insanecatgentleman

[insanecatgentleman]

Sorry I’ve been neglecting you, Tumblr...here’s my new zine.  It’s the first one that’s not about unemployment!  It IS about depression but I think it’s kind of hopeful...

[insanecatgentleman]

Wow, this is evil...my state (Oregon) is enacting this, what can I do?  We have a terrible job market right now, too. 

The Wall Street Journal reports that starting on April 1, all of those states plan to reinstate a rule that had been set aside after the financial crisis led to mass unemployment: that adults with no dependents or disabilities are limited to “three months of food stamps in any three-year period—unless they work at least 80 hours a month, or meet education and training or volunteer benchmarks.”

If people are unable to find a job, it is cruel to force them to starve, and it is foolish to make a poor, unemployed, hungry person sit through classes that will not directly lead to a job, or spend their time volunteering, for no income, simply so they can have food to eat, but no money or free time to obtain it. The likely outcome of reinstating these rules: “The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that 500,000 to one million people will lose access to food stamps this year, citing the experience in states where work requirements already returned.”

If you’re like me and don’t have a WSJ subscription, you can see the states that are going to do this here. 

[insanecatgentleman]

it is okay to want your abusers to love you and be proud of you. 

it is okay to want your abusers *not* to love you and be proud of you.  (how dare they bask in what you have managed to do and be despite them.)

[insanecatgentleman]

Blake Brockington’s death was NOT a suicide, it was a murder. He was killed by Trans-bigotry, White Supremacy and the oppressive state violence that we encounter DAILY as Black trans and gender non-conforming people.

If we truly believe ALL #BlackLivesMatter we must fight against depression, we must fight against isolation, we must heal from trauma, and we must be committed to each other, and we must fight to create a world where we want to LIVE, and we must reclaim our right to take up space in a world where we are deemed unworthy, undesirable, and disposable.

Each day we are fighting against a mental, spiritual, and physical death.

Audre Lorde taught the world that, “There is No Hierarchy of Oppression” and I’m saying, There is No Hierarchy of Violence. Whether we die at the hands of the police or oppression and state-induced suicide, we must address all violence and death with the URGENCY OF NOW!

[insanecatgentleman]

I’ve signed up!  Very excited :)

PZS Tabling Registration is now LIVE!

Register for your tabling space now right here!

[insanecatgentleman]

When I’m really depressed, I make blogs (okay, this is only the second time I’ve done this).  But I wanted to have an online presence for my “publishing empire”, and a place to share photos and other random things.  I don’t really know what I’ll be writing about yet, but probably things about unemployment, various human rights, mental illness/health, disability, zines and the creative process.  Give it a follow if you do Wordpress!  I’m still figuring out how to use it...

[insanecatgentleman]

Reblog if you are Jewish and tired

[insanecatgentleman]

Ohmigosh!  My new zine is available!  It’s still about unemployment, but also has a theme of depression.  I’ve been unemployed...again...for a while now, and also have been going through pretty bad depression...again, so it’s been therapeutic to have this project.  You can buy a copy here!  Or Paypal me directly and get a discount.  As always, I like trades as well.  Especially zines on similar topics.  I’m proud of how this turned out.  Especially the “more detailed” drawings, and the piece on my experience of workplace personality testing as an anxious autistic person, and how that relates to meditation, unemployment, suicide and self-identity.  (May be triggering, suicide is mentioned briefly but not in much detail.)

Please reblog if you’d like!  I got overly ambitious and printed wayyy too many copies.  Self-promotion is not as easy as it may appear ;)

[insanecatgentleman]

Chinatown, México City.

[insanecatgentleman]

One stupid thing about living in an apartment, can’t make a bee house.

Creating a Bee-Friendly Garden A Few Simple Homemade Devices Can Go a Long Way

“Have you noticed a dearth of pollinators in your garden of late? Honeybee numbers are declining due to several factors, and it’s finally starting to make headlines. The loss of bee colonies has far-reaching consequences. About one third of our crops are pollinated by bees.”

[insanecatgentleman]

When I realize todays high schoolers were born in 2000.

[insanecatgentleman]

My new year’s resolution to try new fruits and vegetables was one of the only ones I kept! 

