Anisha
A lover of words, quiet spaces, and misadventures. π€ͺ
07/06/2026
βNEW RULES FOR FIFA WORLD CUP 2026
ββFootball/soccer fans, are you aware that the International Football Association Board (IFAB) has approved changes to the rules which will take effect at the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Come with me:
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β1. RED CARD FOR COVERING YOUR MOUTH
ββPlayers who cover their mouths with their hands, arms, or shirts in confrontational situations will receive a red card. This rule does not apply to friendly conversations. A player whispering tactics to a club teammate on the opposing side, for instance, will not be punished. The rule was triggered by the Vinicius Jr/Prestianni incident in the UEFA Champions League when Benfica's Prestianni covered his mouth while saying something to Vinicius Jr. which Prestianni later alleged was not a racist slur but an anti-gay slur. π
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β2. FIVE-SECOND COUNTDOWN ON THROW-INS AND GOAL KICKS
ββReferees will raise their hand to signal a five-second countdown for all throw-ins and goal kicks. For throw-ins, if the ball is not in play after five seconds, possession is awarded to the opposing team. For goal kicks, if the kick is not taken within five seconds, the opposing team is awarded a corner kick. This is targeted at the glacial time-wasting that has plagued tournament football for years.
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β3. TEN-SECOND SUBSTITUTION RULE
ββPlayers being substituted have just 10 seconds to leave the field once the fourth official has raised the substitution board. If they fail to comply, their replacement must wait at least one minute before entering, and only at the next stoppage in play. As has been the case, players must exit via the closest point to the sideline. This rule was already trialled in a Japan vs Iceland fixture, where Iceland conceded a late goal directly as a result of their substituted player failing to exit the field in time.
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β4. GOALKEEPER TACTICAL TIMEOUT BANNED
ββThe so-called "tactical timeout" where a goalkeeper strategically goes to ground for treatment while outfield teammates rush to the touchline to receive instructions from the coach, before the keeper simply gets up and plays on has now been banned. If a goalkeeper is injured, players of both teams must stay where they are or gather in the centre circle. They are not permitted to approach the bench. One of the most high-profile recent examples of the practice came when Leeds boss Daniel Farke accused Manchester City goalkeeper Donnarumma of feigning injury to break up play in a Premier League fixture. There are no yellow cards or disciplinary sanctions attached to violations. Referees will simply be proactive in preventing players from approaching the benches.
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β5. INJURED OUTFIELD PLAYERS MUST WAIT BEFORE RETURNING
Any player who receives off-field medical treatment must exit the game and wait one minute after play restarts before returning to the pitch. This is to kill off the feigned injury as a time-wasting tool.
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β6. EXPANDED VAR POWERS
VAR's scope has been significantly broadened in three key areas: 1) VAR can now be used to check and overturn clearly incorrect second yellow cards, and to correct cases of mistaken identity where a card has been shown to the wrong player. 2) incorrectly awarded corner kicks can now be subject to VAR intervention, provided the correction can be made immediately without delaying the restart. 3) VAR can now intervene if a foul is spotted before a corner or free kick is taken. For instance, if an attacker is seen blocking a defender before the ball is in play from a set piece. Arsenal inspired this one. Come and beat me, I'm at home. π
β7. RED CARD FOR LEAVING THE FIELD IN PROTEST
βI knew this one woild be here after that Senegal "kafwafwa". Players who leave the field of play in protest against a referee's decision will be shown a red card. The rule applies equally to any team official who incites players to leave the field. Teams that cause a match to be abandoned will forfeit it.
β8. MANDATORY HYDRATION BREAKS
Each half at the World Cup will feature a three-minute hydration break, the timing of which is at the referee's discretion.
NB: This is an AI generated image. It may contain errors. Fortunately, they're not medical errors so we can all relax. π
03/06/2026
βI just saw a post somewhere... where the ex to one of these popular boys was talking about how he is so cheap, how he bought her a fake designer bag and took her to some cheap salon in town. I died laughing. π The thing that stood out for me in the comments is how almost everyone, especially men where laughing at her and calling her entitled. And unfortunately, I agreed with them...but not for the reasons you may think. She should be charging him for something, but certainly not her nails or hair.
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βThere is this expectation most women have that when they have a boyfriend (we're not talking marriage here, this distinction is important), then they have gained a financial fairy to make all their bills disappear. Men know this, and that's why when pursuing you, they'll present themselves as capable of making that fantasy come true. Until you both realize you're mad.
βBut that's not the conversation I want to have right now. There is a cost that women incur everytime they lay with a man, and it is a cost that's rarely discussed in the open. I'm not talking about STIs, that's a conversation that goes without saying. When a man and woman have unprotected s*x, his body introduces semen into hers. Now, semen is alkaline (pH 7.2 to 8.0). The healthy va**nal environment is acidic (pH 3.8 to 4.5). This acidity is her body's frontline defence. It keeps her microbiome balanced and protects her from infections. It is, quite literally, her internal security system.
βHis semen disrupts it. Every single time.
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βHer body works to restore that balance, typically within six to eight hours. But if this is happening regularly, if the exposure is frequent, if her microbiome is already under any kind of stress, that restoration becomes harder. The disruption compounds. And what follows is real, recurring, and costly.
