#are you sure we can't eat them

[belleslettres-love]

Out of curiosity, when mama mice eat their babies, are they *infants* or the equivalent of mousey teenagers?

#not hp #parenting #parentingteenagers #are you sure we can't eat them

[worstloki]

people just ignore Thor was a feral child, huh? like his life goal was probably to demolish another race at age 12 and he was probably begging to go to war and attempted to murder their father for not letting him via telepathy that he didn't have.

#people are like ''loki stabbed thor at age 8'' like im sorry but thor is older and im pretty sure he would've given loki the knife #Frigga was probably like ohhh you can wage war when your brother is old enough to go with you. can't let you two go alone! #and Thor naturally was like ''ok. i will Arm the Child'' #like for SURE Thor was the kid eating dirt while Loki just sat next to him looking very confused about it #Thor: Father said we are Part of Asgard and need to Eat To Grow and then one day will be Big Enough to Fight ! #he tries to feed Loki the dirt so he'll grow up quicker too but Loki starts crying and now Thor's forgotten about it and trying to calm him #Thor like no no don't cry i'll find us something else to get big with :( #carries him away and gets dirt all over them both because his hands were still dirty #fast forward the bros are sitting on the ground under a table monching on lemon cakes (or whatever) absolutely COVERED in dirt #they have left a dirt trail behind them so their hiding spot won't be effective for long #and also Thor doesn't think voices should get across what is clearly a sturdy table cloth so he's not sure how they were 'discovered' #Frigga: you cannot get dirty and go in the kitchens #Thor: LOKI WAS SAD. AND WE NEED SUSTAINENCE TO GROW MOTHER. WE MUST FEED. #Frigga: -_-'' #(Loki is still munching on a lemon tart. the same one despite the room change because he's eating it slowly while Thor reasons with Frigga) #(half of the words anyone is saying go over his head but he is enjoying the expressions being made)

[bugsbenefit]

headspace mainly taken up by the bus callback but also what's up with the dead cat plushie, the only thing i can think of is Mews asdjfhaldl

#okay but Dustin finding mews dead was genuinely a bit fucked i was Living for them making Dart eat his (mom's) other pet #s1 was majorly fucked up sure but we only see the dead who died off screen not a democreature actually eating anything living #just that random deer where you can't really see anything #sometimes grotesque horror enhances the story after you've already shown the monsters bare ass to everyone yk #also would it be really funny if they killed Mrs Hendersons cat again? idt they're doing that but i'm curious what the dead cat #is about this time lmao #st s5

[anaalnathrakhs]

i keep looking at posts like "i stopped a binge" "i prevented a binge" and all of them are like. "i waited until the urge went away". buddy. the urge doesn't go away. there's no urge. there's just nothing else to do. i don't have anything else to do. every time i stop eating no matter how long i sit with the feeling or not, i always go for more food because there is genuinely nothing else in my life. nothing is enjoyable anymore. the world sucks. no matter what i force myself to do it's the only positive thing i can ever find.

#like okay cool i let the people around me guilt me into eating whatever they think i should be eating #i get it. i'm so fucking stupid for missing out opportunities to try new food. i should never buy the same food twice. #i should always buy all the variety i can and try everything. #i'm so stupid for having eaten the same stuff in a loop for years and years #i'm a massive fucking weirdo for not eating when other people are eating #i keep stealing food from my parents and the people around me i keep taking way too much of stuff intended for a group #nowhere i go will be free of obligations #i have to keep buying my own poison because everywhere i go there's other people's food waiting for me anyway #my parents keep looking at me like a freak no matter if i eat dinner with them or not #they see me binge and nothing happens #we just ignore it #i just eat until Designated Eating Time is finished #hunger doesnt ever have anything to do with it i just eat when food's in front of me #i need the ritual i need the structure it brings to my life #both meals with other people and my ritual binges #i dont know what to do with myself when i'm not binging #and it's like i'm not allowed to not want food #to other people #it's like i must necessarily want all food and anytime i refuse it's restriction #my friends are always like ooooh you can grab some of my fries if you want #or oooooh do you want the rest of my cookie #or ooooooh and how about you are you ordering something #and i'm like :) yeah sure :) like anybody else would :) #and to myself. to myself i don't know. i think i just want to give up. i want to suffer and i want to fuck up so badly. #so badly that no one can deny i need help #i want to be proven right. i'm just a little weakling and all i'm good for is to haunt the halls of a mental hospital. #no responsabilities no pressure nothing but a pitiable suffering victim #i want somebody or something to swoop in and save me #but nobody will come. it's my job to ask for reasonable help from the relevant authorities. and currently they can't offer that care. #so fuck me i guess

[neverendingford]

.

