#also sorry if it’s preachy as fuck

[character-kai]

Idk man, I kinda feel like the whole assassination thing is gonna be a lot more pivotal than we think. The way people are responding to it is already a lot more positive then similar things in the recent past. People are angry, angry to the point that shits starting to happen again. I want everyone to stay angry. This is not lip service, I genuinely believe that to an extent violence is the only way to get results. The oppressor isn’t going to hand over their power, you have to pry it from their cold dead hands. You have to steal it back.

[69thatstheweednumber]

hot lilo and stitch remake take why the fuck are you expecting these hollow cynical entirely brand-name-recognition profit driven live action remakes by a trillion dollar corporation to have any artistic value whatsoever and also why are you acting like the entirely predictable failures and shortcomings of these works are some sinister malicious plot with ulterior motives beyond "brand name recognition minimum effort recognizable ip cash grab"

[wildflowercryptid]

something that's been weighing on my mind ever since learning about the situation with ezra / toonimal is seeing how these predators will take the active hostility that is frequently directed towards minors in online spaces to their advantage and use it to prey on vulnerable children. i think that we as adults in online fandom should probably come together and maybe rethink the language / manner we go about interacting with kids bc clearly the way things are rn is causing active harm.

like obviously, if you're an adult and aren't comfortable with minors interacting with you or your content, you should be allowed to set that boundary and should be vocal about it, ( especially if the content you create isn't safe for them to consume. ) but i don't think talking to them like they're a blight on all that is good and holy is the way to go about it. maybe just saying you're an 18 plus account will suffice, you don't have to tell them to fuck off.

[gotyouanyway]

i keep thinking i should rewatch thirteen’s era at least once but man. i just did not fucking like it 😭

[axolotlclown]

Would you happen to have some studies to back up the "more than one coffee means you're addicted" thing, please? Pretty sure I've seen that disproven as a lens to understand addiction through at all

~ 🪴

Hey! So sorry I never saw this anon. It never appeared in my notifs and I'm really bad about checking my askbox.

You have asked a question that falls in line with a field I am very passionate about! I found some interesting articles in my school library. I'm going to go ahead and write this response, but I'm still waiting on access to a few journals. I'll have to convert those ones to PDFs as they are likely behind paywalls.

Anyway, here's my long post where I intend to rant about a lot of different barely related topics. Caffeine addiction is one of those really controversial but historically significant subjects in psychology!

So let me start off with how to read and break down a journal. It's one of those things where if you don't go to college and specifically major in a research related field, no one ever teaches you how to do it. That sucks.

So when you're looking at a journal, the first thing you want to do is background check the author. What school did they go to? What degrees do they have? (For research, they should have a Ph.D. no matter what.) What is their current place of employment?

Often companies, or other private businesses, will commission someone to do some research and fudge the results to make that company look better. We saw this recently in regards to gender affirming care. The United States House of Representatives had proposed legislation to restrict gender affirming care for transgender youth. The Republican sponsor of the bill had presented a single piece of research that he claimed was significant. The research found that transition regret rates were somewhere in the 30% range. (I don't remember exactly and I know that I could quickly look it up, but I just spent the past two hours reading addiction research. I'll find it tomorrow.) Upon looking into the author and the sponsors of this research, psychologists found that the journal the congressman presented was commissioned by a conversation therapy center in Florida. The research held obvious bias, poor peer review, and inconclusive results. The bill didn't pass. I'm not sure they even voted on it, actually.

Anyway, this is why we need to be critical of the research we read. Chocolate, wine, caffeine, gender dysphoria, and autism are notorious subjects that require more scrutiny before reading.

So, caffeine addiction. This is a subject that more than one field is interested in. Before you read an article, you need to be sure what question you are asking. Psychologists are concerned with a more scientific or factual approach. In this context, a psychologist would be researching the concrete effects of caffeine on mood, sleep, and other psychological disorders. Sociologists are more concerned with the overall social consequences of caffeine addiction. They would be asking how mood and sleep affected family, work, and personal welfare. For your question, we're going to look into the psychological aspect. Also, I'm studying psychology, not sociology, so I would feel like an idiot answering those types of questions.

This distinction matters. When I opened my school's EBSCOHost database, I simply typed in "caffeine addiction" to start. I was bombarded with sociological articles and journals about the affects of caffeine addiction on productivity at work and on mood. Strange overlap with psychology. Two problems: some of the top articles had researchers with ties to coffee companies, and all "caffeine addicts" were self-reported. For the latter, this meant that there was no standard for how much caffeine was consumed. Rather than being a concrete article about caffeine consumption, it was more of a survey of public opinion. You want to avoid those unless you specifically want to know about the public opinion. Even psychologists run surveys all the time (they're cheap and easy), but people often lie on surveys, even if they're anonymous.

So I typed in more specific key words and came up with these articles. I'll talk about some without leaving a link, but that's because I had to request the PDFs for sharing. I'll come back to this post and link them. (Let me know if the ones I do link are broken.)

Okay, so I'm going to start off with a journal that interested me, personally. This study actually observed the effects of caffeine on psychiatric patients. This is an important reminder that different drugs influence different brains. Someone with ADHD experiences caffeine differently for a neurotypical person. Caffeine is a stimulant, and ADHD medications are stimulants. Cool. What about other disorders?

Here's the Sparknotes of the study, "Caffeine intoxication was more prevalent in psychiatric patients than in healthy subjects. The amount of caffeine intake was shown to be associated positively with the severity of pathology and inversely with sleep quality."

