The cool thing about science is that it’s true, whether or not you believe in it.
In 2013, Barack Obama gave this epic diss to climate change deniers:
via Quotable Liberals
:s
Meanwhile, between 2012-14, Donald Trump said:
It appears that yet again, climate change deniers are attempting to mislead the public in order to lift or remove environmental restrictions on businesses, but the mega rich do not face the same terrors as the rest of us.
Via GG
So, in order to equip you guys to battle against climate change deniers, here is Hasan Piker of The Young Turks providing you with some killer arguments.
And to any climate change deniers itching to comment below, I’d like to see your Ph.D.
Via MemeGenerator
And also, what is this?
Film Night Friday # 1: Ted (15)
Welcome to the brand new section of this blog; Film Night Friday.
On the third Friday of every month; i.e. the one before payday, I’ll be sharing some of my favourite movies with you.
Most of them are available on your choice of streaming service, so grab some popcorn and your favourite people; it’s time for Film Night Friday.
Speaking Out About Anxiety
I’ve said before one this blog and I’ll no doubt say again, that one of the most important things we can do is speak up about mental health and illness. It normalises the issue and means that more people will feel comfortable about seeking help.
It not only destigmatizes mental illness, it also deromanticises it.
Certain media, particularly media marketed towards teenagers, contributes to the romanticisation of mental illness, which leads to the idea that mental illness is something that we can choose or something that we need in order to embrace our creativity.
It’s not.
Yes, there are creative legends who have suffered from mental illness but correlation does not equal causation.
- Audrey Hepburn
- Barbra Streisand
- Billy Joel
- Bruce Springsteen
- Cara Delevingne
- Christina Ricci
- Demi Lovato
- Dougie Poynter
- Drew Barrymore
- Ellen DeGeneres
- Elton John
- Emma Thompson
- Heath Ledger
- J. K. Rowling
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt
- Kerry Washington
- Kristen Bell
- Pete Wentz
- Robin Williams
- Stephen Fry
- Tom Fletcher
- Trevor Noah
- Walt Disney
These people, and so many others, do not owe their creativity to their struggles with mental illness. They are creative in spite of their mental illness, not because of it.
And these are lies:
The Ten Money Saving Commandments
1. Time Versus Money
Nearly every spending situation is a matter of time versus money. Do you get the bus to town or do you walk? Do you sew up the tear in your dress or buy a new one? I try to avoid paying for things that I don’t really need so I repair rather than buy. I am however, a little stretched on time so I can’t walk the hour to our shopping centre.
2. Don’t Throw Anything Away
Well up to a point; if you don’t have a project lined up for those empty cardboard tubes, recycle them or your roommate will. For instance, the ideas for this website were first written in an old college notepad only a few pages down from a list entitled “Things to do before Uni”.
3. Think Free
A lot of people spend money because they think they have to. However, a lot of things can be gotten for free on websites like Freecycle or from friends who don’t need the item anymore. For instance, my friend recently moved into a shared house. I’ve let her borrow my toaster, kettle etc. because I don’t need them while I’m at home.
4. Get Creative
Everyone goes a little present crazy around the holidays; I know I personally spend about £10 per person and in December it all adds up on my credit card. However, something that a friend did last year and I plan to do this year is make presents. Last year I got a hand-knitted scarf and a hand-sewn heart decoration. These kitsch presents could easily have been sold in a store for probably more than ten times the price they cost to make. The fact that they were homemade also made them more special.
5. Use Discounts
Too many people pay full-price for items when there are plenty of deals available to cut the price. Websites like myvouchercodes often have discount codes that you can use in shops, online, in restaurants and for takeaways. You can even add an extension onto your web browser to automatically source dicount codes.
6. Sell, Sell, Sell
Everyone has a certain amount of stuff at home that they don’t want and the saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” exists for a reason. There are lots of places to sell; jumble sales, car boot sales and my personal favourite, eBay on their free weekends.
