#it's all going to the clothes variant of the food bank | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

catchyhuh · 6 months

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What sort of hobbies or interests do you imagine the Gang having (outside thievery or arresting said thieves)? And do they influence the way they go about their usual antics, or are they mostly Unrelated to everything else in their lives? :0c

oohhooohoho this is a good one because i have a small handful of actual canonical hobbies/interests that come up occasionally and then i have the ones that solely exist in my mind palace. at least until tms decides to let a random little shrimp from america take the reins on their most longrunning successful franchise anyway,

lupin:

i can’t remember if i mentioned lupin loves puzzles. wait yes i did in the video game list SORRY I’M ALREADY HAVING TROUBLE REMEMBERING WHAT I HAVE AND HAVEN’T GONE OFF ABOUT but yes in canon lupin LOVES puzzles. less like, jigsaw puzzles, more like shapey puzzles. but hell man if you can get him to sit still long enough he might like a jigsaw one just to pass the time

i think he likes cooking. him, jigen and goemon all seem to really Get it. so count this under all of them, they just love yummy food and occasionally the process of making it too

he likes to draw :) somebody has to be behind all the slightly different variants of his little mascot guy. SOMEBODY has to redraw bank floor plans so they can plan out each tiny step of the heist. somebody has to scribble over his own wanted posters to put funny little devil horns on the image CMON now!!

jigen:

only jigen could be in a fucking arcade theater complex and pull out a fucking crossword puzzle. why is this dude honestly trying to speedrun being a grouchy old man before he even turns 40. i mean no hate, no hate to crossword puzzles, they are cool but i’m more of a wordsearch guy. BUT THERE’S OTHER STUFF TO DO JIGEN!! at least he’s not going for sudoku though

very random but i think he might like sewing in a passive sense. with how particular he is about his hat and really ANY clothes on his person, he probably just picked up a needle one day to fix a tear and then was like Huh. this isn't too bad actually. kinda repetitive and calming. and then the others found out and tried to get him to fix all their stuff too SO HALF PLEASANT AND HALF NOT SO PLEASANT

fujiko:

you may think i’m insane but fujiko must genuinely have some sort of fondness for computers and technology. more than she lets on at least, because. how DO you know how to fly every type of aircraft. how DO you know how to crack into almost any computer firewall? how do you know how to isolate a computer virus as it’s ALREADY corrupted HALF OF THE SYSTEM?? this goes beyond job necessity to me she must really have some hidden underlying passion for this stuff

i think it’d be cute if she took up some kinda journaling. i mean god knows she’s not writing about her FEELINGS in that little leather notebook, and she doesn’t really have the time to commit to like, scrapbook shit (even if she had the time, she’s not sentimental like that) but something simple like “this is a list of m&m variants in order of how disgusting to not disgusting they taste to me <3” with little candy stickers and gel pen hearts drawn in. the next page has a bloodstain on it and the only thing written is “dw about that lol”

goemon:

okay i KNOW i’ve pushed the Arts Enjoyer goe agenda before but i recently saw that part 3 production art again of him chilling with the pottery wheel so i must state, once again, goemon LOVES sculpting shit in all forms. chip away at some rock, throw zantetsuken at a block of wood, actually invest in some clay for fucking once, whatever he uses, he’ll make something pretty good. and even if it wasn’t good it’s still a fun hobby for him. keeps his hands loose but precise

oh my god you know what he would love. dominoes. you know when people make those like crazy long domino strings that form a pattern when they’ve all fallen. if anybody here could have the precision and strangely placed patience to do shit like that it’s definitely this guy

zenigata:

going through this list easily and eagerly typing up little funfacts about things i do know they like outside of their. “jobs” and then slowly realizing as i get to zenigata that i... cannot think of anything he. uh. does for fun. damn. he DOES talk about movies a lil bit from time to time, and knowing his mixture of a freakish eye for detail and also missing the most obvious things ever i bet hearing him talk about a movie is twice as fun as actually watching it. i would pay HUNDREDS to hear him try to explain what he thinks of space odyssey to me

it would be-- i have no reasoning for this but it would be so cute and hilarious if he did like. tiny magic tricks. you know? like card appearing out of thin air, coin behind your ear type shit. tiny stuff he figured out on his brief off time. we know lupin can do little stuff like that too but it'd just be hilarious if zenigata, completely unawarely and unintentionally for once, ended up being better than him at some inconsequential shit like making a pair of keys disappear

and i guess in light of recent discoveries they all like golf. apparently. well. no one is perfect

#i really had trouble reading over this again and being like hm. is this actually a possibility or do i just want it to be #but then i remembered its my blog and i can type what i wish!! yippee!#lupin iii #lupin the third #lupin #jigen #fujiko #goemon #zenigata #asks

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tidymalism · 3 years

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How to Start a Low-Buy Year

I started a low-buy year for 2021. TL;DR: it’s been easier than I thought it would be.

What's a low-buy year?

It's a year of buying way less stuff. It’s essentially a more lenient variant of its strict cousin, the No-Buy Year. While the latter pretty much only allows for the purchase and consumption of food and essentials, you stipulate your own rules on a low-buy and can, for example, buy new shoes if you need them, purchase an app if it it's reasonable and justifiable, or get an occasional meal out.

Both schools are essentially methods to reign in your consumer habits and bid farewell to excessive spending. The reasons for doing so are personal and manifold. Maybe you have too much stuff at home and you don't know where to put it all. Maybe you're planning to downsize to a smaller place. Perhaps you're trying to get a grip on credit card debt, shopping addiction, or a tendency to hoard. Or maybe you were unexpectedly laid off and have simply had to cut way back on spending.

Whatever your situation and motivation may be, having a framework for cutting costs can set you up for success. Here are five steps to get you going on your low-buy journey:

1. Assess your budget and identify big expenditures in non-essential spending categories.

If you haven't been keeping a budget, you can refer to old bank and credit card statements to get a good idea of where you typically drop money.

I’ve used a budget application called Banktivity for over ten years, so it was super easy to pull up a report to see what my biggest non-essential spending categories were (fashion, cosmetics, and going out).

2. Set your rules.

After you identify your spending weaknesses, define your own rules for those categories. Do you need to cut back on hobby supplies? Books, apps, media? Bar-hopping or Starbucks? Look closely at whatever your personal weakness might be, and then think about what you can scratch.

In my particular case, I decided to cut spending on beauty products, clothing and accessories, eating out, and subscriptions. Here's what my rules look like for the year in those categories:

I may only purchase refills of cosmetics or skincare I truly run out of and need again for my daily regimen.

I may not purchase any clothing, shoes, or accessories, but I may use two vouchers I have, and I may purchase a bespoke item that was ordered one year ago if and when it finally arrives.

I may only get two takeaways or inexpensive meals out per month (this has been easy so far, as we're still in lockdown and no restaurants or pubs are open anyway).

I am only allowed to keep paid subscriptions to things I use multiple times a week. This turned out to be Microsoft Office, Spotify, and Netflix. Everything else was cancelled.

3. Remind yourself why you're doing a low-buy year.

Stay motivated. It's important to remember you have a reason for going low-buy. Be it abstinence until you've found a job again, or saving for financial independence, creating a tidier home with less clutter, or chipping away at your student loan or credit card debt. Remember your reason, and envision a successful outcome in your mind’s eye!

4. Avoid temptation.

If eating out was your thing and you've decided to totally cut back on it, set yourself up for success by making it easy to eat at home! You can do that by meal-planning, cooking ahead and meal-prepping for all those weeknights you feel too lazy to cook, and by organising your grocery shopping in advance.

If you are a shopaholic, you'll want to unsubscribe from all those newsletters and marketing emails you constantly get about sales. Ridding your inbox of this consumer click bait is a first big step in avoiding temptation! You’ll soon discover you will not die if you don't keep up with the bi-weekly new collections at Zara, or the latest drop on Net-a-Porter.

5. Enjoy your newly-won free time.

You're going to have more time on your hands when you're not shopping, browsing, scrolling, and pining for new stuff. Take a walk. Read that stack of books you've been meaning to read for forever. Call your grannie. Start a new blog. Teach the dog some tricks. Learn to code. Clean out the cellar. Take a nap. Or go volunteer for a cause you care about.

————————

So far this year, going low-buy has been less painful than I would have expected. I was very quick to replace my online shopping habits with new things like taking online courses and blogging. And while being in the midst of a pandemic is horrific and we all wish it would end, it has actually made it easier to buckle down on spending: having far fewer places to go has equated to less opportunity and need to spend money.

Does doing a low-buy year sound too daunting to you? You don’t have to do a whole year. Consider a low-buy week or a low-buy month instead. See how it goes, how much you saved, or if you need to tweak your rules. Leave a comment if you have any tips!

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#low buy #consumerism #budgeting #spending habits #minimalism #less is now #minimalist challenge #environmental protection #tidymalism #decluttering #inspiration

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Pandemic aftershocks overwhelm global supply lines (Washington Post) One year after the coronavirus pandemic first disrupted global supply chains by closing Chinese factories, fresh shipping headaches are delaying U.S. farm exports, crimping domestic manufacturing and threatening higher prices for American consumers. The cost of shipping a container of goods has risen by 80 percent since early November and has nearly tripled over the past year, according to the Freightos Baltic Index. The increase reflects dramatic shifts in consumption during the pandemic, as consumers redirect money they once spent at restaurants or movie theaters to the purchase of record amounts of imported clothing, computers, furniture and other goods. That abrupt and unprecedented spending shift has upended long-standing trade patterns. “It’s crazy. Prices are at record highs. Multiple things are happening all at once,” said Phil Levy, an economist with Flexport, a San Francisco-based freight forwarder. “People work off of expectations. But now there’s just so much uncertainty.” At the Port of Los Angeles one day last week, 42 ships were anchored offshore, waiting to unload their cargoes, even as every warehouse within 60 miles was already full. A shortage of dock workers amid California’s worsening coronavirus outbreak is further complicating operations; inbound cargo volumes in December were more than 23 percent higher than one year earlier. “Some areas of the supply chain need to be sharpened,” Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director, said. “People are a little bit on edge.” It’s a global problem, and it may get worse before it gets better.

Destructive protests by anarchists and extremists signal divided left as Biden administration begins (Washington Post) The hundreds of far-left and anarchist demonstrators who gathered in protest mere hours after President Biden swore the oath of office Wednesday signal a fracturing on the left that could become a scourge for the new administration, political leaders and experts say. Some activists are carrying their destructive tactics into a new administration to voice rejection of centrist ideologies they believe will do little to address existential worries over climate change, economic inequality, foreign wars and racism. The vandalizing of the Oregon Democratic Party headquarters by extreme-left demonstrators on Inauguration Day has split Portland liberals, and federal agents’ launching of tear gas at crowds that descended on the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters produced scenes reminiscent of similar summer standoffs ordered by President Donald Trump. In Seattle, a march organized by anarchists and the city’s Youth Liberation Front branch roved through neighborhoods, chanting expletives at both Trump and Biden, some breaking windows. James Ofsink, president of Portland Forward, a local advocacy group for liberal causes, said the growing tension in Portland’s progressive circles is emblematic of a larger tug of war happening in the nation. “Portland is going to continue to be a microcosm of the political divides, especially among the left, that we’re seeing across the country,” Ofsink said. “The idea that middle-of-the-road Democrats can say with a straight face that we need to take things slowly or do things in a very deliberate way rubs a lot of people the very wrong way.”

Trump’s coming impeachment trial aggravates rift among Republicans (Reuters) The coming second impeachment trial of former U.S. President Donald Trump on a charge of inciting the deadly storming of the Capitol has aggravated a rift among his fellow Republicans that was on full display on Sunday. At least one Republican, Senator Mitt Romney, said he believed the trial, which could lead to a vote banning Trump from future office, was a necessary response to the former president’s inflammatory call to his supporters to “fight” his election defeat before the Jan. 6 attack. Ten Republicans joined the House of Representatives in voting to impeach Trump on a charge of inciting insurrection. But a significant number of Republican lawmakers, concerned about Trump’s devoted base of voters, have raised objections to the impeachment. Trump is the first U.S. president to be impeached after leaving office. Senator Tom Cotton, another Republican, said the Senate was acting beyond its constitutional authority by holding a trial. “I think a lot of Americans are going to think it’s strange that the Senate is spending its time trying to convict and remove from office a man who left office a week ago,” Cotton told Fox News on Sunday. “I think the trial is stupid,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio told Fox News on Sunday, saying he would vote to end it at the first opportunity. “I think it’s counterproductive. We already have a flaming fire in this country and it’s like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire.”

Ununited Kingdom (Times of London) The UK is facing a constitutional crisis that will strain the Union as new polls reveal a majority of voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland want referendums on the break-up of Britain. A four-country survey we commissioned, based on separate polls in Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales, also found that the sense of British identity that once bound the country together is disintegrating. And in another significant move, the Scottish National Party (SNP) announced that it is prepared to call a wildcat referendum of its own if Boris Johnson refuses to grant one himself—a move that puts the two governments on a constitutional collision course.

Riots explode across Netherlands over covid restrictions (Washington Post) Dutch rioters who attacked police and destroyed property over the weekend while protesting new coronavirus measures are “criminals,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday, as law enforcement officials warned that the violence could last for weeks. The unrest across the Netherlands, some of the worst in decades, had “nothing to do with protest,” Rutte, who resigned last week following a scandal, told reporters outside his office in The Hague, news agencies reported. Protesters had gathered in defiance of lockdown orders in at least 10 towns and cities Sunday, looting stores and clashing with police after authorities imposed a new nighttime curfew — the first in the Netherlands since World War II. The violence continued Monday night in several cities, including Amsterdam and The Hague. The curfew, from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m., tightens an already-strict lockdown aimed at curbing coronavirus infections and comes amid fears that a new, more contagious variant, first identified in Britain, will cause a surge in cases.

In France, growing alarm over students’ well-being as pandemic pushes some to the brink (Washington Post) he hardships of university students during the pandemic have now reached the attention of the highest levels of the French government, with President Emmanuel Macron promising to provide more assistance. “You haven’t been forgotten,” he said this month. But students protesting de facto campus closures, seeking psychological support and lining up for free food handed out by private donors have come to a different conclusion. In a country that prides itself on having one of the world’s most generous public welfare systems, student food banks have become the most visible display of the economic impact of the pandemic on young people. After 10 months of varying degrees of isolation and restrictions, a less visible but increasingly worrisome mental health crisis is taking form among students, too. Some have been confined for months under lockdown or curfew in 97-square-foot dorm rooms off campus. New measures by Macron last week indicated growing alarm among French officials that financial distress and mental health are increasingly intertwined and are fueling one another. Students have written open letters asking French ministers for more support. Mental health hospitals have expanded their offerings to cope with a surge in demand among high school and university students. Some professors have themselves requested psychological support after finding their students in distress.

