Ten pounds of personality in a five-pound bag
This post is about the Israel/Hamas war.
This post by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is extremely powerful. Read the full thing before making comment.
https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/on-hostages-and-broken-hearts/
And try not to have a scarcity mindset around empathy.
I think “being a contrarian” is one of those things that’s okay if you’re doing it with people who have consented to it, and Kinda Bad Form if they haven’t.
Like boxing.
A contrast crystallized for me today: One place where Ask Culture falls apart is in the concept of Microaggressions. There are, in fact, times when it is not generally okay to Just Ask, They Can Always Say No.
I feel like documenting microaggressions is a whole separate post that I’m not really qualified to summarize right here; but the go-to example of a microaggression is asking a Black person (out of nowhere) if you can touch their hair. Do not do this thing. It is not an okay thing to ask, even under an Ask Culture mindset.
It can be hard to know where the invisible lines are. But this one is pretty easy! But it might not be easy for everyone; hence the post.
“You can’t expect the village to show up for you if you are unwilling to be a villager.”
This also gets in a little bit to the concept of RSVPing, and also Ask/Guess culture. It is okay to RSVP “no” to an event! But it’s better to say Yes or No than to just be uncertain; that uncertainty, when multiplied by the number of guests, makes hosting very difficult.
(This is part of why I started doing nuclear hosting of events!)
Many years ago, a college frenemy said the wisest thing I have ever heard. I’ve shared it with a lot of people and I’m sharing it with you all now today. Hold it in your hearts.
This, too, shall pass.
Like a motherfucking kidney stone.
I’m having trouble finding the original author; but I remember this poem, and find it poignant today.
It can only be the thought of verdure to come, which prompts us in the autumn to buy these dormant white lumps of vegetable matter covered by a brown papery skin, and lovingly to plant them and care for them. It is a marvel to me that under this cover they are labouring unseen at such a rate within to give us the sudden awesome beauty of spring flowering bulbs. While winter reigns the earth reposes but these colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
With everyone talking about encryption these days, I thought I’d reshare this old XKCD. This has pretty much always been my life 😂
If you know me in person, you know I (a) have anxiety and (b) like to be prepared for things, Just In Case.
A few years ago, I made this little Tumblr for building a basic go-bag for hurricanes or wildfires or whatever. I thought I’d share it here now, in case anyone is getting Analysis Paralysis about how to get started.
https://www.tumblr.com/unfuck-your-prepping
Be safe, everyone! Put on your own oxygen mask, etc.
Because some folks I know got hit with this one recently, here’s a reminder that when you are Married and you file your W4, the “married” checkbox makes the form assume you are the sole earner for your family, and it calculates your withholdings accordingly.
Yes, this is idiotic.
No, I don’t know why the W4 is written that way.
Here is a Personal Finance Reddit post with more information. As always, the IRS is the final arbiter on this stuff; internet people can try to explain it but always go back to irs.gov to be sure.
This video by Taha was a good quick explanation of what Intersectionality means. He’s a person of color (Persian, I think? But don’t quote me on that) and also gay, and doesn’t always feel completely welcomed in either of those two communities.
A lot of people have weird misleading takes on what Intersectionality means. So I try to share information about it when I can.
Emilybook 