can i just say something ...

gentle reminder

you are not a result of what’s been done to you - you are the best within you, despite what’s been done to you

So this is just a PSA, y'all should never sign a contract until you read it. I’m talking in rl right now. I just got through reading my employee handbook/service contract and my bosses slipped in a lot of bullshit like telling me I can’t complain about my job on social media, demanding I work off the clock in the name of good service, expects me to show up on time during inclimate weather, and considered disability or religious accommodation a direct threat to the company.

These are all things I took issue with and brought to my employer for further discussion before signing the contract. Most of my coworkers signed without reading, treating it like an internet terms of service contract.

Tl;dr real life is serious shit, lawyers write contracts to protect your employer FROM YOU, read contracts before you sign them - fucking ARGUE about contracts before you sign them

Also important to note, and something my bf has repeated to me many times: a contract is a negotiation until it is signed, and YOU ARE ALLOWED TO AMEND IT. Tech companies often put some bs in there about “we own everything you make while you work for us” which broadly applied also means anything done on your own time. He always ALWAYS does write-in amendments with initial and date to state that they only own things done FOR the company, on company time, because there have been companies that enforced that bullshit when somebody had a personal side project the company decided they wanted to steal. There’s only one company that threw a fit at his attempts to amend it and he considered that a huge red flag and refused to sign, turned down the job.

Never. EVER. Sign shit without reading it. Also: if your prospective employer won’t let you take the thing home to read before you sign it and says you need to sign it then and there THAT IS A RED FLAG. The job I had that turned out to be abusive as shit was like that. Every other job I’ve been able to bring the contract home to my parents to have a more experienced set of eyes on it. It’s also common practice in some fields to have one’s attorney look over it before signing. So never let them tell you that you can’t look over it with someone else. That’s a fat load of shit. For “lower level” jobs they may not accept amendments to the contract but if they won’t even give you the proper time to read it over, they’re trying to pull some bullshit on you and you’re going to regret it if you sign. Even if there’s nothing bad in what you signed it’s an example of how they are going to treat you while you’re there. Take it to heart and run like fucking hell.

Please also tell your coworkers. Inform others. Tell everyone. Please, for the lovee of everything TELL PEOPLE THEY ARE ALLOWED TO DO THESE THINGS.

Companies BANK on the fact you’re not going to read it. Then they slip in shit like ‘you can’t talk about your wages’ because they want you to keep quiet, so thy can pay that guy six bucks, and pay the guy over there fifteen and pay you eight. They want you to accept it all blindly. PLEASE DON’T STAY BLIND.

Yes, I’ve lost out on jobs because I wanted to read it and they didn’t want me to. Or they wanted m to resign and I said no to to the things they added that I pointed out were unfair and borderline illegal. 

Read shit. Tell everyone else to read shit. BE INFORMED. 

Absolutely 100% good advice ☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

Never ever ever sign shit without reading and re-reading it! Take it home, show it to someone more experienced, if you can, show it to a lawyer. A contract is supposed to work for both sides. A company in Toronto tried to make me sign a contract with clause that in event of me leaving the job I will not work in a similar position anywhere in Ontario. Yeah, right, not enforceable in court, dudes, you can’t prevent me from making a living. Read the shit and don’t let them intimidate you. 

You can do it!

orange and pink pumpkins requested by Starry on my patreon

[Drawing of an orange pumpkin and a pink pumpkin below a caption that says “You didn’t waste this year. First, you did great. You made it this far even though you were going through a lot. Second, the year isn’t over. There’s still time.” in pink and orange text against a dark blue background.]

To Tired Writers. To the people out there whose hearts very, very much want to write and work on WIPs, but who are just mentally and physically exhausted right now. It’s okay. It is okay to rest sometimes. Allow yourself time to rest. 

It’s called copula deletion, or zero copula. Many languages and dialects, including Ancient Greek and Russian, delete the copula (the verb to be) when the context is obvious.

So an utterance like “you a bitch” in AAVE is not an example of a misused you, but an example of a sentence that deletes the copular verb (are), which is a perfectly valid thing to do in that dialect, just as deleting an /r/ after a vowel is a perfectly valid thing to do in an upper-class British dialect.

What’s more, it’s been shown that copula deletion occurs in AAVE exactly in those contexts where copula contraction occurs in so-called “Standard American English.” That is, the basic sentence “You are great” can become “You’re great” in SAE and “You great” in AAVE, but “I know who you are” cannot become “I know who you’re” in SAE, and according to reports, neither can you get “I know who you” in AAVE.

In other words, AAVE is a set of grammatical rules just as complex and systematic as SAE, and the widespread belief that it is not is nothing more than yet another manifestation of deeply internalized racism.

So I’ve been overwhelmed by the black panther comicon appearance and I’ve been dwelling on how revolutionary the black panther movie is going to be, what it’s going to mean to countless people when this movie comes out and how long we still have to go, So I decided to put this short photoset together to illustrate exactly how big of a deal it is and how it is bigger than one person.

it’s so bittersweet because when I was younger (especially growing up where I did, a black kid in Finland) I really wished I had more access to imagery and media that reflected who I was because it would have made my life radically different for the better and I wouldn’t be at 26 (STILL) doing damage control but on the flipside, I’m so in awe of all of the beautiful talent in 2016 that younger black kids are able to see and be inspired by.

