Schadenfreude.

There is no theme here. I just post stuff. Icon is gift art from DrawingForMonkeys from 2010.

[mrwiggles]

Wiggles passed about a month ago.

He'd been having trouble shedding for a few months, even with upped humidity, supplements (topical and vitamin) provided by his vet, and manual help and it was clear by his behavior and appetite that his body was slowing down. He was having trouble moving around, which told us he probably had developed some pretty bad arthritis in his legs and possibly spine, all of which were crooked and bent due to MBD, though his spine did eventually straighten out. His vet checked him for infections, we did poop and blood cultures to check for those and for parasites (all came back clear), we did an some imaging to make sure he wasn't impacted with anything (he wasn't), and he just was slowing down. Given how poor his health was when I got him, he wasn't expected to live even 5 more years let alone the nearly 10 he got, and his vet fully expected him to not make it anywhere close to the average lifespan for a Leopard Gecko regardless of care because his body had been so badly, badly damaged by his first owners nearly starving him to death over the course of a couple of years. When he didn't come out for a feeding, I gave it another couple of days because sometimes he's in shed or just not hungry and stays in the burrows he'd dug. After two days and no signs of him, I went digging and found he'd passed, likely asleep as he was curled up, in one of his burrows. I've left him there in the burrow under the log because I fully intend to keep his skull once it's been cleaned by time and the other critters in his bioactive enclosure. His enclosure is now a garden for sweet basil, Thai basil, rosemary, and green onions; once his skull is clean, the big cork bark will be removed so I can put more plants in there.

[calleo]

Forgot to reblog this over here.

[ishowdespair-deactivated2026012]

[calleo]

I almost picked up a young possum because I thought it was an escaped domestic rat.

Let dogs out around midnight.

I usually carry the 10lb dog out at night because if he's allowed to launch himself off the deck he starts barking and I don't want him barking at midnight. German Shepherd immediately goes to sniff the cinder block that blocks one of two entrances to Under The Garage. Cinder block is there because last year rabbits nested under the garage and the 10lb terrier could fit through that hole (the other hole is partially blocked by a dead tree that I haven't cut down yet because it's blocking that entrance). GSD is guarding the cinder block while sniffing at it but not acting otherwise weird for him. Terrier is SHRIEKING and thrashing in my arms. It is the sound he makes when there is something he wants to kill nearby. I set him down, he bolts at the cinder block and gets body blocked with a sharp, deep "FUCK. OFF." growl from the GSD. The same growl he used to do when the terrier tired to harass back yard rabbits. He does it with fledgling birds as well and, while he will also chase squirrels, if he 'catches' them he just...tries to cob their fur (affectionate grooming). He does not allow the small terrier to harass anything but small rodents. He'll also chase stray cats over the fence frequently enough that they've stopped coming inside the fence, but he leaves any wildlife alone apart from protecting it from the small murder dog (who was bred to be a murder dog, he's supposed to want to hunt and kill small animals, he's a rat terrier) I walk over. I see a thing moving. It's dark, the lights I use out back are dim yellow ones so they don't bother bugs. I see an adult domestic rat sized thing by the cinderblock, it has a rat-like tail. I go to grab it and it looks up. Thankfully for me and the possum, that brought its head out of the shadows and my brain went, "POSSUM, NOT RAT!" and I stopped reaching for it. GSD guarded it until it carefully and calmly walked back through the holes in the cinder block to the safety of Under The Garage. Guess I now know: A) What's been living under the garage since March: Possums. B) Why I haven't pulled any ticks of of me in the feral, full of tall plants and grasses back yard since March: Possums. I hope they stay, I like not having ticks in the yard. Most things that live under the garage stay because the dogs keep predators pretty much out of the yard both by physical presence and the fact that they pee there and that also gives predators a heads up that Dogs Live Here.

[calleo]

[what-even-is-thiss]

I continue to run into people that are confused as to why Americans have screens on our windows and it’s really quite simple.

