Category: Trending

Therapy speak (notice how everyone talks like a therapist these days?) has entered the chat and unfortunately it’s here to stay whether therapists like it or not.

With the rise of social media and content creators trying to break the stigma of mental health, therapy speak has become a part of people’s daily lexicon, even if it’s not always used properly. “Dissociation” is a term used frequently online whether it’s someone saying they dissociate or diagnosing themselves with dissociative identity disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder.

It’s clear from comments and videos that there’s confusion around what truly constitutes dissociation and when to be concerned. Kati Morton, a licensed marriage and family therapist, breaks down what she calls a spectrum of dissociation, helping to clarify the phenomenon.

Morton begins the video by explaining what causes dissociation and what it is.

“When we become overwhelmed, meaning what’s happening to us is too much for us to manage, our brain, oftentimes, pulls the ripcord on reality.”

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This doesn’t mean that you have to be overwhelmed to get to this depersonalized state but it does mean it’s fairly common for people to experience this when trauma happens. When experiencing trauma our brains are self-protecting by design, that’s where this break from reality can come from in the moment, but dissociation can be experienced without trauma or a history of it.

Morton explains that on the spectrum of dissociation, that spacing out is on the lower end, giving the example of driving home on autopilot after a stressful day. You’re not quite sure how you got home but you’re getting out of the car and walking to your door. While on the other more severe end of the spectrum is dissociative identity disorder. The video gives a very clear easy to understand guide to what dissociation is.

You can watch the entire video below:

A 29-year-old man is dealing with serious tensions within his family after they confronted him about his girlfriend’s weight and how she chooses to dress. To find out if he was in the wrong for how he handled the situation, he took to Reddit to get some clarity.

The situation started at a recent family gathering.

“While attending my (26 M) brother’s girlfriend’s birthday party at their house, my mother and my brother brought me to the kitchen and confronted me, and told me that my girlfriend needs to dress more modestly and that they have a problem with her not wearing a bra,” the man recalled.

The discussion came out of the blue for the man who had no idea his girlfriend’s style or weight was an issue for anyone. It certainly wasn’t one for him. His girlfriend had previously told him that she doesn’t like wearing a bra because it makes her chest feel “tight” and “uncomfortable.”

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“I’m not sure if it’s because she’s my long-time girlfriend, but even though she weighs around 160 pounds, her not wearing a bra has never stuck out to me before, and I hadn’t even really noticed until they had pointed it out to me,” he admitted.

His family members then began to talk about his girlfriend in a sexualized way.

His mother said her breasts were “too big” for her not to wear a bra, and her boyfriend added that when she’s in the room, it’s the “only thing you can look at.” His brother then confessed that he had had multiple fights with his girlfriend over the woman’s body and choice of attire. “She’s afraid my brother’s eyes will wander, and she secretly is afraid he likes overweight girls,” he said.

After the confrontation, the man and his girlfriend left the party.

After the family realized they left, his brother called him, and he said that his girlfriend’s “body shape or the way she dresses is anyone’s business and that if people wanted to be creepy and stare at her, that wasn’t her fault.”

His mother then got on the phone and, once again, said the girlfriend needs to show “respect” for herself and the family by wearing a bra. “I then told them how important I think it is for my girlfriend to be comfortable in the clothes she’s wearing, and if she can’t be comfortable around my family, then we don’t need to see them anymore,” he said.

Sadly, the phone call devolved into a loud argument between all 3 parties. The man asked for a “second opinion” from folks on Reddit whether he in fact was being “too brash.” The commenters overwhelmingly supported him and said he handled the situation gracefully.

“Leaving the situation was the best thing to do. I’d like to think I would have this grace too but your family is REALLY weird,” the most popular commenter, ARandomWalkInSpace, wrote.

“The way you talk about your girlfriend tells us a lot about the kind of person and partner you are, and your perspective and actions in this situation are admirable. Your family is trying to pin the blame for their own problems on your girlfriend,” Amandahip wrote. “As someone with a relatively large chest, it’s almost easier to dress “modestly” while bra-less or wearing low-support garments. Your family is creating a battle that your girlfriend can’t win, and the two of you leaving the situation was a graceful response.”

Another noted that the family blamed the girlfriend for everyone else’s inappropriate reactions to her.

“You hit all the marks,” houskeepinghoney wrote. “Those women are afraid their men can’t control their eyes, which they should absolutely be able to. “So tired of people blaming women for men’s actions.”

In the end, the entire experience was an excellent way for the man and his girlfriend to break out of negative family cycles.

