I’m queer and basically a gender abolitionist so I am not disagreeing about the social nature of gender, but I think phrases like that are pretty reductive and depending on the context in which you hear it. You can think of just as many supporting examples as contradicting ones. Though, in my opinion we really don’t need to “show” that gender is a social construct, for many reasons, but mostly because so many people don’t care, and they think social constructs are good, actually.

The IOC stopped accepting IBA decisions like this because they are a corrupt organization. The IBA never provided that information and we don’t have confirmation of that, but by disqualifying her, a title was restored to a Russian athlete and they had made Russia’s gas company a main sponsor of the IBA. I’m not saying I know anyone’s chromosomal makeup, but I wish people would stop stating it as a fact. She could have it or not, but we do not know.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/paris-2024-summer-olympics/olympics-boxing-imane-khalif-xy-chromosome-italian-boxer-quit/5662035/

Before anyone claims Russophobia or whatever, not all Russian organizations or people are corrupt, but it’s well agreed that it was a poorly run organization with a lot of problems. For what it’s worth I’d be suspect of any country in that position. Sports are a big point of national pride and monetary gain, and people should be wary of any decisions affecting pride or money, regardless of the circumstances.

Yea, the art is great and along with the text really helps build the world. I have rarely seen an rpgs rules support the setting so well.

DIE was great. I haven’t read it, but I have played it. I feel hesitant recommending it because the experience seems heavily variable depending on GM, but it was definitely one of my personal favorites.

ETA: pg 10-11 of the wildsea book has a layer breakdown of the sea and it’s my favorite part of the whole book. Maybe I’m just a sucker for any science textbook adjacent art, but it does such a great job of immersing you (imho). I think they should make posters of it and have it a bit more prominent in their marketing, but it’s possible I’m off base. I feel like you can use interesting races in lots of different settings, but the sea is so integral to the game, it should be one of the big draws for players.

Glad to see it’s on your radar. LGS are such a wonderful part of gaming communities. Good luck with your store.

Wildsea has been so fun and since its flavor is different than your standard DnD setting, but it still has a fantasy setting, I think it has pretty wide appeal. The style of game is different, and definitely uses different GM skills, but it’s a great option imho. It can be run as a drop in/drop out pretty easily which is a plus for some groups. It will definitely not get the same reach as DnD, but the art is so inspiring it might sway some people if you’re able to display it somewhere.

For what it’s worth, sure strikes on a school is probably considered more sympathetic than strikes on a shelter. Unfortunately, much of the public seems to believe Palestinian lives have no value, yet somehow attacking children (even if they’re Palestinian) is still reprehensible. So, rather than allowing people to think that the school was converted into a shelter for Hamas supporters, they just use the term school. Admittedly, I’m not familiar with reporting standards around the world, so I might be off.

In the US several hotels will offer a “continental breakfast” included with the stay. I guess you could argue that it’s not really free, considering it’s factored into your stay at the hotel, but there is technically not a separate charge for it and it’s considered an “amenity”. I know that this is not necessarily common in other places, so I thought I would mention in case you were not aware.

I keep trying to find ways to evangelize Going Medieval. The devs have been so communicative and consistent with updates. It’s not everyones kind of game, but I’ve definitely spent more time than I should have playing it.

I’m seeing some hostility towards you as a hiring manager which is rough, because hiring manager is not necessarily HR. It often means the manager of the person being hired. So the person on a specific team responsible for filling positions on that team. I’m not sure if you directly hire for your team or it’s an HR term in your case, but just adding this here in case it helps someone not be rude to a random person on the internet.

Also, as a person who hires people on my team (I don’t use the hiring manager title, but yea) it’s ridiculous how awful some resumes are. We don’t use hiring software, and I personally review all the resumes, but we are a small team so I totally understand why that would be used. The overlap of people who don’t like filling out the forms but who also want to be evaluated on who they are rather than what’s on their resume is a circle. I don’t want to dismiss anyone who doesn’t have a degree, but just because a degree isn’t on the resume doesn’t mean they don’t have one. Plenty of people leave off the years they worked at a specific job. I can assume months or years, but the form would help clarify that without wasting anyone’s time. Decisions have to be made somewhere and if people want to be judged by people in their field, then their full time job will likely not be hiring, so sometimes they use these forms for standardization purposes. I don’t like them either, but they are not this evil thing they are made out to be.

Yea, understandable in both of those scenarios, but neither was the case at the time.

FB has been terrible in my experience. Craigslist is still ok if you can filter through the spam. I once contacted a seller on FB for an item that was 300 cash. We had set a time for pickup later that day and I went to the bank to get the cash. I messaged them when I was 10 minutes out and they told me not to come because they had already sold it. I totally understand selling it if I had not been communicating or had been ignoring their messages, but the last thing we had messaged each other was just a few hours prior while agreeing on a time. They didn’t even bother letting me know they had sold it. I would have just arrived at the place and they never would have shown. That, among a lot of other issues, and I won’t buy or sell on FB anymore.

Seems like you have a lot of good suggestions already, but more couldn’t hurt.

I bought the following chairs (also from Staples coincidently) in 2022, and both have been great, but it looks like they’ve gone up in price.

TempurPedic 6400 Fabric Computer and Desk Chair Black TP6400BLK - $279.99 at time of purchase

TempurPedic Mesh Back Fabric Computer and Desk Chair Black TP6450BLKMB - 299.99 at time of purchase

Regardless of what chair you end up deciding on, the put it in your cart and wait a few days a trick is always helpful, and I would definitely recommend googling coupons for wherever you purchase it from.