Healthy & Awesome New Year’s Resolutions that are Alternatives to Weight Loss:

You don’t need to be thinner in order to be happy and healthy.  If you want to make some healthy improvements to your life in 2016, choose to make a resolution that goes beyond losing weight. Instead, target areas of your life that can be directly improved:

Make doctor and dentist appointments in a timely fashion

Cook and prepare lunch instead of relying on processed foods

Floss

Support local farms and food producers

Get more quality sleep

Eat vegetables at every meal

Meditate

Spend more time outside

Actually eat your fruit before it goes bad

Don’t watch tv or use the computer during meals

Take vitamins

Stretch and improve your flexibility

Drink herbal tea instead of coffee

Concentrate on improving your posture

Participate in Meatless Mondays

Cut back on your sodium intake

Regularly donate unworn and ill-fitting clothing to a local shelter

Wear sunscreen every day you’re outside

Quit smoking

Re-try foods that you hate, but haven’t eaten in years

Moisturize and remove your makeup before going to bed

Keep a journal

Focus on changing your behavior instead of changing your body, and then every step will be a step forward.   

[insanecatgentleman]

I honestly don’t understand why there aren’t more people who, when given the platform to discuss minimum wage, don’t simply distill it to the simplest of facts:

A forty hour work week is considered full time.

It’s considered as such because it takes up the amount of time we as a society have agreed should be considered the maximum work schedule required of an employee. (this, of course, does not always bear out practically, but just follow me here)

A person working the maximum amount of time required should earn enough for that labor to be able to survive. Phrased this way, I doubt even most conservatives could effectively argue against it, and out of the mouth of someone verbally deft enough to dance around the pathos-based jabs conservative pundits like to use to avoid actually debating, it could actually get opps thinking.

Therefore, if an employee is being paid less than [number of dollars needed for the post-tax total to pay for the basic necessities in a given area divided by forty] per hour, they are being ripped off and essentially having their labor, productivity, and profit generation value stolen by their employer.

Wages are a business expense, and if a company cannot afford to pay for its labor, it is by definition a failing business. A company stealing labor to stay afloat (without even touching those that do so simply to increase profit margins and/or management/executive pay/bonuses) is no more ethical than a failing construction company breaking into a lumber yard and stealing wood.

Our goal as a society should be to protect each other, especially those that most need protection, not to subsidize failing businesses whose owners could quite well subsidize them on their own.

[insanecatgentleman]

One time I was meeting a potential roomate, and many times that I made a statement, she would reply with “that’s just your opinion” or “that’s your own experience”.  It was very weird and disconcerting.  I thought it was obvious that when a person talks, they are largely expressing opinions, and speaking from their own experience.  It sounds like she was someone who was incapable of saying “I don’t understand” or “I don’t agree”. 

The Female Dislike Ban is self-perpetuating because we never learn to express negativity well

(Among other reasons)

When you’ve been silenced forever, and you do admit your dislike of something - you’re not likely to have the language for this. You may not know how to express dislike or discomfort without coming off much stronger than you mean to, or sounding policey about it. Because policing (or dramatic, loud, and passionate “OMG I HATE THAT”) is the only way you’ve ever had dislike/negativity modeled for you.

We have no equivalent to dudes’ “whatev, bro.”

What’s more is that if we DON’T loudly justify our dislike of something - we were likely to get it pushed on us anyway.

[insanecatgentleman]

Yet another dream home.

Deep in the forests of Central Java, towering above the surrounding trees, lies an abandoned, crumbling church in the shape of a giant chicken with its beak open mid-squawk. Locals have dubbed it the “chicken church.” 🐔 [video of the church]

[insanecatgentleman]

I’m on the lookout for no-bake treats!

Vegan oreo peanut butter pie / Recipe

[insanecatgentleman]

I interview for this job tomorrow.  If it’s even half as bad as this article makes it out to be, I’m not going to survive.  I already went through so much rigamarole to qualify for this job, and was really counting on it.  At the moment I’m feeling very discouraged.  I apply for jobs I’m overqualified for, qualified for, and underqualified for, and I get no reply anywhere.  I apply for jobs where I know people and where I don’t know people.  I try to get temp jobs, I try to get permenent jobs.  Still nothing.  Even if I go back to school, I’ll still need a job in the meantime.  My mental health is not stable, and if I have to work every day of the week, more than 8 hours a day, with constantly changing hours(as the USPS job may be), I know that will cause me to deteriorate.  But the prospect of being completely broke is stressful as well.  Sigh.  I abstained from illegal drugs for the past few days for possibly nothing... /jk, I don’t know how to obtain illegal drugs.