Hype Person™

some of my favourite ttrpg rules

Over fifty years of data show a peak in PFAS (also known as "forever chemicals") content in seabird eggs in the 90s, followed by a decrease as regulations went into effect. The most recent findings show a 70% decrease of most common PFAS.

We are making genuine progress! Producers are dramatically altering how much they use PFAS and how much gets released in effluent, but also there's a lot better understanding of how to remove PFAS from the environment!

Hello friends! If you have been wondering if there are other ways you can help with the conservation of the critically endangered pygmy raccoon, we have a few remote volunteer opportunities available!

Donor relations:

Managing donor list on Monday (a browser based work management platform)

Sending thank you messages

Creating and sending out newsletters with conservation project updates and fundraising emails

Ideally a long term position. You’d get a custom domain email address and access to canva premium, which is fun.

Grant writing:

Finding potential grant opportunities for conservation research and program development (We’re quite literally trying to build a sanctuary among other things)

Conducting research, collecting data, and developing background information for proposals

Developing and writing grant proposals

Can be a one-off thing, or a long term thing

Educational Materials Designer

Making educational posters/brochures/other graphics to target different groups about pygmy raccoon conservation issues

Can be a one-off thing, or a long term thing

You’d get access to canva premium if you were interested in this being a long term thing

Spanish Translator

Editing the shitty auto translate copy on the website

Potentially making WhatsApp calls to vendors in Mexico to get quotes for building materials and foods and whatnot

Translating educational material

Some more info: As we are a 501(c)3 nonprofit, this volunteering can be used for community service hours, or, if your company does paid volunteer days, those too. I’m happy to sign anything needed. Pretty much all of these opportunities can be a one off/every once in a while type volunteer thing, except for the donor relations, where I’d love to have someone help a little more regularly. It’s just become completely impossible for me to try to keep up with my research/permit applications/writing journal articles/paying for raccoon stuff in Mexico/etc on top of running the nonprofit needed to actually fund the work we are doing.

For anyone wanting to do something longer term, I would be able to get you access to a naturetourism.org email and canva premium. And if anyone has an idea for how to help out in a way not currently listed, just let me know!

Here’s what I’m pretty sure is the original (except without the line breaks, because tumblr is weird about formatting)

Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement:“If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.” Well—one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. “Help,” said the flight agent. “Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.” I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly. “Shu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-se-wee?” The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the next day. I said, “No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just later, who is picking you up? Let's call him.” We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and ride next to her. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours. She was laughing a lot by then. Telling of her life, patting my knee, answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—from her bag—and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie. And then the airline broke out free apple juice from huge coolers and two little girls from our flight ran around serving it and they were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate—once the crying of confusion stopped—seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

Naomi Shihab Nye, “Gate A-4” from Honeybee

DIMENSION 20: A STARSTRUCK ODYSSEY