every life is a pile of good things and bad things

social issues, art, punny jokes and everything in between

[whitepeopletwitter]

operation successfully failed

[stormsbourne]

usually when you have a stomach bug your body is like yes sir we'll get this punk out of here, 48 hours tops. then you get a cold and your body is like I dunno ... between a few hours and eleven months ... maybe a week minimum .... you gotta understand we're short staffed

[tibli]

tbf to the body, stomach bugs are easier to flush out since they are already in The System That Flushes Things Out From The Body, and that includes BOTH ends.

with a cold you gotta wait for the macrophages in your blood to start Eating Everything, and they are. not big. it takes them a while. please be more considerate of your macrophages in the future, theyre doing their best

[marlinspirkhall]

I've got to find myself more macrophage

[acesexualspock]

Now Hiring: macrophages

[daughter-of-sapph0]

immunesystem.com/careers/macrophage

[innerchildabortionclinic]

the hot chocolate enjoyer when you ask where all the milk is going so fast:

[faraway-ant]

i’ve seen this user post this photo as a sort of reaction image a couple times now and it makes me laugh every time. because this is the incredibly elusive marbled cat and they really do just have a tendency to look so pitiful, guilty, and empty in the head. so here’s some more photos of them looking like there’s just one marble bouncing around their skull:

[sinni-ok-sessi]

I do think the ability to emoji-react is a net win for human communication. not only does it give you an outlet for 'I see and acknowledge this but don't have a verbal response' but it also adds a pleasing alethiometer element to things

my coworker announces that he's off to the dentist. someone reacts with a tooth emoji. is this a statement of dentist solidarity? a wish for my coworker to return with more (or fewer?) teeth than he set out with? simple word association? who can say

[softness-and-shattering]

Friend of mine calls it active listening. Ah yes we are speaking of tooths. I understand and respond. Here it a tooth image. I have heard you.

[mermaidenmystic]

[feefal]

Daydreamer anatomy☁️

These individuals tend to have their head in the clouds, and are reported to prefer the escapism of fiction over reality.

[captain-price-returns]

oh no they’re going to start calling democrats the same thing they’ve been calling democrats for 20 years now

[hotvampireadjacent]

[thewellofastarael]

"Here’s a trick I learned during the Obama presidency for handling certain types of political labels. Take, as an example, the Tea Party claim that Obama is a Communist. Don’t take the word of the person making the claim (Tea Partiers). Don’t rely on the rebuttal of the target (Obama), because that will just be dismissed. Go to the group itself (Communists) and ask them. Ask an actual Communist if Obama is a comrade and see how they answer. Watch as they laugh at you, then explain in great detail how they wish there was a Communist in the White House, but here’s a long and exhaustive list of why that just isn’t so. Now apply this logic to the claim that Hillary is pretty much the same as a Republican. Ask an actual Republican if they think Hillary Clinton is one of them. Watch them laugh, and then explain in the same exhausting detail why that just isn’t so. Some of them might concede that she’s better than Trump, but that’s not the same thing. Finally, go ask a White Supremacist if Trump is one of them. As they excitedly explain how Trump is the guy they’ve been waiting for all these years, and how he’s really empowered their movement, use this to guide how you will be voting in November."

Source: a 2016 facebook posts by Craig Enan, since then deleted (OG link here)

[doctorbeth]

A Puppy's Turtle

I know I owe you a bunch of stories, and I’ve got them all lined up to tell, including Kouku and Girlgirl and Leika. I just finished with the hardest patients I’ve ever had. One was literally shredding, so needed two different stuffed animals of my own to act as models, and the other pair had fabric that was disintegrating in a way that made it sticky, so every time the needle went in and came out, I needed to clean it off! They were stuffing inside, and the top layer of their fabric was coming apart, but the backing of their fabric was sticky. It was new. :-/

But, today I am going to share the story of a turtle named Turtle, and for a rare special treat, you get to see part of the patient’s family. I don’t usually show families for privacy reasons, but, well, this is Turtle’s warm blooded being, Murphy:

They’d been together for six years, since Murphy was a puppy. Here’s their baby picture:

As you can see, Murphy has grown and Turtle has, well been worn a bit. Here are a couple of his diagnosis photos:

We agreed that Turtle needed transplants for his balding, and wounds sewn up. Usually, I don’t clean patients belonging to animals, as scent is so important, but in this case, the humans decided a spa was in order too. So Turtle flew down to the Bay Area and started his treatment with a spa:

You can already see him getting cleaner!

Once dry and restuffed, he got a heart with a bit of original stuffing:

And then the humans chose a fabric for his transplants from two options:

Soon his surgery was done and he was ready to head back north:

Normally I’d stop here, with a quote from the humans “He looks great!” But that’s not the end of the story. You see, once Turtle got home, Murphy sent some photos to make everyone smile:

Happy as a puppy that they’re together once more!

************

If you enjoyed this post, you may be interested in my substack newsletter, doctorbeth.substack.com. It's free, and you get the stories straight to your inbox. I also do occassional retro posts from the backlog through the newsletter. But don't worry, I'll keep posting everything new here too.

