Ariel Amasifuén @aaamasifuen - Tumblr Blog

Hello! Thanks for Stopping By ♥

My name is Ariel! I'm a disabled Peruvian artist, making art and learning while I work to manage and record my disability while I try to increase my quality of life in any way possible.

This blog is meant to serve as a resource for both myself and others on being engaged in the world while still preserving joy, and working to find actionable ways to improve the world we live in as civilians with limited capacity. Read below for more info, and major tag links!

My Website - My Linktree

afriblaq

Mahalia Jackson was a gospel singer, possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel". Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as "The single most powerful Black woman in the United States".

She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen golds—million-sellers.

"I sing God's music because it makes me feel free," Jackson once said about her choice of gospel, adding, "It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues."

LEGACY: 🎤Mahalia Jackson's music was played widely on gospel and Christian radio stations, such as Family Radio. Her good friend Martin Luther King Jr said, "A voice like this one comes not once in a century, but once in a millennium."

🎤She was a close friend of Doris Akers, one of the most prolific gospel composers of the 20th century. In 1958, they co-wrote the hit, "Lord, Don't Move the Mountain". Mahalia also sang many of Akers' own compositions such as "God Is So Good to Me", "God Spoke to Me One Day", "Trouble", "Lead On, Lord Jesus", and "He's a Light Unto My Pathway", helping Akers to secure her position as the leading female Gospel composer of that time.

🎤In addition to sharing her singing talent with the world, she mentored the extraordinarily gifted Aretha Franklin.

🎤Mahalia was also good friends with Dorothy Norwood and fellow Chicago-based gospel singer Albertina Walker.

🎤She also discovered a young Della Reese.

🎤On the 20th anniversary of her death, Smithsonian Folkways Recording commemorated Jackson with the album I Sing Because I'm Happy, which includes interviews about her childhood conducted by Jules Scherwin.

🎤The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences created the Gospel Music or Other Religious Recording category for Jackson making her the 1st Gospel Music Artist to win the prestigious Grammy Award.

🎤In December 2008, she was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

#black history #black music artists #black icons #black culture #black history matters #black history month

tzikeh

Maryland will become the first US state to ban surveillance pricing in retail stores, after passing Protection from Predatory Pricing Act.

Jesus fucking christ that this exists in the first place

boyslit

I WAS FUCKING WONDERING WHAT THOSE DIGITAL PRICE TAGS WERE ABOUT SUDDENLY i had hoped they were so the workers didn't have to finagle those little papers into the slider part anymore 😭

eclipticasolaris

Hi, yes, that is the OFFICIAL excuse made to me by the guy replacing the paper tags with digital ones at my local Walmart, but the end goal is to remove the numbers off the shelf entirely, replacing them with QR codes that you have to scan with the app…. Which requires your login information….. and also stores your card information so even if you didn’t use your Walmart account at the physical checkout, if you used a card they recognize, they assign that purchase to your Walmart account purchase history.

I explained very clearly to the manager my issue with the meat section not having the price tags listed, and they claimed it was only going to be for the meat, since meat is by weight, and the price of each item is printed on the packs of each item.

Sure. That’s how they get their foot in the door. Fast forward not even two weeks, and here we are:

Bar codes. No prices, no item descriptions. No price stickers on the individual items. Heck, not even the name of the item that is SUPPOSED to be there.

No. The only way to see the price is to scan it on your phone app, which is also recording what you looked at recently, as a way of gauging what you might be looking for in the future.

So here’s what we’re gonna do gang:

Every time you go into a store that has implemented these price-less tags:

Take 1-3 items up to the cash register. Ask the cashier for the price, or hit the price check item on the self checkout, which will likely call over the attendant.

Express that you didn’t actually want it, you just couldn’t see on the shelf how much it was.

POLITELY, AND WITH A THANK YOU FOR THE PRICE CONFIRMATION, Give the items to the cashier or attendant to put back.

