Life-changing OCD hack is learning that you can literally call poison control to check if you fucked up and took medications wrong in a way that could kill you instead of having a panic attack while reading reddit and quora threads for an hour. They won’t even be mad at you. Like obviously don’t do it every day or something but genuinely you can do this if you need to
as people turn more and more towards the internet as a first choice for information, poison control (which has rebranded as poison help? i think?) is seeing fewer and fewer callers
part of this is because the USAmerican birth rates have slowed, and the number 1 culprit for why you’d call poison control is kids under 5 put shit in their mouths all the time
but part of it is BECAUSE people are turning to the internet first
and you don’t have to! poison control is FREE and available in EVERY US STATE AND TERRITORY
they are staffed 24/7 365 days a year! they do everything they can to minimize wait times and they have an ENORMOUS database of medications, household cleaners, chemicals, pesticides, and MORE! and not only information on JUST those things, but how they interact with other things! they can even give you advice on if your pet ingests something they shouldn’t!
but poison control isn’t federally funded! they’re a frankenstein mishmash of state funded, federally funded, and a couple of other weird ones (like organizations helping with funding) just for flavor. poison control NEEDS you to be politically aware. keep a finger on local and state politics; if your state is voting to shut down their poison control center, make sure your reps hear about how pissed you are!
poison control saves lives, but even more than that, it keeps people out of emergency rooms and walk-ins when they don’t have to be. when Louisiana closed its PCC in 1988, people who called the PCC hotline were instructed to call their local hospital instead. the number of medically-treated poisonings rose by 42%…meaning ERs and walk-ins were flooded with people who’d taken, say, one extra pill of ibuprofen by accident, or got a bit of rubbing alcohol in their mouth, or got their dog’s flea medicine on their skin. stuff that was SCARY, sure…but wouldn’t have needed medical care at all if there had just been someone to tell those people you can just wash your mouth out, or wash your skin, or refrain from taking any more ibuprofen for at least 24 hours!
anyway help ur local PCC, put the pressure on your political reps, and if you ever have questions like “hypothetically what would happen if you inhaled iodine,” you can call 1 800 222 1222 and speak with a real live reassuring person any time day or night!
I saw something in the news today that truly took my breath away. If you have been paying attention to U.S. politics over the past few days, you’ve most likely seen this woman:
This is Bishop Mariann Budde, and on Monday (Trump’s inauguration) she led an interfaith prayer for Trump and the incoming administration. During the service she asked him to have mercy for LGBTQ+ Americans and undocumented immigrants. This was badly received by the Trump administration (as expected).
After seeing headlines about this woman, I read something that I wanted to share. In 1998 a man named Matthew Shepard was murdered for being gay. I’m not going to get into the details of his death on this post, but please be warned it is extremely triggering if you do choose to read more on your own. Matthew Shepard’s death caused a lot of change in the U.S. regarding how LGBTQ hate crimes are handled, and laws that were passed to protect LGBTQ+ people.
Now you’re probably wondering what Matthew Shepard has to do with an Episcopal bishop. For years after Matthew Shepard’s murder, his family had held onto his remains, too scared to lay him to rest in fear of his final resting place being vandalized. In 2018, Budde had his remains interred at the National Cathedral, which is also the place where the interfaith prayer for Trump and his administration took place. The impact of this really had an effect on me. Budde could have led a non confrontational prayer service, and chosen not to mention the harm that will come to the people Trump and his administration are going after. Instead she chose to call out hate and fear in front of some of the most powerful people on the planet, and at a place that has such a large historic meaning to the LGBTQ community.
In the next few years there will be many challenges in protecting free speech, standing up against hate, and protecting those in our communities. But I would like to believe that for every Donald Trump and Elon Musk, there are people like Marianne Budde. There are those of us who can’t speak up for themselves, so it’s important for those of us who can to amplify our voices, even if it’s not the ‘popular’ thing to do.
“And he said you should apologize. Will you apologize?
