#but he needs more money and i can help by contributing more financially

[they-breasted-boobily]

had my first shift at a job i got to make sure i can afford to... live. through this year and it sucked so fucking bad there is no way i am able to do it

[lexirosewrites]

Slick Sunday!

Since you're making the move to be a middle school teacher and I myself am in the process of getting my license and doing my student teaching I've been thinking about Teacher Alpha Eddie and Family Resource Room Coordinator Omega Steve this week.

Steve who doesn't get into any colleges and doesn't really have the desire to pursue college anyway but wants to support the pups he babysits (the party) when they make the transition to middle school (they're a couple years younger than in canon for plot reasons) so he uses his parent's money to donate some new equipment for the AV Club and some board games the kids like for the library.

To his surprise, his parents are completely fine with this development because they can mark those off as charitable donations for tax purposes so Steve just...keeps doing it. His parents aren't really around and the pups are the only pack he really has since he stopped hanging around Tommy, Carol, and the rest of his jock friends in his Junior year so he's extra attached to them, and sometimes his instincts so a little haywire and he's prone to overdoing it when it comes to taking care of his pack.

So he starts spending more and more money on the school. New desks and science equipment and books and he starts to think, hey, I've been trying to think of ways to help the Byers, Hendersons, and Mayfeilds who struggle financially sometimes but they never let me, what if I just...let them think the school is providing resources for families without my contributions. So he does. He starts a food pantry and a clothing closet and starts going out to meet people in the community who provide other family support services and makes a resource kiosk for the office with flyers and applications for family services.

Eventually, the school reaches out and offers him an office and a small salary to do his work full time since at this point his parents are still making him work a part-time job so imagine what he could do full time! He jumps on the offer and gets to spend his days applying for grants and helping families and pups who need him and he feels like he finally has a purpose. He moves out of his parents' house and stops using their money and finally feels content with himself even if he doesn't have the mate and pups he dreamed of having at this stage in his life.

Que the hiring of one Eddie Munson at Hawkins Middle following a failed try at the rockstar life in Chicago. He crashed and burned hard and he's come home to lick his wounds in the familiar comfort of his uncle and only pack mate Wayne's home. He sulks for a good couple of months before Wayne pulls him up out of his depression den by the ear and formally introduces him to the Omega he's been courting for the past year, Scott Clarke, who works at the middle school and is helping set up an after school music program at the school and has recommended Eddie as the guitar instructor.

Eddie is hesitant at first. School and him don't exactly have the best relationship but he agrees to come to an informal meeting with all the potential instructors and he is surprised to find that they are all really cool actually. Chrissy is sweet and excellent at the piano and Robin is a total badass and can apparently play just about any brass or wind instrument out there. The thing that seals the deal though is the arrival of an absolutely stunning Omega. He's tall and built with freckles and beauty marks placed by the hand of a loving god all across his body and Eddie is immediately smitten. He is disappointed to learn that he won't be one of the instructors and is just stopping in to pick up Robin to take her home to their shared apartment, but his hope is renewed when they leave the room and Chrissy leans over to tell him the mystery man, who he discovers is named Steve, works in the school and is single.

He accepts the job before he leaves the building.

I could go on and on but this is already long so I'll leave it here lol.

this so sweet i’m gonna die😭😭😭💕

[ahmedalarabid]

!!! EMERGENCY SUPPORT FOR SAVING A FAMILY!!!

🚨

Hello , I am Ahmed Hashim Al-Arabid. I am 25 years old. I was born in Gaza and I live in Gaza ,I graduated from Al-Azhar University in Gaza with a major in mechatronics engineering. I studied the English language and worked in several fields.

Now, we are striving to rebuild our lives after the war came on Gaza and wiped out everything. It wiped out people, dreams, and life. Nothing remains but ashes. The war began and the smell of death and fear began to spread everywhere. I fled with my family from north to south in search of safety, security, food and drink. We saw things that the eye had not seen and had not occurred to a human heart. The terrifying and disgraceful machine of destruction did not leave anything human, tree or stone left. Or an animal without destroying it. Let me describe to you life in Gaza. It is like a small hot iron cage in a narrow opened grave that cannot accommodate two people. This cage is thrown with flaming lava in different shapes and types, and birds throw food on it from their mouths in order to quench some of their hunger. And in this The cage is a small hole. It is possible for you to survive all of this if you get out of it, but getting out of it will cost you a lot. It will cost you to forget your quiet and simple life and forget your dreams and ambitions for which you worked and toiled. It will cost you money that you cannot afford, so I created this link for your contribution to saving what It can be saved for someone who has ambition, a love of life, and dreams that he wants to achieve, and wants to complete his education in order to be more successful. I ask you to help and contribute to supporting me in order to leave the stricken Gaza Strip and continue my life away from wars.

Donation Goal:

Our goal is to collect the necessary amount to evacuate from Rafah border to Egypt. The money raised will be used to pay the travel company in charge of evacuation. This means the necessary financial support to rebuild our lives and secure the basic needs for me and my family.

How You Can Help:

We need your support to achieve this goal. You can contribute in any way you find appropriate, as every effort makes a meaningful impact and contributes to making a real difference, through:

Financial donation: You can contribute any amount you deem suitable through this page.

Campaign sharing: Help raise awareness about the campaign by sharing it on social media and with anyone who can assist.

Provide any other support that can help achieve this goal and be a support to us.

[camryn-aisling]

Last July, I had my first colonoscopy at the age of 26. I was suffering from dysregularity, frequent diarrhea, and cramping. At the time, the diagnosis was post-infection irritable bowel syndrome caused by some form of infectious colitis.

Unfortunately, over the course of the following year, my symptoms gradually intensified and eventually became largely unresponsive to lifestyle-change-based treatment. It's gotten to the point that, for the past two months, I've been having to rely on max dose immodium to maintaining a semblance of normality in the bathroom.

Thinking that perhaps he had misdiagnosed ulcerative colitis, my gastroenterologist prescribed a course of budesonide. Sadly, it was completely ineffectual. As such, I was scheduled for yet another colonoscopy.

A few days ago, on June 20th, less than a year after my first one, I had the second colonoscopy of my life. Many more biopsies were taken this time. I haven't yet gotten the results. Frankly, I'm terrified of what they might find.

To add insult to injury, my insurance has a massive deductible, so I'm on the hook financially for pretty much the entire procedure.

I don't yet know what the total cost will be. Last time, it was about five thousand dollars. With all the extra biopsies this time, it might be a bit more, but I won't know what the pathology bill is for a while.

I've been running a fundraising campaign on other sites since June 11th and have managed to raise a decent amount of money.

Unfortunately, donations seem to have stalled at $2,987.18, a little over $2,000 short of our $5,000 goal.

Thus, I have come to beseech thee, tumblr. I need thy aid. Please help me however you can. For those of you who can afford to spare some money, direct contributions are greatly and sincerely appreciated. If you aren't able to donate, then I ask that you please share this post with as many friends, associates, and acquaintances as you can.

If you'd like to donate, you can use either paypal or cashapp:

https://paypal.me/camrynaisling (please ignore the deadname)

https://cash.app/$CamrynAisling

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Let's go!

[lonniemachin]

Hamza’s brother Zain reached out to me to help share Hamza’s fundraiser. Hamza is a Palestinian nurse urgently raising money to help evacuate he and his family from Rafah. He has only made $2,129 out of his $35,000 goal! Please share and donate, and if you can’t donate, please still share!

Hamza’s Twitter/X account: @almofty_hamza

From Hamza’s GFM:

Hi, my name is Hamza, and I am raising funds to rebuild my family's home and support my loved ones during this war.

As you may already know, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. I have lost more than a hundred relatives, many still missing, and my family trapped in Gaza can attest to countless more coworkers, community members, and friends they have seen killed firsthand.

Prior to the war, I was an active member of the community. I have a passion for helping others, and for this reason, I was a nurse practicing in hospitals around Gaza. Outside of nursing, I was also a volleyball player for the Palestinian national team. After the war broke out, I volunteered at hospitals to treat those injured in the airstrikes until I was forced to stop to move with his family.

My brother, Zein El Dein, had taken courses in web development and dreamt of becoming a programmer. His dreams were cut short after the school he went to was destroyed and flipped his entire life around.

My sister, Islam, earned top marks in school that landed her in a program for engineering at her local university. Her studies were paused during the war, and with the bombardment of that university, she is trying to find somewhere outside of Gaza to continue her education and pursuit of that dream.

Omar and Mariam are both children who were still in grade school when the war broke out. Their education was not only put on pause, but were forced to grow up and try to understand why they were being displaced, why they struggled to get food, and why their friends and neighbors were being killed in airstrikes.

My father, Talaat, was pursuing a PHD in nursing at the time the war broke out. The university has been destroyed, and he has been trying to take care of his family since.

We are currently staying in Rafah, and below are pictures of my original home, now destroyed.

Many of the people that used to be around me are either confirmed dead, missing because they are trapped under the rubble, or displaced just like us. These are people who played alongside me on the national team, classmates who were pursuing their passion for nursing just like I was, and people who volunteered at hospitals when the war broke out.

Losing so many of the close friends each of us had to this war has only added to the suffering of the destruction of our home and our displacement to the refugee camps in Rafah.

As you can imagine, I cannot watch my family continue to be in this miserable condition after we lost what was everything. So, I turn to this fundraiser, and to the global community to rebuild what was destroyed and relieve my family of their suffering with financial support.

Please donate generously, share this widely, and pray for their safety and evacuation. Anything helps, and all contributions, no matter the sum, bring us closer to the goal of achieving our dream.

Thank you, salam

[maream2636]

2024.14.9

I'm already in the middle of the day but I wanted to share my schedule with you and also maybe you'll be interested in the things I follow

Exercising (I've made a schedule to measure my progress instead of relying on motivation and a scale and the most important thing is that it's reasonable and doable)

.Searching for a program or plan to improve my English (I really need that)

Walking 1000 steps (it's the most enjoyable thing in my day)

Watching videos about the law of attraction (I need to know it if I want to achieve faster results)

Watching my series (Love next to you and DNA lover and another series I forgot the name of and if I don't find any new episodes I will message one of my friends because the social aspect is almost abandoned)

Yesterday I watched an video about there are people who put in a lot of effort but their reality doesn't change and the reason is that the effort is scattered and not measurable and does not serve the change you want so before you start anything ask yourself

Why do I want to change it?

How do I measure it?

And what are the ways that will help me change it?

When you come across a paid course or educational video, ask yourself if it will serve your goal or is it a waste of your time that you can do later?

Know what you want to change! The most important thing is to believe that you can change it. Get out of the victim mentality and the image of a failure in your head because you are not like that and do it for yourself.

Let me tell you the purpose of the goal is more important than the goal itself.

Do you want to become a doctor for money or to help others?

Do you want to become a businessman for money? Or to improve something in a country and provide a service?

Do you want to lose weight so that people say you are beautiful? Or because you care about your health and fitness?

Someone might say I have the right to want money! Yes, this is true, you have the right, but do you think that the second option from all the examples I mentioned does not bring money?

The difference is that a Purpose paves the way for the goal , and it is beneficial to others. Why are there those who work hard but do not succeed? Because they only want to take, while a successful person takes and gives, whether it is a financial contribution or a word that changes a person's life or they builds a house for their parents, regardless of whether he/she is a bad or good person thay are gives!(I know some will say that there are corrupt successful people).

I wanted to share what I learned maybe it will light someone his /her light bulb and if you don't believe me have you good day.

[rvbrebooted]

I think it's time I posted our business plan on here. But first I want to say that my LLC is Rancher Toads

Warner Brothers owns the Red vs Blue IP which is a big hurdle, but someone bigger than them owns HALO. Microsoft and Halo Studios (formerly 343 Industries). I bet Halo Studios is looking for a HALO show that works. Red vs Blue can be that show. It has over a decade of success, started a new form of animation, is an established IP, and has a massive fan base wanting more. But first we need to open a path with Microsoft and Halo Studios. However, we will not rely on Microsoft to be more than a sponsor and partner. Having a bigger parent company owning our smaller studio is too risky. My plan is:

Depending on how much Warner Media will be selling the rights for, we may need Microsoft to help get the rights back from Warner Media, which will cost them a pretty penny. But it will be a wise investment as they will get product placement, a percentage of profit, free advertisement for HALO, a successful HALO based show, and a good PR campaign about supporting creatives. Another financial bonus for them may be that when big companies take on some debt, it helps them pay even less in taxes. Which will save them money.

Meanwhile, to pay for operation costs and possibly even getting the rights back, we will do a Kickstarter. Death Battle got funded within a day of their campaign. They set their goal as $75,000 (USD), and by the end of it they made $740,000 (USD)! I have no doubt that Red vs Blue can reach its goal and continue operations. Reward items and future merchandise is a strong suit for my company, Rancher Toads.

Rancher Toads was originally founded when things regarding Rooster Teeth and making animated shows started to change. We want to make the animations that we originally would have pitched to Rooster Teeth. But- Animation is a labor intensive art form, and expensive. This is why we call our business model a reverse hasbro- We sell toys to make animation. (They infamously are known for “Make animation to sell toys”.) Our in house merch includes:

Mod Mods

Short for “Modification Models”, these figurines are posable, interchangeable, and extremely customizable. We want to do Red vs Blue and Halo batches, while providing custom Halo armor options so fans can make their own personal armor. Then with the interchangeable aspect, fans can also make their face claims of who is under the helmet.

Sewed’s Boutique

Sewed’s Boutique is more for fabric based fashion, such as bags, cosplay parts, and the like. A few concepts we have worked on that combine Red vs Blue and Sewed’s Boutique include: An Agent Washington helmet purse that is a 2D front facing image of Wash’s helmet. A Kaikaina “Sister” Grif Cheerleader bag. A Felix helmet purse that is a 2D front facing image of his helmet.

Corrode’s Armory

Corrode’s Armory is an offshoot of Sewed’s Boutique, where we sell more armor and weapon based merchandise. We would love to produce an official HALO armor line. Reasonably, it will start with HALO helmets. The plan is to have them made from two (2) sturdy, yet thin, resin molds. One for the helmet, and one for the visor.

