idk my name

the stuff going on at columbia campus rn is genuinely incredible

despite mass arrests by NYPD and several students (including rep ilhan omar’s daughter, isra hirsi) being suspended for their participation and having their university identification deactivated, the gaza solidarity encampment is still going strong well into its second day. def recommend following independent reporter talia jane who is taking part and providing live updates. (talia was the first reporter to break aaron bushnell’s self immolation in february; she was one of the reporters he contacted personally prior to the protest.)

thank you so much alexa @shivsblunt for mentioning it…..anyone who wants to contribute to their jail support fund can do so @ bcabolitioncollective on v*nmo. also, if anyone is in the area and available to join (via cssw4palestine on ig):

(x)

a good sumerian inexplicably donated five packs of 500 temporary tattoos to the classroom, each pack featuring identical pictures of a different invasive species of bug

i meant samaritan you jackasses i was typing with one hand bc i was putting on one of the temporary tattoos and it got autocorrected

No fucking way LMFAO

And *every* child has lifelong, generational trauma. They'll go through the rest of their lives remembering what happened these past 6 months, knowing the world looked on as their families and friends were being slaughtered and did absolutely nothing.

The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act would mandate that hedge funds, defined as corporations, partnerships or REITs that manage pooled funds for investors, to sell off all single-family homes over a ten-year-period, and eventually prevent them from holding those properties completely.

So, I'm trans. And several years ago, I was at my great grandfather's funeral. 17, newly on T, barely out to anyone other than my close friends and family. And I'm standing there at the refreshment's table, surrounded by strangers and members of my family's church, when George walks up to me.

This man is ancient, bent like a finger and frail. Tufts of white hair surround his wrinkled face. Like always, he's wearing thick glasses, massive hearing aids, and his veteran's hat. George was my first introduction to the concept of war, when he told me as a child why he was missing two fingers on his hand. He's been a fixture at church since I can remember. I've only ever seen him at there or in uniform at parades, the rest of his time spent in a nursing home somewhere. He picks up a deviled egg and says, in his quiet voice,

"You know, before your grandfather died, he told me that now he had 3 grandsons."

I'm frozen in place. I don't know what to say to that, if I should say anything at all. This is not a conversation I expected to have, especially not with this man. But he continues.

"I didn't know what he meant! So he explained it to me."

And I can imagine it. My great grandfather, uninformed and opinionated but supportive, explaining to his friend the news he barely understood himself over after-service coffee and cookies. His eldest grandchild was now a boy.

"And, you know, I didn't know what to think."

Here, George looks me up and down. This 90-something year old war veteran, who knew me mostly as the little girl playing in the church kitchen with his wife, processing what my great grandfather had really meant. It feels like a long pause, even thought it probably passed in a second.

"But you look good. So, eh!"

And then he smiled, shrugged, and walked away without another word. If I was fine, if I was happier, then that's all that mattered.

George passed away this week, at the age of 99. This memory has been bouncing around in my head for a while, but I wasn't sure if or how I should share it. It was a conversation that meant very little, but also meant the world. It was scary, and funny, and the moment when I realized that sometimes the people you least expect will accept you. Sometimes, even if they don't fully understand, even if they barely know you, someone will choose to support you. And that will always matter.

the scariest thing about old tv isnt really the racism or the sexisim because you kinda go in braced for that it's all the scenes where suddenly an actress is holding a lion cub or a chimpanzee is in the same room as a toddler, or suddenly theres a lion, or there's a chimpanzee again but it's driving a car, or holding a lighter, or holding fireworks. You just kind of watch in horror as over and over an actress performs with only 1960s tv film shootings best animal handling between her and the opening to Nope.

This is how I learn that the famous chimp my dad got my nickname from tried to kill Reagan. Fuck yeah.

RIP Bonzo we know you did your best to murder Ronald Regan for us.

Cher on The Sonny and Cher Show, 1974

It’s practically 2014 and you guys still don’t know how to google if an article is real or not before giving it 100,000 notes

Bothering the beast

A brief moment of rationality from the bird place.

