#i can't afford it

[slimylittlemaggot]

If this gets 10,000 notes, then I'll go to therapy.

[iamroyalgayness]

Look, I usually don't get serious on this app, but after the election yesterday, I feel just devastated. I am a trans disabled queer satanist, with him winning I don't feel safe.

I'm not trying to play this up for laughs, I am being serious. I don't feel safe. I don't want to feel like this, but with project 2025, I am terrified, and I don't know where else to post this. How could this happen? I don't want to be afraid I don't want to be contemplating what the hell am I going to do... I don't want to be in this country.

Are we going to have to move? We can't afford to! I can't move! We can't move! My mom works 2 jobs! My twin is in college! I'm about to be in college! I live in Michigan! When I was younger, it was relatively progressive! Now it's getting more conservative, and I'm scared! Am I going to have to get my tubes tied? I was never planning on having kids, but if abortions became basically impossible to get or even outright illegal, I don't want to be forced to give birth! What if something horrible happens?! I don't want to die! These bans have already killed!

[mtvscreengrabs]

(How to Be a) Millionaire - ABC (1985)

[draconisvesperi]

i think i've done a marvellous job of avoiding hsr since release desptie being somewhat curious BECUASE I DONT WANT TO GET HYPERFIXATED

but anyway i think sunday is cool and the penacony siblings are getting to me and it turns out i'm not as immune to getting fixated as i'd like to believe ----

(linking js three arts because i've scrolled and liekd so many more than i'd like to admit)

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

I just heard a woman in a crafting video firmly say "If that's how you think--!" with a strong, Southern US accent.

It gave me the worst flashback to the 1995-2015 era of my life that seemed to be rife with craft purists. You know the kind. Your pottery has to be wood-fired, your knitting has to be 100% heritage breed sheepswool, you need to hunt and kill an endangered species before it's a real bone folder, and are you really making cookies if you aren't growing your own buckwheat and grinding it into flour?

Nope. The next part of the sentence was "--then just do what works for you." Other casual remarks from this very passionate, but not very adamant woman: "Sometimes a quick win is what you need", "Choose an amount you can complete", "Will it be faster with [expensive tool]? Absolutely. Do you need it? Not even a little."

For all the things the internet has ruined, it has connected enough crafters that the only resources on so many "old timey skills" are no longer texts mandating perfection or aging people so frightened of their art being lost, they can't allow anyone to be silly or innovate.

[monster-noises]

Ooo tryin so hard to not let the fact i'm financially fucked with no recourse for improvement get in the way of my nice halloween dinnerrrrrr

[landhoe-norris]

go buy merch people

[aliceinmadnessland]

I have been called "autistic" as a joke by several people and I really think I might be on the spectrum but the autism diagnosis is so fucking expensive in my country.

[aphrogeneias]

no, just super seriously right now, for those of you who struggle with negative self-talk: how do you make it stop? is there some kind of thing you can do that shuts it down? is there an exercise like those we do when we have anxiety/panic attacks? do you have a way to ignore it? or do you just let it consume you like i do

but i would really like to try and make it stop, i would honestly love some answers

[sesshy380]

I love waking up to The Crud™.

I felt it building too, but as usual brain thought that I told myself that I couldn't afford to be sick right now then I wouldn't get sick. Logical thinking, right?

At least it's my day off today, but tomorrow is a whole different story, and I'm almost certain it will be even worse then. Calling off on Black Friday week is just not something that I can do. I will be racking up some much needed paycheck hours.

Guess it's time to drink lots of tea and start doing everything in my power to get me through the week. Hopefully Mother Nature decided to be nice (it won't) and stop going from 30F at 7am to 70F by 10am.

[inkskinned]

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

[gwarden123]

Hades II early access!

[reasonsforhope]

Literally begging anyone who can vote in US elections to vote, and to vote against Trump. Which means voting for Harris, not abstaining or voting third party.

My family actually did move here from an authoritarian country, where voting literally didn't matter, they literally did throw out your vote, and they literally did assassinate citizens who spoke out against them.

We would all very much like to keep living in a country where those things are not the case!

You know, the same things that Trump and his stooges have openly said they want to do. And two of the main propaganda lines for why people in the US shouldn't vote, which is a lie.

Voting matters. The parties are not the same.

And make sure to vote in down-ballot races!!!

And like. The fact that voting matters in the US is a very real reason for hope. It is something you should genuinely appreciate. We can make a difference.

And a lot of people risked their lives or even died to earn that right, and it's a right not everyone has.

[darkcrowprincess]

[anevilmanstit]

i need someone to girlsplain comp-sci to me because I refuse to almost fail another year

googling: girslpaining computer science courses

[doctortoothless]

I'm getting really annoyed at Facebook constantly giving me advertisements for depression, anxiety, depression and anxiety, and therapy.