Romanticize ur life

Echo, they/them

[echojar]

I’ve been watching a lot of environmental YouTube and a lot of election YouTube and I keep thinking about if things would have been different if Al Gore had won the presidency in 2000. With regards to global warming, efforts to decarbonize should have started then.

In 2000 I was 6 years old. I couldn’t vote. My entire understanding of politics was who my parents’ liked. I was one of the children who’s future should have been protected by environmental action then.

But environmental action wasn’t taken then. I grew up, I can vote now, and people are still using the line that environmental action is for the children’s future! Do you know how empty that rings? As if anyone had ever cared about my future enough to change their ways. And the children of today recognize that as well, it’s why we have activist teens.

If I were a single issue voter, environmentalism would be the one issue. I’m not, because other things are important and because environmental justice is inherently tied to social and economic justice. But it’s the single most important thing to happen to humanity, ever.

In this post I talk about good election outcomes in Arizona-- of which I’m pleased with all except one, Arizona Corporation Commission, the 4th branch of the state government that manages utilities. The fact that we’ve elected folks who’s first priority isn’t clean energy now is horrifying. It was possibly one of the most important things on my ballot.

I guess this post is to say that I’m sad. After 2016, I had completely emotionally numbed myself to political outcomes. I had long stopped thinking about climate crisis because it caused too much despair. I’ve been taking care of myself and it’s allowed me to feel more capable, less powerless. I guess, I’m marking a difference in myself that I am feeling climate grief, but not despair. I’m marking that someday soon I feel that I might be ready to go into the world be the climate activist that’s always lain dormant inside of me.

I’ve planted native plants in my backyard because it’s what I felt capable of; I voted because it’s what I could do. Someday soon I will do something more, but what I have done matters.

[echojar]

Here’s some election results I’m excited about in Arizona:

statewide, the elections for u.s. president, senator, and 3 house representatives have all gone to the democrats

Arizona has a 4th branch of government called Corporation Commissioner that manages utilities statewide. The one incumbent, who has done loads to 1. make utilities more affordable for the working class and 2. implement a plan for green energy, has been re-elected! She happens to be a republican but I don’t care because she’s done a good job. We were voting for 3 seats; the two other Republicans are anti-green energy and the 3 Democrats are pro-green energy. The other two seats were taken by one democrat and one republican (thankfully, the less evil republican.)

Proposition to legalize/decriminalize marijuana passed!

Proposition to increase income taxes for the wealthy to fund education passed!

We’ve elected double the amount of Democratic state congresspeople compared to republican (14 vs. 7)

Very excited about indigenous woman Gabriella Cazares-Kelly elected for pima county recorder.

Proposition allowing community college to redistribute its funds passed!

For tucson school board: two people backed by the teacher’s union and one who’s platform is “address the school to prison pipeline” (especially important since the current school board recently voted to reopen schools, and the teacher’s union was advocating for those who platformed safe reopening)

There is good news! The only other complaint I have is that none of the judges have been removed (and there were a few I wanted removed). I’m mostly very pleased with how local elections have gone.

[echojar]

Hey @ clothing manufactures, I shouldn’t have to sew an entirely new shirt to have one that fits.

Unisex sizing is only unisex sizing if it actually fits everyone.

I’m a small person, so I bought a size small. Here’s how it fit: it was too large on my shoulders, the sleeves were too long, the torso was both too long (it came to my thighs) and too narrow to fit over my hips. Take a guess as to whom that shirt would fit? Skinny tall people. With broad shoulders (*cough* cis men).

In order to make a shirt that fit I cut the sleeves off and cut down the sides of the torso. I trimmed and rehemmed the sleeves. Then I trimmed the shoulders and back of the armscye and reattached the sleeves. I sewed up the sides of the torso, then trimmed and hemmed the bottom of the shirt. The bottom had to be cropped quite a bit to deal with the “not fitting over my hips” problem.

I like having shirts that fit. I shouldn’t have to tailor them myself.

#alterations #tailoring https://www.instagram.com/p/CDrX5zhMmBK/?igshid=ln5z9c3pt35o

[echojar]

2019 books

Only read 18 books last year. I knew it would be a rough year for reading, but I didn’t think it’d be that rough! So yeah, I definitely did not hit my goal of 40 books. But I did read some good ones that I’d like to recommend. In the order I read them in:

Bluets by Maggie Nelson

Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life by Ellen Forney

Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace

My Life in France by Julia Child

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Interesting that all of these are nonfiction (except perhaps Bluets which is arguably poetry). I think that’s because, aside from graphic novels, I don’t really seek out any fiction. (And oh were the graphic novels I read this year bad to mediocre).

So if you want to give me any recommendations, particularly for fun and easy reads, and also for fiction, I’d appreciate it!

