As we move into 2024, I think it’s important to remember that while the horrors are huge and all encompassing, the joys are smaller and closer to home. That doesn’t mean that the joys are less powerful, but it does mean that sometimes they’re harder to notice. The horrors work by sucking the air out of the room, tricking you into thinking the joys are too small to have an effect, but they do. Take the time in the new year to enjoy yourself. Laugh with friends. Hug your loved ones. Make art. Make memories. Make time. Sing loudly and badly to your favorite song. Eat your favorite food. Have fun. These are the things that make life worth living, and these are the things that the horrors try to rob you of. That’s how the horrors work; that’s how the horrors win. Look for the joys where you are; that’s where they exist.

What is the Theme of RWBY?  THIS is my take. AND my philosophy. https://www.tumblr.com/iamafanofcartoons/733069137182605312/i-wanna-thank-tumblingxelian-markzschiegnerii https://www.tumblr.com/iamafanofcartoons/714857308133441536/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable

https://www.youtube.com/@xelwriter5485 https://www.youtube.com/c/MarkZschiegnerII/ https://www.youtube.com/@marylizabetha

if you think I care? it's because i do. deeply. sincerely. and i'm so sorry

Todays special moments are tomorrow’s memories! 🫧

so it's been about a week since i've moved from reddit to this god forsaken hell hole (tumblr) and like

i love it

i'm not going back to reddit

my RtT (redditor to tumblrina) transition is complete

i never thought i would say this but this social media (if you can call tumblr one) is actually doing wonders for my mental health

no more doom scrolling

actually interacting with humans that are just as weird as me (feel free to talk to me)

not being afraid of being myself

yeah...

i'm home.

you all need to be my minions i think it’d be wonderful if we made hope posting a trend on tumblr

A co-worker of mine was standing outside with me during a break from customers to share a cigarette with me, and told me about how he had lost his brother that he was close with some years ago. He told me about how they used to be in a band together with some friends, and how ever since he'd died, he hadn't played any music because he'd been too scared and anxious. I told him about how I'd lost my brother to suicide some years ago.

I went home and pulled out an old tiny wooden box my brother had given me before he'd died. I'd been using it to store guitar picks I'd collected over the years, including one guitar pick that used to be his. I haven't played the guitar since he'd died, my hands are too small to play some of the chords, so I play bass and piano instead.

I went to work the next day and gifted my brothers old guitar pick to my co-worker. I told him that it'd been sitting in a box for ten years unused, and would probably sit there for longer if I kept it there. Told him that I thought he deserved to have it, because I bet he could put it to better use than I ever would. Told him I didn't feel like it was coincidence that me and him would cross paths with each other in our lives, and that it seemed suiting that we had these similar experiences but split in two halves. That somehow, I felt like he was meant to have the guitar pick. I told him that I knew he'd not played guitar since his brother died, but that if he ever decided to play again one of these days, maybe he'd be able to honor both of our brothers by using that guitar pick.

He almost cried. He thanked me. Then he went home that night and for the first time in years he played the guitar.

I don't know what the meaning of life is or what my purpose is, but I do believe that love and human connection is one of the most important things in life. It's finding ways to tell strangers you love them and share experiences with others. I think it's all just about love.

Remember that hope itself is radical. Believing that one day the specific injustices we face will be nothing more than historical events. Just like how we live in a world without the divine right of kings we will one day live in a world without capitalism, just understanding that is itself a radical action. If spreading despair is praxis of the ruling class, spreading hope is praxis against the ruling class.

"Seven federal agencies are partnering to implement President Biden’s American Climate Corps, announcing this week they would work together to recruit 20,000 young Americans and fulfill the administration's vision for the new program. 

The goals spelled out in the memorandum of understanding include comprehensively tackling climate change, creating partnerships throughout various levels of government and the private sector, building a diverse corps and serving all American communities.

The agencies—which included the departments of Commerce, Interior, Agriculture, Labor and Energy, as well the Environmental Protection Agency and AmeriCorps—also vowed to ensure a “range of compensation and benefits” that open the positions up to a wider array of individuals and to create pathways to “high-quality employment.”  

Leaders from each of the seven agencies will form an executive committee for the Climate Corps, which Biden established in September, that will coordinate efforts with an accompanying working group. They will create the standards for ACC programs, set compensation guidelines and minimum terms of service, develop recruitment strategies, launch a centralized website and establish performance goals and objectives. The ACC groups will, beginning in January, hold listening sessions with potential applicants, labor unions, state and local governments, educational institutions and other stakeholders. 

The working group will also review all federal statutes and hiring authorities to remove any barriers to onboarding for the corps and standardize the practices across all participating agencies. Benefits for corps members will include housing, transportation, health care, child care, educational credit, scholarships and student loan forgiveness, stipends and non-financial services.

As part of the goal of the ACC, agencies will develop the corps so they can transition to “high-quality, family-sustaining careers with mobility potential” in the federal or other sectors. AmeriCorps CEO Michael Smith said the initiative would prepare young people for “good-paying union jobs.” 

