#medium post?

[onethousandrbirds]

every other post on here:

[onethousandrbirds]

the article in full:

Groceries are the hottest new splurge category for Gen Z and millennials.

Younger generations spend more on groceries than other categories, a McKinsey report says.

But all generations are feeling the pinch of inflation at the grocery store.

Splurging once meant spending money on buzzy restaurants, expensive vacations, and designer clothing. These days, what's considered splurge-worthy falls into a more humble category.

Groceries are shaping up to be a top spending priority for younger generations, a February report from McKinsey & Company found.

The firm asked over 4,000 people, from baby boomers to Gen Zers, about the categories they intend to splurge on this year. Groceries ranked highest for millennials and Gen Zers, outpacing restaurants, bars, travel, beauty and personal care, apparel, and fitness.

Millennials are also becoming parents, which means they spend more on themselves, their partners, and their children. It's a notable shift from 2018 when older generations like baby boomers and Gen Xers still spent more on groceries than millennials.

Gen Z, meanwhile, said they often choose high-quality snacks and beverages, which makes for expensive grocery bills.

One 23-year-old Gen Zer told Business Insider by text that he spends about $130 on groceries for a week and a half. "Fancy sodas and drinks" and "random snacks at Trader Joe's" account for the bulk of the bill. He also said he spends about $35 on protein bars.

The success of the canned water brand Liquid Death is an example of young people's willingness to spend on flashy food and beverages. The brand shot up to a valuation of $1.4 billion thanks to a recent round of funding, Forbes reported. Peter Pham, an investor in Liquid Death, previously told Business Insider that part of the brand's success comes from its appeal to younger generations.

"The healthy food-and-beverage space has historically been a stale category filled with boring brands," Pham told BI. "This creates a lightning-in-a-bottle moment for disruptive brands who know how to tap into culture and talk to Gen Z and digital natives."

All generations are feeling the pinch of inflation at grocery stores and for goods and services in general. The typical American household would need to spend $445 more a month to purchase the same goods and services as a year ago, a report from Moody's found.

Correction: April 8, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the age groups surveyed in the McKinsey report. It surveyed baby boomers to Gen Zers, not baby boomers to Gen Xers. The story also misstated the findings in the Moody's report, which said the typical American household would need to spend $445 more a month this year on goods and services, not just groceries.

[give-grian-rights]

gun to my head i would rather die than read this fic. what the fuck are you even doing at this point. whats the fucking point?

[brainrotcharacters]

the easy grip on the knife. the leg over the seat. the hand over the other seat. the sassy "come get it" move. you know the bitch is smiling behind that mask even as he said the line.

[passionpeachy]

people on bluesky have a weird vendetta against digital art that I literally never get in any other website..........I'm still getting hate comments under one of my digital paintings because the caption was "I made it with my real human hands" to ward off AI accusations and instead got hit with "this is shit because it's not traditional art with REAL paint you shallow prick"

[keymintt]

got an impulse to animate a little

[zebulontheplanet]

I think people have greatly watered down autism into this silly label or identity that they can collect.

I’ve seen multiple posts that defend that autism should be an identity, similar to how sexualities and gender labels are. I think they’re missing multiple things with this analogy. First, you cannot help your queerness. It’s not simply a “label” it’s your whole being. It’s who you are.

I want people to realize that autism is a serious disorder for over half of people diagnosed with autism. From more then 30% being higher support needs, to more than that having different comorbidities, it’s a serious disorder. Not only can it affect every aspect of your life, it can severely affect how your health is, how independent you are, etc.

To a lot of people autism isn’t “a silly label” it’s a disorder. A disorder that comes with comorbities, that affects how they speak or don’t speak, how they view the world, how the process or dont process things, etc.

Higher support needs people need to be recognized, and in turn you have to recognize the disorders that they have. You can’t ignore them. You can’t simply shrug it off as a silly little label or identity.

People deserve to have their life altering disorders taken seriously and not turned into something that’s shrugged off and seen as another add in the newspaper. Autism is serious. It’s a neurodevelopmental disorder. Say what it is. Don’t water it down.

That’s all.

[thatbuddie]

in the spirit of spreading excitement and joy: buddie fic writers, please reblog this post and use the tags to talk about what fic ideas or goals you’re hoping to write and publish in the next few months!!! <3

[onethousandrbirds]

sorry for the upcoming ramble, but i find this moment and the subsequent fan reaction to it infintely interesting--especially the language used to descibe it.the statement "jean grey 'outed' ice man" is kinda odd when you place this moment in context. here, jean has pulled bobby aside after he was saying some chauvinistic shit about x-23 and asking, "okay but why are you saying that about her when you're gaaay." that's not really an outing, per se. especially since, once more, this is a private conversation away from all the other x-people

buuuut due to the framing of this moment, it still feels like an outing, right? and that's where the slippage in the term "outing" comes in. especially in how in a connotative sense, "to out" someone implies malice in the moment of revealing the big secret. but the thing is, "to out" someone isn't just to reveal their queerness--regardless of intent--but rather to reveal a person's queerness to someone else. so in this case this conversation is just between jean and bobby (and you can't really out someone to themselves; did your 3rd grade bully who called you a faggot before you understood the concept "out" you back then or paint a target on your back?), then to whom did Jean out iceman?

and that's why this endlessly fascinates me! because on a meta level, by virtue of having read the comic or even just these panels out of context, this conversation couldn't be truly private between jean and bobby. you're here. i'm here. everyone who read this story line is here. so in this moment, jean grey META outs iceman to us, the readers. and epistemologically that's fascinating!

b/c, like, how does the closet even function for fictional characters anyway? and to what degree are we the readers/audience members always-already voyeurs to aspects of themselves that may be considered "private¹"?

and then i remember back when this first dropped all the discourse about whether this was right, wrong, in-character, homophobic, etc. but very little of the talking points that rose to the top (and got thousands of retweets) talked about how the framing of this coming out scene was affecting our response! but also i love the jokes about homophobic-queen jean grey so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

¹ which becomes even more of a mindfuck when you remember that fictional characters don't have agency or privacy even in cases when it seems like they "might" or "should!"

