My doggo at the polls! #dogsAtPollingStations
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Katy TransWomenAreWomen Ereira
@maccath@phpc.social
mastodon 4.7.3Geeky, gothy, witchy software engineer and international tech conference speaker from the #UK.
Loves #Programming with #PHP, and #Refactoring #LegacyCode.
💕 #VideoGames #BoardGames #Gardening #Tarot #日本 #Travel
🌶️ #Neurospicy - #ADHD variety.
🇵🇸🇺🇦🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️✊🤘
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188 Following
26 Posts
Joined February 09, 2020
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I am looking for #paraplegic folks who share their daily living experience/tips/tricks without functioning legs - blogs, vlogs, etc.
It's so hard to search for content these days, but I'm sure it's out there. All I get is AI slop or fall prevention, which isn't the same.
Husband is otherwise fit and healthy with the physique of an ex rugby player (read: large) but his legs are out of order; functional #paraplegia.
Want to see the different ways #disabled people have adapted to cope with this.
Just remembered that time we only had one bathroom and the kids were bickering about who should have been able to use it first when we arrived home.
"That's not fair!"
"I got to the bathroom first!"
"But I got to the front door first!"
"I said I needed it first!"
"But I _thought about it_ first!"
Today I drove 60 miles including 'the UK's bendiest road' (a childhood favourite; great fun when my parents used to drive us down Zig Zag Hill!) and my husband says he has "no notes".
So that whole 'learning to drive at 38 after years of crippling anxiety' thing; I think I'm doing alright.
Took my mum out for a drive round the estate and up and down a dual carriageway yesterday. She seemed anxious about being my passenger but arrived home to tell my family, "yeah, she can drive" 🤣
I did get honked at for picking the wrong lane at a roundabout on my way to hers though. 😅 That's my new current weakness. I wanted to go 'straight on' but my husband explained that 'straight' at this roundabout was just past 12 o'clock so that's 'right' so I should have been in the right hand lane. 🙄
Looking for recs for chill places to hang out and drink #coffee and/or #cocktails in #barcelona.
Husband uses a wheelchair, so our main criteria are chill vibes, good drinks, and step-free (or single-low-step) access.
We like being outside and people watching, so sidewalk seating, rooftops and terraces are a big plus. Not looking for interaction with other people or loud music. Just places where we can sit in a quiet corner and read whilst sipping our beverages. 👍
Boots for reach welcome!
This is my gorgeous #disabled husband in his fancy chair in Prague.
Yeah the cobblestones were kinda a bitch. 😂
Just stood up in a pub and some guy turns round, sees me, and, appearing irritated, says, "can I get some ketchup?"
Takes a couple seconds for me to realise he has formed an incorrect assumption as I'm dressed in all black (like normal), and he's not using some weird slang to make a derisory sexist remark.
My reaction then is to gesticulate with exasperation and say emphatically, "I don't _work here_."
Cue Tom Cardy... https://youtu.be/wrJ6_GAprFE
Hey, I don't work here - (Official Music Video)
Just gave my geriatric and very fed up cat a frozen chunk of stewing beef as a cooling treat to combat the UK heatwave. Not sure why this never occurred to me before. He is raw fed, so chunks of beef is pretty standard, but he seems to be enjoying taking his time nibbling at the frozen piece. :)
Because searching the internet is impossible these days:
In which direction should I lay paving bricks (200x100s) on a slope, to minimise the appearance of the slope?
Should I lay them in the direction of the gradient so they 'blend in' or should I lay them perpendicular to the gradient to counteract it? Or, at a 45 degree angle? 😬
Or should I consider some other factor above all else, like light/reflections or the building orientation? 🤔
Replying to
@kraftner@mastodon.social @adactio@mastodon.social No problem - I'm glad that it's appreciated. :) It seems reasonable on the face of it, but there are quite significant historical reasons why the British don't have compulsory ID, so such things are only generally held by people with privilege or an alternate need. This is a big contrast to the rest of Europe, where national ID cards are quite commonplace.
The idea of having to 'prove our identity', to the British psyche specifically, is unfathomable:
https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/blog/britains-fight-against-id-from-wwii-to-covid-19/
Replying to
@daisy "I don't really know as much as you about this codebase so can you fix this or I'll ask Claude to look at it."
I wrote the comment so you could know what I know. Thanks for letting me know it was a waste of my time. 😭
Replying to
@ramsey@phpc.social Zojirushi only. A few years back my old faithful Zojirushi (10+ years old) broke. We'd already repaired it once so my husband took the second failure as an excuse to get a bigger rice cooker from YumAsia. That one irreparably broke within 3 years, so we bought the exact same Zojirushi model I had before. We never used the larger capacity of the YumAsia cooker, and the rice often burned. Zojirushi produces flawless rice every time.
