#but a lack of access to food

[utilitycaster]

Do you think that Laura and Marisha are deliberately making their relationship somewhat toxic and unsustainable or do you think they see the relationship as healthy? It is just so different from all of the other relationships they have been a part of and not really in a good way. Would love to get your perspective on it if you have one

I am honestly unsure. I would like to say it's deliberate. Prior to it becoming canon, in fact, I, and a lot of other people who were less than enthused by Imogen and Laudna's romance and weren't entirely sold from the start, made the case that we expected they would be talking to each other and would put together a compelling story, not the dull fluff so common in fanon. While whether it's compelling is a subjective judgment, we know for a fact they didn't talk to each other. We know for a fact Marisha was surprised by the question of "Can I kiss you," and Laura was surprised by the answer. We know from a 4SD not long after (4SD #16, Kiss and Tell) that several episodes later they still hadn't talked. We know that Marisha perceives Laudna as holding Imogen back (and that Laudna perceives herself as doing so) from the Rose City Q&A. We know that from 4SD #20 (Episode Twenty) that Laura doesn't like conflict in narrative and Marisha does, and that Laura was thrown by Laudna's regression following Ashton's attempt to absorb the shard (4SD #19, Shard Candy).

I don't know if it's deliberate or not; I don't have any extra insight that isn't public knowledge any fan can easily access. But man, it doesn't feel like these are two actors on the same page about what's going on.

I've touched on this before but mostly in tags or whisper posts but I've always felt ill at ease with a number of for lack of a better term "fandom-approved opinions" and one of the ones that has baffled me the most is this idea that Marisha and Laura have exceptional chemistry. I watched Campaign 1 knowing the endgame ships but deliberately avoiding the fandom, and Vex and Keyleth did not even once occur to me as a thing. I watched the first year of Campaign 2 without a ton of fandom interaction because I was avoiding additional C1 spoilers and it seemed crystal clear that the obvious ship was Beau and Yasha; it felt like Beau and Jester only even had enough potential for me to multiship it as my general "whomever Jester picks" for like, 30 episodes. And yet people - people who didn't even ship either of the above ships and in some cases disliked them- would just say "oh man I can't wait until we get to a campaign where we can finally explore Marisha and Laura's incredible chemistry!" and it's like. I feel like I'm the kid in the Emperor's New Clothes on this! I understand that chemistry is to an extent a matter of taste and subjectivity, but it just increasingly feels like people looked at two campaigns of tables where Ashley was frequently absent and said "well, if I want an F/F ship that's between two of the women in the cast, I guess this is what I have to work with" and repeated to themselves that a flat pamplemousse La Croix was a Piña Colada until they started to believe it. I mean if someone wants to explain it to me in good faith I suppose be my guest and I will try to take it in, but it feels like people just treat this as incontrovertible fact and if you doubt it they're like "don't you have eyes" and it's like, well, pretend I don't. Explain like I'm eyeless and five because I have never understood this. They both have more chemistry with every single other cast member; it's not all romantic but man, I didn't even buy Laudna and Imogen as platonic best friends of two years. I have never had this problem with any other pre-existing character relationships Marisha and Laura have played, platonic or otherwise. It's literally just them. I just never feel like they're quite on the same page.

Back to the relationship between Imogen and Laudna onscreen, this was easily the best conversation since the start of the gnarlrock fight, and it is my hope it doesn't fizzle out the way that did. You can't keep kissing Laudna whenever she fears she's lost forever to Delilah, Imogen. Or you can, but that won't fix the problem. Again: are you disgusted? Do you feel betrayed? If you're not, why did you say that? If you are, how will you move past it? Do you want to be with someone who never feels like they're good enough for you? Laudna, do you want to be with someone who, no matter what they say, you feel you're holding back?

Early in the campaign, my feeling was that of our current situation, switched - Imogen felt her powers were a burden and a curse and Laudna kept referring to them and to her glowingly. It's just...ships passing in the night, no pun intended here. I hope it's on purpose and whatever comes from it is a good story - and either a tragedy or a happy story could be a good one. But I have a nagging sensation that Laudna wants out but is afraid to say no, and Imogen is afraid to let go, and I honestly don't know if the actors have realized this impasse and how the characters might resolve it, one way or another, besides the insufficient bandaid of a kiss whenever the conversation gets too uncomfortable.

[rainynovaside]

Candy Mania

A little nervous about posting this..

