A Campaign for Self (and Self-Esteem) Improvement

34yo, they/them

[gatoiberico]

Celestial flock 🪶

(print available on inprnt!)

[kerink]

i know we're all sick of self-care being a marketing tactic now, but i don't think a lot of us have any other concept of self-care beyond what companies have tried to sell us, so i thought i'd share my favorite self-care hand out

brought to you by how mad i just got at a Target ad

[dokirosi]

Strawberry Shortcake 

[hillergoodspeed]

[disconnectivetissue]

Idk if I've posted about this before, but the most important thing I've learned in 2022 (The Year Of Never Ending Doctors' Visits) is to leave every medical appointment with a clear-cut set of next steps. When you have a chronic health issue, it's not just as simple as telling the doctor what's wrong and letting them take it from there.

If you go in for an undiagnosed issue, your should leave with:

An investigative plan: Orders for labs, imaging, or specialist referrals to try and figure out what's causing the problem. If your doctor doesn't want to order tests, ask why. It could be an insurance issue (e.g. tests denied unless front line treatments have failed), or it could be a bias issue. If it's a bias issue, things get more complicated, but the first step towards adequate care is asking your doctor to note that you requested testing for the issue and they denied it on the basis of [whatever]. I have some tips for next steps in these situations, so feel free to shoot me a message.

A "what-if" follow up plan: Ask your doctor, "What if the labs/scans/etc. come back negative or inconclusive? What if this treatment plan is not effective after [preestablished length of time]? What's the next step?" and make sure the next steps are noted. This helps keep you on your doctors' radar until you have an effective care plan in place.

A symptom management plan: Really spell out the effect the symptoms are having on your daily life. Let the doctor know you're fully invested in long term recovery, but that you need something to help you live your life as "normally" as possible until the long term treatment plan can be established and take effect. This could be medication, assistive devices, FMLA or other documentation for work/school, etc.

If you go in for a diagnosed issue, swap out the investigative plan for a long-term treatment plan. The goal should be to reduce your symptoms or prevent progression, if possible. For some conditions, this looks pretty similar to symptom management.

This has been working pretty well for me lately. At the end of my appointments, I verbally summarize my understanding, like "Okay, so we're trying to figure out the cause of my [symptom], and you've ordered XYZ tests. If nothing comes back abnormal, you'll [order different tests, refer to specialist, etc.]. In the meantime, I can manage it with [medication, lifestyle change(s), adaptive device, etc.]. Is that a good summary of our plan?"

Rinse & repeat at any/all follow up visits.

[linguajunkie]

Free PDF Workbooks for Japanese, Spanish, Korean, etc. (30+ languages)

If you’re looking to practice a bit and remember your target language better… here are tons of free worksheets/workbooks for 34 languages (Japanese, Spanish, Korean, French, German, Italian, etc, etc.)

It’s the same type of “fill in the blank” workbook across all of their languages but the magic in actually rewriting things over and over is that the words end up sticking. Plus, there are English sections where you’ll have to force yourself to remember and write the word/phrase in the target language - which is even better for your memory (called active recall - forcing yourself to remember).  I’m personally a big fan of this approach and I’d do similar to pass vocab quizzes in my HS & uni language classes.

If you’re interested, give these a go.

