dying isnt so bad. its staying dead that sucks

Sitting down at the table, I remembered the scars on my arm. The universal signifier of "This Kid Needs Help." Maybe his kindness was only out of pity. He saw those and assumed there was some great misery and wanted to offer me some relief. It's generally good to be kind to people who are hurting. But I wasn't hurting that bad.

The thing is, there is some great misery. People generally aren't doing that great. There is a great misery within me and within him and within everyone, and some people notice the pain, some people express it, others don't. But we all suffer from something.

It doesn't matter if someone seems to deserve some relief. Everyone needs it. Everyone is suffering constantly. Some more than others, but still. This Kid Needs Help applies to everyone.

Thirty minutes later, I went to get a second pastry, intending to pay and leave a tip this time. It was the same cashier. As he reached to grab it for me, I saw scars on his arm.

I am Kareman, a Palestinian mother from Gaza, and we are still alive after 475 days of war that began on October 7, 2023, and ended today. However, despite being alive, pain and sorrow have not left us. Everything around us has turned to rubble. I once said, "This pain will end one day, and I believe in that," but I never imagined that the pain would follow us in this way.

We returned to our home, only to find that the pain has deepened. Our home, which once embraced us, is now destroyed. The fishing boat, which was our only source of livelihood, was consumed by fire, taking away all hope. The fishing nets and equipment, which were our means of survival, have been burned. My husband, who supported us with his work, now has nothing but memories😭💔

As for me, I was a children's teacher, teaching them to love life despite the difficulties, but my school, which was once a place of hope, is now nothing but ash. We have lost everything, but we still hold on to hope thanks to Hamoud, who gives us the strength to keep going.

Today, we need you more than ever. We ask for your help in repairing my husband's fishing boat, as we have no other source of income. If we don't get the support to repair it, we will remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and need. But if we stand together, we can rise again.

Please, don't leave our families in this dark path. Every donation, no matter how small, represents a chance for us to live again.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your continued support, and I trust that hope will return thanks to your help.

Donation link through the campaign gofund

Or through PayPal

My campaing vetted by/

@90-ghost here

@gaza-evacuation-funds here

Or through the link here

Please donate here

The TikTok Team is back again with a Tag Wrangler Hear Me Out Cake.

My family now lives in a tent with no stable shelter, my sister Jana has no school, and I have no steady job. My brother Kamal carries the burden of the entire family, working every day to secure just enough food, while I search for any work, no matter how difficult or dangerous, just to survive.

My mother, the beautiful dream we once cherished, wished for a calm and happy life for us, but the war tore us apart and shattered our hopes. As for Jana, my innocent sister, she lost her school, her books, and even her sense of hope, yet she still writes her dreams on small pieces of paper, hiding them in her torn clothes so they won’t get lost like everything else.

We are not asking for the impossible, only what keeps us alive with dignity and gives us a chance to rebuild our lives. Every donation, no matter how small, means so much to us. Your support will give us hope to keep going and try again. 🙏❤️

The Amur Leopard and Clouded Leopard (which recently celebrated its 50th cub born at the zoo!)

The Sumatran Tiger

The Red Ruffed Lemur and Ring-Tailed Lemur

The Cotton-Top Tamarin and White-Cheeked Gibbon

The Colobus Monkey and De Brazza’s Monkey

And the Mexican Spider Monkey!

The request is so urgent my boss needs it by the end of the work week. Which, y'know, is 5 PM on a Friday. So I have four hours to do it.

It's a forwarded request. Somebody contacted a member of the donation team asking for help, "I need a map from the Vietnam War to use for a presentation." It's somebody she's trying to coax into giving a five figure donation to the museum.

The request was asked to the donation team member, who then emailed my boss, who then emailed and called me urgently.

This map required:

North and South Vietnam in it

All four areas that South Vietnam was divided into for military purposes ('Corps') clearly delineated

Four cities, all of them horrifically misspelled, and only identifiable because I know what battle the requester is asking about (it’s in III Corps on the border with Cambodia) (the requester danced around the battle but I’m knowledgeable enough to identify it)

Has Laos and Cambodia in it

Has the Ho Chi Minh Trail in it

So. I was mad about the 'you have literally four hours to find a map with a lot of requirements.'

I was then mad at myself about finding a copyright free map from Texas Tech University within half an hour, proving her right for asking me to do it.

Then, after I found a map that perfectly met the requirements, I was equally amazed, baffled, and horrified when I read further into the forwarded email chain.

The donation team team member they were speaking to used AI to generate a map.

The above put half of North Vietnam in South Vietnam, made the Ho Chi Minh Trail a country, made 60% of Cambodia part of South Vietnam, put the DMZ extremely high up in North Vietnam, completely disconnected the southern tip of Vietnam, misplaced all of the Corps zones, etc etc

At the very last second the donation team member had a moment of divine clarity, remembering there's three historians on payroll to ask for this kind of thing from. So she contacted my boss while saying, "I had fun with this, but I decided I should check for accuracy before I send it to the donor! I need a fact check by the end of the day, then I send it"

My boss, while not the most knowledgeable on the Vietnam War, does know her geography. She took one look, and knew it was so off she called me to tell me how urgent it is that I look at the email and respond

It's also super unpopular to say this, but fat people are absolutely a marginalized group in this society, and this kind of stress absolutely causes health problems

I could honestly go on.