I recently made it to Road of Sacrifices and was surprised to encounter very large but otherwise normal-looking crab enemies. Are these the most ordinary-looking enemies in the entire series?
I swear it's not really related to me being a man as I'm trans and my feelings didn't really change before vs after transitioning.
I'm not the most interesting person and I have some barriers that prevent that. I'm currently not interesting in improving that as I tried for years and as I said I do have barriers. But of course even in spaces that are not the manosphere, everyone talks about improving yourself and being the best you can be. I'm just so tired of trying so hard and getting no results.
Yeah the point is that by any normal standards, I'm quite an uninteresting person as I have very few hobbies/things that I like to do. Though I do believe there is a lot of unnecessary prejudice about different hobbies. (Heck apparently 'hobbies' weren't really a thing until after people had more free time and less work).
I just wish I could accept that I am worthy of friendship, even a romantic relationship despite all this. Of course as we all know there's so many objectively awful people who still get these good things or at least think they are deserving or entitled to them.
The thing is that for others in similar situations I still think they're deserving of friendship and romance and are sometimes not as bad as they make themselves out to be. But then when it comes to ourselves we're so harsh and can't seem to break that cycle.
My new mouse is only 4 weeks old but he seems fascinated by things that move gently. For example he loves interacting/playing with crinkly paper. And despite not knowing how to use his wheel properly yet, he loves to make it move gently from side to side. He looks excited about them as he does little zooms when interacting with them.
I've only just got him so trying as much as possible to do everything gradually, and when the time comes I'll make him a simple DIY thing with same rope and a bell. But does anyone know of any commercial toys or DIY stuff that he might like that relate to movement?
I don't think a mirror is a good idea since males are agressive towards other males. But feel free to comment about this.
I'm not an ex-vegan but neither am I anti. I've met a number of autistic people who aren't really interested in making others conform to their ways but were never able to stomach eating meats ever since they were little (but yes to animal products). And I 100% respect that.
Onto the main topic.
I try to respect all animals though of course like everyone I do have my favorites and keep pets, and I don't like the mass farming industry. But I can't be the only one to notice that the vast majority of people just cannot mentally compute that just like they eat some animals (pigs, cows), other people eat other animals (rabbits, horses, dogs, cats, goats, sheep etc.), and that is absolutely FINE and neutral. Where things get UNACCEPTABLE is the mass abuse of animals by the farming industry so as to make as much profit as possible, and NOT because of the particular species of the animal.
For example, rabbit meat is very popular in my country, to the point where in many households it's more commonly eaten than fish. It's also a tradition in my country to eat horse meat. Predictably, a lot of tourists and immigrants balk at the thought of eating these animals. But I’ve also noticed the trend in my country that if a person who previously ate rabbit and then got one as a pet, or worked with horses, the tendency is that they personally can’t stand to eat them anymore. But they don’t necessarily oppose the practice for everybody else. Don’t get me wrong, some people absolutely DO, and to make things even more cringe is that they want it to be BANNED. Yes, to ban the eating of rabbits and horses which is a huge tradition in the country.
This line of thinking seems to be common in the majority of people. I've legit never personally met a person who was actually willing to treat ALL animals well and ethically and almost as if they're pets AND be able to eat them at the same time. It seems holding the two mentalities together is impossible for most people and loads call it psychopathy to be able to hold the two 'opposing' points of view at the same time. Like I see comments under animal-rearing videos (for meat), and a lot of the time small-time breeders do get attached to the animals and even give them names, and people in the comments call them psychopaths for being able to treat animals WELL but also eat them at the same time. And these comments aren’t coming from vegans, but people with blatant speciesism who are totally fine with eating pork, beef, chicken but not any other animals because they think they’re ‘cute’. I think treating animals well and ethically while also accepting that you need to eat them for your own health is actually a sign of a mentally healthy person.
I swear I mean no offense I'm just asking for advice. I don't want to go in depth into my conditions because of fear of comparison.
