Author: GoneTrending

Not everyone has supportive parents in their lives and it can be really difficult when you’re having a moment where you need parental encouragement. It doesn’t seem to matter how old you are, hearing an encouraging word from a parental figure is always comforting. A man on TikTok understands that need and made a special video for women who may need to hear some dad advice.

Old Foul Dude is the name of the TikTok page and while he does let one F-bomb drop, the message he released into the universe is just beautiful. He starts the video looking into the camera, which makes it feel like FaceTime as he continues talking.

“Hey baby girl, I know you’re having a rough time. I know you’re tired, I know you want to cry. You want to give in, you want to give up, but that ain’t you,” the man says.

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He goes on to tell whoever needed to hear the message, “I’m proud of the woman you are. I’m proud of the mother you are. I’m proud of the warrior you are and how you stand up and fight for your family every day.”

it may seem strange to some to think words from a stranger could do so much but everyone deserves to feel loved, even if it’s from a dad on the internet. We don’t get to pick our families or how much time we have on this earth with our parents so hearing a parent tell you they’re proud of you can help some fill a void.

“You have no idea how much I needed to hear this today. I’m so overwhelmed with life currently and my daddy is in heaven,” one woman wrote.

“Thank you, I needed this too. I miss my daddy so much,” another person said.

“Wow. Sir if you could understand how I needed that today. Thank you for stepping up and being a dad on TikTok you have no idea who alls life you’re touching. Thank you,” someone commented.

“When I tell you I’m in tears… My dad is very emotionally disconnected & I never heard any of this…,” a woman wrote.

It’s obvious that this message was needed by many and hopefully it continues to reach the people that need to hear it most. You can listen to his message below.

@oldfouldude

A blast from last year! #dadsoftiktok #oldfoulwisdom #OFD #daddydaugthertiktoks #daddaughter #dadlove #OFDlove #bouncertales #jailers #bikers#viking #norse #bouncer #dadlove #daddydaughter #loveyou #detentionofficers #dadsproudofyou

A “silent” epidemic is happening in American families that is seldom discussed, the sudden rise in estrangement between adult children and their parents. In 1997, research on family dynamics found that 7% of adult children had severed connections with their mothers, and 27% had done so with their fathers.

Fast forward to 2020, and Karl Pillemar, a sociologist, found that a quarter of Americans are estranged from at least one of their parents or child.

Steven Mintz, the author of “Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood,” told The Atlantic that it’s all part of the change in family dynamics that’s happened over the past 50 years.

“Families in the past fought over tangible resources—land, inheritances, family property. They still do, but all this is aggravated and intensified by a mindset that does seem to be distinctive to our time. Our conflicts are often psychological rather than material—and therefore even harder to resolve,” Mintz says.

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It’s also part of a greater trend for people to eliminate or censure those they deem oppressive or toxic.

TikTokker Chassity Marchal (@Chatswithchass) recently went viral on TikTok for a video explaining why it’s not okay to judge adult children who have cut ties with their parents. She makes the vital point that people who have no problem supporting those who leave an abusive spouse will still judge those who do the same to toxic parents.

@chatswithchass

Just because someone is “family” doesnt mean they can treat someone anyways they want. #chatswithchass

“Stop telling people who have no contact with their parents that they need to either make things right, they need to talk to their parents,” Marchal says, citing a recent online interaction where she was chastised for not talking to her mom. The critic noted that cutting her off is wrong because she’s “not guaranteed tomorrow.”

“I just know that if it was my husband that was saying or doing the things that my mom has done, that y’all would not be telling me that I need to stay with him and talk to him and make it work,” Marchal continued. “So why is it different when it comes to parents?”

She added that it wasn’t an “easy decision” to cut off her mom and that she’s still not “happy” about it. “I don’t want to be doing this, but I’m also putting myself first and doing what I feel is best.”

Response to her post was overwhelmingly positive. A commenter named Cat summed up the reactions perfectly: “I’m so sick of hearing this! Just bc someone gave birth to you—doesn’t mean they need to talk to them!”

@chatswithchass

Replying to @Ken Lambert892 #chatswithchass

In a follow-up video, Marchal addressed a commenter who said, “You can never replace a mom or dad.” To which she responded, “When someone hurts you over and over and does not care that they’re doing those things to you, you have to walk away.”

It’s a sad fact of life that more adult children and their parents are becoming estranged. But it appears to be a symptom of a culture where people care more about creating healthy boundaries than spending emotional energy on those they deem toxic.

Sometimes life plays out just like a sitcom.

