That made sense in my head.

Today, September 10th, is World Suicide Prevention Day. I cannot express the personal value of each and every one of you and all of us together. Often times we devalue ourselves based on our shortcomings, based on our mess-ups, based on our hurts that feel like they will never heal. But today, if you are feeling unseen, if you are feeling unimportant, know that we see you. Know that you are important to me. Know that the trouble of the fight is worth it when that glimpse of hope appears, and even more so when you can look both forward and backward and see the progress you have made. If your journey feels as if it’s at the end, know that this is only the beginning. This is just the start, and there is hope for you yet. There is hope for all of us. And you do not have to face this world alone. You deserve so much more than that.

If you find yourself or someone you love struggling to find reasons to stay, if you feel like there is nothing left for you, please give life another chance. Please call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline ‘1-800-273-TALK (8255)’. If you find yourself unable to speak, chat online with someone at imalive.org or http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/…/lifelinechat.aspx.

I want you here. We need you here. You are loved.

look

LOOK:

in 1838 france and spain went to war over a pastry chef

famous astronomer tycho brahe literally died because he was too polite to get up from the table to go to the bathroom

an orphanage in paris once raffled off babies for cash

a bunch of hippies ran a 140-pound pig as a candidate for president in the ‘60s under the slogan “if we can’t have him in the white house, we can have him for breakfast.” the pig was immediately and in complete seriousness arrested by the police, along with his campaign staff

in 1842 mexican general/dictator santa anna ordered elaborate funeral ceremonies held for his lost leg

the president of france died from apoplexy in 1899 while being fellated in his office

in the 17th century peter the great of russia banned beards because of reasons

that time there were three popes and they spent forty years passive-aggressively excommunicating each other

in 1968 the dictator of portugal slipped and fell and everyone thought he was going to die and he was replaced, and then when he unexpectedly recovered the government of portugal was too awkward to tell him he wasn’t leader of portugal any more and let him go on thinking he was for 2 years

that time eight years ago when switzerland accidentally invaded lichtenstein

napoleon bonaparte, conqueror of much of europe, once got in a fight with bunnies and lost

an important lesson about making mistakes:

Here are some wonderful facts about Sea World’s orcas!

The average lifespan of wild orcas ranges from 30-50 years, although some females can easily make it past 80 (a wild orca named J2 or ‘Granny’ is 103 this year!). The lifespan of a Sea World orca is around 25 years, the median age being 9. But at least they put on a good show!

Don’t worry, collapsed dorsal fins are a common condition, although in the wild only sick or injured orcas have collapsed dorsal fins. All of Sea World’s males and some females have it, it makes them look unique! 

The size of Sea World’s tanks compared to an orca is about the same as a human to a bathtub. Lot’s of room to stretch and move!

Wild orcas swim 100+ miles a day, they would have to swim around their tank 1,400+ times a day to achieve that. But that seems like a lot of work, and you may see the animals hanging out near the surface of the water or on the bottoms of their tanks for hours. That’s a lot more relaxing than swimming all those miles!

Sea World gives their orcas a Valium-like drug to stop the whales from acting aggressively towards each other and to numb their minds from their vastly uninteresting concrete tanks. Buying a ticket to Sea World is an excellent way to help them pay for these drugs that they pump their animals full with!

Many captive orcas show abnormal behaviors like head bobbing, chewing on concrete, and self mutilation by banging their heads into the side of the tank. Obviously just temper-tantrums! Silly things.

In the wild, there has been only one orca attack. Bad orca! While in captivity, there have been over 100 attacks and 4 deaths. These animals just need more training, it couldn’t possibly be related to their confinement! 

Food is used as reinforcement for tricks. Do a trick, get your dinner. Don’t want to do a trick? I guess you don’t eat tonight you stubborn thing! 

See? Sea World isn’t as bad as people make it out to be! Oh, one more fact: for every $1,000,000 Sea World makes, about $600 goes into conservation efforts (about $0.5 a ticket). I’m so glad they care about conservation of the ocean! Amazing work!

Sources: (x) (x) (x) (x)

Just from personal experience.

1: Never try to draw on an empty stomach. You’ll make mistakes and be uncomfortable. (But don’t stuff yourself till you’re sick either.)

2: If you have to go to the bathroom, go. A full bladder or otherwise does serious damage to the attention and patience spans. Plus it gives you time to stretch your legs.

3: Before you ink it, leave it alone. Come back later (a few hours, a day?) and check for major anatomy mistakes. Work on something else while you’re waiting.

4: Stay hydrated! The brain and fine motor skills work better when properly circulated.

5: Do not have an excessive amount of sugar before sitting down to work. You’ll get jittery and impatient. Same goes for immense amounts of caffeine.

6: If you’re stuck, take a break to stand and stretch. Walk around the room. But don’t THINK of it as a break. Just take time to really focus on your body. Loosen it up, get a goooood long stretch and some deep breaths. (but don’t pass out!) It’ll jolt the mind awake and let you really relax a moment.

7: Keep. All. Your. Old. Art. I don’t care what it is. Keep it. Date it if it’s in your computer folders. Make a suitcase filled with it. (I personally have ALL my old art in a thick work folder.)

8: Keep your sketchbooks together, used and unused. If there’s a good sale on sketchbooks, get two or three! You won’t regret it later. There’s no such thing as too many. (I currently have about ten spankin’ new sketchbooks and I know I’ll need/use every single one of them.)

9: Date your sketchbooks. Put a start and finish date on them.

10: I’m afraid I don’t practice this one: date your drawings. You’ll be happy about it later. You don’t need to SIGN every drawing, but do date them. At least date pages.

11: ART BLOCK HAPPENS. Art block is pretty much a CONSTANT state of mind for artists. You’re never out of art block totally. But sometimes you get bursts of inspiration that make it feel like you’re out. So instead of feeling like you’re ill if you suddenly have artblock, remind yourself that this happens all the time, and you get out of it eventually, every time. c:>

12: If you’re REALLY stuck on some bad art block, do what I do.

Draw a brain barf. This is where you take a blank sheet of paper, and you just LET your hand be A.D.D. Draw whatever comes to mind, as it comes to mind. in the middle of drawing a hippo in a top hat but you think of a jolly rancher riding a unicycle? Switch immediately.

Let your brain just vomit all over the page. You’ll be surprised what comes up and what art block this can get you out of. It’s gotten me out of it various times.

13: Take advice from more experienced artists. But do NOT take everything as Gospel. Some people are just wrong.

14: HAND SHYNESS/ ART ENVY/ SELF CONSCIOUSNESS/ AND SKILL IMPATIENCE WILL EAT YOU ALIVE like a Titan. Do not let yourself get shy after looking at ‘better art’, do not let yourself think your art is worthless or your skills are worthless, and do not let yourself get frustrated that you cannot be at a higher skill level RIGHT NOW. Your brain will try to do this. All the time. Keep yourself in check. If you keep going at it, and keep working, you will get better. This is why you keep your old art. Look at it to remind you how far you’ve come.

15: Draw what you like. This is so important. (This does not apply for exploitative art. :l That’s just wrong. So long as you’re not targeting someone harmfully, I guess you’re fine.)

But don’t let people’s preferences dictate what you can and can’t draw. Draw whatever the heck you like. Accept that no matter WHAT there will be someone out there that hates it. Always. This is just a fact of life. But don’t let it get you down. I would have stopped being an artist at day one if I had.

16: You never. Stop. Learning. Ever. You will be old and grey and still be learning new things. That’s okay. That’s the nature of art. Even the ‘pros’ don’t know everything.

People dying and going bankrupt to pay for their healthcare, that’s violence.