I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman inside me.

23/ Amateur Musician/ Starving Artist/Disney fanatic "Where our music is welcome, we will play it loud. where our music is challenged, we will play it louder."

[manikas-whims]

Love and Meowspace 🐾

blessing your timeline with these kitties

they're giving me cuteness aggression 😭

[yikes-forever]

I remember my password y'all!

[saintartemis]

Ask A Curator

The Museum of Texas Tech University's collections contain more than six million objects in seven diverse collections. From fine art to history to natural sci...

Great video about what a curator is and what they do as a part of their job!

[atlanxic-deactivated20250205]

sometimes you say or do bad things while you’re in an awful mental place. sometimes you say things that are rude or uncalled for or manipulative. and i’m not going to hold that against you. mental illness is hard, and no one is perfect. but once you’re through that episode, you need to take steps to make amends. you need to apologize.

“i couldn’t help it, i was having a bad episode” is a justification, not an apology.

“i’m so fucking sorry, i fucked up, i don’t deserve to live, i should stop talking to anyone ever, i should die” is a second breakdown and a guilt trip. it is not an apology.

when you apologize, the focus should be on the person you hurt. “i’m sorry. i did something that was hurtful to you. even if i was having a rough time, you didn’t deserve to hear that,” is a better apology. if it was a small thing, you can leave it at that.

if you caused significant distress to the other person, this is a good time to talk about how you can minimize damage in the future. and again, even if it is tempting to say you should self-isolate and/or die, that is not a helpful suggestion. it will result in the person you’re talking to trying to talk you out of doing that, which makes your guilt the focus of the conversation instead of their hurt.

you deserve friendship, and you deserve support. but a supportive friend is not an emotional punching bag, and mental illness does not absolve you of responsibility for your actions. what you say during a mental breakdown doesn’t define you. how you deal with the aftermath though, says a lot.

[nebet-ren]

This is the most carefully-nuanced discussion of this I think I have ever seen. Thank you for writing this.

[vaporwavesimulator]

i am fine thank you for asking! though recently there has been a darkness growing within me

[babyanimalgifs]

Certified Cutie 

(via)

[beatlemeat-archive]

[junebugzzz]

[prettypositivity]

i hope you heal from the things no one ever apologized for

[i-dont-believe-in-perfect]

and I hope you heal from the things you don’t want to talk about

[lilbutch]

I hope you heal from the things no one else knows you went through

[osointricate]

I’m thankful for my 10th grade history teacher because:

“I have to teach the book.” He said. “You have to read it and I have to give a test on it to make sure you know what’s in it.”

“Okay,” we said. “This is what school is.”

He also said “but I don’t have any rules that say I can’t teach you more than one book.”

“But this isn’t English class,” we complained.

“No it’s not,” he replied as he handed out photocopies of a different book I do not have the name of. I would learn later that he paid for the photocopies himself, because he could not afford to buy a set of books for us, and the school wouldn’t help. We had to turn in the photocopies at the end of the lesson. He’d done this for years, and the packets of paper were sets of folders containing well read photocopies and some pages were crumbly and he’d replace whole packets or pages in a single packet at a time. He had a whole cabinet full of these folders, broke down by chapter, out of a different book. Some of the packets included photocopies from more than one book, some news articles, a couple academic papers. We were not always required to read those, but we were promised extra credit if we did.

“Write me an essay,” he’d say.

“Ugh,” we groaned. “What about?”

“The differences between what’s in the packet and what’s in your books.”

And we would. He’d accept full essays and he’d accept a simple list of differences, but that was always an assignment. Point out the differences.

“Which fact do you believe?” He would ask us.

“The packet,” we’d answer.

“Why?” He’d ask.

“Because they don’t want us to have them,” we’d answer.

“Good,” he’s smile. “With this chapter, I’m not going to give you a packet. I want you to make your own packet based on the information in this chapter in your government supplied textbook.”

“Ugh,” we groaned.

But we learned how to do some simple research, and we were told that Wikipedia could be edited by anyone, but everyone that edited had to present sources. We had to come up with twenty pages worth of extra information on the chapter in our textbook. The textbook’s chapter was something like ten pages long. We had to do our essay/lists on what was left out/added/changed. It was a good two week long project.

