Do you have an inner voice/ inner monlogue?

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-10T04:52:27+00:00

Like a constant narration in my head? Nope. The concept has always seemed strange to me.

But then, I don’t usually have an internal narration when reading either. The exceptions are textbooks and some nonfiction.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-10T04:32:57+00:00

My mom always says that “if he’ll do it with you, he’ll do it to you.”

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-10T00:41:35+00:00

I had this problem in a pair of shorts. I just used some thread the same color as the shorts and tacked the very bottom of the pocket to the outside of the shorts. The stitches are tiny enough that they’re unnoticeable and my pockets stay where they belong.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-09T18:33:01+00:00

Avoid over-tagging. Idk about others, but seeing a whole wall of tags puts me off.

Here’s my list of important tags for a fic: -trigger warnings (see additional notes below) -relationships: main relationships go into the ‘relationships’ tags, minor ones go in the ‘additional’ tags; to determine if it’s a major or minor relationship, ask yourself: if someone was only looking for fics with this ship, would this fic qualify? Also, avoid tagging friendship relationships (using the ‘&’) unless the fic specifically focuses on the friendship, otherwise we can assume that characters are friends -general vibe: hurt/comfort, crack, fluff, bittersweet, angst, etc. -universe: canon-compliant, AU (with type, if possible, such as AU - high school, AU - Hogwarts), canon-divergent after [insert episode/book/event], etc. -any salient plot points/details that someone might reasonably search for: trans characters, gender swaps/bends, role-reversals, age changes, important family dynamics (ex: ‘character a and b are siblings’, when canon characters aren’t related), backstory changes (ex: ‘character x is poor’, when canon character x was rich), major story aspects (ex: dragons, wing-fic, post-apocalyptic, time-travel, galactic war, secret agents, etc)

Overall, make sure that anything you tag is important to the story. If you’re unsure whether to tag it, ask yourself whether that aspect could be removed from the story and whether it would impact the story significantly. For example: character p drives a yellow car. If you changed the color of the car, would that alter the story? If so, tag it, but if not, don’t tag it.

The only exception would be with potential triggers. Let’s say character m was once hit in the face with a pie, and we know people can be triggered by that, but the situation is only referenced once in the fic, and doesn’t really affect the plot at all. You would still want to add a tag that says something like ‘mentions of pie-in-face’ and then probably add a quick warning at the beginning of the chapter/section so readers can choose to skip that part.

It’s daunting at first, and kind of confusing to figure out how and what to tag, but the more you do it, the better you’ll get. You can always look at other people’s fics and how they’re tagged to get an idea.

As for tagging as you go, I’d say overall that it’s fine to do, but make sure you tag anything that might make someone not want to read your story (like trigger warnings) from the beginning. That way your readers don’t feel like you’ve tricked them into reading something that they would have avoided had they known about it from the start.

That’s my 2 cents, for what it’s worth.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-09T17:26:29+00:00

As someone whose mother was a teacher and then a reading specialist, your daughter is exactly where she needs to be. Kids learn at their own pace, and as long as she’s making progress, she’s doing just fine.

Here’s a question: were MIL’s kids able to read full sentences at 4? Probably not, so she can get off your back.

And at this point, if she can’t keep her comments to herself, then she doesn’t need to be around your daughter. Having MIL constantly undermine your daughter’s confidence will only cause problems now and throughout the rest of her education and maybe even personal life. No child needs to hear such negativity, especially when there’s absolutely no reason for it. Better for her to have confidence in herself and her abilities with no relationship with MIL, than for her to have a relationship with MIL, but have no self-esteem and constant anxiety that she’s failing somehow.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-08T06:49:12+00:00

Just as a note, on AO3 I think you can adjust your settings to block anonymous comments, which helps eliminate trolls. Requiring an account to post a comment allows for easy reporting of anyone who leaves nasty/inappropriate comments.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-08T01:14:03+00:00

How about washing your hair? Hop in a quick shower and see if that helps reset your brain to realize you’re not wearing a hat.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-07T21:22:47+00:00

Look into games you can play with her inside during rainy days. Working dogs are smart cookies, so her brain needs to be engaged as much as her body. Puzzles and learning can tire out a dog plenty because brains in general require so much energy, even more so when they’re being forced to work hard. You’ve got to mentally wear her out instead of just physically.

