soulsistrin

I should be restocking my earring supplies today… I’m almost out of earrings.

Meh. I don’t feel like making any damn jewelry today. I think I’m gonna paint.

Stueps now I feel guilty. I guess I’m gonna make earrings. 

I peer pressured my damn self.

what the everloving fuck tumblr?

like I’m in the middle of writing a post and the page just up and reloads

rude

tyleroakley:

bicatperson:

Yeah, okay, I’m gonna do one more of these.

Because it’s an ugly sexist myth that Hillary Clinton has never gotten anything done, and Donald keeps saying it anyway, because he knows his supporters will never bother to look it up. (Also to distract from his own record of bankruptcies and lawsuits and not getting an Emmy.)

And even on the left, you get people saying “how can we trust Clinton, even if her positions sound good, how can we know if she’ll follow through?”

Gee, I dunno, maybe we can look at her forty-year track record and extrapolate from there.

(Buckle up, this one’s gonna get long.)

In fact, let’s go back farther, let’s look at Hillary Rodham the Wellesley undergrad, 1965-1969:

• This kid pushed for everything from “increasing the number of black students and faculty members” to “a better system for returning library books
• Seriously, Hillary did more to advance racial justice while she was in college than Trump has done in his entire life
• …and
  one friend remembers her as the only white person who called with
  sympathy when MLK was shot

And then let’s talk about Hillary the law student, lawyer, and professor, with some First Lady of Arkansas thrown in:

• 1972: went undercover to expose secret illegal segregation in Arkansas private schools
• 1973: went door-to-door for the Children’s Defense Fund, looking for people whose kids weren’t getting to school, and asking why
• Turns out the reason was usually “the school can’t handle my kid’s disability”
• In fact,
  pre-1975: “U.S. public schools accommodated only 1 out of 5 children with
  disabilities. Until that time, many states had laws that explicitly excluded children
  with certain types of disabilities from attending public school.”
• HRC researched and helped prepare the CDF report that was a major catalyst for the US finally making that illegal
• 1975: you may have heard that this was the year when Hillary was the (court-appointed) defense attorney for a rapist (who pled guilty)
• but you probably haven’t heard what she did next:
• She founded the first rape-crisis counseling hotline in Arkansas
• And this was not a symbolic gesture
• This was not something she halfassed for the sake of looking good
• Hillary made herself a nationally-renowned expert in the field
• Listen: “In 1975, I helped start the first rape crisis center in Atlanta.

  I was
  trying to navigate the legal issues related to child assault victims,
  but the law was so new, I was lost, so I asked for help. Everywhere I
  called, the experts would say, ‘Do you know Hillary Rodham? She’s who
  you need to talk to.‘”

• 1977: co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a nonprofit that’s still going strong
• And worked for the Legal Services Corporation – a government service that makes sure low-income people can get attorneys – under Jimmy Carter
• Note that conservatives hate the LSC, in part because it was openly serving gay clients in the ‘70s
• Seriously, open this Heritage Foundation screed and skip to the bit about “homosexual activists”
• (or just read the whole thing, it’s great)
• With HRC’s chairmanship, that agency tripled its budget

• 1979: chair of a committee that expanded healthcare access into rural Arkansas! and helped establish the state’s first neonatal nursery! and a program to help parents of preschool-age at-risk children!

Let’s talk about First Lady Clinton, 1993-2001:

• 1994: (movie trailer voice) In A World where gay sex was literally illegal … where gay people were thrown out of the military, to laughter and applause on the Senate floor … One Political Couple had a politically radioactive idea: what if we stopped doing that?
• 1995: Hillary fought for mental health care for Gulf War veterans, back when the Defense Department hadn’t even worked out that Gulf War PTSD and chemical-warfare-related health issues were a thing
• 1997: long before Obamacare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program
• More than 8 million children got health insurance
• HRC wasn’t even in Congress yet, and her efforts were pivotal in getting the law passed – and then translating it into action
• Same with the Adoption and Safe Families Act, “the most significant change in federal child-protection policy in almost two decades”
• Note: “it expands both adoptions and federal assistance in general to a wider
  population of Americans — single adults, including lesbians and gay
  men, even single elderly people — people usually left out of family
  focused agenda”
• 1999: Followed that up with the Foster Care Independence Act, making sure kids who have aged out of the foster care system could get things like healthcare, housing assistance, and counseling

HRC followed that by immediately getting elected Senator from New York, and then re-elected by an even wider margin, so she served from 2001-2009.

