the way people on here talk about the porn ban makes me completely fucking insane honestly.

Shit No One Told Me About My Period

I knew the basics before I got it, but I had no clue…

* The blood wouldn’t necessarily be red. When I first got my period, I spent a few min looking at my underwear wondering how I shit myself. I didn’t know the blood could look brown, or be thick.

* That tampons weren’t a good idea yet. I was 10 or 11 when I got my first period and physically smaller than an adult woman. My first attempt at inserting a tampon was very painful and unsuccessful. I wouldn’t use them until I was around 14 or so.

* That when you use pads the blood can get on your bottom and I’d have to occasionally clean off the toilet seat after using it.

* That getting your first period DOES NOT mean you’re fully developed and fully able to bear children. I could have technically gotten pregnant at that age, but I was still a child and pregnancy would have put my life in danger because I was still physically immature.

* That it wouldn’t be regular for another few years.

* That very painful cramping is NOT NORMAL once you reach your 20s and is cause for concern.

* That the blood and tissue you pass can look chunky or stringy and not like blood from a cut.

* That stress can halt your period for months BUT

* That doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant

Feel free to add your own

Relatable

-passing blood clots is completely normal

-that your period may straight up skip a month when you first get it

-and then it’ll happen twice in the same month

-getting your period does NOT automatically make you a woman

Painful cramping isn’t normal in your 20’s? That’s a little concerning, mine have been getting exponentially worse

It is NOT normal. 

I can 100% guarantee you have endometriosis, PCOS, or another hormone problem. If your doctor says it’s normal, DEMAND a second opinion. 

Thinking that it’s normal is how people end up infertile or dead. It’s why so many women under 40 these days are having an almost impossible time either conceiving or preventing conception. Because no one teaches anyone that it’s the sign of trouble that can very seriously hurt you. 

Anyone who has severe cramps, heavy bleeding, or irregular periods after about 19 years old should seek medical advice. None of those are normal. 

If you have skin tags, a hard time losing weight, migraines related to your period, depression that is amplified when menstruating, severe mood swings, sleep disturbances that get worse with menstruation, or any other significant health problem that started with puberty and is worse when hormones are fluctuating you need to be checked. 

None of the things that people relate to women on their periods is actually an example of a healthy woman. It’s an example of people who need one form of treatment or another. 

Please do go see a doctor if youre worried about anything, but also know- if you are an easy bleeder like I am, and take longer to clot than other people, its far more likely your periods will be heavier and have bigger clots! Each person’s period will be their own so if you have concerns, please go check- but not everyone will have what is considered “normal” periods and it could very well still be normal for you!

jisbon + conjugal visits

Baby Clifford & baby Snoopy

it was just a misunderstanding

post-timeskip

it fucking sucks how you can do all the therapy and self healing in the world and you still have to wake up living under a capitalist death cult that's killed community and crushes your soul

congrats you want to live and be happy

bad news the world doesn't want that for you

I'll still love fully and crawl to hope until my body gives out anyway I guess

Unpopular Opinion: Characters aren’t supposed to be relatable and shouldn’t have to be. Relatability is subjective, not universal.

What they should be is understandable to the audience in the context of their stories!.

1977 is now 2023

240 million is now 332 million

4 billion is now 7.8 billion

200 billion is now 300 billion

..but the message is still very much relevant and indeed, breathtaking.

“If you do not schedule system maintenance, your system will schedule it for you.”

How to tell a raven from a crow. Made with corvid researcher Dr. Kaeli Swift for her blog post on the subject!

These are all well and good (accurate and informative and also fun) but here’s the best way to tell the difference between the two:

Ravens are FUCKING huge.

The best advice I’ve heard about this is as follows:

If your thought is “wow, is that a Raven??” It’s a crow.

If your thought is “Holy shit is that a CAT?!” It’s a raven.

Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron & the Indian Boarding Schools/Residential Schools allegory

Holy shit!

Was this intentional?

Considering the rest of the film’s heavy anti-colonization messaging, the main antagonist being heavily modeled on & inspired by General Custer, the other main (human) protagonist being a Native man (& the fort is where Spirit meets Little Creek), yes, most likely

medusa

Second half is even better

KING. SHIT.

