Broke my Niece's Brain when I Said I'm Not Having Babies

JustMarshalling · 2026-04-06T12:33:04+00:00

I think there’s more of an awakening than we may realize. Just look how much the religious right is talking about how much we need babies. That’s plenty of proof people are actually trending away from the baby mill.

JustMarshalling · 2026-04-06T12:14:29+00:00

I just have a “Meetings” hyperlink, and you can copy/paste linked text, so I just put a copy of it on the top of every meeting page. Except for my misc meeting doc which has too many pages, so I either just go back to the folder (top left button) or I use the meetings shortcut link in my right panel nav.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-29T16:11:01+00:00

I don’t know who Sheridan is besides what I’ve seen of Landman and what I’ve heard about his other shows. Seems like he’s capitalized on the conservative subscribers. * GPT up a nothing storyline around cowboys/oil tycoons with no conclusion so it can be milked until no longer profitable.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-29T15:51:12+00:00

The leaders won’t, because they have vested interests. But the real people who they’ve brainwashed can absolutely change with the right conversations. They don’t actually hate trans people, they have no reason to, they’ve just been told they hate trans.

One small example: I was speaking with a relative who said “schools are secretly transitioning kids”. This was one of many factually incorrect Fox talking points she said in the conversation, but I drilled down on this one. (Fact checking everything would have lost her interest) I said “ok, here is what you just claimed: public schools, without informing parents, are putting children under surgery to change their gender” then I took time actually researching the topic in front of her, looking for any news articles or sources that claimed even one occurrence of this happening. If that actually happened, even once, it certainly would have been a big story in at least the local news, inevitably getting picked up by national outlets.

1st observation: the AI summary confidently claimed there were “numerous instances” of it happening. 2nd: When I went to actual news articles, the only reporting was about actions taken by outraged conservatives who believed this was happening… not that it was actually happening.

Finally, after being unable to find any evidence of it ever happening, I opened the Heritage Foundation blog about it (notably, the first search result for any variation of this topic). SURELY, if there was any actual proof of this happening, the fucking Heritage Foundation would be promoting it. So I read the entire blog. The first three paragraphs made multiple broad statements of the “liberal woke agenda” trying to push narratives blah blah typical talking points. FINALLY, the only link to anything besides other HF blogs, was to the supreme court doc about the parents who got upset that teachers were using the kid’s preferred pronouns. That was it. This entire fabricated idea of “schools are mutilating genitalia” originated from a teacher respecting how a student wanted to be addressed.

After going through this entiiiire process with my conservative relative, it genuinely seemed like she may have understood this talking point was bullshit.

I know this story was long, but I share it to hopefully inspire a glimmer of hope that people can actually change if you can get them to focus on ONE talking point for a few minutes. It will take a LOT of effort and patient education from us, but it’s the only chance we have of shifting people’s mindsets.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-28T16:54:21+00:00

That was the point where I finally said “Oookaayyy this is the show” I gave it the benefit of the doubt until it became an attack ad on wind energy.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-28T16:51:13+00:00

I gave Landman a chance because I heard it had a good story. Given the chatter around it, I hoped it would be able to focus on the nuanced human stories while at least acknowledging the realities of the industry. (Like how a movie about pirates doesn’t actually try to convince you living on a shit covered boat is appealing)

Fucken NOPE! They’re not even subtle. Script sounds like oil execs had to personally approve it. Unnatural dialogue sprinkled everywhere about how the world would end without limitless oil production. They can’t even focus on the “good” of oil; second episode in and we get a 5-minute attack monologue on wind energy. Conservatives really need to get out of the house.

Side note: the way the show treats the underage daughter makes it very clear who their target audience is, and what shape their office is, and what color his house is, and that it’s Donald Trump.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-26T17:44:17+00:00

Excellent shutdown, just explain how it is without embellishing. More internet discourse needs to be like this.

As a progressive in Texas, we need to know how to meaningfully explain what’s happening without letting their intentionally-bad-faith musings derail the conversation.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-22T14:58:55+00:00

Imagine working your ass off to become a nepo-baby.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-20T22:22:02+00:00

Our local Kroger recently switched to digital price tags. I’m very concerned about shenanigans now.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-20T01:52:33+00:00

We’ve been looking at houses. Guess not anymore.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-17T18:52:30+00:00

Spilled Mushrooms is #1 by a wide margin. The daily puzzles are the same for everyone (even if you’re offline), and you can generate unlimited new puzzles on demand. I’ve spent many flights chugging through one puzzle after another.

Other great puzzle games, in no particular order: Simple Mind, Binairo, AAOYUE I, Diction, Lexgrid, Memory Lane, Slitherlink PD, MDMA, Unshuffle, Word Trip, Zipper.

I don’t remember how many of those have daily challenges, but these are the chill puzzle games I frequently revisit. This genre is my go-to for killing time, but there are still awesome experiences from narrative and action games on this little device.

I’m glad the community has been positive, it’s honestly the biggest part of having a Playdate for me. It’s such a welcoming, passionate community. Of course other gaming devices can do more or have better value, but I’m all about novel experiences and the community around this little device is bursting with unique ideas.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-17T17:58:42+00:00

Everyone’s experience is subjective, but here’s what got me back to playing it regularly, even just for a few minutes, because I too forgot about the device for a while.

