People often ask me why I drink so much cola and eat so many chips.
I just want to explain it briefly: I suffer from a very rare condition. My body cannot produce cola and chips on its own, so I have to manually add them to the system.
Would you kind folks, in the next 24 hours or so, tag me on a post you make about the last moment (or much longer?) you had or saw some #TransJoy ? Or #NBJoy ? Or #AgenderJoy ? Now you see why I'm asking? Too many possible sources. #BlackJoy or #DisabledJoy or #DeafJoy or so many others.
If you've a marginalised identity and found joy recently, tell me what it was. Don't be afraid to say it was about discomfiting your oppressor. Speak your joy. Doesn't matter if I share an identity with your oppressor, I don't do defensive. If I've done what you say, I'll apologise and/or accept responsibility for my failures and misdeeds and privilege. If I haven't, then I will share your victory joy, bc any oppressor is too many.
I just want to hear what's bringing you joy in an identity important to you?
Thread RULE: if it isn't about you, don't make it about you. You need to defend yourself for some reason? This is neither time nor place. Joy only. You wanna hurt someone? Not here. This is a braver space than that.
How about some joy that is coming up soon? June 12 will be the 30th anniversary of getting my name changed and I'm really looking forward to celebrating that day. It feels really good to know that I've made it this far!
I recently put rainbow shoelaces in my boots that I got at pride (mainly because my lace broke and they were the only ones I had left, lol). A co-worker complimented me on them and it made me feel really nice. I've been pretty cis-presenting in recent years, mainly because I'm too lazy to goth it up in my old age, but I've been trying to find subtle ways to express my genderqueerness - cool suspenders, patterned socks, etc. I might try braiding and beading my beard on occasion. Just a few touches to make me feel more like myself
Oh, I love that! Genderqueer people are some of my most-fun friends. One changes zir gender every day to something entirely new to zem. It's fantastic. I hope you keep finding things to be joyful about. 😍
I had a girls' afternoon with a bunch of girls and they fully embraced me being openly and vocally trans without ever making me feel the slightest bit out of place for being the only non-cis one.
I count it as #TransJoy because I'm different and I still belong. I *am* the same as the cis girls without pretending I'm *made* the same way. And they were all about letting me feel that way. Differing but not being something abnormal.
I'm struggling to phrase what I mean but hopefully it comes across between the lines.
Oh, that made me cry a little. Yes, it definitely counts, absolutely, thank you, Alicja. That sounds wonderful. I'm super glad you had that experience, and I hope you keep getting it. 😀
Yesterday, in the laundromat, with a pair of #knitting needles.
I have a few largish floor rugs, too large for a home washing machine, not large enough (or valuable enough) to call in a steam cleaner, so I occasionally bring them to a laundromat with big machines.
And while they're washing, I knit. In this case, a gorgeous half-circle lace shawl in a hand-dyed silk & mohair thread.
It is likely a failing in me, but being secretly triumphant when someone walks into furniture because they can't figure out where you fit in their worldview is a joy.
Old, NB, and Bi normally means I am so invisible I can't get the bill even when waving money in the air.
"Distraction Person! Help me! That man stole my purse!"
"Which man?"
"That one near the tree!"
"I see him. Wait here."
:runs off to get ahead of the man, stopping ahead of him:
He walks into a tree, drops the purse, and wanders away confused.
"There you are ma'am, all safe and sound."
"Oh, thank you Distraction Person! But my pronouns are he/him, I just haven't really gotten around to transitioning much yet. So maybe 'sir' next time?"
You laugh quietly at yourself, apologise, and tip a salute to him, before leaping into the air and disappearing into the sky...
@Amgine Now old, NB, and bi, but I've been this invisible since I was a teenager. I literally started wearing an anklet with bells on to announce my presence like a cat. Didn't work. But it was occasionally hilarious, as it made sneaking up on people comically easy. (Ironically, it wasn't clothes or piercings or tattoos that finally made me visible - wearing a mask has been the one thing that makes people notice me)
@Amgine raising their voice seems like a better choice than the guy who was also masked and took his own down because he was struggling to hear me. But yeah, I'm hard to hear under the best of circumstances. The mask definitely keeps me from talking more than absolutely necessary to most strangers.
@Cetraria @Amgine I try to find ways to announce my presence, because I tend to surprise people that "didn't heard me". Even when I take care of tapping soundly my feet when walking or "hem" when comming, or even huming a song.
And don't tell me about the bill in a restaurant…
I'll try to find a positive way to use that power, thanks ! (And if I go as far as put a bell, I'll tell you how it go.)
A friend and I (we're both disabled by chronic illness) were able to visit the Crystal Springs Rhododendren Gardens last week. It's rare when we're both well enough to do something together.
No photos, but it was lovely! So many flowering trees/plants!
That's fantastic! What a great joy to experience. My trans boyfriend and I have the same issues - finding a time when we both are spoonful enough to get to a function can be tricky. But I wouldn't trade him for anyone, and I love when it *does* work out, and we get to do something we both love together. 😀
I'll try in english for those here who want to read it without knowing french language. Beware of my mistakes in grammar en voc (it is okay to correct me. I'll ask for it, it can make me progress)
To understand the following very big text : I am a trans man, non binary (agender) But if I am out as trans with a very few IRL people, none of them know about my Non-binarity. Or they know about nothing (just I am a man "like them" in their point of view) Or they know I am a trans man, nothing more.
My joy start with some negative thoughts: since autumn 2015 about, my "Roommate" and I are isolated from queer association or queer community. For us, it is only here, online and it is far far far from beeing enough. (But it's better than nothing, thabk you all for being here. Really.)
And I think I lost my "transness" I mean, we are still aware to be trans, but, I, I spoke only for me, not for her, I forget often that I am trans I forget I am a man, for people around us. I forget I am not "supposed" to be a little girl when younger I forget that part of my identity It is a very complicated state because, I know, I am aware to be careful to not speak about me as "when I was a little girl" And, in the same time, I no longer feel being trans. I don't know if it means something.
We are very very isolated. We love where we live but : lonely (about queerness)
Oh, my friend. I'm sorry, that sounds really hard. I lived without trans community until October 22, for various reasons. It was so hard and isolating. The change since then...so, so huge.
Sometimes, people like you, on the internet ask us about something about us, about that thing that make us trans, or queer (and same sometimes about disabilities or other stuff like that)
Sometimes I read the comments/answers because I am mentally okay to appreciate others' joy And that reminds me that I am "like them", those who answers to you, or to the people like you that ask that kind of questions
I started my questions about my identity in 2014, middle of the year. April-may 2014. So 12 years ago and a month I have forgot all about this
I started my first coming out May 17th 2014 (yes, the questions-quest was very quick) So exactly 12 years ago I remember each brutal words my mom told me after that, and all the consequences that followed it.
I remember the second coming-out, 25th january 2015, and I remember only a part of the consequences of it.
I started my HRT on February 2015 So 11 years ago and 3 months I remember the first injection. Nothing much more.
I had the privilege to have my top surgery on November 2015 (in a time when only 2 surgeons were safe in France) So 10 years ago and half I remember a part of it (thank to my blog site I wrote at this time)
And I change my name officially in early 2017 I think or 2018 ? (I lost a lot of my memory because of a medication) So about 9 years or 8 years ago. I don't remember much
-- It is hard to realise all the things I did to become what and who I am It is hard to understand how did I do all of this.
