perpetual disarray

there have been at least three separate people I’ve known whose bedrooms had this vibe: the incredible clashing between different shades of pink, the dark carpet, the messiness, the poor lighting filtering through that dark curtain—I know how it feels being in this room.

I painted my room this exact color in 2008/2009. martha’s organized, but she’s a student and it’s a cramped space—she arranges her shelves the best she can, but her stuff is just stuff and doesn’t perfectly match. when I’m at school I have to dry my laundry in the middle of my room exactly the same way!

yup, that’s what every break room I’ve ever had at work looks like, with the mismatched tupperware and posters and questionably-clean microwave.

sylvia’s house is obviously intended to be coordinated, but with a nonprofessional’s taste. you can see the little pumpkins in the background from halloween, there’s a printed tablecloth at the table, the counters are that realistic mix of cluttered and clean. 

even in a fancy office, we’ve got the ugly fluorescent lighting that’s not really doing anyone favors, the crooked potted plants, the sporadic beige and white walls, the random workplace posters above the printer and trash cans.

people sitting in weird places because there aren’t enough seats around the tv! the cat tower with kitty litter shoved in the corner! the overstuffed table! the slightly-crooked picture frames! this IS the vibe of being stuffed into a too-small room with company over.

We had free healthcare including dental, mind you, my parents just couldn't be bothered. When my brother, as a teenager, asked our mother if she could take him to his orthodontist appointments (which he'd already arranged for on his own) she basically told him she didn't feel like it and he had to take the bus.

Did that, plus the free healthcare, translate into them actually parenting and caring for us properly? It did not. They only ever did any of that reluctantly when not doing it would make them look bad, and most of the time they did a shitty job because they could never resist the urge to boost their egos by means of bullying literal children.

We are at a point in humanity where there is no meaningful reason why we shouldn’t be structuring our societies around wellbeing for all instead of wellbeing for the “deserving”.

They can be busy, tired, stressed about finances, ignorant, etc. They can want to do the best for their kid and Fail Anyways.

but the thing is: only *most* got filled to some extent

not all

because there used to be dragons

and now their niche is just *empty*

it's like i can feel the gap they left, in everything from open grassland ecosystems to isolated islands; the world we know is shaped by the absence of a truly big flying predator

no bird could ever fill their niche, because of plain and simple anatomical constraints

because they cannot use their wings to jump

birds could never be azdarchids

they could never be dragons

there are no more dragons

but there used to be

Gasterosteus aculeatus

Threespine Stickleback

Image source

Status: Least concern

That’s a really interesting train of thought though! Because there are big bees and tiny flowers that can make this work (sorta)

The male Valley Carpenter bee for instance can get about an inch long, and could probably wear the 1-1.5mm blooms of the Smallseed Sandmat (Euphorbia Polycarpa)

While the female could carry the similarly sized flowers of the Butterwort plant Pinguicula Crenatioloba

(I even drew these flowers a little too big, whoops)

The largest bumblebee on earth, the Bombus Dahlbomii, has queen bees that can get an inch and a half, and wouldn’t have any problems with the 3mm clustering flowers of Ladys Bedstraw (Galium Verum)

And yeah alright, the 2.5 inch Asian Giant Hornet queen isn’t actually a bee

But it could easily wear the 5mm blooms of the field Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis Arvensis) while it terrorizes the hives of actual bees

(Really though these things wreck bee colonies)

None of this matters though, because bees don’t wear flower crowns

Bees wear fingerless gloves.

[End transcript]

Sandmats are a group of small plants that grow close to the ground and spread out (forming looser or denser mats).

E. polycarpa is one of dozens of sandmat species. Sandmats evolved mostly in Mexico, Texas and the surrounding US States, but have spread worldwide to disturbed and dry soils.

holly! (short for alcoholic)

Please

Please

Please stop trying to sneak-feed me meat alternatives.

I am willing to prepare and share a vegan meal with you, I’m willing to skip animal products in our group spaces.

Please.

I don’t care about “gmo” and I dont care about the fact that it’s “textured protein” I care about “corn” and “wheat” and I care that people without food allergies rarely know how inescapable some of those allergens are.

“Oh, I checked the ingredients, it doesn’t have corn”

Okay but does it have maltodextrin, modified food starch, xanthan gum, caramel coloring, dextrose, or glucose syrup?

If it does have any of those things do they specifically say “from potatoes,” “from tapioca,” “from cane sugar” or “from rice”?

If it didn’t did you check the manufacturer’s website? If that didn’t say did you call the manufacturer?

Sometimes I’ll use almond or coconut flour as a replacement for wheat flour when I’m cooking. I do not try to pretend that my alternate flour chocolate chip cookies are wheat flour chocolate chip cookies because most people don’t expect to run into coconut or almond when they pick up a chocolate chip cookie. I don’t try to hand them to people, wait for them to eat a cookie, and say “hah, bet you didn’t think gluten free cookies could taste good, huh?” because if I did that to someone with a severe allergy it could kill them, but also because people should have a say in what they’re eating.

I’ve got no problem with beyond beef or impossible burger describing their products as meat alternatives, I’ve got no problem with GMOs or the fact that quorn is made out of a heavily engineered protein. That’s all very neat, actually.

That’s medical speak for:

IT CAN KILL YOU.

Anaphylaxis can cause you to have difficulty breathing or stop breathing at all. It can cause a critical drop in blood pressure or send you into medical shock.

1. if you are feeding someone food you must track all the ingredients and/or save the packaging for them to check

2. continue to fight for better ingredient labeling laws (in the usa you probably want to work at the State level, given the Federal administration have worms for brains)