i am nothing in my soul if not obsessive

[778]

[petitelappin]

This child who came to my house tonight is literally the funniest human being on the planet. She complimented me on having both lollipops and mini Three Musketeers available because "a lot of houses these days don't give you a fruit flavor option." She was very solemn about this.

[thesolarchive]

Fluffy died yesterday.

[tsunamiwavesurfing]

[thesolarchive]

Never knew a letter from a past self could bring so much comfort

[thesolarchive]

Still, my heart rests heavy in my chest. I know this will pass.

[thesolarchive]

Never knew a letter from a past self could bring so much comfort

[stream]

I like to think that I’ve done all I can to uplift the candidates. But maybe those dirty tricks and accusations were very effective. Maybe if I barnstormed the other party. Maybe if I debased them, maybe we could’ve been successful. Boys State (2020) dir. Amanda McBaine & Jesse Moss

[khayriya-deactivated20250830]

i really hope august is beautiful for me

[thesolarchive]

I do not drink caffeine, i drink

longing and anxiety and

sadness. The taste

so familiar i call it home

yet i cry. Everytime.

[taohun]

seeing the photos from Webb up against photos from Hubble just makes me… I don’t even know like, wow! Look at that!

[headspace-hotel]

Anyway the thought about Christianity was a tangent, I was actually thinking about ranking Fall Out Boy songs by how far back in time you could go before the lyrics were completely unintelligible due to untranslatable cultural differences.

[headspace-hotel]

"Uma Thurman" is partially unintelligible even to me (I have next to no idea who Uma Thurman is) but I feel like it would be a good example to help explain what cultural Christianity is, because the amount of song lyrics that would make zero sense if you didn't know what Christianity was is always way higher than you think it is

[headspace-hotel]

This is also a good exercise in estimating just how much we, as modern readers, are missing in ancient texts

Imagine explaining this to an ancient Sumerian. They don't have July, let alone the Fourth of it, and the significance of that date and the connection to fireworks requires you to explain everything from gunpowder to the concept of a nation.

[headspace-hotel]

I like "This is a black, black ski mask song" from Novocaine because even a historian that knew what skiing was might not necessarily know what the significance of a ski mask is here.

[headspace-hotel]

"I Don't Care" is almost timeless though. I'm pretty sure an ancient Roman would "get" most of it.

Same with "Alone Together." "My heart is like a stallion, they love it more when it's broke in?" Perfectly understandable for someone a couple thousand years ago.

"The Mighty Fall" is an interesting case because you could envision trying to explain "Your crooked love is just a pyramid scheme" to an ancient Egyptian

[headspace-hotel]

Trying to do this with Owl City makes you appreciate just how MUCH clever wordplay is in Owl City lyrics, because you're like "SO MUCH would definitely get completely lost in any attempt to translate, but I can't even break it all down"

owl city lyrics have a habit of punning on idioms, which probably is the worst for historical longevity. In "Plant Life" there's the lyric "new leaf turns over, unwilling to fall" which is referring to the speaker's reluctance to let go of the past and move on. this is both playing with the idiom "turn over a new leaf" meaning to start something new, and creating the image of a literal leaf reluctant to fall from the tree (as leaves do in fall, as part of the natural progression of seasons).

Also from the song Plant Life

so, there's "spirit" and "ghost," but neither actually mean in context the same thing that they mean when they do mean they same thing, and "pull off your sheet," which is a reference to sheets being used as a ghost costume. then there is the concept of a "teddy [bear]" and "grin and bear it" which is punning on "teddy" referencing a bear. this is kind of brilliant but incomprehensible

Would the wordplay in "Get me out of this cavern or I'll cave in" in "Cave In" necessarily be intelligible when translated for a future historian or person from the distant past

By the way, Cave In is at the top of my minecraft themed playlist because it mentions the largest number of things that are in Minecraft that I have found in a song

[headspace-hotel]

You'll have the most fun if you assume that what technology is and does can be explained to your listener, and focus purely on cultural and linguistic barriers

In the song "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga, knowing what a garage is and is for does not help you understand what it means to be "garage glamorous" at all.

Sometimes the barrier isn't not knowing what something is, it's knowing what something is like.

Speaking of Lady Gaga, Poker Face is great for this

[headspace-hotel]

Listen, *I* barely know how poker is played. But I still know that the first line references a variant (?) of poker called Texas hold 'em. There are so many double meanings here. "After he's been hooked" probably references gambling, and "I'll play the one that's on his heart" references the fact that "hearts" are one of the four suits in traditional playing cards.

Imagine not knowing any of this. Now imagine knowing all of this—does that actually let you understand what a "poker face" is?

