Category: Rambles About…

How to Buy a Computer for Cheaper

I originally posted this on Tumblr and it was very popular, so I thought it should be reposted somewhere that won’t disappear and can be more easily searched for. So here it is, with a few edits.

Buy refurbished. And I’m going to show you how, and, in general, how to buy a better computer than you currently have. I’m fairly tech-knowledgeable, but not an expert. But this is how I’ve bought my last three computers for personal use and business (graphics). I’m writing this for people who barely know computers. If you have a techie friend or family member, having them help can do a lot for the stress of buying a new computer.

There are three numbers you want to know from your current computer: drive size, RAM, and processor speed (slightly less important, unless you’re doing gaming or 3d rendering or something else like that)

We’re going to assume you use Windows, because if you use Apple I can’t help, sorry.

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Scheduled posting on Dreamwidth

Dreamwidth is a bit limited on features, including no built-in way to schedule posts. But there’s a pretty easy work around! That work around involves posting via email.

First you have to set up your Mobile Post Settings, which involves telling it what email addresses to allow and setting a pin. Dreamwidth can then post as you using a special email address, including posting to your communities.

You can tell this was set up a long time ago because it has allowances for free email services that put garbage at the end of the email address and cellphones without full keyboard options. (I’m sure both of those are still around, but they’re much rarer these days).

You can even set journal options like what icons to use, tags, and comments.

So here’s some examples:

To: silvercat17+XXXX@post.dreamwidth.org
From: me@gmail.com
Subject: Scheduled posting

And then write what you want to post

XXXX there is the pin. There are various places you can put it, but I find the in the email address to be the easiest.

To: silvercat17.communityname+XXXX@post.dreamwidth.org
From: me@silvercat17
Subject: What! I can post to communities too?

Yep, any community you have permission to post to, you can post by email.

Obviously, you replace “communityname” with the actual name of the community.

To: silvercat17+XXXX@post.dreamwidth.org
From: me@gmail.com
Subject: Scheduled posting Options!

post-icon: cat silhouette
post-tags: Dreamwidth, cats, whatever

There are bunch of options on Dreamwidth that I never use, like location and music, but you can do those too.
silhouette of a cat washing its face

This would make it post with a specific icon (the one next to this) and the tags “Dreamwidth, cats, whatever”

The next part of this is scheduling an email, which is going to depend entirely on your email service. I use gmail and it’s as simple as writing an email and then clicking on the down arrow next to “send” to pull up “scheduled send”.

And that’s how you schedule a post for Dreamwidth.

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Nursgil (Shard-verse worldbuilding)

Nursgil is the 5th largest religion in the world. The three gods – Dunu, Aldu, and Taus – worked together to create the world and the heavens, and now watch and send help, but can no longer directly influence creation. Each of them have their own guides. Dunu is the god of the sky and sends angels; Aldu is the god of the waters and sends devils; and Taus is the god of the land and sends spirits.

Angels promote healing, stillness, meditation, and learning, but can also cause indecision, stubborness, conservatism, and complacency. Devils promote growing, sharing, action, and emotion, but also aggression, short-sightedness, and tribalism. Spirits promote thought, experimentation, open-mindedness, but can also cause hoarding, selfishness, and anti-socialness.

There have been lots of avatars, teachers, saints, etc as helpers, teachers, and incarnations. Priests are meant to guide one to balancing the influence of the different gods and their guides.

The focus is morality in the world. Different sects have differing views on what happens after death, with some thinking there is an afterlife and some not. There’s a long tradition of preserving knowledge, with several different monastic traditions. Nursgil has a large amount of recorded stories, teachings, commentary, and history (not a strict canon like Christianity).

There are lots of different sects with different focuses. In the AMF (the country the shard-verse is mostly set in) and other industrial nations, there’s a big ‘prosperity gospel’ theme lately – you get what you deserve in life and that’s proven by being wealthy, healthy, and successful. There’s a lot of syncretism of Nursgil with local religions and traditions, some of which has become cults or religions considered separate from Nursgil itself.

