it’s like christmas morning

DO NOT SUPPORT SALVATION ARMY 

I can back this up. It isn’t only their shelters.

I have a family friend who worked at our local Salvation Army headquarters as a a secretary. This particular office took all the Christmas donations for children in need, put them in a warehouse, and on a designated day the staff and their friends picked through them all, taking whatever they wanted. She saw people hauling away bikes donated for specific families. Some local children had hundreds of dollars of gifts donated in their name, and on Christmas they received three cheap things, items likely not even from the person who sponsored them.

My friend quit, and I’ve not given them a dime of my money since then.

Do not give to the Salvation Army.

Do Not. Give. To. Salvation. Army

My turn.

I’m a wildfire and disaster logistics specialist.

I deal with a lot of agencies who provide disaster relief.

I used to say the Salvation Army’s disaster services were the one (literally the ONE) good thing they did.

They would come in, set up a canteen trailer, make and pass out hot coffee and donated food in a disaster, usually being one of the first agencies to get there and the last to leave.

Then I found out.

Every time they did this, regardless of if they were actually invited or deployed by the agency in charge (usually FEMA, sometimes others) they would SELF-DEPLOY. Meanjng they would just show up. Ok. That’s not TOO bad, sometimes agencies have to take initiative and get there before the red tape is sorted out. BUT. They, after they left at the end of the incident, they would send FEMA or the host agency a BILL. They used one or two paid employees (usually the driver of the truck and a supervisor); and many VOLUNTEERS, but they would bill for EVERYONE’s Labor at standard federal rates. They would bill for the food they distributed even though it was all donated by another agency or private parties. They would bill for the coffee they made and the supplies. Except they would use electricity from the shelter location, water from donations or from the shelter, and in many cases, they would get the coffee and industrial filters DONATED, but bill for them at retail prices.

Don’t FUCKING give to the Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army is also ass to the workers. A good number of people join it, naively thinking that it’s doing good, and end up leaving cynical and beaten down. The management is hostile, if not outright abusive, and demand some ridiculous hours of it lower to mid-level staff. Don’t support these people.

Unsettling update

Find better local charities and shelters and give to them instead!

Also just for even more horrific context on the original twitter thread?

Salvation Army reached out to Milknmuffins and asked what shelter she’s at with the promise to address the abuse in it. She…ended up saying where she was. She was thrown out onto the street. It’s also all on Twitter.

They invited her to a personal talk so she could explain the situation in person.

And then they threatened her with a screenshot of a rape-threat made supposedly by her:

And then threw her out into the street while claiming she broke house rules that

So yeah, the Salvation Army is a bunch of entitled assholes that will treat the most vulnerable like shit if they dare try to do anything that makes them look bad

The “Fuck Salvation Army” posts are making the rounds again, so conisder this your reminder: Do. Not. Give. These. Assholes. A. Single. Fucking. Penny.

Do not support them in any way, shape, or form.

‘Tis the season to say FUCK the Salvation Army.

Pet Tree Houses on Etsy

This is so hysterical on so many levels, I love it..

This is Scrat the Ice Age squirrel in human form

there is no way to predict how this video will go

I have been reduced to tears

The sheer Rube Goldberg-ian surrealist absurdity keeps hitting me with thoughts like “this is how engineers swat flies” and now I can’t stop watching.

Don’t leave out any hard of hearing children who come to your door this Halloween, take a minute out of your day to learn a few seasonal asl signs!  These are two different variations of “Happy Halloween” Click here for my source.

halloween is for everyone!!!!!!

this is honestly the cutest thing ever 10/10 will do this year💗💗

And here are the British Sign Language versions. (I love the BLS sign for Halloween. It’s so cute.) 

Deaf inclusion for every holiday!

Love this! I also posted a video the other day of different signs from about 90+ countries for “Happy Halloween” :)

Two years ago, I had a Deaf girl show up in my drivethru on Halloween. Her mom was kind of sad when I tried to offer the girl candy, and you could tell it’d been a rough night. I asked her to get the girl’s attention, and then signed to her the way I learned from those top gifs. She started laughing and clapping her hands at once, and when I held out the bowl of candy she was DELIGHTED. I think there’s a very serious possibility I was the only person all night who was able to share with her that way.

It matters. Learn.

IT MATTERS. ASL is the THIRD most used language in the US yet most schools don’t offer it as a language course.

If you are at all interested, even in self-study online, check out www.lifeprint.com. It’s free and an absolutely marvelous program.

Lol John Deere executives think they can break the worker’s strike by having Terry from HR build an engine. 

