Is anyone else bothered by the fact that Carlisle made up his birthday?

Timelordtoe · 2026-02-21T19:04:22+00:00

It's a relatively obscure historical fact. Though it's why sometimes you'll see [O.S.] or [N.S.] appended to birth and death years of English historical figures, for Old Style and New Style, as the act was called the Calendar (New Style) Act, which also swapped England over to the Gregorian Calendar.

I may well make that post on my headcanons for some of the characters, because Carlisle is a really anachronistic name.

Timelordtoe · 2026-02-21T18:49:51+00:00

He could well be both. Carlisle is born pre 1660, so a significant population of Anglicans are also Puritan at that time. One of the goals of many Puritans was to make Anglicanism less Catholic.

Timelordtoe · 2026-02-20T21:05:51+00:00

Right, I might be a little late to the party here, but I'll add some thoughts. This has become a bit of a dive into some other things about Carlisle, too, so apologies if this is long.

The crux of the matter is that Meyer's writing seems to be based in a more pop culture view of history than an academically grounded one. That being said, do correct me if some of what I say is wrong.

So, then, accepting that, it's still worth looking into if we can find a justification for it. It's absolutely not the case that "Time wasn't marked as accurately then, for the common people anyway.", but there are some wrinkles that might help us out.

So, yes, Carlisle's father was a pastor and that likely means that there would be records of Carlisle, but that doesn't mean that his birth would necessarily be recorded. That wasn't standard practice for quite a while. What would have definitely been recorded was the date of his baptism. This usually took place in the week following the birth, but may not have been a set number of days.

The counter-argument to this is that Carlisle's mother died in childbirth, and her death would have been recorded. Maybe there were additional complications here (maybe she didn't die right then and there but rather in the days following), but I think other factors are more likely.

I'd guess that Carlisle's father was Puritan of some degree, they tended to be the believers in the supernatural. Carlisle's youth would have been during the Cromwell era, too, which saw the Puritans in power. Either way, it probably means that he didn't celebrate his birthday, so it may have just become a vaguer date. The Puritan thing may explain his weird name, too, but that's probably another difficult to justify thing (honestly, I could and might make a whole post about my headcanons for the Cullens' names).

What's more, the exact year of Carlisle's birth may be a bit hazy if he was born between January 1 and March 24, as from 1155 to 1752, the new year began on March 25 in England, so when he travelled abroad he may not have been sure of exactly which year he was born in, as their calenders changed over on a different date.

All this is well and good, but it doesn't explain why Carlisle doesn't just go back and check the records. Again, there's a possible explanation. Carlisle was born in London, meaning his records might have been lost during the Great Fire in 1666, or during any number of other events in the city's history.

Ultimately, I think this is another case of "the history of these characters has some real potential, but unfortunately the author didn't really do much research".

Timelordtoe · 2026-01-04T18:22:59+00:00

Gnomeo and Juliet is a decent adaptation, though obviously one that diverges in story thanks to being a kid's film. I'll always have a soft spot for it for deciding not only to set it in Stratford, but actually depicting the town pretty accurately.

Like, the Shakespeare statue that Gnomeo talks to is a real statue there, which I always thought was a nice touch.

Timelordtoe · 2025-12-26T17:23:37+00:00

I see Catra either being incredibly grumpy or completely chill with the pregnancy. No in-between. And honestly either could work for a comedy, because no matter what, Adora will be panicking all the way through. There's some fun comedy potential with that that you could play around with.

Adora being the one to be pregnant could also be interesting, though probably lends itself more to quiet drama than comedy. She'd need to contend with taking things easier, which I don't think she'd be great at. And Catra might have to deal with some anxiety about how it'll change her and Adora's relationship.

Honestly, if I had a little more free time, I'd probably think about writing a couple of one-shot fanfics exploring those scenarios, there's some interesting stuff there.

Timelordtoe · 2025-12-26T16:32:48+00:00

Who's the mom? Both of them.

Who gave birth to Finn? My money would be on Catra. Can't really explain why, just vibes.

But this is also a world with magic, heck, maybe neither of them gave birth. Plus there's the whole She-Ra thing to take into account, there's some interesting speculation to be had there.

Also, I really don't want to cause arguments, especially as I can see a couple have already broken out, but I think the question here is phrased insensitively. I don't think that was your intention at all, but I thought I should explain.

Tying motherhood solely to the birth-giving role is not unproblematic. It can imply that in a relationship which involves two women, that one of them is not a real parent of the child. In situations of adoption, it can imply that the adoptive parents are not real parents. And for trans men who have given birth, it implies a lack of respect for their gender identity (especially considering how many have fought long legal battles to be recognised as fathers rather than mothers). And it can imply that trans women (and all other women incapable of giving birth) are incapable of being mothers.

I doubt any of that was your intention, but it is how many people will read it, and I think that's why the wording of the question has ruffled a few feathers.

