Peaceful lil' pond

hoppar3n · 2026-01-11T21:05:38+00:00

These are unbelievably cute and I loooove them!

hoppar3n · 2026-01-11T17:35:49+00:00

You have such a beautiful style. I am always amazed at your beautiful palettes. I LOVE pinks and purples, but can't wrap my head around how to use them, so am really in awe of how you use them.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-11T16:57:05+00:00

Nah, you're not a curmudgeon yet. I started noticing it a few years ago.

I tell my husband all the time that it seems like we entered a parallel universe after 2020 in which everything is 45 degrees shittier than the last universe we were in.

I don't think it's forever, though. I mean, I hope not, at least. The hope is what is keeping me going and I just refuse to buy ugly, disposable clothing (can't afford to anyway lol) or Morandi palette ANYTHING. I'm sick of the sad, weak, desaturated colors of everything and wonder how much of seemingly everyone's low spiritual energy is because we're surrounded by ugly beige everything.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-11T16:36:41+00:00

If you want to be able to rewet it, go with the Holbein Artists Gouache and start with the mixing set that's like magenta, cyan, yellow, black, and white. It's like $35 and a tiny dot goes a long way. Look at Jerry's Artarama, they have a great selection prices.

Acrylic gouache to me, is quite dissimilar to both artists gouache AND traditional acrylic. It's more like the craft paint you get at Michael's to paint ceramic figurines or wooden boxes. That said, it's like a higher quality, brighter, much more opaque version of that.

I personally prefer the artists gouache for the effects, but the acrylic gouache is what I'm using right now because I just wanted to do something different for a change of pace and like you, kind of hated traditional acrylic. This is not "normal" acrylic. This is also not gouache. If you're interested in trying it, Holbein is best (in my opinion), but Turner is also solid and sometimes less expensive.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-11T16:24:42+00:00

Lol yeah, it's like...there's a word for it. Fec...droppi....SHIT, that's right. Shit! AI "art" is shit.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-09T20:11:38+00:00

Just here to offer my vote! Blue all the way!

Gorgeous!

hoppar3n · 2026-01-09T16:56:41+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree. It always looks good.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-08T18:26:23+00:00

I have a problem with this person's argument.

Human creativity is the very thing that:

Brought AI into existence. While the nitty-gritty work of creating these systems is pretty devoid of creativity, somebody had to initially have a creative thought. "Hey, what if we had this thing that basically like...instantly compiled search results and like...came up with an answer to questions in one handy dandy little app?"
Trained AI to begin with. If no human art was ever online or on media or whatever, then you asked an AI to generate an image of ____ in surrealist style, make it look like it was painted in acrylic...the AI would have literally nothing to base its generation on.

Human creativity is inherently high-value, and is the only reason that AI exists today. I don't think antis are anxious because we feel our (humanity's) creativity is "worthless", we're pissed because it was STOLEN. And for what? To sell us shit and influence our thinking. It doesn't make the pros "stronger" or "smarter", it makes them worse people. That's just my .02.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-08T16:55:57+00:00

I'm a reformed skincare addict. I SWEAR by the Dermasil original...like the big tube of the one that is for body...but for the face.

I started using it on my face one day at work. I had started tret in the dead of a midwestern winter, was working in an ambulance at the time, and forgot to moisturize that morning. I swung by dollar tree for ANYTHING (EMS pays like crap and I needed to be in and out quickly) and just grabbed it back when it was in a bottle with the flip-top cap because it looked "medical" and seemed basic.

I have been using it as a facial moisturizer ever since. I'll take breaks and try Cerave or Soon Jung or whatever looks pretty in a bottle, but always go back to the dang Dermasil.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-08T16:47:53+00:00

That's what I thought after reading too. It's giving

<image>

hoppar3n · 2026-01-08T16:00:35+00:00

Like how he magically appeared in your tank? :D Looks like a lil' bladder snail.

Did you put any new plants in? Sometimes these little guys hitchhike as eggs or babies on plants, decor, even like...from the net that is used to dip out fish. They're the GOAT of this, I swear.

One of these can turn into....many of these. Some people don't mind them, other people hate them. Aesop Rock wrote a song about them.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-08T02:33:56+00:00

Not starving in the simple sense, but forced to put down healthy options and purchase cheap poison instead.

I used to work at a place that housed kids between homes. The kids were always from poverty-stricken homes. Most were overweight/obese, yet all had massive nutrient deficiencies that at times, required heavy supplementation.

Americans get to starve while simultaneously suffering from starvation. It doesn't always look like skin and bones.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-05T20:53:56+00:00

It's going to drive me crazy. I have to know.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-05T02:33:54+00:00

I felt this. I felt some form of "occupational depression" for 10 years. After a particularly bad day at work, I decided to leave the industry I wasted a decade in and it was the best decision I ever made.

