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some of you guys when the unreliable narrator is in fact unreliable

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Charity Navigator (CharityNavigator.org) should be ashamed. Follow me on my journey…

I went looking for good charities to support humanitarian aid in Gaza. Decided to check out Charity Navigator as they’re usually helpful for finding reputable charities…

This is their landing page:

Great! I think as I click on the link for “Humanitarian Crisis in Israel and Gaza”.

New page pops up.

Okay, sounds good. Expert analysts you say? Hand picked charities? Alright! What do you have for me?

I scrolled down and found exactly 2 - - TWO - - charities on the list. Here they are:

End of list. No Doctors Without Borders. No Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Not a single charity doing a single thing in Gaza. Nothing. Charity Navigator’s team of expert analysts made a “list” of charities addressing the “Humanitarian Crisis in Israel and Gaza” that conspicuously excludes any charity actually providing humanitarian aid in Gaza.

I have no words for my level of disappointment.

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Friendly reminder: Positivity can’t cure shit.

The chronically ill cannot manifest health by believing they’ll be healed. Having a “good attitude” won’t stop the progress of a progressive illness. Staying upbeat does not, in and of itself, improve health outcomes.

Can illness go into remission? Absolutely. Can medications and lifestyle choices improve quality of life? Of course. Can psychology improve perceived physical wellness? Sometimes. At the same time, accepting the reality of chronic illness, including its permanence and limitations, is essential to psychological well-being. That doesn’t mean living without hope. There’s always hope. For a new therapy/medication/treatment. For better accommodations and broader societal support. For incremental improvements that make life easier. But many folks want us to grasp onto false hope, miracles, as though anything less were tantamount to lying down on the train tracks.

Belief in the impossible won’t fix the incurable. In other words, stop shaming the disabled for accepting that they’re disabled.

If you want to read more about the complicated relationship between positivity and health, see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7166246/

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I put up with a lot of side effects from my meds, but honestly, having to taste fish oil burbs might be where I draw the line.

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this is such incredible advice for creating any kind of art i have to put it over here to remind myself

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Finally got around to reading Lessons in Chemistry. And while it’s set in Southern California, the narrator is clearly Julie Andrews explaining life in an eccentric English hamlet with the driest of wits.

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What is the opposite of a sensitivity reader? I need some of those. People who just totally don’t understand the isms, to see what the heck they get out of my stories…

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Writing Prompt:

After purchasing a parabolic microphone, you take it to a park to test it out. You scan around, briefly eavesdropping on random conversations, until you overhear something you shouldn’t. A secret that could change everything.

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Never trust a male author whose female characters are perpetually angry. There’s a reason he thinks women are angry all the time. (Hint: it’s him.)

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The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI

American friends! The US Copyright Office (which we know exerts huuuge influence in how these things are treated elsewhere) wants to hear opinions on copyright and AI.

"The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI and copyright issues beginning August 30th as the agency figures out how to approach the subject."

We can assume that the opposing side will definitely be using all of their lobbying power towards widespread AI use, so this is a very good chance to let them know your thoughts on AI and how art and creative content of all kinds should be protected.

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I have been super into dragons since I was 12 and my father bought me Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight—the first book in the Dragon Rider’s of Pern series. I was into fantasy and he wanted me to have a female fantasy author to read, with a female protagonist. And it meant the world to me. The protagonist defies bs gender rules to become a legendary hero. This meant the world to me as a frustrated, angry girl who hated living in a patriarchal world. I haven’t reread this book at any point in the last 25 years, so I don’t know if it would hold up, but for the time, it was feminist af. Give girls feminist fiction. Let them see themselves as heroes.

But also, give boys feminist fiction, so they can recognize the way systems stifle women and girls, and they can learn to empathize with people who deal with it.

[clchandler-writes]

“He sees you when you’re sleeping” is indeed a very creepy line. But we should maybe also talk about the song’s examples of naughty behavior. You better not shout, cry or pout. So…. Bottle up them feelings kids! Santa is not down with emoting!

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There will never be a movie half as horrifying as remembering things from your late teens/early twenties.

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Chronic Illness Paradox #381

Stress causes flares, which cause stress, which worsens flares, which causes more stress, which makes flares worse, which increases stress, ad infinitum.

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Bad Analogies #2

For me, chronic illness is kind of like going to bed sober, but then waking up every morning, never knowing if you’re going to have a mild hangover or a world-ending, kill-me-now hangover.