Nursgil has spread across the world and has a tradition of ‘sharing stories’ that has at times become a crusade. Like any religion, it has its extremists and those that use it an excuse or shield for their immoral behavior. But it is generally considered a religion of caring for the community, sharing knowledge, and thinking deeply about the world.

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Calibre & TTRPGs

I’m going to talk about how I use Calibre to organize all my files for tabletop rpgs. If you don’t know, Calibre is a program for organizing ebooks that’s available for PC, Mac, Linux, and even as a portable version. I’m not going to go through everything you can do in it, because it has good documentation and a helpful forum.

It’s great because you can have multiple libraries (I have books, comics, sewing & embroidery patterns, papercraft – those two could be another post – and games). And in each library you can have “virtual libraries” to divide them further, along with saved searches, tagging, and the expected metadata. For my games, I pretty much just use the tags and metadata.

Calibre main menu

I keep my ttrpgs on an external drive so I can work with them from both my laptop and desktop. This works perfectly with Calibre as long as the drive has the same drive letter on all computers. I currently have about 600 files in Calibre with a couple hundred more that I need to go through before putting in there. (There is so much free content out there, folks)

side menu in Calibre, showing Authors, series, formats, Publisher, tags, and saved searches)

My content is split into games (tagged ttrpg, physical game, or system for stuff like Fate or Dungeons and Dragons which has a ton of supplementary content), adventures (mostly dungeons because I love dungeon crawls), and resources (monsters and creatures, tables to randomly pick from, gm-ing tips, and other behind the scene stuff).

Everything gets tagged with where I got it (usually itch.io or drivethrurpg) and a genre if possible. For adventures and resources I just have to tag what it is (dungeon crawl, monsters, NPCs, fantasy, horror, etc) and what system or game it was made for. Games are the easiest to tag, but also get the most tags. Here’s an example:

Dragonhearts cover with the Author and tags.

For games I tag:

  • genre
  • Game Jam or similar – like the Bundle for Racial Justice & Equality (2020)
  • system (Firebrands Framework, Belonging Outside Belonging, Fate Core, PbtA, FitD, etc)
  • what the gm situation if it’s not the standard gming (gm-optional, gmless, rotating gm)
  • number of players if it tells me or I can guess (solo, 2 players, etc)
  • equipment needed (diceless, d6, tokens, index cards, card deck, loads of dice, etc)
  • themes (collaborative, storytelling, empathy, humor, communication). This is the hardest to tag
  • info like minimalist, one-page, two-page, supplement, hack, etc
  • stuff that’s in it like goblins, dragons, crows, rodents, etc. (A game where I can play as a rat is a must-buy)

I also tag stuff as played once I’ve played it, because I have so much that I want to get to.

I only put the main file in Calibre and note in the description that there are multiple files. Character sheets, alternate formats, handouts, gm helpers, and other miscellaneous stuff goes in a folder. Alternative playbooks for things like PbtA games or Troika! get added to Calibre.

I don’t have to have very many folders. Currently I have 40.

Example of some of the folders – side bar shows separate folders for solo games, adventures, and resources, and then folders for specific games. Main area shows the files for Fate Core, including different formats, tutorials, and character sheets.

Aside from that, I get the description from wherever I got the files, add the authors and publisher (often the same name), and a cover if it doesn’t have one. If I’m really good, I mark the date it was published so I know what version I have (sometimes I put the version number in the description too.) I get that from more information drop-down box on itch.io (you may have to hover over the updated section to get the date instead of the number of days ago) or on drivethrurpg, in the right hand side product menu bar.

Here’s a good example of one that’s done (also, an excellent game and I recommend joining its Discord for more resources)

Mausritter with the author, tags, format, publisher, published date, and description shown. This one I actually did make sure the date was correct.