I go back in time, I try to show an ancient Sumerian some bangers from the future, I end up stuck explaining the complex legal and cultural status of gambling in the United States, fuck time travel honestly

[headspace-hotel]

Songs that make roughly the same amount of sense to nearly everyone regardless of their position in history

almost everything by Cosmo Sheldrake

the devil went down to georgia (look, this story conceptually has nothing to do with the Christian Devil specifically and everything to do with a type of folklore character who is just Like That)

Hurt by Johnny Cash (i know it's a cover, I don't care)

American Pie by Don McLean (come on, does ANYONE actually understand this song?)

Bohemian Rhapsody

About Damn Time by Lizzo

Boom Clap by Charli XCX

[headspace-hotel]

It helps that most songs throughout history are about roughly the same things:

the level of partying and getting lit that will happen tonight will be greater than it ever has been before

a hot girl was dancing and it blew all of our minds

There was a guy that did so much crazy stuff and boy was he a guy

I met a fucked up guy who was dead or a demon or something

I went to a fucked up place that was haunted or something

my lover's butt is just the best

we're drinking SO much alcohol

I miss my lover, who is not with me right now, so much and I'm sitting here thinking of holding them but I can't and it's making me SO sad

You broke my heart and I hate you now 

I can't wait to get back to the land that is my home

There was a hot girl one time and trust me, she was really something

this job sucks

What if [completely nonsensical scenario]

[not-my-user-name]

Most songs by Ed Sheeran can be understood at least 1,000 yrs in the past. Perfect, Tenerife Sea, and Shape of You come to mind.

Conversely, nearly every Macklemore song could not be understood even 150 years ago. White Walls? Thrift Shop? Both make references to personal effects that didn’t exist 100 years ago. Can’t Hold Us would require knowledge of The Discovery Channel’s Annual shark festival.

And then there’s the Black Eyed Peas. Every song off the E.N.D. is immortal. I Gotta Feeling will outlast every nation that exists today.

Daft Punk songs will outlast humanity. They were relevant 4,000 BCE and will be relevant in 10,000 CE.

[everythingfox]

“This bear dug a sitting pit to watch her favorite duckies”

(via)

[cornmuffin]

[bearotonin-international]

Ooh boy do we have a lot to say on this

[theskabouncer]

Bears just be chilling appreciating the wonders of nature

[memeuplift]

[thesolarchive]

Despite the disappointment

pressing quiet to my chest, the sky--

I stare, I imagine

the vastness of it.

Nothing's more significant.

[guerrillatech]

[hekatontarch]

[queertail]

The site is '12ft Ladder' found here:

12ft – Hop any paywall

Show me a 10ft paywall, I’ll show you a 12ft ladder.

[sola-whumping]

Reblogging this on ALL my blogs because holy shit is it useful

[thecoeur]

It's PRIDE MONTH and wanting to start with this little remembrance from queer people in the past.

[sixth-light]

“I don’t think that every villain in the world actually thinks they’re being a good guy, but I do think that everybody creates a value system that justifies the actions they’re taking, and and I think there’s a difference between those two things. Not everybody believes that they’re on the side of righteousness, but everybody has a way of justifying the actions they’re taking. Not every villain has to be a misunderstood hero, and in fact I think there are a lot of instances throughout history of people who were obviously doing the wrong thing and probably had an understanding of that on some level, but had some rationale or justification for it. A lot of villains in literature and media have these weird, Thanos-esque philosophies of what it is that they’re trying to do, and I think human motivation tends to come from more primal places than that. So a lot of the villains I write can be brilliant or clever (and, in fact, probably should be), but their motivation tends to be primal. They wanna be rich, they wanna have power, they wanna live forever. There’s something deep down that is, when you break it down, not too complex. Right? If you look at the real world, the people that are doing bad stuff don’t need complex motivations. They wanna rule the world! They wanna be rich! They wanna be unafraid that other people can ever screw them over, so they screw other people over. Evil is boring. Right? I kinda believe in the banality and mundanes of evil. Evil is just selfish impulses, which at the end of the day are really easy to understand. It’s easy to understand why people do bad things. It’s like “yeah, ok, you’re selfish and scared and cruel, I get it”. Being good is complex and beautiful and hard.”

—

Brennan Lee Mulligan, when asked how to create villains for ttrpgs

(I found this quote to be really meaningful in like…life in general which is why I posted it here. When he said “evil is boring”, it felt like something clicked in me that I had known deep down but hadn’t had the words for.)  (via @earthmoonlotus)

[roach-works]

people don’t want to acknowledge–and in some cases genuinely dont get–that being mean frequently feels good. people are often having a great time being mean. being polite, sharing, and working to make the world a better place pays off fairly long term rewards. cutting in line or making fun of someone’s outfit or taking the last doughnut pays off right now.

you don’t have to be the misunderstood hero of your own grand narrative. a lot of the biggest douchebags in the world spend zero calories on thinking about this kind of thing: who they are, what it all means, whether or not it’s right to be treating people how they do. you don’t have to have a huge excuse or a justification. you just have to take what you want, as soon as you want it, and enjoy it.