I mean, I am afraid, nowadays, to do a little surgery. How could I get a top surgery ? It is a big surgery.
I am so exhausted about administrative stuff. How did I do all the stuff to change my name and gender on paper ?? To do the "normal admin stuff" when my face didn't match with my girly former name ?
I am so exhausted about everything in life (mostly because disabled). How did I do all the identity quests ? How did I survive the second puberty ? (When the first was a nightmare) How did I survive against my "family's" queerphobia TWO TIME (and the last one during the whole 8 years) ? Where did I found the strength and bravery (courage?) to tell my parents I no longer want them in my life ?
I don't know, I don't remember all of this BUT I know this is me. I know I did this I was not alone each time, my "roommate" was here each fucking second of all the steps I made. Sometime I had friends. Many times we were alone. But I know it was my body, my mind, my questions, my identity
I can't realise how much it is hard, it is a unique long journey. I mean, there are a lot of people in the world that had a journey very similar to mine. But. How many got the SAME path ? None How many feel the same ? A LOT I am pretty sure that, everything I am writing right know means something to someone. And will mean something to someone in 2 days or 2 years or 20 years.
Because we all have differents paths that leads here. That's end here for today. And it will ends somewhere else tomorrow, and each day, again and again, and again.
Each journey and/or paths we cross Each choice we made was entirely different for everyone of us, but the same too. Something made you make that choice. But the questions were the same : Who am I ? Do I need this to feel better ? Can I do this ? I choose to make this little step maybe to see how I feel about this.
We are unique. We live an unique way to explore ourselves We live something totally unique from cis people But we are all in the same way : We are transfolks, we live the same kind of journey We all know what it means for most of us We all know that the choice we made make the difference. We all understand what it means for us to choose to do the first step of this path
Even if we are separated by a road, a mountain or an ocean, we were in the same shitty mental health, and we made the same choice to shine.
And, even if we need to shine to stay strong, or to help others, we are our own journey, because it is a part of our identity It is not just the new name we choose that appear on the paper But the whole stuff we fight against. Because we survive
And all the comments, about the little stuff that make someone happy Or the big move in their life Or whatever that bring a little joy for them, it is a way, for me, to read "yesterday I was like you and today I stand here and share my joy" "Today I am where I did not expect to be" "Today I am as strong as I was before. Now I know it"
Today, I have no joyful stuff to share But I know that all of you exist today against a lot of fight, and it means a lot.
When I started my HRT, I couldn't expect having "10 years of HRT" "I have only a month, how will I make it until 2025 ?" It was like... a lot of works, about everything. And when I read all of you, I remember stuffs And I think "wow, I didn't mean to do that, surviving. But I am already after 10 years of HRT"
I can't espress how I feel about this. It is strong, it is pride, it is fear, and... joy ? I think I found a little joy to share, after all.
I think you very much did. Thank you, my friend. That was really meaningful and thought-provoking. I appreciate your sharing so very much. I had no issues reading your English - small mistakes here and there, mainly using too many plural endings (remember, English adjectives do not have to agree with the nouns they modify - so "small balls", or "large trees".)
Honestly, I think if you spent a few months in an English-speaking place? You'd be really fluent in a short span. All the tools are there, it's just the little stuff now. I know that's not realistic, but that's what I see in you as a potential.
Trans Joy # 1 Just a few days ago I spent the afternoon manly wielding a sledge hammer to destroy my deck.
Trans Joy # 2 I took a shower after wielding above sledge hammer and then went on tidying things up, getting dinner ready... And I suddenly realized I never bothered to put on a shirt after my shower. I was doing all that topless. Big hit of gender euphoria discovering my brain fully consider my breast male and not worth covering.
Oh, wow, that must be an AMAZING feeling! That is fabulous. I am so glad you shared that. I love those moments so much. I had one too the other day - I stood unclothed in front of Michael, and the look of lust in his eyes...for me, and my being a woman. I asked him. He said that was what it was.
I have only ever experienced that before once, occasionally, when I was 16. Once occasionally, because it was one set of circumstances, that went on for several months, one night a week. I was an understudy as Magenta at the local Rocky Horror revue show. That's the live people who lip-sync the movie in front of the screen.
My friends there called me nothing but Magentoo (Magenta-two). And they were complimentary. That was nice.
But this, with Michael...his desire for me, naked, nothing but my flesh to say who I am, and he sees nothing but woman. And he lusts for her. For me.
That is an intensely powerful feeling. I am so, so glad he has that for me. It is the largest single affirmation I've ever had.
Oo, my #TransJoy was hanging out with an aroace enby last night, as we lived our best fucking lives and looked beautiful (me) and handsome+gorgeous (them; they rock the “Gender? I’ll have both!” look). They (and others, but especially they) spent like half an hour tearing apart some white men over dinner. It was glorious.
Wonderful! A concert...I was just thinking this afternoon, I need to find a local club that books Jamaican music. I wanna see some live ska, or reggae, or reggaeton, or something. I need to move my body. And I can never stand still when Jamaican music plays.
My joy? Getting to spend as much time as possible with the rather wonderful @Natasha_Jay
We both transitioned later in life, and while I don't regret that as it is those lives that ultimately led to us being together, I would *really* like to be able to claim some of that time back now, please! 💞
Yeah. That's perfectly logical! I hope you two beautiful women get a long and happy time together. You are a gorgeous couple, and your joy is always visible. Thank you!
I finally scheduled what should be my last stage of bottom surgery and am thrilled even though it is six months away. I first had bottom surgery 3.5 years ago and started gender affirming surgeries 5 years ago. So it’s been a long road.
Edit: the specific amazing joy I still get every time I get to stand to pee with my own plumbing. It took 5 surgeries but I can pee in a urinal now. Will be glad when it’s all complete soon!
Oooohhhh, dude...that's AWESOME. Oh, you are a brave man, sir. That is a hell of a lot of surgery and recovery, I hope your new gear brings you HUGE joy every time you take a swinging step. 😀
I have one other friend that I know of who's had the same surgeries. He is the happiest trans guy I've ever known, and he attributes that to his choice to have bottom surgery. He has a great tattoo on his forearm scar, too.
Thanks so much for telling me about that! I hope it goes really well for you, and recovery is as easy as it gets. Good luck!
Most places offer a warranty for their plants, I've never tried to call this in before, even when I really could have. It's just never felt like it's worth the stress and effort before.
Last year, I had a landscaper put in a bunch of plants, almost all of which came through beautifully. A couple crapped out for no clear reason, a couple crapped out due to less-than-ideal care on my part. I don't so much care about the 3 small ones, but one of the "crapped out for no apparent reason" plants was a tree. It's both decently expensive and too big for me to deal with myself, so I contacted the landscaper about the warranty. (Double joy, he's happy to cover it!)
