#my passport is expired though

[mothpdf]

see ideologically i would LOVE to pay my taxes. big fan of public services. love me a library and some public health. unfortunately the tax people have decided to make the most complex network of services and accounts possible because they really really really dont want me to pay my taxes

[jorvikzelda]

I love when a silly little conversation in the group chat leads to me fucking figuring out what I want my middle name to be

[starryeyedjanai]

All things end and all things change.

Steddie | 23k | Explicit | Read on ao3

written for @patchworkgargoyle for the server gift exchange! 🥰 this is also a fill for @thefreakandthehair's winter challenge

Summary: 

When Eddie took over Robin's room, Steve made a promise to himself that he wouldn't scare Eddie off, that he wouldn't do anything to let him know that he’s still carrying a torch for him this many years later—because Steve feels like Eddie had to have known in college.

He had to have seen it every time Steve looked at him for a beat too long, every time he looked to Eddie first when told a joke, every time he wore his feelings so loudly because he’s never had to reign them in before.

And now he’s doomed to spend more than a week letting Eddie show him glimpses of his life that he’s never seen before, parts of him that he’s kept to himself up until now.

Steve feels like the more he gets to know Eddie, the more ingrained these feelings for him become.

But, you know, other than all of that, what could possibly go wrong?

Or, Steve was planning to spend the holidays alone, but there's no way Eddie's going to let that happen.

-

excerpt under the cut!

“Hey, are you going to be in town for New Year’s Eve?” Eddie asks as Steve walks out of his room, bleary eyed and barely awake. “I told you I’m visiting my uncle Wayne for Christmas, but I can be back in time for New Year’s Eve if you’ll be here.”

“I’ll, uh, I’ll be here,” Steve says, his voice still scratchy from sleep.

“What are your plans for Christmas now that Birdie’s gone home with Chrissy?” Eddie asks, dropping the curious act and getting to what he really wants to know.

It’s too early for this.

Eddie knows he has less of a filter when he’s just woken up, so this is a targeted attack.

He’s been avoiding answering the question when Eddie’s asked what his plans were before, but Christmas is in a few days and it looks like his hemming and hawing around an answer—‘I might go with Robin and Chrissy,’ and ‘I’m not sure yet’—won't suffice anymore.

Robin left yesterday with Chrissy to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve with her family, her first time taking Chrissy home to her parents, and Steve obviously didn't go with them.

He hums and takes the cup of coffee Eddie pushes into his hands when he takes a seat at their kitchen table. He takes a sip, trying to formulate a way to not say outright that he’s staying here alone.

He shrugs his shoulders and says, "I’m not doing much. I’ll be in town for New Year’s Eve though,” because his brain is still mostly offline and he’s hoping Eddie will leave it alone. (He knows that he won't, but it’s a nice thought.)

Eddie asks, “How are you getting to your parents’ place? Or are they coming to town?”

Eddie knows Steve isn’t super close with his parents just like he knows that he hasn't spent Christmas with them since he graduated college—he and Robin have spent it together since she and her parents aren't big on Christmas as a whole.

They did visit Robin’s parents the first year after college and spent the holidays there, but since then, they’ve just had Christmases at their apartment, getting each other a couple gag gifts and a couple real ones and opening them in front of their comically small Christmas tree. The only reason they aren't spending it together this year is because Robin’s parents want to finally meet Chrissy.

He gulps down more coffee before saying, “I’m not going to Hawkins.”

“Steve, work with me here. Are you or are you not spending Christmas with your parents?” Eddie asks, leaving no room for ambiguity or ‘misinterpretations’ of his question.

So he just sighs and comes clean.

“My parents are in France for Christmas, so I’m just hanging out here for the holidays,” he says, not looking Eddie in the eyes. His parents did invite him to come along, but his passport is expired and he didn't want to stress about getting it renewed in time for the trip.

“Hanging out here alone?” Eddie asks.

Steve nods, still not looking at him, fiddling with the handle of his coffee mug.

“And how’d you get Robin to leave without you?” Eddie asks, suspicion in his voice.

“What do you mean?” Steve asks, playing dumb.

“I mean there’s no fucking way she’d let you spend the holidays alone, first Christmas taking her girlfriend home or not. So what did you tell her you were doing for the holidays?”

Steve sighs, so worn out all of a sudden. He wishes they weren't having this conversation at 8 in the morning—well, he wishes they weren't having it at all, wishes Eddie’s ADHD would have let him forget to ask what his plans were before he left for his uncle’s place.

“I may have said I was spending the holidays with you,” he says sheepishly, finally looking up at Eddie.

Eddie levels him an unimpressed look and then, in an even voice, he says, “Okay. So you’re coming home with me.”

“No,” Steve says. “No. I swear I’ll be fine. It’ll be nice even. Relaxing, having some time to myself.” It sounds weak even to his own ears, so he’s not surprised when Eddie doesn't let up.

“Uh huh, sure. You come sit by me when I’m doing my virtual D&D sessions even though you don’t play because you hate being alone for that many hours, but you want me to believe you’ll be alright being alone for more than a week over the holidays?”

God, it's so not fair bringing up how needy Steve is right now. Steve only pretty recently realized how codependent he and Robin were. They spent almost all of their free time together before she started dating Chrissy and when she moved in with Chrissy and Eddie took her bedroom in their apartment, he had to actively stop himself from monopolizing all of Eddie's time because he doesn't deal well with being alone.

He keeps finding himself almost meandering into Eddie’s room first thing in the morning because spending any amount of time without someone’s voice filling his ears is unbearable to him. Even just having someone in his presence, even if they weren't talking, is better than being alone.

He tries to save face by saying, “I swear I’m fine being alone—“

“Nope, you’re coming home with me,” Eddie says, cutting Steve off, his voice final. “It’ll be a tight squeeze since my uncle’s place is pretty small, but he’ll be glad to have someone to talk sports with, so—you’re coming.”

And this is why Steve has been trying to avoid this conversation so hard for weeks now, skirting around the truth with half-answers and changing the subject because he knew Eddie wasn't going to drop it once he knew.

He really has no choice but to accept or else Eddie won't shut up about it. Or worse, he’ll tell Robin and she’s definitely not going to drop it. And she’ll be disappointed that he lied and she’ll make him drive to her parents’ house and threaten to come get him if he refuses and it’ll spoil her Christmas with Chrissy and her parents. And he doesn't want that, obviously.

This is the first time Robin’s been serious about someone and all he wants is for her to spend her Christmas in love and happy and not worrying about him.

So he says, “Fine. Fine, I’ll go home with you.”

As much as he doesn't want to insert himself into someone else’s holiday plans, he doubly doesn't want to ruin Robin’s Christmas.

“Great. We leave tomorrow afternoon.”

The triumphant smile on Eddie’s face doesn't lessen the growing guilt and unease in stomach.

He really was going to be fine, spending the holidays alone. It would have been quiet and he would have hated every second of the silence, but he could have handled it.

His parents were never super into the Christmas spirit part of Christmas anyway. They never had traditions or decorated the house or anything. Growing up, Christmas was mostly about the gifts—not that he was complaining. He always had the newest toys or video game consoles, so for the most part, he was happy enough to skip the rest of it.

