Text Wall - Tumblr Posts

How to Stay Cool Without A/C

A lot of Northerners were very kind during the freeze in Texas this winter with tips on how to stay warm for people who had lost heat. This is an attempt to repay that favor for people in the Pacific Northwest and other northerly locations who are facing dangerous heatwaves without built-in A/C. My qualifications to give this advice are that I was a summer camp attendee and counselor with no A/C for many summers in humid-ass central Texas with highs over 100F basically every day. Hopefully some of it will be of use to somebody who isn’t used to the heat.

1) PUT ICE WATER IN YOUR BODY. Ice water is your best friend and the #1 way to drop your body temp. Drink more than you think you need (like, at least a half-gallon a day and closer to a gallon or more if you have to be outside doing manual work all day) to cool your insides down and stay hydrated. Have some bananas, trail mix, or a sports drink to help replace the electrolytes you’re sweating out and keep you from getting cramps, but try to have most of your fluid intake be water. I used to take a giant water bottle, fill it part way with water, and freeze it on its side so the ice would slowly melt over the course of the day and my water would stay cold longer.

2) PUT ICE WATER ON YOUR BODY. Cold water, ice, or a damp rag on your head and neck, the backs of your knees, the insides of your elbows, and under your armpits will help you cool down the best, because your blood runs close to the surface in those places. Cold packs designed for injuries or lunchboxes, bags of frozen vegetables, etc. can substitute for ice water as well. Even room-temp water will pull heat away from your body better than body-temp sweat will, especially if it’s humid, so if you don’t have enough ice, the sink, bathtub, or hose will do fine. Dipping your feet into cool water helps a ton as well if you have to sit and work and don’t want your clothes to be wet.

3) WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GET SO MUCH ICE?  To make sure you have enough ice to last you the weekend, especially through a potential power failure, I recommend getting a cooler (even one of the cheap styrofoam ones is fine in a pinch) and ~10lbs of ice from the big coolers at most gas stations, drug stores, or grocery stores. Try to do this now, before anybody loses power, and store as much in your freezer as you have space for to keep it from melting. You can use it for drinking or to keep your food cold in a power failure. You can use it for a party later if you don’t end up needing it during the heat wave, but you will probably be very happy you had it.

4) AIR FLOW. Being inside a room with the windows closed is the worst possible place to be if you don’t have A/C, because glass windows create a greenhouse effect and the hot air can’t escape. If at all possible, find a shaded place outside where you can catch any possible breeze. If not, open all your windows and, if it’s safe, doors so you can get a cross-breeze. Hopefully you have window screens to keep pets and kids in and bugs out. If not, you’re gonna have to do your own risk assessment. Fans of all sizes and descriptions are your friend; ceiling fans should be set to spin counterclockwise in summer. Even if you have A/C, finding or making a handheld fan will be worthwhile for when you have to venture outside. If you aren’t in a situation where you need to conserve ice, blowing air over a cooler full of ice will give you a makeshift A/C. 

5) SHADE. You will probably immediately notice that direct sunlight is a miserable place to be when it’s super hot. Find or make a shaded location, and don’t be afraid to move around to avoid the sun as the day goes on. Stay on the shady side of the sidewalk whenever you walk someplace. Try to shade your windows as best you can without obstructing airflow using blinds, curtains, shutters, etc. especially if they’re directly in the path of the sun. Do not be a jerk to your neighbors if their shade solutions are ugly. If you can get a shade for your car windshield, I highly recommend it, as the steering wheel, dashboard, seatbelts, and even seats can quickly become too hot to touch in a sealed car and will hold that heat for a long time.

6) CLOTHING. Light-colored, loose clothing that is as close to 100% cotton or linen as you can find is your friend. It doesn’t necessarily have to be short as long as it’s breathable. You will sweat through anything you wear, so I personally prefer only wearing machine-washable stuff. Sun hats, sunscreen, sunglasses, aloe gel for sunburns, mosquito repellent, anti-chafing supplies, etc are all worth looking into if you aren’t used to spending time in the heat.