Back in the 90s, there was a story in the LA Times that a boy sent me, saying it was right up my alley. This was the only good thing to come out of our relationship. Full link below (ignore the bible tag; it's the only site I could find it on), but this part always stuck with me:

"Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experience to savor, not endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.

I'm not "saving" anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event-such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, the first camellia blossom. I wear my good blazer to the market if I feel like it. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries without wincing. I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties; clerks in hardware stores and tellers in banks have noses that function as well as my party-going friends.' "Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now."

Over the years, remembering this story has made me braver. That's led to all my good adventures, even the ones that ended is disaster.

Some day is today. Book a flight. Ask someone out. Make your art. See a play. Drink the good coffee/wine. Order dessert first. Connect with people, no holds barred. Life is too short for anything other than an unfettered yes. Care fiercely. Love wildly.

**walks back into the room like Columbo**

And another thing!

This quote from Ted Hughes, in a letter to his son, Nicholas:

“The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. And the only thing people regret is that they didn't live boldly enough, that they didn't invest enough heart, didn't love enough. Nothing else really counts at all.”

He's right. And that's been something I have carried around for years, too. Hughes is one of my favorites. (I have his book of collected letters, and it's incredible.)

Invest your heart. <3

Anna Haifisch

Babe are you okay I saw you reblogging "here's the life I've always longed for"

for anyone curious there is a follow up image:

Jesse I have to sell you to one direction

yo mr white bitch let me at least put on my pink converse, throw my hair into a quick messy bun and put on some mascara to accentuate my blue orbs first bitch

It's actually crazy talking to friends and relatives about what's going on because very few of them know that this is a retaliatory attack. I keep seeing people online call the attack unprovoked too.

So those who don't know, on April 1st Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's consulate in Damascus. The attack killed 7 of Iran’s military advisers including 3 senior commanders.

This attack on the embassy is against international law. Embassies are protected sites. But instead of condemning the attack and putting pressure on Israel, the US has spent the past week and a half calling West Asian countries to put pressure on Iran, with Biden going as far as to warn Iran not to attack Israel and saying that his support for Israel is 'iron clad'.

The West, the UN, and UN Security Council have largely failed to condemn the attack which means Iran has no choice but to retaliate with force in order to prevent future attacks. Otherwise, the country will look vulnerable and weak, especially to the Israeli occupation government which has spent months bombing neighbouring countries like Syria and Lebanon

LOL

We need HOAs or some idiots will paint their house purple or put tractor tires in their front yard.  If you want tractor tires, don’t move to a HOA neighborhood.

I couldn’t even fathom how horrifying it must be to live somewhere there are...purple houses and and yucky stuff in people’s yards. Thank God I don’t have any real problems like that.

listen my Nonna and Nonno live right by a purple house (it’s a nice lilac) and as a kid I was fucking obsessed with it because purple is my favorite color. I’d go nuts whenever we passed by it. Also it had a purple mailbox to match and it blew my mind.

No more HOAs. More purple houses.

imagine trying to control what someone else can do with or on their own property just because you don't agree with their taste in decor

NO MORE HOAs MORE PURPLE HOUSES

Related, becuase I just had to move:  “just don’t move into an HOA” Do you know what a PAIN IN THE ASS it is to find NON-HOA Housing? Very nearly everything in the CO front range that isn’t a rental has an HOA these days!

Short list of the Shit the HOA at my pervious house tried to pull:

HOAs are invasive, bigoted, corrupt and cruel institutions that should never have been allowed to be created.  If you live in and HOA area, showing up at the meetings to tell people what the fuck is wrong with them, Joining your HOA board to protect your neighbors and possibly organize the dissolution of the HOA is one of the best things you can do to protect the marginalized members of your community.

FUCK HOAs AND LONG LIVE THE PURPLE HOUSES AND TRACTOR-TIRE GARDENS OF THE WORLD.

Are y'all telling me this shit is actually LEGAL?