The study goes more into depth about the different psychological disorders that different patients had. There were 401 patients participating in this study (150 healthy individuals). Overall, continuous caffeine intake showed a decline in sleep quality and a general increase in severity of other mental illnesses.

So what causes that? What is caffeine? Here's an article that looks into studies about caffeine consumption and performance, as well as what the causes of an addiction could be and what constitutes an addiction. This is one I recommend giving a read, as it helps to illuminate a common problem with researching intoxicants.

Here's the big take away: "Although caffeine is widely perceived to have beneficial psychostimulant effects, appropriately controlled studies show that its apparent beneficial effects on performance and mood are almost wholly attributed to reversal of the withdrawal effects that occur after fairly short periods of abstinence (e.g. overnight)."

In habitual coffee users, the increase of mood and performance after consumption of caffeine is caused by the removal of withdrawal symptoms. Grouchy mood and lack of coordination are symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. Where one may perceive positive reinforcement for initial consumption, for habitual consumers, withdrawal symptoms become a negative reinforcement.

So, for people that drink coffee everyday, it's less about getting the positive effects of caffeine, but rather avoiding the negative effects of withdrawal. This can be classified as an addiction. There is now a reliance on this substance.

Something this article also points out is that caffeine is not just found in coffee. It's found in chocolate and most medications these days as well. Therefore, complete stone cold abstinence from caffeine can be next to impossible, making control groups difficult to find. This leads to the varying research and controversy between psychologists.

Okay, but coffee can't be as bad as alcohol or anything right? Caffeine is practically harmless! Let's take a look into an article discussing the health impacts of caffeine. (I'll provide the full text to this one tomorrow.)

In Dr. Saimaiti's article titled, "Dietary Sources, Health Benefits, and Risks of Caffeine," she explores the benefits of occasional consumption of caffeine and weighs them against habitual overconsumption of caffeine.

While occasional consumption can actually improve mood and cognitive ability, these benefits are lost with daily consumption.

Few people drink their coffee black. For those that put creamer, milk (especially oat), or straight sugar or syrups in their coffees daily, they may be overconsuming sugar. This is especially hard on an empty stomach. This is part of the reason you "crash" later in the day. The sugar raises your blood sugar. For most healthy people, this may not be the biggest deal in the world. For others, it could be a key factor in developing diabetes later in life. In general, don't drink coffee on an empty stomach. Have it with a meal. It's also easier on your liver.

Speaking of liver, what does your body do with the caffeine after you drink it? Caffeine follows the same principle as alcohol. Occasional consumption of red wine can help thin your blood and lower your hemoglobin (something that women may be more concerned about as they get older). However, daily consumption of wine can cause stress on the liver and potentially lead to dementia later in life (I say potentially because there has been a correlation, but no solid research as to why. While correlation does not always mean causation, it's important to acknowledge them in the meantime.)

Caffeine behaves in the same way. Continuous consumption of caffeine can put some real stress on your liver over time.

Caffeine is dangerous for those with cardiovascular problems. While this seems like a "duh!" point, many people don't know that they may be prone to cardiovascular issues until an event happens. This sounds like fear mongering, but it's something to take into account.

The article discusses pregnant women as well, but I would hope that's intuitive? Maybe not? If you're pregnant you should avoid intoxication in all forms.

I'll drop this quote from the conclusion of the article for now (I felt weird quoting text that you can't access yet, so I'll come back with more quotes when I can give you the PDF): "the long-term or over-consumption of caffeine can lead to addiction, insomnia, migraine, and other side effects."

The point is, caffeine consumption can be more dangerous to some than others in general, but excessive consumption with lack of knowledge can lead to long-term damage to one's health.

Okay, that study talks about a relatively small niche. Let's get broad. Let's talk about sleep and cognitive performance. (Another study I'll have the PDF for tomorrow.)

In Dr. Gottselig's article titled, "Random Number Generation During Sleep Deprivation: Effects of Caffeine on Response Maintenance and Stereotypy," she looks at the effects caffeine has on cognitive performance during sleep deprivation.

The conclusions of this research makes a very important point: "caffeine preserves simple aspects of cognitive performance during sleep deprivation, whereas caffeine may not prevent detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on some complex cognitive functions."

This article particularly found that while small cognitive functions such as motor ability improved with caffeine, complex cognitive functions such as problem solving and memory declined.

While a college student could read this and understand that pulling an all nighter and drinking 10 Red Bulls probably won't help them pass their test, there's something much more to be said about these findings.

One sleep deprived night won't kill you, and certainly drinking a cup of coffee to get you through the day won't either. But caffeine cannot prevent the damage that regular sleep deprivation does. Sleep deprivation leads to memory loss, worsening symptoms of depression/anxiety/ADHD, increased chances of developing dementia early (this one is real), and a decline in overall cognitive ability.

Rough. But it is a trap. If you have insomnia, caffeine may feel like your only choice to be somewhat functioning throughout the day. Caffeine promotes symptoms of insomnia. It's a vicious cycle if you can't afford proper treatment, and one, that I hope, that will be addressed with time.

So if you have the ability, it's better to prioritize a good night's sleep. I'll come back to this.

