hexalt - Tumblr blog

[hexalt]

real

[hexalt]

here's what I've learned to never pay full price for, because people are giving these items away for free or almost free on Craigslist, Nextdoor, Facebook, at Goodwill, and on eBay (which has a local pickup section) in every sufficiently populated location in the USA.

cost of acquiring these items ranges from "carrying it home from the sidewalk" to "getting a friend with a car to help you pick it up" which is the same amount of effort as going to IKEA for worse quality that costs more, with the notable exception of it being a pain in the ass to coordinate with craigslist sellers, and you often have to wait and watch for what you want to actually show up. it took me about a year to find an acceptable gamer chair left out on the sidewalk, for example. but they cost $100+ new, so I chose to wait.

a lot of this stuff is the kind of thing you don't necessarily intend to keep, just to use in transitional housing or until you can afford a better one.

1. printers of any kind. basic office inkjets are free. ink is easily refillable or has generic ink cartridges way cheaper than brand name for any inkjet up to about 2015, not sure how difficult the newer smart printers are to hack but there's no reason to own a newer one because printing technology has not improved since about 2005. you want a color laser for making zines and wheatpastes? it's on Craigslist RN and someone's mom is desperate to get rid of it

2. bedframes

3. desks

4. tables

5. chairs

6. bookshelves, nice oak bookshelves that don't bend like al dente spaghetti when you put books on them, are rotting on sidewalks rn because they didn't fit in someone's house. go get them

7. scanners. I find a working scanner by a dumpster at least once a quarter, and I don't pick them up because I already have one that I picked up from a dumpster years ago

8. hot tubs. everyone thinks they want a hot tub and that the maintenance and upkeep will be worth it, and they are wrong. Craigslist.

9. sofas, with the caveat that if you are in a bedbug region like New York State you need to be very confident in your bedbug screening skills

10. quality leather shoes. these last forever and are expensive new. eBay is best for these

11. plates, glassware, silverware. all of these are able to be sterilized to whatever standard you feel comfortable with but if you eat in restaurants you've already put a fork in your mouth that hundreds of people have drooled on so try not to fool yourself

12. televisions and computer monitors

13. houseplants. similar to the bedbug warning above, you need to screen these for pests like fungus gnats and mealybugs

14. dressers, wardrobes, china hutches, cabinets, chests of drawers, etc

15. mirrors

16. clothes hangers

17. moving boxes

18. mattresses to a certain extent. I don't like secondhand used mattresses but unstained, unused mattresses are surprisingly common, especially since the foam mail order mattress boom started and people keep getting told by the mattress companies to just get rid of/keep any mattresses they want to return for flaws or wrong sizes or whatever. bedbug warning on this obviously

19. sheets and towels. you gotta launder them obviously

20. basic clothing, especially for kids. normie type clothing is so numerous people often just throw them away because they can't get anyone to take them

21. kitchenware like cooking utensils and pots n pans. don't use chipped or scratched Teflon/nonstick if you can help it. everyone needs one basic steel chef knife, which can be sharpened and maintained indefinitely. people throw these away CONSTANTLY

22. household consumables like laundry soap and dish soap. people often accidentally buy the wrong brand, scent, or develop allergies and want to get rid of extra

23. pet supplies like collars, leashes, dog crates, litter boxes, litter itself, dog beds, toys, carriers, etc

24. medical equipment of all kinds. people who take care of all kinds of patients end up with tons of leftover, sealed, miscellaneous stuff when that person recovers or dies, and they often give it away. adult diapers, hospital beds, IV stands, crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, fracture boots and splints, knee braces, canes, catheter packs, ice packs, heat packs, sterile paper sheeting, gauze, slings, over-the-door stretching and rehab pulleys, mattress protectors, etc

25. washers and dryers, both the basic household cube type and the small twin tub or rock tumbler type. people upgrade these when the old ones are still working, just squeaky or a little weird or sometimes just old

26. vacuum cleaners. secondhand ones are sort of icky but you can get rid of the ickiness by wiping them down with a rag and isopropyl alcohol inside and out. use an exacto or utility knife to slice off the hair and string wrapped around the roller. buy a new filter on Amazon. people throw away vacuums that work perfectly all the time because they don't actually know how to clean them out or do maintenance. bedbug and pet hair warning obviously

27. microwaves

28. refrigerators

30. lamps

I will probably come back and add to this but I have to go to the store. enjoy all your free crap. this is my final message. goodbye

[hexalt]

i’m going to kdxjdhdjhddjjdhs

[hexalt]

[hexalt]

Apparently if a warrant is issued, it will be for crimes against humanity

[hexalt]

The latest numbers coming from Gaza state that there are about 77,575 injured Palestinians as of April 28, 2024.

