it’s kinda funny when people say “don’t trust academics! do your own research” like what do you think academics do. that’s their wholeass job. that’s all they do. if you wanna make doing your own research your lifestyle you’re gonna become an academic too
Actually, people are good by nature and you’re a fool if you think otherwise.
When you sneeze in public, strangers will say “bless you”, even though they don’t know you.
When you ask for directions on the street someone will show you the way, even though they have nothing to gain from it.
People squeeze their legs against the chair so you don’t have to hop over them on your way to your seat in the theatre, and make funny faces to make babies laugh, and purposefully step on leaves to hear them scrunch, and hold the door open for someone leaving behind them, and ask what floor you’re heading to when you enter the elevator, and send others photos of things that reminded them of them, and recommend each other songs, and ask if anyone else wants a coffee because they’re getting one, and make videos teaching how to sew a button, and wish on shooting stars, and share fun facts, and listen to others rant about things they don’t even understand, and let you cross the street first, and give a bit of their food to others, and laugh at jokes they don’t find funny to make you feel good, and listen to kids talk for hours about nonsense, and let you know your keys fell from your pocket, and they may be strangers, but with every little gesture they’re saying “I love you, I love you, I love you”.
God, I needed to read this today. Humanity is overwhelmingly full of hope and kindness and it’s very easy to forget that these days.
if you’re a new tumblr user from tiktok or IG or something and only like posts and dont reblog them yeah people will think you’re a bot and block you but you will also make this website actively worse. they want “algorithmic” users like you, served recommended posts through likes, not people who just follow each other and respond to the direct chronological feed. there is a reason this website is still better than the rest, even with all its problems, do not ruin this
ok i need to make this clearer: if you do not reblog posts and only like them you are contributing to this site actively getting worse and becoming like all the apps you hate. keep likes to things you just wanna keep off your blog. reblog everything else. ESPECIALLY fanart, which always needs a reblog.
and FYI: what i’m saying here is backed up by tumblr themselves. they admit this publicly.
if you want a good RECENT (as of the end of February 2022) overview of what is going on behind the scenes at tumblr, it is basically what i’ve been saying for years: the core staff is tiny, constantly not being listened to when they advocate for us, the community, and working there is a nightmare:
Reblogging to encourage people instead of only liking is really not that fucking hard if you dont want people to be discouraged cuz their stuff get zero interactions and 99% useless likes and be driven off the Platform.
I’m at a party where the My Immortal fanfic is being explained via PowerPoint by a high school teacher.
When I was working as a studentteacher, I did this thing where I would reward my students for behaving and getting all their work done early by reading chapters of My Immortal to them.
I did voices and everything, pronounced every spelling error, and carefully fudged all the swear words and sex scenes. But the kids. freakin. loved it. Like, to the point where they’d start helping each other get their work done so we could finish in time to read a chapter.
And after every single chapter, we’d go around and talk about whyit was so hilariously awful. What made the writing bad? What would it take to make something better?
And then very noticeably, they stopped doing those things in their own writing.
It was really cool seeing them paying attention and thinking critically and not even notice because they were too busy laughing themselves sick about the story.
They’re here, the three of them - Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka - in a slightly too cold for comfort studio on Coruscant, because the PR division wants pictures.
For inspiration, the Senate says.
For morale.
For presence and reassurance and a dozen other slightly too bright descriptors, they all say.
“For propaganda,” Master Kenobi mutters, even as he agrees to do it. He was requested, specifically. They both were.
General Kenobi.
General Skywalker.
The Negotiator and the Hero With No Fear.
The Team.
The team Ahsoka thought she was really getting to he a part of.
Everyone in the studio seems very… energetic, all smiles and excitement over the particular tang of professional stress. They all smile at Ahsoka too, but they don’t swarm her like they’re swarming her masters. They don’t put her under the bright lights, or pose her in front of the banners, or cover the tiredness under her eyes and the bruise at the edge of her brow with make-up, the way they fuss over Obi-Wan and Anakin.
She doesn’t quite understand why.
They keep fussing with Anakin’s hair, to the Knight’s irritation, and chiding at Obi-Wan to smile. He keeps frowning at the cameras, and Anakin laughing nervously.
“Why don’t they want my picture?” Ahsoka asks Obi-Wan, when he sighs one too many times and strides out of the spotlight to join her next to the drinks table in a quiet, neglected corner of the room. “I’m part of the war effort too. And I’m adorable!” She grins cheekily and some of the tension seeps from his shoulders - the desired result.
But it’s true. Ahsoka has led men into battle. She’s lost them in battle too. She’s spent a full year as a soldier, in the thick of it, and she has the scars to prove it.
“You’re too young,” Obi-Wan says.
Ahsoka scowls. “That’s not fair.”
The Senate will put her on a battlefield, but not on a poster?
Master Kenobi let’s out a tense breath of dissatisfaction, something just too curt to be called a sigh.
Ahsoka looks up at him, where he’s watching them take pictures at all angle of Anakin, who is trying his best but really doesn’t look like he knows what he’s doing.
Ahsoka tries to see her master, for a moment, how his master might see him. Hair not quite grown out, cheeks still a little soft with youth, and edge of shy nervousness to his patented grin. Her master isn’t much older than her, really, for all that he seems so, being so darn tall.
