The odds of this reaching who this needs to via tumblr aside, I thought I should share this: if you live in the Skyway or White Center areas of Seattle, there's an opportunity to have a good chunk or even all of the cost of having a heat pump installed at your residence through this program! Very worthwhile as we continue to see an uptick in swealtering days each summer in a city that was never built for it.

Improve your home’s heating and cooling system and save money on your energy bills with a heat pump! King County’s Energize! program is offering heat pump installations in Skyway & White Center with up to 100% cost-coverage for income-qualified households.

The program includes free educational workshops, connection to a local installer, and hands-on consultation in your preferred language. Sign up to learn more at https://www.energizekingcounty.org/

btw if you borrow dvds or cds from library you can rip them onto your own blanks or onto your hard drive or whatever. librarians don’t care and they won’t know if you do it or not

We love Bruce's tragic ignorance of Sheila's role in Jason's death.

We love Jason never telling another soul what Sheila did, because he loves her, because he's grateful she showed him compassion as soon as it didn't cost her anything, because nobody needs to know.

We need to go further.

Jason's last act as Robin got an innocent woman killed. His own mother, a doctor who should've lived many more years making the world a better place.

Poor Doctor Haywood might've survived being forced to work for the Joker, but Jason dragged her into a dangerous confrontation instead.

It's obvious what happened: Jason was trying to show off. He wanted to impress his mother by revealing himself as Robin and taking down the Joker. Treating everything like a game, never considering the consequences.

And despite losing everything to his recklessness, Sheila still used her dying breath to praise him. It's a tragedy that such a sweet woman dedicated her life to caring for others, but her own son doomed her with his carelessness.

"Here," Danny slides his business card over, and Victor fries takes it.

"Contact my parents, go to Amity Park. They can explain and answer every question you have, Mr. Fries."

Victor, still in his suit and staring, frowns. "What about Nora?"

"I can promise you, she will be alright. I'll give you daily news of her condition and make sure everything is on top condition."

Mr. Fries hesitates, glancing at his frozen wife. He contemplates it, the decision and its cost if he were to trust.

"Nora can't handle transportation in these conditions, but with me here, she will get enough ectoplasm exposure that will make her liminal." Danny explains carefully, eyes crinkling as he looks at the man.

"She will turn into a ghost and come back. Anger may be stronger than love, but love is one of the main emotions one will form in the Infinity Realms."

Victor exhales shakily, breath tinted white from the cold.

"The same will happen to me if I depart to amity park?"

"Yes." The halfa nods. "You will be exposed to ectoplasm like every other civilian there, but unlike here with Nora, my parents will make sure you understand every little thing about this process."

"And if she does come back as a ghost... how long...?"

Danny bites his lip. "I'm not sure. Once her ghost forms, she will be under my protection, many know to not go against me. She will learn of her new culture and then of the traditions."

He explains slowly, making sure Mr. Fries is concentrated and on line with every word he tells.

"Her memories will slowly trickle in, but she will remember and most likely go and find you."

Victor, the ever careful man he is, tilts his head. "How will she come back?"

"My parents again, they have a portal. She will be led to it by associates and friends safely. You will meet her at Amity Park, that's why I suggested moving in the first place. She won't be strong enough to leave amity at first."

"Why me? Why us? This program is not public, and you can not possibly be joking either."

"Valid," Danny shrugs at his gaze. "Call it fondess or maybe attachment, but Nora really grew on me despite... not being very expressive."

—

(They talked for so so long, until Victor Fries aka Mr. Freeze finally agreed and left.

Danny gave them the privacy needed for their temporary goodbye, he would help them, he'd promised so.

And Phantom doesn't break promises.

So he helps Mr. Fries escape Gotham, made sure he arrived at the meeting place with Jazz, and gave updates on Nora in her cryochamber.

He would buy flowers for her, talk, throw jokes, despite no answer.

Aunt Nora's life would flicker at a time, and sooner than later, Danny knew her time was up.

