Notices by Cait the Autocorrected Carrot (oldladyplays@wargamers.social)

I found my passport this morning. I had thought I'd lost it, as I checked what I thought were all the pockets of my backpack and didn't find it before I left the hotel coming home.

Today, I did the laundry, and as part of that, grabbed a few things that had been in the backpack as laundry. And there, underneath them...my passport. Huzzah for unremembered pockets.

Now I can much more easily get it renewed before Dec 1, when it expires.

ETA: I just remembered when I got my first passport with an F on it. It was before my surgery, so I could travel *for* the surgery. Good for one year, then you had to prove you'd *earned* your new gender marker, or it would revert.

Anyway, transphobia aside, I remember looking at it, and the first thing I saw was nationality: "CANADIAN/CANADIENNE" (all our official documents from the federal government are in French and English). And I started crying right there - this was the first piece of ID I had been able to switch over, 12 years after transition. And there it was: CANADIENNE. For those who don't speak French, that's the feminine form of Canadian in French.

Only then did I notice the F, and cried some more, but the first thing I noticed was the nationality.

@Natasha_Jay

Well, the farthest right AfD came second in Saxony, but only barely, to CDU? And thus AfD probably won't be forming the government, but a coalition around the CDU (right wing but not *as* right wing as AfD). So far the cordon sanitaire (or firewall, or Brandmauer) around the extreme right has held...barely. No one will go into coalition with them, so they can't get the votes to form government.

So far, anyway. It's worrisome, though, because Brandenburg (also in the east) votes later this month, and AfD leads there too.

It's all pretty scary, for sure. That so many voted for strongly right-wing policies and politicians is a bit terrifying.

EDITED: My mother, two weeks after misgendering me for the first time in decades, sent me this birthday card. It's very kind and made me cry.

Dare to be your truest self
Answer your heart's desires
Unlock the dreams within you
Grace the world with your talents
Have faith in your own strength
Take risks for what you love
Embrace your unique place in the world
Recognize how amazing you are.

It's an interesting thing, getting old. I'm here a couple of years from 60, and realising that I've probably got just 20 years left before the solipsistic universe ends.

That's a weird feeling.

I mean, at some points in life, 20 years is a huge amount of time. When it's your game clock running out, it doesn't feel so long.

Anyway, it's not really relevant or important, just a reflection on a pond, before my skipping stone breaks up the image.

I haven't talked about Michael in a while. Things are going great between us. We're both deeply in love, very happy with the healthy loving relationship we've built. He's still away for a few weeks, but then he'll be back and we'll get to be together again.

I remain one of the luckiest girls alive.

@rooster With our proprietary blend of phytoestrogen-based technology and the Inflater Machine, you too can go from flat as a board to busty, hippy, and hot. Ask today for our list of testimonials!

"I liked it so much I supersized mine!" - Z, MI

"CLANGGGG!!!!!" - S, NY

I'd like to put one of Trump's lies in perspective, please.

In 2022, according to the FBI, 62 migrants who were in the US illegally were charged with murder.

In 2022, 1153 people were killed by police gunfire in the US.

So if there's a major problem with a large gang taking the lives of US citizens, I have bad news for Republicans. The kill is coming from inside the house!

#ACAB

@cmconseils

No no no no no.

She just found it there. It's supposed to be distributed by a strange woman lying in the pond.

Know your prophecy.

Found this picture online - it me, 1995, three years after I transitioned, eight months or so into DIY HRT (birth control pills), at the first Pride celebration in my city. We had 86 people out at the city hall rotunda. I do not remember what I spoke about.

I was 29 when this was taken.

Whee! Just had a brief email conversation with what I hope will be my next tattoo artist. Sent them the picture of the tat that I had generated by an artist, emphasizing that it's for guidance only, and that I'm seeking their own artistic interpretation of the concept.

I'm all excited now! Another couple of months and I should have my second tat - not as big as my first (which is quite large), but still pretty big (aiming for about 15cm/6", on my upper arm). For those who haven't seen the reference image, it is this:

To any of those with contact with young people who are out protesting for Palestinians.

When the cops come for you, like they did, with heavy hands and empty orders, they're doing that because the boss class wants to scare you. They want you to think that they're going to blackball everyone who ever got a charge for protesting from ever getting a corporate job.