He’s only twenty.
“You think he’s too young too,” Ahsoka says.
“There isn’t a person alive who’s old enough for war,” Obi-Wan replies curtly, and when Ahsoka looks back at him, startled, she watches his lips thin. Like he hadn’t meant to say it out loud.
Her grandmaster, Ahsoka thinks, isn’t as old as his title suggests he should be either.
Obi-Wan rests a hand on her shoulder and squeezes in reassurance, a consolation for the unease left by his words.
“The Troopers are younger than all of us,” Ahsoka says. “And they should really be the forefront. They’re the ones we owe the most. They’re the ones who win the most and lose the most.”
“I know,” her grandmaster says simply, his tone as thin and hard pressed as the set of his mouth.
They do not get a picture of General Kenobi smiling, no matter how hard they try.
~
Ahsoka sees the end of two more campaigns before she sees any of the posters, blown up larger than life on the side of a building.
Foremost is Anakin, looking up from beneath his brow, just the start of a smile or a smirk forming on his face, his arms crossed, his feet planted, tunics dark, armor pale and gleaming and his eyes piercing.
He looks indomitable. He looks like The Hero With No Fear.
At his shoulder is Obi-Wan, a bright shadow next to the younger man’s consuming presence, arms crossed too, body turned aside, like he’s primed to be guarding Anakin’s flank. His hair color seems to burn, his expression sharp and his gaze sharper. Not so much the Negotiator as The High General.
It’s the Team.
Somehow, they look nothing like her masters.
Ahsoka’s glad they didn’t take her picture.
She doesn’t want to know what her war poster would have made of her. Doesn’t want to see an image of herself that is not her, but that everyone will believe to be.
~
There are a dozen copies plastered on the wall of the corridor right inside the hanger of the ship, when they get back. Master Obi-Wan hands Anakin a stylus and Knight Skywalker draws a horrible mustache on their faces on every single one.
They all laugh about it.
The next day there’s not a single poster left on the ship, and no new ones ever show up.
“I often hear that autistic people can’t lie, but I defitinely can. What I can’t do is insincerity. I can’t fake enthusiasm, I can’t gush, and I can’t pretend I’m best friends with someone I barely know. It feels to me like these traits are the currency of the neurotypical world.”
[ID: A comparison of two world maps showing the distribution of “most popular web browsers” on all platforms, first in April 2012, and in April 2022. The 2012 map displays a varied spread of browsers, with approximately 2/3 using either Internet Explorer or Chrome, with the rest being either Mozilla Firefox or Opera. The 2022 map, by contrast, shows over 90% of the map using Chrome, with minimal exceptions being Microsoft Edge or (in the case of Greenland) Safari. The statistics are cited from statcounter.com. End ID]
Plaintext: “do your part - download Mozilla Firefox today!”
okay time for a rundown on the significance of pounamu/greenstone in māori culture, seeing as its less than a month until tourists can come back to aotearoa
pounamu is the name for jade, nephrite, or greenstone in te reo māori. its a stone which is mostly found in the arahura river, but also other places in te wai pounamu/the south island. this stone has an important significance to all māori, but especially ngāi tahu and other south island tribes. pounamu is the name given to all of this stone found in aotearoa, but any greenstone found outside of the country cannot be called pounamu. the stone is a connection to our land, our history, and our ancestors
pounamu is taonga, and is regularly carved into small shapes for necklaces. these necklaces can be bought throughout aotearoa, and make a huge profit annually. luckily, in 1997, all rights to pounamu were returned to ngāi tahu, meaning no one else can legally take the stone from rivers, carve it, or make a profit from it. many māori wear pounamu necklaces, but its not something that only māori can wear! many pākehā and tauiwi wear it as an acknowledgement to tangata whenua, to acknowledge the land
if youre visiting aotearoa, i absolutely encourage you to buy pounamu. there are, however a few key things to consider
1. you should never buy pounamu for yourself. you can buy it to gift to someone else, and you can wear it if you have been gifted it, but never buy taonga to wear yourself. this carries back to the traditional usages of pounamu taonga as a trading/gifting item. we would gift it to other hapū, or it was given to individuals within hapū or whānau.
2. make sure it is ngāi tahu pounamu. this is easy to check when purchasing it! ngāi tahu have put together a system in which every piece of pounamu that is carved or sold by ngāi tahu has a code which can be put into their website to trace the origins of the stone, and who carved it. if you are buying pounamu that doesnt have this code, it is either stolen, or more likely, it isnt pounamu at all and its jade that has been grown outside of aotearoa and imported to profit off our culture. the only time you will have authentic pounamu that does not have the traceable code is in the case of being gifted pounamu by a ngāi tahu iwi member who collected and carved the pounamu themselves
3.not all pounamu is nephrite! mine for example is bowenite, which we call tangiwai pounamu. our tūpuna didnt distinguish between these different types of rock, they are all considered pounamu and none is any less precious than any other
4. check the meaning of the shape your pounamu has been carved into. the last thing you want is to be purchasing something that means something you dont realise…
otherwise, if you have checked everything, please do buy pounamu for people! the profits go directly to tangata whenua, and its a beautiful and meaningful gift
when our borders open, come for a visit if you have the means, and do what you can to immerse yourself (respectfully) into our culture
ALT
