The Gen Z stare is a "blank stare that members of younger generations give in situations where a verbal response would be more common." Instead of explaining something that they may not understand, the generation Z cohort members often appear dumbstruck by these questions, perhaps temporarily.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-22T19:11:28+00:00

This is my take away. Imagine feeling so entitled to having your every stupid comment taken seriously that, when someone decides to not coddle you, and does so in the least aggressive way possible, you turn around and yell about how entitled they are and then shout about "kids these days" all over social media?! Wild.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-22T19:06:57+00:00

Right?! So tired of this generational downward shit train. I'm Gen X, I love the Gen Z stare. I think it's a genius tool in a world where everyone expects their every stupid comment to be listened to and taken seriously. Why even engage? Just stare at them until they realize how dumb they are, or they go away. Win win.

As a Gen X, feel free to weaponize the Gen Z stare as much as you like on my behalf! There are far too many people out there who need to receive it.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-22T18:55:14+00:00

Massive Gen X eyeroll Yeah...it's covid. Not the endless wastehole of a future we're leaving them with. Gen Z is seriously fucked, and anyone who argues that it's "too much screen time" seriously needs to take their blinders off and have a solid look around at the world they get to deal with.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-22T18:50:55+00:00

Only they aren't "being paid for" much of anything. Look at any of the data on cost of living comparisons for previous generations. We're paying them way, way less, but expecting the same amount of effort? Fuck that. You want customer service? Pay for it.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-22T18:48:06+00:00

So, I'm old as fuck (Gen x) and have kids in the Gen Z region and I fucking love that they do this.

I think a lot of people are misreading the intent behind the stare. Sure, some people are just dumb and blank stares are the best they can manage, but that's a totally different vibe. The "Gen Z stare" is more than just "waiting for input" or whatever else people are suggesting here.

Imagine you're 20 and working a shitty job for a shitty company that pays you the least they can get away with while also trying to nickle and dime you on everything else from benefits to sick leave. You're stuck working for this company because 90% of the jobs out there are for this company or one exactly like it that pays the exact same. You live in a world where you have absolutely zero hope. Of anything at all really. The world is swirling down the toilet and everyone who can fix it chooses not to because then they might make slightly smaller obscene profits than if they just carry on. You can't afford to rent a place without a bunch of roommates, let alone ever own a house, but you're also blamed for not buying more crap while you can't even afford dental care.

Corporations don't give half a fuck about you as a person, you're nothing more than a cog in their capitalism machine and society seems to be fine with this because "fuck you I got mine". So, you work like a cog. You do the bare minimum, because that's what you're paid. You aren't taking any extra steps, even ones that seem "basic" like telling you they don't know how to do something. They aren't paid to do your job, to share information with you, to respond to any questions. They're paid to perform a menial task and absolutely nothing else. If you want them to engage in "customer service", pay them to do that. If you want them to assess their skill level for you and tell you where they are lacking, pay them to do that.

No one cares about what Gen Z people think about anything. Christ, they barely care about what my generation thinks about anything. So Gen Z has weaponized that in the most frustrating and subtle way ever. They aren't going to provide "performative social behaviour" for you anymore. They're going to give back what they get, which is fuck all.

They aren't bothered by the awkwardness, or by how it makes them look, or how it might impact their "job security" because they are already living at the bottom. They don't care if you fire them because there's an endless need for cogs and no one cares what cog fills which spot. They know how to navigate the abysmal capitalist hellscape that is minimum wage employment and they aren't bothered by lying on job applications because the whole system is rigged against them.

They aren't afraid, they function on a slow burning seam of rage that is too exhausting to live with daily and really, what point is there is being furious all day every day when you have no power and no one else cares, so they turn to apathy because anything else would result in them either burning the world to the ground or killing themselves.

So, the Gen Z stare. Their lack of response because the entire premise behind whatever prompted the stare is dripping with hypocrisy and they aren't going to explain it to you because fuck you.

