(repeated like a mantra while rubbing my temples) i will stay silly and not allow the world to make me bitter and cruel. i will stay silly and not allow the world to make me bitter and cruel. i wi
Okay, so youāre starting from scratch, you canāt cook, you donāt know what career youāre interested in, you lack skills that your parents should have taught you, and your finances arenāt in order. Worst of all, you donāt know where to begin š. Well, I got a list of books for you.
( most of the books listed have visuals)
These are 10 must-have books thatāll help you maneuver through life!
1. āThe Self Care prescriptionā by Robyn L. Gobin, Ph.D āļø MUST HAVE āļøĀ (Amazon)
Self-care is important. If you donāt know where to start this book was made for you. It will clear up any confusion you may have about self-care, and how it looks. It also addresses mental health and teaches you skills on how to deal with real-life issues. The author also has a journal you can purchase alongside this book. (Amazon link)
2. āInfographic guide to Personal Financeā by Elisabeth Lariviere and Michele Cavan, CPA (Amazon)
All the financial advice you need in one book. It has a range of topics from debt to investing, buying property, and budgeting. This book is easy to understand and has lovely graphics.
3. āHow to be a personā by Catherine Newman (Amazon)
All the skills you need to be a functioning human being are in this book. I recommend this book for people who didnāt have a lot of guidance growing up. āHow to be a personā will fill you in on the basics. It tells you how to tip people, do laundry, send mail, and make your bed. It also has some easy recipes and a lot more. Itās a great starter book for those who genuinely donāt know where to begin!
4. āAtomic Habitsā by James Clear (Amazon)
If you are looking to break a habit or start a new one this book is a bestseller and highly recommended. It can also be helpful for those who struggle with motivation, making changes, etc. Before reading this book, I had difficulty getting back on track after a break. Since reading Atomic Habits, Iāve been able to stay consistent with my goals and overcome moments of doubt. Once youāve read Atomic Habits I would suggest purchasingĀ @2prettyĀ 12-month dream girl guide. It can help you keep track of the habits you want to master and the steps you plan on taking to accomplish your goal. Itās also a cute journal š„°.
5. āBudgeting 101ā by Michele Cavan, CPAĀ (Amazon)
A very detailed book explaining everything you need to know about budgeting, saving, and investing. It also has a couple of tips.
6. āHome EC for everyoneā by Sharon & David Bowers (Amazon)
All the life skills you need are in this book. It covers cooking, laundry, sewing, and other domestic skills. Home EC has recipes, a list of supplies, and how-toās on cleaning, setting tables &, etc. This book is amazing. Itās been my favorite purchase this year. It starts with the easy stuff like boiling water š and cracking an egg, but it gets into other info like getting gum out of carpet, how to hem a skirt, reading laundry symbols, making beef stew, and brining meat, just to mention a few.
7. āGetting from college to careerā by Lindsey Pollak (Amazon)
If you need advice on preparing for interviews, working on your resume, getting real-world experiences, and finding job opportunities. I couldnāt suggest a better book. It has other topics and is great for anyone who needs advice while theyāre looking for a job, but it is catered to college graduates.
8. āAdulting made easyā by Amanda MorinĀ (Amazon)
Budgeting, insurance, getting a job, KEEPING a job, safe social media usage, living situations, and a few other life skills are all mentioned in āadulting made easyā. I love this book and started including it in my gift package for friends and family members going to college or moving out, itās such a great resource.
9. āThe driving bookā by Karen Gravelle (Amazon)
This book is geared towards new drivers, but I believe it has some great information for everyone. It tells you what to keep in your car, how to take care of it, and how to drive in different areas. Such as the freeway, the countryside, etc.Ā
10. āCareers the ultimate guide to planning your futureā (Amazon)
This book has a range of careers, some requiring just trade school or associates, others needing a doctorate. With such a range, youāll be sure to get an idea of what career you might be interested in. It also has a rank on the salary youāll be making from each opportunity listed.
Now I am all for reading and gathering information but please be sure to put the tips you learn to use.Ā
Iāll try to make a version of this that has online readings or links. I know some people donāt like books or donāt have space for books so if I find any articles Iāll make a post š¤
ā” xoxo Mrs.Degree ā£ļø
p.s just cuz you didnāt learn these skills as a kid doesnāt mean your parents suck I just picked that as a header.
Once I loved a boy only I didn't know it until after I broke his heart nearly a hundred times.
