TheBailey
soapy mop
No bio...
User ID: 3254
TheBailey
soapy mop
4d ago
🧐 Even stranger, Oliver is *missing* from the PredictIt market, which includes many unlisted and non-candidates such as Biden and Buttigieg.
https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/7456/who-will-win-the-2024-presidential-election
TheBailey
soapy mop
6d ago
Why is the Chase Oliver / Mike Ter Maat ticket listed as as Independent on Alabama ballots even in counties such as Madison, where Libertarian is explicitly on-ballot for other positions?
https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/2024-general-election-sample-ballots
Did they fail to secure some endorsement, or is there a more boring technical explanation?
TheBailey
soapy mop
9d ago
Kensington Pro Fit — specifically the full-size version if you have big hands, specifically the wired version if you hate wireless, and specifically not the “ergonomic” version in any case. A no-nonsense, very solid desktop mouse. Had one for 11 years (about 9 of which included ~10h/wk FPS gaming) before the scroll wheel started bugging out, and I just bought the same model as replacement.
Nothing usable to report mousepad-wise, but have you considered nabbing a friction glove for use with drawing tablets, if it's your skin contact (rather than the bottom of the mouse itself) that's yoinking the pad around?
TheBailey
soapy mop
9d ago
While exchanging (promises of) votes is completely legal, there is of course no possible enforcement for this, right?
Joe Blue could easily create many sockpuppet accounts, claim to be in a safe state, and farm a bunch of swing state votes without providing any corresponding value to any 3rd party?
I get to vote for Chase Oliver, my preferred candidate, while also securing a critical swing state vote to take a shot at defeating Trump in that state.
It is interesting to see how they try to balance the affinity between the Libertarian Party and the Republican Party with the assumption that the Republican Party needs to be defeated.
We are not matching [safe state] voters from red states (like Texas) … unite to advance a non-fascist, forward-thinking agenda for a more just and fair world.
TheBailey
soapy mop
12d ago
I'm following the range posted on both the label and on https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/dont-overuse-acetaminophen
If you would like to recommend a different source advocating lower doses, please do. I've seen a lot of people chiming in with comments to this effect but I can't validate any of them.
TheBailey
soapy mop
12d ago
I've got to ask again where you are getting those numbers from.
I googled fda.gov acetaminophen safety and the first result, explicitly labeled “current as of” February of this year, has the same number as the Harvard article I cited in the toplevel comment:
The current maximum recommended adult dose of acetaminophen is 4,000 milligrams per day
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/dont-overuse-acetaminophen
TheBailey
soapy mop
12d ago
Yes, even when banks offer secure "front door" API access, Plaid still refuses to consider those integrations over "back door" screen-scraping; here's an example:
Fidelity has established a secure, integrated connection that better controls how customers can connect the third-party apps they use to their Fidelity accounts. Fidelity is requiring all these third-party websites, applications, and data aggregators to adopt this integrated connection to access our customers’ data.
It is with our customers’ financial well-being in mind that any third-party applications, websites, or data aggregators that do not utilize our secure, integrated connection will be prevented from accessing Fidelity customer data.
I don't know if Fidelity charges for that access, imposes some genuinely unreasonable security requirements, or if “plaid sucks and is dangerous” is just the whole story.
TheBailey
soapy mop
12d ago
I like https://financier.io/ a lot; there's a free dev-operated instance for on-device budgets (with the option to pay $12/yr for cloud sync of unlimited budgets, so it can be used as a “family plan”). Doesn't support tracking stocks, but if you're fine to just add a “market value change” transaction at the end of the month it works great.
Doesn't have any bank integrations or statement parsing / bulk transaction import ability whatsoever (though I've heard there are 3rd-party Python scripts to do this); however it does have a pretty nice transaction "reconciliation" flow (items go entered → marked as reconciled → confirmed as reconciled.)
It's seemingly inspired by EveryDollar and YNAB, but (compared to EveryDollar) it is much more graceful about overflowing dollars you neglected to budget in the first place (and/or dollars you overspent) to the next month.
TheBailey
soapy mop
12d ago
I kinda sorta technically am, according to maybe 90% of peoples’ definitions; but I don't crossdress either publicly or privately (that is, I don’t dress as a woman; I do dress as a man.)
The question, “why would you undertake a painful process in order to remove facial hair?” contains its own answer; @Southkraut gave me no seed of direction on which to build a high-effort or interesting answer, so I figured giving a true and precise literal answer to his content-free expression of shock as-stated was appropriate.
