In honor of the Ides of March approaching, here’s the trash can I wrote on 2 years ago and only touch up in March

icarus laughed as he fell

if you're in the throes of cosmic despair i cannot recommend museums enough. art or science or history it doesn't matter. oh we're all connected, all of us and everything, throughout all time and space, and no one, no one, no one is alone? awesome. that's what i thought i just wanted to make sure.

Ch👏

I really appreciate seeing it without the lion costume, so you can see what an AMAZING feat of athleticism it truly is.

Wushou dancers are 100% drift compatible

I want to be reading fanfic, not writing it. Unfortunately, I want to be reading very specific fanfic which I will in fact first have to write.

people telling you they reread your fic is the biggest compliment you could ever receive. there are thousands of stories out there begging to be found, to be explored, but your story meant so much to someone that they came back to it eagerly, they went over every word again. to love is to return and loving a fic is rereading it. thank you to all readers and rereaders <3333

the Ides of March grows near

It's easy to think "nobody in the whole wide world cares about me" on an empty stomach but try doing it while eating Vegetables and Rice. Seems less convincing now doesn't it? That's simply the power of Vegetables and Rice..

Funny thing about covid-19 induced anosmia is that it's thought to be entirely neurological in nature. So there's nothing wrong with my nose: the problem is that my olfactory nerve is fried. This results in my brain experiencing a smell and turning on a check engine light that says "there's a smell." What kind of smell is it? "Gas leak? Fried chicken? Shampoo? We don't know."

This morning I opened up a bottle of soap from a brand that I recall being heavily scented (and which I previously avoided buying for this reason). I slathered it on my face in the shower and my brain relayed its best guess as to the smell:

Ketchup.

New smells I've acquired:

Bleach: green apple jolly rancher

Laundry: cigarette smoke

Cigarette smoke: dirt

Dumpster: dumpster

Burning food in the oven: still nothing, actually

My sense of smell is so fucked that I didn't notice a coworker was keeping half a dozen rotting decorative gourds in my office.

Continuing to acquire new and exciting smells as my brain attempts to bring my olfactory nerve back online. There are a few things I can smell with reasonable accuracy (sweat, smoke, shit), but many wires are still crossed. Such as:

Apples: gasoline

Vinegar: fish

Kimchi: rotting meat

Chocolate: rotting fruit

Bok choy: horseradish

Lavender (a bad smell): lavender (a good smell)

Smell is coming back online, but some tastes are Changed in arbitrary ways.

Green apples: pickles

Artificial pomegranate: hairspray

Pumpkin pie: beach sand :'(

Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp: Honey mustard aftertaste???

And that soap still smells like ketchup!!!

Your brain, trying to rewire itself:

WAIT THIS IS FROM COVID????

I've been smelling potatoes as brownies for like three years now. I thought I was going crazy!

Quietly losing my mind over the fact that Elon Musk has straight up orchestrated a coup of our executive branch and like....I don't even know what, if any, system we have in place to fix this. Like... He's just taken control of the money and locked out the actual appointed officials. What the fuck.

Nazis are taking over my government, and like, not even just the Nazis we fucking elected! And I'm...making hamburgers? Because somebody has to make dinner? I just feel completely unhinged.

I think that's how random civillians generally feel in these situations. Someone's gotta make dinner.

If you're wondering, there is plenty to be done about it, and plenty being done about it already, even if it's not happening instantly in a way you can perceive.

Reblogging because this is an excellent article that both tells you about some of what's being done and breaks it down in a way that will help you understand and think about future action. Please read!

advice from a friend of a friend + some common sense: as Musk attempts to take over the US government’s payroll system and who knows what (illegal) Executive Order Trump will try next, key federal websites might start to go down, if only because all the competent people have been furloughed. If you have a federal student loan or other loan, or Medicare, social security income, food stamps, or some other regular and important relationship with the federal government, NOW is a good time to download & back-up your records.

Not necessarily because the service as a whole is going to disappear! But people in power are actively trying to hamstring the federal bureaucracy right now (you know, the one that exists to serve the people), and likely will continue to try for the next four years. So it’s a bad time to assume that the systems will remain fully functional and accessible.

Link to download your social security statement. It shows you everything you've paid in so far and how much you've accrued to be paid out post-retirement to date:

https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/statement.html

this is one of those things that sounds like it's wack conspiracy theory stuff but. it's not.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-workers-out-computer-systems-us-agency-sources-say-2025-01-31/