tired of bullshit

It’s Halloween 1st bitches!!!!!!!

(koko’s full name was actually hanabiko, which means “fireworks child”, which is a reference to her birthday: the fourth of july!)

koko is a gorilla who knows a modified form of american sign language (and can understand spoken english as well) and uses it to communicate with her teacher and caregiver, francine “penny” patterson, and in 1984 she asked for a cat for her birthday! she was allowed to choose a kitten from an abandoned litter — she chose a tiny gray manx kitty and named him all ball. he was taken to see her in the evenings, and then later he would visit on his own. she treated him like the other gorillas treated their babies, and tolerated his biting without any aggression. here’s her and her beloved ball:

later all ball escaped from the zoo and got run over by a car, sadly. koko was very sad about it, but later in 1985 she got two new manx kittens, lipstick and smoky! here’s her playing with lipstick:

and here’s her with smoky!

in 2015 for her birthday, koko picked out two more kittens and named them miss black and miss grey!

koko turns 46 today! she also understands object displacement, has passed the mirror test, has relayed personal memories, can talk about language, has used language deceptively, has used false statements humorously, and has invented new signs to talk about things she doesn’t know the sign for (for example she didn’t know the sign for ring, but combined the signs for “finger” and “bracelet” to convey the same meaning)! these are all things that show a more developed degree of understanding than is usually associated with primates that aren’t humans.

Up Helly Aa: The Viking fire festival you’ve never heard of.

What is it?

Up Helly Aa is a historic, lively festival observed on the Shetland Isles.  Shetlanders come together on the last Tuesday of January to celebrate their rich Norse heritage in a festival of fire, song, mead, longships and tradition. With only a small island population of 23,000, this still remains the largest festival of its kind in Europe.

The Shetland Isles? Where are they?

The Shetland Isles lie above Scotland, above the Orkney Isles, somewhere between the British Isles and Norway. 

Shetland has a long and rich history of Norse rule and settlers, having being ruled and owned by both Norway and Denmark. To this day, despite being Scottish and part of the UK on paper, the island maintains a very close connection with their Northernly neighbours in Norway. Shetlanders themselves generally don’t feel connected to the UK, referring to most not born on the Isles as ‘mainlanders’. In this way Shetland is unique; not Norwegian but not Scottish, they consider themselves simply Shetlandic (also used as a term to refer to the Shetland Dialect).

What happens during the event?

One thousand guizers (see below) carry firelight torches through the night in the streets of Lerwick, dressed head to toe as Vikings, chanting Norse rhymes and songs. Spectators line the streets to cheer the participants along their journey. The procession ends when the longship the men have been dragging along is placed in the centre of the city. The longship, called The Galley is set ablaze with the torches while songs and poems fly through the air, helping it on its way to Valhalla. This is a time to celebrate ancestors, both Norse and Shetlandic.

Then, of course, it’s time to drink. Most of the community comes out to the pubs to celebrate until the early hours with music, storytelling and dancing. These events also take place in community halls on the island.

The daytime of Up Helly Aa is structured around the Jarl making visits around the town and paying respect to the Nordic history of the isle. This involves meeting with various officials and members of the community to show respect to every aspect of the Island, old and new.

After an early morning march to the Lerwick branch of the British Legion, the Jarl and his Squad make their way to view the Bill and praise it through song. They stop for official photos to commemorate the event at the Bressay Ferry Terminal, as well as to entertain the groups of schoolchildren that are brought out of class to meet the Squad.

They then march through Fort Charlotte and receive a civic reception at the town hall. A toast is drunk and the Jarl is given the freedom of the town for 24 hours. 

Following this is the main community section of events. The Jarl Squad will visit the two primary schools, the hospital and even the homes of the elderly. 

There is a visit to the Shetland Museum which is regarded as the best opportunity to stop and speak with the procession as a member of the general public. It is after this event that all of the Jarly duties are fulfilled and preparation for the firelit procession in the evening begins.

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@ everyone who’s considering coming out: I love you

@ everyone who can’t ever imagine coming out: I love you

@ everyone who never wants to come out: I love you

@ everyone who’s somewhat out: I love you

@ everyone who’s entirely out: I love you

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard talks about her experiences with caregivers.

“You can always assume one thing about your clients; and that is that they are doing their best. Always assume everyone is doing their best. And if they’re having a day where their best just isn’t that great, or their best doesn’t look like your best, you have to be okay with that.”