#how awesome am i

[ale-arro]

been going a little bit insane about this sentence from Ace by Angela Chen for the past week

#replace this with any other type of significant relationship too #also! this book actually rules btw i really recommend it #i didnt read it when it first cane out bc i was like. well i am already pretty familiar with asexuality and not rly interested in 101 stuff #but it turns out it doesnt feel 101-y at all its a super awesome piece of queer theory and also chen has Good opinions #and not weird watered down ones that i am sometimes wary of in aspec communities (frankly especially ace ones) #i think maybe if more people approached asexuality the way chen does (including and maybe even especially ace people) #i would be more inclined to still ID as ace #but anyways! #aro #aromantic #<- tag selections that reflect how i personally engage with this quote #also #described in alt text #also also #j tag #:/ #aro media

[fictionadventurer]

I have to talk about Chester Arthur. His story makes me go crazy. A mediocre president from the 1880s who's completely forgotten today has one of the best redemption stories I've ever heard and I need to make people understand just how cool his story is.

So, like, he starts out as this idealist, okay? He's the son of an abolitionist minister and becomes famous as a New York lawyer who defends the North's version of Rosa Parks whose story desegregates New York City's trolley system.

Then he starts getting pulled into politics and becomes one of the grimiest pieces of the political machine. He wants money, power, prestige, and he gets it. He becomes the right-hand man of Roscoe Conkling, the most feared political boss in the nation, a guy who will throw his weight around and do the most ruthless things imaginable to keep his friends in power and destroy his enemies.

Because Arthur's this guy's top lackey, he gets to be Controller of the Port of New York--the best-paying political appointment in the country, because that port brings in, like, 70% of the federal government's funds in tariffs. He gets a huge salary plus a percentage of all the fines they levy on lawbreakers, and because he's not afraid to make up infractions to fine people over, he is absolutely raking in the dough. Making the rough equivalent of $1.3 million a year--absolutely insane amounts of money for a government position. He's spending ridiculous sums on clothes, buying huge amounts of alcohol and cigars to share with people as part of his job recruiting supporters to the party, going out nearly every night to wine and dine people as part of his work in the political machine. He's living the high life. Even when President Hayes pulls him from his position on suspicions of fraud, he's still living a great life of wealth, power, and prestige.

Then in 1880, his beloved wife dies. While he's out of town working for a political campaign. And he can't get back in time to say goodbye before she dies. Because he's a guy who has big emotions, it absolutely tears him up inside, especially because Nell resented how much his political work kept him away from home. He has huge regrets, but he just moves in with Roscoe Conkling and keeps working for the political machine.

And then he gets a chance to be vice president. The Republican Party has nominated James Garfield, a dark horse candidate who wants to reform the spoils system that has given Conking his power and gave Arthur his position as Port Controller. Conkling is pissed, and he controls New York, and since the party's not going to win the election without New York, they think that appointing Conkling's top lackey as vice-president will pacify him.

They're wrong--Conkling orders Arthur to refuse--but Arthur thinks this sounds like a great opportunity. The only political position he's ever held is Port Controller--a job he wasn't elected to and that he was pulled from in disgrace. Vice President is way more than he could ever have hoped for. It's a position with a lot of political pull and zero actual responsibilities. He'll get to spend four years living in up in Washington high society. It's the perfect job! Of course he accepts, and Conkling comes around when he figures out that he can use this to his advantage.

When Garfield becomes president, Arthur does everything he can to undermine him. He uses every dirty political trick he can think of to block everything that Garfield wants to do. He refuses to let the Senate elect a president pro tempore so he can stay there and influence every bill that comes through. He all but openly boasts of buying votes in the election. He's so much Conkling's lackey that he may as well be the henchman of a cartoon supervillain. On Conkling's orders, he drags one of Garfield's Cabinet members out of bed in the middle of the night--while the guy is ill--to drag him to Conkling's house so he can be forced to resign. He's just absolutely a thorn in the president's side, a henchman doing everything he can to maintain the corrupt spoils system.

