Someone I don’t really know all that well, last spoke at school, has an autistic niece. She lost her toy and was distraught, so her aunt put up a post on Facebook to say it was discontinued, and to ask if someone could locate a second hand one somewhere. I’m not really sure why, but I felt bad for her and thought that maybe I’ll use my Google-fu to help.
I did a reverse image lookup, found the original manufacturer, looked up one of the main execs, found their contact details against their personal domain, and asked them if they could help out. They said they’d be happy to help, and I said as a gesture of good will that I’d pay for the new toy - perhaps several so that she’ll always have one if it were to break.
After speaking to the owner, I had paid for several toys for an autistic girl I had never met - probably around £500 worth. The exec went a step further and flew to the UK to give her and her aunt the toys, probably for some good press. I never told the aunt it was me, and I told the exec to keep it between us. They put out a press release where I was referred to as a “mystery hero”, and said that for her they would resume that line of toys, with her receiving a custom version with her name attached. To their credit, he said her aunt and mother kept asking who the person was so they could thank me, but they stayed firm and said that it was up to me to reveal myself.
So, for £500 I made an autistic girl and her family happy, and got a nice photo of the workers with a note that said “thank you”. That money was supposed to go towards car repairs, but I decided that a month of walking and leftovers for lunch to make someone happy was worth it.
That was very Mr. Rodgers of you.
Woah get outta here with this wholesome shit, i came here to get an… Oh wait this isnt reddit. Carry on mate!
You made someone’s life measurably better. A goal anyone should driver to achieve. Good on you.
Dude you’re a fucking hero.
a month of walking and leftovers for lunch
probably did more good for your own health than the car repair would have
The world needs more people like you!
❤️
Kudos to you for doing this, but for all that free press they got and the exec’s trip on the company dime, you’d have thought they’d let you keep the £500!
My stupid, ugly lizard.
I had my eye on a beautiful female leatherback bearded dragon with great genetics! She was around 200$ and I was so ready to buy her. Contacted the breeder and was told that she had been sold just a few hours earlier. Absolutely crushed.
Then the breeder offered up a defect dragon. It was going to be culled due to a genetic fuck-up that caused it to be born without spikes or scales. They’re much much much much much more difficult to care for into adulthood, due to their special needs. 20$ adoption fee + shipping.
He was the opposite of what I had wanted.
So naturally, sucker that I am, I adopted him.
He’s turning 5 this November.
I love my stupid, ugly lizard. 💕
(here is what a standard one looks like:)
omg a beardless beardie
You and your lizard are awesome. He looks like a little alien—I’m glad E.T. found home.
He’s so ugly it’s cute
He certainly has his charm, that’s for sure!
Now I want a lizard
As long as you get one with scales, I’d highly recommend it! They do require at least a 75 gallon habitat, though. Ideally 120 gallons! Also, ideally a front-opening one (they get spooked if you come at them from above).
Also will need a heat lamp and a long UVB fixture that spans at least 1/3 of the habitat.
Oh, and they eat insects & greens. Babies eat 80/20 bugs & greens, but transition to 20/80 bugs & greens as adults. Crickets or dubia roaches are the best insect staples!
My dragon is around the size of my forearm, but they won’t get much bigger than your entire arm.
As babies, they are very skittish / energetic, but as adults, they are pretty mellow. If you’d like a smaller, chill cuddle-buddy to just hang out with, a dragon is for you!
I am just considering my options of low maintenance pets. This seems like a fairly decent option.
Definitely adopt an adult! Just be aware of their lighting, space, and food requirements. Many are essentially friendly pet rocks that simply enjoy hanging out & looking cool. (:
Looks a bit like the ghoul from the fallout show, in the best possible sense! You’re so kind to take care of him, sometimes I gain hope for humanity ❤️
You just made me well up. People can be so good.
He’s beautiful. So smooth and cuddly.
wHaT aRe yOu lOokIng aT sMoOth SkIn?
What are the special needs? Cute lizard.
His skin is the issue, mostly. Bearded dragons shed by rubbing themselves on rough surfaces. Due to having no skin protection from scales, he is prone to cuts and scrapes from such surfaces. Cold-blooded animals are notorious for slow healing, which means open wounds heal extremely slow, leaving the animal very prone to infections and further complications. SO, I’ve sanded down corners, sharp edges, and other things in his enclosure.