He left when Victor came back, got her out of her sleep, and held her for her last moments. He was here when Victor departed again, ready to prepare his new apartment at Amity for Nora's arrival.

He felt unbridled happiness when the news came back months later that Nora managed to get back. She became a winter spirit like he is, more alive than she was in the last live.

Danny was happy for the Fries family.)

Public Relations Internship Finale, Customer Swap Stories #2

Hi there, my name is Chris and I am the manager of one of the teams at one of the most elite public relations firms in the country!

When I received a request for a swap within the Swap Tech Enterprise (STE) “Semester in Their Shoes” program, I was super excited as I would be able to train and teach a member of the incoming generation of public relations field. I quickly got to work trying to secure a member of my team who would be willing to swap with Michael, but none were willing to step up. Eventually, I had received a firm no from all members of my team, so I reached out to STE and let them know they would need to reach out to another firm to secure a body for Michael. However, they informed as per the contract both Michael signed when applying for the program and the contract that the company signed as a participating industry leader, I could step up and do the swap with Michael instead. I was nervous at first, because not only would the work load be way more than what he was expecting, but he would also be getting a body twice his age and I would be robbing him of 5 months of his golden years. However, after a lot of deliberation and talking with my manager, we decided it be best to move along with me swapping with Michael not only to keep a good relationship with STE, but so that Michael can gain the experience he was promised when accepted into the program. My manager ensured that he’d be there to help Michael out whenever needed as he would be stepping into a role way out of his caliber. With everything settled, I informed STE of the decision and headed down to the Swap Bank on the day designated. This wasn’t my first time use STE to body swap as I had used it before when going on company business trips, so I quickly settled in and the Swap Technician initiated the swap. Waking up from the swap, I immediately felt more rejuvenated as I was now a 21 year old college student again.

Getting out of the bed, I went to the bathroom and was not disappointed by the sight in front of me in the mirror.

Michael definitely took care of his body, most likely thought eating healthy and going to the gym a couple of times a week. I couldn’t wait to get back to his place and explore more of my new body. For the next 5 months I am Michael, without any responsibilities whatsoever I am going to live it up the fullest until May gets here!

support your local libraries and sign up for a library card today!

I refuse to call government assistance programs “welfare” or “benefits”.

I’ve been on government assistance programs my whole life. I have never lived above the poverty line.

It’s a system that doesn’t care about my wellbeing, they care about doing the bare minimum to keep people alive enough to function and work, and if you’re disabled and cannot work, they give significantly less of a fuck.

And benefits?? What benefits?

Food stamps that run out within two weeks because I am budgeting with 8$ a day with literally dozens of dietary restrictions? Or do you mean the housing voucher that I have to never even have a gift card, penny to my name, Sams club membership, phone bill, literally anything that could be “income” in order to qualify? That same housing voucher system that if I mess up even once with I not only lose all government aid for at least 5 years, it’s also mandatory PRISON time for 1 year?? “Oh but they would never do that, right?” Nope! I have several friends who are now felons for minor lease violations and unhoused as a result! Oh maybe you mean the state health insurance that doesn’t cover most treatments, specialists, and testing I need and if I tried to make a gofundme to cover, I would lose aforementioned housing? Oh and we can’t forget all the money I get for being disabled, which is exactly 0$. I’m still fighting for SSI and have been for 6 years! That’s over 6 years with absolutely zero income. ZERO. And guess what, whenever I *do* get on SSI, I will lose my housing voucher. And I won’t be able to afford my current apartment because even in subsidized low income housing it’s too expensive for the maximum SSI “benefit” amount. And on SSI you can’t have savings over 2000$. Oh and they do make housing for people who are low income where you pay 30% of your income but I can’t even be on the waitlist since I don’t have any income. And on top of all this, I can never get married because I’ll lose all of the programs.

I could keep going. That’s not even half of the programs I’m a part of.