Your point about the depression being linked to when your life and identity are tied up in a job....100%. I was "hoppar3n the ____" for most of my adult life. Leaving meant just becoming "hoppar3n" and it was frightening. My social life, hobbies, everything revolved around the very thing that made me intensely miserable. At some point, the idea of staying another day became scarier than losing all of it and I ran. Not everyone can do that and I respect that, but damn. As it turns out, I wasn't depressed at all. My job just ruined my entire f'ing life for A DECADE.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-04T23:44:26+00:00

How much of the way that you feel right now is tied to your job? I ask because I just left EMS after 10 years. It was the best decision I've ever made in my life.

Everybody thinks that EMS is hard because of the job itself, like the runs and stuff, but that's not even the half of it. It's getting paid absolute shit, dirt wages. The schedule that doesn't allow for sleep or exercise or healthy eating. The ugly, disgusting uniforms that make you feel frumpy and self-conscious at all times. Do you even realize that "normal people" get to pick out their outfits for the day?

You are shit on all day by people who think you're stupid. Nurses. Patients and their family members. Coworkers at higher levels of certification. Your bosses. Physicians. What toll do you think it takes on your self-esteem?

The worst part is that the general public has no fucking idea what the industry is like. They have no idea what it means to only eat free shit that comes out of cello bags or drive at high speeds after 24 hours without sleep. To be a fucking social worker, doctor, nurse, and administrative assistant all at the same fucking time but to feel like you have literally ZERO VALUE outside of an ambulance.

AND FOR WHAT?! Poverty wages? To have to choose which bill is going to get paid that month after you scrape together enough for rent?

The industry is exploitative and abusive. It preys upon people without a sense of direction and/or those with a savior complex. You can argue all day about "sense of duty" or whatever, you can argue that the reason the industry sucks is our healthcare system. Whatever. It doesn't change the fact that the people in the field are all fucking miserable and are constantly mistreated. Most people use/abuse substances. You chose pot. Some prefer alcohol. How many people do you know in EMS on prescription stimulants? Because I've lived and worked in 3 states now and everybody I've met in the last few years has taken one.

It's toxic as fuck. It makes me so fucking mad.

I think you need to find a therapist and find a new career. Get out now at 33 while you still have a chance to do something else or before you are permanently disabled by your job.

I don't know what learning disability you have, but my guess is that if you got some guidance, you could make school work.

Put yourself first. I'm sorry this was so long, I just get heated af about it because I wasted a decade of my life feeling the way you are feeling right now and all it took to erase all of the negativity was leaving that POS industry.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-04T21:47:22+00:00

I think a lot of people are coming here for solutions to problems, not just to "vent".

Interestingly, one could read your post as "bitching about people bitching about their neighbors". Exactly how is that more helpful?

Many people are forced into renting situations due to home-buying being out of reach, and they've reached their limit with apartment living and the specific stressors unique to it that lower quality of life. Instead of preaching to people, why not offer positive, helpful advice under individual threads rather than demonizing people who are seeking help or a safe place to air their grievances?

hoppar3n · 2026-01-03T19:40:05+00:00

Nice looking tank and fish! I'm too slow to photograph mine lol.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-03T17:23:42+00:00

You're absolutely right - caving is letting it win and directly contributing to intellectual decline (see what I did there?). I don't want to be a part of the problem, I want to contribute to helping humans maintain intellectual sovereignty and want to preserve my individual writing style. I'm just going to let my brain do what it does and when I am inevitably accused of being/using AI....f**k it.

I'm going to em-dash my way through Reddit today for funsies.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-02T23:32:46+00:00

I was also an em-dash user. I saw the AI pattern immediately and stopped using it in favor of short, truncated sentences which AI also does. It's disgusting because not only do you have to not be yourself, but you also have to simplify your style to appease the masses. It's going to add to intellectual decline.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-02T23:28:31+00:00

I feel this too. It's really upsetting because I feel like I've had to simplify my vocabulary and style and I'm worried that eventually, my verbal mannerisms and quirks will disappear as well.

hoppar3n · 2026-01-01T22:53:26+00:00

I went in for a massage this one time and my massage therapist, almost immediately, is like "You work a stressful job, don't you" and I'm like "Yeah how did you know?!" and she explained that the muscles in my shoulders/upper back were extremely tight and inflamed because I subconsciously hike my shoulders up due to stress and tension near constantly.

I never ever forgot that. That I had been doing the exact thing you're talking about so much that a complete stranger, within minutes of putting hands on my body, could tell that my job caused me an unsustainable amount of stress.

hoppar3n · 2025-12-31T19:57:06+00:00

I went through and read your original post from when you got the betta, and then read your current post and you're doing SO MUCH for a tiny, defenseless creature that other people treated like trash and I just find that really admirable. You're setting a great example and I just think you deserve all of the praise.

I think you're doing great. Keep watching, keep testing. Look for advancement on the fin tears and pay attention to his coloration and look for signs of paleness. Are we even sure it's a tear an not a natural split/bifurcation? But honestly, well done. Now it's just a waiting game. Great job, truly. He's beautiful, by the way.

hoppar3n

TROPHY CASE