#patrick talks

This doesn’t only apply to Sam and Frodo, but it’s the example I’m going to use because I see it coming up the most. Call them platonic, call them romantic, but please stop shoving your opinions down other people’s throats. I’m going to share my own experience.

My grandfather loved lord of the rings so much because he interpreted a lot of those "deep platonic friendships" as being quite romantic. He grew up in the earlier half of the 20th century, in Germany especially, and he had a lot of really "troublesome" encounters with his close male friends (his words not mine) before meeting and marrying his wife.

Then he raised me, and when I read his copies of lord of the rings he told me to take care of them because those books were so important to him in adulthood (when they came out in the 50s) because he felt seen. not like it was such a disastrous thing to fall madly in love with your best friend and then grieve that relationship for decades. He really related to Sam, especially his relationship with Frodo, marrying Rosie, having to say goodbye, etc. I still remember being a younger teenager and seeing the movies in theaters when they came out, and seeing him crying in the seat next to mine because "Patrick, Patrick, they got the [insert tiny detail from book] right!"

I know you understand, especially when this also effects all of you even if you are one of my kids or an old fucker who's seen a few things like I have

We have our head on a swivel and are always on guard now. We'll reply later tonight or tomorrow (maybe 6pm EST) but until then, we will be more sparse in our communication, might reply to DMs, but asks will be maybe once or twice a day with how this is going

Host is terrified since he doesn't have protection except for a knife and that's not good enough when dealing with untrained people. It's terrifying and the system is trying our best to make sure we are safe, alive, and well

I will probably reply to comments here but that's a big maybe as we are still watching the street and checking on updates on sightings

Hope you have a good weekend

Due to my chest size and position, it's been made clear that I will have to have double incision - knew that from the start, but it feels very real when someone's measuring your chest to confirm it 😅 also been told that I will have one long scar across my chest as opposed to two seperate ones so that will be interesting!

My parents seemed quite happy for me as well, and even said they would take a few days off work to help me recover and make sure I get to the surgery and home safe.

What are the ridges at on the roof of our mouths for? The ones right behind your top teeth.

Okay! Nice! Dentistry ask!

So those are your palatal rugae, on a part of your mouth called the hard palate. It's made of two bones that are part of your facial skeleton and hard keratin-like tissue (the same stuff that makes up your gums). The ridges are used to help move food down your mouth, hold said food, and also they aid in speech. I'm not quite sure... how? I didn't design how the body works.

But I can assume that they're there to help grip food between the roof of your mouth and tooth tongue, so that food doesn't just slide down and choke you. Kinda gross visual but ok.

Another gross visual: sometimes your hard palate malfunctions and grows a tooth. A good friend of mine had to have two taken out from that roof of his mouth when he was a kid, and for it being uncommon I've dealt with having to pull people's malfunction teeth a few times. This is called hyperdontia.

Some fun facts at least, your rugae are unique to you, in the same way fingerprints are. I can imagine they're not as commonly used in forensics because of the lack of traces of your... palatal rugae leaves...

However, there's also something called (I had to look up the name) torus palatinus, and that is basically a firm sometimes painful growth down the midline of the hard palate. Harmless, but sometimes an issue for speech and dental appliances. It's genetic and Healthline says that 20%-30% of the population has it, most frequently in woman and those of Asian descent. So if you've had unsourced speech problems or difficulty eating or a strange protruding elongated lump down the roof of your mouth that isn't one of these ridges, torus palatinus might be worth looking into.