Ryan: What’s Your Greatest Strength?

wouldn't that be the ace version, tho?

I love you (no Romo) 3/4 of what I love Suki (yes romo)

NO ROMO BRO

look at these pretty candles i got!!!

they look so pretty!!!

they even smell through the package!

and they smell nice!!!

i love them!!!

How Portland organizers are mass-producing cheap protest shields

Taken from this twitter thread (link is to a mirror on nitter)

Two weeks ago, these shields were getting built by 3 people in a garage. Today, an assembly line of over 25 volunteers (and two dogs 🐶) gathered at Clinton Park in Southeast Portland to help put them together. Using Twitter to coordinate, volunteers gather 3 times a week (location announced the night before) to build these shields. All materials – including duct tape, power tools and pool noodles – are donated (along with everything on this extremely packed snack and supply table).

So how does a protest shield get made? 🤔

Step 1.) Acquire a 55-gallon barrel. (In the beginning, Ghost (@ghostmobpdx) was buying these barrels – which once carried liquids like soy sauce and canola oil – off of Craiglist. Now all of the barrels are donated.)

Step 2.) Remove the barrel lid. Using a circular saw, a volunteer slices the barrel into four sections. You now have five soon-to-be shields! 🛡🛡🛡🛡🛡

Step 3.) Using a hand drill, a different volunteer makes 6 holes in the center of the plastic. (Shield building sessions are BYOPT: Bring Your Own Power Tools.🛠️🧰)

These holes will be used to attach bolts, padding and straps so the shield can be carried like this:

(A plan is in the works to upgrade to drilling 8 holes so the shields can have backpack-style straps. This will help protesters avoid dropping their shields when they have to move fast.)

Step 4.) A volunteer adds the aforementioned bolts. 🔩BOLT FACT🔩 Since starting, Viv (@viv______) estimates they’ve used over 1,200 bolts. That’s a lot of bolts. 😮 (Can you spot the faded NLG number on this volunteer’s arm?)

Step 5: Another volunteer adds foam and straps. The straps are made from strips of sturdy ratchet tie material. Foam also gets added over the bolts on the front of the shield to protect people from hard edges.

Step 6: It is ~noodle time.~ A different group of volunteers slices pool noodles lengthwise and fits them along the rough edges of the shield material. This is to protect the protester and anyone they might bump into.

NOODLE FACT: The volunteers who do this part of the process are called the “noodlers.” (!!!) Here is a noodler in action:

Step 7: Another group of volunteers adds a layer of duct tape around the entire shield (except for the foam/strap section). Each shield needs about 2 rolls of duct tape, and Viv estimates they’ve used 400-500 rolls so far.

After volunteers have attached the pool noodles, bolts, foam, straps and duct tape to the plastic barrel material, you arrive at the final step of shield building…

Step 8: Spray paint and stencil the shield. Ghost spray paints the surface of each shield black. From there, individuals can add their own unique designs. One volunteer brought these handmade stencils that included images of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

As a final touch, this message is spray painted onto the interior of every shield: “THIS SIGN WAS PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE AND IS NOT INDICATION OF ANY GROUP AFFILIATION” (sometimes accompanied by a protective sigil from local witches or a stencil of Portland’s elk statue).

In total, each shield takes about 3 hours to make and requires passing through multiple groups of volunteers before it’s finished. All materials and time to produce them is donated, and the shields are offered free of charge to BIPOC protesters and $10 for everyone else. Ghost, Viv and the volunteers have made about 250 shields so far, and build between 30 and 55 shields per session.

How does it feel to see the shields in action? Ghost: “My heart is so warmed, just every time. I’m so proud. There was one time – God, it was beautiful -  where a tear gas canister full on exploded off the damn thing and the person is still running away. And the shield was fine.“

While y'all are here, have you heard of Portland’s Black Resilience Fund? BRF is a 100% volunteer-led organization providing Black Portlanders with relief from financial burdens for basic living expenses and life emergencies. Here’s a cool story: https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/06/19/28554154/the-portlanders-behind-the-black-resilience-fund-are-young-black-queer-and-hopeful

candles are so funky

like

can you believe someone thought "hey i'll put a string in this hot wax, how bout that?"

and now they're just a regular thing

Zukka au where Zuko works at his uncle’s bakery, The Jasmine Dragon. He helps with everything, but he’s best at cake decorating. 

As the bakery gets popular, Iroh needs more help, so he hires Sokka to do miscellaneous tasks that need done. 

Now, while Zuko may be amazing at cake decorating, he’s also very slow because he has to get everything perfect. This wasn’t a problem before, but now that the bakery is more popular, he’s having a hard time getting all the orders done on time. 

So, Iroh sends Sokka to help speed up Zuko’s cake decorating. 

Turns out, Sokka sucks at cake decorating, but that’s where they need the most help, so Iroh keeps him there, insisting he’ll get better with practice. 

Zuko is irritated to say the least. He works best alone and in silence, and now he has a “helper” who won’t shut up and can’t even pipe a basic flower. He tries to get Iroh to move Sokka somewhere else because he isn’t even helping, but Iroh insists that if Zuko just tried to teach Sokka how to decorate, he’d actually be helpful instead of a burden. 

So, Zuko starts teaching Sokka how to decorate cakes. 

Zuko can’t take time out of his work day to teach Sokka because of all the orders he has to fill, so they start meeting up after work and on their days off. 

At first it’s painful, Zuko is still irritated that Sokka has to help him, but eventually they become friends. Sokka is a fast learner and picks up cake decorating relatively quickly, though he isn’t as precise as Zuko and likes to improvise his decorating, which drives Zuko, who meticulously plans his cakes, crazy. 

Over time, Zuko learns to be less anal about his decorating, and Sokka learns to be more precise and technical. Together, they make a great team, and not just at cake decorating. 

Sokka has had a crush on Zuko since pretty much when he began working at The Jasmine Dragon, and as Zuko got to know Sokka, he developed a crush on him. 

Sokka is hesitant to ask Zuko out because frankly, he doesn’t think the guy likes him; they’re just friends who work really well together. Zuko is afraid to ask Sokka out because even though he thinks Sokka is flirting with him, he’s not sure and doesn’t want to ruin their friendship or their cake decorating team.

Eventually, after seeing them dance around each other for a while, Iroh mentions to Sokka that he’s never seen his nephew work so well with anyone, let alone enjoy it, and that Zuko must really like him. 

Thanks to Iroh’s meddling, Sokka finally decides to ask Zuko out. 

He decorates a cake for Zuko, complete with his favorite flowers and designs (which Sokka knows because Zuko always gets a small, almost imperceptible smile on his face whenever he gets to pipe them). 

When he gives the cake to Zuko after their shift one day, Zuko is speechless. It’s the best cake Sokka has ever decorated, and it has all of his favorite design elements. Zuko obviously agrees to go out with him, and they start dating.

When Iroh eventually retires, Zuko and Sokka take over the bakery. Customers love hearing Zuko or Sokka (usually Sokka) tell the story of how, even though he didn’t know it at the time, it was in this very bakery that he met his future husband.

I miss the god complex english class gave me

when i first learned of the term "afab" i thought it meant "all females are bastards" and DIDN'T EVEN QUESTION IT

i'm literally begging you to help us defend our freedom of speech. we have eight days.

please reblog this post, especially if you live outside of the philippines. please help us.

i didn't make the carrd, but it's one of the most useful links right now. #JunkTerrorBillNow needs the most urgency, but there are other issues present too.

i'm begging you all to reblog.