#i'm living in this car and use public wifi which is

[runonthewater]

A long haul day today, from Williams Lake to Dawson Creek, about 400 miles of driving. I stayed last night outside the Scout Island Nature Centre, a marshy nature reserve at one end of the titular Williams Lake, pulling up around 8PM. A sign said "No overnight parking in the reserve," making me nervous, so I left the van parked outside the gates and went to walk along the marsh, figuring that if someone came to kick me off the property in the next hour, I'd at least have gotten a walk in. I was rewarded with the sight of two pelicans -- I think -- nesting down for the night on the marsh, and the sounds of waterfowl quacking at each other as the sun set. My pictures aren't very good, but the hills behind the lake were mirrored in the water as I walked back to the van. (Plus I met a cute dog.)

Another driver, a German named Linnea, had parked beside me by the time I got back and looked like she was settling in. We chatted a little before I set up the Starlink and got situated for bed. A little while later someone did indeed come to lock the gate to the reserve, without giving us a second glance. Despite a plethora of midges gathering around the dome light over my bed, I fell asleep fast.

I woke up early as the sun started to come in, and finally gave up on tryiyng to stay asleep around 6:30. I knew I needed to get on the road in any case, so after making coffee I popped the hood of the van to go check the oil. Outside, I saw a few crows and an immature gull standing around next to the car beside me and thought I'd get a picture called "morning stand-up," so I grabbed my phone, stepped out the side door, and came face to face with a doe some twenty feet across the road.

We stared at each other. I was probably more shocked than she was. A moment later I realized there were two more sets of satellite-dish ears in the grass behind her: two fauns. I took pictures and video -- though the birds left as soon as I started moving around -- and after another fifteen minutes or so got going, a bit after 7AM.

A long driving day like this ends up feeling like several days in a row, especially on a third day of driving. My posture is starting to go to shit; I can feel my head turtling forward, hunching my back, whenever I stop paying attention, and my lower back always feels a bit like it needs to crack. I stopped several times over the day, usually in a place where I dowsed with my phone for a strong wifi signal: a Tim Hortons in Quesnel (after I found that I was there too early for the visitor's centre to be open), the Prince George public lilbrary, the Chetwynd visitor's centre. (British Columbia's vistor centres are generally good places to stop for wifi, and a lot of them seem to be fine with RVs staying overnight.)

I tried to stop for pictures of mountains more, too, feeling like I'd slacked off the day before. My sister and mother always have dozens of photos of interesting sights when they travel, even when they're road tripping -- but of course, they generally have a second driver. Still, they have a gift for finding interesting things and then documenting them that I have to make a conscious effort to imitate. I did get a bunch of pictures of Chetwynd's chainsaw carvings, at least.

The multi-day feeling is probably also influenced by my powering through stories as I drive. I finished one book in the morning (Anna-Marie McLemore's Self-Made Boys, a Latine and queer "remix" of The Great Gatsby that I enjoyed, even if I wished Daisy was allowed to stay horrible to the end). I switched to Broadway for a bit (first Water for Elephants, a new listen for me, then Hadestown, because I'm determined to learn Orpheus' track). Then back to books with Lolita (which I've never read and figured I really should; turns out it's an excellent horror novel, whodathunk). Living through days and weeks and lifetimes in my head surely messes with my ability to know when I am.

And the whole reason I'm doing this, really, the reason I like road trips in the first place, is that I like to spend time unstuck. In my senior year of high school I wrote an overwrought essay for a scholarship about the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and how I could know how fast I was going or where I was, but not both at the same time. I did not get the scholarship. But I think I was grasping at articulating a feeling that I now usually just call "the act of travel." My best friend Elisa likes going to places: she goes to countries or cities and sees museums, goes shopping. Even in Seattle she prefers to go for a walk to an activity, to get a coffee and pastry or browse a vintage store. I, on the other hand, go on rambles that stop nowhere, or bike rides that loop Lake Union. I just want to be moving. I'm trying to spend more time allowing myself to be bored when I'm moving, on the grounds that I think it promotes creativity, but I also like to move let a story fill up my head. Slosh around in there, soak into the grain.

Tomorrow starts the actual, official Alaska Highway. Mile 0. I expect to get to Fort Nelson -- a storied place for our family -- but I'll be stocking up on a few things before I leave Dawson Creek. And I'll get some tourist pictures. The act of travel may be the point, but a few mementos of stopping don't go to waste.

[leahpardo-pa-potato]

I live in one of the densest cities in the world, so my experience is probably different from the average city kid. For starters, almost everyone lives in apartments, so I've got a good 1000 people staying within 3 min walk from me. We have shops everywhere, there's WiFi everywhere, and there's busses/trains everywhere (I'm given to understand this is a specialty of my country tho) Honestly, the thought of driving anywhere for an hour is insane, because you can get whatever you want within a twenty minutes' walk.

It's not quiet here either. Even walking my dog at night there's other people coming home from work or walking their dogs or doing a late night jog. Even at midnight (which is when I walk my dog), I meet like a dozen people along my rounds. (And yes, I live in a place where a single woman can walk around at night) Oh, and there's lights everywhere. My old astronomy club used to be super excited if we could so much as catch an actual star in the sky because of how bad the air pollution was (we had to make day trips to the country next door to catch real stars haha)

The cars are everywhere too. You have to be super careful crossing the road, especially if there's a blind spot. Some luxury car drivers actually speed up when they see you, even at a green light (had that happen to me once, it was the most terrifying experience of my life). And yeah, pretty much nobody knows each other. I'm more well connected with my neighbourhood because I walk my dog (so I talk to the cleaners, garbagemen, domestic helpers and other assorted people on my routes) but someone knowing that I've been to a rave? Wild. I don't even know the names of 1% of the people living within my compound. (Seriously. I know all their dogs' names instead)

But as for cons: It's never quiet. The girl next door is always blasting music at 3am, the neighbours upstairs do jumping jacks, the people downstairs have an endless termite problem, and the walls are all thin enough for me to hear everything. If the lift breaks down, I have to carry my dog up and down ten flights of stairs (and she's not light)

Molestation rates are horrendous, too. A good half of the girls I know have been groped on public transport (and a non-zero number of guys) because the trains at peak hours are ridiculously cramped. (I'm serious. It's so bad I got regularly squished against some rando, who occasionally happened to be male. One of the many reasons I chose to stay next to my school) You're liable to have your feet stepped on or elbowed by an overly excited kid, and I've gotten sick from idiots coughing on me before. Oh, and if you're sitting down, expect some sleeping office worker/student to rest his or her head against your shoulder. I've had to smack several of the little bastards when they tried to use me as a pillow.

