#because i have to spend the little money i have on stuff like this that is way more expensive than it would be if i could drive!!

[fierceawakening]

I’ve always thought that Dawkins started out a more or less decent guy and then… unfortunately went batshit fucking bonkers.

Im not sure why that was exactly. Might well be Islamophobia that grew in intensity over time a la JKR’s metastasizing terfism, might just be that New Atheism led a lot of people to the bullshit right. I dunno. But the early books just sounded like someone who was a bit angry but not off the shits like he was later.

I always thought he was right about atheism and how it works. That once you start to think, “hey, I can’t find reproducible evidence for the existence of gods,” it’s difficult not to conclude they don’t exist. Why conclude Thor doesn’t exist if it’s arrogant to conclude Jesus didn’t? Wouldn’t you have to say, in order not to be arrogant, that you think there’s no Thor but can’t be sure?

What I think he doesn’t have right is that I think there are more people that are atheistic and religious than he recognizes. A lot of people won’t say this until you ask them point blank because they don’t want to sound weird, but actually think “there might well not be a god, but I’m going to do this ritual stuff anyway.”

That’d be me currently. I see no clear evidence God exists, so if you ask if I’m an atheist: uh. Yeah. Definitionally. Yup. Uh huh.

But I also attend a church and do the rituals. Because I feel that particular community uses the rituals and stories to try to encourage people to be good: be kind, be patient, show people “the love of god” rather than judging them. Value people over profit and community over money. Don’t turn people away until you’re sure not doing so will hurt more people than doing it. Etc.

Which is what I now think New Atheism got wrong and why the movement turned into a bunch of alt right turd waffles. “Non overlapping magisteria” for most people wasn’t about “is there something science can’t study?” (My answer: how would I know if there was?) it was about “what is this for? How is it used? Why do people value it?”

New Atheists used to mock people for “needing comfort.” The idea being that if you have a sufficiently strong personality you don’t need God to love you.

But like. 2016 happened, and I needed comfort. And I realized I did, and I fucking went to church! Because “the purpose of this thing is comfort” is not the same as “the purpose of this thing is bad.”

The problem with religion is the insistence you have to know it’s factual. You don’t have to do that! Very few people actually spend their entire lives sure it’s all true.

If we did, no angry preacher would ever have to castigate us for too little faith.

There's something about atheism that I've repeatedly tried and failed to put into words on several posts on this blog but I think I finally got it.

Atheists are the only religious minority who, even (or sometimes even *especially*) in ostensibly progressive spaces are not allowed to ever act like they're sure of their beliefs.

[quillpenkeyboard]

Treating fleas

Fleas never really stop being an issue in vet med, but as we in the northern hemisphere are rapidly entering summer, it is once more kicking up in intensity.

In a perfect world, everyone should have their pets on prevention year-round and we'd never have to deal with them, but that's not an achievable outcome.

If your pet does have fleas, you need to treat all pets in the household with effective prevention for at least 3 months while managing the environment. Let me break that down a little further:

"all pets in the household" means every non-human mammal in the house. I don't care if you're only seeing fleas on your one dog - other dogs, cats, ferrets, bunnies, guinea pigs, etc all need to be treated too. All of them.

"effective prevention" unfortunately at least in the US probably means prescription medication, which means your pets have to have a current (generally within last 12 mo) exam on file with a veterinarian. Frontline and other fipronil- or pyrethrin/oid-based products available OTC have become largely ineffective in the last decade or so. I know it's more expensive to get prescription prevention. But I promise it's more expensive in the long run to spend money on products that don't work well and then still have to buy the good stuff afterwards.

"at least 3 months" is because of the flea life cycle and how prevention works. The stuff you give your pets kills the adult fleas when they bite, so they disappear and stop making more fleas. Flea eggs will continue to hatch for a couple months after that. If you treat for less than 3 months you will have the same fleas again. If you stop treating after 3 months you can get fleas again (just like you got them in the first place) but are not guaranteed to.

"managing the environment" means doing what you can to minimize the number of flea eggs that are around. This helps keep your pets comfortable (less itchy) and healthy (reduced risk of illness from fleas). Mostly I have people focus on good household hygiene like vacuuming and washing bedding frequently. If you do use a flea "bomb" product, read the packaging carefully first - most of these are toxic to pets and so have to keep pets out during and for a period of time following treatment.

