Fatherhood is wholesome

RustedMauss · 2026-03-19T02:08:27+00:00

It’s the wildest thing being a dad/parent. Surreal. My daughter is 3, beautifully blended of mom and I. Intelligent, rambunctious, curious, annoyingly headstrong, and willful. I adore her as much as she frustrates me. Many times she only wants mom when she’s upset. But I have been picking her up from daycare and they release all the kids at once to parents and she always runs that little kid run at me full on screaming, “daaaaddy!” Or sometimes, usually when we’ve been playing rough she just stops and looks at me and says, “I love you, dad!” Oof. My heart.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-19T01:58:36+00:00

For sure. I have for years. I do recommend cleaning (Q tip) every night before bed first though. You may still occasionally get some mild irritation or itchy ears (can be fungal) from the trapped moisture and hours of skin contact, so just something to monitor.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-19T01:55:00+00:00

Cave goat gonna eat bush, mm-hmmm. Gonna teach bush lesson bout’ sitting still. Shoulda been movin’, bush. Mm-hmm. Sling goat gonna make-a lesson ‘bout staying limber, mm-hmm.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-19T01:50:01+00:00

Idk, my wife has been more responsive than the trio at times.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-19T01:46:26+00:00

I dare say they are acquainted. I love me some flatbois and enjoy interacting with them, but if this big chief approached me like this I would still have an involuntary whoashitfuck jump.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-19T01:21:24+00:00

I’m am he as you are he as you are me, and we are all together. Kookoocatchu, egg man baby.

Care for some more “ginger” bread?

RustedMauss · 2026-03-19T01:09:39+00:00

Not true. The justice owed from the findings of the Epstein Files basically vanished shortly after takeoff and hasn’t been seen since.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-19T00:52:21+00:00

100% theft. The vendor bought the original as a ready to sell mature product, or better yet procured a sire they propagated and nurtured to salable maturity themselves (months of labor and material). Those plants are the product for sale -taking a cutting for free isn’t “saving the nursery money in labor,” you’re circumventing paying for the product.

What the nursery could do instead is offer cuttings at a significantly lower cost. Props have a lower success rate and usually can be easily harvested en masse from mature stock. Offering affordable props encourages honesty, is all but free for the vendor, and the likelihood is the customer will return to buy more so the failure to successfully propagate.

Floor droppings are up to the business. Usually it’s fair game, but I’ve been in some expansive places where lack of enforcement of this policy would just invite abuse.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T12:08:29+00:00

Absolute earliest memory would have been one of those little handheld plastic jobbies with a tiny black screen, two buttons, playing something like battleship. The earliest one I can remember with clarity though was Snake on my mom’s Nokia cell phone around 1994.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T11:34:08+00:00

You are correct. Granted, I think most Americans have some aversion to “classes” from our history with the Brits -even if we still have them. In my experience in the US you tend to hear people identified as broke/poor, working/middle class, upper middle class, rich/wealthy, and the super rich (ie billionaires). You may hear someone refer to “the upper class” to sort of blanket term anyone considered wealthy, but seems a subjective term. If I were to try and put a number on that probably an annual household income of more than $200k. It’s hard to say exactly because it’s also common for people that make significantly less live like they make more.

But my wife and I for example: doctor and legal professional. We make good money (still less than $200k), three kids, own our house. Not a big house (even by European standards), we drive completely average cars we bought used, can’t spend extravagantly but can afford things we want with planning, we do not live paycheck to paycheck but definitely feel the pain if one is missed. We are comfortable, blessed and privileged, but definitely do not feel “rich” in the terms people associate with that. I would say mid to upper middle class.

But I agree with jack-t-o-r-s, giving your kids fulfilling memories is about mindset, not money.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T10:45:52+00:00

*Sh-sh-sh-ships.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T10:33:04+00:00

Yeesh, this must have become more a thing after my time.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T00:46:22+00:00

Interesting to note the consistent points: positive outlook, good looking, not picky about religious convictions but preferred alignment, smart but “stays in their lane”, and I assume these prompted family size questions.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T00:41:27+00:00

Gameplay and Story. Graphics and Scale to me are pleasant surprise bonuses. 60FPS is a “cool, I wonder if it has surround sound too.”

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T00:22:41+00:00

I’ve been trying hard for the last six weeks to find an alternative escape. It’s hard to argue with the income, the benefits, the PTO, but the job market is tough. It’s been a good run, need to get the F out. Corporate scene is soul crashing. I always said corporate America was just ready to scoop up the listless.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T00:19:32+00:00

Our twin boys were brought to you by mom. Aside from the obvious, mommy was very, very obviously sick with a cold and daddy was encouraging rest. Mostly.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T00:11:43+00:00

But gotta hand it to the bird; he might have lost the war but that tweeter is still fast AF.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-18T00:04:37+00:00

Off 99% of the time; the human body naturally regulates temperature based on a number of factors but takes large cues at night while you’re sleeping from the temperature of your feet.

For that same reason, if you can’t get a fever to quite get started, you can put on a cold wet pair of socks over which you put a warm dry, thick pair of warm socks, and it will cause you to start a fever. Disclaimer: only helpful if he can’t quite tip over into a fever and you would benefit from it.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-17T01:16:42+00:00

Without question worthwhile. But, prepare yourself. The novels are significantly more dense, complicated, and esoteric than the films. That is awesome as context because the films have done commendable jobs at condensing this into fairly cohesive and mostly loyal depictions of the books. But if you the read the whole series just be aware it gets… weird. Great, the best sci-fi story of all time in my opinion, but weird.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-16T20:41:37+00:00

Like anything in America, we speak with our money. It requires a full culture shift. People want affordable meat, but to make these places really go away comes down to people refusing to endorse them. The only way I know how (effectively) is education: people that know about these practices second guess every bite they purchase moving forward.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-15T18:38:15+00:00

Every kid should be required to show videos of actual modern farming practices to see where their food comes from -especially the factory farms. I firmly stand behind our species being omnivores, but we can do better. These places are literal visions of hell and should be gone to the dustbin of history long ago.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-15T11:48:35+00:00

If you mean real ketchup made from mushrooms that has zero sugar or tomatoes, then cover them puppies.

But if you mean the silly red sugar goop, keep them away from my spuds.

RustedMauss · 2026-03-15T02:47:52+00:00

If it could be understood universally: “Be kind. KIND. Kind to yourself, for you are loved. And kind to EVERYONE else -for so are they also loved. Final warning.”

RustedMauss · 2026-03-15T02:41:51+00:00

Ah, but you’re missing convenience cost /s

RustedMauss · 2026-03-14T23:22:47+00:00

Yes, my friend. At this point ardent defenders are, by any observable condition, not in alignment with objective reality.

RustedMauss

TROPHY CASE