notwhelmedyet

[notwhelmedyet]

When it comes to high-context and low-context cultures, where one has the expectation of people understanding specific subtle nuances of what someone says, and the other has the expectation that everything needs to be explicitly said to be understood, I've heard plenty of people from low-context cultures ask "why not say what you mean and mean what you say then, why would you have to speak in riddles?" about high-context ones, like people of the latter type are just being cryptic and esoteric on purpose.

But culture does not consist of things you do on purpose, it is just the way things are done where you were raised. And when you were raised in a high-context culture, the thought of needing to explicitly state something instead of using some phrase or expression that you've learned to use comes as a culture shock, too. It's not "fuck you for not correctly understanding my riddles three", but "oh shit, I hadn't occurred to me that I would need to say that out loud."

The first time I went on a business trip to the US, my partner came with me, and we immediately discovered that he does not fare well on long flights. So when my publisher asked me about future trips, inquiring whether my partner would be coming with me, I asked him. He said that he would, if the flights weren't such a problem - he would need to travel in some way where he could get his feet up or lay down during flights, like business class or first class. Being also a finn, I understood what he meant and relayed the message as is to my publisher, not considering that they might not.

To both of our surprise, they started to actually look for first class tickets for us.

Finnish culture is a high-context one, people don't talk much and aren't very confrontational. Being demanding and putting someone else into a position where they're forced to be upfront or demanding is rude. And in finnish, saying "this would only be possible if these entirely absurd/completely impossible conditions were met" is a polite way of saying "no". You are simply explaining why something cannot be done, without either saying an explicit "no" or seeming like you're making up excuses. It offers the other party an opportunity to agree that these conditions cannot be met, so neither party will come off as confrontational or demanding.

Both me and my boyfriend considered it self-evident that the request was absurd, and could not be read as anything but a polite way to decline. It had not occurred to me that an american's natural response to "it would be impossible to do this" is to start figuring out how to do it anyway.

#life advice #communication styles #yeah I would have interpreted that as a request too <- classic american

[notwhelmedyet]

Existing on tumblr the past few weeks

#on the one hand: it looks intriguing i would probably enjoy it #on the other hand: FINALLY got myself to concentrate on one blorbo long enough to write something #so it's gonna have to wait I refuse to get into anything that might risk giving me new blorbo vibes atm

[notwhelmedyet]

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[notwhelmedyet]

[image: Engraving-style drawing of an enormous bird flying along tall sea cliffs. The birds' wingtip skims the sea below and stretches up above the clifftop. Its shadow drapes over the cliff and blankets the lighthouse above.]

The artist can be found on Twitter and has a dormant Tumblr blog.

Flying South by Clara Scintilla, 2023

#i have a new favorite art genre and it is surrealist birds i think #art #surrealist bird art #couldn't find this particular piece anywhere besides tumblr but it's not on the artists tumblr blog either #reverse image search failed me today

[notwhelmedyet]

I know "60s housewives who invented slash fanfiction" has taken on a life of its own as a phrase, but Kirk/Spock didn't really exist until the 70s and THOSE WOMEN HAD JOBS. They were teachers and librarians and bookkeepers and scientists and they damn well spent their own money going to conventions, printing zines, buying fanart and making fandom happen. Put some respect on their names.

#fandom

[notwhelmedyet]

All six tarot cards collected! I decided to use white accents on elements that have an important symbolic role in each character's stories. My favorite picture out of the six is probably Karlach's card. And what do you think? Which card do you like best?

#bg3 fanart #fanart #oh oh oh these are lovely #i'm not into tarot but i am ALWAYS into tarot styled fanart sue me #the use of textures here is delicious

[notwhelmedyet]

There's a bunch of adhd advice out there that's like "people with adhd tend to work better under deadlines due to the anxiety so here are ways to artificially induce a stress response in order to get you to get work done" and it's like well what if I don't want to be stressed out all the time in order to function

#life advice #adhd

[notwhelmedyet]

harrow is like if you had a creature designed so specifically for living under rocks and snuffling in the dirt and never seeing the light of day and then you took her out of that environment and made her do things like Socialize At Family Dinner

#the locked tomb #meta

[notwhelmedyet]

The curse of modern fandom is that it has allowed fans to get even closer to artists, but they won't view the artists as people.

Human limits, human mistakes, human feelings, human needs, are never ascribed to artists, and when other fans rightfully point out, "hey, humans are making this, maybe don't harass them or demand they cater to your personal tastes," it gets shut down under, "uh, people who make popular mainstream things are automatically Public Figures who are also probably rich, so eat the rich and destroy artists over every perceived minor fault. <3"

Even though there's, y'know, a really big strike currently going on because those artists are very much not rich or influential or in control of the bullshit.

