Instructions unclear. Now stuck on a cosmic journey.

Well, they did show up at her door and asked to help her “come to Jesus.”

That’s what I’ve been saying since I was in high school. Going into college, the first year felt like High School 2.0. My English professor outright asked, “Why are you in this class? I have nothing I can teach you.” Funny how we can take a test after admission to show us which subjects we need remedial classes for, but no test for us to opt-out of subjects that we’ve already mastered. Still gotta take our money and waste our time because, you know, “requirements.”

Edit: I’ve heard some people say there are opt-out tests some places, but that clearly isn’t the default. Not at the community college I went to.

tons of purple around the world still eat it.

I wonder what the other colors eat.

Lol, at first glance I thought this was a poster for some new movie. All we need to do is change the font of “Cephalopods” to something exciting, and arrange the listed species as if they were actors’ names.

Thank you for speaking up. I’m going to share a bit of my experience (unrelated to you, OP.)

I suspect (from my experience dating men) that the desensitivity issue is more common than most people will admit. Few men want to admit that their dick doesn’t work properly, and a subset of those men will attempt to frame this problem as a benefit instead (“I can keep going for so long without cumming, it’s my super power!”) I don’t expect most men will talk with each other like this, but it’s one of the justifications such men tell their partners.

From the partner’s perspective, I hate to have to say this, but… no, it’s not a power. It’s a weakness. A desensitized dick turns sex into a frustrating act that only ends when I get physically sore. If he doesn’t have that “natural stopping point” that usually signals an end to penetration, and the act still feels good to him - he doesn’t want to stop, so why would he? But it’s a very different experience from the “receiving” partner’s perspective. Most people who “receive” in sex don’t want to keep going until they end up in pain. We don’t want to always be the buzz-kill whose role is to decide, “Okay, sex time is over!” I want to have fun, too; not be the playground monitor that has to announce when recess is finished. Going on and on is a porn fantasy, and just like many porn fantasies, it’s not that fun in real life.

The issue of porn-induced desensitivity is absolutely real. However, taking away people’s privacy online is not the solution. These laws are absolutely absurd and a terrifying glimpse of the future the fascists in power are aiming toward. (And for anyone overly-concerned about my sex life that feels the need to chime in with advice - I learned from the lessons of my past, and I share those lessons in hopes that others can learn from it too.)

I’m always noticing things. Interesting things, weird things, funny things. My mom has asked me multiple times, “How do you find so much interesting stuff?”

All I’ve ever be able to respond with is, “I look around.” She misses a lot around her, my brothers and I even mess with her sometimes by “hiding” things in plain sight around my parents’ house and waiting until she says something.

That sounds so cute. Would you mind paying the Duck Tax?

One of them decided to sit in the empty rind after they were done and laid an egg in it

Wait, really? The rest of your comment sounds sincere, but this is so absurd that I genuinely can’t tell if this happened or if you’re just being funny.

Half cut seedless grapes

Note: if you choose to feed grapes to ducks in a public place, please be courteous about any that may fall on the ground or be left uneaten. Grapes are dangerous for dogs and aren’t good for cats either, but some will absolutely eat them if they’re left around.

Lmao. Thank you, fixed.

Even the boys I knew in high school already had messed up ideas about sex from porn, and that was 20 years ago.

I never got into visual porn, which made for confusing experiences dating guys who knew little else, in my teens and early 20s. Aside from the obvious confusion that brought to the bedroom about what we were expecting, it was surprising how many guys had perfectly wonderful bodies yet thought they were inadequate. One guy had a 8.5" (21cm)* long dick and still thought it wasn’t big enough. I told him, “Dude, you repeatedly stab my cervix. Trust me, you’re big enough.”

It seems that dick insecurity is really common, and that no one size is immune, no matter what partners tell them.

it seemed like we were all fucking, even the nerds

Checking in as a nerd who went to high school in the 00’s. Yes, we were still fucking then. Especially the marching band nerds. Don’t get me started on what people got up to on our long bus trips…

I don’t wish for ignorance, but sometimes I do watch wild creatures and think, “What a life. Find food, find shelter, find partner, lay eggs/babies. Pure biology in control.” Some deep part of me is massively jealous that I can’t give in to what my ancient genes want me to do. Being able to fulfill my basic needs is subject to the whims of capitalism.

Though not having to tolerate parasites and disease without medicine, not having to die right after mating, and having access to modern air conditioning are pretty strong perks of being a human.

I never wondered this before, but I now suspect I may be a bear in a human suit.

I had a manager who wouldn’t respect anyone who didn’t yell at him. Seriously. He had serious anger issues and would fly off the handle over nothing. He directed a lot of shit at me in particular, probably because I’ve been traumatized by crap like this before and that sociopath probably sensed it. I wasn’t yet aware of a lot of resources I know about today, didn’t have the self-esteem I’ve since found, and I was homeless at the time (thank goodness, I had friends who let me stay temporarily), so I absolutely depended on this job.

One day, a coworker told me that he only stops picking on someone when they yell at him. Sadly, I can’t give you the satisfying response you’re probably expecting: I refused to yell at him. I thought the entire idea was absurd, extremely unprofessional, and had the potential to backfire terribly.

I wish I could say that was the last manager to pick on me, but thankfully the last one was a mental health professional and had the listening skills to take my feedback and the desire for self-improvement to act on it … albeit only after she made me cry.

Man, I didn’t mean to trauma-dump. But after the shit I’ve been through, I can’t imagine attempting to pass such suffering onto others. I’m extremely grateful for the supportive environment that (usually) surrounds the therapy field. It feels good to be honest with managers and supervisors and know they respect constructive criticism. I can almost feel my heart healing.

We know why they do it. That doesn’t make it any less inappropriate. These guys don’t care who they make uncomfortable in their quest for validation. It’s like a kid that throws a fit to gain attention, uncaring about who they might hurt in the process. Except unlike a developing child, these men should be mature enough to know better.

And yet people deny that we’re decended from the same lineage. If humans didn’t wear clothes, I guarantee some kid would start a grass-in-the-butt trend too.

I know you don’t want to hear “it depends,” but there is no one rule that would cover all art. Some art is made to communicate specific ideas. Some art is made simply out of self-expression, without intent for any particular audience. Both are valid.

If I doodle in my notebook, it’s for the artist (me.) However, I also draw and paint to communicate specific emotions. I made a painting while listening to “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire, with the intent to capture the energy and joy the song sends through me. I don’t expect anyone to immediately connect the image with the specific song, but since it’s a lively concert scene, my hope is that the emotion that inspired the art comes across to an audience.

Sometimes I’ll make something more abstract, intentionally left open to interpretation. I may have my own thoughts about such pieces, but ultimately I want the viewer to find their own meaning.

In reality, everything is up to the audience. There will always be people who interpret things in their own way, independent of the artist’s intentions. We can’t control what others will think, but learning to tolerate and/or accept people who “don’t get it” is a stage all artists have to go through. I’ve come to accept that there is no one perfect mode of communication, so if I intend to communicate something specific, it’s on me as the artist to put effort into making that message clear.

We use Chromebooks at my work (along with the whole Google suite), and we are bound by the rules of HIPAA. Without a way to opt out of this AI crap, I increasingly worry about what all of this means for our clients’ privacy. Especially with this administration, with RFK deadset on targeting people with disabilities.