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~ Brin ~ 4 Comments

justice-turtle:

Air & Angels: Handbag/purse/backpack/WHATHAVEYOU meme

airandangels:

if you habitually carry around a handbag, purse, backpack or other bag with your DAY TO DAY LIFE STUFF in it, kindly itemise its contents here, as shall I

it will all be very revelatory

you do not have to count, like, old receipts and tissues but now would be a good time to get them out of your…

I’m going to count both my pocket-stuff and my backpack-stuff, but omit day-specific schoolbooks…

  • Cell phone
  • Keys (about a dozen, all of which I use)
  • Half a dozen pens of my favorite ergonomic style
  • Swiss Army knife
  • Leather wallet with money, IDs, various plastic cards and gift certificates, and a USB thumb drive (for printing documents at school)

That’s all in my pockets. Backpack:

  • Graphing calculator
  • Checkbook
  • Colored pencils
  • “Clicker”, which is a polltaking device for school and looks rather like a remote control
  • Wee portable pencil-sharpener, the kind that is just a plastic frame with a blade in
  • iPod charger
  • Receipts for all the textbooks I’ve rented this semester
  • Day planner
  • Hardcover address book with my To Read list in (this is a new experiment, suggested by Bookblather from LJ; my reading lists are always going missing)
  • Small spiral-bound memo book with my shopping list in
  • Thermos bottle full of peanut M&Ms for snacking on
  • Water bottle
  • Three or four unused pads in their wrappers
  • and a bottle of OTC painkillers. ;P

Ooh, neat idea. Maybe by reading others’ posts I’ll find new Useful Things to add to my collection.

My own Useful Things collection, kept in a utility belt belly bag utility belt, in order of what I pulled out:

Main compartment:

  • Some clean napkins
  • A notebook, which is nearly full and I should replace it
  • A big scrunchie (for ponytails, as opposed to small scrunchies that go at the bottom of braids)
  • A paperback copy of Eric, by Terry Pratchett (emergency use only; I don’t have an e-reader)
  • A pen
  • An electronic dictionary, which also plays Hangman, is a calculator, and can tell you what day of the week a given day was/will be
  • Wallet
  • The one cell phone owned by my family, which is usually kept in Mom’s backpack
  • A bottle of pumpkin-scented hand sanitiser from Bath and Body Works, which I haven’t yet used and forgot I had
  • A tiny flashlight only good for reading by
  • An Occupy Toronto flyer from November (I didn’t go)
  • A plastic bag I got from the bulk section, which might come in handy
  • A spare battery for the flashlight
  • A comfortingly smooth honey-coloured rock
  • A twisty tie

Front compartment:

  • A miniature blue Sharpie
  • A pair of clip-on sunglasses
  • A one-metre tape measure
  • Two packets of cranberry-almond biscotti
  • A magnifying glass
  • Six peppermints
  • A tiny sowing kit consisting of a needle, six different colours of thread wrapped around some cardboard, a safety pin, and a button
  • A penknife with scissors and tweezers
  • A rubbery toy lizard
  • A non-rubbery toy turtle
  • A length of stretchy string (originally intended to be a bracelet) about…um…*uses tape measure* 16 in/40 cm long
  • …you know what, I’m just going to throw away this five-year-old Tootsie Roll
  • A couple inches of braided rope with one of those keychain loops at each end
  • A paperclip
  • Instructions on how to tie various knots
  • A slice of blue agate, also comfortingly smooth and pretty
  • A piece of amethyst that used to be a keychain before it broke (rocks are good, okay?)

Back compartment:

  • One tampon
  • Two menstrual pads
  • Two panty liners
  • Ziploc bags: one snack, one quart
  • A Ziploc bag containing some wipes of the type used on babies’ butts, dried out but could probably be brought back to life with a bit of water
  • A tightly-folded emergency poncho, never used
  • A foil blanket, also never used
  • A small geode (yay rocks!)
  • …so that’s where my Star of David necklace went! (Like I’ll actually be able to dig it out in time if I happen to encounter a Jewish vampire. Also good (well, bad) for werewolves.)