It's not really exciting, to be honest. I think there's a lot more variety than you'd have in the countryside, in terms of food and activities. Country life sounds super cool, ngl. Except for the no WiFi bit haha.

If you're from the city and I ever made fun of you for being too scared to drive, I would like to humbly apologize. I ain't even behind the wheel and I feel like I'm gonna die. Country driving is an action adventure game and city driving is horror/survival

[discodeerdiary]

Okay I had a little realization which was uncomfortable but I'm glad I had it, and it's this: as grateful as I am to have an apartment, in its current form it's still less comfortable than sleeping in the library. The futon is thin and I am getting hip pains from feeling the hard floor through it. There is still no WiFi, which is also stressing me out, because I keep worrying about running out of data and being unable to be reached by my friends. (Which, okay I'm already hard enough to reach as it is simply for mental reasons. I do not need technology adding to the problem.) In addition, without WiFi it's been harder to find the right music and podcasts to fall asleep to.

I've been inadvertently making myself very uncomfortable by feeling obligated to sleep in my new place in spite of it being very unsleepable right now.

So let's talk solutions these problems.

Mattress:

- I own a good-quality mattress but it is currently over at my sibling's place. To move it over to my new place, I would need to rent a box truck, or at least a car, and if I'm gonna do that then I wanna make plans to move my other stuff over as well.

- In the meantime I could always buy an air mattress, or buy another futon and stack them. This would be easy to move in and move out (because I'm only in this place for a few months).

- But as things stand now, there is nothing wrong with me continuing to sleep in the library if I legitimately get a better night's sleep than in my apartment. Nor is there anything wrong with sleeping over at friends' places (and in bed with them uwu), though I do wanna give myself a few more days symptom-free before I do that.

- Even if I get a comfy mattress immediately, that still doesn't solve problems caused by:

Lack of WiFi:

- I can keep plugging away at trying to get the gateway to give me internet access. I can ask my friends for help. But I still don't have a definite date for when I'll have the WiFi up and running.

- Worst case scenario is there's no way of making the gateway give me internet at all. And then I have to start all way from scratch, buying the equipment I need, selecting a plan etc. This is something I've never had to do in my life as a WiFi user because I've always lived in households where someone else managed the network. So that will be a learning process for me but I'm sure I have friends who can help.

- This might be the right time to switch to a phone plan with unlimited data, so I can still access the internet even when I don't have WiFi. I don't know how to do that either, but I can ask a friend for help. (I've never switched a phone plan in my life, I just started using the same provider as my parents when I got off the family plan.)

Miscellaneous:

- Even if I'm not using my apartment for sleeping in, it's still an extremely convenient thing to have. I can store my possessions instead of carrying everything I need around in a bag all the time. I can buy and store groceries, and cook with them. I can shower and shave in privacy instead of having to use public and semi-public bathrooms. This is still a big upgrade from homelessness.

- For anyone actually reading this, please do not respond with any variation of "why don't you just". This housing situation is complicated and I do not have space (or inclination) to explain all the details to you.

[nochiquinn]

Tbh I’d read ur soapbox rant abt rural America tho like I have no clue what it’s like being there bc I’m from pnw city and wanna know what misconceptions I’ve internalized. Not saying u gotta go thru writing smthn that emotionally taxing ut like if u ever do wanna post it 👀

WELL WHEN YOU PUT IT THAT WAY

I moved from just outside Atlanta to rural west Georgia when I was in 11th grade. A lot of this is my reaction to the disparity between those two environments, and some of it is absolutely colored by a teenager’s emotional reaction at moving between two extremes. I was a white queer middle-class kid, and now I’m a white queer poor disabled adult, so I’m not speaking for POC living in rural areas. Just my own lived experience, and some hindsight now that I’m not actively living there anymore.

 Lack of internet access

When we moved in 2006, dialup internet (the kind that accessed the telephone network to get online) was juuuust being edged out by broadband. The ONLY option for internet in our new house was broadband, and I was very excited until the speeds were the exact fucking same. Rural internet is a joke on purpose. Broadband companies won't extend proper infrastructure to low-income areas because they're not likely to recoup the building costs. Low-income areas are not always rural, but ISPs add the excuse of "difficult terrain" to avoid laying cable there. Because reliable internet is still considered a luxury or entertainment service and not a utility, there's no requirement for them to provide decent service to those areas, so they don't. The FCC says proper broadband is 25 mbps. Sometimes I'm lucky to get one whole mb at my parents' house. My dad stays up until 4am to read the news because the internet loads faster when the rest of the neighborhood is asleep.

Brief tangent into the issue of smartphones: when I was living there and on my parents' phone plan, smartphones weren't really a thing yet and my dad wasn't gonna pay for a data plan anyway, and now I'm on a service with no real presence in that area. So I can't speak for the efficacy of smartphones in rural areas BUT a smartphone is still not a computer.

And now, with schools closed, the government is going "just do digital learning" - with what internet? With what computers? Are you going to set up wifi hotspots outside people's houses? Are you going to provide each of their kids with laptops? Schools are funded with property and income tax, both of which are lower in rural areas. They barely have supplies for when kids are in the classroom, let alone being any kind of prepared for shit like this.

Rural schools could be a whole other bullet point by itself, but lack of access to current technology is the root of it. Reliable high-speed internet would be an absolute game changer and it's just not there.

