harkenizalone

Latest Posts by harkenizalone

How to begin a sustainable way of life

This is a draft of something I've been writing for a couple months. It is mainly focused on the culture of the USA. Feel free to repost or otherwise share, with or without credit.

Do not tell people what to do—help them do it! 

Give the gift of relief from being forced to engage in society’s unsustainable ways of life. 

“People need to eat more plant-based foods.” ->Talk about your favorite recipes, give others recipes, cook for them, and grow vegetables and plants in your garden and give them away as gifts. 

“People need to repair their clothes.” -> Offer to repair others’ clothes, and teach people how to repair their clothes. 

“People need to buy less clothes.” -> Give them old clothes that you don’t want, help them repair their clothes

“People need to buy less plastic stuff.” -> Learn to make things that can serve the same purpose, such as baskets, and give them as gifts. Let people borrow things you own so they don’t have to buy their own. 

“People need to stop using leafblowers and other gas-guzzling machinery.” -> Offer to rake the leaves. You can use them as compost in your own garden. 

“People need to be more educated about nature.”-> Learn about nature yourself. Tell people about nature. Be open about your love of creatures such as snakes, spiders, and frogs. Do not show awareness that this could be strange. You are not obligated to quiet down your enthusiasm for creepy crawlies to demonstrate awareness that it is weird. Point out at every opportunity how these animals are beneficial. 

“People need to use cars less.” -> Offer rides to others whenever you must go somewhere. Whenever you are about to go to the store, ask your neighbor or your friend who lives along the way, “Is there anything you need from the store?” 

You cannot control others’ behaviors, but you can free them from being controlled. 

If you think to yourself, “But this would be so difficult to do!” ask yourself WHY? Why does your society coerce you into less sustainable ways of living, forcing you to consume excessively? After thinking about this, consider that it is less simple and easy than you thought to make more sustainable choices, so why would you judge others for not doing it? 

Do not act alone—act with others! 

Environmentally friendly behaviors that can be done alone, without collaborating with or consulting another person, are the least powerful of all. Whenever an “environmentally friendly” behavior is suggested, figure out “How can I give this as a gift?” or “How can I make this possible on the level of a whole community?” 

“Personal choices” do not work because every single person has to make them individually. If you are focused on making your own personal choice, you are not focused on others. If you are not focused on others, you are not helping them. If nobody is helping each other, most people won’t be able to make the “personal choice.”

You inherently share an ecosystem with your neighbors  

            Start with your neighbors, the people physically close to you. You live on the same patch of land, containing roots from the same plants and trees. You can speak to them face to face without traveling, which means you can easily bring them physical things without using resources to travel. 

            Always talk to your neighbors and be friendly with them. Offer them favors unprompted and tell them about how your garden is doing. Do not be afraid to be annoying—a slightly annoying neighbor who is helpful, kind, and can be relied upon for a variety of favors or in times of need is a necessary and inevitable part of a good community. If you make the effort to be present in somebody’s life, they will have to put up with you on some occasions, but that is just life. We cannot rely on each other if we do not put up with each other. 

Simply spending time with someone influences them for good 

Every hour you spend outside with your neighbor is an hour your neighbor doesn’t spend watching Fox News. Every hour you spend talking with someone and interacting with them in the real world, eating real food and enjoying your real surroundings, is an hour you don’t spend only hearing a curated picture of what reality is like from social media. 

            Isolation makes it easy for people to become indoctrinated into extremist beliefs. When someone spends more time alone, watching TV, Youtube, or scrolling social media, than they do with others, their concept of what other people are like and what the world is like comes more from social media than real life. TV and online media are meant to influence you in a specific way. Simply restricting the access these influences have to yourself and others is helpful. 

A garden is the source of many gifts 

If you grow a garden, you can give your neighbors and friends the gift of food, plants, and crafted objects. This is one of the foundational ways to form community. When you give food, you provide support to others. When you give plants, you are encouraging and teaching about gardening. It is even better when you give recipes cooked from things you grew, or items crafted from things you grew. You can also give the gift of knowledge of how to grow these plants, cook these recipes, or craft these objects. 

More on gift-giving

            Some people are uncomfortable with receiving items or services as gifts. They want to feel like they are giving something back, instead of having obligation to return the favor hanging over them. 