I always thought this approach didnt suit fanart very well. its a little out there. I dont want to create separate styles for my personal illustration practice and this kind of thing. I wanted to somehow merge the two and create a spectrum of personal narrative work to fanart and "for fun and hobby" things.

How do you guys think this compares to my other aftg pieces style wise? At the end of the day I decided to do whatever I want but i am still curious about yalls thoughts and would appreciate some insight!

Yeehaw.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

im devastated. i got a microwaveable curry from costco and. its not good. Why

[bethanybeatdowns]

sisters, i'll never stop crying abt the Voyager space probe being a summonable entity in F/GO. it's launched in 1977, US pulled their troops out of the Vietnam War in '75, MLK was assassinated in the same year, the Cold War is called cold because they're not outright bringing out tanks and missiles but there's still tension present that anytime nuclear annihilation is a possibility (or else we don't get hit 1984 single "forever young" by alphaville). some places are still experiencing societal unrest. i can imagine that people were very weary. if you think about it, most of human history has never known universal or global peace, there's always a war or conflict somewhere.

but! but! but!!! very smart people purposefully decided that no record of war would be put in the Golden Record they put in a lonesome, spacefaring object. even if the Space Race was born of the tensions of the post-war world and into the Cold War, ultimately its legacy like the International Space Station (ISS) overtakes its period. they put music in it's vinyl code, they sampled "hello"'s from 6000 years ago up to the "now" then, a child's voice saying hi, they put different sounds from nature, they put SONGS!!! in there. voyager is never lonely when he has all these melodies and lullabies within itself. carl sagan put brain waves and heartbeats of his wife ann druyan into the golden record. quite literally, LOVE IS STORED IN THE VOYAGER.

is humanity so curious, so lonely for their collective puny hands to grasp into the darkness of the sea of stars? humans are social creatures and all that but people made an object specifically to be found by another intelligent life-forms. will someone somewhere, in the vastness of space find this space probe with a shining disc and they'll have a glimpse of humanity's ideals? or is voyager fated to be floating in the void for millions, billions of years to serve as our eyes and ears but never finding a destination and having an invincible object to carry before it crumbles, possibly, after humanity had perished? humanity's hopes and dreams are put into an object, a crystallization of scientific progress and cultural memory. voyager is never lonely, it always calls home and even if time will come that nobody home would answer, voyager could sing itself to sleep.

[soupjug]

when i say i have daily headaches i don’t mean that i get a headache once a day, i mean that from the moment i wake up to the moment i fall asleep, i have a headache. i varies in intensity but it never goes away. and i feel like there’s a big difference that the people around aren’t understanding

[b-0-ngripper]

We need to gatekeep cripplepunk

[pamsssssss]

Some of you don't understand that complaining about the lack of food from home is an immigrant's God given right

[your-dads-filing-cabinet]

This is such a specific gripe but I'm so sick of only finding vegetable centered recipes made specifically to market towards vegetarian/vegan people looking for meat dupes or extremely unappealing diet culture recipes like I understand why there's a market and I'm not saying those recipes shouldn't exist but I eat vegetables because I like vegetables and I would like to eat vegetables that taste like vegetables please!!!

[sincerity--extreme]

It's almost 2am and I was sitting here think, it's so unfair that some people have like, 3 cars in their garage and spend an obscene amount of money every week in unnecessary things while others need to not eat 4, sometimes not even the main 3 meals a day in order to not run out of food and have to wait until the following month to get more, I see like a spoiled teenager throwing a huge tantrum because they wanted a 2 million car and got a 1 million one instead while I stand in front of my half empty pantry/fridge and think to myself how is it possible to have such different realities all over the world

And I'm in no way judging those teenagers btw, 90% of them just turned out like that because of how they're raised and hopefully they'll learn to be better eventually, besides every human being also gets upset over stupid things sometimes, sometimes I cry because I can't buy a thing I definitely don't need but really really wanted, a little treat at the supermarket, a little toy at the store, new hoodie, new boots... My point here is that some people have absolutely everything they want in the world handed to them in the blink of an eye regardless if they deserve those things or not and others suffer every single day to get the bare minimum and some don't even get the bare minimum at all

[anarchywoofwoof]

the funny thing is that i don't think younger people - and i mean those under the age of 40 - really have a grasp on how many of today's issues can be tied back to a disastrous reagan policy:

war on drugs: reagan's aggressive escalation of the war on drugs was a catastrophic policy, primarily targeting minority communities and fueling mass incarceration. the crusade against drugs was more about controlling the Black, Latino and Native communities than addressing the actual problems of drug abuse, leading to a legacy of broken families and systemic racism within the criminal justice system.

