#low cost life

[nicorobinphd]

stg, being an enjoyer of jane twdg is like being forced into an expert-level course on the way misogyny manifests in video game spaces.

god forbid a woman be complex or difficult or provably mischaracterized (see tags) at the end of her arc to service the culmination of a man’s storyline.

[domokunrainbowkinz]

shipping yhk not in a romantic or platonic way but a secret third way (⬛️⬛️)

[kaddyssammlung]

[ofthe-sunand-moon]

Y'all....if you have the choice of taking an English class and a speech/public speaking class in the same semester in college.....don't do it, that's the devil talking.

[echollama]

Wow earplugs really help a lot with auditory stimulus im not panicking

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Me staring intensely at my seed cart and wondering when in the fuck it got so expensive to shove some wooden posts in the ground and staple plastic tarp sheeting to them and have yourself a fuckin green house....

[randomactsofpigeon]

My father-in-law is a dentist. He is my dentist, because a) internal family politics made this a hill not worth dying on even though I prefer to keep this sort of thing compartmentalized, and b) he's actually a really fucking good dentist.

ANYWAY. I went in for my cleaning. My mother-in-law is the office manager, and she was running a contest to guess the number of candies in a jar. I take a look and write mine down.

Everyone in the office starts going nuts over how close I am. Me sitting there like I don't literally do estimation for a living.

[orcelito]

Oh yeah yesterday I went to my C programming professor's office hours to ask about what's being covered in class tomorrow. Since I can't go bc of my PT appointment overlapping with it & I'm apparently the kind of student that cares about attending every single class now.

While I was there, I ended up chatting with him about a few things, including my current standing in the class. He asked what I got on the midterm exam, & I answered it was an 87, and he told me I was one of the top 5 or 6 scores in the Whole Class (this being a like. Maybe 70 or so person class). Top score was a 92 or 93 (idr lol) & the class average was a 72. Apparently there were a few of us in the upper 80s/lower 90s, but most people got 70s or lower. And once he does the curve on the exam, he said I'd probably end up with a 97 or so on the exam. So yay!!!

And then he told me how he's noticed how I come to class every day and am really active with taking notes and answering questions. Bc I also sit up front all the time lmao. Hadn't even realized how much of a damned teacher's pet I've been being, but I've been Trying to be a good student this year. But he said I was the type of student that if I got an 88% or smth in the class, he'd likely bump me up to a 90% so I'd get an A lol. But he also said so long as I keep up with how I have been, I could possibly get a 100% in the class by the end (bc I've been there for all the extra credit questions in class and whatever).

And just. I went there bc I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything important in class on Wednesday, and I ended up having my ego stroked for Real. Felt good to have my efforts be recognized.

[age-of-moonknight]

“Dead Reckoning,” Moon Knight: City of the Dead (Vol. 1/2023), #3.

Writer: David Pepose; Penciler: Sean Damien Hill; Inker: Jay Leisten; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit

[cherrysnax]

was talking to my butch last night about feelings and self perception and it’s weird that ppl see me as kind. not nice, but kind

[flowersandspacestuff]

My dad makes his living picking seasonal berries and mushrooms. He travels around and knows what time of year and which areas to find specific sought after berries like huckleberries, where and when to find mushrooms that are considered delicacies like morels, chanterelles, and others. He lives in one area for some of the time, but travels across the whole northwest.

My dad has never really fit with society, partly due to his connection with nature, and partly due to mental illness and trauma. But this is something he can do, and something he loves, and humans will always want wild berries and mushrooms, and need food. So many people today do not know how to find these things, though they used to provide for our whole way of life.

A lot of people feel trapped in the framework our species and cultures have built, and see that the way the job market works is to suck the life out of you, but to keep you working while it does. Yeah you'll always have to work for your living, that's just how life is. You gotta put something in to get anything out. But, we have to consider, what do we want to get out of it? My country has written in it's constitution that people have a right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This is a little bit vague, so vague, that we haven't recognized this right being slowly eroded away. Now we find ourselves pushed to the edge, we're told how lucky we are, while we scramble to find something, something we can do that our society deems worthwhile, and worth money, just so we can live to work the next week, month, year, and afford to pay for our media subscriptions, car, mortgage, rent, gas, food. We'll always have to work for our food, our home, our family, and our health. That's not the problem. The problem is, we aren't working for this. Because most of us, can put as much energy and work as we can into doing something we're not completely suited for, just to live, but still have trouble achieving the basics for life, let alone liberty and happiness. The work that so many are doing, doesn't return to them. We aren't working for our life, liberty, and happiness. Sure, it's why we're working, but the work we are doing doesn't fulfill that pursuit. We should expect that if we do good work, we will see the returns. If you farm your land, and care for the plants and the soil and the animals, you will see the return in abundance. If you build for your communities, your communities will flourish, and you will too. Some of us have found ways to work within this parasitic market system that allow us to still do this, but the power of monopolistic global industry is still felt, and this power strangles the life and liberty of the people, to squeeze out a hoarded profit. People are not machines though, we feel the pain. Our world feels the pain. The ecosystems that have provided all of our bounty, and sustained life on this planet, are suffering from neglect and abuse, just as people suffer from indenture and alienation.