            It can help to ask a simple favor that can be easily fulfilled. People generally like the feeling of helping someone else. 

When you give someone a gift, it can help to say something like “Oh, I have too many of this thing to take care of/store/eat myself! Do you think you could take some?” This makes your neighbor feel like they are helping you. 

When allowing others to borrow items, you might not get them back. Don’t worry about that. It just means the item found a place where it was needed the most. You can ask about the item if you think it might have been forgotten, and this can create an opportunity for a second meeting. But don’t press. 

If the person you give to insists upon some form of payment, this is a good opportunity to negotiate a trade. 

Ask to be given compostable or recyclable things 

Ask your neighbor to save compostable scraps, biodegradable cardboard and paper products, and any other items that might be put to use. Use them in your own compost pile. Or, start a compost pile at the edge of the yard where you both can add to it. Remember that “wet” compost like vegetable and fruit bits needs to be mixed with twice as much of “dry” and “woody” compost like cardboard, leaves, small twigs, paper and wood bits. 

Use the front yard for gardening

Overcome the cultural norm that the front yard is only decorative. Use the front yard for gardening so you can be seen by others enjoying your garden, and others can witness the demonstration of the possibilities of land. In the front yard, anything you do intentionally with your land can be witnessed. It also makes you a visible presence in your community. 

Grow staple foods 

Don’t just grow vegetables that cannot be the core component of a meal themselves. Grow potatoes, dry beans, black eyed peas and other nourishing, calorie-dense foods. Grow the ingredients of meals. You could even build a garden around a recipe.

Invite neighbors and friends over to eat food made from things you grew 

Be sure to send them home with leftovers.  

Grow plants for baskets 

Containers are one of the fundamental human needs. If we had more containers, we wouldn’t need plastic so much. You can learn to make baskets, and to grow plants that provide the raw materials for baskets. 

If someone rakes their leaves, ask to have the leaves  

If you see someone putting leaves in bags, don’t be afraid to ask if you can have the leaves. More likely than not they will be happy to agree. 

Collaborate with neighbors to plant things in the no-man’s-land of the property line 

In the border land between your neighbor’s yard and your yard, it is almost always just mowed grass because no one can plant anything without it affecting their neighbor. But these border lands add up to a lot of space. It would be much better if you talked to your neighbor about what would be nice to plant there, and together created a plan for that space. 

Give others the freedom to wander 

Make it clear that you will not get mad if the neighbor’s kids play in your yard or run across it. Invite the neighbors onto your land as much as possible. Tell them they are allowed to spend time in a favored spot whenever they would like.  

The power of the hand-made sign 

If there is a yard sale, you always know about it because of the hand-drawn signs placed around. Therefore, a cookout or unwanted item exchange can be announced the same way. In rural areas I have seen hand-made signs that say: FIREWOOD or WE BUY GOATS or EGGS. This is one of the few technologies of community that remain in the USA. If someone who looks to buy and sell can put up a hand-made sign, why shouldn’t you?  

Religious people or people with strong political opinions like to put signs everywhere. If they have the confidence and courage to do so, why shouldn’t you? 

So if there is a message you would like everyone to see, use the simple power of the hand-made sign. Proclaim “BEE FRIENDLY ZONE!” above your pollinator garden with all the confidence of a religious fundamentalist billboard. Announce to the world, “VEGETABLES FREE TO ALL—JUST ASK!” “WE TAKE LEAVES—NO PESTICIDES.” Instead of YARD SALE, or perhaps in conjunction with YARD SALE, you can write, PLANT EXCHANGE or SEED SWAP or CLOTHING SWAP. Who can stop you? 

Someone has to do it for society to change  

Some of these ideas might be eccentric, strange, or even socially unacceptable, but there is no way to change what is normal except to move against it. Someone has to be weird. It might as well be you. 

I'll be so honest right now the thing I love about everyone not caring or congratulating the guy who downed the UnitedHealthcare CEO is that this will inspire other "copycats" if you know what I mean.

There are people who have nothing left to lose, people who want to make a mark in history, people who would want to be known nationwide, people who see through the NYPD's bluff and realize that they can get away with ending a CEOs life when everybody wants you to get away.

I'm not promoting anything! But this is something that has been seen time and time again in history, soooo

ProPublica

Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim

You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s

Hey y'all. Here's something for you.

