Love that buton with the funny arrows

I don't know why the authors of PoliLingua act as if Trump's verbal misogyny and racism wasn't very much part of his "original intent".

Yes, I was tearing through books constantly, and talking to this teacher at least weekly. Because even though I always loved reading as a kid, literature was always a very weak subject for me in terms of a teaching-to-standardized-test school setting (I just do awful on "what color were the curtains" type multiple choice questions. Those details don't stick in my memory THEY JUST DON'T). But that didn't matter for this class. I could just read my way out of any bad test score. I have always had fond memories of how I "fudged" my way through that class and "abused' the extra credit policy.

Behold the beautiful timbers:

Now the thing is, that while I was removing the bark, I started trying to see how long a piece I could remove in one go*, as is my habit. I was really impressed by how flexible the bark was, and how easy it was to make long strips:

And then I thought I remembered** reading about how people are able to take the inner bark of ash trees and peel it away from the outer bark, so I decided try on my break, and:

Look at that! So flexible! So smooth! So staying in one piece!

I did some quick googling and found a few examples of people using black locust bark this way, so I'm pretty excited to try it out. The first thing to do apparently is to dry it out, before rehydrating it to work with.

If you've done this or similar and have any tips, I'd love to hear them!

*Yes, I am the kind of person who habitually removes the orange skin in one piece.

and then on my second break, I made this:

Which given that I was just messing around, haven't made a basket like this before, and didn't look up how to do it, turned out great I think. Lol.

The fresh inner bark was still slightly moist and it was incredibly flexible. It felt more like working with paper or weird cloth. If I knew what I was doing, I'm pretty sure I could make a functional basket out of this. I also wonder how it was used pre-colonization, but I don't know any good indepth sources for it's original region, and most of what I've found is very surface level and talks about the uses of the timber itself.

You can pretty easily peel it into incredibly thin layers. Translucent! Flexible! Still pretty strong! Imagine if I had a tool besides my fingers!

And then, I tried to twist it up and see if it did the thing, and it does! I don't know why this is relevant, but a friend tried yesterday with thicker layers and it didn't do it.

And now I have a truly tiny bit of bark twine!

I don't know how strong it is, but it can do this:

hi there it's princess/nova back again, i'm really sorry i have to come here like this but me and my wife are still struggling abandoned by our families and unable to reach any of our friends. we've been trying to survive without me being exposed to harassment but at this point we're going hungry. we don't have any income and need help affording food for ourselves and our kitties please if you can, donate. I would be so truly thankful

v3nm0: @Crow-Forgemaster , @Prince-Nova

c@sh@pp: $dragonforgedbutch , $StrayNova

It also means wearing things they might not approve of. Using accommodations that they might not think you need. Not falling for their guilt trips. Eating when you’re hungry, not when it suits them and their idea of your weight or health. Making your own friends instead of seeking the stamp of approval from them.

Of course, some parents are stricter than others, and some use abuse to keep you from expressing yourself. But do what you can, even if it seems small.

Otherwise, when your parents are no longer in the picture, you’ll try to find it somewhere else to get validation. A strict boss, an abusive partner, a selfish friend.

Is and continues to be my favorite dance video. Dude’s so unexpectedly fluid.

> High score! What happened? Did i break it?

> You don’t see too many YouTube videos from 2005..

It started with someone listing "places with uncanny energy," like gas stations on a road trip, empty movie theaters, etc.

Then someone reblogged it and said those are called "liminal spaces," defining liminal as in-between, neither one thing nor another.

Tomorrow (July 4th, 2026) is the 10 year anniversary of the-crepes-of-wrath's comment, which:

Predates the 2020 spike in interest by four years

Predates the original backrooms post, and the the creation of r/liminalspaces by three years

Predates the earliest mention that KnowYourMeme attributes to Twitter by two years

I'm pretty sure this is the moment the term "liminal spaces" was attached to this sort of imagery, and it's TEN YEARS OLD TOMORROW!

it took me asking three more times before she finally told me she wanted me to leave the fans where they are instead of moving them to my room or something. and I said oh! I had no intention of doing so but thank you for letting me know what the expectation is.