inside you, young transmasculine person, is a voice that will tell you not to like certain things because they’re For Girls. that is the voice of the devil, and you must never listen to it.
I honestly feel that working in a little old bookstore would solve all of my problems.
With pardons to the woman who gave me the term, but if you feel the way OP does, Marie Antoinette it.
You likely have a pile of old books, and if you do not they aren’t terribly difficult to come by. Depending how fantastical you want to be, either get an actual cash register (very dedicated to props) or a bank ledger (a prop very accessible at an office supply shop).
Specifically the latter, decorate it with stickers.
Brew coffee.
Make signs.
Either invite friends over and have a chat or do so over a video chat or just take selfies and send to friends and post online.
I am absolutely serious!
There is the work of work and there is the play of work and understanding which you want opens a lot of joy into your life and the play of work is infinitely more accessible.
Write letters to friends in your little shop.
Why not? Why not find an unused cardboard box and with modge podge and novelty paper. Or plastic tote, same idea, more durable.
Set up a day a week, or a day a month, or a once-in-a-while. Open your shop in your living room and enjoy.
i wish ppl on this website, and within leftist circles in general, were a little less gung ho about making jokes or statements like “billionaires arent people” “nazis arent people” “police arent people”
there is no level of evil where a human stops being a human. if you decide to kill them for their crimes, then you are killing a human. and sometimes that is justified! oil execs and war profiteers have destroyed countless lives in service of their own sick greed, and given the chance to enact that same violence on them, id probably pop their heads like a pimple.
but it is important that we do not shy away from the reality of that choice. it is a human life that is being ended. a person with interiority, feelings, family.
if we stop considering any group as people, even a group defined by their own evil actions, then we are drawing a line to divide society into persons and non-persons, and stating that those non-persons do not deserve to live.
i hope i dont need to explain why that is a dangerous position to take.
these people and all of their evil, their greed, their hatred, are just as much a part of humanity as art, culture, language, food. they are a part of us that has grown malignant and cancerous, and like a cancer, they must be excised for the sake of the whole–but they are still a part of us, made of the same stuff as us, down to their cores.
In my somehow unending quest to write the worst TTRPG, I have designed the following:
What Little The Flames Leave Us, a game where you light your character sheet on fire and put it out. Repeatedly. To pass basic checks.
Fear No Evil, where you throw a d4 into a room, turn the lights off, take your shoes off, and then stride fearlessly through.
Bottom Gun, where you can only take actions by texting emojis at the GM, who has to interpret them.
Sexyback, where there’s one player and like an entire greek chorus of GMs who vote on the player’s next actions.
And finally Hot In Here: A Game Of Antarctic Exploration, where you play as members of the Shackleton expedition and the mechanics consist of stripping, but there’s also a counter mechanic where you can put clothes on other people.
I think windows defender is perfectly fine for most people; if you want an extra layer of security and are willing to pay for it then ESET is pretty solid and not a resource hog. But yeah windows defender is as good as any of the current free antiviruses.
Adult ProTip, from a security professional: If a kid tells you, “My parents are gonna kill me / kick my ass / kick me out” for something relatively minor, don’t respond with shit like “Really? ;) that sounds a little extreme, don’t you think sweetie?” because that shit really does happen.
Instead, respond as though whatever threat they are afraid of is fully valid, and offer whatever you can do to help- ask if they believe they are in danger of being hurt in any way, and work accordingly.
If they’re overreacting, they’ll usually realize and dial it back, self-correct and begin thinking a bit more rationally.
If they’re not overreacting, and the danger is real, then they’ll need a level-headed adult in their corner, not another condescending authority figure who doesn’t believe them.
I’m actually so done with people (including “allies”) using trans* men in order to attack trans* women. There is no trans liberation without all of us.
“Oh, you don’t see trans men doing [x], but you see trans women doing it!” Actually, that just tells me that you intentionally leave trans* men out of this specific bias against trans people. It tells me everything about your attitude about trans* men and trans* women.
To any trans* women who feel alone in their transness and how they navigate society through the lens of transness:
You’ve got us by your side. While I’m not a trans woman, there are still so many common interests at play that you are unignorable. There are people who stand by you. Your experiences are neither alienating nor uniquely Bad.
So You Need To Buy A Computer But You Don’t Know What Specs Are Good These Days
Hi.
This is literally my job.
Lots of people are buying computers for school right now or are replacing computers as their five-year-old college laptop craps out so here’s the standard specs you should be looking for in a (windows) computer purchase in August 2023.
