#required income

[carlyraejepsans]

you want to play ghost trick. you want to play ghost trick so bad ooooo (ghost noise) hold my hand. let's get you a ds emulator baby

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

If you don’t mind sharing, since you don’t work for a zoo what is your job situation like? Making a living while working at a definitely zoo seems tricky. Is your main income zoology/animal related or is that more of a side thing?

Sincerely,

- a curious zoology student

I have a (mostly) unrelated jobjob - I’ve never actually been affiliated with a single facility, unless you count college internships before I started this blog. I freelance, working as a science media fact-checker and taking paid research contracts occasionally. I do work on a lot of animal / biology related fact-check content, but it’s not my entire scope of work. I also have the privilege of having family assistance, as I have chronic health issues that interfere with the normative 9-5 grind.

Everything I do in terms of blog writing/research, zoo industry research and publication, and photography is unpaid and pretty much a hobby at this point.

Prior to the pandemic I was trying to find funding for the intra-industry research and public-facing outreach I was doing, but there was never any money for it. (The industry is very used to expecting labor from young women for free. There was and is a lot of interest in the work I do, but the number of people/orgs that have ever provided compensation or financial support is in the single digits). The pandemic actually gave me the chance to pivot to focusing on professional fact-checking.

The only funding I get for any of this work is through a somewhat defunct Patreon I set up years ago when I was trying to make this blog / scicomm a full time gig. I’m terrible at updating it, and I’m conflicted enough about that to have been considering deleting it entirely. (For those of you who have stuck it out despite the radio silence, you’re incredible. You’ve facilitated the donation of my time to write a really cool paper with a zoo disaster response org, which will hopefully get through peer review soon).

To make something like this blog and everything else I do in the field actually financially sustainable, I’d need to fundraise and market more. The thing about a fact-checking career, though, is that it’s reinforced the need to make sure everything I write/say publicly is completely and 100% correct - because that level of rigor is what supports my professional reputation! Which means I’m slow to produce research and reticent to talk about it before it’s finished. My work comes out all the better for it, but it doesn’t fit into a content model that produces revenue.

So yeah, all of this is a side thing that I fit in around my paid work and my health. Because sometimes I just need to go see a tiger and smell an elephant, y’know?

[pandorem]

Me every time I check out the dead boy detectives tag: *rolls up sleeves* welp. Looks like it’s time for another Crystal Palace defence post

[cedarspiced]

reading the new lease form and rent has gone up to $1800 and that's not including any utilities at all

[nostalgia-tblr]

who can solve my plot/character problem in the sylki con artists au so that i can continue writing it

[bitchesgetriches]

Read more: When It Comes to Salary Negotiations, Are You Asking for Enough? 

And hey... did we just help you out? Tip us!

[somecunttookmyurl]

all the while society conflates "being an adult" with "having a proper job" and "having money to make arbitrary Adult Purchases" disabled people who can't work - or can only work part time or can only do entry level baby jobs - will never be 'allowed' to be adults

you can say "being an adult is looking after yourself you don't have to have a job!!!" all you want but most people who say that will still assume anybody who doesn't either can't or won't 'look after themselves' actually. and every 'marker' of 'adulthood' that's observable and thus actually counts or whatever loops back around to... having a job and 'contributing' something

[dumbbullet]

The Big Scary has improved drastically which means it's time for What The Fuck Are You Doing With Your Life to resume

[yesloulou]

.

[realasslesbian]

I just had to share this email I got so all y'all can appreciate the absolute state of welfare services in Australia with me:

The NILs Loan Scheme is a government funded, no interest loan scheme for people on low incomes, but this leaves me wondering exactly who tf can qualify for their loans. Because it seems like if you have any symptoms of poverty it's a no.

I applied because I need the clutch replaced in my van, which I live in. It's lucky that I actually CAN afford the cost myself (due to living in a van & not participating in Australia's increasingly ridiculous housing market). I thankfully can afford such an expense these days & was just looking for a responsible financial buffer, just in case. But if this had happened to me a few years ago when I first became homeless and was far less financially stable, then my next living situation wouldn't be "affordable housing" it would be a fucking tent.

Anyway, the backwards ass state of a GOVERNMENT FUNDED welfare scheme refusing to assist those who need welfare the most because they don't want to encourage homelessness or whatever the dumb fuck? Just really rustled my jimmies tbh. Just screams "yet another govt welfare scheme that's actually just about handing out money to fake charities & not helping the poor". Good Shephard just got on the "do not donate to these grifters" list along with the Salvos😒

[mylittleredgirl]

i reALLY need microsoft teams to quiet down because i'm so frickin excited about the preview of my smut4smut gift in my inbox like IT IS NO LONGER POWERPOINT O'CLOCK. everyone on this thread go to bed except me because i have Something To Read

[1794]

in an ideal world I'd have way more opportunities in my daily life to use the phrase "unlimited genocide"

[kickedin17]

Girl (Tyler Robert Joseph) if I don't get this job this week AND the Paladin MV still isn't out, I'm gonna **** **** * ******* ****** *** * **** ***** ****** ****

[schoolrust]

"What On Earth Is SchoolRust?"

Glad you asked! SchoolRust is an aesthetic (titled by me) focused on places and things that are old, abandoned, or forgotten, and most of all macabre. The locations are typically those that have decayed or broken down over time, and places that have an odd sense of nostalgia to them. I also like to put an emphasis on places that have been greatly affected by industrialization, like factories, urban settings, schools, power plants, stores, etc.... wherever you might find a chainlink fence and rusted machinery, basically. Overall: the contrast of things that are soft and nostalgic vs things that are cold, worn down, and dreary. A slowly decaying childhood home with a cell tower looming over it, or a school playground covered in rust on a rainy day, are some images that come to mind; thus the name. Other aspects of the aesthetic include old toys, outdated decor/architecture, thrifty and macabre clothes, as well as things that might remind you of urban legends and late 2000s-early 2010s creepypasta culture. Both the horror and comfort of the past are very welcome here.

images from Another (2012), a stock image website, this Tokyo Teddy Bear MV, and yours truly~

A lot of this aesthetic was inspired by both my interest in online horror (both as a kid and as an adult), as well as growing up in a low income area with many abandoned or outdated buildings and odd places to explore, so it's definitely a bit of a personal and hyperspecific niche; but I hope other people like it too! Maybe we can share in our experiences, and our love of the strange, forgotten, and familiar. ♥

[ereh-emanresu-tresni]

.