Navalny Protests Sweep Russia (Reuters) Russian authorities have attempted to deflect attention from Saturday’s nationwide street protests—the largest in years—by accusing the United States of interfering in the country. On Saturday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the U.S. embassy in Moscow of fanning the flames of dissent by publishing protest times and routes (as part of a notice to avoid such gatherings) on the embassy website. “What was that: a setup or an instruction?” Zakharova told the Russian news agency TASS, adding that if the Russian embassy in Washington had done the same during U.S. protests “global hysteria” would ensue. The government’s rhetorical counters came after thousands of Russians across roughly 100 towns and cities protested amid freezing winter temperatures on Saturday, heeding a call from detained anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny to take to the streets to demand his release. Over 3,500 people were arrested during the protests, according to the monitoring group OVD Info—the most arrests the NGO had ever recorded in one day.

Angry farmers drive thousands of tractors into New Delhi (AP) Tens of thousands of protesting farmers drove long lines of tractors into India’s capital on Tuesday, breaking through police barricades, defying tear gas and storming the historic Red Fort as the nation celebrated Republic Day. They waved farm union flags from the ramparts of the fort, where prime ministers annually hoist the national flag to mark the country’s independence. Thousands more farmers marched on foot or rode on horseback while shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At some places, they were showered with flower petals by residents who recorded the unprecedented rally on their phones. Leaders of the farmers said more than 10,000 tractors joined the protest. For nearly two months, farmers have camped at the edge of the capital, blockading highways connecting it with the country’s north in a rebellion that has rattled the government. They are demanding the withdrawal of new laws which they say will commercialize agriculture and devastate farmers’ earnings.

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are under pressure as never before (Washington Post) Millions of Syrians have sought safety in Lebanon and across the region since the Syrian uprising began nearly a decade ago. Now they are stuck between untenable options: ongoing instability and violence back in Syria as President Bashar al-Assad consolidates control, and deteriorating conditions in cash-strapped Lebanon, where politicians are pressing refugees to leave. Syrians have long struggled in Lebanon, where about a million refugees make up some 20 percent of the population. But 2020 brought a new cascade of problems. The country’s financial system collapsed, and the prime minister resigned, ousted by protesters fed up with endemic corruption. Then the coronavirus hit, followed by the devastating Beirut port explosion, of which many Syrians were among the victims. In less than a year, the currency depreciated by more than 80 percent. Communities across Lebanon are hurting, especially Syrians, amid mounting competition for resources, said Elena Dikomitis, advocacy adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Lebanon. “The landscape of needs in Lebanon has changed dramatically over the last year,” she said. “There are a lot of increasing tensions as one can expect over access to jobs, to aid, to basic services.” In October, the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated that nearly 90 percent of Syrians in Lebanon lived below the extreme poverty line, up from 55 percent the year before. Already legally excluded from many jobs, 90 percent of Syrians reported losing their income or having salaries reduced, the agency found in July. [Many Lebanese want the refugees to go home. Syria, however, remains a very dangerous homeland.]

Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea (Reuters) Pirates are stepping up attacks on ships in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, defying regional navies. On Saturday, pirates off Nigeria kidnapped 15 sailors from a Turkish container ship and killed one. Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea kidnapped 130 seafarers in 22 separate incidents last year, accounting for all but five of those seized at sea worldwide. The pirates come from Nigeria’s turbulent Niger Delta, experts say. The region produces the bulk of the nation’s petroleum, but is woefully underdeveloped, scarred by pollution and has some of the highest unemployment in the country. Bands of men desperate for money engage in a variety of illegal but lucrative activities, including kidnapping, stealing and refining oil, and piracy. Last year’s oil price crash and Nigeria’s second recession in five years worsened unemployment and economic hardship. Saturday’s attack, which took place 200 nautical miles offshore, reflected increasing sophistication, as vessels further from shore are less likely to have naval protection.

Satellites (Space.com) SpaceX launched a record 143 small satellites into orbit on Sunday, the most ever on a single rocket. The launch was the first mission where SpaceX ferried lots of satellites up rideshare-style along with 10 of its own Starlink internet satellites. In 2019, the company announced that at various points in the year smaller satellites could hitch a ride at launch for $1 million a pop. Among the payload was a South Korean military communications satellite, two Taiwanese satellites which will improve navigation, a payload called Celestis 17 containing cremated human remains, three Hawk 2 radio satellites and a cargo capsule for the space station. The team successfully recovered the Falcon 9’s first stage in the Atlantic, which was the 73rd recovery of a booster for the company.

#headlines #news

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gaiatheorist · 4 years

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Atypical/Elliptical.

There was a tweet highlighted yesterday by one of the Neuro-Divergent accounts I follow, building pace on the back of a compare/contrast photo of an autistic female, and an autistic male. If you haven’t seen it, you can guess how it went, she’s all cute and ‘sailor suit’, he’s in a cluttered room, overweight, in food-stained clothing. Lazy stereotyping at best, offensive and dangerous in reality. The dangerous tweet I reported was one from a contentious incel, stating that females don’t have autism, further down the page of “Would you like to report any other tweets?”, we have that other old favourite “Autism isn’t real.” Yes, I’m shaking my head.

I’m not going to go into in-depth analysis of incel beliefs and values, I’ll just hover over the suggestion that this particular variant was whipping up his followers that ‘Women don’t have autism’, based on his interpretation that the female whose picture he was using was conventionally attractive, and neatly presented. If you tell someone the sun’s 93 million miles away, they accept it, but if they see a sign saying ‘wet paint’, they feel compelled to put their finger in it to check, then complain that they have paint on them. (I know, I don’t touch wet paint, I lick it, it keeps life interesting.) ‘Everybody knows’ that a common feature with autism is the special interest, that we will fixate obsessively on a certain topic, or subject, and woe betide any mere mortal who can’t escape before we get into full flow, what with us not always picking up on non-verbal cues, like snoring. It’s entirely possible that the ‘girl’ had a special interest of dressing and presenting herself in a certain way, even ‘normal’ people do that, hanging their entire identity on presenting a certain way, designer clothes, certain styles of dress, Angry Bird eyebrows. Step back, and absorb that, the girl wasn’t ‘properly’ autistic because she didn’t have food in her hair, wasn’t wearing a Star Trek uniform, looked ‘normal’. Specifically, she looked the kind of ‘normal’ that incels have experience of being rejected by, because they expect to have nice-things handed to them on a plate, and then blame everyone else when they’re denied. There’s a certain example of a petulant, pouty individual, who sulks when they don’t get their own way floating to mind.

Using the newfangled terms neuro-divergent, and neuro-typical, and pausing just for a second to point out that no, we’re not ‘all a bit autistic’ any more than we’re a ‘bit vegetarian’ or a ‘bit left-handed’, neuro-typical people are assumed to be the norm, anything else is deviant. I’ll hold my hands up to that, I don’t iron my laundry, or peel my vegetables, you can stop clutching your pearls, I’m not going to steal them, what would I want pearls for? People with neurodevelopmental disorders are atypical, outsiders, outliers, ‘other’, and it’s more than a little annoying that ‘everyone knows’ that, specifically autistic people, have a tendency to see themselves as different from others. (You started it, telling us we were wrong and weird for our plethora of sensory aversions, and routines, just because they don’t make sense to you.) We’re atypical, whether that’s because we’re genuinely distressed if our ‘usual’ brand of socks, or cereal, or soap is discontinued, or because we won’t cross the road if the light isn’t green, even if there’s nothing coming. Other examples are available.

I’ve spent vast chunks of my life being bounced between “Why are you doing it like that?” and “HOW do you do that?”, I don’t have any savant-skills, but I’m on an elliptical axis, I do some things differently. (The axis isn’t just elliptical, it’s occasionally highly irregular, I have multiple other medical issues, autistics are often blessed like that, to the untrained eye, it might appear I’m neurotic, or hypochondriac, or do my shopping on NHS direct. I’m an unfortunate combination of chromosomes and chronology.) You neuro-typical types bimble along happily enough on your spherical orbits. Yes, you have spikes, too, I know, but it seems that they’re the exception rather than the rule, your orbits appear far more regular than mine. I’m deviating from all-autistics, to ‘me’, there are common factors, but we’re not a one-size-fits-all contingent, I don’t get upset if different types of food touch on my plate, but I can’t use oven-gloves, and I’ll go all day without a drink of water rather than share a drinking vessel, we’re all different.

I’m sometimes envious of the spherical orbit, the regularity of being able to remember to prepare and eat three meals a day, not being afraid of bridges, being able to choose a direction and travel in it without sensory overload, it might as well be necromancy or Olympic level athleticism, it just isn’t ‘there’ for me. When my orbit is within ‘yours’, I’m highly efficient, that’s the “HOW do you do that?” phase. I just do. There isn’t really much of an alternative, but it’s not very healthy, I have all of your weird scripts and rules tumbling around my head, like that stage where you’re learning a new language, everything has to be double-processed, and checked, it’s clunky, not fluent. I’m 43, and I still don’t dream in your language, I can concentrate for periods, but remembering all of the verb endings tends to kick the tenses out of the window, we’re no longer congruent, and I don’t make sense to you.

When I’m within your orbit, I take short-cuts, as verbose as I am here, I omit the unnecessary, because I don’t have the cognitive or physical energy for all of it. I’m a flat-pack item of furniture, I don’t need ‘all’ those screws and fixings to be functional, do I? I unintentionally infuriate and antagonise, because I don’t want to stop for a cup of tea, or chat about TV programmes, I want to complete the task set, before I run out of energy. (I know, but the externally imposed sanctions for non-completion generally have a ripple-out impact on others. My intense bursts of activity alienate other people, because they want to slow down, and chat, but that’s not the task in hand, and I know that my brain and body are temperamental, I *need* to finish within time, and properly, in case I’m less-functional the next day, I always stacked/banked work to make sure I was ahead of myself, to avoid letting other people down if I was ill.)

When our orbits converge, it’s phenomenal, on a ‘work’ level, a life-admin level, or, that holiest of Grail, an interpersonal level, those brief instances are stellar, apart from me freaking people out by my intensity sometimes, I’m an acquired taste. I’m really good at some things, a large proportion of which have yet to demonstrate a particularly useful potential, but there’s time yet. I’m steering very firmly away from the lazy stereotypes of ‘special talents’, I’m resilient and resourceful because I have to be, I often view things from an alternative perspective, and connect-the-dots that others don’t. I still can’t use oven-gloves.

When my orbit swings outside yours, it’s difficult, sometimes impossible for aims to be reconciled, That’s the kick in the teeth on a regular basis, last week, or last month, or yesterday, or earlier today, I might have been functional, or even brilliant, then, all at once, I’m not. “You were fine yesterday!”, yes, I know, I was there.

Chromosomal and chronological factors sometimes spin me out of orbit. I might have been able to walk to Tesco one day last week (Coincidentally, I wasn’t, but that’s not the point.), that doesn’t mean I can do it every day, it’s a cross-over complexity with my telephone directory of other ailments, as well as the autism. When I’m out of orbit, whether it’s sensory overload, burnout, or just my day-to-day ‘wrongness’, I process differently. A ‘normal’ action, like parking a car (I don’t know why I use driving analogies, I’ve never taken my test.) becomes a pantomime of a driving test, where the instructor speaks a foreign language, it’s an unfamiliar car, on unfamiliar roads, and the car’s on fire, and full of wasps, with an angry pig in the back seat. I don’t have muscle memory, or subconscious competence for a lot of functions people take for granted, not just oven gloves, sometimes events conspire to throw me out of spherical orbit, and everything becomes far more complicated than it needs to be. The elliptical orbit makes ‘just’ my ultimate four-letter word, and I know plenty of others. Some instances of being out-of-orbit are predictable, sensory overloads, other illnesses, compounded difficulties around other life-events, my toe having poked through my sock, and being strangled in my boot, it can feel like being an adult-sized toddler, and the temptation to throw down and scream on the supermarket floor because I’m tired is an unwelcome, but regular occurrence.

“Oh, we all get like that sometimes! Can’t you just...?” If I could have ‘just’, I would already have ‘just’, wouldn’t I? 43 years of having been chastised for being difficult, or ruining everyone else’s picnic feed very firmly into the ‘masking’ phenomenon. Charlatans and snake-oil sellers, and Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as even more insidious practitioners are always trying to promote some thing or another that will make us fitter, healthier, more productive, then, to continue the Radiohead theme, many medical types throw back “You do it to yourself.”.

Autism is a lifelong developmental disorder. I can’t consistently ‘try to be less like that’ any more than I can try to be less right-handed, or biologically female. (Yes, I *could* attempt to alter both of those, but to what end?) I’ve had a lot of medical interventions since the brain aneurysm ruptured, and 99% of them have tried to un-autistic me. That’s normal, because autism is abnormal. It’s also normal because autistic females broadly present differently to males. Broadly, I have observational experience from working in education, the ‘old’ perspective was that boys were more frequently autistic than girls, and, more-autistic. Slight tangent on the common misconception of the autistic spectrum, if I may? “We’re all a bit autistic, haha!”, no, no, we’re not, any more than we’re all a bit epileptic. The autistic spectrum isn’t a continuum-spectrum, from 0-100% autistic, while it is clear that some people are severely autistic, and others are not, it isn’t actually a point-scoring exercise, unless you’re UK benefits agencies.

Males and females are conditioned and socialised differently, after millennia of girls-do-this-boys-do-that, humanity is cautiously asking why. I’ll leave my wonky femininist soapbox under the desk, apart from the fact that females are ‘supposed to’ be quiet, and kind, and compliant, and all the gubbins that the incels say. I’m 43, I was raised pink-for-girls-blue-for-boys, there were a lot of things Girls Didn’t Do, it’s OK, I’ve done most of them now, don’t tell my Dad. Much like left-handed children in days gone by were forced to write with their right hand, there has been, and still is, to some extent, pressure on males and females to behave differently, as if keeping our reproductive paraphernalia in a more-or-difficult-to-kick location is an absolute-for-everything. I don’t think it is, but we’ve already established I’m atypical. Not all 40-something-year-old people, with, or without autism had the same childhood experiences I did. There’s no place for detail here, some of the embedded lessons weren’t kindly taught. That Pavlovian response system stuck, be quiet, be pleasant, be demure and train that flinch into a smile. (Various parties ought to apply for funding for having ‘tamed’ this particular shrew. I’m not tamed, I’m barely even domesticated, but I have a shed-load of coping mechanisms.)

Females shouldn’t feel the need to be less-than, to defer to males, but, in a disturbing number of arenas, that’s the norm. I spent the largest part of my life being afraid of men, because of what some men had done, and hating myself for holding a belief that was anathema to the absolute core of my being. (Chapter whatever, fundamentally knowing that males were not ‘better’ than females, but feeling obliged to concede, to avoid disturbing the peace.) The #MeToo disclosures and discourse picked that metaphorical scab, I’ll never go back to that half-life.

