It’s A Work In Progress

You are 60% water and every lake, river, pond, swamp, creek, and ocean you encounter wants to reclaim it desperately. Be careful out there.

Good, I hope it haunts everyone about to enter a body of water so bad that they wear a life jacket. 🙌

Every single person I knew (past tense) who has drowned was "a strong swimmer." Water in the wild does not care how good you are at swimming.

I mean this with all due respect:

You are not going to pass a skillcheck against a rip current once it has you.

Waves will not bow to your physical prowess no matter how impressive.

Shock does not care that you used to be on your school swim team.

If you hit your head, being good at swimming isn't going to turn you face-up while you're unconscious.

You may be unable to return to shore. Rescue may be unable to find you quickly.

when you're in water, moving cools you down. you lose heat faster in water, even relatively warm water on a pretty warm day.

as you cool down, your muscles stiffen, you lose the ability to swim much faster than usual (again, not even always in cold water!), and you drown.

to remain warm until rescue, it's important to stay still and get into the H.E.L.P. position to preserve body heat.

you can't do that treading water. You can only do that with a proper flotation device.

I once went into the water on a nice, sunny day at a popular boating lake surrounded by boaters. It took 45 minutes to be rescued. Could you swim for that long? Could you swim for that long while shivering and stiff?

Wear a life jacket!

cagedcricket

Okay but genuinely are we supposed to wear a life jacket every time we go swimming in natural bodies of water at all? Like. Not allowed to just swim normally unless we go to a pool?

Good question! No. I'm a freediver and a paddling instructor, so I spend a lot of time wild swimming (sans life jackets) and in boats (wearing life jackets).

Life jackets are important when:

you're on the water in conditions where it would be unsafe to get in the water

there's a chance of entering the water unintentionally/accidentally.

Plenty of people boat & paddle in conditions unsafe for swimming (myself included). Cold water, strong currents, rough & windy weather, and being far from shore are all conditions that make swimming unsafe.

If anything happens and you go into the water, a life jacket will protect you in these conditions (even cold water, by allowing you to preserve body heat)

But what about when you're out in safe swimming conditions? What if you even plan to take the boat out to go swimming?

The risk is ending up in the water unintentionally.

If you're in a large or medium boat, on a paddle board, in a kayak, etc., and you end go in the water without meaning to, you've ended up in the water by means that put you at risk (capsizing, collision, sinking, fire, even just falling).

Injury, shock, etc. can prevent you from swimming, even if you're a strong swimmer. If the water is cold enough, you might experience cold water shock and a dangerous reflex called the cold water gasp. When you hit the water, you gasp automatically. The risk is inhaling a huge amount of water as soon as you go in, inducing panic, increasing the shock response, and increasing your risk of drowning.

How cold is cold water? Some people experience cold water shock symptoms in water as 'warm' as 14 degrees C (57 F). Which you'll find in plenty of popular lake and ocean swimming sites, even in the middle of summer.

The life jacket will save you if your ability to swim is compromised. It can even keep your head above water when you go in, period, keeping you warmer and preventing you from inhaling a bunch of water.

When you go swimming, you get into the water with intention, so the risk of being compromised is pretty low, unless you're adding an activity like cliff diving or something (or you're consuming substances that impair your ability to swim). So no, you don't need to wear a life jacket swimming if you know how to swim. You accept some level of inherent risk when you swim, like you do plenty of other activities.

Final note: having a life jacket near you is next to worthless. It needs to be on you and fastened. Are you going to grab and fasten your life jacket as you capsize? As you fall overboard? As you flee a boat that's on fire? Put it on and fasten it.

[Image IDs: Image #1: Picture of a life jacket with overlaid text reading: wear me!