Me: Is a little bloated and walks by a mirror
My brain 🧠: “You’ve got a bit of a belly. Are you pregnant?🤰🏻”
Okay, brain… You win. I really don’t know how to take that. 🤣
It was gender-affirming as hell but not at all what I expected. I mean, we laugh when cis people make those comments, especially when we know they know we’re trans. But for that to come from my own brain was a little bit of a shock. 🤣
(I think those are in the correct order! A slightly more thorough breakdown of the good parts of the past week will be posted when I have gathered my spoons)
More castles and plushies today.
I have an extra 3 dragon plushies, and a lil bunny princess plushie.
First castle of today let me rent a mobility scooter, which was fantastic.
Découvrir à quelle point elle* n'est pas cis, et discuter tranquillement toustes les deux était sympa. On a pu blaguer, se planter, partager. Dans un contexte tout nouveau (famille mais pas cis). C'était chouette et nouveau, voilà nouveau ça décrit bien.
(Elle* avait vaguement abordé le sujet de son identité à son dernier passage, là on a eu le temps de creuser.)
Elle* a aussi dit de la merde. Mais c'est ma tante, je sais qu'elle* parle trop vite, qu'elle choisis pas ses mots, qu'elle* est fait pas gaffe, etc… dans tous les sujets, donc que c'était pas contre moi. Et ça, forcément, je l'ai pour l'instant avec personne d'autre.
(Peut-être ma cousine lesbienne, médecin généraliste qui accompagne quelques personnes trans, et qui est elle-même lesbienne, mais je viens de lui faire mon coming-out alors j'ai pas eu l'occasion de papoter.)
(*tant que je n'ai pas de consignes d'autre pronoms, je garde "elle", c'est pas un truc important pour elle.)
If any of my trans friends or acquaintances have some #TransJoy or #NBJoy or #AgenderJoy thoughts that they’d like to share, this might be a nice place to do so. 😀
just today I had the occasion to wear my suit again, and speak in said suit in front of several hundred, most of them do not know my gender identity, but still I felt really great #NBJoy
Been getting to see my owner meet someone new, who lives near hir, and getting to know this person better. Who has turned out to be pretty great, and sie is already planning to introduce this person to hir other partners and lovers and close friends and subs.
I've been experiencing so much compersion for the both of them. (Compersion, for those who don't know, is the opposite of jealousy or envy. It feels really good.) And I'm so happy my owner has met someone closer to hir in distance, as sie is quite far away from the rest of us, as in, across an ocean and for some of us a continent too.
Also watched a movie online yesterday with my owner and a couple of hir partners who usually attend such things. They also bring me much joy and compersion feelings.
OK, there's literally 40 years of backstory to this, so bear with me.
I'm no longer religious, but I was raised Catholic. When you're baptized Catholic, your parents choose godparents for you, who are supposed to be there for you as alternative parents and guide you in your religious life. I wasn't baptized until I was 10 years old, and when I was baptized, my parents chose the parents of a boy I started playing with when I was like two years old and was one of few boy-friends I had growing up. He and I have stayed connected over the years as we've both moved around. He was the best man at my wedding when I got married 21 years ago. Now, he's an actor and lives in LA.
His parents (my godparents) are still very much practicing Catholics and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. They invited me to the celebration, which included a Catholic mass. I haven't seen them in 20 years (and I transitioned 6 years ago), but they have kept in touch with me (and it was pretty much entirely them doing the keeping in touch), including exchanging messages with me since I came out. They have always been supportive, and they even sent me a care package the week after I had bottom surgery and checked in with me via text all through recovery. They have always been wonderful to me, so despite no longer being Catholic and the celebration happening at the church in the small town I grew up in where everyone knows everyone, I decided to go.
OK, so that's the backstory. At the celebration yesterday, despite having not seen me in 20 years, as soon as I came into the church, my godfather came over to me, gave me a big hug, and used my name to tell me he was so happy to see me. My godmother introduced me to the other people in the church as her goddaughter. All three of their kids, including the one who is my friend who came in from LA for the celebration (but we're all close in age, so we all played together growing up), gave me big hugs, used my name without hesitation or uncertainty and told me how good it was to see me.
It wasn't just acceptance. It was full on embracing and loving who I am and I will never forget it.
I recently fell in love with another woman, the gentlest, most accepting person I know. She recently called me beautiful, and we've said "I love you" to each other. 🥰
1. I recently came out as bi to my grandma and she was accepting and loving. This side of me didn't decide to really present itself until I was in my 40s. It was nice to tell someone I love and felt like I made a claim on this identity for myself.
2. I've been trying to start #SummerOfColour for masc presenting folx to post selfies of them wearing more colourful stuff. Masc clothes are often lacking colour. Alice who has a much bigger audience than me boosted it and expressed her support. It felt nice to be seen and encouraged.
3. I'm currently sitting outside at the camp listening to all the birds. There's a cuckoo who's been calling for an hour now. I don't think I've ever heard one on the wild until today.
Oh, what a lovely set of things to have joy about. My boy Michael would LOVE to see that #SummerOfColour tag take off. He LOVES to wear lots of colours. Aims for a sort of...gay boy look. Rarely passes, but doesn't care, and LOVES his rainbow clothing.
On this day, 8 years ago, a man with heavy doubts, questions, and a desire to get to the bottom of both was, round about this time, on his way west from Hanover on the German A2. That man was me. Music on the radio was the playlist I have on my phone, but one track would become very important: "Sturmfahrt" by Eisbrecher ( youtube.com/watch?v=0FSHgKLuD-… ).
As far as "everybody" knew, I'd go on a long overdue visit with a friend. Only that friend and I knew, we'd have a little experiment about something that I was wrestling with for nearly a year by that point: I knew that I wasn't a man, but what to do about that? So that friend made an offer: she'd give me a make-over, and we'd go out and test the look out in public, and since nobody really would know me, there was really no danger at all of this getting back to anyone I'd ever meet again.
The rest is history. The experiment was a wild success - so much so that I wouldn't be able to go back to "man" after I saw who was lurking within. My life changed in a thousand ways. I was now a trans person - well, I knew about it, and that djinni wouldn't go back into the bottle again. It took a good long while for me to nail down the details to my satisfaction. First things were easy: go towards feminine, because from the masculine start, where else would I go? I certainly overcompensated my presentation to make up for dysphoric portions there, but as I took legal and medical steps, that grew less. I'd land on my fem nonbinary self that I am today, where I am very happy these days.
8 years now. Just 8 years, already 8 years, both has its merits. But neither can express the difference accurately, because it was a whole different life. #trans #transition
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
I've recently started going to a monthly karaoke party with a friend who happens to be the ex fiancé of my abuser (he also abused her). This abuser has tried to push me to be less masculine a LOT and didn't even come close to giving her the attention and care she deserves, very disrespectful person, frequently crossing boundaries, all that.
Now though, after we've kicked him out of our lives years ago and taken over all the places he used to frequent (including our choir, which is also very important but a whole nother rabbit hole), we get to have so much joy.
My friend gets asked if I'm her man quite frequently when we're out together, oddly enough it's usually by men who would like her to introduce them to me if I'm not hers. It's a moment of aromantic friendship joy for me because she gets to have an actual conversation with people and I get to skip trying to find out if someone is interesting to talk to.
There's a lot of trans joy in there too because not only do they reliably see me as a hot man, they see me as a hot man while I'm wearing nail polish and jewelery and dancing with my friend. In specifically the space our shared abuser has taken us both to while pushing me to be less masculine.
