Unfortunately Made Extinct During The Despotic Reign Of Fulgencio Batista, The Gallo Cubano (G. Gallus

Unfortunately made extinct during the despotic reign of Fulgencio Batista, the Gallo Cubano (G. gallus cubanensis) was the primary beast of burden on the island nation of Cuba. Standing an impressive fifteen hands high at the furcula, these tireless animals were nevertheless destroyed by the score in order to force human laborers to exhaust themselves in their work. By the time revolution swept the island, what few remained were devoured as the only available source of food.

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Held responsible for the assassination of a prominent diplomat in the ongoing negotiations between Blue Flycatchers and humans, Kelli Cyornis is currently serving a life sentence at the Hua Mei Ornithopenitentiary. In an attempt to understand I asked him why he would commit such a murder, one that deeply wounded the peace treaty. “████ you, milkmeat. You destroy our land and have the gall to demand answers. Rot.”

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[image description: over a soft blue background, “LGBT & Latinx & Loud” is centered and towards the top. It is in black font, with the words “Friday, July 1st” underneath it. That is in a smaller, white font.]

LGBT & Latinx & Loud 

What is it? It’s an event to celebrate people that are latinx and LGBT! Our latinx communities and our LGBT communities intersect, and we want to support both! A night that was supposed to celebrate our shared communities was brutally taken from us, and lives belonging to them were ripped away. But we are here. We love each other. We are latinx, we are LGBT, and we will be louder than those trying to erase us. 

Can I participate? As this is to celebrate latinx LGBT people, you must be both. Are you? Then yes, you can participate, and we will be so appreciative of your participation! A few questions have been asked, for example a white-passing latinx asked if they could participate. Yes, they can! Are you a white-passing latinx LGBT person? Then you’re a latinx LGBT person, and we want to support you!! You are welcome to participate. Are you a mixed latinx LGBT person? Then you’re a latinx LGBT person! We want you to participate! The latinx people involved must also identify as LGBT. That means latinxs that experience any kind of SGA, our mlm and wlm, latinx trans people, and nonbinary latinxs! If there are any questions on whether or not you can participate, just send me, @alexandrareadsthings, a message! 

What do we do to participate? Post selfies! Celebrate your beauty! Don’t feel comfortable taking pictures but still want to participate? That’s ok! You can celebrate yourself by writing a couple of quick sentences about what being LGBT and latinx means to you, even if it’s as simple as “I’m Lauren, I’m a lesbian, and I’m Colombian!” Since we’re trying to celebrate and support each other, we’ll need to tag our posts with “lgbt&latinx&loud”.

When do we post our stuff? Friday, July 1! At the time of this post, that is two weeks and one day away.  While June is pride month, it’s a little tough to squeeze the event in while giving people time to see it since it’s mid June now.

What if I’m LGBT and latinx, but this is too much for me? That’s ok! This is about love and support. You are loved whether or not you participate! 

I’m latinx, but not LGBT. I’m LGBT, but not latinx. I’m not latinx or LGBT. What can we do to help? We need you to help us be seen! Reblog our posts! Let us be seen and recognized and supported! Do not let us be erased. Do not tag a post you make with “lgbt&latinx&loud”. Lift us up! This is about us, and we need you to support us by letting it be about us.

The biggest thing anyone can do to help is to spread this post around! We want as many LGBT latinx people to see this as possible so that they know they are supported, and they get the opportunity to support their siblings!

If anyone has any questions about any of this, please message me! I will be happy to help! 

Whimbrels have a generally mutualist hygienic relationship with several species of small crab. Acting as ‘cleaners’, the small crustaceans will use their nimble and gentle pincers to remove and devour small parasites that have attached themselves to the Whimbrel throughout the course of the day. In return, the bird usually does not eat the crab. Sometimes they do though, because hey! free snack.

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Perennial hoodlums, Red-winged Blackbirds have finally broken the Law of Gravity. While it is easy enough to simply grip tightly to their perches from now on in order to prevent slowly drifting away, this remains quite an inconvenience for daily flight as these playful scamps need a crash course in orbital mechanics in order to navigate. Above, a Red-winged Blackbird crawls down a Cattail in order to reach water.