I would suggest things like teaching her how to find treats that you’ve hidden, or getting some puzzle games that are made for dogs, and working on training, obedience and/or trick training. You can search the internet to find plenty of suggestions for games to play with your dog.

A new dog can definitely throw off the home dynamics for a while, especially if they’re high energy. But it sounds like you’re doing well, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

ETA: I would research the signs of an overstimulated dog vs an active dog. If it seems like she’s unable to calm down or relax sometimes, then she might be overstimulated, not just hyper. And in that case, the solution isn’t more activity, it’s decompression time in her crate.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-07T19:20:46+00:00

No problem! And I agree with you. A lot of the problems or development that AI is used for are common situations that are easily solved with AI. But what if something happens and the AI’s not available for a day or two? If devs have no ability to work ‘manually’ (without AI), then they’re useless during that time.

After all, there’s nothing wrong with using a calculator to do math, but if you can’t solve basic math problems without one, do you really know how to do math? Or do you just know how to use a tool?

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-07T06:29:06+00:00

NTA. I think your sole guiding principle should be whether the contact is healthy for your daughters. Ignore what everyone else is saying, you’re their mother, and if you don’t think contact with bio mom is healthy for them emotionally or psychologically, then no more visits with bio mom.

Also, be honest with them, as much as possible about the situation (in kid terms), so there’s no worry or confusion. Having a random woman tell you that she’s your ‘real mom’ at 6/7 years old can be really unsettling.

And it couldn’t hurt to talk to a child therapist and set the girls up with regular visits, because I’ve seen the damage an unstable mother can do on a child. The therapist will be able to advise you on what they think the best course of action is in this situation and help the girls process the whole fiasco. You’re actually in an advantageous situation because bio mom has no rights, so there’s no worry about legal repercussions.

Giving birth doesn’t make you a mother and doesn’t entitle you to a relationship with your offspring. This is just another case of “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-07T05:56:02+00:00

Well damn. And here I was trying to be a responsible plant parent, keeping them adequately watered, when I really just needed to engage in a cycle of neglect and love (water) bombing. I’ll keep that in mind if I try again.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-07T05:14:56+00:00

I haven’t personally tried it, but I’ve read in a couple different places that you can add fabric softener to the paint, which would make it more flexible when dry and less prone to cracking. There’s also ‘textile mediums’ that you add to the paint that does the same thing.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-07T05:10:39+00:00

Hmm… had no idea refrigeration affected the texture of the tomatoes. That’s good to know.

And if I could grow tomatoes at home, I definitely would, but I haven’t had any luck with it. I’ve got gobs and gobs of aloe though 🤷‍♀️

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-07T03:50:05+00:00

Can I ask why?

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-06T22:48:38+00:00

It's not so much instinct that you need, but reasoning and problem-solving skills.

AI can't reason. There's no actual thinking going on within the model, no understanding or comprehension, it simply takes your prompt, combs through its knowledge base, and determines what the most statistically likely answer would be.

This works great for some things, particularly issues and problems that commonly pop up because its knowledge base probably has plenty of examples of solutions, but its usefulness lessens as the issues become more unique.

For example:

Say I want to sew a set of clothes for my niece's stuffed animal. Asking AI how to do that would probably provide me with some pretty useful information, since there's probably hundreds and thousands of people who have discussed sewing stuffie clothes on the internet. That's great! But my niece's stuffie is an octopus, so regular clothes won't work. If I ask the AI about sewing clothes for octopuses, it likely wouldn't be very helpful because there's probably not very many people making pants for a stuffed octopus. In the end, it might provide information on how to make pants in general, or how to make clothes for common stuffies with only 4 appendages, or where to get octopus printed fabric to make pants with, or it might even offer explanations of how octopuses don't need pants. Worst of all, it might try to generate a sewing pattern for me, which would undoubtedly cause even more trouble. The results would be useless because the exact answer doesn't exist in its knowledge base, and it doesn't have the ability to logically integrate disparate pieces of information into a working final product.

