a boa constrictor swallowing a hat. ——— If you're a new follower and we know each other from somewhere else, tell me. otherwise I may or may not softblock you.
tumblr-old (very much not a minor). they/them online. don't call me "girl" or "dude" even if you write "gender-neutral" after it. EST timezone. fandom-hopper (but you can talk to me about my previous fandom interests whenever). in case tumblr implodes, I'm magepie on discord (no dash, note the e, it's not "magpie")
There is one very important thing I need people without major dietary restrictions to understand: the distress caused by allergies, celiac disease, and other food restrictions is largely not about the food.
Do I miss some foods I can't eat anymore without getting sick? Sure, but that's not what really bothers me. What bothers me is being excluded from a huge portion of human social life of which food is a crucial component. What bothers me is the stress and social stigma of trying to figure out what I can safely eat. What bothers me is the amount of extra work and cost that is required of me to identify, obtain, and prepare safe foods. What bothers me is people treating my needs like a nuisance, as though I chose to be like this - as though their brief inconvenience to check an ingredients list is unreasonable, when I deal with this every day of my life forever.
I don't miss the food that much. I miss not having to worry about what I eat. I miss freedom. I miss when trying new foods and new restaurants was fun instead of a minefield. I miss not having to plan my entire life around the need for safe foods.
Food is such a basic human need, and a lot of people don't really need to think about it. When your danger foods can be anywhere and everywhere, suddenly your entire life revolves around avoiding them, and it massively sucks. You get used to it and it's not a big deal most of the time, but then you go to a new restaurant, or your office has a potluck, or you've been invited to a party and suddenly it feels just as miserable and exhausting as it ever has.
Valancy Jane Stirling should be grateful that her story is set in [redacted] and not in the 2020s. Can you imagine how insufferable the Stirling clan would be on Facebook?
Genuinely, I think the most publicly visible AI advance so far this year is how thoroughly and abruptly the "image generators can't do legible text" problem has beem fixed.
For those who haven't been paying attention, this is a recent ChatGPT output. It can do this sort of dense sensible text in images totally one shot, so don't rely on bad text to identify AI images any more.
Here is the entire interaction that produced this image:
I've seen other people do much more sinister things with this! You can produce 100% realistic fake screenshots of news articles, tweets, that sort of thing, if you can convince the bot it's kosher to do so.
Hi Apple users, Apple released a fun thing where they take your photos and Siri transcripts and use them to train AI! And they may be automatically turned on without your knowledge, because oh boy they sure were for me!!!!!!!!!!!!
Open the “apps” section in your settings (it’s usually at the very bottom), go to photos and scroll until you see “Enhanced Visual Search” and then turn that shit off. Then go to “Privacy and Security”, scroll until you see “Analytics & Improvements”, and turn off “Improve Siri & Dictation” as well.
I am an artist with hundreds upon hundreds of my artworks in my photo album. I also have plenty of photos with not only my own face, but the faces of my friends and my family. I do not appreciate that being used to train AI without my consent, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same for others too.
genuinely i don’t think it’s possible to easily explain the explicit part of online friendships to people who don’t Understand. i don’t mean like, explicit in the sense of “oh you’re sexting” or whatever. no. i mean when you and your friend start gleefully making up explicit sexual scenarios for your shared blorbos and you get giddier and giddier as you add more detail and you’ll be grinning at your screen as you type away at mach speeds. and it’s entirely nonsexual in an interpersonal sense, you’re not really getting Into it, but ohhhhh it’s soooooo fun and satisfying. and you can NEVER tell someone who doesn’t also do this that your mood is actively improved like fivefold because you and your friend played Sexual Tuoys together because they’ll go “what the FUCK.”
