Wednesday, November 14th – Hi everyone, I’m Gemma and I’m so sorry to ask this again so soon from my previous postbut, is anyone able to send me a few £’s so I can eat this month and December?
As many of you may already know, I have been struggling horribly these past few months to make ends meet and pay off my bills due to my welfare benefits (Universal Credit and Housing Benefit) having been revoked because of my mental illnesses. And despite my numerous job applications, I haven’t been successful and without any government help, I’ve been struggling to get by and bills are constantly popping up, leaving me further in debt.
I am not due to receive a partial benefit payment of £185 until November 25th, all of which will most likely go towards my rent, leaving me with nothing for bills and food and I know that I have asked this a lot these past few months and all the help I have previously received has literally helped me from spiraling into more debt and helped me to eat and stay warm so far and I absolutely hate to ask for more help but I have no one else to turn to. I’m literally freezing, hungry and drowning in debt at the moment because of my sanctions and since this situation has been ongoing for so long, government aid/food banks are unable to offer me any more assistance.
If anyone could spare any amount to help me, even if it’s just £1/$1/€1, it would literally save my life and, sharing definitely helps just as much as donations. Nobody has to donate if they can’t or don’t want to, I know we’re all struggling. Thank you for your help 💖
November 16th: Please consider helping out guys if you possibly can, I desperately need help to get groceries and I’m struggling so much to do so. Literally anything helps right now. 🙏💖
Enemies to “ugh I can’t believe I’m saving your life” to “ugh we have to work together or the world ends but it’s not like I like you or anything” to “oh we actually connect pretty well but that doesn’t mean anything” to “I would die for you but don’t read too much into it” to “I’ll kill anyone who lays a finger on you” to Lovers.
Can we romanticize video games the way we do books?
Like you hear all these things about how you can curl up with a book on a rainy day and drink tea and smother yourself in blankets but anytime you hear things about video games it’s always about how you’re wasting your life away yelling into a headset as you play Call of Duty in a basement?
Imagine bundling yourself up on the couch, the sound of rain hitting the roof, and putting on Fable for a few hours. Or getting home after a long day of work. You make yourself a cup of cocoa, put on fuzzy pjs, and play Viva Piñata for hours not giving a second thought to the outside world. Semester just got out? Throw on some Fallout and just take a night to breathe and enjoy.
You aren’t wasting your life away, you’re enjoying it. Games can be just as much an escape as books, except you get to be part of the story.
more valid gaming romanticizations:
staying up late on a school night with a blanket pulled over your head to trap in the light of your ds while you play animal crossing. falling asleep to the almost silent chiptunes.
sitting in the back seat on an endless drive. there’s rain on the window and an old brick-sized gameboy in your hands. when night comes, you play by the light of passing streetlights.
curling up after a long cry with blankets and tea and quiet vastness of breath of the wild.
losing yourself to the distant melancholy of apocalyptic survival games, the mindless brilliance of puzzle games, the intensity of a story-fueled rpg. games without music, games with soundtracks that stir something in your soul, games that make the world feel smaller, games that make the world feel bigger. games that save you and keep you going.
The way that we learn about Helen Keller in school is an absolute outrage. We read “The Miracle Worker”- the miracle worker referring to her teacher; she’s not even the title character in her own story. The narrative about disabled people that we are comfortable with follows this format- “overcoming” disability. Disabled people as children.
Helen Keller as an adult, though? She was a radical socialist, a fierce disability advocate, and a suffragette. There’s no reason she should not be considered a feminist icon, btw, and the fact that she isn’t is pure ableism- while other white feminists of that time were blatent racists, she was speaking out against Woodrew Wilson because of his vehement racism. She supported woman’s suffrage and birth control. She was an anti-war speaker. She was an initial donor to the NAACP. She spoke out about the causes of blindness- often disease caused by poverty and poor working conditions. She was so brave and outspoken that the FBI had a file on her because of all the trouble she caused.
Yet when we talk about her, it’s either the boring, inspiration porn story of her as a child and her heroic teacher, or as the punchline of ableist, misogynistic jokes. It’s not just offensive, it’s downright disgusting.
the reason the story stops once hellen keller learns to talk is no one wanted to listen to what she had to say
how’s that for a fucking punchline
Another part of the story that is often conveniently omitted is that Anne Sullivan, the “miracle worker” in question, was also a visually impaired woman (and abolitionist) who faced her own struggles finding accessible education. That was why she was able to teach Helen Keller and connect her with resources that would allow her to flourish in academia. When Helen Keller was railing against poverty-induced diseases that caused blindness, she was talking about things like trachoma which was what had caused her friend’s vision loss.
The fact that Sullivan is often portrayed as able-bodied in retellings of their story is indicative of the narrative that is most comfortable for an ableist society: that accessibility and equality are gifts bestowed upon the disabled by able-bodied heroes. Disabled children are never taught that they have the power to lift eachother up, and that’s a crying shame.
I call the game, Real Ray, or Fake Ray? I will say a phrase. You tell me if I made it up, or if it’s something that Captain Holt actually said in real life, to an actual human being.
It’s for U.S. Cellular, specifically advertising how great their streaming service is. You can even , the guy in the ad says, stream hours of grass mowing.
And I go… “wait a minute…that sounds weird…why hasn’t this ad ended yet?”
And I look at the bottom.
the ad is seven hours long.
UPDATE
i’m half an hour in
the guy’s come back a couple times. his mower broke down and he went to get more gas. he came back and started it up again, drove around a few more times making comments about it being fun and “you still watchin? weird.” After a bit he took out a ruler and started measuring the grass.
He pulled out a book and a lawn chair and started reading, but he just left and said he’ll be back soon
he brought out an umbrella but it fell over so he left and came back and tried to fix it but it completely broke so he stalked off, dragging the chair behind him. i’m loving this.
HE BROUGHT OUT A HAND-HELD UMBRELLA
he’s really getting into the book
He put away the umbrella and book and stuff and now he’s measuring the grass again.
HE’S GONNA PLAY CROQUET
the sprinklers turned on…i’m two hours into this thing
willowfoot 