Mary Oliver, Upstream

Everytime I read Frankenstein, the same line makes me put the book down and stare at the wall. It’s my favorite line in the book; it has its own highlighter color in my annotations. The first time I read it, I literally detoured after my last class just to tell my lit teacher how much I liked the line because I couldn’t wait until second period the next day. Here’s the line:

“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”

This is said by the creature. He wanted to live. He wanted to live life so badly even though he had had such a difficult one. He still loved the song of the birds and the smell of the flowers and the joy in the world even if he never got to truly experience that joy. I just. AHHHH.

He wanted to fight for a life he never got to live.

hi. do you see my vision?

"Treat them like people" is probably the biggest lesson we learn from the novel when it comes to Wei Wuxian

He is comfortable around spirits and the dead because he treats them with the same respect and gentleness he would any living person.

He is able to get along very well with children and the youth because he treats them with the same kindness and decency he would a grown adult, never looking down on them and instead patiently guiding them to learn things about the world and themselves.

He sympathizes with the Wen remnants' suffering because he's seen firsthand they have not been complicit to the war and has decided to extend to them the same kindness he received, thus treating them like individuals and not a mass representing Wen Ruohan.

No matter how insignificant, unsightly or scary something or someone might be, Wei Wuxian has always granted them respect and showed no disgust or disdain where it was not warranted.

it’s me i’m the survivor

man everyone is just going through it like. this fully sucks for everyone

Random worldbuilding idea: a culture where everyone is a goth, but for perfectly sensible environmental ressons.

Wearing mainly/almost exclusively black clothing because either the dye protects them/the fabric from something in the environment, black clothes are the most convenient ones to maintain, or then a century ago black dye was extremely difficult and/or expensive to produce and only the wealthiest of society could afford it, but now a cheaper dye method has been invented and after a huge trend of Now Everybody Can Wear Black, it just stuck and nobody even remembers why all clothes are dyed black. It's just tradition.

Everyone wears demonia-style platform shoes because the climate is wet and cold, and for most of the year the ground is either muddy or covered in icy slush, so knee-high tall boots are simply the most pragmatic way to keep the rest of your clothes reasonably dry and clean.

Silver and leather jewellery is widespread because the land is rich in metal ore - while the rich can afford to buy/commission delicate silver threads, even the peasants can afford some sort of rough iron chains and studs on their wristbands. Studded leather is more sensible than having metal rings touching skin directly, due to the cold weather. Studs and chains also double as armour and weapons which technically speaking don't count as such, allowing people to circumvent any "can't openly carry weapons during peace time"-laws. Law enforcement could not confiscate someone's bling without causing public riots.

Everyone is about as pale as their natural complexion allows since the climate is cold and dark and the sun does not rise much during the winter. Cold dark winters are also the reason why the culture is so morbid in general - in the heart of the darkest months there's fuck all else to do than write poetry about the moon's silver light and the howls of wolves and the beauty of death, while polishing your iron chains until they shine like silver.

Domesticated ravens are more covenient for messenger birds than doves are, as they're hardier and can manage the climate better. Even if more modern messaging technology has been invented, people prefer sending letters by bird because it's more romantic and poetic. Sending someone a raven message poem about how you'd like to be buried in the same grave together one day is a very standard way of flirting.

The "War of 1812 Scented Candle", complete with miniature White House near the wick, is, I cannot emphasise this enough, AN ACTUAL REAL PRODUCT THAT YOU CAN BUY (even if it's currently sold out).

The candle is funny enough by itself, but the ad copy on the maker's website is gold (and surprisingly astute):

It goes on to add:

We should also note that even though the British Army DID burn Washington, it was only after Americans had burned and looted the capital of Canada, as well as a bunch of other Canadian cities. But no one ever makes a candle about that! (Including us.)

THE BEST PART AND MOST 🔥🔥🔥 TAKE:

hmmm. Tumblr mobile update looking pretty ugly

Hi boss sorry I'm late, the night sky was alight with every colour of the rainbow while only the strongest stars shone through. Yeah, there was even this one point where it all converged right overhead and it was just so cool and looked like a bird or butterfly or something. Really made me realise how small I am in the grand scheme of everything, you know?

Yeah so anyways I'm contemplating the meaning of life now so I might not be in today.

Microsoft's latest update for Windows 11 (with Copilot+) includes a feature called "Recall" that you might want to disable. The Recall records everything on screen you do. This means it stores information like your passwords, browsing history, images, videos, messages, and emails. To disable it, type the following command as admin user:

Dism /Online /Disable-Feature /Featurename:Recall