They gotta pay extra to unlock Spanish😂

it’s a skill and should be compensated ad such

@elosoquelee

Nearly two decades later, I think it just fully hit me why Iroh told Zuko's crew about how he got his scar. It wasn't just to say, "Have some sympathy for him, he had a hard childhood." It was because the crew were all upset (rightfully so) that Zuko had said, "The safety of the crew doesn't matter." and Iroh was trying to point out that, yes, what Zuko had said was wrong, but that's not what he really thinks, at least, that's not what he used to think. There was a time when Zuko cared about the safety of soldiers he had never even met, so much so that he spoke out of turn, which is what led to the domino effect that caused all of them to be sitting on that ship together. And this is brought full-circle when Zuko climbs the ladder to help the helmsman at the end of the episode. And that's when the crew realizes that, temperament aside, Zuko actually has been and is still willing to put everything on the line for the safety of others.

Kinda crazy how my first cellphone didn't have a camera or internet and 17 years later this thing knows more about me than I do and gives people brand new mental ilnesses.

my parents: "We bought you a cellphone so you can contact us if your bike gets a flat tire on your way to school!"

Cursed Artifact (common item) has been added to your inventory

“In my poetry class, I’ve always had students memorize something, a few things. I feel that if they’ve forgotten everything I’ve said, if they haven’t written anything down all semester and just stared out the window, at least they’ll come away with a poem memorized.

So one day, years ago, I was on the subway in New York, and a guy across the aisle kept kind of looking at me and finally he came over and said he recognized me as his teacher. I’d taught him about 10 years before that, or more. He’d since become an oncologist, and I congratulated him on his success. Then he said, “You made us memorize a poem.” And I said, “Yes.” And he said, “I’d like to say that poem for you.”

And it was a little poem by Emily Dickinson that he’d carried in his head, and maybe in his heart, for all those years. Over the roar of the 6 train, he yelled that poem in my ear, and I think it was probably the most satisfying pedagogical experience I’ve ever had.” -Billy Collins, in a conversation

Look I clown veganism often enough but really, truly, don’t ever fucking feed somebody something without their knowledge or consent. It’s hugely fucked up and not OK.

also if someone hasn’t eaten meat in a while… or ever… they will get incredibly sick if they just start eating meat again.

|| Please don’t do this. Not just with vegans/ vegetarians, but with ANYONE you don’t know very well. You never know what they may or may not be allergic to, their abilities o(or lack thereof) to digest certain things, dietary needs and restrictions, religious beliefs requiring them to abstain from the consumption of certain foods and about a thousand other things.

Some people are legitimately allergic to thd proteins in certain meats and can’t even eat anything cooked in the same pan as X meat product/s.

I’m vegan but couldn’t care less if others aren’t, not an overwhelming number of (not all, just alot, unfortunately) non vegans find things like this funny.

Quick reminder: Sometimes people say “I’m vegan” or “I’m vegetarian” because its easier/faster/begets fewer annoying questions than the longer explanation.

As an epidemiologist I can list a few of the more annoying longer explanations that no one wants to have to explain to every person who ever offers them food:

- You drank water contaminated with giardia, which gave you 3 weeks of diarrhea followed by 3 years of lactose intolerance

- You were bitten by a Lone Star Tick and developed an allergy to beef and pork because the Lone Star Tick is a bastard

- You are Jewish and the meat isn’t kosher, but you don’t want to say that because antisemitism is A Thing and you don’t want to get bombarded with questions about the Middle East while you’re hungry

- You are Muslim and the meat isn’t halal, but you don’t want to say that because Islamophobia is A Thing and you don’t want to get bombarded with questions about the Middle East while you’re hungry

- You are on a restricted diet for medical reasons and don’t want to get bombarded with questions about your medical history while you’re hungry

- You are on a restricted diet for reasons that *are nobody’s business* and don’t want to get pulled into Potentially Triggering Diet Talk while you’re hungry.

Listen. Food can be very very complicated for people, and a very very very sensitive subject. Respect people’s food restrictions. None of it is your business.

I was one of the people who ordered something decaf at Starbucks only for them to have made it caffeinated and seem to have put in at least a couple shots of espresso and spent the day having panic attacks. Don’t do this shit to people

Also, even if it won’t harm them at all, if you respect people’s bodily autonomy then you can’t compel them to eat something without their consent (and knowledge is necessary for consent)

Basic rule of thumb for the people for whom someone elses bodily autonomy and consent aren’t enough reason:

Do not feed anyone anything you don’t want to have to answer for in court.

They may be ordering soy milk because they feel fancy about it.

Our they may order it because if you give them regular milk, they might die there and then and you killed them. Whether you intended that to be the outcome or not it’s irrelevant.

