Val:)

bonus tabecily for @fostershyperfixator 🫶🏽

you don't visit dana at the hospital often. being a charge nurse in an emergency department doesn't allow much time for socialising, she could perhaps stretch to a quick hello or a peck on the cheek if you're lucky. but since you're a passenger princess by title, relying on public transport in the absence of your girlfriend, you don't make the trip unless it's an absolute emergency.

6:49pm— you're running through the rainy, grey streets of pittsburgh, using your purse as an umbrella; the weather wasn't this shitty when you'd left the house. you're unprepared. summer dress soaked, the silky fabric darkened by rain and your wet hair clings to your neck all sticky and hot. you run up through the ambulance bay, straight for the automatic doors. you see the department glowing, the fluorescence inside, dana's station. you're not that familiar with the layout, looking like a little lost pup as you crane your neck to look for your girl, eyes scanning the moving bodies for silvery blonde hair.

"you okay hon?" a nice red-headed lady called you over, pulling a jacket off to drape it over the back of her chair. lena, ready for handover and just getting started at the beginning of her shift.

"hey!" you run over, straightening out your dress, eyes bright and starry. "is dana here?" lena's gaze raked over you, not unkindly, just presumptuous from a rumour that'd circulated the ED months ago. you know she's thinking it. is it true? is it you? she gets her answer when dana emerges from a bay, glasses pulled off her nose and swinging in her hand. her lips curl at the corner, tongue darting out to wet the skin there when she sees you.

"well this is a surprise" dark eyes soak you up, landing on your drenched dress and damp shoes. she steers you away from the station, away from prying eyes and ears, "what happened to emergencies only huh?" she's playful, actually elated to see you an hour earlier than she was expecting.

"it was an emergency? i missed you and i wanna go out for dinner?" you said it like it was obvious. dana shakes her head, tongue in cheek, hand squeezing your arm in acceptance.

"let me change, we'll go straight to that italian you like" she smacks your hip in jest, a subtle wink and she's walking back to the locker room til you're stood alone again. you catch the eyes of a couple people at the hub, nurses and doctors alike. some familiar faces, not many. when dana returns with her bag hung from her shoulder and a hand at the small of your back, she guides you out and away from the sea of side eye.

I’m gonna assume writers know whether or not their own works are ai because they either write them themselves or have ai write for them.

but as for readers (or writers who read other writers’ works), no, you can’t tell unless the writer themself says their works are ai generated. anything else is witch hunt, speculations and possibly wrongful accusations — all of which harm the writing community as much as ai does, if not more.

so if at any point you think an untagged work is ai and if that bothers you, quietly click away. but you can never know for sure based on vibes. because everything ai writes, a human writer does. that’s what ai was trained on and what it was trained to mimic.

every “ai telltale” is something humans write before, otherwise ai wouldn’t have been able to mimic it in the first place. because it needs human-made works to mimic on.

“So... We got the exploding diarrhea. Here's my advice for anyone who doesn't have it yet:

It's going to take a minute for the government to pin down where this is coming from, and then issue a recall, because the FDA has been gutted. But, I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt : this is coming from Taylor Farms produce, and you will see them recalled.

You'll want to avoid all Taylor Farms produce in the grocery store. They supply McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, about any fast food place you can think of.

Raspberries, watermelons, cilantro, and the veggies you're hearing about are not causing this many people to get sick. It's the shredded lettuce, specifically, that's the problem. But, you'll want to stay away from every type of produce this company puts out, because one strand of shredded lettuce is all it takes to contaminate bushels.

Taylor Farms is the source. Taco Bell proactively pulled their produce from their restaurants. You're going to see other fast food places doing this, and probably will see that before the government names a source. The FDA knows this, but they can't come out and tell us all until there's proof, which takes resources and research, which takes manpower, but the FDA has been cut by about 20-30%

During the Biden term, onions at McDonald's had ecoli. We knew this because DNA testing was done quickly and they were able to narrow it down to one place that caused the outbreak. And, it was traced back to Taylor Farms. This isn't going to be solved as quickly though.

When you get this, make a virtual appointment to your PCP - a "same day sick" appointment. Tell them someone in your family just tested for this and was positive and was prescribed Bactrim. If you go in person, they're probably going to make you poop in a cup and wait until results come back to prescribe.

You'll know when you get this. Trust me on all of this.

You'll want to stay hydrated because this parasite damages the lining of the small intestine. Your small intestine, in turn, secretes more water into the gut, and less nutrients and liquid are able to remain in the body. So no matter how much you shit, you're going to want to drink. A day of this leads to dehydration if you don't increase your fluid intake, and a few days will land you in the hospital.

If you have headaches, weakness, muscle cramps, dizziness, or an increase heart rate - hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Go to the ER for fluids if you can't drink enough.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk. Brought to you by America's 250 birthday celebrations, workforce reduction in the FDA and CDC, and viewers like you.

Please feel free to share this.

And, MAGA - don't blow up the comment section. I argued with y'all on COVID bc I was afraid y'all would die, but I really don't care if you get explosive diarrhea.