#so make poor folks work MORE. because rich people will just pay for it and be done with work by the time they're 40/50

[wastelandbabyblue]

news talking about how our population is getting older and uh i wonder why??? can't be because everything is extremely expensive and young people can't even afford to rent a shoebox nowadays without sharing it with 3 other people. or maybe how if you buy 5 things at the grocery store you spend R$150?? or maybe the fact that people work 12 hours a day to make minimum wage here? certainly it's just young folks being selfish and not wanting to have babies. can't be about capitalism crushing everyone's souls day by day

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

"Sure, medieval peasants only lived until about 40, had zero human rights, were subject to the whims of kings and lords, constantly died because of drought, disease and famine, only ate what they could grow or raise, and spent all their labor time on backbreaking physical work, but at least they didn't work 80 hour weeks!"

I see this dumb shit all the time, and I cannot stress enough how much none of the people saying it would have lasted a week as a serf or peasant. The fact that you're even educated enough to know the difference between your lot and the lot of a medieval peasant without being a member of the nobility or the clergy is a very recent development as far as human history goes, and it's all thanks to capitalism and the recognition of the human rights every individual has. So yes, you might have to work 80 hours a week and your commute might suck and you might be stressed out, but here are just a few of the trade offs that make modern society literally the best time to be alive in the free west:

You have basic human rights

You have the freedom to choose where you work

You can negotiate your pay

You get paid at all

You can go to a store and find food whenever you're hungry that you don't need to cultivate yourself

You have access to the entirety of human knowledge via a small brick you can carry in your pocket

You can travel anywhere you want via car, train, or plane

Our homeless and destitute have access to better food and healthcare than any medieval peasant

Spices and seasonings that used to be available only to the super rich or noble are so easy to get that you just get handfuls of packets containing them when you order at the drive in

Even the poor can afford to pay other people to cook their meals

Life expectancy is double what it was for the common folk for most of human history

Infant mortality is incredibly low

Entire industries exist solely to create entertainment options for you to fill your leisure time

Most deadly diseases have been eradicated or can be cured

There are stores you can walk into and pick an outfit from a collection of clothes larger than any king has ever had

Stores. Stores exist and you can find anything you could ever need in them. Things you don't need to make yourself, things that you can just replace if they break, things you can pay other people to fix if they break

You have instant access to hundreds of millions of books on any subject you can think of

You have to go out of your way to find an unpaved road. Go ahead. Try to get to anywhere without driving or walking on a paved road. It's not easy.

Artificial limbs.

Artificial organs.

Air conditioning

Indoor heating

Electricity

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. It's an amazing time to be alive. We have so much that we look at how much we have and we get depressed because we think it isn't enough. But we don't have this without capitalism. We don't have it without the recognition of human rights. We don't have it without representative government or people who are willing to work to keep and maintain every level of our society. So yeah, you have to work. And maybe you might have to work more hours pouring coffee or typing at a computer than a medieval peasant had to work in the fields or at the forge or marching 20 miles per day to fight in some duke's pointless war against another duke. But if you think that your life isn't palatial compared to most people throughout the history of humanity then you really need some perspective. If you think embracing ideologies that have only ever led to suffering and human rights abuses is going to magically make your life perfect then you need to get a brain.

[blackcandlesinwinter]

It's really disappointing that discussion of class politics is so stunted on this site. Like most commentary you see is either "anyone who buys pre-cut vegetables or home decor is bourgeois and should be beheaded" or "only the billionaire class is truly rich and deserving of criticism." And these are both just such immature views.

Like, if your understanding of class is at the level of "you're too rich if you have throw pillows" you're really not any better than the hard-line conservatives who complain that a homeless person doesn't deserve help because they could just sell their car, or a jobless person doesn't need help because they still have a cellphone.

But on the other side, sure, there's a huge gap in power and wealth between what we might call the "upper middle class" (UMC) and someone like Elon Musk. But the upper middle class still has specific class interests which strongly incentivize and perpetuate wealth disparities and white supremacy. In fact, this class has a HUGE harmful impact on socioeconomic realities, in some ways maybe moreso than the billionaire class. And that's worth pointing out and critiquing!

Like, the way the UMC pushes to draw school districts so that their children never have to share schools with too many poor or black kids (resulting in wealthier neighborhoods having well-funded schools while poor neighborhoods which collect little tax revenue have underfunded schools). Like the way that MC and UMC folks will fight tooth and nail to prevent low-income housing from being built in their neighborhoods, resulting in effective segregation of cities and suburbs by class and race. Like the way that wealthier Americans will use the police as their weapon to harass and drive away homeless people, people of color, and poorer people from their communities and their streets for their own comfort. Like the way that UMC folks may not be 1%ers, but they still have enough wealth to take advantage of tax loopholes and tax-sheltering schemes to avoid paying their fair share. Gated communities. Anti-pan-handling ordinances. White flight. Gentrification. Tens of thousands of golf courses. Rampant consumerism and waste. Not to mention the number of careers within this class which specifically exist to perpetuate and support the existing class divides.

And, importantly, I'm talking about CLASS here, not individuals. I have no doubt that there are plenty of individual UMC folks out there who are specifically fighting against these things and are trying to use their wealth to make their communities better for all. But those would be people who are working against their class interests. The upper-middle class as a whole has class interests that are fundamentally opposed to the interests of those with less wealth, and which are largely aligned with the interests of the super-rich. Working against one's class interests is also extremely challenging, particularly if you were born reasonably wealthy, since your class will have shielded you from fully understanding the problems you're trying to solve. Thus, attempts to help are often misguided or ineffective, and sometimes ultimately end up serving the wealthy more than the poor. That may not even be intentional, but it's how class works and perpetuates itself.

I dunno, I guess I'm just frustrated that every time any critique of the upper-middle class seems to venture onto this site, it immediately seems to get derailed with either "kill them all!" or "you're not allowed to criticize the wealth of anyone not in the top 0.1%!" I'd love to see people start to think past that dichotomy.

[giantkillerjack]

I am deep in my anger about the ignorance/apathy that the majority of abled Americans have about how deeply fucked up this country's treatment of disabled people is. Not only am I ENRAGED by it, but also it doesn't make logical sense! Don't they know they will become us? Don't they know that it is only the unlucky who die too young to develop a disability? Don't they understand what's coming for them??

I want to be legally allowed to save money! I want to be allowed to marry my wife legally! I want to be able to buy nice things and go on vacations, instead of being trapped at home with no wheelchair and no ramp! And I am only 29! Everyone knows when you get old here, you get locked away in a sad understaffed facility, and folks are out here acting like they'll never grow old!

The only thing keeping my grief and my feelings of helplessness against a massive enemy from overwhelming me is this project I've been working on with some new friends.

There's this piece of land, you see. It's huge and beautiful and being sold way WAY under market price. And there's a chance - not a guarantee but a real chance - that I will have the opportunity to live in this beautiful green place and to build a community and a free medical treatment center there that will change and save lives.

I see before me a path to create a bright spot of rest and love in the darkness, where I can prove to person after person - and to myself - that a better life IS possible, right here in America, where most of can't afford to leave. In America, we are meant to believe a life of poverty is just something some people deserve. They don't. No one does. And I have a chance to make sure as many people as possible know they do not deserve to be left behind.

The world does not need more heroes. The world needs more care. The world needs places to rest. People need to be told that they are valued even if they cannot labor - and THEN they need to be treated like they deserve help and have value beyond their labor.

