Yeah, their last album was solid. Not their best, but keeping the overall level of songwriting, production, and performance that they've always had. Now, if someone didn't like them at all, had a bad opinion about those things, then that person would obviously say that them being consistent with their previous work is a bad thing lol.

But, yeah, they're still relevant, they still have a solid fanbase that's into the way they follow their nose, so to speak.

Myself, I tend to enjoy specific songs, but not entire albums. I don't think the songwriting is consistent across all songs, they have a lot of highs and lows for me. But, the band is damn good on an instrumental level for me, and Leto's voice works well for what they do, even when I don't like a particular song.

But it has always been a vanity project imo. I just don't think it's zombie, at least not yet

Well, I'm not able to posit an answer to this as to why trans people don't consider it valid, but I've seen discussions about it.

What I can point to is the cis side of things. Ignoring the jerks that are coming from bigotry, berated that's the answer for them: bigotry.

But I know some people that are supporters of trans rights, but still hold onto that view, that until someone, particularly mtf people, has bottom surgery, they haven't transitioned, or at least not fully.

Now, it took me a bit to wrap my head around it, why someone that would want to transition at all wouldn't want all possible methods used. And it comes down to the binary. People in general still haven't grasped that not everyone is binary in the first place, much less that transition is not necessarily about changing the body.

It's certainly a big thing, it's important, but making that mental leap from "oh, they want their body to be right, and that means being as direct a match to the organs and body shapes of the confirmed gender as possible" to "oh, everyone can have different needs regarding any given part of their body to be transitioned for themselves"

See, a lot of the fight about trans rights revolves around genitals. A lot of what people that are binary build their idea of gender around as they learn and age is the sexual characteristics, with the primary characteristics of genitals being the most defining. In other words, me being a cis man, my gender identity is very much tied to my genitals as the most relevant factor in my body matching my inner self. I've moved past it being the only factor (though that took time), but my junk is part and parcel of the physical aspects that make my body a man's body (for my body, not others')

When the tie between gender and sex and identity are first developed, it's inside the self. So the closer one hews to the binary, the more import ends up being placed on genitals because of being at the binary points. "I am a boy/man, and I have a penis, therefore men have a penis". We all start with our own viewpoint.

And, for some trans people, genitals are a primary factor. But they don't have to be, and it takes a combination of exposure to the possibilities as well as willingness to change one's mind to truly grasp that.

You know the most significant thing that helped me get that transition confirmation isn't purely about surgery? It was talking to trans men. The bottom surgery options aren't as sought after among the trans men I've known. Hormonal effects have turned out to be perfect for them. It confused me at first, what with my gender identity being significantly tied to my genitals looking and working in a distinctly cis way. But it eventually broke through that you don't need a cis penis or testicles to be a man.

And that is what directly led to internalizing that the notion surgery for trans women isn't necessary either. If I lose my penis, I don't become a woman. Recognizing that fact flipped my head. It means that, just like phalloplasty not being necessary to become a man; you don't have to have vaginoplasty to be a woman.

A woman that happens to have a penis is still a woman.

But it takes knowing enough trans people, having enough conversations about it, to break out of the binary way of thinking even for trans people that are binary.

To refocus, I think that the reason people think you have to have bottom surgery is that they've not had the right combination of events to make them break out of binary thinking as the default. Now, the ones that refuse to accept the fact of it not being the defining characteristic, that's as much about humans being stubborn and sometimes arrogant about our own thoughts and opinions being the right ones. Most of us don't want to change our minds at all, about anything.

But I suspect that, given enough time and exposure to the concepts, anyone that's otherwise on the path of understanding trans people will get there eventually. It's only the ones that aren't trying to understand that won't get there.

Don't know if it's in there, but when it comes to southern baking, the king of the heap that's distinctly southern, but not biscuits or cornbread, is probably pecan pie, with sweet potato pie being an almost tie.

After that, peach cobbler/pie.

Then probably strawberry rhubarb pie/cobbler

Pies are a little more old school southern, since they've been baked in some form or another since europeans came over.

But, if you step out of that, bread pudding is maybe more ubiquitous, depending on where in the south you are.

Now, cake wise, hummingbird cake is likely the one most people think of, and is likely to be in that book.

However, soda cakes are incredibly beloved. Coke and cheerwine in particular have honored places. RC cola, and sun-drop too, though the sun-drop is a bit more regional. But any recipe for any of the sodiepop cakes are interchangeable. They're obviously more recent, but still a staple.

If there's a recipe in there, fresh apple cake is amazing, but it isn't as popular.

Another one that's not purely southern, but has become a deep tradition in some families are "friendship" cakes. They're called that because part of the process involves fermenting fruit, and when you make the cake, you split off part of the resulting starter and give it to others. It's essentially fruitcake, but much better than any of the usual commercial brands. Moist, rich, and full of flavor.

It depends on what's in the book though.

With pound cakes, you can sub in almost any fruit and be fine since it's an addition rather than a core ingredient. The fruit isn't necessary for the cake to bake right. You can even leave it out, and the cake will be fine. Most of the time, it wouldn't even change how moist the final result is.

