I am a veteran software engineer who works as a freelancer from their home.
I love modernizing ancient software by carefully, slowly rewriting while it is still operating - without disruptions.
Currently I have two wonderful, awesome, really amazing clients between whom I split my time roughly about 50:50.
For the first one, I am the "Primus inter pares" in a team rewriting a 20-yo C++ & JS-based system in modern nodeJS + Typescript. My main job there is not to write code (it seems), but review PRs, review code, give coding guidelines, merge PRs, and make sure everything my team needs is there: test servers, development server, on-premise Gitlab, on-premise Mattermost, a good/respectful/lovely atmosphere, a lot of fun, and what else we need to deliver an awesome product. The team is amazing, the atmosphere is full of respect and love; I will stay with this team as long as I can.
For the second client, I am rewriting a 15+ year old system (Java, Java/Swift/Vue1.x-FE; rpc-like crap-API) using go(BE), gRPC (API) and dart/flutter (FE).
Here I am the core developer for the new client and the new back-end. The back-end is, for now, a proxy/a wrapper around the existing one. Behind that wrapper, two wonderful co-workers are modernizing & optimizing the Java-BE. This team here is equally as lovely as one can ever hope for; and yes, I will stay with this team as long as I can as well.
Oh, and BTW: people in both teams are nearly 100% remote.
I am married to a wonderful, an absolutely amazing person who is so full of love that she sometimes struggles with the universe (or with humanity). And I am a proud father (yes, "father"*) of a woman with a brilliant Beautiful Mind and a heart as big as the universe (who also happens to have Mastery of Words™️).
I love learning new things from complete strangers. The stranger the new knowledge the more fascinating it is for me.
I have a #FragMyBrain (autistic, ocd, nd) so be ready for detailed explanations, where each word is carefully chosen & positioned in the sentence, but still some missing - when you ask me something.
I quickly fall in love with brilliant people with language mastery skills - Mastery of Words™️.
You can always shitpost with me & talk garbage - as long as it is done intelligently, with wit & humor, and respect.
The fastest way to land on my block list is not to make a mistake, but to repeatedly make the same stupid mistake again and again and insist on it being right. There is always enough space in the "Dungeon of Blocked Accounts" (and being racists, queer-/transphobic, ableist, disrespectful, white supremecist, etc., etc. - you know what I mean).
I will add CW and mark as sensitive whenever I think so. If I forget once, please inform me and I'll correct it as fast as I can. I don't discuss whether something needs CW/sensitive marker or not, I just accept it.
I wear my feelings on my skin, i.e. what you see is how I really am, there is no IRL Imdat Celeste and a different, Fediverse Imdat Celeste: you will see a lot of 🫂,💜,😍,🥰,🥹,😳... and more. If you feel it is intruding, please let me know.
I come over differently, but I am also insecure: so, I will add a lot of emojis - just to be sure.
Also, please don't expect a "normal person" here: I am completely, utterly, hopelessly an un-normal person.
Also, my posts my start with one specific topic but during the text itself it may just become something completely different - "Train of Thought".
Again, nice to meet you - I am always looking for more new friends...
*: I am a trans non-binary person. When I came out to her, my daughter asked me how she should call me from then on and since it is an honor to be her father, that, yeah, I am and will always be that.
I transitioned during a time when trans expression was kept at a minimum and only within trusted people. I'm glad to see that that has changed, for the most part. But as a reminder..
Trans people can be proud of their body.
Trans people can be attention whores.
Trans people can post all the selfies they want.
Trans people can like sex and be open about it.
Trans people can date or form friendships with who they want without shame.
Trans people are human. 🏳️⚧️
If I'm to discount right wing men, general transphobes, sock puppet accounts and fake organisations there are approx 70 gender criticals active on the birdsite in Ireland. Today 3-5,000 people turned out for #TransRights at #TransPride Dublin. They can scarcely
bring 20 people together and they have to bus and fly people in. The Irish media has to reconcile themselves to this! #MastoDaoine
Hi, I’m Eliza! I’m just another #transwoman that’s looking for a safe space to exist on the internet without being harassed or inundated with hatful posts shoved onto my feed by the algorithm. I used to write for a few websites but all that was under my birthname, so I’m hoping to start writing & creating again under my authentic name. I’m mostly looking to make new connections on here and maybe some sense of community lol. #transgender#queer#transpride
So, I've decided I'm going to go to #TransPride#TransPrideSeattle . I won't know anyone there and it'll be my first time and is there maybe anyone I could meet and go with? Preferably someone with experience?
I'm scared, but it feels vital.
I'm in your timelines trying to bring some cuteness here because I too am scared, I too am freaking out with the rest of the rational-thinking, logical humans on this platform. But as someone who's already Black, TransFemme and just simply cannot conform no way no how I'm already aware of multiple tragedies. I'm already in the thick of it and I'm not naive about any of these horrors.
And it's mentally and emotionally torturous each and every time and it's a struggle and that's what the fa wants.
Therefore ...
I can only do what makes me happy, because my very existence is Resistance. And that's all I can do right now. Others who look like me died so that i must live. And I owe them all that. Every single one.
I must live.