[ablobwhowrites]

Due to a quote on the office worker y/n...I now can't help but imagining those old habits dying hard because y/n might believe that they have to pay bills in the cookie world, not realizing the cookies are COMPLETELY caring for em! Cue y/n trying to job search but cookies stop them because they didn't want y/n to ever overwork themselves again...so they try to get y/n into hobbies and/or just relax instead...cue y/n being surprised when no bills show up in their mailbox, only daily positive stuff in the mail and gifts the cookies know y/n would like...heck, maybe even drop off groceries to make sure y/n doesn't have the excuse of 'there's nothing at home to eat' to excuse them downing 3 cup noodles...aaaand petty sure if they see y/n getting themselves cup noodles...cue cookie instantly running up to grab the cup ans turn it into an actual meal via adding meat and other stuff lol!

That's a little off topic...main topic...imagine y/n attempting to skip meals and lie to say they aren't hungry...but the moment their stomach growls, all hell breaks loose! Health cookies trying to offer y/n food...

God forbid their stomach growls around hollyberry...she'd probably stuff em like a turkey, making sure y/n was full.

y/n literally had a crisis when they thought that they needed to pay cookie taxes now but yeah cause how bad the human world was that the cookies wondered how y/n was able to stay healthy for so long and not crack under the pressure. Y/n does deny themselves a lot of luxuries because they were to expensive for y/n and that they never had time to enjoy it and they still have that habit because they quietly see what they want but never actually get it because it's to expensive for them or if their friends wanted to take them on a trip, their boss's always said they needed to get paperwork done and then the deadline for the trip was there but their boss said they don't have leave yet. So y/n never was able to enjoy the nice things in life and this absolutely appalled the cookies who were wealthy and even regular cookies hearing how y/n worked 9 to 5 every day and even on weekends as they couldn't leave the job because how highly profile the company was so it would have ruined y/n if they left (they definitely aren't planning to drag y/n's boss to the cookie world to bascially give them the worse fate known to man or something)

Y/n is also in a mind set of having to work and earn money and they don't understand the meaning of rest as they never had a vacation or weekend off cause they literally worked minimum wage and when I say minimum, I mean minimum dude. So when getting so much stuff it basically overwhelmed y/n as they never had so much nice stuff and oh my God they get a well made house and not a apartment!? It's well furnished and has great heating and cooling!? Y/n thought it was a dream and may or may not had violently slapped themselves to see if it was a dream, it wasn't but it did scare the cookies that they did that. Red velvet cookie also gave them a cake hound as a nice gift and also a guard dog for y/n. Cheesecake cookie takes y/n to the most amazing places that some cookies couldn't afford cause she Is canonically loaded dude and poor y/n is so overwhelmed by how much stuff she gets them and y/n tries to convince Cheesecake not to spend so much on them and this goes for every cookie who is rich or gets them something expensive, poor y/n panics over the price.

the physical health cookies definitely try to keep y/n's dough loose and fit as Dr. Bones Cookie supports this as they will give y/n a doctors note for this. It's basically a schedule that blueberry pie cookie makes for y/n and does have a small notes of when y/n eats and what they need to eat and y/n finds that creepy a bit but they fear blueberry pie cookie cause they saw her angry once and they were forced a whole exercise day with all the athlete cookies and a Dr. Bones Cookie appointment in one day and it was torture for y/n as they worked in a office for so long and on top of the fact they were still new to their cookie body, it was absolutely torture and they never anger Blueberry pie cookie cause she controls y/n schedules cause the other cookies saw how efficient she is and y/n can't change that unless they ask but they don't wanna do another exercise day again. But string cheese cookie always tried to keep y/n's things clean and organized as she is a maid and all, plus fruit punch cookie owns a cafè (I looked at his game description stuff and it does say that.) so y/n is able to be at his cafè for as long as they'd like as he does like the company of y/n and they get to try new drinks that he has.

Y/n was thrown a whole feast by hollyberry and the king and queen of the hollyberry kingdom once cause y/n said they weren't hungry and then the biggest stomach growl was heard and sadly y/n couldn't escape in time cause they had left over on left overs they got to eat and I tell you y/n never had such a full meal in their lives but hey they got some berry juice to take home too. Y/n felt like they ate a whole buffet and y/n tries to not make that mistake anymore even around other cookies as they fear what that might result into.