Lack of access to groceries.

If you have a car and the ability to drive half an hour minimum for groceries, you're golden. But if you're

old

sick

disabled

on foot

you're completely up a creek. All of these things are more likely in rural areas.  Except maybe not owning a car, because you are literally stranded without personal transportation. My half-an-hour estimation is based on the nearest decent grocery store to my parents' place; there are two Dollar Generals and a Piggly-Wiggly nearby, but Dollar Generals don't sell meat or vegetables and the Piggly-Wiggly hasn't been cleaned since the second Bush administration. For an actual solid grocery run you have to drive to the Ingles two towns over. And even THEN if you're already on the road you might as well go up the interstate to the Kroger in town, though that's a two-hour trip if you're fast. I used to joke about having to pack a lunch to go grocery shopping.

There's no public transport, there's no grocery delivery, there's no takeout unless you bring an insulated bag to bring it home in. If you can't drive to get groceries or don't have someone to bring you groceries, you don't have groceries. I'm not even touching on poverty rates and the ability to AFFORD groceries. I'm literally just talking about going to the store and coming home with food. My parents are more fortunate than most; my dad hunts and plants a big garden every year. He can do this because he grew up on a working farm and knows how to make things grow. Not everyone has those skills, and subsistence gardening is a LOT of work. Cleaning deer is a lot of work. (There are places that do it for you. This is just a My Dad thing.) If you don't have the time or ability, you have to buy your food. If you have a car. That you can drive. For a long time.

This is also of course compounded by COVID; grocery stores are cutting hours everywhere. If you work late you might not be able to get groceries on your way home. You might have to take half your day off once a week to go shopping. If people panic-bought all the toilet paper or ground beef, you might have to wait another week for either of those things. I'm not advocating the Walmart model of pulling up into town and out-pricing independently owned stores, I'm saying big box stores need to extend delivery to rural areas, even if it's just until we've found the other side of this pandemic.

Lack of access to medical care.

Where I grew up we were literally ten minutes from the hospital. Like you crossed the street and you were in my neighborhood. Where my parents live now it is a 45-minute drive to the nearest ER. They live between two mid-sized cities with hospitals and it is 45 minutes to either one of them. The only doctors worth a damn are also in those cities. (This is a subtweet at the doctor in my parents' town, who is terrible and I hate her.) This item is last because it ties into both of the above. There's no tele-health. There's no Facetiming your doctor.  When my mom was being rushed to the the hospital with a chainsaw cut (long story) they had to PULL OVER so the EMT could call the hospital before they hit the dead zone. If you don't have a car or can't drive you're gonna be on the hook for an ambulance ride.

I went to the ER enough times in my late teens/early 20s that I had preferences. The one I didn't like put me on a gurney in the hallway while I was having a panic attack. Even the one I liked tried to cut out part of my gallbladder just to see what happened. This is a funding issue and an education issue and just a whole ton of stuff rolled into one. There are no local hospitals. The hospitals that are within reasonable distance are under-funded, under-staffed, and under-prepared. There are no beds literally anywhere right now, but rural hospitals are overwhelmingly affected. Combine the above disability maps with the 4% COVID death rate and you’ve got an actively exploding volcano.

This post is long enough already but I could talk about how military recruiters prey on rural high schools because they're easier to convince that they don't have anywhere else to go. They're easier to entice with the promise of free school. How I went from being in 5 AP classes to not having access to literally any. How the high school computer lab was full of iMacs (these ones) in the year of our lord two thousand and six. How one of the reasons we moved was that my original school was losing accreditation but all my classmates from there have PhDs and careers and I just have anxiety. The casual homophobia. The overwhelming social influence of the Southern Baptist churches (specifically Southern Baptists). Or the drugs. There are lots and lots of drugs.

We have this culturally accepted idea that people who live in rural areas are hicks, hayseeds and hillbillies, who choose to segregate themselves from society and therefore deserve to be excluded from it. That they're all Dale Gribble types who want to live off the grid so the government can't track them, or live-off-the-land types who don't need help anyway. OR, even if we cautiously accept the idea that they're actual humans with lives, they're probably hardcore conservative fundie racists so fuck 'em. And you know what? There are a lot of hardcore conservative fundie racists, at least here in the Bible Belt. (My parents, thankfully, are not among them. Ironically, I thank God for this often.)

But they're not worth throwing out an entire demographic. There are three generations of families living within ten miles of each other because they can't leave, either because they don't have the money, or the education, or their parents need care they can't otherwise get because they live a million miles from anything. My dad’s sister was an RN, her husband a cop (I didn’t pick him, okay) and they moved back to her extremely rural home town to take care of my grandmother. My mom straight-up disappeared for months to take care of her mother because she wouldn’t move out of the middle of nowhere, Alabama. People get shamed for leaving to live in bigger cities. Or, god forbid, Up North Somewhere. There's immense social pressure to stay and take care of the family, if you leave you're "betraying your roots", or whatever stupid thing. People are trapped there, for whatever reason, and they're just...ignored. By everyone.

Just thinking about all the stuff those kids could have, should have, and don't, for no good goddamn reason, just burns me to my core. The people who don't get care they need because they had the audacity to be old or sick or disabled outside the Metro area. The politicians who are SUPPOSED to represent them writing heartbeat bills, claiming to want to protect children, and playing I Do Not See It when literal living children in their district have no food or heat or education worth a damn. An entire demographic, just...invisible, unless someone needs quick votes. Sometimes not even then.

anyway that's my soapbox rant, ty for enabling me anon

[illlllillllli]

@shareyourdollar @donations-mutualaid @justlgbtthings @plsboost @helppeople @lgbtdonate @boostsignal

my fiancée and i are homeless and need urgent medical care. I'm turning 27 this month, which happens to be Disability Pride month, and would prefer to spend my bday outside the psych ward and with my partner & our pets instead. but unstable housing and lack of sleep is causing me to have daily public meltdowns and s*lf h*rm and i am unsafe without a place to physically regulate. we are trying to get back to the city where there are doctors and social services for homeless people and we need motel stays for showering, cooking, electricity, climate control.

i desperately need to avoid inpatient/psych ward as it traumatized me 2yrs ago. partial hospitalization would allow me to maintain autonomy and sleep without a camera and use bathroom without a locked door. motels are $100-150/night. anything helps. 🖤

my CA is atometc

my partner is hedwwig on CA, VM and PP

[1-800-444-tune]

I have cancer ...PLEASE DONATE !!😫😪😔😞

HOME

This is my main blog, I mostly do Tarot and other divination services on here, and most often it is for FREE. Which, this is NOT fair to me, but none of ya 'll know about my struggle.. bug it is real hear me out, yo.