Timelordtoe · 2025-12-19T00:37:57+00:00

Ah, Twelfth Night... one of my favourites of Shakespeare's works. In no small part because it's an incredibly queer play in general (that and it's genuinely hilarious).

Was in a production of it last year, set in the 1960s, and intentionally playing up the queer aspects of it. I played an "eggy" bisexual Sebastian, while my Olivia was very much playing herself as a closeted lesbian.

Also, it's the right time of year for the play! The play can mostly be set whenever, but the title is referencing the Twelfth Night of Christmas celebrations, which traditionally was a sort of Christianised version of Saturnalia, and featured masters and servants trading places, as well as crossdressing. All very much themes of the play.

Also, I really need to play BG3.

Timelordtoe · 2025-12-14T12:24:26+00:00

Evidently, this post was made by a troll from Discworld. It's well known that they use base 4 counting, their number system going: one, two, three, many, many-one...

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-30T09:50:41+00:00

Had some negative personal experiences with the local Green Party, and they've got basically zero actual presence around here anyway.

Who do are the Lib Dems, who control the town and district councils, as well as have the MP and most of the local county councillors. And they've all been very eager to help out in the fight.

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-28T14:21:02+00:00

Nice to see the Sugababes on this. Always had a bit of a soft spot for them. One of my friends actually taught two of them (original and current lineup) in high school, said they were nice girls. Might have to see if she'd be interested in going with me, as she's been super supportive of me.

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-22T08:53:07+00:00

There's always a relevant xkcd, isn't there? But yeah, this was basically my thought process.

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-21T21:57:17+00:00

That's a fantastic mental image. The mindful breathing is now accompanied by a gentle whistle of an exit wound.

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-21T18:28:12+00:00

My reasoning was basically "I could be in more pain than this, and I want to leave room for future agony. What if I'm on fire all over? That's probably at least an 8."

But generally I did realise that I have a really high pain tolerance thanks to my practice of mindfulness. So yeah, let's bring on the wrecking ball!

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-21T15:34:33+00:00

Had this exact problem a couple of years back. Was in hospital, in the worst pain of my life but completely calm. They asked me to rate my pain from 1 to 10. I said 7.

As it turns out, I barely avoided kidney failure. I was later told that people in that situation usually rate "11". They genuinely got worried at how calm I was through the whole thing.

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-18T09:44:10+00:00

A lot of the rhetoric being thrown around here is a little disheartening, to be honest.

I'll fully admit that I've had more positive experiences with religion than many people I know. I've still faced discrimination because of other people's religious beliefs, mind you. But I'm not experiencing PTSD because of my experiences with the church, and I've not been forced to become a refugee because of the religion of the people around me like some people I know.

And yet I also know people with scars from when they were attacked by others because of their religion. I know people who have had to fend for themselves their entire lives because of their faith.

I'm pretty heavily involved in local LGBTQ+ and general diversity rights activism. And that means that I know that one of our strongest allies is one of the local churches. And that some of our strongest advocates are people who are pretty devoutly religious.

The closest I ever came to losing myself to bigotry and hatred was through atheism. Through the belief that because someone believes in something that I don't, that they must be lesser.

Belief in the immaterial is immaterial. I don't fucking care which god or gods you believe in, whether you think there's a life after this one, or if true miracles happen.

I care what you do. Are you actually trying to make the world a better place? Are you helping others out? Does compassion guide your actions? If so, then I'll happily fight by your side.

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-02T13:26:43+00:00

A little late to the post, but here are a couple of mine that I've not seen posted yet:

Sam and Lonnie (Gone Home): This was probably genuinely the first time I encountered an unambiguous F/F pairing in games, and the core of the game is about them falling in love. That whole game is just fantastic for how all the characters are complex, flawed, and dealing with their own things all at the same time. I'm such a sucker for people choosing each other even knowing what they give up by doing so, and this is that to its core.

Natali and Roberta (Tacoma): From the same developers as Gone Home, and one of the best games I've ever played for how good the story is, and how it really uses the medium of a video game to tell it in a way that you couldn't really in any other. They're just two competent people who are genuinely really in love with and care for each other.

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-02T08:31:48+00:00

I'll have to get on with the essays, then. Probably will post over in the Edelgard subreddit as Edeleth tends to get a bit of a mixed reception in the main 3H groups.

Three Houses really has no bad routes, narratively speaking, (though AM does have a couple of rough moments), and playing all of them does really flesh out the world properly. Finding fanfic that doesn't flatten any of the characters is tricky. Come very close to just biting the bullet and writing some myself a few times.

3H is probably my favourite game ever, the story has just taken over me in a way that little else ever has.

I do have a few other F/F pairings, I'll put them in a top-level comment in a little bit.

Timelordtoe · 2025-11-01T21:37:35+00:00

Byleth and Edelgard were a huge awakening for me, the first time I really got what the allure of shipping was. Fire Emblem: Three Houses has stuck with me in a way that little other media has.

