I’m taking away the word empathy from the NTs until they discover it isn’t a synonym for “giving a shit about people”
In an attempt to be less of a dick:
empathy is a brain function that some people (including me!) struggle with.
There are three types! Affective empathy, which is basically the ability to read other people’s emotions, Somatic empathy, the classic “I feel sad because you’re sad” and Cognitive empathy, which is the ability to accurately guess what people are thinking and feeling.
If you use empathy to mean “caring about other people” when you could use words like compassion, you’re implying a large subsection of the population (including people you may know) are heartless and bad simply because of the way they were born!
(If you learned more than one, pick the one you learned the most or took for the longest time or enjoyed the most or whatever. Pick the one most meaningful to you.)
watching reddit go into a full death spiral is like watching the specifically trans equivalent of the library of alexandria go up in flames
like yes reddit is also the only place on the internet you can get an actual answer to any question in general. but it’s also a huge centralized community database about which surgeons will fuck you over, who takes what insurance, which doctors you can trust, how to write a template therapist’s letter, insurance appeals, peer support, questions that feel too stupid to ask anywhere else, diy guidelines, “hey this is embarrassing but,” finding trans people in your area, explaining why you need PTO without getting way too personal about it, safety tips, et cetera you get the picture
Someone on trans Reddit just bought the url transgender.org and have put out a call for folks to help turn it into a replacement (and more). Here’s a link on r/ftm but it’s open to everyone
Here’s how to use the archive.org Wayback Machine to save webpages. Get what you can while it’s up, prioritize the most important information. And save links to the pages in a text file so we have a record of what survives.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Re-blogging again because that comment fucking killed me
reminds me of that one story where a person ran across an add asking for five years experience in a particular code language. This person had helped create this particular code language, three years ago.
Whole swarms of companies are using “entry level” to mean “this is the lowest-level job in our company” rather than “you don’t need any particular job experience or licensed skills to do this.”
(Of course, they lie about that, too, because they will fucking put “entry level” on a divisional manger job; no, I don’t know what the internal logic for that is.)
The good news for job seekers is: 90% of those “requirements” are bogus. They are listing the experience that they think fits “what this job needs, AFTER you learn how to do it.”
Also it’s illegal to require a degree for a job that doesn’t specifically need it - turns out a lot of places were using “must have a 4-year degree” as a roundabout way of saying “we only want to hire white people” and that went to court and got slammed down. So now most of them say “Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.”
Most job listings are made by copying last year’s job listing from a related department and editing the details as little as possible. Repeat for three generations of job openings and you wind up with a list of “requirements” that relate to six different departments.
The “skills/experience required” section is often used as “our fantasy hire has these” rather than “we won’t speak to applicants who don’t have these.”
Ignore ALL of the experience/education required. Look over the list of actual job duties (if, sigh, you can figure them out… “grow revenue via enhanced customer service” tells you fuck-all about what you actually do on the job) and if you think you can do those - apply for the job. Don’t lie about your experience, but be ready to answer questions with “no, I haven’t worked as a [job title] before BUT I have done X in my job as a [different job title].”
Some of the requirement listings are legit. If they’re looking for data analysts who are specialists in Tableau, you can’t fake that with “I have poked around in spreadsheets and a bit of mysql.” But if you can figure out what the job actually needs, and you have those skills - apply, regardless of whether you meet the checklist.
In a statement to The Post, a spokesperson for NBCUniversal claimed the tree work is simply an annual ritual at this time of year. “We understand that the safety tree trimming of the Ficus trees we did on Barham Blvd. has created unintended challenges for demonstrators, that was not our intention. In partnership with licensed arborists, we have pruned these trees annually at this time of year to ensure that the canopies are light ahead of the high wind season,” they wrote. “We support the WGA and SAG’s right to demonstrate and are working to provide some shade coverage. We continue to openly communicate with the labor leaders on-site to work together during this time.”