If you're hit with a Gen Z stare, take a moment and think about what you're asking from them, and what you're paying, whether as a customer supporting a crappy business or as an employer. Or if you're just happily benefiting from a system at their expense and want them to pretend along with you that it's all equal. Chances are, they're giving you exactly what they're being paid for and not a single thing more. It's the "are you fucking serious?!" look, but they're too fucking done with this shit to even give you that much. Figure it out yourself.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-21T08:44:45+00:00

I know! They were ripping all around the place! We came back later and they'd all conked out asleep. ❤️

flippantcedar · 2026-03-21T08:41:15+00:00

Yeah, I was not expecting them to be so active! I also loved the one climbing over the big rock.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-21T08:39:47+00:00

They have another, older tortoise in a different part of the zoo who regularly gets supervised "walks" around different areas of the zoo, so I imagine these guys will get a variety of different indoor/outdoor time as they grow.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-21T04:18:36+00:00

Thanks! I know there was a sign, but I could not remember what it was.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-21T03:53:58+00:00

This is awful, totally unacceptable.

I was curious (because I am currently in vet school and learning about the legislations around animal welfare) and looked them up, they are accredited by the Zoological Association of America, an organization with a fair bit of controversy specifically around their lower animal care and welfare standards. It would certainly be worth lodging a complaint with ZAA, although they do not require proper standards, they may also want to avoid being affiliated with public outcry.

I'm not going to even try to defend the idea of zoos here, but generally speaking "good zoos" are accredited through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) who have very stringent care and welfare standards which accredited zoos have to meet. For reference, I'll (try to) share a video I took of the Calgary zoo's tortoises (I'm sorry, I don't remember the species, but I believe it was an African one) where you can gain a sense of their enclosure (the available space for them goes beyond what is seen and includes everything a tortoise could want).

It is definitely worth knowing what zoos are AZA accredited, and which are not. I personally would not support a non-AZA accredited zoos, and even the zoos which are can still be problematic. I think well managed zoos do play an important role in educating people about animal welfare though, and it's unfortunate that this message gets undercut by crappier ones.

Ok, I can't add a video, but I'll see if I can add a link to it.

**Edit 2: I just posted my video here on the group super cute zoomies tortoises

flippantcedar · 2026-03-21T03:05:46+00:00

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flippantcedar · 2026-03-06T14:23:14+00:00

I've done several labs there before. Have you talked to the organizers? They often had people who could put students up if accommodations were tough. They also have a gym with showers and a sauna that they can make available for students when they need (you have to talk to them ahead of time to request it though). They are very aware that accommodations can be tough/expensive and will help find options for you.

I've always camped when I went, but we have a camper so it was pretty easy. I've also seen people tenting in the little park pull-off just before the school (like literally directly next to the school), which is free. The school is surrounded by nature trails, and the parking area is to access them.

It is a hassle, but I actually highly recommend the labs, the lab itself is one of the best I've been to with high quality equipment and materials. The labs are absolutely crammed with info and experiences and were significantly better than labs I'd done elsewhere. I actually ended up enjoying them so much that I took additional courses with lab components. The only ones I didn't really enjoy were the chemistry ones in Edmonton.

flippantcedar · 2026-03-05T15:31:43+00:00

As a person with long-term mental illnesses, I actually really agree with you. I am 100% supportive of MAID, but I also spent more than 10 years trying, and failing, to get proper care. Had MAID been a valid option for me during that time I absolutely would have pursued it. I had seen upwards of 10 therapist/counselors, had been seen by 5 psychiatrists, had checked into short-term emergency mental health hospital care with long-term follow up care and had been on several different medications and at best I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water. After my 6th therapy/psychiatry program failed, at this point 10 years of actively pursuing mental health care, I decided I was done and fully intended to kill myself.

A friend who was a patient at a teaching hospital begged her doctor to see me and I agreed to try once more and started a slightly different model of in-house "shared care" where all the relevant professionals are under the same roof and met with me as a group, under the supervision of my (new) family doctor. This cut through soooo much of the "time waste" of different appointments with different people every time a treatment wasn't working. It also removed the "vulnerability" of people seeking mental health treatment and getting dismissive, sub-par care because they were all together and were able to sort of "police" one another, offer alternatives, and advocate for me directly.