It was only when he was dating Nancy and saw how her family gathered for the holidays and spent time together that he realized that his Christmases were always kind of lonely even when his parents were around.

So after college, when he and Robin moved in together, they started to make their own traditions for the holidays, decorating their apartment and wearing matching pajamas and FaceTiming Robin’s parents on Christmas morning.

This would have been the first Christmas since he started having actual Christmas traditions that he’d be spending it alone. So yeah, it would have sucked, but it would have been worth it if it meant Robin got to have her Hallmark Christmas movie moment.

And now he’s apparently going to the Munson’s for Christmas.

At least now Robin won't actually kill him when she gets back and finds out what he did for the holidays.

read the rest on ao3

[acetechne]

little culture shock things between provinces hahahahaha

so drinking age differs between provinces, so its 18 in Alberta (and Manitoba and Quebec) while generally 19 everywhere else -- although alcohol servers can legally be 18 even in a place with a drinking age of 19. This means that people will often hop the border to a province with a lower drinking age (and you'll see Americans occasionally take advantage of it since their legal drinking age is 21)

The requirement of having two pieces of ID (one government, one with either a signature or photo) in BC struck me the other day - I don't personally drink, but if I wanted to I might have to have my passport on me since technically all my student IDs are expired, even though they do have photos. Health cards in Alberta kind of suck, you might recall, and have neither a photo nor a signature.

And one more thing- I don't think they have canonical ages, but I always thought it would be funny if Bert and Sask both kept getting IDs issued that claimed them to be 18 (you know, just so I can make jokes about Sask having to come over to Bert's house to drink). I don't think they're actually 18, just that there is always some mishap about whoever is responsible for printing and renewing IDs for guys who claim to be over a century old (which means they have to keep making fake IDs -- insert some elaborate joke about them showing up in the States and then getting refused service because Canadian IDs look "made up" there anyway)

[echodrops]

Sometimes the events of my life are truly so comedic that I have to assume some supernatural being(s) are watching me like their favorite evening sitcom and just dying with laughter.

Peep this Shakespearean level comedy of errors:

Go out with coworkers for a celebration because our project trip to Puerto Rico was approved.

Coworker brings up travel requirements to Puerto Rico. Only a driver's license is required, but you need the "Real I.D." symbol.

Pull out my driver's license to check, only to discover that my driver's license is expiring in FIVE DAYS. Thanks for even the slightest notification, Department of Public Safety???

Try to renew online, can't. No explanation for why is provided. Go to the DPS Office. "Oh, you used your passport to renew last time, and now your passport is expired. You can get a new passport though and then renew."

"Ma'am... do you know how long getting a passport takes?"

"I think it only takes a couple months now?" ... "And what is the expiration date of my license???"

"We can use a birth certificate instead. You can get it at the court house and come right back. We should be able to finish the renewal today."

"Ma'am... I was born in LA..." Lady tells me the next available DPS appointment isn't even until October 17th, eight days after driver's license expiration. Make the appointment.

Go to the California birth certificate website. Have to pay $60 for them to print and ship the birth certificate to me. Only after paying do they reveal there is a back-order on birth certificates and it may take up to 35 days for my birthday certificate to arrive.

Cancel the October 17th DPS appointment in abject disappointment.

Driving on an expired license because what else can I do? I can't bum rides off coworkers for 35 DAYS.

ONE DAY after my license officially expires, a college kid texting and driving veers into my lane and hits my car. (Thankfully no injuries, just a lot of cosmetic damage.)

The other driver doesn't have insurance. I DON'T HAVE A VALID LICENSE so I can't even go through MY insurance.

We agree to get estimates from body shops and for her to pay for the damage out of pocket. I get one official estimate--$1000 in dent hammering and repainting.

She texts me later that her mom "knows someone who repairs cars." Is this guy licensed? "Oh yeah definitely."

"Okay, give me the address and I'll take the car to their shop for an estimate."

"Ummm, maybe you could just bring the car to my mom's house and she can take it to the mechanic?"

"With all due respect dear, are you out of your mind?"

She finally gives me the address of the mechanic. It's one block from Mexico. It's a house. There are six dogs running loose in the front yard. There's something that might have ONCE UPON A TIME been a body shop next door to the house but now is a pile of barely standing timbers.

"Mechanic" comes out. I ask to see his license. He shows me a piece of paper that looks two steps above "I printed this direct from a Google images search."

I have a moment of despair, and then I realize: My car is 11 years old and has 100,000 miles on it.

If my car ends up chopped up for parts or sold across the border to Mexico, I can report it as stolen.

THIS IS HOW ECHO GETS A NEW CAR.

I am zen. All is well. I hope the worst case scenario comes true. I agree to bring the car to the "mechanic" on Monday.

Get back in the car, head home for the day.

Get a call from boss.

Puerto Rico project trip cancelled.

You can't make this shit up.

[clatterbane]

Yet another episode in AuDHD Chaotic Dumbass mode, y'all:

* Reminded yet again that, while they were "just" ridiculously fashionable when I was in elementary school? Legwarmers would address several of my problems now!

Looking all smug with those warm legs. And good for her.

* (Naturally get off on a brief tangent of looking for period pics of kids in legwarmers. With a side trip into Rainbow Brite territory specifically, because I remember those. Nope out of there after seeing some of the Sexy Rainbow Brite-themed tat people have come up with more recently.)

* Yes, I am old as fuck.

* Anyway, my one remaining lower leg has been staying cold as hell except in summer since the big crash in 2020. The circulation is obviously pretty fucked, for whatever reason. I got sent for some torture test over it just earlier this year. My sensory issues won't let me wear leggings or long johns to layer on any kind of regular basis. It's just too bulky, and gets too hot and sweaty higher up when the lower legs are what's freezing.

* So snuggy insulation specifically for the lower leg good, right? I don't recall any particular problems wearing those unless they kept sliding down too much.

* Oh yeah, I did stock up on not-cheap washable wool yarn to make some, didn't I? Around the time we moved into this place? 🤨 There should be a bag full of it. In fact, I had to replace most of my crochet shit after we moved.

* Look for patterns.

* Oh wait, didn't I actually buy one in a really cute cat theme then?

* Where the fuck is that PDF? On my old phone, maybe? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Should have it backed up to a hard drive, so at least that search won't require messing with the infuriatingly busted screen.something

* Now, where the fuck did I even stash that sack of yarn AND new crochet hooks, etc.? I know I put it somewhere "safe" and out of the way...

* I DO know where one big skein of black wool blend worsted weight is. And I think I may know where in a still-not-unpacked moving box in our damn living room the previous set of hooks might be. Pretty sure I saw them when I was rummaging for something else...last year?!

* We have, indeed, been living in this place for almost 3 years now.

* Which also means I should probably check exactly when La Migra has me down as eligible for citizenship. It is supposed to be 3 years for spouses of citizens, but they're not counting from the date I entered the country...

* Oh fuck, my currently expired passport. Really need to do something about that, though it may take a road trip to Stockholm at this point. At least we do have the car now.