I would get drunk on vodka or tequila or cheap wine or shitty beers and he would drag me to the dance floor and I would wrap my arms around him, loose but close. We would find ourselves in someone's room or in the dirty club bathroom or in some alley that smelled like stale donuts and piss. Our tongues twisted in each others mouths, bodies shaking from the cold and the adrenaline.
The next morning I would wake up and tell him I couldn't love him. Why not? Because he was one of my best friends and he was stable and sturdy and the kind of boy who I could be safe with. The kind of boy who would take care of me, no matter how fucked up I got.
I don't know why he kept loving me still.
I unknowingly loved this boy so much I told him to leave before I hurt him again. Before I found myself on my knees in front of him, or woke up twisted in his sheets, again. Before I could tell him, no, that this was the last time, again.
We said goodbye at the gas station and drove away in different cars. 6 months, no contact. Maybe longer if we felt like it. He kissed me on the forehead, one last time. I wasn't sad.
Only soon the highway grew blurry and my checks were wet and I so desperately wanted to die violently and painfully because I deserved it.
All my best friend could think to say to me was, oh, honey. She had loved me longer than he had, but she soon figured I wasn't worth the mess. She knew this rollercoaster good and well.
I had crushed his heart until it was nothing but a bloody pulp, beating for me still. And then I took a sledgehammer to my own to finish the job.
I don't remember those months, only that I emerged like a moth, wings fluttering, full of adrenaline in my veins and cigarette smoke in my lungs, seeking the light on the other side.
He called me at 1 am. Then we pretended like it never happened. I still drank too much and wrote shitty poetry and stayed up too late wondering what the hell was wrong with me.
I told him I was happy. He knew that was a lie. I could tell by the way he watched my teeth close over the words.
A question I get asked a lot while working at a public library is "how do you deal with homeless people?"
And the answer is, we don't.
The unhoused people who come here seeking refuge 99% of the time understand that they will be kicked out if they misbehave.
The people you have to watch out for are Jessica, who only came because the kid she didn't want had to visit for a homework assignment and she just *needs* to yell at her child for asking to borrow two books or stay an extra five minutes, or Michael, who came in to look at porn on our computers for whatever fucking reason, or Karen who just wanted to come by to throw a fit that the particular book she wanted was checked out and harrass our staff about our collection being too limited.
99% of the time, the people we need to ban are middle to upper-middle class white people while the homeless and mentally ill/disabled people mind their own damn business and are honestly some of the best patrons we have.
I bring this up because today we had a man come in. He stopped at the desk, pulled up a chair and said "I'm newly homeless and was living in my car. I'm disabled. It was impounded. It's raining. I don't have a phone and I don't know where to go tonight."
And we did what we could to help. He was incredibly kind and patient despite his obvious anxiety and stress, more than most able bodied, housed patrons are to us under much less dire conditions. I liked knowing that we were the first place he came.
We have so many people like this who come in everyday. Many are quiet and keep to themselves, but sometimes they talk to us.
They tell us about how they're taking a few courses on a scholarship they applied for from our library's computer at the local community college to get their diploma. Or ask about a manga or dvd or book we might have to help them pass the time.
One woman, who comes in daily with her tattered walker always says hello to me and likes to work on the new jigsaw puzzle with me when we set one out.
So like, treat unhoused people like people. Treat disabled people like people. I don't want my library to feel like the only safe space in the world, but I'm glad it can be one of them.
I'm so sick of hearing about how "the homeless are ruining everything" when they are some of the kindest, most respectful people here. Sometimes they mutter, might not have had a place to shower, and might need a little extra space for their backpacks but that's FINE. It Doesn't Matter Actually. None of that is a problem or any of my business to care about (unless they request help/services), and I also don't think it's any of yours.
i like sailing myths and superstitions because most of them can be boiled down to "if the ocean doesn't like you it will chew you up and spit out your bones. and if it really loves you it will swallow you whole and never let you go. good luck š"
okay I watched good omens s2 yesterday with my partner, and I was genuinely very surprised -- I think if you've grown up through superwholock/merlin/the 100/teen wolf type shows where (with the exception periodically of doctor who) you kind of had to make up the good show that something could have been in your head, that colours a lot of your viewing, and to be honest I thought season 1 of good omens was a fine little piece, honoured the book while modernising it somewhat, it was a nice, fun, low stakes time, with a couple of things I might have wanted a tad different but nothing overall awful.
so I was seeing all this meta and gifsets and discussion, while I was waiting to give s2 a watch with my partner and thought "ah, people have made up the good show in their heads again" not that I assumed s2 was going to be a bad show, but that people were taking extra deep plunges into possibilities, the way fandom does, and that was fine. I knew there was a big ol kiss, I had a sense of some kind of argument at the end, and that it was setting up a s3
I also knew that mainstream reviews were calling it (politely) self-indulgent and dependent on whether or not you enjoy david tennant and michael sheen having a good time for just under 6 hours
all in all, expectations of a somewhat mainstream show without too much to think about, a nice, fun low stakes time, moving on...
