Well, tbh, we don’t bother with it at all now. There’s not enough kids doing it to merit the expense or effort involved (and it ain’t like either are high enough to matter, which shows how bad Halloween has gotten).

But, yeah, back when kids still did it, who cares about costumes? Halloween isn’t dressupday. There’s other traditions involved, including kids running around and having fun just for the sake of the fun itself.

Besides, who am I to determine whether or not someone needs a costume? They might not be able to afford one. They might have some weird religious thing about masks or whatever. They might have some medical issue that prevents a costume. They might have had a costume, but something happened to it. I don’t know why they’re not wearing one. But if they show up at my door, they’re celebrating Halloween. They’re taking part in not only a community activity, but a very human activity. That’s worth some candy by itself.

Shit, I’ve given candy to adults that rolled up and said trick or treat because it isn’t only about kids. I’ve handed extra candy to adults and kids that asked with the explanation there was someone that couldn’t make it. IDGAF if it’s true or not, it isn’t about me.

I fucking miss Halloween the way it used to be. You’d think in this bumfuck nowhere semi rural town, we’d still have people out and about. But no, we haven’t had a single visitor on Halloween since covid. Even before that, it was two or three the entire night and had been for years.

There was so much fun in putting on a Halloween playlist, or movies, or whatever and waiting to see or hear someone coming. Even if I didn’t dress up myself, it was fun to see everyone out and enjoying the night. Hell, back when I was still in physical therapy, on a bloody walker, I was in the living room ready to go. Hopped up on pain meds, but still.

I’m envious that you live somewhere it’s still a big thing, costumes or not.

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Afaik, only the ant bites. The others use them for flinging opponents or grappling with them.

Unlike me, I grapple so I can bite

You get me closer to god

Nah, you were just being a dick for no good reason.

Well, I’m not in a situation where I can go otc for headaches. I’m already using acetaminophen (paracetamol for the brits) non stop for chronic pain, and I have to save ibuprofen for stuff that never responds to other pain control methods because I’m an old fuck and I’m not supposed to take it at all, and it causes problems when I ignore that and take it anyway.

Luckily, my headaches almost always stem from stress and/or muscle tension in my neck, so it’s very rare they don’t respond to non chemical methods, and I happen to have prescription meds that are prn for those things if I want/need.

But, for headaches, I used to find caffeine more effective than analgesics, nsaid or otherwise. Even when I wasn’t drinking caffeine regularly (which means I know that it wasn’t just caffeine withdrawal causing the headache to begin with), a cup of coffee usually got rise of a headache faster and more thoroughly than NSAIDs.

But it was usually acetaminophen that would be my first pick when I went the OTC pill route. Less likely to irritate my already irritating bowel syndrome issues.

Tbh though, none of the OTC analgesics are great at getting rid of a headache. Some of the older studies and double blind tests I saw put them about the same as placebo for headaches, though that’s been years since I looked up anything about it.

Tangent warning! Also, warning for terminology that is now considered unacceptable, but is necessary for the relevant anecdote.

I’m telling this story with the intent of giving people that may not have run across intersex people in person a perspective on the matter. Familiarity spawns acceptance and understanding, imo. So even second hand familiarity might be enough for someone to have an extra bit of understanding when they do meet an intersex person, or that’s the hope.

So, I have a friend years ago that is intersex. This being the south, and their family being on the undereducated side of things, they used a term for themselves that is now considered a directly negative term, rather than an aspect of language: morphadite.

They were born with external genitalia that was visually closer to female, and were thus assigned that sex. Their parents, however, chose not to allow surgeries, and were surprisingly unphased by the situation when you consider their level of education and upbringing. The mom had said at several points “if the Lord saw fit to give us a good baby, and he did, we hain’t got no cause to be complaining about it”.

Like many people, they didn’t quite understand the word hermaphrodite. It was not just them, most people that would discuss the idea of intersex people would also use morphadite rather than hermaphrodite, and not out of any sense of meanness, it was just a mispronounced thing that became what people thought was the right word.

Back then, the term intersex hadn’t spread into usage much at all. Even doctors would use the term hermaphrodite on paperwork, and in speech.

Now, my friend still uses morphadite when talking about themselves because old habits are hard to break, but uses the currently preferred term intersex when discussing the subject in general, or when referring to other intersex people. They have known for a long time now that morphadite was never the term to begin with, but find a degree of joy in that fact. They’ve said that it makes them remember their parents when they think of or use the word, and that’s a good thing to them.

For a long while, they used hermaphrodite when talking about others, as the term intersex didn’t reach here until maybe a decade ago, if that. The term hermaphrodite was still considered a neutral term back then, it didn’t carry any sense of hate to it in use here, it was thought to be the accurate medical term.

That friend went through some shifts over the years regarding their self perception in gender. When we first met, they thought of themselves as a boy with girl parts. As time passed, they explored presenting as female, and found it didn’t feel right. But, they ended up enjoying some aspects of female presentation and clothing.

