@VoxDei@qoto.org
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

VoxDei

@VoxDei@qoto.org

Software Engineer, Trade Unionist, Gamer, Geek, Dad. Lives in Devon

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freemo, to fediverse
@freemo@qoto.org avatar

I want to apologize to the whole community, sincerely, for my recent behaviors over the last 4 months.

If i have been rude or even short tempered with any of you my apologies you likely did not deserve it. Read on if you’d like to know the story and you can decide if I should be forgiven or not.

I know several months ago I made a similar apology, and this may fall on deaf ears, but I hope some of you will hear me out.

First off my last apology came at the face of an Israeli mob death threat on both me and my family. That added a lot of stress at the time and certainly led to me being a bit rude with some people, not an excuse but I do want to rehash it a bit for context. Many of you have noticed since then I do not go out without an open-carry weapon on my hip, this is why.

That said that is not the source of this apology but it is loose related.

I have been dealing with some health issues that, while not life threatening they have severely limited me in some ways. Specifically a very severe sleep disorder. The sleep disorder, and a brain fog that made it very hard for me to think and function normally. In and of itself these werent the root cause, there were underlying issues. But my attempt to treat the symptoms (since the underlying causes we unknown) actually led to a worsening of symptoms long term despite providing some help in the short term. I will explain.

Most of my life I had ADHD as a diagnosis, but it had never been a hindrance to me, in fact I saw it as something that improved my intellectual abilities overall. However this diagnosis allowed me to receive an adderall prescription to try to address the sleep disorder and brain fog, not to treat the ADHD directly, which I have been on for about the last 4 months. It was a low dose (20mg once a day in the morning to wake up). At first it addressed my symptoms with amazing results, but over time it led to a cure to my sleep issue but the brain fog got much much worse. In addition to that my irritability when interacting with people was worse and I have been quite dis-tempered with some of you, and I am deeply sorry for that if this describes you. It certainly continued to cure the sleep issue however and since normal sleep is needed for me to do my work i felt i needed to continue.

Recently however I decided to take matters into my own hands and stop relying on doctors. Instead I got labs through shady means to test for things doctors were dismissive of and wouldnt in the past let me get authorization to have tested. Namely my testosterone levels, thyroid hormone levels, and various blood sugar indicators. These tests revealed three underlying issues: 1) A severely low T-level (so low the tests couldn’t even register trace amounts) 2) An extremely high Thyroid-stimulating hormone, 3x above the maximum normal range 3) metabolic disorder causing blood sugar and insulin irregularities (which likewise led to extreme runaway hunger).

At this point I found a doctor who was finally willing to listen to me, armed with a mountain of ill gotten blood tests and managed to convince her to test me properly for verification and finally treat my underlying diseases.

As of about a week ago I started treatment for my underlying diseases, needing to take injections of about 3 drugs, soon to be 4. Knowing that the root cause could finally be addressed I figured around the same time last week I could quit both the adderall and the sleeping medication entirely. Now that the underlying treatments are starting to work, and the old treatments out of my system I feel the best I’ve felt in years. I already lost 16 lbs, my brain fog has mostly evaporated, and while my sleep is still recovering it was quite improved last night… So while i have a ways to go to be 100% I am already back to my old self, how I used to be before the brain fog began. and certainly doing better than I was doing even 6 months ago.

I will do my best, going forward to treat you all with the respect and due consideration you deserve. Again my apologies.

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@freemo You haven't been short tempered with me that I recall, but just to say sorry you've had all that and glad you're (from the sound of it) on the right track now

VoxDei, to hongkong
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

"Yet, for all that, Hong Kong flourished... under the aegis of empire. ... Though denied full democratic rights, its people eventually prospered."

Simon Tisdall in the Guardian decrying China's destruction of Hong Kong's democracy by, er... harking back to the British Empire's undemocratic treatment of Hong Kong. China's treatment of Hong Kong is a disgrace, but I'm not sure this is the killer argument Tisdall seems to think.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/23/xi-jinping-seals-hong-kong-fate-as-failed-state?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

janbartosik, to books
@janbartosik@witter.cz avatar

† Vernor Vinge (79)

Rest in peace. Loved the Zones of Thought series.

