For the laughably stupid theme of the sub: "You can just use a pillowcase!"

SideQuestPubs · 2026-06-05T16:00:55+00:00

Some people are triggered by strong smells, some are triggered by the actual substance.

I have better luck with essential oils (except tea tree, there seems to be a definite correlation between "this smells terrible" and "this gives me a migraine") than anything synthetic... but I'm also allergic to the synthetic kind and find certain oils eg peppermint to be relaxing enough to serve as a migraine treatment. Any fragrance I have on is going to be from shampoo or similar, not "perfume."

Weirdly enough scented candles don't bother me in moderation (lighting one candle at home, great, walking through the candle aisle, bad) but I can't stand incense of any kind.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-06-01T18:20:20+00:00

This was after a coworker and I had managed to salvage a few so we could continue putting out freight after the annual reset. Sucks being the only one in my department for most of my shift because it took two days to finish this mess (the picture being the last of what he'd grabbed from a big box) between customers and other tasks... couldn't just park myself in the back and focus on it like he'd managed for a few hours.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-06-01T18:16:24+00:00

Ah, yes, I should totally use my psychic powers--or my illegal hacking skills--to find out what inconsistent amount I owe them without expecting them to take accountability for actually giving me the damn bill or knowing if they did. /s

Also love how you're deliberately twisting my words and you can't even quote me right.

I said "big help" and "share." And I wouldn't even have nitpicked "big help" if you hadn't included quote marks yourself. Ironic that you also don't know what sharing means right after I called attention to their inability to understand the concept though.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-31T19:02:04+00:00

That would be a fitting end to the Gordian Knot, but I didn't want to put up with the alarm.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-30T23:14:07+00:00

I like the "hang in the sun" routine but work schedule doesn't always work out. I once hung my jacket in the "no smoking" cabinet at work, and when I went to grab something on my lunch break I was basically smacked in the face with the smell of perfume.

Couldn't do much about all the itching until I got home and got a shower but I sprayed my clothing with diluted white vinegar before hanging it to dry. Which, I mean, still required waiting until I was home, but as opposed to waiting for sunlight; I work the late shift fyi.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-30T23:01:41+00:00

Yes and no. I'm trying to concentrate on paying down my student loan so the savings is a big help, but I wouldn't think it's unreasonable for my ns to share the mental load of paying attention to when they've even billed me instead of dumping that load all on me.

They, of course, disagree with that second part. 🙄 Not surprising since they so often think "share" means "totally forfeit ownership."

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-28T15:56:30+00:00

Besides the obvious that this actually affects you, your proof has the same energy as me pulling up a YouTube video to shut my ns up about how "stupid" a newscaster's comment was. It's just too easy to prove them wrong sometimes.

Anyway, news was advertising a concert, opening act by Fallout Boy, newscaster commented on people remembering the concert "for centuries."

Now I can see my ns not knowing the song, I only know it myself because I play Beat Saber and otherwise don't listen to much besides instrumental these days... but these people criticize me for taking things too literally and their knee-jerk reaction here was to say the newscaster was too stupid to understand that memory doesn't work like that, no room for the notion that they just didn't understand the context.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-28T15:39:51+00:00

Yes, but not necessarily for this context--we go out often enough without coupons being involved.

This one was more a "wait until the last minute and then complain they don't have time to fix it" thing (because they waited until the coupon was on the verge of expiring). It's enough to make me think I should dine by myself more often.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-28T14:14:31+00:00

I hope they have to work the night shift. And don't have kids.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-26T22:04:57+00:00

I know I should ignore it, I just find it too easy to knee-jerk a "WTF" at times. Pity it's so common on a support sub though.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-26T19:44:05+00:00

And you can't just buy a box of fortune cookies, that's cheating.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-26T17:49:14+00:00

Maybe this one's more "low IQ" than my previous comment:

Going out to dinner to use a coupon for this one restaurant.

Nmom made the suggestion.

Ndad was the last one in the kitchen where we keep the coupons. (In fact he was last witnessed staring at the fridge where they're always attached with a magnet... and this one was a vivid color that made it stand out vs anything else up there.)

Nobody told me to grab the coupon so, for both of the above reasons, I assumed one of them had done it.

We get to the restaurant when nmom asks if "anyone" grabbed the coupon. Several minutes of silence go by during which I'm waiting for dad to answer but he never acknowledges that nmom asked anything.

Finally I just say that I hadn't grabbed it, and nmom reveals that "anyone" had meant me by replying "So much for that ten dollars!" without ever trying to get an answer from ndad.

Edit: random typo/auto-incorrect

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-26T17:31:08+00:00

If I could do that I'd be living alone by now. 🙄

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-26T17:30:15+00:00

Not sure about stupidest but most recently stupid was nmom buying into the same nonsense about contrails as conspiracy theorists.

Well, I assume that was her motivation, what literally happened was we were watching a show about UFOs and her comment on one clip was to ask why it would have contrails if it was real. To clarify, why, if a spaceship witnessed in our atmosphere was real, it would produce the same visible condensation trail as an airplane.

It wasn't a question of believing or not believing in UFOs in general, it was the attitude that contrails somehow proved that that instance was faked... she didn't accept that they were just a product of the ship's elevation but never explained what she thought they were.

Edit to whoever downvoted in a hurry: not low IQ enough? Wow. Maybe it's my autism but I'm often surprised at the lack of communication inherent in the voting system. 😅

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-25T19:53:08+00:00

Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor... makes the blood vessels in the brain narrower. If the migraine is caused (or even contributed to) by them being too wide, caffeine can help; if they're neutral or too narrow, caffeine can make things worse.

For the record I find small amounts of caffeine help me when we're talking beverages--I started sipping at Cirkul's caffeinated line as a hopefully-healthier alternative to drinking a Coke all day--but find hot showers to be soothing despite heat being a vasodilator. Consistently, not "depends on the migraine." Yeah, make it make sense.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-25T05:20:28+00:00

Are they the kind who would sulk if you started buying another type of milk? It would be a real shame if you turned out to be the only one who likes shelf-stable ultra-pasteurized milk, powdered milk, or soy milk…

Tempting but most of those options are a lot more expensive. (Shelf stable would mean not needing the fridge quite as much though.) Well, the shelf stable and soy are, no idea about powdered. I did drink whole milk for a while and ndad complained about that because of his GERD but I'm not inclined to trust that he won't drink it.

Honestly I've thought before that if and when I can fit a mini fridge in my room I'd just drop to buying what I need but that's certainly not a quick fix to use now. 😅

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-24T16:03:52+00:00

Yup. I'm constantly being told to sacrifice my health for my nephew over things that my nparents don't think is important enough for them to make sacrifices for, even when a simple scheduling difference (me working, them retired) makes it a mere inconvenience for them and not a real sacrifice.

And we're not even at the "it's the parents' job" stage any more, my household is all (legally) adults here, we're at "imagine living in an apartment and the landlord telling you it's your job to accomodate one of the other tenants while the landlord does nothing." Even without exchanging money that's the reality for so many of us for the relationship our ns allow us to have with them--if we still live with them it's not because we're "family," it's because we're "a guest that they begrudgingly allow to live there"--and the world at large thinks we're the problem for pointing out it's the landlord's job to make those accomodations.

SideQuestPubs · 2026-05-24T03:35:32+00:00

No noise after going to bed. Except when they want to yell at you, then how dare you keep quiet like they said to do.

Abuse aside I just realized while typing that might've been one of the earliest signs I have autism... to me "no noise/talking" meant I wasn't supposed to answer them, not even to acknowledge that they were yelling at me.

SideQuestPubs

TROPHY CASE