When they inevitably try to push the app, politely decline. If pressed for why not, say you don’t want to have to carry your phone in-hand the whole time you are shopping in order to see how much things cost. (Not having cell service or data to use the app is NOT a valid excuse, as stores already often have complimentary WiFi AND more stores will provide WiFi rather than give up on this push for surveillance pricing)

If it’s a shelf-stable item, the cashier will have to set it aside, taking up room in their limited operating space, and eventually pass it off to someone to put in a holding area to put back later. If it’s a fridge/freezer item, it might have to get tossed due to food product sale regulations.

In either case, you are making it a pain in the ass for them to have these digital bar codes. Tie up the checkouts. Give the employees more busywork that the company has to pay them to do. Hurt their bottom line having to toss the pint of ice cream you carried around in your cart for 20 minutes before giving it back to the cashier.

Yes, call your reps. Yes, push for more legislation like this in more places. But also take an extra minute out of your shopping trip to MAKE IT HURT for companies to pull this shit.

antisocialxconstruct

I've seen some people in the notes express (very fair) concern that this is only going to inconvenience already under-paid laborers, and not have any impact on corporate. While I can't speak for every company or every store, I do work in a grocery store and I can tell you this is precisely the kind of thing that would have an impact, especially if people are doing it en masse. Stores absolutely track their shrink numbers, and they do draw distinctions between what gets stolen, damaged, or wasted for other reasons. If people are making it clear that the reason they're bringing things to the cashier is that the prices are not adequately represented on the displays, and rather than improving business it's wasting product, slowing down transactions, and causing confusion and mistrust in customers, that is a language that shareholders speak.

dovewithscales

I worked in retail for years. If this had happened while I was working retail, I would have been delighted and felt great solidarity with anyone who was wasting my employer's time and money and giving me busy work as an act of protest. In point of fact every moment the employee spends carting items back to the shelves is a moment not spent standing at a register.

foldingfittedsheets

Had a coworker tell me they hadn’t texted once because of the time. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

I stared at them through the dawning realization that they lived in a world where that was remotely possible. “My phone is on do not disturb if I’m sleeping. Why would I let random texts wake me up? My sleep is important.”

Equally baffled they replied, “What if someone at work needs you?”

“I am not a manager. No one at work will ever need me badly enough to interrupt my sleep. If I’m not working then there’s no reason to be calling me.”

“Not even if you need to cover?”

I laughed, “I don’t need to cover. They could ask me to cover but good luck getting ahold of me if I’m sleeping.”

They looked distressed at this idea.

To console them I added, “I have important people like my mom and my wife set to override. If they call they get through no matter what.”

There was a small pause before they asked, “You can do that…?”

So friendly reminder. Become unreachable. Work does not need you that badly. Sleep.

hope-for-the-planet

Ocean and Coastal Futures - We’re all about connecting people – organising events, creating communications and promoting job opportunities.

From the article:

French Polynesia has become the world’s largest contributor to the global 30×30 ocean protection target, after President Moetai Brotherson announced on 7 June that a further 520,000 km² of the territory’s waters will be fully protected from extractive industries. The move brings the total share of French Polynesia’s exclusive economic zone under full protection to around 30%, an area covering roughly 1.4 million km², more than twice the size of continental France.

For those who don't know, 30x30 refers to global efforts to commit to preserving 30% of land and ocean habitat by 2030. French Polynesia has now hit that target.

It's worth noting that the decision to protect these areas was made with the consensus of French Polynesian communities and that traditional sustenance fishing by local communities is still permitted.

#good news #conservation #wildlife #biodiversity #marine conservation #endangered species #solarpunk

makereadgrow

Periodic reminder that your library more than likely has books on quilting. Books on knitting, and sewing, and painting, and gardening whatever you're into the library probably has books about it. It probably has ebooks too, and magazines.

