Hope it's alright if I drop some more stuff about myself that I need to get off my chest here. For about the last week now, I haven't been playing around with Facebook. I know, and I'm watching and waiting for Friendica to take off but I've got a few reasons right now. So after some unwanted comments from people that I knew 20+ years in school, I decided to create a new profile from scratch and block anyone and everyone that possibly knows me and start fresh as myself. Kind of using it like a combo of Bluesky and Reddit right now.

Firstly, I have been very combative around here when it comes to feminism and fighting on the 'woke' side of the war against woke. There's no real spaces for that around here, so I take it out sometimes on people around here. But the way I'm seeing it now is that the user base here is at the very least halfway there for needing to be aware of certain issues. So people here need reason more than anger. But Facebook is one of the frontlines of this war and could do with all of the pushing back that it can get.

Secondly, as far as mental health is concerned, I have been following certain neurodivergent people there, late diagnosed adults around my age group. And it's a different kind of relating and seeing myself and learning that I'm doing there, especially when I can see someone in video form talking (even if it's mute with subtitles), is a different type compared to threads in communities on anonymous platforms.

Thirdly, as someone that has had a gender related awakening in the last couple of years (I have none, never learnt to be one or the other defaults), I have been a whole lot of good hits of euphoria. I'm living in a place where I'm not planning on even telling anyone in real life about this (if they're clued up enough, they can ask), so I haven't cared about pronouns, but setting my system pronouns to they/them and seeing those pronouns actually used on me made me feel things. Good things.

And fourth, which is basically my first, second and third points combined. I have a stylised non-binary flag as my banner and I'm pretty proud of my profile picture where I've brushed my long hair all to one side, so that it looks like I've got long hair on one half and short hair on the other. It's a real photo converted to ascii (in various shades), so it hides small details but still looks pretty good and real to the human eye. And I've already had someone I was arguing with say "you white women" to me lol. Just to be clear, I am amab. Best part is that it was a TERF that insinuating that she's pretty proud of being able to tell. I've made everything public on this profile, posts, likes, groups, follows, all. But I'm not doing anything else different. They're all my interests and thoughts and views, just without anything making what gender I was assigned to at birth.

So I feel like I'm out there proving points, alleviating my mental (un)health and affirming how I feel about my gender (or lack thereof) all at the same time!

Edit: just want to add that another thing it's good for is regional shit. I joined a South African genderqueer group. This whole time I have been exploring through American dominated platforms where everyone is anonymous and I always assume I'm speaking to an American. And I'm pretty disconnected from my own country in general. So this opens up whole new possibilities for me.

Thought I might post this here in case anyone has suggestions or whatever. I am looking for a gender neutral name to use somewhere. I was thinking about how Jane / John Doe is the name for someone unidentified, which is pretty cool. But considering that Jane and John are basically "girl" and "boy" - the names, it's a pity that there isn't a third neutral equivalent of those names.

Digging around I saw a suggestion of "Jay" elsewhere but I'm not sure if that feels right to me. Would that strike you as a gender neutral name if you came across it in the wild? Maybe I've just known too many Johns and Jasons.

Or does anyone maybe have any other cool suggestions if you feel so inclined? The problem I find personally with a lot of "gender neutral names lists" that I come across, is that a lot of the names seem a bit too Gen Z to feel right for me, personally. Names like Kai or River are pretty cool but also sound like names some of my friends might have named their kids.

Anyone know any cool gender neutral names that are maybe a bit more born in the late '80s millennial?

Edit: Just found an interesting one (for me). The Dutch for both Jane and John seems to be Jan, and is listed as a gender neutral name. Definitely a name I've heard for both men and women (although pronounced differently where I'm from).

Edit 2: I think my shortlist is now Jan, Jean and for an attractive outside of the John / Jane thing, I'm kinda liking Alex.

There's no posting to your own profile here on Lemmy, so I hope it's alright that I use this space to just dump some shit that no one cares about.

I was going to migrate to mbin or somewhere with more features than base Lemmy, and I also wanted to be able to see downvotes, but I've decided that in spite of those things, I think I'll stick around for a while.

As far as Lemmy forks go, I think I'm just going to keep an eye on them for a while until they're a little further along in development and have more app support. I'm keeping an eye on PieFed in particular but for now, while I'm still new here, I think I'm going to stick with base Lemmy for at least my first year.

As far as downvotes go, I have realised that I just do not care anymore. And I like not caring.

