#I’m obsessed with accurate dinosaur hybrids

[kangasauras]

I drew a funky dinosaur hybrid :D

This is based on a neat hybrid challenge by Emily Stepp on Twitter, with suggestions from my Instagram followers.

Head: quetzalcoatlus

Neck: euoplocephalus

Body: amargasaurus

Arms: carnotaurus

Legs: therizinosaurus

Tail: leaellynasaura

Integument: feathers

Colouration: black/white/red

[fulcrum-agent]

Dysphoria

I’m going to talk about some things that I need to get out there a bit more than I generally do. So today, I’m going to discuss my gender identity, gender dysphoria, and what it’s doing to me emotionally and mentally. Before I end up falling into a repeat of March.

People on both sides of the fence in regards to gender and sexuality (meaning both the LGBTQ+ community and the “straights”/”cis” world) aren’t going to like everything I’m about to say here. But the past few days and weeks, I’ve been feeling the same kind of horrible pressure I had largely freed myself from a year ago, some of it is almost as oppressive as when I was a teenager.

It’s not just going to be anecdotal information, not just “feels” - I involve science in everything.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why the LGBTQ+ community can get upset about the use of science with gender identity and sexuality. A lot of really bad science has been done in an attempt at erasure and vilification. But that shouldn’t lead to discounting the good science that is starting to make its way into the fore.

All that out of the way, let’s get started.

Taking a trip in the Way Back Machine, when I was in utero, mum wasn’t keen on getting ultrasounds. It wasn’t something that was well covered by her insurance, and she had issues with the gel they use for them. So the doctors were more heavily relying on other methods to determine gender, and the few ultrasounds mum could afford weren’t very conclusive due to positioning. This was back in the late 70s/early 80s, and the tech wasn’t as good as it is now.

The vast majority of markers pointed towards the concept that I was a baby boy. The pregnancy and much of the social stuff surrounding it were treated like I was going to be a boy. There was a stupid amount of pastel blue involved.

As it turned out, not only were their predicted due dates off dramatically (an entirely separate story there), but physically, I was a female baby; it was so expected that I’d be male, they had no female names handy, so they used the name of the type of piano they bought for me (spoilers: I’ve always hated my birth name because of this).

Essentially, I’ve had gender issues since birth. One of my doctors expects that I’ve had PCOS nearly my entire life, possibly even before puberty, since my testosterone levels even in utero were higher than they should be.

While I personally had almost 0 concepts of gender and the societal bullshit around till around puberty, it still affected me all the damn time.

I was almost immediately labelled a tomboy, because I was physically active - climbing trees, playing sports, wanting to do martial arts, and I also liked things like GI Joe and He-man while having an obsession with dinosaurs and science. However, people who viewed me as a tomboy would get confused by the fact that I also liked dance, music, My Little Pony (this was before bronies), and dolls like Jem and Barbie.

Back at the dawn of the 80s, things were rather black and white when it came to gender norms.

Despite the people around me having issues with my “gender weirdness”, I was perfectly fine till around 11, when puberty started.

Much to my distress, my body became extremely feminine. Before I was even 12, I was more than an A cup, and I started getting curvy hips and rear. For some reason, I really just did not like the way my body was starting to look, yet I had tonnes of people telling me how “lucky” I was, and how I should dress to compliment my form.

I also was absofuckinglutely not okay with menstruation. It was beyond the typical uneasiness about this new thing, about learning how to manage it - there was visceral hate I didn’t understand. It didn’t help that having my period made me ill, something that only got worse and worse as I got older. Between the dysphoria related anxiety/depression and the actual physical problems, I wanted nothing to do with menstruation and decided I wanted a hysterectomy even before I had my first procreation systems problems. I also realised before I was out of high school that I really wanted a breast reduction; increasing back and shoulder problems were what I thought the root of it was, but I realise now I actually just wanted a more androgynous body, even back then.

Throughout part of junior high, and all of high school, my friends who were female were always being pushy about making me dress like a girl, and to weaponise the body I was “so lucky to have”. At the start of junior high, I dressed like a goth skater boy - in part because I was slowly building a gothic wardrobe, and in part cus men's clothes were just super comfortable. And cheaper - most of the stuff I was buying with saved lunch money, so buying boy’s/men’s clothes was also something of a financial strategy.

