Just A Reminder That We Don’t Know All The Good Things Katniss Does/did For Her Community, Because

Something that really hit my like a punch about SOTR is how Suzanne Collins decided to write Haymitch's relationship with the women in his life because (in a clear contrast with Snow) even in his times of doubt over them, even when he's talking about Drusilla (fuck her btw), he still has a level of respect Snow didn't show for any of the women in his life in TBOSAS.

He sees Maysilee and Louella as sisters and each of them have strengths he admires deeply — in contrast with Snow thinking of Tigris (his actual cousin) as someone whose appearance "invited abuse."

Even Lenore Dove's most worrisome characteristics come for Haymitch from a place of care and love for her, from a desire to keep her safe, not to control her. Haymitch loved Lenore Dove for who she was, regardless of her rebelliousness maybe causing trouble for him. I don't even have to mention the contrast to Snow, right?

Even Effie, whose alienation certainly annoyed him, is talked about in a way thay shows and extensive highlights her empathy beneath her propagandized opinions. Haymitch never disrespects Effie or thinks of her disrespectfully despite the fact that is hinted that she has some behaviors that annoyed him. Snow, however, thinks of his female classmates with a irritated tone that visibly undermines them and their good traits.

Even the contrast between Drusilla and Gaul. Right, Drusilla is not as powerful as Gaul when they're presented to the reader, and Haymitch and Snow come from very different places, but Drusilla is the closes thing Haymitch will get to a powerful ally from the Capitol. Yet, he rejects her (in a quieter way than Maysilee does but still does it) almost right away because of her obvious cruelty. It doesn't appeal to him is the slightest like it does to Snow.

Also, the contrast between how Snow and Haymitch see the sacrifices the women in their lives make with the former disgusted at Tigris and the later showing how much he loves his mom (also) because of all the sacrifices she made to keep him and Sid alive and well, even if it devastates him (like the fact that they don't have a cake in the birthdays in fairness to him not getting a cake or the loss of the shirt his mother had so carefully sewn together for him).

Suzanne Collins didn't just made her mission to say a big fuck you to people who were romanticizing Snow, she showed us what we all should expect from a man (again btw) and you gotta respect her for it.

Thinking about how Wyatt Callow is proof that Dr. Gaul’s and Snow’s assertion that humanity’s essential nature is violent (which is part of their argument for the Capitol’s control being necessary) is false. That “What happened in the arena? That’s humanity undressed… A boy with a club who beats another boy to death. That’s mankind in its natural state.” is false.

I’m sure he had it all calculated. He knew exactly what choices would give him the best odds of survival. He knew that the faster he got out of the initial bloodshed the better his chances would be. He knew that letting other kids die would benefit his odds of survival. He knew exactly what he should’ve done to preserve himself.

And yet, he threw all those statistics and odds, all that reason and logic out the window in the name of protecting Lou Lou, a girl that wasn’t even from his district. He threw it all out the window in the name of helping another human being that was in an unfair situation and had worse odds than him. He knew who the real enemy was; he knew it wasn’t the other kids being taken advantage of by the Capitol just like him.

That is humanity.

HAPPY PI DAY!

For this year's celebratory pattern I wanted to tackle a dream project of mine: stitching a functional unit circle. The French knots (all 100 of them!) around the lower circle represent the coordinates of each point (sans radicals and negative signs), and the upper circle shows how sine and cosine can be found by following a point around a circle's circumference.

[pattern here] [previous pi day patterns here]

A little sketch of Jon which I made while listening to MAG 52

You may have heard about "dos-à-dos" (back to back) book bindings that make one book turn into two, but this is mind blowing!

A 16th-century book that contains no fewer than six different books in a single binding. They are all devotional texts printed in Germany during the 1550s and 1570s (including Martin Luther, Der kleine Catechismus) and each one is closed with its own tiny clasp.

Read more

This is such exquisite craftsmanship. Even not considering the clasps and folds, it’s just so breathtaking. You can view it in more detail on the National Library of Sweden’s Flicker stream.

I have completed another crochet monstrosity

I was about to write: I love the fact that Katniss‘ first reaction to Haymitch‘s absolutely traumatising story is „You need some goose eggs. Goose eggs will help.“

And then I realised… She‘s mimicking Peeta. Peeta comes back to 12 and the first thing he does is plant primroses. And somehow… that helped her. So she‘s doing the same thing for Haymitch.

My favourite goth guy who steals rubbish bins

do you know how miserable and tragic your life has to be to say that katniss everdeen is luckier than you and be correct

sunrise on the reaping is just this onion headline over and over again: