#and its actually affordable :“)

[inkskinned]

it is totally okay to be hurt and tired and fed up with the american schooling system but i need you to understand that we need to be better about loudly and routinely defending public education.

yes, many teachers suck, many schools utterly suck. i also got bullied and was absolutely not given the right support for my needs. i am not defending public education because it was kind to me. i am defending it because it needs to exist.

right-wing republicans do not want an educated population. they want kids to be homeschooled or in private school. there is a huge religious undertone to this.

the most common argument is that despite high costs, the "result" is not "good" enough. they point to failing schools as proof that public education is just never going to work out. there will be arguments made here that you actually agree with: that teachers can be bullies, that we taught online for 2 years and still charged the same amount of tuition, that we have no recourse for students to actually have agency or a voice, and that schools are now unsafe for kids due to risk of illness and gun violence.

these are all placing the blame in a fraudulent way, one intended to get your parents to homeschool you. the less kids in a school, the less federally-awarded funding for that school, the less any school succeeds. they will not mention the fact it is their legislation that takes away important funding opportunities, that teachers are living at or below the poverty line, that buildings are not kept up to code, that administration is overpaid and forces specific curriculums, that corporations like (my personal enemy) Pearson Education control certain classroom goals because teachers can't afford other options. they pretend to be ignorant of the gun violence and say "oh just get a gun" - but these are the same people who will be sending their child to a private school with a bulletproof backpack. they don't care if your kid dies, though. they "don't believe" in covid, but they did get their kid vaccinated, because of course they did.

it is a closed loop. conservative parents hear the fearmongering and remove children from the system. frequently these parents are also deeply religious. the kids are raised without access to other media & learn to parrot their parents. you have now created a new generation of conservatives. additionally, one of the parents/caregivers must stay home and homeschool the children, usually for free. i will give you 1 guess which parent tends to stay home to homeschool the children. these parents are encouraged to have many, many children. those children are most likely not getting access to safe sex ed.

we might laugh at fox news suggesting teachers are forcing children to use kitty litter but: first of all, there is kitty litter in the classroom. it's part of an emergency kit in case children are locked in due to a shooter. so that's fucking dystopian, and the fact they've completely reimagined the scenario to somehow make the teachers look bad when it's instead a fucking huge symbol of our failure as a country to protect our children.... it feels a little intentional.

secondly: don't just dismiss the situation. because, yeah, obviously, no teacher is encouraging kids to be a catboy. but the actual undertone that fox news is trying to sew is an outright distrust of teachers and of public education. they rely on the dehumanization of trans people as a common touchstone to hide the fact they're pushing two agendas at once. (which is ironic. because the thing they accuse teachers of. is pushing. an agenda.)

whenever someone tells you they want you to read less, you should be suspicious of that. when someone tries to separate you and your education, you should be suspicious of that. i don't even like incel rhetoric nor would i want my kids exposed to it - but i would not take away my child's (age-appropriate) access to the internet. i would just provide more educational materials, not less. the difference here is that i believe we can resolve ignorance with knowledge; whereas conservatives believe that ignorance is bliss.

they misappropriate funding and demonize teachers. they pull the same trick each time - the same thing we are seeing with anti-trans rhetoric. they do not want you to have access to safe sex ed, so they act horrified, claim sex ed teaches you how to thrust deep, claim that we have no idea what "age-appropriate" means. since the mid-nineties, the united states has spent at least 2 billion dollars on abstinence-only education, even though to quote the above link: "a preponderance of studies has found no effect of abstinence education at reducing adolescent pregnancy". conservatives want you to think less of any person struggling with addiction so they can continue their racist "war on drugs", so they spend up to $750 million dollars a year on the DARE program which has absolutely no effect. acting like teachers "must" be "grooming" children is just the same thing - so they can demand that funding either goes to their causes or the funding doesn't "exist" ("i'm not paying for our kids to learn that thing!")

and they want you to feel uncaring about this. they are aware that you will hate some parts of your school experience. pretty much everyone does. they want to lean into the parts that you hate so that you don't put up a fight about it when they take it away for not being "good enough."

i know i maybe sound like a conspiracy theorist. but truly. truly. it is beneficial for conservatives to reduce your faith in the american public schooling system.

one of the explicitly stated campaign promises of the conservative party: to axe the Department of Education in 2024.

i know we are all tired and burnt out and there is so much else wrong with their entire platform. but maybe just - pay attention to this one.

[basedjamil]

anyone done this yet

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but the irony of Nico calling Max unprofessional is sending me so bad like sir there's an entire garage full of people, who were literally in the trenches trying to survive the Brocedes fallout while just doing their jobs, who might have a few things to say about your (& Lewis') level of professionalism at that time 😭✋️

[bolithesenate]

Satine Kryze should not be a sympathetic character.

A complex and tragic one? Sure. Every day of the week.

