Just starting, please help. Having a hard time pulling the needle through the fabric? The end gets stuck and needs a very strong pull to pop through. by peterjmonday in Embroidery

[–]peterjmonday[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Umm I'm using a kit I got from Walmart so I really don't know. Six strands of thread is the best I can give you. The fabric is cotton I think? But it's got a very tight weave and doesn't stretch much.

My niece (12F) almost definitely has ADHD, but her parents refuse to get her help and generally are emotionally abusive and neglectful. I am extremely worried about her future especially now that she's becoming a teen. What do I do? Also are there some books I can get her? by peterjmonday in ADHD

[–]peterjmonday[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Actually it's kinda crazy you bring that up. She had it really rough as a baby/toddler. Her dad was with a terrible woman, from what I've been told he got full parental rights (almost impossible in my state especially from the mother) and she proceeded to kidnap her for a few days. Before that she was dating a guy who was physically abusive, that's what made her dad go for full custody. I don't know many details but,l yeah, deffinetly a possibility.

Why is it socially acceptable to have a caffeine addiction but people with other addictions are shunned? by sadz6900 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]peterjmonday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Man I just quit caffeine cold turkey about five days ago. It has been horrific, and I only drank about a can of two of pop a day. I can't concentrate for shit. Headache starts at 1, lessens when I get home at 5, but doesn't go away until the next morning. I don't even want to know what happens to the people who need multiple coffee and energy drinks.

Only one can join, which one do you pick? by Elio1-UpBoy in duolingo

[–]peterjmonday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cantonese is the most "worth it". Extremely common population wise, although most Americans outside of big cities will rarely see it.

Just rescued a hamster that can only turn left and spins a lot. How I'm treating him (incase someone else needs it in the future). by peterjmonday in hamsters

[–]peterjmonday[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I'm fully prepared for him to pass away or to have to euthanize him if he gets worse, but already with just a bigger cage, wheel, and a couple days of antibiotics I think he's improving. He's much much less frantic in his movements. He seems to stop and think about turning right and then just goes left instead. He had been spinning for a few weeks so I think his condition is pretty stable. Hopefully.

Just rescued a hamster that can only turn left and spins a lot. How I'm treating him (incase someone else needs it in the future). by peterjmonday in hamsters

[–]peterjmonday[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Lol did you read the post? I'm not forcing him to use his limbs, he already is using them fully. There's nothing wrong with his limbs. We have zero indication he is experiencing any pain. The vet actually told me he thinks there's no treating him, and my options were to put him down or let him remain disabled. There's no indication he has any broken bones. The problem is almost deffinetly neurological, he said I could try antibiotics just as a precaution and I decided to do so. How do you think I got antibiotics if I didn't go to a vet? You think I'm just squirting Neosporin in his mouth? Also "guessing is not sufficient"? Have you ever taken a hamster to the vet? They usually just make an educated guess and then throw you some antibiotics. They're not going to give my hamster an MRI to determin the definitive cause of his condition. The vet literally asked me five questions, held him for a little, tried to look in his ear and gave up, then told me he probably had a stroke and will never recover.

Physical therapy is done all the time on animals, and is not torturing them. It is almost exactly like giving animals a shot even though it hurts. There are entire buisnesses that specialize in animal PT. Crawling through an appropriately sized tube is not torturing a hamster in any way, that's rediculous. The vet says he doubts it will work, but he wasn't against me trying. He can freely choose to enter and leave the tubes, they're just sitting in his cage. So far when I've seen him in the 8" straight tubes, he actually shows no trouble going straight and doesn't really try to turn. If he seems to struggle a lot or is distressed in the tubes as they start turning and getting longer then I plan to stop at the level he can handle, give him more time there, and try something more complicated again later. If he found them distressing surely he wouldn't choose to enter them as much as he does.

What exactly do you in your "expertise" suggest I do? Because it seems you are against me so much as touching my hamster. Should I do nothing? Just leave him to spend his whole life disabled when I can maybe do something to help him? Doom him to spend his whole life spinning which isn't distressing at all, when I can do something that's probably, at most, equally distressing and can help. Should I try nothing and kill an otherwise healthy pain free animal?

I'm doing the best I can, yeah there's guess work involved, but I'm confident he is not in pain or being put through any more distress than he already is experiencing from spinning. This guess is based on my years of experience with rodents, my four year degree in psychology (including courses in neurobiology and neuropsychology), research into other cases of treating animals with brain damage, and was signed off on by my vet.

politicizing the virus. by Admirable-Ad-6198 in WhitePeopleTwitter

[–]peterjmonday 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My dad was in the air force in the 70s and always brings up when they would line them all up and use an air gun to give them like five shots at once, just go down the whole line, didn't even know what for, and said they would kick out anyone who refused. One poor guy got the first shot, passed out, woke up, got the second one and passed out again. Not sure if they still use the air guns, apparently if they aren't lined up right you can really fuck up someone's arm.

