i am going to get better and that is a threat

Summer sees both a drop off in donations and, at least for our trauma center, a spike in traumas. Trauma centers across the US are in danger of running out of blood for our trauma patients TODAY, which is very scary but, unlike much of the other scary national news coming across our screens these days, is something you can help fix immediately and directly.

Blood donation is relatively easy and provides an immediate impact to people in your community -- or even farther! The coolest thing the Red Cross does is tell you where your donations end up. My last donation got shipped from Utah all the way to the University of Philadelphia. (Enjoy my B+ vibes, Philly.)

Also, you get snacks and sometimes gift cards and free swag. If you squeeze a visit in by July 31, you can get a free Fandango movie ticket. (They're doing Hello Kitty swag in September and you bet your ass I already have appointments.)

If you're new to donating, some tips:

Drink plenty of water the night before and before your appointment. The more water, the more plump your veins are and the faster your goes.

Women often get deferred because of low iron levels. Over-the-counter iron supplements a few days before a donation will help boost your count, as will eating iron rich foods. (Cheerios are always my go-to iron boosters.) Don't schedule donations when you're menstruating.

If you are deferred for low iron or vital signs issues, you can try again within 24 hours.

If you've had a tattoo or piercing in the last three months, you will be deferred until a full three months have passed.

Don't donate on an empty stomach. Dehydration and low blood sugar contribution to fainting and dizzy spells.

After donating, don't exercise for 24 hours. You'll likely notice a dip in your tolerance for a few days after a donation as your system adjusts.

If you don't like needles, look away when they poke you and don't look at the donation site. They usually cover the needle during the donation process.

The initial poke does hurt, but the rest of the donation should be painless. If you feel burning, stinging, or any other abnormal sensation from the entry site, tell a phlebotomist and they'll help you out.

If you're like me and you have difficult veins, you can still give! Being hydrated, doing arm curls, and having an electrolyte drink can help plump your veins up. Ask for the most experienced phlebotomist on the floor to draw your blood. They're less likely to dig around or miss on a difficult vein.

While the majority of blood donations have zero issues, bad donations do happen. Sometimes it's a bad draw, an equipment issue, or your body just not cooperating; it sucks and it's not fun, but you'll usually come out of it with a bruise and know how you can make your experience better. Please don't give up because of one bad experience.

RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS NEEDED!

Currently recruiting participants for ‘ACE in an ALLO world’, a photovoice research project exploring lived experiences of people who identify on the Asexuality spectrum.

Eligibility: Participants must be 18+, live in the UK, and identify as a person on the asexuality spectrum. We are intentionally seeking a diverse range of participants to ensure wide representation of lived experience across the ace spectrum and intersectional demographics.

Photovoice Research Project: Participants will be asked to take a series of photos that represent their lived experience over a 2-week period, in response to provided prompts. Once their photos have been submitted, participants will be invited to discuss their chosen images in an online focus group (5-6 people per group).

For more information, or to participate, visit: https://bit.ly/acealloworld

So, in terrible news, Trump's trying to pull some strings to pass this massive internet censorship bill, featuring all the kinds of internet censorship we're terrified of, including mandatory ID for accessing basically any website, specifically to crush state regulation of AI, because apparently this man will always see the moral bottom of the barrel and start digging.

Do you have medications which will be destroyed if exposed to excessive heat, like insulin? How are you gonna carry them and keep them cool? Do you have to carry your entire day's worth of belongings with you at all times, or do you have a friend's house or something where you can stash them? How much extra time are you gonna have to waste traveling back and forth? An extra hour this way, an extra hour that way. Gotta factor in the time. What if it's chilly overnight? Do you have to carry your jacket with you? What's for lunch? Can you bring food, or will the heat ruin it?

All sticky and sweaty from the sun, just wanna peel your clothes off and cool down in the shower? Designated times when showers are available at many shelters are periods of maybe sixty minutes, maybe twice a day if you're lucky, 5:30-6:30 AM and 9:00-10:00 PM or whatever. No other accessible times. Can't make it because you're at work? Too bad. Get off work later than that, and just wanna quickly bathe? Too bad.

Do you work full-time, clock out exhausted, and wanna take a nap in the afternoon? Find a park with shade, I guess, because you're only allowed inside the shelter between 10:00 PM and 5:30 AM. Did you get off work a little late? Too bad, you missed the strict curfew of 10:00 PM and now you're not allowed in the shelter. Can't hang out on the bus, can't linger too long at the coffee shop, can't doze off at the library. Many cities went out of their way to explicitly criminalize falling asleep--or merely sitting in one place for too long--in a park, too. Are you sick? Can't take a nap. Are you disabled? Can't take a nap. You're forced to be awake, all day. You're forced to be upright, or moving. No loitering. No sleeping. No taking your shoes off. All day. Every day.

Do you need even a quick momentary escape from the heat? Well, you'd better have money. Even if you do, you'll have to doctor your appearance, go stealth-mode, don't attract the attention of petty middle managers. The coffee shop now locks their bathroom. It's for paying customers. Maybe you bought some tea. Well, don't overstay your welcome (the boss saw your backpack and perceived that you're homeless, which means you're essentially an intruder now, so you better get out and move on soon). The university campus added card-swipe readers to all the doors, so now you can't visit the library or cafeterias. Oh shit, you spent money on the tea, so now you can't afford lunch.