1) This is bullshit. There are too many of you, in a full-employment economy, for them to shut you out. And if not, you'll find ways to start your own organizations, and build society differently that way.

2) They're doing it this way because they're afraid of you. They're afraid of your passion and commitment in pursuing something you know could damage a career. They worry about having employees like that, because your kinds of people become the seeds of unions. Of worker power.

3) Keep it up. Keep up the pressure. You're winning. They don't know it yet, but you're winning.

I can't be with you right now, because of my disabilities and health stuff. But I'm behind you. Cheering you on. You're doing the right thing, the moral thing, and doing so with deliberation and hard thinking.

Alright, subtoot time, but positively so.

A friend of mine with significant visual impairment pointed out that the lack of description on images is a cultural problem on Fedi, not an individual failure.

So, let me do a thing to help build that culture.

How I Do Image Description

I close my eyes. I look at the image first, and close my eyes. Then I try to describe it without looking. I find this focuses me on the important things to get the image across, without getting distracted by unnecessary detail.

It's okay to peek. I have a strong visual memory, so I'm good with one look, but not everyone is. But do try and see the picture in your mind, if you're not aphantasic.

If you are, I'm not sure if I know a way to help. I apologise; I don't know enough about it to know yet. I did want to acknowledge that not everyone can do this approach.

Anyway, that's my contribution today to creating a culture of image description.

What can you do to add to it?

#Blind #Disability #AltText

Spending my morning learning how to pronounce the names of my Polish friends. It's a challenge, but at least their orthography is pretty regular - no weird shit like silent letters (I'm looking at you, FR and EN), letters that change value based on placement (RU, we need to talk about Г), weird diphthongs (NE, what's with "ij"?), or other tricks of other orthographies.

It's challenging because the sounds are not immediately obvious to a non-native speaker, but once you learn the orthography (aka spelling), it's pretty easy.

A short guide to a couple of bits for those who want to play our home game.

sz: sh
cz: ts
ł: w
ę: nasalized e

Anyway, that's enough to get you going. Start figuring out how to pronounce the names of your Polish friends! It's fun and rewarding.

Now, the flip side.

Cis women! It's time you stood up with us to fight for trans rights. It's your fight too.

Why? Because it's all about bodily autonomy. Trans people are fighting for the right to control our own bodies. Sound familiar?

It's the same fight, women. We need your help, just as we give ours. We are in the same fight, and should be shoulder to shoulder about both our sets of issues.

The best way to fight fascism is *together*. The more of us fighting, the better our chances of winning.

I am fully infertile.

I want to get that out of the way up front, because it's true. I have no dog in the fight.

But I want to state, unequivocally and clearly, that I stand with those who have the equipment for giving birth on the topic of abortion, and IVF, and any other power grabs the right comes up with to control the bodies of birthing people.

For me, it's an issue we as trans people should be fighting as hard for as we fight for our own direct issues. Bodily autonomy applies. It's the same basic issue motivating both anti-trans and anti-abortion campaigners: control of others' bodies.

When we fight for abortion access, we are indirectly and directly still fighting for trans people. We're fighting for trans masc and AFAB enby people to be given full rights over their own bodies. That's the direct path. We're also fighting for the right for all trans people to control our bodies.

So let's stand beside our uterine neighbours, trans women. We are all in the same fight.

When I came out to my mother lo these many years ago, she accused me of always having been selfish. It hurt, right to the bone. Because I knew she was right.

What I didn't know at the time was that it wasn't my fault. I tried to tell them who I was when I was four. I was punished, and told not to say that again. I learned that I was on my own with these feelings.

So I concealed it. Hid away the queerness inside me, tried desperately not to let it sneak out. It was in secret that I built a stash of feminine things to relieve my dysphoria when I could get alone time in the house.

I grew older, my self-focus grew more intense. I was rejected by my peers for the most part, even when I was in a gifted program with other super nerds. I was the one who went home with an empty envelope on Valentine's Day.

They could sense, I think, that I was hiding something deeply. Not what. But they knew I was different, and that was plenty.

So rejected by my peers, I withdrew. I didn't do things for people, because people didn't do things for me.

I became selfish. When my father died, I became more so, in every way but one (as a lover). Meaning the vast majority of people only ever saw me as self-involved.