Apparently my stepdad and I are fucking psychically linked because ?? every single time he makes chili for dinner I get a migraine. Without fail. And it became like a ha ha running joke because it happened so many times but now I’m living 3 hours away from my parents and I just texted my mom and
semi-regular psa that depending on where you live, getting a few doses of narcan might literally be as quick, easy, and free as pouring river water in your socks. it's small, light, and easy to carry around in any kind of bag bigger than a wallet; it's simple to administer; it doesn't become hazardous after its expiry date, just very slowly less effective but still okay to use; it's safe to give multiple doses of it in succession; and it won't cause any harm even if given to someone not experiencing an opioid overdose. (due to the nature of how it works it is a potion of instant withdrawal and might make someone very sick very quickly for that reason, but you can't give someone a hazardous overdose of narcan.) even if you don't think anyone in your life licitly or illicitly uses opioids it's still worth it to pick some up just in case. if you are the Purse Bitch of your friend group and have ever said something like "well what if we do need two full boxes of bandaids all of a sudden" then you simply owe it to yourself to see if a public health center near you has a free narcan distribution service.
For those curious on how to respond to an overdose using Narcan/naloxone, NYC’s health department has a good video on the subject. For those in NYC, their website also has information on how to obtain it.
always great to carry narcan, and while you CANNOT give an “overdose” of narcan, you can effectively drown somebody if you give a large dose. the “drowning” is flash pulmonary edema, and is associated with larger amounts of narcan being administered to somebody who is overdosing.
so absolutely please get some and carry it with you, and remember that you don’t need 20+ mg of narcan to reverse an od!
Adding onto the last rb as someone who works in harm reduction and has given overdose reversal trainings.
First want to say that OP your post is great but it's important to mention that you NEED to wait 2-3 minutes before administer a second dose of naloxone (the generic and frankly better version of Narcan, Narcan is a for-profit brand so if you can it's better to get the generic from your local SSP or HD), for folks who are dependent upon or otherwise regular users of opioids naloxone can precipitate pretty nasty symptoms of withdrawal, no one is gonna feel *great* after an overdose, but acute withdrawal can lead to vomiting, shakes, and a whole slurry of symptoms ranging from unpleasant to medically dangerous.
While were here, here is a quick runddown of symptoms of an opioid OD to look out for:
- Person’s skin might look blueish or greyish, depending on skin tone
- Skin might feel cold or clammy
- Might hear “agonal breathing” - a gasping/gulping/grunting sound sometimes mistaken for snoring
- Sometimes you might not see or hear any of these obvious signs. The person might just seem like they are sleeping or in a heavy nod.
You can check for responsiveness by verbally calling for them and doing a sternum rub (running your knuckles up and down the center of their chest), but don't spend a bunch of time trying to get them up-- every secound counts.
Second major point: when reversing an OD you are looking for a return to regular breathing, NOT for the person to wake up. Adulterants like xylazine (tranq) and medetomidine are fairly common in the US fent supply, and given that these are sedatives they can put folks out for hours at a time. Make sure to give rescue breaths and monitor breathing continuously until emergency service providers arrive (or if you are unable to call 911/999/etc, have someone stay with the person for at least 90 min). The biggest mistake I see people make is, since they're in a panic, they continuously administer naloxone without waiting and without watching for breathing bc they're worried about the person not coming to. I get that it's really scary, but it's vital that you're focusing on the correct tells.
Like last rb said too, you don't need a crazy mg amount to reverse an OD, in fact you don't need more than 4mg max (6mg if the person REALLY isn't breathing) for nasal naloxone and 0.8mg/ml max for intramuscular naloxone. This is about 2 doses for each type, and often one dose is enough to stabilize someone (when the medicine wears off any opioids left in the system will rebind to opioid receptors, though, so keeping a dose on hand is vital especially if they can't get to the hospital for monitoring). There is no evidence that high dose naloxone such as Kloxxado is more effective in reversing overdoses, and actually poses a greater danger due to its ability to quickly lead to acute withdrawal. These products are produced by for-profit companies co-opting panic surrounding the present street opioid supply, and are not recommended by anyone with experience in the field.
If you want to find free naloxone near you but aren't sure where, NextDistro is a great resource for those in the US
