kialessa:

doorstoplord:

doorstoplord:

have i ever told y’all the story about how a snake knew I was trans years before I did

okay so

my 7th grade social studies/8th grade science teacher (he did both classes. Somehow…) had a snake lovingly named Hisser. Hisser would occasionally be taken out to crawl and he was held by kids and when there were fire alarms Hisser was taken along, usually to his chagrin. 

This was one of those days where we had in class work time and most of us were just chilling and so Mr. A got Hisser out and started passing him around.

Every girl student that he came to, he would immediately snuggle up to, wrap around their arms, and get cozy. With boy students, he would just sort of sit in the coiled lump that he’d been handed in. This was true with just about every single student, and Mr. A said that Hisser likes girls a lot better than guys and this has been thoroughly proven by Hisser’s attitude.

Then Hisser was handed to me. He was a loveable cold scaley rope as you would expect, but he didn’t coil around my arms. He didn’t get cozy. He just sat there. And Mr. Anderson said, “Huh. That’s weird. He usually likes girls.” 

I passed the snake to my friend and surely enough, Hisser wrapped around her arms and got cozy. 

I came out as a trans guy about 7-8 years later, and just recently realized that Hisser was right about me not being a girl all along. 

I’ve also decided that whenever anyone asks me “Why I think I’m a boy,” which is my LEAST favorite question ever, I’ll just tell them that a snake told me a long time ago. 

princeofsparkles:

a-ginger-in-black:

punsbulletsandpointythings:

janey-jane:

assessthatdress:

dancing-thru-clouds:

systlin:

dancing-thru-clouds:

systlin:

dancing-thru-clouds:

systlin:

tamartia:

systlin:

Here, a cheater course on caring for natural fibers!

1. Wool. Treat it like it has the delicate constitution of a Victorian lady and the conviction that baths are evil of a 17th century noble. (If I get in WATER my PORES will OPEN and I will CATCH ILL AND DIE.)

2. Cotton; easygoing. Will shrink a bit if washed and dried hot.

3. Silk; people think it’s like wool and has the constitution of a fashionably dying of consumption Victorian lady, but actually it’s quite tough. Can be washed in an ordinary washer, and either tumbled dry without heat or hung to dry.

4. Linen; it doesn’t give a shit. Beat the hell out of it. Historically was laundered by dousing it in lye and beating the shit out of it with wooden paddles, which only makes it look better. The masochist of the natural fiber world. Beat the fuck out of it linen doesn’t care. Considerably stronger than cotton. Linen sheet sets can last literal decades in more or less pristine shape because of that strength.The most likely natural fiber to own a ball gag.

why are all my thrifted linen clothes dry-clean only ? is that fake ? is it a linen blend ?

That is a blatant lie. Throw that shit in the wash and iron it as hot as you can once it comes out and bam presto good as new.

Also important fabric note: cotton, wool, and sufficiently thick silk can be torn, for a nice straight line. Linen cannot. Linen laughs at your puny mortal strength. You have to cut linen

Truth.

Your puny mortal hands will give out before the linen does.

Hell, for a truly awesome finish on your linen, throw it into a pot of boiling water, stir it around vigorously, haul it out, wring EXTREMELY firmly once it’s cool enough to safely handle, hang dry, iron as hot as your iron will go while it’s still slightly damp. Your linen will thank you. Your hands might not

Truth.

This is why heirloom linens are a thing. Your great-grandmothers linens outlived her, your grandma, and with proper care will also outlive you.

Also! If your linen is only lightly worn and you didn’t sweat much while wearing it? Just soak it down with water, wring it out, and hang it in the sun. It’ll take care of any weird smells on its own

all this^^^ about linen YES it is a miracle fiber!

but… i really feel like wool gets an unfairly bad rep, especially since it is also very easy to sew with, and wool naturally inhibits the growth of mold, mildew and bacteria, i.e. the reasons fabrics tend to get (and stay) stinky. 

I dyed 2 pair of hand-knit 100% wool socks this week and the process consists of putting the socks in almost-but-not-quite boiling water, adding acid in addition to the harsh aniline dye and then keeping it in there for the better part of an hour. 

… which… sort of belies the ‘delicate Victorian lady constitution’ as outlined above. 

If you don’t understand wool it can absolutely be frustrating to work with, but like other natural fibers wool is quite forgiving if you know its nuances and preferences.

SO! behold this super cool image of different fibers under a microscope! 

See all those ‘scales’ on the animal hair fibers (image left)? when you expose that fiber structure to wet + heat the fiber swells and those scales extend out, then when you introduce agitation (see: ‘beat the hell out of it’ above) the scales on neighboring fibers catch and lock together - the fabric then shrinks and you get felt (if you’re doing it with non-woven fiber) or felted fabric (if you’re doing it with woven or knitted fabric).

Sometimes you want felting - felted fabric tends to be denser, warmer, and more waterproof.

but if you’ve just spent 40 hours hand knitting a pair of socks with intricate lace and cable detailing you really don’t want felting. So the key is just to remove one of the two main elements that lead to felting - hot water or agitation (and really agitation is the main culprit). 

Since wool naturally resists getting stinky, all you have do to is hand wash your wool garments periodically - immerse them in a sink or bath or bucket of cold water, add a little delicate detergent or shampoo (it’s formulated for hair, wool is hair, no special fancy laundry detergent needed!) and just kind of swish it around gently with your hands, then rinse and hang or lay flat (in the case of knitted garments) to dry. Now that I have a tub in my bath I usually wait till i have a pile of woolens that need cleaning and do a tub-full at a time. Easy peasy. 

also side note the ‘dry clean only’ tag is often a ‘cover our ass’ tag. I never dry clean anything but heavily tailored things like suits and winter coats. everything else can be hand washed tbh. 

One note with linen, cheap linen tends to be made of the remnants of higher quality linen; aka short strands spun into longer threads. This means it’s a bit weaker than other linen, so be careful putting it in a dryer too often, as it may eventually start weaken the fabric.

(I work in a fabric store that specializes in natural fiber and you can absolutely feel the difference between the short strand linen and the long strand linen)

The reason linen and silk tends to have the dry-clean-only tag isn’t the fiber.

Many expensive clothing items, such as the ones that you tend to be able to buy made of linen or silk, have stuff Done To Them as part of the design; this can be a bunch of things, but a decent general term is ‘sizing’.  If you wash the item in water, the sizing will come out.  It won’t damage the fiber, but the way the garment behaves may change - generally, it will be less stiff and not hold its shape as well.  So if you’ve got a store-bought garment made of silk or linen, you can totally wash it in water, but be prepared for it to change a bit.

None of this applies to things made from yardage; when you buy fabric to sew with, the first thing you do is wash and dry it, in the manner you’ll use to wash the resulting clothing (wool) or very very harshly (the other three).  That way it does all the shrinking it’s going to do before it’s sewn up, and there will be no unpleasant surprises the first time you try to put it on after it comes out of the laundry…

Saw this without the notes, so reblogging with one of the (many) helpful note chains. (If you go into the notes there’s actually a bunch of helpful ones. )

But also, yeah silk varies wildly by item in terms of how well it will wash.

waywaychuck:

box-kun2056:

lesbian-bookworm:

crazyfandomaddicted:

lightningchaserarts:

29-pieces:

7faerielights:

solarpunk-gnome:

therealflurrin:

systlin:

dragginage:

tami-taylors-hair:

I was in line at Aldi and this girl with two toddlers in front of me had her card declined and she looked so fucking sad and said “let me call my husband real quick” and it was only 18 dollars, so I just paid for it, and she was very sweet and then as she walked off, the lady behind me said `”You know that was probably a scam, right?” and like, even if it was, like what a sad fucking scam, right? 18 dollars at the Aldi. If you’re “scamming” me for some Tyson chicken and apple juice and cauliflower, then just take my fucking money. 

“A scam” people are fucking wild.  

This happened to me, too. A woman had used WIC for the majority of her stuff (which I say from personal experience is such a long and embarrassing process) and to buy the remainder of her groceries, which included diapers and wipes, she used a card, and it got declined. I bought the other $30 of her groceries because hey, I’ve been there, and now I’m not. She was extremely emotional and began to cry and even hugged me. My mom called me on the drive home and could tell I had been crying myself, asked what was wrong, and when I told her what happened, she berated me for being “duped.” I couldn’t believe she could be so disappointed in one of her children for doing something- nice? Is that the hill you want to die on? Getting mad about people needing groceries?

I once paid for a woman’s bill at the vet…it wasn’t a big one, but she was trying to pay for some medication for her dog, and her card was declined. And her lip started trembling, and she says “I don’t get paid until Tuesday, would he be ok until then?” 

So I just told them to add the $20 something onto my bill, and I thought she was going to break down crying right there.

And I don’t care if it was a scam or not. Just do nice things for people sometimes. 

Do good recklessly.

I think “Do good recklessly” would be fantastic word art to hang on one’s wall. Artistic people, go!