I’m atypical because, after decades of excruciating path-of-least-resistance masking, I’ve managed to mask proficiently to a point where I can ‘act normal’ for short stretches. I shouldn’t have to. I’m not suggesting I should be allowed to climb on top of the curtain poles, and throw things, but I don’t see why not-acting-feminine should be seen as disturbing or threatening. It hurts, not just the bras, and the stupid shoes, and the sitting-all-cramped-up, but the emotional and physical toll of carrying oneself ‘female’. When I had the full spectrum cognitive functioning assessment after the brain injuries had settled, the neuro-psych pointed out that a consideration was always ‘At what cost?’. The popular analogy for physical or cognitive energy is a ‘battery’ (A cell, doofus, a ‘battery’ is a number of cells together- behold, I’m reaching my cranky-pedantic cut-off stage.) In order to do anything at all, you need enough ‘charge’ to complete the task. Yes, given, BUT, with autistic masking, there isn’t just the ‘charge’ for the task, there’s the additional charge involved in keeping everything else running, without breaking down, or burning out, the energy overdraft. I’m virtually constantly in my ‘overdraft’, and it’s a bitch to pay back.

I’m elliptical because I frequently swing inside, or outside a typical orbit, I can be ‘miles ahead’ at some points, but ‘miles behind’, and struggling to keep up at others, it’s not a reliable pattern, I can’t predict all of it, and I am SICK of well-meaning “Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself!”. I’m rarely being ‘hard’, I’m usually being practical, if I do x and y on one day, I won’t be able to do z as well. (”Don’t call yourself disabled!” can be a blog for another day.)

This has been an attempt for me to shake myself out of a fog of not-writing. Autism is opaque and oblique, it can be brilliant at times, when things ‘click’, but it’s almost-always difficult to articulate in a way that’s palatable, let alone digestible, I know, it sticks in my own throat enough. The ‘experts’ trot out their theories, sometimes without consultation, and the organisations that set out to ‘cure’ us are pedaling the myth that autism is a disease. It’s not, it’s a divergence. Take this as ‘A Portrait of This Autist’, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I do think it’s important to speak.

#Autism

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wordsbeworthit-blog · 4 years

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Corona, Climate and Other Things - A Rant

The world is grappling with a very serious and urgent threat, a kind it has encountered for the first time in the lives of its present inhabitants. It’s the kind which crashes economies, kills people and has that air of novelty and mystery to it. It also affects every single country on the planet. While we may argue that the Italy was very late and US very dismissive, we agree that such mass mobilization has not happened in recent history. It is heart-warming to see people coming together in such tough times to fight this. We have literally shut down all industrial activity, all recreational avenues, all air rail and road traffic, stopped wildlife trade and reinstated national borders (even states in some cases). Every other economic or political issue has been side lined and all energies are focused on reducing this pandemic to a crisis of manageable scale, flatten the curve they say. My heart goes out to the first responders and everyone else who is getting out of their homes every day so that we can stay safe inside ours.

Not taking away from the seriousness of the issue, my mind has been wandering off to distant topics all this while. I can’t help but think how very few people know that 37000 people died in the richest country in the world in the last flu season, and 61000 in the season before that. I looked at that trend over the last 2 decades and it shook me. This makes me wonder whether the actions the countries are taking are to prevent loss of human life, or to prevent the markets from crashing. As you would have guessed, the deaths due to flu don’t cause a dent on the market. How the richest country on the planet isn’t able to make a vaccine and/or vaccinate its people against a known enemy is beyond me. But then a lot of things about how the US functions baffles me. I shall leave that topic for later.

If we or the governments cared about the loss of lives, wouldn’t we have done more about the 800 million odd people starving in the world, 8 million dying every year. Or the 2 million people dying in road accidents every year. Or the gun violence and homicides that kill so many people around the world. We don’t demand our governments to take action, and hence we don’t get any. Demand and supply you see! But, in these dark times, I want to believe that the actions being taken the world over are to safeguard humans and not to safeguard capitalistic interest or our markets. And Believe I do.

The second random thought that keeps coming back to me is from a book I read a while ago (The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert). It talked about the world of bacteria and viruses with a scary premonition. The author said that while we are predicting and adapting to the affects of climate change, we have no clue how a 2 degree rise in temperature would affect the world of bacteria and viruses. Forget those outside, it talked about the ones in our gut. What if all the bacteria in our gut can’t survive a world that is 2 degrees warmer. This happened with a species that we don’t really care about and it was vanished in a season. Taking this line of thinking forward, I keep wondering that rising temperatures would create newer variants of bacteria and viruses that we don’t have any acquired immunity against. Hence, we might see increasing epidemics and infections in a warmer world.

Another thing I can’t take my mind off are the pictures of canals in Venice that have been floating around. I have said this to multiple people that I did not really like Venice, and the thing I disliked the most was how dirty the water was. Well, that and the crowds. But I couldn’t say that because I was a part of the crowds. I had recently spent some time in the US, in Arizona where I had gotten used to the vast blue sky. Only when I came back to India did I realise that I had no memories of time when the sky was blue. It did not help that I landed in the pollution hotspot of the world in the thick of the season. And this time the season lasted for over 4 months and it looked like it wouldn’t end until the virus made an entry. For the last 10 days, this clear blue sky I see fills me with a joy I can’t explain. Much has been said about how the planet needed a breather and was given one in the form of the novel coronavirus.

This shutdown around the world has also made us aware of what it takes to slow down climate change. Now we can’t go back to saying it’s not possible, or it’s too difficult. The virus has shown the way. What scares me shitless is that we will just go back to where we stopped, not demanding from ourselves or our institutions the change that is needed, the change that we have seen is possible and works. Not asking the prospective leaders to include renewable energy in their election manifesto, not even bothering to check if it is. Not asking our universities to stop taking research grants from an Indian Oil or a Shell. Not demanding our banks to lend to the renewable energy sector and to stop being the preferred bank for Koch Brothers and the like. Moving back to business as usual and not doing all these things has a huge cost.

Let us fight the WTO tariffs where they stifle indigenous renewable industries from developing. Let’s not vote for the politicians who let Aarey forest be destroyed. Let’s not bring back to the power the ones who started quarrying in Bannerghatta. Or the ones who said Tar sands are clean. Let’s launch a mass movement against the government that let the world’s largest rainforests burn. Or against the meat industry that needed the rainforests to burn because the land was needed for grazing.

Let’s change the way we travel. More importantly, let’s not travel only because everyone else is doing it. Let’s not waste. Food, water, or clothes. Let’s not buy more than we need to. Let’s recycle whatever we can. Let’s think of the carbon footprint next time we order online. Let’s think about taking the bus next time, or the metro. Let’s ask the government why the public transport sucks. Why Mumbai takes so much time to get the Metro. Ask why everyone in Bangalore has to commute via roads in their own vehicles or Ubers. Let’s think about buying an electric car when it’s time to replace. However, be wary of anyone who tells you that making these changes on the demand side will solve the massive problem we are facing. As soon as we talk of supply side changes, we are moving into policy and that’s what threatens the status quo.

Time is right for a social movement to emerge, let us not go back to the status quo. I doubt anyone wants to go back to dull foggy skies, roads choc-a-bloc with cars, dirty Venice waters, and the N99 masks. We have been made to believe over decades that all this is an acceptable price to pay for economic progress. Let’s turn that thinking on its head. Change is hard. But as we have seen, slow and steady change has now become status quo. Slow change over decades is how we have gotten used to the air travel, the ever increasing number of devices in our lives and the cars on our roads, the avocado from Mexico in a market in Delhi. Slow gradual change is how companies have gotten us hooked onto branded wear and fast fashion, apparel made in Vietnam making way into our hands in California. If only someone would calculate the carbon footprint of a shirt made in Vietnam making its way to California, with the cotton for the shirt sent from California to Vietnam. (US is the second largest exporter of cotton). This is the time to make a case for local supply chains, supporting green energy where it needs support, encouraging local entrepreneurs. Let’s change the rules of the game, one rule at a time, in the same steady way this slow change sneaked up on us and became a part of the status quo.

Basis my reading, here are the top few reasons (and there are many more) why this fight will be very different than the one against Coronavirus –

- In the virus we have an external enemy to mobilise against, while in the fight against climate change the enemy is our habits and our institutions

- The threat of the virus is urgent, while the threat of climate change is perceived to be distant. We have evolved over generations to tackle urgent threats, since the hunter-gatherer times.

- Time Inconsistency – We ourselves will be the beneficiaries of the fight against Coronavirus. In the other fight, we will have to pay the costs while the benefits will most likely be reaped by people worse-off than us or the future generations.

In this fight against the virus, I choose to believe that what we are fighting for is above the GDP growth, and averting financial crisis to the extent possible. And I hope that this belief when shared by the larger group becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This fight against Coronavirus has given me hope. Hope that we have it in us to do something for others, to fight against a mysterious enemy, to mobilise ourselves and help each other in need. It has also assured me that no matter how flawed our institutions may be, they have the power to mobilise the masses to fight in the interest of the common good.

For those of us worried about the costs of changing our current ways of living, we should look at the costs incurred due to hurricanes, wildfires, and air pollution alone. Add to that the costs of increasing migrations, losing ecosystems and changing crop patterns. We can’t even begin to estimate the costs associated with these.

To keep on the right path in this fight, there is one thing that we must guard against - our over-reliance on stock markets and GDP as a sole indicator of progress. We have enough evidence now that markets adapt to crisis and it is then included in the baseline. The same way we compare the next hurricane with the last one and lose the bigger picture. Whole industries can be built gradually that will capitalise on the changing ecosystems, conflict due to increasing migrations and the like. The world will change faster that we will realise. As humanity, we must guard against this slow change that has the capacity to change humankind as we know it.

Now, one last submission. Not all of us can do all of the above. Let’s do what resonates with us. Lastly, I will invoke the rule so passionately thrust upon us for the last century. Demand these things and be ready to pay the right price. If we create this demand, I trust the free markets enough that the market will create incentives and ensure these demands are met. Let markets find the right price we are ready to pay for this unmet demand.

#coronavirus #climatechange #environment #freemarkets #sustainability #savetheplanet

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cutiecrates · 5 years

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Cutie Reviews: YumeTwins April 19

“The cherry blossoms are blooming, the weather is getting warmer, and our furry little friends are out to play! This time of year motivates us to get outside and enjoy the magical season that is spring! We absolutely love having picnics in the park during cherry blossom season and watching all the cute pets run around. Beautiful scenes like this inspire us to get creative and sketch, paint, and write so we can share it with our friends and loved ones. That is why for this month’s theme being Fluffy Pen-Pals, we’ve filled this box with kawaii animal friends and spring goodies that will allow you to get creative and inspired! We hope you enjoy these kawaii goodies as much as we enjoyed putting this box together for you!“

Yume Prize

This month, inspired by the fluffy theme we have goods featuring Rilakkuma and Pochakko.

Photo Contest

Meanwhile, cuddly Kuromi is the focus of the photo contest.

Pets Lunch Mat

Purrfect for a picnic during spring, or just on the go or at the table, we get this adorable cloth mat covered in various dog and cat prints and colors. You might recognize these designs, as I’ve gotten a few past items featuring very similar shiba.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

No, there isn’t much to it. But it’s pretty cute isn’t it? It adds a fun touch to meals and would probably be a suitable item for messy or young eaters, or suitable for those moments when you’re not at a table. You could probably use it for crafts too, and I assume it’s easy to wash. . .

Shiba and Neko Strawberry Plush

To go with the puppies and kitties in the previous item, we also get an adorable fluffy companion. Each plush is 25cm and there are three different colors of both the cat and dog. I got the light grey shiba, but I would have loved to have gotten the pink kitty~ It also has a pink button (by that I mean... the thing Pompompurrin has), which I think is kind of cute.

Their strawberry hat is also removable! According to the booklet, you can also wear it, which I think is a fun little idea.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The plush is very mochi marshmallow squishy like, but it doesn’t have as much stuffing. It’s very soft and stretchy, but I feel like it could have used a little bit more stuffing, because to me the paws look kind of weird and shriveled up. The strawberry hat is the same, and again I like how you can remove it, so you could put it on other things, or just take it off to change your animals look. However, the stem pieces are made of felt and as such one of the leaf on mine is bent and I can’t fix it.

Cube Toothbrush Stand

Now for something a bit different, we have an adorable little cube used for holding a toothbrush. These come in a large variety of Sanrio characters, and Doraemon, Snoopy, and Kirby characters!

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I kind of went over this in the previous review from DokiDoki Crate, but I don’t really have much use for a toothbrush stand due to the ones I use. But I do have various “teeth tools“ I could use it for instead, or holding ear cleaners... or or or as I discovered, it’s perfect for holding a pen!

It makes a great pen holder and I’ve been having fun using it for that, it almost gives it a fancy look, like those pens you find in offices or banks attached to the ball chain.

I can guarantee that’s probably what I’ll be using it for~

Plushie Magnet

(sorry for bad lighting, I took the picture but somehow it didn’t save so I had to re-take it.)

Our next item once again features the various cast of Rilakkuma and Sumikko Gurashi, but this time in the form of a semi-cuddly magnet :D This adorable magnet is very fluffy and plush-like, and on the back is a small rounded magnet (which can be shifted around as I discovered). It’s cute pastel tones make it an adorable spring accessory (although mine kind of gives me winter vibes you know~) for hanging up papers, photo’s, or just decoration.

Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I don’t really have much to say about it, but I really like it. It’s so cute and adorable. My only annoyance is that I’m not sure I’ll actually get to use it, because I was informed it’ll probably collect dust and hair, and in having it un-packaged I noticed that this was indeed true. Kind of annoying. But I still want to use it, so I’ll probably end up finding a place for it after we move...

Pokemon Pen & Kawaii Notepad

Now some actual stationery, our first item is an adorable Pokemon-themed Pen. There was 4 available in 2 different styles, a basic pen featuring Pikachu and various foods, available in brown or black- or there is a thinner, sorta fancier looking pen in either pink or white featuring Eeevee.

I feel like there’s no real point in giving the pen an in-depth review. It’s a typical pen, but it has no trouble writing, dotting, or anything. The ink lasts a long time without dropping or becoming faint, I think it’s a pretty good quality pen and would recommend it.

-------

Our final item is an adorable, pastel colorful notepad based on the recent trend of drink science and the unique containers people are coming up with to put them in for an instagram worthy pic. There was 9 variants (one of which was Yeastken, so I’m glad I didn’t get it twice...) and I think out of all of all the options, this is the one I’d have wanted. I’m very happy I got it!

There are 2 different styles of paper in this pad, one facing vertical while the other is horizontal. The pages feature designs from the front, which have a clear cover over it to help keep it clean.

Again, I feel like there’s no real actual point in rating this. Notepads are notepads, it’s pretty much like the Yeastken one I just got (they’re by the same brand). Paper is fine, it is written on very smooth and cleanly. I think this is very very very very very cute~! I love how shiny the spine seam piece across the top is.

