#veteran struggles

[captaingimpy]

A Tale of Two Systems: Revisiting First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II

When most people think of Rambo, their minds immediately go to explosions, body counts, and a shirtless Sylvester Stallone wielding an M60. That’s fair—by the time the series evolved into its later iterations, it had become synonymous with over-the-top action. But to reduce First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II to mere action movies is to miss the heart of these films entirely. At their…

[christisilluminati]

A Sobering Reflection: Celebrating Labor Day While Veterans Struggle

Labor Day serves as a reminder of the economic and social contributions of workers throughout our nation's history. However, it's essential to recognize the contributions of those who have served in the military, often at great personal sacrifice, only to return to a civilian life that is fraught with challenges. Veterans face unique difficulties, including high unemployment rates, mental health issues, and a lack of affordable housing, which frequently leads to homelessness.

The statistics are staggering. Thousands of veterans remain homeless across the United States, sleeping on streets and in shelters. This stark reality contrasts sharply with the image of Labor Day as a carefree holiday. How can we celebrate the achievements of American workers while ignoring the plight of those who have served and protected our nation?

It's time to shift our perspective and use Labor Day as an opportunity to honor veterans in meaningful ways. Here are a few suggestions:

Educate and Advocate: Learn about the issues faced by veterans and share this knowledge with others. Advocacy can lead to policy changes that benefit veterans seeking employment and housing.

Support Veteran Organizations: Consider donating to organizations dedicated to helping veterans. These organizations provide critical services such as job training, mental health support, and housing assistance.

Volunteer: Offer your time and skills to local veteran shelters or support groups. Whether it's serving meals, mentoring, or providing professional expertise, your contribution can make a significant impact.

Hire Veterans: If you're in a position to do so, make a commitment to hire veterans. Their skills, discipline, and leadership qualities are invaluable in the workforce.

Raise Awareness: Use your social platforms to raise awareness about veteran homelessness and how others can help. Even a simple post can inspire action within your community.

Feed Them: Organize community meals or food drives specifically aimed at veterans in need. Nutritional support is vital for those facing homelessness, and providing a warm meal or essential groceries can significantly alleviate their struggles. Work with local restaurants or grocery stores to arrange for donations or to host events to ensure veterans receive the meals they deserve.

Create Care Packages: Assemble care packages filled with essential items such as toiletries, warm clothing, and non-perishable food. Distributing these packages directly to veterans in shelters or on the streets can provide immediate relief and show them that they are not forgotten. Consider including a personal note of appreciation to foster a sense of connection and support.

By taking these actions, we not only honor our veterans but also actively contribute to alleviating their hardships, transforming Labor Day into a truly inclusive celebration that acknowledges and supports all workers, especially those who have sacrificed so much for our nation. Let us make this day one that reflects gratitude and compassion, ensuring that no veteran is overlooked in our celebrations.

This Labor Day, as you gather with family and friends to celebrate, take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of the holiday, and how neglectful we have been to it. Let's honor our veterans not just with words, but with actions that make a difference instead of using it as an excuse to self-indulge in ways many of them can't. Let's not forget they are the reason we have this day of celebration to begin with. Together, we can ensure that those who have given so much are not forgotten, and that they, too, can enjoy the fruits of their labor and sacrifices.

Call to Action: Let's turn the spirit of Labor Day into a movement of gratitude and support. Reach out to a veteran organization today, volunteer your time, or donate to their cause. Your actions can help bring about the change that so many veterans desperately need.

Learn more at: https://www.christthetruelight.com

[naamahdarling]

You know what? You know what I think?

I think that if we lived as we were meant to, in larger intimate ("extended family") groups and with more shared labor and time to do it (UBI NOW) people like me would not feel so useless and burdensome because there would be people around to help and to do what neurodivergent people can't while making valuable space for the neurodivergent to do what they ARE good at.

The way we live right now, all right, the way we live right now forces units of two adults to be able to do EVERYTHING or PAY to have someone come do it for them. I have to do the housework. I have to do it! But I am having to do a million different things and most of them I am not good at. I suck at them.

