So today it was above 110 F – which is hot even for us. Seriously, when I go outside today, the heat feels like a physical blow and I can feel my breathing change. We are used to dealing with heat, but extremes like this can still be dangerous and even a risk to life.
This heat may continue for at least the next two days.
And some areas tend to get even hotter than here! I’m worried for Yuma, as I can only imagine what the temperature is now. Or Phoenix with the godawful urban heat island effect.
~
So here’s some tips for dealing with desert heat that I know – please feel free to add more:
– First: An easy way to stay cool is to stay inside cooled buildings! If your house doesn’t have appropriate cooling, libraries and malls are both nice air-conditioned places you can go for free.
– If you have elderly or ill neighbors that you think might not have appropriate cooling – think about checking up on them too. Some illnesses and medications make people more susceptible to heat.
– Drink stuff! Taking little sips often is more effective than draining a big glass all at once. The second way you just pee most of it out, your body doesn’t like that sort of rapid change. But the most important thing is to DRINK SOMETHING. Exactly what or how you drink it matters less.
– Water is good! But sometimes it might not sit well in your stomach. If your stomach doesn’t feel good, try drinking something that ISN’T ice cold, or switching your plain water for some juice, gatorade, or carbonated beverages. Not everyone can handle ice water (especially when their stomach is nauseous from dehydration), but that doesn’t mean you have to deal with being dehydrated.
– Speaking of gatorade – with your water, you’ll want to get some salts/electrolytes too. So try drinking some gatorade or juice. Or eating fruits and the occasional salty snack. You sweat out salts too, not just water. Replacing them will help you feel better.
– Signs of dehydration can be nausea, light-headedness, dizziness, headache, sensory weirdness, confusion, and generally feeling bad. If you feel any of these things, check in whether you have been drinking enough and keeping cool. If your pulse starts to get faint or your heartbeat gets fast, or if you stop sweating, this can be a sign of dangerous heat stroke.
– Wear lightweight clothing in light colors if possible. Cotton and silk are great for keeping you cool. Synthetics not so much (except for those fancy ones used for sports but not everyone has the $ for that). Avoid things like nylon – it traps the sweat next to your skin and you will roast.
– Experiment with long sleeves and hats! Keeping the sun off you can help keep you cool.
– And speaking of sun… To stay cool, stay in the shade.
– And also, remember that plants and pets will also be affected by the heat and need extra shade/water/etc. Don’t forget about them, please.
Oh my god, someone has footage of it! I remember one time my dad, lil brother, and I were leaving a Ryan’s. We were waiting for a chance to hop onto the road and in the distance we just saw everything turn grey. We saw it come closer and closer and come to find out it was rain!
It was just a wall of rain – the end of the rain, really. I’ve never seen it again, but it’s so cool to see footage of the edge of rain!
This happened when I was a little kid. It was raining in the back yard, so I went inside. I looked out front and it was dry, so I went out and played in the front yard instead. Haha
If a neurotypical asks you, “What game are you playing?” they’re not asking you to describe the game.
They’re asking you if they can play too.
If a neurotypical asks you, “What are you watching?” they’re not asking you to explain the plot of the movie/tv show to them.
They’re asking if they can watch it with you.
.
When neurotypicals ask you “What are you doing?”
What you think they’re asking: “Please explain to me what you are doing.”
What they’re actually asking: “Can I join you?”
Now here’s the really fucked up part. If you start explaining to them what you’re doing? They will interpret that as a rejection.
What you think you’re saying: [the answer to their question]
What they think you’re saying: This is an elite and exclusive activity for a level 5 friend and you are a level 1 acquaintance. You are not qualified to join me because you don’t know all this stuff. Go away.
.
This is why neurotypicals think you’re being cold and antisocial.
IT’S ALL A HORRIBLE MISCOMMUNICATION.
I didn’t realize, even thought it took me almost three decades to learn this, that this was such a paradigm changing realization until we had our conversation today.
But it really really is. One of the most bewildering realizations I’ve had is most people don’t talk to learn things unless its related to work or directly towards their own hobbies, all the words and questions are bonding questions if done socially. They are “lets make friends” questions.
So if I answer their question without an opportunity for the person asking the question to give a response or to join in somehow, the asker feels alienated and starts shutting down.
Example: what are you reading?
True answer but not what they’re looking for: Title of book
Best answer for social scenarios where I want to retain/create friendship: This book is about x and y but it has z that i know u have an interest in too.
Example: what are you doing?
