also much as i hate to mention the solo movie when chewie introduced han to the wookie they found in the mines his first reaction was to pat hans head like you would when you meet a new dog
To further the analogy of Han is the Dog, According to various canon sources, a Standard Human in the Star Wars universe has a life expectancy of roughly 100-120 years. A Wookie has a life expectancy of around 400 years.
So, caring for Han for Han’s whole life is a commitment of less than a quarter of Chewie’s life. It’s like having a dog that lives to 20-22. A long term companion, but one you know you’re probably going to outlive.
I love them so much because they’re about as sharp as a baseball and their anatomy is ridiculous to the point of them literally being classified as plankton for years because they just sort of get blown around by the ocean and look confused, but because they lay more eggs than ANY OTHER VERTEBRATE IN EXISTENCE, evolution can’t stop them
Why is no big predator coming and gnawing on them?
Their biggest defense is that they’re massive and have super tough skin, but they do get hunted by sharks or sea lions sometimes and they just sort of float there like ‘oh bother’ as it happens
Even funnier, because they eat nothing but jellyfish they’re really low in nutritional value anyway, so they basically survive by being not worth eating because they’re like a big floating rice cracker wrapped in leather.
Perfect example of “survival of the fittest” NOT meaning being some hyper aggressive, muscular manly asshole. This creature fell upon the complete opposite combination of traits and just rolled with it and evolution was like “well, it’s working, somehow".
So this is just a PSA, y'all should never sign a contract until you read it. I’m talking in rl right now. I just got through reading my employee handbook/service contract and my bosses slipped in a lot of bullshit like telling me I can’t complain about my job on social media, demanding I work off the clock in the name of good service, expects me to show up on time during inclimate weather, and considered disability or religious accommodation a direct threat to the company.
These are all things I took issue with and brought to my employer for further discussion before signing the contract. Most of my coworkers signed without reading, treating it like an internet terms of service contract.
Tl;dr real life is serious shit, lawyers write contracts to protect your employer FROM YOU, read contracts before you sign them - fucking ARGUE about contracts before you sign them
one of the things i really like about los angeles is all the men hanging around with trucks full of produce
the first time i saw one was at home depot, the sun was setting, and i was with a group of friends. and right there, in the middle of the parking lot, was a giant truck filled with pomegranates, so high that he couldn’t possibly drive like that, but it was amazing
i literally stopped in my tracks. i’d never seen so many pomegranates in my life. i took pictures. i was so excited. my friends were laughing at me. people walking by were laughing at me. the guy who had the truck full of pomegranates was laughing at me. but i was thrilled. a truckful of pomegranates just right there, hundreds of them, the same color as the setting sun
maybe it’s weird to romanticize a pile of fruit, but i was thoroughly charmed.
anyway. i left the bank today, and there was a truck of oranges. so many oranges, piled almost as high as i was tall. the man had cut some of them into slices and put a bowl next the bank entrance. ‘free samples!’ he hollered. i took one. it was firm and sweet and i pulled it off the skin in one motion. i bought a bag for $5, and he studied them before choosing one for me, picking up one bag and then putting it down to grab another. ‘they’re sweet,’ he promised.
there’s something so satisfying about it, about going to cash a check or pick up some nails, and being confronted with a huge pile of brightly colored fruit, a cheerful splash of color against concrete.
support your local man with a truck full of fruit. they’re sweet. i promise.
If I ask if a food is spicy at all, and you reply “No, not at all! You can barely feel it!” then that is a contradiction. It is spicy. It may not be very spicy, or even moderately spicy, but it’s still spicy. Please just tell me that straight-out.
I know there’s a good chance you’re mocking me in your head when I say that I cannot handle spices at all, and that even the mildest of sauces, that you insist are barely there, are going to hurt, because I’m mocking me too. I know I’ve got a child’s palate when it comes to spicy food. I know it’s almost laughable, how badly I react to even table pepper in more than the most minuscule of doses.
But if I ask “is this spicy,” and you answer “not at all,” and then proceed to tell me that it’s mild, then I will still consider it too spicy.
If I ask “is this spicy at all” and you say “no” while knowing that it is, just a tiny bit, because you can’t imagine anyone reacting, then please don’t be offended when I take one bite and then throw it out, because I asked for a reason.
It’s a dumb thing to talk about, but… yeah. Just do your cannot-handle-spices friends a favor and be honest when they ask. Mild is still a level of spice.
(This goes doubly for strangers, because if they have a digestive problem like, IDK, ulcers or something, then spicy food can irritate the stomach lining further and cause extreme pain. Some people claim that capsaicin can be used to treat ulcers, but you know… just play it safe, yeah?)
Let people be babies about spices! It doesn’t hurt you any.
This is important.
Food doesn’t taste the same to everyone. There are scientific reasons that some people might be able to tolerate ‘mild’ spice and others might not. If someone tells you they are sensitive to spice, that doesn’t mean they’re experiencing what you experience when you eat those foods. It means that for them, it feels far different. It hurts.
My partner is super sensitive to spice. She calls herself a ‘spice wimp,’ which I hate, because there’s nothing wimpy about not wanting to suffer through horrible burning sensations in your mouth. Which is what she has to suffer, when someone tells her something “isn’t that spicy” when in fact it is.
This isn’t about flexing.This isn’t about being tough. This is about acknowledging that the chemical and anatomical composition of someone else’s taste receptors is different than yours, and you need to be sensitive to that.
