#and thats on the production not being a toxic environment. on the leads being such genuine and loving individuals who set the tone

[duckuwu]

sitting here thinking of how grateful I am to have had two shows where the plot and the cast/ptb genuinely cared about their fans. being loving in their storytelling, even in dealing with upsetting things, only served to enhance the story. treating viewers and fans with respect in how the narratives were told helped to enhance the story.

it's a serious business, but it's also not. if your story revolves around characters genuinely loving and supporting and uplifting each other it's amazing. but to also realize that it's okay to allow people to enjoy things you might not intended, and support the fans who do so with so much love in their hearts? phenomenal.

I got to have two shows at the same time revolving around women, queer women, where it didn't revolve around their sex lives or backstabbing or [insert all the usual negatively framed stories/shows we usually get from a mostly women (especially queer women) show]. No shock value needed nor added. Just people finding their family, and changing the world because of it.

I'm talking specifically about getting to have A League of Their Own and Motherland Fort Salem "airing" at the same time. Both shows are relatively groundbreaking in the way they did things, their tonality, their 'everyone is queer until proven otherwise' stances. That the cast and narrative was comprised of not just white people. Their overall message of love and hope and that we're stronger together.

I don't need to talk more about ALOTO, everyone seems to get it. lol

I wish MFS had the resources and time to tell the story they wanted to tell, it definitely was hurt (narratively) by having to fit it all into short episodes in short seasons, but as a whole it was such a beautiful world to be gifted with. A lush, vibrant, reality with plenty to explore, with all these amazing women, with an open minded society where queer wasn't queer it was the norm. How they kept making sure to remind us that the rl societal norms didn't apply. It's about their coven, they're all connected, they're all allowed to love whomever and however. Sex wasn't taboo, in fact it was a resource. I love that, in this final season, they took great care in providing tender shippy moments for ALL the pairings in the fandom. That the cast was all for supporting ALL the ships because they got it. They got that it was all about love and loving each other and giving love and support. (As a (generally) non-canon shipper it's so damn NICE to be respected (and supported) by the cast. Also nice that the leads themselves were a united front, they were the coven they played.)

To get to have these two shows at the same time fills my heart with such joy, and hope for the future. We're just getting started, baby, and it's going to be amazing one day... One day it won't be profound to be treated with love and respect, one day it'll just be the norm. (I mean, it's pretty amazing now, to have these two at the same time.)

It's nice to know, for sure, that there ARE people with the power to make these shows who GET it. It's nice to know that there will only be more and more who get it from here.

#this post brought to you by me marinading on how nice it was that taylor and ashley supported bellcollar #that jess supported ALL of the Tally ships. (and that she supported herself with Lyne. respect bb lol) #that they all supported all of the ships equally they didnt pander they didnt mock they just genuinely enjoyed all of it #they understood the fandom and fandomed their own show and it was so REFRESHING #and thats on the production not being a toxic environment. on the leads being such genuine and loving individuals who set the tone #gosh im gonna miss motherland fort salem so much #we better get a season two for a league of their own or so help me amazon #i love when casts genuinely love each other (when its not all just PR)

[philipkindreddickhead]

I often seen critiques of make up from an existential/philosophical perspective, but I rarely see criticism of cosmetics from a stand point of the very physical bodily harm it does. I think this is because the number of dangerous ingredients is so massive, and overlapping its an absolutely daunting task. So I've compiled the information I've found and bear with me its a lot. (This is from an American perspective. Sorry, thats what I know. However I would love it if people from other countries had things to add.)

First I want to get the "simple" stuff out of the way. I think almost everyone has heard about bacteria and fungi in makeup and that makeup causes acne from clogging pores. Makeup has a pretty strict shelf life, yet consumers are entirely supposed to self-police as Ive never seen a single expiration date on any cosmetic packaging. (I guess consumers are meant to pull this knowledge out of the ether or something. I only found out about it in a tumblr PSA. I did read that expirys are on products in Europe.) Beauty blenders are the worst offender because theyre almost always moist. When I was taught makeup I was told to wet my sponge so it would soak up less product. If you apply makeup daily your sponge is likely constantly damp. USA Today had an article which said that 96% of sponges had fungi and over 60% had E. Coli in them. But I think what people talk about less is the complication of problems from using other products in conjunction with dirty beauty blenders. USA Today warns its especially dangerous to use beauty blenders if you have damage to your skin like acne, cuts, or dry skin. However the most popular beauty products for washing your face contain walnut pieces for literally scrubbing your skin and creating microabrasions. If youre a frequent makeup user you probably know about the cyclical nature of applying foundation, breaking out, and then applying more foundation to cover the breakout. You may even be using scrubbing cleansers more frequently to combat the acne creating more tears. This can lead to "blood poisoning" and, though neither USA today or Forbes mentions this, blood poisoning (not a medical term btw. Its sepsis.) according to numerous medical sites has the potential to be extremely lethal. The symptoms are so similar to a regular flu its nearly impossible to self-diagnose.

