This little fart-squirrel (Mephitis mephitis) is stamping, a warning behavior before the *big show*.

She's hoping to scare you off with her ferocity so she doesn't have to use her scent glands.

These types of bluffing moves are "deimatic" behaviors, from Greek 'deimatóo' = "to frighten".

As paranoia suggested, I was indeed the only solo person at the paint and sip event. Anyway the artist was lovely and achievement unlocked, i have now experienced using pastelmat paper

I got my Mother’s Day presents yesterday because my son assumes, usually correctly, that other people will do the boring bits of wrapping and carrying items. And absolute tears that he got me a plushy toy flowerpot of plush flowers, love that young man *knows* I am incapable of finding a vase

Yeah, afaik Daryl Hannah or Wentworth Miller have never said that, strangely enough

‘We’re the special shiny good NDs and our favourite samefood is boot leather’
Always forget people with learning disabilities also fall under the neurodiversity umbrella don’t they?

I don’t remember her specifically, but the ‘people said I’m too attractive to be autistic’ thing crops up a lot, which is not exactly esteem building for those of us who never got that reaction!

Neuro-Smol beanitis™️
simultaneously too oppressed for any accountability while also intellectually and morally superior (and/or hotter) than the general disabled esp working class ones and therefore deserving of high public profile. Seems to mostly affect well paid white graduates and post grads

Ffs. I have never really got the idea of ND coaching, or ever known what agreed professional standards, ethics, training and accountability to a regulatory body is required to provide it.
What safeguards are there to ensure it’s not just monetising the lack of post diagnosis/adult support?

Meanwhile today the New Statesman published a piece deciding young women being “angry” at men is the real problem smh

I wish I had realised this before I was close by an event where people were doing cosplay stuff today.

Cut a mental health crisis fringe a while back and yesterday night overlooked that doing a copper conditioning colour mask combined with wearing my thick framed glasses might look like a very half hearted attempt at cosplaying old frump years Thelma from scooby doo

what if spide wear trouse (2 drawings of spiders wearing jeans) would you still respect him could you still look at him the same way

welp this is becoming part of my vocabulary forever

the follows by porn bots are less of an annoyance than à Matt Forde-esque parody of Zack Polanski account following

He wants you to know he ain’t afraid of no ghost? Maybe busting makes him feel good?

I am also intrigued 😹

Pablo cat had his booster vax and basic checks today. In the vets expert opinion he is very healthy, very handsome and a sweetheart. He also got a calming wipe and treats.

I’m too big for the current cat carrier and my miaows will need work before I can fool them into taking me on as a patient

this is peak male bonding

Qveen Herby - The Fool ft. THOT SQUAD YouTube video by Qveen Herby

Having a crap brain day, I feel like I should know the ‘not for you, you unwhimsical bitch’ part of the intro as a quote but I do not know where from at all?

youtu.be/Sm-__IgNXwg?...

This track is so good

Slight derail but thinking of my dad, despite how glaringly, almost cliched autistic he was, he was so doctor averse the only way he’d have gone along with diagnosis is if kwikfit had started doing the assessment along with car mots. Or there was a Haynes manual for it.

*ooa is out of area referral because there was only one nhs trust in the Yorkshire (maybe even entire northern UK) region that did outpatient assessment then, I think there were only 4 English trusts that did)
‘Overdiagnosed’ scaremongering always overlooks the historic lack of diagnostic provision

I got assurances from gp who believed that once my city actually had an autism assessment unit they’d do my follow up. They did not. Despite the lead sitting in on my ooa assessment for training they refuse to accept any dx not done by them. And anyway their follow up is one appointment only

IMO it’s a horrible unforeseen consequence of how the Autism Act gets (mis) interpreted, by making specialist training mandatory to assess and dx it seems general mh services can only refer the undiagnosed on, but then there’s nothing in place post diagnosis or even while waiting for assessment

Unless you also count being denied Community MH help when in crisis because ‘autism is too complex, we don’t have the specialist training’ while the same nhs trusts “specialist” autism team are dx and discharge only. Big perks there /s

Nearly 20 years diagnosed autistic and the only accommodations I ever had were at University being able to sit exams in a smaller room with an extra time allowance of i think was 15 minutes? With the ppl doing resits
Hardly an incentive to go through the diagnosis

In a world where the term 'clusterfuck' no longer captures the sheer scale of the gratuitous shit storm, the bizarre and chaotic decision making of world leaders, the global safety nets that seem as useful as wet cardboard, and the unbelievable horrors being unleashed.. I give you the Trumplefuck.

Discworld QOTD, from Feet of Clay

instead of watching the new harry potter trailer, why not pick up some horror books by trans and nb writers for the trans rights readathon?? there are so many good options.
For example, check out some of these writers:

A mari with a crown of magnolia tree branches surrounded by plants and wistetia decorations

Following the trip to Stourhead I wanted to incorporate Magnolia trees and other plants I saw into a mari but have struggled so here is something that finally puts them together!

Is it not bringing anyone to your yard?