Now I get to take his ex fiancé to the rock and roll bar for karaoke, looking hotter than him and giving her a far better time than he did, all while not even trying to date her. We won and we get to do a victory lap every month.
A friend who has ME/CFS managed to catch the last half of my choir’s livestream. She was so happy that more of the choristers were wearing N95 or similar masks, including at centre stage and in smaller ensembles, than the previous few concerts. #DisabledJoy
My Autistic Joy is this ability I have to completely break up with relationships that are not good for me once I identify the pattern - friendships, family, work - and once I realize it, the breakup is complete, I absolutely don’t feel anything about the relationship ever again anymore in my life.
I have had NT people telling me I was performing and that one day those feelings were going to come back and haunt me - the thing is that I simply stop feeling it and it’s very hard for a NT person to understand that. There is nothing else there so that’s why the relationship is so easily severed.
To me that makes it very easy to get out of potentially toxic situations. And never talk to those people ever again without an ounce of guilt.
And the certainty that the people I keep in my life are here because I want them to be and I truly love them ❤️
I went bowling with our Older LGBT+ group in a working-class town in the UK's midlands.
The lane next to us had 5 men, 30s, wearing work coveralls. And drinking beer.
I worried.
They started chatting with us, complimented our trans women bowlers (our best bowlers) who don't pass for cis-female. They used the correct pronouns when saying, "I've seen her bowl before," and "She's a really good bowler"!
Those five cis-men gently made space for us queers. 🩷🤍🩵
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I got home after my first day outside in a dress, a lovely night watching the Survivor finale with friends. I caught my reflection in a building mirror, sweaty, flushed, and windswept but it looked femme and I liked it 🥰
Sometimes my anxiety fixates on the ways my expression of feminity conflicts with the compromises of bike life, and it felt like a refutation of those feelings.
I'm sorry for your pain, and I admire the way you use it to inspire joy.
I'm at a festival in Scotland, and the sun has finally come out. There's a stretch of the river where we go swimming, and about 50% of people swim nude. Today a trans woman was comfortable enough to swim topless in front of strangers.
A simple nature joy: There are two "wild" Eurasian doves that hang around my yard. They eat some of the chicken grain treats (fancy scratch mix) I throw out. This morning, they were waiting for me to let the chickens out and to share the treats. And they didn't fly away.
I hate having to spam this, but I am at my wit's end, and I am STARVING for not having eaten anything since yesterday. Some help to purchase food would be grand right about now.
The clock is still ticking!!! Still $1,000 short of what's needed RIGHT NOW!! Rent and bills due RIGHT NOW!! Eviction imminent later this morning!! Please help!! Need a miracle now!!
#MutualAid URGENT EMERGENCY!! DOWN TO THE WIRE!! EVICTION IS IMMINENT!!
Still $200/$1,200!! Still $1,000 short of what is needed RIGHT NOW. Rent due IN LESS THAN AN HOUR!!!. I am royally FUCKED if I cannot pay my rent by Noon. Please, for heaven's sake, help me with this if you can!!!
I cannot under emphasize the trouble I will face later this morning if I cannot face my landlady with the funds to pay my rent; or I have to do without some critical services because they were cut off due to lack of payment.
Sorry again for the begging and spamming. I'm simply up against it HARD this morning.
OK...was able to buy some extra time for today ONLY by paying all that I had. I STILL NEED $1,000 RIGHT NOW!! EVICTION HAS ONLY BEEN STAYED FOR A FEW HOURS!!! 10 moots X $100 would do the trick!! Please, help me finally finish this!!
Those issues using Stripe with Ko-fi are back!! ARRRRGHH!! Please use either the PayPal or Venmo options if you use Ko-fi; or go straight to the direct Stripe option to donate via debit/credit card:
Hiyo! I’m Salem, a disabled queer black artist & commissions and #mutualaid are my only sources of income. Currently trying to keep my phone on so I can get my SNAP recertified this week. Everything else goes to groceries and other necessities!
Monthly Goal: 30/600 Past Phone bill: 30/$160 || May Phone Bill: 0/160
So, today Katy and I had to go to the jewlery store for her rings' semi-annual warranty inspection. They've changed to a new electronic system, and they needed me to show them an email that they had sent (which was somehow different from the email they'd sent to Katy). Problem is, I'd already archived it, so it wasn't on the mail server any more and I had to SSH into my machine at home to read it in gnus... in a terminal... on my phone... that's a tiny font so it can accommodate an 80 column display.
The lady at the counter, who'd understandably never encountered this setup before, proceeded to pinch to zoom, which did succeed in increasing the font size, but left the text she needed to read off the bottom of the screen. She then got very frustrated trying to scroll it... because terminals don't work like that.
Yes, my setup is janky and weird, but it works for me, okay?
Pretty sure my ISP's been rate limiting specpfic traffic again. Connecting to a VPN shouldn't increase my connection speed. I suppose it could be a weird routing issue, but this is far too regular an occurrence.
This has been my experience with Northeastern University (Boston campus), and I never considered they could be throttling traffic, it always looked more like dropped packets, and so I assumed it was a problem with their Wi-Fi/lack in fiber, combined with how UDP is a bit more robust to dropped packets
I'll see if I still have some data on that after a nap
You have just gotten back to your dorm after three back-to-back classes, but your day is not over yet. You still have a bunch of work to get done, so you fire up your laptop and try to sign into Canvas. But something is wrong.
@almonds off topic, but I am reminded of the time I failed to get the campus printing software working on my Linux laptop. I gave in to using cups to print to the printers visible on the WiFi. When I talked to the university IT department about how I could pay for the pages, they laughed and said I should enjoy my free printing!
Just woke up: there's no difference (p = 0.45, n = 10) between eduroam and NU's own Wi-Fi, but using a WireGuard VPN is about 20% faster (160 vs 130 Mbps)
How to get prescribed ADHD medication in the Netherlands, a guide based on real world success:
1) spend over a year repeatedly trying to tell the GP that it’s not going well and you need help. This will not cost you money, only your precious finite time on this earth. It helps if you have a husband to drag you to the doctor when you’re at your lowest and argue with them
2) finally get escalated to a psychologist who takes a few months to be sure there’s definitely something wrong. She will recommend the GP to prescribe ADHD medication
3) Your prescription mysteriously disappears into the system. After several attempts to follow up that take months, and several confused phone calls from your psychologist to the GP, it turns out the GP refuses to authorize it because *shrug* reasons. Maybe if a psychiatrist also signs off on it?
4) You attempt to get an appointment with a psychiatrist. Every psychiatrist in the Netherlands is booked until 2034.
5) Finally, after a dozen rounds of pleading and nagging, you get a mysterious phone call from an unknown number. They give you an address and tell you to be there at 7 in the evening.
6) You find yourself at the door of a historic art deco mansion in the most exclusive district of Amsterdam. There is absolutely no indication that this is a medical practice. You ring the doorbell. Nothing happens. You wait nervously, and try again.
7) The door creaks open. An elderly man wearing crocs stands before you. He silently bids you follow him up a winding staircase to a parlor filled with a thousand thick and aging books in every tongue of the earth and perhaps a few also of the angels. They concern prophecy, and music, and poetry, and the apocalypse.
