A rather belated Open Thread for Personal Stuff. As always, no trolls, MRAs etc in these threads. Email me if someone starts acting obnoxious.
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Open Thread for Personal Stuff, 12/16 Edition
We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
@numerobis *waves from Yukon* 🙂
@mammotheers Best wishes to all and congrats to the ones celebrating. <3
I still have no firm information on what happened to my friend (mentioned in the Vox thread), but it appears to have been problem with her HRT. Which adds all kinds of feels to my day.
In better news, I start a new job tomorrow, which should help with my financial difficulties at least.
@Karalora
Because they haven’t got ideals or principles, and don’t appear to understand the concept very well.
@general
*hugs* as desired, I’m afraid I have limited spoons for individual responses right now.
Dallilama, that has to be terrifying. Hugs!
Hearts and hugs to everyone in this thread, too! Seems like there’s some positive going on this time, which is great 😀 Not all positive, but that’s to be expected. Life is stochastic. New jobs, new treatment, new people speaking up – too much to respond to except in aggregate. Go team!
@Karalora, I know it looks gloomy to you – I feel that way at times, too. Please just understand that your perceptions aren’t shaped by rational thought – no one’s perceptions are shaped by rational thought. That won’t help you feel better, I know. Just try to hold on to a glimmer of hope, in the form of that fact – that, regardless of how dark it might seem to you, you’re missing a part of the picture, as are we all. Always darkest before the dawn, etc, etc. Take care of yourself first!
@Kevin, do you mean: “Noli illegitimi carborundum totus populi Mammoth”? Which means:
http://now-here-this.timeout.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hignfy-brian-blessed-thatcher.gif
😀
@dreemr, you always embarrass me! Be careful with the “finding common ground” tactic – it’s very good, but it leaves you open for abuse and manipulation. May have experienced that once or twice before! Still, finding common ground is an excellent skill to have, both in problem solving and in self-improvement. I’m sure it will work well for you!
(I should probably also ask what anti-depression drugs you are taking, as that sounds like candy to me right now)
@PI, that’s adorbl. Also, great to hear that biodad is actually making payments now – I’m sure that’s a huge relief. I’ve started painting again recently, and – well, I love making miniature stuff so much. I don’t have the room for it, but I would be very happy if I were just given a few weeks and a heated garage with some tools.
I don’t tend to do dollhouses or rooms or things like that, I like outdoor scenes. Rocky plaster cliffs with resin waterfalls, trees made out of wire and shredded foam and white glue, teeny-tiny people, that sort of thing. So, related, but pretty different skill sets. Your little desk is adorable and I’m sure it’ll work out great.
<3 Dalillama. All my well-wishing is for you today. I hope your new job pays you well, and gives you a little distraction!
@Scildfreya
Well, in my heart of hearts – if I had the room and the resources – I would LOVE building a huge train model. I don’t even need the train really, I just love the detail they give the landscapes, incredible! But my other love is the miniature rooms like they have at the Art Institute in Chicago, perfect little reproductions of, like, rooms at the Palace at Versailles, etc.
I take Celexa and have taken it for about 16 years. I was always on a low dosage (10 mg per day) and then also 1 mg of Ativan per day. There was a time when I had neither for a year and a half and I gained 150 lbs as well as basically forgot everything that happened that year – it was a bad time of unemployment and single motherhood in a small rural town.
I now take 20 mg of Celexa and haven’t had to take an Ativan since last summer sometime. I still have it but I haven’t needed it.
Apparently Celexa works on depression and anxiety both, so maybe that’s what’s happening? I am not in any way shape or form a doctor or medical professional, though, I just do what my health care provider recommends.
About finding common ground: I should clarify that I am only talking about discussions with people I actually know, face to face and I stick to general things we all want as human beings – to be safe, for our family to be safe, etc. etc. I have been making some small inroads with a young man I work with who is very knee-jerk conservative but is at the least willing to listen and not just try to shout me down. I find asking questions is useful, too.
I’m still not at your level in confronting online discussion lol. But I do keep you in mind, “WWSFD?”
@leftwingfox
I completely get where you’re coming from. I only realized this thread was up after I’d done that, rather extensively, on a previous one.
@EVERYONE
All of the hugs and love from me and my cat to all Mammotheers. You’re the most awesome people I’ve ever had the pleasure to talk to.
