Reblogging To Keep This For Reference Because I’ve Been Getting Into Embroidery Lately

hey if you died right now whats your ghost outfit you cant change it be honest

16th February, 2021. [Video: Pablo Hasél being arrested by policemen and taken inside a police car while he shouts “mai ens aturaran, mai ens callaran, mort a l’estat feixista! mort a l’estat feixista!”, which means “they will never stop us, they will never shut us up, death to the fascist state! death to the fascist state!” in the Catalan language]

The rap singer from Lleida (Catalonia) Pablo Hasél being arrested for the lyrics of his songs and the content of his tweets. He has been sentenced to 2 years, 4 months and 15 days of prison for “glorifying terrorism” and “insulting the [Spanish] monarchy” according to the Spanish judicial system.

He refused to turn himself in, and instead locked himself with comrades who showed up inside the University of Lleida, as they barricaded the doors and people blocked the access of the policemen in solidarity. After 2 hours displacing the protestors, the anti-riot police accessed the third floor, where Hasél was, and took him directly to prison.

Spain is the country in the world with the most artists sentenced to jail (source: The state of artistic freedom 2020, FreeMuse).

More than Turkey, more than Iran, more than China. Spain, and disproportionately national minorities (Catalans and Basques). And the European Union allows it.

In Spain, you can go on TV and openly give support to fascism, you can send death threats to people from national minorities and/or political dissidents, you can do the fascist salute on the streets and shout “viva Franco” and “arriba España” while circling cultural centres of national minorities (mostly Catalans and Basques) and calling for the need to “shed their blood”, the Spanish army can call for the execution of 26 million citizens … but you cannot take a stand against the Spanish monarchy (remember Josep Valtònyc is still on exile for having said “the Bourbons [dynasty of the Spanish monarchy] are thieves”) and wish them the guillotine.

People like Pablo Hasél and Valtònyc were not even famous when they released these “criminal” songs, they were just people like any other, with access to internet and something to say. Spain came for them like it can come for any of us, like it came for our parents and grandparents. Like they came for Adri, for Tamara Carrasco, for the Altsasua boys, for Dani Gallardo, for Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, for our democratically-elected government still in jail and exile, for everyone arrested and threatened and beaten by the police in strikes and demonstrations, for the people who tweeted jokes about the death of Carrero Blanco (the fascist admiral who could’ve been Franco’s successor as fascist dictator if he had not been killed by ETA), for the people who posted on Facebook comments against the Spanish police’s brutality on Catalan people… People like you, people like me.

LLIBERTAT PABLO HASÉL

Our world does not welcome wild things.

As a zoology student, this is a brutal truth I must face. We slaughter keystone predators, leaving ecosystems to rot, then ponder why we are so overrun by the animals they hunt. We destroy forests, jungles, prairies and marshlands, then wonder why these pests dare encroach on our land. 

We hunt rare creatures for their tusks, for their horns, for their skin, for their bones, forcing those that remain onto reserves, culling them when their populations grow beyond our control. Our highest-ranking political figures publicly delight in murdering endangered species for mere thrill of the hunt. If a creature is fierce, or frightening, or mysterious, or beautiful… we kill it. 

This is why How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is important. Grimmel is a trophy hunter. He kills dragons for the fun of it. Because Night Furies are beautiful and rare and dangerous and the world heralds him as a hero for it. He doesn’t need another reason for it, anymore than any of the trophy hunters of our world need a reason for shooting an elephant and proudly posing with its bloody tail other than it boosts their egos. 

“Our world doesn’t deserve you…”

…because our world destroys all that which is fierce and beautiful and wild. So until the day comes when mankind stops desecrating, polluting, and exploiting the natural world we are meant to protect, I hope the dragons stay hidden, where man cannot reach them. 

So I feel more or less the same way about Medusa and I wrote a little snippet reframing Medusa’s story. Athena didn’t turn her into a gorgon to punish her for defiling the temple. She did it to protect Medusa. Feedback would be appreciated!

*************************

His eyes sparkled green in the light. Her tears blurred the sight. It hurt. It hurt.

When he was done, Medusa still lay crumpled on the floor. She was silent now, but her face was wet with tears, and her thighs were slick with blood. He surveyed her with disinterest. “Maybe I’ll see you again, pretty. Or maybe not.”

And like the sea breeze, he was gone, as though he had never been.

Medusa sobbed once, loud and broken. She struggled to get up. The pain was too great to stand, but she pulled herself into a kneeling position. There was a strange silence in her mind, as pain and rage warred with disbelief. Rage won out.

Her voice was hoarse as she let out a ragged cry. She raised her fists and slammed them into the stone. The anger still burned within her, so she did it again. Tears ran down her cheeks. She felt useless and small. She had been nothing but a toy to him. How dare he?

“Athena,” she whispered. “Goddess, my goddess. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” She bowed her head and wept.

“Do not apologize, my child.”

Medusa looked up so fast the room spun. She focused on the figure standing in front of her. A woman, with a terrible, fearless kind of beauty, wearing a sword at her hip and a shield on her back. Athena knelt before Medusa and took her face in her hands. “You have done nothing wrong,” she said, lowly, fiercely. “I would have my vengeance upon Poseidon and the other gods for every woman they have hurt, but even I cannot challenge them so.”

