Definitely agree with your last sentence, but I still think the artist is mixing some phases of the menstrual cycle here. English is not my native language, so I hope I will get all my terms correct for the people who would like to learn about this.

The menstrual cycle has four phases. The cycle starts with the menstruation. Due to a drop on eustrogen and progesterone levels, the uterine lining sheds. It will leave the body along with some blood. The number of days this last and the amount of blood varies per person.

Right up from the start is also the start of the second phase: the follicular phase. This one matches the left side of the comic and the description of your partners. It last till about half of the cycle. The hypothalamus in the brain stimulates the production of the hormone FSH through the hypofyse. During this time, people can feel great. They can feel prettier, better and smarter in performing and even stronger when they are doing a workout for example. No more worries about money, relationships, the world can be a great place in this phase.

Around day 14 of the cycle is the ovulation. This happens around 24 hours after the LH (luteinizing hormone) causes a crack or tear in the follicle of the ovary. Some people can feel it happening, for some people it hurts, others can’t feel anything.

Then it’s time for phase four: the luteal phase. In this phase some people will want to turn their life around. Others feel like they have all the luck in the world. Others will want to cancel their subscriptions, give away their valuables and delete their socials because nothing matters anymore. To prep the uterus for a possible fertilization, the hormone progesterone makes sure an egg could implant in the uterine lining. Progesterone could give people in the luteal phase huge Netflix-, eating-, snarling- or sleeping urges. It can also cause endo belly if you have endometriosis.

And then you have PMS. It’s not one of the phases, but up to 80% of the people menstruating experiences PMS in a mild or severe variant. It peaks around the ovulation and the luteal phase. It’s not around in the first week of the cycle. Progesterone is the most influential hormone during PMS. There are up to 150 identified symptoms according to the British association for PMS. Most people are familiar with tiredness, feeling lethargic, hunger, aggression, gloom and mood swings. This matches the right side of the comic.

Well, this was my presentation. Hope some people read this and learn something! My source is the book ‘Je mag je weer aankleden - alles over endometriose’ from Maartje van Hoek. It translates to ‘You may get dressed again - everything about endometriosis’.

Thank you!

Can you expand a bit what you tell people about not liking Meta’s business model? I got some people to follow me to Signal, but only for messaging with my husband and me. They don’t really care for the privacy aspect, so I’m curious about your other arguments!

One that always stayed with me is from a coming-of-age story:

If truth was a crayon and it was up to me to put a wrapper around it and name its color, I know just what I would call it—dinosaur skin.

• Sarah Weeks - So B. It

If you’re curious, here’s the rest of the first chapter which really ties the first sentence together nicely:

I used to think, without really thinking about it, that I knew what color that was. But that was a long time ago, before I knew what I know now about both dinosaur skin and the truth.

The fact is, you can’t tell squat about the color of an animal just from looking at its bones, so nobody knows for sure what color dinosaurs really were. For years I looked at pictures of them, trusting that whoever was in charge of coloring them in was doing it based on scientific fact, but the truth is they were only guessing. I realized that one afternoon, sitting in the front seat of Sheriff Roy Franklin’s squad car, the fall before I turned thirteen.

Another thing I found out right around that same time is that not knowing something doesn’t mean you’re stupid. All it means is that there’s still room left to wonder. For instance about dinosaurs—were they the same color as the sky the morning I set off for Liberty? Or were they maybe the same shade of brown as the dust my shoes kicked up on the driveway at Hilltop Home?

I’d be lying if I said that given a choice, I wouldn’t rather know than not know. But there are some things you can just know for no good reason other than that you do, and then there are other things that no matter how badly you want to know them, you just can’t.

The truth is, whether you know something or not doesn’t change what was. If dinosaurs were blue, they were blue; if they were brown, they were brown whether anybody ever knows it for a fact or not.

That looks delicious! Could you tell me how this works? Just chuck everything in for a certain amount of time or cook the rice first or…?

Former (Dutch) teacher here! Diary of a wimpy kid is easy reading for a lot of kids and I always found that the really engrossing books could help them move on to their actual reading level. For my students who liked comic mischief in class, I could always get them hooked to reading with The Saga of Darren Shan.

Don’t let the ‘horror’ genre fool you: the story is dark and funny. Based on the books you named I think your kid might love it!

Same for me!

So happy that this got implemented, thanks!

That was fun, thanks! I made it till rule 24 on my phone. I give up haha