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βIt may come in the form of Bacterial Vaginosis. You (woman) also becomes more susceptible to UTIs and other infections. The need for pH-balanced intimate care products, specific probiotic supplements, more frequent gynaecological visits, and sometimes prescription treatment. All of these things cost money. Him? He came and went, literally and figuratively. You? Oh no. One wrong move and he'll be the first one to laugh at you for smelling like a fish!
βApart from the risk of carrying STIs, men pay nothing else biologically after s*x. His body introduced the disruption and walked away completely intact. You the woman is left managing the aftermath of something you both participated in and both enjoyed. And knowing the quality of some of these men nowadays, you probably never even came, but he did. And even worse, you may even become pregnant but ninshi sunafike nofika iwe. Chenve chinafika, Noyenda! Iwe trapped for the next nine months and from then on, you'll have another human or humans glued to your side everywhere you go wanting to be fed, protected, and educated. For 18+ years!
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βAnd yet somehow, someone decided that men financing women's aesthetics is the thing we must pursue as an entitlement. What about your va**na, Mary? How about men financing the direct health consequences of their own s*xual choices? That conversation does not exist. We have never even thought to have it. I'm not saying a man should pay for a woman's existence.
What I'm saying is, βif your choices, specifically, your insistence on unprotected s*x are creating recurring costs in my life, costs tied directly to your biology interacting with mine, then you do not get to be a silent beneficiary of that arrangement. Shared pleasure cannot come with unshared consequences. This isn't a feminist rant. Ask any doctor. See if they'll disagree. So no, she probably shouldn't be asking him to pay for her hair or nails. But someone should absolutely be asking why nobody is telling her to hand him the receipt for her probiotics. Because that's something she's very much entitled to.
βIn another episode of I'm Definitely Going to Die Single:
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βXY Specie: I love my meals fresh off the stove. Can't stand reheated food. And I hate eating the same meal more than once a day. So I expect my woman to do her thing, you know. π
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βXX Fairy: I like to take trips abroad at least once every three months. I'm focusing on the Nordic countries now. I've done Denmark and Norway. Up next is Sweden and Finland. I expect my man to do his thing, you know. π
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βXY: π Can you afford to take yourself on those trips?
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βXX: With the money you'll be paying me for being your personal chef, I'm sure I can afford it. I don't come cheap you know. π
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βXY: Who says anything about paying you? π
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βXX: Can you cook? π
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βXY: I'm a man. π
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βXX: And I'm a woman. π€·πΎββοΈ We both clearly love to live beyond our means so we're a perfect match! π
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βThis conversation never happened. But it could. π Do with this information as you wish. π€
02/06/2026
βI was having a conversation with someone recently that left me with a pounding headache. π Have you ever spoken to a closed-minded person? Someone who is very rigid in thought. They only know their way of life and beliefs and anything outside of it is either wrong or abnormal. To attempt to shift or widen their perspective is an exercise in futility. It's exhausting. I wanted to hate this person. I really did. But then I looked at them...seriously considered them and realized something.
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β"Do you read fiction?" I asked.
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βThey were visibly taken aback by my line of questioning. "No," they answered, defensively, as if I had just accused them of a heinous crime. π
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β"What do you read?" I asked, trying my best not to punch their matobo that's safekeeping all that hate and judgement.
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β"I haven't read anything in a while since my Masters, but I read books related to my work once in a while." I rounded that off to the nearest bongo-bongo and it translated to - I read lots of documents at work. π
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β"Have you ever travelled outside the place you were born or abroad?"
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β"Yes, for my Masters, Namibia." They quickly added that they didn't explore much of Namibia because they used every break they had to come home to their young family and attend to their church duties because they hold a leadership position in their church.
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βThere's a reason I asked if they read fiction or if they travelled. The travelling one is obvious (I hope, π), so I'll talk about the power of reading fiction and how that can train you to inhabit other consciousnesses, which in turn will allow you to have higher levels of empathy. And the bonus is, when you chat with people, they'll assume you're highly intelligent in numerous subjects when all you've ever done is vicariously live the lives of millions of imagined characters experiencing life-like events. π
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βPeople who have not developed rich conceptual frameworks for understanding human interiority will genuinely struggle to empathize, not because they are cruel or indifferent, but because they simply lack the cognitive vocabulary for it. They can't map what they're seeing in another person onto any internal model because no such model has been built. They simply do not have the conceptual range and narrative exposure. Their world is narrow, and so is their perspective. It's a question about how much you've been required by life or by literature or just by genuine encounter to model a consciousness that does not resemble your own.
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βSo, what am I trying to say? Read more fiction, especially literary fiction. Travel. It's cute that you still live in the same compound or village or town you were born, but please dearie, leave that place once in a while. See what the other side is like. π And while you're at it, I would recommend reading Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life," the novella that's the source material for the Oscar-winning movie "Arrival."
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βBoth works centre on Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist recruited by the military after twelve alien spacecraft position themselves at various points across the globe. The movie explores themes of language and reality (that different languages represent different systems of thought, and that understanding different languages is a key component of empathy). Other themes include time and free will, otherness and institutional failure (how we respond to people/thing that are unfamiliar or different from us), parenthood and grief, etc. The novella is quieter, more internal, and more philosophically rigorous, which is more my kind of thing. You won't come out on the other side the same way you went in. Both pieces of work are mind-transforming.
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