shut up, and let me see your jazz hands

Sure, fine, be professional, smile and nod. But clock the fuck out mentally. The average workplace resident only actually does 5 to 6 hours of work per eight hour workday.

What happens if you do otherwise?

Your co-workers hate your guts because you make them look bad.

Your bosses hate your guts because you make them look like bad managers, because a) they can't do that much work in that amount of time, and b) they can't justify your salary if you keep getting too work done in too little time, so they look like a foolish asshole.

Your clients/the public/whoever sees work your work do not actually appreciate the amount of work you're putting in on the back end. The difference between 60% half-assing it and 99% perfect is invisible to them--except when a) you're delayed because you're perfecting it and then you just look incompetent, or b) you look like an intolerant asshole because you're requiring more from them than they're accustomed to giving.

Personally, after I got my big promotion, I work half as much, and most of that extra time? I spend reading novels and writing fic.

nobody cares

Think of it like this example that my mama taught me: "What happens when you take your hand out of a bucket of water? Exactly. That's what happens when you leave a workplace."

The workplace uses you. Don't let them use you up.

Most of the critical complaints have been about the tone; in a review from 2005, Professor Victoria of Spagonia University said, "The constant self-aggrandizement undercuts the idea that its subject ought to be taken seriously. Also, wasn't the 'feminist' line from the Sonic Heroes manual a mistranslation of 'womanizer'?"

"For millions of people managing type 2 diabetes, mornings begin the same way — a needle, a dose, and a quiet mental note to do it all again tomorrow.

That routine just changed.

On March 26, 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Awiqli (insulin icodec-abae), developed by Novo Nordisk, as the first and only once-weekly basal insulin ever approved for adults with type 2 diabetes in the United States.

This is not a minor update to an existing drug.

It is the first entirely new class of basal insulin to reach U.S. patients in more than two decades.

Instead of injecting insulin every single day, people with type 2 diabetes using Awiqli will only need one shot per week, on the same day, every week.

That means reducing from 365 injections a year down to just 52.

For anyone who has ever felt the weight of that daily ritual — the anxiety of forgetting, the physical discomfort, the constant reminder that their body needs help — this approval represents something much bigger than a dosing schedule.

It represents relief.

How the Drug Actually Works

Understanding why this injection lasts a full week requires a quick look inside the body.

Most traditional basal insulins are absorbed into the bloodstream and begin breaking down within 24 hours, which is why patients need a fresh dose every day to maintain stable blood sugar levels.

Awiqli works differently.

Its active ingredient, insulin icodec-abae, is engineered to loosely attach to a blood protein called albumin, which is found naturally and abundantly in the bloodstream.

This attachment creates a slow-release reservoir.

Instead of flooding the system and fading fast, the insulin releases gradually and consistently over an entire seven-day period, keeping blood sugar in a healthy range around the clock...

The FDA reviewed and ultimately declined to approve it for people with type 1 diabetes, citing concerns about a modestly increased risk of hypoglycemia in that population specifically.

Some regulatory agencies in other countries, including the European Union, Canada, Australia, and Japan, have approved Awiqli for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but for now the U.S. approval is limited to type 2...

What Comes Next

Awiqli is not standing alone in this space for long.

Eli Lilly is developing its own once-weekly basal insulin, called efsitora alfa, which is currently in late-stage clinical trials.

If that drug also earns FDA approval, it would give patients and doctors two once-weekly options to choose from, allowing for personalized decisions based on a patient’s health profile, insurance coverage, and individual response.

The broader direction of travel in diabetes care is unmistakable.

Fewer injections, smarter formulations, and better integration with digital tools like continuous glucose monitors and insulin-tracking apps are all converging toward a future where managing diabetes requires less daily mental effort without becoming any less medically precise...

A Small Shot With Large Implications

It is easy to look at a once-weekly injection and see only a scheduling change.

