#“waste their time 2016” but it's 2024 and you're wasting your own time

[malaierba]

Oh my god

I'm actually an idiot

Part of my motivation to stay in this company was that I have freedom (IN THEORY) to prospect any potential client I want

And very early on I was like. I like sports supplements. I know a lot about em. Let's enter that market.

Welp, just noticed that one of the industries we can't work with due to *waves hand* legal reasons is "nutraceuticals", which in Spanish usually only encompasses herbal supplements and nootropics.

Guess what it also encompasses in English though! 🙃

[reallystellacadente]

I Really Don't Want to Die, and Why

I need to make something ENTIRELY clear: Donald Trump needs to be defeated BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

ANY. FUCKING. MEANS. NECESSARY.

The rest is below the cut because it's long and personal. The tl;dr, though is if you cannot abide me posting that you have to vote for the Democrat in this election, you should probably unfollow me. I'm not all that popular, so blocking is unnecessary but you do you.

That also includes his supporters on Capitol Hill, the incompetents on SCOTUS, and any and all of the Nationalist Christians (Nat C) fascists who support the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 and any other manifestos they have excreted into the public domain.

For me, that means I have to vote for the Democratic nominee for president in 2024. To not vote, or to waste my vote on a useless third party candidate, is to hand a vote to Trump. Go back and check the facts of 2016: Jill Stein voters handed him Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, where I live. Nonvoters who usually voted Democrat who stayed home because of the Email Lady also would have made a difference.

Fine. We fucked around and found out. Hundreds of thousands died. An insurrection happened literally in front of our eyes. And the figurehead behind it all has, to date, gotten away with everything.

Now the Beast is even worse. If Donald Trump gets elected, his policies will LITERALLY COST ME MY LIFE and that of my family. He will take away my healthcare (I am a recent cancer survivor), my pending disability (I cannot walk or stand for more than a few seconds and had to quit my job; this predates and is unrelated to my cancer), my EBT (haven't been able to work more than part-time for a while now, and I do like to eat food) and the pitiful partial Social Security we're living on while my disability is getting approved -- thanks to the GOP, a process that takes a minimum of 6-8 months. I will lose my income and my housing and everything.

I FUCKING DON'T LIKE THAT.

None of this -- ABSOLUTELY NONE OF THIS -- means I support the genocide in Palestine. I have been fighting this fight since the mid-80s and I can get the receipts if you want. I questioned why it was OK to roll tanks onto people who threw stones at them, only to get called a terrorist.

But now, when I am doing the best I can to fight the literal war here where I live, I'm called a white supremacist? Fuck you. I mean, the person sending me messages has been blocked and won't see this, but I'm getting that out into the universe nevertheless.

If you're old enough to navigate this website, you're old enough to curate your own experience here. Unfollow me if me saying "you need to vote for the Democrat" is bothersome. I will accept that it might even be triggering and that's OK, I certainly don't want to actually trigger someone's pain. But sending me threatening messages is bullshit and you know it.

I don't stan politicians and in social media spaces where my real identity is known, and I have stated this many times. Cult of personality sucks no matter who it's about. But all things considered, the Democratic platform/policies/whatever have always been closer to what I want in the place where I live. The GOP? Never in my lifetime.

It's hard for me to reconcile these things, but I know that if Trump wins, it will be even worse for Palestine. And he'll let Putin run rampant through Ukraine, too.

I'm sorry this is what it's come down to. I hope to live long enough to see something change. But we absolutely must defeat Donald Trump.

I want to live.

[livsspecialinterests]

i recently saw a tiktok of a lady talking about trends and how she hoped that parting your hair to the side was going to be back 'in' in 2024 because she always liked the way her hair looks with a side part more than with a centre part and i just...?

this woman looked to be about my age too

babe there are no rules, no consequences to how you part the hair that grows out of your head! side parts were always going to come back 'in', then they'll be 'out' again, then they'll be 'in' again! this shit is cyclical! how are you almost 30 and you haven't figured this out yet?

please, please learn how to differentiate between 'i am deciding to wear xyz/style myself in this certain way because I like how it looks' and the reflex that so many people have to follow trends because they intrinsically know nothing about themselves except how to keep up with hyper consumerist trend cycles for fear of being labelled cheugy by a bunch of 19 year olds on tik tok for wearing a style that's out right now but will be repackaged and sold back to us in literally 3 years time.

also cannot be fucking doing with those smirking influencers telling people how to 'update their look' by, no surprises, buying an entire new wardrobe of slightly updated pieces that'll go out of fashion within a few years.

