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This is my favorite ever description of Tolkien.

Bam! Right in the kisser.

*Waves in greeting from across the Internet*

(Don't know if you've gotten questions like this before but wanted to see what you'd think, considering how much you seem to like Shadow.)

Q: Concerning Shadow's title of Ultimate Life Form, do you think that it is something empowering he should wear with pride, or a curse/burden to be freed of which, among other things, shackles him to horrific and unrealistic expectations?

I feel like this question is kinda like a litmus test for why a person may like Shadow.

Personally, I think there's nuance to be found here. To me, Shadow feels both those ways about being "The Ultimate Lifeform," but how he feels about it bounces between one or the other depending on his mood. He is The Ultimate Lifeform, a being of great power that demands respect when he's trying to intimidate someone or achieving his goals -- Goals only he is capable of achieving, with what he is and all that. Obviously. He's the Ultimate Lifeform, so of course he should be the one to step in and solve the problem. He was designed to be an unstoppable force...

... So when he fails, he has to mentally come to grips with that failure in a way that, I feel, is more difficult for him than, say, if Sonic fails. Sonic is natural. His failures are natural. Shadow is unnatural. His failures. Are. Unnatural. They are not meant to happen. It's arrogance until it's not. His status is just as much a rope he holds to climb a mountain as it is a noose around his neck. A source of confidence, and Gerald Robotnik's judgemental gaze.

He's proud. He's an achiever. He's a pillar of strength. Until he slips.

So, how he (may) feel is how I feel. Depending on his mood, Shadow's Ultimate Lifeform title is both a boon to him and a great and terrible weight. He draws strength and self-loathing from it in equal amounts. That's simply how I interpret it, anyway.

Let’s not forget Hans Rosling

Not that I think we will. But it’s something I feel the need to say out loud to ensure myself of it.

Woke up this morning to finding out that Swedish statistician, public speaker, doctor and academic Hans Rosling had died. It hit me harder than I thought it would, the more I thought about it.

Of course, my thoughts go out to his family and friends first and foremost. But I just had to take a few moments to think of how many things he made me think differently of and how I still refer to him to this day.

You might not recognize the name, but perhaps you’ve seen his videos?

Hans Rosling was a professor of international health. He took his knowledge and created incredible computer programs and graphics because what he wanted was to educate, and he realized that one of the best ways of educating was through visual entertainment. He was incredibly pedagogic. He knew how to teach. 

This was a man who spoke about global health, global warming, economy, development, immigration and world population and he constantly kept his positive outlook on the world and truly believed that we could become better.

(He was also involved in starting the Swedish branch of MSF.)

Somehow, it feels like an extra huge tragedy to lose someone who was so dedicated to fact-based science and the importance of educating right now of all times. No, people never die at the right time. But for me, it felt like his death highlighted why we have to keep speaking up, why we have to keep being more vigilant than ever when it comes to our sources and to guard science and statistics so that they don’t become twisted by political agendas. 

As he said himself, when talking about Sweden’s own populist right-wing party: “We must not let the Swedish Democrats get monopoly on the truth, it is very dangerous to do so.” And I think that rings true for a lot of people today.

He was an amazing man. He made numbers and statistics fun for many, you know? With his somewhat broken english and colorful dots he made people enjoy it. And even though he was talking about world hunger or poverty he truly made people believe that we are on our way to a better world. 

So if you haven’t, I’d really recommend to check some of his stuff out. We need to ensure what he dedicated so much of his life to lives on, because it is so important right now. 

TED Talks: The best Hans Rosling talks you’ve ever seen - In memory of a great man and the numbers he loved.

Population growth and climate change explained by Hans Rosling in under four minutes

In Honor of Hans Rosling, Watch Some of his Best Videos (with article)

Or just about any video with him you can find on youtube.

Thanks for reading.

Green Love Letter by Masa-San, Fujino, Kanagawa, Japan

Hey, when I was a kid a twenty-something with the cartoon-rotted mind of a rat-brained child, I used to read lots of screenshot-style Let's Plays. (for anyone unfamiliar with the format, it's like a video let's play with commentary, only instead of a video it's a bunch of images from the game and the commentary is in the form of text. Essentially it's like a very long, comprehensive, full-spoilers written review.) I had a grand time corrupting my mind with Darkseed and Harvester without having to actually play them.