The very first thing I was told when a friend handed me a jar of finishing powder- popular with many beauty gurus for the "baking" technique and considered a must have- was a joke about "clown lung." This was a reference to the main ingredient talc. Talc causes lung problems including cancer and respiratory illness. If anyone remembers the large Johnson and Johnson lawsuit from 2019 it was because theyd been putting talc into baby powder. Talc is dangerous because it's impossible to mine and seperate from ASBESTOS. Some high-end finishing powders will try to sell you on safe talc-free formulas but all the products I looked into contained mica instead which causes pneumoconiosis, colloquially known as "black lung disease." Like fucking coal miners get. Its not just present in finishing powder either. In my research it turned out that talc/asbestos are also present in many eyeshadows and other powder products. [Googleable, evidenced in J&J lawsuit]

Another industry to examine is nail salons. Toluene, Formaldehyde, Dibutyl Phthalate, and Methacrylate compounds are all dangerous ingredients and present in various salon products. These ingredients cause a range of problems from dizziness, drowsiness, birth defects, slow fetal growth, future intellectual disabilities in the fetus, eye skin and throat irritation, coughing, allergic reactions, asthma-like attacks, short-term memory loss, nausea, dermatitis, cancer, and misscarriage. Some nail products advertise that they are 3-free meaning that toluene, formaldehyde, and DP should be absent but often the labels are found to be completely inaccurate. It should be noted that the risk is mainly to salon workers and not patrons but ask yourself if it is right to place other people at serious risk for your aesthetic. OSHA does make an attempt to mitigate these risks however not once in my years of makeup queen did I see a salon following these directives which include constant air monitoring, half mask respirators with chemical cartridges, gloves, long sleeves, and safety glasses. (And Im not even going to touch issues of human trafficking/slave labour out of nail salons one case of which occured 5 days ago two hours away from me) It should also be noted that formaldehyde can also be found in hair relaxers and hair dyes. [Found articles in Scientific American and NYT]

I also found on the FDAs website that many cosmetics include heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, and lead. (Usually accompainied by a picture of lipstick so I assume that is the product most likely to contain it, however campaign for safe cosmetics lists foundation as containing heavy metals, and The Guardian has an article about skin lighteners from Asia and Africa containing mercury.) The website stated that the amount of these heavy metals in cosmetics is "safe" if used as intended. (and I'm going to come back to the concept of "intended use" later because thats a can of worms too) However, when searching for info on heavy metal safety I found this quote in regards to metals in food:

"Certain metals, such as arsenic, lead and mercury, have no established health benefit, and have been shown to lead to illness, impairment, and in high doses, death. Understanding the risk that harmful metals pose in our food supply is complicated by the fact that no single food source accounts for most people’s exposure to metals in foods. People’s exposure comes from many different foods containing these metals. Combining all of the foods we eat, even low levels of harmful metals from individual food sources, can sometimes add up to a level of concern"

So like, which is it? Is it a "safe amount" or is no amount of metal safe? I understand that in the case of certain foods like fish some amount of mercury poisoning is always expected but fish is also something you feed yourself and nourish your body with while cosmetics are completely unecessary to your survival. The mercury problem in fish is also mitigated by health warnings when mercury levels are particularly high but cosmetics have no such warning. Another warning on the site indicated that children should ingest NO amount of lead AT ALL because it is particularly harmful for kids yet theres no effort to stop children from using lead-containing cosmetics. I worked next to a Five Below where I was shocked to find they sold Jeffree Star and Anastasia eyeshadow dupes for five dollars which amounts to fucking pocket change for a lot of kids and kids do buy that stuff. I also think its ironic the FDA would have anything to say regarding cosmetics because in the very same article about heavy metals in cosmetics the FDA says that they DO NOT REGULATE cosmetics beyond the color additives.

Mascara, eyeliner, lipstick, and brow tint often contain carbon black. This is a color additive that is an incomplete combustion of carbon-based products. It can cause lung disease, cancer, and organ system toxicity, and eye, nose, throat irritation. The effects are mainly studied in rats and those at biggest risk are industrial workers but why do other workers have to endure lung problems for something so unecessary? [Easily googleable, NIH, CDC, WHO Europe]

This next bit I only want to mention briefly because I didnt find any particularly reputable sources about it, but its a claim that cropped up repeatedly and I think its an interesting one. Parabens, estrogen, phthalates (again), and pesticides in cosmetics are apparently linked to endocrine disorders and hormone dysregulation. Im not entirely sure what is meant by this accusation. Endocrine disorders include female diseases like PCOS and possibly endometriosis. None of these diseases is very well studied and the female endocrine system itself is not well studied either. Im not saying "cosmetics cause PCOS" because we dont know if PCOS or these other endocrine/hormonal disorders are genetic or environmental or both (it appears that PCOS is largely genetic and Endometriosis is likely autoimmune related) AND we dont appear to know for sure that cosmetic ingredients cause endocrine disorder. But I include anyway for a number of reasons:

If you happen to struggle with hormonal problems you may want to know cosmetics is a potential environment factor.

These conditions are incredibly painful. It will be a battle getting your doctor to even acknowledge that pain for diagnosis. PCOS is linked to diabetes, and heart disease. [Thanks @mother-of-pearl ] There is no cure and the treatments are often throwing hormonal birth control at it and hoping for the best.

I dont anticipate the link between cosmetics and endocrine disorders being studied any time soon or any endocrine disorders studied at all because the medical/scientific field is sexist. I dont want women to suffer in the mean time.

