Nutmegs-tired

hi!! unexpectedly caught hyperfixation on the lord of the rings so.....

As someone from a hot country that's regularly on fire, here's some tips:

WATER IS YOUR FRIEND! WATER! IS! YOUR! FRIEND! You can transfer SO much heat into this bad boy! You cannot cool down without water!

Wrists under the cold tap. Splash your face and the back of your neck. Fan yourself.

In some countries you can buy a little handeld fan with a water sprayer.

Damp tea towel around the neck. Stick an ice pack in there on hotter days.

Half fill a water bottle with water, stick in freezer. If you use a bottle with a straw, make sure it's lying on its side with the straw side up and out of the water. When frozen top up the rest of the way with tap water and off you go.

Desperate to cool off? Wet T-shirt. Sit in front of a fan. This will nuke it, just don't get hypothermia and don't fall asleep like this.

Cold showers are also your friend in summer. Some people get psyched up by these. Personally, I sleep like a baby, so I'm good to have them before bed. Just keep in mind that it takes a bit of time for the cool to circulate, so your body will tell you that you're colder than you actually are. I find that when I have cold showers I need to step out of the spray when I think I'm cold... I'll just wait, and thirty seconds later the temperature has evened out and I actually need to step under again. Rinse and repeat until you maintain coolness even after stepping out for a bit.

If you can't do cold showers, turn the cold shower on anyway and just stick your arms under. When they're cold, lift your arms up above your head. The sensation of cool blood draining into your body is fucking weird and kinda unpleasant but less unpleasant than being hot.

Feet in a tub of water with ice. Blood naturally flows to your extremities when hot, so take advantage of this. If you don't have a tub of ice water, sticking a wet rag on your feet in front of the fan works too, it's the less powerful version of the wet T-shirt.

Drinks lots of water but make sure that water has electrolytes as well. Stay in the shade.

Keep air circulating. Fans don't actually cool rooms down, they just help transfer heat from your body to the moisture on your skin or the air via evaporative cooling.

Block north facing windows early in the morning so the sun doesn't get in. If you're in the northern hemisphere, this is opposite for you. Keep in mind that if your home is brick, the bricks will still heat up and slowly release heat into your home even after the sun goes down so this will only do so much.

If it's hotter inside than outside, close all your windows but two, making sure they're on opposite sides of the house/unit you're in. Point a fan out of one window, making sure that the doors between the rooms with the open windows are all open. This will help create a mini pressure system in your home, pulling cooler air in and pushing the hotter air out via the fan. Bonus points if you can get that fan high up where the hot air rises; even within a single room the top is much hotter than the air by the floor. Adjust the amount of open windows based on how many fans you have, but generally you want more windows with fans open than windows without fans to keep the pressure correct.

Obviously, use your common sense for these. Not everything WILL work for you, just use the stuff that does and adjust what needs to be adjusted. Some of these will be impossible to use in the workplace but others you can still use. Others are best used at home. If humidity impacts your ability to use any of these, get a dehumidifier if that's an option, or use more ice instead of evaporation.

It is a family joke that Maitimo was the easiest birth of the seven. None of Fëanáro's children question this, not even Maitimo himself. After all, he is steady and patient, the best little-brother wrangler and the favourite small-child babysitter. Of course it would be him, out of all of them, who gave their mother the least amount of trouble even in the womb. 

It is also a lie. 

Most do not remember Nerdanel’s pregnancy, for she spent the bulk of it at Mahtan’s house, far away from the eyes and speculation of Tirion’s court. Safely hidden among her family, Fëanáro watched with growing horror as things began to go wrong. The baby’s spirit seemed to share Fëanáro’s fire, burning white-hot inside of Nerdanel. For months she lay in bed, feverish, delirious. 

Fëanáro refused to leave her side, trying to coax drops of water between her dry, cracked lips. “Please, love,” he begged. “Just a little more, only one more sip. Please.”

Nerdanel placed his hand on her stomach. “Do you feel him, Fëanáro? He is so strong already. Too strong for someone like me.”

“No, no, you must not speak that way. He will need you. I need you.” He kissed her forehead. Be kind to your mother, little one, he thought, placing a hand on her stomach. He could feel the baby burning like a coal within her. Gentle your flame! Please. I do not want you to be born with my grief. I do not know if I have the strength of my own father to carry on if my wife dies. 

Please, please, do not die. 

It was a close thing, a night of screaming and blood and too much pain, but in the end Nerdanel survived the birth of their child. She smiled up at Fëanáro, soaked in sweat, glowing with pride. “Look at him, Fëanáro,” she said, her eyes half-closed. “Look at our child. Our perfect Maitimo.”

“He is the most wonderful child in the world,” said Fëanáro, his heart breaking open with love. That love sat side-by-side with terror, for Nerdanel remained weak and could not leave her bed for a whole year. But soon, she recovered, returning to her craft and chasing their little one around the hallways of their house.

Fëanáro would have been happy with just the one. To ask for more felt like asking for trouble, and Fëanáro did not want to risk Nerdanel’s life. Not a second time. But Nerdanel wanted more children. 

“You promised me at least four,” she reminded Fëanáro, half-teasing and half-serious. “And our Maitimo needs a sibling or three to get into trouble with. Look at how perfect our little one is! How can you not want more?”

“I do want more children,” said Fëanáro. “Of course I do. But I do not want to lose you.”

“You won’t,” promised Nerdanel, stronger than iron.

And so Makalaurë was soon born, screaming loud enough to shake the windowpanes, and then Tyelkormo, always full of energy, and then Carnister and Curufinwë and the twins. Each birth sent Fëanáro into a spiral of worry; each one ending in relief and joy. 

None of them as terrifying or hard as Maitimo’s had been.

No one knew the truth and Fëanáro, who did not want his first-born to grow up under the same shadows as he had, was more than happy to spread the lie. Finwë and Nerdanel and Mahtan agreed. Let Maitimo never know how close he came to killing his mother. Let him live free of such a stain.

One of the only asexual activists is Yasmin Benoit, a Black woman. She has raised so much awareness for the community. She was the first asexual person to lead Pride in London, she started the #thisiswhatasexuallookslike movement and is THE leading voice for the community.

And you all will celebrate international asexuality day on April 6th but we wouldn't even have that if she hadn't cofounded it.

I hope you like it! <3

I hope you like it! <3

1: they don't have potatoes; the references to potatoes in the Shire were added by Tolkien-the-translator as part of a wider localisation. when Sam mentions potatoes he's actually talking about some other vegetable

2: given that Middle Earth was historically ruled over by the Numenoreans who come from a lost kingdom on the other side of the western ocean, it could be that Numenor was in or had contact with ancient America and brought potatoes back with them

2 is kind of a stretch tho interesting to contemplate; 1 however on some level i think is the correct answer. the Shire's resemblance to England is 100% canonically a localisation thing. The Shire is England bcos it's the main characters' home and the intended audience of the book was English people.