#unbiased informational sources

[answersfromzestual]

Can I have top surgery and be overweight? The Truth.

I am here to clear things about being overweight and top surgery (aka double mastectomy).

Can I have chest surgery if I am overweight? Blanket answer, yes you can.

HOWEVER, let's talk about some things first.

As soon as we peek under my blanket statement, most doctors will not want to touch you if you are too far outside their BMI index. Sounds like a preference, right? I mean, true, but they are a business and, like any other business, can refuse service for any reason. Especially when your life is in their hands.

The BMI index is followed to a degree by most plastic surgerons. This index is not to body shame you in this case. It is strictly for medical reasons. There are many medical reasons to refuse the surgery.

As you lay flat on your back, your own weight presses on your lungs and heart. This can actually cause damage your heart and lungs and also restrict your breathing even further.

Anesthesia issues are a lot deeper than most people realize. It is not just a harmless gas to keep you asleep. Anesthesia is poisonous to us, and it does more harm to your body the longer you are under its direct effect. Also, the more you weigh, the more they have to use. The best anesthesiologists in the world probably would have a hard time with this, especially depending on how long you can potentially be under. The more you weigh means more tissue they need to work with and extra time can mean complications not only while under the drug but can cause many complications after the procedure is done, and even when you wake up. Issues include headaches/migranes, intense nausea, vertigo like symptoms, having a hard time passing urine, lack of gross and fine motor functions, brain functions, paralysis, coma, and death.

Blood flow issues for people who are overweight are a real risk. The skin has stretched over time , and more skin, along with viable tissue, is thinner, with less of a blood supply being delivered to the skin and tissues itself.

Being overweight also means your skin is stretched and no longer has the same elasticity as if you were not overweight. This thin skin is easy to pull apart/tear.

Time in the operating room, more is not better. The longer you are being operated on, the more complications can occur during the procedure and during the healing process. (This is also a general risk)

Upping complications means more likely needing revisions. Plastic surgerons take this into consideration for your health. Insurance probably won't shell out for the same operation twice because of the views on transitioning lead to a lot of "this is just cosmetic."

Diabetes exponentially increases risk of infection and potential necrosis and gangrene (death of tissue).

You are a living canvas for the plastic surgeron(s), your results reflect highly on them. They want the best results for you, but they also have a reputation to upkeep.

If the surgeon gives a condition they consider reasonable and the patient does not produce results near their actual target BMI, which tends to be more liberal than the numbers that are thrown around, the surgeon can question the patients ability to be able to take care of themselves and adhere to the strict rules given for post operative care. A surgeon can also think "does this person want it bad enough if they can't do this request?". They may not say that out loud, but they may think it.

The heavier you are, the harder it is on your body to heal because the extra work your body needs to do to do daily tasks, let alone extra tasks yet also rest.

You do not realize how much and how often you use your chest muscles. Getting out of bed without being able to lift yourself up is really a thing. Using those muscles in some cases can cause rips and tears of stitches, tissues, and muscles.

Surgeons will give you realistic, cis-like results with your chest, this may mean you will not have a flat chest, they may perform more of a reduction than a double mastectomy. Surgeons will make your chest look proportional to your body, hence another surgery if you do lose weight.

Do they want you to have bad results? This is a physical correction to make a positive mental impact if you have bad results post-op. This may not really fulfill the function of procedures purpose to help you like your body.

Doctors want to know you want this surgery, so if they give you a time frame and you don't meet their goals, that's fair. You may have seen your day to day but the surgeron didn't and doesn't care. To them, you didn't meet their goals/ requirements. No surgeon wants to lose their job, role, or status.

Surgeons only want what's best for your health. It's not a shaming conspiracy, it's literally just biology.

Waiting sucks, we know. But what sucks more is that having bad results, you will have forever and potentially risking your life.

Source List:

Anesthesia 1

Anesthesia 2

Anesthesia 3

Anesthesia and Obesity

Surgery 1

Surgery 2

Post Op Risk

Minimal use of being overweight during a procedure personal experience.