Anyone else have the “Shake Hands With Danger” song playing in their heads?

For those unaware of this masterpierce, it’s from a 1980′s industrial safety training video, and it’s main character is named ‘Three Finger Joe.’

I’m just imagining some farmer trying to fix his combine in 2023, saying “I don’t know why it won’t work, it’s only 2 years old,” and then they open up the engine and the dusty hand bones of a middle manager fall out. 

Things are going great over there!

It’s day 1 and salary workers are joking about forming their own union, this is great stuff. 

not to get political but im begging you guys to stop coming to hawaii. in maui theyre asking to put a ‘pause’ on flights bc we literally do not have enough room or staff to service you. the roads are so full that its causing a major backup when ppl need to get to work.

on top of this, i heard that by September? theyre expecting to get rid of the mask rule (if 70% of ppl are vaccinated/all goes well) but ill be honest w/ you, i know many locals arent getting the vaccine and i know plenty of tourist arent gonna take the necessary precautions.

homeless hawaiians aren’t even allowed to sit or lay on sidewalks to keep up the “paradise” image for tourists

PLEASE stop vacationing in / moving to the occupied Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. You are actively participating in violent settler colonialism when you do, even if you aren’t white. Never in my whole life have I seen our airport THIS packed!!! Our islands cannot support this many people – especially during our dry season and in the middle of a PANDEMIC!

Tourism makes it impossible to keep up with the rising cost of living. It brings in revenue and with that, becomes the fake state’s priority. Tourism pushes native Hawaiians from their land and homes, puts locals at risk for covid19, directly harms the delicate environment and native species here, houseless folk (many whom are native Hawaiian) are being illegally swept to make room for tourists at beaches, and locals are being restricted and fined for using water on east Maui, all while hotels can use up all the resources no problem and our government approves a million dollar home construction for new part-time residents (when locals who have been here for generations are being thrown into poverty, barely staying afloat, losing businesses and even their homes). “Hawai’i has become the Blood Diamond of the Pacific. We are mined for our splendor, and our residents live the every day, complex consequences.” 

It’s absolutely VILE what is happening here. I hope yall know that Hawaiʻi was overthrown and occupied by the US military, and isn’t even legally a state! Hawaiʻi is not your vacation spot, so you better tell your family and friends to stay at home.

Here is a linktree by my friend with petitions to protect sacred, native Hawaiian land on Kauaʻi and Molokaʻi. Sign them.

Here are a few Kānaka Maoli (native Hawaiian) folk in need you can donate to (if you know more please add to my thread!)

Nearly depleted funds may cause a group of volunteers providing aid to Navajo and Hopi families during the pandemic to halt care package distribution within “a matter of weeks,“ the organization announced on Monday.

The Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund is still going strong in 2021!

The original organizers (12 Navajo women including Ethel Branch, former Navajo Nation AG) have now co-founded the nonprofit Yee Ha’ólníi Doo (“May Our People Have Fortitude”) to manage the funds, distribute care packages, make masks, maintain a hotline, educate about COVID-19, and invest in their communities to make them “pandemic proof and climate change resilient”. Pictured below is board member Shandiin Herrera assembling food boxes in March of 2021.

 💛📦 Donate at their original GoFundMe or the Yee Ha’ólníi Doo website 📦💛

More inadvisable Dungeons & Dragons characters, justifying that proficiency bonus edition:

Hollywood Edges Closer To Strike With Cinematographers Vote

Wednesday September 29,2021

L.George

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but: be fucking kind, patient, gentle, and tip generously. These workers are doing their best to support themselves during incredibly difficult times. Don’t be a dick to them.

I’M SORRY I’M JUST SWEATING FROM MY EYES

“We started out with clues and now it’s student loans.” Steve, PLEASE.

Oh goodness 😭😭😭

25 YEARS OF BLUES CLUES?!

Y’all I watched this shit from the moment I came out of the womb. Who knew I needed fucking CLOSURE from Steve leaving me as a kid 😭😭

The Addams Family renting out rooms in their huge mansion cheaply to broke college students.

The students digging it because the craziness and the bugs are pretty much the same as any other dorm house. Also, Morticia and Gomez treat them all like visiting cousins, not like tenants to abuse and exploit. 

