Remember that if you want to do more of something, you have to do less of something else. It's that time of year where people set goals for the new year and they have plans and hopes and it's always focusing on what they want to do more of. More studying, more exercise, more crafting, more socialising, more making things from scratch. Okay, great. What are you going to do less of in order to have the time and energy to do more of those things you really want to do?

And if your answer to this is "less doomscrolling" or "less bedrotting" then great, but please think about why you're doing those things. No one's doomscrolling or bedrotting because they don't have things they'd rather be doing. Actually, I'm willing to bet you have a lot of things you'd rather be doing and you spend your life internally screaming at yourself to do literally any one of the many things you want to be doing instead, but you don't have the energy for them all and you can't work out how to prioritize them, so doomscrolling spares you from making that decision. Or perhaps you're burned out from taking on too many projects and you need to rest your brain, so you lie in bed because you don't even have the energy to get started anymore.

This is going to be a really hard pill to swallow, but the truth is you might not be able to balance all your hobbies and all your projects the way you'd like. If you want to finish writing that book, you might have to reduce your daily drawing habit to a couple of times a week. If you want to do yoga every morning, you might have to accept not cooking from scratch as often. If you want to spend more time with your family, you might have to cut down on your yearly reading goal. I'm not saying give up on your hobbies; I'm be realistic with your time and your energy and be kind to yourself. Stop expecting yourself to do more and do better every single year. You don't have to constantly be growing upwards and reaching for the stars; you can be content with where you are, or even cut parts of yourself back to make space for other things in your life to bloom.

Think about what your priorities are and make peace with doing less of other things. Less is okay. Less is not failing. Less is self care.

ok this is insanely cool

the organization that runs it is called Helping Hands, here's their website and how to join tutoring sessions in their world!

https://helpinghands.gg

Omfg they made a whole language for this

-20° Celsius is -4° Fahrenheit, in case you're wondering.

This is the best description I’ve heard for this method, I always thought it was bullshit because I never heard a description that actually explained how to do this other than “tap your head 20 times”.

I have anxiety-induced hissing, which sounds/feels different from sound-induced tinnitus (which I have also experience). Sound-based tinnitus actually sounds like you’re “hearing” something in your ears, whilst the hissing I have feels like it’s “inside my head”, if that makes sense. But this technique still helps!!

Here’s a visual I found because I couldn’t understand the instructions well

My ringing just went away for the first time in years. What is this blissful quiet.

wait wait i gotta try this, i don’t think i’ve had Actual Silence since i was like 5

HOW THE FUCK

Reblogging to save a life, and also because, even if you don’t have tinnitus, this is totally worth trying if you like new sensory experiences.  

@theshaddowedsnow

what

for anyone in or out of minneapolis, here’s a list of organizations on the ground out here daily helping people i haven’t seen mentioned by other posts sharing resources. most of these are south minneapolis located and/or focused because that’s where i’m located and i’m beyond caring about doxxing myself at this point

joyce uptown food shelf - no questions asked food pantry, in need of financial donations, at capacity for material ones

longfellow neighbors - community fund assisting with rent/utilities, healthcare, legal help and transport access, in need of financial donations

smitten kitten, wrecktangle pizza, and twin cities leather - accepting cash to be handed directly to people seeking refuge and assistance + material donations (specifically requesting menstrual products, baby products, and tobacco), if you are in person they are being physically targeted and stalked by ice agents trying to follow them on their distribution routes and have requested anyone able to show up physically and help drive them away

the familia barber studio - accepting material donations (nonperishable foods and toiletries) and financial donations for a food drive from tuesday 1/13 through saturday 1/17

LSFDistro and north country food alliance - lsfdistro is associated with ncfa as an anti food waste and food delivery service focused on the lake street area which has been targeted by ice agents since mid last year, both are accepting monetary donations, and lake street food distro is accepting material food donations (specifically requesting oil, butter, rice, flour, formula, and toiletries)

here is a mutual aid “clearinghouse” for additional organizations on the ground and direct assistance to families affected by the raids - when i can, i’ve just been scrolling through the list of gfm links at the bottom and donating to one at random

how it all feels lately

yeah actually this was a very literal piece of vent art bc i got a notification about cheese recalls while making dinner :') might as well add the info since i didnt expect so many people to share my doodle

Phalloplasty and Urethra Lengthening Procedure - Personal Article

Definition of a catheter: A catheter is a tube that is inserted into your bladder, allowing urine (wee) to drain freely. The catheter tube is attached to a drainage bag (a catheter bag), where the urine can be collected.

