I’m a right to death advocate, even for this kind of situation. We should all have the right to decide the time and means of our death.

That being said, you’re still early in the HRT process. You’re essentially maybe a third of the way through puberty, depending on exactly what you call the end of puberty. And, of equal relevance, you may be experiencing a need for your treatment to be adjusted. Dosing needs can change through the process, leading to increased dysphoria and dysmorphia.

So, check with your providers to see if that’s at play here, assuming that you want to continue on but don’t see the eventual benefits coming soon enough. This could be a side effect, the self perception and ideation. Seems like it would be worth at least talking to whoever is monitoring the medical side of your transition.

Also, while I sure as fuck won’t give any guidance on what to do or how to do it, your plan isn’t a good one. Way too likely to end up making things worse for you. You have no familiarity with firearms, or you wouldn’t be considering the method you present here.

What’s great is when they show up and become furry because they decide that furries have devised the best possible social system in the cosmos

Unless the two legged douchebag is a crow. Which, it still isn’t cute, but you would want to pretend it is

This even applies in fiction. Which, for you science guys, is like social sciences with more rigor.

There’s a lot of words for it. Bulked is the one that floated through the gyms in my area. Even body builders do bulk cycles, which is essentially all that power lifters do. So the term is about having increased muscle mass, with no other factors involved.

I’ve seen beefy used plenty, as well as built. Both get used as a generic term for having big muscles, with the exact usage being variable between a more ripped look and the more massive look. But I see beefy used more for the body type you’re asking about than for body builder types where cutting fat for competition or personal preference changes the appearance of the body. Built rarely has a specific connotation in my area when referring to men.

Terms shift though. Buff, jacked and muscular can fit depending on where you are and when you are. For example, muscular was a pretty common description of a generally athletic build that was less focused on size but still had size, like how boxers and wrestlers (as in not “pro”) get as they go up in weight class.

Every day, unless I didn’t sleep well. Those times, I tend to wake up and fall asleep a half dozen times or so, which means that by the time I’m properly awake enough to notice tumesence, it isn’t there any more. Can’t call it morning wood if it went away an hour or two beetle before you actually wake up.

But, damn; some days that’s what wakes me up. I had kinda hoped that part would stop as I aged, but I’m 50 and it’s still like that at least a few days a month.

Back in my younger days, like you, it either wasn’t every day, or the last cycle of it happened well before I was aware of it. I can’t recall the exact frequency, but it’s one of those things where it happens multiple times a night during sleep, and whether or not it’s morning wood is a matter of timing.

Well, in person has the availability of trying things on. Since even with taking good measurements, not every company uses sizes accurately (for example, you have a 20 inch neck, and shirts might say they’re 20, but be up to an inch either direction, or you only have general sizes (sm, med, lg, etc) and not every company treats those exactly the same as all the others. Then you run into online shopping including things from overseas where the standards are completely different.

As an example, my thick-ass neck comes with a thick-ass chest, and in us sizes, I tend to prefer a 3x. A 3x from china or Thailand may be more of a single x, or xxl at best.

So, in person shopping is going to end up with less hassle overall, no matter how well you measure yourself.

I hate in person shopping though. Despise it with a passion, and always have. Giant fucking head, giant feet, giant hands, and until I stopped lifting nothing was ever cut right for my body. Even after I switched away from lifting big, it still isn’t exactly a fun process finding things that fit every part of my body right.

If I shop online, I buy bigger than I need usually, because that’s just my reality. If I don’t, something is going to chafe.

If I shop in store, I at least can find things that fit me better. But the only thing I’ve ever owned that fit me perfectly is my suit. I sprang for it to be tailored, and made sure it was going to last, with room for alterations as my body changes over time.

But, damn. It’s an uncomfortable experience. Doubly so in winter and summer, where either heating in stores gets me sweaty, or the heat from outside has me sweating before I go in, so I have to fuck around until I cool off.

True that!

You do know that telling someone with ADHD to just pay attention is like telling someone on a cane to jog, right?

Dick move in other words

Jfc, if you knew how long it has taken me to know the names of some of my friends, and not just work friends or gym friends, it would be absurd.

Hell, even after months of hanging with someone, you might not know their last name; it’s all “hey, I’m zipper”. Why zipper? “I dunno, you know how it is”. Yeah, I feel that. Anyway, went a beer, zip?