For now, why is caffeine addiction so controversial then? Well, it may not be for long. While there was a push to add "caffeine" to the list of diagnosable addiction in the DSM since the 1980's, the inconsistent and inconclusive research has led to a standstill. As we say with Dr. Jame's article, it is difficult to get a control group for caffeine. However, as research for alcohol and marijuana progresses, our knowledge of how to properly study intoxicants does as well.

The long-term health side effects of caffeine are still being studied as well. While this aspect isn't unique to caffeine at all (marijuana, for example, is just now getting approved for research, where before it was illegal), it's still worth acknowledging what we do know, for now at least.

So, coming back to the DSM. There's a new one coming out pretty soon. It's the talk of the town among psychologists right now. Everyone is arguing about what should be in the DSM-6. It'll be crazy when it does come out. Autism, OCD, Gender Dysphoria, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Facial Dysmorphia are just a few examples of disorders that will likely be completely recategorized.

(Unrelated, but Autism Spectrum Disorder is a big one because a lot of psychologists are arguing that it shouldn't be classified as a disorder at all. The reason being is that Autism is so common, that psychologists are theorizing that the majority of the population falls on the spectrum somewhere. Either way, the diagnosis is about to completely change because of this fact.) (Well, all of them are big ones. I could make a whole separate post about it.)

Anyway, the push to make caffeine diagnosable is becoming a promising endeavor as research continues to come out.

One psychiatrist pushing for this is Ronald Griffiths. In his opinion piece, Griffiths recalls his patients experiencing caffeine withdrawal symptoms that led to a decline in the quality of life. One of his patients was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed to stop drinking coffee immediately. This patient struggled with severe withdrawal symptoms that were difficult to manage while on cancer treatment.

Griffiths explains how difficult it was to treat this patient because it wasn't something he could easily diagnose with the DSM-5, something insurance companies use to decide whether they're going to pay for care or not. Add on the bills for cancer treatment, and you rapidly have a distressing situation on your hands.

Joseph DeRupo, spokesman for the National Coffee Association in the U.S. as quoted in this article states, "What we have here is really the opinion of one scientist who is a lone voice against the accepted view of the scientific community."

Lone voice? In barely an hour I was able to find 5 credible articles, all backed by credible researchers, supporting the understanding that American society consumes too much caffeine. You can take a General Psych class in college and the textbook would spend half a chapter going over caffeine addiction and the controversial research around it. Coffee companies piss me off. And most companies use slave labor to harvest their beans and lobby to prevent legislation to prevent it. Guillotine.

Griffiths also claims that "[e]ven people who consume as little as 100 milligrams of caffeine a day—the equivalent of one small cup of coffee—can become physically dependent."

So this ask is pretty old, but I'm guessing it was in response to me saying that you should only drink one cup of a random beverage a day and the rest be water. This keeps you hydrated and helps cut out where the majority of your sugar intake is. I called it the "desert beverage" and that "coffee counts."

It really does. In the morning, one feels tired, foggy, and grouchy. "Don't talk to me until I've had my morning coffee." They would make their coffee out of habit, barely minding the taste of it—drinking to medicate the headache they've already caused.

Life is worth celebrating, and if we can find little things in our day to celebrate, we should! When coffee becomes a habit, it's just a habit. That's sad.

I worked as a barista for a while at a coffee shop that hired people with intellectual disabilities. That experience is what made me switch my major to psychology in the first place. But I saw the joys coffee could bring, and the damage it can do, too. I had a coworker who would come in and throw a tantrum if we didn't immediately stop what we were doing and make him a coffee—and again in two hours before the end of his shift. It's upsetting.

I do remember the joys, too. Our manager would show us a new niche coffee drink from a random country. We would make cubanos like they would in Haiti and talk about the different names they had in different countries around the world. It ruled.

I don't drink coffee every day anymore. But it's always a wonderful thing when I do. You don't need to have an "excuse" to drink a cup of coffee—you don't need to celebrate anything at all. Coffee, tea, wine, soda, and juice should be celebrated as they are. Drinking them out of habit destroys joy. Intentional habits create stable foundations in life. Unintentional habits create monotony and boredom.

Anyway, the sleep thing I said I'd come back to. So if you're having trouble sleeping, here's the hot tip: avoid screens 30 minutes before going to bed. That sounds easy, but how many of us scroll our phones, watch TV, or play a video game right before bed? It's not worth it.

Instead, do something away from your phone that you enjoy. I like to read, but you can draw, journal, listen to some music, practice an instrument, or write something. Doesn't matter, just don't use your phone or laptop. Set a 30 minute timer for time.

If you're still struggling to sleep, you may find meditation useful. Meditation uses techniques that make your brain send beta waves which relaxes you and is the first step to falling asleep. But! If you try to learn some meditation, you'll have to commit to practicing it every night for it to be useful. It's a skill that requires practice.

Anyway, I could make a whole separate post about evening/morning/afternoon routines as that is another one of my passions, but yeah.

TLDR; An occasional cup of coffee is actually great and wonderful, but you really shouldn't drink it every day, especially more than once a day.

PS. I love Red Bull cream sodas more than the God that created them, I swear, but I only drink maybe one or two energy drinks a year. Energy drinks will dissolve your liver faster than hydrochloric acid can. An alcoholic drinking 5 packs of beers a day will look at your liver and be impressed. Also the Panera lemonade should be illegal. That shit is CRAZY. That bitch had more caffeine than a Bang energy drink. It literally killed a man. Wild.

