Hiya. Someone suggested I post here so hopefully it's ok. My name's Gwen. I'm a pretty mentally scarred late 20s post op trans girl who never really recovered from getting kicked out over trans stuff 5 years ago. I live in community housing in downtown Ottawa, on disability for now and finising my last 2 uni courses eventually and deal with major weeks to months long episodes of bipolar crash, severe depression, anhedonia. Probably have undiagnosed adhd and autism. When I do get a spark of life (usually around other people) I'm an audio-visual art nerd, possibly wanting to get into filmmaking and writing as a dream but probably trying to go back to the genetics lab I worked at over the summer (if u want to get into film/writing/art together let me know, collaborating with others over a shared project really focuses me and brings me back to life).

Why I'm writing this is because I'm looking for a gal or guy to make friends with and spend a decent amount of time with (at least once a week tho sustained contact preferred) to hopefully help get out of this unbearable slump I've been in since my summer genetics lab job ended. I really shut down after it and have been struggling to leave the house, get out of bed, clean up my tiny studio apartment, much of anything being alone. If ur similarly struggling...let's help each other back to life. If ur a kind soul not going through shutdowns like this but still want to get acquainted and be a supporting soul hit me up as well. A strong stable nurturing influence for healing would be nice. Someone to provide mutual support/discipline/accountability. Someone to feel safe with, comforted, reassured.

As bad as my bad state gets I do function quite well between crashes, being careful not to overload myself as bipolar mania tries to make me conquer the world so if applied correctly I can be someone unstoppable by your side. I just grew up very dependent on my parents which suited their abusive need for control over me so I'm not entirely independent, semi independent. Once I get functioning I'm a lot better like I said. Helps a lot to have external support/help getting back on my feet with this bipolar crash making it very hard to function alone. Working on lessening the severity of the crashes, have had success toning down mania so hopefully in time and with support the crashes will get more livable as the mania got more manageable as well. Even just getting out of the house to hang out with u would be a great start. So ya if uv been down like me or just down to be a supportive friend to spend time with feel free to message me in dms/chat. Thanks in advance for getting to know me

https://ibb.co/4gqX8fK

A place for you to track the most recent happenings in the court case.

Jasmine Heise a été vue pour la dernière fois le 9 juillet, en fin de journée, sur le chemin de la Chute à Mansfield. Elle se déplacerait à pied, selon la SQ.

L’adolescente mesure 1,62 m (5 pi 4 po) et pèse 45 kg (100 lb). Elle a les cheveux bruns et les yeux bleus. La dernière fois qu’elle a été vue, elle portait un jeans bleu troué, un chandail et un coton ouaté.

Ses proches ont des raisons de craindre pour sa santé et sa sécurité.

Toute personne qui apercevrait Jasmine Heise est priée de communiquer avec le 911. De plus, toute information pouvant permettre de la retrouver peut être communiquée, confidentiellement, à la Centrale de l’information criminelle de la SQ au 1 800 659-4264.

This Thursday RBC Bluesfest starts with Shania Twain as the main headliner. I really hope that Pimisi station will be open and ready to service the thousands upon thousands of Ottawa residents coming to see the show.

So far this Canada Day weekend is not looking good with the current air quality.

By default the community was set so only mods can post. I've changed that now.

For some time I was an active user on Reddit, and my experience was the same as most where I often got some useful information, sometimes learned something new, and sometimes ran into users who said things I didn't agree with. Then in 2019 that started changing, ever more drastically, where disagreement on some topics was taboo. Along with the ever increasing polarization and division of Canadians, this lead to a certain orthodoxy with dogmas that should not be challenged.

At the time I'm writing this we have some benefit of hindsight, but topics like BLM, COVID lockdowns, protests, and so on were some where in some communities you were only allowed to agree - the other option was to be silenced (posts removed) and/or banned. I had created a small community on Reddit called Ottawa/Gatineau as place where people from the region could connect, converse, challenge each other on their views, and perhaps start finding some middle ground. I see open conversation as the principal cure to polarization. That community was created as an alternative to an existing community that, through new moderators, actively prevented this and encouraged polarization by re-enforcing some views and removing anyone that didn't agree. In other words, moderated to actively create an echo chamber of homogeneous views on certain topics. The community I created was eventually removed from Reddit, after the moderators of the other community repeatedly complained that criticism of their approach to moderation was online harassment, and therefore against site rules. Any following attempts to create an alternative community were all followed by removal by site admins, enforcing that there can be only one Reddit community for the Ottawa region.

This bit of a history lesson is to give context for why I've created this community here on Lemmy.ca. While I'm certainly leery of investing more of my time creating an online community, especially after seeing it removed with no recourse earlier, I still believe that there is a need to reduce polarization in the Ottawa / Gatineau community. Recognizing the need, and doing nothing about it, isn't something I'm able to do.

So here I am, and here you are as well. Welcome.