i know we'll reunite up there in the clouds

a. She’s 5′ 11″ and can never find pants long enough for her legs or shirts long enough for her arms.

b. She hates synthetic fibers as much as I do and it’s difficult to find natural fiber clothes that aren’t made of cotton

c. She’s a biologist and would physically fistfight microplastics if given half a chance

So her gift from mom and dad for her birthday was a sewing machine. Not a super expensive one but a good solid serviceable one.

And recently she asked “So where do I GET wool or linen and thread that isn’t polyester” and mom was like ‘go ask your sister’

“Bets, u know I’m a 15th degree blackbelt of buying shit on the internet”

cotton and Silk thread; https://redrockthreads.com/

Linen thread and wool fabric; https://burnleyandtrowbridge.com/ (they’ve got wool stuffs and worsted wool fabric for $15 a yard! I just got three yards of navy worsted wool I’m making a constellation winter skirt from)

More linen thread and wool; https://wmboothdraper.com/ (just ordered wool broadcloth to make a coat)

Silk fabric (THE best place to get silk lining fabrics and raw silk fabric):https://www.dharmatrading.com/

A varying assortment of wool and silk and cotton and even some leather, use coupon code  spring2020 for 50% off your full order, worked yesterday when I bought some stuff there; https://metrotextilesnyc.com/

The Linen Lab has a variety of weaves, weights, and colors available

And this store is in Canada if you need to avoid the insane markup from the US right now-

obviously how effective this is varies wildly based on the relationship, or lack thereof, that you have with the other person. but I find it effective with people who are In Your Life but don't meaningfully have any control over you. quite often it DOES result in increased directness in the future, especially if it's something I end up doing fairly often. and it's not rude; I'm just politely seeking clarification about what is being communicated. it makes the person have to think about what effect they were expecting their behavior to have on my behavior, and then just... tell me straightforwardly. but without escalating the situation or making the person feel 'called out' most of the time.

She frequently makes requests by telling me what I want, eg "oh wouldn't you like to.." "don't you think it's be nice if..."

It used to drive me up the wall, but now as an adult with better understanding of what's happening I say "Actually I'm fine with x, but I'd be happy to do y if that's what you want?"

One day she actually asked me, "Why is it so important to you that I say that y is what I want?"

and i got to say "Well I don't like being told what I want. I have enough life experience to know my own desires and limitations, and I can advocate for them when I need to. However your opinions do matter to me and I want to take them into account. It's much less stressful for me to do so when I'm not guessing what's in your mind."

And folks, she Actually Listened.

Later that day she wanted something that ended up not being possible, but because she said so directly I was able to help her find a different way to achieve the same goal!

No shirt, no bra, completely bare torso, just like cis men are allowed to

It's about desexualizing breasts and "female presenting nipples" and not being criminalized for our bodies if we want to go topless because it's a million damn degrees out. This was a popular growing movement that was still widely known a decade ago!

Hey real quick, can anyone tell me why i'm still trying to have honest, direct, good-faith discussions with people on the internet in the year of our lord 2026?

bonus ask from someone else:

The reason I'm not sharing the links and articles I'm being sent, nor debating the specific issues people in this post are bringing up, is because none of it matters to the point I'm making. All large organizations, all governments, all world powers, will inevitably try and shape the narrative of world events in their favor. That has always happened, and it always will, and that is why it's so important to take these grand narratives with a grain of salt. I don't believe there are any governments in the world that can claim innocence here, though the largest powers are those most guilty.

This post is not about debating the details of any one specific event. This is me saying, broadly, that in my circles i have noticed an uptick in stories minimizing China's faults and emphasizing their achievements based primarily or even solely on the word of sources i personally find unconvincing. I don't feel the need to wade deeper into those waters other than to remind folks to think critically and question the narratives of large organizations when reading the news.

People have responded to this by delivering unto me an onslaught of questionable "proof" delivered by individuals and organizations I neither know nor trust, many of which take hard line stances that the things China has been criticized for are complete fabrications (something which I do not believe to be the case based on the evidence I've seen and heard from both sides of this discussion). To debate these individual sources, these individual events or the veracity of specific accusations, is to ignore the point that, as the great lasagna lover tells us, you are not immune to propaganda.