As time went by, I grew less satisfied with this life. Being masculine didn't suit me, obviously, and it was draining pretending.

After my undergrad, I moved cities. A classic time for major change. Within a few months, I had transitioned.

And discovered a whole new side of me. See, once I didn't have to spend my whole time trying to figure out how to relieve my dysphoria, I discovered I was anything but selfish. I am, if I say it myself, generous to a fault. I help people beyond my capacity sometimes.

But it is a thing I like a lot about myself.

My point here is: give trans people a chance to be us. Many of us are giving, kind souls, who will literally walk on shattered glass for our loved ones. Just gotta unbox ourselves.

Alright, I want to start with some facts.

Fact: Russia has been unable in two years to beat Ukraine, a country that had a small army with little modern equipment. BEFORE the US and NATO started shipping weapons in, the Ukrainians kicked the Russians back out near Kyiv, then retook Kharkiv.

Russia has *bled* for this. LIterally tens of thousands of soldiers dead.

Okay, so that's Ukraine.

Putin is talking Poland. And everyone's got their knickers in a twist about it.

Let me be reassuring here. Russia does not have the military to be able to fight Ukraine and Poland at once. If they did, they'd have opened a second front on Ukraine and kept it going. It's basic strategy.

So now he's saying "'yknow, Poland looks tasty!" But I wonder...where is he going to get the military equipment to start this fight? He's buying cheap crappy shells from North Korea, and cheapass drones from Iran. He's lost more than half of the tanks he started the war with Ukraine with, and he's lost most of the modern ones doing it.

Where is he going to get the manpower? This is not World War II. You cannot train a soldier for the modern battlefield in two months of Basic. You can train cannon fodder. That's what he's getting.

The tactics he's using in Ukraine are basically WW2 tactics: mass human wave attacks, overwhelm the defence with sheer numbers of bodies. It's not working.

He has to use such tactics, because most of his trained soldiers have been killed or wounded or captured.

Russia simply doesn't have the resources to attack Poland. And all of that leaves aside the rest of NATO. Even if Cult 45 decides to pull out of NATO, there are still 31 countries with three times the budget for defence that Russia has.

It *will not happen*. Ten years from now? Maybe. Maybe. But by then NATO will have rearmed and made up for it, even if Trump pulls the US out.

NATO would kick his ass, with or without the US. Please sleep easy. It's a paper bear.

Well, Google, ya gone and done it.

I just uninstalled Chrome, and installed Firefox. The last two days, YouTube turned to shit on me - won't load videos, is clearly heavily throttled. I switch to Firefox - YouTube works perfectly.

If you've been putting off abandoning Chrome, it's a LOT easier than I expected. Firefox imported my history, my logins/passwords, bookmarks, and so on. Completely painless. Chrome has become thoroughly enshittified. Leave it behind.

I cannot get over the rank stupidity of abstinence-based "sexual education". In quotes because it's the opposite: they do their work by trying to NOT give info to the kids.

Because, they're thinking, of course if kids don't find out about how to do sex, then obviously they won't do any sex, because they won't know how, ha-ha, checkmate you dumb kids!

But hear me out: sex isn't difficult to figure out. "Hey, does this feel good? Yes. No, not that. This. Yep. Keep doing that. How's this? Good? Good."

What they won't know is how to keep themselves safer, how to not be pregnant, what a good relationship looks like, how to communicate with your partner. All the things that make for successful living together.

They're deliberately setting their kids up for failure, and claiming it makes them holier than everyone else. It's kind of enraging.

@rooster I cannot but agree, but feel it is tragic that I must be a paint-by-numbers of dogs playing poker, while others are Rembrandt's girls... ;)

Is there anyone who'd be interested in a daily correspondence in mixed German and English? Like someone who wants to practice their English, while I practice my German, and we can help each other get better at each of them?

I'm a native speaker of UK English, and Canadian English, and I know most of US English's quirks too, as well as being a linguist so I can explain it. Your English can be at any level, I'm happy to help. My German is well-trained, but very rusty - I learned it 35 years ago, but have used it very little since - I translated from German into English as a career, but that doesn't help with synthesizing German, just comprehending it.

We can talk about whatever you want, either in DMs here or email or wherever you're comfortable.