• None of them give me cash in hand. Even for vouchers I have to provide receipts for everything.

• Food stamps just straight up won’t even cover ineligible items. Which includes hot foods.

• I genuinely don’t believe that there’s a way to “game the system” and why would you? You would gain literally nothing.

• It’s designed to keep people poor. Once you make over a certain amount, you lose all or almost all benefits. There’s no way to slowly transition out of the programs, if you’re someone who’s able to. It’s all in or all out.

• All of these barriers are made significantly worse while unhoused/homeless. I’ve been homeless for over half of my life and there’s so many fucked up rules. If I missed one night staying in the shelter, I lost my housing voucher because I no longer was “verified as homeless” even if I was sleeping outside still.

Just watched the first episode of strange new worlds and I almost had to stop it within the fist ten minutes because why were Spock and T’pring kissing on the mouth. I can excuse a waxed and shredded Spock - this is a lie - but I draw the line at Vulcans kissing on the mouth.

Idea for a partnership with local museums for public libraries

The trick for grownup museums with kids is making a scavenger hunt for them related to the collection.

When I was 12 my friend & I went with my mom to the Louvre and she made a scavenger hunt for us beforehand. She had to drag us out at closing time practically kicking and screaming.

It might be interesting to partner up with local museums to have kits that parents can take out that come with a pass and scavenger hunt worksheets that can be filled out and exchanged for a sticker or other small prize at the museum (or the library, idk).

If gazebo deaths are so widespread, why does anyone ever perform at one? Are they forced? Does the siren song of the gazebo lure them closer until standing under it's awning seems like a good idea? Do they simply not know of the danger, the whole gazebo-eating-peoole thing only known to a few select people? Many questions

I mean.......how do you know that the elevator you step onto won't plummet to earth? How do you know that the salad you order at a restaurant won't give you salmonella? That your car's brakes will go on working, even when you're about to crash into the highway's concrete divider?

How do you know that any part of the world you move through won't kill you?

And then, more troubling---if the people who are tasked with reviewing elevator safety, food safety, car safety, chose to occasionally (occasionally! not all the time, of course not, they're reasonable) look the other way, and let someone hurtle towards their doom....would it be so bad? With that one terrible sacrifice, the inspector ensures that the elevator never breaks, the salad is never rotted, the car will work every. single. time. Or at least, every other time but the first.

This becomes even less clear-cut when the elevator has preferences, when the salad revolts against being eaten with a fork, when the car contents itself with gas every day except the one where it wants blood. Gallons of it.

It's an important precept to remember, in the keeper community. Not every offering laid across a gazebo's wooden planks or iron latticework is accepted. Sometimes, a jazz quartet performs---and despite the keeper waiting with baited breath for the moment of reckoning, the quartet ends their set, packs up their instruments, and leaves. Sometimes, the keeper will find small animals strewn around instead, hallmarks of a gazebo perfectly uninterested in its human audience. (It's uncommon, certainly, but see Leeman et al. 2018 for a longitudinal study on USian gazebo feeding habits.) Not every gazebo wants to swallow a dance troupe whole; some of them prefer stalking prey like loiterers and the homeless, while others will opt for a marching band over a Shakespeare in the Park, for reasons unknown.

Per American Association of Canopy Keepers guidance, unaware victims seem to satiate gazebos for an average period of 2.4 years, compared with knowing victims' 1.87 years; therefore, best practices recommend ignorance. Fortunately for them, at the end of the day, "will this kill me?" is a numbers game, and to borrow a phrase---

Boy, are we bad at math.

People who get all up in arms about vaccination programs in the US because "it's un-American for the government to be involved in my healthcare" are just a special level of stupid.

I mean first of all government vaccine programs have been going on for decades, it's how we almost eradicated polio from the country and significantly brought down the rates of measles, not to mention y'know eradicating smallpox thanks to global vaccine cooperation.

