dear Neil
Do you feel weird when a kid is lying in his room watching the last 10 minutes of Go2 episode 6 over and over and crying non-stop?
No. I assume the kid in question must need to feel things.
Too important to hide in the tags.
AAAAHHHHH YES! YES! YES!
in hysterics
[ID: A photo of a chandelier with three tiers. Instead of candles or lightbulbs it has lava lamps of various colors and sizes. end ID]
Took a wrong turn somewhere
i took a nap and woke up in all these goddam spinanch
If you ever find yourself in a horror scenario, remember to blush really hard when the ghost/demon/monster appears. If you do that fast enough you might be able to shift the genre.
This applies doubly if the antagonist is more abstract. If a house starts growing teeth and flesh you've gotta be prepared to get a little freaky
The thing with amateur local theater is it is almost always bad BUT keeping it alive is the most important thing
The joys of artistic expression cannot be limited to talented people everybody needs it to survive
This is such a hilarious take we should give untalented people who make bad art money you know just because guys
Exactly. Glad you understand 💗
I feel like some people have fundamentally misunderstood the point of funding the arts. It's not about receiving quality art products, it's about giving people an opportunity to engage in the act of creation. Because, you know, we're human beings and art is fundamental to us.
It's a) extremely classist an b) detrimental to art and society as a whole to try and confine it to people who are already good at it. Let people do things they're bad at. Let people engage with art in a way they find fun and fulfilling, even if you don't like what they make. Give people a safe space to be artists. And yeah, let folks put on crummy theatre. You don't have to buy a ticket, but you should absolutely respect their right to sell them.
The idea even falls apart on it’s own merits. If you don’t make art accessible to people who suck at it, you won’t actually get a lot of people who are good at it. People who are good at something almost always used to be people who sucked at it. You can’t fill a theater with people who are amazing actors without having put in tons of effort to hone and improve their craft.
Not that this should be even an argument you have to make since art is not about product quality. But it should be noted how this attitude reenforces that idea that either you are a good artist by default and without any work, or you suck and won’t get good.
TikTok is worth it for this video alone. Gonna have this on repeat for at least a week.
Sounds kind of like a Johnny Cash song
Right? I'm gonna need a whole album of folk music from him STAT.
Looks like there’s one song on Spotify, and a bunch more on Soundcloud!
Perfect! I'd found the Spotify one but hadn't gotten to Soundcloud yet.
jennifer m. silva, from coming up short: working-class adulthood in an age of uncertainty, 2013
["Battling (Internal) Disorder
Others told their stories in terms of the cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders that have plagued them throughout their lives, threatening to keep them from achieving their true potential. These disorders cover a wide range of conditions, from self-diagnoses "anger management" issues to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) to depression. When respondents construct a narrative of battling these disorders, they emphasize the process through which they came to understand their symptoms as legitimate diseases, re-envisioning their life histories through the lens of this previously unacknowledged problem (Martin 2007). Respondents also emphasize the betrayal they felt from their families who allowed their problems to go undiscovered. In conceiving of this disorder as something internal— stemming from biological, chemical, or emotional dysfunction— informants construct their problems as controllable, rewarding themselves with a sense of accomplishment when they overcome their demons.
George, a thirty-three-year-old black man, is in countless ways a success story. Raised by a single mother who works at a meat processing plant, George moved thirty-eight times (he counted) between the ages of seven and eighteen, living everywhere from rooming houses to abuse shelters to crowded efficiency apartments. He laughingly recalled sleeping in a walk-in closet in high school. Because he finished high school in a city with strong public schools, George learned how to apply to college and for financial aid from his guidance counselor and his peers. Sharp, insightful, and engaging, he graduated from a public university in the South, then secured a stable government accounting job that he still holds today. A few years ago, feeling bored and unsatisfied in his job, George attempted to go back to school for a master's degree in psychology. However, he soon dropped out, finding himself unable to cope with the stress of graduate school.