Attached to the belt:

  • Bike key
  • House key
  • P.O. box key
  • Keychain shaped like a Samoa (I’m not very fond of them, but it was the only kind of cookie keychain they had left in stock)
  • A pouch containing a penknife with fork, spoon, and corkscrew
  • A bottle of hand sanitiser that I do use
  • (not actually attached at the moment, but I always put it on before leaving the house) A pouch containing a Sansa (MP3 player), set of headphones, and docking cable (The Sansa also acts as a thumb drive to backup my diary.)
  • A first aid bag

Inside the first aid bag:

  • A tube of Polysporin
  • Band-aid: one medium-large, three medium, two large/knee
  • Five packets of alcohol wipes
  • A Ziploc bag containing a disposable CPR mask
  • Instructions on what to do in case of heat exhaustion, blisters, insect stings, and sprains
  • Moleskin bandage
  • Three pseudoephedrine tablets
  • Two Dramamine tablets
  • One Imodium tablet
  • Another safety pin
  • Two emergency quarters, though I can’t actually rely on pay phones existing
  • A whistle-compass-mirror combo (it was the only spot I had space)
  • A chocolate bar (ditto, though I could argue it’s medicinal)
  • A tube of anti-itch ointment (the kind with Benadryl)
  • A roll of gauze bandage
  • An Ace bandage
  • A small tube of sunscreen
  • A lighter
  • A container of floss, possibly to be used for string-related purposes
  • Two pairs of gloves
  • A small bottle of bug repellent
  • A tiny hairbrush I forgot I had (again, too bulky to fit anywhere else)

Can you tell how proud I am of my collection? And that I’ve obtained a reputation for always having the right tool for the situation?

Tags:

#utility belt   #meme   #Useful Things

{{next post in sequence}}

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

stitchmedown:

selfprofessedmathnerd:

stitchmedown:

scarlip:

stitchmedown:

[…]

Oh man, that is soooo true. Damn it NS! They were pretty apologetic about the whole thing too and said that there was probably a way I could get the money back once I had a new sticker on my card. Speaking of I should probably call my mom just to harass her about that…

It’s not perfect, though. I’m unhappy at the knowledge that without student insurance my anti-depressants might cost a metric shitload. Like, what if I’m on them for the rest of my life? I’m going to spend thousands of dollars throughout my lifetime if that’s the case. For what? It’s like a much bigger, more daunting, more scary version of women having to buy tampons, a money based punishment for happening to be ill. (I hope I can eventually get off the drugs eventually just for that reason augh.)

[… ]

Re: healthcare, I’m starting to wonder about it from trips to the UK (british partner) and knowing people there. It seems good if you’re mostly healthy, but healthcare also includes doing things to ensure the person can take care of themself. The UK is apparently cutting a lot of disability benefits and limiting who deserves what to nonsensical standards. The US still sucks, but for the people who have the greatest need for healthcare, it seems like lots of other places suck as well.

Re: The race thing… I honestly feel pretty embarassed right now ahahaha. My apologies to anyone reading along who deserves said apology… I should really know better. u.u;

Healthcare: What grosses me out is that I’ve read a lot of stuff from people who live in Ontario about how there’s a bunch of things being slowly cut from the list of stuff that’s covered. Also been reading about how Canada will actually sometimes refuse to cover previously existing conditions that immigrants have on the offchance that those immigrants are moving soley to take advantage of the healthcare system. Which is incredibly disgusting, given that if those people move to take advantage of the healthcare system *and then get better like they should given that they are taking care of their health by moving*, they will then start to be productive citizens in our country.

Not to mention that if you’re more concerned about catching fraud than you are about making sure that nobody falls through the cracks, you are a shitty, shitty person.

I found out (well, was reminded) today that we do not accept people with HIV/AIDS to immigrate to Canada … it’s kinda sad, really. There is definitely room to grow in the Canadian government department… apparently, if you are not with the Conservatives, you are with the Child Pornographers… I question the world I live in right now.

