so when i was 7 or 8 i’d “write letters to hermione granger” and set them out on the piano in the living room every night with my stuffed toy owl and every morning i’d have a letter from hermione back, sitting at the foot of my bed, and hermione and i corresponded like that for months and i’d just like to thank my mom for writing out a “letter from hermione” for me every single night
That is the cutest thing I’ve ever read oh my god
so when i was about the same age i got really into both ciphers and james madison (idk don’t ask) so i just randomly started writing these letters like i was james madison writing to my own spy ring, using all kinds of ciphers. constantly writing that WE MUST SWITCH CIPHERS THE BRITISH ARE ON TO US. and it wasn’t every night because the ciphers kept getting more complex, but it was about one every week for six months and my mother always responded. and she always found the letters, because i took to hiding them in increasingly more obscure locations because spies, obviously.
i didn’t realize how much work this was until i snuck down late one night for a cookie. and saw my mother bent over my giant book of ciphers and muttering to the dog “is this another code or can she not spell?” (i could not and still can not spell) and i was a bit angry at first but i kept watching and she KEPT AT IT. checking everything in that book against my letter and i never felt so loved. my mom with a full time job sitting up to figure out my silly letters said just because i enjoyed the game.
i got her this bio of james madison a few years ago for xmas with a simple number substitution cipher on the inside saying “In thanks for your dedicated years of service, your daughter and occasional President.” She still has it pride of place on her desk next to the obligatory kid pics
so yeah cute mom story for the day.
These are some of the best secret mom stories I’ve ever read, omg.
I used to write letters to the tooth fairy when I first started losing teeth, and my mom would always leave me a little gift, and a teeeny tiny letter written as small as possible. fairies are tiny!
she’d write about how she had to run from our pet cat and hide in with my toys (she got to know my favorite, a stuffed owl named Ollie, saying he was very loved and very happy). or how she was really thirsty tonight so she grabbed a thimble by my mom’s sewing machine and drank a bit of the lemonade that was sitting on the counter.
the best part was (aside from the letters themselves), was she always sprinkled iridescent “fairy dust” left by the fairy’s wings, on my nightstand and in the letter. she’d also sprinkle a bit whatever her letter said she visited (a bit in front of my toy chest, next to the lemonade decanter). I was THRILLED to be best friends with the tooth fairy! it was the coolest thing!
I still have all those letters. they were my treasure when I was little, but now that I know the truth about them… well, they’re so much more.
This is the world’s largest crystal ruby. Mark Mothersbaugh had the gem carved in the shape of an ice cream cone.
“A few years ago I became friends with a gemologist, and I saw all these gems that he had lying around, one of which was this big ugly stone that I picked up. “That’s the world’s largest ruby you’re holding.” He didn’t know what to do with it, so next time I saw him I asked if I could carve it. It’s right over there. [Points across the room to a glass case.]
I was thinking: Who do you sell the world’s largest ruby to? Somebody who’s uber-rich. And people don’t get uber-rich unless there’s something dark attached to it. It’s always communists in China, or drug dealers in South America, or oil people in Russia. It’s those kinds of people who are going to want the world’s largest ruby. And I wanted to fuck with them in some way. So I said: I’m going to carve it into a turd. But it will look like a custard. I’m going set it on top of a cone, and it will look like a sweet-treat, but really it’s a turd. They’ll buy it because it’s the world’s largest ruby, but only I’ll know that it’s a turd.“ – Mark Mothersbaugh
It’s genuinely amazing to me that a Mediocre White Man can spend 20 years creating shows and movies that treat bigotry as a joke, but because the motherfucker donated some money to LGBTQIA groups and stumped for Bernie, he’s hailed as a progressive.
Seth MacFarlane created shows that dealt heavily in anti-black racism, antisemitism, ableism, Ace Ventura-levels of transphobia, rampant and vicious misogyny, normalized rape culture, abuse as a joke, pedophilia as a joke, and violent Islamophobia. He actually fought really hard for a scene where Quagmire rapes Marge Simpson to be aired on live TV – FOUGHT FOR IT, TOOTH AND NAIL – and is still angry that FOX wouldn’t let him get away with it.
He taught generations of young white guys that this shit was okay to say and believe because it was “just a joke” – hell, I’ll bet there’s a good Venn diagram between Family Guy fans and Trump supporters – and anyone who criticized him was just some boring, humorless PC police asshole.
And now people want to call his poorly-written, aggressively bigoted shit “satire” and give him brownie points for *appearing* progressive instead of actually being progressive.
Like, please demand more from your progressive allies than some fucking rich, white jackass who screams “Bigotry is cool! (Kidding)” in all his work, and does the bare fucking minimum every few years to be progressive.
The upcoming midterm elections are poised to be incredibly important for the future of our country. You need to vote in them–the primaries and the general.
Are you registered to vote? If you think you are, take a moment to check your registration well ahead of voting day. Make sure you know your voting dates, polling place, how to get an absentee ballot if you need one, and any ID requirements.
If you aren’t, register right now! Many states require registration before a deadline some time in advance of voting day, so don’t wait.
(Vote.org is reputable, but if you don’t want to use them, just Google “[state] voter registration” for information.)
And I don’t want to get too partisan on this post, but… if you have any reservations about voting for a “lesser evil,” get over them now. Our voting system requires strategic voting, and that sucks, but since it’s true, vote strategically! Vote your heart in the primaries, but in the general, vote for the lesser evil. It’s a hell of a lot better than sitting on the sidelines patting yourself on the back for purity while the greater evil wins.
California! Voter registration deadline for the primaries is MAY 21ST 2018. Get registered!
“jealousy is so disgusting” “anger is so toxic” did u know? these are emotions every human has
I’ve always been a fan of an analogy I heard once. Your emotions are like one of the lights on your car’s dash. When one of them turns on, it means you need to check under the hood and fix them. It’s not bad that the light turned on, per se, and it doesn’t always mean something is broken. But what IS toxic, dangerous, and likely to break something, is when you let that light stay on, pretending it’s normal, until that braking fluid finally fails and you crash into someone, or your engine fails completely.
Feel jealous. Feel anger.
Just don’t let it fester. You need to look inside of yourself, find out why you’re feeling the way you are, and bring yourself to a satisfied, stable state of mind. You can look at philosophy, meditation/introspection, religion, or actual therapy, or at least talking to someone about it. You’ll find you’re much more content and happy when you do something about those feelings, and come to some sort of conclusion or resolution.
That is a wonderful way of looking at it, thankyou. Makes me feel better about myself when I DO feel that way.
anything you feel is fine! it’s your actions, what you DO with those emotions (and thoughts too) that matter.
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