I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others.” - Mariann Budde’s response in a Time interview
gale is actually the character of all time for swinging wildly between suicidal depression and delusions of godhood. he’s ready to die and you give him a crumb of ass and hes like what if i just ruled the universe actually. this should be a huge red flag but then, you only need to ask him to stop once and he’s like “ok” and the next day hes like “are you mad at me :(”
literally its so fun being abnormal about christianity and also being christian because i just said “id kiss judas with tongue” in front of my pastor and she squinted at me and went “do you need to be removed from council or are you going to be normal?”
me: do you think jesus and peter ever explored each other’s bodies?
her husband, the other pastor: oh almost definitely.
I know tumblr is America centric, but yesterday the worst mass shooting in modern swedish history happened. It was a school shooting with over ten people dead, a lot more hurt and in critical condition. The school is a Municipal adult education, with a lot of other schools close by. Apparently videos were taken from schools nearby who heard the gunshots.
It was a horrible incident that has sent Sweden into a state of shock. I just feel like people need to know about this.
“windows 11 upgrade ready!” “your computer is eligible for windows 11!” “download windows 11 now!”
Linux is a whole new head-smashing aggravation, but it’s free and it won’t try to sell you AI malware bullshit.
Be patient with yourself. Be patient with the nerds who are trying to help you kill Windows.
Why are you recommending arch to people who have never used Linux
EndeavourOS is strangely approachable! Posting pictures of Tux and expecting everyone to joyfully dive in is just going to frustrate folks. Where do you start newbies off?
Something Debian based but probably not Debian itself, it doesn’t even come with the latest Firefox version due to needing to be extremely stable. This is for several reasons including the rolling release nature of Arch. Linux Mint is probably fine.
Though with the older kernel that’s packaged in with it’s latest version, all new latest generation (this year) computer parts can rarely have driver issues when the latest release is nearing it’s end. Still a very solid option whose default desktop, Cinnamon, is familiar to those switching from windows. Additionally, just like Linux lite and to some degree Ubuntu, it has graphical tools for many things.
Remember, the average person will be scared by a terminal, so allowing them to, at least initially, only use it with commands copy pasted from guides when absolutely necessary, is important. Now, if someone already has at least a bit of experience using a terminal on, for example windows, that isn’t just copy pasting commands, then it’s not nearly as important but those people are almost always developers.
An option is also just straight up Ubuntu, it’s the most popular making it easier to find help, or something like Zorin OS as it comes prepackaged with features like Windows program compatibility and the ability to make the desktop resemble Windows or MacOS.
It’s best to push people past choice paralysis by just choosing for them, though keep in mind their priorities while doing so. This is why some advise to just always recommend Linux Mint.
A quiz to help people choose a distro if you don’t know the recipients priorities/wants and needs:
Dispel perceived difficulties when possible. For example, mention that if they use Steam for gaming, they could seamlessly play many of the games on there through Proton or that you don’t need a command line to install chrome because distros like Ubuntu literally have an app store these days.
Also, I didn’t know EndeavourOS makes Arch more approachable! That’s nice.
The Ubuntu app store, what a phrase! There you have it folks, Linux Mint or Ubuntu! Or take the distro quiz, amazing.
I know it sounds like something Linux people would never do but I’m pretty sure anyone can install gnome-software, on which Ubuntu’s store is based, or KDEs Discover thing. They’re just graphical tools that let you treat the software repositories like an app store. You can even hook them up to Flathub for the full App Experience.
current tabs open on my english teachers computer include a) the myth of sisyphus by albert camus. b) google search for ionic columns c) the cure discography
i read the stranger -> i bring it up in class -> we talk about it -> teacher mentions the cure song based on the stranger (unfortunately titled ‘killing an arab’) -> we look at the names of the songs the cure has written -> teacher brings up the myth of sisyphus -> other student asks why we’re talking about sisyphus -> gonna be honest i have no idea what happened here -> ionic column
borders between countries aren’t real btw we just made them up. there’s no such thing as an “immigrant” we’re all just people moving around on the same planet that we’ve always moved around on
I finished my next reference, decided to just go alphabetically backwards since I finished the two I most wanted to. So that meant Yugoslavia was first.
