I like to live in the echo of the world.

Hi I'm Vivian, 26, Australian in London. I used to post stuff, now I'm just a lurker. Always up for a chat.

[gongju6649]

An Ode to 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' by David Gate

[identitty-dickruption]

okay I’ll say it nicer:

australia was colonised according to the myth of terra nullius (or empty land). ever since the very early days of colonialism, the land has been framed as something untameable and unliveable. this has justified acts of violence against the first peoples here, in that they are seen as non-people. it has justified the destruction of sacred land in the goal of making australia look more european. (an example: our capital city contains a man-made lake that is now nothing better than a fetid carp pond. it’s disgusting and unnatural). basically, the idea of “taming australia’ has justified endless harm

“everything in australia is weird and dangerous” is not just some silly meme phrase, it is something that arcs back to the very beginning of white settlers laying claim to ‘australia’. and personally I am very sick of seeing it thrown around like it means nothing

[headspace-hotel]

Can't wait for people to stop joking about how all the wildlife in australia is scary and deadly...

[sqbr]

Yeah and like... I think there is space to talk about the ways Australia is relatively unique or at least different to other places: our snakes and spiders are more dangerous than anyone else's, but our native bees and 'bears' are safer. You might die of sunstroke but you won't die in a blizzard, earthquake, or tornado.

Australia is not especially dangerous, or unfriendly, it's just 'different', but then the question is different to what. Why should deadly earthquakes and forests full of murderous bears be seen as more normal? Why is a desert any more weird or scary than a bog or tundra? Why are cold damp places seen as the only form of natural beauty, why do people see warm dry places as dead when they are full of life, and see warm damp places as full of TOO MUCH life somehow? Why, even in Australia, do we use the aesthetics of red October leaves and Christmas snow, and not celebrations of the beautiful seasonal changes we actually see all around us? Why are white Australians so actively hostile to engaging and connecting with the local cultures that have been celebrating and working with the place we live for thousands of years, and even after hundreds of years still see our home as Strange?

[phlebasphoenician]

Rethinking Indigenous Australia's agricultural past - ABC Radio National

Historians are looking into the possibility that the first Australians practised forms of agriculture and aquaculture, writes Cathy Pryor.

The enduring myth of the hunter-gatherer

Yes, let's definitely have a conversation about why the European colonists were invested in the belief that the indigenous people didn't cultivate the land.

[sqbr]

YEAH, THAT TOO. It's important to remember that the way Indigenous Australians were and are treated would be just as unjustified if they were all hunter gatherers. But they were not, and that lie has been spread for a reason.

Also I read through the replies and people point out that exactly the same sort of exotification into a Dangerous Alien Landscape Which Must Be Tamed happens with Africa, Asia, The Middle East etc. Even like... Scotland and Italy, back in the day. And for similar reasons. And this kind of imagery is everywhere, like play any video game with multiple biomes or cultures etc (real or fictional) and see which ones are treated as Normal and which ones are Weird and Scary/Exotic.

[liz-squids]

"The Australian landscape is alien and mysterious and will kill you" has been a trope since the very first white people looked at this continent, and it's tiring.

[callmebliss]

Y’ever read something and have understanding that has eluded you interminably suddenly stop, curl up, and snuggle neatly into a fold in your brain because a new way way opened to it?

[macleod]

I've seen this passed around a few times, and I have one thing to say:

It's online. The book was carefully and wonderfully recreated online by hand. You can find it here. The entire book is this easy.

calculusmadeeasy.org

[maruti-bitamin]

jelly

twitter/ insta/ store

[columboscreens]

[princelapine-deactivated2025031]

[alyrch99]

my wife is right

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

IT ALL MAKES SENSE O.O

[makrustic]

Moments in time, preserved through sentiments Twitter | Ko-Fi | Patreon

[howtomusicmajor]

How to Handle Having TOO MUCH To Do

So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!

Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.

Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.

Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks

Your priority goes like this:

5 minutes due YESTERDAY

5 minutes due TOMORROW

Half-hour due YESTERDAY

Half-hour due TOMORROW

Hours due YESTERDAY

Hours due TOMORROW

5 minutes due LATER

Half-hour due LATER

Hours due LATER

DAYS due YESTERDAY

DAYS due TOMORROW

DAYS due LATER

At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.

Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.

So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.

You’ve got this. Get a drink and start - we can do our stuff together!

[allydsgn]

WOAH THIS SOUNDS HELPFUL. I’M GOING TO TRY THIS IMMEDIATELY. Also, I made a chart for myself, but if anyone else wants it for reference (or if this is wrong and I misread you can tell me) here it is:

[twiceroyaldove]

This is wonderful and I ended up tweaking it to make another version that works for me as a task organizer for work projects. So it’s less geared toward “oh no I have ten things that all need to get done RIGHT NOW” and more toward “okay I have 25 things in my inbox and I just don’t know where to start” (aka ADHD brain)

The numbers aren’t in a super logical/elegant order because I tried it out for a couple days and moved the numbers around until they matched my actual priorities. (It’s not 100% perfect of course, but that’s fine because it’s just supposed to give me a recommendation so I can skip past the task paralysis! If I want to go out of order I can do that.)