I’m just gonna focus on the 77 bills Senator Clinton sponsored or cosponsored that that became law (although she introduced more than 2000, so imagine what could’ve happened with a Democratic majority):

• Of the 70 GOP senators she worked alongside, a whopping 56 of them co-sponsored at least one bill with her.
• That’s 80%
• That’s the “4 out of 5 dentists recommend…!” tier of approval
• (and STILL you get people trying to spin that as proof that she’s not bipartisan!)
• 2001: Clinton was “instrumental” in getting federal aid for NYC after 9/11
• Then in getting medical treatment for first responders
• And it’s not just the people close to home she works for: check out the
  Afghan Women and Children Relief Act, to “provide urgent funds for immunisation, basic education and other
  assistance to vulnerable women and children, including refugees.”
• You like research and care for leukemia and other blood cancers, right? So does HRC
• You like research and care for breast/cervical cancer, right? And you think Native American women should be covered by the treatment options? So does HRC
• 2002: Requiring pharmaceutical companies to do specific research on the effects their drugs have on children, and label accordingly
• Pediatricians talk about how this has led to real, substantial improvements in their ability to treat kids
• 2003:
  You like research and care for West Nile and other mosquito-borne viruses, right? So does HRC
• Congress’ very first nanotech bill, authorizing R&D funds
• 2004:
  Creating a State Department envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism
• Try to look this one up and most of what you’ll get is furious articles from Stormfront
• 2006:
  You like research and care for babies born prematurely, right? So does HRC – and the March of Dimes loves it
• Protecting people in the armed forces from predatory insurance schemes
• Improving our preparedness for public health emergencies, including
  funding for NHS workers, more consideration for at-risk individuals, and uniform coordination of electronic response systems across
  states
• Look, I’m not saying there will be a zombie apocalypse
• I’m just saying, HRC has taken into account the needs of children, people with disabilities, and people with limited English if there’s a zombie apocalypse
• 2008: You
  like

  research and care for traumatic brain injuries, right? So does HRC

• You
  like early screening and care for congenital disorders that show up in newborns, right? So does HRC
• There’s a whole package of amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act to make it apply more broadly, which, again, just go read the whole thing, it’s worth it
• You
  like

  research and treatment for ALS, right? “A nationwide registry will help us learn what causes ALS, how it can be
  effectively diagnosed and treated, and ultimately how it can be cured.
  This is a tremendous victory.”

• btw, this was 6 years before the Ice Bucket Challenge
• Hillary Clinton: Cares About Stuff Before It Goes Viral
• Mapping broadband access across the US, particularly in rural and native
  communities, so we can compare our progress to other countries and
  identify barriers for getting high-speed internet access everywhere
• Hey, Tumblr, you care about keeping sexual predators from targeting children online, right? Here’s a bill with a ton of provisions going at that
• 2009: the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which is still having real-world effects as it lets women and minorities sue for equal paychecks

At this point she was also running for President, but in swept Barack Obama and charmed the hearts of America, so Clinton ended up serving as his Secretary of State from 2009-2013.

There’s no Big Flashy Showpiece you can point to from Secretary Clinton’s tenure. A lot of her diplomatic work was straight-up post-Bush-administration repair work and maintenance. A lot of it was, frankly, unsexy. No one writes breathless headlines about statistically-supported initiatives to distribute lifesaving low-pollution stoves.

Also, she didn’t singlehandedly bring peace to the Middle East. So, y’know, missed opportunity there.

But she was obviously doing something right, because Hillary Clinton had a 69% approval rating when she left the State Department in 2013.