[actuallyprobablyafaerie]

list of things that made me scream in pjo episode 3

Percy picking grover because he trusts him not to betray him!!! THEY ARE BEST FRIENDS OK

Luke still comes off as so likable and inconspicuous that whole convo he had with percy and the shoes i just

GROVER AND THE CONSENSUS SONG I CANT

annabeth staring at the different flavors of candy in the gas station and not being able to pick and just buying all of them. Thats the annabeth we deserve

ANNABETHS KNIFE APPEARANCE ALERT and a fury is IMMEDIATELY killed

uncle ferdinand foreshadowing……………

When annabeth and percy start arguing in the woods and grover tries to change the subject by talking about his uncle and they both completely ignore him. I LOVE GROVER SO MUCH

the bickering in this episode is ON POINT by the way

like the stuff theyre arguing about makes sense. Yes i would be concerned about those things too

ESPECIALLY since theres such a focus put on trust (esp after percy learns that someone is going to betray him) and percy and annabeth are arguing about stuff theyve lied or havent told each other about???? Sorry that might be skipping ahead a bit but GOD is that the good stuff

i love that they changed how the three of them ended up going into auntie em’s because before it was a little concerning that none of them figured out it was medusa. Plus having a fury outside just adds to the tension a perfect amount i think, because it really traps them in there

all the discussion about the gods and what medusa talks to percy about in the kitchen - YES MAKE ME HATE THEM!! All of this is adding up to lukes motivations making so much sense in the end

ALSO!! Them harkening back to sallys line in the first episode when she tells percy that not all heroes look like heroes and not all monsters look like monsters - they brought it back so perfectly. Percy wanting to trust medusa because of what his mom said, medusa calling Poseidon a monster, ALL OF IT is so good

When theyre down in the basement and grover puts on the shoes and then just fucking. Flies away and disappears into the darkness yelling a little. and annabeth and percy just kind of helplessly watch him go before being like - welp i guess that plans not working. That was peak comedy

them using annabeths hat on medusa and then using it to kill alecto THEY WERE SO SMART FOR THAT!!! Also percy just the invisible severed head was a hilarious concept to me

when percy suggests burying the hat in the ground with the hat on to make sure no one bad finds it and annabeth just!!! Agrees!!! And then grover has to be like no that hats important to her its a gift from her mother!!! And then percys like well we’ll find another solution then. That whole scene was good yes i liked that

also annabeth revealing that grover was her protector too and percy asks about it and grover just changes the subject and doesnt answer. He is the KING of avoidance

also grover finally interrupting annabeth and percy when they start fighting and giving his whole speech about getting along. That wouldve felt a little cheesy and preachy and out of place from anyone else but considering grover tried to get them to sing the consensus song a few hours earlier i fully believe that he would say that

I AM IMPERTINENT

Why the fuck wasnt there a lin manuel maranda jumpscare warning. I couldve used one of those

but actually all the jokes in this episode were so on point. Like percy calling drachmas chuckie cheese tokens. And him arguing about voting on the bus. Anyways

10/10 episode i will be rewatching like eight times before next tuesday.

[eff-plays]

Also enby here! I hate how much I hate Taash's writing.

It's pretty clear to me how it could be a story that would resonate with a lot of people, something raw that came from the writer's own experiences... but it doesn't work for this character. Like, the catharsis of confronting an unsupportive parental figure is usually something I'm all for - except Shathann is not not supportive, she's confused. She's trying to understand Taash through her own cultural framework, but that's not good enough because she doesn't use the right words, so we still get to yell at her like she rejected Taash's identity. The way the writing engages with multiculturalism - or the qun in general - is atrocious.

And the Bharv scene had me seeing red, tbh. I know people have different reads on the scene, some more favorable than others, but it fundamentally misses the point why sometimes misgendering might happen - Isabella is telling a story she has told many times before, from a time when she still thought Taash was a she, so a slip up can happen even if she's fully supportive and accepting, because she's going against both muscle memory and the brain's silly habit of not applying new information retroactively as well as it should - and then, since Taash's entire gender discovery has this preachy tone and a vague cloud of A Teaching Moment hanging over it, it more or less casts that stupid performative act of self-flagellation as The Correct Way To Appease The Transes If You Commit The Sin Of Misgendering which is just... no. I don't want people who otherwise support me wholeheartedly to make a big deal of it if they misgender me by accident, actually. Just correct yourself and move right on - make it as mundane as messing up my address because I moved recently, actually. Treat it like it's not a big deal, like it's a normal thing for me to be enby, because that's the fastest way it will become the new norm. There are studies about this sort of thing.

It would be different if Taash had to struggle to get their new identity accepted by their peers, but that's not the case at all - the Lords, the companions, their mother, everyone is completely on board with them being nonbinary as soon as they understand what's up - so it felt like the narrative is targeting the wrong people for transgressions they didn't really commit, if that makes any sense.

Sorry this is so long, but the frustration over seeing the character I was most looking forward to messed up so badly has been festering in me for a while now. I hope you have a wonderful day. <3

Yeah! Taash themselves is written as though the whole world is against them and their gender identity, as though it's some never-before-seen struggle unique to them, but in an attempt to not bum anybody out by making that TRUE, everyone around them is like "oh good for you!! here's a pamphlet with all the up-to-date words to use for those who are just like you!!"

So we have this character who's angsting about their gender and how they're soooooo different and alone, while everyone around them bends over backwards to show their support. Even their mother, who's the main person who doesn't "support" them, is at worst confused, and she fucking DIES for that sin and in order to re-establish the 100% support rate Taash gets for their gender identity.