My chronic pain/disability support group shares space with an autism support group. Not a single one of the autism group knows my actual name afaik, but we’ll hang out down the road at a diner some nights as a mixed group when we’re meeting at the same time. It’s all “hey, beard!” And “sasquatch, wanna see my cat?” And sometimes just “man”. I’ve known some of them for years and we don’t know each other’s actual names. A couple of them, I’ve been to their house, and vice versa, and we don’t know each others last name at all.

One guy in specific came over, heard my wife call out my name and was confused as hell because my name sounds like a regular word and thought it was a different nickname. Asked for the story behind it, and I had to show him my driver’s license because he thought I was fucking with him. We’d had dinner together at the diner dozens of times.

No need for real names when you’re bros

Funny, for sure.

However z dolphins don’t school

Honestly? Digital overall. And I’m talking about reading; there’s benefits to digital outside that, but I wanna do it separate.

A decent tablet with a good app is a better reading experience overall. Yes, it lacks multi sensory experience, and the comfort of curling up and sinking in.

Where it gains is that, regardless of eink vs standard displays, you can change fonts, font size, contrast, and even the colors of text and background. You can choose to scroll instead of turning pages. This all means that no matter what kind of eyesight you have, whether you’re dyslexic or not, you have a high degree of making sure that you can actually read. Done properly, you can do so without eye strain, and usually while holding the device in one hand, in any position.

Assuming a backlight or other built in lighting on eink, you can read without it needing a lamp that might bother someone beside you.

As much as I love paper in hand, the smell, sound and feel of it, I can actually read with full comfort on even a cheap tablet. And, being dyslexic, instead of dealing with the frustration of the publisher picking the font and font size, thus making me work harder; I get to pick what works and just enjoy reading.

And then you get into the stuff that isn’t purely about reading. For one, portability. I can carry thousands of books in my hand digitally. I can take them almost anywhere, and (assuming I pick the right device) even read in pouring rain or the shower if I wanted to, so tub reading ceases to be a problem.

Which is related to storage. With digital, I never have to worry about it. I don’t need an entire room dedicated to books, or have bookshelves in every room just to have access to everything.

So, I could entirely convert to digital and have extra space.

Or! I can freely choose which books to keep physical copies of. That means I can even have hardback editions with less concern over space compared to paperbacks. Just the Wheel of Time books are an entire shelf in hardback. In paperback, there’s still room for more. Yay digital! I can trade or sell off the paperbacks, keep my hardbacks for the sensory delight, and not have to fret about running out of room as much.

Going digital and replacing less read books entirely took me from ten bookcases crammed full, with things stacked in bad ways; to ten that are neatly organized with room for more if/when I want, and better displays of my favorites.

If you want an actual collection of books, as opposed to simply accumulating books, digital is the perfect accompaniment.

Right now, everything on my shelves is either a favorite, out of print, or special in some other way. Some are all three. Before, it included stuff that I might only reread once a decade, but didn’t want the hassle of tracking them down in a library that might not have a copy, and might not have an entire series for those. I even have room to display some of the nicer covers instead of having to have every book in there spine out.

As far as pricey books go, at least with digital as a main format for the collection, it means you can actually afford the more pricey books when you really want them.

As far as sourcing cheaper paper books, you gotta go local to used book dealers. It’s really the only practical way to really save money. You can sometimes do eBay though. Otherwise, you’re paying full price at any store that sells new. You might run into sales, but that’s not reliable.

I had never run across Nakagawa before these posts, but I’ve come to love the style

Merriam-Webster, copied in for reference.

adjective

Of or relating to health or the protection of health.

Free from elements, such as filth or pathogens, that endanger health; hygienic.

“sanitary conditions for the preparation of food.”

Of or pertaining to health; designed to secure or preserve health; relating to the preservation or restoration of health; hygienic. See the Note under sanatory.

“sanitary regulations”

See under Commission.

Of, or relating to health.

Clean and free from pathogens; hygienic.

Free from filth and pathogens.

“a sanitary washroom”

You’re right, there is a usage of it to mean “healthy” in general, my bad.

However, I hope you can understand that it isn’t the most common usage, and that the bulk of the definitions and usages are pathogen related. Hence me either forgetting or not having run across its more broad usage.