I spend a large part of my life trying to prove to the government and doctors that I am poor enough/sick enough/disabled enough (in the exact ways they approve of) to receive help. - Without this constant, intricate song and dance of evil banality and arbitrary denial and cruel loopholes, I can be denied what I need to live. (I am only alive because I have the privilege of having rich relatives, who paid for my college education and currently pay my rent.) If I was not able to afford an assistant, I would already have lost all of my benefits. Currently, I am at risk of losing my Medicaid because I missed an unexpected "prove to a doctor you are still disabled" deadline. There is a massive and ongoing burden of proof in this country placed on disabled people and subject to the whims of rich white abled judges and the minutiae of paperwork.

That's why it's so important that I have this opportunity to help people. I cannot tell you what it will mean to me the day I get to look someone in the face and tell them that their housing and medical treatment will be free as long as they need it and with nothing expected in return. I wanna meet someone who has been trying their hardest for as long as they can remember to build a stable life, and I want to be able to tell them to please try their softest. To prove to me nothing. To take their time. I will tell them that I need neither justification nor evidence to believe them when they say they need help. I want to be living proof that people deserve help just by being alive on this planet. I want to be included as part of that. I deserve a soft place to land too.

Also this property has a wheelchair ramp, meaning I could finally get a wheelchair after 2 years of needing and not having one!

One of the other members of the team has already brought up building a system of elder care on the property that would allow people to receive comprehensive health care as they age and to remain part of a vibrant community!

There's Hope. There's Real Hope. I can hardly believe it.

And if this particular opportunity doesn't work out, well, I'm never going to stop pursuing that dream. Never. I will either get there or die having journeyed towards it my whole life, and in doing so, I will have made this world a little softer in a million other ways, and I will have made the path a little easier to walk for whoever comes after me. I used to want to leave destruction in my wake or die trying. But in this, I will leave creation in my wake, and I will live trying. (And if doing so allows people to grow strong enough to destroy evil institutions... good.)

I am going to look at every cruelty of this system that nearly killed me, and I'm going to foster the right conditions to do the exact opposite. I will take the ableism of my family who wouldn't believe that I couldn't work even when I was dying, and I will do the opposite. Oh, the people I will believe! The people I will help feed! The people I will protect and build strong houses and long tables with! The people I will learn from! - I haven't even met most of them yet! How exciting that my life may still yet be long and full of wonders!!

I hope anyone reading this who has also at some point felt like a long life would be a curse, especially if they feel like that right now... I wanted to say that me and my friends and people like us - and opportunities like the one I've been blessed with - will only be able to help you if you stay alive long enough to be found. Or to find us, as the case may be.

If you can't live long enough, it's not your fault. Truly, it's not; and your death would be a tragic loss to yourself and to this world that I cannot begin to describe because it would make me so sad my literal heart would start to hurt and I'd never get to bed tonight.

But please, please, hold on with everything you have, for as long as you possibly can. Please handle your heart with the gentlest hands you can muster. I need you to live long enough to sit at our table because nothing is guaranteed except that you must be alive to do it. And I'm saving you a seat that only you can have, and without you it will remain forever empty and our table forever incomplete. You are invited to this party, and it just won't be as good without you. I'm a lousy cook, but I'm making friends with chefs, and I promise I will make sure you have enough food. There will be music and laughter and dancing. Some of us will dance in our wheelchairs. Some of us will hug and cry and plant flowers. All of us will stare in amazement of the better days we once thought impossible.

And I for one will be so fucking happy to see you there. I will take you by your hand, look you in the eye, and with the greatest, warmest relief in my heart, I will thank you for living to share this day with me. Because I know damn well that it was stupid fucking hard, and that it is not okay how hard it was.

But, look, now the sunset is warm upon our faces and the children are laughing with the community elders, and we can sleep knowing we are not alone. We made it. We really made it.

And maybe it's not specifically me and it's not specifically you - the metaphor has its limits. But there are so many people like me who want a better world, and there are so many people like you who deserve to live to see it.

And if we never see better days, then I will count each day we survive as a victory and a rebellion, because that's what they will be. I will cherish and live for each little bit of love and joy we carve out of the darkness.

But a better life does not become impossible until we are dead. Which means as long as we still live, there is Hope.

Have courage and be kind, friend. Be kind to yourself especially - even if you can only do so a little bit at a time, it's worth the practice. Turns out it is harder to live than to die. But I care that you are found.

---

Optional musical accompaniment to this post bc I've never had any chill and I don't see why I should start now:

A practical song about managing anxiety with the line "i care that you breathe" in it

Brian David Gilbert's beautiful song "See the Day"

A song about surviving while sick in America, and which I am told once saved a life

A lovely nerdy song called "Critical Hit" that inspires me on the days I have a little more energy

[mythvoiced]

-. on my third cup of chamomile I forgot my mother telling folks when i was a kid that she didn't like making me chamomile tea because it doesn't work on me it has the effect on me coffee has on most folks I am READY to fucking GO what's up chamomile tea to sleeP? NO MY BEAUTIES chamomile tea to something pls insert something that makes sense and is hype i can't think of anything, SO--

I do wanna get to some ooc messages but I can't promise I can get my brain in order to be coherent BUT ANYWAY, BEFORE THAT, dropping this asshole

Kim Minjun, 37, he/him, bloodsucker asshole baby~ Not in the literal sexy vampire sense, I mean he rose from the dirt and decided to make his living thriving off of what we made celebrity culture into, the very notion of celebrity culture itself

You want those pictures of Spider-man on your desk by Wednesday? You wanna know who's doing who and who's smoking what? You want exclusive details on a private party to start shit, get legal info acquired illegally just to have a story to tell about the latest celebrity divorce? Well, then Minjun's your fucking guy

Actually born Kim Jung-hoon but he changed it to Minjun because it sounds more... modern, fresh, better

He's a sleaze, a bit of a motherfucker honestly (forgive the cursing I'm matching his energy, his attitude), he doesn't care about the lives he could potentially be ruining, he operates according to the idea of 'well that's how this world works, don't like it? jump ship'

He'll dig up just about anything, he's started from being a sneaky piece of shit stalker following celebrities around to having built enough connections to be among the first to know when someone with a Reputation is entering this or the other club

But that's not even where his real forte is, oh no; gathering info is easy, figuring out how to get it around is difficult: who to sell it to? who's gonna pay the most, who's gonna turn into an enemy if you share the wrong name, the wrong location, expose the wrong people? no, he's good at finding shit, but the complexities of having to mind connections and be careful with who you drag into the dirt? not his favourite

What Minjun really excels at... is spinning shit around, he can turn the most innocuous of pictures into the drama of the century, by carefully nurturing doubts and rumours, he's a snake, a bastard

He's always hated the entertainment industry, he thinks himself above it, because he's not as desperate as them, he doesn't do what he does because he's otherwise got no worth in life, he doesn't sell his soul, he sells the souls of others

He doesn't think he's on the right side of history, oh no, by no means, he just thinks... well, don't become a celebrity if you don't want this treatment

The more I write about him the more I hate him lmao BUT GOOD WE NEED VILLAINS, UNREEDEEMABLE ONES

He comes from a relatively poor background, if comparing it to Hyun for example, but if he'd minded his business he would have just... lived a 'regular' life

He's particularly efficient when used as 'spy on the competition', new script ideas, new music ideas, new design ideas, you want to know what Shakespeare's next big play will be, Nicholas Bottom? well, then hit up this fucking clown

Only child, if his mother knew what he was up to she'd beat the shit out of him, he doesn't respect his father (haven't decided if he even lives still) but he does love his mother which is why he hasn't told her

Biromantic but he's a walking red flag so I hope the broadened pool of dating options doesn't fucking date him, demisexual

He can probably be fixed but WHY? why would you do that to yourself

He does have one little plus point, he's kind of like old school mafia in the sense that he doesn't mess with children, and anyone below 20 is a child to him, so he doesn't really mess with young idols and trainees

He actually hates the idol industry he thinks it's exploitative and abusive which is real fucking rich coming from him, but hey

I'LL WORK ON MORE ♥

[missmayhemvr]

I am probably going to ruffle a lot of feathers saying this, but I don't think liberals can actually be allies to anyone. Hear me out on this tho because I don't believe im the first to say this and that those before me often had their meanings or purposes twisted.

