I am entirely sure it is area dependent and very very different if you are male presenting, but I have no idea how to deal with the extreme anxiety of public transit. The tube in London was great. The subway in NYC was confusing and anxiety inducing, but my phone made up most of the confusion. I am terrified of buses. I need a clear display of the next stops and hopefully a route posted, as I usually can’t hear or understand any instructions over a speaker, if anything is broadcasted at all.

The worst part is being completely unable to relax. Having to wear headphones without music, and firmly not look at anyone to hopefully avoid harassment and block out the overwhelming noise. I can’t even draw on my iPad in peace without someone wanting to look at it and ask questions. I have to make sure I am not in the way, don’t take up too much room, and don’t miss some cue that I was supposed to do something. I hate being a woman. I hate that being in public is an ordeal and I can’t just go for a walk without having to prepare battle gear of sorts to protect myself.

Yeessss. Danger 5 is amazing.

Ah, so I really did mean the 10 & 2 for figuring out that positioning of the seat/wheel only. I absolutely agree that 10&2 is a terrible position for driving. 9&3 is much better.

I read an article a while back on how to position the wheel, as it is especially a problem for women. Airbags can absolutely kill you and I spent some time readjusting everything to make sure the airbag would not deploy in my face or too close to my chest. Adjusting the seatbelt height thing is also really important, but with breasts the damn thing still drifts to where it shouldn’t. Just not as bad.

Absolutely check with the women in your life about this as a lot of us don’t think about it until we get in an accident and the airbag and seatbelt do more damage than the crash. I am lucky I have only had a minor crash once with no airbag deployed. There are ways to get pedals adjusted by the dealership or swapped with longer ones. I assume mechanics can probably do it too, but I personally do not know how that all works.

I don’t have much experience with manual, but I do have severe ADHD. From my experience, it takes about 6 months of driving every day before your brain does most of it automatically. It is really awful at first having to constantly think about every step. Couple random anecdotes that may help. My assumption is you are driving on the right:

1. Drive barefoot or with minimalist shoes. You can really feel the car and road this way. Flip flops are a no no. All it took was them getting caught in the pedal once to never do it again.
2. Leave lots of space in front of you in high traffic situations. If you are sitting in the far right/exit/slow lane a lot it will help other drivers get around you. If it is a mulilane highway, it may be safer to stay in the middle lane until it is time to exit.
3. Look left first. Oncoming traffic hitting your driver side door is bad.
4. If you ever ever doubt when looking both ways, just look again. People can wait.
5. People get mad or do stupid shit. It is ok. We stop being rational people once “time” enters the equation. At some point, getting mad at other drivers all the time makes you a worse driver. Learn to just let shit go.
6. Try to space yourself where you don’t create blindspots for yourself or others.
7. Position your side mirrors properly. If you can easily see you car door, they are pointing in too far.

Adjust your seat and steering wheel. You want the steering wheel far away from your face. If you have an adjustable steering wheel, this will be a lot easier. There is a little lever you can pull to unlock it.

1. Unlatch the wheel and push it completely away from you.
2. Adjust your seat first so you can reach the pedals and feel in control of run. Test how it feels to push the brake, clutch, etc.
3. Now, adjust the steering wheel. Put your arms straight out. You want your wrists to touch the “10&2” position of the wheel.
4. Keep the steering wheel as low as you can, but still see the instruments, and make sure there is plenty of space between you and the very deadly airbag. You do not want it hitting your face and it needs enough space to deploy to properly protect you
5. Make final adjustments as needed and recheck your mirrors.

I am sorry, but PSL is damn delicious. It didn’t taste right last year and there were even some comments on Twitter about it. Starbucks swore they didn’t change the recipe, but I am convinced they were lying. This year, it tastes like it used to. No more sort of burnt caramel taste. Yay tasty beverage!

Now, go have one! It is ok to like the “trendy” thing. Maybe have them tone down the sweetness. Or find a non-Starbucks version at a local cafe. Or don’t. More for me!

Yes. Even if you get bitched at. Decent people will just ask more questions until they get what they need from you. Better to give more information than none. Try your best.

Actually, sometimes going through every single step on how you ended up with the issue solves it… Done that a few times.

Long tangent, but I got the Edge or whatever stupid expensive version they have for the extra triggers/levers underneath. I have really small/short palms and don’t have the reach to push all the buttons properly. I wouldn’t be able to play Elden Ring at all without them. I roll and use potions with the levers instead. Even then, it is still painful after a while and some of the contortions I have to do at times can be annoying.