“My girlfriend is okay. We both come from families that thrive on drama,” he wrote. “This was just a breaking point for me personally. Thank you all for your support, kind words, and confirming what I already knew.”

There are few dishes in this world so universally loved as tacos. And what’s not to like? There’s so much flavor packed into such a small hand held morsel. Hence why it’s close to impossible to eat less than seven in one sitting.

Americans, land of Taco Tuesdays, certainly holds a special place in its heart for Mexico’s most famous food staple. 76% of the country eats them every week, and over 4.5 billion tacos are eaten each year.

But as it turns out, Americans aren’t the only ones who are taco obsessed. Nor are they the only ones to make some alterations to the original recipe.

In a now viral TikTok clip, Krysta Alexa, an American mom living in Norway, reveals the country’s passionate love affair with tacos, even dubbing them the nation’s “unofficial dish.”

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“You might think it would be the US, but after Mexico, Norway is the highest consumer of tacos in the entire world,” Krysta says in the video—a sentiment, while not confirmed, is shared by several online sources.

She continues “and they are often consumed on ‘Tacofredag,’ or ‘Taco Friday,’” which makes this comment left by a viewer so funny:

“I’m learning Norwegian on Duolingo and was wonder why it made Tacofredag seem so important 😂”

Krysta gives the caveat that if you were expecting authentic Mexican cuisine or even Tex Mex, “you’re in for a rude awakening.”

Here’s how the Norwegians do it: ground beef seasoned with generic taco spice mix, plus the essentials consisting of canned corn, sour cream, Norvegia cheese, salsa, guacamole and cucumbers, which are apparently quite the popular topping. Then wrap it all in a large tortilla and enjoy.

@krystaalexa Did you know, after Mexico, Norway 🇳🇴 is the second largest consumer of tacos IN THE WORLD?! 🤯 #norway #tacos #mexicanfood #livingabroad #tacofredag #lifeinnorway ♬ original sound – Krysta Alexa | Life in Norway

Is this sounding more like a burrito to you? You’re not alone. Several viewers chimed in to note how Norwegian tacos seem to give big burrito energy. Others couldn’t help but joke about how strikingly similar these tacos were to what they’ve eaten in the Midwest.

But several commenters who identified as Mexican or Mexican-American still approved of the recipe, even graciously giving bonus points for heating up the tortillas.

“As a Mexican, just enjoy and Cheers up,” one person wrote.

Krysta also points out that in addition to the standard toppings and condiments list, she had also seen pineapples used (which isn’t totally uncommon in traditional Mexican tacos) as well as ketchup, which she is “not a fan of.”

Still, though she at first viewed Norwegian tacos as “an abomination,” she concludes her video by admitting that now she finds herself craving them.

Tacos might be dinner time favorites around the globe now, and the culinary concept itself has probably been around for millennia, but the name “taco” isn’t as immemorial as one might think.

History professor, author and taco connoisseur Jeffrey M. Pilcher, writer “Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food,” explained that the word “taco” referred to charges made of small, round pieces of paper wrapped around gunpowder that miners would use to excavate silver in the 18th century.

Later in the 19th century, one of the first types of tacos ever described in any found archive were called tacos de minero, or “miner’s tacos,” suggesting that the food was named after these detonation tools. Similarly, taquitos resemble a stick of dynamite, further adding to this theory.

And while authentic Mexican tacos have their own characteristics, the general consensus seems to be to work with what ingredients are available, hence why Mexican-Americans began to incorporate yellow cheese, bell peppers and hamburger meat. And why Norwegians can celebrate Fridays with giant taco-burrito-hybrids. With tacos, the possibilities are endless. That’s what makes them a perfect food everywhere.

With the release of Drake’s long-awaited album For All The Dogs, he helped his friend and infrequent collaborator J. Cole reach a new career milestone. Their song from the album, “First Person Shooter,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart earlier this month, giving Drake a history-making 13 chart-topping hits.

However, it may surprise some longtime listeners of the two blog rap icons that it’s only J. Cole’s first No. 1 on the Hot 100. Despite entering the public consciousness around the same time as Drake, J. Cole had yet to reach the pinnacle of the hot singles chart. The closest he’d ever come to date was No. 2, twice: once in 2021 with his The Off Season single “My Life” featuring Morray, and again earlier this year as a feature on Lil Durk’s “All My Life.” Prior to those peaks, his Revenge Of The Dreamers III single “Middle Child” topped out at No. 4.

Meanwhile, Cole has fared better on the hip-hop-centric charts. All of the above-mentioned songs reached No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, with the exception of “Middle Child,” which peaked at No. 2.