Oh my *GOD* do you see why I think that contempt and disdain are things that need to be used in this kind of discourse? Because that is the stupidest shit I have ever fucking seen holy shit.

If I understand it correctly*, my family got in on a technicality. We didn’t officially know Mom had cancer until the day after our preparatory health exam, so they weren’t allowed to take it into consideration. (Mind you, the delay before actually moving was long enough that almost all of the treatment was over anyway.)

It’s scary to think how much would be different if the timing was off by just one day.

(This was in 2007, if you were wondering.)

*I was thirteen; there was almost certainly stuff happening I wasn’t let in on.

Tags:

#reply via reblog   #our home and cherished land

Homeopathy makes me sad.

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

nevernotbroken:

Or, mean atheists do, when they talk about homeopathy. I don’t have anything against homeopathy itself.

So one time I found this video by this feminist atheist about this falling out she had with Richard Dawkins, over him and a bunch of other atheists being racist, sexist douchecanoes. I actually spent a couple hours reading what she had to say on the subject, and the whole thing was just really awesome documentation of when atheists are horribly sexist and awful — and I love reading peoples’ documentations of oppression just to see it put in really concrete terms like, here’s what happened, here’s why that’s BAD. By the time I was done with this I was totally crushing on this person (insofar as I crush, which is— not really…) and thought she was the COOLEST THING.

So I decided to check out her front page to see if she was always this awesome.

NO. NO SHE WAS NOT.

So her most recent video was talking about homeopathy and saying the MOST EVER CONDESCENDING HORRIBLE THINGS. She was complaining about the FDA only regulating it, and felt like it should be banned outright, because WHAT IF SOMEONE USES IT FOR CANCER. Surely people are so stupid that they need the government to protect them from themselves! Especially those pagans! Don’t they realize we already killed all of them? Her previous defense of Muslim women from Richard Dawkins seemed so much less so now that I realized she wasn’t arguing from a belief that oppression of marginalized belief systems is wrong, just that it should be rational and scientifically based.

and this made me really really sad because, er, it’s magical and doesn’t present itself as anything else, at least I’ve never heard of anyone present it as anything except faith-based and magical? and she was basically calling for the state to ban a magical technique. which. is a religious practice. and that’s really uncool, considering that states actually do have a history of doing that.

Anyway there are exactly two things I know about homeopathy.

1) It is based on magical techniques that I think are Greek?
2) It was created/revived/popularized at a point in history where there was a lot of resistance to the medical field, which was being formed in such a way that it was monopolizing knowledge over peoples’ bodies. The state actually does have a history of cutting funding to organizations based on this principle, which is how the medical field was able to assert the unconditional legitimacy and cultural hegemony it now enjoys.

So inherent in her call for the federal government to ban religious practices was also more subtextual support for the destruction of self-care and the further monopolization of knowledge to a select few specialists.

And it’s like how can you even talk to someone who doesn’t understand that!? And maybe this is why I have such a hard time making friends, but it’s just so triggering and upsetting.

People with knowledge of folk magic techniques and people who resist the cultural hegemony of state-backed institutions are both groups of people who I feel a really intense affinity for! And I feel kind of bad for not knowing more about homeopathy even though it’s completely unreasonable to expect me to know things about it considering how hard knowledge about either of those subjects is to come by and process for me.

and this made me really really sad because, er, it’s magical and doesn’t present itself as anything else, at least I’ve never heard of anyone present it as anything except faith-based and magical?

Lucky you. Around here there are homeopathy sections in every pharmacy and supermarket, trying to blend in with the science-based medications and trick people who aren’t looking for subjective faith things into buying them.

Take the time a couple years ago when I had an ear infection. If I hadn’t been there to talk her out of it, Mom would have bought me a bottle of homeopathic ear drops and never realised it consisted solely of ritually-charged water. I’m sure there are plenty more people out there who never did find out.

Tags:

#homeopathy   #medicine   #reply via reblog

I found a really really great sexuality test. Post your results. For shits and giggles.

