“why do i believe this” and “who benefits from me believing it” are the first steps to decolonization and we should all be doing this more

since this is on my dash again another two steps, a little harder this time

“who do i hurt when i do this?” and “could i look them in the eye, validate and acknowledge that hurt, and then keep doing it anyway?”

feels like a good day for another two.

“whose voice is missing from this story” and then “how do i seek out those voices/how does a story i think i know change when i add new perspectives”

Let’s talk about it

Also remember a lot of people who are poor now were once not poor. When I was struggling financially, I had super nice clothes because my highschool aged self decided to buy a lot of nice clothes, and my late teens poverty stricken self benefited from those previous choices.

Furthermore, sometimes nice looking clothes are very cheap/fast fashion and are just well taken care of by the clothing owner. I have multiple pieces that are several years old and cost me less money than a burger.

Not only this, but people give clothes away all the time. I literally get given a bag of clothes once or twice a year from friends and whatnot.

Having nice clothes doesn’t mean you spent your last hundred dollars on clothes rather than food, it just means that nice clothes are currently in your possession.

And if you did spend your last hundred dollars on clothes, it’s probably a sign that clothes make you feel more human than nutritious food, which is just another symptom of poverty.

there are literally charities that exist solely to ensure people have quality outfits that fit for purposes of wearing to interviews with potential employers, because so many potential employers preemptively refuse to consider hiring someone who looks too poor

Additionally, poorer individuals have always possessed items above their current pay grade, be they heirlooms, crafts, or just something you saved up for so you could treat yourself to a moment of feeling dignified again. Clothes are a huge candidate for that. Don’t take this dignity away from people. How dearly they pay for it is none of your concern.

apparently this is a thing in Japan too, and it gets translated as “Mundane Halloween.” There are loads of photos online and they’re all so good?????

“Person going to work on a windy day"

“Woman who’s having her bang cut but the hairdresser is nowhere to be found"

"Zookeeper in charge of the pandas"

the thing about italian food is that it kinda sucks when made in italy. the average italian cook is suffering under 300 different traditional family bylaws that prevent them from like, adding garlic to their sauce, or washing their vegetables or whatever. and if they were to move five kilometers away to the next town over then they'd be executed in the street for cooking it that way. when italians are released from the context of italy it's like they're taking off training weights. an italian cook with no limiters becomes a culinary apex predator. it's for this reason that italian food has, outside of italy, become one of the big three cuisines, while remaining, in italy, frustratingly under-potential. it has to be this way.

I’m going to scream. Pushback on the narrative that climate breakdown can be averted by individual decisions centres around the fact that NORMAL PEOPLE do not contribute to a significant amount of carbon emissions cos the average NORMAL PERSON emits 7 tons of CO2 a year. Not Taylor fucking Swift who has emitted over 8000 tons of emissions this year SO FAR. Her CO2 emissions from private jet use alone are equivalent to that of TWO THOUSAND normal people. We absolutely should be blaming individuals if those particular individuals are emitting two thousand people’s worth of emissions.

My random unsubstantiated hypothesis of the day: the popularity of "stim" videos, fidget toys, and other things like that is a warning sign that something's Deeply Wrong with our world.

Don't freak out. I am autistic. These things are not bad. However, can we just...take a second to notice how weird it is that there are entire social media accounts full of 10-second videos of things making crunching noises, people squishing slime in their hands, and objects clacking together, and that enjoying them is mainstream and normal?

It seems that nowadays, almost everyone exhibits sensory-seeking behavior, when just a decade ago, the idea of anyone having "sensory needs" was mostly obscure. It is a mainstream Thing to "crave" certain textures or repetitive sounds.

What's even weirder, is that it's not just that "stim" content is mainstream; the way everything on the internet is filmed seems to look more like "stim" content. TikToks frequently have a sensory-detail-oriented style that is highly unusual in older online content, honing in on the tactile, visual and auditory characteristics of whatever it's showing, whether that's an eye shadow palette or a cabin in a forest.

When an "influencer" markets their makeup brand, they film videos that almost...highlight that it's a physical substance that can be smudged and smeared around. Online models don't just wear clothes they're advertising, they run their hands over them and make the fabric swish and ripple.

I think this can be seen as a symptom of something wrong with the physical world we live in. I think that almost everyone is chronically understimulated.

Spending time alone in the forest has convinced me of this. The sensory world of a forest is not only much richer than any indoor environment, it is abundant with the sorts of sensations that people seem to "crave" chronically, and the more I've noticed and specifically focused on this, the more I've noticed that the "modern" human's surroundings are incredibly flat in what they offer to the senses.

