Today, August 2 2024, would have been James Baldwin's 100th birthday.

happy birthday to me :)

Hey, if you're a minor and you're following my blog, I just need you to be aware:

You have been on this earth for fewer years than my cat has.

She turns 20 this week, everyone please say happy birthday 🥳💖

Update! She tolerated wearing a hat for the occasion ✨

Good news, everyone!! 🎉

@l3irdl3rain

When people ask what I want for my birthday as an adult I’m just like. A rice cooker? That’s literally all I don’t know, rent?

To destroy capitalism.

My birthday is actually coming up, and since destroying capitalism is beyond the means of my loved ones, I've been curating my wish list. Here's some advice based on it.

First, make sure there's something for a wide variety of price ranges. There's stuff on my wish list that's free (go to the museum with me on free entry day), and stuff that's 150$ (new vacuum I can't really afford on my own). Most are between 10$ and 40$.

One great option is to fill it with things that you would feel kind of bad buying for yourself, but that you would love to buy for a friend. Frivolities. For instance, on my list, I have wooden push pins, which are pricier than plastic ones, but that I think look cool and wish I wasn't too pragmatic to buy myself. I have a rainbow maker on there too, the kind you hang in the window. Seeing the rainbows scatter across my room will make me happy, but I can't spend 40$ on that. For a friend, though, I would buy it in a heartbeat. Same with the glitter glue pens.

I also have practical things that I would like to have, but aren't so urgent that I need to scrape up the money myself. A UV blocking parasol for getting out more. A new attachment for my stand mixer. A CD binder, for physical media storage. A humidity meter for my plants. Things that I can wait for, and that my dear ones will get to see me use over and over.

Asking for gift cards to places that you shop or that you would like to have the money to shop at is also a great option, but if you ask for this, I highly recommend sharing your haul. Gift cards can feel like a really impersonal gift to give. Sharing what you did with them makes the gifter feel less like they just shoved cash at you, and makes them more likely to get you the same thing in the future.

Experiences, like the aforementioned museum trip, are also a great option. Ask if someone would like to treat you to a meal at that cool new place that's a bit more money than you want to spend on a gamble about if the food is good. Ask if anyone wants to go hiking with you, or if they want to come to a cat cafe or to the pool with you.

Clothing is also a solid one. Well-made clothing and shoes can be expensive, and it makes people feel warm inside to see you wearing something they bought you. Specify your size, preferred brand(s), material, and colors, and you're golden.

The key is to remember that gifters want to have some feeling that they picked something out for you, but they also want you to enjoy what they give you. So, if you don't want them to pick randomly, you have to give them a variety of options within their means that they feel good about gifting. A gift that you will enjoy is best because that makes them feel that they picked well.

A good gift improves the relationship from both ends, because it makes the gifter feel that they did something good for you, and it makes the receiver feel that they are cared about and appreciated.

Some other good ideas for list items that aren't on my personal list: video games, sturdy bags/backpacks for daily use, bath and body products, spices and herbs, teas and coffees, books, puzzles, card games, and tools.

This mild complaint turned into a very helpful and insightful post. Thank you @psychoticallytrans for this lovely response.

birthdayman

If you see this post you have to say happy birthday to my lizard

She is ten* now!

She loathes the party hat

but she LOVED the cake.

She is very good and very beautiful and loves people and attention and going on walks.

She is my best friend and I think everybody should say happy birthday to Kaiju!

*Approximately. She was about one when I got her, and I’ve had her for nine years, so we’re calling her ten.

Birthday Bosch

its my birthday! 

help me buy a new chair with a tip! https://ko-fi.com/vintagefoods

or send me a drawing! https://drawme.share-on.me/LdT9Sks9Q4

A Star Trek idea: A comedy sitcom where instead of a Vulcan on a mostly human ship it is a human on a mostly Vulcan ship

All the Vulcans are fiercely protective of the ‘fragile, illogical, prone-to-danger, smart, reckless little human’.

