Sapphire Bullets

You want to study abroad? Show us proof that there is a quadrillion dollars in your bank account. Oh, an average monthly salary in your country is $400 and you plan to work when you arrive? You can't do that, silly, a student visa only allows you to work 2 hours every third Wednesday, and if we find out that you're working a second more we will deport you.

You want to work abroad? Better be a programmer, then of course you are welcome. Doctor, scientist, white-collar or, god forbid, blue-collar worker? You can fuck right off, your visa application goes straght into trash.

The largest dam removal in U.S. history. So successful that the salmon that haven’t run freely in the river for literally over a century came back the next year. Not steady progress over a decade as expected, the very next salmon run they came home. No one alive saw salmon in that river outside the hatcheries kept by native’s tribes and the Department of Fish And Wildlife scientists desperately trying to save them. One of the activists who helped bring the suit spoke of their dying grandmother making them promise to bring the fish home, and they didn’t know how that was possible, but they spent decades doing it.

The legal basis for successfully suing the power company who owned the dams was Indigenous treaty rights to eat the fish. Eating the fish was the one thing in a century that succeeded in being a clear and legally binding right that superseded the desires of white capital and industry. I have been going to the public interest environmental law conference off and on for 20 years where a lot of organizing for Undam The Klamath happened. I’ve heard updates about every legal tact they tried as they happened, and they tried everything.

There are healthy, thriving salmon, trout, and lamprey in a rewilding and recovering Klamath River right now as a direct result of Indigenous people eating them. Of their legally binding right to eat them. They sure as fuck care more about those fish than any white vegan ever could. They are salmon people that the Creator sent Salmon to feed, while charging the People with protecting and stewarding them. It’s not possible to learn about salmon and trout in the Pacific Northwest without learning this, and it’s unambiguously racist to dismiss this symbiotic relationship.

The white vegans are trying to get all hunting and fishing banned in Oregon, and that’s quite possibly the single most catastrophic thing that could be done to the animals here because we killed off all the major predators of creatures like deer and without anything hunting them their numbers will explode, eat all the vegetation, destroy the ecosystem, and then die along with everything else in that failing ecosystem. Controlled hunting of deer is vitally necessary for the deer to survive. This is something Native people know, but patronizing racist savior-complex white people refuse to listen to.

I have a whole collection of Oregon’s Public Broadcasting’s documentaries about Klamath River or the larger story of fish and people in the region. If you watch nothing else, watch Klamath Dams Are Coming Out, First Salmon Ceremony, After The Dams, and First Decent (Native made). It could not be clearer that the salmon are being protected and nourished by the people who eat them, and that stewardship is a massive part of their creation myths. But it contradicts political vegan dogma so they don’t listen.

Cut fabric, sew it together. You just made clothing.

Put some beads on some twine. You just made jewelry.

You can see your productivity.

Chores are the opposite. Yes, your kitchen is clean now. But you'll cook again that evening or the next day and you'll have to start over. Yes, you vacuumed. But two days later it's dusty again. Laundry done, until next week.

Chores never end.

Captions cover the spot on the screen you put the information I need

The dialogue is captioned but not the song you have playing that the dialogue is responding to

You only captioned the person on the screen, not the person off screen who is also talking

No captioning of critical sound effects (alarms, bells, dogs barking, etc)

Speakers are not labelled at moments where it is not clear on the screen who is talking.

Captions cover the spot on the screen that you put the information I need!

Other d/Deaf people welcome to add.

field trip; antelope valley, california

We’re thrilled to share that starting this August, all our future panels – formerly Patreon exclusive – will be free and available to everyone and streamed through our Book Lover’s Discord Server.

How do the Duck Prints Press panels? Simple!

Panels are held on the third Saturday of every month, with the specific time determined 4 to 6 weeks ahead.

Dates and times are announced on our public Discord server as Events.

The day before the panel, I post an agenda (also on Discord) that gives an idea of the specific questions we’ll be addressing; additional questions can be submitted ahead of time by backers of our Patreon (who also may request specific panel topics!).

We get together a group of our creators and we have a live-streamed chat about the topic at hand on our public Discord server.

Each panel is one hour long, with approximately 15 minutes after that hour to take questions from attendees.

The panel is recorded; after the panel, Patrons at the $7/month level and higher can access the recording whenever they’d like. (there are 23 past panel recordings already available to our backers!)

The panels themselves are similar to those held at literary conventions, if folks have been to a litcon, and if not, it’s pretty much a directed conversation about the panel topic. And the August panel topic? Well…

Panel Topic: Character Building

Description: It’s a no-brainer that (nearly all) stories need characters, and there are lots of how-tos on character building. In this panel, we’ll have a robust conversation with our panelists on how we build characters, what resources we’ve found helpful, what advice worked for us (and what advice didn’t!), our personal approaches to developing and growing our characters, and more!

Likely Panelists: J. D. Rivers, Sage Mooreland, Rascal Hartley, Anima NM, YF Ollwell, and Dei Walker

the average human lifespan globally is 70+ years

taking the threshold of adulthood as 18, you are likely to spend at least 52 years as a fully grown adult

at the age of 30 you have lived less than one quarter of your adult life (12/52 years)

'middle age' is typically considered to be between 45-65

it is extremely common to switch careers, start new relationships, emigrate, go to college for the first or second time, or make other life-changing decisions in middle age

it's wild that I even have to spell it out, but older adults (60+) still have social lives and hobbies and interests.

you can still date when you get old. you can still fuck. you can still learn new skills, be fashionable, be competitive. you can still gossip, you can still travel, you can still read. you can still transition. you can still come out.

young doesn't mean peaked. you're inexperienced in your 20s! you're still learning and practicing! you're developing social skills and muscle memory that will last decades!