I honestly see this number as a very humble one, but regardless, I said this in 2014 and it bears repeating: considering the types of weapons Israel is using in Gaza, the overwhelming majority of these injuries are severe and critical. So when we say that well over 77,000 people are injured in Gaza, we're talking about tens of thousands of people who have ended up with a lifelong disability. Thousands of amputees with no proper care. Thousands who will not be able to walk or see again. Many won't be able to go back to school or work again. Burn victims without the means to reduce or take the pain away. Many on life support and many more who will not even make it.

So many open wounds, both literally and figuratively, that we need to keep present in our conversation about Gaza.

[hexalt]

just a reminder to COMPLETELY boycott Eurovision this year; Azerbaijan and Israel, despite committing genocide, are STILL allowed to compete & have NOT been banned. by refusing to ban both countries, Eurovision is profiting off of the genocide of Palestinians and Armenians.

do not listen to the artists. do not pirate or stream the artists' music, and this applies to ALL the artists who are competing and performing this year. do not listen to the songs on ANY platform, do not give them ANY attention.

write to your broadcasters and tell them you REFUSE to watch the channels until they recognise the Armenian and Palestinian genocides & that you find it disgusting how they are allowing Eurovision despite Azerbaijan and Israel's entries.

do NOT give eurovision OR the competing artists ANYTHING but silence.

boycott ALL of eurovision.

[hexalt]

virgomoon's emergency aid, please! <3

in the short of it, i need dental work done and i have very shit dental insurance that's literally not helping me at all. the full story is posted on my gofundme below. please share this and potentially donate. anything helps. genuinely, anything and everything.

linked below is my gofundme, my cashapp, and my venmo. please dm if you'd like to donate via paypal. i'd be so grateful if you could share this

c.app / v.mo

$0/$2,563 (April 27)

[hexalt]

in light of police across the country cracking down on pro palestine protests with brutal force, it feels like a great time to remind everyone to shut the fuck up around cops. don't make small talk, dont act friendly, don't fucking engage with them!! if you are arrested DO NOT speak without a lawyer present. protest organizers, get into contact with local pro bono lawyers who can be there for your arrested comrades. no matter what, if cops are there, shut the fuck up unless you are actively doing a protest chant. dont tell cops why you were there, dont tell them if you're affiliated with the school you may be protesting at, dont tell them if you came there with anyone, dont tell them anything!!!

[hexalt]

We have Video Games by Lana Del Rey at home

[hexalt]

Did we miss the part where Biden's stance on Palestine is uniquely aggressive and oppressive even in the context/low bar of American politics. I feel like I'm losing my mind everytime someone brings up a hypothetical "well it could be worse" when the Gaza strip has dealt with the equivalent impact to a fucking nuclear assault.

[hexalt]

re: that last post, ive said it before and ill say it again: no one deserves to die (deserving is fake and death is bad) but some people need to be stopped and choose to make death the only way to stop them

[hexalt]

I dont play pokemon unite but its cool because it gives us skins like "what if marill frequented glory holes"

[hexalt]

have you defined the meaning of “white woman brain” anywhere and if not, can you? /gen

Many Black and brown feminist writers have discussed this phenomenon and I encourage you to seek out a lot of writing about this subject, because there are a variety of perspectives, but to distill it, white woman fragility brain is a phenomenon that is not exclusive to either white people or to women, but is especially common among those who can weaponize white womanhood, and it consists of the following qualities:

A view of oneself as a helpless victim that is constantly in threat of being attacked, especially by strangers (even though statistically, this is not the case).

A refusal to consider oneself as capable of doing harm to others, especially a lack of consideration toward others' body autonomy or consent. (even while being highly concerned about one's own autonomy and consent).

A generally passive or passive-aggressive orientation toward the world: seeing oneself as a romantic or sexual object to be approached, but never wanting to initiate (or feeling that one never can), never feeling comfortable directly communicating displeasure or one's desires, believing that others instead must guess at it. (and then resenting people when they don't, but never expressing it).

