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Those cooling towels work even in high humidity. So do the cooling blankets, even if they creep me out a little.

If possible, open your windows at night and use fans to vent the hotter air. Close them at dawn, and keep them closed during the heat of the day. Hang your winter blankets in your windows during the day, as well.

An open ice chest full of ice with a fan blowing across the ice can cool a bedroom in less than an hour, and is cheaper than a window A/C.

Close off rooms you don’t need to be in, cover/close the vents, and tuck a towel under the door.

Central A/C can really only lower the temperature inside your house by around 20 degrees Fahrenheit - so one way to make your house cooler is to pre-cool the air going into your A/C. That hillbilly ice chest and fan combo? Pop it in front of your intake vents. It’ll take some of the load off your central A/C unit and make your home more comfortable.

Speaking of central A/C - if possible, get it serviced before temperatures hit triple digits. HVAC companies WILL be overloaded as temperatures rise, so the earlier in the season, the more likely you’ll get a tech out in a reasonable timeframe. Make sure the unit itself is clean, and shaded if possible. Make sure any attic vents are clear of debris, and if you have an attic fan, make sure it’s working, too. If you have ceiling fans, make sure they’re turning the correct direction - their job is to circulate air in the room and equalize the temperature, and it makes a difference.

If you can afford it, a window A/C unit in your bedroom will go a long way towards making the heat more tolerable - you need sleep for your body to heal from heat stress, just like any other injury.

You should drink more water than you think you need - and if you can’t force yourself to drink water, eat wet food! Watermelon, grapes, cantaloupe - all of these contain water, and will help keep you hydrated! If you’re sweating, you’re also losing salt - so salt that watermelon and cantaloupe. A couple of pinches of salt in your water bottle will help, too.

Certain medications affect your ability to regulate your body temperature - Wellbutrin is the most commonly prescribed, and it makes you less resistant to heat stress. If you aren’t sure, talk with your doctor or pharmacist - and if your meds affect your temperature regulation, be VERY careful about overheating. Heat stroke is deadly.

You can also get freezable neck wraps, and they can save your life, especially if you must be outdoors in extreme temps. Ice packs at the neck, wrists and groin will keep your body temp lower. Wet your head and feet - running cool water over your feet can make you instantly feel more comfortable.

Linen and cotton will be cooler than other fabrics - linen is best, but woven cotton (not knit!) is more easily accessible for most people. If you’re out in the sun, light colored fabric that covers more of your skin is better - it will help wick moisture and increase evaporative cooling, even in higher humidity. Also be aware of skin chafing - sweat makes chafing worse, and irritated skin makes the heat more miserable.

I’m also a big fan of the just-below-body-temp shower - even if you just rinse off a couple of times a day, it will make you more comfortable and keep your body temperature in the safe zone. You want the water to feel like a swimming pool - cool, not cold. This will also help rinse off sweat and oil, which makes you feel cooler.

Don’t forget - the only skincare that’s absolutely necessary is sunscreen, regardless of your skin color.

For all of the northerners that stood up for Texas during our freeze and said, "Don't make fun of them, they've never dealt with this before. Their infrastructure isn't made for snow and freezing."

This one is for you.

Where I live 108°F with 80% humidity with no wind is normal.

Pacific North West is dealing historic best waves 35-40°C or 95-105°F.

First of all. Don't make fun of them for bitching about the heat. Just like Texas isn't built for a freeze and our pipes burst, Pacific North West isn't built for heat and a lot of their homes don't have AC.

If you live somewhere with a high humidity like 80+ HUMIDITY IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. The "humidity makes it feel cooler" is a lie once it gets beyond a point.

If you live somewhere with a lower humidity, misters are nice to cool off outside.

Once you get over 90°F (32°C) a fan will not help you. It's just pushing around hot air. (I mean if you can't afford a small AC unit because they're expensive as hell, by all means a fan is better than nothing).

If you have pets, those portable AC units aren't safe. If your pets destroy the outtake thing, it'll leak CO2. Window units are safer.

Window AC units will let mosquitoes or other small bugs in. Sucks, but that's life.

Now is not the time to me modest. If you have to cover for religious reasons, by all means. If you don't, I've seen people wear short shorts and a swim top. It's not trashy if it keeps you from getting heat stroke.

If you do have to cover up for religious reasons, look for elephant pants or something similar. They're made with a breathable material.

Shade is better than no shade, but that shit it just diet sun after some point. Don't think shade will save you from heat stroke.

I know the "drink your water" is a fun meme now, but if you're sweating excessively you need electrolytes. Drink Gatorade, Powerade, or Pedialite PLEASE. I don't care if you're fucking sitting in one spot all day. That shit WILL save you from heat stroke.

