This reminds me of how my old dog used to like when you blew raspberries into her cheek. She’d push her cheek against your mouth to tell you she wanted more.

It all started because my brother’s a prick who likes to piss off animals. He used to blow in dogs’ faces to see how they reacted (and is the only person our childhood dog ever bit, in her entire 19 years of life.) But when he tried it with my dog, she liked it. Eventually it turned into blowing raspberries into the side of her face. Maybe she liked the vibrations? Maybe she liked our breath? Who knows.

Weird little pup, I miss her.

He literally has a “safe space” the way South Park imagined it? Poor Butters, going through all his shitty news just to find the rare, delusional comment in Trump’s favor.

Tiiiiiin roof

Rusted

Watching Futurama and hearing them say that Nixon was the worst president in history AND alternate history is hard to watch now. The writers get a lot of things right, but Trump completely breaks that joke in a heartbreaking way.

Well, that’s one way to start the new Axis powers. The internal fascist structure could be a gamble (usually even other fascist leaders want to have more authority than deference), but I guess we’ll see how it goes.

One time in high school, I dissociated so hard that I temporarily couldn’t understand spoken English. Tbf, I did it intentionally just to see if I could (as nerds do when they’re bored in gym class.) It was very interesting. English sounded like a softer German with French pronunciations, which tracks. I thought it sounded pleasant. I still want to know what non-Native English speakers think, but it was fun to listen to English “from the outside” for a few minutes.

If anybody else has had this experience, I’m curious what it was like for you, too.

Reading this as I pack a bowl and contemplate which version of society I want to build a simulation of today (medieval, modern, or futuristic?)

What a thing to read as I went to take my first bite of the day.

Breakfast has been postponed.

"I apologise it was taken that way. I was with a group of friends and there was nothing serious about it.”

Haven’t we heard that enough by now to know that’s a pathetic, bullshit excuse? What you say with friends reveals something about you and how you think. The guy could’ve said nothing and he’d have been fine, but for some reason the idea of taking over Iceland was in his mind and for some reason he felt comfortable making light of it. If infringing on another country’s sovereignty is such a non-issue that he feels comfortable joking about it, he’s clearly not fit to be an ambassador. (Though as a Trump-appointee, it’s hardly surprising he’s not fit for the job.)

No one migrated en masse to Lemmy because making an account here is too much work for someone to just hop on over and check out.

On the plus side, Lemmy doesn’t force you to make an account in order to view it. That’s becoming increasingly rare these days. It used to be normal to lurk for a while and get a feel for a site before taking the jump to making an account, but so many places won’t let you view a damn thing unless you sign up (and then when you have an account, they try to force their app onto you. Because of course.)

At least with Lemmy, newcomers can browse around and decide if making the account is worth it. The choices involved in picking an instance might not draw in crowds, but hopefully it’ll draw in those who actually want to engage with the site. Quality over quantity.

Don’t forget that prescription meds get applied to our deductibles, but OTC meds don’t. In other words, it’s more money from consumers’ pockets and a lower chance of insurance having to pay out.

Buying over-the-counter meds doesn’t count toward your deductible. I swear this is just another way to get consumers to pay more while letting insurance companies off the hook.

You’re so kind, thank you. 💜

Trump declares himself the acting president of Venezuela.

He also thinks it’s fine to kidnap the president of Venezuela.

Well, if both those things are true…

I still would’ve thought it funny, even if I was not supposed to show it. I was a “smart ass” kid and know that not every teacher treats kids with respect from the get-go, so depending on the circumstances I might secretly be happy to see an act of civil disobedience.

But yeah, I do work with a much younger population. I know the kids I work with usually don’t mean to cause harm, they just aren’t emotionally mature enough to react in socially-appropriate ways. It all depends on the circumstance, which is another thing I’ve seen a lot of school officials completely ignore. Sigh.

I guess I was jaded because i got detention for just existing.

Which is how I (and many others) ended up growing up with an abysmal sense of self-worth. I didn’t understand why I was in trouble all the time (yay undiagnosed autism/ADHD) and for years internalized the idea that I must just be “bad” and deserve whatever happens to me. Which was hard, because I always wanted to help people and would give of myself to others when needed. But something must be seriously wrong with me, I figured, since no matter what I did, I always ended up in detention, grounded in my room, or both.

I was able to overcome that eventually, thankfully, but it made me a doormat during my teenage and young adult years as I was effectively taught to never stand up for myself. Cue abusive partners and employers dominating a good chunk of my life.

That’s funny. When I realize that a kid I worked with took something I said literally, I recognize it as my mistake in wording, and laugh about it. I’ll say something like, “Okay, that is technically what I said. Perhaps I should’ve phrased it as such-and-such” and I then tell/show the kid what I meant. No punishments. We are trained to take responsibility when there’s a miscommunication. We are the adults, after all, and if a kid misunderstands us, we’re supposed to clarify ourselves - not expect them to magically know something they weren’t taught.

It’s such a far away world from the environment I was taught in, and I’m so glad to work somewhere that aligns with the science of how kids develop.

I would hope that some people reading this thread come away with a better understanding of why the dream of an American uprising is so difficult to achieve. I know these stories probably come from all around the world, but so far I can easily imagine everything I’ve read here as happening in a normal US school (like the ones I went to.) The authoritarian indoctrination starts young. Those that don’t get in trouble, but witness others getting in trouble for stupid things, learn to keep their heads down and stay quiet, even when something unjust is happening. That behavior carries on into adulthood. Now we have millions of people raised in such school environments, feeling utterly helpless as their neighbors get kidnapped or killed in the streets by government agents.

got 3 days off school at home fishing and playing video games. Best time I had at that school

This reminds me of the external suspension place my town’s schools used for middle and high schoolers. Regular suspension and in-school suspension existed, but a handful of us “trouble-makers” went to this place in a plaza where it was like a single (or double, with a retractable wall) classroom. Thing is, going there rocked. The hours started later than normal school (9am vs 7 or 7:30am), there was a pizza place in the same plaza that we would get lunch from, we watched movies (it’s where I first saw The Breakfast Club, funny enough), and afternoons were spent just chatting with each other (I think it was supposed to be “therapy” but nobody working there was licensed for therapy, so we all just talked.) Instead of gym, we either took walks or went to the community center in the same plaza and used the equipment (much better than school gyms.) Oh, and one of the teachers was missing a finger - IIRC he lost it in a water skiing accident. Dude was cool and laid back - all the teachers were.

So I’d be able to sleep in, get all my schoolwork and homework done during the morning, watch a movie, and screw around talking with other kids who were ostensibly there for being “in trouble.”

As to why I was there? I’d been there a few times and can’t recall each incident, but for the longest stay it was because I was being picked on by numerous classmates at the same time and in anger I told them all to “drop dead.” Apparently, in a zero-tolerance, post-9/11 school environment, that is considered “making a threat.” I got two weeks external suspension for it.

I insisted, “It’s not a threat, it’s a suggestion,” but what are ya gonna do?

I was hoping to find and share an image macro of Leela and Nibbler discussing the meaning of life, with Leela remarking, “So every religion is wrong!”

Unfortunately, all I could find is Leela/Nibbler porn. Lots and lots of it. Goddamn, humans. We should be lucky there’s no judgemental god watching us all.