I have very vivid, cinematic dreams and often have a good memory of them when I wake—but, unfortunately, the ones that stay PAST that so that I remember them days later are usually the anxiety dreams. Which all have a basic template:

Either my coworkers or my friends gather around me and say that they’re sorry, they really thought that if they gave me enough time I’d become a decent worker/friend, but it’s just not working out and they’re tired of pretending that I have any potential, so we’re just going to sever this relationship. They’re always very nice about it, but very firm about the fact that I am simply not up to snuff and I’m never going to be worth investing time into.

The venue varies–parties are common, as are work days where I also have a big project to present after this and before I have to clean out my desk.

a year after an extremely rough breakup with a narcissist who constantly verbally abused me, gaslit me, and was starting into physical abuse when I pulled the plug and I am still getting massively triggered sometimes when a stray thought about the way she treated me hits. I get so worked up and angry about it and it is so frustrating because it just feels like there will never be any recompense for what she did.

she lied to our mutual friends about everything, treated my son like shit, stole from me, not only money and things but something I can never replace (an album of pictures I took and developed in high school, with all the negatives). while I lost everything after giving so much to her and that relationship, she went on to marry one of our friends within the year and just moved on into his life like nothing happened.

I get that that won’t last, someone that destructive and selfish eventually will burn those bridges and have to move on to the next mark, and the people who I thought were my friends who rejected me will eventually realize who and what she is. but that doesn’t make it feel any better, it really just hurts worse, because her damage will continue to be done and what I’ve lost I can’t get back.

I’m in therapy and trying to work through it, but it just fuckin sucks.

@Aria said in AI Megathread:

I’m pretty sure we’re all just living in the plot of Wall-E now and I hate it here.

Wall-E and Idiocracy. Yup.

Kavinsky, French DJ and music producer, famous for the song Nightcall.

https://youtu.be/MV_3Dpw-BRY

@helvetica They can’t say thank you with words, but I will. Thank you for helping those furry babies.

@Pavel Okay, so I didn’t invent her presence on that one whole cloth. Whew.

Going to have to check this out.

@RightMeow said in Real life happy:

As my return to school isn’t a big deal to anyone in my actual life, I just wanted to share because I can. I am about halfway through my estimated timetable on my degree. I am double majoring with 18 credit semesters while working management for 40+ hours. I’m in accelerated courses to achieve the goal faster. I just got my certificates to say that I have again maintained my dean list holding that I’ve had the whole time and a merit award for taking part in the student insight committee.

That is all. I return you back to the game opens, closes, and dramas.

Thank you for reading.

From someone who was also an adult student carrying a full-time course load while working a full-time job for something like seven years over two degrees:

What you’re doing is incredibly hard. Anyone who doesn’t think it’s a big deal doesn’t know what they’re talking about. You should be enormously proud of yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pjzRJstARnE

@Wizz what a handsome

@Faraday CUTE!!

Because this is topical for me today with the final part of Wind and Truth coming out (yay, finally, I can start it!) …

Cannot possibly recommend the company Graphic Audio enough as an audiobook experience. It was my gateway drug back into reading after an embarrassingly long stretch of fractured attention span. Their tagline is ‘A Movie in Your Mind’, which it pretty well succeeds at. They make everything a full Radio Play experience, with sound effects and music and a sprawling cast of voice actors for each book.

The only downside is that they do tend to retain the same voice talent, so if you bounce around between some series, you’ll be like, “Hey wait, why’s Wit here? Oh, no, he’s not. Just the same voice.”

Either way, cannot recommend it highly enough. The actors really swing for the fences, and when it lands, it lands so well.

@Roz obvs so nothing dethrones the AoA thread post count.

Ashkuri’s doodles are awesome. Characters, postcards, random drawing from an offhand comment I made as a joke. Good stuff if you get a chance to take them up on it.

@Cobalt I’ve asked. I’ll message you privately if I get a bite. 😉

I think we all know where we should go

edit: wow that’s a big image

cce338b8-5151-4c7a-8554-d33a8821852e-cf005f61a6ab6105d4ee7f38b0ca8f127ce0d22ae0f860ed7edd51eaf0cacbf4.jpeg

@MisterBoring said in FAT BEAR WEEK 2025:

Chunk is the winner. Also, I found out he’s got a broken jaw, so the injured contender story probably pushed a lot of votes his way.

“His face looks sad and that makes me sad” versus “his belly is very round and that makes me happy” definitely came into play in a few of my votes for Chunk. The broken jaw is going to be a permanent issue for him, so I hope he continues to have several more years of being a very fat bear despite it.

Arguable, but the Teshigahara film Woman in the Dunes is based on The Castle by Franz Kafka, specifically the first part and the reaction by the villages. Also, please watch Woman in the Dunes, it is beautiful.

@Third-Eye shhhhh they were beautiful and I loved your poems