That's the part that makes them feel like a whiny teen and makes their struggle so hollow. You can't both have a huge fucking tragic coming-out story while the entire world around you is rolling out the red carpet in anticipation for your exit.

That's why I predicted Taash's whole story would fall apart for me the moment my Rook was like "I'm exactly like you and I know how you feel" in this very sympathetic way early on. I was like "oh boy. they're showing so much empathy and are being very supportive while being explicitly nonbinary, I imagine this will undercut Taash's entire storyline when the game will attempt to show them as uniquely isolated due to their identity." And I was right! Because the game doesn't account for the possibility of a nonbinary Rook being there to support them, all you get are like a few asides of "I know how it feels uwu" and Taash being like "woaow you soo know how it feels", but fundamentally their story is still about them being SO nonbinary, more nonbinary than anybody else has ever been nonbinary, to the point where your actual nonbinary Rook just has to stand there and pretend they don't exist at all. And then when Rook has to be a pseudo-mentor to Taash while seemingly being their peer is so weird, too, and doesn't help the feeling of Taash just being a huge fucking child about the whole thing. Like a teen whining that nobody gets them while the adults around them are like "it's ok! these feelings are natural! here's a pamphlet!"

Anyway yeah. I have feelings about how nonbinary Rook breaks Taash's whole storyline that I haven't even talked about yet. The way the game sort of expects Taash to be the one true enby of the world in a very self-important sort of way and ends up creating a bunch of contradictions. You can't both have "uwu being nonbinary is so normal and natural that nobody questions it and everyone automatically knows Rook's pronouns" and "uwu being nonbinary is normal but sooo unusual and not everybody will get it and you need to adjust and it'll take time and when you fuck up just apologize profusely for this grave offense." Like, which is it, game? You need to pick because otherwise Rook's nonbinary existence makes Taash's whole deal into a big fat nothingburger. And you'd think that the whole Qun/Rivain storyline would at least put a unique spin on their nonbinary story and set it apart from Rook's but. Well. That would require not having the Whitest Possible Take on that part, and I'm not sure BioWare could ever deliver that.

[marxistmuslimah]

Take it from an Iranian, Fuck Hamas and fuck theocrats everywhere.

A free Palestine must be free from all fascists not just Israeli ones.

Fascists are the enemies of all people, no matter their language, race, or religion. They wear many masks but none of them deserve our sympathy, Gaza has been under a dictatorship since 2006 and we should support it just because they want a free Palestine.

We can’t afford the moral blindness that even great people like W.E.B. Du Bois fell prey to when he excused Imperial Japan’s atrocities under the banner of "anti-colonialism." Supporting the oppressed doesn’t mean whitewashing their oppressors. Yes, Israel’s government is fucking brutal but that doesn’t make Hamas noble good guys.

please don't be like those people who were bemoaning the loss of Bashar al-Assad because "He supports Palestinians" while not understanding anything about Syrian politics (not saying thing in Syria are 100% better now but they aren't as bad)

So stand with the Gazans protesting Hamas right now. Stand with ordinary people Palestinian and Israeli protesting against the regimes that exploit them and their lives as excuses for bloodshed.

(sorry if this came off as preachy it just really annoys me, also if you can read you can tell this isn't pro Israel, I'm just a leftist and so I don't like fascists)

[drdemonprince]

Hey man I’m sorry to hear about your hand troubles. I’m actually going through a flare up of wrist and hand pain myself right now (hell yeah hypermobilityyyyyy) love it when one wrist gets fucked up and then the other one follows suit shortly thereafter because it suddenly is doing everything instead of sharing the burden of all tasks that require hands. idk if you’re already aware of this but people often tend to scrunch up when they sleep and it’s really easy to sleep with your wrists at a weird angle like that, especially when your wrists bend waaaay further than they’re meant to, so when I’m having wrist problems I try really hard to sleep with my arms resting neutrally like across my chest or something. It can be tricky to get used to but it can make a big difference! Also topical anti inflammatories can be really helpful and when you’re feeling better, learning to do certain things ambidextrously can help lighten the load on each hand and prevent the frequency of flare ups. I know how much it sucks to have non-working hands because it feels like you literally can’t do anything but hopefully things improve for you soon. (Sorry if this is annoying or sounds preachy or patronizing in any way)

this is the very welcome message, thank you so much for sending it. I do in fact sleep with my wrists curled up, typically under my body weight, and I strongly suspect that that is a factor in the problem. I have some soreness in my wrist on my right hand right now that I fear is related to me tensing it up and using awkward postures. I absolutely hate to vindicate the people who have been telling me that I have bad posture all of my life but apparently that isn't just completely superficial ableist nonsense after all

[fetusbaconegg]

still curious

you say people are disregarding the canon of chara, which you understand as an immoral and fucked up character. right. okay. are you not doing that when shipping brothers together, or even in your recent posts talking about papyrus? from what i could see, you’re weirdly against papyrus finding other skeletons (made to look badass and corny—that’s their appeal) funny because of the violent depictions. however, you gloss over the fact that papyrus set up a trap with spears, fire, etc with full intentions of harming the player. during his fight, his intentions are to harm—not kill—the player. you act as if these are not acts of violence, when they are. he is a grown man, and your arguments seem to have him depicted as someone who knows very little about violence. i’m autistic myself. we’re not completely clueless. making papyrus innocent to violence is a slippery slope into a one-dimensional character and ableism.

