I stood up for myself at work.
I was asked to take on extra responsibilities, unrelated to my core job description, a few years ago that have forced me to work unpaid overtime frequently. I haven't gotten a single raise in that time, and poor leadership was making the role incredibly stressful. Having less time also led to me performing my main tasks worse. So I successfully got out of it this week. I was worried I'd be fired for asking if I could let the project go, but everything turned out just fine.
I beat X-COM: Enemy Unknown by sniping the final boss in the first turn with an 8% headshot through a door. In the process, I skipped what I discovered later was a room full of aliens you were supposed to fight before taking out that enemy.
In the item-farming regard, it really did feel like Sword and Shield copied Crystal's homework without understanding the assignment.
This thing shows up in your bedroom after your first two-hour night of sleep after four consecutive all-nighters at work.
He's nice, at first. You feed him grapes and he snuggles up to you. Then as he grows you start to realize he's strangely aware of his surroundings and your speech. One of the people in your neighborhood passes away, but he's a stranger and you don't think too much of it. He begins to eat entire rotisserie chickens on his own, but he's your squishy and he's worth it.
You start to get compulsive, intrusive thoughts that you've never thought before. You quiet quit your job until you get fired, but you don't know it because you haven't logged in for two weeks. The newscaster talks about a handful of people who have mysteriously died of brain hemhorrages. You become a master hand at woodcarving despite always being clumsy in the past. You make wood cookies and chairs for the villagers, and display art at a local gallery. Your squishy supports you every step of the way. You're a squatter now and all your money goes toward lumber and raw beef for squishy to consume.
One morning after a long night of woodwork, a full-sized man sits on a chair you made in the downstairs living room. He says he has outgrown you and it is his time to see the world, but not before one last meal. He doesn't say that, you just hear it. The figure turns around and his face is a mass of tentacles. He tackles you as you struggle to reach for the door. You kick squishy in the face and run and run with tears in your eyes.
The subway you live in is warm and cozy as you huddle by a roaring bonfire with the other survivors. Every few hours you hear a piercing scream from the outside. You know the ways of the wood and starting fires is simple for you. You send makeshift lumberjacks on operations so you can build your underground city. Some come back alive. But the scores of huts and enclosures tunnelling and tunneling into the vast subway networks is exquisite. It is your obsession, your drive. Thank you squishy. Each morning the king of the BMT sends a new villager up top, and they are never seen or heard from again. But fortune shines upon you. You are never picked. You live to be an old woman, the builder matriarch of your worker colony, for He has treated you well.
One day, you feel compelled to walk up top. It is time. Up top, all the buildings are covered with vines if not disintegrated entirely. There is no life. You look up at the burnt sunset sky and see squishy, several times the size of the moon, from your view. A tentacle speeds its way down to the atmosphere. You place a woodcarving of your youngerself and a baby squishy in its outstretched palm. A flash of light.
You see galaxies before your eyes. You're endlessly hungry, grabbing stars and swallowing them whole. You will live forever, and everything is within your grasp. Perhaps now, though, it is time to build something new.
I think this post is the one that will make me finally unsubscribe and leave this commmunity. It's so many brigaders here now and it's not fun or productive anymore. I might return some time in the future, but I fought the good fight and I'm ready to be done.
Open discourse is fine, but you can really only have a community like this work if enough people accept the core premise. I'm not sure Lemmy can support that kind of userbase.
Best of luck, everyone.
Use a dumbphone and hold onto a smartphone to use only when necessary. I have a Sunbeam F1 Pro for daily use. And I have a Moto G Power, purchased used, that I use maybe once every other week for bike maps, public transit, and restaurant QR codes. I'm hoping with how amazing the battery is that will last until 5G inevitably gets phased out. I was using FOSS apps with that, but I'll just go back to the App Store. Post-DOGE, my threat model doesn't require degoogling anymore.
Maybe eventually I'll move to GrapheneOS, provided it finds a way to exist without using Google products and services. I have high hopes for Ubuntu Touch in the 2030s.
For me it's less about finding a new daily driver and more about limiting the time spent on an Android phone.
I've donated nearly everything five years ago on account of transitioning, but I kept two pairs of comfy fleece pajama and my old ski jacket from 2009 because they don't make the same patternwork these days, the type where it's asymetrical vertical and horizontal stripes. It's outdated but I love that style.
I do have a lot of vintage clothes, since nearly all slow fashion brands stopped offering tall sizes years ago, and those are up to 35 years old. But I haven't owned them for that long.
It's frustrating. It feels like even progressive men here (not all, but many) aren't willing to listen, while making it all about them. And because of the vast male majority, it feels like most threads on womens' issues consist of off-topic defensive comments. I don't recommend Lemmy to women either.
That being said, you're all worth it. Reddit as a whole isn't what it once was. And womens' Reddit communities tend to have lots of people, which can sometimes lead to negative spiraling when bad things happen. I get it, but it would make my mental health worse.
On Lemmy, it's a small, friendly space much like the old internet. I recognize a lot of the same folks on these communities. We uplift each other.
Lots of people here can very hostile about us being here, but we're making this place a little friendlier and more inclusive, and I'm glad we're all here. We've got each other's backs.
It's a complex issue for sure, but I'm really proud of this thread for consistently using the term "trans women" when talking about the differences between trans women compared to cis women and cis men in sports.
On Reddit, most people on this debate just say "biological males," "males," or "men" in situations where they're clearly talking about trans women, which is a clear tell that it was never about fairness in sports for them.
You'd think the literal apocalypse happening would be an acceptable justification for not being dolled up 100% of the time, yet here we are with Aloy.
And honestly, she looks pretty good for someone socially ostracized her whole life, not having a mom, and roughing it her whole life in a cabin that doesn't have running water. It could be a whole lot worse than just peach fuzz 🤷♀️