P.s: I tried to use respectful and professional terms and wording. If anything is offensive, please let me know in my ask box, and I will fix it.

Stay Safe

Stay Golden Everyone ✌️ 💙 💜

[vilsoo]

is it a safe space to say we should bring back assassinations cuz literally our us government is just incompetent asf

mass shootings happen every day, womens rights are being taken away, ppl are living off minimum wage, the housing costs are just dreadful, cop cities are being funded, a genocide is going on and thousands of palestinian kids are dead but yeah lets just ban tiktok!! that'll solve all our problems <33

[elibeeline]

home time home time home time!!!!

[lecoindecachou]

The fact that all of you keep using Al Jazeera (AJ+) as a source for the situation in Palestine is really proof that you don't know what the hell you're talking about by the way. Al Jazeera is an extremely dicey piece of media funded and controlled by Qatar—you know, the modern slave state we were all mad was hosting the World Cup last year? Al Jazeera is by no means an unbiased source, it is a state-run Qatari propaganda broadcaster that is well-known for doing shit like reblogging anti-Semitic memes, downplaying any massacre perpetuated by Muslim extremists and absolutely refusing to criticize its own government's atrocities in any way, shape or form so like, maybe take whatever they tell you with a grain of salt.

[sprouttheambassador]

does anyone know of an essay / any text on the way that fear of "bias" or the worship of centrism as the highest truth has become prevalent in academic spaces....

[cleoisabell]

moon loves us but the sun hates us. im not biased at all. a little phantom birdie told me that the sun hates us. and that little guy never lies.

[the-stardust-col]

Just a reminder that if you’re questioning having a CDD, don’t rely on social media for advice. Instead you should go to a trained mental health professional, and if not, at least do a shit ton of research.

And this isn’t to say that fellow systems are bad resources! But you should be relying on them for information, and relying on them for validation is a slippery slope.

I say it’s a slippery slope because while yes, it’s important to have a community and it’s hard to validate yourself in an unstable mindset, it can also be dangerous if your sharing stuff like triggers or personal info.

But I won’t deny that when I was first discovering stuff it was important to have community. Just be safe, and always fact check.

Heres a link to a free pdf of the DSM-5

[answersfromzestual]

I want to talk about something today. Something very important for younger people and newer people coming out.

Research with legitimate sources, aka scholarly articles and medical journals/studies. Wiki is not a good source, people can change info at any point true or untrue.

We want to look for articles with medical and area professionals clearly placing their name in and on the article, or the most reliable sources are called scholarly articles and medical journals/studies, also some gender affirming clinics lay out a lot of information on their websites, most clinics dont mind answering your questions or concerns via email or phone (they may get back to you at a later date). When looking for information, you want peer reviewed medical information. Google has these features that can help narrow down your search for more accurate results. Using quotes around exact words or phrases is a trick to narrow down to more on topic search results.

Also, use Google Scholar (just type "Google scholar" into the search bar to find only actual medical articles and studies. Even lawsuits.

This is the google search bar for scholarly information below:

****READ THE ARTICLE FROM START TO FINISH OR AT LEAST THE PART(S) THAT PORTAIN TO YOUR RESEARCH!(some articles can include more than one study)****

Don't only use one source for your information, find as many as you can until you feel confident in the field of medicines and your concolusions about them. Information you use should be verified by several responsibly written articles, journals, and/or studies.

Call surgeons' offices, ask questions.

Research doctors in your area or a doctor you really like, again don't be afraid to call or email clinics!

When it comes to surgery and your body, if you have a bad feeling, any bad gut feelings before they put you under, about the surgeron or their methods, even team. You can back out until you are knocked out. You can say no as soon as you walk into the surgical suite. You worry about you.

