while im talking bad fanfic lubes: rosin is only used with bowed string instruments, not plucked ones! it goes on the bow hairs to make them grip the strings better! most importantly, it comes in a SOLID CAKE and is STICKY. it’s literally the opposite of lube. and jaskier thewitcher wouldn’t be carrying it around anyway, because he plays THE LUTE
Sometimes I see posts on this site and I wonder what inspired them and other times I decide I probably really don’t actually want to know
truly the most american thing is Big Drink. more than late stage capitalism, more than an unparalleled cultural focus on individualism, more than 9/11 jokes
what binds all americans together culturally is Big Drink
and you might be saying “is this fat shaming” or “but mayor bloomberg outlawed Big Drink in nyc” or “gays are so annoying about their iced coffee” or some other dumb comment but no open your minds, Big Drink isn’t just sugary or caffeinated beverages
every day i see one of you hydration bitches (affectionate) on the train with a water bottle so big a toddler could drown in it. that too is Big Drink.
we literally invented a bigger beer can (tall boy) in wisconsin in the 60s in the service of Big Drink
anyway i never feel more american then when i have Big Drink in my hands
Life-changing OCD hack is learning that you can literally call poison control to check if you fucked up and took medications wrong in a way that could kill you instead of having a panic attack while reading reddit and quora threads for an hour. They won’t even be mad at you. Like obviously don’t do it every day or something but genuinely you can do this if you need to
as people turn more and more towards the internet as a first choice for information, poison control (which has rebranded as poison help? i think?) is seeing fewer and fewer callers
part of this is because the USAmerican birth rates have slowed, and the number 1 culprit for why you’d call poison control is kids under 5 put shit in their mouths all the time
but part of it is BECAUSE people are turning to the internet first
and you don’t have to! poison control is FREE and available in EVERY US STATE AND TERRITORY
they are staffed 24/7 365 days a year! they do everything they can to minimize wait times and they have an ENORMOUS database of medications, household cleaners, chemicals, pesticides, and MORE! and not only information on JUST those things, but how they interact with other things! they can even give you advice on if your pet ingests something they shouldn’t!
but poison control isn’t federally funded! they’re a frankenstein mishmash of state funded, federally funded, and a couple of other weird ones (like organizations helping with funding) just for flavor. poison control NEEDS you to be politically aware. keep a finger on local and state politics; if your state is voting to shut down their poison control center, make sure your reps hear about how pissed you are!
poison control saves lives, but even more than that, it keeps people out of emergency rooms and walk-ins when they don’t have to be. when Louisiana closed its PCC in 1988, people who called the PCC hotline were instructed to call their local hospital instead. the number of medically-treated poisonings rose by 42%…meaning ERs and walk-ins were flooded with people who’d taken, say, one extra pill of ibuprofen by accident, or got a bit of rubbing alcohol in their mouth, or got their dog’s flea medicine on their skin. stuff that was SCARY, sure…but wouldn’t have needed medical care at all if there had just been someone to tell those people you can just wash your mouth out, or wash your skin, or refrain from taking any more ibuprofen for at least 24 hours!
anyway help ur local PCC, put the pressure on your political reps, and if you ever have questions like “hypothetically what would happen if you inhaled iodine,” you can call 1 800 222 1222 and speak with a real live reassuring person any time day or night!
Not to derail, but as someone who used to have pretty severe phone anxiety, I’ve used the official poison control website (www.poison.org) as an alternative to calling. They have a lovely chat feature, if, for whatever reason, you don’t want to/can’t call (also thinking of my D/deaf and HoH friends) and looking at their site, it does seem to route to the local PCC centers.
They have safety checks in place after chatting with them in the form of automated texts that you reply to within a set time or they’ll send emergency services to you. They even have an official pill identifier, in case you get your pills mixed up, and helpful tips on their site.
To celebrate the year of the snake, I wanted to combine the snake with my other favorite scaled animal, the goldfish! Growing up as little kid in China, I was always fascinated by the goldfish and koi ponds that are scattered in every park and apartment complex. I would stare at them for hours, mesmerized by their shiny scales and graceful movements. Hopefully I was able to capture that in this painting 😀
amhrancas 