hill I will die on: replace all "under 30" lists with "without generational wealth" lists
30 chefs who opened their own restaurants while sending money home to their family
30 writers who have student loan debt with debut novels this year
30 startup founders who were on free or reduced lunch in school
30 pro athletes who didn't have health insurance until last year
30 newly tenured professors who took out loans on top of full scholarships because they didn't have any help with survival expenses
30 independent businesspersons whose kids' other parent owes a ton of child support and will never pay it
30 touring musicians with 3 other jobs
30 business executives who have had to borrow money for an abortion
30 lawyers who have lived, not by choice, in an RV, tent, or shelter
30 doctors who have been unable to pay their own doctors
30 dancers who had to turn down a dance scholarship because of caregiving duties
30 entrepreneurs who knew what it felt like to skip several meals in a row BEFORE it became a trend called "intermittent fasting"
30 elected officials who have received WIC benefits
30 nurses who know which food banks get gluten free stuff in for their kid with Celiac Disease
I will stop listing lists I'd like to see listed now, I have proven my point, if any publication would like to commission a list of this kind, I am a writer published in print, digital, and audio; my DMs are open; and compensation will be repurposed for mutual aid.
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It's September in Southern California, which means it's time for the annual Spider Simp Thread!
No photos, don't worry, just information on why you're seeing more, bigger spiders this month and what to do to avoid a face full of spiderweb without harming lovely mosquito eaters.
First, Giant Face Hug Spiderwebs: elaborate webs stretching across sidewalks or even whole streets will become more common this month through October/November.
These are the work of orb weavers! They've always been around, they're just at their largest in the fall.
Our local orb weavers in the Los Angeles area are:
- harmless (the only medically significant spider here is the black widow)
- extremely afraid of you - startle one at the wrong moment and it may run away then later EAT ITS ENTIRE WEB to avoid encountering you again
Hi! Heat wave picketers, would you like some tips on increasing your heat tolerance?
I'm an endurance rider, which means I do a sport that requires me to sometimes exercise in up to 120-degree temperatures for hours at a time.
Heat tolerance is not fixed—you can build it.
First rule of heat training is: NEVER PUSH IT.
I'm serious. Do NOT get heatstroke. It will take away all your hard work building heat tolerance and make it easier to get heatstroke again in the future.
If you feel overheated, even if you've been outside for 30 seconds, cool off
Related to "never push it," don't be distracted from your bodily sensations in heat.
For my neurodivergent folks especially: NO HYPERFOCUSING IN HEAT! You will not notice that you're too hot!
If you have to do hyperfocusy things, SET A TIMER for cooling breaks every 20 minutes.
Once upon a time, a friend got a job working for someone who makes an amount of money my mind can’t fathom, doing a job in the entertainment industry that many aspire to.
She passed his desk one day to find he’d left the screenplay he was working on open on his desktop.
Now, this guy seemed like a pretty decent fellow, and he was actually TRYING to find his own creativity. No hate!
But the point is, everyone wants to experience creative self-expression, even if every other desire they have ever had has been fulfilled.
wild how the percentage of workers belonging to a union peaked in 1954 at 35%
and 1954 is the "golden age of the vibrant, thriving middle class" that everyone yearns for
but nobody yearning for the golden age of the vibrant, thriving middle class is proposing more unions
NOSTALGIC POLITICIAN: we need to go back to 1954 to save the middle class
MILLENNIALS: neat! by getting 35% of American workers into strong labor unions, right?
POLITICIAN: not that part
MILLENNIALS: so what part then?
POLITICIAN: I was thinking racism and housewives
look I know correlation is not causation and some proximate cause could have led to both the golden age of unions AND the golden age of the middle class
but like... it doesn't seem like giving management 100% of the power & profits is working? look at the egg prices?
God, he's just such a basic fucking model of "dad whose kids don't like him."
No features. No bells and whistles. Not even power windows. Just an absolute, off the lot, take it or leave it, as-is crappy dad.
Men will literally buy Twitter, unban convicted terrorists, ban journalists, ban competitors, play footsie with white supremacists, and sell the office espresso machine at auction before apologizing to their kids.
And honestly? I think they have no idea how corny and absolutely the opposite of masculine that energy looks on them.
"I'm so TOUGH I am NOT going to be MANIPULATED into saying SORRY to my KID"
so ur gonna die alone to own your babies? that's the move?
One of the ickiest things fascists do—and have probably done since humanity developed the ability to speak—is the "ha, I can't believe you reacted to that!" bit.
Because, if you don't react when they're doing fascism, they end up in power. If you do react: "Ha! Gotcha!"
They would like you to believe that they are only serious when you ignore them until they have obtained control, and, whenever you pay attention to them, they were just being silly to prove that you're easily baited into responding.
Eerie similarity to pandemics, that.
It's been observed often that there is no appropriate level of reaction to a novel virus.
React enough to squash it, and you'll appear to have overreacted, because things turned out fine.
React too little, and the option to react enough is quickly taken off the table.