♡ Cutie Ranking ♡

Content - 4.5 out of 5. I feel really content with this box. I’m not sure I’m in love with it or anything, but the quality of each item was great, and everything had variety and is practical, which as you know is very important. I sort of felt like there wasn’t much of an evenness in terms of the size of items though, but it’s probably for obvious reasons.

Theme: 3.5 out of 5. I felt conflicted over this one, because it was very similar to the previous box in that it features cuddly animals. I mean don’t get me wrong I adore animals and kawaii goods, obviously, and because of how the box carried itself the items had a different feel about them. However, I kind of wish the box actually played up the fluffy part of the theme more (the Photo Prize and Yume Prize did excellent in improving that but not everyone gets it...), and given the description I feel like they should have given the box more of a spring vibe. I can see the pen-pal part, but only a little...

Total Rank: 7 out of 10. I liked the content and I would recommend this one. But I did have a little concern that due to how small a majority of items were, I’m not sure this box would cost as much as we pay. But I don’t really have any way of finding that stuff out, so I could be wrong due to being name brand and all.

♡ Cutie Scale ♡

1. Cube Toothbrush Stand - I might not have gotten my first choice but I do like Rilakkuma, so I’m not complaining either. I’m obviously going to use this as a pen stand more than its intended purpose, but I also like how fun it is in general. If I could I’d buy the rest of the collection just to decorate with :P

2. Strawberry Inu/Neko Plushie - Even though I am a cat person, I can’t resist how sweet this doggy looks~ He’s so squishy soft, he’ll make a great bed time companion; I’m kinda looking forward to dressing him up a little too~

3. Notepad - I have several of these so I can’t say it was a necessary item either in my case, but I love how cute it is! I love stroking the textured spine seam thingy on top, and admiring the adorable drawings all over it and in it~

4. Pokemon Pen - It’s so sweet looking, the pastel colors and drawings are adorable. I kind of wish I got the sleeker pen with metal accents but I’m very impressed by how smoothly this one writes. I really like it so I’ll probably keep it nearby.

5. Lunch Mat - Not a necessary item, but I do like it. It’s pretty neat to use, and I’ll probably end up folding it up and bringing it with me, so if I end up eating in the car or somewhere else, I’d have it just in case.

6. Plush Magnet - As cute as it is, I’m not sure if I’ll end up using it. I’d hate to have to clean it all the time due to pet hair or dust snagging it.

#cutie reviews #yumetwins #sanrio #rilakkuma #sumikkogurashi

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sidpah · 5 years

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Unsigned

5:22 pm 11/29/2009

For the record, it’s currently, tonight, November 29th, 2009. Shall I continue to prolong the inevitable? I’ve already shuffled to my bedside, kicking off slippers for the last time. They’re torn open around the big toes, and the cushioning has been beaten into flat nonexistence by years of my feet on the cellar stairs, and pacing these narrow confines like a chimpanzee in research cell… They’ve served me well, the slippers have.

I sit on the edge of my mattress, bare feet flat against dirty hardwood floor. Black curls of shed hair, loose clouds of clotted dust cling to mattress and ring the base of the walls. In my left hand is a small brown bottle of laudanum – my five-flavored tea. I’ve not yet tasted it. Initially, I’d planned to use sleeping pills. The old standby. Two Ambien every four hours to help me coast steadily through. I’ve never taken either, the pills or the laudanum, but dissuaded by Zolpidem Tartrate’s more egregious reported side effects: lack of dreams, nightmares and sleepwalking, (along with the more distressing variants: sleep-eating, -driving and -phone calling) all of these wholly defeating my purpose, I felt laudanum to be the more reasonable option. Clearly, I’m not concerned about developing a tolerance or dependency. This leaves me free to increase the dosage should I, at some unearthly narcoleptic point, feel the need has arisen. Carefully though; someone of my size and meager narcotic history could overdose on as little as a few teaspoons, and that’s not what I’m looking for. I’m not aiming to poison myself. I just want a slow steady dream that will fade into oblivion.

One of laudanum’s many benefits to this end is that it should relieve the pain and soreness I’m virtually guaranteed to experience from remaining in bed so long. Another is that it promises to increase oneiric activity rather than squelch it. And I want to be there, I just don’t want to be here. To fill those vacant forms awaiting animation...

Originally, to swallow the Ambien I’d allotted myself two eight-ounce bottles of water. I’d rather not linger on for weeks. I wasn’t sure how much I would need to drink to get the pills down, but I was not about to rely on my own willpower when the thirst hits, as it will, inevitably. I envisioned myself sleep-drinking, guzzling down case after case, entirely oblivious to my error. Four bottles instead of two could have prolonged my survival by one more day. I’m not a fat man, but I’ve read that the body can last for four to six weeks without food. The thought of bedsores and cannibalized muscles doesn’t interest me in the least. Again, this is where laudanum becomes the obvious choice. Already a liquid preparation, there’s no need to consume additional water, which again shortens my life expectancy while downsizing the likelihood of needing a bathroom break, (aided further by the fortuitous disclaimer that laudanum may cause constipation). I know that in my final seconds I will soil the bed like an infant, and I’m okay with that. I simply want that nothing should impede my comfortable retreat. This is a vacation after all, not capital punishment.

I unscrew the dropper and place three drops on my tongue. This will only get easier. I set the bottle of laudanum next to four others, all with tops mostly unscrewed, droppers canted delicately in their necks so I won’t need to wake for more than a second or two to administer another dose. (I won’t mention how much this little gathering cost me, suffice it to say, my meager bank account has already accrued more in daily fines due to its failing to maintain the minimum balance than it actually contained to begin with; there clearly is no stepping back from this precipice. I will not disclose my source for the drug as, as I’m sure anyone reading this is aware, it’s a regulated Schedule II narcotic and obviously not easy to come by through legal means, especially in such quantity. I am not about to indicate complicity on the part of anyone kind enough to aid me on this journey.)

While the subject has been broached, I do have to laugh a little at myself for having opted so quickly for this obscure drug. Aside from its apposite elegance in all the ways already mentioned, my motivation here is terribly transparent. Perhaps it’s my emulation’s greatest work. It possesses a certain mythic sophistication, laudanum does. I can lie back on these stale sheets and easily imagine myself not blanketed under the watchful disapproving gaze of my pale childhood walls, breathing in the complete stygian darkness and faint phantom breath of old burned incense embedded in altar cloth and curtains, but rather in a hazy opium den, a hidden basement off a rubbish-strewn alleyway in late 1800s Europe. I’m lacking only an absinthe chaser. If not a renowned novelist or libertine, then at least a taste of a life I never could have lived in this flesh...

I am going to be as rigorous about this journey as I would a transcontinental road trip. Albeit, one on which I have made no prior reservations and plan to seek out the night’s shelter and morning’s sustenance on the off-chance that those needs should arise. Though I intend to limit my ingestion so as not to overdose, I can’t bear to leave my clock plugged in, red numbers at eye level, visible without sitting or fully waking as they have been for decades. I trust that I can be careful without documenting every dose. I gladly unplug the clock. Fuck you, Alarms, Schedules, and Planners, I’m sleeping in from here on out.

A second layer of curtains have been hung over the already thick blue polyester drapery. I must keep the room as dark and timeless as possible. As much as I love sleep, I’ve always had difficulty napping during the day. Even when, as a child, I was kept home from school (as I so frequently was) by tonsillitis and strep throat and ear infections and bronchitis, often two or more of these occurring at the same time, lying in bed, uncomforted, watching trashy daytime television game shows for the elderly and unemployed. A tonic of voyeuristic hope that was apparently lost in my youthful ennui… An unease about the stomach and shoulder blades, pressure in the upper rear quadrant of the skull, a tension through the back of my neck I’m sure the laudanum will alleviate should those feelings that come with the combination of warm sheets and daylight rear their heads one ultimate time.

The thermostat has been set at a cool 60 degrees. I’ve never been able to sleep when the air is hot. (I sound so fickle… so fragile, and yet sleep has been the paramount activity of the last eight years of my life…) I will wrap myself in five layers of blankets, throws, and handed-down afghans, and curl up, content and fetal. At that temperature I could still survive for up to ten days without any water. This strikes me as too long, but the laudanum is an unknown. There will be no food in my stomach to impede its effects and I haven’t read any studies on cases such as mine.

Driven by decades of unrequited longing… A pitiful creature filled with a hot broth of misery and sorrow that rises to overwhelm the dam of her self-control, and before she can fortify it with sandbags of antipsychotic medication, she’s swept away in her own emotions’ tidal flood… A middle aged man so repentant about one of his many past indiscretions that he deems himself beyond redemption, unrehabilitatable, and so concludes that the only object powerful enough to surmount his guilty memories of that lone infraction is a single .452 inch long hunk of lead sent careening through both hemispheres of his brain almost simultaneously… Ridiculous, asinine clichéd attributes of the suicidal mind as it’s all too often portrayed in popular media. This is where I separate from the pack. I am not miserable or despondent. I am not calling a hotline because I’m lonely or starved for attention. I am not shaking in a corner with a butter knife pressed against my wrist. I am rational and cool. I am tired, but I am content. This body has fulfilled its use, transcended its purpose and is now an empty canister ready to be discarded. A building in natural collapse. Let those old movies play on one last time before the theater closes its doors!

My mother died recently, but I’m not at all depressed. It would sound terrible to say I’m relieved, so I won’t. Not that that would be quite accurate either. It’s a relief from that tense ever-present Not Knowing. Eight years of that queasy, prickly hum, gone… Wondering when it was going to happen, if it would be today, tomorrow, in another twenty years… Not Knowing can break a man. That said, I’ve always had a knack for adjustment, for living with what I have. It feels as though most of my adult life has been one of servitude, caring for her as if, without prior consent of mother or child, our roles had been irrevocably reversed...

Not that I ever longed for more traditional action. Writers mustn’t live busy lives – Eventful, but not busy. If you think something of relative value (there isn’t, in truth, any value in these pages, but we’ll pretend like there’s a crumb or two so we can play our respective roles of writer and consumer for one last day…) it must be caught immediately, with that metaphysical butterfly net, and pinned squirming to the page while the energy is still vibrant and sharp. No one’s going to feel them or love them if they get stale – Words get stale too, just like saltine crackers and three-day worn underwear…

It seems the laudanum is already taking hold… That was quicker than I expected. But then, how much do I really expect?

I’ve just turned thirty, surpassing the natural life expectancy for most figures in human history. This is nothing more than my early retirement. Why submit to thirty more years, early-to-bed and early-to-rising only to loathe my job, my rut, my loneliness or, gods-help-me, my wife, and be forced into suffering the ravages of old age, illness, disease and paranoia of a hastily approaching death? I’d much rather greet death on my own terms. Here I am, ye olde red-handed bastard! Serving myself up on a silver platter for your grim dim black toothless maw!

I’ve never needed to support myself by employment and I have no interest in starting now. My mother received a decent pension from her years working at the plant. It was plenty for our meager means. But there wasn’t enough left in our savings to sustain me for more than a few years eating crunchy rice and beans in a cold house with no electricity to cook them. And now, thanks mostly to her prodigious medical bills and co-pays, even most of that’s gone. In truth, I feel rather guilty living off of that ill-gotten blood money any longer. Fed by those poor brainwashed souls… Of course I feel equally sick at the prospect of having to work a day job or, more likely, a night job, for the next thirty to forty years. I don’t feel that the world owes me a living; I just don’t feel I owe it to the world to live.

My name will die along with me, and I’m perfectly fine with that reality. I have no siblings and no young men in the family bear this surname. Perfect annihilation. Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!

In a second I will pull the chain to switch off the lamp, the last light these eyes will ever register, set the pen next to this little pad and this large stack of collected papers, and then wait to discover with joy and the baited thrill of adventure to which strange lands my dreams will deliver me…

To whomever reads this note, know only that you’ve found the remnants of a profoundly satisfied man, a man untroubled by the tribulations of his world. And that he is even more so, untroubled, now, having been irreversibly freed of his bodily restraints, devious calculating mental formations, and purged of his seemingly endless memories.

With great love and optimism…[1]

[1] Unsigned

#fiction #depression #suicide note #sleep

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violetsystems · 3 years

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#personal

I keep referencing this Chris Morris interview lately, mostly to myself. I try to talk to people in real life but the things other people take seriously aren't as important as any words I try to speak outloud. This is a trend that Morris and crew began to target in the late nineties when Brass Eye was released. When asked if Brass Eye could happen at the time during the Trump administration, he replied staunchly it could not. Back in the late nineties people took themselves far too seriously in the news. So it was easier to lampoon. These days it feels like a regression. Everyone has a statement to unload on you. A complex series of opinions, arguments, and rules about this or that. Some of them have some weight. Others are carried away by counter arguments and burnt at the stake. The only reason a statement, argument, or ideological battle penetrates the news is to simply kick it around for two weeks in a cycle. It never reaches any sort of consensus. It never diffuses into at the very least a case of agreeing to disagree. The Met Gala recently is a fine example of this. Statement fashion is simply meant to nudge the conversation into focus. At it's very minimum the shock is meant to jolt someone out of this seriousness. To rattle them away from their protective shell to change the dialogue. Think tax the rich or peg the patriarchy. Neither of them if you flesh out the argument have much teeth to them. I'm sure you could find yourself at a party defending either argument. "How many stocks do you have in the bank Mister!" Or why victims of childhood sexual harassment and violence might feel a little differently about proving how you might be able to face the patriarchy in a less violent and humiliating way. This is that none of us are defending a 35,000 dollar ticket to the Met Gala in the first place. There were plenty of other statements. After all the ideological dust settled I almost never realized that Iris Van Herpen designed Grimes suit of armor. If I were too clouded by the ideology I would have missed that legitimate moment of genius. I'm a technologist by profession. I have years of 3D fabrication support. I've often found myself drawn into the intersect of technology and fashion. The embroidery machines that print out all the stupid little poetry that gets stolen from other artists? Those are pretty complex to operate. Without them none of this would be possible. And yet good statement fashion does get people talking. But fashion is more than statements. Especially from the rich and wealthy. And if we don't talk about all of it, we start to realize who controls the flow of the dialogue when it goes petty. We're supposed to move on from these arguments like exhibits in a museum. Not get stuck on one or two moments and use them as a soapbox to drown out the entire room. Statement fashion gets people's attention. I wore undercover for years only to find for years people thought I was an undercover cop. I wear a mouse on a shirt and suddenly my porch is overflowed with them. I hold a raccoon in my arms in Korea one trip and the next year my porch is flooded with them as well. You like animals so much! Prove it!

