The group that shared the image (in the original post) is called “Corgi Club.” They can’t post a pug to the Corgi Club.

Though whether it was changed for the sake of the club, or it was changed previously but then shared by the club, who knows?

she uses the same rag she used in the bathroom to wipe my desk.

That reminds me, I once had a boss who used the same scrubber to clean both the toilet bowl and the sink. She did it so casually, seemingly clueless about how fucking nasty that is.

Stopped reading halfway through. Nope, nope, nope.

Amazing - it’s only 7am and, thanks to this post, I’ve already had enough internet for today.

Ugh, I love this idea so much. It makes me wish I could have my own custom domain. Alas, there are far more urgent things in life that need to eat up my meager paychecks.

had a mobile phone in their pockets, which at the time had exactly three apps

At the time I was in school (90s to early 00s), cell phones were for making phone calls. There were no “apps.” There was no texting, no camera, none of that. Smart phones came out the year I graduated high school. Before that, cell phones were not anywhere near as common as they are today. At a certain point, they were even a status symbol. My elementary school teachers definitely didn’t have the money to afford something so fancy in the 90s.

The closest thing I had as a kid was an “electronic organizer” with no phone/internet abilities. That had a calculator and a calendar, but it was more of a novelty and a toy - not something I relied on or would bring to school.

Maybe it’s how their family raised them. Nothing ever happened in their household. Their parents did nothing interesting and the kids did nothing interesting. So “nothing happening” is their normal. This post must be the first time they’ve encountered families with personality, which is so strange to them that they can’t believe it.

My mom’s the absolute opposite. I’ve suggested making lists, and she is vehemently against them for some reason. She’d rather go to the super market, walk up and down every aisle, hoping to remember what she needs. Then when she inevitably forgets something, she just sends me (or one of her other kids, or my dad) to go pick up the thing she forgot. It makes zero sense and does nothing but inconvenience the rest of us just because she refuses to write things down.

For your first story, I’m having trouble picturing it. How many lanes were in that road? Was it a “one lane each direction” deal, so when you “pulled out to pass them” you crossed a dashed yellow line into the oncoming lane?

What a terrifying situation. I’ve seen some bad drivers, but that driver must have been on another level.

I have no words for your second story. Such a tragic situation that could’ve wound up even worse in so many fucked up ways.

I definitely have both. Before 2016, my anti-depressive medication did an amazing job.

But then there was an election in the US, and that one day made me realize just how fucked we all were in a profound, unmitigatable way. I never looked at the people in my country the same way again, I never looked at the political system the same way again, and my perpetual-hopefulness for the world was completed crushed.

I know some people will say that’s overly-dramatic, but those people clearly hadn’t been paying attention or connecting the dots. I knew immediately when that election was called that there would be no peaceful way back. All this fascism and violence was written on the wall that day. To be able to recognize the patterns forming, but lacking the ability to stop it (and even being called “alarmist” for pointing it out), meant being stuck in a perpetual feeling of helplessness. It’s been 10 years, shit’s played out just as I feared it would, and the only sliver of hope I’ve seen ever since was the rise of Mamdani in NYC. However, awesome as that is, it’s just not enough to lift me up anymore.

I also know I’m not alone. We are collectively traumatized, there’s no other way to put it. It’s going to take a long time for us to heal (if we’re able to at all.) The worst part is, this was all done on purpose. Those in charge of the Republican party absolutely, 100% wanted us to feel this way - Project 2025 proved it.

Then there’s the non-political stuff that I didn’t predict, adding insult to injury. Like a network of cameras being installed everywhere, and gen AI furthering the confusion between reality and fantasy. Oh, and that whole year where the world shut down due to a disease, which was more bizarre than anything I could’ve expected on that first election day.

Anyway, you’re right, there’s no amount of nature walks or breathing exercises that can resolve the perpetual stress so many of us are under. I don’t want to be a “doomer” but how the fuck am I supposed to not feel doomed? Even if I didn’t look around and try to understand the world, there’s my own empty wallet, grocery stores full of disease-infected food, all the clothing available is shit quality that starts to unravel before being worn (so it has to be purchased more frequently), and the never-ending bills that get higher even when our wages stay the same. It’s not like we’re working hard in order to eventually get relief; we’re just working hard today in order to survive to work harder tomorrow. There’s no end in sight.

Everything truly sucks and now I daily contemplate things that I never thought I would have before, even with my anti-depressants.

Man, that sucks. I’ll bookmark the alternative you provided, since sites seem to be springing this crap out of nowhere a lot these days.

Same. It hasn’t made a peep about using an adblocker for me, neither on my computer nor on my phone.

I wonder if it’s something regional?

Wait, I’ve never encountered a paywall on TVTropes. I don’t see it when I click OP’s link either. Is this something new?

This is relatable and I hate it.

The amount of weed I smoke. Teenage-me was still in the process of deprogramming from D.A.R.E. propaganda. She wouldn’t have expected to become a full-blown stoner in her 30s.

I’ve always had a strong memory, and unfortunately it feeds into my anxiety and depression. Weed definitely impacts my memory, but it’s a benefit - normally, all the stupid little things of the day would torture me. I’d be overanalyzing every word I said, worrying over social mistakes that nobody else even remembers happening. It’s a mental process that only serves to hurt me, and that I raw-dogged sober for most of my life. Weed lets me break that cycle, change my focus, and not remember all the dumb little details that don’t actually matter, but that would otherwise keep me awake at night.

As a teen, I would’ve struggled to understand that there could be benefits to marijuana. She would’ve just thought the self-torture was normal. Life’s weird like that sometimes.

Middle and high school are full of stupid misconceptions about girls. In my middle school, people believed that if you wore black panties, it meant you’re DTF. The boys also thought that if a girl’s nipples were hard, it meant she was turned on. No amount of saying, “Bruh, it’s just winter,” or asking why boys’ nipples don’t get hard when they’re horny, would change their minds.

It all really boils down to - some boys will grasp at anything to confirm their belief that a girl is interested in sex.

You lower most of your fingers if they tried to cut you off.

I love how you phrased this.

Lived in the states my entire life. Never heard of that.

A varied diet provides protein as well.

Science time! Proteins are made up of amino acids. Certain chains of amino acids form “complete proteins,” which are what most people think of as “protein.” However, the constituent amino acids connect with each other in our bodies even if they’re obtained from different sources. So two sources of “incomplete” proteins can still provide “complete proteins” if both are consumed. Which means it’s a lot easier to get your protein from a varied, vegan diet than most people might think.

Incomplete vs complete proteins on WebMD.

At first I read this and was like, “Wait, who?” I went back to the main page and tried seeing any posts by that name. I tried every sort-type and didn’t see it. So I looked up the name directly.

Found the profile. In the corner, I saw the button: “Unblock user.”

Ha! No wonder I didn’t recognize the name. - turns out I already blocked them some time ago! I rarely block anybody, their posts must have overwhelmingly been utter garbage to make it onto that short list.

I’m not the OP, I’m not the one talking about child-marriage. Thus why I’m basing my distaste for fundies on the things I said above.