it's idiomatic

fun fact one of the world champions in pepper-eating contests is a trans woman and she actually faced significant backlash because people somehow thought she had a biological advantage. to eating spicy pepper

update bc i went back and checked: her name is brianna “the chilli queen” skinner and she set a record in 2017 by slamming back 23 carolina reapers consecutively. she only stopped when told to by the referees, and the next year she stepped down out of boredom. queen

Here's a picture of her, by the way

And her super supportive wife

The championship, it should be noted, is unisex. Apparently being a trans woman gives you an innate biological advantage over both cis men and cis women.

The innate biological advantage of being cool as fuck

If Merlin is magic itself can he block the magic in others? Like a random person can't use magic suddenly? Sorry you weren't nice so your magic subscription was cancelled. You are banned for two months. Do better.

If you were love itself, could you take the ability to love from someone?

If you were hate itself, could you deny someone the feeling of hatred?

god I could be so wealthy if I had no ethics. that's so fucking frustrating. I'm living paycheck to paycheck because I'm not grifting vulnerable idiots on TikTok. I feel like I have the ability to very easily scam people. I could make a killing with AI. but god. I have morals and ethics and so I get to be poor as shit. I hate this fucking world

I could have made a killing as a psychic, but noooo I have to feel bad about lying to people ugh

I think abt this all the time because the thing is, evil rich people truly believe that they’re geniuses who have discovered a way to make money that the rest of us dummies haven’t…but the truth is that they are just willing to do evil shit that everyone else would prefer to not to because we have standards

When I attended my graduate school job fair, Raytheon (unprompted, hearing me say my degree at the next table) offered me $230,000/yr to come work for them. That was their opening offer after hearing nothing more than my degree, in a city with a very low cost of living. The only catch was that the job was working on vision systems for missiles. (i.e. those 'targeted' missiles which kill a ton of civilians as collateral or intentional damage)

I ended up taking an $85,000/yr job as an optical research scientist at Corning instead.

It is an odd feeling, having a price put on your soul. I'd be a millionaire with a house by my mid-30s if I'd accepted that. And the offer is still open, in fact I'd have an even more generous one waiting for me with the skills I have now.

In all seriousness, if you have the right skillset, you can actually sell your soul. This very week. You will live in comfort and moderate luxury for all your days. Two of my family members did that work decades ago, until they couldn't stomach it any longer, and it set up the rest of their lives.

But I promise you, it's not worth it. It's been almost 50 years for one of them and it still haunts him. He says the worst part was the way they (him included) talked about human lives as things. Numbers on a spreadsheet, sterile corporate jargon in meetings. A lifetime later and you can still see it in his eyes when he talks about it.

You can't take it back, treating humans like things.

why did I find a reaction image in the cemetery

this goes sailing through my window after making a bad post

so tired of all these fics where merlin is captured and is like "p-please n-n-n-n-no" like this hoe didn't show up to camelot, immeadiately commit aggravated assault, get arrested, get out of prison, continue to try both commit aggravated assault and regicide, and then within the next 30 minutes of the episode commit like 3 counts of murder 😭😭

if you told diogenes the cynic about being trans he'd be like "lol that's a sick troll you're epic" and you'd be like "diogenes no i'm serious" and he'd be like "lol that's even better lmao those guys are so mad about it" and then he'd start going by new original neopronouns every single day specifically to piss off the whole symposium

I just had an idea for a really dumb comedy sketch where a transphobe starts ranting about what really makes a women a woman, and diogenes returns each time with a different cis woman or outwardly femme intersex person that doesn't meet the criteria saying "behold, a man!"

"a woman has XX chromosomes"

*Diogenes with an androgen insensitive XY cis woman*: behold, a man!

"Nono, a woman can bear children!"

*Diogenes with someone who has medical complications associated with pregnancy*: "behold, a man!"

"nono, a woman produces the large gamete"

*Diogenes with a postmenopausal cis woman* "behold, a man!"

Trans Rights With Diogenes! coming to PBS

Some idiot: only women can produce eggs!

*Diogenes holds up a chicken* Behold! A woman!

heart shaped forget-me-nots

Merlin, ranting to Gaius: [...] I've faught witches and bandits, I was stabbed, poisoned [...] Do I ever get an thanks? no!!!!

Somewhere else in the castle.

Arthur: since Merlin arrived, I've been attacked by witches and bandits, stabbed and poisened. And somehow, the boy hasn't quit!!!

Morgana: are you sure he doesn't have it out for you?

Arthur: .... Merlin????

the once and future boyfriends

The fact that Arthur believed so deeply that he wasn't just dreaming about Merlin's warning & that it didn't feel like a dream is beyond me . Because Arthur most of the times made fun of Merlin's warnings yet here he felt not only Merlin reached him but also Arthur immediately didn't question his warning . As if he knows if anyone wants to save his life it's Merlin therefore there's no questioning it . 😭

Arthur only likes to make fun of Merlin for the show, but really they're on the same exact wavelength and it's beautiful

Something simple to get me out of artblock

12 years anniversary to this moment