i just really want to be happy @theactualsquid - Tumblr Blog

This was on a post about how it's ignorant and privileged to wear headphones in public and I fear its already become a part of my vocabulary. Must everything harbor a moral failure.

aichu-dechu

s-n-arly

Apparently my favorite picture books as a child were written by queer authors. This brings me joy.

down-sizing-redux

Look, most of the queer people I know, myself included, had pretty rough childhoods (for a variety of reasons, but being recognizably queer was part of it) and as a result, we are fiercely protective of kids. Not protecting kids in a walled-garden sense the way conservatives want, but celebrating the wonder and whimsy and weirdness of being a child, and treating children as people - people who might need more supervision and care, but people with opinions and thoughts that really do matter. So of course the most beloved children's books of the last 40 years are written by queer folx. It makes perfect sense.

whatacartouchebag

Crawling out of my hole to remind people that with this current update to Firefox (version 144) they've gone and dumped in their lot with a buncha lil AI tools, namely Perplexity as a new search engine.

So if the sound of that leaves your mouth tasting of tar, here's what you want to do:

In the url bar, type in about:config

It'll give you a big scary warning page that you might poke holes in your browser. Good. You want to do that. Click continue.

One by one, you're going to need to put each of these into the search bar in the page, not up top:

browser.ml.enable browser.ml.chat.enabled extensions.ml.enabled browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled

Each of these are gonna have a lil toggle icon on the right hand side that looks like a funky double-ended arrow. Click that and the value next to it should change to false. It all auto saves as you go. Some of these might already be set to false by default and that's peachy.

The next best thing you can do for yourself is to set your default search engine to udm14 or Qwant, but for now, we're just tidying the garden a lil bit.

Edit: This wildly broke containment for a post that was supposed to be me basically ranting and grumbling like an old man on my porch to my homies. If I’ve inspired you to follow through with this, peachy. That was mildly intended. Better yet, I hope I’ve spurred a buncha you on to do your own bit of digging and research.

If you were one of today’s lucky ten thousand to learn something new, I hope you keep doing it. I won’t be here to hold your hand through it, as I simply don’t have the time nor spoons for it, so I implore you to go down your own rabbit hole and chase knowledge with wild abandon.

itsbrig

I have deep love for the cat.

bornulhu

comics that convey emotion and state of being with color like this are everything. So incredibly nice to see and feel

only-tiktoks

kawree

Y'all for real please do these. Even if you're certain your posture doesn't suck. One day you will wake up with impinged shoulder pain like I did and let me tell you it fucking HURTS. Do these exercises even just once a week and it will make such a difference. Especially my fellow creatives out there, stop shrimping over your work and go do these right now. RIGHT NOW.

thebelfry

Hi, I’m here to propose that A.A. Milne’s distinctive syntax in the Winnie-the-Pooh books is a major origin of modern Capital Letters Used For Emphasis On The Internet. Observe:

(in which Pooh wryly self-deprecates)

(in which Eeyore masters modern sarcasm)

(in which Eeyore is vagueblogging)

(in which Owl says something i would absolutely type in the YOOL 2017)

(In which Eeyore continues to be a shining example to us all)

(in which Pooh describes a Big Mood)

(in which Piglet has a Relatable Experience)

I could go on, but you can read the books and find your own. It’s a weirdly modern-feeling layer to an old, thoroughly enjoyable story and most of the original Pooh books are online for free. I cited from this online text upload of the book. Enjoy!

shipburner

holy shit i think you just cracked the linguistic case of the era

kabaks

sometimes i think about gay people who lived centuries ago who thought they were all alone who imagined a world where they could live openly as themselves who met in secret spoke in code defied everything and everyone just to exist and i’m like..i gotta sit down. whew i gotta sit down

l2g-deactivated20240513

this is why this sappho fragment hits me so hard

doomedvoyages

phantom-tail

If this little book should see the light after its 100 years of entombment, I would like its readers to know that the author was a lover of her own sex and devoted the best years of her life in striving for the political equality and social and moral elevation of women.

“The Great Geysers of California” by Laura De Force Gordon, 1879, unearthed from a 100-year-old time capsule in San Francisco, 1979.

levourdalak

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all our letters could be published in the future in a more enlightened time. Then all the world could see how in love we are.”

Gordon Bowsher to Gilbert Bradley, 1940s

residences-of-the-darkforest

oneofthosecrazycatladies

Okay so we have this huge problem with forgetting about everything that’s happened by the time the next election rolls around so I’d like to keep a running list of things as they’re happening to help remind us when the 2026 midterms roll around. And please add to this if I’ve missed anything.