#tag talk #vent #I don't wanna do the whole “I'm so good at psychology cause I've fixed myself. I should go into counseling” thing that overly empathetic #empathetic people do. but like. nothing like deconstructing a tense social conflict to make you feel good #the smol autistic minecraft enby who adopted me had a moment and I helped break down the situation and resolve shit with them. it was cool #but also I immediately went out to the living room and napped for three hours. thinning that hard was exhausting. #do you ever do the depression nap thing? when I'm doing well I never sleep during the day. but when I'm sad I take naps a lot #because I don't want to be awake and I sleep poorly at I night and am just generally lethargic so I nap on the floor or couch a lot #ugh knowing the stress will go away doesn't help the fact that it's super awful right now. #it's times like this that I wish I'd really committed to it in Feb. like. in two weeks I'll be better and joy de vivre and all that. #but right now? ugh. big fuckin ugh #the minecraft emotional labor thing is just a natural responsibility of being a 25 year old playing online video games with 15 year olds. #if I see a situation blowing up I can't hear sit by and watch someone destroy their friendships on the server. I have to help #but also bro I am struggling to help myself. maybe I say I'm packing up my pc early so that I have a good excuse to stay off the server #I literally did the thing again where I make new friends. make everyone love me. and then get burnt out at the speed of light and disappear #making friends is so easy. leaving friends is so easy. nothing is forever and we all die someday. blah blah blah you know it already #meaningless meaningless. all is meaningless. maybe king Solomon was just fuckin depressed when he wrote that. sure sounds like it to me. #I just can't do anything when I'm like this. we're subsistence living now bois. #I wonder if part of my neurological damage is from the lead I used to eat in high school. #the windex shots can't have been good for me. but I don't think that stays in your body the same way #though it did fuck up my urinary tract for a few months. that was wild. #anyway. I wonder how much of my chronic periodic funk is just effects from bad choices and how much is normal natural inevitable. #everything is an ocean. nothing is a lake. the waves are always thirty feet high and the troughs scrape you on the bottom of the reef #nothing is midline except when you're rushing through to one extreme or another. #you're either overstimulated or absent from your body entirely #both of which cause wild and oft unbearable dissociation. #everything gets better and everything gets worse. I'm only like this when I'm stressed. but that's my secret cap (avengers reference) #anyway. I'll survive. I'll make it. I'll live because I need to become even more gay to make my family mad. #I need to keep living so my dad realizes just how much he's lost touch. #so my mom cries about how she should have done something differently so I wouldn't grow up gay. because that makes so much sense right?

[beholdthemem]

Well, on a positive note, I can at least say that I've finally started bonding with my sister's boyfriend as opposed to making awkward stilted small talk while we both wait for her to reappear and save the conversation.

#personal #he is a nice kid it's just that neither of us were ever quite sure what to say beyond just Generic Politeness #but there's nothing like a group 911 incident to break the ice and get you all to talk like normal people afterwards. #scared the shit out of him. i think this was his first experience with it poor dude. #when i left today he was still hanging out with taly because neither he nor taly wanted her to be alone and i ended up leaving him with #over 40 bucks for takeout because we have taly food here but the pickings for people without dietary restrictions #are slim and i was worried about him not being willing to leave to go eat and just skipping food altogether. #sweet thought but last thing either of them need. #just shoving him a wad of bills like 'here i gotta head out but please eat' #i think an ambulance has come to the neighborhood like. 5 times since I've lived here #and 3 of those times have been for us. #saw the older brother from the end of the block going back in without a word after coming out to see what was going on #and while normally i have no issue with that one- he's a bit of a hermit and put up with a lot from us neighbor kids when we were little #without bitching about it it's just tge younger brother i can't stand- i couldn't help feeling a little bit scathing about that. #okay there are you satisfied? did you get your look? your entertainment? you gonna go back home and be like It Was That Family Again 🙄? #gonna go back to your quiet life and your jackass brother? #ugh. I've gotten very mean lately. not to anyone in person i don't say anything that would hurt anyone's feelings #i just find myself... thinking them now. when i didn't used to. #it isn't nice. i wish i didn't.

