elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey:
That’s cool as shit……
there are 5 books and 6 movies about why this is a bad idea
elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey:
That’s cool as shit……
there are 5 books and 6 movies about why this is a bad idea
jack-bauer-afarmerfromillinois:
Date a girl who crawled out of a TV intending to kill you but ended up crawling into a candlelit dinner you started preparing for seven days in advance and was so astonished she gave it a try and now you’re married.
So it occurs to me that the two great geek injustices of the past two
decades have been 1.) under or mis-utilization of the awesome that is
Harrison Ford, and 2.) the untimely termination of Firefly. Therefore, I
present to you, what is needed to make it right and regain balance in
the force. A TV series of the smuggling adventures of Han Solo and
Chewy, post the breakup with Leia, written by Joss Whedon.
Note: Resources are listed alphabetically by type.
Mental Health Apps
1. ACT Coach
ACT Coach teaches users how to tolerate negative thoughts and feelings by virtually guiding them through awareness exercises and giving tips on how to ditch self-doubt. With an extra focus on mindfulness, this app also provides a log to track your progress. (Free; iOS)
2. AETAS
Designed by therapist Rosemary Sword, this app uses Time Perspective Therapy, a method developed to unglue us from unhelpful or obsessive thoughts.
Chockfull of visual aids to encourage relaxation and self-soothing, AETAS also arms users with a time perspective inventory that helps them understand how they view the past, present and future will either help or hinder their happiness. ($4.99; iOS)
3. Breathe2Relax
Sometimes, all we need to de-stress is take a few deep breaths.
Created by the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, this app teaches users how to do diaphragmatic breathing. Features include educational videos on the stress response, logs to record stress levels and customizable guided breathing sessions. (Free; iOS and Android)
4. DBT Diary Card and Skills Coach
This app works as a daily mood and thought diary. But it also has a coaching module that gives tips on sticky emotional situations, like how to ask for what you need without drama or how to successfully resolve conflict.
And users get positive reinforcement when they’re consistent with their entries. The app also includes a super helpful DBT reference section for more info on coping skills — all backed by research. ($4.99; iOS)
5. Depression CBT Self-Help Guide
Need help managing the blues? Monitor dips in your mood, learn about clinical depression and treatments, try guided relaxation techniques and learn strategies to challenge negative thinking with this app. It’s all just a few taps and swipes away. (Free; Android)
6. eCBT calm
Implementing some of the many strategies of cognitive behavioral therapy, this app helps users assess their stress levels, practice mindfulness and relaxation skills, and connect their thoughts to feelings and behaviors.
The end result is more calm in your everyday life and more awareness of your actions and emotions. ($0.99; iOS)
7. Happify
Want to kick negative thoughts, nix worry and dial down stress? The array of engaging games, activity suggestions and gratitude prompts makes Happify a useful shortcut to a good mood.
Designed with input from 18 health and happiness experts, Happify’s positive mood-training program is psychologist approved. Even cooler? Its website links to bonus videos that are sure to make you smile. (Free; iOS)
8. How Are You
Tracking your moods can help you fight the blues and teach you to tune into positive things. That’s the premise behind this app.
But, as a bonus, it also allows you to compare your mood with worldwide averages, see which emotions you feel the most and export your mood tracking data so you can share it with a mental health professional or trusted friend. ($9.99-$12.99; iOS and Android)
9. MindShift
This straightforward stress management tool helps users re-think what’s stressing them out through a variety of on-screen prompts.
At the same time, the app encourages new ways to take charge of anxiety and tune into body signals. (Free; iOS and Android)
10. Operation Reach Out
This mood tracker and resource locator was designed by Emory University researchers to aid in suicide prevention.
The setup is simple: Users create a personal profile that includes emergency contact information, current medications, safety plans and reminders for appointments or medications.
Plus, the app uses GPS to locate mental health care services nearby, should any user enter crisis mode. (Free; iOS and Android)
11. PTSD Coach
If you suffer from PTSD symptoms, this 24-hour tool that’s linked directly with support services is a valuable thing to download.