January 2025:

Donald Trump pardoned 1500 people who participated in the insurrection of January 6th, including those who violently assaulted and nearly killed police officers.

Donald Trump has declared that trans and non-binary people don’t exist.

Donald Trump is working towards firing everyone in the government who isn’t loyal to him.

Donald Trump has effectively fired everyone who he claims is an “illegal DEI hire” …whatever that means

Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization

Congress are trying to pass the Laken Riley Act to, effectively, round up every immigrant in the country, including LEGAL immigrants

Donald Trump removed caps on prescription drug prices.

Donald Trump wants to withhold federal aid to help combat the LA wildfires and help the thousands of people who have been displaced and lost their homes.

The Department of Justice has put a hold on all civil rights cases.

Donald Trump has cut off aid to Ukraine.

Laken Riley Act has been passed by Congress and is awaiting being signed into law by the President. Here’s the breakdown of the votes: House Senate

Donald Trump purged a dozen inspectors general from the federal government and intends to replace them all with people loyal to him.

Pete Hegseth has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Here’s the breakdown of how the Senate voted. Note, it was a 50-50 tie that JD Vance had to break.

Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Colombia after the Colombian government turned away two airplanes carrying migrants. Columbia has retaliated by imposing a 25% tariff of its own on US goods.

Donald Trump has also issued a travel ban for Colombian citizens and revoked visas from Colombian migrants coming to the US.

Donald Trump has now backed off the tariffs and other threats against Colombia. Note for future reference: this comes just hours after Trump made the threat in the first place and he and the Colombian president got into a big fight on social media.

Nearly 1,000 migrants were arrested mostly in Chicago on January 26th by ICE and ICE has been told to meet a quota of 75 migrant arrests every day.

Donald Trump rescinded an anti-discrimination executive order from Lyndon B. Johnson

Donald Trump signed an executive order banning trans people from serving in the military and also ordered that people who were discharged for refusing to get mandatory vaccines be reinstated.

Donald Trump has frozen all federal grants to institutions.

After pressure from state governments, activist groups, and the general public, the White House has rolled back some of the freezes on federal funding.

Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) has proposed a change to the 22nd Amendment to allow Donald Trump, specifically, to serve a third term.

Donald Trump is trying to fire all federal employees who don’t want to return to the office (work-from-home saves the federal government millions of taxpayer dollars in overhead). He also sent an email to federal employees saying that if they’re not loyal to him, they’ll be investigated.

Donald Trump has signed the Laken Riley Act into law.

Donald Trump has said he doesn’t think Palestinians should be allowed to return to Gaza but instead should be sent to Egypt and Jordan.

Native Americans have been targeted by ICE raids.

Donald Trump has ordered undocumented immigrants to be sent to Guantanamo Bay

Donald Trump signed an executive order to expand federal funding for school choice programs. [x]

Donald Trump signed an executive order saying that he will deport visa-holding students who protest against Israel. [x]

Donald Trump has blamed DEI for the plane crash that killed 67 people in Washington D. C. [x]

Donald Trump signed an executive order that schools should no longer teach about racism and discrimination. And that schools should only teach history that is “patriotic” [x]

Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna wants to add Donald Trump’s face to Mount Rushmore. [x]

Trump’s Department of Education has called book bans a hoax. [x]

The Department of Justice has barred certain news outlets from receiving information from the Pentagon. [x]

The Trump administration has fired multiple FBI officials who investigated the January 6th insurrection. [x]

February 2025

I’ll keep adding to this list as new things come up and, again, please feel free to add anything I’ve missed. I know that in this world of constant news it’s easy to forget, so let’s give our future selves a little help!

dihydrogenmonoxideawareness

Why would anyone want to consume it!?

etherealastraea

I teach my 7th graders about the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide.

I bring in a graduated cylinder of it and we talk about how it’s used in nuclear power plants and gmo crops. How inhaling even the small amount I’m holding can lead to suffocation or even death. It’s found in vaccines and cancer cells, but also in infant formula and pet food. It is a huge component of acid rain, can cause severe burns, and has been found in places that were thought to be the most pristine and unpolluted locations on earth.

We talk about how there are little to no regulations on this chemical. No bans, no warning labels, and most manufacturers don’t even have to disclose their use of it in their products.

My students are outraged. We talk about what we can do. Create posters and flyers to spread awareness. Contact our senators with petitions to ban DHMO. Spread this information all over social media.