I must smile. I must be Cute. Because It brings me joy. And It pisses off the fa. And if that's My Enough, if that's my battleground, so be it. It's not as noble as standing in front of a tank, or staring down an M16 with a daisy. But every smile in even the darkest of moments can push away the clouds for one day, and for many, many people who are in the same boat, that is enough. And I pray in my heart every day that I hope it serves. #ExistenceIsResistance#YouAreNotAlone#BlackTransPride#TransPride#QueerPride#QueerRights#TransRights#JoyInTheSmallThings
This time tomorrow a friend and I will be checking into our accommodation for the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade.
We're marching with Trans Pride Australia. We're float number 5 this year, so shouldn't be a chore to spot us!
Among the things that TPA runs is Friday Night Social, a weekly video chat with participants from across Australia. It's overseen & hosted by blahaj zone's admins @ada & @supakaity . I'm also a regular host, and some of our BZ🦈 community are regular participants.
The parade is being televised in Australia on ABCTV and ABC iview (you can watch from overseas through a IPTV service or use a VPN to access iview). The coverage starts at 7:30pm AEDT [Saturday 8:30am London, 12:30am San Fran, 3:30am NYC].
Go to https://iview.abc.net.au/ to watch the Sydney Gay And Lesbian Mardi Gras 2024 in iview (you'll need to register).
Given how many iterations of this set of sloths there's likely to be, I figured I'd group 'em up when posting, rather than just bombarding you all with dozens upon dozens of sloths!
I have just read the Interview with Georg Romer from University Hospital Münster in "Süddeutsche Zeitung" titled "Wait and See is Not an Option!"
He is a child and young adult psychiatrist. The interview is really very long.
But the gist is that this Georg Romer is really one of the Saints that we wish for.
The questions asked by the newspaper were great, mentioning all the controversy in society, asking tough questions (but in a very respectful manner), asking things like "what about the impression that transition numbers just exploded and that this is 'fashionable' at the moment" and so on.
During the interview Alexander Knote from LMU Munich was also mentioned aht Georg Romer was asked why he refused to talk / discuss with Alexander Knote.
In essence, A. Knote says that "coming out as trans gender has become fashionable among the AFAB." He then continues to prove that by showing that in Germany 85% of trans gender people AFAB trans men.
Georg Romer takes that as data and looks at "why is that so" in a different way. He analyses the societal environment and comes to the conlusing that the actual number of trans woman is significantly higher than the 15% but the fact that trans women have a significantly higher chance of being discriminated against, hated, or even experience violence is the actual reason why we don't see more trans women coming out. And yes, contrary to A. Knote, Georg Romer has scientific data on that.
A few machine translated excerpts:
Some of your colleagues report that young people are becoming more and more demanding and doctors are called transphobic if they do not immediately accept being trans as given without question. Do you experience that too?
Not at all. If we want to avoid an escalation of sensitivities in the doctor-patient relationship, it starts with ourselves. We must understand and respect that there is already a long history of discrimination, pathologization and bullying of trans people in medicine at every first encounter. I think the young people immediately feel the attitude and agenda with which they are met.
So it is the responsibility of the doctors how well the young people cooperate?
We doctors have to get away from the idea that we define whether someone is trans or not. It starts with the speech in the waiting room. I always ask first of all with which name someone would like to be addressed. With this, I do not determine anything for the future, but I signal: I see you, I respect you, I listen to you.
...
At the end he says:
I also think of a sentence in a letter that the mother of a 13-year-old trans boy once wrote to us: Without the treatment, we would steal the boy's youth. Every person deserves the chance to remember a happy youth for the rest of their lives. If we force young people to live through these years in the wrong sex, then this hardship of the children is in every class photo, in every memory of a school trip that you still had to experience in the old sex. People who only begin their transition as adults often erase these years of youth in their memory. That's very sad. A coherent identity, even in youth, contributes to the happiness of life.
The interview is here: if you can get it free and want to read it in your language, I guess you need a machine translation
We are HERE at PRIDE IN THE PARK for the weekend, come on down to meet the team, name a Blahaj, and see what’s on for Trans Pride Southampton on the 29th June.
🏳️⚧️ Auch diesen September waren wir wieder zusammen auf der trans* Pride Stuttgart. ⚧️
Dort haben wir uns für Aufklärung und Toleranz eingesetzt. Ein großes Thema war der Streit für ein faires, echtes Selbsbestimmungsgesetz. Vielen Dank an alle, die dabei waren.
I got a new fountain pen, and it has the trans flag colors! It's a Hongdian N9 with a "long blade" or architect nib. The nib took me a bit to get used to, but I find it gives particularly nice shading to my inks, and has a wet flow, which I appreciate.
Here I'm using Sailor Studio 024 ink and Cosmo Air Snow paper.
Been a while since I posted on here, but figured I'd drop some relatively tame, thirst trap adjacent nonsense. I started HRT back in February and have never been happier or more myself. The sheer bliss that comes from being myself out and about in the world is indescribable.
HRT has been game changing, emotionally and physically. I have met so many beautiful trans brothers and sisters - IRL and online - and have felt so much sisterhood and community.
To mark the start of Trans Awareness Week I’ve created another one of my pop-art inspired compositions. This one features the trans symbol and the colours from the Trans Pride flag: light blue; light pink; and white.
I think this delicate design looks rather splendid as a framed print, so who knows, it maybe become a reality in 2024.