Despite often feeling awkward about my body, by the time high school landed, I had just given in to the pressure. I dressed like a little goth princess, I wore push-up bras (even though I was already a D cup at that point), most everything I wore either accentuated my breasts by being tight or super low cut. On one level, fashion was always fun for me, I nearly became a fashion designer before realising how horrid that industry is, so the putting together outfits and such was fun - it was when I was actually wearing them that I could feel super awkward.

Once I moved from Salt Lake to San Diego, I was able to ditch a lot of that. No one knew who I was, I didn’t know anyone else, and SoCal was a lot more chill about things than Utah could ever hope to be. I still would sometimes dress the goth princess, but my default style swerved back towards skater/raver in cuts. I wore rave pants and tank tops with men’s graphic button downs.

While I was in San Diego, I met a transman and transwoman who were both chill with explaining gender transitions to me. I suspected someone I knew in SLC was along those lines (I was wrong, they were intersexed, and parents made terrible decisions for them). While I was aware that I didn’t want to transition entirely to being male, I knew there was something along those lines that I needed. Sadly, I didn’t meet any non-binary people, and no one really ever brought up the concept to me while I was in SoCal.

About ten years ago, after I had gotten sick and had to move back in with my mum, on the Eastern Seaboard, I met an incredibly knowledgeable transwoman who pointed out to me that androgyny isn’t just an art style but also was gender. She was the first to explain to me what being non-binary was the full spectrum of non-binary - from being gender fluid to androgyne to flat non-binary.

For once in my life, I felt normal as far as gender was concerned. I wasn’t some weird tomboy, I didn’t have to conform to what I’d been told to while growing up, I wasn’t weird for having certain previously odd dreams. It all made sense.

At this point, I’d already done a lot of research on what all transgender, the emerging science behind it, the process of transitioning, chest binding. But at that point, I did a lot more research into non-binary aspects of gender; there’s not nearly as much as there is on MtF/FtM transgenders, but there was a fair bit.

Since I was having problems with depoprovera actually helping with the PCOS and nixing menstruation, I decided that I wanted to do low dose HRT. It took a lot to get to a facility to do so, but I managed to start that in 2015. I was also hoping that if I was right about my hunch, that a number of other medical issues I have could be affected for the better. There’s a lot of emerging science pointing to the fact that transfolk have chemical imbalances - their chemical make up doesn’t really match that of their birth gender; about how HRT helps move their different hormonal chemicals to the range their body actually needs; how many times transfolk feel better physically once their HRT reaches stable levels, and how often times being on HRT reduces or eliminates different chronic medical issues.

Locally, there was no facility that could manage HRT. Even with the hard science in my hand, local doctors couldn’t wrap their heads around it, so I couldn’t even “cheat” and have a mainstream endocrinologist manage it for me. Most didn’t even want to look at the science. I still have to go to Philadelphia for HRT, and half the science I take with me is still relatively new to the Mazzoni Centre.

Getting HRT was the lesser struggle. Although I had started addressing the need for a breast reduction clear back in 2012, insurance coverage in general on reductions is trash. A certain amount of mass has to be removed for them to cover it, which often times cannot be accurately gauged before the surgery; much of the time, a person needing a reduction would go under, get mass removed, only for it to be too little for insurance coverage, leaving them with a $7,000 bill.

The only surefire way to have them cover it entirely for almost the entire decade I was working on this was a full mastectomy, whether or not it was related to cancer. For a while, I was very on the fence about a full mastectomy, because I didn’t want to transition to being male - I wanted a body that was just a hell of a lot more boyish than mine’s been since puberty.

Eventually, I came to be at peace with the idea of this, thanks to people like the fabulous Elliott Alexzander, who promote non-binary fashion and are also male-bodied. Seeing someone who had absolutely no breasts rock women’s fashion helped immensely.

I did finally luck out, however. By the time I was okay with the concept of having to have a full mastectomy to get insurance to cover the surgery, a WPATH certified surgeon had moved into the area. With his help, I was able to get what he termed a hybrid top surgery, 100% covered by my insurance, due to gender dysphoria.

While recovery was rough, as it became painfully apparent that the boyfriend who lived with me at the time had massive issues with all of it, despite having been warned back in 2013 that I was going to be doing all of this. He’d always been lowkey abusive, often in ways that evaded mum seeing him be so, but that escalated rapidly after the surgery, to the point where even mum could see it; I had an HRT check up not long after the surgery, and the nurse who roomed me asked if I was okay, or if I needed help - the abuse had become that apparent, and constant. (Yes, the relationship was terminated, though it took 3 or 4 more months for him to find a place and move out.)

For most of the time since the top surgery, I’ve not had my dysphoria trigger all that much; at most, I have a lowkey fear of some crazy, conservative, Christian redneck here is going to decide they don’t like how I look, and try beating me up - or worse. This has already happened once since the surgery: some loon was sitting on his porch at like 2 AM, and I was out on a walk; I had my headphones in, and music on, so I couldn’t hear everything he said, but caught something about how I was a vile dyke, and he started coming down off his porch at me - I ended up just looking at him as if he were less than a gnat, while continuing to walk, and he backed off. The power of looking like you don’t give any fucks.

Recently, I’ve been having more and more dysphoria, due to people just not getting that I as a person am non-binary. I have pronoun preferences. Ignoring them isn’t okay. I actually have to have my characters all have small breasts still because I get the same sense of dysphoria I’ve had for my entire life when they’re much past an A cup. I’m not going to wear a dress when I don’t want to, and I’m not going to wear an a-shirt/muscle shirt when I don’t want to. I’m not going to forgo mixing and matching men and women’s clothes for someone else’s comfort.

Generally, I’m not one to get aggressive about this stuff, because I don’t believe that aggression helps the LGBTQ+ community (or any community) considering its aggression that creates the situations we find ourselves in right now. I’m more about educating someone politely, giving them time to adjust, to remember that for me as a person, it’s They (or Xe) and not She. Let those who know me offline adjust to the fact that no, you can’t use my birth name, you have to use the name that I go by (even though that’s about as variable as David Bowie during his early musical career). You can prefer people with more curves, but you can’t tell me that I can’t be okay when you want me to be curvier, in a game or out.

Initial microaggressions are fine. Persistent ones after the fact aren’t.

If I ask you to stop doing something because it’s causing dysphoria, you don’t get to shrug it off, and just continue to do it. You don’t get to ignore the fact that what you’re doing is harmful to me, just because opening your eyes to who I actually am is inconvenient to your current world order. You don’t get to invalidate me as a person because you think your religious doctrine is against who and what I am (spoilers: nearly every religion on the planet preaches love as its highest law - and doing any of this shit to anyone violates that tenant of your faith).

You don’t have to entirely understand the why of all this. You don’t have to be savvy on all the different points on the gender spectrum. You don’t have to know the science behind it.

What you have to understand is that your actions are harmful and that if you want to be a better person, you have to stop those harmful actions. Not just because they’re harmful to me, not just because you care about me, but to just be a better person overall - to avoid doing this to anyone and everyone.

If that’s asking too much, well:

EDIT: It occurs to me that I should probably mention that it doesn’t bother me when people refer to my characters by their gendered pronouns. Ashe, Claire, Fia, and Vaylin can be referenced by she/her while Rel, Saber, and Kym’a can be referenced as he/him. Vieno will probably lean more towards they/them. The only one it’s a hard must be they/them with is Dwynd, because when I made her, it was an outlet for being completely out of the non-binary closet when I couldn’t yet be RL.

[weblistposting-blog]

New Post has been published on Weblistposting

New Post has been published on https://weblistposting.com/2017-is-already-an-wonderful-12-months-for-video-games/

2017 is already an wonderful 12 months for video games

Every so often, it’s wise to prevent and recognize the good things in life. And proper now, it doesn’t get a great deal higher than the video game enterprise. After dozens of Slack conversations approximately all of the exciting titles and hardware coming out this year, a handful of Engadget editors were given collectively to officially have a good time the yr in gaming to this point. Plus, we gazed into the future and offered recommendations on ways to make 2017 even higher. So take a seat returned, clear your mind and be part of us in an appreciation of the whole thing accurate the video game industry has to offer in 2017.

so far this year, I’ve crept via a dilapidated residence in VR, solving puzzles, battling monsters and hiding from a family of demented tormentors. I’ve hunted robot dinosaurs in an excellent post-apocalyptic international. I have played a shining new Zelda game on Nintendo’s modern console, a mobile residing room hybrid that feels just like the recognition of each promise the Wii U did not supply. I am approximate to dive into the weird international of Persona 5, a sport that my most favorite critics (and friends) are definitely gushing over.

This yr is superb for fans of video games.

Past the video games themselves being fantastically unique and polished to this point this year, the enterprise is leveling out superbly after a rush of innovation and change. The virtual truth is sooner or later a true business product, with a handful of different headsets and functionalities to pick out from. Esports is a booming scene, and because it infiltrates mainstream television, it is introducing an entirely new target audience to the wonders of aggressive gaming. Consoles are extra powerful than ever, supplying 4K and hybrid gambling options.

But absolutely, this yr is all about the games. Some we already recognize are extremely good studies, like Horizon 0 Sunrise, Resident Evil 7, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Personality 5. After which there is everything nevertheless to return, like Destiny 2, Splatoon 2, What Remains of Edith Finch, Middle-earth: Shadow of Battle, York-Kaylee, Prey, Tacoma, Outlast 2, Wherein Playing cards Fall, QUBE 2, EarthNight, Cuphead, Complete Metallic Furies and a surprising range of cyberpunk-infused titles. Mmm, cyberpunk.

History of Videogames – The first video game Ever Made? As an avid retro-gamer, for pretty a long time I have been in particular inquisitive about the History of video games. To be greater specific, a topic that I’m very obsessed on is “Which become The first video game ever made?”… So, I began an exhaustive research on this concern (and making this article The first one in a sequence of articles that will cover in detail all video gaming History).

The query changed into Which turned into The first online game ever made?

The solution: Well, as a lot of factors in lifestyles, there’s no smooth solution to that query. It relies upon on your personal definition of the term “online game”. For instance: While you communicate about “The first video game”, do you imply The primary online game that became commercially-made, or The first console recreation, or maybe The first digitally programmed sport? Due to this, I made a listing of 4-five video games that during one way or every other had been the novices of the video gaming industry. You may note that The first video games had been now not created with the concept of having any profit from them (returned in those many years there has been no Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, Atari, or some other online game employer round). In fact, the sole idea of an “online game” or a digital device which become handiest made for “playing games and having amusing” turned into above the imagination of over 99% of the population returned in those days. But the way to this small institution of geniuses who walked The primary steps into the video gaming revolution, we are capable of enjoying many hours of fun and entertainment nowadays (maintaining aside the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs at some point of the beyond four or 5 many years). Without in addition ado, here I present the “first video game nominees”:

The nineteen forties: Cathode Ray Tube Enjoyment tool

That is considered (with official documentation) because the first electronic game tool ever made. It was created via Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. And Estle Ray Mann. The sport changed into assembled within the Forties and submitted for a US Patent in January 1947. The patent was granted December 1948, which also makes it The primary electronic game device to ever receive a patent (US Patent 2,455,992). As defined within the patent, it was an analog circuit device with an array of knobs used to move a dot that appeared in the cathode ray tube show. This recreation was stimulated by way of how missiles regarded in WWII radars, and the object of The game became certainly controlling a “missile” in order to hit a target. inside the Forties, it changed into extremely hard (for no longer saying impossible) to show graphics in a Cathode Ray Tube show. Because of this, simplest the real “missile” seemed on the show. The target and any other portraits had been showed on display overlays manually positioned on the display screen. it is been stated by way of many that Atari’s well-well famous online game “Missile Command” became created after this gaming tool.

1951: NIMROD

NIMROD become the name of a digital laptop tool from the 50s decade. The creators of this PC had been the engineers of an United kingdom-based totally organization beneath the name Ferranti, with the idea of displaying the tool on the 1951 Competition of Britain (and later it became also showed in Berlin).

NIM is a two-participant numerical sort of approach, which is believed to come originally from the historic China. The guidelines of NIM are clean: There are a positive wide variety of organizations (or “lots”), and each institution incorporates a certain quantity of items (a common starting array of NIM is 3 heaps containing 3, four, and five gadgets respectively). each participant take turns getting rid of items from the hundreds, But all eliminated gadgets need to be from a unmarried heap and at the least one object is eliminated. The participant to take the last item from the ultimate heap loses, but there may be a variation of The sport In which the player to take the ultimate object of the remaining cheap wins.

NIMROD used a lighting panel as a display and become planned and made with the unique motive of gambling The sport of NIM, which makes it The primary digital laptop tool to be specially created for playing a game (however the main concept turned into displaying and illustrating how a digital PC works, instead of to entertain and have fun with it). Because it would not have “raster video system” as a show (a Tv set, display, etc.) it isn’t considered with the aid of many human beings as a real “online game” (an electronic recreation, yes… A video game, no…). However once again, it truly depends on your factor of view While you communicate approximately a “video game”.

Benefits of Gaming – Laptop and Video games

New Pc and video games aren’t simplest capable of offering amusing and pleasure for each person, But they can also deliver certain Blessings and advantages.

With the help of advanced technology and popularity, the gaming industry has superior and extended rapidly over time.

If we’re looking for categorization of movies games, they may be broadly divided into eight primary categories:

Movement

Those are fast paced and can include a big amount of violence because of this. Motion games are typically irrelevant for children. Such video games fall under the category “M” (mature-rated). Examples are Halo, Megastar Wars, Jedi Knight and Enter the Matrix.

Journey and Roleplaying

Those are usually no longer as a picture as Movement games and can take the participant into surrealism and fantasy. Although Adventure and Role-playing games often contain violence, it isn’t located to be as severe as the violence in Motion games. Examples of this class are Borderlands 2, Final fantasy, Legend of Mana and Billy Hatcher.

First Man or woman Shooters

because the call implies, it’s far a sport in which the participant sees the Movement through the eyes of the man or woman he’s representing and entails the use of pistols or rifles to kill the enemy. because of the violence involved in this genre of games, they’re now not suitable for younger children. Examples of these games are “1/2-lifestyles, “Half of-existence 2”, “Name of Responsibility: Present day Conflict” and so forth.

Production and Management Simulation (CMS)

as the call suggests, in the video games belonging to this style, the games are anticipated to construct, increase and manage imaginary initiatives and communities with very little sources. Examples of this genre consist of, “SimCity” and “Harvest Moon”.

strategy

here the accent is on approach rather than on violence and These games are slower which gives the player time for strategic wondering, aid Control and making plans to attain victory. most are Struggle based totally and so violence isn’t absolutely absent. These video games aren’t suitable for children. Some examples are superior Wars I & II, Civilization V and Crusader Kings II.

Simulation

Those are video or computer games that simulate real international conditions under game settings. on this category, the 3 9aaf3f374c58e8c9dcdd1ebf10256fa5 video games are Racing Simulators, Flight Simulators and Sims. There are lots of video games in this class to entertain kids. Some examples of simulation games are Football Manager, Farming Simulator 2013, The Sims and Evil Genius.

Platformer

The Platform recreation or Platformer is consists of leaping between suspended structures of varying heights or obstacles and once in a while each to transport forward in The game. A few examples of Platformer are forty Winks, Abuse, Action 52 and Journey Island.

PUZZLES

Puzzle video games are a class of video games that require puzzle fixing. The sorts of puzzles that want to be solved can contain many trouble solving talents consisting of the usage of logic, word finishing touch collection solving, method and pattern reputation. Some examples of mystery Video games are Mario, Bejeweled 3, Cradle of Rome 2 and Hidden objects.

While on the difficulty, allow’s not neglect Sports games together with NHL thirteen, and FIFA Football thirteen and Arcade games such Fowl Shoot 1, Toy Tale Mania and Angry Birds to call a few.