Your library has all kinds of resources and they absolutely want you to use them.

sewickedthread

bookbinding, some have seed libraries, and dvds, and cds, and leather crafting and books about myths & legends, etc.

dreamsy990

i saw someone say nobody needs to know what a .txt file is anymore. what the fuck is the world coming to

dreamsy990

unironically i think we need to bring back computer labs because APPARENTLY some people WERENT taught basic computer literacy and internet safety in school

dreamsy990

things about computers/the internet i think kids should be formally taught in schools because theyre important to know and the amount of soon to be grown adults i know who know NOTHING about any of these is quite frankly almost all of them (and resources to learn if you dont know these things, because its never to late to get better with computers)

how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem

what common file types are

some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)

how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private

how to understand terms of service (hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS)

what a cookie actually is

internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl

basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)

common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)

as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on

vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)

how to not get a virus while pirating something

what a temporary email is and when to use one

red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)

what javascript on a website does and how to disable it to get around paywalls

dreamsy990

ok one last addition! if you want to take it one level higher, i think learning the very basics of at least one programming language is good for people. it makes computers less scary and it makes you feel very cool, and a lot of people get discouraged about it because it seems overly complicated and hard to learn outside a formal classroom setting, so heres some resources for learning the very basics of python (because i consider it the easiest language to learn and knowing one language will make it easier to learn others)

an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous

a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps

a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)

some performance tasks to give you things to code to practice and assess yourself

josephbrassey

“Haha remember when murder-hornets were gonna be a thing? What a nothingburger.”

Yes, because the Washington state government activated like a sleeper-cell and ruthlessly, systematically hunted them down and annihilated them.

“Y2K came to nothing amirite?”

Yes because an army of software engineers working around the clock, losing sleep, and busting ass till the last minute prevented it from happening.

“Remember the hole in the ozone layer?”

You mean the one that was fixed through rigorous world wide government action?

One of the root problems of our society is a refusal or inability by media to articulate that all those “it’s gonna be an apocalypse” disasters were not disasters because we collectively did something about them.

The good news is this is actually quite correctable. I maintain my firm belief that we as humans are capable of solving almost all of our problems, when we decide to do so.

And I still think that’s going to happen. I don’t know when or how, but I do know that abandoning hope won’t help bring it about.

And I refuse to let the cynics own a chunk of my heart.

solarpunk-nightbird

Actually, fuck the myth of the Tower of Babel. The real beautiful utopia where we can all finally truly understand each other doesn't lie in sameness or uniformity, it lies in the giant and digital Rosetta Stone we are going to build and broadcast across the entire world

solarpunk-nightbird

So, genuinely no hard feelings, I get where y'all are coming from, but that was actually kind of my entire point

The Rosetta Stone was and is real.

This is indisputable. You can go see the Rosetta Stone on display right now!! I'd say you could even it touch it, but there's museum glass in the way, so that the oils on human skin can't further degrade this 2,000-year-old stele, which is one of the most important surviving historical texts in the world.

The Tower of Babel is not real, and it never was.

The Tower of Babel is a millennia-old religious story about a mythological tower, which serves as a mythological explanation for the origin of different human languages. Yes, there are some religious historians who speculate that the myth was inspired by one or another physical tower, but no, that doesn't prove anything other than "this is how many people in this culture/time and place explained or understood that sort of event."

The Rosetta Stone, on the other hand, is an object of translation that actually exists

Photo credit: By © Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved from Wikipedia article "Rosetta Stone." https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3153928

That picture is of a real object. It is not of a picture of a 3,000+ year old myth.

Our attempts to understand each other will not result in us being struck down by some force from on high!