That casual moment of realizing you’re an otherkin and the kintypes have weird overlaps and/or conflicting feelings.

Enderman kin - supposed to hate water

Seafolk kin - I love water

Dragon kin - I want to be in the sky not water

It kills me-

This realization of my kintypes explains a lot:

Endfolk kin:

Hate eye contact, love purple and darkness, I’m tall and lanky already but feel like I need to be TALLER 👹

I like picking things up like an Endfolk too :}

Seafolk kin:

I specifically feel like a leviathan sea folk, I’m a 50 foot long, glowing scales, head fins, large clawed, lots of frills and fins, CHARCOAL SKINNED BEAST, yet a gentle giant!!!

With dragon kin, I kinda already knew (I have a dragon sona)

Green scales, 3 pairs of horns, dark green & purple webbing for my wings, larger than most dragons, tall and imposing yet also lean and long.

I want to fly, I want to swim, I want to blip through the fabric of reality and leave purple sparkles in my wake.

And all this is also paired with already being a magical and supernatural and mundane entity that’s SOMEHOW BECOME AN ELDRITCH DEITY AND I ACCIDENTALLY IMMORTALIZED MYSELF WITH SHEER SPITE WHEN I WAS 9

*Insert Sad Eldritch blob here*

Gndzgbdfhvdf (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

Emojis to try and describe myself:

Endfolk: ✨💜🖤👁️‍🗨️🪻🌑☮️🔮🪬👾🐦‍⬛🐈‍⬛🍬🪁🎆🧬

Dragon: 🌿🐉🦎🎆🌌🦚🏔️💎🔐🔆💚💜📜

Leviathan Seafolk: 🌑🌊🦈🖤🔊📜🩻🔮🎆🌪️🪷🪸🦚🪼🐋🦭

Eldritch Deity: 💜🌌✖️👁️‍🗨️🕸️🥀🌒🌋🎆🪬🔮🧬🔐🔗📖

Just watched the Hatsune Miku movie in theaters, it was the most formative experience of my life. People in the theater were commenting and bantering with each other (me included). After it was over and people stood up, there was a Miku cosplayer who everyone was like “YEAAH” to, and someone had a Miku plushie and the experience was super wholesome and awesome. Thank You, to Miku and all the other people in the theater, for one of the most amazing and influential moments of my life.

I have basically no body fat, and what I do have is for some reason concentrated on my glutes and thighs (IT SHOULD BE ON MY ABDOMEN, BC THERES SUPPOSED TO BE A LAYER OF FAT COVERING YOUR ORGANS)

I look like a stick and weigh a LOT more than people think I would.

Me having an absurd amount of muscle mass is only thing keeping me from looking like a starving Victorian orphan who fell down the old and uncleaned well in the middle of winter.

(Oddly specific I know- that’s what made me make this Tumblr post)

I just found out my mom is pregnant (18 weeks)

Being told that is really weird when you know a lot about the birds and the bees

One of my first responses was standing up, pointing to my mom and her bf, and yelling “YOU GUYS FUCKED-“

I hope I don’t relate to those “middle child gets neglected” memes, bc that already happened when I was younger and would put over a decade of therapy down the drain.

“Is this kid gonna be traumatized like you and your older sister-“ NO. OVER. MY. DEAD. BODY.

I will make sure this kid has the BEST CHILDHOOD POSSIBLE.

South East Russia-

I don’t think anyone is there bc it’s too cold-

Guess I’ll die (*⁰▿⁰*)

go to this random coordinates generator and say in the tags how you would fare if you were dropped where it generates without warning. i’ll go first i’d be dropped in the middle of the fucking south atlantic ocean and perish

Nommmmm nommm nommm (*^◯^*)

WRITING PROMPTS - Assassin

An assassin decides to kill anyone that tries to make her kill a child.

"Aw, baby. You thought I came over because of your pretty face?"

An assassin and a detectibe fall in love.

"I'll hunt him down for you, unless he pays me more than you do."

Two assassins go after the same impossible target, and fall in love along the way.

"I aim well."

A pair of teenagers scam people by pretending to be assassins without killing even one person.

"I'm expensive, sweetheart, and it's not money that I take."

