I just watched the first episode of the most recent series of Black Mirror and it was this too.

Implant had range limitations, premium tier to avoid you randomly shilling products, constantly increasing subscription fee, etc.

I am glad you got something important out of reading it! I hope you don’t either. ❤️ 🦉

I’m glad I could word it properly. I always worry about noy adequately capturing my feelings on emotional things.

I was a little bummed at first when the talk took the turn it did, because it was entitled something like “Minimizing Stress in Animal Patients” and I thought it was going to be things like covering birds’ heads to calm them down and such, but halfway through it took the euthanasia turn.

But the lady giving the talk presented it calmly and sensibly like I tried to do here, and I think framing it as the ultimate neutral position when that is the least worst outcome left was very helpful. It’s obviously the least favorite part for anyone involved in the care of animals, by occupation or as a pet owner, but it’s something we ultimately will be involved in, and should be an act of compassion.

In a different reply in this thread I touch on my experiences in hospital with humans as well, and tl;dr I think it is insanely cruel we cannot offer that compassion to our fellow humans.

Please don’t take any of this as being directed at you personally, I think your opinion is 100% valid, but you’re the only one I saw with this stance.

I think this is something very important to consider when it comes to things like living wills and just how we as a society feel that a medical system should operate, preserving life at all costs vs preserving quality of life.

I won’t go deep into details, but I have been there to witness the passing of both my wife’s parents in the last 2 years. Both were normal for their age and overall health conditions up to the very days they died. Both died suddenly, though not immediately, and one was upset they called the ambulance because they said they were fine, both those ended up being last words.

Both became unrecoverable very soon after being admitted to the hospital, as in less than 12 hours. The family made the decision to take them off the life support stuff, as there was nothing treatable. A fair decision. But what I witnessed afterwards was the cruelest stuff I have ever seen. It isn’t like on tv where they turn the stuff off and in a couple seconds it’s over. The sights and sounds of suffering were horrific, and all of us who were there just had to sit for hours, watching our loved ones in total unconscious agony while we were all just wishing for it to be over.

After I saw firsthand what natural death can look like, I thought it was a sin that with all the equipment and medicine in that hospital, that no one was allowed to end the suffering, either for the dying, or for the living. It looked and sounded like physical torture, it was undignified, and I sat there the whole time saying we would not leave an animal to suffer like this, so why are we letting it happen to our family?

It really solidified my thoughts on assisted suicide and the concept of keeping someone “alive” at all cost.

I get if you want to be in your own home instead of hospice someday, or that you shouldn’t have all your freedoms as long as you’re not a danger, but we don’t all get the luxury to die in a brief moment in our sleep. For a lot of us, it will be a long processes, and it won’t always be us conscious or able to make determinations on that process.

Again, just sharing my personal experience, nothing to argue against you in particular. I just find myself able to consider and discuss death more than most people around me seem comfortable doing.

I work at a wildlife rehab clinic. Just a guess, but we probably euthanize more animals than any vet, since for people to be able to catch and bring us wild animals, they are typically much worse off than most domestic animals. A third of patients are dead by the time they get here, or shortly after. The next third, we will have to euthanize within a few hours or days. That’s a lot.

We don’t do it because they are too hard to work on or anything like that. Our only goal is to return animals to the wild and have them survive. We try some far-out things sometimes to make that happen, and since most of us work for free, we do it because we love animals and want to see them survive.

I just attended a conference talk about the topic of animal suffering. It wasn’t specifically labeled as a talk about euthanasia, but it ended up being a large part of it, and attending made me feel a bit better about it.

When we’re treating animals, it’s like a balancing scale. We have their health conditions, stress levels, etc on one side, and we have our treatments and stress mitigating factors on the other. Ideally, we can either balance the scales or tilt them positive. But as time goes on, and if things are not improving, or get worse, even if we can stack more and more positive responses on the other side, that is still a lot of weight on the scale. It wouldn’t take a big nudge to make it crash. Or the negative side is stacking up and the positives have no chance to keep up or reverse things.

All this time, the animal is not living the life it was meant to live. Out in the wild, hunting, mating, etc for my animals, or being a happy, lazy, snacking, sunbeam soaking friend to you that a domestic animal should. And animals hide pain as a survival reflex. If they are sick or injured, they are always hurting more than you know, because they don’t want to be seen as that slowest wildebeest in the pack that the lions are chasing.

And the point of the lecture was this: no matter how hopeless the stack of negatives is, there is one thing that is guaranteed to instantly alleviate that pain and suffering. Euthanasia is not a positive or negative, but should be looked at as neutral, a zero point. No points on the positive side of the scale, but the negative side is swept clean. If you can do nothing to help your animal, or if the treatment itself is making their life miserable, you have the ability to take that stress and pain away. When to do that is an ethical question with no concrete answer. We address each case on an individual basis and come to consensus as a group. With your pet, that is you and your family. Are you keeping them alive because the animal is still happy or because you aren’t ready to let go to a hopeless cause?

