I’m Determined To Keep My Heart Soft. To Not Let Bitterness Take Root Within Me.

@lesbiansinthegarden's note on this makes me think about "horse girls," and men's simultaneous outright disdain for them alongside their fetishization of them. You have a 900 to 2000 lbs animal under your control. You have learned to toss bales of hay, haul bags, or bales of bedding. You do tons of manual labor to maintain a hobby, often requiring quite a bit of hidden strength. You have "tamed a beast." I think the root cause of their scorn may be this very issue, the fact that we are doing an activity deemed "feminine" or "girly" or "gay" and yet have turned around and become stronger, more capable, and less dependent upon men for their physical capabilities. It's threatening to them, as their small, limited ego, runs off of the fact that they are able to overpower and dominate women. When they come across a woman who is not prone to feeling threatened by something larger and stronger than her, that in turn, makes men perceive her more as a threat to their own social standing.

Why do males think they are special for opening jars or changing a tire? lol I literally saw some male say “Every woman is a feminist until she has to open a jar” i can do that easily myself and if not there are tricks!

It's not literally about jars and tires. It's simply a code for "I am stronger than you". Men think they are better because they are physically stronger, and see women as inept, clumsy, childlike and unable to do anything by themselves.

Add to that the fact that pretty much every object in the world is produced using men as the standard for ergonomy and usability, which does make day to day life harder for women, and they think it's funny to see us struggle.

Here we go... BoyToy and I voted this morning, and he was the only one in his family to not vote Trump. I'm scared, thankfully, I have my IUD appointment next Monday, BoyToy is planning on a vasectomy for his 30th birthday (2 years from now). It's a very anxious night.

Plan C Pills, Pay as you can for as little as $5 if you're currently pregnant, $250 for future use pills being mailed to you.

Stock up on Plan B, Birth Control if you're on the Pill, personally I opted for Paraguard 10 years no hormones. Just... stay safe ladies.

This is a reminder to:

Never mention a possible pregnancy/abortion to anyone, especially not through a social media app messaging service such as messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, Snapchat, etc.

Delete all period tracking apps and to start tracking using a planner or physical calendar

Book appointments for a form of birth control if possible, or to always carry condoms for yourself and other

Look into sterilization options if that is the route you want to go down (here is a list of 1000 doctors willing to sterilize you without a fight)

Protect your fellow person, protect the women in your life, the queer people, the disabled people, everyone will be affected by this

Form communities. Tell your people that you love them. Protect one another. Check in on one another. None of us are alone.

Proin's Generic Name (phenylpropanolamine)

Drug names that you can’t pronounce no matter how many times you try to learn them… ill go first:

Levetiracetam

Masking also doesn't just apply to protecting you from Covid. It also helps defend against TB, most influenza strains, and numerous other particulate, droplet, misted and air born diseases. And it helps defend against dangerous pollution, allergens, and irritating natural dusts that effect air quality. Get the most effective and efficient masks you can afford.

Now is the Time to Start Masking Again

If you stopped paying attention to COVID with the release of vaccines, you've missed a lot.

COVID is airborne.

Long COVID impacts 10% of people infected by COVID (though this is beginning to look like a low estimate). Risk of Long COVID goes up with each reinfection. Long COVID is worse than initially reported.

Bisexual and trans people are more likely to develop Long COVID.

Black and Hispanic folks are more likely than White folks experience more symptoms and health problems from Long COVID.

***COVID and Long COVID has much more in common with HIV and AIDS than the flu (28:19 - 38:30 of linked video)***

The Basics

[WEBSITE] You Have to Live Your Life

[ZINE] What's Up With COVID and How to Protect Yourself - 2024 Edition

[FAQ] r/ZeroCOVIDCommunity's FAQ and Resource List

"This is great and all but it's overwhelming. TL;DR?"

COVID is airborne. Long COVID is much more common (and serious/debilitating) than previously thought.

Mask with an N95 or better in all indoor spaces and outside when close to others. Improve your indoor air quality by opening windows and using fans/air filters.

Rapid tests are prone to false negatives so make sure to retest in 48 hours after exposure and/or when you develop symptoms. Isolate in the meantime. Consider upgrading to a NAAT (PlusLife, Metrix) or PCR (Lucira) if you have the money.

Things for you to do today:

buy some N95s or request some from a local mask bloc

open a window more often and/or buy an air purifier

buy the best COVID tests you can afford

Basics in Video Form

If you have limited time, watch the videos with * first. They will cover the basics in about 20 minutes.