ABOUT ME

I am nearly 30 years old now and I was actually first off diagnosed with Ovarian cysts at the age as young as 14 yrs old, yes, I was 16 by the time it went untreated and had spread all through my ovaries and to all the fallopian tubes and my uterus... then untreated still another couple years (because of poor health care in my smaller rural communities including my hometown) then at 19 my whole entire uterine lining was xomething of a mess, the doctors said basically all there woukd have been to prevent it from dpreading the cancer elsewhere would have been a full out take of my sexual organs , i believe the term is a hysterectomy....but on my paperwork i see here that it says that I was to undergo something else... + + The removal of an ovary together with the Fallopian tube is called salpingo-oophorectomy or unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (USO). When both ovaries and both Fallopian tubes are removed.

But that did not happdn due to complications. So now, its spread to my other organs as youd guess, spleen, liver, kidneys, etc...it is a shitttSHOW I knowe.

This is why I would appreciate it if some one, any one would stand up for me ..just have a say in whether I eat today or not, or whether I stay in this residence without having to move this winter, I mean, Winter, its settling in.,,

I do not always feel totally blessed to be me; But ai I cannot complain when the bills is caught up and I gots good food at home(and the fight food, I am on a special expensive diet)

Cancer is expensive…AF!  If you have cancer, this is no news to you. But until cancer happened to me, I had no idea how expensive it truly was.  I think it’s safe to say that that seeing how much it will cost to undergo treatment is almost as frightening as getting the actual cancer diagnosis.  My diagnosis has definitely opened my eyes to the shocking reality of the financial burden that cancer causes for an individual and their family.  The astronomical expenses that accrue from treatments, tests, surgeries, scans, integrative therapies, etc are outrageous! While there are both public and private health insurance that defray medical and drug costs, huge out-of-pocket costs can be devastating to patients and force major changes in their lives. I’ve had to make several changes and my life has been affected indefinitely due to the financial burden that cancer has caused. The financial stress it causes for people during treatment until remission alone is hard, but imagine living with cancer where the treatments, doctor visits, tests and lifestyle adjustments are ever enduring, like when you have metastatic cancer.  It’s life altering… to say the least.

HOW MUCH DOES CANCER TREATMENT ACTUALLY COST?

This is an impossible question to answer. The cost of treatment obviously varies from individual to individual based on their diagnosis, the type of treatment they will require and the longevity of the treatment.  However, the “typical” cost of breast cancer looks a little something like this according to recent studies.

“For patients covered by health insurance, out-of-pocket costs for breast cancer treatment typically consist of doctor visit, lab and prescription drug copays as well as coinsurance of 10%-50% for surgery and other procedures, which can easily reach the yearly out-of-pocket maximum. Breast cancer treatment typically is covered by health insurance, although some plans might not cover individual drugs or treatments. For patients not covered by health insurance, breast cancer treatment typically costs $15,000-$50,000 or more for a mastectomy or $17,000 to $35,000 or more for a lumpectomy followed by radiation.”

New cancer drugs are being approved at a fast pace.  Numerous are approved each year and new drugs are constantly in trial and in the pipeline to be FDA approved. In the past, these drugs might cost around $10,000 for a year’s treatment. But newer studies have found that newly-approved cancer drugs carry price tags between $120,000 and $170,000!  One of the drugs I take as part of my daily cocktail, is a newly FDA approved drug called Ibrance… for heavily pretreated ER+ metastatic patients.  It has worked wonders for me but a month supply of this drug is over $12,000.  I am blessed to have good coverage, but not all people are as fortunate.

“Depending on the individual case and the type and number of treatments needed, the total cost of breast cancer treatment, on average, can reach $100,000 — or, in advanced cases, $300,000 or more. This includes the cost of the chemotherapy drugs, additional drugs to help manage side effects, administration of the drugs and medical care for chemotherapy-related complications.”

And again, if you are anything like myself and are living with a metastatic diagnosis, treatments and care is endless with no foreseeable light at the end of the tunnel.

😔😫😫🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗🎗😔😔😫

WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE???

The never ending list of cancer expenses looks a little something like this:

 🎗Frequent doctor visits with surgeon, radiologist, oncologist.  I personally see my oncologist once every 3 weeks and check in with my surgeon every couple of months.

🎗Lab Tests.  This includes blood tests, urine tests and more. I get my labs done every few weeks when I see my oncologist to check my levels and tumor markers.

🎗Clinic visits for treatments. When I was on IV treatment I would be in the treatment center every few weeks.  Currently I take an oral chemo and only have to be in the treatment clinic once every few months for my Lupron injection. But many people are in the treatment clinic, daily or weekly to get their infusions and injections.

🎗Procedures for diagnosis or treatment. Such procedures can include biopsies, room charges, equipment..  I’ve had a few biopsies and had to get lung taps done frequently when I had lung mets.

🎗Imaging Tests. These tests include X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and PET scans which may mean separate bills for radiologist fees, equipment and any medicines used for the test.  These tests are extremely costly too…yikes!  I get PET/CT scans every 3 months, consistently for the past 6 years now.

🎗Radiation Treatment  (implants, external radiation, or both) I have never had radiology but as we know, it’s a very common treatment for most cancers.

Drug🎗 Costs. (inpatient, outpatient, prescription, non-prescription and procedure-related) The cost of chemotherapy drugs is crazy!