I HAVE MADE AI POISON

All of these images are very high resolution (the more jumbled pixels the more the ai gets confused) ranging from 3500x3500 - 5000 pixels,

I’ll add more later, but for now here’s these.

They’re in png format, but I think JPG will work too if tumblr doesn’t let you have it as a PNG. Use them for whatever art of yours you like, just put it on and decide on opacity. You could even make a repeating pattern if you’d like, I don’t really care.

I made all of these on IBIS paint, I’ll put an alt to explain how I made each image

Feel free to RB to spread this and/or add your own AI poison for artists to use.

I HAVE MADE AI POISON

All of these images are very high resolution (the more jumbled pixels the more the ai gets confused) ranging from 3500x3500 - 5000 pixels,

I’ll add more later, but for now here’s these.

They’re in png format, but I think JPG will work too if tumblr doesn’t let you have it as a PNG. Use them for whatever art of yours you like, just put it on and decide on opacity. You could even make a repeating pattern if you’d like, I don’t really care.

I made all of these on IBIS paint, I’ll put an alt to explain how I made each image

Feel free to RB to spread this and/or add your own AI poison for artists to use.

I wonder Which Spider-Man would be the best therapist-

Ok- I saw a tumblr post about how Tony stark needs his “weekly dose of Peter or he turns into a jerk” or what not and I imagined people being prescribed a hang out session with Peter Parker/Spider-man as a way to chill out-

Like- imagine if a bunch of the Spider people did a contract with an inter dimensional therapy thing, and they would help people with their problems by listening to them vent, Giving advice, or even using webs to help with physical therapy too-

I should make a fanfic about this-

IM FOAMING AT THE MOUTH GRRR /pos

YOU GAVE HIM WITTWE KIBBY PAWS 😭😭😭😭😭

SCRUMPTIOUS, EVERY INCH OF THIS PIECE. *Nom*

I LOVE IT SO MUCH THAT IM ACTUALLY GROWLING IRL 💀 I can’t contain myself

Trying to spell the sound I’m making: “Grrruuwaaaaaagghgggh”

I think that’s right-

Hairstyles for long-haired Sebastian :3

Eepy kibby (๑>◡<๑)

Atmospheric zen video of my cat trying not to fall asleep sitting up next to a window while it rains. Keeping this one to relax me on stressful days

I need more things like this

FOOD

Do any of u have decent recipes that are like 5 ingredients (not including spices) and take 45 mins or less to prepare i gotta stop eating sandwiches for dinner

YIPPEE YIPPEEE YIPPEEE-

*slips, faceplants*

…

*gets back up and continues like nothing happened*

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEE

(you need to view the image or you'll just like the post)

Since people liked it i made a toy that works on the computer: https://nick-nonya.itch.io/trampoline-toy Have fun!

This is for me mainly.

Just so I can find it later

Ohh, so I was looking at my storage and found these! I originally shared them on twitter before yeeting the platform. Anyway, feel free to use! Art memes for your oc :D

I need this on my page *Yoinks*

Post corrections/clarifications are my favorite genre of humor: a compilation

ITS BEEN LESS THAN AN HOUR- GUYS PLS YOURE GONNA MAKE MY OLD ASS PHONE EXPLODE 😭😭😭😭

I had this idea about Phineas and Ferb:

Perry pays the bills and taxes, but one month he gets so caught up in work that he temporarily forgets.

The parents both thought that the other was paying all the bills, so then they’re like “wait…if IM not paying the bills, and YOURE not paying the bills…who is??”

And then the family finds Perry paying the bills and stuff, but he goes platypus mode and so he’s just like “krrrgrggg” and instead of going “WTF how is Perry paying the bills??” The family is just like

“awww! Thanks Perry, you’re such a good platypus!! Good boy, Perry!” 🥰🥰

So then if there’s a court case over the house and the judge is like “okay who pays the bills?” Both the parents sigh before going “bring him in, boys”

and Phineas & Ferb walk in holding Perry and the whole court’s like “what???”

And then they show a video of Perry paying the pills & Taxes and the courts like:

“YOU ARENT EVEN QUESTIONING WHY YOUR PET PLATYPUS IS PAYING THE BILLS??? WHERE DOES HE GET THE MONEY??” And the whole family just shrugs and is like “we were worried that if we questioned him he might think he’s not supposed to do that, so we just gave him some yummy treats and called him a good boy :]”

I had this idea about Phineas and Ferb:

Perry pays the bills and taxes, but one month he gets so caught up in work that he temporarily forgets.

