That Martian Girl

1.5M ratings
277k ratings

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
cat-fishy
shleemies

I like how teens are too young to figure out their sexuality unless its heterosexual

shleemies

Idk how people find this old post like once a week but I will say as a closeted 15 year old nothing can describe how much confidence it gave me that everyone agreed with me. That it’s all bullshit. I was so angry and frustrated at the world not taking me seriously, and the thousands and thousands of people reblogging showed me that I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t crazy and heteronormativity is all bullshit. Being queer is as natural as breathing air.

bijoumikhawal
dankmemeuniversity

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rowantheexplorer

They’re also shooting for 100% renewable plastic sources by 2030! All of the soft plant/leaf elements in sets right now and going forward are made out of bioplastic made from sugarcane, and they’re working on getting the regular hard plastic bricks out of that, too.

lynnafred

They’ve done it, actually! The full bricks are in the prototype stage now, and are expected to be 100% biodegradable without the need for a commercial compost facility. It’s very cool. Right now they’re testing the durability and playability of the bricks and seeing what needs to be revised/reworked on their final model.

apurplefriend

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fullhalalalchemist

So its that easy huh

sushinfood

Of course it is

ultranos

Actually, this isn’t “easy” and is huge news. You see, Lego is absolutely meticulous about their quality control. Their standards for manufacturing are stupidly high, as are their safety requirements. You know that distinctive “click” when you pop two Lego bricks apart? They engineered that. That sound is so distinctive that it can be used to tell genuine Lego bricks from counterfeits and it’s a sound that would be based on shape and material.

Furthermore, one of the hard requirements for a Lego brick is that it must be compatible with any other Lego brick. If I buy a set today and pull a set from the 1980s? Those bricks would fit together perfectly. This requires a huge amount of precision engineering and controls on manufacturing quality. (I can’t remember the source, but I’ve at least heard that once the brick molds wear to a certain point, they’re pulled from the line and either melted down or turned into construction material for Lego HQ. Point being, no one is getting their hands on a worn Lego mold)

Recycled and non-petroleum plastics are different from other plastic. The chemistry is different. The timing and process to use them is different. This has been a reason why more companies haven’t moved to them, because there’s a drop in quality for material (so they claim).

What Lego just did is completely obliterate that argument. The corporation with some of the strictest quality control requirements for plastic just kicked the basic foundation of the “bad quality” argument out from under it, because if they feel confident enough to guarantee the same experience as using a brick from over 40 years ago, if they are confident enough that they can meet their own metrics at a huge industrial scale….

Nobody else has any excuse.

memecatwings
knottahooker

HEY CALIFORNIA PEOPLE!

HURRICANE ADVICE FROM A FLORIDIAN!

Make sure you've got shelf-stable food and water for everyone in the house, including pets. The rule of thumb is a gallon per person per day. Freeze water bottles if you want cold water.

Make sure you have enough meds!

Make sure you have batteries, candles, flashlights, and a manual can opener. 

Make sure your electronics, including backup batteries, are charged. Unplug things you don't want fried in case of a power surge. 

Don't tape your windows, it doesn't help and you'll just be stuck scrubbing goo off of them later.

Put a mug of frozen water in it in your freezer with a quarter on top of it. If your freezer defrosts, the ice will melt and the quarter will sink and tell you you need to throw things out.

Get everything that's not nailed to a foundation out of your yard. That dead branch hanging on by a thread? Time to get it down (it was probably time to do that three days ago, but now’s better than never).

Park away from powerlines and trees if you can. Rain makes the ground soft and then trees fall over.

Have an evacuation plan to a shelter. Evacuate if they’re telling you to.

If you start to flood, don't go in your attic. You'll get trapped if the water rises too high and you can't hack through your roof. This happened to a lot of people in Texas and Louisiana. Get ON the roof.

Be safe, be well <3 

ms-demeanor

What the fuck?

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???? WHAT???

Ngl, "tropical storm in death valley" was not on my 2023 bingo card.

Drainage on our roads is shitty in SoCal, don't attempt to drive through water deep enough to touch your bumpers and don't attempt to walk across moving water, water only as deep as your ankles can knock you down and sweep you away.

Predicted wind speeds are similar to strong Santa Anas, so lock things down like you would for that, though keep in mind that yeah the combination of heavy rain and wind leads to more felled trees than just wind.

Take photos of the inside of your home now; flood insurance fucking sucks here and if you're in a possible flood zone you want as much documentation of your home and belongings as possible in case you need to make a claim.

