Hmm

Donate to SMUG (Sexual Minorities Uganda)

Donate to this vocational program training impoverished LGBT+ ppl in Uganda and providing them with internships (at $1,737/$5,000 as of 11/29/21 and they’ve been working on this for nearly a year)

atla’s worldbuilding and conflict resolution follows the same paths, it’s just less explicitly anti-radical but the praxis is the same.

whoops, uncle iroh is a war criminal but he’s so lovable and grief changed him (off screen) so he’s fine and will do his best to “make up for it” (spoiler: he does not)

jet is killed and mocked IN DEATH for being too radical and angry

katara is framed as bad for wanting justice for her mother and the violence her clan faced

mai and ty lee are redeemed despite happily taking part in state violence for the lulz

the fire lord doesn’t face violence and death, he’s just quietly de-powered by aang and then that’s “saving hte day” while the colonialism under the fire nation isn’t ever touched or resolved and REMAINS untouched/unresolved into LOK where the “solution” is turning fire-invaded lands into sort of international hubs (rather than giving htem SOLELY back to the natives whose land was stolen)

this is a problem in both atla and lok. atla and lok have ALWAYS been anti radical (and imo even the much complimented redemption of zuko is part of this) while pretending to have deeper, more complex messages and themes

and while aang is a much more active participant in conflict resolution than korra is (though much of that conflict is on a much smaller scale), his solution is almost always either pacifism or violence framed as nonviolence (like he definitely killed people but teh show never acknowledged that??). and he also rebukes radical solutions from the older avatars.

atla’s worldbuilding and conflict resolution follows the same paths, it’s just less explicitly anti-radical but the praxis is the same.

whoops, uncle iroh is a war criminal but he’s so lovable and grief changed him (off screen) so he’s fine and will do his best to “make up for it” (spoiler: he does not)

jet is killed and mocked IN DEATH for being too radical and angry

katara is framed as bad for wanting justice for her mother and the violence her clan faced

mai and ty lee are redeemed despite happily taking part in state violence for the lulz

the fire lord doesn’t face violence and death, he’s just quietly de-powered by aang and then that’s “saving hte day” while the colonialism under the fire nation isn’t ever touched or resolved and REMAINS untouched/unresolved into LOK where the “solution” is turning fire-invaded lands into sort of international hubs (rather than giving htem SOLELY back to the natives whose land was stolen)

this is a problem in both atla and lok. atla and lok have ALWAYS been anti radical (and imo even the much complimented redemption of zuko is part of this) while pretending to have deeper, more complex messages and themes

and while aang is a much more active participant in conflict resolution than korra is (though much of that conflict is on a much smaller scale), his solution is almost always either pacifism or violence framed as nonviolence (like he definitely killed people but teh show never acknowledged that??). and he also rebukes radical solutions from the older avatars.

here’s a suicide hotline for if any of you are in need of immediate support (x)

here’s a thread of black cancer fundraisers/research fundraising (x)

AVOID HEAT STRESS

If you have a laptop DO NOT use it on a soft surface like a pillow or on a blanket, it’ll block the vents on your computer and make it get really fucking hot inside.

If you have a desktop you gotta open it up and blow out the dust sometimes.

If you are moving your laptop in a bag turn the laptop off. Don’t put it to sleep, don’t just shut the screen, turn it off, because otherwise it’s in the bag generating heat and there’s nowhere for the heat to go in the bag. OFF. Not sleep. OFF.

DO NOT DROP

Okay I know that should be obvious but drop damage to your hard drive is bad bad news. Be as careful as you can to set your computer gently on flat surfaces; don’t leave it hanging out on a bed where it can get knocked off, don’t set it on the roof of your car. And yes, just dropping it a couple inches can kill your hard drive or totally shatter your screen.

DON’T PUT SHIT ON YOUR KEYBOARD

Look I’ve seen four people ruin their laptops because they had a pen on the keyboard and closed the laptop and it fucked up the screen and the keyboard and it sucks so much and you feel awful after it happens because it’s so avoidable just don’t put things on your keyboard and always check that your laptop is clear before you close it.