You can see:

  • this was by Isaac Williams, aka Losing Games.
  • It takes 3 to 6 players.
  • It’s fantasy, with mice.
  • I got it in the Bundle for Racial Justice & Equality on itch.io (although I believe it’s also on drivethrurpg)
  • It’s an osr (old school renaissance) and SwordDream game.
  • I’ve played it.
  • Since it wasn’t tagged otherwise, it needs a gm.
  • … I didn’t mark the equipment – it basically needs a standard set of 7 rpg dice
  • It was update in Jun 2020

All in all, it’s pretty easy except for the loads of files I need to do. (I still have 65 folders of stuff to do just from the Bundle for Racial Justice.) Let me know if you have any questions or if you want to see more examples. Also, if you find this helpful, consider buying me a ko-fi

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Generating in Gen (Part 2 of 3)

In the previous post, I talked about how easy Gen is. In this post, I’ll show what a generator in Gen looks like and what the limitations are. I’m working on a language called Maanxmuʃt, which I had decided I wanted to be Germanic-like so that there would be a bunch of sound changes when words where borrowed, since Nyji words are basically CVC. (I actually stole the phonology and phonotactics from some Germanic language, I don’t remember which) So I wrote up some guidelines for the phonotactics.

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Two Different Conlang Word Generators (Part 1 of 3)

Sometimes you just want a big list of words for your language. In my case, I’m creating a language (Maanxmuʃt) to be borrowed from for my main language (Nyji). There are two word generators I use:

Both are free, but they have different abilities and results. Before I compare, the obvious caveats:

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In the Garden

(If you listen to The Hidden Almanac, you should have done that in Rev. Mord’s voice…)

This is my second year of having a garden. It’s still in progress (we have a gazebo that’s being moved which should provide a lot more shade), but I’m going to ramble about it anyway.

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I’m mostly using Square Foot Gardening, although I think the prescribed ratios for the soil are too heavy on vermiculite (you’re supposed to use 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost) so I used less this time. I’d like to use coco coir instead of peat moss, but it’s still too expensive and I can’t get it around here.

In the fake barrel is a 100s Sweet cherry tomato from last year. Two of the grow bags are peppers I saved as well, but I don’t know if they’re going to grow. They aren’t doing much. And the last big thing in a grow bag is an eggplant which has been flowering and has an eggplant going.

I’m not sure which variety it is – I saved too, but had to throw out one because of spider mites. F–ing spider mites. I’ve planted garlic (just from the grocery store) around stuff this year because it’s supposed to keep them away. It seem to be working.

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I won the tomato behind the eggplant! It’s a Black Krim and I won it in a raffle at a garden show.

I get my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Kitazawa Seed. Kitazawa specializes in Asian vegetables and I get my burdock, cucumbers, and most of my eggplant from them. I really recommend the cucumbers – they’re Soarer, Hybrid and are citrusy and delicious.

Some of my plants, like the tomato in the barrel and the peppers, I’ve gotten from Lowes and Home Depot. (I also recommend that variety – very good tomatos and super productive).

I’ve already killed two sets of seeds, so this time I’m letting the plants get as big as they can in the pots (using a coco coir mix in the pots) before I transplant them. Most things have sprouted, but there are a few things that I think the seeds from last year are no good. I store them in the closet and, while in the winter it’s cold in there, in the summer it gets really hot. (At some point I’ll throw those seeds out).

IMG_20180426_160647

Some of these seeds are more flowers to go in the bed next to the lemon tree.

I’ve also got a compost tumbler, which is mostly made up of coffee grounds and a small cabinet for my tools and pots.

The blue pots in the back bed are for the burdock. The variety I have has one foot long edible roots and by using the pots I don’t have to dig down very far to get it all. … The burdock is some I’ve killed twice.

The cucumbers are also in that bed, with a temporary shade, plus a tomato, peppers, and turnips. There’s supposed to be shiso and mitsuba parsley as well but… it died.