“Why am I making you do this?”

“Because it’s busy work,” someone answered.

He frowned. “Because one day you’ll be presented something as fact and you’ll have to decide if it is fact or not.”

“How do we know the difference?”

“Maybe one day one of you will grow up and be able to give a simple answer to that question because I don’t have that answer.”

“You just didn’t want to do the work to make a packet yourself, huh?”

He smiled. “That is an advantage to having minions.”

And then he laughed like an evil vampire and we watched a movie.

[avithenaftali]

This is one of those Tumblr things where I don’t much care if it’s a true story or not, because it’s an extremely good idea for how to teach history — and, based on my own super-brief stint in attempting to teach young stubborn kids via unconventional-but-effective methods (primarily with the goal of feeling like I was educating them in a helpful and lasting way), this is a fantastic idea.

[osointricate]

You know. I get a lot of notes and tags on this post saying “and everyone clapped” and honestly, thats fine. I haven’t been in tenth grade in over fifteen years. This is paraphrased based on the experience of being in this man’s classroom for a whole school year. I 100% don’t remember his exact words or phrasing. This is a ~takeaway~ from the lessons this particular teacher gave us. I AM happy people don’t trust it’s authenticity because you shouldn’t trust everything you read. That’s the whole reason I wrote this in the first place.

However, the vampire voice was real. He was a character named Count Vlad who knew history because “he lived through it first hand.” He came out every time we watched a movie in that class, which we did often. We were way too old for this sort of teaching. We knew it. He knew it. He didn’t care. Count Vlad critiqued movies based on historical events with how accurate or false they were for the sake of selling movie tickets.

He was honestly one of my favorite teachers.

[glumshoe]

The other day I watched a little boy get knocked to the ground by an older kid who was running by. He burst into tears as his mother hurried over.

“Here’s a bandaid for ya,” I said, producing one from my vest pocket.

“Oh, he’s not bleeding, thank you though!”

I lowered my voice and leaned in. “Kids think bandaids are health magic,” I said. “Ask him where it hurts and exploit that placebo effect.”

She did just that, and instantly the kid stopped crying and thanked her. “I’ll have to remember that,” she said.

Children: #HACKED

[tinyqueenusagi-chan]

Also if you have a crying kid give them a cup of water. You can’t cry and drink at the same time and it gives them a chance to calm down.

Tell them their going to run out of tears so they drink the water.

My mom does this at her preschool after awhile the other children start offering the crying child little cups of water.

[maxanaxam]

Stuff like this is also a great test to see if the kid is actually seriously injured! Because with how much some kids cry over tiny bumps and scrapes, it can be hard to tell. But if you slap a Band-Aid on it or give them a cup of water or a piece of candy and they stop crying, they’re fine. If they keep crying despite whatever little placebo or distraction you’ve given them, you might wanna look a little closer at that injury or seek medical attention.

[raincloudsandsunbeams]

With my two’s class we ask them “more hurt or more scary?” It takes a bit of practice but after a few times they can answer without more prompting. More scary gets a hug and more hurt gets a look over.

[markingatlightspeed]

That last one is so important because it validates the child’s feelings and tells them it’s okay to have these feelings and lets them learn how to deal with them, rather than just distracting them from them. I also helps teach the child to both communicate their feelings more readily and communicate when they’re hurt more clearly. All really important skills for a child to develop young.

[aeliad]

It’s kind of a two-fold thing to remember;  Part one is that when you’re small you haven’t really finished calibrating so each new injury is potentially both the scariest and the most painful thing you’ve experienced so far, so it’s maybe the new 10 on the pain scale. So yes, taking the time to calm them down and/or distract them so their brain can catch up a bit is good. 

It’s also just a lot of emotion for a brain that isn’t finished developing, so helping them learn how to process it with the “is it more scary or more painful” is an amazing trick. 

Kids are great, but they haven’t really finished cooking yet, so remember to be kind and patient and teach them how to figure out the world as they go. 

[brainbubblegum]

The first 5 pages of the second chapter of My Own Personal Demon! I should be setting up a separate account for this series, so keep your eyes peeled for that. In the meantime.... Enjoy!