* Ah, I still haven't taken my stupid "morning" meds, have I? (For nocturnal person values of morning.)

* Probably time to look for more yarn! In another language, with less familiar terminology!

(And this is, in fact, a slightly pared-down version. Because I exhaust myself enough, and nobody else needs that.)

[deedala]

✨ weekly tag wednesday ✨

thanks for the fun and wild game @mybrainismelted and for tagging me!! + @energievie @lingy910y @spookygingerr @burninface !! 💖💖💖

Name:  deanna

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (or you):  i am in ohio 🌽

Ok, so this week we are going to snoop into your google search.  Type in each phrase and tell us what the first suggestion is that google gives you!

What is the best way to….  lose weight?  ex fucking scuse me?? i have never in my life googled this fuck off (body liberation you fuckers!!!)

Where can I…. watch quiet on set?  i dont even know what that is

How old is…. reba mcentire? loool cannot say i have ever really wondered this but i did watch a couple episodes of Reba last week-ish when i saw they added it to netflix??

How long does it take… to get a passport?  it is possible i googled this after realizing mine expired??

How many… weeks in a year?  this is definitely something i would google as i am awful at remembering numbers in the correct order

Who set the record for…. The highest jump.  yeah same i have never even wondered this let alone googled this lol

When did…. covid start?  i do not need to google this i actually remember it QUITE CLEARLY THANKS

What does it feel like to… pass a kidney stone?  lol YIKES, i have no really wondered about this nor needed to google it i feel like its pretty common knowledge that its fuckin painful

Can you… drink distilled water?  it tastes so gross though lol

When you… wish upon a star lyrics.  🤨 (just gonna keep kats commentary on that one cuz same lol)

Why do… cats knead?  so cute thanks google!! i've never googled it but it was a cute little result to look at thanks lmao

Is there a way… to save karlach?  what even is this i have no idea

How old do you have to be… to rent a car?  never googled that and dont need to know but ok

Where do the… pacers play?  is that a sportsball team?

What is the best time to… post on instagram? uhhmm not information i care about lol 

And to finish us off…. What comes up when you type in Shameless?  Shameless season 5 -- i mean yeah ok thats a good season i probably googled for it at some point for some reason lol

and now i shall hand out cookies 🍪 and also feel free to play if you want!! @michellemisfit @too-schoolforcool @darlingian @heymacy @heymrspatel @thepupperino @lee-ow @mmmichyyy @wehangout @metalheadmickey @whatwouldmickeydo @gardenerian @mickeysgaymom @gallawitchxx @callivich @vintagelacerosette @the-rat-wins @sam-loves-seb @blue-disco-lights @sickness-health-all-that-shit @samantitheos @loftec @iansw0rld @transmickey @tsuga-of-mars @ardent-fox @rereadanon @palepinkgoat @themarchg1rl @sleepyfacetoughguy @spoonfulstar @captainjowl @gallapiech @thisdivorce

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #325

I'm definitely going to need to send my laptop away to get the screen replaced; it has seen much better days:

It's still kinda holding together. But there are lines of dead pixels on the bottom left side, so I imagine it's only a matter of time before the screen goes completely kaput. Lame...

I wasn't nearly as productive today as on previous days. I think doing all that cooking and all those dishes really pissed off whatever's wrong with the upper right quadrant of my body (at this point, I suspect serratus posterior superior dysfunction of some kind...). When I went to PT today (weird day of the week for it, I know...), the trapezius and the rhomboids on my right side got mashed up, and now the whole area is super pissed, and it's kinda hard to move or breathe or do anything.

On the bright side, I did get to talk with that Canadian immigration lawyer today. I'll tell you all about him, but after I get his permission to do so in this space.

Still, I have the first few steps of the process of getting out of here outlined. First, we have to take an English test called an IELTS, and also get our academic credentials evaluated by a Canadian company of some kind, in order to make sure they're up to snuff for Canadian employers.

Well, as it turns out, we cannot take the IELTS without passports. And, though J and I have ours, M's expired over a decade ago, so we had to go to an appointment to get a new one. It's not going to get to our house for another 6-8 weeks, though. We'll have to wait before we schedule the test. But we should be able to get our academic credentials evaluated. I'll look into that process tomorrow.

...I forgot to eat for most of today. Before leaving for physical therapy, I did stuff a couple slices of cold cuts into my mouth, but that's hardly substantial. My appetite has been kinda weird these last couple days. At around 7pm or 8pm, though, I remembered that my body needs fuel. So I made a salad:

It's got mixed greens, tomatoes, onions, black beans, goat cheese, scrambled egg, and crushed Fritos in it. And then I put ranch dressing on top. Want some...?

I made some tea to go with it; that vanilla bean macaron tea. Here:

...These aren't the best swirls, I know. I think the focus must have been off, and I didn't notice until it was too late. Sorry about that.

…

...I spent most of the rest of today just floundering, partially numb, and foggy of brain. I wanted to play Oddworld, but... I just couldn't bring myself to. I wanted to doodle, but... I dunno. Even with a plan spelled out and things to tentatively look forward to, it's still kinda hard to think.

I guess I'm still a little sad that so many people voted for someone who wants to kill me and my little family and almost all of the people I love.

...I just... want to live a life in which everyone gets to be happy and safe. And I know that this could happen if everyone worked together, but there's so many different people with so many different kinds of trauma, and all of them have their own ideas about which kinds of people do and don't deserve to live (there's no such thing as a person who doesn't deserve to live). I wish for a world in which it was easier for folks to cast aside the conditioning they received that teaches them to associate the worth of themselves and of others with silly, arbitrary things.

We are all the same in that we want to live in peace with people we love. And given that everyone wants that, it shouldn't be so hard to do, but... a lot of people get taught that the only way they can live happily is if some other group of people defined by arbitrary characteristics didn't exist, and... I think that's really sad. It's really sad that some people truly do believe, for example, that the only way they can be happy and safe is if every single person with dark skin and every single person who was ever at any point related to someone with dark skin ceased being alive.

...I just wanna live someplace where we aren't near people who would be happy to kill us. I think everyone wants that. And this shouldn't be a difficult thing to find in my world, but... here we are.

...Well. One step at a time. We'll follow the immigration process one step at a time, and hope for good things. But... ya know. If there's any chance you can just “zoop” us all over to where you are... I certainly wouldn't be opposed. You could use the company. And I could use a nap.

No, I know; it's impossible. I know. But it's still nice to think about. I'll just keep making preparations to protect my little family, and I'll do whatever I can for the others around me in the meantime. I'll write the steps to the immigration process as we go through it; maybe it'll help someone else, somehow.

Suppose I'll stop writing for today. I feel like if I keep going, I'm gonna ramble on ya (if I haven't already). And I feel like I'm a bit too weird in the brain right now to express myself particularly well in any case.

Don't worry. I'm tired and feeling kinda sad and lost, but I'm not down for the count – not while I have people to protect.

Tomorrow is when M and I decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary this year. It'll be our 10th year of marriage, though we've been together for 12. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. I can't believe he hasn't gotten tired of me yet, hahaha...

