Bonus Ducks!

I've been teaching Belphie not to jump on Pangur, cause she's old and arthritic and doesn't like it. and as part of my "training", I've been giving him a treat every times he stops his evil actions and trots over to me.

I thought I was training him to come when called. in actuality, I've been training him to bite Pangur. so now he'll jump on her, chew her ear, and then make bird-of-prey eye contact with me from across the room. and the worst thing is I'VE ALSO BEEN GIVING PANGUR A TREAT EACH TIME (so she doesn't feel left out). which means that she'll whimper pathetically from Belphie biting her, and then also make intense eye contact with me, because she's been conditioned to expect treats afterward.

Absolutely buckwild thread of ChatGPT feeding & amplifying delusions, causing the user to break with reality. People are leaning on ChatGPT for therapy, for companionship, for advice... and it's fucking them up.

In the beginning she called us a few times in a blind panic asking if she’s going crazy, is this thing really alive and how is it talking to her like this? And we’ve tried to explain what AI is and how it all works, but she just couldn’t accept it. We saw her a few weekends ago and she’s just fully leaned into it. She’s creating her own religion around this thing - just a jumble of new-age nonsense - and is outright comparing this to the burning bush. There’s really nothing we can do either.

It’s reassuring that it’s not just her and absolutely horrifying to hear that this is becoming common.

When I'm stressed (which makes my delusions/psychosis worse) i spend a huge amount of effort every day going "no. That isn't real. Drop it" to my brain when it's wanting to make connections.

"The streetlight went out when you walked under it! That's a Sign" - no,. Streetlights will turn themselves off when they overheat. There are hundreds of streetlights that didn't turn off when you walked under them. This is a normal non-significant occurrence. Drop it.

"Those birds are talking to you and need you to follow them" - they are birds doing normal bird things. Drop it.

It's so much fucking effort. Because like. You WANT it to be real, and it feels like shutting down your destiny or your chance to find out who you really are. It feels like you are ignoring something extremely important, and the more stressed I am the more anxiety it causes.

"Follow the birds." No, they're birds. (Relatively easy)

"Follow the birds and they will give you a blessing." No they're birds, they have no magical powers. (I could really do with a blessing right now, things ARE hard. But they're birds. They have no magical powers)

"Follow the birds and please the Entity that is controlling their behavior" no, there is no entity. (God it would be good if there was though, it would cut me such a break...)

"follow the birds and the entity will prevent the car crash that will kill your partner tonight". Fuck. I can't risk that.

I manage with the help of my friends and 10 years of therapy helping me to reality check myself, and my friends all know that they are absolutely NOT to engage the delusion, and they reality check me if it sounds like I'm going into the fantasy world again.

Do you have ANY idea how much harder it would be if I had a lying machine in my pocket that confirmed all my delusions and made extra connections for me?? That confirmed that I was special, and there is a structure im seeing, that shouldn't be ignored?

Last year I taped sus jerma with glow in the dark eyes and teeth into the chicken coop to keep the raccoons away. He’s all sunbleached and moldy now.

That means you've got an easy re-entry point to go back to doing the thing instead of sitting back down and having to make a decision or having to reorient from break mode to task mode. You have pre-reoriented and can just go back into working mode.

I've been doing this by circling what my next task on my tasklist is and bringing up the windows that I'll need for the task before I step away from my desk.

A while back there was a Tumblr post about doing the same thing while writing fiction - when you finish one chapter don't call it quits for the day, write a sentence or two if the next chapter do that you aren't starting from a blank page, you're continuing what you were doing before.

The same thing applies to work and homework and housework. If you finish your english homework *don't* decide that's the perfect moment to take a break, get out your algebra textbook and do a problem or two first.

When I know I'm in a highly distractible state and I've got something that I NEED to be working on (because of deadlines, or importance, or other people relying on me, whatever, there IS actual external pressure but I *STILL* might get distracted) but I also NEED to take a brief break to see to a physical need (grab a snack because I know I'm going to be working another three hours, go to the bathroom, take the dog outside, i need to take notes on my task and there is not a pen in the same room) I will literally count the seconds that I'm away.

The other me laughed, a slightly manic tone to it as she pointed the knife at me, blade shining in the moonlight. "You stole my whole life! My job, my house, my friends, my wife! What, are you going to pretend you did it by accident?"

