AnnieModify

You’re whatever color, ethnicity, ability, physicality, gender, sexuality, neuro-ness you are: Cool, welcome, come on in!

You’re carrying whatever heritage (or burden) of history, class, culture, connection, lineage, background you’ve been given: Cool, hi, hello come on in, welcome!

You have whatever education, skills, experiences, memories, interests, preferences, sensitivities you’ve picked up along the way: Hi, hello, welcome, nice to have you!

You have whatever religion, outlook, beliefs, opinions you choose bring with you: Cool, welcome, hello!

You disregard, demean, dismiss, dehumanize others because you don’t like their [color ethnicity ability physicality gender sexuality neurodivergence history class culture connection lineage background education skills experiences memories interests preferences sensitivities] because you choose a/n [religion outlook belief opinion] that says it’s okay to hate other people when they’re not just like you: No, goodbye, not welcome here, so long, get out, absolutely not, we don’t do that, we’re not like that, we don’t accept that. 

Acceptance means we accept how people are and who people are and treat them all with respect even when we don’t quite get it (whatever “it” is). 

Assholery is when we think some people don’t deserve to get treated with respect because we don’t quite like or understand something about how they are and who they are. 

Acceptance is active. It is shown by demonstrating (in word and deed) respect for others. 

Assholery is failing to demonstrate respect for others. It is often instigating active disrespect which ultimately leads to dis-regard and de-humanization of others. 

We don’t accept assholes because demonstrating respect is a choice and being an asshole is a choice, and they are mutually exclusive choices. 

“Hello! I am a developer. Here is my relevant experience: I code in Hoobijag and sometimes jabbernocks and of course ABCDE++++ (but never ABCDE+/^+ are you kidding? ha!)  and I like working with Shoobababoo and occasionally kleptomitrons. I’ve gotten to work for Company¹ doing Shoobaboo-ing code things and that’s what led me to the Snarfus. So, let’s dive in! 

About this tutorial

I first started doing Very Simple Thing² with Snarfus, but the more I used it the more I saw the potential! Despite the jaggle of the chromus, it’s really multi-purpose. And that’s what led me to argyling the pintafore with the quagmire instead of the hoobastank! I know, crazy. But it was kind of working, and actually a lot of fun… Until I hit a big roadblock: the fisterfunk will NOT talk to the shamrock portal or even send beep-boops back to the Snarfus! Of course, you know what that means³ — Now the entire hoob-tunnel is clogged with gramelions. Unacceptable. 

I almost gave up but then I realized: If I connect the backside Snarfus stagnator to the backside shamrock Klingon troglodyte emulater, it’s good! Everything beep-boops and ding-dongs and I get the Actual Topic of the Tutorial, which lets me do the Very Simple Thing the way I want after all! Pretty cool⁴.

So here’s how to set it up: 

1. In the terminal, ajkl;gawgor;iqeg;iJLkqen.  wl;R aw;oeiga 4648664 arjarwgj;llj;ja fadgfgajkljl; wlj;sdjk;lfas

2. Next go to folder/hidden/deep/in/the/file/system/surprise!.file and copy the contents of the file. If it’s not there, it might be in library/library/library/llibrary/liiiiiibrarrrary/llllliiiiibrary/hidden/hidden/hiding/you can’t find me/hidden/nope/never/hahahahereiam.file.

3. Now go back to the terminal and paste in the file contents, then type in 64A786AGR45JAR; rdja;jg [[]][[]][[]][[]]][[]()()()()()()()()(){{}{}{}|{}{|}{}{|}{ ////////////////!! !!!! !! //// !!! agjlkargji;lwej;OI [ASRGASG[]ASGDASG[]EAEadgasg[]EAGE[edaga][]ahgr-0-0=-0-=0-=0=0-0=-0-=0=-0-=0=-0=-0!!!

4. Boop!⁵

5. Open Snarfus and upload the file you just made. 

6. Just for shits and giggles, you can de-sham the chronostatiomatrix by running —()()(]]asdg a=-do —cd go cd stay —sususudododo baby shark—][] but that’s optional. 

