Lost in the Woods

After many years of not having one (since I was a kid), I've finally got a library card. I've had it for just over a week, and already I've borrowed a handful of audiobooks (listened to one of them), put holds on some eBooks, checked out the books on the shelves, and made use of the study space. And it's all free. FREE.

Folks, we must protect libraries at all costs. They are wonderful places full of magic... And books (okay, so magic and books are the same thing, but you know what I mean).

May I please add: PLANETARIUMS.

ART MUSEUMS also

[ID: A tweet reads: "Let me clear the air: I am always down to go to the zoo with you. I will cancel plans to go to the aquarium. The siren song of the natural history museum haunts me. I'm thinking about botanical gardens as we speak." End ID.]

I asked one of my (male) friends to stop using the phrase “man up” and he has been using “fortify” for the past two weeks instead and it’s just a little thing but honestly it makes a difference

and tbh it’s also pretty funny when I start to deflate in the library and he leans over and goes “FORTIFY”

personally, my male cousin uses "ONWARD TOWARDS VICTORY!" so that's my favorite. but i like yours, too. :)

if you like a piece of media that is good eventually youll more or less run out of things to say about how good it is but if you like a piece of media that is objectively pretty mediocre but also somehow deeply compelling thats how the demons get you

when will people learn that live-action remakes will never be good as their original animated counterparts because the glory of animation is the colour, movement, and fantasy that's just untranslateable to live-action

based

[ID: An article title from Pink News that reads “Ian McKellen calls asking for birth name ‘as irrelevant as asking for one’s birth weight’ and ‘as inappropriate as demanding details on past trauma’ /End ID]

Ian McKellen, an Intellectual: THEY WERE BORN A BABY, YOU FOOL

the fact that we as a society have the muppets and they are not everywhere in our cultural consciousness is appalling. why aren't the muppets hosting the oscars. why aren't the muppets commentating the olympics. why aren't the muppets coming to a theatre near me every year with a new adaptation of a classic novel. genuinely what are we doing.

"you're not man enough, not feminine enough"

so gender is something we can fail?

that means gender is not genetic and absolute and unchangeable

but something we can build and perform, and fail at (the standards they set) but also redefine?

if i can fail at being a woman, does that mean i'm not a woman? so does that make me another gender?

i agonized for 15 minutes about the wording of my post and you manage to simplify it with a perfect mean girls reference

sometimes being out of the loop is self preservation

Awesome growing trend

SOME VERY GOOD NEWS

Yes, very good news!

But the headline is a little misleading, as by "Investors" they really mean the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, a NFP based in Denver that has been doing good things for decades.

The investment here is in people, not a profit-making pyramid scheme that rich assholes buy into then cash out later for $profit$.

Also, all of this happened in early 2020, as COVID terror was first stirring in the US. Good timing.

Anyway, found the article.

“available with premium subscription” “will be removed on the 31st” “available free with ads” “rent 4.99 buy 20.00″ “not available in your country” “not available on this device” what if every streaming service fucking killed itself and films ran around their fields free and organic in their natural state

2024 is the year we stop “consuming” and go back to “reading/watching/listening to/playing” things

Because my comics have gone around the internet, many people have asked if I’ve “gotten better yet”. The answer is a firm NO because that’s not how post-viral illness triggered by an infection that causes organ and brain damage works. Please consider your behavior and who you are leaving behind.

Check out the People’s CDC here where they provide weekly updates on the COVID situation in the U.S.

ID in alt text and below!

ID: a 10-image black-and-white cartoony comic.

The 1st image is titled Pandemic Year 3 and dated January 2023. The drawing shows a masked boy with fluffy hair, Joey, surrounded by unmasked people. The text reads: At some point, the people around me decided that the price of me staying alive — a few small inconveniences for them — was too high. In image 2, Joey sits at a table with his drawing tablet looking concerned. The text reads: The world, many loved ones included, is actively hostile to me continuing to live. How do I cope with that? I don’t have the answer. I’m just really alone.

Joey, stressed and frightened, clutches his laptop. The text reads: And I mean really alone. A figure on the laptop screen says: High-risk people will take care of themselves. Joey yells: How?

This image is split into two panels. The first one reads: How do I keep myself safe when the store, work, and school, is a death trap? For each word, a triangle displays that maskless environment. The second panel shows Joey’s sad face in a Zoom window. The text reads: I’m taking my final semester of undergrad online to the displeasure of many.

Joey lays face down in a pillow. The text reads: If you’ve been following me for any time, you know I got Covid in February 2020 at 19 years old and have become disabled by long Covid. Everything smells and tastes like rotting meat, I can’t keep anything I eat down, and I’ve started randomly fainting after years of dizziness.

Joey is shirtless and masked and hooked up to an EKG. The text reads: I’m one of millions of Covid survivors for whom re-infection is much more dangerous. Not to mention everyone who was already high-risk.

Joey lays on the couch and looks at social media posts where people are posting photos of themselves maskless in crowds. The text reads: The general public is very happy to isolate high-risk people from society if it means never having to think about us ever again and continuing with the actions that kill us. That’s eugenics, by the way.

This image is split into two panels. The first one shows Joey laying down, clutching his heart, and crying. The text reads: And it’s not just the people who don’t see us. The second panel shows Joey looking disheveled. The text reads: The cognitive dissonance is unlike anything I’ve seen. A speech bubble says: Are you sure you won’t do indoor dining?

Joey holds his hands lovingly under his face and raises his arms. Hearts are around his head. The text reads: If you’re here with me and isolated from the rest of society while being continually told that your life doesn’t matter and that you’re crazy, I see you. I love you. You’re not alone.

Joey is shirtless and looking down at the portable EKG attached to his chest. The text reads: To the rest of you, I’m here asking for my life. I’m 22 and deserve to not only live but live joyfully. How much death and suffering is acceptable to you? The week of writing this, January 11th through 16th, at least 3,907 Americans have died of COVID. Recorded deaths have been over 2,500 weekly for months. Data from the People’s CDC. Recorded deaths are an undercount as many places stopped collecting or reporting data. End ID.

[You are not strength. You are not labor. You are not productivity. You are not what you can do for other people. You exist with other people, not for them. You are a person, treat yourself that way.]

how is it 2024 next week. that's not even a real year that's a caption on an establishing shot in a sci-fi story.

do y’all remember usernames??? from back when every fuckin website didn’t need your email phone number home address social security number just to join/sign up for something?? when you could make website-specific accounts that weren’t linked to literally anything else??? they tried to boil us like a frog slowly switching to “username/email” and then just asking for your email. but I remember. I remember usernames.