Prove it was also a song by the underground band Television. I was introduced to them by the king of statement fashion itself, Jun Takahashi. I've worn undercover for years at this point. The story of undercover during the Scab years is an interesting insight into what Jun was trying to express at the core. His assistants were getting food in London on a break. An old woman came up to them and offered them a banana. She thought they were homeless. They were excited because the fashion they were wearing felt real and unpretentious. It blended in and confused people in such a way that it was not high brow or high fashion. It was accessible. It was street level. And it was largely coopted by the ultra rich and worn far too seriously for its own good. For people like myself who wore it out of love to provoking real conversation, it did the opposite. It cast me into a shadow realm where people thought what I was saying enabled them to push the limit. To use people like myself as cover in terms of hijacking authenticity. You used to wear undercover as a badge of honor in Japanese street wear. It was designed for rebels after all. You could wear a t-shirt that simply said RAT out in the street and assume if it applied to someone they'd read into it. But nobody including myself really thought you'd be able to change shit with a t-shirt. In America, people wear rebellious shit to express this idea of freedom. With Jun's stuff, it was all centered around this idea of individualism and anarchy. You can be who you are and there are so many variants of human that there is no comparison. America always wants you to prove it. Prove the right to be alone. Prove the right not to mix with the general population to avoid dilution. To avoid being neutralized or have a narrative hijacked. Nowadays you can't even afford to have a statement without someone explaining it for you behind your back. When the streets become the runway, retaliation happens outside the niceties of press and junkets. It happens with real unbridled emotions. The statements you throw into people's faces don't get moderated by it kids, secret tribunals of the ultra rich or your heroes. They get dealt with in a violent and sometimes mob like fashion by people who take themselves so seriously that their arguments against you are louder than a bomb or a nuclear powered submarine. And everything starts to contradict itself so much that none of us have the energy to argue. We just start mocking it. And the entire situation gets worse.

When it comes to a person like myself, I live in a surreal shadow world where the worst Black Mirror plot lines get tested. I've been writing and making statements for years. I've carefully parsed the arguments online. I've defended myself against an invisible hoard to let people know I am not like other people. And yet in America, until they can throw you in a group you are still nobody. You have to be attached to an ecosystem. A financial sink hole that can sell back your ideas to you instead of compensating you for the trouble. I can't take America seriously anymore even when it comes to it's idea of freedom. It lies to maintain a status quo. It constantly lies. It holds it's head high while sniffing the coke back into it's nose and proudly proclaims how it cares. And when people like myself stare it back in the face with our rotting street wear clothes from early 2010, it's a laugh. It believes until it has fully roasted the juices out of you then you are ready to be carved up. And we buy into it consistently. We waste our time feeding into arguments that have no intent on reaching a consensus. It's always you are either for us or against us. Go back and rally with your people. If you can't find your people it must mean you are mentally ill. America can never take the blame. If you catch it off guard it will figure out a way to trash you or cause a diversion. And so making statements to fuel an argument you can't win becomes a lesson in tedium. We should, by all means, continue to make fun of it. But the more we take these arguments seriously, we miss the real problems. We neglect the real art. We see that there's a good 35,000 dollar barrier to being heard. If we're lucky maybe we stitched together the rags these people wear. To me there have been statements in the populist context that have far more penetration into poking a hole in the patriarchy. I'm supposed to preface this by saying I own stock in some company. But I'm not trying to sell a portfolio. And it'd be kind of laughable to say that I'm only serious about feminism by putting my money where my mouth is to break this glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is there for a lot of us if minimum wage can't get us into the Met Gala. These statements are supposed to give you an idea to confront things in your own way. Not some secret way to groom you into humiliation and destroy your sense of self and sexuality. I write statements every week here most of the time. And they get chuckled at by friends and whoever these days spies on me to see how I deal with dead mice on my porch. Aren't I doing enough by saying something for free? I don't get paid to write any of these words. I don't get paid to talk about any of these people. What was that quote about art being counter revolutionary if it isn't accessible by the regular people? What I could do with a four hundred dollar statement t-shirt I can do with a color. Maybe I could make a statement shirt myself and have it ripped off by an incompetent designer one day. I could point at the screen and say "I copyrighted that statement." And look where it is now. Not in my wallet. Not anywhere near the 35,000 dollar ticket price to point back at the camera. Do you see me? No you don't. People in that realm only see themselves. And we take them and their arguments so seriously for what? A laugh hopefully. Because nothing is going to change if we're locked on the outside looking in at a bonfire of vanities. Witches get roasted either way. <3 Tim

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alliswell21 · 6 years

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I wish you would write a fic where... vampire!Finnick and vampire!Peeta try to understand human's modern-day social media! :P

Hi @thelettersfromnoone!!! Sorry it took me so long to answer your ask… I have to admit, when I first read the prompt I laughed, I envisioned it as a cheerful piece of comedy, but when I started writing it, it pretty much beat my hiney. I just couldn’t get the voices right, and the tone was all wrong, I think I rewrote it 3 times… it’s still not exactly what I set out to do, but it’s close enough… I hope this is ok.

Rated G

Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt meet Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield in this Peenick fic. Enjoy. (Most of the dialogue are actual rants I’ve heard from my husband’s grandfather, plus a few debates between my husband and his best friend from high school)

KPKPKPKPKPKPKPKP

Daylight Savings Time is finally at an end. All the clocks have been set back an hour, and sunsets come earlier each day… too bad I can’t see the glorious colors painting the sky with my own eyes tracking the sun’s slow descent into the horizon while the scattered clouds turn gold, orange and intense pink. It’s the thing I miss the most about being alive. The good news is that cinema is there to provide glimpses of my beloved sunsets, even if they are a flat replica.

I take a look at the clock on the wall, and then eye the sun setting charter taped directly under it. Fall is our favorite time of year, with its longer, darker nights. We are free to leave our den and roam the town, we can even walk into any establishment while it’s still regular business hours like normal people, because while the clock says it’s 17:00, it’s inky black outside, and no trace of the cheerful sun can be felt.

Today is special, though. “We are renewing our wardrobes!” Announced Finnick earlier, so as soon as the sun goes down, and it’s safe to leave our place,1 we’re heading to the mall on a business call errand.

“Is it time yet?” Asks Finnick entering the room, wearing a different outfit than the one I saw him in 10 minutes ago. He’s anxious. We haven’t been out in a while, and I know he’s both looking forward to this and nervous at the same time.

“Two more minutes, then we can go.” I tell him.

He makes a face that’s full of annoyance. We just heard the weather report, and it’s supposed to be a gorgeous evening. He hates going out on nice evenings to run errands when he could be luring beautiful, warm-blooded gals into the darkness of his bedroom. He considers it a waste, if he’s isn’t hunting, but he was the one to call for a day of shopping, I could care less about clothing.

“You know most everything can be acquired online nowadays. There’s very little instances your physical presence is required for a transaction to be made.” I offer softly. His glare is immediate and expected, but there’s mirth behind it as well.

He wrinkles his nose in disgust, but smiles nonetheless. “So impersonal, Peeta. Not at all how a gentleman should conduct business.” He says in his usual debonair tone, “It’s almost as if you don’t know me at all!” He flashes me that smile he uses to enchant his victims before his fangs graze along smooth, pulsating, bare necks, like a deadly caress.

I simply avert my eyes. Finnick is not my creator, but he was made 50 years before I was even born, and that makes him my elder, but sometimes, he can be such a brat! Is hard not to think of him as a child at times. His smile doesn’t have quite the same effect on me, though. I’m not a living woman, so I drawl out a response.

“With all the technological advances of the time, why bother going out, for something you can get from the safety and comfort of your lair?” I shrug, then smirk, “I’m sure you can find other, more suited pursuits for a night such as this.” I fan out a hand.

Finnick’s devious smile widens, a dangerous glint takes over his eyes.

I was told once, that Finnick used to have a lovely set of eyes, the color of the sea; that his gaze held the warmth of the tropics and the light of the sun. But when I look into his eyes now, all I see is a washed down shade of green, with pupils as dark and empty as the abyss and a danger that thrills as it pulls you in the darkened recesses of his penetrating stare, where natural light is nonexistent.

“Humanity has made the current time a very convenient era for our kind, hasn’t it?” He says taking a sit and crossing his leg over his opposite knee. “But first impressions do matter, my friend. You can’t just buy clothing from stock. Tailors exist for a very, good reason!”

This is just a variant of his many sayings of ‘the suit makes the man’ sentiment. I check the clock again, nodding in agreement, “But the internet is so much safer, what with all the ways you can interact with others, without really doing it.” I say more to myself than him.

“Why yes, one only needs to fiddle a smart phone apparatus, and everything’s there at your fingertips… what’s the fun on that?” He sounds partially angry.

“It’s convenient.” My voice is soft and monotonous. “Efficient and saves you the hassle of having to interact with vendors that may be irritating.” But for me, is more than that.

I’m not really into eating humans all that much, I rather take a stroll to the blood bank and peruse through the samples until I find something I want. I hate looking at the lifeless eyes of my feed providers after. So gruesome, ugh!

“It’s boring,” He states. “How much longer?” He asks impatiently.

“Take your coat and we may go.”

The drive to the mall is uneventful and quiet, but as soon as we step into the building, we both wince at the brightly lit entrance, artificial light bathes everything the eye reaches, but at the end of 10 seconds, we grow used to the glare. Our instinct is to flee the light, but our reason tells us it’s harmless so we walk right in. While we could smell the whole town since leaving our house, the scent of fresh blood assault our senses like a tide wave; I inhale deeply and allow a satisfied smile take over my features, but next to me, Finnick hisses in displeasure at the throng of people meandering about, as if he just walked into a fresh meat market, after pledging to be a vegetarian under duress. I wished I could say I was sorry to find enjoyment in his pain, but it’s actually kind of funny.

We make a left turn after passing the hubbub of the food court, and then we see them: people meandering around with their cellphones aloft, heads bowed towards the luminous screens, while ignoring anything and everyone else around them. Is one thing to see someone checking their email while sitting and consuming a tray of food court bourbon chicken and a 32 ounce Diet Coke, but another one to see an almost accurate representation of a zombie apocalypse, where the undead only respond to pings and blips. I know in my frozen heart, there will be no shutting him up until we get to the menswear store.

“Why do they do that?” Finnick asks under breath. “They look like sheep. Silly ones at that.”

I observe the few people so absorbed in their phones that narrowly avoid crashing into things along the way by sheer good luck with mild interest while we take the escalators in the middle of the first floor, then shrug.

The whole ride up, Finnick rambles, watching the hypnotized humans with contempt. “Why do they insist on developing this, so called, ‘virtual community’ nonsense? It keeps them from real life interactions, everyone so enthralled with their media devices?”

We climb off the escalator and fall into step side by side.

“It keeps them informed, connected with people they don’t normally see.” I tell him as we pass a kitchen and baking supply store, my head turns to look at a handsome set of measuring cups… you can take the corpse out of the bakery, but can’t take the bakery out of the corpse. “It expands their horizons even from the confines of their homes.” I say calmly, like I’m speaking to an overexcited child. “It’s in their nature to network and exchange opinions. Man was not created to be isolated, Finnick. Humans have a driving need to belong, and social media satisfies the void.”

“They abuse it, Peeta.” He says easily as we take a right turn, “Give a person an internet capable device, Twitter, Facebook… hell! Give them a comment box on a news article! humans can’t shut up! People behave poorly and opts to ignoring their sense of decorum. Is like they lack a filter, they become rude and attack one another when their ideologies don’t match completely.”

“Humans depend on social media now, there’s nothing else to it. It’s not a perfect development, it has its drawbacks, but it also has many pros and benefits. There’s no need to write it off entirely because humans are naturally imperfect and they tend to use their tools inappropriately at times. It happens.”

Finnick stops and sighs exaggeratedly. We really don’t need to breathe, but we still need air to pass through our bodies just the same, he just does it out of habit. He glowers at a passerby that makes the mistake of looking up when he feels someone staring, and judging by the way he trips while rushing to get away, he’s scared witless. I shake my head.

“I hate it when humans lie online!” Finnick mutters sullenly.

‘Ah! the truth at last’, I think to myself, understanding dawning on me. Finnick continues, ignoring my knowing half smile.

“You try to make acquaintances online, you find people that pique your interest and their life story at your fingertips, you could’ve very well just st found your next conquest, but if the information on them is false, further interaction gets hindered.”

“And if they decide no to meet in person?” I propose, taking a step forward.

“It’s truly inconvenient, not to mention disappointing especially when you need to feed.” He smiles, flashing his fully extended fangs, and then retracting them back into his skull.

“How romantic.” I deadpan. “You sound like one of those desperate types that uses date sites… wait, you are one of those.” I say in fake surprise.

Finnick discovered one questionable such site, and had one extremely bad online entanglement with what he thought was a living women; it turned out, he’d been chatting and enchanting an overweight, greasy hair, foul looking fellow that posed as a girl looking to befriend other girls for his own nefarious agenda. Of course, Finnick really wasn’t there innocently trying to make friends either, but he never pretended to be an oversharing teenage girl to lure anyone to him. Somehow Greasy Hair Fellow- I like to think of it as providence- crossed paths with Finnick, and when finally the truth came to light… let’s say, a number of unsuspecting girls got spared both Finnick and Greasy Fellow for good. At the end, Greasy Fellows remains. were a real messy business no one likes to reminisce about.

Finnick values my partial humanity warring with my undead nature most of the times, it’s what called to him when we met, but sometimes he hates the fact that I still have morals.

“I know how you feel, about it Peet!” he defends. “Social media may suit you as it is, but not me, I see it as the biggest pest the world has seen, and I’ve seen pests in my time roaming Earth.” He ‘dusts’ himself, as if merely talking about it has made him sooty. “Facebook will be the demise of mankind, mark my words.” He enunciates each word for emphasis.

“Now you’re just being dramatic.” I tell him, bored. “You make it sound like it’s impossible to find people out in the streets. Plus, there are a great deal of amazing things online. For example, Wikipedia is possibly the crowning achievement of humanity. People of all backgrounds have come together to record an amalgamation and collection of knowledge, that can be expanded, corrected and consulted when needed. That’s a good part of social media.” My tone is monotonous, because I really cannot muster the energy to be excited. Finnick says it’s a side effect of my dietary restrictions, that if I fed from a fresh live donor, I’d be healthier and livelier. I cannot dispute him on it, but I won’t go tempting myself with someone’s life, just to feel peppier.

“People can get facts wrong on Wikipedia.”

”That’s why there’s other people scouring over it at all times.”

“If you enjoy it so much, then donate to its maintenance.” He sneers childishly. “People hide behind their anonymity shield, and act and talk as nasty as they can. There’s no respect or consideration anymore.

“Back when I was a child, no one even had a telephone! If a person wanted to chat with another, they met face to face. People used to visit one another. Letters where the way to communicate with long distance acquaintances. None of this nonsense!”

“Finnick, you truly sound your age.” I drawl annoyedly.

This causes him to snap his eyes at me scandalized. “Take it back,” he hisses lowly.

Then, give. It. A. Rest! Social media is a useful tool.”

“A tool? Social media is not merely a tool anymore, Peeta, it’s part of their culture, they need it, they crave it, they can’t go a moment without it… why it’s like they’re addicted to it!”

”That may be, but the same can be said about food, oxygen and sleep. Social media aids as the ability to reach others. Now shut up and shop!”