Medusa drank in every word. “What am I to do, goddess? I can’t…I can’t bear to endure this again.”

Athena’s face was thoughtful, inscrutable. “The temple has been defiled. You cannot return to your old life.” Medusa bowed her head in sorrow.

Athena continued. “The punishment of Poseidon is beyond me. However, I can grant you a gift. I can give you the power to protect yourself and others. Your rage makes you strong. I can make you my weapon against every man who would bring a woman low. But the price will be high. Are you willing to pay it?”

Medusa hesitated, looking up. The eyes of mortal and goddess met in perfect understanding. Every woman, no matter how high or low, knew the sense of helplessness and rage that men engendered. Medusa would give anything to fight it. Her face hardened with resolve.

“Yes,” Medusa said, and her voice grew stronger. “I would pay any price. Never again.”

Athena’s face bore a sad kind of pride. “Never again,” she agreed.

She rose to her feet, and placed her hand on Medusa’s head.

“I gift you with the power to wreak vengeance. You will stop any man dead in his tracks. I name you Medusa, protectress of women, and executioner of justice.”

And as she lifted her hand from Medusa’s brow, Medusa began to change. Her beautiful red hair, the envy of Athens, morphed into dozens of wriggling snakes. Her nails grew into sharp metal claws.

Athena stepped back. “Rise, my daughter.”

And Medusa rose. She looked up. Her eyes were yellow, and slit like a snake’s. Her lips were red as blood.

“It will be a lonely path that you walk, Medusa. To the west, there is an island called Sarpedon. Make it your sanctuary. Remember that I am proud of you, and be brave, my child.”

She bent and kissed Medusa’s brow…and then she was gone.

There’s evidence that Medusa was actually worshiped in Ancient times as more or less the Patron Goddess of Rape Survivors and a protector of women and I vote we Reclaim The Fuck out of her story.

How to see whether a Chinese handmade teapot is well done or not - quality of the spout is an important standard. 

cr: 承启 建水紫陶

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Nobody gives two shits about an ENTIRE COUNTRY being hit by two cyclones consecutively. It’s displaced over 160,000 people and destroyed over 30,000 homes.

Yet no one cries.

No billionaires or other countries have talked about donating or helping the country out.

Please help by donating to charities and fundraisers dedicated to helping provide humanitarian aid to Mozambique!

https://support.savethechildren.org/site/Donation2?df_id=3241&mfc_pref=T&3241.donation=form1&cid=Social_Network:Twitter:Emer_Mozambique:Scus_Lp_Post2:031919&hootPostID=23abdd2d4250de3d6b684c68a4fb250b

Save the Children

Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth Children's Relief Fund - Save the Children

I just donated to Save the Children to transform children's lives and the future we share. Join me.

https://www.allhandsandhearts.org/programs/mozambique-tropical-cyclone-relief/

All Hands and Hearts - Smart Response

Mozambique Relief - Tropical Cyclone Response

Program Summary  Disaster Profile On March 15, 2019, Tropical Cyclone Idai slammed into central Mozambique as a category 3 storm. After

https://www.msf.org/msf-response-wake-devastating-cyclone-idai-mozambique-malawi-zimbabwe

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International

MSF response in wake of devastating Cyclone Idai | Mozambique | Malawi | Zimbabwe | Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International

Cyclone Idai has ravaged parts of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, causing widespread flooding and damage. Our teams are responding to the m

“Where words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain, for they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.”

- Quoted in The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish.

From Shakepeare’s The Tragedy of King Richard the Second.

“Fear is a good thing. It means you’re paying attention.”

- Page

“Someday I must read this scholar Everyone. He seems to have written so much - all of it wrong.”

- Emperor Mage

“Reflect as if you have all time, even when time is short.”

- First Test

“You need never unsay anything that you did not say in the first place.”

- Squire

“You’re a far better spy hemming sheets than if you clank with daggers.”

- Trickster’s Choice

Some wisdom from the renowned Tamora Pierce.

I feel kind of bad for the new girl marrying into my family. not because there’s anything wrong with my family, to clarify, but just because there’s so many of us and even we have trouble keeping track of each other.

like, I met her and she was super sweet, and then she asked her fiancé how he was related to me, and he just kinda stared at me and said, “um... I’m not sure, actually. I don’t know. we’re... cousins?”

and then we started trying to remember how we were related. eventually I was like, “his mother and my grandmother - no, I mean, his grandmother and my great-grandmother were sisters. right?” I say to my cousin. he shrugs. “I don’t know,” he says. “You probably know better than me. that makes us, what, third cousins?” and I’m like, “I think it’s second cousins once removed...” (tbh, I’m not actually sure if my understanding of the family labeling system is correct.)

and this girl is just looking at us, a little nonplussed, because I’m at her bridal shower and her to-be husband isn’t even sure how he’s related to me, and there’s dozens of people at the party and not even all of us are there, and her wedding is literally next month and she is never going to remember all of us by then. if ever. (lol I still mix up some of my own cousins)