I bring up using resin as I plan to use high quality alternatives to plastic when it comes to armor and figurines. Ridding plastic in all fabrics will be an uphill battle later to come.

Merchandise is not the only thing we want to be involved in when it comes to hopefully continuing Red vs Blue. We want to be involved in the writing. We see Red vs Blue having a canon map that looks like a subway map, or the Hyrule timeline. Our contribution to this messy, but organized, canon map is what we like to call- Red vs Blue ReBooted.

This will take place after Wash was shot, and instead of going on an adventure, the Reds, Blues, and Carolina stay beside Wash as he recovers on Chorus. In a way, it echoes the ending of Season 17, while leaving the canon of Seasons 16 and 17 in the air. We have much more planned out but legally, this proposal will not cover the majority of storyline ideas. But we will say we do have plans for both Meta Tucker and Zero to have proper stories.

We also want Miles Luna to have his chance to make a Mercs spin off series. While Luna has adopted an idea for Felix and Siris from one of our members, we want/plan Miles Luna to have majority creative control on his series.

Shisno Tales, a Red vs Blue anthology. This would be a perfect spot for officially making the Red vs Blue plays Among Us episode. We and our Amphibian Allies have a lot of episode ideas written down and even completed scripts. Shisno Tales will include different animators and forms of animation.

Project Freelancer Remembered. A spin off of seeing Project Freelancer’s early days and how close the Freelancers were before the mind games started.

Blue vs Pink is my own little talking in a box canyon idea. I plan to keep it in Shisno Tales. As there are a lot of show ideas being pitched here. It deals more with gender and sexuality. As Pink Team represents femininity, and Blue Team represents masculinity.

Locus Redemption. A space western. Not in the way that Firefly was, but Locus traveling around the universe trying to make things right after Chorus. A show the reds and blues will make cameos in. I see this as a true M rated show. One thing I want to put in this show is to highlight even more corruption of the UNSC. Specifically, where Locus is out in little known Outposts, that the UNSC is dead serious about occupying, even with great harm to the people originally there.

Circling back to the Mod Mods, the dream is to have these customizable figurines be building blocks for Mod Mod Media. Which would include a life simulator game, a more contained scenario game, and animated crossovers. We imagine most of the crossovers would be like Cartoon Network City bumpers from the 2000’s. But we dream even bigger to make Mod Mod Movies. Especially a Red vs Blue & RWBY crossover, as there should be one. But also to show while owned by different companies, they will always be sister shows. Then of course ones with our own original IPs, I see these as a love letter.

Nothing Rancher Toads plans to do is a cash grab. Bringing back IPs and expanding them is an act of creative love. We are not ready for goodbye, and neither should the creatives who put so much love into it. So please, take us seriously and let us work together. Thank you.

[plusvanity]

Do you have any thoughts or analysis on necrobutcher?

I'm not fond of Jørn nor Jan (Jan is worse in my opinion), but I find it interesting how his friendship with Øystein gradually deteriorated.

I find it easier to part Mayhem in two sides: the ones who cared and were 'in it for real' (Øystein and Pelle) and the ones who were there just to 'pass the time', so to speak.

Musically speaking, he doesn't stand out with anything, he's rather a typical example of a 'basic bassist' and his lyrics were at best mediocre at best.

Now, returning to his personality, he seems rather lazy and disinterested to contribute with anything for the band, I mean, he wrote the lyrics in the beginning but other than that I feel like the hard work of maintaining the band fell on Øystein. This is not too surprising because, after all, Øystein was the leader, and his word was more important than Jørn's at that time. Also Jørn's trivial interests in partying and doing drugs/ smoking weed with Jan inevitably brought them closer to one another.

I don't blame Øystein for losing patience with him because it seems like he drastically changed his priorities after his girlfriend got pregnant (this is understandable though), but basically, it looks like he abandoned the band completely. I'm not here to judge his life's decisions and I won't do it, but Øystein seemed reasonable enough to understand Jørn's struggle, so what I believe that drove them apart was Jørn's lack of motivation to keep playing and coming to rehearsals when the band was in a financial impasse.

He states that he tried to help Pelle with his self-harm behaviour by giving him duller knives that wouldn't do much damage. He also helped Pelle get unemployment benefits from the Norwegian state if I remember things clearly. If he did so, this is the only good thing that I can tell about Jørn (even if by a 'good thing' I refer to something that it's common sense and expected to do for a friend in need, not such an act of charity that he kinda seems to portray, but I digress).

I find it a bit far-fetched that he states how 'he was like Pelle's best friend' or 'Pelle was like a little brother' to him because it is clear that they weren't that close. Pelle talked far more often about Øystein in his letters than he did about Jørn (if he even talked about him at all). But this statement is very expected for someone who lived after half of the band died tragically and is able to speak his own truth, a truth that cannot be verified in any way, shape or form.