It wasn’t until maybe six years ago that they ran across the idea of non binary as a term for what they’ve felt and thought for most of their adult life, and now consider themselves non binary, though they don’t have a preference regarding pronouns among people that have known them for a long time. They introduce themselves with neutral pronouns when giving pronouns is useful, and say that it feels the most right to them, but that gendered pronouns don’t feel wrong, so they don’t care when people use the ones that “she” or “he” was using at those points in their life.

There’s a lot of history of intersex people and how they’ve been integrated into different cultures. The idea of it being a medical condition to be treated is, personally, ready to be disposed of. There may well be medical issues associated with being intersex, but that’s no different than medical issues stemming from being born with a proclivity towards being unusually hairy. Being intersex is just being human. It doesn’t need correction, and any surgeries or treatment should be about being healthy and functional, rather than conforming to the assumption of binary sex as the default option.

That assumption of having to surgically alter intersex people to conform to the binary is a relatively recent thing to begin with. Most of the cultures that addressed it legally only did so because of inheritance being gendered in the first place. There hasn’t always been a stigma, or an assumption of intersex being a disorder. Historically, from what I’ve run across over the years, there seems to have been an acceptance of it as being a difference rather than something that is abnormal.

So, for whatever it’s worth as second hand familiarity, there it is. Intersex people are out there, and they’re part of the wonderful tapestry of human diversity.

Is this really Linux drama though? It seems more like political drama that ended up jizzing on Linux.

I mean, yeah, there’s been drama after the decision was made based on legal issues brought about by political drama, but this part of it isn’t, if you get the distinction.

The only real linux drama part, as far as I can see is the crappy way it was announced, which isn’t what most of the people involved in the drama after the fact are complaining about.

I dunno, I’m not complaining about the post here, just talking about the overall issue itself using the post as a jumping point.

Anyway, I guess what I’m getting at is that foss development can’t be immune from political fuckery (no matter how justified or unjustified it is). Everyone that’s going to be involved in development is going to live under some nation’s thumb, and is vulnerable to any legal ramifications of that nation. So there’s no way to prevent a project being strongarmed; all that’s possible is having enough people that can review the code do so, so that any fuckery that affects the project is known, so that everyone can decide what they want to do about it as individuals.

As long as individual people have the ability to use any foss software they want on their own devices, there’s a limit to how bad the fuckery can get. Tbh, I’m more worried about corporate fuckery in foss projects than governmental

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This is why I’ve started blasting the fuck out of every one of them. You do enough cursing and insulting, they tend to actually stop texting and calling. I got sick of having to tell them to fucking stop the spam, which didn’t work. But, amazingly, after a few days of going batshit on every one of them, they’ve stopped almost entirely. No texts at all in three days for me, though my wife and dad still get them.

I dunno, the browser lags when I scroll down it.

It’s trivial to build huge ones up. This account is only as old as the reddit bullshit in 23, and I know I’m over a hundred at least.

Humans are assholes. On the internet, they don’t work as hard to pretend they’re not. And, they’ll often go harder at it than anywhere else. So you block a lot if you want to avoid future interactions with the same asshole.

Anecdotes okay? If so, read on.

So, I’m cishetero, but have been involved with gay culture in specific, and broader LGBTQ+ culture generally. I was also a beard multiple times over the years, including for a lesbian couple that ended up being a bit more intimate.

But, yeah, there’s definitely dynamics with lesbians akin to top and bottom. Afaik, the terminology isn’t used often for lesbians, but it’s there in that regard too. Back in my younger days, an exclusively “top” lesbian was sometimes called a butch, whether or not they were butch in the more common sense if presenting in a more “masculine” manner. And, that was true of “bottom” lesbians being referred to as femme, even when they presented masculine.

Mind you, there was predominance of butch lesbians being tops in a sexual sense compared to being bottoms. It was fairly unusual to run into the stereotypical butch lesbian and have them not also want to be the more active partner, and even to the extent of not wanting any sexual acts being performed on them at all. By no means a universal thing, but it was common enough that people would be surprised when a butch lesbian wanted to receive head.

Being masculine presenting or feminine presenting isn’t a reliable predictor of sexual dynamics, but it’s not far off from reliable in my experience. Men and women, not just women. I’d say 8/10, the closer to a generic "masculine"presentation a person is, they’re a top in the bedroom. Mind you, that’s based on people willing to talk about such things fairly casually, which could leave out a ton of people that aren’t that way, but just don’t like talking about their sex lives in a group at work or party or other gathering.

The best lesbian friend I’ve ever had, that literally saved my life at least twice, was butch as hell. Flannels, boots, truck, went hunting, and mirrored male mannerisms with zero effort. But she was most definitely a bottom sexually. She would complain like hell that everyone wanted her to do all the work, every time, and all she wanted was some hot making out where the other woman was in charge, followed by “my pussy getting ate like a fat kid at a pie eating contest”. She didn’t mind reciprocating, but what made her most happy, most satisfied was being “bottom” in a sexual sense. But, being butch as hell, the women into her tended to assume she was going to be in control and be the active partner exclusively.

