[ Toxic Positivity, Allusions To CSA/religious Abuse ]

this was what a friend-of-a-friend sent some guy after a single date with him.

You know what I find personally annoying about AIs?

Not professionally as a kinda-techbro. Not morally as a human being. Not ethically as someone who trying to be a decent person. Not semantically as a philosophy major. Just personally?

The same behavior y'all hate in people like me, you adore in a chatbot.

Key to Nowhere

You cry out for someone save you from this trap an irresistible call to ears like mine

Oh, what can I do? What shall I do? Anything at all for you

I fumble to find the release There must be a catch somewhere out here that will let me let you out

My groping leads me nowhere but closer to you so I step away to get a better look

As I examine the fuller picture of it all your hand pops out as if by magic (or is it just a door I've never seen before?)

You hold it out to me but I don't take it already preoccupied with taking it all in

Your face appears above your tightly-clenched fingers Your eyes beg me to let you unclasp I let you place it upon my palm You retreat as though you were never out here

Your pleas for me to release you shift from wistful to YOU HAVE THE FUCKING KEY LET ME OUT RIGHT NOW

With one hand and both ears so full of what you've given me I resume my search, somehow more fruitless than before

My vain efforts rise in sync with your cries

You go from expelling your heart's content through your lungs to inhaling every molecule of oxygen left

Before I can drop it right there so that the force of your vacuum sucks it in and lets me let you choke on it-- you expel all you took in back out blasting me far away from you embedding its jagged edges into my skin

Now you can tell the next one a truth that I'd absconded with the only copy

I sway, in place,

AND THEN OUT OF ALL OF THOSE THEY ALL USE THE SAME ONE (1) OUTHOUSE ANYWAY

REALLY NOW, MAGS. NO OUTHOUSES. NOWHERE TO SHIT.

"Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by CAKE was the prototype for the new breed of fauxminist d00d who claims he is supportive of his partner's career success, but really just wants to rely on her for all of his needs, including financial. In this essay I will

The only time we met was enough My heart is a stopped clock Stuck on one particular time

just some things I got in trouble for as a kid

Accidentally stepping on a classmate's foot because I was afraid of some of the older girls so I moved quickly out of the way.

Helping a girl who got sand in her eyes to escape the center of a sand fight that broke out on the playground. The girl was normally an instigator of that kind of thing, but not that time; she truly was hurt and scared and crying and disoriented. I also got in trouble later for telling the truth about it, that it wasn't her fault that time.

Being interested in the Titanic. My immigrant teachers only knew about the Titanic as a "filthy" movie, so they assumed I was reading trashy smut. I was actually reading boring non-fiction about a ship.

Writing an honest and well-researched report about Ronald Reagan. My teacher said I shouldn't have picked a president I would criticize. I didn't pick him, my dad forced me to pick him because he worships Reagan.

I have a theory.

The Right thinks that DEI/affirmative action/etc. elevates mediocrity because of the dismal quality of their own tokens.

Look no further than the fashion designers, musicians, filmmakers, actors, drag performers, and other, ahem, "creative" types who went MAGA for proof, especially the queer and/or non-white among them. They're tiny-ass, undistinguished fish in ponds so small and undisturbed by talent that they're not even qualified to be tempests in teacups.

other people love to go on about how WOW I am so organized with my spreadsheets and taping-off of dead outlets and labeling light switches and you wish you were so on top of things and and AND--

it's all very nice, thank you. but! what exactly is the alternative? are y'all really just remembering things??? off-the-cuff???!!!?! *ALL* THE TIME!?!?!?!?!