[gottagobuycheese]

WIP Game

Tagged into the accountability relay race by @theaggresivepacifist — thanks a mil! Also please know that I am making the biggest bug eyes at your previews 

Rules: In a new post, show the last line snippet(s) you wrote and tag as many people as there are words as you want geez I’d never be able to tag that many people

Well, I haven’t written anything consistent in a while, and the most recent thing is still secret unfortunately, BUT I do have a couple things to share that will hopefully at some point make it out into the world beyond my drafts:

Snippet #1 a.k.a. You Want To Watch Nobody Knows, You Want To Watch Nobody Knows Soooooo Bad

Each knock on the door made her heart spasm against her sternum, faster and faster until the nauseating tide of dread in her chest threatened to choke her.

There was an officer outside her door. She was sure of it. Things had been too good for her lately, so it was only a matter of time before the universe had to course-correct. So-yeon only ever brought misfortune upon the people she loved, after all.

She stumbled toward the door in a daze.

This was it. This was the end. This officer was going to tell her — they were going to tell her —

She opened the door.

Snippet #2 a.k.a. The Jung Sibling Cinematic Universe ft. Han Sooyoung’s Confessional Booth

“Sorry,” she says, after nothing happens for another minute, “where did I leave off?” 

“You were walking from Chungmuro and chatting about things.” There’s an odd catch in Sooyoung’s voice when she mentions the station, but Heewon doesn’t dwell on it. She’s too busy staring at the boy in the bed, who would be staring right back at her if only he would open his eyes. 

“Siblings,” she says quietly, staring at Kim Dokja’s sleeping face. “We were talking about siblings.”

Snippet #3 a.k.a. YOU WANT TO READ ORV, YOU WANT TO READ ORV SOOOOOO BAD

In the back of his mind, a conversation he’d had with her years ago plays in a loop, about rereading and finding something new. That the story you read the first time isn’t the only story there is. He looks at his mother now, at her hand holding his arm, feels the uneven tremble of her fingers as they try to decide between holding on and letting go, and notices, for the first time, that the thought at the front of his mind isn’t all the ways she had hurt him. 

It dawns on him slowly, then all at once. 

Maybe that’s what this feeling is.  He wonders if it’s been there since before he’d woken up. 

“Eomma,” he says, the rusty syllables clunky on his tongue, “why don’t you come back inside?” 

It’s been so long since I’ve gotten to look at my dashboard or even be online consistently on any platform, so I don’t know who is still actively writing right now, THEREFORE I apologise and please feel free to just consider this a friendly no-pressure hello. Of course, if you are working on something you are allowed to share, I would love to see it! @imperiousphasmid​, @fremulon​, @darkpurpledawn​, @diminished-fish, @internetkatze, @directorofthefalselastact​, @demonlikejudgeoffire

And if I didn’t tag you but you want to join in on the sharing please do! Tag me so I can see it! Wait for no one! 2023 is the year of grabbing your desires by the horns and making them happen without waiting for permission!!

#unless that desire is wanting to sleep through an entire week of work maybe do not do that #as far as our pact: please consider this as an advance receipt for the promise of completing reviewing at least Some Questions this weekend #by the time Monday rolls around I will have earned this post's right to exist #anyways this is just a front for my greed at wanting to read everyone's things #I DON'T CARE IF I DON'T KNOW THE FANDOM I WANT TO SEEEEEE #and no I do not know if or when any of these will be finished lol #sure would be nice! sure would love to finish something some day #tag thingy #tag game #aww look I thought I could write #asa you have my permission to read this because it contains virtually no significant information about either of these media #BUT WE WILL COMPLETE THEM SOME DAY #also hiiii cherry and claudine and jess and quandt long time no talk!! I hope you are well :D #sona and opal I know I barely know you guys but I love reading your orv thoughts so if you have any unclassified things to share #please feel free to do so #also feel free to not do so sdhfkskfss I meant it when I said this was a no-pressure thing #ANYWAYS that ended up taking my entire morning off and I still have to pack a bag and take a shower and do some notes #oh and also eat #whoops #man why can't I have the whole day off :( #it's such a nice day outside perfect for spending at home

