did you know edmonton is censoring books with any reference to sex, sexuality, violence, or anything else deemed unfit for minors? even books that were fine half a decade ago for school assignments and curriculum

did you know that parents have to be notified for minors to use different pronouns or names in school - 15 and under need permission from parents to go by a different name or pronouns

did you know trans women would not be allowed in sports in alberta?

the premier is outright saying doctors are wrong for opposing these changes and movements against trans youth and trans people as a whole

it's worth noting that some of the proposed banned texts in edmonton school curriculums were beyond justcompletely fine when i was in school here (2016-2018)—watchmen went from being an approved ELA diploma text to being on the table for getting banned from school libraries.

margaret atwood has also spoken up in light of the handmaid's tale being on the drafted list of banned material by edmonton public schools

Did I stutter

No

Mah men

Our ranks are getting stronger

okay this one wins, everyone go home

Ok, Optician here: I can definitively tell you all: Eyeglass cleaner (if it's designed for glasses), dish soap (without any beads or ammonia), and rubbing alcohol (nothing over 70% isopropyl) are ALL PERFECTLY FINE!

I use all three on my own glasses.

Rubbing alcohol and dish soap will dry out plastics if used too often.

Here's the kicker, though! DO NOT CLEAN YOUR GLASSES DRY. No shirt tailing, no breathing a hot breath on them, no kleenex, no toilet paper, no paper products. Wood fibers can exacerbate micro scratches. And if you clean them dry, you're basically sandpapering any dirt back and forth across your lens. If you don't have cleaner, run it under cool water. NOT HOT. Heat damages some coatings. Then wipe clean.

Use a microfiber or 100% cotton cloth. Old t-shirts, cloth diapers are wonderful, tea towels(what I use), or if you want to spend money, get KIM-wipes. They're designed for delicate items. They look like kleenex, though.

DO NOT BUY SINGLE USE GLASSES WIPES!!!! They used to be made with microfiber and a good solution. Since 2020, ALL COMPANIES (Yes, even the lens companies like Zeiss) use paper and a high alcohol content solution that dries out fast and can damage Zyl (plastic) frames. They even have warnings on them now. Don't waste your money.

Your microfiber cloth will get dirty. Wash it by hand in the sink with dish soap and air dry. Machines have residual fabric softeners that fill the cloth with oils. Do not use the dryer, they're too rough and the heat ruins the microfiber )(it "burns" the ends).

Also, you'll push dirt and oils into the cracks and crevices just by cleaning. We're all animals with oils, dirt, sweat, make up, etc... that gets on our lenses. The cracks between the lenses and frames collect that stuff when we clean. So you may end up cleaning over and over and feeling like it never cleans. Well that's because you're pulling dirt from those areas.

To clean this, use a small amount of dish soap (see above) and cool water. And this eventually will also not work. Take them to an Optometrist/Opthamologist/etc... They should have an ultrasonic cleaner that uses sonic wave frequencies in water and cleaner to knock the dirt loose. (This looks disgusting, by the way, lol) It is the same exact method that your jewelers use to clean your precious rings and watches and such.

Again, don't use dish soap or alcohol too often, it will damage your frame and make them look terrible. The oils that get on your frame soak into the plastic, and then when you pull those oils out it leaves behind a white residue and makes the plastic more brittle.

One last list of DO NOT DO's because I've seen a LOT of things over the years that make me scratch my head. So here goes:

Don't put your glasses in the dishwasher

Don't leave your glasses on in the shower (heat damages coatings)

Don't wear your glasses in the sauna (see above)

Don't power wash your glasses

Don't use glass cleaner (the chemicals will destroy your frames and lenses because the lenses aren't usually glass anymore. they're plastic)

Don't try to "buff out" scratches, it will NEVER work. Even if you get it clear again somehow (probably some polish) it has fundamentally changed how the light goes through the lens and will not work anymore.

Listen to licensed Opticians (we usually know what the fuck we're talking about)

Don't take your glasses to big box or chain stores. Walmart/Costco/Sam's etc... will 100% pull employees from other areas to cover optical. The deli guy will put on a coat and adjust your glasses with NO knowledge! Also, not their fault.

If you're not close to your personal optometrist and something happens to your glasses, call around to private practices and see if they will help. Some will, some won't work on things that aren't theirs.

Some states require Opticians to be licensed, some don't. (I have no idea about international laws)

Don't leave your glasses in the car. It is an oven in the summer and will ruin your lenses (even sunglasses w/o prescription) and warp your frames. If you MUST leave them in the car, do NOT put them up high. Heat rises and that little compartment above is a tiny little pizza oven for your Ray Bans. Automobile designers don't give a shit. DO NOT LEAVE THEM ON THE DASH OR SEAT. Don't leave them in the console in direct sunlight. If you must leave them, leave them in the glove compartment or somewhere low and out of direct sunlight.

If you break your glasses DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE. It voids manufacturer warranties. Tape is your friend. We can get the residue off and still warranty things a lot.