To make the human feel more accepted (as it is only logical) the Vulcans try to include aspects of terran culture in the ship’s day-to-day life, failing spectacularly at it.

The human loves them even more for it.

They’ll get better at celebrating the human’s birthday next year. It’s the thought that counts.

@jvlianbashir​ THAT’S A GOOD END TO THAT EPISODE THOUGH… the vulcans put together awful, bland decorations. they make a cake because it’s of “significant importance”. they go through the process of putting together this party and Studying this Human Ritual and the entire episode is setting up to what you KNOW will be a horrible result. they do a bad job!! then when the human’s birthday comes, and they reveal the off-the-mark, underwhelming looking birthday bash, the human just. starts crying. because they had no idea their crew would go through all this trouble to celebrate their birthday, and even put up DECORATIONS, or make a CAKE, and there’s a birthday card with extremely polite impersonal messages written and a hundred perfectly tidy signatures. and the vulcans are just standing around like “you appear upset. the Birthday Party was unsatisfactory”.

I love this idea, and I’ve rb’d this post before, but it just occurred to me seeing it again that Vulcans are the opposite of bland when it comes to aesthetics.

Like, Check Out This Collection of Stylin Vulcan Threads Links, Folks. Would have liked to include the actual images, but tumblr was being recalcitrant past the first one, for some reason(guess they’re trying to cut their image-hosting costs). I even included stuff from Enterprise, even though I hate it and don’t consider it canon!

Or How About Their Architecture and Ship Design. The Vulcan dedication to logic does not equal a distaste for –or even ignorance of– design, artistry, and aesthetics(anymore than, to draw a real world parallel, the Islamic prohibition against depicting people leads to design blandness).

I think there’s this tendency in Western, and possibly especially English(maybe because of the especially intense and thorough-going iconoclasm of the English Reformation?), cultures to conceive of logic, discipline, and rationality as being antithetical to art and the appreciation of art, which are culturally cast as “Emotional”. But that’s not how Rodenberry conceived of the Vulcans, nor is it how various ST iterations since TOS have portrayed them. Vulcans view an appreciation of art as not only compatible with logical discipline, but as an extension of it; and they treat the presence of art, in both public and private spaces, as conducive(maybe even necessary?) to the maintenance of a properly disciplined and collected state of mind. I mean: they don’t even seem to have a non-artistic way of writing their language; all we ever see of it is that super-stylized calligraphy.

Like: Rodenberry and the original writers had Spock, in The Way to Eden, explicitly identify a counter-culture, free-love, anti-establishment, anarchic artists’ commune –essentially a bunch of Space Hippies– as being the closest thing to the Vulcan philosophy that Humanity has to offer(also he totally jams out with them, in public, which is I think the only time we see him willingly playing his lyre? Or at least: one of the very few times). For Vulcans, Art, Logic, and Discipline are intertwined, if not synonymous.

So what I’m saying is Yes to this idea, but Also: Vulcans embarrassing their Human with the HUGE AMOUNT OF ARTISTIC EFFORT, verging on garish over-design, they have put into this Birthday. And especially with the fact that the first thing out of any of the Vulcans’ mouths(after “Salutations on the Day of your Nativity, Crewmate Human. I am given to understand this is an Especially Meaningful Anniversary in your culture.”) is “I made this for your Celebration” paired with an economical point to the decoration in question, paired with eyes practically begging for critically substantive praise for said decoration, and a staunch denial that they could EVER want such a thing: please, Crewmate Human, we Vulcans, with our Logic, are SOOOOOOOO far beyond “fishing for compliments”, to use your quaint vernacular, I never said anything to the effect, which are very much not required, you must understand; Superior Morals; Moved Beyond Petty Egotistical Desires; really the very Thought; the very Idea; but please do not allow me to stop you I would not wish to be rude continue to tell me in detail what specific aspects of the decoration that I spent hours(their eyes are sparkling SO BRIGHTLY now) making –for You, Crewmate Human; Just For You– you enjoy, and describe the precise level and nature of your enjoyment, for Research and also Science; nono, no other reason I assure you; the description if you please, possibly in a 30 page essay format –double-spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman of course I am no Nausicaan– describing your feelings, and also was the sparkling silver paint too much you must tell me…

If it is not too much trouble of course :|

A Star Trek idea: A comedy sitcom where instead of a Vulcan on a mostly human ship it is a human on a mostly Vulcan ship

All the Vulcans are fiercely protective of the ‘fragile, illogical, prone-to-danger, smart, reckless little human’.