I do enjoy trying to reconcile massively disparate philosophies of gender identity, trying to make a stance for my own when the counterparty is actually up for it; but that didn't seem to be the case here; I only had something tantamount to “can you believe this guy disagrees with my own opinion on what the consensus on the attractiveness of male facial hair is?”
TheBailey
soapy mop
12d ago
Fw: exchange with the technician (all bold emphasis added):
Technician: You sent in a message asking about the type of laser we use and how painful the treatment is.
First of all, I am sorry you're having that experience. Our laser is the Rohrer Epilaze. You are being treated with the 810 Diode attachment currently.
Use a lidocaine cream about an hour prior to our appointment and ibuprofen or tylenol at that time as well. When you come in I will have you remove it completely so we can have a more effective treatment. As far as the pain goes, those are the only options for pain relief.
I do want to reiterate that this is not supposed to be a pain free experience unfortunately. There is a hot laser going into coarse hair follicles to try to kill the follicle so hair doesn't grow back. The first treatments are usually the worst because you have the most hair. It should eventually get easier, but the face is always going to be a very tender area.
Do you want to continue treatment?Me: Is there a reason the 755nm alexandrite isn't being used in my case? I've read that it's less painful for sensitive areas, and I thought that my facial hair is dark enough & skin light enough to support its use.
I'm currently trying to get my hands on a stronger lidocaine solution; the 4% gel and tylenol I used before our previous session didn't seem to help much. I'll also try adding ibuprofen in.
I'd like to proceed at least through our next appointment[.]Technician: Everyone [fitzpatrick] 1-3 I debulk with 810 diode due to its debulking power. I have found in my experience with 755, I only pull it out once we have gotten to the point in the laser process where the hair is very fine and sparse. That is when 755 is most effective. If you’d like I can use 755 at your next appointment, but your results are going to take longer.
Me: Do you mean that it would take more overall sessions, or that each session would just take a bit longer?
I’m perfectly OK to be in the chair getting zapped for a few more minutes if the pain could be a bit less intense; but I absolutely don’t want to risk making the overall treatment slower or less effective. If using the 810 is the best way to ensure that the debulking gets done well in as few sessions as possible, then let’s stay with that for now.Technician: Using the 755 would take more sessions! We will continue with 810, and if you ever want to swap before necessary let me know!
I wonder how much of that is “genuinely true” vs. just a consequence of clinic-wide policy meant to keep these $67 sessions as short as possible for maximum patient throughput...
TheBailey
soapy mop
13d ago
Unless it is high-temp wok cooking, when Canola is permissible.
If you aren't sold either way on the theory that hexane-extracted oils are inherently unhealthy, but want to suspend judgement and act in an abundance of caution in this epistemic hellscape, there's always cold-pressed peanut or avocado oil, which have higher smokepoints anyway.
TheBailey
soapy mop
13d ago
@Southkraut I edited the toplevel to note that it looks like alexandrite was found to be less painful than diode when used on thin skin; I am pursuing the “switch to a provider that uses alexandrite” option in parallel with the “reduce the pain by whatever means” option, with the latter being my main request for advice.
TheBailey
soapy mop
13d ago
The steelman I've heard is that it's much less painful in the case of legs (which could make up a large portion of their treatments), where the skin is thick enough that the overpenetration of the 810nm beam doesn't matter.
Aesthetically, I hate the presence of stubble between shaves. That said:
this is still such an unpleasant experience that I'm considering aborting the sequence even if they won't give me a prorated refund for the unused sessions
I also don't like the hassle of shaving, but obviously “hassle” pales in comparison to the goddamn torment nexus that this — I want to emphasize — was advertised not to be:
the clinic's website said “Most patients describe the laser hair removal process as uncomfortable or mildly painful”
TheBailey
soapy mop
13d ago
[3000mg is] one third higher than the recommended maximum dose for a entire day. 4000 would be double the maximum allowed daily dose
The source I linked in the toplevel says that 3000mg would be the “Safest maximum daily dose for most adults” and that 4000 is the maximum allowable 24h dose. Where are you getting your numbers from?
I do not take pain relievers for any other purpose; I had to buy a bottle of acetaminophen specifically for this use.
Especially if you regularly drink any alcohol at all.
I have 2 drinks per week for good health superstition, but will obviously refrain for the week surrounding that dose.
Can you ask your doctor to put some lidocaine on your face before he starts?
At the technician's recommendation, I already did try lidocaine, but I'm not sure how much it helped, so I'm going to be using a higher dose next time. (This clinic doesn't seem to include it with service, in any case.)
I desperately need any tips for reducing pain with laser facial hair removal that might not be easy to find on Google.
