i'm a brave chio

I’m Bug and I make webcomics! Personal blog & art along with stuff I find interesting. To find (or avoid) posts about my ongoing health adventures, filter the #healthposting tag. To see mostly art and stuff, check my #blog and #bugart tags! My art/process blog is bugbytedraws!

[mondo-grosso]

[tranthony]

grout white shark

[bugbyte]

I got new glasses a couple of weeks ago, after nearly a decade of neglecting the issue. Distance vision got kinda worse and reading up close became a problem when it never was before, ugh.

They gave me the option to try bifocals (ugh) or regular distance glasses, and said the regular lenses might be fine because the up close thing could be partly due to just regular changes and it kind of averages out somehow so I figured I would just try it and if I had to I could get a cheap pair of reading glasses. This is also mostly because I could pick one or the other, not both, because lol insurance. Why should you be able to both see and read?? And have luxury bones in your mouth. Separate issue.

I also got shown to the wall of Not Very Many Frames For Poor People, which is kind of generally fine? It just feels rotten when they’re clearly plopping you far away from everyone else so you can’t even pretend to look at anything fancier. Thankfully I don’t have terribly picky taste in glasses and was fine with a pair of chunky black plastic frames with lime green earpieces? Arms? What are those called. So at least nobody’s gonna look at me and think I’m wearing shitty AI glasses or something. They cost me zero dollars so I don’t care much. But did you know: they now have glasses frames covered in that rubbery plastic coating thats on electronics and stuff and gets sticky after a couple of years? Revolting. That’s like buying a pair of glasses with planned obsolescence on purpose, no thanks.

They finally came in and they fit fine and the new lenses make everything so much sharper but they’re so heavy compared to my old glasses. Which is probably due to the cheapness. And they slide down my face a lot but probably because it’s hot and I am never not dripping in sweat these days.

Anyway. I asked for a copy of my prescription (and if you decide to do this too, make sure they include the PD measurement on it, it’s to do with how your pupils are spaced so things are sized correctly) and merrily went on my way to get my Real Glasses. I have heard that in general they don’t like to give out prescriptions because they lose money on it, but it’s illegal for them to not give it to you. They tried to act like I was asking something weird and tried to leave off the PD value but I’m onto you, glasses front desk salespeople. >:(

I took the money I could have spent on frames and instead bought a cheap lightweight pair on Zenni, and paid like $60 for frames, lenses, clip on sunglasses and various fancy lens coatings. So now I’ll have two different options for how I want to look and I know the Zennis will be nice because my last pair was from there and they have nary a scratch after like a decade of abuse. Could have been cheaper but the extras were like, everything insurance explicitly wouldn’t cover. So it still works out better.

And now I will have a really nice pair of new glasses in 7-14 days and a backup pair or alternative look if I’m feeling like I really don’t match, but lets be honest, I barely leave the house so that’s unlikely. I am very excited.

I just can’t say enough nice things about Zenni, Delade and I both have had glasses from them for quite a while and they’ve been great. Def recommend if you’re in a situation like me where you get kinda weird options and have a bit to spare on something you actually like but are also pretty perpetually broke.

[userfish]

hey you 🫵 have you washed your water bottle lately? 🫵 it’s getting hot and mold is going to grow 🫵 wash it 🫵

[hope-for-the-planet]

Great Smokey Mountains Will Soon Get Even Greater – Thanks to Nonprofit’s Land Purchase

The Great Smokey Mountains is set to get just a little bit greater thanks to a 600-acre donation from a south-focused nature nonprofit.

A conservation nonprofit recently purchased a tract of land next to Great Smokey Mountains National Park, adding 600 acres to the protected park. The forest and wildlife habitat on the property will now be preserved for future generations rather than at risk of development.

[never-obsolete]

Pokémon FireRed (GBA, 2004) Hydro Pump

[catgirltitties]

[cosmonautroger]

jellyfish babies

[azaracyy]

everywhere is sauna

[forgottenscarves]

Happy Moon Day Monday!

It forever amazes me that it was a mere 66 years between the first piloted, heavier than air airplane flight and a man walking on the moon

[purplepints]

Oldest human footprint discovered, made 153,000 years ago in South Africa.

Oldest human footprint in North America, made 21,000 years ago in New Mexico, USA.

Oldest human footprint on the Moon, made July 20, 1969 on the Sea of Tranquility, Earth's moon.

[sweeetestcurse]

Planet Earth II: Episode 05 - Grasslands

[comvi]

my hearty nand nutritious meal of Screws and Bolts

[marithlizard]

(via bsky)

In case anyone hasn't heard, the cyclospora outbreak affecting tons of people in the US right now is coming from Taylor Farms produce. Best to stay away from bagged lettuce and prepared salads completely right now, but especially the ones mentioned in the screenshot:

Taylor Farms Earthbound Farms Little Salad Bar (Aldi) Marketside (Walmart) Kroger House Brand Target private label greens Costco salads and greens etc Trader Joe's chopped salad kits and fresh produce Fast food: McDonalds, Taco Bell, (Yum! Brands), Chipotle, Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, Olive Garden, Top Golf, Red Lobster, Burger King, etc.