Freezing water bottles also means you've got a lot of ice in your freezer if power goes out, and safe potable water once it thaws, so freeze bottles of water to have something to keep your fridge and freezer cool and store more water regardless of if you want cold water.

asymm3

fill your bathtub/ large containers/ buckets with water so you can flush the toilet if the power goes out. you can check the water level by popping the top off the tank

don’t walk through any standing/flood waters afterwards. they’re nasty and can hide downed power lines

unless there is an emergency do not drive through floodwaters. your car will stall

bijoumikhawal
teaboot

Adult ProTip, from a security professional: If a kid tells you, "My parents are gonna kill me / kick my ass / kick me out" for something relatively minor, don't respond with shit like "Really? ;) that sounds a little extreme, don't you think sweetie?" because that shit really does happen.

Instead, respond as though whatever threat they are afraid of is fully valid, and offer whatever you can do to help- ask if they believe they are in danger of being hurt in any way, and work accordingly.

If they're overreacting, they'll usually realize and dial it back, self-correct and begin thinking a bit more rationally.

If they're not overreacting, and the danger is real, then they'll need a level-headed adult in their corner, not another condescending authority figure who doesn't believe them.

greededling
ryebreadgf

meltingpotofinterests

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the evolution of silly jokes evolving into more serious problems reminds me of the useless lesbian joke which started specifically regarding lesbians not being able to tell if a girl is into them or not making the first move stuff regarding specifically love but then it sort of evolved into an annoying joke that lesbians weren't good at things? despite the sterotype up to then being largely the opposite?
idkimoutofideas
owivizzle

God I really wish carrying stuffed animals around with you was socially acceptable

mitch-that-bitch

I don’t mean to take over a post, but I actually did a project on this for my sociology of deviance class in college!

I carried a large stuffed rabbit whenever I went in public for about a week to observe the reaction of others. The point of the project was to do something harmless yet unusual to see if the action would be considered deviant, in which case someone had to try to correct or shame the behavior.

Long story short, nobody tried to correct my behavior. I was asked about it casually, had a few lingering stares thrown my way and when I was with my boyfriend, shop employees would direct questions to him instead of me. However, nobody refused to assist me when I was alone in a store, nobody said anything about the rabbit besides “oh, thats a cute bunny!” and I attended college classes without even a teacher questioning it.

In conclusion, it is socially acceptable to carry a stuffed animal, its just not a societal norm. ^^

nerdgasrnz

#for followers with a big anxiety or self hate problem #bring a friend with you (via @kingdom-for-muses)

ennui-is-me

DOING IT

thebibliosphere

My friend gave me a stuffed monkey plushy when I was struggling with uni, and I took him everywhere for like four years, usually velcrod to my backpack. No one said a damn thing, except my renaissance professor who saw it one day in the hallway and cracked the fuck up because I had a literal monkey on my back and he just looked at me like, “oh god, me too”. I used to leave him on desks during classes and exams (the monkey, not my prof). It was my reminder that someone cared if I was coping. But more than that it was soothing to have something to fidget with that wasn’t a pen. I used to ping those fucking things across the room I was so agitated. Harder to hurt people with a projectile stuffed monkey.

kripke-is-my-king

I got what I thought was a normal screen cleaning kit for my computer while I was in college. Much to my delight, instead of a little washcloth or whatever, the kit came with a tiny stuffed pig. 

So I carried this pig in my backpack all through college, periodically taking it out, spraying my screen, and using the pig to wipe it off. 

Now, I kept the pig in the side pocket of my bag where he was completely visible.

Then one day in screenwriting class I pulled him out to wipe my screen. 

One of the guys sitting next to me looked appalled. “You’re wiping it off with your little stuffed animal??” 

I explained what the pig was. 

Turns out, the guy had noticed it and just thought it was adorable I carried a stuffed animal with me every day. He’d never mentioned it before. 

Honestly, people do not care, and will not say anything. No matter the reason for your little stuffed animal friend. 

marcys-underground

And if you’re still really nervous about it keep a stuffed animal keychain on your bag. I have a cute little frog that stays on my backpack so when work gets stressful I can squeeze it.

peanutbutterbananasmoothie

For my anxious followers.

shadowy-dumbo-octopus

Confirmed. I take my Venom tsum tsum to uni when I need a little mental boost. The little goo always brings me good luck and overall makes my day just a tiny bit better. I haven’t received a single comment about them so far.

Bring your stuffed buddies to class/work/whatever, guys. People don’t care.

lemonsharks

I have a couple of Ikea sharks* and have had cause to periodically carry them around in public - one of which I bought with the last $15 I had at the time, after making a series of big life changes. “This is frivolous and I don’t have to care about that because I’m getting paid shortly—I’m going to do it!”

The reactions I get range from amusement through delight and “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT” but so far, never disapproval.

The moral of the story is Carry Your Emotional Support Plushie With Pride, You Deserve It.