🎗In-Home Nurse Care (if you need it, and I do actually, yes) and its freaking insane how much these so called "nurses aids -assistants" want an hour!!

Hospital 🎗Stays. This can encompass many types of costs such as drugs, tests and procedures as well as nursing care, doctor visits and consults with specialists. I have been admitted twice, each time for a week stay for cancer related issues.

🎗Surgery. Costs can accrue from surgeon, anesthesiologist, pathologist, operating room fees, equipment, medicines…  I have had 3 lumpectomies and 2 other surgical procedures related to my cancer diagnosis.

🎗Fertility.  If you are blindsided and diagnosed in your 20’s or 30’s with a cancer diagnosis and want to have a family, freezing your eggs is an option, but a costly one.  You will be required to pay for tests, and medications leading up to the surgical procedure to remove your eggs.  I paid about $10K out of pocket to cover the cost of freezing my eggs.

While these are examples of the clinical costs associated with cancer, there are other adjustments you may want to make that will also prove to be costly.  I personally changed my diet and started to eat all organic foods and sought integrative therapies to add to my clinical regime.  You can read more about the therapies I have incorporated here.  All of these expenses add up and certainly are a financial strain.

🎗🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟And of course we need to pay... Rent, heat/hydro, car/transportation/ambulance bills , always bills bills bills billsssss.....and wifi/internet/television/mobile phone znd/or tablet or computer and gaming systems... camera.....im z girl so clothes..makeup,(I'm thrifty ricky tho) and always last, maybe maybe get sweets healthwise branded cookies or some type of peanuts(unsalted).

I never get go, go nowhere, do anything, get a coffee from a coffee shop, i can't afford to do just about anything a normal individual such as yourself yourself would do, i just cannot do it its not in my budget ... I currently own ONE lipgloss, and one broken eye liner , that is my makeup beauty kit, who the heck wants to even go out or take pictures thenn? Ugh....

Www.paypal.me/believeitxxnot is the link to the Cancer Fundraiser🎗the email for it is believeitornot.ripley.tv@gmail.com

Anyways, do not feel bad for me. I am here to service YOU for ever I know this . TY so much ily guys , please please if you will not donate to my awfully painfully really urgent cause then PLEASE SHARE POST ..... BOOOST POOOOST !! PLZ !! XOXO

I need the supporters !! Yo yo ! DOOOONAAAATEEEEE!!

A n y t h i n g h e l p s m e r i g h t n o w , p l e a s e ! ?

[cancerbiophd]

hey julia! i hope you're having a great weekend! :)) so i'm starting to look for apartments in my grad school city (this will be my first time having one/living on my own) and i was wondering if you had any tips or essential questions to ask real estate agents when you're deciding whether or not to live in a certain apartment?

my daaarrrling em!!!! 

i had a GREAT weekend. celebrated a friend’s wedding reception (they had been married for 7 years but they finally got a chance to celebrate with their church, family, and friends) and they also announced they’re having a baby so it was amazing all around!!!

Firstly, I would recommend getting the inside-scoop of the area from a current grad student. If you don’t have a contact, it’s totally ok to email the program coordinator and ask them to connect you with someone. They’ll have an idea of who would be super willing to help (that’s how a lot of new students find me!!). Current grad students will know where the majority of grad students like to live, which neighborhoods to stay away from, what the public transport situation is like, what specifics to look for as a result of the area’s unique weather, etc etc. 

General apt/housing things to consider as a grad student:

The closer the housing to campus, usually the more expensive the rent. Just a supply and demand thing. And because these properties have high turnover from being a permanent rental property, they might not be high quality either (ex. hasn’t been updated in decades, has lots of wear and tear from multiple occupants, etc). If transportation is not an issue, I would prefer looking at places more than 5 miles away to get more bang for my buck. 

Is the apt complex mostly filled with students? If so, what kind? Undergrad, grad, med students, etc. The closer the complex is to campus, the more students will be living there. And in my experience, the more undergrads, the more loud parties/late-night shenanigans that may disrupt a grad student’s precious sleep. During my first year in grad school I lived in a complex near campus that had lots of undergrads and I did not like it one bit. There were multiple nights where I had considered calling the non-emergency number of my local police bc shit was getting real rowdy. During my 2nd year I moved to a complex further away that had mostly young professionals and small families, and it was soooo much nicer (and cheaper!). 

If your complex of choice does have a lot of younger students, I would try to get a corner unit, or one on the top floor.

Are utilities included in the rent? Some apt complexes geared towards students will do this (sometimes including wifi too), which is really nice. Downside is sometimes you don’t have a lot of control over the temp or wifi speed. 

Furnished or not? Having a furnished apt your first year is pretty great so you don’t have to worry about buying furniture if you’re moving to a far away city. 

Is there space in the apt (or your bedroom if you’re rooming with someone) to designate as your study area? Every place I looked at I had to consider how I could fit in my desk + chair, bookshelf, and a small filing cabinet. 

Transportation: distance/ease to getting to public transport, bike lanes/paths, on-site parking, reliable crosswalks if crossing busy streets on foot/bike. You could probably determine a lot of this from google maps. 

Some apt complexes that are geared towards students will have free shuttles to/from campus, so check to see if that’s a thing. Some universities will also have free campus shuttles, with some lines going a little bit off campus too (but it might cost extra).

Being located closed to the necessities: grocery store, department store, gym, restaurants, study areas like libraries and cafes, freeway access, post office, banks, etc

Being located away from anything you don’t want: My undergrad lives right across a frat house and has had her car broken into multiple times by drunk college boys :\ A current grad student would be really helpful in this regard to let you know which neighborhoods/areas to stay away from. 

Is there an in-unit washer/dryer? Many 1 bedroom or studios in complexes don’t have their own washers and dryers, and need to use a community one in the complex that only takes quarters. 

Parking: if only street-parking is available, and you’re located near campus, it might be really frustrating to get a parking spot because students who don’t want to pay the horrendous campus parking fees will be taking up your spots. 