A quick roundup of some things Secretary Clinton pulled off just fine:

• Visited more countries than any Secretary of State in US history
• Seriously, she spent the equivalent of 87 full days on airplanes
• Do not talk to Clinton about stamina
• 2009: Policy nerd Hillary gave the State Department internal reviews and long-term planning on a level they had literally never done before
• (I told you some of this was unsexy)
• 2010:
  Did you know we had a 25-year loss of military defense ties with New Zealand? Yeah, HRC fixed that
• “Clinton enacted a new rule making it easier for transgender
  people to register their identities on their passports. […] At the time, this was the most pro-transgender action by
  the federal government ever, and—coming a full six years before the
  Pentagon announced transgender troops could serve openly—it stands as
  one of the most progressive things Clinton has ever done.”
• 2011: pledging disaster relief for Japan after the earthquake and tsunami
• Oh, and the team behind the takedown of bin Laden
• When surveyed a few months after that, a third of Americans believed Clinton would’ve been a better president than Obama

• 2012: Negotiated an unexpected ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas
• and hey, you want to talk about business experience?
• Clinton’s State Department helped clinch a bunch of business contracts between US companies with foreign governments
• Notables: Boeing and Russia
  in 2009, Lockheed Martin and Japan in 2011, Space Systems/Loral and
  Australia in 2012
• ”…the State Department’s 2012 fiscal-year request includes $1.2 billion
  in programs specifically targeting women, $832 million of which will go
  toward global health initiatives. Tellingly, comparisons with past years
  can’t be made, since the department only started tracking women-focused
  dollars in 2010.“

People keep talking about how Clinton is, historically, one of the most unpopular presidential candidates. Those people usually don’t mention how, three years ago, she was the most popular politician in the United States.

And, look: no one is saying she’s only done good things. You can’t work this long in politics and expect to make only the right choices – follow only the strongest intelligence – back only the best policies. Reasonable people can find plenty to disagree with in her record. Plenty to criticize.

But when people try to claim she’s done nothing?

Or that she doesn’t have any consistent beliefs or principles – that her record doesn’t have constant themes that she’s been reliably standing for since the 1970s?

Hillary Clinton has made real, substantial progress for women’s rights.

Real, substantial progress for people with disabilities.

Real, substantial progress for the rights and protections of children.

Anyone tries to tell you otherwise, you laugh in their faces and start listing things. I bet you anything they run out of patience before you run out of list.

less than two days. let’s spread this like wildfire.

also, if you’re unsure of how/where to vote, text “PLAN’ to 47246

wetcasements:

Barbara Kingsolver on Hillary and Trump:

“I’m horrified to watch the bizarre pageant of my nation pretending these two contenders are equivalent. No one really imagines Donald Trump applying himself to the disciplines of the presidency, staying up late reading reams of legislation, instead of firing off juvenile tweets. It’s even harder to imagine Clinton indulging in the boorish self-aggrandisement, intellectual laziness, racism and vulgar contempt for the opposite gender that characterise her opponent. If anyone still doubts that the inexperienced man gets promoted ahead of the qualified woman, you can wake up now.

This race is close. Polls tell us most Americans believe Trump has sexually assaulted women (to name just one potential disqualifier). A majority also believe Clinton ‘can’t be trusted’, for unspecified reasons. We’re back to the ancient conundrum: a woman can’t be that smart and commanding, so either her womanliness or her smartness must be counterfeit. To set that hazy discomfort next to a sexual assaulter and call these defects ‘equivalent’ is causing my ears to ring as I write.”

everydayjewels:

brutereason:

I wonder from where so many Americans get the idea that voting is supposed to be some expression of your deepest, most beloved values and virtues rather than a pragmatic, political move meant to shift your country as much closer to your ideal as possible. This strikes me as another example of extreme individualism. Voting isn’t about *you*. It’s about your city, state, and/or country. It doesn’t have to feel transcendently good deep down in your bones. It just has to *do* as much good as you can do, in this particular moment in time.

Yes. Honestly, I think this may be a “cultural” difference between the US and Canada.

I have voted for a variety of different parties (although not usually the most conservative option), depending on the various issues at play and a myriad of other factors that existed at the time I voted.

Politicians are civil servants. They work for me (and the citizenry in general). They are in office to do a job and I vote for whoever I think will do the best job (not a perfect job) for whatever needs to be done at that time.

It is very pragmatic. Or should be, IMO.

Same here. I switch according to who I think will do the best job of running the country. Our politicians don’t run on values, they run on issues. I find voting based on values to be a luxury I can’t afford.

I think about 99% of my drafts is just recipes

I slept all afternoon and now I’m wide awake.

What’s the Tumblr Night Owl Crew up to?