This is certainly the case for a California resident named Michael who goes byu/lazybear90 on Reddit. On May 26, Michael detailed an epic donation-to-charity fail to the r/TIFU subreddit, and it’s almost too far-fetched to believe, and definitely too funny not to share.

So the story goes: Michael had just moved into a new three-unit apartment building in San Francisco with his wife. Their neighbor, nicknamed “Joe” for the story, was a 70-something year old retired veteran and devout Hindu priest.

Wanting to support his new neighbor, Michael generously agreed to donate $150 to a community in Bangladesh through GoFundMe.

What a nice gesture. Except for one not-so-tiny issue. Michael donated $15,000 instead.

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“I get a text on my phone warning me of an unusually large transaction on my credit card. I’m confused and swipe to open the text message. It says I have made a payment of $15,041 to GoFundMe. Immediately I’m sweating. How could I have donated FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS?” he wrote on Reddit.

After retracing his steps, Michael realized he typed part of his credit card number into the donation box by mistake. “Just like that 150 became 15041. Yikes.”

Michael immediately contacted GoFundMe ,who assured him that there’s “no need to worry” since can process a refund in 3-7 business days.

Problem solved, right? Wrong.

Michale continued: “then I ask the agent if the charity will be able to see the donation on the GoFundMe page until it is refunded. ‘What do you mean?’ the agent asks me. ‘What do YOU mean what do I mean?’ was my response. ‘Will they be able to see the $15,041 donation?!’” The answer, woefully, was yes.

Michael planned on telling Joe what had happened the next morning, hopefully before too much info had spread. But it was already too late by then. He awoke to 40+ Facebook notifications, and was sent many messages by one name in particular with a Hindu name.

One of those messages revealed that the man was indeed from Bangladesh, and was surrounded by “dozens of impoverished and hungry people holding bags of food” who not only applauded Michael but thanked him BY NAME for the generous donation. Oy vey.

“At this point, I’ve leapt out of my bed and I’m pacing. Part of me wants to scream, part of me wants to crack up laughing. I start swiping through the man’s messages, and it is picture after picture after picture of poor Bangladeshis thanking me for my kind donation. Literally hundreds of photos of frail, elderly, disabled, and malnourished individuals holding signs with my name. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael.” Good grief, will the hits never stop coming?

Luckily, this is where the story really turns around.

After getting his refund, Michael ended up donating $1500 rather than $150 after seeing how the community responded, and was told that it would still go “very far for urgent food relief.” Then, folks who had seen Michael’s story on Reddit began donating to the same GoFundMe page.

THEN, the story was read out loud on the super popular Youtube channel Smosh Pit as part of its series “Reading Reddit Stories,” and things really took off. So many “heard about this on Smosh” donations began rolling that the fundraiser now has over $120,000.

In a follow up post, Michael thanked the Reddit community for turning his snafu into a bona fide miracle. Apparently the charity was running on fumes and looking to cancel some of its programs before sudden windfall. In his view, he not only helped a great cause, he got a funny story out of it. A total win-win in the end.

If you’d like to donate to the Bangladeshi community from this story, you can find the GoFundMe here. Just be sure to double check your donation amount!

There’s no better way to kick off summer than with an epic party — complete with live music, good vibes, and a cold drink in hand. As seen in the video above, Smirnoff did just that at Webster Hall in New York City to celebrate the debut of Smirnoff ICE’s fresh new look and the start of The Smirnoff ICE Relaunch Tour. Taking over one of NYC’s most iconic music venues, the event featured highly anticipated performances by hip-hop legends and new artists alike, to bring together modern flavors and classic tastes.

The Smirnoff Ice Relaunch Tour kick-off party didn’t stop at the fire music acts, either. Guests were also treated to a trip down memory lane with their favorite drinks, throwback experiences, Smirnoff swag, and endless fun. From the giant Smirnoff-infused ice sculpture to the spray-painted Y2K-inspired hats and arcade games, the modern yet nostalgic activations proved that “true classics never fade, they only get better.” This unforgettable celebration was just the beginning, though.

Smirnoff Ice has already made waves with events in New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles, but you can still catch the tour in Charlotte, Indianapolis, Lake of the Ozarks, and Atlanta. The tour showcases the brand’s “same sip, new swag” flavor alongside performances from some of music’s most coveted “OG” and emerging artists.

Get your tickets here.

Over the weekend, during Pink‘s concert at BST Hyde Park in London, the pop star had a bag of a fan’s mother’s ashes thrown at her onstager. “I don’t know how I feel about this,” the “Just Give Me A Reason” singer reacted.