Some of us have been led to believe that there is no way out. This is a lie. Some of us have been led to believe our connection to nature is severed. This is a lie. Some of us have been led to believe that we cannot continue forward and advance humanity while keeping our ties to nature. This is a lie.

What is truth then?

We live, and have always lived, through nature. Earth is a part of us, as we are a part of Earth, and we thrive and fall in the same measure. There is still time for us. Everything will change, as everything always changes. We will change too. We can change, it is how we have come to be here, and how we will continue on. Harmony with Earth is not only possible, but is also the requisite for humanity's own flourishing, and the source of our natural way of being.

But what does this mean for us now? What does this mean for me, who knows how to do only the things society has taught are important? What do I do, who know how to obey, to follow direction, to communicate and to sell things, to write and to read and to drive, but know not how to create tools, to cultivate food, to search for and identify the bounties of nature, to live from what the Earth gives us, and to do so in a way that gives back to that source? What do we do? We learn!

The sources of our life, our liberty, and our happiness are not as far from us as we would be made to think. It may seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. You can start with one thing. Learn about a native edible plant or berry or mushroom near you, learn its season and what habitat it grows in, and learn where you might find it. It is August. In the Northwestern United States there are many berries in season right now. In the coastal areas are blackberries and huckleberries and salal, inland there are huckleberries, grapes in some places, and elderberries, (which must be cooked to be edible but are high in vitamins A and C, and are used for a cold remedy as syrup). You can pick what you need for yourself and freeze it for winter, saving you money on frozen fruit in the dark months, and you can also pick more than you need and give some to friends or family, or sell it for a little supplemental income if you pick enough. Remember though to do your harvesting with respect for the environment, for this is the environment that is sustaining you. Protect it, give back to it, pick up your trash, and learn to be firesafe.

There are other options too, if you have the access, you can create a garden to support your food access. The recent pandemic has reminded many of us that we can't always rely on grocery stores and changing prices and the changing value of our money to get what we need, but there are other ways, and these other methods of sustaining ourselves can free us. Learn how to preserve fresh food when it is affordable and save it for when it is scarce. Tomatoes and zucchini may be overabundant in the summer, but they are scarcer in the winter. You can freeze tomatoes whole, and you can shred zucchini and freeze it for winter use in pasta, breads, and stir fries. There also inedible but very useful plants and sources within the forest, which you can use to make things you need or that are useful. Baskets can be so expensive, but weaving only requires a few supplies, an understanding, and your own work. This is just the beginning.

While we ask what we can do to live better on what nature gives us, we also ask what we can do to give back to nature, to keep nature thriving so that we may thank it for its sustenance and also partake in its abundance. Some plants are invasive and harm native plants, and can be removed to make way for plants more in harmony with the ecosystem. When many people travel a natural area, erosion can begin to threaten hillsides and habitats. This can be mitigated by creating better paths and reinforcing eroded areas near them with nature's materials, like fallen logs, branches, and plants like moss, grasses and shrubs which will make the way for trees to take root and further secure the hillside. Sometimes we don't know where our help would be most useful, or how to help, but there are good organizations that dedicate themselves to doing exactly these kinds of things. Mossy Earth is one that provides lovely videos and updates and abundant information on their efforts at habitat restoration and species reintroduction efforts. They're on youtube, and watching their videos is so hope renewing. They also have a subscription service that people may support them through.

You don't have to give up your apartment and live in a tent to renew your connection with nature. You don't have to do all of these things for it to be worthwhile. And you aren't alone in the big projects that seem a little daunting. We're in this together, and there are plenty of little ways we can start to work on our connection with nature, and work on our connection with ourselves, that will immediately benefit our health and happiness, and will further the happiness of our families and communities and home. Because Earth is home. We have to work for home, but if we do good work, we will have everything we need, and be happy with our efforts and their results.

So go pick some berries! Freeze them, eat them, share them! And at the end of it, you will have spent that time in nature, using your body for what it has developed for, and building your strength and your understanding for the future.

[lemon-3ds]

The world is in turmoil. And people are in pain. Even still, we can take comfort in knowing that I am one of the greatest Inscryption players on the planet. *grins*

[kudae]

,

[piedoesnotequalpi]

I do not understand why wireless headphones are so popular

[butch-nightwing]

fuck i want to go back to orange hair