tired-eel

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I have stuff for the next episode too just lemme have this for a moment

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All five is done! I still have to draw Natasha this month 💅

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wishing he was real 😭

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so when straight people ask me why I say I’m “queer” or “gay” instead of sharing my actual identity as a panromantic demisexual non-binary sapphic queer I just tell them “ok look, when you’re talking to someone who isn’t local and they ask you where you’re from and you either say the name of the largest city nearby or ‘town name, suburb of large nearby city’ so they can get some geographical context of where you’re located right, bc they’re probably not going to know the name of the little town you actually live in.”

but if you’re talking to a local you can say the name of your actual town bc they have a greater chance of knowing where/what that is.

ok well when I’m talking to a straight person I start with queer bc chances are they aren’t as familiar with the context of all the little towns in that big queer city and need gps (gay positioning system) to find me.

if I’m talking to another queer person and I say I live in a suburb of gay city in a town called panromantic on the demisexual side of the tracks which is in the county of queer and I live off the intersection of non-binary and sapphic, they’d probably be able to find me with little to no problems, make sense?

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People are so much more sad, and desparate, and lonely than you think. I have had three incidents in the last four months were a technician I was working with was being either dangerously unfocused (we work with high voltage), or just flat out angry with their coworkers, and every time when I just pulled them aside to say hey, this isn't you, you're nice, and you're competent, so something must be up - what can I do to help - they have responded by bursting into tears. One guy was struggling to get his wife moved into a care home, one guy just got served divorce papers, and the other hadn't slept a wink the night before because his daughter had the pukes.

I haven't spent my whole life responding to people being rude, or stupid, or dangerous with knee jerk compassion. It's a new habit. The first time I did that as the lead for my lab, it was because the guy genuinely was so good natured that I knew something had to be off. But the other two times were just me going, alright, lets see if it always goes this well, and so far, it has. I'm almost 30, and I just figured out that the #1 reason people are shitty are because they are going through shit.

I don't think you have, like, a moral obligation to respond to people being jerks with knee jerk compassion. But it has made my life so much easier the last four months that I would recommend trying. For your own sake. Please.

(I'll step off my soapbox now. Enjoy your Sunday.)

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Reviving a 30 year old idea with my childhood friend: the humble sporkion

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My husband (has cancer) is a frequent customer of a local family-run pharmacy. It’s much more personal and welcoming there than at a chain pharmacy — they recognize us and I feel very comfortable asking them questions about medications (husband currently has a lot).

Anyway this week my husband’s prior authorization for a medication was delayed and he decided he would pay the out-of-pocket cost rather than wait a couple days for medicine he needs to go to work. It was a $100 prescription so this was tough but not earth-shattering.

Anyway; the lead pharmacist noticed that he was being charged for his normally-insured medication, asked him about it, and took 50% off as a gift. He said every year at Christmas they have staff and community contribute to a fund to help people pay for medications, and whenever a usual customer is facing an unexpected charge, they can cover some of the cost.

Reminder to support your local businesses, build your local community!

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complimented a cashier on her turtle pin this morning and she said "oh thanks, I am a little bit of a Turtle Person" with the carefully contained energy of Cookie Monster telling you he's mildly fond of chocolate chips

I hope she and the multiple tons of turtle merch she definitely has at home are having a wonderful day

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If you have a friend that wants to vent to you but doesn't want solutions but you are a solutions-oriented person, may I suggest Silly Solutions (TM)? For instance, whenever my friend complains about the people at her job being dumb, I remind her that if only one of us had studied engineering, we could create a giant hippo robot with laser eyes to destroy them. It fulfills my need to offer a solution, doesn't violate her boundary of not wanting to problem solve, AND it cheers us both up!

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i hate it when i cant even write a poem about something because its too obvious. like in the airbnb i was at i guess it used to be a kids room cause you could see the imprint of one little glow in the dark star that had been missed and painted over in landlord white. like that's a poem already what's the point

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Another little warden Ingo drawing!! Actually did the sketch for this one a few months ago but never got around to finishing it before now :]c

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Younger writers. Please, just know that you could not skip to different songs on a cassette tape, that’s CDs. With tapes you pressed fast forward or rewind and prayed.

Also, VHS tapes did not have menu screens. Your only options were play, fast forward, rewind, pause, stop, or eject.

Y’all are making me feel like the crypt keeper here, I’m begging you 😭

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This has been going around my work and friend group on other platforms, and I thought it deserved a place here too.

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Gull inspecting two fake eggs and deciding to incubate the larger one By: Thomas D. McAvoy From: Life Nature Library: Animal Behavior 1965

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Amy is such a cutie

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There has been a crazy amount of fear-mongering about the age of first time moms getting older and older and how moms 40+ were the only demographic of women where the fertility rate rose, making it the first time in history that there are more women 40+ having children than teen pregnancies. The right is spinning this as being indicative of modern women being selfish and sewing in rhetoric about how a woman’s eggs dry up and blow away the moment she hits 30.

What is interesting is that they never mention the average age for a first time mom is 27 and the average age for a first time dad is 31. We are seeing dudes who are 50 saying “I’m not ready to settle down and start a family, I’m going to do that someday but I’m still out here seeing my wild oats.” My dad is 55 and several of his friends have had kids in the past 5 years. They’re angry at girls and women for not popping out babies the moment they start menstruating but not at men for deciding to start a family when they are GERIATRIC!

Maybe the birth rate would be higher if it was easier to find a good life partner and start a family sooner. Maybe it would be higher if there were less men dicking around for 50+ years and deciding to start a family only when they’re on the precipice of entering a nursing home, at which time their female peers have gone through menopause and the 20 something girls they chase don’t want them. It is always the fault of women when it comes to matters of reproductive health. It is their fault if they become a single mother. It is their fault if they don’t get to start a family until they’re 40+. It is their fault if they choose to be child free because of the state of the world and the amount of trust it requires to have a child with someone.

Why are grandpa-dads something we’re expected to turn a blind eye to and women over 40 having their first baby something we’re supposed to be angry at?