IMG_20180421_131320.jpg

My most productive bed, so far has more turnips (the leafy corner), petunias, zinnias, sunflowers (the big row), two tomatoes (opposite corners – one isn’t doing well), and a struggling basil (in the far shadowed corner – I may need to move it).

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And my shadiest? bed. I’m trying tomatillos this year and that’s in the green tomato cage in the back. There’s turnips on either side, although the one side isn’t doing well. I don’t remember if the other cage is a tomato or a pepper.

The eggshells have since been spread about to discourage pests. The pots beside it are tagetes lucida, aka Mexican Marigold or Mexican mint. It’s a marigold.

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Besides the vegetable beds, I’ve also got a few pots on the side of the house across from my window. The big yellow pot is my roommates, along with the top row (she does succulents). The two succulents on the bottom are there temporarily until she can get the beds prepped (the yard is very much a work in progress) and she’s got a plumeria sprouting.

I’m probably going to end up moving the plant in the pale olive green pot in the foreground and putting in another Million Bells flower in a different color. It’s not doing great and I think it needs more room so it’ll go in a bed or something.

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The petunia here is a new variety called Night Sky or something like that. In ideal conditions, the flowers are a deep purple with white spots so it looks like a galaxy. In less ideal conditions they turn white, but they turn back.

In the pots are more tagetes lucida, all of them saved from last year, and in the other grow bag is mint. Never put mint in the ground. I’ll be watching this to make sure it doesn’t escape. I have it for mojitos.

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Recently, I hung the birdfeeder from my window to provide Cat TV. We have a film on all of our windows to keep heat out and you can’t see through them from the outside. Now, Heidi wakes me up before sunrise every morning to open the blinds so she can watch. …She hasn’t figured out that the birds aren’t going to show up that early.

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And Spooky now sleeps on my bed all the time on “her” blanket (it’s my blanket and it’s super soft, but I can share. Also I spread it out for them because it keeps the cat hair off my bed).

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We’ve only had a few types of birds show up – mostly house finches, chipping sparrows, and house sparrows. I love the variety of pink or orange on the house finches and I think house sparrows are very handsome.

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house finch

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lesser goldfinch – they’ve stopped coming to the feeder, but they’re in the lemon tree

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chipping sparrows – these were the first ones to show up at the feeder

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house sparrow

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I’m toast now…

So, as previously noted, I use the Dvorak keyboard layout. Until just recently, I had the muscle memory only on my phone and laptop. But now… Now I have it on my standard keyboard and the bluetooth keyboard for my phone (see pic below – the letters in blue are Dvorak and the missing stickers are the keys that are the same on Qwerty and Dvorak.)

Which means if I go to a job that doesn’t let me change the keyboard layout, I’ve screwed myself. At my last job I was ok, because I only had the muscle memory on a laptop keyboard and a standard keyboard still had the Qwerty memory.

Ah, well.

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Got a bunch extra done that Saturday and lots of happy stuff. Didn't get everything done on Sunday.

The Creatives Low-Energy Planner (free download)

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I started listening to Productivity Alchemy, a podcast about productivity methods, planners, and what works and doesn’t work for different people. (It’s produced by Kevin Sonney, with help from his wife, Ursula Vernon, who are two of my favorite people. And Kevin has a very nice voice)

This inspired me to create a planner for myself that would take into account my executive dysfunction and general low energy. And I kept meaning to do a post about it, so here it is.

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How to like somebody – attraction types & why platonic and romantic aren’t so different

It’s pretty well known, at least in the aromantic-spectrum and asexual-spectrum communities, that there are several ways a person can be attracted to someone else (source 1, source 2, source 3). I’m gonna ramble about it awhile.

Quick definitions for those not in the know:

  • Allosexual = somebody who experiences sexual attraction, aka not asexual
  • Alloromantic = somebody who experiences romantic attraction, aka not aromantic
  • Asexual / ace = somebody who experiences limited or no sexual attraction, or only in specific circumstances (for example, demi-sexuals, who are only attracted to people they have a connection with)
  • Aromantic / aro = you can figure it out, by now, huh? BTW, not all aces are aro, not all aros are ace, and I’m both.
  • A-spec = anybody on the asexual-spectrum (ace-spec) and/or aro-spectrum.

