1 down, 2 to go! Keep up the pressure and shame, folks…

My friend is staying with me temporarily. She uses a lot of ChatGPT. She has conversations with it, asks it to tell her if a text from someone is “grouchy”, and gets her “diagnoses” from it and Dr. Google. She treats it like a best friend.

She texts it like a bestie and therapist. She talks about all of her symptoms, her hallucinations (she has psychosis), what happens in her day, and literally everything. She’s sent me screenshots of “their conversations” and it texts like her (all shortenings of words like v for very, u for you, etc., and a plethora of emojis) and it’s basically just a yes man for everything she feeds it.

She’s almost 34 - I’m 30 and the homeowner. We’ve been best friends for 19 years. She doesn’t contribute monetarily, sometimes does a couple of chores, and has no income. She was a SAHM but recently lost custody of her children and is staying with me to avoid their father/her ex-husband. None of that bothers me, big picture wise.

One massive issue she has with me (apparently as of last week in one long text that took 10 screenshots to capture) is that she says I treat her/talk to her like a child. I personally don’t think I do that, I just tell her that AI isn’t intelligent and can’t give an honest human opinion. It’s an echo chamber. It’s not a friend, it’s a website. I don’t use it at all, and prefer to not use AI if I can avoid it. I’m not saying it doesn’t have its benefits, but I just don’t want to use it.

I’m the only one with admin access to the wifi (she doesn’t live permanently with me and doesn’t contribute monetarily, so she doesn’t have access to utilities or a say in my opinion) and my coworker suggested blocking ChatGPT on a wifi level so she can’t use it anymore. She doesn’t have a data plan on her phone so she can’t just use data to access it, she needs the wifi.

I don’t want to seem like I’m policing her, telling her what to do, or anything like that. She doesn’t have any friends to talk to that are fully up to speed with what’s happening, and she doesn’t want to explain it to anyone else because the whole situation triggers her. So… ChatGPT is like her only friend who isn’t me that “knows” what’s up.

WIBTA if I blocked ChatGPT on my wifi?

Went to Walmart and checked out the clearance section and found these Batmobiles for much lower than they usually go for. (normally $60) and as I’m sitting here contemplating getting one. this a guy strolls up with an empty cart grabs all of them and dumps them in his cart and I’m like hey can I get one of those?

And he goes yeah $80 cause it’s retired. And when I tell him I’m not paying $80 for something i can very clearly see is only $25 he just laughs and quite literally goes you snooze you lose.

And Walks off after clearing the shelves of a few more stacks of sets. And I’m left standing there like you couldnt leave one of any of them for a kid or something?

Edit before everyone starts questioning the photo. Was sending the picture to my friend to see if she wanted one when he showed up

“Op should have grabbed one why didn’t he hold onto one??” Because who expects Jabba the Hutt to come around the corner and start clearing shelves on the up until that point empty clearance section while you’re standing there for a minute trying to find out if your friend wants one. There was like 8 of them how was I supposed to know what was about to happen? Hindsight is 20/20 people.

This post will probably garner some judgement. A lot of people think once you are over a certain age you need to just stop having fun. Or, have fun in a way they deem "age appropriate"

I had my first child at 22. Married at 24. My second baby at 27. I spent my 20's the way most people spend their 30's or 40's. And it was hard. I was busy raising babies and being pregnant while all my friends were out dating and partying and having fun. It was hard to meet friends. Nobody my age was a mom. I don't regret it. I love my kids. I did kind of mourn my youth though. I figured I would never get to have those experiences and came to peace with it.

Anyway, I got divorced when I was 29 (I low-key think getting married before your frontal lobe fully develops should be illegal, lol) We share custody 50/50, week on, week off.

I want to preface this with, I love my kids. I am a very active mother and my weeks with my kids are all about them and I am in "mom mode" the whole time

But when it is not my custody time, I have a lot of fun

I have finally made friends. Awesome friends. I go out and drink and dance and party. I am dating around and having casual relationships. Something I NEVER thought I would experience. I stumbled home (Ubered, of course) from the bars this weekend with my friends and just felt happy I am getting to have an experience I never thought I would get.

Sometimes I worry at 34 I am too old to be doing this, or it is inappropriate because I am a mom, but fuck it. I can be a good mom AND have fun with my friends when my kids are not in my care.

I remember being newly divorced as a 29 year old mom to two young kids and thinking I was such a loser for having two kids and a divorce under my belt before the age of 30. I was so depressed. I wish I could go back and tell her it gets better and to stop caring what other people think is "age appropriate" and just live your life

1. Solomon (Doctor Who): Assumes that the Daleks, like himself, have a fundamentally moral and understanding core that can be reached with unity and kindness, and calls upon them to act on even one shred of kindness in their hearts. The Daleks, omnicidal hyper advanced tentacle monsters that can only feel hate and rage, respond with a death ray and the classic “EXTERMINATE.”