Available as an app or on the Web, PTSD Coach lets users select the specific issue they want to deal with (from anxiety and anger to insomnia and alienation), and then gives them guidance on how to lift their mood, shift their mindset and reduce stress. (Free; iOS and Android)
12. Quit It
If you’re a smoker, you probably already know all about the nasty health consequences. But that probably doesn’t stop you from lighting up.
This app’s approach is different. It shows you the hit your wallet takes every time you get another pack. Even better: Quit It calculates how much money you save each time you don’t smoke.
Think of it as extra financial incentive to kick nicotine and tobacco (and save for something far better!). ($1.99; iOS)
13. Quit Pro
Think of this as a fitness tracker for your smoking habit. By monitoring your cravings over time, the places you puff the most, the triggers that lead you to light up and the money you save by resisting a cigarette, this comprehensive app is a much better thing to have in your back pocket than a pack of smokes. (Free; iOS and Android)
14. SAM
How do you know what’s pushing you over the edge and reel yourself back in? SAM’s approach is to monitor anxious thoughts, track behavior over time and use guided self-help exercises to discourage stress.
SAM takes it to the next level by offering a “Social Cloud” feature that allows users to confidentially share their progress with an online community for added support. (Free; iOS and Android)
15. Step Away
A study funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found this pro-sobriety app helped reduce heavy drinking among users by 60 percent.
Step Away offers tips on maintaining sobriety, encouragement and strategies to avoid drinking during stressful times. You’ll also be able to plug in your top drinking triggers to prepare yourself before facing down any tricky situation. (Free; iOS)
16. Stop, Breathe, Think!
Got five minutes? That’s enough time to cultivate mindfulness, which can improve your mood, lower stress and help you feel more compassion toward yourself and the world.
Skeptical? Well, consider that mindfulness and happiness tend to go hand-in-hand. And as added incentive, this app can also improve your focus. (Free; iOS and Android)
17. Stop Drinking
Relying on the powers of relaxation, visualization and positive suggestions, this pro-sobriety app has the goal of calming your mind and getting it to a less stressed place — where you’ll be less likely to crave a drink.
Take advantage of the reminder feature that gives periodic chimes to prompt you to breathe and focus on the good throughout the day. ($2.99; iOS and Android)
18. Stress and Anxiety Companion
Sure, we know that releasing negative thoughts, practicing relaxation techniques and engaging in mindful awareness is good for our wellbeing. But that doesn’t mean we actually do it.
This app can help make the process a lot easier by guiding you through proven techniques to reduce those off-kilter thoughts and emotions while cultivating a much more present mindset.
Additional features allow you to identify anxiety triggers to make sure they don’t catch you off-guard. ($4.99; iOS)
19. Talkspace
Bet you didn’t think you could chat with a therapist for just $25 a week. Well, Talkspace makes that possible.
For that low fee, you can text message with a trained professional every day of the week, as many times as you want. They also offer services for individuals and couples. Oh, and the best part? You can do it from your couch. ($25/month; iOS and Android)
20. Worry Watch
We all get anxious only to realize later our anxieties were overblown or irrational. The idea behind Worry Watch is to nip these moments in the bud.
This app enables users to track what kickstarts their anxiety, note trends in their feelings, observe when the outcomes were harmless and keep tabs on insights to stop future freakouts.
To lower your anxiety even further, Worry Watch is password protected, so whatever you divulge in the diary feature is safe and sound. ($1.99; iOS)
Websites, Online Support and Forums
21. Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation
People with Body Dysmorphic Disorder have a damaging preoccupation with their appearance and an obsessive focus on their physical flaws. If that sounds familiar, you might find some relief on the BDD Foundation’s website.
Resources for better understanding the problem, seeking treatment and spreading the word about the disorder are all laid out here.