PROCESSOR
Intel i5 (no older than 10th Gen)
Ryzen 7
You can get away with a Ryzen 5 but an intel i3 should be an absolute last resort. You want at least an intel i5 or a Ryzen 7 processor. The current generation of intel processors is 13, but anything 10 or newer is perfectly fine. DO NOT get a higher performance line with an older generation; a 13th gen i5 is better than an 8th gen i7. (Unfortunately I don’t know enough about ryzens to tell you which generation is the earliest you should get, but staying within 3 generations is a good rule of thumb)
RAM
8GB absolute minimum
If you don’t have at least 8GB RAM on a modern computer it’s going to be very, very slow. Ideally you want a computer with at least 16GB, and it’s a good idea to get a computer that will let you add or swap RAM down the line (nearly all desktops will let you do this, for laptops you need to check the specs for Memory and see how many slots there are and how many slots are available; laptops with soldered RAM cannot have the memory upgraded - this is common in very slim laptops)
STORAGE
256GB SSD
Computers mostly come with SSDs these days; SSDs are faster than HDDs but typically have lower storage for the same price. That being said: SSDs are coming down in price and if you’re installing your own drive you can easily upgrade the size for a low cost. Unfortunately that doesn’t do anything for you for the initial purchase.
A lot of cheaper laptops will have a 128GB SSD and, because a lot of stuff is stored in the cloud these days, that can be functional. I still recommend getting a bit more storage than that because it’s nice if you can store your music and documents and photos on your device instead of on the cloud. You want to be able to access your files even if you don’t have internet access.
But don’t get a computer with a big HDD instead of getting a computer with a small SSD. The difference in speed is noticeable.
SCREEN (laptop specific)
Personally I find that touchscreens have a negative impact on battery life and are easier to fuck up than standard screens. They are also harder to replace if they get broken. I do not recommend getting a touch screen unless you absolutely have to.
A lot of college students especially tend to look for the biggest laptop screen possible; don’t do that. It’s a pain in the ass to carry a 17" laptop around campus and with the way that everything is so thin these days it’s easier to damage a 17" screen than a 14" screen.
On the other end of that: laptops with 13" screens tend to be very slim devices that are glued shut and impossible to work on or upgrade.
Your best bet (for both functionality and price) is either a 14" or a 15.6" screen. If you absolutely positively need to have a 10-key keyboard on your laptop, get the 15.6". If you need something portable more than you need 10-key, get a 14"
FORM FACTOR (desktop specific)
If you purchase an all-in-one desktop computer I will begin manifesting in your house physically. All-in-ones take away every advantage desktops have in terms of upgradeability and maintenance; they are expensive and difficult to repair and usually not worth the cost of disassembling to upgrade.
There are about four standard sizes of desktop PC: All-in-One (the size of a monitor with no other footprint), Tower (Big! probably at least two feet long in two directions), Small Form Factor Tower (Very moderate - about the size of a large shoebox), and Mini/Micro/Tiny (Small! about the size of a small hardcover book).
If you are concerned about space you are much better off getting a MicroPC and a bracket to put it on your monitor than you are getting an all-in-one. This will be about a million percent easier to work on than an all-in-one and this way if your monitor dies your computer is still functional.
Small form factor towers and towers are the easiest to work on and upgrade; if you need a burly graphics card you need to get a full size tower, but for everything else a small form factor tower will be fine. Most of our business sales are SFF towers and MicroPCs, the only time we get something larger is if we have to put a $700 graphics card in it. SFF towers will accept small graphics cards and can handle upgrades to the power supply; MicroPCs can only have the RAM and SSD upgraded and don’t have room for any other components or their own internal power supply.
WARRANTY
Most desktops come with either a 1 or 3 year warranty; either of these is fine and if you want to upgrade a 1 year to a 3 year that is also fine. I’ve generally found that if something is going to do a warranty failure on desktop it’s going to do it the first year, so you don’t get a hell of a lot of added mileage out of an extended warranty but it doesn’t hurt and sometimes pays off to do a 3-year.
Laptops are a different story. Laptops mostly come with a 1-year warranty and what I recommend everyone does for every laptop that will allow it is to upgrade that to the longest warranty you can get with added drop/damage protection. The most common question our customers have about laptops is if we can replace a screen and the answer is usually “yes, but it’s going to be expensive.” If you’re purchasing a low-end laptop, the parts and labor for replacing a screen can easily cost more than half the price of a new laptop. HOWEVER, the way that most screens get broken is by getting dropped. So if you have a warranty with drop protection, you just send that sucker back to the factory and they fix it for you.
So, if it is at all possible, check if the manufacturer of a laptop you’re looking at has a warranty option with drop protection. Then, within 30 days (though ideally on the first day you get it) of owning your laptop, go to the manufacturer site, register your serial number, and upgrade the warranty. If you can’t afford a 3-year upgrade at once set a reminder for yourself to annually renew. But get that drop protection, especially if you are a college student or if you’ve got kids.