For those struggling with a sneaky inner demon, I might have something that can help. Killing off Trump and his cronies would make us as bad as them, sure. But here’s the thing : it probably wouldn’t work anyway, so hey, no need to think about that ! A dead and martyred Trump would be even worse than a live one, and I can’t believe I just said that “worse than Trump” is actually a thing that can happen. Remember that fascism loses everytime, as it is bound to. Adopting it instead of fighting it would just ensure defeat.
Hope that helps quiet down those evil inner voices. Remember that bad thoughts don’t make a bad person, what counts is action.
For those struggling with self-worth, I’ve got something to share that might be a bit weird, but somewhat effective (as far as I’m concerned anyway). You may or may not know about it already, but it’s worth a reminder at any rate. I remembered a few hours ago that Carl Sagan pointed out something that is either great or not very meaningful depending on how you look at it. Personally I find it awesome. Here it be :
And here :
So there. Look at your hands, then look at the night sky, and think about it for a moment : you’re literally made of stars.
Ain’t that awesome ?
Hugs to all that want them! You all are great.
I have so much to do today (retaking tests, finishing assignments, baking cakes, wrapping presents…), but tomorrow is going to my last day of school. And it’ll be a half-day, too. When I go home I’m gonna take a warm bath, put on pajamas really early, wrap myself in a blanket, drink some tea, and watch Cowboy Bebop. Hopefully that’ll be good enough incentive to keep me going today.
D’aw, shucks.
My Froggy Stuff is an awesome channel because she makes everything out of cheap, mostly recycled materials! I love all of her stuff, even her older stuff. I’ve saved quite a few things on my Doll DIYs board of hers.
She came up with the cereal box rooms because she was running out of rooms for her doll stuff and wanted to make rooms she could fold up and store in a smaller space. She even started making doll rooms out of poster board that fold almost completely flat when not in use!
You just fold the poster board in fourths, then cut along one fold, and fold the two sides along the cut over one another, making a basic room with a floor and two walls. You can trim off the excess board on the sides, and voila! A foldable doll room that doesn’t take much space.
I personally like the cereal box rooms a bit better because you can also store the doll furniture and props inside when not playing, but she re-uses a lot of her props for other rooms, so that would make sense for her collection.
Fun story: I went to the state fair with roommates a while ago, and they had a guy with a whole detailed train set in the gardening section. I got really excited because the landscapes were awesome and he even had a little town with a fair and I was gushing over the details.
The guy playfully said “Wow, I did all this work on the train, and you notice everything else!”
I still felt a little bad about it.
He did let me see one of his train cars though! It looked like a ladybug!
I love doing rooms. It’s so much fun to design a room, and since I don’t have the money to do real interior design, this is the next best thing.
Besides, I can do tons of stuff with doll interiors that I can’t do with real-life ones. 😛
@Sinkable John – and just when I was listening to this
@dreemr
A-ha !! This is what I’d been looking for ! The whole time I was writing that post, I was wondering “where else have I seen that ?” and you just happened to be listening to it and now you’re posting it and answering my question.
This day is awesome.
My best and fondest virtual hugs to all you good people, and my thanks to you all and above all to David for making this place what it is, and especially my condolences to Dalillama.
My penn’orth of good is that I have a lot of work this month; my penn’orth of bad is that this is already starting to play havoc with my RSI (which is usually mild-to-non-existent) and I’m only 1/3 of the way through it.
Thank you all for being one of the oases of smart and kind.
I’m glad that things are going well for many of the Mammotheers. 🙂 To those going through rough times, I send e-hugs if you want them. It never ceases to amaze me what a wonderfully supportive community WHTM is. <3
@Paradoxical Intention:
Thanks for linking the doll DIY video. I haven't felt this excited about crafting in a long time.
@Scildfreja: Your mention of making outdoor scenes reminded me two outdoor scenes I created when I was about 13; I had fun making them. One was farmlands with a church nearby, and the other was a cross-country jumping course I made for my model horses. I remember using loo paper stiffened with glue to make bushes.
My ex friend who is distilled misanthropy is trying to get back into my life. Small talk such as informing me kn development of games we were looking forward to and how my current campaigns are going. In impulse I set everything to private, but why am I feeling a bit of remorse? I already know what’ll happen if I let him in again, not to mention the unlikelihood he’s doing it out of trumpgrets/need of companionship from not having any irl peers to talk to.
In other good news I’m getting closer to memorizing japanese kanji and am starting to speed up my understanding of japanese grammar.
