Blooming.

How none of us are necessarily correct, and the apple itself, is not really any colour, it’s just a fruit minding its own goddamn business??

There is evil in the world, but it doesn’t mean you have to fall into the capitalistic trap that teaches us from a young age that if you’re not able-bodied, mentally healthy and contributing to the work force, you are a useless drain on society and its resources and undeserving of the kindness that’s shown to those who are able to work and whatnot.

[Image: Tweet by Emily Mullin (@EmilyLMullin) and tweet by Isobelle Winter (@IsobelleWinter), both about the dangers of Facebook’s new preventative health screening tool. Images have been modified for visual ease but information has not been changed.]

Something to know about Facebook’s new “screening tool,” and advice/info that can most certainly be used outside of this specific situation.

For spoonies, the biggest deal is how this data, if leaked, could affect you in professional and insurance spheres.

Here’s Emily’s full thread, which discusses the details of the tool, and here’s Isobelle’s full thread, which extrapolates on specific dangers.

I feel you, man. Here’s a few ideas

Radical unions. Over 60% of millennials are in favor of unions, but fewer than 5% are members. If 60% of a workplace is organized, that union has a fuckton of control over their conditions - and with some good messaging could no doubt expand into that 40% that’s opposed or unsure. Join the IWW, especially if there’s a local branch (if not, maybe you can help organize one), and they’ll give you all the resources you need. Maybe even consider salting, which is where you join jobs specifically with the intent to organize them (if you’ve seen Sorry To Bother You, Squeeze is a salt). There are a ton of people who are waiting for an opportunity to unionize - take advantage of that

Solidarity economy. On the business/municipal level, the cooperative movement. On the community level, the Transition Initiative. And on the interpersonal level, the Buy Nothing Project. These build an alternative to capitalism from the grassroots and have had great success. I think that’s partially because they’re inoffensive and not overtly political - you can convince pretty much anyone to start sharing and trading things, or to support worker-owned businesses. I think this is our best bet for moving away from capitalism and towards sustainable socialism fast

Meshnets. I know this seems kind of arbitrary and small compared to the others, but communication and organization is vital to any movement, and we’re already seeing surveillance and censorship over the internet which has every potential to get worse. Meshnets are near-impossible to censor or monitor without physically damaging the equipment, and since that equipment is very easy and cheap to DIY and not particularly easy to spot, it’d be fairly safe from fascism. I can also tell you that most people are super psyched about mesh networking when someone actually tells them what it is, so we just need to spread the word and expand the networks and infrastructure

–

and there we have it! the sequel to the first shitty horoscopes zine, we get a little more specific with shitty horoscopes, book ii: anger. i’ve been really overwhelmed with how much positive response something i just did for fun in my spare time got, so thank you everyone :) i’ll be selling copies of both zines at canzine toronto on november 1st, so if you’re in the area, swing by! prints from volume one are gonna be hot off the press on october 31st, which means the online store should get up and running the first week of november.

We toss out over 80 pounds of textiles each year. These textiles are often made of plastic materials (polyester, nylon), made in unethical conditions, dyed with harsh dyes that often get put into the rivers, etc. Even a single cotton shirt releases carbon emissions and uses tons of water. 

So the best thing to prevent the unsustainable growth of the fashion industry is to make sure that your clothing lasts as long as possible. To do so, mending clothing is a must. So here are some resources to help you learn how to do various things, such as sewing a button, to tailoring clothes, or even upcycling old clothing into new styles. 

* How to sew on three different types of button

* How to hand sew on a patch on a torn pair of jeans

* How to sew up a hole in an old shirt

* How to sew a simple T-shirt

* How to upcycle old clothing into new clothing

* More upcycle and sewing techniques

* How to repair a damaged sock

* How to do an invisible stitch

* 3 different stitches to work with for different results

* How to make a T-shirt smaller so it fits you better

* How to make repairs to your shoes

These are just a few of the things that you can do in order to make sure that your clothing lasts for a long time. Nobody wants to keep buying new clothing, as it is expensive and wasteful. 

 If your five year old struggles to walk and often cries in pain then something may be medically wrong. don’t just put it down to growing pains or a tantrum.

if your seven year old ever has trouble keeping up in school, something may be wrong. don’t just assume that they aren’t trying hard enough. 

If your nine year old is often spraining or dislocating their joints and is covered in unexplained bruises, something may be wrong. don’t assume they’ve just been “playing rough”. 

if your eleven year old says they can’t play sports in school because they’re struggling/hurting, something may be wrong. don’t assume they’re making an excuse to get out of it. 

if your thirteen year old says they can’t do a “simple” task, there may be something wrong. don't assume that they are making excuses. 

if your fifteen year old can’t get out of bed in the morning or goes straight to bed after school and they’re tell you that they’re exhausted every day, something may be wrong, don’t assume they’re just a lazy teenager.

stop assuming that all of these experiences are normal and that they happen to all children. if this sounds like your child they could have a chronic illness. so please, if you think something may be wrong with your child you are probably right and you need to get them medical help. The doctors may not listen and use one of the excuses above, but please keep fighting for them because you’re the only one that can. 

Spring: MCAS is absolute hell. Itching, bad breathing, nothing works. Is this hayfever or am I dying? What airborne thing am I allergic to now?

Summer: Stand up. Faint. Sit down. Faint. Overheat. Brain fog. Nausea. Will we vomit or is it just hot? Faint again. Dropped something? Welp it’s gone forever. Oh, it’s raining now because of the heat! Cool, joint pain time. I don’t know what that is but I know I’m allergic to it.

Autumn: As it gets colder, muscles start playing up. Leaves falling off trees and onto skin. Allergic to that too!