With pound cakes, you can sub in almost any fruit and be fine since it's an addition rather than a core ingredient. The fruit isn't necessary for the cake to bake right. You can even leave it out, and the cake will be fine. Most of the time, it wouldn't even change how moist the final result is.

Afaik, nowhere has tried to ban that kind of treatment, only the ones for transition.

Definitely an unpopular opinion, but it's one that's catching on for sure. Great post, no sarcasm.

Well, we don't get a lot of easy to find news on Iraq here in the US. You have to go looking for it.

That being said, with the little that I have gone looking for, it really seems like the people of Iraq are busting their asses to recover, and have shown incredible resilience in the face of so much destruction that hit them in the last fifty years. It's impressive as hell tbh.

But mislabeled!

And this is the origin story of furries

It's been a pleasant disagreement :)

That's the kind of disagreement that is best.

Edit: also, my apologies. When I saw this earlier, I was on my phone and fat-fingered the down vote. I corrected that. Not that votes matter, but this far down a thread it can seem like disrespect.

Yeah, I'm one of them.

Ukraine needs the backing, it's smart policy for the present and future, and we could forge an alliance with them that could last as long as the ones we have in Europe already.

Yeah, war sucks, and it would be nice if Russia would fuck off. Yeah, it's expensive and we have trouble of our own. But some things are about the long view, and in that regard, there's just no benefit to not backing them.

I love the specificity of this

Dude. You know what I'm talking about, don't pretend otherwise

So, all I have to do is pump my semen into enough women, get them knocked up, and have thirty votes? Awesome! I'll be my own bloc!

No, no citizen whatsoever should be able to cast the votes of other citizens, period.

If the kid can't get in the voting booth by themselves, cast their own vote without assistance, then they aren't voting, someone else is.

Eh, when you scroll down to "steering members", it starts to look a lot less attractive.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with using fiction for education.

In that regard, they already have representation by their parents' votes. All it would achieve is giving parents outsized voting power.

Well, if they're much past infancy, there's only so much that could be done until they're adults anyway. Afaik, the kind of hormonal treatments to cause growth work way less past the early years. After that, it tends to need surgical intervention to change, but that's just based on the last time I was reading up on it, which has been about a year at this point.

That being said, it's worth talking to their doctor because the underlying causes can cause other problems that would be better detected early.

It's a really simple thing to have checked, it's just measuring the penis and comparing that to charts. No trauma involved, no complicated procedure, and unless it does point to a formal diagnosis there's no further action needed.

It's one of those things where knowing can give everyone involved time to prepare for anything down the road.

Well, no, not really.

Being a "grower" isn't the same thing at all.

Someone putting on weight could be called buried penis. Totally different thing as well.

Libido loss doesn't have anything to do with the penis itself, directly. There may be an underlying hormonal issue that causes both, but that's still different. And, sometimes people with micropenis may have psychological issues with their penis that interferes with libido as well. But, again that's not the same thing.

And, no, it doesn't "turn" micro later. By definition, it's an inborn thing. It would be called something else if it happens later in life.

The most recent research into this is barely a year old, but it only backed up and refined previous information; this stuff has been documented and studied since at least the seventies, since that's when the first surgeries for altering the condition took place. And that's just as far as I know currently.

It's maybe one of those things where there's a gap between the actual definition of a medical term and the colloquial usage, but I'm going off of the medical version. Again, from that standard, it is inborn, with the key factor in causing it being hormonal abnormalities in utero. The reasons for those hormonal issues are varied, and may have other symptoms after birth, but for it to be micropenis instead of something else, it's an in utero malformation.

Man, it's a tough one.

In theory, nobody should be disenfranchised by age at all. But at what age would they be able to vote, as in understand what to do, how to do it, and do so without adult supervision?

Until they reach that point, it's essentially their parents or guardians getting an extra vote.

And then you have to look at other things we limit minors on by virtue of not being able to make informed decisions. So, would we go with driving age, since that's when we trust them with a ton of death machine? Drinking age? Age of consent for sex (which isn't always 18)?

If we change it away from 18 to lower, showing that they have the full rights of any citizen, why don't they get those other rights with enfranchisement? Why is someone able to vote like someone that has the ability to make an informed choice, but they can't drink? Hell, that's already a problem since 18 year olds can be sent to fight and die in the military, but can't have a beer legally.

I would be fine with 16 being the age of majority for everything if the individual wanted it. You wanna step into adult life, with all the rights and responsibilities, I don't have an objection to that at 16. I had too many patients that were married and working before 18 to pretend that it isn't realistic for someone that age to step into adulthood. I don't think it's the best choice, but I wouldn't fight it if the world decided that way.

I could definitely made an informed decision for voting at 16. I had access to alcohol, and was able to make the decision to not use it, same with tobacco. I had access to sex, and made the decision to make it safe sex. I was a decent driver, and didn't have even a fender bender until I was 19, and I wasn't the one that caused it then. All of the stuff that we limit to "adults", I know I would have been fully capable of making informed and conscientious decision about any of them.