Bugs

Diseases carried by bugs

Other assorted wildlife such as dogs and teenagers

[what-even-is-thiss]

Also why do Americans not have windows open all the time?

We do open windows sometimes

Not when it’s super hot or cold though

We have air filters in our houses

Neighborhood hooligans might steal our pies

[what-even-is-thiss]

Frankly when it’s over 40 degrees celsius I’m not gonna have my window open screen free to let out the cats and let in the heat and West Nile virus carrying mosquitos who want my blood. That’s my blood. I decide what to do with it. Not them.

[what-even-is-thiss]

That’s 104F for my fellow ice munchers.

[superaquafishy]

The no screen thing is so wild to me, do other places not have Wasps? Bees? Mosquitos? Maple bugs? Horse flies?

Like are these things only in North America?

[what-even-is-thiss]

They have mosquitos in other parts of the world. A lot of anti screen people I’ve met have been European though. They live in colder climates and don’t know that with climate change their risk for mosquito borne illnesses rises every year. They’re coming for you too, Europe. Protect your blood.

[what-even-is-thiss]

The mosquitos want your blood and you’re just leaving your windows open all night, no protection. Inviting in the blood suckers. No wonder they have so many vampires in Europe.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Window screens are built to be easily pushed out with a bit of force from the inside! If I needed to escape through my window I could just open my window, push the thing out, and be gone.

[dancinbutterfly]

I live in Europe now and the lack of screens makes me CRAZY.

The flies just come in??? And get into our house??? And you Europeans are just like

“Oh well!!! I shall have flies crawling on my skin I suppose!!!”

The fuck is wrong with you? It’s like you aren’t autistic at all!!!!

[theothersarshi]

I'm European and we have screens in Romania. I mean, some people say "Nooo, waste of money to have them in certain rooms/at all", but getting them everywhere was great!

But yeah, colder climates help.

A thing we have that's pretty good for keeping neighborhood hooligans away from pies, though, is bigger pies, harder to steal fences. Around our yards.

I've checked out Google Maps in the US and I was horrified at the suburban... madness. I always thought that the cliche of old men screaming "GET OFF MY LAWN!" was because kids climbed over their fences to steal their sour plums or something, not because you can misstep into their yard.

[bookgeekgrrl]

#horrified whenever i drive thru america and just see their yards are all connected #tf? #come to canada we have screens and fenced yards (@mxaether)

[what-even-is-thiss]

Backyard privacy fences are more common on the west coast. Connected backyards are more of an east coast thing. A lot of people also avoid fencing in their front yards because it’s weirdly associated with both really poor neighborhoods and really wealthy ones. Anyways it’s been shown that when front yard fences are banned crime generally goes down in an area anyways so personally I’m pro backyard fence anti front yard fence

[calleo]

Add bats and squirrels to issues No Screens Can Cause. I've had both in my house before because the kitchen +windows had no screens for a couple of years (fuckin' expensive to replace). Do you know the absolute CHAOS a squirrel in the kitchen in a house with five cats and two dogs causes? And also the "OH SHIT did I get bit in my sleep and not notice? Time to go to the ER for rabies shots, I guess" that happens if you wake up to a bat in the house? Thankfully the cats and dogs are always UTD on rabies shots so I don't have to worry if THEY get bitten but I do have to worry if I potentially got bitten and didn't notice.

[lorbitele]

Hal🌝

[monarobot]

Oselotan and Zwazo! Commissions for the lovely Rashkah!

(After the first commission Rashkah pointed out that the tusks grow from the top, not the bottom, d’oh! The more you know! 💫 )

[gardenstatetait]

cmon stoned butch blues. please laugh 🩵💙

[gardenstatetait]

This was a real hit with insane 18 year olds on insta

[thememedaddy]

[briearesea]

Hey, for the record. This isn't my endorsement of treating "felons" like shit. Its bullshit that Canada has a blanket ban on anyone with a felony conviction. I think it's bullshit that the US has so many "felons". I think it's bullshit that felonies are a thing.