So I can live with just not seeing downvotes anywhere in exchange for a good local feed that can teach me and keep me sane in these fucked up times ahead. And honestly, I've noticed that I even like the 'All' feed better here than when I was on world.

Thanks for attending my monologue. I might edit this with other random shit that has no place along the way.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Update: still procrastinating

i was thinking maybe we're more optimistic about how fast society can advance than in the past and thats being reflected in our media. like Asimov stuff vs star trek vs cyberpunk, bladerunner, type stuff being set like 50-100 years from now instead of like, the year 3000+. maybe im wrong

Hi

a cool piece i read about the economics of the shire from lord of the rings that i mentioned on the blahaj matrix and was advised to post here

My whole life has been building up to this moment.. everyone has always told me not to look at the Sun during an eclipse.... teachers, parents, television, newspapers, the government........ and now that is exactly THE ONLY THING I want to fucking do today.. .....I just want to take a quick peek at the sun!! holy shit it is taking EVERY OUNCE of my willpower not to look at the sky right now. It's like a mighty itch.. but for my eyes.

I'm writing this post just so I can distract myself from the fact that there's a yearning sun, begging to be stared at right now just outside my window within eyeball reach. It is so close and I can hear it's siren song beckoning. God help me, and may it end swiftly.

I tell this story to you as it really happened. I still cannot process the events that conspired.

It was a chilly spring morning when Goobert first knocked on my door. Upon hearing a knock at my door, I quickly scrambled to hide my 100,000 terabytes of pirated Disney movies and Nintendo games.

A second knock on the door. A second passed. The door swung open.

"HELLO I AM GOOBERT" the mysterious visitor said.

Before me stood a creature that I had never seen the likes of before. It was half-rat, half-peanut, and completely decked out in pirate attire.

"Hi Goobert, can I get you a glass of sweet tea?" I asked.

"YES I WOULD LIKE A GLASS OF SWEET TEA. I ALSO HATE RONALD REAGAN," Goobert declared.

"Wow, I also hate Ronald Reagan, we must have much in common." I said, putting the kettle on the stove to boil.

Goobert sat down at the kitchen table.

"I must inquire, why are you in my house?" I asked.

"I AM A PIRATE AND AM SEARCHING FOR NEW PIRATED MEDIA, SPECIFICALLY PIRATED DISNEY AND NINTENDO MEDIA. I ALSO AM LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO BUY ILLEGALLY MANUFACTURED MOONSHINE." Goobert replied.

The kettle began to whistle.

TO BE CONTINUED

IS THIS HOW YOU DO A CROSS POST???!?!!

cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/5549174

The 1st-ever braille 5e SRD is now available, making the core D&D rules more accessible to all. Download for free!

His name is Sir Gilbert Humphrey Hubert II. He said he'd help me pirate Nintendo games and Disney movies. He also wanted me to give him a tour of my moonshine distillery in the mountains.

Can I trust him?

Well I sure hope he can lift that spatula alright

🏴‍☠️The Pirate Song 🏴‍☠️

Oh I like to be a pirate

A pirate's life for me

All my friends are pirates

And sail the B.B.C.

I've got a Jolly Roger

It's black and white and vast

So get out of your Skull and Crossbones

And I'll run it up your mast

With a yo-ho-ho

And a ya-ha-ha

And a ye-hee-ha-ha-hum

With a yo-ho-ho

And a ya-ha-ha

And a yum-yum-jum-jum-yum

I've got a Jolly Roger

It's black and white and vast

So get out of your Skull and Crossbones

I'll run it up your mast

I like to sound dramatic and tell people I'm on meth when I'm just on ADHD stimulants. They're not too many molecules apart 🤷🏼‍♂️

Watch the whole thing

Why must my relatives be like that

I'm scared to interact on Boost or lemmy or Mastodon or wherever the hell I am because I'm not good at socializing and I feel like my personality is just going to get me kicked off of this here new thing too ....and I have honest to goodness PTSD from trying to socialize. I don't know if I can do the cycle of socializing, kind of getting acquaintances or friends or people that don't mind talking to me, slowly fading out, and then not having friends again , or people just not talking to me anymore and it's really stressing me out and I don't want to get kicked out of anywhere anymore and all I want is some friends and a community and reliability and I'm nothing but a shit show that bothers everyone around me thank you for listening to my ramble the end

Change my mind