Glad to finally have official recognition of what I’ve known for 17 years. (But was always told “of course it works, they wouldn’t be allowed to sell it if it didn’t work” with bonus implication that I was trying to be special/unique by finding it useless.)

I’m not sure it’s possible, because the different parts of women’s bodies don’t tend to scale in relation to one another. There’s the waist-to-hip ratio, thigh circumference, breast size, width of shoulders, length of torso, length of legs – none of which have much to do with each other.

A woman can have size L shoulders, size XS breasts, size S waist, M hips, L thighs, long torso, and short legs. Another might have M shoulders, XL breasts, XXL waist, L hips, and M thighs, short torso, average length legs. And no retailer would bother making garments that account for every possible combination, because that wouldn’t be profitable. (This is why so many women with small chests and small ribcages are sold 32A bras that gap on top and ride up in back, when a properly-fitting bra would be a 28C – companies can make more money by selling less variety.)

Men, for the most part, have more similarities in their shapes and less variety in where excess adipose tissue settles. Also, as someone else pointed out, it’s more socially acceptable for men’s clothing to fit like a sack.

The solution, unfortunately, is alterations, either by hiring a seamstress or doing it oneself. (No judgment from me: I keep meaning to learn that skill but CBF to get a sewing machine when I might abandon the project.)

Dialup

I love my Altra road running shoes. My mother and sister (both work on-their-feet-all-day jobs) are also fans and can get at least a year out of their pairs. They’re sturdy and last about 300+ miles, and if you get a dud they’ll make it right. My sister once had a pair disintegrate after a couple months and got them replaced for free.

Altra is a bit like blue cheese, though: either you love them or hate them, and both sides think the other is wrong. People with narrow forefeet find them too squishy and unsteady; those of us with wider forefeet are comfortable for the first time ever.

Also, if your budget allows, it helps to get two pairs of shoes so you can alternate days. Especially if you live in a humid climate. By alternating two pairs of shoes so they fully dry between days, you get more than twice as much life from them. (Obviously that’s not an option for everyone, but it’s good to do if you can)

I pretend to be my cat, and I only engage with other people who are also pretending to be their cats.

Contacts. I use daily disposables because I can’t feel them at all. “14-day” contacts were more like 3 days of comfort, 4 days of feeling noticeable, and 7 days of feeling like a rock in my eye. (I cleaned and soaked them daily as directed with many different types of solution, asked the optometrist for instructions, and followed their instructions exactly.) With contacts, I actually have peripheral vision. The feeling of looking past the frame/rim always gave me eye strain, and even rimless glasses couldn’t change how the blur around the edges was a constant distraction.

I have glasses for just in case, and wear them in the evening after washing my face (which gets the contacts wet and crispy no matter how tightly I squeeze my eyes shut). But I really can’t stand glasses for more than an hour or two a day. Every pair I’ve ever worn has two modes: tight enough to stay on but give me a pressure headache, or loose enough to avoid headaches but I tense my scalp and face to keep them on and they still fall off when I look down or turn my head too quickly.

Just a couple of health-related subs that haven’t fully migrated. I don’t particularly want to use Reddit, but I get more value from lore passed down woman-to-woman than I do from doctors who want to attribute everything to hysteria anxiety and depression.

I’m old enough to know how to use a rotary phone and a paper map

How many people are going to still post death threats, character assassinations, or make racist or sexist comments.

Plenty! People like that aren’t ashamed. They’re proud to be in the group of people who actually count as human in their worldview.

is that something we would want?

The only effect would be to stifle everyone else. If everything you say online is tied to your real identity, many people would have to be the most bland, professional, worksona version of themselves to protect (a) their ability to earn income, and (b) their safety. People talking about their experiences with abortion would put themselves at risk of harassment, eviction, prosecution, and violence. Someone seeking support as they discern their gender identity is now outed to family, employers, people with social and/or economic power over them. When anyone from a marginalized group dares to post, it’ll be just like speaking in real life: if someone’s facts and tone are less than perfection, they (and the entire group which they’re assumed to represent) will be dismissed as intellectually inferior or too emotional.

Fisticuffs? Blade weapons? ….oh. Face to face meetings. (Insert scene from Office Space where that nerdy-looking guy is driving in rush hour traffic playing “Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangster” like it’s his anthem)

L-theanine was such a disappointment for me. I’d heard it was supposed to take the jitters out of coffee, but instead I end up jittery, drowsy, and spacey all at the same time.

Years of experimenting on myself would disagree. Caffeine makes me jittery, scattered, and kind of an a-hole in regular amounts. When it comes to coffee, my sweet spot is a single mug of 1/10 caf.

Not all stimulants are the same. If they were, Ritalin and Adderall would be interchangeable. But many people, including me, find that only one of those two prescription stims works.

I’m really curious whether the any of the study participants actually had ADHD. I’m gonna bet they were all NTs.

From the title, I expected the article to be much more judgmental, but I think it did good job of acknowledging that some people need this medication to be productive.