Weird shit bro

The office immediately split into two factions over it. One says that if anyone falls in the spike pit it's their own fault for being so stupid and not watching where they're walking, so we should remove the sign. The other says that the sign is an insult, there shouldn't be a spike pit in our office at all, and having the sign up like that is just normalising the existence of the spike pit, so we should remove the sign.

Oh and Bid-n just signed off $735 million weapons sale to Isr***l.

735 million. Imagine what the government could be doing to better your lives with all this money , instead it's funding murder of innocent civilians.

This post isn't to make anyone pick a side. Just highlighting where the government's priorities lie.

it’s meaningful that katniss’ relationship with peeta is purely performative at first. no matter how much she wants to, she can’t even consider healing. she’s never known true peace in her life; she never will until the games are over and her family is safe from the capitol. her marriage to peeta, purely performative, is supposed to quash rebellion because she’s marrying peace. she’s publicly proclaiming how she doesn’t want the districts to rise up against the capitol. at the same time, it’s meaningful that her image of kissing gale is used in the same scene that snow threatens her with a rebellion: she doesn’t want war, even if she can’t consider peace as a real option, so gale - who outright refuses to run away with her because he wants to join the rebellion - is also an option she refuses to truly consider. she only shows gale attention when he’s in pain; she only gives her best propos to the pro-rebellion camera team when she sees the destruction the capitol is causing to the districts. and at the end, we see that peeta has always, always wanted what was best for her well-being (until he’s hijacked by the capitol, who is campaigning for a corrupt version of ‘peace’ in the districts), while gale, despite his feelings, produced an idea that killed the one most important person to her in the world, because however appealing war is, whatever benefits it will provide, you cannot avoid the personal toll it takes.

And what has me re-reading these books over and over right now is the world-building. The politics, the issues about poverty and control and oppression, the racism, the blatant sexism on display. As noted, Katniss’ potential prowess is not what the Capitol cares about; she struggles to be emotionally expressive because that’s not who she is, so even though that’s what the capitol expects of her as a girl. Peeta, despite being a boy, is more expressive - and despite his goodness, he’s a better liar than she is too, because he has a different sort of ability to understand, express, and manipulate emotions.

Katniss says over and over to both Gale and Peeta that she cannot think about romantic love, that it’s not an option to her. She is too traumatized, too afraid, and just struggling to survive. She cares for both of them; even admits to herself she does feel some form of love for Gale, but she isn’t able to tell what kind of love it is, and is in no position to tell.

Oh and a reminder, that the books bring up over and over: these are children. Katniss is 16 during her first Hunger Games. ALL of the competitors are 17 or younger. Some of them are 12, like Rue. The horror and disgusting nature of the Games is noted over and over by Katniss. And the Capitol uses these children, even as victors. Finnik is the most notable in-series example. He was only 14 when he won so the Capitol waited a whole 2 years before selling him into sexual slavery at age 16. Sexual exploitation and abuse isn’t limited to the Capitol though; Katniss notes that one of the Peacekeepers from District 12 was also known for taking advantage of desperate starving girls - Katniss says that if she’d been a year or so older when her father died, she might’ve been among those girls. She was eleven when her father died. One of the tributes in Katinss’ first games is dressed up in a transparent dress, her hair styled like a fashion model. Again, remember, this child is at the most, 17 years old. After the games the Capitol stylists want to surgically alter Katniss’ breasts to make her look more voluptuous, because she’s 16 and “fair game” as far as they’re concerned.

And oh boy, has there been a lot written about Hollywood’s sexualization of young female celebrities, in recent years.

There is a constant discussion about wealth, poverty, and levels of poverty and privilege. The Capitol doesn’t even let districts learn about one another, keeping these communities isolated from one another so no one has any idea how bad anyone else has it. If you don’t know how bad it is for someone else, you can’t make any informed decisions about your own situation. The Capitol even encourages dissent among levels of wealth and poverty within the Districts themselves. Peeta is from the “merchant class” in District 12, which is coded as most people white folks; people from the Seam are very clearly coded as PoC. So is all of District 11, where Rue is from. Gale is aware of the fact that the Capitol wants the people of the Seam to hate the merchant class, but when it comes to Reaping Day, where the true unfairness of that division comes to the forefront, he’s unable to hide his bitterness - the Capitol wins, on that day.

And that’s the very same animosity people feel when it comes to impoverished Americans and those in the lower-middle class. We’re constantly bombarded with propaganda saying that the “lazy poor people” are “stealing your tax money”. 