But she did not 'have a point', neither in-universe, not outside of the sw framework. She isn't a hero, neither of her own story, nor of someone else's. There is no way she wasn't a tool. You should not look at her and think 'this woman has done nothing wrong and what ultimately happened to Mandalore was to no part her fault'.

Because guys. Friends. Strangers on the interwebs.

Pacifism doesn't work.

And it certainly wouldn't have worked in motherfucking Star Wars – the 'wars' is literally in the title – for a system or series of systems who wanted to stay neutral.

YOU DON'T STAY NEUTRAL FOR LONG BY JUST SAYING 'YEAH, NO THANKS <3' TO A LARGE-SCALE CONFLICT.

source: I am Swiss, we've looked at this in history class. Extensively.

Satine was a dreamer (thanks Obi-Wan) who was allowed to keep her delusions because they actively benefitted Palpatine's plans. And that's something you can quote me on. There is literally no other reason (apart from supremely bad writing but we'll leave that aside here) for her and her little friends' 'Alliance of Neutral Systems' or whatever to be allowed to exist.

Not that they were neutral in any way, shape or form, by the way.

So yeah sorry to the Satine stans, but you're idolizing a character that was written exclusively and specifically for Obi-Wan's manpain and who, in-universe, was a supremely bad politician. Because the level of mental dissonace needed to factually be a Republic System, have a seat in the fucking Republic Senate, rely upon their military for aid while actively proclaiming that All Violence Is Bad And Barbaric one sentence later AND THEN CLAIM TO BE NEUTRAL IN THE WHOLE CONFLICT – it's just mind-blowing. Even moreso that people actually look at this character and see something aspirational in her.

Again, I'll gladly dissect her character any day of the week. She is fascinating because of all the implications her existence as a head of state carries with it, as well as her deeply complicated family history and her relation to mandalorian culture.

But it just grates on me personally that that all gets ignored in favor of her being some sort of icon of white american saviorism (bc that's literally what she is) and her objectively bad political takes being treated like they are the only correct stance to be taken during the Clone Wars/Mandalorian Civil Wars.

If you think pacifism works and actually lets you stay neutral, I desperately urge you to open a history book. Because those two are mutually exclusive. Especially in the scenario that Star Wars paints.

[somedecrepitcryptid]

My last wip before my pen kicked it.

-I love drawing Mac (and another monkey👀) in modern clothes

[wurmwizzard]

he is now........ 3D!!! plus fun little dangle earring i fixed up with a charm and a loose thread ❤️🃏

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Also would like to say, outside of tags on someone else's posts, that most poor people are not paying full price for fancy smartphones. They're getting those phones through trade-in programs or "sign up for this service and get a free phone" things, they're buying discounted or discontinued phones that look fancy but work like shit, or they're doing payment plans (usually for an already discounted phone).

[cozylittleartblog]

swatchvember prompt: party

happy 37th birthday to Microsoft Paint ✨🎂🎉🎈

[stardust-falling]

Unfortunately, I am once again asking for assistance.

Due to several factors I don't really want to talk about, I've suffered a series of mental health episodes over the past few weeks that have left me, quite frankly, in the worst state since... basically before I started working on trauma recovery. I've come pretty close to being hospitalized a few times, but aside from the additional trauma that might incur, I also just simply couldn't afford it.

My ability to work an outside job was already limited by my C/PTSD among other things, but for right now, I can't even think about picking up a shift without having a panic attack. I can still force myself to do things if necessary, but... honestly I really need to be able to not do that, at least for a little while until I can get back on track.

Unfortunately, I can't afford to take a break with no income. A few surprise expenses came up recently which very nearly brought everything crashing down. It's only thanks to the support of my followers and fans that we were able to scrape by, but right now there's no buffer whatsoever. My partner's already working as much as he can, and almost his entire paycheck is going to rent payments and other bills. I can't ask him to work even more to cover my expenses as well.

Last month, I had to skip getting a prescription filled. I can't do that again. My cats are more than six months past due for their shots just because we can't afford it, and I'm stressed every day that I might lose them because of this. They are my literal lifeline.

To cover my own expenses, I need a bare minimum of $600 USD a month, broken down as follows:

Medication: $100

Medical Debt Bills: $300 (total $6000)

Credit Card Bills: $100 (total $3500)

Utility Bills: $100

This is just literally what I can't afford to stop paying no matter what, it doesn't cover groceries or gas, and I also need an additional one-time $500 to take my cats to the vet.

Any percentage of this that I can make through ko-fi tips, donations, requests, and patreon pledges is more time I don't have to spend forcing myself through panic attacks and hallucinations to work an outside job.

I'm hoping to get to a more stable place both mentally and financially eventually, but for now... I'm stuck. I'm stuck and it scares me. I want to heal, but right now it's like all the work I've already done and the progress I've made is evaporating. I'm struggling to keep up with even the most basic daily tasks, let alone my creativity and emotional well-being.