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If those trees were pollarded annually, the cut areas would NOT look like that. There would be big knobs of old growth at the trimming sites. Not seeing any of that here. The way those trees were topped (not pollarded, which is a very careful process that has to begin when the tree is immature) is excellent way to kill them due to loss of hydration, open sites to infection and parasitism during the best time of year for both, lack of nutrition due to so little greenery and new budding growth being left, sunburn and other exposure damage, and a myriad of other possibilities. Plus, if they were topped annually, they would not have the lovely drooping branches seen in the other picture but would have tons of vertical suckers instead.
This is what an annually pollarded mature tree should look like:
If this was done by the city, the public works arborists should be protesting in front of city hall and screaming their heads off right now. I’m not hearing about that, so… Tree law!
The Studios: *speak*
Botanists and other Tree Experts:
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Update and confirmation of Imminent Tree Law:
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He mentions later in the thread that not only do they not trim the trees annually, they’re trimmed at best once every 18 years. Supposed to be every five, and only in dormancy, which even my layman’s ass knows about tree trimming.
And yes, Universal can probably eat the fine. But it’s gonna be a whopper even if the trees survive (which is as mentioned kinda unlikely), California is a triple damage state for tree law, and it may increase dramatically if there were nesting birds in the trees.
All this to be a Captain Planet filler villain to some writers. And yes, it’s currently just the writers officially picketing there; SAG-AFTRA recommended against it for petty bullshit like this and the suddenly necessary sidewalk construction.
I asked my dad— a retired arborist—about TREE LAW and he just kinda blinked and said (i paraphrase because Dad Tangents, amirite?):
“Worst and best case I ever saw was a guy who was caught in the act of cutting down a C&C tree by two Department of Urban Forestry supervisors while they were randomly driving around on a Saturday. Not only did he have to deal with the cops showing up and months of paperwork and bureaucracy, but he also had to pay the fines AND cover the cost of the tree removal + stumping + buying a new tree + planting the new tree + wages for the regular crew plus the extra workers they needed to get the jobs done. That tree ended up costing him upwards of $35K, and that was over 20 years ago.”
So yeah, respect Tree Law or pay out the bootyhole.
When September and October are nearing and you’re planning an event: google “Rosh Hashanah *year*” and *Yom Kippur *year*” and then, and I cannot stress this enough, don’t plan your event on those days. In fact, don’t plan any events starting sundown the night before. Those are the three most important days of the Jewish calendar, and, once again, I cannot stress enough how much this little bit of forethought and kindness will make every Jew you know cry tears of joy.
in 2023, the night before Rosh Hashanah is Thursday evening, September 14.
you know what, i am right and im tired of pretending i am not
i posted some thoughts about this on mastodon last month
frankly i just think a lot of the discourse on steven universe was and remains shortsighted and childish. a lot of viewers and critics just stubbornly refuse to take the conditions of a production into consideration whatsoever. which, you know, i can understand that as a casual viewer of media, you don’t have that full context you just have the show. but when you get outlandishly vitriolic, as many online critics love to do, a lot of the time you just end up making villains of creators who most likely agree with you on a lot of the stuff you’re criticizing because *the studio forced them to put that shit in and would sue them to hell and back if they admitted to that fact.* i’ll never forget that like three hour “steven universe sucks” video where the critic in question just straight up personally yelled at rebecca sugar over the network’s release schedule, as if she had any control or input on that whatsoever!
at a certain point this level of projected auteurism transitions seamlessly into abject illiteracy. it’s a mode of criticism which treats art as if it emerges from a vacuum, as if artists working within any mainstream media machine have absolute creative control of what makes it onto the air. this critical mode gives endless, endless cover for exploitative censorious media corporations who force talented artists to work under the most untenable of conditions.
why do we care about this? what is it that we really care about? everyone wants the art to be good, but comes at it from an astonishingly naive perspective that corporations absolutely encourage. because if all responsibility for the work falls on the author’s head regardless of how many suits put themselves between the author and the finished work, then the suits just get to keep on doing what they’re doing. this is how we get marvel movies halfway through production before a script has even been written, how we get exploitative minirooms that refuse young screenwriters the long-term career experience of tv writers rooms past, how we get an environment where queer artists pushing boundaries in indie spaces with no financial or institutional support face infinitely more scrutiny with MUCH higher stakes than anything that actually has a real impact on the world at large.
