If you stop looking at your phone in every free moment it will feel a lot more anxiety-inducing at first but after a day or two you will settle into a slower way of thinking and eventually you will spend the whole morning looking at the sun rise through the window while you sip coffee or hold your sleeping partner and your thoughts wont feel like they’re on a treadmill
and with a VCR you could do all of this AND have the visuals as well… but an audio cassette recorder is a good place to start, since they’re small and simple. I would not recommend a boombox, because those are large and nowadays all very, very bad quality.
Now you may be saying “how is any of this helpful, I want a digital file…” here’s the fucking magic. You go into Audacity (free program), and lie to it that the tape recorder is really a microphone. Then you hit record on Audacity, and hit play on the tape, and let it play at regular speed. Trim and export the digital file, and you’re doing gangbusters. You’re cooking with gas. You’re thinking with portals. You’ve won the internet.
Congratulations, you can “pirate”* anything you want, and literally no one can catch you, because you’re not downloading in the traditional sense. You’re streaming to an external device, and that device is recording what it receives. It’s exactly like taping a live tv show to a VHS. This is a very low-key and non-strenuous task for the computer, since your tape recorder does all the work.
*Is this piracy? No. Well- it’s time shifting. Sort of. Tell it to my Steely Dan albums. Tell it to my The Sims: Hot Date VG Soundtrack album.
Some Tips, From Someone Whose Parent Grew Up in a Pre-Roe Society:
(TW: abortion, death, suicide, etc.)
you need to get to know the people who you’re around. Family members, neighbors, friends, possible romantic partners, etc. if they are more conservative, or they’ve got the gift of gab, now is the time to get rid of ‘em.
stop sharing stuff on social media. do not say stuff like “oh, I have space at my house if you wanna go camping” because that is an extremely easy way to get people sued, arrested, or in the case of my state— charged with homicide and/ or manslaughter. keep it off of social media, keep it quiet.
clear the data of any and all health/ period tracking apps and delete them immediately. don’t download stardust, or any of those other apps who pride themselves on not sharing information to third parties, because guess what? they still share that information, it is quite literally in their terms of service. nobody is safe from a subpoena. learn how to track your ovulation and menstrual cycles by paper and pen. don’t even write those words down, use a symbol like a circle ⭕️, or star ⭐️. this seems archaic, but it is the only sure-fire way to keep you safe.
get your resources together, and get ready for a lot of abortion/ reproductive healthcare networks to go underground. that is how abortion counseling services— such as the jane collective— have been able to function for so long. these resources are going to start getting harder to find, and y’all need to get ready for that.
if you end up having a baby that you do not want, or you know you will not be able to take care of, no matter the reason, and you want to surrender it, do not feel guilty about doing so. look into safe haven laws. you should be able to find drop boxes at your local hospital or fire station in all fifty states. in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming, these laws will give you an affirmative defense provision against charges such as child abandonment, neglect, or child endangerment.
try not to— if you can— use any at-home abortion remedies, because those can make you sick and/ or end up killing you.
if you take plan b, or one step, or my way, and you are over 155 pounds, there is a possibility that it will not work. try the emergency contraception pill called ella instead. if you are over 195 pounds, emergency contraception pills will likely not work for you at all. go get an IUD. IUDs are the most effective form of emergency contraception on the market, regardless of weight. I’m going to tell you something that your healthcare provider will not tell you: it. will. be. painful. but it will save your life. if you are looking for longterm birth control, go with a copper IUD.
if you are looking into getting a complete hysterectomy or tubal ligation, now is the time for you to get serious and start looking. these doctors are going to start becoming harder and harder to find. get in, and get it done now.
I’m not fear-mongering when I say this: y’all need to get ready to hear about some heinous shit. we’re talking people bleeding to death after back-alley abortions. we’re talking all-time high infant and pregnancy mortality rates. we’re talking fetuses and babies wrapped in garbage bags and left in dumpsters. we’re talking pregnant people committing suicide. it is imperative that y’all get your minds right. immediately.
now is the time to buckle the fuck up, white people. it’s showtime. put the pussy hats and handmaid’s tale costumes away. this is real life, your rights are being taken away from you in real time, and BIPOC women and femmes aren’t coming to save us, this time. they’ve been abundantly clear about that, and they’ve been warning us about this for years. get out there and fight for your rights like you mean it, without making complete fools of yourselves— because right now non-men in this country have less rights than a cat getting spayed.
keep yourselves safe, good luck, and don’t die. let me know if y’all want another post like this explaining what to do at a protest.
My friends want to be friends with me and enjoy my company.
I am unique in a good way.
My body is my ally.
I am moving at a healthy pace.
Others care about my wellbeing.
My sense of self is my own.
I have a right to ask for good things.
I am worthy of the blessings I receive.
People do nice things for me on purpose.
I have things to look forward to.
My happiness makes others happy, too.
I am only responsible for my own actions.
I have a lot to offer to the world.
I have the power to make people's days better.
I have the power to make my own day better.
Sometimes when I'm having trouble believing it, I find it easier to talk to myself in second person, like I'm saying this to an old friend. "You are worthy. You are respected." Kinda helps remind me how we find these things true for others, and other people will find it true for us.
I think a lot about how we as a culture have turned “forever” into the only acceptable definition of success.
Like… if you open a coffee shop and run it for a while and it makes you happy but then stuff gets too expensive and stressful and you want to do something else so you close it, it’s a “failed” business. If you write a book or two, then decide that you don’t actually want to keep doing that, you’re a “failed” writer. If you marry someone, and that marriage is good for a while, and then stops working and you get divorced, it’s a “failed” marriage.
The only acceptable “win condition” is “you keep doing that thing forever”. A friendship that lasts for a few years but then its time is done and you move on is considered less valuable or not a “real” friendship. A hobby that you do for a while and then are done with is a “phase” - or, alternatively, a “pity” that you don’t do that thing any more. A fandom is “dying” because people have had a lot of fun with it but are now moving on to other things.
I just think that something can be good, and also end, and that thing was still good. And it’s okay to be sad that it ended, too. But the idea that anything that ends is automatically less than this hypothetical eternal state of success… I don’t think that’s doing us any good at all.
[grabs your shirt] listen. listen to me. the practical is holy. the everyday is sacred. the simple act of surviving is divine. do you get it? sanctity begins at home, in the hands that build and the lives we live and the deaths we die and the worms that eat our bodies. if making something by hand is not worthy of veneration then nothing is.
2087
snowghoul
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
izzy806
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