It seemed to me that the butch lesbians had a harder time with being stereotyped sexually than the femme/lipstick lesbians. It wasn’t as big a surprise to people when a feminine presenting lesbian wanted to be the more active party, or to be in charge even from the bottom. Power bottom lesbians exist in the same way laid back tops do, though a bit more frequently from what I’ve seen and heard.

Why is my homie there about to shove a toothbrush up his hershey highway?

Wait, so I’m half badger and half capybara? Fuckin A!

Hmm, the movie choices are easier. My kid isn’t quite ready for Kubrick’s more intense movies like a clockwork orange, so that kind of thing.

Reading wise, when I’m reading to just chill and enjoy escapism, I gravitate to fantasy and urban fantasy. Right now I’m going back through the Laurell K Hamilton stuff. Kinda trashy for the most part, but there’s some nice light reading in there. I’m flipping over to Stephen King when I get tired of the trashy parts of Hamilton’s series, which have fantasy, but close enough in some cases. But I’ll also reread my favorite Vonnegut and Palahniuk books too, when I’m wanting comfy reading rather than new stuff.

Music though? Damn. I’d probably start with metal since that’s the genre I most enjoy loud. Hit up my playlist with my absolute favorites, then take a break and do some deeper cuts. If/when I came back, it would probably be either bluegrass or old school hip-hop. Again, that’s because I like feeling the music as much as hearing it. If I still had time and a break for the ears to relax, over to classical for the same reason; I always start with tocatta and fugue in D minor with that. There’s some superb recordings of it that can shake the fillings out of your teeth with a decent subwoofer.

Gotta take breaks when cranking the volume though. Ear fatigue is a thing, and actual damage is possible too

Heh, I actually get those sometimes. I’m disabled, so the only real barrier to complete freedom is family, and I can sneak in a few days a year where I’m alone all day, and sometimes over night.

For real, the only thing I’d do that I can’t do when everyone is home is crank the fuck out of the music. My wife gets migraines easy, and my kid seems to be following suit unfortunately. So really turning it up until I can feel the bass in my guts is a rare treat.

But you can only do that for so long before the ears get tired. So the rest of the time would likely be reading without interruptions.

I’m pretty fucking easy to please lol.

I sometimes house sit for my best friend, and that’s essentially what I do there, just not that loud with the music because the pets don’t like it past a certain point.

Sometimes I’ll pop in a movie that isn’t to the liking of the family instead of music, and enjoy the more immersive sound. Which, I could also watch things they don’t enjoy as much with the sound up, but why not have both factors my way?

Mind you, I can do those things with everyone home, but it takes planning and I’ll still have interruptions. But doing them always has the risk of causing my wife hours or days of pain and misery, so it’s something I prefer to just wait for. Kinda makes it more enjoyable tbh.

Cause no harm to another human unless it be in defense of self or others.

Clean up after yourself when outside of your home.

Don’t be a dick.

Tangent!

I used to prefer being DPS. And then I played the first game that made healers and tanks fun for me. Shaiya. Wasn’t the best game overall. Kinda bad, and a ripoff of some parts of WoW. But it was fun to heal in, and very fun to tank in. You really could change the entire gameplay based on how you tanked, and how you healed.

Then I moved over to battle/war of the immortals. Again, flawed games, but tanking and healing were fun. Healing more than tanking in those two, but still more fun than DPS.

When I switched over to Neverwinter as my main gaming focus, the way they had the classes be able to handle tanking and/or healing was the most fun I’d ever had playing in PUGs. I could pop onto my haste cleric, keep everyone alive while also boosting them and put out play damage solo. Paladin? Same idea, only the team wouldn’t get hit much if at all. The fighter class was essentially pure tank, and good at it, but not as much fun as paladin for me.

I had more fun playing supports, heals and tanks than I ever did on DPS. It didn’t hurt that, on the games I played, I was great at tanking and healing. Enough so that my guilds/alliances would plan events around my schedule, even when the people were on the other side of the planet. Even on Shaiya, which was totally pay to win, I could out heal and out tank players that dumped tons of cash into it.

I miss it sometimes, but I’d have to rebuild my gaming PC to be able to play neverwinter now, because no way am I starting completely over on the ps5 with a controller that makes it much harder to play those classes. And none of the console based MMOs really entice me currently.

You know, I tried a lot of tactics to get the spam calls and texts to stop.

What ended up working so far is telling them that I’m sick of the spam, and that because of it, I’m staying home instead of voting.

Mind you, I’m lying, but they don’t need to know that. But it worked, so far. Haven’t gotten any in a few days now, and they were coming in multiples each day before that

I just checked the apps I use, and sync shows display names properly.