deregulation and economic policies: reaganomics was an absolute disaster for the working class. reagan's policies of aggressive tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, and slashing social programs were nothing less than class warfare, deepening income inequality and entrenching corporate greed. these types of policies were a clear message that reagan's america was only for the wealthy elite and a loud "fuck you" to working americans.

environmental policies: despite his reputation being whitewashed thanks to the recovery of the ozone layer, reagan's environmental record was an unmitigated disaster. his administration gutted critical environmental protections and institutions like the EPA, turning a blind eye to pollution and corporate exploitation of natural resources. this blatant disregard for the planet was a clear sign of prioritizing short-term corporate profits over the future of the environment.

AIDS crisis: reagan's gross neglect of the aids crisis was nothing short of criminal and this doesn't even begin to touch on his wife's involvement. his administration's indifference to the plight of the lgbtq+ community during this devastating epidemic revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a complete failure of moral leadership.

mental health: reagan's dismantling of mental health institutions under the guise of 'reform' led directly to a surge in homelessness and a lack of support for those with mental health issues. his policies were cruel and inhumane and showed a personality-defining callous disregard for the most vulnerable in society.

labor and unions: reagan's attack on labor unions, exemplified by his handling of the patco strike, was a blatant assault on workers' rights. his actions emboldened corporations to suppress union activities, leading to a significant erosion of workers' power and rights in the workplace. he was colloquially known as "Ronnie the Union Buster Reagan"

foreign policy and military interventions: reagan's foreign policy, particularly in latin america, was imperialist and ruthless. his administration's support for dictatorships and right-wing death squads under the guise of fighting "communism" showed a complete disregard for human rights and self-determination of other nations.

public health: yes, reagan's agricultural policies actually facilitated the rise of high fructose corn syrup, once again prioritizing corporate profits over public health. this shift in the food industry has had lasting negative impacts on health, contributing to the obesity epidemic and other health issues.

privatization: reagan's push for privatization was a systematic dismantling of public services, transferring wealth and power to private corporations and further eroding the public's access to essential services.

education policies: his approach to education was more of an attack on public education than anything else, gutting funding and promoting policies that undermined equal access to quality education. this was, again, part of a broader agenda to maintain a status quo where the privileged remain in power.

this is just what i could come up with in a relatively short time and i did not even live under this man's presidency. the level at which ronald reagan has broken the united states truly can't be overstated.

[arolesbianism]

The sadness and agony that emerges everytime I start a new oni save and am forced to remember what it's like to have a dupe without a hat only to put them in a hat because I think they'd look cute only to remember hats make half of them look bald but I spent this long maxing out a skill for them so Im too stubborn to back down and remove the hat

[depressedzelda]

reliving every macro and microaggression ever bestowed upon me + betrayals by friends and family + stress being the only person i will ever meet again irl that gives a shit about covid/peoples wellbeing + staring down 5 days of work at my job i desperately want to escape vut have no choice in remaining at. But what if im just hungry <3

[harbingrs]

Ever since I had to go from 30mg Vyvanse to 40mg life has been distinctly weird. It's just dialled up my hyperfocus episodes to maximum and my sense of time is extremely off.

The dose change wasn't for actual treatment reasons, but because there's a worldwide shortage of the 30mg (which is a flow-on effect from the Ritalin shortage and also entirely man-made, since the US apparently limits the supply of materials because it's a Dangerous Drug and all of that).

The FDA started approving generic versions last year, as soon as Takeda's market exclusivity thing expired, but there's absolutely no word on when generics might be approved in Australia.

The latest update is:

Currently there are shortages of Vyvanse 30 mg, 50 mg and 60 mg which are expected to continue until March and April 2024, depending on strength.

Now the 40mg capsules are in shortage just because everyone's had to switch from 30mg/50mg/60mg doses and I'm going to lose my mind a little bit if the 40mg is properly out of stock by my next refill too. I'm genuinely worried because my pharmacy couldn't even order more from their supplier last time, and I had to call around to find it in stock.

It's difficult because it's certainly not a minor inconvenience if I'm without meds and I'm genuinely not able to work, so even a couple of days sans meds is really disruptive to my life.

I'll also have to decide whether to stay at 40mg or go back to 30mg once everything is in stock again. It's tricky because the 30mg could be slightly underwhelming, but in general I get pretty inconsistent effects. That's probably based on everything from my diet (including nutrient deficiencies and available neurotransmitters) to the effects of other chronic stuff in terms of fluctuating brain fog.