Basically I have 3 'minor' conditions that all at the same time make going out of my home difficult. There was a time when I really pushed myself into going out and hanging out with people regularly, only to have to leave early many times because I couldn't take it anymore. There were also times when I was struggling so much with my symptoms (that are not too visible on the outside), that I literally couldn't socialise and just chose to disappear into a group and pretend I was listening/caring until I could go home. I have 3 friends but I don't see them often because going outside is so difficult for me. Even when I invited some friends over to my home where I could control my environment, symptoms of course were still present and so I was still a bit anxious.
I'm doing everything I can to try and lessen my symptoms. But I want to prepare my mentality for the possibility that they will not improve.
I know on a conscious level that disabled people deserve love and deserve friends. And I totally wouldn't mind having another disabled person as a friend, heck that would probably be better because of our shared understanding. But I can't help but think who would ever want me as a friend ? Someone who can barely go outside and thus barely has any hobbies ? All I do is cook, play video games, take care of my pets, and experiment every once in a while. Of course just not falling back into clinical depression is hard for me.
First time owner here. Is it normal for mice to eat......all the time? Like a horse or cow? I know they're not like cats that need to be fed only twice a day, but how do I know if I'm feeding them too much until they show signs of being overweight?
CICO (calories in calories out) is the dogma of the fitness/health community. And it seems that the only time they acknowledge other factors in weight is when they want to blame the person for doing something wrong. Never do they attribute any good results to things mostly outside their control like genetics, homrones and medical anomalies. It's all CICO and hard work.
Let me establish that not ALL people in the fitness/health community are like this. But there really are a lot of people in that community who do badmouth overweight people constantly. But even if it's not obvious, I find that people who put effort/work into their health really do subconsciously think that they are superior to overweight people in every way. Because of the false stereotype that extra weight is caused by greed, lack of impulse control, lack of concern and laziness. Perhaps it's also to deny that their own good health results is not entirely a result of their hard work and effort but also the things they can't control as well like genetics.
I don't know why so many people deny that genetics can make it extremely hard to stay at a healthy weight when genetics are responsible for so many of the things we can't control. And this is for both humans and animals. Whippet dogs and oriental cats are thin and lean due to genetics. Any orange fur present in mice indicates the gene for obesity. Certain human populations retain a chubby/round face no matter how much weight they lose. Certain people will always have higher fat percentages in certain parts of the body like the hips or the stomach. I know a guy (not on steroids) who has slight gynecomastia no matter how shredded he looks in the rest of his body. I had a partner where food just seemed to go right through them where it was hard to stay at a healthy weight from being underweight.
There are also established medical conditions that directly cause someone to be overweight. Such as: lipedema, prader willi syndrome, Cushing's syndrome, diabetes and others. On the other hand there are also conditions that directly cause someone to be underweight.
A lot of people also have chronic conditions that prevent them from being active and taking care of themselves, which can be anything from chronic pain to fatigue. Some people are also 'unlucky' enough (like me) to have severe vitamin deficiences or anemia, and instead of looking like a thinly pale Victorian orphan look completely fine and also overweight on the outside.
Personally, my body composition and bad genetics ensure that it takes twice as much effort as the average person to move the scale or produce any visible (or other) change in my body. And with chronic tiredness and other issues it's impossible for me to do that amount of effort, not that I haven't tried in the past.
Edit: when I talk about 'being overweight' I'm not talking about obesity. Is it really that hard to believe that factors outside of someone's control are responsible for a 10kg fluctuation in being overweight but not obesity?
Speaking purely hypothetical here. One can get a female ASF as a companion to a lone male mouse. But then I read that female ASFs should ideally be in a trio because of their social needs. So then you end up with 2 ASFs with 1 male mouse. Then if the male mouse dies, could you hypothetically get a female fancy mouse to join the duo of ASFs? Like do they get along?
While we're at it, is there any information out there if one can house Spiny Mice together with ASFs or fancy mice ?
Loads of pet owners have their heart in the right place (or at least they think they do), but at the same time neglect their pets. Any pet can be affected, but the most common victims are small pets like rodents, reptiles, birds and fish. This is not entirely owners' faults, as the pet industry does NOT have the animals' best interests in mind, and neither are they required to by the law in many countries. Yet most people are unaware of this and think that pet shop staff/owners are experts on pets and have their best interests in mind.
