since school is starting up again: pirate your textbooks!! my fave for this is library genesis. the most functional extension as of right now is libgen.is but literally whatever works. search by title, or better yet by ISBN to make sure you have the right edition, download...& profit. english majors make sure you’re searching in the right section (fiction will, obviously, have novels & poetry, but the default is sci-tech). i have a more in-depth post here too if you want to share your free texts with your classmates. go ham

not to sound like a conspiracy theorist but imo facebook is directly responsible for devastating the concept of internet safety

i’m not being hyperbolic - myspace did it a little but facebook was one of the first places it became normal to put your real name, face, personal information, fucking address and place of work on the internet, and more importantly it was the first place that the parents of the current generation of kids felt comfortable doing so

and once the adults were like “oh this is Normal” they stopped properly impressing the important of privacy and safety on the internet on their kids. theyre putting their childrens fucking baby pictures on the internet for anyone to see

i have WATCHED people in my grandmothers generation go from warning child-me about the (real! very very real!) dangers of sharing personal information online to actively encouraging me to do so to make money

it drives me crazy yall it makes me fucking insane. be careful for fucks sake

handmade jewelry + mutual aid

my friend stevie and i met through community theatre. she’s one of the bubbliest, sweetest people ever, and her family is just as welcoming and kind as she is.

unfortunately, stevie’s mom is currently undergoing cancer treatment. as a result, she’s been in and out of the hospital. this, the on-going pandemic, and the fact that mother’s day is fast approaching are all putting a lot of emotional and financial stress on their family.

due to her own health problems, stevie can’t work. but she can and does sell homemade jewelry:

as you can see: she offers earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and more!! all in a variety of styles and material. i cannot recommend her products enough, she made one of my favorite necklaces and custom made my beloved tooth earrings!

V*NMO: @ Stevie-Mcnabb

if you can’t buy or donate, please boost! thank you<3

my financial struggles are documented in this pretty much dead post (it got derailed by my teeth then recently ground to a halt), but i could really use some help paying off this dental work. all of what was left of the funds i got from that post had to be put towards the down payment for this. i’m in a lot of pain and this can’t wait for much longer, but my payments will be $160 a month and that is simply not doable for me right now. i can barely feed myself. any amount would be very much appreciated. please DM me if you need more details

cashapp / venmo / paypal

$830/$3007 (5th may 2021) thank you! update underneath the cut

Keep reading

(5th may 2021) update beneath cut, please read

btw i made this post if that is like. motivating for anybody 😭

ive seen a few other posts about this that didnt get a lot of notes because i know it makes nonblacks uncomfortable (😐) but you people need to start examining why so many of your reaction pics and gifs and memes are of black people being expressive or literally just existing because its not a coincidence. it directly correlates to how black people are seen as overemotional and overreactive, the sassy black woman and the angry black man stereotypes and so on. like you really need to ask yourselves why such a large portion of the most used reaction memes this year are images of black celebrities like wendy williams and oprah and why non sequitur memes including dababys face seem to be so inherently funny to everyone, and if you are contributing to this problem.

this video explains it well:

"White people and nonblack folks using black memes and GIFs to express their emotional labor on black bodies contributes to what American literary critic Sienne Ngai calls 'the animatedness of black folks', A.K.A. seeing black people as hyperbolically emotional and expressive, particularly black women and [q word] black men."

in the video khadija also talks about how this relates to blackface and minstrelsy and about the appropriation (and butchering) of aave in online spaces, and cites these articles on the subject of digital blackface that i also recommend:

the cognitive dissonance displayed in some posts about palestine by white americans etc is absolutely fucking astounding. i really really need you to understand that the horrific genocidal process of land expropriation we are witnessing in sheikh jarrah is how all of israel was settled, how every settler colony was established, and that that violence and theft are ongoing not just in occupied palestine but where you live. in the united states and canada and australia and new zealand and new caledonia and french polynesia and the french antilles and and and. and that if you don't understand settlerism, the ideology behind it and the mechanisms through which it is enacted; if you do not see the material connection between standing rock and gaza, you cannot be effective allies to palestinians because you do not actually understand what is happening in palestine. that the dispossession and murders have an end goal, and it is the establishment of a colonial state that looks like yours. of a country where natives don't exist, or exist in such minuscule numbers that large scale resistance becomes impossible. the end goal is annihilation. what appears like "senseless" brutality does have a purpose, and it is a purpose that is fundamentally incompatible with the existence of palestinians. and when you see pictures and videos from jerusalem, you need to remember that the land you are standing on was and continues to be settled through the same processes. not so that you can feel useless guilt, not to derail from the urgency of the situation in palestine; but specifically so that you can contextualize the genocide of palestinians and where it fits in the colonial timeline. so that you can understand talks of two state solutions and nuance and "both sides" the same way you understand manifest destiny and unceded land and one-sided treaties. and so that you can finally develop an internationalist political approach to indigenous struggle and liberation and imperialism, and start fighting the correct enemies where you live in the belly of the beast, because that is what you have to offer and what will help colonized people everywhere.

