enki941

Those fucking oil people. Worse than the religious nuts wanting to convert you. Good job calling them out. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Why does the Circle-K near my house always have like half the gas pumps out of service? Not even always the same ones. They seem to break constantly and it takes forever to fix them. Even after upgrading them to the knew models with annoying GSTV units inside. I go there because the price is the cheapest around, especially with Fuel Rewards but it is very annoying to have to wait because 3/6 pumps are broken.

I think I might have something that would be considered public speaking anxiety. In general, I never had issues with social anxiety or even public speaking. In a previous job, I used to have to make presentations and get up in front of dozens (or hundreds) of people and was perfectly fine. Then on one occasion, in a very informal setting, I was asked to give a short speech (for lack of a better word) on an idea I was supposed to think about on the spot and couldn't come up with anything. It was one of those go around the room type things, and the closer it got to me, the more I started to panic. When it was my turn, all of a sudden I couldn't think of anything, got really cold and had a hard time breathing. I assume this would be the textbook definition of a panic attack. This was the first time anything like that happened to me.

Since then, it has happened repeatedly. Even when I have to give presentations that I am 110% prepared for, I find myself feeling the same way, and it isn't fun. If the situation is more ad-hoc, I don't have a problem. But if it's something where I have time to think about it (e.g. "And now we'll have so-and-so come up and explain blah blah blah), I start panicking. Same symptoms as before. I find it hard to talk or think, get cold and shaky, etc. It's really, really annoying, and often I have to just go through the motions until it...wears off.

Obviously it's all in my head and caused by that previous one-off experience. But it's become a serious problem for me personally I would like to figure out a way to 'beat' it. Since it's not general anxiety or issues with talking to people, I'm not sure what it would be classified as, or a good approach to handling it.

So my question is, are you familiar with similar situations and have a recommendation on how I can proceed?

Hope my explanation made sense. Thanks.

The whole situation with trans-people seems to have recently taken on a lot recent media attention and political reactions from both sides, to the point where many laws or policies have been put in place that have attempted to protect the perceived emotional welfare of trans-gender people, often at the expense of the civil liberties or free speech of others. I am referring specifically to the use of pronouns, where groups are pushing to either eliminate he/she altogether or push towards having additional "non-binary" pronouns included, as well as punishing people who either accidentally, inadvertently or due to their own beliefs identify someone using a pronoun the recipient doesn't agree with.

As someone who falls into this category, what is your opinion on the matter? Do trans-gender people even give a shit about this, or has it become just a crusade by overly zealous people to push forward a "progressive" agenda that isn't even their own? In your experience, what do you and others you may associate with feel about the topic and do you feel that non-trans people have the right to continue using the pronoun based on the biological equivalent of what someone looks like?

Thank you for your response.

And to clarify, I wasn't implying that I would take your answer as an official spokesperson for the entire group of people who fall under that category. I was just curious as to what your individual or, if applicable, the people you are familiar with, feel about the issue. As mentioned, it has become a hot topic for debate with people arguing both sides of the issue, so I was curious what the somewhat non-politicized opinion of the issue was from people within those groups. I've found that with most contrasting and hot topic issues these days, in most cases the people who are actually affected by the situation actually "do not give a damn".