Image #2: Tumblr tag reading: thats terrifying

Image #3: Tumblr tag reading: do you people not know how to swim? /End IDs]

iusedtobecharming-deactivated20

pavlover-boy

happy canada day. please consider donating to an indigenous-led charity. fuck colonialism.

indian residential school survivors society (BC)

toronto indigenous harm reduction (ON)

native women's resource centre of toronto (ON)

water first (nationwide)

indspire (nationwide)

miskanawah (AB)

ma mawi wi chi itata centre (MB)

manitoba indigenous cultural education centre (MB)

native women's shelter of montreal (QC)

native friendship centre of montreal (QC)

first light (NL)

list of indigenous charitable organizations sorted by cause (nationwide)

pavlover-boy

thank you for the info!!

first light (merchandise store only; unfortunately there is no direct donation link that I could find)

nfc montreal (updated)

please share this version instead if you can!!

dextro-transposition

[ID: Tags: #all links work except for the first light & nfc of montreal /.End ID]

#credit to the describer

Do we have a franz kafka diary entry for july 1st, i want to know what he thinks!!!

rehearsing

happy too tired July everyone

[Image ID: Text reading: July 1. Too tired. /End ID]

shitpostinguniverse

[Image ID: Tweet from Ben Rosen (@/ ben_rosen) on 6/19/22 reading: for father's day they're letting all the dads show up to the airport as early as they want. this guy next to me isn't flying until thursday /End ID]

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.)

mossdftba

Plain text: Now is the time to schedule those appointments to ask for them. Not when it’s 2 days away. /End plain text.

[Image ID: Meme edit of a person putting a frozen turkey in the fridge with text edited to read: I don’t know who needs to hear this. But it’s time to move the vet appointment to the schedule. /End ID]

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!

Plain text: Now is the time to schedule those appointments to ask for them. Not when it’s 2 days away. /End plain text.

[Image ID: Edit of the frozen turkey meme. A person places a carton sleeping dog into the fridge. Text is edited to read: I don’t know who needs to hear this. It’s time to call the vet for pet sedatives for July 4. /End ID]

gotylocks

Happy 10th birthday to the best tweet of all time.

[Image ID: Tweet from birdsRightsActivist (@/ ProBirdRights) on Jun 15, 2015 reading: I been working on my summer bod: It the same as my regular body, but this time more popsackles in it. /End ID]

laterkiss

happy pride month 🏳️‍🌈

[Image IDs: Gifs of various pride flag wrapping around the Tumblr like icon. Image #1: sunset lesbian flag. Image #2: gay men flag. Image #3: bisexual flag. Image #4: trans flag. Image #5: asexual flag. Image #6: aomantic flag. Image #7: intersex flag. Image #8: nonbinary flag. Image #9: Philadelphia pride flag. /End IDs]

makesomenoise

🌈

[Image ID: Screengrabs from the TV show Make Some Noise. The prompt is: Scrooge learns the true meaning of Bisexual Awareness Week. Erika says: You, boy, what day is it? Brennan says: It's Pride, bitch! /End ID]

gaybichon

not even funny how true this is for me

[Image ID: Tweet from choya (@/ mayonnnnnn_) reading: budget for pride month is a fierce 2 dollars /End ID]

You are 60% water and every lake, river, pond, swamp, creek, and ocean you encounter wants to reclaim it desperately. Be careful out there.

Good, I hope it haunts everyone about to enter a body of water so bad that they wear a life jacket. 🙌

Every single person I knew (past tense) who has drowned was "a strong swimmer." Water in the wild does not care how good you are at swimming.

I mean this with all due respect:

You are not going to pass a skillcheck against a rip current once it has you.

Waves will not bow to your physical prowess no matter how impressive.

Shock does not care that you used to be on your school swim team.

If you hit your head, being good at swimming isn't going to turn you face-up while you're unconscious.

You may be unable to return to shore. Rescue may be unable to find you quickly.

when you're in water, moving cools you down. you lose heat faster in water, even relatively warm water on a pretty warm day.

as you cool down, your muscles stiffen, you lose the ability to swim much faster than usual (again, not even always in cold water!), and you drown.

to remain warm until rescue, it's important to stay still and get into the H.E.L.P. position to preserve body heat.

you can't do that treading water. You can only do that with a proper flotation device.

I once went into the water on a nice, sunny day at a popular boating lake surrounded by boaters. It took 45 minutes to be rescued. Could you swim for that long? Could you swim for that long while shivering and stiff?

