“Too blessed to be depressed” - they’re a Christian fundamentalist who is depressed but trying to convince themselves otherwise. You should run.

It can be both, and in this case is. They put the foam bricks in place as an April fools joke to raise awareness and plan to leave them, but they don’t think the city will allow the foam bricks to stay.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/granville-island-pedestrian-safety-crosswalk-1.7160751

Staying away from the big platforms has worked out well for me. Those are well under the control of corporate interests like TV, but I now have access to several independent journalists from across the world, the ability to fact check a topic within minutes to hours instead of days to never, and a much easier way of organizing with like minded people.

The internet is a tool. It’s more full of misinformation, disinformation, useless garbage, and scams now than it was, but it’s still useful if you know how to sift through it. We should be educating our youth on how to do that and identifying the list of pitfalls above to help make it even better.

Great point! So if you have a firework that sparks some dry grass or brush, your home fire extinguisher will likely be fine as long as the fire doesn’t get too big before you can grab it.

However, if you have a hoard of fireworks that catch fire, you’re better off running and calling the fire department than trying to quickly put that out with your home fire extinguisher as it likely won’t work.

Those years of safety training finally paying off:

Do you know what types of fires your fire extinguisher is rated for? There are several different types. Most modern home fire extinguishers are rated for A (wood/paper), B (liquids like oil fires), and C (electrical), but you may have an older fire extinguisher or landlord who cheaped out on one that only works on some of those types.

If you have a fire that’s based on metals (like fireworks) or exothermic chemical reactions, have a different fire extinguisher or call the fire department with special instructions.

Always remember the acronym PASS when using a fire extinguisher:

1. Pull the pin
2. Aim at the base of the fire
3. Squeeze the trigger
4. Sweep the fire extinguisher side to side to cover all of the fire till the fire is extinguished

Went down a list of names till I found one that I liked and that felt right. Checked the meaning/roots of the name to make sure I liked it. Checked the name against the popularity of the name during my birth year so it wouldn’t be too far out there. I’d skip that step now, but my goal was to go stealth early in my transition. Then I just used the name with people to see how it felt and make sure before doing the legal name change.

My middle name was easier since I took the name of a trans woman whose death was the catalyst for my transition to honor her memory/life.

As far as TV shows go, it wasn’t entirely purposeful but wasn’t accidental that my initials spell out a TV character I liked growing up. If it has meaning to you, don’t let anyone else tell you it’s wrong.

I’m not familiar with One Piece, but Eva sounds like a good name. It also reminds me of Evangelion which is one of the best and most influential animes.

Trump was unpredictable in 2016. He talked a big game, but we had no idea what laws he’d pass, what his policies would be, etc. Sadly many voted for him because he was seen as an “outsider” since people were tired of standard politicians.

Now we have a good idea what he’ll do, January 6th happened, and Trump has been vocal about trans genocide specifically.

I thought this couldn’t possibly be right, and it isn’t quite, but the numbers are way closer than I realized.

Canada only has around 37 million people. I always thought there were far more just because of how big Canada is. Guess I’ve been a standard uneducated American. US population is around 333 million. Latest estimate I can find is 7.2% queer which is roughly 24 million people.

Not all of those will need to flee, and those who do may not be financially able to flee. Others won’t want to for the reasons most people don’t want to leave their home. Many straight passing people will be “fine”. Most trans people will want to for medical care at least, and most I know (myself included) are currently migrating to more progressive states if not to Canada yet. Trans numbers in the US are hard to nail down, but highest estimate is 1% which is only 3 million.

But I’m still castrated and want to be a sex slave uwu

Thanks for the response! Yeah, it’s a massive undertaking and seems like getting started and rallying groups is half the battle.

Looking forward to a future post(s) on the topic ;)

I’m very curious about this. Did you go into this with some allies or were you able to drum up support by sharing stats and other city/country success stories? Was the council already amenable to the idea? Any resources you could share?

This could be an entire post on its own if you can spare some time to write about it and your experiences.

I’m pretty sure it’s a dark joke about suicide ending your pain

You just have to look them in the eye and give them a firm handshake when you do it. It’s so simple!

I want them all to be Cardassian’s instead. Playing 5d chess and employing all sorts of phsycological warfare till most of them think they’ve always been vulcans and have a family back home waiting on them.

Congrats! Now time to aim for Expert ;)

Hobby board games. There are thousands of board games out there and enough variety there’s something for everyone. The games I’m usually into are called Euro style board games since they originated in Europe.

Euro style games are mostly high skill games with little luck similar to chess, but have varied starting positions to make them more interesting. They typically play with up to 4 players or more which adds a good bit of complexity. They’re a good way to sit around, talk, drink, and have a fun time away from computer/phone/TV screens.

I’ve also gotten really into mahjong specifically over the past year. I’ve played over a thousand games and still learning. I mostly have to play that one over an app, but it’s a fun break during the work day. I’m able to play occasionally in person, but there’s a pretty steep learning curve which makes it hard to convince people to play. I’m always trying to get more people into it though.

Haha, thanks for the compliment! I’m slowly headed up to master. I’m close to expert 3. I just keep getting my rank knocked down right before I cross the threshold. I’m learning more every day though, and hopefully I’ll make it up there!

After thinking through it a little more, my guess for being against calling is that it does push the hand to end faster. So if everyone is wanting to try build more satisfying hands but that one person keeps calling and forcing 2-4k hands, it can get annoying. I’ve had games like that where I also want to kill that one person XD.

I’m only level 2 Expert in Maj Soul, so take this however you wish, it’s just my thoughts on the play.

Sanshoku is a bit of a long shot because you’re waiting on the 3 of bamboo and 2 of wheels. You’d need to get pretty lucky for both single tile waits. Especially the 3 since your opponents will naturally be less likely to play it.

Depending on what’s been discarded so far, you may have tipped your hand to everyone else where they’d be less likely to discard those tiles. You’ll definitely tip you hand if you chi a 2 of wheels.

That said, it isn’t a bad play depending on how early in the hand it is, who dealer is, what the score is, and if you’re trying to bluff another hand like chinitsu to try to make someone else rush a Tanyao or some other low scoring hand. This is only East 2, so I’d be more likely to play that closer to the middle of the hand when I’m trying to cobble something together if the draws haven’t worked out for a better hand.

I have no idea what the Showa period comment is about. Maybe there was a different mahjong meta at the time.