At that same gig, Pink was also gifted a wheel of brie. In a viral clip, the musician sees an audience member holding out the cheese and accepts it into her hands. She looks grateful. After all, delicious dairy is much better than receiving a deceased person’s remains.

In February, Pink caught fire after she was perceived as shading Christina Aguilera in an interview. She had to address the situation on social media to clear up all the gossip. “Y’all are nuts,” she wrote. “Xtina had sh*t to do with who was on that song. If you don’t know by now- I’m not ‘shading’ someone by telling it over and over and over what actually happened. I’m zero percent interested in your f*cking drama. If you haven’t noticed- I’m a little busy selling. And by selling- I mean tickets and albums and bake sales and sh*t. Also- I kissed xtinas mouth. I don’t need to kiss her ass.”

Jennifer Lawrence had a very successful early career. By 20 she had her first Oscar nomination. By 22 she had her first Oscar and her first franchise. (Before all that, she was in the main cast of The Bill Engvall Show.) But before she landed The Hunger Games, she tried out for another franchise — and was “immediately” told where to go.

“I auditioned for ‘Twilight,’” Lawrence revealed on Spotify’s podcast The Rewatchables earlier this month (as caught by Variety). It didn’t go so hot. “They turned me down immediately. I didn’t even get a callback.”

Lawrence said if she had gotten Twilight, whose first film came out in 2008, her life would have been “totally different.” In fact, after seeing how the public hounded the actress who did get the role, Kristen Stewart — not to mention Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner — she came close to turning down Katniss Everdeen. She said she “almost didn’t do Hunger Games because Twilight had come out and that fandom had happened.”

She, of course, did do The Hunger Games, but it took some thinking.

“When I was trying to talk to people about making this decision after [Hunger Games] got offered to me, it was hard to explain to people… this level of fame,” Lawrence explained. “I assumed it was going to be the Twilight level of fame and that was never something I had in mind. I never wanted to be the most famous person on the planet. That’s a very different life than I pictured for me.”

The Hunger Games still catapulted Lawrence to superstardom, and she still had to “counteract the franchise-ness” of that decision. But it doesn’t sound like it ever got to Twilight levels. In fact, she said she imagines still have to deal with mega-fame had she done Twilight.

The one-two punch in 2012 of The Hunger Games and The Silver Linings Playbook, for which won an Academy Award, did make her huge, but she was famous for two very different things: a hugely popular franchise and a hugely popular drama-comedy. Now she can do whatever she wants, including making an old school raunch comedies and getting “violently” sick on her recent episode of Hot Ones.

(Via Variety)

Liz Cheney has always been an unlikely ally of the Democratic party. Before she turned on him over the Jan. 6 riot, the former Wyoming GOP representative — and, don’t forget, daughter of Dick freakin’ Cheney — voted with Donald Trump 92.9% of the time. She doesn’t hold many positions progressives would share. But she sacrificed her House seat to help make the public aware of the dangers of re-electing Trump (and gloating when his cronies crash and burn). She also has an enjoyably grim take on modern politics.

As per The Washington Post, Cheney spoke at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan on Monday night, where she threw in her two cents on the idea of Trump returning to the White House after losing in 2020.

“Look, I think that the country right now faces hugely challenging and fundamentally important issues,” Cheney told the crowd. “And what we’ve done in our politics is create a situation where we’re electing idiots.”

Granted, even though she was talking about Trump, she didn’t name the other “idiots” that made her use the plural version of the term. She could have been intimating both sides of the aisle elect dolts. But she went on to suggest she’s not calling out both sides.

“And so, I don’t look at it through the lens of, is this what I should do or what I shouldn’t do,” she said. “I look at it through the lens of, how do we elect serious people? And I think electing serious people can’t be partisan.”

Saying that it’s “partisan” to elect serious people implies that Cheney thinks that right now, it’s not her longtime party that’s doing that.

Cheney then dug in deeper into her animosity towards the current GOP presidential primary frontrunner, who has other fish to fry beyond his third campaign.

“You know, because of the situation that we’re in,” Cheney said, “where we have a major-party candidate who’s trying to unravel our democracy — and I don’t say that lightly — we have to think about, all right, what kinds of alliances are necessary to defeat him, and those are the alliances we’ve got to build across party lines.” She added that she is “not going to do anything that would help Donald Trump.”

Cheney has floated the idea of running against Trump, though during the conversation she suggested she’d changed her mind. If she did, she might wind up being an even bigger Trump critic than his old pal Chris Christie.

