One Of The Commissions I Did For @sexybovine :)

When Apollo is rampaging out of your door, and you have no Auntie Hestia at home, ready to pamper you with cuddles, comfort and a safe cleansing with fire that will kill one by one each germ… Well, what to say, maybe it’s really the time to stay put at home.

Especially if you’d go to meet some very mortal, very sensible to disease-bringing arrows friends.

(you were wondering how come our Hestia is not a jerk as her family? Well, she kinda goes by the rule “Manners maketh the man”. She’ll snap her fingers and incinirate you with zero regrets if you get on her bad side, but with a smile on her face and saying thank you and please can you just move away from that rug it looks like it’d be a mess to clean like the polite lady she is.)

Controversial Truths About Ancient Egypt Masterpost

The pyramids were built by contemporary workers who received wages and were fed and taken care of during construction

The Dendera “lightbulb” is a representation of the creation myth and has nothing to do with electricity

We didn’t find “““copper wiring””” in the great pyramid either

Hatshepsut wasn’t transgender

The gods didn’t actually have animal heads

Hieroglyphs aren’t mysteriously magical; they’re just a language (seriously we have shopping lists and work rosters and even ancient erotica)

The ancient Egyptian ethnicity wasn’t homogeneous

Noses (and ears, and arms) broke off statues and reliefs for a variety of reasons, none of which are “there is a widespread archaeological conspiracy to hide the Egyptian ethnicity”

Review of ‘The Good Soldier’ by Ford Madox Ford ---- 5/5 STARS

Three months ago, when I stumbled upon a beautiful collection of Alma Classics at a book sale, I hardly imagined that one of the volumes I selected would turn out to be one of those rare literary unicorns that ticked all my boxes. It seems unlikely, but The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford fascinated me from practically the first sentence. “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.”

The first thing you should know about The Good Soldier is probably that it’s being told from the viewpoint of an unreliable narrator and has no strict chronology. It reads like a confession and the sequence of events is jumbled according to the mood and flow of conscience of the main character, John Dowell (whose name you will likely have forgotten by the end). The story is written in such a way that you don’t untangle most of its lies and mysteries until the very last page, which gives the book the impression of being a puzzle you must put together. The suspense definitely had me race through the later chapters. 

On the surface, Ford sketches how, at the beginning of the 20th century, the lives of two couples -- one American, one British -- intertwine themselves over the years, giving way to a secret romance and betrayal. On a deeper level, Ford examines the mental processes these people underwent to get where they are now in their lives. It spares us no dirty details. Even our dear unreliable narrator finds plenty of faults within himself and ends most parts of the book on a self-critical note. The Good Soldier is brutally honest in spite of describing an intricate web of lies and the feelings of one man who was the sorry victim of it. 

Despite being first published in 1915, so many elements discussed in this book are incredibly relevant and it’s obvious why that is: The Good Soldier is a portrait of humans, and humanity has not really changed in the past century at a base level. We are still driven by love, pride, jealousy and all that other good stuff. This has led many reviewers to call the characters ‘despicable’ or ‘the worst of humanity’, but I think that’s too quick of a judgement. It was refreshing to see the dark corners of the human psyche portrayed with such stark honesty. The characters felt like people I could possibly encounter in the street; some reminded me of people I knew. Best of all, I could understand all of their motivations at any one point.

Honestly, this book handles so many subjects that we are still struggling with today. Here’s a selection: sexism, male entitlement, the objectification of women, abusive relationships, religious tension between branches of the Christian faith, the downsides of cultural conservatism, and many others. But it also brought some brighter topics to the fore, namely asexuality, polyamory and serial monogamy, male-female friendship, and the importance of responsibility and trust in any relationship. If that doesn’t sound modern then I don’t know what does anymore.

And the ending, damn, it was all I could have wanted. It was realistic and so quietly tragic that I could not help but feel sympathy for all those involved in the tale. It’s true you won’t get happy vibes from The Good Soldier, but you get tonnes of satisfaction from it instead. It’s got my full recommendation.