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*pictured: not my shark

taraljc

true story: I once had an appallingly awful day at the hell job and it coincided with my giant squishy Baymax being delivered from China, and no lie I hugged on that Baymax to keep from crying until it was time to leave

lauraannegilman

I travel with DC (”Don’t Care”) the Emotional Support Honey Badger.  I go through TSA with him attached to my backpack, I hug him when I sleep in transit, I prop him next to me in cafes in cities, towns, and rural areas.  The only time anyone’s ever so much as raised an eyebrow at me was the TSA agent who recognized what he was, and asked it he could get his picture taken with him.

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People don’t judge.  Kids think you’re awesome. You get a companion who never judges you.  It’s all win.

soft-bois-blog

I know probably everyone has seen this post already, but its too good not to reblog.

Don’t be afraid to carry your comfort items around with you! :D I take some of my stuffed friends to work sometimes, and no one ever bats an eye at them!

stargazing-at-the-moon

*looks at my pink teddy bear I named Ruby* you’re coming to college with me and that’s not a choice

thefurriestofchows

This post made me cry bcuz sometimes i feel bad for having stuffed animals/plushies

starkcontrasts

i needed this a lot

I brought a mini stuffed fox as decore for my cubicle at work not as a comfort item or anything just something to bring life to the cube and my coworkers were delighted by it
bijoumikhawal
dnickels

Every single time there is a catastrophic flood (so, every six weeks or so) the news will post pictures of people out in their kayaks or canoes pretending its Venice without any commentary and it makes me completely insane. This is dangerous and people die doing it.

  1. Do not go into the floodwater unless the risk of staying where you are is somehow greater than the risk of going in the floodwater. Do not get in the floodwater except as a last resort.
  2. The water itself is bad news (raw sewage, fire ants, industrial runoff) but the danger here is in the movement of the water: water flowing down a street has currents. Sometimes you can see them and sometimes you can't. 12 inches of water can move a car. What do you think a few feet will do to you in your dinky little sit-on-top if you get tired? Who is coming to rescue you if the water starts taking you somewhere you don't want to be?
  3. Visibility in floodwater is shit. You cannot see obstacles (submerged cars, mailboxes, trashcans, etc). Trees and fences will become strainers (imagine pouring pasta into a colander. Now imagine you are the pasta and the force of constantly moving water is holding you in place). If you come out of your vessel you could potentially encounter open manholes or storm drains that suck people in (a lot of water draining through them creates powerful suction!!). People walking in floodwaters regularly step off a curb and are suddenly immersed in moving water well over their head.
  4. Somehow, despite all this, these people NEVER have LIFEJACKETS on!! You own a boat but not a lifejacket?? Not that a lifejacket would make this a good idea, but if you are forced to abandon your home/car/whatever and get in the water a lifejacket might very well SAVE YOUR LIFE.

Look at a picture of professional swiftwater rescuers operating in a flood situation. They have on lifejackets, drysuits, helmets, boots, and a shit ton of gear. You are in a two-piece bathing suit and a shitty walmart paddleboard. DON'T BE STUPID. IT'S NOT WORTH IT.

sorry for the all caps lecture but one drowning is too many.

chilewithcarnage

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greededling
sprinkledsalt

I remember someone on here saying zoomers treat teachers the way boomers treat retail workers and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Seriously, some people act like teachers are servants for their students and take “the customer is always right” mentality and turn it into “the student is always right”, when no, they’re not, especially when the attitude of some students boils down to, “I can’t believe this bitch Karen expects me to actually show up to class, read these texts, and analyze them 🙄 I’m going to speak to the manager email the department chair if you hold me accountable for missing class and not turning in work all semester”

sprinkledsalt

I’m thinking about college students because my mom has been a professor for +30 years and she’s like, clearly the first person to have ever told some of these adults “no” in their lives lol. She’s always willing to help students who are struggling but trying, but she has no tolerance for students who do things like *checks notes* literally laugh in her face when she told them they didn’t meet the minimum requirements for an assignment, and then act shocked when she kicked them out of her office for that lol. Or students who were shocked that they were marked absent for missing class because they went on vacation or decided to sleep in–literally, a student had a mandatory conference scheduled, missed it, and later sent an email saying, “Sorry, I decided to sleep in.” My mom was like “?? So you decided it was fine to waste my time??? And now you expect me to go out of my way to reschedule with you??”

And that’s the thing. A lot of these zoomers are mentally stuck in high school and think teachers aren’t people and have no lives of their own outside the classroom, so they should have to bend over backwards to accommodate students who feel like they have no obligation to meet the requirements of courses they signed up for. It’s the same thing when students are outraged that they face penalties for missing deadlines (when they don’t have accommodations from the university for a disability, of course), but teachers don’t make deadlines because they hate students, it’s because they have deadlines, too, and need to have the assignments turned in to give students grades! You don’t have deadlines because your teacher is a bitch, you have deadlines because that’s how the adult world works, and it doesn’t revolve around you.

