xanderisrotting

[xanderisrotting]

There is an unmistakable beauty in waiting

Waiting to save money for a sustainable garment you want

Waiting for your pressed flowers to dry

Waiting for your plants to grow

Waiting on the public transit

Waiting for the change of season

[xanderisrotting]

How would ethical ‘zoos’ work?? Can they be a thing??

It seems like the entire concept of zoos are very cruel to the animal since they’re locked up in exhibits smaller than their natural habitat and not socialized as much as they should. Is it even possible!?

Heres my idea, feel free to add on-

Obviously, bigger enclosures. Half of the issue with zoos is they’re being confined and cant run around like they should

Only use animals that couldn’t survive in the wild. This is how the Aquarium of the Pacific works with their aquatic mammals. Their otters aren’t fit for survival, so it’s a net positive

Someone (preferably that works with animals) weigh in. I believe zoos and aquariums are good for education, but so many do it wrong and it just hurts

[xanderisrotting]

Weekly reminder to not let tumblr train ai with your posts!!!

Account settings> visibility

Pls reblog!!

[xanderisrotting]

The absolute irony

Nothing say’s eco friendly like an ai generated image posted as an ad touting  the benefits of an eco friendly lifestyle

[xanderisrotting]

trans lifeline is a barely functioning and dangerously unhelpful emergency hotline!

im usually too scared to talk about it openly, but with how much its being spread as a resource rn i think its worth trying to warn people. i speak from my own experience and the experience of other trans people ive known who have called trans lifeline in times of crisis: it is a line that will often disconnect you before you can even speak to someone and the people it connects you to dont seem to have any idea how to talk to people in crisis. ive seen people say they were able to use the hotline successfully and have been helped by it, but you should be aware that this has not been my experience or the experience of anyone ive talked to who has used it.

all this to say if you want to have a hotline prepared to call in a time of crisis, do not let the only one you have on hand be trans lifeline! id love it if i was wrong and trans lifeline improved a lot in the last couple years, but id feel terrible if i didnt at least try to warn people right now.

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no matter how the election turns out, our path forward is the same. engage in your local community, not just through voting but through all kinds of grass-roots activism. learn about indigenous groups near you, their needs, how you can help them. support local black activist groups. form an affinity group. start a community fridge. get to know your neighbors, the ones who are sketchy and dirty and speak weird and are hard to get along with. the way out will always be through community. no supreme victory or crushing defeat; we must choose over and over again, forever, to live through the good and the bad together, as one.

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Every year bringing the plants in for the winter is brutal but I never learn to plan for it…

[xanderisrotting]

You CAN be eco friendly with tech!!

Use energy saver mode

Dont keep your pc and chargers plugged in when not in use. Better yet, get outlets that can switch off.

Buy energy efficient products

Replace parts instead of scrapping the whole product, and when it is beyond repair, recycle or sell for parts

Replace your phone battery instead of buying a new phone

Buy used/refurbished. They’re just as good as new, but youre not contributing to more demand

Try to buy local

Buy sustainably sourced accessories or ones that can be easily composted or properly disposed of

Use Ecosia to plant trees while you search

Use wildhero to plant trees with your email

Limit AI usage

[xanderisrotting]

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!

[xanderisrotting]

Recently my mom expressed how she wants to continue making my dad breakfast, but tortillas were too expensive. Yesterday I surprised her and hand made some tortillas.

I followed this youtube video on it. I ended up having to add a little more water (probably 2 tbsp) but they came out great for my first time!

It made 12 decent sized tortillas and i store them in a reusable silicone bag

[xanderisrotting]

its been p common knowledge for decades that light pollution can be massively reduced by just putting shades on streetlamps, and that doing that would save energy, help wildlife, and let us see the stars better, but are society says if u wanna change any minor little tiny thing u gotta dedicate ur whole life to campaigning for it and this is a good ways down the list of priorities for most ppl, so instead i gotta walk past newly-installed streetlamps that are just dumb glass globes that use half their electricity to blast half their light directly into the sky where it does only bad things for no reason and think "we should overthrow the government"

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For the past year and a half, my friend and I have been using the same 2 plastic lined gift bags back and forth. I give him a gift in the bag, then later he gives me another gift in the same bag. It’s a fun gesture between us, and I just realized how accidentally sustainable it is

[xanderisrotting]

Cool discovery: Mycelium!

I have a slight phobia of mushroom and have since I was a kid, so when I saw these in my pepper sprouts my stomach was turning, I wont lie. But I reassured myself that they werent dangerous and studied these mushrooms growing in my makeshift pots. Upon further discovery, theres tons of mycelium in these pots and they’ve spread to one another.

While it’s very cool, I am still queasy at the sight of mushrooms, so I’m gonna water these a little less and let them breathe more to prevent the mushrooms. It’s not detrimental to the plant at all, it actually means it’s healthy!! So maybe in the future I’ll be a little more okay with them, but for now, it was fun while it lasted.

[xanderisrotting]

Just something that has been my pet peeve for years is the phrase, “there are starving kids in Africa and youre wasting food!!”

Yes, there is. But Africa is a continent, of COURSE children are starving in Africa, its a huge place. This paints Africa as some poor undeveloped place when the whole continent is not like that. It feels so demeaning to me, of course I am not African, but I am familiar with their irritation around western people thinking all of Africa is poor and undeveloped.

Another thing that irritates me about that is, This is pushing the issue so far away as if children in developed countries don’t also face poverty and neglect. There are children in a 100km radius of you who are starving, there are children in your country who are starving.

Also, dont guilt kids into eating. Just because some people dont have food doesn’t mean you need to ignore your body cues. Never eat past being full and especially dont shame children for listening to their body. If your parents shamed you into eating past being full, I’m sorry. You’re not a bad person for listening to yourself.

Tldr: Africa isnt all poor and underdeveloped. Children in all countries are starving, there are children near you who are starving. Western countries’ citizens also experience poverty. Dont shame anyone into eating past being satisfied.

[xanderisrotting]

Help my family. War is devastating. There is nothing left to live. No schools, no universities, no home, and no dreams. All dreams have been shattered. I hope for help before it is too late

If anyone can donate to help, please do, or share and reblog this post.

Here’s the link to the gofundme

Anything donation or reblog will help

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Hi, I am Youssef Helles

This is my third account after the other two were suspended

I'm fighting for everyone and just want help with my campaign

I didn't do anything illegal, I just asked for help

I hope you can help me by donating or sharing

Hello, my name is Yousef Hilles from Gaza. I followed my campaign and was verified by @el-shab-hussein I hope you can help Campaign number (206)

https://www.gofundme.com/f/btuqqt-save-my-familys-life

Hi, Youssef! Thank you so much, I will share this and donate when I have the money.

Even just $1 can help, pls reblog this

[xanderisrotting]