Powerpuff Girls was actually a show about a group of small children crushing the patriarchy and no one will convince me otherwise

Norway | Kai Grossmann

Time Magazine

July 2015 edition

Interview & Cover Subject: Steve Rogers

Interview by Peter Parker

PP: What made you so involved in the fight for marriage equality despite the fact that it was legal in your home state of New York even before the Supreme Court’s decision?

SR: “Me and Bucky have had things trying to keep us from loving each other our entire lives. The federal government was one of them for far too long and the fact that they were still doing it to people like us a century later is something that this country needs to be ashamed of. I never wanted anyone else to be denied of something that everyone deserves to have as an option- the option to love freely and legally.”

PP: How hard was it growing up gay in the forties?

SR: “I mean, it was illegal, so the threat of jail time was constantly looming over us. We were lucky to live in a pretty open neighborhood- lots of drag queens honestly, one was my babysitter as a kid. But it was hard, definitely, having to pretend. It was scary being worried about the law or anyone who might have seen you for what you were. There was a lot of fear in everyone I knew who was queer, but that was something both me and Bucky were willing to endure to be with each other. I’m glad that gay rights and acceptance have changed for the better in this century but I think we all need to admit we still have a long way to go. The Supreme Court’s decision was a step further in the right direction, but it’s not a place to stop by any means.”

PP: What advice, if any, would you offer to LGBTQ+ youth out there who look up to you and your story?

SR: “Ah, that’s a tough one. There’s all the standard stuff about not being afraid, accepting yourself, how it’ll get better as time goes on. That’s all true! But if I was going to give any advice, I don’t want it to be something they’ve all heard before. So, I guess the biggest advicr I can give you is: it’s okay to not be immediately sure of things. Not bring sure, questioning yourself, even changing your mind- it’s all okay. It’s part of the process, and it’s okay not to have an answer. And don’t let people use your uncertainty as an excuse to force their own opinions about you down your throat as the truth. That’s another big lesson. Don’t let other people’s decisions about you influence who you think you are.”

PP: Now that same-sex marriage is legal in every state, will you be popping the question to your boyfriend anytime soon?

SR: “Actually, Bucky proposed to me during the war. Of course we couldn’t do anything much about it back then besides trade dogtags and have one of our squad bless us- nothing binding- but we’ve always considered it a standing engagement, but now that it’s legal we’ll be going about it the traditional way this time- right now it’s just a matter of waiting to see who springs the question first. I’m pretty sure our friends have bets going. If Sam loses, he’ll never let me hear the end of it.”

PP: So, this last question isn’t actually one from me, but if you don’t mind I’ll just hand it over.

SR: “What?”

BB: Hi, baby. I’m taking over the interview.

SR: “Bucky? What are you doing? Are you going to-“

BB: I’m the one asking questions here, Rogers. Now, to get down to it: Will you marry me?

SR: “Did you just propose to me during an interview?

BB: Natasha said it was the perfect way to get the drop on you.

SR: “Is this on the record?”

BB: ...Only if you say yes?

SR: “Bucky, of course I’m saying yes. Yes, you idiot. Always.”

I got stung twice by the same wasp today, because the class I was observing for training danced on its field for an hour.

i love twitter. why does this have 4.9K likes

I know Steve is really talented with his shield and is like an expert with it 

but just imagine him smacking it in his face 

or tripping over it

or waking up in the middle of the night and he shuffles off to the bathroom only to step on the edge of the shield and it smacks him in the shin and he curses loudly enough to wake up the other Howling Commandos who just sit up and start laughing at the way Steve is holding onto his leg and swearing 

You may well ask why I write. And yet my reasons are quite many. For it is not unusual in human beings who have witnessed the sack of a city or the falling to pieces of a people to desire to set down what they have witnessed for the benefit of unknown heirs or of generations infinitely remote; or, if you please, just to get the sight out of their heads.

Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (via relatablepoetryandquotes)

“We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.”

- The Good Soldier, Ford Madox Ford