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SIGNAL BOOST proper medical care is the difference between life and death.

if you live in WA: St Jo’s PSA

Myself and multiple people I know have received abysmal patient care after having procedures done in St. Joseph Hospital. If you have any need for hospitalization please attempt to arrange transfer to a different one in the area. 

My personal experience was this: After circling for nearly a half hour in the crowded parking lot (due to the impromptu adaption of a new system IT personnel had been hired to assist all the nurses and doctors, and they took up patient parking) I waited for a long period of time in the emergency room. I then had to wait an extra thirty minutes in a processing room with someone who did not know how to operate her computer system to put me into the hospital system. She was flanked by an “IT supervisor/trainer” who also was not competent. Eventually (after at least an hour) I was led to my first room, (on my way there I was passed by two nurses, one of them loudly saying “I really suck at phlebotomy” (kid u not). The nurse that was drawing my blood did not know which samples she was supposed to take, whether they should be refrigerated, and was apparently not experienced in drawing blood. Both of my parents were present and had medical training and were appalled to see this nurse insert the needle in my antecubital vein, twisting the needle around to try to find a ‘better spot’. As a result of this the veins on that arm were torn and corded and are still no longer usable months later (I heal very slowly). We asked for a different nurse and the blood was drawn from an earlier performed CT contrast IV. At that point I was moved to a stretcher and taken to have a simple draining procedure done on another floor. The location of the surgery necessitated that my gown was open all down the back, so the fact that there were multiple IT support men with no medical training in the same room was uncomfortable for me. Unfortunately they didn’t seem to be much use in the end, because the doctor apparently reverted to a different system halfway through. 

Transfer to my new room went fine ( although I was extremely high so) and I met the first crew of nurses, who had good bedside manner and offered me food. My impression was that the room was very clean. I was then hooked up to an IV that gave me antibiotics for four days. This pump malfunctioned constantly, every five to ten minutes stopping completely (at a danger to my health), beeping loudly, and reading “Upstream Inclusion” where there was none. The nurse that was supposed to respond to the error did not come, even after waiting for ten minutes, and so after calling the desk so many times waiting for help, ( which only occasionally came on the first call)  I had to restart my pump without assistance. I feel fortunate that I did not have a more serious condition, and that I had a relative present with RN certification, because I feel this type of error may have been life threatening. The hospital was aware of the problem and only after two nights of near-constant beeping and calling and asking for a replacement pump that functioned normally, did they finally comply (as a result of a thinly veiled threat on the part of my mother (sorrynotsorry)). A patient should not have to have out-of-hospital support to receive proper medical care.

Over the course of the next few days the care was average. I appreciated that I was given a scheduled ultrasound promptly (at 3 AM) and the staff were all generally amicable or at least professional, with the exception of a male nurse who tried to talk to me about his childhood(?) for an unreasonably long time and appeared to be (ahem) shifting his hand in his pants. And not washing them after. Uhm. Yikes. This happened at least four times just in that shift, with two other people in that room as my witness. Please vet your nurses more carefully. More IT people came in this time, and each nurse greeted us with a “sorry, I’m still learning the new system”. I’m not sure how much this confusion with the computer system was responsible for the extended wait times Everywhere but it was definitely a top contributor.

I cannot speak in much detail for others’ experiences but a family friend was in for a serious surgery recently, and when another nurse forgot to give her a chest-compression bandage she began complaining of intense pain and sickness. This nurse threw (forcefully, apparently) a ringed vomit bag in her face and told her to “stop worrying, you’ll be fine”, which put her life in danger, as she was literally dying. She was finally after a period of time given her phone and could call a doctor. Due to the ineptness of the nurse, a emergency procedure to save her had to be done, immediately, in that very room, which was not sterile. She is okay now, but needless to say she will not return. 

Food was good.

Overall: clean, high quality food for overnight stays, but incompetent staff and unsafe care.