Well, it’s been quite a year, huh. Hopefully the next one will be a little better?
Reflect on the past year, or speculate on the one ahead. Make resolutions, or don’t. Whatever you want. This is your thread.
Here, to start things off on the right foot, is the full animated version of that graphic above.
Also, if you’re interested, here are some pictures of Jordan Peterson holding up giant slabs of raw meat. (They aren’t real photos, of course; they came from you-know-where. I apologize for the fucked-up eyes and occasional extra fingers.)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!1!1!!! And thanks for your continued support!
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2022 was rough.
Lots of deaths in my network, starting with my Grandpa and ballooning from there. Coming to terms with the fact that even though my great grandma is alive, her Alzheimers has made it so she doesn’t know me anymore. So much reactionary bigotry. Putin and his damned war. Governments being completely unprepared for predicted weather. Climate change still getting ignored. Other friends having medical emergencies. My dog spending the last bits of summer scaring the dickens out of me with gastrointestinal problems.
2022 also had some bright spots.
Started the year out as trans at work, started T in early summer. Bought a house, which low key terrifies me because the monthly mortgage is way more than half my take home pay but it’s literally the best I could do, and with rents increasing at current rates, it’ll be cheaper than renting a one bedroom here within a couple years. Whoops, not bright spot there, incredibly depressing bit there. Housing is a huge problem, and getting worse in this area. I’m just very lucky to have found this place.
Back to good news: In the final homestretch we got to watch the second most fragile ego on Twitter spend 10 hours melting down after being dissed by a teenager – Romanian authorities may claim it was not the pizza box, but it will always be the pizza box in my heart.
Hoping that 2023 is an improvement upon the bad, and the momentum of the good keeps going.
Well, the odds are not looking good for 2023. Let’s look at the recent years:
2016 – Trump
2017 – Nazi torchlit march culminating in murders
2018 – Kavanaugh
2019 – Racist massacre in El Paso
2020 – COVID
2021 – Attempted fascist coup in United States
2022 – Putin wrecks the world economy while nearly starting World War III (jury still out on whether this attempt will eventually prove successful), AND Roe.
What will 2023 bring? More fascist violence? Another damn pandemic? Mushroom clouds? Resegregation? The end of Obergefell? Great Depression II? All of the above?
Meanwhile, I’m not even quite sure why I care so much. It’s not like other people or “society” has actually been all that good to me, after all. School — clear through getting a bachelor’s degree — was full of bullying, plus everyone in a position to do anything about it looking the other way instead. After that, isolation, for the most part, gradually worsening as family members drifted away or dropped dead over time. I’ve never felt particularly accepted, or part of a community, anywhere … tolerated, in some places at times, but never much more than that. Liked by individual people on infrequent occasions. The vast majority though have seemed to variously ignore me, see me as a minor annoyance, or see me as something they can use in some way or another. Yet I sympathize with these people when they in turn get crapped on … why? Seems to be my nature. Maybe it’s best that I am isolated, lest I be taken advantage of instead.
I also don’t know if it’s me who just isn’t likable, or if it’s society with its hierarchies and its obsession with money and squeezing as much labor out of everyone for as little as possible leaving no-one the time or energy to care about community building and such. If it is society, I say this to 2023: go big or go home. No more mini-disasters like COVID or some mid-sized war somewhere big enough to kill millions but not enough to actually change anything. If you’re going to pull some shit, let’s lance this boil once and for all and crash the system to the point the survivors have to rebuild it from scratch. Maybe they’ll get it right this time. If the billionaires can buy their way out of being killed or even inconvenienced by it then it’s nowhere near big enough. :/ Sure, that means I will almost certainly not survive myself, but, well, fuck it.
And if it is me? Well it’s still society’s fault. I’d like to be better liked, but I don’t know how to achieve that and no one will tell me, at least not for free. If I fell through some social-skills educational crack, whose negligence led to that crack being there?
Though I suspect it’d just be a scam of some sort anyway: get a job and a car, or do some other expensive thing requiring money, and then still not get treated as an actual member of a community of any sort, while someone points and laughs … all the way to the bank.