We're gonna go to a sushi place to celebrate. It'll be me and J and M all together at the place we ate on the day we got married. Maybe I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

I love you a whole lot. And I'll write again tomorrow. So please stay safe out there, okay?

Your friend, Lumine

[lizardperson]

any way the wind blows

[on ao3]

fandom: original work rating: g wc: 638 prompt: #fff286 anything could happen for @flashfictionfridayofficial

---

Mika stopped drumming along to the music and eyed July, who was fidgeting around with the zipper of her jacket.

"Dude, why are you so nervous?"

"Because I'm always nervous on trips!"

"We're just going to Toronto?! We'll be back home in two days?" Mika chuckled, not understanding what the big deal was. She and Aaron had rather spontaneously decided to go on a little weekend trip to see a band they liked, and had talked July into joining them.

July gnawed on her lower lip. "So what? There's still a ton of things that can go wrong on trips. Anything could happen."

"Like what?"

"Maybe I forgot something. My toothbrush."

"I know Canada is a mythical place, but they still have like supermarkets and stuff there," Aaron objected from the driver's seat. "And toothbrushes."

"He's right," Mika confirmed. "We can literally buy anything there. Well, almost - got your passport?"

July dug through her bag and pulled out the document. "Yeah." She still didn't seem convinced though. "What if… it's expired." Of course she had checked multiple times already. But still. What if.

Mika snatched it out of July's hand and checked the expiry date. "Nope, all good. Cute picture, by the way," she grinned.

July blushed and grabbed it back, tucking it into her bag. "What if we get arrested at the border."

"What for?!"

"…maybe someone put drugs in our car or something."

"Then we take them all ourselves," Mika laughed.

"What if we get mugged in Toronto, and our passports get stolen, and they don't let us back in."

"Come on, now you're getting ridiculous. Also, I doubt we would be the first dumbass Americans who manage to lose their passports somehow. There's probably a dedicated counter at the border crossing for that. Canada doesn't wanna keep us."

"What if the car breaks down."

"Then Gabriel will come and pick us up. That man loves playing knight in shining armor."

"Unless our car explodes with us in it," Aaron interjected, getting a glare from Mika.

"What if we get into a snowstorm."

"It's April!"

July grimaced in response, then listed her next scenario. "What if our hotel sucks."

"Aaron and I have stayed in that exact same place before. Last year."

"…what if it burned down suddenly."

"Then we find somewhere else to stay. I know for a fact that this city has more than one hotel."

"What if the concert gets canceled."

"Then we find something else to entertain ourselves. Like, that is the smallest of problems."

Aaron piped up again. "Oh! What if the support band dies unexpectedly, and we have to jump in, and then we get super famous suddenly!"

"Shit, I didn't bring my guitar," Mika lamented. "No wait, or what if you fall madly in love with a Canadian and don't want to come back with us!"

July playfully punched Mika's arm. "Now you guys are getting ridiculous."

"Yeah, who would ever fall in love with a Canadian," she laughed.

"Don't be mean."

Mika got serious again and grabbed July's hand to reassure her.

"You know what's the worst that might happen, realistically? The pizza we're getting for dinner is kinda mediocre. Or our hotel room neighbors are fucking too loudly. Or I talk so much that you want to strangle me. Everything else? Highly unlikely. Nothing bad will happen. But if it happens, we'll figure it out. Dude, we got this."

July sighed and collected her thoughts for a moment, then she nodded. "Okay, fine. We got this. Just don't abandon me there or something…"

Mika squeezed her hand. "I'll stick to you like glue. In fact, soon you will beg me to give you some peace and quiet, and I'm still not going to leave your side for even one second," she teased, making July laugh.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

[redditreceipts]

I am new to feminism and I am trying to figure out a theoretical way women's spaces and services can be protected in law. I would like other feminists to respond to know what they think.

I was thinking that transgender women should not be able to change the sex on any of their identification until they have gotten a sex change. They cannot change it to female, though, they can only change it to "male-to-female" or "mtf."

Transgender women who have already changed their identity to female would be grandfathered in, but once their identification expires, they will have to change their sex to reflect reality.

This way, males cannot have access to women's services, but they wouldn't be able to rape women either. Since they would not have a penis anymore, though, men could be more of a danger to them.

The only problems I see with my reasoning are that

I. Transgender women are still male socialized, and could still be a danger to women even though they could not rape and impregnate women, and

II. They could still never pass as female, but have had a sex change, which would be uncomfortable for women.

The same identification laws would apply to transgender men, that way they can still have access to women's services. They are not a danger to men, so they would be entering men's spaces at their own risk.

What do you think?

Hello!

Well first of all I'll say that I myself am not super sure about my own take on this, but well, it's interesting to discuss

First of all, I think that there is a difference between women's spaces and women's services. I don't know whether there are any women's services that a trans women would need. But there should be more facilities to look after people who are gender non-conforming or homosexual, or transsexual, so there is no transferrence of the responsability to care for trans women onto the providers of services for women.

Secondly, I think that there are two types of women's spaces:

there are those spaces that you don't have to go into, like a lesbian club or a "women in stem" conference or women's sports. there is no reason for any male (however he identifies) to go into those spaces, so I don't really see why he should go in there under any circumstances

there are spaces that you "have" to go into, like prison or changing rooms. I think that we should seriously consider the possibility of male-on-male crime without making women pay for it. That would include policies like

making parts of male prisons where homosexual or transsexual men can be so they are not attacked by other inmates

make single-cubicle-changing rooms and single-stall toilets that are not for any particular sex

teach boys that there is nothing shameful about wearing dresses as a boy

punishing men who attack other men because they don't fit their image of masculinity.

I actually think that the "mtf"-thing on a passport is a really good idea. This would have to go hand in hand with really severe punishment for anyone who discriminates against a person for their transitioning status (i.e. a policeman who sees the "mtf" label on a man's documents and starts insulting him would have to be immediately fired).

Also, I would not make anything of that dependant on bottom surgery because it is a very valid concern of many trans people that they don't want to get that risky surgery. I also don't think that other men are really more of a danger to trans women just because they have had bottom surgery. Men rape other men all the time, things like forcing oral on someone or other forms of sexual assault can happen with or without bottom surgery. Just like that, I also don't think that a trans woman is less of a threat just because he has gotten bottom surgery. He could still assault a woman by touching her inappropriately, taking videos or making comments. So I would not make things dependant on bottom surgery.

And yes, for transgender men entering men's spaces - I think that some spaces like men's bathrooms or changing rooms should be accessible to them if they pass, but there are still events like a convention for gay men or a self-help group for male survivors of sexual assault, where trans men shouldn't be present.

But that's just my 2 cents, I generally like your ideas and if you disagree with anything, just tell me! :)

[duhragonball]

JoJolion Ch.18-22

So, this scene with Yasuho idly touching her tongue to her own elbow has always bothered me. It has nothing to do with anything, and why is it even in this story?

The only explanation I can think of is that this embodies the ability of her Stand, Paisley Park. It guides Yasuho in the right direction, and finds ways to progress to a goal. This is a reflection of Yasuho's own talent for research and investigation. She gets interested in a mystery and just refuses to let it go until she can find out more.

