It’s difficult to get a decent focus on the tiny critters swimming around in a jar.
This afternoon, I went ahead and gave them a first meal of a small amount of the spirulina powder food, mixed into water first and added with a pipette. They do seem to be interested in what settled to the bottom.
Enough of the babies hatched that I should probably get the planned larger tank with some plants set up soon for them.
Bree Newsome is the black rights activist who climbed the flagpole to remove the rebel flag, if anyone’s wondering why her name sounds familiar but can’t place it!
Why… why are people trying to save a business that failed, they pay less than walmart to their floor associates. Like, what are you doing?
Imagine if the people donating to this GoFundMe actually cared as much about human beings
there’s something seriously fishy going on here. $200,050,000 raised by 1,668 people?
that’s an average donation of $119,934.05
there has gotta be something wrong with this situation.
PLEASE READ BEFORE DONATING: Be advised that this is not a donation to a charitable cause, and there is no tax deduction available. It is a donation to a potential commercial venture. The funds raised would be added to other capital being gathered by the potential purchasers of some or all of Toys“R”Us. A donation to this campaign doesn’t qualify you to claim equity in any potential acquisition; it simply means you want future generations to be Toys“R”Us kids.
“give us lots of money to buy toys ‘r’ us and we’ll give you nothing a bumper sticker! it’s like investing except you don’t get a stake! #SaveToysRUs”
the guy running the campaign “donated” the first $200mil, average donation is like $30
“Imagine having a child that refuses to hug you or even look you in the eyes”
Imagine being shamed, as a child, for not showing affection in a way that is unnatural or even painful for you. Imagine being forced, as a child, to show affection in a way that is unnatural or even painful for you. Imagine being told, as a child, that your ways of expressing affection weren’t good enough. Imagine being taught, as a child, to associate physical affection with pain and coercion.
As a preschool special ed para, this is very important to me. All my kids have their own ways of showing affection that are just as meaningful to them as a hug or eye contact is to you or me.
One gently squeezes my hand between both of his palms as he says “squish.” I reciprocate. When he looks like he’s feeling sad or lost, I ask if I can squish him, and he will show me where I can squish him. Sometimes it’s almost like a hug, but most of the time, it’s just a hand or an arm I press between my palms. Then he squishes my hand in return, says “squish,” and moves on. He will come ask for squishes now, when he recognizes that he needs them.
Another boy smiles and sticks his chin out at me, and if he’s really excited, he’ll lean his whole body toward me. The first time he finally won a game at circle time, he got so excited he even ran over and bumped chins with me. He now does it when he sees me outside of school too. I stick out my chin to acknowledge him, and he grins and runs over and I lean down for a chin bump.
Yet another child swings my hand really fast. At a time when another child would be seeking a hug, she stands beside me and holds my hand, and swings it back and forth, with a smile if I’m lucky. The look on her face when I initiate the hand swinging is priceless.
Another one bumps his hip against mine when he walks by in the hallway or on the playground, or when he gets up after I’m done working with him. No eye contact, no words, but he goes out of his way to “crash” into me, and I tell him that it’s good to see him. He now loves to crash into me when I’m least expecting it. He doesn’t want anything, really. Just a bump to say “Hi, I appreciate you’re here.” And when he’s upset and we have to take a break, I’ll bump him, ask if he needs to take a walk, and we just go wander for a bit and discuss whatever’s wrong, and he’s practically glued to my side. Then one more bump before we go back into the room to face the problem.
Moral of the story is, alternative affection is just as valid and vitally important as traditional affection. Reciprocating alternative affection is just as valid and vitally important as returning a hug. That is how you build connections with these children.
This is so goddamn important.
I verbally express affection. A LOT.
My husband… doesn’t. I don’t know why. For the longest time part of me wondered if it meant he loved me less.
At some point I told him about a thing I had done as a kid. Holding hands, three squeezes means ‘I Love You’.
Suddenly he’s telling me I Love You all the time.
Holding my hand, obviously, but also randomly.
taptaptap
on my hand, my shoulder, my butt, my knee, whatever body part is closest to him, with whatever part of him is closest to me
All the time.
More often than I ever verbally said it.
It’s an ingrained signal now, I can tap three times on whatever part of him, and get three taps back in his sleep. Apparently I do the same.
▪Vessel with Four Spouts.
Date: early 1800’s (?)
Place of origin/Culture: Great Basin, Pueblo, Mojave
Period: Post-Contact Period
Medium: Ceramic, pigment.
my cat is licking himself loudly and wetly, somewhere in this pitch-black room, and it sounds like there’s an old man eating a bowl of chili in the dark with me
one of the many problems with just saying “listen to x voices” and leaving it at that, not going doing any critical evaluation beyond that, is that sometimes the individual speaking is genuinely a moron who has no clue what theyre talking about and now theyre trying to speak on behalf of the entire population in question
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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