I wouldn't feel like shit, okay, if I had more than one other person around who was not a child and who could do the things I can't, like do the yard and cook and do repairs and basic maintenance; and someone else to split everything else that I like but is too much for me. It would free me to do what I am good at and enjoy. Cleaning, as in the sink and toilet, the windows, the blinds. Taking out trash. Folding, hanging, and sorting laundry.

But because all the shit I can do often relies on other shit being done first, and I can't do or have trouble doing those things, the shit I can do often can't be done. And even the shit I can do, I can't do ALL of it. So I can't keep up, and things get very bad.

We aren't meant to live like this. We are not meant to live like this.

That thought hurts so much because being able to flee the birth family is integral to survival for so many people. I'm so afraid that living in larger family groups would create more opportunities for, say, queer kids to be isolated, rejected, bullied, and abused. But if we gave people enough money to survive, and stopped considering children the property of their parents with no system in place to help them escape bad situations except a system that is often just as bad, just different.

I'm aware that communes and collectives aren't all that successful and are kind of a joke. I don't mean that. I mean a fundamental shift to multigenerational families where taking in "strays" (which my family did) is also normalized so people escaping abuse into existing households was accepted, with these families centered in maybe a couple of different larger residences so not everyone has to buy and maintain their own fucking washing machine and vacuum cleaner, and so people can benefit from large group meals that yield leftovers, and so child and elder care can also be centralized.

Then disabled people and the neurodivergent and sick and injured people, and pregnant people, and grieving people, would not have to either labor through all those stressors or consign themselves to living off an unlivable pittance or being put under legal guardianship.

I'm not saying anything new. People live like this in other parts of the world and maybe it sucks and I am wrong. But I'm just really mad right now because I can either do laundry or clean the sink but not both, and I really think we could improve society somewhat by making it so I did not have to choose one without sacrificing the other.

[strryskys]

um! also! i did end up making a sideblog for my oc/self-ship blog! working on the theme at the moment :))

[dyed-indigo]

How many wives did Luo Bingge have?

I see quite a lot of debate over this within the fandom, and this excerpt has been passed around quite a bit:

But I felt like I remembered Bingge being mentioned as having more wives within the text, so I decided to skim the books (CTRL + F on the Internet Archive PDFs worked wonders) to find as many references to Bingge's wife count as I could.

I was right that he was mentioned as having more wives (hundreds to be exact), on the back of the very first book in the series even. However, the backs of books are the domain of the publisher rather than the author, so this isn't really trustworthy info to go off of for canon purposes. Still, it made me curious to see if more wives were mentioned somewhere else within the series.

He is mentioned as theoretically marrying at least 100 women at once here, however this was purely speculation on what would have happened in Proud Immortal Demon Way if Luo Binghe truly aspired for marriage. He did marry many women in PIDW, however it's never made clear whether these marriages were out of love or were political (and for horny reasons, the stallion protagonist can never escape his libido).

613 is also mentioned as a number of wives, and seems oddly specific unless there's some Chinese number symbolism I'm missing here, however this is just an example of something that Madame Meiyin could predict with her fortune telling abilities. Her fortunes are mentioned to typically be about romance, so this could be Shen Qingqiu remembering an actual prediction she made in canon, however even if that were the case (which there doesn't seem to be evidence to support) it could simply be that Luo Binghe never got those wives within the novel, and was just implied to get them afterwards (cue Peerless Cucumber rant about Airplane's lazy writing).

There's mentioned to be dozens of women "barely glimpsed" within the harem, presumably in addition to wives like Ning Yingying and Liu Mingyan who were more significant, but that still doesn't give us an exact count. If the initial harem count is accurate, it does imply that most of the women within it were just written to fluff the numbers a bit.

Bingge is mentioned to have "never refused" any requests to join his harem. RIP Bingge's understanding of boundaries, but, again, we have no clue how many women even asked to join. Demon Emperors are powerful, but also scary, and Shen Qingqiu is... perhaps an unreliable narrator when it comes to any version of Luo Binghe's appeal factor.

Bingge is mentioned multiple times to have had sex with hundreds of women, however, not all of the bedded were wedded. Madame Meiyin, for example, is mentioned as someone that Bingge slept with but never married, and there's no evidence that i could find that she was the sole exception in a sea of wives.