7. Charity Begins At Home
Some people continue to dismiss charity shops as being full of outdated clothes, half completed puzzle books, and broken toys. This is simply not true. They can be great for work attire (shirts, suits, smart dresses), fancy dress parties (especially 1980s) and books. The majority of my book collection is from charity shops.
8. Shop Around
I wanted to buy McFly’s autobiography. It was listed on the publisher’s website for £18.99 which is expensive even for something I want as much as that. After a quick search or different bookshops and supermarkets (Waterstones, WHSmiths, Tesco etc), I found it for £9 (less than half price!) on Asda.com including free delivery. It took less than 10 minutes and saved me nearly 10 pounds. That’s why you should never take the first price you get.
9. Borrow, Don’t Buy
The things I most like to buy; DVDs and books are very expensive to buy new (especially if you like blu-ray or hardback editions). The problem is that most books I only read once, most films I only watch once so why would I buy them? I borrow books from the local library for free. I currently have out five books, four of which are hardbacks and have not yet been released in paperback in the UK. My friends and I share out our DVD collection so it costs about a quarter of the price.
10. Have a Fuck-Off Fund
We never know when things could go wrong and at that point, you don’t want to be going to a payday loan company. The idea is that if you start saving whatever you can each month and put it into a high-interest account then you’ll soon have a tidy sum to pay for a failed MOT, a broken phone or new glasses; someday you’ll even have enough of a safety net put aside to do almost anything like…
My Anniversary
Today is my freelancing anniversary and in the past 12 months, I’ve accomplished a hell of a lot. This isn’t even a humble brag because I’m damn proud of my achievements and I worked hard for every single one of them.
I was scared shitless about becoming self-employed and the substantive dip in income that I was anticipating (and ugh, going back to the job centre).
I started, basically from scratch, in February (kinda before I’d quit my previous job), had a lot of legal hassle in March (quick, rush through the flat purchase before they realise that you’re going self-employed) and was on holiday for all of April. The nearest I came to the jobcentre was going in the shop next door.
I’ll be honest, I was so desperate to trade in the 9-5, that I blagged my way through most of it.
“Writing Samples? Here’s a scan of an article that was published in the paper in 2012 and I might have cropped the date out of the image.”
“Of course, I can do technical writing…Or I can damn well try.”
“Hmm, my CV doesn’t show any journalism or marketing experience since 2013… Oh wait, the company I worked for then, emailed me about coming on board again just as I restart my writing career. Oh, LinkedIn is so difficult… Guess, I’ll just change the dates to 2013-Present.”
In all honesty, in every aspect but my writing career, 2016 has been one long slap in the face. Politics = shit. News = shit. Family Deaths = shit.
I am forever grateful that I get to do what I am good at and passionate about for a living, but there are many people that I owe my success too.
My fellow freelancers, Vikki and Ieva for helping me to navigate the confusing world of freelance writing, communicating job opportunities and proofreading submissions.
My friends, Erin, Mel, Sara, Rich and Kayla who offered moral support during dark periods of the past year, following family deaths (and many, many family hospitalisations).
My parents for loaning me money to pay for flat repairs and for never once telling me that I should be putting financial security above my mental health. They both know what it’s like have worked too hard for too long and the damage that can do to you.
Thank you for telling me that it was more than okay to follow my dreams, to work for a cause I believed in and to hand in my notice at a stable job when I wanted to tell a bitchy manager to go fuck herself.
More than anything, I learnt who was willing to stand by me when the chips were hella down and I was at my worst. To those people, I owe my (relative) sanity, my career and my life.
And to all those who tried their best to break me, my sincerest apologies that your lives are so empty.
How to fight back against Trump
Here’s a post I hoped that I wouldn’t have to write.
Sigh! What happened?
Change your spending habits
Donate to organisations that will be affected by the Trump administration, like The Trevor Project, Planned Parenthood and Earth Justice.