I arch an eyebrow at him and he finally grunts in displeasure but walks purposely ahead. I just watch him as he rattles the door to the store open and steps inside smiling a beatific grin.

“Ah! Wonderful! Colorful display. That should cheer you up, Peeta!”

I suppress the urge to roll my eyes, since he’s making it sound like I was the one raving and raging our whole commute about social media and it’s dangers. He’s finally changed the subject, there’s no need to rile him up again, which still does not change the fact that he’s insufferable.

“Absolutely gorgeous,” I whisper relieved and step inside.

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alliechua456 · 3 years

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WHY GOAN 토토커뮤니티사이트 RECRUITMENT ADVERTISEMENTS IN NEPAL? #655

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orbemnews · 3 years

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As Mask Mandates Lift, Retail Workers Again Feel Vulnerable Marilyn Reece, the lead bakery clerk at a Kroger in Batesville, Miss., started noticing more customers walking around the store without masks this month after the state mandate to wear face coverings was repealed. Kroger still requires them, but that doesn’t seem to matter. When Ms. Reece, a 56-year-old breast-cancer survivor, sees those shoppers, she prays. “Please, please, don’t let me have to wait on them, because in my heart, I don’t want to ignore them, I don’t want to refuse them,” she said. “But then I’m thinking I don’t want to get sick and die, either. It’s not that people are bad, but you don’t know who they’ve come into contact with.” Ms. Reece’s heightened anxiety is shared by retail and fast-food workers in states like Mississippi and Texas, where governments have removed mask mandates before a majority of people have been vaccinated and while troubling new variants of the coronavirus are appearing. It feels like a return to the early days of the pandemic, when businesses said customers must wear masks but there was no legal requirement and numerous shoppers simply refused. Many workers say that their stores do not enforce the requirement, and that if they do approach customers, they risk verbal or physical altercations. “It’s given a great false sense of security, and it’s no different now than it was a year ago,” said Ms. Reece, who is not yet able to receive a vaccine because of allergies. “The only difference we have now is people are getting vaccinated but enough people haven’t gotten vaccinated that they should have lifted the mandate.” For many people who work in retail, especially grocery stores and big-box chains, the mask repeals are another example of how little protection and appreciation they have received during the pandemic. While they were praised as essential workers, that rarely translated into extra pay on top of their low wages. Grocery employees were not initially given priority for vaccinations in most states, even as health experts cautioned the public to limit time in grocery stores because of the risk posed by new coronavirus variants. (Texas opened availability to everyone 16 and older on Monday.) The issue has gained serious prominence: On Monday, President Biden called on governors and mayors to maintain or reinstate orders to wear masks as the nation grapples with a potential rise in virus cases. The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents nearly 900,000 grocery workers, said this month that at least 34,700 grocery workers around the country had been infected with or exposed to Covid-19 and that at least 155 workers had died from the virus. The recent mass shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colo., has only rattled workers further and added to concerns about their own safety. Diane Cambre, a 50-year-old floor supervisor at a Kroger in Midlothian, Texas, said she had spent much of the past year worrying about bringing the virus home to her 9-year-old son and dreading interactions with customers who were flippant about the possibility of getting sick. She wears a double mask in the store even though it irritates her skin, already itchy from psoriasis, and changes her clothes as soon as she gets home. After Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on March 2 that he would end the statewide mask mandate the next week, Ms. Cambre said, customers immediately “started coming in not wearing a mask and stuff, and it’s been pretty hard getting anybody to wear one.” Management is supposed to offer masks to people who aren’t wearing them, but if they don’t put them on, nothing else is done, she said. Asking customers to wear masks can result in tense exchanges and even tantrums from cart-pushing adults. “Some of our customers are drama-prone, so they’ll start yelling, ‘I’m not wearing that mask,’ and you can tell they’re very rude in their voice and very harsh,” Ms. Cambre, a U.F.C.W. member, said. Overseeing the self-checkout aisles has been especially challenging, she said, because customers who need help will demand that she come over, making it impossible to maintain six feet of distance. At times when she has tried to explain the need for distancing, “they say, ‘OK, and that’s just a government thing,’” she said. “It really takes a toll on you mentally.” A Kroger representative said that the chain would “continue to require everyone in our stores across the country to wear masks until all our frontline grocery associates can receive the Covid-19 vaccine,” and that it was offering $100 one-time payments to workers who received the vaccine. The differing state and business mandates have some workers worried about more confrontations. The retail industry was already trying to address the issue last fall, when a major trade group helped put together training to help workers manage and de-escalate conflicts with customers who resisted masks, social distancing and store capacity limits. Refusing service to people without masks, or asking them to leave, has led to incidents in the past year like a cashier’s being punched in the face, a Target employee’s breaking his arm and the fatal shooting of a Family Dollar security guard. This month in League City, Texas, near Houston, a 53-year-old man who refused to wear a required mask in a Jack in the Box confronted employees and then stabbed a store manager three times, according to a report in The Houston Chronicle. On March 14, a San Antonio ramen shop was vandalized with racist graffiti after its owner criticized Mr. Abbott on television for lifting the Texas mask mandate. On March 17, a 65-year-old woman was arrested in an Office Depot in Texas City after she refused to wear a mask or leave the store, just days after an arrest warrant was issued for her in Galveston, Texas, for behaving similarly in a Bank of America location. MaryAnn Kaylor, the owner of two antique stores in Dallas, including Lula B’s Design District, said the mask mandate repeal mattered a lot for stores and people’s behavior. “He should have focused more on getting people vaccinated instead of trying to open everything up,” she said of Governor Abbott, noting that Texas has one of the country’s slowest vaccination rates. “You still have cases every day in Texas, and you have people dying still from Covid,” she said. “This complete lifting of mandates is stupid. It shouldn’t have been based on politics — it should have been based on science.” Some Texans have started to seek out mask-friendly establishments. Ms. Kaylor said that lists of Dallas businesses that require masks had been circulating on Facebook, and that people were consulting them to figure out where to buy groceries and do other shopping. Emily Francois, a sales associate at a Walmart in Port Arthur, Texas, said that customers had been ignoring signs to wear masks and that Walmart had not been enforcing the policy. So Ms. Francois stands six feet away from shoppers who don’t wear masks, even though that upsets some of them. “My life is more important,” she said. “I see customers coming in without a mask and they’re coughing, sneezing, they’re not covering their mouths,” said Ms. Francois, who has worked at Walmart for 14 years and is a member of United for Respect, an advocacy group. “Customers coming in the store without masks make us feel like we aren’t worthy, we aren’t safe.” Phillip Keene, a spokesman for Walmart, said that “our policy of requiring associates and customers to wear masks in our stores has helped protect them during the pandemic, and we’re not lifting those measures at this time.” Even before the pandemic, Ms. Reece, the Kroger clerk in Mississippi, was wearing a mask to protect herself from the flu because of her cancer diagnosis, she said. She said 99 percent of customers in her small store had worn masks during the pandemic. “When they had to put it on, they did put it on,” she said. “It’s like giving a child a piece of candy — that child is going to eat that candy unless you take it from them.” She is concerned about the potential harm from new variants, particularly from those who don’t cover their mouths. “You just have to pray and pray you don’t get within six feet of them, or 10 feet for that matter,” said Ms. Reece, who is also a U.F.C.W. member and has worked for Kroger for more than 30 years. “I know people want it to be back to normal, but you can’t just will it to be back to normal.” Source link Orbem News #feel #Lift #Mandates #mask #retail #vulnerable #Workers

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shysweetthing · 7 years

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Really like your Victor's finance post! Do you recommend any resources (books/blogs/etc) for people who are interested in maximizing their income / investing? Need to become savvy like Victor haha

I feel so sorry for doing this to you, but, it turns out, I’m not going to answer your question, I’m going to answer an entirely different question, and I’m going to take 3,000+ words to do it.

You will be SHOCKED to hear that the person who wrote a however-many point analysis of Victor’s financial savvy has thoughts about personal finances. (Or not. Getting these thoughts out has required me to sit on this ask for a long time (also I have been horrifically busy, sorry).

Dropping the three thousand words of caveats and my answering a completely different question than the one you asked with a seven-point response under a cut, because I’m not a monster.

Here is my first thought: This is the wrong question. Income does not make you wealthy. Income gives you cash flow, but revenue in means nothing for long-term wealth if it is matched by corresponding revenue out. In fact, poor spending habits combined with high income can make you less financially secure than poor spending habits combined with low income. At a high income, people will happily pitch you ways to spend all of the future income that you may or may not make before you make it, and you can lock yourself into years of work before you know it.

There is only one way to become financially secure, and that is to spend less money–preferably drastically less money–than you make. That means forgoing most ways to spend future income, and instead, saving present income.

Here is my second thought: I’m going to talk about some tactics below, but DO NOT USE THIS POST TO SHAME PEOPLE, NOPE, THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS POST IS ABOUT. If you don’t make enough money to meet your basic needs, this is NOT the post for you. An entirely separate problem is that global economic forces are reducing the size of of the middle class. That means an increasing number of people are not making enough money to meet their basic needs. That is a sucky place to be.

This post is written from a point of privilege–I make enough to meet my basic needs, and then some–and I’m warning you that the invisible hand of the marketplace will reach out from the monitor and smack people who try to lecture whose who don’t have that privilege.

A third thought: I’m going to link to some resources, but I need to warn you that they are painfully non-intersectional. Assertions made in these resources are not for everyone. If you’re a POC and liable to be pulled over and shot by the police, you may need to spend more on cars/clothing to appear “respectable” and reduce the likelihood that you’ll be shot out of hand. If you have dietary issues, you may need to spend more on food. If you don’t have familial support, you may have expenses others don’t think about. If you’re neurodivergent, or disabled, you may have additional expenses for things that other people will claim are “frivolous.”

Screw those people; you know yourself and your needs better.

My kingdom for an intersectional finance guide. Alas; I don’t have a kingdom, and maybe that is why we don’t have an intersectional finance guide.

With those caveats aside, here is shysweetthing’s not-so-short guide for people whose income is greater than their necessary spending.

0. The Entire Point of Having Enough Money Not To Worry About Money is to Not Worry About Money.

It has taken me decades to get to the point where the above tautology is my guiding financial philosophy, but here we are. It may not work for you, in which case this entire guide will be useless to you, and that’s fine, because we’re all different people.

But the way I see things, the entire point of having enough money is not to be able to acquire things of varying levels of fanciness. Owning super-fancy things adds worry to your life. From observation of others, and from flirtations with lower-cost variants, the vacation home and the yacht are fun for approximately the first twenty-two hours of ownership. After that, it’s nothing but “oh shit the mooring fees” and “whoa, the property taxes” and “arg, the last tenants who rented our vacation home apparently threw an axe through the window while drunk, so there’s that.”

This is true for things that are smaller than vacation homes and yachts–cars, for instance, or clothing that is in style, or the latest and greatest computer gear.

It is possible to worry about money at any level of income, and that is because it is possible for anyone to spend all their income, even if the amount of income is utterly ridiculous.

That is why income is not the measure of financial security.

The more things you spend money on, the more money you require yourself to make in order to have things. I know people who are locked into 80-hour a week jobs by their spending habits. Those people are financially insecure, and will be their entire lives despite making a crapload of money.

I am not trying to say, NO NO DO NOT HAVE THINGS. I am trying to say, CHOOSE YOUR THINGS WISELY. Is this thing making you happier than having to spend time acquiring money to keep the thing? Then yay, keep the thing! Do you just have the thing because other people think you should have the thing, and it does not bring you joy? Boo, get rid of the thing.

Do you think the thing will make you happy, and is it easy to get rid of? Okay, maybe try the thing out and see how you like it! Is the thing going to follow you around like a millstone forever and ever? Maybe strongly consider whether the thing is really something you want. Do you think you need the thing, but are not sure? Try not using the thing for a week, and see if you can make do without the alternatives. Sometimes you can. Sometimes the alternatives make you happy. Sometimes the alternatives suck balls and you really do need the thing.

You can have fewer worries about money or you can have more things. It’s your pick. (And it literally is your pick–you should pick the thing that makes you happiest.)

I do like some things (she says writing this on her iPad, looking at her Yuuri nendoroid) but as a general rule I have vastly fewer things than most other people of a corresponding income level.

1. Spend less than you make.

For many, many people, including myself, it is human nature to spend what you have. If you have ten dollars in your pocket, you are likely to spend $10. This is a common, but not a universal, practice. It is particularly likely to be true for those who came of age not having enough money. People can preach the value of “saving” all they want, but if you didn’t have enough money growing up/in college/at a time when you were forming your habits around money, you very likely were not able to save for anything in the long term.

In my formative financial years, I had very little money, and (eventually) became very skilled at spending the exact amount of money I had. This was a great skill to have when I was juggling way more bills than income, but as I aged and started to bring in more, spending everything I had became less of a skill and more of a liability.

There are dozens of people who will write yelling screeds about how this is irresponsible blah blah blah blah blah and doing so makes you a terrible person who will likely eat avocado toast all your life and never own a home.

I have found that yelling at myself is not an effective method of getting me to do the right thing. In fact, I have never met a person who does things well because someone yelled at them, even if that “someone” is themselves.

This is the really, really simple solution that modern banking has opened up for me.

1. I have a savings account where all my income goes. I do not have checks to this savings account. I do not have a debit card. I have no way to directly spend this money. It’s just a savings account.

2. At an entirely separate bank, I have a checking account that I can spend money from.

3. I have set up an automatic transfer that puts exactly the amount of money I need (plus a set amount of discretionary spending that as of late has been dedicated entirely to YoI goods) in my checking account.

Voila. By reducing the amount of money available to spend into a number that is less than my income, I have converted my ability to spend the exact amount of money available back into a skill instead of a liability.

I treat the amount of the automatic transfer as a work in progress. If I’m regularly running out of money before the month is out, I’m either spending too much or paying myself too little, and I can examine how that works out. Mostly, instead of fighting my natural inclination, I’m working with it.

This was caveat #2 above, but it bears repeating: If you are not making enough money to meet your needs in the first place, you aren’t going to be able to save money, which is why all those avocado toast articles need to die in a fire.

This advice applies only to people who know they’re spending more than they need to, not to people who wish that they could magically have fewer needs.

2. Debt is evil.

Some people will tell you otherwise. They will say that there is such a thing as “good” debt, or that credit card debt is okay if you pay it off every month.

I have come to disagree vehemently. Student loan debt is evil. Mortgage debt is evil. Credit card debt is evil.

Evil is sometimes necessary, because we live in an evil world that gives most people very few choices, but do not fool yourself into thinking that these kinds of debt are good. They are not.

Minimize student loan debt (I wish I could tell my former self that). You might think now that there’s very little difference between paying back $125,000 and $135,000 but trust me, you will not think that when you are paying it back. (You might think now that IBR will save you, but…I wouldn’t count on it.)

