Welcome to my liar

This is Benton. Benton has precisely one brain cell. Benton does agility. I take him every week.

So there we were, me and Benton. We're in agility class. And Benton is... well... He's not *good* at agility but he loves it. And last week he decided that he was NOT capable of going through a tunnel. It was too scary. He could not do it and would clearly be eaten TO DEATH if he went inside.

It should also be noted that Benton's preferred speed of agility performance is... a gentle saunter? Perhaps a mosey? It's *notable* when he breaks a trot.

So this week, we decided to work with his favourite toy on tunnel. I fake threw it into the tunnel then ran to the end of the tunnel to tell him to get the toy.

It worked! He ran into the tunnel at ***full speed.***

The tunnel is fifteen feet long. It takes under a second for a dog to run the full length most of the time.

I can hear my dog running in the tunnel.

He is not emerging.

I look at our instructor. "Anneliese, what the fuck? Where is he? I can *hear* him."

"He's in there," she reassures me. "I just... don't know what he's doing."

"He's running. I can hear him running," I say.

Benton does not emerge.

"Huh." Anneliese looks at the tunnel, puzzled.

I look at the tunnel, puzzled.

The veterinary behaviourist in our class looks at the tunnel, puzzled.

I can still hear Benton running. He has not emerged. It has been at least fifteen seconds. The tunnel is still only 15 feet long.

I open my mouth to ask Anneliese if she thinks he's having some kind of seizure in there.

BENTON EMERGES and excitedly takes his toy and runs around the ring in PURE JOY.

As far as we can tell, Benton ran as hard and fast as he could into the tunnel, which was in a J shape. He hit the curve of the tunnel and fell.

Then he proceeded to run as hard and fast as he could to get out of the tunnel.

And at some point, he accidentally ran so hard on his side he went upright.

And then he completed the tunnel.

The article notes the flag the Jewish and Israeli participants were waving. It is the Jewish pride flag, not the Israeli pride flag. There is a difference.

Below is the Jewish pride flag, which is simply the Magen David on a Pride or Pride progress flag.

It is for jews in any country, or rather, regardless of country or nationality. It is for any jew, anywhere.

There is also an Israeli pride flag. It is the Israeli flag, but the blue stripes are replaced by rainbow stripes. This is specifically about Israel.

Part of socializing and having friends is being a good listener even when you don't actually give a shit about the subject.

Your are hurting other people's feelings when you bluntly respond with "Anyway..." and then change the topic.

It can not always be about your preferred topic.

When age, gender, location was censured like profanity in the name of protecting kids?

But suddenly the Only Way to keep children safe online is to make sure that they have 0 privacy?

But yeah sure we need a whole new act that protects children. We don't like... already have one or anything.

the lines on the bottom say do not microwave but i have been microwaving it for 7 years now. i put it away wet and it must have slid off the counter. it broke into 6 pieces. my girlfriend says this is proof a ghost that lives in my house; particularly because it is a black mug with a ouija board design. i think it is proof that i should dry things before i put them away.

i had superglue from an abandoned art project. it took me four days. inspired by kintsugi, i painted the seams golden. it is my first time doing anything like this, and it was more error than trial. i do not have any fancy materials. there is a thick band of gold across the no, so it reads like a diphthong now, N\O. a part of it broke in an almost-perfect peace sign, oddly round.

it will not be watertight anymore, it cannot be a mug. i'll reuse it as a flower pot. it will go on my back porch. it is kind of ugly, really. i didn't do an excellent job.

i spent every minute of this repair thinking about how often i had used it. how many little rituals it has been a part of. it is a big mug, but not a soup mug, which i loathe. it is perfect for two hands to hold. i have used it almost daily, so often that many of the details have worn off. my own skin did that - almost a decade of shared warmth.

none of the times i have told this story has a single person said what do you mean you have a favorite mug. not a single person who has seen the resulting half-maimed piece has said why would you put that back together? not a single person has said this is a waste of time. not a single person has told me what's the point of this? if you want to find a new mug, just use AI.

somewhere someone is probably using AI to draw an image or write a poem, i know that is true. but i think it is also probably true that most of us are going to write and read and draw and dance just because. that the process of doing so is not for a goal or a specific benefit, but because for thousands of years now - when a piece of pottery breaks, we try to fix it. for thousands of years - long before capitalism had any say in it - humans have been doing things just for the experience of it. for the fuck of it. for the love of the game.

ai is not going to win because i cut my thumb while i did it. ai is not going to win because i kept thinking about my all friends who do ceramics, how they're always asking me if i want to join them for a lesson. i was thinking about every person i've ever shared a coffee with. i was thinking about who i was when i bought this mug (graduate student. could barely afford the off-season thing on clearance). i was thinking about how many hands have held this, how many people i've been since.

ai is not going to win because i didn't do a perfect job of it.

my sister-in-law and i recently had a conversation about how one of her coworkers uses Chat instead of reading self-help books. and we both looked at each other about that, the stunned silence of rabbits. "can you imagine?" we said. what's even the point to it.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.