what makes us human is the nintendo ds

Beau Taplin, The Wild Heart 

Today's phrase is "瓦も磨けば玉になる（kawara mo migakeba tama ni naru）".

【Vocabulary & Grammar】

1．瓦 (かわら, kawara) A noun meaning “tile.” In proverbs, it symbolizes something ordinary or of low value.

2．も（mo） The particle も, meaning “even.” “Even a tile…”

3．磨けば（みがけば, migakeba） The conditional form of 磨く (to polish). 磨けば = “if you polish it” / “when polished.”

4．玉（たま, tama） A noun meaning “jewel,” “gem.” Symbolizes something valuable or excellent.

5．になる（ninaru） Means “to become.” So 玉になる = “becomes a gem.”

「瓦も磨けば玉になる”」meanseven something ordinary can become valuable when polished. It expresses the idea that steady effort can transform anything into something meaningful. Is there something you keep doing, thinking it’s nothing special? Have you ever talked about something you do routinely and surprised someone with it? Even small efforts built up day by day are never wasted when you pursue them deeply. Hold your head high.

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"I have never in my life experienced such a level of defensiveness." Her voice cracks. "How dare I even question something so important to her and her journey... That helps her deal with the stress of her work." Rashida had tried to initiate a general conversation, but her friend's response left her stunned. "I was completely perplexed and the whole conversation spiraled to the point where she up and left the pub. All my friends there were also white, and they told me I was rude to even bring it up because it was important to her and I was way out of line."

Like so many other women of color, Rashida blamed herself: "I thought, okay, it's clearly me. I'm crazy. I should shut the fuck up because I am losing all my friends." Rashida did not want to lose a friend she'd known for more than a decade... She sent her friend a long letter of apology, which was accepted, but the friend told her she had felt "very attacked". Rashida eventually ended the friendship. "If I can't have this conversation with someone I saw as progressive, as an ally who had worked in refugees migrant community spaces..." Her voice trails off. "The mob mentality backed her up and made me feel like I was totally in the wrong."

ive been using a vibrator and like the sensitivity is really hard to handle and at times I’ll have to pull away because it’s super intense and I’ll be shaking 😭😭😭

is there any way to get through that to orgasm? Do I have to get used to it or should I only use my fingers etc because it’s so much and I have to like hold myself down

That's actually very common, especially if you're not giving yourself time to get used to stimulating yourself and relax before just going hard on your clitoris.

There's a shit ton of nerves there. Often the clitoris is very sensitive and especially if you're stimulating areas that are very sensitive, it can cause shaking, muscle spasms, things like that.

That said, being sensitive there doesn't mean that going hard on it with a vibrator will bring you to orgasm (if that's the goal).

If it's bothering you, move the vibrator further away, or do it through something else to dull the sensation (clothes, a blanket, both, things like that), use a vibrator with more settings so you can lower it or even stop using the vibrator when it becomes uncomfortable and switch to fingers or something else.

If you have the physical ability to hold yourself down and keep the vibrator in place and you enjoy the sensation, however intense, that's fine! Go ahead! It's not a guarantee it'll make you orgasm but it might and you can certainly enjoy it even if it doesn't.

But you can also totally switch it up and try some of the other things I mentioned.

At the start of my employment, my boss showed me videos of people stealing, and we both had a chuckle about it. How silly they were! There was a camera overhead, and it’s not to watch the shoppers. See, we can’t actually stop shoplifters. They get away with it maybe nine out of ten times. But we, who are watched and tallied and witnessed? We are always caught.

At first it was hard to hold one hundred dollars bills. An amount I had never seen before. An amount that didn’t exist in my household. It’s normal now. Here is something that is not for me.

“What the hell, I’ll take another,” says the man, pondering our 200 dollar watches. What the hell. Total comes to 580 and not even a flinch in his face. I have been working for 11 hours today and made only 110 dollars. It will go to my rent. Today I work for free, it feels. When I get my check, I will have 35 dollars left for food and saving.

The six hundreds he hands me go into the cash register. For a moment, I imagine having money. Then I put it away, counting out his change.

I know for a fact we sell our products for double what they are worth. That I could be making commission. That they could hand me those 580 dollars and change my life and not even mark the difference in their checkbooks. He’s not the only sale they make today, but I am the reason they made it. He’s not the only one spending 600 dollars, but if I hadn’t spent two hours with him telling me about his life, he wouldn’t have spent any. I go home. I don’t own a watch.

I have watched and rewatched a video on how to make salmon four ways. My shopping list is always the same. Pasta. Rice. Tuna. If I can afford butter it was a good week. I dream of the world I will never walk in, where I can throw the best fish fillet in the cart with a shrug. I hold hundreds in my hand and look up at the camera. I put them under the cash drawer.

I go to work. I scrap together my savings. I eat my bowl of rice slowly. My manager takes a paid week off from work just for his birthday. He owns a yacht. 

i was part of their college program. i moved to the state for it. they legally owned the building i was living in and still charged me rent. i ostensibly was being charged to work for them. it was a 2 bedroom apartment and they placed 6 adult women in it in forced triples.

as many as one in ten disney employees have experienced homelessness while working for the company. despite huge efforts to unionize, strike, or otherwise demand fair treatment; disney has refused to increase employee quality of life.

disney admits publicly that a good portion of their success is because the employees (“cast members”) are dedicated, passionate, and selfless. this is never reflected in pay. even “face” characters (ie those that are princesses etc) make barely above a minimum wage.

at the time that i worked there, i made $8.50 an hour. at one point i was asked to create a human shield around a bag because a bomb dog had alerted to it. for eight fucking dollars an hour.

i now work a very cushy office job. i have bought the salmon and cooked it all four ways.

i go to the store. i am nice to the person behind the counter. she looks up at the camera while she counts out my change. there is nothing fundamentally different about her and i.