First of all, forests are constantly permeated with a very soft wash of background noise that is now often absent in the indoor world. The sound of wind through trees has a physiological effect you can FEEL. It's always been a Thing that people are relaxed by white noise, which leads to us being put at ease by the ambient hum of air conditioning units, refrigerators and fans. But now, technology has become much more silent, and it's not at all out of place to hypothesize that environments without "ambient" white noise are detrimental to us.

Furthermore, a forest's ambience is full of rhythmic and melodic elements, whereas "indoor" sounds are often harsh, flat and irregular.

Secondly: the crunch. This is actually one of the most notably missing aspects of the indoor sensory world. Humans, when given access to crunchable things, will crunch them. And in a forest, crunchy things are everywhere. Bark, twigs and dry leaves have crisp and brittle qualities that only a few man-made objects have, and they are different with every type of plant and tree.

Most humans aren't in a lot of contact with things that are "destroyable" either, things you can toy with and tear to little bits in your hands. I think virtually everyone has restlessly torn up a scrap of paper or split a blade of grass with their thumbnail; it's a cliche. And since fidget toys in classrooms are becoming a subject of debate, I think it pays to remember that the vast majority of your ancestors learned everything they knew with a thousand "fidget toys" within arm's reach.

And there is of course mud, and clay, and dirt, and wet sand. I'm 100% serious, squishing mud and clay is vital to the human brain. Why do you think Play-Doh is such a staple elementary school toy. Why do you think mud is the universal cliche thing kids play in for fun. It's such a common "stim" category for a reason.

I could go on and on. It's insane how unstimulating most environments humans spend time in are. And this definitely contributes to ecological illiteracy, because people aren't prepared to comprehend how detailed the natural world is. There are dozens of species of fireflies in the United States, and thousands of species of moths. If you don't put herbicides on your lawn, there are likely at least 20 species of plant in a single square meter of it. I've counted at least 15 species of grass alone in my yard.

Would it be overreach to suggest that some vital perceptive abilities are just not fully developing in today's human? Like. I had to TEACH myself to be able, literally able, to perceive details of living things that were below a certain size, even though my eyes could detect those details, because I just wasn't accustomed to paying attention to things that small. I think something...happens when almost all the objects you interact with daily are human-made.

The people that think ADHD is caused by kids' brains being exposed to "too much stuff" by Electronic Devices...do not go outside, because spending a few minutes in a natural environment has more stimuli in it than a few hours of That Damn Phone.

A patch of tree bark the size of my phone's screen has more going on than my phone can display. When you start photographing lots of living organisms, you run into the strange and brain-shifting reality that your electronic device literally cannot create and store images big enough to show everything you, in real life, may notice about that organism.

We must reframe the narratives/dialog.

#LanguageMatters

Basically just a list of mods for TS4

I go through phases of playing the sims, and one of them is getting rid of all of my mods for a few months, and then getting bored and having to track them all down again. 

I don’t really find it all that fun. So, to save future me (and maybe you) some effort, I’ve decided to put links to all of my favorite mods here.

(NOTE: There is a chance that not all of these are compatible, because I don’t always have the same mods in my game. Sorry for any inconveniences)

Basics (these are usually still in my game):

MC Command Center- https://deaderpool-mccc.com/#/

UI Cheats Extension- https://www.patreon.com/posts/ui-cheats-v1-16-26240068

Mods Required by Other Mods on this List:

XML Injector- https://scumbumbomods.com/xml-injector

TS4 Community Library- https://www.nexusmods.com/thesims4/mods/287

Mood Pack- https://www.patreon.com/posts/43759541

Pack Tests- https://frankkmods.com/#/ts4/packtests

Ability to Read- https://www.patreon.com/posts/bg-utility-to-41923923

Deathly Interactions- https://www.patreon.com/posts/43191218

Large® Mods For Realism:

Cooking Overhaul- https://srslysims.net/scco/

Healthcare Redux- https://adeepindigo.tumblr.com/post/651072235459772416/healthcare-redux

Pregnancy Overhaul- https://lumpinoumods.com/woohoo-wellness-and-pregnancy-overhaul/

Better Elders Mod- https://pimpmysims4.tumblr.com/post/188413320738/pimpmysims4-better-elders-mod-v1013

LGBT Mod- https://www.patreon.com/posts/pimpmysims4-lgbt-50606800

Basemental Alcohol- https://basementalcc.com/basemental-alcohol/

Balanced Life- https://www.patreon.com/posts/balanced-life-v6-42320949

ERO Romance- https://modthesims.info/d/647983/ero-etheria-s-romance-overhaul-3-6-one-sided-crushing-blushing-amp-gender-specific-turn-ons-and-offs.html

