Whenever I get into an argument with someone on the Internet and I keep arguing with them past the point I should stop (it’s useless or I’m just wicked frustrated) I set up a monthly donation to something that would piss them off. And that’s why I have monthly donations to Sesame Street, the ACLU, and the SPLC.

Time Cube (now archived). I feel bit bad saying it, but omg the layout. It was bad even by 90s standards.

Edit: the creator died in 2015.

Edit2: CW, anti-queer rhetoric, but I find it very hard to take it seriously in the midst of waves hands vaguely at the rest of the website

Sometime in 2010. My partner and I got our first pup, work was fine, apartment complex was good. Things were walkable. Pup loved snowpocalypse 2010, we went to the tennis courts and just ran around in the snow.

Obama was promising awesome healthcare reform. I had hope.

My mom hadn’t told me that we were probably the sort of family who should only see each other at funerals. My mom hadn’t yet killed my dad with COVID (she claims she got it at a “mandatory unmasked Christmas work potluck” in December 2020. She retired 2 months later, so it can’t have been that mandatory. She knew he was immunocompetent and also didn’t take him to the hospital as soon as his oxygen dipped below 90%.)

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

I feed and drug the dog, which reminds me to take my antidepressants and another pill which I have to take with food, and so I eat breakfast. I meme with my friends online. I compartmentalize the fuck out of life. I go to therapy. I give myself treats. I wrap the dog’s pills in a hip-and-joint soft treat so he’ll take them without me shoving them down his throat. I remind myself that I almost-own a condo, so I’m doing better that a lot of millennials.

Or, if you have an inkling that you won’t split everything evenly, at least talk to the kids about it. My mom has 2 kids. She’s told me she’s giving a greater proportion to my brother and I’m ok with that.

My brother is a drug addicted felon and has always needed/gotten more support than I have needed/gotten.

I’m distant from my mom by choice (we didn’t have a healthy relationship) and I’m a functioning adult with a lovely partner, a stable job, and a competent therapist.

Mom’s told me she’s putting things into a trust for benefit of my brother, but I don’t know that she’s done that and it’s not my problem.

Anyways, I guess the takeaway is it’s ok for your kids to think dividing the inheritance unevenly means you love them unevenly if they’re not wrong.

In theory my insurance covers my weekly out-of-network therapist. In practice, I pay the therapist, submit my bill to insurance for reimbursement, and it disappears into the ether. They claim they’ll pay me back within 60 days (sometimes 60 business days, sometimes calendar days).

I’ve gotten a couple reimbursements in the last year, but I’m currently waiting on at least 5 months of payments. That’s maybe $2000 and I’m lucky I can float that through savings.

And this is all supposed to go towards my annual maximum out-of-pocket expenses but the online system doesn’t show that, but the papers I’m mailed do.

Oh, and in theory I could go to an in-network therapist but in practice they either don’t exist or aren’t a good fit.

Edit: and this is with what’s theoretically really good insurance, thanks to my union. I spent 5 months not knowing if they’d arbitrarily deny my therapy.

My (unmarried) partner and I went to a lawyer together. The lawyer walked us through everything. We’re basically leaving things to each other, with backups in case that’s not an option. We have a special clause for who gets the dog if neither of us can–pup and some cash goes to a good friend, and we checked with friend ahead of time.

Lawyer asked us for any relatives we’d like to specifically exclude from inheritance, and she wasn’t judgey at the length of our lists.

We’re also each other’s health care powers of attorney and decision-makers.

I recommend doing this at a lawyer if you can, it makes things much less stressful.

There was even a pig that got convicted in, like, 1700s France or something.

My aunts’ grandparents came from Poland. Their parents spoke Polish in the house. They were raised with a whole close-knit gaggle of cousins, also with Polish grandparents and parents. The old country wasn’t that long ago for them. They’ve visited.

Me, eh. My dad married someone from Appalachia and I grew up away from his family. I haven’t heard Polish spoken outside of my great-grandaunt’a funeral. I like pierogi, kielbasa, and sauerkraut because they remind me of my dad. He’d cook them when he was feeling nostalgic.

I have looked into claiming Polish citizenship through descent (mostly because an EU passport would be comforting what with USA politics), but my folks came over too early for that.

I moved over to Podcast Addict from BeyondPod. I’m pretty happy here.

Thanks. I try my best to help.

My biggest bit of advice to people buying their elderly parents tech: pick an OS and stick to it. I’m tired of nice old ladies coming in with an iPhone and an Android tablet, looking for help. They’re fine with one or the other OS. Swapping confuses them.

I’m disappointed that Librarian isn’t on the list. We’re super trustworthy! Edit: some librarians might count as civil servants. I’m tbh not sure where that line is.

I took all my meds on time, and so did my dog.

Oh! I also baked a pizza and it was really tasty. Pup didn’t get pizza, but did get oven-dried fish skins and he’s really happy about that.

The main service my period tracker provides is a notification telling me “hey, it’s PMS time. If you’re emo it’s ok, it’s probably just hormones and not the real end of the world. You’re also likely to hyperfixate on something. Pull out your knitting a fixate on that, instead of risking fixating on something someone said off-handedly a decade ago that now makes you cry”.

(The message is user-configurable. Mine doesn’t say that verbatum, but that’s the gist.)

I’m happy with the built-in privacy, muchly because I’m using it on a work computer so I have no expectation of real privacy anyway.

And fair.

I’ve moved to Vivaldi recently and it’s been refreshingly not-suck.

Thanks :)

I didn’t think I could go back to not having a backup camera, heated side mirrors, and that feature that detects when your wheels are slipping and makes adjustments so you still go the way your steering wheel indicates.

Airbags and ABS are non-negotiable.

The other day I saw a mid-90s shitbox in the parking lot and it made me so hopeful for my 2008 car. Like, that’s a sign my car has at least 10 more years in it.

Partner and I once test drove a car that had “passed” a something something-point inspection at the dealer. As partner turns onto the highway he realizes it doesn’t have a rear-view mirror. We were not impressed with that dealership. (Partner later said that when he got in he made sure the mirrors were adjusted, but his brain didn’t clock that there wasn’t a rear-view mirror until he had to use it. TBF, the missing mirror wasn’t pointed the wrong way.)

Same dealership tried to badmouth my Prius in order to get it as a trade-in. Partner had introduced me as his roommate and driver, which made it even weirder.