G: Do you want to know why I really left? JS: Yes, definitely. G: OCD [obsessive compulsive disorder]. It still sucks for me. It was really, I don't know if this is off the topic but, when I left I was like at the bottom of a complete downturn. It took about a good… I think it was January or February. It took until about May, April, or May of that year to actually be pretty good with it. I was on a program. I was on meds, whatever. And then, like a lot of people, I just didn't want to be dependent on them, so I stopped taking them. I thought I was fine, but then I went down again. I started taking them, I felt better. I stopped taking them again and now I feel shitty. It's one of those things where unfortunately psychiatrists don't really have credentials to subscribe to insurance plans, so you have to pay out of pocket and then get reimbursed. So I mean, I have to pay 250 bucks per visit, sometimes it's twice a month. So I got kind of tired of that.
George is currently not seeing a doctor because he dreads haggling with insurance companies for coverage. Instead, he has committed himself to learning as much as he can about his condition. He continued, "I went two this conference two falls ago, The OCD Foundation. I met this guy, Jonathan Grayson, he is like a prominent OCD psychiatrist. He's the end all. He's been actually on Oprah et cetera… He was just fabulous. I bought his book."
By reading about obsessive-compulsive disorder, George has learned to organize his past experiences of flux, uncertainty, and betrayal into a coherent and intelligible narrative, thus solidifying his identity in suffering and self-transformation. Looking back on his life, he reflected:
I've always had it. I didn't know what it was until college actually when I read about it. It started when I was about seven. Like I remember just pulling my hair out. It's hard to explain. I think it's called trichotillomania. It's hair pulling and so that's one of the reasons why I keep my hair short all over. Because I still do it, but not as much as when I was in school and stuff. I didn't know what it was. I just thought it was something to do. But the thing is, my mom wasn't really educated, so she just told me to stop it. When I was in middle school I noticed a whole fear of rust thing and cleaning disorder thing. When I was in high school it got worse, and I remember telling my mom about it. Like I remember she had this white car, and on the passenger side I guess the window paneling or insulation was gone. It was removed and there was some steel there and it was all rusted. So anytime I wanted to get into the car I had to go like that [he shields his body with his hands]. I could never roll the window down. So there was one time when she was living with my brother in some townhouse. Anyway, I was trying to like get between the car and a concrete wall and go into the garage and trying to avoid the car. She was like, "What are you doing?" I couldn't really explain to her, and she just got mad at me. Instead of asking why, she got mad at me. She said, "You have a problem." I said, "Yeah, I know, I've been trying to tell you about it for twelve years."
In this painful recollection, George expresses resentment and anger that his mother did not help him, regretting that his lack of resources and knowledge as a child prevented him from putting a name on, and in turn managing his disorder.
Tellingly, George understands his illness as existing entirely within himself. The social context in which his extreme anxiety and compulsion to control his environment developed are not viewed as relevant to him (especially interesting when considering that the subtitle of Dr. Grayson's self-help guide to OCD: A Personal Recovery Program for Living With Uncertainty). For George, it is his illness that has prevented him from building a better life for himself, but it is also the one constant presence in a life full of upheaval and flux. As something to be controlled and managed, it has become a meaningful, consistent piece of his adult identity— and an enduring symbol of his mother's betrayal.
The most common disorders mentioned by respondents were anxiety and depression. Respondents spoke at length about their trials to overcome these problems in order to achieve true emotional well-being. Vinny, a twenty-seven-year-old white man, started out at an $8 an hour security guard job after graduating from high school. Driven and competitive, Vinny took as many overtime shifts as he could, first working his way up to manager, then to shift supervisor, and finally to account manager. Vinny feels extremely lucky to have stayed with his company for almost ten years, especially without a college degree. Terrified that he will not measure up, he pushes himself daily to the brink of exhaustion:
As I said, there's a lot of responsibility and the job is pretty stressful. There was a point where I really let it get the best of me. I ended up working myself into getting really, really sick. I ended up developing all sorts of anxiety problems over work. I would be literally awake for three and four days ant a time and it was all because I was pressing so hard to try to do more and be the best. I'm very driven by numbers, because that's what I'm marked on. I have it in my head, we have these monthly meetings we often present our numbers, and even to this day I still have it in my head where I got to be the best.
