witchofrisingtides

[witchofrisingtides]

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

[witchofrisingtides]

been thinking a lot lately on what it takes to really sustain a movement. I think USAians expect protests, boycotts, and letters to be met with instant results, and when this doesn't happen, there's helplessness, burnout, and the movement is quietly dropped...

as we approach the year of the dragon, the hydra comes to mind.

over 30,000 innocent Palestinians are now gone, on our tax dollars, with no end in sight. now more people than ever realize that our representatives do not represent us, or care to. we are financing our own destruction, and we are running out of time.

so what does it really take to build a new world? who do we need? drawing on those who did it best (the global south truly has all the answers), these were my conclusions, but please tell me if you have any notes.

all I know is that our feelings of helplessness are by design. we cannot do it alone. it will not happen overnight. when one head tires, there must be two others to take it's place. happy early new year. we all have a role to play. which one are you?

(see more things from me via my newsletter, patreon, or bluesky)

[witchofrisingtides]

Everything you don’t forgive lives rent free in your head.

Remember what forgiveness is not—condoning, permitting, excusing, allowing, or forgetting.

The actual definition of forgiveness is “to cease to feel resentment.”

You don’t have to be a saint to forgive. You don’t even need to be a particularly kind or compassionate person.

You just need to prioritize being free.

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if this post reaches your dashboard, consider it a reminder that you have your whole life ahead of you. you still have plenty of time even if it feels like you're running out of time right now. don't let your anxiety trick you

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Sauce tureen shaped like an Asiatic dormouse

Made in Jingdezhen, China; about 1745

Spotted at the “Outside In: Nature-inspired Design at Winterthur” exhibition

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my neighbor just thanked me for bringing pollinators back to the neighborhood, he said it had been years since he's seen a bee

feels really good

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I could never hate younger me, she was lovely and deserved better

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how u doing

im not thinking about it

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[witchofrisingtides]

One last talent show to save the rec center

Ok everybody here's the deal.

My science education nonprofit, Skype a Scientist (you might know her, creator of the squid facts hotline and matcher of classrooms + scientists) has secured absolutely no grants to support general operations for 2025. But! We're selling advent calendars to fund our program! They absolutely rule. They can save our nonprofit asses. If we sell 5000, which I realize, is so many, we can fund our program for 2025. Then I can offer a bunch of programming for free. Running a nonprofit is a weird job.

Every day, counting down to frankly whatever you want (it's usually Christmas, but man, maybe you want to count down to Halloween, that's fine by me) scratch off the sparkly sparkly iridescence and reveal a fact about frogs! We have 24 top-notch frog facts here.

You should get one for every kid in your life, then get one for all the adults who still let themselves access joy in critters.

Get 'em here: https://squidfacts.bigcartel.com/

[witchofrisingtides]

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stop romanticizing your self imposed suffering! leave it in the closest recycling bin!

heather havrilesky // disco elysium // richard silken // Mary Oliver // Jumo Avilés // Jen Mazza // Joan Didion

[witchofrisingtides]

[witchofrisingtides]

[witchofrisingtides]