Perhaps

It’s gotten worse over the years, don’t worry ;)

My top recommended movie right now is Freddy Got Fingered

It was the end of 9th grade, so I was 15 or 16. I read it immediately after To Kill a Mockingbird, which did not make it look good in comparison 😂

It’s been quite a while since I’ve read it, so this may not be a fair assessment. But, I fucking hated The Catcher in the Rye. I wasn’t even required to read it for school or anything, I just did. Perhaps I just found Holden to be insufferable. I think that was the point, but it did not make it a particularly enjoyable or insightful read at all, save for the overwhelming supertext of DO NOT BE LIKE THIS GUY. The part where he hires a prostitute and just cries in front of her really stuck in my mind. That was when it really sunk in for me that someone read this book and decided that Holden’s views were so accurate that he had to go shoot John Lennon with a gun for being phony. Almost unbelievable.

He only pulled out enough to devastate the Gulf.

You know how you can see pinned restaurants with their name and a fork and knife icon? Businesses can pay to show their full logo and get priority in search results/what shows first on the map as you zoom in.

Yes. It’s hard to make out the map with all the pinned ads sometimes, and I’ve had multiple times this year where it has taken me to the wrong place. Every time that happens, I boot up Organic Maps and get right to my destination.

Oh man, Obra Dinn for sure. Nothing quite replicates that moment when all the pieces start to fit together. The game took me about 6 hours, I believe. Four hours were spent furiously trying to solve the puzzles, but the last two hours were a wonderful cascade of clues falling into place until I had a complete record of the ship’s crew and passengers. Masterpiece.

Fallout: New Vegas. I still find new stuff in it to this day, don’t get me wrong. But to be able to get lost in the Mojave with no idea of the stakes at play all over again would be an absolute delight.

For music, Facelift by Alice in Chains is one of the most underrated albums of all time. If I could go back to popping that CD in the stereo, not knowing what I’m in for and realizing that I’m listening to an Appetite for Destruction-level album. I wore that original CD out. :)

These guys have it made if you ask me. They sold development for Risk of Rain 2 to Gearbox (which, turned out not so great for Risk of Rain 2, but they were done developing it themselves anyway) and probably got a decent bit of money out of that, then they partnered with Gearbox to crank out a beautiful remaster of Risk of Rain. Now they have jobs at a company that paid out about $450 million to its 336 employees in 2021. I’ve been following these guys since DEADBOLT, and it’s nice to see them set up with cush jobs. No doubt they have leftover money from Gearbox; I’m sure these guys will set off on their own to make a passion project when the time comes.

I just looked into this service, thank you! I’m really interested in their lifetime offering. Is your payment plan through Legacy, or did you take out a loan?

Finally, I know what the phone call does! Maybe I’ve been too hard on Roger Rabbit NES…

By the time I got around to playing it, the number was deprecated and I definitely wasn’t figuring out how to actually beat it! I guess I just assumed it gated me from the end, when it was probably some other esoteric thing.

The name and the intro really put in the work to get you excited for some high-octane action.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit on NES. Ghostbusters was more disappointing, but I’ve at least kinda figured out how to play it over my lifetime. WFRR I’m clueless on. I think it’s some kind of point and click, but I’m not really sure. There’s a part where you have to call a real life telephone number to progress.

Pretty accurate depictions of what it feels like to play these games.

The opponent never moves.

It was either Super Mario Bros. on NES or Excitebike. Unfortunately followed shortly thereafter by Ghostbusters and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Mind you, the NES was a good bit before my time, and I was playing a hand-me-down. I count myself lucky to have had the same experience many kids in the 80s had on Christmas Day when the NES hit North America. Even with all the gizmos now, the NES and N64 really capture me in a way that I’m not sure they would had I grown up with a PS2 like everyone else.

#58

I feel like I’m already regretting waiting… But, I don’t know if I can take more than baby steps in coming out. I’m really happy you’re all in on being yourself! Hope your HRT appointment goes well!

Do you have any fleeing the country tips and tricks for beginners? Fully understand not discussing anything like that, but it is something I’d like to plan for but don’t know how. Thank you for the improved vocabulary, I come from a family that sees trans in a negative light, so I’m really just expanding my ability to describe my experiences in nonbiased ways.

Thank you for taking the time to respond! I really appreciate any advice and opinions I can get from trans people who have more experience being themselves.

Your language implies that you don’t think that a transition is valid without some high-tech medical/pharmaceutical intervention.

I do realize that I have some internalized transphobia, and that’s something I’m working through in therapy. I don’t think that people can’t be trans without HRT, but in the back of my head perhaps more that I cannot. This is something I’m trying to address before I make any real life-altering decisions - I’m really just looking to store my sperm for right now to prepare for any potential fertility issues in the future. As for HRT, I’ve been considering it for a while now, almost as long as the timescale I illustrated. The risks do intimidate me a bit, but I’m in the stages of consulting with doctors for the first time as to those potential risks for me personally. I feel like what I gained from my realization is that I really wasted a lot of time not being myself (though there were external factors at play), and the rest is just a jumble of thoughts that have been going through my head. I don’t know that you’d necessarily want to, because it seems like you have your worries too; but, to put it bluntly, it fucking sucks that you don’t at least have the option of HRT, and I must apologize as I do not intend to demean your struggle with my spur of the moment thoughts working out my bullshit in therapy.

I for one would love it if more of the trans community embraced reviving these traditional transition methods. I often feel very alone trying to explore alternative options because all of the other trans people jump straight to the drugs.

I would be super appreciative if you could share any resources you have! I’ve been wanting to look into HRT alternatives, but it’s hard to tell what works and what’s hokey.

The major problem with HRT is that once you’re on it, you need it or else you’ll get bone issues and premature menopause. Unstable political landscapes mean that the health of many trans people can be seriously impacted by laws changing access to drugs.

I felt that I was pretty clear that the current political landscape was one of my main concerns with starting HRT. The dependency on any system really is a terrifying thing at its core. I don’t need HRT right now, I’m starting to socially transition as much as I can. Part of why I’ve even continued on this journey despite my fear in the first place is that I think now is the time to be out more than ever. The thought of a total anti-trans political regime is scary, but I think I’d feel safer in terms of starting HRT later this year or early next year if we get the more progressive candidate. Part of me thinks that socially out or medically out, you’re a bit fucked if Trump gets elected anyway as well, but I am waiting specifically to see a bit more how this plays out.