Considering how exhausted I was yesterday I slept like crap last night. I woke up at least four times.

Yesterday after the market I took Chris out for dinner. I usually buy meals on the days we do a market but this time I took him to a fancy Italian restaurant because for the first time in ages I could actually afford to pay for it it felt great.

We went to the market market this morning to buy fruits and vegetables (and fish). I love going to the market here. The prices are great and the place has so much character.

I have new stock coming in this week. I have about three or four more markets before I leave on vacation. I know they won’t be as profitable as yesterday’s (that was apparently the daddy of all markets in Trinidad) but they will each bet me enough money for me to take care of my shit financially and then some. That’s some huge stress off my back. Thank you person who cancelled their table so I could get it yesterday. You changed everything.

theironjackflint:

nobelshieldmaiden:

djrichiecee:

totalharmonycycle:

Why 4 FEET 8.5 Inches is Very Important

Fascinating Stuff …

Railroad Tracks
The U.S. Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches.

That’s an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used?

Because that’s the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed the U.S. Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?

Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used.

Why did ‘they’ use that gauge then?

Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular Odd wheel spacing?

Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So, who built those old rutted roads?

Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear
of destroying their wagon wheels.

Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

In other words, bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification, procedure, or process, and wonder, ‘What horse’s ass came up with this?’,
you may be exactly right.

Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses.

Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you will notice that there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.

The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah.

The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit larger,
but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains
and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.

The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know,
is about as wide as two horses’ behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature
of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass.

And you thought being a horse’s ass wasn’t important!

Now you know, Horses’ Asses control almost everything.

Explains a whole lot of stuff, doesn’t it?

This is the single most mind blowing fact I’ve read on tumblr, every day is a school day-thank you.

Nice history lesson!

My daughter and I were just discussing this very subject.

We have fifteen minutes before the market closes. I am so tired y’all. And hungry. But so tired.

I cannot believe the sales I’m making at this market. I made back my table in more or less the first ten minutes and it was twice the cost as my normal market. I can pretty much pay off my credit card balance after today. And it’s only been three hours. I’m exhausted. And rich.

I changed my avi.. alert the media

I’m really in the mood for chocolate milk for some reason.

I’m going to go check out the location of my next market tomorrow. It’s new and I’ve never been. Then I’m gonna go buy some sushi and get some of that chocolate milk and come home and watch movies until.

Common is so cute man

Someone I’m friends with on facebook (but don’t know in person… I can’t remember our association right now) just posted that she’s going to sit out the elections and not vote.

It just got me so pissed. When so many people even today face all kinds of obstacles to voting, when so many people in the Black community cannot vote because of targeted incarceration, when the outcome of this election will affect so many minorities, the LGBTQ community, the disabled, people of colour, women… you, a white woman, decide to abstain from voting? That’s rich.

Every time some big sports event happens, I kind of lament that I don’t follow sports, don’t have a team. I love the camaraderie of being a supporter, the passion, the rivalry, the being part of something greater than yourself. But I also find it to be a time consuming activity and quite frankly it would be perplexing to know where to start. For me it would have to be football (soccer for you heathens,) but first I’d have to pick a team (can’t they just assign me one?) and follow the games and know about the players and learn how to shit talk to people on other teams. That sounds like picking up an entire new hobby from scratch though. Right now I’m really trying to get my watercolour painting technique down. Maybe once I perfect that I’ll have time to focus on football. Perhaps by the time the next World Cup rolls around I’ll have it down pat. I guess until then I’ll just be a fan of being a fan.

athenadark:

strikeblr:

wrath-the-furious:

girllookitthatbody-ahh:

landmerbabe:

appropriately-inappropriate:

project-radfem:

bluestockingt:

naamahdarling:

skyfiery:

floranna2:

appropriately-inappropriate:

antilla-dean:

I spend a fair amount of time teaching women to kick men in the balls, and I’ve learned that this activity tends to generate controversy. Here, according to actual adults who have actually said these things to me, are some reasons you should not kick a guy in the balls:

1. It will make him angry.

I should hope so. I’m not sending him a friend request. If I kick him hard enough, there’s a good chance I’ll render him unable to act upon his anger. That’s my goal. His feelings are his problem.