Good luck!

I definitely second don’t start together as being the best way to play. I also heavily edit the settings so that it’s not as punishing as the default. It makes the game experience feel a little more open world and less full-time grind.

Frostpunk is made by my favorite game studio and I love the genre and all their other games, but I really did not enjoy it. Some reviews mention that the scenarios have such small margins that unless you do things in a specific way, it’s very unlikely you will beat them. I agree with that to a certain extent, but it feels like there’s something else to it too. It’s been years since I played, but the tech tree felt interesting but like it wasn’t properly enmeshed with the gameplay and struggles with an obvious winning strategy that limits your feasible options.

I have a kobo as well and I I did a lot of research before selecting it. Imho it’s the best on the market for my personal needs and that definitely changed how often I use it vs an alternative. Some of the things I like about it are direct integration with the library and the ability to do audiobooks. I also like that it is only an ereader and I can’t play games or surf the web on it. I think knowing what’s gonna help you as an individual is the most important thing. If you’re more likely to take a fully fledged tablet with you somewhere because of the versatility, and would otherwise leave a plain ereader at home, then a tablet is better because if you decide to read at least you have it with you. Like a lot of tech, I think it really depends on the user.

I don’t know how I overlooked possible App Store purchase increases. Good point!

That’s fair, but it might also just be that they think taking a small loss on providing the watch will boost sales of the phone for people who wouldn’t have gotten it otherwise, will also increase market share, and look better in reporting. If you weren’t going to get a pixel watch, but one came for free and you use it, now you become a watch user for their stats. Additionally, it further entrenches you in the Google ecosystem and familiarizes you with the product so you might end up purchasing the next generation. Also, it helps normalize this product amongst your peers. Completely understandable for Google to possibly take a loss, not that they definitely are. I have no idea what the actual cost versus price looks like.

It seems like we just have a difference of opinions, so I’m happy to agree to disagree, but just so that you don’t think I ghosted, I’ll at least reply.

The word hate in this context was meant more in the sense of “haters”, like unnecessary disparagement for the sake of disparagement, which seems in line with your use of the word ridicule.

I’m not sure what you personally would have preferred, but I do not think that this is particularly vague, given the context and the market. If someone’s parent or grandparent walks into an Apple store and is confronted with the base model, and then a pro, a pro max, and a mini, I feel like they will get an overall sense of how those differ. You’ll likely get people saying, well, I don’t need anything too fancy, I just use it to take calls and maybe look some stuff up, so I probably don’t need a pro, but I definitely don’t want the mini version, so maybe I’ll check out the base model, and if that is still too small, I’ll check out the pro max, even though I might not need the Pro aspect, I might like the Max aspect. Mini and Max makes sense in this context as part of an overall spectrum that a layperson could understand. I guess the argument could be that they could give the screen size specifically, but then it would need a different name depending on local usage of the metric system or not. Also, a lot of people don’t understand that some electronics are measured on the diagonal, so that might also be confusing. S/SE Is probably The worst bit of their naming conventions, and they worked on that.

I think it’s pretty evident that the reason they did not choose pretzel rectangle was because those words are not very information dense, or relevant to the product. I feel like this is kind of proving my point?

Considering the market, I don’t think that most people need the general name of the device to have every single specification included. So long as each iteration is distinct, and understandable, people who actually care about what chip is in it can find the information readily. I don’t think most consumers care about a17 or M2, or bionic, or whatever else, and if anything that kind of technical jargon would be more obfuscating.

I get that this is mostly just a meme at this point, but it’s really not a bad naming system. The switch from plus to max was a little weird but it kept things from being iPhone pro plus. It goes

1. Item
2. Iteration
3. Tech specs
4. size

Which is more informative than a lot of other options. Not a diehard fan or anything, but the hate for this particular issue seems overblown.

Always happy to talk about it with people in good faith!

You are partially correct in that I like it because it makes it clear I’m not het without getting into specifics, but I choose it over other similar descriptors for a few additional reasons. I know some people who identify as pansexual and though it’s completely valid to identify with that, I like that queer does not solely refer to sexuality. There are plenty of aromantic pansexuals and asexual people looking for relationships. Because queer doesn’t end in “sexual” I feel like it’s a more wholistic view of the relationship I’m seeking and allows me to discuss it without implying any explicitly sexual feelings. I’m not aro/ace but I feel like it gives people more room in that regard. Similarly, I like that it’s not as restrictive as bisexual, though bisexuals don’t necessarily endorse a gender binary. I like that’s it’s super inclusive, but still leaves me space I feel like pansexual does not reserve for me to find gender identities or expressions that I have a preference for or against. I also like that it gives me an immediate gauge on how people feel about the community as a whole. No true ally will go “well what does that even mean?! You’re all coming up with things just to confuse us” and some trans exclusive or nonbinary exclusive people will push back on it because “bisexual” should be sufficient or some nonsense like that. It allows people to ask questions if it’s relevant to them or they are interested, while still giving people that don’t care as much or might not be interested the general idea that I’m a member of the LGBT community and I’m open about that. I am in a long term monogamous relationship at the moment but this was all relevant when I was dating.

In a more practical sense, to me it means I’m interested in a variety of sexual and gender expressions and though I cannot definitively say I would like any and all combinations of them, I’m more than likely happy to engage if I like the person.