The Art of Life and Randomness

1. You are responsible for your own media experience. 

2. There is such a thing as a healthy level of avoidance towards topics that make you feel unwell or even (in a real-life clinical definition of the term) trigger you - but you are the one to actively take care of what you view.

3. Avoiding does not mean policing others.

4. You have no right to tell artists to censor themselves - you may criticize what others do, you may dislike it, that’s fine - but actively asking for censorship when you could easily unfollow or block a person just makes you look incompetent in your use of the internet.

If you don't want a career, you want to craft, maybe look into the trades. I've started working as an elevator mechanic recently and, holy shit it's changed my life.

Like, seriously. While the work is tiring, it's deeply satisfying too. To me, very similar to getting a pattern in crochet or sewing figured out. It involves using your hands, using your brain in a similar way crafting does, and it can also pay incredibly well (meaning you can use your left over pay from making things in your day job to making things just cause you want to with your evenings and weekends).

With fewer and fewer people going into trades, there's more and more demand, making it easier to get in. My province is currently paying eligible students to become trade workers, so you can see if you have a similar program where you live. (if there are any Quebecers here interested, check out Operation Main D'oeuvre and call your local Emploi Québec office for information).

And for Mentally ill people, I've found construction insanely helpful for managing my conditions. Like, regular exercice helps the management of so many conditions, right? But I've always hated exercise for the sake of exercise. But now my work has me moving every day, making my depression and ADHD way easier to manage. Nothing like beating a recalcitrant rail support into place to help work off the nervous energy creates by anxiety either. I've been struggling with my mental health for well over a decade and I do not have words to describe how good it feels to wake up and have no dread about the work I have to do today. I might be tired and grumpy, but even then, there's no soul crushing dread.

I've also found it empowering and it helps me with my crafting (it teaches precision and gives you a really good eye for measurements, depending on the trade). It gives you financial power as well as power over your space (I've changed all the switches in my apartment for dimmers, easy peasy).

Then later* using all the weird and vastly esoteric craft skills making weird objects to become a set dresser and props builder on a film set and let me tell you-

Super hard work that NEVER got boring even when it was. I was still having a grand time foaming in fake rock walls, or carving styrofoam into sets, or sewing hundreds of huge pillows and I was over the MOON working on leather armor for hours every day.

Truly a dream career, working with my hands, with small teams or solo, using my research skills and absurd amounts of historical interests for WORK I got PAID for!

Try the trades! You get changing tasks, a chance to use your specific skills, and that factual interest you have can be useful! (one day at work I ended up letting the Producer [Happens to be my Dad, so he knew I wasn't being cheeky] know that no Roman soldier was ever using his weapons left handed, so they stopped the shot and corrected one of the Roman guards in the scene. Seriously. Stuff just comes up and people will be amazed)

(*the only reason I don't still do it is that I'm too disabled to work now. I get little bits and pieces to do sometimes, which is fun, but I can't do more than that and I work slow)

1. The article says the biomarkers found ALL the people with CFS and none of the healthy people. It’s a small sample size, but that’s 100% accuracy/sensitivity.

2. They did this by testing how the cells respond to stress. People who had cells that weren’t able to handle the salt (literally-they were given salt) had CFS.

3. They’re also testing how the cells react when given different drugs!!! Basically, they add the drug, and then if the cell handles stress better that means the drug might be of therapeutic use.

Everything you've heard about Season 3 of Good Omens is always true, because if there's one thing we love doing on Good Omens, it's telling everyone the plot years ahead of time.

It's SO good. The Dead Boy Detectives starts in 2024 on Netflix. It's funny and smart and so good.

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/irs-complaint-process-tax-exempt-organizations

3. Nature of violation

Directors/Officers/Persons are using income/assets for personal gain

Organization is engaged in commercial, for-profit business activities

Income/Assets are being used to support illegal or terrorist activities

Organization is involved in a political campaign

Organization is engaged in excessive lobbying activities

Organization refused to disclose or provide a copy of Form 990

Organization failed to report employment, income or excise tax liability properly

Organization failed to file required federal tax returns and forms

Organization engaged in deceptive or improper fundraising practices

i'm 35 years old. i've been IDing as trans or something similar to trans for nearly 20 years. i was probably calling myself FTM while you were playing tag during recess, anon.

i WAS a girl. i IDed as a girl early in my life. i recognized myself as a girl, called myself a girl, lived as a girl, and was a girl. who then IDed as a man. hence, F t M.

spend more time worrying about yourself instead of strangers on the internet, anon.

sorry not sorry if this comes off as needlessly hostile, but i've been getting a lot of shit from a lot of teenage trans kids about the language i use to describe my own goddamn experience, and i'm growing real fuckin weary of it.

i have elder trans friends who call themselves transsexuals and transvestites and trannies. are you going to seriously go to a 60-year-old trans person who survived the reagan years and tell her she's not allowed to use certain language to describe herself because it might offend the delicate sensibilities of some teenager on the internet?

Anon there are more people than you think who were girls who grew up into men, or boys who grew up into women, or girls or boys who grew up to be nonbinary. There is a rather obscure theory that girl and boy are distinct genders from man and woman and while the most common trajectory is that boys grow into men and girls grow into women it's not the rule.

I feel very protective of my former identity BECAUSE there's so little room in the Mainstream Trans Narrative ™️ for allowing gender to change.

I was a girl. Now I'm genderqueer. Maybe later I will find different words for myself.

THERE IS NO QUEER REVIEW BOARD

i'm 35 years old. i've been IDing as trans or something similar to trans for nearly 20 years. i was probably calling myself FTM while you were playing tag during recess, anon.

i WAS a girl. i IDed as a girl early in my life. i recognized myself as a girl, called myself a girl, lived as a girl, and was a girl. who then IDed as a man. hence, F t M.

spend more time worrying about yourself instead of strangers on the internet, anon.

sorry not sorry if this comes off as needlessly hostile, but i've been getting a lot of shit from a lot of teenage trans kids about the language i use to describe my own goddamn experience, and i'm growing real fuckin weary of it.

i have elder trans friends who call themselves transsexuals and transvestites and trannies. are you going to seriously go to a 60-year-old trans person who survived the reagan years and tell her she's not allowed to use certain language to describe herself because it might offend the delicate sensibilities of some teenager on the internet?

Anon there are more people than you think who were girls who grew up into men, or boys who grew up into women, or girls or boys who grew up to be nonbinary. There is a rather obscure theory that girl and boy are distinct genders from man and woman and while the most common trajectory is that boys grow into men and girls grow into women it's not the rule.

I feel very protective of my former identity BECAUSE there's so little room in the Mainstream Trans Narrative ™️ for allowing gender to change.

I was a girl. Now I'm genderqueer. Maybe later I will find different words for myself.

THERE IS NO QUEER REVIEW BOARD

romans: institute a policy that says that conquered peoples are allowed to gain citizenship by military service, but also can’t serve in their home areas (because armed native soldiers + angry locals = revolt), thus requiring everyone who wants to be a citizen to work abroad for years of their lives, creating diversity.