True answer but not: drawing
Best answer for friends: I’m drawing but would u like company while I’m working?
And sometimes frankly I’m not in a headspace where I can process people so the answer is something like, “I would like to do something in a day or later, do you want to plan something?”
Tldr: communication is wierd
HOLY
SHIT
that explains so fucking much thank you
(why the fuck do neurotypicals never just day what they mean ie hey this show looks cool mind if I join you)
Further annoying?
They don’t realize that’s what they’re asking and they just feel rejected and go away. So you can’t even ask them what you did wrong because they can’t even put a finger on why they feel the way they do they just know you made them feel bad for some undefined reason.
ok i keep seeing this on my dash, and as a neurotypical, i feel like this post is pulling my leg. why would anyone ask “what are you reading/playing” and not expect to hear the title of the thing? wouldn’t they just ask what it is about, if they don’t know from the title? who the heck asks “what are you doing” when the answer is obvious and automatically expects to be invited to something? what
Okay so I’ve been seeing alot more of these types of posts in the reblogs and I feel like I need to speak up.
Dear NT who are confused at these posts:
The OP and I are best friends and we were having a discussion about basically, “the me in HS wish I knew This Unspoken Social Rule.” I actually didn’t expect her to post about it but it did and it blew up and from the tags it’s helped alot of people both on the spectrum and adhd and various other funky brain things.
This unspoken social rule hinders many people but disproportionally affects those of us on the spectrum.
The post specifically states it’s directed towards those on the spectrum.
The reason why: Those of us on the spectrum have immense difficulty with nonverbal cues
The spectrum ‘at rest’ demeanor, which is HIGHLY YMMV depending on the person, includes: not looking people in the eye, not facing people/poor posture, having a ‘angry’ or otherwise negative resting expression, having a voice that is monotone or sounds negative.
It takes me conscious effort to turn around and look someone in the face (let alone the eyes), hold my body in the right position, make sure to put all my face muscles in the right place so I look friendly, modulate my tone so that it’s warm and approachable.
It is a CONSCIOUS JUGGLING ACT, and that doesn’t include parsing all the words and nonverbal cues of the person who is approaching us.
Being interrupted by a person while you’re focusing on something is agitating and we do not default to ‘a person is trying to join me in conversation’. Most likely we have our ‘at rest’ demeanor on.
If you look at the tags many of those on the spectrum regard a question in this state as an info query.
It doesn’t register as a conversation opener.
It doesn’t register as a potential olive branch to a potential friend.
I’m not saying that all spectrum people are looking for a friend, but many are and are very upset that they somehow keep messing up a social interaction.
A conversation for an NT person (as seen in the reblogs):
“What are you watching?”
“Title of show.”
“Oh cool, can I join?”
“Sure!”
A different but similar conversation as experienced by someone on the spectrum:
“What are you watching?”
“Title of show.”
“Oh ok.” And for some reason the person leaves.
What is going on you ask?
For the NT example:
“What are you watching?” The speaker tilts in and gives a nervous smile.
“Title of show.” they say, turning around and smiling back at the speaker. “It’s about pirates.”
The speaker lights up. “Oh cool, can I join?”
“Sure!”
For me, on the spectrum, before I figured this out:
“What are you watching?” An acquaintance interrupts the show when I’m trying to focus, I feel annoyed because the DVD is right there, I hunch in farther and don’t even look away from the TV because its hard for me to understand sounds.
I wish this show had captions.
“Title of show.” I say, really frustrated, and still trying to focus. Are they being annoying on purpose?
“Oh ok.” And the acquaintance leaves for some reason and I’m totally confused because why did they just come to me to ask me a one word question that they could have figured out themselves? And I was helpful! I answered their question! And… did they maybe sound negative? Was that disappointment in their voice?
But… I answered their question! What’s going on?
I thought we’d worked well together on a project? I’d thought we could maybe be friends. Oh well give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I’m imagining things.
Later on this acquaintance is cold towards me for no reason I could figure out. I try to ask and things get more awkward.
We drift away from each other but I’m left forever confused over what happened.
Again, not all people on the spectrum are in the place they’re searching for friends. Not all allistics respond this way. Sometimes the topic/show/book genuinely isn’t interesting enough or enough of a common touchstone.
These posts maybe helpful but not for them. It’s actually to address this exact situation that I have outlined above. With some details changed this situation has happened various times. Sometimes I tried giving the title of the show and explaining it to them at length but that just made them seem more desperate to leave.