(EDIT: AND THEN I WROTE A LOT OF WORDS SO YOU CAN IMAGINE THAT MY REACTION WAS QUITE DIFFERENT)
as it turns out it seems these things that were being written on tumblr were discussing the actual text of the show and not things you could extrapolate if you squinted and tilted your head a little to the left as I'm so used to doing, so in fact there is much to think about!
and my first thought was "this is like when you read early discworld books that ask a question like a joke, only to find that over time the answer to that question becomes very serious (and also can be funny at times of course)." how terry pratchett would pick and pick at tropes and notions and social ideas and go "oh now hold on, this seems strange..." starting way back when he thought it was odd that women warriors always seemed to be dressed in metal bikinis and then realising he hadn't done a good enough job of subverting the trope, simply by depicting it and calling it a bit silly
why do goblins always get treated as the villains? what's with this divine succession of kings business? where are the female dwarfs? who do we treat as disposable?
good omens season one went: "haha what if heaven and hell were intensely incapable, bureaucratic, corrupt, and uncaring of the work they did, and we took an angel and a demon and had them actually care? wouldn't that be... a bit silly?" (and it was)
good omens season two went: "what are the consequences for caring when the people who have power over you are incapable, bureaucratic, corrupt, and uncaring? what are the forces that supersede systems built on fear, ignorance, and violent conformity? can people change and break out of/challenge/break down these structures by caring?"
and this was set up with a neat little sleight of hand (to reference aziraphale's switch-and-bait in the episode with the nazi zombies), because the majority of season 2 does feel a bit indulgent: hey, remember those two wacky angel-and-demon characters? watch some more wacky things they did through the ages, watch them take a sojourn through 1827 Edinburgh and do a magic show during the Blitz, and... stop the death of Job's and Sitis' children (actually maybe that whole segment ought to have been what they call "A Clue")
see them try to figure out a kooky mystery, all the while setting up a cute little same-gender romance on their street. watch as everything points towards a happy ending that's all about the two of them realising what they've been to one another all these thousands and thousands (and thousands and thousands) of years- but hold on. lest we forget - and the show has made this point over and over - there are powerful people who control them, who hurt them, and who plan on hurting others, throughout the whole season, and as it turns out they know what they've been to one another for far far longer, and know how to pull their strings...
season 2 then, has to show us these things, not because they're indulgent (well, maybe occasionally, but the apology dance is still important), but because in order to make the ending a tragedy, we first need to understand, properly, the impact that they have had on each other. we need to understand that Aziraphale relied heavily on Crowley to be his moral compass and leaned on black-and-white thinking in order to deal with things, because if it's all grey then where does he fit and what has it all meant and heaven has to be the good guys, even as Job's and Sitis' children are ordered to be killed, it's all he ever had...
and Crowley was always an anchor, needed to trust that Aziraphale was different, needed to bend to every whim that Aziraphale has, because otherwise what's his worth in all this? After having been already deemed worthless by the heaven that Aziraphale needs to believe in?
and that, simplistically described, is the narrative that we're seeing in s2, and alongside that the ways that the changes they have upon each other are noticed, and monitored, and placed under suspicion, and finally... broken up, not by the clumsy, brute force that's been attempted over and over again, but by a promise to return into a violent, controlling system and to "make it better from within"
and all of this is wrapped up in two queer relationships + a third queered-within-the-text relationship that creates the inverse of how it ends for Aziraphale and Crowley (so far). queer love -- whatever shape that has -- is explicitly the shape of non-conformity within this narrative, including within the symbolism of angel-and-demon love of Gabriel and Beelzebub, which in the context of the systems created is considered queer (and one can argue till the cats come home about casting cis actors, about angel-and-demon notions of gender/romance/sexuality, but the "queerness" comes from building something non-conforming to the systems they exist in), and enforced by the explicitly our-world-definition-of queer romance that Nina and Maggie have going on (which, while less high stakes, still contains the background controlling relationship that Nina initially is in)
all of this to say, that I disagree that s2 meanders, or that plotlines happen for the sake of showcasing Aziraphale and Crowley without purpose, or that characters get sidelined (I'd say it sets up a whole host of interesting characters to further get into actually), or that it's strictly mainstream easy-access narrative that's just an excuse for the main creators and actors to get back together.
