The Inner Musings of A Ringtail

hey man. nice regional dialect. mind if i apply some baseless assumptions about your personhood to it? i was also gonna prescribe morality to it as well. if that’s cool with you

What's everyone's favourite flowers that aren't like. The normal ones. Like everyone's a fan of roses and sunflowers what's a more niche one. One you don't get in gift sets. Mine's sweet peas

Oh, I didn’t know that.

I was listening to Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” on youtube, and browsing the comments several people mentioned …

Okay. The song is about the real sinking of the freighter the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975. And there’s a line in the song:

“In the Maritime Sailor’s Cathedral,

The Church Bell chimed till it rang twenty nine times,

For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald”

Which references something that the actual Maritime Church in Detroit did in honour of the ship’s crew. And I just found out in those youtube comments for his song that when Gordon Lightfoot died in May last year (2023), the Maritime Church rang those bells again, this time 30 times. Once for every man on the Edmund Fitzgerald, and once more for Gordon Lightfoot.

That’s … That is a memorial I would be proud to have earned. And proud to give. I do like that. A lot.

Apparently, the Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior also lit its beacon in honour of him.

Sorry. I’m having … extremely maritime sort of feelings over here. Songs and memorials, bells and beacons, and the ways we carry memory forward. That’s … that’s a good memorial. I like that.

My understanding is that Lightfoot wrote the song after hearing the story and being frustrated at the media getting so many facts wrong. He in fact updated some of the lyrics over the years as more information about the wreck came in, because he wanted to make sure he was appropriately recognizing and honoring the men who died. A lot of the families and surrounding community were grateful that he did that, for a ship full of sailors he never knew. So the memorial isn't surprising, all things considered. It's a very fitting one.

Gordon Lightfoot also gave the royalties to the families of the crew. So yeah, a very fitting memorial🥺

Tony Hawk is probably the best evidence that people would never recognize Clark Kent as Superman in real life.

mutuals can always dm me but be warned i talk like your coworker who is trying too hard to get to know you and my response times are akin to the response times you might get if we were communicating by letter

"Why are you still on tumblr, it's a dead site" Tumblr is the ONLY site that still works in the way of -Follow this person, see their posts- instead of -you stopped scrolling and stayed on this post for .2 seconds longer than others, here's 100 more posts like it- I hate algorithms. Tumblr has its many issues. But at least I keep my choice of what I see.

LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE AT THE BACK

Wow, I did not see that coming.

this dude -> 😔 <- he gets me

“feeling useless right now? donate your money to ___!!”

for anyone that’s too poor to donate and feeling like shit because of current events:

— I love you so much

— you do not have to donate if you don’t want to or can’t afford to

— you’re not a bad person for not donating

— just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you’re useless

— you are just as valuable as everyone else

— take your time and treat yourself kindly

— find something soft or sentimental to hold and squeeze for a while

— money may matter too much in this era but save your pennies and watch your fave shows

— drown yourself in your fave music

— ignore the “donate!” posts, mute or block them if you have to

— pick up the book you haven’t cracked open yet

— have fun with your blorbos

things may not be okay now but they will be soon. ❤️

I think my favorite genre of fanfiction is when the author says something like "this was meant to be 3 chapters but it's actually going to be 5" in the notes at the end of a chapter and you can look up at the chapter count and it's like 15 or something

where is that cat with the kind and reassuring face

he?

thank you…..

“Listen to me, girl, you have castles inside your bones, coronets in your heart, if he threatens you with battle, you raise him a whole war, the last time I checked, Queens cower before no man.”

This quote Queens II by Nikita Gill hits even harder this week, just as it did the last time.

To all of those who are hurt and scared right now, who have been thrown into a state of survival. 

Your feelings are justified.

If history has taught us anything, what happens next will be hard.

This vote is not the end though. There is so much we can all still do.

In the words of Michael McWhorter

"This is what we do now...

We're going to form community and make community stronger.

We're going to form families..not just blood but chosen families.