7) TIMING. Try to stay out of the sun and avoid doing anything strenuous in the middle of the day when the heat is the worst. If you have a choice, plan to be more active early in the morning and late at night when the temperature is more bearable, and take a break in the middle of the afternoon.

Here’s a graphic from the CDC about how to recognize heat-related illnesses and what to do about them. I will add to this that if it’s hot and you stop sweating, you are getting to a dangerous level of dehydration and need to drink something BEFORE you start having more serious problems.

When I was younger and more abled, I was so fucking on board with the fantasy genre’s subversion of traditional femininity. We weren’t just fainting maidens locked up in towers; we could do anything men could do, be as strong or as physical or as violent. I got into western martial arts and learned to fight with a rapier, fell in love with the longsword.

But since I’ve gotten too disabled to fight anymore, I… find myself coming back to that maiden in a tower. It’s that funny thing, where subverting femininity is powerful for the people who have always been forced into it… but for the people who have always been excluded, the powerful thing can be embracing it.

As I’m disabled, as I say to groups of friends, “I can’t walk that far,” as I’m in too much pain to keep partying, I find myself worrying: I’m boring, too quiet, too stationary, irrelevant. The message sent to the disabled is: You’re out of the narrative, you’re secondary, you’re a burden.

The remarkable thing about the maiden in her tower is not her immobility; it’s common for disabled people to be abandoned, set adrift, waiting at bus stops or watching out the windows, forgotten in institutions or stranded in our houses. The remarkable thing is that she’s like a beacon, turning her tower into a lighthouse; people want to come to her, she’s important, she inspires through her appearance and words and craftwork.  In medieval romances she gives gifts, write letters, sends messengers, and summons lovers; she plays chess, commissions ballads, composes music, commands knights. She is her household’s moral centre in a castle under siege. She is a castle unto herself, and the integrity of her body matters.

That can be so revolutionary to those of us stuck in our towers who fall prey to thinking: Nobody would want to visit; nobody would want to listen; nobody would want to stay.

Hey! I mean no disrespect by this at all I'm just genuinely curious, in your bio it says you're an emotionless / loveless aplaroace, but you're taken? How does that work?

Oh hey, you're fine. So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you know that aromantics can still date, and aces can still participate in intercourse or other. You don't need attraction to do these things, though I'm sure it certainly helps! There identities that are on the aromantic/asexual spectrums where they can experience attraction as well or want to participate in these sorts of relationships(ex: romo or sexual positive aro/aces). Now apply this to the broader aspec/anattractional spectrums.

I will say that emotions can be similar. You don't need to have emotions to be in different kinds of relationships.

Emotionless/loveless are terms I go by to describe my overall experience and/or identity. It does not specify how much emotion or love I can experience, it's just easier to go by the terms instead of describing it all, as like with my aplaroace label which does not specify which identities I go by under that.

I also find it matters little to certain people and they treat me like others who experience even less than I do.

Now with all of that out of the way, I am on the aroace spectrums so I do experience attraction to an extent, and I experience it only with my two partners. All three of us have varying and different types of attraction. I also experience some other non-rose attractions to my partners and even for people outside of them, such as communal or community based attraction, impersonal attraction, solaic, et cetera.

You can really have any type of relationship, as long as it's consensual and in good faith, it's really limitless. Maybe you don't care about that and that's totally fine. Labels, identities, relationship styles/dynamics are for us to use or enjoy but it doesn't mean we have to. But I do and it makes me happy. My partners know I support them and wouldn't want either to be in a relationship with me where they are unhappy or discontent.

There is so much preventing me, my family, or even my partners from being able to do as much as we'd like.

Shoutout to leftists who are too poor/disabled to give back to their community.

Shoutout to leftists who are too poor/disabled to shop at local/small businesses.

Shoutout to leftists who are poor/disabled and have to buy things from Amazon and other megacorps because it’s the most cheap or convenient.