[coldflasher]

you know what’s a scam? at the end of last year i just severely stopped giving a fuck at work and i was literally spending so much time doing fuck all, messing around on my phone for most of the day only to then edit like 30k in the space of 2-3 hours after lunch, and somehow i got away with it and my quality scores were fine. this year i was like okay this is not cool, i’m gonna make a determined effort to do this properly. so now i actually focus and don’t procrastinate, and yet i’m now consistently underperforming and i’m about to be put on performance review for the second quarter in a row which is... not great

i personally think our scoring system is stupid and needs an overhaul because in spot checks, they take off the same number of points for everything. so if i were to completely fail to edit a sentence and left it in a completely unreadable state, i would only lose one point, but then i also lose a point if i misplace a hyphen. so like. last year i somehow managed to fully miss this massive sentence that ended up making no sense whatsoever, and that was fine, apparently, because i didn’t lose points in other areas, but now i’m about to be put on performance review because i missed a few commas and accidentally used a mixture of single and double speech marks in a quote

the worst part is the way they do checks is so annoying because they just pull two random papers from the past 3 months and you can GUARANTEE they will pull a shit one. you can be on top form for ages and then have one bad day and somehow they always manage to pick the one paper you made mistakes on. i’m aware that they do this on purpose to put the fear of god into you because the idea is obviously that every paper should have no mistakes but let’s be real, that’s not realistic. human error is a thing. everyone makes mistakes. and somehow they have a sixth sense for finding the papers you made those mistakes on.

the problem is that last time i went on performance review, they monitored me for a bit and then did an extra spot check and the papers they pulled that time were basically perfect. one literally had no errors and the other had like. two. so i got a near-perfect score. which probably made me look great, like i’d worked really hard to fix the issue, which to be fair, i did. and they were really happy with that. except this quarter they pulled two more and i got the exact same bad score i got last time. so now it looks like i only started putting in effort when i was being monitored and then just immediately stopped trying again as soon as i wasn’t under review which ISN’T EVEN TRUE. i’m genuinely trying, here. but i’m very aware of how bad this looks and now i’m gonna have to do another one of those awful meetings where they bring up the fact that i’m Underperforming (*already shaking and crying at the mere prospect. once again i am about to get a bad grade in having a job*) and they literally have a senior manager who just. sits in the meeting in silence. watching. and nodding. while some other guy points out all the mistakes i’ve made. because that isn’t unnerving at all

i hate employment, i want to go live in a little hobbit hole and never have to receive another performance review again

#im genuinely just not cut out for this #because like here's the thing: i clearly am capable of getting those scores #but i have not yet figured out a way to do so that doesn't involve me being so stressed and burned out #that i want to put my head through a wall #like sure i can fix all your commas but also i have to spend an hour doing unpaid overtime every day to make up for the time i spent crying #and im not being funny but IT'S COMMAS. IS IT THAT DEEP #like yes ideally i would catch them all. im aware that it's my job to do so and i'm doing my best #but when you have to edit 40k a day every single day for 5 days a week. that's a LOT of work #im starting to realize why we have such a rapid staff turnover actually #i keep thinking that it's me and im the problem and maybe i just can't hack it... but actually #looking at how many people have quit in the year i've worked there #and the fact that someone recently applauded one of my coworkers for her long service and she's literally worked there for 3 years... #maybe. this isn't a sustainable pace for a normal person to keep up with #every now and then i think about trying to get a new job but i don't handle change well #when i made the transfer to this job from my supermarket job i literally had crying meltdowns every day for the whole training period #...are we sensing a theme here? #but i got away with it cos it was all remote so they didnt know that i was handling it so badly #but the thought of getting a new job and having to learn how to do something else is just. awful. genuinely hideous #i guess im just gonna have to deal with being extremely stressed for the entire rest of this year. no matter what i have to do #make sure my next two spot checks are all perfect and hope that i also don't end up succumbing to the urge to eat my laptop #oh yeah anon if you read this im afraid i do not care if i sound like a wanker #im allowed to be a little bit of a bitch about capitalism actually. as a treat #long post for ts

[bambi-marquez]

.

