etoriffic

rattyhugs:

aromanticaardvark:

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and I’m sure a lot of aromantics are already well aware of what Valentine’s Day promotes in the public consciousness. I don’t think a lot of romantics are aware, however, or if they are they don’t think about it. The entire idea of Valentine’s Day promotes the idea that romantic relationships are the ultimate relationship to strive for. While some people do use this as an opportunity to send cute cards and candy to their friends and loved ones, overall the idea of Valentine’s Day essentially translates into Romance Day. This just shows how romantic relationships are valued over all other types of relationships in our society, the ultimate to strive for. Many people’s self-worth is tied up in having a romantic relationship, and this is toxic, especially when those who are aromantic, grey-romantic, demi-romantic or any variation thereof internalize these ideas and think their relationships aren’t as important or that they will never find love. 

Single’s Awareness Day perpetuates this even more. It treats being single as something sad and temporary, rather than simply a state of being. While this is the case for some, acting as if it is a universal erases people on the aromantic spectrum and also those who are simply happier being single. We do not need to be aware of the sad, poor single people and shaking our heads at their plight. We need to be aware of the people who are happy to be single, who are not single but not in a romantic relationship either, who explore alternatives rather than thinking romantic relationships are the ultimate. 

Why is this harmful? Because this continues to treat being aromantic, or simply single, as something that is sad. As something that isn’t completely fulfilling to the individual. The idea of celebrating romantic relationships isn’t one that’s inherently bad, but what is is the idea that romantic love deserves a day more than any other type of love. That romantic love is so fundamental, so important, that we need to have a day just for it. I realize Friendship Day and things like it do exist, but I have never seen them celebrated with the fervor that Valentine’s Day is.

So how do we change this? This Valentine’s Day, send cards and candy to your friends, to your queerplatonic partner(s), to your family members, to any important relationship in your life. Use Single’s Awareness Day or even Valentine’s Day itself as a platform to talk about different kinds of relationships, and how being single is not inherently bad for everyone, whether you are romantic or aromantic. Celebrate Friendship Day and days like it with just as much fervor as you do Valentine’s Day. Change the idea of Valentine’s Day one person at a time.

Promote the idea that being aromantic or any variation thereof (demi-romantic, grey-romantic, etc), or even just single and romantic is not universally bad. Remind people there are other options that are just as valid and fulfilling. 

This Valentine’s Day, make it into a day that isn’t dreaded for aromantics, singles, or people in non-romantic relationships. Make it into something new and all-encompassing. Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be bad. What is bad is valuing romantic relationships over all others. 

this is a thing i wrote.

raggedybearcat:

Which, if you think about it, makes all my hobbies all the more impressive.

alexds1:

(His name isn’t really William btw, it’s Ring-Neck Snake) (but his friends call him Bill)

They live in California and a lot of other places in the US (and Canada and Mexico), which is lucky because they are really pretty. You can find them all around the bay area if you live around where I do. The closest one that I’ve found around people was up by the Lawrence-Berkeley labs, just chillin’ under a metal pipe. They are very small, pretty and timid for snakes (aka won’t immediately fling shit in your face), and look pretty boring from the top… then you pick it up and it flips over to scare you, revealing it’s beautiful vibrant orange tail. The best part is it curls its tail into a shape to further startle you.

Look how sweet he is, he is trying to hide his face under the scary tail.

It is startling, but in a very lovely way. If you see one, and if you are gentle, you can pick it up and play with it. Then put him back where you found it and be glad you got to make a new friend. (NB: They are sliiiightly venomous, but their mouths are way too small to get even a finger in there. I’ve never seen one attempt to bite or strike. They also have opisthoglyphous teeth, if I recall correctly, which means they are rear-facing and aren’t super great at venom delivery anyways).

Anyways, that’s William for you.

You’re great :) Everything about how adjectives work were right, but I caught two other mistakes. “Ander’s” should be Anders’ and “interesting” should be “interested”. Toodiloo.