This is not the first time I've heard about a Taylor Farms foodborne illness outbreak. I stopped eating their salads after reading a description of the conditions in their facilities. Doesn't sound like they've improved anything.

We need a fully funded and staffed FDA, and regulations with teeth - and that's exactly what we don't have under Trump. To make things worse, the CDC is no longer tracking these outbreaks. We're on our own.

[alagaisia]

Hey. Why isn’t the moon landing a national holiday in the US. Isn’t that fucked up? Does anyone else think that’s absurd?

[alagaisia]

It was a huge milestone of scientific and technological advancement. (Plus, at the time, politically significant). Humanity went to space! We set foot on a celestial body that was not earth for the first time in human history! That’s a big deal! I’ve never thought about it before but now that I have, it’s ridiculous to me that that’s not part of our everyday lives and the public consciousness anymore. Why don’t we have a public holiday and a family barbecue about it. Why have I never seen the original broadcast of the moon landing? It should be all over the news every year!

[alagaisia]

It’s July 20th. That’s the day of the moon landing. Next year is going to be the 54th anniversary. I’m ordering astronaut shaped cookie cutters on Etsy and I’m going to have a goddamn potluck. You’re all invited.

[watermelon-converse]

Hey. Hey. Tumblr. Ides of March ppl. We can do this

[emi--rose]

Hell yeah moon holiday

[hello-delicious-tea]

Ooh coming up we should celebrate

[ariaste]

PITCH: We call it Moon Day, and then every 7 years when it falls on a Monday, that's an even BIGGER deal and we call that Moon Day Monday and go absolutely apeshit about it (the next Moon Day Monday is in 2026 so we have a couple trial runs first)

[sarostheghostcat]

MOON DAY MOON DAY MOON DAY

[wafflebloggies]

moon day is 20th July!!!

[silly-jellyghoty]

Scheduling this a day earlier to remind you all and myself about the Moon Day tomorow!

[sashaforthewin]

Happy moon day to all who celebrate

[kitsuneofthemist]

This is your reminder to prep for Moon Day on July 20th.

[bugbyte]

MOON DAY MONDAY IS UPON US!

If we all just start celebrating every year eventually they’ll have to make it an official holiday, right??

[doyouknowwhatimeme]

[serenity-bitty]

reminds me of

the shellfish allergy NO NO FUCKING S HRIMP OR HE D IE post

[p1netre3s]

reminded me of this

[greseadraws]

dungeon meshi but they end up in the back rooms, a cursed idea that was eating away at my brain

[nitewrighter]

Peer-reviewing @monikoishi's tags because they're banger.

[holyisthenameofmyruthlessaxe]

after a suicide attempt in 2016

[holyisthenameofmyruthlessaxe]

“When Daddy comes in, he carries you to bed. Is there anything you feel like you could eat, Pokey? Anything at all? All you can imagine putting in your mouth is a cold plum, one with really tight skin on the outside but gum-shocking sweetness inside. And he and your mother discuss where he might find some this late in the season. Mother says hell I don’t know. Further north, I’d guess. The next morning, you wake up in your bed and sit up. Mother says, Pete, I think she’s up. He hollers in, You ready for breakfast, Pokey. Then he comes in grinning, still in his work clothes from the night before. He’s holding a farm bushel. The plums he empties onto the bed river toward you through folds in the quilt. If you stacked them up, they’d fill the deepest bin at the Piggly Wiggly. Damned if I didn’t get the urge to drive to Arkansas last night, he says. Your mother stands behind him saying he’s pure USDA crazy. Fort Smith, Arkansas. Found a roadside stand out there with a feller selling plums. And I says, Buddy, I got a little girl sick back in Texas. She’s got a hanker for plums and ain’t nothing else gonna do. It’s when you sink your teeth into the plum that you make a promise. The skin is still warm from riding in the sun in Daddy’s truck, and the nectar runs down your chin. And you snap out of it. Or are snapped out of it. Never again will you lay a hand against yourself, not so long as there are plums to eat and somebody-anybody-who gives enough of a damn to haul them to you. So long as you bear the least nibblet of love for any other creature in this dark world, though in love portions are never stingy. There are no smidgens or pinches, only rolling abundance. That’s how you acquire the resolution for survival that the coming years are about to demand. You don’t earn it. It’s given.”

excerpt from Cherry by Mary Karr, context being after a suicide attempt at age 13

[elfwreck]

Some context: Texas and Arkansas share a corner border. Now, Texas is FECKING HUGE and there are many, many parts of Texas that cannot visit Arkansas overnight, but there are parts where it’s no trouble at all.

However, those places of Texas that are close to Arkansas, do not include “close to Fort Smith, Arkansas.”

The closest Texas gets to Fort Smith is about 185 miles (about 300km), at “a little closer than Texarkana.” (Dallas, fwiw, is about 275 miles/450km from Fort Smith.)

So the dad in this story drove at least SEVEN HOURS round trip, to pick up a bushel of plums for his little girl, in the hope that some almost-out-of-season fruit would convince her to go on living.

[aeternatv]

So I looked up the author of this book, Cherry, and it’s a memoir. Mary Kate grew up in Groves, Texas. Which is nowhere near the Arkansas border.

Seven hours wouldn’t even get you all the way there.