Edit: +3 pages

[brainbubblegum]

Had to reblog to add pages to the pinned post cuz I hit the 10 image limit...

[brainbubblegum]

Reblogging because I’ve yet again hit the ten-image-a-post limit @<@

[brainbubblegum]

Last reblog of this chapter because I FINISHED IT!!!!

[zookeeperproblems]

Wait, why is “The Dodo” bad?

I got quite a few questions and responses about why the online brand / website / Facebook page “The Dodo” shouldn’t be supported. Here’s a quick rundown:

Misguided Anti-Captivity. They are often blatantly anti-captivity, or use anti-captivity language and/or promote anti-captivity views. They use language such as an animal is “trapped” in a zoo or an animal was “saved” from a zoo. They actively support and often get quotes from representatives from ZooCheck, an anti-zoo and anti-captivity organization, and support HSUS (Humane Society of the United States). Their reports on tragedies of animals being injured or dying at zoos are overwhelmingly full of blame, toxicity, and disrespect. Their ideas of anti-captivity are incredibly limited and misguided – they are often pro “sanctuary” with the idea that all sanctuaries are better and they rarely discuss any kind of conservation.

Anthropomorphism over Accuracy. They are wildly, ridiculously, inaccurately anthropomorphic. For example, a picture of a bear leaned against a wall is captioned as: “He looks desperate, depressed, despondent. He stares up, seeming to search for a way out.” They described an owl resting on someone’s shoulder as “missing the man who saved her so much she couldn’t stop hugging him.” A kitten “looks at his rescuers face to be reassured everything is okay.  One of their most recent articles is about a cow “shedding tears” and crying because it is sad. Overall, they are much more concerned with ‘tugging on heartstrings’ of animal lovers than with being accurate about animal behavior. 

Unsafe Animal Interactions and Inappropriate Pets. Despite being anti-captivity when it comes to zoos specifically, they have often published videos of exotic pets and/or inappropriate free contact with wild/dangerous animals. 

Lack of Primary Sources and Information. They often lack any resources to accurate information about their “news”. Recently they made a 45-second video which claimed that basically any elephant on display (from a Ringling Circus to a rural south Asian performance) was automatically and certainly being abused and tortured. There were no sources or proof to back this up, no resources to explore, nothing. They rarely have any kind of scientist or animal care worker as a source for any video or article, just activists. 

Stealing and Editing Videos. You’ll notice almost every video on their site is made by them and hosted there, not shared from somewhere else. They take videos from other sources, add music and text, and call it their own. They almost never link to the original source. 

Overall, “The Dodo” is not a news site. It’s a brand. It’s a website designed to get views and make money - it will do anything just to get those clicks. But it tries to sell itself as news, and therein lies the issue. They use strong language, buzzwords, and clickbait titles in order to push a vague, biased agenda that hurts those of us who work in zoos and other animal facilities.

Here is another strong, detailed breakdown of some of their common practices written by Why Animals Do the Thing

[thediscardedwhale]

Reblogging this again because it’s important

[yidquotes]

Alright more learned people of tumblr, I have a question. I keep seeing the news article about the trans woman at a spa who was naked in the women's changing room and flashing peen. That's not a regular normal thing right? I thought we had all agreed that women have the right to not be exposed to penis they don't want to see?

[vaspider]

If you go to a naked spa, you will see naked women. To say 'I consented to seeing naked women but not this kind' is like saying 'I consented to seeing breasts but not saggy ones,' or 'I consented to seeing young women but not old ones,' or 'I consented to see this skin color but not that skin color.'

If you really think that trans women are actually women and not cosplaying men, which they are, you know, actually women, then do the same thing you'd do if you were in the changing room with a cis woman and don't fucking look. The idea that a trans woman with a penis is doing something wrong to you by existing in a space where she otherwise has a right to be as a woman is an inherently transphobic one.

If you say to yourself: if this woman were cis, would her actions be viewed as inappropriate? and the answer is no, then insisting that she do something different for your comfort is discriminatory and not treating her like the woman she is.

But what if I have trauma about penises?