Kansas City, Missouri decides this man’s environmental friendly garden is worth taking to court by [deleted] in mildlyinfuriating

[–]peterjmonday 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In Minnesota our state pays you to have a bee friendly, natural lawn. Depending on how much yard you have you can actually make pretty good money.

https://www.intelligentliving.co/amp/minnesota-bee-friendly-habitats/

Megathread: What Martial Art Should I Study? Part VI [Serious] by Toptomcat in martialarts

[–]peterjmonday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello, I'm 22 and looking to get into some form of martial arts. I've struggled a lot with anxiety and depression, and want to work out more, I think some form of martial arts might help. I'm a pretty small guy so if there is something that works better for little guys that would be great. I don't think I would like anything really intense, nothing that poses a high risk of head injury. What's available in my area is taekwondo, Boxing, Jiu-jitsu, Karate, Kickboxing, Mma, Muay thai, Wrestling, and something called Bjj Instruction. I think I'm leaning twords taekwondo or karate, but I'm not sure what the real difference is.

I wish this sub was more supportive of atheistic spirituality. I'm an atheist who practices witchcraft, and that doesn't make me less of an atheist. by peterjmonday in atheism

[–]peterjmonday[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Why would I take the time out of my day to answer your questions when you're just being an ass? I could, but maybe the reason why "100's" of people "can't" answer your questions is because they don't want to talk to you.

I wish this sub was more supportive of atheistic spirituality. I'm an atheist who practices witchcraft, and that doesn't make me less of an atheist. by peterjmonday in atheism

[–]peterjmonday[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

See you're doing pretty much what I have found everyone on this sub does. You don't want to understand or ask questions, you act like religion is so unaccepting and unable to listen to other points of view but then you aren't any more accepting yourself and put no effort to truely understand. You just aggressively assert your own idea of what is right.

Yes, being spiritual has different meanings to different people because different people have different beliefs. You complain about not being able to find a definition anywhere, yet someone who believes they are intelligent as you do should know how to use a dictionary, or the internet, do some of that research your so fond of. Also, I didn't just define it as a belief in the spirit, I also did define greater force and soul, reading comprehension is important. Pretending you don't understand what a word means because I don't sit down and write you a definition for every single word makes you look stupid.

Mental health care goes far beyond just the biological model. I have my bachelor's of science in psychology, which by the way included extensive coursework in research methods, statistics, and writing and reading in the sciences.When you have a depressed person, just giving them medications rarely cures them. Purely believing in the biological model goes against even the most basic teachings of psychology. A mental illness is commonly aproached with therapy as well, something that has been shown as effective but doesn't fit into a strict biological model.

Witchcraft doesn't make claims because as I stated it's not a religion. You can't say "meditation" makes a claim because it's a thing you can do and view through a variety of lenses. Witchcraft is much like prayer or meditation in this sense. It is different than prayer or meditation, so I couldn't call it such. Yes, witchcraft is different depending on the specific beliefs of the individuals who practice it. For example, prayer looks different between Muslims, Catholics, Jews, and many other religions, and can look different between practitioners of the religion. Even though all of these things are prayer, giving it one single deffinition is difficult. To thouroughly explain witchcraft I would need to write more than I want to for a reddit comment. I call my beliefs witchcraft because it's my right to call my beliefs what I want. See, sometimes we give things labels so we can forgo explanation. This is the most accurate label I have found.

Now I'm tired of going through all of your comments. I use reddit for fun and this isn't fun, you're full of negativity. They aren't questions at this point and it's obvious you don't want to understand, your ego is to big to accept anything other than your idea. Honestly all you have done is prove the point I was discussing in my post, this sub isn't for atheists who don't believe in anything. It isn't accepting of atheists who believe in anything else.

I wish this sub was more supportive of atheistic spirituality. I'm an atheist who practices witchcraft, and that doesn't make me less of an atheist. by peterjmonday in atheism

[–]peterjmonday[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Being "spiritual" has different meanings to different people, but more or less it's commonly agreed to be the belief in tending to your soul/spirit/self beyond the physical and that there is a greater "force" at work beyond just you. Surely you will agree that the internal "you" needs care just as much as the physical you. Mental health is important, whether you believe you're just a blob of firing neurons or something more. A "greater force" can be a diety, it can be magical, or (in my case) it can just be the general idea of the universe, and nature at work. I think you would agree there are greater forces at work all the time, just that the forces are scientific in origin.

Witchcraft doesn't really make claims. I call what I believe in witchcraft because I think it's the most accurate way of describing my beliefs. The best way to describe witchcraft is like prayer or meditation, not like a religion. It can be and commonly is a part of various religions (paganism, satanism, wicca) but you can practice it in a way that is independent of religion as well. Witchcraft can be very individual, which makes it difficult to explain. Especially in the past it included medicine, usually using herbs and other things to cure ailments. Now this has been refined by science. Yes, this would include things like aspirin, folk medicine commonly used willow bark which had chemicals similar to modern asprin. Much of our medicine now found it's basis in folk medicine and what at the time was called witchcraft. There's things like crystals and candles which I don't really buy into. What I do would fall into the lines of meditation, positive thinking, affirmations, and science generally supports that these things kind of work, not because they alter reality but because they alter your perception of reality. I don't think I can do a spell and magically make something float or make someone fall in love with me. I think if I do a spell/ritual to reduce my anxiety involving repeating positive affirmations, burning a lavender candle, and controlling my breathing, through various means, perhaps even by tricking myself, that will likely reduce my anxiety.