So first gotta define what a liberal is, I'd say it's someone that believes in capitalism first and foremost, that it can be reformed or suite the needs of many or that it isn't inherently evil or contradictory. A liberal by this definition can want social changes then right? But this means that capitalism has to remain in the end.

This is a stumbling block, this is a thing that means so much yet in the end it will not ever by definition be able to help us all and will always come back to be an oppressive force on the lives of anyone that has been marginalized, colonized, or harmed for the sake of capital.

For example let's look at wealth distrubution in the US, we all know the top earners and we all know they didn't get there from hard work. When you look at who is the poorest in the nation you see which groups, indigenous people and black people, those historical dispossessed of their land and those dispossessed of their labor. Black people have an average family weath (meaning assets transferable, houses cars, business) of a few thousand dollars. I believe it's similar if not worse for indigenous people here. A liberal thinking themselves an ally would seek to address such ills in the confines of capitalism and political electoralism which means vote for the right people and they will even the playing field (higher taxes on the rich better social safety net end legalized discrimination) all of these things however will only address symptoms and not causes. You can raise the min wage, have good social security and be allowed to vote all you want but it will never give reparations to black folks for the labor or suffering we have been put through, it will never bring the average wealth of us to be that of or white counterparts (unless through a means I'll get to later) and it will never result in the control of the land back to the hands of indigenous peoples here. This is because at the end of the day capitalism naturally prevents these things. Under capitalism is indigenous people want their land back what is their one way of doing that? Purchase, high min wage among a peoples that have faced 100s of years of genocide isn't going to get you the billions or trillions you'd have to pay and that's if they were willing to sell. And even more so if they were willing to hire you.

A similar situation becomes clear when you look at the black belt or the hood, you're not gonna make back enough for it to ever matter if you arent Beyonce and even then the structure is working against you.

Finally we look globally towards Africa and south America where regardless of the nation the population size or the volume of rare and pricy minerals or oil, these countries not only remain rather poor but the economy tends to still be run by the very nations or corporations that colonized in the first place. Because by no rule of capitalism will you ever be able to buy your way out of this oppression.

Liberals commitment to capitalism will always be greater than their commitments to people. A system which the only equality it can ever truly provide is by dispossessing few that would be seen as middle class and putting them in the same level of poverty as bipoc. Liberals as such will always push against us when we choose to fight back in meaningful ways and would rather ally themselves with fascist if and when able as they don't challenge the system of capitalism but just reinforce it. You can see it would the people's of various African nations sought to take back the farm land being used for cash crops so they could feed the people and not be reliant on other nations, liberal people and institutes sided with the settlers who stole the land in the first place. You see Biden who is truly the face of liberalism literally holding the hand of an Italian fascist turned pm.

So I don't think bipoc, queer or oppressed nations can trust liberal allyship. As it confines us more than uplifts us.

[trickstarbrave]

i saw some people bitching on tiktok about art/commission prices again and i feel like ranting

idk why someone got it in their heads all artists are upper class rich folk trying to scam you out of something that isn't hard at all for us to make. art takes time and energy--time and energy we could literally spend doing ANYTHING else. we could be spending time with our loved ones, working a regular job with reliable pay and better benefits, or even just making art WE want to see. most of us are working class or poor.

"but you could charge less and get more customers" who the hell wants to work more for less pay. genuinely. would you rather work 90 hours for 10 bucks an hour or 40 hours for 35 bucks an hour? like get real. past a certain point of popularity you will be literally unable to keep up with commissions bc you cannot physically make them fast enough and stay healthy so higher prices mean you can dedicate more time to people who want it more

"well your art isnt even GOOD" if someone's art isnt your taste or technically worth it to you then dont buy it. to really get good at commissions you do have to build an audience and if they havent then they'll figure out they need to improve or network/promote more. you bitching about it isnt helping them figure it out any faster, and you bitching to artists who DO reliably get commissions at that price makes you look like a whiny brat

"but you COULD charge less and still survive. that means youre scamming people" listen i know you are used to be catered to by large corporations who can use literal slave labor to make things dirt fucking cheap but ethical labor costs more. we are not large corporations with big art machines shitting out subpar garbage you can buy off the rack. you are asking for handmade, customized things from someone in a place with a higher cost of living. we cannot and will not bend over backwards to appeal to the lowest common denominator. see above: we have better things to be doing with our time and this shit costs time and labor to produce. if you dont want a handmade custom art piece or dress or jewelry consider buying from shein then you cheapskate and get out of this market.

because, see above: we have better things to be doing. you are the one asking me to spend my free time making you something because you want it supposedly. i could instead be making things i like. i have the luxury too where if i dont wanna do something i dont have to. i dont have to pick up extra work for you. other artists can find other customers that arent you. if YOU want something you should make it worth the artists wild. no i dont wanna do a full custom painting for you for 40 dollars. i would barely get out of bed for 40 dollars. if i told you to clean my whole house for 10 dollars and deep clean it you would probably tell me im insane and you're not gonna do all that work for 10 god damn dollars. 10 dollars wont even pay for the cleaning supplies.

i dont take commissions anymore specifically bc i kept getting burnt out. i felt i had to make it cheaper to get more when in reality all it did was make more work with little reward. i didnt feel happy making art anymore. it became a chore, and i didnt wanna make anything for myself after i spent hours and hours making other stuff for other ppl. im lucky enough now to have a corporate job with more free time so i can get paid enough to survive and still make art. if i ever decided to again i would probably price it rly high bc tbh. if you want me to make you a custom piece i dont rly wanna draw you had better make it worth the soul crushing work that is turning a passion of mine into a profit.

and lastily with the "you could charge less and still survive" artists deserve to not only survive but thrive. artists deserve free time to make what they enjoy and have other hobbies. artists deserve to not have to work overtime to have stuff in savings. you do too in fact as a non-artist, but attacking artists for wanting that and trying to make it a reality that they get paid not just a survival wage but a FAIR wage is not actually helping anyone.

[sorcerous-caress]

Went and did the extra questions for Sean Shanahan you came up with

(This is long as hell sorry in advance)

Inspiration

The Urchin inspiration points are like helping the tiefling kids and protecting children, hell even protecting the Owlbear Cub gives you inspiration

Past characters

Either one or some of his “siblings” would probably appear around the guild and if he’s with you will probably immediately freak out thinking they’re here to take him home but they’d probably be just as surprised to see him. I can also see his tiefling mother maybe appearing as a refugee at Rivington and freaking out but for a different reason. He’d probably introduce you to his mom and if you’re romanced she’ll probably tease him and embarrass him in front of you by telling some random story from when he was a child.

