everything old is new again

That's right, I actually planned ahead this year. Watch out world!

The 18th More Joy Day will be January 10th, 2025.

What is More Joy Day? In short it's this:

Every year since 2008, in the interest of spreading more joy, I’ve proposed that on a designated day in early January we each engage in one act, either online or physical space (or both!), which brings joy to another person, in the hopes that that person will spread that joy further, and exponentially onward.

This act can be as simple as leaving a comment on a fanwork to as complicated as planting a tree or flower in someone's honor and sharing a photo of it and why you chose that person. If you want the longer version (and more suggestions) you can check out this post from 2024 which provides both.

Here are some ideas from previous years:

Write a ficlet, make a podcast, make a vidlet, or make a fanart for someone.

Buy someone paid discord or tumblr or Dreamwidth time.

Leave someone a nice comment on their work.

Say something nice about someone.

Say something nice about something fannish you love and encourage squee.

Donate five dollars to the charity of someone’s choice.

Send flowers to an online friend in a different city.

Buy someone you know a present.

Plant a tree or a flower in someone’s honor and take a picture of it and post it.

When somebody cuts you off on the road, wish them well and hope they get where they’re going safely.

Make somebody a friendship bracelet. Or a construction paper heart.

Call someone you love and tell them so.

Buy someone lunch.

Give a stranger a compliment.

Put up a Zoom background celebrating the person you’re talking to.

Well played Merriam-Webster.

It’s the two-quart Tupperware colander. The handle is large and sturdy but still comfortable to hold in your hand. The ridge on the end helps it fit on any size pot you need to rest it over. The little feet at the bottom let you drain directly into the sink without leaving the contents sitting in a puddle. It’s got a spout on both sides so you can pour comfortably from the left or right hand, towards or away from yourself as needed. The holes are at the bottom so you can control where strained liquids flow, large enough to drain quickly, small enough to keep from losing bits of food through them. The bright yellow colour is easy to spot in the back of a cupboard or dishwasher.

I am passionate about this specific strainer in a way that I am not passionate about anything else in my life. I would run back into a burning building to rescue this strainer. This strainer is my go-to wedding or housewarming gift. This strainer is my beloved family member. I have shared more meals with this strainer than I have with anyone else in my life. This strainer has never, ever let me down. It is the most perfectly designed item I have ever seen or handled in my life. Every aspect of this strainer is made to maximize convenience and functionality. It is flawless, a form of complete and total perfection. If you told me this strainer was the face of God, recreated on Earth in Their image, I would believe you.

If anyone else is inspired to look up the two-quart Tupperware colander, I'll save you a few keystrokes. Amazon has in stock (in several colors, no less). I imagine some other stores do as well.

"We trained a pigeon to recognise cancerous cell clusters and somehow they're really good at it" okay great, that's something that could plausibly be a thing.

free 2 use

I think we should go the other way around.

make more and more weird false dichotomies in greetings. "gamers and pianists". "oil painters and swordsmen". "vexillologists and entomologists". "chess masters and diamond artificers". "accountants and gendered individuals".

Orange // Requested

Metro Man was not loved growing up in a way that mattered. His adopted father was clearly very absent, and while we don't know much about his family, their relationship seems superficial. Because of this, his sense of duty to the world is also superficial, hence his boredom.

Hal wasn't raised with power. He gained it and was shown how to use it by a 'space dad' who only taught him power and not love. Hence, he sees it only as a grasping means to an end.

But yes, it's so obvious it's all a thing examining Superman, up to and including the love interest being a fearless, sassy brunette reporter that's never phased by Megamind kidnapping her.

At it's heart, it really is a nature vs. nurture sort of story, where the situation winds up a little dysfunctional by virtue of any Kents being missing.

I'm actually cowriting a ya series about kids in a supervillain school and a big part of it is the MC, Amit, was raised by villains who weren't really excessively violent and treated him with love, even if they're pressuring a little too hard to enter the family business.

And it means, despite their villainy, he's the most well-adjusted kid in the group. He's not perfect but he still winds up being the one that pushes the others a bit to work past various traumas and become better while they fight to save the world.

A big chunk of the story is about the labeling of kids as "bad" kids and how it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, and Megamind was one of the direct inspirations. (That and Marvel's Runaways and Sky High.

Megamind absolutely sort of exemplifies how labeling can negatively effect someone but at least the prisoners seem to have looked out for him, making it easier for him to push himself past it.

And it's great how alongside Roxy it's even Metro Man himself that helps remove the label. Someone "good" who has history with him that felt obligated to stop him, and obligated to keep up a mask and play the part, already thought there was good in him well before the movie. Now that Metro Man's stepped out of the way to focus on his own life, there's room for that goodness in Megamind to come out.

Combined with the prisoners treating him well, when Megamind finally gets more of that Kent-like support - and it helps undo that label - he's able to become a hero.

but can you IMAGINE being her therapist

Therapist: it’s in the past. The corporate powers can’t reach you on Preservation. Your reactions are designed to keep you alive and aware of it happening again, but they take root even where they are no longer needed; process them, thank them, and let them know they can’t harm you. Know that you are safe, Preservation is safe, and it won’t happen again. You can be able to say, is this fear supported by my present reality? No one is going to get kidnapped.

Mensah: hang on I’m getting a call I have to take this

Mensah:

Mensah: my daughter, my brother-in-law, and several of my friends just got kidnapped by murderous raiders