Me: Oh god I just got spoilered AGAIN for that thing
Brain: There are two easy solutions. You can put it in your tumblr savior blacklist. Or you can actually watch it and take part in the discussion! Wouldn’t you like that? Remember you did download it already. It’s just sitting there waiting.
Me: spoilered AGAIN fUCK
Brain: Well you know
Me: spoilered fucKKKK
Me: ffuuuckkkk
Me: f
Me: why does this kEE
Brain: Well you know
Me: IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN WHY
Can we PLEASE remove the stigma for blue collar work in America?
“You don’t wanna be a garbage collector when you grow up, do you?”
$34,000 a year, no college needed?
God forbid you take an honest job $7,000 above Michigan’s average cost of living line.
“You don’t wanna be a ditch digger.”
Bitch, I was making $15 an hour, post tax, doing exactly that, the fuck is wrong with it? (Other than it was physically exhausting.)
We need to help America, as a whole, understand that college is not, and should not be he only option, and that there is NO SHAME in trade school or even getting a career right out of high school.
I, personally, know plumbers making $80,000+ a year. Better than most 4 year degree workers.
We need plumbers, janitors, truck-drivers, garbage collectors, machinists, to keep this nation running smoothly. And they deserve respect for what they do.
Miss me with your classist bullshit.
You know, here’s a funny thing. I always did great in school. Breezed through math, chemistry, physics. Everyone assumed I was going to be something important. Prestigious. A doctor. An engineer. A scientist. Something my parents could brag about, you know?
When I was a kid, I used to say things like: I want to be a woodworker! I want to be a hairstylist! I want to be an electrician!
And everybody said to me: don’t be ridiculous. Silly little girl! You’re so smart! You don’t want to be any of those things! You want a heavy acronym degree and a home in Martha’s Vineyard. You want a big desk, a country club membership, 2.5 cars and a purebred dog.
So I went to a really, really fancy college. And I studied fancy things. And I hated it.
Like, don’t get me wrong. I thought math and chemistry and things like that were interesting. But the idea of being in school for 7 years and then launching into a Respectable Career filled me with dread. Couldn’t I study science and math as a–a hobby? And maybe, you know, become a carpenter instead?
Everybody was fucking flummoxed. I was, no shit, referred to a psychiatrist. Because if someone is capable of becoming a doctor, they must be literally insane to want to do blue collar work instead.
I like doing things with my hands. I like spending several hours bent over a task, and having visible results at the end of it. I like solving concrete problems that have straightforward solutions, like: this person’s fingernails need to be repaired, or this shelf needs to go up, or I need to make a dress for a party. Sometimes, while I do those things, I think about math and science. And that’s nice. But that’s just something to keep my mind turning over while I happily cover myself in paint, wood glue, thread trimmings, whatever.
The structure and routine of white collar work sounds stifling and depressing to me. I don’t need much money to be happy, certainly not Doctor Money. Blue collar work sounds perfect to me. It always has. It sounds satisfying and fulfilling and it would meet all my financial needs. So why do I feel this weird cringe when I talk about making the change? Why do people act pityingly about it, like, oh, she just couldn’t Cut It at a “real job?”
Sure, a lot of people take blue collar jobs just to pay the bills. A lot of people take white collar jobs just to pay the bills. But is it so completely goddamned inconceivable that somebody might actually prefer blue collar work? That for some people–people with “options,” people who could be doctors, if they were so inclined–hairstyling or bricklaying or car repair is the dream job?
“You don’t want to be a ______” well maybe I fucking do.
I have felt this way since long before the recent election, but now is a good time to restate the point. It is long past time to get rid of the phrase “leader of the free world” when referring to the POTUS. A truly free world is not led by one specific nation or any one head of state, and domination by American military and business interests is not the same thing as “freedom”.
