You Are Not Wasting Time; It Was Given To You As A Gift, Freely And Generously; Is Rain Wasted Because

[Tweet from @/fozmeadows: "human gender and sexuality are very much like animal taxonomy, in that both look structured and simple on the surface, but once you start investigating, it turns out there's actually no such thing as a fish despite the fact that we all know what a fish is, and that's okay"]

a collection of motivational insights regarding content creation and creative hobbies

and of course the classic

Sauron: *after LotR* as much as being a spirit sucks, at least I’m not trapped under a mountain

Ar-Pharazôn: as much as being trapped under a mountain sucks, as least I got betrayed by someone cool

Saruman’s ghost: as much as being murdered by Wormtongue sucks, at least I never had to have sex with my sister

Turin: As much has having to have sex with my sister sucks, at least I didn’t have to watch my kids have sex together

Hurin: I hate this game

The Lonely Side of Salad: Writing Half of ‘Arugula’

Warning - This post will have heavy spoilers for Episode 44 of Greater Boston (Arugula).

Before the start of pandemic I was thinking about changing jobs. I had worked at the same college for nearly fifteen years. I loved it but things were beginning to wear on me in ways that were continuously frustrating. Then the pandemic grew to the point where quarantining was necessary and I found myself working from home, sitting next to my daughter, logging her on to Zoom kindergarten every morning. We did YouTube Yoga. I helped her learn how to ride her bike wearing masks in a nearby church parking lot. We even made a storytelling podcast. 

Then my college started rumbling about financial shortfalls. They laid off my boss. They promoted me and then told me I had to help layoff 12 people. Then a job I had applied for before the pandemic hit reached out and asked me if I was interested. I interviewed and got the job and was so distraught about what was happening at my current college that I accepted. 

I started a new job in June of 2020. I can not begin to explain to you how strange this was. We had meetings every morning to discuss what initiatives we were working on. I panicked about this every day. I was new. I didn’t have any initiatives. Nobody was talking to me. I’d get the occasional email, the odd request. But days would go by with no feedback from my boss or colleagues. I sat at home refreshing email and literally trying to Google what I should be doing for work. 

Keep reading

something about the discourse on if fanfiction is Good or not has bugged me for years and i think i finally put my finger on why: even if reading and writing fanfiction is bad for women– because let’s not pretend all these judgements don’t hinge on whether or not women are having fun in the wrong way–it’s a voluntary activity that people enjoy doing, and that should be that.

fanfic degrades your morals– cool so does football. look at the way football players and football fans behave. when’s the last time supernatural fans set pittsburgh on fire, or tore up a strip club, or assaulted flight attendants? fuck, it would be cool if fanfic was on the level of literally any national sport.

fanfic lures you into sexual activity you might not otherwise have engaged in– so does dancing and drinking and especially drinking and dancing, activities women are also warned against but have enjoyed anyway for thousands of fucking years.

fanfic is a waste of time when you could be reading or writing Literature– almost no one does that anyway! like, if this is your beef you’re not allowed to turn on the TV until you finish Wuthering Heights. meanwhile the rest of us are going to do things that are easy and fun, because humans like doing things that are easy and fun.

fanfic is masturbatory– masturbation is actually healthy and good for you if you care to partake in it. it reduces stress, improves your mood, and acquaints you with your body’s likes and dislikes. isn’t it suspicious that this is something women are also not supposed to be doing?

IN CONCLUSION i don’t care if fanfiction is good for you and neither should you. i don’t care about the latest thinkpiece that argues that fanfiction is intelligent, sophisticated, analytical, healing, creative, revolutionary.

i care that hundreds of thousands of women like it.

because that’s enough.

in your 20s you must rediscover the joys of arts and crafts to stave off spiritual decay