Now again, take this with a grain of salt because I couldnt find scientific or news sources for it. Dont fucking come for me. Im not gonna respond to you. [Most reputable source was a paper from the library of medicine at the national institutes of health but it was behind a paywall and I dont have 39 dollars to be right on tumblrdotcom]

Avoiding these ingredients is not as simple as scanning the label for them. As many beautubers and the community are no doubt aware considering multiple scandals over veganism. Products advertised as vegan or cruelty free but contain non-vegan carmine or are sold in China which legally requires the products to be animal tested. Cosmetic companies will hide ingredients claiming they are "trade secrets" or they will be placed under "fragrance." Many ingredients will be known by six or seven different names and asking consumers to be aware of seven different names for multiple ingredients requires consumers to be aware of innumerable different, often complicated ingredient names. I shouldnt have to point out that's a ridiculous burden to place on women. The EU banned 1,300 hazardous ingredients that the US did not. Cosmetic companies rely on women being unwilling/unable to bring in a list of 1,300 ingredients- with multiple names- every time they pop in to the drug store, sephora, or wherever. Buying "natural" products will not help you either. Theres no established criteria for natural/organic in costmetics, the FDA doesnt test these products, and "natural"=/= safe anyway. Plenty of plants and minerals are poisonous. One good example is traditional kohl products which advertise their natural status but also naturally contain lead and reiterating that natural powders contain mica. US courts are rarely on the side of consumers either. I found an interesting lawsuit against St. Ives for their apricot scrub taken to court for their "dermatologist tested" label despite it causing breakouts and cuts to the skin. The courts ruled that this label was fine because it only indicated that the product was TESTED not APPROVED by dermatologists. However I think any rational consumer would look at this label and assume the tests concluded it was safe for use or else why put the label on there?

[Googlable XMONDO drama, googlable laws wrt china and eu, already stated about FDA, FDA website about Kohl. Googled St. Ives lawsuit.]

I want to return to the idea of "intended use." This is sort of a fucky concept a lot of companies have ways of getting around. My "last straw" with makeup had to do with a run-in I had with Anastasia over their "Riviera" eyeshadow palette. In this pallette they had two colors that were the real feature of the palette, an electric neon purple and a radioactive pink I mean every photo, every promotion has these two colors swirled together around the eye. Because again, its an eyeshadow palette. When I buy the eyeshadow palette of course there's a little insert warning in the package that says these two shades are not intended on the eye area. In an eyeshadow palette. Contacting their customer service they told me that these two shades were meant to be used as a blush. neon purple blush. Not only that, but their website and instagram featured NO models wearing the shades as blush while EVERY model one or more of the shades as eyeshadow. When asked about this discrepancy ABH stopped responding. What I find egregious about this is the amount of people who dont know, and then more staggeringly; dont care. The sephora clerks didnt know, the in store abh representative didnt know, their customers didnt know, and when I told them they would respond with "oh, [brand] did the same thing with their [shade]." Sure enough, when I demanded that store clerks open the packaging to look for warnings nearly every product had an "eyeshadow" that was not intended for use on the eyes. Relegating dark, red-toned teal to "contour" and neon grean to "highlighter" US-based cosmetic junkies will say that these pigments have been approved for use by the EU however I found absolutely NO evidence of that. I googled it a thousand ways but all I ever found were blog posts, reddit comments, and one quote from an apparently nonEuropean layman in an Insider article. I even changed my location to France on ABH's website and the Norvina palette still contains the same warnings (not to harp on ABH in particular. I just know which shades in particular are the problem there). The Insider article noted that brands who were selling pressed pigments declined to comment. If the pressed pigments were EU friendly, I would think companies would be clamouring to say so. It also still makes their market as eyeshadow colors illegal in the US. (If any Europeans would like to chime in I'd love that.) Another problem I find with cosmetics companies and their reps is the claim that the worst thing that could happen is eye irritation for those with sensitive eyes and staining. How could they possibly know? The FDA doesnt test, or approve these cosmetics in the eye area, so ostensibly no one should be using it that way.

The next one is a bit of a "duh" but I'm going to talk about it anyway. Counterfeit cosmetics are a booming market full of untold dangers. Untold primarily because these products could contain literally anything. Ive read about glue, arsenic, lead, feces, staph, and horse urine to name a few. The labels and ingredient list on these products are fake. Legitimate brands often unintentionally play into the counterfeit market. They create artificial scarcity by making less of the product than is actually needed for consumer demand to create an even higher demand. If consumers miss out often their only chance at getting the product is to turn to counterfeits. I found examples of women who had their lips superglued, lips "turned to goo" and burned to blistering, throat closures, women with stys, contact dermatitis, eye infections. I think we as a society turn a blind eye to this problem because we think "hey, if youre buying counterfeits for a discount and you get hurt you deserve it." We imagine idiots buying products for 4 dollars from ebay or perusing Canal street for FEИTY beauty. But these counterfeits can be really convincing. I myself received a gift of a huda palette that I only recognized something was weird about it because I'd swatched it at sephora about five times earlier that month. The person who bought it for me actually paid MORE than the usual cost for the palette because it was advertised as a newer, better edition. The websites can be disturbingly similar. For instance Kylie Jenner's legitimate website is KylieCosmetics.com but you can find fakes at kyliecosmeticsshop.co.uk. These fakes can buy ad space and be one of the first sites that populate when you google the products instead of typing the legitimate site into the address bar. Counterfeits can also be bought and sold through third parties on websites like ebay, wish, and amazon. (My gift actually came from Amazon.)