Welcome to Night Vale (the community news of a small city in the American Southwest where all conspiracy theories are true and a part of every day life; BONUS – canon interracial gay couple as the main couple)
The Message (70-year-old message from outer space, cryptology, things are not as they seem)
Limetown (everyone in small town disappears and no one knows what happened to them; follow an intrepid journalist as she investigates)
The Black Tapes (sister show to TANIS; demons, investigation into the unexplainable, asshole Alpha Skeptic, and the journalist who tries to sort this all out)
TANIS (sister show to The Black Tapes; conspiracy, truth, and the investigation of what Tanis really is, plus an “information specialist” named Meerkatnip)
Archive 81 (found footage audio series where nothing is quite as it seems and there’s a building that isn’t exactly right)
Alice Isn’t Dead (from the people behind WtNV, a truck driver tries to find her missing wife and she runs into a lot of conspiracies along the way)
Within the Wires (again, from the people who brought you WtNV, instructional audio guides that slowly reveal a personal story and the revelation that the world the podcast is set in is that great)
The Bright Session (imagine what it would be like if the X-Men went to therapy)
The Behemoth (a girl and her monster walk across America)
Wolf 359 (the absurd misadventures of a small band of eccentric characters on board the Hephaestus Station in orbit around the dwarf star, Wolf 359, where it’s all fun and games until it’s not and the Blessed Eternal just wants a night light)
Life.After (by the creators of The Message,
follows a low level FBI employee, who spends his days conversing online with his wife Charlie – who died eight months ago)
I have listened to WTNV, The Message, Limetown, The Black Tapes, Tanis, and Alice Isn’t Dead. They are all VERY good. The Black Tapes and Tanis are my favorites.
Limetown may have been the best, story-wise. It was actually really disturbing in places, though, especially Episode 3: Napoleon (tw, animal death, not gruesome or painful but definitely psychologically fraught for the human, and the listener), and while I didn’t find it unbearable, I did need to chase it with something lighter. WTNV would be good for that. I would not recommend listening to this one straight through.
Tanis is VERY involved, and it merits more than one listening, and can take time to digest and make sense of. It’s VERY good.
The Black Tapes has great production (as does Tanis, both by PNWS) and Richard Strand is really entertaining. The story is very X-files in nature, with less of a focus on sci-fi and more of a focus on the supernatural, which is exactly my jam.
Alice Isn’t Dead is just the right mix of dark and humorous, and Jasika Nicole is incredible as the narrator.
The Message is self-contained, only a few episodes long, and won’t take long to listen to. It’s a really cool little sci-fi story.
I chickened out of Within the Wires because it’s presented as “hypnosis relaxation tapes” and the particular tone of it was inducing dissociative responses in me. Definitely check it out if you’re interested, I’d hate for it not to get attention because it was VERY cool from what I heard, but don’t feel bad about stopping if it starts to make you feel weird! Listening to it with someone else present, while doing something else, seemed to help considerably, but I still haven’t gone back to it.
Ok, now all of you drop what you’re doing and go look for The Box on stitcher, itunes, etc. Season 1 just finished, and it’s GOOOOD. Take the Black Tapes, Archive 81, and a healthy dose of the SCP Foundation, and you get The Box.
WILL DO THANKS!
King Falls AM is another really good one! It’s very similar to Nightvale – a weird little town in the mountains instead of a weird little town in the desert.
GOSH everyone keep those recs coming! Bear and I need stuff to listen to in the studio!
Ars Paradoxica is a cool time-travel and secret-government-agency shenanigans with ace representation (The Bright Sessions, which it has a crossover with, has ace representation as well).
Uncanny County is a creepy-funny anthology series, sort of like the Twilight Zone.
Foundation After Midnight Radio is full-on SCP Foundation audio fanfic and amusing.
The Truth Podcast from Radiotopia is another anthology, with an adorable ongoing series called Songonauts about an indie band that gets sucked into a strange musical otherworld. If it was a video series instead of audio it would totally combine animation with live action.
Flash Forward is more nonfiction, but every episode takes a hypothetical scenario (from “what if space pirates dragged a second moon into Earth orbit” to “what if all animal products were outlawed”, has a few snippets of ads/news stories/talk segments from that hypothetical future, then discusses how something like that might happen and possible ramifications.
GOOD SHIT GOOD SHIT KEEP IT COMING
An opportunity to rep my favourite horror podcast, The Magnus Archives! Audio recordings of statements given to the (fictional) Magnus Institute, an
organisation dedicated to the esoteric and paranormal. Spooky, atmospheric, increasing hints of a web of supernatural conspiracy and intrigue.
Verylisa 