Plus, again, as noted in the books, the Games inevitably sow anger between the districts. How could they not? You have to watch your children die at the hands of others, and at some point the empathy of “they’re all children and this is horrible” fades away as you watch your child murdered on television. The children from the other districts - and therefore the districts themselves - become your enemy. You feel resentment, even though none of this is the fault of anyone in that district.

Can’t think of any animosity Americans feel towards the innocent civilians of any country around the world at all.

182nd day of the year.

It’s 12pm.

Stop-Motion Moana

“We can rebuild her… We have the technology… We know the way!”

A few months ago I ripped apart a Moana doll and made it into a stop-motion puppet using a kinetic armature kit.  

The walk cycle above was the first thing I animated with this puppet, and was just a throw-away practice test with no green screen. I had never done a walk cycle in stop-motion before and soon discovered how difficult animating a straight-ahead cycle within a localized space with no retakes could be.

I showed the cycle to my dad while he was holding my Moana puppet in his hand and he seemed more impressed with this crappy test than the actual animation I did on the movie! I think the combination of him holding the puppet, and then seeing it come to life on the video before him was what blew him away. I guess that’s the appeal and magic of stop-motion. :)

Here’s a second test I animated for fun:

I read that it’s best to have the foot joints nice and tight to hold the weight of the puppet, and have the arms looser.  It’s amazing how much weight those toe and foot ball-joints could hold for the falling poses:

Texas State Legislature is considering passing a law that would mandate teachers to out young gay kids to their parents

WHATEVER YALL FUCKING DO DONT LET THIS BILL PASS

As a closeted queer kids, the only irl place I can be myself is at school. The people there know. I’m not quiet about it. And they’re okay with it. And that takes some of the pain of being closeted from my family okay because hey I have a community that accepts me.

I wouldn’t be affected by this bill but for all the kids that are like me, that consider school a save haven, this could fuck some major shit up.

So when I was freshman in high school, I knew this sweet girl. We’ll call her Hailey. She was a high b-average student, and she wanted to be a veterinarian. She had a rough life but was like a younger sister to her friends, and got along well with about everyone because of her bubbly nature. And as you probably suspect, she was gay. She found herself around sixth grade, so she established to her friends. But her friends only.

But during her freshman year, something horrible happened. One of her friend’s parents told her parents she was gay. Now what you need to know about this woman is that she didn’t do this out of any sense of cruelty. Her own son was gay, and she’d really struggled with that for awhile before accepting him and openly supporting him. And their relationship was great now.

So she wanted to tell Hailey’s parents, as a conservative parent as a gay child herself, because she felt like her reaction had been extreme, and she’d acted cruely and had wronged her child. She wanted to be there for them if they had negative reactions, and talk them through her experience.

Now Hailey, she had begged this woman not to. She had even cried over it, because she knew her parents, but this woman really thought she knew what was best and everything would be better once she no longer had to hide. And went off and told them behind Hailey’s back, without listening to her or giving her *any warning.*

And this woman said Hailey’s parents were quiet when she gave them the news. They listened to her entire story and experiences. They even asked a question or two, and said they’d talk about this with Hailey. And the woman left feeling like she’d done the right thing.

But she the furthest thing from the right thing that you can imagine. Hailey’s parents didn’t pick her up at the bus stop, so she walked home all by herself. She didn’t know she’d been outed, or anything was off. She thought her parents might just be working late.

And as she’s told me of the account afterwards: “I was happy. I’d passed that math test and I was going to ask my Dad if he might help me practice driving when I get home because I was thinking about taking Driver’s Ed. I thought it weird they weren’t returning my texts to tell me they were going to be late because we don’t live in the safest neighborhood, and they don’t like me walking alone, but I wasn’t worried. And then I got home… And then I got home and my parents were waiting for me, and I just. Knew. I just KNEW. Something about their expressions and way they stood up gave it away.”

And what happened next I was forced to believe. She told me, she just ran to the front door, but her Dad grabbed her and held her down. And as he held her down, her Mom proceeded to beat the living shit out of her.

And I’m not talking a slap across the face, or being struck with a belt. It was so bad that her screams - she was lucky enough to have run and got to the front door to be heard by a passing neighbor walking his kids home - who called the police.

But until they arrived, for minutes on minutes she was beaten by Dad and Mom. When she came back to school, she had bruises on her wrists from where she’d thrashed trying to get away from her Dad’s iron grip, and a fractured wrist. She had an ugly bruised and STITCHED forehead from where her mom’s wedding ring had gotten her, and black and bruised skin across her stomach from where she’d been repeatedly stomped on.