Were going to look out for each other.

If we have to do some Underground Railroad shit, we'll do it.

People who are less affected, like me, are going to have to stand up and help those who are more affected.

We rally around one another.

We're not going anywhere. We are here to stay. We take the day to grieve, feel disappointed and recoup, then continue our battle and fight like hell.

We can't give up now."

Stay safe out there, and know you are never alone.

Sometimes I put my face up against my dog while he's sleeping to feel his little lungs expand and his little heart beat and I am struck by the beauty of of life and the miracle of nature to evolve for thousands of years just to create one little guy and put him in my house

i dont consider myself a 'fashion guru' by any means but one thing i will say is guys you dont need to know the specific brand an item you like is - you need to know what the item is called. very rarely does a brand matter, but knowing that pair of pants is called 'cargo' vs 'boot cut' or the names of dress styles is going to help you find clothes you like WAAAYYYY faster than brand shopping

this also goes for aesthetic or -core titles. 'y2k tank top' is going to get you resellers and fast fashion brands advertising to people looking to meet a current trend. 'thin strap crop tank top' is going to get you a diverse group of results and not upcharge you to hell and back

additionally, shop second hand when you can, second hand and thrift sites typically organize clothes by the cut and color. theyll be more affordable than a depop seller curating you a style to sell you

useful terminology for different kinds of clothing shapes :)

Do you know how bugfuck insane the words "Unionized Starbucks" would have sounded to someone in 2005? Baristas getting union-mandated breaks could have been a throwaway joke in part of the Scary Movie franchise as something ridiculous.

RALPH NADER WAS AGITATING FOR A FIFTEEN DOLLAR MINIMUM WAGE IN 2004 AND SHIT IS MOVING SLOWLY BUT MY STATE HAS A TWENTY DOLLAR MINIMUM WAGE FOR FAST FOOD WORKERS. WHEN I STARTED HIGH SCHOOL THE ONLY OPTION FOR AN ABORTION AFTER 7 WEEKS WAS SURGICAL AND NOW THERE'S A PILL.

FUCKING. ELECTRIC CARS. SO GODDAMNED MANY PEOPLE HAVE SOLAR PANELS ON THEIR HOUSES OR IN THEIR PARKING LOTS.

WE DON'T HAVE SMOG DAYS IN LOS ANGELES ANYMORE UNLESS THERE'S A FIRE AND IT'S BECAUSE OF CARB STANDARDS.

LITERALLY MILLIONS OF FUCKING PEOPLE TURNED OUT TO PROTEST POLICE BRUTALITY IN 2020 AND YOU CAN SAY "NOTHING HAPPENED" ALL YOU WANT BUT THE WAY PEOPLE TALK ABOUT IT NOW IS FUCKING DIFFERENT THAN THEY DID AFTER RODNEY KING AND NOW PEOPLE WILL STOP AND WATCH OUT FOR EACH OTHER INSTEAD OF GOING 'NOT MY BUSINESS'

THERE IS A MALARIA VACCINE THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO OVER A MILLION CHILDREN IN JUST THE LAST FIVE YEARS SINCE IT WAS APPROVED FOR USE OUTSIDE OF TRIALS

Something that struck me the other night as truly incredible—I grew up during the height of the AIDS crisis in the ’80s and ’90s. I remember around 1990 or so was when people really started working to bring HIV/AIDS and the search for a cure into public view and begin the really, really long work of destigmatizing it, even a little bit. The homophobic terror people had of even being NEAR someone who had the so-called “gay disease,” I really cannot understate this. A diagnosis was considered an absolute death sentence.