I'm 2 sessions in so far, and this is so painful that I cannot find words to express it; I end each session with tears dripping down the side of my head, and I get flashbacks to the session for a few days afterwards that are so intense as to be distracting. I do not have any kind of anxiety disorder, but entering the second session I felt panicked at the pain that was coming (and it did not seem that “the anticipation was worse than the event”.)
I believe the technician is not actually mechanically fucking up and burning me, because I am experiencing absolutely zero redness, blisters, or lasting pain; but this is still such an unpleasant experience that I'm considering aborting the sequence even if they won't give me a prorated refund for the unused sessions.
First session:
- Didn't take any special precautions
- the clinic's website said “Most patients describe the laser hair removal process as uncomfortable or mildly painful”;
- I am a pretty optimal candidate as I have rather light skin and medium/medium-dark facial hair;
- Did standard recommended prep such as shaving 24h beforehand, avoiding vitamin A the week beforehand (applies to all sessions);
- attempted dissociation / wandering mind during the session (applies to all sessions);
- applied a cooling aloe gel provided by the clinic at the end of the session (applies to all sessions).
Second session, after asking the technician for tips and doing a bit of basic research (I'm not sure how much any of this actually helped):
- 3000mg acetaminophen 30mins before;
- smearing on a thin layer of lidocaine gel 30mins before, washed off at the clinic immediately before the appointment;
- this was the technician's recommendation, though I just got whatever was to hand at the local store, which happened to be a 4% gel;
- requested a stress ball to squeeze during the session.
Current plans for the 3rd session, coming up in around 3 weeks — asking for stuff to add/remove/change here:
- avoid coffee the morning of;
- drink water the morning of;
- 4000mg acetaminophen 1h before, so it has time to properly kick in;
- 100mg diphenhydramine 30min before;
- smearing on a 1mm layer of 10% lidocaine cream advertised for tattoo artist use and applying saran wrap on top of it 30mins before, washed off at the clinic immediately before the appointment;
- bringing a small plush toy of my own as a comfort item to squeeze instead of the clinic's stress ball.
I do not know what laser type this clinic is using; I suspect it's diode (810nm), but I sent them an e-mail this weekend asking so I should hear back within a day or 2. I have read that alexandrite (755nm) might be better and less painful for my skin type. I'm currently e-mailing other clinics in the area to see what laser types they have.
https://cambridgelaserclinic.com/laser-treatments/hair-removal/lasers-explained/ (edit: their great diagram doesn't seem to want to embed as an image)
https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/acetaminophen-safety-be-cautious-but-not-afraid
TheBailey
soapy mop
23d ago
even people who have good access to blood testing for things like liver function often find themselves least able to think through the numbers if there's a problem.
Sorry, you've probably already considered these tradeoffs, but the downsides are severe enough that I'm bound to offer [this reminder] anyway in case you haven't.
Yeah, I did specifically add a hepatic panel during the first few months for the just-in-case on the rare bicalutamide allergy (and I add a metabolic panel to to boot, just ‘cuz).
it can definitely be worthwhile to have a second set of eyes for a lot of the endocrinology stuff.
Perhaps, though at least the specific doctor I did use — who was not marketed as a “pill mill” as far as I could tell — definitely wasn't a value-add.
Shopping around and trying non-“pill-mill” MDs to find one that is a value-add sounds like an untenable and unaffordable hassle while I'm not in range of a known-good(asterisk) option like Dr. Powers, versus my current strategy of just doing (self-serve blood work) + (DIY or pill-mill) + (keeping an ear to the ground on a few major transgender subreddits and the Transmaxxing discord channel).
TheBailey
soapy mop
27d ago
This is probably the best example of what you are talking about, though. I don't know how many people opt to rent rather than just buy.
That point in particular feels is a great pivot point to nudge people towards ownership. Show them how many months it'd take the modem to “pay for itself”, a screenshot of the ISP naming that specific model as compatible with their plan, and they'll usually get right on board.
TheBailey
soapy mop
27d ago
on top of the actual “mathematical” cost of the equipment per se, I'll have to bear:
- the extra repair & replacement costs from wear-and-tear by the 90% of the population who treats their kitchenware worse than I do
- the increase on the prior item due to the Principal-Agent problem as the other renters treat their non-owned kitchenware even worse than they would treat their own kitchenware
- the decrease in Quality due to good-faith mitigations of the previous costs (e.g. spatulas with rounded non-scraping points, pans that can be safely maintained by someone stupid and unconscientious — not cast iron)
- the decrease in Quality due to pure amoral Principal-Agent problem (e.g. spatulas made as cheaply as possible while fulfilling the terms of the contract, bowls that optimize for cost rather than usability)
- the middleman's operating expenses
- the middleman's profits
that's a hell of a lot on one side of the scale that needs to be balanced out before this actually becomes a good proposition for the consumer.