And you must be thinking, oh my God what horrible parents. They must have been punished harshly.

No. They spent just a single night in jail, and I still don’t know if they were later charged. Hailey was forced to leave her home. She told me no one would take her in, and never told me where she ended up having to stay.

And did I mention she was made to come to school the next day? Because she did. She tried to hide the injuries, but you really can’t hide those. Especially when you aren’t even wearing your own clothes because you weren’t allowed to go home and get them.

And I could tell you more. I could tell you how her parents wouldn’t let her back in her house to get ANY of her things. I could tell you how aunts and uncles turned her away like she was ridden with an STD.

I could tell you about how she dropped out of high school, or apparently the girl who wanted to be a veterinarian one day because she wanted to take care of sick animals and make them better tried to take her own life months later.

I could tell you that after that day, I didn’t see her again until I ran into her a YEAR later by chance. This girl VANISHED for a year. Her friends clammed up about her, like they were afraid and determined to not tell anyone where she was at any time. Ever.

So the next time you say OUTING someone couldn’t be that bad, or that making it law for a child’s safe place to out them is right or doesn’t concern you - remember Hailey. Remember the little sister-like girl who wanted to be a vet and once only seriously worried about math tests and learning to drive.

And you what? Hailey told me she still sees herself as someone lucky. Because she lives with her Grandpa now who flew down from Florida to take care of her. And she feels lucky because she still has someone, and because she’s still ALIVE.

So you remember that when they try to pass this law. You remember Hailey, and all those like her who were treated worse and aren’t here anymore. You probably know of someone. Remember people like Hailey, and protect them. Because when they say it IT ISN’T SAFE FOR THEM TO BE OUTED, believe them!!!

“When her father was governor of New York, he and his wife proposed that Alice attend a conservative school for girls in New York City. Pulling out all the stops, Alice wrote, ‘If you send me I will humiliate you. I will do something that will shame you. I tell you I will.’”

“Her father took office in 1901 following the assassination of President William McKinley, Jr. in Buffalo (an event that she greeted with “sheer rapture.”)“

“During the cruise to Japan, Alice jumped into the ship’s pool fully clothed, and coaxed a congressman to join her in the water. (Years later Bobby Kennedy would chide her about the incident, saying it was outrageous for the time, to which the by-then-octogenarian Alice replied that it would only have been outrageous had she removed her clothes.”

“She was dressed in a blue wedding dress and dramatically cut the wedding cake with a sword (borrowed from a military aide attending the reception)”

“When it came time for the Roosevelt family to move out of the White House, Alice buried a Voodoo doll of the new First Lady, Nellie Taft, in the front yard.”

“Later, the Taft White House banned her from her former residence—the first but not the last administration to do so. During Woodrow Wilson’s administration (from which she was banned in 1916 for a bawdy joke at Wilson’s expense)…”

“As an example of her attitudes on race, in 1965 her African-American chauffeur and one of her best friends, Turner, was driving Alice to an appointment. During the trip, he pulled out in front of a taxi, and the driver got out and demanded to know of him, “What do you think you’re doing, you black bastard?” Turner took the insult calmly, but Alice did not and told the taxi driver, “He’s taking me to my destination, you white son of a bitch!”

This is Alice as an older lady. The pillow says “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me.” 

Could time travel exist? Some people believe so. Look at these images and see what you think.

1. The Chinese Swiss Watch. Back in 2008, a 400 year old tomb was opened. Archaeologists were shocked to discover this small watch among the artifacts. The back of the watch is engraved with the word “Swiss”. They have no explanation of how this modern watch came to be in an unopened 400 year old tomb.

2. Charlie Chaplin Cell Phone. Viewers watching the extras section of the 1928 Charlie Chaplin film “The Circus” noted this person seemed to be talking on a cell phone. Others have claimed it was an ear trumpet, a horned device used to help those who were hard of hearing to hear. If that’s true, skeptics argue, who would she be talking to? Why is she laughing and talking if no one is there to hear but herself?

3. 1940s Hipster. This picture was taken at a small opening event in 1941.Time travel enthusiasts were quick to point out how this man stood out. He appears to be wearing a hooded sweatshirt and printed t-shirt, and holding a modern camera.

4. Rudolph Fentz. Rudolph apparently vanished without a trace in 1876. That alone wouldn’t be enough to constitute time travel, except that he turned up again…in the 1950s. Fentz allegedly materialized in a New York street, where he was struck by a car and died. Police were baffled as to what happened, especially when they found his pockets to only hold currency from the 1800s.