*sigh* Yeah, the big xylophone

After 2 years of this I asked myself "How could I have let this happen? How did I not see the red flags? How did it get this far?" And it hit me. He treated exactly the same way my adults treated me when I was a child. I didn't see any red flags because I'd never been treated any differently. I'd be screamed at for being lazy, if I wanted anything then I was selfish. I was physically intimidated to make me behave. My emotions were "dramatic", and if I complained at all I heard the "everything I do for you" speech. He treated me exactly the way id always been treated and I didn't even recognize it as abuse until I wanted to kill myself about it.

That realization changed my life. Its a big part of why I work with children now. Parents sometimes hate when I say this but you need to treat your children how you would want their future partners to treat them. They are going to use their relationship with you as the blueprint for every other relationship in their life.

And it keeps them safe *now* as well. People who groom children are able to do so easily because many children havent experienced an adult be kind to them before. All the predators need to do is treat them like a person for a bit and of course they seem safe and friendly. If you treat your children with respect and kindness then their uncle or babysitter or whoever is gonna have a harder time gaining their trust and getting close to them because their tactics don't work if the child already expects to be treated like a person. Plus if your child feels safe and respected most of the time the moment someone makes them feel unsafe they can immediately know this isnt right and they will trust you to fix it.

If you don't already know you have issues doing so, squat down real quick. Bend your knees all the way and touch the floor. Just make sure you can do it. Okay? For me? And then stand up all the way and make sure you can balance on one foot.

If there was ever a tumblr post worth sending to your mom, it's this one.

This is the very simple "starting from zero muscles" program I followed, highly recommend it or something similar:

Not, like, fake compliments or randomly giving scrounged up compliments to everyone you pass in the street, but -- say you see someone with an article of clothing you really really like. Cool accessories or a great haircut or something. Tell them.

I told an old woman yesterday that I liked her blouse. It was this super pretty white-at-the-top-floral-at-the-bottom shirt which was really lovely. So i backtracked where I'd walked past her and I said "excuse me - i love your shirt." And this harried, stressed-looking 80-something year old brightened up immediately, and beamed, and then when she and I headed off in separate directions, she had a pep in her step.

This other time I told a woman that I liked her boots. She gave me a company name thats since become my favourite brand of shoes. I told someone else that her scarf was cute and she was like "do you like it? Here, you can have it," and she dropped her scarf in my hands and then got on her train and left. I once saw a woman who had clearly put effort into her outfit that day but was now looking harried and frazzled as she wrangled four children across the road, and I told her that her outfit was gorgeous and she lit up like a christmas tree. I told a gay man that I loved his whole look once and he turned into a smiling, blushing mess as his super delighted and proud boyfriend was like "yea, he DOES look gorgeous doesnt he?"

Little girl teaching her cats how to draw a flower 

*baby voice* “… and if you have any questions, just ask me! And now… yeah. And now you draw the roots. You draw them all twisted up! Got it? A flower? Now draw it. Did you get it, Luis Roberto? Did you get it, Jurandir? Look. Did you get it? That’s how you draw a flower.”

Oh god, now I'm thinking of amputees and how those would work

Horses are SUPER fragile, or maybe more like delicately balanced.. but particularly their crazy spindle-legs which centaurs get to deal with! But a big part of why hurt legs are a death sentence for horses has less to do with “It kills them” and more to do with quality of life, which a centaur can get around! A horse with a broken leg doesn’t understand it can’t put ANY weight on that leg for an extended period and will attempt to go about their daily life and act normally, which basically guarantees re-injuring the bad leg and a high chance of injuring the other 3 legs as they try to cope with the change in balance and weight distribution. It all leads to a really poor quality of life with almost no chance of truly healing properly. The story of all they did trying to save Barbaro the racehorse is a long sad story that illustrates a lot of the issues even with modern veterinary medicine with trying to deal with a broken leg in horses.

Thankfully with centaurs, They understand the need for healing, are able to manage their own quality of life and have the gear to support themselves in the time it takes for the injury to heal!

Also perfectly good for long term use in the case of aging, amputation, or general disability! Which is common with the front legs and lower backs of centaurs given the unusual stresses caused by their body-plans. They were created with thicker and more robust front legs to cope with the permanent added weight of the torso instead of a horse head, but injury and disability in that area is still very common!

however!! these amazing wheelchairs would really do the trick! god they look good!!

Okay so. Let’s begin by the weight of the human part of a centaur.

A quick research gave me access to a list of different human body parts relative to total weights on this site. Summing it up, I found that for a 150 lbs (68 kgs) human the torso + head + arms is about 110 lbs (50 kgs).

That was the easy part.

I looked up the same things for horses but only found guides to weigh your horse, and a scientific paper that may have the answer, but it’s behind a paywall and I’m not coughing up 15€ to maybe get the answer I need.

Then I remembered I have a Facebook friend who’s passionate about horses, and has access to a lot of scientific literature. I asked her. I presented the question as something pretty weird, as I don’t know if people other than I are interested by strange scientific inquiries.

She loved it.

So here is the data :

- If we take in account the center of gravity of a horse, behind the shoulders, we know that its position varies a lot based on the position of the head + neck block (the higher the head gets, the more the gravity center moves towards the rump), so – laws of physics – the head + neck block is an important part of the weigh of the horse, with a leverage effect.

- Also, the position of the center of gravity tells us that 50 % of the horse’s weigh is before that point : head, neck, shoulders, front legs. Even when comparing a strong torso + arms and a slender neck, it means that for a 1,000 lbs (450 kgs) horse the “front block” is about 500 lbs (225 kgs).

This doesn’t give us the weigh of the neck + head block, but it tells us that with the shoulders and front legs (that a centaur keeps) it’s nearly five times the weigh of the human part. And I doubt the front legs of a horse weigh that heavy (to give a vague idea, both legs of a 150 lbs human weigh about 52 lbs – 23 kgs).

Another thing about centaur anatomy (from the same trusted source) : in a centaur, the torso is (most of the time) held straight, so the center of gravity is closer to the rump than for a horse and the distribution of the weigh on the four legs is probably more even (for a horse about two thirds of the weigh is borne by the front legs). However back pathologies like kissing spines could happen more often, since equine anatomy means that horses need to lower their neck to limit the risk of back wounds.

2) any vegetable is better than no vegetable

Amazon made their service worse, to force people to pay for Prime.

Nowadays, if you order from Amazon, there is a week long delay before your package is shipped. (on purpose)

I remember when orders would ship out the same day. (I remember - it was real)

YouTube didn't used to have ads. Now, ads play in the middle of videos. (it's worse than TV ever was)

The best can opener I have owned is over 40 years old. Modern ones just don't hold up as well. (The ones I bought new broke ages ago)

The bread machine my mom got for her wedding lasted 30 years. It's been replaced twice in the last 5 years. (How can you fuck this up?)

The cardboard tubes in the middle of toilet paper rolls have gotten larger. (This too?) Companies increasing the price of the product while selling you less. (REALLY?)

It sounds crazy. (it's the truth) When you talk about it, YOU sound crazy. (it's true)

Even when people believe you (do they really), all they can say is "it sucks". (it's too big) Because the problem is so big, so pervasive, what can we even DO about it???

To get the necessary laws written and passed, we need politicians, to get the politicians elected we need information campaigns, to fund campaigns we need money, and all the money is being hoarded by the people profiting from enshittification. (it sounds so fake)

Im.. Soft 🥺🥺🥺