What pisses me off is his statement about 'wanting to kill Øystein too' and 'being on his way to do it, but damn, Vikernes did it first'. This is obviously a cheap try to gain attention, shift the story focus on him, put him in a somehow heroic light, and milk the band's history for money even more. I don't believe he was in any way after Øystein. Øystein was probably a long-forgotten name in his mind at that time, but if a great opportunity to remain relevant in the scene occurs, Jørn will be more than ready to come up with such shock-value statements.

I don't like how he says that 'Dead (refferd to his stage name for the shock-value again) liked to fuck with people'. It's just another example of Jørn trying to milk Pelle's story.

'A couple of times I felt like cutting myself too', he says in an interview very firmly, after that he pauses, sighs and tries to come up with a narrative that supports his declaration. It's very obvious that he is not true. Naturally, I wouldn't comment on this particular subject, but the fact that he stated so many shocking facts about him and the band (now that the band is famous, of course) makes me think that most of what he says is said to sell. (on his way to kill Øystein, on his way to harm himself, etc, etc. )

It's hard for me to explain body language especially because my English is bad, but the way he talks and presents himself, he seems chronically tired and disinterested until the opportunity for a few minutes of fame occurs.

The way he talks about 'Dead' being a character who wanted to freak people out is not how one would refers to their friend, but to an soulless icon or a stranger.

This is embarrassingly long now, but this is my take on Jørn. Not the worst name in the story, not the best either.

[justdrawlynn11]

Late Born Sun: Monty’s traits

Ok so you guys know how Vageta somehow inherited his financial intelligence from Monty? Well since Monty helped build Sun, along with giving like- 2 lines of his own code(Moon was struggling with certain parts of Sun’s code, it was minor code that really shouldn’t have contributed too much when it comes to how Sun operates-), Sun got a small few traits from Monty. Specifically a good bit of strength and how to get spaceships and properties for cheap-

This leads to random moments where lil Sun in his plushie-sized bab body has extreme baby grip- like there’s one time where he clings to Monty’s tail and Monty is struggling to get him off. It takes Moon and Glamrock Freddy’s help to pry Sun off-

Sun also just knows where to get a good deal on a spaceship or something, he just knows where to get a good quality spaceship for 50 bucks, with a discount of 15 bucks-

Like Sun and Monty get invited to murder mystery and Funtime Foxy’s there(random character crossover-). And Funtime Foxy or someone else is like, “You don’t look like your related to Monty-”

And Sun’s just like, “I can hook you up with a spaceship for $70.”

Monty quietly points out to Sun that actually it’s only $50, but Sun whispers back telling him he needed pocket money to buy more crafts supplies for the daycare. He calls it ‘interest of introduction’, so yea on occasion buddy’s making deals and making profit-

And Funtime just goes, “Yeah you’re related to him-”

Sun also just starts speaking in a British accent to mess with others for the rest of the game.

This is more so a learned one but because of Monty in this Au primarily using a British accent in public, Sun knows how to switch to a British accent like it’s nothing.

Sun’s a combo of sass and politeness, with joy and pettiness and we love him for it-

(I love silly little details-)

[gabessquishytum]

AU where Dream is a well-known pornstar, but he’s awful with people. Death makes the executive decision to make him communicate with others by forcing him to get a roommate. Dream is angry because he’s an adult who has plenty of money, but Death wears him down.

Hob is a professor who’s a bit down on his luck financially, so he’s looking for a roommate as well. When his friend Death reaches out asking for a favor, he can’t possibly refuse.

They don’t meet each other until Hob is moving in, and his jaw immediately drops when he sees Dream because he recognizes him. Dream is his favorite pornstar and was honestly a huge part of Hob’s bi awakening.

Dealer’s choice how things devolve from there :P

- 🎮 anon

Akskdfjgj yes. The sitcom potential here is so good.

Hob manages to keep a lid on his initial reaction to seeing Dream, and actually acts like a normal human being. He’s surprised by how shy Dream seems to be in real life, and decides there and then that he’ll do anything to make his new roommate comfortable!

Dream quietly says that all he needs is a room that he can soundproof (he doesn’t specify why) and of course Hob cheerfully offers to help! All the time as he’s helping Dream he can’t help but think that he’s making a tiny contribution to the videos that he adores so much. He’s trying so hard to be normal and nice and friendly. Plus with the soundproofing in place, it’s not like he’ll even know if Dream happens to be making content in their shared flat!