Wear a life jacket!

cagedcricket

Okay but genuinely are we supposed to wear a life jacket every time we go swimming in natural bodies of water at all? Like. Not allowed to just swim normally unless we go to a pool?

Good question! No. I'm a freediver and a paddling instructor, so I spend a lot of time wild swimming (sans life jackets) and in boats (wearing life jackets).

Life jackets are important when:

you're on the water in conditions where it would be unsafe to get in the water

there's a chance of entering the water unintentionally/accidentally.

Plenty of people boat & paddle in conditions unsafe for swimming (myself included). Cold water, strong currents, rough & windy weather, and being far from shore are all conditions that make swimming unsafe.

If anything happens and you go into the water, a life jacket will protect you in these conditions (even cold water, by allowing you to preserve body heat)

But what about when you're out in safe swimming conditions? What if you even plan to take the boat out to go swimming?

The risk is ending up in the water unintentionally.

If you're in a large or medium boat, on a paddle board, in a kayak, etc., and you end go in the water without meaning to, you've ended up in the water by means that put you at risk (capsizing, collision, sinking, fire, even just falling).

Injury, shock, etc. can prevent you from swimming, even if you're a strong swimmer. If the water is cold enough, you might experience cold water shock and a dangerous reflex called the cold water gasp. When you hit the water, you gasp automatically. The risk is inhaling a huge amount of water as soon as you go in, inducing panic, increasing the shock response, and increasing your risk of drowning.

How cold is cold water? Some people experience cold water shock symptoms in water as 'warm' as 14 degrees C (57 F). Which you'll find in plenty of popular lake and ocean swimming sites, even in the middle of summer.

The life jacket will save you if your ability to swim is compromised. It can even keep your head above water when you go in, period, keeping you warmer and preventing you from inhaling a bunch of water.

When you go swimming, you get into the water with intention, so the risk of being compromised is pretty low, unless you're adding an activity like cliff diving or something (or you're consuming substances that impair your ability to swim). So no, you don't need to wear a life jacket swimming if you know how to swim. You accept some level of inherent risk when you swim, like you do plenty of other activities.

Final note: having a life jacket near you is next to worthless. It needs to be on you and fastened. Are you going to grab and fasten your life jacket as you capsize? As you fall overboard? As you flee a boat that's on fire? Put it on and fasten it.

[Image IDs: Image #1: Picture of a life jacket with overlaid text reading: wear me!

Image #2: Tumblr tag reading: thats terrifying

Image #3: Tumblr tag reading: do you people not know how to swim? /End IDs]

sheakspeare

― f. scott fitzgerald, the beautiful and damned

[Image ID: Text reading: And then, one fairy night,

May became June. /End ID]

when i was a tiny baby queer (aka a 24-year-old), i went to my first pride festival probably three months after i kicked ex-gay therapy to the curb and came out to my parents. being the people they are, my parents came with me. they weren’t really sure about this whole gay thing, but they loved me and wanted me to be safe and happy and wanted to be involved in what was important to me, so they came along. (i also think my mother still might have thought i might get drugged or murdered or beaten by a protester of which there were plenty.)

anyway i wanted a memento of my first pride, you know, and this one vendor was selling keyrings, and i liked it, so i bought one. do you remember those italian charm bracelets that were all the rage like 10-15 years ago? it was a keychain like that, and it had a rainbow rooster, a rainbow cat, and then just a rainbow, and so I bought it.

i run into my mom a couple of vendors over and she goes oh you bought something? what’d you get? so i showed her, and i was like, “I’m not sure why it’s a rooster and a cat. Seems kind of random. But I liked the rainbows.”

and my mom, who was some form of minister’s wife for most of my childhood and teenagerhood, stares at me like she thinks i’m joking.

“What?” i say.

“…it’s a cock and a pussy, Jules,” she says flatly, and that is the story of how i died at the age of 24 while attending my first pride festival.