Jean Grey the second she sees Ice Man

[punkitt-is-here]

Your praise of Chainsaw Man actually makes it sound really interesting so would you recommend manga or anime?

Manga, but mostly because I haven't watched the anime aside from the first four episodes. I recommend reading it specifically because Fujimoto is a fucking genius when it comes to his panelling. Like, genuinely some of the best in the industry. The way he uses the medium of comics to portray intimacy or horror or comedy is like no other. I might post some examples later, but I genuinely think you're missing out if you ONLY watch the anime because Fujimoto uses the medium so goddamn well

[onethousandrbirds]

it's 2am. do you know why your 13th favorite skeleton boy isn't in bed right now?

[midnight-soulless-system]

Sometimes being disabled means you can't go to college, can't get a job, have to live with your parents and that's ok. For a lot of us it means not being able to go outside most days, not being able to get up or move at all. It can mean needing someone to wash us or feed us or help us with the bathroom and that is ok. It doesn't mean that we're less than or that we aren't worth anything.

And it's valid for us to be mad about it. Even if we can overcome some of these things with accomodations we're allowed to be mad that we're in this situation, and wish that we weren't disabled because I sure as hell hate this shit.

[lavenderprose]

Emmrich Volkarin would be such a disruptive presence to the local online dating app pools. An innocuous hookup with a handsome Vincent Price looking older guy. He's unsinister. Clearly takes care of himself. One of his profile pictures is from the day he got his doctorate. He shows up to the agreed-upon location and he's brought flowers. Okay...whatever. Some decent food (UberEats? The Chinese place on the corner? Maybe he cooks?) and some crazy hot sex later and the subject of his very soft hands just so happens to come up. Oh, he says. It's the embalming fluid. EMBALMING FLUID? OKAY. Dude's a mortician. Sure.

He gets up and puts on his clothes. He stares out the window for a few moments. Just long enough to be a little awkward.

"Do you have an uncle who recently passed?" he says. "By the name of Gerard. Gerry?"

WHAT.

"I'm so sorry," he sighs, dragging a hand through his hair. "He wants to tell you that your mother hid something from you underneath the floorboards of the blue bedroom. Does that make sense?"

Unfortunately, yes.

"Right," says Emmrich Volkarin. His hair is still sticking up from being clutched into by ecstatic hands. He is ten minutes post-orgasm and looks so, so annoyed. He only brightens a little when he says, "Thank you for a lovely night. You were wonderful."

Then he leaves in an almost-silent swish of expensive trousers and a plume of even more expensive cologne.

The only further contact from him is a message that says Your uncle spoke to me before we retired to your bedroom. I assure you his spirit was not present or aware of our sexual encounter.

I'm gonna need you to lose my number Emmrich, is the response from most people

There is a sadness about him.

He's sweet, considerate. He can do crazy things with his tongue. He also needs someone who can match his freak on a molecular level.

Understood, he responds.

At some point he pops up on the TV because he's become a regular on a well-loved YouTube channel. One of those phenomenally popular longform documentary-style series about ghosts or true crime. He's apparently the expert medium. The host of the show, some thirty-something named after a chess piece, looks at him like he hung the stars while he monologues about demons who imitate children. Or something.

Good for him.

[nonshareraffirmations]

your f/o(s) would never see your nonsharing status as “sensitive”, “cringe”, an “overreaction”, or anything similar. they know that everyone who thinks that way about the sacred connection you have with each other is just too dense to understand the depth of your love. someone talks with them: “so, they’ll get upset at… people saying that they like you? isn’t that a little childish?” “no. they just love me that much!” they respond.

(this post is not an authorization to harass doubles. it was made for your personal comfort, not for you to use to target others. best practice is blocking, distracting yourself, and moving on.)

[spooksforsammy]

Geniuenly like. So many people claim support disability. But then say something completely untrue

Y’all support autism? So what about when the person has intellectual disability or need help walk talk eat bath use bathroom? Does your support end when you see someone with higher needs?? Someone who actually genuinely won’t survive without support from others n that support is sometimes having other people do everything for them.

Y’all support depression? What about when the person can’t bring themself to get out of bed for days on end? What about when that person goes days weeks months without cleaning self because can’t get up even though need to?

Yall support schizo-spec disorders & psychosis? What about what the person get violent because of their delusions n hallucinations? The ones know are fake but still can’t help but believe in? The ones genuinely believe in their delusions/ hallucinations? What about the ones don’t don’t get violent to self n other because of the disorder? Those that just sit scared about the hallucinations n delusions. The ones that won’t leave their room/ house out of fear of their delusions/ hallucinations?

Y’all support those with physical disabilities? What about the housebound bedbound ones? The ones need gait trainers walkers wheelchairs? What about the ones who full time users? Or the ones that need power chairs to independently move around? What about the ones crying screaming throwing up from their pain?

What about the disabled that always have a horrible attitude because tired of the disrespect? Tired of having to explain everything about them to everyone even if personal? Tired being told get over it n just educate others?

The disabled ones tired telling people not use certain terms. Tired of being spoken over n for without being thought about or asked. Tired of hearing their communication isn’t valid for ‘xyz’

Y’all support but act very picky about who deserves support and who’s not worthy of it. It’s not support if you pickin n choosing

[suddenly-frankenstein]

moby-dick