that steven universe exists at all is a miracle. that it’s as queer as it is, and as nuanced as it is about queer family dynamics, mourning, trauma, forgiveness, is something worth celebrating. that doesn’t mean you have to watch it or like it! as cj the x would say, was it bad? or did you just not like it? increasingly i wish everyone watching things would learn to distinguish between the two, and would learn in general that no amount of criticizing mass media will ever ever ever ever result in Things Actually Changing. you want media to get better? then your enemy is the studios, and your allies are the exploited workers who are just as frustrated as you are! putting all that energy into hating A Director or Actor or Property is, most of the time, a gift to the capitalists.
Also regarding the ending, like.
This is a kid’s show. I know you can do a fair amount more nuance than some people expect on a kid’s show, but it is, ultimately, a kid’s show. A kid’s show that is trying to express the idea that compassion and communication are powerful tools of conflict resolution. So of course the show ended with speaking with compassion to the big bad and that opened her eyes and everything got better. (not happy ever after, but notably better.)
Okay listen I have another disability related thing that’s important!!
If you have any disabilities linked to tooth decay/erosion, through direct cause or secondary symptom, it is vital that you get one or both of the following items: Sensodyne toothpaste and enamel repair mouthwash
This includes health conditions such as acid reflux, diabetes, thyroid conditions, fibromyalgia, chronic pain & mental illnesses such as depression that create poor hygiene routines, sensory issue disorders like autism and ADHD, and any health condition that causes frequent vomiting / increased stomach acid, including eating disorders and migraines.
All of these disabilities will erode the enamel of your teeth, not only opening you up to cavities but making it very easy to chip your teeth from such simple things as biting the wrong way on the tines of a fork. (I’ve chipped my teeth at least 4 times this way).
The toothpaste on the left here (sensodyne pronamel) is gentle on your teeth, won’t cause painful sensations from any extreme mint flavor, and will even protect your gums if they’re sensitive from any of these conditions.
The mouthwash on the right (Crest enamel repair) will, as it says, repair your enamel — which is marvelous, because the technology to repair your enamel at all is relatively very new to society! — but it is most importantly non-alcoholic. Meaning that it works well as a once-a-day rinse without any of the burning sensations of antiseptics that typically discourage people with sensory issues from taking care of their teeth.
I know remembering to do these things every day can feel like a lot when you’re sick and exhausted, but I promise a collective three minutes out of every day is going to save you an incredible amount of pain and money in the future. If your teeth are susceptible enough to rot, you can actually die from infection. And as they say, with how little insurance actually covers dental —
Not brushing your teeth??
In THIS economy???
also: ask your dentist about durophat fluoride toothpaste!! I got some on prescription and it is a special formula that helps protect teeth
Okay so even BETTER than the enamel repair mouthwash (though get that in addition to this for even better protection) is MI paste. It can be hard to get but some dentists will sell it to you. (It seems to be easier to get in the US. I believe Amazon carries it as well)
It’s not cheap at $20 for a small tube, but it is incredible at not just preventing enamel loss, it actually remineralizes your teeth! I’m a fan of the melon flavour personally.
If you have fluoride sensitivities (my mast cells hate me) or want to add another layer I have had huge success with n-ha (nano-hydroxyapatite). Studies have shown it either matching or outperforming fluoride, and I know I personally stopped getting so much tooth sensitivity (which we now know is actually sinus pressure referred and the fluoride was potentially triggering) and my cavities have gone down drastically. Which is great news since the numbing doesn’t work on me and I cant afford dental work every 6 months.
I personally like boka, they have a few mint free toothpastes. I keep a travel size in my bedside table for when I can’t get out of bed or was 2 dizzy to stand and brush my teeth.
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