2. It will make him hurt you worse.

Statistics say otherwise. And anyway, he’s already demonstrated his desire to hurt me. Why should I give him carte blanche to decide how much he’s going to hurt me? I’d rather be an active participant in that decision-making process.

3. Groin kicks aren’t really that devastating; I’ve seen lots of guys get hit in the balls and it hardly fazed them.

This response (almost universally from men) is so common I’ve come to think of it as “groinsplaining”—you can see it many of the YouTube comments in the videos linked above. These people rarely volunteer to demonstrate their own iron balls in a real kicking situation, but they confidently assert that men in general can shrug off all kinds of damage to the groin. All I can say is, I’ve seen two-year-olds take down grown men via the groin, and toddlers don’t even have any training. I do. I like my odds.

4. We shouldn’t be teaching people how to kick men in the balls; we should be teaching men not to do anything that would make us have to kick them in the balls.

Hey, that’s a great idea! Do you have a detailed, research-based plan for teaching all men everywhere to behave themselves all the time? And do you have funding for your efforts, and buy-in from politicians and community leaders, and a network of trained, experienced instructors who can effect this change? If not, better get started on your grant proposal. In the meantime, I’ll just be over here teaching people how to kick guys in the balls. That’s what I do.

5. Telling people they should kick an assailant in the balls is the same as telling victims who didn’t kick their assailant in the balls that they did something wrong.

No, it isn’t. It’s a practical way to reduce the number of future victims by giving them more viable options to disrupt and survive an assault.

Fact: We have the power to damage the bodies of men who try to hurt us. You’re saying we shouldn’t let people use that power. I’m offering people more choices; you’re trying to take them away.

6. Kicking a guy in the balls just makes the world a more violent place.

Maybe, in the short term. But if it stops him from killing someone, or putting them in the hospital, isn’t that a net win for non-violence? The Dalai Lama thinks so.

One in four women will have good reason to kick a guy in the balls at some point in her life. Luckily, it’s not rocket science. Anyone can do it! And ball-kicking’s efficacy is beyond dispute, as the men of MMA so nobly helped us illustrate here. Gentlemen, if any of you are reading this, and conscious: Cheers, and get well soon (the non-wife-beaters among you, anyway).

AIA REPORTING FOR DUTY

okay, so!

There is a trick to it. You do NOT want to soccer kick the dude because that’s a little projectile aiming at a littler target.

It’ll do in a pinch, and it’ll hurt, but it won’t incapacitate, which is what you want. You don’t want “ouch!” Or even “FUCK!”

You want him puking on the floor, and this is how we do:

There’s two ranges where a groin kick works: close and mid-range.

Say someone grabs you face to face, or pins you to the wall, and your hands are blocked.
Now you’re close-range. What do you do?
You come in closer, as close as you can, and with every ounce of adrenaline and aggression in your body, you do a can-can kick.

You know the first step in the can-can, where you raise your knee up as high as it’ll go as strong as you can?

Do that, as hard as you can, repeatedly.

If that doesn’t work, here’s the alternative. You’re going to take your hand, grasp between the thighs underhand. Its going to feel like you’re “cradling” the testicles. Dig your fingertips into the fragile skin BEHIND the scrotum. Then, once you have a good grip, you turn your hand into a vise, with your fingers digging inwards to the material. If you do it right, you should feel the testes INSIDE the scrotum. You want, whenever possible, to hook your fingers under them.

Then, with your hands in a claw and your fingertips latched behind the testes, you turn your hand sharply, as though you were turning a doorknob. Simultaneously, haul your elbow back and up as hard as you can.

If done properly, this technique can tear the scrotal tissue, and done with enough force, can tear the testes out of your attacker’s body.

No matter HOW pissed he is, he’s gonna drop. I’ve tried this technique on guys wearing cups and even with protection, it is not a fun feeling.

If you’re mid-range and have enough room for a kick, the goal becomes to use your shin.
The shin is actually called the tibia, which ounce for ounce is one of the strongest bones in your body. So, here’s what you do, my little bloodthirsty beaus:

You aim, you scream “DO NOT COME CLOSER I SAID NO!” (legal purposes, because now you’re officially exercising your right to self-defence). Maintain a 360 degree awareness, just in case he has friends, and then, when he’s close enough, connect your shin full on soccer kick with the delicate squish of his testicles.

