been thinking about all the little moments tucked away in my memories that are a world unknowable to those younger than me, so consider this an opportunity to reminisce over old times, but also to ask those about the times you did not live through.

I guess my question for those older than me is: before computers, how did you learn to do something?

Did access to knowledge change your life, was a constraint lifted when you no longer depended on having found the right books or people to learn tips on how to cook a new dish, or how to fix a plumbing problem, or how to plant a garden?

Was life more simple, did you have fewer problems to solve without technology in your life, or did technology make life easier?

Hi, I've maintained and used a sourdough starter many years of my life, and I've tried different methods of making the stater. For a while, I would make my bread and then pinch a piece of it off (a "levain") and let that function as my sourdough starter for the next loaf.

More recently, I feed a cup of sourdough starter with flour and water each day, and after a few days when it gets old enough, I start a new one using a small amount of the sourdough as a "seed" and discard the rest (usually I make bread with it).

My question is about the seed - if a sourdough starter has a variety of microbes, the way I seed the next starter might have an impact, it's a form of selection.

Since they are microbes, I assume there are many of them in the sourdough and I don't need much to get "enough" of a sample to keep a healthy culture going - I just stir a spoon in the old sourdough, then use that same spoon (with the little bit of sourdough stuck to the spoon) to stir the new sourdough's flour and water together, and that's it.

But I keep thinking about how this might be a kind of selection - and I was wondering if there is a significant difference in, for example, a levain method of pinching off a piece of the whole and the microbial sampling that has vs the sampling from just not cleaning off the spoon when stirring the old and then the new.

I would imagine the levain has a greater likelihood of all the microbes being present, while a single spoonful might constitute a more narrow subset of microbes? Or maybe the microbes are distributed evenly enough in the sourdough that a spoonful represents as broad a sample as a pinched off piece?

I haven't noticed any obvious, practical differences in how the starter is made, but I'm wondering if a theoretical, significant difference exists.

I guess some of this paranoia comes from thinking about Zeno's paradox, the 100 prisoner problem, and the Monty Hall problem.

A levain seems more likely to contain a small amount of each kind of microbe (since the whole is incorporated and then mixed well before being divided into a part) than the approach of starting a new starter from a single spoonful (which necessarily selects only a subset first from the whole - a subset which may or may not be as evenly distributed as from a levain).

In practice this probably makes no difference, but maybe there could be minor ways a spoon would preference some kinds of microbes over others (maybe if the spoon were made of silver, for example, the microbes that survive contact with the silver would be more likely to carry on to future generations?).

Anyway, thoughts? (Other than about my mental fitness, lol.)

I've been saying, "I was born without a uterus", which so far seems to answer honestly without directly outing myself as trans.

Any thoughts on how to best navigate this? Ideally without disclosing I'm trans 😅

Might help also to describe what you think feminism is, since it's one of those terms that is overloaded.

I once had a physical therapist tell me she wasn't a feminist because she thought women couldn't be as physically capable as men when serving as soldiers, and seemed to believe feminism requires treating women exactly like men.

I told her I was a feminist because I believe in equal rights for men and women, an idea she did not seem so opposed to.

The way I understand my feelings and experiences has changed so much pre vs post transition.

I wanted to see what other small misconceptions you all had from pre-transition that you see differently now, or that maybe you wish you had understood before.

There are so many to choose from, but I'll start:

Probably as a coping mechanism I never saw the gendered components to my self-loathing.

For example, I hated my breasts because they were malformed-looking, to me. I would sometimes think, if I were a woman it would be worse (like the same, but larger), but I never once thought having a flat chest would be better. Instead I seemed to need to feel having female breasts would be worse, so I could feel better about my situation.

Or how I always loved how little hair was on my body, but never thought that was abnormal. I never got back hair and only had thin hair on my belly and a small, thin strip on my sternum. I never thought of this in terms of gender, I never thought about how my body ideal was curvy and hairless, or feminine. It bothered me when I was compared to male beauty icons, but I never could quite be honest with myself as to why.

I ignored (or repressed) the gender in everything, but it was still there.

So my misconception was about gender itself, I thought of it as primarily social and malleable, and thus was some great social evil, gender was The Enemy or The Problem.

Now gender is extremely important to me, but before I would say being a man was irrelevant to me, or even obviously unwanted - it was a moral choice, to be a woman was to be a better person in my mind, to abandon a toxic social role in favor of an enlightened one.

Now I think you can't really choose, that we have these implicit gendered feelings that we can't really change, and so being a woman feels good to me because of what I am, and now being a woman is just a precious gift, rather than a moral imperative.

I totally botched this post, I wanted this to be succinct and lost my sense of purpose and have rambled along.

Looking forward to hearing from you all. 💚

have been wondering recently what my blind spots are, what are beliefs I have that are unexamined or based on too little evidence for how much I believe them ...

maybe there are common patterns, that people commonly believe false things and I might be challenged in my own beliefs this way

Just wondering what moments of gender euphoria or joy you have experienced, was hoping we all might enjoy hearing some positive stories!

I'll start: today, I went to my laser hair removal place to reschedule an appointment and nobody was at the front desk, and after waiting for a while I went to use the ladies room and ran into a woman even taller than me who immediately called me gorgeous and then proceeded to compliment my makeup, earrings, and hair. I was like a deer in the headlights, simply stunned as if I had slipped into an alternate universe where this complete stranger was actually a close friend and I had forgotten. Nobody is that nice to me, let alone a stranger.

Anyway, women can be so wonderful, and this moment made me grateful to be a woman. 😊

What is something you learned or experienced from being trans that you wish you knew pre-transition, or that you wish cis people knew?

I'll go first: the temperature differences when going from testosterone-dominance to estrogen-dominance is not just real but significant, my body just puts out less heat and I feel colder much easier now even when otherwise maintaining a high metabolism, eating in excess, etc.

It may have just been my trans denial before, but I really wanted to believe that the difference was not that great and I was wrong.

What's something you wish people knew?

I missed this news somehow (the article is from July 1st):

A judge has thrown out the case of a 20-year-old trans woman who was arrested in Florida for washing her hands in a women’s bathroom.

Prosecutors reportedly failed to meet the deadline for filing charging documents against Marcy Rheintgen after she was arrested while protesting the state’s anti-trans bathroom ban. A Leon County judge granted her lawyer’s motion to dismiss the misdemeanor trespassing charge.

In case you didn't know the background:

In March, Rheintgen informed Florida lawmakers of her plan to enter the state’s Capitol building and use the restroom, even including a photo of herself so they knew who to look for. She never thought police would actually arrest her, despite the fact that the move broke the 2023 law.

...

Nevertheless, two cops met her at the restroom, but she decided to go in anyway. At first, they told her they would just give her a notice to appear before the judge. But they then reported she became “sassy” and indicated she may use the women’s bathroom again, so they arrested her.

...

Florida’s bathroom ban criminalizes anyone who uses a toilet or changing facility that doesn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth. It applies to public schools, universities, parks, prisons, and other government buildings but not to businesses and healthcare facilities.

The law only applies to facilities run by the state, but transgender and nonbinary Floridians have nonetheless been confronted, harassed, and intimidated in public restrooms located inside private businesses.

I have a friend who is HIV positive and was distressed when turned down sex with someone they have a sexual history with because they joined a polycule that as a rule don't allow members to have sex with anyone with HIV.

Wondering what the thoughts are here about that.