That is a problem that you should work out with your therapist, and it isn't that random trans woman's responsibility. If she's behaving the same way as all the cis women around her, and not directly doing something to you personally, just going about her naked life in a naked spa, then you making your trauma her business is you being aggressive toward her, and making your problems her problem.

And that's not okay.

If you're not at a stage in your trauma recovery where you can treat an unrelated human being with the respect that she deserves, then don't go to a naked spa. This is the responsible thing to do.

This idea that 'women shouldn't have to see penises if they don't want to' is an ideal that TERFs have pushed hard in an attempt to try to close trans women out of spaces just like this.

And to make this even more 'what the fuck are you talking about': WiSpa is an explicitly trans-affirming spa. So if you go to a trans-affirming naked spa that advertises itself as such and then complain about seeing a trans woman's penis in the change room?

She's not the dick. You are.

[ampervadasz]

[shintox]

This man’s even wearing gloves so his sweetly hands don’t slow his swipes down..

[bazemayonnaise]

once went to a japanese arcade and a man watched me play the taiko (drumming) game, gave me a little applause, and then started his game, pulled out a set of custom drum sticks from a bag that held several different weights and then proceeded to play faster than the speed of light.

[theconcealedweapon]

And if you think racism ended already, at what point during this did it end?

[guerrillatech]

[afronerdism]

Eugenics

[bearicorn]

I just felt these tags were too important not to add @blacksasuke

[cathemeralcoelocanth]

Had a dentist say that black bones are denser shit too.

White supremacy and racist bullshit is everywhere.

[yumearashi]

Parents of Reddit Confess Why They Regret Having Kids

"I felt nothing for the child, it was like an object to me."

This is so important, stories like this need to be told.  The cultural insistence we have that parenthood is some kind of magical bonding that happens every time without exception does real harm to both parents and children, as you can see from some of these stories:

My father recently told me he never wanted kids, but my mother wanted them. She thought he would love us when we were born.

and

I didn’t realize that a maternal instinct is not universal. You know how you see parents in the delivery room and they are crying tears of joy? I felt nothing. […] My boys are well cared for and I am always here for them, but it feels very unnatural and fake and unenjoyable. It is a bit like a retail job you don’t like where you put on a fake persona and slog through it the best you can. I don’t get to leave this job, though. 

and

I also thought I wouldn’t mind missing out on all the partying and holidays because I would have the ultimate gift, a child.

and

I always said I would never have children. I hate kids..I do. I am just not that type of nurturing person. I was always very careful to make sure protection was in use (condoms, birth control) but I am that .1% and apparently very fertile.  I do not have that natural motherly instinct that all women seem to have, you know..that one that kicks in the moment they know they’re pregnant. I have to work really hard at it and it’s exhausting. I miss my solitude and being able to “check out” of reality from time to time.

and

Because kids aren’t the life completer we believe they are.

Are there people for whom having children completes their lives?  No doubt.  Are there parents for whom the downsides like sleeplessness and loss of personal time are outweighed by the love and joy they feel?  Of course.  Are there people who change their minds about wanting kids once they have them?  Sure.  But that’s not true for everyone.  It doesn’t happen every time, it’s never guaranteed, and the consequences are grievous when people who don’t want children have them anyway trusting that they will love the child and be happy.

We need to dispel the starry-eyed myths around pregnancy, childbirth, and marriage and create more realistic expectations.  Parenthood is too important a choice for people not to go into it with their eyes open.

[abyssopelagic-alexithymia]

“It doesn’t happen every time, it’s never guaranteed, and the consequences are grievous when people who don’t want children have them anyway trusting that they will love the child and be happy.” 

[your-url-is-problematic]

There’s a book on this topic that was groundbreaking when it came out, called Regretting Motherhood: A Study by Dr. Orna Donath. The backlash was insane. This is a topic that simply wasn’t discussed, and as the book became more famous (was translated into multiple languages, received a lot of public attention), the responses also became more incendiary. I had the utter honor and pleasure of studying with Orna - she read us some of the death threats she received, in her calm and measured manner, using them to further show just how deeply society expects motherhood of women.

I haven’t read the book myself, but knowing Orna, and having read some of her other work, I wholeheartedly recommend it.