Maintenance: is there a maintenance person on-site? What’s their response-time? Dealing with maintenance emergencies as a student can be a hairball and a half, so it’s nice to have something reliable. 

Safety/security: Is it a gated community? Is there a front-desk for guests to check in? Some complexes even have security cameras, which is awesome. 

Pet policy: if applicable. 

BED BUG POLICY. As someone who had a bed bug infestation a few years ago (and ended up having an allergic reaction!!) I would recommend asking what their bed bug policy is. My first apt’s policy was that if bed bugs (lmao i literally just typed bed pugs) pop up after 7 days of move-in, they will take care of it (if it’s less than 7 days, they assume you brought them with you, so you gotta take care of it). If a complex has a bed bug policy like that, then it’s pretty reliable to assume they take great care to remain bed bug free (or else it’ll cost them $$)

Credit score/proof of income: Some complexes won’t rent to people with low credit scores or those who don’t have a proof of x income in the past y # of months. The apt complex I lived in my 2nd year asked us to prove that we made 3x the rent/month. It was a bit unique for me since as a grad student I get paid lump-sums at the beginning of each semester, so I had to tell them that. 

I think that’s all I can pull from my brain at the moment… again, to sound like a broken record, I HIGHLY recommend reaching out to a current student for housing questions. 

I also want to add that it’s ok to just find a place for your 1st year that isn’t 100% ideal, but will give you a chance to have somewhere to live as you learn more about the city and get a feel for other more permanent places to live for the next couple of years. A bunch of grad students in my cohort did that (including myself). Some universities even have grad-only on-campus housing, so that might be worth looking into as well!

I hope this helps! Good luck!!! 

[anurean99]

Kansas

Rusci… Plural for Rusco See Also: Ruscos

I'm on the river walk using Hyatt WiFi. I used to walk through the building when it was new and rooms where left un-finished and the building was just a convention hall.

Like it was near closed to the general public. There was always a public fridge with tons of pop cans, which always found themselves in my personal fridge.

So… Lets get out of here. Everyone in Kansas gets locked up and slapped with a multimillion dollar lawsuit….

Then I need a ride to Montana. Maybe a ride to Maine.

Why? Because I want to live in the snow. I don't like the weather here. I don't like the people.

Its easier to kill the ENTIRE population of Kansas than work with them.

Hulnik…. Would you please put together a resource account for me? I need it direct deposited to my personal account. Police need me happily in a state I am willing to live before they can finalize a report & case file.

I'm not yet happy. Happiness, requires money for coin operated persons such as myself. Happiness is required as a prerequisite for Peaceful Cooperation.

I would rather… Everyone Ive met ever be killed in cold blood after asked why their car isn't black.

Rusco… Peako…

Rusci…

Lets get on a greyhound and take a quick tour of the USA. Lets visit all my friends who've reported me kidnapped and meet with their local officer.

Lets go have fun while everyone stupid just gets killed in Kansas.

[segadores-y-soldados]

Hi there! I have a quick question for you as a writer: When you're traveling for work or just generally not in reach of wifi, do you usually write in a notebook or do you prefer to type (in a phone, laptop, tablet, etc)? I'm asking mostly bc I'm trying to figure out a better system for my own writing (which is scattered across way too many notepads & docs jfc) but then I figured I could ask someone who does a LOT of writing. So, any thoughts?

(Answering this one bc it’s short)

Google Docs.

I live and die by it.

I understand the risks of trusting a megacompany like Google with your personal writing but the honest convenience of it is too good to pass up. And until someone makes another alternate system that is just as simplified, streamlined, and convenient, I will use Google.

You can “log in” anywhere via a Google Account (if you use public PCs, remember to log out!). It’s ridiculously easy to share docs if you have a beta reader or want to collab with friends, and you can control levels of “editing” access.

It has a streamlined app if you have an Android phone (not sure about iPhones, sorry).

Most importantly, it has an offline mode: if you frequently have no internet access or no data, you will never lose writing or access to it. If you “start” a writing session in offline mode, GDocs (both browser and app) will wait to sync when you do get a better connection. If you lose connectivity in the middle of a session, GDocs will still temp save whatever you are working on and then save it online when you regain connection.

I sound like a shill but honestly, I would have stopped writing like, a year ago without GDocs. I frequently work in remote locations and write on my phone a lot. There are times when I don’t have access to my laptop at all, but with the phone app, I can still write as much as my little heart can handle. Heck, I wrote the vast majority (like 80%) of one of my first fics on my phone. This does mean you have to get used to writing on a phone keyboard (for some people, this may not be feasible).

This system works for me, but I know that it may not work for everyone. Some people require a more “visual-based” or “constructive” system (like Scrivener). Some people prefer handwriting their notes or outlines.

However, I will say: I have never lost a single “piece” of writing since November 2016. I have never “misplaced” a piece of writing since then either. I have written in tents, in cars, on beaches, in forests, in mountains, on flights, during layovers. Every “waking idea,” every “falling asleep” burst of inspiration, every “can’t sleep at 2 am” moment I have been able to write down (or at least leave myself notes about).

…Just be sure to bring a good portable battery on long trips lol.

[lacicapatrera]

I confirm what @olderthannetfic said, decide how big, where and when, and then read about places like that, because any variation in any of those criteria will give you a pretty different result. Even in the same country, in the same historical moment, there are very different villages in different areas (for example I'm from the South of Spain, and the north and south villages in my province are quite different, different accents, landscape, architecture, my area's main economy is cattle, the south is vineyards and olive trees). Of course some things are pretty common I guess? Like, idk where @sheepscot is from, but my town has some things in common with the one she mentions, we have just one butcher's shop, two bakeries (for bread, not fancy pastries or anything like that), the carpenter's, blacksmith's, one outo repair shop, two shops that sell basic stuff,... that's mostly it, if you want to buy clothes, fancier food, or have a wider selection of anything, you have to go to a nearby bigger town or to the closest city (an hour away). We have a school but no highschool, so we go to a different town were we experience the terrifying ordeal of: making friends from other villages. We do have sidewalks, but our streets are paved with cobblestones, idk how common that is in other countries.