[Netflix doc "Broken" ep "Makeup Mayhem" Corroborated by personal experience and google]

[sl-ash-er]

In Defense of Severus Snape

This isn't well planned out or anything, I'll likely rewrite this another time, but i wanted to get my thoughts out now so yeah.

I'm all for disagreements btw. At the end of the day, HP is a fictional world, the characters aren't real. It's cool if we disagree. I don't mind at all. This isn't really me debating anyone, as I honestly have no intention of changing my mind. I just wanna talk about my thoughts, ya know?

If people are willing to see the complexity of the Mauraders and how they're more than just bullies (they definitely are more than that) then I honestly don't see why people don't see the absolute trainwreck of complexity Snape is. He and Voldemort are characters that are the examples of what happens when people don't become better and don't get help.

👏Time👏Itself👏Does👏Not👏Heal👏Wounds👏Help👏Does👏

Thats exactly why Sirius still acted the same way after being in Azkaban for 12 years and him being out, because despite him having all that time he didn't get help.

Often times, traumatized people need help by being removed from the toxic environment in order to change or to prevent them from become a product of that toxic environment.

Sirius ran away to the Potter's

Harry went to the Weasley's

Snape did not have anyone

Snape had Lily, until he destroyed it by calling her a slur. Which he regretted until the day he died. Which again, this can be seen as him being a product of his environment of clinging to the only friends he had at the time who were extremely prejudice and it was out of impulse, not thought. He regretted it immediately. Dont get me wrong, I don't blame Lily from being upset and stopping her and Snape's friendship. She had every right to do that, but I will never see that as anything other than Snape making a huge mistake and regretting it the moment that word left his lips. He was angry and scarred, he was humiliated and assaulted and his best friend laughed at it.

Even Harry thought it was disturbing. Even Harry realized, the kid that hated Snape from day one realized that he did not deserve the treatment he got.

Snape didn't want to be a deatheater again, that was Dumbledore's idea. Snape was a death eater for about 2 years and then spent the remainder of his life taking them down. Was it for a selfish reason? Yeah it was, but he still did it so what does it matter the motive behind it? It worked, didn't it?

I love Snape, not because he's a good character, because he isn't, but because he's one of the most realistic characters.

I do not condone the bullying Snape did to his students, but I understand why it happened.

When someone doesn't get help for their abuse, they will very likely become a product of their environment. Snape did exactly that.

I see so many people say that Harry should have had a lot more issues because of all the abuse he went through. That is not very realistic that he went on in life unscathed from the fact the Dursley's neglected and abused him and him going to literal war at such a young age.

Yet Snape was a very good product of what people were expecting from Harry- a product of an abusive, bullying environment. He was bullied as a kid, traumatized by it, and when he never got help for it time means nothing because he never got help during that time. He became a bully himself.

Most bullies were bullied themselves. Most abusive people were abused themselves. Trauma destroys a person.

As another thing, people rarely criticize Sirius for being abusive to Kreacher due to the understanding that Kreacher was very likely a reminder of Sirius' abusive home life, leading to him yelling, screaming and yeeting Kreacher. I agree with those as well. I think the constant mention and praise of his mother and the the way Kreacher talked down to Sirius and those who entered Grimmauld Place definitely brought up some trauma in Sirius. Leading him to lash out like he did.

So if we can agree that the reason Sirius was abusive to Kreacher was due to his reminder of trauma, isn't it possible that Snape was so awful towards Harry (and arguably Neville as well) was due to the fact the Harry reminded him of James? The guy who bullied and traumatized Snape? Who was his student for 6 years?

Food for thought

#severus snape #snape #pro snape #mine #ashy rants #darrin dont look

[aal-archaeology]

Summary of my first term of my Ph.D. at Stanford during a global pandemic and an extremely controversial election year (Anthropology, yr. 1, she/they, 25y/o) with some toggl data analysis

Well this year was a doozy if I don’t say so myself. But we survived it, and its okay if that’s all you were able to do this year because that’s enough.  As an offical 18th grader, I feel like I can speak pretty well to the toxicity of the academic environment. There is always a pressure to be working all of the time, people compete with each other with how few hours of sleep they got, every conversation with fellow students is just listing off all of the different assignemnts you have to do by the end of the week. On top of all of this, this is 2020. So, I decided that this year I’m going to give myself some mental slack. 

I decided that this is the year that I’m not going to try to impress anyone. I’m just going to survive and do what I have to do to move onto the next term. I think I did a pretty good job at that for the first term, so I’ll share a bit about what I observed in myself and those in my cohort. Coming into term one having to choose classes, many of my peers were packing their schedules full of 5 Unit seminars. For those who don’t know, theoretically, a 5 Unit course is supposed to take about 5-6 hours of work outside of class hours. For Stanford Anthropology, most PhD students take as close as they can to 18 credits, and anything over that you have to pay extra for the courses. Taking more courses doesn’t really put you any further ahead in terms of completing your degree, and you’re expected to complete about 45 Units each year for the first two years of the program. 

I decided to take 2 seminars (typical), a language course, and a couple filler credits that we are given the option to use if we need 1-3 units to hit 18 total. I,  fortunately, tracked every hour spent outside of the classroom working on each course using toggl (i highly reccomend): 

In a typical week, I spent about 5-6 hours/week outside of class on my Anthro seminars, and about 6-7 hours on Japanese. Japanese was a “for-fun” class so I would usually study more of that when I didn’t feel like reading dense archaeological theory. 

