iserlohnfortress

[iserlohnfortress]

Sometimes it feels like you've lived your whole life in a house that's always a little bit on fire. Like it's usually just in one room and you make sure to wet the walls around it so it doesn't spread and that usually works. You were expected to take more responsibility over fire containment when you were like seven because it's not like you can expect your parents to always be 100% on guard about making sure the whole house doesn't catch fire, and you figure that's just how things are like.

And sometimes as a kid you visit your friends' homes and some of then whisper to you - grimacing with embarrassment - about how they're not supposed to tell anyone this, but there's a whole room in their house that's currently on fire. And you're like yeah it's ok I'm not supposed to tell people about the way our house is a little bit on fire all the time, too. And then you visit some other friend's house and there's no trace of fire anywhere, and you think "wow, these people are really good at hiding their house fire."

And one day you show up to work like "hey sorry I'm late, I forgot to wet the walls before going to bed last night and my whole house burned down", and you're startled by the way people react, acting like that must be the worst thing that has ever happened to you. And you're just like "chill, it's been years since the last time this happened, and it wasn't even that bad this time", and that just makes people more shocked, acting like that's the weirdest and most concerning thing they've ever heard anyone say, which only confuses you more.

And then someone tries to explain to you that people aren't supposed to have an ongoing house fire. Most people actually never experience a house fire in their lives. Like not even once. Not even a little bit. The normal amount of having your house be currently on fire is zero.

[iserlohnfortress]

daily affirmations:

i am kind

i am in control of my emotions

it does not bother me when someone is in the kitchen while i was planning to be in there alone

everyone in the house has the right to be in the kitchen

i am kind and in control of my emotions even when someone is in the kitchen while i was planning to be in there alone

[iserlohnfortress]

hi i literally never do this and it embarrasses me deeply to ask for help in this manner but between not getting paid for the full month since the academic term ended, beginning the process moving across the country for a second time in less than a year, and having to get home to settle my deceased father's estate amidst all of this, i am struggling this month and will be next month too. if anyone feels like throwing a few coins my way, it would be sincerely appreciated to get me through until the end of july when my new job starts. happy to offer proofreading, copyediting, and/or dramaturgical services in exchange, just DM both paypal and venmo are @ maddiemaew

[iserlohnfortress]

I actually passed away quite a few years ago, but I'm a very private person and never told anybody.

[iserlohnfortress]

obscurity is definitely in my top 10 things to languish in

[iserlohnfortress]

was talking to a coworker and realised i could not for the life of me remember his name but i was too embarrassed to ask because we've spoken multiple times so mid-conversation i started concocting a plan to nudge the conversation towards the ID photos on our building passes so that i could be like oh my ID photo is awful haha the camera they use to take these has a real talent for making me look as unphotogenic as possible and then he would say oh yes me too haha everyone says that (because they do) and then i would be able to say well let me see yours it can't be as bad as mine! and he would show me his ID because we are coworkers and why wouldn't he and this would allow me to see his building pass which of course would have his name on it and then i would be able to say well yours is perfectly nice it must be me that's the problem! and then we would have a polite chuckle about it and i would have his name without needing to ask for it and he would be none the wiser and all would be well but then before i could execute this fine plan a little voice in my head went "so this is some light yagami bull shit you are about to pull" which was such a violent reality check it shocked me completely out of my embarrassment and i went "hey im so sorry your name has slipped my mind could you remind me" and he did and it was fine.

[iserlohnfortress]

Ok. What you're gonna want to do is chop up a cucumber and put it in a bowl. Then you're gonna sprinkle a generous portion of salt on top. Then you're gonna drizzle them with a balsamic vinaigrette and gently shake to combine, leaving you with a cool and refreshing summer snack. In 15 seconds dangerous and burly men are going to drag me away to an unknown second location. Remember everything I've taught you. I love you

[iserlohnfortress]

"Desperate, hungry people in Gaza continue to face the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risk being killed while trying to get food,” UN spokesperson Thameen al-Kheetan said in Geneva.

” But here in Gaza… we no longer speak of choices — because we no longer have any,” This is what @zinaanqar16 father told me

Ahmed, a father of four, sits helplessly as his infant daughter cries without tears — her mother has no milk left, and hope has vanished from his eyes.

He told me:

"If I stay, I die with them in silence. If I go out, I may die alone. But I can’t bear to watch them starve and do nothing." He’s not asking for a dignified life — just a piece of bread to extend his children's lives by one more day. Just one can of baby formula… to keep his daughter from dying slowly.

In Gaza, fatherhood means offering your body to feed your children. It means becoming a potential martyr just to bring home a sip of water. It means walking into death — only to delay the death of those you love.

What kind of world is this? What conscience allows a people to be trapped between starvation and fire?

Save those who remain in Gaza… before silence becomes a mass death certificate. Please donate help Zeina’s Family

[iserlohnfortress]

[iserlohnfortress]

[iserlohnfortress]

anyway you should always remember that all those foreigners you see dying on the news are just as real people as you are who have just as much interiority as you do. there is nothing about you that makes you more important and it is by pure chance that you are not in their position. in fact, this holds for all of history. every person, no matter the horror of the fate that befell them, had just as much interiority as you do. i feel like some people haven't fully internalized this.

[iserlohnfortress]

I don’t believe tsw*ft is a revolutionary or even interesting artist but she *is* the only artist who has her own folder on my phone dedicated to lyrics that make me incandescent with rage so from a perverse conceptual perspective I guess something is working

[iserlohnfortress]

[iserlohnfortress]

i don’t know how to explain to you people that no matter what a country’s government is like i do not and will not support the US indiscriminately bombing that country’s civilians and i don’t know why that’s a controversial take tbh

[iserlohnfortress]

i now officially have a masters degree in medicine can i get an AMEN