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Buying the entire collection of Terry Pratchett books feels wrong. You shouldn't be buying boxed sets. You should stumble upon them in a used book store in a city you've only visited once, leaving you unsure of its reality- so that you can read them out of order the first time and then in the correct order when you have the full set (for that series.)

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Working in the yarn shop on Sundays, I have a group of regulars who come in specifically then for my advice on their knitting projects and over the years I've gotten to know a lot about them - their ailments and their spouses and their children and their careers and their mothers are all things they find themselves telling me about over the course of trying to bring forth a knitted piece. Most of them are women, most of them are over 50, and most of them have been through a lot and are trying to reclaim something for themselves through the act of creation. A while back, one of these older women opened up to me about how when she first came to this country it was just her and her daughter and they were so happy until her husband joined them, when he promptly began making her miserable. Now, decades later, all her children live far away, she spends all her time taking the husband to dialysis, her sciatic is bad and she may need heart surgery (who will take care of her, I find myself wondering), and she comes to see me once a month or so to talk about a new project and tells me it is the only thing she does for herself.

Today she came in with a smile on her face and delightedly introduced me to her son, who will soon move closer to home with his family. Then she says, as if commenting on the weather, that on Friday her husband died, and tomorrow they will hold the funeral. For a second I had tonal whiplash from the conversation and then I realized, oh, you're unburdened now. Like the relief in her face and her body were palpable. The son shows a picture of a cardigan to me and asks if it can be knitted, and we pick out yarn and a pattern. She's so excited to make it for him. She beams when she looks at him; he is tall and handsome and polite, and wants to wear something she made for him. She is proud of this man she raised.

It just made me think of the many, many women who come from cultures where leaving a crappy spouse isn't an option so they shuttle along doing their best and trying to find some beauty and joy in whatever way they can. Kids may not visit often because their spouse isn't welcoming or there is bad blood, so they are lonely. I remind her, we have our social group. She hasn't come to it much before because she is always taking him to dialysis, but now she says she will come often and meet the other women. Many of them are like her, but in the craft they find companionship that has been absent for so much of their lives. I hope there will be renewal for this dear lady and that she can learn more about herself and what brings her joy.

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The Next Generation Delivery Vehicle that the USPS ordered is legit the most fucked up thing you'll ever see in your life.

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The former Longaberger Baskets headquarters is abandoned in Ohio.

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I am begging you all to learn how to have conversations in real, live social interactions with people you are meeting for the first time.

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whenever u point out something is a deeply puritan belief online you get hundreds of people going like "im not a prude i just believe in Common Sense, Everyone thinks this is Weird and needs to be Hidden from the Public" with absolutely zero self reflection

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Tis the season

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I feel like people these days don't really have a handle on how crazy the Satanic Panic was. A lot of cops wholeheartedly believed they were gonna have to arrest evil wizards.

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Sometimes you have to be yourself on purpose. What I mean by this is that sometimes we lose touch with ourselves and start coasting and just going through the motions. Which is fine for a while because we get tired and/or depressed and that's fine. Happens to everyone. But eventually it starts to feel bad and you get a specific kind of brainweird that's hard to describe but means that you've lost sight of who you are, what your values are, and what you love.

Leaning really hard into something that makes you go "this is the most me thing ever" helps that specific type of brainweird quite a bit! But maybe you don't know what the most you thing ever is. You are not alone! I get depressed and forget every interest I have. 100% understand that.

When this happens, it helps to remind yourself what you like and enjoy. So what do you do? Well for me, it helps to think about 1. Things I used to enjoy and 2. Things my friends Know Me For.

Like I've been feeling not myself lately and I haven't really knit or created much this month at all. But I'm the Makes Things Guy. I like making things and many of my friends not only know me as someone who makes things but a lot of my friendships specifically come from communities of People Who Make Things.

So I forced myself to pick up an old project, and that helped a bit. But what really helped was coming up with a project that combined my interests (leather jackets, art, and teapots) for me to look forward to and get really into planning for! The most ME I've felt in weeks has been the last hour I've spent planning on painting a famous fine China design on the back of my leather trenchcoat. Because not ONLY am I the Makes Things Guy, I am also The Teapot Guy. I finally feel like myself again.

I wish I had more concrete advice in regards to how you remember your own interests when you get disconnected from them, but a solid place to start is things you used to like and things your friends know you like. If you struggle consider asking a friend what things they know you like. Sometimes friends can see us better than we can see ourselves and it helps to use them as a mirror to see yourself through.