Unfortunately, our plagiarism checker has found that your essay is copied word-for-word from another source. We’re very disappointed in you. At this point in your academic career, you should know better than relying on the Library of Babel to think for you.
you literally copied this from the library of babel too i don’t want to hear it
“windows 11 upgrade ready!” “your computer is eligible for windows 11!” “download windows 11 now!”
Linux is a whole new head-smashing aggravation, but it’s free and it won’t try to sell you AI malware bullshit.
Be patient with yourself. Be patient with the nerds who are trying to help you kill Windows.
Why are you recommending arch to people who have never used Linux
EndeavourOS is strangely approachable! Posting pictures of Tux and expecting everyone to joyfully dive in is just going to frustrate folks. Where do you start newbies off?
Something Debian based but probably not Debian itself, it doesn’t even come with the latest Firefox version due to needing to be extremely stable. This is for several reasons including the rolling release nature of Arch. Linux Mint is probably fine.
Though with the older kernel that’s packaged in with it’s latest version, all new latest generation (this year) computer parts can rarely have driver issues when the latest release is nearing it’s end. Still a very solid option whose default desktop, Cinnamon, is familiar to those switching from windows. Additionally, just like Linux lite and to some degree Ubuntu, it has graphical tools for many things.
Remember, the average person will be scared by a terminal, so allowing them to, at least initially, only use it with commands copy pasted from guides when absolutely necessary, is important. Now, if someone already has at least a bit of experience using a terminal on, for example windows, that isn’t just copy pasting commands, then it’s not nearly as important but those people are almost always developers.
An option is also just straight up Ubuntu, it’s the most popular making it easier to find help, or something like Zorin OS as it comes prepackaged with features like Windows program compatibility and the ability to make the desktop resemble Windows or MacOS.
It’s best to push people past choice paralysis by just choosing for them, though keep in mind their priorities while doing so. This is why some advise to just always recommend Linux Mint.
A quiz to help people choose a distro if you don’t know the recipients priorities/wants and needs:
Dispel perceived difficulties when possible. For example, mention that if they use Steam for gaming, they could seamlessly play many of the games on there through Proton or that you don’t need a command line to install chrome because distros like Ubuntu literally have an app store these days.
Also, I didn’t know EndeavourOS makes Arch more approachable! That’s nice.
The ‘tolerance’ and 'acceptance of differences’ leaving your bodies when the cursed amulet whispers to me every night and not to you
I don’t want to talk to those guys
ALSO, If we collect enough of the essence that’s left their bodies, we should be able to craft a curse strong enough to bind their souls into something stupid and impermanent. Like a napkin
A piece I did for 2025 Murderbot Diaries New Year Gift Exchange (@mbd-gift-exchange) for @kungsljus. They requested holiday convention stuff inspired by the celebration in Network Effect (but with Murderbot having a good time) or Murderbot enjoying nature with anyone out of its friend client group. So here it is, celebrating and being involved in its own way.
The wizard robot in the upper right media corner is Kungsljus’s D&D OC.
The picture was originally in monochrome because of the deadline, so I’m adding it here too.
Best viewed in browser, the details may get lost otherwise.
“average person hates you” factoid actually just statistical error. average person doesn’t hate you. Overthinking Georg, who lives in your brain & spends over 20 hours per day hating you, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
in school I used to wear fake glasses while doing writing assignments so that the teachers would think I was smarter and grade my tests higher (this actually worked, for the record)
this kind of backfired in a pavlovian way because now I literally have to put on a pair of glasses and activate Smart Mode when I write anything longer than a few paragraphs
it’s just very fortunate that “I can’t write without my glasses” is an honest statement that doesn’t raise any eyebrows
Sorry i have to speak on this as a student researcherm
The cdc now the NSF has words that can’t be used in awards/grants and potentially papers published with that funding or from the government.