You don't have a pantry, you don't have a refrigerator. No pasta, no rice, no meal-prep, no stovetop, no oven, no leftovers. So you pretty much have to eat out all the time. You'll bleed more money.

And during a heatwave, during summer in general in some climates, each day brings the same challenges and anxieties again.

Where are you sleeping? Outside? What are the cops gonna do to you? What about the sneering homeowners, skeptical of your presence in their neighborhood? Staying at a shelter? Every morning, you enter a lottery, hoping your name will be randomly selected, giving you one of the available spaces to sleep indoors at the shelter. Maybe 300 people competing for 75 available spaces. And these aren't even necessarily 75 beds, might simply mean 75 available spaces to sleep on the concrete floor. So all day long, you commute, you hide from the sunlight, you go to work. And you wonder. You worry. You don't know if you'll even get to sleep on the floor later tonight, if they don't draw your name. Should you make alternative back-up plans, identify an outdoor space to sleep in? You line up single-file at the shelter door. Required. Can't be late. Is it still hot outside? Do you need to pee? Better hold steady. (In seasons other than summer: Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is there frigid wind? You've gotta stand in line for thirty minutes.) You find your designated inch-thick cheap plastic mat on the floor. No phone charger, no power outlet. Better not lose track of your phone, your bag, your cards/cash. Leave it unattended for a minute, and not only might it get snatched, but the shelter staff themselves will toss unattended items in the trash. Stepped to the bathroom for a couple minutes? You left your water bottle next to your floor-mat, now it's gone. In the same room with you, maybe 50 people, maybe more. Some crying, some conversing, some feuding, some coughing. All night. Next morning, 5:30, the lights are on, you've got ten minutes to get up and get back outside. Oh shit, did you take off your glasses? Anything you accidentally leave behind, you'll never see it again.

Unhoused people account for a massive percentage of heat-related deaths. In 2024 in Maricopa county (which covers most of Phoenix), 608 people died of heat-related causes. Of those, roughly half (49%) were without a place to live. Unhoused people are 0.2% of the population here.

Think about that. 0.2% of the population, yet they’re 49% of heat-related deaths.

Earthquakes in Venezuela: What We Know by Caracas Chronicles

Key Information About Venezuela’s State of Emergency by Caracas Chronicles

VENEZUELA’S EARTHQUAKE STATE OF EMERGENCY: HOW TO HELP

We Love Foundation: Provinding food, water, medical support, hygiene kits, shelter supplies, logistics, and direct support for vulnerable families on the ground. They have worked with global partners and Venezuelan nonprofits for the past 13 years.

The Gio Foundation: Humanitarian and animal aid nonprofit organization accepting donations through their portal.

Aldeas Infantiles SOS: Accepts donations in bolívares (Venezuelan currency) through their Venezuelan branch. Donations in foreign currencies can be sent through Aldeas Infantiles SOS Spain.

Save the Children’s Emergency Fund: Donations will go towards providing urgent, life-saving support to Venezuelan children.

UNICEF Spain: Has launched an Emergency Fund for Venezuelan children.

Miami-based Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce Foundation: Launched a fundraising campaign to provide food, water, medicine, shelter and emergency relief.

Source: Caracas Chronicles

update as of 11:04 EDT, via Reuters

So, I've been putting this off for one reason or another, but as of today, I'll be keeping $5 doodle/sketch commissions open to help fund my top-surgery!

The sketches will be a little rough and probably uncoloured, but they'll stay open until future notice.

MY POWER IS BEING DISCONNECTED TOMORROW

I was given a paper letter with a due date of tomorrow (less than 24 hours notice) for a $600 power bill and I'm freaking out because I can't pay that with no notice

My dad has 4 half siblings and two step siblings. They're all a decent bit younger than him. When I was a teenager, we went to a family reunion, and I realized something—my dad did not respect his siblings. He looked down on all of them. He saw them as fuck-ups and overgrown children. My dad had the American dream: well paying management job, suburban house, wife, and three kids. My aunt and uncles did not. Excluding my aunt, none of them were married or in serious relationships. They hadn't really settled into long term careers. Several of them were working the kind of jobs that get called "Unskilled labor." So he looked down on them because the youngest one was in his thirties (and several were much older), and yet none of them had "settled down" into what he saw as lifelong, permanent careers and relationships and lives. He was polite to their faces, sure, but I heard how he talked about them behind their backs, to my mother.

And then a few years ago, we visited his brothers again for Thanksgiving. And I realized something again--he respected them now. He saw them as equals. Why? Well. All of a sudden, every single one of them had serious, committed romantic partners. They didn't even need to still be with those partners—one of my uncle's fiance passed away from cancer before they could marry—just having had one showed that they matured into a real adult participating in society. In fact, at one point, my aunt was telling my mom about how one of my uncles was no longer living in an apartment she owned, but instead, after having a steady girlfriend for about a year, he moved in with her. And my mom literally said to my aunt, "wow. Look at that. He finally grew up."

One of the lines that frequently gets repeated about anti-aspec sentiment is "why would anyone hate asexuals/aromantics/etc? They aren't even doing anything." And that's exactly it. In the eyes of amatonormative culture, we aren't doing anything. Adults are supposed to do things. That's how you become a member of society.