Parents, what’s the most absurd thing you’ve found on your kid’s social media?
My step son is 7. Found a bunch of searches for:
Dominicans with no hands and feet.
Dominicans with no heads.
Dominican chests.
Dominican torsos.
Dominican legs.
Dominicans in stores.
Dominicans for sale.
Silver Dominicans.
Black Dominicans.
White Dominicans.
I was at a loss of how to bring it up to him. Thankfully, the next day we were in a clothing store and he asked me why Dominicans don’t have hands or heads, then why there are so many different colored Dominicans. I remembered the internet searches and became a little upset. I told him to be quiet because what he was saying could be taken offensively by Dominican people. He then got frustrated and loudly said “Dominicans aren’t people” as he pointed to a statue next to us.
I breathed a sigh of relief and said “Mannequins”.
Nicknames: That is my name. The official name is just … there. (I have a similar ‘nickname is actually real name’ in real life.)
Gender: Female (Nonbinary???)
Star sign: (Virgo or Libra but I am uncomfortable with the concept.)
Height: 5’8″
Time: 11:22am
Birthday: In the fall
Song stuck in my head: Blissfully, nothing. But Eldest is watching Boss Baby clips, and I am suffering.
Last movie I watched: The Martian?? Months ago?
When did I create my blog: 6 years ago, because I refuse to go through all the work of commenting on fic without getting credit for my hard work.
Last thing I googled: Marble Run. Tiny’s Christmas present.
Do I have any other blogs: @12thcenturyfashion and two blogs I’ve never posted anything to. The historical fashion blog hasn’t been updated in a year.
Do I get asks: About once a week or less?
Why I chose my url: I’ve told this story many times. I misspelled my name on the computer as a preteen, liked it so much I kept it as my online name, and added my favourite animal when ‘Kira’ wasn’t long enough. Now I am ‘Gecko’ and sometimes think of myself with that name.
Following: 152 people. About twenty are no longer active but I love them. And I love every version of @wolveroonie I follow, no matter how many she makes.
Followers: 261. Again, many of these are my Lady Guinea Pig. And there are porn blogs using me for legitimacy. Or non-active. But that’s still many more than I ever expected!
Average hours of sleep: 4-11. I now take Melatonin and it is magic! But I still don’t sleep too great.
Lucky number: 16. It is a beautiful square. 4, 8, and 64 are also good.
Instruments: Music??? Nope.
What am I wearing: Pajama pants and robe. I don’t like clothes but have kids I must keep covered for.
Dream job: Staying a house-mom but having academic contacts I can as about Angkorian Khmer vowel symbols.
Dream trip: Angkor. The architecture is the reason I got into the language.
Favourite foods:
Phở. Udon is also good. Korma.
Nationality: Canadian.
Favourite song right now: Okay, I finally started listening to Imagine Dragons and their Muppet pit fighting song is really good. But ‘Kryptonite’ by Three Doors Down is probably my favourite. Or ‘I am a Rock’ by Simon and Garfunkel? Ugh, this is too hard, I may need to post a list.
hey just fyi, if you’re going to see “coco” with a spanish-speaking family member and there isn’t a spanish or subtitled showing nearby, disney created an app that will synchronize with whatever theater you are in and play the spanish audio (through headphones or earbuds)
Hola, pti, si vas a ver “coco” con un miembro de la familia que habla español y no hay una muestra en español o subtitulada cerca, Disney creó una aplicación que se sincronizará con el teatro en el que estés y juegue español audio (a través de auriculares o audífonos) ¡Está justo aquí!
Support nonbinary people who veil. Whether you wear a hijab or a turban or a tichel, you do you. Your gender is valid, your faith is valid, and so is how you express it. It is not contradictory. I’m proud of you.
Thatadhdfeel when an adhd reddit thread is how you learn that sitting with your legs up on the chair well into adulthood is an adhd thing.
wait seriously? not sitting in chairs properly is an adhd thing?
(i mean i’d guess it could be a thing for many other reasons but…huh.)
I’ve never seen and can’t find any research on this, but my experience both as ND and in the field is that sensory issues (which come with ADHD, ASD, and SPD) usually lead to unusual sitting and/or standing postures.
Think about it though. Think about a regular standard chair, think what it’s like to sit on it. It’s pretty uncomfortable, right? Wrong! Most people actually have no trouble sitting on regular chairs! that’s why they are designed the way they are! most people can sit on them just fine without squirming or feeling pain or feeling the need to fit their legs onto the seat too!
And if this thought, that chairs aren’t just badly-designed discomfort-items, is as mind-boggling a thought to you as it is to me, you probably aren’t all that neurotypical (I won’t say either way about it being ADHD specific since I don’t have ADHD as far as I know, but I’m not neurotypical).
What the heckie?
I mean, I’m also short, so I just always assumed that was my problem with being comfortable in chairs.
But even in the car, I end up scrunching into the pressure stim of having my legs crossed or under me, so!
yeah this is def an autism/ADHD/etc thing. you see it all the time in coded characters as well
…there’s no WAY neurotypicals can possibly like chairs. Can some people without ADHD or autism chime in?
yeah i have no idea how normal people sit in chairs like that but they seem to like it. i absolutely scrunch up like a goblin if i can get away with it.
[Image shows an anime character sitting with their knees up to their chin, chewing on their thumb. They are staring very intently, and saying, “I’ve got to sit like this.”
sometimes you say or do bad things while you’re in an awful mental place. sometimes you say things that are rude or uncalled for or manipulative. and i’m not going to hold that against you. mental illness is hard, and no one is perfect. but once you’re through that episode, you need to take steps to make amends. you need to apologize.
“i couldn’t help it, i was having a bad episode” is a justification, not an apology.
“i’m so fucking sorry, i fucked up, i don’t deserve to live, i should stop talking to anyone ever, i should die” is a second breakdown and a guilt trip. it is not an apology.
when you apologize, the focus should be on the person you hurt. “i’m sorry. i did something that was hurtful to you. even if i was having a rough time, you didn’t deserve to hear that,” is a better apology. if it was a small thing, you can leave it at that.
if you caused significant distress to the other person, this is a good time to talk about how you can minimize damage in the future. and again, even if it is tempting to say you should self-isolate and/or die, that is not a helpful suggestion. it will result in the person you’re talking to trying to talk you out of doing that, which makes your guilt the focus of the conversation instead of their hurt.
you deserve friendship, and you deserve support. but a supportive friend is not an emotional punching bag, and mental illness does not absolve you of responsibility for your actions. what you say during a mental breakdown doesn’t define you. how you deal with the aftermath though, says a lot.
This is the most carefully-nuanced discussion of this I think I have ever seen. Thank you for writing this.
So does anyone know what function is served by the sticks in the walls of the Malinese and Burkinabe architecture?
the second photograph is no unknown, it was taken by Margaret Courtney-
Clarke in Burkina Faso and published in her book African Canvas
So I’m not 100% sure on this but I think the sticks in the walls in West African mud-brick structures serve a similar purpose as rebar in concrete: they provide extra tensile strength (essentially resistance to being pulled apart), especially for upper-story floors and roofs. Also, since these buildings need to be resurfaced regularly, the bits sticking out are useful for climbing up the side of the building. Plus they look cool.
Also, gotta add the Grande Mosquée de Djenne, the first iteration of which was built sometime between 1200-1330:
Okay but do you realize how good this is for cancer patients?? People with scars who can’t grow brows??? People with alopecia??? (Sp? ) like… pls stop hating the beauty industry.
people with trichotillomania
Yes to people with trich. One of my roommates reblogged this saying they didn’t even know they made these until they met me. And the sad thing is, I didn’t even know they made these until I did a Google search one night in a fit of desperation. I’ve gone to so many therapists for trich, and instead of providing me resources like this, they would often leverage the fear of looking ugly as motivation to stop. If anything, it only ever made the problem worse.
These save me so much time in the morning. Before I discovered them, I would have to meticulously pencil my brows on every day just to feel normal enough to leave the house. By contrast, I can keep the fake ones on for about three days at a time, and gluing them in place takes only a few minutes with a bit of practice.
I’ve been getting mine from headcovers.com for over three years now. They’re a bit pricier than the ones offered on other sites, but they last 3-4 months if taken care of properly (meaning to buy the site’s adhesive remover as well and clean them after each use). They also look very natural. Everyone who’s talked to me about them told me they didn’t even know my eyebrows were fake until I alluded to such or took them off in their presence.
This sounds like it could be quite useful for some of my readers!!
of course something ignorant was said about this product by the original tweet poster, but
reblogging for the false eyebrow site^^
really thinking about purchasing some.
Going bald during chemo didn’t bother me nearly as much as losing my brows. I’m not sure if it was because I had adorable wigs or just because I was prepared for that part, but nobody tells you how much the color, thickness, and shape of your brows affects your face.
I didn’t even know eyebrow extensions were a thing. Reblogging for my followers with trich and alopecia
[Image is a Tweet from PartyGetsMeWetter, @ CrownMe_Brit saying, “you guys just love cheating at life.” The tweet includes an image showing a box with two eyebrow extensions, and a before and after picture of someone putting them on. The model’s eyes are closed and you only see their eyes and brows.
In which we were on public radio; it’s probably best just to ignore Romulus; Miles still hasn’t seen The Prisoner and should be very ashamed of himself; toy licensing is the stuff of nightmares; you can upgrade your bloodbath for an additional $1.25; Jay may or may not have family ties to Weapon X; we are suckers for die-cut covers; Wolverine knows how to commit to a gag; and you have some pretty remarkable dreams.
X-PLAINED:
Wolverine’s CIA contacts
Murder-related birthday traditions
Wolverine #48-50
The ship Righteous Indignation and the ‘ship Righteous Indignation
Wolverine size creep
Injudicious footwear
Serial sidekicks
Miles’s continual failure to watch The Prisoner
The Summers Crash model of flashbacks
Panties and/or grenades
Several varyingly reliable flashbacks
How memory works
Mastodon
Andre
How memory doesn’t really work
Kids’ toy licensing
Quasimodo’s hangout
Women in Refrigerators
Secret agent skills
The Dalton school of argument
A legitimately cool cover gimmick
Wolverine vs. the Helicarrier
Adamantium handicrafts
Shiva (but not that one)
Silver Fox (again) (kind of)
A cataclysmic memory backlash
Antarctic X-Hijinks
Jay & Miles’s adventures in YOUR DREAMS
NEXT EPISODE: Centaurs of Texas
You can find the visual companion to this episode on our blog.
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kiragecko 