He looks like an emo twink and his daddy dom just told him he’s been a very naughty boy.

It probably really helped people who learned to type on a typewriter make the first changeovers, and now it’s what everybody learns to type on for the most part so it hasn’t budged. I’ve noticed at work that my gen z coworkers often struggle to type out a solid nursing note (most of them learned to type on a phone screen) so I wonder if this is maybe an opportunity for more of those alternative layouts to start taking hold as typing becomes a less common thing people need to learn early on.

Me fucking around in chat gpt until I had something good to repeat to myself in times like this. It turns out it’s actually pretty good at common meter rhyme, the trick is to ask for 5 iambic pentameter couplets at a time, then split them at the eighth syllable into those 4 8686 syllable lines. I also usually specify “casual language” and “natural word order.” You ask for five or so options for each verse so you have some ideas for words to swap around until something sounds good. I’ve been thinking I need to write a proper ballad about some characters at some point but I haven’t got round to it.

Forgive yourself for past mistakes,

and things you did not know.

Your errors guide your victories;

they ache so you can grow.

Honestly just paying people $25/h to literally just do this would actually do some great things for the mental health crisis. The most you would need to do is maybe throw in an 8hr “mental health first aid” class and give them a line to refer out to if the person expresses anything more severe than a passive death wish. I would totally support my tax dollars paying for this on a WIDE scale.

Edit/btw: the official term is a “warm line” as opposed to a “suicide hotline” for people who aren’t in crisis but just need to talk to another human for a bit, possibly to even help avoid a crisis developing in the first place.

They did have arcs, but more in that way older star trek did where you get a blurb about it during the rest of the episodes self contained content then a dedicated episode at the beginnings and ends of the season with 1-2 dedicated episodes somewhere in the middle. Well balanced for multiple watch styles.

A better star trek than anything released in the 2010s onward. I’m not even kidding, they handled many more current sociopolitical issues and with far more wit and a frankly shocking amount of tact considering its a Seth McFarlane comedy.

I’ve been waiting for algorithm-senpai to notice me…

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The number one thing I love about Randall Munroe’s particular brand of nerd humor is how genuine he is. His fascination with the natural laws of the universe is just that. It’s not something he uses to hold himself over other people or to create in-groups and out-groups of people who know and people who don’t. Even when his content is too complex for the average person it never has that subtextual “well you just wouldn’t get it because you’re not smart enough” vibe that so much other nerd humor has (looking at you big bang theory). He’s genuinely inviting the reader to learn about whatever it is, whether they ultimately do or don’t. He doesn’t have that weird inferiority complex people get sometimes where people feel the need to defensively push others away from their interests to feel better about the fact that their interests happen to be niche in some way. He doesn’t use it as a vehicle to fuel his ego. I’ve joked before that he’s my “celebrity crush” but it’s really just that he truly, genuinely wants to show you something he thinks is cool (and at least a little humorous) and as someone who’s met a LOT of snobby nerds, I’ve always deeply respected that he isn’t one. - sincerely, a professional vibe-checker (like, actually).

Nothing directly for any individual, but you can host, moderate, and / or participate in more apolitical hobby spaces.

One of the biggest ways delusions keep a hold of people is by disconnecting them from supportive / positive social relationships. The deeper down the rabbit hole they go, the more people they argue with, and the less non-delusional friends they have. Try to figure out what those beliefs and social groups replaced, then get them back into supportive social groups around that. Often it’s a hobby like gardening, book clubs, cars, sports, hiking, etc.

That’s why all of this took off so hard during COVID, people got ripped away through all of those things and Russian disinformation bots were right there and ready to replace that sense of connection with a sense of being part of a larger movement. Sometimes it’s spiritual or religious groups which has been difficult because so many of those groups have just become completely overtaken and become vehicles for the delusions, so we also need to work on ways for people to express their religion and spirituality in non-delusional ways, but that’s a whole other discussion.

The short version is: make the delusional stuff subtly less accessible (encourage them to get away from the computer and TV) and try to get them into other positive activities that connect them with other people and help them move their focus away from the delusions without directly confronting them.

When confronted directly delusions tend to integrate the new information into the existing belief system so two examples here would be that maybe the study was flawed or only referring to a specific type of signal or specific type of brain cancer but the more likely option is just deciding that this is more proof that the system as a whole aims to deceive them.

Source: am psych nurse and was trained long ago to never try to talk someone out of a delusion for the exact reason that it tends to just make them stronger (I answered somebody’s question about what to do instead down below if you’re curious).

Actually several people asked me how to plarn in my first progress post. I’m really finding my stride and even if this isn’t your specific jam I highly encourage you to engage in more constructive and enjoyable activities …at least as much as you’re able to.

Update: got laid. Back to plarning.

…I missed something again didn’t I? Anyway I’m gonna go try to get laid then probably get back to watching cartoons while crocheting plastic bags into a reusable shopping bag it’s pretty fun you just cut up all the bags you stuffed into another bag because you feel wasteful throwing them away with scissors like this then all you need is a crochet hook.

Honestly this discussion also highlights the issue that what’s considered inappropriate varies widely and often changes both in terms of prejudice and in terms of context. Most people would agree that an image of a penis entering or inside of a vagina is pornographic unless it’s a medical diagram laying out the anatomical and physiological aspects like the one in the anatomy book my otherwise puritanical parents let me read at the age of six. Most people would agree that nudity is sexual except for, again, anatomical diagrams, but also many classical artistic depictions such as paintings and statues. Hand holding isn’t generally considered sexual except to some people if the people happen to be of the same sex but not if you come from a culture where hand holding is a normal level of intimacy for non sexual friends. Breasts are for some reason considered sexual in most of the areas heavily colonized by people from the places where lactose tolerance past childhood evolved but not most other places which is super handy if you like being able to feed infants. Most people agree that kissing for an extended period while rubbing areas close to the genitals is sexual, but often not enough to restrict it from being viewed by teenagers.

TLDR; what’s even considered “sexual” or “porn” can vary wildly and has historically been used to suppress education, various minorities, and general freedom of expression.

Somehow his pose manages to look stiff even beyond the fact that it’s already a still frame.

That was the whole purpose of tumblr so yeah. I kid, as I did get started on there at like 14 as a part of various Fandoms, but by the time I was 18 I had been using it for porn for quite some time, largely because fandom is also mostly for porn.

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