Then I built myself a whole excel workbook with formulas to do all of the thinking and sorting for me, and then of course I went down a whole big rabbit hole of extra features and automatic sorting and it was at this point that I thought I should share it with more people so the ridiculous amount of time I spent on it would be a little more justified

So here’s a link to a google drive folder if anyone wants to try this out! The basics work okay in google sheets but some features only really work in excel.

There are 2 excel files in the folder, one based on the original 12-level priority chart and one for the 16-level chart that I’m using. Each one has three sheets: “Task List” is the screenshot above with all the bells and whistles, “Simple Task List” hides some of the unnecessary columns so that it’s less overwhelming, and “Priority” is where you can define your different priority levels. You can edit any of the numbers in that sheet to whatever works for you, all of the formulas should still work!

If you have any questions about how to edit this to work best for you, or you accidentally broke a formula or something, feel free to DM me :) I hope this is helpful for some people!! It’s been really helpful for me.

(I’ll probably also make a new post that’ll show up in adhd tags etc)

[magz]

ID.

Image 1. 3 by 5 grid template version for the Task categorization, described by OP. Rows: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Columns: 5 minutes, 30 minutes, Hours, Days.

Image 2. A different 4 by 4 grid template with more task categorization. Rows: Overdue, Today/Tomorrow, 5 work days, Later. Columns: Within 15 minutes, 45 minutes, 90 minutes, Longer.

Image 3. Screenshot of a decorated Google Sheet, for task categorization and priority - inspired by the post.

End ID.

[stuckinapril]

learning lately that a lot of confidence is about owning up. like "yeah i'm a little addicted to my phone right now" or "yeah i'm not really over this person yet" or "yeah i still get pretty anxious in crowds" just saying anything at all but then following it up w "but i'm trying to get better" and being super nonchalant and unaffected. so powerful. you would literally be undefeatable in the face of even the most judgmental person. no one can judge you for things you already know about yourself and are trying to improve on. the trick is to know yourself from the inside out, to hold yourself accountable, and to actively improve every day. like that is literally the secret to never feeling like you're at the mercy of somebody else's judgment

[lynati]

[findingfeather]

Honestly I think this is an excellent step for us as a culture and species but man a lot of older humans are pissed off about it. 

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

[hamletthedane]

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

[akindplace]

Michael Schneider

[warm-autumn-evenings]

[ID

A photo of a man reading a neon sign on a tree that says “Healing also means taking responsibility for the role you play in your own suffering”.

End ID]

[thirddeadlysin]

the rudest most helpful thing anyone ever said to me is "why do you keep hurting your own feelings long after [the person who once hurt you] probably forgot about it" like literally just dear god you've split me open so neatly my entire soul is just flopping around on the ground between us now but thank you

[helloelicia]

Just fyi if you're autistic/adhd and struggle specifically with this sort of thing, please know what what might be happening is something called perseveration, which is a common neurodivergent behavior that can include, among other things, revisiting emotions repeatedly and being unable to break loose from processing or managing stressful events.

Don't keep hurting your own feelings. But don't feel bad if you get stuck there, either. Something else could be going on.

[andmaybegayer]

I think so much about the food people ate pre-Columbian exchange. Huge parts of cuisine extremely important on both sides of the pond just didn't exist.

You've probably heard a little about what was brought over from the New World, corn, potatoes, cocoa, cassava, peanuts, chili peppers, avocadoes, cranberries, pumpkins, and the like. Imagine cooking without chili! Without potatoes! Modern Indian cuisine contains enormous amounts of potatoes and we just didn't have those for the vast majority of history. The best of the nightshades all on one contiguous hunk of land. Hell, tomatoes! Almost forgot about those.

But we don't often look at what the Old World had. Wheat! Barley! Rice! A profusion of incredible grains, really, the finest poaceae has to offer. Carrots! Tons of rosaceous plants like apples and cherries and pears and peaches and apricots! Grapes! Soy and Bamboo! Okra and watermelon! All these things were simply never found in the Americas. The grains one is the wildest for me, the variety of grains available across Eurasia and Africa was truly astounding.

You know what binds together the food of all cultures across the world? Onions. Onions are fucking everywhere. There's probably onions growing near you right now. Allium Gang Unite.

[supreme-leader-stoat]

[quasi-normalcy]

Culture is so obsessed with the idea of lone geniuses that it doesn't really appreciate that most of the progress of science (and likely every other discipline) occurs collaboratively, in babysteps, and usually through a lot very tedious, utterly unsexy, work.