Dismiss/join lines

He’ll be disappointed to be dismissed because he likes going out but won’t make much fuss and will get excited when joining again before quickly calming himself

Questions

You could probably ask him if he’s hot under that coat and scarf of his which he’ll respond defensively about his choice of clothing. Asking him where he’s from is something he wouldn’t answer until way later in the story I believe.

Dream Visitor/ilithid powers

He wouldn’t trust the Dream Visitor one bit saying they clearly want something and to strongly advise not using the powers saying that anyone that offers immense power cannot be trusted

Companion endings

He’d probably be kind of hostile towards companions who went on their evil route especially Astarion even Grand Duke Wyll although I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad ending saying things like “oh better than us lowly folk now huh?” And taking the occasional jab at them

I can see his own bad ending being if you encourage his more aggressive revolutionary methods because I can definitely see him giving into his hatred for the rich and greedy and going full French Revolution on them, it would probably become an obsession where he doesn’t even care about helping the poor anymore just taking down the elite and gaining a “if you’re not with me you’re against me” mentality.

His good ending he would probably go back home to face whatever punishment his guild would give him for killing that rich guy and if you’re romanced you can offer to go with him which he would decline at first before being persuaded otherwise.

Special Item

He’d probably casually mention liking birds and if you give him something bird related he’d be genuinely surprised and shyly thank you for the gift

Family and home

He’d definitely speak of his second mother and her friends and his “siblings” before revealing they were apart of a guild and also his first mother but wouldn’t hide the fact that she was a tiefling and the community of homeless tiefling he grew up with. He’d also be pretty open about being abandoned at birth not being ashamed of it. He’d mention his home but would leave out that he killed a rich person prior to the events of the game until later on.

Fight

If he had a fight scene with anyone it’d probably be Astarion early on about how he’s so dismissive of people in need and smug it’d probably be the first time its shown that people in need is a sensitive subject of his

The Baddies

Raphael: Raphael would remind him of a greedy employer, tells you the benefits for you but leaves his own in the fine print. After the interaction with Mol he would say that he reminded him of foremen back home who he himself had witnessed plenty of time try to convince kids and even himself at a young age to work in factories so they didn’t have to pay as much.

Ketheric: He hates generals. Ketheric may fight with his soldiers but he hides behind his invulnerability where his soldiers die around him. If he were a true leader he’d fight alongside them as a mortal as comrades. He will point out that he doesn’t hate soldiers if it is assumed, he pities them for being brainwashed to be pawns in someone’s game.

Orin: Another thing he hates, people who prey on the weak. He doesn’t think highly of her. He believes that people who prey on the weak only do so because they are afraid of retaliation something he loves to do. If any of the companions are kidnapped he’ll be mad but if Yenna is kidnapped his dialogue about it would probably noticeable more angry than the others.

Gortash: The definition of the one thing he will always hate, a tyrant. He hates how smug he is, how confident he is. He suggests killing him every time he is brought up or spoken to. Would probably suggest different ways to do it as well. He really hates tyrants.

Abduction

On one hand it got him away from home after he committed a crime and on the other hand he has a parasite in his head so he sees the pros and cons

Drow Twins

He would agree to the deal only if you promise that he isn’t going to do anything he doesn’t want to

Origin

I don’t think there would be a unique feature but I do think it would be interesting to see his romance scene play out while playing him since you’d be seeing how other companions react to it

Astarion

Astarion being a vampire didn’t surprise him. “Oh you’re telling me the pale guy with sharp teeth and makes biting jokes all the time is a vampire? Shocker” he also wouldn’t really think of him any differently because he’s been ok for this long

Poly

He’s definitely not against polyamory but would suggest that it just be them since this is his first relationship and he doesn’t think he’s ready for any of that. Although since he’s asexual he would give Tav permission to have their fun similar to Karlach in Act 1.

Questline

His questline would be finding his birth parents. In the shadow cursed lands there would be a group of mercenaries dead along the road with a note about a conspiracy about a group of rich people having kidnapped a noble family with some sort of clue that they are his birth parents, either they have his last name or there’s mention of his abandonment in some way. When brought to him he’ll be surprised and disgusted that he has noble blood then say that he should leave them to their fate because they didn’t care about him why should he? He’ll change his mind though saying he’d be lying if this didn’t make him curious. Along the way you’d run into a lot of rich assholes to get information, some of them just being assholes some being actually horrible people and if you let them kill the ones who are just assholes it would lead into his bad ending but killing the genuinely horrible people probably wouldn’t but the best choice would be convincing him to just make them stop whatever shitty horrible operation they’re running. Finding his birth parents could play out two different ways because I haven’t settled on who his birth parents are but the two ideas I have come up with are 1. They’re genuinely horrible nobles that had a kid and didn’t want him for some reason (scandal, reputation, etc) so they had someone drop him off at some random location 2. One of his parents is a noble and the other isn’t favorable to their family (most likely a servant or maybe a rival noble family member) and they were forced to get rid of him.

If it’s 1 he’s gonna kill them, if he’s convinced not to he’s going to majorly dislike it and probably leave the party. If it’s the good ending he’ll have a talk to you saying that this is the first time killing people who were genuinely horrible made him feel bad because it made feel like he was becoming like them, people who didn’t care about the others around them. He’ll ask that if he ever ends up like that and you can’t bring him back to kill him because he’d rather be dead than end up like that but ending up like that would exactly be his bad ending where he instead will just talk about how much he enjoyed it.

If it’s 2 he’ll save them when they whole ordeal is explained he’d be open to getting to know them but he’ll make it clear that he’ll never refer to them as his mother or father he already has two mothers and that’s enough for him. In his bad ending he’ll probably dismiss everything they say and just go to kill them because of his hatred for the rich. Afterwards he’ll speak about how he never felt the need to look for his birth parents but that he was glad he did because they seemed like good people.

Underdark

Does not like the Underdark. He will embarrassingly admit that he is afraid of the dark even though he likes hiding in it and will say he’ll be sticking close to a companion with Dark Vision or you if you have dark vision. (Hmm I wonder what this concept came from)

Fighting Tav

The only time I think they’d ever fight you is if you did something incredibly horrible in the story where there’s no way he could let it slide.

Cure

He’s fine with just going along because the tadpole didn’t seem to be doing anything plus he likes exploring it’s all he did in his younger years when he wasn’t pickpocketing nobles or training under his second mother.

Job

I feel like he’d be Astarion for people who didn’t like doing bad stuff.

Durge Confession

I don’t think there’s anything a Redeeming Durge could say that would make him hate them. Something I haven’t been able to touch on is that he isn’t totally a “if you’re bad you get killed and that’s it” guy if a bad guy shows signs of redemption he wouldn’t be opposed to let them do so.

Romance Your Tav

No

Fandom Reaction

I feel like a general about of people would like them but I feel like the people who don’t like Wyll wouldn’t like him

Shipped with

Considering his background with tieflings he’ll probably have more dialogue with tiefling characters so probably like any of the popular tieflings, Karlach, Alfira, Lakrissa, Rolan, hell maybe even the couple but since he has conflict with Astarion he’ll probably be shipped with him

Niche ship vs main ship

Sadly I think the tiefling ships with get outshined by the Astarion one not that I don’t like Astarion I just like the tiefling characters more than him

Drama

I feel like the Twitter Blue users wouldn’t like him making fun of rich people

Voice

I flip flop between the Irish and British accent. It was originally Irish because I wanted him to sound different than the fantasy humans that are usually British because he didn’t grow up among humans but all the voices you could choose for Tav in Baldur’s Gate were British so now I hear him as Tav 1. If I had anyone in mind it’d probably be Shay Cormac’s VA from Assassin’s Creed Rogue because Assassin’s Creed was THE big inspiration for the character before it turned into mostly Robin Hood.