But I also knew other teenagers that were absolute morons that couldn't be trusted not to jerk off in the school bathroom. I knew 16 yos that wrecked cars and put other people's lives at risk in the process. So I'm okay with the age of majority being 18 too; some of those morons would just flip a coin for their vote, and the mock votes we'd have in school were laughable across the board.

Not everyone can make an informed and conscientious decision at 30, much less 18.

So I don't really think it needs to change, but I agree with you that it sucks that it's so arbitrary.

Yeah, that's true. I just don't think that way. Kinda dumb of me to not consider the possibilities. I mean, it could be a step-dad, and they didn't become anon's dad until later. Could have been deployed in the military and didn't have the chance. Someone else pointed out that the dad could have been older, in the actual baby boomer range; and that reminded me that I had assumed anon was a younger person when that doesn't have to be the case

I just default to the idea of fatherhood that I was raised around, and how I wanted to be a dad. Couldn't get out of my own head before I commented lol. You'd think I'd know better

Micropenis is typically noticed in the initial physical exam after birth. The upper limit for that criteria is about half of the typical/normative, so it's visually distinct even at birth. It's not determined by erect length at all.

Penises do grow over time, no matter what size they start, but there's limits to how much. Even as puberty hits, someone with a micropenis will only get so much extra because of the underlying limitations of the tissues. If someone of normative length gets a 10% change (as an example, I don't recall the actual number ranges for pubertal changes), that same basic range is all the person with a micropenis is going to get too.

And you're exactly right, it has next to zero impact on long term relationships. I wanna say that out of maybe fifteen or sixteen patients I had that fit the criteria, all but three had kids. So it's definitely not a barrier to sex at all. The one patient I had that was unusually talkative about it (most of them would just state the fact and describe any special needs they'd have for bathing, then never mention it again) said that once he read "the joy of sex" and learned how to do oral, he and his wife did fine, which she said was true as well, fwiw.

Well, considering the is dated last year, I didn't consider that anon would be old enough to have boomer parents and be coming out late in life, but that is possible. I sometimes forget that my generation hasn't all come out yet. I'm just so used to the only people coming put in my life being under 30, that it's become three unconscious association that someone coming out has to be younger.

You'd think I'd know better, what with seeing the occasional article about someone from my mom's age range deciding it's time to transition, and she was at the tail end of the baby boom.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious.

It tends to happen the most with other atypicalities, but even when it doesn't, it just doesn't look right. Humans have certain proportions, ratios, and we can usually tell when someone is off by a fairly small margin. Genitals are no different in that regard.

You might not immediately think "micropenis", but you'd be able to tell things weren't normative.

Now, it might be pretty easy to shove that aside and assume it would grow later on, and they do. They just don't grow to normative proportions, they stay micro, just not the same size as they start.

Just wait until they find out what they did to the jockstraps Hezbollah ordered last month

Did the dad never change any diapers?

Micropenis is almost always evident from birth. Always afaik, but I'm leaving room for edge cases I've never heard of.

So you'd have to be a pretty hands off dad not to see it, even if it somehow wasn't noticed or reported to the parents by the doctors involved.

Edit: also, obviously fake and gay, forgot where I was for a second and was pretending it was real for discussion/entertainment sake.

Eh, if they were moving towards a more focused, less ridiculously "ai" model, it would make sense to stop spending resources on something that's not even tangential to their core purposes. But they're wasting those resources chasing "ai" bullshit, and trying to edge into the ad market.

I mean, as long as the browser and thunderbird stay open source, I don't really care overall, but it's still not great.

Oh, that's okay then!

Are you blowing smoke up my ass?

I've heard similar a lot. Not necessarily the exact phrasing you used, but close enough when it wasn't essentially a difference in which term was used instead of "stupid"

But I agree. Pretty much any drama is stupid to at least a small degree, because drama is stupid. You handle a problem, or you don't; drama is just being loud for attention, be it from the people involved, or hangers on.

The scale doesn't even matter. Small scale family drama is just as stupid as drama around a singer, or some YouTube talking head.

I mean, the company made progressively crappier products, while still wanting to charge top tier prices because of their old reputation. I'm kinda amazed they lasted this long

\m/

MAIDEN!!!!!

wait, it isn't about them?

Fiiiiine.

Or any other rom, really. Stock, which is the Google version of Android, but the pixel line is well supported by lineage and other variants.

No worries :)

I almost got arrested for punching someone that said that to me

Pretty much surrealism as storytelling.

Kinda hard to keep up with as it was published because the time between issues made it feel janky, but when you experience in collected form, it works a lot better.

Usually a ball cap of some variety, I have a couple.

It was probably my favorite, a custom one a friend got me that has "Mrs Lovett's meat pies" on it. Custom because my giant dome made the ones that were available from the show itself look ridiculous lol.

There's also a pride hat, a pirate hat with "surrender the booty" stitched in small print above the back band, a random ebay find with Bacchus on it, and one that's just plain black.

I've got a boonie hat that I use when it's raining, and a couple of dressier ones that look nice when I have to/should wear a suit.

After my hairline started receding and I got my first sunburn, me and hats became friends lol.

HR isn't the employees friend, ever.

But that's where you start the paper trail. It's really the safest bet