someone: so what do you think is the solution to homelessness?
me, socialist:
Let homeless people occupy peopleless homes, build houses for use rather than exchange, 3D print comfortable houses in a day, convert corporate skyscrapers into housing and commercial malls into publicly-accessible community centers with living commons and entertainment
When you say it to people and they break
“But the money? … we can’t just? But, Money? We can’t just… help… people? Can we? The Money. We can’t just help people? Like that? We can’t just? Money?”
There’s more to it than free real estate.
A massive portion of homeless people are mentally ill, and many of those illnesses aren’t being treated. Homeless people who have been on the streets and had their illnesses untreated for most of their lives aren’t going to adjust super well to suddenly having a place to live.
We need to build safety nets. We need social workers and mental health care professionals to help the homeless.
Every person deserves a roof and health care. Those two things need to go hand in hand.
The Housing First model of dealing with homelessness does exactly this. But actually when homeless people with mental illness or drug dependencies get into housing they start to do a lot better. Yes there are safety nets and things to work on after but it starts with housing. Homeless shelters right now aren’t doing enough because they either limit stays or make it so that drug addicts aren’t allowed to stay there at all. Obviously they’re still helping people but the Housing First model would actually help a lot more people long term and even be cheaper for the government in the long run. Unfortunately I don’t have sources but if someone can add them that’d be great.
Remember when you talk about the #prisonstrike to talk about what prisoners are striking for.
It is about prison slavery, but it is also about more than that. It is a
comprehensive human rights platform which identifies key injustices in
the system
The list of demands was crafted to raise this platform into US and
international consciousness and we do a disservice to prisoners when we
don’t center it
The Democratic candidate running against anti-immigrant Republican Congressman Steve King (IA) announced Saturday that she is dropping out of the race for her own safety.
Hey so
Part of Fascisms early roots was using violence to scare away potential candidates against their power.
god my neighbor just called me and she’s like… is this your chicken in our driveway… like who else has a chicken in this neighborhood yes it’s my chicken… so i get over there and kylo hen is chilling in their driveway eating some specs and stuff and there’s this actual crowd of people around her and i’m like… hi sorry mb let me get her… and oh my god… they’re like do you need us to call someone?? should we get help?? how should we do this?? do you need a net? like bitch it’s a chicken not a fucking komodo dragon. so i just… i was kind of joking around so i crouched down and patted my thighs and all the chickens are trained to come to me on sight because me = food… so i got down there and went “here girl!! come here!!” and the chicken comes running over and this group of actual adult ass individuals were staring at me like i was the fucking pied piper… and i didn’t know what to say…. so i just kind of walked back to my yard with the chicken following me and none of them moved or said a damn word and i think i literally just convinced them this chicken is trained like a dog…
your chicken’s name is kylo hen
I have only seen this post on Facebook…I am so proud to have found it
A long time ago (over a year ago?) I found these lectures on youtube. I kept raving about them and kept bugging every writer I knew to watch them until they were all sick of me. I haven’t done that in a while so I’m doing it to all of you now!
This is some of the best advice I have seen on writing anywhere ever, EVER! Sanderson’s lectures are practical and to the point.
This is his lecture from 2012 at BYU in Utah. You can find all videos and notes collected on one site. The maintainer of that site is a former student of Brandon Sanderson and has made all the recordings. http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/, under Learn > Archive.
The lectures alternate between writing and business advice. If you are an aspiring writer, you will find all of it interesting.
These are the lectures just about writing:
Lecture 1: Intro link Ideas are cheap link Class goals link Discovery writers vs Architects link Writing group essentials link
Lecture 2 What makes a good plot link Plots by outlining link Plots by discovery link YA Genres link Adult Genres link
Lecture 3 Intro to Prose link First Person Viewpoints link Third Person Viewpoints link Description part 1 link Description part 2 link
Lecture 4 Sympathetic Characters Part 1 link Sympathetic Characters Part 2 link Show us the Character link Giving Characters a Life Beyond the Plot link Character Creation Example Part 1 link Character Creation Example Part 2 link
Lecture 7 The Three Act Format link Try-Fail Cycles link The Heroes Journey link Brandon’s Plotting Method link
Lecture 9 Misc Questions (1/7) link Thinking of Setting as a Character link World Building Geography Part 1 link World Building Geography Part 2 link Creating Interesting Nations & Towns link Sanderson’s First Law of Magic link Sanderson’s Second Law of Magic link
Lecture 10 Misc Questions link Dialogue Mechanics link Replacing Adjectives and Passive Voice link Orwellian Prose link
Lecture 11 Misc Questions link Making Stories Meaningful link Three Rules for Fight Scenes link Things Movie Fight Scenes Can’t Do link The Larger Narrative Flow of a Scene link Realism vs Hollywoodification link Plotting Romances link
Lecture 13 Misc Questions link Brandon’s Revision Process link Misc. Questions on Revising link Revising for Discovery Writers link A Little Writerly Psychology link Thriller Plotting link Linguistic Variation link
I know it is a lot but it’s really worth it. I know it helped me a lot.
Go forth and write!
Every once in a while, this old post of mine comes up in my notifications again and it makes me incredibly happy to see that.
I think I made this post end of 2013 or beginning of 2014. The links for the lectures go to youtube and are still valid. The writeaboutdragons website seems to be asleep though. The english department of BYU has a youtube channel and they have the most recent of Brandon Sanderson’s classes in a playlist.
I also want to recommend the writingexcuses podcast, where Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler and Dan Wells are handing out writing advice that you could not possibly pay enough for. And they’re doing it for free!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make time to learn with these incredible resources and become a better writer along the way.
These have always been good.
Brandon Sanderson is an EXCELLENT resource on writing, because he’s not only good at it, he’s also very good at explaining it. Definitely recommend these lectures and the Writing Excuses podcast. You can actually download every episode ever of Writing Excuses from that link (there are a lot of them) and it’s 100% worth going back and snagging them all, or reading the transcripts if you prefer that. I like to listen to them while walking the dog; they’re only about 15 minutes per episode.
And if you’re ever looking for a really good writing conference to attend, LTUE happens every February in Provo, Utah; Sanderson and many other terrific local writers usually attend as panelists. (It also has non-writing programming; there’s a track for artists and they’re working on adding more good stuff every year. This year I’m super stoked to attend a panel on selling fan art, and one with Mary Robinette Kowal on puppetry!)
This!!!! His lectures are amazing and I’ve learned a lot from them!
funeral-biscuit 