Then in July 1881, when Arthur's in New York helping Conkling's campaign, the president gets shot. By a guy who shouts, "Now Arthur will be president!" just after he fires the gun. Arthur has just spent the past four months fighting the president tooth and nail. Everyone thinks he's behind the assassination. There are lynch mobs looking to take out him and Conkling. The papers are tearing him apart.

Arthur is absolutely distraught. He rushes to Washington to speak with the president and assure him of his innocence, but the doctors won't let him in the room. He gets choked up when talking to the First Lady. Reporters find him weeping in his house in Washington. Once again, death has torn his world apart and he's not getting a chance to make amends.

Arthur goes to New York while the president is getting medical treatment, and he refuses to come to Washington and take charge because he doesn't dare to give the impression that he's looking to take over. No one wants Arthur to be president and he doesn't want to be president, and the possibility that this corrupt political lackey is about to ascend to the highest office in the land is absolutely terrifying to everyone.

Then in August, when it's becoming clear that the president is unlikely to recover, he gets a letter. From a 31-year-old invalid from New York named Julia Sand. A woman from a very politically-minded family who has been following Arthur's career for years. And she writes him this astounding letter that takes him to task for his corrupt, conniving ways, and the obsession with worldly power and prestige that has brought him wealth and fame at the cost of his own soul--and she tells him that he can do better. In the midst of a nationwide press that's tearing him apart, this one woman writes to tell him that she believes he has the capacity to be a good president and a good man if he changes his ways.

And then he does. After Garfield dies, people come to Arthur's house and find servants who tell them that Arthur is in his room weeping like a child (I told you he had big emotions), but he takes the oath of office and ascends to the presidency. And he becomes a completely different man. His first speech as president mentions that one of his top priorities is reforming the spoils system so that people will be appointed based on merit rather than getting appointed as political favors with each change in the administration. Even though this system made him president. When Conkling comes to Arthur's office telling him to appoint his people to important government positions, Arthur calls his demands outrageous, throws him out, and keeps Garfield's appointees in the positions. "He's not Chet Arthur anymore," one of his former political friends laments. "He's the president."

He loses all his former political friends. He's never trusted by the other side. Yet he sticks to his guns and continues to support spoils system reform. He prosecutes a postal service corruption case that everyone thought he would drop. He's the one who signs into law the first civil service reform bill, even though presidents have been trying to do this for more than ten years, and he's the person who's gained all his power through the spoils system. He immediately takes action to enforce this bill when he could have just dropped it. He becomes a champion of this issue even though it's the last thing anyone would have expected of him.

He oversees naval reform. He oversees a renovation of the White House. He still prefers the social duties of the presidency, but he's respectable in a way that no one expected. Possibly because Julia Sand keeps sending him letters of encouragement and advice over the next two years. But also because he's dying.

Not long after ascending to the presidency, he learns he's suffering from a terminal kidney disease. And he tells no one. He keeps going about his daily life, fulfilling his duties as president, and keeps his health problems hidden. Once again, death is upending his life, and this time it's his own death. He's lived a life he's ashamed of, and he doesn't have much time left to change. He enters the presidency as an example of the absolute worst of the political system, and leaves it as a respectable man.

He makes a token effort to seek re-election, but because of his health problems, he doesn't mind at all when someone else gets the nomination. He dies a couple of years after leaving office. The day before his death, he orders most of his papers burned, because he's ashamed of his old life--but among the things that are saved are the letters from Julia Sand, the woman who encouraged him to change his ways.

This is an astounding story full of so many twists and turns and dramatic moments. A man who falls from idealism into the worst kind of corruption and then claws his way back up to decency because of a series of devastating personal losses and unexpected opportunities to do more than he could have ever hoped to do. I just go crazy thinking about it and I need you all to understand just how amazing this story is.

