These are a few of my favorite things

heads or tails?

delicious in dungeon :3c

More recently, I've been reading Chris Longhurst's Bleak Spirit, and I was struck by something it said on the topic of how to play Soulslike-style NPCs in a tabletop RPG: to paraphrase, their essential tragedy is that they all think they're the player character. Every one of them has a personal quest which they're convinced is the most important thing in the world, and they view everything through that lens; when they look at you, they literally can't see you – they only see the role in which they've cast you in their private epic. What dooms them, time and again, is being confronted with the fact that it's not about them.

you are so right so let's go over this shall we -

change in mental state: confusion, agitation, slurred speech, irritability, delirium, seizures

skin may feel deceptively cool or dry. you may also stop sweating entirely.

nausea and vomitting

extremely flushed skin - whole body!

rapid breathing/heart beat

headache

dry, swollen tongue

Bit of good news about the HIV vaccine. Australian team has figured out how to make it visible ewithin white blood cells. And look, the US might be ... undergoing funding instability. And yes, because of that, many research opportunities will not reach fruition under their current regime.

But it is important to remember that research and scientific advancement has always been built on collaboration and the gradual increase of knowledge through sharing resources and findings. And researchers do not lose their skills or insights when they have to leave a research facility due to funding being cut. (Also if you're a researcher suddenly out of a job due to funding cuts, there are many countries with solid research facilities actively recruiting US researchers). There are many, many researchers and organisations outside the US and they will continue to exist and continue to keep on working even as the US government stops. And its important to note that the US government might stop, but the researchers will continue - just in different places. I know its hard to see under the onslaught of bad news, but humanity as a whole keeps moving forward.

And for those who are wondering if this is just nice words and have non US medical research facilities ever done any ground breaking work (I mean I doubt any of you would think that, but just in case): the HPV vaccine that's eliminating cervical cancer in countries around the world was developed in Australia.

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.

use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.

use storygraph instead of goodreads.

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.

feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3