🌙

I got the idea from cowcatchers old locomotives used to have.

Anyways, yesterday I uploaded the model to Thingiverse, and just hours after uploading it, the Community Relationship Manager of the whole website left a comment suggesting I enter the model into a competition that's currently being held on the site.

So I did... and now it's in third place not even a day later. First place is $500, but the competition still has a month to go.

Then the Community Manager contacted me again, telling me they want to feature my model in an upcoming design promotion.

Just, what is happening? I mostly made this thing for myself in, like, an hour, and now it's suddenly super popular? This is all a little bit overwhelming 😵‍💫

Other models I worked on for weeks didn't get nearly as popular. I swear, it's impossible to predict what people will like.

Anyways, if you want to print the wheel guards yourself, you can get the model here or here.

I also made a quiet version you can stick furniture felt pads on.

⭐️ I’m NOT sharing this for internet points, do not give me internet points - I just wanna raise awareness.

So the heatwave has reached us over here (gonna be like 98-100+ 🫠). No worries about us though - we’ve got good AC at home & at work, I’m making cold hiyashi ramen tonight, got my “sunbrella”, etc.

It’s still unbearably hot when I go outside though, so I wanted a smoothie. I went to this one place, & found they had no AC - all they had was a fan / open door, & it was very hot in there. 😥

If you come across a place / business with no AC in this heat, here are a couple things you can immediately do to help if you feel up to it:

Ask what the situation is.

Call the shopping center &/or general manager or owner of that location as a concerned customer.

Make a post online to raise awareness of the situation (keep it simple with nothing accusatory - just like “this place has no AC”)

If you’d like to bring them some water or something to help them stay hydrated / cool, just call ahead to see if they have rules about it or whatever.

(This one didn’t happen, but just to emphasize) if someone is having a medical emergency aka a heat stroke / fainted, call 911!

I know that even doing 1-2 of these things would’ve helped, so if you don’t feel comfortable &/or can’t put yourself out there that much, don’t worry about it, ‘kay? Any small thing you can do helps. 🩵

It’s gonna be a hot summer, so stay safe & hydrated! “Cas-cas!” ☀️

you have to be kinder to people who are slow processors.

you have to be kinder to people who don't understand your jokes.

you have to be kinder to people who forget important dates.

you have to be kinder to people with cognitive decline.

you have to be kinder to people who were always this way, too.

One of my friends in high school changed his named as soon as he turned 18, so that the ethnic name his family gave him was finally the name reflected on all of his paperwork. He told me that he understood why his parents had given him an “English” name, but that he felt that if he needed to assimilate in order to succeed, then that was a type of success that he didn’t want.

When I was on my way home from the courthouse after changing my own name, I got into a conversation with my rideshare driver, who was extremely interested once I told him what I was in court for, and wanted to know how I’d done it, how much it cost, was it difficult, etc. It turned out that his girlfriend had chosen the name “Yo-yo” when she came to the United States, unaware of how rare that was as a name, and that she was frequently made fun of because of it. Neither one of them had realized that a name change was so easy, and he told me he was excited to let her know that she had options.

There was an intern at a summer job I had once, who changed her name to be the same name, but a different spelling. She said that she had no idea why her parents had spelled her name so oddly to begin with, and suspected that it was just an honest mistake either by them or by some nurse, but it had been a headache for her entire life, and it was a huge relief to not need to be correcting people’s spelling on important documents anymore.

One of my exes legally changed his name to have an exclamation point, because he liked to sign his name with an exclamation point.