31% of black renters are facing eviction as the CDCs eviction moratorium is being overturned. 31% of black renters are behind on their rent in stark contrast with only 12% of white renters being behind on their rent and facing eviction if the DOJ doesn’t maintain this hold. This is what structural racism looks like.

Speaking of which, the number one thing that I get asked for help with when applying to our Black Covid Relief Fund is for help with Rent. These are often big numbers.

We’re doing a pull tomorrow if you wanna donate.

Cashapp: $honeebunnie (Honey G)

PayPal: pinned on page

please help me pay for dog's life saving treatment

hi, my name is yona. for those of you who do know me, you know that i've been saving up money for a long time to move out of my parent's home with my dog, bandit, who is turning 13 this year in october. last week bandit was diagnosed with diabetes, and this week, he has been sick. last night, he took a turn for the worse. when i took him to the vet today for a scheduled appointment, i informed his vet of what was wrong with him, and she immediately sent him to a nearby hospital to be treated for probable ketoacidosis, a condition which happens when there isn't enough insulin in a dog's body to combat their high blood sugar levels. given that bandit was only just diagnosed with diabetes, he had not started his insulin treatment. the vets had a number of concerns upon looking over him at the hospital, namely a heart murmur, a uti and an eye infection, and an uncontrollable nose bleed that he got after throwing up in the car, all of which i was told could affect his chance of survival. i had to dip into our moving fund to pay an up front fee of $2000+, and i will have to pay more if he has complications during his treatment. bandit has been my absolute best friend for a decade now, and i hardly remember my life before i got him. i'm the only person in my family who had enough cash to pay for his treatment up front, but it's not something i can truly afford if it gets any more expensive. if you can donate, i'm linking my paypal below, and if you can't, please reblog 💙

PayPal.Me/eliiens

the vet called and said bandit did good throughout the night! we can take him home tomorrow if he continues to improve, but we're still in a $1800+ hole and we still need to buy his insulin, glucometer and dietary foods, so i would really appreciate it if everyone could continue to reblog this. thank you to everyone who has donated and reblogged so far, words cannot properly express my gratitude 💙

my baby is hooome! the bill officially came up to $2400. from donations, we've gotten around $260, and we're still trying to raise the money to make up for everything.

goal: $260/$2400

PayPal.Me/eliiens

please help me pay for dog's life saving treatment

hi, my name is yona. for those of you do know me, you know that i've been saving up money for a long time to move out of my parent's home with my dog, bandit, who is turning 13 this year in october. last week bandit was diagnosed with diabetes, and this week, he has been sick. last night, he took a turn for the worse. when i took him to the vet today for a scheduled appointment, i informed his vet of what was wrong with him, and she immediately sent him to a nearby hospital to be treated for probable ketoacidosis, a condition which happens when there isn't enough insulin in a dog's body to combat their high blood sugar levels. given that bandit was only just diagnosed with diabetes, he had not started his insulin treatment. the vets had a number of concerns upon looking over him at the hospital, namely a heart murmur, a uti and an eye infection, and an uncontrollable nose bleed that he got after throwing up in the car, all of which i was told could affect his chance of survival. i had to dip into our moving fund to pay an up front fee of $2000+, and i will have to pay more if he has complications during his treatment. bandit has been my absolute best friend for a decade now, and i hardly remember my life before i got him. i'm the only person in my family who had enough cash to pay for his treatment up front, but it's not something i can truly afford if it gets any more expensive. if you can donate, i'm linking my paypal below, and if you can't, please reblog 💙

PayPal.Me/eliiens

COVID is slowly becoming a “third world” disease. While first world countries are hoarding vaccines, having doses for populations many times their size, third world countries can’t get any because pharma companies want to sell to the first world countries first. Even then, first world countries will receive them first. While rich countries recover from COVID, they will forget about the pandemic while many other countries live the absolute worst moment of the pandemic without being able to vaccinate their population.

Watch also when some first world countries finish vaccinating their populations, they will turn to third world countries and “donate” or sell surplus vaccines. People in these countries will go “Oh how sweet! The government is donating vaccines to the poorer countries <3” when it was their hoarding that led to many, many third world citizens dying before they could even get vaccinated in the first place.

african and latin american countries are also pushed by pfizer to give up sovereign assets as part of their vaccine agreement

They’re not only hoarding and blackmailing, but the cherry on top is that the US, UK, Australia, most of Europe, Brazil et al. actually voted AGAINST waiving intellectual property agreements for the existing vaccines, something that India & South Africa proposed MONTHS ago to the World Trade Organization, and which most of the Global South voted yes to. So rather than letting countries manufacture these vaccines themselves, meaning they could have their own supply, they’re being kept, by multiple measures, beholden to the Global North for donations. The US voted multiple times to block this, before and after Biden’s inauguration.

