Crowd Safety Studies

we have this app called toogoodtogo where restaurants/cafes/bakeries/hotels and so on sell their leftovers for really cheap to reduce foodwaste

i got all of this for €4 from starbucks

I used to do community service at a community breakfast, we’d go to the local Safeway and get all their stale bread, the local bakery for their stale baked goods and whatnot.

Hi Tumblr!

So I just finished making a short survey on climate change, specifically climate anxiety and how it’s affecting people, but also on climate action and activism. I’d really appreciate it if you’d take some time to respond - you don’t have to, but it would be helpful to know your thoughts and feelings. Also consider reblogging this to share it with your followers - the more responses, the better.

Here it is:

Link to survey (edited: sorry if it wasn’t working before, works for me now)

Let’s be honest: Unless you have a medical condition that messes with your immune system (and please make sure that this is not the case), then you shouldn’t be sick more often than three, maybe four times a year. So if you have employees that seem to be sick all the time, then you as a superior will (and should) start to wonder what is really going on.

And no. This is not about exposing employees that fake an illness out of laziness - in my experience, this pretty much never happens. This is about helping an employee that is obviously struggling.

For many autistic people, especially those that grew up undiagnosed, the sad reality is that they grew used to having to lie in order to be heard.

Did it work, when they as a child told their parents they couldn’t go to school today, because they were tired? Probably not. They had to fake an illness, tell them they had a huge headache or an upset stomach in order to get that day off from school, that they so desperately needed to keep functioning. They could feel that they simply couldn’t cope anymore, but couldn’t make parents, teachers and friends understand.

To truly understand how deeply rooted this behavior can be, you need to imagine what this looked like in the life of a child.

As I got older, my mom would openly accuse me of lying (which of course was true), yell at me and call me lazy and phlegmatic. She’d tell me I’d cause nothing but problems, that I was a bad child, that I finally needed to pull myself together, and “what will the teachers think”. She forced me to leave the house, even though I was shaking and crying, so I fled to the park or the forest, deeply hurt, feeling guilty and like a huge failure, which finally caused me serious depression and trauma.

If your autistic employee has a sick day every other week, chances are they are not sick, but mentally exhausted (and the reason could be the working environment).

Mental exhaustion can cause stomach ache, cramps, headaches, or even nausea for some people. Others simply feel overwhelmed, tired and depleted, but it doesn’t matter, the result is the same: They can’t concentrate anymore, they can’t do their job, and they know that if they don’t take a break NOW that they might become so burned out, that it will take weeks for them to recover. They call in sick, because they don’t expect anyone to understand.

In essence, your autistic employee is running out of mental energy too fast, so the weekend alone is not enough to recharge. As a superior, you want to make sure their energy is not depleted by unnecessary stressors.

You will have to talk to your autistic employee, and this requires a whole lot of sensitiveness. Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, especially if you’re not autistic yourself, but remember what I wrote about what my childhood was like. You don’t know what your employee’s been through, if they have trauma or not, and how sensitive they are. I’ve met autistic people that had an amazingly thin skin as soon as things got personal, so you will want to tread very carefully.

Let your employee know beforehand that you’d like to talk about their sick days, but make sure to be very clear that they are not in trouble.

Don’t talk about whether they are physically ill when calling in sick. Simply express concern for their well-being, and that you’d like to make sure it’s not the working environment that causes them to feel sick.

Ask them if they are comfortable at work. Maybe there is too much light, maybe too little. Maybe they sit in a place where they feel nervous (people in their back, people walking past, too much noise, too cold, too warm, etc.). There are literally a thousand reasons, why an autistic employee could get stressed out by their physical environment.

Remember to ask about the work itself. Is your employee bored, or do they have too much on their plate? Are they stressed out because things are moving too fast? Do they need more help or training, or would they rather work on a different project?

Make sure there are no social issues and that your employee doesn’t feel isolated, ignored or even bullied. I’ve had a young woman skip lunch every day because she couldn’t handle going to the cafeteria on her own (she simply had no script for it and needed help the first few times), so these issues can be very real.