Got ‘em! Tack så mycket. C:

Okay so, I came to the startling and terrible realization that my understanding of adjectives in Swedish is really basic and I need to…make it stop being basic, right now. >:| So I figured I would make a post about adjectives because one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to other people! Native swedes, make sure I don’t make any glaring mistakes D:

So Swedish has two genders for nouns, common (en words) and neuter (ett words). Adjectives reflect the gender and number of the noun they describe.

Let’s say we have the adjective “stor” (big). For common nouns, the adjective is going to stay unchanged, basically just how you would find it in a dictionary.

• en hund - a dog
• en stor hund - a big dog

For neuter words, a -t is added to the adjective.

• ett rum - a room
• ett stort rum - a big room

For plural nouns of either gender, the adjective gains an -a ending.

• två stora hundar - two big dogs
• två stora rum - two big rooms

Those are all examples of adjectives being strongly inflected to show the gender/number of the noun. There is also a weak inflection, where the adjective always ends in -a regardless of number/gender. This is used when talking about a noun in the definite form, or otherwise targeting a specific noun (my own jacket vs. a random jacket, for example).

• den röda hunden - the red dog
• det röda huset - the red house
• de röda rummen - the red rooms
• min stora hund - my big dog
• flickans stora hus - the girl’s big house
• Anders stora rum - Anders’ big room

Note that the den/det/de must be present—it would be incorrect to only write “röda hunden” for “the red dog”.

Also know that the weak inflection is only used when the adjective is directly before the noun—not when the noun is described to be that adjective in another way. If the adjective is prescribed to the noun later, go back to using the strong inflection.

• det stora huset - the big house
• huset är stort - the house is big

Adjectives that end in -d or -dd drop those letters and have them replaced by -tt in neuter form.

• en röd hund - a red dog
• ett rött hus - a red house

Adjectives that end in -ad get an -e instead of -a.

• en intresserad hund - an interested dog
• två intresserade hundar - two interested dogs

The adjective “liten” (small) is annoyingly irregular. It has no plural form of its own, and instead changes to an entirely different word—“små”. When it is weakly inflected, it becomes “lilla”.

• en liten bil - a little car
• ett litet hus - a little house
• två små hundar - two little dogs
• det lilla rummet - the little room.

Anddd the adjective “bra” (well/good) doesn’t change at all no matter where you stick it!

And I think that covers most everything. I might have to make more posts like these to solidify grammar rules in my mind and to use for easy reference. I hope that was vaguely interesting/helpful for some of you XD I’ll come back and add to this if I realize I’ve forgotten something.

youknowyoureasexual:

you’re certain that asexuality is not boring

A-freaking-men.

aaahhh I wish I had advice! ;n; tbh I’ve let my mom make all my big decisions for me, I decided what I want to do and she’s been all “okay this place has this and it’s good and you should do this” and I’m just like OKAY IF YOU SAY SO a;slkfja

Yeah like…I feel like that would work if I was still in high school but my uh… reputation in my family for being SUPER SMRT + the fact that I am somehow 20 years old makes them…really hard to ask for things? Because it’s like when I was trying to get a job and my dad was like just go out and APPLY FOR THINGS AND SUCCEED ALREADY and I’m like yeah but you don’t seem to understand that I haven’t done this before????? that is why I am trying to get your help since you’re Mr. Hasn’t-been-unemployed-for-more-than-two-weeks-since-you-were-18 or whatever. ughhh being an adult is so difficult

collegesearch.collegebo… might help you, Eto.

ahh thank you, I knew there was a college searching site the schools usually used but wasn’t sure where to find it. <3

:c Try to take it one step at a time. Write down what you know you need/want. Look at places one at a time, and take notes. Ask a friend to help you, if you feel too scattered. And have a warm drink. You can do this.

Thanks for the advice. Maybe I should make a spreadsheet or something » since that might be more organized than just stray notes.

thanks you guys I love you all here is a gif of a shiba that I found in my bookmarks (presumably the expression I’ll be making while wading through college websites):