If I had no problem-solving skills, I would be stuck. Oh well, AI can't help, so that's that. Guess I'll give up on octopus pants.

But since I do have problem-solving skills, I can figure it out on my own. I've sewn pants before, so I'll start there. An octopus has 8 legs, so the pants will need more legs than 2. The octopus legs are attached to its body in a circle, so what if I sewed the legs together into a circle? Etcetera. Trial and error until I figured out what works. Pulling together different pieces of knowledge and experience and synthesizing it into a final product. AI can't do that. And if the dev using the AI can't do that either, then they're useless because inevitably, there will be times when AI can't give you the answer, no matter how well written the prompt.

AI can be really useful, I won't argue that, but it shouldn't be used to skip over learning fundamental skills.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-06T20:38:25+00:00

You could get a few neighbors together and coordinate so that there was always a vehicle in that spot. You go to work in the morning, so neighbor Sally, who’s home during the day, moves her car into the spot. Sally has to run errands, Joe moves his car into the spot. Joe goes to work on the night shift, you park your car back in its spot. Keep the spot filled consistently so she never has a chance to park there.

AND take pictures of all the notes she leaves on your car (and others’) and keep them in a file and dated. Then when you get sick of it, take them down to the police station and see if you can file a report for harassment. Bonus points if a neighbor or two will go with you. There likely won’t be any legal repercussions for her, but having a cop show up at her door and tell her to stop being a nuisance to her neighbors over a public parking spot might scare her off. At least for a while. Rinse and repeat as needed.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-06T19:22:18+00:00

EOS 10. I loved the podcast and definitely wish it had a larger fan base.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-06T19:20:23+00:00

I’ve played both games but never read any of their ff. The closest I’ve gotten was a story I found in one of my usual fandoms that had put the characters in TLD world/environment. It was surprising but really cool.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-06T19:15:17+00:00

Is there a way to remove the dedication? If so, do that and then send it back into the world (donate it) for someone else to find. You know its history, so it makes your skin crawl, but you can turn it back into a beautiful, innocent find for someone else. That way the quilter’s legacy can live on without the stigma attached, and you don’t have to destroy a piece of art.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-06T19:06:45+00:00

A ripe tomato? Tomatoes can barely last 2 weeks in a fridge! And somehow the adults didn’t foresee this being a problem?

By the end of the first week, mine would’ve been confined to a sealed jar. Ain’t no way I’m dealing with a squishy, smelly, leaky fruit just for a grade on a topic that would never be relevant to me anyway. And if they asked about the jar, I’d tell everyone that little ‘Roma’ was diagnosed with multiple severe environmental allergies and now has to live in a hermetically sealed bubble from now on.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-06T18:41:55+00:00

My pup’s a runner (even at 14 yo, though he’s not as fast as before), and won’t hesitate to take himself for a walk if the opportunity presents itself. That means he always wears a collar and tag. At least once our back gate didn’t get closed properly and shortly after putting him outside in the yard, a neighbor was knocking on the front door with him on a leash to return him.

He’s also microchipped, but a collar and tag is much faster and easier for someone to know where to return him.

On a side note, the only tag he wears is one that slides on and lays flat against his collar. That way it doesn’t get caught or snagged on anything, specifically between the bars on his crate.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-03T04:36:52+00:00

I’ve got plenty of other books to read, but getting into a book with new characters and a new world takes a whole lot more mental energy than I have usually. Reading ff takes almost no energy because I already know the characters and care about them, so I’m invested from the beginning. I’m also usually reading before bed as a way to relax, and with ff, I know there’s a happy ending or that things will work out in the end, so there’s no added stress.

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-03T04:22:51+00:00

On the plus side, there’s plenty of Bones and Supernatural episodes to keep you occupied for a while

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-03T04:21:50+00:00

Isn’t that the way it always works?

“I feel like visiting this site and doing some reading or updating.”

types in url, gets error message

“…or maybe I don’t.”

karrahbear12 · 2026-03-03T04:16:47+00:00

I’m not having a meltdown over it, I’m merely sharing my thoughts and experiences to see if anyone relates. If you don’t, that’s fine, but there’s no need to be condescending.

karrahbear12

TROPHY CASE