G.D. Falksen's Blog, page 9
January 9, 2020
January 8, 2020
betthearm:
moghedien:
moghedien:
ok so Leia was heading to Obi-wan before the Battle of Scarif,...
ok so Leia was heading to Obi-wan before the Battle of Scarif, and before she ever knew she or anyone would have the plans. It wasn’t just a last resort, “vader’s bout to get us we gotta go somewhere” decision. the fact that she was going to Obi-wan is probably the reason she was with the rebels and not on Alderaan.
so think in the context that a) Bail was knowingly sending his daughter, who has the genes of one of the most powerful force users ever, to go get a Jedi, b) Bail knew that he was sending the biological child of Anakin to Anakin’s former master and friend, c) Obi-wan definitely would knows who Leia is, d) Bail knows that Obi-wan is keeping an eye on Luke.
I’m not saying Bail Organa knowingly sent his force sensitive daughter to the only fully trained Jedi he knew how to get in touch with and also her force sensitive brother, but Bail Organa knowingly sent his force sensitive daughter to the only fully trained Jedi he knew how to get in touch with and also her force sensitive brother. Because he and Mon Mothma decided things had gotten to this point.
Someone in the tags said “Bail didn’t send the plans to Obi-wan. Bail sent Leia.”
YES. The Death Star plans were a last minute bonus. Bail’s actual plans for dealing with the Empire and the Death Star was LEIA
Goddamn right.
January 7, 2020
Resources for Mending Clothes
We toss out over 80 pounds of textiles each year. These textiles are often made of plastic materials (polyester, nylon), made in unethical conditions, dyed with harsh dyes that often get put into the rivers, etc. Even a single cotton shirt releases carbon emissions and uses tons of water.
So the best thing to prevent the unsustainable growth of the fashion industry is to make sure that your clothing lasts as long as possible. To do so, mending clothing is a must. So here are some resources to help you learn how to do various things, such as sewing a button, to tailoring clothes, or even upcycling old clothing into new styles.
* How to sew on three different types of button
* How to hand sew on a patch on a torn pair of jeans
* How to sew up a hole in an old shirt
* How to upcycle old clothing into new clothing
* More upcycle and sewing techniques
* How to repair a damaged sock
* How to do an invisible stitch
* 3 different stitches to work with for different results
* How to make a T-shirt smaller so it fits you better
* How to make repairs to your shoes
These are just a few of the things that you can do in order to make sure that your clothing lasts for a long time. Nobody wants to keep buying new clothing, as it is expensive and wasteful.
So making alterations to your clothing, or fixing small holes hen you see them can be hugely beneficial to your wallet, to garment workers, and to the environment in the long term.
January 5, 2020
Australia is on fire. Millions of people and animals are in...
Australia is on fire.
Millions of people and animals are in danger.
This is how you can help.
Victorian Bushfire Relief https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/about/supporting-cfaNSW RURAL FIRE SERVICE https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/volunteer/support-your-local-brigadeRFBAQ https://www.rfbaq.org/donate-to-rfbaqCFS https://cfsfoundation.org.au/donateWWF https://www.wwf.org.au/get-involved/bushfire-emergency#gs.p4g9i2SA https://www.vinnies.org.au/page/Donate/Vinnies_Current_Appeals/Vinnies_SA_Bushfire_Appeal_-_December_2019/SAWildlife Rescue https://www.wires.org.au/donate/emergency-fundAustralian Veterinary Emergency Response https://www.vetsbeyondborders.org/programs/avert/Put people up who have lost everything https://www.airbnb.com.au/openhomes/disaster-relief/victoriabushfires20St Vincent de Paul Society Australia https://donate.vinnies.org.au/appeals-nsw/vinnies-nsw-bushfire-appeal-nswFood bank https://www.foodbank.org.au/support-us/make-a-donation/?state=vicGippsland Emergency Relief Fund https://www.gerf.org.au/Australian Red Cross https://www.redcross.org.au/campaigns/disaster-relief-and-recovery-donate?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialorganic&utm_campaign=201913_drr_disaster-relief-and-recovery_don_transient_bushfires_nonePort Macquarie Koala Hospital https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-thirsty-koalas-devastated-by-recent-firesSleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary https://www.facebook.com/SleepyBurrows/Animal Rescue Craft Guildhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/arfsncrafts/Find A Bed https://twitter.com/findabedAUI hope this helps.