So I guess she found out once that it's physically impossible for a human to lick their own elbow, and she put her mind to it and found a way to pull it off. But realistically, the only way that can work is if she's got hypermobility in her shoulders, or a really long tongue, or both of those things.

Anyway, this is the "Shakedown Road" arc.

Quick note: In chapter 18, Josuke contemplates Yoshikage Kira and decides that he must be a somewhat decent guy, since he apparently snuck into the Higashikata home and removed Kyo Nijimura's name from their copy of the family tree, so that they wouldn't suspect her when she infiltrated their home as a maid. This is probably why Kyo went after Josuke in the previous arc, because she found out he looked at the family tree, and worried that he was going to expose her identity.

Although, I find it odd that Kyo would have bothered infiltrating the Higashikata home at all, if Yoshikage could sneak in and out that easily. Although it seems like the two of them didn't compare notes much, even though they're on the same side.

As for the Higashikata Family, they're all having breakfast in their swimsuits, because they were planning to take a trip to Hawaii this week, but had to call it off because Hato never got her passport. This is because Hato didn't know Hawaii was part of the United States. At first I thought she didn't know anything about Hawaii, like maybe she thought it was a Japanese territory, like the British Virgin Islands or something. Or she thought Pearl Harbor was the end of World War II, and Japan got to keep Hawaii.

But no, I think it's more like... she just didn't know where Hawaii is? Like she just thought it's one of the islands in the Japanese archipelago, like Iwo Jima or Okinawa. Or maybe she just thought it was in Tokyo or something. Like, that's really dumb. Hawaii's a pretty famous place, and you'd think she'd know her own country a little better than this. "Oh, yeah, we're all taking a vacation to the Honolulu Prefecture."

Anyway, they all wore their bathing suits to at least simulate the experience of a poolside breakfast. This seems pretty sad. I mean, they have beach resorts in Japan, don't they? I mean, if I were one of the idle rich and my trip to the Bahamas fell through, I might fly out to Miami and try to get something similar.

Oh, and Joshuu isn't playing along because he never would have gotten on the plane in the first place. This is because he's an atheist, so that means he doesn't trust... planes? He also complains that the milk is a day over the expiration date, and he refuses to take chances, even over something so minor. I feel like that's not now atheism works? It's not like people only trust planes and milk because they believe that a higher power is the only thing keeping them safe.

But then again, Joshuu's an idiot. Like, I really don't get the point of this guy, aside from just putting an unlikeable, obnoxious person in the story for its own sake. Joshuu does get some consequences for his bad behavior, but most of the time he's just a complete shithead who makes an ass of himself and everyone sort of endures his presence. There's no joke, no lesson or moral. Joshuu never does anything or learns anything. He tries to act like he's a rival for Yasuho's affections, but literally no one else believes this.

Josuke wonders if he's a Stand user like Daiya, and his moronic act is part of his Stand Power. But no, he's just an idiot. And yet, the rest of the family also act like idiots, but they do have Stands and they're more dangerous. So I can see why Josuke stays on guard around him.

All right, so let's talk about Shakedown Road. In this arc, Josuke declares that he wants to go to school, and he wants his own cell phone. This is partly so he can have more freedom of movement to investigate his origins, but also he's thinking about his own future. Now that he knows he's a chimera of Yoshikage Kira and some other person, Josuke realizes that he has no past of his own, and no place where he belongs. So he needs to find a place for himself, and he figures he can discover his own talents and interests in school.

Norisuke tells Joshuu to take Josuke along to his own classes, and Joshuu decides to take a trip down "Shakedown Road". He warns Josuke that he's had money taken from him every time he's come to this place, but he insists that this time will be different. It's like he's counting on Josuke's presence to resolve the problem for him.

At first, it seems pretty unassuming. It's not like there's a bunch of muggers everywhere. Just Ginkgo trees and seemingly ordinary people. But then a woman complains to Joshuu that he stepped on her daughter's toy and demands he make restitution. Joshuu never came anywhere near the toy, but one of the stickers from it got onto his shoe, and his shoeprint is on the broken pieces, so the evidence is clear.

Joshuu explains that this was how it happened the last time he came here, but it wasn't the same woman back then. Josuke is intrigued and they use the camera on Joshuu's phone to record their movements along the road.

Then this old man accuses Josuke of breaking one of the aquariums in his shop. The collision fatally wounded an exotic turtle in the water tank. He says the turtle was decapitated, but its body was still moving around after the accident. We don't see the turtle, but this makes me sad, because there was a cool turtle in Parts 3, 4, and 5, but the Part 8 turtle has met with a tragic end. Rest in Power, Part 8 turtle. I'm sure you kicked ass.

Josuke wants to review the footage on Joshuu's phone, but Joshuu pretends he didn't hit the record button. In fact he caught the whole thing. Josuke was walking along, then he stepped on some gingko leaves, and was impossibly flung into the turtle tank at super speed. His elbow hit the tank, breaking it and killing the turtle, and then he got jerked right back where he was. And it happened so quickly that Josuke never even knew he had moved.

So Joshuu figures out that the gingko leaves have something to do with all of this, but he plays dumb so as not to clue Josuke in on this. Josuke, for his part, believes that there's a Stand User at work here, but the old man seems oblivious to Soft and Wet, so he can't have a Stand of his own, or he'd be able to see other Stands.

This is kind of a weakness with Part 8. Stands had been a fixture in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for over twenty years by the time JoJolion started, so it's probably fair that Araki assumed the readers could keep up with the rules. Indeed, this scene where neither Joshuu, the old man, the dog, nor the cell phone camera can perceive Soft and Wet pretty much spells out how this one rule works.

Still, Parts 3 through 7 each did a much better job laying all this out for new readers. Part 3 had to get it right, because that was where the Stand concept was first introduced, but in Parts 4 and 5 the main characters had their own Stands, then learned that there were others with the same kind of power. Also, Parts 4, 5, and 6 all featured characters who developed Stands during the story, so there was a learning curve for the audience. And Part 7 was a reboot, so the idea literally had to be reintroduced on account of this.

Part 8's problem is that Josuke has amnesia, but he appears to understand his Soft and Wet powers implicitly. Either he came out of the ground immediately knowing how to use his ability, or he sorted it out while he was in the hospital in Chapter 2. The problem is that he really doesn't have anyone else to explain it to, and the battles with other Stand Users are essentially ambushes with no time to process the details.

I sort of wonder how Part 9 handles this issue. My impression is that the main characters start the story already familiar with Stands, sort of like Bruno's team in Part 5. Maybe there's a viewpoint character they can explain it to, or maybe there's a wall of exposition somewhere. Well, that's a problem for another time.

I'm a little confused on this part, but some shady-looking characters notice Josuke and Joshuu and try to use them to complete a transaction on Shakedown Road. They coerce Josuke into delivering a package to a nearby woman, and receive her handbag in exchange, I think. Joshuu realizes that the people who understand Shakedown Road can use its mysterious properties to conduct this sort of illegal business. There are undercover cops nearby, but it doesn't matter. The crooks do some tricky stuff with the gingko leaves to make the swap without getting caught. Also Josuke gets yanked at super speed so that he accidentally hits one of the cops. So while they search him for the package, the crooks all walk away, their transaction seemingly complete.