22. Center for Complicated Grief
Hosted by the Center for Complicated Grief, this long list of resources gives people a ton of alternative outlets, social support groups and organizations to connect with when healing from the loss of a loved one.
23. CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers
Founded in 1994 as an alliance to promote and maintain LGBTQ community centers, CenterLink’s helpful services have now moved online.
Check out all they have to offer — from links to health centers across the US to advocacy groups and educational services.
24. GLBT National Help Center
A great resource for folks identifying all across the LGBTQ spectrum, this site includes information on everything from support to education to community organizing.
One of the center’s best resources is its online volunteer-run chat room. All chats are confidential (read: no transcripts or recordings are saved). Chats are open 1 pm to 9 pm PST during the week and between 9 am and 2 pm PST on weekends.
25. Healing From BPD
For anyone with borderline personality disorder, this peer-run chat is the perfect online space to ask questions about BPD and its treatment, especially considering that mental health professionals often chime in.
It’s also a place to share experiences, discuss progress and challenges, and potentially make some new friends who get where you’re coming from because they’re right there with you.
26. IMAlive
If you’re in a place where picking up the phone seems too daunting, you can still access support through IMAlive’s virtual crisis chat.
Staffed by a network of trained and supervised peer volunteers around the country, IMAlive’s goal is to empower individuals in despair, address their situations and help them navigate the darkest and most difficult emotional times.
27. International OCD Foundation
An invaluable space for those struggling with obsessive compulsive disorder, this site has many links, resources and opportunities to get involved in the ongoing fight to preserve mental health.
Find help, learn more about the illness and even apply for grants here.
28. MentalHealth.gov
The main goal of this government-sponsored resource is to educate as many people as possible about the realities of mental illness in America while offering resources to those seeking help.
Consider this your go-to site for a rundown on what mental health disorders look like. It also includes information on how to get help, support someone you love, or start a dialog about mental health in your community.
29. National Alliance on Mental Illness
From education about mental illness to updates on insurance coverage, NAMI offers a slew of resources. People who want to get informed about the workings of the mind and our government’s recognition of mood and behavioral disorders will get the full scoop here.
But arguably the most helpful resource is the heart-wrenching and hopeful personal stories from individuals across the country sharing their accounts of living with mental illness.
30. National Center for Victims of Crime
This impeccable resource enables victims of all types of crimes (think: bullying, physical abuse, stalking and even terrorism) to secure the specific type of help they need.
Individuals in need can plug in their desired assistance, from case advocacy to counseling, along with their state and county for immediate, local help ASAP.
31. National Eating Disorder Association of America
A pioneer in the education and treatment for eating disorders, NEDA extends a wide range of support services, learning tools and opportunities to advocate on behalf of those with an eating disorder.
You can also get involved with the association’s sister program, Proud2BMe, and join a community geared toward promoting a healthier relationship with food and weight.
32. National Institute of Mental Health
One of the most comprehensive and trusted sources for information about mental illness, the National Institute of Mental Health’s site is packed with educational tools designed to promote awareness and provide funding for research.
It serves as a hub on a variety of topics: the latest news on a range of disorders, updates on new treatments and reports on insurance coverage. And, yes, you can also search for support via NIMH’s site as well.
33. OK2Talk
Designed for teens and young adults with mental illness, this site offers an online outlet for people to come forward with their own stories, find support and discuss the diagnoses they may have received.
OK2Talk comes with plenty of motivational posts and mantras as well. One quick look at the site will tip you off that, whatever you’re struggling with, you’re most certainly not alone.
34. Stalking Resource Center
You probably already know stalking is an extremely serious issue. But you may not know what type of help to seek if you or someone you know is a victim. Here’s where the Stalking Resource Center can help.
They present a number of options for anyone struggling with endless unwanted attention or obsessive behavior. From a brochure explaining what stalking is (and how to tell if you’re being followed) to tips on developing a safety plan, this site should be the first stop for anyone in need of assistance.
35. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
This government-sponsored resource is chockfull of data, research insights, grants and educational tools about substance dependencies and mood or behavioral issues. SAMHSA also offers many resources for people suffering from these issues.
36. Trevor Space
Are you a young person seeking support for an identity that falls along the LGBTQ spectrum? This site, an endeavor sponsored by the Trevor Project, is an excellent safe haven to connect to other young gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans* or queer people.
You’ll also pick up news about LGBTQ issues and get tips for joining in the community, wherever you live.
Hotlines and Call Centers
37. Borderline Personality Disorder Resource Center: 1-888-694-2273
If you’ve been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder — or you have a hunch you or a loved one may be displaying symptoms of BPD — the social workers staffing the Borderline Personality Disorder Resource Center’s hotline can arm you with all the information you need about local resources and provide immediate over-the-phone counseling.
38. National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
With the primary aim of keeping you going even in the darkest of times, this suicide prevention hotline is available 24/7 to offer a compassionate ear — no matter what you’re dealing with.
Pour your heart out to a skilled staffer without fear of being judged, and if you’d like referrals to local mental health care services after your call, hotline representatives can set you up.
39. Disaster Distress Hotline: 1-800-985-5990
If you’ve recently been the victim of a disaster (whether caused by nature or man), this is your go-to contact for all things related to counseling and relief. The trained counselors staffing the Disaster Distress Hotline provide help to those suffering in the wake of hurricanes, floods, wildfires, droughts and earthquakes as well as incidences of mass violence or health epidemics (like the Ebola crisis).
The call center is also open to friends and family members of victims. An alternative way to connect is to text “TalkWithUs” to 66746.
40. GLBT National Help Line: 1-888-843-4564
Need to talk to someone who gets it when it comes to coming out, being bullied for your sexual orientation, or navigating same-sex relationships? Look no further than the GLBT National Help Line, run by peers and allies of the LGBTQ community.
This hotline is ready to hear your concerns and can connect you to the GLBT National Help Center’s massive list of resources for LGBTQ-friendly services and organizations near you.
41. GLBT National Help Center for Youth: 1-800-246-7743
If you’re under 21 and looking to speak with a peer counselor who really understands issues related to gender or sexual identity, this is the number to call. Similar to the national help line, this version for youth lets young LGBTQ-identified individuals dial in to talk about hardships faced in their day-to-day lives.
Callers can also access a ton of resources to help bolster them well into their 20s and beyond.
Reasons Why Being A Nature Photographer Is The Best Job In The World.
The LetterKenny sketch about steak is funny, but from my perspective and experience in grilling all 3 suggestions are terrible.
1. You paid 20 Canadian dollars EACH for a shit cut like sirloin? Boy if you’re gonna drop that kinda money, but you want to stay loyal to ‘Berta Beef get you some 1″ rib-eyes. Way better cut.
2. You’re seriously gonna grill those slabs of gristle on a propane grill? Squirrely Dan is right they will end up dry. Not that his suggestion is any better. Pan frying a steak is blasphemy. You want to grill those and give them a chance at juicy-ness you want to grill them on a charcoal grill. And don’t give me that shit about charcoal leaving a weird taste. Stop using matchlight or lighter fluid and get you a proper charcoal tower.
3. Salt and pepper is a good idea, but you want to really boost the flavor, use less dry salt and pepper and let the streaks marinate in some worcestershire.
4. Grill marks insinuates that you might be pressing that beef, which AGAIN is doing nothing but drying them out. Don’t over handle your meat, boys. Now if you’re really moving forward with sirloin then you’re not gonna want more than a couple minutes each side. If you decided to upgrade then the bone-in rib-eyes are gonna take a little bit longer. You still only want one flip.
Anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk
It’s also important not to over-salt the steak. Too much salt ruins anything - including steak.
maybe you MILLENIALS would be able to afford a house if you stopped spending your money at your local diner’s jukebox buying twenty one (21) plays of what’s new pussycat with one (1) play of it’s not unusual in the middle
Does everyone just inexplicably know this
Yes.
