Dragon Dads (https://dragondads.org/) is a group of dads and other caregivers who are affirming and supportive of LGTBQIA+ kids. One of their big activities is going to #pride events and giving out free dad hugs. Many of them have been doing this for 10 years or more. This was my first time.

Let me tell you, I saw, and felt, absolutely everything.

There was someone who squealed when they saw the booth and did a ten yard sprint to catch me in a flying hug. There were people who walked by several times before they timidly came up and asked for a hug.

There were people who wanted long hugs, side hugs, pats on the back, fist bumps. (We have a menu.) People who don't like hugs, but were nonetheless thrilled that we were doing it.

People told me that their dads had passed away, refused to have anything to do with them, or that they had had to cut their own dads off. One told me "I miss my dad", and when I said I was so sorry, they said "he's in Arizona".

There was an elderly person in a wheelchair who told us how their alcoholic father used to beat them, then told us all the things they had accomplished in life in spite of him, just to show him.

There were people who trembled. People who sobbed. People who melted.

A giant dude in one of those neoprene dog masks (with my permission) grabbed me in a great big hug and lifted me off the ground.

I leaned down to hug people in wheelchairs, and stretched up to hug a woman who I swear was seven feet tall.

Some people stayed to chat, or to cool off in our misting fan in the blistering heat. Others got a hug and left quickly, tears in their eyes and a "thank you" on their lips.

Absolutely everyone who wanted a hug got one.

I've signed up for more events.

Trump phone? Pfft, I'm one of the original Star Citizen backers.

Talking to an owner of a trucking company yesterday and prices across that industry are going up 30-40%. Only a matter of time before that hits the supermarket shelf ☹️

One benefit of socialized healthcare that I'd not previously considered is the added incentive for the government to make healthcare decisions that improve population health as better population health results in lower costs.

LinkedIn is Mean Girls for professionals

For those not aware of how important a development environment is, a dev server is a server with the following attributes:
- not the same as prod
- mostly (but not all) the same vulnerability and patching requirements
- never used by end-users as, "It's not the same as prod"
- you don't have credentials for

If I lived in Perth I'd be a bit offended by how eager England are to leave early #cricket

I just bought myself a second-hand rackmount storage array and have (belatedly) realised it will be more work (and expense) than anticipated getting it up and running. But I'm feeling super excited and lucky to get to play with this stuff. #homelab

Hey there fellow Aussies, if you know people who pay for Microsoft Office get them to check if they're eligible for a refund for MS being scumbags
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/account-billing/how-to-get-a-refund-on-a-microsoft-subscription-67dca30b-b323-44d5-acc2-e02f9902c472

If I describe it as an ecosystem rather than a garden I feel much better about the current state of neglect. #gardening

Why don't keyboards have copy and paste buttons?
Seriously, print screen, scroll lock, whatever the context menu button is called? Heck, even caps lock is less useful.

Work is issuing me a MacBook Pro so for the first time in my life I'll be using a Mac. Any tips Fedi? #macbook #osx

Without letting Optus off the hook, this is not really an 'Optus' issue. This is a 'we sold essential services to the private sector'. We see it with telcos, electricity, water, transport, etc.
Neoliberalism has failed as hard as it's possible to fail. If a service is essential, it needs to be publicly owned.
#Optus

Dear fellow corpo scum, if someone at work does you a solid, email them to thank them. Be specific about how they helped you and most importantly *cc their manager*. This person will have a future perf review where your little email may be the reason they get a bonus.

My grandmother used to say "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"
When I was younger, I thought this was overly harsh. Now I spend a large portion of my time ensuring policy and requirement compliance.

Younger me was wrong.

Fuck off Gina. Feel free to fuck right off to the US if you're not satisfied with the results of a free and fair election. You'll not be missed. #auspol

Linux is unbeatable in some ways. Just installed Mint on a hand-me-down laptop for my kids. Went from borderline unusable with Windows 10 to near-new with Mint. Even the kids got excited by the improvement #linuxmint

While I do want to see renewables feature in election pitches, Labour's home battery subsidy is bad. Home batteries are popular but they're exclusionary and they exacerbate existing issues around grid maintence costs. It shouldn't be desirable for most people to be operating a hobby-grade home powerplant. We should be investing in grid scale batteries. #auspol #renewables

Have given #Vivaldi a fair shake on my phone but with no ability to install extensions and the ad blocking not being good enough I'm putting it aside. I'll check back in from time to time but not being able to control ads is a dealbreaker for me.

#AI at the moment reminds me of when, as a child, you would make 'potions' in the backyard. You'd wander the garden grabbing random bits and pieces, pop them in a jar and call the result 'magic'