Meanwhile Dream is having an equal and opposite crisis! This man is so nice and kind and considerate and Dream is a wreck. He’s the most socially awkward person in the world and god help him, he’s getting turned on by this man being nice to him. Is kindness kink a thing, he wonders? Because apparently he’s developed one. Every time Hob offers to help him with some physical task, or makes him a cup of tea, Dream has a little sensation of arousal racing around his whole body. He’s a hot flustered mess most of the time, but he craves Hob’s presence so much.

They’re both so awkward and ridiculous. Dream eventually reveals that he does porn and Hob acts like a floundering stupid idiot and pretends like he didn’t already know. Hob gets asked on a date by a colleague and Dream sort of accidentally manages to sabotage the whole thing (it wasn’t as much of an accident as he’d ever admit). All the while they sleep in adjacent rooms and do far more wanking than can possibly be healthy for adult men.

Eventually, eventually, they have their first kiss. And Hob pulls away with his cheeks pink and he just has to come clean before it goes any further— “you were the first man I ever wanted to kiss because I saw a video of you sucking a dildo. I wanted your lips on mine instead”

And Dream is like. “Oh. I scared your date away by pretending to be your jealous boyfriend.”

And they live together for the rest of their lives.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for wanting a more traditional wedding?

You know what this blog needs? Bullshit wedding planning drama. I don't think I'm a bridezilla but my fiance is making me feel like I might be.

My (34q) partner (35m) finally proposed after years of us dating and living together. We'd discussed marriage before, and his main hang-ups were that he doesn't feel marriage is necessary after being common-law so long, he doesn't want to spend a lot of money on a big wedding, and while he knows I want to be married, he also wanted to have a cute proposal for me and couldn't find a good way to do it.

Now, about an hour after he proposed, I started jokingly talking about how I can finally get out the wedding binder and he was shocked. I reminded him that proposing means I get to actually plan a wedding now, as opposed to looking at wedding ideas on pinterest, and that he doesn't have to be more involved with it than he wants to be since planning stresses him out (and I live for it).

But now we're a week in, and he's been really resistant to what I think are pretty normal wedding planning ideas, like:

could he pick 2-3 friends to be best man and groomsmen (he doesn't know why we'd bother having bridesmaids/groomsmen for a small wedding)

that we would be picking the suits for them to wear, to match the theme

that if we ask his best friend's daughters (2 and 4) to be flowergirls, that I would also pick their dresses

I don't want a massive wedding, but a small bridal party for a DIY wedding is basically a must, since we need people to help out (and I would be making this clear when we ask them if they would like to be involved). I'm also not looking to break the bank - I'm fine with suit rentals, and looking for dresses for the girls in the $30-50 range.

An important note is that of our planned 30-40 guests, most would be on his side- I have no family, basically (disowned), and a half dozen close friends. I'm planning to pay the entire wedding outright and don't want financial help from his parents, since my family wouldn't be contributing. I feel like, as the person who's been lowkey planning this for a hot minute, I have a better idea of what we can afford and it's not unusual to ask guests to follow a simple dress code, and the wedding party to dress to theme.

A second important note is that I'm trans/queer, and for a lot of my life didn't think I would ever get to have a traditional wedding- the fact that it's an option for me has been really fulfilling, and I really believe in marriage, not just for a symbol of commitment, but also as a way to guarantee my partner their rights in my life (and death).

AITA/Bridezilla for wanting a few of the traditional bells and whistles for my wedding?

What are these acronyms?

[fairiedance]

These two photos, of an iris and poppies (both flowers that are commonly used to represent Palestine) come from the Library of Congress's "Wild flowers of Palestine" collection. There's a bunch of other old flower photos on there too but I picked these because they are particularly common symbolism. I tweaked the contrast a bit to make them pop more and added the "فلسطين" label to each so the meaning of the photo is more apparent when you stick them on things. They're small photos so only available as stickers and magnets, here and here.

As usual ALL PROCEEDS from my shop are for my Palestinian best friend, to help him support his girlfriend (though she may attempt to travel back home soon, her immediate area has been fairly safe recently and she wants to be near her family) and to help his friends and family in Palestine and around the rest of the Levant who are being hurt directly and/or financially by the attacks on Gaza, the raids and economic devastation in the West Bank and the collateral damage in surrounding countries. He will donate anything his family doesn't need to the Palestinian charities he works with. He's hoping to donate most/all of it if possible (plus more of his own money) but I want to make sure he has a financial safety net himself first until things are more certain. Grad school pays like shit (which is why I started this shop in the first place, I just switched it from raising money for me to him haha) and so many people he loves are in precarious positions.

You can find my full shop here. To see a design on different products click on the display product and scroll down or go here to browse by design. Here's a small sample of some of my other work, shown on assorted products (products are available on shirts, stickers, notebooks, hats, pins and all kinds of other things, most have a much wider selection than the photos above):

Sorry I've been very bad at keeping up with this recently, I caught another nasty illness travelling for a conference. Thank you to everyone who has contributed! I'll try to start adding new products as best I can as I get caught up on my work.

