i say this in all seriousness, a great way to resist the broad cultural shift of devaluing curiosity and critical thinking is to play my favorite game, Hey What Is That Thing

you play it while walking around with friends and if you see something and don't know what it is or wonder why its there, you stop and point and say Hey What Is That Thing. and everyone speculates about it. googling it is allowed but preferably after spending several minutes guessing or asking a passerby about it

weird structures, ambiguous signs, unfamiliar car modifications, anything that you can't immediately understand its function. eight times out of ten, someone in the group actually knows, and now you know!

a few examples from me and my friends the past few weeks: "why is there a piece of plywood sticking out of that pond in a way that looks intentional?" (its a ramp so squirrels that fall in to the pond can climb out) • "my boss keeps insisting i take a vacation of nine days or more, thats so specific" (you work at a bank, banks make employees take vacation in long chunks so if youre stealing or committing fraud, itll be more obvious) • "why does this brick wall have random wooden blocks in it" (theres actually several reasons why this could be but we asked and it was so you could nail stuff to the wall) • "most of these old factories we drive past have tinted windows, was that just for style?" (fun fact the factory owners realized that blue light keeps people awake, much like screen light does now, so they tinted the windows blue to keep workers alert and make them work longer hours)

been playing this game for a long time and ive learned (and taught) a fuckton about zoning laws, local history, utilities (did you know you can just go to your local water treatment plant and ask for a tour and if they have a spare intern theyll just give you a tour!!!) and a whole lot of fun trivia. and now suddenly you're paying more attention when youre walking around, thinking about the reasons behind every design choice in the place you live that used to just be background noise. and it fuckin rules.

i mean this in the nicest way possible but some of you need to learn how to be annoyed

Enabran Tain’s rolling pin collection.

that’s it. that’s the post.

love when they give bashir a five o'clock shadow. that man needs to be as sleep deprived and disheveled as possible.

btw you should absolutely read stuff you don't agree with. you should think critically about it. you should reflect and find different stimuli and maybe even form your own thought based on or opposed to it. ideas aren't contagious and reading words someone else has told you are "bad" won't infect you like a virus and make you "evil". read with your own brain.

my sewing machine does exactly one thing, and yet every single time I try to sew something with it I feel like I've put my baby in the pelican's mouth. over and over again.

sewing Machine perfec t for sewing straight l/ines! machine very Accurate and Level lines so so straight so easy to use Sewing Machine. Sew Straight Lines with Sewing Machine. no problems ever in macchine because good Shape and Whir noise for fast fast lines. Asewing Machine yes a place for making straight lines sewing lines can trust sewing machina for giveing good love to fabric. friend sewing machine

[happy 13 years to this post!]

a child came into the nature center and saw tadpoles for the first time and when i told him they're baby frogs he thought i was lying and i suddenly realized that if you're 3 and don't know that tadpoles become frogs it does sound pretty fake. this kid will not fall for made up shit online he is a born skeptic.

it happened like this

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not looking to pick fights so I'm not rb-ing but it's not parasocial to interact with an ao3 author and to respond to what they say in author notes or comments, that's just being social

ao3 authors aren't content creators, that's a real person sans public persona just sharing a cool thing they made

#It wasn't parasocial when I almost had an #affair with an author I reeeeeally liked haha

Reaction images for when you're in and out of the zone

writing star trek fanfiction is one of the most noble and honorable hobbies a person can have

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One must imagine Bashir in a depression spiral... one must imagine him all folded up with his head resting against his knees or sprawled on his bed staring at the ceiling with a thousand-yard-stare

i have final destination premonitions all the time but instead of seeing death i see all the possible liquids i could knock onto my laptop

agonizing over all the time you wasted or lost is useless. it’s gone now. you survived in the only way you knew how. doesn’t your survival deserve some recognition too?

like toni morrison said, “sometimes you don't survive whole, you just survive in part. but the grandeur of life is that attempt. it’s not about that solution. it is about being as fearless as one can, and behaving as beautifully as one can, under completely impossible circumstances.”