'hehe millennials, here's how your style is dating you!'

fuck off, Tiffany. i'm almost 30, i dress like i had an emo phase in 2007 that i never fully grew out of. i look and dress like my age and i don't give a shit what you think about that.

im glad I don't dress like a 19 year old! some of those styles look very uncomfortable! if you don't grow a fucking personality, in 10 years time, you're going to be looking back at how you dressed in 2024 and scoffing at how silly you looked! just dress how you want! develop some taste outside of the bounds of what your FYP is telling you looks good! you'll be happier for it I promise!

wearing your old clothes from 2013 is not 'dating' you, it's correctly aging someone, and that's fine! it's also really wasteful to throw out functional clothes that still fit (AND THAT YOU STILL LIKE) just because they're no longer deemed fashionable!

part your hair to the side, wear fucking 2016 instagram makeup if that's your jam, keep your skinny jeans and infinity scarves if that's what you like to wear!

your clothing and fashion should be about self expression, not a display of how well you're able to pull off the 34th microtrend of the year that shows literally nothing about you.

it's fucking soulless consumerism, empty performance.

anyone over the age of 25 should bloody well know better, please do some introspection and try to find your own identity instead of hanging off of the every word of whatever influencer's newest shein haul

stop asking for permission to express yourself.

“Thin brows are back in” “skinny jeans are back” “wolfcuts are out” “this style of eyeshadow is soo trendy right now” “big asses are out, slim figures are in”

Hey do you guys ever make your own decisions or form your own ideas on how you would personally like to look that’s not based around what’s currently being sold to you. Is that not possible

[josiebelladonna]

okay. so, how my "summer vacation" is going to work is like this:

it'll be from memorial day to labor day, akin to how summer vacations used to go from decades before. all the times i'd hear my parents talk about me and my generation basically getting ripped off from summer vacation growing up as it would start in the first week of june and go to sometime in the middle of august: i have a friend, her daughters started school august 1 some five years ago. barely a vacation for anything, and it kind of makes you realize that you never hear about summer camp anymore.

i (mostly) sign off everywhere but here. i say "most" because i've got notifications switched on for certain people on instagram (alex, eric, testament's official page, nate, matt, joey, krista, jeff/possessed, friends i've made over there).

but i'm going quiet on facebook starting memorial day save for a couple of groups, a private food group that i'm part of with my dad, my stepmother, and their friends, and believe it or not, but the one 90s alt rock group that isn't batshit insane: i won't post on my story or share anything on my tl. i'll just post the rest of my mermay around the world drawings on memorial day and bounce. not that anyone's going to see them, anyway.

i'll be deleting the threads app from my ipad on the 31st, or when the dublin prompt goes up.

i won't reblog anything here on main but i'll be on my art blog, the fic blog, and my cooking/baking/food blog. i blocked all the palestine-related/anti-israel/antisemitic tags on here a while back but i'm really going to be blocking them now (fuck you idiots, seriously; this is #1 reason why i'm doing this, i cannot take any of you and your toxic waste. really, does it feel good to be wallowing in lakes of your own feces as you're erasing history?).

as time frees up, i'm going to be writing and making art a lot more, just like when i was in the dark for nearly 2 years from 2016 to 2018. i made so much back then, and i'm looking forward to doing it again for the summer.

i tried doing this back in january, to go quiet for the entire year of 2024, and i couldn't do it. it started with the permanently vacant look on alex's face, to the point it actually had me worried and... cracking my knuckles, too, and then my mom got sick and i realized i couldn't afford to not stay quiet.

now, it's like: you tried to take my mom from me, you tried to take my dad from me, you broke the love of my life's heart by taking his dad from him (and i'm trying so hard to not let my imagination run wild because i have seasons grey for that), you tried to take my house, you took all my money, you're trying to take my animals from me, you completely shattered the relationship between my mom and my brother for literally no reason, i found out my brother's abusive and likes to demonize me (he actually said to my mom "i won't give hannah money if it's going to enable the two of you". "enable". he thinks that we're drug users. plus, he made it all about himself when the entire point of gofundme is bring everyone into the fold; he's more delusional than the pro-pal people) and a monthly drawing challenge i used to love has become the biggest crock of shit. i need a fucking vacation.