Please, when going onto transgender groups (facebook and stuff), that not everyone is being genuine with you. People can be anything or anyone on the internet, behind that screen. I see trans people spreading anti-transtional propaganda (not on purpose), and they don't notice or know better. The negative people tend to pick out their victims early, cling onto someone newer in transitioning or even just joining the group. They probably try getting chummy really fast, getting into a lot of detail very early. They will start bringing up [negative] transitional things when they have nothing to do with the conversation you are having. It's a red flag when you can't talk about anything but "transitioning," and its a sign you need to block if all they say are negative, things. Life happens, but you don't need to drown yourself in negativity. Beware of people on the internet. Their intent is not always good, anyone can lie, anyone can find fake pictures for their profile, anyone can pretend to be someone they are not. Some of us should know that well as trans folk. Some people are even legitimate and are perhaps mad/ unhappy about their results and tend to use way overly dramatic words to describe their results, these people usually aren't telling you the whole truth. People also tend not to want to put any blame on themselves. If you aren't being honest yourself about your results and what and where things went wrong thats not okay. That,or telling someone not to do something that prevents transitioning or calming their dysphoria, that's considered transphobia.

It's important to also know that Facebook, Twitter, etc. are often looked at by employers, so many people will not use their own profiles to be a imaginary person.

Edit: Yes, transgender people can be transphobic as well. Look up Caitlin Jenner and what she's said and tried to do. Let me tell you now, she said transwomen should not be allowed to compete in sporting events, claiming "allowing transwomen to compete destroys women's sports" . So please, if you use that card, put it back in the deck. It's not true, and it's just a wrong blanket statement altogether. There are people who finish their transition and forget they had the rights they want taken away.

I want you to know and it's important to know many end results almost solely rely on the person and how they take care of themselves pre-op and post-op (yes taking care of your body before matters for optimum results). If you are heavier, your body has a harder time healing. This can cause complications and less favorable results because of those complications. I do have a post on being larger and surgical complications that are involved with that. (Here are some links about plus sized risks and general risks: plus size, general risks)

From Dad Shadow: Remember, don't tell anyone online personal information, even if you have been talking for years. Also, do not place yourself (ex. "Im gunna to go to the Starbucks on fifth around the corner from my house." this is especially bad if they may know your partial location) Someone can figure out your identity/location. Don't reveal anything you'd be asked to use as an account recovery question. When I was a younger adult, I saw someone post an image of a girl he met on 'Omegle', saying, "They accidentally got disconnected." Within two hours, everything about this girl was on this thread... from her name, where she was attending school, her personal address, her Facebook. All of it. It was more than one person looking and posting as well. People can be like this... I know you know, but the Dad in me wants to remind you. Browse safely!

I hope you read this and found it helpful everyone. I felt this is a need and it doesn't need post secondary education classes to teach you how to properly find sourced information for reports (same as your knowledge on the subject you are talking about).

P.s keeping your skin elasticity is very important, so mosturize your pecks, let it dry, then put on your binder.

Stay Golden Everyone ✌️ 💙 💜

[wizardnaturalist]

how is it that we have the 24 hour news cycle, yet only 30 minutes of national/international news per day

[sunderwight]

Thinking about SV demons potentially having a cultural thing where it's gauche to tell someone directly that you love them, but acceptable to tell everyone else that you do, with the idea being that you're supposed to deduce some of the state of the other's regard for you when the information is delivered by a third party.

In a lot of stories/legends/myths/etc in the relevant demon cultures, this social standard is sometimes used to sow disinformation and stir up drama, sometimes emphasizing the importance of verifying your info through multiple sources and figuring out who is unbiased. Like there's a legend of some incident where a bride finds out from her sister that the groom has never spoken of her love for her even once, and in a fit of despair she kills him, only for it to turn out that the sister was lying out of jealousy and etc etc.

Or parents trying to arrange a match lie and tell their only son that his betrothed has been assuring everyone else that she loves him, but then she ditches him on the wedding night to run off with her actual lover because it turns out that she wasn't interested after all, humiliating the entire clan.

Anyway. Luo Binghe learns of this tradition and while he thinks the "tell absolutely everyone that you love your spouse" bit is rad, he immediately disregards the "don't directly tell your spouse" part. Mobei Jun at one point attempts to explain to him that he's being extremely cringe, and Luo Binghe is just like, no you don't get it, if he doesn't hear it from me he will never believe it. It will not penetrate.

