sappho [she/her]

They made it so much worse. Essentially any person you encounter (the language says “occupant” of a public or private space iirc) can legally require you to remove your mask.

It’s really fascinating to me that this is what people make when the barrier to artistic creation disappears. It reminds me of some Youtuber books - they’re written by people with no literary skill or experience, but they produce them because they’ve gotten popular enough that the books are a profitable endeavor regardless of quality. Until you read a Youtuber book you don’t consciously realize what is necessary to write a book, because usually, mostly, only people who have that ineffable something do write novels. And here: you don’t realize what is needed to actually create art and not just images, until you see people with no artistic literacy or skill produce what they think of as art.

Visual art and literature are windows to the soul, and normally only a certain type of person goes through the effort to open that window for us. Here, and in Youtuber books, you can see inside a completely different type of person. And their soul looks like waifus and cowboys.

I’m always like “Does that make sense?” after I go on for more than a couple sentences and need verbal affirmation that I’m not being silly/confusing

I pulled a muscle again moving my weighted blanket around so that’s kinda like working out, right? hashtag just long covid things

I don’t know about Temu but I use AliExpress frequently in lieu of getting the same item from a reseller on Amazon. Over the years I’ve had a couple of things just not show up ever, but that’s rare - most of the time everything goes as expected. I tend to pick items that have photos from reviewers, and I don’t buy stuff that goes into my mouth/otherwise enters my body.

I just use bookmarks. It’s not the intended use maybe but it works great. Make a new subfolder and fill it up. It’s convenient because it’s only one button press while browsing the store, then you have a nice little list to look over and go back to your favorites. You can do stuff like select multiple entries and open them all in new tabs.

The Forest for sure, assuming that magical deep rest works even on my ME/CFS. Can’t do any of the others without my health anyway

If I wasn’t sick, though, I’d pick the shop. For stress relief sometimes I enjoy making massive wishlists of items I never actually buy, and this is like the upgraded version of that. Just seems like it’d be fun to wander and marvel and gather and choose… Plus it’s the one that is most likely to be helpful to your outside life and other people you care about.

I feel this is the first of many laws like this. I haven’t felt this deeply crushed, hopeless, and afraid for a very long time. It’s hard to keep going when your life is so small and everyone in power is bent on making it even smaller. I don’t know how I will do it, and sometimes I wish I wouldn’t keep trying.

How much water do you drink in a day? I have a pretty normal size reusable water bottle and it holds more than enough for a workday. You could just fill it at home in the morning instead of needing to use the water fountain that other people are using.

Is this a new symptom for you/do you want practical suggestions for managing panic attacks without medications? I have had frequent panic attacks for many years, and I’ve tried a lot of stuff, so if there’s an aspect that would be helpful for me to info-dump about, let me know. I’m sorry you’re going through this

You can do a somewhat less effective but more convenient version with enough ice packs on your forehead and cheeks. You know it’s good enough when you do the big involuntary gasp

I am STRESSED about the potential mask ban in North Carolina and I am trying NOT to think about it but it is NOT WORKING

Waking up and feeling exhausted could be caused by sleep disordered breathing (apnea, UARS) or it could be an early sign of ME/CFS, which is a variety of long covid and can present in a delayed fashion from your last infection. Probably it’s something simple like vitamin deficiency or anemia, but these conditions are both mild at first but very bad long term if left unidentified so I thought I’d throw them out there

The single best thing you can do to ensure you’re protecting yourself is to do a home fit test. Surgical masks, KN95s, N95s have generally the same kind of filtration layer; the essential difference is the fit. Is it sealing on your face with <10% leakage, even when worn for long periods and while you speak and make facial expressions? You can’t really know this for sure unless you do a fit test.

It is pretty cheap and easy to do a DIY fit test.

Here’s a video that explains how to do it with a trash bag, some Splenda, and a $7 nebulizer.

Here is a written guide.

There’s a source control version of the Eclipse with no exhalation valve. One could also just cover the exhalation valve with either something impermeable or the electrostatic filtration layer scavenged from a medical mask or respirator if needed.

Other elastomerics that are popular these days:

MSA Advantage (speech diaphragm, with source control)

3M Secure Click (speech diaphragm, great feature where it auto-seal checks for you, no source control)

Honeywell RU8500 (speech diaphragm, no source control)

FloMask (low profile, good speech audibility, source control)

EnvoMask (low profile, source control)

Yeah I think the gut dysbiosis from artificial sweeteners is something that happens on a longer timescale of continuous consumption. I second the tea suggestion - tea’s got l-theanine in it naturally

The sucralose is probably bad for your gut microbiome. If you want caffeine to feel smoother, you could experiment with taking it with l-theanine, and/or with the taurine that’s in that energy drink.

There was a window of time where it was super easy to jailbreak iPhones - and there were tons of cool customization options, plus you could easily pirate apps and get in-app purchases for free. That was neat. That was the only period in which I owned an iPhone and felt okay with it. I’ve heard jailbreaking is a lot more difficult these days but I don’t really know because I switched to Android.

It’s got screws so I could technically open it up, but unfortunately I have very little experience with this sort of thing and wouldn’t be comfortable replacing a lithium battery without any sort of guide.

My Bluetooth speaker died today. Was faltering for a few months, but now it just won’t charge anymore. Shut down last night for the final time. I’ve used it on a daily basis for seven or eight years. It was present for some really important memories. And now it’s just trash, I guess. I know it’s odd of me but I do feel sad.