Regardless of how long it took Cole to reach this high watermark, it’s an accomplishment that no one can take away — and that may make it easier to return, if prior chart histories of acts like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Cardi B, and Doja Cat are anything to judge by. He should be getting the chance to do so soon; he’s been teasing his album The Fall-Off for some time, and many fans believe it’s due sometime next year.

The NBA is returning to its classic format for the All-Star Game. After making a few tweaks to the game over the last few years, the league will go back to having its midseason showcase pit the best players in the Eastern Conference against the best players in the Western Conference.

The news was announced on Wednesday during an event in Indianapolis, the city where the game will take place next year. There was also a press release put out by the league, which confirmed that the All-Star Draft is gone, as is the target score at the end of the fourth quarter. However, the team that wins each quarter will still earn money for charity.

As the league celebrates basketball’s deep roots in the state of Indiana, the 73rd NBA All-Star Game will feature the return of both the classic matchup between the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference and the traditional scoring system with four 12-minute quarters. The voting process to determine the NBA All-Stars will remain the same, with 12 players selected from each conference.

While the NBA All-Star Game will no longer have an untimed fourth quarter or conclude when one team reaches or surpasses the Final Target Score, the teams will continue to compete to win each quarter for a charitable organization of their choosing.

The NBA decided to shake up its All-Star format back in 2018, when the top vote getter from each conference was named captain. The two would draft their teams — first on TNT with the Inside the NBA crew before doing it live before the game last year. Additionally, in 2020, the NBA decided to adopt a version of the Elam Ending to determine a winner, as a target score was set entering the fourth quarter by taking the score of the leading team and adding 24 in honor of the late Kobe Bryant.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the league was placing a priority on increasing the competitiveness of the game.

Wheel of Fortune rarely gets the press that its evening game show sister Jeopardy! does. But when it does, it’s usually because a contestant made a doozy of a blunder. (Sometimes that contestant is Snoop Dogg.) Monday saw one that wasn’t so much an epic gaffe as a mini-tragedy, with one player who was so close, and yet so far away, from a cool million.

Per Decider, that contestant’s name was Izzy Santiago, who earlier in the show bragged to host Pat Sajak about his “good memory,” and how his brain “takes pictures of numbers and letters, and it just remembers it.”

Alas, that trick did not help him when he lucked into nabbing a $1 million slat on the wheel, with only a couple letters remaining. At the time the puzzle read “_RA_I_G _AME_ FROM A HAT.” Santiago’s total was $2,250. There were no vowels left, so Sajak instructed him to “spin it or solve it.”

Santiago decided to solve it. “Drawing games from a hat,” he replied. As you might surmise, he was one letter off. One of his opponents, Frankie, subsequently guessed correctly with “drawing names from a hat.”

Sajak took pity on Santiago, telling him, “You know, in addition to the regular nervousness you get up here, now here’s a million dollars, and all this stuff, and what am I doing?”

Santiago agreed that he just “got so nervous.”

We all have massive brain farts now and then, but most of us don’t have them on television, while playing a game, with a million bucks at stake. Poor Izzy. This one stinks.

(Via Decider)

Before House of the Dragon arrived, I distinctly remember a lot of fretting over whether the show would be as popular as Game of Thrones, especially after viewers felt slightly burned by that show’s final season. Fortunately, the people turned out with entire NYC buildings lighting up with the same fiery scene of the series premiere. The prequel didn’t let up from there, and let’s just say that HBO made the right move by picking the Targaryen gang to launch the next phase of George R.R. Martin’s source material.

House of the Dragon is based upon the Fire and Blood novel, and people are digging the show hard. They really cannot get enough of those doomed Targaryens, even if we know what happens to the clan as of a few hundred years in the future. Before Daenerys went on to be the Khaleesi, however, Rhaenyra and Daemon lead Team Black against the Hightower-based Team Green in the Dance Of Dragons civil war, which is where Season 2 picks up. All of the fury over Luke’s death will cause much more bloodshed, and with fewer shows on the release schedule right now, these dragons should dominate.

When will Season 2 premiere, however? HBO hasn’t clued us in on a precise date as of yet. However, filming was not interrupted by the Hollywood strikes, given that it filmed in Europe. So, we should expect a Summer 2024 return, which is actually much quicker than the final GoT seasons.

Additionally, the premiere episode will be called “A Son For A Son,” so we might see some literal vengeance after the events of the Season 1 finale. Team Black will be united with House Velaryon and have command of the seas, and both Team Black and Team Green will have dragons on their side, but it sure seems like Aemond cannot control the biggest dragon of all. It’s probably a really good thing that Paddy Considine’s King Viserys will no longer be around to see his two families do their best to take each other out. RIP!