Again I suspect a lot of people are ignorant and trust pet shop owners too much. But surely people have common sense right ? Like, if a fish/bird in the wild typically travel to find food or have a large territory (for lack of better terms), then how do people think they'd be happy in a cage that is the equivalent of tiny studio appartment for a human? And 24/7 in most cases ?
There's really very little excuse these days because of the internet where proper information is at your fingertips. But it's still horrifying that the pet industry does not have the best interest for animals and that governments don't properly regulate the standards of pets.
Like for example my country has a law that forbids keeping a dog tied up for hours (though it is rarely enforced). And for my pet of interest (mice), the UK and Germany actually have guidelines for minimum cage dimensions which is the same for hamsters. And keep in mind this is the MINIMUM. Yet 75% of cages marketed towards hamsters and mice DO NOT even meet the UK's minimum dimensions which are even smaller than Germany's guidelines. It's so bad that it's actually very hard to find cages of bigger dimensions. The same can be said for guinea pigs and rabbits, as it's genuinely horrifying how small the 'large' cages are and the fact that most people do not take the time and effort to let their pet free roam a bit in a room or larger pen.
The situation is pretty bad for most small pets it seems, or really any pet that isn't your average cat and mid-energy dog.
So I like to collect animal bones that I find around while hiking/outdoors. I always clean them with some dish soap and a toothbrush and then put them in a 100% peroxide solution/mouthwash for a couple of days to kill off any pathogens before leaving them as house decor.
An archeologist told me that bones themselves don't carry any diseases. So is it alright if I use them for general cage clutter? FYI the bones wouldn't have sharp edges.
I've completed Clair Obscur at 90% including the main story of course. At first it took me a very long time to parry each enemy's different hits but by the end of my playing experience I got pretty good.
Now in Lies of P, no matter how hard I try I just cannot parry or even block at the right time for the majority of the time and have completed the main game and started the DLC out of sheer spite. This goes from the big bosses as well as the weakest of enemies.
I'll be getting my mice from a pet shop but they're still fancy mice and not feeders. But since they're from a pet shop I read that it's best to take them immediately to a vet to get them checked out and get them medication to be dewormed and deflead since there can be lots of diseases in pet shops.
I've never cared for a pet that required bedding before and even with some research I'm still confused on how it works.
So we're talking about 8 inches depth of bedding. What does changing it look like ?
Do you gather up the surface layer and dispose of it and then add some new bedding on top every couple of days, and then replace it all with fresh bedding every 2 weeks or as needed ?
Do you first throw all the old bedding in another container and dispose of some of it, and then add new bedding the bottom of the cage and then layer the old bedding on top ? So that there's always fresh bedding at the bottom?
And then how often should one just throw out all the old bedding and replace with new bedding? I'm also confused because I think I read that one is not supposed to change all bedding at once or else they will go crazy and scent mark everywhere.
I've never cared for a pet that required bedding before and even with some research I'm still confused on how it works.
So we're talking about 8 inches of bedding for mice. What does changing it look like ?
Do you gather up the surface layer and dispose of it and then add some new bedding on top every couple of days, and then replace it all with fresh bedding every 2 weeks or as needed ?
Do you first throw all the old bedding in another container and dispose of some of it, and then add new bedding the bottom of the cage and then layer the old bedding on top ? So that there's always fresh bedding at the bottom?
And then how often should one just throw out all the old bedding and replace with new bedding? I'm also confused because I think I read that one is not supposed to change all bedding at once or else the mice will go crazy and scent mark everywhere.
I've recently gotten some odour down there reminiscent of cheese. I can smell it if I'm just in underwear. However there's no pain or suspicious discharge. Is it worth going to a gynea about it ?
Even though I know as a rule of thumb to only wash with warm water down there, on relevant subreddits I saw people swearing by flushing with boring acid ?
And I do know to only wear cotton underwear.
I know I sound like a cheapskate but I really don't want to spend on expensive medication.
Long story.
Let’s call this person R. From nearly the beginning I knew that I would not just be casual friends with R because of their personality and situation that they were very open about, but I went into it anyway. They were very disadvantaged in life with poverty, unsupportive family, and a whole list of mental and physical illnesses and disability.