In general, though, it makes it really difficult to pinpoint what the ideal dosage is when any dosage is sometimes not enough and sometimes too much.

And admittedly, the excessive hyperfocus isn't fun, but it's a lot more useful when it comes to Getting Shit Done than not being able to stay on-task at all. The downside is not necessarily being able to control it or direct it to the most important tasks, so quite frequently I'm super busy and exhausting myself with all the wrong things.

In general, stimulants really take a toll on my body, and the long-term effects of that worry me, but I'm not considered Disabled Enough for proper welfare support, so I don't have a choice not to medicate if I want to make a living.

I'm trying to take more days off meds to at least give my body a break, which is difficult because I struggle to even do basic chores and things without them, and my sleep disorder and fatigue come back to bite me in the ass without daily stimulants. I actually forget how bad both of those things are at a baseline level, and I worry that daily stimulant use is just making that baseline level worse.

Again, though, I don't have much of a choice, because I don't have any other way to support myself besides taking stimulants. I'm just hoping like hell that it doesn't put my health on a permanent downward spiral.

[deep-sea-horror]

zionists are so fucking stupid its unbelievable.

[mariamlovesyou]

tuned into Plestia's live with Rahma Zein's second account (she got shadowbanned). key moments:

plestia talked about her adjustment to living in australia. "it's 1:30am now and it's normal for me and many palestinians who live abroad to be awake hours into the morning. i am scared of sleeping. because of the time difference, i'm scared if i sleep i will wake up to bad news. in gaza i was scared of the sound of the bombs, here i am scared of the quiet."

contacting family and friends in gaza is near impossible. "sometimes i feel like a crazy person, calling 20 times in a row hoping that on the 21st time the call might go through."

on the destruction of entire communities and neighbourhoods: "i'm scared when i go back to gaza i won't recognise it anymore. someone sent me a picture of my neighbourhood, and i couldn't tell it was mine at first. all my favourite places, cafes where the aunties used to give me extra food and ask about my day, have been destroyed. i dread looking at my gallery or seeing snapchat memories because most of these people in the pictures are no longer alive."

rahma asked plestia to talk about one story that stuck with her. plestia said "i remember walking one time on the 'safe corridor', that's what they called it anyway, and i saw an older woman clutching onto a donkey cart where her son's body was, refusing to let go of it. i asked my colleague what the smell was, he said it's dead bodies under the rubble. it was the first time i familiarised myself with the smell. the son's body was decaying and the woman told me about cats and animals eating away at it. i've had children talk to me about birds eating away at their parents' decomposing bodies and not being able to chase them away."

"it seems so silly to go to hospitals for minor sicknesses now. i can't even think about how many palestinian children are going to be terrified of hospitals now. there was a girl who was taken to the hospital to get treatment for injuries by one of the bombs, and while she was in the bathroom another bomb landed nearby. the impact from that sent the ceiling crashing down on her.. she got another injury while getting treated for her first one."

"i hate how people talk about our resilience - as if it's okay that this is happening to us. we are only surviving because we have to, because we have no other choice."

rahma brought up the way family homes are set up in palestine and asked plestia to elaborate. "basically, there are floors. someone will live on the ground floor, and then their married son lives with his children on the floor above them, and then their successors above them and so on. so when family homes are targeted, they wipe out entire families. many families officially no longer exist."

"i used to wear my journalist helmet and vest all the time, felt naked without it, even slept with the vest on sometimes until i realised it only made me more of a target. they didn't give me any protection, only headaches and back pain."

"i am an optimistic person, i loved covering sweet sentimental things, like at my graduation asking parents of top graduates how they feel about their children graduating. that's what i love reporting on. i wanted to cover things like that when i came back to gaza, show the beautiful side of gaza that the media didn't really show, but i didn't have the chance." "do you think they'll give you right of return?" "i can only hope."

plestia mentioned how hard it was being a journalist with limited access to the internet, charging facilities, no mics, lack of equipment and how difficult it was uploading things. rahma asked her what's one story that wasn't really recorded or posted due to these constraints; plestia said "the evacuations. sometimes they informed us about them, sometimes they didn't. you have no idea how hard it was, everyone looking for their family members, making sure every one was there, taking to the streets in 5 minutes and not knowing which way to go. i remember i went to my friend's house for shelter for 30 minutes before the first evacuation was announced and we ran to another family's house, stayed there for 2 days before another evacuation was announced. me, my friend, and that family all evacuated together to another family's house. there were already so many people there seeking shelter, it wasn't just one family staying there. none of us knew how long we had in any place."

