poetry & misc.

Patronus was invented by a transphobe.

Stop slouching, drink some water, take your meds.

Being kind doesn’t mean ignoring your own boundaries.

Yet again, the Cursed Object has declared today to be “no”. 

Chapter 1: Unterlagen und Anträge will introduce you to that most essential element of German society: filling out paperwork. You'll learn to recognize basic vocabulary like Anschrift, Name und Vorname, Addresse, and Postleitzahl. You'll be introduced to rich German cultural practices, like filling out paperwork. You'll learn to tell delightful jokes, like Haben die diese Informationen nicht schon? and Liest denn niemand mehr seine E-Mails? You'll experience medieval customs which are alive and well in Germany, like mailing paper letters to deal with large organizations, and receiving them in return. And, of course, you will learn to socialize with other Germans while bonding over shared activities, like filling out paperwork.

Chapter 2: Alltägliche Belastigungen will cover going out, getting around, and getting things done. You'll learn how to say außer Betrieb, defekt, and nicht einsatzbereit. You'll learn how to make everyday conversation with phrases like Tut mir leid, mein Zug hatte Verspätung, and Ich habe versucht anzurufen, aber es war ständig besetzt. You'll learn about treasured German folkways like the Schuldenbremse and Investitionsschau. And you'll even learn about German mythology, and the tale of the invisible Digitalisierungsinitiative.

Chapter 3: Das Ist Nicht Richtig will teach you how to flourish in German society. You will learn, of course, that Sie brauchen ein anderes Formular. You'll learn how to say Das steht nicht auf Ihrer Webseite; Nein, wirklich, ich habe nachgeschaut; and Woher hätte ich das bitte wissen sollen?, and to recognize common phrases like Das ist nicht mein Problem and Und was soll ich Ihrer Meinung nach dagegen tun? And you'll learn how to ingratiate yourself with others with phrases like Sie haben Recht, das ist mein Fehler; Sie haben Recht, es ist nicht Ihre Aufgabe, so etwas zu wissen; and Mir ist bewusst, dass es unzumutbar ist, von Ihnen zu verlangen, Ihre Arbeit zu machen.

Chapter 4: Systemversagen will delve deeper into the rich texture of German life. You'll learn about everyday heroes, like Apotheker and Apothekerin who keep dangerous drugs like Paracetamol off the streets. You'll learn to blend in with phrases like Natürlich müssen wir die heimische Autoindustrie schützen, and Atomkraft ist eine Umweltkatastrophe, deshalb müssen wir weiter Kohle abbauen. And you'll learn about important ceremonial practices like Datenschutz, around which all of German society is oriented, though nobody seems to remember why.

by Ted Kooser

Two people do not decide that they are "courting". One person decides to "court" someone else. It's an action, not a stage in the relationship. A man decides to court a woman because he wants to encourage her to have romantic interest in him. He's trying to win her favor. It's not an exclusive relationship--a woman could be courted by multiple men at once. She'll spend time getting to know the guy who's interested in her, but they won't officially define their relationship as one where they only show romantic interest in each other. If they reach a point where they want it to be exclusive, that's when you propose.

bizarrely, America has in many ways gotten more conservative about dating since World War II.

Courtship was something that happened semi-publicly, in large part because women tended to live with family until they married. A man would come to pay a call and sit in the parlor with the woman he was courting ... and usually members of her family, like her parents or siblings (or uncles/aunts and cousins, if she was living with more extended relations). It was about pleasing all of them, and proving to all of them that he intended to marry her.

In the late 19th century, young working-class women started to move out of the family home for work, and not just to the other side of town — to cities across the state where they didn't know anybody. They usually stayed in boarding houses, where the landlady wasn't interested in hosting chaperoned evenings of courtship in front of the fire. As a result, they spent time with men in dance halls and bars, something akin to modern dating. On the positive side, this gave women the independence to make romantic and sexual choices away from their parents' influence. On the negative side, the women taken on dates (disparagingly called "charity girls") were frequently pressured to have sex in exchange for the money spent on them, money they were unable to spend on themselves due to their low wages.

Authors set out to correct under-representation of female sounds – and found some surprising revelations

When we hear the beautiful call of a bird from a high bough, we’re told it’s likely to be a male – singing for territory, or belting out tunes to woo a female. But as the annual dawn chorus reaches a crescendo this spring, a new guidebook is urging us to think again – and turn our ears to the hidden world of female birdsong. The songs, sounds and sights of female birds have historically been overlooked in field guides and sound archives. In 2016, just 0.01% of the bird sounds in the global Xeno-Canto sound library were labelled female. Another sound archive was just 0.03% female, according to a 2018 study. But the new book – The Sound Approach to Birding 2 – aims to correct this under-representation and properly explain female birdsong. Female birds sing for territorial displays, to ward off other females and to attract extra males, according to Lucy McRobert, a writer and researcher who studied the issue for the guidebook. The book comes with its own library of 300 sounds from 200 species, accessed via web or app. The clips are drawn from the larger online archive of Sound Approach, a birdsong project founded in 2000 with confirmed recordings of females for 41% of species found in the Western Palearctic, a biogeographical region encompassing Europe, north Africa and most of the Middle East...

Here’s a full one:

1) find the end of both pieces. I’m using an off-white and a variegated green so you can easily see what I’m doing, but this can be used to join any two pieces of yarn that are the same weight as each other whether they’re the same color or not.

2) wrap the ends around each other like this. You don’t actually have to lay them down, I did it for clarity in the photos.

3) you’ll need a needle like this. They’re sold under the names “tapestry needle” or “yarn needle.” If you ever manage to find them made out of bamboo or wood, PLEASE TELL ME.

4) thread the yarn through itself as shown in the video above. HOWEVER, where that video shows strand #1 being threaded into strand #2, with the Russian join you’ll thread strand #1 back into itself, using the wrap around strand #2 as an anchor point. I use my toes as a “third hand” when doing stuff like this, but I’ve also seen people use the heel of their hand or a convenient paperweight or even nothing at all. Whatever will let you create a tight join is what you want to use.

Make sure you get this loop as small as you can.

5) repeat on strand #2. Trim the remaining ends.

6) you’re done! This is one of the strongest joins in crochet and knitting. It’s virtually undetectable in a finished project, and because of the wraparound shown in step #2 it can’t pull apart like a knot will.

Actually, wait…

I'm 28 now, and I feel like speaking in the 12-hour-system was more common when I was a kid. But back then, most people had actual, analog wrist watches, smartphones weren't a thing yet, analog watches existed, but weren't as common

now though? only a few people have a wrist watch, especially not analog ones. Everyone checks their time on their phone, basically, which uses 24h. I don't even remember the last time I looked at a clock intentionally, to check the time

So I think this is isn't really something that people think about that much? And digital watches / phones may have also influenced how people talk / think about time in general, but of course that's just anecdotal

(I also think we should have fewer digital and more mechanical analog clocks because sacrificing clockmaking craftsmanship and mental skills like clock-reading for efficiency isn't always a good thing. but that's not a country thing; it's a Me thing)