Semantics

imagine being a Korean person awake at like one in the morning trying to accept that the president of South Korea actually just tried to go full dictatorship by way of an emergency martial law because he was basically having a political temper tantrum and every agency and corporation in the country is all hands on deck, code red mode on everything and the military is being deployed and then the assembly revokes the martial law and then the president is like lol nevermind and now you have to get ready to work at your shitty job on a Wednesday

can americans in the notes please stop comparing this to trump. we're not america. yoon seok-yeol isn't donald trump. this is a national emergency in south korea that has nothing to do with american politics. stop making everything about you for once.

anyway just so you know many Korean citizens were not sitting still at home they threw on their winter coats (our winters are very cold) and got to the parliament building however they could (there was a traffic jam, so people got out of the taxis to ride bikes) to go physically stand in front of guns

(some background: it wasn't 30 years ago that the military of a dictatorship massacred protesting civilians by railgunning them from tanks and helicopters. not only is the democratic revolution still in living memory, but there was also a popular movie this year about the military coup. Han Kang became a nobel laureate this October for writing about the people who died in those protests.)

the special ops team's guns on the night of were loaded with rubbers, but there were reports that real bullets had been handed out ready to be used if the order came down (south korea bans the use of guns. it is also treason if you fire at parliament.)

what helped was the speed with which people rushed to take action against this middle-of-the-night onslaught. soldiers had been sent to politicians' homes to arrest them before they could gather in assembly, but the politicians had already headed to parliament for an emergency meeting.

a lot more Koreans were tracking the situation via social media, news reports, radio channels, and personal streamings. night shift workers at parliament barricaded the doors. the scrutiny and pressure put on the military troops attacking parliament was not insignificant. it bought us the ten minutes required for parliament to slapdash a martial law cancellation motion and vote on it, even as the strike team was breaking the windows and pushing in to the assembly hall.

this could all have gone really fucking wrong. we were saved by every civilian who put themselves in front of gunmen (including disabled human rights protestors), every councilor who jumped a wall to go vote, every reporter who shared breaking news on-site, every single audience member of live streams and social media, every police or soldier who tried not to escalate violence against civilians.

this was very much a group effort. and we were very lucky it didn't go sideways, but at the same time, it had nothing to do with luck.

"not my circus, not my monkeys" is probably my favorite expression. i might plausibly own a circus, i could be a ringmaster, and i may in fact even have an ape or two in my possession! but these apes? they are raucous and filthy and whatever miserable excuse for a circus trained them should be ashamed of itself. i'm a professional. my apes would never. i take no responsibility. sham circus.

I wish people realized what a waste it is that they're not putting butches in their things. So often I see a male character and think if he was a butch woman he'd be the best female character of all time

a whole bunch of gazan mutual aid projects and nonprofits. if the decision of which individual fundraiser to give to feels too daunting, or if you just want to help as many people as possible in one go, these are great initiatives to support.

certainly this is not an exhaustive list, so please feel free to add on other projects or organizations that i didn't include. and as always, please take the time to donate if you can and share. it truly makes all the difference.

okay man we get it you’re being tested by god

Job’s friends after listening to him talk for 31 chapters

superman does not have seasonal affective disorder because he simply flies to a different timezone to ensure that he gets the same amount of sunlight year-round even when it's the dark and cold season. this is a normal and reasonable response to being powered by sunlight and has nothing to do with the Melancholies

guy who is winning at mental health. would a guy with depression be watching the muppets, a cello recital, a noir, two music videos, a chase scene, a western, AND a period romance simultaneously. while sipping a juicebox no less.

he hasn't slept in three days but that's irrelevant

( gaza soup kitchen - can you match $10? )

list of palestinian families that have reached out to me for help this week:

@abuyasin156 - 1% raised - unvetted, donation protected

@aboyousef1973 - 12% raised - unvetted, donation protected

@khaledismael - <1% raised - vetted

@ahmadwaleed555 - 6% raised - vetted #167

@nevenfam - 6% raised - vetted

@strangekittengalaxy - 5% raised - vetted

@amal-alkfarna2 - 22% raised - unvetted, donation protected

@tahani-family - 2% raised - vetted #226

@1-ms - 4% raised - vetted

@linsaif - 78% raised - vetted

@nadera0 - <1% raised - vetted #282

@ayaalanqar30 / @ahmadalanqar99 - 4% raised - vetted #217

@mutualaid680 - <1% raised - unvetted

@manouche-231 - 1% raised - vetted #253

@mohammedyasers - 84% raised - vetted

@nohagaza84 / @nohaayyad44 - 85% to goal - vetted #78

@ahmed-al-saidi-11 - 11% raised - vetted #39

@salman1990a - <1% raised - vetted

@abuyasin156 - <1% raised - unvetted, donation protected

@ahmad-syam2 - 19% raised - vetted #84

@amnyaburas - 3% raised - vetted #17

@hazem-suhail - 43% raised - vetted #75

@sensehumor - 75% raised - vetted #174

@ahmed-gaza0091 - 1% raised - vetted

@eman-zaqoutt - 48% raised - vetted

@ahmadfrompalestine2002 - 2% raised - vetted #119

@voice-of-tareq-family2 - 16% raised - vetted

@ayaaymananqar / @ayaaymanalanqar96 - 4% raised - vetted #217

@eman-zaqoutt - 48% raised - vetted

@ahmed-basem3 - 3% raised - unvetted

@waledps - 1% raised - vetted

@savebasmalafamily1 - 23% raised - vetted

90-ghost has done a lot of work to vet other fundraisers but still hasnt met his goal, kindly donate to his family here

I truly enjoy how much Animorphs is like “here are our young heroes, each with a distinctive trope to fill in the group!” And then it makes you watch how the pressure of each person’s role grinds them to dust. And also they have homework.

#IM SORRY THEY DO HOME FUCKING WORK IN ANIMORPHS??????

Yeah they're students. If they don't keep their grades up or if they miss too many classes (or miss classes at suspicious times) then they risk drawing the attention of the faculty and/or their parents, some of whom are the enemy and some of whom can just make future espionage a whole lot harder. There are multiple missions where they're like "okay, this is incredibly time sensitive but it'll take a full day or longer so it has to wait for the weekend and we'll have to all lie to our parents about sleeping over at each others' houses. It's gonna have to be done at the last minute because we've gotta go to class. Also, remember to get that English paper finished, we can NOT afford to have you grounded right now."

They also get disembowelled and/or eaten a lot

#animorphs#its actually devastating i bever got into these#they wouldve been a million times more up my alley wtf was i reading harry potter for

It's not too late. You can still read them.

These have been out of print for an age, and the authors have given their blessings to share the PDFs. Here's everything, including companion/side books and the non-canon Alternamorphs books, in reading order:

i love when i unsubscribe from a mailing list and the thing is like “You’ve unsubscribed, if this was a mistake, resubscribe here.” as if i didn’t have to use an 8x sniper scope to find the damn unsubscribe button in your email in the first place

the al manasra family are vetted by el-shab-hussein and nablusi at #192 here. this is their only opportunity for three small children and their injured parents to survive. this is it.

you know what needs to be done. baruch hashem, you will do it.

@save-mohamed-family needs us now more than ever. for reach: @anneemay @meshugenist @determinate-negation @transmutationisms @riotbard @legoyuri @shivroy

experimenting with food is so scary like what if this sucks ass and now i gotta eat it anyway or i'll starve

Good evening! We have updated the blog with a dedication Episode Navigation page, so you can more easily browse all of our episodes and access our series tags. For mobile users, we've added a link to the page to our pinned post.

Additionally, we have decided to move our twitter presence to bluesky. You can find us at https://bsky.app/profile/evaludate.bsky.social

follow my art on Instagram

the main problem with this time of year is the irresistible urge to get fully into bed at like 5:34 pm and outside is like yesss, yesss do it, it's what you deserve yesss. like is it depression or is it just november

Bet you didn’t think a cute little baby goat like me, resting beneath a black walnut tree to escape the summer heat, would be proficient in Microsoft Excel, did you. Bet you didn’t expect me to know how optimize a spreadsheet by implementing conditional formatting rules huh. Bet you took one look at me and thought “no way this kid knows how to use the VLOOKUP function.” Well guess what, I do. I know a diverse array of useful formulas and my body is capable of digesting poison ivy. I eat that shit like potato chips. Get the fuck out of my paddock