While Josuke is tackled by the cops, he notices a bunch of little creatures under the gingko leaves, and that's the Stand he was looking for. This is Les Feuilles, and the Stand's user is the gingko trees themselves? I guess?

Anyway, Joshuu managed to grab the handbag, thinking it's full of money, and runs off in all the confusion.

But the crooks catch up to him pretty easily, using their experience with the gingko leaves to zip and fly towards him. Joshuu gives them the handbag but it's empty, so they're all set to fuck him up, but then Joshuu's own Stand activates. It has the power to disassemble people and objects. In this particular situation, it just gives these guys a scare, but once Joshuu escapes the effect wears off and they decide not to pursue him. I think Joshuu's Stand is more useful than this, but he absolutely sucks, so I'm pretty sure we never see it reach its full potential.

As it turns out, Josuke managed to foil the crooks from the start. He didn't know where the Stand was or exactly how it worked, but since none of the people involved were the user, that allowed him to use his own Stand to trick them without anyone realizing it. He used Soft and Wet's bubbles to switch the money with gingko leaves, or... something. I'm a little confused to be honest. The point is that the handbag was empty, the crooks didn't get their money, and Josuke can't get pinned with anything because having money on Shakedown Road just proves you're clever, not a thief. As for the woman who got the package, Josuke tells the cops to go chase her down, so it's fair to assume that she didn't get very far.

Josuke tries to call Yasuho on Joshuu's cell phone to meet up with her, but it doesn't work because Yasuho blocked Joshuu's number. She tracks the phone's location to Shakedown Road, which is close to the Joestar Jizo, and that gets her interested.

Jizo, also known as Kṣitigarbha, is a bodhisattva revered as the patron deity of dead children and aborted fetuses. He's also revered as a protector of travelers and firefighters. The Japanese are quite fond of Jizo, and so there are a lot of statues of Jizo in cemeteries and roadsides in Japan. The idea is that the statues serve as a memorial and a sign of Jizo comforting and watching over the dead.

In this case, the Joestar Jizo was built to honor the death of Johnny Joestar, an American who died in an accident in Morioh. I guess the death of a foreigner in a foreign land was particularly sad for the locals, so they set up the Jizo to express their condolences to Johnny and his family.

Of course, we know Johnny Joestar as the hero of Part 7, Steel Ball Run. Part 8 is set 120 years after Part 7, so Johnny's death is kind of a no-brainer, but how did he die, and what was he doing in Morioh?

This sequence here is one of my favorite scenes in JoJolion. There's a certain rite of passage in JJBA, where the hero of the next part will have some sort of connection to the previous Jojo. In Part 2, Joseph never met his grandfather, but he looked just like him, and he was surrounded by people who knew Jonathan and his legacy. In Part 3, Jotaro teamed up with Joseph to track down Dio. In Part 4, Jotaro finds Josuke and informs him of his Joestar heritage. In Part 5, Giorno Giovanna is ignorant of the other Jojos, but Koichi Hirose, who has met several of them, recognizes in Giorno the same noble qualities. In Part 6, Jolyne reconnects with her estranged father, Jotaro. Part 7 was a reboot, so Johnny couldn't meet any of the previous Jojo's, but that's okay.

What I'm driving at here is that Josuke has a predecessor in Johnny, but the gulf of time between them is too vast. Josuke can't meet Johnny or anyone Johnny once knew. Josuke is all alone in Morioh, with no family of his own and no place to belong. He thinks that no one can possibly connect to him, then he sees the Joestar Jizo, wearing the same hat he has on, the same hat Johnny wore during his time in Japan.

The connection wouldn't mean anything to Josuke. He recognizes Johnny as the ancestor of Yoshikage Kira, but he doesn't see himself as part of that family. Nor would he understand that he and Johnny are part of the same college of shonen protagonists, along with Jonathan, Joseph, Jotaro, and the rest.

But we know, and in this brief moment, Josuke briefly connects with his fellow hero, and it's a beautiful thing. He's not alone, the universe tries to tell him, and he can't hear it, but maybe his heart knows, somehow.

The old man from earlier shows up and tells Josuke the legend of Johnny's death. He claims this is just a fantasy, and the library is full of other interpretations, but this is the only version we get, so it might as well be the true final fate of Johnny Joestar. So after the end of Part 7, Johnny met and fell in love with Rina Higashikata, the daughter of Norisuke Higashikata I. We saw all three of them together on the ocean liner. Norisuke was heading back to Japan with his prize money from the race, and Johnny was heading to Naples to bury Gyro Zeppeli. Eventually, Johnny and Rina married, and they lived happily for a time, until Rina came down with a strange illness. It kind of affected her mind like dementia, and Josuke wonders if it has anything to do with the condition Holly Kira has, but this is never explained. Physically, the disease does something weird to her skin, turning it rock hard and with these creases, like you'd see in origami.

The Jojo fan wiki refers to this as the "Rock Disease" and this is as close to an official name as we'll get. Johnny decided to move to Morioh so Rina could live out her remaining years in her homeland, but as her condition grew worse, he made a fateful decision.

The plot of Steel Ball Run revolved around the "Saint Corpse", the remains of a holy figure with supernatural properties. At the end of SBR, the Saint Corpse was locked away in a vault so no one would ever use it again, but Johnny knew where it was, and he chose to return to New York to steal it and use it one last time to cure his wife. The American authorities tried to stop him, but he managed to give them the slip and made it back to Morioh.

The problem is that the Saint Corpse doesn't actually perform miracles. Rather, it simply transfers fortune from one to another. Johnny's hope was that the Corpse would shift the Rock Disease from Rina to some other person, someone he didn't know. He was ashamed of doing this, but he loved Rina so much that he was willing to consign someone else to death. But the equivalent exchange backfired on him. Rina was cured, but the Rock Disease was transferred to their young son, George Joestar.

So Johnny mounted up with his son and the Saint Corpse and started riding away from their home. He didn't want his wife to see this, you understand. Realizing that he could never use the Saint Corpse to get rid of the Rock Disease, he used it one last time to transfer the disease from George to himself.

I'm a little confused about how this worked, exactly. In this scene, Johnny uses the Golden Spin to activate Tusk Act IV, which he uses to shoot a hole in his son's head, and then it bounces back onto him. I don't get it, but then again, I didn't understand Tusk Act IV in Part 7, either.

Johnny falls off his horse, and while George is cured, he shows signs of the Rock disease. Also, something about all this triggers the Les Fueilles Stand. I don't know if it was already active back then, or if Johnny's little stunt with the Saint Corpse somehow caused the gingko leaves to develop their own Stand. What I do know is that when his hand touches the leaves, they cause a giant boulder to suddenly fly in from somewhere else, and it lands right on Johnny's head, killing him.

Initially, the Morioh authorities treated this like a homicide, and even arrested Rina as a suspect, but later it was found to be an accident, and they let her go. The town built the Jizo in his memory, and I think that this whole incident might be what caused all these people to develop Stand powers in Morioh whenever they go near the fault lines. It might also explain why the land on the Higashikata estate can combine things like the lemon and tangerine from Kyo's demonstration.

