Melodramatic Fool

I wouldn't use an adblocker if ads were just banners on the side funding a website I enjoy using and want to support. Ads pop up invasively and fill my whole screen, I misclick and get warped away to another page just for trying to read an article or get a recipe.

Every app shouldn't be like every other app. Instagram didn't need reels and a shop. TikTok doesn't need a store. Instagram doesn't need to be connected to Facebook. I don't want my apps to do everything, I want a hub for a specific thing, and I'll go to that place accordingly.

I love discord, but so much information gets lost to it. I don't want to join to view things. I want to lurk on forums. I want to be a user who can log in and join a conversation by replying to a thread, even if that conversation was two days ago. I know discord has threads, it's not the same. I don't want to have to verify my account with a phone number. I understand safety and digital concerns, but I'm concerned about information like that with leaks everywhere, even with password managers.

I shouldn't have to pay subscriptions to use services and get locked out of old versions. My old disk copy of photoshop should work. I should want to upgrade eventually because I like photoshop and supporting the business. Adobe is a whole other can of worms here.

Streaming is so splintered across everything. Shows release so fast. Things don't get physical releases. I can't stream a movie I own digitally to friends because the share-screen blocks it, even though I own two digital copies, even though I own a physical copy.

I have an iPod, and I had to install a third party OS to easily put my music on it without having to tangle with iTunes. Spotify bricked hardware I purchased because they were unwillingly to upkeep it. They don't pay their artists. iTunes isn't even iTunes anymore and Apple struggles to upkeep it.

My TV shows me ads on the home screen. My dad lost access to eBook he purchased because they were digital and got revoked by the company distributing them. Hitman 1-3 only runs online most of the time. Flash died and is staying alive because people love it and made efforts to keep it up.

I have to click "not now" and can't click "no". I don't just get emails, they want to text me to purchase things online too. My windows start search bar searches online, not just my computer. Everything is blindly called an app now. Everything wants me to upload to the cloud. These are good tools! But why am I forced to use them! Why am I not allowed to own or control them?

San Francisco has two leather Pride events. Most folks know about Folsom St Fair which takes place at the end of September, but there’s also the Dore Alley St Fair at the end of July. Dore Alley is primarily SF leather folk and primarily gay male-attended. I got the below stress-foam figurines at the 2002 Dore Alley fair. They were handing them out as part of that year’s health response and educational campaign. There was not only a healthy penis character but a syphilis canker. These two have lived in my bathroom cabinet ever since.

but then I realised that same challenge would be infinitely more funny with folks who have atypical or horror OCs

4 year old me: why must we do this

Fantastic old woman in the leopard print coat: "Why yes, my tooth IS real silver! Nobody ever asks me that. Do you like cats?"

4 year old me: why must we do this

Fantastic old woman in the leopard print coat: "Why yes, my tooth IS real silver! Nobody ever asks me that. Do you like cats?"

"The funniest possible outcome of the AI mandate era is about to be HR departments discovering that 'sincerely held religious belief' under Title VII has a much lower bar than they assumed, and Pope Leo handed every Catholic employee a written excuse," wrote Corey Quinn, a software-startup founder in San Francisco, on X.

Employers could wind up in court if they outright dismiss workers who request a faith-based exemption from using AI, said Ashley Herd, a former McKinsey counsel and head of North American HR who now advises managers and employers on workplace issues.

And this recently I was talking to her and mentioned her fear of bees and wasps. And she said: "you know, I really hated them my whole life. But then I met you and you talk about bees and wasps so much, they bring you so much joy. And it changed my view of them completely"

Turns out she just couldn't look at these insects in the same hateful way since meeting me. Not only because they bring happiness to someone important to her (me), but also because I showed her how cool, smart and important wasps and bees are.

So some fanartist drew a “sexy” (read: booby) version of a (cartoon) character who is traditionally very non-sexualised. Fans of the character got mad about it because it’s kind of groundbreaking how that character is written and portrayed and this art totally ignores the entire point of the character. They demanded the art be deleted. In response to that other people said, well what the fanartist did may be distateful but they have every right to draw what they’re into. The two sides fight for days and each starts a harassment campaign and even report their “opponents’” accounts.

So far so typical. But things eventually come to a head and they decide that this will be settled by votes - not through a poll. Through donations to a children’s education charity via each side’s portal. Whoever can get the highest amount of donation wins.

But ultimately I don't think it's helpful. The people who want you to detransition don't want you to exist. A dead trans person accomplishes their goals just fine.

Our goal is to survive. By any means necessary. Some people that will mean detransitioning for safety. It's soul crushing, but one day you'll have the opportunity to be yourself and you have to be here for it. Some people will have to go or remain stealth, severing any ties with their transness for their own safety. Two closets across the hall from each other each with their own challenges. But there is safety in the closet and you can survive in there despite the challenges.

Your only responsibility is to survive.

There are going to be visible trans people. People who can't or won't detransition for their own reasons. Or who have enough safety that they don't need to. Some who won't survive if they detransition and some who are staying visible so that they can be seen. To remind every we are here.

It was right those are good tags. I'm putting them in the post.