when in doubt eat bread

happy disability pride month to severely disabled people who don’t have access to proper treatment or medical equipment, and are stuck without care that would ease symptoms or make their life easier

happy disability pride month to severely disabled people who won’t be getting better, and who will be getting worse, or who will be dying due to their conditions

happy disability pride month to severely disabled people with photosensitivity who can’t look at screens for long, and feel even more isolated by not being able to interact with much the disability community, even online

The grocery store was swamped. There were so many people crowded into the produce section, where this happened. So when someone is in front of me, perusing the produce and making their selection, I stand back, give them space, and settle in for the wait. To me, this is the reasonable thing to do. Then, when they've made their selection and move on, I move in and take my turn.

During my turn, this old white boomer woman slipped on in behind me, crowding into my space. Now, one of the reasons I give people space to do their thing is that I myself am not always great at situational awareness and I don't know what a total stranger's deal is going to be. People are neurodivurgent sometimes, and you can't tell just by looking at them. This lady did not follow the same philosophy and was trying to nudge me out. So, not being aware of her, I took a step back and stepped on her foot.

I immediately felt bad. I had no idea she was there. I turned and said, "Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry."

She looked at me, eyes blazing, and said into my face, "Ouch!"

I was like, "Uh, yeah. That's what sorry means." And I walked off.

Such an asshole move.

But.

I transgressed. And I apologized for the transgression. The person who has been done unto is under no obligation to forgive me, and that's fine. But I have literally done everything I can to remedy the situation, so why are you looking at me like you expect more? I apologized, you chose not to forgive me, thus concludes our interaction. So. Bye.

I mean I am sorry, but I'm not that sorry. It cannot be overlooked that, if you had given me some space and let me have my turn, it never would've happened.

So I was an asshole to an old lady today, and I will sleep like a baby tonight with zero guilt in my heart.

I noticed a trend today. I'm not saying there's anything to it. I'm just saying I noticed it. Not every white boomer I met today was rude, but every rude person I met today was a white boomer.

I'm just saying I noticed.

Zero respect for personal space. They're living by some unwritten rules that I do not comprehend. Like, this old guy pushed his cart right up to mine in a crowded aisle, noses touching, and stopped and stared at me.

I was like... what is he expecting is going to happen? So, since I couldn't go through or around him, I settled into wait to see how it would play out.

After the person beside us moved on, he looked at me for a moment longer, then went around me and kept going, so I went on my merry way. If he had hung back and let me go around him in the first place, neither of us would've been waiting. Whatever, it's no skin off my nose. He was the one who seemed to be in a hurry.

when i was younger and read the original trilogy for the first time i was so bothered how it was 74 years of games, i remember thinking how could it have gone on so long without anyone doing anything

these prequels highlight that people have been fighting from the get-go: lucy gray's defiance, reaper ripping down panem's flags to cover the fallen tributes, haymitch's games and how many others shared his ideologies - the capitol just drowns them out, they rewrite their stories so their efforts are forgotten

The Rodeo Rule: you only have to do it for the first time once.

The Rohan Rule: if you are at a social function full of new people and you want to be liked, find someone doing important work like setup or food prep and offer to help.

The Tutorial Mode Rule: to navigate an unfamiliar situation where you fear you will mess up an interaction, preface the interaction by mentioning that you've never done this before, and let them know if you have a specific concern or question.

The Rocket Science Rule: most new things you want to try seem very complicated but are simple when taken step by step.

The [X] Will Remember That Rule: if you need to make small talk with the same person on a regular basis, try to save one fact or current event in their life from a given conversation and bring it up next time you talk.

I need treatment costs for this month. Please donate, and if I die, please don’t forget my little siblings.

Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"

The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointee—not a career expert or peer reviewer—to ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people exist—through its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processes—could be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to “support the notion that sex is mutable” and have its federal funding blocked.

This torches everything. And I do mean everything.

A very abbreviated list of its ramifications include (but are not limited to):

ending funding for ALL DEI related initiatives

allowing the government to terminate grants at any point for any reason

preventing researchers from publishing, going to conferences, and being part of academic societies

requiring that topics must support the president’s agenda.

What this means, and if anything I’m under selling it, is the death of science and research in America. It allows the government to restrict any topic they please at a whims notice, putting officials who have no background in the topic in charge of deciding funding continuity. It controls what gets researched and if/how researchers are allowed to share their discoveries. There are no books to burn if the government never allows them to be written. This is fascism plain and simple.

Public comments are not a vote, it is a chance for you to say "here is an issue with this law I think you need to address" and provide justification for legal challenges if it goes forward:

"Comments raise the bar that agencies have to meet when making a rule; “if an agency fails to adequately respond to significant, relevant comments in a final rule, members of the public may seek to challenge the rule in court on that basis and claim it could be struck down.ˮ"

if you would like to spite the really mean people even more today, consider donating to raices con voz. they're a student-led organization in los angeles, who deliver food and essential supplies to immigrant families who can't leave their homes due to the ICE raids. More information about them here

in keeping with tradition, here is a link to unicef's fund for emergency health supplies and services for survivors of the venezuela earthquakes.

here is another link for manos in action, an organization that delivers supplies, such as food and childcare items, to latin american immigrants in central florida. I've participated in one of their local food drives; they're great. if you're not local to central florida, you can always donate money.

The way I explain it to my patients is that our neurons don’t regenerate. They make connections with each other and that’s it. If you don’t use your brain, they make fewer connections and, if one of them dies, you’re gonna miss it, because that was the only one that knew how to do X. Now, if each one of them has many, many connections, you won’t notice the difference when one of them dies. The others pick up the slack.

As of 2024, 45% of dementia risk factors are modifiable. Relevant to this conversation, 5% for less education and 5% for social isolation.

We absolutely are going to see the reflection of this, but it’s gonna take decades and it’ll be too late. So, for the love of your brain, pretend that it’s a muscle and make it work. People complain about “when am I ever gonna use this maths formula in my life?” You’re not. You’re teaching your brain to think logically. Those sinapses will be there for when you need to figure out your week’s schedule. English classes taught me how to interpret data and how to convey it in this text so it’s clear and you understand what I’m saying, not because I needed to justify why the curtain is blue.

Make your brain know how to do different things. Logic games, puzzles, taking care of a garden even if small, planning a church’s event or birthday, learn a new instrument, learn a few words in another language, look at a calendar every day, do some manual labor if possible. Do not, I repeat, do not let your brain get rid of sinapses by letting AI do everything. Your brain uses 20% of your body’s energy — do you really think it’s going to maintain connexions that aren’t in use?

Most cases of Alzheimer’s are sporadic, meaning no family history. Family history of a first-degree relative with Alzheimer’s starting before they were 80yo increases your risk in 2-3x on average.

^ prev tags

Now I want to see the Nice Guys smuggling a space alien through 70s LA

Happy pride 🏳️‍🌈 I gathered all my fav ships to celebrate!

Which one's your favorite? Can you spot all the hidden details? 👀

Pros:

Doctors paying off their medical loans with prize money

Chronically ill people getting free testing (MRIs, CAT scans, X-Rays, bloodwork, etc) and possibly a diagnosis

You can ding points for 'anxiety' and 'you just need to lose some weight'

Doctors are incentivized to find an answer, not just find something billable

Cons:

HIPAA