At one time, I assumed that the Saint Corpse was still in Morioh, and its powers were behind everything, but that's not the case. In the old man's version of the story, the Americans finally tracked down Johnny after he died and they recovered the Saint Corpse.

Meanwhile Yasuho has independently researched the Johnny Joestar legend, and has come to the spot where he died. It's pretty close to the Higashikata mansion, as well as the spot where she found Josuke.

Yasuho also learned of another news item from the same day as Johnny's death in 1901. A small boy, no more than 2 years old, was discovered on the coast near the same area. No one ever found out who he was or where he came from, and apparently this never comes up again in JoJolion. I looked him up on the wiki to see if I might have missed something, but he's just listed as "Mysterious Boy" in the list of minor characters.

It's possible that the story of the Mysterious Boy was just a way to get Yasuho to poke around in this area, so that she would find a hole in the base of a certain pine tree where the boy was found 110 years ago. And once she gets close enough to it, someone grabs her and pulls her inside to set up the next arc. So the Mysterious Boy may never have been a plot point or a clue at all, just a curious mystery that would bait Yasuho into getting captured. Either that or the Mysterious Boy is the main villain of Part 9. Whatever.

[lasthumaninwales]

Wife and I were talking about getting our passports sorted so we can go on holiday abroad in the next couple of years (mine is in date but has the wrong gender and my deadname on it, hers is expired and has her maiden name, our son has never had one), and she was like "If you want to see 'ya boy' we could do that if he tours in Europe again."

I pointed out that with everything that's gone on, we'd probably have to go to Finland. But you know, that's cool. Neither of us have been, I'm sure it's lovely.

Did raise the question though, how easy is Finland to get around for anglophones who don't speak a word of Finnish? My wife is like, pretty damn good with several languages, but none of them are in any way related to Finnish. I meanwhile, am kind of rubbish at languages at the best of times, I speak a little Welsh, a tiny amount of French. I know a handful of words in Finnish and none of them are Useful*.

So yeah, that's my question I guess. I 100% expect to come across like a dumb tourist.

*I can say fuck, what (and by extension 'what the fuck'), thank you, game on, wake up, sandwich and fire. And there is no grammar surrounding any of that.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

The great regular sleep experiment 2024 part uh... "pillow"

Okay, so what happened is the night before last I looked up everything I needed to go get my ID, and discovered that -technically- I didn't have anything that qualified as "proof of identity" because both my cards were expired and as a disabled person I can't qualify for a credit card, can't drive etc... In fact I can't even acquire something on the list. All the proof I have of who I am and where I live is technically only qualified as "proof of address", Having my passport -night- fix this, but my ex husband's father still has that.

So I decided that I'd show up with all I had, and if they were obtuse about it I would write angry letters exhaustively until there were policy changes. It's bad enough they make you get a new ID and health card every 2-5 years and that they make you pay for the photo ID. The applying online options would be great except you aren't allowed to the moment your card has actually already expired. I think there should be exceptions to a lot of these things for the disabled and especially for anyone on a disability pension.

I also decided that the best way to make sure I could get in and out as fast as possible was to get the earliest morning appointment I could and keep it, and I -could- book online so I did.

But then, it was my night sleeping shift, and even though I took sleeping pills and did everything I could... Not only could I not sleep at 10, but I couldn't sleep at 12, etc and so on until I had just laid in bed doing nothing until 5 ish am... At which point I had no choice but to get up because the walk there was going to take 1.5 hours min, and I had to eat and drink first, but also have time to pee after that had fully processed so I don't have to try to use a public toilet, etc... You know how a 9 am appointment means needing to be up at 4 when you're otherwise disabled and/or have autism/adhd...

So I fucking went to get my ID so sleep-zombied that I think everyone I encountered just assumed I was stoned AF, just absolutely wizard high at the government offices.

And I got my ID, but I hadn't brought my cane and I already could barely walk due to not sleeping, and kept tilting to the left because of trying to keep weight off of my right foot. I stopped at a dollar-store on the way home because it was right at opening and I needed to this week anyway to get the treats that make Pumpkin actually eat his food. Anyway point is I was walking way slower on the way back and the appointment was already at 9 am so I didn't get to bed until past 12.

And I slept! And then I was barely awake long enough to eat and went back to bed by 7 pm, and then I slept! On and off a lot until 6 am [I had moved my 5 am alarm later]...

And I am hoping I can sleep again in about 15 minutes, otherwise I am not going to recapture my 10-2 sleeps and my schedule will be soundly fucked up, all because I had to try to replace my ID.

[No I could not just take a cab or bus for the same reasons I never can without it being a near guarantee of being exposed to corona]

Oh yeah! The pillow! Turns out a shallow lumbar pillow for my lower back helps with my spine trying to be too straight all the time. The lower curve of my back and upper back have both been vanishing and my disks have been trying to curve out sideways because of it, and I have really shitty connective tissue, so I have been trying to keep my lower back curved the right way when I sleep so I don't develop an abnormal curve to my spine. For normal people this would be a process that takes years to cause problems and years to adjust back, or surgery, but my connective tissue is weak and stretchy and this kind of shit can happen to me and reverse int he span of a month. Unfortunately, correcting how bad my spine has gotten means an increase in the number of headaches I am getting again.

It also turns out that a lower back pillow that slips out of place is HORRIBLE for your back though, so ymmv.

So yeah, looking forward to my new ID photos looking utterly fucked... Which -frankly- is how I am going to look opening my door to buy alcohol or having to show up at a medical facility anyway.

That is, unless they pull the same shit as last time and send me my ID with the OLD photos because they can't see the age difference between them and think the older photo is better quality. They KEEP doing this, they insist I have to go in and take my mask off for a new photo [risk of corona and all], and then they just use the last one I took for them when I was still wearing makeup [more fem?]... Which is over 10 years old at this point, btw, it's just still on my last most recent ID because whoever is making the cards seems to prefer it. Like I don't care if I still look the same age, or younger with no makeup, I don't like having to show people an ID that looks like a 'modeling portfolio' pic and feels like misgendering. People already almost refuse to believe my ID is real because I look too young, I do not need them also thinking I don't look like the same person as in my photo because I don't look fem enough. I keep trying to take a more neutral looking photo and they keep opting out for me.

Whatever, they're telling me it's good for 5 years now.

[partnersrelief]

This is personal.

“Teacher, I am so sad I can’t sleep.” 

This message appeared on my phone at 3AM. 

How do you respond to that? Is, “I’m so sorry,” good enough? 

How can you sleep when you know that your parents can hear the sounds of fighting all around their village at home in Myanmar? 

How can you focus on studying when you're scared that the next time you try to go home or even renew your passport, you will be drafted into the army that is killing your own people?

I’m used to my students' laughter and smiles, their enthusiasm for life and their incredible motivation in the face of difficult odds, but there is a point where reality becomes overwhelming and anyone would feel trapped.

The recent announcement about the enactment of the draft by the Myanmar military is causing worry and fear for young people from Myanmar both inside and outside the country. To try to enforce this law, the government will not allow young people to leave the country or renew passports until they have fulfilled the draft requirement. This will affect almost all of my students who are studying for their GED Exams within the next couple years if not months as their current passports expire or their visas for Thailand run out. 