Even if you don't think it can be fixed, bring it in. Even I'M surprised by what I can fix sometimes, lol. And if I can't, maybe we can warranty it. Or get you a discount. Or direct you someplace to get it fixed.

Which is another thing, if you need them soldered, call local jewelry stores and watch repairs. They may be able to help you. Some won't.

TLDR: All of the above works, listen to your Optician, and don't clean them dry. AND DEFINITELY DON'T CLEAN THEM DRY IN FRONT OF YOUR OPTICIAN!!!! You will make them cringe and irritated.

so there's basically two reasons he would need to do this and they're both funny

1. his magical honda unsummoned while he was in Walmart; this means it's not even a real car and could look like anything and he picked or was forced somehow to pick a Honda Accord
2. his normal honda was left someplace while he came to Walmart by other means, and he can teleport the car to him more easily than he can teleport himself places

there's also the idea that he drove to walmart in his honda accord, and then when he got out he either forgot where he parked or wanted to skip like 20 seconds of walking so he just summons it right in front of the door

To not have to find a parking space, most wizards keep their Honda Accords in a extradimensional oubliette when not driving. This also saves on garage space.

Clearly the wizard had to summon his Honda Accord because someone stole it while he was shopping. The carjacker is now tumbling violently down the freeway like a source engine ragdoll

he just couldn't remember where he parked

my impression of the public bathroom experience is that nobody is actually looking at eachother and everyone just wants to pee and leave and to try not to touch the toilet seat directly. if youre worried about whats in other peoples pants i think that makes you the weirdo.

Guys, it's time to drop Google.

Google isn't the only search engine in the whole internet, there are others! And we need to diversify our search engine usage or we're gonna end up where we were a decade and change ago with the Internet Explorer issue. We can't let a single brand monopolize everything! This is why Google Search can afford to suck so hard: because people use it regardless! And there are alternatives.

A little bit about search engines, there are 3 types: crawlers, which work by scraping the web and developing their own indexes; metas, which get their results from the crawler-type search engines and therefore depend entirely upon them; and mixed, those which have their own (small) index but also pull results from the crawlers.

Right now, there are a couple of independant crawlers apart from Google, Bing (from Mycrosoft) and Yandex (the Russian one): this are Mojeek and Wiby.

Supporting independant crawlers is the easiest way to fight the shittyfication of the internet.

Mojeek.com is an independant british search engine with its own growing index commited to fighting internet censorship. It's small, and therefore it's usability isn't as good as that of the Big Three, but it doesn't censor, it's fairly respectful of people's privacy, and it doesn't drown you in adds. For those old enough to remember, it's a lot like early 2000s Google: you can find what you need, but if you write "dig shelter" instead of "dog shelter", that's what it's gonna search for. That said, please try to use it and support it as much as you can before we end up entirely dependant on Google, Bing and big corps adds. [click here to go to Mojeek]

Wiby.me is a new indie project that is literally dedicated to bringing back the old-school web. It's goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites. So, for those of you who can't find any answers to technical questions beyond highschool level because Google buries them under a gazillion commercial sites and other meaningless shit, keep an eye on this project! It has a lot of potential. And, if you know of any personal websites that have great stuff but have been murdered by Google, you can go over to Wiby and submit it to their index. [click here to go to Wiby]

Aside from those, there are also meta search engines you can use to ween yourself off Google and search for random, day to day stuff.

Qwant.com is my go-to here—it has its own index and pulls from Bing, has relatively little censorship, and is fairly private. This is the one I use on my phone for everyday stuff. [click here to go to Qwant].

Historically, DuckDuckGo has always been a go-to for those who want a search engine that respects your privacy and doesn't censor. Personally, I've never been a fan, and there have been a LOT of scandals in recent years. It supposedly has its own index and pulls from Bing, much like Qwant, but I don't know. I just don't like it. Still, I've added it here for completeness' sake.

If you have Firefox Mobile browser, you can set any of these search engines as your default search engine and you can also add the others as secondary search engines and switch quicky from the navigation bar. If you don't have firefox mobile though, what are you doing with your life??? Go get it!! It is So. Much. Better. You can have add blockers and watch YouTube add free, for free! You can have reader mode and dark mode add-ons! You can have the world oh my goshhhh, drop Chrome!!

4get.ca is my last recommendation: it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesn't have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think it's the best for reaserch, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can. It's also very privacy conscious, so that's an other plus, and it has that late 90s / early 2000s vibe that I totally dig. [click here to go to 4get]

If you wanna learn more about the topic, you can over to the Search Engine Map [click here] which shows you a bunch of Search Engines and how they relate to each other. Or you can also go over to this one dude's personal website whose done A Lot of reaserch into the topic (way more than me) and seems to be pretty legit, if a little extra. [click here to go to digdeeper.neocities.org] Hope this infodump is useful to someone =D

PS: here's to hoping all the links work!

EDIT: eliminated the "read more". Figured there are enough mega long posts in tumblr, one more won't make no difference lol (tho the version w the read more has been reblogged already, in case you'd rather)

he's right and he should say it