Shoutout to leftists who are too poor/disabled to reduce their environmental footprint because they need the single-use plastics.

Shoutout to leftists who can’t go vegan because of dietary needs, disordered eating, or neurodivergence.

Shoutout to leftists who can’t volunteer or go to community events/protests/noise demonstrations because of inaccessibility.

Shoutout to leftists who can only be politically active online because they’re housebound.

Shoutout to leftists who are disabled and are rarely politically active because they simply don’t have the energy.

Shoutout to leftists who can’t be politically active because they’re under the care of a guardian or are trapped in an abusive situation, and they don’t have control over their finances/belongings.

Shoutout to leftists who can’t read theory, or who have trouble reading theory, but still do their best to learn.

Shoutout to leftists who can’t understand theory at all because of cognitive/intellectual disability.

Shoutout to leftists who want to be more active in their community but can’t because they struggle with anxiety, socializing, or maintaining relationships.

Shoutout to leftists with personality disorders, complex trauma disorders, conduct disorders, OCD, psychosis, and any other leftist whose personality or thoughts often unwillingly go against their beliefs due to a trauma response or chemical imbalance.

Shoutout to leftists who don’t have any “practical” skills that would be needed in a commune (i.e farming, building, sewing)

Shoutout to leftists who are too busy simply trying to survive to even think about being politically active.

Shoutout to leftists who have to always ask for mutual aid but can never give back.

Shoutout to all the leftists who can’t do this and can’t do that and can’t do the things that leftists are “supposed” to do. No one person is perfect.

You aren’t a fake leftist for not being able to do these things. All that matters is that you put in the effort, in whatever way that you can.

It’s not about your abilities as an individual. It’s about our power as a collective.

I think I should make character diaries so that people can understand who the characters in my comics are (these are from my 3 series TN, DNW, CF)

So here’s my first one for the character Rin from dark new world (the dark new world ones are prequels to the comics to avoid spoilers)

(Yes I gave every [main] character a online username)

Spin-rin-123

New news came out, apparently omega corporation has been doing a great job (sarcasm) reusing old robot parts for their death robots, if it isn’t obvious I will probably have to start taking the parts as we destroy them, I got a project that I need the parts for anyway so it’s a win win situation, they lose the robot parts, I get my project finished, double win!

End message.

[this character diary is for Phi romerez from my comic dark new world, again these are prequels to avoid spoilers]

Cunning_Kat2763

I don’t know what the mysterious project Rinda seems to be working on, but it seems it will help us, I will probably have to ask her later when she is nearly finished with it, I just need to wonder why she needs the parts from a omega robot?

Either way the less of those I have to deal with, the better, those things are not only dangerous because they are twice my height but also armed with plasma cannons! Omega said “oh these robots were made to keep the peace” when they are armed with a cannon powerful enough to destroy the tanks from no less then 5 years ago, Rin said that technology will advance beyond our imaginations when we were mire kids in a playground, I never expected it in this way, built as weapons of war to maintain a single dictator as if I will call omega a leader they are a dictator, Rinda is a leader, simple enough to understand

End message

Another update on DNW

I have decided that dark new world issue 1 (comic version) will release on the same day as the nexus season 2 chapter 4

My release schedule for the nexus was interrupted by not having wifi for the week it was supposed to release chapter 4 so I decided to “why not” and combined it with dark new worlds release schedule of “when the next comic in the series is done” so it will release whenever issue 2 is done (which is starting to be worked on)

quick update on dark new world (my comic series)

i may or may not have forgotten to work on it because i may or may not be working on a entirely different project, being the game i am working on which has its own blog to keep it nice and organised (if you want a link  project-frostbite.tumblr.com here it is) , basically i forgot about the project because i was making another project doesn't help that i seemingly unlearned the ability to make hand drawn digital art because i have been doing pixel art for my game due to some engine quirks i will probably just keep yall updated on more general things and mostly just post general art and comics here with dark new world being a more on and off thing, i might even mention the nexus once again without being an absolute clown about it *honk*