Life in the Shire

hearth witch | kitchen witch | seeker | tarot reader she/her witch not wiccan

[aweekerfuffle]

You're a doctor. You've been taught the phrase "first, do no harm."

A patient comes in with a flesh eating bacteria that is rapidly spreading up their leg. The only way to save their life is to remove their leg.

So what do you do? To help the patient is to accept that you must also harm them.

You're a good doctor. Of course you remove the leg and save the patient's life, because trying to exercise a choice that will result in no harm is impossible where there are only two bad outcomes, but one is unquestionably worse.

This post is for for leftists in the US who still think either not voting or going with a protest vote in the next two major election cycles is an acceptable choice, when you know full well the Republican will cause more harm.

[proxima-bee]

can you imagine how good shows would be if writers thought of women as human beings

[24x81]

im not the same person i was when I pulled that meat out of the freezer this morning. I've changed. i don't have that in me anymore. ive moved on

[dankxsinatra]

[girls4losers]

i gotta remember this

[ofalltheginjoints]

i love you ciabatta i love you brioche i love you focaccia i love you challah i love you sourdough i love you rye i love you multigrain i love you bagel i love you pita i love you pretzel bun i love you baguette i love you english muffin i love you naan

[inbabylontheywept]

there is a stripper pole in my attic. i saw it in a dumpster one day, and i went, shit, this is exactly the kind of thing my wife would want. and i didnt really want it in the house, what with it being a used stripper pole lightly seasoned with dumpster juice, but i mentally decided that if she were to see it and ask for it, i would say she could have it, and then sure enough, later that evening, she went soooo baaaaaaaabs there's this thing by the dumpster and i want it but i get it if you don't want it in the house but i have to show it to you- and i went, no you dont, you can have the pole, and that was the most surprised i have ever made her look. even compared to the day when i proposed to her, which she was prepared enough that we both knew she would say yes, and she could also get her hair done up and have a cute outfit, but not so prepared that she was not fucking flabbergasted by the 12 empty decoy ringboxes i sprung on her. i handed her so many decoy ring boxes that day. still one of the funniest things i've ever done to her.

anyway we like pacing around together and ranting in the attic but sometimes instead of pacing one of us will just hang on the pole and spin, and the other person will watch on the beanbag, which makes for these really goofy conversations where the person on the bag will say something that gets the other persons goat, such as, hypothetically, that xylophones do not belong in rock music, and then the other person will go on a tirade about this, but they'll actually only be facing the Hot Take Speaker half of the time, what because of the pole, so the response will sound something like

I can't believe

you would even suggest such

a stupid opinion. You've

been to a Danny Elfman

concert! How can you

have heard Oingo Boingo

live and say with a straight face

that they alone do not justify

rock and roll xylophones

and then that person will continue until they get too dizzy, then they'll get off the pole, and by unspoken agreement, the person on the bag will get up and trade places with them to deliver their rebuttal while also spinning and it just creates this sort of crazy strip-court lawyers debating absolute nonsense for no reason kind of vibe that frankly just really does it for us.

i don't really have any marriage advice for this i guess its just a look at what being married can look like. i thought that being married would involve a lot more stuff like carving the turkey, or barbecuing, or watching the sunset, and if id known how much time it would involve arguing for xylphones in rock music while spinning upside down i might have prepared for it a little differently.

[rebeccasteventaylor]

My workplace recently had a thing about ‘do you know how many days we lose to stress related sick days? Here are some ways to manage stress’ and it’s things like ‘keep a gratitude journal’

But I don’t know - when I started work, many decades ago, it was expected you’d start at 9, finish at 5. You’d get your lunch break. You are expected to give about 70% of yourself the majority of your time. The last hour of each day and Friday afternoon were quiet times. There was time in the day to hang out with your coworkers for ten minutes talking about anything, not just work.

Now you’re expected to come in early and leave late and work through lunch. Give 100% all the time, more if you can push it. Don’t take leave. Work every second of every day as hard as you can push yourself. Do not waste time in the kitchen just chatting. Why aren’t you working harder?

And perhaps we’re burning out and take massive amounts of stress leave not because we’re not keeping a gratitude journal but because we are all being pushed to breaking point consistently, day after day, until we snap.

The older days weren’t perfect. But there was an understanding that work wasn’t life, and we could relax a little at work and still get paid enough to live. Now we are expected to give everything we’ve got, then give more, and not get paid enough to do something as simple as get a coffee after work. Even our hobbies are supposed to be monetised.

I blame Reagan and Thatcher but also blame every business leader since then who thought that pattern of work was in any way sustainable.

[kauricat]

This is how it used to be in the U.S.

One of the big things that changed a lot of workplaces from this prior mentality to the way it is now was the big Recession in 2007 - 2008.

It was a scary time. So many people lost their jobs. Even places that didn't do layoffs shrank their teams by attrition.

And that left a lot of work that still needed to be done.

The folks who were lucky enough to stay on worked really hard to get that extra work done, because they were terrified of they didn't, they would be next on the chopping block.

And it was not an idle fear; management basically said it out loud, "Do the work of two people, or you're next. There are a lot of jobless folks who would be grateful for your job, and we could replace you in the blink of an eye."

And then they told themselves, "Oh, so they CAN do more, with the proper motivation!"

And they did all their forecasting and budgeting based on employees who were working at a fever pitch out of fear. For the rest of forever.

If we hadn't let the unions go the way we did, things might be different now. They'd have been able to push back and say "Hey. The Recession is over! Time to ease up on burning through your employees' health!"

But we decided to believe the anti-union propaganda, and they lost a lot of their power to protect the workers.

[ramona-sourdough]

This is so cool. Like. This is what the girls need. 🌾

[notsofrangible]

the world has been horrifying recently but i have personally witnessed something that brought me joy

Every year, California’s largest sheep and fiber festival, Lambtown, takes place in Dixon, CA. On the second day of Lambtown, teams of eight compete in a “sheep to shawl” competition, where the teams must start the day with un-spun wool and end the day with a 72” woven shawl. Teams may “warp” a loom ahead of time (where you thread the loom with its foundation of parallel threads), but on the day of competition they must spin their wool into yarn and weave it into a complete shawl.

This year competition was stiff, and very very close, and the winning team finished their shawl with two and a half minutes to spare.

I frequently hear about “needing to keep “politics” out of fiber arts, but art is inherently political.

These were beautiful, masterfully spun, woven, and finished shawls and that in itself is worthy of note.

But watching this team of eight would fight for hours, and pour their love for their community into their art was deeply moving and I am still reveling in the opportunity to have seen this win.

There are few things to rejoice in today, but they do exist. The horrors may persist, but so do we.

[depsidase]

[2nd2ndalto]

OMG these are so cool - made with stacked embroidery hoops. I'm definitely going to try one of these after I get through my crochet queue. Patterns on Etsy

[enii]

Sending hugs to all those who are going through a lot rn🫂🫶

[andwhatexcellentboiledpotatoes]

Hey kids, have you heard of the hot new spring trend everyone is doing? It's called "listening to the birds sing and feeling joy swelling within your heart." Give it a try!

[ammnontet]

my nothing

[fishparasite]

you will live and you will say the wrong things and make mistakes and people will love you anyways.

[fishparasite]

i made this post because i've got so many friends that think saying something wrong in a conversation is the end of the world. it isn't. you'll be okay. you don't have to be embarrassed about every little thing. you are alive and doing things and speaking to people. you will make mistakes and you will live.

[1anonyymous1]

i don’t know how to ask for help i disappear and come back when i’m good