But like, people don't realize just how many things they take for granted are the result of government intervention in healthcare. Obviously basic things like working sewage systems, sanitation departments, and the FDA are the first things that come up, but also....

Fluorinated tap water to make sure kids' teeth enamel forms completely

Iodized salt to reduce thyroid issues as a result of iodine deficiency

Fortified cereal, milk, and orange juice to combat vitamin and mineral deficiency

Don't have to worry about scurvy or iodine deficiency? Thank the government intervening in healthcare.

Don't have to worry about cholera, dysentery, or typhus? Thank the government intervening in healthcare.

Don't have to worry about wood shavings and chalk dust in your bread? Thank the government for intervening in healthcare.

The government has always been involved in your healthcare, you've just been taking it for granted.

got my student loans forgiven!!

Public Relations Internship Part A, Customer Swap Stories #2

My name is Michael and I am currently a junior public relations major at Penn State.

When the university announced they partnered with Swap Tech Enterprise (STE) and launched the “Semester in Their Shoes” program, I knew that I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. I would spend the semester in the body of a recent graduate working full time in the public relations field letting me see the day to day life of someone who works in public relations looked like. While participating in the program, the work assigned to you would equate to some of the classes I should be taking but can’t while part of the program, so not only was I gaining real world experience in the field, but I also wouldn’t be missing any credits and would still get to graduate on time. As for the person I would be swapping with, they would get to spend a couple of months living my life and having a break for all the work they had to do. 

Once applications for the program opened I immediately applied in hopes to spend my spring semester working in Public Relations. After months of waiting to hear back, I finally received the email informing me that I was accepted and matched with someone for the swap. I was so excited I could barely contain my excitement in the days leading up to the swap. Finally, the day arrived and I headed down to the STE Swap Bank as instructed. I informed them that I was participating in the program through my school and they quickly gave me a run down of who I would be swapping with other information that I would need to know before the swap. After receiving all the information, the Swap Technician took me to the swap room and began prepping me for the swap. As they counted down, I was so excited that I didn’t even realize I lost consciousness once the Swap Tech’s countdown hit 0. As I opened my eyes, I noticed I was in a different room and knew the swap had worked. However, as I stood up from the bed, something was wrong. Looking down at my hands I noticed they were showing signs of aging, which shouldn’t be the case since I was supposed to be swapping with a recent graduate. I brought my hands to my chest and noticed that I was showing signs of aging as well as my body looked like it hadn’t stepped foot in a gym in years. I quickly ran to the mirror and was shocked by the face looking back at me. It wasn’t the face of a 24 year old recent graduate but that of what I could assume was a 50-55 year old man. 

Turns out that Chris, the manager of the public relations team I was joining couldn’t secure any volunteers for the swap, so he elected to step up instead. I started demanding that they swap me back now, but per the terms of the contract I signed when applying for the program, it stated that if no recent grad volunteers could be available, the head of the team could step up in their place. Upset with the circumstances, I reluctantly got dressed and headed to Chris’s apartment in Midtown, as I was now going to be living at his place in New York until the end of the spring semester in May.  I quickly took a picture and sent it to my parents, as they wanted to be updated once I was settled in.

To say my parents were shocked was an understatement, but they also knew the terms I agreed too when applying for the program and told to stick it out as May would come soon enough and I could get back to my body. They also told me they’d keep a close eye on Chris in my body to make sure he didn’t do anything I would regret after the swap so that calmed my nerves a bit. Figuring I had nothing better to do, I prepped for my first day on the job tomorrow. What should be an exciting time in my life has now been ruined and all I can do now is finish what I signed up for. God, May can’t come quick enough! 

i can't put my finger on exactly why, but from a lot of the things you've confirmed about them, a1 and a2 remind me very much of some people i went to school with growing up who were raised in extremely restrictive, hyper-religious families that in a couple cases bordered on doomsday cults (to this day i have no idea why those kids' parents had them in public school and not in like, a church basement somewhere)

thats…. probably the vati coming through actually…