no one can stop you from writing incest, but that doesn’t mean they can’t bash you as much as you bash others for enjoying chara and kris as characters. you’re being weirdly preachy and using loose connections to guilt and shame people who are against proshipping (seen as a logical fallacy fyi, which aid in invalidating your arguments). you can’t act like that and then turn around and bash others for enjoying immorally wrong characters, when you yourself are against the censorship of immorally wrong actions.

realism is the act of adding traits real people exhibit to make a character relatable and more than just one dimensional. it’s taking into consideration age, time period, and events to shape how an ACTUAL person could grow and react. that’s what realistic writing is. it’s making 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional, etc, characters. i don’t know if you write or create characters yourself, but understanding that characters are allowed to be both bad and good is crucial. i don’t care for chara or kris, do not believe i’m biased, but i am fully capable in seeing both their bad and good traits, which a lot of people take into their own perspectives (you included). that will lead to canon-divergent interpretations, which i am very sorry to say, happens to describe your perceptions of chara and kris as well.

It ain't my understanding it's what canon says about em and no I am not killing people by shipping two characters from different dimensions who ain't related together. (Although I don't I just used that example I ship my own ocs with both Sans and Swap Papyrus) like are you good mentally to think ship = genocide? And I didn't ask for your opinion of me nor do I care thank you very much someone as stupid as to believe genocide and shipping are the same thing doesn't deserve their opinion heard.

also it's not my fault you are a fascist. Procensorpship is a fascist stance so...yeah. I'm not a proshipper I am an adult with a job that things that whole discourse is idiotic and y'all should touch grass.

also realism still ≠ good writing and pretending an evil murderous demon is a real child and defending them as such won't make your story better.

and you are heavily biased. And stupid too but fascists aren't particularly educated or smart.

[penguinlife]

Everyone just needs to calm down.

Please, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Apple, Hulu, Disney+, peacock anybody, please bring back better content. Please invest in 22+ episode series. Please pay the big bucks to the great writers and showrunners. I can't take it anymore. Where are the likes of The Good Wife, Dawsons Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ally Mcbeal, Boston Legal, The OC, CSI New York, Miami and Las Vegas, Gilmore Girls, Sons of Anarchy.... there are so many. TV is not what it used to be. I have lost all interest in almost everything. Don't watch any of the Chicagos, FBIs, Greys, Fire Country, 911... the stories are shallow, the dialogue complacent or preachy or just plain bad, the stories and characters are weak.

At the moment, there is more compelling storytelling on Tiktok. People blame SM for viewerships going down. We all doom scroll while the TV is on in the background, but the truth is, the TV is boring as hell. Make better TV and we will pay attention.

Sorry for the rant, but this is how we got to over analysing songs and cellphone backgrounds. We are so freaking bored that we spend hours on BS.

The truth is, neither means anything. It is just a song she liked, and she wanted to share. Probably while she was getting ready for the event. If it was actually meant for someone she cared for, she would be sending it to them directly. What highschool fuckery is this. She is 38 and a millennial. It seems to be what it is, just a song.

Also, who holds up a phone like that when it is locked? It is super suspicious and a misdirection to the obessed fans. You guys always fall for it. She is not going to send crumbs. She is not sending hidden messages to the diehard fans to insinuate she is dating someone. It is more likely she is making fun of you.

Why would Nic do that? You may ask while you are clutching your pearls and swiping your Karen hair from your forehead. She doesn't owe you anything. You go around making up lies about her. Judge her body, pretend she had a fucking baby. Are you serious. Follow, stalk, and photograph her in private situations. You are not the fans she respects and loves. You are not why she is doing this.

I know, I am hypocritical. I wrote an entire blog on Luke and how his fake ass relationship means nothing. But I feel like they are inviting criticism. The paparazzi in the UK are different. They need to be called. I don't think it is coming from Luke. He was trying to stay hidden at his friends concert, and she stood in a framed window, her entire body visible. You can't be more pick me than that.

Yeah, I don't like Nics' relationship with Jake. It is creepy AF. Whatever it is, it is not a romantic one. That I can say confidently.

I am so invested in Nic and Luke's careers. I so badly want them to succeed. I believe their connections to the adjacents are pulling them down. But that is my opinion.

Until they intentionally announce they are dating someone. It comes directly from them. To be honest, We would all love a Selena and Benny type of proclamation. But that will probably crash the Internet. I don't think the world could actually handle Lukola irl. The power couple dynamic would be on fire. Nothing would stand in their way.

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Finals

Propaganda why Velma is insufferable:

"It’s that Velma from the VELMA TV SHOW.

I’m so sorry, I honestly don’t know what else to say right now.

If you know why she’s so insufferable, you know. 💀"

"Insufferable, preachy, annoying, does not even try to be likable

Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to greenlight this trash?"

"Do I really need to explain... My deepest condolences to the REAL Velma from Scooby Doo, she would never stand for any of this"

Propaganda why Oscar is insufferable:

"“I want to be famous!” Ok, what for? “Whatever means I don’t have to work.”"