Vinny eventually had to take a two-month leave of absence to recover. He was forced to start over as a shift-supervisor when he rejoined the company, which only intensified his concern over his "numbers". While he continues to struggle with anxiety, he has developed personal coping strategies to calm himself down:
The actual anxiety attacks, you just gotta figure out that it's all in your head and you almost got to talk yourself out of it. You know, get a cup of water, go take a deep breath, and just let it pass…. Because if you feel like you're going to pass out and you don't know why, you start to panic and then it's all just like a ridiculous cycle that never ends until you're in the hospital with Ativan [a fast-acting anxiety medication]. But if you can just kind of get a grip on it, you know what it is, there's no need to panic over it.
Being aware of and managing his emotions— rather than the precariousness of the labor market itself— becomes the only way to get through the day."]
Many, many beautiful men and women think my mental illness is sexy. They love my ethical scrupulocity and tendency towards religious enthusiasm. They think my ability to stare blankly off into space without moving for hours is so cool and they are throwing me a parade.
czech blue glass cat charms
BTW, just to make sure everyone knows, this isn't just some internet rando commenting on her observations on the internet.
They are an Assistant Professor of Media Industries at New York University and literally just finished writing The Apple II Age: How the Computer Became Personal, a book on the history of the computer industry in the 70s.
This tweet isn't just an observation, it's the result of years of research and study. And it's absolutely true.
As someone who's very conscious of individual fundraising, between my job and my work with Radio Free Monday, I'm seeing an uptick lately in something that I want to talk about. But it's sensitive, so I'm asking you all to read this in the spirit of help, and understand that any negative tone you take away from this is not my intention.
We live in communities: neighborhood, friends groups, workplaces, fandoms. Part of the point of community is that we help others in that community. But there's an aversion to the idea of non-reciprocal aid, of accepting financial help that won't be repaid. And on the one hand I understand; nobody wants to be perceived as a freeloader. But I don't think we can move past the idea of transactive relationships, an ultimately capitalist idea of how we relate to others, until we stop stigmatizing it, even when we're the beneficiaries of it.
I see a lot of "normally I would never ask for help" and "I hate to ask for money" and "I'd rather die than accept charity but" and I'm sure that's true. But...you don't need to say it.
If someone is inclined to give, it doesn't matter. If someone isn't inclined to give, it doesn't help. Charitable giving on the individual level is not a sales situation. There is no magic combination of words that will induce someone to give if they weren't going to. And the more we protest that normally we wouldn't accept, the more we loudly imply that there is shame in asking, the longer it will take us to achieve a compassionate and supportive society.
And also, frankly, you're making other people feel like shit for asking too. Which I know is not something anyone wants.
If you need to ask for money that sucks and I'm sorry. I've been there and it's a real bind to be in. But I also know that in those situations energy is short, and this is one less thing to expend energy on -- instead of protesting your aversion to asking, put that energy into doing one thing to make it easier for folks to give -- make your payment app username a hyperlink or a QR code, or make a carrd with your giving options and link that.
Instead of "I would never ask for money normally" say "I know there are many kind people out there who will see this." Instead of "I hate to make this post" say "You all understand how difficult life can get." The nonprofit world has done a lot of studying of what makes people give, and positivity is a huge aspect of it. Opening with a negative, particularly a negative that people see constantly in other solicitations, is more likely to hurt your chances than to help.
Don't follow a script that continues to debase and abuse you. Mainly because it's not actually helping; there's no upside to prostrating yourself before an imaginary combative donor. Talk to the people who are actually likely to give, who recognize themselves in your words when you talk about kindness and compassion and who don't need you to shame yourself in order to be worthy of support. This is not to scold or shame anyone further, but to offer an alternative that is kinder to you and more helpful to the people who want to help.
Do yourselves and your fellow sufferers the kindness of dignity; lord knows you've had enough unkindness already.
D&D has become so much more fun since it clicked for me that I'm not the character, I'm the writer in charge of the character
If you're the character, bad rolls and bad calls reflect badly on you. You want to Win because that means you're doing D&D right, and if things go wrong, it's because you're doing it wrong.
If you're the writer, your number one job is to do things to your character that the character does not like because that gives them the chance to be interesting.