So this has happened to me but from the other side. Several years ago when my oldest was around three or so, I had my debit card decline at Walmart. It wasn’t a scam or a mistake, I was genuinely broke. Out of money. I checked my bank and discovered I had something like 7 dollars left to my name and a hungry kid and nothing to eat at home. So I sat there trying to come up with the best way to stretch that tiny amount of money to feed my kid. Not even to feed me. I can live on popcorn or something if I have to but my kid was three and he had to eat. So there I am trying really hard not to cry while I slowly take things out of my basket to get it down to under 7 bucks, when a lady tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up and she smiled at me and started putting the things back in my cart. I opened my mouth to tell her that I didn’t have the money for them but she stopped me right away and said “Don’t worry about it. It’s gonna be fine.” Then she handed the cashier her credit card and said “Ring up all of it.” My kid got to eat because of her. I got to eat because of her. I had laundry soap and deodorant because of her. She could’ve just ignored me silently struggling in that line. She could’ve decided I was a scam and gone home feeling good about avoiding being duped. But instead she chose to help me and she saved us. So maybe the person struggling in front of you is trying to put one over on you or maybe they are just sad and broke and trying to figure out what to do. You get to decide which you want to believe and what you want to do. But I’ll tell y’all, no one has ever been more beautiful to me than that lady in that line who saved me and my baby. Be like her. Be beautiful.

Do good recklessly

DO BETTER. BE BETTER. STRIVE TO BE BETTER.

DO GOOD RECKLESSLY

One time, my dad and I were living the grocery store and there was a guy outside asking for money to buy some stuff to take home for his kids. It was around Christmas time. My dad asked him if he could give him groceries instead of money, and the guy immediately said yes, so my dad gave him one of everything we bought (meat, rice, some chocolates, milk, oil). At that time, my dad hadn’t gotten his paycheck because the company he worked for was going through a tough time, but he didn’t care, he saw an opportunity to help someone and he did.

Another time, my dad gave 50 bucks to a guy who said he needed to buy medicine for his kids. I told my dad he was probably going to spend the money on alcohol or something, but my dad said that “whether he was lying or not says something about HIS character, but hearing someone in need and choosing not to help when I have the means to says something about mine”.

I never forget that.

Can we make Do good recklessly The slogan on 2019

Do Good Recklessly

Because if anything this is the year we need it more than ever.

Do Good Recklessly 2021.

willkill4pudding:

andhumanslovedstories:

andhumanslovedstories:

I miss when everyone on my dash listened to Welcome to Night Vale so there’s be a good chance that on any ole day someone would reblog a quote that would grab me by the throat and forcibly ascend me to a higher plane where I understood myself and the universe better and with more kindness but also a little spook

“The past is gone, and cannot harm you anymore. And while the future is fast coming for you, it always flinches first and settles in as the gentle present” are you kidding me this quote has propelled me through at least three emotional crises

“The desert seems vast, even endless. And yet scientists tell us that somewhere, even now, there is snow.”
That quote literally got me through grieving my brother like WTNV goes HARD

achievemenhunt:

madgastronomer:

The Chrome browser exists to show you ads and track where you go so that Google can show you more ads. Please stop using Chrome. Firefox is open source, and while Mozilla is not perfect, it isn’t actively fucking evil the way Google is. It has a bazillion plugins, including various (FREE!) ad block plugins (I recommend uBlock Origins, which will even block YouTube ads – you can watch videos without interruptions again!). It will also function very effectively with a lot more tabs open than Chrome. I’ve got around 800 tabs open right now (not loaded, of course, except for maybe 2 dozen; it’s been a heavy browsing day), and my wife has between 2k and 3k at any time.

We are in the New Browser Wars. This time there’s a helluva lot of money up for grabs, because a lot of it is about running those ads. Monopolies are bad for consumers.

Just go download Firefox.

Firefox plugins I 100% recommend if you don’t want to be tracked (and want to cost corporations money)

AdNauseam is an adblocker that generates false clicks on the ads it blocks, which costs the corporations that pay for them money.

Privacy Possum messes with the tracking data collected about you, rendering it essentially useless

TrackMeNot generates random search terms across sites, meaning that any data collected about things you actually search is buried in a sea of random bullshit. Makes it very hard for people to figure out what you’re actually doing. You can block terms in the options, which means it won’t search for anything incriminating on your behalf (I think the word bomb is blocked by default)

WhatCampaign replaces tracking analytics used in website code with data that can’t be used to track you. I’m pretty sure it replaces it with “fuck off” by default.

I’m not adding links because tumblr will not show this up if I do, but you can search these on the Firefox addons site and they’ll come up.

iampikachuhearmeroar:

imnotrevealingmyname:

silly-jellyghoty:

phantomrose17:

dailyhangover:

Fuck

it’s march today you fools