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I'm certain this is on Tumblr somewhere, but I haven't seen it around, so I'm sharing it myself

I was today years old when i found out that i was allowed time off to vote. Something no boss has ever told me.

Reblogging now but I'm also scheduling this to post again at the end of October, when folks may need a reminder that they may have right to time off work to vote.

Also: look into voting by mail (sometimes called "absentee" voting). A majority of states in the US will let you request a mail in ballot, even if you don't have an "excuse" for why you can't vote in person:

(source: Wikipedia)

Even in states that require an excuse, "I can't get time off work to vote" might well count as one. Many states also have a permanent mail-in voting list that you can sign up for, meaning you don't have to fill out the paperwork to request one for every single election. This webpage can help you figure out the exact rules for your state.

Another important distinction: some states will not accept mail in ballots that arrive after polls close on election day, others will so long as the envelope is postmarked by then. So depending on your state, you may need to put your completed ballot in the mail a few days before election day to make sure it arrives in time. In states where voting by mail is common, there may also be special ballot drop boxes you can use instead of mailing them, if you're not confident about your ballot arriving in time.

I live in Maryland, and before that, Oregon, and I have voted in every election since I turned 18. I've literally never set foot in a voting booth, and I don't ever plan to. Being able to fill out my ballot from the comfort of my own home? Being able to research candidates and issues as I fill it out? Fucking sublime.

And every single election, there are reams and reams of PRINTED BOOKLETS explaining EVERY SINGLE THING BEING VOTED, and they are SENT TO YOUR SNAIL MAIL ADDRESS!

There is NO EXCUSE for NOT KNOWING THE ISSUES.

Voters' Guides are printed for every single election: big or small, national, state, or local!

INFORM YOURSELF!

IT IS YOUR CIVIC DUTY TO INFORM AND EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT POLITICS AND HOW THEY WILL AFFECT YOUR LIFE!

Be an IN FORMED VOTER!

KNOW THE ISSUES...there is really no longer any excuse!

And check your registration every damn day until November.

Please don't ask me for relationship advice unless you are prepared to receive some truly upsetting information because some people are ready for the "He's exhibiting the literal textbook signs of a psychological abuser and you need to get away from him before he successfully cuts you off from your support network" talk and some people aren't

FOR WHOEVER NEEDS A REMINDER:

This applies to ALL relationships btw

"Stop saying 15 year olds with weird interests are cringe, they're 15" this is true however you should also stop saying adults with weird interests are cringe because who gives a shit

To wit:

I want to share some wisdom from my high school art teacher.

In my AP Art class, there was a girl who was just starting to experiment with mixed media. At this point she was still playing around, trying to decide what direction she wanted to go with her portfolio. So one critique day, she brought in an abstract canvas with some rhinestone highlights and painted and real peacock feathers. She loved sparkles and peacock feathers so she thought she’d try introducing them a *little*. And after everyone had given some input, the teacher gave her his advice, VERY roughly paraphrased here:

“So here’s the thing… I do not like this style. These are just elements that do not speak to me personally, but I see that you like them, and you’re doing interesting things with them.

“My biggest critique is, I only merely *dislike* this piece. I want you to make me HATE it. Go crazy with the things that you like. Don’t hold back trying to make it palatable to people like me. Because I am NEVER going to like it. And if the audience does not like it, it should drive them crazy seeing how much YOU love it.”

Her portfolio was chock full of neon colors and glitter and rhinestones and splashes of peacock feathers and it was a delight. Our teacher despised every piece lol, but she got great marks and I think even won some awards. And more importantly, she was happy and proud of the results. Because she didn’t limit herself by trying to appeal to people who were never going to enjoy what she enjoyed.

Takeaway here: be as cringe as you want. Don’t limit yourself based on other ppl’s tastes. They’re not you, and you are incredible 💕

I want to be extremely explicit here- sending anon hate to anyone for any reason is shameful. Yes that includes "defending" another user. That is not how you handle any situation here. If you have a problem with someone else, you either use your fucking name, or you block them and move on. I have been on this god forsaken hellsite since 2012 and have managed to never once send anon hate. Every fight I've ever picked has been right here in the light of day with my name attached because I don't hit people who can't hit back. Every person not worth my time has just been blocked. If you're going on anon to send nastygrams, you're a coward who knows you a) shouldn't be saying what you're saying and b) knows you can't handle the consequences for being an asshole. Get it together. You're embarrassing the rest of us trying to curate our experiences like responsible members of society.