8) In a thin whisper of a voice barely to be heard, he asks your name, and where you were born. He slowly, very slowly, so slowly that you think you have died and this is purgatory, types this into a computer. It is in his lap because his desk is covered with strange devices beyond identification.
9) He tells you the prescription will be ready for pickup tomorrow.
amused by how many people are replying/quoting with, like "yeah it's the same here, it sucks" without commenting on the visitation from the angel attempting mortal guise
Oof that sounds rough 🙁 most of my (Dutch) friends have similar stories of various bureaucratic reasons to block getting help faster. I hope this is behind you!
yes it really helps to turn up to your GP with two diagnostic labels in hand (gained in the UK at some emotional cost) and all you need is the rubber stamp from the local system. (It would have been nine months to wait for the specialist clinic, but I got a cancellation appointment after four…)
Point 4): either dutch people don't want to become psychiatrists, or there is something rotten in the tulip fields. Also, for a country (that used to be) so liberal on drug usage, this is borderline kafkaian
Ah yes, I have the Belgian variation where the neurologist (I went directly to a specialist) believes this is just anxiety, prescribes the lowest dosage possible then immediately gives up medication when it doesn't work and sends their patient to an ADHD-specialized psychologist to just accept the condition (to be fair, acceptance is part of reducing ADHD-fueled anxiety).
In Germany my mom got my diagnosis as a child and somehow I only needed to go to a neuro psychiatrist, fill out a form, get an EKG and then I got my meds. I have no idea how hard or easy it is to get that if you haven't been diagnosed yet.
Now my biggest hurdle is to get a new prescription because i have to go in person and the doctor is only there at very inconvenient times. And because it is classified as a narcotic I HAVE TO do it myself.
I have a different story and I'm stuck elsewhere in the timeline. 1) Go to GP, GP refers you to the own practice's mental health support employee (GGZ ondersteuner) 2) Filling in an online survey 3) Said support employee saying "you only have a score of 5 out of 6 for ADHD on the preliminary screening, I don't see a point in referring you for a formal diagnosis, you'll wait for ages and I don't believe in medication anyway"
that’s fantastic news, I know exactly how much this must mean to you having been through my own ADHD diagnosis and then prescribing battles with the NHS in the UK about 15 years ago.
This entry was edited (Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 9:24 PM)
That's very similar to how it works in Australia. Except instead of the prescription apparently getting lost in the system because the doctor refuses to prescribe, the doctor can't find you in the database because you've never been prescribed anything that requires government approval, so they prescribe you two valium for which you don't need approval, but gets your name in the system because it's dangerous, so then they can prescribe what you're actually approved for.
As beautifully portrayed as it is, this seems somehow unrealistic. An encounter with the Dutch medical system that doesn't feature being fobbed off with paracetomol?
I was lucky enough to be able to make use of my italian prescription here and convince my GP to prescribe me the same medication in the netherlands. however, switching to lisdex from medikinet was months and months of constant appointments which included a lot of pointless ones where we achieved nothing, some that led to getting my dose of medikinet halved, some that led to getting proposed to switch to xr+ir, and some that led to getting reverted to ir multiple times a day. the first time I tried to convince them to switch me over I had given up before I got anywhere, the second time I had enough stashed medication to be able to make it. I guess the moral of the story is that persistence is the only way to achieve anything medically in this country and that the only accepted currency is time x_x
I managed to get a psychologist's diagnosis of ADHD in Germany in a walk-in session, no appointment, completely by luck and partly because the online form he usually gives as a preliminary is in German, and I don't down German very well, so he did the assessment then and there in English. That was in 2022.
Since then I've made a few attempts at getting a referral from my GP to bring to a prescribing psychiatrist, but I have yet to find one who is taking new patients and the German medic system is confusing to me.
Also, I'm anyway a bit nervous about taking those medications because I've a history of addiction issues with meth/amphetamine...
@confluency This sounds very close to my experience. Especially the 'all psychiatrists booked up' thing. Even with a pre-existing diagnosis, it took 3 full years to get into the queue for getting a medication prescription.
Does ADHD centraal still exist? It was a private facility that did a kind of 1 stop diagnosis and medication shop, but was seen as purely money making and medically dodgy. I never went but did recommend to parents of already diagnosed kids a few times. 1/2
Fun fact, once you are diagnosed with autism or ADHD in the Netherlands, you need doctor to approve your driving license when it comes up for renewal. Was big shock. Much pissed.
DontSurveil.Me has put together a great explainer on Bill C-22.
Canadians need to pay attention.
Expanding surveillance powers, retaining metadata, and weakening encryption all threaten privacy, free expression, civil liberties, and digital rights.
If we care about privacy, digital rights, and a free society, now is the time to speak up, contact MPs, and push back before this becomes law.
Bill C-22 would force every messaging app in Canada to build a backdoor — and track all your activity for one year. Apple says no. Signal says they'll leave.
EDIT: I agree with the majority! I'll use this to attempt to convince the powers that be to improve the situation in some way, as best I can. Thanks folks!
Does autoplay of a muted video in the background of a website bother you? Like as a decorative/design element behind the content.
If yes, let me know the effect it has and how it makes you feel (in the moment, about the website, about the company, etc)
Answer honestly (idk why you wouldn't but I feel compelled to say that)
boost so I can get more data pls
Yes, autoplay bothers me in this case (95%, 553 votes)
No, I don't notice in this case (4%, 27 votes)
580 voters. Poll end: Friday, May 22, 2026, 8:21 PM
This entry was edited (Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 6:13 PM)
@dyani 🫠 My server doesn't support polls so I can't vote, but I'll comment. I use older devices. The web is already so bloated that it frequently brings my browser to its knees. Video is usually unnecessarily burdensome on older hardware when it's already juggling so many other things.
I don't mind it being there, but let me decide if I want to play it.
@brooke Right, when I started my own reply, I was thinking of bandwidth as well as distraction. Then I myself got distracted researching just where motion detection starts (in the retinas, like I'd thought) and forgot about the bandwidth issue. (And also ran out of characters.)
Anyway, yes, it wastes bandwidth in addition to the distraction! Thank you for reminding me.
My pet peeve regarding website video seems to be the little box of a video that you never started nor want to pay attention to, that follows you as you scroll down the article.
If I had started the video and it decides to follow me around it's not a problem.
----
That said (reading some comments made me understand the original idea better) animations are generally distracting and having like a short video clip just for the sake of making the site feel "alive" is not a good idea imo.
This entry was edited (Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 4:06 PM)
it's a very quick shorthand to communicate "I don't care about your internet bandwidth or your attention self-moderation. It's about what *I*, John Q. Website, want."
It's the easiest thing in the world to wait for a cue that the user specifically wants the video to play, and the website *knows* they don't have that consent, or they wouldn't have muted it. They know. So it's about seeing how far they can push boundary they're aware of.
I frequently get visual migraines... when things move around on a website I am incredibly annoyed and more often than not as soon as something moves I close the site.
For me it's an accessibility thing, and it makes me feel like the company doesn't give a shit about people tbh.
why waste my bandwidth for something meant to be a background piece, also just quite a potential to cause motion sickness or losing track of words depending on visibility of it.