the love is the point, and this show takes its time to show the love (and the unequal boundary-setting, and the fact that one of them has an undiscussed tragic backstory, and the desperation to belong again, and the fear instilled by oppressive systems, and and and), so that we understand why those last 15 minutes happen the way that they do
it's sleight of hand, and like all good magic, you don't notice until it's happened
Canāt stop thinking about how all of S2, Aziraphale is throwing himself at Crowley physically (the hand on his chest in the bar, the dance, the hand on his shoulder when Gabe and Beez say being together is more important than sides) waiting for Crowley to make the next move, while Crowley is throwing himself at Aziraphale emotionally (trying to make the humans fall in love by engineering a rainstorm, letting Aziraphale drive his car, recommending Alpha Centauri as a place for Gabe and Beez to go). And how in the final 15, they finally get closer to giving the other what they have been asking for all season, but itās twisted and miscommunicated: ācome with meā Aziraphale says and all Crowley hears is āto heavenā; āI need youā Aziraphale says, and all Crowley hears is āto change for meā; Crowley grabs Aziraphale and kisses him the way Aziraphale has wanted all season and Aziraphale, thinking itās a temptation away from Heaven, forgives him instead of kissing him back.
ok I know everyone is still freaking out over the kiss but theres like 5 and 3/4 episodes worth in the rest of the season that have barely been touched.
Forget the kiss for a moment so we can talk about Crowley mentioning Alpha Centauri when the LOVERS Gabe and Bee needed somewhere to go
Crowley mentions that it's a place he'd always like to go whilst also implying to aziraphale (however intentionally) that he thinks it's a great place for LOVERS to run off together
And he had asked AZIRAPHALE to GO WITH HIM to this place only a few years ago
You can see it on his face, aziraphale doesn't notice at first but then it clicks for him and he DOUBLE TAKES
and don't get me started in the expression he gives. Just so surprised and hopeful as if to say "did you really imply what I think you did"
He WANTS it to be true or else he wouldn't have noticed and he's clearly a bit unsure and hesitant but he he's HOPEFUL
It's straight up an overlooked almost fanfic "oh OH" type of moment.
These are the things we need to be talking about now guys. We've had a day to cope over the finale, it's about time we ramble on about other cute moments too
so you're anthony j. crowley, long-time exile from heaven and recent exile from hell, and you've finally figured out that the mess of overwhelming and infuriating and intoxicating feelings you've been harboring for the only being in the universe you've ever been able to rely on might, whoopsies, be something a little bit like love. but not love the way you remember heaven loved you, or the way they told you god loved you (they lied), but love like the humans do it: messy, and awkward, and incongruously infinite, and so, so fragile.
and, well. okay, you think. this'll be horrible. embarrassing for both of us, probably. but i'll tell him. you've never been a coward, no matter what the other demons might say. screw your courage to the sticking place, or whatever. macbeth. aziraphale loved that one.
so you talk yourself into it, you gather every scrap of courage and honesty you've got left, and you say, all right, angel, i've got something to say, only aziraphale's got something to say, too, and--
aziraphale doesn't love you back.
or. he does, but he loves the ghost of the angel you used to be, not the person you've made yourself since. he loves you, but he loves you like god did--loves you good, and quiet, and dull. he loves you without your grief, or your anger, without even that first bite of the apple. he wants you like that again, he says. defanged, like the Antichrist's domesticated hellhound.
(you worked for hell for a long time, and for god for a long time before that. you're intimately familiar with what it is to offer someone everything they've ever wanted, and then to twist it, to mutilate it, into an unrecognizable hell of their own choosing. you're not sure why it surprises you anymore. you're not sure why you keep letting the surprises hurt.)
and so you do the thing you've done since the beginning, because you've never been able to stop yourself: you push. you push hard, and you grab him, and he's so angry and you kiss him and you don't think about it, don't think about it, this is the most important temptation of your life, the only one that's ever mattered--
and he forgives you.
so you leave. at least that way you can do it before he does. you've always been a step ahead and to the left; stupid to think this would ever be different. stupid to think he might choose you, with all of heaven and earth spread out in front of him. nothing lasts forever, not even the stars.
gummygunk
areudirty
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
2087
prguitarman
yousharknotpass
kianamaiart
snowghoul
romaincrisis