If you can help support me, I'm really, really grateful. The best way to do so would be through joining my Patreon, but really anything helps. I have some requests open on my ko-fi if you'd like to get something out of it, and here is a link to donate directly to my Paypal if you'd prefer that. I'm not really in a stable-enough place to make a full commitment right now, but if you leave a note with your donation that includes your url and a character name (or just a character on ko-fi), then I'll do a little doodle for you as thanks once I... am not struggling so much with the urge to delete myself from existing.

Thank you.

[empressburbey]

Throughout the books, airplane bro or as I would like to call him Airplane-nim reminds me of that one scene from Doom at you Service. Where basically the fl Tak Dongkyun (an editor or like a manager for a web novel company) attends the funeral of one of the authors grandfather's. His name is Siberia btw.

And Siberia tells how bad he feels that he never really told his grandfather what he writes, because he felt shy of his work. Eventhough his grandpa was proud that his grandson is an author. And the Dongkyung just tells the author that he would have been proud of his works. And the author gets excited and just goes, "Like 'You were never just a friend to me'?" and the editor shakes her head. Because no, this three star bl novel is not his best work. Not even close. And she names the novel she likes. But the author again mentions another whacky 1 star rated novel. And she gets frustrated, "See, this is why you can't rank high because the stories you like, nobody else likes"

That's so cucumber and airplane coded.

Because imagine a world where Cucumber turns from hater to manager/editor of Airplane. And he just has to constantly tell his ideas off. "No this will make a plot hole, no it will only confuse the reader, for fucks sake how many chapters long does this porn scene have to last?"

And they have a similar conversation at Airplanes relative's funeral.

Then Shen Yuan dies out of frustration of too much work load. Since he has to constantly edit the plot holes and what not. But Airplane writes like Turbo the snail crawls. Too many chapters in one day.

And then the conversation happens again.

Imagine Shen Yuan dies because of work. Whatever, he goes back to Luo Binghe, chokes on anger, whatever the reason. He dies. And a

Airplane goes to his funeral with his friend or something. Airplane goes there for friend reasons? Hometown reason? They've been through thick and thin? Idk, he goes there. He looks at Shen Yuans photo and just tells his friend, "Man. Maybe I should quit writing. It's so terrible that Cucumber-bro left so many hate comments in my drafts. And then he even died of out of sheer anger".

And the friend goes, "Noo. Shen Yuan was probably very proud of your works". And Qinghua just looks into the distance for a moment and thinks, "Like Proud Immortal Demon Way?"

"No, more like your previous works", the friend shakes their head.

This is so random and such a raw idea. I'm not sure how it would actually look like.

[calypsolemon]

If i am totally honest I kind of don't like how harsh some of the fandom is at Greg sometimes for being literally homeless and having a magical gem son at the same time. For sure there are places where Greg actually messed up but I feel like in the case of Steven partially growing up in a van and not really having access to medical care and lacking structure because of it is like. Homeless and poor people have kids and its not a moral failing on their part for our society not helping them meet their needs, yknow?

[ratajota]

i'm pretty sure someone ghosted me after getting the sketch for their comm inquiry last month

[fyresnow]

So I may have made an absolutely terrible decision…. I have been hearing the siren song of the loom and I was not strong enough to turn away 😔 I really want a floor loom, but we have no space for one. So I got a table loom instead. Unfortunately, we have no space for this table loom either… I have no idea where I’m going to put it- hence why it’s terrible decision. It’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It’s currently on my sewing cutting table, but it can’t stay there. (Check out the angle it's bending my table at!) I don’t want to make it my roommates’ problem, but my craft room is an oversized walk in closet. There’s barely enough space to turn around in it. I don’t know what to do /: I don’t know where I can put it to actually weave. This table is too tall for me to weave while seated. why did I do this to myself. why couldn’t I be strong and resist the call of the loom.

but I found this for a super good deal! I was really lucky to find it! It came with books and a warping board and some yarn. It’s a Leclerc Medico that was made in 1974! a 4 shaft table loom that’s 22” wide. I’m really excited :3 I can weave fabric!! I mostly want to make yardage for sewing clothes out of.

I started warping it with the yarn that came with it- which is some 3/2 cotton yarn. I’m hoping it will turn into placemats. But I’m?? confused?? I have no idea what I’m doing. The books that came with it don’t actually have enough information to be helpful to a complete beginner. Even though they’re all called some variation of “weaving for beginners”. I am so completely lost. A lot of internet resources are on more modern looms or rigid heddle or floor looms or assume you have a raddle. I can’t find much for vintage table looms. Let alone for this specific model. So I’m sure I’m fucking this up. But here we go anyway.

[wonkyradio]

(Don't worry, it's decaf)

You don't understand, Adam, this patient's post-op report won't write itself.

[chemos-factories]

Hs2k fulgrim in a date/concert oufit? :3

hs2k fulgrim says: remember! the best eyeliner is the one you slept in last night!

[adustoflove]

"Suffering isn't a competition." You're just saying that cause you're losing