PROTECT YOUR PORTS ON YOUR LAPTOP

You’ve only got one power jack and a limited number of other inputs on your computer and if they detach from the motherboard you’re fucked. USB ports get damaged because people use them a lot and eventually it weakens the connection and then they just stop working and it sucks. You can get around this with USB ports by using a USB hub to connect things like your keyboard and mouse.

For your power plug you just gotta be careful. Avoid tripping over the cord at all costs, don’t yank the plug out of the computer. It will SUCK VERY MUCH A LOT if you have to buy a new computer because the power port lost contact with the motherboard.

Don’t move your computer with things plugged into it. Take the power cord off before you put your laptop in the bag, take out the USB mouse dongle, do not travel with little nubby bits sticking out of your computer that can easily get caught or get tweaked or snap off inside of the thing.

(I really can’t emphasize enough that most of the “it will cost more than it’s worth to fix this” laptops I see are because of USB ports and power jacks. People don’t seem to know that this isn’t something that can be fixed easily; a broken power jack is a “remove the motherboard and resoldier components” job, not a “plug a new one in in fifteen minutes” job and most computer repair shops aren’t going to solder things for you and if they DO it’s going to be very expensive)

RESTART YOUR SHIT AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH AND JUST LET THE FUCKING UPDATES RUN

You should probably restart more than once a month but whatever. This is actually something that I consider part of reducing heat stress because when your processor is straining to keep up with all the background bullshit that’s running from a program you opened three weeks ago it’s going to use up resources and get hot and look just restart it once in a while.

Also the updates are almost always okay and safe and generally running updates is a good and secure thing to do (though maybe follow a blog dedicated to the OS you run because if there IS a problem with the updates that blog will probably talk about it before the update gets forced on your computer)

ANTIVIRUS BULLSHIT

Yes you should probably be running an antivirus.

Sophos is free and it’s fine. But don’t pay for it - if you’re using Sophos use the free version.

If you’re looking for something paid and a little more comprehensive I recommend ESET - get the cheap version, renewals cost less than the initial purchase, and feel free to get a multi-year version, the credentials follow your email not the computer so if your computer dies before your license expires you can install the license on a new computer.

DO NOT INSTALL NORTON OR MCAFEE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE BULLSHIT. Kaspersky is whatever. It’s less bullshit than Norton or McAfee but not as good as ESET for about the same cost.

If you think you’ve got a virus run the free version of Malwarebytes and get your shit cleaned.

KEEP LIQUIDS THE FUCK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER

Again this should be obvious and yet. But seriously, just make a rule for yourself that drinks aren’t allowed on the same table as your computer and you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches.

PLUG YOUR COMPUTER INTO A UPS

Okay I fucking hate amazon but here’s a thing you should be using, just search the rest of the internet for “surge protector/UPS” and you’ll find something that isn’t from amazon - APC is a solid brand for this.

Basically you want a fat surge protector that has a little bit of a battery backup and you want to plug your computer (desktop OR laptop) into that instead of into the wall. The benefit of this is twofold:

1) if there’s a power surge the UPS will prevent your computer’s power supply from getting fried and possibly frying parts of your motherboard

2) if there’s a power outage and you’re *at* your computer you’ll have enough time to save what you’re working on before your computer loses power (like, you’ll maybe only have a minute or two on a small UPS but that’s still time to hit CTRL+S and keep from losing work)

At a bare, bare minimum your computer should be plugged into a surge protector but NOT directly into the wall.

BACK YOUR SHIT UP

[we interrupt this yelling for me to tell you that Western Digital has apparently released their new My Passport line and I’m obligated to inform you that you can get a 2.5″ USB 3.0 backup drive with FIVE FUCKING TERABYTES OF STORAGE for $130. Or you can get 4TB for $93. Or you can get 1TB for $53. basically what I’m saying is that it is not only cheap computer season it is also cheap hard drive season.]

[also if you’re getting a backup drive get western digital not seagate seagate fucking sucks and has a much higher failure rate]

Uh, okay, anyway - Do an image backup of your computer every once in a while so that if you get infected or your hard drive dies or whatever you can just restore from backup and move on like nothing happened.