#history is awesome #presidential talk #i thought about his story again this morning #and was once again struck by the desire to chase people down and make them understand just how amazing this story is #and instead of harassing random strangers i decided to inflict it on tumblr again #my original essay was rather too long and dry and tangled up in too many other details #and didn't quite capture the 'i want to chase you down and look you in the eye and make you freak out about this with me' vibe of this stor #this still doesn't quite capture it but at least it's shorter #and prevents me from rambling to unsuspecting family members #sorry for inflicting this on you again but what else am i supposed to do?

[egophiliac]

his magic is so PINK and FLUFFY and PRETTY! I love it!

I'm ready to process the Diasomnias now, buckle up

#art #unique magic posters #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland spoilers #twisted wonderland episode 7 spoilers #twisted wonderland book 7 spoilers #meanwhile at the super awesome kalim dream base #anyway I KNEW IT! I KNEW HE WAS A DREAMWALKER! #VALIDATION #love me a unique magic that is only really useful in one extremely specific and exceedingly unlikely situation #sure was lucky that silver was on the island huh! #okay everybody i am about to be even more embarrassing than usual over anime characters. hold on. #but i am ALL OVER silver right now. just really really enjoying him! #i love that his reaction to all of this is anger. i love that his reaction to malleus is basically 'how DARE you' #my boy is full of righteous fury and he is going to make it everyone else's problem #his deeply-ingrained respect for mal and lilia is such a big part of his character that it's just. #always such a nice character moment when that breaks! #like when he yelled at lilia during endless halloween night! granted it was lower stakes then but. still. #it'sgoodstorytelling.jpg #meanwhile sebek is over in a corner sobbing and going 'what is HAPPENING' which is its own brand of deliciousness #god. this game really does just slam its fists down onto all of my personal 'I LIKE THIS' buttons. #and now they give me silver's beautiful pink fluffy cloud dream palace. find me a chef to kiss because MWAH #i can't believe they cut it off RIGHT before we were about to learn his backstory. i mean i absolutely can. but you know what i mean. #i have to know the meaning of the shitty acorn bracelet. twst. twst please.

[balleater]

despite being more often than not a "rules as written" fan over "rule of cool", i really do love me a good "rules be damned, i'll give you this awesome moment" call. like matt giving fcg the otohan kill despite what her hp was at or brennan giving cerrit an extra mage slayer reaction attack at the end of calamity. honestly, if anything, i think the fact they mostly play by the book makes these moments even better because it really has that extra weight towards those decisions to put the rules aside.

#critical role #cr spoilers #i can't get over how crazy it was though. genuinely an incredible moment. #like tbh i was too entranced by the Incredible move sam made to cry or anything. i was so hype for how awesome it was. #it was perfect #but yeah usually whenever i see the dm advice of 'dont track a boss's hp just go off the Vibes' i get annoyed by it #but this was such an exception that i am SO glad that matt did it #im just fucking throwing words out there at rhis point i have no idea if any of my words make sense ever but #im trying to express how much i love this and its mostly just absolute nonsense

[ccassettetape]

i am writing an accidental haiku to attract haiku bot

#haiku bot #🦾 finn txt #normal post. average. average words in these tags. #need to catch it. with a net maybe. like those ones that they always show ppl catching butterflies and junk with on shows. pspsppspspspspsp #ooooooooooh u wanna look at this post so bad oooooooooh #<- attempting to attract haiku bot to this post #wowoowoooowowowowowoowowowowowowoowowowoowowowoowowiwoowiwiwoowowowowoowowwwww (<- normal noises) #I wonder if there’s a limit to how many tags you can add #time to begin the haiku bot summoning ritual um #oooowowowowoowowowwwwooooo haiku bot haiku bot haiku bot oooowoowowowowwwwwwwu you wanna look at this post haiku bot ooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuoo #throws flower. get over here please. #man. my arm hurts. #its weird bc one #why does my arm hurt thats really donking random but two im not?? why do i have an arm. i still get kinda surprised by it when i front lmao #why am i rambling so much in the tags #oh right trying to figure out if theres a limit to how many tags there can be dhdjdjndhdjsjmsjdjd #i think lesbians are cool. girls who like other girls are awesome. keep existing 👍 #uhhhhhhhh #never mind im done with that now i dont anything more to say :( #never mind again #tags tags tags tags tags #LISTEN IM BORED AS HECK AND WANT TO DO SOMETHING RANDOM AND SILLY SHUSH #journal

