I can't believe build a bear has an ~after dark line

I can't believe build a bear AD made a cougar for Valentine's Day

#he saw a clown in the driver's seat and knew he would be outnumbered if it came to a fight

via @vamprisms

Oh, this is incredible.

Improv swing dance to a Todrick Hall song?

And they killed it!

*thanks to the people who pointed out my oops

Tags from @ghostwriterofthemachine

12/23/2024

But you can see that while Hoodie knows the song and is setting the aesthetic, Glasses is the one actually leading the dance! West coast swing is a style where the follower (in more traditional dance, the woman) is being led but is actually the one moving more. You can see that Hoodie is the one taking up the slot and Glasses is giving him something to hold onto while mostly just getting out of the way--which is what the leader does.

Remi is a small princess who likes to lay her head on a pillow when she naps, so I used my new sewing machine to make one just for her.

To my delight she uses it and I'm so happy

Really important updates:

the tv show "the torment nexus game is bad" being a poignant critique of wage slavery and class disparity and capitalism that is popularized in the west by big tv corporation bc it makes them money, then being turned into "the torment nexus game is bad: the game show" by the most souless and therefore most popular youtuber because it makes him money, so then big tv corporation makes their OWN "the torment nexus game is bad: the OFFICIAL game show" to make even more money off the "the torment nexus game is bad" fictional critique of capitalism tv show, and then it turns out that many allegations of torment nexus-like conditions come out of both reality tv game shows but there aren't any consequences. and then Bigger Corporation goes to the soulless youtuber and is like. lets make another "the torment nexus game is bad" -esque game show to make us a lot of money because the people stuck in the torment nexus love that shit. it's called "the torment nexus game is fun :-)" and then the writer of the "the torment nexus game is bad" posts on twitter that he fucking hates his own story and what it has become. you would think this is a plot from a heavy-handed early black mirror episode but it is unfortunately a plot from real life

HOLD THE LINE!! KEEP PUSHING!!!!!

Sorry babes but as someone who lived lug around 500 cds they can die. To me lps are at least pretty and pretentious like a fine wine. Cds have no point

the point is cds are sexy as hell. sorry you dont know what sex is.

visual diagram btw ^

@danepopfrippery

The real point is that you OWN a CD. You do NOT own anything digital you purchase.

Google Play stole hundreds of dollars worth of music I paid them for from me by forcing me to upload it to YouTube Music (or lose it entirely) which is behind a subscription paywall, requiring me now to pay more money every month if I want to listen to MY music I PAID for without constant advertising.

You do not own anything digitally purchased. It can be taken back from you at any time and it is fully legal for big corporations to do so for some reason.

CDs can't be taken from you unless they come into your house or car in person to physically pry them out of your cold dead hands.

That's why the resurgence. As funny as that person's reply to you was, it's not in fact because they look sexy. It's because you actually own them.

Look- CDs are your friend. CD-ROMs and CD drives with the capacity to burn? Are your friends with benefits.

Can anyone teach me how to burn Digital only songs into CDs?

i can ask my dad!! i think you need a certain piece of hardware, but i dont think its difficult!

not rn tho hes asleep

I would love that thank you!!

here you go!!

My contribution to the discussion

My burner in my old desktop works like this:

Empty cd in the slot

Open cd on desktop

Drag music files in

Done

I spent so many hours burning CDs in high school. AND I STILL HAVE THEM. IN A CD FOLDER IN MY CAR. Because sometimes I drive through the mountains and lose cell reception and can no longer stream Spotify over bluetooth.

CDs are useful, my lambs.

Also this whole thread has made me feel Very Over 30.

And for reference, since they took the disc drives out of computers for the same reason they fucked with headphone jacks, you can get a CD burner drive with a USB connection for like $30.

This is ABSOLUTELY about ownership!

Also, you’ve unlocked a bonus story.

I work in a public service. My local school districts are cracking down on cell phones. A teen came into my work to try to burn their first cd.

Their first cd.

They were having some trouble and I was secretly like (this is my moment, holy Shit, burning CDs almost continuously from middle school until a couple years ago is About To Be Relevant, what the fuck, fucking hooray)

And I go over, and I listen to the teen (they bought a cheap stack of 100 READ/WRITE CDS. 100!!! And a single-disc cd walkman!!), and we fuss with it, and I troubleshoot the issue they were encountering.