 Some autistic people will know what is bothering them. Others will not be sure or not even be able to answer your questions.

Many might need time to process the conversation first, and some have trouble categorizing their own feelings, which can make it hard to pinpoint what is draining their energy. They might figure it out over time though, so it’s important to let them know that they can get back to you anytime. In the meantime, remember that it’s better to give your employee one day to recover and come back well rested, than putting pressure on them and keep them in a state of mental exhaustion (and unproductive) for days.

But what if you’ve made a lot of changes, and it’s still not enough? Fact is, for some autistic people just commuting and being in an office together with a few co-workers is stressful enough.

Here are a couple more things to consider, if everything else fails:

If your autistic employee is doing work that can be done remotely, let them work from home one day a week, or whenever they feel they need to. Most autistic people are extremely dutiful and reliable, and simply giving them the peace and quiet of their own home and removing the stress of traffic or public transportation might be the break they need in order to find a balance. This was the key to success for one of my employees.

I have an employee that only works four days a week and has every Wednesday off. After a lot of trial and error, we realized that he loved being at work (and did a brilliant job), but work, family life and everyday responsibilities were just too much in the long run. He needed this break after two days in order to function.

No matter what you do, make sure your autistic employee knows that it is fine for them to have special agreements. Some were mistreated in the past.

Climate change news can definitely be scary and overwhelming, but I think you can rest assured that if you’re in your early twenties, the probability of human extinction because of climate change before you’re 30 is pretty much zero. In fact, human extinction by 2100 is extremely unlikely according to scientists, as is the idea of the end of civilisation by 2050.

That doesn’t mean climate change isn’t a very serious problem that presents a risk to many people, species and civilisations - it is, and it needs to be treated as the emergency it is. But there is hope, and it’s not too late for action. Have a look through this blog for good news, information, and advice, and I also recommend @thehopefuljournalist and @hope-for-the-planet for more good news.

Over the last decade, I graduated from high school, got a bachelor’s in writing, earned an MFA in fiction, and started working as a copywriter.

In that time, I grew a lot as a writer — so I thought I’d share the lessons that helped me most along the way!

How does one from each year sound?

2010: Don’t let high expectations be a barrier to good writing

As a teenager, I had unhealthy expectations for my writing. This not only made writing painful, but also held back the quality of my work. Thankfully, in my last year of high school, I had to crank out a short story for a class, with no time to revise as I went. The result? I had fun, and ended up writing a story that was better than anything I’d written before it. That’s when I realized how toxic lofty expectations could become, if left unchecked.

2011: Good stories often depict, or inspire, change

In my first college writing workshop, our professor (of “It’s never about the bread” fame) told us that a good story often does one of two things: it either depicts a change in a character, or inspires a change in the reader. While a bit simplistic, that guidance was invaluable to me at the time. The first option gave me a clear target to aim for in workshop, while option two exposed me to the full, baffling mystery of what makes a story worth telling. 

2012: Clear, specific language brings scenes to life

As a sophomore, I fell in love with Raymond Carver’s minimalism and was particularly struck by the following description from “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”:

Mel handed me the saucer of limes. I took a section, squeezed it over my drink, and stirred the ice cubes with my finger.

The description struck me as remarkably vivid, yet lean — making me realize how a small description could breathe life into a scene when written with clear, specific language.

2013: Personal experiences fuel good writing

After years of avoiding the genre, I took my first poetry workshop as a junior, and SURPRISE. I loved it. It was the first time I’d ever really tried writing about my own experiences, and it brought an invigorating sense of reality to both my poetry and my fiction. It also inspired me to become more observant, which fed back into my writing and made me better appreciate life’s little moments.

2014: Never mow the same grass twice

Throughout college, I had a trumpet instructor who’d often say, “Michael, I hate to mow the same grass twice!” You can find a full explanation here, but long story short, he encouraged me to fix flaws in my performance immediately upon discovering them, because if you repeat mistakes, they become habits. Bad habits that only get harder to break over time.

I didn’t take his advice to heart in my music, but I did apply it to my fiction. In the coming years, it would be instrumental (ha) in honing my craft.