Tent

There’s barely anything other than personal items like his second mother’s feather and maybe a lute given to him by his first mother. Might not even be a bed since as a former street urchin he’s slept on things less comfortable.

Unique Dialogue

Any conversation about tieflings or with tieflings would result in him talking about his childhood which he is open about because he isn’t ashamed to be an abandoned child or ashamed that he wasn’t even raised by his own kind. Also anything about rich people of course he’d mention how much he dislikes them.

Emperor/Orpheus

Fuck the Emperor. He would suggest Orpheus do it himself because a true leader would sacrifice themself for their cause not get someone else to do it for them.

More about his romance

I already said what the first scene this is just for some extra stuff.

He likes being tickled, I briefly mentioned it in the first thing but in his first intimate moment if you choose the option to tickle him it will gain him approval and if you pass an insight check you can ask if he liked it and he’ll get embarrassed and deny it but then admit it and there would be a dialogue about why he likes it.

He likes feeling vulnerable in the romance. Being teased, embarrassing him, and all stuff relating to that he loves if it is kept in a playful manner will gain approval. The way he acts around you when romanced is different than when he isn’t. When not romanced he’ll be confident in the way a quiet kid is confident. Being quiet and then sometimes saying something, usually sarcasm or dry humor being an all around smart ass (I kinda forgot to put that in his personality tab in the last thing whoops). If you’re romanced his confidence is gone, he’s very shy around you but he’s of course glad to see you, he’s like a kid with a very obvious crush. The dry humor and sarcasm is still there but less of a smart ass (only a little bit). He’s also submissive (which is very funny when his whole ideology is that the people in power are corrupt and that you shouldn’t obey them) so he likes it when someone is dominant, soft doms specifically. (I’m not projecting you are). Later on in the story he’ll most likely bring up kids and how he wants to adopt. He’ll talk about how he wants to follow in the footsteps of both his mothers and take in a kid or kids so that they would have a home. He’d make note that they’d ran across many orphans and urchins on their travels in need of a home and that it would criminal not to at least offer them the chance. I probably have more ideas about his romance in my head that I have forgotten so I don’t know ask questions about that if you want.

Thank you for this full course meal omfg it was amazing to read through

[jesse-pinko]

My problem with the portrayal of the “liberal elite” in media isn’t that it doesn’t exist, because it does to an extent; there are rich assholes profiting of the backs of the general public on both sides of the political spectrum, and there is definitely that subset of the 1% that like to play at being progressive (both sides put on a show of caring about the working class; Republicans make their bag stoking the fears of poor white conservatives and Democrats make theirs off of hollow promises of better things to come). I just think it’s kind of weird that, in contemporary media, the “liberal elite” are always Black or gay or Jewish, even though irl they’re mostly WASPS who pay lip service to supporting these communities while doing everything in their considerable power to keep that power consolidated. And when these characters have foils said foils are almost always poor white southern folk, never the poc who make up the majority percentage of working class people in the U.S. And idk y’all but it kind of feels like the implication isn’t so much “wealthy liberals are full of shit” which is true, and more both sides-ing the issue of bigotry by subtly endorsing the “this marginalized demographic has more power than they let on and are a legitimate threat to the white working class” narrative that Republican politicians use to rile their base into Frankenstein mobs. It feels like an extremely racist homophobic dangerous narrative to be perpetuating, ironically masquerading as progressive.

[anx1oustig3r]

Fictober 2023 Day Two

Prompt number: Two

Fanfiction Fandom: DotA 2 (fan characters but references to canon characters and lore locations)

Rating: T

Warnings: Mentions of alcoholism and ableism.

Flint loathed Winter. First of all: it was freezing. Second of all: his cane was build for trailing over the ground and being able to clearly tell him what type of road he was walking on, not brushing snow out of the way. Snow is the exact same texture no matter where you are, and when it's not snow it's ice. Bloody ice!

As if the universe was reading his mind, his feet slid out from under him as he missed yet another curb thanks to the lovely snow not giving him any indicator of where his footing was. His voice broke in a yelp and something grabbed his arm and hoisted him up.

“Don't worry, I got you.”

His sister's voice. Admittedly, it was a blessing in disguise that he was stuck keeping an eye on her once again. Her constant staring at the ground meant she knew exactly where they were walking and so she functioned as a nice pair of eyes – albeit fragile eyes. If it were any other season he would have argued up and down and back and forth and to high hells and heavens with their mother to just let him see his friends or really do anything without her.

Mom, of course I love her, but she's a fucking handful and you know it!

Mireska would've agreed with him, but this evening she was passed out drunk as per usual. Hence the siblings' trek to the local butcher. With one mother hard at work to provide bare minimum coin for necessities and the other out for the count since alcohol is cheaper in the afternoons, Flint had to rely on the meagre scraps he earned from running chores for locals and criminals alike to pay for a half decent dinner. He stifled a hiss. His friends got to spend their coin on fun stuff, he had to pay a quarter of their rent.

“Butcher,” Ash's croaky voice broke him out of his internal tantrum.

“What d'you want?” He asked her, hearing the shuffle of her coat in response. Rolling his eyes, he tried to keep his voice steady.

“Is that a shrug or?”

“Usual,” she said.

“Right.”

'Usual' translated to a type of steak imported from Cobalt – one cut from the hide of massive mammoths that make their home in the Frozen Wastes bordering the town. The northern folk must lead far more interesting lives out there versus the poor sods stuck in White Spire of all places. The city was seen as a marvel, the place where you could get rich or lose all your coin in one evening. A city where the alcohol never stops and violence rules the cobbled streets. A criminal's free for all, but also the one city with rather afforable housing. The Underlords could be very generous to anyone who sucked up to them enough.

At least that's what Mireska always told him, although she had a nasty habit of sugar coating everything she said. Typical Faerie.

But for Fint – and by extension his sister – it was just home. A home that got tiring after your first four treks to the shop on your own when you're eight years old because the mother that's supposed to be taking care of you decided getting completely plastered and gambling away half the family's savings was more important. No, to Flint White Spire was just a reflection of frustrations that had been growing since he was old enough to understand what his parents fought about every weekend. While the rest of the world longs to come here to paradise, he longed to leave. No doubt Ash felt the same, what with the way she longingly rambled about the history of different cities and how people lived their lives there.

The meat was heavy in the bag, and the siblings took it in turns dragging it through the dark streets. To his side he could hear his sister beginning to hum – not to a tune, which was a terrible sign.

“What's up with you?” He asked.

“People are looking,” came the response.

Flint grit his teeth, fangs grinding against his lower jaw. Ash had a way of unintentionally drawing attention to herself, which distressed her immensely. It was a vicious cycle, but it wasn't her fault. He understood it in a way, feeling his own skin prickle as he could practically feel people's pitying of him when he'd walk by on his own. The way tutors awkwardly spoke to him in his school. Even his mentor, who refused to allow him to touch any of the carpentry tools until Flint dragged in a chair he had made himself.

