MegtillaVanilla

hello friend, Pangur has laid a curse on you: from now on your toenails will grow at 4x their natural speed

Here are the brands that you are generally always safe to buy from, unless something has gone catastrophically wrong:

Refresh

Systane

Genteal

TheraTears

There are some other really big ones but honestly, between the first three you can find everything you need for your dry eye, your contacts, whatever. These are all manufactured by either Allergan or Alcon, two HUGE companies that make a lot of money off of making reliable artificial tears and marketing them to optometrists. The chances of them having a recall are far, far lower than whatever punky CVS or Walmart brand is cheaper.

Your eye is an immune-privileged structure, which means that your body actively suppresses the immune response in certain parts of your eye in order to defend it against the damage caused by inflammation. What this means is that if you introduce bacteria into your eye, your body won't start fighting it off until significantly later than if it had been introduced to some other part of your body, if it even provokes a response at all until it's too late.

Normally I am 100% buying generics of medications. Generic ibuprofen is EXACTLY the same as Advil, but the problem is that your stomach has a lot of defenses that your eye doesn't. Your gastric system can tolerate dodgy bacteria a LOT easier than your eye can (caveat: depending on the bacteria natch).

They don’t have the same info as above, (generic drops are sketchy as hell, don’t risk it) but they have a ton of info about whether a certain brand has had issues and whether something that looks like a Big Name Brand is actually legit.

They are too small for stairs 

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Simplified)