[bekkathyst]

My chaotic little garden 🌻

[superchat]

there was a great study a few years that went into the whole "ppl online are bigger jerks than irl cuz theres a virtual wall and no repercussions" and the researchers were expecting to see that be the case but it turns out that people who were really angry or argumentative online were also found to just be assholes in person and people who were pretty patient and nice online were found to be patient and nice in real person as well

and it just debunked that whole cynical idea that people will naturally be mean if theres no punishment for it

[superchat]

source another source

the researchers found that being online didnt make people more hostile, but that being online allowed already hostile people to dominate forum conversations, and the less aggressive people were much less likely to reply or engage, ending in just the aggressive people bickering at eachother

[yokolate]

PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997) — dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[sailermoon]

this is how new yorkers @ mamdani

[sailermoon]

[excitedrainbow]

IT’S LITERALLY HAPPENING LMAOOOOO

[etirabys]

oh my goodness, one of dian fossey’s first close up observations with gorillas happened when she was trying to climb a tree to see them better, but so badly that by the time she’d gotten up the entire group had come out of hiding to look at her: “Nearly all members of the group had totally exposed themselves, forgetting about hiding coyly behind foliage screens because it was obvious to them that the observer had been distracted by tree-climbing problems, an activity they could understand.”

[argumate]

hello, fellow apes

[spitoutthedaisyhoratio]

The lead up to that sentence is gold:

[consistantly-changing]

[Image transcript: porch. The group had been day-nesting and sunbathing when I contacted them, but upon my approach they nervously retreated to obscure themselves behind thick foliage. Frustrated but determined to see them better, I decided to climb a tree, not one of my better talents. The tree was particularly slithery and, try as I might, no amount of puffing, pulling, gripping, or clawing succeeded in getting me more than a few feet aboveground. Disgustedly, I was about to give up when Sanwekwe came to my aid by giving one mighty boost to my protruding rump; tears were running from his eyes as he was convulsed in silent laughter. I felt as inept as a baby taking its first step. Finally able to grab on to a conveniently placed branch, I hauled myself up into a respectful semislouch position in the tree about twenty feet from the ground. By this time I naturally assumed that the combined noises of panting, cursing, and branch-breaking made during the initial climbing attempts must have frightened the group on to the next mountain. I was amazed to look around and find that the entire group had returned and were sitting like front row spectators at a sideshow. All that was needed to make the image complete were a few gorilla-sized bags of popcorn and some cotton candy! This was the first live audience I had ever had in my life and certainly the least expected.]

[roach-works]

imagine some freakish not-a-human alien THING has shown up out of nowhere and is trying to get into your office building to study you. but it has no idea how to get past a revolving door. it tries for three hours. by the time it finally understands the concept of a revolving door and squeeze into the building everyone in the office is crowded into the lobby to watch and call helpful suggestions. it’s conclusively determined that the alien is definitely not a threat, except maybe to itself.

[obeliskthetormentorsfeetpics]

Addition approved

[hotvampireadjacent]

[valtsv]

recurring dead wife flashback where it becomes increasingly apparent that the person remembering her has dishonestly claimed a romantic dynamic to their relationship that never actually existed and erased any conflict that ever existed between them now that she's no longer able to say no to them

[sleepyquietgirl]

I feel like I am taking crazy pills

[bekkathyst]

Shop Shipping Updates and Changes - Please Read

This weekend (as in, before Monday, August 10th) is the last time to order from the shop before I need to drastically update my shipping policies. My shop offers handmade jewelry, crystals, and witchy supplies/other home decor, and I am based in Austria.

Two things have happened:

Due to last year's US tariffs causing a months-long shipping hault in Austria, I didn't ship enough packages, and have now lost my contract with the Austrian Post. This means my costs to ship to the US have almost doubled.

Due to a new EU law, I would now need to pay for 27 different packaging licenses and legal representitives to continue shipping to all 27 EU countries. My shop is not even close to being financially recovered from last year's mess, and I simply do not have the thousands of euros to do this.

What's going to change after Monday:

Shipping prices across the board will need to be adjusted, but US & Canada shipping will increase the most. It will most likely now start at around $22 per package, but this isn't yet concrete. I still need to calculate some things. Of course I'm going to do my best to keep it as low as possible. However, with this increase, I think I can offer free shipping on bigger orders (most likely around $300 and up), which will also apply to open box orders. So if you slowly order things throughout the year and wait until it adds up to $300 to ship everything together, I may be able to offer free shipping. Again, I need to go over all the numbers and make sure this is feasable, but I think I can figure out some kind of balance.

I will need to pause shipping to most EU countries. Austria and Germany are safe for sure (I don't need that license for Austria since I my shop is based here, and I already have the one for Germany). I will most likely go through some data and see which other EU countries I have had the most sales to and see if it's affordable to get the packing license for them as well. I really hate to do that, but I have a little hope that due to the massive backlash they will adjust this law eventually. We just have to wait and see.

So, long story short, if there's something from the shop you've had your eye on and want to order, now's your chance before the above mentioned changes go into effect.

I'm really sorry I have to keep coming on here and dumping bad news on all of you. And I am really, really sorry to my fellow artists and small shop owers whose livelihoods are now being threatened by all of this.

As soon as I get any more info, I will update you all. <3