“Is there an alleyway we can turn down?” He asked. The response was two taps on his shoulder.

“Okay,” he said. “If you wanna lead the way, just hold onto me.”

Ash turned him down a side street and he could feel the air growing colder from unlit alleys. Knowledge of White Spire warned him to stay alert, but he trusted Ash's unmatched homing instinct. Putting a hand on his sister's shoulder, he allowed himself to attempt a comforting smile.

“Don't worry,” he said. “I got you.”

[jellorat]

ADHD Med Shortage

This is a very personal issue for me. While the article discusses how this is also effecting folks with narcolepsy, it covers the supply chain issue and how the FDA is not recognizing shortages while no pharmacy near us can get a hold of a regular supply of this class of drugs.

My wife has ADHD. Somewhere around 4 years ago she got diagnosed and got put on Concerta. She takes the generic because Kaiser will cover that, not the name brand. It was amazing for years.

I never had an issue with my wife's ADHD. It did make things difficult sometimes. If it's out of sight, it does not exist for her. She can't organize things, where as I am a "everything in it's place" kind of guy.

I didn't realize until she got on meds that I had been playing auxiliary executive function for her.

I ensured addresses, times, and dates for appointments were correct. I did the little house organization things, and we created a system for "box" organization for her where she could just toss her stuff in boxes, that sat on the shelves. That meant home stuff pretty much operated fine.

She had always had employment difficulties because of her ADHD. it wasn't until she got on medication that she kept any job longer than a year or two tops. She'd already ended up in a position that was more suited to her situation, with multiple assignments and never too long on either, and lots of control over when and how she worked. Jobs without that just didn't work for her.

When she got on the meds, it was like seeing a different side of my wife. It addressed all the little things I cited, but also cut her anxiety and helped her actually sleep at night. We didn't expect that benefit.

Because she is transgender, it also literally cut her dysphoria. That was unexpected too.

To see someone you love blossom like this when they finally find a medication that helps them, only to have it ripped away by our dysfunctional medical system is infuriating.

We already dealt with her injectable estrogen shortage, and my testosterone shortage, and now ADHD medications are impossible to find.

These medications are being treated like they are just going to junki's and pill seekers, when there are very real people that they help.

I hate that ADHD is treated like a questionable diagnosis. My wife was quasi-diagnosed when we were in our 20s, and it kept coming up her entire life, and now in our 50s, she's found a medication that helps. To have that taken away because the FDA is fundamentally fucking up is cruel.

We are not poor by any stretch, but we aren't rich, so when her generic Concerta is unavailable, they tell us there is a $350, one-month script for the name brand, and we can't get it. Not with the student loan, credit cards, and mortgage payments.

We are already paying $150 out of pocket for her injectable estrogen from a compounding pharmacy because of supply issues with that.

I don't know what happened to America to make it impossible to access medical care, but I am certain it's greed, bureaucratic inefficiency, and lobbyists.

[loremonster]

If its something you can do with your bear hands that isn't doing harm to another human being, I feel denying people knowledge and oppertunity to do those things infringes on our human rights.

Repairing things is something Humans Do. We are a tool using species, and when something breaks we have the ability to examine the breakage, theorize on what went wrong, repair the damage, and idiate on an improved version of that tool / better techinique to use it with *while still having the use of the original tool!!!* THAT IS BUCK WILD SHIT MY DUDES, we can just... DO that through trial and error. Birds make nests, humans figured out if you weave a whole lotta long soft tree limbs together and tie it to big rooted trees you can make a bridge and cross a river without drowning-- all labor that can be done with abundant planet wide plant fibers, your hands, and thinking about it long enough.

So why the fuck do we not teach our children these things? Why do we demand the body and mind are seperate, and then make training the body The Worst Class That Everyone Hates As They Age Into Highschool?

Because rich assholes stand to gain if we forget that People Make Things. And People Repair Things. And People Have Hands That Make Tools, and Tools Make Machines, and Machines Make Industry. Cut your hard laborors off from anything that might, MIGHT lead to losing a single dollar you could have gotten out of the ignorance you're demamding be willed into being.

Yall might notice this logic is circular. The rich folks making decisions assume the farmers are stupid because they are poor. Since they're poor, they will be stupid, so they won't notice when we infringe on the Human Right To Be Part Of The Enviroment You Live In by making repairs Unfairly Difficult without our permission and illigal to fix on their own. And because they're poor and stupid, they'll never figure out how to fix things once we tell them no! Then they'll have to pay us EVEN MOAR just to stay alive!!

Humans don't forget how to do things with their bodies. Denying them knowledge simply forces them to Start From Zero and make mistakes more often. Hurt themselves more often. Hurt others more often. Fail to figure things out and get fustrated and depressed more often. Get sick more often. Need more care and produce less as they age, and their peers watch them die preventable deaths.

People don't forget. You can deprive us of history, but you cannot delete living memory, so the next play is to ensure the poor don't live long enough to figure things out, separate parents from children so kids are not witness to the anguish, and drive wedges into personal relationships by any means nessesary to prevent spouses from working as partners. Ensure life sucks so bad that any kid who manages to escape never comes back, and their family resents the kid instead of the system that drove them away. Blame the young as the old die at the hands of their masters.

The fact that The Internet Never Forgets, that we have a living memory in which anyone can save anything no matter how stupid or trivial, is why I have hope the cycle can break.

Even if I'm dead tomorrow, someone could be reading this a year from now. That's power people below the ruling class rarely get free access to.

And sometimes it sucks. That's okay. People suck sometimes. I suck sometimes. That's why the internet sucks sometimes, but the intent of our current oligarchs is to flood the space with so many bots people either Cannot Trust or Do Not Use the web anymore.

The fact that AI is everywhere despite it not being sophistocated enough to convince a person that its a person in prolonged one on one interaction is the same logical failure in action. Those who think They Own Us think we're dumb enough to not notice when a bot tries to sell itself as a new friend in our DMs-- cause friends ain't looking to buy anything, ya dummies. They want to talk to a human, that's why they exist in a space with DMs.

The extractive purpose is built in, and breaking the last link in the chain never goes well. People still have skills, and still think, and still make tools to solve problems. That's how we got AdBlock, VPNs, and Spam folders. Indivudals made a tool, the tool was overwhelmingly popular, and sees wide adoption.

The difference is while a Spam folder is really easy to build into a system at minimal cost, and a VPN can be monitized the same way bandits monitized bridges in ye olden days, AdBlock denies an advertiser access to their end goal; time, attention, and influence over a human person somewhere in the world. THAT is the last link in the chain, the boundary line that actively says NO, I LIVE HERE, YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO MONITIZE MY TIME.

The Right To Repair is the last link in the chain for farmers. Corpos are actively trying to break it, and people are finding ways around it because it infringes upon their ability to live their life without Sales By Harassment And Sabotage.

[adarkrainbow]

Les Contes du Korrigan (2)

Now let us begin our exploration of these korrigan tales proper... This first one is actually a comic-book adaptation of the Breton version of a quite famous fairytale of France... Or rather a prominent fairy-tale type in France. The Grimm had a version of it in their stories: it is this fairytale-type about people (usually one good person, one bad person) meeting up the "Little Folks" or supernatural "small men", and receiving as a result of their interactions a reward (for the good person) and a punishment (for the bad person). I posted earlier two French variations of this story: the legend of the Little Horned Men, and the story of the felteus. Now let us discover how it goes in Bretagne...