So at first MBJ is like, wow Consort Shen is thick I guess, but then a day later he's in the middle of going over some of his correspondence and Shang Qinghua is explaining some cultural miscommunication or other and the light goes on.

What if Consort Shen isn't thick?

What if this is a human thing?

But he can't just tell Shang Qinghua to his face that he loves him, especially if he's misunderstood. He has to figure it out indirectly before he knows if he needs to work up the nerve to do go that far. So he decides to talk around it instead, and asks Shang Qinghua if Consort Shen is thick about matters of love.

Shang Qinghua's not expecting this change of topics but like, obviously the answer to that question is an emphatic yes, so what happened my king did he straight-zone another lovelorn admirer?

Mobei Jun internally wipes some sweat off of his brow at this answer.

Thank fuck, looks like he won't have to do anything as humiliating as straightforwardly confess his feelings after all!

[elibeeline]

home time home time home time!!!!

[trrenchertrash]

Bringing this back because I was made to read misinformed George Lucas slander once again today. Reminder that this man, despite what you think of his directorial or writing skills, is a creative visionary and a pioneer of digital cinema who accomplished what most of us will never accomplish in our entire lives, all on his own merits. Have a little respect.

George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones

George was enormously far-sighted, and the studio wasn’t, because they didn’t know the world was changing. George did know the world was changing. I mean, he changed it.

insp

[nerdygirlramblings]

someone's in a rut 🤭 and we meet Ren's family (part 1)

a/n: part of this chapter inspired by Broken Beyond Bearing by @lostintransist and by comments from @pyxrin

cw: poorly executed accents, omegaverse biology, heat/rut cycles

previous

Days begin to blur together. A run followed by infiltration and exfil trainings on the moon (what the others called the rubble-strewn field). Or weight training and asset retrieval in the brick, the windowless building in the hangar, before sparring. Grift work, your own term for information retrieval, before the shooting range. Never the same thing two days in a row. On rare occasions, either Soap or Gaz had you along while training recruits. It was the closest thing to working with your old squad.

And each time, just as you find your footing with the advanced field training, Price introduces new elements: time restraints, 'enemy' combatants. You have never felt as lost before, so unsure of your place. The only thing that keeps it from being completely disheartening isn't Gaz's reassurances or Price's praise or Soap's compliments. It's Adam. It's stopping in to requisition a windcheater in your size and hearing how you made it out of the brick faster than Ghost or how Soap struggled for a long time with grift work. It's confirmation from an outside, and thus unbiased, source that your progress is fine. That they won't regret asking for you.

Until Price calls you into his office. All you can think about is how you didn't know about the standardized step size and the trouble it caused on the moon. Or how you went three rounds without finding the needed intel before Price called time. That Soap teasingly pointed out, "Yer thinkin' tae hard," like saying it will make you get out of your own head even though it's all you know how to do. Crowded pubs and loud, dark clubs flash in your memory, each one a failed attempt to manipulate a mark.

You're sure he's going to put you back into the rank and file. Who needs a woman, and an omega at that, who can't master the basic things the task force needs to do. You're terrified and heartbroken before you even get into his office.

The desk seems more imposing than ever, and Price's face, for the first time, is unreadable. Even his scent is locked down, no dying ember smell wafting around. He's smiling, but you've been taking pseudo acting classes from him for more than a fortnight. The smile could easily hide his intentions.

He clears his throat, and you pull your gaze from where you'd been staring at your hands. For the first time since you met the man, Price seems nervous. He reaches up, scratching his beard and running his hand over his scent gland. "Er, we 'ave some leave coming, me an' the others, and I wan'ed ta see if ya'd like to stay here or go home?"

A long moment passes before you respond. "I'm not sure I understand, sir. You take leave tagether, but I'd go home?" The furrow between your brows deepens. Before he can clarify, you ask what's been eating at you. "Is this yer way 'a transferrin' me off the team?" Even you can hear the plea in your voice. Please don't let me go.

"Oh, Ren, no! No. Tha's not what this is," he rushes to say. The blush that creeps up his neck is a surprise. Is he embarrassed?