But the science behind Awiqli, the scale of the ONWARDS trials, and the consistent satisfaction reported by patients all point toward something that matters far more than convenience.

Diabetes management has always asked a lot of people.

It asks for daily vigilance, daily discipline, and a daily willingness to confront one’s own condition, sometimes in uncomfortable or inconvenient circumstances.

Anything that reduces that load, without reducing the quality of care, is worth taking seriously.

For the more than 37 million Americans living with diabetes, and the hundreds of millions more around the world, a simpler weekly routine could mean the difference between a treatment plan that works on paper and one that actually works in a person’s life.

That is the real significance of what the FDA approved on March 26, 2026.

Not just a new drug.

A new way of keeping people healthy, one week at a time."

i have a very special scenario in my head of shane who is used to feeling like this and finding a quiet place to assess what tf is happening to him rn so he can decide if cold water on his face or hospital.

(not even considering the fact that hiding away while potentially having a life-threatening allergic response is an AWFUL move).

and i am especially endeared by the idea of it going from him going off and doing this by himself to ilya clocking him leaving the room in a way that says Not Okay and following him and the two of them in just a quiet little pocket of space together, with shane having already handed over his auvi-q (the version of an epipen that fits in a suit pocket) just in case.

OH MAN in vegas, ilya canonically was freaking out ahead of time in anticipation of seeing shane again, so i posit that he was denying that he was freaking the fuck out and was trying to lie to himself and say it was just low blood sugar, so he grabbed something from craft services backstage.

and it's fucking. peanut butter crackers.

THIRD OPTION: EXTREMELY UNFORTUNATE TIME TO PURSUE FINGER SUCKING AFTER ILYA WAS PICKING AT THINGS DURING THE WAIT FOR SHANE TO SHOW UP AT THE PENTHOUSE BUT ALSO DRINKING VODKA SO SHANE DOESN'T SMELL IT ON HIS BREATH

OH MY GOD I DIDN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT THE FACT THAT HE WAS THE ONE WHO FOUND HIS MOM

AND THE FACT THAT THIS IS PROBABLY SO EXTREMELY ON HIS MIND GIVEN HOW CLOSE HE IS TO GOING BACK FOR THE SUMMER AND THE MEMORIES THAT WOULD HAVE ALREADY DREDGED UP

oh my god WAIT

ilya who remembers when the responders who came to the house took his mother away, and he never saw her again, and it's totally irrational, but he manages to get shane's epipen and help shane use it, and then he helps shane get dressed so he can get to a more neutral area before he calls for an ambulance, and he's SUPPOSED to leave. he's going to leave. it's just going to cause some uncomfortable ass questions if he doesn't leave and has to come up with a story about why he was with hollander and why he's with him now and why he still hasn't let go of him even though he has him back in his room now.

and yet.

again: IRRATIONAL. he KNOWS it's irrational. but there's a part of him that's still thinking, "if i let them take hollander away right now, then i will never see him again." because he's BEEN HERE before. and it doesn't make sense, but trauma and fear NEVER do.

so ilya ends up going with him.

and listen. shane atp?? nauseous, still can't fully breathe right, still not fully present. in his right mind, he'd be sending ilya the FUCK away because embarassing and also doesn't want questions. but in this moment?? can't feel anything but relief when he climbs in the ambulance with him to ride along because he's at least someone familiar in the middle of all of this.

and then at the hospital, they get shane stable and ilya should go. he should totally go. he knows he should go.

and yet he doesn't. he's already here. there's already going to be questions. it's a little bit reckless and a little bit fuck it, but the damage is already done. might as well stick around until he can be sure that shane is actually okay. it's not like he's going to sleep tonight after this because jesus FUCK.

and texts keep coming through on shane's phone, but shane is sleeping, and ilya keeps seeing "Mom" and "Dad" pop up over and over and over because obviously the hospital contacted them. and ilya KNOWS he shouldn't answer. but shane can't do it right now, and there's parents worrying about him, and won't it just stress him out if he wakes up to thirty phonecalls-

and on call number thirteen from Mom, he picks the phone up and answers.

