a feeling I do have and will stand by is "While I enjoyed their work overall I did have some gripes that I overlooked out of affection and whimsy, but now that my loyalty is gone and my affection tainted there is nothing holding me back from enumerating my many grievances, to which the revelations of the creator's shittiness may or may not provide a new and infuriating context."

The kid learned to request a drink, which is great, because that's like the #1 most important thing for a baby to be able to request, but instead of learning any of the other signs they just used modified versions of the drink sign to ask for all kinds of things. They couldn't actually make the proper drink sign (it requires some level of hand control) and used a modified wave, so they ended up with a whole bunch of subtly different waves to ask for stuff. Which was pretty fun in public because strangers would coo over this adorable baby who kept waving at them when, in practice, the baby wanted their ice cream.

They obviously don't have as much accumulated knowledge as adults, not having had much time to accumulate it, but babies are great at observing their environment, noticing patterns, classifying their experiences, and wanting stuff.

From Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck by Ricky Jay and Rosamond Purcell, 2002.

I would be worried about the panting, but A) this was after five solid minutes of full-tilt chase, flying leaps, and slinging himself up and around the platforms of the cat trees with mostly just his arms, on top of the half hour of regular self-directed zoomies he did before this; and B) given that he only does this after really vigorous play, the vet isn't worried.

Felt like I was being watched, turned to see my elfin twink of a tabby cat, eyes absolutely black with evil, about to fucking murk me.

^ relevant art by @catcrumb that legitimately rewired my brain

Angry baby

Anyway, on fera jamais mieux que ce graphique du LA Times.

(side note, I find it very funny that English swung so hard towards formality that we lost our informal pronoun, and now we're swinging so hard to informality that a lot of us don't use Mr/Ms/etc anymore, we call our bosses by their first names, etc.)

A real page on the White House website

You know one reason people may start falling behind in care tasks? Depression. You know something that can cause or worsen depression? Shame.

Do what you are able to do when you are able to do it. Seek help if you are able and need it. You’re doing your best and that’s all that matters.

we will try to do better and kindee with ourselvez