"'S just, well, we try not to use suppressants unless we're on a mission. Fucks too much wi' the body's natural rhythm, yeah? Throws off anyone on 'em too long." You nod in understanding. If you didn't have such a bad reaction to them - foggy thoughts and slow movements - you'd prefer to be on suppressants all the time. Instead, when your heat hits, you take yourself to medical for a heat-induced isolation. They're horrendous on the system, but it's a short-term problem while you're in the service, though your omega purrs that a pack would remedy that problem.

"So, er, we made the decision years ago to take our leave together when, er, one of the alphas has a rut." He's fully blushing now, and you get it. He's just told you either he or Ghost - he didn't specify, and betas like Gaz and Soap don't have ruts- is going to lose themselves to their base instincts soon.

You're quiet through all these revelations, and he plows ahead, only the faintest hint of ozone in the air to alert you to his distress. "Simon's rut is in another week or so, so we'll take leave from this Wednesday ta the following Friday ta give everyone a cushion on either end for prep and recovery." The room feels warmer, and you know it's because your own internal temperature is spiking, your omega excited about the idea of Simon's knot.

"So, er, ye'll all be gone, sir?" you clarify, forcing your omega to think of other things.

He nods, a hint of smoke in the air. You can smell his distress dissipating, replaced slowly by ease and contentment. "Yes. We 'ave a place on the edge 'a the Lakes. We'll head there and be back after the rut. Adam said yer dad's due with a litter soon?"

The idea that Adam shared that bit of your family with Price puts you on edge until he adds, "Adam suggested ya take leave when we do but go an' see yer family." He rushes to add, "If ya want."

Now it's your turn to be embarrassed. Once again, it's Adam to the rescue. It warms you down to your center that Adam made such a thoughtful recommendation to Price and that Price took it. If you hadn't heard it yourself, you'd think he was takin' the piss.

"Yes, sir," you stammer, lost at what else you could say to this plan. "That would be lovely. I know my family pack will be happy ta have me home."

next

series masterlist | main masterlist

~~

taglist: @sirbonesly @z-wantstowrite @thriving-n-jiving @cecelia97 @theycallmevalen @boogeysmoth @cryingpages @riley13 @luxylucylou @lucienofthelakes @ilyztwo @chaosundcoffee @lostintransist @thegreyjoyed @honestlymassivetrash @thebumbqueen @maliamaiden

[maichan808]

Americans, our democracy is under threat.

Do you reject fascism and oppose the Trump-Musk coup? Want to do something, but aren’t sure what you can do to make a difference? Keep reading for ways big and small you can fight back:

Attend a Protest New to protesting? Here’s a primer for first-time protesters and a schedule of upcoming national days of action:

Mar 1st and ongoing (Tesla Takedown) Website | Find an event

Mar 4th (50501: 50 protests, 50 states) Website | Find an event

Mar 7th (Stand up for Science) Website | Find an event

Mar 8th (Women’s March) Website | Find an event

Search for future protests at /r/ProtestFinderUSA and join the mailing list of grassroots organizations like Indivisible to be alerted to future actions.

Put Pressure on Congress Want your elected officials to stand up to Trump-Musk and push back against the unconstitutional executive orders, disastrous DOGE cuts, and illegal funding freezes? Already calling your Reps and Senators daily using 5calls.org?

Then it’s time to escalate to in-person action. Visit their websites, join their mailing lists, follow their socials, and call their offices to find out when the next local event will be and make your voice heard. 

Applying pressure to congress works, and we are already seeing the results of constituent push back. House Democrats recently voted as a unified block against the Trump-sponsored billionaire tax cuts, with members breaking maternity leave and leaving the hospital to fly back to Washington just to cast their votes. And on the Republican side, negative town hall blowback has the GOP running scared.

If your congressperson is hiding from you, stage a protest event and put their cowardice on blast. For more information on how to implement these tactics, see the Indivisible congressional recess toolkit.

If your congressperson is already fighting the good fight, then make sure to thank them and provide encouragement to continue opposing the budget cuts. Courage is contagious, and vocal public support will help spur congress to fight that much harder. 