[aromantic-diaries]

My favorite argument against literally anything like "it's not natural" or something along those lines is simply I Don't Care

#aro #aromantic #arospec #ace #asexual #acespec #lgbtq+ #lgbtq #queer #< additional tags bc while i'm talking about being aro and ace this pretty much goes for literally every queer identity under the sun #not even joking. let's say hypothetically being trans is unnatural and wrong. i actually don't care i think it's awesome #i don't consider myself the rebellious type but i also go against several societal norms just by existing so fuck it. anarchy it is then #i cannot stress this enough. i don't care if it's wRoNg. i can live with that. you can't even imagine how willing i am to live with that

[front-facing-pokemon]

#rowlet #welcome to the seventh generation. the things i do for you all. i just had to learn the structure of the code of collada files #so that i could stop making these bitches too shiny to see their eyes so that i could continue doing this #because i am a developer and not a 3d modeler #so it's easier for me to edit the code than it is for me to learn how to use fuckin blender #so i'm probably gonna write up a little script in python to Un-Shinify any models that i get to make it easier for me #but anyway! now that that's out of the way. this is probably one of my least favorite starters #just being honest. i like popplio a LOT and litten more than this at least #it's not that i dislike it‚ i just find that it's a little……… less. than the other two starters of this region #it's still cute and i like the sounds it makes. it is definitely a circle #and like that's awesome. but i like litten and popplio more :/ sorry to that one anon who hated all the water starters but also not sorry #they killed me like twenty billion times so i'm gonna like whatever water starters i want

[anachronistic-falsehood]

i understand why there are so many people complaining about fitpac wedding but also guys. think of the comedy potential for a fitpac wedding. them having to make their minecraft characters kiss. ccfit has his head in his hands and won’t stop fumbling his words. ccpac is shrinking down in his chair and you can only see like three hairs on his head at this point. fit makes ramon his best man. richas is the flower boy. fit and pac both get so flustered when they’re calling each other their husbands for the first time. fit would probably do the jumping jacks emote at the altar. pac would probs do the fall to pieces emote like a thousand times. they would be just as silly and awkward as they always have been. the comedy potential guys think about it

#fitpac #qsmp #obligatory ‘this is not me invalidating the opinions of others on the subject of a fitpac wedding don’t get mad’ #also i understand why people wouldn’t want one like from a character standpoint!!! understandable!!! #but also imagine how fun and chaotic a fitpac wedding would be #i am happy either way!! #if they get married yay!!! fun!!! #if they don’t awesome!!! they’re still partners whether they put a ring on it or not!!! #i just think fitpac wedding could be fun :3 #and very very silly

[camellia-thea]

so.... i finally started watching burrow's end

#feather speaks #burrow's end #dimension 20 #jaysohn burrow's end #lila burrow's end #tula burrow's end #ava burrow’s end #thorn burrow's end #viola burrow's end #i had so much fun drawing these #i started yesterday and i am most of the way through episode three and holy shit #the bear???? what the fuck that's was so awesome #i also. saw tula and fell in love so expect more doodles of her #tired mom energy my beloved #i had to draw thorn looking haunted #done pretty quickly overall #i forgot how to draw stoats kjhgdfhkjfg #i drew them all the time as a kid #that knowledge? gone

[0xeyedaisy]

i've followed you since the monavat days and every few months or so i check in on what you're up to and go "wow, cool art, don't know what that's from but cool" but now you're just drawing your sona with mannequins and honestly i've never loved anything so much. you're right. mannequins are kissable. correct. i'm proud of you for this. keep going

Thank you for your support,,, >///<

#I'm gen kind of surprised how ppl are reacting so... positively to me being a lil weird. But I am happy about it. you guys are awesome <3 #monasks

[rileyclaw]

thank you for 100,000+ views on Fish in a Birdcage!! it’s only been a week and im so blown away by all the amazing comments and tags and bites into pillow and tears it into feathers (affectionate). omg as well as 6,000 followers now!