Within three weeks of rolling out the ACC, EPA said more than 40,000 people—mostly in the 18-35 age range—expressed interest in joining the corps. The administration set an ambitious goal for getting the program underway, aiming to establish the corps’ first cohort in the summer of 2024. 

The corps members will work in roles related to ecosystem restoration and conservation, reforestation, waterway protection, recycling, energy conservation, clean energy deployment, disaster preparedness and recovery, fire resilience, resilient recreation infrastructure, research and outreach. The administration will look to ensure 40% of the climate-related investments flow to disadvantaged communities as part of its Justice40 initiative.  

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the MOU would allow the ACC to “work across the federal family” to push public projects focused on environmental justice and clean energy. 

“The Climate Corps represents a significant step forward in engaging and nurturing young leaders who are passionate about climate action, furthering our journey towards a sustainable and equitable future,” Regan said. 

The ACC’s executive committee will hold its first meeting within the next 30 days. It will draw support from a new climate hub within AmeriCorps, as well as any staffing the agency heads designate."

-via Government Executive, December 20, 2023

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This news comes with your regularly scheduled reminder that WE GOT THE AMERICAN CLIMATE CORPS ESTABLISHED LAST YEAR and basically no one know about/remembers it!!! Also if you want more info about the Climate Corps, inc. how to join, you can sign up to get updates here.

The world is cruel and unfair. But that doesn't mean that you have to be as well. You have the ability to be better than that. That's what makes people great. Bad people just wanna make their bad day everyone else's problems. I've been cyberbullied, doxxed, and stabbed in the back more times than I can count. Its not going to stop me from being a good person and helping others. Because if I stoop to the same level as those people? They would win, because it would make me just as awful as them, thus making them feel validated in their horribleness. So remember that when you get up each morning...the strength you have to be better than what the world throws at you. I think that's why shows like RWBY mean so much to me. www.tumblr.com/iamafanofcartoons/733069137182605312/i-wanna-thank-tumblingxelian-markzschiegnerii It takes place in a cruel world with cruel people, and yet so many of the characters in the show try to do good, despite how difficult that can be. https://www.tumblr.com/iamafanofcartoons/714857308133441536/lets-talk-about-what-makes-rwby-good-or-enjoyable It also says a lot about the haters and their mindset. If they can force you give into negativity and hate? They win like the villains because they want to be proven right about justifying their actions and behavior, or their views. So long as you can find the strength to be good, in a world that tries to force you to stoop to the level of the bad people who try to use the cruelty of the world to justify their bad behavior? Good WILL Prevail. "Become the change YOU wish to see in the world"

Here, have a spark of hope.

The reality is that no single person can fix the entirety of the current ecological imbalance that has been literally centuries in the making at this point. Yet there are so, so many of us who care, and who are doing what we can to make a difference in whatever every day to day ways we're able. I often think of conservation efforts like the Loren Eiseley story "The Star Thrower" (aka, "the starfish story"). Amid a beach full of stranded starfish, one person cannot possibly save them all, but they can spend what time they have saving those they're able.

And this study shows that these efforts do, in fact, make a difference, not just for starfish but a myriad of species. This meta-analysis of almost 200 studies definitively proves that conservation preserves and restores biodiversity, keeping more species from going extinct. It's all too easy to get entangled in the losses, but we even more need to allow ourselves to celebrate the wins.

That success is crucial to convincing governmental entities and other stakeholders that putting funds toward conservation efforts makes a significant difference and is not only worth the investment, but worth increasing. And, on a personal level, it's necessary for those of us who care so deeply for this world to know when our efforts are having an impact, to buoy us up when the anxiety and grief over ecological destruction wears us down.

There is hope. Keep it up, folks; it's helping <3

People reading Hunger Games as a pessimistic and misanthropic work makes me so mad. Ms Collins didn’t base a whole trilogy on the transformative power of kindness for y’all to disrespect her like that.

Like, I see it, THG is bleak as hell in places. But it’s also just about as far from ‘anti-humanity’ as one can get. Yeah, there’s bad people. That’s the point. We’ve all got the capacity to be bad but we can also be good. And that choice is what it’s all about imo - that it’ll always be worth it to do the human thing. Bury that tribute, smile to a child, give bread to your neighbour… it’s all the same and it’s all worth it. Not because of the circumstances but despite them.

hi people how are you doing today

[ID START: a old photo of a beach with people standing in the water. there’s something written on it that reads: “i only want my peace. that’s it”. END ID]

i wish for peace in our lifetime, i wish for love to seep into every crack of this planet, i wish for it to penetrate every heart and soul. i wish for brutality to face its end, i wish for evil to turn to light. i wish for us to create such a place where cruelty cannot resurface. i wish for communities without borders, i wish for human and nature to be reunited by love and protect each other.

little wizardposting on this fine morning