Then I explain that the real problem with dihydrogen monoxide is that….when I am thirsty…there is just nothing else as refreshing, and then I watch their looks of absolute shock and horror as I drink the entire vial down.

bluegone

I. Fucking. Love. This.

This is how misinformation works. How propaganda works. How manipulation works.

nerdy-pharmacy-daydreams-deacti

may our education be stronger than fake news

darthlenaplant

Amen.

chubby-aphrodite

To those who don’t get it:

“Dihydrogen monoxide” is the chemical name for water, AKA H2O.

mod2amaryllis

another important element of understanding the joke is understanding how pH levels work

yup. that’s a higher number alright.

theconcealedweapon

tinsnip

nbbybirth-milfbychoice-blog

exhaustedscreen-deactivated2019

‘The grave of the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke in Novodevichye Cemetery in Moscow is surmounted by a stone on which is engraved a rest beneath a fermata with a triple forte noted at the bottom: A very, very loud extended silence.’

- John Biguenet, Silence (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), p.49.

specificfuckery

The fermata suggests the indicated notation (in this case, a rest) is to continue at the discretion of the conductor. When the chosen conductor arrives, Alfred Schnittke will rise again.

firstgrave

“i would never confess to a crime I didn’t commit” you would. “I would never plead guilty if i was innocent” you would. “I would never give up fighting” you would.

firstgrave

there is no such thing as insurmountable human will and the criminal justice system is designed to find any weak point possible. it is designed to break people. you would break in these conditions, just as so many others have. looking at those who have been in these positions and declaring yourself above them, better than them, stronger than them is nothing more than pathetically naive arrogance

exhaustedwerewolf

victor frankenstein will be like “a terrifying creature is trying to murder me :(“ my brother in christ you sewed him together in your dorm room

marisatomay

so glad cars can’t fly people don’t even know how to drive on surfaces what would happen if they could add a third axis to their ineptitude

prokopetz

This is legitimately the actual reason we don’t have flying cars right now. The technology to manufacture flying cars at a consumer-viable price point has existed since the 1970s, but every time someone tries, their prospective customers find out that they’d need a pilot’s license to be allowed to actually drive the stupid thing and suddenly nobody wants one.

thydungeongal

I really hate that pixel art is becoming associated with NFTs, pixel art rules

thydungeongal

Maybe I should just make the opposite of an NFT, like I dunno, just a cute pixel art goblin anyone can right click+save for free and keep it forever and now it's theirs

You can put a hat on it too if you like

grazztthedark

I’m totally on board. I’d like to propose a name for him: Nifty the Goblin.

thydungeongal

I love it, I'll try to whip something up when I'm feeling inspired

titleknown

...

...[BURSTS THROUGH THE WALL LIKE THE KOOL-AID MAN] HELLO, YES, HI, ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT CREATIVE COMMONS ART PROJECTS?!

...I mean, yeah, these sorts of opposite-of-NFTs Open Source Art things are something I dedicate a lot of brainspace to, and I actually have some suggestions!

Firstly, if you wanna do that, you’d probably want to use one of the organization Creative Commons’ licenses, to make the “anyone can use/save/alter it” official and legally binding, presumably one of their looser ones like CC-BY or CC0.

Secondly, honestly, this is a rad idea, something like Open Game Art’s various sprites but more as an art project than an assets thing, and i have an idea on how you could expand it further.

Basically: Fanpro but for Pixel Art. Which, for those who don’t know, Fanpro is basically this pool of character designs people contributed to for a while, released totally and utterly under a CC0 license, for anyone to use how they see fit! Basically the exact opposite of NFTs!

It ha a successor in ComPro, but that kinda sputtered out, but one based around a specific theme like pixel art might be perfect! If only as an F-you to NFTs!

...But yeah, that’s my two cents on that good idea.

zarnagel

Boosting this! The opposite of NFTs has existed for a long time, it's called open source and creative commons. And to add something, Kenney has recently released this little app called Creature Mixer to create little animated pixel art sprites: https://kenney.itch.io/creature-mixer It's free and it's terms of use forbid any use with any kind of NFTs for the sprites created with it.

thydungeongal

so, with some thanks to the lovely people above and with no further aplomb ‘cause it’s just a goofy 16 by 16 pixel goblin, here goes:

Nifty is a little 16 by 16 pixel goblin who’s yours to own and do whatever you wish to do with.

Licence: You can copy, modify and distribute this work, even for commercial projects, strictly excluding those relating to or containing non-fungible tokens (so-called "NFT") or blockchain (related) projects.

I’ve included a blown up 80 by 80 pixel version simply because I know from experience that Tumblr messes up small pixel art, but I’ve included a version in the original 16 by 16 resolution. While Sprytile is my pixel art software of choice, any image editor should do as long as long as it allows for turning off anti-aliasing, the bane of anyone who’s worked with pixels.

anyway, that’s enough pomp and circumstance for my silly little goblin powered by spite, although I do think it turned out pretty cute