And finally, regardless of where you live, you can sign up to phone bank and reach out to voters in red congressional districts.

Get Out the Vote Did you know there are Special Elections as soon as April 1st that could flip control of the House back to Democrats? We simply cannot wait for the 2026 midterms, we must take action now! You can help get out the vote for Gay Valimont (FL-1), Joshua Weil (FL-6), and Blake Gendebien (NY-21).

In addition, the Muskrat is spending millions to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Phone bank or write letters to keep a MAGA extremist off the high court and protect Wisconsin elections from future gerrymandering.

Fight the Broligarchy If you own TSLA stock, or *gasp* an actual Tesla vehicle, drop it like a scorching case of herpes, then join the picket line at your nearest Tesla showroom. 

On socials, delete your Nazi-infested X and Meta (Facebook, IG, Threads) accounts and join the open source BlueSky. If you must remain on Meta, at minimum change your account settings so Fuckerberg can’t profit from your data. 

Stop using Google search/Chrome and install privacy-focused alternatives like DuckDuckGo or Firefox. As a bonus, in the DuckDuckGo browser you can permanently hide AI garbage from your search results.

Show your monetary support for companies that have renewed their commitment to DEI programs (like Costco and Apple) and boycott those who have not (like Target and Amazon). Also look up how other corporations score on the democracy scale and adjust your spending accordingly.

 And last, but not least, pledge to join the General Strike!

Stay Informed Corporate media has capitulated to Trump. From the cancellation of minority-hosted shows on MSNBC to the Bezos takeover of the Washington Post editorial pages, MSM cannot be relied upon to provide unbiased coverage of the Trump-Musk regime.

Support independent journalists and media and follow AltGov accounts on Bluesky to stay informed as to what is actually going on in Washington.

Get to Know your Community Authoritarians want you to feel helpless and isolated because they know we the people vastly outnumber them. Get to know your neighbors and join a group/team/club - anything that gets you interacting with your local community whether it is political or not. 

Under Trump-Musk, federal programs like SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, and even Social Security are in danger.  We will need to increasingly rely on our own communities to have our backs. Visit mutualaidhub.org to locate resources and learn how to start your own network.

And finally, remember that resistance is a marathon, not a sprint. So be sure to stop doomscrolling and simply enjoy life as AOC reminds us:

[jewish-sideblog]

When I was getting my education I had to go through a ton of news bias and media literacy trainings. Like constantly. All throughout high school and college. Every single time I thought to myself, hey, this is fucking stupid. Obviously an unsourced tweet from a shady account isn’t a good news source. Obviously I shouldn’t take what a company or organization says about themselves at face value. I thought that was genuinely common sense that everybody on the internet shared.

Whoops! I was wrong about that one. People are really getting their news about the TikTok “ban” from creators on TikTok. Do people think that TikTok creators are informed and unbiased sources? Most of them are 20-somethings who don’t have day jobs because they make short form ragebait for a living. On the very same app that’s stirring controversy! Not a good source!

People are getting their news about international politics from screenshots of unsourced tweets posted by shady accounts. Most of the time you can dig for a second and find a national news source refuting the tweet. And if you check out the shady account they’ll be trying to sell you Russian bitcoin because they think the moon is going to explode soon. Yet the screenshot of their claims about international conflicts get hundreds of thousands of likes.

What the fuck are we doing here, guys? I knew social media literacy was a problem but I didn’t know it was a global fucking disaster

[humming-fly]

If you live in the US, STOP SCROLLING

This is your reminder to make a Voting Plan!

Step 1: Check your Registration

Registered already? Go to Step 3!

Step 2: Register to Vote

Step 3: Learn about your state's Early Voting Options

Like early voting and have that option? Skip to Step 5!

Step 4: Explore your Day-Of Voting Options

Step 5: Research Candidates

Step 6: Share your Plans

Detailed sample down below!

Step 1: I'm in California, so I clicked here at https://www.vote411.org/check-registration

Clicking on that took me to my state's registration check page, where I filled out in those fun black squares with my info...