"Selfish, shallow, vain, materialistic, reckless, irresponsible, etc. Doesn't even have an aesthetically pleasing design, he's horrible to look at (like every other character in the movie tbf) so bro has literally 0 redeeming qualities. That one shrimp with the ridiculous sob story should have been the protag instead"

"His entire personality revolves around being shallow and selfish, to the point he sees no issue with lying for his own material gain, in the process shamelessly screwing over his best friend/future girlfriend -- she gave him her grandmother's valuable precious pearl to pay off his debts and get out of trouble, because she cares about him, and instead he fucking gambled it all on a horse race on impulse because he overheard some rando saying the race was rigged and guaranteed to win (surprise, it wasn't). Never really faces appropriate consequences for any of his actions. Gets an undeserved happy ending to top it all off, when really he deserves to suffer a little and learn a lesson.

Also has one of the ugliest anthro-animal designs I've ever seen so he's insufferable to even LOOK at, jesus christ."

[erisolkat]

*opens my hands* tell me about Fight Club and why it makes you so mad I would like to hear <- has never seen Fight Club

HI so first. most of what makes me mad is that it's actually pretty fucking good like its been done now but it was real fucking original at the time and it's genuinely clever and funny at parts but what makes it irritating as hell is that it Knows That its smart and rubs it in the audiences face and it makes me go graahhhhh i hate you. i dont know how to explain it but it makes me mad vibes wise for the same reason that rent makes me mad. like the musical not the concept of paying rent.

also, second, it's really clear that this guy just hates women. the movie tones a lot of it down but in the book marla is like, really really in love with tyler and thats sort of her whole thing? and theres this one girl at one of the support groups i think her name was chloe. shes dying from cancer right and nobody will fuck her because chemos making her gross looking. so in the movie they set her up as a real girl with wants and needs and then soon before she dies she starts to get really desperate to get laid one last time and its like thematically relevant and parallels with tyler and the narrator or whatever. but in the book shes just horny the whole time and its like a gag? you can tell that theres just no respect for her at all.

also third the book i cant really tell if its chuck palahniuk who hates fat people or if he wants to set tyler up as a bad dude- different from the cancer girl thing, cancer girl is wrote bad but bob is viewed bad. the number of gross derogatory synonyms for 'fat' that he thinks of is astonishing.

and fourth the book is just really preachy i guess? pretentious? you can tell that mr palahniuk doesnt exactly agree with like, exploding apartments or crashing cars, but i think he really does think that tyler durden is a cool as hell dude and that men are all really sad all of the time and that its Womens Fault and also their fathers i guess. and god? and capitalism. which circles back to their fathers. and also women. poor marla jfc

finally i hate it cause the prose style wormed its little fucking wormy squirmy head into my brain and this is gonna sound crazy but my inner monologue sounds like chuck palahniuk as the narrator slash tyler durden (also slash as himself he just sounds like that) now. ive complained about this before but seriously its terminal. im dying. there should be a support group for victims of fight club the book slash the movie. everyone shows up in cosplay

also ps i mentioned this but. god he's an asshole but brad pitt is just so so hot in it. like really really hot. like it really sucks how hot he is. i saw him walk on screen and i was like 'oh you suck' but he talked for five minutes and i was like 'nevermind i want you'. free me. the lye scene with the hand kiss and the burn and the ugh it has not left my head. Kill myself.

sorry this is not coherent and i could explain it better if i was more awake. and im making a lot of ad hominim attacks against chuck palahniuk but i read some of his other shit a bit and it's not super unfounded. i would hate to meet that man at a party he talks like an asshole

also?? sorry one more thing but god the ending of the book was bad. he lived and went to a mental hospital run by project mayhem. metaphor? probably. but jesus man. im so glad they changed the movie ending to the buildings exploding. and marla at the end of the book she brought a bunch of nice people who care about him up to the roof where he was gonna shoot himself and she was like please don't kill yourself i love you. come the fuck on girl. it was like an angsty teenager wrote it. like this super hot lady who lowkey hated me before but now super loves me is telling me not to shoot myself but plot twist im actually trying to kill my evil alter ego because he's inside my brain... im crazyyy... im gonna go to a mental hospital now until i can escape again... because i blew people up.... rip tyler durden slash narrator from fight club you would have LOVED the edgy joker.

ok done now. maybe.

[angustully]

sorry that im continuing to be a season 4 hacks hater* but............ it'd be nice if this season was actually good......... :/ and that i didnt feel like i was either 3 steps ahead of or completely in the dark on every plot point they try to throw at the wall and make stick. like honestly this season has felt so weirdly preachy to me that i knew what choice deborah would make as soon as that dumbass ultimatum was presented.. and they tried REALLY hard to make you think otherwise but i knew. also......... why did they end episode 8 with ava looking like she knew exactly the lengths deborah went to to get winnie fired but then in this episode she's like nooo my sweet angel deb? she would never... ??? girl she literally would and HAS... and to YOU!!!!! like why the fuck is ava so brain dead this season i just dont get it. and dont get me started on meg statler's go girl give us nothing ass acting..... im guessing this was probably the first time in the show she had lines to say that couldnt be doctored up with a weird voice or face or scream and ummm it showed! in a bad way. to be clear. what else what else. if they ever make me think about dance mom ever again in my life ill fucking burn this place to the ground. it wasnt funny or interesting the first time and its CERTAINLY not now, NINE episodes in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* i wrote 'disliker' at first bc i wasnt sure i felt that strongly about this season but no i do. i definitely hate this season