They may order gluten free because it’s so trendy.

Or they may do it because eating gluten means huge pain and, if repeated, irreversible damage to their internal organs.

They may be ordering meat-free because it makes them feel superior.

Or they might have some trauma related to eating meat that could lead to them gagging or even throwing up trying to eat meat, not to mention potentially giving them mental problems.

And for all these cases there are in-betweens.

I drink regular milk with no trouble whatsoever but I do like some of the plant-based alternatives as well. It’s variety.

However, whatever scenario we talk about, violating someone’s trust and consent is bound to make their day worse and you should not do that under any circumstances.

“I didn’t know it was for real” is not gonna bring anyone back from the dead and in any justice system worth the paper it’s laws are printed on its not going to help you in front of the court.

Respect people’s choices, people have the right to eat or not eat whatever they want

I’m allergic to soy. I didn’t know this until I was 28 or so. Before that, I avoided soy because my Mom had inflammatory breast cancer that could be exacerbated by soy. So soy was monitored in my house. Then I moved to Taiwan. I tried roasted edamame beans, and they were delicious. And made me so sick to my stomach. Vomiting and diarrhea and just feeling terrible. I thought I just got sick (flu, stomach bug, etc.) But it kept happening. Tofu, edamame, soy milk. Didn’t matter, it made me ill. So, I quickly learned the phrase “buyao soya” (I don’t like soy).

I had made friends with a big group of expat English teachers. And several were rabid vegans. I would mention when we went out to eat that I could not have soy as I was allergic. This was of course met with scoffs, because “no one’s allergic to soy!” Fun fact, it’s one of the major food allergens.

One day, a friend’s band was playing at a vegan place, and I was there with some friends. We were doing a group order, and I told them just to not order me anything with soy, but I had to run to the toilet. I came back and the food came. My friends asked me how it was, and I said it was good. The looked smug, and said, we knew you’d like tofu if you just had it right! I was so upset. I had to stop eating everything, and not 30 minutes later, I am back in the toilet sick as anything. My friends couldn’t understand why I was so sick. I finally said,“ Would you feed someone peanuts if they had a peanut allergy?” No, of course not! “Then why,” I asked, “did you think it was ok to trick me into eating soy when it makes me sick?” I told them I couldn’t trust them anymore, and now I was going to miss a friend playing in his band. I apologized to my friend, explained what happened, and said I’d catch their next performance. I was sick for two days.

Oddly enough, there was a vegetarian place that I loved, but I would always say buyao tofu/soya, and they finally said, “You always say buyao soya, do you not like it?” I told them, “No, I like it, but it does not like me!” They laughed, but understood that I had a food allergy, and from then on they would say, “Oh, don’t get that one, it has soya! You can’t have it!”

I have my own food sensitivities though mine are mostly texture based though some are based on crap my digestive system does though I tend to bully my digestive system whenever it says enough fried turkey because I am going to eat my salty greasy food I need the salt and the lipids because I am thin and have low blood pressure

Gonna add one here that I think this website probably skews too young for most people to have to think about yet:

As you get older, certain foods may just become impossible to eat. My grampa hit a point in his seventies where he couldn’t eat steak anymore. He liked the flavor! He wasn’t allergic! He just…wasn’t able to chew and swallow it. And yes, he still had most of his own teeth–his body just went “fuck all this” one day. I’m running into problems with garlic now, in my thirties, where most of the time I can eat it just fine but once in awhile for absolutely no reason I’ve been able to isolate it decides it’s going to ruin my life for the next twelve hours, and I won’t eat garlic-rich foods when I’m out and about or have company anymore. If I have to stay within arm’s reach of the bathroom at home, whatever, that’s the price I pay for eating my own homemade sauces and that’s what the ability to play 2048 on your phone is for. If I’m out shopping, though…you see where this is going. It’s entirely possible the answer to “why won’t you eat that” is “because bodies are weird.”

The holy grail of searching through academic literature is coming across a string of publications that are like:

Here’s An Idea. Smith et al. 2016

Terrible Idea; a comment on Smith et al. 2016. Johnson 2016.

You’re Wrong Too; a response to Johnson 2016. Nelson 2016.

Guys Just Stop Fighting, None Of Us Know What’s Going On; a Review of the Current Literature. McBrien 2017.

Not even an exaggeration.

“If We Knew What We Were Doing, It Would Not be Called Research, Would It?”

tags via @jesterbutch

Why is this mother fucker still allowed to tweet can he just die already