I love how every June this one gets dug up and passed around again, lmao.

oh no is this what we’re doing now

…relic…

*crumbles and blows away on the wind*

[Image IDs: Image #1: Tumblr tag from rogue-thirteen reading: happy it's a cock and a pussy jules month

Image #2: Tumblr tag from laggingBehindReality reading: a relic, iconic post /End IDs]

#credit to the describer #pride posting

babyjanedough

Already know I wanna send this to people on June 1

isuckattechnology

Audio:

Erika, referencing ebenezer scrooge: You, boy! What day is it?!

Brennan, as a young boy: It's Pride, bitch!

corvidcall

to anyone in the areas impacted by the wildfire smoke, my #1 biggest piece of advice as someone whos been dealing with wildfire smoke in the NW united states for years, is build yourself a Corsi-Rosenthal Cube

they perform as well as expensive HEPA air cleaners, and are comparatively VERY inexpensive. all you need is a box fan, 4 air filters, a piece of cardboard, and some duct tape!!!!

i think it took us maybe a half hour to put ours together, if that, and we replace the filters every 3 months. it's really made a HUGE difference, both when the air quality is bad, but also with our allergies

o0fyuu0o

Saw these easy to read instructions on Twitter. Stay safe 💚

tinyyellowflowers-blog

Great time to start pricing this out by the way, fire season starts… on the summer solstice this year, that’s fun. Signs point to it being a doozy.

[Image IDs: Image #1: a Corsi-Rosenthal Cube; 4 air filters taped together with a box fan on top.

Image #2: Illustrated guide titled: How To Build A Corsi-Rosenthal Box. Body text reads: The Corsi-Rosenthal Box is an affordable DIY air-cleaning system made with simple materials found in hardware stores. The box fan pulls air through the filters on the sides and blows out clean air. It is proven to reduce indoor exposure to airborne particles including those containing the virus that causes Covid-19. The box can also decrease the levels of other particles in the air, such as dust or wildfire smoke.

Illustration by Amanda Hu: Unassembled Corsi-Rosentheal Box, arrow pointing to assembled box. Text:

Filters can last up to a year

Keep away from walls and corners

The Materials. Illustration: 2 air filters, a box fan, scissors, a utility knife, tape. Text:

Filters 3M 1900 MPR (20" x 20" x 1" or 20" x 25" x 1") or MERV 13 (20" x 20" x 2" or 20" x 20" x 1" or 20" x 25" x 2" or 20" x 25" x 1" [2-inch preferred)

Lasko or Mainstays 20-inch Box Fan

Scissors, Utility Knife, Duct Tape

The Cube. Illustration: 4 filters arranged to form a cube; hands taping the edges of 2 filters together at a right angle; 4 filters taped together to make a cube. Text:

Arrange the filters to create a symmetrical structure

Ensure the arrows are pointed inwards

Duct tape the four edges

Vertical orientation of the pleats is preferred

Illustration: An air filter, with arrows on the outside edge corners. One corner, with the arrow, is circled in and enlarged.

The Base. Illustration: A cardboard square on top of the cube made of air filters; hands taping the cardboard square onto the cube; the cardboard square taped to the cube on all 4 sides. Text:

Use one side of the fan's cardboard box

Cut the cardboard box to fit the base of the cube

Duct tape it on all fours sides

The Fan. Illustration: A box fan on top of the cube made of air filters; hands taping the box fan to the cube; the fan taped to the cube, with an enlarged circle on a corner showing the tape leaves no gaps. Text:

Place the fan on top of the cube

Seal all sides, including corners

Ensure any holes on the side of the fan are sealed off with duct tape

The Shroud. Illustration: A cardboard square with a large circle cut in the middle of it; that cardboard square on top of the box fan; hands taping the cardboard square to the top of the fan which is on top of the cube made of air filters. Text:

Cut the other cardboard sheet to fit the top of the fan

Cut a circular hole (15.75" diameter)

Place the shroud on the fan and tape it on all four sides

The shroud increases efficiency and decreases the noise level

Illustrator: Marija Mladenović. Creator: Shiven Taneja. /End IDs]

thememedaddy