And the true path to a world where we can all understand each other does not involve us all speaking the same language. That's racist bs

True understanding depends on ethical translation and language preservation, not on unity of language

solarpunk-nightbird

And this is a very urgent thing for us to remember, because a fluent speaker - and especially a fluent native speaker - of an endangered language is one of the rarest, most concentrated, and most fragile sources of knowledge in the world

Preserving and revitalizing endangered languages is a race against time. For many languages, especially Indigenous languages and languages from an oral tradition, the loss of each individual fluent speaker is a permanent loss of language

Almost half of the world's 7,000 languages are endangered! You can learn more about, and find resources and education on, the Endangered Language Project and similar organizations, especially ones that are Indigenous and respect knowledge sovereignty and traditional ownership

knowledge sovereignty: when it comes to language and traditional knowledge, knowledge sovereignty is the simple but super important principle that the speakers of a language and members of a culture should have full, independent control of their own traditional knowledge and knowledge systems. For Indigenous languages in particular, sometimes knowledge sovereignty means certain language resources are closed to those outside the tribe, Nation, and/or culture - which is absolutely fair, given what white people have historically done and are still doing when it comes to stealing, and then fucking copyrighting, Indigenous traditional knowledge. (Related: Fuck Monsanto)

But good news - you can learn more about, support, and access community resources on language preservation at The Endangered Language Project here:

sick-jan

dragon-hoard

if you are going to need some kind of sedative for 4th of july fireworks for your pets NOW IS THE TIME TO SCHEDULE THOSE APPOINTMENTS TO ASK FOR THEM

NOT WHEN ITS 2 DAYS AWAY

alex51324

I feel like to really get this circulating as it should, we need it superimposed over the picture of the turkey going in the fridge. (I can't do it I'm on my phone.)

amaditalks

figtreeandvine

With the 250th anniversary it's likely to be especially bad this year!

reasonsforhope

This applies to people too!!

Protect yourself and your community from the fascists's celebratory bullshit!

Any meds that you or a loved one might need*, or any other preparations, e.g., earplugs, N-95 masks for smoke, arranging to stay the night with a friend who lives somewhere quieter, etc.

Check in on your loved ones if they might need something like that as well.

*Note: Includes inhalers!!!!

And keep in mind that if you have long COVID or any other new source of lung/immune issues, you will be vulnerable this where where you might not have been in the past!

You can also protect your community by only buying LEGAL fireworks, which are compliant with laws on wildfire protection and heavy metal exposure!

Condemning USA nationalism and protesting the 4th of July can be compatible with protecting the public health of our community - not at odds with it!

chimaerakitten

Oh hey, all you Library-Loving Libby users out there. A piece of advice for you. Go to your search engine of choice and type in “[your local library] reciprocal agreements”.

Might pull up nothing, but chances are there are somewhere between two and seven other Library systems in your state that you can get a card at perfectly legitimately simply by applying for one with your current address and proof of having an active card at your local library. You can then log into Libby with these and use them even if you never manage to go to a physical building of that library. (Though you should take advantage of the physical library too if you can) Some of them might have significantly larger or at least different ebook/audiobook collections for you.

mosylu

Yes and!

There's a website (https://reciprocard.com/) that will pull up this info if you put in your hometown library, and gives you a link to apply to the different libraries. Sometimes you don't even need to apply. My library is in a consortium that just uses my card to cover all the other libraries. I use the same card number.

Your results page also lists some libraries that will let you get a non-resident card, usually for a yearly fee. (Frex, I decided it was a way better use of my precious dollars to get a Queens Public Library card for a year than to pay for that streamer I never watch anything on.)

throesofthorns

Oohhh my goodness I have been looking for something like this for years 😭 thanks :3 passing the knowledge on

solarpunkfool

What if we win?

What if the children go to schools unafraid of tear gas and bullets?

What if the birds come back, and the bees are healed, and every species moves from endangered, to threatened, to thriving?

What if the rainforest ADVANCES?

What if every parking lot had solar panels? What if every structure had solar panels? What if we built climbing gyms and terraced gardens in the skeletons of old coal power plants?

What if you baked your neighbor bread, and they shared their home-grown blackberries?

What if every person who needed a home, had one? What if every person who needed healing was healed?

What if every body was treasured for what it was, not what it should be?

What if every trans child's parents attended their graduation, their wedding, their new-name-day?

What if every warehouse became a closed-circle repair station? Goods flowing out, and back, and out again? What if landfills started to SHRINK?