*VIDEO: COVID is Airborne [2:53]

*VIDEO: What the latest research tells us about long COVID's most common symptoms [5:58]

*VIDEO: FDA warns of false negatives with at home COVID Tests [2:19]

*VIDEO: How to Stay Safe(r) at Home [10:35]

--

VIDEO: The Astounding Physics of N95 Mask [6:08]

VIDEO: Mask Fit 101: Seal [4:07]

VIDEO: Mask Fit 101: Qualitative [3:49]

VIDEO: Mask Fit 102: Quantitative [5:04]

VIDEO: How to get [and give] FREE Masks [6:07]

VIDEO: Try this DIY indoor air purifier for cleaner air [4:22]

VIDEO: Why is EVERYONE more SICK [54:55]

Want to Get Involved?

Join your local Mask Bloc

No local Mask Bloc? Consider starting one

Talk to the people in your life about COVID

Print quality zines and spread them in your communities

Push for COVID Conscious changes in your spaces.

Hey, Jill Stein Voters, RFK Jr Voters, are you pleased? Are you happy? Screw all of womens's rights here at home, huh? You knew what you were doing. Now you've not only fucked yourself, you've also fucked the whole country, the whole world, the world economy, and helped kick off WW III. How good does it feel? Was it worth your fucking ego?

Here we go... BoyToy and I voted this morning, and he was the only one in his family to not vote Trump. I'm scared, thankfully, I have my IUD appointment next Monday, BoyToy is planning on a vasectomy for his 30th birthday (2 years from now). It's a very anxious night.

The best breeders I know do 5 things:

1. Deworm and get Veterinarian Administered Vaccines for their puppies

2. Health Test all of their dogs both genetically and through programs like PennHip or OFA and have standards from these organizations they expect their breeding stock to meet (Good -> Excellent for OFAs generally)

3. Do tons of early neurological stimulation for their puppies and are working with their puppies daily from the time they are born

4. Include anti-breeding contracts on their produced dogs that are "Pet" quality, and have very strict breeding contracts for their dogs of greater than pet quality (usually enforced via co-ownership) BUT may not specify Spay/Neuter in their contracts. I'm staunchly against early spay neuter as someone who works in rehabilitation and general practice because I see the long term effects of early spay neuter on the daily. They also tend to leave spay neuter in their contracts to the best judgement of the dog's primary DVM.

In the practice where I'm employed, we don't sterilize earlier than 6 months unless there are extenuating circumstances. We were also one of the first clinics in the area to adopt Balance.it fresh food feeding programs and recipes, the first to refuse convenience euthanasia (we still do B.Es), and the first to refuse the declawing of cats.

We've also limited our crop and dock procedures. We've done 10 medically necessary docks in the decade I've worked here all of which were due to injury, mutilation, or disease processes. With 3 ear amputations due to tumors or significant injury. We also refer our cosmetic crops to another doctor for clients who would otherwise get backyard crop jobs.

Your breeder should not be pushing against core vaccines and monthly preventatives. They also absolutely should not be pushing against BOAS surgeries, especially on pet dogs (and a lot of the breeders I know who push against BOAS are the ones whose dogs got them anyway.)

why do breeders push against vaccines and spay/neuter? ive never understood this

The cynical answer, that i think is the truth deep under the anti-vax rhetoric, is that it's a way to save money and excuse the fact that they are selling puppies that have never been vaccinated or dewormed, despite being 8 to 12 weeks old. Exams and age appropriate shots and dewormers eat into their profit margin. Maligning these and building distrust of veterinary staff helps hide their shitty breeding practices, and gives them a somewhat captive consumer population for the homeopathic bullshit and supplements many of them also sell. And quite a few will say that if you get them these vaccines or dewormers that it will make them *more* prone to getting the disease or conditions like epilepsy. This tells me that that have parvo on their property and shitty genetic lines.

Some breeders may truly believe all their bullshit, but the person they learned the bullshit from? Knows it was bullshit and just wanted more money and control.

*EDIT* missed the s/n part, but that goes back in to building distrust of vets to keep control over their customers along with not understanding the studies.

And it's also a great way to excuse shitty hips or elbows if you can blame early spay/neuter.

And the sudoku and the little sweet treat just before bed. And actually turning down the bed. And closing down the house at the end of the day, and also soup.

you can make fun of old people all you want but then you'll be knitting with a good album on and a cup of tea and you'll be like this is excellent actually. the old ladies were right about this one. about the crosswords too, by the way