TheBailey
soapy mop
27d ago
I don't think anything in this vision prevents you from buying index funds, which will build wealth faster than alternatives.
Stocks allow your accumulated wealth to grow and hopefully to outpace inflation. But you need spare cash to accumulate in the first place.
When someone else is siphoning a bit of the “surplus” of each use of the countless pieces of capital I've accumulated, that opens up much more opportunity for companies to squeeze me to my absolute limit. What is the most you will bear to rent utensils this afternoon? (It's deeply colonialist of you to assume eating with your fingers is “unsanitary”, anyway, so it's a public good to discourage their use.)
TheBailey
soapy mop
27d ago
Eggs aren't vendor-locked; I can cook them in any brand pan I want; on an electric stove, a propane stove, or over a campfire made of logs I chopped myself using my choice of axe vendor. And you could even own a chicken, if you don't rent.
A house I own outright is much less likely to demand that I use cloud-connected appliances than one I rent. Connecting “my” (landlord's) water heater to the internet and installing a damn app that requires an online account with an extensive privacy policy is the only way to extract diagnostic codes to figure out why it keeps beeping (near my bed and loud enough to cause hearing damage over long term exposure, though I don't have the audio equipment to prove this) and shutting off the hot water.
It's so strange to see [transgender 4channer] rhetoric on here.
Sorry to mince words, but I believe I kept my post pretty free of rhetoric. I gave a true, relevant, and politically neutral description of the situation and why I'm approaching it the way that I am; and I imported two minor pieces of jargon which already breached imgeboard containment and made it into the wider internet lexicon 3 years ago and 13 years ago.
(If your choice of words wasn't meant that specifically, and you actually meant “jargon” or “ideas”, just ignore this; I'm only taking umbrage with the possible implication that I'm at least in part running some kind of scripted dialogue tree or other regurgitation that's been optimized for Persuasion. If you didn't mean “rhetoric” in that way, I apologize for my misunderstanding.)
Do you take HRT from a prescription? Or DIY?
Started DIY; currently DIY; though I spent a year or so with an MD supervising / writing scripts at one point. That was no value added and I got bad vibes from the doc anyway (in 2018 she had never even heard of bicalutamide despite allegedly being specifically an endocrinologist and prescribing HRT for other MtF patients; she tried to switch me over to spironolactone, which is known to cause long-lasting brain fog and may actually cause problems with breast development).
I may check out one of those trans and queer focused “telehealth” providers (doc-in-a-box / pill mill) now I'm 26 and could use a prescription to foist 80% coinsurance for this cosmetic maintenance medication off on my coworkers and employer via health insurance… thanks, Obama!
TheBailey
soapy mop
1mo ago
I have a sizeable fraction of my retirement allocated to IAUM. But the boomer on my shoulder[proverbial] of course nags me that “not your wallet, not your coins”, and it feels inevitable in the long run that one of these will happen:
- One of the custodians or one of their employees will quietly steal some bullion, just plain theft;
- One of the trustees or one of their agents will deviously steal some bullion, in some elaborate book-cooking scheme; or
- An external party will forcefully steal some bullion, in a dramatic heist.
Am I correct in thinking that paying to maintain a ladder of moderately long-dated (say 1y), moderately OTM (say 15%) PUTs on IAU is the only way to really insure against those risks?
For example, -IAU260116P42 had an Ask of $0.60 today — does that mean that it would have cost 100×$0.60 = $60.00 to buy a “16-month insurance policy with a 15% deductible” on 1.88 troy ounces of BlackRock’s gold IOUs, or am I dangerously misunderstanding how options work?
TheBailey
soapy mop
1mo ago
As long as I or any of my siblings alive, my parents will obviously be “my parents”, though they are now also approaching “empty-nester” status once they're no longer boarding a pack of minors.
When/how does this even come up? When it comes to preferred-reference-terms, at least pronouns by contrast are a part of nearly every sentence... if I'm introducing a coworker to a new contact, I won't say “and here is Dr. Michael, a parent and our cybersecurity lead” 🤨
I've never heard any reports of this. Are you saying you've seen some bank for which Plaid supports OAuth rather than merely doing screen-scraping? If so, what bank is that?
It really shouldn't be “up for debate”.
If your bank supports OAuth as a protocol, but doesn't tell you exactly what authorizations you're granting the relying party when you approve a request, that's a massive failure of your bank, and arguably a violation of at least the spirit of the OAuth spec:
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