The parents both thought that the other was paying all the bills, so then they’re like “wait…if IM not paying the bills, and YOURE not paying the bills…who is??”

And then the family finds Perry paying the bills and stuff, but he goes platypus mode and so he’s just like “krrrgrggg” and instead of going “WTF how is Perry paying the bills??” The family is just like

“awww! Thanks Perry, you’re such a good platypus!! Good boy, Perry!” 🥰🥰

So then if there’s a court case over the house and the judge is like “okay who pays the bills?” Both the parents sigh before going “bring him in, boys”

and Phineas & Ferb walk in holding Perry and the whole court’s like “what???”

And then they show a video of Perry paying the pills & Taxes and the courts like:

“YOU ARENT EVEN QUESTIONING WHY YOUR PET PLATYPUS IS PAYING THE BILLS??? WHERE DOES HE GET THE MONEY??” And the whole family just shrugs and is like “we were worried that if we questioned him he might think he’s not supposed to do that, so we just gave him some yummy treats and called him a good boy :]”

Just to have this on my blog so I can find it easily

the suffering never ends

Update: I asked for an estimate of how many he has, apparently he counted, and he has 63 FEDORAS- 💀

I have this friend who I met in school a couple years back who always wears a fedora.

He’s fruity as hell (and openly gay)

And he’s the only person I know who can actually rock a fedora.

One day I asked him sorta as a joke “Do you just have, like, a whole dedicated collection of fedoras?” AND HE DOES

This isn’t just fedora all the time NO, He has AT LEAST 1 FEDORA FOR EVERY HOLIDAY (2 ST Patrick’s, at least 4 Christmas themed, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Etc) AND HE CHANGES THE COLORS BASED ON SEASONS (more neutral tones in winter like grey and beige, Colorful ones in spring, earthy tones in fall, and it’s safe to assume he has some for summer too) HE HAS A FEDORA FOR EVERYTHING- 😭😭

But yeah, he’s really chill, and everyone now knows/realized that he has 40+ fedoras 💀

Does this mean I’m only cute now? Or am I still hot? Bc if I’m not; expect all the friends that have pulled the “mommy? Sorry.” Joke on me at the lid of your tank/hj

>:[

*Blasts You with the laser beam that makes you cute*

(it has no effect on your appearance because you're already cute)

(you are reduced to a pile of ash)

(cute ash)

My half Irish, Celtic self: :0 *Neuron Activation*

Unironically I do really love everything potato lol :3

hello,

potato fries

potato chips

potato wedges

baked potato

loaded baked potato

curly fries (potato)

steak fries (potato)

tater tots (potato)

mashed potatoes

hash browns (potato)

gnocchi (potato) (advanced potato)

please let me know if I'm going too fast

I meow very often, because when I’m at my dad’s: I have my cat, she basically screm when she meow, very loud.

When at mom’s: moms floofy cat, very cuddly quiet bby, her meows are also very baby mew

Also:

1: my cat; Lisa 2: moms cat; Gypsum

just a friendly reminder, have you meowed today? it's very important that you meow at least once a day so I wanted to check

I have this friend who I met in school a couple years back who always wears a fedora.

He’s fruity as hell (and openly gay)

And he’s the only person I know who can actually rock a fedora.

One day I asked him sorta as a joke “Do you just have, like, a whole dedicated collection of fedoras?” AND HE DOES

This isn’t just fedora all the time NO, He has AT LEAST 1 FEDORA FOR EVERY HOLIDAY (2 ST Patrick’s, at least 4 Christmas themed, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Etc) AND HE CHANGES THE COLORS BASED ON SEASONS (more neutral tones in winter like grey and beige, Colorful ones in spring, earthy tones in fall, and it’s safe to assume he has some for summer too) HE HAS A FEDORA FOR EVERYTHING- 😭😭

But yeah, he’s really chill, and everyone now knows/realized that he has 40+ fedoras 💀

SPIDER GEORG!!!!

“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

YOU THINK I’M JOKING BUT I’M DEAD SERIOUS

Vibing rn

in absolute tears about the pride module at my work