To make the human feel more accepted (as it is only logical) the Vulcans try to include aspects of terran culture in the ship’s day-to-day life, failing spectacularly at it.

The human loves them even more for it.

They’ll get better at celebrating the human’s birthday next year. It’s the thought that counts.

@jvlianbashir​ THAT’S A GOOD END TO THAT EPISODE THOUGH… the vulcans put together awful, bland decorations. they make a cake because it’s of “significant importance”. they go through the process of putting together this party and Studying this Human Ritual and the entire episode is setting up to what you KNOW will be a horrible result. they do a bad job!! then when the human’s birthday comes, and they reveal the off-the-mark, underwhelming looking birthday bash, the human just. starts crying. because they had no idea their crew would go through all this trouble to celebrate their birthday, and even put up DECORATIONS, or make a CAKE, and there’s a birthday card with extremely polite impersonal messages written and a hundred perfectly tidy signatures. and the vulcans are just standing around like “you appear upset. the Birthday Party was unsatisfactory”.

I would watch the fuck out of that

“Humans require regular physical contact to remain healthy. We have a weekly rotation for The Daily Shoulder Pat. Please inform us if this is insufficient contact, either in frequency, magnitude, or duration.”

Okay, I reblogged this because of how adorable it is, but then I started picturing McCoy as the sole human.

Oh my fucking God.

honestly this is why when a series spans multiple works some of those works should be different genres, because come the fuck on this would make a great comedy

Given how all the Vulcans we see on human ships are considered to be the emotional mavericks of their species, it would be even better if said sole human is more on the stoic and logical side and yet everyone else treats them like a wild party animal.

Once, they showed confusion followed by annoyance and everyone commented on it.

you, waking up from the chloroform in the corner of an abandoned house: wh-what the fuck… where am i

me, across the room, slav squatting in a fursuit: surprise! happy birthday!

happy blurdsday

“It came to me on my birthday, my precious.”

So… the Ring “came to” Gollum on his birthday–that is, his best friend found it, and he used the rationalization that he was “owed” it as a birthday present to justify murdering Deagol and claiming it as his own.

But then Bilbo, in keeping with Hobbit custom, deliberately picked his birthday to give it up, give it away, in a direct reversal of Smeagol’s actions. (Not that he knew that, of course!) He actually says as much to Gandalf: “After all that’s what this party business was all about, really: to give away lots of birthday presents, and somehow make it easier to give it away at the same time.”

…However, since he and Frodo share a birthday, this necessarily means that for Frodo, too, it “came to him on his birthday.” Which is both contrary to normal Shire-custom and an echo of Gollum’s beginnings (though, of course, considerably softened by the differences between them).

Bilbo ended his involvement with the Ring in the best possible way; but Frodo’s involvement began with some troubling associations.

This is too good not to reblog.

Poor dearest Frodo ❤️.

A Star Trek idea: A comedy sitcom where instead of a Vulcan on a mostly human ship it is a human on a mostly Vulcan ship

All the Vulcans are fiercely protective of the ‘fragile, illogical, prone-to-danger, smart, reckless little human’.

To make the human feel more accepted (as it is only logical) the Vulcans try to include aspects of terran culture in the ship’s day-to-day life, failing spectacularly at it.

The human loves them even more for it.

They’ll get better at celebrating the human’s birthday next year. It’s the thought that counts.