[echojar]

An ADHD Parable

A farmer was taking his produce to the market in a horse drawn cart, but the horse would not stay the path. It was continuously investigating the grass that lay on the roadside or stopping for what seemed like no reason.

The farmer had this issue every time he went to the market but this was his only horse and he was too poor to buy another that might be a better cart horse. Besides, this horse was a perfectly serviceable plough horse, it only had these difficulties when going into town.

He used to be able to keep the horse moving by using a whip, but his neighbor had told him that overusing a whip was cruel to the animal and may ultimately harm the horse more than it helped the farmer.

His neighbor had not provided any suggestions on what to use instead of a whip, thus the farmer was left in the middle of the road with a slow going horse and a cart full of produce that would not arrive at the market on time.

[echojar]

Top Films of the 2010′s

Saw this on twitter and thought I’d put in my (20)10(’s) cents. Shout out to Letterbox’d for allowing to me to Remember What Films I’ve Seen and generally being the Goodreads of movies

2019: I have not seen any movies released this year (yet). 2018: Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse 2017: Coco 2016: Moonlight 2015: Brooklyn 2014: The Way He Looks 2013: A tie between Belle and Austenland 2012: Les Miserables 2011: Captain America 2010: A tie between Letters to Juliet and How to Train Your Dragon

I found this to be a difficult exercise, mostly because I am very indifferent about movies. Some were easier to choose (i.e. Coco) because they had a profound emotional impact on me. I tried to choose films that actually changed my life, in the way I think or the way I interact with other people through shared media consciousness.

I’ve spoken about this with my brother, my general lack of interest in films, and it’s likely because I don’t know how to “read” them. He says that movies generally form an emotionally environment more than tell a story. And while I know how to “read” visual media in the stationary forms of art, the element of time throws me off when it comes to movies.

I was a bit confused about how movies and tv could be so different but we got to talking about the history of tv, and how it is historically a dialogue heavy medium due to the low visual quality of early television versus the high quality of “the big screen”. As a writer I am trained to understand textual media and thus have an easier time appreciating tv shows.

The media I enjoy that comes closest to that of movies is most likely comics as they are also a series of images juxtaposed next to each other. However, comics are positioned spatially on a page whereas frames of a movie are positioned in time.

It’s easier for me to watch and enjoy animated movies because I understand more of what goes into the process of animation. When I first made this list it was mostly animated movies because that’s what I enjoy, but it changed when I thought about how the films actually affected my life.

Most of the time when I consume media it causes me to think; my mind turns over the ideas presented within it. This might last months, particularly intriguing concepts might stay with me for years. But when I think more about it, the way movies impact me the most is through the way I relate to others. (i.e. Captain America and Les Miserables) Movies are a fundamental part of social literacy and the way we connect to one another ~these days~

[echojar]

Image: a journal of off white paper with a collage of geometric doodles in black ink on white paper.

🖊📔✨

[ryanthedemiguy]

(Emojis are of a pen, a notebook, and stars in a night sky)

[echojar]

Image: “Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive” is painted in dark acrylic paint on a green brushstroke-textured background. The words “feel alive” are in white on a darker background. end description.

Another reason to love the Mountain Goats: lyrics that are applicable to living my life.

[ryanthedemiguy]

Description addition: the words are hand-painted in a style with a lot of quick straight lines, which makes it feel like the text is bigger and more intense, as well as compulsive. End addition

[echojar]

some edits of mayjunejoly

[ryanthedemiguy]

[ID: four photos, all identical except a filter placed over them. A light-skinned person has a one piece bathing suit type of clothing on. They are sitting on the floor with their knees folded tightly against themself, with their arms atop their knees. The person’s elbows are the focus. The floor has tiny square tiles of varying colours in no discernable pattern.

The first image has no filter and has a bit of a warm feeling. The second image has a blue filter, which is very cool and makes the image feel more melancholy. The third image has a red filter, which kind of makes it look like it’s lights for during am emergency, bringing a sense of anxiety to the image. And finally, the fourth has a yellow filter. It feels very similar to the unfiltered photo, but it feels more artificial, and like perhaps what we see isn’t the reality.

All joined together the way they are, they resemble the pop art style, while maintaining the intense emotion that a lot of photography brings about. /end id]

[echojar]

Thanks for writing a description! Funny story, the yellowish bottom one is actually the original one, because the “studio” I was working in at the time was our dorm bathroom and because I didn’t want to have harsh fluorescent lighting, I was using a lamp that had a bit of yellowish bulb in it.

The natural looking top one is what I had to do to bring the photograph to a kind of reset point so I could make the red and blue versions. While the word “filter” is a good description word because it’s something many people are familiar with, I also just want to say that I did these color corrections myself in photo editing and it wasn’t a ready-made filter.