January 4, 2020
marchempel2:
Become a patron of me on Patreon at the absurdly...
Become a patron of me on Patreon at the absurdly affordable $5 “Art Studio” tier and get access to exclusive news, comics, and art auction previews!!!
https://patreon.com/MarcHempel
drferox:
starsthatshines:
since people are asking, here’s a list of places you can donate to help...
since people are asking, here’s a list of places you can donate to help the australian bushfires. donating literally $1 means you have done more than our prime minister. (* = can donate internationally; for the other ones you might have to google it)
cfa (VIC firefighters)
rfs (NSW firefighters)*
rfbaq (QLD firefighters)
cfs (SA firefighters)
red cross*
WWF NSW bushfire crisis*
WWF koala crisis* (both WWF links are in aud so use a currency converter if you’re outside aus)
St Vincents NSW (partnership with channel 9)
St Vincents SA
RSPCA NSW
here is a list from the abc (but maybe don’t donate to the salvos bc they suck) (x)i’ll keep it updated as i find more
If you want to avoid the big organisations and help the battlers more locally on the ground, here’s an incomplete list. The firefighters are vital and working hard, and some local stations are set up to take donations directly. But if you want a more animal-focused bent (because that’s what I do)…
Mallacoota Wildlife Shelter (koalas and wildlife in the thick of the East Gippsland fires in Victoria right now, bank details on the Jan 2nd post)
Wires.org.au Wildlife rescue
Port Macquarie Koala Hospital, in NSW.
Adelaide Koala and Wildlife Hospital, in South Australia (coping it hard since Xmas day)
Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, in SE Queensland.
Ipswich Koala Protection Society, in Queensland.
Koalas in Care (NSW, takes paypal)Vets Beyond Borders is a large organization which will accept donations, and also coordinated AVERT - the Australian Veterinary Emergency Response Team. Vets, vet nurses and vet techs can register as volunteers there.
And there are other organizations that can be helped in other ways.
Medical Pantry, a collective which gathers unused or surplus medical supplies for redistribution. They will be helping supply what they can.
If you have space in your home, Airbnb Open Homes lets you register your home for displaced people or relief workers to offer them accommodation.
There are fodder drops being organized for livestock in affected areas but…well, some of these areas are not accessible yet and nobody’s quire sure what’s alive down there. But there will be a need for fodder and agistment paddocks for horses and livestock.
Some shelters or vet hospitals will also need things like feed/waterbowls and dog crates to house wildlife. A local organisation might have a pickup point near you, or some clinics will have staff registered to go as volunteers when asked.
In addition, some local knitters/sewers/crafters guild will be turning old cotton and flannelette material into pouches and wraps for injured wildlife. If you’ve got a local group, see what they’re doing and what you can donate out of the cupboards. I know Wonderground in South East Melbourne has a sewing day this Sunday (5thof Jan) and they are local to me, but see which groups are local to you.
This is the most up-to-date list of crafted products required that I have at the moment.
(From Animal Rescue freecycle)
January 2, 2020
24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year
Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general.
1. Become awesome at Excel.Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?
2. Learn how to code.Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.
3. Make a dynamic website.You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).
4. Learn to make a mobile game.If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.
5. Start reading faster.Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.
6. Learn a language!With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.
Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.
7. Pickle your own vegetables.Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.
8. Improve your public speaking skills.You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.
9. Get a basic handle of statistics.UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!
10. Understand basic psychology.Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.
11. Make your own music.Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).
Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.
Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.
Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!
12. Learn to negotiate.Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.
13. Stop hating math.If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!
14. Start drawing!All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)
15. Make your own animated GIF.BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.
16. Appreciate jazz.Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.
17. Write well.Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.
18. Get better at using Photoshop.Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).
19. Take decent pictures.Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.
20. Learn to knit.Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!
21. Get started with investing in stocks.If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!
22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.
23. Start practicing yoga.Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.
24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.It’s simple and just imagine the minutes of your life you’ll save!
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