How a catheter works: Catheters are usually inserted through the urethra (the narrow tube that connects your bladder to the outside). The catheter is kept in place by a ball filled with saline that sits against your bladder wall. This can cause bladder spams.

What is the Procedure?

After phase one, Phalloplasty, a skin-tube urethra (created and placed during the first phase of phalloplasty). After phase one (a minimum of six months between procedures is a common healing period) they make an incision in your scrotum and connect the urethra in the phallis is connected to your original (but lengthened) urethra. It is a short procedure. After the procedure you will have a catheter inserted and you will have it outside of the hospital from two to six weeks (time varies from clinic to clinic). Where it will most likely be removed by your primary health care provider. The catheter is used to protect the new urinary tract as it heals post- operation.

Wearing boxers and loose underwear can help you feel more comfortable while the catheter is in. While more tight underwear such as boxer briefs and briefs are better for after your healing period to help keep your phallis from creating a potentially unwanted bulge in your thigh of your pants.

Findings and Advice:

Here are the sources I used:

https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/catheter-problems

https://cranects.com/urethral-lengthening/

I realize we've all said this many, many times before, but the crab rave cannot come soon enough.

Everything is still very comprehensively shit, but a) scrolling through pictures/videos of all the protests ongoing across the country (can be found on Bluesky) that were arranged on often less than 48 hours' notice, and b) recalling that the Turd Reich is doing this precisely BECAUSE they're running scared and sense that time is running out for their fascist clownshow loathed by the great majority of Americans, is at least mildly cathartic.

The protests are working. The pressure is working. Call your members of congress (Congressional switch board number: (202) 224 3121) and tell them you are horrified at what ICE is doing and that they need to rein in ICE and impeach Kristi Noem.

Just like it was in 24 election, the motive for this hateful spin has always been they know they HAVE to do this because:

In their minds they cant back down, or even tone it down. Everything has been to distract from epistein files and all of their other multiple failures and it just keeps failing.

They know they are unpopular which is why they are trying to rig elections.

Look are your local election handlers, THEY are the ones who have the most impact/do the most damage. And on the chance they ‘cancel’ elections, that is their last play, and that also will not go well for them.

It took me a long time to figure out that being “smart” isn’t just some all encompassing never changing truth about a person. Pretty much nobody is a complete idiot in all things and pretty much nobody is a genius in all things.

When I was a kid being “smart” was what I had going for me basically. It was the one good thing that everyone seemed to agree that I was, so I clung onto that.

But then I grew up a bit and realized that I’m kind of an idiot. There’s certain things I just learn slower than other people. Things my brain and body just won’t do. This realization kinda messed me up for a while. Surely being smart is something you’re supposed to be forever all the time.

No. Everyone is kind of an idiot, turns out. The human mind isn’t capable of calculating the best and most logical response to literally everything there is. If logic even applies to any given situation.

The flip side of that though is that pretty much everyone is smart if you take the time to get to know them. They’re good at different things than you are.

One of the things that made this really hit for me was when I was catching up with one of my cousins and I was like man you’ve got a career, you were in the marine band, you’ve got a partner and a house and here I am unemployed and going nowhere. But then my cousin was like what are you talking about you have a masters degree and I can’t stay in college for one semester without dropping out I’m an idiot compared to you I can’t commit to anything that long.

And that’s when it hit me. We’re both idiots failing to accomplish our goals and we’re both very smart and accomplished people. Our idiocy and accomplishments just fall into different places because we’re different people.

Yeah you’re an idiot. But you’re also so smart. Because you’re a human. You contain multitudes of shades of idiocy and brilliance. That’s what keeps the world going around. We can specialize. We can fill in each other’s shortfalls.

Moral of the story, don’t build your whole personality around being smart but don’t assume that you’re dumber than anyone else either.

Having a traumatic childhood means you cannot talk even objectively about your basic foundational experiences without it being "venting", even if you're not actually venting. You just straight up have a huge chunk of your life you can't talk about, full stop, without it being trauma dumping.

And it not being socially acceptable to talk about your own childhood is super alienating. Sometimes people want to know why, and any answer you can give them is going to be off putting.