I got sucked into their bubbliness and passion for human rights and immediately after meeting with them started working with them on their NGO (though I would be lying if their mass guilt-tripping didn’t play a part in signing up so soon). A couple of months later I realised just how bad R’s life was and thought that working harder at the NGO (which was a complete failure) would improve things. Of course it didn’t improve things because it was a failure and because R was handling way more than they could humanly handle.
After 2 years of working on their NGO (which remained a failure), all the while becoming more familiar with R’s life circumstances and diagnoseses, I decided to withdraw from my role, because I felt I was not helping their life in any way but in fact making it worse for them by somewhat enabling them to take on much more than they could humanly handle. Of course later a mutual friend said R ranted about me for withdrawing (after 2 years of dedicated service mind you).
After leaving the NGO however, I volunteered to be their helper, which was an official role by a government service, sort of like a carer. For the next year I came to their place about twice a week to clean their house and prevent it from becoming a real biohazard and a danger to their health and their cats’ health. (Yes unfortunately they have 2 cats living in bad conditions and refuse to part with them). Other duties included a bit of cooking, running errands, basic handy-man stuff, virtual and physical record-keeping, and some remote assistance too. My compensation from social welfare was a pittance and so I spent my own money on transport and even buying them some stuff they needed. Because at the time I cared so much and thought I was helping.
Some people said I went above and beyond, and I believe it.
A year of that and I hit a breaking point. All the time and money and sweat and tears I put into helping them never made a difference. Because they would not stop trying to work themselves to death by literally inventing voluntary work and education to do as well as buying unnecessary expensive things or impulse purchases. Even worse, was that they interpreted any help as opportunity to overload themselves with even more projects.
I also felt that a lot of times they weren't asking for enough help or refused offers for more help, or didn't want to compromise on certain things (like parting with their cats or putting their mountain of unused stuff to their relative's place).
The overworking put inhuman strain on their mind and already fragile body. It definitely contributed to constant suicidality and at least 1 suicide attempt per year, and probably influenced physical problems like chronic pain, a couple of infections, hospital stays, you name it.
But of course they never acknowledged these patterns of behaviour or if they acknowledged them they kept justifying them and their decisions.
The worst part was the guilt-tripping. While taking on things they absolutely didn't need to and roping in others to help on the projects, they'd rant to everyone how they can't do this all alone, that they need help, that people in general need to do more activism etc.
Meanwhile, while I had a mean moment to everyone in a group chat, everyone was quick to call me out on it. While contagiously sick and so unable to help, I begged anyone at all to help R who was in literal danger of dying at the time. And I got the 'you don't have the right to demand this sort of help from anyone' speech.
As some people may suspect, out of all the physical and mental diagnoses R had, they were also diagnosed with personality disorders like BPD. It's a very contentious topic but what is usually set in stone is that absolutely nothing justifies guilt-tripping and being mean to people who don't deserve it, which they did constantly and consistently and mostly denied/justified.
By the end of our 'friendship' I did not feel like a friend at all but a hospice nurse walking on eggshells (as even during regular hang-outs they were prone to meanness and getting upset because of all their problems and BPD).
Even worse, I've now come to the conclusion that R is extremely like a drug addict. They are deeply addicted to their drug (work), to escape from past trauma and will pursue it even if it kills them.
And whether they're dead or alive my time with them will haunt me for the rest of my life.
When I had to cut contact with them, I not only lost them but also at least a dozen acquaintances in their circle/group chats. Technically I was allowed to stay in them and benefit from the community because that's how community works, however at the cost of still seeing their public guilt-tripping and suffering that they air out to anyone and everyone.
What also broke me was that in the days where I cut contact, I helped a mutual acquaintance who was seriously ill as well, the same one who had called me out in the group chat for urging people to help a person who might seriously die. And they didn't even ask how I was doing about the whole thing........I guess these kinds of people are literally a 'help for me but not for thee' type or will die on their hill even if it kills them.
The last straw was when once I posted a portion of my story to a subreddit (an echochamber I guess), and someone accused me of 'getting off' on helping vulnerable people.
