machine

Unlike English where "-s", "-es", and "-ies" on the end of a word can often correctly indicate whether or not a word is plural, this isn't the case in German, and sometimes the only difference between the plural and singular form of a word is an umlaut over one of the vowels.

12085

I identify my past 4 (soon-to-be 5) summers by what music I was into at the time 2012 - kpop; 2013 - Awolnation, Bastille, Mika; 2014 - Caravan Palace, EDM, Foster the People; 2015 - Gorillaz, Mystery Skulls, Passion Pit; 2016 is so far just Alligatoah

I missed Pride month--hooray! I started this at the beginning of the month around June 3rd or so, and due to my self-imposed lack of time, I won't be changing the tense the first part was written in since it doesn't affect the overall point. I'll apologize in advance for what will probably be a double post, since I want to post something about the shooting in Orlando in a day or two. I'd tack it onto this one, but because the tone will be so different from the rest of this, it'd be better suited for its own post. It's LGBT+ Pride Month! Again this year Google has a neat little rainbow banner that pops up whenever you search "lgbt", "gay", "lesbian", "bisexual", "transgender", "asexual", "pansexual", and/or "queer" (There's probably more, but those are the only ones I looked up) President Obama proclaimed June as LGBT+ Pride Month this year too. Similarly, Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, raised an rainbow flag on Parliament Hill on the first. Even though gay marriage was legalized in Canada in 2005, this was the first time the LGBT flag had been flown there. Canada's also in the process of trying to extend legal protections to transgender citizens, so this gesture is nicely timed in that sense too. On a related note, The Sims 4 recently got an update that changed some things regarding gender. I don't have The Sims, so this is from what I could gather from a video I watched that briefly went over the update, but body types were changed to masculine and feminine I believe. Sims can now wear any of the clothing and/or hairstyle options in the game and have any voice regardless of whether they have a masculine or feminine body type. When you switch between the two, a little menu pops up so you can be more specific, I think there's three or four questions, but I know of them were "Can this sim get pregnant?" and "Can your sim use the bathroom standing up?" Not only is this a neat feature for transgender and nonbinary Sims players who want to make characters they can relate to, it's convenient for people who might not follow gender stereotypes closely or just so happen to really like one of the clothing options that was previously only available for Sims of a certain gender too. In a similar vein, Tinder is going to be more trans-friendly soon. Not much as been said about what changes will be made exactly, but striving to provide a more pleasant experience for transgender Tinder users who may have already have a negative experience through the app is certainly a good move on Tinder's part. To end the month on a positive note, the Pentagon announced today that the US military would be lifting its ban on transgender service members. The estimated number of transgender people already serving in the armed forces varies between 2,500 - 15,500, so this ban being lifted will immediately affect thousands of service members! Transgender service members will no longer have to stay in the closet about their gender identities out of fear that they could be discharged. "By October, the Department of Defense will craft and distribute a commanders' training handbook, medical protocol and guidance for changing a service member's gender in the Defense Eligibility Enrollment System. That is also the deadline that all the services will be required to provide medically appropriate care and treatment to transgender service members, according to Department of Defense protocols. Current members of the armed forces with a diagnosis from a military physician that gender transition is medically needed will receive that care. However, DoD "policy will require an individual to have completed any medical treatment that their doctor has determined is necessary in connection with their gender transition, and to have been stable in their preferred gender for 18 months, as certified by their doctor, before they can enter the military," according to the Pentagon." (source) It will take about a year for this to go into complete effect everywhere, but this a huge step in the right direction. Also, clerics in Pakistan recently released a religious decree saying that transgender people can get married under Islamic law. This appears to only apply to transgender individuals who have undergone full transitions and don't have "visible signs of both genders". To be honest, I find this really interesting! It's not only a step in the right direction, but this news is coming from a country in/near the Middle East, a region infamous for many things, including it's overwhelmingly negative view of LGBT+ individuals. Though it's not necessarily likely to happen, it'll be interesting to see if/what strides are made over in terms of LGBT+ acceptance in normalization in the coming years. Obviously this doesn't mean public opinion of transgender people in Pakistan has miraculously changed, and transgender people Pakistanis will no longer face any struggles, but a bunch of small strides like this are what could help get the ball rolling over there. Are the younger Catholics (younger as in under 30 or so) over there more accepting of the idea of same sex marriage? Most of my schooling was through Catholic schools, and most of my classmates and young teachers supported it in a legal sense, but, understandably so, not all of them were keen on the idea of gay couples getting married through the Church. Generally speaking, is there a similar mindset there, or do most seem content with gay marriage not being legalized since the issue of where religious rights start/end, and LGBT+ rights start/end is an issue the public doesn't want to address right now? Sounds like we'll just have to wait and see then. If he doesn't ultimately end up pushing for it, hopefully he'll at least bring it up once or twice, so we can see how the citizens and politicians react to the idea of it being legalized. I'm surprised to hear the discrimination sounds fairly commonplace over there. If/When the anti-discrimination laws start getting enforced, I wonder how much backlash there might be.

Alligatoah - Musik ist keine Lösung translated lyrics if anyone's curious bc damn son this song was more serious than I thought it'd be. I think the one line towards the end has an error in it, but it wouldn't change the meaning too much...

That's true. Ad's that automatically play with full sound and everything are by far the worst.

TIL that the letter "r" in German is unnecessarily complicated. Trilling's also apparently a thing in German.

Videos that only have on/off audio buttons, and no adjustable volume I'm looking at you Instagram, Tumblr, and Vine

12083

Digits

mrw: recognizing the Love Live song at the end of that video makes me feel like a weeb :C

o rly now? -------------- Obligatory random video:

Two Door Cinema Club - Next Year

Probably....? Can't really remember, but one of the books I got for my birthday is a Pulitzer prize winner, so I will have soon! (It's called All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr) ------------ What was the first band you considered yourself a fan of?

------------------------

:c

Florence + the Machine - Which Witch

Boundaries

laugh tracks in tv shows

I remember a fair amount from when I was younger, but I think my first one is from when I was 2. I got really sick with something when I was a toddler, and had to be hospitalized for a few days. While I don't remember that, I remember standing in a crib set up in a doctor's office, either at the appointment I had immediately before going home, or it was the appointment that gave me the ok to go home after staying one more night. But I remember staring at the door, waiting for my dad, and becoming elated when I saw that he had a bundle of balloons with him. I just remember being super excited that I got balloons, but also really wanting to go home.

Can't give you the exact episode, but if I'm remembering correctly it's somewhere around ep 70. The people who visit the "Anime series" subforum here could probably tell you the exact episode though.

Sorry for the double post, but Mars is going to be visible all this month! It was closest to Earth on May 30th, and if you watch the news (I think my local news briefly covered this once, and I know the NBC news brought it up one night a little while ago), you were probably told about this last month, but they never mentioned that Mars would remain visible all the way through the end of June. Even though it's June, and Mars's slowly moving away, it should still be visible to the naked eye. Mars can be found around the same area the moon can be seen (there's where it was when I looked for it late last month at least, it might've moved by now idk). It just looks like a bright star with a red tint, so it's not breath taking or anything of that sort, but if you want to feel small, and insignificant for a second or two, it's definitely one of the cooler ways to bring on that feeling. If you really like star gazing, and happen to have a telescope (though you might be able to see these without a telescope, having one would surely heighten the experience), Saturn and Jupiter will also be visible this month too.

I laugh when I'm uncomfortable, and occasionally when I'm nervous. It's not uncontrollable laughter or anything like that, but it sounds like I remembered something amusing, and am having a hard time stifling it. It's very inconvenient :))