Have some Personality Please!- https://modthesims.info/d/594573/have-some-personality-please.html

Meaningful Stories- https://roburky.itch.io/sims4-meaningful-stories

Simulation is not Free- https://adeepindigo.tumblr.com/post/644602388494336000/sims4simulationisnotfree / https://adeepindigo.tumblr.com/post/646812789353103360/simulation-is-not-free-part-two-venue

Dental Care- https://adeepindigo.tumblr.com/post/648048433310154752/dental-care

Education System Bundle- https://kawaiistacie.tumblr.com/post/623825414843924480/education-system-bundle-mod-this-mod-adds

Rambunctious Religions- https://lumpinoumods.com/rambunctious-religions/

First Impressions- https://lumpinoumods.com/first-impressions/

Talents and Weaknesses- https://lumpinoumods.com/talent-and-weaknesses/

SOL- https://www.kawaiistaciemods.com/post/slice-of-life-base

Language Barriers- https://frankkmods.com/#/ts4/languagebarriers

Road to Romance- https://lumpinoumods.com/2020/10/20/road-to-romance/

Autonomous Proposals- https://modthesims.info/d/591860/autonomous-proposals.html

Cheating- https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-ir-cheating-41302780

KS Explore Mod- https://www.kawaiistaciemods.com/post/the-explore-mod

Mental Health- https://www.patreon.com/posts/41976388

Divorce!- https://www.patreon.com/posts/ir-divorce-32118547

Mortem- https://simrealist.itch.io/mortem

SN Bank- https://simrealist.itch.io/snbank

SN Bank Bills- https://simrealist.itch.io/snb-bills

BetterSims- https://modthesims.info/d/653590/bettersims-beta.html

Supernatural Mods:

Better Ghosts- https://www.patreon.com/posts/all-better-48594940

Vampires Can Kill- https://www.patreon.com/posts/vampires-can-30005501

Immersive Vampires- https://www.patreon.com/posts/immersive-29132604

Expanded Mermaids- https://modthesims.info/d/630179/expanded-mermaids.html

Black Magic- https://www.patreon.com/posts/rom-black-magic-34868705

Traditional Witchcraft- https://www.patreon.com/posts/40071212

Sirens- https://www.patreon.com/posts/34817841

Voodoo- https://www.patreon.com/posts/halloween-2020-43199246

Occult Activities- https://www.patreon.com/posts/42007324

Kiss of Life- https://www.patreon.com/posts/il-kiss-of-life-38155681

hello kitty appliances

How much water is too much, answered (once and for all)

This question has been done to death by now, and yet, almost every day some one asks “how much water is too much water” and the answers vary from a few litters to 20+ litters. So I thought I’d answer it once and for all.

I am not a doctor. But over the last few years I’ve talked to doctors and surgeons, one after the other because both my parents suffer from kidney problems. For among other reasons, to learn about how to properly manage my water intake. So here’s the list:

​

Water you should drink in 24 hour period:

​

How much is too much water:

5 litres/day on average over a longer period.

More than 1 litre/h. (always, as our kidneys can not process more no matter how thirsty we are)

21 litres/day.

​

What counts as water:

Fruits can replace some amount of water. (Cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries and other fruits with ~95% water content).

Most soups can fill in for some water.

Alcohol DOES NOT count as water. (Alcohol, like beer, lacks salt, iodine, calcium, magnesium and other minerals you’d find in common tap water)

Soda DOES NOT count as water. (I’m not even gonna explain this one)

​

The symptoms of water intoxication are:

If you experience one or two of these symptoms and you know you’ve been drinking a lot of water you should reduce your water intake. If you experience any of the symptoms combined with cramps, you should call a doctor immediately. Serious cases of water intoxication can lead to death.

​

Other notes:

On hot days or days when for one reason or another you might need to drink more water than usual, you should supplement with additional salt. For instance in food.

Water intoxication is most common among athletes, and especially marathon runners who will drink high amounts of water over short times, diluting the salt in their bodies.

Our body produces 0,5 litters of water (urine) through our metabolism a day, approx. another 1 litter is lost to water vapor in breath, feces and sweat.

Water intoxication or hyponatremia is rare, so don’t stress too much about it.

Avoid bottled water, as not only is the plastic worse for the environment and it takes 1500 times more energy to produce than tap water, but some brands filter and cleans the water to such a degree it does not provide you with the needed minerals.

Some sources for further reading (but if you’re serious about wanting to know more about the subject, you should contact a physician, don’t trust me or the internet):

Finally, follow my TWITTER to stay hydrated :)

Ada Akira is a HydroHomie

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