I think I was like 4 years old when I conciously picked up race and color via watching Disney’s “Aladdin” and I noticed how Jafar, the evil royal guards etc the villains were more ethnic looking or a shade darker than the “good” characters.

it’s insidious because you’re seeing something but at age 4, you don’t have the comprehension skill or knowledge to break it down and see it for what it is (Colorism, Societal bias against black people which is rooted in centuries of white supremacist doctrine, society associates things that are dark/darker colors with evil, danger, ugliness, dirt etc) and reject it.

so you pick it up and see it on a surface level and you think to yourself “well darker must mean ugly, criminal and less human”…then what happens when you look at yourself in the mirror and find out that you are black?

  how is that going to impact how you see yourself?

and guess what? if a 4 year old black kid can pick that up and internalize that about him/her/themselves….then a white kid can sponge up the same language and imagery that dehumanizes black people too (subconciously/conciously)…what happens when when these people grow up? become teachers, doctors, law enforcement etc? what kind of impact is that going to have?

I’m going off on a tangent and that’s just one personal example but society does that on a global grand scale and it is largely unchecked.

but honestly though,look at the photoset and think about how many talented people out there that we love and respect….who would NOT have achieved the things they did if it wasn’t for another person before them inspiring them to reach their goals and acting as trail blazers when it seemed as though it was impossible….then think about the flipside and how many people, with all the potential in the world, never lived to become great because they were met with more images dehumanizing them than ones uplifting them…this is why the fight for HONEST representation is important and it continues.

argh, I didn’t plan on typing anything but I got in my feelings after watching this again

…anyway, here are some pictures to make you smile, the next gen gives me hope

and if none of that gets you going, here is a video of Michael Jackson surprising James Brown on stage and then thanking him for being his biggest influence (BET awards, 2003)

I thought for a hot second that the Black Panther kid was getting like, petted. So freakin’ cute oh my jebus. I would die if I saw a lil’ Tip Tucci at a con!

Don’t forget about the little boy who specifically asked to touch the President’s head, to see if the President of the United States had hair like his.

Some white women are mad about intersectional feminism the same way white men are mad when something of great importance to someone else has little or nothing to do with them.

I really needed this tonight

parents need to realize their children aren’t free therapists

also it isn’t mean for children to not want to be put in this position

I do not celebrate Christmas, but I just wanted to wish everyone

the very, very best!

every single lesbian has fought through heteronormativity and self-doubt before realizing they were lesbians. if you’re questioning and leaning towards lesbianism, and it feels like everyone else always “knew” their sexuality, it’s simply not true. there’s nothing wrong with you for being unsure or scared or frightened. we were all there once and it’s all okay.

To those of abusive childhoods:

No, you are not manipulative, selfish, cold, uncaring.  You are not hateful pathetic, self-pitying.

You’ve been taught to think of yourself as a far worse person than you are.

You’ve been taught to deprive yourself of good things.

i think a huge part of the problem here is that child stars generally perform in shows for children, and they’re styled as children, and they do interviews that are meant to be read and viewed by children. and stranger things is not a children’s television show. it’s hardly even “family entertainment.” it certainly has a kind of broad, all-ages appeal, but netflix is running the machine like any other prestige television series. and that means instead of wearing converse high tops to the teen choice awards and filming bumpers for the disney channel, these kids are walking down the red carpet at the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards in gucci and prada, and doing sit-down cover interviews for variety and the hollywood reporter. those are all very Adult Spaces, and it’s in netflix’s financial interest to maintain access to those Adult Spaces so as to solidify stranger things’ cultural standing as Prestige Television. which means packaging the kids as sophisticated and stylish little adults in all public appearances. like, compare this picture of the stars of disney’s andi mack at a film premiere to a picture of the stranger things kids at their own premiere:

the above picture is plainly kids in kids’ formalwear - bright colours, fun patterns, a t-shirt under a too-big blazer - whereas the stranger things’ kids outfits are functionally indistinguishable from something an adult might wear to a red carpet event. like, they just aren’t letting these kids be kids - which has especially dire consequences for the girls involved, as they’re being sexualized to a high degree. obviously, this is affecting the boys in the cast, too - 14-year-old finn wolfhard is having to deal with adult women saying, “call me in four years” and then having both that comment and his own reaction to it broadcast in the international press. but i think it’s coming down hardest on the girls involved. look at these photos of millie bobby brown at the season 1 premiere and the season 2 premiere. 

she’s 13 on the left and 12 on the right. 

like, it’s not… it’s not okay. let these kids be kids. let them present themselves as kids. you can still have your prestige tv show and win awards and preserve your serious, critically acclaimed brand without making the children in your cast vulnerable to sexualization and predation. end rant!

if you’re reading this i hope you find the strength to get through whatever it is that’s causing you so much trouble or pain at the moment

IN THERAPY?! YOU CAN DO THIS, FRIEND!!!

YOU’RE GONNA FUCKING SMASH IT!!! WORKING THROUGH YOUR SHIT IS HARD, BUT YOU’RE A FREAKIN’ BADASS AND I BELIEVE IN YOU!!!