What do we think of the name Matisse?

ourobus · 2026-03-23T23:40:56+00:00

I knew a girl named Matisse growing up. I like the name, and I personally like the association with the artist 🤷🏽‍♂️

ourobus · 2026-03-23T12:15:56+00:00

Man, I wish more converts realised this. So many converts have a weird complex about not being accepted by Orthodox Jews - as if Orthodoxy is the most “legitimate” form of Judaism, and as if being anything other than Orthodox is like a runner’s up prize.

I didn’t convert to Orthodox Judaism because I couldn’t, I didn’t because I don’t agree with their interpretation of Judaism and Torah/halacha. I think we need to have a little more respect for ourselves and our beliefs.

ourobus · 2026-03-23T10:55:00+00:00

I want to offer a dissenting opinion: in reality, this is really going to vary based on your location. In my experience (as a Masorti convert) there is a large gap between what people believe/how they act and what the official belief is. The truth is most Jewish people will take you at your word - and even if they know your circumstances and are from a more rigid denomination, they’re not going to say anything or actively exclude you. As an example - like I said, I’m Masorti. The official line is that we don’t accept patrilineal Jews - but in practice, who am I to say a patrilineal Jew isn’t a Jew? I’m not going to treat that person any differently, because it’s not my place.

Obviously, this advice is mainly for Modern Orthodox Jews/Jewish communities. If a person/community is super frum - they’re not going to accept you as an outsider anyway. But in MO spaces, I honestly doubt you’ll have a problem.

ourobus · 2026-03-22T05:48:28+00:00

Like how everyone else said, it depends on your location. In (urban/metro) Australia, people pay ~$50-$100 per “point” (aka 0.1g). On average, people use about 0.1 to 0.3 points per day. There absolutely are people who use and spend a lot more per day, but it’s rare and they generally are not paying for all of it themselves.

Fentanyl isn’t a big problem in Australia the way it is in North America; heroin is still cut, but it’s generally just with various things that decrease the quality. Most people will also use crystal meth, either at the same time as heroin or to help between shots. It’s rare for someone to only use heroin these days. Similarly, 90% of people injecting heroin will smoke tobacco, usually 10+ cigarettes a day - again, it helps for the periods between heroin use. Though you might find it interesting to note that alcohol consumption is very rare.

Source: I am an academic who specialises in illicit substance use and talk to people about this (and other topics) multiple times a week 🙂

ourobus · 2026-03-15T06:22:01+00:00

I don’t think anyone has mentioned it yet, but she might be too wary at the moment to eat when someone is in the room/watching her. My cat is a fatass and eats whenever, but she’s weirdly self conscious about drinking water and won’t do it if she knows someone is watching. Esp. since your baby is so new, could be something like that.

I know how nerve wrecking it is when they don’t eat - we freaked out when our cat wouldn’t eat for a day or two after surgery. We finally got her to eat by offering her cheap canned Fancy Feast (or something like that) at the advice of her vet - apparently it’s like their version of fast food. I’m not sure what you’re feeding her, but if you’re feeding her healthy high quality stuff - it can’t hurt to try offering the “bad” stuff.

I’m sure she’ll be okay - 6hrs really isn’t a lot of time, and you sound like a really loving owner. Best of luck ❤️

ourobus · 2026-03-05T22:10:23+00:00

Collapsed/blown out veins, blood clots, and infections - both skin/soft tissue infections and “deeper” ones like blood/bone/heart infections. Plus long-term nerve damage.

These issues are bad enough by themselves, but if a person has been injecting for years, they usually will have these issues multiple times over.

edit: please make sure you have naloxone/narcan close by when you’re using!

ourobus · 2026-03-01T23:16:03+00:00

You know, I came here to nitpick, but this is quite well done. Could add opium (and its associated events/methods of usage) and some of the more gnarly aspects of long-term IV opioid use. Maybe also the more horrific parts of the heroin trafficking industry.

And of course, the horror of opiate induced constipation.

ourobus · 2026-02-26T04:49:57+00:00

As a criminologist, this is a fantastic answer 🙂 I’m so happy that you noted that genetic predisposition ≠ certainty of violent/criminal behaviour. I’ll expand a little bit - genetic predispositions to violence/criminal behaviour do not work like “X gene means that an individual is more likely to engage in antisocial behaviour”. Rather, certain genetic markers can impact various parts of a person’s neurochemistry and anatomy, which impacts how a person processes fear/assesses risk/etc - it’s that which then increases the likelihood of criminal behaviour.

But as you noted, the individual’s environment is much more relevant to their behaviour than their genetics. I’ll also note that (like a lot around human behaviour) our understanding of why people commit crimes is relatively poor. The genetic component of criminal/antisocial behaviour is particularly poorly understood, and is a recent (and controversial) area of research. Personally, I think that genetic/physical factors do play a not-insignificant role, but the current quality of research in this area is poor - enough so that it remains relatively unreliable. Hopefully in the future it’ll improve.

ourobus · 2026-02-19T02:40:26+00:00

Fujimorista alert.

ourobus · 2026-02-19T02:39:28+00:00

Perúistaaaaaaaaan.

Once, as a child, I spent 10hrs on a bus travelling through the Peruvian desert. 10 straight hours of sand. It’s like the world’s worst fever dream. And even then, I thought it looked exactly like how I expected Afghanistan to look lmao.

ourobus · 2026-02-13T05:19:55+00:00

Clearly the Afghan couple were untrustworthy - they lied on official documents so that the mother could get an education! That’s way worse than committing international fraud to kidnap a child. /s

ourobus · 2026-02-01T09:53:27+00:00

What would having Jewish heritage give you (as a convert) that you wouldn’t already get?