Most importantly. RESEARCH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAT STROKE AND HEAT EXHAUSTION PLEASE!

If you're diabetic and can't drink Gatorade, mix water, fruit juice, and either lite salt or pink salt

If you can afford it, cover windows with thick curtains to insulate the house

If you have tile floors, lay on them with skin to tile contact. If you don't, laying your head on cool counters works too.

If the temperature where you're at is hotter than your body temperature, don't wear heat wicking clothing. Moisture wicking is safe though.

Check your medication labels. Many make you more susceptible to sun and heat

-Room temperature water will get into your body faster. This is something I learned doing marching band in high summer in Georgia, and it saved all of our asses. Sip it, don't gulp it, especially if you're getting into the red; same goes for whatever fluid you're drinking. And just in general drink during the day.

-If you are moving from an air conditioned space to an un-air conditioned space, if at all possible try to make the shift gradual. When my dad and I were working outside and in un-ac houses a few years ago, he'd turn the air down to low in the truck about ten-fifteen minutes before we got where we were going. This way your body doesn't go from low low temps to high temps. S'bad for you.

-If you can, keep your lights off during the day. Light bulbs may not generate a lot of heat, but the difference is noticeable when it gets hot enough. I literally only turn my bedroom light on in the evening when it gets too dark.

Don't be afraid to just like... pour water on yourself if you need to. The evaporation will cool you off.

Put your hand to the cement for 15 seconds. If you can't handle the heat, it'll burn your dog's paws. Don't let them walk on it.

Dogs with flat faces are more prone to heat stroke. Don't leave them out unsupervised.

Frozen fruit is delicious in water.

Wet/Cold hat/handkerchief on your head/neck will help you stay cool.

Pickle juice is great for electrolytes! You can even make pickle juice Popsicles!

Heat exhaustion is more, "drink water and get you cooled off." Heat stroke is more "Oh my god call 911."

Image Description provided by @loveize

[Image description: an infographic showing the difference between heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The graphic is labeled "Heat Dangers: First Warning." Signs of heat exhaustion: faint or dizzy, excessive sweating, cool, pale, clammy skin, rapid, weak pulse, muscle cramps. If you think you or someone else may be experiencing heat exhaustion, get to a cool, air-conditioned place, drink water if conscious, and take a cool shower or use cold compress. Signs of heat stroke: throbbing headache, no sweating, red, hot, dry skin, rapid, strong pulse, may lose consciousness. If you think you or someone else may be experiencing heat stroke, call 911. End description]

Be safe.

-fae

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It could be worse. You could be wearing a bra right now.

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30-Song Guess Your Age Quiz

Fwiw, they thought I was MANY years younger than I am. Just made me feel good all over. 😊

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So much going on right now, keep yourselves safe

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I AM THAT IS

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The coolest kids are wearing whatever is comfortable to stand/dance in for a couple of hours. Ideally with big enough pockets for phone, earplugs, ID, some cash. Closed-toe shoes that are grippy enough to not slide around.

Source: I am a crazy person going to four concerts this year and I’m prolly gonna wear the exact same thing to all four despite the wildly different genres/venues.

Guys what are the cool kids wearing to concerts these days?

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Happy 25th of May everyone 

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happy glorious 25th of may

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So, Remmick was a Fili, right? I’m not the only one who caught that, right?

So, I’ve been playing Vampire: the Masquerade for more than half my life at this point, and that has shaped the lens through which I analyze vampire media. It’s a crutch, I know, but it made me connect a few things after my first viewing and after wading through the flood of posts about Sinners.

Just in case you don’t know (and if you do you can skip this paragraph), V:tM is a TTRPG, just like D&D is, but instead of playing an adventurer in a fantasy setting, you’re playing a vampire in a modern real world adjacent setting. Instead of choosing a species and class, you choose your vampire clan. There are a lot of them, but I want to focus on the Toreador.

The Toreador are a clan of beauty, of artists, of gorgeous people embraced (turned into vampires) to preserve that beauty. But the vampiric condition is not the same as the living condition, and it tends to dull the creative spark. When a Toreador is embraced for their artistic expression, they tend to find very quickly that their work becomes repetitive, mundane, and dull. It’s a common problem with the clan that one sees repeated through the fictions set in that universe.

So my theory is that Remmick was a Fili, the Irish interpretation of the dimension-crossing bard that Sammie is and that was mentioned in the prologue. But when he was turned, those powers were lost. That talent faded. And vampires in this setting have something of a hive mind. Remmick doesn’t want Sammie to help him reach his ancestors. He could have done that just by asking. No, he wants his powers back, and he intends to get it by turning Sammie, completely ignoring the fact that doing so would destroy the gift that allows that sort of thing to happen in the first place.