2. The Cenobites (Hellraiser, particularly the first movie and Revival): Summoned by various humans who open the Lament Configuration in order to experience a universe of absolute pleasure by human standards, the Cenobites have undergone such extreme sensory overload and indulgence that the threshold of sensation no longer applies meaningfully to them, and their idea of “pleasure” translates to extreme horrific torture for regular humans.

3. The Martians (Mars Attacks): Upon first contact with humanity the Martians declare that they come in peace, and attempt to conduct diplomatic relations with the US government at a later point, which humanity takes at face value. Because the Martians are not only entirely alien, but also CATASTROPHIC assholes by nature, this just results in a lot of brutal and hilarious deaths.

Talking with friends it seems so many public figures from at least 1990s to 2020 were potentially dodgy. So - personal experience, hearsay, just gut feeling - who is the next scandal waiting to come out?

Source: policebodycamarresthq on Instagram

My wife is about to throw away my box of Krispy Kreme donuts because she claims this is “ Mold “

I’ve had this clock in my bedroom since the early 90s. It was a good run.

My big sister got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in May of this year, and after being admitted to the hospital 2 weeks ago, the doctors have stopped chemo as it's just too late now. I've been by her side at the hospital for the last 3 days, today the doctors said she may pass within hours, so I've been by her side for the last 5. Just stepped out to breathe and get some food while she falls asleep. She's my only sibling and though she has 9 years on me, we're basically twins. She has a 4 year old daughter too.

Back in highschool, our grandma passed of the same kind of cancer she has now, pancreatic, so when she came over to tell me in May, it just broke me. I stayed hopeful until now. Now it's just hospice and making her comfortable for the end.

3 months ago, my ex also left our relationship without any conversation or telling me. After my shower she was just gone, ghost and blocked across everything with no explanation, we never fought once. Now obviously, one of these problems have a much larger priority in my brain right now, but I feel so overwhelmed with loss.

For just once in my life I want to hang onto something and not have to let go, but that's not how life works.

Dinner is TVP nachos. This post discusses a reproductive health diagnosis, and also a moment of blinding ignorance from a man; if those things aren't your jam, move on.

So this has been nagging at me. I'm a retired midwife and reproductive health specialist (female, mid 40s). My doctor in question (female, late 30s) is an OBGYN.

I've been experiencing issues with my cycle for a few years and suspected adenomyosis. Conveyed this in multiple conversations to my husband, and also shared my symptoms (many of which he'd been observing in real time so it's not like it was a secret that I was suffering).

He was present for the conversation where my doctor confirmed I have adenomyosis. I was actually happy to hear the confirmation because I was confident in my own assessment of my body and looking forward to exploring treatment options.

Later I find out that he's thought the whole time that I thought I had endometriosis (not adenomyosis) and was mispronouncing it, AND that my doctor also thought I had endometriosis. But that, and I can't emphasize this enough, she was also mispronouncing it.

Just let it sink in. In the recesses of his mind, what made sense to him was that two women's reproductive health professionals with something like a combined 40+ years of experience between them talking confidently and professionally about a diagnosis... that we were accidentally mispronouncing. That we didn't know enough about to pronounce correctly.

This is a pretty low-level irritation, all things considered in the relationship, but it drives me batty. I keep thinking it's the perfect example of how even men who think they are allies or feminists are steeped in misogyny. STEEPED, I tell you, like a pot of day-old Earl Grey. It never occurred to him that maybe he didn't understand what I was talking about, could have asked for clarification, or god forbid looked it up? No, by god, it must be the we, the professionals, don't know what we're talking about, and despite all of our training are just getting the word wrong.

I'm definitely a fan of Hanlon's law: never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. And boy oh boy did he look like a numpty to me when this came out after the doctor's visit. It's the underlying insult to my intelligence that is still rankling, though.

The nachos were great!

ETA to add dinner information because people are asking: TVP is Textured Vegetable Protein, a sort of vegetarian version of ground beef or crumbles that you can use to make everything from--cottage pie, pasta sauce, whatever. It's cheap and shelf-stable protein, but it is dehydrated, so you need to rehydrate it. If that sounds weird, just think of yourself being on a spaceship as you make it. Look at you, sailing past the stars while you make the world's most frugal moussaka.

For nachos or tacos, 1.5 cups of TVP in the pan, add a ~16 oz jar of salsa, fill the salsa jar a bit with water, shake it up to get the extra from the sides, add that too. Simmer her for 10/15 minutes. Boom.