johnskylar

[johnskylar]

Your annual reminder to not donate to Salvation Army!

[johnskylar]

OK so I am finally playing through Horizon Zero Dawn (I know, 5 years late) and there’s this bit where you’re in the house of this jackass trader and you need to get in his basement, where he has a bunch of personal correspondence stored.

And there is a stack of ingots you can drop to get in there.

I gotta wonder...was this an Ea-Nasir joke??

[johnskylar]

I wanted to share this campaign by the Las Vegas NM Jewish Community to repurchase their original historic synagogue building from the local Catholic diocese. They only have until the end of September 2022 to raise $200k to do this, because the diocese is selling in order to cover the cost of a massive court settlement over clerical sexual abuse.

This is one of the oldest synagogues west of the Mississippi, and it has been in use as a Catholic space since the 1950s. It would mean a lot to this Jewish community to have it back in their possession. The growing Las Vegas, NM contains a few Jews, as I understand, who returned to Judaism after learning their families were forced to convert by the Inquisition. It would mean a lot to me, too, to see them reclaim their heritage in this building.

Also, tax-deductible, if that matters for you.

[johnskylar]

I actually did bite my dm with explicit consent. because I was trying to argue that a ranger/barbarian's bite would be d6+Strength Modifier. and not d4+Strength Modifier. and he was like lmao human bites aren't even that strong. and I said bet. and he said well bite me then as strong as an 18 attack roll would be (the prison guard had 14AC btw) and we had to stop the game because he had to go get stitches.

also he didn't wanna say he let himself get bit to win an argument that he lost so badly he's in the emergency room, so he was like "a rat did it" and the nurse turns her head 12 degrees to the left and sees my bloody mouth. and goes "yeah okay that happens"

and we did get the barbarian bite attack to be d6+Strength Modifier. I'm also now engaged to this guy and this campaign I get to be the dm!

Absolute rollercoaster, but congrats on the engagement - Paper

[johnskylar]

So Charles Tyrwhitt has a custom shirt design tool and it has absolutely no safety protocols.

They would 100% have let me buy...whatever this thing I made is. With mother of pearl buttons.

[johnskylar]

[johnskylar]

PSA FOR GENTILES: The worst slur in the English language for Jewish people begins with the letter K. This means that every time you jokingly refer to words like kill, Karen*, etc. as "the K word" or "the K slur," you are inadvertently giving all your Jewish followers a collective heart attack. Please keep this in mind before accidentally implying that you'd like to say something antisemitic (or otherwise offensive, as other languages/regions likely also have actual slurs that begin with K).

For those not familiar with the antisemitic term, I am linking to an informational page from a Jewish organisation about its usage and origins here. Please do not click on the link unless you are comfortable seeing the word uncensored.

*If you're not joking about Karen being a slur ... get well soon, I guess

[johnskylar]

Also it’s honestly nice to be reminded that I did something a long time ago that people still like. It can help a person get over feelings of doubt and discouragement.

the idea that it’s ‘creepy’ to interact with things posted a long time ago is so terrible for artists and contributes to the pressure to be constantly creating new work, at an unhealthy and unsustainable rate. I hate it so much.

[johnskylar]

I'll tell you what's problematic about being over 40 and being friends with someone under 25: if you say "but I am le tired" they do not understand that they are supposed to say "well have a nap AND ZEN FIRE ZE MISSILES"

[johnskylar]

I reblog things about the MOVE bombing whenever I see it because NOBODY taught me about it. The first time I heard about it I thought it was disinformation, because it sounded so horrifying. Learning that this happened in the Northeast in 1985 and it somehow isn’t in every American history curriculum was a watershed moment in my view of education and racism.

On this day, 13 May 1985, Philadelphia police attacked the home of Black liberation and environmentalist group MOVE with automatic weapons, then dropped a bomb on it, killing five adults and six children, destroying 61 homes in the predominantly Black neighbourhood, and making 250 people homeless. Almost 500 police officers fired over 10,000 rounds of ammunition into the house, which was filled with women and children, while other officers blew holes in the walls with explosives. The police commissioner then ordered the house to be bombed, which they did using an improvised device made from C4 given to them by the FBI. Only two people survived the blast and ensuing fire: Ramona Africa, and Michael Ward, aged 13. While no officials were prosecuted, Ramona Africa was subsequently jailed for seven years on riot and conspiracy charges. The incident occurred during the tenure of Philadelphia’s first Black mayor, a Democrat named Wilson Goode. The children killed were named Katricia Dotson (Tree), Netta, Delitia, Phil, and Tomasa Africa and the adults were Rhonda, Teresa, Frank, CP, Conrad, and John Africa. In April 2021, it was revealed that anthropologists at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania had the bones of one of the children, unbeknownst to the families. * Learn more about institutional white supremacy in the police in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/the-end-of-policing-alex-s-vitale https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1986639618187845/?type=3

[johnskylar]

WE WILL OUTLIVE THEM

© 2019

haven’t been on tumblr in a long time (find me here) but i’m proud enough of this to come back & share it here too. thinking about making prints - if/when i do, they’ll be available on Six of Hands. sending strength & solidarity to my Jewish community, especially my fellow queer & trans Jews, & love to anti-fascists of all kinds fighting for our lives.  ETA: fixed a wrong letter in the Yiddish - thanks twitter folk! people are asking for shirts so i’ll see what my options are - i’d love to do real screen printing but if i can’t get that worked out i can always put it on my redbubble.

[johnskylar]

Tony Fauci is a goddamn hero. I wouldn’t have a career without this guy. Period.

(via 4mv6078as6u81.jpg (952×960))

[johnskylar]

Yesterday’s issue of my COVID-19 newsletter.

[johnskylar]

Haven’t been on here in a while, have I? Well. I think with the way things are going, that may change.

[johnskylar]

A Jew is Always too Late: a Spiel on Purim

Jews are always a little late.  It’s a rule of our culture that if you’re going to a Jewish event, you have to expect that it’s going to start late, because there’s always going to be a crowd of people who need an extra ten minutes.  The Jewish relationship with time is a complicated one.

In fact, I can think of lots of examples–Nazi Germany most notably–where the Jews were even late to realizing that someone was really serious about coming to kill us.  We often figure out, only just as the mob is showing up at the synagogue door, that they weren’t kidding.

For a clever people, we are sometimes slow on the uptake.

In history’s narrative, the Jews are seldom the mob.  You’d think we’d have figured out by now that we’re usually the ones the mob is coming to burn and kill with its torches and pitchforks.

Except on Purim.  

Keep reading

[johnskylar]

I now run a daily newsletter where I provide insights on COVID-19 using my PhD expertise in emerging RNA viruses. Sign up here:

[johnskylar]

I dreamt that there was a new meme that went, “If I dids it, I dids it. If I didsn’t, I didsn’t.” There was a third line, but I forgot what it was.