2015: How to tie plot to character growth

In high school, my stories were all plot. In college, my stories were all character. During the first year of my MFA, I learned how to merge the two, by writing narrators with:

Emotions that drive actions,

Actions that trigger consequences, and

Consequences that compel growth.

This structure is simple, but effective, particularly when your character is motivated by a clear emotional struggle. More about this structure here.

2016: Write the stories that excite you

Throughout college, I almost exclusively wrote non-genre stories, because I wanted to pursue particular goals in that space. I learned a lot in the process, but it wasn’t until the second year of my MFA that I realized my stories themselves had lost a certain spark. So I switched back to writing the genre stories I loved. Like an old friend, the spark came back — and the writing got a lot more fun.

2017: Accept that you’ll never catch up to your expectations

The great irony of being a writer is that the more you hone your craft, the further away “perfection” seems. Why? Because as we improve, we not only overcome weaknesses, but also discover the flaws we never knew existed. So we fix those flaws. Discover new ones. Fix them. And so on. It’s a frustrating, never-ending cycle, and it wasn’t until my final year of the MFA that I was able to fully accept it — finding comfort in the fact that my dissatisfaction was a sign of growth.

2018: Be willing to let stories go

In my first year as a copywriter, the fast pace of agency life quickly taught me the importance of knowing when to “let go” of my writing. At work, it was because I had deadlines. But in fiction, I realized I couldn’t keep revising the same stories forever, when others were waiting to be written. “Art is never finished, only abandoned,” said Leonardo da Vinci, and it’s true. Our stories will never be perfect, so it’s our responsibility to decide when it’s time to cut the cord.

2019: If you want to write meaningful stories, start with what’s important to you

After my fiction professor gave that brief explanation (back in 2011) of what made a good, meaningful story, I became obsessed with finding a clearer answer. Something to grasp onto to guide my writing.

But this past year, I realized it was a bit of a fool’s errand. The things that make a story worth telling are incredibly subjective and different for everyone — naturally arising from their backgrounds, desires, fears, and more.

You can’t predict it. Or at least, you can’t predict it well.

So you just need to look inward. To find what you think is important.

And then write.

2020: TBD

Cheers to a new decade, everybody! May we keep honing our craft and fill the years to come with incredible stories.

— — —

But the truth is if it’s important to YOU, then you can breathe life into that topic in a way others won’t.

I used to be a varsity swimmer, and I was damn good, but I was forced into it by my parents and completely lost my love for it and therein my drive. But in high school I was swimming against such talented swimmers like Olympic Swimmer Missy Franklin. I’ve met her, and the main difference between her and me was that I was strong but had no passion, but she was strong BECAUSE she had passion. 

And I could have been good, really good, maybe even Olympic good. I even have the predisposition for it, been swimming since I was 2 years old, have a mom who was almost an olympic swimmer. Missy didn’t have either of those things, she just wanted it, loved it, had been doing it for a long time, and decided she was going to kick ass at it.

Right, that’s great and all, but I completely missed my opportunity to be an olympic swimmer, yeah? and can never achieve those dreams I had as a kid? No, not even though. There was this whole thought that female athletes peak when they’re 17 years old and lose their skills quickly after that, and male athletes peak around 19. But then Olympic Swimmer Dara Torres shows up. She was an olympic swimmer when she was 17, 21 and 25. Pretty normal age for retirement. She had a few kids. She kicked butt at being a mom. 

And then at 33 years old she decides she’s bored or something gets back in shape and kicks so much ass at the trials that she lands herself on the Olympic Team ONCE AGAIN. And then 8 years later, she decides, heck I’m 41 now, no one has ever made the olympic swim team as old as I am, I want to get in shape yet again and teach these children how sports work.

And she still has the record for oldest US Olympic Swimmer, not even any men have beat out that record.

So basically what I’m saying is you could be an olympic swimmer, you really could be. And there are obviously a lot of things stopping you and trying to get in your way: your brain, society, too much chocolate cake for example. But if you really dedicate yourself to it and love it with all of your heart you could, you really could.