It was So Easy. To fix this issue. I had to do almost nothing. Media player was grumpy bc the files were not in the folder it wanted them in. I moved them. It started working.

“Oh my god, you’re a MIRACLE WORKER!!”

I will be thriving off that moment for Years.

And before I had to go, I told them, “hey, if you can find a compatible player for cheap, you can fit way more songs per disc on an mp3 cd. We just burned an audio cd.”

They got So Excited.

In a fully digital world locked behind paywalls and subscriptions and opaque tablet OSs, knowledge of desktop systems and the resurgence of physical media are everything.

Last week, my boss was going through our closets at work to clean them out. We had a tower stack of blank read/write CDs. We are (supposedly) a digital-only workplace and we have nothing to use them with because we have no CD/DVD drives. They're now mine because they otherwise would have gone into the garbage. My boss was astounded to discover I still burn CDs. "But what about digital music?" "Everything I buy I burn." That music is mine.

No new years day will be like waking up to hollyweed on January 1, 2017

We will never experience this again.

in 2025 let’s bring back being enthusiastic on ao3. leave a comment on every chapter. leave kudos and, if necessary, leave “double kudos” in the comments. tags and notes on bookmarks. the whole nine yards. let’s show fanfic authors how much we love them.

btw “actual feminism” is trans inclusive and op of this tweet agrees :)

becoming the oppressor is not liberation!!!!!

It's shitty, it's creepy, it's theft, it makes it impossible to find images and real sources, it's ruining the environment because it takes more power to run all these AI servers than we're currently able to provide with our power grid so they're using the dirtiest sources to get it because it's the only thing left, fucking STOP IT

On my hands and knees begging adults to allow children to engage in risk play.

And by risk play I don't mean handing them a gun and playing Russian Roulette.

I mean like climbing trees, getting so sick spinning on the swing they throw up, balancing on the curb, sitting in the mud, walking on slippery surfaces, building half ass ramps to ride their bike over, standing on rocks, or anything that involves a smidgen of confidence and out of the box thinking that could result in injury.

Obviously like watch your kids and such, but when we talk about the fun of being an 80s or 90s kid, it's not just talking about CDs and Walkmans or not having iPads. It's about how kids today were robbed of critical learning and experience skills we were allowed to have.

Playgrounds disappearing, helicopter parents, and sue culture really destroyed a child's development in the United States, and I think it's about time we as adults recognize that, because the kids sure have.

You know what happens to kids who don't get to take reasonable risks? They never learn how to gauge safety or control their bodies in risky situations.

A kid who never climbs a tree becomes an adult who falls off a ladder because they don't intuitively know to keep 3 points of contact when climbing.

A kid who never skins their knees launching off a swingset becomes an adult who shatters an arm because they never learned how to break a fall.

Kids who are allowed to take risks become safer adults.

This crossed my dash again, so here's a more thorough list of things risk play is necessary for:

- Developing pain tolerance & an understanding of which types/intensities of pain are "okay" and which need immediate medical attention

- Calibrating the inner ear (sense of balance) and learning how the body reacts to experiencing different things, essential to learning to control the body in unexpected situations

- Developing reflexes and subconscious safety instincts (e.g. protectively throwing up your hands when an object flies toward your face)

- Normalizing getting hurt so the first reaction to an injury is just to treat it (and not to have a fearful emotional meltdown)

- Learning how to treat and heal from injuries (beginnings of self-care)

- Developing appropriate levels of fear around various activities, desensitizing fear around doing harmless things and establishing a fear response for actions that caused an injury. This is key to properly gauging risk in new situations.

Additionally, the reason it's so essential to mess around and get hurt as a kid is not just because it's a critical developmental stage, but also because kids' bodies are growing and naturally resistant to major injuries. A 3rd grader can get launched off a bike onto the pavement and only sustain a few scrapes and bruises that will heal in a few days, while someone who's 30 would likely pull or sprain something (or worse) and take weeks to heal.

If you are someone who grew up not being allowed to take risks it is likely you have a low pain tolerance, fear surrounding physical activities, slow reflexes, and poor judgment. The good thing is that it's never too late to learn! Our brains are very malleable, so if you missed out on this stuff as a kid now is the time to go climb a tree, go on a hike with unstable footing, or join a casual sports team. Just start small and work your way up, since your body won't be as resilient as it was when you were 9 :)

Your additions have tickled my brain in the right way. Thank you for your contribution to the discussion!