It's to the point I get irritated when something I said is framed as venting when I'm literally just talking about my life experiences, doing my best to keep emotion out of it.

when I was in high school, I overheard two older students talking about a friend of theirs.

One of them said something like, "it doesn't bother me that [Friend] was in residential mental health treatment, I just wish they wouldn't talk about it ALL the time".

The other replied, "Well, that was all of last year for them. So when they say 'when I was in treatment,' it's like when you say 'last year'."

I try to remember that any time someone says something that sounds Shocking to me. sometimes one person's scary special crisis is another person's last year.

Reminds me a bit of a comment on complaints about coming out:

"When straight people do it, it's called 'talking'."

Ultimately, because normativity is such a tiny box, if anything about your life is "abnormal" or "awful" or "messed up," discussing it becomes stigmatized and framed as itself abnormal/awful/messed up/etc.

It's why I say "acting classes" instead of "social skills training to 'fix' my autism."

Reminds me a bit

of a comment on complaints

about coming out:

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

the fundraiser for Renée Macklin Good’s family has well surpassed its goal and is now closed — if you want to help Minneapolis residents as the city is terrorized by ICE raids, please turn your attention toward this fundraiser for local families, as well as Adelina Olivarez Cardona and Arturo Sanchez Chinos, both of whom are currently being detained.

additionally, you can support the family of keith porter jr, who was shot and killed by an off duty ICE agent on new years

― Alice Wong, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century

The Money Tubbs only comes around every 5628 seconds. Reblog the Money Tubbs and you’ll find money!

Bitttchhh the last time I reblogged some bullshit like this I booked a 2k 30minute shoot lmao

I received 2k 2 days after reblogging this 

I’m doing this list for my own financial success and more in the hopes of spreading it so that if it actually does work, my followers may benefit from it.

Also, I find the cat cute.

Here are the 2024 vaccine recommendation schedules. They’ve already been wiped from the cdc site. Save them and share widely, especially to your friends with kids.

Hi!!! One of my parents got meningitis when I was a kid.

They were in the hospital for nearly a month, the rest of us were all placed in medical quarantine, there were several points we thought they were gonna die, and even though they survived, it was a SUPER close call and they lost about two years of memories from the ensuing brain damage.

Like… a two-uear-long cookie-cutter pocket of thoughts and memories went missing right out of their brain. It’s an inflammation of the brain that cooks it alive.

I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THERE WAS A VACCINE.

I WILL BE GETTING IT.

Hot take but I don't think games need to tutorialize the player on stuff like "enemies will drop items when you defeat them" like that's just something that I can observe happens with my own brain. I don't need a tutorial popup for that. Stop it.

i want two versions of tutorials, regular gamer and "unfamiliar with game design visual and interface norms, explain EVERYTHING" because i don't think gamers realise how much they've just learnt to expect from most games and know to check

Watching my mother play the beginning of Pokémon Scarlet was an enlightening experience for me.

My mother isn't a video game person at all. She'd play casual games with the family on the Wii, but she wouldn't play a video game on her own unless it was something like Words with Friends. She's not familiar with common video game mechanics people take for granted. I had to teach her how to move because using the joysticks to move isn't intuitive for her.

She still found the tutorial tedious and annoying because of all the text boxes and constant interruptions. The catching tutorial also wasn't helpful to her. She lowered the Pokémon's HP, but didn't know how to catch the Pokémon and accidentally made it faint because she thought she had to lower it all the way. I don't think she caught a single Pokémon on her own in her brief playthrough of the game.

Someone familiar with Pokémon would probably find the tutorial blatantly obvious because there's a Pokéball with the X button icon, but I don't really blame my mother for missing it considering all of the information on the screen she was expected to keep track of.

There really should be more "middle-aged parent who never played a video game before" representation in play-tests; I feel like they could provide some unique perspectives.

for the people who believe that when we say "american imperialism" we mean vietnam and iraq and thats the whole of it. most of these were massively devastating btw. and the military interventions are only a fraction of all that they have done and continue to do regardless of who is president

hi guys! discord is doing a survey on how people would like ai to be integrated into discord. take it and say fuck no to every question. when you get to "in general, how do you feel about discord inegrating ai features?", respond that you would actively get everyone you know off of discord and wouldn't pay for nitro or other shop items if they added ai features.

watch out for the trap! there's ONE QUESTION where the last option *isn't* the max 'no AI' option, read each part carefully to be sure