Drinking is heavily encouraged as there's barely any other form of entertainment, many men specially go to the bar as soon as they finish working, every day. We have 9 or 10 bars btw. We also go to the festivities in neighbour villages and they come to ours. Drunk driving is ALSO awfully common.

It's more and more not an everyday thing, but I've seen pigs slaughtered and I've cleaned guts and kneaded chorizo, ridden sheep (by which I mean sitting on top of them and tapping their but to make them run but the poor animals could barely walk), run after chickens for my grandfather to kill, run after cows for the fun of it... idk the relationship with animals is different is my point. Animal abuse is common and so are people who are passionate about taking care of animals.

This is also changing, but for a long time technology arrived very slowly. Until the 90s the garbage truck in my village was a cart pulled by a mule (100% real, there are pictures). In many ways, while the rest of the country was in the 90s, our village lived in the 50s. This also applies for diversity and expressing political opinions. There's barely anyone who is visibly queer (my organisation hung the first public pride flag ever just this June), next to zero racial diversity except Roma people (and few Romanian immigrants, but this also makes sense because almost no one who isn't born here moves here), and when I started to go to leftist demonstrations and militate in political organizations, my grandma told me "please don't mark yourself", a common warning among mothers and grandmothers who have the memory of the dictatorship still very fresh in their mind, often because they had family members executed.

Our wifi works absolutely fine tho.

That makes it sound a little grim, but I think it's beautiful. I was surprised by how much I missed it since I went to college. There's many things I took for granted that are not common in cities. I didn't experience cat calling until I went to college. Children go out on their own since they're pretty young, the only danger is cars, and even then you can hear a car coming a few streets away. We only had to get home early because of school, and in the summer we got home by midnight or 1 or 2 in the morning, highschool kids stayed out even later. In the summer, at night, plenty of houses have all their doors open, and women pull out plastic chairs and seat on the street with their neighbours to chat and enjoy the cooler air. In the winter you'll hardly see a soul on the street. I have quite a big family who I get to meet often, and it's not an obligation, I have a WhatsApp group with all my cousins and when a bunch of us don't have other plans we get together. It's probable that I romanticise rural life, but I think there's a stronger sense of community and family, although I also know small neighbors in cities tend to develop similar dynamics.

Do you, or any of your followers, have resources on how to write/represent how people usually live in villages? I want to write a fanfic where a guy from a village invite the other one, who's from a really big imperial city, and the culture clash is at first important for the plot. But I'm a ~city girl~ and the only contact I've had with rural life is a family farm which is, or so I think, very fucking different for a entire village. I googled but nothing came up and the articles that describe ~~The Village Life~~ sounded kinda like if a TikTok influencer was talking to me about mere Cottagecore aesthetic.

--

I'm from a city myself.

How about you start by defining what kind of village you're talking about?

It seems like official uses of 'village' denote something with a few hundred to few thousand people, and colloquial usage is even broader. A settlement of 3,000 and one of 100 are going to work very differently.

Is this Europe? Fantasy Europe? Is it China? When is this? What kind of farming is going on around this village, or is it less agricultural? Are the people religious compared to the city? The reverse?

Things like knowing everybody because it's a small place might be consistent, but a lot will presumably vary.

[helainetieu]

I've been following for years now and I think it's great how you lived on your own from a young age. I'm at that point in my life now and live in AZ. Any tips about where to find reliable roommates, cheapest area to live in, and how to save?

My reliable roommate also happens to be my best friend. We both needed a roommate at the same time so we moved in together. I’m not sure how other people find reliable roommates, I’ve always lived with friends or spouses but the most reliable / best roommate I’ve ever lived with is my current roommate.

I think there are websites to find roommates but I think doing that depends on your comfort levels with strangers. I’m not sure where the cheapest area is but I live in Mesa and it’s not too pricey. Our rent is about $1,100 with utilities included for a two bedroom. I’ve lived in Gilbert, Phoenix, Scottsdale, San Tan Valley, etc. – San Tan Valley is extremely cheap but it’s far away from everything. I’m only 5 minutes from Tempe, 10 minutes from Gilbert, and 15-20 minutes from downtown Phoenix.

When you get your paychecks, the first thing you should do is pay your bills. I have my bills mapped out on a calendar and I split them in half depending on what can be paid with which check. Then after you pay your bills (even if it’s early), you know exactly what you have left for yourself so put a good portion of that money into savings. Just keep saving until you have MORE than enough, there are always unexpected costs or things that happen. Get a place that you can afford and is in your budget. 

I can break this down a little easier for you too:

Let’s say you work 40 hrs per week at minimum wage in AZ. $10.00 x 40 = $400. If you get paid bi-weekly, let’s do $10.00 x 80 = $800 before taxes. If you have 2.7% selected for your taxes, that’s about $656 per paycheck after taxes. That’s $1,312 after taxes in a month. If you want more money per paycheck, choose a lower tax percentage. You’ll get less money back for your tax refund but you’ll have more money in your checks each pay period (I don’t know a whole lot about taxes though so ask someone else about that before you follow my advice).

Now you have $656 x 2 in a month. So let’s break down expenses.

Let’s say you have a two bedroom apartment for $800 without utilities included, 

(Here’s a list of 2 bedroom apts in Mesa, AZ for $800 or less: https://www.apartments.com/mesa-az/2-bedrooms-under-800/)

And you split that evenly with a roommate. Now you pay $400 for rent:

$1,312 - $400 = $912 

You pay your utilities. According to this website, the average cost of utilities in AZ is $120.51 but again, this varies. You split that with your roommate:

$912 - $60.25 = $851.75

You also have wifi. My roommate and I pay about $72 a month for COX internet, so we’ll go based off of that but you can try to find a different provider:

$851.75 - $36 = $815.75

That’s for your apartment, if I’m not forgetting anything. We’ll look at your personal bills now. You have $815.75 remaining.

