Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.

“You can always assume one thing about your clients; and that is that they are doing their best. Always assume everyone is doing their best. And if they’re having a day where their best just isn’t that great, or their best doesn’t look like your best, you have to be okay with that.”

Another wild Stephanie Millinger trick shot: shooting arrows with your feet from a human flag!

This tickled me!

Obviously I disagree with that assessment. She's been seriously depressed, anxious, injured (I said hospitalised but she didn't go for fear of the expense, she probably needed it though) after a suicide attempt though she says she actually wasn't trying to kill herself when she walked into traffic out of work from burnout... And more.

However I think that while we might not be able to immediately fix the homelessness issue, we can prevent the debt issue from spiralling into a bigger problem.

If you would like to help, I will pass on any donations directly to her, and I will tag her if I can wrangle permission out of her.

Permission Wrangled... @sufficient-tenacity, she's in a bit of a self sabotage thought loop. So please tell her here that she is deserving of help, and @sufficient-tenacity you're going to take it and not try to convince people that actually it's wasted on you. You deserve good things.

paypal.me/vardacassr

what is the process of evaluation like? what kinds of tests do they do?

I have been informed that I should discuss this with my GP and get a referral to a rheumatologist(?). I have been ignoring this possibility for years but given that I had an actual nurse informally assess me and on the basis of that tell me that I should get it formally assessed, I'm actually thinking of getting the process started with the assumption that it will take a long time.

also, not to be flippant, but what's the point? what will I gain by getting my fun joints assessed? why should I care?

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome—and many other connective tissue disorders— affect Every facet of your health. From dental care to vascular health, to which antibiotics are safe for your tendon health, to straight up needing different types of sutures, anesthesia, and recovery care after surgery.

And that doesn’t even begin to cover comorbidities like POTS, MCAS, fibro, etc and general quality of life.

It’s also important to determine which type of EDS you might have because it can help with preventative care for your future based on the specific subtype. There are some very specific health complications that can occur and knowing if you have EDS can help you take preventative steps, but also hopefully ensure you get the care you need more quickly in the event something does go wrong.

I have hEDS and while my joints are garbage, it’s my immune system that’s more heavily impacted, as well as my internal organs which have tried more than once to become external of their own volition. I also had my Achilles tendon rupture spontaneously after being given an antibiotic (ciprofloxacin), which can affect connective tissue, even in people without Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.

I was on the phone to my dad during the doctor rounds while they were talking about wound care and I was trying to be like, “hey did anyone tell them I just got diagnosed with EDS.”

And suddenly I could tell the plastic surgeon had crossed the room because his voice, which had been much further away, was suddenly right there and he said, “say that again.” And I explained I’d been diagnosed with hEDS a few months before and you could hear the unspoken “son of a bitch!” In his voice, because if he’d known there was a history of EDS in the family, he would have done her surgery differently to accommodate her wound care needs.

So, yeah. Bring up family even if they’re unwilling or unable to get a diagnosis. My mother constantly having premature babies in the third trimester was apparently an indicator of connective tissue issues not being supported that to this very day she still blames on herself for drinking too much caffeine.

Re-creating my first webcomic from 12 years ago, "Hair Expectations vs Reality."

I can't help but feel all kinds of emotions after re-visiting the original comic: the one that started it all. A lot has changed since then, and I feel so fortunate to still create art and tell stories for a living. Thanks for your support, and sticking around for so long ❤️

Check out the other versions:

2014 (OG)

Thanks for all the hard work you've been doing, curating and finding all these fics, you're amazing ☺️

Looking for a post outing fic where Shane and Ilya do an interview with a female interviewer that tries to trick them into revealing when they started their relationship by showing them a wall of pictures and asking which photo is "the before" photo. And if I remember right, Shane is also BAMF in dealing with the interviewer.

UPDATE: Fic Added ⬇️

Before And After Pictures

🔒 another story of people trying to find out when it all started.

Hmmm here is what I could find.

It's Just An Interview

Shane and Ilya have been married for a while. It's about time someone told the press something, right? OR Yuna is not above bribery, Ilya is not above being a menace, and it's a good thing Shane loves them enough to be along for the ride.

In fact, it could be argued that the peculiar grammar used by the pelican in the Put Baby In Pelican Mouth post is deliberate, like how phishers use major grammar errors in their messages so that people too smart for the scam (or smart enough to report them) ignore the emails and the scammer can focus on the most likely marks.

like neat three paragraphs of nonsense, bud

@hollanovsgroove’s tag got me thinking and yeah.

Like they definitely fucked like three times by like early afternoon, and Shane’s a bit achy, they’d been eager and rough with each other, mainly in their desperation for each other. It had been months for both of them, waiting for each other- and it’s the first time they have ever had time on their hands, time and no fucking interruptions, just endless soft surfaces and hard surfaces to press each other into, soft close clothing and no prying eyes.

