hey there hexbear nd gang! it's that time of year for the first time ever!
here we are once again approaching the end of the year according to the roman imperial calendar that we all have to use for some reason. it's the winter holiday season in the global north, a time of great symbolic significance to many people.
and so, i want to solicit your thoughts about this community, what it means to you, how you'd like to see it evolve, changes in moderation policy, suggestions for thumbnail and banner images, or anything else related to the comm or neurodiversity in general.
or just come hang out!
i also want to invite applications for new moderators for this comm. what would you like to do as a moderator for c/neurodiversity?
personally i've largely been a placeholder, but i do love this community and i want to see it grow as a shared and safe space for our neurodivergent comrades to talk about ourselves and with each other. i also want to do better and want your input about what that means.
c/nd has a well behaved user base so we don't need extra mod help for enforcement or anything like that. what i'm mainly looking for is fresh perspectives on community engagement and growth.
there is absolutely no requirement to disclose any personal information about yourself, just to make that clear. but if you're interested in moderating this community, please contact @[email protected], myself, and/or the other nd mods with an application.
if deadlines help motivate you, you have 3 days from the time you read this.
if deadlines harm your motivation, don't worry about it. if an application comes in a month or two from now of course we'll still consider it. this isn't a job, i'm just asking for volunteers to help moderate a small internet message board.
Application
What is your Hexbear username?
Do you have any preferred pronouns?
What are your thoughts on capitalism?
What are your thoughts on imperialism?
What are your thoughts on trans rights?
What are your thoughts on racial justice?
What are your thoughts on neurodiversity?
What do think about current and previous protests around the world?
What are your thoughts on Veganism and Animal Liberation?
Do you have any experience with other leftist online communities? What did those experiences teach you?
What is your approach to moderation, and how do you work with teams?
How do you deal with online drama and people who try to start things for the sake of it?
Do you have any ideas for c/neurodiveristy community engagement?
What is your general time availability? (amounts, common browsing times, etc)
Element information
Element is a messaging app that lets you talk to people over the Matrix protocol.
To get started, check out this link, where you can choose to either download Element for your platform or, if on a computer, open it in a browser ("Launch Element Web").
The instructions that follow are for the desktop application and the web application, but the process is similar on all apps:
- Press "Create Account"
- We host our own Matrix server, so if you want you can change
matrix.orgtochapo.chat. This is completely optional; users who sign up with amatrix.orgusername can still talk to people withchapo.chatusername. (Note: It ischapo.chat, nothexbear.net. Also, registrations aren't always open onchapo.chat; if they're not, just create an account onmatrix.org) - Fill in a username and password
- Hit register, and you're done!
Don't have any ideas/feedback for the comm, but I figured I'd take the opportunity to talk about something I've had to deal with recently since I don't know where else to talk about it:
[TW: Surgery, open wound that's gross but not too serious]
Had surgery on December 1st to repair a small hole in my left eardrum that I've had for most of my life. Surgery itself went well, and it seems like the hole in the eardrum hasn't reopened, which is nice. It was a pretty major disruption my normal schedule though, due to temporary hearing loss & nausea, not taking my meds for a few days afterward, and not really getting any physical activity due to heavy lifting being off the table for the time being (cardio is fine, though I've barely done any outside of walking around at stores). Basically, it feels like my ADHD has been noticeably worse the past few weeks, though it's been getting better as I've recovered.More recently though, I had a problem with one of the incisions from the surgery opening back up. During the surgery, the method they used meant that almost everything could be done through the ear canal, but they had to make two incisions on the outside. One on the back of my ear to get a piece of cartilage, and one on the scalp just above & behind the ear to get a bit of muscle fiber, both of which were used to help repair the eardrum. Those incisions were both sealed up with dissolve-able stitches that were supposed to last for around 5 weeks iirc. And the ones on the back of my ear are still holding up fine, but the ones on my scalp came undone.
Not entirely sure why they came undone, though I caught a cold a couple weeks ago that's been causing me to cough more than normal, so that's the most likely reason. Regardless, I realized it had opened back up at the beginning of last week. Wasn't too concerning at first 'cause it was covered by a scab, but that slowly fell out and I was basically left with a gaping wound by Christmas Eve (about 1 inch long, and about 1/8 of an inch wide & deep). Fortunately it didn't get infected, it wasn't really bleeding/discharging in any noticeable amount, I still have plenty of the the antibiotic ointment they gave me to put on it after the surgery, and it seems like it was starting to slowly close itself back up over the past couple days. So it honestly wasn't that bad aside from the general grossness of it.
I did get it checked out at an urgent care facility on Christmas Eve, and the Nurse Practitioner there gave me some oral antibiotics but said that it'd be risky to try and stitch it back up due to possible abscess build up. Today I was finally able to go back in for an appointment with the ear specialists (though not with the surgeon herself unfortunately), and they decided it was best to go ahead and stitch it back up, this time with regular stitches instead of the dissolve-able ones. Not going to declare my problems with it to be over yet, but hopefully it'll continue to remain uninfected and heal better/faster now.
Other than that, I'm actually doing pretty okay all things considered, just bit more tired & stressed out than usual. Also been working on my music more lately, probably mostly out of boredom tbh, but I've at least managed to make some pretty cool ideas. Was able to turn one of them into an almost fully complete track in under 24 hours, and a few others are half complete in a similar amount of time, which is more than I'm usually able to do lol.