The other night I was watching whatever random thing on YouTube, and I got yet more of the constant ads that irritate the fuck out of me. But this one was for an HIV maintenance medication. It was a long ad, probably 60 seconds, and so help me, I watched the whole thing. It talked about this drug (forgive me, I can’t remember the name) that would let you live a happy and fulfilling life (while mentioning that of course safe sex is important). And it showed queer couples, straight couples (to break the stereotype), people who looked single and happy, different races and genders and presentations and body sizes, going out to lunch or cuddling on a couch or going out for a date, whatever it was the scene was implying. Bright colors, soothing optimistic music and voiceover, physical affection including kissing—you couldn’t even tell who among the actor couples was or wasn’t portraying an HIV patient. It blew my fucking mind to just see a whole minute of this between ads for Pizza Hut and car insurance. I’m not even sure anyone would have shown a gay couple kissing, full stop, on TV in 1990. And this ad was just out here like, if you’ve contracted this illness, there’s help for it, and you can live a good happy life among your loved ones. But also, you deserve to have that happiness, out in the open, and there will be people who love you, unafraid. Even if, and especially if, you’re gay. This is a world where this is possible. Like I’m honestly tearing up right now. I could not have imagined this in 1990. I could not.

You will swim for decades, and suddenly you will look up and see islands that you never would have dreamed of.

Growing up, almost every environmental cartoon and PSA mentioned the hole in the ozone layer as something that needed fixing NOW or the Earth would not be able to sustain life.

At some point, those messages just… stopped appearing.

Because scientists and researchers got their message across to people in power and new regulations were implemented… and the hole in the ozone layer is showing measurable recovery, within the past ten years! That is despite Everything That Happened during that time! It still got better!

Victories happen and will keep happening! Humans are working to save us all every day and they are succeeding bit by bit!

All of these things. Also:

Because that is beautiful.

I just know in my heart of hearts that in "Star Trek" at one point, there was some moral panic somewhere on Vulcan (among the uppity sorts) because Human culture was "infecting" the local youth with their overly emotional, destructive, unproductive, frivolous, and uneducational ways.

And what was actually happening was that a bunch of Vulcan kids got really into 23rd-century "Minecraft" or something.

Small Vulcan child @ another Vulcan child: (in a tone that sounds flat to Humans but angry as hell to Vulcans) "You have compromised the optimization of my fortress. I am having an emotional urge to blow up your house... in Minecraft."

Other Vulcan gamer ideas:

There's a Vulcan streamer named T'vch who creates elaborate Rube Goldberg death machines in old "The Sims"-type games from Earth, using meticulously chosen personality traits for the Sim families, stress-maximizing management, and careful home design. Angry Father Sim gets home from work one day and starts screaming about a broken TV, which causes anxious Mother Sim to freak out and drop dinner, which gets eaten by the hungry Dog Sim, which throws up, which causes Father Sim to get angry again and break the nearest object, which is the sink, so the house starts flooding, which breaks the radio, which starts an electrical fire, which causes the Robot Butler Sim to go haywire, causes Child Sim 1 to freak out and jump into the pool, and on and on and on.

ANYWAY, by the end of this elaborate 10-minute sequence, the house is completely destroyed and all of the Sims are ghosts now. The chat is filled with complicated, corresponding emoji recreations and also ironic "Live Long And Prosper"s. 🖖🖖🖖

(A Vulcan working on Earth gets obnoxiously pressured to add a joke to the work group chat, because she needs to "try to fit in better" and it's just part of the workplace's "casual culture" and "friendly banter". "We're like a family here! You're too professional!" So the Vulcan posts a GIF of an overly emotional Sim meltdown (from their current ongoing game) and titles it: "My Human Coworkers In Regards To Every Problem 😐".)

There's a Vulcan video gamer reviewer named Stom who personally believes that one must have a 100% completion rate to review games accurately. (There are other Vulcan reviewers for things who throw shade on this like, "If one cannot make a judgement call at the halfway point, or else at the point of 99%, then it is a sign of gross inefficiency in one's assessment techniques.") Stom's reviews are VERY thorough and thoughtful, and some people do acknowledge their value, but also the "Not Recommended 👎👎👎 1,087 Hours On Record" screencap from one of his game reviews becomes a fairly popular reaction image for many years.