In this gut-wrenching talk, Sergeant Andrew Chambers shares the haunting story of his time in Iraq and the tough transition home that landed him in jail. It’s a powerful testimony to the struggle our soldiers face when they come home, and the tragic ways that they can be denied the help they need.
For anyone looking to support a veteran, we encourage you to heed Chambers’s advice: “Find a veteran and listen to his story. A lot of us just need somebody to talk to.”
As far as I am aware, the only symbol that can be pulled from the Lore is the bowl. There’s some carving that’s supposed to be of Sigyn holding the bowl over Loki, but I’ve never been drawn to it. All other symbols and icons are of a modern, more personal association between a follower and Sigyn.
Sigyn as a Child may include (pastel pink and pastel blue) butterflies, snails, sea urchins, and things that can be found on the beach (shells, starfish, etc.). Sigyn as a rebellious Teen may include blue haired imagery, leather jackets, and lighters. Sigyn as a Bride could vary on where one perceives Sigyn being married (a white dress isn’t guaranteed across the board). Sigyn as Wife could vary, as well as Sigyn as Mother. Depending on how old Narvi and Vali are perceived as being, toys and symbols for Them may work their way into Sigyn’s symbology and iconography.
A small candle flame in the darkness, orange butterflies, and a bowl can be symbols and icons for Sigyn in the Cave / Bowl Holder. Mother of Mourning may include black clothing (long, flowy dresses might be included, layers), a black shawl, a vial for catching tears, and tears. Post-Cave Sigyn could vary as well.
pleasure, in the fun late-capitalism hellhole of present-day america, is treated like a luxury. it’s expensive. it’s frivolous. it’s guilty. if we want to eat ice cream out of the carton and be socially acceptable at the same time, we’d better have earned that ice cream. maybe by like running a marathon or getting dumped by an asshole. if we’re going to duck into the corner store and buy fresh flowers, it’s because we’ve had a hard week, not because flowers are nice. we can take a day off work, but only if we’re sick. we have to suffer before we’re allowed extra kindness.
in this equation pleasure is optional (irresponsible, even), except when it’s a balm for suffering.
however! we need pleasure to live. a life without nice feelings in it is like a diet with no vitamins in it. it’ll make you sick and eventually it’ll kill you. we know this because people with depression stop feeling pleasure, and they often kill themselves. left untreated, depression is a fatal disease.
pleasure is not optional. pleasure is not a luxury. without it, we die. that is literally the opposite of a luxury.
because pleasure is treated like a luxury, and priced accordingly, it is fucking hard to get. it’s hard to take time to relax and see loved ones when corporations aren’t required to offer paid vacation. it’s hard to buy that special face scrub or art print or pretty yarn when it costs $35 and student loans are breathing down your neck. so pleasure gets saved up for when things are really bad. pleasure gets budgeted. pleasure, once again, becomes something we have to earn by abstaining and hurting and gritting our teeth.
do this to people long enough and pleasure becomes potently associated with guilt. this thing we need desperately to stay alive is suddenly something we can’t seek out without looking over our shoulder and wondering if we’re allowed to have it.
that’s why it’s so important that we talk about self care, and tell ourselves and each other that it is okay to do things that feel good. it is necessary to do things that feel good. we have to uncouple suffering and pleasure, because the idea that we have to earn feeling good by first feeling bad is monstrous and wrong.
take care of yourselves, darlings. don’t feel bad about it.
Tadaa! Narvi and Vali! The first designs I’ve ever come up with that I didn’t want to immediately delete 5 minutes after drawing ‘em.
Now, they are basically twins but for a couple things. First off, my headcanon is that Sigyn carried and had Narvi while Loki carried and had Vali. This led to a couple of differences- mostly with Vali. There was a lot of speculation that Vali could potentially be more Jotun-like (i.e. bigger, giant and blue, carried in-utero longer), however the opposite happened. Vali was born in less time than a “normal” Jotun pregnancy, and, while he was indeed born blue (as was Narvi) he was very small. It seems he, like Loki, is more a Jotun runt than proper giant stock. Both Narvi and Vali’s skin changes closer to that of their mother’s as they grow older, but Vali retains- faintly– his Jotun markings, while Narvi loses all traces.
Even though they’re pretty much the same age Narvi has a tendency to act as the “older brother” and always keeps Vali near. They’re very close and naturally very curious, which is both a good and bad thing because they also inherit Loki’s nose for trouble
She just got diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.
She started chemotherapy on Tuesday, 12 May 2015.
She currently has only (U.S.) Medicare for insurance, and there are a lot of things that Medicare won’t cover, or only partially covers. She is 67 years old and on a fixed income. I am a student and work part time at my university, for which I am paid a base $1000/month USD plus my tuition. Between the two of us we make it by on about $2000/month USD, but that was before her diagnosis.
We need your help.
I am raising money to help cover her medical bills and living expenses and any extra costs that we might incur due to her cancer. These extra costs include gas for the hour-plus that we will have to drive for her treatments twice a week, any special dietary needs she may have while on chemo, and that kind of thing.
I am offering to write fic as “thank you gifts” in return for donations to my mom’s cancer fund.
For every $10 that you donate, I will write you 1000 words of fic. (See fandom list under the cut.) Please consider helping us out if you are able to. Even if you are not able to donate, please reblog this post.
Thank you.
If the donate button doesn’t show up (on mobile, etc), please use the email chanceofrainne@charter.net to donate.
I want to begun by thanking everyone who’s donated. The current balance in our donation account stands at about $2000 USD.
Unfortunately we just received the oncologist’s bill for May and June, and our part after Medicare is nearly $3000. This is for 4 chemo cycles. She has to have at least 8 more, plus the surgery and then god knows what else after that.
Please, I am begging everyone, please reblog this again, and if you can spare anything at all to help us out, please do. Mom is really upset about the bill and she’s talking about not taking any more treatments until January when she can get more insurance, but if she does that I’m honestly afraid it’ll kill her.
Does your boyfriend or girlfriend treat you as well as you treat him or her? Does your BF or GF support you in good times as well as bad? Does he or she get who you really are? Find out if you’re in a healthy relationship… more
Aimed primarily at teens, but still some good information no matter what age you are, particularly on the page that talks about signs of an unhealthy relationship.
Holding the Bowl 