This is merely an expression of my wish to see trump get treated the same way that the rest of us are treated for once in his fucking life, and not get special treatment from every fucking establishment in the goddamn world. Our punitive, carceral system isn't going anywhere any time soon, I just think it would be funny to see him treated the same way anyone else would be.

Dont fucking @ me because I kinda want to see him dragged through the same shit everyone else goes through.

[necromancelena]

There is a child next to me at the clinic I'm doing bloodwork at that is watching ai generated videos of Spiderman farting, without headphones. And I'm trying to keep a straight face but i thought about someone being like oh no it's stealing jobs from real farting spidermen and my composure is breaking

[calleo]

I know what Undermine smells like.

I'm going to tell you exactly the SMELL that came to my brain when I first got to Undermine:

Downtown Los Angeles, summer 1988. When it still had The Smog Problem.

We took a family trip there when I was 8 years old and I can still see and smell that first step outside of the airport SO CLEARLY.

Everything was brown/orange an the most unholy smell of sewage, humidity, diesel, body odor somehow , and a dusty room and was so THICK feeling I could hardly breathe. Plus the fact that smoking was allowed on busses and shit then we got stuck with that: a bus with no AC and some old motherfucker smoking a cheap cigar.

THAT is absolutely the smell and sight combo that hit my brain like a goddamned bullet train when I got to Undermine.

[mrwiggles]

As you can see, I can get around just fine.

I even climbed all the way up here myself.

[calleo]

He thought better of it once he realized that direction was a big drop and not an easy climb.

[mrwiggles]

If you were curious...

I'm still alive!

My keeper got two kittens in 2021 and while he was at work one of them managed to knock over my entire enclosure, despite it being tied down to a heavy metal stand and the stand being attached to the wall!

Soot was very determined to get me, I guess, and he ripped the mounts out of the wall and toppled the whole thing! Because my original enclosure was glass that...did not end well.

When my keeper came home, he saw the mess and my entire tail on the floor and assumed I was probably eaten--but as soon as I heard him say, "What did you do?!" to the cats (like he couldn't see what they'd done!) I started screaming!

He found me, got me safe and in a different, former snake enclosure, and got me to the vet. They gave me an antibiotic ointment for my tail stump and it eventually grew back. It's not as pretty as my original tail, but it's still nice and fat and it doesn't bother me at all.

I was fine in that enclosure until this weekend when my keeper said something about always being worried he'd forget me out in that room because I'm the last reptile left so he set up an old enclosure and moved me into the main area of the house.

I already like it better than the old place, and started digging instead of just using hides and wrapping myself up in the towel floor of the old enclosure. I also found a bunch of earthworms, springtails, and isopods.

If the cats won't leave me alone at the back of the enclosure my keeper plans to tape black paper over part of it so they can't sit and stare but, so far, they aren't very interested. My vet still recommends I be kept under a UVB light because of how bad my MBD was as a juvenile, and I got a new mercury vapor lamp this time! I can even climb up to bask under it if I want.

The other fixture is a ceramic heat emitter (because my keeper keeps the house at 62F during the winter.) and, of course, there's an under tank heater that's still not quite as warm as the thermostat is set, but it's getting there. The two skulls are to keep the same cat that tried to eat me a few years ago from sitting on the top screen and breaking it.

[calleo]

Yeah, so I still have this guy.

[trash-and-trash-accessories]

I do want to note that the whole "women are allowed to dress masculine and wear trousers" thing needs to be viewed in its historical context:

People fought for generations to be allowed to dress that way. They fought hard to be allowed to wear pants. Blue jeans were a symbol of feminist revolution. Women were barred from workplaces and schools for wearing them.

This is not some a natural fact that women dressing masculine is less shocking and humiliating. That normalization was fought for and hard-won.

