I fully came in here with this name in mind. Lol in the 10 years since I've first heard it, I've never come across anyone else who has heard the same. I somehow hope we're all running into the same Abcde and there aren't just hordes of them out there.
I'm not saying it's the right thing to do but a big difference here is that up until VERY recently, the US did not have an official language, so for them to say "English only" would be a bit more offensive than for Japan (whose official language is Japanese) to say "japanese only".
Additionally, the US is on colonized land, so English wouldn't be the native language of the land. Japan on the other hand has existed for close to 40,000 years and was not colonized in the same way (Not saying that the Japanese historically haven't been colonizers, but the island of Japan is generally not). I genuinely wouldn't even be mad about it if someone in Manitoba made a rule that was like "Ojibwe only".
But also to your point, yeah the US did recently pick an official language AND launch an "English only" campaign for a whole profession and it is extremely fucked up.
Is there a reason you're unable to provide wet food? I know it can be a bit more expensive, but my vet said even literally a tablespoon of wet food a day mixed with some water is extremely beneficial for their health and will lead to lower vet bills over time.
I don't live where you do but my apartment faces the dollar store's bins. People dump all kinds of crazy shit here, I've seen mattresses, couches, but also just general garbage. I'm pretty sure because our shitty previous mayor privatized and monopolized the garbage pickup, people just don't want to pay for it.
The bins also attract a lot of rummagers so it's like a give and take. It's pretty awful tbh.
Mine explained my emotional dysregulation patterns and helped me identify the triggers and how to address them.
By far, the most useful technique they shared with me was the TIPP skills technique, which helps me come down when I am having strong emotional reactions as a trauma response or from anxiety. Essentially:
temperature - use cold temp to lower heart rate, warm to raise it
intense exercise - helps manage overwhelming energy levels
paced breathing - I'm not big on breathing but it works for some
paired muscle relaxation - my favourite as it also interrupts thought patterns
Hope you're able to access help though, obviously it is much better when personalized and you also get the safe space to release your fears and anxieties
Getting more involved with community movements has helped me in this respect 100x more than my therapist did.
It's not their fault, there's not that much they could've done for me anyway and they were very much on the same "were fucked this is all hopeless" boat as me.
Where I live the majority of apartment rentals are owned by large corporations whose sole job is property management, including "renovicting" low income people and letting older buildings go to waste while hiking rent prices. These people are scumbags.
Previously I lived in one building that was actually just owned by one person who had purchased several buildings, and while he hadn't built the apartments, at least he was also the sole caretaker so he was putting in the work.
I wrote my thesis about how we can learn from Cuba's green farming movements (because they were essentially locked out of capitalism) and was criticized for it.
I am from the Gulf coast and have always said, when describing where I'm from "the Gulf coast", but since all this bullshit I've been making it a point to say I'm from "the Gulf of Mexico", cause fuck that guy. But also it's fucking dumb, it's all just sea, who gives a shit. Next thing you know he'll be saying the "pacific of America"
We must've lucked right out because we bought the literal cheapest toaster we found ($12 about 9 years ago). No special features, not even a cancel button, just a little knob for the doneness. It worked so well for the 7 or 8 years we had it, and the only reason we replaced it was cause we wanted a 4-slice toaster.
Thing was a champ, I was trying to see if I could find it online but can't see it anymore. I think it was Master Chef brand.
We have an Oster one now with a fancy touch screen that I can see is about $70. It works about as well as the previous one we had.
I fully came in here with this name in mind. Lol in the 10 years since I've first heard it, I've never come across anyone else who has heard the same. I somehow hope we're all running into the same Abcde and there aren't just hordes of them out there.