#nah i can't praise my housemates enough #like I've told them about my anxiety and a lil about ed stuff and they are just the best #like we went out yesterday (out out lol) but one of the other boys didn't wanna go in bc it was super loud and was tons of people #like even I wasn't sure if I wanted to go in and i said to them we were gonna go and instantly one of them was like 'are you okay??? #like gah they're so sweet #and when me and the other boy got home he was like 'are you feeling better' bless #and not to mention them making sure that I'm eating proper #they're good eggs #tw ed

[stuckinakillingjar]

my mom telling me that my parent's divorce didn't affect my brother and me much, as if those two didn't completely annihilate my view on love and relationships between people in general

#sometimes i really do ask myself what is going on in that woman's head #i don't wanna get too deep into thoughts on myself i feel like i'm already oversharing way too much #anyways i think my mom thinks that i'm questioning my gender LMAOOO #sorry the change of topic rn was so funny to me #i always looked a bit androgynous like my voice was always really deep and yk something about my face doesn't really look woman-ly #but don't get me wrong i myself am 100% sure that i'm a woman like i can't imagine being anything else #but to others it might seem that way because of the way i act and sound and dress and look #and i literally wore grey sweatpants and one of my brother's tshirts and my mom stood in the bathroom door and like #asked me 'why do you dress like a man' in the most serious way ever and i cracked tf up 😭 #and just now we were eating and she's like: 'nica let me know if you need help with something ok?? anyways i ordered you some bikinis for #our vacation. i ordered them specifically with sports bras and not...you know...what women wear' #and i was like '.........' #dude i literally am a woman pls #like it's sweet and all that she tries to figure out what i'm struggling with but she's going in an entirely different direction 😭 #i've been trying to tell you that i'm INTO women not that i myself am NOT a woman 💀 #nica.talks

[fazcinatingblog]

What is a Bronx cheer compared to a normal cheer compared to a girl screaming TRENT TRENT TRENT AFTER THE SIREN WE WON WE WON

#this guy on Twitter is so dumb though #he's always awful about everything #but never forget that Trent caught the golden snitch at the end and kicked a goal worth 150 points and we won #Trent baby #my hero #still can't believe we won #amazing #Trent is the hero #statue of Trent outside the AIA centre #i live in a world of delusion #Trent still plays for Collingwood and ginnidiot is on a drug ban for 2 years and Taylor Adams is always perpetually injured and #i mean i work for sophia so delusion is easy to tap into #Just think like sophia #what would Sophia do #always the best advice for literally anything in life #tired? have a nap #running out of money? yell at your admin worker to creatively account some invoices #got too much money? buy the house next to one you already own #have four kids? demand they all become accountants and never talk to them if they don't #too lazy to go outside? smoke inside #hungry? 6 cheese biscuits #still hungry? try another 6 cheese biscuits #hungry again? 6 choc chip cookies #water? make sure it's sparkling mineral water #soup? chicken cup a soup without noodles #if it's the wrong soup? reprimand whoever did this atocious act of betrayal and eat it anyway #want more money? hire more accountants #i spelt atrocious wrong #dinner after work and too tired to cook? $20 fish and chips #taxi? use one of your 53 accountants instead

[running-in-the-dark]

went to bed early and woke up before 8am today! pretty cool. except I woke up with a bad headache and eventually had a very long nap.

I'm just so damn tired! like, no matter how much or how well or when I sleep, I'm still tired all day. so it's just pointless trying to fix my sleep schedule (when I'll just be asleep most of the day anyway).

#and also. #my mother in law just very sternly told us to fold our clothes after washing them #for some reason she just. started washing our clothes when we got here. no one asked her to. she didn't ask us. just did it #and then acts like it's such a burden. yes and no one asked you to do it 🤔 #anyway no I will not be folding my damn clothes because they are going right back in an ikea bag because there is nowhere else to put them #we have one tiny wardrobe in 'our' room and there's lots of things that have to go in there so that the cats don't eat/destroy them #and. I am so fucking tired all the time no folding my clothes (to put them right back in a bag) is not a priority right now #guess what? our clothes usually stay in a laundry basket until we wear them (bc I don't have the energy and my husband just doesn't care 🤷) #it's not an issue. we are adults. we don't wear fancy shit that would look awful and wrinkly. our t-shirts will be fine. #I don't know man. it's only been a week and I already feel like peeling off my skin because of how she is #genuinely I cannot handle being treated like this. I couldn't handle it when I was an actual child and I sure as fuck can't handle it now #I don't know why I thought this would be fine. why did I let him convince me that she'd be different this time. #I know it's no big deal! she's just so judgmental and mean about everything. like the most inconsequential shit #like - last week on the day my husband worked from home he took a few breaks. as he normally does. obviously. #and she kept telling him to go back to work??? what the hell man he's a fully grown adult who has been working for years and at this #particular job for over a year. HE knows when he can take a fucking break. #like. she's never joking. she never says something casually. it's always serious and judgmental and negative. #I feel like I'm suffocating #anyway. only 49 days left. I can do it. I can get through this (knowing that I won't have to see her/them more than a few times a year afte #we move) #(I feel like an ungrateful piece of shit bc it IS very kind and generous that they are letting us live here for free for two months. and I #am grateful! but it's just not good for me mentally. that's all I'm saying. the problem is me.) #personal