Okay, everyone, keeping in mind that it is Evil!Karalora making these arguments:
@Falconer:
But.
But.
…they work…
Will we keep repeating “The ends do not justify the means” all the way to the gallows?
@Dallilama:
And yet they’re the ones with the 100% loyal voting base, who somehow never seem to notice the absence of principles despite constantly bleating about moral character.
I was holding out for the next non-personal open thread, but if Karalora’s going to be an idiot, I might as well post it now.
It’s
Australia’s unofficial national antheman old anti-violence protest song (minor TW for the video; due to the song’s subject matter, it has a DV scene and some clips of old wars). It occurred to me earlier that the non-Aussies here might not’ve heard it, so, yeah. Probably more relevant than ever.@Oogly
Because he was your friend, and because you’re compassionate, and those two things are enough that part of you wants to give him a chance ? It’s happened to me before, and I can’t say I like the feeling. As always, all the hugs.
Whatever you choose to do, take care of yourself first and foremost.
@SHFC
I don’t appreciate being called an idiot for trying to get the darkness off my chest.
Sorry. SFHC. Typo, didn’t catch it until the edit window had expired.
Question, who would not want to he part of my troll dissection? I’ll be analyzing Yor’s responses to the rest of you too and I want to be sure of my limits. The link I posted earlier contains examples of what it might look like but on Pharyngula.
Otherwise it looks like I’ll have more time to write than I thought. I was in an accident with my scooter this morning. It was a best case example of what could have happened, but I still have bruised ribs and a golf ball sized chunk of skin missing from my knee. No broken bones or anything else from sliding at 30mph. Morphine was interesting. I’m going to try to be more interactive tomorrow.
T-not enough hours until I fly north for the winter!
I have to pack two, 70-lb boxes full of stuff. One is done but my back hurts already.
Tomorrow it’s supposed to be a couple degrees warmer in Iqaluit than in Montreal. Odd.
I want to get more active on the ground in the new year. I spend too long online, where I learn a bunch, but now I’ve learned all this stuff to care about and I need to get out of school and apply it,
The other day my sweetheart attended a seminar about intersectionality and how it applies to public health programs. And she loved it! Just a couple years ago she was “not a feminist” (except of course she was, just “not that kind” of feminist). I’m thrilled 😉
Brony,
Feel free to use his responses to me. There should be plenty of material there!
I wish I had some of that morphine right now. I can see why it’s so easy to abuse, breathing hurts, lifting my leg makes me grit my teeth. I hope I can sleep.
@weirwoodtreehugger
That’s good. There will be a lot of exchanges involving you. The things that Yor was willing to do in avoiding things and trying to redirect to irrelvent things was amazing. That was the sort of poster that made my pick brony as a name, it’s bait for people like that and tells me things about them.
It’s amazing how much a name or avatar can affect the way people on the internet treat you. I got treated as and referred to as a man when I had generic geometric things that various sites default to if you don’t pick an avatar. I pasted one of my comments in here to one of those programs that guess your gender based on writing style and it thought I was male so I guess it makes sense. But having an avatar that is a picture of a woman, even if it’s clearly not me because they tend to be Game of Thrones characters, whole different story. The insults got more vulgar and more based on how ugly I must be and I get called crazy or mean way more often when I make it known I’m a woman. Sort of the reverse of how trolls here are always condescending and dismissive of our male commenters until they say they’re a man and then they’re suddenly treated as the reasonable and rational one in the room. I’m not surprised that someone who indicates that they are a man who likes something considered girly would receive similar treatment.
Aw, you guys.
Congrats to everyone else celebrating – especially the little things, because those don’t get celebrated enough.
Commiserations to everyone having a tough time for whatever reason, but know I am daily impressed by the strength and resilience of everyone on this blog (David included, ofc.)
@Dalillama
I just read the Vox thread and this thread. I am so, so sorry for your loss, for what it’s worth. I’ve lost friends unexpectedly, but with the worries about hrt… I’m not going to pretend I can imagine what you’re going through right now, but you have all my sympathies.
@Paradoxical Intention
Yaaaaaay crafting. That desk is adorable.
@Aunt Lodger
That is the best cat story I have heard in at least a day. Seriously though, very cute.
@ all other cat mentions/people
Yay cats. My cat also wishes everyone well, or I’m sure he would if he wasn’t busy begging for food and sleeping on my chest. I move back to my parents soon, and although that means I get to see my kittens again I’ll miss this cat very much.