Me: *Removes my cat from my lap to do something else.*
My cat: Father is…evil? Father is unyielding? Father is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the world as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household.
The spiritual successor to Miette
Might I also add
May i add the piece from artist Verbal Vomit
Glad to see we’re all in agreement that cats talk like disparaged victorian children
I am so incredibly glad we finally moved on from “i can has”. Cats are clearly smart enough for advanced sentence structure and dumb enough to draw entirely incorrect conclusions about what they’re talking about.
My cat, banging the cabnet door over and over and over: bang bang bang
Me: you will not earn what you desire by banging the cabinet door.
My cat: This is a test of wills, is it not? We shall see if your ability to put up with my incessant banging outlasts my eternal lust for snackie treats. Years of conditioning have hardened me for this purpose. bang bang bang
Me: ksst!
My cat, throwing herself to the ground like she’s been shot: Oh! Oh I have been assailed in my own home! Have mercy, have pity! Surely in the cruel darkness of your heart there is some mote of goodness that might stay your hand! Do not strike me, I pray you!
Me: ok
My cat, after waiting about 3 minutes: bang bang bang
as someone who uses they/them pronouns and works with children, never let anyone tell you that you can’t or shouldn’t teach children about pronouns and gender diversity. It’s possible, it’s easier than you’d think, and it’s beautiful
highlights from this summer at camp, where I work as a program staff member:
-I come out of my cabin dressed in a button-up and a tie for our weekly fancy dinner. Eight-year-old boy A sees me and says “she looks nice!” Eight-year-old boy B cries out at the top of his lungs, “IT’S A THEY!”
-A very young girl I’d never spoken to approaches me at checkout, hands me what appears to be a piece of abstract origami, and walks away. I unfold one of the flaps to find “peace love pride gay” written inside
-Nonbinary campers are increasingly out and visible, and they notice me (our camp director now mentions me and our other nonbinary staff member when parents call with concerns about their nonbinary kids attending camp). One spends an entire programming hour glued to my side, talking emphatically about their favorite anime while we walk down the beach together. They later present me with a nonbinary flag friendship bracelet. They’re eleven.
-Ten-year-old boy who typically has a great deal of difficulty controlling his impulses and responding appropriately to his emotions asks me suddenly over dinner whether I’m a boy or a girl. I thank him for asking me and tell him I’m not either. He responds, ever-so-chipper, “well, (camp name), I like you just the way you are!”
-Yet another rowdy ten-year-old boy, at the end of his second session at camp of the summer, tells me unprompted at dinner, “you know, (camp name), I’m really glad I came to camp, because you’re the first they/them person I’ve met. I’m sorry if I get it wrong sometimes.”
My 8 year old met a non-binary person at camp a couple of weeks ago (another child) and when I picked him up, I asked if he made any new friends and he said, “Yes, Nathan who is a boy and Ari who is neither a boy or a girl.”
It was said with such certainty and when he mentioned Ari later, he referred to them as a “she” and then stopped and said, “wait, Ari uses they/them so they said…” He’s 8. Kids can absolutely learn this and have fewer problems with it than grown ups often do.
I was a camp counselor at a STEM+Art camp one summer.
Day 1 i was in charge of watching the kids once they had been checked in. Every kid had their own preprinted name tag with their name and pronouns from their camp registration form.
I was asked by several kids if they could use a pen or marker to put in a nickname or doodle on their name tag. I said I would ask the camp director, but hours later she hadn’t gotten back to me. In the moment I didn’t understand why kids were so tense and cautious about nicknames.
There were also multiple kids I had to stop from sneaking off. Their reasons being they forgot something in their room.
I failed at keeping name tags clean and kids watched, and I was so glad I did. By the time everyone was checked in and roll call was being taken, kids had scribbled out incorrect pronouns and deadnames, and had written in the right ones. Name tags were reprinted later that day. Kids who arrived in denim dresses or grey sweaters were suddenly wearing rainbow leggings and transflag skirts.
These CHILDERN waited until their parents left them with total strangers, in a weird and unknown environment, to relax and stop being afraid. Please please please listen when a kids has a request about their name or pronouns. And maybe let them fill out their paperwork if you’re unsure.
I still contend that this is, in fact, the best video on the internet, period. The sheer comedic timing. The knowledge that it cannot possibly have been constructed. The very human expression Pallas cats’ round pupils give them. And the backstory that this was literally the first footage captured by this camera in this placement, that this is the cat immediately noticing his environment has been changed and investigating with all the suspicion of a grumpy old gardener whose gnomes have been moved again…. *chef’s kiss*
See the chap with glasses and an incredible moustache in the bottom right? that’s Magnus Hirschfeld, the gay Jewish doctor who ran the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Research) in Berlin. It was largely his books, his research that the Nazis burned.
Everyone else in this photo is a trans person that Dr Hirschfeld worked with. This photo was taken at their christmas party.
the restorative power of nature, aka the “go outside and touch grass” compilation
(1 and 9: The Nature Fix, Florence Williams; 2: tweet by down2marss; 3: tumblr post by @llleighsmith; 4: Illuminated Streaks Appear to Fall from Trees in Light Paintings, Vitor Schietti; 5: This Matter of Culture, Jiddu Krishnamurti; 6: Letter to Family, Friends, and Editors, Franz Kafka; 7: discord message sent to me; 8: photo i took at a beach in 2018)
