[!!!] Please watch Lee Jung Hee and her sons video (in English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjOEi1Et30

Conversation between the mother and the police (in Korean): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHBd38I6qsk and a few more in their channel.

[!!!] How you can help them: http://helpleejunghee.weebly.com/how-you-can-help.html

Petitions: https://secure.avaaz.org/kr/petition/baggeunhye_daetongryeongnim_mic_jeon_segye_ingweon_dance_eomeoniwa_adeuleul_agyi_soguleseo_guhaejuseyo/?cWGYxjb  (you can find the instruction to sign the petition in their youtube video comments)  AND  https://www.change.org/p/south-korean-government-bring-to-justice-the-sexual-offenders-of-lee-jung-hee-and-her-sons-maximum-prison-time-for-all-sexual-domestic-abuse-and-rape-charges?lang=en-US  AND  https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/help-young-victimsamerican-citizens-sex-abuse-and-their-mother-south-korea

For full information here (including the posts wrote by the mother and sons): http://helpleejunghee.weebly.com/

Updates on this case: http://netizenbuzz.blogspot.com/2015/06/police-investigations-launched-into-lee.html

Please help share the awareness! Please help the mother and sons reveal the truth.

Please don’t let this story die! Thank you everyone who spread the word!

Reminders to myself (and any other artsy people who follow me i guess)

-You don’t get better at drawing by avoiding drawing until you are better at drawing.

- You don’t have to make a new masterpiece every day it’s okay if all you drew is a doodle of a bug. You are now +1 bug doodle better at doodling bugs. 

- Also it’s okay if the thing you drew didn’t turn out very good. Everything you draw makes you one step closer to being able to draw good. You are still +1 step better at drawing whatever you drew no take backsies.

- You are the only person who knows if your art didn’t turn out as good as you wanted it to. You are the only person who can see the things in your art that weren’t what you imagined in your head. No one else will know unless you tell them.

- Comparing yourself to other artists just isn’t fair. You get to see all of your art, the best stuff and the worst stuff. You usually only get to see the best stuff other artists make. You don’t get to see that half drawn badly propotioned face they drew at 2 am and immediately scrapped. So don’t compare your badly drawn 2 am face to their best work.

- Just keep making art. The only way you can really fail is if you give up. 

video

Can we just talk about how useful this is but also how happy that dog is to be teaching us something. Look at that tail wag. Thank you puppy. 

This dog is a not just any dog - it’s a Belgian Malinois. They are often used as guard and attack dogs because they have EXTREMELY high drive, an exceptional work ethic, and are widely considered the best working dogs for military and police forces. The pup above is well-trained and yes - he absolutely LOVES his job. 

Bringing this back because this could come in handy if a police officer wrongfully sets their dogs on someone.

Okay, so source time, because it’s important and can help.

This is video was made by the AKBAN Ninjutsu Academy.

They’re the biggest source of knowledge online for martial arts, and they’ve documented thousands of techniques in videos. Besides traditional techniques There’s also documentation of a lot of useful stuff, such as - knife self defence, working against multiple opponents, and a lot more!

Besides that, the founder of the academy, Yossi Sheriff, is also leading Detant, which is a consulting body that helps Solving confrontations emphatically using the minimal amount of force. 

They’re actually working with security organisations in order to help them resolve conflicts peacefully! How amazing is that?

I hope the knowledge here might be useful to people. Oh and by the way, the dog’s name is Simba and he’s adorable!

here’s the deal with self care, for me:

pleasure, in the fun late-capitalism hellhole of present-day america, is treated like a luxury.  it’s expensive.  it’s frivolous.  it’s guilty.  if we want to eat ice cream out of the carton and be socially acceptable at the same time, we’d better have earned that ice cream.  maybe by like running a marathon or getting dumped by an asshole.  if we’re going to duck into the corner store and buy fresh flowers, it’s because we’ve had a hard week, not because flowers are nice.  we can take a day off work, but only if we’re sick.  we have to suffer before we’re allowed extra kindness.

in this equation pleasure is optional (irresponsible, even), except when it’s a balm for suffering.

however!  we need pleasure to live.  a life without nice feelings in it is like a diet with no vitamins in it.  it’ll make you sick and eventually it’ll kill you.  we know this because people with depression stop feeling pleasure, and they often kill themselves.  left untreated, depression is a fatal disease.

pleasure is not optional.  pleasure is not a luxury.  without it, we die.  that is literally the opposite of a luxury.

because pleasure is treated like a luxury, and priced accordingly, it is fucking hard to get.  it’s hard to take time to relax and see loved ones when corporations aren’t required to offer paid vacation.  it’s hard to buy that special face scrub or art print or pretty yarn when it costs $35 and student loans are breathing down your neck.  so pleasure gets saved up for when things are really bad.  pleasure gets budgeted.  pleasure, once again, becomes something we have to earn by abstaining and hurting and gritting our teeth.

do this to people long enough and pleasure becomes potently associated with guilt.  this thing we need desperately to stay alive is suddenly something we can’t seek out without looking over our shoulder and wondering if we’re allowed to have it.

that’s why it’s so important that we talk about self care, and tell ourselves and each other that it is okay to do things that feel good.  it is necessary to do things that feel good.  we have to uncouple suffering and pleasure, because the idea that we have to earn feeling good by first feeling bad is monstrous and wrong.

take care of yourselves, darlings.  don’t feel bad about it.