Also once y/n once wandered about to close to beast yeast as they are a cookie in this world so it's not easy to remember where the fuck everything is and ended up being snatched up by Shadow milk cookie cause of his strings and basically this bastard tied y/n up like a spider so they couldn't run away and he just cuddled with them as he finally has them in his arms until they escaped which he was pissed about that and thinks it pure vanilla cookie who took them. Y/n just chewed on the strings until it broke and ran off. Mystic flour cookie does the same but it scares the shit out of y/n as mystic flour cookie could kill them but doesn't as she likes having y/n around, it's strange for her as she doesn't want to turn y/n into flour yet she knows these emotions can be fleeting. Burning spice cookie just holds onto y/n, like a death grip basically and y/n was a regular as human and this is basically a being with powers who needed to be locked away in a magic prison, the only way y/n escaped that was when Golden cheese cookie came to rescue them. Eternal sugar cookie hasn't gotten a hold of them luckily but soon she will but y/n is safe from her for now.

(But anyways that's it for my yapping session for today! But if you guys like it and want more please don't be shy and request any ideas for stories or y/n's you have! But for now please stay safe and drink water!)

[the-autistic-vulcan]

A Little Disorder is Needed (Roommate!Vi x Reader Headcanons)

Request: hii!! do you think you could write smth about roommate!vi x reader? i think the concept would be really cute, love ur work btw <3

Description: Headcanons about being Roommates with Vi.

A/N: i love Vi so much, i think this will be alright, although i haven't written roommate related stuff before, so i hope i do well, not really many warnings, mostly fluff, kind of modern au

gif credit: @arcanegifs

Vi has the energy of a person that comes to places uninvited - so you can kind of expect her arrival and inserting herself as your roommate to be unceremonious

Presumably, you both know each other from miscellaneous adventures in the Underground (mostly you pulling her out of trouble)

For the most part, she is a pretty alright roommate

She cleans up after herself, she takes care of her own messes and she doesn't subject you to just do it yourself

One evening though, you had been pretty stressed out - your landlord drops something in the mail

You were home alone that morning so you open it not expecting anything too pressing

Only to be left in horror when you see that half of your rent hasn't been sent in yet

You were fairly good with your rent money, and Vi was the only other person in your apartment, so you call her

It took three calls to finally reach her, and she's graced with your worried tone over the phone

When you tell her she forgot to pay her half of the rent for the month, she's mortified, swearing up and down that she'd make it up to you

Luckily, your landlord gave a deadline, so she managed to hand it in as soon as possible

After that incident, you both sat down at the dining table to talk

"Vi, I really don't appreciate sometimes that you don't tell me these things."

"I wanted to. Really I did, but...I guess I just have other things hanging over my head.

You sighed, "Just know that if you do that again, or me for that matter, we have to move out."

"I know." She said, simply

After that, the both of you promised to hand in each half on time

Vi even offered to do chores that you would typically do because she felt so guilty about it - even if it was like three months after the incident and you were over it

Vi is genuinely a good roommate, and the more time you spend with her, you both watch your favourite movies together, tv shows, cook and clean - even go shopping together for supplies, even for one little thing

Perhaps the two of you may lead up to something more. But that's for another time to discuss

Edit: I apologize for these being slightly rushed because I've had a lot of things happening this week. I do hope you all still like it.

Like, Comment, Reblog! Got any ideas? Drop them in my inbox!

[sillydeimos]

madcom guys + cooking ability/skill headcanons

hank: his survival, eating wise, has only been because of the existence of buying food already cooked and prepared or MREs meals. i really cannot picture the guy having any kind of cooking abilities, like at most maybe he can make s'mores but that's kinda where it ends with him.

deimos: he's a bit more of a unique case. he can cook at a very basic level, and that level is 'knowing how long to cook ramen for', and 'can make basic grilled cheese and is weirdly proud of it', but sadly this guy would heavily rely on fast food, snacks, easy stuff that doesn't require any cooking. very basic level, and it needs to have simple steps otherwise he decides it's not worth it.

sanford: i'm sure this headcanon is already pretty widely accepted by all, but i do enjoy the thought of sanford actually being good at cooking. he actually knows what he's doing, he can prepare a meal, he knows how long it'll take and he's got good time management. the only downside with him is that you absolutely cannot bother him while he's cooking. like he definitely can't make anything extremely fancy and he does fuck up and nearly burn stuff, but all in all it's good.

victor: this guy right here? he knows how to grill. he knows it because he was doomed to work in the fast food service. the thing is that victor personally hated working there so often that he might just actually hate grilling because of it. other then that, he also knows how to make incredibly basic things as long as it involves very little ingredients otherwise he gets overwhelmed.

doc: now doc is kind of hit or miss with how i headcanon him. on one hand i feel like he's too busy to commit to cooking and just have someone else do it for him, or he preps food in advance, so he's really into reheatable stuff. that being said i also do like the thought that doc is surprisingly good at cooking too. and if you approach him in the kitchen he will talk you through his entire process like he's a genius when he probably stole the recipes off pinterest.

