‘We turn now to that new film, that explores the struggle of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation through themes of loss, trauma and the fight for justice. It’s called Where Olive Trees Weep.’
“There was a study done in 2005 reporting many studies done on the mental health of Palestinian children. And a large percentage of them, long before Hamas became the ruling government in Gaza, a large percentage of Palestinian & Gazan children were suffering symptoms of PTSD”
6/7
“And what little could I do to help them? At least what I could do, and what this film does, and what your program does so consistently, is to witness, is to witness so they don’t feel so alone, so Ashira doesn’t have to feel so alone with her experience.”
In the summer of 96, I was picked up by police in Greensboro, NC for being brown at the wrong place and wrong time. If things were legit, I knew I'd be cleared, but was terrified they'd search my house.
That's because I lived with a drug dealer, an ex-con, a gang member, a teen girl who worked as a stripper, and a gay guy dying of AIDS who lounged about with a large boa constrictor. It was literally the villain's hideout from a movie.
What the hell was I doing there, you ask? Good question. I badly needed a place to stay so I took the first affordable one I found. It was in a great neighborhood so I didn't ask questions.
PRO TIP: Ask questions.
We hung out and enjoyed cookouts as unlikely friends. I heard life stories I was glad to never live. I also got close to being in a shootout.
A voice raging at me over the phone was 20 minutes away from eating a bullet from the ex-con's Glock. Then a gang girl who didn't finish high school took the phone from me and defused the situation.
I updated the primary LLM behind The Library of Unwritten Books from GPT-3.5 to GPT-4o, and I have to say, it really upped its game. You should check it out, share your favorite books, and tell all your friends.
What is The Library? From my 10yo, "Wait, is this a story or a game?" To which the correct answer is, "Yes." That's exactly the response I hoped for when creating the library. 😀
I feel like in this day and age where it seems like everything I stand for and believe in irl is failing, being rolled back, and losing fight after fight, I am drawn to stories where the characters whose values align with mine actually win
12 BRAVE LOCAL #CREATIVES, #ENTREPRENEURS & #CHANGEMAKERS will inspire, entertain & educate us with dynamic and captivating presentations (PKN-style: 20 slides x 20 seconds) with a wild variety of topics!
@rorystarr they are fairies and the best thing to do is stay the fuck away from them.
they do not work the same way we do.
get out of there. don't touch anything. don't EAT anything.