Welcome to another (overdue) edition of Thought Dump Thursday, where I throw out all my mind garbage into the open…

• I’m curious to know how long someone stays engaged while watching Instagram Stories. I know each “slide” only lasts 15 seconds, but how long do you watch before checking out? Personally, I’ll watch the first 30 seconds or so to see if it engages me, but I generally swipe left if I see a huge row of tiny little lines at the top of someone’s story, or I’ll rapidly tap through just to clear it out of my feed. (Sometimes there IS something interesting in all of that.)

UPDATE: I FIGURED OUT HOW TO MUTE STORIES! Salvation has been found.

• Those who tell me that babies are easier than puppies are crazy. Sure, I’m constantly yelling at the dogs to stop roughhousing, but Sam isn’t waking me up four times a night needing to eat or have his diaper changed, plus my boobs aren’t leaking milk everywhere and I’m not feeling like a shell of a human.
• Can someone please explain to me the hype behind Rachel Hollis? This is an honest request because I don’t understand it. People seem to love or hate her, and I can kind of see why from both sides. I’ve read none of her books but judging by the reviews it’s not my cup of tea.
• I wish that on Instagram there was an option for people to send a short message along with Follow requests. I’ve had a few requests lately from fitness-type accounts, (mainly from the US as well) but I have no idea how they came across my profile. Aside from the odd running-related post, my Instagram account isn’t fitness-y at all.
• Is anyone else super skeptical of the new live version of Aladdin? I love Will Smith and all, but I’m not sold on him as the Genie and will be a Robin Williams loyalist until the day I die on this one. I’m also on the fence with the revised Dumbo movie coming out. This may make me sound like I had a horrible childhood, but I promise you, I didn’t! I’m just a Disney purist. I’m all for Toy Story 4 though.
• Using the word “Millennial” makes me cringe, (I hate being lumped into this stereotype of a generation) but anyone who can be considered a Millennial should never plead ignorance to not knowing or realize that their social media posts are open to the public, especially when they get called out for posting rather controversial memes and content.

• A while ago I read a comment on a news story about a dog attack. Without going into details about the story, the comment was along the lines of “that breed was created to fight”, to which someone responded, “Any thing with teeth will bite when provoked.” I agree with the latter comment. I mean, look at Mike Tyson … haha
• Norah has been watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original version with Gene Wilder because I will have it no other way) and I have to laugh at what was socially acceptable back then. For example, Charlie bustin’ his ass with his paper route only to give his hard-earned dough to his bed-ridden grandpa for TOBACCO.
• Why are people spending thousands of dollars on mixed-breed dogs? I’m sure I’ve ranted about this before but a “Porky Poo?” That’s a Yorkie x Poodle x Pomeranian and I’m sure some idiot paid way too much for it. (I will admit it’s kind of cute, even though small dogs aren’t particularly my jam)
• We just recently had a municipal election and I told Kyle if a certain candidate was voted to council that I would run against that candidate in the next election, and that he had to hold me to it. This just in: My future in politics shall be non-existent.
• I am a firm believer in not decorating for Christmas until December 1, HOWEVER, I will admit that hang my Christmas lights up in October. Why? Because usually it starts to get damn cold by the end of the month and there’s no way I want to be standing on a ladder in the freezing cold trying to untangle lights and hang them off my gutters. So – while my lights are now UP, they are staying off until AT LEAST after Remembrance Day, and December if I can help it.
• Kyle and I caught the tail end of the rebooted Will & Grace and I must say, it was awful! While I wasn’t really into the show when it originally aired, the 5 minutes we caught almost just seemed to be a mockery of the show. Can networks please just stop bringing back old series? If Friends ever comes back I’ll riot. I love it to death, but LEAVE IT ALONE!

What are your thoughts on show reboots? Designer dogs? Life? Share in the comments!