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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)HO
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2 yr. ago

  • The library assistant (not even a trained librarian) had such a huge impact on the culture of my high school. He wasn't particularly well-liked, as he was the rule enforcer (no playing Flash games on the computers during lunch -- I think you could play before school), but he'd put a stack of photocopied NYT crosswords out on his desk at the entrance to the library every morning and so many kids did the crossword.

    It's not just steering kids to books like the quoted parent said; at the schools I went to, it was often non-teaching staff who you felt were looking out for you as an individual, often because you interacted with them mostly one-on-one. Certainly, there were teachers who played a huge role in my life, but I will remember the name of the custodian at my primary school for far longer than I'll remember the names of some classroom teachers. (I already don't remember the name of my 2nd or 5th grade teachers, now that I'm thinking about it.) The library is basically the only place you can stash a kid "to do an independent study" (aka let the smart kid amuse themselves), or take a make up test, or hang out when the school elevator is busted and they can't get upstairs. I guess you can use a "disciplinary center", but let's be real.

  • I ended up with like half an autism diagnosis a bit over ten years ago. (Basically, I saw someone for other reasons and they said "Um... I'm pretty sure you're autistic, you should go talk to these people for a proper diagnosis" and I never did.) Occasionally the idea resurfaces (and is again at the moment, to some degree, because I'm having problems at work that are surely neurodivergence related) and I end up dropping it. Mostly, as far as I can tell, as an adult who is able to live independently, maintain employment, and isn't going to return to education, there really aren't many/any resources out there, so it feels a bit pointless. Some people do get a lot of benefit from the confirmation/certainty that comes with a diagnosis, so you may feel a diagnosis is worthwhile for you, even if it doesn't get you access to any concrete resources. I can't decide if I'm one of those people or not, to be honest.

    Now, there are concrete downsides to diagnosis--some countries will use an autism diagnosis as grounds to deny a visa; in the US it's not an unrealistic worry that it'll make accessing medical transition harder if you're trans; I have a friend who has come down on the side of "no official diagnosis" for fear it could jeopardise his access to ADHD meds in the future. (I picked up an ADHD diagnosis a couple years ago -- I'd been taking meds for anxiety and switch psychiatrists and they were like "Umm... I'm not saying your not anxious, but you're actually describing ADHD". I suspect my brain lies in the autism/ADHD uncanny valley. I mention this as a lead in to say that I don't share my friend's fear, but it's also not an unrealistic fear.)

  • I'm probably five years younger than you. We had rope climbing but it wasn't part of the Presidential Physical Fitness Award (which I am seemingly deeply proud of actually having managed in the third grade, despite being crap at pull ups, and I was even worse at rope climbing).

  • I guess it's not actually a widget, it's a silent notification (that shows current conditions plus hourly if you expand it). The actual hourly forecast in the app is like that too, but since you can see the percentage chance of precipitation, it's less annoying. I switched from the Norwegian Met Office to the NWS in the hopes Norway was just rubbish at forecasting the US, but it's the same--it's how Weawow maps the forecast data to icons.

    I'd take a screenshot, but unbelievably Weawow doesn't think it's going to rain today.

  • I've found that the PWAs (both the Lemmy/beehaw one and we feed/voyager) are prone to crashing(?) on open like that. Generally swiping up and closing the "app" fixes it. I think it's something about PWAs rather than Beehaw.

  • Twitter had the Arab Spring as this odd formative event, where it suddenly became a source of news information. I think it's really hard to know how Twitter would have developed without that.

  • Though it's worth mentioning that it's crap as an "am I trans" thought experiment. I am long post-medical transition and my reaction is "well that'd be weird, but whatever, I'd get on with life, I suppose" and then I remember I've been there, done that! Somehow transitioning was very much about my body (top surgery was like a switch flipping) and also not about my body.

  • There's also "too old" in the sense of "too old to give a shit". I don't think my grandad "gets" me being trans, but he had definitely decided he is too old to care and was like "Okay, name, pronouns, got it, don't bother explaining" and proceeded to be the only family member who was perfect at it.

    (It's actually kind of fascinating to see what language he comes up with on his own. Somehow, he has never learned what "transition" is and says things like "When he was being a girl..." which is simultaneously "getting it" and kind of cringe.)

  • Call you GP and make sure they actually sent the referral and get the specialist's information. It would in no way shock me if the referral was never sent, not out of malice, but out of incompetence or overwork.

    Depending on your province, there may be one or two clinics seeing all the trans people, and there's nothing stopping you from phoning them and trying to self-refer--the worst that can happen is they'll say no, and even if they do, you can go back to your GP and say "refer me to these people please".

  • There's very much a whole theory/literature around queer time (see the reference to Muñoz in the article) -- being queer frees you from this sort of linear heteronormative progression through stages of life. This JSTOR blog post might be of interest. The argument isn't that this sort of non-linearity is specific to queer people (see the bit in the JSTOR post tying the economic precarity of millenials to the notion of "adulting"), but rather that it is an extremely common queer experience precisely because the markers of "progression" through life are heavily rooted in hetero- and cisnormativity.