I’ve tried to treat my pets, 2 of which died of failing organs, and for my cat, it was clear the treatment was making her suffer, and for my dog, she eventually has a seizure. Those were where I had to say to myself that what I was continuing to do was only for my sake, and it wasn’t helping me, and was certainly not going to help them. Looking back though, if I would have euthanized them a week or 2 sooner, I probably could have spared them days of pain, and I regret being what I consider to have been selfish acts.

Especially with a dog (I was not a dog person, but the death of my 2 dogs both crushed me immensely due to that pack bond they have with you as opposed to more independent cats) it can be hard to make the call. But when you learn they are that sick and are likely going to crash soon, don’t try to prolong that time, but do spoil the shit out of that dog. Take them on extra walks if they can. Take them to beautiful and smelly places like a state park or a sunset walk along water and walk extra slow so they can enjoy it in their dog ways. Feed them all the stuff they always wanted but wasn’t good for them. And when they start to not enjoy even that spoiling anymore, know you gave them the best life they could have dreamed, and accept that ultimate responsibility you took when you committed yourself to that dog the day you brought it into your home and made it part of your pack.

I hope that was helpful. I gave up having pets because it was hard to do that last step so many times. Now I work with wild animals and see death all the time, but it is less personal, so it is easier to see the positive/negative balance because it isn’t clouded by an emotional bond. No one wants to say goodbye to a loved one, human or pet, but it is a certainty of life, and because we live life at a different scale than they do (unless you have parrots, tortoises, etc!) that time is never going to feel like enough, even if you could keep that dog alive for 50 years. The length of their healthy days we have no say over, but we can keep the sad days to a minimum.

I Chromecast most of my YouTube and I’ve never gotten it to work once it’s cast, but SponsorBlock is an amazing thing when I’ve played with it in apps.

Eh, we still get the sponsor ads in the videos. They’re skippable but still tick me off for something I pay for to still hit me up every video.

Just tried dry shampoo for the first time yesterday actually. I’m a male in my mid 40s who started growing my hair out about 2 years ago and it’s to my shoulder blades now.

I have electric heat, hard water, and somewhat dryish hair so I try to use shampoo just twice a week if I can help it, so as to strip a minimum amount of oil from my hair and keep it from frizzing all over. It works pretty well, but by day 3 it is pretty heavy and there are spots that look greasy and don’t feel great or look good.

I’ve been sick as hell this week and have been falling asleep at random times. So I woke up yesterday after falling asleep before showering. I had time to shower, but having long thick hair takes a long time to dry, and part of my work is outside, and since it’s around freezing here, I didn’t want to have a wet and heavy head of hair outside while I’m already sick.

So I looked in the wife’s rack of hair stuff and saw dry shampoo. I said if this isn’t what this stuff is made for, what is? And I shot my head all over with it. My hair was still heavy and not the best feeling, but man, did it look a ton better than it did before using the dry shampoo! In some ways it even looked better, as the heavier hair can style better, but it usually isn’t visually appealing, but with the excess oil absorbed, now it did look good.

It got me through the day looking kempt and professional, and while I fell asleep immediately when I got home again and still haven’t washed it, if I had to leave home this second, it’d still be passable. Again, it doesn’t feel like the best hair ever, but it will fool everyone else if need be.

So while teens may overuse it and it is no excuse for a shower, I don’t see how the owner of the hair would be fooled into thinking it’s clean instead of just dry and manageable. If the high school girls have gym or sports, I bet they would have some of this so they can freshen up after activities and to not look or feel gross while being constantly judged by other teens.

As a guy who had quarter inch hair for most his life, none of this ever made sense to me either, but now trying to learn how to care for long hair, it is such a complex thing! You’ve got to learn your body chemistry by testing all these things so you know how to keep your hair looking nice when it’s super hot out or humid or windy. Hair snags hurt, and frizz is a bitch if you’re trying to look presentable. So until you live it, try not to get too judgy. Using this stuff isn’t fun, but for people that want to have long hair, these products exist because people need and want them to make hair care better for themselves.

Make sure both people get tested before doing the deed.

Not one for spontaneity, eh? 😄

“I’ve had a great night, what do you say we keep this night going?”

“Sure, swab yourself here, here, and here and spit in this tube, and in a couple days, if all goes well, I will be so down for that!”

I got a vasectomy when I was already in for other surgery, but condoms were a mild annoyance with a more than acceptable tradeoff. They’re ready to go whenever, it’s a no-go for some if you won’t use one, and it’s as much for my own protection as it is for the other person. I wouldn’t necessarily expect someone to take my word on it that I got it done right off the bat either.

If you’re out dating, I think it’s just respectful to have them available. Different people have different comfort levels, so one should come prepared to accommodate.