"i need a fucking vacation" was the sentiment that started all of this. i wasn't able to go to monterey this year for my birthday because of my mom's blood clots + the property taxes. all of 10 people sent me a birthday wish (and i used to get dozens, too!), and in fact, i'm lucky to get any interactions anymore and it's at the point now where i start to wonder "what the hell is even the point?". i started the gofundme after my birthday and it started the chain reaction between my mom and my brother. it all started with my birthday.

well, no, it actually started further back than that. it started with kinktober 2023, the thing that just about killed me. feeling vulnerable (and not in a good way) and exposed. feeling like i was doing something wrong for writing things that are *supposed to be* erotic when the whole already-fractured world began to fragment even more. feeling like i was doing something wrong for participating when i should've made my raison d'etre all about the i/p conflict like everyone else (that's the other thing i despise about pro-pal people, aside from the fact they've traded their swastikas for keffiyehs: the guilt-tripping). feeling like i was doing something wrong for writing things upwards of 3k words when others were doing drabbles and involving "you" and being the artist, i couldn't help but compare myself. feeling like i was doing something wrong for craving things that stimulate the senses and to fucking hell with being simply horny. feeling like i was/still am doing something wrong for being attracted to a guy whom i never met, lives thousands of miles from me, is with someone else (who i really don't like, don't trust if it saved the world, and don't understand the appeal of), and probably wouldn't like me if he got to know me personally, either. my ben shepherd era left some particularly deep scars on me. feeling like i was doing something wrong for having different kinks. the fact the sheeple were flocking to just one person didn't help, either (i also admonish this with the organizers of mermay, too, the honestly gross way they flock to adam_is_arting when... he's really not that good? it's competent, but that's about it. it looks like the work of every other artist on instagram right now so i really just don't get it). "they're the sexy ones, not me."

if you're going to support someone and their openness i'd say with their sexuality, do it for other people trying to do the same thing. you might *think* this isn't a competition but your playing favorites tells a different story.

your playing favorites and leaving those whom you claim to support behind in the weeds tells my lizard brain that it is.

it really doesn't feel like there's any room for me and no one will be honest about it. it should make sense that i feel my mental health beginning to slip.

my birthday was kind of a catalyst.

...

i need a fucking vacation.

[yhwhrulz]

Today's Daily Encounter Monday, May 13, 2024

Secret Sacrifices

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.1

The Cambridge Dictionary defines Motherhood as: "the state or time of being a mother."

The Los Angeles Times once said: "In too many of the stories we tell ourselves, motherhood, parenthood, is what makes us whole." The Huffington Post added: "There is no doubt about how motherhood changes you"; and "The joys of motherhood are well worth the little agonies -- or so the story goes". The Bible says: "Children are God's love-gift; they are heaven's generous reward." – Psalm 127:3 (The Passion Translation)

You can probably put your own words to "Motherhood" and they may include things like: "sleepless nights", "hard work", "fear of failure" or "so much sacrifice". When you first began your journey into Motherhood, it seemed that EVERYONE had a word of "encouragement" for you, and although help was appreciated, empty words were not. Even the devil had a word — less encouraging and more like a temptation — for you. When no one saw how much effort it took for us to get from one day to the next, we would hear his ugly voice: All that sacrifice and no one even notices, what you're doing must not matter at all.

Fellow Mother, I am here today to tell you: Yes, it did matter! You stayed up many late nights, cried many tired tears, kissed your share of ouchies, and hugged and cradled until your arms ached. Every single one of your secret sacrifices have been noticed by the One who granted you this highest of rewards, preparing you for your "eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison"! In a world where you can get instant praise or criticism by posting your "sacrifices" on social media, let us not forget that we were made to delight in Jesus, the one who demonstrated perfectly what it means to give up life for another, and we don't have to trade the temporal satisfaction of being noticed for the eternal glory that is to come.

So Mothers, as we wipe another mess, make another meal, lose sleep, or wonder if this quiet work matters at all, we can take hold of delight — not just in the affection we feel for our precious children, but also in the truth that serving them matters to our God. Our secret sacrifices are important to Him. In every moment, HE is with us. HE is in us. HE hears us. HE sees us. It's not a secret that HE is working out his purposes in a thousand ways and YOU, Mother, will be blessed! Happy Mother's Day and may God continue to pour out His blessings over your life.

Suggested Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, today I lift to you every Mother out there, myself included, and ask that you fill us with your wisdom and strength as we raise these children that you hand-picked for us to love. Allow our sacrifices to mirror Yours, selfless and full of love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (ESV).

Today's Encounter was written by: Veronica B.

NOTE: If you would like to accept God's forgiveness for all your sins and His invitation for a full pardon Click on: http://www.actsweb.org/invitation.php. Or if you would like to re-commit your life to Jesus Christ, please click on http://www.actsweb.org/decision.php to note this.

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