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.
You just made me well up. People can be so good.
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.
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
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!
💪
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.
You made someone’s life measurably better. A goal anyone should driver to achieve. Good on you.
Woah get outta here with this wholesome shit, i came here to get an… Oh wait this isnt reddit. Carry on mate!
The world needs more people like you!
a month of walking and leftovers for lunch
probably did more good for your own health than the car repair would have
❤️
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
right at the start of the pandemic I bought a nice projector and 135" screen, and converted our entire basement into a dark theater. It’s really great for playing video games, watching sports, and obviously watching movies. Even with multi-view showing 4 events at one time like in the olympics it’s still like having 4x 60"+ screens on the same wall.
Motorcycles. All 3 of them. I miss them.
I’m at 7 at the moment…
i live in car dependent America, my motorcycle have saved me every time my car is waiting for repair parts, so i don’t miss work, and when riding downtown, where parking is a headache. So i see it with a more utilitarian eye
Drag car…
Tens of thousands of dollars for 3 or 4 trips to the track a year.
And I’m itching to build another.
Early pandemic, I bought 4x 3D printers and started a print farm to make PPE masks for doctors. I was cranking out around 60-80 pieces a day.
After the shortage was over, I ended up donating it to my buy nothing group.
How do you 3d print ppe masks?
Also, what’s a buy nothing group?
Search for your local buy nothing group on Facebook. Ask to join it and then start asking or giving your things away to your local community.
Ice machine
Infinite bedside ice
I’m picturing this thing literally on your nightstand. Please tell me I’m right.
Very nearly! I have desk that I scrounged from the garbage literally right up against the bed and a nightstand right next to it. It’s on the desk since the nightstand holds my TV.
So it’s not literally on a nightstand, but it is literally bedside, i.e. I can use it without getting out of bed.
Does it not make tons of noise?
We have an ice machine in the freezer and often it is the loudest thing in the entire house. I also have a mini fridge in the office and the compressor on it runs every few minutes. It would be awful to try to sleep in there
Dude OP isn’t even mortal at this point; he has ascended to godhood. That compressor sound and ice dropping into the plastic basket only powers him up.
Haha, that and the two running box fans I have on full blast pointing at my head and pillow are my greatest sources of comfort.
Yes I like being really really cold.
Not really? Although I’m probably way more tolerant to (wideband!) noise than others because I sleep literally inches from two box fans.
But you don’t need to run it while you’re sleeping. It goes from room temperature to ice in under 10 minutes (20 minutes for the “good” ice after the insides have had a bit of time to cool down).
To be clear, what I have is a Frigidaire portable ice maker. Here’s its Walmart product page, although I can’t vouch for Walmart’s website respecting your privacy.
I actually bought a knockoff of this a couple years ago off Amazon, and it worked for about a year, but:
- The infrared sensor was crap from day 1, so I always had to manually override the machine’s decision that the ice was full, even when it was completely empty.
- The water where I was living (dorm room in city) was much…harder I think? It was safe to drink, I even tested it myself, but whatever minerals were in it very quickly fucked up my machine’s internals. I’m living at my parents house with better water.
So far, the Frigidaire is a much better unit, and I use it tremendously more often because I don’t have to babysit the thing and constantly override the infrared sensor.
The water supply is just an ordinary tank. Basically just open the lid, dump a Super Big Gulp of water into the tank every few hours and you’re set. Everything is self contained.
It doesn’t keep the ice cool for you, i.e. it’s not a freezer. Once the ice gets dumped in the bucket, you’re on your own.
So if you go down this route, I recommend getting a decent version of it. Mine cost about $87 in store from Walmart but I really bought this unit as an impulse buy, so I imagine you can get it cheaper if you do some shopping.
I bought a pick-up truck because I’ve wanted one ever since I was a kid and one day I just realized I’m an adult with money and I can buy whatever I want.
Well I started my own business a few years later so it turned out to be quite useful purchase in the end anyway
My house. I bought when the rates went up, but I’m so much happier than living in an apartment.
a house? so irresponsible
Same. Recently bought a house, rates are very high, but I can live with it. I’ve literally never been happier than I am now, no matter how many weekends I spend completely drained repairing some random thing.
I spent almost 6k on my computer setup, 2k just on the 4090 no regrats