Minimize mortgage debt. People have been told repeatedly that mortgage debt is good debt so they buy a house that is bigger than they need, which ends up sucking their income dry. This is very bad. Banks will loan you just enough money so that you can pay your mortgage and not save a dime. Do not use all the money they are willing to give you. (Also, the mortgage income deduction is below the line so it’s rarely as huge a tax savings as you think–THE MORTGAGE INCOME DEDUCTION BENEFITS THE WEALTHY AND DOES NOTHING FOR MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES, la la la, this helpful bit of tax propaganda paid for this post.)

People say that credit cards are okay so long as you pay them off every month, but the problem is that you then end up buying things you otherwise would not buy with cash. Credit cards are fine as long as they don’t expand your spending. The problem is that they often do–even if you’re paying everything off with every cycle, your internal analysis changes from, “Would I buy this with the cash in my account” to “Can I cover my credit card bill with my next paycheck?” You spend more when your thinking is the latter.

Debt allows people to make purchases they would otherwise not be able to make, but that is a blessing and a curse–it enables people to make purchases they would not otherwise be able to make.

Since I’m afflicted with curse/skill/liability #1 above, debt skews my spending habits. If my available money includes credit card debts, whooooops.

I went through a period where I had to put myself on a complete moratorium on credit cards–I cut up literally all of them–and use only my debit card. At the time I did this, I was paying off my credit card every cycle, just like you’re supposed to. Getting rid of credit cards allowed me to start saving.

At this point, I do use credit cards–renting a car, or getting a hotel room, is a pain in the ass on a debit card–but I use the following rules to keep myself in line:

a. Every time I use them, I go online and make a payment for the amount spent. Yes, before the period is over. This means it’s a lot closer to paying cash.

b. I have a separate credit card that I use for groceries only, to make it easier for me to track food expenses. I set aside the money for a food budget in a separate savings account at the beginning of the month and then net it out at the end of the month.

Debt is evil; try to minimize debt, and if you do use debt, try to minimize its evilness.

I strongly recommend “Your Money or your Life” https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052MD8VO/ for a lot more on this and other things.

I do not recommend Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover https://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial-ebook/dp/B00DNBE8P6/ because it is unnecessarily fat-shamey (and for no good reason! why! this is a book about finances and WHY THE FUCK are you making weight analogies, that is just not a relevant consideration! fuck off with your fat shaming!) with a side-dose of evangelical conservatism, but I will say that reading that book helped me make the single greatest financial change in my life, and one that eventually brought me from feeling like I would never, ever get ahead with money to feeling financially secure.

I didn’t follow Ramsey’s advice exactly–in particular, I think that my particular brand of neurodivergence meant I had to consciously deviate for spoon conservation in many ways–but I did make significant changes to my lifestyle because of it.

3. Spend radically less than other people, and particularly on the big-ticket items.

I’m sure there are people who can write great posts about how to hustle for money but I am not that person.

But I know some money hustlers and honestly, being really good at hustling for money usually means you spend a lot of time worrying about money. This is Not For Me (see item #0 above).

A lot of people I went to school with got Really Fancy Jobs and have made more money than me literally every year of our respective working lives. I still magically have more money than they do because I don’t spend as much. This is largely because I developed, at a very young age, the ability to not give a fuck about what other people thought of me. (A separate story.)

The entirety of our current society is set up to convince you to spend more than what you make, and so resisting the urge to do so will have you swimming against the stream on multiple occasions. People will try to shame you for where you live, what car you drive, what clothes you wear… pretty much, if you can spend money on it, people will try to shame you for it.

But never fear, no matter how much you spend, people will shame you in some way for not spending more money on other things. Since you’re going to experience shame no matter what you do, why not experience shame and also keep your money?

From personal experience, I have found that when my choices are to: (a) Live somewhere nice that strains my budget; or (b) Live in a shithole that makes my budget happy, I have overwhelmingly been happier with option (b) every time. (I personally have some very weird money Issues, though, and I stress about money very, very easily, so your mileage on this may vary–I can withstand approximately zero money stress before I break like wet toilet paper in a hurricane.) I nonetheless offer you these brilliant gems of wisdom as to how best not spend money:

1. Consider not spending all of your available income on housing.

2. Drive the shittiest car that you can get away with driving, if you drive a car at all.

3. Give as few shits about your clothing as you possibly can.

(Do not skip spending money on: Health Insurance.)

Fuck all that “clip coupons” blah blah blah blah blah or “buy things on sale.”

If you spend half as much on the above items as your peers, and if you are solidly middle class, you will have so much disposable cash to save that it’s not even funny. You won’t need to sweat the small stuff as much. Constantly needing to sweat the small stuff vastly increases your worry load in disproportion to the amount of money spent.

Eat the shame on the big stuff–you get used to it–and then get used to not having to worry about the other stuff.

Along the lines of learning to radically reduce spending, with the caution that this is SO COMPLETELY OMG not intersectional (“Everyone can ride a bike to work!” *looks at camera*), I give you the link to Mr. Money Mustache: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com

Some of the things MMM talks about will be impractical or impossible for some people. Some will not. Some of them will be things you do not want to do, and that is fine, too.

I think studies on happiness show that spending radically less than commercials think you should spend is a course of action that makes most people happier. You may be one of them, so you should try it, because happiness is nice.

For most people, additional income beyond the necessities gives very, very little happiness bonuses. Why? Because people generally throw money away on big-ticket items that do not measurably improve their happiness.Most people will be happier working less and having crappier housing, cars, and clothing, then they would be working more and having the nicest versions of everything.

(Caveat: You can spend too little on clothing, too, and that’s a special trap–buying cheap-ass stuff that wears out too quickly.)

4. Keep a strong emergency fund.

People tend to make bad decisions when under stress. Having an emergency fund tends to reduce the amount of stress you’re under so you’re less likely to make bad decisions.

The suggestion I see a lot is to have an emergency fund that is 3 months of living expenses and while this would be great, I think a lot of people calculate the size of that, realize that such a thing is totally out of reach, and then don’t bother to have anything at all.

An emergency fund is just that–for emergencies. A new Yuri on Ice DVD is not an emergency. Someone offering you a car that you don’t technically need is not an emergency.

You should shoot for a minimum of $1000. If it takes you a year to save for that, great. Once you have that in place, give yourself a breather, then target slightly higher–$1500. Give yourself a breather. Then target slightly higher. Repeat.

If you’re paying off significant non-mortgage debt, I don’t advocate keeping much more than $2000 or $3000. After you’ve paid off your debt, then definitely start saving your 3-6 months of living expenses. But don’t worry about it before then.

5. Pay other people as little as possible to manage your savings.

There are some financial geniuses who are so good at investing that they can beat the market. These people are very rare. Most people, including financial professionals, do not beat the market. In fact, some classes of financial advisors do not have to disclose conflicts of interest to you in advising you to purchase them. You’ll end up paying several percentage points in interest, or forgoing the best market rates, for most options offered to you by others.

Your best bet as a private individual is to dump your long-term savings into index funds. You can diversify your asset classes by purchasing a variety of diversified index funds that have no to low loads.

If you (a) are making more than you need, and (b) follow the above advice, you will start piling up cash that you do not need in the immediate future. Odds on best choice is to just dump it into an S&P index fund of some kind and ignore it until you’re ready to retire.

Remember: The entire point of having enough money to not have to worry about money is to not worry about money. If all you do with your extra money is worry about it, what are you doing?

6. Fuck all this advice and do financially irresponsible things sometimes.

Just what it says on the tin. If you’re doing most things right most of the time, you’re allowed to occasionally do stuff because it’s a great experience. The point of having enough money to not have to worry about money is to not worry about money.

#money stuff #really it's all just money stuff #money stuff and swearing

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ecofinisher · 4 years

Text

Abominable 2.0 - Chap 17

Chapter 17

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22006036/chapters/54246052

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13463708/17/Abominable-2-The-Fanfic-Sequel

https://www.wattpad.com/838435096-abominable-2-0-chapter-17

Dave managed to organize for him and Peng a one-stop flight with the destination Sichuan and their goal location Kathmandu, which is in Nepal, where they’re then closer to the Himalayas.

Dave sat with Peng together in the terminal waiting for the boarding call of the receptionist of their gate.

“I barely have had any sleep last night” Peng complained as he yawned out of tiredness while Dave sat next to the boy staring holes in the air and drinking a cup of hot coffee.

“I know how you feel” Dave agreed taking a sip from the drink. “But this flight at 6:15 was the shortest one we could get. And it wasn’t cheap”

“Well, I’ll be hopefully sleeping the whole flight,”

“If you don’t, there are still movies or series airing during the flight to entertain you”

“Finally, the train rides were so boring. If I knew it would have been that boring I would have brought my portable console, my board games, card games, everything just to make the trip pass quicker”

“Just pray for good entertainment in the plane” Dave commented. “Otherwise stretch your legs and walk a few lines back and forth in the plane to keep your legs well”

“One thing I’ve got to admit Dave. I’ve never been so sick of sitting the whole time, than these last few days” Peng ranted earning a nod from the raven-haired man.

“Before we’re called for boarding, why don’t we go take a look at the plane, we’re going to board in soon?” The adult questioned the boy, which looked at the door of the gate and on both side tall windows were. On the right side, the gate corridor blocked the sight to the plane and on the other side, there was a free space, where they had a great view of the field of the airport. Peng got up from the seat, then walked at the large window and looked out at the airfield to see a few small jets parked far in front of the ground of the airfield. Peng leaned his face against the window to look at the plane, that stood on his side. He could see a part of the gate attached to the front door of the airplane and from behind the gate on the plane up to the tail it had a long horizontal red line, which got wider and the tail of it was fully red and had the symbol of the company of their first destination. Over the line, the airline name was tagged on it, including its Chinese variant. Another boy near Peng’s age approached the window to stare in awe at the sight of the plane he saw.

“Dad, dad, is that our plane?” The boy asked jumping up and down, then the father, which resembled an older version of the boy appeared and gazed at the airbus on the outside.

“Yeah, that’s our plane,” The father answered placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder. Peng smiled and walked back at Dave, which had just finished his coffee and squashed the cup.

“Our airplane is really big” Peng mentioned earning a nod from Dave.

“Hmm must be your impression. For the people, that are standing here to board I don’t think we’ll need a big one”

“Well I thought it was a big one” “Well from the outside most of them look the same, if you want me to be honest. If you want, I can show you which magazine, that you find in all seats have a list of airplanes of this company and we can from there figure out how tall ours is”

“Awesome”

“Ladies and Gentleman, Flight SA146 with the destination Chengdu is now open for boarding. Please hold your boarding cards and passports or ID’s ready. Thank you”

“So keep your ID ready, I’ll be taking out your boarding card,” Dave said taking from the pocket of the back of his trousers two folded boarding cards, then handed the boy out one of the cards, which was tagged with Peng’s name.

“You just have to pass the code over the scanner and hand your ID and the boarding pass to one of the staff members, which will control like the securities before your identity”

“Okay” The child responded walking together with the man to a line, that started to queue behind the gate, that had been opened and the two staff men, that stood behind the gate started to let the first passengers pass through the turnstile with the help of their boarding cards codes.

Jin and Yi were on the other side of the city together in a gas station passing by the shelf with various snack bags on it and other types of food, that can be stored dry.

“Hey what about these butter cookies with chocolate chips?” Jin asked looking at the package. “They sure sound delicious,” Jin said looking to Yi, which had took out from the shelf a small bag with a variety of nuts in it.

“Hmm take two” Yi mentioned earning a nod from Jin, which took a second pack down and passed beside Yi to look on her side.

“I know this sounds a little weird, but I kind of enjoyed sleeping on your belly last night” Jin mentioned looking at Yi. “I thought that….you should know it. You did offer it to me after all,”

“It’s alright Jin, it was my pleasure” Yi answered a little abashed from the boy’s attention on her. “It also was very kind of you to sleep on the floor too, so that I wouldn’t be there alone and you on the bed”

“I did so because I would feel a bit bad if I had to,” Jin said passing his hand behind his neck. “I know you told me it didn’t matter for you, but….I just couldn’t”

“It’s alright” Yi answered with a smile, which Jin copied but a little lovelier. Yi passed beside Jin walking to the drinking section, where various sizes and types of drinks were sorted in the refrigerators. Jin sank his head down a little disappointed at Yi having moved further, then Jin crossed the corridor back passing by the car utensils and looked at the scent trees for the cars and saw a light blue one entitled with Aftershave.

“There really is one for aftershave?” Jin questioned himself while chuckling. “I’ve seen it all”

Jin walked up to the pastry corner to a coffee machine, then picked out a middle-sized paper cup and placed it in on a dark red circle, which is the point, where he has to place his cup for the machine to be able to fill correctly. He pressed on the green button on the display and pressed on the milk coffee option to start the process.

Yi had picked up two large water bottles and placed them into the shopping basket and walked further to see Jin watch the cup being filled. Jin turned around while having his arms crossed, then he smiled at Yi, which smiled back at him, afterward, Jin turned around to take his cup away as it was finished.

Yi held her hand in front of her forehead sighing low.

“How is this possible after all this time?” Yi mumbled to herself, then a man with gray trousers and a similar shirt to Jin’s passed by the girl walking to the coffee machine taking a large coffee cup and let the machine fill his cup too with coffee.

“Nice shirt” Jin complimented earning a smile from the man, then the boy walked towards Yi, then he gazed into the basket with the nutriments they had chosen to buy. “Do you want to let out a coffee or tea?” Jin offered Yi, who shook her head.

“I’m fine, thank you” Yi answered watching along with Jin the man taking the coffee out, then the receptionist of the gas station passed by the man and gave the man with the shirt a handshake.

“Hey Wang, I haven’t seen you since last month, where have you been?” The staff asked the man.

“Vacation, but now I’m back in business and need to deliver a few cars down to Hotan” The man with the plaid shirt explained. “It will be only seven hours If I go before midday,”

“Great did you already have your lunch or do you want to buy here anything?”

“One salad would be not bad” The man answered. “I’ve managed to get the mini-fridge fixed in my truck”

“That’s great, I’ll show you some salads, that are new in our store,” The man said walking to the refrigerators along with the trucker.

Yi went to the cashier, then waited for the man to get back. Jin appeared with a pack with baby wet tissues and put it into the basket, Yi was carrying and the girl furrowed her eyebrows confused about it.

“For what do you need them?” Yi asked.

“In case we get dirty and we don’t have water to wash our hands” Jin answered.

“Oh, nice thinking Jin” Yi agreed placing the basket on a sill in front of then took the wet tissues pack out along with the cookies, followed by Jin placing his coffee on it, followed by the mixed nuts and the water bottles. “Oh thank you”

“No problem” Jin said watching Yi store the basket on the ground on top of a cart, that is specified to collect the shopping baskets. Jin looked around and spotted on the side three rows with different cloth bags with a zip on it and Jin picked the middle one and placed it on the desk in front of Yi.

“My mom uses them at shopping, when she walks from the store instead,”

“Yes for the water bottles they’re better…..and hey maybe we could take a third water bottle….you know, just in case” Yi mentioned earning a nod from the raven-haired boy.

