environmental, queer, mental health issues | main acc: @alienbelievertragedy
170 posts
Latest Posts by sustain-the-stain - Page 2
I think a lot about how we as a culture have turned “forever” into the only acceptable definition of success.
Like… if you open a coffee shop and run it for a while and it makes you happy but then stuff gets too expensive and stressful and you want to do something else so you close it, it’s a “failed” business. If you write a book or two, then decide that you don’t actually want to keep doing that, you’re a “failed” writer. If you marry someone, and that marriage is good for a while, and then stops working and you get divorced, it’s a “failed” marriage.
The only acceptable “win condition” is “you keep doing that thing forever”. A friendship that lasts for a few years but then its time is done and you move on is considered less valuable or not a “real” friendship. A hobby that you do for a while and then are done with is a “phase” - or, alternatively, a “pity” that you don’t do that thing any more. A fandom is “dying” because people have had a lot of fun with it but are now moving on to other things.
I just think that something can be good, and also end, and that thing was still good. And it’s okay to be sad that it ended, too. But the idea that anything that ends is automatically less than this hypothetical eternal state of success… I don’t think that’s doing us any good at all.
A Thing:
-many disabilities are worsened or triggered into flares by stress
-stress often occurs when other people are counting on you and there's a crunch to get things done
-employers regularly understaff, creating constant dependency on particular people and creating unneeded crunches
-disabled people become "unreliable" and "unhireable" because they have disabilities and cannot safely deal with the mandatory crunches
-on top of that, the crunches give previously abled people disabilities, shunting them into "unhireable"
-dismantle capitalism and care for your community members
i haven`t seen people spread this on tumblr, so
https://mariupol.is/stories/
here is the link to the online archive dedicated to life stories of mariupol siege survivors.
if you are a foreigner, i would highly encourage you to spread it and read them yourself. as a ukrainian, i hear those stories every day, be it through opening my social media account or through talking to my friends and acquaintances.
for foreigners the situation is a bit different: you hear most of the information about mariupol from news and, therefore, tend to get a more polished, purely informative read. but by reading just those articles, it`s easy to forget that stories behind them are those of real people. and it`s much harder to feel as emotionally distanced when you actually see a person whose leg was torn into pieces, instead of just hearing that those people exist.
which is why i think such projects are valuable. and which is why i would like for them to be more known.
You can also mulch with unglazed terrcotta pots!
[Image description: A deaf person speaking in sign language, with the words "THEY/THEM" and closed captions printed on the screen, as well as a second smaller video of the same person speaking with their voice the same words that they're saying in sign language.
/ End ID]
Transcript:
As a Deaf person, what's the one thing I wish hearing people understood?
Recently I was having a coversation with my therapist, who is a hearing person.
I was expressing my frustration about how many artistic spaces are not accessible to me, and her first instinct was to ask if I wore hearing aids, and I said "Nope, ears bald," and then she asked if I've ever considered a cochlear implant which, if you're unfamiliar, is a pretty serious surgery, and I had to stop her.
Because, when hearing people and able-bodied people are faced with the reality of the inaccessible world that they have helped to create, their first instinct is always to try and fix the Deaf or disabled person.
I am not broken. My ears are not broken. My body is not broken just because it doesn't function the same way yours does. We are only disabled because you have told us we are disabled. We are only disabled because you built a world for YOU, not for us. Why should I have to change myself when we can simply change the world?
CREDIT: https://www.tiktok.com/@themotherbirdie/video/7076229059000192299
The more I get involved with local stuff, the more I find that all the good local stuff that creates community and continuity and value is run by old people. Yes, your much reviled boomers. They run the arts council and the craft guild and the other craft guild and the food pantry and the church free pancake dinners. They run the little art gallery downtown and the Master Gardeners and quite a lot of the farms. And there are few to no younger people coming up behind them to pass the torch to. The old people don’t know how to bridge the generation gap into the internet age, and the young people have unwittingly given up all the tremendous value of community for mobility, and/or have no free time in which to contribute to such things anyway because of the ever-growing struggle just to have enough.
Actually I think it’s something people should be very very worried about, but I suspect the whole picture is largely not visible to the people on either end.
https://www.tiktok.com/@tylerandhistummy/video/7086509725671722286
Video description and transcription:
Tiktok by Tyler from Fig (tylerandhistummy)
[Tyler faces the camera and speaks to it.]
If this video helps even one person, it was worth it.
So, I've got a ton of ingredients that my body reacts to: corn, citric acid, gluten, chocolate, bananas, peanut oil--I'm all over the place.
It was so hard to read ingredient labels and just find food that I could eat. Grocery trips were unbearable, they took like two or three hours usually.
But I always had this idea on how to make it easier. So I quit my job and helped build an app over the past few years. And that app's called Fig.