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a lot of the people you guys are calling narcissists could easily be replaced with the word “asshole”

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I have a lot to say about the decision our BOE made about Lifewise, but I'm going to go over the useful information here first and then the shitshow in a later reblog.

Last night, the board of education in my city decided to rescind allowance of Lifewise in our public schools.

Lifewise is a non denominational Christian youth group that operates during school hours, and only during school hours. Their mission is to bring Jesus to public schools, and they are able to do this legally because the education happens off-campus. They typically do this during lunch, recess, or electives. The program is voluntary.

They were allowed in our school system through a former board member, two years ago. The program has come under some scrutiny, which I will cover in a reblog. So the topic of rescinding their decision came up this year.

This was a huge debate. I will get into it later.

But I wanted to state the reasons why our board chose to rescind the decision and end business with LifeWise, so that if they (or others of this type) come to your school system and you don't want them there, you have a model for what has worked in debate.

1. An important aspect of the decision to rescind this particular decision does not restrict religious learning before or after school, or on weekends- and only applies to religious programs during school hours.

2. Unlike accommodations made for Ramadan (an example that was brought up in debate), LifeWise is not a core observance of religion.

3. The social times of school, such as lunch or recess, are just as much part of the learning process as structured class time. Play is imperative for a growing mind, and playing with kids from other religious backgrounds is especially important.

4. While Lifewise supplies their own buses to and from locations, transition times in schools (getting children to and from lunch, recess, bathrooms, electives) are some of the most stressful times for teachers. Adding another, for which only some of the students are part of, is a strain on resources.

5. Entrusting your students to a third party who has not been vetted by the schools is an intense liability. Not just the obvious danger of a dangerous person, but- are the trained in first aid? What do they know about seizures, autism, allergies, diabetes...what are their policies on conflict resolution... there are a lot of variables to think of when you leave your students in someone else's care, even for just an hour.

That's all the notes I have for that meeting. If one of these programs is courting your school board, it's probably a good idea to have these points in mind now, rather than later.

I'll talk about the rest later.

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contrary to popular belief not everyone has an innate sense of internal gender or care to have one or seek a name for it, some people go their whole lives without questioning their occupation in one of two gender roles, but for some people, if pressed, they don’t feel that internal sense of ‘i am a woman’ or ‘i am a man’, and in that case i feel the switch over to transgender vs cisgender relies on active identification of a gender other than the one they were assigned. if someone’s like ‘idk dude I just work here’ then that’s valid

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I think theres something really interesting with the opening episode of season 2 of Misfits and Magic. Each of the main four has kind of gotten the lives they always wanted, but not in the way they hoped

-- K finally is the (dark?) Chosen One she's always wanted to be. She lives in shadows and whispers, she's affecting change and using her spooky online persona to influence the world. But it has come at a terrible price. Shes sucked into virtual spaces and pulling away from her friends and loved ones, plus it's hell on poor Teddy to boot. She can finally be a crusader but shes ungrounded and cares more about The Cause than her own quality of life (or Teddy's life)

-- Sam is famous and beloved. Shes reached new hights of fame and popularity, seemingly without much difficulty. Things just seem to continually work out. But her reliance on her charm is unintentionally causing her to be kind of a menace to those around her. Her PA and producer and Tony Danza bend to her whims, even at their own expense and mental health. Without a check on her charm magic she can priorit her own happiness without having to consider others. Sam makes it work, why cant they do it too? So people dont get too close because of their stress and her fame. She is a caring and thoughtful person normally but right now is using her gifts in unhealthy ways, which may be to her detriment later

-- Evan finally has stability and a dry bed and some control over his shadow and other demons. He has the predictability hes always craved. But even after overcoming his obstacles he is still very much the same as ever--still alone, still terrified to put down roots, still afraid of his own shadow. Evan did all this work to fix his problems and his life is still kind of the same as it always was. Hes still scraping by on the margins in survival mode. Stability and a quiet life doesnt necessarily mean hes able to build a life where he can thrive

-- Jammer has his community, a team, job prospects, a potential love life. Hes living the basketball dream he was always working toward. But he also can't really be his full self. He had some profound experiences at Gowpenny and cultivated skills, but he doesnt share it or talk about it for fear of becoming an oddity. He's all about connections and the team but he doesnt trust those in his day to day with important aspects of himself--and can you really be part of the team without trust?. He has always been focused on the group but now it may be harming or stunting him in unforseen ways