“Thoughts on one of the hardest things: banishing the imagined bad faith reader from your writing process” by Melissa Febos on Twitter is hitting really hard today.

This.

“Oh, you shouldn’t block people just for being rude to you in the notes” buddy, I will block you for being rude to somebody else in the notes. You don’t get to use my posts as a platform to verbally abuse other people.

STOP APOLOGIZING FOR BEING WEIRD

CONFORMITY IS NOT A VIRTUE, LOVE IS

asexual activism is PART of sex positivity. education about asexuality is part of sex education. speaking openly about sex, defying repressive sexual norms, and encouraging people to be comfortable with and enjoy their "unconventional" sexual lives all needs to include the messaging that not wanting sex is fine and that saying "no" every time is not only acceptable but good if that's what you really want. asexuality is not the opponent of sex positivity, it's another arm of it.

No, these are not photos of the same bird. All three of these Carolina Wrens were admitted to the Center in a single afternoon from different people for the same reason… all of them were caught by cats. These wrens are only a small fraction of the animals we admit every year that are caught by cats—all manner of birds, opossums, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, snakes, and even bats are injured by people’s cats every year. Domestic and feral cats are NOT a natural fixture of North America’s landscape nor do they replace the role of native predators. Cats are wonderful pets (most of the staff at the Center have indoor cats themselves!) but they are pets, not wildlife. It is cruel to let them out without supervision — we are sure everyone has seen dead pet cats on the side of the road in their lifetimes. And that is just one of the many dangers outdoor cats face. The impact free-roaming cats have on wildlife is astronomical. Cats have been the cause of extinction for at least 63 species and are indirectly killing dolphins and whales because of parasites cats carry are washing into the ocean and infecting them. It is possible to love cats and love wildlife at the same time — but we are not going to find a good solution until both side work together to reduce the number of cats that are left to free roam or are abandoned outdoors. We know it is complicated and emotional subject, but it is difficult to remain neutral when day in and day out we see the impact of what cats do on our natural resources. One of these wrens died but the other two are still receiving treatment. Please, please keep your cats inside — for the cat’s sake, and for nature’s sake as well. 

“One man’s cringe is another man’s epic” and “a flawed story is still a thousand times better than a story never told” are two pieces of advice that a lot of people aspiring to be writers really need to take to heart. Stop tearing yourself up over getting every little insignificant thing right.

Even when you’ve been drawing for 10, 20, or in my case, 30 years, it’s still easy to make really, absolutely dumbass anatomical mistakes and little fundamental errors. Especially when you’re tired, lol.

And it’s just straight up okay. Either fix the mistake, or decide when to care and when not to care. Letting go of the idea that you need to be perfect (or are even capable of being perfect) is an important thing to learn in life. Perfection is subjective, anyway, so to chase it would be to chase a golden calf. You can’t always be someone else’s idea of perfection, so you’d be chasing it forever. Getting to the point where you understand that is essential, and you’re likely to improve faster for it, anyway. The more freely you draw, the more freely you draw OFTEN, and the more you do, the better you get.

I say this partially because I notice little mistakes I make when I’m tired, but also because I’ve been struggling a bit lately with feeling like I “forgot how to draw”. Logically I know I didn’t, and I know I’ve got some rust here or there for getting stuck in jobs for a while that didn’t allow me to draw character art (let’s hear it for background artists that like drawing storytelling character art more lol), but moods like that are also common enough. Periods where you feel like “I’ve regressed or stepped back! Oh no!” often tend to come before you fall back into an upswing, anyway. I try not to let it bother me too much, and if you’re going through a period, I encourage you to take a breath and tell yourself the same. It’s normal, and you’re bound for an upswing soon enough.