If you have never experienced that, and some cultures won’t have this type of ‘asking’ social structure, this entire series of posts and people’s responses to it won’t be of use.
Persistent pain is a danger sign that a major and potentially life-threatening toll is being exacted on the human body and mind. We do not have the luxury of ignoring or undertreating chronic pain conditions. Good pain management is one of the best ways to improve long-term outcomes and quality of life.”
in all seriousness though I do think that we have a general problem of like, Left ideas being great and people generally agreeing with them, but Left terms being something that has long been demonized and even when it hasn’t, it’s been obscured by a century plus of theorization.
in that way frankly it’s like a lot of other struggles- activists have to overcome the hurdle of people not even knowing what they’re talking about, and there’s a struggle for basic vocabulary to express the ideas.
richard wolff is just about the only anticapitalist activist I can think of who actively works to define his terms, and rephrases classical theory into modern, comprehensible language. in the spirit of that, here’s a few subsitutions I’ve found effective in my own conversations.
don’t say “worker”, say “employee”. not all workers are employees, but in a US context the lion’s share of them are. Similarly, don’t say “capitalist”, say “employer”. "the workers are exploited by their bosses" is a sentence from 1920. “Employers routinely find ways to screw over their employees” is just a basic fact everyone knows.
you gotta define what capitalism is. most people hear “capitalism” and they think “Free market”. While they’re related as of late, they’re not the same at all. Capital-ism is a system of resource production defined by capital-ists, who are people who own capital. What’s capital? It’s anything that can be used for production. A factory is capital. land is capital. Money generally isn’t capital, unless you’ve invested it
you also gotta distinguish between the market and capital. The market, on the other hand, is a method of resource exchange. Markets exist independently of capitalism: slave societies used markets to buy and sell slaves and other goods, despite the fact that slavery isn’t capitalism. Slavery has master and slave, not employer and employee.
you gotta distinguish between capitalists and the merely wealthy. i’ve met a lot of leftists who miss this one for some reason. a heart surgeon might be wealthy but they’re not necessarily a capitalist- they work for their income, and are highly compensated for that work. A landlord, on the other hand, is a capitalist (though not necessarily an employer), because their income comes from land that they own & the rent that they charge the people who live on it.
you gotta define what socialism and communism are. "the workers own the means of production" is vague and stale. “the employees of a company have just as much of a say in production and profit distribution as the CEOs and the shareholders” is better. Talking about “democratically-run enterprises” is another good way to phrase it.
you gotta be able to point out real-world examples of socialism. the mondragon corporation is the ur-example of course, but credit unions and food cooperatives are also good examples. there are many, many examples of socialist firms existing and thriving in competition with capitalist ones- all the while, treating both the employees and the communitiies they live in better. (Yes, you can have socialist and capitalist firms existing side-by-side!)
you gotta find ways to work with terrible definitions of socialism and communism. everyone and their dog has a terrible definition of socialism and communism, including actual governments which call themselves communist. the USSR, for example, called itself communist- but in its case, they considered the government to be a proxy for the people. so by the government owning all of the capital in the country, it was just as good as every individual citizen. in reality of course it was something closer to state capitalism- a handful of government bureaucrats owning and controlling all of the capital.
holy fucking shit THIS
In all seriousness – this is really useful advice. Get to the words that mean what you’re trying to say but don’t have a whole crapton of bad associations. So you can argue the actual point instead of getting distracted.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you more than likely know what’s going on, but for those who don’t know: I’ve been in an extremely toxic, abusive relationship for the past 6 ½ years with my son’s father. We have a 3 year old together. While I did leave him last year, I (stupidly) came back in March under the promises of “things would change” etc etc. He has been emotionally, verbally, physically, sexually, and financially abusive. I am cooperating with the state in applying for all kinds of state assistance I am eligible for. I have an apartment and have our most basic needs covered. I need help with covering rent at the end of the month as I can’t do it by myself (my rent is $936), I have no consistent means of transportation (there is no bus/public transit in the city I live in) and I really realllyyy don’t want to have to allow my abuser into my home just to help cover these bills. I can manage on my own, but I need help getting on my feet and establishing my independence in the time being.
Any resources, encouraging words (I have virtually no support system), or other help is so much appreciated.
My PayPal is c.newago@yahoo.com, or PayPal.me/bizaanideewin
Please please don’t send anon hate or criticism, I cannot stress how hard I am struggling with my own guilt and self-blaming right now
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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