tricky: idk why i see tricky as throwing things into a big smoking cauldron kinda guy. other then that this is a zombie clown he eats trash. he does love sweets though and i think its funny that he actually locks in for baking a cake....i mean none of the ingredients are necessarily going to be fresh or clean. so maybe just leave him to his cake and don't go near it.

christoff: then there's this guy. he doesn't really spend a lot of time cooking, again i think it's similar to hank and doc that he just kind of finds whatever. but he is very particular. he also doesn't enjoy the thought of cooking for others because it feels kind of servant-y for him and he has a complex...so you better join him in cooking if you want to eat with him. he has 1000 issues you gotta work with him

auditor: this guy doesn't need food he drinks sugary soda and sometimes motor oil from cars. i don't think absorbing people counts as cooking. imagine trying to make this entity do domestic cooking and he's all overconfident about it because it's simple and then gets stressed out. auditor having a meltdown over what vanilla extract is

phobos: a director never cooks for himself that's what the personal chefs are for. but that isnt to say that he has no ability... he is one of those people who would know really complicated recipes that take hours to make and the flavor profiles are not for picky eaters. might not even taste good but it's all about how much money the ingredients cost.

crackpot: when he was a scientist, surprisingly decent at it?? i mean i don't think he's that willing to share it but he'll definitely brag about it to your face. i like to imagine that he actually got a more refined palate from being around phobos and picking it up from him. but uh...then phobos died and then he was living below the mining sector. so yeah its time to boil some shoelaces

[copper-sands]

starting to think that maybe it's a good idea to stop forcing myself to create and take a break actually

[darklight-owl]

The reason conservatives are so difficult to reason with is many of them seem to live in a completely separate plane of existence where everything is easy

[lambilegs]

GUYSSSSS LOOK AT THE CUP MY FRIEND BOUGHT ME WHEN WE WENT OUT THIS SHIT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM LIKEEEEEE

[icewindandboringhorror]

sometimes looking at like Self Help Strategies lists for the symptoms I'm having is always just like:

thing that I already do

thing I have tried 10 times

thing I already do

thing that I don't have the money to do

thing I already do

thing I've been doing since I was 10yrs old to no avail

thing that is impossible given my situation

thing that doesn't apply to me

thing that I already do

thing I have already tried

hrmm, oh wait, maybe finally- OH, yeah.. okay. thing that I already do but it was just phrased slightly differently

thing I have already done

[linguenuvolose]

Pondering if I’m perhaps C2 in Italian…

[cementcornfield]

The Duke and Zac pressers are good. I’m getting my hopes up again and I have to stop 😭😭😭

i thought so too!

definitely the most direct and explicit maybe we've ever heard from duke, he typically hedges much more in his answers (somewhat related! i found out recently that apparently back in 2020 people were FED UP with him because he refused to straight up say they were drafting joe lmao. for no reason!! they were the first pick! there was no need to have any kind of sneaky strategy lolll)

i liked that he outright said they're going to make ja'marr the highest paid non-qb. that they want and plan to get all the deals done AND improve the team in free agency (and no mention of the godforsaken pie this year lmao). i especially liked that he said he wanted to pay their "fantastic players" what they were worth (as opposed to earlier this month saying they can't have the highest paid player at every position 🙄) and that they didn't want to insult anyone! (a common complaint from ex-players and implied by trey in that PMS interview).

and yeah, obviously it's just talk, and you can say he's saying what he's supposed to be saying. but as i've been pointing out here, this man doesn't give a shit about saying what people want him to say, and never really has. that's like the bengals' whole (very frustrating!!) thing, they do what they want. and i'm not naive, i don't think they're doing this to placate the fans (at least not for the most part) but rather to placate some relationships with their players that they have definitely definitely damaged over the years. perhaps they're finally realizing that that's just an outright stupid way of doing business!

[anonymolly]

I am simply going to scream

[durzarya]

Sometimes you look at something you want and actually calculate it money wise.

I was like okay realistically how long would this take me?

Apparently not that long

[bedforddanes75]

they should just give me pretty things so i can look at them

[krawdad]

I think it was Gabe Newell who said something to the effect of "okay you made it more realistic, did that make it more or less fun?" And it's like yeah why aren't people getting asked that more.

[coffeeworldsasaki]

I'm still rotating in my mind the idea of selling stuff I make but well. I do a lot of different stuff through different fiber crafts and I have no idea if it would help or not to have so much stuff instead of one precise direction