getting over the fear of being bad is so fucking hard… like, it’s literally a super power if you can start something and say ‘it doesn’t matter if it’s bad, it just matters that it exists’

‘bad’ is so terrifying, ‘bad’ is wrecking, and the ability to apply self-compassion to things deemed ‘bad’ is beyond amazing, to understand not everything in life will be ‘good’ and that’s okay

essays, art, novels, school, relationships, anyone out there starting things when they are terrified of the arbitrary metric of the result… I am so fucking proud of you, you are so brave and strong

keep starting new things, even if ‘bad’ is a possibility 

The hard truth about autism acceptance that a lot of people don't want to hear is that autism acceptance also inherently requires acceptance of people who are just weird.

And yes, I mean Those TM people. Middle schoolers who growl and bark and naruto run in the halls. Thirtysomethings who live with their parents. Furries. Fourteen-year-olds who identify as stargender and use neopronouns. Picky eaters. Adults in fandoms. People who talk weird. People who dress weird.

Because autistic people shouldn't have to disclose a medical diagnosis to you to avoid being mocked and ostracized for stuff that, at absolute worst, is annoying. Ruthlessly deriding people for this stuff then tacking on a "oh, but it's okay if they're autistic" does absolutely nothing to help autistic people! Especially when undiagnosed autistic people exist.

Like it or not, if you want to be an ally to autistic people, you're going to have to take the L and leave eccentric, weird people alone. Even if you don't know them to be autistic. You shouldn't be looking for Acceptable Reasons to be mean to people in the first place. Being respectful should be the default.

Modern fandom went awry when people stopped learning how to avoid content that upsets them and instead starting actively seeking it out.

I mean this in the kindest, most loving way possible, but babes you'll be so much happy when you stop focusing on what other people are doing and instead focus on what you like.

You'll never be able to stop people from liking what you hate, and the best way you'll find any peace of mind is properly utilizing blocking, blacklisting, and muting tools. Take it from someone who used to run a shipping discourse blog, fandom is supposed to be what you enjoy, stop focusing on things that upset you.

You gotta understand that some people never really grow. They never learn their lesson. They never recognise their mistakes, they never acknowledge their faults, they never admit they were in the wrong. You will never receive an apology from them, and you will never see their behaviour change.

if you’re in the notes saying “this is wrong and cruel because everyone is capable of growth” you’re not understanding the post.

yes, everyone is CAPABLE of growth and change. everyone has the RIGHT to growth and change. but no, not everyone will CHOOSE growth and change. some people are not interested in and cannot be made interested in self-improvement or self-reflection. some people will go their entire lives refusing to admit they might be wrong or examine their own behaviors. some people will never, ever accept responsibility for the effects they have on people and the world around them. humans are varied; some are just always gonna be like this.

it is VITAL to understand this if you’re the kind of person who tends to pour energy into helping others, especially if there are already people knowingly hurting you who consistently show absolutely no interest in changing that behavior. you can’t forcibly make them want to change who they are. you aren’t going to find a way to convince them to suddenly care that their behavior is hurting someone.

the motivation to change and grow comes from within. others may inspire us, but WE have to decide we want to be better and work towards that. until they decide that for themselves, nobody else can do it for them. and they might never. people are mortal. we are a finite series of choices. it is entirely possible to make mostly selfish ones.

everyone CAN grow, but not everyone will. not everyone wants to, and nobody can force the desire to grow as a person on someone else.

i think the funniest and realist thing i’ve realized lately is how troubling idealization can be. every person is just… a person. the very people you want to impress or be apart of are just people. even if they seem wildly intimidating because of the way they look or because of their reputation, every one is just a person. human. as embarrassing, as remorseful and they are going through stages of growth just like you are. we only see what we want to see and then drown ourselves further in our own depression and we don’t have to.

truly and i am learning the less i idealise others, the more willing i am to meet people where they are warts n all. and the more willing i am to show myself too and bring my whole self into things. my own embarrassment becomes a new normal and fine thing. stumbling becomes more endearing.

had a teacher once who told us “idealizing people is just as dehumanizing as demonizing them” and that stuck with me so much