@jvlianbashir​ THAT’S A GOOD END TO THAT EPISODE THOUGH… the vulcans put together awful, bland decorations. they make a cake because it’s of “significant importance”. they go through the process of putting together this party and Studying this Human Ritual and the entire episode is setting up to what you KNOW will be a horrible result. they do a bad job!! then when the human’s birthday comes, and they reveal the off-the-mark, underwhelming looking birthday bash, the human just. starts crying. because they had no idea their crew would go through all this trouble to celebrate their birthday, and even put up DECORATIONS, or make a CAKE, and there’s a birthday card with extremely polite impersonal messages written and a hundred perfectly tidy signatures. and the vulcans are just standing around like “you appear upset. the Birthday Party was unsatisfactory”.

I love this idea, and I’ve rb’d this post before, but it just occurred to me seeing it again that Vulcans are the opposite of bland when it comes to aesthetics.

Like, Check Out This Collection of Stylin Vulcan Threads Links, Folks. Would have liked to include the actual images, but tumblr was being recalcitrant past the first one, for some reason(guess they’re trying to cut their image-hosting costs). I even included stuff from Enterprise, even though I hate it and don’t consider it canon!

Or How About Their Architecture and Ship Design. The Vulcan dedication to logic does not equal a distaste for --or even ignorance of-- design, artistry, and aesthetics(anymore than, to draw a real world parallel, the Islamic prohibition against depicting people leads to design blandness).

I think there’s this tendency in Western, and possibly especially English(maybe because of the especially intense and thorough-going iconoclasm of the English Reformation?), cultures to conceive of logic, discipline, and rationality as being antithetical to art and the appreciation of art, which are culturally cast as “Emotional”. But that’s not how Rodenberry conceived of the Vulcans, nor is it how various ST iterations since TOS have portrayed them. Vulcans view an appreciation of art as not only compatible with logical discipline, but as an extension of it; and they treat the presence of art, in both public and private spaces, as conducive(maybe even necessary?) to the maintenance of a properly disciplined and collected state of mind. I mean: they don’t even seem to have a non-artistic way of writing their language; all we ever see of it is that super-stylized calligraphy.

Like: Rodenberry and the original writers had Spock, in The Way to Eden, explicitly identify a counter-culture, free-love, anti-establishment, anarchic artists’ commune --essentially a bunch of Space Hippies-- as being the closest thing to the Vulcan philosophy that Humanity has to offer(also he totally jams out with them, in public, which is I think the only time we see him willingly playing his lyre? Or at least: one of the very few times). For Vulcans, Art, Logic, and Discipline are intertwined, if not synonymous.

So what I’m saying is Yes to this idea, but Also: Vulcans embarrassing their Human with the HUGE AMOUNT OF ARTISTIC EFFORT, verging on garish over-design, they have put into this Birthday. And especially with the fact that the first thing out of any of the Vulcans’ mouths(after “Salutations on the Day of your Nativity, Crewmate Human. I am given to understand this is an Especially Meaningful Anniversary in your culture.”) is “I made this for your Celebration” paired with an economical point to the decoration in question, paired with eyes practically begging for critically substantive praise for said decoration, and a staunch denial that they could EVER want such a thing: please, Crewmate Human, we Vulcans, with our Logic, are SOOOOOOOO far beyond “fishing for compliments”, to use your quaint vernacular, I never said anything to the effect, which are very much not required, you must understand; Superior Morals; Moved Beyond Petty Egotistical Desires; really the very Thought; the very Idea; but please do not allow me to stop you I would not wish to be rude continue to tell me in detail what specific aspects of the decoration that I spent hours(their eyes are sparkling SO BRIGHTLY now) making --for You, Crewmate Human; Just For You-- you enjoy, and describe the precise level and nature of your enjoyment, for Research and also Science; nono, no other reason I assure you; the description if you please, possibly in a 30 page essay format --double-spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman of course I am no Nausicaan-- describing your feelings, and also was the sparkling silver paint too much you must tell me...

If it is not too much trouble of course :|