And never, ever put pens or pencils on your laptop keyboard. I’ve seen people ruin thousand dollar, brand-new laptops that they can’t afford to fix because they closed the screen on a ten cent pencil. Keep liquids away from them too.
LIFESPAN
There’s a reasonable chance that any computer you buy today will still be able to turn on and run a program or two in ten years. That does not mean that it is “functional.”
At my office we estimate that the functional lifespan of desktops is 5-7 years and the functional lifespan of laptops is 3-5 years. Laptops get more wear and tear than desktops and desktops are easier to upgrade to keep them running. At 5 years for desktops and 3 years for laptops you should look at upgrading the RAM in the device and possibly consider replacing the SSD with a new (possibly larger) model, because SSDs and HDDs don’t last forever.
COST
This means that you should think of your computers as an annual investment rather than as a one-time purchase. It is more worthwhile to pay $700 for a laptop that will work well for five years than it is to pay $300 for a laptop that will be outdated and slow in one year (which is what will happen if you get an 8th gen i3 with 8GB RAM). If you are going to get a $300 laptop try to get specs as close as possible to the minimums I’ve laid out here.
If you have to compromise on these specs, the one that is least fixable is the processor. If you get a laptop with an i3 processor you aren’t going to be able to upgrade it even if you can add more RAM or a bigger SSD. If you have to get lower specs in order to afford the device put your money into the processor and make sure that the computer has available slots for upgrade and that neither the RAM nor the SSD is soldered to the motherboard. (one easy way to check this is to search “[computer model] RAM upgrade” on youtube and see if anyone has made a video showing what the inside of the laptop looks like and how much effort it takes to replace parts)
Computers are expensive right now. This is frustrating, because historically consumer computer prices have been on a downward trend but since 2020 that trend has been all over the place. Desktop computers are quite expensive at the moment (August 2023) and decent laptops are extremely variably priced.
If you are looking for a decent, upgradeable laptop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:
If you are looking for a decent, affordable desktop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:
For years I’ve heard that those booby mousepads are actually really good for a person with carpal tunnel syndrome but didn’t decide to test that knowledge because I don’t want to buy a booby mousepad that would make me some sort of sex pervert, I was raised Catholic I’m a good boy not a sex pervert. But earlier this year I bought a Gigan body pillow as a joke only to find out body pillows are actually really comfortable sleep aids, so… so I bought one… I bought a booby mousepad.
…and my wrist feels so much better when I’m using it.
How many other comforts and aids have I forsaken because they’re embarrassingly horny? How many discomforts have I endured purely out of a societal shame about expressing anything sexual? This world is fucked man.
For those curious why exactly this is, it’s because booby mousepads are pretty much the only ergonomic mousepads which still use silicone gel. Basically everything else has switched to either air-filled memory foam or a cured silicone rubber – like the kind used in silicone bakeware – because it’s not prone to springing leaks and oozing everywhere; unfortunately, it also doesn’t work nearly as well.
(In theory, if you’re not a fan of boobs you could get a silicone gel wrist pad without the booby design. In practice, good fucking luck; consumer fraud is rampant in non-prescription medical and assistive devices, and the overwhelming majority of non-booby mousepads which claim to use silicone gel are straight up lying – what you actually receive if you order one will be air-filled memory foam or solid rubber at least 80% of time, regardless of what the product description says.)
my favorite is when the mousepad is clearly supposed to be a titty mousepad but the art is something innocuous instead
One of the doctors at my job has a booby mousepad that’s a corgi butt. So non-tiddy ones do exist. I have a mousepad that is not a booby one at all (it’s a straight bar for the wrist pillow) and it’s just a galaxy design, so non-booby and non-was-clearly-meant-to-be-booby ones DO exist, you just have to go looking for them. There’s also wrist bumper bars that span the entire length of your desk, as well, that do the same thing.
For body pillows look up pregnancy pillows- they do the same thing the sexy pillows do but look less, ah, incriminating. You can also look up orthopedic pillows intended for folks with disabilities and who are quite overweight, as both can need additional support when sleeping. I have a pregnancy one at home and it is incredibly cozy
I may be a lesbian but you’ll never wrest “flirting with men in a macho way” from my hands. Picking him up and princess-carrying him around until his eyelashes flutter is middle-bottom on my hierarchy of needs.
The bigger, the gruffer, the more rough-hewn lumberjack machismo he is, the better. He’s my dainty swan princess ballerina now. Sorry.
Im bisexual bc Gd made me that way. Im a lesbian bc men don’t like it when I act this way around them lmao
oh some men absolutely do… I’ll just princess-carry them over to you when I’m done with them