One of the tenants is a creative writing major and Gomez and Morticia house them up in the tower because of the quiet and the inspiring view

They’re supposed to be working on a typical coming-of-age story but after living with the Addams for just a week the project is becoming a horror-Gothic-romance

They go to their room after classes one day and find Thing correcting the grammar errors in the manuscript with a red pen 

and yeah, the students pay roughly market value for their rooms, but that doesn’t stop gomez from shouting “capital idea!” and handing them wads of cash when they tell him about their weekend plans or what they’re researching, so they basically end up living there for free

In the same vein, half the them have to turn into exceptional fencers, because Gomez just doesn’t give a shit, and if he sees you in the library, its fucking Sword Fighting Time. 

Fester and Pugsley find out one of the college students is trying to get into chemistry and woo boy, there has never been a faster study of how to counter various acidic chemical reactions due to “water” balloons in campus history. 

Morticia and Grammy are keeping the horticulturalists on their toes with their Black Tulip/Rose hybrids, which can flick their barbs a foot away from their stem system. But it’s fine, one of the kids has managed to breed Aloe with the anti venom. 

Lurch makes sandwiches for everyone who’s too much of a coward for Grammy’s cooking. Any music major will find him looming over them, utterly stone faced as they practise until they finish, when he’ll smile, and slowly applaud. 

And the spookiest thing of all

Wednesday and Thing will find your thesis. They will critique it in every way imaginable. 

There is no escape. 

I especially love the idea of Gomez spotting a student in the library, throwing a sword at a startled student, shouting, “En garde!” and lunging at him/her with a sword of his own.

Student (later in life), when asked how she jumps from quietly doing research to handling a sudden influx of ER cases so quickly and easily, says, “When you have to snap out of deep concentration on biochem to fight for your life then get back to biochem without losing your train of thought…you learn or you die.”

This has made me laugh so hard-

And you know how chatty Gomez is when he fights, he’d probably help more students work through creative blocks via swordplay than any education counselor in a stuffy little office.

Gomez Addams as the embodiment of the Rubber Duck Method for struggling students via surprise swordplay is directly on brand.

And I firmly believe that long-term residents who finish their degrees suddenly, mysteriously, find that their student loans have been paid off. The family attends every single graduation ceremony and claps and cheers for “their” students as boisterously as any parent. They make a particular point of doing so for the ones who have no other family in attendance.

do u ever want something so bad that you can’t even write wish-fulfillment about it u just. cry. instead.

I fucking CRY everytime I read these. Out of the good feels.

time to get….nsfw…. *proceeds to commit multiple osha violations*

Hey, could you not?

Fucj fuck fuck This is an emergency.

I already made a twitter thread about it after the incident sorry if this js rushed

My apartment caught on fire. It happened at 5 am and I heard my sister screaming and saw the flames coming from our patio.

This was the result

Im typing this rn cuz I have to get mt phone charge from my brother. Im sorry i cant make sense of things rn.

This is our apartment now and we have no where to live...

I really need some assistance and donations to help aid.. idk if like half of my stuff is gone...could be salvageable but we dont know yet.

Again, I have a twitter thread to keep an update and I'll try to update here as possible...

Please consider donating. If not, please PLEASE boost this, because I may or may not lost everything and I may need get laid off from work....Idk HOW is this going to pan out but we really need some help.

I'm like not in the right mental state to try to make a GFM right now.

Paypal

Ko-Fi

UPDATE: As of right now im taking shekter at my brother's house and probably only temporary since my sister is trying to find a place to live and getting her renter's insurance in contatct.

I just want to thank everyone for donatinf and boosting. Even if its just a little I really appreciate you guys.... please keep boosting until we're back on our feet...

UPDATE: Everything is gone...there's no way to enter the buidling...im genuinely so upset that I lost everything...my art...my items...my own damn debit card and ID...my gifts my partner gave me....

Please boost this...I may need to get them replace but im genuinely never felt this upset....

UPDATE:

Well since its official that I lost everything...I'm starting a Ko-Fi goal to get a new laptop + my streaming sit I worked my ass off before the fire fucked me over.

Please consider donating and support me on Ko-Fi and help me reach my goal. As for now I'm gonna draw my art on mobile [again...sign..]

[ID: A screenshot of Cuddledot's Ko-Fi page featuring a milestone goal, currently 0% put of $3,000 with the following description below says: "Hello everyone!

My apartment suffered thru a fire and all my things are gone...

Some I can mamage to get replacement but the most important thing I lost is my laptop. I mainly use it for art, music, making projects, video editing and streaming.

This includes my Elgato stream set for my switch, which I could probably afford in the future but my laptop and streamkits are the most expensive that I may need later.

Every dollar counts to help me reach to my goal. Thank you so much for contributing!" End ID]