...and there's my confirmation! This also provides info on where I'm currently registered to vote, which is good to know when looking up ballot drop-off locations.

Step 2: Since I already am registered I could skip this, but just to show it off here's what the online tool at https://www.vote411.org/register looks like!

The site asks you to put in your name and mailing address, and then sends you off to your own state's voter registration page to finish it up!

Step 3: Since I'm in California, I went to https://www.vote411.org/select-state and selected that state to bring up CA's voting information page.

And here's what my info looks like! The top of the page gives a quick overview of registration deadlines...

...and scrolling down reveals a bunch of additional info for any further questions! I've selected Early Voting on the lefthand tab to bring that up here.

Skimming this, it looks like California offers voting by mail, which is what I want to do.

Scrolling further down the lefthand menu I pulled up the Vote by Mail tab to learn more...

...and based on the information there I went to find the tab that would tell me about Drop Boxes in California!

Following that link brings me to California's early voting drop-off page.

For now let's just use Disneyland as our address to see where we can drop things off. Entering the county and city information we get this list:

Checking the box to Display Results on Map, it looks like there's a drop off location right by Disney that is open 24 hours! I went ahead and screenshotted the address on my computer, and opened it in google maps so that I could keep track of where it was.

Perfect, I now have a plan for dropping off my mail-in ballot!

Finally, I want to know where my mail-in ballot is. Assuming you live in a state with mail-in ballots but haven't seen yours yet, you can usually track them or request new ones if your address has recently changed.

I just googled "California mail in ballot tracking" and wound up on this page.

Filling out the little form at the Where'sMyBallot link (name and date of birth), I can see that my ballot has been sent out and is en route!

Since it was sent on October 7th, I suspect it's already arrived, and lo and behold checking my mailbox there it is buried under all the political mailers!

Step 4: Since I will be voting by mail, I will skip Step 4 for now (though vote411.org lists traditional voting areas/what I'd need to bring so that's where I'd get that info if needed!)

Step 5: When doing research I started with https://www.vote411.org/ballot, since it gives a preview image of all of the items that will be on my ballot based on my address.

I can click on any of these to see the candidate options, and their statements if they've been provided. However for many of these options on vote411.org there aren't too many additional details, so I want to do my own research looking at neutral voting summaries and candidate endorsements by groups I align with politically!

For the election summary, I started with the General Election Official Voter Information Guide booklet that was mailed to my address a few weeks ago. This is the best source of unbiased voting information in my opinion, especially when it comes to state and local propositions since it will summarize them and also include opinion pieces written for and against each one. You can also access it online, as shown below!

To find it, I googled "California Official Voter Information Guide", and made sure it was sourced from my local government.

Another good source of information I used is npr.org, or National Public Radio. NPR provides news that is free to read and listen to, and is one of my personal favorite ways to stay informed. There's also local branches of the station for every state, and each one will usually have a voting guide with side-by-side comparisons that makes it easy to read.

To find mine, I googled "California NPR Voting Guide"

Finally if there was anything on the ballot where I wasn't convinced one way or the other on certain candidates or initiatives, I checked out some political endorsements!

A few of the ones I looked at are Planned Parenthood (women's health and abortion access), the Sunrise Movement (climate activism), the Sierra Club (climate change, national park preservation). I found these by googling "[Name of org] voting guide california".

Since I'm voting by mail I could keep these webpages opened as I filled out my ballot.

For voting in person, I'd recommend writing candidates down as a cheat sheet to bring into the poll so you can remember what you want to vote for! https://www.vote411.org/ballot will let you arrange that cheat sheet real easily.

Now that my ballot is filled out I'll just drop it off at the address I found in Step 3 - setting a time for myself, I'll plan to drop it off when I go for a walk this afternoon! 👍

Step 6:

After I finished up I went ahead and posted on facebook and to my friends in discord on how I'd made a voting plan, to help encourage friends/family to do the same!

You can be as public or as personal as you want here, but sharing can help encourage others to put a plan together too - if you made it this far it can even be as simple as reblogging this post with a message saying "I Made a Voting Plan"!