By David Futrelle
Good news everyone! Today’s lil Twitter roundup is almost entirely Trump-free! Instead, it’s got dancing otters, a creepy hedgehog, and Chris Christie cradling nachos like a mama gorilla. Also, some angry gamers and a weird new conspiracy theory about Obama.
Let’s get ready to twumble!
https://twitter.com/VicBergerIV/status/891813326019334146
And don't ever again question Chris Christie's humanity after seeing him cradle those nachos like a mother primate cradling its young.
— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) July 31, 2017
Damn, I could really use some nachos right about now. Nachos are awesome.
Hedgehog cake, not so much.
https://twitter.com/chaeronaea/status/891873357448261632
https://twitter.com/9_volt88/status/891999259742134272
OBAMA'S SCHEDULE
8:30 Call with Media™
9:00 Confiscate America's guns
9:45 Call with Media™
11:00 Kitesurf w Richard Branson
12:30 Lunch pic.twitter.com/hySs2808lm— shauna (@goldengateblond) July 31, 2017
https://twitter.com/tompeck/status/891601275418234880
MEN! Accentuate parts of your body you like e.g. good legs, to draw attention away from problem areas e.g. the things you do and say.
— manwhohasitall (@manwhohasitall) July 31, 2017
https://twitter.com/LLW902/status/891748757921857537
https://twitter.com/zboah/status/892018500780380160
I’m still thinking about those nachos.
Actually, maybe it was more like…
@Amnesia – So, he’s resigning to spend less time with his family.
@Gussie Jives – I remember 7th Guest. That maze still haunts me. “Feeling…looooooooonely?” I’d love to see a Let’s Play, just for the nostalgia factor (and to hear your take on the silly dramatic creepiness).
@Gussie Jives:
Well, I don’t know how people usually move (safely) out of the comments here to other avenues where they can talk privately, but if someone can tell me the best way to do that, maybe I can get a hold of you via Discord or some other method, sometime later and chime in on a test run for you. 🙂 Getting started’s the hard part, but you can do it, either way!
OT:
Psychiatrist visit.
I’ve just got done visiting him again. He upped my antidepressant dosage due to my meds not being as strong and the badthoughts keep coming out. I’ve also talked to him about my trans issues. He believes that the reason I’m thinking I’m a woman as an escape mechanism from due to my severe chronic depression, kind of like how when people are sad they wish they had different jobs/parents/lovers/lives/etc. He did admit that he is a complete rookie when it comes to trans diagnosis, so he recommended me to see a psychologist on the matter.
I want to believe him that’s it’s all due to my depression, but I’m not getting the nonchalant feeling I get when I get advice from people more experienced than me. I’ll have to set an appointment with a psychologist to get the answers I need.
Sorry to have to talk about this, but I am feeling pretty depressed and upset about myself, and when I feel this way I always manage to find something dreadful online to make me feel worse. I hate being a woman because I feel so weak, and I was shamed a lot when I was a kid for being weak. I wanted to know how much weaker I am as a woman than I would be as a man so I googled it and found this body building forum talking about how weak women are.
Now I feel even more wretched.
This is horrific and upsetting and just reinforces everything I already believe about myself. I think about getting testosterone and putting things right, but my mum thinks it will make things worse and I’ll get bullied.
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=129564543
This is horrific and upsetting and just reinforces everything I already believe about myself. I think about getting testosterone and putting things right, but my mum thinks it will make things worse and I’ll get bullied.
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=129564543
@Virgin Mary
You are a strong person, regardless of gender or hormone balance. *hugs*
Edit: @Oogly
Working with mental health professionals is hard and it sounds like you’re doing a fantastic job. I hope you find some answers that feel right wrt the trans feelings. *hugs* to you, too.
@Lumen8
I set up a Discord channel for the Mammoth for pretty much that purpose; it’s not terribly active, but the link in my nym should go there and folks can exchange PMs.
@Virgin Mary
My condolences about life’s stick deciding to pile onto you.
I’m not completely sure what to say. I rarely am.
But I can say this.
Weakness has many forms; and everyone has it manifest somehow, in some way.
I believe that forum spoke of physical weakness; and even then, while I don’t dare touch it with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole, there’s the question of what their sources are. Somehow, I have doubts.
But the fact remains, VM, that you’re so much stronger than so many people–most notably, the sort of people we generally read of here on WHTM.
I don’t know everything about you, but from what I can glean:
You’re strong in that you have chosen to exist in the face of adversity and absurdity.
You’re strong in that you seek the truth when so many other people seek lip service to lies.
You’re strong in that you not only realize that the truth is unpleasant, but have a wish to change that.
And most notably, you’re strong in that you choose to say when you are weak in some way, instead of hiding behind walls of lies and outright bullshit.
And that’s important–so you can admit it to yourself that you are fallible, and so you can admit it to others so that they may help.
There are many people that are not that strong.
@Virgin Mary
There’s a strong pattern of encouraging physical activities for AMAB people from a young age, and discouraging AFAB people likewise. What exercises are ‘permissible’ for femme-designated people are all aerobic exercise, which is good for endurance, tone, and cardiovascular fitness, but crap for actually putting on muscle. AFAB people who engage in serious anaerobic weight training put on muscle and gain strength too. Most are starting from a lower baseline (because of previously noted patriarchy), but high weight, low reps=muscle and strength for everyone.
I don’t know if this is of any help at all, but I am a woman who goes to a gym (but not a bodybuilder, and I am 52), and I find that frequently I do NOT have to lower the weight on the machines I use. I am in some ways at least as strong as average sized men who are half my age. Also I have only been going for a month.