There’s commentary here that I don’t feel qualified to make about how this is a metaphor for the co-opting of black culture, how internet slang is made up of 95% AAVE with little recognition of that source and even less appreciation for it. There’s an idea that I know I’m not qualified to speak on about how racism is stupid and is the result of broken thought processes that infect the racist’s every action, and I’m not making that because I haven’t studied racism and I could be wrong. But the point I want to make is that this is a very effective (at least to me) message about how the industries surrounding artistic pursuits tend to blunt the edge of the art they facilitate.

How many stories from the recording industry are there about songs that were changed because of executive meddling? How many movies were altered because someone with the purse-strings didn’t get the vision? I can’t help but think of the load-bearing “You’re so beautiful” scene from Barbie that almost got cut, or the fact that Saltburn ended with a dance sequence instead of with the servants giving undercooked eggs to Oliver again like Emereld Fennell reportedly wanted. Again, I don’t feel completely confident making commentary about artists turned record producers and label owners, but there’s certainly some to be made.

TL;DR: Remmick wanted to steal Sammie’s talent for his own to get back the power he used to have, without applying the lesson he learned from his own turning that being a vampire kills that creative ability. Because racism and capitalism is stupid.

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Detail (wip) of one of the illustrations I’ve done for my next art book. The book is progressing slowly but I hope to finish it by the end of this year!

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Monet's pond, Gifu, Japan / 異世界ひとり旅 ～Deep spot Japan～ ♡

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So the work trip was fun, but I am very glad to be home where I can keep working on my fanbind.

Adventures continue: while I was out of town, my sacrificial video greeting card came in, as well as the Good Paper and my million scraps of leather that will eventually get turned into a cover, and after spending most of the day as a complete slug on the couch, I finally starting disassembling the greeting card.

Before it ran into my knife:

And after it ran into my knife:

Now that it’s disassembled, I can start working out how much space I’ll need to have in order to have it properly inset in the signature. It’s going to be fiddly, regardless, but also: who needs solder when you have hot glue?

Tomorrow is going to be creating a new, more compact enclosure for the electronics, and then I’ll decide if I want to try removing all of the hot glue and soldering the connections - I likely won’t for my test construction, just in the interest of maintaining my sanity, but for the final construction I just might.

Then I’ll adjust my typeset so that the video falls on the last page of a signature so that the inset can actually be in the signatures after - hopefully that will prevent the weight of it from tearing it out of the spine. We’ll see how it comes together, but I have a feeling that even though it isn’t a particularly thick book, I may need to do some strategic spine reinforcement just to accommodate the video inset.

The player is triggered with a magnetic switch, which I’ll also need to figure out how to accommodate in the structure, but I have some ideas for that and we’ll see how it goes.

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Grocery store eggs, yes. Eggs from the people who snagged ‘em out of the nest that morning and didn’t scrub the bloom off, no.

They stay fresh about the same length of time, and it’s fairly easy to wash before you crack ‘em.

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

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if tumblr shuts down you can find me on tumblr. ill still be here. they cant make me leave

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When I first ended up in a “consultant” role, it took me a while to get past the sheer overwhelming guilt I experienced over not “really working” during my 8 hour shift.

I went from having 4-6 open projects to just one, and it fucked with my head. What do you mean I only have two meetings this week? What do you mean the client wants a project plan in 90 days? I went from having to block off time in my calendar to eat to spending my workday leveling my crafting classes in FFXIV. My deadlines were suddenly flexible, and people pinged me with phrases like “Sorry to bother you, I know you’re really busy, but do you think you could get me X minor line item at some point in the next six weeks? No rush!” It was a mindfuck.

And then we had a platform issue.

And I hopped on a call with the vendor, spent about ten minutes putting in a workaround, and suddenly everything was fine again and I got an email from the CFO thanking me for my expertise and swift handling of such a major issue, and they copied the entire C-suite and two other vendors we worked with, and it clicked in my head that the reason they were paying me to fuck around on the clock was that NO ONE ELSE was able to think around those kinds of corners. When I presented all of the relevant parties with a breakdown of a) what happened, b) why it happened, and c) how to make it less painful if it happened in the future, it was like I had revealed the Ark of the Covenant and they extended my contract for another year and a half in order to keep me on deck. I spent that year showing people how to do some of what I did, and they essentially told me they wanted me around forever, and would I potentially be interested in learning a new thing they were thinking of adding?

Some jobs really are about just…..being available when fires need to be put out. The time you spend not putting out fires isn’t “productive”, but it is inconceivably valuable, because you’re there to have the skillset they need three times a year.

you know you're good at your job when every single person tells you "thank god you're back"