Apple Cider

I can also relate but thankfully I am literally a lone wolf in most respects regarding what I work on, so all I have to endure is comments and chatter I overhear. Which isn't great either! But at least it's background noise and not something I have to engage usually. (My supervisor has a fondness for calling women bitches. This is in an industry and building that is largely women, incidentally.)

I almost threw in the towel, admittedly. I really did. I got really low. But now I've been through two years of therapy, most of my anxiety is gone, I have a wonderful boyfriend of 6 years who's supported me and a wonderful therapy cat who helps me every day. I also have stable employment now and enjoy life a lot more.

Yeah, that's definitely a good idea. I know that my experience of an isolated harasser that went over years is on the more isolated end of things, but low-level radiation of harassment is sort of a typical thing for marginalized people, particularly women online. :/ I wrote about this in 2012 which was after four years of sustained harassment at that point, when I was enrolled in therapy: http://www.applecidermage.com/2012/03/07/learned-helplessness-harassment/

I'm actually looking to talk to someone about this but cursory research looks like it has to do with how LGBT people are treated in the Phillippines. I am pretty uninformed on the subject though. The unfair advantage seems to relate to trans women being perceived as men, or beliefs towards bakla (which is considered a 3rd gender, I believe.) Either way, it's gross for a publisher themselves to demand that for a tournament.

I am really happy (and I truly mean this) that the situation with Lindy West went alright. I hate that all these people get labelled trolls when I've always seen trolling as the non-offensive, time wasting sort of shit that goes online as shits and giggles, like Ken M. or whatever. Harassment is when you are out to hurt someone else. Hiding it behind some idea that it's just innocuous is really harmful. I can also get behind the idea that some of these people are doing this because they themselves are really awful people or hate themselves. It is just hard for me to sometimes because I was literally stalked and harassed online for four years by ONE guy (we're talking 100s of Tweets and messages a day, often incredibly violent and sexual in nature) and it destroyed me mentally. One day, out of the blue, not because of the restraining order or the repeated visits from the cops, it just stopped. I suspect it's because my harasser got out of whatever situation he was in at home (he used to live with his parents afaik) and probably started living his own life. I'd love to reach out and ask him for my own curiousity but then I remember that if he did that, he probably still might be the kind of person to take that as an invitation back into my life. So I don't ask. I know vaguely where he is online because he plays the same video game I met him in, so I just avoid that place (thankfully it's already a cesspool). But other than that, I try to forget he exists most days, but try as I might, that's never, ever going to completely go away. I don't know what the point of this post was, I guess.

I will probably listen tomorrow, I already saw that Budweiser commercial with the puppy and the horse and have fulfilled my ugly sobbing quota for the day.

As for 4 PM CST today, there will absolutely not be a Patreon going up. It would not be a way to support Wow Insider, if you happen to play Warcraft. It would not be a way to give them money to run a new site that covers Blizzard and I have no idea why you're reading this post at all.

Yeah, that's the sad part - it's a sharp left turn on logic that doesn't analyse what feminists are fighting against because we're not immediately JUST focused on men and therefore, we're clearly the problem and all that shit about patriarchy is made up.

They are as much of a thing as Gamergaters are, honestly. All it is is another loony extension of MRA politics.

Wartune had the string of ads that explicitly stated that they were for men only. So, while hilarious, also more upfront and honest than many AAA titles.

I stopped following him because he still RTs Totalbiscuit and I have no room in my life for anyone who still wants to associate with him.

You're not a monster, cleaning is one of those things that gets away from us when we feel mentally or physically unwell, and it can often get into shame spiralling really fast. You feel guilty for not cleaning, and that makes you n ot feel up to cleaning, ad nauseum. One site that I used when I was really down in my anxiety was Unfuck Your Habitat. It really does create an emphasis on manageable, sustainable cleaning habits for people with mental health and physical disabilities, and works on making you feel better, rather than guilty for not doing things "properly." I've gotten much better at cleaning because I've learned how to do little bits that I feel up for every day versus letting it get overwhelming and freaking out about it.

Yeah, Joystiq found out last weekend (friday to be exact) while most of their staff was on their way to PAX South. My boyfriend found out via osmosis by their internal work chat and everyone had to keep mum about their jobs being gone for at least five days. It was kinda brutal.

Yeah, the thing is that most, if not all of Joystiq were contractors so no benefits, no pension, no PTO, no vacation. My boyfriend was EIC of Wow Insider and he pretty much worked like 24-7 and didn't get to take time off and paid a buttload of taxes.

Yeah, even if phrased neutral, I just mean that the answer is never going to BE neutral given power dynamics.

Yeah, because questions like that are not really honest or neutral at all. Asking "Do women lie more than men" supposes that men and women have equal perceptions of lying, reasons why they'd lie and that all of those things have no impacting forces.

I will take my mashed potatoes lumpy or unlumpy, skins or no.

"Rolled into" = absorb all of the material in archive form so we can continue to siphon off that sweet ad and SEO revenue for our entirely robotic ad service that we also laid off our entire salesforce for. AOL did everyone on Joystiq dirty but at least my boyfriend is getting severance out of it. Fuck you AOL, I hope you rot in hell.

Side note about Mariska Hargitay, I don't watch SVU anymore but the fact that she has started and runs a charity that helps out rape survivors makes me really happy.

I want to see Olivia Benson kick down some cyber perp's door and shout, "No, this is about ethics in NOT BEING A SHITHEAD" or something.

http://inthesetimes.com/article/17584/jonathan_chait_pc I am not Sady's biggest fan but I can't say she didn't go all the way in on this one.

Seriously, it's like a whole field of terrible potato opinions here, wow. Potatoes in any form other than plain, boiled, are amazing.

Well "W/weird Twitter" reifies it somewhat, but much of the Weird Twitter whips are direct descendants of FYAD (which is a notorious forum of Something Awful for people who don't know) and despite being mostly liberal white dudes, some of their humor hasn't strayed far from their origins. It might not be calling people Nazis but they still react the same if you don't like their jokes.

Sorry but I just think everyone should, in their life, if they are able to, taste mashed potatoes they made themselves. Shit's delicious. (This goes for literally any other cooked food though, I just love cooking.)

That is really sad, I heard about this as well. I'm sorry to everyone for their loss.