And lets say olympic swimming isn’t your jam? That’s cool too. There isn’t a single skill in this world that you can’t learn if you absolutely love it and want to. Any skill you want is going to take time. There are countless famous people who started learning a skill after 20, 30, 40, or even 50. Not a single person has even been president under age 35 (most likely because you’re not allowed to be, but there’s a reason for that). Whatever you want to do you’re probably going to be bad at first, and I’m talking really shitty.

Van Gogh got started in his 20′s and was thought to have no artistic talent at first and was forced to sit in the back of classrooms where the worst artists in the class sat. So yeah you’ll probably be bad, like really bad and everyone including you will think you’re bad. If you stick with it though, if you’re willing to work for years and years, if you keep loving it after all the pain it’s given you, 

then you might just paint Starry Night.

Story time: I started a book about 23 hours ago and just finished it. Also in that time I slept for 10 hours, spent time with family, was at work, etc. Anyway, I enjoyed the book (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda). But it felt like it flew by, so after I finished I looked up the word count because what are pages? Pages are meaningless. I only function in word counts anymore.

The estimate I found was 58,580. My immediate reaction was “oh, that’s why. That’s nothing!” But what a shitty response. Because no. That’s not nothing. That’s a whole. Damn. Book. An entire novel! And Fic authors regularly bust out 30k, 50k, 100k, 150k words. AND THEY DO IT FOR FREE. WHILE WORKING AND LIVING THEIR LIVES.

30k fic = Animal Farm by George Orwell

50k fic = The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

75k fic = Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

100k fic = To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

150k fic = The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

200k fic = Moby Dick by Herman Melville

250k fic = Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling

300k fic = A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin

350k fic = Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

So if you’re feeling a bit downcast because you can’t write that 50 chapter epic or your latest WIP is “only” 2k and it still took you ages - that’s amazing. Seriously. Not everyone is naturally wordy or prolific. And you can say a ton with just a few hundred or thousand words.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory = 30k fic

Of Mice and Men = 30k fic

Breakfast At Tiffany’s = 24k fic

For those writers who discredit themselves because they feel they aren’t writing the novels that others might, you’re still writing a novella, my dears. You’re still putting time, effort, and passion into something. Well done.

30/12/19

went to a lovely café in edinburgh to get some studying done today 💕 hope everyone had a great christmas and happy new year!

I typed a super long ass post about this and the accidentally deleted it before saving and now I’m lying on the cold hard ground

Yohoo potatoes, I’m back with another *whips out a megaphone out of nowhere* “long ass post” (is that my patent now?) for you guys! This one could help out with your studyjo/bujo (if you don’t know what a studyjo is don’t worry I’ll link it later) and organising that potato life to make the most of it!

Why should I use a bullet journal?

You’s a student

You’s busy

You’s got life you can’t handle sometimes

You will 120% forget about tat assignment deadline unless you’re reminded of it

You get to laugh at your past self after 20 years or so

It’s therapeutic and all that ish

You’ll like it because it’s being productive while actually kinda procrastinating (aren’t we bosses at procrastinating?)

Memories :)

Bolded ones are the trackers I am using and are potato proofed

1. Study related :

SYLLABUS TRACKER : finals can go a little smoothly if you have it all at one place

PROJECT PLANNER/TRACKER : deadlines + road map of how you’re gonna ace that project

STUDY SESSION TRACKER : time, date, subject and rating your session

GOALS TRACKER : realistic ones, like score 75% or more in this test, or master the concept of integration (ughh). Philosophy ones come later ;)

EXAM PLANNER : plan something for each day a week before your exam and see the magic

For solving based subjects :

PROBLEM TRACKER : shade the box every day you solve “x” number of sums

FORMULA QUIZ : the most difficult ones which you’ll never remember unless they’re carved on your ribs

Theory based subjects :

CONCEPT PLANNER : shade the box every day you learn “x” concept nicely

RANDOM CONCEPTS TO REVISE LIST : super helpful when you’re procrastinating and don’t know what to study - refer to this list and do you ish

READINGS LIST : shade the box every day when you read “x” number of paragraphs from textbooks/notes/books

Language based subjects :

WORD OF THE DAY PAGE : one word every day

PASSAGE OF THE MONTH : sort of like a journal but in your target language

FAVOURITE SENTENCES/QUOTES /SONGS/ETC IN *TARGET LANGUAGE* PAGE - similar to a journal thing, make it all aesthetic and cool so you’ll want to fill it in more

2. Entertainment related stuff :

MOVIES WATCHED SO FAR - all the movies, maybe stash a ticket or smthn?