@bookstodon @scifi @knihy

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@janbartosik @bookstodon @scifi @knihy Vinge was a fantastic author, the Zones of Thought books I loved, but also A Deepness In The Sky is one of my all-time favourites. I hadn't heard he was gone, I am sad. RIP. :-(

drandrewv2, to UKpolitics
@drandrewv2@freeradical.zone avatar

Have we finally got to the season finale, where the government accidentally defines itself as an extremist organisation, and bans itself from talking to itself or to any public institutions?

Who had that on their bingo card? 🤷‍♀️

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@drandrewv2 Michael Gove is secretly a militant communist and this is the culmination of his years working under deep cover to get the Tory party banned from the inside.

freemo, to random
@freemo@qoto.org avatar

I just had to solve a captcha that was a bunch of pictures of objects and it says "Select all the objects that can not spin"... I'm just thinking "My dude, anything can spin with if you put enough energy into it"

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@freemo My favourite was when the European Space Agency rolled their own security questions on a new satellite data portal a while back. The questions were a mix of changeable answers ("When did you last water your plants?") and yes/no answers. The minimum field length was three characters.

artemis, to random
@artemis@dice.camp avatar

You have to be a very specific type of person to name your surveillance company Palantir.

Either you don't understand the sinister symmetry of that or you're proud of the fact that you're a horrible person.

I know which one I think it is.

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@artemis I think it's actually worse. The palantirs are neither good nor evil, they are just tools. They can be a blessing or a curse, which it is is entirely down to the user.

I think that's what Thiel is saying. Palantir is a tool, it (the company) does not care who uses it or for what purpose. Make its abilities available to anyone who can pay.

To a certain type of libertarian nut, this is presumably a form of ultimate freedom, freedom from moral considerations as to his actions.

freemo, to chemistry
@freemo@qoto.org avatar

If a chemist tried to do a portrait of a person.

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@freemo Does that mean there are two carbon atoms in there? C2(Head)(Hand)2(Foot)2?

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

Sooo, the child benefit taper thing. Benefits anyone with children who earns between £50k (old lower threshold) and £80k (new upper threshold).

Explain to me again how this helps the worst off in this country?

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

I see the Guardian is going for the could-have-been-published-by-the-Nazis look this morning.

(Going by the associated headline I think it's supposed to represent Iran. Separated from the headline, it's awful.)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/feb/04/ella-baron-us-british-airstrikes-iranian-backed-militias-cartoon?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

GeePawHill, to random
@GeePawHill@mastodon.social avatar

Oh, kids, kids.I know I have a certain (justified) reputation for substance abuse, but I am serious here:

KIDS: DON'T USE GLOBAL VARIABLES.

NOT EVEN ONE.

(And stay in school, too.)

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@GeePawHill I'm a coder, and every so often I'll come across one at work that someone's put in. Makes me twitch just looking at them.

freemo, to random
@freemo@qoto.org avatar

I dont know who needs to hear this.. but you can actually disagree with someone, have a debate, remain peaceful, and if you still disagree in the end you dont have to actually rage quit and block them. You can.... wait for it.... just disengage and walk away.

Not everyone has to agree with you about everything.

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@freemo No we can't. RAAAARGH!

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

"“We don’t put planes in the air that we don’t have 100% confidence in,” Calhoun told reporters."

Well, no. The wheels falling off is a safety feature. If the plane detects it's in an unsafe condition then the wheels fall off, and then it can't take off. Right?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/24/boeing-ceo-plane-safety?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

DrHyde, to random
@DrHyde@fosstodon.org avatar

Look what just showed up in the post! I've been looking for a reasonably priced copy for years. @DreadShips

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@DrHyde Wait, I know this one! Climb a tree! Or play dead. Damn. I can never remember which is huge ships and which is small boats.

dramypsyd, to random
@dramypsyd@ohai.social avatar

Sigh.

Got an email with an “opportunity” to write for Brainz Magazine and got this response when I enquired about pay.

If you write, PLEASE know that your labor and expertise have value. Reputable publications pay their writers. Sketchy publications solicit free labor. And scammers charge you to be published.

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@dramypsyd "Facilitates the value exchange between contributors and the magazine." 🤣🤣🤣

Lovely piece of doublespeak. They're right, it's not "pay-to-play", it's out and out theft. Stealing is exchanging value, after all!