I love it that whenever teachers ask for salary raises, Romanians are so quick to support them because “there’s no profession more noble”, but if doctors ask for pay raises or at least more funds for hospitals, they are quickly shamed because “doctors are supposed to practice from passion, not for money, and they’re all thieves anyway, they don’t even deserve a salary in the first place”, by the same people who immediately complain if hospitals are underfunded and understaffed, complain that a lot of doctors also work extra hours at private clinics, and that a lot of doctors leave the country to work in the West.
Not that teaching isn’t a noble profession, but sewing me up when I’ve managed to slice myself open and fixing whatever horrible disease I’ve come down with are both pretty noble actions, IMO.
White people have been visiting the Pacific, taking our things, and making a shitload of money for themselves since the 16th century. Please listen to Pasifika people when we tell you that a not-insignificant number of us are not okay with a settler corporation like Disney commodifying our cultures and our histories to make massive profits for their shareholders which we, ourselves, the survivors of centuries of colonisation and ethnic cleansing, will see almost none of.
Moana is the latest expression of European imperialism in the Pacific and Pasifika people have the right to speak that truth. Pasifika sovereignty is more important than your right to uncritically enjoy a fucking children’s movie.
On the other hand, people also grumble about Disney not having enough POCs in them. It’s an interesting problem. I think that people often fail to notice Americans with ethnic ancestry wanting one thing and the current inhabitants of that country wanting something else (popular American support for the IRA, Japanese fashion designers that want to promote kimonos, etc.). Tricky.
We all know that Hoth was a simmering mess of hormones and stress and I would pay good money for a soap opera about them. Here are some things which Definitely Happened:
- There’s a betting pool going on who takes Luke’s virginity. The favourites are Han and Leia, but Wedge Antilles has pretty good odds, and there’s a small contingent of aliens who are convinced it will be Chewie (after all, who could resist that Wookie musk? Headcanon: most alien races consider humans soft and gross. Most alien races find Wookies absurdly attractive. Han Solo isn’t the ladykiller; Chewie is.)
- Leia and Han scream at each other in every corner of the base. Everyone is desperate for them to fuck. They do not. The sexual tension is so thick that it could be cut into blocks and sold as wall insulation. More than once they are ‘accidentally’ locked in a supply cupboard in the vain hope that claustrophobia will act as the catalyst that enables their frustration to spark into true love – or at least nasty raunchy cupboard sex. It does not. All that happens is that the offender has legally changed their name to escape the Wrath of Organa.
- Someone paints a shirtless Han Solo on their X Wing. Leia is furious. Han is delighted: both at the highly flattering portrait (he has an eight-pack, he is shredded) and at Leia’s fury (you’re jealous princess/no I am not/you’re jealous, hey I can pose like that for you if you –). Hoth’s winter had nothing on the chilly silence that followed that suggestion.
- Luke and Leia both have very graphic dreams about Han Solo. Han Solo has very graphic dreams about the twins – individually, together, he’s thirty fucking years old, why is his brain doing this to him.(Later on they will, individually, realise that due to Luke and Leia’s Force-bond they probably created a circle of Han Solo Sex Dreams: Leia had them, so Luke sensed her lust for Han which intensified his own lust for Han, which led to Luke having Han Solo sex dreams, which led to Leia lusting – and so on, and so on. For the sake of their sanity, they never share this revelation which each other.)
- Luke is SO COLD. All the time. WHY DOES NO ONE APPRECIATE HOW COLD HE IS. He comes from a desert world. Of course he’s cold! What is all this white stuff? It was pretty for the first fve seconds but holy fucking Force it is so cold it burns and what the hell is going on with that? He bundles himself up in so many layers that he waddles rather than walks. Fearsome Last of the Jedi indeed.