A tendency to cry, excessively berate oneself, complain about being made to feel "unsafe," or give up when criticized or challenged, especially when challenged by people of color.

A tendency to associate a person's body type with how much of a threat they are. For example, feeling unsafe around people with penises and expecting a social space to accommodate that fear to cater to you, a fear of people who come from cultures where it's common to speak loudly, a fear of those who are large, assertive, and/or darker-skinned.

Instinctive fawning-type responses to stress, and a pattern of feigning happiness, agreeability, and ease when one is not genuinely feeling it, and expecting all other people (but especially other women) to feign happiness as well, paired with a deep-seated resentment of anyone who violates this illusion and expresses any negativity (being especially punitive toward women of color).

Instinctively "smoothing over" conflict between other people before it even begins, even when healthy conflict is necessary and not at all your business-- often performed by gossiping behind other people's backs, triangulating information when it is not yours to share, asking people to alter their behavior in order to avoid a reaction from somebody else, presenting your concerns as if they were somebody else's ("what will people think!"), tone-policing the airing of grievances, derailing hard conversations with more light-hearted topics, and excluding people who are known to be candid and assertive.

Here are some articles on elements of the phenomenon and why it is so dangerous:

Now, I single white cis women out a lot when I am describing this phenomenon, because they have the most to gain from exhibiting these qualities, but make no mistake: this is a pattern that many types of people can and do use. I have seen white trans women use white women's tears to silence critique. I have witnessed women of color being passive-aggressively derailed and silenced by a Black manager who was in a position of institutional power over them. Multiple of the women who sexually harassed me in the story linked above were not white. And LORD knows I see plenty of t boys falling back on this shit, as well as cis men from wealthy backgrounds. It's a mindset that has deep colonial roots and we all must be on the look out for it in ourselves and others, and we must be vigilant in uprooting it.

[hexalt]

this website is cuckoo bananas. for years i’ve been watching trans girls post “hey, have you considered that even though trans guys are obviously treated worse than cis guys, the limited male privilege that they do have access to means that they are taken more seriously, treated less dangerously & just respected more than trans women in most if not all circumstances” and everybody’s been going nuts like, calling us separatists, calling us “divisive” for even pointing out men in the trans community can be misogynistic etc.

and then today, i saw a pretty mild post from a trans guy saying “passing as a man is so weird. other men are treating me with more respect than they treat my girl friends in public now. i used to have to argue & cite 100 sources for anybody to listen to me, and now all i have a beard all i have do is say ‘hey maybe women should be treated better’ and everybody listens to me immediately”

….and then i go into the notes and there’s a bunch of transandrophobia bloggers saying “wow, you really opened my eyes… i never saw it this way before…” like am i going crazy??? am i the only one who sees the incredible irony here? maybe you guys… here’s a thought… should listen to women also?

[hexalt]

Hello Devon, I really admire your work and I'm learning so much from it, thank you for all that you do. I recently listened to the WCDHT podcast with your interview and was struck by the part where you talked about how dread is a good indicator to stop and listen to what doesn't work for you. I feel like me as a person with an intense anxiety disorder that is hard to apply to my life, as a lot of the therapy for that anxiety is confronting things I dread. do you have any more advice on how to discern when dread (or simmilar feelings) are coming from a helpful place and how I might be able to listen to them? thank you ♥

Try instead to locate resentment! When I say listen to dread, I don't mean listening to the feeling that "I am certain something bad is going to happen / i am going to get in trouble" which is a very common experience for the anxious. What I mean is feelings of "I don't know why I agreed to do this." "I'm getting nothing good out of this" "I only did this because someone would get mad at me if I wouldn't." THAT kind of dread. The resentment of external pressure. Notice that feeling, as lots of anxious people get guilted to do things they don't want to do! And try listening it to better build up your self advocacy skills and tolerance of upsetting others.

[hexalt]

If my mother was in a singing mood, it wasn't so bad. She would sing about hard times, bad times, and somebody-done-gone-and-left-me times. But her voice was so sweet and her singing-eyes so melty I found myself longing for those hard times, yearning to be grown without "a thin di-i-ime to my name." I looked forward to the delicious time when "my man" would leave me, when I would "hate to see that evening sun go down…" 'cause then I would know "my man has left this town." Misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother's voice took all of the grief out of the words and left me with a conviction that pain was not only endurable, it was sweet.

– Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye