Other What currently makes your life awesome?

Fire stick is a cheap option.

 

Let me just clarify, I'm not actively trying to block YouTube ads on the streaming box that I use (because I know it won't work) and I'm not complaining about YouTube ads ... Like it or not, it's part of the platform. I am going to replace my current Apple TV... but with a newer Apple TV!

 

Whelp, spent the last three days doing the gardening, giving the house a thorough deep clean, and relaxing here and there. Car is packed to disappear off down South for the first day of work, and some nice M&S food is in the fridge for tonight's supper.

Nothing else to do except relax until bedtime now. Let's see if I can crack that Hunter's Challenge in Horizon Zero Dawn...

 

Got my new kitten at home, he is now known as Mavolio. (A Discworld character)

 

Aww cute overload

 

Fluffy lynx point!

 

Deed poll's done, I'm now officially Donna Yenna Winter

Only in UK because finland is a massive pile of discriminatory laws

 

Just had a (quick) read up on that because Finland is usually ahead of the game in most things, I had no idea that in order to legally change gender you have to be sterilised.

Is that right? Shocked and surprised in equal measure.

 

That bit about sterility can be either surgical or HRT induced. I've had a vasectomy back in 2009 and HRT has done its thing to my reproductive bits. Think what were once the size of small eggs have become the size of a grape each

Sent this to Transplus to help them whip up a supporting letter for Helsinki GIC

Here's something to grimace about, relevant section of the law over there regarding names:
Discretionary conditions for forenames
As a forename may only be approved a name that:
1) in its form, content and spelling complies with the established forename practices;
2) is in established use of the same sex;
3) does not clearly resemble a surname.

I fulfill all the requirements below:
Section 1 – Preconditions for legal recognition
A person can be legally recognised to belong to the gender opposite to that according to which he or she is recorded in the population information system referred to in the Population Information Act (507/1993) if he or she:
1) presents a medical statement stating that he or she permanently feels to belong to the gender opposite to that assigned to him or her and lives in that gender role, and that he or she has been sterilised or is for some other reason infertile; Yup I have EVERY document required for this
2) is of age; Well above that age
3) is not married or living in a registered partnership; and Divorced a long time ago, not in any registered thing
4) is a Finnish national or has his or her place of residence in Finland Yup I'm a finnish citizen

This is a case of helsinki GIC head honchos are being uptight, snotty, discriminatory idiots because my diagnosis was not done by them. Because they are the ultimatest bestest professionals on this matter (no, they are the polar opposite)

On the upside: I can bin my old finnish ID card when my brand spanking new provisional license with my name shows up. Deadname will still matter for immigration etc purposes but hey dual identity

 

Hello Donna!

**EDIT** Dayum this is technical

 

Hi Arbsy!

 

Ha, now that is something I do recognise. When my OH had chats years back with people in the same field as her it was very much a - well you may be Finnish but you didn't get your qualifications or experience here - attitude.

Damn though, as if it's not been a long involved enough for you already they have to throw a whack load of discretionary bureaucracy at you.

 

Its a massive pile of bureaucracy, discrimination and gatekeeping. I had an appointment back in 2009 at Tampere GIC. We chatted for about half a hour there and the doctor (hah) decided my Asperger, bipolar and borderline must be treated first, then I'd be allowed in the process. That is a de facto ban for me as bipolar is a life long condition, borderline might improve with therapy. Treating Asperger would require a literal rewiring of my brain. That's it, door closed for me over there for life

Now here in UK, latter two are seen as symptoms of dysphoria. Paperwork proves I'm unusually stable for someone with BP and BPD (unless I forget to inject and my mood tanks as estradiol valerate has a stupid short half-life) and I have two great therapists

I remain autistic, bipolar and borderline but in the pipeline. Next major step is a consultation with the surgeon and electrolyzing hair off from the surgical area while waiting for the genital origami

 

LaTeX.

Specifically the combination of LaTeX + VSCode + LaTeX Workshop VSCode extension.

I'm in the middle of writing a paper for a maths module (I have until 4pm tomorrow to submit so, of course, I am totally procrastinating right now), and holy balls this is way easier than doing it in Word's equation editor! I'm not doing anything really complicated, but even just having this little equation preview is incredibly handy...

 

Awesome news, even if it is "just" the UK.

I suppose that is one thing that the UK does make a lot easier, you can choose to rename yourself as you wish. My wife had a similar issue when moving from The Netherlands, they have the same sort of laws in that your name is your name is your name, and you can only change it in specific situations. Even when getting married and taking your husband's name, you would keep your maiden name and become double barreled, which is what my wife has done albeit in the opposite way to how it works there.

Over there she would have gone from Hername Hersurname to Hername Mysurname Hersurname. Over here the two surnames are swapped to what I would consider to be the "normal" way of going about double barreled.

Now she didn't have to do that, certainly not for me, I would have been quite happy with her not changing her name at all, she only really wanted to do it so that the bank could not fit her first name on her bank card and would have to refer to her entirely as Mrs Surname-Surname. She did go through deed poll just to be able to enforce that change.

Meh, all sorted now though. Fingers crossed that you can get your name changed elsewhere at some later date.

 

After years and years of waiting for my nose surgery, it's tomorrow.

I've bought a full Percy pig pajama set to wear in the hospital!

 

My bank holiday weekend starts in 20 minutes!

 

Health and weather to enjoy.
I'm having another 4 day weekend this week, and another next

 

My printer seems to be "fixing" itself... Now there are only some blue horizontal streaks on some pages, as opposed black horizontal streaks and smears on every page....



It's chonky, fussy, and old - HP Colour LaserJet CP2025 - but I'd like to keep the thing running as long as I can...