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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah)))
@smpa.bsky.social
440 followers 130 following 5.1K posts
I am interested in international relations, images of adorable animals I'm allergic to, excessively mainstream science fiction and fantasy, legal reform, and so many more things than will fit within the character limit I've been provided here.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 30m
Thank you! I just remembered it was appalling and made everyone mad for 100% justified reasons.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 1h
I realize this travesty is not actually made worse by the fact I have definitely shopped at that specific mall and probably driven down that exact lane, but it definitely hits different. Also, my existing terror on behalf of my brown relatives and friends who live in Long Beach has just doubled.
smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 1h
Incidentally when my stepdad was a child (birthdate 16 December 1951) it was already trivial to get a waiver for birthdays in the back half of December, and much harder for January and beyond. It's not like Hogwarts, where the cutoff is the first day of school; it's just the calendar year of birth.
smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 1h
Meanwhile I turned 12 in 7th grade, because the cutoff date was in late December and almost everyone's birthday falls before that. As in, you didn't have to meet the age standard, which is 12, until right around the day the winter break started.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 2h
I'm just using it to buy time with regard to security updates for Windows 10 (my PC doesn't meet the requirements for 11). You can get one more year of security updates free if you use One Drive to backup pretty much anything.
How to Enroll in Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Before Support Ends
As the end of official support for Windows 10 approaches on October 14, 2025, many users are seeking ways to maintain their system's security without transitioning to Windows 11. Microsoft's Extended ...
windowsforum.com
smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 2h
We joked about how the costumes in the second year were of the primary targets of the people we portrayed the year previous, not to mention how mad the Puritans would be over both celebrating Halloween at all and then the witch thing, which per the more chill Evangelicals is apparently Worse.
smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 2h
My mom made my sisters and me "Puritan" costumes that were then repurposed for "witch" and possibly "nun" (at that point I was the responsible sibling too old to ask for candy). It was a simple black dress that went down to our ankles and out to our wrists, and then she made new hats each year.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 2h
I mean holy crap their brains and other internal organs are so totally pickled and they have all kinds of difficulty functioning in daily life, but they probably won't croak at an insane BAC. They might even physically manage to get into a car and put it in drive, especially with keyless start. 😠
smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 2h
Some addicts develop a frankly astonishing level of tolerance. They're still standing up (albeit not particularly/consistently perpendicular to the floor) when anyone else would be unconscious, preferably in recovery position, if not actively experiencing an acute medical emergency.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 3h
A more literal example of "pre-gaming", I think. Pretty sure it's outright illegal to sell someone that drunk more alcohol, so he likely has a coconspirator, just like my underage roommates did.

(Being the only person over 21 is clearly more socially advantageous than being the designated driver.)
smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 3h
I mean, this was clearly the implicit instruction embedded within the post - everyone knows if you say you can't find something to a large group of social media users, whatever you can't find will be promptly supplied in at least triplicate. That makes saying it a knowingly unambiguous request.
smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 3h
I'm guessing the word is kind of excessive just based on their level of agitation and how often/loudly they then emphasize that 36 or 37 isn't even middle age!!

(By "a lot" I mean more than four, though I know that's the sort of standard that varies dramatically by community/social group.)
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 3h
Isn't "advanced maternal age" 35? Many of my friends have a lot of kids spread out by 2 or 3 years starting at 23-25, so they're still having babies in their late thirties, and they've all commented on how differently they're being treated, plus I think there's a word like "elderly" in their notes.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 3h
(They became Unitarian Universalists due to both of their communities' opposition to intermarriage, but retained many of their original beliefs and customs/practices. The UUs are *completely* fine with that. Anyway, Grandpa didn't mix meat and dairy and didn't consume pork products and whatnot.)
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 3h
My paternal grandparents were an Ashkenazi (Litvak) and an Irish Catholic (their parents are the immigrant generation), and now I know why they ate corned beef and cabbage so dang much. They had to make all sorts of compromises when it came to food, but that one was mutual.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 4h
My dad became a real expert in finding people exactly what would be best for their needs and also below budget, which is why his own camera shop ended up in bankruptcy. Underselling drove my grandpa absolutely nuts, but Daddy was *really* popular with the older celebrities and also regular people.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 4h
This! My dad worked in a photography shop very close to Wilshire and LA Brea (two blocks east on Wilshire), which is very near ground zero for the studios and guild offices and everything, and a ton of the customers were both famous and couldn't afford any more than the normal non-rich customers.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 4h
Like, doubling your money is an outstanding outcome! Stopping there guarantees a plentiful supply of dopamine! You've won enough!

Those are just not the thoughts they have the capacity to believe or behave in accordance with right now, so they end up experiencing extended losing streaks instead.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 4h
They don't do that because they don't have the thing in your head that says "that much money is enough". (Bad) poker players make the same error - they'll be up by $700, but all they can think about is making that number bigger, and so they end up down by $700 and that's all the money they have.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 4h
(I realize that you, personally, know this perfectly well, but your followers may not and anyway social media is a conversation, not a lecture.)
smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 4h
Like, an authoritarian ruler's guiding principle is "you people do exactly what I tell you to do", and that inevitably leads to bending and twisting and rejecting whatever orthodoxy they've been using. True believers are infuriated and will resist, even if that just means criticizing the dictator.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 4h
Somewhat hilariously but also horrifyingly, both Stalin and Hitler ordered the deaths of a *lot* of true believers. They're actually a threat to authoritarian regimes, because they expect it to behave in accordance with espoused principles and that limits what behavior they'll tolerate.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 6h
Which is part of why it's a moral outrage (in addition to a massive strategic error) that the government is deliberately failing to make sure the families don't have to struggle with the flipping basics of survival.

("Deliberately" because lawmakers repeatedly choose not to fix this.)
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 6h
Yes! Which is a thing the services started saying at least by WWII. Like, the Pentagon as an institution is aware of it, and Congress is, too. I'm sure many people have testified to that effect in front of one of several different committees over the last 85 years, and anyway it's pretty obvious.
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smpa.bsky.social
(((Sarah))) @smpa.bsky.social · 22h
And also he literally says "I ain't no fortunate son" over and over, and he enunciates that part clearly. You really don't need to do a deep analysis here - not getting it pretty much requires flat out divorcing words from their meaning, experiencing songs like a flipping chimpanzee.
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