It's like getting car sick and very distracted from what you came to do. The worst offenders are video loops under forms people have to fill out, this includes login screens.
I find it distracting and I feel rushed. I think good sleek and simple design gives a far better impression, and if there are videos I can then choose to watch, I am more likely to linger
It doesn't really bother me personally if it's purely aesthetic (attention-grabbing popover bullshit is another story), but if I were going to do it I would be aware of the fact that it *would* bother plenty of folks. So if I were doing it for some reason I'd at least gate it behind a check for whether the user has the prefers reduced motion setting in their browser.
I find it distracting, like with anything else that is at the edge of my perception trying to get my attention and that I haven’t activated, when I’m trying to do something.
In the case of video it also kind of shows a disregard for my situation. I could be under a phone data plan that I didn’t want to waste on random video streams. @sindarina
adhd-hardmode unlocked. But maybe the website in question wants to distract you from looking too closely at the provided information and just "click yes already!" In that case: good design choice.
If I am okay health wise, and at my computer, I am annoyed, since I have video play turned off in my browser.
If I have a migraine, it may mean I have to go lay down in a dark room instead of at least reading.
On my ipad is worse. I often use my ipad in the dining room, and I don' know what that video is, and don't want other people to see it thinking I approve of it. (Sorry too many in game ads have been XXX rated lately).
I have often left sites if they have a video, especially if the video pops out and follows the mouse around the screen.
Unless I am on a physical therapy site, or YouTube, I am almost never looking for video.
Ten degrees of vision, hearing loss, and migraines do that to you.
it would mostly make me feel like I wasn't expected to simply view/browse the site, but load something more bandwidth-intensive like a web application. Certain webapp sign in pages do this.
I usually have all sound off anyway unless I'm actively listening to something, so I probably wouldn't notice. But when I do (because I'm working with the headphones on, for instance; my work involves music typesetting and arranging) I'm NOOOOOOO!!! As bad as having background music in a talk video.
Oh, and autoplay *always* bothers me. Even when I do want to hear the sound I want to explictly turn it on myself. And things on a website shouldn't move unless I made them move (for instance by pressing a button). Gratuitously moving objects are distracting and annoying.
Muted is better than not muted (looking at you, news websites) but unless you're a video site and I went looking, autoplay is still bad manners.
I find it annoying at best, distracting and frustrating at worst, like the site owner feels they have to rattle something shiny at me instead of allowing me to focus on the text block I came for.
If I can't close the autoplay video or make it stop, I have been known to either leave and find the information elsewhere, or locate its DOM element and block it programatically.
it's annoying because it's distracting. I find it to be disrespectful to how my attention works. It being deliberate makes this worse: the actual content I'm there for, is secondary to the engagement the website is trying to have with me... which isn't anywhere close to the engagement I'm trying to have with the website.
Yes, it bothers me because there's *motion happening*. Our eyes are literally hardwired to detect motion (like, there are cells *in the retina* that detect motion before the impulses even make it to the brain!). That makes motion very difficult to ignore.
If I wanted to watch a video, I'd have clicked on something that looked like a play button. If I didn't do that, I don't want the site playing video. It pisses me off, and if I can't make it stop, I'll just leave.
i dont want anything to autoplay muted or not UNLESS its a video watching site and I explicitlyclicked the video. I also do not i want the video to follow me as a I scroll.
If the article is text based, keep the video optional
it's annoying to restart then video when you actually want to watch it. Furthermore like others said it's a waste of bandwidth (especially on mobile) and hardware resources.
I'm still of the mentality that Shockwave Flash videos and their modern equivalents (like this example) are to be used exclusively for either trolling friends or as punishment
The message I get is that the owners probably intentionally use two spaces to park their BMW at Trader Joe's, and honestly think that people will be sympathetic to their plight.
It's distracting, it pulls my eye towards it instead of what I'm actually looking for, so I find it irritating. If there's a way to pause it I always do, otherwise I try and scroll further down so I don't have to see it.
frustrated, annoyed, Yet Another Thing that I want to turn off but cannot.
I would avoid the website unless forced.
The only exception that I've come across are well designed pixel gif loops in a background, where the movement is limited to usually a corner of the screen, maybe some things like a shooting star rarely, and not distracting, just fun. Doesn't have to be pixel art specifically but that's what it mostly is.
But specifically muted videos have never been a good experience. I also get frustrated that I have been loading /that/ on my machine. Sometimes it lags the entire webpage, too.
i usually immediately close the page. Elements like that are viscerally uncomfortable to me - they're intensely distracting; they make it fucking impossible to concentrate on the actual content; and I feel great resentment towards the company and the designer for having inflicted this on me when I was just trying to access information that I, presumably, needed.
It's a huge insult to anyone with adhd or on a low-bandwidth connection.
it's super distracting and annoying. I find it overwhelming in a sensory way and kinda invasive in the attention grabbing way, while it also usually doesn't actually provide any useful information. Just making it harder to get to the info I actually want to see.
It consumes bandwidth, often enough to make the page load painfully slowly
If I am on a metered connection (e.g. mobile data), it consumes my data to load something I don't want
If I cannot make it stop, it feels like a violation of consent
For all these reasons, I am immediately frustrated if I encounter autoplaying video of any kind, and most often close the page and don't attempt to view it again
Such autoplay videos makes it basically impossible for me to use the website. Best case scenario (from website point of view) is that I get very annoyed and find a way to stop the video. Worst case (common) is that I just close the page right away.
My browser is set up to tell the website that I don’t like/deal well with motion (via the CSS reduce motion property) so there is no excuse for that kind of behaviour.
PS I consider it a severe accessibility problem with such videos.
Depends on the context, of course — I don't want any autoplayed animation on a page when I'm trying to read — but in most cases, yes, I find it annoying.
When I visit a "regular" website (not a video platform), I expect the front page to be mostly text and still images, possibly orienting me towards videos on other pages. I expect to have some text to read. Having a video automatically play in the background, even muted, is very distracting and is likely to make me lose focus and therefore lose interest in the website.
I actively despise anything animating in websites. Marquee may be the maximum I'll tolerate but preferably not. I will edit your DOM to remove whatever animating crap you add. If it's too much I'll declare your website toxic waste and never try to visit it, and recommend others to not use it either.
Hi @dyani, it's so distracting and it makes the page loading too slow. I have often trouble to read afterward. Concerning my feeling about the company, it looks like as a company with an aggressive marketing approach
autoplay of any kind feels massively intrusive. It'll monopolize my attention, interrupt what I'm thinking, and won't allow me to focus on much else until I've found a way to turn it off. But then I'm pretty sure that I'm autistic.
This entry was edited (Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 7:40 PM)
Mostly annoyed by it slowing down the browser or sucking bandwidth, but it's not conducive to reading, either. It's okay as a preview when the video is the point of the page, though.