MOVIE OF THE MONTH - can pick any one tbh

APPRECIATION PAGE FOR *FAV ACTOR/ACTRESS* - can you guess who’s appreciated by this potato?

SONG OF THE MONTH - only pick one and trust me that is very difficult

APPRECIATION PAGE FOR *FAV SINGER* - guess mine again?

PLAYLIST OF THE MONTH - best songs only

MIX TAPE FOR *FAV PERSON* - you can actually even make a real one and give it to someone you really like ;)

SERIES TRACKER - episodes/seasons number, shade the box as you finish it

REVIEW PAGE - review some movies/TV show you just saw

FAVOURITE MOVIE QUOTES PAGE - “you’re a wizard, Harry”

3. Mind related stuff :

QUOTES PAGE - motivational, sentimental stuff

MEDITATION TRACKER - this potato might try it

CROSSWORD TRACKER - shade the box every time you successfully solve an entire crossword/puzzle

RIDDLE TRACKER - shade the box every day if you solved 1 riddle

CREATIVITY PAGE - doodles, ugly poetry, cringy picky up limes, whatever floats your goat

BRAIN DUMP PAGE - every single thing on your mind transferred on this page. Suggested before sleeping so that you’re light headed and stress-free

IDEAS ORGANISER PAGE - give form to those abstract plots and connect all ideas to make a bigger one

PERSONAL PROJECT PLANNER - like maybe that book you always wanted to write

LIFE IN PIXELS - mad, sad or smad?

4. Health related stuff :

EXERCISE TRACKER - shade the box every day if you did “x” duration/amount of exercise

FOOD TRACKER - keep record of what junk you munched on today and try to avoid it sometimes

WATER TRACKER - ughh so important

CARBS TRACKER - kill a puppy next time you overeat

MOOD TRACKER - graphs look fancy tbh

ROLE MODEL’S PAGE - everything hermione granger does/says

5. Money related stuff :

BUDGET TRACKER - note down every little thing you spent on, figure out where you can save up

SAVINGS TRACKER - fill that little jar and buy those pens you always wanted to

Aaand that’s about it for now! I’ll be back with another long ass post so have fun bullet journaling till then!

Feel free to hmu if you aren’t clear about how to use a certain tracker!

My therapist has been helping me find a reward system that works for me, and as it turns out, gold star stickers are really helpful for making me feel like a tangible goal was met, and helps give me that sweet, sweet dopamine release that comes with completing a task, something which us ADHD’ers really struggle to achieve and are already coming at from a disadvantage with our brains regularly not producing enough “happy” hormones as it is.

It was supposed to be “a sticker for every time you finish a chapter”, but after some revision, my therapist said that was too tall of a goal, and that I should pick something smaller. So instead I now get a star every time I finish a 500-word milestone, placing the sticker in my writing calendar/journal thing that I use to keep track of my writing, and ironically, I have started to produce more work than when I was stiving for one chapter a day.

To give you an idea of how staggeringly effective this has been for me, I’ve written over 30k of original fiction in the last week. (75k total if you include my social media and blog stuff, which I currently do not but likely should.)

So this is what it looked like when I was attempting to do a chapter of edits and revisions a day during the month of December 2019 (note: I was supposed to start this in Nov, so you can see how well that worked out for me lol):

ID: A calendar showing days of the month with a shiny star sticker showing a completed task.

And this is what my writing journal looks like now that I’m doing a star for every 500 words:

ID: an image of a handwritten journal with the dates mapped out, followed by a shiny star sticker for every completed 500-word milestone. There are 65 stars in total for the month of January 2020. It’s also tinged by a green light cause I’m doing a chronic pain experiment, so far with positive results!