Toggl was a really cool way to see where I was spending too much, or not enough, time on my classwork. If it was taking me more than 1.5 hours to get through a single article, I knew I was probably spending too much time on it and should move on to the next thing. My goal for the term was to stay true to the 5 Unit idea of 5-6 hours, and not over-work myself. 

Toggl was also useful in tracking my mental health throughout the term, as it is very obvious to see when I just was not physically capable of ingesting 400 pages of reading. For example, election week:

Election week was really hard for me, and everyone else in the world honestly. I had various family things I was dealing with, typical existential dread, plus it was week 8-ish of the term when everything was already on fire in terms of workload. For one of my seminars (purple), we had to read a book for the following week which I was able to do the sundar after election day. However, for the days leading up to and surrounding the 4th, the only thing I could mentally handle was mindless Japanese vocab studying. One of my seminars really sufferend this week, and I straight up just didnt show up to the smaller Anth 310G class because I had only read the title of the pdf. Fortunately, I emailed my professor of my Theory class and was like “yo dude I cannot” and he replied that he understood and wouldnt call on me during that day of class. 

I didn’t do a whole lot of journalling at all this term, but for this week I just wrote “pain” on most days and then YAY BIDEN at the end of it. 

Weekly Schedule

Above is what a typical week looked like, some were a lot lot lot more dense, others not so much, but this was pretty average. Not all things on the calendar are work related, some are extra lectures from visiting professors that sounded interesting, or “Free Boba & Snacks Pick Up” put on by my residence. Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday were my big work days last term, where I didn’t have a whole lot of classes so I would do most of my reading then. On Tues and Thurs I had one 3-hour seminar, and M-F I had a 50 min Japanese class. 

I woke up every day around 7am-ish, made a green tea, and sat at the computer to work, filter through emails, etc. On particularily open days I would go grocery shopping, go for bike rides/walks around campus, go buy food/boba. 

On class-heavy days, I wouldn’t leave my computer for 8-12 hours, which is extremely ridiculous but that’s the new norm in school in 2020. This kind of stunk because all of the socializing was also on the computer, so even if I wasn’t working I was doing screen related things. 

EVERY day I stopped working at 6pm. Rarely did I do readings past 6pm unless I was really slacking somewhere. From 6pm onwards I would do things like play Among Us or League of Legends with my discord friends, eat, watch movies with my partner, etc. And then most nights I would try to be in bed by 12am at the latest. 

Social Life

Despite the online nature of things this term, I was suprisingly able to meet a lot of great people on campus. We were all being tested at least once a week, which made in person gatherings with 1-4 people a little less scary, especially when half of the people lived together in one household. 

In the first week of school, some of the grad programs put on a “speed friending” zoom event, where I was able to connect with two people really well. We ended up doing a “slow-friending” zoom event afterwards and then created a FB group chat and added all of the people we had met into it. The group ended up being about 15 people, and we would message the group for park hangouts, going to get food, or going on walks on campus. We also had a huge get together in a park for Mid-Autumn Festival, where we sat in a socially distanced circle, chatted, and ate mooncakes. 

Most of my socializing came from my online friends, and amongus was a huge savior to my mental health this term wher emy group would play literally every night. I also made a really good friend off of Bumble BFF this term, who I’ve hung out with a good amount for plant shopping and board games. 

I’m very fortunate to be in a situation where I can get tested for COVID on a days notice, and very grateful that I could use that to stay a little sane.  My Biggest Accomplishment this term, was not school related. but instead I hit my 365 DAY STREAK on duolingo. This was celebrated with cake. This streak has lived through literal hell and for that I am very proud. 

Overall reflection:

This term was super rough, there were a lot of days where I just napped through it and a lot of days where I couldn’t bring myself to do any work. However, I think the courseload that I took was very manageable and I’m going to continue to go light on myself in that regard. 

I really liked the boundaries that I set for myself this term, not working after 6pm and making time to do some fun things in the midst of chaos. I never felt like I was too far behind on work, or that I wasn’t doing enough, because I had a literal reminder in front of me that I had already put x amount of hours into something with toggl. 

Sometimes in class I would feel like I didn’t know how to productively contribute to conversation, but I think thats a skill that will get better over time and not being so great at it should especially be expected in the first term of a program.

Socially I met a lot of wonderful people who also made me feel more comfortable will myself. I started using She/They pronouns which feel really comforting to me. I made a lot of little origami cranes every time I was feeling sad. I drank a lot of boba. Watched a lot of She Ra. Played a lot of games. It all ended up being okay despite the weight of everything around me. 

I’m proud of all of you for making it through this year, I know it was really difficult for a lot of people in more ways than it was for me, but we’re still here! Sometimes all you can do it make it to the next day and thats such a big accomplishment on its own.  Please feel free to reach out with any questions about time-management, toggl, phd stuff in general, archaeology, etc! Always happy to help out. :’) Thanks for reading! Lyss

#blog #blogging #studyblr #archaeology #archaeologist #anthropology #anthropologist #stanford #stanforduniversity #stanfordphd #phd #phdapplications #education #gradschool #grad student #digital archaeology #cambodian archaeology #imposter syndrome #day in the life #gradblr #get to know me

[koishua]

I am not great at theorizing but I would love to hear about your favorite characters from atla!

oh my, i am SO down for this. let me take a look, okay

i wont rank them or anything bc i love them all, but my top five would be uncle iroh, sokka, toph, suki, and azula.