Here are some glimpses into the lives of my students as they grapple with this new reality:

A 17-year-old girl will have to return to Myanmar in 6 months when her visa expires unless she can find some alternative visa to transfer to in the meantime, which is very unlikely. By that time, she will be 18 and would not be let out of the country again. She said to me, “I’m so worried, I just want to cry. I can’t go back. I don’t know what to do.” 

Another student told me that the active fighting has now reached his home village. Even though his relatives had scraped together enough money to pay for a flight out, they were turned back at the airport. Apparently, all flights had been grounded to prevent people from leaving the country. 

A young man summed up his feelings saying, “I just don’t know what to do anymore. My country doesn’t care about me, and no one else wants us. I don’t belong anywhere.”

“My country doesn’t care about me, and no one else wants us. I don’t belong anywhere.”

As my students were confronted by the news and public discussions surrounding this draft order, the conversation spilled over into our class time. Many of the students expressed anger and frustration, obviously fueled by the fear they are feeling. They reacted to the way that academics handle this topic as a theoretical problem to be examined and debated, rather than an alarming reality. For the students, this is personal and is already impacting their lives. It is not just a projection of what might happen in the future.

In their own words:

“This has been our life for years already. Our people have been forced out of their homes continuously over the past decades. That is why there are so many of us in Thailand. It is not easy for us. We did not want to leave our homes.”

"We did not want to leave our homes.”

“What about the poor people who cannot pay money to leave the country? What about the children who are trapped by the fighting? What about the old people who can’t get visas for anything and have to stay where the fighting is? Who is thinking about them?”

Together we contemplated how we can turn these feelings of frustration and helplessness into something productive. What small goal can each of the students set their sights on to give them purpose right now, so they are not dragged down by despair?

At the end of the conversation a 19 year old girl who had listened quietly to the others came to me and said, “I am not going to get angry, because that won’t change anything now. Right now I will just focus on my studying. Then in the future I will be able to teach and help improve things and help people. That is the only thing I can do now.”

[thechasmsurveys]

3.

Do you sleep with just a sheet in summer when it's hot? No, I have to have my weighted blanket or else I can’t sleep.

Are you one of those people who needs to have at least some blanket on you when you sleep so the monsters don't get you? Hahaha, yes, actually.

Will anyone be visiting your house any time soon? Not that I’m aware of. We need to clean the house before we both have to go back to work and we don’t feel like it lol.

What was the last museum you went to? The Van Gogh one. It was amazing.

Scroll through your camera roll quickly without looking, then stop it with your finger. What's the first picture your eye lands on? My phone is all the way across the room and I’m feeling lazy. I’m sure it would just be a picture of Dusty, though.

Do you get bursts of creative energy or is it more consistent? Honestly I never really feel creative, ever,

Have you ever been chased by a dog? Yeah, I had to go to animal court over it and everything lol.

What's your favourite kind of soda? I’m not a soda person at all. I like sweet tea and water.

Are you a visual learner? Very much so.

Do you have a drink with you right now? What is it? Just some water in my Stanley.

What was the last science fiction movie you watched? Annihilation. I didn't love the movie per se, but the cinematography and the CGI was gorgeous. I've never seen anything like it. <--This movie lives rent free in my head lol. The bear scene makes me die a little every time I imagine it. But uhmmmmm, no idea. I’m not a movie person.

How far away from your home is the nearest train station? Probably 30-45 minutes.

Do you listen to music every day? Yeah, either on the way to work or on the way home and then just whenever on weekends.

If you have a passport, when does it expire? Oh, I’m sure it’s been expired for like 10 years.

Have you ever smoked a cigar? No.

What was the last app you opened on your phone? Messenger. Someone was messaging me about monopoly go cards lollllllll.

Is your voice high, low, or somewhere in the middle? I think it’s middle to low.

Are you wearing any rings right now? Yes just my two silicone ones for my wedding bands.

Have you ever been to a baby shower? Plenty.

Do you have any cash stashed away anywhere? I have some in my wallet because I just don’t put it in the bank lol.

What are your neighbours like? I live in townhouses so I have tons of them lol. My immediate one on the left is super nice. I love her. She’s super sweet. The neighbor on the right is not my favorite at ALL. And my dog hates her so that means something lol.

What month is your birthday? How far away is that from now? June. 6 months.

What's the next friend or family birthday coming up? Will you buy them a present Lauren’s in February. I will, but I’m not sure what present.

What was the last book you read? I got an advanced reader copy of The Fury by Alex Michaelides and it’s so freaking good.

Have you ever spend a long period of time in a country you weren't born in? Not really. I went to Europe and stayed in Italy for like 5 days and France for about the same but that’s it.

Do you make your own surveys on Bzoink? Hahaha I used to.

What colour are the bottoms you're wearing today? I’m currently wearing Colton’s boxers and they’re plaid lol.

How many beds are in your home? Two.

Do you wear face masks in public? No.

What are your plans for tomorrow? Oooooh, so we’re going with my sister and her family and my mom and us and our dog Dusty, to a park like an hour away and we’re going to walk around. It’s a huuuuuuuuuuuge park and it has like a café and a coffee shop and a tram and everything. It sounds insane. Then dinner with my boss and her husband at her house.

[therealcocoshady]

Does your other blog start with oya? It's a blog that is following you and quite a few other eminem themed blogs. 🤔🤔🤔

I went to Italy for my vacation. 😚It was super awesome! Although where I live it's been cold and rainy (we just started getting snow as well.😑😑😒) While I was in Italy it was like 70's and really sunny. 😐I actually got burned because I had been told that it wasnt supposed to be super hot or sunny☹️ so I didn't pack sunscreen and I didn't have time to buy any. (I had a bunch of tours I was doing.)

I also got sick will I was over there,🥲🥲 one of my friends I was traveling with had a cold and then I caught it😑😑. It was one of the best feelings ever the first night I had it. My sinuses were so clogged it felt like my face hurt, so I cried and then that made my face hurt more so I cried more😗. Then you add the embarrassment of crying in front of people so I ended up sobbing while my nose drained really bad in front of a bunch of people in the hotel lobby I was staying at. 🙃

I actually haven't traveled in quite a few years. Had to get a new passport because my old one expired, that kinda tells you how long it's been since I've traveled far.😶😶 I usually just go to the states that are close by to my state, that's about it. 😗

Congratulations on the house btw!

-👑🦖

It does 👀 I don't post anything on there actually. If I did it would probably be a bunch of PhD/everyday life-related stuff that has NOTHING to do with Em 😂

That sounds like quite a trip !!! I went to Italy a few years ago and I got sunburnt pretty bad in Pompeii 😅. I am so sorry that you got sick and embarrassed though... I hope you still had a good time ❤️

I had a Passport made for a work trip a few years ago but said trip ended up being cancelled because of Covid 🤡. I still hope to put it to good use and visit Canada and/or US soon though !!!

Thank you for the house. I am really excited to be a homeowner now 🥰. I feel like a grownup (I'm not though 😭).