So as of today, January 8th, with ever star = 500 words, then 65*500 = 32500 words totalled in 7 days. This does not include, like I said, my social media output where I am far more productive, this is just my fiction and some editing work for friends.

(Which side note: this is not to flex, or to say that others should be able to achieve this level of output. I am a professional writer, this is my main job and only source of income. And also, I was forged in the fires of understaffed editing hell where we would be expected to churn out 100k+ a week in edits and revisions to keep on track. I have the time and a learned skillset I have spent years amassing to be able to do this and am working towards a rigid deadline. I simply have not been healthy enough in a long time to manage it, and am finally working my way back up to speed after years of illness. Don’t look at this and think, “I’m not achieving enough”, every victory no matter how small is worth celebrating. And I say that with the utmost sincerity, as someone who spent most of the last 2-3 years unable to get out of bed.)

I’ve also started using it to help keep track of bills and chores around the home. So every time something gets done/done on time, whoever completed the task gets a star on the calendar. This includes Oppy the Not-A-Roomba, who does a very good job of taking care of the house on a daily basis:

ID: an image of a chore calendar denoting various tasks that have been marked off with a holographic silver star sticker, including our robot vacuum who does an excellent job and deserves all the stars. (Our names got blurred out cause ETD doesn’t want his real name out there in the world, so that’s what is blurry.)

This system is useful for several reasons, the primary one being a sense of achievement and continued motivation, and the second, to allow you to review each month to see where you are doing well, and where you might otherwise be struggling.

For example, if I have a bad day for writing or decide to take a day off, I write that down in the calendar rather than leaving it blank, so that I have a record of what went wrong (or right, if I am electing to self care that day and take a day off) and how my overall progress is doing.

In terms of house stuff, this has been especially useful for ETD and myself, as it shows us where we are managing to do a good job with the house, and where our executive dysnfunction issues really trip us up and where we need to make improvements. And I don’t just mean in an “I should try harder way”, I mean you have to actively sit down and be like “hey! What is preventing me from completing this thing” and trying to figure out effective ways to either get around it or resolve a larger issue at hand.

So for us, the biggest thing we tend to miss is doing dishes after dinner, meaning we get left with a pile-up of dishes to deal with first thing in the morning, and my ADHD can’t handle that. It won’t let me eat until I’ve cleared all the mess, but I usually don’t have the energy to clean up if I haven’t eaten, so it’s this awful cycle of ineptitude. We’re doing better with the star reward system, cause it’s showing us our progress loud and clear on the fridge door, but we are both usually so fatigued and exhausted by the end of dinner that doing dishes is just one thing too many for our mutual disorders. So, the solution for this would, of course, be a dishwasher, cause if we had one of those, we could load stuff in, turn it on, and let those dishes get done while we go to bed then put them away in the morning. We can’t afford to do that right now, and we have other appliances we need to buy/replace before we can do that (still don’t have a tumble dryer, or a washer I can access, rip) but it does give us a tangible goal to work toward, and also, the motivation to keep on top of things because it goes from “an endless task with no end in sight” to “there’s a solution for this, we can manage a while longer.”

Now you could be saying, but Joy, I’m an adult! Surely I shouldn’t expect rewards for completing every day tasks that I should be able to do?!

To which I say, neurotypical people get rewards all the time and get an unconscious dose of dopamine/serotonin from their brains every time they complete a task. They’re playing the game of life on easy mode, the gold star is your achievement for completing it daily on Nintendo 99 hard mode. IF THE STICKER WORKS, TAKE THE STICKER

day twelve - december 21, 2019. 58 days til recital

haven‘t posted over the past few days but it hasn‘t been unproductive! it was finals week this week so i studied, practiced, and stuff until i left campus thursday afternoon. i‘ve given myself downtime, but i also cleaned up my room big time, did some more event organization, and started my 2020 bullet journal!

y‘all, you really don‘t need expensive stuff for bullet journals. i got this BEAUTIFUL $7 lil journal from michael‘s and i use papermate flair felt tip pens, which always last me a while. i am in love with this bujo and i can‘t wait to use it more!!