@Red Silk: I have never known a diabetic who didn’t cheat. My dad had an enormous sweet tooth but still managed to live till 90. You have to get it under control with lower carbs when first diagnosed, but then you can cheat once in a while.
You’d be surprised how many good sugar-free substitutes there are. I have been buying the Mr. soft cookies, crunchy cookies, sugar-free jelly beans and Life Savers, sugar-free chocolates with things in, even store-bought pies for decades. He’s still got all his limbs and eyes. Like you, he’s still producing some insulin.
But you have to read labels like a fiend, because sometimes they tout “Sugar-free!” but the label reveals it has a ton of starch.
So tough it out for a few months and then add stuff in. Potato chips and the like are pure carbs though, and he misses those. I have to eat chips, Fritos, etc. when he’s not around. And we always throw caution to the wind on holidays. Though I make a really good sugar-free pumpkin pie, I must say. But Xmas treats are still a must.
That Chinese menu made me lol.
@Sheila: Great news! I have at times been stuck in the house due to decrepitude, or that time I broke a leg and had my right leg in a cast so I couldn’t drive. The freedom is incredible.
I lost my dog in 2021 and my mom in 2022. So if I get through 2023 without losing a loved one, I’m going to consider it a win even if nothing else changes for the better. I’m wishing an uneventful year for anyone who needs/wants one.
@WWTH
I’m so sorry to hear that. May you find peace. And I hope that 2023 is gentler with you.
@Red Silk
Welcome to the T2 club, where membership is never sought. 😉 Has your doctor arranged for you to attend a diabetic boot camp? The program I went to was 4 or 5 sessions, run by a registered dietician and diabetic educator, who did a wonderful job of making us all feel like we could get through this.
Other possibly unwanted/unnecessary advice: Don’t just focus on what you can or can’t eat. Think also about what kind of stress management you want to add to your life – reducing stress means your blood glucose levels will come under better control, too. For me, that meant adding more exercise activities, getting a meditation app, and spending more time on the hobbies I enjoy.
As the more hardcore peeps down the gym say “They’re not cheat days, they’re treat days”. So instead of feeling they’re breaking their regimen, it’s sort of a built in part of their plan.
Heh, mine has a habit of popping up stuff like “Take a minute just to close your eyes and let your mind go blank”
Well, I guess this bit of the motorway is pretty straight.
@Alan
Ha! Yeah, the RD who ran our sessions had a similar approach. If you’re really craving Frito pie, better to promise yourself a small helping than to deny-deny-deny-EAT ALL THE FRITO PIE-guilt spiral. It just so happened that two of my sessions happened during the winter holiday season, so she talked a lot about what sort of holiday feasting you could do while still being a (mostly) good diabetic.
I appreciate the Calm app TV ads, which show a tree being rained on and the words on the screen say “do nothing for 15 seconds”. It’s the only ad I won’t skip or mute. Just sit there, eyes closed, breathe, and listen to the rain. Can’t afford the app though! I do have a collection of YouTube video/audio clips I run.
My BFF isn’t diabetic but right now for medical issues she is on high dose steroids, so she’s having to check her blood sugar twice a day just in case. Mighty darn perky, though.
I like the Better Sleep app, mostly because you can really take the buffet approach. If you’re in the mood for a bedtime story, pick a story. If you want a meditation or a visualization exercise, they have those, too. They have a library of sounds and music you can mix. Often when I’m winding down, I put on a sound/music mix, then switch to a story or exercise when I’m ready for sleep.
My favourite relaxation aid.
“You must relax! I cannot stress that enough.”
@Alan:
I don’t know, I mean ‘Legal Eagle’ on Youtube gets sponsors from audiobooks, educational programs, and even the video streaming service Nebula. Granted, he also streams on Nebula, so that probably doesn’t count as sponsorship as such…
@Redsilkphoenix:
I have a soft spot for the ridiculously extended animal pun sequence that I first saw on a greeting card (I think one of Boynton’s) and accompanied by the line of the named animals: “Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose panda hippo gnu deer!”
@ jenora
So far, my only bit of ‘sponsorship’ has been a skull shaver thing. It is quite handy though for emergencies, so I should probably say something nice about it.