I have the issue of barely having enough “wrap” with my palm and pinky to grip around the hand things that are angled down a little too much. I absolutely despise that the dpad is one of those rocker pieces underneath instead of individual buttons. I will accidentally do a direction I didn’t intend because I rocked the down button too far to the right. It is because the controller still isn’t straight when I hold it. lt is partially rotated in my hand so I can get a little more reach upwards and it makes the dpad usable. Having to compensate the direction of joysticks is super fun. I basically have to death grip the controller with my right pinky and tightly squeezed palm to keep it stable.

When that accessible controller came out for the Xbox I was super bummed it wasn’t for all platforms yet. Doesn’t help I would need to have 2 kits to be able to have separate sides like joycons. Joycons have been my favorite controller of all time as I can comfortably hold them. I tried making a proof of concept sort of gel/shredded memory foam cover, which did help, but it didn’t solve the severe pain in my palm, especially the area under my pinky that I use to death grip the controller. After seeing the glove Martina made after she cut off her pinky, I want to try and make a glove next to take the pressure off, improve grip, and sort of brace/support the part of my hand that I keep hurting.

It sucks that accessories keep getting more expensive. I haven’t had any issues my my edge, but you bet I would be utterly infuriated if it didn’t last when it is almost half the price of the console itself. I have some mechanical keyboards and those things can really get up there in price too. Ergonomic mice are not exactly cheap either. I hate having to use a trackball but so far the only comfortable one is that Logitech one and I have to use the extra angled base it comes with. I game with it.

That blows. I never had a ps4, so I don’t know the whole deal about modding/rooting it. It is crazy that some of these devices have “fuses” that can brick your device if tampered with. It is my device dammit.

I have been shopping this way ever since the start of covid and only use self check out. It is a lot easier to get around the store. If I need to buy a bunch of heavy stuff or there is a sign asking me not to, I will of course use a small cart or hand basket. I am not going to piss off the Trader Joe gods when I visit it occasionally, who have a sign about it.

I have never been stopped, asked not to, or have been given any looks from the staff for doing it at my main grocery store.

If you want an actual good reason? Car damage. I have seen them roll away into someone else’s car, and even a person. They can also block parking spots and it really sucks when people in the handicap section do it as those then roll in to other spots needed for accessibility. Thankfully my store has tons of cart returns so it isn’t even remotely inconvenient. The employees stay on top of the rest, especially if the handicap section right by the doors gets gnarly. The only time I see some true cart carnage is at Walmart. Those parking lots are terrible.

I can’t make decisions for you, but I will politely ask you to put the cart away the next time you are at the store. Please and thank you.

I assure you, you get icy roads and snow at 28-30f. Upstate NY gets tons of snow and most of that is above 25f. I don’t see it get in the teens too much. Single digits or colder is pretty rare. All depends on the region up here. Due to the lakes, it is all over the place.

I think the highest speed limit I have seen in America is 85mph, which is around 135km/h. Typical highway speed limits though are 65mph, but everyone goes 5-10 over (105-120km/h).

The nice thing about mph is the whole mile a minute at 60mph. Makes it easy to mentally estimate time of arrival.

We used these in university to store weed. Bio kids were awesome and passed them out.

Autistic and neurodivergent people are the only ones I can even begin to relax enough to have a conversation. I have a lot of baggage and being undiagnosed in school was extremely damaging. I love to talk, but I make people uncomfortable. So I usually just sit quietly somewhere, move seats/tables as bigger groups want the space, and eventually leave once the anxiety/torture becomes too overwhelming.

https://www.plctalk.net

The stack overflow of PLC programming.

The arrogance of Kent is ridiculous and he sounds like a man-child throwing a neck beard flavored tantrum whenever someone questions the bullshit reality that doesn’t actually exist. This isn’t some dumb application you can run into the ground because you can’t play well with others. This is the fucking linux kernel, and if you can’t fathom how bad it is to throw random “fixes” at the last minute instead of waiting for the next development cycle, you are the problem. I see that shit all the damn time in corporate environments and I am sick of arrogant programmers who can’t understand processes, why they exist, and why they need to be followed.

Once I got the right configuration on Obsidian, I like it. I had already embraced markdown beforehand, so “fixing” it to work properly was an immediate requirement or I wasn’t using it. It only took 2-3 plugins and a small custom css file. I don’t need an editor hiding the markdown syntax or anything other than a mono spaced font.

I get that paper thing. I just lose it eventually. Go go ADHD.

Since I refuse to have Teams and Outlook start on boot, I may have accidentally forgotten to open my email for 6 weeks… Most people just send me a message on Teams anyways.

Also, spam from HR. I am sorry, but your bullshit emails on senseless activities is not being read and immediately binned. The amount of spam emails I get from people in the company is astounding. At my old job I may have taken great joy in reporting each one of them as spam out of spite.

Yeah, I have Russia and a few other countries blocked on my network. That is a no-go for me personally.

Just be sure to not damage cables with plastic zip ties or other things that crimp the wires inside.