“I can get it, if you want to?” The boy offered the girl earning a nod from the girl, then he ran off to the refrigerator.

The trucker appeared standing behind the girl with only a large red water bottle and two small packs with pasta salad followed by the staff walk to the other side of the cash register. Yi noticed the man only had two articles and shoved hers to the side.

“Sir you can go first, I have to wait for my friend to bring something” Yi offered watching the man nod.

“Thanks, that was not necessary” The man thanked handing his bottle out to the man and the salad. “Oh, and I used gas pump 4” The man mentioned earning a nod from the man.

“That will be 1393,33 Yuan” The man asked and he handed out his bank card and introduced it into the card reader to pay. “You think one water bottle will be enough until you’re in Hotan?”

“I’ve got another one, don’t worry” The trucker commented, then Yi looked up at the TV screen above the cash register local and saw on the third corner of the surveillance camera a large flat nose truck standing with a car on top of the vehicle’s roof. Yi watched over the window of the gas station to see the large trailer carrying a few cars, which gave Yi an idea.

“Have a nice trip” The staff wished, then started to scan the articles of Yi, while Yi collected them into the bag Jin handed her out moments before. Jin appeared with two water bottles and placed them on the counter and ran back again, leaving Yi questioningly back.

“Where are you going Jin?” Yi barked then saw Jin come back with three rolled-up blankets two red and the third one in yellow and he added them to Yi’s list and added a second bag on it. “Why are you taking them?”

“I can take one of them free if I pay for the first two” Jin explained. “They’re so fluffy”

“Alright, help me pack. I found us a ride to catch” Yi mentioned watching Jin help her.

“That will be 374,33 Yuan” The cashier announced, then Yi took out from her wallet, she had on the back of her pants and took out a few green bills and a red one and handed it out to the man, which afterward gave her a bill and a couple of coins as the exchange. “25.67 you get back, Have a lovely day”

“Thanks," Yi said letting everything fall into the pocket for the cash, then she placed it back taking the bags, then she ran off, followed by Jin.

“Hey wait!” Jin exclaimed, then got thrown on his arms one of the bags. “Where are you going?”

“You see that trailer with the many cars on it?” Yi asked looking along with Jin at the two-leveled trailer with various vehicles fastened on it. “That’s our ride to Hotan”

“What?!? Are you crazy?” Jin hissed at Yi’s idea unpleased about the idea.

“We take the ladder there behind the entrance to the cabin” Yi pointed to the end of the trailer, that was attached to the truck, making Jin gulp. Yi reached along with the boy the ladder, then the put the bag over her shoulder and climbed the ladder up to the top, while Jin looked around for any witnesses, afterward he saw Yi on the top leaning with her back against the car moving to the back of it and hide in front of it. “Get up Jin” Yi ordered the boy, which swallowed hard and climbed up at Yi, then he threw the bag at Yi and Yi reached her hand to the boy to help him up and to hide behind the onyx-colored sedan.

“See, it wasn’t that bad” Yi commented earning a nod from Jin, then she stepped on an open gap from the trailer nearly falling off the truck, but Jin pulled her back at him, which bumped into his chest. “Whoa!” Yi cried, but then sighed in relief as Jin helped her. “Thanks Jin” Yi thanked embracing him for short.

“I knew it was dangerous” The boy joked, then Yi placed her hand in front of his chest shoving him back shrieking the boy. “No, no, no, no, no!” Jin cried, then Yi grabbed him on the lapels of his shirt watching him in fright with his eyes closed, then he opened his left eye and groaned at Yi’s deed. “Yi...”

“You didn’t think I would do that, didn’t you?”

“Sorry I panicked” Jin wailed watching the girl shake her head playfully.

“Okay, we’ve got here a good space to sit, the bad part is just this gap here”

“A metal board or a wood board to cover it would be helpful, but we don’t have one” Jin mentioned sitting on the side of it while Yi sat vice versa to the friend. “My hair is starting to look like that time I ran all over the forest to look for you and Peng,” Jin mentioned trying to adjust his hairstyle by looking at his reflection on the car bumper.

“Why don’t you let your hair like it is and avoid using hair gel?” Yi asked the boy.

“I don’t know, after joining school I had to keep my hair up and I started to use the gel again” Jin explained. “Why are you asking?” “I had just remembered it” Yi answered. “You still look great in both ways thought” Yi commented making the boy smile.

“Out of the two styles, which do you like to see more on me? With gelled hair or natural?”

“Well it’s funny to admit, but for me you turn out really handsome if you keep your hair like that”

“You mean without the gel?” Asked the Chinese boy earning a nod from the girl. “Thanks”

“Mostly I adore it, when your hair strands look over your eyebrow like this” Yi explained helping Jin with his hair putting it slightly over his eyebrow and Jin looked at the reflection again, then smiled angelically. Yi crossed her arms over her shoulders gazing at her childhood friend, then she felt the trailer shake a little as the trucker had turned on the engine of the truck.

“We’re going to be what…..seven hours on this?” Jin asked watching Yi shrug her shoulders.

“That’s what I heard before” Yi answered watching Jin take out one of the blankets and remove the band from it.

“I think it was a good idea from me to buy these. I think the ride is going to be a little windy for us” Jin said giving the girl the red-colored blanket, therefore he took one out for him and repeated the same task he did on the previous blanket.

“I hope I won’t get sick from the ride. We don’t really have the nicest view” Mentioned the Chinese girl, making Jin chuckle.

“Well I’ve got a nice view here at a pretty girl” Jin jested with a wink, making Yi smile bashfully and look away from the boy. Jin leaned back on the cooler of the car behind him to observe the truck leave carefully the gas station entering the road heading to the national highway.

#ecofinisher #ecofinisherfanfics #Wattpad #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #archieve of our own #Abominable #Abominável #abominable jin #abominable yi #abominable peng #fic update #fanfic update #updated

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reyeseleanor · 6 years

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Where does our money go? : Real-Life Expenditures

As they say, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Oftentimes, we fail to notice where our money goes. For most of us, money is tiresome to handle. There are a lot of tips and strategies that are very useful in money-handling. One of the many is the 70-20-10 Rule. Another is the saying, ‘Save first before you spend.’ Realistically, we spend money we earn to buy things we want and, of course, we need. We work every day, we ran errands for the household and we go out with our loved ones when we find time. These are endeavors that come about to be a monthly cycle – as we move, we spend.

When we ask ourselves how much our spending is, we usually list a few bills and other expenses off the top of our heads, instinctively, on a paper, or on a spreadsheet. As we start going through our bank and credit cards bills, much more counting cash left on-hand, we almost are surprised to see where our money is really going. Consequently, we adjust.

Here are 5 designations of expenditures that may scrupulously brace our numerous sheets of disbursements:

Acquisitions

As we go up our career ladders, we reach an actualization that we need to enjoy our money. We would tag ourselves cheap if we have yet experienced the life’s frills. We buy a house and make it a home. We buy a car and ride in it through the daily rush. We go on trips to lay away from the hastiness and fusses of the city. We modestly spend on gadgets, bags, shoes, clothes and eat-outs to lace ourselves on random simple joys.

Although we are deserving of all these, we are hung up by our biggest financial worry which is to ensure the maintenance of a comfortable lifestyle. Thus, we sow more and we store reaps even more .

Maintenance

As we purchase small and big acquisitions, we are liable to our possessions’ damages. In order to extend the use of these purchases, we also pay out on their maintenance. A possession of a car requires at least 20, 000 – 30, 000 Philippine peso (482 – 579 USD) yearly; house maintenance costs more than 100, 000 Philippine peso (more than 1927 USD) every 5-10 years. Varying amounts on travel and shopping that range from 15, 000 – 150, 000 Philippine peso (290-2886 USD) per person, locally and internationally, are required.

Health and wellness are also part of life’s maintenance. We, ourselves, sometimes get damaged too, hence, we keep money for emergency or we spend on insurances that cost us 30, 000 – 500, 000 Philippine peso (964 – 9635 USD) a year, not mentioning our medicines/ supplements.

Consumer Goods/ Necessities

Supermarket doors automatically open for us, we shop, then, we open our purses to pay. We consume food and water every day. Food and water are not bought at once. We buy bulk supplies of food for breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner. In addition to food and water, we spend on supplies of toiletries and household cleaning tools to uphold hygiene. We purchase these goods to get us by our daily consumption. We spend on these necessities usually every month. As they say: “The grocery store is the great Saturday-special where mankind comes to grips with the facts of life like toilet tissue [and food].”

Bills/ Fees/Overheads

Generally, it has not been all smooth and liberating to make ends meet. We obtain a lot of responsibilities in maintaining a comfortable lifestyle. Besides food and hygiene, we uphold comfort from consumption of energy, communication, education and the likes. We are scheduled monthly to compensate for the provisions of privileges that we devoured. We do not get semester breaks nor do we get summers off from these expenditures.

Miscellaneous/ Extraneous

These are undetectable purchases and expenses that cost 300php (6 USD) and below.

In totality, money is a source of human satisfaction. Thus, it affects our behaviour. Depending on what we do with it: earn, spend or save, we intuitively recognize its value and its complexities of its theories, functions and significance to our lives.

Links of References:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/09/20/wall-st-cheat-sheet-money-problems/15832929/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/financialfinesse/2012/08/29/10-common-money-management-mistakes-that-youre-probably-making/#5a2636d318ed

https://mises.org/library/theory-money

https://www.moneycrashers.com/psychology-of-money-saving-spending-habits/

http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/macro-economics/monetary-theories/changes-in-the-value-of-money-the-quantity-theory-of-money-and-its-variants/31087

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hisu-annn-blog · 7 years

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Poverty

Poverty is the scarcity or the lack of a certain (variant) amount of material possessions or money. Poverty is a multifaceted concept, which may include social, economic, and politicalelements. Absolute poverty, extreme poverty, or destitution refers to the complete lack of the means necessary to meet basic personal needs such as food, clothing and shelter. The threshold at which absolute poverty is defined is considered to be about the same, independent of the person's permanent location or era. On the other hand, relative povertyoccurs when a person who lives in a given country does not enjoy a certain minimum level of "living standards" as compared to the rest of the population of that country. Therefore, the threshold at which relative poverty is defined varies from country to another, or from one society to another. After the industrial revolution, mass production in factories made producing goods increasingly less expensive and more accessible. Of more importance is the modernization of agriculture, such as fertilizers, to provide enough yield to feed the population. Providing basic needs can be restricted by constraints on government's ability to deliver services, such as corruption, tax avoidance, debt and loan conditionalities and by the brain drain of health care and educational professionals. Strategies of increasing income to make basic needs more affordable typically include welfare, economic freedoms and providing financial services. Poverty reduction is still a major issue (or a target) for many international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank.

The World Bank forecasts that 702.1 million people, down from 1.75 billion in 1990 Of these, about 347.1 million people lived in Sub-Saharan Africa (35.2% of the population) and 231.3 million lived in South Asia (13.5% of the population). According to the World Bank, between 1990 and 2015, the percentage of the world's population living in extreme poverty fell from 37.1% to 9.6%, falling below 10% for the first time. Nevertheless, given the current economic model, built on GDP, it would take 100 years to bring the world's poorest up to the previous poverty line of $1.25 a day. Extreme poverty is a global challenge; it is observed in all parts of the world, including developed economies. UNICEF estimates half the world's children (or 1.1 billion) live in poverty. It has been argued by some academics that the neoliberal policies promoted by global financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank are actually exacerbating both inequality and poverty Another estimate places the true scale of poverty much higher than the World Bank, with an estimated 4.3 billion people (59 percent of the world's population) living with less than $5 a day and unable to meet basic needs adequately In 2012 it is estimated that, given a poverty line of $1.25 a day 1.2 billion people lived in poverty.

Poverty is the scarcity or the lack of a certain (variant) amount of material possessions or money. The word poverty comes from old French poverté (Modern French: pauvreté), from Latin paupertas from pauper (poor). The English word "poverty" via Anglo-Norman povert. There are several definitions of poverty depending on the context of the situation it is placed in, and the views of the person giving the definition.

United Nations: Fundamentally, poverty is the inability of having choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one's food or a job to earn one's living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation. World Bank: Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one's life. Poverty is usually measured as either absolute or relative (the latter being actually an index of income inequality). In the United Kingdom, the second Cameron ministry came under attack for their redefinition of poverty; poverty is no longer classified by a family's income, but as to whether a family is in work or not Considering that two-thirds of people who found work were accepting wages that are below the living wage (according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) this has been criticised by anti-poverty campaigners as an unrealistic view of poverty in the United Kingdom.

Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. First introduced in 1990, the dollar a day poverty line measured absolute poverty by the standards of the world's poorest countries. The World Bank defined the new international poverty line as $1.25 a day in 2008 for 2005 (equivalent to $1.00 a day in 1996 US prices). In October 2015, they reset it to $1.90 a day. Absolute poverty, extreme poverty, or abject poverty is "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services." The term 'absolute poverty', when used in this fashion, is usually synonymous with 'extreme poverty': Robert McNamara, the former president of the World Bank, described absolute or extreme poverty as, "a condition so limited by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency.” Australia is one of the world's wealthier nations. In his article published in Australian Policy Online, Robert Tanton notes that, "While this amount is appropriate for third world countries, in Australia, the amount required to meet these basic needs will naturally be much higher because prices of these basic necessities are higher." However, as the amount of wealth required for survival is not the same in all places and time periods, particularly in highly developed countries where few people would fall below the World Bank Group's poverty lines, countries often develop their own national poverty lines. An absolute poverty line was calculated in Australia for the Henderson poverty inquiry in 1973. It was $62.70 a week, which was the disposable income required to support the basic needs of a family of two adults and two dependent children at the time. This poverty line has been updated regularly by the Melbourne Institute according to increases in average incomes; for a single employed person it was $391.85 per week (including housing costs) in March 2009. In Australia the OECD poverty would equate to a "disposable income of less than $358 per week for a single adult (higher for larger households to take account of their greater costs). in 2015 Australia implemented the Individual Deprivation Measure which address gender disparities in poverty

The poverty line threshold of $1.90 per day, as set by the World Bank, is controversial. Each nation has its own threshold for absolute poverty line; in the United States, for example, the absolute poverty line was US$15.15 per day in 2010 (US$22,000 per year for a family of four), while in India it was US$1.0 per day and in China the absolute poverty line was US$0.55 per day, each on PPP basis in 2010. These different poverty lines make data comparison between each nation's official reports qualitatively difficult. Some scholars argue that the World Bank method sets the bar too high, others argue it is low. Still others suggest that poverty line misleads as it measures everyone below the poverty line the same, when in reality someone living on $1.20 per day is in a different state of poverty than someone living on $0.20 per day. In other words, the depth and intensity of poverty varies across the world and in any regional populations, and $1.25 per day poverty line and head counts are inadequate measures

#poverty

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