He also requires lotion, aloe, and massages to keep his skin / shed healthy. If this is not done, the shed can become stuck on certain appendages, which can lead to loss of blood flow, with can lead to rot/infection, which can lead to required amputation or death. Common stuck shed amputation parts for scaleless beardies are tail tip, all toes, and even eyelids.
So this dude has a better skincare routine than I do, gets weekly massages, gets humidity checks (too little = dried out skin, too much = respiratory infection), has temperature control, special furniture, etc.
Given me more white hairs worrying about him more than anything else in my life, that’s for sure!
You’re good people.
My answer is very similar to this. I talk about it a lot, I was around eight years old when I just supposed to “take care” of my pup whose canid species is only semi-legal here, but it turned into full blown pethood. She passed away and I currently have a granddaughter. I wouldn’t trade her for anything.
I want to squize those little arms!
💪
What is his name, if you don’t mind?
His name is Pączki! Pronounced like “Poonch-key”. (native Polish speakers, please do not come for me lol)
That’s cute, I like it
During COVID, I went a bit mad and got really into collecting Transformers action figures. I’m still not entirely sure why. One day I just bought one on a whim, and before I knew it my closet was full of unopened, mint condition toy robots.
Anyway, Christmas rolls around and I see a flyer for a local toy drive. A sudden compulsion hit me, so I loaded up my entire stash and donated the lot. Just like that, the spell was broken. Not even Soundwave was spared.
To this day, nobody in my life knows that I spent thousands of dollars on plastic crack, only to foist my addiction on some poor, unsuspecting kids. I like to imagine the War for Cybertron rages on in their hearts.
Not even Soundwave was spared? Shit dude. That’s some hard core cold turkey.
Turkey? Dude, his name’s Laserbeak.
Steamdeck. Had some cocktails and bought it, got it and had buyers remorse. Figured I’d give it a shot anyway.
Love of gaming rekindled, now I don’t doomscroll during downtime at work.
Installing bazzite tomorrow if I get around to it.
edit: installed bazzite in a few hours this morning, zero to hero. If you fuck with the penguin you’re going to want to do this. Very simple and straightforward as far as linux installs go. My deck is a 64GB LCD that I upgraded to 2TB and it worked fine, so the 64GB limitation is just the SSD, not anything to do with the deck itself.
Don’t forget to backup your saves for games that don’t do cloud save. I have fast internet and most of my games are also installed on my desktop PC so I didn’t worry about backing up any of that.
I’m on the fence. I get a 1 hour lunch, already own a switch, but never use it. I know the deck has all my games already, I just cant with the current price.
I had pretty much stopped using my switch before I got the deck. There just weren’t enough compatible games to keep me interested. I ordered a deck impulsively and, like people often say, I fell in love with video games again. In absolute numbers it’s a big investment, but I’ve gotten like 3000 hours out of it so far. I love being able to wake it up, play 20 minutes of a AAA game, then suspend the game and come back later.
Suspending a game is something I hadn’t considered. Must be good for travel or short bursts
Check eBay for the non OLED version, you could find one at a good discount especially if you buy a 64 GB
Had a look, everything is still high 200’s. I might just get a refurbished that comes with warranty
Same. I had a Switch but there were too many games I couldn’t play, and my PC can’t handle anything beyond Stardew Valley.
Got a second hand Deck and I can hardly believe how good this thing is!
Curious, why did you put bazzite on it and not keep the default steamos?
Laptop replacement for (infrequent) travel, limitations of desktop SteamOS, because it’s neat.
Unsure about the experience on steam deck but on my PC Bazzite runs like a charm! Installed Proton-GE for extended compatibility and have yet to run into a game that doesn’t work out of the box or has significant issues. Even the very niche game Sprocket runs great!
I have an older brother. I invested $1000 in his first show, lost it all.
He went on to win a Tony award.
Also, it’s likely I may one day inherit some of his wealth. He’s single and childless.
Too bad he didn’t consider that an investment in his future and not just explicitly that show.
Oh, he certainly did. That’s a big part of why I don’t regret it.
He never payed you back after becoming successful? What an ass.
Nah, he’s used his position to give me some exceedingly cool experiences. I feel more than paid back.
It must also be fun to see him in big time stuff and awards shows and be able to point and truthfully say “that guy owes me a thousand bucks!”
I’m so proud of him. He has a play he produced that’s currently planning a world tour.
We’re the sons of a poor roofer. I hope he makes enough that he never has to work again off his current show.