GSS ex-noob:
I haven’t checked it lately, so it may no longer work, but I used to have the free version, which had some pleasant sounds and animations– I didn’t want the guided-meditation stuff anyway.
Thanks for the condolences, everyone. I’m missing my dog, especially when I need a hug or at night. She used to climb on the bed at night with me when it was cold. My psychologist is doing the paperwork so my other dog can be an autism support dog, and she can go everywhere with me. She’s started today by coming with me to work today. Although psych says that there isn’t really a process, she just writes a letter for me to carry around in case I’m challenged and I get the appropriate harness online somewhere.
@rj
I had to let my sweet girl go in September. It was time but it’s never easy. My husband talked me into getting us a cat and he’s the sweetest boy but also a bit of a punk.
It does slowly get easier even if it doesn’t feel like it right now
@GSS ex-noob, @Victorious Parasol,
Thanks. I guess this unwanted club membership is what I get for not reading the fine print when signing my name to something. Those hidden charges are real killers, aren’t they? :/ Fresh(er) food, or at least lightly processed food, cost more than the heavily processed stuff does. Medicine so far isn’t too bad costwise, but my current insurance wouldn’t pay for the 90 day supply I was prescribed, which is a bummer.
Hopefully now that the holidays are over I can make the life overhaul appointment and see what my new normal is going to be now. (Hopefully I can switch the breads to wheat and stuff.)
And now a couple more OT links I think the Mammoths here might like:
The blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry is about how history is used in various pop culture venues and how they’re getting things wrong and/or right.
https://acoup.blog/
One result from the drought drying up the Mississippi River – the discovery of a fossil from an extinct lion species that once roamed North America, apparently the second one ever discovered. Maybe they can get a breeding pair out of these guys? 😀
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/drought-reveals-rare-american-lion-fossil-in-dried-up-mississippi-river-180981166/
There’s an ancient spore that turns living creatures into real live zombies! Run for the hills! At least if you’re an ant.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-scariest-zombies-in-nature-65517629/
@ redsilkphoenix
Ooh, right up my street. Although my new year’s resolution is to annoy less grammar pedants.
@Alan Robertshaw:
… I went from ‘shouldn’t that be fewer rather than less‘ to ‘you’re not off to a good start on that resolution’ to ‘you did that deliberately, didn’t you’ within about thirty seconds.
@ jenora
I’m taking my cues from a friend
A few last links for folks to enjoy:
Want to know what was happening to your hometown millions and millions of years ago? This site has the answers.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/map-lets-you-plug-your-address-see-how-neighborhood-has-changed-over-past-750-million-years-180971507/
Does anyone here remember the WHtM Steam group? Because there was one, once, a long time ago.
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/WHTM
Doesn’t look like anyone’s used it since 2016-ish, but it’s still there.
There is also an old Ravelry WHtM group too, but I can’t find the link to it amongst my phone’s tab pile. It’s inactive too last I looked, but still there. If/when I refind that page, I can link it here if folks so desire it.
@Redsilkphoenix
I’d join a WHtM Rav group.
@Jenora: Definitely Boyton, along with “Hippo Birdies Two Ewes”.
Calm annoyed me; there was too much talking, especially the annoying kind of women you might call “Yoga Karens”. I get most of my content from YouTube, particularly The Honest Guys and the running water of Sounds to Blow Your Mind/Relaxing Sounds UK (which puts me out like nothing else). Also I have a playlist of mellow songs popular from when I was 11-18, which entertains me until I fall asleep. YouTube is free too.
And because cats are important:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/outdoor-cats-are-using-500-starlink-satellite-dishes-as-self-heating-beds-180979401/
Hey, gang. I know I’ve been gone most of the year, but hope you all are well, or at least coping well with whatever problems are currently bugging you.
@Sheila
Why a new leg, what happened? Good you got one, at least. Having problems with mine, but I guess this is a reminder it can always be worse.
@Conta
So much death in 2022. Only one family member that I didn’t know too well, but it was still a downer to hear about.
Glad you’re making progress on your trans journey. : )
@Surplus
You’re actually pretty great when you’re not drinking the conspiracy kool-aid. I hope you see some improvements in your life. You deserve a break.
@Alan
Skull… shaver…? I hope that’s just a fancy razor for the head.