lwhjp

I'm terrible at posing, but I did manage to get a good shot instead of my ADHD "the person you are talking to has left the conversation" face.

I remember starting out seeing people post timelines a year or more in and thinking how impossibly distant it seemed. But now here I am after a year, and even I have to admit I look a bit different. It's been crazy, but I'm sooo glad I did it. Here's to another year, and another...

Did you get rid of the vellus (fine, downy) hairs as well? I realize the correct answer is "ask your surgeon", but...

The best I can find is that it probably doesn't matter, but since they have the potential to develop into a problem down the road I'm leaning towards better safe than sorry. My electrolysist (electrolygist?) wasn't sure. Hence The straw poll.

Thanks!

I'm struggling to believe that the same person fit in both tops.

Did you ever daydream that you're a wizard? Or maybe an astronaut, or a superhero, or a secret agent? Perhaps when you snapped back to reality, you were left with an internal grin and a feeling of "heh, that would have been cool. Oh, well." Let's assume in your fantasy you were an astronaut, because although they exist, you probably aren't one.

Possibly you've had that dream, or one along the same lines, several times. Maybe more, now you come to think of it, and they started... hmm, as long as you can remember? Nothing strange about that, all kids daydream about that kind of thing. Astronauts are rare, but they've been around since before you were born, and occasionally show up in films and on TV. But when they do, they're the object of ridicule: the other characters treat the astronaut as some kind of freak, and joke about them. I don't get it, you think: being an astronaut sounds pretty cool. But your friends and family don't bat an eye at these films. You take note: astronauts aren't cool, and you'd better not let on about that daydream.

Life goes on, you grow up, and most of the time when you drift away from whatever conversation you're not listening to, you're thinking about being up there in orbit, or walking on the moon. In your spacesuit. Yeah, that would be nice. Once or twice you may read about or see a documentary on actual astronauts, and while you pretend not to be interested, every word etches itself into your memory. Just some more trivia to add to your general knowledge, you tell yourself.

You'd never deliberately seek it out, but coming across information about astronauts is always a happy acccident, and you're glad to fill in any gaps in your knowledge. You know the training schedule pretty much by heart. In all the interviews, the message is the same: "I always knew I wanted to be an astronaut; I told my parents about it almost as soon as I could speak." Strangely, you feel almost jealous.

Perhaps you have some posters of the moon up in your room. Or maybe a discreet NASA logo on your shirt. Or played an astronaut in an RPG. It doesn't mean anything; you're just so secure in your identity as "not an astronaut" that you can do it without feeling ashamed. In fact, it's almost... exciting?

One day you come across a post by someone about your age, who gave up their career as an accountant to join the space program. Turns out they didn't know all along, and just figured it out one day. That sticks in your throat a bit: some folk have all the luck. Wait, what?

You can't shake the feeling that there's something missing from your life. Something big. It's not like you're depressed, or anything, but everything just seems so... gray. Pointless. You don't hate yourself, but you wouldn't be too bothered if it all just ended one day.

And then, at last, you figure it out.

I picked up a crowdfunding flyer for the movie at pride last weekend, so I had to check out the manga as well. It's four poignant short stories featuring trans girls at various stages of their transitions. The author is of course trans and the characters are spot on. The physical presentation of the book is very nice too, on thick paper with a pink, white and blue glitter on the cover.

Apparently the stories have been around on the net for a little while, so maybe there is an English translation out there somewhere?

Anyway, ¥1815 well spent. I recommend it if you read Japanese and can get hold of a copy.

I always did particularly like chocolate, but it just goes to show, doesn't it?

https://pride.tokyo/festival/

Anybody else here? Come find me and say hello.

It does hurt like hell. Yay, I guess? /humblebrag

I never used to get shaving cuts before E. Can't finish hair removal soon enough.

We all know and love (!) the leaderboard, but how about a different method?

One can solve a problem with a simple, naive method resulting in a short program and long runtime, or put in lots of explicit optimizations for more code and shorter runtime. (Or if you're really good, a short, fast program!)

I propose the line-second.

Take the number of lines in your program (eg, 42 lines) and the runtime (eg 0.096 seconds). Multiply these together to get a score of 4.032 line-seconds.

A smaller score is a shorter, faster program.

Similarly, (for a particular solver), a larger score is a "harder" problem.

Tried a little too hard to go with a theme on this one, and some of the clues are a bit contrived. Feel free to suggest alternatives!

Here's an old puzzle of mine to get started. One of the clues (at least!) is a little unfair, but the puzzle has been solved by others so it should be possible. Comments much appreciated, and more to come...