and yeah yuna is confused as FUCK why ILYA FUCKING ROZANOV is answering her son's phone after she got a call that shane had been admitted to a hospital because of an allergic reaction, but she also doesn't have a lot of other fucking options for getting updates on her baby, so fine. talking to this cocky ass kid it is.

except...he doesn't sound cocky? he actually sounds...almost sweet? he's answering questions as best he can and even tries to read some stuff in the notes the doctor left guided by what yuna tells him to look for. and she's on her way to the airport right now to get there and asks ilya to tell shane that she'll be there as fast as she can because he hates being in the hospital by himself, and in a moment of TOTAL fucking impulse ilya says he'll wait.

and he does.

the first time yuna and ilya meet face to face outside of that first elevator scene is when yuna finds him by her son's bed in the hospital keeping him company so he wouldn't have to be alone.

yuna hollander is going to unknowingly begin shifting the hollanov rivalry narrative years early because that ilya rozanov doesn't seem so bad after all, and her shane deserves another friend. so! fuck the league and the media and the fans!! she's going to make it happen!!! she is going to encourage shane to build this friendship, and she is going to ask after how ilya rozanov is doing during her calls with shane, and she is going to get them an ad campaign together to repay ilya!

i canNOT remember their names, but i saw a video of two hockey captains who have an ongoing bit of doing rock, paper, scissors with each other after games to see who loses and has to get off the ice first, and i feel like that's the shit shane and ilya would be pulling in this situation. like they are still SO fucking competitive with each other and anyone can see that.

but they're also the kind of competitive that has people taking surreptitious video clips of them chirping the FUCK out of each other while playing pool at a bar after a game together.

Given how much they've cut off, his fur was probably matted. Long-haired cats often need regular brushing, or at least a safe indoor environment to regularly groom themselves. Long-haired strays frequently get hair so matted it can't be brushed out and it has to be cut off for their health and comfort.

I keep seeing people say that their kink is "undernegotiated" and I think it displays a fundamental misunderstanding of what the word "negotiation" actually means.

If characters are communicating their desires clearly and constantly checking in to see if the other character is still in agreement or whether they've changed their minds, and coming to an agreement, that is a complete and successfull negotiation, regardless of whether it happens verbally or non-verbally.

People are acting as though negotiation doesn't count if it doesn't follow a specific formula laid out in a 300 page bdsm manual, but negotiation was not invented by 300 page bdsm manual in the 1990s. Humans have been negotiating since before language was invented.

And following a manual formula is useless if you don't actually know how to pay attention to your partner and learn how to read them.

I mentioned in another post that all of the text back and forth they have before they meet up is also a form of negotiation. They are quite literally haggling over sex acts like two old biddies at a flea market. Ilya saying, "I don't think is what you want" in the episode 6 blowjob scene is Ilya doing the sex equivalent of asking the guy at the farmer's market if he'll knock an extra $5 off the top if he buys three crates of the strawberries.

That's negotiation! Both parties made their wants and desires clear and 'came' to an agreement.

I think people also have this idea that if people are testing each other's boundaries, that automatically makes the sex dubiously consensual.

But we are talking about two people who literally get off on pushing each other's boundaries, who literally get off on turning sex into a competition and making sex bets that require one party to forefeit something if the bet is lost.

That's their kink! They both fully agreed to participate in their sex-haggling kink together!

Arguing that it's not "real" negotiation or "real" agreement because the sex-haggling kink makes you uncomfortable is just another form of kink shaming.

You don't get to decide for other people that their consensual sex doesn't count as consensual because it's not something you personally would consent to, or because their dynamic isn't something that you personally would feel comfortable with.

They clearly do feel comfortable with their dynamic. They are clearly both having a good time. They clearly understand each other really, really well. They are clearly incredibly sensitive to each other's moment-by-moment wants and needs.