[quasi-normalcy]

[fousheezy]

This is what’s so faulty with our short sighted coverage of scientific discoveries. You hear politicians question why we spend money on science studying insect wings and then decades later that research gets used by NASA for the most efficient way to fold/unfold solar panels on spacecraft. All of science is connected and useful because it enhances our understanding of the universe

[disredspectful]

When lasers were discovered they were called “a solution without a problem”, noone had any idea what to use them for. Since then they’re revolutionised communications and SO many parts of technology. CDs, DVDs, printing, fast internet, laser etching for making computer chips, laser eye surgery, spectroscopy, LIDAR measurements of weather patterns, barcode scanners, cooling atomic clocks, nuclear fusion, microscopy, LED technology and materials research. I’m probably not even scratching the surface here. Fund theory and fundamental science research.

[quasi-normalcy]

It's actually kind of heartening, lasers; because before they were invented, their only real antecedents in science fiction were things like rayguns and heatrays and what not. But it actually turns out that their usefulness as a weapon is extremely limited, whereas their usefulness for just about everything else is incredible. It's one of the occasions where we flipped the "Dual Use" coin and it landed very solidly on the good side.

[lazyyogi]

To be gentle is a magnificent practice.

Gentleness is not weak, it is very strong. When you hold an infant, you must be gentle but you must also be firm. You cannot be weak or you will drop and harm the baby.

Gentleness is focused. When we are absent-minded or inattentive, we can be hurtful and damaging. It takes presence and awareness to be gentle.

At the same time, gentleness allows us to be relaxed and humorous, authentic without tension and contrivance.

Practice your gentleness.

Be gentle towards yourself. Be gentle towards nature. Be gentle towards other people.

[mugfulloftealeaves]

we are all so inexplicably connected

tumblr post from @viridianmasquerade | this is not the end of the world, neil hilborn | i’ll give you the sun, jandy nelson | seven, taylor swift | tumblr post from @i-wrotethisforme | maybe you should talk to someone, lori gottlieb | tweet from hozier

[headspace-hotel]

I...tried to make a meme and got carried away and made A Thing that is like partially unfinished because i spent like 3 hours on it and then got tired.

I think this is mostly scientifically accurate but truth be told, there seems to be relatively little research on succession in regards to lawns specifically (as opposed to like, pastures). I am not exaggerating how bad they are for biodiversity though—recent research has referred to them as "ecological deserts."

Feel free to repost, no need for credit

[izukuwus]

Still reeling from the realization that bullet journaling was essentially created to be a disability aid and got legit fuckin gentrified

[izukuwus]

Like I'm at work and don't have the time to properly organize my thoughts atm but like.

-bullet journalling was invented by a man with a learning disability (99% sure it was ADHD but his website now just says learning disability so I can't be 100%) as a system for organizing his life/way to work WITH his learning disability

-the general concept is bullet point the important things you need to do and use a simple system of symbols to mark whether it's done, rescheduled, cancelled, etc. with very little fanfare, keeping it all in one notebook so you know where to easily find the information at a glance

-people pick it up and it starts getting popular

-bullet journaling becomes an aesthetic movement largely populated by white neurotypicals

-bullet journaling has turned into creating an extremely pretty notebook that has some function, but largely depends on complicated decoration and aesthetic function that takes more time to set up than is tenable for the people it was created for

-new entries to bullet journaling feel pressure to shop at particular stores, use particular brands, purchase lots of stationery purely for its aesthetic value, and prioritize the artistry of the pages rather than the information being stored on them

-people who would massively benefit from the original system can only really find information on it from members of the aesthetic movement. There is now a barrier to entry for ppl with ADHD and other similar conditions, as bullet journaling now requires a focus and motivation to start that these same people often lack or struggle to maintain consistently

-bullet journaling is no longer a disability aid and has become an aesthetic movement largely for middle class white neurotypicals, pushing out the people who the system was created for to begin with

[bibookmerm]

This is the original guide from the person who made bullet journalling. Super simple. Not at all high maintenance.

It was eye-opening to rewatch this after getting used to bullet journal meaning "work of highly decorative art you might journal in if it doesn't detract from the decoration" everywhere online.

[ankewehner]

It's ADD. Ryder Carroll, who developed the Bullet Journal method to suit his brain, has ADD. (I grabbed the book from my shelf, it's mentioned in the introduction.)

And yeah, it's frustrating. I use my bullet journal close to how it's described there (different bullets/symbols, and a little bit of colour marking to make things more easily findable), and whenever I went looking for ideas to try out to organise stuff, if I found anything, it was buried under mountains of fancy layouts.

I always point people to the introductory video when I recommend it.