This is fascism controlling science and journalism and the peer review.process and it is and will harm science. You can’t say the words female or woman in nsf grants. You can’t say the word trauma even if you’re researching literal physical trauma. Research that benefits all people especially minorities will suffer. Medicine will suffer. Science will suffer. We are being censored and are entering an age of pseudoscience and fascism. Please boost this conversation. I am so scared what will happen as this continues to escalate. Call your representatives. Protest. Anything
Had a dream this morning that Archive of our Own had a Random button which would simply take you to a random fanfic, like Wikipedia has. (AO3 does not appear to really have this, I checked and couldn’t find one, but I kinda wish they did.) Someone had started a game where whatever fic you got, that was your new fandom, which is very fun! I would love this meme in real life.
The problem came in where so many people used the button that it broke and just started sending everyone to Stealing Harry, and like…I have fond memories of Stealing Harry but it’s not my best work and nobody should be assigned to be a Harry Potter fan in this day and age.
So I decide to go off and find Astolat and demand she fix this but when I finally did (there was a whole quest) she turned to me like the baddie in a horror flick and said, “But that’s the most random story there is” in a dark voice and I was terrified and woke up.
In the cold light of day I know there are more random stories by me on the archive, let alone by others, but I’m not going to try to get back there to argue my case. Pretty sure whatever I spoke to was actually the demon specifically assigned to plague fandom and not Astolat at all.
I’d say “get thee behind me, demon” but I know just how many porny fics on AO3 begin with that premise. (I’ve written some.) Begone foul spirit, and take your Satanic Panic with you!
This made me laugh so hard - of all the things a sleeping mind can offer up as entertainment, poor Copperbadge was visited by a demonic Astolat impersonator.
also werewolves that dont fit into the ‘stereotypical werewolf’ criteria are nice as well. i want a story where it turns out the dainty and sweet lady is the monster that slaughters people every full moon.
Pick the option that applies or whatever, I’m not your boss.
I have accidentally made an incorrect selection while scrolling but I’m not going to tell you which one just go ahead and assume all the numbers are off 
I’ve read exactly ten pages of this series and I know exactly what this poll is about.
one cute detail about murderbot is that its always running calculations on how likely an event is to happen. its always commenting on the statistical likelihood of something. and yet. it still thinks “but what if theres a space monster, like in my shows”
(aside from, you know Murderbot who I love and cherish)
It that it’s a very grim-dark distopian corporate hellscape setting, told through the perspective of someone who has seen some of the worst that world has to offer, who’s existence is part of the worst that world has to offer, and yet-
And yet it’s so full of hope.
Everywhere you look, there’s underground shipping routes to get refugees out from contract labour, there’s universities forging documents to get abandoned colonies out from corporate ownership, there’s people buying a secunit so the company don’t realise it’s hacked itself and has free will. A Tlacy employee smuggles out copies of the files to give them back to their owners, a human officer on HaveRatton station opens the security barrier to let Ayda Mensah escape. There’s a planet that took the promise of somewhere safe to live, of food and medical care, and kept that promise for generations.
And for all it can’t even see the hope yet, can’t even really believe it might be there yet (because trauma will fuck you up), Secunit keeps being that hope for other people.
Not just the lives it saves, not just all the times it shows up out of nowhere like a social anxious guardian angel with energy weapons in it’s arms and several lifetimes worth of soap operas in it’s storage.
When it talks to Dr Volescu all the way up the side of the crater, to keep him moving. When it sticks with the scientists on RaviHyral. When Tapan sneaks onto it’s sleeping mat, because she’s scared, and it ups it’s body temperature to keep her warm. When it keeps Amena safe from a predatory partner, when it tells her to go rest. When it hacks the Comfort Unit’s governor module. When it-version-2.0 gives Three the codes to hack itself.
Imagine being on RaviHyral. Imagine meeting a security consultant who you shouldn’t be able to afford, who goes above and beyond and doesn’t even check the payment card at the end, who tells you that sometimes people do things to you that you can’t do anything about, that all you can do is learn to live with them, who’s clearly been through some shit but came out of it with so much compassion. Imagine the hope in that.
I’ve just finished the first Murderbot book and it’s very funny coming from Star Trek to this. In Star Trek you have androids and such actively campaigning for themselves to be considered full people with rights that deserve the same considerations as anyone else. Meanwhile in Murderbot all the humans are telling this guy that it’s a person with rights and it’s their friend and they like it and its response is basically
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