before october 7th, palestinians were used to limitations on electricity. plestia used to plan her day's tasks around when the electricity was working. "for example when the electricity was on from 12 to 4, i would say i will do my laundry and charge the phones during this time. life wasn't exactly 'normal', but all of us pray to have those days back in comparison to what we are experiencing now." plestia also said that cars are running on cooking oil now because there is no fuel.

on hygiene: "many pregnant women have to give birth without any pain medication or medical attention. once we ran out of medicine, that was it. women who had to get C-sections couldn't stay to recover or get followup treatments because someone else needed the bed. we have no water, no tissues, no pads, barely any bathrooms. in the shelter schools you have to wait an hour before even getting to use the bathroom because of how many people are there."

"something you don't hear about is how many people die because of sadness. there's so many ways to die in gaza, because of the bombardment, because of starvation, the lack of resources, but i also know many elderly people who died because their hearts couldn't take it anymore. i have been in gaza before and lived through 4 aggressions, but nothing compared to this one."

a recurring sentiment that was echoed in the video: "sometimes i thought to myself: who am i recording this for? because we've already shown everything, we've already talked about everything. everything has already been said, the proof is everywhere, nothing i talked about today is new." rahma said the first video posted about what's happening in palestine should've been enough.

she is 22 today. plestia's closing words: don't stop talking about us, don't stop boycotting, don't stop protesting, please don't get bored of fighting for palestine.

[frecklenog]

i want you all to understand this.

insulin pens are very often used by diabetic children (or their parents, but they were very easy to use during the short time i was prescribed them when i was a child myself). they’re less cumbersome, produce less waste, and are far easier than pulling insulin from a vial with a single use syringe, as syringes are much more susceptible to air bubbles, which result in the diabetic not getting enough medication. i’m explaining this part because i know that some diabetic adults do also use them, and i’m sure that that’s true of diabetic adults in palestine with such scarce resources. when it’s life or death, you can’t really be picky.

the israeli occupation is now banning insulin pens from entering gaza.

lack of insulin results in diabetic ketoacidosis — essentially a very, very dangerous version of the effects of the keto diet. insulin is a key for the sugar from one’s food (both slow and fast acting, since all food has some carbohydrates, from nuts to potatoes to table sugar) to get from their bloodstream into their cells. without insulin, the body resorts to eating through its own fat stores rather than the sugar it cannot access and tries to flush the excess glucose that is in the blood through the urine. this results in weight loss, headaches, nausea, dehydration, blurred vision, abdominal pain, impaired mental faculties, and, if left untreated, will result in a coma, and eventually death within a matter of weeks. not “can.” it will kill you if not treated, and was largely considered a lethal diagnosis until insulin was discovered in the early 1900s and made readily available in 1922.

i’ve been in dka. admittedly, i was very young and have blocked much of it out. but i do remember that it fucking sucked. i couldn’t focus on anything, i was ravenous no matter how much i ate, and the room spinning to the point i felt like i was going to throw up became an increasingly regular occurrence. i was seven years old and wasting away like i was starved. i was dying. a few more days, and i likely would’ve gone into a coma and might not be here now.

to inflict that, willingly and knowingly, on innocent people, is nothing short of a crime against humanity, and violates the geneva conventions (item 2.a.ii. torture or inhumane treatment, including biological experiments and item 2.a.iii. willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health). not that the israeli occupation cares, of course, as south african prosecutors have already extensively detailed their crimes in the icj, and this one in particular has already been committed near-countless times.

this entire occupation is a genocide, and this is only one more nail in that coffin. but, as a diabetic — as a human being who has been in that state and was lucky enough to have the resources to live almost another fifteen years (with the anniversary of my own diagnosis about halfway through next month), i can’t find the words to express my disgust and rage anymore. maybe it’s selfish to be so deeply impacted by this particular blow. i don’t know. but these people have done nothing wrong but be disabled in gaza, and as someone with the same disability, i know that no one deserves this, even if they have committed a crime (which, again, these civilians, largely children, have not). i will not fucking stand for it.

we need a ceasefire. we need an end to the occupation. we need a free palestine. now.

here’s a masterpost of how you can help.

EDIT: here’s a post on how to help diabetics in gaza specifically