, I saved the phone number. Then, like, weeks later, I worked up the executive function to call the number.
fun fact! if you are good enough at subconsciously recognizing patterns and bad enough at noticing 1) the fact that you are recognizing patterns and 2) the patterns you are recognizing, you can gaslight yourself into thinking you are mildly clairvoyant.
