Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

Exciting space-discovery alert!

Gliese 12 b is an Earth-size planet orbiting in the temperate zone around a nearby, stable red dwarf star. It's a Rosetta Stone world that will tell us a lot about how many superficially earthlike planets actually have the right conditions for life.

Are we rare? Are we common? Let's find out.

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2024/nasas-tess-finds-a-world-sized-between-earth-and-venus #space #science #astronomy #astrodon #life #aliens

Instant messaging client ICQ will stop working from June 26, recommends users migrate to messaging platforms from parent company VK; ICQ had 100M users in 2001 (Michael Kan/PCMag)

https://www.pcmag.com/news/icq-one-of-the-oldest-instant-messengers-is-shutting-down
http://www.techmeme.com/240524/p20#a240524p20

Cats are liquid

You can't change my mind

Saw this and immediately wondered if the sound a parent made stepping on it in the dark in ancient times is the same noise we'd make today

@dolari this sounds like the time I made a pound of bacon and ate it....there were REGRETS lol

I don't know who it was that put a Canadian flag and a satellite dish on a roadside beaver house in the middle of nowhere British Colombia... but well done. No notes. #comedy

It ain't right. #comics

How to gird your loins

Holy shnoodle.

One of the weird things about transition is just how anticlimactic it is. Literally the best possible outcome is for you to finally feel... normal. Not normal in the sense of being like everyone else. (You'll never be like everyone else. You aren't now, either.) Normal in the sense of being at home in your body and in your life.

This is a privilege cis people get to enjoy every day and never realize it.

But it's also pretty weird...

You've transitioned. Now what? You just live your life? You go to work 5 days a week and try to plan a vacation in the summer. Sure, you like your swimming suit better but was it really worth it? What's changed? I went through hell to get what? A little suburban lesbian life? Was it worth it?

Yes. 100%. 10/10, would transition again.

As I was telling my therapist earlier this week, the difference between me now and the old me isn't that life is easier now. It's actually really hard right now. It's that I actually want to live it now. For the first time in a very long time, I'm looking forward to my future. I have hopes and dreams.

It's not that I didn't have anything I looked forward to before but this is different. Before, I had work plans, technical ideas I wanted to try out, and I had places I wanted to visit. But now? Now I have dreams that are just for me. I have goals for my body. I have people I want to meet. I can envision growing old as a beautiful thing and not as a thing of terror.

I also have friends of a sort I never even knew existed before. I've experienced more genuine human connection in the last two years than most of the rest of my life. More joy, too. And just so we're clear, that connection is with all of you. 💜 Before, I had this deep, dark secret which I planned to carry to my grave. It ate me up inside but I couldn't tell a soul because I knew they would be horrified by it. Now it's not only no longer a secret but it's a connection point with other trans folks. Instead of feeling isolated, I've finally found friends who actually understand me.

I wouldn't trade that for the world.

I have nothing to say.

Thank you.

If you're installing Linux for a friend this weekend, think about asking:

"Hey, do you have an old laptop you're not using any more?"

Try making *that* useful. Keeps your friend calm because their main system is fine. Keeps you calm because you're not worried about your friend. And, you reduce some e-waste.