sinensis26

[sinensis26]

octopath traveler (1/2)

[sinensis26]

You all need to hear this:

1. You probably dont suck at your craft as much as you think you do, I bet a lot of people are amazed at what you can make, and

2. If you actually are the Literal Worst In The Whole Wide World at your craft... who the fuck cares? What are they gonna do, call the police on you? Keep making your shitty little things, youre the boss of you, fuck the haters.

[sinensis26]

The word garbage sounds like it should mean clothing

[sinensis26]

As a political activist with 18 years experience, I need everyone out there to understand something:

Effective activism is very, very unglamourous.

We all have the image of activism being loud and dramatic gestures- screaming protesters, passionate speeches in courthouses, young punks throwing molotov cocktails through windows.

What actually changes things is paperwork. Its about marking town hall meetings in your calendar, and scheduling a time to present your case there. Its writing professional appeals and budget proposals, editing and drafting over and over again. Its putting on a boring suit and tie and presenting your case unemotionally, because as soon as you do get emotional, youll never be taken seriously again.

Its actually taking the time to run for office.

Its driving people across borders for medical treatment, and spending half a day playing Angry Birds in a clinic parking lot.

Its going to read books to hyperactive toddlers after a full day of work.

You will never be thanked for how much of your life is spent grinding for change. The people you help will never know your name, and might even see you as part of a shitty system. No matter how much you do, you will fail more times than not.

But you WILL make a difference. You WILL change the world a little bit. Its worth it, I promise.

[sinensis26]

Goniurella tridens is a species of fruit flies that carries on each wing the perfect image of an ant

[sinensis26]

I take back what I said earlier: I would absolutely sell my craft creations, and by "sell" I mean "trade for something I equally value". Do you like my punk rock giraffe stuffie? You can have one for $81... or a bag full of coreopsis seeds. A knit fringe lumberjack hat? Thats $195... or a jar of local honey. Ill sew new clothes for all of your kid's dolls, usually $300+ in labor and material, but Id rather they draw me a really cool picture that I can hang on my fridge.

[sinensis26]

GO✊️DO✊️SOMETHING✊️! Literally anything! Its not "all or nothing", juar go plant some native flowers. If a local government building has a suggestion box, drop a request in for them to consider. Volunteer in a school varden or forest preserve work day. Just stop sitting on your couch whining about how defeated we all are- we ecolpgists need all the help we can get right now.

People being doomers and defeatist about climate change is really so interesting because you try to tell them they’re being unhelpful and they start tweaking out

[sinensis26]

Can you tell me about sustainable architecture based on indigenous knowledge. I am an anthropology major and this reminds me of decolonization and what it can do for everyone.

Hello! Heck yes! Theres a lot of Indigenous communities that did this, but an example that keeps coming up is what the Seminoles did in Florida. They built Chickees, which are smaller cabins on stilts driven very deeply into the mud and clay of wetlands. The logs they used were mostly cypress, whoch has antibacterial and waterproof properties.

One of the coolest aspect of chickees is that the Seminoles werent focused on just what was above the ground, but directly under the chickee. People tend to forget that most wetlands are actually really biodiverse in regards to botany, and grasses and sedges are both important for stability. So when the Seminoles were building, they were looking for wet areas that already had a lot of grasses growing in and around the water, and if they wanted the chickee to stand for longer (more than a few months), theyd strategically seed in grasses right under the chickee to reinforce the stilts over the course of the year.

So okay, now that brings us to today, and to modern building. We know that just throwing a slab of concrete down in the middle.of a wetland isnt gonna last, but we do it anyways and spend a LOT of time and resources repairing foundations, pumping out flooded basements, etc. But we do know how to build suspended floor buildings- exactly as it sounds, buildings on cement stilts driven deep into the ground. They look all slick and swoopy and futuristic, but its literally the same structure as chickees- foundation poles driven so deep that flowing water wont easily knock it over or rot it out.

And its not just that the building isnt impedeing the water flow- there needs to be botanic biodiversity as well. So yeah, we cant easily plant seeds under the suspended building, but we can heavily seed in those native grasses along the banks. Native plants are used to disturbances anyways and are evolved to not only roll with the punches, but also thrive on them. So now we get a building that people can use, not disturbing the water, and a bunch of native plants both supporting biodiversity and strengthening the waterway's shores.

TL/DR: When white folks came here from drier, flatter parts of the world, they ignored the basics that Indigenous people knew and did what worked back home. It created a hot mess, and instead of listening the experts, they wrote off massive building destruction as "normal".

A lot of this is coming from memory, as Im trying to quickly type it out on the train (so please also excuse the million typos that Im sure are in this). Gimme a day or two and Ill post a bunch of sources to go check out about Seminole communities, chickees and architecture.

[sinensis26]

[sinensis26]

As a reminder to those Americans who dont remember this: taxes are where we all pitch in a little money to pay for bigger stuff. Kids school lunches, libraries, roads and sidewalks. Stuff that makes everyone's lives better. If some folks living here are going through a rough time, they should be able to borrow from that pot of money, and then when things get better they can pay it back with their own taxes.

When everyone is doing better and theres a lot of excess money in the pot, THEN we get to buy toys we dont really need. Like shiny fighter jets and political positions. But we shouldnt buy toys until all those kids have food and the roads are nice and libraries are comfortable.

My kids are in grade school, and learning about Wants vs. Needs. I think we need to send some of our politicians back to elementary school for a refresher on this stuff.

[sinensis26]

"If you really understand a concept,you can explain it to a child!"

Dude, explaining complex concepts to kids is easy. Use small words and they will absorb everything. The tricky thing is explaining them to adults- it requires fighting through layers of ego and assumption to get a point across.

[sinensis26]

At this point Id accept "Read more than the first AI generated Google Search".

[sinensis26]

Getting REAL tired of people accusing me of not being a real scientist because I wont debate the (wrong) fun facts they found online. Buddy, I spend my days defending my work to PEER reviews, people who do what I do and make very valid points. You are not my peer, youre a troll.

[sinensis26]

I think cis people should also be their gender of choice. Like, if you're a man, you should get to really enjoy being a man- have fun with it! If you're a woman, take the parts of womanhood that really deeply make you happy. If being a little androgynous or ambiguous or hidden is the part that really makes you happy, you don't have to be trans for that. If you wanna lean really hard into being femme or masc- do it! You have one life in your body, do what makes you happy. Ditch the stuff you don't like.

My sinister queer agenda is I think that everyone should be the gender they like in the way they like it.

[sinensis26]

As someone who works with social history for a living, I feel like I’m the aggressive opposite of an anti-vaxxer

I fucking LOVE vaccines, friends. Give me the science stab. I’m so ready. it’s a beautiful day to not die of a Bajillion and one diseases that carried off like half the population before they had even reached age 10, and a significant portion before they made it to old age, 150 years ago

I go to the old cemetery. I see the vast numbers of infant and child and young adult graves. And then I go to my doctor and get injected with Potion of Fuck That Noise. This is beautiful and miraculous and I do not remotely understand how some people can reject it – not just for themselves, but for their children