AJ Ballou

An American becoming King of the Rapists for the first time in history is very on brand for America right now.

Wonder what embarrassment Americans will have to suffer next.

“Hello, police? I’d like to report a crime. Yes, it’s Jerry again.”

Not in my experience. Antidepressants can cause mania in bipolar people.

We mostly use mood stabilizers as a starting point.

Wild conversation where asking why owning a smartwatch is weird immediately resulted in someone telling the question asker to close their garage door and turn on the car.

Weirdly, this is not the most wild experience I’ve had on the internet.

Especially interesting since America is heading toward a Christian theocracy.

How will non-Christians in America fare when Christianity becomes the law of the land, imposed in schools and court rooms?

Will we pretend to believe, for survival? Will we have a choice?

Watching “Harriet” again, and I’m reminded how fascinated I am by people taking on the religion of their oppressors.

Many Black enslaved people took on Christianity, and many indigenous people in the Americas took on Catholicism.

Survival mechanism? Indoctrination?

Potentially the most coherent thing Jerry’s ever said.

I told my parents and psychologists I was a boy from 3-16. No one took me seriously. I had to demand an appointment for transition related care. Had to prove I’d lived as male for 12+ months and see another psychologist for 6 months before they’d refer to endocrinology.

In California.

Glad you’re okay!

I had gallbladder surgery in February.

The result? In addition to paying $300 a month for my premiums, I have to pay $232 a month to cover the surgery.

I make $15/hour.

bsky.app/profile/ajba...

Hormones really aren't the end-all be-all of athletic ability. If they were, is it fair for a man whose T levels are 900 to compete with a man whose T levels are 400?

Women who have PCOS tend to have higher-than-average T levels. Should they have to compete with men?

Are you for real?

My brain refuses to believe this is an actual quote, but I’m definitely not going to the source material to find out.

Definitely feel more optimistic about my publishing chances, though.

My smartwatch tracks my heart rate, alerts me if it’s too high, and automatically texts my wife if I fall.

That seems pretty useful to me. Still not sure what’s hard to understand about that.

You can still turn off comments from people who don’t follow you.

You’re responsible for curating your experience here.

It may benefit you to learn the moderation options, available in Settings.

When you say you don’t understand something, people are going to engage. It’s the opening of a conversation about the topic.

If you don’t want discourse, you’re responsibly for ensuring that.

Owning a smartwatch is a very easy thing to understand.

It’s not a closed audience, because again, this is not your personal website. You posted something publicly, and allowed for public comments. Someone responded. Go figure.

Close your posts to replies so people from the Discover tab don’t respond.

Hundreds of things can go wrong that interfere with smooth operation of the projectors.

Many theater chains got rid of projectionists when everything went digital.

The theatres I worked in that still had projectionists had far fewer issues. I bet AMC does not.

Oh, I see.

You just have no idea what you’re talking about in general, not just specifically about smartwatches.

1) If you post something on a public forum, you invite discourse
2) If you say you don’t understand something, screaming at people who engage on the topic won’t help your level of understanding.
3) You can preemptively moderate your post replies in settings by limiting who can respond to you

What’s next? Mental health but for the teeth?

What is hard to understand about owning a smartwatch?

Good news is, I’ve hit my out of pocket max for the year, so all my medical care is free until January, so I could totally go see a doctor if I want.

Bad news is my OOPM was $8,100 which I still owe, so I have to pay over $200 a month until 2028 for the medical care I received in 2 months of 2025

So I this a safe space for me to say I absolutely hate many of the books people put on a pedestal?

Great Gatsby
Catcher in the Rye
1984
To Kill a Mockingbird
Anything by John Steinbeck

Hate them all. But that’s not censorship. It’s not like I put them on a banned book list like SOME people.

That’s why some people need to stop voting against robust health insurance. I don’t have a limit on specialists. I see my psych provider every month.

You have to consider these things when choosing the plan… and when voting.

Imagine feeling entitled to receive money from the government for your personal health problems and then voting against people receiving money from the government for personal health problems.

Not to sound wild but… doesn’t health insurance cover mental health care? Like, that’s how I see mental health professionals to treat my disorders. Using the health insurance I pay for.

Oh, right. These are the people who vote against those programs.

Do people outside the US know how wild it is to be sick here?

Just had to argue with my boss that I should probably go home because I have fever/chills/headache/nausea. I work with the public.

So, going home. Won’t be paid for it. Just taking a loss on half a day of pay.

I have returned one book in my life, and it’s because when I skimmed it in the store I did not realize how appallingly terrible it was, and totally not what it claimed to be.

And I immediately bought a much better book.

Returning fully read books is no better than piracy.

I think I’m reading this differently than everyone else? I read it as a joke. Like, Trump wants to leave the US? 10/10, do recommend he go. I’m pretty sure no one genuinely believes he’s a candidate.

But maybe I’m missing some context?

You’re right, it probably would have been better marketing to come from that angle. I definitely thought that was where the headline was going when I first read it.