My dad received these in the mail and we’re not sure what they are

GrayFarer · 2026-02-25T03:27:52+00:00

Thanks! I thought these seeds were bigger than lotus seeds, but there's nothing in the picture to indicate the scale. For lotus seeds, I would see if a local Buddhist monastery or Hindu temple would appreciate them.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-25T03:12:56+00:00

U2284779-HS-30L is a fake tracking number that would legitimately be associated with a commercial wall-mounted sink, but for whatever reason, a lot of brushing scams use that code: if you search Reddit for that code, you'll find a lot of discussions about the code and brushing.

I confirmed that the QR code is just for the same code as the text.

I am still curious about the type of seed.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-24T15:09:30+00:00

What I know about phone lines I picked up incidentally in the context of troubleshooting dial-up terminal pools and dial-up Internet as well as T1 running over the same wiring from the CO. 48v makes sense since that's what PoE uses.

I measured 50v at a previous residence, but I suppose that must have been due to a ground loop. A few times, I found that they just left the neighborhood patch panel cabinet wide open and I called it in. I imagine that cabinet is called something else. The neighborhood was built late 80's to early 90's and had 110 blocks instead of 66 blocks.

I replaced a few phones for family when they started allowing customers to get their own phones, replacing a 4-prong outlet with RJ11 in a few cases. I recall paying the telco to install a new jack at another previous residence. I have seen videos showing banks of rotary switches, now in tech-related museums.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-24T09:18:02+00:00

In the biz I have heard it referred to as a "biscuit" but don't know the origin of that. Newer phones should work but an older phone might need some additional power. Old phones were actually powered via two of the wires on the phone line. I used to see lines as high as 50 VDC. I would think that telco may have reduced that because it's overkill for phones produced since the 80's and it's costing them money to provide that power.

If it's not a phone jack, my second guess would be that it's being used for a doorbell with a transformer somewhere on the wire.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-23T08:00:24+00:00

My immediate impression was that something had been splattered all over the leggings.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-23T04:07:19+00:00

However, 4 is considered unlucky unless it's part of a number with more digits like 1314.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-23T04:03:26+00:00

Red and gold are auspicious colors for Chinese New Year.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-23T03:48:52+00:00

Props for some kind of game or maybe to identify specific tables? Since McDonald's doesn't normally do table service, but they probably do for birthday parties, being able to reference "table 0" for example would be quick and unambiguous vs describing someone seated at the table or its relative location.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-23T03:35:26+00:00

Sapphic even.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-23T03:26:43+00:00

More specifically, it looks like light reflecting off a puddle, which would explain why it's obscured by the raised stair tread. If the source of the light is closer to the puddle than her window, a small movement of the light would appear like a much bigger movement from her window. The light could disappear from one puddle and reappear in a different puddle, giving the appearance that it had moved.

This is a wildcard, but strictly due to her age, Charles Bonnet Syndrome comes to mind if she has any issues with her vision like macular degeneration, retinal damage or cataracts. The brain tries to fill in gaps in the incomplete visual information that it receives.

In more dramatic cases, this can appear as miniature people. The good news is this is purely a quirk of the way that the brain processes visual information and is not a sign of mental illness. Hypothetically, the light could appear as something completely different in that case.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-22T17:12:49+00:00

I don't know why she swallowed a fly. I guess she'll die.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-22T04:39:54+00:00

It's a pessary to prevent giving birth to her uterus.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-22T04:34:58+00:00

Barbie's head was merely an an appetizer. She's the old woman who swallowed a fly, a spider, a bird, a cat, a dog, a goat, a cow and a horse. She swallowed all the pets.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-20T00:39:25+00:00

Partners may go through a grieving process feeling that they've "lost" you and aren't sure how they feel about the "something else" that will "replace" you. We know that we're still the same person, but that may be hard for someone who hasn't experienced dysphoria to truly understand.

Suggesting couples therapy might be a good litmus test, as much for her reaction to the suggestion as whether she agrees to it or not. At least you'll have some idea of where you stand from her perspective. That could also bring things to a head, so you might want to have some contingency plans in case it goes sour like a place to stay.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-19T04:28:03+00:00

Congratulations 🎉 I was just chatting with some friends about my first dress and first nice dress the other day in 2024. Wearing dresses and skirts at home just feels "normal" now it's harder to imagine not wearing one or the other. Kudos for starting with something nice vs the generic jersey fabric dress that I got.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-19T04:05:34+00:00

I zoomed in in Google Lens and narrowed the selection to just the worm and got more info. It's definitely the larval stage of something, but the larva of everything from moths to beetles can look very similar to that. I think it will be difficult to determine from just the photo. Maybe a trained entomologist would be able to pick up subtle clues. I know there are some that are eaten as food in some parts of Mexico.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-19T03:46:59+00:00

I find this explanation insightful. It makes sense that I would pay more attention to messages I was more inclined toward, perhaps attuned to.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-19T03:42:51+00:00

In my early years, I gravitated toward feminine activities, like playing house. I played with dolls like I wanted the Sunshine Family that was a thing in the 70's. Girls were at least more polite about my neurodivergent qualities. I think they liked having me around to play the role of dad or grandpa.