- Luke tapes a knife to a cleaning droid (disc-shaped things that swish around the base, sucking up dirt) and names it Stabby. Why, says Leia. Luke, the boy from Tatooine, shining and happy despite everything says why not. Why not indeed. Stabby is very fond of chasing Han. Han wants desperately to shoot the fucking thing– but then he sees big-eyed Luke and sharp-toothed Leia cooing over it and, well. A little bit of light stabbing is nothing, compared to those two smiling.
STABBY THE SPACE ROOMBA!
I am torn between wanting Stabby to be grabbed and evacuated along with the Rebels and make it to the next base, and wanting Stabby to get Vader.
Compromise: shortly after losing the Millennium Falcon, Vader, storming through the Rebel base, is startled to feel a sudden jolt of pain from the artificial sensors on his left leg prosthetic: a sharp sensation on his ankle. Surprised, because he sensed no threat–is the limb malfunctioning?–he looks down, and there is a cleaning droid with a knife taped to it, a little painted-on Rebel lieutenant’s insignia, and the word STABBY written on it.
He stares down at it, completely and utterly taken aback for the first time in over a decade. Fearlessly, it chitters back at him, sounding very triumphant.
He picks it up.
Off in the fractal weirdness of hyperspace, Rebels on several ships are surprised to find an update on Stabby’s kill-update feed, and then thoroughly shocked at the accompanying image: the upward-pointing camera has captured an image of Darth Vader staring down at the droid.
It’s the fastest news ever to travel through the Rebel grapevine, the mix of triumph and loss that is, they are certain, Stabby’s heroic last stand.
Until a day later, when the thing updates again, this time showing an extremely confused Imperial officer. And another, and another, and another, day after day.
They cancel the funeral.
Vader hasn’t done much just for the fun of it in two decades. Watching Imperial officers swear and clutch their ankles as a cleaning drone with a knife taped to it, an Imperial emblem, lieutenant’s insignia, and the word STABBY painted on it, bumps into them and then chatters triumphantly, he’s figured he’s earned.
STABBY FIC! STABBY STARWARS FIC! YOU HAVE MADE MY DAY!
But do they send in a rescue unit to reclaim their most honorable POW?
no, the rebels are all too happy to have vader backing one of their most valuable psychological weapons. stabby’s antics are invaluable for their ability to escalate tension within imperial ranks, and vader’s personal amusement means stabby will get to keep running his miniature interference mission for a long time to come
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSS
STABBY LIVESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Grand Moff Tarkin limps into Vader’s quarters. Again. “Lord Vader, enough of this.”
“I have altered the droid; pray I do not alter it any further.”
(If there’s one thing young Anakin Skywalker can appreciate, it’s a hot-rodded maintenance droid, c’mon.)
VADER PUTS A LIGHTSABRE ON STABBY
HE CALLS IT HIS APPRENTICE
MY SON WILL NOT TURN TO THE DARKSIDE BUT MY SON’S STABBY SON WILL
Stabby is eventually recovered and given a medal after the defeat of the Emperor, but his poor little chassis is too badly damaged by then to even hold onto the knife anymore. His internal mechanism is removed and upgraded, and then the Master Droid Tech charged with fixing him casts around for a new casing to put him in.
“Hey!” calls a teenaged Poe Dameron, walking into the Droid repair shop. “I got this decommissioned BB-8 chassis they said to bring in here. It needs a new owner. Captain said I can have it if I can find a new mechanism for it.”
The Master Droid Tech looks at Stabby, then at the BB-8 chassis, then back at Stabby. Stabby turns his unsheathed ocular sensor to Poe and beeps adoringly. (This is a common if relatively new reaction to Poe Dameron, who has just graduated from his Awkward Stage.)
“Yeah, I got one for you right here,” the Tech says, grinning.
so hey fun fact for anyone who wants queer history trivia: the first disco in Seattle was opened in 1973 and was a gay bar called “shelly’s leg” and it was named after a dancer named shelly who lost her leg in a confetti cannon accident and used the insurance/lawsuit settlement money to open a gay disco.
a) This is such a fantastic story that I wouldn’t care if it were made up, except that