Hello, dear Friend. And here we are. You and me, on the homepage. So know that I blogged well and was very happy. And above all else, know that I will love you always. Sometimes I do worry about you though. I think once I'm gone you won't be coming back here for awhile. And you might be alone. Which you should never be. Don't be alone, friend. And do one more thing for me. There's a little girl waiting in a the other side of your screen. She's going to wait a long while, so she's going to need a lot of hope. Go to her. Tell her a story. Tell her that if she's patient, the days are coming that she'll never forget. Tell her she'll go to see and fight demons. She'll fall in love with a man who'll lived a thousand years to keep her planet safe. Tell her she'll give hope to the greatest doctor who ever lived. And save a man in outer space. Tell her, this is the story of a fandom girl. And this is how it ends.
I am American and I have never seen photos like this. I had no idea there are borders like this. Even though I LOVE the idea of open borders, I am staring at these pictures like “wait…people can just…walk across some stones or grass and BE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY??? and nobody stops them?? how does that WORK?!” So you can tell that my country’s propaganda has gotten to me by convincing me that this CAN’T work even though…it…obviously can.
These pics just seem unreal to me. I’ve been taught my whole life that this can’t exist. In 27 years no one has ever sat me down and gone, look, here’s how it is elsewhere. It isn’t impossible at all.
French person here and where I live right now? I can take a walk and end up in Belgium by accident without even realizing it. Not kidding, when I first moved here, I took a small walking path and quickly ended up on a road I’d never seen before. I hadn’t taken my phone because I didn’t expect to be out for long (and even like that my walk lasted barely one hour). To make sure I wouldn’t get lost, I asked for directions and followed the road.
The next thing I knew, a “Bienvenue en Belgique/France” sign was in front of me. I had walked into Belgium without noticing and the man I asked for directions didn’t even blink when I asked for a French village. Because it’s that normal here.
The idea of taking this kind of walk and ending up in front of armed lines is terrifying to me and I’m so sorry that it’s what some people are used to.
The fact that you didn’t get detained or even questioned blows my mind.
The more I learn about the rest of the world, the more I realize why our education is so shitty here: they don’t want us to know how bad it really is.
I once took a ride on a bike to visit my ex from Germany, I live so close to there
Here’s some other pics from the borders of Europe:
It is irresponsible to decontextualize “open borders” between European Union countries when increasingly the external borders of the EU are becoming militarized and enforced, to the extent that countries are now criminalizing and attempting to prosecute NGO rescue operations to save drowning people in the Mediterranean, accusing rescuers of being people smugglers. In the background at an institutional level, the EU makes disastrous deals with Turkey and Libya in order to capitulate to right wing anti-migrant sentiment at the expense of human lives and commitment to the right of asylum. In 2019, nearly 1100 people drowned trying to cross to Europe. In the first 6 weeks of 2020, 99 people have already died.
I don’t say this to lecture anyone, but it is an extreme misrepresentation of the situation to discuss “open borders” in Europe and remove it from the broader reality where these borders are violently enforced - directly by police or militaries and indirectly by policy - against certain “categories” of people. I don’t think this discussion can be had without understanding who is excluded and why. These pictures represent a false image of a free world that falls apart when examined even a bit critically.
The western world consistently militarizes its borders in order to maintain its control over who has access to its resources, whether that border is in the desert between Arizona and Mexico or the sea between Italy and Libya.