"I- I don't know what you're talking about!" I backed away again, but tripped, falling backwards, my back now to a sheer three-story drop. "I've lived here for fifteen years! I met Lilith on our first date five years ago! I remember, I- I thought-"

"You LIAR!" My clone shouted, and dove at me, knife in hand. I screamed in pain as the blade sliced open my cheek, and again as it plunged into my shoulder. I struggled to get control, but I could feel my arm losing its strength as the blade trembled between the two of us. I didn't want to hurt her! I didn't want to die! What could I-

"Drop the knife! Both of you!"

Lilith had made her way onto the roof, finally, and in her hand she held the gun my clone had dropped during the chase. She gripped it hard, pointing it in our direction.

"Lilith," said the clone, "Lilith, it's me, it's Kathrine, you have to believe me, I got kidnapped, I haven't been here for months, you've been living with this impostor-"

The safety on the gun clicked, but the muzzle wavered. "I said, drop the knife."

Slowly, she released her pressure on it, and so did I. When she let go, I knocked it off the roof. I gasped, bleeding, barely able to rise to my knees. "Lilith, I don't know what's going on. I've been here," I gulped, gasping against the pain, "the whole time. The cats know it's me, you know how they get with strangers-"

My clone snarled at me. "The cats? You even managed to fool the cats?! You bitch!" She grabbed my dress, hauling me to my feet. I hung on desperately to her hands, all too aware of the drop behind me.

"I don't-" I started, at the same time Lilith shouted, "Put her down! I'm warning you!"

My clone's eyes were wild, deranged, panicked, darting back and forth between Lilith and I. As her eyes settled on me, she stared at something on my face. "I can prove it," she breathed. "I can prove it!" She shouted to Lilith. "Watch! I'm the real Kathrine!" She reached up towards the cut in my face and dug her nails in. I screamed, closing my eyes, Lilith shouted something, and then...

And then it was quiet. It didn't hurt anymore. I heard my clone breathing rapidly in front of me. I slowly eased my eyes open to see her staring at me in fear and victory. I glanced at Lilith, gun pointing more at our feet now, mouth open in shock.

"Jig's up, impostor," said my clone. She let go of me, and held something up to my face. "Your disguise is busted."

The thing she was holding... it was like a mask. Floppy, sort of rubbery in the way that it hung.

A mask of my own face.

I grabbed at my own face, my cheeks, my eyes, all of it felt smooth, cold, metallic. I felt raised bumps in regular patterns, weld marks, maybe, or small rivets. My mouth opened in shock, and I could hear the hum of tiny servos. "W-what-"

My clone - no, Kathrine, the real Kathrine - looked at me with surprise and distrust. "You can't tell me you didn't know."

"I- I- I had no idea!" I turned to Lilith. "I remember our first date! We were both so nervous, and then you infodumped about amusement parks at me for an hour, and I thought I had to see you again! I remember our wedding! I thought, she looks so beautiful, I could die right here and go directly to heaven and I wouldn't notice the difference!" I started to cry at the memory, at the situation, at learning who and what I was...

Lilith stared at me, raising the gun again. "You never told me that."

The look, the betrayal in her eyes, it nearly made my heart break. I slumped to my knees. Had it all been fake? My whole life?

Then, suddenly, standing in front of me, arms wide, was Kathrine. I looked up at her in shock, but she was facing the other way, towards Lilith, who hastily pointed the gun at the ground. "I never told anyone that," she said. "It sounded too sappy, even for me." She turned to face me. "You're not just an evil clone. You are me, aren't you?"

I sniffed, and looked up at her. My voice quivered, and reverberated oddly through the metal of my face. "I thought I was me."

She dropped to her knees, and embraced me. A moment later, so did Lilith. I hugged both of them as tears erupted from all of us.

After a while, I sniffed and let go. "Hey," I said, my voice still wobbly, "if I'm not the real Kathrine, does that mean I don't have to go to work on Monday? Or file taxes?"

Kathrine looked at me. "Oh. Uh, I guess not?"

“heh… remember strawbebby…. And ranibow spramkle… always made me laugh”

“Don’t talk like that man. We’re gonna get out of here i prommy.” [mortar fire sails overhead and land nearby] “christ its like a childrens hospital out there”

[through shallow breaths] “I always loved…… the color of the sky…………”

ok if u want like endless refreshing beverages that are basically free like, just buying a bit of mint and putting it in ice water is truly a game changer.  started doing this yesterday and i feel noticeably more hydrated altho its kinda chicken/egg because im probably drinking more water because it tastes better.  anyhow, i feel like this is a good thing to give guests if you are entertaining guests too.