I bought a Steam Deck. Irresponsible for the fact it mostly exclusively exists for gaming, and isn’t a very productive item to buy.
But gods damn is that such a fun device!
Mine has become my primary work machine.
Same. Middle of spring quarter at college and I decided what better way to spend financial aid then buying a portable gaming console?
I don’t make big money irresponsible purchases, but I have spent money needlessly on Star Trek decorations for my house.
I have a picture of this one in my house somewhere, but I can’t find it, but I do own it. If you press the button, it plays the fight music. And it plays… and plays… and plays… for like 60 seconds!
That’s not irresponsible. That’s logical.
Bought a Steam Deck during a fit of depression despite not traveling much and having a full gamer PC.
Turns out it’s really nice for the few times I do travel (especially on long train rides) and when laying in bed after just waking up.
Talk about “Rise and grind”
A round blanket with the pattern of a pepperoni pizza on it. Bought it as a funny treat for my wife and me. Our, now, 5yo sleeps with it every night. It’s his pizza blanket!
I’ve almost pulled the trigger on a tortilla blanket for my wife, as she always wraps herself in the blanket like a burrito, but I’m afraid I’m the only one that will find it funny.
Nothing wrong with that.
Do it. It’s soft and lasts forever, even with an infant to 5yo. It has only started to see some minor holes but my kid likes picking at holes so he is likely making it worse.
I blew way too much money on a stuffed dog at a hotel general store for my wife. We were driving a Uhaul during a snowstorm to move in together. The roads became very slippery so we decided to sleep through the storm. It was our first hotel stay together and money was very tight, but it was a romantic gesture. She cherished it until our son claimed it as his own personal “security blanket.”
What the fuck kind of hotels have a taxidermist on staff and sells stuffed dogs. That’s like seriously fucked up.
Perhaps I should have said “plush dog.”
lol I’m an idiot. I just finished a rewatch of Mr. Robot in which a taxidermist that stuffs formerly living animals plays a prominent role. That show kinda fucks with my head and messed up my perception of reality for a while.
No worries. Misunderstandings happen. 😀
lol I’m an idiot. I just finished a rewatch of Mr. Robot in which a taxidermist that stuffs formerly living animals plays a prominent role. That show kinda fucks with my head and messed up my perception of reality for a while.
I bought a sauna. Second hand from a guy who had it in his third floor attic 50 miles away. Had to dismantle it get it in the van than rebuild it on my lean to.
I then got myself a big old whiskey barrel for a cold plunge pool.
No regrets, a sauna straight after coming off the hill in wet weather is the best.Off topic: How do you prefer to pronounce sauna?
I pronounce it sawna. But I prefer when it’s pronounced sowna. I just think I I’m not nordic enough to pull it off without sounding like a twat.
We bought a demilitarized Humvee (HMMWV). It was like 10 grand, and it’s cool as hell.
You don’t use this as a daily drive vehicle do you?
Definitely not. But we do a lot of projects, so it’s our “truck”. And we like to have fun, so it’s our offroading vehicle.
Second limited edition steam deck. My kids now use both of them.
Most of my photography gear falls under “well, that money could have been spent more wisely”. But photography has been one of my major ways of dealing with depression, so I absolutely don’t regret it. I can’t really put into words how good it felt to finally get a Camera That Didn’t Suck.
My first parrot Johnny. I purchased him for my husband as a surprise Valentine’s gift when we were dating/living together. While we had done our research and made sure we were ready to handle the responsibility, we were not financially in a great place at the time. My credit card was almost maxed but I made the impulse decision to call the company to get a limit increase so I could make the purchase. And while it did take me some time to get out of my young and dumb credit card debit I never once regretted getting my little turkey bird. He passed away from old age almost 2 years ago but I still miss him everyday.
One time, I walked out of my then apartment and there was a parrot standing on the windshield wiper of my car. (I did not live in a tropical or otherwise parroty area.) I was not prepared for that situation and had no idea what to do with it.
I held out my hand and he hopped over, then just hung out on my shoulder. I carried him around my neighborhood asking anyone I saw if they had any idea where he came from so I could return him, but no one did. He ended up staying in our bathroom with a closed door overnight (we had cats) then we took him to an exotic bird shelter in the morning. Obviously I did what seemed most responsible in that case, but I think I could have become a parrot owner if I had been so inclined.
Hopefully he did well. And here I thought the distribution system only worked for cats!