What you want is as much upwards force as possible in combination with as much momentum as you can manage. When he collapses, which he will, then stomp on his groin again, and then run.

The latter has less of a trick to it. It’s primarily about momentum and force.

Remember, if you’re close enough to put your hands on him, use your knee. If he’s coming at you, use your shin.

If you can smell the nachos he had for dinner, rip his fucking balls off.

It’s easy to do, they’re tiny little squishiness wrapped in a delicate flap of skin about as thin as a toenail.

Remember: if he’s coming at you, he’s ALREADY out to hurt you. Might as well give the fucker a reason to be pissed.

How to Kick a Guy in the Balls: An Illustrated Guide

Someone once told me that the way to train a proper knee in the groin (with appropriate aggression if you want to hurt him enough to let you go is to train and act as if you’re not aiming your knee at the groin, but aiming for somewhere much higher so that your mind knows to really ram your knee upward.

A male friend of a friend of the family once generously and kindly advised me that if anyone with nuts ever got up on me without me wanting him to do so, to “grab his balls as hard as you can, squeeze, and yank away from his body until they feel like marmalade. Then run.”

I have never forgotten this advice.

My self-defense trainer used to say: “Eyes are like grapes. Ears are like pull tabs. And if you’re going to grab some, girls – grab, pull, twist, and bring those balls home to mama.”

…I really need to embroider that on a cushion.

Reblogging for my women followers. Know how to protect yourself, okay?

Fun fact: we did a groin attack drill in krav recently, and one of the guys’ cup was secured improperly. When he got kneed he made a noise like someone dropped a bag of rotten tomatoes from a third floor balcony, and hit the ground retching.

A few of the guys snickered and called him a wimp, so our instructor decided EVERYONE was going to do the drill with no cup to see how little force it took to incapacitate an opponent.

I was paired with a friend of mine who looks like if the Rock and the Mountain Who Rides made a little Boulder Love Baby.
I apologized in advance, he said he was ready, and I flicked him in the nuts.

Flicked.

Not hit. Not tap. Not punched. Flicked. The same amount of force I’d use to maybe kill a mosquito, using the blade of my hand.

He went the colour of cement and nearly threw up on my shoulder.

It takes MINIMAL force to fuck a guy up. Now, if you’re grabbed from behind, snap your head back into his face and while he’s distracted you can either make a fist and strike back at the groin (arch your hips to the side for more room) or karate chop from the elbow.

He’s gonna be pissed–but he’s gonna be puking first, and that’s your opportunity to kick him in the kidney and run like the wind.

Mother Nature put mens balls on the outside as as a woman I will 100% use that to my advantage in a fight.

self-defense

I always reccomend using it as a one two punch. Groin strike, the go for the eyes, throat, twist/break fingers, or the opposite. Go for face/finger breaking/twisting, then groin, maybe even hit them in the groin twice, really devastate.

A lot of dudes will go down from groin strikes. But some might be on drugs, drunk, just incredibly hopped up on adrenaline/anger. So dont RELY on one groin strike. In self defense never rely on any ONE strike. Unless you been training martial arts for years. Always go for 2-3 good hits, and run.

FYI

SING

Solar Plexus – instep- nose- groin

My first boyfriend in college was a lovely Costa Rican guy who lived two doors down from my dorm room.

He was an avid baseball fan. He took me to my first ever baseball game during the Marlins’ inaugural season. Harry Carey was the commentator and I was stoked cause even I knew who he was. A legend!

His team was the Cubs. He had made his pilgrimage to Chicago, he’d been to their games. He told me all about the curse and that he hoped in his lifetime he would see them win a World Series.

We broke up at the end of my freshman year but remained friends. I never followed baseball much after that but because of him, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the Cubs. I’m really happy for him tonight. And for all Cubs fans.

We watched history being made tonight!

oh my fucking god they’re gonna give me a heart attack

By the way have any of y’all been watching Pitch?

It’s really good.

I just noticed that baseball players’ pants don’t seem to be as tight as I remember them.

Chris went to sleep so I’m watching by myself.

*whispers* they scored another run

What happens if they stay tied indefinitely? Do they keep playing? Do they duel to the death with swords?