In conclusion, while manwhore Bingge is real, his count of actual wives is more than likely less than 100, as originally specified. (Though I wouldn't blame you if you thought otherwise, the emphasis on the harem size being "innumerable" and "uncountable" in the narration is quite a lot, and historically many Chinese emperors had a larger harem than Bingge.)

At least, he had less than 100 wives in the novel. In the donghua, on the other hand...

Well. That's a fairly definite amount.

[morninkim]

more Transformers: Reconstruction!

Here's Kup and Magnus, two old soldiers struggling to adjust to a relatively peaceful life on Earth after fighting the Great War for years on years

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Why we should commemorate Nov. 11

By Stephen Millies

Even though Veterans Day is a federal holiday, only 19 percent of workers employed by private business get the day off. Originally called Armistice Day, it marks the end of World War I “at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month” of 1918.

Twenty million people were killed during this imperialist war, half of whom were civilians. It was waged between colonial powers that had enslaved hundreds of millions in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Lenin, the leader of the socialist Bolshevik Revolution, called it a “war between the biggest slaveowners for preserving and fortifying slavery.”

So why should poor and working people commemorate Nov. 11? Because on Nov. 11, 1831, the liberator Nat Turner was executed. Turner led a revolt of enslaved Africans in Virginia that terrified all the slave owners.

The People’s Republic of Angola was born on Nov. 11, 1975. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, along with his employees Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and White House occupant Gerald Ford, sought to kill it. They had the Nazi armies of then-apartheid South Africa invade the African country.

[baede-6]

Every time I play on my warlock, as a Hunter main, whenever I jump, all I can think is "How do I drive this thing?"

It's not even a jump really, it's more like falling with style.

[cryptidcalling]

Arguments for why characters are """Minor coded""" are getting TRULY. RIDICULOUS. Just saw a TikTok comment arguing that Maru feels too young to romance in Stardew Valley because she 1: Wears overalls 2: Doesn't have a college degree 3: Lives with her parents 4: Her dad makes protective comments about her

These can all be very easily explained as normal ass adult shit for various reasons, but OVERALLS? We're claiming that a character wearing overalls makes them seem like a minor???

[falling-in-the-void-with-ronan]

I'm putting this here because everyone deserves to see this. If you're having a bad day take this evil crime lord, master manipulator getting flustered and feel better.

The way I'm so down bad and obsessed due to this guy, it's not even funny.

[lexosaurus]

Hello! Very random and no worries if that's not your intention for the blog, but I love reading about your teacher experience and insights! Take this ask more so as encouragement to write more about it if you feel like it, because I'm going to start teaching soon (and yes, many people I've met have warned me about both its miracles and horrors lol) and it's really helpful to hear others' experiences :)

Thanks for the ask! Honestly I'm just a first year, so I don't have a tonnnn of advice to give. But here's a few general first year tips from one to a future another:

1 — No matter what, having a good department team is ESSENTIAL. You're going to be relying on them a lot your first year for help, advice, curriculum stuff, behavioral management stuff, etc. Talk to them, get to know them, have lunch with them, share issues/seek advice from them. You're going to encounter situations that your degree did not prepare you for (likely, in the first week lol. For me, it was Day 1) and having people around to help you judgement free is going to be crucial. I was super lucky that my department team and all the teachers from other departments that I work closely with are really amazing, easy to work with, etc.

2 — You're also going to want a good relationship with the "other" departments. The library staff, tech staff, sped department, guidance, janitors, etc. They're all lovely people, so don't be afraid to pop in to introduce yourself on the first week!

3 — Crazy things are going to happen. Like....all the time. Don't bring them home with you. As soon as you exit the doors, shake it off. All your students made it on the bus to their parents alive, so it's fine. Your job is done for the day. I've been going to the gym a lot right from school, and it's been really helpful to prevent myself from taking anything home with me so to speak.