Content note for non-explicit talk about sex, mostly using euphemisms.

Types of attraction

So there’s sexual (I wanna boink you / have you boink me), romantic (I want to do mushy stuff with you), aesthetic (oh, gosh you’re pretty), sensual (I wanna touch you / be touched by you), and platonic (we should be besties!). Some people also include emotional (I want us to share all our feelings!) and intellectual (I want to hear all about what you’re interested in). I think there’s one more: care-giving (I want you to take care of me / I want to take care of you).

I doubt that any deep relationship has just one of these and everybody has different needs for each one and different desires for each one.  They also feed into each other: “Gosh, you’re pretty – it makes me want to snuggle with you – oh gosh, we should start kissing now.”

Let’s go into more detail about them. First of all, there are multiple ways to express all of these. And I’m pretty sure, there’s both a giving (directed toward somebody) and receiving (desired/needed by you) part of all of them.

Sexual is pretty straight forward – seeing somebody makes you want to do dirty sweaty things with them. Two points though: 1) you don’t have to be attracted to someone to have sex with them. Libido, attraction, and desire are all different (libido being your body getting excited and desire being you wanting to do the horizontal tango. Possibly vertically.) And 2) being sexually attracted to someone doesn’t mean you will make the beast with two backs or that you want to do it. It’s more than possible to be sex-repulsed and allosexual. (I’m gonna say though, if you are sex-repulsed and you want to id as asexual, feel free.) Or to just be tired. Or whatever.

Me talking about romance is like asking a snake about vegetables (“… they’re a thing that exist, apparently? BTW, you look warm, wanna cuddle?”), but I have some thoughts on it for a little later.

Aesthetic, I think, is less recognized outside the a-spec communities. Allos seem to easily confuse it for lust. I know I’ll get so aesthetically attracted to someone that I’m not sure if I want them or want to be them (often a little of both, yay gender-feels, but that’s a different topic). And it’s probably the one form of attraction that will most strongly start up one of the others.

Sensual is another one that will get confused for lust or turn into lust. It’s I want to hug you, play with my hair, I need a massage, you smell good, wow he’s got an amazing voice, let’s cuddle, kiss me all over… Any sort of sensory desire is sensual. It’s probably the most basic attraction too, because humans are wired to need touch as soon as they’re born. (Sadly, men are socialized to not touch each other and to only get that need filled by their girlfriends, but toxic masculinity is another whole topic that’s been covered by much better bloggers and writers than me).

I think we all know what platonic attraction is and I’ll come back to it.

Emotional attraction isn’t talked about much, but most people need somebody they can share their deepest feelings with. It’s the wordless comfort you feel with those special few. It’s offering support. It’s also how a good musician will make you feel or the emotional release of going to a scary movie with your friends. It’s what makes most deep relationships work.

Intellectual attraction. There’s terms for it – “sapiosexual / sapioromantic” – and unfortunately people will use it to be ableist jerks and say they’re attracted to intelligence, by which they mean highly education, socially promoted intelligence. But it’s not just that, ok? It’s being attracted to people who have interests or passions, people who you want to have long talks with, or just sit back and listen to, and people who will listen and encourage your interests too. It’s why clubs exist, whether it’s model railroads, car customizing, gardening, or coins.

The last one, that I’ve never seen anywhere, is care-giving. You could call it paternal or maternal feelings, but I don’t think it has to be. It’s wanting to make sure your loved ones are warm, fed, hydrated, happy, etc and/or wanting someone to do the same for you. It’s empathy and sympathy. It’s a stronger drive for some people than for others, but we all have it. Personally I have an abundant need to make sure everybody, from family members to random people is okay, and I have lots of friends and family that are the same. For some people it takes the form of “food = love, must feed people”. For others it’s being a sugar daddy. It’s definitely related to emotional attraction, but the need isn’t emotion based. If anything, care-giving is what drives a lot of the expression of emotional attraction.

