If you can, donate to your LOCAL non-profits or the local branches of larger non-profits. Get to know the people in those organizations (volunteer, visit organization open houses/orientations, go to a hosted event) and you’ll feel a lot better about where your dollars are going.

I used to be on the board of a local domestic abuse shelter and now I’m on the board of a local food pantry. Both are amazing organizations, both have incredibly passionate people working for them, and the board is filled with mostly normal working people who have or want to have good community connections.

My partner has a little with big brothers big sisters and that turned into a board position for him because he was super enthusiastic and active. That’s a bigger organization but his contributions are at the local level and we’ve gotten to know the local “ceo” as well.

Also, 501©(3) orgs must publicly list their tax returns and you can find out the salaries of the executives on those tax returns. So even tho in my experience, the executives of the orgs at the local levels earn every damn penny (and it’s def not enuf) you can also find that info out for yourself. But please remember that if a non profit doesn’t have an excellent, passionate and well paid staff, they will NOT be able to get the donations and funding they need to fulfill their actual purpose. I’m talking specifically about local orgs tho, some of those giant orgs with executives making millions definitely should take a closer look at their priorities.

And finally…if you can’t donate money of course there is always volunteering but there is ALSO serving on a board. Every non-profit ive been involved with has had problems filling their board seats with active, enthusiastic individuals. Sometimes there are monetary asks of board members but no one is going to kick you out if you truly only have time and no money. And if u experience that, find a better board, they are out there and they are working really really hard to make things better.

Oh man Lisey’s Story was one hell of a slog and I thought perhaps King had lost it since it’s one of his more modern offerings. But then he wrote Duma Key and 11/22/63 and I realized it was just a dud. Good luck getting through it!

I have, at certain points in my life, been a rabid King fan. As someone who was trying to think of how to describe and recommend books from an author as eclectic as King, thank you. You’ve done my work for me.

And I had completely forgotten about Hearts in Atlantis which I loved. Isn’t that one a short story? I was probably a very young adult when I read that.

And I will pile on and also say I would recommend Gerald’s Game and Insomnia as two of his more unique horror novel takes.

“It” is also not only my favorite King book but my favorite book of all time. However, I get some flack for that due to some problematic sexual themes involving children and also it’s just a dang long story with a LOT of sub stories in it. But it captured me a long time ago and nothing else has done that since. All that to say, I absolutely love that story but am careful about recommending it since I usually get the side eye eventually.

Doctor Sleep also expands on the powers in The Shining and Needful Things references many of the evil entities in the stand and It.

I have always loved the way King weaves his baddies into many of his stories and basically implies that they are all the same kind of evil dressed up in the “clothing” to suit its purpose at any given time.

Now that I think of it…I think in Cujo when he is narrating the dogs infected mind, he alludes to the generalized evil as well. It’s been a while since I read that one tho.

Yep, she was Wendy

I fully educated myself about tampon insertion and toxic shock syndrome during trips to the bathroom.

According to the cdc website pretty much everywhere in the u.s. went up during 2020-2021 and things started coming down 2022-2023. In fact it looks like the average across the u.s. was pretty much back to “normal” by 2023. But what we see here is that while things declined again for TX in 2022, they still remain quite elevated above 2019 while the u.s. average went back to pre-pandemic average, which would tell me that something else is going on in TX unrelated to the pandemic.

Even better!

In the app search bar I was able to get the chatbot just by typing the question “how do I chat with customer service?” For future reference.

I’ve read the sleeping beauty ones (knew what I was getting into with that)…but literally never knew that about the movie!

Not sure if they’re a “leader” but I got two shark robot vacuums (same model) that are excellent. In the past I have purchased the “bump around and vacuum in circles and hope they don’t get stuck” type and they were just ok. The new ones I have can map the room with IR and you can program no go spaces in the app. I have two because the downside is it can only map one floor at a time so if I wanted it to run on two floors one would be mapped and the other would be “random bumping around” method.

The new one also came with a tank so if I run it on the whole first floor and it gets full it’ll go empty itself and start back up again.

I got em last year and ran me around $350 each I believe.

Sometimes I wish lemmy had gold. Just a little bit.

Thanks for the lol

Twice. First time from waaaay too much time sitting as I had a full time job and then several hours studying for my CPA exam for several months. That time it got better over a couple months just by getting a standing desk at work (I alternated standing and sitting about an hour at a time) and light exercise along with nsaids.

The second time I reinjured it deadlifting too heavy. That one I could not get rid of it despite stretching, PT, acupuncture and laying off most compound lower body work for at least 6 months. But then I went on a week long vacation that involved a LOT of walking…and it was like 70% better when I got home and almost fully healed 2 weeks later.

I still get dull aches here and there but nothing I can’t work around or stretch out pretty easily. Mine never resulted in numbness of extremities but it was pretty limiting. And in my case it really appeared that regular movement and breaking from my day in and out routine made a huge difference.

MEsS WitH tHE BeST, DiE LiKe tHe ReSt

There was a movie with Rosie O’Donnell called Exit to Eden. My mom was not particularly uptight about us seeing R rated stuff and the previews made it look like a slightly dirty comedy. It was Rosie O’Donnell in like…the 90’s so I mean…she did not look into it any further than that.

Turns out it’s basically a soft core porno with a couple funny bits and it was extremely awkward to sit through.

Hmmm…truly new tech that came out after I was 35…

VR …yeah pretty cool, my partner has one but I’m not a gamer and don’t generally go for anything gaming anyways. Use it more widely for non gaming uses tho and I’m on board. Self driving cars …cool, don’t have one, never been in one, but I’m all over learning/using that shit if it becomes mainstream AI… personally not a fan, mostly cuz I think it could be like nukes where it’s used for more bad than good, but I’ve messed my way around ChatGPT and it’s whatevs. Probably eventually very useful if we don’t murder ourselves first.

Personally, having gotten our first school PCs when I was in 7th grade (92’ -ish), I find that I tend to at least be curious and want to learn about new tech. So I wonder if the late genX, early millennials might break rule #3 just cuz we were forced to know more about computers to run them and thus don’t view tech as inherently scary. Then again, I’m always fucking around with stuff and my siblings (2 yrs older and younger) are always like “woah how u do dat?!?”…maybe im just a lazy oddball always looking for a way to shortcut my life with technology.

What goes around…apparently. My 57 year old co-worker does the same thing and it drives me batty.

My dentist (who is also my friend) told me I have great saliva. Fortunately it was while I was getting my cleaning…not in random hang out conversation.

I stick with pretty neutral compliments towards others but probably in my own profession I’ve expressed over the top enthusiasm for remarkably good handwriting or very organized/complete records. I’ve gotten a couple of laughs out of clients because it’s semi-rare and it’s kinda odd to get excited about those things.

Yah I have a loose treaty in my home too. If I see you and you’re not racing towards my face (or dropping on my head)…no one has to get hurt. If you’re super active and potentially in my way…I have a little bug scoop and off you go back into nature. Also…please don’t make your homes in my bedroom…any other room is fine, basement is preferred.

However if you are hell bent on scaring the crap outta me, or crawling up on me…I cannot guarantee my fear reflexes won’t smash you. I will feel badly though.

This holds for all insects in my home except earwigs, mosquitos and super fast centipedes (I catch and release the dopey ones tho)

Back when I took singing lessons my teacher (who mostly taught kids but I was an adult learner) shared that she often had to veto the songs kids wanted to sing. One in particular that stuck with me was a less than 10 year old who wanted to sing Lady Gaga’s Love Game. Which has the lyric “I wanna take a ride on your disco stick” among other very adult lyrics.