Change Of Plans, I Am Now A Shitpost Poster With Random Bits Of Whatever I Want

i have a strong urge to impulse buy a bunch of candles right now so i can sit in a dark room, surrounded by a bunch of candles, i don't know why

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

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

I held the burned book in my hands, it's title, "My diary - Amelie - Year 0000" telling me it was the start of our new era.

I swallowed thickly, knowing, this was the documentation of the one year we had all forgotten and I hesitated in opening it, not knowing what it may contain.

My overwhelming curiousity quickly overwhelmed me and I lift the cover to reveal the pages held within, their edges lightly burnt but no important writing harmed.

I breathe in deeply and I go to read.

The beginning is nothing special, a normal year.

But I get to the middle.

"It is May 15th," the story read, "we didn't know it, but yesterday a war had been declared."

I hesitate to continue reading, knowing it could be very terrible going onward.

But I do.

"It will be a terrible war, I'll assume. Two of the biggest nations going to fight. Diary," I notice a dried tear stain on the page, "I'm scared. I live in one of these lands. Please please I don't want to die please." and tears of my own rush to my eyes.

There was a war and- I quickly flip through the pages I haven't read yet, my breath stops.

This...

This war definitely had casualties.

And this girl - Amelie - was one of them.

I see dried blood through pages stuck together.

I shudder and drop the book.

It should have burned.

I shouldn't have read.

What do I do now?

I do nothing, there is nothing to do as our world had already restored to peace and no one would know, so I bury Amelie's diary and I promise to remember her.

It’s been ten years since ‘The Gap’ when everyone on the planet just lost an entire year of their lives. Completely unable to recall anything that happened during that time-frame. We know life went on, but no one can recall anything. Then, you find one half-burned book and know why we forgot.

THAT BITCH by Bea Miller is such an awesome song!

remember how i made (tried to make) that ochako aesthetic but failed?

i had made these before that one but didn't share them just cuz i didn't feel they were enough

but i'm very much a noob at these kinda aesthetics, so there's these :)

you, broke: I did a ton of research on geography and climate to design an extremely accurate and highly realistic fantasy map

me, woke: In this fantasy universe I wrote the sun actually does revolve around the earth even though that makes no sense, because I thought it sounded cool 

Shane, being tall: being short is ok

Ricky!Ryan, dagger eyes: if the sky falls, tall people will be killed first

i've got nothing to do with this topic, but i promise i'll protecc you, frens! :)

Reblog if your blog is safe for trans followers.

Aang: what’s a gender neutral term for your spouse? wusband? hife?? wifesband???

[10 minutes later]

Aang: I may be stupid