We all recognize – well, most of us – that Twitter was a pretty rough place sometimes, and has gotten worse. We know that social media is training our brains to crave validation, and we know that the businesses who run these sites want us to stick around all day so they can show us ads.

People stick around, though. They want to talk about their lives. They want to see what their friends are doing. They'd like to gush about the movie they just saw, or describe their terrible experience. They want to call people to action when Something Needs Doing.

You can do all that on the Fediverse; it was made to connect people. And I'm going to try, as so many others have tried, to lay it all out for you – in a way that doesn't focus on the tech. If the words are with me, you might even get to the end and want to be a part of it.

While I was volunteering over the weekend, I spent several hours with a mom and her #ActuallyAutistic son.

I'm #ActuallyAutistic also, to different degrees, in varying ways.

The old, still somewhat pervasive, idea that people whose autism looks like his – that they live in some private, unknowable world? It fucking KILLS ME.

Listen, y'all.

I know that 'bout the only times we hear the word "community" in the US, it's paired with a group ("the Black community", "the gay community"), or used with "organizer" so it sounds like someone knocking on doors in a neighborhood.

It's bigger than those examples and uses.

At least a few of our pipes are frozen, despite our best efforts. There's (currently) no indication that they're cracked, but at some point I'll need to don my coverall jumpsuit, grab a flashlight, and crawl under the house for a look.
We currently have no hot water. (Dunno if the tankless heater froze up – it shouldn't – or if my not wrapping a couple of flow valves left a chink in our armor.)