@ratwednesday / ratwednesday.tumblr.com
FEAST, GLADLY / MOON STEALER / WARM BLOODED
i hold werewolves as both a symbol of transformation and of self-actualization; they are the other, and the beast, and they are us. this art was created for october’s print club; it was also created for me (and for you).
I am once again running a preorder to fund the next batch of the FEAST, GLADLY tapestry. If you missed the first round and would like to help support this, you can find more info here:
Sometimes, ya just gotta make do with what you have
I decided I wanted to give bobbin lace a try but didn't want to invest a ton of money in case I didn't like it so here has been my solution. I've drawn all the patterns by hand on regular notebook paper, and am pinning into my laptop case. The only money I've spent was on one pack of pencils for $1 (which I'll use anyway), an enormous spool of yarn $5 (bought at a thrift shop), and one pack of pins $6 (which I'll also use anyway).
I'm enjoying it so far, but still undecided if I want to spend more money on it. Real bobbins and a pillow would be soooo helpful though. But its been encouraging how much I've been able to learn already with just these materials!
"*Start where you are, *Use what you have,*Do what you can"
This is AWESOME
Keep calling, keep emailing, keep going to town halls, keep protesting! Dont give them a moments peace! These bastards are cowards who dont like a spotlight put on them. They want to be authoritarians quietly and freak out when people notice them and call them out on it!
(through gritted teeth) sometimes what's good for your mental health isn't another do nothing day or a little treat sometimes what's good for you is putting in some of the work. Not all of it at once but sometimes you have to finish that essay or at least take the next step or you have to clean your room or at least dust the shelves or you gotta do the laundry or at least put it all in the hamper and it's not fun and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks and it sucks but you have to because i read a post on the internet that told me that's what being nice to yourself is sometimes
Are you guys ok you’re all reblogging this post a lot
You can replace [ACTIVITY YOU ENJOY] with [SCROLLING] but watch out. This sucks bad 👍
Some things about this post since getting quite a few notes:
1. If you see this post, highly recommend taking it as an opportunity to set a timer for 15 minutes and switch over to ACTIVITY YOU ENJOY. if after those 15 minutes, you want to go back to scrolling, that's okay!
2. Huge shout out to this popping up in my notifs often, bc I do go back to activity.
3. I think there are times where scrolling is fine. Right now, for example, I'm being connected to a machine for two hours to donate plasma and platelets. Yes this is a brag but it is also a time where scrolling is one of the few things I can do. (Though I will probably also read or watch something on phone lol)
cool i can't wait to wear my human-leather coat around town while doing other totally normal and legal daily activities
SO WHAT'S IT MADE OF OP??? WHAT IS IT.
I need people to understand that all of the "vegan leathers" are plastic. Yes, really all of them. Yes, even that vegan leather that you saw online that prominently claims that it's made of plant waste and is therefore super sustainable.
IT'S PLASTIC, FOLKS
IT'S GREENWASHED PLASTIC AND WE ALL NEED TO STOP FALLING FOR IT
im still tryna figure out why yall think it's impossible for there to some day be a vegan leather w/o plastic.
also, what's the harm if we use recycled plastics instead?
To start by quickly answering the second question: vanishingly few vegan leathers use recycled plastic. Polyurethane is notoriously difficult to recycle, and recycled polyurethane is generally so low quality that it cannot be used to make clothing. Your vegan leather jacket is not only made from plastic; it is almost certainly made from new plastic.
As for the first...
So, bluntly, I don't think that it is impossible that someday there will be vegan leather that doesn't involve plastic. I think that we've made incredible progress in the space of lab-grown meats, and from there, lab-grown skin seems entirely feasible. We may even have lab-grown leather within our lifetimes, and I'm excited about what that scientific progress means, not only for textiles, but for bio-engineering more broadly, and for medicine. It's very cool stuff, genuinely!
But, getting excited about scientific advancement is very different from being sold a bill of goods. There are so many vegan leathers on the market that are just greenwashed plastic that at this point, it is genuinely irresponsible to hear about a new one and start hyping it up without doing any due diligence. I'd love it if there really were products made out of apple waste or pineapple leaves or cork or whatever which had the properties of real leather. That would be incredible! Even aside from any reasons for avoiding animal leather, imagine if all that plant waste could be repurposed into clothing and upholstery. Imagine if all of the uses for pleather were replaced overnight with a sustainable, biodegradable alternative. It would be a wonderful advance, and I'd be shouting about it from the rooftops!
The only problem is? Right now it's a lie.
Cactus leather and pineapple leather and mushroom leather and the like aren't wonder-materials. They are a marketing scam, meant to trick you into buying overpriced plastic as a "green" alternative material.
I've said it before in a hundred other contexts, and I'll probably say it again a thousand more times before I die:
Getting scammed isn't praxis.
I'd love it if these claims were true. I want them to be true. And I will never, ever share or promote them, because wanting a lie to be true doesn't make it so.
Every vegan leather currently on the market is greenwashed plastic, and you should treat every new vegan leather that you see as "plastic until proven otherwise."