[orcboxer]

Sure there's zombies killing and eating people on the street but those people are not dying from the virus they're dying from comorbidities. For instance, that guy we saw getting eaten on the way into work today clearly died from blood loss, not infection, plus he already had a heart condition. People with preexisting conditions are just going to have to take care of themselves. Say it with me, "They're all already dead to me." See, that feels a lot better now doesn't it?

Good because you still have to go to work. No we're not paying you extra. Yes we're doubling grocery prices. No you don't qualify for disability. Or healthcare. Or a home.

Look, if you get bitten, you can stay home for one day, I guess 😒, but then you need to come in early. We're really short staffed at the moment, despite our company's profits being higher than ever. In fact we may be laying some of you off next month. You don't mind working off the clock right?

Also you look silly with that protective gear. We're gonna harass you for it, not like institutionally but just socially. Who cares if a zombie attacks you? Who cares if we invite them into the building? You don't need to defend yourself, you're just overreacting. If you get bitten just tell everyone the festering bite mark is from a different animal, that's what we all do.

And hey, don't worry so much. It's endemic, which means we don't have to keep track of how many people are dying from it anymore. Just look at those numbers! It's only killed 2,000 people in America this week! That's basically nobody! We're back to normal!

If everything starts tasting like rotting meat for the rest of your life, it's probably something else. If you experience brain fog or you forget things constantly or you're tired all the time after even minor physical activity, it's just because you're lazy. Yes every other virus you ever get will also be increasingly worse but that's just a coincidence. Those viruses just happen to be exponentially worse now.

Plus, those few weeks during the lockdown were terrible for my mental health. I just can't keep living like that, so we have to go back to normal life, which now involves people biting each other and twitching uncontrollably and rotting visibly.

You can't expect the world to wait for you. "Already dead to me," remember?

#bummer post #covid

[sophiamcdougall]

I am never going to complain about Greek Duolingo again

I mean, I am. But still.

So, as some of you know, my family has been coming to this tiny Greek seaside village for several years. Just over a week ago I came out here with my mum, under the impression that early September, after the height of the summer heat, would be a good time to have a holiday. ANYWAY Storm Daniel had other ideas about that. Locally things are improving (I'm actually really pissed off about the disaster-porn tone of most English-language media coverage, but that's another post). The power is back on, there's running water most of the time, and though the latter is not drinkable, a truck from the government came and handled out free bottled water yesterday. But we are currently kind of stuck. Can't do tourist things. Can't go home. There aren't any local flights out until Saturday and the road to Thessaloniki is still closed.

So this evening, feeling kind of aimless and depressed, I go down to the nearest beach with a couple of binbags and start cleaning up in an effort to at least do something positive. I always try to do this at least once out here and obviously, after the storm, there's a lot more plastic and rubbish than usual.

At some point I find this large, round bit of metal - some kind of machinery part, I think -- that's too big for the bag, so I take it to the bins on its own, leaving the rubbish bag on the beach. And when I come back for it, something among the stones beside it moves.

Specifically, it pulls its head sharply inside its shell

So, meanwhile I've been trying to learn some Greek with the help of Duolingo.

I currently have a 33-day streak and... I have questions. Shouldn't I be able to use the past or future tenses by now? Shouldn't I be able to say "x is like y"? I can't do those things. But one thing I absolutely can say all day long is έχω μια χελώνα : I have a turtle.