“What Teachers Make” - a poem by Taylor Mali, illustrated by Zen Pencils

Watch Taylor Mali perform it on YouTube

This is one of my favorite poems ever and I had shown a friend the video of Mali performing it, and recently she found this comic of it and shared it with me so I had to share. 

(repost, I fixed it so you can actually read it now, yay!)

Watch Robert Reich explain why we need to raise the minimum wage in two minutes and 30 seconds.

It isn’t complicated, people.

I am adding another note in continuation from this comic. The bird could be someone else but it can also be yourself. These words were never told to me by others, but I don’t feel bad about that. It’s wonderful to have someone next to you who becomes your anchor; however, not having one doesn’t mean anything worse.

It’s hard to allow yourself to feel better, but it’s the more reason to remember yourself as a vigorous fighter. There are ups and downs and things are not always great even with these reminders. The fight has been too long and it’s very tiresome, but I will not give up. There are things in this world that I still cherish. Like friends, cats, and rum raisin ice creams.

You are your own hero. You have been battling for yourself, to keep yourself ongoing. You don’t need others to be a hero. Please don’t be sad.

The black community in Baltimore celebrates the charges in the murder of Freddie Gray

Friday, May 1

Fierce Love Friday :: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” - Assata Shakur Tag this FLYY Queen!

#BlackGirlFly #BlackBoyFly #FierceLoveFriday #BlackLivesMatter #BlackGirlsMatter #BaltimoreUprising #Justice #Baltimore #FreddyGray #NaturalHair #NaturallyShesDope #NaturalHairDoesCare #Natuarlista #AssataShakur #WhoTaughtYouBGF #AssataTaughtMe

Some Tips I Made For Artists

No, seriously, do it. Say it right now, aloud, in front of your computer. “I am a good writer/artist/musician/singer/whatever.” Just admit it to yourself. Because I swear when you do, your work will become better. You’d be amazed at what you can produce when you feel confident in your abilities.

“I’ll never be as good of a writer as Hemmingway/Bronte/Rawling!”, “I’ll never sing like Adele/Florence Welch/Joan Jett!”, “I’ll never paint like Picasso/van Goh/O’Keefe!”, “I’ll never draw like Davis/McCracken/MacFarlane!”, “I’ll never play like Hendrix/King/Cooder!”

No. You won’t. You will never, ever be as good as them. And they will never be as good as you. Every artist is unique. You have your own voice just like they had their own voice. Don’t try to be someone else; be you.

Wrote a shitty poem? Song? Manuscript? Paint something you didn’t like? Drew something wrong? Who. The hell. Cares? At least you DID something! That’s more than most people can say! You finished a piece of work. Be proud of that accomplishment.

This ties in with the previous tip. You’re going to do shitty things. It’s part of being an artist. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself to create something great every time. Strive for it, sure, it SHOULD be your goal. But realize that sometimes you’re just going to do something that sucks, and then get over it and try to do better the next time.

I’m a writer and my best friend is a singer. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve told each other that we wished we had the others’ talent. This is a typical “grass is always greener” thing. Be proud of what you’re good at and enjoy it, because someone out there is wishing they were as good as you, I guarantee it.

And… those abuses are from white people. Maybe you don’t know it because you are used to hurt other people.

Edited: I got messages of grammar editing. Thanks for your message. Also, about the abuses, of course it’s from SOME asshole white people. I know those abuses can be from any race people, but I got those abuses from white people only so far in life. I only say the truth, and that’s the truth.

Notes on Perspective

before today, i hadn’t heard of “rough rides,” and there’s a good chance you haven’t either. basically, a “rough ride” is a horrifying process in which ‘a handcuffed man or woman is put into the back of a police van or paddy wagon, without being buckled in or secured. The vehicle then drives recklessly, making sharp, dangerous turns and sudden movements in ways that throw the passenger violently around the vehicle.’

as of today, we now know that this is exactly what happened to Freddie Gray before he died. 

here’s the evidence: rather than take Freddie Gray the short 2 minute drive from the arrest site to the police station (see left), he was deliberately driven recklessly for over 40 minutes (see right) around Baltimore, handcuffed and in the back of a police van, with no seatbelt, until his spine broke.

the terrifying thing is that this seems to happen a lot. earlier today, two more people came forward to testify that they were put through rough rides at the hands of the Baltimore PD. a 43-year-old man was charged with ‘public urination’ and given a rough ride that resulted in a spine fracture that rendered him quadriplegic for the rest of his life. five years ago, a former Baltimore police officer admitted that rough rides are an “unsanctioned technique” in which police vans are driven to cause “injury or pain” to unbuckled, handcuffed detainees. rough rides are very much a Real Thing.

in case it needs repeating: Baltimore police deliberately drove recklessly with a cuffed, injured Freddie Gray in the back of a van with no belt – a 40 minute ride for a destination 2 minutes away. his spine was severed, and it killed him.

You need to watch this full video.

(Video originally by Benjamin Hancock)

SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT. #BaltimoreUprising