Sorry @banchie your tags got peer reviewed and I want them on here bc you're right and you should say it: throwing away the animals skin and using plastic instead is DOUBLE the waste! it's already there and it's not going to stop being there
go wear that leather jacket and that fur and BE WARMER AND MORE COMFORTABLE as well because natural products FUCKING BREATHE instead of plastic fluff and plastic 'leather' sheets that get sticky and gross and sweaty and more smelly because polyester traps bacteria and smells so not only are you causing more pollution, you're actually having a worse time if you use plastic replacements for perfectly good natural products
"xyz DNI" blocking people is YOUR job, sorry. You cannot ask the world to simply move around you, you have to take control of your online experience or you will be fucking miserable forever. Most people don't read your bio/pinned/carrd before touching the posts that cross their dash anyways.
Also maybe worry less about if someone who likes something you hate clicks on your tumblr post. I promise it is not that fucking serious.
Also-also if you have this DNI because your friends/moots said or implied you have to otherwise you're somehow Bad and/or will be punished by them if you don't, that's kind of fucked and maybe you need less controlling friends.
I know you feel ethically helpless on this bitch of an earth but I promise you, telling people with certain fetishes or god forbid media interests not to interact with your posts is doing less than nothing to make the world any different, but it IS stressing you the fuck out to be worried about if the clicks you get on the internet are coming from someone who likes to imagine The Wrong Fictional Characters kissing.
For the love of god, shipping is not that fucking important. I promise you, whatever the fuck you think you know about someone based on what they ship can be determined by the shit they actually do in the real world about real things that actually happen.
Media consumption is not activism and fandom is not the battleground upon which Ethics And Morals will live or die. It is playing pretend. Please please please get some perspective
Hey, look at me. Look at me. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: you need to condition yourself to being okay with being inconvenienced by things. The first time I spoke about this I meant it in a mental health way- it is good to go out to the store and see people versus just ordering alone at home- but there is another more pressing societal issue you should be more concerned about as well.
Any service you rely on for convenience can be weaponized against you the moment you begin to rely on it. Streaming used to be a cheap and convenient way to see movies at home. It is now exorbitantly expensive, you need multiple accounts just to get what you want, and any of those movies can be taken from you at any time. And unless you have gotten used to going through the “inconvenience” of owning physical media, you can do nothing about it. Same goes for buying things on Amazon. Same goes for any service like DoorDash etc. These companies WANT you to be reliant on them for convenience so they can do whatever they want to you because, well, what else are you gonna do?
Same thing goes for the uptick in AI. If you train yourself to become reliant on AI for doing basic things, you will be taken advantage of. It is only a matter of a couple years before there are no free AI services. Not only that, but in the usage of AI’s case, it is robbing you of valuable skills that you need to curate that you will be helpless without the moment the AI companies drive in the knife the way they have done with streaming. Delivery. Cable. Internet. Etc. It will happen to AI too. And if you are not practicing skills such as. Writing. You are not only going to be at the mercy of AI companies in the digital world, but you are going to be extremely easy to take advantage of in real life too.
I am begging you to let go of learned helplessness. I am begging you to stop letting these companies TEACH you helplessness. Do something like learn to pirate. It is way more inconvenient at the beginning, but once you know how, it is one less way companies can take advantage of you. Garden. Go to the thrift store (older clothes hold up better anyway). These things take more time and effort, yes, but using time and effort are muscles you need to stretch to keep yourself from being flattened under the weight of our capitalist hellscape.
Inconvenience yourself. Please. Start with only the ways you are able. Do a little bit at a time. But do something.
The cruelty of racist white men.
Does anyone else remember when Elon was like "if anyone knows how to end world hunger for 6 billion USD, I'll fund it" and UNICEF was like "we're going to spend a month to make a plan to end world hunger for 6 billion USD and Elon is going to fund it" and Elon was like "actually, nah" and then bought Twitter instead?
I think that was one of the worst things I'll ever see in my life.
I still think that should be the thing for which he's the most famous. It should be brought up every time he's mentioned. In any news article, any interview, any history book. "Elon Musk, who was offered a chance to end world hunger and turned it down." Put it on his fucking gravestone.
ya gotta stop caring what people think and start being extremely weird. but never cruel. i think that might save you
i hope every single one of you outlives these hateful fucks on the news right now. i hope each and every one of you is able to find joy and support throughout these tumultuous times and i hope you get to live so fiercely as yourself. i hope you wake up one day to news that you’ve outlived those pieces of absolute shit and whether that brings you joy or relief or hope or what have you, i hope you live to see that day
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are feeling the wrath of constituents as their phone lines light up with complaints, worries and confusion over Elon Musk's efforts to gut government programs and fire longtime civil servants.
Just a reminder:
--if the person you get has no clue what you're on about, please realize it is entirely likely to be a VERY new intern this time of year, half of them can barely find their way around the buildings yet, be nice
--use state AND national offices. make a stink
--most of these folks have email and phone so use all available contact methods you can
--if it's a Senator, see if they're up for reelection in 2026. Threaten a primary. Don't tell them your political affiliation, just threaten a primary.
STOP BEING SELF CONSCIOUS ABOUT YOUR CREATIONS STOP SECOND GUESSING WHAT YOU REALLY WANNA DO STOP DEBATING IT'S WORTH. LET YOUR ART SERVE YOU INSTEAD OF THE OTHER WAY AROUND
bring back tumblr ask culture let me. bother you with questions and statements
reblog to let people know it's ok to bother you with questions and statements
every time you see a headline like this
I want you to remember these ones
And these ones
Don’t let anybody tell you that nobody is doing anything. Don’t let anybody tell you that we are helpless and hopeless.