Long have I considered making a screenshot let's play of my own, but did not encounter a game that was quite compelling enough. ahem. until now. thinking of doing a screenshot let's play of gollum game, because there's stuff in the game I'd love to scream into the void about but I wouldn't want to do a video commentary - one reason being because I am running the game on the minimum visual settings and it would look as bad as it can possibly look, another being that it's such an intensely dialog-heavy game that I would either be talking over things that you really should be hearing, or pausing the footage in order to talk & blowing up the video length to like 30 hours & creating an editing nightmare for myself.

if I did this it would be posted as pages on my blog like the fanfic image gallery- I would not be posting spoilery commentary on your dash, I would be posting links to where you can read the full installment, probably accompanied by spoiler-free doodles. (I know the game's been out for nearly three weeks and people who would really care about spoilers have had time to watch playthroughs, but I still don't want to post spoilers because what if people just haven't gotten around to watching it yet or something. it's not a massive game but it's also not something so short you can just catch up on it right away on a whim on your lunch break)

a screenshot let's play would be just enough of a time investment that i was sort of hoping someone would indicate a little bit of interest before I actually do anything. not a ton of interest- honestly one (1) like on this post would probably be enough to convince me. if you do not want me to do a screenshot lets play please do not interact with this post, ty

edit: I am hearing some interest so this is now an announcement post! It will be a while before I post anything though, I am going through a second playthrough first to explore dialog options, look for little things I missed & decide on: 1) which dialog choices I will want to make in my official playthrough 2) whether there's enough story divergence to be worth tentatively planning an abbreviated second run playthrough, or if I can cover the game adequately by just giving a brief aside/summary of what happens when you choose the other options if you know the answer to this pls dont tell me! i'm still enjoying exploring the game for myself

So I will probably not start posting my let's play for a few weeks, unless I get really sick of doing productive things & binge this whole game this weekend, which isn't an impossibility.

hey! donate to uk trans charities today because it’s gonna be a rough one

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters , my number verified on the list is ( #425 )✅️

Google Docs

GazaVetters

📢Very urgent.!

🚨 We Need Your Kindness to Survive

My name is Inas Imad, from Gaza, and I am 30 year old wife and first time expecting mother living in the most unimaginable and dire circumstances for over a year now. Three years ago I married my best friend and have struggled trying to start a family. Even after this war began, my husband and I did not lose hope in starting our family and we continued in determination to live and to bring new life into this world. I am now currently pregnant with our first child, however due to the consequences of this war, I am faced with a high risk, dangerous pregnancy according to the doctor and I am very afraid that if I do not get get adequate nutrition, the medications, and supplies that I need, I will lose my child. The doctor has ordered medication to be given by injection throughout my pregnancy to help me carry my baby to term, however I do not have the money to purchase the medication and syringes needed, nor do we have the money to purchase adequate nutrition. Life here in Gaza is very difficult and we become more hopeless by the day. My husband and I had just started to build our lives together. We had a nice home where we had planned to start our family, and now we are subjected to living in a tent where there is no bathroom and we spend our nights just trying to get warm. It has been difficult being pregnant and not having a bathroom or even a bed to sleep on, but I want my child more than anything. The only hope we have left is in our baby and I am asking you to stand with us. Please, help us in any way you can to save our child. We feel very alone and abandoned, but we are determined to live and we want to see our child be one of the miracles that comes out of Gaza. Any amount you can donate, no matter how small, means the world to us. We will never forget you standing with us. Please, help me to evacuate from Gaza so that I can see my dream of being a mother and bringing my beautiful baby into this world to make it a better place and helping my husband and I be able to watch our child grow up. We will be forever grateful to you.

Please you are hope for me!

Don't make me lose hope.!

He is my first child.!😭😭😭

How You Can Help:

I’m sharing our story with the hope that someone out there might care. Even $10 can make a big difference for us, and if you’re unable to donate, just reblogging this post can help spread the word.!

Campaign link🔗⬇️

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Inas to evacuate & overcome high risk pregnancy in Gaza, organized by Amanda Marsh

Hello, my name is Amanda Marsh and I have set this campaign u… Amanda Marsh needs your support for Help Inas to evacuate & overcome high ris

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there’s just some fics... they never leave u bro. i’ll be sitting on the toilet four years later thinking about the 94k enemies to lovers fic that captured my soul