(Via The Post)

After 6 seasons of plotting and weaseling, the 7th and final season of Billions promises to wrap things up with a big bow that’s been single-sourced from a rare silkworm and handsewn by 100-year-old master bow artisans. It’s been a remarkable run watching multiple games of cat and also-cat play out on the seedy playground of Wall Street, and now that the show has ballooned into a beautiful ensemble, it’s ready to pop.

Here’s the official teaser synopsis for the final season:

“In season seven, alliances are turned on their heads. Old wounds are weaponized. Loyalties are tested. Betrayal takes on epic proportions. Enemies become wary friends. And Bobby Axelrod returns, as the stakes grow from Wall Street to the world.”

Naturally, Paul Giamatti, Corey Stoll, and Maggie Siff are back to play alongside the previously exiled Axe (Damian Lewis). As much as Stoll has done yeoman’s work to fill the void, this story was always meant to end with Chuck and the crafty billionaire (whether facing off or teaming up).

The season lands on Paramount+ for subscribers with the Showtime package on August 11st before an official Showtime launch on August 13th. Plus, Showtime doesn’t want the party to end. They’ve enlisted creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien to build out the Billionsverse with multiple projects about ostensibly greedy people, so we can keep luxuriating in witty dialogue from tax-evaders eating sushi that costs more than our rent.

When Don Burckhardt donated blood at a Crews Subaru blood drive in Charleston, South Carolina, he had no idea his own life would be saved by it. The Red Cross worker told Burkhardt that his iron count was low and recommended he go to the doctor to get a full blood test done.

“Because of these blood drives that Crews Subaru is hosting, my cancer was caught at the very early stages,” says Burckhardt.

That blood drive was one of 48 that Crews Subaru has held in 36 months, impacting nearly 5,000 lives. And the Red Cross is just one of 71 different charities and organizations the retailer serves each year as part of the Subaru Love Promise, which is all about giving back to the community.

Watch Don Burckhardt share his story and witness the Subaru Love Promise in action as the folks at Crews Subaru host blood drives, provide meals, organize pet adoptions, grant Make-a-Wish wishes and more.

Loneliness is one of the most dangerous health problems in the United States, although it’s seldom discussed. Psychology Today says loneliness has the same mortality risks as obesity, smoking, alcoholism and physical inactivity.

A meta-analysis from Brigham Young University found that social isolation may increase the risk of premature death by up to 50%. The problem with loneliness is that people suffer in silence and it afflicts the ones we don’t see.

A TikTok user who goes by the name Megan Elizabeth recently shared a touching story on social media about how her grandfather was feeling lonely so he reached out to her. The story shows what can happen when one person is brave enough to confront their social isolation and the important role grandkids can play in their grandparents’ lives.

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It started when Megan’s grandpa texted her to ask if she’d like to come over for a sleepover. “I haven’t been feeling well and miss you. We can order food and watch a mystery show. Love, grandpa,” he wrote.

Megan was happy to go see him, so grandpa made a series of requests to make the sleepover a hit.

“Could you pick up applesauce? The cinnamon kind,” he asked. “And if you go somewhere with mash potatoes, I would like that because I have no teeth and can only eat soft things. Ha!”

He also wanted some strawberry ice cream for dessert. “Thank you. You are my favorite granddaughter,” he ended the conversation. Megan later noted that she’s his only granddaughter.

See on Instagram

Megan came by with a big bag of food and some ice cream and the two hung out and watched his favorite black-and-white “mystery movies.” When it was time for bed, grandpa hadn’t forgotten how to put her to sleep. He got her a glass of water to put by the bed in case she got thirsty and left a flashlight on the nightstand just in case his 29-year-old granddaughter got scared.

The next morning, at 5:30 am, he watched her leave for work.

See on Instagram

Grandfather and granddaughter grew up close to one another. Megan lived with her grandparents when she was young while her parents saved up money for a house. When they bought one, it was right across the street.

“I am so lucky to have grown up with my grandpa and my grandma (rest in peace),” she wrote on Instagram. “I feel so happy. I am thankful for my grandpa and he will never understand how much love he truly has shown me. And more importantly, the love he showed my grandma while she was alive. I believe in love and loyalty because of this man. He is my hero,” she added.

See on Instagram

Megan’s time with her grandfather made her realize a valuable lesson about her life.

“I think one of the most important realizations I have had recently is that it’s important to live in the moment but it is important to live in the now with intent,” she wrote on Instagram, “so that when you are 92, you look back and smile at all the people you loved, the memories you made and the life you chose to live.”

This article originally appeared on 04.27.22