This is far from the limit of Duolingo Greek's turtle-related content. "An obsession with turtles" is my mother's characterisation. I can inform you that the turtle is not a bird, and, improbably, that the turtle is drinking milk. I can introduce you to a turtle in company with a horse and an elephant. As far as Duolingo is concerned, it really is turtles all the way down.

Now this, you may be able to see, is not a turtle. It has claws rather than flippers. It is a tortoise. I know there are wild tortoises in Greece: my aunt once rescued a pair of them shagging in the middle of the road -- but that was up in the mountains. I've even seen one myself, but it was also on a road and very dead.

I am 95% certain they don't belong on beaches. There's nothing for it to eat, except, unfortunately, a lot of plastic. Even if it gets off the beach it will immediately find itself on a road where it could get hit by a car. I'm pretty sure it must have been washed down by the floodwater and has been just sitting there, dazed, ever since.

Now obviously the first thing I want to do on encountering this unusual animal is to go and tell my mummy, so I do. The tortoise immediately brightens her day. She agrees that the tortoise is not happy on the beach and needs to be taken somewhere safe. it gets surprisingly wriggly when picked up so we put it in a carrier bag with some grapes and cucumber and go looking for somewhere to rehome it.

We find a path leading up between the houses towards a likely-looking field, but before we get very far a dog in a yard goes berserk and a man's head pops over a fence and demands to know what we're doing. He does this in English, as evidently we're just that obviously tourists.

"I found a tortoise on the beach!" I explain. "We want to find somewhere to put it."

"A what," he asks.

"It's like a, you know," I begin and then to my astonishment I find myself saying... "μια χελώνα"

"Oh! A turtle!" he says.

"But from the land. δεν είναι χελώνα", [it is not a turtle,] I say, as I am worried he will tell me to put it back near the sea where I found it. As it turns out it actually IS a χελώνα, Greek does not distinguish between turtles and tortoises, but I don't know that; I can't even name the days of the week or identify any colours other than pink yet, give me a break.

The man's entire demeanour changes and thaws. He does not worry about my turtle-that-is-not-a-turtle conundrum. He knows where οι χελώνες come from and where η χελώνα μας belongs. He leads us through a gate into a courtyard area.

"[somethingsomething] μια χελώνα," he explains to the assembled onlookers, of whom there are, suddenly, a surprising number.

"ΜΙΑ ΧΕΛΩΝΑ!!!" crows the throng of delighted small children, who are, suddenly, everywhere.

"μια χελώνα!" I agree, accepting that at least for current purposes, that is what it is.

"Μπορούμε να δούμε τη χελώνα σας; [can we see your turtle?]" asks an adorable little girl, shyly, and I understand??

The children fucking love looking at the χελώνα and showing it to them is kind of magical?

I finally put the tortoise down on the grass of this wild area off to the side of the courtyard, and marvel aloud that it is weird that I barely know any Greek except how to say μια χελώνα.

"I think she will soon run off," a kind lady called Aspasia assures me, seeing I remain slightly anxious about its fate. "I don't know why I'm saying 'she'. I suppose because χελώνα is feminine in Greek."

"Yes! I know that!" I exclaim, thrilled.

"Well done!" she says. And also she asks if we are OK for drinking water after the storm and if we need any help with anything and is just generally incredibly lovely and now we know more of the neighbours!

So "μια χελώνα" has just become, by a long way, my most-used and most understood and all-around most conversationally successful phrase in Greek. So I guess I have to admit I was wrong to doubt Duolingo's wisdom: it is correct to be obsessed with turtles. And I concede that prior to learning how to count to ten or to distinguish right from left, the simple ability to yell the word TURTLE over and over again is, it turns out, a crucial element of the responsible traveller's social skills.

(I am pretty fluent in Italian and turtles haven't come up in conversation even once?)