I don’t understand how people can be apathetic about voting. I didn’t even live in a country where I could vote until I was in my mid twenties and I’ve made sure never to miss an election since. The way I see it, it’s the smallest bit of control I can exercise over what happens in my government. I seriously don’t get how someone can just decide not to participate.

litanyofexcuses:

Friendly reminder to check you’re not holding tension in your body. Let your shoulders drop, unclench your hands and jaw. Take a deep breath. Much better.

Last night one of Chris’s friends who lives in the States flew in because his father died. He asked to meet up. We were both tired having just come from liming at the bar but went anyway. He’s still in shock and hasn’t slept in the past two days, but is self medicating by socializing, drinking, and probably weed. He’s a really cool guy and I felt sorry to see him under these circumstances.

Of course my fucked up mind decided to have cancer dreams about my Dad that were their usual horrifying selves. I woke myself out of one at 2am and couldn’t go back to sleep for a while. Day of the Dead and all. Today is All Saints. Let’s see if I dream about him again tonight.

My friend Learie and I have decided that next year we want to throw a Halloween party.

I was asking him what historical figure/fictional character/real person I reminded him of in either appearance or personality that I could dress up as. He told me he would have to think about it.

Chris suggested Wonder Woman. I mean, I’m an Amazon, she’s an Amazon… but I just thought I’d put it out there. Y’all have any suggestions?

I second that

I saw some (I’m guessing) Jehovah’s Witnesses talking to one of my neighbours this morning. They come around here pretty often and considering most people here are either Muslim or Hindu, I always wonder what their end-game is. Is it conversion? Religion and spirituality is a really personal thing to me so I find anyone trying to change my beliefs (or lack thereof) to be a really invasive thing. But clearly not everyone feels that way. 

One of my best friend told me his parents’ marriage fell apart after his mother became a Jehovah’s Witness. Every single thing about her changed and his father simply couldn’t be married to the person she had become any longer. He was heartbroken. I know there are churches that actively seek to break up marriages in unions where one person converts and the other doesn’t. Considering that marriage is supposed to be something sacred I find that really fucked up and manipulative.

My paternal grandmother was raised Anglican and converted to Catholicism to marry my grandfather. At some point in their marriage without telling her he started attending a Baptist church. She was understandably very angry, I mean I would think that’s the sort of thing you would discuss with your spouse, but my grandfather was one of those men who just didn’t talk, about anything. She put her foot down and told him he could go to his church if he wanted to but that she was raising the children Catholic. She wasn’t a fighter so I guess he realised that the only way to have peace on that one was to agree. She remained a devout Catholic til the end. Both are buried in the family plot at the same cemetery. I guess it didn’t matter that much in the end.

I’m watching the new season of Project Runway and I notice that all the contestants seem to be really into fashion and clothes in their own personal expression. And I was wondering if there are people who love to create fashion but don’t really love to wear it so much.

As a jewelry artisan for me the joy is in the designing and the making but not so much in the wearing. I used to be much more expressive in the jewelry I chose to wear before, but not so much now. I feel so inundated by it that when it comes to going out I choose a very minimalist approach. Does that ever happen to clothing designers?

I tried taking a shortcut to the post office today and it ended up costing me an hour. 

Fucking Monday man…

I am really good at motivating myself even when I don’t feel like doing anything but I am seriously losing the battle today.

I was going to resign myself to doing nothing but then I remembered I have some orders to get out. Fuck man… I mean I’m grateful for the orders, I just really wanted to give myself an excuse to blow off the day. Bleh.

Whenever I have an UpMarket day, I spend the next day recovering. I’ve been in bed for most of today, barely awake.

Doing a market is really tiring. You spend so many hours “on”, interacting with people and keeping your energy up. By the next day I’m always exhausted. I remember having so much nerves and anticipation before my first market that I needed a week to recover. These days though a day is enough. God imagine doing two back to back. I’d die.

theweirdwideweb:

Lmao one time I was at a gay bar and this guy playing pool wasn’t looking what he was doing and almost smacked me in the face with the pool cue. It happens, I would have just let it slide but he turns to me and goes, “Watch it, bitch!”.  I was so angry I stood at the pool table and cheered for him the entire game. Every shot he missed I was like, “AH FUCK, YOU’LL GET EM NEXT TIME JERRY” and I made him so mad his friends had to make him leave.

