To make mistakes is to live

okay love you all stay cool! have some nice lemonade! if you are looking for a new nice lemonade here's what I've been making lately:

for syrup:

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

4-5 cardamom pods

for lemonade:

1 cup lemon juice (or juice of about 5-6 fresh lemons if you're doing the high-effort version)

4 cups water

Crack the cardamom pods with the back of a spoon - no need to crush them, just crack them so the flavor releases better. Heat the sugar, water, and pods on medium in a small saucepan and stir until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup is at least a simmer (this should happen very quickly.) Remove from heat and steep at least 30 minutes. Remove the cardamom pods (strain if they really cracked open and you have bits, otherwise you can just scoop them out. It is not refreshing to be swallowing a cardamom seed on accident.)

Dump the lemon juice, water, and syrup into a large container and chill for as long as you have patience for (or just serve over ice immediately, if you're very thirsty.) Enjoy!

And literally label some of the cookies Legitimate Interest

And it's like cool so even YOU admit that hundreds of these aren't legit

Like sorry but there is 0 chance your 578 "legitimate" partners need to track my online behaviour, but it's honestly amazing for you to be like. We also have 1200 illegitimate partners that we would love to sell your data too also

Pleeeeeeeease?

Also turn your adblocker off 🙏🙏🙏

It's amazing to me that in 2026 i will see people thoughtlessly repeating, oh, but you should allow ads if you want to support x business, it's not fair to them otherwise

Bc it's like. Well. No. The only people paying for that adspace are scammers and professional malware operators

Who pays for adspace in 2026? Gambling websites. Temu. Fake app games. TikTok. Amazon. Energy supplement freaks. Weight loss poison peddlers.

Like sorry, but no. If the way you make money would be to provide my eyeballs to these fucking companies, then you don't deserve that money

What annoys me the most about the "oh but you're stealing by turning ads off!" is that like. It's the same argument that massive corporations make about people just not buying their shit. They call it "lost income" and make it sound like theft, but it was always theoretical or projected income

It was never real money. It was a projection based on manufactured data and/or manufactured consent

And it's like. No actually i do not owe any fucking massive corporate company anything, least of all my web browsing data, even if that corporation offered you a few cents per accidental click

Make a Patreon, sell merch, make better media, do conventions. Literally just get good.

"Oh I don't normally use AI, I just wanted it to plan my trip"

You lived on this planet for decades, you know what you like, there are hundreds of websites where you can type into any search engine " things to do in [area]" and have at least a hundred different options.

"Oh I only use it so I can figure out what to make during the week with what I have"

The most popular website as you type in "recipes" into google have sections where you click dinner- quick and easy and those usually rely on staples + 1 or 2 items. I found 30 recipes on chicken alone.

"I had a writing idea, so I typed a few sentences into Chat GPT and I was able to write 20 pages with it."

This homeless person is making me uncomfortable. Should I call [a man with a gun]?

My neighbor is having a loud party. Should I get [a man with a gun] involved?

There are some teenagers skateboarding. Do you think [a man with a gun] would get rid of them for me?

County Crisis will usually send a social worker (or therapist-in-training) to the scene. Those folks are very good at what they do, in general, and they are not going to be armed. They will try to get the person in question connected with support services, housing, and may be able to get them home if they seem lost.

The reason that this comparison is inaccurate is because humans have the ability to use reason and make logical choices, but cats don’t. Humans see a car coming and wait until the street is clear to cross. Cats don’t. Humans know not to eat strange food on the ground. Cats don’t. Humans can look up which plants are toxic and avoid them. Cats can’t. Humans don’t eat raw rabbits and rodents that may carry disease. Cats do. Humans who hunt follow laws that prevent them from killing endangered species (besides shitty poachers). Cats don’t.

A far more accurate comparison would be a cat and a toddler. They lack the ability to recognize danger and don’t have the ability to reason that an adult does. I’m sure a toddler would have a great time roaming around the neighborhood, but no one is going to argue in favor of that. People can understand that doing that is irresponsible and dangerous. But no sane person is going to lock their toddler inside and provide them with nothing to do; no one is saying we should do that for cats either. Play with them. Provide cat trees. Rotate their toys. Give them puzzle feeders. And if you want them to go outside you can leash train them. Or build a catio. The options aren’t let them roam vs. never provide them with entertainment. If it is unbearable to entertain and care for a cat that is kept indoors, you probably shouldn’t own a cat.

Would you let your dog roam? Or your bird? How about your rabbit? I’m sure all of these animals would have a great time running (or flying) around the neighborhood, but we generally recognize that this is a bad idea. It’s no different for cats. We are caretakers for our animals, so it is up to us to use our big brains to make logical choices about what they should or shouldn’t do. We have the ability to understand the risks associated with free roaming. Cats don’t. We can weigh risks and benefits before making a decision. Cats can’t.

I’ve seen two cats who were roadkill, multiple poisoned rats that make easy prey, gardens full of poisonous (to cats) plants, and a cat at the vet who survived his arm being mauled by a fox through a catio. Yet people still do it. I’m in a small village, no idea how much worse in a bigger place it would be.

It is entirely cultural. Sadly, it also means people don’t tend to play with their pets and let them free roam as their only enrichment. So they baulk at how “bored” a cat would be indoors. Forgetting it’s not just kittens who need playtime. You are seen as a “weirdo” for harness/lead training a cat here, which I don’t agree with obviously.

Most rescues will not let you adopt a cat if you do not let it be indoor-outdoor. They will even check up on your garden to see it’s safety (like a cat can’t jump a fence lol). Charities do this, too.

I still keep my cat indoors only. My step mum thought I was being cruel until I explained to her the dangers of a cat outside.

Across the pond in New Zealand ONE SINGLE CAT drove an entire species to extinction. There are still arseholes over there but they’re generally even stricter than we are here in Oz.