I just brought my car in for repairs bc it had been sitting for a year, due to the fact that I couldn’t register and insure it after having several health problems in a row and living paycheck to paycheck.
It’s not good news.
The entire bottom is rusted, and they cannot replace just the brakes, they have to replace EVERYTHING. To do the extensive repairs needed to get the car perfect, I’m looking at $6-8k. To just get the axles, brakes, and rotors done, and worry about the rest later, it’s still gonna be at least $2500. I have 1500 to my name rn but my insurance bill is set to come out of my account by Wednesday.
This is really hard to process. I need my car. I need a car that will last me longer than a year and a half. I have had several cars in my life, all of them used or hand me downs from generous relatives (car values being under 1K, nothing fancy I promise). I am not ready to give up this car, that I have only really had for three days. I can’t. I need to get the money to repair it. I’m gonna be saving up as much as I can for the next couple months so I can bring it back in maybe by the end of august, so I can at the very least start the repairs before winter really hits.
Gods I just… I just don’t know what to do. This was supposed to be my turnaround point. This was gonna be me getting my freedom and autonomy back, and I was going to plan a road trip to see my best friend after over a year of being away from her. And now, that’s all gone. I have nothing to look forward to.
Right now it just needs to drive me five miles a day. Two miles to work, two and a half miles home (one way roads are fun). It cannot break down in any other meaningful way.
I don’t even have enough space or craft supplies down here to make stuff to sell. I’m obviously going to do my best with what I’ve got, but it never feels like enough.
Right now, you have to be a team player. You cannot complain about AI being used to fuck over your industry and then turn around and use it on somebody else’s industry.
No AI book covers. No making funny little videos using deepfakes to make an actor say stuff they never did. No AI translation of your book. No AI audiobooks. No AI generated moodboards or fancasts or any of that shit. No feeding someone else’s unfinished work into Chat GPT “because you just want to know how it ends*” (what the fuck is wrong with you?). No playing around with AI generated 3D assets you can’t ascertain the origin of. None of it. And stop using AI filters on your selfies or ESPECIALLY using AI on somebody else’s photo or artwork.
We are at a crossroad and at a time of historically shitty conditions for working artists across ALL creative fields, and we gotta stick together. And you know what? Not only is standing up for other artists against exploitation and theft the morally correct thing to do, it’s also the professionally smartest thing to do, too. Because the corporations will fuck you over too, and then they do it’s your peers that will hold you up. And we have a long memory.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking “your peers” are only the people in your own industry. Writers can’t succeed without artists, editors, translators, etc making their books a reality. Illustrators depend on writers and editors for work. Video creators co-exist with voice actors and animators and people who do 3D rendering etc. If you piss off everyone else but the ones who do the exact same job you do, congratulations! You’ve just sunk your career.
Always remember: the artists who succeed in this career path, the ones who get hired or are sought after for commissions or collaboration, they aren’t the super talented “fuck you I got mine” types. They’re the one who show up to do the work and are easy to get along with.
And they especially are not scabs.
*that’s not even how it ends that’s a statistically likely and creatively boring way for it to end. Why would you even want to read that.
Tidying up my nightstand shouldn’t be “overdoing it”. Doing chores all day should be “overdoing it”. Running errands three towns over should be “overdoing it”. Not standing up for ten minutes to throw away some old receipts and bring a couple water bottles out to the kitchen. And I need to try and get her up spoons for work tomorrow
My dad regularly sings to my mom about how much he loves her while standing exactly in the way of whatever she’s trying to do
My parents didn’t marry until I was 4 and they regularly forget that they’re spouses. They generally refer to themselves as partners
My mom proposed to my dad by yelling at him from a room away that her taxes were fucked and they had to get married to which my father replied “this is how I always dreamed you’d ask me!” and pretending to swoon
My dad appears as an actor in the movie Swoon, supposedly an important piece of queer cinema
My parents were both punks in their youth
When I came home for thanksgiving with a mohawk, unannounced, my mom started crying because I looked “so handsome” and “just like your dad” and kept petting my head
My dad only says “that’s my boy” to me when I say something gay about men
My mom and dad have the same taste in women but opposite taste in men
One time we were watching a movie set in Chicago and my mom turned to my dad, and in the most sentimental mom voice, said “Chicago honey! We haven’t been there since the anarchist convention!”
My dad worked on California’s weed legalization bill
Just because you technically can do something doesn’t mean you have to.
One example of what I mean by this is maybe you technically can walk without a mobility aid. But you shouldn’t and don’t have to. Being in pain or just overall struggling is a really valid reason to use a mobility aid or accommodation.
Just because you can “suck it up” doesn’t mean you should have to.
It’s okay to get help, use an aid or accommodation. Stop asking yourself “do I really need this thing?” And start asking yourself “will using this thing make it at all easier for me?”
Please spread this shit like wildfire. People go on and sit through the whole experience and they’re uncomfortable because they just want to please their partner and they don’t tell them that they want to stop because they are not ready. It’s okay not to be ready.
notice here that consent is revoked without ever saying no and consent goes so far beyond yes/no!!!!!!