Having an autism spectrum disorder, I find it quite hard to filter out motion, especially at the edges of my vision, so it just distracts from the actual content of the website I presumably want to look at.
i have all autoplaying videos blocked, audio or not (except for a whitelist), so i cant really comment. alzhough i suppose zat answer should tell you all you need to know about my feelings on zhe matter
Unexpected autoplay is like a jumpscare. Then I'm scrambling to stop it or close it somehow, unless for some reason I decide to watch it, in which case I'm struggling to figure out how to go back to the beginning because I'll have missed a few seconds trying to understand what's happening.
yes it bothers me because (as far as I know) even small movement like a video playing will negate lots of power saving features. So it will keep the CPU and or GPU busy and eat battery slash power while it's visible. Plus accessibility concerns
I usually make freakishly barren web pages for print-friendliness. My worst pages look like income tax forms, but they load fast and run great
Oh! Also, since video is Big, a background video will either waste your server's bandwidth, or 🧵
It's distracting and makes me think that the designer didn't think about accessibility. I guess there might be some cases where that's not true but in most cases I would assume flashy was more important than quality content.
A cynical attempt to appear more creative and unique than it really is. A site that puts user experience and efficiency as less important corporate gloss and algorthmic performance. Untrustworthy.
echoing the many sentiments here of feeling distracted, wasting bandwidth, wasting system resources. i generally wish the web was more plaintext overall; so much can be conveyed with so little, and things begin to feel like they’ve lost direction quickly. a lack of conviction. and all of that adds up to feeling disrespected, and like i’ve entered a space where the owners, the people responsible have no real vision for what the space should be.
Absolutely not bothered unless it is an advertisement. Also, sometimes I’m okay with audio at the same time as I scroll. It just needs to smoothly mute/unmute as one video is out of frame and another is in.
In a perfect world, the autoplay will have subtitles so I can read some content without having to unmute.
Anyone complaining should just be directed to tuning their browser settings to ignore autoplay.
I don't like it b/c it's distracting. And it slows down my browser and eats cpu time, which affects battery life. Also, it consumes a chunk of bandwidth which is an issue in some situations.
It's distracting, and it makes me think that the website's owner cares more about making the site look like it has a high production value than about efficient communication. Unless the website has a specifically artistic purpose (e.g. it's an in-browser video game or a humor site or something), I generally am accessing the site with a specific purpose in mind, e.g. looking for particular pieces of information or filling out a form. A background video does nothing but distract me and possibly slow the page's load time.
I feel similarly about that thing some news sites started doing a few years ago, where scrolling down on a long form news article plays an animation rather than actually scrolling. It feels like a gimmick that just disorients me and makes it hard to "find my place" again if I have to pause reading and come back to it later. (Here's an example of what I mean from The Onion: theonion.com/the-best-books-to…)
even muted, this uses a ton of extra system resources, slows the whole browser down, and generally disrupts the operation of the site. autoplay on the web, in any form, is inextricably linked to a history of abuse, scams, spam, ads, and other toxic content. no responsible site creator would want their work linked to this, and it smacks of corpo scum who think they know better than the user.
playing a video uses my device's resources and bandwidth, and causes a deliberate distraction to direct my attention. these are things that should NEVER be done without explicit consent. ever.
It can be a migraine trigger for me, or trigger a very specific medical effect that I can guarantee almost nobody else would have. But the migraine trigger might be more widespread.
I honestly hate it because if I visit a website for written content, I don't want to be bothered by a video (muted or otherwise). I use extensions to block this garbage...It tells me a lot about sites that choose to try to evade my blocking software.
That they are SEOmaxxing peeps who don't care about my desires, CPU, or bandwidth. They want to grow into a massive digital presence to snuff out any competition. Its nasty behavior.
I regard it the same way I regard in-game ads that don't default to muted. More often than not, I'm in a public place when I'm scrolling (or gaming) on my phone, and I don't like disturbing those around me with sudden, unexpected blasts of noise, especially in the restroom.
Also, for the record (and PLEASE pass this along to others in charge of such things), I consider videos/ads that cannot actually be muted as a hate crime.
So, when I notice a video is playing, muted, I have to do two things if its some content I want to see - I have to unmute AND rewind. I see this so often on news sites where I am more often than not visiting specifically to see the video.
If its just some design element, then it is entirely a distraction from actually reading the content. Especially if its playing behind the content in some way to make the content difficult to read.
having spent months at a time in countries where data is incredibly expensive and also very meagre it makes me want to: scream, pull hair, break bones, vomit, find the perpetrator and punish them slowly, painfully and with disgusting infections. It shows a total disrespect for anyone who doesn't have privilege, which shows that the designer is a nasty turd. YMMV
additionally my ADHD and autism will be screaming so loudly in my head because of the distraction, that I will never remember why I am looking at the website
if something on a page moves without me initiating it, then I'm highly likely to just close that window and never come back. I will probably never think highly of that organisation again.
Anyone not respecting a user's "prefers-reduced-motion" preferences when present these days is making a deliberate choice.
it makes me completely unable to focus on the website. I am forced to deal with the video (either by watching it, or far more often trying to close it as soon as possible) before I can perceive any of the website's content
it bothers me when I'm using an #epaper screen, because that doesn't handle videos well. (But then, it also doesn't handle certain websites with too much in-between grey)
Not quite what you asked but on a related note, I am bothered by muted autoplaying of regular videos, regardless of which screen I'm on, because of the environmental impact (transmitting so much data, etc.). But if it's just a short loop as a decorative element and I'm on a regular screen I think that'd be fine/fun
I find motion very distracting and annoying. I wouldn’t be able to use that page because I would try to pause the video, realize it can’t be paused, and not be able to focus on the content at all
my parents always have the TV on in their house, and even if it was decidedly something I don't care about, it kept me distracted — and it hasn't changed in the 25 years since moving out of my parents' house
anyway, i think i just got distracted thinking about why get distracted by moving images, so you got a TMI.
yes, for two reasons: if I don't want to watch it, it is distracting; but if I want to watch it, in many cases I would want to unmute it, at least to make sure if I'm not missing something from the audio, so I need to do two actions (unmute and play again) instead of just playing the video.
Dislike it entirely - website should focus on reading of content and maybe static pictures, nothing should move unless I request it to do so. I definitely think a lot less of any company that does this -- I'll also include animated and moving backgrounds in this judgement.
This entry was edited (Wednesday, May 20, 2026, 7:26 AM)
Outside of the needless use of my resources, I also get easily distracted by movement, so having a site always "singing and dancing" in the corner of my eye would bug me.
any background movement is distracting to me (the battery/power drain arguments do not hold much water because JavaScript on such websites usually eats more CPU than hardware-accelerated video codecs)
@brooke I am dyslexic and find moving continually images behind or around content I am trying to read make it very hard to keep my etes focussed on the text.
the visual distraction is a big part of it; also gives the website more of a flavor that spells “the content you came to read isn’t valuable to us”; and then there’s the technical aspect where video might play muted most times but whether it actually is muted gets influenced by so many factors out of the user’s control - it’s gonna blare some time.
yes, I don't like things drawing my attention to them unnecessarily and movement is a pretty effective way of doing that. It would be a constant source of (not particularly severe but still noticable) stress and make me want to avoid looking at the website.
I can't tell for sure because I don't remember ever visiting a web page doing that, but I think it would annoy me, just like muted autoplaying sidebar videos do.
If pressed to add animations to your UI elements, you can help the people who disable autoplay by making it so your website is still readable even without animations.