UNCLE IROH. is the story's source of lesson and of wisdom. he is such an icon and he is loved by all istg he is the best man ever i love him so much i wish i was related to him as a niece like zuko or something. he truly is so wise and kind against all.

he is one of a kind, he was such a gem and held a strong view of what was wrong and what was right. i think people underestimate how great of a bender he is, tho. he was a member of the order of the lotus (eyyy the oldies but goldies gang basically lmao) aka the strongest people ever hello?? he represented the fire nation in that group and my GOd is he an amazing one.

he is different from most, because unlike other firebenders, his skills and abilities aren't directly derived from anger and fury. that's why he isn't as hot headed as regular firebenders and even teaches zuko about this (which works bc zuko is considerably calmer later in the series)

and then there is his legacy. mans beat an entire dragon in a battle of flames?? he breathes fire too so that's always the coolest thing ever and his diligence while working himself back to prepare for war in that prison absolutely took me out omg the way he strategizes??? explains why he was a general. he has a heart of gold unlike any.

SOKKA. now for him, i have the biggest amount of respect and adoration for. let's adress the elephant in the room here. he singlehandedly devised a ginormous plan to defeat am empire that has been raising tyranny for over a century. how fucking awsome can one get?? mr sexy brain amirite?

plus, he was completely skilless the first part of the series and his entire growth just blows me away every single time. sure, he had his little boomerang but that was it. after they created gaang tho, his potential was so fully exploited i cant even express how proud i am oml he was diamond in the rough.

he acted so brash and was the comedic relief character a lot of the times, so his subtle feats of intelligence didn't get noticed a lot, but oml the way i am down bad for him. his determination and desperation to become god at a skill is so enjoyable to watch like,,, the piandao episode where he learns how to wield a sword is one of my favorite episodes of all time!! anyways, this is getting alittle long so lets move on to....

TOPH BEIFONG. listen. lis-ten. thats my girl right there. i was eight when i first watched atla and she was twelve and the amount of confidence she instilled in little-me is just- *sobs* (also i realized that she is literlly the only character in this with an official lastname lmfao)

toph is forever going to remain as THAT icon. her mindset is as stable and stubborn as they go because of her earthbending lmao i love how self-assured she is. she is the definition of born into riches, growing to become greatness.

her heritage is not at all important to who she is as a character and most people even forget that she is insanely wealthy because she never mentions it. but anyway that is beside my point idk why i touched on this aspect. moving on!!

i feel like they portrayed her childish nature so well in this series like?? sure, she was the greatest earthbender of all time and still is, she was also a twelve year old tween lmao she was something else istg

and her sass, humor and just her entire attitude was so solid oml she was THAT bitch and i mean it in the most awed way possible. i can talk about her more but imma keep it short for this post's sake.

SUKI. my idol right here y'all. this is my og feminist queen right here. badass woman i love her so much. embodies courage, hard work and strength in oneself. man, kyoshi warriors are super awesome i literlly do not have any other words about her other than "woah"

obviously, she couldnt bend at all but growing up on kyoshi island, one made by avatar kyoshi herself by literally parting an entire section of land away to carry them back to make an island by spouting out lava hundreds of miles down the ocean floor is just???? but we aren't here to talk about the blood-thirsty woman rn-

she learned how to deal damage on benders who dared to attack their homeland and she is just- just- idk ugh she is so gorgeous too like?? forget about sokka please, come marry me instead i beg you ;-;

suki is so quick to react to danger and doesn't wait for anyone to save the day. she knows what she can do and she does her best to help ;-; im thinking about that once moment when toph fell into the ocean and suki was the first one to dive right in their to save her while everyone else was just literally standing there lmao even katara who could literally bend water

AZULA. now, this is where shit goes down. i lover her as a character that has been developed to show what a bad childhood environment could lead to in children who are particularly cunning and born a little sharper than others.

azula was a threat to all at the age of fifteen. fif-teen. she was a mastermind in countless incredible plans that overtake populations and she is so incredible quick-witted. perfectly evil for the sake of being evil, but also not at the same time.

the azula we last see in the agni kai between her and zuko, her own bilogical older brother whom she had tormented pretty much their entire life, was the product of accumulated trauma and pressure that she had been subject to ever since she had learned bending fire. blue fire.

she had shown from the start that she was gifted and strong and was on a league of her own compared to other kids. all of her childhood was spent garnering the approval of her father and grandfather who were toxic and evil and bad role models for her. anyone who grows up in bad environments are guaranteed to turn out messed up.

her mother preferred the softer zuko than her sadistic daughter and not receiving her mother's affection enough really showed its consequences in the last few episodes where you get to see her breaking down. she hallucinates about her mother and it was so heartbreaking to watch for me as a seventeen year old. i didn't really get the extent of her pschotic breakdown as an eight year old.

for heaven's sake, she was a devil. idk my thought are so scattered rn but i feel like i can make a post about her complicated character later when i gather my thoughts properly bahaha

tldr for azula: gifted child gone horribly wrong

anyhow, this was super fun omg

#“(?)” ⸻ letters from friend. #feyre × 🍂

[ilovecandy97]

Are Gaming Communities becoming more toxic for some women, LGBT communities, ethnic minorities?

Okay everybody! Here’s the topic for this week! Let’s get real about gaming communities!