VoxDei, to boardgames
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

One of the cards in one of my (9yo) son's board games. Need to guess as many as you can. This has made my inner grammar pedant twitch badly, along with my monarch list pedant. 😂

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

It's like that embarrassing thing where you go to the supermarket and buy a six-pack of large free-range eggs because you want to make a tortilla and when you get home they start hatching and the baby velociraptors eat all the pancetta you were going to add to it and look at you with googly eyes like, "mooom! hungry!" and now you have a kitchen velociraptor infestation and they love you and refuse to move out

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@cstross Yeah, I hate it when that happens... 😂

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

Wait, so if you turn up at a polling station as a young person on polling day with photo ID (like a young person's railcard) but it's not the right ID, you're a fraud risk and can't vote, say the Tories.

But anyone else who may or may not be British or indeed exist can register to vote and can vote by proxy, four proxies to one UK resident, "on the word of an eligible British resident" that they're eligible, in their choice of marginal constituency. WTAF?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/22/tories-hire-coordinator-to-get-expat-supporters-to-vote-in-general-election?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

VoxDei, to random
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

Tory backbencher described as "usually loyal to Sunak": “It’s clear that a plurality of people in the country are more to the right on immigration than we are and we would do well to remember that.”

Yeah, that's your problem right there. The British people think you're a bunch of softies on immigration. Yeah, that's definitely why the polls are pointing to your annihilation at the next election. No question.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/20/who-was-behind-poll-predicting-tory-wipeout-and-what-do-they-want?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

eivind, to history
@eivind@fribygda.no avatar

Today is “laugardagr” (Washing Day) in Scandinavia, “lørdag/lördag” in modern Scandinavian, the day for the weekly bath. A custom that, according to 13th century English chronicler John of Wallingford, together with their luxurious hair and extravagant dress, set the Dane boys apart from their Anglo-Saxon neighbors and “laid siege to the virtue of the married women and persuaded the daughters, even of the nobles, to be their concubines.” @histodons

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@eivind @histodons The clothing persuaded the women or the washing? Or both? All plausible!

garius, to gaming
@garius@mastodon.me.uk avatar

A nice thing about being an older gamer has been watching the evolution of permissable romance in RPGs.

In my gaming lifetime, we've gone from "as A gender you can romance B character" to "everyone is HORNY and you can fuck anyone. Including this guy who is also a bear."

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@garius Yeah, but I still miss Aerie. ;-)

(I may be the only one, I think everyone else thought she was annoying...)

drandrewv2, to random
@drandrewv2@freeradical.zone avatar

Errr… obviously. If they don’t ease, it won’t have been the coldest night, will it?

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@drandrewv2 I briefly read that as "I will try to do butter" for some reason. That sounds more fun.

freemo, to Guns
@freemo@qoto.org avatar

Pretty much spot on. Always funny how anti-gun nuts always pretend like gun violence is the only violence that should be reasoned about the exact opposite of every other murder.

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@freemo Um… I mean I’ll read it, but work and kids to sort out in the morning, so I doubt I’ll have time to pick up the discussion then. All honesty this probably already went on longer than I wanted, I am genuinely interested in your point and I may reply later on, but I’ll be up front and say I may not. Completely understand if you don’t want to spend time explaining to me in those circumstances. 🙂

MelsGarden, to scifi

Found a new author!

(new to me anyway lol)

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu.

This one's been on my to-read list for quite a while. I'm about halfway thru (switching back & forth btwn audiobook/library book bc I'm weird like that).

I'm really into it. The whole thing is fascinating - deep, complex, thought-provoking, mysterious, mind-bending. It's honestly like the epitome of really cool sci-fi.

Always such a thrill to find a book that just pulls you in, y'know?

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@MelsGarden Yup, understood (and I wasn't aware of any unpleasantness from Marina Sirtis so that's a shame, I'm also a TNG fan). I feel like I have to mention it though if I'm aware, because the books are great but I feel like I have to qualify that recommendation.

As a change of direction, may I recommend Ramez Naam's Nexus books? I know nothing about his politics!

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@MelsGarden It's great, I loved it. I keep waiting for him to write more and it hasn't happened yet, sadly!

lowqualityfacts, to random
@lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social avatar

Everyone: Hello, we would like society to improve.

Billionaires: Too bad, go scream into the void instead.

Everyone: Okay.

Billionaires: Also, we have bought all the voids. It now costs $100 to scream into the void.

VoxDei,
@VoxDei@qoto.org avatar

@lowqualityfacts Ah, well, that's supply and demand for you. Can't stop progress. But I can sell you this fine box with a button on it if you want to try. Look, the button says "Stop" and everything. That'll be another $100 please.

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