7. That’s it! 

Let me know how it goes for you. I’d love to hear if anybody uses this approach with GewGawGamma or ometer2.7.”

1. I probably should recognize Company because it seems illustrious but I do not recognize Company or know what they do. 

2. It is not simple. 

3. I do not know what that means. 

4. It is cool. I don’t really understand how, but I believe it. I’m glad you know how to do it. 

5. The first 3 steps will take me approximately 7 hours and 193 internet searches to complete. When I finally get to Boop! it will be really satisfying.

   This is meant in good fun. I really appreciate the folks who take time to share their knowledge and write up tutorials and give tips and so on. 

Many see that in this nightmared land, language has no meaning and the work of the writer is ruined. Many see that the triumph of authoritarian consciousness is its ability to render the spoken and written word meaningless — so that we cannot talk or hear each other speak. It is the work of the writer to reclaim the language from those who use it to justify murder, plunder, violation. The writer can and must do the revolutionary work of using words to communicate, as community. 

Those of us who love reading and writing believe that being a writer is a sacred trust. It means telling the truth. It means being incorruptible. It means not being afraid, and never lying. Those of us who love reading and writing feel great pain because so many people who write books have become cowards, clowns, and liars. Those of us who love reading and writing begin to feel a deadly contempt for books, because we see them vending their tarnished wares on every street corner. Too many writers, in keeping with the Amerikan way of life, would sell their mothers for a dime. 

To keep the sacred trust of the writer is simply to respect the people and to love the community. To violate that trust is to abuse oneself and do damage to others. I believe that the writer has a vital function in the community, and an absolute responsibility to the people.

—Andrea Dworkin, writing in 1973

I made a small informative zine about tacos to help! It is made out of Taco Bell wrappers because why not?

We begin with the essential questions: Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? 

Right away we have the answer: TACO. 

Then we tackle all essential facts and important questions about tacos.

TACO.

I have a lot of glue on my fingers!

I need a better pair of tiny very sharp scissors!

I used this tutorial to draw a taco. 

May the Great Taco smile upon you. 

Sometimes you just don’t get to feel good about things. 

Anyway a good rule I read somewhere long ago is something like Never trust how you feel about your life after 9pm.

I’ve found it helpful to expand the rule a bit. 

Never trust how you feel about your entire life….

• when you’re hungry or have eaten only crap lately.

• when you’re not getting enough sleep.

• when you’re in pain.

• when you just made a mistake.

• when something big is happening especially if it’s a bad or scary big thing.

• when you’re in an argument or fresh out of one.

• when you haven’t seen the sun in 24+ hours.

• when you’ve just gotten bad news. 

There are many more situations where this advice could be helpful. 

When something is off, imbalanced, scary, upsetting in some part of your life, the rest of your life will tilt toward that angle. Or at least will feel like it does.

Remembering this helps me to not take my own feelings so seriously. 

I hope today is a good day for how you feel about your life, but if it’s not, tomorrow might be better.

For the record, I feel good about my life right now, this very minute. I wrote part of this post a few days ago and another part of it a few years ago. I survived both the years and the days. You will, too. 

there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.

—Charles Bukowski, The Laughing Heart

Rules are not valid because the Senate passed them, or because heroes once played by them, or because God pronounced them through Moses or Muhammed. They are valid only if and when players freely play by them. 

There are no rules that require us to obey rules. If there were, there would have to be a rule for those rules, and so on. 

—James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games

My kids go to public school. I have no idea what that’s like.

I was homeschooled myself, all the way from kinder through 12th grade. I went from homeschool to university. All my ideas about public school came from movies & shows like Saved by the Bell; which is to say, I know nothing about the actual experience of going to public school (or private school, for that matter).

I’ve been, for the most part, pleased and I feel incredibly grateful for the education my kids are getting and the people who work really hard to make it happen.

But sometimes there are such dumb rules. 

