Hanging Out At The Devil’s Sacrament

You assess it. If you have a nut allergy, you ask yourself if this looks like a nut. If you have a shellfish allergy, you ask yourself if this smells like seafood.

Then you test it. You touch your tongue to it and wait a couple minutes. If you feel okay you take a very small super tiny piece and chew it a couple times and tuck it in between your gums and your lip and leave it in your mouth for several minutes while paying close attention to your body, and see how you feel. If you feel okay you swallow that tiny piece, and you wait about 20 minutes and you see how you feel. If you feel okay you eat a more normal size bite and you wait a couple hours and you see how you feel.

If at some point in this process you start to feel nauseated, or headache-y, or ill in any way, you decide not to eat that thing.

OR. You don’t eat it until someone you know and trust has consumed it and tells you it doesn’t taste of nuts or shellfish. And even then. You proceed with caution.

You decide for yourself. You exercise care in what you consume. You don’t walk up to an unfamiliar plant and scarf down a handful of leaves then scream that it should have had disclaimers and warnings all over it when it gives you diarrhea.

Trigger warnings and tags and ratings on art or entertainment are a nice thing to do for people. I try to do it. But we are all responsible for our own immediate safety. We are also social creatures who depend on each other, so maybe that means you don’t read or watch something until someone you trust has vetted it, that’s a great way to handle that. So is finding authors whose labels and tags you trust. But when it comes to fiction and the communication of ideas, there are a billion things that are fine for most people but bad for some, and no way to get a billion labels on it, so… you still have to find your own way.

children’s dreams / al-yarmouk, palestinian refugee camp in damascus, syria 

I keep score

I'm a petty thing on a high, high horse

You've got your mouth open

I hold my tongue

I won't name the competition because privacy reasons but I know someone who has been having to practice for months and months, competed for days, then received critique and had to practice some more, and then is flying out of state for finals. And if they win, their prize is just a medal? That would NEVER slide with adults, that would be considered exploitation of some sort. No one wins competitions like The Masked Singer or America's Got Talent just to get a pat on the back, they get money or training or something of more value than a piece of metal. And that's on top of how they were on national television with people rooting for them, meaning they also got recognition which can help boost their career (example: Melanie Martinez getting all the fans she's had because she started by getting visibility on The Voice, even though she never won).

How many times have you driven by an electronic road sign like one of these? This is the ADDCO portable sign. Today, you see what is on the inside, and how they are programmed to display important information. *** WARNING YOU SHOULD NEVER TAMPER WITH THESE SIGNS ***

- The access panel on the sign is generally protected by a small lock, but often are left unprotected. Upon opening the access panel you can see the display electronics. - The black control pad is attached by a curly cord, with a keyboard on the face. - Programming is as simple as scrolling down the menu selection to "Instant Text". Type whatever you want to display, Hit Enter to submit. You can now either throw it up on the sign by selecting "Run w/out save" or you can add more pages to it by selecting "Add page"

** HACKER TIPS ** Should it will ask you for a password. Try "DOTS", the default password. In all likelihood, the crew will not have changed it. However if they did, never fear. Hold "Control" and "Shift" and while holding, enter "DIPY". This will reset the sign and reset the password to "DOTS" in the process. You're in!

additional comment from a reddit thread:

is it FUNNY BUT ONLY TO YOU AND A FEW SELECT MUTUALS?

is it USELESS?

is it a COMPLAINT?

will it KILL YOUR FUTURE CAREER?