#like i could write PARAGRAPHS about how touched i am that people liked the animatic #and gave it so much love on all my socials and just the general awesome feedback ive had this past week #but walls of text are no fun sometimes so please let me tear apart drywall in yalls honor #my art #the owl house #toh #fanart #hunter toh #fish in a birdcage #and the hands of all the other hexsquad kids . idk if i really need to tag that #i put them deliberately in the outfits they were in when they had their Lifechanging Journey with Hunter(tm)

[the-darkestminds]

I think people are being disingenuous when they claim Gwynriel is a crack ship. Gwyn and Azriel are two characters who interact in the book, they have things in common/shared experiences (Sangravah, training, the blood rite), and Gwyn was included in Azriel’s bonus chapter in a positive light. A crack ship is one that is bizarre and extremely unlikely to ever be canon. For example: Mor and Lucien. It would be ridiculous and make zero sense. But to dismiss Gwynriel outright sounds like denial to me.

#like there’s zero part of you that can think of how azriel and Gwyn might work? #none? #expand your minds #Gwyn is awesome #I know some of y’all realllyyyyy hate gwynriel but it could happen #I ship gwynriel #but I am also aware that Elriel could be endgame #sarah j maas #sjm #acowar #acomaf #acotar #acosf #acofas #a court of wings and ruin #a court of mist and fury #a court of thorns and roses #pro gwynriel #pro gwyn #gwyneth berdara #gwynriel #gwyn x azriel #azriel #pro azriel #it ain’t a crack ship #lol

[peachcitt]

from: thirteen by @anna-scribbles

art by me :)

start from the beginning // read the november chapter // read the most recent chapter (january)

hey listen. look me in my eyes. have you read thirteen by anna scribbles. i think you need to read thirteen by anna scribbles. i think if you want your life to be forever changed you need to read thirteen by anna scribbles. i think if you are a person who is breathing and alive you need to read thirteen by anna scribbles. thank you

#thirteen #miraculous ladybug #ml art #emilie agreste #adrien agreste #miraculous ladybug fic #ml fic #ml fic rec #my art #THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN HAUNTING THE INSIDE OF MY BRAIN EVER SINCE I READ THE NOVEMBER CHAPTER BACK IN NOVEMBER #now. listen. in an ideal world i would've done this way back in november but uhhhhhhh i don't know what happened. suddenly it was december #and now it's february! not sure how that happened. anyway my goal is to be making a piece of art for each chapter to convey #just how fucking INSANE this fic makes me feel. like how crazy and insane and awesomely constructed it is. anna just GETSSSS ITTTTTTT #(and is using her 'get it' ability to hurt me bodily) #like with every chapter i read i am just assaulted with this intense desire to Make An Image which is not really an impulse im used to #since i don't draw a ton but anna's voice is just so evocative of images in a way that just. inspires every creative impulse inside of me #i took forever to read the december chapter but the moment i read it i already had an idea of something i wanted to draw for it. #my idea is. well. complex for me to say the least but as i told anna i am determined to make my skills match whatever i need to do because #the way she writes it is literally haunting me it is shooting me with a gun it is so something i have no idea how to handle #except i guess to repeat her themes and ideas and imagery in a collage of sorts #i don't know that's what my october chapter comic felt like- a collage. and this one does too in a way even though it's very different #i just like connecting the dots. and then smashing the dots together in an image #anyway. read thirteen. it is changing me all the way down to the dna

[captn3]

until next time.... stay fresh [plain text: until next time.... stay fresh]

