Anne Bates

Ya know… Sometimes I wonder if the United States would be better off adopting a sort of European Union system where each State is actually its own country… like maybe then we wouldn’t end up giving greedy geriatric politicians power over half the continent? Idk, I’m just spitballing here.

How do people wear skinny jeans… I got my first pair since high school and I feel so exposed. Why are these a thing? 🙃

The saturation of AI in social media is creating the worst kind of “you had to be there” inside joke, and it’s adding fuel to the destruction of our shared reality. Technological advancement for advancement sake isn’t always the right decision.

So excited to watch the hunger gamessssssI mean Olympics. 🫠

Has anyone tried making an AI dnd character to see how lost in the sauce it could get? Because I think that would be hilarious.

“What radicalized you?”
This cartoon horse I grew up with.

Sometimes, I feel like I’m playing a game and everyone knows the rules except for me. 🙃

YouTube video by Matthew Karger Desmond the Moonbear (how did I get here)!

Me everyday this year:

From Senator Chris McDaniel: “Lately, some folks have taken to calling ICE “the Gestapo.” It sounds fierce. It feels righteous. But it isn’t true, and it isn’t harmless. The Gestapo was a secret police force. No warrants. No courts. No lawyers. And no appeals. People vanished in the night, not because they broke the law, but because the law no longer meant anything. The knock on the door was the sentence. ICE isn’t that. Not even close. ICE is a public agency enforcing laws passed by elected officials. Its agents file reports. They seek warrants. They lose cases. Judges stop them. Lawyers challenge them. Some detainees go home. That’s not tyranny. That’s bureaucracy, for better and worse. You can hate immigration policy. You can argue enforcement is too harsh, too sloppy, or too broad. You can work to have the law changed if you wish. That’s a republic doing what it’s supposed to do. But when you call ordinary law enforcement “the Gestapo,” you cheapen real evil. You turn history into a slogan and suffering into a metaphor. And once every badge is tyranny, no tyranny is left to recognize. In Mississippi, I was raised to believe words should earn their weight. This one hasn't yet. It throws around the language of dictatorship while living under a system where courts still rule, lawyers still argue, and the government still loses. That difference matters. Because the day enforcement becomes secret, unchecked, and answerable to no one, we won’t need to borrow names from history. We’ll know exactly what we’re dealing with. And we’ll wish we’d kept our words honest.”

“ICE isn’t the Gestapo. The Gestapo was…” (proceeds to describe qualities that apply to what ICE is currently doing)

Weird to be commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Am Rev while living under a government that has a) sent armed troops to occupy cities perceived to be too rebellious, b) rendered largely irrelevant the representative branch of government, and c) claimed imperial right to rule other countries.

Not me (a 28yo former PBS kid) discovering the PBS app for the first time today.

Reminding myself how important it is to challenge myself and my thoughts in order to process emotion by playing therapist with myself in my notebook.

My first introduction to the world of Narnia was a VHS box set of the BBC production of “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” from the 80’s and I’d never want to change that.

Reasons my cats will forever be inside cats include but are not limited to:
- Cars

End of list.

Me choosing a healthy snack
Snack immediately falls on the floor
“I’m being punished for choosing this…”

I’m just… so… tired

Share Point

Y’know, a file share system is only as good as it is at sharing files… 😑

Does anyone else remember being convinced that leaving the sink running while brushing your teeth was going to drain the ocean and kill all the whales? ‘Cause same. #savethewhales 🐋🪥

My lower right eyelid has been twitching for 3 days… I’m ready to not be an exasperated cartoon character, thanks.

Hearing/feeling the joint between my hips and tailbone pop/crack like someone’s knuckles is immensely unsettling.

Listening to my husband laugh and enjoying talking with his best friend is such a joy. 😊💕

Might laziness be a byproduct of not knowing how to rest or slow down the pace at which we live our lives?

Constantly gaslighting myself into believing that my joint instability and chronic pain couldn’t possibly be caused by hypermobility because I’m not “flexible enough”.

Being stuck in bed was not in the plan for this vacation… 😣

Was recently asked if I was a morning person or a night owl- babe, I’m a sun person… if the sun is up I probably am, if not? Well, don’t count on it…

Yall… 4 am is not for the faint of heart. It’s eeeeeeeeeaaaaarrrrrrlyyy!

Why is the lowest setting for my office chair the highest I can go before my feet actually leave the ground… I’m an average height woman, are we still making office chairs based only on the average man? It’s 2025. What are we doing?

How do you stop hating how you look? Asking for a friend who has been at it for almost 2 decades now.

(It’s me… the friend is me… just to be clear… actual advice wanted. Thanks)