Afrikaans— https://www.afrikaanspod101.com/Afrikaans-workbooks

Arabic— https://www.arabicpod101.com/Arabic-workbooks

Bulgarian— https://www.bulgarianpod101.com/Bulgarian-workbooks

Cantonese— https://www.cantoneseclass101.com/Cantonese-workbooks

Chinese— https://www.chineseclass101.com/Chinese-workbooks

Czech— https://www.czechclass101.com/Czech-workbooks

Danish— https://www.danishclass101.com/Danish-workbooks

Dutch— https://www.dutchpod101.com/Dutch-workbooks

English— https://www.englishclass101.com/English-workbooks

Filipino— https://www.filipinopod101.com/Filipino-workbooks

Finnish— https://www.finnishpod101.com/Finnish-workbooks

French— https://www.frenchpod101.com/French-workbooks

German—https://www.germanpod101.com/German-workbooks

Greek— https://www.greekpod101.com/Greek-workbooks

Hebrew— https://www.hebrewpod101.com/Hebrew-workbooks

Hindi— https://www.hindipod101.com/Hindi-workbooks

Hungarian— https://www.hungarianpod101.com/Hungarian-workbooks

Indonesian— https://www.indonesianpod101.com/Indonesian-workbooks

Italian— https://www.italianpod101.com/Italian-workbooks

Japanese— https://www.japanesepod101.com/Japanese-workbooks

Korean— https://www.koreanclass101.com/Korean-workbooks

Norwegian— https://www.norwegianclass101.com/Norwegian-workbooks

Persian— https://www.persianpod101.com/Persian-workbooks

Polish— https://www.polishpod101.com/Polish-workbooks

Portuguese— https://www.portuguesepod101.com/Portuguese-workbooks

Romanian— https://www.romanianpod101.com/Romanian-workbooks

Russian— https://www.russianpod101.com/Russian-workbooks

Spanish— https://www.spanishpod101.com/Spanish-workbooks

Swahili— https://www.swahilipod101.com/Swahili-workbooks

Swedish— https://www.swedishpod101.com/Swedish-workbooks

Thai— https://www.thaipod101.com/Thai-workbooks

Turkish— https://www.turkishclass101.com/Turkish-workbooks

Urdu— https://www.urdupod101.com/Urdu-workbooks

Vietnamese— https://www.vietnamesepod101.com/Vietnamese-workbooks

[autism-adhd-information-blog-de]

Hi everyone,

I thought I’d share some information about sensory processing disorder. Which a lot of autistic and ADHD people have. I hope many of you find this helpful. :)

Sensory Processing Disorder

[super-sootica]

With so many elections coming up worldwide it's probably a good time to remind everyone that tumblr once got infested with agents trying to convince everyone not to vote, or not to vote left because the candidates weren't morally pure enough.

Also a reminder that they were better at tumblr than most of us, comrade interloper was great at memeing. Like, the talent!

Anyway don't fall for it. There is no morally pure option.

[tzikeh]

Vote for whoever can move you one inch closer to your goals. This is a long game. If there's a candidate who wants to move you a mile closer to your goals but they do not stand a chance in the general election, you vote for whoever can move you one inch closer to your goals. The time to vote for the "one mile" candidate in the primaries. Once you get to the general, you vote for the one who has a chance in hell of winning, or you're actively working against progress. 100% of the time, voting in a general for a "can't win" candidate because their beliefs align more with your beliefs is actively working for the opposition. There is no situation in which this is not true.

[gardnerhill]

One side is addressing climate change and raising the minimum wage and forgiving student debt. The other side are GODDAMN TRAITORS AND INSURRECTIONISTS and are openly removing women's rights, LGBTQ people's rights and VOTING access. But DO tell me again that Both Sides Are Just As Bad As Each Other.

[dduane]

Vote. Every time you don’t vote moves you closer to the day when you’ll never be allowed to vote again.

[guerrillatech]

[cvvel]

Image description: A picture showing a simplified symbol of a wheelchair user. Arrows in circular motion depict the inaccessibility cycle. The cycle starts with Inaccessibility, goes through: disabled people unable to participate - disabled people not visible in public - disabled people seen as outlier / rarity - “so there’s little / no need to consider them” - cycle goes back to inaccessibility. Image description end.

[s-n-arly]

Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

⁂

Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

[hrtsuit]

Streaming Service Rant

[chemychems-deactivated20210407]

You could make this shorter by just going  “I’m a thief and refuse to pay for content”. Would save you a lot of time.

[amvs]

I’m a thief and refuse to pay for content and i encourage everyone else to do the same! Don’t be a little bitch like chemychems and jump aboard the ship, matey!

I Am Once Again Posting Web Lonks

https://soap2day.to/ tv + movies

https://twist.moe/ anime

http://mangakatana.com/ manga

https://libgen.is/ books (includes textbooks!)

https://gfxdrug.com/ https://shareae.com/after-effects-presets/ adobe shit

[hellenhighwater]

I like granola in my yoghurt but it's sort of expensive, even at Aldi. So I decided to try making some from scratch and uh...it's hella easy?

4 c oats, the kind you use for oatmeal; 1 teaspoon each cinnamon and salt, mixed into the oats while they're dry, and then about a half cup each of honey (or maple syrup) and of olive oil (or cocconut oil). I wound up adding more honey and oil because it wasn't enough to coat/saturate the oats. A splash of vanilla extract, and of maple because I had it, all mixed until everything is coated evenly. You can also add in nuts too! Then spread onto a parchment lined pan and put into the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes, pulling it out and mixing twice. Let it cool (it crisps up more as it does) and then store in the freezer for indefinite use, or on the counter to use within a few weeks. If you like big chunks of granola, press down with a spatula to compact things after you mix at the midway points. Keep an eye on it as it bakes to make sure it doesn't burn!

Obviously you can tailor this by changing your spices, adding dried fruit or nuts (fruit should go in after baking, nuts before) and any number of other ways.