#splatoon #splatoon 1 #wii u #memo's constellations #inkling girl #memo's agents #memo agents: 3 #technically. its the splatoon 1 promo inkling but based off of my 3 design #sad im probably not gonna get to play splatoon in its last moments #its okay though #god. the 3ds and wii u era was fucking awesome #im gonna miss her #triforce heroes‚ splat1‚ pushmo world... god. god #i listened to noteblock's 3ds settings remix and it actually made me cry because triforce heroes showed up in the background #and then it hit me how long its been and how much these two consoles have meant to me #the 3ds was really my gateway into art #thank you colors 3d. ive made it so far because of you #man. something about the online services ending the same day as the eclipse over here. #and the wii u was technically also my gateway into art with splatoon. it made me draw so much more #do you know how much splatoon ive drawn. that game changed me. that game makes me who i am today #thank you

[ash-and-starlight]

Would you have any thoughts about the Gaang in a modern au (either with or without bending), especially jobs? I legit love how there’s never been a consensus of how they’d live, especially job wise, in the fandom — except for Katara, she is absolutely a doctor, surgeon, ER badass. Personally, I love the thought of Zuko as a child protective agent, and Sokka as a high school teacher, not just for the dramatic Zukka potential lol haha either way, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

aaa ok i love and adore to see how their roles get translated in modern au’s in such clever ways, i loveee your ideas for zukka workplace drama that’s so 🥺 ok i’ll list some of my faves but feel free to add

-doctor katara SO TRUE and activist katara also so true either way she’s helping people and giving all she’s got

-aang also activist monk-turned *insert job that has to do with flying?? or meteorology??* AND i love the silly little headcanon he and zuko are lion dance partners dkfjdj

-toph wwe champion. without question

- jet could also work with kids tbh as either a child protective agent too or teaching martial arts classes for kids as some sort of social program he zuko and toph have an underground fight club every tuesday he and iroh have a wholesome breaking bad situationship going on with banger edibles

- zuko the guy with 294737 job options tbh either as jasmine dragon clerk, firefighter, historian / khon expert and standing authority on the ramakien, parkour guy, sword guy, guy who goes to business school just to learn how to efficiently dismantle dad’s financial empire, and i am extremely partial on muai thay champion-instructor zuko who has like a post-injury gym program just for the zukka of it all of him helping sokka with his leg during rehab 😌

- sokka also guy that can do anything tbh wether working as inventor or in tech/mechanic fixing things, working at a science museum (hi robin), marine biologist (hi kath) working as an astronomer or at the planetarium bc he’s always been fascinated by the night sky and the moon, artist, poet, mythbuster, sword guy as well, all of these at once. most importantly he has an insanely popular food blog on the side

- suki kendo captain of an all-girl club

- florist mai. (specifically ikebana artist) which is comic canon and in context made little sense but i love it it’s beautiful bc it brings me to

- tattoo artist ty-lee 💕

- and azula uhhh nepobaby electrician

#i am kIDDING about azula but also not #*there is not job consensus in the fandom* babe i don’t have job consensus within MYSELF #anyway love to put those guys into situations #love to read about how ppl interpret the canon into the modern concept of Jobs #oh a thing i don’t think i’ve ever seen tho is zuko still being a royal while in a modern au?? #like he’s just some guy but at one point iroh drops the bomb of ‘yeah u know centuries ago our family was part of the royal line 🤪 #i think i would have been the firelord haha ✌️’ #and the whole gaang now just has to live with this information #i think it would be funny ekhfhd #ANYWAY #awesome question sorry for going off and still making no sense with my answer ily #ash replies

[pumpkster]

#ive screamed enough in my priv #im the struggler right now #my target audience in this is that floweypilled artist following #i need to be floweypilled too but im charapilled #(first drawing) dont you hate when ur parents cling to how u once were after u were brought back to life haha am i right #and not even you can recognize yourself awesome fireemoji #art tag #undertale #flowey #papyrus #toriel #asgore #chara #i gave up on working on these 3 im not fixing anything there anymore LMAO