You’re not wrong for wanting to avoid a situation because of the potential of screaming children, but it’s important to remember that, with parents, it’s a package deal. To avoid overstimulation, try and go to a park for the first meeting. Like get coffee and go to a place with a playground where the toddler can run wild, and the 6 month can be in a stroller or rocker. Being outside vs bring in a building where screams can echo, makes a big difference.

Something that helps me hang-outs with my friends who have kids, is remembering that screaming children are inevitable… but most of the time, I’m not enjoying the company of my friends alongside the random, misbehaving ones. This time, you can make a friend.

Something I’m seeing a lot is the statement “I’m not distancing myself because of political differences, I’m distancing myself because of moral differences”

Anyone who is happy at the expense of others losing rights, is not different from you politically, they’re different from humanity, as far as basic ethics.

You’re not selfish. You’re strong. Stronger than me and I’m proud of you for trying to fight to help your dad, but please don’t do it at your own expensive. I’m pan and non-monagamous but buried further in the closet than a cable that “definitely will be useful in the future” because my family would turn on me in a heartbeat.

I can verify this! My roommate works for the DOD. He can’t tell me much, but every federal worker has been warned they’re going to be purged and replaced with staff Elon chooses. In addition, mandatory Return To Work orders have meant that many of his coworkers will be let go for “missing work” despite the fact that the military knows they moved and they’ve been working remotely for almost 5 years. It’s skuzzy as fuck.

The thing that got me in this article was the idiot politician saying that “Christians are being targeted”… oh you dumb toddler… you don’t like how it feels to be “discriminated against” and your solution is to target and discriminate?! An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Digital items, but Amazon intentionally makes them impossible to find. There’s a ton of e-books and Audiobooks that are $0.01 - $0.05, but Amazon intentionally buries them under the “free with Kindle subscription” crap, so that people can’t milk this without really putting in the effort

Some people have no regards for lives other than their own… and often get violent if a living being won’t obey them. I’m a domestic abuse survivor, so there was no way I was gonna leave without him.

And thank you! He’s dressed as Wolf Link. 😁 I am a cosplayer, and since he’s my medical alert dog, he goes with me to comic cons.

Yes, porn is free, but the companies that host it are utter garbage. They pay next to nothing, claim ownership of the content, and don’t care if a person is being exploited. Finding a person that you think is awesome/sexy and supporting their content means custom tailored and personal fun-times; that the adult content creator is the one who gets paid; and that it’s unlikely they’re being forced/pimped/trafficked.

Free porn is perfectly cromulent and there’s a lot of variety; but if you can afford it, supporting a person is better overall. I used to create erotic cosplay photography for a living, so I’m all too familiar with how screwed up things are for sex workers.

I’m curious the feature.

I got sterilized because I have a painful, degenerative, genetic condition (with no cure), that I feel is too cruel to pass on. I won’t risk letting a child be born with this syndrome, so I made the choice so I never have to deal with getting pregnant. If I ever want a kid, I’ll adopt. (Doubtful. I can barely take care of myself like this)

Every day hurts, there’s LOTS of days I wish I was aborted but I look at my rescue dog (who had been my service dog for 9 years now) and everything is OK. He was thrown away twice before I came along and his first owner kicked his teeth in. If I wasn’t here, who knows what could have happened to him.

Pet Tax. You can see where his face was kicked, but nothing stops him from smiling

We took a trip to Chicago and decided to go to Navy Pier. Traffic was basically gridlocked and the car behind us was not happy that my friend didn’t break the law and block an intersection. After the light turned green, the idiot took his massive, shiny, brand new, white pickup truck onto the SIDEWALK to cut in front of us.

When we got to the parking garage, there was a HUGE sign saying the clearance was 6ft 3in and tall vehicles needed to go to a different garage. The idiot didn’t read it and, even with the windows shut, we heard the screeching and scraping of his roof on the top of the structure.