Link ~ ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

ceilingtheo:

:(((( I reached the question where you had to choose between relationships that are “Intellectual. I’m much more interested in the mind.” or “Affectionate. I’m SUCH a cuddleslut!” and then I just stared blankly at the screen for a couple of minutes, BECAUSE I JUST WANT TO HAVE ABSTRACT DEBATES WHILE SNUGGLING. I like sex, but I would gladly give it up forever if I could have all of the intellectual discussion and cuddles.

(Results, for the record: You scored 76 Heterosexuality, 36 Homosexuality, and 29 Asexuality!)

bohemu:

You scored 51 Heterosexuality, 28 Homosexuality, and 75 Asexuality!

lulz, IF THERE WAS ANY DOUBT

youwereamazingtoday:

You scored 22 Heterosexuality, 83 Homosexuality, and 27 Asexuality!

FINALLY, CONFIRMATION!

citri:

You scored 80 Heterosexuality, 23 Homosexuality, and 0 Asexuality!

lol oop

7266:

You scored 69 Heterosexuality, 13 Homosexuality, and 61 Asexuality!

rofllll i blame it on the disgust that i had at the questions about cuddling

time to become an insufferable tumbly ace

airandangels:

I know, the words ‘cuddle’ and ‘snuggle’ just gross me out. Even if I do actually want to, like, lie around with arms round each other all cosy and quiet and affectionate, I’m not fucking calling that ‘cuddling’ or ‘snuggling.’

Edited to add my result:

You scored 76 Heterosexuality, 36 Homosexuality, and 35 Asexuality!

You are either straight or bisexual (with an interest in the opposite gender) with a moderate to high sex drive.The higher your score in heterosexuality, the more you are attracted to the opposite gender.

A higher asexuality score means that you place a bigger emphasis on the emotional aspects of a relationship and less on the physical.

justice-turtle:

13 Heterosexuality, 60 Homosexuality, and 71 Asexuality.

A bit skewed by various factors, I think, but better than a lot of online sexuality quizzes…

18 Heterosexuality, 21 Homosexuality, and 73 Asexuality.

Two problems come to mind:

1: What do “sexual fantasy” and “sexual activity” mean? Things that personally give me warm fuzzy feelings twinges of pain that I think were meant to be warm fuzzy feelings but the wires got crossed, or things that would normally be called sexual? Because there’s no overlap between those two categories at all.

2: Answering “No” to the question of “Would you ever willingly have sex with someone of the opposite gender?” requires you to claim you’re either gay or straight. There’s no plain “No”. It didn’t actually object when I skipped that question, though, despite not explicitly saying it wouldn’t (unlike the ideal relationship questions).

Tags:

#sexuality and lack thereof

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

anshinwrites:

anneemaye:

I HAVE TO GO

STUDY

HOMEWORK

BUT I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS, FOR IT IS RELEVANT TO OUR INTERESTS

a;slkdjf;salkjfasd;lkjf

guys do not click that link without understanding that there are warnings for everything there

it is the internet, but condensed (so suffice it to say tw for violence, r*pe mentions, etc) but still

oh my god i can’t breathe i am laughing so hard

I would like to point out that Nigeria-style scams aren’t just an Internet thing. My dad recently received a (supposedly) Spanish version through snail mail. We all had a good laugh about it. (For instance, they capitalised Dad’s first name, but not his last.)

[tw: ageism, dysphoria, medical oppression]

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

anshinwrites:

kinspeak:

“How can you know anything about your identity when you’re just a teenager?”

“Actually, I’m 30.”

“You must be really immature, then.”

I tried to reblog it and it vanished. O_o

Anyway, as I was saying.  This argument has completely stopped fazing me, because the way I figure, if I’ve known my own identity for longer than the person telling me I’m wrong has been alive, then I’ve kinda got one up on them.

Still, that doesn’t stop this argument from being harmful, if baseless.  It reeks of ageism and perpetuates the idea that when we all become adults, we magically get this book of knowledge about the world and about ourselves, and we’re not allowed to know anything before then.  Hell, I know adults who still don’t have themselves figured out and kids who know exactly what’s up better than anyone else around them.  There is no magic age at which everyone suddenly has a miraculous epiphany.  It happens at a different age for everyone.