I’d still use a different word, but I definitely agree with your point under that usage :)

That being said, sometimes something that’s not sanitary (using the general definition now) may still be the better option than something that’s worse.

Which is the case here, imo.

When you’re dealing with something like a soda/cola, you’re very often dealing with a slightly corrosive liquid. When that’s the case, you’re limited in what you can use to ship and store it in. Glass, obviously, is the superior choice in terms of maximum safety for chemical exposure. It is also much more expensive to ship, and has more bulk for storage. It also has a different kind of safety issue; the extra weight and the risk of damage leading to injury rather than just a mess.

The problem is the lack of choice for patrons. We can’t say “give me a glass bottle instead” and get one. It’s out of the bag-in-a-box or nothing these days.

As far as comparisons to other potential chemical exposures, the ones you listed in specific are a personal choice to take in at all. Whereas sodas, people might not be aware of the fact that they’re served from plastics. That doesn’t negate your point, it’s just an interesting distinction. The plastics in food storage is more like second hand smoke than smoking because it isn’t something you can explicitly choose to engage in, and opting out is problematic.

Mind you, I’m not certain that the plastics leeched into a soda are at a high enough level to be worse than the soda itself. They’re distinctly not sanitary, no matter what they’re stored in. Too much sugar, too much acidity, too many colorants and flavorants that are either neutral, or haven’t been excluded completely as possibly unhealthy. Just the caffeine levels in them are problematic, and the problems from the sugar levels will show up in your body years ahead of the plastics. But, again, you’re choosing to drink them, but may not be aware of the plastics to opt out.

Fwiw, my household has phased out plastics entirely for anything that gets heated, and for long term storage. We just don’t buy new containers as they reach end of life, and any food that comes in plastics gets moved to one of our glass or metal containers if the product is going to be sitting around for more than a week or so. Longer if it’s a dried product, since leeching rates for those approaches zero in anything under years. Which is only relevant so you understand that I agree with you that there’s no such thing as a totally food safe plastic.

Look, I’m a fifty year old fighter, and I don’t look half as sexy as that perfection

Not sure if you’re aware, but sanitary just means that there’s no microbial growth that would cause illness.

That’s a separate food from plastics leeching.

Probably caused by an Aztec deity-like entity flaying the skin to gain power for a resurrection

Six years?

Is there a reason behind the avoidance? Like, some kind of addiction or something like that?

If there isn’t, you gotta make a choice. Even if there is you gotta make one, but it would be understandable that your family was resistant.

Me? Barring something major, if you love your girlfriend, you either take a stand now, or you’re essentially telling her you don’t really care. I’m sure you do care, just maybe not enough to make it last.

Besides, if you’re an adult, there comes a point where you have to set your boundaries. You have to make the choice about whether or not your family has a say in your choice of partners. Moreover, the sooner you set whatever boundary it is, the better. Fuck Christmas, because if you don’t do it soon, it’ll be every holiday that you and whoever you’re with is being judged, with your family’s opinion of your partners mattering more than your own. This will severely fuck with any partner you have, even the ones they do like. That’s just how it works until the child stands up and says no.

It’ll always be your family deciding who is and isn’t good enough, and that isn’t something that is hard to pick up on when you’re coming into it from the outside.

There may well be reasons to not make this GF your hill to fight for, I dunno. But after 5 years, if she isn’t, then wtf are you doing with her still?

You actually can modify your “software”, though there’s limits. Can’t really swap the kernel at all, and the OS is a bitch to alter, but the DE is totally doable. We even have bug fixers, called therapists.

Now, deleting old programs is hard, but there are tricks to reset your clock, assuming the hardware is both functional and running a standard configuration. Some folks are just wired different, so playing with the clock results in blue screens at inopportune moments.

Thing is, the whole threatening the victim has always been a part of the phrase. Don’t tattle, don’t snitch, it’s part of the built in bullshit of school, and even teachers and staff sometimes buy into it, indirectly penalizing students that report abuse from other students. Even more common is nothing at all being done to prevent retaliation, so the cycle of it continues.

This is a joke, obviously. They’re turning the idea around, it’s just that the fact there’s an idea to turn around in the first place is so horrible that the joke kinda falls flat unless you have a dark sense of humor.