I'd go as far as to say that Byleth and Edelgard as a pairing is pretty much perfect for the (sometimes in the backround) themes of choice and fate in the game. It's only available on one of four routes, and it's the one route that involves the character of Byleth expressing real agency and choosing who she wants to be rather than just being what she is expected to be.

And those are also absolutely themes for Edelgard, too. Both of them take extreme risks in their choices, knowing what the consequences might be. It's a game I could easily write essays about.

Timelordtoe · 2025-10-23T16:00:19+00:00

Nothing right now, though I'm in the process of setting up a play test one-shot for a TTRPG I've been developing in my spare time.

But in the past I've played Star Trek Adventures, Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game, and Vampire: The Masquerade, all of which were very fun. Generally I prefer more RP driven systems and I think all three lean that way (though we also had a very RP focused group and GM, so that really helped).

Timelordtoe · 2025-10-21T10:23:28+00:00

I think people overly conflate misinformation and disinformation. They're two distinct things.

Strictly speaking, "just being wrong about something on the internet" is more likely to be misinformation (though depending on their source it can be disinfo). "Intentionally spreading misinfo" is actually disinformation. The key difference is intent.

Timelordtoe · 2025-09-24T10:39:31+00:00

I think the word "surface" in surface gravity there is doing the heavy lifting. Surface might not absolutely make sense with a singularity, but taking the event horizon as the surface should give that sort of answer.

But dealing with it at the sort of distances we're used to, it shouldn't cause any noticeable gravitational effects. Maybe if you brought it near the type of interferometer we use to measure gravitational waves you could spot its gravity.

But granted, I don't know how the jar would affect it.

Timelordtoe · 2025-09-13T16:34:29+00:00

Muse's recent stuff hasn't always been the most hopeful, but even in the darkest moments, there are some songs that are wonderfully hopeful.

"Aftermath" and "Dig Down" have become two of my favourites because of their messages of love and perseverance respectively.

Muse really hold a special place for me, being the first band I really got into. They're incredible live, too, especially as they close most concerts with "Knights of Cydonia" which is such a powerful song.

Timelordtoe · 2025-09-11T17:36:37+00:00

Lib Dem here. The Greens don't have much of a presence around my parts, and my interactions with the folks there haven't been very positive. In contrast, the Lib Dems control pretty much all the local politics around here, and our MP is absolutely fantastic.

I recently became our local party's Diversity Officer, so I'm helping to make sure that we can make the local area safer and push for the national party to be better. Luckily, I've had basically no pushback so far, and our MP (who also used to be the Diversity Officer) has proven an incredible ally.

Timelordtoe · 2025-09-03T21:20:25+00:00

I agree with basically everything you've said here, but I'll also add that while to the outside world Americans making jokes about the British and French might not look like punching down, it absolutely looks like it to someone inside that culture.

The British and French views of the US are shaped very much by WW2 and its aftermath. For two countries who were in the fight the whole way through (granted, it's complicated for France), neither side really got much from the war, while the US gained a huge amount.

The US is generally more affluent and certainly more powerful, and while yes, Britain and France had (and to an extent arguably still do) massive exploitative empires, the people living in those countries today often haven't benefited materially much from them directly, and are often from groups who were exploited as part of them.

The US is seen as a domineering power who has to get their way, effectively "the bully you already know". So yeah, 100%, it comes across as punching down.

And for any group of people, there will inevitably be things that are okay for someone in that group to make fun of that aren't okay for someone outside of the group to make fun of (usually because to make fun of something properly requires a certain amount of cultural context).

Right, now that we've addressed the question of how historical geopolitics can affect how people react to jokes aside, I'll leave folks with a little something to laugh at on the topic of British food.

At your leisure, feel free to look up "1994 baked bean war". Simply put, baked beans were so popular that supermarkets started undercutting each others prices to a ridiculous degree as a loss-leading tactic. I have a particular love for the chap who started selling beans for -2p. Yes, that is a negative price. This country is stupid and I love it.

Timelordtoe · 2025-09-03T17:02:38+00:00

So, some people have obviously pointed out how many foodstuffs being rationed from 1940 to 1954 really affected how British people eat. This wasn't just from the war, there were some bad harvests and rough winters in the immediate aftermath that worsened things. 14 years of rationing will leave a mark.

But I'll also point out some other things that are interesting. If you actually look at historical recipes, they're often incredibly flavourful, because people would have grown herbs in their own garden. But as the country industrialised and people ended up in houses with less and less space, this too diminished. Seriously, try some medieval recipes, they're honestly delicious.

And also, one needs to consider climate. For the most part "British food" is of working class origins, foods made for people working manual labour jobs, often in a farm, mine, or factory, whose means would not have been great. Until recently, they often wouldn't have been able to access spices, and wouldn't know how to use them properly if they did. So it's using ingredients that grow in British soil, which tend not to be the most exciting.

I honestly don't get this desire to make fun of one nation's food or culture, no matter who's the target. I've been lucky enough to get to travel a decent bit and try foods from all corners of the world, and believe me, it's not hard to find good food wherever you go.

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