Read more:

[Image description: a world map. Countries in black (US, Brazil, most of Europe, Japan, Australia) opposed; countries in green (Africa not including Algeria/Libya/Western Sahara/Eritrea; China, South Asia, and most of southeast Asia; and Argentina, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua) are co-sponsors/full supporters; countries in yellow (Canada, Mexico, Chile) are undecided; countries in light brown (Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam, Thailand, Bhutan, the Phillipines, and Papua New Guinea) are general supporters; and the remainder are gray, which is not designated as anything]

Meanwhile as India is getting hundreds of thousands of new cases a day and running out of oxygen tanks for hospitals, the US won’t lift restrictions on raw material exports that would support vaccine production: https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/us-defends-restrictions-on-export-of-covid-19-vaccine-raw-materials-amid-indias-request-to-lift-ban/

On vaccine nationalism: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/coronavirus-vaccine-justice/

and, like, WATCH border policies change because of this

yeah and the irony of australia voting against waiving that shit is that our vaccine rollout and supply has been absolutely terrible because we have to ship these vaccines over from Europe and the US to here which is an insanely long distance, when we could be making it in the university laboratories that were initially contributing research to the vaccine. Brisbane labs were contributing significant research, even I had a friend working in a lab that was doing COVID research and development. We have the capability to manufacture these vaccines ourselves but the lib government would rather have a dangerously slow vaccination process rather than fund public healthcare and education (as most of the research was done in university labs).

one thing i want to add to this PH conversation that i haven’t seen too many people talk about is: sensitivity readers should be paid. 

you’re asking a marginalized person to put in labor – the physical labor of reading your work as well as the emotional labor of looking for your missteps – and, as a result, they’re making themselves vulnerable for you. your work has the potential to hurt them, depending on how egregious your mistakes are. the least you can do is open your wallet and pay them for their time and energy. 

and if you don’t have the means to pay them? then maybe think twice about what you’re writing. if you’re writing something so far out of your own comfort zone that you feel the need to have multiple people read it for sensitive issues but not pay them, you need to reevaluate what it is you’re trying to accomplish here. are you trying to respectfully represent these people and pay it forward by financially helping them after they’ve opened themselves up to potential harm to help you out? or are you just trying to get the diversity brownie points and internet clout from their free labor? 

bottom line: this is work. pay your sensitivity readers. 

I have cochlear implants and I can only buy parts to fix them or upgrade then from 1 corporation bc of tech exclusivity. upgrades to get new processors for both ears cost $23k & insurance only covers 90% (and it’s “good” insurance)

cyberpunk dystopia is already here for the disabled. fight for universal healthcare, fight against capitalism NOW.

I want all the abled people reading this to go price check a power wheel chair.

The future people fear with subscription fees for body parts is already here. The plot of Repo! The Genetic Opera is already here. Disabled people are already facing impossible prices for aids and treatments they need to live.

The concept of "spyware" has disappeared from the common internet lingo after it became the case that the word could now be used to describe nearly every major website and a huge percentage of the most commonly-used software.

Transgender Day of Visibility.

KEEP YOUR CATS INSIDE.

it’s no longer acceptable to pretend like you haven’t seen the various studies on why it’s not only harmful to your cat to live outside, but to many native animals. keep your cat inside, or leave it outside and know that you are leaving your cat vulnerable to attacks, disease, car strikes and more, and that your cat is killing off vulnerable native animals.

our fridge was pushed back........again :|

long story short we moved out at the end of october and have been trying to get a fridge since then. every month since then the order has been pushed back due to manufacturing slowing down because of covid

they only have one other fridge in stock that's ~semi~ within our price range and by that i mean somehow the second cheapest option in stock is still super fuckin expensive

eating out is even more expensive, and we've been living off cheap can stuff i'd really appreciate a vegetable lmaoo

the new fridge is around $400 more than the original fridge we were trying to get....but we're desperate now almost 6 months without a fridge. so any little thing helps us to be able to afford this!!! we're still dealing with car troubles too but my last post died --thank you!!! 😞😞😞😞

p*ypal

v*nmo : sugarsong

two of our tires popped last night, the other two are balding, our car is failing, we had to call a tow truck last night, we still don't have a fridge and we're really struggling. please help us out my roommate and i both live paycheck to paycheck on minimum wage we cannot afford a new car or even for this one to keep breaking down.... anything at all helps!!

Would you believe me if I told you 8 out of the 13 members of this committee are Democrats