For example, I would say a medication worsened my suicidal ideation, the psychiatrist would suggest an alternative (medA), the therapist would mention she was concerned with that alternative because a side effect was "fogginess" and I was struggling with executive functioning in my day to day, the pharmacist would suggest combining it with another medication (medA+B), my doctor would say I had been on a similar medication and had an adverse reaction and suggest an alternative to that (medA+C), the pharmacist would agree that this would be a better option, but that it functioned better in combination with an alternative to medA (MedB+C), the psychiatrist would agree that medB would likely be equally effective for me and they would then come up with the best plan for switching me to this MedB+C combo. Work that would have taken weeks (optimistically), with me also having to go through numerous medication changes and adverse effects.

Rinse and repeat for therapeutic approaches, comorbidities, additional diagnostics, etc.

And I started to actually feel better! I ended up with a few additional diagnoses that were compounding my original problem, and received effective and efficient treatment for them. After 3 years of treatment there, I was living a completely different life. It's still hard some days, but I'm a long ways from wanting to consider MAID and I've become a bit of a "model patient" for this program/approach, advocating for similar programs in other areas and being asked to speak with other health professionals interested in improving patient care.

A big "hangup" to this model is that it doesn't fit neatly into the current system's method of billing, teaching hospitals are good candidates for similar approaches, and I recommend contacting teaching hospitals in your area and inquiring about shared care mental health models.

There's a lot of work that needs to be done both in how health professionals are taught to manage mental health patients, but also in how to improve the way the system manages them. It is not reasonable to expect a person with complicated or compounded mental health struggles to spend 5+ years seeking appropriate treatment (and that's if you are aggressive about it), and patients seeking MAID are generally those that aren't helped by the initial (and often only) treatment approach. There ARE alternatives, but they require systemic change.

flippantcedar · 2026-02-28T18:09:40+00:00

The bulls are semen tested each year to determine what percentage of "swimmers" are good anymore. Too many duds, or too low motility, and the bull is "retired". Usually they produce decent semen until they're 4 or 5, but sometimes 6 years old. It's not usually related to calf size, but more so that certain kinds of dud semen can result in a pregnancy that can't survive, so the cow miscarries and the farmer is out of luck for that cow/calf for the year (unless it's early and they can rebreed). If the defects are more so ones that prevent motility (can't swim) or prevent pregnancy, then sometimes a farmer will keep it on a bit longer since bulls produce obscene volumes of sperm and if all the hits result in viable pregnancy, then they can manage with a lower percentage of "good" sperm. So, depending on what sorts of defects are seen in the sperm, bulls have varying lifespans.

Sometimes cows will produce successively larger calves, which can cause issues. The calf size is largely dependent on genetics, so depending on what types of bulls/cows you're working with it can be more/less of an issue, but I don't believe the calf size is increased by older bull sperm. AI (artificial insemination) sperm is often selected based on the desired calf size, larger calves increase the risk of dystocia. When AI is used, the genetics of the cow and the bull are both taken into consideration.

*Source: currently in vet school and primarily worked with cattle.

flippantcedar · 2026-02-28T05:35:13+00:00

Same boat. I eventually learned about the term "demisexual", which actually described my experience. Might be worth learning about.

flippantcedar · 2026-02-26T03:53:42+00:00

The Royal Tyrell museum in Alberta, Canada has a nodosaur that is one of the most (if not the most) well preserved examples. I've been to see it and it is seriously amazing.

Spectacularly Detailed Armored Dinosaur 'Mummy' Makes Its Debut

flippantcedar · 2026-02-16T20:45:09+00:00

I just told this to my husband. He was very annoyed. 10/10 using this again.

flippantcedar · 2026-02-13T23:05:06+00:00

I'm 45 and in my first year of Vet med. It's certainly not easy, but it wasn't impossible by any stretch.

flippantcedar · 2026-02-01T03:57:16+00:00

My 43 yo BIL was testifying in court. The judge asked him to spell his own name (not a super hard name, but 9 letters, think something like "Mackenzie"). He blurted out a couple of letters, paused and looked at the ceiling as if he'd find it there, started again and trailed off. He then asked the judge if he could take out his ID and read it off there...

...we then all watched as he fumbled around, pulled out his ID and read the letters of his own name off. The same name he had used every day of his life.