As of recent years, the notion of playing games online and interacting with strangers across the world has affected and impacted upon interactions between people all around the world. In terms of gaming, players allocate themselves names as players prefer remaining anonymous. Players involved in gaming communities are bound to make real connections with other players they are involved in games, creating online friendships that may last them a lifetime, (plus.mana 2016). 

There are various instances where online gaming has displayed toxic behavior. According to certain studies conducted it was found that the behavioral aspects of certain players drastically change when they play games where they target certain insults at each other. Almost 60 percent of players are bullied during online games on basis of being female, gay or black. Sexism is a prominent issue among gaming communities where female players face insults or degradation of character during gaming. Most female players chose to ignore such situations whereas some players prefer to publicize such situations, (Schneider 2019). 

Video games as a concept has revolved drastically over the years, Games as a service which are referred to as a broad class of online games provide in game content based on revenue model on a continuous basis such as Fortnite, Clash of Clans. 

Games as such involves the spending of money as they are designed in such a way for users to purchase these games as it involves the spending of money generally in small amounts in order to access the virtual items in the game. The main issue at this point in the context of online gaming regulations is the measures implemented for consumer protection which has lacked transparency in some in game purchases or transactions. According to studies conducted some in game purchasing options can pose as predatory as it may have been viewed as a gambling of products. This was because some in game purchases held back required information about the true cost of the activity for players in the long term. This may indicate the exploitation of gamers up to some extent with regards to the monetization of vide games between members of the gaming community which includes the developers themselves, (King et al., 2019). 

The Gaming industry values at a $120 billion which is mainly driven by the notion of live video game streaming. The gaming industry now does not just involve people purchasing games to play by themselves but there is also a growing sub sector in the gaming communities that prefer to watch other people play games through streaming platforms, (Tenbarge 2019). 

In general terms the purpose of these game communities is to play games through interacting with each other where it allows gamers to adopt to different roles, gender, various identities. Despite the discussion on the toxicity of gaming communities I believe that gaming does not lead to violence, a shooting game will not persuade any one to go shoot someone in real life. In addition, the issue of making money out of gaming, it is not the only industry that people make money out of, take the beauty industry for example, beauty influencers on instagram are paid to advertise products regardless of their credibility which is quite the same, social media platforms have now evolved to a platform where people can make money from. 

Alright y’all! Thats it for this week’s blog post! Hope y’all enjoyed it! Stay tuned for more next week!

References 

Plus.mana, 2016, “Is the Gaming Community a Toxic Environment?”, viewed 15th November 2019, <https://plusmana.com/is-the-gaming-community-a-toxic-environment/>

Schneider, K, 2019, DW.com, “How to deal with a toxic gaming culture”,viewed 15th November 2019, <https://www.dw.com/en/how-to-deal-with-a-toxic-gaming-culture/a-50075300>

King, D., Delfabbro, P., Gainsbury, S., Dreier, M., Greer, N. and Billieux, J, 2019, “Unfair Play? Video games as exploitative monetized services: An examination of game patents from a consumer protection perspective”, Computers in Human Behaior, 101, pp. 131- 143, viewed 15th November 2019, <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.07.017>

Tenbarge, K, 2019, “ Gamers say they’re earning more money on Facebook’s streaming platform than on Twitch and YouTube”, Business Insider Malaysia, viewed 15th November 2019, <https://www.businessinsider.my/gamers-earn-more-money-facebook-gaming-twitch-youtube-mixer-streaming-2019-10/?r=US&IR=T>

#mda20009 #weekly blog #week9

[maximuswolf]

Stop spreading probable false information about LSD potency and effect - a comment via /r/LSD

Stop spreading probable false information about LSD potency and effect - a comment

Im just baffled by people on here claiming ludicrous things day in and day out, for example taking ridicilous doses like 1000+µg and being "fully functional", chilling in the park alone at night or claiming that they achieved this "1000µg dose" by taking "4 tripple quadruple dipped super rainbow power ranger 250µg tabs", smoking a blunt and dropping a hand of other substances at the same time. Hell, even 400µg would be enough to make my point...

Cause they are not. No street tab has the same potency, if you have no reference you have no clue what you are talking about potency wise. Dealers sell a product, they dont know what the hell is on those tabs, thats why things like NBOME is sold as acid.

I am convinced that 90% of people have no reference whatsoever of what e.g.100µg of true LSD feel like and the tripreports i read about supposed 300, 500 or even 700µg etc. doses make one think that LSD starts taking effect at like 300µg but nothing could be further from the truth.

As a person who has legal access to officially lab-made actual LSD derivates (1P-LSD before it became illegal and now 1cp-LSD), just like many others in europe, I can say that most people who claim to have 150+µg random street tabs have nothing more than like 80µg tabs at max, or use heavily within their tolerance, when I compare their reports to personal experiences. I know that personal experiences vary heavily in between users but those differences cant be explained by the user entirely. Lets also assume that LSD derivates are directly converted into normal LSD as most of the little research there is shows. Yes tabs with high potency do exist but so do duds, NBOME and underdosed tabs.

Here is what one single tab of labmade 100µg of 1cp-LSD does to the user with no tolerance:

Heavy visuals, breathing and warping on everything, trees and textures flow constantly

Closed eye visuals of colors, patterns, things or people

Sense of touch, hearing, time and movement/speed become completely warped, strong disassociation with the surrounding, it looks and feels like everything is unknown and new. Things can feel wet even tho they are not, the outside of the skin can feel like the inside of the body, cracks or other sounds can seem like they take place right in your ear.

