The other day I saw a poll asking “what made you stay at mastodon”. Choices were like “my friends are here”, “dunno, I just stayed”, or some specific good aspects of this place. That was rather ironic as my reason which is also most Chinese users’ reason, is not listed. To this English speaking world, it’s beyond imagination for many that people tooting in Mandarin would most likely call themselves “cyber refugee”. Because we had nowhere to go. Because everywhere was censored and we had to flee.
My brain is quite stuck on a public washroom i saw in a small town.
Its so simple but seems to be done so well
It's a free public washroom. No "washroom for customers only"
It has two rooms neither of which is gendered, both of which have changing tables and are wheelchair accessible.
There's a water fountain out front and a bench to sit and wait at.
It has a dual language sign in both english and Hul’qumi’num (the local indigenous language).
I know its just a washroom, but it gives me hope
Gross generalization alert: It's somewhere between very difficult and impossible convincing an adult to change paradigms. The older you are, the more you have emotionally invested in your worldview; it becomes part of your identity. Shifting that is major emotional labor, and a lot of people can't. That's not to say it's never worthwhile trying to get someone to. But before spending your own energy on the attempt, be aware of just what you're asking them to do.
if you've needed a survey piece on the realities of being fat to give somebody in your life, this one is way better than I expected it to be https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/
My mom's many unused prizes from her successful stint as a Tupperware lady in the 1970s led me to develop a personal rule:
"No single use kitchen gadgets." Now it's "No single use kitchen gadgets >$5". I changed it when my dominant hand hurt for a week after zesting six lemons with a steak knife. Zesters rock.
Self-harm. Medical. Likely drug use and/or mental illness.
My disquieting encounter with someone in need: https://blimix.dreamwidth.org/170426.html
A reading list I made of Palestinian speculative fiction and non-fiction (incl. essays, poetry, short and long form fiction) available in English:
https://soniasulaiman.com/readpalestinianspecfic-reading-list/
Today, EFF and other civil society organizations issued a damning report about the prosecution of open source software developer and security expert Ola Bini, whose trial may come to an end next week. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/eff-and-other-civil-society-organizations-issue-report-danger-digital-rights-what
Here's a thread of polls on abortion; everyone of any gender should be able to participate.
Boosts are encouraged and appreciated, to get the polls out and circulating outside of our usual nonbinary bubble.
If you identify as more than one, e.g. nonbinary man, genderfluid cis man/trans woman, vote in as many polls as you feel apply.
Update on the interview: the first one went amazingly well! I didn't get the job.
The second interview (for another company) didn't go well at all, and was ended early.
I'm still applying and interviewing for others. If anyone needs an entry-level software engineer who is particularly good with Rust, please let me know. I'm willing to provide my CV and talk with you.
Appreciates everyone's input in this thread! I can't thank y'all enough for the advice. I might have been lost otherwise. 🙂
food, bread
We have a glut of both flour and milk to use up, so I made soda bread, which I haven't done in a few years. I completely winged it. Eyeballed the flour, butter and salt, and measured but guessed how much milk, vinegar, and baking soda to use because I didn't feel like looking it up. It's pretty tasty, but I should've used a bit less soda. Texture's nice, though.
Cook, singer, like all the dance forms I've ever tried, hate writing bios.