misfiled as "Keet, Electric" @ElectricKeet@awoo.space

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The phone I've been using for three years now is a Planet Computers Gemini PDA, is also known as the Planet Gemini PDA, the Gemini PDA, the Planet Gemini, and probably a few others. I refer to mine as "Plumbago" – "Plum" for short" – since they started out a sort-of-twin of my spouse's Gemini PDA known as "Galena". (Not explaining here, but Wikipedia can help!)

The Gemini PDA is bulkier than most smartphones because it's not just a polished slab. It's a clamshell that opens to a very phone-like screen and a very palmtop-computer-like keyboard. I hate working with on-screen keyboards, and this was one of the few phone-like devices left with an integrated physical keyboard. What I didn't know when I purchased it is that its physical build is not meant at all to be an in-the-pocket flip-it-open-whenever "daily driver".

Its innards are sturdy enough – poor Plum has taken several hard falls and kept right on ticking – but only when the gently-curved-at-the-edges metal exterior is fully intact. On the top half, it's all anchored reasonably well and supported internally to be nice and solid. On the underside, the only thing keeping the metal plate from bowing inward is the massive battery, and it ain't thick enough to do that.

This isn't just a case of looking ugly, because it's barely noticeable. The trouble comes because the only things holding that plate on are a few tiny little tabs on the edge toward the hinge, and an inward curl on the outer edge that clings to a not-very-prominent lip on the black plastic of the interior. The magnets holding the phone together are strong and without tabs or indents to make it easier, so prying it open is not a one-handed task. One has to either get one's nails in between the halves, or pressing fingertips against that curled edge. When the plate is bowed, the edge pulls away enough from the plastic to wear it down a little each time, so in not too long there's very little to actually hold the plate on. And this gets worse and worse over time. Eventually, the plate just won't stay on at all, meaning it pops off whenever the phone is opened or set on a table or put in a pocket.

This is the plate that covers the battery. The battery is held in by only a fragile ribbon cable and a single strip of adhesive strong enough to make battery removal a frightening process, but not strong enough to keep it attached during a four foot drop when the plate won't hold it in, so I already had a couple instances of the battery dangling by that cable... and one where it broke altogether. Orrery had already moved to another of that company's offerings (a Cosmo Communicator, built with equal care and diurability) so I had a spare with a broken screen but a working battery. That's when I found that the battery cable is also held in by adhesive. It's a miracle that I got the battery to transfer properly, but it worked, and I also scavenged a less warped plate to hold it in.

That held for a couple months.

And yet, rather than Krazy Glue the damn thing on, I persisted until the plate bowed in enough to touch something it shouldn't touch and I started getting strong shocks whenever it was plugged into a charger. I had to insert a piece of paper to insulate it, and that's worked, but... ugh. Finally, I've permanently glued the plate on (I hope) but I still worry that something else will go wrong before I get my usual four years (that's it‽) out of a phone. But don't worry, I have a plan for a new body to transfer Plum into. They'll be just fine!

Anyhow, if one wants a portable computer with a ten-core processor that's way too sluggish for how warm it gets, a keyboard that's a bit too small to comfortably type on and a bit too big to use as a thumbboard, proprietary software that tries to make landscape mode work for more Android stuff in general but only makes the situation worse, and the build quality of a Trabant, then this is exactly the device. (At least it has a real headphone jack!)

If one wants a smartphone, the Gemini PDA is exactly the wrong device.

@Austin_Dern I started my outward transition stuff in 2003, so maybe a con around or soon after that time? Thing is, I've been doing at least some sort of genderplay since first online in 1995, and I'm pretty sure we knew each other from sometime in that gap. The question is, did we know each other via Usenet, FurryMUCK, or maybe the Transformation Story Archive? Probably not IRC....

Wow, I was active back then, eh?

For this Trans Day of Visibility, I gotta ask....

When I say "I'm trans", how news is it?

@Aradia I'm happy to say that right from the start, this has been a big part of the game @orrery is running. Well, it certainly has for me! Please accept my ramble. *grin*

My character has eclectic special interests (sculpture, radical expressions of identity, turning herself into a teapot), a significant speech impediment (by her people's standards), a habit of being inconveniently honest, and the occasional meltdowns when shit that doesn't make sense comes at her too fast... yet she has a CHA of 14 because she holds a moral code centered around compassion and inclusivity, she doesn't bullshit people, her magical cyborg limbs are expertly crafted to look non-threatening, and she has the uncanny glamour of a fae being.

In her somewhat idyllic culturally-isolated homeland, her own people find her lack of tact, hopelessly out-of-tune voice, and odd way of emoting to be anywhere from quirky to repellent, and her appearance is plain except for her unsettling aftermarket parts. She gets serious about the strangest things and upset over what seems like nothing. Among her people, she is a neuroatypical oddball, and her Charisma acts more like an 8 except for a few really good friends.

To the outside world – so many people weary from subterfuge and war and general bullshit – she's a cute little unicorn whose exotic accent, kindness, and killer design sense make her unusual perspective and frank nature that much more appealing. Who could stay mad at a cute little unicorn? (Bad people, that's who!) Away from home, folks don't react to how "weird" she emotes – most bipeds don't expect to read emotions on equines that way. She doesn't sound "weird" because the local language isn't rigidly tonal. Interactions start friendly and tend to stay that way; folks don't see her behavior as off-putting because they don't have a reference for how unicorns "should" act, or they figure it for understandable equine skittishness. Some mistake her for being someone's animal companion, right up until she speaks intelligently, then they accept that this is another perfectly reasonable way to be a person, and they treat her with equal respect as their own peers.

When she gets agitated, they don't see overreaction and they don't see atavism. They see a beautiful and gentle person struggling to stay above water in a world flooded with cruelty. When she melts down, they don't make it her fault, they work with her to find out what's gone wrong and make it right.

So, yeah, point is: Context. Charisma is all about cultural context. We're telling this story, so we get to explore what it looks like when the majority neurotype doesn't treat others as disabled and/or undesired. As far as we're concerned, CHA is for those who act with empathy, integrity, and gentleness. If there are to be low Charisma scores, they're for the swaggering assholes who won't respect that...

...or, of course, extremely noisy rough-and-tumble folks like another character at the table, an NT-coded monk who manages to be an up-and-coming sports hero with CHA 8. She's an awkward speaker who's very impulsive and aggro AF, but she gets big Charisma bonuses around her fans (a minority of people who are totally on her wavelength) and folks who are good friends because they see a wonderful person with some behavioral stuff that's totally worth learning to work with.

Bonus: Like our GM, my unicorn is on the autism side of the autism/ADHD range. She's travelling with her (GM-played NPC) gryphon lover who, like myself, is very much on the ADHD side. We built these characters as a sort of experiment to take some little steps in each other's shoes. More than once, that gryphon has said something that could only come out of the mouth of someone who deeply understands life with ADHD. Orrery says they've felt the same in return. These are magical moments, and any tears are happy ones! This is definitely a correct way to play D&D.

Hey, one of my fave streamers is playing the new Kirby game on a charity stream and I totaly recommend it!

https://www.twitch.tv/theblacktastic