It took me over an hour to do this, and I changed the background four or five times. This would have been a huge mess with magazine cut-outs and glue.

It seems...I don't know, scattered? Sparse? But I'm not experienced with this. I'll be patient with myself.

I just found out about Pinterest Shuffles. Collaging has never been my thing, and I'm now thinking that's because I don't want to deal with the mess. It seems I am willing to do digital collage.

I don't usually do divination on politics, but my dice are not warning about the downfall of the human species. So I guess the dice still have hope!

https://open.substack.com/pub/diydiv/p/dice-reading-on-us-presidential-election

The past few months have been too busy for me to make much time for art. And I don't have the mental energy for details when I'm worn out. I decided tonight that I don't care and just needed to draw something. The lack of caring shows in the poor shading. I'm glad I gave myself some time to do something I enjoy, though.

I'm going to take all my well-intentioned opinions and get them away from the Internet for today. I fear I would start arguing with the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Maybe I'll just go get my opinions some ice cream and keep them distracted.

#snake - Taking pictures is allowed today. It isn't always. He'll come out for me, but can quickly go into the sand when my phone comes out.

You know the part in the Charlie Brown Christmas special where he has just had it and starts screaming, "Can anybody here tell me what Christmas is all about?!?!?!"

It's July, the situation is different, but I'd really appreciate it if Linus would show up and make everything okay for me. Maybe let me hold the blanket. We could write letters to the Great Pumpkin.

This time, it's a base color of a sort of light to medium purple with a coat of magnetized nail polish on top. The magnetized polish would look like a thin layer of Labradorite on its own. It changes the purple to become ten little clear night skies on my fingers!

It is valid to be looking at job applications and say, "Seriously, these two are our only legit choices. And this one? NO! We've gotta fill the spot, so we're hiring this other one. I just wish we had better choices."

Day 125 and my Sea Monkeys are still going! I did lose one a few days ago, but even that one made it over 120 days.

https://youtu.be/aAXex5lJZnw

Again, I think the people twisting Biden's comments and trying to point to it as "he planned this"... it's BS. I don't even think they believe it.

These things just often make me think how there are many ways we need to do better. People who blame violence solely on things like movies or games aren't getting it, and that's not what I'm doing. I'm saying there are a lot of factors, and some of them may seem insignificant, but they're the ones most commonly experienced.

But I do think our choices in speech and entertainment influence how we look at the world. I am certainly not a "ban violent video games, but do nothing about guns" person! In fact, I think there is some healthy release to be found in things like shooting and fighting games.

Books, shows, and movies can have violence that is meaningful in the story. And it doesn't all have to be teachable moments. There's just a big difference between violence relevant to the story vs. violence looks cool.

"taking a [violent act] at it"?

Why do people play competitive video games and refer to winning against the other team as "absolutely [violent sexual act] them"?

Why do we say "I could have [violent fatal act] him!" when we're just mad at somebody?

Why are we so comfortable with speaking in violent ways, but then still shocked when violent acts are committed?

And we aren't as shocked as we used to be. We've become numb. A lot of that is because it happens so often.

I'm looking at this as a violent trauma survivor with PTSD. I am constantly braced for what might come out of people's mouths. I hate that people start getting ready for Halloween in the middle of summer because I hate that what almost killed me is a big part of Halloween jokes and celebration.

I'm tired of living in a world where people don't think violent speech is a problem until it becomes physical violence.

Why do we talk about making a guess or just giving something a try as

I thought about putting the "politics" tag on this, but it's really more about modern culture. It's something I want everyone to be more mindful of. It's about how violent speech is.

Yeah, the people pointing to Biden's previous comments about "putting Trump in a bullseye" are, I believe, intentionally twisting the meaning. They know how it was meant, and their favorite candidate has said and done worse.

But I want us to think about why we talk like that, and the effects of it.

I did become cool like him. I'm not famous, but I learned that's not what made him cool. It was the love. The passion for just existing. The willingness to be weird.

We were blessed to have Richard Simmons. This world is better because he breathed the same air as us.

I love Richard Simmons. I was so excited as a child to exercise along with him on the tv, and then there would be making a healthy food at the end of the show. My grandmother would lovingly laugh when we baked about how I learned to beat eggs by watching Richard Simmons.

When I was a teenager, I saw him talk about how he was bullied as a kid and how that made it so important to him to give love to the world. I thought anybody famous was cool, so I had hope I could become cool like him.

I kind of get it. I don't feel like I've fully experienced something if I don't use all of my senses. Sensory sensitivity in me manifests as a deep craving for tactile stimulation.

I also know how to respect other people's boundaries, though. I didn't realize how much it stressed me that she doesn't.

Some of that comes from me being autistic. Some of it is about me having religious practices that are not always obviously a religious thing to other people. But no matter how many times she was asked not to touch stuff, she did it anyway. She wants to touch it if it's pretty. She wants to touch it if it's not pretty. She wants to pick it up if she doesn't know what it is.