The latex free ones aren’t a bad idea either if you need to keep some on hand. My partner has an allergy so I couldn’t use regular ones. They were more expensive, but I actually thought they were better, and it was still a low price to pay, considering what I got in return. She carried her own, but after we continued going out I wasn’t going to make her keep paying for them every time.

I’m with you. I’ve tried it a bunch of times since so many people seem to like cucumbers, cucumber water, cucumber in sushi, cucumber gin, and whatever else. I don’t like pickles either. I just cannot cuke.

I used to be about the slashers, but now I like stuff that makes you use your imagination. It’s hard to make something that will scare a large group of people, but if it gets you to engage your mind or feelings to fill in the gaps, it fills it in with things you do find scary.

I just watched Weapons last weekend. I wasn’t expecting much, it sounded like a simple plot, but it really created a disturbing vibe that was creepier to me than the on scene deaths. It kept my attention throughout and though the ending went gorey, I think it would have been just as good without showing the result.

I don’t like when people trash the OP in cases like this. Sometimes they are trolls or attention seekers, but at least at first, everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt. I appreciate you not crapping on him. He already has that covered, and more certainly isn’t going to fix him.

I only got out of my own mess because enough people were patient with me. If I can give some of that back, that’s just me passing some of that grace I was given forward.

Every day gives you another chance. It’s really freaking hard when you’re down in a hole like this. That’s why I said to check out that other post. Many of us have been in similar spots. We’re here to help, but we can’t give you answers cuz we aren’t you. You need to work every day to find what does work for you.

There’s no secret to being liked by women. It’s the same as being liked by anyone. You have to be someone likeable, not just fake likeable, and it starts with valuing yourself enough to lift yourself out of the mental place you are at. This is like anything else, you got to build from the bottom up with a strong foundation.

I don’t know your full story, but a skim through your posts makes it feel like you have some internal things you need to address, and I mean that in a helpful way.

You really sound like you would want to have a partner, but you seem to be chasing symptoms and not core issues.

I’d recommend reading some of today’s thread on overcoming incel-like behavior. I shared a bunch of my personal story on there in BodePlotHole’s reply, and reading that and some other comments in there might be of real value to you.

That’s about all the help any of these posts are going to get you, and most of it is not bad advice. There’s no quick-fix other than the stuff you’re already getting burnt out of trying. You’re going to have to put in real work and take yourself seriously if you want to get out of this hole you’re in and find a happier life.

Again, not here to lecture you, do what you want, but I think your solution is fixing you, not continuing to ignore things and smooth them over temporarily with prostitutes and substances.

I’d completely forgotten about the spray. I started with spray deodorants originally, but switched to sticks after getting tired of tasting the overspray.

After that I tried gels, but at least the early ones were always sticky feeling. Not sure if they got better as once I tried the basic green Degree, it had everything I’d wanted from an antiperspirant and thankfully they seemed to have never changed it in all this time.

I have almost exclusively used Degree Sport since it came out probably 20+ years ago. The sole variation has been sometimes I got the powder scent if the sport was sold out and I think I used 2 sample sticks of Old Spice for paid surveys.

The Degree just works, is dirt cheap, and has a texture that doesn’t feel funny. Don’t mess with success.

This has been an amazing thing that I’d never previously given thought of until recently. I felt it was common to hear of people refusing help, but never the reasons why.

If someone has nothing left, having a pet can be the one stable thing and source of love in someone’s life. To tell someone to give that up for temporary aid when they could just keep toughing it out and keep their only companion by their side, I’d be hard pressed to give that up as well.

Aww so cute! It looks like it was its first Fourth of July, still small.

I’m right next to the park where they do the town fireworks and I always feel my terrible for the bats that seem to think it’s the end of the world.

The handful I’ve had to handle seemed very shy. For most, I’d be going to clean the juveniles’ cages, but after they saw me coming to pick them up, they’d usually climb the wall and I would just leave them there while I cleaned up and gave them food.

I had one run on me and be pretty feisty. It didn’t bite, but it did not want to be touched one bit.

We had a momma opossum have a surprise litter and since she was already in an outside pen, she got to raise the family there. They were all extremely pleasant and everyone loved them. Momma was a picky eater, but that was about it.

I’ve really enjoyed seeing how different individual animals’ personalities can be.

One of the last skunk babies we had sprayed someone 4 times before we figured out it was getting freaked out by the orange gloves. Any of the other gloves and it was fine.

I haven’t spent near as much hands on time with the oppossums as I had wanted, but the times I have had to grab them, they tend to act scary, but then not really do anything if their tough guy act didn’t get me to leave.

I’ve got tons of pics of them. I think they’re very adorable.

This is the last batch of joeys we incubated.

I grabbed this guy to move it to an outdoor enclosure.

This one is coming out after I dropped off breakfast.