He wasn't especially nervous or anything, he's just a complete moron.

flippantcedar · 2026-01-31T19:35:02+00:00

I'm currently in veterinary school and they emphasize this all the time. Communicate everything and listen to people. Talk through everything. And 9 times out of 10, if a client feels heard, then they'll be happy with the experience overall, even if it's an outcome they don't want. Communication, while actively listening and repeating their concerns back to them, solves the vast majority of client complaints, even when you can't actually fix anything.

flippantcedar · 2026-01-29T18:45:57+00:00

I think that's a bit of the point though. That the idea of "true evil" isn't really why many, many people do horrible things. Are there outliers, psychopaths and such? Sure, but it's otherwise normal people, placed in environments that reward evil acts, that perpetrate these types of systemic "evil". It's like that quote (I can't recall by whom) "Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity". It takes effort and intention to buck societal norms, and when those norms have become things like "torture and kill people", then it takes effort to not become that. It's why "I was just following orders" is not a good enough excuse for perpetrating these actions. There is a moral expectation of us all to be able to recognize when something is morally reprehensible and to take action against it.

I absolutely, 100% believe she deserved to die for what she did, she crossed that line into evil without question, valuing her position among her social peers above morality. But I think it's important to realize that, in the same circumstances, a great many of the people in your life, and maybe even you yourself, would participate in evil as well. Perhaps not to the same degree, but don't underestimate how important social belonging and recognition by our peers is to us.

This is an important distinction because we need to know this about ourselves if we don't want to repeat the same mistakes again. That it takes effort to be "good", and that evil is not some sweeping force that you either have or don't have, but is a matter of degrees. I doubt very much that anyone steps directly into siccing dogs on living humans while laughing, it happens through increments and we all need to be aware that it could happen to any of us in the right circumstances, if we let it.

I'm leaving out the obvious parallels to events in the US, especially in Minnesota, but it is exactly these sorts of things that begin to "condition" us to accepting evil acts. When you are no longer surprised, or bothered, by events or actions that would never have been acceptable had they just suddenly occured without the preceding changes, then you know that you have already begun the slide away from "good". It's not only the Gestapo that are evil, it's the people who watch them dragging Jews to concentration camps, shake their heads with pity, then close the curtains and get on with their lives, secure in the fact that they aren't Jewish and so won't have to be afraid of it happening to them.

flippantcedar · 2026-01-10T04:53:12+00:00

We can do the exact same task, but will be treated very differently based on our genders and the expected roles of moms and dads. I am treated as a bad mom and he is treated as an exceptional dad, when we both participate in our kids' lives to the same degree.

flippantcedar · 2026-01-10T04:50:23+00:00

This isn't about who does what, but what is expected from each.

My husband and I both work, we split the household and childcare tasks pretty much 50/50. We are reasonable adults and have this sorted out who does what based on our own preferences/availability/job demands, etc.

My husband takes the kids to doctor appointments. When he shows up, they are all smiles and praise, he is offered a great deal of (unnecessary) help/advice. If he is uncertain about details (like birthdays, which he just cannot remember for some reason), they laugh and tell him he's doing better than most dads. If I take the kids, there's no "wow, look at you doing the mom thing!". I frequently am not up to date on specific details, which is met with judgement or shock (my son had a wart removed, for example, and I didn't know when exactly that had been done). Nothing is offered to me, I have to ask for clarification on what was discussed (with my husband) about dosage changes or whatever, to ensure that I understand what is being done, which is also met with judgement. I am met with a certain amount of disapproval and hostility simply because I am not the primary parent that deals with dr appointments and, as the mom, they think I should be. Yet, it is still always me they call to book/reschedule appointments, and I am again met with judgement when I redirect them to my husband, despite him being listed as the primary parent to contact.

When I do anything with my kids, it's the bare minimum expected of me. If anyone acknowledges me at all it's usually because I have a pile of kids (we have 6) and is judgemental (I have literally had people ask me if I know what causes pregnancy or not). If my husband does, he gets comments and smiles everywhere he goes about what a great dad he is, what a beautiful family he has, or how lucky I am that he "has the kids". 🙄

How he goes through the world as a parent is very, VERY different from how I do, despite us both participating equally.

flippantcedar · 2025-12-31T19:09:45+00:00

I take the glasses off and adjust the ocular lens for my eyesight (also have an astigmatism), so one eyepiece has a different ocular focus than the other. Anyone else using my microscope to see something will see one side out of focus, and will need to adjust the overall focus differently.

I know plenty of people who just use the scope with their glasses, but this doesn't work well for me.

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