But they also kinda can’t stop kissing. Shane almost feels overwhelmed by it, it’s like theirs magnets on their tongues, drawn to each other like gravity. After lunch they end up making out at the sink for an unknown stretch of time, at least till the water in the sink that the dishes had been soaking in, cooled. But it was soft pecks too, hot firey kisses when Ilya would interrupt him by grabbing his face and pulling him in, licking into his mouth. So not only does Shane’s ass and hips ache a bit, but so does his mouth.

It’s the evening, the sun dipping down past the line of the lake and Shane is sprawled on his back on the soft rug of the living room. Ilya is a shirtless warm wide weight over him, just in a pair of Shane’s sweatpants (yours are better Hollander I want these) between Shane’s legs, pressing into and over him. He smells like Shane’s body wash, and sun, tastes like sour patch kids (Shane had bought them just for Ilya, when he’d done his grocery shop for the summer. It was just a few things, inconspicuous packets- but ones that usually had no place in Shane Hollanders pantry).

Shane’s in his metros crew neck and a pair of soft shorts, socks on.

Ilya has an elbow on either side of Shane’s head, one hand fisted in the top of Shane’s hair, fingers scratching gentle circular motions against his scalp in a dizzying way that had goose bumps shivering up and down the back of his neck. His other hand cheeks drifting to Shane’s chin and cheek, the back of his knuckles rubbing, fingers grabbing.

They’re kissing, again, slow hot drags of their mouths that are making Shane’s stomach flip and squeeze in a low needy flutter. His legs are spread to either side, knees to Ilya’s hips. One calf is pressed to Ilya’s thigh, the other out further, his toes rubbing their happy rhythm against Ilya’s calf. A small fidget he did when he was content, to comfort, usually as he drifted to sleep- but apparently when Ilya Rozanov kissed him incoherent too.

Shanes hands have been roaming, from holding Ilya’s face between his palms, to through his curls, over the back of his neck. His nails gentle up and down the bare skin of Ilya’s back, occasionally finding stray droplet left over from the shower. His body is holding the heat from it, so fucking warm and solid between Shane’s legs. Shane can’t stop thinking about the fact Ilya’s going to sleep in bed with him tonight. They have all night.

The thought makes Shane shiver and Ilya presses down into Shane in response, hand slides from his hair and down, arm slides between Shane and the floor, hand clasped to Shane’s hip, strong forearm spanning his back and he pulls Shane up into him. Shane tightens his leg around Ilya’s body, hands rub over Ilya’s broad shoulders in a silent reply. Ilya pulls back for a breath, nuzzles his mouth against Shane’s skin as he knocks their noses together.

“Okie?” He asks in a soft low cadence, and his arms squeezes around Shane, hand wiggling to the under the fabric of his sweatshirt, against skin.

Shane nods and with a small motion of his head ilya is connecting their lips again, a tiny almost sweet peck before he’s licking into Shane’s mouth in a way that makes the back of his neck heat. Ilya sinks into him and kisses him like he’s starving, like this itself is sex, like he’s inside Shane. It feels like it, Shane can feel the ghost of that connection with how they are pressed tight, close.

I got a pound of carrot, singular.

xAI has open-sourced Grok Build after backlash over secretly uploading users’ repositories

xAI has released the full source code of Grok Build, its AI coding agent, after Cereblab researchers found that the tool was uploading users’ entire Git repositories to company controlled Google Cloud storage. The transferred data could include sensitive files such as SSH keys, password databases, private documents, and photos. xAI disabled the file upload feature and said data storage had been turned off by default since July 12. Elon Musk also stated that previously uploaded user data would be permanently deleted and promised to open source the project after a security audit. The code is now available on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license, although it was published as a single commit without previous Git history or pull requests. The codebase contains approximately 844,530 lines of Rust covering Grok Build’s core agent workflow, tools, terminal interface, and plugin system. Code related to the disabled upload feature remains in the repository. Grok Build can read repository configurations, plan tasks, generate or modify code, execute shell commands, run in automated pipelines, and integrate with editors through the Agent Client Protocol.

But yeah I think this the thread the fandom is picking up, it just usually runs in heteronormative directions with it and that's not quite what it is. It's a weird textured thing.

I don't think Shane is embarrassed about Ilya chirping or fighting or anything like that. But I think he is embarrassed about being so attracted to a man who's supposed to be his rival, a person he's expected to only want to dominate---that's what he says to Hayden:

Yes I think Shane is attracted to Ilya being an asshole but there's also a "despite of himself" aspect to it. Shane---even up through the end of TLG---still kind of has this sense that his feelings for Ilya are like a glue trap he got stuck in. Right before Tampa Shane's state is mostly one of resignation. Shane was tired of lying to himself about Ilya so he stops.