He would’ve been fine at 374, but it was that last one that was just too much.

This is a good explanation because it gets at the source. L. Ron was a failed Freudian and had some mental issues of his own, he lashed out at the psychiatry community, and built this whole thing out of a hatred for what (rightfully) rejected him. He just happened to write shitty sci-fi, so he channeled that into pseudo-psychiatry (Dianetics). There’s a reason those e-meters exist: bullshit stress response devices to measure “clearing” certain negative thoughts. They don’t actually work, but that’s the principle: you have a “auditing session,” and let’s say you get asked about your propensity for lying in a certain situation. E-meter response is measured until you’re no longer stressed by the thing you were asked about (according to the meter), you pay them absurd amounts of money, they now have dirt on you in case you try to leave, etc. This is its core, reductively. Anti-psychiatry money mill.

Always liked Power Pete, and if you don’t have vertigo, the Descent series.

Donny always needs about tree fitty.

Ok so strictly speaking it was a specific mustard colored rectangular Tupperware bowl that often held soup leftovers in the fridge. Occasionally it held popcorn. For a small child who was sick and couldn’t reliably get over a toilet to puke, it was the designated “puke bowl.” For the record, I don’t believe poop knives actually exist, but in this instance, your wife is correct.

Wouldn’t be a good look for that wankpanzer if a $5 tool from Walmart could bust through its windows. Better call it a Cyber-izer and sell it for $200.

You mean the popcorn container/puke bowl?

Nobody’s mentioned the sensory overload that is Buc-ee’s yet?

A little distilled white vinegar, a lint-free cloth, and some elbow grease.

I’ve had good results with the cushionlab car-specific one. I know they make a regular one, but the car seat shape works great on the particular mesh chair I have for some reason. Getting out for an occasional walk helps a lot too, even 10 minutes.

Here’s what happened to me before the ACA: I started grad school at ange 22 in a state where my parents’ coverage didn’t work, and therefore had to buy into the school plan through Blue Cross (may they forever burn in hell). For an entire year, I paid for all medical care out of pocket PLUS paid for an insurance plan, so that after a year Blue Cross would go “ok, I guess you paid enough to get on our plan for next year.” This is to say nothing of the ensuing years spent fighting tooth and fucking nail with Blue Cross over literally every medical decision my providers made. Absolutely nothing went without needing an appeal or a peer-to-peer due to “pre-existing condition.” The ACA made some of this easier, but Blue Cross figured out they could do stuff like drop drug coverage from their formulary to “pass on savings,” which brought back the need to do peer-to-peer on literally everything to get a high-copay “formulary exemption,” etc. It’s going to be a nightmare you can’t possibly imagine.

“Illegals smuggle our patriotic, expensive insulin out of the US, and we gotta build a wall facing the other direction to keep them in this time! We’ll use tariffs to get Mexico to pay for it!”

People at my spouse’s workplace were high-fiving each other on Wednesday. This country is just a goddamn middle school.

Good news! It already has! (in very isolated cases)

I was offered $21/hr to remote work at some google outsourced company for one of their LLM projects. It was going to be grueling work, full-time, no benefits. It took about 120 applications (two responses) to even get there, and they ghosted me after a second interview. It’s awful out there and I feel for you 100%. Best of luck, genuinely.

Tradition dear boy

It’s not so much a crucifix but a lowercase letter T for his low-testosterone he’s so obsessed with

I vote for both bears and twinks.

There’s a lot of good advice here already, so I’ll just add the potentially expensive (depending on insurance) next step: allergen immunotherapy. I’m about as allergic to dogs as you are, and some of the advice I got was “why not make them an outside dog?” — first of all, hell no, they’re family, and second, I lived in an apartment at the time, so that was impossible.

The immunotherapy, or allergy shots, starts with the tests others mentioned. They can do skin pricks or blood draw, and to save you a lot of misery, I suggest the blood draw. Then you get vials drawn up that effectively tincture allergens over time into your body for about three-ish years, so this is a time commitment.

Some advice on allergy medications I’ve received: avoid Claritin and Benadryl due to their links to dementia in long term use, try Zyrtec and Xyzal to see which works best (Costco/sam’s has the best value for these).

A higher MERV filter in my air unit, based on what it could handle, and an air purifier helped me a lot.

Because we need merchandising uwu