#discourse #the older model where artists would just. make art. #and if you wanted to contact them you'd send them a letter. or schedule an interview #well that sure sounds good nowadays

[notwhelmedyet]

Learning how to weave! After a brief attempt at card weaving, I discovered pick-up weaving and immediately switched over to weaving with a heddle. And since I need to make everything as complicated as possible, I'm working on creating my own patterns as I learn.

Still figuring out how to maintain an even tension when I move my set up around. Ultimately, I'll get a loom and that should solve most of my issues. They're a tad wonky, but I'm pleased with my patterns and excited to come up with more! :))

#weaving #fiber arts #damn that's cool

[notwhelmedyet]

[repeating to myself in the mirror] it is fine to write serviceable workaday sentences. not all of them have to be the God-King of Sentences, beautiful in structure, deft in word choice, gilded in metaphor, etc. sometimes a guy has to get from one side of a room to the other.

#writing advice #when I write i feel like people spend 80% of their time going to rooms #picking things up #making oatmeal #etc #could squeeze a few more god king sentences in i'm just saying

[notwhelmedyet]

Inspired by @zigraves comment:

"This is why he hasn't seen himself in 200 years - can't even get a quick sketch drawn in a pub because his hair gives the artists such a headache"

#i love this sketch #i love his little sketchy anime hair #delightful #fanart #bg3 fanart #bg3

[notwhelmedyet]

my new thing whenever an embarrassing memory jumps up out of some backwater neuron to t-bone my present-day thought process is to declare a statute of limitations. like i can burn down an entire building in the state where i live and the law deems it both unfair and illegal to prosecute me after six years have passed, i think that thing i said in high school can be expunged from my record.

#life advice #you make a good point #though personally I rarely have this problem #i think my brain is too future fixated to dwell on past mistakes much #also i have the memory of a sea sponge

[notwhelmedyet]

I think the Evil Media Bias Against Platonic Relationships is one of those things tumblr loves to get worked up about despite, like. simply not being real.

#discourse #....yeah that

[notwhelmedyet]

fucked up that the home desktop computer went from something only niche hobbyist nerds or people with jobs that require them have to something every single household has and back to something only for niche hobbyist nerds or people with jobs that require them in the span of like 30 years

#:/ #how the hell do people get by without a laptop #i don't get it

[notwhelmedyet]

Okay but you COULD do a Dracula episode of Leverage and it would be hilarious.

I would do it like this. We'd have some wrong place wrong time protagonist called Jonathan who keeps accidentally witnessing parts of the con in such a way that they appear to him to replicate the events of Dracula. Like, the crew has inhabited some castle but Oh No, the mark's innocent little lawyer man is here, can't let him catch on

Sophie yeets the mirror because our friend Jonathan is about to accidentally see the crew hard at work behind him and she panics. "Oh you don't need this honey" or whatever (something something man's vanity)

He happens to open the window and Parker is just climing the castle like a lizard because that's. What she does

Nate is in an Old Guy disguise for one part of the con, but then Jonathan Not In On It happens to see him out of costume and WTF WTF WHY IS HE GETTING YOUNGER

Letters with fake dates make perfect sense when it's a con

Gets home happens to see the Leverage crew just walking around for the next part of the con, freaks tf out

Quincey Morris is exactly the kind if character Eliot would play

Sophie gets made, decides to have an elaborate Death Scene wherein Elliot and Hardison (as a "definitely licensed doctor") "help" the Mark try to "save" her

Parker plays Hardison's "assistant" but she plays it very VERY Renfield. Jonathan swears he can see her eating bugs (maybe it's a com that she panics and pretends to eat to not give away the game)

Poor Jonathan again sees her up and about post death scene and is like WTF WTF WTF

Eventually they cotton on to what has happened and Elliot (who hasn't been made yet) promises to help Jonathan kill the vampire once and for all

All of their aliases are drawn from Dracula and this is not played as intentional in-universe

Anyway, the whole thrust is that it's a perfectly normal Leverage episode except for one guy who, due to an increasingly unfortunate series of coincidences, believes he is in the novel Dracula. Like Rear Window, only it's Leverage Dracula.

#leverage #pffft #an excellent idea

[notwhelmedyet]

"i was today years old when I learned [the most blatantly untrue folk etymology you've ever heard]!!"

#have a work friend who told me how disrespectful someone in their book club was #for dismissing a folk etymology that picnic was a word that came from lynching #and i was like. well this woman might be rude. but also. so glad i'm not in your book club #because there is 0 chance I could keep my mouth shut on that.