Celebratory Meme For All The Parched Soo-won Fans

My body may be gone, but not my love

Great news: you can pay me now!  I’ve opened 10 commission slots on my Ko-fi, where I also take donations.  You can request an icon/pfp, a design sheet for your OCs, a full scene concept, etc. in a style of your choice as long as you choose the correct add-ons; DM me before ordering if you’re unsure about pricing.  Commissions are for personal use only.

things you should know about books and incarceration

I recently started working with a program that sends books to incarcerated people upon request. There are programs like this in many places throughout the US, under names like “Prison Books Project” or “Books to Prisoners.” Here’s some things you should know:

The most requested book, by far, is the English dictionary. The Spanish dictionary is also highly requested, as are GED prep materials, thesauruses, almanacs, and other reference books. If you have anything like that laying around unused, please consider donating.

Prisons are legally required to maintain libraries of legal resources (this falls under one’s right to counsel), but otherwise generally do not fund or maintain libraries, even for basic educational materials. The law libraries are also often filled with irrelevant law texts (e.g. real estate and civil procedures) instead of what prisoners actually need information about: appeals, civil rights, etc.

There are strict requirements on what books can and cannot be received, which vary from prison to prison and even depending on which staff member is processing the shipments. There are a thousand different reasons prison staff can pull a book from a shipment. Individuals, unfamiliar with the complex restrictions, are often unsuccessful at sending books to incarcerated loved ones.

Prison staff often don’t like prison book programs, despite the fact that they reduce recidivism and keep prisoners occupied and out of trouble. Why? Because it makes more work for them in the mail room. Yes, really.

Immigrants are the fastest growing prison population, so we get lots of requests for books in Spanish or English learning materials. Unfortunately, these are less frequently donated, so our selection is slim.

We also get requests for books about sign language, usually from people with Deaf cellmates who have no other way to communicate.

Books about starting businesses, trades, and reintroduction are extremely common from those planning their lives after release. It’s extremely difficult for convicted felons to find work after release.

We also get many requests about psychology or self-help books. A large percentage of our incarcerated population suffer from some mental illness or have loved ones who do.

Many prisoners were not properly supported in their education. We receive letters from low-literacy people who have severe learning disabilities, whose letters are difficult to read because they never learned to write properly. Comic books/manga are common requests from low-literacy people because they can look at the pictures.

Prison book programs are usually not well funded and must ration how often incarcerated people can write us and how often they can request certain types of high-demand books. Volunteers frequently find there are no suitable books to fill a request and buy books with their own money to make sure someone gets what they’ve asked for. Cash donations to prison book programs will go to buying high-demand books such as dictionaries, GED prep, and other basic education texts.

See if you have a program like this in your area, and consider volunteering or donating books or money. There are over 2 million people incarcerated in the US, and giving them access to books is the very least we can do.

Civil War

[video description: A Black Sails fanvid focusing on Eleanor, Mr. Scott, and Madi. Between clips of Madi and Eleanor discussing their past on the beach, there are scenes showing Eleanor and Mr. Scott's interactions, emphasizing how Eleanor fails to consider Mr. Scott's perspective, and the ways in which Mr. Scott is never able to lose sight of his position in society. The penultimate scene is Madi's speech to Woodes Rogers. As her speech escalates, sounds of chains clanking and being removed can be heard in time with the clicking of the knitting needles being used by Eleanor's ghost.

/end description]

Dialogue transcript:

Eleanor: You trust him? Flint. You've cast your lot with him.

Madi: What does it matter to you?

Eleanor: Before this war began, before everyone's roles changed, your father mistrusted Flint as much as anyone in Nassau did. I assume you were in some contact with him all that time. I'm surprised that his feelings didn't influence you.

Eleanor: For how long had he been secretly aiding them?

Flint: He began, he said, after the Spanish raid.

Eleanor: Did he say why he did it?

Madi: You were my sister. There is very little that I remember from when I was young, but I remember this.

Mr. Guthrie: Once upon a time Mr. Scott was my personal houseboy. Until he proved himself worthy of greater responsibility. That earned him an education which he then passed on to my daughter. And look where that's gotten me.

Madi: You were older. You were beautiful. I revered you.

Mr. Bryson: Mr. Scott, you sided with his daughter against him. You forgot your duty. You must have known there would be consequences.

Madi: When you were told that my mother and I were dead, I have to believe that it affected you. You had just lost your mother.

Eleanor: And what? Now you think you can just waltz back in here and pick up from where we left off like nothing happened?

Mr. Scott: Where else would I go? I belong to you. Chattel property of the Guthrie estate.

Eleanor: You… you know I've never seen you that way.

Madi: But if things were as I remember, my mother and I were your family, too.

Eme: He says…

Mr. Scott: I know what he says. He says in Nassau a slave can be free, get a job and a wage. Maybe for him. He's strong. A few others. The rest of you, don't kid yourself. You are cargo, in Nassau or otherwise.

Madi: And yet, through all the years thereafter that my father cared for you… counseled you, labored for you… he never told you that we were alive.

Madi: I was there in Nassau, and she's there. Eleanor is there. She is one of them now. I stood in Nassau and I realized when this war begins, it will have many different meanings, but to you this war is a civil war. You will have people on both sides of it. You will have daughters on both sides of it. And I want you to know…

Mr. Scott: [whispers softly] Only… you.

Madi: It would have been so easy to lessen your suffering by divulging the secret. And yet, he never did. Have you yet asked yourself why that is?

Madi: The voice you hear in your head… I imagine I know who it sounds like, as I know Eleanor wanted those things. But I hear other voices. [clicking sound] A chorus of voices. Multitudes. They reach back centuries. Men and women…and children who'd lost their lives… to men like you. Men and women and children forced to wear your chains. I must answer to them and this war… their war… Flint's war… my war…it will not be bargained away to avoid a fight.

Madi: My father didn't mistrust Flint. My father mistrusted all of you.

(for @built-on-sand )

isn't it insane though how schizophrenic people are viewed as violent and dangerous by the majority of society when in reality schizophrenic people are nearly 14 times more likely to be on the receiving end of violence than to be the perpetrators...

YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME

"The world should have protected you, but you have been asked to protect it. What an honor. What an injustice." - NADDPOD, Bahumia campaign ep. 97 (x)

So many TV shows/movies depict the Epi Pen as a total solution for anaphylaxis...it's not. The Epi Pen gives you 30 minutes to get to a hospital where they can save your life. TV makes it look like you just have to use the Epi Pen and then the crisis is over. Do people without allergies or a loved one with allergies know that an Epi Pen only buys you time? The more I see this on TV the more I worry...

**Maybe you should reblog this because I'm actually worried that most people don't know.

new and improved "Women and Femmes"