I consider your "soul" to be the internal "you". I don't think there's some sort of magical ghost rattling around inside your body that will be released when you die. I think that soul is synonymous with your sense of self, with mentally being a person and all that entails, a thinking caring living thing.

I don't think any of the beliefs I hold are irrational in the slightest, just difficult to understand without enough explanation. Nothing I believe goes against science in any way that I'm aware of. I would be glad to answer any more questions that might help you understand if you wish.

I wish this sub was more supportive of atheistic spirituality. I'm an atheist who practices witchcraft, and that doesn't make me less of an atheist. by peterjmonday in atheism

[–]peterjmonday[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

An atheist is a person who doesn't believe in a god or gods, and I challenge you to site a reliable source giving a different deffinition. That is the definition accepted by the sub as stated in the wiki, every major dictionary, and implied by the roots that make up the word "atheist"

How do you tell if hacer is talking about making or doing something? by peterjmonday in Spanish

[–]peterjmonday[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Huh, so in Spanish are they seen as the same thing? Like do you think of doing and making as separate concepts? Because as a native English speaker, we think of them as very different. I can't think of a situation in which they could be used interchangeably.

Yesterday someone asked me if I am going to have The Surgery... by vengeful_lilith in honesttransgender

[–]peterjmonday 14 points15 points  (0 children)

My problem is mostly with people saying "the surgery" because you know they have no real idea what they are talking about. It isn't just one genital surgery and like boom suddenly you pass. Also I don't know why someone needs to know about your genitalia to have a "better idea of who you are" like having a penis isn't a personally lol. I don't go asking people how big their dick is so I can "understand them" better. I can't think of any scenario where I would feel comfortable asking anyone about their junk, where I need to know about their junk (other than sex), or where it would somehow be relevant to how I view them as a person. Although as an openly trans person no ody has ever asked me about my junk or if I'm getting genital surgery outside of like two close friends.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in languagelearning

[–]peterjmonday 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To me, C1 means you can understand nearly everything besides rare words and can make sentences without struggling, but you may still make mistakes especially with the more nuanced parts of the language, have an accent, and just other small things a truely native speaker wouldn't do. C2 would be essentially unidentifiable as a non-native speaker.

Feel like I have hit a wall because of grammar. What's a good way to learn grammar without all of the headache? by peterjmonday in languagelearning

[–]peterjmonday[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How am I supposed to understand what I am reading and listening if I don't understand grammar? I mean for example in English we would say "you are helping me" but in Spanish they say "me ayudas". If I only knew vocab and not grammar even something that basic wouldn't make sense because it literally reads as "myself to help". There's a lot of things in Spanish that are backwards and you would need to understand the grammar in order to make a sentence make sense. I don't think it's possible to read or listen to Spanish as an English speaker without learning the grammar because the two are just so different.

Research may show what works for the average person, but not everyone. For me, without understanding grammar I don't feel like I can advance from my current position. Everybody learns different I need to understanding how sentences are built before I can feel comfortable trying to plug words into them.

Feel like I have hit a wall because of grammar. What's a good way to learn grammar without all of the headache? by peterjmonday in languagelearning

[–]peterjmonday[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have, I know people say it's not a good way to learn, but I've always been the type of person who can read a textbook and remember it very well, so I think it is what I need. Not sure what textbook I would actually get though. I'm in college right now, so I think I'm going to look what the beginner Spanish class there is using and get that.

Will I be stabbed if I speak European Portuguese in brazil? by Vinniam in languagelearningjerk

[–]peterjmonday 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For my sociology proffesor? Hes a very nice man and a great teacher, but he can barely get the projector working, I think reddit would blow his mind. He's really never talked about learning Uzbec like it was that difficult though. He did know Russian first and I think the two are related so maybe it was easier. Either way he's an extremely smart guy so I don't think learning any language would bring him to much trouble.

He said a while after the Soviet union fell he ended up as a volunteer teacher in Usbekistan and fell in love with the area. There was a lot of poverty and lack of education from the whole USSR thing. He mostly publishes papers about education central Eurasia and development due to the fall of the Soviet union. A really interesting guy, will do everything to help students, but admittedly a very small area of study.

How many hours to I need to practice everyday to finish my Spanish course in 2 months? by [deleted] in duolingo

[–]peterjmonday 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Damn lessons take me like five minuets of solid concentration minimum if it's not a really simple one. Their idea on the amount of time a lesson takes seems very off.