I am screeeeeaamiiing laughing at How To Flirt. Bless this child.
She's a WEIRDO, I only want a to have a child if the child is just like this tween girl weirdo
None of this is sitting well with me at all! I was upset to the point of tears to read further up in the comments that small children are being subjected to this kind of "training," young enough to cry and wet their pants in fear. That's ABSURD. The cumulative effect of fear and anxiety on a population has GOT to be more harmful than the total damage of actual shootings, as horrible as they are. Fear just breeds more hostility and rash decision-making and hate. Haven't we learned that yet?? And encouraging people to constantly watch out for suspicious characters in baggy clothing is really inflammatory and dangerous and gross in ways that I think are pretty obvious.
I'm at the point where I'm regularly panicky in malls, big stores, airports. I think about when I sit by a window at Starbucks. I think about how close my desk is to the main door at work, how I couldn't possibly hide or run if anything happened. It sucks. I don't want those thoughts but they pop up anyway. And for what? How will a life peppered with panic attacks help me if someone decides to shoot me someday? It won't.
I like them in a "WE ARE ALL JUST THE SAME BONES INSIDE so no one is better than anyone else" way!
Phew! The redesign has really done a weird thing for me, which is: roused me from my Toast slumber and made me want to participate a lot more again. I *whisper* worked on the logo/art/site and I think it got very half-consciously weird and difficult for me to engage with the site because I was too close to it...or something! IDK! It's hard to explain! But it looks fresh and lovely and familiar like a tidied-up house, and I don't have to fret about it, and I just want to be here all the time. It's wonderful. Hi. Love you all. Let's be friends.
Love the concept of a "touchstone." Would be helpful in LOTS of situations.
For me it's been incredibly engaging and has prompted me to actually think about the experience of religion probably more than I ever have, as a very *SHRUG*-y agnostic. But it has been quite heavily concentrated. It would be cool if it were spread a bit thinner. Edited to add: I've appreciated the multifaceted representations of Christianity specifically, because I feel like a lot of agnostic or atheist progressive types, myself included, have been alienated from Christianity for so long, and feel so many negative connotations w/r/t social justice reasons. It's been eye opening to re-ground myself in the fact that Christians are diverse as a group, and that me shying away from devoted Christians *just because they're Christians* is pretty narrow-minded of me. That said, I do agree that more diversity in the future would be excellent!
Craft thread!! I recently moved and have been going a little overboard with the crafts. Such that that last night I found myself grooming a DIY macrame curtain with a paddle brush and blowdryer. (It wasn't hanging straight! And it needed a haircut. It totally worked.)
I think it is an angry little cloud.
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Haley Crain 
Branch