Agreed. My condo complex doesn’t allow flags or signs. We’re allowed holiday-appropriate door wreaths and that’s it. I’m wicked glad I don’t have to know my neighbors’ politics.

My 7th grade algebra teacher would be annoyed that you didn’t show your work, step by step.

I was just as alert after the first 3 alerts as after the 8th. The additional alerts didn’t tell me anything new, they just gave me alarm fatigue.

And yes, it was bad. Roads were flooded. Buildings were flooded. People were evacuated. People died.

I finally went in and did this a couple weeks ago. We were under flash flood advisory and every time the end timestamp was updated, we got another “severe” alert. I didn’t need 8 very loud alerts going off over the course of a quiet evening at home.

I’m too pale AF to have a loving relationship with the sun. I’ve been burned too many times. I always use protection, but last weekend the sunscreen failed me :(

My dad used to disable the motherboard speaker because the noises games made back then were more annoying than fun. We eventually got a soundcard, and that was awesome.

This last election, I googled the candidates and voted for the ones that hadn’t tried to ban books at the local library.

I do. I left my pour-over coffee maker at the office, so I make do with instant coffee. It’s… ok, if I drown it in almond milk.

TBF you just described most of capitalism.

I don’t need a gun, but the pawn shop on my commute has some musical instruments in the window which intrigue me. I’m a serial hobby-starter, and prefer gently used hobby tools over new, because used items have less of an environmental impact than new items.

Robert Evans wrote a post on it and did multiple podcast episodes.

The TL&DR is that AI-generated children’s books are crap, without a coherent storyline or any literary niceties like “foreshadowing” and “beginning middle and end”. Kids are still learning what stories look like, so if you hand them AI-generated stuff they might know it’s unsatisfying, but they can’t put into words why their books are wrong.

I grew up with Mrs and Ms pronounced nearly the same, so I get the pronunciation confusion.

I’m wicked sorry, I don’t have a good answer. You could try Mx and see how it feels. I’ve dropped sir/ma’am for folks that I know, or that appear my age or younger. I still use it for older folks I don’t know out in the wild.

I, personally, never take offense at being misgendered in a Southern accent if I’m called “ma’am”. I grew up in the South and to me it just feels like someone’s trying their best to be polite and I take it as intended. Sometimes I also just misparse it as “man”, which feels a bit informal, but whatevs. Miss still feels creepy, but I get that less now that I’ve hit 30.

If you’re working at a drive through where there’s a customer/service worker dynamic, I’d 1. go with ma’am or sir 2. accept it if someone corrects you, and 3. recognize you’re more likely to be yelled at by someone for using a ‘new-fangled honorific’ than for misgendering someone.

Edit: Oh! I have replaced “Thank you sir/ma’am” with “Thank you, kindly” and that seems to work for me.

Not really. There’s plenty of gender-neutral names, some you wouldn’t expect. The names Ashley, Chris, Harper, Morgan, and Stacey are all gender-ambiguous (Showing my white American background with this list). Plus, people can have genders that don’t match their name.

Seconding the honorific “Mx”. From what I’ve seen, it’s decently well-adopted in the non-binary community. I’ve not seen it much used outside of that community–it seems to be used mostly when someone ‘needs’ an honorific but doesn’t fit into the 1950s list. I’ve heard it pronounced “Mix” and “Mux”. I tend to go with “Mix”.

IRL, I’ve used “Hey, you” and “Yo!” when hollering at folks I don’t know (example, “Yo! You dropped something!”)

Sidenote: As a nonbinary person, I prefer not being given an honorific over being given the wrong one.

Minirant not directed at OP: And omg, if you need to go with a feminine honorific and you don’t know whether the person is married, go with Ms, not Mrs. or Miss. The connotations of the wrong one are just creepy.
Not married and called Mrs=“Hey, you’re too old to be unmarried. Please feel judged about your relationship status”
Married and called Miss=“Hey, you’re too young to be married. Please feel like I don’t respect you as an adult.”
In all cases Ms=“I don’t know and/or care about your marital status and I’m trying to be polite”

I’m a fan of OnShape. It has parametric modeling, and is free (if you don’t mind your designs being visible by everyone).

Not the person you’re replying to, but my guess is that “transition” implies some sort of inner journey, but transitioning is often really about changing how the world views you. You’re still the woman, man, or non-binary entity you always were, you’re just making changes to encourage/force everyone else to see you the same way.

My head canon is that it was “exclusive” before. That just tickles my jimmies.

Welp, that’s my vocabulary lesson for the day. Screenshot:

Also, the dino in the upper right is cute.

I know I love making time on a busy work day to volunteer for a large company that doesn’t respect my efforts. Maybe they’ll send me a sticker or something.

Yeah, it’s one of those weird questions that you don’t know if it’s social (“eh, fine”) or clinical (“well, my lower back’s been hurting ever since I turned 30, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because tripped, fell face-into-arm, and bit myself and the internet tells me I need a tetanus shot, but now I’m worried you’ll put me down for ‘self-harm’ and have me involuntarily committed and oh no did I say that out loud?”).