Romance and Platonce

Look, if the noun form of romantic is romance, shouldn’t the platonic/platonce work?…

First of all, as I’ve said on Twitter several times, I’m not convinced romance actually exists. That’s only like 60% my aromantic butt joking.

But I’m not sure romance and platonce* are attractions so much as forms of relationships. From what I’ve read, the best romantic gestures are the ones that ignore the cliches and take into account what your partner needs or is passionate about. If we’re dating and you get me flowers, I’ll be polite and throw them away once you’re gone. If you get me an old grammar of a language I don’t have yet, I’ll be thrilled. And then probably ignore you to read it, but if you got me it, you’d know what was going to happen.

*(look, there apparently isn’t a noun version. I’m sticking with it)

I don’t know what the line is between romantic and platonic. Everything I’ll do with my significant other I’d do with friends (my other joke is the aromantic just love our friends more than allos do). I suspect it’s an expectation of availability, closeness, support and commitment. Unfortunately there aren’t enough alloro aces to out there to pin it down.

I think both are a combination of care-giving, emotional attraction, and intellectual attraction, and romance especially is focused on fulfilling the partner’s attraction needs over one’s own. What makes people say someone is romantic?

They cook for their partner. They bring gifts. They tend to their ill partner. Little touches, little gestures that make it clear that they’re focused on their partner. You get that with really good friends, but it’s not expected.

Naturally, not everybody will agree with my thoughts and I’d love to hear your take.

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State of the Silver

I’ve been busy working, and went to Bubonicon in New Mexico and met Ursula Vernon and Kevin Sonney, which was awesome. My job got extended until at least November, which is good money-wise, but not so great stress-wise. I’ll endure.

Around working, I’m gardening a bit (the desert heat is a pain) and working on Nyjichxn some. I’m upgrading the tiddlywiki from classic to the new version (tiddlywiki 5), which is going slowly.1

I’ve been spending a lot of time on twitter and tumblr, so if you’re wondering how I am any time follow the links on the sidebar.

I’m going to queue up some conlang posts, which I know interest hardly no one, but it’s my blog so I can do what I want. :P

1 I really should do a post about Tiddlywiki at some point…

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:(

I had to have Nayda put down on Thursday. Zie was the sweetest, friendliest rat you could ask for. Zie was about 2 years, 4 months old.

Of the three I had (Ed, Nayda, and Allard), only Ed is left. I’m going to continue to post pictures of all three, because they’re adorable and I’ve taken a lot.

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CL logo

My name is mine and I love it

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Even though it’s constantly mispronounced, every time I see or hear my name it makes me happy. It’s my own name, one I’ve chosen and claimed.

It’s not the name I was born with. The first name is similar and I kept my birth surname as a second middle name (in a futile attempt to appease my parents). My birth name felt girly to me and wasn’t something I identified with. And my birth surname was something I was teased with as a kid (that and a dozen other things.)

There’s been disadvantages to changing it. It was expensive – about $700 for the various court and paperwork fees, plus missing two days of work (but that job sucked anyway). And my old last name was at the end of the alphabet (which was one reason I changed it – I was tired of being at the end of the list). But being at the end meant it was easier to find on a list. And the last time I got called to jury duty, my new name meant I got called into a court room faster (lawyers: never ever pick me for jury duty. It’s a terrible idea.)

It took about a year to get all my bills changed. There are a few things I’ve never bothered to change. I have to put down my old name for background checks when I get hired.

I changed my name because I didn’t like my old one. It didn’t fit me. But I didn’t have any real trauma associated with it, so it’s not painful to deal with references to my old name (except people refusing to use it or giving me shit about it…)

I love my name. It’s my own name. And it makes me happy.

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