Once upon a time there were two brothers, Kaour and Laouig. They lived with their father in a small farm, and could only earn money as musicians, because they suffered from a handicap that made them ugly in the eyes of men and unproper for physical work: they both had a huge hump on their back. While they looked almost identical, one could easily identify them, for Kaour was a brave and joyful man, while Laouig was a grumpy and arrogant one.

The comic shows the brothers performing at the double marriage of the two daughters of one of the farmers of the area. Kaour is praised by all for his talent at playing the biniou (a traditional musical instrument for Bretagne) and when talking about his hump, he has joyful and uplifting comments, joking around about how the Lord told him once his hump would bring him luck, hence why he takes well care of it. Laouig, instead, gets into trouble because he frightens a little girl who commented on his appearance, then insults the girl's mother when she gets angry at this, and finally gets hit in the face by the girl's father.

Due to the wedding costing him a lot (he must feed the guests coming for the dual marriage for three whole days), the farmer explains to Kaour that he will have to pay them less money than planned, though in exchange he offers to send them large bags of grain by the next harvest. Kaour understand and thanks him, while Laouig is much less pleased by the situation, almost wanting to leave - only for Kaour to beg him to stay, because they promised to keep playing music at least for one more night. We also learn that Kaour is in love with one of the girls working for the farmer, Yvonnaïg - she is the one that encouraged the farmer to hire them as musicians, and in exchange it is her that Kaour wants to please by playing his best at the wedding feast. Laouig keeps telling his brother he will never get his girl, but still agrees to play one more night for his sake - though he does so while insulting in his heart everybody at the feast, considering them to be just cheapstakes and drunkards.

Once the festivities come to an end, the brothers return home by the moonlight (and as they go away Yvonnaïg, asked about her feelings for Kaour, explains that no, she shall never marry him, because he is ugly and poor - she could marry "a monster", yes, but only if he is rich). Laouïg promises to never play again for this bunch of folks, and makes haste to go back home as fast as he could. Kaour, meanwhile, hears a music and sees a fire away in the night - curious, he goes investigating, while Laouig tells him he is just drunk and seeing things.

Kaour climbs on the hill, only to discover that the fire and music comes from korrigans having a party. Frightened, the hunchback tries to flee as fast as he can... only to get caught as the korrigans smelled his human odor. The korrigans first offer to kill and eat him - but their leader, noticing he has a biniou by his side, offers the man to entertain them with some music. Not wanting to be turned into a soup, Kaour plays for the korrigans until he gets exhausted and has no more breath in his lungs... But when he claims he can't do music anymore, the korrigans have flames appear below his feet so he can "dance" for them instead.

Exhausted and half-burned, Kaour tries to find a way to escape the tricks and angers of the korrigans - and hopefully for him he is a quite intelligent man. He notices that the song the korrigans are singing again and again is "Dilun, Dimeurz, Dimercher" (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Breton). So, he gladly offers to tell them the "second part" of their song - and the korrigans are baffled at the idea that there is a part of their own song they don't know about. So Kaour sings "Diriaou ha Digwener" ("Thursday and Friday"), and the korrigans like it, as it rhymes and keeps the tone and format of the song.

To reward the man, the leader of the korrigans offers him to choose between "the appearance of a lord, or the money-pouch of a bourgeois". Kaour explains that his only wish is to please Yvonnaïg, so he would like to lose his hump. The korrigan leader removes the hump, and tells Kaour that he is now as "tall and ugly" as the other humans. Kaour returns home, only for Laouig to be amazed and then angry at his brother's new appearance, threatening him into telling him how he lost his hunch. Kaour tells him what happened, and Laouig immediately travels to the hill of the korrigans. But not to lose his hump... rather he thinks his brother is stupid for not taking the money the korrigans offered, and he wants to be rich.

He appears at the korrigan's party, and offers to play music for them, which they agree to. After a moment, he tells them that their song is too short, and they need to sing the end too. And so he adds "Ha disadorn ha disul", Breton for "And Saturday and Sunday". Except that in Breton language, not only do these words not fit the earlier ones in term of lenghth and rythm (Dilun, Dimeurz, Dimerc'her! Diriaou ha Digwener! Ha Disadorn had disul!), but on top of that it doesn't even rhyme. The korrigans are not very pleased and want to eat the man, but their leader reminds them that it is a tradition to reward any mortal being that participates in their party and helps in their entertainment - for "it is the intention that counts". The korrigan leader offers him the same choice as Kaour...

... But Laouig makes a big mistake. He says that he wants "What Kaour left behind". By this, he meant he wanted the money that Kaour refused to take... but the korrigans take him to his word, and instead gave him the hump that had been removed from Kaour's back.

Kaour, now free from his difformity, ended up marrying Yvonnaïg - because thanks to his good looks, he was now invited much more to various parties and paid better for his music, resulting in him earning enough money to please Yvonnaïg's father, while she enjoyed his new looks. However, Laouig's bad temper worsened now that he had two humps on his back - he kept getting into fights with everybody, including his father and brother. One day he left his farm, wanting to live all on his own, but not taking any musical instrument because he was disgusted by music after the korrigan incident... However he could only wander as a beggar throughout Bretagne, chased by all as a monster and demon, and he became a legend of his own...

... the story concludes that he ended up in Paris, where he had a carreer as a "bell-ringer" in a "quite famous cathedral" and that his life there inspired a "famous author of humans" - turning the lazy, greedy and vain Laouig into a quite "romantic" character.

[the-firebird69]

USA voucher program has done nothing for our son at all. And somebody else has got Obama's character right now and just tries to bother him with it and we keep telling him

WE'RE COLLECTING YOUR STUFF YOU CAN SEE IT ON THE NEWS RIGHT NOW THIS IS WHAT WE USE THIS FOR AND YOU START BOTHERING HIM AND IT'S COMING FROM YOU AND YOU'RE NOT GOING NEAREST YOU'RE AN IDIOT WHO'S DELUDED

And yeah all sorts of people say that to our son trying to get us to lose and you're more moron and you're not even following what's happening is so stupid. And looking you is not enough to have you think you're losing but yet again you're going out there fighting these armies so the question remains why are you so f****** stupid the answer is you think you're torturing him and you are but you're also losing your armies and your power and becoming a f****** moron more so. But enough about you you're a s*******

This program is obsolete the voucher program in section 8 is not used by anybody but these rich folks cuz they're the only ones who can get into it there's several things that bother us about it and in other words they're blocks they make it so regular folks can't do it and they stop most people

1. The requirements to get into this program are so stupid and strict you would be able to work in a nuclear plant first. They do all sense of dumb things to poor people like willingly and knowingly forcing and requiring fee be paid and who the hell has that kind of money when you're poor nobody and you guys don't know it cuz you're stupid this program has been defunct for about 30 years and people are just collecting money to work on it we want them dead we're sitting there taunting our son for just about anybody now even you guys can't get the stuff that's ridiculous you want poor people to step up and they can't get near it

2. The government funds it and practically nobody is in it except the people running it cuz they're idiot

3. To get into it you have to have a clean record and never been a homeowner and we're talking about their homeowner program and you have to have a certain credit meaning that you have to have a 600 or something or better and what the hell is it that you need all the stuff for your poor person.