What if the water and air were clean? What if there was enough public transit that the cars dwindled, leaving the streets safe for kids on bikes, evening deer, midnight cats and foxes?

What if we win?

How would you win?

aetherograph

And we've won a lot already, mind you.

The condors are back. The whales are saved. The sea turtles are no longer endangered. The cranes are back. The bees are recovering. The air in LA and Tokyo and London is clean again. The aquifers in the LA Basin are refilling.

Children are kinder than previous generations. Parents are stopping the abuse cycle. Being trans and queer is more acceptable than ever on a ground level.

It's hard to see if you're young, if you don't know how to step back from social media and the news. But remember--bad news sells, and the algorithm knows despair keeps you scrolling. It's a skewed lens.

We are fighting and we are winning against this adminstration's bullying. We are coming together against the bullies and they are running away scared because they don't understand that we will do that.

People are working hard every day to find ways to make sure fewer animals get hit by cars and planes and rockets.

Maker spaces are more common than ever. Solar and wind are more common than ever. Coal plants are shutting down every day.

Unprecedented numbers of acres are being bought back or given back to their rightful stewards, and the world heals because of it. People are working hard every day to learn how to help a forest recover faster.

We are not at zero. We are at decades of effort to heal the world. We've come SO far.

In 1982 there were only 22 California Condors left in the world. In 1992, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), with its public and private partners, began reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild. In 2001 the first wild nesting occurred in Grand Canyon National Park since re-introduction. In 2002 there were only 8 pairs of wild nesting birds population-wide. In 2008, for the first time since the program began, more California condors were flying free in the wild than in captivity. Today there are nearly 500 – more than half of them flying free in Arizona, Utah, California, and Baja Mexico.

When I was born, there were no condors in the wild. I'm 37 now, and there are over 250 condors flying free.

When my mom was born in 1955, there were days when she wasn't allowed to go outside to play, because of the air pollution. When I was born, that never happened anymore.

When I was born, humpback whales were critically endangered, and people thought they were going to go extinct. Today, they've recovered to exceed their recorded numbers. Other whales too!

We fixed it.

We CAN fix it and we ARE fixing it and we DID fix it.

three--rings

Since 1990 extreme poverty has decreased worldwide by over HALF.

This is not the narrative media sells us. We have access to more information about suffering now than we used to, but things are getting BETTER overall. Yeah some people are trying to undo this, but we have made SO MUCH PROGRESS. Don't give up.

spankerella

@ perfectunion

#congrats rideshare drivers!!!#union solidarity #unions #us news #app drivers union

guerrillatech

Black panther poster. Just as relevant today

jingerpi

IF YOU'RE UNEMPLOYED IT'S NOT BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ANY WORK JUST LOOK AROUND: A HOUSING SHORTAGE, CRIME. POLLUTION; WE NEED BETTER SCHOOLS AND PARKS. WHATEVER OUR NEEDS, THEY ALL REQUIRE WORK. AND AS LONG AS WE HAVE UNSATISFIED NEEDS, THERE IS WORK TO BE DONE. ASK YOURSELF, WHAT KINDS OF A WORLD HAS WORK BUT NO JOBS? IT'S A WORLD WERE WORK IS NOT RELATED TO SATISFYING OUR NEEDS, A WORLD WHERE WORK IS ONLY RELATED TO SAT- ISFYING THE PROFIT NEEDS OF BUSINESS.

THIS COUNTRY WAS NOT BUILT BY THE HUGE CORPORATIONS OR G6OVERNMENT BUREAUCRACIES. WAS BUILT BY PEOPLE WHO WORK. AND, IS WORKING PEOPLE WHO SHOULD CONTROL THE WORK TO BE DONE. YET, AS LONG AS EMPLOYMENT IS TIED TO SOMEBODY ELSE'S PR0FITS, THE WORK WON'T GET DONE.

#black panther party #anti capitalism #global solidarity #solidarity