I’ve learned to detect even the smallest amount of spice, so I can tell her if something is probably safe for her to eat or not. I’ve learned that the tiniest burning sensation to me means something is going to cause her physical pain. I’ve gotten better at identifying which foods will be okay and which will not. And you know what? I’m able to do it without being a dick about it. It has nothing to do with who’s’ tough and who’s a wimp and everything to do with the fact that her nerves process spice differently than mine do.
She’s not a wimp, and she’s not a baby. She’s just someone whose DNA doesn’t let her eat spicy foods the way someone with my DNA can. That’s all.
yes!! I feel really shitty about being unable to handle food spicier than kfc strips so I’d be grateful if people were mindful of that💞
Also someone might have sensory issues, and liking or disliking spice has nothing whatsoever to do with race 👍
to add onto this
I do actually really like spicy food! it tastes great and I’m much more willing to experiment around with spicy foods than I’ve been as a picky kid.
but the issue here is:
my body doesn’t like it.
my digestive system is pretty bad at the best of times, and it gets even worse when I eat spicy food.
just cause someone can EAT spicy food doesn’t mean that their stomach and intestines are gonna thank them later.
so if someone says “Yeah, I don’t do well with spicy food”, take them serious, no matter if it’s them being unable to stand the taste of it, because it causes them actual physical pain, ruins their digestive system, or gives them heartburn so bad they constantly feel like they’re gonna puke
I am all about the spicy foods but it costs me zero dollars to not be a rancid cheesedick about it.
Something I find incredibly cool is that they’ve found neandertal bone tools made from polished rib bones, and they couldn’t figure out what they were for for the life of them.
“Wait you’re still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???”
“Well, yeah. We’ve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.”
It’s just.
50,000 years. 50,000. And over that huge arc of time, we’ve been quietly using the exact same thing, unchanged, because we simply haven’t found anything better to do the job.
i also like that this is a “ask craftspeople” thing, it reminds me of when art historians were all “the fuck” about someone’s ear “deformity” in a portrait and couldn’t work out what the symbolism was until someone who’d also worked as a piercer was like “uhm, he’s fucked up a piercing there”. interdisciplinary shit also needs to include non-academic approaches because crafts & trades people know shit ok
One of my professors often tells us about a time he, as and Egyptian Archaeologist, came down upon a ring of bricks one brick high. In the middle of a house. He and his fellow researchers could not fpr the life of them figure out what tf it could possibly have been for. Until he decided to as a laborer, who doesnt even speak English, what it was. The guy gestures for my prof to follow him, and shows him the same ring of bricks in a nearby modern house. Said ring is filled with baby chicks, while momma hen is out in the yard having a snack. The chicks can’t get over the single brick, but mom can step right over. Over 2000 years and their still corraling chicks with brick circles. If it aint broke, dont fix it and always ask the locals.
I read something a while back about how pre-columbian Americans had obsidian blades they stored in the rafters of their houses. The archaeologists who discovered them came to the conclusion that the primitive civilizations believed keeping them closer to the sun would keep the blades sharper.
Then a mother looked at their findings and said “yeah, they stored their knives in the rafters to keep them out of reach of the children.”
The other day at the mall i saw a 15 year old sitting in a Claire’s piercing booth and it took every fiber in my being to not just grab her and take her to the actual, clean and sanitary and not guaranteed to fuck up your ears tattoo shop literally next door. Like I was frantic. Snakes manifested in my house
Piercing guns almost ALWAYS cause infections
They hurt more because they jam dull jewelry into your ear
Needles from a professional are designed to allow for minimum damage thus less pain.
The people working there literally have no idea what the fuck they’re doing and just guess it with a 1 hour training video vs a professional who trained under a mentor for at least a year and has a passion in the craft
They use bad metal for healings (copper, silver, etc) that can irritate ears. Surgical grade steel should be the only thing in your healing piercings
They put them on way to tight, causing swelling issues. Swelling is normal and piercings should be large enough to allow for that
They give you shit aftercare advice and cleaner (literally just buy saline solution at Spencer’s or hot topic for 8 dollars at the most and don’t touch them at all)
If done on cartilage it can LITERALLY SHATTER YOUR EARS
Please if any young girls in your family want their ears pierced take them to actual professional and don’t trust piercing guns. If a professional says your kid is too young (I.e a fucking baby) then trust their professional judgement. It costs more but you are getting essentially a art piece from a highly trained professional who knows what they’re doing vs a part time min wage employee who had 1 hour training on how to pierce ears.
I literally wrote an entire essay in college why piercing guns should be banned with pictures and my professor told me she was so interested in my topic and had no idea and even googled the topic herself out of curiosity and was horrified on the amount of damage they case
I am a licensed piercing professional and this is all sound and accurate advice. Get your piercings done by a licensed professional at a reputable shop. Not at the mall kiosk that uses piercing guns. Not by your friend who ordered a kit off of Amazon.
Association of Professional Piercers Aftercare Guide:
Y’all, we’re not just talking a bacterial infection that makes your ear hurt for a few days. People can and do get hepatitis and other blood-born viruses from improper sterilization of piercing guns.
Go to an actual piercing studio. They don’t use an alcohol wipe to clean their equipment - they use an autoclave and/or single-use sterile equipment.
Emmy, 22. Queer AF, intersectional feminist, designer, LARPer. I’ll respect your opinion as long as your opinion doesn't disrespect anyone's existence.