The health insurance industry has a term for this sadistic practice. It's called "step therapy." If the choice is between a more expensive medication that works and a cheaper one that doesn't work as well and might have worse side effects, the insurance company requires that the cheaper drug be used first.

One benefit to the insurance company is that the patient on the cheaper drug might die before they get a chance to use the drug that works but is more expensive. That's money in the bank for the insurance company.

Or, the patient might be so worn down and harmed by the cheaper drug that they just give up the fight to get the drug that will help them. Again, that's bank for the insurance company.

Can't even describe how many times the latter has occurred to me. It's fucking exhausting.

You CAN get exceptions sometimes but the insurance company can just...decide to change their mind, or not honor it, randomly. Or force you to renew it.

My BF gets monthly harassing letters from United pressuring him to go on a medication that doesn't fucking exist. "Friendly" of course, very "Oh heyyy bestie, we're your cute little gatekeepers, tee hee, and we noticed you were on this dumb little druuuug, so icky and expensive. But how about this other one, the generic? Yeah. It hasn't actually been made available yet or anything, this has been an issue for moooonths but it'd be great if you could swiiiitch. We just enjoy making sure you make the best decisions and would love it if you just, like, became unable to hold the job that gets you insured with uuuuuus." *Intense vocal fry*

Good news for people in Illinois, step therapy will be banned starting Jan. 1, 2025! And prior auth for mental health crisis inpatient stays, and junk insurance. It’s the first state to ban step therapy, and won’t be the last (I hope).

And in 2026 will require insurance to cover a name brand medication if the generic is experiencing a shortage.

And a lot of other cool stuff. So, go Illinois!

If you're facing step therapy rejections for needed medication, tell your provider about steptherapy.com, which is an organization connected to the National Psoriasis Foundation, one of the conditions that deals a lot with this. They provide state by state breakdowns of protections against step therapy requirements that don't help you or don't make logical sense. They also provide forms tailored to each state's specific protective law if one exists and give your provider a straightforward way to state why you need a therapy over its bullshit alternatives. It's concise, to the point and very strongly worded.

I use this at work daily and it's improving our hit rate in fighting step therapy requirements for diseases where a failed step in step therapy means permanent, degenerative harm to their body (not even including mental anguish from having to go through a failed therapy to receive necessary care). If you're faced with shit like this, advocate for yourself as much as you can and go down swinging in the appeals process (every insurance in the US is required to provide an appeals process for denials, you CAN win in there with your doctor's help) if you gotta.

Dudes healthcare is so fake. My ADHD meds are $940 without insurance. But they gave me a website of "coupons" which straight up looks like a scam website, and I got it today for $60! Just a coupon from a random website and it was $900 cheaper. America, I am confusion!! America explain!!

For all my uninsured judys out there it's for Walgreens only: walgreens.rxsense.com

as a pharmacy technician i can share with you some websites that give you those "coupons" for your meds!

goodrx is the most well known one, but if i'm trying to find the cheapest price for a patient i compare it to scriptcycle, and use whichever is offering the best price. you just type in the medication (PLEASE make sure you're getting the right drug, dosage, and quantity) and your zip code and they will spit out some offers for you

some pharmacies may have their own discount card to compare to as well!

if you are getting a name brand medication, you can also look at the manufacturer's website to see if they offer any evouchers for you to use too

good luck out there 👍

How to Pay Hospital Bills When You’re Flat Broke

USAmericans, I am jumping up and down and waving my hands to get your attention: this is because your government refuses to stand between you and drug manufacturers.

In many other countries, the government has a department which makes deals with drug companies about which ones can supply drugs for the entire country. This gives them a lot of power to bargain the price down, because otherwise the company loses access to the market of The Entire Country. We still get the same drugs as you, including name-brand ones, but we pay much less. For example, I had to look into the cost of HRT in Aotearoa and a bottle of T gel is $22NZD*, which is about a third of the price I see USAmericans mention for it AFTER insurance!

And this can't even be totally blamed on the insurance industry (though they may also profit from higher drug prices) because we also have private health insurers! This is because the drug companies know that they can make you pay many, many times more for drugs by stopping the government from standing between you and them.

*This is assuming you're getting it unfunded for some reason; most people pay $5 or $0 because of further medication subsidies.