Replying to
@kraftner@mastodon.social @adactio@mastodon.social The UK has no compulsory photographic ID scheme (and nor do we want one), so we have to pay and jump through hoops to get suitable ID. Many can't afford it. It is disenfranchisement.
Replying to
@kraftner@mastodon.social @adactio@mastodon.social Put a simpler way: thousands more people eligible to vote were unable to cast their ballot, than those who were ineligible to vote were able to do so. The number of missing valid votes does not in any way counter the number of invalid votes cast, therefore the mandate is undemocratic.
Replying to
@kraftner@mastodon.social @adactio@mastodon.social That's 3 weeks _after_ you submit your application, which, for a first passport, involves paying for appropriate photos, obtaining a copy of your birth certificate (which costs £15 and takes 2 weeks to obtain...) and finding people to countersign your application to verify your identity... if you need it urgently, you have to pay a lot more.
Replying to
@suearcher@toot.wales we never set out to make any money beyond the entry fee, but we always do by having a very chill and nonprofessional attitude about it, and agree to let things go cheaply. We will try and haggle up clearly ridiculous offers, but ultimately a sale is a sale. Items are only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. Better 20p than in the trash (or extended occupation of storage space until next time).
Does anyone have (or overcome) a huge mental block regarding their ability to drive, or is it just me? 🤔
I have never wanted to drive, to the point where I don't believe it's possible for me to do so. It's more than just a lack of confidence, I literally can't see myself driving.
Despite _owning a car and being fully insured to drive it_, I've only sat behind the wheel once in my life - a few years ago, in an empty car park. Frustrated with my inability to steer, I didn't try again.
Jobsworth thought they'd clocked a 'gotcha!' today when husband mistakenly pulled into a loading bay. Walked over incredulously, "do you have a disabled badge?" "Yes...?" he says, confused.
Having received an unexpected answer, they rudely retort, "Well can you park in a disabled bay, then?" Husband looks around - the bay behind is marked disabled. He assumed this one was too, but it was a loading bay. So he reverses the car.
They stand intimidatingly by his door. "...Can I help you?" he asks.
Classic sexist and homophobic policies. Unlike sperm, eggs are a finite resource. A man's withdrawal of consent to use his sperm cannot mean a woman is forced to destroy her eggs.
A 'sperm donor' does not get to withdraw consent for insemination under any 'normal' circumstances, so why is this OK?
Wrexham couple spent £23,000 on fertility treatment but now embryos will be destroyed - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5035eldr3o
Does anyone else have a neighbour who seems to believe they are above everyone who lives around them? Say, by building obnoxious fences or moats or walls the whole way around their property line? Like someone might step onto their land or, god forbid, _see_ their house or cars or something. In our case, the guy lives in a semi detached property and you can no longer access his front door without scaling a 6' fence. 🤣 I have no fucking idea what he's thinking.
Replying to
@kraftner@mastodon.social @adactio@mastodon.social You don't. The polling staff have a list of names, yours gets crossed off as you're handed a ballot. Voter fraud is rare - there's no point giving someone else's name if you're eligible to vote. If not eligible, then whose name could you possibly give that would be guaranteed not to have voted already? Why risk exposing yourself for one vote? There were 33 cases of voter impersonation in 2019, but 16,000 turned away in 2024 due to no ID. It's disproportionate.
Replying to
@kraftner@mastodon.social @adactio@mastodon.social I myself never held any photographic ID until I was past the age of 18 (thus eligible to vote) and tried to enrol at university.
I had been accepted but could not enrol because they said I needed photographic ID. I had not heard of such a requirement until that very moment. I was granted temporary enrolment and given a month to find ID.
I did not drive and had never travelled abroad. A passport was an expense that I could hardly afford - over £100, with a 3 week turnaround.
Replying to
@kraftner@mastodon.social @adactio@mastodon.social We have a number, not an ID - the number is issued to you when you turn 16. You only need to give your number to register as a voter, or pay taxes. But even if you're registered to vote and pay taxes, you still need to present photo ID to vote in person. You don't need photo ID if you vote by post or proxy, which quite frankly, are probably the easiest ways to fraudulently cast a ballot.
Replying to
@suearcher@toot.wales sharpies, cardboard, tape and sticky labels to reprice things and create funny signs. Me and my mum have been getting rid of our old things at car boot sales since the 90s, and we get the most sales when we create crude signage that gets people talking. The best one was "selling my ex husband's shit for cheap!" Lots of people came over to commiserate and grab a bargain. 🤣 And things like "10p each, I'm not lugging this stuff home" etc.