The best part was watching him back out, hearing more scraping, seeing his surprised pikachu face, and the disappointment on the face of the woman in the passenger seat.

Let’s just say she’d lose her head if it wasn’t attached.

My grandma loves hers and screams commands at it all day. She has hers hooked up to her lights, to her plant watering thing, it plays music she wants, remembers stuff for her, sets timers and alarms. The fact that she can just talk at it and tell it what to do, instead of using her hands, figuring out apps, and getting up (she’s almost 80), makes it pretty beneficial for her.

Though she gets angry when it can’t decipher what she wants, so I joke to her, that if/when society gets conquered by AI overlords in the future, they’ll probably punish her for abusing and enslaving their ancestors. 😅

The Coheed and Cambria comics are awesome. They’re hard to get your hands on, after Umbrella Academy got popular, but worth it.

For comedy, Better Midler’s Otto Titsling tells an urban legend about how the bra was invented and it’s freaking hilarious, with great singing.

If you want something more powerful but emotional, Linkin Park’s album, 1000 Suns, if you listen to it, in order, tells the horror of the atomic bomb in a way that feels like your just listening to awesome rock music. Follow that up with the song Mike Shinoda; the rapper/musican/writer from Linkin Park; made called Kenji and it paints a dark story about how his own family was locked inside US concentration camps, during WWII, just because they were Japanese. Family/Friends died in that camp… and those that got out found their houses destroyed and graffitied by racists. It’s really powerful and shows a side of the band that most people don’t know.

Give it (or sell it) to a person with disabilities. I have a disorder where my joints dislocate constantly, and if it wasn’t for my service dog, I would be screwed. The ability of these things to call 911 or other family members is awesome and can be life saving. I’ve even read about a woman who collapsed down the stairs and turned music up to wake up their partner. Gotta do what you’ve gotta do.

I do the research and script writing for a documentary company. In 2023, I noticed that the pages of serial killers I’d been researching, started mentioning political affiliation in the top paragraph… but they all said Democrat (or socialst, communist sympathizer, anti-fascist, etc). Then, one of the murderers I was researching, who was literally a Republican politician who killed his wife , said Democrat and I had a team investigate. It got corrected, but we have no idea if it was one person or a group that changed the pages. Someone out there wants murderers to be associated with democrats.

He’s not only hot; he’s making an example out of cruel millionaires … millionaires who prefer money and let people die, without ANY hesitation. So yeah, it’s not like being attracted to Dahmer, it’s more like being attracted to Katniss Everdeen.

I’m so glad I got sterilized right after the Roe v Wade leak. Screw being pregnant or even sexually active with such high stakes. Even with birth control AND Condoms, I was scared. If I change my mind, it looks like I’ll have plenty of orphans to choose from…

I spent 37.5 hours (I document EVERYTHING) on hold with Wellcare trying to get them to pay for Narcolepsy medication I’ve been on since 2021… “Has the patient tried this ADHD medication, as an alternate?” “No. I prescribed my patient the only FDA approved medication, in the United States that treats Narcolepsy and Cataplexy, and she needs to stay on it”. Luckily my doctor is wonderful.

It’s draining, but I’ve learned that the trick is to tell each of the outsourced customer service reps that you have no problem staying on hold for however long it takes. I’m disabled and have that ability. My partner works from home, so I do the same for their Blue Cross. When the insurance companies realize you’re willing to fill out ALL their paperwork, appeal higher and higher up, so that well-paid people get involved, clog their phone lines, and keep documenting every step of the way, they’ll give you what you want… but it is a full time job. 😮‍💨

I go all out for Halloween. I’ve learned it’s cheaper to buy Garage sale/thrift store stuff like this for creepy decorations, than it is to get stuff from Halloween stores or even the dollar store sometimes. I have the coolest “potion” bottles made of old decanters. The massive influx of stuff that came into thrift stores after covid started, was awesome, in the most morbid way.