Here’s how to get an HOA to leave you and your purple house tf alone

cant stop thinking about this post. 😔

direct action

HOAs, IN THEORY, could be such a force for public good, and that’s what’s maddening. Imagine if an HOA was like “well we’ve got all these houses and this one empty lot, pay your HOA dues and we can install a community food garden!” or “leave your contact information on the HOA residents-only webpage if you’re willing to be an after-school dropoff for children in our community who may not have a parent at home” or “hi, Sally, we’ve noticed your yard’s gone rather hogwild and things weren’t like that before your husband passed last year, do you need some help? We have some folks in the HOA who can help you with maintenance, no charge.”

Instead they choose isolation over community in the name of a unity that’s in image only, and that’s really, really sad.

Friend of mine bought a small house, an old one in an old neighborhood. She had no idea it was an HOA neighborhood until the day she moved in. They arrived with paperwork she "had" to sign or things would get "complicated", aka do this or we're gonna make life hell for you. She immediately told them no, she has no desire to be part of the HOA, and they about blew a gasket. Went from civil to wtf real quick. They tried sending her violation reports, demanded she pay fines, threatened her, etc. What they didn't know is she's petty and gives zero fucks. She also lives keeping paperwork nice and tidy.

Shit hit the fan when she installed a wall around her property. A 3 feet tall 2 foot wide wall around her yard. Topped with gorgeous iron work with sharp points that make climbing dangeous. Think Addams Family Lite. They tried to stop the construction because she was using the /wrong/ company (a mutual aid group she worked with). Send her fines and fees, and made the mistake of sending a copy of the HOA contract with a forged signature.

Ooooo...it got so ugly! She remembered the HOA post here about that happening to others and, well, the HOA broke up because of other fuckery on top of this. But it was mostly due to her dragging them in court for fraud, harassment, disturbing the peace, trespassing, stalking, and a few other things. She was petty about it too, looked into every fucking thing she could to destroy them.

I was informed that you not, in fact, obligated to sign the HOA contract. It's not a legal requirement. When you look for a home, make sure to ask about the possible HOAs, and look at the details of your homeowner's contract. Sometimes HOAs have that shit written into the purchase. If you see it, change the contract, put your initials and date in the changed sections, and see how the real estate agent handles in. This is legal, btw.

Don't sign the HOA contract, learn the laws regarding yard stuff (did you know you can apply to have your yard declared a wildlife reserve?), and be petty af when the nosy neighbors won't mind their business.

an HOA in denton recently strong-armed a developer into removing balconies and a sidewalk from a plan for new apartments because 🥺🥺🥺🥺 what if the yucky apartment people can see us 🥺🥺🥺🥺 least reactionary HOA behavior tbh

Wait a minute, I can just change stuff in a contract before signing it? How does that work?

You can change anything you like in a contract so long as nobody's signed it yet. Once somebody's signed it then, obviously, any revisions have to be sent back to them for approval (since they didn't see and approve them when they signed it). Your landlord/real estate agent won't sign the contract until after you, so before you sign it you can make whatever changes you want. If they don't agree to the alterations, they won't sign the altered contract. A contract is a two-way agreement.

Ok it's very funny to laugh at Tuxedo Mask for showing up and doing nothing, but his job was never to actually fight the monsters.

His job was just to show up and believe in Sailor Moon so overwhelmingly resolutely that she remembers she's a fucking demigod long enough for HER to fight the monsters.

Because she's the only one strong enough to do it in the first place, and in this regard Tuxedo Mask is the first example of being "Kenough" in this essay I will

@kawaiipinkbunny is so right for this

the thing about Sailor Moon is that the central premise is that there’s a rock that is the most powerful cosmic force in this galaxy that has to be used constantly in defense of itself because it attracts the most powerful chaotic forces in the galaxy to it and its power is essentially infinite except that it also happens to be the crystallized soul of a 14 year old girl and it only works when she believes in herself

and she is constantly failing everything, like tests and sports

so it’s very important for the safety of the fabric of the universe that sometimes

she gets told how cool she is by an attractive older boy