And yet so many people erase the struggles of those people who fought to make that happen and pretend that it's just normal and natural that people don't see women "dressed like men" as ridiculous.

The Marriage of Figaro has what's called a "breeches role" which is a woman wearing men's clothes playing am ale role. This was done partly due to the vocal range requirements, but in many cases it was done comedically. It was risque and sexualized or comic relief that a woman was dressed as a man.

Anti-suffragette posters mock women wearing pants - well they were bloomers and split skirts back then - and mocking more masculine cut styles of clothes. This was meant to portray this as ridiculous.

They mocked the "new woman" in Weimar Germany, lamenting that they were too masculine.

This is a political cartoon from the 1920s depicting a woman in masculine dress deciding which bathroom to use:

Sorry but you're erasing these struggles and flattening history when you say this shit.

Women were killed and institutionalized in the struggle to make this happen. It really fucking bothers me the way it's framed as "people just don't find it as weird when women dress masculine."

Yes they fucking did. Until women and transmasculine people fought for their right to wear what they want. It's normalized because people struggled to normalize it.

And it's not normal everywhere. There are many countries where it's still illegal for women to wear pants. Sudan, Saudi Arabia.

Even in the US, it's forbidden and considered ridiculous in groups like the FLDS, the Amish, and the Hutterites.

We are flattening and erasing the struggles of women when we say these things. I know we're trying to build theory here but you can't build solid theory on a foundation of lies.

[aetherograph]

When my mom was in school, in the 1960s, you weren't allowed to wear pants to school. You had to wear a skirt. Had to. At public schools, mind you, not private ones. Public school. Regular degular school.

And even up into the 1990s, Disney mandated all female workers wear dresses and skirts, with nylons, to work. I know this because I watched my mom change immediately from jumperskirts to pants as soon as she was allowed, which was NOT until well into the 00s. This was company-wide, it affected millions of workers. And while Disney is well-known for its pavingstone of a dress code book, it's still indicative of what is considered Respectable.

My mom's entire generation, the Boomers, fought to wear pants, to be allowed short hair, to wear comfortable shoes and honestly women are still fighting to be allowed their natural hair and still fighting to be allowed to NOT wear makeup at work.

People existed before you were born and things were different before you were born. Things have not always been the same as they are for you everywhere for everyone. Think outside your own experience for fuck's sake.

[calleo]

My mom told me they were allowed to wear pants under their skirts in winter, but once they got to school, they had to remove the pants.

[ganondorf]

ppl are rlly trying to defend being on your phone during a movie in the theater what is going on

[ganondorf]

using your phone in a movie theater is a symptom of long covid

[cicada-and-pomegranate]

the defense of being on your phone in a movie theater is who cares? by your own admission, you should be paying attention to the movie. so why do you care what other people are doing? you’re meant to be paying attention to the movie.

[ganondorf]

[calleo]

Anyone defending this was raised wrong and deserves to be publicly shamed about it.

[calleo]

I've been on REDnote since mid-January.

I've also never been so relaxed on social media.

It's not even hard to not get banned: Don't be a drama stirring asshole, and don't be unfriendly.

I've gone a couple weeks without ever seeing a single drama, callout, "this is so problemaaaaatic!" post and it's AMAZING.

The people who do shit like that get banned so fast, and most of them have already gone back to meta's new propaganda arm because they either got banned or just got told they were embarrassing themselves by not being able to act like a functional adult in a society.

The fact that nobody will engage them and just reports them is amazing.

I've honestly just started telling people back on US social media that acting the way they're acting at their big age is embarrassing and while I'm sorry they don't have anyone who loves them enough to tell them their behavior is out of line and embarrassing, they need to stop making it the internet's problem.

That...works oddly well for getting them to shut up, especially since they'll usually respond once and all you have to do is tell them if they're legitimately feeling this triggered, they should step away and go do something to let them get in control of their emotions again.