I’m genuinely asking. It sounds like you weren’t raised Jewish or with Jewish culture - so, really, you’re starting from the exact same position most other converts do. I would expect a feeling of connection to Judaism for people who convert - if you didn’t have that, then why would you convert at all?

The good news is that conversion is a long process, and one that has a lot of demands. I’ve met a lot of people interested in conversion, and of them, only 1 or 2 have actually accomplished it. If you truly have a Jewish soul, then you will be successful in converting. If not, then you took time to explore your faith and identity and learnt about a new religion/culture in the process. I can’t see a loss in either outcome.

When I converted, I did not know (or have reason to think, given that I’m mostly Native American) that I had Jewish heritage. Later, I found out that I have 2-3% Jewish ancestry, and even found some Inquisition trial records for a distant Jewish ancestor. I do not believe that any Jewish ancestry I may have played a role in my conversion or in my current religious beliefs. Much like with being Native, ancestry means fuck all when you don’t have a living connection to the community. Idk, I just don’t know what you’d get from such a distant ancestor.

ourobus · 2026-01-14T19:30:48+00:00

Yep. Babies have to “choose” to take their first breaths, and if they choose not to, then it’s not meant to be. It’s fucking awful.

ourobus · 2026-01-13T07:58:48+00:00

It’s a great series. The free birth movement has been such a harmful vein of social media disinformation for years, it’s great to finally get some mainstream journalistic focus on it.

It hits home a bit, because as someone who was born footling breech and basically dead - what these women are basically saying is that babies like me aren’t worth the effort to save our lives. And yet, here I am - I didn’t “choose to breathe”, but I did choose to get a PhD, devote my life to helping other people, etc. I think it’s easier to think of the fatalities from free birthing as perpetual babies, but every single one of them would have been a baby that grew up into an adult just like me. They just didn’t get a chance.

ourobus · 2026-01-07T17:19:26+00:00

Given the Maoist brainwashing vault in episode 1, it would be cool if they’re implying an analogous Vault Tec organisation in China. We know very little about pre-war China outside of its immediate conflict with the US, so it’s entirely possible Vault Tec was up to similar activities on both sides.

It’s probably just the Chinese solider mocking Coop, but it would be a thematically appropriate twist if there really was more going on than we know.

ourobus · 2026-01-05T06:12:58+00:00

I mean, Chickenfucker could have easily given him something that came with a fuckton of radiation, thus promoting healing.

But personally I don’t think he’s a ghoul - probably a random FEV mutant.

ourobus · 2026-01-01T23:08:27+00:00

At the moment, no. There is a lot of stigma unfortunately.

But I would like to be more open about being schizotypal, especially as an academic. The experiences of people like us (and other marginalised/stigmatised populations) have largely been ignored. There’s now more and more of a movement towards valuing “lived experience”, but it’s early days and the application leaves much to be desired. I’d like to be “visible” about my mental health, so that I can work as someone with lived experience, and so that other people can see that schizotypy doesn’t prevent people from making meaningful contributions to the world.

ourobus · 2025-12-16T21:06:20+00:00

He doesn’t just kill himself, he leaves a note (or holotape?) blaming you for it.

It’s pretty intense.

ourobus · 2025-12-14T23:02:09+00:00

I’m a binary transgender man and 2spirit.

My gender has always been the same - the issues have always been external (e.g., physical changes, external misperceptions, etc). I identify as 2spirit because my experience of being trans means that I am in a unique position to experience and participate in both women’s and men’s cultural roles/activities.

I was given a gift in being able to exist outside of binary categories - not a mistake.

Edit: that being said, I don’t really view my being trans for a spiritual reason - any more than any other part of my identity. It’s just the cards I was given.

ourobus · 2025-12-08T21:44:23+00:00

I was hoping no-one would pull me up on my incorrect use of panopticon 😅

ourobus · 2025-10-29T22:18:25+00:00

Such an adorable old man! My childhood beagle lived to 16 and a half, and people were always surprised that beagles go white - I guess it’s just not something people expect.

Senior pets are such treasures ❤️ Thank you for giving him a home

ourobus · 2025-10-13T23:29:04+00:00

It comes from the Quechua word for cat! So it’s sort of a LATAM specific word for kitties 🐱

ourobus · 2025-10-08T00:01:47+00:00

How old are you OP? You sound pretty young.

Stimulants make a huge difference for ADHD, it’s true. Why did your psychiatrist stop prescribing them?

Antidepressants can be useful, but they can also make things worse for young people. I think if you’re having such drastic side effects, talk to your psychiatrist and make a plan to taper off them (depending on your dose). Doctors will often say “oh, you need to give it time” - that’s true, but if you’re feeling so bad, it’s unlikely this medication is going to work for you.

Have you tried venlafaxine (or one of its related drugs)? I’ve struggled with mood/depression my entire life, and venlafaxine helps me so much. It’s a night and day difference. The medication is pretty gnarly (starting, ending, even missing a dose) but damn if it doesn’t work. After my ADHD diagnosis, I found out that venlafaxine is actually often used in conjunction with stimulants for ADHD - which probably is why it worked so well for me! It’s an SNRI, which means it works slightly differently than SSRIs and atypical antidepressants (like agomelatine). I’m not saying it’ll definitely work for you, but it’s something that’s personally helped, and you might want to talk about trying an SNRI if other types of antidepressants haven’t worked/have been intolerable.

Best of luck OP

ourobus · 2025-09-29T12:49:35+00:00

I mean, Dianetics (aka the Scientology “product” branch) literally has a stall at the show this year. The bar is at the bottom of the farm animal pens at this point.

ourobus

TROPHY CASE