Finally finished this cutie! Pattern from CholyKnight. Body is a thrifted fleece blanket, claws are a thrifted pair of pajama pants, and spikes are a thrifted button-down. Eyes and mouth are felt. Body is stuffed with polyfill; eyeridges, feet, arms, and spikes are stuffed with fleece scraps from cutting the body pieces.

Pattern is available free here: https://cholyknight.com/2025/03/14/godzilla-chonky-t-rex/

Unbleached cotton muslin and cotton thread, handsewn, no pattern.

For legal reasons I am not recommending donating blood and then going drinking with friends. Incidentally, did you know that intoxication, or blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is measured by (mass alcohol) / (total blood volume)?

"The elephant trumpeting in the room". Damn.

Also DIY box fan air purifier instructions are making the rounds again: https://www.wikihow.health/Build-a-Basic-Air-Purifier

Alternate site (neither paywalled, the wixsite's font just irritates me): https://redsails.org/creating-the-innocent-killer/

Wisconsin Watch's coverage of the WisDems convention in Madison this past weekend. No paywall.

In my opinion the framing of this as a "classic debate" further highlights the repeated failure of the democratic party to understand* that they need to court people who are apathetic; in other words people who don't typically vote rather than attempt to target "centrist" voters who in theory might vote for either party. As showcased by Harris' campaign, this alienates progressives and others who are left of center.

*to rescind the benefit of the doubt, this is not a failure to understand but a deliberate tactic by controlled opposition to continue to force the overton window right.

This pro life tip brought to you by The Irritation of Removing Uncomfortable Tags.

Use a seamripper to remove the stitches that attach a tag and the garment itself. See attached picture for a demonstration of this. Seamrippers are cheap (~1 USD is typical) and available at any store with even a token sewing section, such as walmart or target, and some grocery stores as well. Using a seamripper lets you remove the tag entirely, while cutting the tag off usually leaves behind a sliver of the tag fabric that can be uncomfortable.

Chonker orca! Same (self-drafted) pattern with some minor modifications: added eyespots, made a symmetrical, horizontal tail, and adjustments to the dorsal fin

I've used clicker training to teach my cat to sit up for treats. Next: teaching her to spin around? I'm not sure. Sitting up and trying to reach something is already close to her natural behavior so she picked it up pretty fast.

(Edit: does lemmy support multiple pics without sticking them in the post body?)

For context, I have a young child. I've spoken to his PCP (we're lucky enough to see a doctor regularly because of my job) about screening for autism but she's so far only given them general developmental milestone screenings. I don't know whether my child is autistic. I am, though I was never officially diagnosed, and there are people on both sides of the family with either formal diagnoses or identify as autistic but can't access medical care (including a diagnosis) for various reasons.

My question for y'all: is there value is pushing harder for autism-specific screenings for my child? If this becomes a diagnosis, would there be value in that, particularly for a child? What resources at school would they get access to, if any? Are there potential harms to a formal diagnosis?

As an adult and given my level of functioning, I don't see any value in seeking a formal diagnosis for myself. I'm...different*...from neurotypical people, and being able to put a label to that has very little practical impact.

*This is the kindest way I would describe myself. I don't and have never had a healthy self-perception. Yes, I've gone to therapy. It ended up being a catch-22 sitatuation: the issues I was hoping to fix prevented therapy from effectively helping me.

Self-drafted pattern, grey minky with polyfill. I've been calling it the SHONK (shark chonk) lmao