My friend who wished to remain anonymous translated this video and asked me to share it on her behalf:
We can’t take it anymore. We are living as victims here, martyrs with the difference of times (when we are murdered), we are murdered one after another.
And no one looks at us, no one witnesses the magnitude of the catastrophe of the genocide we are living in gaza.
No protection. No international protection of any sort. No immunity against anything. These vests do not protect us, these helmets do not protect us. It is just a couple of slogans that we wear, it does not offer any protection for any reporter. These helmets and these vests do not protect us. We just wear it as slogans.
We are victims here. Victims being aired live, we lose our lives one after another without any price in return. We live as martyrs living on borrowed time, each waiting our turn to get murdered.“
Our colleague, Mohammed was here only half an hour ago. And now he has departed us and he lies here dead with his wife and his child and his brother, along with a lot of his family who are also victims here inside this hospital.
Some days your tog favourite quote is any of the killer lines speaking about love grief and humanity, sometimes it’s Nicky’s super petty “prego, pREGo, PREGO” when he loses the bet and a centuries long family dynamic is established in 3 minutes
National Clean Your Home Month, aka NaClYoHo or “Salty Pirates” month, is soon to be upon us!
Each November, I “host” NaClYoHo, where participants work to make their living spaces more comfortable and pleasant. The full manifesto is at the link, but the basic premise is that each day in November you put on a podcast, tv show, playlist, or other media, and clean or organize some aspect of your home.
It’s meant to be a low-stress way to both do a yearly cleaning and also participate in an intensive project like National Novel Writing Month without having to write a novel. I’ll be posting about it again before November kicks off, but I thought I’d link to the manifesto well ahead of time, so people could brace themselves. :D
This year my big goals are to figure out how to keep my floors truly clean, replace at least one rug, and clear out the storage nook where I have a bunch of stuff that needs sorting through. I am also going to try to dedicate some time to researching those “bathroom refresh” companies that basically just put a shell over your existing shower/tub/walls and see if it’s feasible for my bathroom, which desperately needs it.
Oh hey we can share the misery. Dunno if I can manage this every day, but maybe? Some days?
*my* home’s gonna take longer than a month. even if i marathon.
I hope it’s okay to respond to this (if not let me know and I’ll delete) because that line of thinking is actually one reason I started this project. The goal of NaClYoHo is not “have a clean home”, which I consider a frustrating and unattainable goal, but to improve one’s living space and increase comfort in it gradually and gently.
You don’t have to completely clean a home or even a room. The ideal practice is, in fact, to ask yourself, what would be one brief thing you could do to make your space more livable? And then do that. Marathon cleaning is actually contrary to the philosophy of NaClYoHo, which is to use external media (a podcast, a TV show, a playlist) to limit the time you spend daily so as to pace out your energy. I rarely spend an hour a day on it, usually closer to twenty minutes. I run the damn thing and I don’t even manage every single day in November, usually.
I hate cleaning. I also have two cats and ADHD. I started this before my diagnosis as a coping mechanism I didn’t understand that I needed. My home is comfortable, not spotless, but over the years this system has helped me install storage, fix holes in walls, clean the bathroom sink and the stove hood at least once a year, buy a vacuum and a trash can, change dead lightbulbs, finish crafting projects, and frame all my posters, among other things.
It’s okay not to be perfect and it’s actually healthy not to spend all your time cleaning or feeling guilty because you aren’t. This is just a fun way to consciously examine what you could improve and take steps to achieve it.
And if that’s not for you that’s okay too. I just want to make sure people don’t misunderstand motivation as masochism. The goal is to make one’s life and mental health better, not worse.
I love this idea so much and I want to give a shout out to three further resources I’ve found very helpful for cleaning and tidying:
Unfuck Your Habitat by Rachel Hoffman - a great how-to book (and website! And. Tumblr!) based on the argument that you deserve to have a space you can live in, and here is how to make that happen even if you’re a spoonie/depressed/allergic to routines. UFYH also gives you clear directions on how to clean specific rooms, and there are printable to-do lists if you’re a millennial who owns a printer (like me) and enjoy ticking off boxes. Also the moving guides are so good!
Real life application: I love the 20-10 and the 45-15 approach to cleaning. I break mine up a little differently, using podcasts or audiobook chapters as my “pause point”. It’s nice to know I don’t have to keep cleaning the whole house. I can just do one room now and then go do something else later. (I rabbit-hole into cleaning really easily so this has saved me from marathoning every other week.)
How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis - this book (and her site, Struggle Care) really dives into the reality of trying to run a household & home while having small kids and being neurodivergent. It gives a really gentle approach and encourages you to chuck out the rule book. It has a lot of practical tips and workarounds for maintaining a nice space without guilt, which I appreciate.
Real life application: Because of this book, I moved my daughter’s clothes into the main hallway cupboard, out of her bedroom. She never uses her own room to get dressed anyway, so she was reluctant about making a whole extra trip, and not wanting to put things away… and now it’s just easier. Of course it’s not “normal” that she wants to get dressed in my room, but if I body double with her to get her dressed, it happens faster and we get to school on time. And I can drink my coffee in bed. Win-win! At some point she’ll take over getting herself dressed, without needing to be body doubled, and we can switch it back.
Organizing Solutions for People With ADHD by Susan C Pinsky - This has been my go-to organizing book for probably the last four or five years. It has a lot of practical tips and advice and will help you set up a household from scratch if you’re moving out. It’s a little dated (I think the landlines and mail signal that — shift to online billing and mobile phones does require a different approach) but the practical advice is off-the-charts good.
Real life application: I no longer have any hidden storage, because I know that if I don’t see something, I won’t remember I have it. This has prevented me from buying things twice (a common ADHD thing). Also, I now put hooks everywhere. And bins. I have so many bins. But there is no trash on desks or tables or on the floor, because there is always a bin right there!
In short, none of these sites/books are going to judge you for not having a perfect home. All of those books have given me so many great ideas for making my home a livable, workable space I enjoy spending time in. I hope they’re helpful and that everyone gets to feel a lot less stress about keeping their home clean and tidy.
Many of these have been discussed in past NaClYoHo events but they’ve never really been collected up anywhere or summarized like this, thank you very much! Reblogging for a resource for all.
Yep, I’m on the side of these superb piggies. This is play stupid games, win stupid prizes territory.
Native wild animals engaging in natural animal behaviors?!?! I’m shocked!
…is this a new golf course? Or has this never happened before, and the javelina are newly moving in for some reason? It surprises me that this is being presented as a Brand New Issue given that map