[hellenhighwater]

Lots of helpful stuff in the notes from people who have done this more than me! Including that these should be rolled oats, not steel cut. I just used whatever was in the glass jar in my pantry...

I'll be doing cinnamon roasted walnuts later if you guys also want the rundown on that.

[only-tiktoks]

[hybridcalisthenics]

You CAN do pushups, my friend!

[lizardlicks]

THIS TIP ABOUT JOINT STRENGTH IS SO IMPORTANT AND I ALMOST NEVER SEE ANYON MENTION IT

[stargazing-enby]

And that's that on that.

[stargazing-enby]

Apparently I wasn't done 🤔

[lymmea]

These are FABULOUS, OP, but can I suggest one to the riff of "QUEERNESS IS NOT DEFINED BY THE AMOUNT PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED"?

[stargazing-enby]

Thanks! Here you go 🥰

Some other additions:

Inspired by @unicorn-in-the-library:

And because @surfs-up-roxy wanted an ace one:

I didn't want to make the message ace-specific because I wanted to make a point of how all of the above include aspec people, but I tried to use an ace colour palette for the background :) I also think the message applies especially (even if not exclusively) to the ace community!

Hope you like these 🥰

[prismatic-bell]

@rockmarina possibly “all labels were made up at one point, stop being an ass”?

[stargazing-enby]

I played around with the concept a bit, I hope you like it anyway!

I feel like this also needs to be said:

[oddler14]

[ID:

Image 1: (in white text, on a background of rainbow watercolors) Gatekeeping hurts queer people who are questioning.

Image 2: (in white text, on a background of rainbow paint strokes) Gatekeeping hurts more queer people than it protects.

Image 3: (in white text, on a background of pastel watercolors) How about you let people question their gender and sexuality in peace.

Image 4: (in white text, on a photo of the rainbow pride flag flying in a blue sky) People don’t owe you a chronicle of their life experiences and feelings for you to decide whether they belong in their own community.

Image 5: (in white text, on a marbled pink background) I don’t know how to tell you this, but you are not the queer police.

Image 6: (in white text, on a background of multicolored textile) Stop siding with our oppressors.

Image 7: (in white text, on a photo of pieces of chalk arranged in a rainbow on asphalt) Not every queer person’s experiences need to be like yours.

Image 8: (in white text, on a background of shiny, rainbow chunks of metal (?)) Mind your own damn business.

Image 9: (in white text, on a mottled black & rainbow background) Let people change labels.

Image 10: (in white text, on a photo of a full moon in a dark sky) There’s no such thing as not being queer enough.

Image 11: (in white text, on a background of paint strokes in pink, white, magenta, purple and dark blue, the colors of the genderfluid pride flag) Vocabulary is designed to be constantly reinvented as human societies evolve, and labels aren’t the exception.

Image 12: (in white text, on a background of pink, purple, and turquoise) Gatekeeping is a product of privilege.

End ID]

[stargazing-enby]

Thanks so much for the image descriptions!

Here's one more addition per @secretlycrazyhummingbird's suggestion:

[Image description: (in white text, over a black background with trees decorated with multi-colored lights) Queer people don't have to make themselves palatable to deserve respect. End ID]

[stargazing-enby]

And another one, per @mixed-bag-of-tricks's suggestion!

[Image description: (in white text, over a wooden background with curved boards the colours of the rainbow) It's okay to use a label even if it doesn't fit perfectly. End ID]

[stargazing-enby]

...you know what, I think the message of this post really boils down to this:

[ID: (in white text, over a black background with striking rainbow lights) gatekeepers are nothing but bullies. End ID]

And I'm really glad this post has helped so many people feel a bit less alone in their struggles. Bullies have made a LOT of damage in this community—have made so many of us feel like impostors, like trenders, like maybe we were making up the things we were feeling—and it makes me so happy we're all pushing back against their hateful, narrow-minded, queerphobic rhetoric.

Keep it up, everyone 💪🏼

[stargazing-enby]

Happy pride month to the post that marked the beginning of my journey to overcoming internalised queerphobia

[tcustodisart]

Happy Pride Month 2022!!!

Faust the Crow loves you even more than she did last year!

[memory--box]

you know what? fuck you. i think its cool to have no labels, or cool to have more labels then you have fingers, and cool to just say queer, or cool to say "queer but theres more i can explain if youd like", and cool to say sapphic because you cant figure out if you id as a lesbian or bisexual, and cool to say youre asexual even if youd "fit into demisexual" more, and cool to introduce yourself as a trans guy even if youre also complicatedly nonbinary. its amazing no matter. youre all cool. im cool. yeah.