One of these days, I have faith that people will learn this.  And then we can move past ridiculous laws that say teens aren’t allowed to have Plan B or that anyone with a uterus who doesn’t want said uterus can’t get it removed until they’re 25 (or have been sufficiently pressured to have a kid/have had a kid) or that young trans* people aren’t allowed to start transitioning until they’re old enough to be absolutely sure of themselves, even if they’ve had crippling dysphoria since they were three.

Until then, this is one of the biggest problems with society—the fact that everything we do revolves around a magic number that’s supposed to define our maturity and knowledge.

I have read two different blog conversations with adults talking amongst themselves about maturity. The general consensus both times is that they stopped feeling more mature around age fifteen. Not seeing the whole “book of knowledge” thing.

And then we can move past ridiculous laws that say teens aren’t allowed to have Plan B

Wait, what? How is that internally consistent? If we accept for the purposes of argument the inferiority of teenagers, then their access to Plan B should be more important. They’re more likely to not realise “Maybe having sex isn’t such a good idea, all in all” until afterwards.

Tags:

#reply via reblog   #ageism   #anshinwrites

Image ~ ~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

wellwellthen:

anshinwrites:

runicbasso:

cornerof5thandvermouth:

yeah basically

Or when you go ahead and begin to memorize facts, required by other nations’ emigration department, in case you wish to gain naturalization.elsewhere.

My goal for the next year is to start memorising the emigration requirements/test info for Canada, just in case.  I have plenty of friends in Canada already, and I would like to be prepared in case something horrendous happens at the next presidential election.

(Admittedly, my experience is as a child immigrating, so I might be missing bits my parents did without involving me.)

The test is for citizenship, and thus you don’t need to know it until after you’ve been here for some time*. The tricky part is convincing the U.S. to let you leave. It took us five years (yes, five) to get them to stop stalling. (They were reduced to making shit up. They rejected a form for lack of signature when it quite clearly did have the signature. Also, why do fingerprint records expire (and so have to be re-done) when you still have the same fingers?)

*So I’m told. I was technically a minor when we applied for citizenship, so the test is Not My Problem.

Tags:

#anshinwrites   #reply via reblog   #our home and cherished land

There definitely IS the idea that socialization in speech is better then in writing

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eateroftrees:

Which is ironic because prescriptivist ideologies generally act like writing is a more PURE form of communication.  But for some reason spend all your time on the internet socializing that way and people will ask you “But don’t you get lonely?” and I’m all “I’m talking to people constantly geeze!”

This.

Sometimes I want a text-to-speech thingy for when I do have to talk. Unfortunately, the stigma would be bad enough if I was completely incapable of speaking. That I merely prefer typing* would probably make it worse.

(Also I’d need a portable gadget that could do text-to-speech. A lot of smartphones and tablets and such can do it, but I don’t have any of those.)

*I can speak using vocal cords and such. More or less. Most of the time the stuff that comes out even carries the same basic gist as what I intended to say.

Tags:

#that excuse for communication called speech   #eateroftrees

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

wearemagneton:

brin-bellway replied to your chat: Re: Martha in Shakespearean England

The whole black-woman-in-Shakespearean-England thing is, as I recall, the second thing *she* asks about after “So, we’re not going to accidentally destroy my timeline, right?”. I love how she asks sensible questions like that.

OH! DOES she mention that? I missed it. (I DID catch the bit about the butterflies though. XD)

WHAT HAVE BUTTERFLIES EVER DONE TO YOU?
—PM

*pokes Youtube until clip falls out*

Martha: “Am I all right? I’m not going to get carted off as a slave, am I?”

Doctor: “Why would they do that?”

Martha: “Not exactly white, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

Doctor: “I’m not even human. Just walk around like you own the place. Always works for me.”

(P.S. The comparison isn’t that good, though. The Doctor isn’t human, but he can pass for it pretty easily. Martha not so much.)

Tags:

#wearemagneton   #doctor who   #martha jones   #reply via reblog