[phatburd]

Bessières and the 600,000+ Franc Question

For @josefavomjaaga

While going over sources and material related to Jean-Baptiste Bessières, there's one thing that keeps twigging my journalist Spidey sense, and I don't like that.

Always, without fail, it's presented as a fait accompli that Bessières blew anywhere between 600,000 to one million francs on his mistress, a Paris opera dancer named Virginie. The fact he had a mistress isn't actually unusual by itself, when compared to the affairs his peers carried on. The exceptions were probably the Davouts and the Lefebvres.

Furthermore, his wife, Marie-Jeanne, discovered the affair after his death when his personal affects were returned to her from the battlefield.

The massive debts the Marshal left behind bankrupted his family, necessitating that Marie-Jeanne into selling their estate, Chateau de Grignon, to cover some of it. Napoleon also paid down some of Bessières' debts and set up a yearly pension for Marie-Jeanne her son. According to some accounts, she struggled financially for the rest of her life.

This is what I don't like about it, and why it doesn't completely pass the sniff test.

I accept that Bessières died flat broke and in debt. In debt to whom, however? Who were his creditors?

When did he meet his mistress? Was that fortune spent over a period of years, or in a fairly short time?

Even as a Marshal of France he had to pay his officers out of his own pocket, and provide his own carriages and some supplies on campaign. If he was flat broke, how did he continue to pay his officers?

Bessières was also bad with money to begin with. He was known to be generous and charitable, to the point where he'd be giving away money to anyone whom he thought was more in need than he was with it. Allegedly, Virginie was in debt herself, and he paid down all of them out of the apparent goodness of his heart.

(This raises even more questions. Was she a gold digger, was she blackmailing him, was he totally besotted with her that he didn't realize what the hell he was doing? Was he just lonely? Did they have genuine feelings for one another? There's a lot of there there, but no real answers.)

My conclusion is, no, Bessières did not spend 600,000 to one million francs on his mistress. Her presence, however, was not helpful to his situation.

He paid down Virginie's debts, however much they were. Being terrible with money, he kept putting himself in a financial hole, and then he kept digging. The upkeep on Chateau de Grignon had to be ridiculous. He still had to pay his officers and his staff. He was probably borrowing and burning through money and racking up the debt. Like that meme goes, "This is fine" while everything's burning down around him. A bit like using a credit card to pay down a credit card, as one might do in the modern parlance.

(His financial problems may have contributed to his increasing depression towards the end of his life as well. Was someone blackmailing him with his debts? Another interesting question that can never be adequately addressed.)

From what I've gathered, he hid all his problems from pretty much everyone. Even Napoleon seemed caught off guard with how bad Bessières' finances were. I argue that the 600,000 to one million francs he owed upon his death were cumulative and not to a single person as the historical narrative wants people to believe.

It seems a small thing to be annoyed with, but there seems to be more than a bit of misogyny to lay all of Bessières' troubles on a single woman as the historical narrative seems to want to do.

Another thing ... if Bessières burned a lot of his recent correspondence towards the end of his life, what exactly was the evidence Marie-Jeanne discovered as proof of the affair. How did she prove it? Did other people know about the affair and kept her in the dark? If so, who was that?

In the novel, "The Battle" by Patrick Rimbaud, a semi-fictionalized account of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, Rimbaud's characterization of Bessières has him wear two gold lockets under his Marshal's uniform. One for Marie-Jeanne, the other for Virginie. I don't know if Rimbaud based that on an actual account, or if it was something he made up. I have a lot of problems with that book though, probably because the translation seems somewhat robotic and not great. It's an interesting idea, however, and maybe worth keeping around as a headcanon.

Did Madame Bessières struggle financially for the rest of her life afterwards? Possibly. I don't have enough information to make a conclusion there, but it's not impossible. She did continue to faithfully visit his tomb for years after his death.

TL;DR Bessières died broke and in debt but it wasn't all because of his mistress. If someone else has something to the contrary, I'd love to read it.

[lonniemachin]

Nagham reached out to me to help share her family's fundraiser. Yasmeen Ouda is urgently raising money to evacuate her family from Gaza to Canada. They have currently only made $13,850 CAD out of their $50,000 goal, a little under 1/4th of the way there! Please donate and share, and if you can't donate, please still share!

Yasmeen's Twitter/X account: @Jasmeen217

From Yasmeen's GFM:

Hi everyone,

My name is Yasmeen Ouda, I am Palestinian born and raised in Gaza city, I moved to London Ontario 4 years ago with my husband. I am raising this fund to help my family flee the war and come safely to Canada and reunite with me and my kids again.

