Nobody’s going to magically swoop in to rescue you. You can’t just sit there and expect someone else to come save you. You have to get your shit together and do it yourself.
About 90% of the time, the “it” you have to do on your own is pushing yourself to walk up to someone else and use your words to say “hey I need help.”
essek is such a dork. like it’s crazy because in two weeks everyone is gonna see him being the shadiest two faced traitor again but even then. he’s such a dork. like yeah he’s had character growth but ofc the guy who came to someone’s house like it was his idea and he wasn’t invited nonstop for months is the same guy who wakes up in a silk robe with eyeshadow raccoon eyes after a crazy night of milk drinking. an absolute dork.
Y'all ever open a book on a new subject, read a little bit, and have to put it back so you can process the way in which your mind was just expanded?
The textile book: okay here is some of the ways that textiles are important to human life
me: Okay!
The textile book: Clothes separate the vulnerable human body from the conditions of the outside world, and in doing so absorb the sweat and debris of human existence, accumulating wear and tear according to the lives we live. In this way, various lifestyles and professions are represented by clothing, and the clothing of a loved one retains the imprint of their physical body and their life being lived, as though the clothes absorb part of the wearer’s soul
Me: …oh
The textile book: The process of weaving a garment and the process of a child being formed in its mother’s womb are often referred to using the same language. Likewise, when a baby is born, a blanket or other textile material is the first material object it encounters and protects it. Textiles can create the idea of two things being inextricable, as with being “woven together,” or can create the sense of separateness, as with a curtain or veil that separates two rooms or spaces, even separating the living from the dead, or separating two realities, such as a performance ending when the curtain falls
Me: …oh God
The textile book: Odysseus’s wife Penelope undid her weaving in secret every night to delay the advances of her suitors. In this way she was able to turn back the passage of time to allow her husband to come home. Likewise the Lakota tell a story of an old woman embroidering time by embroidering a robe with porcupine quills. If she finishes the embroidery, the world will come to an end, but her faithful dog pulls out the quills whenever her back is turned, turning back the clock and allowing existence to continue.
me: …is…is…is that why we refer to the fabric of space and time?
The textile book: The technological revolution of textile making is sadly underappreciated. The textile arts are possibly the most fundamental human technology, as once people created string and rope, they could create nets for catching fish and small animals, and bags and baskets for carrying food. In the earliest prehistoric times, the first string or cord perhaps came from sinew, found in the body of an animal. Because of this perhaps the body of a living being could be understood as made of a textile material. Indeed textiles have the function of preserving life, as with a surgeon stitching back together the human body or bandages being placed on a wound. Textile technologies are being used to create life-changing implants to restore function to injured parts of the body, as though a muscle or tendon can be woven and made in this way. Cloth can be used to create a parachute that will save a human’s life as they plummet out of the sky. Ultimately, the textile technologies are used to enter new parts of the universe. [Photo of an astronaut and details explaining the astronaut’s suit]
Me: STOP!! MY MIND IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH FOR THIS
The book is “Textiles: The Whole Story” by Beverly Gordon
:D this is it! The post that got me to borrow this book from my library! This book is constantly rewiring my brain and parts of it constantly slap me in the face when I am going thru daily life and notice textiles.
Like, fiberglass ANYTHING can be considered a textile! Paper? Textile! Chain link fence? Textile!
And more than ever now when I see something like fabric on a couch or mosquito netting I wonder just how much work it would have taken if it was non-factory made. How many people have still had their hands in making it now.
I never understood why so many cultures placed such importance on textile gifts as ritual, like many native americans gifting blankets. I get it now.
Tons of other stuff too and it’s all the time!
And I’m only halfway through!
Anyways OP thank you for bringing this into my life it’s literally reshaping the way I think in a way I’m constantly in awe of <3
(the book if anyone was curious)
Here! I found it in an online archive!
It functions as a digital library, so you have to sign in and wait your turn. I’m not sure why you have to do that with a digital book, but it’s free so i don’t care.
one of the many reasons to insist upon chronological timelines is that it’s much, much harder to scroll forever if you can catch up with yourself. if you can run out of tumblr because you reach yesterday, that is a good and helpful prompt to do something else.
It’s crazy how humanity invented bicycles and decided to try it with one big wheel and one small wheel BEFORE they tried having two wheels the same size
This is not quite true, though it would be very funny if it was.
The classic “old bicycle” we’re all thinking of, which looked like this:
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Is actually a technological compromise developed in the early 1870s. The very first bicycle was invented in 1817 and it looked like this:
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It had no pedals and the rider would push it along with their feet, the same way toddlers learn to ride bikes today.
In about 1864, a mechanic in france came up with the idea of adding pedals to the front wheel, making the first self-propelled bicycle.
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This was a great improvement because it’s a lot easier to move and a lot more fun than the Fisher Price version above. It was a big thing for about five years, but there were some drawbacks.
First, because the pedals were directly attached to the front wheel, you couldn’t go very fast without moving your legs incredibly quickly, which takes a lot of effort. It also is kind of awkward to steer because your legs are in the way of the wheel.
The other issue was bumps. Roads were not very smooth in the 1870s, most of them were unpaved and full of ruts, potholes, and rocks. And at first there were no rubber tires, just wooden wheels with metal rims. Altogether this made for a very bumpy ride.
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The big front wheel, which was made possible by the invention of wire spokes and solid rubber tires, solved all of these problems. A big wheel runs over bumps more easily: think of how rough it is to ride roller skates over bumps in a sidewalk that you would hardly notice on a bike. And the bigger the wheel, the faster you can move with one push of the pedals. Having the seat on top of the wheel, instead of behind, also makes steering less cumbersome.
There are of course drawbacks to this design, in particular being so high up makes it very easy to go over the handlebars if you crash, and more likely to hit your head or break your arm.
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Two more inventions helped drive this comical beast into extinction and bring back a more balanced, and safer, bicycle.
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The first was the pneumatic tire, which contains a cushion of air, and makes for a much softer ride compared to a solid tire or a metal one. The cushion effect eliminates the need for a big wheel to smooth out the bumps in the road.
The second invention was the sprocket and chain drive. This lets you put the pedals anywhere you want on the bike, and with a big gear at the pedals and a small one at the wheel, you can get more speed out of a small wheel.
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The first modern bicycle to combine a sprocket and pneumatic tires was built in 1879. It was an instant hit, not just because it was much less dangerous, but because the low drag profile and the smooth pneumatic tires made for a faster ride, and the trendsetters in cycling, then as now, were the racing community. There have been plenty of innovations and modifications in the years since, from ten-speed gears to carbon fiber frames, but these are all variations on a theme. The basic form of the bicycle has not changed.
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Happy riding.
Okay full disclosure I was high as a kite when I made this post, otherwise I might have fact-checked my joke before posting, but this is awesome. Thank you for the bicycle lore.
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