A little PSA about ASL for ‘Thank you’! I’ve had all of these signed to me accidentally hahaha. And whenever I sign thank you to non signers, sometimes they thought I was blowing a kiss to them. T_T
I FUCKING KNEW IT LMAOOO.. OMG AND SOM MUCH MORE BODY BINDING LIKE CORSETS.. SPANX ETC ETC
“They come as a set — pairs of flesh-colored butt, breast, and thigh pads, along with a spandex girdle to stuff them in — and are packed in a little, black bag. They’re part of the standard equipment a plus-size model carries. Sabina, who’s about a size 12, often needs pads to fit the size 14 or 16 samples of clothing that she’s asked to model. This is not uncommon: She says she uses pads in about half her shoots, and all the models we spoke to have used them. “
…I’m somewhere between 14. I’ve been a 16 and I have been killing myself over the years to look like these women that aren’t even freakin real…
This is so grimy man. I’m hurt. Like if you knew the things I’ve done to try achieve a flat stomach
^^^^^^^^^^^^ And this is why folks have “The Right Kind of Fat” image in their heads! The no-belly, perfect-thighs, no-cellulite, smaller arms, rounded in all the right place fat girls. YES these kinds of women do exist, but they aren’t the ones being photographed. Smaller girls in fat pads are. And it is wicked painful when folks wonder why you can’t be the plus sized girl in the magazine.
it’s important to realize that this is just about modeling the clothes as it is about “the right kind of fat girl”! plus sized clothes often aren’t made for real fat bodies, a lot of the time they’re just skinny girl clothes with bigger measurements or skinny girl clothes with wacked out proportions.
even plus sized models dont look right in plus sized clothes. we’re not just being advertised perfect bodies, it’s also the only person they’re selling to.
i don’t think we acknowledge enough that when children want to be treated “like adults” what they really mean is “like people”
this is just my own observations of course but 90% of the time when a kid tries to get people to treat them like an adult, what they really want is the respect and acknowledgement that they associate with adulthood - because that’s what they must give the adults. they have to give that to the adults in their lives, but the adults never give that same respect back, and so they see that difference and decide that they want to be treated “like an adult”
and sometimes i see parents who are like fine you want to be treated like an adult then you can work and pay rent but that’s the exact OPPOSITE of what the kid is actually asking for. you’re just belittling them, clearly intending to punish them for daring ask for your respect, clearly intending for them to break down and beg to be “treated like a child” again because you purposefully twisted their wants. they ask for respect, and you give them abuse.
never, ever, ever, treat a child like a full grown adult. it’s our responsibility as adults NOT to, because they ARENT adults no matter how much they think they want to be, and it’s our job as adults to take care of them.
that said, ALWAYS treat children like people. because they ARE that. they’re real people with real agency acting as best as they know to with what knowledge they have
it’s not a matter of kids trying to grow up too fast, it’s a matter of kids wanting to be treated like people instead of objects or pets.
everyone posting that “my generation lost hobbies” post is so stupid like no you fuckwits hobbies were stolen from you by a system that demands you work 8 hours a day to earn a tiny percentage of the profit you generate, leaving you too exhausted and brainwashed to enjoy exercising passion without financial incentive
what is it about me sitting in my little corner of the Internet and saying “I actually don’t hate myself as an adult now and I want to be nice to people and that’s my entire thing” that makes these anons start foaming at the mouth
I’ll be perfectly honest, I’ve spent the better part of a decade wishing I weren’t fucking alive and beating depression off with a caveman’s wooden club. If I get to a point in my adult life after all that shit where I can finally say “I don’t want to see myself dead anymore, I like who I am” and you have the gall to tell me I have too much self confidence now, I’m gonna take the club I killed my depression with and I’m gonna start beating you with it
Also certain neurodivergencies can cause kids to be sensitive to certain foods and tastes and textures. That also isn’t just to annoy their parents. We literally can’t help it. If your kid freaks out at certain food, don’t force them to stay at the table until they finish it every night. Just give them different foods. Kids are not bad. They deserve to eat food they like that doesn’t make them sick. Be kind.
humans literally evolved to have a heightened sense of taste in childhood because smaller bodies are more sensitive to poison and adults are just like “nah kids are Picky Eaters™ specifically to annoy me”
When I was a kid, I always denied eating shrimps when given the opportunity and my parents and family respected that. Turns out I’m severally allergic to them.
They improve infiltration of water to the soil, thus reducing floods by excessive drainage from soil-sealed land, and contribute to environmental and human health! Also they look pretty.
This would be a lot better than the black, heat sink, parking lots