Some of these zoomers even lie to get out of their responsibilities, too. Recently, again, a student emailed my mom like “oh I’m late to your class every day because I have a class before that, which ends in the first 5 minutes of your class, and my professor won’t let me leave early :(” And my mom was like, “….The university’s computer system literally would not let you register for a class with a scheduling conflict like that. I double-checked this with the head of the department.” And then the student got real quiet 🤡

Like, ya’ll are supposedly adults lol, fucking act like it instead of acting like rude, entitled, overgrown 9th graders to teachers 

sprinkledsalt

@wingsy-keeper-of-songs
I don’t get why zoomers think it’s okay to act like this at all. I would have had my ass handed to me if I pulled anything like this.

Some people are just dicks, of course, but my mom thinks the increase in this behavior is from the pandemic. Her colleagues have been lamenting similar behavior in their classes, too, like students refusing to turn on their cameras for virtual classes and just not doing in-class activities online. They really just sit there with no microphone or camera all class, do nothing all senester, and expect to get full participation points or whatever.

My mom is seeing a really academically behind group of students this year, but again, she’s willing to work with the ones who try. For the ones who miss class and don’t do assignments and lie in their excuses, her theory is that these are students who got away with not doing much work for two years and just lied and didn’t face any consequences from their overwhelmed high school teachers during the pandemic. So they came to college thinking they could do the same minimal amount of work, miss class whenever they feel like it, and still skate by with a C, and they’re shocked when professors are like “no, you missed half of our classes by the midway point of the semester, you need to withdraw or take the F.” It’s a generation used to having their parents call up their high school teachers and complain whenever they get a bad grade. Once again: very “I’m going to speak to the manager.” There’s usually an appropriation of the language of social justice, too, like people saying deadlines are ableist because they have anxiety. In my mom’s experience, the students who actually have accommodations from the disability resource center aren’t doing this—those students work hard—it’s the ones who do nothing all semester and are outraged by their bad grades at the very end. And for the record, my mental health was in the gutter in college, but I never acted like this lol. Maybe it was because I knew teachers are actual people, idk

synille

I’m definitely going to second that pandemic point. I work as an RA, and my primary purpose is to help out students and make sure they get connected to campus resources. I have a lot of good eggs, but I will say, this year’s batch of freshmen is by FAR panning out to have some of the most flagrant displays of inconsideration than I’ve seen in my whole career.

It’s to the point that me and my whole division had a long meeting discussing the sudden influx in immaturity and disrespectful behavior and how best to wrangle it. There’s no pattern or predictable measure for who’s being troublesome—any income, any race, any gender, ALL of those categories have at least two or three individuals that are overwhelmingly destructive and unmindful. The only common factor is that it’s THIS year’s batch—the one fresh out of over two years of pandemic high school.

We have a crackpot hypothesis that the individualism that came from pandemic isolation was truly detrimental to students’ social and empathic development. We have no proof but we seriously cannot think of any other explanation for this. Please be kind to people who work with college students—this year in particular, we’re being put through the wringer.

joaniam

My Dad worked as a teacher for over 25 years before the pandemic. I once asked him what the most important thing about school was, what the most important thing kids learned was. He told me it was how to live in the world with other people.

He’s also said that if a kid comes to class who was previously homeschooled, YOU CAN TELL, because the kid will be less skilled in waiting their turn to talk, for example.

So, it seems that schools’ most important job really is socializing kids, as we now have massive amounts of data on what happens when every kid is homeschooled.

ezool
gehinnom

I've been having a lot of feelings about the downfall of quality lately.

I ordered a pair of Dickies pants because pants are hard and workwear is usually reliable. When they arrived they were the scratchiest, most papery material--I can't actually call it fabric in good faith--and fit a full three sizes too small. A week later I found the same pair in a thrift store, dated 2017. These are actual pants. They fit, they're not made of asbestos. They're only separated by time.

There's no wood used in interior design unless it's a custom build. I have a set of wealthy relatives who live in a condo. The downpayment for it was likely more money than I will see in my lifetime. The floors and the cabinets are all still laminate. I know I will never see real wood in a building constructed after 2000. Every "apartment hack" I see online has this very conspicuous, flat appearance because of all the paint and contact paper required to make these builds look personal in any way. The only natural materials are in the furnishings.

I've been harping on this for years, but everything is shit, nothing is designed to work, and "growth" and "profit" are just euphemisms for cutting corners until things are unworkable.