Also I believe B. (my model) was wearing shorts and a tank top, as it was early fall in southern California, and rather warm.

[echojar]

I was tagged by @anonsally! A really long time ago!

Last movie you watched: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Last song you listened to: My brother is listening to the playlist he played at his wedding. Currently playing is “You Can’t Hurry Love” by The Supremes

Last show you watched: I’ve been watching The Great British Baking Show because 1) I’m applying to baking jobs and then sometimes I worry that I don’t know enough about laminated doughs so this is “research” and 2) looking for a job is very stressful and this show is very soothing. But I think the last episode of a show that I actually watched was Ugly Delicious because I made pizza and my brother wanted to show me the pizza episode so we could have Pizza Discourse

Last book you read: Currently reading America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook. It has a basic description of a variety of culinary techniques and it’s not much that I don’t already know, but I wanted a refresher. I’m also in the middle of reading Fast Food Nation, but I just feel like it’s so depressing. Last book I finished was The Sonoran Desert: a Literary Field Guide 

Last thing you ate: Had coffee and koulourakia, which are a plain, twisted, greek butter cookie that I bought at the Greek Festival last week, for a post-nap snack

If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be: In my own apartment/house?? Alas, one needs a job to get one of those.

When would you time travel to: The short-term future in the hopes that society would have gotten kinder.

First thing you would do with lottery money: My brain can’t process this question, that’s too much money. I’d have to think a lot about it.

Character you would hang with for a day: Beka Cooper. She seems calm and we could talk about/practice fighting techniques.

Time right now: 18:29

I tag whoever would like to do this; but also @helloallec @brotheralyosha @booskilled @werewolf953 if you want to.

[echojar]

ID: An open journal with a colorful abstract drawing across two pages. The left side is drawn in marker and the right side in color pencil.

Me: “I really like the look of bullet journal spreads, maybe I’ll do one of those.”

Me: *accidentally channels Kandinsky*

[echojar]

Image: a journal of off white paper with a collage of geometric doodles in black ink on white paper. 🖊📔✨

[echojar]

What I didn’t know about top surgery going in:

In the brain there is an area called the somatosensory cortex, which one wears like a headband across the front of their parietal lobes. This is the part of the brain where touch is synthesized, in a particular order from toe to tip of tongue.

When I look at myself in the mirror, I look exactly as I had hoped I would; I look perfect. When I look down at my own chest or touch my own chest, there is a sense of freakishness, like something is missing.

And there is literally something missing. A physical part of my body has just been removed and it is going to take a while for my nervous system and brain to catch on to the new state of affairs.

I can be both very happy, and feel very odd. Those two sentiments can exist simultaneously.

[echojar]

I'm having top surgery tomorrow!!!

[echojar]

Image description: 1. a portrait in ink of a short mexican transgender man with curly black hair and a trimmed beard, wearing a denim jacket and a messenger bag. 2. the same portrait with colorful sections drawn in marker around him in an oval.

A picture I drew of my shadowrun character, Zero Cool: magical adept, street doctor, and dude who likes to punch.

[gefdreamsofthesea]

Hey Gef I have a question and I feel like you'd be one of the few people I know who'd have an answer to this question: what is your favorite translation of the bible?

The KJV has its charm but I prefer the Bible versions that are written in more modern language. I think the one I used in Catholic school was the RSV (apparently there are special Catholic editions). The NRSV apparently tries to use gender neutral language. Catholic Bibles also include a number of books that aren’t in the Bibles of other denoms (like the Book of Tobit).

I like hearing about the “weird” Bibles. There was one edition that tried to avoid all androcentric language and was apparently controversial for referring to Mary as “pregnant” instead of “with child”.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much about which one has the most accurate and precise translation because that was one course I deliberately avoided in university. :P

[echojar]

yeah I’m not particularly looking for “accurate and precise translations” at the moment, since I’m mostly going to use it for writing poetry. I’ve had an idea for a while to write a collection of poems based on certain Catholic themes and after rereading Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s Three Cows and the Moon recently, I was inspired to write poems using certain biblical structures and allusions, but I don’t even own a freaking bible!

It’s astonishing to me that I could have been raised Catholic and wasted so much time at Sunday School but I’ve never actually read the bible!! Me writing this collection is also partially based on my desire to read a book that actually helps me understand my complicated (you could say...queer) relationship with religion, but I don’t think that kind of book exists so I guess I have to write it myself.

I also had no idea that Catholic bibles were different than other bibles!! Yeah my sunday school was... not very rigorous at all.

I have another friend that recommended the translation by David Bentley Hart, so I’ll have to do some research to see which version to get. Thanks for your help! I had no idea where to start before this tbh.

[tarotbyafish-deactivated2021062]

Look at this cute icon @echojar made for me for my Christmas wishlist!!! I absolutely adore it