Intense euphoria and starting to grind teeth from comeup to peak

On the peak it becomes virtually impossible to have any sense of direction in a unknown environment or at night unless you have a cellphone or someone to guide you

Comedown: A feeling of exhaustion but fulfillment and inability to sleep which often ends in staying awake the complete night.

Mind is often overwhelmed with impressions and occasional panic and paranoia can settle in without noticing it which can lead to thought loops or a bad trip unless youre experienced or have a experienced guide.

The mental effect can not be described but one becomes extremely susceptible to things that happen around. Hear a police siren? The police is onto you. Hear your doorbell when the postman comes around? The police is onto you. See a suspicious looking car outside with someone sitting in there? The police is onto you. Your knowledge about human nature and interactions become completely warped and it is very hard to follow conversation or make sense out of sentences at all.

This is not meant as a post to ridicule people who are actual psychonauts and are experienced in meditation and tripping and are able to do and integrate doses of e.g. 500+µg, but as a warning to people who actually believe that they just bought tripple dipped 200µg tabs and that it is a good idea to take two of those because of things they read here and then write a trip report that reminds me of a 150µg trip at most.... Yes the chance that they actually are 200µg and not just 50 is pretty slim but if they are that person might go through a incredible trauma.

I myself almost took too much the first time because of platforms and reports like on here. instead I chose to "take it slow" and "only" take 150µg as a introduction, one and a half tabs of labmade acid which put me into almost ego death for an hour. This is not a drinking game, its not a race. Taking high doses cause of a challenge or forcing a profound experience is not good and should not be done. Doing less will get you to better places in your life. Yes You can take too much acid.

No not all bad trips are good trips in disguise. Some people cannot deal with a bad trip the same as others do especially when they dont inform themselves about the substance and dont even get me started to talk about usage in combination with e.g. Weed for new people.

So as I said. This post is not intended to be toxic or point fingers at people and I hope that you will finish reading before commenting. Peace.

Submitted October 07, 2020 at 05:29PM by cptpayday via reddit https://ift.tt/30IEt5e

[viralhottopics]

China’s booming middle class drives Asia’s toxic e-waste mountains

Sharp rise in discarded electronic goods is generating millions of tonnes of hazardous waste, putting pressure on valuable resources and the environment, study shows

Asias mountains of hazardous electronic trash, or e-waste, are growing rapidly, new research reveals, with China leading the way.

A record 16m tonnes of electronic trash, containing both toxic and valuable materials, were generated in a single year up 63% in five years, new analysis looking at 12 countries in east and south-east Asia shows.

In China the mountain of discarded TVs, phones, computers, monitors, e-toys and small appliances grew by 6.7m tonnes in 2015 alone. Thats an 107% increase in just five years. To get a sense of scale, if every woman, man and child in China had an old LCD monitor and dumped it the pile would not equal the 2015 tonnage. [1]

The regions fast-increasing middle class is the main driver of e-waste increases, not population growth, the report by the United Nations University found. However, Asias 3.7kg per person of waste is still tiny compared to Europes 15.6 kg per person, it said.

Growing incomes, the creation of more and more gadgets and ever-shorter lifespans of things like mobile phones are the reasons for this tremendous increase in Asia, said co-author Ruediger Kuehr of UN University.

Electronics and electrical devices have a big eco footprint, meaning their manufacture consumes a lot of energy and water, along with valuable and sometimes scarce resources, making recycling and recovery very important. The increasing volumes of e-waste combined with a lack of environmentally sound management is a cause for concern, says Kuehr.

We risk future production of these devices and very high costs without recycling the materials, he said.

Although plenty of e-waste is recycled in Asia its mainly done by backyard businesses who resort to hammers and burning to access re-usable metals, resulting in local pollution and health impacts. Mobile phones, TVs, monitors, printers and other electronics contain hazardous materials such as mercury and lead. Ink toner from printers is also considered toxic.

Much of Asias e-waste comes from Europe and North America despite restrictions on exports and imports by most countries, said Jim Puckett, coordinator of the NGO Basel Action Network (BAN).

The scale of e-waste exported to Asia has previously been difficult to estimate. BAN put GPS trackers inside old printers and monitors sent to recycling centres in the US last year to enable them to get a clearer picture. About 40% left the US with most ending up Asia. Nearly all of these exports were illegal under US law. Some of the trackers died so its likely 50% were exported, Puckett told the Guardian.

China, once a big importer of e-waste, has cracked down but Hong Kong has picked up the slack, with an estimated 100 containers of e-waste entering the port each day Puckett says. There are at least a 100 small e-waste junk yards in a semi-rural part of Hong Kong called the New Territories. Thats where we found most of the printers and monitors with our trackers.

A similar investigation to track where Europes e-waste is really going is now being planned by BAN.

Proper recycling of electronics is costly and expensive and is rarely done, even in the US. Manufacturers need to remove all toxins from their products and make them easier to repair and recycle, says Puckett. Another solution in Pucketts view is to adopt a lease-based business model where people lease rather than buy most electronics, and use upgrades or trade-ins to get the latest features.

[1] My estimate based on average weight of 17LCD monitor – 4.5 kgs. So 220 monitors would weigh 1 tonne

Read more: http://ift.tt/2jAdK3y

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