The Trump Administration will not champion women’s rights, LGBT rights, Black Lives Matter, non-Christian religious freedoms. We have to.
Here’s a list of pro-women, pro-immigrant, pro-POC, pro-Earth groups that need your help.
Not sure where you’ll get the money? Boycott Pro-Trump businesses: Here’s a helpful list
Hold Trump to his good promises
-Job Creation
-Get rid of the TPP
-Drain the Swamp
-Rebuild Infrastructure
-Save Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security
-Never be in a bicycle race (yeah, no one wants to see you in Lycra!)
Criticise his shitty policies (…most of them)
-Merry Christmas (Fuck you, Trump! I’m gonna wish everyone I know Happy Holidays and Kwanza and Hannakuh, even if I never get another Christmas present ever again
-Defund Planned Parenthood
-Ban on Muslims entering the US
-Muslim Registry
-Kick out refugees
-Jail Hillary; just try Donnie
-Be Unpredictable (do you mean unstable Don?)
Support those close to you
There are women, LGBT people, POC, immigrants, young people who you know, who are scared, terrified, petrified right now.
Scared because their country just told them, that they don’t matter. This election makes any marginalised person feel like nearly half the country said they wanted a bigot in charge.
They need support so check in with them, be strong for them, be there for them.
If you are scared, I’m sorry. I want to help. What help do you need?
Call out hate speech and acts!
Vote
The Midterms are in 2018 (that’s next year). If you can fill the Senate with people who support LGBT rights, believe in science and will work to support ALL Americans, you can help America.
On White Privilege and my experience with the Police
In 2013, I was on my way back from a festival with a couple of friends; we didn’t have much money so we decided to walk to the station rather than take a cab. As none of us could get the GPS working on our phones we followed the directions of a festival employee.
We were walking on the sidewalk next to a normal road for a little while but the road gave way into a motorway and the sidewalk gave way into a grass verge. Then the police pulled up.
You won’t be surprised to learn that walking alongside a motorway is illegal (and for good reason). They asked us what we were thinking and told us that we were could be arrested and fined.
The police knew there was no way they could just leave us there and told us to get in the car. They dropped us at the station (train, not police) and told us not to do anything stupid like that ever again.
My experience with the police has never been anything but positive, even when I’ve been doing something wrong, but I have to consider that my experience with them could be very different if I wasn’t white.
#BlackLivesMatter
Books I read in 2016
- I’ll Give You the Sun
- Reasons to Stay Alive
- 50 Ways to Fight the Right
- The Alchemist
- Dream House
- Yes, Please!
My favourite was… I’ll Give You The Sun.
The tragic story of twins coping with love, loss, and adolescence. After their mom’s death, Jude isolates herself while Noah throws himself into the teen life.
Due to their dad’s inability to deal with the loss of his wife, both Noah and Jude are struggling.
Their friendship groups and relationships intertwine until you think the knot can never be untied.
It’s heart-breaking and heart-warming; well worth a read.
What books have you read this year? What was your favourite?
16 things in 2016 that made me laugh
- This bacon flavoured popcorn: suitable for veggies
did not taste good
- This advice for not drugging your kids
do people need to be told this?
- This seemingly perfect match on Match.com
how will that work?
- The Ghostbusters movie
leslie, melissa, kate and kristen
- This roadsign
there’s no gunstore here
- This air freshener
smells lovely?
7. This news article
i am a bad person
8. This salon
there is no way shemar moore gets his hair cut in portsmouth
9. This apt display from The Works
you know me so well
10. This newsletter admission that they have non- humans working for them
then what will?
11. The youtuber who thinks Bordertown is good for kids
aww, c’mon man
12. this valentine’s day card
13. This reverse image search of a photo of myself
glasses!
14. This related item search on eBay for a Harry Potter scarf
what?
15. This job advert
![].PNG](https://mainstreamqueen.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/unnamed-file.png?w=620)
eventually you will become an expert in cannibis
16. These stock images matches on Match.com
