sillyfishguy

[sillyfishguy]

accidentally hit something on the treadmill at my gym and it opened a web browser??

[sillyfishguy]

AFFIRMATIONS:

my painting can not harm me

i have control over where the paint goes on the canvas

i understand basic color theory

[sillyfishguy]

[sillyfishguy]

[sillyfishguy]

[sillyfishguy]

I reblogged a comic the other day about a doctor watching House, MD and diagnosing toxoplasmosis, tagging it with "you're more likely to get toxoplasmosis from a salad than a cat". There's a story behind that.

I used to work in the kennel at a vet clinic. One day one of the vet techs came into the kennel in a tearing hurry, handed me two cat carriers, and said, "Find a cage for these two. Don't know how long, but you can put them together." And then she left.

This was not how that was supposed to happen. I had no cage cards--no names, no feeding instructions, no health information--they weren't on the schedule, and techs didn't usually intake boarders. Medical cases had a separate kennel, so a tech shouldn't be bringing me an animal in during office visit hours. But I had a cage in the cat room, so I tucked them in--two adult females, very friendly, apparently healthy.

Half an hour later the tech came back--with cage cards--and said, "It's okay, they're staying overnight and going home tomorrow." She slumped against the kennel wall and told the cats' story.

They had been brought to the clinic to be euthanized, to die.

These healthy, friendly, beloved cats had been brought in to be killed, because a woman's doctor, her obstetrician, had told her that they had killed her unborn baby. He told her if she ever wanted a child she had to get rid of the cats. He told her they should be euthanized before they killed any other woman's unborn child.

He said, with no evidence, that they had toxoplasmosis. He said that toxoplasmosis caused her miscarriage.

The woman was distraught. She had just lost her baby, she was dealing with the hormonal changes of the pregnancy loss, and now she had to euthanize her beloved cats. Fortunately no vet I've ever worked for will euthanize healthy animals brought in by a sobbing client without asking why!

The vet spent almost an hour talking to the woman, educating her on toxoplasmosis, telling her all the reasons her doctor was wrong.

Not all cats have toxoplasmosis, and even when they do they only shed the oocytes in their feces--they're only infectious--for the first few weeks. Most cats are infected as kittens and are no longer infectious as adults. According to Wikipedia, "Numerous studies have shown living in a household with a cat is not a significant risk factor for T. gondii infection,[61][63][64] though living with several kittens has some significance.[65]"

Most people get toxoplasmosis from raw vegetables, especially salad greens that grow close to the soil and are hard to clean. Raw or rare meat, raw seafood, and unpasteurized milk are also a risk.

Toxoplasmosis can be a soil-borne disease from feces in the soil. Gardening is a greater risk than cat cohabitation.

Toxoplasmosis infection is dangerous to the fetus in pregnancy, yes, causing birth defects and miscarriages. But only the first time the person is infected. If this this woman had lost her first pregnancy to toxoplasmosis--and the vet said it really didn't fit the symptoms--she would be at low risk in a subsequent pregnancy.

So basically the vet told the woman that 1) her miscarriage probably wasn't toxoplasmosis, 2) even if it was, she probably didn't get it from her cats, 3) even if her cats had given her toxoplasmosis, they weren't infectious anymore.

The woman kept her cats and got a new obstetrician.

Human doctors get a few lectures on zoonotic diseases--diseases transmitted from animals to humans or vice versa. Veterinarians get semesters. If a doctor ever tells you your animals have given you a disease, get a second opinion from your vet!

[sillyfishguy]

bridget forcefem tulpa is a light in this dark dark world

[sillyfishguy]

[sillyfishguy]

the front seat of the car is a type of confessional

[sillyfishguy]

Hey Jeff why did you use 'stan' at the end like that

[sillyfishguy]

i hate the discussion of the 4B movement because like. yeah sure don't sleep with men who voted for trump absolutely. don't sleep with women who voted for trump! or anyone! i don't think the concept of a sex strike is inherently bad. there are women who are already in relationships with shitty men and if a sex strike is empowering to them they should absolutely engage in it.

but "half of men voted for trump, so don't date men" is like. what. were you planning on dating trump supporters if Harris won? do you not have any personal relationships with men you don't hate? like yes it the gender difference between parties is real but this has like always been true. not to mention how it ignores factors of race and queerness. a higher % of Black men voted for Harris than white women did. are y'all gonna stop dating white women? do you always fuck people based around who they are statistically likely to have supported instead of by just asking them?

a sex strike, like any strike, works when it is TARGETED and PURPOSEFUL with a specific end. like not that you, personally, need any justification to not fuck men. but when talking in terms of a movement... what is being accomplished here other than female separatism? and then people saying "that includes trans men!" like girl 86% of LGBT people who voted, voted for Harris. trans men are directly impacted by abortion rights be taken, AND loss of gender affirming care. at that point when you are genuinely making that argument you have no motivation other than taking out all your anger on The Idea Of Men instead of actual productive feminism.

[sillyfishguy]

Was talking to a 70 year old security guard at my university yesterday and I liked what he had to say to me and a couple of the younger freshmen chatting him up. I think you should hear it. I’ll paraphrase him (cutting out my half of the conversation);

“For people like us [POC] it’s always been a fight against the latest dude. Reagan and bush and Obama and trump. You know what they did when we started scaring them? They bombed American soil because they were about to piss themselves at black power. You know I can’t say out loud I was a part of that but that’s what you kids gotta do. Stay calm and build that black power, that neighbor power, that low class power against the latest dude, and when they bomb this neighborhood again that’s when you can panic, but you’ve gotta fight til then. The president was never on our side. Neither one.”

[sillyfishguy]

this is kind of my favorite genre of image ever. like THIS is what the internet is for

[sillyfishguy]

If you want to help diabetics in Gaza, please donate or boost

[sillyfishguy]

joe biden, you stupid fuck. listen to me. Crimes are legal for sitting presidents as long as they’re official actions. Listen: Joe. You have one chance

[sillyfishguy]

The Blues Brothers (1980)