4 — Document, document, document. Did something happen? Document it, email a copy to whoever's applicable: admin, guidance, sped, BCBA, etc. "Hello, just emailing a summary of what happened today" is not an uncommon email for me to send out. If an IEP isn't working, well at the next IEP meeting it shows they have 10 emails in the last month from you about little Timmy's hourly verbal threats and attempted physical violence to his classmates, so maybe the BCBA needs to do some data collection to adjust his BIP, or they need to give him a 1-1, or give him more resource intervention, etc.

5 — This isn't so much of advice, more like reassurance. The small moments when it clicks for a student and they get something, and then the confidence and excitement shows, it's really the best. That's probably why I've fallen so in love with working where I did. The other day, after weeks of struggling to help this student with Downs with his math, I tried a totally different approach based off a few example problems I saw in a math intervention workbook and hOLY HELL IT WORKED. It totally clicked for him, and the kid was so excited to do a problem out on the board for the class. It was amazing. Another student with an LD who I've been helping heavily school aced a quiz in one of her classes and legit ran into the room to show me. Cue me literally jumping out of my chair to high-five her, and her calling her parents to deliver the good news. Like, little things like that are really really special, and they're going to mean so much to you. And I hope you get to experience LOTS of them too!

[telesodalite]

This is a bit random, but I've been thinking about Misfire a lot lately, and it struck me, that with his adhd, the whole implied/hc'd substance use is only sometimes considered as a form of self-medicating? And, idk, I find the concept interesting.

Like, yeah sure, within the canon implications it's just stereotypical stuff, so it can be interpreted as wholly recreational, and whatever one might call accidentally catching a high from blood you've taken from a corpse.

But like, his adhd is emphasized as an important aspect of his character, so surely it's impacted his millions of years worth of life with its symptoms? Both good and bad?

The Decepticons in idw1 are weird, in many ways lol, but in the sense that they're the faction defined by their oddballs and rejects. They're the unwanted, the belittled, the different, the oppressed, the strange, the mad. But at the same time, any deviance from their impossible and ever-changing standards is punishable and looked down upon.

It's a classic, almost frustratingly stereotypical case of a system built against oppression becoming the oppressors. But that's not the point here.

The point is that they opened their arms and offered the idea of freedom to those who felt different from the pre-war standards, who felt belittled by it, or betrayed by it, and promptly went and turned around on these people to make them feel belittled and betrayed and made different from their own new standards.

Abuse, in many forms, runs rampant within Decepticon ranks. From the very top, to the very bottom. Any deviation or perceived weakness is an open invitation for such actions. Throw in the DJD, and there's no escape from it. No way to get out, only fit in and keep your head low, or become the very thing you originally wanted to fight against and be free from.

Substance abuse is mentioned in canon enough to assume that certain amounts of it were almost expected across both Decepticon and Autobot ranks and contingents. But considering the condition of Decepticon standards and communities, it can be assumed to be a bit more rampant in their case.

So, Misfire. We don't have much context for his background and what all he's seen and done.

It's implied he did some spywork, or at least made some cross faction connections during the war with Brainstorm, which might've been a big enough deal that it caught the attention of Skids, because he's aware of Misfire of all people, knows he changed his name right at the end of the war, and considers Misfire somewhat as a nemesis, which, might I remind thee that Skids was part of a secret special operations unit, a secret special operations unit under fucking Prowl!? So uh, possible big interesting stuff that never got explained there.

(The possible spy bit keeps me up at night I swear to god, bcs wtf were all those tiny implications supposed to mean?!? I need to know all the details of that possible spy drama so bad, omg)

Then, we know he "accidentally" killed "a dozen" other cons towards the end of the war, and that he was going to be jailed for it.

So Misfire's life obviously went down the drain before the murdering a dozen fellow soldiers bit, but considering every awful and challenging factor of being a sub-par soldier in the Decepticon army/air force, what kept him from doing something like that earlier on?

More important, what got someone like him through the war? What kept him going? What kept him alive? Well uh... the same thing that kept a lot of Decepticons going I guess. Substance abuse.

Ok so where does the self-medication angle of this whole thing come in Teles?? My answer to that would be, uh, inherently ig.