I'm writing to you at a really critical and urgent moment. Presently, my family is in Gaza and is dealing with unspeakable conditions. My family and I are fervently requesting your assistance so that we can help them flee to safety and reunite with me in Canada. I live in Canada with my 2 kids , yet I feel like I'm thousands of miles away from my family and are helpless to stop the suffering caused by ongoing aggression in Gaza. The situation is getting worse every day, and I worry about their safety.

I've been putting my family before myself since the beginning of the war. My heart shatters into even more pieces and hurts more each time I say this but they have already made evacuations inside Gaza with no safe place to go to. They didn’t manage to take any of their belongings except some clothes and important documents as the Israeli occupation forced them to evacuate immediately. Even by evacuating to the safe area as the Israeli claims they have witnessed so many bombs and death everywhere but they have miraculously survived each time.

Recently, Canada announced a program stating that immediate families of Palestinians with Canadian citizenship or permanent residency will be eligible to remain in Canada for three years in a move designed to bring them to safety while war rages in Gaza between Hamas and Israel.

I was overjoyed to hear this news because it gave me hope that, after this extremely difficult period, I would be reunited with my family. However, my joy was tinged with bitterness since I knew that they would not be able to pay for the rent or even the exorbitant living expenses in Canada

My brother is expecting his first child in May 2024 , after 1 year of marriage. he is very worried about this baby after having one miscarriage before and wish to take his wife and baby to safety but he won't be able to afford the costs of the delivery in Canada or even provide for his baby's needs at least for a while until he settles down and finds a job.

My sister is a 4th year medical student, she is studying in the Islamic university of Gaza. She's passionate about her major and dreaming of becoming a doctor but the Israeli occupation has shattered her dream into pieces when they bombed the university and turned it into aches. Now, she has a new opportunity to fulfill her dream again here in Canada, but studying in Canada is expensive and she will never make it without your help and support.

It is extremely difficult and demanding to start over in a new country without any savings, especially for people who are already fleeing the war and have nothing left for them. However, you may assist them by helping them with the initial steps of their new journey.

Your support, no matter how small the contribution, means more than mere financial aid. It's an expression of your solidarity, compassion, and humanity, granting her a chance at a new, secure life .Together, we can make a difference, rebuilding a life and dreams from scratch. Each donation, regardless of size, contributes to their new start.

[thatdiabolicalfeminist]

23 year old mom can’t see her kid until she gets reliable transportation

R is 23 years old and has a young child with her abusive ex. I have personally witnessed him denigrating her and admitting to certain acts of violence towards her. I have also heard a voicemail he sent her where he told their child, who was with him at the time, “Mama doesn’t love you.”

This is who R’s kid lives with half the time.

R can only see her kid when she can drive to do pick ups and drop offs.

R’s car is fucked. She saw a mechanic who said the bottom is rusted so badly it’s irreparable. He said if she wants a used car that will last longer she should go out of state. The snow and road salt in her state means local cars don’t last long once they hit a $3-5k price point. She knows someone out of state with an in at a used car dealership. She can get a good deal there.

But the job she’s able to work with no car doesn’t pay well, and doesn’t have extra hours for her to pick up. She has very little money left over after making rent. 

She has no living parents and her siblings live well below the poverty line.

She needs help to raise enough to get a used car that will run for at least a year or two.

I made a post about this before and two kind people together raised $25 for R!! But this is urgent and I think my previous post didn’t fully convey that urgency.

I know it’s a lot to ask, but if R could raise $450 total this week, that would get her 10% of the way there.

Can any financially secure adults help? If you can’t contribute, would you be willing to share around R’s gfm and/or this post?

https://gofund.me/cdae3fbf

she also has these other links:

https://venmo.com/u/justapeachycreature https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/robinseigneurie

As of March 10th, 3pm Eastern daylight time, R has $25 towards this goal!! I’ll reblog with updates to let you know if she gets any more.

[2346khith]

Very very very urgent please ... I am Hamouda from Gaza. Please contribute by donating to me. I lost my job that I loved and through which I helped my family. You can donate20$- $50 Your donation is not a financial contribution, but a seed to change what happened in my life, which I lost and I lost my brother and my uncle in this war. You are our only hope to save my life, my family, and our children towards safety.I hope to achieve my goal. You are my only and last hope for survival. Death and bombing surround us on a daily basis. I do not know if we will remain alive or if our time is up.If you can't donate, please share my latest post on my account. Thank you❤️🍉🇵🇸 https://gofund.me/2c2a1766

For those who see this please, visit their blog and reblog their blog’s posts so they  get more attention and if you have the money to spare please donate.

Also I apologize, but I do not have the ability to donate to you. Trust me if I had the ability I would but I don't and I can't. I have no bank account or credit card to transfer money to and no job to gain any money. Every time I ask my parents to help they shut me down so this is the only way to help you. Please forgive me.