I get a lot of school emails. Many are about rules. Reminders of the rules, usually. For example, every year about this time there’s a rule reminder email for (parents of) seniors: We strictly prohibit waterguns on the school grounds.

OKAY? FINE? I DON’T CARE?

I understand there are reasons. 

Rules don’t spring up, full-grown, from the earth. Rules don’t grow, they are instituted. Rules are considered and constructed. They get put in place because something happens and we don’t want it to happen again so we make a rule to prevent it from happening. We usually require a committee to agree on the wording of the rule. We vote on it. And then: It’s a rule. 

And we trust the rules to do the job! 

Even if, perhaps, a rule is not the best way to deal with “the situation,” whatever it may be. Even if a rule, perhaps, prevents a lot of good things from happening in the service of potentially maybe hopefully preventing a singular unwanted thing from happening. 

Anyway, maybe it’s because I was raised to be both 1) a really conscientious follower of one set of rules (“the truth,” handed down from GOD via the church) and also a 2) conscientious objector to a whole other set of rules (“the world” aka Jezebel aka Babylon aka The Devil himself), but at this point in my life I have a lot of trouble taking any set of rules seriously. 

Well that’s not quite true. Some rules I take very seriously. These are the rules I try to live by. 

But all sets of rules enshrined by any sort of institution are laughable. 

Consider this one, from the schools: My children, when in school, are required to ask permission to go to the bathroom. Any teacher, for any reason, could deny any child permission to use the bathroom.

This rule is ridiculous.

This rule might make sense for children who are quite young. Even then, I have my doubts. (If a child is young but potty trained, is it a good idea to limit their access to the bathroom? Proooooobably not!)

My children are in middle school and high school. They are teenagers. They understand their own bodies well enough to know when they need to use the bathroom.

Oh, but! The teens! They gather in the bathrooms! They smoke! They skip out! They make out! They avoid class! They they they they they they they 

SHUT UP. 

Are you kidding me right now. Are you serious. Are you actually—you, an adult, charged with the education of hundreds of children—looking at me, another adult, and telling me that because some of these children abuse the “privilege” of going to the bathroom, all of the children must be closely and carefully monitored re: bathroom usage? 

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW. 

Absolutely not. Absolutely 10000000000000000% not. No. And let me stress again, just in case I was unclear, NO. 

Here’s what I tell my kids: “Hey. If you need to go to the bathroom, sure, ask the teacher. If they say Yes, great. Do your thing. If they say No, tell them you need to use the bathroom and you’re going to do so and then walk out of the classroom and go to the bathroom because you are a person with a body and you are the one who knows what your body needs.”

And here’s what is understood in those words (and also, articulated clearly from time to time):

Sometimes as a person with a body, you might use your “what my body needs” as an excuse for “what my mind needs” or “what my emotions need” which is, maybe, a short break from a boring-ass teacher droning on in a monotone voice about the history of a war in 1812 or whatever. 

Sometimes what your body needs is a way to get away from a classroom full of your peers because you’re young and nervous and shy. Or maybe you’re on your period and having cramps and you don’t know what to do. Or maybe you have a lot of anxiety and need a few minutes to catch your breath. Or maybe you have a lot of friends but you haven’t learned how to say No and you need a minute to eat your granola bar without sharing it. Or maybe you broke up with your SO last night and you need a second to feel some feelings; or maybe or maybe or maybe or maybe or maybe or maybe or 

What I tell my kids is: Break the dumb rules. I will back you up. 

What I tell my kids is: If you need to use the bathroom, that’s what you do. I will back you up. 

What I tell my kids is: If a teacher yells at you, you walk the fuck out of that room because nobody has the right to treat you with disrespect. I will back you up. 

What I tell my kids is what I tell myself is what I tell my kids is what I tell myself is what I tell my kids is what I tell myself is what I tell my kids is what I tell myself is what I tell my kids is what I’m telling you 

you can trust yourself

I believe in you

I will back you up

you are good

I trust you

you can trust yourself 

I believe in you

I will back you up

you are good