I love how the weather went from needing to wear a winter jacket over top of a sweater to needing to hook up the air conditioner in a span of like two days.
@datenwolf @ZenHeathen Not sure if you say it for Palantir but these objects are not inherently evil in the silmarillion and are in fact created by an elf
Exactly. Every shiny new technology gets sold as magic before people understand the risks. Radiation then, AI and other tools now. Innovation is great, but guardrails matter.
the thing is, radiations wasn't that poorly understood. factory bosses worked out that it was harmful when lots of their workers who were exposed to it a lot kept coming down sick with the same symptoms. they just surpressed the information for as long as they could, because people finding out would be bad for business
just like how fossil fuel companies were the first to discover global warming and made sure to proactively spread misinformation about it
Did we learn our lesson? I did research on dental radiography (a.o. panoramic images) There is still an enormous misuse of radiation in medical and dental practice. It’s an easy way of making money and therefore a triggering factor. The radiology rate should be $ZERO and included in diagnostics.
@JohanDiederik Panoramic dental x-rays are equal to about 4-hours in an aircraft at 30,000’. Radiation treatment after a mastectomy is a rust colored burn that goes through the ribs to the edge of the lungs.
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
I always remember the old copies of "science" magazines from early 1900, with ads selling radioactive elements to eat and feel "healthier"! 😱 Still isn't enough, as I heard some years ago of people drinking colloidal gold and silver, for a presumed "healthy" effect 😱
Modern cars are computers on wheels that send home nonstop telemetry about you. In this post I remove my 2024 RAV4 Hybrid's modem and GPS to prevent that :)
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
@bebna I have seen that and like that a lot. From the new cars my favorite is a BMW neue Klasse 3er. I could see getting that and replacing the antenna connectors just with resistors.
I am not sure if I would want an old cat just with electric motors.
Definitely do not want a modern car, irrespective of driveline because of data collection issues.
I'm using a PinePhone as I do not like the data collection issues, walled gardens and other issues such as data sovereignty associated with Apple or Google's offerings so why on earth would I want a car with CarPlay or Android Auto in it?
Or the car manufacturers own version of such things?
Or closed source engine and brake management systems? Or always on internet access?
This entry was edited (Friday, May 15, 2026, 1:23 PM)
@the_wub I don't want the data collecting, the always on, the constant monitoring so in case of an accidents the manufacturer can proof is not his fault.
I would prefer open source on the software but especially when it comes to stuff like engine management that's not very high on my list.
I like the accident detection and alarming but if buy that third party and just put that on the car.
Also, I usually gets cars when they are at least 5 to 8 years old and take them to third party mechanics, so I don't have a warranty and I don't get software updates from the dealer and from a software point of view my car is basically unsupported at that point anyway. How much functionality are they going to change anyway? They probably aren't going to keep improving anything important over a decade, unless they can charge me for it like drift mode or something.
Sure, security updates are great, but so is running a car offline so that it can't be remotely unlocked or started by a hacker who gets into the company's cloud infrastructure, or just pays an employee like happens now with mobile company sim jacking.
The new Behind the Bastards podcast on "AI" as an historical bastard is 👍👍👍
They mention that they go after art & writing because they're the 2 most common things people share on the internet, and thus the best for convincing regular people that it's "doing something"...
Very interesting analysis of the hype & marketing of shatbots [sic], worth the listen!
"Just remember that you're all illegals and I'll report every damn last one of you!... and the fact that I've been breaking labour laws by hiring you while I'm at it!" #monsterdon
I love that this guy's evidence for this theory is "some guy told me this story." This is of course #monsterdon so I know he's actually right, but you can't blame anyone for not buying his story.
I've been down a YouTube rabbit hole working on improving my art. I've always been somewhat decent at replicating something I can see, but when I have to draw something from my head, the poroprtions always looked kind of off.
I've watched a bunch of videos by a couple different artists, but I've found this one who has a whole channel teaching in a way that seems to work for me. My anatomy drawing (which has always been my Achilles' heel) has rather vastly improved in a remarkably short period of time, and I've been happy with the progress... at least until I compare them against the artist's examples. Hers are way better.
Then I have to remind myself: I've been at this a few days. Of course the professional artist is going to do a better job than me.
My lousy depth perception strikes again. I was putting my glasses in the ultrasonic cleaner and was trying to fish a cat hair I saw on the surface of the water. It wasn't in the water, it was stuck to the power cord that was hanging in front of it, about 15-ish cm away.
My doctor has a fancy new on-line booking system. Trying to set myself up an appointment to follow up on some blood work, but the system tells me he's booked solid for the next two months and won't even let me look at the schedule beyond that.
I guess I'll have to call the office to book the old-fashioned way.
Well, the first thing I notice about this movie is that I used to work for the company that did the closed captioning. I'd recognize their style guide anywhere. 🙃 #monsterdon
@R.L. Dane 🍵 The immediate telltale sign is that every time there's a change of speaker, the caption group starts with hyphen, space. Whenever I see that, I find that every other rule from their style guide is followed as well. You usually don't see that.
I think they were looking for a human. I'm not sure why they decided that searching the woods at night was the best plan to find their proposed target.
The Wolf: Jimmie, lead the way. Boys, get to work. Vincent: A please would be nice. The Wolf: Come again? Vincent: I said a please would be nice. The Wolf: Get it straight buster - I'm not here to say please, I'm here to tell you what to do and if self-preservation is an instinct you possess you'd better do it and do it quick. Jules: No, Mr. Wolf, it ain't like that, your help is definitely appreciated.
TIL that ed(1) requires me to escape (, ), {, }, <, and > in a regex to not use them as literal characters. This is the exact opposite of what I would expect.
Yes, like I said, in basic regular expressions those characters only have special meaning when escaped. In extended regular expressions, they have special meaning unless escaped.
Both types of regular expressions are well documented in the latest Single UNIX Specification from The Open Group. Older versions of SUS are available from Debian contrib (or non-free?).
This is your regular reminder that the large tech companies are pretty evil. Also anyone wearing those glasses needs to have a good think about their lives and what they are doing.
"We take them seriously. Photos and videos are private to users. Humans review AI content to improve product performance, for which we get clear user consent."
I mean, it's right there on page 165 of our 172 page Terms of Service. I don't know what more you want from us. 🤡
Just got a letter in the mail that our healthcare information may have been compromised in a potential data breach. The hospital was very adamant that it wasn't their system that was compromised, but the systems of a third-party contractor used by the province.
Dear government, I take great pains to secure our personal systems. Can you please stop authorizing deals to hand over our sensitive information to sketchy third-party contractors without our consent? It's your responsibility to vet them. You don't just get to wash your hands of it when they inevitably screw it up.
![Mike [SEC=OFFICIAL]](photo/contact/80/4092?ts=1754915255)
boost so I can get more data pls
![⛧-440729 [sophie raven]](photo/contact/80/265889?ts=1779457883)
![⊕-2922 [Rox]](photo/contact/80/472808?ts=1778082985)
![Ripper Lambda Crime [The Möth Society]](photo/contact/80/477160?ts=1778170895)
![natalie[ee]](photo/contact/80/487004?ts=1759874225)
lopta
in reply to Lori_Noctis • • •Jonathan Lamothe
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