[golbrocklovely]

here are my opinions on snc's new video :)

i actually really enjoyed this one. the couple that they have done this year haven't been my most favorite (apart from the ones with the boys bc those are really funny but had a good amount of spooky mixed in) but this one felt like an older video, if that makes any sense. like it felt like a vid from 2021 or something, and i actually really like that in a way.

also they finally came to my state which is makes this even better lol

i think what was nice was the amount of time they spent in each place. it felt evenly spaced out (minus the last spot but i kinda understand why). the last time they did something like this, it felt so rushed and like none of the places really got a spotlight, but this video, i think, worked out the kinks of the last one.

now to get into more specifics...

farnsworth house - so i was a bit confused how jeremy has his own room, but it's not the room he died in bc that is sara's room??? that was a bit weird to me but okay then lol

them freaking out about the door "hitting" amanda…. imma be honest that part is so dumb. clearly it was just swinging back towards her bc they opened it. my thing with houses that are super old is that you can't trust creaks or knocks or doors. like yeah, maybe they are weird and creepy in the moment and you can't handle how you deal with things at that point, but after the fact it's just so obvious it's an old fucking house and not paranormal, at least to me.

but them constantly hearing footsteps was very odd, especially since they were assumingly alone in the houses. that part is very weird.

i liked that there was a lot of active spirits there. what i am a bit bummed about is we never found out what laura wanted to say to colby. also colby being drawn to the one bathroom, which is were jeremy died… that man is psychic and needs to get back onto that empath grind sksks

the emotion ball thing was dumb. sorry. don't try that again lol

i get why they use the spirit box but it is so hard to understand anything that comes out of it. i personally wish they would just stick to the alice box/estes method.

jennie wade house - first off their guide was a 10/10. she very much reminded me of ppl from philly, and i have no way of explaining why lol

it's a shame what happened to jennie. and i personally think that the soldier in the previous house did kill her, even if on accident.

what i will say tho is how is it that her father was a terrible drunk and downright shit dude, and everyone just accepts he was an asshole… but rosa carmichael was possessed by a demon or the devil??? she couldn't have been just a terrible fucking person who hated kids??? idk, just asking questions here.

again at this place, it was nice that they had "intelligent" spirits bc them interacting with the equipment was cool to see.

sam seeing a face was actually cool, bc nine times out of ten the boys gloss over shit like that and then pretend it didn't happen later down the line.

child spirits always make me sad. it's such a shame when children die. breaks my heart.

soldiers homestead orphanage - imma be honest, do i think this place has a demonic energy in it? ehh, idk. do i think it's possible that soldiers, as they lay there dying slowly, started praying to the devil? sure. i can see that being a thing. idk if that place is demonic tho.

personally, this place falls just an ounce flat for me only bc amanda and her preachy ways comes back full force and it just gets on my nerves lol

hey, just like 2021!

it was a bit much how terrified they were to go into the basement so every creak of footsteps scared them out of the doorway. at that point they should have just stood there and waited to hear the noises. i know at one point the steps sounded really loud so that definitely is worth being spooked out, but after the fifth time of them doing that it wasn't scary anymore - it was annoying.

the estes method was interesting, but again… idk how i feel about the place being demonic.

i think overall i would rate this video like a 7.5/10, maybe an 8 if i'm feeling really generous. it was good, got some good evidence in there, and it happened in my state so that already raises the score lol

please come back to pa snc. i need you to redo pennhurst so badly it's not funny.

lmk what you think if you wanna :)

[honeyhonest]

Don't want this to sound preachy or something but I feel the need to comment again since I made almost the same mistakes:)

It's very valid and should be the normalcy to not have or want fucking children in adult spaces.I think it's the byproduct mentality of children that grew up in dysfunctional families or were involved in abusive/neglectful dynamics (at least that was my case).Sadly,most parents think they are good parents only because they provide minimum necessities.They might care materially but the emotional part is very much more important,I think and too neglected even in 'normal' families.Of course,even children that had their emotional needs attended to can grow up to become like this,but I feel like it's more likely in the previous case.Its,of course,not anyone's obligation, especially random people on the internet to I don't know try to raise these children?I guess?I don't know what words to use lmao.Its also very prominent in society as a whole, this oversexualization,this need to grow up.As a teenager that was considered 'mature' and was saddled with too much responsibility by my parents,it's hard not to fall in this mindset.The problem is this seeking of relationships with older people, romantic or familial.It's very dangerous to develop this mindset.It's hard to acknowledge,but random people on the internet or even real life are not intrinsically your friends or whatever.Especially people almost twice older than you.My sister has this problem too, she's 17 and wanted to get together with some man that was 24??? that's simply horrid.What is even worse? Growing up in a family that is fine with it.My mom and my grandparents didn't bat an eye when she told them.Why?My mother got married off when she was 15.Had 3 marriages with equally abusive men,my dad included.There is nothing 'great' about being considered mature or whatever for your age.Its fucking bullshit.As previously stated go play with dolls.This got so long,I'm sorry I didn't mean to😔I get lost in my thoughts when I have to many and write absolute gibberish sometimes,I hope this makes sense though

understood wholly. I also had to grow up raising my younger siblings and taking care of everyone's emotional needs. when the adults in your life (usually, your parents) already treat you like an adult, it can be easy to delude yourself into believing you're one. but you're not, and there's nothing wrong with that! adulthood comes for all of us, enjoy being a child while you can. every age is sacred and important, take things slowly. I was also in a rush to grow up once and I minimized the parts of myself that I would come to miss the most