Because think about it, you're just some kinda weird guy, caught in the middle of one long ass war. You're never good enough, can't achieve the one thing you've been gunning(lol) for, and are just sorta flying by the seat of your metaphorical pants through life. You're a solider, and a victim of systematic abuse because of that, and at some point, you're possibly a perpetrator of that abuse*. On top of all that, you've also got raging adhd during all this stress and trauma, and man, quieting those racing thoughts and numbing that constant buzzing itch in your body probably feels really good when you're escaping your extremely stressful situation for just a bit.

It feels better to be more detached, to be "calmer", less caught up in a hundred thoughts at once, more focused, more in control. Eventually this becomes the subconscious focus of his using to ease the stress. It "fixes" something. Makes things "right". So casual escapist substance use tumbles into substance abuse and addiction.

How this factors into his post-war life, idk, you decide ig.

I figure the scavs being broke and cut-off from others could play a part in Misfire having to wean himself off of whatever substances were most common among his ranks, but he's also probably creative enough to make stuff from whatever they pick up. Anything considered to be "hard stuff" would likely be frowned upon or policed by Krok tho, because of the whole traumatic experience with Roadbuster and his extreme brutality due to perceived Syk abuse.

But then again, the scavs are all still very much cons with vices, and 100% constant sobriety is apprently a challenge or punishment for cons and bots alike post war.

-

*(Expanding on that bit via another ramble I had lying around that i thought i'd include)

When considering Misfire's adhd, most things emphasize the hyperactivity and impulsiveness in general without also emphasizing the negative sides.

That moment where he almost punches Grimlock comes to mind a lot.

It could be viewed as just a side-effect of perpetuated Decepticon abuse, a knee-jerk reaction that may have been turned on him during the war for his mistakes, that he in turn expresses towards others "mistakes".

Something to also consider here though, is how the impulsivity of adhd can make violent reactions worse, anger and/or frustration harder to control, and harder to hold back from expressing outwardly or physically, especially if left unchecked or untreated for a long time.

But Misfire stops and takes a second to collect himself before becoming somber as he considers Grimlock's perspective.

This instinctually violent reaction is not something he wants, or likes, and judging by how much time has passed by that point in the comic, this has been something he's been working on and is still working on.

But what about while he was still an active solider? When holding back was seen as a weak or foolish response? How did the impulsivity play into it? After being treated like that himself, struck or beaten for mistakes, at what point did it snap and he found himself standing over another solider as they stared up at him with that same fear and shock and hurt he had felt. How did that affect him to know he was capable of doing that without thought?

Because, ya know, he's done bad things too...

[catboycafe]

doodle; still figuring out how to draw cats. here's my little boy detective from the clangen campaign i've been playing!!

[ultra-raging-ghost]

As much as i love bad being the team leader i do kinda wish theyd chosen one of the bilingual players to co-lead or something, it is a little difficult to lead a team of portuguese people when youre mostly monolingual </3

[redstonedust]

mythicalsausage i am on my hands and knees PLEASE subtitle your evil alter egos dialog

[weisscoldglare]

So I’ve been a lurker on your blog for a decent while now but I’ve only just recently put it together that you teach high school. I’m not a teacher (yet), but I’m working on my Music Education degree right now and I do plan on teaching at the high school level as younger kids terrify me. Would you happen to have any advice or just general thoughts on the subject of teaching?

It's good you know what group of kids may be manageable to you, I have p bad memory, but I have to trust myself cause these HS kids are so good at gaslighting or omitting truth that they will make you doubt yourself. Please be sure to keep your trust in yourself. And always follow through with your consequences. Unfortunately, I can't always be immune but I quickly gain a form of respect, they don't push me but they play at the boundary with me.

Plan your classroom management, that will be your biggest weapon even if it takes them 2 months to get used to it, it is ESSENTIAL. That gives them a form of expectation to follow through.

sometimes even elementary tactics help. Annunciate your voice and keep an even tone, lock down the teacher's stare, and most importantly. Find yourself a teacher friend, who does not have to share the same content, just someone you can eat with.

The biggest thing is, don't forget these kids have 10,000 things going on and most of them will forget to be responsible or be entirely selfish. Remind them you are human too, and that you can help to a limit but there are expectations they must meet. That you might look like a bad guy to them, but you will never be their enemy.