Concerned (but powerless)

26 Male Survivors Of Sexual Assault Quoting The People Who Attacked Them

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR THOM YORKE

© Beth Wilson 2017

Hello wonderful people of tumblr. I NEED SOME HELP! Does anybody recognise this crochet pattern? I had started it as part of a blanket for a friend, then I put it away for a time and now I’ve come back to it and have no idea how I was doing it!! I believe it is a single pattern repeat wide, there was a way to make it wider, but for my project I didn’t need to…

I can think of at least…5 things my body is more useful for than someone else’s “motivation” to diet.

Long Eared Jerboa

a sichuan takin bull and his daughter

ESPECIALLY BABY ECHIDNAS

Originally posted by lovefloridauk

They’re just big lumps that float around the sea. They’re non-aggressive, non-territorial herbivores that spend most of their time sleeping or eating, or they might be socializing with other manatees or investigating interesting objects.

If you have an emergency and have to go to the hospital, you’ll owe the hospital a lot of money. (I got into a car wreck and broke my ankle and my arm. My hospital bill was around $20,000)

You’ll also owe the ambulance provider, if you need one. (My ambulance bill was about $800)

You may get separate bills from the anesthesiologist or surgeon. (My anesthesiologist bill was $1,700)

You may need follow-up appointments. (My orthopedic surgeon billed me for the appointments and his surgery together and it was about $1,000)

You’ve also got to pay for medical equipment you need afterward, like crutches or a walking boot. (Mine cost about $75)

Altogether, I ended up with almost $24,000 in medical debt from one car accident. That’s a really scary number for someone like me who makes $10/hr at a 12 hour a week job.

I got my debt down to $1075 by making some phone calls and submitting some paperwork.

The first thing I did was contact the hospital. They don’t make it easy to find, but many hospitals (perhaps most hospitals?) have financial assistance programs for people who can’t afford medical bills. I don’t make a lot of money, and I have bills to pay, so they were able to help me. I called the billing department and asked if they had any assistance programs for low income people who can’t pay their bills. I had to call multiple times, and I got transferred in circles by people who didn’t know what I was talking about. Finally, I got an appointment with someone in “Eligibility Services” (I don’t know what other hospitals call it, if it’s something different). I had to bring my pay stubs and copies of all of my bills. When I got to the hospital for the appointment, nobody knew what I was talking about so I had to wander a little to find where I needed to go. I spoke with the guy in Eligibility Services, and I waited for a decision on how much of the bill they would forgive. A month later, I got a call telling me it was totally forgiven.

I did the same thing for my ambulance bill and my anesthesiologist, but the process was a LOT easier. I just had to mail some paperwork and it was totally forgiven.

I didn’t bother with the medical equipment suppliers, since the bills came from separate companies and I didn’t feel like going through the process twice for $75. I was assured at the hospital that they had similar programs for debt forgiveness, so I could have probably avoided paying that too.

The only thing I couldn’t get taken care of was the surgeon/follow-up appointment cost, but they were able to put me on a no-interest payment plan.

Firstly, as we know Videotape was likely inspired by the ‘98 Japanese film “After Life” where the newly dead get to pick their happiest memory and have it recreated and recorded on a videotape. There’s also this fro the Kid A era called ‘too late’

We all know this song: it’s incredibly bittersweet and essentially about a man saying goodbye on videotape. 

A Reminder, in Thom’s words is about “someone writing a song, sending it to someone and saying, ‘If I ever lose it, you just pick up the phone and play me this song back to remind me.‘”. 

It’s kind of transitional too, the song intro was recorded at a train station in Prague, the voice over saying something like ‘enter or exit/the doors are closing/the next station is..”. I kinda see the link between that and the parts of Videotape where the person has moved on and talks about the secondary person being their centre when they ‘spin way, out of control’.

A Reminder, like Videotape (if we go lyrically here), is both about someone being older and looking backwards to better, happier memories, but there’s the darker imagery in both kinda suggesting that perhaps this person hasn’t done many good deeds, or feels that way. This is a bit iffy, but it’s not wholly positive is more my point - there’s a nostalgia to each song, something aggressive, and sad. We can see this here:

Videotape

 when Mephistopholis is just beneath and he’s reaching up to grab me 

A Reminder

Once I was free Once I was cool Once I was me

[…]

Knock me out Smash out my brains If I take the chair and start to talk shit

It’s like looking back at all your past personal transgressions and feeling like the devil is after you, or knowing how your life used to be vs what it is now and that it’s regrettable. However, on the other side to this coin they do, again, look for something better in the past, something for the ‘good days’ to be reminded of for always. Both songs try to take away something positive. Videotape says that regardless off what happens the protagonist isn’t going to be afraid, and A Reminder says that whatever happens - if these two people are speaking - this song (and a videotape for the former, obvs) is this reminder of all the good things: being free, being you, the goodness and wholeness that was in your life.

My final comment on this slight train wreck of a post is I would say (vaguely and tenuously - I’m working on this bit still) you could put these two songs with Daydreaming (as I’ve linked this with Videotape previously), and all three together you have this: Daydreaming is the video for Videotape, and A Reminder is the message in a bottle asking when I’m old, when I look back on my life, pick up the phone and play me this song, remind me of our time together - it was the most perfect day I’ve ever seen.