Car payment. According to this website, the average car payment is about $479 per month (I drive a used car and paid it all off when I bought it so I don’t have a car payment but my roommate pays about that much for her 2014 Ford):

$815.75 - $479 = $336.75

Car insurance. According to this website, the average car insurance cost is $150 (which is a few dollars less than what I pay):

$336.75 - $150 = $186.75

Phone bill. According to this website, the average phone bill cost is $71 per month (I got back on my parents plan so I could save money and I pay $40 per month but don’t have unlimited data): 

$185.75 - $71 = $114.75 

Now you have $114.75 left over to eat, go out, and buy things for yourself per month. That’s about $57.37 left per pay check. 

Let’s say you don’t have a car though, that’s an extra $479 + $150 per month if you’re also not saving up for a car or not using public transportation / Uber / Lyft / Taxi’s to get to work. Maybe you and your roommate are really good at not wasting water, leaving lights / tv’s on, etc., your utilities could be a litte less. Maybe you don’t need wifi because you pay for unlimited data on your phone and don’t need internet for your computers / laptops / gaming systems, that’s about an extra $36+ a month. It just all depends on your lifestyle and what you can afford or what you can live without. This list also doesn’t include any personal debt you’re slowing paying off for anything else.

I hope this helped you get a clearer idea of what you need to save and what you need to have when you move out! Also don’t forget that most places require first and last months rent, + a security deposit. Goodluck!

[jockoppressor]

2, 11, 19, 25, 29 you can ahh also do these numbers from that one from earlier I meant to ask you and got distracted. Unless they're creepy cus I'm not 100% on what these numbers were from the other one.

2. what would you name your future kids?

zephyr, and then zinnia if i have a second kid, with ZNMA being the initials for both

11. are you listening to music right now?

i’m not, but if it was it’d probably be one of the same two dozen songs i always listen to now i am b/c i can’t pull up the link to a song without listening to it!

19. have you ever been to New York?

i went to nyc when i was 17 for a school trip. my little group got lost on the subway at like 10pm and wound up practically to coney island before we realized we’d goofed. i got distracted by something and almost got left behind, but this one girl i never talked to leaned out of the subway car & shouted at me to get on

25. role model

that comrade who punched richard spencer

29. favourite film(s)

in no specific order

the fifth element

the force awakens

guardians of the galaxy

El laberinto del fauno

La Règle du jeu

2. have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who?

i haven’t

11. describe your ideal day

i wake up a little after noon in a city (or perhaps a town) that i’m visiting for the first time. i wander to the kitchen to find my travel companion got up shortly before i did & has brewed tea for both of us. i put together a small lunch for both of us, and we discuss what to do for the day over our meal. we agree that since the weather is nice, we ought to explore the area for a while. we find a litany of beautiful & exciting places to visit, and come evening, we visit a local spot that was recommended by some local who’s six degrees of separation from one of us. dinner is delicious and everything we hoped it’d be, and after, we drift to some local festival, where we hang out until it ends. we take public transit back to where we’re staying, check in to make sure everyone who didn’t get to come is sufficiently envious, then turn in for the night

19. which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle?

according to the website, i’d be a gryffindor

25. could you live as a hermit?

almost? like if i had one (1) person living with me & wifi access, i could live in the middle of goddamn nowhere and feel perfectly content

29. three songs that you connect with right now.

agnes - glass animals 

you see the sad in everything, a // genius of love and loneliness...

guess life is long // when soaked in sadness

shelter - porter robinson & madeon

it just makes me tear up a little bit

city of flickering destruction - yoko shimomura

it’s melancholic & i’m feeling that all the time, always

[aforeverunfinishedproject]

This is a huge concern of mine, that's for sure. Covid has screwed me six ways from Sunday as a homeless person living in their car, (a beater at this point that keeps stalling and the battery is so dead it needs to be jump started at least three times a week), but now it's getting to be next-level scary. I have no choice but to seek out public spaces for access to restrooms, wifi (for access to resources that are only accessible via internet) and cooked food. Sometimes I have no choice but to drive to other locations because the security douchebag at the spot that I parked to sleep decided to shuffle me along elsewhere. On the colder nights I park behind the garage of a friend I know so I can run an extension cord to my car for a small heater... but that house is basically a crack house and has very high traffic coming in and out all day and all night which was already risky because of the actual pandemic, but is now double risky because cops can just waltz in on the pretense that there are so many cars in and out, and start arresting everyone when they realize that people are going there to use. I'm sure I won't be treated with leniency just because I'm not there for drugs and am staying inside my car (Except to use the restroom)... Cops aren't exactly known for their ability to be reasonable. I'm 100% certain they'll impound my vehicle just for being present there, at the residence of the only person I know who is actually willing to allow me to use their property for "safe" shelter. Because, you know, the most empathetic and compassionate people in our society are always the ones living on the margins. Think any of my well-to-do family will let me sleep in their driveway? What would the neighbours think? Think any local business will put up with me sleeping in their completely empty parking lot where I'm not in anyone's way? No dice. Unless I drive to the city to sleep in a Walmart parking lot, but you're that much more likely to get pulled over if you're crossing between regions, and I don't exactly have the gas to be traveling from region to region anyway, so that's not really an option. Nope. These new police powers have me extremely worried (and don't even get me started on the fact that as of this week I have NO headlights because Canadian Tire sent me the wrong ones TWICE, that I had to pay for TWICE because they can't do exchanges due to covid, and now they're trying to make me pay for headlights a THIRD TIME because they keep sending me the wrong ones but I officially have zero money left so I now have to risk getting shuffled along in the middle of the night only to be forced to reveal that I can't go anywhere in the dark because I don't have any headlights at all, which I'm sure I'll get a hefty ticket for and possibly get my car fucking impounded). It's all kinds of scary.

idk if this has been asked yet but what the fuck is this gonna do to houseless folks like (re:fords latest chucklefuckery)

~~~~