[A phone screen showing the app interface, which Tyler scrolls through. Top text reads: "First up: Do you follow any of these diets? Dietary restrictions are complex - it's ok to select more than one!" Underneath is a checklist of ingredients and dietary restriction, including categories with suboptions.]
What makes fig unique is we're trying to help pretty much everybody that has to avoid certain ingredients.
That means we've got a ton of things that you can select from--even really specific ingredients.
[Camera briefly returns to Tyler's face again.]
And like I had dreamed of for so many years, checking ingredients is as quick as this.
[A phone camera scans the barcode on a bottle of spices. Details about the product appear, including an ingredients list and allergen statement. The ingredient "citric acid" appears in red all-caps. There is also an accompanying message that says "This product does not match your Fig."]
And finding food you can eat is as simple as this.
[The app displays a scrollable list of food items, similar to a storefront. Each item has a save toggle and is accompanied by a photo, the product brand/name, and its size. There is a search bar labeled "search for a product." There are also menus for narrowing the search; one is set to "allowed," one is set to "Whole Foods," and another unaltered menu is titled "Category."]
[The camera returns to Tyler.]
So if you know anybody with food allergies, stomach issues, other dietary restrictions, I'd really appreciate it if you shared it with them.
[The appstore listing for Fig: Food Scanner & Discovery.]
It's called Fig, it's completely free, and you can get it on iOS and Android in the US.
[Tyler smiles at the camera.]
Thanks for helping out.
Buying seedlings for your garden.
So if March was the time to talk about starting seeds, April is the time to talk about buying transplants (reverse as needed for southern hemisphere obviously but y’all aren’t planting for spring now anyhow). I’ll make a few notes and then open it to others to add.
1. You don’t want blooms on your vegetable starts. If it’s blooming now, it’s reached the limits of its growth in its current pot and decided that this is as good as it gets and started to put its energy into reproducing. If there are blooms, you should pinch them off, but the plant is likely to have limited growth even so. The same kinda applies to flowers but I do recognize the difficulty of knowing what you’re buying without blooms, and also, a lot of modern flowers are bred for long flowering periods.
2. Short and stocky is better than tall. Tall means the plants have been crowded. Spindly means the plant will be less sturdy. The ideal tomato seedling, for example, is relatively short, with a thick stem.
3. Some things are not worth buying starts of. Sellers realize that a lot of people feel more comfortable with transplants–you don’t have to have faith in the magic of the seed that way. But it’s ridiculous to buy cucumber and squash seedlings, for example. Those are plants that can’t be put out until after danger of last frost anyway, which time hasn’t even come where I am, and their roots don’t really like to be disturbed. Tomatoes actually thrive on being replanted, so they make great transplants. Cucumbers not so much. Big seeds like peas, cucumbers, squash, etc. come up fast and will establish roots better in situ. Have faith in the seed.
4. Prefer small local places and actual nurseries to big box stores. The big box store offers varieties based on what will sell, as decided on the national level. They buy the seedlings en masse and take minimal care of them with the expectation of high losses. The little local place is in it because they love plants, and probably knows what varieties are actually good locally.
@ahedderick , @turtlesandfrogs , @not-quite-wild , @kawuli , anyone else wanna add?
if you’re a new tumblr user from tiktok or IG or something and only like posts and dont reblog them yeah people will think you’re a bot and block you but you will also make this website actively worse. they want “algorithmic” users like you, served recommended posts through likes, not people who just follow each other and respond to the direct chronological feed. there is a reason this website is still better than the rest, even with all its problems, do not ruin this
You can identify a fake redneck by their passionate support of “blue lives matter.” Real rednecks have been in at least one physical fight and/or high-speed chase with police officers and would do it again
By the way legislators aren’t making laws specifically targeting the LGBTQ community because of pansexuals or trans people without dysphoria or aces and aros. They’re doing it because they hate queer people, and want to make us existing openly illegal.
No amount of “but but but the new labels are making us look bad and people won’t take us seriously” will ever change the fact that you are putting yourself on the side of people that want us dead. So stand by your community, or put a damn sock in it.
kind of lame that graffiti is considered vandalism, while advertisements being forcefully beamed into my eyes via every inch of visible wall, road, and social media feed isn’t
Check out this great guide by disabled collaborators on making activism accessible, with guidance for individuals, organizers, and supporters: http://Bit.ly/AccessActivism
Please, try and learn at least a little sign language. It goes a long way.
From the little sign language I've learned (only a few simple words like sorry, hi, I love you, and thank you) it's opened me up to SO much about the deaf community. Much more than I knew before hand.