HERE’S HOW TO DO AN IMAGE BACKUP.

SAVE YOURSELF THE WEAR AND TEAR

You know what is cheap? USB Keyboards and USB mice. You know what is not cheap? Fixing the touchpad on a laptop or replacing a laptop keyboard.

Get yourself a USB hub, a USB Keyboard and a USB Mouse (wired or wireless, doesn’t matter) and if you’re using your laptop at home plug *that* into your computer.

Also if your keyboard on your laptop breaks it’s fine just to use a USB keyboard instead I promise; if the screen breaks it’s also usually cheaper and easier to get a used or inexpensive monitor than it is to replace the screen. Your laptop is basically just a very small version of whatever bullshit is going on inside a desktop, if the peripherals break but the core components are fine you can just use it like a desktop.

Unless it’s a piece of shit that doesn’t have any USB ports or video out in which case you got ripped off, friend, demand functionality in your devices I’m sorry.

See in s1, M’gann has set fairly stringent limitations on her powers—specifically her shapeshifting. There is no reason M’gann couldn’t transform into boys (she even contradicts this statement within the same episode by transforming into Red Tornado). She refuses to transform into boys in s1 because she’s desperate to be seen as an Earth Girl. She limits how often she does things like grow extra limbs (after Wally’s bad reaction to her in Schooled). She also refuses until late in the season to transform into a genuine white martian form because she’s running away from that baggage.

Also note, in s1, she is still new to Earth, she is still getting used to the fact that on Earth it isn’t acceptable to be in everyone’s heads all the time (where on Mars, it isn’t just accepted it’s expected). We watch as she establishes the rules of using telepathy. “Don’t speak telepathically,” “Except on a mission,” “Don’t read people’s minds,” “It’s okay if it’s the bad guys,” She’s learning where the limits are.

By season 2, M’gann is still passing as a green martian, but she no longer avoids transforming into boys. And while in the first half of the show it would seem she has no self-imposed limitations on her use of telepathy, we only see her using it in mission contexts. And she also limits the opponents she brainfries to dangerous human traffickers (which is what Kroloteans, Psimon, and Kaldur are as far as she knows). In fact, the fact that she doesn’t know about the plan already indicates that M’gann isn’t just going into anyone’s heads without direct cause (ex. pulling Gar out of a PTSD flashback).

Even at the beginning of s2, She has limitations. And it’s really up to interpretation if she was already living by that rule before she crossed the line with Conner or if she’s backed off on brainfrying and mind reading since he broke up with her.

At the midpoint of season 2, where M’gann realizes she’s hurt Kaldur (who is actually good) and endangered Artemis (who is actually alive) and she’s been lied to and manipulated by Dick and Wally, we see M’gann now actively refuse to use her telepathy. Even when it could have really helped (ex. when fighting Black Beetle, when fighting Despero, and when verifying Green Beetle’s honesty—though Green Beetle also used her white martian status to further stab at her self esteem).

She only recovers her willingness to really use her telepathy after she’s helped Kaldur recover, but we never see her brainblast someone again this season.

Then in season 3, M’gann is no longer trying to pass as a green martian, she’s no longer afraid to transform into a blatant martian form in front of teammates, and she has firm, but not inflexible limitations on her telepathy. She uses it for missions, she’s also comfortable using it for casual communication. She doesn’t dig into people’s minds, instead using her training as a counselor to help the kids in her care. But if Gar is in a mysterious coma, she’ll go deep in his psyche to pull him out. If Artemis is about to sell her soul to Wotan, she’ll give her an imaginary landscape to mourn in instead. If the fate of life itself is at stake and there’s no other time and no other plan, she’ll brainfry a room of villains and mind-controlled heroes.

This is so important when dealing with the misconception of black history and what Americans are taught about the Civil Rights Movement.

treating children as a burden is evil, point blank period. a child can never be a burden. they have no choice but to depend on their caretakers or they will die. if you don’t want to have the responsibility of taking care of a child, don’t fucking have kids. don’t agree to take care of someone else’s kids. don’t go places where kids are welcome and frequent. unlike them, you have a choice where you go, who you hang around, what you do in your day to day life.