I have always had a strong build and I am pleased to see I can increase it even at my age, in such a short period.
Oh, dang, Virgin Mary, that sounds like absolute shit. *hugs if you want them*
I’ll just avoid trying to tell you my thoughts on the transgender possibility, cause it’d just be speculation at best and you sound like you need someone who really knows what they’re about right now.
As for that forum, ugh, that is an awful thread. Definitely wouldn’t take advice on how strong women are from any of them. Gross.
@ virgin mary
In the words of Zaphod Beeblebrox I wouldn’t trust some of the ‘advice’ on that site as far as I could spit a rat.
I don’t want to fill up this thread with a polemic on the various types of strength training. But if you want to email me through David I can put you in touch with some (properly qualified) professionals who can give you some pointers. Short answer though, it’s bollocks that women are inherently weak. Dalillama has touched on some of the issues why there’s that perception, but it’s a myth that’s so very very wrong.
(General rule: if the default response to questions involving women is to immediately start suggesting rape, then they aren’t the people to be listening to)
Anyone who goes to a gym with someone who does not ‘work out’ and mocks them for not being strong is a blob of glup. Dalillama’s point is well taken; in our culture, women being physically strong is almost as stigmatized as women being assertively outspoken.
@Virgin Mary
Going on T will definitely give you an initial boost as well; hormones aren’t totally irrelevant, and higher T correlates to faster muscle building and longer muscle retention. OTOH, anaerobic exercise (and to some extent all exercise ) causes the body to produce more testosterone from the adrenal glands, so there’s a nice recursive effect there. That’s totally separate from any external hormone therapies.
From Wikipedia:
In October 1927, the conductor Nikolai Malko challenged Dmitri Shostakovich to do an arrangement of [Tea for Two] after the two listened to it on record at Malko’s house. Malko bet 100 roubles that Shostakovich could not completely re-orchestrate it from memory in under an hour. Shostakovich took him up and won, completing it in around 45 minutes. His “Tea for Two” arrangement, Opus 16, was first performed on 25 November 1928. It was incorporated into Tahiti Trot from his ballet The Golden Age first performed in 1929.
So no, he didn’t write it, but that apparently was his arrangement of it.
Virgin Mary: had a look at the site and OMFG – so fucking toxic. Do not torment yourself.
Half of bodybuilding dot com seems to be ‘would you smash?’ threads and misogynist/homophobic/emasculating banter. If 4chan was swole and had a hobby. So, imma go ahead and doubt literally everything they say about women. And men. And all other aspects and facets of human life…
@Ooglyboggles
I’m really happy you asked the question. You deserve truth, whatever that truth may be.
CN: Discussion of depression
Part of my issues with my life have included physical and emotional abuse, as well as depression. I’ve dealt with desperately running away from things in my head, and sometimes inventing elaborate fantasies so I could pretend that not everything is horrible right now. Like that my family cared about me, but w/e.
Some of those fantasies featured me as a kickass take-no-nonsense chick in some alternate world. The takeaway here is even if you’re being driven to this place by the severity of your depression, that doesn’t make this not the truth. It’s a bit of a recursive loop for some folks: Not presenting as themselves makes them depressed, depression drives them to imagine better lives where they are themselves, and the disconnect between how they see themselves and how the world forces them to act makes them depressed.
You’re strong for seeking the truth, and I hope you find it.
@Virgin Mary
Honestly, you’re willing to confront what’s bothering you and ask for help. That makes you the strongest person in the room right now.
Also, in my last job, apparently there were concerns from some of the teachers on how much physical labor I was doing to the point that I had to reassure my male coworkers that I would in fact tell them if something was too much for me, because I know my pride in being a strong independent woman isn’t worth getting injured over.
Also, my big strong male coworkers hated going up on ladders/roofs/the cherry-picker, but that was totally my jam, so, you know, strengths are relative.
@Mary: Don’t worry about those jackasses. They’re just insecure as shit and have to reassure themselves that the one thing they’ve built up for themselves is the thing that they’re the best at by tearing down other people who might be better than them.
@Dalilama: Hey, the link to the Discord chat isn’t working. It says it’s expired. :/
Virgin Mary,
Bodybuilding forums tend to be an extension of the manosphere. A lot of incels frequent them. I know it’s easier said than done, but try not to take anything you see on them to heart.
Are you in a position to get a gym membership and have sessions at least once in a while with a personal trainer? If you are financially and physically able to it, a trainer can tell you what to do to build up muscle mass and get stronger.
@Kupo
Thank you, I just hate this feeling of uncertainty, I hope that psychologist can give me an answer and calm me down. I already have enough of my mom not getting the fact that my meds = I stop getting thoughts of driving into the nearest semi, something like this is not something I look forward to explaining. Like for fuck’s sake she said “natural” was better than medicine and I could become dependent on my meds. No shit I am dependent on them, when I didn’t have them I couldn’t even get out of hed.
@Virgin Mary
Strength is you being able to overcome your fear of looking weak and ask for help. Weak is them belittling others to feel better about themselves.
@IgnoreSandra
Thank you for telling me I did the right thing. The problem I had with my visit was the fact that when I discussed my episodes of suicidal thoughts and how I acted, fantasies did not enter the picture. I act robotic, expressionless and over conscious of time when I’m really down, I can’t even fantasize even if I wanted to if I’m at the point where I got to call a hotline for my safety.
EDIT: “You have reach your insurance after business hours. We apologize for your visit taking so long by the time you could call we were closed.”
I went into the thread for that one where the woman mocked the transphobe and made them go off on a gamerbro rant, and holy wow, the number of OTHER gamerbros ranting in there… it really is amazing how easy it is to set them off.