mutuals who aren’t doing too well rn i am hugging you so tightly and telling you that i love you + everything is going to be okay <333

Keeping this quote to my grave

In the wake of what’s going on in the world, I see a lot of rhetoric that basically boils down to the idea that everyone has a responsibility to watch every bad thing that’s going on in the world all the time. That awareness itself is a responsibility that everyone has always.

I’m not going to say that people do or don’t have a responsibility to be aware of things, but I want to talk about how to take care of yourself and others while doing so.

For some context, I spent close to a year and a half reading about every terrorist attack in the world as part of my work on the Global Terrorism Database. It was 2015/2016, so this was the height of ISIS/Daesh, it was a major time for Boko Haram, and it was when there was a lot of political violence that we weren’t sure how to classify in places like Yemen, Crimea, and Libya (stuff the GTD didn’t know how to classify had all of is information recorded, and then it went into purgatory until someone above my paygrade decided what to do with it). What this means is that I was spending 10-20 hours a week reading about hundreds or thousands of attacks a month and, in my case, recording infomation about the type of attack and the type of weapon. Much of my life was reading terrible things.

Limit what you do in isolation. One of the worst changes for me during that time, mental health-wise (even though it was great for my commute) was when I went from working in-person to working remotely. With other people, there are ways to diffuse the pain. A burden shared is a burden halved and all that. That may mean talking about it, or joking about it, or finding some other way to engage with it that isn’t just reading about the most horrible things in the world and then stewing in your own thoughts about them.

Find something to do that’s totally unrelated. I highly recommend finding something to do with your hands, if you can (knitting, Lego, cooking, whatever), but regardless of what it is, you should have some time when you entirely switch away to something different. During a fair amount of my time with the GTD, I was also doing my undergrad thesis about terrorism on TV, so a huge amount of my life was about terrorism in some way. The only other thing I watched was Great British Bake Off, and I would just rewatch the episodes, over and over.

Be compassionate about how you share information and with whom. Use trigger warnings, and consider using consistent tagging on places like Tumblr so people can blacklist it if they need to. Also consider whether it’s appropriate or necessary to share photos of bodies or other results of horrible violence. What is it accomplishing, to show that? Can that goal be accomplished other ways that don’t require the equivalent of jumpscares of unexpected photos of dead or brutalized people? Are you just showing it because you think that everyone should have to see it? If you are showing it, are there ways to mitigate against harm it may do?

Do what you can to avoid an echo chamber. Sometimes, when everyone around you is upset or angry about the same thing, it just amplifies itself, and you all get angrier and more upset in perpetuity without accomplishing anything.

Work towards action. Watching terrible things happen for the sake of saying that you haven’t looked away isn’t as meaningful as taking action in some way. Write to your Congressperson. Donate. Do whatever is appropriate for the thing you want to stop. But penance via watching terrible things happen doesn’t accomplish anything.

Recognize compassion fatigue and do what you can to mitigate it. If you spend long enough doing this, you start to lose context, and you start to become less able to have compassion about things. If you’re reading about attacks with dozens or hundreds of deaths regularly, five can start to not seem like that many. If you’re reading only about the worst suffering in the world, “lesser” suffering of those around you can start to seem unimportant and petty. Do what you can to mitigate that.

Be kind to yourself. You do nobody any good if you burn out. Look away, if you need to. Take a break. Do things so you can enjoy life, because otherwise you are just another person suffering in the world. Other people’s pain isn’t a hair shirt for you to wear.

https://firstdraftnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/vicarioustrauma.pdf

#anxiety is not activism#be informed-not inflamed!#the powerful want you desperate and despairing#how will you resist?#create#REST#connect#volunteer - good mantras from @auressea

Shen Qingqiu with Palestinian Sunbirds for @falcities !! Thank you for your donation~

Ongoing prompt fills to help families evacuate Gaza

Someone hurry up and get directX working 100% on Linux.

Some good news. 1, it’s being slow rolled out at the moment. 2, it’s reportedly really easy to turn off.

one time when I was a barista I was telling my coworker that I suddenly really missed cows. I used to work with cows all the time back home and then I moved away and suddenly it had been four years and nary a cow.

15 minutes later this old guy came up to the counter with his address written on a napkin & he said “me and my wife have a whole herd of dexters and a couple of new calves. come on over any time”

so after work I was like ok fuck it & I drove to the address and I parked at at the gate & I walked down the driveway to the barn and this woman was like “oh my husband told me you might stop by! come see our cows” and she introduced me to every single cow. made my whole week.

thank you cow couple

working hard

Last line challenge

I was tagged by @zenithsky

Rules: show the last line you wrote and tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you feel like).

“My cast is coming off next Friday and I believe to remember that you still own me a date.”.

It's the last line from my current fanfic. I haven't had time to start the new chapter yet, but I'm already excited to do so.

I tag @ae-azile (I promise I will take the time soon to read up to all the latest chapters I've missed), @shou-jpeg @liesineyes @zoinkssc00b @snickerdoodlles

Not tagging more people because there's so many words and I'm lazy. Of course not everyone who was tagged has to participate and anyone who wasn't tagged and wants to can :)

No worries! Take your time on catching up! Although, I would love to hear about what you think when you do. 🙂🩵

Anyways, here is my last line:

"It's milk."

That makes the tagging part super easy. I shall tag @fawndlyvenus and @the-cookie-of-doom 😁

(PS - Here is the link to the new fic if you are interested!)

*Peeks out of my internet break/writing cave*

Oh…uh, I guess I can share my last line.

I’ll tag @kimkhimhant @wildelydawn @peachym00 and @mousydentist (Absolutely no pressure or anything to do this.)

Thank you for the tag, @ae-azile 🫂♥️

i hate the misconception that asexual=no libido, because No the fuck it doesn't

Asexual people can still get horny, we can still masturbate, we can still have and enjoy sex*

Asexually is a lack of Sexual Attraction not a lack of horny

AND That's not even getting into how asexual is an Umbrella Term and so some asexuals DO feel sexual attraction in certain situations like demisexuals and greysexuals

*Many asexuals don't like or want sex, myself included, but some do, we aren't a monolith that has the same opinions on everything

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Unmute !

Oh my goodness, that's a lot of opinions.

Rolling AND crispy meows.

pov: you're listening to your shixiong ramble about something called a "poke...mon" (??)