With the launch of her new podcast, former The View co-host Meghan McCain continued to prove her bonafides as a serious political commenter by… inviting indicted Congressman George Santos on her show as a guest. Yup, that’ll do it.

During the interview, the two praised a February 2023 performance where drag queen Meatball parodied Santos, who was making headlines at the time for his seemingly endless trail of lies and his recently uncovered past as a drag queen himself. McCain called the performance a “badge of honor” while Santos said it was “flattering” and “hilarious.”

However, the two found themselves being mocked by Meatball, who said they both missed the point.

“I have been dying to know what he thought about the performance since it went viral seven months ago, and I am gagged, to say the least,” Meatball told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m honored that Congressman George Santos thought I did a good job, but, his husband is right. It was a clear mockery.”

Meatball went on to note that McCain and Santos clearly don’t know how parody works.

“I do believe they both misunderstood the context and intent of the performance,” she said before roasting Santos even more. “Every day I become more and more obsessed with the news surrounding Congressman Santos and his inability to read the room or have any awareness to how he’s being perceived. The delusion is what I love, and I think a lot of drag queens live in a world surrounded by delusions, so, maybe that’s why I feel so connected to my king, George Santos. Politics is just drag with money?

You can watch Meatball’s performance below:

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

It’s quite common for people to fantasize about their wedding day—the ceremony, the bridal party, the dress, the cake—and some people spend months or even years meticulously planning every detail. People even spend thousands of dollars hiring wedding planners to make sure that the big day stays fully organized and all the moving parts come together without a hitch.

But no matter how well you plan, sometimes things that simply can’t be predicted happen. And how you and your beloved handle the hitches and glitches on your wedding day can say a lot.

Especially when that hitch or glitch is something major…like watching the beautiful, four-tier wedding cake—the one you spent time choosing and lots of money creating to share with your wedding guests—come crashing to the ground right in front of you.

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That’s what happened to one couple who eagerly watched as the caterers who were carrying their wedding cake tripped on their way into the room, sending their cake to an untimely demise in spectacular fashion.

The video, shared by @the.sarik on Instagram, is only about 10 seconds long, but it tells a whole beautiful love story in the reactions of both the groom and the bride.

Watch:

See on Instagram

First of all, hope those waiters are OK. But secondly, staying calm and making the most of a bad situation is a huge character plus, and this groom clearly has those qualities in spades. You can see in the bride’s face that she knows it, too.

“Her eyes show that she knows she got the right guy,” wrote one commenter.

“The way he just called her to eat is just phenomenal,” shared another.

“‘Cake is still cake.’ Yelling at those waiters won’t solve anything, but it can ruin their whole lives,” wrote another. “They know their mistake, and they can be corrected privately. May the reaction of this man be an inspiration to us all, to care for the feelings of other people more than material things.”

“Of all the things that could ruin a wedding day, I’m glad the husband knew this didn’t have to be one of them,” shared another.

When unpredictable things do happen, it’s largely the reaction of the people involved that determines whether they become tragic tales or entertaining stories. If what we saw in the video is any indicator, this couple will be telling their grandkids someday about how the guys carrying their wedding cake tripped and ruined it, and how Grandpa’s response won Grandma’s heart all over again.

This article originally appeared on 7.27.23

Anna Trupiano is a first-grade teacher at a school that serves deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing students from birth through eighth grade.

In addition to teaching the usual subjects, Trupiano is charged with helping her students thrive in a society that doesn’t do enough to cater to the needs of the hard-of-hearing.

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A six-year-old child farted so loud in class that some of their classmates began to laugh. The child was surprised by their reaction because they didn’t know farts make a sound. This created a wonderful and funny teaching moment for Trupiano.

Trupiano shared the conversation on Facebook.

See posts, photos and more on Facebook.

While the discussion Trupiano had with her students was funny, it points to a serious problem faced by the deaf community. “I know it started with farts, but the real issue is that many of my students aren’t able to learn about these things at home or from their peers because they don’t have the same linguistic access,” she told GOOD.

“So many of my students don’t have families who can sign well enough to explain so many things it’s incredibly isolating for these kids,” she continued.

Trupiano hopes her funny story about bodily functions will inspire others to become more involved with the deaf community by learning sign language.

“I would love to see a world where my students can learn about anything from anyone they interact with during their day,” she told GOOD. “Whether that means learning about the solar system, the candy options at a store, or even farts, it would be so great for them to have that language access anywhere they go.”

This article originally appeared on 12.14.18