Up at 2 because of a dream that induced claustrophobia how nice.

At least I can stop panicking and breathe again.

Phew.

So my girlfriend who is dating our friend is apparently really happy with him. I’m trying to deal with her gushing about him but uggggghhhhh. This is why I never used to talk about anyone I was dating ever. Ever. Because it’s so fucking annoying! Like even if you try to play it cool you’re still gonna overdo it. And she’s really not been bad but omg. Plus he sounds like he has no chill either he’s totally smitten and I’m sitting here getting cavities from all the sweetness and I just want to push them out into the ocean on a barge and let them have their own private island. People newly in like are so gross.

silenceofthecam:

casual reminder that leia is also a skywalker and equally as force-sensitive and capable of great power just like her twin luke but decided that instead of exploring the dull-ass monk-like path of a jedi she’d rather explore han solo’s body and run the galaxy

A memory from came up on Facebook today. A picture I took of my Dad 8 years ago. I shared it and wrote a little something about it and by the end of it I was in tears.

Grief is so weird. I realize now that we really never get over some things. Nor should we, to be honest. Some things are just too monumental. You don’t move past it as much as you move around it.

I didn’t know 8 years ago that I would only have just four years left with my father. It would have been unthinkable.

For a long time, many years, I’ve had a sense of urgency about life. A sense of finality. A need to cherish moments and say the things that need to be said and not to sweat the small stuff. I’ve always been so profoundly aware that we have so little time.

I think about the end of my life and what I’ll remember, what will be important, and really all it is, is love. Love we shared, love we felt, connections we made, moments, family, friendships, the time we spent feeding our soul with things that bring us joy… these are the things that are important, I think.

I saw that picture and I remembered that day when we sat on his porch in Barbados, music playing, watching the sun go down. I remember it because I wanted to connect with him. To have a moment, just the two of us, talking, enjoying our surroundings, just being, together, because we had so little of that. And we did. We had a moment. We connected. And we created this memory. And I’m so grateful for that. It was a simple thing. But it was everything. It was all that mattered. It is all that matters.

garbagefingers:

sparrf:

i keep thinking about that tribe of baboons where all the alpha males died from eating poison garbage and then the baby boy monkeys were taken care of by the lady monkeys and never got socialized to be aggressive so they all just live peacefully and groom eachother instead of fighting and killing eachother and its been generations of that, it only took 1 wipeout of the aggressive males to change the whole social order of the species i am crying they must be so much happier

Dude

It’s Divali and these fuckers in my neighbourhood are overdoing it with the fireworks.

I feel like a grumpy old lady and I do not care.

My dad used to tell us a lot of stories from his teaching days. He was a gifted storyteller and brought his characters to life so that I grew up feeling I knew them.

His story of the strangest name he ever encountered came the day he asked a student his name and the young man replied, “Greenleaf Ash, sir.”

“Come in boy stop wasting my time I said what is your name!”

“It’s Greenleaf Ash sir,” he said earnestly.

“You’re shitting me.”

“No sir.”

“Your parents… named you… GREENLEAF ASH?”

“Yes sir.”

And with that Dad would burst out laughing and talk about the unremarkable boy with the remarkable name. And I’ve always wondered how he fared in this world, this slight young man saddled with such a name. I’ve looked him up to no avail. But I feel like I know him. Young Greenleaf Ash.

I think I’m getting Chris’s stupid cough.

Fuck mannnnnn

somethingwildalwaysgrows:

monkeyfrog:

tiny-septic-box-sam:

ggothclaudia:

adventureathlete:

thattallsummonerguy:

olisaurusrex:

true-blue-brit:

I’d never, ever hurt a lady but I’d be happy to punch a feminist.

It’d bring me great joy.

I’m 6’2 and weigh 180lbs

ready when you are

Or if you’d like to have some more options….

I’m 6’4”
228 pounds
and have 9 years of combined martial arts training and 3 years of being a Line Backer in football.
Just in case you are looking for variety.

what about a lady and a feminist. warning, combatives certified soldier.

im tiny, i’m like 5′4 and 130 lbs but u can fight me too

Reblogging for the last one cuz that’s adorable

Try me, motherfucker.

Age and treachery vs youth and pissbaby

I’ve laid men flat who were twice my size. Come at me.