#story time

[mariamlovesyou]

tuned into Plestia's live with Rahma Zein's second account (she got shadowbanned). key moments:

plestia talked about her adjustment to living in australia. "it's 1:30am now and it's normal for me and many palestinians who live abroad to be awake hours into the morning. i am scared of sleeping. because of the time difference, i'm scared if i sleep i will wake up to bad news. in gaza i was scared of the sound of the bombs, here i am scared of the quiet."

contacting family and friends in gaza is near impossible. "sometimes i feel like a crazy person, calling 20 times in a row hoping that on the 21st time the call might go through."

on the destruction of entire communities and neighbourhoods: "i'm scared when i go back to gaza i won't recognise it anymore. someone sent me a picture of my neighbourhood, and i couldn't tell it was mine at first. all my favourite places, cafes where the aunties used to give me extra food and ask about my day, have been destroyed. i dread looking at my gallery or seeing snapchat memories because most of these people in the pictures are no longer alive."

rahma asked plestia to talk about one story that stuck with her. plestia said "i remember walking one time on the 'safe corridor', that's what they called it anyway, and i saw an older woman clutching onto a donkey cart where her son's body was, refusing to let go of it. i asked my colleague what the smell was, he said it's dead bodies under the rubble. it was the first time i familiarised myself with the smell. the son's body was decaying and the woman told me about cats and animals eating away at it. i've had children talk to me about birds eating away at their parents' decomposing bodies and not being able to chase them away."

"it seems so silly to go to hospitals for minor sicknesses now. i can't even think about how many palestinian children are going to be terrified of hospitals now. there was a girl who was taken to the hospital to get treatment for injuries by one of the bombs, and while she was in the bathroom another bomb landed nearby. the impact from that sent the ceiling crashing down on her.. she got another injury while getting treated for her first one."

"i hate how people talk about our resilience - as if it's okay that this is happening to us. we are only surviving because we have to, because we have no other choice."

rahma brought up the way family homes are set up in palestine and asked plestia to elaborate. "basically, there are floors. someone will live on the ground floor, and then their married son lives with his children on the floor above them, and then their successors above them and so on. so when family homes are targeted, they wipe out entire families. many families officially no longer exist."

"i used to wear my journalist helmet and vest all the time, felt naked without it, even slept with the vest on sometimes until i realised it only made me more of a target. they didn't give me any protection, only headaches and back pain."

"i am an optimistic person, i loved covering sweet sentimental things, like at my graduation asking parents of top graduates how they feel about their children graduating. that's what i love reporting on. i wanted to cover things like that when i came back to gaza, show the beautiful side of gaza that the media didn't really show, but i didn't have the chance." "do you think they'll give you right of return?" "i can only hope."

plestia mentioned how hard it was being a journalist with limited access to the internet, charging facilities, no mics, lack of equipment and how difficult it was uploading things. rahma asked her what's one story that wasn't really recorded or posted due to these constraints; plestia said "the evacuations. sometimes they informed us about them, sometimes they didn't. you have no idea how hard it was, everyone looking for their family members, making sure every one was there, taking to the streets in 5 minutes and not knowing which way to go. i remember i went to my friend's house for shelter for 30 minutes before the first evacuation was announced and we ran to another family's house, stayed there for 2 days before another evacuation was announced. me, my friend, and that family all evacuated together to another family's house. there were already so many people there seeking shelter, it wasn't just one family staying there. none of us knew how long we had in any place."

before october 7th, palestinians were used to limitations on electricity. plestia used to plan her day's tasks around when the electricity was working. "for example when the electricity was on from 12 to 4, i would say i will do my laundry and charge the phones during this time. life wasn't exactly 'normal', but all of us pray to have those days back in comparison to what we are experiencing now." plestia also said that cars are running on cooking oil now because there is no fuel.

on hygiene: "many pregnant women have to give birth without any pain medication or medical attention. once we ran out of medicine, that was it. women who had to get C-sections couldn't stay to recover or get followup treatments because someone else needed the bed. we have no water, no tissues, no pads, barely any bathrooms. in the shelter schools you have to wait an hour before even getting to use the bathroom because of how many people are there."

"something you don't hear about is how many people die because of sadness. there's so many ways to die in gaza, because of the bombardment, because of starvation, the lack of resources, but i also know many elderly people who died because their hearts couldn't take it anymore. i have been in gaza before and lived through 4 aggressions, but nothing compared to this one."

a recurring sentiment that was echoed in the video: "sometimes i thought to myself: who am i recording this for? because we've already shown everything, we've already talked about everything. everything has already been said, the proof is everywhere, nothing i talked about today is new." rahma said the first video posted about what's happening in palestine should've been enough.

she is 22 today. plestia's closing words: don't stop talking about us, don't stop boycotting, don't stop protesting, please don't get bored of fighting for palestine.

#this is all off the top of my head if i remember other key points i will add them