The whole ordeal has destroyed my self-esteem though I'm in the process of recovering. It's a goal of mine to make some sort of positive change in the world, help people, something. And what I thought was a good opportunity and helping people was actually a giant failure. Maybe I'll project my 'saviour complex' onto animals next since there is no faith in humanity.
At this point this is too long. And I know this is above Reddit's paygrade. And I do plan to talk about this to my therapist, but as you know most people cannot afford therapy every week.
Hi so I'm looking to purchase a cage for 3 mice as a first time owner. I know there are a lot of specifics in the cage design itself that mice need and I'm finding it difficult to find a cage that is entirely suitable. I also want to avoid bin cages because my country is very hot and humid for most of the year.
This is the only sub I can think of that will accept my rant, as most others are too sex positive and I'm a guy so I can't go rant on women-centric subs even though they're the ones who *mostly* experience this problem.
I don't know if this is an obvious observation or a gross misinterpretation of mine or me just generalising. But it seems that no matter how sex-positive a culture becomes (where even that can be too extreme), it cannot get rid of this annoying and harmful deception that comes with sexual courtship.
One mostly sees this in people looking for hookups, fwbs and casual sex. Sex-positive people can scream until they're blue in the face that sex is supposed to be safe, pleasurable, sane and consensual, but the reality is that the entire process leading up to sex often features harmful deception.
Getting to the point:
People looking for casual sex (definition afformentioned) ALWAYS use euphamisms like 'fun' and 9/10 outright lie and try to decieve other parties about their true intentions in order to achieve the goal. With the way some of them choose to communicate I'd forgive anyone who actually thought they were looking for SFW 'friends' or 'fun' or a couple looking for another couple as a social thing. Especially autistic folks and generally very inexperienced folks who may have trouble interpreting people's true intentions and especially on the internet.
To be fair: yes loads of these people go to great conscious effort to decieve others in order to get the sex. But I think some level of deception is almost inseparable from the act of sex itself because of its very nature and historical tabooness that we've only recently gotten over.
Maybe it's my sex-repulsed autistic brain, but ideally people communicating about sex should be 100% straight to the point and avoid using euphamisms and beating around the bush. Especially right before or during sex itself there should be no excuses to use them. Say the fucking words and be specific. Don't say 'play' and 'fun', say 'let's have sex' 'can we do anal sex?' 'can you give me a blowjob?' 'what about protection like condoms or pills?' .
And then it's absolutely infuriating when sex-seekers deny that their intentions have any sexual motives and outright gaslight you. Though I guess that would show they're most likely a predator.
Kind of separate to the main point, but I also can't believe just how entitled a lot of sex-seekers are or how sky high their expectations are. This is not an exaggeration: sex positivity has actually convinced a lot of people that it's perfectly achievable to have: safe, sane, consensual, respectful, great, orgasmic sex with a person they've never met before in the pitch black of midnight in the fucking park without any sex toys to boost the pleasure. I mean Jesus Christ On A Bicycle; even people who love each other who've been married for years go through bumps in the road to achieve good sex, never mind in most other scenerios. Better to just invest in some good sex toys, porn and solo masturbation.
It's all just so sad to see.
Rant over.
I had come across some old bones while out hiking and also in a family member's abandoned garden. I don't think it's very relevant but the bones were found without any flesh and are of: rabbit, kitten, goat.
After some general cleaning I wanted to whiten them but was unsuccessful. First I used a random hydrogen peroxide/mouthwash and left more multiple days. Didn't work. Then I asked at a pharmacy specifically for the strongest hydrogen peroxide they had and did not dilute. It also did not work.
Meanwhile, I had found a fresh rat carcass before all this and *ahem* removed the head and boiled it until only skull remained. The skull was a dark beige in colour as is kind of normal for bones. After putting it in diluted hydrogen peroxide it turned white in MINUTES.
So what am I doing wrong ?
I've been researching on and off about getting pet mice or rats but I've settled on mice as a beginner because it's a bit gentler on my wallet (rats are 3-times bigger than mice).
I also feel bad about getting 1 single male mouse as from what I've read it's debated if they can be truly 'happy' without other mousey companions.
Even with a lot of research I still have a few questions about ideal mouse care.
That's all I've got for the time being.