YES!! Making these with my club soon and we're so excited about! :) Keep at it!
went to the eco club at college today, we were making seed bombs! we used a british wildflower mix, and we put them in a patch of waste ground that we’ve been trying to turn into a wildlife area :)
how i catch & purify my water!
i collect snow & rain to water my plants & cook with. always be careful about what water u consume & always always always properly decontaminate it before using it in any cooking. if u plan on only watering plants w collected water, u can just collect rain water in a bucket & use it as is. just make sure to store it in a dark place so as to prevent the growth of algae
.
collect the water
if its raining i set out a ton of jars to collect – cleaned-out pasta jars, thrifted jars, etc. i prefer to use a bunch of small containers instead of one big container so it makes it easier later on to transfer to a pot for boiling
if its snowing i take a jar out & pack the snow in it by hand, then let that melt while i fill another jar. try to really jam-pack the jar as much as possible with snow since snow does lose a lot of volume when it melts
strain it into a clean pot
sometimes (esp with snow) there will be dirt and debris in the water you collect. this is what scientists call “nasty” so we wanna get those out before we start boiling. handheld strainers are not enough to get all the teeny tiny debris, so i put a coffee filter in my strainer, let the water drip through those, then use the wet coffee filter for my compost bin
boil it
we got the big bits out, but this water is still contaminated with bacteria, so we’re going to boil the water for at least a minute on high. if you are able to track the temperature, it should be at least 212 degrees Fahrenheit. if you live above sea level, a good rule of thumb is to boil it for 3 minutes longer for every 5k ft you live above sea level
contain it!
hooray! u have done a thing for the environment. stick ‘em in some jars. make sure to let the boiled water cool first & run the glass jar under some hot tap water so it doesnt ‘splode when u pour the water in
YES! A GOVERMENT THAT REALIZES THAT THE EARTH MATTERS MORE THAN A CURRENT PROFIT OF IT! (x) July 16, 2021
Everyday, we get a little bit closer. <3
The following countries use 97-100% renewable energy: Albania, Bhutan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Iceland, Namibia, Nepal, Norway, Paraguay.
Four countries that were creeping up on the 100% goal when this data was collected (2018 and 2019) are Kenya, Scotland, Tajikistan, and Uruguay, which use 82-92% renewable energy.
FINALLY PEOPLE ARE REALIZING HOW COOL LIBRARIES AND THEIR LIBRARIANS ARE!!!!
they'd just throw it away when cleaning anyways, so why get mad? that people are actually reusing plants?
I’m totally gonna do it
the bottom line is just, if you want trans people in your life, you need to be willing to stand up for us. if you want a trans presence in fandom then you need to take a stand against terfs when they pop up.
and guys, please remember that human rights are not an opinion and should not be up for debate.
transphobia is not just hurt feelings, nor is it a simple difference of opinion. it is a fact that trans people exist, have existed all over the world and all throughout human history, and are entitled to basic decency and respect like everyone else. transphobes hold beliefs that are toxic and dangerous. they think we are an aberration, a sign of mental illness, and a flat out danger to society. even when they seem civilized or simply talk about their "concerns."
a few petitions to sign to help this: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/613556 needs 100,00 signatures https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/613518 needs 10,000 signatures Contact your MP: https://www.banconversiontherapy.com/ https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/ask-your-mp-to-support-a-trans-inclusive-ban-on-conversion-therapy/ if you have any more SHARE THEM!!! Only residents of the British or UK can sign the petitions and MP forms. End date for both petitions are 6 October 2022
There’s something extremely sinister about a government who pretends to drop the policy of banning conversion therapy, watching LGBT organisations panic and protest, and then offering them the policy back but excluding trans people.
It was so obviously planned and designed to split the community.
i always think about that study where they had adults hold a baby, and when they were told the baby was a girl the adults said she was cute and small, and when they were told the baby was a boy they said he was big and strong. they rated the baby’s ability to do things and tendency towards certain toys differently. they even held the baby differently. (x) or when they rated the baby’s physical ability to do various tasks such as climbing up a slope differently, (x) & when they measured how much parents told their girl children vs. their boy children to be careful and stop being so rowdy (x), & when they measured how often girls and boys were told to be quiet. (x) this was, obviously, all unconscious behavior in the adults. they’re not all like, raving sexists who outspokenly believe that women can’t do stuff or that girls really should just be quieter, be more still than boys. like its not even counting the direct, actual messages, its just literally how every single person in your entire life treats you, and if asked they would probably deny that its even because you’re a girl. how the fuck am i supposed to believe this doesn’t affect a child’s development when its literally constant throughout the entire process
and btw if you can say fuck terfs or terfs dni or "respecting trans women juice" then you can celebrate us when we get put on magazine covers and you can listen to our voices when we tell our stories and you can support us when we're put into the spotlight. being an ally to trans women does not stop when you say fuck terfs lol! thats where it starts because saying terfs dni is not actually doing anything to protect trans women and its not doing anything to show actual material support it's simply telling our oppressors you dont like them.