+++And you have to have a certain income so we're back to the start like what the hell is it for if you have an income you don't need a house that's discounted for Christ's sake and they do this all the time okay there's a lot of people who are pissed off of these morons here we were doing it for 30 or 40 years and just collecting money and they're building weaponry and stuff but they don't have basic stuff and they really neglect everyone and now they're talking about how those nudes are going to be used and who's going to use them and if bja has that kind of thing and everybody's going after the information finally. Now this turned into a war between you and your people and us and we are coming around and killing your dumbasses. And your smiling stuff because you're stupid you get hauled off to a prison and you die of dysentery you didn't throw it into a incinerator there's no doubt about it that you people are annoying but boy you f****** stupid we're going to make you pay for it today.

We're going to Prince and we're going to go out and get you people

Thor Freya

Olympus

[lonita]

B roll - 2020 10

02 - I think I want to smack the government rep in the senate. He's parroting that "join the middle class" bullshit that was peddled during the throne speech.

03 - I was recently lamenting the lack of creative diversity in my adjective use, that it had become coarse, bland, a bit visceral. Then I remembered that I don't have to waste good words on assholes.

03 - "Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today." Homer

04 - So, because people outside the disabled of this country don't enough decry the abandonment of the disabled, means the CBC doesn't think the treatment of PWD is newsworthy. Well, you can go fuck yourself, CBC.

04 - Why don't we just collectively agree to kick daylight savings to the curb?

05 - I want to know who the sick person was that thought it was a good idea to violate lemon pie with meringue.

05 - Today I ask myself the question: Do I remember how to tie my hakama?

05 - I was watching something the other day that discussed the level of entrepreneurship in Sweden which is higher than the US, and the reason it was so is because they take less risk due to a robust social safety net, which UBI could certainly be a part of.

05 - Someone mentioned European-style stone bollards instead. They're much more attractive. Not everything in this burg has to be ugly. If we must do it, make it decent.

06 - Tonight's fun activity: Packing my dojo bag for the first time since March! I have to get the oil out and clean my sword.

06 - Someone once told me that if you have eye twitchies you should eat pumpkin seeds. Handy, right season for it, and it's the only part of the pumpkin I like.

07 - Earlier this year I had occasion to speak to someone at Hamilton Housing. She told me that there are people on her list that have been there for 15+ years.

07 - One of our senators, just last week, said that if we raised taxes by just 10% on anyone with $20 mil or above that we could net ourselves $56 billion dollars. She said we could pay off the pandemic benefit payments in five or so years.

07 - I don't know about you, friends, but I'm of the mind that if you're going to earn money off our country, the one you live in no less, you should be paying your share of the taxes and investing your wealth in the country you profit off of to begin with.

07 - When you talk about a wealth tax you get, usually from the middle class, a lot of screaming about something that has nothing to do with their income outside the potential of alleviating their tax burdens. The offshoring rich are NOT paying their share.

08 - It's usually middle class folk who cry the loudest whenever I see folks mention a wealth tax, and say that the poor are just jealous. Hate to inform them that it doesn't appear to be the poor who are jealous.

08 - A former friend of mine rakes the leaves up in his yard in the fall and loosely packs them around the bases of the trees in his yard.

08 - Happy to report that my first trip to the dojo after seven months was a success. Am I at testing for nidan level? Hell no. But I only made one serious booboo and even managed to remember how to tie my hakama properly.

08 - The Disability Tax Credit is only of use to people who pay taxes, those who work. What about: 1: Turn it into a cash payout instead of a credit. 2: Keep it a credit for those who work, make it a cash payout for those who don't/can't.

09 - Because they think it's easy to ignore us - the disabled and elderly - because they think that disabled and elderly folk have no voice and if you ignore us long enough we'll shut up, go away, and die quietly.

09 - I bought new socks this week. I am hoping the house hippos leave this batch alone.

10 - Every time I see someone say that taxing the rich is theft I wonder if they've ever thought about the billions in offshored tax havens.

13 - When I had to replace my Nova Scotia birth certificate I found out my father's name was not registered with it. Which, honestly, was fine by me. Today I had to contact Service Canada and part of the ID check was parental names. I forgot my father's name entirely for a moment.

13 - Today's earworm: Nirvana - Lake of Fire

14 - Maybe the fed should hire on some of those out of work people who'd be more than happy to work from home making a government wage.

15 - One of Werner Herzog's pieces of life advice was to thwart institutional cowardice. I'm looking at you, Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau.

19 - I saw a job ad today about a law firm in a pricey downtown location that's looking for a receptionist/clerk. Their starting wage is $15/hr. That's hardly an appropriate wage for such a position. But this is the way the world works now: Low wages while they demand a BA from you.

22 - Doing transcription exposes you to a wealth of the human condition. And I can honestly say that there isn't much that's more full of shit than politicians or people in marketing than an evangelical Christian.

24 - Every day I see more and more stories about the vile conditions of all manner of long term care facilities in Canada. As a person who's advancing in age, this terrifies me. I fear for my future, in so many ways.

26 - Well that's spectacularly inconvenient and nonsensical. You cannot renew your health card online with Service Ontario unless you also have a driver's license. Guess what this legally blind person does not have? That's right. The people who are least able to travel easily are the ones who actually have to do the travelling. They will be getting my opinion when I go there. I know the province is not forcing renewals at the moment, but that form has been that way since before, I believe.

31 - I think I'm going to curl up with some old Bond films this eve. They're my favourites.

[bonbon-bonny]

It is easier for a poor man to get into Heaven than a rich one.

This line has been running around in my head since last Sunday at church. It sounds a little cliche doesn't it? Because I think most of us know that we certainly can't take any of our things with us when we die anyway, but still, it's easy to forget that. Especially when so much of our everyday lives are filled with the urge to buy, buy, buy.

But it isn't just about that is it?

I have been to Prague, Venice, Berlin, Leipzig, and frequently took vacations to resorts while I was with my Ex-husband. I had an allowance that allowed me to work on my projects and buy myself pretty much anything I wanted without having to work for it. However, after a while you start realizing that no matter where you go, no matter what you buy, if you're not happy with your partner stuff just won't fix that. If you're not happy with yourself, more things aren't going to magically make that feeling disappear.

I traded my happiness for someone else to take care of me, and maybe if they had been the right person for me that would have been okay; but ultimately they weren't and I sacrificed my authenticity. I put on a mask so I could be whoever they wanted me to be to try and make it work.

But one day something woke me up. I realized even if I had everything I wanted, I still wasn't happy, and my ex-husband didn't want me as myself. He probably hoped with enough time I would eventually just turn into whoever he thought he could make me instead of loving me as who I am. Well, my mask came off, and as hard as I tried to ignore it, I just couldn't go back.

five years is a long time to be married folks, but if after five years you don't even feel like you're in a marriage anymore and it's just you trying to make yourself feel better when everything else feels so sucky it's just not worth staying in.

I might not have a lot of money at the moment, but I certainly have talent and determination. Heck, I will probably just continue on with my projects solo for the time being if I can't afford to pay people to work on them for me.

Ultimately, I decided despite how difficult it was to walk away from everything that brought me comfort and security, I decided I valued my authenticity and happiness more than I valued my stuff.

So, to anyone who has ever felt like this or might be going through something similar, I'm here to tell you it isn't impossible. And I wouldn't say that unless I had gone through it myself.

Give me the man who values his HAPPINESS more than anything else in the world. The man who is STRONG enough to walk away from any situation that makes him feel any less than who he really is. the man who RESPECTS himself enough to simply be him instead of trying to be someone different for anyone.

I will happily work alongside anyone who values the same things I do, and we can build an empire together from the ground up.