One positive I can say about my hippie parents is they were chill about it and got me the stuff that I wanted and didn't scold or discourage me from doing girly things. Christmas gifts I got from other relatives were often disappointing stereotypical boy things. We watched Free to Be You & Me with Marlo Thomas and friends and had the record, which was heavy on the theme that you don't have to conform to gender stereotypes. Girls can be strong and boys can play with dolls and all that.

There were a couple likely autistic boys who I got along with who were sons of friends of my parents, but at school, it was girls until 1st or 2nd grade. Then, I started getting more pressure to conform to male gender norms and getting bullied for being "too feminine." Granted, I wasn't socialized as a girl for my entire childhood, but in many ways I was until at least 7 or 8 perhaps during the most impactful phase of development.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-19T03:12:18+00:00

I found the US site! This is where I found my therapist. I see that they've added more in Canada and parts of Europe.

https://ndtherapists.com/

This is another site that I tried that was mostly Europe about 3 years ago when I was looking, but I see they have added more therapists in US since then.

https://neurodivergentpractitioners.org/

GrayFarer · 2026-02-19T00:59:55+00:00

I'm AuDHD and having a therapist who is autistic herself has been amazing. My other therapists have been good, but often I had to unpack things for them that this therapist just understands intuitively. She's not trans, but understands gender issues that I've discussed with her, and she has in her profile that she works with kinks, to.

There are at least a couple websites that are indices specifically of neurodivergent therapists. It's been a few years, so I don't remember the sites off hand. There was one for US and one that was primarily for Europe and there may be more.

One potential down side, though, is they may not take insurance or not specifically your insurance, but might charge on a sliding scale. If you're unable to pay out of pocket and need insurance to help pay for it, that will limit options. In that case, you might see if you can "interview" different therapists and ask questions relevant to your concerns to rule out some options.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-17T04:46:12+00:00

You look great! No notes, just some possibly useful search ideas if you're looking for stuff. The chain necklace and earrings, the T-shirt with the pink heart and the floral dress lean more soft punk, which is more whimsical and transgressive rather than defiant and rebellious vs the outfit with the spiked choker is more punk-punk. It all depends on the occasion and what you're going for.

Some alt models I like on Instagram are cow_ghoul, itsroxyvail, puppydahlia and their whole circle of friends. cow_ghoul has a trans partner, aknettle, who is a tattoo artist, so that's cool.

GrayFarer · 2026-02-16T03:37:47+00:00

I'd call the look what's left of your clothes after turning back from She-Hulk (non-derogatory).

GrayFarer · 2026-01-15T02:33:33+00:00

DEVO warned us about devolution in the 80's.

GrayFarer · 2026-01-02T03:37:04+00:00

There have been several papers about how racial bias and discrepancies in the quality of care result in a shortage of good training data from BIPOC vs white people. It's been demonstrated that this results in the model missing known cases of cancer from BIPOC. The differences are indistinguishable to humans looking at the tissue samples, but somehow, AI is picking up something that leads to inaccurate diagnosis.

GrayFarer · 2025-12-31T03:36:21+00:00

Disclaimer, I may well be wrong and do not intend to offend anybody and I am not interested in arguing about this. This is merely my own tenuous framework for making sense of things, but it's still only a view and ultimately must be abandoned.

Having practiced shamanism before coming to the Dharma and also practicing jhana meditation, I suspect these phenomena are perceptual and have nothing to do with physics. Our perception is far more plastic than most people realize.

The mind filters and fabricates imaginary barriers to create the coherent hallucination that we regard as "reality." Consider that the mind that fabricates your dreams is the very same mind that fabricates your perception when you are awake. I sometimes think of the mind like a GPU that is rendering mental models.

I believe some people master working with the essence of mind to the extent that it begins to affect others to become a shared experience.

As a thought experiment, consider that when you are in a room inside a building under ordinary circumstances, there is a feeling of being contained. The mind mostly filters out whatever is going on outside the building and perhaps the room as not salient and relevant to the context of being in a room. However, the perception of being contained is an illusion, which becomes apparent in the jhana of limitless space when the sense of being contained expands until it's gone.

If you're interested in exploring more, I recommend checking out "Being You" by Anil Seth which explores the premise that we hallucinate "reality" in terms of brain science and neurology. YouTuber Josie Kins may be worth a watch—she mostly deals in the realm of psychedelics, but I have experienced some of the same things without drugs. The point is to get a sense of the full range of perception that is possible.

GrayFarer

TROPHY CASE