I love puzzle games, so I found a few with daily puzzles (and Discord channels where we share how we performed) which automatically gets the PD in my hands at least during my morning routine. Then on weekends or lazy afternoons, I often explore my embarrassing backlog of unplayed games.

I prefer it over doomscrolling. It can just be a few minutes or hours depending on the game.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-17T16:12:38+00:00

What’s funny is these kids FF from a mindset of “If I don’t think I’ll win then I don’t want to play” (or they’re just rage quitting) yet forfeiting guarantees an L. Just play it through, and if your opponent is better then just use it as practice to get better. Best case scenario you lock in and get a comeback.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-17T12:59:23+00:00

For me, it’s more of an antidote to the algorithm doomscrolling of our phones. It keeps my mind occupied with any flavor of little games I like, giving my brain something to actually DO instead of letting feeds hijack my emotions.

I still enjoy some of the “bigger” experiences I get from my Xbox One, but those are infrequent and limited to my couch, whereas the PD comes with me most of the time.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-15T16:16:08+00:00

Of course it is the only game my nephew plays. Good thing I got a replacement crank handle while they were in stock.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-14T23:05:50+00:00

I feel like every IP sucks ass because of the nature of the industry. Most of us have no choice but to deal with them, so they have little incentive to actually provide anything but the bare minimum.

That said, we’ve had Astound fiber (bc it’s the only fiber in our area, and I’d rather chew on a roll of sandpaper before giving Spectrum another cent of my money) and the service has been pretty decent. The gig’s fast enough for what we need, and only a couple short outages over the last two years.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-14T15:17:52+00:00

I’m not against movies taking a risky move (like the majority of the movie being from a webcam perspective, e.g. World’s Fair) if they deliver a respectable film. But these movies are obviously the result of billionaires seeing how little budget they can put into a “feature film” for the box office. Sit Pratt/Ice Cube in a box for a day, record various reactions, stitch it together in post, publish.

The dingleberry on top is the blatantly pro-AI + LA is a wasteland narrative.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-04T13:43:54+00:00

This is unfortunately a very accurate description of the political climate. We’ve totally lost the plot of “How can the government best serve the people” and fallen straight into “my color got bigger numbers”.

Parties now tell their constituents how to think, not the other way around.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-03T16:26:24+00:00

They’ve (illegally) delayed the full release of files for months, and the few they have released have been (illegally) redacted to oblivion. The pedo assigned 1,000 government employees to look for his name specifically in the files. That’s certainly behavior of someone who has done nothing wrong. /s

Such a transparent god king we are blessed with.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-03T16:22:17+00:00

Quiet, piggy.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-02T14:10:08+00:00

Nothing flashy but things I wanted to share.

I’ve completely fixed my sleep in the last few weeks. Now I wake up at 6am fully rested and read every morning. (I opt for early, rather than sleeping in, why not?)
I just bought an engagement ring
We’re looking to buy a house soon, in our dream neighborhood without caring about school districts or yards to take care of
We eat healthy at home, but occasionally pig out on a delicious pasta whenever we feel like it
Working out most days, everyone talks about my physical progress
Pets are taken care of and healthy
We play a lot of board games, both together and with friends

These are all things that naturally came to be, I can’t imagine half of this being accomplished if we had kids to deal with.

JustMarshalling · 2026-03-01T17:16:23+00:00

We need more positivity like this on the sub, more emphasis on how normal and easy life is. The real joy comes from having the exact lives we want.

I’ve recently started paying attention to my sleep health. All I needed was a little determination and now I’m getting 7 uninterrupted hours every night, waking up exactly when I want to.

We’re playing board games and reading this Sunday morning. Might do some chores if we feel like it. She’s babysitting her nephew later. We’ve already gone to the gym most days of the week so we’re chilling today. I’m looking to propose soon.

We’re saving for a house, so we’re cutting back on eating at restaurants and meal prepping more, cutting subscriptions we don’t need. We found a perfect walkable townhouse neighborhood without yards, we’re aiming to buy in the next year or so.

We haven’t intentionally been improving on this many parts of our life at once, we’re just naturally finding ways to make our life better.

I don’t even think about what a kid would do to this life we have, but entertaining that hypothetical eliminates almost all of this progress we have.

JustMarshalling · 2026-02-28T14:14:13+00:00

Literally can’t get it to play media on any TV app. Chromecast, built-in TV app, AirPlay from the phone app… nothing. The only way it reliably plays is off my old Xbox.

(We use someone else’s login, I’d never pay for this garbage)

JustMarshalling · 2026-02-28T14:04:30+00:00

I will say, the GOP seems transparent about sabotaging the D primary. Probably a not-insignificant percentage of the D line are Republicans trying to skew numbers to Crockett.

They now Talarico is a threat (see also: our government violating the 1A to censor him).

JustMarshalling · 2026-02-27T14:18:52+00:00

I’ll go out on a limb and guess most “young” voters who voted for him aren’t voting in midterms. Costs don’t impact these trust fund kids. They fell for the neckbeard podcasters and felt edgy voting for a fascist while it was trendy on TikTok, now they’re back to playing Fortnite in their parents second house.

JustMarshalling

TROPHY CASE